Seduction Game (Art and Soul)

by Candy J. Starr

  What did he start a conversation for if it bored him? I’d happily sit in silence. And yeah, I would go home. Except I couldn’t. I had reasons for being here. Reasons that went far beyond just wanting to have some exchange year to look good on my resume. I wasn’t about to tell Sunshine that, though.

  “If I went home, then I’d not be around to annoy you.”

  I folded my arms. Even though we hated each other, I was supposed to hang out with Junichi. We were in the some of the same classes at university and, for some reason, his parents had decided he needed to practice English at home. They kept pushing us together. After the first week, Junichi seemed to forget when it was time for the English lessons though, and I sure didn’t remind him. His English was plenty good enough. He only used it to snark at me anyway.

  I thought he was a huge douche, and he clearly hated me. Which made me wonder, why would he’d come out on a Saturday night to pick me up? Either he’d have been at home, asleep, or out with his equally annoying friends.

  “Date didn’t go well?” he said.

  I screwed up my nose. I wasn’t about to discuss my private life with him. What had happened hurt deep inside and he was the last person I’d show that to.

  We entered the tunnel. Just a few minutes and we’d be home, out of this uncomfortable silence. But then we stopped. There was a line of stopped cars in front of us and no way to turn. How the hell does traffic even get banked up like that so late on a Saturday night? Being stuck in the car with him was bad enough. Being stuck in a tunnel with no way out was hell.

  I shivered. My t-shirt was still damp and the heater in the car didn’t help. Goosepimples covered my arms. I’d never be warm again. But I had that t-shirt in my bag.

  “Keep your eyes on the road, Sunshine.”

  I pulled my bag onto my knee and grabbed out the t-shirt I had in there. Then I quickly peeled the wet shirt off. Well, I tried to do it quickly. The damp fabric clung to my damp skin. I had to squirm and wiggle to get out of it.

  “You can’t do that here!”

  God, was he his own grandmother? If you looked up the dictionary definition of uptight, you’d find his picture, that’s for sure. He never relaxed. He rarely smiled.

  “Huh?”

  “Anyone could see you.”

  I glanced around. We were at a complete stop in the middle of the tunnel. It was a single lane, no cars beside us. Just the headlights of cars going in the other direction. Maybe, if the person in front of us looked in their rear vision mirror, they might make out something but other than that, there was no one to see.

  “Who? Anyway, I’m wearing my bra.”

  I tugged the t-shirt down around me.

  “Why do you do things like that?” I could feel his eye roll even if I couldn’t see it.

  “You totally looked when I told you not to. I feel violated now. I told you to keep your eyes on the road.”

  “Well, I didn’t know that you’d be changing your clothes. Why do you even have a change of clothes with you? Oh…”

  Yeah, he’d worked it out. And, if I’d decided to have a sleepover with my boyfriend, it was none of his business. Discussing my sex life with him would not ever happen.

  He touched my arm. That made me shiver all the more.

  “You’re freezing.” He leant over to the back seat and then handed me a hoodie. “Here, put this on if you’re cold.”

  I wanted to tell him to keep his hoodie but I was way too cold. Why was he even being so considerate? I could look after myself. It was bad enough that I had to be grateful to him for picking me up, extra kindness just made me feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable but nicely warm. It was a super snuggly hoodie. I wondered if he’d notice if I didn’t return it. The only problem was that it smelt of Junichi. I’d never noticed the way he smelt before. Well, you don’t, do you? When you are around people you don’t exactly sniff them. But that hoodie made his smell come into my consciousness. And it was a nice smell. None of that aggressive man odour most guys have. Not that he smelt like roses either. Just comforting.

  I had to stop dwelling on the Junichi smell.

  “You could turn the heater up too, you know.” My voice was snappier than I’d intended.

  “You were with Kenji?” he asked.

