After School with My Childhood Friend (1)
The torture disguised as questions from my classmates—or more accurately, the questions disguised as torture (Hey, be honest, you're dating her, right? Huh? No? If you're not dating, then why the hell did you kiss her in the middle of the classroom, you lying bastard...)—finally ended right after the bell rang for the break following sixth period. Since it was the first day, classes only ran through sixth period, which meant I'd spent the entire stretch from lunch until the final bell enduring every kind of harassment, teasing, interrogation, and colorful accusation imaginable. And the person responsible for all of it was my childhood friend, Aki.
…Anyway, after school. I'd politely turned down my classmates' invitation to hang out and was now walking home with Aki. Today was the day she'd promised to come over and cook for me, since my parents had left for work in the States and I was living alone. That was one thing, but this was another.
“……Aki, I'll give you one minute to explain yourself. Starting now.”
I stopped at the bus stop and looked at her. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't understand why she'd pulled that stunt on me. I needed to hear it from her own mouth.
“Huh? What explanation~?”
She looked up at me with wide eyes, as if she'd been waiting for exactly those words. Her tone suggested complete innocence, but the corners of her mouth curved into a perfect arc and her eyes were clearly smiling. It was obvious to anyone that she was pretending not to know.
“What explanation? You seriously don't know…?”
“Nope. Atashi has no idea. Won't you explain it to me, Wooju-chan?”
“…….”
What a shamelessly cute girl. Aki, who barely reached my chest, tilted her head slightly, and the gesture was so adorable my eyes lingered despite myself. But if she thought a little aegyo like this would let her off the hook, she never should have started it in the first place. I tore my gaze away from her bright smile, placed my hand on the glass panel of the bus shelter, and recalled the frustration from earlier.
“Back during lunch, when you came to our class—”
“Ah, the bus is here! Wooju-chan, let's get on!”
“……Ah, right.”
The bus had to be caught. Ours ran every fifteen minutes; missing one meant a long wait. I awkwardly lowered my hand and followed Aki onto the bus.
“Two students, please~”
“Wait, I'll pay for mine. Cancel that—we'll pay separately…”
“Wooju-chan, just hurry up and get on. The people behind us are waiting!”
I glanced back at her words. A male student from our school was looking up at us from the bottom of the steps with a lukewarm stare.
“Student, paying separately?”
“Ah… No. Together is fine.”
I slipped my phone back into my pocket and climbed the stairs. At this hour the bus should have been nearly empty, but for some reason there were already quite a few passengers. There was no seat where Aki and I could sit together. I scanned around, hoping someone might be getting off at the next stop.
“Wooju-chan.”
The bus lurched forward, and at the same time Aki gently tugged my sleeve.
“Yeah? What?”
“There's a seat back there. Go sit down, Wooju-chan.”
“I'm fine. You take it, Aki.”
“Huh? No, atashi is okay.”
“Then let's settle it with rock-paper-scissors. Loser sits.”
“Okay! Loser sits!”
Normally the winner would sit, but Aki and I had this weird agreement that the loser got the seat.
“No take-backs. Rock, paper… scissors!”
“……Ah, atashi wins!”
“Ah…”
My defeat. Aki had played scissors; I'd played rock. Having beaten me, she puffed out her chest, smiled triumphantly, and nodded toward the empty seat.
“Hehe, Wooju-chan. You're still ten years too early to beat atashi. Now hurry up and sit down, Wooju-chan!”
“I'm so frustrated, Aki…”
Swallowing my resentment as the loser, I took the seat. Aki came and stood right in front of me.
“From here, it feels like my height has gotten enormously tall.”
“What a coincidence. I feel like my height has gotten enormously short.”
We hadn't measured recently, so I wasn't sure of the exact numbers, but the difference between us was roughly twenty centimeters—about the height of an adult woman's head. Usually Aki had to look up at me, but now that I was seated, our eye levels had completely reversed. She was looking down at me, and I was looking up at her.
“It would be fun if our heights were actually like this, right?”
“You might think so, but I wouldn't have found it fun at all…?”
A guy more than thirty centimeters shorter than his 160-centimeter childhood friend? That would put him at around 130 centimeters—basically elementary-school age. No matter how you looked at it, that was too much.
This stop is Deoksugung Palace in front of City Hall. The next stop is Seoul Station Bus Transfer Center….
“Only two stops left now, right, Wooju-chan?”
