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Ichika hummed as she placed down her watering can behind the counter and took in the view of her flowers uniformly arranged on her flower shop wall. She felt her shoulders relax as she gazed at the assortment of colors and shapes that she worked so hard to arrange. Right above it was a framed letter from her parents wishing her luck in her flower shop business.
But not a lot of people would be able to read it as it was in Japanese.
Ichika had grown up in America ever since her parents moved here from Japan when she was just two. And ever since then, she's been living in New York City for twenty years.
As much as she loves this place, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if she had grown up in Japan instead. What would her friends be like? What would it be like to go to school in a uniform? Ichika closed her eyes and leaned her head on her hand as she listened to the American pop music that faintly played in the speakers. It had played Miku songs before but after receiving a complaint about how unprofessional it was, Ichika quickly ran it right back.
It was a huge shame because Miku was what brought her comfort when she was little.
Ever since she was a child, she had always found herself begging her dad to play Miku songs that she just so happened to hear on the internet and occasionally even borrows the guitar so she can strum the covers herself.
Ichika stole a glance to the side where she found the very same guitar hooked onto the wall. A gift from her dad when she moved out.
Back then her parents would speak to her in Japanese at home and Ichika would often have spent hours helping them sort out documents as they were in English. To say that it was draining her was an understatement.
Luckily, they now were able to grasp enough English so they could live on their own, which allowed Ichika to move out without any worries.
But she found that her Japanese was slipping away as a result. It wouldn't be long until she had become fully 'Americanized' as the other Asian kids said back when she was at school. Where all that would be left of her Japanese identity would just be her looks...
The ringing from the bell of the front entrance snapped Ichika out of her thoughts and in came a tall Asian woman who was occupied with a call on her phone. She had shoulder length brown hair with red tips and a braid on the side. The leather jacket that draped over her shoulders swayed behind her as she walked. Ichika nearly fell down behind the cashier counter at the sight of her.
"And you made sure that you got the delivery in good condition?" Ichika heard the woman say. Her eyes widened.
The woman was speaking in Japanese.
It's a rare case for Ichika to run across someone else who speaks Japanese in the wild. But this one seemed a bit different. The woman's accent was thick, as if she had lived in Japan all her life. Ichika gulped but she couldn’t stop herself from listening in.
"Okay. I'll meet you at the venue later. We'll discuss the details there." The woman hung up and looked up at the flowers. Her calm and collected demeanor suddenly morphed into uneasiness and discomfort.
It was such a dramatic change that Ichika wondered if she was even looking at the same woman. She watched as the woman took up one of the flower tags and squinted at it.
Ichika noticed the woman grimacing as she read them. The flower tags had the meaning of the respective flowers written on them. Something that Ichika had felt the need to handwrite herself. She fiddled with her ballpoint pen nervously. Is there something wrong with them?
"Hopeless..." Ichika heard her mutter in Japanese. The woman walked over to the other flowers and tried to read the other tags but based on how furrowed her eyebrows were, Ichika guessed that she wasn't having much luck.
Could it be that this woman doesn't understand English that well?
Finally, the woman looked up and started to walk up towards the cashier counter. Ichika flinched.
"U-uhm... do you..." the woman started to stutter in English. She stared down at her hands, twiddling them as she tried to find the right words. "Flowers... any good...?"
It was so cute that Ichika's heart almost exploded. She cleared her throat. No, this isn't the time for that. What she saw in front of her reminded her so much of her mom and dad a couple of years ago. Her eyebrows crinkled as she watched the woman looking around the store uncomfortably as she waited for Ichika's answer. It also reminded her a lot of herself whenever her mom dragged her around Japanese stores.
"Um..." Ichika started to say in Japanese. She scratched her cheek and let out a nervous chuckle. "Japanese works for me if that is better for you."
The woman immediately lit up. What was now a sulking dog now became a happy puppy right in front of the flower shop owner. "R-really!?" she exclaimed in Japanese.
Ichika needed time to recover from how cute that was. She coughed. "Uh yeah... though to be warned, I'm not the best at it. So it would be nice if you could talk a bit slower than usual..." Her cheeks were burning from embarrassment.
The woman looked like she didn't mind Ichika's warning and started chatting happily, but she was mindful to speak a bit slower compared to how she spoke on the phone earlier. "That's fine! As long as I don't have to speak my broken English," she laughed. She leaned on the counter and sighed. "I can't begin to tell you how exhausting it is. My translator's flight has been delayed so he wouldn't be here until tonight. Google translate can only help so much. You can basically imagine the mishap it's causing right now..."
