Chapter Text
The days I used to dream were the days I felt the least alone
I remember when all you would have to do was lie next to me without words, and my heart would surrender
At the end of the day, we are all children who are no less than the grass of the earth or the stars of the galaxy
child of the universe
I’ll see you again
-
Shota pressed his thumb onto the flat joystick of his 3DS. Strewn across the couch were small video game cartridges: Pokémon Moon, Kirby, Super Mario, and a few others.
Right now, the game that caught his interest was Super Smash Bros. Shota had phases with over a hundred games. Last week, it was Pikmin, but he never ended up finishing the game because something else grabbed his attention before he could complete the final sector.
Shota really tended to enjoy action-packed games more, so this fixation was bound to last longer than a week.
It's not like he quit playing a game entirely after falling out of interest in playing anymore, but there were so many other games to be played, and so many sequels he had to practice his doe-eyes in the mirror for so Keeho couldn’t refuse to buy them for him.
When Shota wasn’t so focused on action-based games, he enjoyed playing adventure-story games with more puzzles than battles with Jongseob.
He had introduced Shota to the Legend of Zelda franchise from the beginning of their friendship, and ever since, they would pick up a game card of each series every time they had the chance.
Shota would take the controller for the boss battles, and Jongseob would have the controller for the puzzles and storyline.
Twilight Princess was Shota’s favorite. It was Jongseob’s, too. Sometimes, Shota caught him lying down and turning on the game just so he could listen to the title screen music. The way Jongseob admired the world-building and the beauty of the game itself made Shota appreciate game design more.
Nevertheless, Shota gravitated towards battling more. He liked watching Jongseob solve the puzzles easily.
Shota fiddled with the back buttons; his thumb grazed over the front of the base screen, over the headphone jack, and the SD card slot.
He pressed the card in once, then froze in fear when he realized that once he pressed the card back out, the game would shut off mid-battle.
He faltered to the looming boredom he was getting from playing, and pressed the game card out. A pop-up message made sure to let him know the obvious fact that nothing had been inserted into the game card slot.
Shota rocked his head towards the boy sitting next to him on the couch. His limbs were splayed over the surface where Shota’s game cartridges weren’t taking up space, and his chest rose and fell with tranquility. He had a Game Boy in his hand and a calm look on his face. Shota assumed he was playing Link’s Awakening, or some other RPG.
Shota didn’t really pay much attention to games on that console. Jongseob was invested in whatever it was he was playing, so Shota had to try a little harder to get his attention.
He leaned in, attempting to get it with proximity.
Jongseob’s eyes finally moved off the screen and found his friend leaning heavily towards him.
“You need something?” Jongseob’s gaze returned to the glowing screen.
“Do you wanna try this game?” Shota sat closer to his friend, the galaxy print on the 3DS undulated above Jongseob’s Game Boy, a playful gesture on Shota’s part. Jongseob’s snaggletooth peeked out from the corner of his mouth before he smiled. He shut off his game and tossed the console aside.
“You playin' Smash Bros again?”
Shota nodded his response, already getting situated on the couch. He moved into the familiar position of hunching over and resting the device between the two.
Shota watched him play quietly. He enjoyed the naivety that Jongseob had when he played. He had made every wrong decision of blocking when he should’ve attacked. He jumped onto platforms when he was most vulnerable to take damage.
Despite the urge Shota had to reach out and press L to release his ultimate, he remained still.
He enjoyed watching Jongseob play anything.
-
Today, Shota dreamed about a big aquarium.
There was a huge tank that covered the entire surface of the wall, with every kind of fish you could think of. There were manta rays, sunfish, squid, jellyfish, clownfish, and hundreds of little fish swimming around in a school. The big tank even had Shota’s favorite, hammerhead sharks.
There were pillars between every large wall, and when Shota walked past them to the next tank, he was greeted with a waddle of penguins.
An Aptenodytes patagonicus swam up to the glass. It had a large chest with orangey-yellow plumage at the top, and a long, curved beak that faded into black.
It reminded him of Keeho.
He smiled at the king penguin and saw in its eyes that it smiled back.
The next tank had deep-sea creatures. Some abyssopelagic, some that touched the floor of the midnight zone. There was a humongous octopus that scaled the glass walls with its suckers.
Jongseob had once told him that they can taste their food with their tentacles before they even put them in their mouth.
Shota looked past the octopus and saw a cute little vampire squid swimming skyward. Below the squid were a couple of tripod fish standing on three thin fins that looked like sticks.
One of them had a pinker hue than the other.
Shota turned around to the wall parallel to the tanks. There was darkness—but if he looked up, he could see the light of the water ricocheting off the ceiling.
It made the ceiling look like it was swimming, too.
When Shota looked back towards the tank, all of the fish he had made friends with were gone.
Before he had time to realize it was all a dream, he had woken up.
.
.
.
“Shota! Jongseob! Be ready in 10 minutes!”
Shota rubbed his tired eyes, sitting up in his warm bed. It called his name, tempting him to fall back asleep, but he didn’t want to get lectured by his dad again.
When Shota walked to the couch, he saw a lump of something underneath a blanket. He kneeled beside Jongseob’s sleeping form, poking the sleepy lump with his finger.
“Seobbie?”
The boy stirred and groaned in response.
“Seobbie, wake up.” He whispered.
