Gakino was ecstatic. Their plan had gone perfectly. No, it had gone better than they had planned. All eyes had followed the two of them as he and Eloise had progressed through the room. He’d known the moment Sugiyama had spotted them because of the buoyant hello Hiro had given Eloise. Less than five minutes later, he was introducing Eloise to the reporters who had been chatting with Ryo. Ryo made the introductions, but they had stayed brief.
Tenshi had timed Eloise’s entrance as carefully as any concert, giving them enough time to introduce her and then move smoothly to their address to the JAL attendees. He worried a little about how quietly Eloise followed along, but he hoped it was simply the language barrier.
Under the burning gaze of Sugiyama and the cool, assessing one of Kishimoto, Tenshi had welcomed the guests and formally announced their new business connection with JAL. In almost the same breath, they’d announced that in celebration of their new step forward, Gakino wanted to respectfully introduce his girlfriend, Eloise. They had then opened the floor for questions.
“Where did you meet Eloise-san, Yoh-san?” a reporter asked.
“Somewhere I wasn’t, that’s for sure.” Shun smiled, fairly sparkling with charm, as the media and attendees chucked together.
“Eloise-san is a teacher in Taiwan, and I was very lucky to make her acquaintance while on business.” Gakino answered the question with their previously discussed and carefully benign version of the truth.
The questions from then on about Eloise had been relatively easy to answer with smiles from Eloise and gentle management from the whole of Tenshi. Gakino said as little as possible, and too personal questions where deflected by the others with jokes. In truth, the press had quickly grown bored with questions about a seemingly normal relationship and moved on to more deeply probe Tenshi’s connection and work with the JAL contract.
There wasn’t a single reporter here who was dying to know whether the fan’s would feel betrayed by his disloyalty. Not a single reporter seemed to care how this would effect his work. Though they weren’t ever in the same spot, Gakino knew the men in Tenshi were all silently celebrating. The press here consisted mostly of business reporters, and they cared little for details about Gakino’s love life.
Hiro and Sano stood together on one side of the room, talking business with Kishimoto himself. For once, Hiro appeared completely awake though still relaxed. Even better, Sano smiled occasionally and shared Hiro’s comfort as they conversed with Kishimoto. Ryo talked to a different clump of reporters and, as Gakino passed by him, heard nothing about Eloise or the potential failure of Tenshi as they faced the challenge of the future. Instead, he heard Ryo discussing his latest musical composition. Shun clapped him on the shoulder not much further on and brought Gakino into the conversation he was having with a CEO for JAL about the potential for product placement in the dramas they were currently planning.
In the end, it was a rousing success in introducing Eloise to his world. Still, her general silence bothered him. He was too afraid to question her now. Too afraid that while things might have gone well with the press, he may have pushed Eloise too far into a corner she didn’t want to be in.
*
“Miss Bromleigh, I am Mr. Sugiyama.”
Eloise turned from the table she’d managed to find at the edge of the room, her refuge after the last two hours. The manager’s English was very good. He refrained from the normal use of honorifics and addressed her in a fairly crisp and nearly-perfect American accent.
“Mr. Sugiyama.” She mentally took a breath, knowing this man had a direct connection to Gakino. She plastered a polite and somewhat pleasant smile on her face. “Hello. Please call me Eloise.”
“Thank you, Eloise. I am honored.”
“The pleasure is mine,” she politely insisted.
The conversation was so very, very correct it echoed memories she’d rather forget entirely.
“How have you enjoyed this party tonight? Does it meet with your approval?” He gestured with his wine glass around the room at the carefully dressed people and elegant setting. Crystal clinked amid the buzz of conversation. Intermingled with the reporters, powerful businessmen of JAL, and talent management, there were a few carefully selected social and economic pillars of the Tokyo community and, of course, the monumentally famous men of Tenshi poised on the cusp of their most successful moment yet.
“Yes, I have enjoyed the night. Thank you for asking me to come. I’m so glad I could support Tenshi and KM.” She smiled at the right moment and gestured with her own full wine glass at the room. “This is a very big moment for them and I know Gakino is thankful for your diligent guidance and hard work.” She paused when Sugiyama raised one eyebrow. He looked at her in silence a little longer than was comfortable and then smiled.
