[APH] The Six Degrees of Separation (5th°)
Title: The Six Degrees of Separation
Category: Axis Powers Hetalia / Hetalia World Series
Characters: Greece, Egypt, Japan, Turkey, France, England, America, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Sealand, North and South Italy, Russia, Germany, Prussia, Spain, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, China, South Korea
Pairings: France/England, Spain/South Italy, Germany/North Italy, Lithuania/Poland, Turkey/Japan, Finland/Sweden
Genre/Rating/Warnings: friendship, romance, drama, family/PG/AU, human names, shifting POVs, language shifts (which I really hope people won’t get confused by)
Summary/Excerpt: The Six Degrees of Separation is the idea that everyone in this world is connected by at most six people. It’s an empowering, intimidating thought to know that the world can be shrunk within just one city and that lives begin to affect one another as people converge and intersect. Our story begins with a pair of brothers who manage a fruit shake stand in Dotombori, Osaka and bear witness to different fates being drawn together from all over the globe.
Prologue | 1st° Part 1 | 1st° Part 2 | 2nd° Part 1 | 2nd° Part 2 | 2nd° Part 3
3rd° | 4th° | 5th° | 6th° | Epilogue
In this installment: Yung Soo finally faces his past and finds out that wounds do heal over time.
The Six Degrees of Separation
Fifth Degree
♠ a breath of fresh air and taking turns
Im Yung Soo hated airports.
He disliked the twinge in his chest every time he saw planes take off for other countries, irrationally jealous that there were skies different from the one above his head. His disliked the rush that everything insisted on being done with-the check in, the baggage claim, the last minute souvenir buying, the walking to get to the immigration so as not to be caught in the long line, the boarding, the coffee ordering, the calls placed, the taxi hailing, the leaving. Everything and everyone seemed so personal and aloof. He hated seeing the faces of family and friends left behind, crying or trying to hide their tears behind tight hugs and forced smiles. He hated how people parted ways without looking back. He hated how such a gesture reminded him of himself.
Yung Soo never thought he’d find himself back in Japan. When he met Feliks doing his part time job as a personal tour guide, he had amassed enough money and frustration to try and physically face what he emotionally couldn’t.
People thought he was too much of a carefree boy who needed a better hobby or a girlfriend. Indeed, Yung Soo preferred the more fun things in life-fulfilling work, good friends, good food and good music. It would never occur to anybody who didn’t know him well that he went home to a lonely apartment in the heart of the city furnished with none but the barest essentials, his beloved laptop, his camera, other small gadgets that helped him get through the everyday and a tin box of mementoes that served as the only link to his past. A tin box of letters, photographs, rusting children’s cutlery, yellowing business cards that he’d love to chuck in the trash bin but couldn’t.
When he met Feliks Lukasiewicz in Seoul, he was struck, not by the fact that the man had made it his life’s work to walk the world, but by the confidence in his gait. A confidence that whatever he’d lost in the span of his constant travel-the stability, the relationships-he’d get them back in a heartbeat. It was only a matter of looking in the right places and jumping in at the right times. Yung soo wouldn’t say that the man was his polar opposite, hence the attraction. Rather, Feliks was akin to that random billboard sign on the highway that screamed ‘If you’re looking for a sign, this is it’ set up not for any one individual but in the hopes of loosely coercing hesitant people with the help of their own guts. The fact was, Feliks was headed to Japan and Yung Soo wanted to face his past once and for all.
“You’ve made up pretty fast,” he remarked with amusement as Feliks shook Toris’ arm in regular intervals on their small tour. It was nearing lunch and the sun was hot overhead. As promised, the SF employee met them and other clients to accompany them on a tour of Dotombori, and other such sights in Osaka. He, Feliks and Toris brought up the rear of the group, not wanting to crowd around the aging yet jovial local tour guide.
“Well no,” Toris laughed apologetically. “This man owes me a lot of explaining, but right now, I’m on my job. Feliks! Listen to the tour guide!”
“But I’m hungry, Liet~”
“Didn’t you eat before leaving? Ah, I forget you’re insufferable as always.”
“But you love me, don’t you?”
“Don’t push your luck, Lukasiewicz.”
Feliks pouted and Yung Soo laughed.
“Ah, Yung Soo, how did you get to meet Feliks?” Toris asked as they walked through various stores, markets and lotterias, drinking in the sights and sounds of the city.
“I was his personal guide in Seoul. When he told me he was a backpacker, I thought that was cool. Then he said he was headed to Japan so I tagged along. I have family here you know.”
“Like, you totally didn’t tell me!” Feliks exclaimed, having finished a thorough examination of trinkets and keychains of miniature street food the shop owner had forbidden him to touch.
“You never asked!”
“I totally did. I asked if you spoke Japanese.”
“I said a bit of it, back when I was a kid. Why would I speak Japanese when I’m Korean?”
You speak English just fine Toris wanted to point out but he understood it was in their job as tour guides to do so. Feliks grabbed his arms and shook them violently once more.
“There! There! He’s totally doing it again! That…that thing when he’s dropping hints about his life. I just know it!”
“That’s absurd Feliks. Mr. Im isn’t obligated to tell you about his life.”
“I told him mine! Totally not fair.”
Yung Soo grinned innocently as the pair fell into another of their familiar arguments. He looked about the decorative shopping streets and saw their tour group had left them behind.
“Mr. Toris?” he said. “I believe we’re the only ones left.”
“Eh?” Toris looked about wildly. “No way! I have to oversee the clients! Sir Braginsky’s going to have my head!”
