Heart Abroad, Part 6
Title: Heart Abroad
Pairings/Characters: Jaejoong/Yamapi
Rating/Warnings: T for language and (eventual) making out
Disclaimer: I own nothing; written just for fun
Summary: Yamapi graduates university and takes a gap year to teach Japanese at a Korean high school. A lot of things happen, like life and friendship, and love.
A/N: I'm pretty sure Erika can't speak Korean, but since I don't know any Japanese ladies who do, and Erika is pure awesome, she won the contest hands down.
Heart Abroad, Part 6
Lunch, like everything else at this school, is a noisy affair. The cafeteria is a crumbling brick building out back half hidden between overgrown pine trees, more the type of building that belongs in a Western fairy tale than a Korean schoolyard, Yamapi thinks.
The dining hall is only big enough to accommodate a few hundred students at a time so the third years get to eat first while the underclassmen queue up outside, more in a jostling huddle than a line, to wait for their turn.
Boa marches right past the line of hungry boys, through a maze of long tables crowded with more students, and up to the lunch counter.
“Here,” she shoves a large plastic tray at Yamapi. The students at the head of the line move over with a groan to let them in. “The teachers have a busy schedule, so we get to eat first.” Boa slides her tray forward on the counter to accept a large scoop of sticky rice from a smiling woman wearing plastic gloves.
Yamapi thanks each of the servers as they slap cold noodles, bean sprout salad, and a slab of something fried onto his tray. Boa introduces him as the new foreign teacher as she reaches for paper napkins at the end of the line. The kitchen staff all beam and coo at him, and the soup lady gives him extra gravy.
Yamapi thanks them again and quickly follows Boa to the kimchi table. The self-serve flavors of the day are cubed radish and the ever present cabbage. Boa takes the long metal spoon and dishes some out for him from the stainless steel bowls which are the size of a small Japanese bathtub.
The teacher table is right next to the kimchi. It’s full but not as crowded, the staff gathered in loose clusters of 3 or 5 down the length of the table. Boa sits them at the end across from two young women Yamapi hasn’t seen before.
Boa stirs a spoonful of gravy into half her rice and digs in. It doesn’t improve the grayish brown color of the sauce at all. Yamapi glances around to see if he’s expected to do the same, really hoping that’s not the only socially acceptable way to consume the gloopy liquid.
One teacher a few seats down has done the same to his rice and is currently dirtying it further with lumps of kimchi and a few others have stirred their rice right into their soup bowls, but the lady across from Yamapi has left her rice unsullied in it’s original tray compartment so he figures it’s not too strange if he keeps everything nice and separate.
“Hello!” Yamapi looks up in surprise to see the woman directly across from him wiggling her fingers at him in a coquettish wave. She has the longest fake nails he has seen in a long time, and he wonders if the clusters of rhinestones glued at their bases feel heavy at all.
“Hello,” he nods.
“My name is Lee Jieun, and this is Park Shin Hye.” She wiggles her fingers at the taller girl to her right who gives a shy, tight lipped smile. “I teach music and Ms. Park is in the Korean Department.”
“I’m Yamashita,” he says, brushing his wavy hair back from his forehead. Ms. Park titters into her napkin.
“We know!” Jieun says with a bright smile. Her teeth are really white. Yamapi makes a mental note not to smile too widely while standing next to her. “Where are you from?” Jieun asks in slow Japanese.
“Japan, Tokyo.” Yamapi manages a bite of the fried thing to discover it’s a relatively decent version of tonkatsu.
“We heard you’re a model.” Jieun takes a sip of broth from her large spoon. Yamapi chokes on a bean sprout. “Well aren’t you?” She pauses to tilt her head, her chopsticks loaded with boiled cabbage halfway to her mouth. Boa hands Yamapi a paper napkin.
“How did you…?” Yamapi is not exactly what you could call an international supermodel, he just happened to do a few fashion shoots part time for the extra cash while he was a student. For unknown, newly branded designers. For not that much extra cash. And not even most of his old neighborhood knows about it, what the heck.
