How to Date Japanese Idols (The Tenshi Series)

by Cilia Jaspers

“I was thinking about how your lips were tingling, uh, I mean how spicy it must be.” Gakino stumbled at the end of his answer telling her more than his awkwardly intimate words did.

  Eloise laughed as he sat back in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

  “I didn’t mean to...I was thinking about the tuna, yeah?”

  “Me too. It was tasty.”

  Eloise couldn’t say she enjoyed his blush, because he didn’t seem to be as victim to it as she was, but she did enjoy his slightly nervous energy. His words seemed to run like a current through him and, as they finished their dinner, he seemed less relaxed than she was, but not uncomfortable.

  It felt, in short, like a date. Just like he wanted. And Eloise felt relaxed, even though she was clearly dating an idol.

  “I have an idea on what we should do next.” Gakino said, bouncing his leg and stacking items on the table. She waited for him to look up, but he stared at their tower of empty plates.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “On the way in, I saw an arcade.”

  “An arcade? You mean...like those claw machines?”

  “Yeah . . .” His eyes suddenly shone brightly as he lifted his head, “I’ll win you something!”

  Eloise felt the grin spread embarrassingly across her face. It was like they were in high school. Yet, she didn’t entirely hate the feeling.

  “Okay, win me something. Or maybe I’ll have to win something for you.”

  “Hey! Are you suggesting I can’t?”

  “No, I’m just saying maybe you can’t.” She laughed at the look on his face and his own affronted, but amused laughter.

  “Game on.”

  *

  Gakino heard familiar music playing in the claw arcade arena. It was Tenshi’s latest single. The beat thumped and beat at him to move. Out of nowhere, he heard a feminine hum. He looked over to see that Eloise’s toe was moving ever so slightly to the beat of the music. He was suddenly filled with energy, happy to know she liked their new single. Before he could think too much about it, he nudged her with his shoulder so she would look at him. The beat of the music and his shoulders twitched together. He wondered if she would want to dance with him. He moved away from the claw machine they’d been contemplating to stand in the middle of the aisle. The song hit a chorus.

  “Gaki . . .?!”

  He broke into the dance moves he’d learned for the music video, for the song playing over the speakers.

  He swiveled and dipped his hips which would have set the fringe on his belt flying if he were wearing his video wardrobe. This time it just made the buckles on his cargo pants clink a bit as they flapped on his pants. He laughed a little as he moved to the choreography. Wondering if she’d know the dance moves yet and want to do them with him.

  When he looked at her face, he paused. She’d blushed crimson and her hand covered her mouth. Worse her eyes bounced back and forth between him and the crowd that had gathered. He’d forgotten for just a moment who and where he was. Trying to recover a little bit of their anonymity, Gakino moved closer to Eloise. He dropped his arm across her stiff shoulders and pulled her resisting body into a casual walk, his other arm thrust stiffly into his pants’ pocket.

  “Come on, El-chan. I will buy you Ice cream.” His mouth felt thick with awkwardness. This was definitely something he wouldn’t be telling Shun about.

  Eloise tried to relax with Gakino’s arms slung across her shoulders. She knew she she shouldn’t be embarrassed. The stares were probably about nothing more than the entertainment of a grown man dancing, and dancing well, in public. They weren’t even looking at them anymore. He’d recognized her horror almost immediately. He’d called her Air-chan--his accent changing her name She kind of liked it. It was frivolous in a way she’d never thought of herself before. She could be his Air-chan. She just had to relax and let him walk her away from her fears.

  CHAPTER 7

  It had been two weeks since she’d last seen Gakino, and she was worried. Again. Date three was the big one. The. big. One. Clothes came off. Walls came down. Pop-culture was clear on this. Date three was time to get serious. Time to put out or get out. Time to get all tiger-in-the-bedroom, but this was part of the reason she didn’t have much success with guys back home.