  “Yep, not that it’s any of your business.” I wasn’t even sure how he knew about Kenji, maybe gossip around the school. Maybe he was in the gossip club. I had no idea about those things. Then I realised I was being rude. After all, he had come to pick me up. “Sorry. And thanks for coming to get me.”

  “I figured that out from the ‘Kenji equals douchebag’ bit.”

  Oh yeah, that made sense. I laughed. He even smiled. Wow, first time I’d seen that. He had this fake smile that he used sometimes like when his parents praised him or he did well at school or even with his shitty friends but you could tell straight away that it wasn’t real. It was the fakest of fake smiles. No one else seemed to notice, though. Or maybe they didn’t care. Maybe if he went through the motions of smiling, that was enough for them.

  This smile was like he was genuinely amused, though. It was an amazing smile. Tangible almost. That smile hit you right in the chest like a beam of light. I wanted to say something else to amuse him just so I could see it again.

  The heater must’ve kicked in because I’d gotten really warm.

  “I didn’t mean to send that message to you. It’s true though. He is.”

  “I could’ve told you that.”

  “Well, why didn’t you?”

  He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Would you have listened if I did?”

  He wasn’t wrong about that. I’d have never listened to advice from him.

  “He’s a shit head. He was never really interested in dating me. He just wanted some ‘white girl’ badge to prop up his ego. Now that I think about it, he never was that interested in me, as a person. The whole time we dated, he only ever wanted to talk about things back home. What we ate, what movies we watched. That’s weird, isn’t it?”

  I hadn’t meant to tell him anything but the anger inside me bubbled out. I had to tell someone. It’d been a punch to my ego when I realised that the only reason Kenji wanted me was for bragging rights. There was much more to it than that but I wasn’t going to confess my darkest secrets. There were some things I didn’t talk about with anyone. Hell, if I opened those floodgates, he would hate me even more. It was better to act tough and mouthy.

  Junichi nodded. He didn’t really turn toward me, just gave a little half-turn, but he had this weird look of understanding.

  I’d only been living with them for a month but, in that time, Junichi had never dated. He went out with his group of knob head friends quite often but never just with one girl. God knows, he’d have his pick of them. I heard girls talking in class. Junichi’s so rich, he’d make a good husband, that kind of thing. He’s good-looking but, more importantly, he has a bright future. Beat the hell out of me why girls still in university would even be thinking of marriage. At home, most of the chicks in my classes thought about sex or sometimes a more serious relationship but marriage was something way off in the uncertain future.

  The girls here just thought of a rich husband as a prize.

  So maybe he did understand. A little. It kinda sucked being thought of as a prize.

  I glanced at him out the corner of my eye but he’d gone back to his hands on the steering wheel, looking straight ahead position. His hair hung into his eyes, just a lock. I knew Mrs Tachibana hated his hair. It was the only thing marring his “perfect son” image. She nagged him to get it cut but he ignored her. Why would he be so stubborn about that?

  It’s not like his hair was any business of mine. But there was something compelling about that lock.

  Not one of those girls who wanted to marry him knew him like I knew him. They didn’t know what a lazy slob he was or that he was happy for his sister to do all the household chores, while he did nothing. Maybe they didn’t even
care. If you were the type of girl who thought so much about marriage, maybe you’d be happy being someone’s domestic slave.

  He looked over at me. His gaze lingered on me until it made me uncomfortable. Why did he look at me like that? I turned the heater down because this car had gotten far too hot.

  “Audrey, you have to be careful. Things here are different than you are used to.” His words actually seemed warm and full of concern, not like the usual condescending advice he gave me. I wondered again why he’d bothered coming out in middle of the night in the rain to pick me up from the station. He could’ve just as easily deleted my message. I’d have survived until morning, even if it would’ve been an uncomfortable night.

  I wanted to ask him more but the traffic started moving and we fell silent again.

  CHAPTER 3

  I heard a noise downstairs.

  “Shit, we have to turn off the console.” I did not want anyone walking in on us gaming when Shun was supposed to be at cram school.

  “Just let me save the game,” Shun said.