“No, we get off in front of the school, so it's three.”
“Ah, that's right. I completely forgot, hehe.”
“You forget the strangest things…”
With a screech of brakes, the bus arrived at the stop while we chatted about nothing important. Looking at the line of people waiting outside, it seemed a lot would board this time too. But my eyes caught on the very front of the queue—the white-haired grandmother who looked like she had some trouble getting around.
…Ah.
This didn't require any deliberation. I stood up immediately.
“Grandma, please sit here.”
I approached her, guided her to the seat I'd just vacated, and carefully helped her sit down.
“Thank you, student. Shall I hold your bag for you?”
“No, it's all right. We're getting off soon, so you don't need to. Right, Aki?”
“Huh? Ah, yes… that's right?”
Aki seemed surprised I'd asked for her agreement. She fumbled for a second before nodding quickly. The white-haired grandmother watched the two of us with a warm, pleased smile, then asked gently.
“Is the young lady next to you your girlfriend, student?”
“……Eek?!”
The question had been aimed at me, but Aki reacted more strongly.
“Ah, um, well…”
“…….”
Aki kept glancing at me, her face turning bright red. I thought for a moment about how to answer.
…Well, since we're planning to get married someday anyway.
It probably wouldn't matter, so I spoke up.
“Yes, well… you could say that.”
“……?!”
“Huh? Why? Is that wrong? Aki, were we nothing to each other? Are we just strangers?”
“N-no…! That's not what I mean… y-you're saying it so…!”
“……Miss.”
“Ah, yes…?”
“Young men with such good manners are rare these days. So while you're both still young, hold on tight, hm? As tightly as you can. Understand?”
“…….”
Aki's face flushed crimson. Not just her cheeks—her neck burned red too, as if she might explode from the heat. Not knowing what to do, she made strange little noises—“Eh, ah, um… ugh, uu…”—then bowed her head deeply to hide her beet-red face and hurried away to stand by the exit door.
Beep─!
And she didn't stop there. She kept pressing the alighting button over and over. We still had one stop left, but the way she was acting made it clear just how embarrassed she was.
“…….”
Well, it wasn't on purpose, but maybe I'd gotten my revenge after all? I smiled to myself and slowly, leisurely walked over to stand beside her. She definitely knew I was there, but she stayed stubbornly silent. Sensing she was deliberately ignoring me, I checked our surroundings and casually dropped the question.
“When should we get married, Aki?”
“…….”
“After we graduate from university? Or after I finish my military service? Or right when we turn twenty?”
“…….”
“What, no answer? Should I just marry some other girl then?”
“…………That won't do.”
She answers this one, huh…
She really does have a cute side—more than she lets on, or maybe exactly as much as she lets on. Finding her timid but firm refusal adorable, I was about to tease her a little more when—
──Screeech!
The bus suddenly slammed on the brakes. The violent jolt startled every passenger, including me. I reflexively grabbed the pole and shifted my body, pulling Aki—who'd been standing right beside me—firmly into my arms.
“……Aki, are you okay?”
This sudden braking really happens on every bus. I asked out loud while my eyes quickly checked her condition. It hadn't been intentional, but Aki had ended up half-buried in my chest. She looked unharmed.
“Ah, thank goodness.”
Holding her by the waist instead of the shoulder must have kept her from falling. I let out a genuine sigh of relief, tension draining away as I grinned.
“……Ah, ugh.”
Aki stared up at me with wide, dazed eyes. She kept gazing at my face until her senses slowly returned and her lips began to move.
“Th-thank you…. Wooju….”
“Yeah, I'm glad you didn't get hurt. But didn't you just call me Wooju?”
“……Huh? Did atashi?”
“Yeah. You didn't say Wooju-chan just now. You said Wooju.”
The Japanese custom of address I'd mentioned once before—yobisite. Using someone's name plus san was for slight closeness. Name plus chan was for very close relationships. The next level was dropping everything and using only the first name. From what I'd looked up, when a Japanese person called someone by their bare first name, it was usually one of two cases: immediate family or a lover, or an extremely close friend with no barriers between them. So the fact that Aki had just called me simply “Wooju” meant…
“Wait a second. By any chance… Aki, you and I…”
“……Ah, I'm getting off here!”
“Huh? Aki, where are you—?”
“I-I don't know…! Wooju, you idiot! You're such an idiot……!”