How to Date Japanese Idols (The Tenshi Series)

by Cilia Jaspers

  She could depend on herself. She could trust herself. Other people, the few she let in, had her loyalty, and she enjoyed their company. She even loved them, and she was grateful for them, but she also knew that life and other loves could pull them away from her. And she had grown ok with the idea.

  People followed their own joys and true friends let them. She was fine with being alone.

  But would she be fine if she grew to feel something about this man?

  She huffed and threw herself on the bed.

  “Ow,” she said, pulling herself off of her purse. She dug through her polka dot bag and took out her book. Jane Eyre. One of her first true friends. She had been so sad when she’d lost it last week. And now it had come back to her, as so few things rarely did.

  She flipped open the front cover and looked again at her labels and addresses. The home of her adopted parents, the Senator and his wife. The boarding school she had attended for almost a decade, the place she had met her best friends: Bethany, Maia, and Cassy. Study abroad trips to Italy, Mexico, Germany. Work in Korea and then finally Taiwan, the place she had lived and worked for over a year.

  She flipped the page again, and found a message from Yoh. To Eloise, An autograph not written for a friend, but hopefully and eventually written from one. I enjoyed reading with you. I apologize for the invasion of your privacy. I hope you find only half the joy I did reading the notes in the margins.

  She smiled, despite herself.

  Flipping through, she noticed he had made several notes, adding his thoughts to her own. During the gypsy scene, he had written, “Such an anxious feeling. Unconfirmed love. Does it make Rochester slightly pathetic? Also, do you think there were feathers in his turban?”

  Her lips quirked up in a surprised smile. So strange to think that Yoh would be interested in this sort of thing and fluent enough to read it in one night. She continued flipping through pages.

  Next to a section discussing Jane’s plainness, when she compares herself unfavorably to the beautiful and bewitching Blanche Ingram, he had written, “In a world full of decoration and pretense, plain is no longer plain, is it?”

  She slammed the book closed and took a deep breath. This was dangerous. She could have been friends with Yoh, the sweetly foolish member of Tenshi, but he wasn’t what he seemed to be. His fluency with English was the first clue. This marginalia another. Publicly, Yoh acted as though even Japanese was a challenge, but this . . .

  What did he want with her? And could she give it to him without risking too much?

  *

  Stepping onto Stage Suite 12, Gakino made his way around the busy set. He’d landed a few hours ago, talked to his manager, changed into his wardrobe, and was on his way to hair and make-up, all without any sleep.

  The noise and bustle, which usually energized him, made him feel out of step today. His mind kept wandering back to Eloise, especially after Kishimoto, the CEO of KM Entertainment had told him he was on probation for the next month.

  He was not allowed to travel, even to see his folks in Chiba, and he certainly couldn’t leave the country. He was also going to do an extra TV spot every week this month. That way he would remember that he had a job to do. He was under contract. The success of Tenshi was his responsibility, and the pride of KM Entertainment rested on the backs of its stars. And he better not forget it.

  He was exhausted.

  But he had no regrets.

  Walking into hair and make-up, he saw he had arrived first. The others must still be in wardrobe. A stylist rushed up to him, mumbling to her assistant about how rushed they were. One of them starting applying make-up, making angry sounds when she had to take out a razor to clean up the application. The other started spraying his hair and pulling it forward around his eyes, narrowing it to points around his ears and near his jawline.

  He looked down a little, hoping to make it easier for them. They were standing on their toes to reach him. He fussed with the fringe on his shirt before the stylist pushed his hand away.

  “What were you doing?”

  He looked up at Hiroya’s question. Hiro walked in fussing with the fringe on the neck of his shirt before the stylist pushed his hands away too.

  “If it’s not feathers, it’s fringe, right?”

  “Seriously, Gakino. Where were you? Kishimoto-san came to talk to all of us last night. I don’t think I’ve heard the word responsibility more in my entire life. What were you doing?”

