HIKR-240 Sho~ta’s Great Adventure: The Day a Boyish Me Lost My Passport and My Childlike Innocence in Los Angeles, Bella (29)

I went to Los Angeles for the first time, traveling overseas for the first time, to see my older brother.

I finally made my long-held dream of a solo trip come true.But honestly, the moment I stepped out of the airport, my legs were shaking and I was terrified.I couldn’t speak English at all, and being small and often mistaken for a school kid back home, I managed to reunite safely with my brother in the U.S.

After we met again, I felt completely relieved and got carried away…While sightseeing in Calabasas, near where my brother was staying,I realized my passport, which I thought I had put in my pouch, was gone.

…Wait, no way…

I was seriously about to cry. Without my passport, I couldn’t go home, and I couldn’t speak English properly either. I sat down on a bench and started to panic a little.

Did you lose your passport?

When I looked up, there was a tall, slender blonde beauty. She looked like she had stepped right out of a movie, smiling as she held my passport in her hand.

You dropped this, right? It’s a Japanese passport.

Y-yes! That’s mine! Thank you so much!!

When I bowed deeply, she said, It’s okay, there there, and gently patted my head.

I wanted to thank her, so I invited her to a café, and she seemed really happy. I didn’t know the area or the shops, and I didn’t understand much English, but she kept smiling and taking the lead.She was taller than me, so I had to look up at her. I wondered how we looked to other people.She seemed to be having a great time the whole time, and she kept calling me little bear.Gathering all my courage, I invited her to my hotel, and she agreed right away.Once we got to the room, I was so nervous I couldn’t find the words, and I could only nod along to what she said.My heart started beating strangely.Her kiss was warm, and everything about her—the scent of her perfume, her body heat, everything—felt completely new.

That night, I was still just a childlike version of myself, and she gently helped me grow up.