Chapter 118
The two of them walked with their mouths firmly shut. Myeongjeon let out a deep sigh. Ever since they had been dragged out of the clothing store earlier, they had refused to communicate with the world and maintained an attitude that said, ‘I’m sulking.’
‘How long are they going to keep this up…’
They were old enough to know better, so why on earth were they acting like this? They weren’t little kids… As Myeongjeon thought that, he remembered something he had forgotten. Come to think of it, these children really were children. Not adults, but kids. High-school juniors and seniors. They were naturally at an age when they could act like this.
It was nearly impossible to eliminate quarrels from human relationships. Even married couples who had lived together for decades fought, and even couples who were crazy about each other fought. So how could kids who had known one another for barely a year—and who had met abruptly to form a band rather than as friends—not fight?
Thinking that it had been a miracle they had managed not to fight until now, Myeongjeon scratched his head a little.
‘Come to think of it, that’s true. They’ve followed along on their own from the very beginning… Aside from Seoha, whom I had to rein in a little, they all followed without a single complaint.’
He could guess at the general reason. It was probably because of him.
Though he said he was no longer one, he had once been an ‘iljin’; he had a charismatic appearance and overwhelming skill. If they followed his guidance, their abilities improved rapidly, they achieved results, and they became capable of making good music.
With someone like that around, who would dare rebel or cause discord in the group? They had every reason to tremble, afraid they might be kicked out even if they did nothing.
‘When you look at it that way, maybe butting heads once in a while isn’t so bad.’
In any case, as long as human relationships did not crack too badly, they became stronger when they came back together. Thinking that, Myeongjeon looked at the two with their mouths stubbornly shut.
Their lips were pursed stubbornly. Yet their eyes kept wandering around before occasionally glancing toward the other person. It was the classic attitude of, ‘I want to make up, but I don’t know how. I wish someone would make us reconcile.’ But they did not want to speak first themselves. It would hurt their pride.
The silence that had continued because of that was broken by something Hyein said.
“Is that a clothing store too? Let’s go take a look.”
Even after they entered the clothing store again, the children continued to sit in silence. Myeongjeon wondered whether he should step in and opened his mouth, but Hyein beat him to it.
“My child used to wear nothing but gloomy clothes whenever she went out…”
“Huh?”
Hyein grabbed Myeongjeon by the shoulder and slipped him between the two of them. He was bewildered when she suddenly pushed him forward, but he soon realized what she intended and sighed inwardly. It was nice that she wanted to help them make up, but…
‘Why me?’
“Why don’t you recommend some clothes that would suit Suyeon? Okay?”
“Ah… ah, yes!”
“Got it.”
The intent behind the gesture was obvious. But the children could not refuse the hands guiding them, so they grabbed Myeongjeon’s hand and dragged him from one corner to another, while he had already given up and resigned himself to his fate…
That attempt at reconciliation by Hyein ended in failure. It was not because the two of them were too proud, nor because Hyein’s efforts had been insufficient.
“Why do you keep putting me in stuff like thisss…!”
“It suits…”
“Hey! Clothes just need to fit roughly, okay! Just put on whatever you grab! As neat as possible! Okay! Plain! Why do you keep trying to make patterns out of clothes and add accessories and make everything vintage and whatever, whatever!”
That was Myeongjeon’s outburst after growing sick of serving as a human mannequin for several dozen minutes. While the others faltered, Myeongjeon calmed the energy boiling inside him and looked up at the ceiling.
You could go home right now and open your closet to find it stuffed with clothes, yet people were always buying more clothes while saying, ‘Ah, I have nothing to wear.’ In an age when children in Africa were starving and freezing to death because they had no food, water, or clothes, why did people keep debating whether to buy clothes, throwing away clothes they never wore, buying more, wearing them once or twice, and throwing them away again?
This was why the world was going wrong. People should be saving money and resources and thinking about what to do with them, but instead they only thought about spending everything as long as they had money. How many clothes did anyone possibly need? A few sets of underwear. One or two coats. Work clothes. Going-out clothes. That was enough to live. Why did anyone need so many? Back in my day, even if you wanted to buy clothes, they were hard to get…
* * *
The awkward atmosphere was brought to an end by help from Suyeon’s mother and Suyeon’s explosive outburst. It was still awkward, but at least the mood had improved a little.
After dinner at the hotel, Iseo went outside for a short walk. Past the narrow park stretching out in front of the hotel, there was a sea directly ahead, with boats inexplicably anchored there, and a nightscape visible across the shore. It was a city with a rather romantic atmosphere.
Iseo wandered aimlessly through the park before stopping by a Lawson nearby. Hearing the clerk say, “Welcome~,” she picked up an ice cream and headed straight for the counter. When she offered her transit card, the part-timer spoke in Japanese and gestured for her to tap it on the card reader.
“Thank you~”
So they greeted customers even at convenience stores in Japan. Had they done that in Korea too? Iseo had never paid attention to that before, so she was not even sure whether they did. Thinking about that, she leaned against the parking lot’s guardrail and ate her ice cream.
“Oh, what? Why are you here?”
The voice calling out to Iseo, who had been eating her ice cream without thinking about anything for a while, belonged to Seoha.
After Seoha bought an ice cream, the silence resumed. Within that silence, Iseo wondered what she should say. How should she put it? “I’m sorry” would be too much of a capitulation, wouldn’t it? Seoha unnie had been at fault too. How about “Fashion is subjective”? Or “Even so, flowers are a bit much…”? Would that sound like she was trying to pick a fight?
“Your ice cream’s melting right now.”