  He paused, wondering at Hiro’s question, “Look, I’ve just spent the last two hours being reprimanded by Yoshida and by Kishimoto. I am not in the mood to re-hash it. I went to return the book and got caught up. Simple as that.”

  “Book?” Ryo walked into the room, seeming not to notice the leather ties that ran up his arms or the heavy boots he was wearing. At ease, he plopped onto a couch in the dressing room, rolling his ever-present dice around in his right palm. Stylists rushed over to him, too, starting with his hair.

  “Gakino found a book and took it to someone.” Hiro answered.

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know,” Hiro said, shrugging his shoulders.

  “Something our leader doesn’t know? Impossible.”

  “Hey! He didn’t come back yesterday with us. How would I know?”

  “Really? He wasn’t with us? You know, in the van, I didn’t notice the missing giant who pushes his seat back into my shins every trip. And on the plane, I thought that empty seat was for my convenience. Why are you guys being so secretive? What’s going on?”

  Hiro shrugged again, and Gakino wondered if he should tell the others. If Hiro didn’t think it was a good idea...Maybe it wasn’t. Was he in more trouble than he thought? There might be a limit to the amount of calls you could ignore from your manager.

  “Look, I just went to return a book. A fan left a book at the signing. It was no big deal.” Gakino said, hoping to end the conversation.

  “You went to a fan’s house?” Hiro asked, his eyes large, almost shocked.

  “Yes,” he said slowly, trying to understand Hiro’s reaction. He wasn’t this good an actor.

  This was unbelievable. “Hiro,” Gakino said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re the one who told me to go. How could you forget?”

  “Eh?”

  Gakino sighed. “Seriously, Hiro. Listen to me. If you’re not really awake, do not come out of your room, and don’t talk to people. I asked you what I should do, and you told me to go. And now you don’t even remember.”

  Ryo laughed so hard, he was bent in half, holding his stomach.

  Shun walked out of the changing room. The stylists had dressed him in carefully tailored black slacks, a sleeveless button-up white shirt, and a black vest embroidered with a royal purple pattern. His long hair was pulled back in a tight knot, giving his face a severe look. “What’s all the noise?”

  “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” Gakino complained.

  “So you’re finally back, and we’re fighting?” Shun asked.

  “I actually talked to you?” Hiro asked, talking over Shun.

  “Yes!” Gakino yelled.

  “I don’t know what’s more ridiculous, that Leader doesn’t remember or that you took his advice.” Ryo said.

  “I was just trying to return a book. I came back last night, hoping Hiro had my back. He’s the oldest. He’s the leader. We’re Japanese. That’s supposed to mean something.”

  Ryo laughed harder, “You sound like somebody’s father.”

  “I’m confused,” Shun said. “You were gone. All night. To return a book?”

  “Yeah. Out. All night. With some fangirl.” Ryo echoed.

  “Eloise is not some fangirl. And I wasn’t gone all night.”

  “Eloise?” Ryo cut in. “You know her name? Isn’t that a first name? You two seem pretty comfortable. Sure she’s not a Mrs. Something?”

  “Eloise is the name she gave me. She’s American. And, no, she’s not married.”

  “So y
ou know if she’s married or not...interesting.” Ryo smiled at him and Gakino turned away, trying to ignore the guy. He knew Ryo was just messing around, but he really wasn’t up for it.

  “Now is it true? What they say about American girls? You were gone all night? I bet it is true, don’t you?” Ryo asked, rattling his dice like he was about to play Cho-han.

  “Watch it, Ryo.”

  Sano, wearing a stylized vest made out of sweater fabric and leather designed to emphasize his arms, walked in and leaned on the door jamb. “He’s telling the truth. I saw him last night. He did come in late though. About four.”

  “Yeah, but what were you doing with her all day and almost all night?” Ryo prodded.

  “I wasn’t there all night! It took time to fly back. I went to see her, and . . .”

  “You saw the fangirl . . .” Ryo prompted, his mouth dropping open.

