Chapter 5 : When we became Childhood friends at the Age of 6 (5)

The friendship between Aki and me, which began by chance, became even stronger after it was acknowledged by both sets of parents.

The time it took for us to develop from being able to play together only occasionally, to seeing each other on weekdays, and then to meeting and playing together on weekends, was exactly four weeks.

In just four weeks, a time that wasn’t too short nor too long, we became inseparable friends. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that we now felt empty without each other.

“Mom, when are we going to see Aki today?”

“Hmm, in two hours. We agreed to meet at the kids’ cafe after lunch yesterday, right?”

“I want to see her sooner, can’t we go out early?”

“Woo-ju, we promised to meet at 1 PM. Is our Woo-ju such a bad kid who can break promises so lightly?”

“No, I’m sorry…”

“……Oh, cute, Woo-ju. Shall we wait until 1 o’clock while playing with Lego?”

“No, I’ll just wait by myself.”

“Wh-what? Woo-ju, who always looked for Mom, is rejecting Mom………?!”

“Pfft…! Woo-ju, you’ve grown up now, haven’t you?”

“……Are you laughing now? Our Woo-ju doesn’t want to play with Mom-!”

Like this, it was a daily occurrence for me to nag my parents because I wanted to see Aki as soon as possible,

“Papa, is it still far from 1 o’clock?”

“Hmm, let’s see. It’s 12 o’clock now. There’s one hour left until the promised time.”

“Oh, I see…”

“My daughter, time will pass on its own anyway. It’ll be 1 o’clock soon, so just wait a little more patiently.”

“Papa, how about now? Isn’t it 1 o’clock yet?”

“……It hasn’t even been ten seconds yet?”

Aki was the same, she was so eager to see me that she was constantly bothering her father.

“Woo-ju, Aki, shall we go home now~?”

“Mom, can’t we play a little more? There’s so much I haven’t done with Aki yet…!”

“A little more, a little more, has already been three hours. The sun will set soon, so shouldn’t we go and have dinner?”

“Huh? When did time pass like this…….”

“Woo-ju-sang, do we have to say goodbye……………?”

“Yeah, it seems so. It’s a shame, but today is…”

“Heeing…. I don’t want to say goodbye. Aki wants to be with Woo-ju-sang more..”

“……Aki, don’t worry. We’re not saying goodbye forever. We can see each other at kindergarten tomorrow, right?”

“Ah, that’s right. We can see each other at kindergarten tomorrow…!”

“Yeah, so go home safely today and let’s see each other tomorrow morning. Okay, Aki?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Go home safely, Woo-ju-sang!”

When the time to say goodbye came after playing together until dinner, we would hold each other’s hands tightly and promise to see each other tomorrow, then reluctantly go to our respective homes.

At that time, I was truly so sad that I hated separating from Aki, and I would sigh deeply in the car on the way home. However, my parents seemed to have a different opinion while watching me.

“Eun-hye, isn’t it amazing the more we see them?”

“Huh? What?”

“Woo-ju and Aki, I mean. They can see each other again after sleeping for a day, but every time they say goodbye, they hold hands and act like they are in a melodramatic movie. It’s like Romeo and Juliet.”

“Why? It’s cute and nice to see. And isn’t it normal for couples in the early stages of their relationship to be like that? You keep thinking about them when they’re not around, and you want to see them again even right after you just saw them.”

“Really? I wasn’t like that, were you like that when you were dating me, Eun-hye?”

“……Hey, Joo Si-won. Do you really want to die?”

“Ah, wait a minute. Eun-hye, I’m driving right now…!”

They commented that my sincerity was like watching ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Well, to be strict, it wasn’t entirely wrong. It’s because the relationship between Korea and Japan isn’t good in the first place, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which acts as the foreign ministry of our country, is similar to an external loudspeaker for the Japanese government.

However, Aki is the granddaughter of the Japanese ambassador to Korea, and I’m the son of parents who are foreign ministry officials.

As my parents said, even if it’s not Romeo and Juliet, wouldn’t it be more like ‘Romeo’s servant and Juliet’? Of course, that would only be true if Aki and I were in a romantic relationship.

Ding-.

“Huh? I got a text from Aki.”

“Oh, what did she say?”

“Hey, Joo Si-won, are you changing the subject? You weren’t like this when we were newlyweds, but you’ve been saying weird things lately since we got comfortable with each other, huh?”

“Eun-hye, I’m driving right now, okay? And Woo-ju got a text, are you not going to read it?”

“No, it’s okay. I can read Japanese.”

“……Huh? You can read Japanese?”

Dad, who was driving, looked at me through the rearview mirror, and Mom, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned her head to look at me.

“Woo-ju, you’ve never learned Japanese, have you? But you can read it all?”

“Yes. Not everything, but I can read simple things.”

The reason I started studying Japanese on my own was, of course, because of Aki.

When we met in person, we could get help from the translator, but we couldn’t use a translator for messaging. Of course, there was a built-in foreign language translation function on our phones, but I was young then and didn’t really know that texts could also be translated. I needed my parents’ help every time I wanted to talk to Aki, and as a child, I hated that.