Feliks giggled. “Y’know he might’ve had, like, totally known about you hacking systems to find me and looked for ways to fire you.”
Toris blanched and Yung Soo clapped a hand on his back. “You could give us the tour! We could tell your boss it was the guide’s fault for losing us and you saved our lives!”
Toris face-faulted. “That….that plan has a lot of loopholes.”
Feliks also clapped him hard on the back. “We’ll fill ‘em up later. Come on, Liet. It’s our vacation. Like, loosen up.”
“I’m hungry,” Yung Soo stated.
Toris sighed, unsure whether or not he could ride the current situation. “Fine. It’s a deal. Get me my job back and I’ll take you on a personalized tour.”
Feliks and Yung Soo did a high five.
♠ the vegetable clock on the wall
1:53pm
Lunch was taken in a small sushi bar where the guests enjoyed tiny plates of native delicacies on a conveyor belt for only 60 yen a piece. They secured a corner of the table to themselves, next to the kitchen with the vegetable clock on the wall. Since the store was a good one and had a long waiting line, they paid a little extra in order to enjoy lunch at their leisure.
“Oh my god, these are so cute. How do they work?” Feliks exclaimed gleefully, looking at two bamboo canisters with ribbons tied around them.
“Feliks, you pop off the top. They’re tea.”
“Totally knew that.”
Yung Soo laughed. “Man, traveling for you sure is fun.”
“I’m quite relieved though,” Toris said. “You haven’t changed a bit. Although I do wonder how you get by.”
“Liet, that is so mean!” Feliks said, eagerly grabbing a plate of sushi. “But we’re totally not here for that. We’re here to hear about Yung Soo’s life.”
The Korean stopped in mid-bite of a grilled slice of octopus with cheese to stare at them. “Mmpf?” he swallowed. “You were serious about that?”
“Well duh.”
He poured himself some tea and drank it slowly, opened his mouth to speak but ate a bit more instead. “Alright.”
♠ we never run out of stories to tell
He was five years old, dressed in a stuffy hanbok and led around by the arm by his mother. It was his first time in someone else’s house, more so outside of Korea.
“You’re going to meet your father,” his mother had told him before they left. “From now on you’re going to stay with him.” She had tears in her eyes.
Im Yung Soo didn’t care much for fatherly figures. He loved his mother very much and they lived a quiet happy life running a humble traditional dress shop in Gwangju. Financial problems were a daily struggle but his primary concern at the moment was why he was being taken to meet a stranger and what was going to happen to his mother and why she was looking so sad. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be a bad meeting, but the feeling was still unsettling.
They crossed the large courtyard to the dojo, avoiding the curious gazes of business partners, relatives and important personages his father dealt with. Yung Soo had never attended a garden party before and openly drank at the sight of exquisitely decorated dining tables and Western-style food.
“We aren’t here to eat, Yung Soo. Remember what I told you during the flight?”
He saw his mother wipe her eyes on her sleeve as he answered. “I’ll be a good boy to father.”
They were almost at the entrance of the house and were unsure who would receive them. At this point, a pretty lady in a cheongsam showed up.
“Good day, Im-san.” Her Chinese accent was thick. “The chairman will see you to discuss the new arrangements after he entertains a few guests in the Autumn Room. You may leave your son with me.”
Yung Soo’s mother gave him a fierce hug. “Remember, my child. You are loved and I love you. Be a good boy and never lose your smile.”
“You’ll be back, right?”
“If circumstance sees it fit.”
In the next several weeks of his mother’s absence and the change in Yung Soo’s environment, the boy bordered on hysterics everyday. Within that time, he also found out that the pretty lady was a man named Yao Wang and since Yung Soo’s father had changed his mind about adopting him, he was left to this man’s care. The boy learned of illegitimacies, mistresses, all manners of corporate business strategies, snooty old men in their tacky suits and nice places to eat around the city all the while Yao cooked, washed, cleaned and did surprisingly almost every major chore in the house. The man said the oddest things about life and the universe, concocted the most delicious dishes he’d ever tasted and reminded him of his grandfather despite his young looks. Needless to say, Yung Soo grew to love him immensely.
“Aiyah, you’re so cute, aru. I wish Kiku was as happy as you.”
Yung Soo often wondered who this Kiku was. After the garden party, he had made his quarters beside Yao’s at the far wing of the dojo, having been deemed ‘unsightly’ by more prudent relatives, whatever that meant.
“Who is he?”
“Your half brother, aru. He’s three years older than you. The youngest of your father’s sons. Naturally not the heir but aiyah! So quiet, aru. You should be made to meet. Perhaps he will smile.”
Honda Kiku didn’t smile when he first met Im Yung Soo.
They had an all out screaming match that was heard throughout the entire dojo. It had started as a comment about the lack of kimchi and who was to get the last bite of salted salmon. The servants spoke of how they never before seen the young master Kiku lose his temper nor chased anyone around the house. When the family heard about it, a few older brothers laughed it off, while the others sniffed disapprovingly. Their father had given them a beating that would forever be burned into their bottoms and when both Kiku and Yung Soo were sent into the kitchen without dinner, the young Korean turned to his sobbing half brother and exclaimed,
“Uwa! I never had that much fun before!”
Kiku hit him. “Are you stupid? That wasn’t fun! That hurt!”
“It so was! I’ve never seen you run around, you poopy.”
“Now we have no dinner!”
“Are you blind. We’re in the kitchen.”
“Boys!”
They turned to the kitchen doorway to see Yao, awkward and stiff in a tight business suit, having accompanied the first son on a meeting with the higher ups.
