Face softening with relief, Dayeon nodded. “Yeah, I heard once that if you learn too many similar languages at the same time it does you a bigger disservice than if you studied them separately…” And sure, it wasn’t like either of them were learning Korean for the very first time but the overlap in vocabulary and the grammatical similarities still had felt a little disorienting. “But I think if you give yourself the time you’ll get there,” he added reassuringly, gently bumping his shoulder against Hajoon’s. “Obviously you’d have to keep at it, but I think if you give yourself the time to learn you can absolutely do it!”
Hearing Hajoon bring up the LA workshops prompted a sheepish flinch. “Y-yeah. A lot less worrying over alphabets and all that, right?” Admitting that his English felt so subpar for his age bracket was hard. Dayeon doubted Hajoon would think badly of him for it but it was embarrassing and humiliating to think about. And no doubt it was Dayeon’s perfectionism first and foremost that was making it so, but a new city clearly wasn’t enough to cure him of that.
“Snacking, learning about culture…” Dayeon gestured vaguely, grinning. “It’s a matter of perspective, don’t you think?” His eyes wandered to the food on display. Following Hajoon to the entrance he went through the options, struggling a little to pick. Receiving a recommendation was a godsend, making the decision process a lot easier. “Yeah? Then I’ll gladly take your advice! Melonpan it is.” And if he got a second pastry because he was curious that was nobody’s business but his own.
“I mean… we’re also here to practice our English, right?” Truth be told, as much as Dayeon’s spoken Japanese was better than his reading he still felt self-conscious with his accent — that, and wouldn’t the two of them look too much like try-hards? As out of practice he was actively using English in day-to-day life, at least he knew that it would sound inconspicuous. “I don’t feel super comfortable with it, I’d probably accidentally order the wrong thing… but if you do it, I’ll do it too.”
the tension in hajoon’s shoulders relaxes the more dayeon speaks. the younger is spot on in his perspective and can see through the impossibly high standards hajoon sets for himself, the very same ones that make him doubt his abilities and talk himself down on a too-regular basis. it’s almost natural for the two trainees now, after training together for all these years, to be that reassurance that the other needs to hear sometimes — and it’s such a pleasant rarity in a cutthroat industry. dayeon just seems to understand, even before hajoon becomes aware of it.
a mischievous glimmer sparkles in his eyes. he nods, reaffirming. yes, it really is all up to perspective. maybe he’s imagining it, but there’s a familiar hollowness in his stomach as he steals another tempting glance at the fluffy pastries. the row of melonpan lined up in the window is practically calling his name.
noticing dayeon’s hesitation, hajoon quickly moves to dismiss his own suggestion. “no, it’s okay! i get it — no worries.” while this is a work trip by technicality, there’s no point in stressing each out over silly things during their free time. daeyon is right: english is their primary focus for this half of the trip. “it was hard trying to speak to the locals in tokyo. i felt embarrassed when i had to try to say anything,” he admits. “I felt like i was always making a mistake somehow, so it’s okay.” by some miracle, most of the people he had met while there had been kind to him and tried their best despite the barrier. “i’m good with sticking to english.”
once inside, he returns the employee’s greeting with a small smile. immediately, he is drawn to the inside display case by the front counter, crouching slightly to examine it better. “besides melonpan, is there anything else you’d like to get? strawberry croissants? chocolate chip rolls?” a thought occurs to him, as he realizes his eyes are definitely bigger than his stomach. “oh — should we bring some back for some of the other trainees?”
