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“You know, ADAM really is a weird guy. Like even his name is unusual, right?”
Reki murmured, lightly pushing his empty ramen bowl. Langa, who sat next to him, set his bowl on the table and turned his head toward Reki.
“Huh? Isn't Adam a common name?” Langa asked.
“What? Common?”
“I have several acquaintances and relatives in Canada whose first names are Adam,” Langa continued, “I hear it a lot, both in Canada and in the United States. It's kind of like... an uncle's name, or a friend's father's name, or something like that. I thought Adam was a common first name in Japan, too.”
Reki frowned at the unexpected testimony from his classmate, a returnee who grew up in North America.
“No, no, no. In Japan, the name ADAM is not common. Though… that may not be the case these days? Nowadays, there might be little Adamu-kuns somewhere in Japan. It seems we have a variety of first names these days, like me and my sisters also have unusual names.”
“Yeah, and I write my first name in katakana when I write it in Japanese. It's also unusual, isn't it?” Langa pointed out.
“Oh, yeah, kind of.” Reki nodded.
“I like it because I can recognize my name easily on class lists. Katakana stands out among the kanji names.”
“Hmm... right. No, wait, for ADAM it's different. If it were an Adam from an English-speaking country, his name would be written in katakana, just like you, but he is not. He has kanji.”
“Kanji? For Adam!?”
“Well... you see, it's written like this, with phonetic-equivalent characters.”
Reki pulled out one of the restaurant's survey forms from the table, turned it over, picked up a ballpoint pen, and wrote three kanji characters, 愛 抱 夢.
Ever since Reki started going to S and got to know about the legend named ADAM, this sequence of kanji characters had never left his mind.
In fact, he had thought, “Even the kanji characters for ADAM are so cool!” However, now having actually met the man and with things as they were now, Reki decided to keep that a secret from Langa.
“Oh, now I see. Are these rare kanji characters?”
“The kanji aren't very rare, but put together, they look nothing like a real name. It looks like a professional name for a male host or something.”
“A male host?” Langa tilted his head.
“Eh, don't worry about it. Anyway, back to the kanji, the first one means ‘love.’ The second… ‘hugging’? And the third ‘dream.’ Just looks like a kira-kira name.”
“Kira-kira? You mean like twinkling stars?” Langa asked honestly.
“No, umm, not like that, dude. What I mean is it's an unusual name,” Reki said as he scratched his head.
“Hmm... Anyway, seeing it now with the meanings of the kanji, the name looks quite romantic.” Langa nodded.
“There are a variety of names these days, but the kanji for ‘hugging’ would hardly ever be used in a person's name.”
“Kanji is amazing, isn't it? Not only do they have sounds, but they also have meanings. I don't know how you guys remember so many kanji...” Langa sighed. Having been raised in a country that only uses a phonetic alphabet, he wasn't used to kanji.
“Really? Well, maybe it's because we use them so often. Ever since elementary school, I've been pounded with kanji tests, kanji drills, and all that kind of stuff.”
“That's stunning.... I'll just have to get used to it.”
Langa gulped down a glass of water as he said this. And exhaled heavily.
“To be honest, I thought ADAM was just an ordinary name. Is it bad that I thought that?”
“No... I don't think it's that bad.”
ADAM seemed to have an extraordinary interest in Langa, but Langa didn't have to go along with it at all. Reki thought that the rookie from Canada had no need to feel any ill will toward the king of S.
“I just think there are a lot of skaters who use a kind of mundane name for S,” Langa said, “Like Joe.”
“Joe? Mundane? What do you mean by that?”
Remembering the muscular ‘senpai’ who had just been in the ramen restaurant, Reki expressed his doubts to Langa.
He had no idea what Joe's real name was but had vaguely thought that ‘Joe’ might be derived from it, since there are many possible Japanese male first names such as ‘錠 (Jou),’ ‘丈太郎 (Jotarō),’ ‘譲二 (Jyoji),’ etc.
Aside from the connection with the senpai's real name, ‘the fastest six pack skater’ Joe and ‘mundane’ were in many ways unconnected to each other for Reki. Langa opens his mouth nonchalantly.
“The name Joe also sounds like a dad's name or something. You know, there's a phrase ‘Average Joe’ in English, which means an ordinary middle-aged guy or something like that. When I hear the name Joe, I picture a white American uncle with an average job, an average build, and an average appearance.”
“Ha-ha-ha!! An ordinary uncle! But Joe the skater is anything but ordinary! Wow... I never thought Joe could be such a funny name in English.”
Langa's unexpected explanation made Reki burst out laughing. Though Reki knew almost nothing about English first names, now that Langa mentioned it, he could see that of course common names existed among English-speaking people.
“Okay, got it! It would be something like Hiroshi or Tadashi in Japanese name! First name for an ordinary uncle with dark hair and glasses or something like that.”
“Wow, so there are such names in Japanese, too,” Langa muttered in admiration.
It was a strange and enjoyable experience for Reki to discover and share such a fact between two different cultures with Langa.
“Hmm, if I went to the U.S. and heard that Hiroshi-san was going to be there, and a muscle-bound guy like Joe showed up, I'd definitely be surprised. It'd be beyond my imagination.”
“It seems that's a little bit different from what we're talking about...”
Langa's gaze was full of unsettled feelings as he nodded in agreement with Reki.
“Well, what is important for us is skating, not a nickname, isn't it?”
“Yeah, that's right. Oh, so that's why you're still ‘Reki’ in S?”
“Ah, um, not really, but... I'm just taking my real name there,” Reki murmured.
“I'm glad you don't have an S name such as ‘ADAM’ and ‘JOE.’ If so, it would have taken me a while to get used to it... Yes, I like Reki being Reki,” Langa muttered gratefully.
“Ugh, no, I can't take such names of legends. But... I'm happy to hear you say that. Thanks, Langa,” Reki said, giving his friend a small smile.
Many skaters had their own nicknames in S. But even if they didn't have such a nickname, prominent skaters naturally got a nickname― yes, just like the case of ‘Snow’ for Langa.
Secretly Reki had an ambition to be called by a special nickname in S, but he had no chance to get it. However, hearing such words from his friend, an amazing rookie, seemed to lift Reki's spirits a little.
//END