“What the heck did you do today, aru? I take my eyes off you for one second Im Yung Soo and the first thing you do is wreak havoc! And you, master Kiku, I believe you are to conduct yourself properly, aru!”
Kiku bowed his head in apology, close to tears again while Yung Soo answered back. “Eeh! Hyung-nim, we were already scolded!”
Yao clicked his tongue in annoyance. “I realize. Well, what was your punishment, aru?” he asked as he changed into his cheongsam and tied his hair back.
“Father gave us a beating and sent us to bed without dinner,” Kiku said in a small voice, as if waiting for more rebuke. Yung Soo fidgeted nervously beside him.
“So he did, aru,” Yao said gently and helped them out of their stained, sweaty day clothes. “Come. I will teach you how to make your own dinner, aru. So whenever I am not around and you two get beaten for chasing each other around the house again, you’ll have something to eat.”
That was the night Yao Wang, the all round housekeeper-bulter of the Honda family taught them with long slender fingers, how to press sticky rice into onigiri. Nourished and sated, the two children begged for the Chinese man to divulge more culinary secrets.
“Well, alright aru. If you two promise to get along and behave. And don’t tell the chairman about this. It’s going to be our little secret!”
It was a funny thing, to entrust a secret to a child. They guarded it with utmost fervor given responsibility and Yao trusted Yung Soo and Kiku to do the same.
♠ we never run out of secrets to keep
With ten colored plates stacked a top each other, Yung Soo sighed contentedly and put down his tea cup. The vegetable clock on the wall declared 3:10pm.
“Hyung-nim was my only family, after my mother of course. Naturally, Kiku and I grew close since I was the only member of the household around his age. His brothers and father were away most of the time. Workaholics, I’d call them.”
“What, was this Kiku, like, not being…groomed to be the heir of some company too?” Feliks asked.
“No, no,” Yung Soo said, gesturing with chopsticks that earned him displeased stares from the older customers who saw him. “It’s a good thing, actually. His older brother have the family business covered so he’s pretty much free to do what he wants as long as he studies well and stuff. If there’s one thing he’s passionate about, it’s food and cooking. Hyung-nim taught him that, but he didn’t quite get the finesse of things.”
The Korean lapsed into a pensive silence. Indeed, Yao taught Kiku a lot of things which seemed lost on the boy. And toward Yung Soo, he never seemed satisfied no matter how much effort he gave. Yung Soo hadn’t been sure, because he loved Yao like family, that the man had served the family longer and obviously had invested more time with Kiku in the way he treated the boy with gentleness as if he had a son. Despite Yung Soo’s general appreciation for Kiku, it was Yao’s attention he was jealous of.
“Wait, what did your family run?” Toris asked, as the three of them stood and paid the bill at the counter by the entrance.
“The car company,” Yung Soo replied off-handedly.
Feliks choked on air. “Wait. What…the hell, dude. You should, like, totally be effing rich by now.”
“Well, things happened…”
“Want dessert?” Toris asked. The traveling pair looked at him.
“Sure! Are you paying, Liet?” the Pole among them asked with a grin.
Toris rolled his eyes. “No. I’m asking because I know a really delicious Western style bakery near the place where I work. It’s just two train stations away but we can walk it.” It meant for longer story telling, his smile said and his companions agreed.
“Mom gave me to my dad to support because her income couldn’t,” Yung Soo continued as they traversed the entirety of the shopping streets, passing small retails stores various outlets countless restaurants and hordes of people. “She died in an accident when I was ten. Dad shouldn’t have had any more reason to keep me but hyung-nim took me in.”
“Wow, sounds like a soap opera,” Feliks said. “I hope you aren’t that vengeful kid who grows up vowing to get back the family prestige or something.”
Yung Soo laughed. “It does, doesn’t it? No, don’t worry. I was happy. I practically grew up under hyung-nim’s care. I do miss my mother, though.”
“What happened?” Toris asked as they passed by a Dondurma stall and watched with passing interest as the vendors flipped ice cream.
“Kiku wanted to go to a culinary school. Dad was against it. Up till middle school we were sent to the same institutions, but after that, Kiku was moved to an escalator school.” Yung Soo continued as they crossed the main road and entered quaint residential streets, following Toris’ lead.
“What about you?” the Lithuanian asked.
“Hyung-nim wanted a good education for me too and tried to convince dad I had some importance in the family, now that mom was gone. He agreed and Kiku and I were sent to an international highschool in Rome.”
Feliks let out a low whistle. “The man behind Honda Motors sure is something.”
“I came back for summer vacation to find out hyung-nim was sick.”
At this point, the trio stopped in front of Rose Bakery and Toris and Feliks stared at him incredulously.
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” the Pole said.
“I wish I were,” Yung Soo said cheerfully. “God knows I’d be feeling much better about myself right now. Is this the place?”
“Ah!” Toris looked about, having been quite engrossed in their companion’s story to realize they reached their destination. “It is!”
With a merry jingle, they entered the bakery-café and seated themselves on a small table beside the cake display.
“Oh my gosh, this place is totally adorable,” Feliks said. “Reminds me of the cake shops in Paris.”
“I’ll order at the counter,” Toris offered. “You two pay me later. What would you like?”
“You know the specialties here, Liet. We’ll eat whatever you get.”
“Point there. Hold the story, okay? I’ll be right back.” With that, Toris lined up behind the cashier.
“Holy cow, what a life story you have there,” Feliks told Yung Soo with amusement in his voice. “Who’d have thought you’d be, like, the illegitimate son of an automobile tycoon. Where on earth is your brother now? I don’t hear any big names like Honda Kiku floating around the news.”
