by Kayla Morgan
“I can’t do anything with that thing. You can keep that for any conventions you feel like participating in. I’m taking you to a real wig store.”
The new store wasn’t full of cosplay but instead tons of realistic-looking wigs. The sign on the outside even boasted that they were made from real human hair, which was a good thing, but it still kind of creeped Emily out.
“Michi-chan! Is that really you?”
They both turned to look at where the elated shouts had come from. A graying, middle-aged man was striding towards them with arms opened wide.
“Yamamoto-san!” Michi answered with a huge grin. “How are you?”
Ugh. Another new person. Emily squirmed and decided to look at something else while the two started happily chatting.
Yamamoto-san’s eyes grew wide with worry. “So,” he asked, “how’s your poor father holding up?”
Michi gave a small smile and shrugged. “He’s alright. He has his bad days still, but for the most part he’s doing alright,” she paused and then continued on softly. “Although, I’m not sure he’ll ever be completely whole again.”
Small tears welled up in the man’s eyes. “Well, of course! To lose such a beautiful and confident woman like that! But he’ll be okay! I’m sure of it! After all, he still has this beautiful and confident woman to look after!” He gestured at Michi.
“Yama-kun!” Michi groaned. “You’re embarrassing me in front of my new roommate.”
“Of course! I’m so sorry!” Mr. Yamamoto apologized to Emily and bowed to her. “I’m Yamamoto-san, owner of Yama’s Wigs. I’m an old friend of the Tanaka’s, and I lost myself in the moment. But what can I help you ladies with?”
Emily went to respond, but Michi cut her off, “I need a wig cap and some U-shaped clips for my friend’s…cosplay wig. A wig just like this one. But much more realistic.” Emily was grateful she hadn’t explained her situation to Mr. Yamamoto. The less people who know, the better.
Yamamoto-san supplied them with what they needed. She smiled happily in the mirror at her improved look. Emily went to reach for her money, but Mr. Yamamoto stopped her.
“No, these are a gift. Please just take them.”
Her mouth practically dropped open, “Oh. No, sir! Really. I can pay!”
Michi chimed in too. “Yama-kun! Come on!”
He crossed his arms defiantly and lectured, “I’m serious, girls. Take the things and go. I am not going to make my favorite customer or her new friend pay! Not after all the business your family has given me.”
Michi and Emily both bowed and thanked him.
“What I do ask is that you come and visit me more often! I miss seeing you and your father. Perhaps we can all have dinner together soon.”
Michi broke out into a smile. “Of course, Yama-kun. I’ll come again soon. I promise! And I’m sure Dad would love to see you as well.”
Emily bowed, thanked him once more, and followed Michi out of the store. The creeping sensation that Emily had been trying to push down during the conversation between Michi and Yama-san finally swept over her. A really horrible realization about why Michi might know so much about wigs. She started to open her mouth to ask, but she immediately shut it again. A conversation like that felt private— not one to bring up while they were out here in public. When they had finally reached their dorm room and started unpacking things, Emily finally felt brave enough to ask.
“Hey…,” she began, “um, listen. I know we don’t really…know each other very well. But…can I ask why Yamamoto-san knew your family so well?”
Michi’s eyes clouded over. She looked away and busied herself with opening up the new wig cap they had purchased. “Oh. My mom…. We found out a few years back that she had breast cancer. We were still living in France back then. Anyway, while Mom was going through treatments, she obviously lost her hair. The Yamamoto’s had been friends with my parents for years. When they found out, Yamamoto-san started mailing my mother new wigs every other week. He kept saying it was his way to pay us back for our years of friendship, but I’m pretty sure it’s just because he felt sorry for us. It made Mom really happy though, going through all the different styles and colors. She said she felt like a supermodel. Plus, she could still go out and work in our community garden, which had always been her favorite thing to do. She enjoyed talking with our neighbors. Catching up with their lives. Helping them out with their problems. That is, until she got too sick to go out anymore.” She carefully unwrapped the new wig cap from its bag to avoid Emily’s eye contact. “She passed away not long after that.”
