Poor Kid

So lately this kid, K-kun, has been showing up at my house. On the regular. Like 4 days in a row. He's a 6th grader at one of my schools and I believe has a learning disability, but is generally fine. He's not a part of the separate classes often held for those with more challenging situations, and regularly takes part in English as well as other subjects without drawing too much attention to himself.

That said, he's also famous around our school for a number of things. He doesn't listen to instructions. He sneaks out of class and disappears somewhere into the school. He addresses teachers as "anta," a shortened form of "anata," which basically means "you" (like saying, hey you). Those in his group in class are regularly called upon to corral him into class. He also can be incredibly stubborn.

He has always taken a shine to me, perhaps because I am one of the few people in the school who answer him earnestly and truthfully. I like the kid, he's funny, energetic, and honest. Like a great number of my kids at this school, he knows where I live. I used to have a 4th grader in my apartment complex, and now I have a 3rd grader. I see her homeroom teacher every once in a while, and I often spy children going into the stationary shop across the street. I used to play catch in our parking lot with the 4th grader, actually. It's no secret, but until this year, no child has taken it upon themselves to come up to my apartment and ring my doorbell. Well, K-kun has adopted a rather disturbing habit. He camps out in front of my door on the 3rd floor, and calls my name out. He yells at neighbors returning home, asking if they've seen me. He bangs on my door and rings the doorbell. He attempts to peek into my window.

The other day, I came home from school sick as a dog and just wanting to sleep. I could hear K-kun yelling as soon as I got out of my car, and walked up the stairs to hear him saying things like "Andrew, get out here! (Andrew, dete koi!)." I asked him what he was doing and he responded by ringing the doorbell and saying he was looking for me. He proceeded to pepper me with about 4 or 5 different questions for the next 45 minutes, during which I made and consumed 2 cups of tea and made comments about being sick.

Another time I woke up (in the afternoon) to him calling my name softly through my window. In fact, the first time he came, he didn't know my apartment number, so he was just shouting my name in our apartment complex's parking lot. On Sunday, I had told him I was headed for a baseball game early in the morning so I wouldn't be there. He showed up at 8 am and waited for me to leave my apartment with Akina. He asked me a number of things, and proceeded to inform me that the bus I was taking didn't run on the weekend and I wouldn't be able to go to the game. I would have appreciated his advice if I didn't know for a fact it was wrong.

I can't help but wonder what this kid needs right now. Does he just need a friend? I know he isn't the most popular kid in 6th grade, and he has confided in me that he likes a girl in his class. He's also said he likes me, in a way that one might misunderstand quite easily. On Saturday, when I had work all day, he apparently went to my apartment 5 or 6 times over the course of the day, waiting for me to get back.

I'm not sure what to think. If he just needs a friend, that's fine, I'll play catch with him. But it certainly doesn't seem to be normal in Japan for kids to do this to their own teachers. When I informed my school rather casually that he had shown up at my house, there were shocked gasps and I heard a TEACHER say "stalker!" Now that's weird.