"Really? So you're on a business trip right now?" Ichika clicked on her pen nervously, silently thanking the internet that her Japanese was still holding well enough to understand the woman.
The woman nodded and pulled out a business card. "I'm actually the manager of this music group called Nightcord. They're going on a tour right now."
Ichika nearly fell behind the counter a second time. "Wait THE Nightcord!?!?"
The woman laughed at Ichika's excitement. "You must be a big fan then."
Ichika gaped at the card. It took her a bit to read it as it was in fancy Japanese characters but she was able to make out ‘Mochizuki Honami’. She clenched the card in her hand. Surnames are the other way around in Japan, right? So, the woman in front of her should be Honami? Ichika decided to push that thought away for later and let Honami introduce herself first. It’ll be embarrassing if she were to get it wrong…
Ichika furrowed her eyebrows and continued to examine the card. Under the name, was the same glassy logo of Nightcord that Ichika found herself listening to every night. It all started with a random YouTube autoplay while she was looking through vocaloid producers and she immediately got sucked in.
She nearly forgot that the group was going in her area! Their music has really helped her during her tough times during her school days. It was a shame that she couldn't get a ticket because of the high demand. Ichika shook away the thought. "Uh yeah! They're practically my favorite group!"
The manager, Honami, smiled at her. "That's good to hear. It's amazing that so many people in America can enjoy songs from Japan even though it's in a different language. Music really has no language barriers..."
Ichika gulped. The card started to fold under her hand. "So um... would you be able to send K and the others my best regards?"
"Of course!" Honami hummed. She leaned over the counter towards Ichika which made the shop owner stiffen. "I’ll let them know it’s from Ichika-san…?" she said. Her eyes then widened. "Oh wait! I forgot that the surnames are the other way around here!" She quickly bowed in apology. "I'm sorry, Hoshino-san!"
Ichika looked down at the nametag that was clipped on her shirt. "No no! It's fine! You don't need to be so formal! Just Ichika is fine!" Ichika tried to wave it off but her hands were shaking. It was the first time someone used honorifics on her name.
Honami's frown morphed into a smile. "Oh alright then. How about Ichika-chan?"
Ichika blushed from the way her name sounded coming from Honami's mouth. "Y-yeah... that works..." she stammered.
"Alright then!" Honami drummed her fingers on the counter. "Then you can just call me Honami."
"H-Honami..." Ichika repeated. So she was right the first time… The use of honorifics was still a bit foreign so she couldn't bring herself to use it. Right... foreign... Ichika found her shoulders dropping.
Honami's smile fell at Ichika's sudden change in mood. "What's wrong?"
"Um..." Ichika looked down and twirled the pen in her hand. "What was it like living in Japan?"
Honami didn't immediately answer her question and instead just stared at her.
"A-ah! That was a weird question wasn't it?" Ichika hung her head low as she scratched it. "It's just that I was born over there but moved here before I could make any proper memories..." she muttered.
Honami said nothing again and Ichika looked up to find her gripping the side of the counter tightly.
Ichika watched in shock as she noticed that the secretary started to tremble slightly. Her breathing also started to pick up. "...Honami?"
Honami snapped up. "O-oh! Sorry! You asked about what it's like living in Japan, right?" She looked away and fiddled with her necklace. "It's nothing really special. There was a nice park near my house where two of my... friends used to play when I was little. And there are a ton of nice shops that I like to go to for apple pie..."
Ichika blinked. "Apple pie?"
Honami blinked and started to blush once she realized what she revealed. Her troubling atmosphere was suddenly gone. "Uh... yeah..." She waved her hands as she tried to change the subject. "It's not like I go there all the time or anything! I sometimes buy them for my friends..."
Ichika grinned. "Uh huh..."
Honami's blush deepened. "I-it's true!! I buy them for Yoi- K and the others..."
Ichika just hummed in response, twirling her pen again. "Go on..."
"You-" Honami covered her face in embarrassment. "A-anyway... what is it like living in America?"
---
The pair ended up talking for hours. They exchanged stories on what it was like living in their respective country. Their topics of course included their careers. Ichika opened up her shop because of her love for flowers and she would often find herself spending days scrolling through the web to look up their meanings. While Honami found herself in a job as a manager for Nightcord by first starting out working as a housekeeper for K when she was in highschool. When Nightcord blew up to the mainstream, it felt right for her to step up and help the group organize their schedules.