“Huh? Oh, shit…”
Seoha’s warning pulled Iseo out of her thoughts. Had she been thinking so deeply that she had not even noticed it melting? Half-melted coffee-colored ice cream had dripped onto her white shirt, leaving a stain that would not come out.
“Wipe it with this.”
“Ugh… thanks.”
What Seoha pulled from her pocket was a crumpled packet of wet tissues. The stain did not come out completely, but the shirt looked better than it would have if she had left it untouched. Iseo finished her ice cream and thought that it had been a shirt she rather liked, but now she would have to throw it away… Then she let out a quiet chuckle.
“Suyeon was right. I’m already thinking about throwing away my clothes.”
“Huh?”
At Seoha’s questioning reply, Iseo simply looked up at the night sky for a moment. They were in a city, so there was no way the stars could shine brightly. But for some reason, Iseo felt as though she had seen Polaris. An unchanging star.
“I’m sorry.”
“…Yeah.”
All they had needed was one short word. They let the conversation end and sank back into silence. People chatted as they walked through the park. Light spilled from the convenience store behind them. A nightscape could be seen in the distance. The shrill chirping of insects filled the air as well.
“Still, I don’t think that pattern was right for you.”
“…What?”
* * *
Iseo and Seoha had somehow grown closer, though Myeongjeon did not know when they had made up or even how they had done it. He was simply glad he would not have to deal with another headache and got on the train.
Their destination was a hotel near Enoshima Beach.
After leaving their luggage and Hyein—who had said she was tired and would rest at the hotel—there, the morning’s schedule was to walk around Enoshima once before going swimming. Despite the considerable crowds, the group was enjoying the place because it did not have the completely urban atmosphere of Tokyo or Yokohama.
“Oh, right! Come to think of it…”
“What?”
Iseo suddenly spoke as though she had remembered something. Iseo often brought up things harmful to him at times like this, so Myeongjeon cautiously asked what it was.
“Enoshima was a pilgrimage site for Bocchi the Rock.”
“…Ah! Right! If we take the Enoden… and get off at Enoshima Station! We can start the pilgrimage from there…”
“Bocchi-d-rock? Is that the cartoon with the songs, or whatever?”
“Why can’t you remember it yet? It’s Bocchi the Rock, Bocchi the Rock.”
At Iseo’s words, Myeongjeon stared blankly at the sea, thinking, Do I really have to remember something like that? It was a piece of media with no particular connection to him beyond its songs, so wasn’t it stranger that he was expected to remember it?
But the world would not leave Myeongjeon alone. More accurately, Iseo would not leave Myeongjeon alone.
“So, I was thinking, let’s cosplay. Since we’re in Enoshima too—the Bocchi the Rock characters.”
“…Huh? Cosplay…? Uh…”
“Sounds fun.”
Two of them reacted quickly to Iseo’s words. Hyuna looked uncertain about the idea of cosplay, while Seoha reacted positively.
“What’s cosplay?”
And Myeongjeon stared at the three of them with an expression that seemed to ask what on earth they were talking about. He still did not seem to have adapted very well to modern civilization.
* * *
Cosplay is a coined term created in Japan by combining Costume and Play. Its origins and meaning were complicated, but in any case, it meant wearing the clothes of a favorite character and acting like that character.
“Why would I do that!”
Naturally, the moment Myeongjeon heard the explanation, he maintained an attitude that said, ‘I couldn’t do something like that even with a knife at my throat.’ He had already spent decades thinking he would finally die, only to wake up and discover that he was now a woman and had to live like one. It was frustrating enough to make him want to die.
And now they wanted him to imitate some cartoon character. Even if dirt got into his eyes—though, technically, dirt had probably already gotten into Myeongjeon’s eyes—this was something he would absolutely never do.
“No, come on, let’s do it~!”
But Myeongjeon’s ironclad resistance gradually crumbled as the three people around him coaxed and cajoled him. Iseo wanted to try something like this while they were in Enoshima, Hyuna had somehow been swept up in the mood and was about to do something she would regret, and Seoha simply thought it sounded fun. Faced with the combined attack of the three, Myeongjeon could not just lie down and give up.
“No, fine. We can do it… Wait, don’t we need the character’s outfit to do something like that? We don’t have any. Then we can’t do it, right? We need the costumes first.”
Myeongjeon was trying to break out of the difficult situation. What he meant was, ‘How can we do it when we don’t have clothes, wigs, or anything else?’ Unless they went to somewhere like Akihabara or whatever, where could they rent anime-related outfits and things? Myeongjeon thought his statement would be extremely effective at getting them out of trouble.
…Until Iseo dug through her phone and rented suspiciously suspicious costumes and wigs from a suspiciously suspicious costume-rental shop.
“No, why am I doing this…”
“It’s fun, isn’t it~? It kind of feels like wearing a yukata or something. Yeonsu. You can’t do this anywhere else. It’s not like we’re going to do it in Korea.”
The outfits had been coordinated with their instruments and character traits in mind. Suyeon wore a pink wig, Iseo a red one, Seoha a blue one, and Hyuna a yellow one, each dressed in her respective costume.
The four (cosplay) high-school girls began walking proudly toward Enoshima Shrine.
…And after taking a few steps, they looked at the people beside them. They were wearing exactly the same outfits: pink, red, blue, and yellow wigs. One of them was even carrying a guitar case. In this hot weather.
“…え? なんで? (Huh? Why?)”
The sound came from the other side. And for some reason, it felt as though they had encountered each other on a narrow one-plank bridge with nowhere to retreat.