WebNovels

Chapter 10 - : Later – Dinner Prep

You both worked in silence for a while. You chopped green onions. She rinsed rice.

The hum of life outside your apartment barely reached through the thick windows, which was part of why you liked this building. You didn't hear Kuoh unless you chose to.

"I asked the others about you again today," she said quietly.

"...Others?"

"The parish. The sisters. One of the clergy, even."

You raised an eyebrow.

"Are you allowed to do that?"

"I'm trusted."

"That makes one of us."

She smiled softly. But then her eyes became curious.

"They still don't know why you were cleared to live here alone. That kind of visa… the support you've gotten… it doesn't usually happen this way."

You said nothing.

Mostly because you didn't know either.

It had started with anime, as ridiculous as that sounded. The voice acting, the musicality of the dialogue… it pulled you in. You learned hiragana in "secret", then katakana, and before you fully understood the implications you had memorized the lines of words by heart, simply by sounding them out, though you still had lacked understanding of what it meant. By fifteen, you were translating your own subs and arguing about pitch accent online.

Then came a scholarship. An exchange. A chance. Somehow, between the margins of bureaucracy, you slipped through.

Now you were here. Legally. Unusually.

"I don't think I was supposed to get this life," you muttered aloud.

Asia looked up.

"But you did."

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