“June-kun, want to take a break?” Mina
asked, wiping sweat off of her brow with her scarf. “June-kun?”
“Who, me?” June asked carefully
painting a crevice of the porch. She much preferred painting to building, even
if Mina insisted on painting the whole porch a dull uniform brown. “What’s a kun?”
“In Japan
we add these to the end of people’s names. Kun,
chan, san, sama, they mean like ‘mister’. Some are formal, but kun is for close friends.”
June felt warm
despite the late February chill, “So can I call you Mina-kun?”
“No, you
can call me Mina-chan. Kun is for boys.” She grinned
mischeviously.
“I’m not a
boy!” June protested.
“Sorry, it
is selfish, but in my life I always felt closer friendship to boys so I always
use kun for close friends. So is it
okay to call you June-kun?”
“Of course,
Mina-chan. Although, I still think Mina-kun sounds better.”
“You can
call me Mina-sama, Master Mina” she
retorted.
Mina and June spent the rest of
that afternoon joking and working until the sun dipped below the horizon and 5
p.m song had them clamoring inside to continue their banter over beer.
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