Emily’s stomach churned. She had figured that was the story from overhearing their earlier conversation, but it still made her heart hurt.
“I’m so sorry to hear that, Michi-chan,” she replied softly.
“It’s been hard, but it’s fine. I’ll be fine. I didn’t want to come to school at all. But now I’m starting to think that maybe it won’t be so bad. I definitely can’t wait to see what happens with all this craziness.” Michi beamed and gestured at all of Emily.
Her smile was contagious; Emily beamed right back at her. Then Michi began to explain to Emily how to use the wig cap and new hair pins to keep her hair from showing under her new wig.
This time she looked in the mirror and felt a new feeling. Not the panic and worry she had felt this morning, but hope. She was lucky…so incredibly lucky to be where she was. She could do this. She had someone here at school rooting for her. And for a moment, Emily Johnson felt like she could do anything.
chapter five
Even though her nerves were a complete mess on her first day of classes, Emily sat in awe of the fact that she was able to jump-start right into her future career. For the past two years, she had been getting her general education classes out of the way at Middleton College. She was so glad that she was able to dive right into the classes for her major. She had been to Intro to Animation and History of Manga so far. Tomorrow, she would be in her Story-Lining and Intro to Manga Illustration classes.
Her backpack was stuffed to the brim with all her required books and supplies for her courses, and she shifted it to try and give her aching back a break. She played with her new long hair again and reveled in how well her plan was going. Her first classes had gone off without a hitch. She had raised her hand when her name had been called and no one even blinked an eye at the fact that she didn’t look like a typical “Johnson Emily”. If no one paid attention to her in her first class, she doubted she had anything to fear from the rest of her classes. Michi must have done an excellent job of making her look her new part.
She shifted her backpack again and headed up to her last class of the day, 2D Design Art. As she walked into the room, her new sensei smiled at her. She was a pretty woman with her black hair cut in a short bob and wearing a pencil skirt and flowery blouse.
Emily was delighted to find that this room had windows, and she headed towards the back of the room so she could sit by one. She spread her supplies out on the table in front of her and looked around the room. It was the biggest classroom she had been in so far.
Must be one of the required art classes for everyone. If not, the room wouldn’t be so—
Emily’s thoughts froze mid-stream as her eyes caught a glimpse of the figure coming in the room. That same tall body. That same handsome face with the beautiful swished-up hair. A tingle of panic ran down her entire body. The boy she had made a fool of herself in front of—Kenzou Akio —was going to be in her class.
Emily threw her body down as low as she could into the seat. Maybe he wouldn’t even see her? She would just hide really small over here, and there were plenty of seats in this room, right?
But as her eyes darted around the room, she realized that all of the seats in the class had been taken up already. There was only one seat left – and it was directly beside her.
Oh my Osamu! What is this? I’m not the main character in some shoujo anime!
Akio’s eyes drifted towards
the seat beside her and began to head that way.
She couldn’t keep hiding under the desk, right? That would make it even more obvious that she was hiding something. Taking in a huge breath, Emily hoisted herself back up in her seat. Her eyes flickered around the room as she decided where to look. Where would a normal person look? At the person coming to sit beside them or outside the window to ignore them? Her panic rose with every step that Akio took towards her.
Just look at him, she thought with resolve. You don’t want to seem rude.
But as soon as those brown eyes turned and met her own, Emily realized she had made a huge mistake. Her whole face turned red, and she immediately threw her gaze to the window to try and cover up her embarrassment. Maybe he didn’t notice? She could barely hear the sound of the chair next to her scraping across the floor over the sound of her hammering heartbeat.
“Welcome, minna-san,” her new sensei began. “My name is Nakamura-sensei, and this is 2D Art Design, one of the required courses for your art major.”
