French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Chapter 53: -Gyeong-Wan- Unfamiliar Journey

Tomoko was printing out her end of shift paperwork as I stapled it for her. Every transaction we'd had, cancelled reservation, credit card declining, all of it had documentation that had to be accounted for. We were incredibly careful with this. She was peering down at the printer, crouched near the floor, when I saw him.

The younger Matsuda boy was approaching us cautiously. Something was behind his back. My brow immediately creased, wondering what he was holding. A squirt gun? Another stick? We'd been discussing them quietly among ourselves earlier in the day. They always appeared to be unsupervised, and then therefore we worried about what they were getting up to. I prepared myself, remembering this conversation. 

"Um," he said, getting up to the desk. He didn't look at me.

"Yes?" I asked, tapping my papers against it commandingly.

"Um..." 

Tomoko rose up, and he took a step back, his eyes wide to see two people there. Her own eyes narrowed at him. "Yes, what is it?" She asked a little rudely, but I understood where she was coming from.

"Um..." That nervous response again. Slowly, he brought out what was behind his back. I steeled myself for whatever it was. Prank or not, we'd be prepared, but... 

His only rose his pointer finger. He still wasn't looking at us. Upon seeing it, I knew he was embarrassed. I relaxed, staring at his finger. There was a little blood around his nail, some dried blood had escaped a ways down his finger. Tomoko tutted immediately, taking it in her hand as he flinched.

"How old are you?" She asked gently, examining it.

"Ten years old, ma'am."

"Where's your mom?" She turned it over, searching for injury on the other side. 

"She's shopping."

Tomoko's eyebrow went up, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing: typical. They were unsupervised again, and now one of them had gotten injured. But, I couldn't pretend I wasn't sympathetic to him. I leaned forward, and he flinched again. 

"What happened?" I asked gently, trying not to scare him. If I put myself in his shoes, I'd have been scared of these two adults in authoritative positions, too. I'd even have regarded them as similar to the police. 

"Um...We were running in the room, and my brother caught me. He knocked me to the ground, and stepped on my fingers with his shoe by accident."

"Oh, ow..." Tomoko tsked. "A crush injury, then. I can see it." She made noises like one would to a kitten, truly concerned.

"Yeah."

"How old is your brother? He's a lot bigger than you, right?" I asked. We had band-aids in our first aid kit, but we'd need anti-bacterial cream, too. Did we have any of that?

"He's fourteen."

"Right." 

"I bet you look up to him, huh?" Tomoko asked, distracting him. I took this as my cue to search for the band-aids. I nodded to her, and she nodded back. 

"Yeah, he teaches me a lot of things."

"Like what?"

"Um, he took me fishing..."

Their voices faded as I left them, closing the door to the back behind me. As I searched for the band-aids, it only made me think of my first interactions with the boys. How rambunctious they'd been, egging each other on. But, seeing the littler of the two now, it was easy to tell that he admired his big brother and just wanted to be like him.