  “Okay, but no volume. If your parents catch us, you’ll be dead and I’ll be sent home.”

  Shun sighed as I turned the volume down but he knew the score.

  “Remember what we say?”

  He nodded. “Cram school was closed because the toilets got backed up. Then I start to tell them the details so they don’t ask any more questions.”

  “Good kid.” And then I picked my controller back up and killed him while he was distracted. Teach him to trust people.

  A cupboard door slammed in the kitchen.

  “That’s not Mum and Dad,” he said. “They never slam doors. Well, Dad does sometimes when he’s drunk. I bet it’s Junichi.”

  That seemed more likely. If he caught us though, he’d probably tell his parents or give me that smug look of superiority.

  “We could jump out the window with our bags and come in the front door, pretending we just got back,” Shun said.

  “We’re on the second floor! I’ll hurt myself.”

  A sad fact of life was that I could be a bit clumsy.

  Gentle footsteps sounded up the stairwell.

  “It’s not Junichi, it’s Yumi,” Shun said. “Junichi thumps.”

  He wasn’t wrong on that. Junichi was like a herd of elephants on those stairs. I couldn’t even imagine how a human being made so much noise. But why was Yumi home? She never got home until later. Shun and I had the house to ourselves until at least seven, usually later.

  It wasn’t like it was any of my business. Maybe she’d reached the limit of sticking flowers in vases. That had to get tired real soon. I turned the sound up so that Shun and I could keep playing. At least Yumi would keep her mouth shut, she rarely talked to anyone.

  After dinner, I had to study. Even though my degree was in Fine Arts and most of my work was done in the studio, I had to do actual study stuff as part of this exchange. One class in Japanese language and one in some aspect of Japanese culture. I’d picked the haiku class because I’d thought it would be super easy. I mean those things only have a few words in them so they’d be quick to write, you’d think. Except it’s not like that at all. There are all these rules about things, not just the number of words but all kinds of stuff. My Grade 4 teacher had totally lied to me.

  That was my study. I had to write a stupid haiku about summer. With seasonal words and crap.

  To make it worse, haiku was the class I shared with Junichi. He was good at haiku. Probably because he was a turd head and into that kind of thing. He probably had a great great grandfather who was a famous haiku guy or something. That’s what this family was like.

  I’d just got started working on it when I heard Junichi and Yumi talking. That in itself was weird. They didn’t talk or do normal sibling things in this family. The only time I’d heard Junichi talk to Yumi was to ask her to get him a drink when he could’ve gotten up and got it himself perfectly easily.

  I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I’m not like that. Well, maybe a little. And I could hear their voices perfectly clearly from my room. Yumi’s room was next to mine. Then there was a bathroom between her room and Shun’s. Junichi had his own massive room up on the next level. I’d not seen it, since I had no desire to check out his bedroom, but it had its own ensuite and crap.

  “You need to talk more. Not too much but ask him questions. Make him talk about himself,” was what Junichi said.

  “Okay. I try.”

  “Well, if you want him to like you, you have to try harder. Laugh at his jokes, giggle even. Guys like that kind of thing.”

  Wow, that jerk was worse than I thought. His advice to his sister was shit. Yumi wasn’t the kind of girl to giggle.

  “What did you wear on your date?” he asked.

  She murmured something I didn’t hear.

  “That’s okay but you should try to make yourself cuter. And a little silly. Guys don’t like girls who are too smart. Under no circumstances should you let him know that you are a mathematical genius.”

  What? He’d said that?

  I couldn’t hold it any longer. It was none of my business but my blood boiled. She’d end up so screwed if she listened to him. I’d jumped up and ran out to the hallway.

  “Don’t listen to him,” I said as I flung open Yumi’s door. “He’s telling you shit.”

  “This is a private conversation,” Junichi replied. He didn’t even look at me.

  “Not when I can hear it in my room, it isn’t. If you want to be private, keep your voice down.”