  She had a more eighteenth-century heart. Sex in the city just wasn’t sexy to her. There were colleagues she had known for years who she edged away from when they stood too close in the copy room, so she definitely wasn’t going to give a near stranger intimate knowledge after three meetings. She didn’t even let people into her home after such short notice, but a random standard expected her to give some guy intimate rights to her body after a handful of casual evenings? Nuh-uh. No way. It wasn’t that she was a prude or that she didn’t like sex. She just didn’t like the idea of putting her body on the buffet.

  But she and Gakino hadn’t shared so much as a kiss yet. Maybe they were playing by Tokyo rules. Except, was it really right to consider this date three? After several months of phone conversations, this might be more like date forty. What was date forty like in Tokyo?

  And now she was having a hard time breathing.

  Moments like this made it impossible to ignore the fact that she was dating the idol Gakino Yoh. Of course, she wanted to kiss the guy. More than that, really, if she was being honest with herself. He was gorgeous. And sweet. And funny. And she’d be insane if she didn’t want to have a physical relationship with him. All Tenshi fans every where would be right to hunt her down with pitch forks if she didn’t want to. But just look at her. Physical relationship? That’s how she talked about it in her own mind? She was way too inside her head. Always had been. Her body and what it wanted were always an afterthought. She forgot to eat or even sleep sometimes if she was carried away with a project. And, when she dated, she forgot stuff there, too. But so far, that hadn’t been much of a problem.

  All the other guys she dated were, well...adorkable. Smart. Educated. Serious. She was attracted to their minds. She got warm and fuzzy over their ideas, not their lips. Gakino’s lips. She swallowed.

  She was going to drive herself to distraction if she didn’t think of something else. It wasn’t like she was going to have to confront this issue yet anyway. It was still daytime out for heaven’s sake. It was mid-morning. Certainly not an ideal time for seduction. Besides, he’d told her to wear comfortable shoes, so there was likely walking involved. It was beginning to warm up today, too. Who wanted to kiss a sweaty girl while on some mountain trail? Nobody, right? So, she’d just assume she was safe, and then, if pressed too far, she could just run away in her comfortable shoes. Or, in true desperation, pretend to faint. Nice plan. Very logical. She rolled her eyes at herself and went to get ready. He’d be here in a few minutes and she couldn’t stall any more.

  *

  The zoo was full of people, relaxing on a slightly warm Saturday afternoon. Gakino had wracked his brain for something to do that Eloise hadn’t done before. She knew Taichung, and he didn’t, and he wanted this date to be exciting. A few days ago, he’d been complaining to Sano about his lack of plans, something along the lines of, “I don’t know how to impress her. She’s very un-impressible.”

  He loved animals. always had. In the summers, he’d spent endless hours catching cicadas and beetles and frogs, so he was excited at least. He looked over at her for a second, wondering if Eloise felt the same, especially after their two hour drive from Taichung. The sun lit up her hair from behind so that the pieces of hair that escaped the weight of the tighter curls, creating a halo around her head. He reached over, running his hand over the top of them, wondering if he could feel her halo.

  Eloise ducked quickly out of the way and whipped her head to look at him.

  “Bug. There was a bug in your hair.”

  “Thanks.” She smoothed the top of her hair down and looked around them both. “So, the zoo?”

  “Yeah. Thought I’d compare your favorite animals with mine, see what we’ve got
in common. Besides, there’s this really great bird show. I thought we could watch it and maybe have lunch. The restaurant here has a bird theme too. And you know, feathers are kind of our thing.” He winked. As she raised her eyebrow at him, he smiled, one corner of his mouth pulling up. He tried to pull it back down. Mysterious and manly...that’s what he was aiming for.

  “You’re never going to let me forget that feather thing, are you?”

  “Not likely. You would not believe how cute you were. The math doesn’t exist that could calculate it actually. It was super, super cute.”

  “Okay.” She smiled at him and then looked away toward the panda enclosure, the grin lingering. Gakino thought about kissing that smile and barely stopped himself. As it was, the momentum of his body leaning forward put him too close to Eloise to ignore. The length of his body right next to hers. He moved his arm around her shoulders and swept her along with him toward the center of the zoo where he knew they would find the bird house.

