No disbelief. No surprise either.
I raise an eyebrow, a bit confused by his non-reaction. But I carefully press on anyway. “So there’s this one soon-to-be-departed sketch. I drew it for the first time last January for this random Japanese guy I’d just met. Well, we met again on the first day of Christmas, and we started spending real time together. So I’ve made that sketch almost every day since returning to the third dimension. And the drawing…it’s of you.”
Jae-Hyun starts. Then he looks down and to the side, his eyes and chin making precise swipes in a way that now reminds me of Hayato. Could they be related? They look nothing alike. But after spending so much time with Hayato, I’m noticing a few mannerisms they have in common.
“You said almost every day.” His English is even thicker and more halting than usual. “What changed?”
Another hard question. “Um… The Japanese guy I was drawing it for, we were in a relationship…sort of. But we…”
I shake my head, trying to come up with a coherent explanation for why Hayato and I fell apart. I end up settling for, “We got in this weird fight. And we broke up.”
“I see…” Jae-Hyun lowers his head, considering my words. Then he rises from his seat.
For such an old and bent man, he’s shockingly graceful. He almost seems to glide to the record player sitting at the end of the dining table where we’re drawing. I eye him nervously as he puts on another record. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys classic he rarely fails to play during our visits.
“I am sorry you and Hayato broke up,” he says as he sets the needle down on top of the well-used vinyl. “But as for my death, there is no need to worry about that. I know this old body will not hold up for much longer. That is why I am leaving the comic shop to you. And I’ve come to another decision despite your blank page…”
He looks up from the record player to regard me, his dark brown eyes shining with affection. “After this body has departed, I would like for you to continue on with Nobles and Samurais in my stead.”
I freeze, touched beyond belief that he would not only want to leave me his store but also his life’s work.
But then, I have to shake my head, denying the honor. “You don’t understand. I had a chance to make sure you weren’t alone when you died. But now I have to go back to the workshop in two days, and no one will be here for you when you pass because I did exactly what my mother told me not to do. I trusted someone with my heart, and he ran off with it, and now I’ve ruined everything for you.”
Jae-Hyun holds up an old, gnarled hand to stop me from talking. “You ruined nothing for me, daughter. Only my poor decisions are to blame for where I find myself now.”
“But that’s not true. It’s all my fault,” I start to insist. “I don’t deserve—”
I cut off. Not because I’ve suddenly believed that I actually deserve to inherit Jae-Hyun’s legacy but because…
“How did you know his name?”
Jae-Hyun stills and his face goes carefully neutral, just like Hayato’s.
Just. Like. Hayato’s.
“You told me his name, remember? When you drew the picture of him the day after Christmas,” he reminds me.
Yes, that’s true. But I vibrate with a new realization. I don’t believe him. I no longer trust that my mentor is telling me the truth.
I silently come to that conclusion. Then I say it again out loud, “I don’t believe you. When I asked you whether you knew him, you lied to me. Just like he lied about not knowing you.”
Jae-Hyun doesn’t answer. He just stands there, stoic and expressionless. In a way that reminds me so, so much of Hayato.
I stand up from the table to ask—no demand, “How do you know Hayato Nakamura?”
“I would also like to hear your answer to that question,” a familiar voice says behind me.
I turn around with a gasp, unable to believe my ears. It can’t be…
But it is…
It’s Hayato emerging from the box lined hallway at the front of Jae-Hyun’s apartment. And Norio— oh my Santa, Norio is right behind him.
I open my mouth to ask why they’re here, how they’re here.
But then Jae-Hyun suddenly collapses, his entire body crumpling to the ground.
“Jae-Hyun!” I scream, running over to him.
What. The. Santa???
What the heck is happening?
Why is Hayato here?
And what will he say…and reveal?
Find out in the next episode of
TWELVE MONTHS OF KRISTAL!
GOD ONLY KNOWS
Episode 11
41
Here Today
KRISTAL
“Jae-Hyun!” I rush to my fallen mentor’s side after he collapses.
No, he’s more than a mentor. A father. He’s been like a father to me. But now he lies on the ground, his breathing heavy and labored in the same rattling way I remembered from the Christmas Eve before my mother passed.
I don’t want him to die. Not right now. Not this way. A sob rises in my chest as I try to figure out what’s wrong.
I was orphaned when I was ten, but I curse my easy life now. There’s no need for medicine in the workshop. Spells have been cast so that elves never get sick or suffer so much as a sneeze from allergies. I have no idea what to do with an old cancer-ridden human.
Luckily, Norio drops down on the other side of Jae-Hyun and puts two fingers to the side of his wrinkled neck. “He has a pulse, but it’s weak.”
I nod. I sense that he doesn’t have much time left now that the conditions of my contract with Santa have been met.
I try shaking him. “Jae-Hyun? Jae-Hyun? Your loved ones are here. Please wake up!”
But he doesn’t wake up. In fact, the rattling only gets worse with every breath.
Norio frowns, his expression confused. But titan of industry must be his baseline setting. The confusion clears off his face, and he goes into command mode. “Hayato, call 911.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Norio and I both look up from Jae-Hyun’s fallen body to see Hayato, standing exactly where he was when Jae-Hyun fell. He looks totally unbothered. Like Jae-Hyun’s merely taking a little nap.
Rage shoots through my body. “We have to do something. He’s totally passed out!”
“He’s not passed out—at least not in the sense that you fear,” Hayato answers, his voice verging on bored. He then shifts his gaze to a point above our heads and says, “It would seem a ghost cannot hold on to its human form when it is highly emotional.”
Norio and I stare at him for a long, bewildered moment. Then we both ask, “What?”
42
I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
HAYATO
Kristal and Norio stare at me as if I’ve lost my mind.
Actually, Norio has been staring at me in that manner ever since I returned to his doorstep and insisted he travel to San Francisco with me. The old Hayato from ten days ago wouldn’t have risked involving him.