Futari No Sekai

Author’s Notes: Hello, this is my first attempt of writing an original fic pertaining to Japanese and Filipino influence=) I decided to combine some Filipino heritage into this story, together with some Filipino language—tagalog.
It may be a bit difficult to understand, but I will always provide some translation. There will also be a few Japanese words, phrases or sentences, but rest assured that you will comprehend.

If you have any disturbing questions, please feel free to submit your reviews. I am open to your criticisms and hope that you will be able to enjoy my work.
This isn’t my first time to submit a fic, but my first time in submitting an original one.
So if it could be possible, please make your reviews are truly constructive. I have had my own share of unreasonable comments, so I may be tempted to erase anyone’s review that spontaneously insults my work.

I thank you very much for understanding and I do hope that you appreciate this.

*Ate-big sister
*Bahala ka-you’re on your own

One last thing, Futari No Sekai means “Two Worlds Apart”

Summary: John Hidalgo is a Filipino exchange student going to Japan to secretly search for his missing father. He is then accepted by a teacher he has contacted from a private academy in Tokyo who actually lives with a prestigious Japanese family that is bound to make John\'s stay challenging.
Moreover, this Japanese family, known as the Tomukawa, has an heir named Shizuke who made an impression on John and vice versa. The catch is Shizuke is already betrothed to a lady who lives in the same house! With all these, John is caught up in an entanglement of sorts that will somehow help him find his long lost father who may be connected to the Tomukawas.


Chapter 1: When dreams become real

“Konichiwa-Hello…Sayonara-Goodbye…Gome-Sorry…Goddamnit! This is too many! How the hell am I suppose to cope up over there?!”

Being able to be trusted by the school to go overseas as a Filipino-Intern in a private academy at Japan is never a joke to anyone.
For some reasons, even though John Faye Hidalgo signed up for the internship, he still couldn’t value the language of Niponggo.

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to, Johnny.”

John paused from memorizing and turned his gaze towards a young lady who just came inside of his room, sitting adjacent to him on his bed.

Inside the room, clothes of different sorts were sprawled on the floor and on the bed. The TV was turned on and even the radio was in full blast.
“What? I can’t hear you!” John exclaimed, his brows meeting while holding a Japanese-English book on his right hand.
The lady sighed exasperatingly, turned off the television and as well as the radio.
She looked at the boy and started softly,
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked.

John looked away. How did all these happen again?
‘But I have to find him there!’ he thought.
“I made up my mind, sis.” He reasoned, getting up to pick up some of his clothes from the floor, “I’m still going to Japan. This is an opportunity, y’know. I just can’t let it pass.”

His sister smiled and stared down on her lap,
“You’re sure this is because of the ‘opportunity’ and not because of him?”
John suddenly froze from his bending position. For a moment, he thought he forgot how to breathe, but then he slowly got up and folded his clothes on the bed.

John, his big sister, Melina, and his mother, had always been alone ever since. When John was three, his father left the Philippines to work in Japan. When that man went away, he never came back.
“Really, John…looking for dad is pointless…for all we know, he’s probably a Japanese citizen by now and has had a Japanese family of his own…”

Unlike John, Melina had always taken a huge grudge against their father. While John was three years old when their father left, Melina was ten—old enough to understand things as they were.
“I don’t believe that,” John started, forcing a smile on his face while continuously packing up, “He promised, ate,” he reasoned, pausing from his work and looking at his sister, “He promised us he would go back home…there must be a reason why he’s stuck there.”
“Don’t you see?!” Melina argued, standing up from the edge of the bed, “It’s been a long time! He was supposed to come back after three years, but John, he hasn’t returned for over twelve years! Let alone any letters! He doesn’t give a damn about us now…so why try to bother going after him?” she asked, not knowing that her brother could see her tears making its way out gradually.
“Ate…” John whispered, his hands forming fists, “I have to know why…I want to hear it from him…”

He put in the last batch of his clothing inside his huge traveling bag and zipped it up,
“There has got to be a reason why he never called, or wrote, or came back…and I want to know why,” he spoke while his head was bent down, but he brought it up as he continued with a determined look painted across his face,
“Don’t you and mom want to know what really happened? Why should we keep on believing in things that doesn’t have enough proof? It’s not fair! What if dad really tried to come back? What if he truly wrote to us? What if something wrong just happened, and because of that, he couldn’t get in touch with us? Why keep ourselves in disillusionments when we can do something about it?”

Melina shook her head. She couldn’t understand where her brother got so much of that courage. Even as kids, John had always been optimistic towards everything. Though he was the least talented in class, it never bothered him at all. He even praised his friends for having to have achieved such high standards.
But him…it was all too simple for him. He wasn’t the best neither in academics, nor that outstanding when it comes to physical activities, but he was good enough to fit the perfect description of ‘ordinariness’.
Still…John’s personality was hard to decipher for anyone. May be she was wrong. Maybe he wasn’t completely ordinary after all.
John had always been the most outspoken student in class. Because of this, a lot of people admire him. Many come to his aid to ask for reasonable advises. They look up to him because he was the type of person who would always see a solution in a problem.