“I keep telling you, he’s got his brothers for those things. Besides, I’ve cut ties with the family,” Yung Soo’s expression was neutral. “Don’t know more than you do.”
Toris returned, bearing a tray with three plates of pastries and three cups of tea. “The baker’s awfully nice,” he said, setting the tray on the table. “He speaks English well and I think he’s foreign. The tea’s a new item on the menu and they were giving free cups today to see if they’d go well with the cakes.”
Little did they know, the only thing Francis would allow Arthur to add to his menu was the tea. His brew was exquisite but any of his culinary creations were absolutely horrible. If not for Alfred and Matthew’s persistence of having something of their father’s in Rose Bakery’s menu, Francis wouldn’t have bothered at all.
“So,” Toris continued. “What happened when you came home and Yao was sick?”
Yung Soo took a sip of tea. “Uwa, this thing is sweet.”- “Tastes fine to me,” said Feliks-“I had to stand in for hyung-nim’s duties while taking care of him. I wasn’t able to finish my schooling abroad and wormed my way into a scholarship in a public school instead. There were a lot of days I came home exhausted from juggling everything. Then right after my graduation, hyung-nim passed away.”
Toris stopped in mid-chew and frowned. Feliks’ eyes widened. “Like, are you serious?”
Yung Soo laughed. “You’d be even more surprised with this. Kiku left the family.”
“How?!”
“He entered a four year program his highschool offered. Not once since he left did he come back home,” Yung Soo’s grip on his fork tightened. “Dad let him go so easily, and after hyung-nim had been given a proper service, I flew back to Seoul without so much as a second thought.”
He had only been fifteen, utterly devastated and lost with the lack of care and comfort from the people he needed the most. Toward Kiku especially, the resentment he had for the man abandoning him and Yao had remained a dull ache in his chest.
“Dad sent me regular allowance to help me get through university. The last I heard of my half brother was when he had an affair with this Turkish guy in his senior year. Dad was furious but didn’t stir a scandal. I graduated then went into military service. After two years, I told Dad he could stop the support. I’ve been getting by up till now.”
A stunned silence met the end of this story. Feliks slowly chewed the bite of cream roll he had in his mouth and swallowed.
“Got nothing to top that,” he said simply and Yung Soo burst out laughing.
“I doubt you’d like to have one to do so!”
Toris cracked a small smile as their melancholic air was broken with talks of food and sightseeing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the owner of Rose Bakery staring at them curiously and when he looked, the man coughed and turned away.
♠ may we see the same sky
“I’d love to visit that bakery again,” Feliks said as the trio resumed their walk. “Though it’s totally weird if we spent our money on just food.”
“How long are you going to stay here?” Toris asked.
“Well, I stay in one place till I get bored and move on to the next place but…” he smiled in thought. “That’s like, pretty much over.”
“Eh? Why?” the Lithuanian asked.
The Pole exchanged glances with Yung Soo. “We’re supposed to check out of Hotel VF tomorrow. It’s like, the extent of the tour I booked.”
“The sneak,” Yung Soo added grinning. “Feliks knew he had a place to stay after that. I’d have to go back to Seoul!”
“Huh?” Toris asked, perplexed as he watched the pair laugh.
“I totally knew you were here, Liet, so I came to find you.”
Toris bristled with embarrassment. “Feliks, don’t say that.”
“Yeah,” said Yung Soo. “I’m learning nothing about backpacking here,” he continued jokingly.
“We can like, totally crash Liet’s place. Y’don’t need to go back to Seoul just yet.”
“What?!” their companion exclaimed. “I can’t tour you two everyday, I’ve got a job you know!”
“Which was looking for me,” Feliks supplied. “That was totally silly cuz I was looking for you too.”
They continued down the quiet road and passed by a certain S-preschool. Parents and guardians were lined up outside the gate. It was 4:00pm and summer classes were over for the day.
“Like, oh my god, those kids are totally cute,” Feliks said.
It was a sight familiar yet foreign to Yung Soo, as children in yellow hats and uniformed raced out of their classroom to the arms of waiting parents. Gleefully, they called out their goodbyes to friends and their teacher, who responded with a gentle, low, “See you tomorrow” of his own.
Im Yung Soo froze in his steps. Feliks and Toris crashed into him.
“Woah, hey-Yung Soo! What’s going on?” the former asked but the latter shushed him.
Toris knew that look well, the stunned look in their Korean friend’s eyes that were fixed at a point of utmost importance only he knew of. They didn’t try to stop him as Yung Soo blindly gravitated toward the kindergarten teacher standing by the classroom doorway.
“Holy hell, Liet. You don’t think that dude over there’s the one Yung Soo’s been talking about?”
It wasn't a question, really.
Yung Soo wove past the crowd of parents and children, stopping with some hesitation of will at the gate that came up to his knee. The teacher, sensing the gaze, turned to look.
“…brother?”
“Im Yung Soo,” Honda Kiku whispered in naked shock as the Korean crossed the tiny playground-“Stop them, Liet! He’d totally gonna punch him!”-to face him. “My god, you’ve grown.”
Indeed, Yung Soo was a head taller than Kiku, but it was the least of his worries as he stood shaking, unable to voice any of the racing thoughts in his head, all fighting for dominance-questions, rebuke, anger, curses, exclamations, cajoles.
“Brother.”
And when Kiku took his hand, Yung Soo realized he was close to tears and bit his lip.
“You aren’t fair, brother.”
“I’m…” Kiku looked down. “I’m afraid I haven’t been a very good brother at all.”
