She told me she had just come back from Narita, where she was sending off her friend to Korea. I fell silent, keeping the day’s events —the roller coasters, the sushi, the long walk back home— to myself. As I stared into her face I realized how little I had strived to transcend the stage of mere hellos, how questions and comments flourished in my mind but never made it to my tongue. I would have loved to know her more, yet words had always failed me. Even then, on the brink of the last goodbye, I was left looking uninterested and unfriendly, letting out muffled screams into a mask out of which she had never been able to see me.
I’m so sorry. And yet, you will never know it, for I am still being selfish enough to translate my feelings into a language other than our lingua franca.
죄송합니다. I hope life entitles me to another chance.