  Yumi turned to me with interest. If she wanted my advice, I’d give it to her. Far better she got it from me than him.

  “You like a guy and want to date him?”

  She nodded.

  “Here’s the thing. The most important thing. Don’t change yourself to make a guy like you. If he’s the right guy for you, he’ll like you as you are. Don’t be cutesy. If he likes that kind of girl, he’s a jerk. And don’t just let him talk about himself.”

  Junichi had folded his arms and huffed at me.

  “What do you know about what guys like? I’m a guy. I know.” Even though he put on a calm front, his nostrils twitched a little.

  “You want a girl to act like she’s stupid around you? That’s so lame. No girl should make herself smaller so that the guy she’s with feels bigger. If he can’t cope with her awesomeness, he’s not worth the effort.”

  “You don’t understand Japanese ways.”

  He swept his hand at me as though implying that my outfit proved that. It sure as hell wasn’t a cutesy outfit. No bows or ruffles. No crappy cartoon character print. Just a regular t-shirt and ripped jeans.

  “I don’t need to. I understand basic human rights. That’s universal.”

  I folded my arms and stared back at him. He was so wrong. I’d stare him down, even if I couldn’t talk common sense into his head.

  “But I really like him,” Yumi said.

  I wasn’t sure if she was saying it to me or to Junichi. Her voice came out so small, as though she wasn’t sure she even had a say in this.

  “You are an awesome girl. You’re pretty and sweet and have lots of good qualities. Why change them if this guy doesn’t appreciate them. Look for someone who likes you for who you are. What if you get serious? Do you want this guy to work out in a year’s time or two year’s time or whenever that he’s been dating a fraud? Your whole relationship will be based on lies.”

  She gave me a small grin. “That is true.”

  I nodded.

  “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll meet other guys. It’s not like there’s any guy shortage in the world. Wait for one who likes you for yourself.”

  Yumi bowed her head but there was a grin on her face. She really was a sweet girl, just a bit shy and quiet. That wasn’t a bad thing, it just made it hard to get to know her. The rest of the family were happy enough talking to me in English but she got nervous and flustered, which didn’t help.

  “
You’re wrong,” Junichi said. “Don’t listen to her. She’s hardly someone you should take advice from.”

  With that, he left the room.

  “Whoa.”

  “Junichi-kun is very firm in his ideas,” Yumi said.

  She didn’t have to tell me but firm was not one of the words I’d use to describe him. Stubborn, arrogant, full of his own self-importance, they all seemed like more appropriate things.

  “Is that the outfit you wore on your date?” I said. She was still wearing a cute dress. It wasn’t overly frou-frou like the way a lot of girls at uni dressed. Even in the art studio! Yumi’s dress was a fairly plain navy shift dress with white trim. It suited her.

  She nodded.

  “It really suits you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Are you really a maths genius?” I’d never even suspected that. The parents praised Junichi all the time, for every little achievement, and Shun wasn’t big on achieving stuff except in gaming. I’d never heard them praise Yumi.

  “I guess.”

  She smiled again but then there was nothing left to say. It seemed like I should linger and give her some encouragement but she gave me no opening to chat more. I didn’t want to just stand around in her room. I gave her the thumbs up.

  “Got to get back to my haiku,” I said. I sighed.

  That wasn’t at all unawkward, but I hoped Yumi didn’t think she had to act like a bimbo around guys. I got enough of that at school. I really couldn’t see how it would lead to a happy relationship. Maybe it didn’t. I just had to look at Mr and Mrs Tachibana. They were like two strangers who lived in the same house. Heaven help Yumi if she ended up like her mother. That woman had so much crap repressed in her, if she ever exploded it’d be like a shit volcano.

  CHAPTER 4

  I headed downstairs to get a drink before even thinking about my haiku but there was only that disgusting green tea drink in the fridge. Maybe it would put me in a haiku writing mood, though.

  I poured a glass then shut the fridge.

  Shit, when I turned, Junichi stood in front of me. I nearly dropped my glass.