Feliks and Toris watched as the pair embraced each other, letting go a breath of air they didn’t know they held.
to the Sixth Degree
Category: Axis Powers Hetalia / Hetalia World Series
Characters: Greece, Egypt, Japan, Turkey, France, England, America, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Sealand, North and South Italy, Russia, Germany, Prussia, Spain, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, China, South Korea
Pairings: France/England, Spain/South Italy, Germany/North Italy, Lithuania/Poland, Turkey/Japan, Finland/Sweden
Genre/Rating/Warnings: friendship, romance, drama, family/PG/AU, human names, shifting POVs, language shifts (which I really hope people won’t get confused by)
Summary/Excerpt: The Six Degrees of Separation is the idea that everyone in this world is connected by at most six people. It’s an empowering, intimidating thought to know that the world can be shrunk within just one city and that lives begin to affect one another as people converge and intersect. Our story begins with a pair of brothers who manage a fruit shake stand in Dotombori, Osaka and bear witness to different fates being drawn together from all over the globe.
Prologue | 1st° Part 1 | 1st° Part 2 | 2nd° Part 1 | 2nd° Part 2 | 2nd° Part 3
3rd° | 4th° | 5th° | 6th° | Epilogue
In this installment: Yung Soo finally faces his past and finds out that wounds do heal over time.
The Six Degrees of Separation
Fifth Degree
♠ a breath of fresh air and taking turns
Im Yung Soo hated airports.
He disliked the twinge in his chest every time he saw planes take off for other countries, irrationally jealous that there were skies different from the one above his head. His disliked the rush that everything insisted on being done with-the check in, the baggage claim, the last minute souvenir buying, the walking to get to the immigration so as not to be caught in the long line, the boarding, the coffee ordering, the calls placed, the taxi hailing, the leaving. Everything and everyone seemed so personal and aloof. He hated seeing the faces of family and friends left behind, crying or trying to hide their tears behind tight hugs and forced smiles. He hated how people parted ways without looking back. He hated how such a gesture reminded him of himself.
Yung Soo never thought he’d find himself back in Japan. When he met Feliks doing his part time job as a personal tour guide, he had amassed enough money and frustration to try and physically face what he emotionally couldn’t.
People thought he was too much of a carefree boy who needed a better hobby or a girlfriend. Indeed, Yung Soo preferred the more fun things in life-fulfilling work, good friends, good food and good music. It would never occur to anybody who didn’t know him well that he went home to a lonely apartment in the heart of the city furnished with none but the barest essentials, his beloved laptop, his camera, other small gadgets that helped him get through the everyday and a tin box of mementoes that served as the only link to his past. A tin box of letters, photographs, rusting children’s cutlery, yellowing business cards that he’d love to chuck in the trash bin but couldn’t.
When he met Feliks Lukasiewicz in Seoul, he was struck, not by the fact that the man had made it his life’s work to walk the world, but by the confidence in his gait. A confidence that whatever he’d lost in the span of his constant travel-the stability, the relationships-he’d get them back in a heartbeat. It was only a matter of looking in the right places and jumping in at the right times. Yung soo wouldn’t say that the man was his polar opposite, hence the attraction. Rather, Feliks was akin to that random billboard sign on the highway that screamed ‘If you’re looking for a sign, this is it’ set up not for any one individual but in the hopes of loosely coercing hesitant people with the help of their own guts. The fact was, Feliks was headed to Japan and Yung Soo wanted to face his past once and for all.
“You’ve made up pretty fast,” he remarked with amusement as Feliks shook Toris’ arm in regular intervals on their small tour. It was nearing lunch and the sun was hot overhead. As promised, the SF employee met them and other clients to accompany them on a tour of Dotombori, and other such sights in Osaka. He, Feliks and Toris brought up the rear of the group, not wanting to crowd around the aging yet jovial local tour guide.
“Well no,” Toris laughed apologetically. “This man owes me a lot of explaining, but right now, I’m on my job. Feliks! Listen to the tour guide!”
“But I’m hungry, Liet~”
“Didn’t you eat before leaving? Ah, I forget you’re insufferable as always.”
“But you love me, don’t you?”
“Don’t push your luck, Lukasiewicz.”
Feliks pouted and Yung Soo laughed.
“Ah, Yung Soo, how did you get to meet Feliks?” Toris asked as they walked through various stores, markets and lotterias, drinking in the sights and sounds of the city.
“I was his personal guide in Seoul. When he told me he was a backpacker, I thought that was cool. Then he said he was headed to Japan so I tagged along. I have family here you know.”
“Like, you totally didn’t tell me!” Feliks exclaimed, having finished a thorough examination of trinkets and keychains of miniature street food the shop owner had forbidden him to touch.
“You never asked!”
“I totally did. I asked if you spoke Japanese.”
“I said a bit of it, back when I was a kid. Why would I speak Japanese when I’m Korean?”
You speak English just fine Toris wanted to point out but he understood it was in their job as tour guides to do so. Feliks grabbed his arms and shook them violently once more.
“There! There! He’s totally doing it again! That…that thing when he’s dropping hints about his life. I just know it!”
“That’s absurd Feliks. Mr. Im isn’t obligated to tell you about his life.”
“I told him mine! Totally not fair.”
Yung Soo grinned innocently as the pair fell into another of their familiar arguments. He looked about the decorative shopping streets and saw their tour group had left them behind.
“Mr. Toris?” he said. “I believe we’re the only ones left.”
“Eh?” Toris looked about wildly. “No way! I have to oversee the clients! Sir Braginsky’s going to have my head!”
Feliks giggled. “Y’know he might’ve had, like, totally known about you hacking systems to find me and looked for ways to fire you.”
