Chapter 54: Perspective
THIS CHAPTER IS AN EXTRA
When Tatsuya first met Won, he was amused by the fact that Atsushi managed to make a friend out of her.
The girl was basically Atsushi's opposite in some ways. The obvious one was their height differences, and another one would be how Won was a bit skittish and twitchy whereas Atsushi was slow-paced and relaxed. There was always something that Won had to worry about, and Atsushi generally didn't care about anything. He and the other regulars made plenty of observations whenever the two first-years interacted, and they were all in silent agreement that, while they were ill-matched, they weren't so bad together.
Liu and Fukui were closest to Won, however, so they judged what they saw through her. Tatsuya, on the other hand, was the closest to Atsushi and saw what the others hadn't. Contrary to popular belief, the basketball's regular center wasn't so oblivious to Won's shortcomings and concerns.
Compared to the beginning of the year, everything regarding Atsushi changed ever since he met the Korean transfer. When she ate by herself, having no friends to talk to? Atsushi stopped eating lunch with Tatsuya and gone to accompany her. When judgmental eyes were cast on her for being a foreigner? Atsushi would place his hand on her, trying to convey that she had someone to back her up whenever she needed it.
Won herself never noticed these endeavors and Atsushi wasn't good at relaying his intentions. Honestly, it did appear as though the tall boy was picking on her. It nearly made Tatsuya laugh when Atsushi tried to divert Won's attention from the guys who were making verbal jabs at her during summer by making her entertain his needs. He saw the exasperation surfacing the girl's face when Atsushi told her to open his water bottle, and he mentally shook his head at his friend's antics.
It was intriguing enough to see Atsushi and Won together. While it may had been him jumping to conclusions about Atsushi liking Won romantically before, there were speculations that it could be true now.
Unexpectedly, the girl managed to worm her way into their hearts too. Well, that was one way of putting it. Liu sympathized Won's experience as a foreigner in another land and was her former tutor; as Tatsuya saw it, the older boy still had lingering obligations towards her that developed into parental care. Despite that fact, the Chinese student was disdainful of her foibles.
Fukui was difficult to read. Initially, Tatsuya was lead to believe that the vice-captain only thought condescendingly of Won and therefore teased her. But that apparently wasn't the case. Fukui displayed enough hints to ensure that he genuinely liked the girl. Perhaps, rather than looking down at her, he was curious about her—particularly her crush on Atsushi. But what were his intentions towards her? Did he care about her the way Liu did or was he merely keeping up a pretense?
As for Tatsuya himself, he found Won to be charming in her own timid way. True, he probably wasn't as close to her as the two upperclassmen were and didn't spend as much time with her as Atsushi did, but she grew on him. She was his friend.
Kazunari's first impression of Won was a sad girl who wanted to recover her relationship with Midorima after their fallout. He didn't know anything more than Won being Midorima's penpal and they being only friends, but, well, who knew for certain? For the sake of getting Midorima back into his game and to get a good laugh at Midorima and Won's flustered reunion, Kazunari did what he could on the day when Won would be visiting Tokyo.
He didn't get the last laugh, though.
Kazunari didn't hold much expectations of what Won would be like. He did recall the girl having accented Japanese and a startled demeanor, but that didn't give him much of an indication as to what her personality was. She was a Korean transfer and did nearly get hit by a car. Though, admittedly, he did imagine her being polite, shy, and cute based off of how she was when they conversed on the phone. And she was Korean, and he liked kimchi, which was Korean, so yeah, he might like her off the bat. But then he met her in person and he was wrong.
His day went from bad to worse. He failed to get Midorima out of the house—a blunder on his part. Feeling guilty for making Won travel a long way to get to Tokyo, he thought he could take her out on a date as compensation. However, when he broke the news to the girl, he mentally crossed out the date plan from his list.
At first, she looked as though she was trying to murder him with her eyes, but then she suddenly squatted and released a wail. She stood back up, calming herself down, and then broke into tears. It was incredibly uncomfortable what with people passing by and shooting them odd looks. And it wasn't like Kazunari could hop onto his bike and abandon the crying girl.