“It was on your resume,” Boa shrugs. Yamapi drops his eyes to his tray and takes a large mouthful of pork. He really hopes his entire application and transcripts and medical records and family tree haven’t actually been circulated via the school wide faculty messenger system, but somehow he wouldn’t be too surprised if that were the case.
Ms. Park pokes Jieun with the flat end of her spoon and tucks a length of hair behind her ear.
“She wants to know if you have a girlfriend,” Jieun translates. Ms. Park nods and waits expectantly for an answer. Jieun takes a delicate drink of soup and keeps chewing.
“No, not currently.” Yamapi takes a bite of rice.
“But you did? You had one?”
“Um, yes. In college.”
“Wahh! Beautiful, right? Is there a picture?” Yamapi cocks his head and stares at her. Does she really expect him to carry around photographs of his ex and randomly display them like a proud grandparent in the supermarket checkout line?
“No...no pictures.”
“Aw!” Both of the girls look extremely disappointed and Yamapi wonders how much of their conversation Ms. Park can actually understand. “But, beautiful, right?” Jieun insists.
“Yeah, she was alright.” He probably couldn’t even recognize her now, though he doesn’t mention that fact. He hasn’t seen her since they were nineteen.
Boa drains her soup and starts scraping fish bones and stray bits of food from her tray into the empty bowl. The other two do the same, neither one of them having hardly touched their rice or meat.
Yamapi looks around the room. The food line still extends through the open door and out of sight but the number at the teachers’ table has decreased by almost half since the time they sat down. His tray is still mostly full of now cold food.
“Take your time,” Boa says, pulling out her phone.
“Goodbye!” Ms. Park and Jieun announce simultaneously and get up to dump their trays before disappearing through the open door.
Yamapi finishes his rice and most of the meat even though the breading is hard and greasy now, but the noodles are so strong the cook might as well have just soaked them in vinegar and not bothered to add further seasoning.
Even though they technically have a full hour for lunch, Yamapi feels self conscious eating at his normal pace so he ends up scraping most of the side dishes into his half empty soup bowl a few minutes later.
“Not a fan of lunch?” Boa asks with a sharp smile as she accompanies him to the red plastic tub that functions as a slop bucket.
“Oh no! It was fine! I just...guess I’m not hungry,” Yamapi explains quickly, more than ready to get out of the crowded cafeteria. Boa nods slowly with a small smile twisting at her lips and heads for the door.
The office is mostly empty when they get back, though Yamapi has no idea where everyone is since they’re definitely not lingering over dinner. A couple of people are gathered around the coffee maker, passing out small paper cups of instant coffee.
“Boa ssaem!” A motherly woman in a long silk dress hails them over and begins talking excitedly. Yamapi follows but stays a little off to the side, not sure where to direct his gaze. It feels a little rude to just go sit down at his desk in the corner, but Boa hasn’t introduced him to any of the others.
“Would you like some coffee?” Yamapi looks up find Secretary Kim offering him a steaming paper cup.
“Thank you!” He smiles gratefully as he accepts the drink, thankful he understands just enough Korean to avoid starving.
“You’re Yamashita, right? Do you remember my name?” Secretary Kim asks hopefully, pointing at his own face.
“Yes,” Yamapi nods quickly. “It’s...Kim…”
“Kim Heechul!” Secretary Kim smiles, not exactly encouragingly, but he’s not nearly as intimidating as the last time he attempted a conversation with Yamapi. “It’s nice to meet you! What…”
It figures that just as Yamapi is starting to feel comfortable conversing the vocabulary would start sailing over his head. Secretary Kim’s disappointment is evident in his features when Yamapi fails to respond to the question. Yamapi bites his lip, trying diligently to untangle the string of sounds his ears have managed to absorb but his brain just wouldn’t cooperate.