Toris blanched and Yung Soo clapped a hand on his back. “You could give us the tour! We could tell your boss it was the guide’s fault for losing us and you saved our lives!”
Toris face-faulted. “That….that plan has a lot of loopholes.”
Feliks also clapped him hard on the back. “We’ll fill ‘em up later. Come on, Liet. It’s our vacation. Like, loosen up.”
“I’m hungry,” Yung Soo stated.
Toris sighed, unsure whether or not he could ride the current situation. “Fine. It’s a deal. Get me my job back and I’ll take you on a personalized tour.”
Feliks and Yung Soo did a high five.
♠ the vegetable clock on the wall
1:53pm
Lunch was taken in a small sushi bar where the guests enjoyed tiny plates of native delicacies on a conveyor belt for only 60 yen a piece. They secured a corner of the table to themselves, next to the kitchen with the vegetable clock on the wall. Since the store was a good one and had a long waiting line, they paid a little extra in order to enjoy lunch at their leisure.
“Oh my god, these are so cute. How do they work?” Feliks exclaimed gleefully, looking at two bamboo canisters with ribbons tied around them.
“Feliks, you pop off the top. They’re tea.”
“Totally knew that.”
Yung Soo laughed. “Man, traveling for you sure is fun.”
“I’m quite relieved though,” Toris said. “You haven’t changed a bit. Although I do wonder how you get by.”
“Liet, that is so mean!” Feliks said, eagerly grabbing a plate of sushi. “But we’re totally not here for that. We’re here to hear about Yung Soo’s life.”
The Korean stopped in mid-bite of a grilled slice of octopus with cheese to stare at them. “Mmpf?” he swallowed. “You were serious about that?”
“Well duh.”
He poured himself some tea and drank it slowly, opened his mouth to speak but ate a bit more instead. “Alright.”
♠ we never run out of stories to tell
He was five years old, dressed in a stuffy hanbok and led around by the arm by his mother. It was his first time in someone else’s house, more so outside of Korea.
“You’re going to meet your father,” his mother had told him before they left. “From now on you’re going to stay with him.” She had tears in her eyes.
Im Yung Soo didn’t care much for fatherly figures. He loved his mother very much and they lived a quiet happy life running a humble traditional dress shop in Gwangju. Financial problems were a daily struggle but his primary concern at the moment was why he was being taken to meet a stranger and what was going to happen to his mother and why she was looking so sad. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be a bad meeting, but the feeling was still unsettling.
They crossed the large courtyard to the dojo, avoiding the curious gazes of business partners, relatives and important personages his father dealt with. Yung Soo had never attended a garden party before and openly drank at the sight of exquisitely decorated dining tables and Western-style food.
“We aren’t here to eat, Yung Soo. Remember what I told you during the flight?”
He saw his mother wipe her eyes on her sleeve as he answered. “I’ll be a good boy to father.”
They were almost at the entrance of the house and were unsure who would receive them. At this point, a pretty lady in a cheongsam showed up.
“Good day, Im-san.” Her Chinese accent was thick. “The chairman will see you to discuss the new arrangements after he entertains a few guests in the Autumn Room. You may leave your son with me.”
Yung Soo’s mother gave him a fierce hug. “Remember, my child. You are loved and I love you. Be a good boy and never lose your smile.”
“You’ll be back, right?”
“If circumstance sees it fit.”
In the next several weeks of his mother’s absence and the change in Yung Soo’s environment, the boy bordered on hysterics everyday. Within that time, he also found out that the pretty lady was a man named Yao Wang and since Yung Soo’s father had changed his mind about adopting him, he was left to this man’s care. The boy learned of illegitimacies, mistresses, all manners of corporate business strategies, snooty old men in their tacky suits and nice places to eat around the city all the while Yao cooked, washed, cleaned and did surprisingly almost every major chore in the house. The man said the oddest things about life and the universe, concocted the most delicious dishes he’d ever tasted and reminded him of his grandfather despite his young looks. Needless to say, Yung Soo grew to love him immensely.
“Aiyah, you’re so cute, aru. I wish Kiku was as happy as you.”
Yung Soo often wondered who this Kiku was. After the garden party, he had made his quarters beside Yao’s at the far wing of the dojo, having been deemed ‘unsightly’ by more prudent relatives, whatever that meant.
“Who is he?”
“Your half brother, aru. He’s three years older than you. The youngest of your father’s sons. Naturally not the heir but aiyah! So quiet, aru. You should be made to meet. Perhaps he will smile.”
Honda Kiku didn’t smile when he first met Im Yung Soo.
They had an all out screaming match that was heard throughout the entire dojo. It had started as a comment about the lack of kimchi and who was to get the last bite of salted salmon. The servants spoke of how they never before seen the young master Kiku lose his temper nor chased anyone around the house. When the family heard about it, a few older brothers laughed it off, while the others sniffed disapprovingly. Their father had given them a beating that would forever be burned into their bottoms and when both Kiku and Yung Soo were sent into the kitchen without dinner, the young Korean turned to his sobbing half brother and exclaimed,
“Uwa! I never had that much fun before!”
Kiku hit him. “Are you stupid? That wasn’t fun! That hurt!”
“It so was! I’ve never seen you run around, you poopy.”
“Now we have no dinner!”
“Are you blind. We’re in the kitchen.”
“Boys!”
They turned to the kitchen doorway to see Yao, awkward and stiff in a tight business suit, having accompanied the first son on a meeting with the higher ups.
“What the heck did you do today, aru? I take my eyes off you for one second Im Yung Soo and the first thing you do is wreak havoc! And you, master Kiku, I believe you are to conduct yourself properly, aru!”