So it is a required course. No wonder Akio’s here. He’s a photography major.
Nakamura-sensei continued on, explaining that her course would mostly consist of working on a professional portfolio, which would include five different pieces of work that showed their range as an artist. Emily’s pulse slowed as her sensei continued to explain the different pieces they would be working on. The only beauty she needed in her life was art. Not the boy sitting beside her.
She was so frustrated that her ‘avoid-the-handsome-boy’ plan hadn’t worked, but she couldn’t change the past. So instead, she focused all her energy on going through the rest of the syllabus with Nakamura-sensei. She had even almost forgotten that Akio was there at all. Almost.
“And that about sums it up. As you can see, this class is not to be taken lightly. The portfolio that you make in this class will be used to help you in gaining an internship next year. So, of course, while all of your classes are important, you will probably find yourself working on the homework for this class a majority of the time.” Nakamura-sensei shifted her syllabus out of the way and her eyes went wide when she saw the piece of paper underneath. “Oh! I almost forgot. Let’s take attendance. I want to make sure you all get your credit for being here.”
She read quickly through the list of names. Emily acknowledged her name once it had been called and immediately felt Akio’s gaze latch onto her, only lifting long enough for him to acknowledge his own name before settling back onto her again.
“With the remainder of the class, I would like you to open up your sketchbooks and start working out some ideas for your first piece. Remember, you are trying to capture as much of the different elements of 2D design as you can. These elements are line, shape, color, texture, value, and space. Try creating designs that emphasize one or two of these elements at a time.”
The tension she had been holding her shoulders lessened as she realized that these were terms she had heard plenty of times in her art classes back home. Eager to get started, she opened her sketchbook and began flipping to a blank page.
“Wow! You’re really good.”
Emily jumped and looked over to Akio, who was leaning towards her and staring at her sketchbook.
He smiled one of those wonderful half-smiles she liked so much. “Konnichiwa! My name’s Kenzou Akio.”
“Hajimemashita, Kenzou-san,” she replied with a shaky voice. “My name is Johnson Emily.”
“You can just call me Akio.” He flashed a smile again. “So! I noticed your name. Are you an American?”
Okay. She had already done this once with Michi. Just pull out the same lie.
“I’m Japanese-American. My dad is American though, which is why I have an American name. I just moved here from America.”
Akio’s eyes shone even more as he blurted out, “You wouldn’t happen to know a Clarissa, would you?”
Emily’s heart skipped a beat. He was asking about her! Well, technically “Clarissa-chan”, but whatever.
She cleared her throat and tried to keep her cool. “Um, well, America is a pretty big place!” she replied with a nervous chuckle. “So unless you know where she’s from and her last name, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
Oh my Osamu. Does he know where I’m from? Mrs. Kenzou would know my last name, right?
“Oh, of course. Gomen’nasai. I actually don’t know where she’s from, and Obaa-chan can’t seem to remember her last name,” Akio mumbled. “Sorry for bothering you. Sumimasen. I’ll leave you alone now.”
A sharp twinge jerked her heart as she looked at poor Akio’s defeated face.
“You don’t have to do that. I, um, I don’t really have very many friends yet— you know since I’m new. And, um,” Emily stammered, trying to keep her embarrassment at bay, “I-I wouldn’t mind having you as a friend, Akio-kun.”
Kami-sama above! What the hell was that, Johnson? You’re supposed to have only known the guy for two seconds, and now you want to be best friends with him? Could you be anymore obvious?
But if Akio thought that her statement was strange, he certainly didn’t let it show. Instead that beautiful, wide grin lit up his face as he replied, “Awesome! Friends.”
They both turned back to their sketchpads in silence, and Emily continued to mentally berate herself for being ridiculously awkward, again, in front of Akio. She was also acutely aware of the fact that she still had tons of pages with his face plastered all over them in the sketchbook that was sitting directly in front of her. What if he asked to see her sketchbook, like Michi had? She had to hide those pages somewhere in her dorm room as soon as she got back. But while Emily was a ball of nerves, Akio just hummed away while sorting through the pictures that were haphazardly taped inside his sketchbook.