“Your...age. How much...age?” Secretary Kim slows down his Korean considerably and drops the honorific speech and this time Yamapi actually recognizes some of the words.
“Ah! Ok!” Yamapi says in acknowledgement to buy himself a few moments to formulate a response. Secretary Kim’s eyes widen in anticipation.
“I am 23...Korean age,” Yamapi finally manages.
“Wah! You sound just like a Korean!” Secretary Kim exclaims and Yamapi coughs in surprise. He feels more like a kindergartener being patted on the back for knowing basic addition than someone capable of bilingual communication, but if Secretary Kim wants to be excited…
“Tomo-kun!” Boa snatches up Yamapi’s wrist in her small hand and drags him towards their desks “Get your stuff, let’s go!” He hurries to cram his things into his work bag and slip back into his jacket as Boa grabs her keys and sunglasses from her desk.
“Goodbye, we’re leaving first,” she informs the circle by the coffee table as she stalks by.
“Go home safely!” her friend in the silk dress says with a wave.
“Goodbye,” Yamapi bows politely.
“X Japan...cool,” Secretary Kim offers in Japanese with a solemn nod.
“O-oh yeah!” Yamapi agrees in surprise and grins back at him until Boa grabs him by the arm again to pull him out the door.
“Go change your shoes and meet me out front,” Boa directs and heads for the parking lot through the back door. Yamapi nods but she’s already down the hall with her back to him.
It’s really bright outside, a pale blue sky with distant streaks of cirrus clouds providing no relief from the searing August sun. Yamapi finds a pine tree to stand under and waits. He’s itching to check his phone messages even though he knows he can’t possibly have received any other than spam. He checks the weather forecast instead.
Boa pulls up about the time he gets to the dew point and barometric pressure predictions for next Thursday. The air conditioned interior of the car is really, really nice and Yamapi is looking forward to a cool shower and a T-shirt whenever he gets back.
“Are we going to the bank now?” he asks, starting to worry that he might have left his passport in the apartment.
“Huh? No. The bank guy we need to talk to is out of town until next week.” Boa settles more comfortably in her seat takes the first sharp turn down the steep hill.
“Next week?”
“Yup. And I called the SK store this morning while you were in class. Apparently Ohno had the paperwork all filled out so all you have to do is pay...this...bill,” she grunts as she strains for a voucher in the backseat and Yamapi holds his breath as she takes another tight corner with only one hand on the wheel, “and you’re all set!”
Yamapi takes the voucher with a breath of relief. “Ok, thank you.”
“Not at all. Is it cool if I drop you by your apartment now? I have some errands to run.”
“Sure.” Yamapi wipes the sweat from under his fringe and smears the moisture on his pant leg.
“You can wear something more comfortable tomorrow,” Boa chides.
“Duly noted.”
They drift off into silence until Boa drops him off.
“Tell Taemin-kun hello.”
“Ok. See you tomorrow.”
And then Yamapi’s left on the broken sidewalk in the sweltering mid afternoon heat. He looks around for a convenience store so he can go pay the SK bill and get it over with, as much as he’d rather go straight home to change his shirt.
Fortunately it doesn’t take long to spot the orange and green awning of a 7-Eleven in an alley not far from his building. A guy in cutoffs with bleached hair and glasses is smoking outside. He watches Yamapi approach with mild curiosity but doesn’t rise from his squat to rub out the cigarette with his heel until Yamapi makes for the open doorway.
“Welcome to the store,” the blonde guy mutters, slipping behind the counter to lean authoritatively over the counter. He must be the clerk despite his lack of a colorful vinyl vest like convenience store employees back home always wear. Yamapi follows him across the narrow store and hands over the bill. The guy just stares at the paper and then at Yamapi.
“What’d you bring this here for?” he drawls. He has a plastic name tag clipped to his collar that says Kwon. Yamapi wonders absently if he’s related to Boa.
