The silence was killing me. I wanted to disappear instantly. Immediately, I heard people chattering about things in japanese. I assumed they thought I couldn’t understand.
I walked to the center of the room and looked out at everyone.
“Everyone, please take your seats.” I spoke in japanese.
The kids in the class looked shocked.
I laughed internally and continued.
“My name is Prince Helix. Please address me as Prince-sensei. I’ll be teaching you English this year, so please bear with me.”
“I lived in America for most of my life and came here a few years ago, when I was looking to get a job in Japan.”
“Any questions?”
A girl raised her hand. “Prince-sensei, is your class going to be hard?”
“Only if you make it difficult. It depends on the person.”
“Prince-sensei, do you have a girlfriend?” Another girl asked and the rest of the class laughed lightly.
“No, but that shouldn’t be any of your concern.”
The girls laughed lightly again and the girl who asked the question turned red.
“That’s it for the introductions! Let’s get started!”
The class began and continued on for a while until the bell rang and I had to go to my other classes. Each period passed until lunch came. I introduced myself and gave an intro to English for this level. Lunch came around and I was super excited!
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate kids, but like.. They can be a little too much sometimes.
I found my way to the teacher lounge and sat down on the couch there. I didn’t need to eat, but rest. My energy was depleted.
“Hello, Ōji-sama-sensei.”
“Hello, Sato-sensei.”
“How was your day?”
“My day is tiring so far. My energy is gone.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”
“Hah. I hope so.”
“You will. Anyways, don’t you have lunch?”
“Nope. I don’t usually eat lunch.”
We were speaking in japanese, so if you wanted to know what we were saying, all you had to do was listen.
“You can eat some of mine if you want.” She opened her bento in front of me and offered me some of it.
One of the male teachers who was looking at me previously was not glaring at me. Oh. He must like Sato-sensei.
I see. But it’s not scary enough to keep me from familiarizing myself with her and the rest of the staff.
I declined out of courtesy, but when she insisted, I accepted. It would be considered rude not to.
We sat at one of the tables in the lounge and shared her bento. I noticed that the certain male teacher who was staring at me, sharpened his glare. It felt prickly.
‘Geez. I’m not going to steal her away from you. We’re just eating lunch.’
Lunch ended in a flash and I had to get back to class. Each period started and ended the same until it was time to go home.
I had to stay extra hours after school because I needed to organize some of the papers from the kids.
It took me 2 hours to complete and I could finally go home. The other teachers were still there and looked at me in envy as I left.
Since the apartment was so close and I had no transportation, I walked back.
My door was only a few steps away, but when I reached it and started unlocking it, the door next to mine opened.
Being new in the neighborhood, I thought I should introduce myself.
“Hello, I’m your new neighbor.” I started to say.
A woman walked out and looked at me. She had medium length, brown feathered hair and big black eyes. Her height was 5’4, so I was a mountain compared to her. She was wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants.
“A foreigner?” She was so intrigued.
“Yes ma’am. I just moved from the US.”
“Uwah! That’s so cool! How is it there?”
“It’s crowded, but a lot to explain in one go. I can tell you more at a later time if you like.”
“I’m Takahashi Nozomi, what is your name?”
“I’m Prince Helix.”
“Nice to meet you, Prince-san. Your japanese is really good! Also, I’d love to hear your stories.”
“Thank you and likewise! Shall we schedule a date?”
She blushed slightly before saying, “Sure! Here’s my email. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”
“Thank you. And I you.”
She was taking out the trash, so she proceeded to do so, meanwhile, I was entering my apartment.
I woke up the next morning with a start. I was full of energy, so I decided to go for a quick run before heading to school.
After I finished running, I went back home and washed up to go to school. It was, after all, the second day back.
I left a little earlier than normal students would. Turns out that my neighbor that I met last night leaves at the same time as me.
“Good morning, Takahashi-san!” I greeted her in japanese.
“Good morning! It’s funny that we leave at the same time. What do you do for a living?” She asked, curiously.
“I’m a teacher at Burūsutorīmu Academy.”
“Really? My daughter goes there!”
“Your daughter? That’s wonderful! If she needs help with any of her work, just let me know and I’d be glad to help out!”
“Thank you so much!”