Sometimes, Honami would bring up how much she misses her dog back in Japan. Walking her dog in the mornings were one of her favorite past times. But the dog was getting pretty old and she wasn't able take him on walks as often anymore.
Although they intitially started the conversation to learn about Japan and America, it drifted more towards learning more about each other instead. If they had noticed it, they made no effort to get it back on track.
What was surprising however, was the small amount of Japanese vocabulary words that Ichika wasn't able to catch during their conversation. But even so, she was able to navigate through them smoothly.
Could it be that Honami was conscious of choosing simpler words? Or maybe Ichika isn't as far gone as she thought...
"Um... excuse me, miss?" someone said in English.
Both Ichika and Honami jumped at the voice. Behind the secretary was a man carrying a bouquet of flowers.
"Are you busy? I want to buy these flowers." he said, holding out the flowers to Ichika.
Ichika cleared her throat and began to speak in English. "Right! My apologies. I'll help you right away." She took the bouquet and began typing out the details on the cash register. But it was proven difficult once she noticed that Honami was staring right at her as she worked.
"That'll be $15.40, sir." Ichika said.
The man pulled out his wallet and gave Ichika a $20 dollar bill. Ichika opened her drawer and took out $4. Then she counted 6 dimes and dropped the coins one by one into his palm. The clatter of the change filled the quiet atmosphere. A receipt printed out and she handed both the bouquet and the slip of paper to the customer. "Have a good day!" Ichika waved.
The man nodded politely and walked out of the store. Ichika let out a breath and squirmed uncomfortably under Honami's gaze.
"Um Honami..." Ichika finally mumbled in Japanese. "Just how long are you planning on staring?"
Honami tensed up at Ichika's statement and finally realized what she was doing. "Ack! Sorry!" She quickly turned away, suddenly interested in looking at the flowers. Her ears were as red as the tips of her hair. "It's just that you felt completely different when you spoke English just then. It's impressive..."
Ichika fiddled with the cash register's buttons. "It's nothing special..."
"Of course it is! To be able to speak in both English and Japanese so well... it's amazing..." Honami turned back. "I've taken English during school. It's easy enough on paper but actually putting in practice is just impossible. Especially with my accent..."
Did she say that Ichika's Japanese was good? Ichika's face flushed. I-is that true? She had never heard an actual Japanese person say that to her before. It was always her family members nagging at her that her Japanese vocabulary was comparable to a 1st grader's.
Honami suddenly slammed on the counter which made Ichika jump again. "I-I totally forgot!" the secretary exclaimed. "I was supposed to buy flowers!!"
Oh. Ichika totally forgot about that as well.
Honami bowed her head. "I'm sorry for wasting your time! You probably had other duties to attend to."
Ichika waved it off. "It's fine. Today's a pretty slow day. Besides, it was fun to learn about our homeland..." She rested her hand on the counter. "Anyway, what do you have in mind to order?"
Honami fiddled with her necklace. "T-that's why I originally came to you in the first place. I want to ask for your recommendation that would suit the members of Nightcord. I want to get them flowers before their show tonight..."
Ichika nodded. "Alright I can do that. Can you describe them for me?"
"Huh? But I thought you were a fan of them?"
"Well, I'm a fan of their public image. But I have no idea what they're like behind the scenes. If it's a gift from you, it should fit how you see them." Ichika pulled out her notepad and clicked her pen.
Honami tapped on the counter in thought. "That makes sense hm..." Her eyes scanned the store. "Yoi- K is such a kind and gentle person. She started the group so she could save people through her music. Though... she seems to have trouble taking care of herself in the process."
Ichika tapped on her notepad with her pen. She left the counter and began walking towards the array of flowers. "Go on."
"Yuki was the drive for the group to keep going. I actually went to school with her back in the day and she was the type of person everybody looked up to. At first she wanted to be a doctor and with her perfect grades, everybody thought she would. But in the end she chose this musical path instead. And to me, she seems way happier with that decision."
Ichika hummed as she sifted through the flowers as Honami continued to talk.
"Enanan is such a passionate artist. Time and time again, she was so close to giving up because she felt like the weakest link in the group. But she couldn't let go of her love for art and continued painting anyway."