  “I went to return Eloise’s book. Most of the night I was in the airport.”

  “And the day? It doesn’t take an entire day to return a book,” Shun interrupted.

  “The address she listed was her work address. She works at a school. She’s a teacher. I waited for her to finish classes.”

  “Well. Well. Don’t get too excited, Shun. Sounds pretty boring to me,” Ryo said, smiling.

  “What happened after her classes, Gakino?” Sano said, moving everyone past the tension.

  “Then we went out to dinner. It was simple. It was fun actually. Eloise drove a little motorbike. She took us to this teppenyaki place.”

  “A scooter? You’re telling us this girl drove you to dinner on the back of her scooter?” Shun asked.

  “Stop teasing Gakino. He was doing a good deed.” Sano walked farther into the room, propping against one of the styling chairs with his arms folded.

  Gakino wondered absently how he kept the half dozen leather bracelets on his wrist from getting stuck in the sweater fabric that was swirled in a cowl-like way across his chest and held in place by a network of belts and buckles, “Yeah, I was trying to help.”

  “You went to a lot of trouble to do a good deed,” Shun offered.

  “Well, I think it was that she was so interesting at the signing and then her book was the same as mine.”

  “Ohhhhhhh! The foreigner at the signing. The girl with the curls.” Hiro exclaimed, finally remembering. “He’s right. I sort of told him to go.” He crossed his arms over his stomach, looking at Gakino. He pulled on his lips in a familiar gesture. “Although I think you just wanted an excuse. So that isn’t much of a reason.”

  “Yeah, there was a lot of silly stuff happening at the signing. And she spent all that time talking to Gakino.” Ryo said with a smile.

  “She was getting an autograph for her friend,” Gakino explained.

  “Did you get the book back to her?” Sano tipped his head to one side and stared down at his clunky black boots.

  “I did. And you know, it was really fun. Riding on the back of a scooter was different. I felt a little bit like a clown on a miniature horse though. And her hair kept blowing around,” he circled his right arm quickly trying to show them what he meant.

  “You really did ride on the back of her scooter?” Shun raised an eyebrow and gaped as much as Shun ever gaped. It looked more like a slightly surprised version of his seduction face. The guy was an idol inside and out. “What happened to your car?”

  “She didn’t want to ride in the car. She said to ride behind her. It was really, really cool. I think I might want one now. What?”

  Ryo was laughing, holding his ribs at the look on Shun’s face.

  “Gakino, you like this girl, right?” Shun asked, his chin jutting out at the end of the question.

  “I...uh, yeah.”

  “Then why are you riding on the back of her scooter?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Gakino, she’s carrying you around on the back of her scooter. You’re like a kid, a friend.”

  “But...we went to dinner. We talked. She’s a fan. She . . .” His eyebrows drew together as he considered the idea.

  “Yeah, you went to dinner, but did she seem like a girl who liked you, too? Did she seem interested in you as a guy?” The room was silent after Shun’s question, all four of them regarding him.

  “I...I don’t know. I guess I’m just used to assuming that yes, a girl who comes to a signing likes us.” But all those blushes could have been embarrassment.

  “So was she happy to see the book at least?” Sano asked, turning the conversation back to something more comfortable.

  “Yes, I think so. She seemed like she didn’t really want to talk to me though.” Gakino pushed his lips out at the thought. He didn’t like this idea. He didn’t like that he might be a child to her. But the truth was that his idol character was pretty child-like.

  “If you like her, you better make her think of you as a man,” Shun suggested before he turned to leave the room.

  CHAPTER 4

  She hated being called into the school’s office because it was like walking into a cage with an anxious tiger. Everything was designed to create an awkward sort of daily awe, nothing too ostentatious or extravagant, but the office with its awards on the walls and its oversized desk all tried to articulate the power of its occupant. She stood until she was told to sit because she knew that’s what he expected. And when Headmaster Don Gilbert asked her to sit, she would sink into the chair and have to spend the meeting glancing up at him because Don had chosen his furniture with care and a desire to establish authority.