“Of course! What do you do for a living?”
“Oh, I’m just a white collar worker.”
“Oh, I understand. I hope your work goes well today!”
“Many thanks! See you tomorrow!”
I waved goodbye to her and continued to school.
It hadn’t been ten minutes before I received a notification from Takahashi-san.
It read [Let’s meet up at this park on Saturday, at 10:00.]
I wrote back, [Sure thing. See you then!]
Like yesterday, there was a quick meeting for the teachers while the kids were at assembly. When it ended, I went to my room and found my first class of the day.
The girls in the class all looked at me while I started my lesson.
“So, we all know the alphabet in English, right? Does anyone want to demonstrate for the class?”
A few people raised their hands. I picked someone with their hand up in the middle of the classroom.
“Actually, instead of saying it, can you write it as well?”
“Yes!” The student was eccentric as he walked up to the black board and wrote each letter of the alphabet.
“Good job! Now let’s continue with the lesson.”
“As you may know, just like characters for japanese, English has vowels too. The vowels are A, pronounced ‘ay’, E, pronounced ‘ee’, I, pronounced ‘eye or ii’ and U, pronounced ‘yuu’.”
Some nodded their heads, others were writing it down, and few were not paying attention.
“Now, as you also may know, English is one of the hardest, if not, the most difficult language to master. Does anyone know why?”
Some people raised their hands, again, it was the same people. I decided to pick someone who wasn’t paying attention to the class.
“Back corner, looking out the window, Ryoko-san, was it? Please answer the question.”
Ryoko-san had pitch black hair which was kept in a bun and wore her uniform neatly. She looked at me with a dull gaze and answered my question. “Because the way you use words with different sentences and tenses is challenging. Not only that, but pronunciations sounding the same with totally different meanings are in play as well.”
“Correct!” I looked overjoyed on the outside, but inside, I was a little agitated. ‘Damnit, you cheeky brat. Pay attention!’ Internally, I was clenching my fist and cursing her, but in the end, the answer was correct, so I had no right to complain.
“What Ryoko-san said was correct. Adding onto this, does anyone know what having two words pronounced the same and having different meanings is called?”
This time, no one raised their hands.
“Since no one knows, I’ll explain.”
“Homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. For example, you have <Sun and son>. They sound the same, but are spelled like this.”
The chalk was in my hand and I spelled the two words I used as an example.
“<Sun> is the sun in the sky, and <Son> is a child. But in English, they sound exactly the same! Usually when talking to someone, they’ll know the difference between the words naturally because of the context clues in the topic you were talking about.”
Someone raised their hand.
“Yes?”
“What are context clues?” A girl with short hair and glasses asked.
“<Good question!>” I spoke this in English.
“<Context clues are small and subtle hints you can hear, see, and read in a sentence to help gain an understanding of words that you don’t know.>”
The class looked at me blankly.
“Uh, Ōji-sama-sensei, you spoke in English, so I couldn’t understand most of what you were saying.” Someone from the front row pointed out.
“My bad. Wait, Ōji-sama-sensei?”
Some of the girls giggled.
“Ah, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I'll explain again in japanese. My apologies. I recently came here from the US, so it tends to slip out sometimes.”
The class was chattering after hearing me admit my mistake.
“Okay, quiet down. Let’s continue.”
The day went by very slowly, but the good thing was that I said the same lesson the whole day and didn’t need to change anything up.
It was at the end of school and some teachers were helping their students with their subjects. I had finished my work early again because no papers needed to be turned in.
“Thank you for your hard work. I’ll see everyone tomorrow!”
“Bye bye!” Some teachers waved at me and then continued with their work.
I reached my apartment and decided to go out for a run. I thought I should exercise at night because I had to wake up really early to get to school.
With a black hoodie, joggers, and some running shoes, I left again and started my workout.
It was fun running, especially in japan because there were so many different paths I could take. The streets were always clean, and it amazed me no matter how many times I saw them.
Half an hour later, I arrived back in front of the apartment complex. There was a girl going up the stairs with a bag in her hand. She had a Burūsutorīmu uniform on and looked like she was in the year I taught English in.
Since I needed to wash up, I decided to go in as well. There was an elevator, and I was going to get on it right after the girl, but she was careful. The girl looked back at me after she saw me following her into the building.