Kiku bowed his head in apology, close to tears again while Yung Soo answered back. “Eeh! Hyung-nim, we were already scolded!”
Yao clicked his tongue in annoyance. “I realize. Well, what was your punishment, aru?” he asked as he changed into his cheongsam and tied his hair back.
“Father gave us a beating and sent us to bed without dinner,” Kiku said in a small voice, as if waiting for more rebuke. Yung Soo fidgeted nervously beside him.
“So he did, aru,” Yao said gently and helped them out of their stained, sweaty day clothes. “Come. I will teach you how to make your own dinner, aru. So whenever I am not around and you two get beaten for chasing each other around the house again, you’ll have something to eat.”
That was the night Yao Wang, the all round housekeeper-bulter of the Honda family taught them with long slender fingers, how to press sticky rice into onigiri. Nourished and sated, the two children begged for the Chinese man to divulge more culinary secrets.
“Well, alright aru. If you two promise to get along and behave. And don’t tell the chairman about this. It’s going to be our little secret!”
It was a funny thing, to entrust a secret to a child. They guarded it with utmost fervor given responsibility and Yao trusted Yung Soo and Kiku to do the same.
♠ we never run out of secrets to keep
With ten colored plates stacked a top each other, Yung Soo sighed contentedly and put down his tea cup. The vegetable clock on the wall declared 3:10pm.
“Hyung-nim was my only family, after my mother of course. Naturally, Kiku and I grew close since I was the only member of the household around his age. His brothers and father were away most of the time. Workaholics, I’d call them.”
“What, was this Kiku, like, not being…groomed to be the heir of some company too?” Feliks asked.
“No, no,” Yung Soo said, gesturing with chopsticks that earned him displeased stares from the older customers who saw him. “It’s a good thing, actually. His older brother have the family business covered so he’s pretty much free to do what he wants as long as he studies well and stuff. If there’s one thing he’s passionate about, it’s food and cooking. Hyung-nim taught him that, but he didn’t quite get the finesse of things.”
The Korean lapsed into a pensive silence. Indeed, Yao taught Kiku a lot of things which seemed lost on the boy. And toward Yung Soo, he never seemed satisfied no matter how much effort he gave. Yung Soo hadn’t been sure, because he loved Yao like family, that the man had served the family longer and obviously had invested more time with Kiku in the way he treated the boy with gentleness as if he had a son. Despite Yung Soo’s general appreciation for Kiku, it was Yao’s attention he was jealous of.
“Wait, what did your family run?” Toris asked, as the three of them stood and paid the bill at the counter by the entrance.
“The car company,” Yung Soo replied off-handedly.
Feliks choked on air. “Wait. What…the hell, dude. You should, like, totally be effing rich by now.”
“Well, things happened…”
“Want dessert?” Toris asked. The traveling pair looked at him.
“Sure! Are you paying, Liet?” the Pole among them asked with a grin.
Toris rolled his eyes. “No. I’m asking because I know a really delicious Western style bakery near the place where I work. It’s just two train stations away but we can walk it.” It meant for longer story telling, his smile said and his companions agreed.
“Mom gave me to my dad to support because her income couldn’t,” Yung Soo continued as they traversed the entirety of the shopping streets, passing small retails stores various outlets countless restaurants and hordes of people. “She died in an accident when I was ten. Dad shouldn’t have had any more reason to keep me but hyung-nim took me in.”
“Wow, sounds like a soap opera,” Feliks said. “I hope you aren’t that vengeful kid who grows up vowing to get back the family prestige or something.”
Yung Soo laughed. “It does, doesn’t it? No, don’t worry. I was happy. I practically grew up under hyung-nim’s care. I do miss my mother, though.”
“What happened?” Toris asked as they passed by a Dondurma stall and watched with passing interest as the vendors flipped ice cream.
“Kiku wanted to go to a culinary school. Dad was against it. Up till middle school we were sent to the same institutions, but after that, Kiku was moved to an escalator school.” Yung Soo continued as they crossed the main road and entered quaint residential streets, following Toris’ lead.
“What about you?” the Lithuanian asked.
“Hyung-nim wanted a good education for me too and tried to convince dad I had some importance in the family, now that mom was gone. He agreed and Kiku and I were sent to an international highschool in Rome.”
Feliks let out a low whistle. “The man behind Honda Motors sure is something.”
“I came back for summer vacation to find out hyung-nim was sick.”
At this point, the trio stopped in front of Rose Bakery and Toris and Feliks stared at him incredulously.
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” the Pole said.
“I wish I were,” Yung Soo said cheerfully. “God knows I’d be feeling much better about myself right now. Is this the place?”
“Ah!” Toris looked about, having been quite engrossed in their companion’s story to realize they reached their destination. “It is!”
With a merry jingle, they entered the bakery-café and seated themselves on a small table beside the cake display.
“Oh my gosh, this place is totally adorable,” Feliks said. “Reminds me of the cake shops in Paris.”
“I’ll order at the counter,” Toris offered. “You two pay me later. What would you like?”
“You know the specialties here, Liet. We’ll eat whatever you get.”
“Point there. Hold the story, okay? I’ll be right back.” With that, Toris lined up behind the cashier.
“Holy cow, what a life story you have there,” Feliks told Yung Soo with amusement in his voice. “Who’d have thought you’d be, like, the illegitimate son of an automobile tycoon. Where on earth is your brother now? I don’t hear any big names like Honda Kiku floating around the news.”