“Money,” Yamapi says, reaching for his wallet. “How much?” he asks even though he knows it says 10,460 Won, hoping the clerk will get the idea.
“You can’t...here...no.” Yamapi only catches about every other word of what he’s saying but it doesn’t sound promising. Is the date wrong? Boa just gave it to him today so it should be fine. Is this particular branch too small to handle bills? Because Yamapi has always paid for his utilities and phone at a local 7-Eleven.
“Where can I...money?” Yamapi asks in confusion. The clerk raises an eyebrow and shakes his head slowly before sliding the paper voucher back across the cracked plastic countertop.
Yamapi takes a deep breath and wets his lips. He pulls up the dictionary app on his new phone and searches “pay”. He can’t really make sense of the search results so he just holds out the screen so the clerk can read it.
“No!” The blonde guy bounces on the balls of his feet and points towards the door, talking away in earnest tones that have Yamapi
completely lost. He’s starting to sound annoyed. “SK,” the guy says. “Go.”
“Shit,” Yamapi cusses in Japanese. “What am I supposed to do now?” He scratches vigorously at the back of his head, just in case that happens to improve his Korean proficiency at all.
“Excuse me, but…”
Yamapi whirls around, a sudden flare of hope lifting through him at the sound of those glorious, fabulous, magnificent Japanese words. He didn’t even hear anyone else come into the store, but sure enough, right behind him is a rather petite woman with large brown eyes in sandals and a Cocco Emerald Tour T-shirt smiling at him.
“So, he was just saying that you have to take that to an SK store to pay,” the woman points at the clerk and then at the paper in Yamapi’s hands.
“Oh,” Yamapi stutters, instantly reddening. “I could tell something was off, but...yeah.”
“It’s kind of annoying, but that’s how it is here. That goes for the electric, too.”
“Darn.” She giggles at his deadpanned annoyance.
“You’re new here, aren’t you? Where are you from?”
“Tokyo. Ish.” Yamapi shifts his work bag to his other hand.
“Ish?” The girl’s eyebrows shoot halfway up her forehead.
“Well, from Chiba, originally, but you know,” he shrugs. “It’s nice to meet you,” Yamapi bows and she mirrors him.
“Nice to meet you too. I’m from Kobe. Name’s Toda, Toda Erika.” She smiles and tucks a loose strand of her short hair back into place.
“Yamashita Tomohisa.”
“Can I call you Tomo-kun?”
“What?”
She laughs aloud at his surprise.
“I mean, if you’re sticking around here for awhile, we might as well get comfortable with each other. You can call me Eri if you want,” she smiles even wider.
“Well, um--”
“You are Ohno’s replacement, aren’t you?” She frowns slightly and cranes her neck forward to peer at him.
“Yeah,” Yamapi answers. “And that’s cool. If you wanna call me Tomo, I mean.”
“Yes!” Erika fist pumps and almost knocks over an endcap display of ramen snack bites with the shopping basket on her arm. The store clerk glares at them, still hunched over the counter. “Oops! Sorry!” she apologizes loudly in Korean.
“So, um, we should continue this conversation, but not here. Let me give you my card.” She fishes in the back pocket of her shorts for a card case. Yamapi half expects her to flick the card to him between two fingers but she properly presents it in a bow, holding the corners neatly with both hands.
“Thanks,” he accepts with another bow, slightly embarrassed he doesn’t have any printed up to present in turn, but Erika doesn’t say anything about it.
“SK is out to the left and then it’s just two more blocks straight. Sign’s pink and orange, you can’t miss it!”
“Thanks man.”
“Don’t mention it!” She winks and gives a quick wave before turning back to her browsing. "Oh, and let's hang out this weekend~!" she calls over her shoulder. "You better text me, or I'll come hunt you down at school." She pouts prettily with bottom lip down turned and Yamapi shakes his head with a smile.
"Sure thing."
“Go home safely,” the blonde dude says grudgingly while somehow also managing to sound bored. The door jangles shut behind Yamapi.