He actually considered doing so after watching her answer her phone and scream at the person who she was talking to before hanging up. Especially when she spat out a wad of snot, which was absolutely disgusting. This reminded him of the time when his cousin was dumped by her boyfriend (who she had dated for eight years) and behaved rather hysterically. He attempted to be empathetic and nice about Won's situation, but the girl just had to make things harder by being in denial by saying that her crying was due to allergies.
Good grief. She was so weird.
His impression of her didn't so much improve when he met her on the first day of the winter season tournament.
If Yui had to describe her friends in a few words, she would say that Meiko was friendly and kind, Aya shy and curious, and Haruko cheerful and outgoing. If she had to describe herself the same way, she would say that she was just quiet and indifferent.
One of the reasons why she was friends with Haruko ever since Haruko transferred into her elementary school from Fukushima was because their personalities balanced each other out. Then they met Meiko and Aya in high school, and they all just clicked.
And then there was Won Soo-Jin, the foreign exchange student from South Korea. She was silent in a way that Yui was familiar with, but the girl kept to herself and seldom talked to anyone. Yui chalked it up to be Won being nervous. Residing in a different country and having to adapt to a different culture would be difficult. But then she would later see Won running around the school doing errands and hanging out with Murasakibara of all people. They were quite the pair—two recluses who completely differed in terms of height.
One day, the Korean had certainly made quite the impression on the students when she stabbed Murasakibara's hand with a pencil. Yui didn't witness how it went on since she sat up front, but Meiko sat in the back row. Meiko said that, from the corner of her eye, she saw Murasakibara grabbing Won's head, which startled her badly. Badly indeed since she stabbed him.
Murasakibara did seem particularly handsy with Won. It seemed like he was bullying her. Meiko considered letting Won into their circle, and Aya greeted the idea with open arms since she liked all things Korean. Before Meiko could make her move, Won was suddenly swept away by the basketball team. Next thing they knew, Won was officially friends with them. Like, how did she go from being bullied to stabbing to making friends with the freaking basketball team? Sure, Murasakibara was in the team, but wasn't he the one who made Won his personal gopher?
Yui didn't dwell on it too much, though. The Korean transfer was part of the backdrop in her life—existing, but not involved. But then, in one abrupt moment, she was. When Meiko first brought Won over to eat with them, when Yui coincidentally met Won on the train, when Aya had questions that only the resident Korean could answer to, when Haruko was beginning to find Won to be a funny person.
Yui didn't see Won funny, however. If she had to describe Won in a few words, she would say that Won was awkward, reserved, and weird. She couldn't place her finger as to why the girl was weird—Yui just knew that she was.
Won wasn't their friend, to be frank. As rude as it was to say, Won was just someone who they occasionally invited over to eat with. They would ask her questions, and she would respond in disjointed Japanese. She would then ask them something, and they would respond. And so on and so on. Won, now familiar with them, was more relaxed in their company than she was in the beginning, but she was still awkward nonetheless.
Won wasn't so bad to be around with, though. If she was, they wouldn't continue eating lunch with her, after all. She told interesting stories about her days (which were becoming more and more peculiar) and she was an attentive listener (something that Haruko appreciated). She even entertained Aya's desire of Korean conversations.
Won wasn't their friend—or, at least, Yui didn't view her as such. But Won wasn't bad to be around with at all.
AN 1: Basically, Himuro sees Won as a shy underclassman, Takao sees Won as a weirdo who hates him (yet doesn't question how Midorima could remain friends with her), and Yui sees Won for who she truly is.
AN 2: Someone asked for a "connection tree," which inspired me to write this. Thank you, Devilish-S. I couldn't write about Midorima and Murasakibara's perspectives, however, since it would be giving away the surprise (if you know what I mean).
AN 3: When Himuro says that Soo-Jin had "wormed into their hearts," he's buttering things up (because he finds her endearing). Soo-Jin, of course, hasn't magically made the boys fall for her, whether platonically or romantically. Generally, the Yosen basketball regulars do like her as friends would, but are indifferent as well because they aren't best friends. Actually, describing them to be somewhere along the lines of friends and acquaintances would be the most fitting. Yes, I am trying to avoid the "every guy gets along and then wants to marry the girl" cliché, which is probably a definite route seeing how Takao's relationship with her is a prime example. But Murasakibara's relationship with Soo-Jin is different because, well, you know.
AN 4: Holy cow, wolf, holy cow. That was adorable.