“I keep telling you, he’s got his brothers for those things. Besides, I’ve cut ties with the family,” Yung Soo’s expression was neutral. “Don’t know more than you do.”
Toris returned, bearing a tray with three plates of pastries and three cups of tea. “The baker’s awfully nice,” he said, setting the tray on the table. “He speaks English well and I think he’s foreign. The tea’s a new item on the menu and they were giving free cups today to see if they’d go well with the cakes.”
Little did they know, the only thing Francis would allow Arthur to add to his menu was the tea. His brew was exquisite but any of his culinary creations were absolutely horrible. If not for Alfred and Matthew’s persistence of having something of their father’s in Rose Bakery’s menu, Francis wouldn’t have bothered at all.
“So,” Toris continued. “What happened when you came home and Yao was sick?”
Yung Soo took a sip of tea. “Uwa, this thing is sweet.”- “Tastes fine to me,” said Feliks-“I had to stand in for hyung-nim’s duties while taking care of him. I wasn’t able to finish my schooling abroad and wormed my way into a scholarship in a public school instead. There were a lot of days I came home exhausted from juggling everything. Then right after my graduation, hyung-nim passed away.”
Toris stopped in mid-chew and frowned. Feliks’ eyes widened. “Like, are you serious?”
Yung Soo laughed. “You’d be even more surprised with this. Kiku left the family.”
“How?!”
“He entered a four year program his highschool offered. Not once since he left did he come back home,” Yung Soo’s grip on his fork tightened. “Dad let him go so easily, and after hyung-nim had been given a proper service, I flew back to Seoul without so much as a second thought.”
He had only been fifteen, utterly devastated and lost with the lack of care and comfort from the people he needed the most. Toward Kiku especially, the resentment he had for the man abandoning him and Yao had remained a dull ache in his chest.
“Dad sent me regular allowance to help me get through university. The last I heard of my half brother was when he had an affair with this Turkish guy in his senior year. Dad was furious but didn’t stir a scandal. I graduated then went into military service. After two years, I told Dad he could stop the support. I’ve been getting by up till now.”
A stunned silence met the end of this story. Feliks slowly chewed the bite of cream roll he had in his mouth and swallowed.
“Got nothing to top that,” he said simply and Yung Soo burst out laughing.
“I doubt you’d like to have one to do so!”
Toris cracked a small smile as their melancholic air was broken with talks of food and sightseeing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the owner of Rose Bakery staring at them curiously and when he looked, the man coughed and turned away.
♠ may we see the same sky
“I’d love to visit that bakery again,” Feliks said as the trio resumed their walk. “Though it’s totally weird if we spent our money on just food.”
“How long are you going to stay here?” Toris asked.
“Well, I stay in one place till I get bored and move on to the next place but…” he smiled in thought. “That’s like, pretty much over.”
“Eh? Why?” the Lithuanian asked.
The Pole exchanged glances with Yung Soo. “We’re supposed to check out of Hotel VF tomorrow. It’s like, the extent of the tour I booked.”
“The sneak,” Yung Soo added grinning. “Feliks knew he had a place to stay after that. I’d have to go back to Seoul!”
“Huh?” Toris asked, perplexed as he watched the pair laugh.
“I totally knew you were here, Liet, so I came to find you.”
Toris bristled with embarrassment. “Feliks, don’t say that.”
“Yeah,” said Yung Soo. “I’m learning nothing about backpacking here,” he continued jokingly.
“We can like, totally crash Liet’s place. Y’don’t need to go back to Seoul just yet.”
“What?!” their companion exclaimed. “I can’t tour you two everyday, I’ve got a job you know!”
“Which was looking for me,” Feliks supplied. “That was totally silly cuz I was looking for you too.”
They continued down the quiet road and passed by a certain S-preschool. Parents and guardians were lined up outside the gate. It was 4:00pm and summer classes were over for the day.
“Like, oh my god, those kids are totally cute,” Feliks said.
It was a sight familiar yet foreign to Yung Soo, as children in yellow hats and uniformed raced out of their classroom to the arms of waiting parents. Gleefully, they called out their goodbyes to friends and their teacher, who responded with a gentle, low, “See you tomorrow” of his own.
Im Yung Soo froze in his steps. Feliks and Toris crashed into him.
“Woah, hey-Yung Soo! What’s going on?” the former asked but the latter shushed him.
Toris knew that look well, the stunned look in their Korean friend’s eyes that were fixed at a point of utmost importance only he knew of. They didn’t try to stop him as Yung Soo blindly gravitated toward the kindergarten teacher standing by the classroom doorway.
“Holy hell, Liet. You don’t think that dude over there’s the one Yung Soo’s been talking about?”
It wasn't a question, really.
Yung Soo wove past the crowd of parents and children, stopping with some hesitation of will at the gate that came up to his knee. The teacher, sensing the gaze, turned to look.
“…brother?”
“Im Yung Soo,” Honda Kiku whispered in naked shock as the Korean crossed the tiny playground-“Stop them, Liet! He’d totally gonna punch him!”-to face him. “My god, you’ve grown.”
Indeed, Yung Soo was a head taller than Kiku, but it was the least of his worries as he stood shaking, unable to voice any of the racing thoughts in his head, all fighting for dominance-questions, rebuke, anger, curses, exclamations, cajoles.
“Brother.”
And when Kiku took his hand, Yung Soo realized he was close to tears and bit his lip.
“You aren’t fair, brother.”
“I’m…” Kiku looked down. “I’m afraid I haven’t been a very good brother at all.”
Feliks and Toris watched as the pair embraced each other, letting go a breath of air they didn’t know they held.
to the Sixth Degree