No, I hated showing my parents the conversations that Aki and I had.

It was embarrassing.

“Eun-hye, check it just in case. Woo-ju might have learned it wrong.”

“Oh, should I? Woo-ju, can you read what Aki sent? Mom will check and tell you if you translated it correctly.”

“Okay, just a moment. Um, it says, ‘Woo-ju-sang, what shall we play at kindergarten tomorrow?'”

“Really? Let’s see… Oh?”

“What, was I wrong?”

“No, you’re right. It seems Woo-ju can read Japanese.”

“What, really? Then, is our Woo-ju now trilingual?”

“Woo-ju, where did you learn Japanese? Did they teach it at kindergarten?”

In fact, the text from Aki at that time was composed of very simple Japanese, something that anyone could understand if they studied a little bit. However, Mom was surprised that I, a six-year-old, had translated it, and she looked at me with wide eyes.

“I just learned it by watching YouTube and stuff.”

“……Wow, really? Our Woo-ju is so smart? Honey, is our Woo-ju a genius?”

“Come on, he’s not a genius. YouTube is really well developed these days, right? There are things like ‘Complete a foreign language in 6 weeks.’ Kids are good at using their phones these days, so I’m sure he learned by watching those things.”

“Ah, really. That’s why they say….”

“No, why is ‘T’ coming out from there?”

I didn’t tell Mom and Dad at the time, but the real reason why I, who was still young, was able to learn Japanese so quickly was.

[We were going to continue teaching each other Korean and Japanese today, right, Aki!]

[Ah, that’s right! Then shall we finish that, Woo-ju-sang?]

It was thanks to Aki’s eye-level education.

No, to be more precise, it was a reciprocal education where I taught Aki Korean, and Aki taught me Japanese. But it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Anyway, every time Aki and I met, we taught each other our respective languages. When we got a little tired of studying our native languages, we would go out and play together.

“Joo Woo-ju. Why do you only play with Aki all the time? Are you two dating?”

“What’s dating?”

“Holding hands and kissing?”

“Um, then I guess we’re dating?”

“Huh? Really…?”

“……!!”

We were starting to get misunderstandings, although not really, from our kindergarten friends who were sulking because we only played together.

“W-Woo-ju-sang! You can’t say those things to others, they’ll get the wrong idea..!”

“Huh? What kind of wrong idea?”

“Like…that Woo-ju-sang and I are dating, that kind of wrong idea…!”

“Aki doesn’t want to date me?”

“Th-that’s… n-not… not really….”

“Then, isn’t it okay if we say we’re dating?”

“N-no… th-that’s… uhh…”

I even made Aki, who was a little more mature than me, embarrassed with my unintentional pure words and actions.

“A-anyway…! W-Woo-ju-sang! You can’t talk about things like that with friends, okay…?”

“Why not?”

“……It’s, it’s embarrassing. Aki doesn’t like being embarrassed.”

“Really? Okay. It’s okay if I don’t talk about it with friends, right?”

“Ah, yes! That would be good. Thank you, Woo-ju-sang!”

Woo-ju, Joo Woo-ju~!

“Huh? Jae-hyun is calling me. I’ll go over there for a moment, okay Aki?”

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead!”

Woo-ju, tell me honestly. You and Aki are dating, right? Right?

-Huh? Ah, that’s right! Aki and I are dating!

“……W-Woo-ju-sang? Aki just said you shouldn’t say those things…?!”

Also, I made Aki embarrassed by saying things to my friends that I was told not to say.

“Woo-ju-sang! You really, really can’t say that Aki and Woo-ju-sang are dating! Aki is embarrassed…!”

“Okay. I really won’t say it.”

“Really, can I trust you?”

“Don’t worry, Aki. Trust me!”

“I’m a little uneasy..”

-Woo-ju, can you come to the teacher for a moment?

“Yes! Aki, wait here for a moment?”

“Okay….”

Woo-ju, do you like Aki?

Yes, I like her.

“……okay”

Yes, the teacher knows. But Woo-ju, even though you like Aki, you can’t only play with Aki. If you’re always sticking together saying you like each other and are dating, the other friends won’t like it. Woo-ju is smart, so you know what the teacher means, right?

-I understand! I’ll play with the other kids so Aki can make more friends!

Good, you are smart after all! Okay, give the teacher a kiss… mwah Thank you?

Yes!

“Aki, I’m back!”

“……Woo-ju-sang, don’t kiss other girls from now on.”

“Huh? Why?”

“No, just don’t go anywhere and stay by Aki’s side…!”

“But the teacher told me to play with the other kids too?”

“Uhh….”

I think it was from then.

‘……This won’t do.’

“Woo-ju-sang, let’s go play house…!”

“House? We already did that an hour ago.”

“……Woo-ju-sang?”

“Ah, sorry….”

It was perhaps because Aki was constantly getting asked, “Are you two dating?” that she started sticking to my side so much.