Pairings/Characters: Jaejoong/Yamapi
Rating/Warnings: T for language and (eventual) making out
Disclaimer: I own nothing; written just for fun
Summary: Yamapi graduates university and takes a gap year to teach Japanese at a Korean high school. A lot of things happen, like life and friendship, and love.
A/N: I'm pretty sure Erika can't speak Korean, but since I don't know any Japanese ladies who do, and Erika is pure awesome, she won the contest hands down.
Heart Abroad, Part 6
Lunch, like everything else at this school, is a noisy affair. The cafeteria is a crumbling brick building out back half hidden between overgrown pine trees, more the type of building that belongs in a Western fairy tale than a Korean schoolyard, Yamapi thinks.
The dining hall is only big enough to accommodate a few hundred students at a time so the third years get to eat first while the underclassmen queue up outside, more in a jostling huddle than a line, to wait for their turn.
Boa marches right past the line of hungry boys, through a maze of long tables crowded with more students, and up to the lunch counter.
“Here,” she shoves a large plastic tray at Yamapi. The students at the head of the line move over with a groan to let them in. “The teachers have a busy schedule, so we get to eat first.” Boa slides her tray forward on the counter to accept a large scoop of sticky rice from a smiling woman wearing plastic gloves.
Yamapi thanks each of the servers as they slap cold noodles, bean sprout salad, and a slab of something fried onto his tray. Boa introduces him as the new foreign teacher as she reaches for paper napkins at the end of the line. The kitchen staff all beam and coo at him, and the soup lady gives him extra gravy.
Yamapi thanks them again and quickly follows Boa to the kimchi table. The self-serve flavors of the day are cubed radish and the ever present cabbage. Boa takes the long metal spoon and dishes some out for him from the stainless steel bowls which are the size of a small Japanese bathtub.
The teacher table is right next to the kimchi. It’s full but not as crowded, the staff gathered in loose clusters of 3 or 5 down the length of the table. Boa sits them at the end across from two young women Yamapi hasn’t seen before.
Boa stirs a spoonful of gravy into half her rice and digs in. It doesn’t improve the grayish brown color of the sauce at all. Yamapi glances around to see if he’s expected to do the same, really hoping that’s not the only socially acceptable way to consume the gloopy liquid.
One teacher a few seats down has done the same to his rice and is currently dirtying it further with lumps of kimchi and a few others have stirred their rice right into their soup bowls, but the lady across from Yamapi has left her rice unsullied in it’s original tray compartment so he figures it’s not too strange if he keeps everything nice and separate.
“Hello!” Yamapi looks up in surprise to see the woman directly across from him wiggling her fingers at him in a coquettish wave. She has the longest fake nails he has seen in a long time, and he wonders if the clusters of rhinestones glued at their bases feel heavy at all.
“Hello,” he nods.
“My name is Lee Jieun, and this is Park Shin Hye.” She wiggles her fingers at the taller girl to her right who gives a shy, tight lipped smile. “I teach music and Ms. Park is in the Korean Department.”
“I’m Yamashita,” he says, brushing his wavy hair back from his forehead. Ms. Park titters into her napkin.
“We know!” Jieun says with a bright smile. Her teeth are really white. Yamapi makes a mental note not to smile too widely while standing next to her. “Where are you from?” Jieun asks in slow Japanese.
“Japan, Tokyo.” Yamapi manages a bite of the fried thing to discover it’s a relatively decent version of tonkatsu.
“We heard you’re a model.” Jieun takes a sip of broth from her large spoon. Yamapi chokes on a bean sprout. “Well aren’t you?” She pauses to tilt her head, her chopsticks loaded with boiled cabbage halfway to her mouth. Boa hands Yamapi a paper napkin.
“How did you…?” Yamapi is not exactly what you could call an international supermodel, he just happened to do a few fashion shoots part time for the extra cash while he was a student. For unknown, newly branded designers. For not that much extra cash. And not even most of his old neighborhood knows about it, what the heck.