  “I’m afraid that I have some rather terrible news.”

  Though she knew he expected her to react she said simply, “Yes?”

  “Ms. Wang, who has been with us for the last ten years, has gone off to get married. Apparently, she was wed over the Winter break.”

  He sounded exasperated, but she couldn’t imagine why. Leaning back against his chair and placing his elbows on the arm rests, he laced his hands together. “Well, you know how these Taiwanese are.” He paused, and she didn’t know if he stopped talking for effect or for her to finish, so she remained silent.

  “They don’t believe that a married woman should work and certainly not a would-be mother. Now, Ms. Wang insists she is not...in the family way, but she told me mere days before our holiday that her husband had decided that she should not work. She is, it seems, going to comply with his wishes.”

  Eloise made a noise of understanding and waited for him to get to the point. She’d learned that silence earned her more answers than anything else she might say or ask.

  “Well this leaves us in a situation, Ms. Bromleigh.” He tapped his fingers against his lips as he pursed them. “You know how much I value your skills. You’re one of the best teachers we have.”

  “Thank you,” Eloise offered when he met her eyes and hesitated.

  “You see, Ms. Bromleigh, I need to replace Ms. Wang quickly with a teacher who knows what she’s doing. We don’t want just anyone mucking things up. Really, this may work out better. I need you to take Ms. Wang’s classes. Only temporarily you understand. But I really only trust you to do it.”

  “Ms. Wang’s classes? Doesn’t she teach the younger grades?”

  “Yes, yes. But you’re a great teacher. You can do it easily. No one else here could I know.”

  Apparently, he was desperate for a replacement with the least amount of fuss possible. Eloise knew he was simply trying to play to her vanity. Too bad for him, she had little of it. She was a good teacher, but she never played office politics.

  “I know it will make your load a bit heavier,” he continued “but it will only be a few more classes and we can certainly discuss minimizing some of your other duties. It will definitely look great on your resume when we start reviewing for a new Department Head for next year.”

  “I wasn’t aware you were looking for a new Department Head.”

  He smiled at her and placed all ten finger tips on his desk, leaning forward.
r />   “Well, it’s all hush-hush for now you see. I was going to ask for your input soon seeing as I trust your judgment so implicitly, but the timeline for thinking about these things has been pushed up. Because I’m being forced to deal with the hole left by Ms. Wang’s marriage, you see?”

  “I see.”

  *

  Gakino ducked into the dressing room as the MV director called for a lunch break on the second day of shooting. The night before he’d been so exhausted from traveling without sleep and then rehearsals for the MV that he had just fallen straight into bed when he’d gotten home at 1 a.m..

  It was only this morning that he realized he had no way to get ahold of Eloise. She didn’t have a cell phone, or at least not one that he knew of. He couldn’t call her at work. He had to find a way to tell her why he wouldn’t be there like he had promised this weekend. Or the next one for that matter.

  Above all...he really just wanted to talk to her.

  Did blushes translate over phone lines?

  “Gakino?”

  “In here, Sano.”

  Sano’s dark head popped through the dressing room door and scanned the room until his eyes met Gakino’s form leaning against the furthest table, legs crossed at the ankles and one arm draped across his middle. He held up his phone for useless contemplation.

  “What are you doing?” Sano came fully into the dressing room and closed the door behind him.

  “Thinking.”

  “About your phone?”

  “Kind of.”

  The silence stretched between them while Sano clearly waited for Gakino to elaborate.

  “I haven’t had a chance to really think.”

  “What do you need to think about?” Sano moved closer to Gakino and took a seat next to him. Crossing his arms across his chest and kicking both feet out to sit more comfortably, he had a stillness that Gakino recognized from years of friendship. No matter how busy Sano might be, he wasn’t going to move an inch or even glance at his watch until they’d talked.

  “I have to figure out a way to talk to Eloise.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want her to think that I’ve broken my promise or that I’ve forgotten her.”