Foreword: What happens when two boys of different nationalities lived together? Well, they get a lot of obstacles thrown in their way, chief of which is language. How does Elliot and Ichika deal with this hurdle? Read and find out, as I like to say here.

Chapter 2: Language barriers

About a few months after Elliot was adopted...

Elliot squinted his eyes in concentration, his mind working hard on trying to comprehend just what was spoken to him.

'Alright, I think that's…. damn...I forgot what it is already.'

Sitting across him, Ichika was sitting cross legged as him on the floor. The boy was staring at him expectantly as he waited for Elliot's answer, a flashcard with the picture of an apple in his hands.

"Ichika, I forgot. Not remember."

The boy slumped in disappointment, clearly hoping his stepbrother would've gotten the hang of their impromptu game.

"Man, how many times was that already? I thought you would've gotten that down, Elliot."

Elliot stared blankly at Ichika, not understanding what he was saying. For the American, he was left trying to guess his family's message by deducing from their body language and their expressions.

'I'm only here for about half a year and he expects me to be able to understand things like this? It took me almost 3 months of non-stop work before I could string a basic sentence together. Even then, almost half the time I can't get my message across.'

Being in his new home for almost half a year, Elliot found that the hardest part for him wasn't acclimating to the clean streets and seeing Asians everywhere, nor was it the Japanese cuisines or the orderly discipline of Japanese society.

The hardest part was the exact thing he needed the most to integrate into society: Learning how to speak Japanese.

He learned about English when he was raised in the orphanages. The problem now was that he underestimated how difficult and time-consuming learning Japanese was. The shape of their written characters and their pronunciation were totally foreign to him, looking more like alien script to him than comprehensible language.

Knowing he needed the language to survive, he had put much effort into trying to learn the ropes. At his stepsister's behest, he had taken to playing with Ichika at home in the hopes of learning the language being used in daily setting. So far, none of that effort had yet to borne fruit and the two of them boys were reduced down to reading each other's facial expressions and gesticulating with their hands and body as a form of simple communication.

Chifuyu, being the sardonic one, had once commented that they both looked like monkeys when they were using their improvised sign language. He didn't know what she said until years later, by which he was a bit offended upon learning about it but chose to let it slide.

Ichika, looking depressed at the lack of progress on his part, dropped the card he held on the floor.

"If only you can talk normally, then we could play together! But how are we going to play if I can't speak English and you can only speak a little Japanese? I don't understand why Chifuyu-nee wanted us to play together with the old picture cards."

Not being able to articulate his thoughts cohesively, Elliot just opted to tilt his head in curiosity. From the context of the situation and the way he mentioned Chifuyu, he imagined Ichika must be wondering why he was saddled with the 'burden' of playing with him. Elliot felt like he was being a burden to his family for not being able to understood Japanese well.

'Sorry Ichika. Until I got this down pat, you're going to have to bear with me for a while. At least Chifuyu knows how to speak English but that's only if she's around the house to help translate.'

Seeing the clock on the wall showing dusk was approaching, Ichika decided to get working on dinner. He hurriedly gathered the scattered flash cards and shuffled them together, putting them on the coffee table in the living room.

"Ok Elliot, I'm going to prepare dinner for us. You can stay in the living room until I've finished. The TV remote is there."
In emphasis, Ichika gestured towards the sofa and then pointed towards the remote and the TV. Elliot understood that his stepbrother was asking him to wait and he could watch the TV in the meantime. He nodded, showing that he understood what he said.

Watching his brother retreated into the kitchen, Elliot wished fervently the days that this one-sided, broken dialogue as a means to communicate would end.

A year later after Elliot was adopted...

Elliot and Ichika sat side by side in Ichika's room, with the blonde helping Ichika in his homework. The blonde gestured to Ichika, his hand waving as if beckoning him to approach.

"Alright Ichika, say it again."

"Right. I'm Orimura Ichika and…"
Elliot quickly waved his hands in front of Ichika with a look of displeasure on his face, stopping Ichika from continuing his sentence.