“It was on your resume,” Boa shrugs. Yamapi drops his eyes to his tray and takes a large mouthful of pork. He really hopes his entire application and transcripts and medical records and family tree haven’t actually been circulated via the school wide faculty messenger system, but somehow he wouldn’t be too surprised if that were the case.
Ms. Park pokes Jieun with the flat end of her spoon and tucks a length of hair behind her ear.
“She wants to know if you have a girlfriend,” Jieun translates. Ms. Park nods and waits expectantly for an answer. Jieun takes a delicate drink of soup and keeps chewing.
“No, not currently.” Yamapi takes a bite of rice.
“But you did? You had one?”
“Um, yes. In college.”
“Wahh! Beautiful, right? Is there a picture?” Yamapi cocks his head and stares at her. Does she really expect him to carry around photographs of his ex and randomly display them like a proud grandparent in the supermarket checkout line?
“No...no pictures.”
“Aw!” Both of the girls look extremely disappointed and Yamapi wonders how much of their conversation Ms. Park can actually understand. “But, beautiful, right?” Jieun insists.
“Yeah, she was alright.” He probably couldn’t even recognize her now, though he doesn’t mention that fact. He hasn’t seen her since they were nineteen.
Boa drains her soup and starts scraping fish bones and stray bits of food from her tray into the empty bowl. The other two do the same, neither one of them having hardly touched their rice or meat.
Yamapi looks around the room. The food line still extends through the open door and out of sight but the number at the teachers’ table has decreased by almost half since the time they sat down. His tray is still mostly full of now cold food.
“Take your time,” Boa says, pulling out her phone.
“Goodbye!” Ms. Park and Jieun announce simultaneously and get up to dump their trays before disappearing through the open door.
Yamapi finishes his rice and most of the meat even though the breading is hard and greasy now, but the noodles are so strong the cook might as well have just soaked them in vinegar and not bothered to add further seasoning.
Even though they technically have a full hour for lunch, Yamapi feels self conscious eating at his normal pace so he ends up scraping most of the side dishes into his half empty soup bowl a few minutes later.
“Not a fan of lunch?” Boa asks with a sharp smile as she accompanies him to the red plastic tub that functions as a slop bucket.
“Oh no! It was fine! I just...guess I’m not hungry,” Yamapi explains quickly, more than ready to get out of the crowded cafeteria. Boa nods slowly with a small smile twisting at her lips and heads for the door.
The office is mostly empty when they get back, though Yamapi has no idea where everyone is since they’re definitely not lingering over dinner. A couple of people are gathered around the coffee maker, passing out small paper cups of instant coffee.
“Boa ssaem!” A motherly woman in a long silk dress hails them over and begins talking excitedly. Yamapi follows but stays a little off to the side, not sure where to direct his gaze. It feels a little rude to just go sit down at his desk in the corner, but Boa hasn’t introduced him to any of the others.
“Would you like some coffee?” Yamapi looks up find Secretary Kim offering him a steaming paper cup.
“Thank you!” He smiles gratefully as he accepts the drink, thankful he understands just enough Korean to avoid starving.
“You’re Yamashita, right? Do you remember my name?” Secretary Kim asks hopefully, pointing at his own face.
“Yes,” Yamapi nods quickly. “It’s...Kim…”
“Kim Heechul!” Secretary Kim smiles, not exactly encouragingly, but he’s not nearly as intimidating as the last time he attempted a conversation with Yamapi. “It’s nice to meet you! What…”
It figures that just as Yamapi is starting to feel comfortable conversing the vocabulary would start sailing over his head. Secretary Kim’s disappointment is evident in his features when Yamapi fails to respond to the question. Yamapi bites his lip, trying diligently to untangle the string of sounds his ears have managed to absorb but his brain just wouldn’t cooperate.