Let’s be honest, she’s being way too vigilant. I’m only wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, black shoes, and black pants. Nothing to be afraid of….. Or not.
The realization hit me, so I decided to take the stairs instead.
It seemed like a good workout, so I timed myself to see how long it would take me to get up to the 10th floor.
‘One, two.. GO!’ I shouted in my mind, started the time, and then ran up the stairs. I made sure to not make so much noise that the residents would hear me.
In no time, I reached my door and stopped the stopwatch. “One minute and 12 seconds..” I muttered to myself while panting quietly.
I heard a noise next to me and looked to my left. There the girl was! She was just staring at me. There was no other voice for me but to look back at her.
“Stop following me.”
“??” I was dumbfounded. Why would I follow her? A little kid like this?
“I don’t know what you me--”
“Stop joking around. You followed me from the outside of this apartment.”
“I liv--” I tried to state my case, but she wouldn’t stop bombarding me.
“Who do you think you are? I’m going to call the police.” She pulled out her phone and dialed 110. But just before she could hit the call button, the front door opened to Takahashi-san’ residence and she was startled.
“Honey, you’re home!!!” Takahashi-san’s voice sounded from inside the apartment.
“Mom, I’m being stalked. This man followed me here.” She pointed directly at me.
As someone from the US, I didn’t find it rude because it’s normal there, but in Japan, pointing was disrespectful.
“Honey, stop pointing, it’s rude!” Takahashi-san came out of the door and looked at who her daughter was pointing at.
She waved to me and I returned the gesture. “Hello, Prince-san. Lovely to see you again.”
The daughter of Takahashi was stupefied to see her mother being friendly to the person who was “stalking” her.
“Hello Takahashi-san. I was just coming back from my jog.”
“Oh, that’s great! We shouldn’t talk out here. Come inside please.”
“With all due respect, I must wash myself first before entering your humble home.”
“Of course! Just ring the bell when you’re ready. Would you like to have dinner with us as well?”
“That would be great. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“Sure thing.”
She closed the door to her apartment and I entered mine.
I showered and washed up for 10 minutes before changing into some comfortable clothes. They were loose, yet you could see my defined pectoral muscles. The rest of the black shirt was hanging loosely. I also wore another pair of joggers.
When I finished getting ready, I put on my outside slides and went next door. The bell rang and Takahashi-san opened it for me and welcomed me inside.
I walked in and took off my shoes in the genkan, which was that entryway where all the shoes are.
When I walked into the living room, I sat on a mat on the floor and waited for Takahashi-san. We all sat down and stared at each other.
The silence was tense, so I decided to break it. “So, to clear up the misunderstanding from earlier, I’ll explain.”
“I went out for a jog and came back, seeing your daughter, then decided to go back to my room, since I had finished my workout. I do admit that my hood shouldn’t have been on and my steps shouldn’t have been so silent, but it’s how I wear my clothes and walk.”
“I tried to use the stairs instead of the elevator to fix your daughter’s misunderstanding, but it made it worse.”
“When I arrived at my door, she accused me of stalking her, and before I could properly explain without being cut off, you came out.”
“Oh, so that’s what happened” Takahashi-san now understood everything because all of the dots connected.
“Oh, I didn’t introduce my daughter! This is Takahashi Aiko.” The girl’s mother gestured to her and she bowed.
“Nice to meet you.” Aiko said.
“Likewise. I’m Prince Helix.” I replied.
“So, you’re from the US. Let’s hear your stories over dinner, shall we?”
“That would be fun!” Aiko had a burst of energy when she heard that I’d be sharing some of my stories.
Nozomi started cooking and Aiko helped her.
Looking around the house, there were family pictures spread out. There, I saw Aiko, Nozomi, and a man who I had never met.
Seeing as they had family pictures around the house with who I assume is the father, I assume, I had drawn a conclusion that he died. Nozomi also kept her wedding ring on her ring finger which convinced me more.
“Do you mind if I ask you guys a personal question?” I asked.
“If we can ask you one in return.” Nozomi replied with her hair tied up and an apron on.
“That sounds fair. Then, what happened to your husband?”
“That’s..”
Damn straight for the jugular huh
Helix is funny