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Writing about that T-shirt brought back some memories. My Japanese boyfriend at the time took me to the beach. I had learned by then that the T-shirt created some giggles, so I brought it along. We rented some "space" in a hut and changed into bathing suits, the hut was some 400 meters from the actual beach, it being a scorching day I wore the T-shirt over my bikini. He didn't look to happy, a kind of wry smile. We walked a narrow path between the dunes. Halfway there a young couple came towards us.
When she saw my T-shirt she started to laugh, uncontrollably actually. Japanese girls usually cover their mouth and giggle a lot. This girl was splitting her spleen, she laughed so hard she couldn't stand up and had to lay down on the ground. I kind of smiled in appreciation, thinking how great that I made her day. But then it began, her boyfriend started yelling at her to get up from the ground, calling her all kinds of names (my vocabulary expanded considerably that day) and then he started kicking her. Now there was a shocker. Getting some laughs, great. Having people kicked at because of those laughs, not a pleasant experience.
I asked my boyfriend, and he said that he tried to tell me. I said "You never told me this could happen". Goes to show the need to understand the unspoken. Needless to say I never wore the T-shirt open in public again.
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