  She didn’t resist his arm or even try to push it off, so he tangled his fingers in the curls trailing down her shoulder and ran strands of her soft hair through his fingers. This time he couldn’t help a slight twitch of his mouth.

  Every few steps, she hesitated and looked up at him. At first, her gazes were thoughtful and considering, her brow a little furrowed. Then suddenly, she smiled. Looked away. Looked back. Smiled again.

  “What?” he finally asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “What? Seriously.”

  Moving so that his hand fell from her shoulders, she faced him directly. “You have a bug, too,” she said, reaching up and playing with a few strands of hair.

  “Really?”

  “Oh, yeah, it’s a problem.” By now, she’d given up the pretense and just ran her fingers through his hair. He stepped toward her, his stomach and chest touching hers when they exhaled. Burying his hands in her curls, his palms rested on her nape. Eloise shifted, so that she was standing on her toes, and her lips were so near his own. They were a delicate pink against her pale white skin, and they looked so . . .

  “Soft,” she whispered.

  “Hai,” he answered, his voice deep.

  An excited giggle broke the spell as a toddler nearby chased his balloon.

  Eloise pulled his hands away, but held on to them as she stepped back to put distance between them.

  “So? What made you think of coming to the zoo?”

  He smiled at her quick change of topic, understanding her need for space. “I just figured you hadn’t been. I wanted to do something different, a little memorable.”

  “Well, I’ve been to the zoo before. Field trips with the kids, but don’t worry, I think the memorable part is covered. You know, no matter what we do.”

  “Ah. I don’t think I want to take that for granted.”

  He heard a few girls yelling to his left. Turning, though, he was relieved to see only a group of teenagers tossing water at each other and not looking his way.

  “ Are you afraid of all of these people?”

  “Nah. Not really. Outside of Japan I don’t have much trouble. At least not in Taiwan. I think people here try not to notice me. They are generally very polite. I just don’t want anything to go wrong. Not today. Besides, I thought we might want to be outside on such a beautiful day. The weather is finally getting warmer, ne?”

  “It is nice.” She smiled at him and he tried to ignore the heartburn eating at him suddenly.

  “There are all kinds of animals here. Monkeys and gorillas. Pandas, of course. The birds are just over here. I read online that they have over twelve hundred birds inside.”

  He pointed toward a sign that read “Bird World,” and pulled her after him, happy she didn’t object to having her hand in his. He linked their fingers together and took a deep breath, a little overwhelmed, surprised by how such a small thing could feel so good.

  Destiny sounded silly, like something his grandmother would say. A shiver ran up his arm. Or maybe it was hers. He couldn’t tell which. He looked down at her and smiled. She smiled back, but looked quickly away.

  “Are you sure we should go in there right now? It says it’s closed for renovations.”

  Moving toward the entrance, he felt her fingers tighten against his. Gakino turned to hold the door for her with what he hoped was a cool smile. “I’m sure,” he said as he led her into the warm humidity of the aviary. He would have to thank his manager again for making the arrangements. Having Eloise all to himself was definitely not to be underestimated.

  *

  Eloise still wasn’t used to being ferried around by Gakino, especially in the large Taipei weekend crowds, but Gakino seemed to take everything in stride, and after some of his typical teasing, she had relaxed, and they’d had a lot of fun at the zoo, especially when the bird trainer asked Gakino to feed one of the hawks. As a joke, Gakino had suggested using his own mouth as a sort of beak. When Gakino moved the raw meat toward his own face instead of holding it out to the bird, The zoo guy had panicked, his eyes huge and his hands waving frantically. Gakino had said, “So it’s bad? No good? No good?” He’d asked the question with such sincerity, even she’d almost thought he’d really meant to do it. Then he’d turned to her and winked. It had been one of Yoh’s classic practical jokes.

  After that, the day had been filled with an easy camaraderie. It turned out they did have a lot in common. It also turned out that, after all those phone dates–Gakino’s words, not hers–they really had gotten to know each other. For the most part, they had felt like people well on the way to becoming good friends except for the odd moments where they each caught the other staring.