"Ichika, you did it again! People in the western world don't introduce themselves with their family name first! We've talked about this already, come on!"

Ichika looked chagrined, drawing back from Elliot's sudden admonishment.

"Man, this is hard…Why is English so complicated to learn? Just learning how to talk with people is hard enough as it is."

Elliot sighed, his mind being brought back to his past of learning Japanese when he got adopted.

"You should see what it was like for me learning Japanese. Half of the time was me spent trying to understand what a weird looking word really meant and how to pronounce it properly."

Ichika couldn't help but sighed with Elliot.

"Was this how it was like for you? I swear, learning Japanese is much easier than learning English. Why did Chifuyu-nee want me to learn from you? Can't I just learn from the textbooks and at school?"

Elliot looked scandalized as he gaped at Ichika with a look of abject scorn, as if he uttered something very offensive.

"Are you kidding me? How are you going to learn English properly when half the time the textbooks don't even have the correct sentence and grammar? I may not have gone to school before but even I still knew that 'Mary had a cat in her hands.' Isn't the right way to say what it wants to say."

"At the very least, you having to learn how to speak English just to understand the other half of what I've said gives you an advantage in society. Besides, if I can learn how to speak Japanese well today, you can definitely learn how to speak English like me."

Giving Ichika a firm clasp on his shoulder, Elliot gave a smile as he shook Ichika. Knowing Ichika, he had faith that his brother could do it. He just needed the encouragement and the reason to do so.

With encouragement from Elliot, Ichika recomposed himself as Elliot uttered out another sentence, listening closely to how the blonde pronounced the words carefully. He was determined to learn Elliot's language so he could better understand his brother, one who came from a faraway place.

Two years after Elliot was adopted...

Elliot rifled through his wardrobe, trying to locate a missing piece of his ensemble as he prepared to go out. He had his practice to go to and he still can't find what he was looking for. Chifuyu was going to burn him out if he was late for one second and he's already cutting it too close. Without a choice, he called out to the corridor.

"Ichika, did you see my bandanna!?"

"I've put it in your drawer, inside your closet. It's the first one!"

Elliot quickly yanked out the drawer, finding his white bandanna perfectly folded in the drawer.

"Mitsuke ta! Arigatougozaimashita, Ichika!"

"No problem, man!"

Elliot shook his head in amusement, still not used to Ichika talking in good English while sounding like a phony American. He worked on folding the bandanna into a long strip, while musing about his brother's proficiency in his native tongue.

'Shouldn't have showed him that movie. Now he's going to sound like a kid just moved into the country."

Affixing the bandanna around his neck, he quickly dashed for the door while donning his cap. His shoes went on his feet in record time as he stood by the door, letting Ichika knew where he'll be before leaving.

"Ichika, I'm going to work! Jaa ane!

"Yeah, see you Elliot!"

With their farewell said, Elliot bolted out the door. He sincerely hoped he wasn't going to be late for Chifuyu's instruction.

'Man, please don't let me be late. I'm not looking forward to getting burned out doing physical exercise just because I'm late again.'

Author's note: Hello again, dear readers! Hopefully you all are still safe and sound, chugging along the new year. I'm currently busy with RL obligations so the work on the main story has taken a bit of a slowdown. The fact that I had to prioritize quality on every chapter made my progress even slower, as it has been almost half a year since I've posted a chapter on the main story. Not to worry, I am still working on it. Keep an eye on my profile for the latest news on the story and please follow my story so you can stay up to date. Now, on to reviews.

Hey Andrew! Yeah, Christmas was uneventful. After all the bustle typical of the end of the year, there ain't much celebrating on my side. I'm just content and happy to not have too many untoward incidents in the last year and hopefully getting a smooth sailing this new year. To me, I'm a bit too busy to enjoy the Christmas but it's ok. Got to get prepared for this year and making the most out of it. Hopefully the next Christmas would be the day to cut loose a bit after the craziness of the last few years.

With that all said, I hope you guys stay awesome and safe! This is OtherJAackK, signing off.