Behind Watanabe

Names.

Days after the horror incident, the relationship between Haruto and Junkyu had been getting better, although it was undeniable that Haruto remained the same person: cold and sometimes indifferent. However, at least Junkyu understood what Haruto needed and didn't act careless to him anymore. Despite Haruto's often annoying responses, Junkyu tried to involved Haruto in his daily life, whether it was just to chat, eat together, or share feelings.

Junkyu no longer recalled the horror events that time and slowly began to get used to the tense atmosphere at Watanabe's house. Sometimes he still heared the strong wind from outside even though all the windows were closed, or footsteps in front of his room when everyone was already asleep. As long as Junkyu still could bear the creep, he would stay on the ground floor and forget everything until he fall asleep, but when everything was getting over the line, Junkyu would knock on Haruto's room and stay there. Sometimes Junkyu would spend a few hours then go back to his own room, and the other times he wouldn't.

It was a warm afternoon at home, Mr and Mrs Watanabe were still not home and as usual their house would be lonely. The only ones who could liven up the house are Hanami and Junkyu, while Haruto was busy in his room, no one knew what he is doing.

Hanami was an ordinary girl just like the others, despite her education being too independent and having no friends outside their own house. One of the goals that Junkyu wanted to achieve while being a caretaker for Hanami was to give the impression of a beautiful and precious childhood, therefore Junkyu used his energy and time wisely to provide the widest possible knowledge to Hanami.

But for that afternoon, Hanami invited Junkyu to play with dolls with him. Of course, Junkyu couldn't help it. The two of them sat on the carpet in the living room and played tea time with some of Hanami's plastic, colourful cups. Several dolls had seated between Hanami and Junyku, surrounding the table.

"What do you want to order, Mr. Kim Junkyu?" Hanami came like a waitress ready to take orders.

"Hmmm, looks like I want to order strawberry tea and cheesecake." Junkyu answered cheerfully.

"Oh, sorry... we don't have strawberry tea anymore. How about orange tea? The tea is really good!"

"Waaa... that sounds delicious. All right, then I'll order some orange tea and cheesecake." Junkyu just played along.

"Okay, wait a minute, okay! The order is coming soon."

Like other activities they were used to playing, mostly using imagination because both Hanami and Haruto were always on computer and the internet when they were having lesson. Junkyu wanted to avoid using the internet too much whenever he was with Hanami, even though the internet was unavoidable in the modern era.

A few moments later, Hanami returned to the table in the living room and brought some new cups and placed them in front of Junkyu and his dolls. "This is for Mr. Kim Junkyu, and this one is for Choi Hyunsuk, Hwang Yeji, Lee Seo..."

"Thank you, Hanami." Junkyu then pretended to take a sip of tea from a plastic cup as an appreciation for the role played by Hanami. "Mmm, how delicious!"

"Mr. Choi Hyunsuk, how does your drink taste?" Then Hanami asked one of the dolls among them.

For a moment, Junkyu was stunned by Hanami who was so fluent in Korean and so well behaved, but after that, he realized something simultaneously strange and not. The names Hanami just mentioned sounded familiar, but somehow also foreign. Still, it was not the first time Junkyu heard the names, or at least he had encountered them somewhere.

Didn't want to get carried by sole curiosity, Junkyu put his thought aside and focused on playing with Hanami. Evetually, he helped Hanami tidying up her stuff before the parents came home. Then the evening ran just like the usual, all of them together would have dinner and talk about the day. Mrs Watanabe and Hanami would talk the most on the table, meanwhile the others would listen, but at least Mr Watanabe would laugh and give hilarious comments, unlike Haruto who seemed to be uninterested in making conversation.