Hundreds of wallet-sized photos were strewn across the pages with tiny comments and arrows and captions written in messy handwriting all around them. Emily tried to focus on her sketchbook; she needed to see if she had an old drawing she could use as her first portfolio piece. But Akio’s sketchbook was way too distracting.
She eventually gave up. “So Akio-kun. What’s that all about?” she asked, pointing to his hodgepodge of pictures.
“Oh! I’m a photography major, so I don’t use my sketchbook like a normal art major. I’m actually really terrible at drawing and all that stuff.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “With my camera, all I have to do is go out into this already-amazing world and do my best to capture it in its most perfect moments.”
His face shone as he spoke. The sparks in his eyes were so distracting that Emily hadn’t even realized he was done speaking until it was already too late. Akio shifted nervously in his seat under Emily’s continuous stare and then eventually continued on with a twinge of self-consciousness in his voice. “Gomen. I get a little mushy when I start talking about my photography.”
Emily shook her head frantically, angry at herself for making him feel weird. “Oh my Osamu! No, it’s my fault,” she assured him. “I just never thought about photography that way before.” She let out a short awkward laugh. “I just use my camera to capture scenery sometimes, so I can put it in my drawings.”
“Well, I always wished I could draw like a “normal” art major, but no such luck. So I’m assuming you’re a manga major?” He asked, pointing at her drawings.
Emily nodded.
“That’s so cool! So what are your favorites? I’m a big fan of Naruto and Fairy Tale — really original, right?” He said, with an adorable eye roll.
She shrugged and replied, “Nothing wrong with that. They’re popular for a reason after all.”
Akio waited for a beat and then asked again, “So Johnson-san, which ones do you like?”
The nerves crawled up her back as he asked the question again. Emily had spent most of her life avoiding these questions back home. People who asked her about her drawings during class didn’t want to hear about her new favorite “ship”, relationship, from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. They didn
’t understand what a tsundere was or that that character was not a boy, she just had short hair and dressed like one. Her obsession was deemed “weird” for her high-class, private school-filled life and, unlike some otakus, she didn’t have the self-confidence to parade her passion around despite all the ugly comments. So after some life-changing conversations with her peers in middle school, and being shut down constantly by her parents at home, Emily had learned to keep her mouth shut about her secret life in order to keep everyone else out of it.
Poor Akio didn’t pick up on Emily’s inner turmoil though. “Oh, I get it!” Akio prodded further. “You just have so many that you can’t decide, right?”
She shifted so that her long black hair would cover her face. “No, it’s not that,” she explained. “It’s just...I don’t want to freak you out.”
Akio laughed. “Freak me out? I think you forget— I’m an art major! It’s pretty much impossible. We’re all a little weird here.”
She peaked up through her hair. “You’re sure?”
“Positive!” His perky little smile was so cute.
“Okay then...you asked for it.”
Emily launched into the list of all her favorite manga and how illustrators like Osamu Tezuka have always been such an inspiration to her.
“He’s pretty much the god of manga!” she explained.
Akio chuckled. “Yup, I’m familiar with his work. Is that why you said his name earlier?”
Emily gave him a look of confusion.
“You said ‘oh my Osamu’ when you were apologizing earlier.”
Emily tugged nervously on her new curls. “Ah. Right. Yeah, it’s just a thing I say. He’s the ‘god of manga’. I’m trying to be a mangaka. It made sense at the time. I guess it’s kind of weird.”
Akio shook his head. “No way. I think it’s cool. Maybe I should come up with a catchphrase like that. I wonder who the god of photography is?”
Emily’s heart lightened. He didn’t think she was weird? Instead, he was listening to her ramblings intently and even nodded along in agreement now and then.