“Your...age. How much...age?” Secretary Kim slows down his Korean considerably and drops the honorific speech and this time Yamapi actually recognizes some of the words.
“Ah! Ok!” Yamapi says in acknowledgement to buy himself a few moments to formulate a response. Secretary Kim’s eyes widen in anticipation.
“I am 23...Korean age,” Yamapi finally manages.
“Wah! You sound just like a Korean!” Secretary Kim exclaims and Yamapi coughs in surprise. He feels more like a kindergartener being patted on the back for knowing basic addition than someone capable of bilingual communication, but if Secretary Kim wants to be excited…
“Tomo-kun!” Boa snatches up Yamapi’s wrist in her small hand and drags him towards their desks “Get your stuff, let’s go!” He hurries to cram his things into his work bag and slip back into his jacket as Boa grabs her keys and sunglasses from her desk.
“Goodbye, we’re leaving first,” she informs the circle by the coffee table as she stalks by.
“Go home safely!” her friend in the silk dress says with a wave.
“Goodbye,” Yamapi bows politely.
“X Japan...cool,” Secretary Kim offers in Japanese with a solemn nod.
“O-oh yeah!” Yamapi agrees in surprise and grins back at him until Boa grabs him by the arm again to pull him out the door.
“Go change your shoes and meet me out front,” Boa directs and heads for the parking lot through the back door. Yamapi nods but she’s already down the hall with her back to him.
It’s really bright outside, a pale blue sky with distant streaks of cirrus clouds providing no relief from the searing August sun. Yamapi finds a pine tree to stand under and waits. He’s itching to check his phone messages even though he knows he can’t possibly have received any other than spam. He checks the weather forecast instead.
Boa pulls up about the time he gets to the dew point and barometric pressure predictions for next Thursday. The air conditioned interior of the car is really, really nice and Yamapi is looking forward to a cool shower and a T-shirt whenever he gets back.
“Are we going to the bank now?” he asks, starting to worry that he might have left his passport in the apartment.
“Huh? No. The bank guy we need to talk to is out of town until next week.” Boa settles more comfortably in her seat takes the first sharp turn down the steep hill.
“Next week?”
“Yup. And I called the SK store this morning while you were in class. Apparently Ohno had the paperwork all filled out so all you have to do is pay...this...bill,” she grunts as she strains for a voucher in the backseat and Yamapi holds his breath as she takes another tight corner with only one hand on the wheel, “and you’re all set!”
Yamapi takes the voucher with a breath of relief. “Ok, thank you.”
“Not at all. Is it cool if I drop you by your apartment now? I have some errands to run.”
“Sure.” Yamapi wipes the sweat from under his fringe and smears the moisture on his pant leg.
“You can wear something more comfortable tomorrow,” Boa chides.
“Duly noted.”
They drift off into silence until Boa drops him off.
“Tell Taemin-kun hello.”
“Ok. See you tomorrow.”
And then Yamapi’s left on the broken sidewalk in the sweltering mid afternoon heat. He looks around for a convenience store so he can go pay the SK bill and get it over with, as much as he’d rather go straight home to change his shirt.
Fortunately it doesn’t take long to spot the orange and green awning of a 7-Eleven in an alley not far from his building. A guy in cutoffs with bleached hair and glasses is smoking outside. He watches Yamapi approach with mild curiosity but doesn’t rise from his squat to rub out the cigarette with his heel until Yamapi makes for the open doorway.
“Welcome to the store,” the blonde guy mutters, slipping behind the counter to lean authoritatively over the counter. He must be the clerk despite his lack of a colorful vinyl vest like convenience store employees back home always wear. Yamapi follows him across the narrow store and hands over the bill. The guy just stares at the paper and then at Yamapi.
“What’d you bring this here for?” he drawls. He has a plastic name tag clipped to his collar that says Kwon. Yamapi wonders absently if he’s related to Boa.
“Money,” Yamapi says, reaching for his wallet. “How much?” he asks even though he knows it says 10,460 Won, hoping the clerk will get the idea.
