"you'd make a good wife..." Those soft words that made Emrald's body shiver while feeling warm for a minute was engraved
in her mind. She couldn't sleep at all, she was starting to hate herself and everything around her. The next morning she woke up much before Hyungwon did, brushed her teeth, she even bathed in freezing cold water. Her mother was out to the market so she had to prepare breakfast for herself and Hyungwon.
"Woah!" Exclaimed Hyungwon on seeing the feast Emrald had prepared; spicy Gamjajeon, osmanthus tea, matcha roll cake with black sesame cream for filling, a popular cafe style breakfast with a touch of traditional korean pancakes. He ate everything with delight and his eyes were locked on Emrald, he finally said "I was missing these gamjajeons, thank you for making them, what's for lunch?..." And Emrald broke eye contact and said while her cheeks flushed red "Mn, I'm glad you like them... I tried making the popular carrot Kimbap, and some enoki mushroom tamagoyaki and will pack in the leftover gamjajeon..."
"Sounds delicious, Gomawo Em(u)rald(o)" Said Hyungwon. "Eto... it's my first time making kimbap, so I am not so sure about the taste, i was inspired by my favourite youtuber's recipe... Plxn D, of course hers would be nicer, eto, ano👉👈..." Explained Emrald while averting her eyes.then she took her rucksack and rushed to school without Hyungwon, her face flushed from the embarrassment.
"What's wrong with me all of a sudden? Why do I suddenly feel so self conscious? And what do all girls see in that clown? That baka spreading pheromones all over every place he goes to..." Mumbled Emrald, when suddenly "I'm sorry for being a baka who spreads around pheromones but hey I didn't choose to look like this y'know? That's a bit harsh Em(u)rald(o)." Hyungwon said from behind her. "Na-nani (wha-what)? how did you? When did you? Wo de maya! (Oh my god), are you an alien from planet pheromones? Did you teleport yourself here? How in the world did you catch up, you just started your breakfast when I rushed out." Exclaimed Emrald. "Well about that, I can eat very fast and I'm pretty athletic if I say so myself; I just ran and caught up, that was easy I merely broke any sweat at all." Said Hyungwon with a smirk. "Tut, there you go bragging again about how perfect you are..." Mumbled Emrald. "Huh? Did you say something? Daebak, you just said that I was perfect! Haha say it again." Said Hyungwon, "iya da(no), get away from me !" With that Emrald started walking faster but Hyungwon caught up again, it looked like they were walk racing.
Emrald came to the sudden realisation that she had not made any female friends in this new school yet once she reaches her classroom; her only friend was Hyungwon and she blamed him for it since she wanted to make new female friends. "I'm going to suck the life out of him I swear! Dear God Almighty please allow me to have female friends!" Prayed Emrald.
'Yappa kowai...' thought the other boys in the classroom upon hearing Emrald.
Lunch break...
Hyungwon went to play football with his team so Emrald was all alone on a bench, she then sighed and went to the rooftop to eat. There she found a girl, standing alone with short and wavy blonde hair flowing in the breeze, Emrald couldn't take her eyes off her. 'CRACK' Emrald accidentally stepped on a dry branch and the girl turned around to face her, revealing her bright Turquoise eyes, but her eye shape said that she was half Asian and half European "Hello there!" She said with a smile in English, it was an accent that said her mother tongue was not English but another language.
"Hello!" Emrald said back, Emrald was well versed in a few foreign languages.
"I am Vascilina Fedotov, I came from Russia as a transfer student, I'm sorry I can't speak much of Japanese right now but hey I'm learning. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (pleased to meet you - formal)." said the blonde girl. "It's okay I understand English as well. Yoroshiku! I am Emrald Kaizen." Said Emrald. "Emrald? That's not a Japanese name, oh my bad if what I said was offensive I was just curious, hmm a little... I... It's so hard to make friends here since I can't speak much of Japanese but the boys are pushing their way around to be my friend and the girls just glare at me as if they hate me..." Said Vascilina shyly. That made Emrald chuckle and she said "I see, that's understandable since you're beautiful, well, I was born in China and lived in Sichuan province till I was 9, my father is Japanese and my mother is Chinese. My actual name is Lin Lu Emrald Kaizen,often called Lu-Lu. But when I came to Japan, I was called Em(u)rald(o) more often by my friends and teachers as they thought it to be cuter since it's a precious stone's name. My mother loves Emeralds you see, so that's why I was given that name instead of a Japanese one and you yourself look half Asian though. Ah, wakatta! I can be your friend if you want, I don't have female friends yet either..." Said Emrald with a warm smile. "Oh I'd love that Emrald, though I think Lin Lu or Lu-Lu is cuter than Emrald.Thank you,you see my mum is Japanese and my dad is Russian, oh and I lived in St.Petersburg I always wanted to moved to either Osaka or Tokyo and here I am in Tokyo! It's so exciting the city of anime and mangas, I can't wait to visit maid cafes, even want to part time at one but I prefer traditional tea houses, I want to have okonomiyaki in Osaka and visit Kyoto, Harajuku and Shibuya perfecture as well oh and Beika perfecture!" Said Vascilina all excited. "Ano...that's great and all I love anime and mangas as well but sorry to interrupt your dreams but Beika cho (Beika perfecture) is only in detective conan 😅" said Emrald. "Eh, maji desu ka? Aww man but I heard of Beika university or something!" Said Vascilina, her eyes glistening, "That's a women's university" answered Emrald. Like this they bonded and ate lunch together, exchanged phone numbers and email addresses then went back to their respective classes; Vascilina was in the class next door.
"Yo! Did you miss me?" Hyungwon teased Emrald as soon as he entered the class. That annoyed her and she said "no, and why would I? Everything was so peaceful until you came you doofus! For your information I was not alone I was with a friend!"
"Really? I thought you don't have any friends here apart from me? Like the girls here don't wanna talk to you cause of me, wait do you have another guy friend? Oh by the way, I enjoyed the lunch, everything was delicious especially the kimbap." Said Hyungwon. "Ya pabo! I was with a female friend, she is an exchange student from Russia and half Japanese, so we kind of became friends." Said Emrald while blushing. "You're that happy to have made a female friend eh? Whoa how cute to even blush for that, that's good, I'm happy for you!" Said Hyungwon with a warm smile.
The last bell rang announcing that the school hours were finally over for the day. "Hyungwon-ah, you can go home right away if you want to, Vascilina is going to come with me to the library." Said Emrald to Hyungwon and he did not look very pleased with this, frowned a little then walked away quietly.
"Lulu! I'm here let's go!" Cried Vascilina from a distance while smiling, waving and running towards Emrald, she tripped on the floor and was about to fall until Hyungwon caught her. She's a naturally clumsy person. Upon seeing this scenario, Emrald's eyes widened with surprise; she also felt a stinging pain in her chest... 'What is this feeling?' she thought 'and why?'
At that moment Emrald couldn't understand what she was feeling, the three of them then ended up going to a cafe instead of the library and had a good time there but Emrald still somehow felt uneasy.
After their tea time at the cafe, both Emrald and Hyungwon accompanied Vascilina to a nearby bookstore. Vascilina and Emrald both got themselves some new releases of the manga they liked and Vascilina's driver came to fetch her there. The walk back to the Kaizen household was quiet. Even after dinner Emrald kept seeing the scene when Hyungwon caught Vascilina. She then had an image of her new friend in her mind and thought that boys would obviously like her since she was kawaii and beautiful and had natural blonde hair.
"What's happening to me?" Emrald asked herself as she curled up in her bed that night.