Jongseob’s nose scrunched up, leaving behind an array of lines over the bridge. Shota didn’t give up hope for the boy, by means of which he continued poking, touching the weird lines on his nose. Jongseob finally gave in, opening his eyes with an immediate disconcerted look upon gaining consciousness.
“Kyo says 10 minutes until we leave, okay?” Shota said.
Jongseob nodded. Shota figured the nod was truthful and began getting himself dressed.
Shota didn’t necessarily want to go to school today. He didn’t mind the mundanity of going each and every day, unlike most people. The constant repetition of attending classes gave him the peaceful knowledge that things wouldn’t change.
School was one of the few things in Shota’s life that didn’t change; that’s why he liked it.
There wasn’t enough time in the day for things Shota loved to do. Like sleeping… and playing video games.
That was pretty much it. But staying up late made up for the missed hours.
He stared at the console radiating power from within its motherboard. One game, five minutes before he had to go to school, sounded like a good idea.
“Shota! Jongseob! The bus is gonna be here soon, come get breakfast!”
However, bound by the narrow fences of life… Shota must go to school.
.
.
.
Shota didn’t remember much from school today.
He didn’t write down any of the assigned homework, and he didn’t have anyone else in his class he could ask, other than Jongseob, the kid who’d always finish his schoolwork in class and turn it in before the bell rang.
It was okay.
Shota could walk home from school with Jongseob and forget all about it.
On most days, Jongseob would leave his digital camera back at the house. Luckily for them, Jongseob left it in his backpack the previous day and was already snapping photos of the dandelions lining the grass between the sidewalk and their neighbors’ driveways.
Sometimes they’d grow in between the cracks of the concrete.
Jongseob liked taking photos of those little guys, especially.
Shota pointed at a sign on the street.
“Jongseob, yard sale! Look!”
Jongseob took a photo.
Shota avoided the cracks on the concrete, his arms outstretched like he was walking on a tightrope, and he hopped over every line with all the grace of a newborn deer. He didn’t want Keeho’s spine to break, after all.
Shota held a hand up to the camera, stopping Jongseob in his tracks.
“Jongseob, why are you stepping on the cracks?”
Jongseob tilted his head to the side.
“Step on a crack, then you break your mama’s back. Step on a line, then you break your father’s spine.” Shota blinked. “You don’t want your mom to break her back, do you?”
“I don’t have a mom,” Jongseob said.
“Then what about your dad?”
“I don’t have a dad, either.”
Shota finally let his hand down from covering the camera. “But Keeho is your honorary dad,” Shota said it slowly, like Jongseob was an outsider from the moon.
The boy smiled. He turned his heel on the concrete and began avoiding the cracks.
Instead of turning right to their house, Shota wanted to see what was at the yard sale. Shota was familiar with the neighbors on his block, but he hadn’t ever talked to any of the people living over on the other side. Shota walked to the driveway. There was an incline leading up to the garage, and clothes racks set up along the edges.
In the corner next to the neighbor’s white SUV were garden decorations, bikes, and old vintage items on white folding tables. Shota skipped over to the old video games that this interesting stranger owned. There were a lot of ones he didn’t know existed. Jongseob walked up to the stand, his eyes in awe of the collection of Game Boy SD cards.
Shota saw the admiration in his eyes; he knew he needed to get it for Jongseob. The only problem was that he didn’t have any money.
Keeho would always buy what he needed for Shota. Or, what he wanted. It wasn’t that hard to get his father to give up his restraint and spoil him.
“They have Pokémon Leaf Green…” Jongseob tugged on Shota’s sleeve.
“How much do you think they’re selling it for?” Shota turned his head towards the stand at the front of the open garage. There was another white table set up with an old brass cash register.
Sitting behind the table was a young man with messy black hair and a kind face. Shota pointed over to the man. “Ask him.” He was much too shy to ask the man himself, as much as he wanted to get the game for Jongseob.
Jongseob shrugged, then hesitantly batted his eyes from the game card stand, then to the man over by the garage.
Turns out, he was also much too shy.
“…Can you do it?” Jongseob gave his friend a hapless expression, holding the digital camera close to his chest like he was guarding his pride.
Before Shota could encourage him to just go and ask, the man noticed their internal struggle and called to them in a friendly manner.
“Do you need help finding something?”
If someone talked to Jongseob first, it wasn’t hard to talk back. The initial startup of a conversation was what Jongseob struggled with the most. Before he had the courage to muster up his words, Shota spoke up instead.
“Can you help us find out how much this game is?”
He pointed to the small green cartridge with a Venusaur plastered next to the title. The young man walked down to the stand with an amused smile, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“That one?”
One hand slipped out from the fabric to point and reaffirm.
Jongseob and Shota nodded simultaneously. The young man nodded his head and smiled brightly at the two.
“I actually never played these games much. Just found them lying around in some cardboard boxes.” He confessed, picking up the small cartridge to inspect it.
“I’d assume it’s worth more than what I’d offer you for it.”
Jongseob lit up, his eyes glued to the card in the guy's hand.
“So, how much would you offer?”
The man thought for a little while longer before responding. “How about 10,000 won?”
Jongseob shot his head to Shota, his mouth agape like he’d won a lottery ticket.
Shota jumped up in place upon seeing Jongseob’s excitement. The man offered them a gummy smile.
“I’m glad that I can give it to someone who will put it to good use.”
Shota was screwed.
He didn't have the time to wait for Keeho to get back from work, nor did he have the money to pay for this game...