SPOILER!!: Jasper!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pucki 
"I'd love to be able to speak another language... but English confuses me enough," Jasper joked, an amused smile on his face. Considering it seemed he couldn't even speak English properly yet, maybe he'd work on that a bit first! "I remember that... I think when I met her the first thing she commented on was my accent..." he tilted his head to the side, trying to think of their first meeting.
The main thing he remembered was the clumsy girl knocking him over before he'd been amazed by the colour of her eyes. They were incredible.
Nodding, Jasper listened intently to Jace's explanation, managing to keep up with the explanation even if he wasn't going to remember the names of things. Then sport came up, particularly Quidditch. Jasper smiled sheepishly, "I don't like flying," in fact he was absolutely terrified of being on a broom. "I used to swim competitively though... and my sister and I both play cricket occasionally."
Cricket was a necessary part of Australian culture, whether you enjoyed it or not.
Guilt shot through him, noting how Jace had flinched. Between that and the further heat rushing to his cheeks at the subject of his drawing, he averted his eyes to the ground. Carefully accepting the sketchbook, he shook his head at Jace's apology. "No... no... sorry I just... yeah... I don't exactly know who it is yet and it's been bothering me, but I'll work it out when I get further into the drawing maybe. Probably. It's just I'm only at the eyes-" he finally shut his mouth noticing he was rambling out the lie too obviously. Jace was astute, he'd notice immediately.
"Yeah I know of the Cherry Blossom festival... I've seen a few photos of it as well," the others were unfamiliar to him. The idea of being able to go to Japan with Jace and Azura and see one of these festivals though, that sounded amazing. Grinning at the Japanese boy he nodded. "That'd be incredible!"
Though maybe he'd take a plane...
Planes were nice.
He didn’t know English could still be confusing to a native speaker! This made Jace sit straighter on the floor, showing much interest on the topic.
“I don’t know if you know, but in Japan we have to learn our own language too. It would take me years to fully master it.” He said, trying to cheer up Jasper. He’s not alone with this stuff!
“During the first grade, we learn to read and write the two 48-character Japanese Phonetic Letters in Hiragana and Katakana. We also learn how to read and write a few Chinese characters so we could use the Kanji writing system. After first grade, we expand our Chinese characters to 200...by the end of 9th Grade, we should have mastered all 2000 Chinese characters...and to be able to read and write in Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji.” See? Japanese was harder.
“That’s the requirement for us to attain basic literacy in Japan.” So technically, English isn’t so bad.
“What foreign language would you like to master then?” Maybe...they can learn it together, yeah? Jace isn’t picky when it comes to learning new things.
The Ravenclaw simply watched the Australian boy and wondered if he ever thought of Azura as pretty? She is a very beautiful girl with a unique set of purple eyes. He did remember meeting her in Florian’s prior to their first year in Hogwarts. He met a very clumsy girl who fell on her face...and when he helped her get up, he was fixated with her eyes. He never thought he’d see a real version since he’d only seen a few in Japanese cartoons.
And then there was another boy who didn’t like flying!
“I don’t do Quidditch. I used to hate flying, but my papa encouraged me to join a Quidditch Summer Camp three years ago...and...it isn’t so bad when you get to break the fear of it.” He’d flown and winged horse a couple of weeks ago during Professor Hernandez’s class and it was awesome! He’d choose flying horses over brooms though.
“We’re expected to attend Flying Lessons in a few days. Will you be alright with it?” It was going to be their last year to take the basic lesson so he’s more than willing to finish it.
And...wait what? Cricket? They play with
actual crickets?
Jace’s expression was a cross between shocked and curious.
“How do you play with crickets? What’s the objective of the...game? Do you...hunt for bugs in rice fields?” Because they have a lot of those in Japan. Jasper is more than welcome to play there, just saying.
The Ravenclaw could sense the budding awkwardness in between them, and the raven-haired boy immediately assumed the seiza position and bowed his head towards Jasper.
“Please don’t apologise! I was wrong for asking too many questions...I-I apologise for intruding your privacy.” Jace said, keeping his head down and forced himself not to listen to Jasper’s ramblings. He was wrong, and he ought not to know more.
He slowly looked up at the boy again when the Cherry Blossom Festival was mentioned.
“Uhm...there will be a lot of food stalls too...and lots of people walking in their traditional clothing. It would be a treat for you guys.” He said relaxing in his sitting position and nodded at Jasper’s excitement.
“I should owl my parents the soonest! They’d help us plan things out...and my dad would be the one to reach out to your parents formally. But...yeah, you should mention it first to them?”