“You can’t...here...no.” Yamapi only catches about every other word of what he’s saying but it doesn’t sound promising. Is the date wrong? Boa just gave it to him today so it should be fine. Is this particular branch too small to handle bills? Because Yamapi has always paid for his utilities and phone at a local 7-Eleven.
“Where can I...money?” Yamapi asks in confusion. The clerk raises an eyebrow and shakes his head slowly before sliding the paper voucher back across the cracked plastic countertop.
Yamapi takes a deep breath and wets his lips. He pulls up the dictionary app on his new phone and searches “pay”. He can’t really make sense of the search results so he just holds out the screen so the clerk can read it.
“No!” The blonde guy bounces on the balls of his feet and points towards the door, talking away in earnest tones that have Yamapi
completely lost. He’s starting to sound annoyed. “SK,” the guy says. “Go.”
“Shit,” Yamapi cusses in Japanese. “What am I supposed to do now?” He scratches vigorously at the back of his head, just in case that happens to improve his Korean proficiency at all.
“Excuse me, but…”
Yamapi whirls around, a sudden flare of hope lifting through him at the sound of those glorious, fabulous, magnificent Japanese words. He didn’t even hear anyone else come into the store, but sure enough, right behind him is a rather petite woman with large brown eyes in sandals and a Cocco Emerald Tour T-shirt smiling at him.
“So, he was just saying that you have to take that to an SK store to pay,” the woman points at the clerk and then at the paper in Yamapi’s hands.
“Oh,” Yamapi stutters, instantly reddening. “I could tell something was off, but...yeah.”
“It’s kind of annoying, but that’s how it is here. That goes for the electric, too.”
“Darn.” She giggles at his deadpanned annoyance.
“You’re new here, aren’t you? Where are you from?”
“Tokyo. Ish.” Yamapi shifts his work bag to his other hand.
“Ish?” The girl’s eyebrows shoot halfway up her forehead.
“Well, from Chiba, originally, but you know,” he shrugs. “It’s nice to meet you,” Yamapi bows and she mirrors him.
“Nice to meet you too. I’m from Kobe. Name’s Toda, Toda Erika.” She smiles and tucks a loose strand of her short hair back into place.
“Yamashita Tomohisa.”
“Can I call you Tomo-kun?”
“What?”
She laughs aloud at his surprise.
“I mean, if you’re sticking around here for awhile, we might as well get comfortable with each other. You can call me Eri if you want,” she smiles even wider.
“Well, um--”
“You are Ohno’s replacement, aren’t you?” She frowns slightly and cranes her neck forward to peer at him.
“Yeah,” Yamapi answers. “And that’s cool. If you wanna call me Tomo, I mean.”
“Yes!” Erika fist pumps and almost knocks over an endcap display of ramen snack bites with the shopping basket on her arm. The store clerk glares at them, still hunched over the counter. “Oops! Sorry!” she apologizes loudly in Korean.
“So, um, we should continue this conversation, but not here. Let me give you my card.” She fishes in the back pocket of her shorts for a card case. Yamapi half expects her to flick the card to him between two fingers but she properly presents it in a bow, holding the corners neatly with both hands.
“Thanks,” he accepts with another bow, slightly embarrassed he doesn’t have any printed up to present in turn, but Erika doesn’t say anything about it.
“SK is out to the left and then it’s just two more blocks straight. Sign’s pink and orange, you can’t miss it!”
“Thanks man.”
“Don’t mention it!” She winks and gives a quick wave before turning back to her browsing. "Oh, and let's hang out this weekend~!" she calls over her shoulder. "You better text me, or I'll come hunt you down at school." She pouts prettily with bottom lip down turned and Yamapi shakes his head with a smile.
"Sure thing."
“Go home safely,” the blonde dude says grudgingly while somehow also managing to sound bored. The door jangles shut behind Yamapi.