  So far, she’d been caught staring at his lips, his arms, particularly the space at the elbow where bicep become forearm. His jaw line. His neck. His hands. And the place where his pants hung off his hips.

  And she’d watched him watch her. After a while, he hadn’t even tried to hide it. And, frankly, she got chills whenever she thought of the places on her body that he seemed to find interesting. She really had to stop thinking about that.

  Shaking her head, she looked down at their table, piled embarrassingly high with food. They’d had a small lunch earlier, where she’d been too distracted to eat much. So, instead, she’d watched him eat while she pretended to be preoccupied with the little stuffed peacock he’d bought her. By now they were both starving, and he’d suggested yakiniku. She enjoyed Japanese-style BBQ, and because she was a true fangirl she knew that he did, too. So when he excused himself to wash up, she’d gone on a bit of an ordering frenzy.

  “Nice spread.”

  She turned her head and watched him settle on the bench across from her. “Hey, welcome back. I wasn’t sure, so I just sort of ordered a little of everything.”

  “Great. That’s great,” he said, distracted. “Sorry to leave you alone so long. It took me forever to find the bathrooms. They had this messed-up sign. The arrow pointed one way, but I found them basically in the opposite direction. Anyway, thanks for ordering.” As he said this, he pulled down his hoodie, looked around for a few minutes, and then relaxed.

  “It’s ok. It wasn’t a problem. I come here often enough, so I know the routine.”

  Behind her, she heard a slightly raucous group of teenage girls coming in while in the grip of some sort of giggle attack. Before she could turn and glance back, Gakino stood and moved to sit down next to her.

  “Are you ok? Did they see you?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Just playing it safe. And this way, I get to sit closer to you. Win-win.”

  “I’m sorry. We can leave if you like?”

  “And leave all this? I don’t think so. It’ll be fine.”

  “Do you just go out like this in Japan? You can’t, right?”

  “It depends. In my hometown, some people know who I am, but they also know who I was, so I’m not that special. I’m still that crazy neighborhood kid who was always pulling crazy stuff. So they don’t get all ril
ed up by the Tenshi thing.

  “In Tokyo, though, it’s hats and sunglasses, hoodies. But you have to be careful not to get caught up or seen. Things can go crazy pretty quickly. And, I don’t travel at the time of days that kids are traveling to or from school.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.” He hedged. “Maybe.”

  She rolled her eyes and started placing things on the grill in front of them. “Here you can eat this fish head. This guy’s always trying to make me eat the backorder.”

  “What?”

  “Seriously, I hate this fish head stuff, but with this waiter, every time I come, it’s all No beef for you. It’s always fish face this. Fish face that.”

  “Which guy?” he asked interested, looking around.

  “Our waiter. I can’t really read the menu. Too many characters. Almost no English. Anyway, I was trying to order a bunch of beef, while avoiding the fish heads and chicken hearts since I didn’t know what you wanted. But he wouldn’t let me only order beef. He kept pointing at things, repeating delicious and healthy over and over. So, eventually, I gave in. I figured it’s ok. You’re Japanese, you love fish, right?”

  “Which guy is it, again?”

  “Our waiter. Over there.” She pointed in the man’s direction.

  He waved and smiled at her then started to hustle over.

  “Yabai,” Gakino sighed. He likes you.”

  “What? No, he doesn’t! I come in here a lot. He’s always like this.”

  “No one gets that excited about barbecue.”

  “He is just trying to do a good job.”

  “He’s trying to impress you.”

  Eloise quickly hushed Gakino as the waiter, whose name tag read Tom, hurried to their table.

  “Do you like?” he said, pointing to the fish heads.

  “Yes, thank you.” She bowed politely.

  He bowed back. They smiled at each other.

  She considered gratuitous smiling the necessary apology for her minimal language skills. A smile could cut awkwardness right in half. And people were generally willing to help her when she smiled. Kindness was its own reward or something like that.