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From the age of four to seven, I spent most of my time and energy to visit Emi’s house. To add to my strict grandparents, my baby sister was born and I had one more thing to escape from. It wasn’t just for the splendor of Emi’s house. Unlike at my house, I received VIP treatment at Emi’s house. Since I’d been there so often, Emi’s family bought a pair of kid-sized slippers for my exclusive use, which was quite rare on the market back then. Every time I entered the house, my special slippers waited in the hall. Because Emi’s grandparents who were go-betweens for my parents’ marriage retreated into their room, Emi’s parents were seldom at home, and Emi and her two brothers were out for school and work, I played mostly alone there. My favorite ways to spend time there were going up and down the wide stairs repeatedly, wandering around the entire house, and walking in the lawn yard round and round along the house that made their collie in the kennel bark at me every lap. When Emi or her parents were at home, the attractions multiplied. Emi’s mother would take out a piece of expensive cake from their gigantic refrigerator and served me on their big dining table. Emi would take me into her own room and let me listen to her music box that had a waterwheel on top, rotating with the music. Emi’s father would take me to their vast rooftop garden and make the top cover open and close automatically with the switch. I was never bored with the view from there, which looked over my hometown and beyond. Usually, my grandmother or my mother would come to pick me up, but they were sometimes too busy to do so until evening. In that case, Emi’s father would let me take a bath in their gorgeous bathroom. The beautiful bathtub with decorative tiles would be filled with hot emerald color water as they used bath salts. And when my grandmother or my mother showed up, my Disneyland would close for the day. She would apologize to them for my visit and tell me not to go there any more on our way home each time. The luxury I enjoyed at Emi’s house had seized me and I would go there next day anyway…