Learning all these hidden details about the members of her favorite music group made Ichika start to appreciate them even more. In just this moment, they weren't untouchable figures that Ichika looked up to, but just normal human beings receiving a gift from their good friend. Although Honami never mentioned them, Ichika could tell that the group members had their own troubles laced between Honami's words.
"And Amia..." Honami muttered, "...She's always passionate about fashion and design. She would frequently drag the group out to the mall just so they could try out some outfits. She is actually the one who coordinated the outfits for their shows." Honami let out a light chuckle, "Despite that they're only shown as shadows on stage."
"Alright. I think I got it." Ichika closed her notepad and started to pick one flower for each group member. "Crocuses, Japanese rowan flowers, mountain laurels, and balsams..." she mumbled in English. Ichika held the flowers out for Honami to see. "What do you think about these?"
Honami blinked at Ichika before looking down at the flowers and lightly gasped at the assortment of colors shown before her. "They're perfect!"
"Okay, then I'll start preparing a bouquet for you." Ichika turned back towards the flowers. "What size do you want?"
"A large one if that's okay." Honami leaned against the counter. “O-oh and um can you write down the meanings of the flowers for me? I noticed that you’ve written them on the tags but…” She played with her fingers awkwardly. “You know…”
“A-ah! S-sure…” Ichika awkwardly shuffled towards the counter. She clicked her pen and tore a clean sheet from her notepad. “It might not be entirely accurate… I’m not the best at writing…”
Honami waved it off and gave Ichika a reassuring smile. “That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be able to make it out.”
Ichika gulped as she hastily scribbled out the Japanese characters, silently thanking her mom over and over for forcing her to practice the kanji back then despite how tortuous it was. Still, the characters were shaky and the girl held a huge doubt that the manager would be able to read it. She was sure that the grammar was all clunky as well. Honami didn’t seem to notice her discomfort as she was watching Ichika intently. Finally, Ichika managed to fix up a bouquet under her gaze and slipped the paper inside. "$21.34"
Honami handed Ichika the cash and took the bouquet in her hands. "Thanks, Ichika-chan."
"No problem." Ichika drummed her hands on the cash register buttons, a bit disappointed about the departure. "Have a good day..."
Honami didn't leave and instead stared at Ichika. "Hey, are you available later today?"
Ichika stiffened. "What do you mean?"
Honami looked down and fiddled with the flowers. "It would be nice to have a translator at the venue to help me..." She looked up and waved her hands. "I-I'll pay you of course!!"
Ichika's arm fell on the cash register, making a large ring and blasting it across the store.
Honami winced at the noise. "Is that a no then?"
"No! It's just that I don't know how I could be that much help..." Ichika adjusted the cash register to the proper position. "My Japanese isn't the best..."
Honami shook her head. "You're not giving yourself enough credit. The level you're showing right now is more than enough to help me. Granted, it's probably not enough when I have to negotiate about the partnerships with the other companies but I can get them to push that back until my translator comes." She looked up at Ichika who was still uneasy. "Right now, I just need to communicate about the events at the venue. I think you'll be able to handle it."
"I don't know-"
"I'll let you have a VIP seat at the Nightcord concert free of charge?"
"I'll consider it."
Honami laughed and Ichika turned red for the millionth time. "I-I was gonna accept anyway!" Ichika quickly said as she kicked her heel and looked away. "Maybe..."
After she said that, Ichika heard a soft whisper that she almost didn't catch.
"Kawaii..."
Ichika zipped her head back towards the secretary's direction and Honami started to have a coughing fit.
"A-anyway!!" Honami stammered. "I enjoyed talking to you a lot! It was such a huge relief to find somebody who also speaks Japanese out here." She quickly pulled out another business card and scribbled something on it before shoving it towards Ichika. "I’ve written the details here. Just hand this over to the official at the venue and they'll take you to me."
Ichika could barely take a glance at the card before noticing that Honami had already disappeared to the exit. "I'll see you later?" the manager said with a shy smile.
The bell on top of the door rang as she opened it and Ichika watched as the flustered brunette sped away with her hand covering her mouth. She leaned onto the counter and stared at Honami's back as she vanishes in the crowd. The sound of the bell was still ringing in her head as she clutched the business card between her fingers.
Maybe she should prepare a bouquet of gerberas, chocolate cosmos, and multiflora roses when she comes to the venue...
It's a good thing that flowers don't have a language barrier either.