“John,” Melina approached, holding up a hand against his younger brother’s cheek, “I just don’t want to get disappointed if everything comes for the worse…you know we all care about you…I don’t want you to get false-hopes about this…I know you…you’re too fragile for this.”
John turned away from his sister’s hold and explained,
“Ate, I’m not a child anymore,” he put enough space between the two of them so he could let himself think clearer, “you have to let me go. I’ve already gained mom’s approval, but if I’m not going to have yours, I have no choice but to leave without your consent.”
He looked away and leaned toward the windowsill beside him.

It was only two months ago when he heard the slot for the interns. He was never concerned or enthusiastic about traveling, but when the school announced that one of the countries to be visited was Japan, he completely changed his mind and tried to convince the faculty that he was fit to be one of the exchange students.
“Besides,” he continued, “It’ll only be for a year…it’s not like I’m never coming back…and I have a chaperone from school…I’ll be alright.”
“That’s not the point,” Melina emphasized, “You and I both know you’ll be out there looking for that man! It’s not worth the effort, John! You’ll just tire yourself…and in the end you’ll think I was right all along.”
“No!” he stomped, “Don’t do this, ate.” He was almost at the brink of crying while he spoke, “I don’t need you to put my spirits down, I need you to support me, to tell me everything will be fine! If you tell me dad was never worthy of our love, at least prove to me that your worth of being my sister!”

Melina broke into sobs. She covered her face and sank down to the floor,

“If you leave…there’s no turning back...” she brought her face up and stared at her brother, “You will have to stand up for yourself without me and mom, or your old friends here in our country. Japan is still a foreign land. Regardless for your search for that man, you have to survive in that place.”
John knelt down close to Melina. He held her hands and gripped them tightly,
“You know I’ll be fine. Of all people, you know me…I won’t give up that easily…”
Before John could even finish his sentence, Melina had already turned away and stood up,
“Bahala ka. If this is what you want, then so be it.” She wiped away her tears and walked towards the door,
“Ate!” John shouted, his forehead forming a deep crease, but his voice suddenly faltering.
Melina didn’t turn back, but she stood still.
“Pangako…babalik ako.” (I promise…I shall return) And with that, Melina continued her way outside of John’s room to leave him to his packing.

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“I can never believe that woman!” A tall slender young woman walked out of the shadows while being followed by someone from behind.
Her long ebony hair shifted from side to side as she moved restlessly from one point to another,
“Would you relax?” a boy spoke, the person accompanying her. He was taller than her, with a built larger than an ordinary high school student, “It can’t be that bad to have a visitor inside the house.” He raked his brown mane through his willowy fingers while chuckling under his breath. He had taken off the tie that went along with their school uniform, leaving the buttons near his throat opened,
“Yeah right,” she shot back insultingly, “let’s see if you stand the sight of the Filipino-Intern. I mean—what the hell?! Of all nationalities, why a fucking Filipino?”
The boy shook his head and brought his body to sit on a short brick wall beside them,
“What are you now? A racist? What’s the problem with a ‘Filo’ inside the mansion? It’s not like he’s that horrible.”
“Shizuke!” the girl complained, “Whose side are you on anyway? I thought you and I would always be against Aunt Minako’s wishes?”
Shizuke, the boy who was taking all of this easily, stretched his hands out and yawned loudly, “I know, but, this is frustrating me…we’re getting old with all these shit we’re doing…aren’t you getting tired?”
The girl placed her hands on her hips and bent her head,
“What’s wrong with you recently? You’re acting excessively aloof nowadays.” She complained, looking at him.
Shizuke looked down at the girl from where he was sitting. With his left knee propped up and his elbow on top of it, he looked over at her and answered,

“I just don’t give a damn anymore.”

Shizuke suddenly leapt down from the wall, and shoved his hands inside his pocket.
He walked away from her when she suddenly came up behind him,
“Hey…are you mad, baby?” she had her right arm around his neck and the other toiling beneath his polo,
“Haruko,” he started irritatingly, removing her hand from his chest, “not in public.”
Haruko stopped short from her tracks and watched Shizuke walk away.
“What’s going on with you?” she asked, feeling the sting of tears behind her eyes, “Is it because I’m joking around about Filipinos?”
Shizuke would answer her. He only kept on walking.
“Baby, wait up,” she ran closer to him and prodded once more, “Is it because of Aunt Minako? Tell me!” she took hold of his arm, and when she did, a shiver went down on her spine when he gave off that terrible cold look,

“Could you shut your mouth for a moment and leave me alone?”

Minako gulped down and nodded in obedience.

Shizuke withdrew his arm and continued walking away.


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