“It has been my honor. Please allow me to assist you if you should need it. Should I get you something else to drink that's more to your liking?” She glanced to her full glass of red. She knew she could ignore his offer or even tell him she’d rather leave and have something stronger in the comfort of her own home. But she didn't. Instead, she offered yet another smile.
“How kind of you. I do prefer white if it’s not too much trouble.”
“Not at all. Please allow me to help you. I will return shortly.”
Eloise watched the manager turn, not to the refreshment tables or a waiter, but into the double doors leading from the room itself. Now she was being personally catered to by a talent manager for one of the biggest talent agencies in Japan. Great.
*
Gakino did his best to look engaged in the conversation he was having with the CEO of JAL, but he watched Eloise as carefully as he could. He’d seen Sugiyama approach her like a shark smelling blood in the water and had wanted to run to her rescue, especially since it might rescue him, too. But he couldn’t let on that there was anything to protect. Least of all to Eloise.
Sugiyama had only talked briefly with Eloise, but when he left the room, Gakino's suspicion grew exponentially. Where would Sugiyama go at this point in time? Kishimoto had not even left yet. This was
a big deal they were engaged in, not a photo shoot.
“Ah, Yoh-san. I can’t tell you how pleased we are to have you boys on board.”
He bowed to the JAL CEO and kept his head low as he said, “Thank you. I have to say we are happy and surprised to be allowed to work with you on this.”
“The best find the best, don’t they?” The CEO slapped him on the arm with a huge laugh, his graying comb-over wafting slightly up with his movements. “Let’s talk more about this somewhere else, shall we? Let’s go have some drinks when we’re done here.”
“I’d love to. Let me finish up here. Then, should I meet you at the bar downstairs?” Gakino smiled, full of good humor on the outside, but utterly frustrated on the inside. He couldn’t say no to the CEO of JAL, a man and a company who held the future of Tenshi in their hands. This was how business was done here. Not over a conference table, but over tables of beer and sake. He’d make sure Eloise was on her way home, safe from Sugiyama, and then he’d finish up whatever he had to do. At this point in his life, he’d rather meet Eloise over a book and a cup of her favorite tea.
"No, I have a special place I've been going to for years. I'll take you and the other boys there. We've got a lot to discuss." Gakino recognized the familiar gesture. They'd be drinking a lot tonight. The CEO was sizing them up and making sure they had enough beer in them to make them honest.
He bowed. Playing along was his only choice. And then he went to meet Eloise at her table.
“Eloise.”
She met his eyes, quiet as she’d been since she’d set foot in his presence here in Japan.
“I think it’s safe for you to go home. Thank you for doing this. It went so well.”
“I’m glad all of this went the way you hoped it would.”
Gakino wanted to hold her in his arms, but he couldn’t here.
“Right now I’d rather
be in your hotel with you.”
She looked at the floor and smiled softly. He wanted her to agree with him. He wanted her to ask him if they could go together now, even if he knew they couldn’t.
“You talked to Sugiyama?” he asked.
“Yes, he went to get me white wine. I gave him the impression I didn’t like red since my glass was still full.” She lifted the glass of red in her hand.
“I’ll take that and find him. You should go rest in the hotel. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“All right.” She met his gaze for a moment, looking into his eyes in a way he wasn’t quite familiar with. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with it either. She lifted the glass for him to grasp. He took it from her and grabbed her hand with his other. Behind the protection of his shoulders from the full room behind him, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.
“I’ll see you as soon as I can. If you go back to the room where they helped you get ready, I’ll have someone meet you to take you there.”
She nodded and he led her to the door of the room before dropping a brief kiss on her lips and turning back to make his exit at the party. He wanted to find his way back to Eloise as quickly as possible.
“Yoh.”
Two steps from the double doors, he heard Sugiyama call his name from behind him.
“Sugiyama.” He turned with caution to find the manager standing with a bottle of white wine. It pissed him off. What was he up to, fetching white wine for his Eloise?
“So I met your Tour Venue, I mean girlfriend.”
“Careful Sugiyama. A cell phone is one thing . . .”
“Oh, I’m not the one who needs to be careful, Yoh. You see, I had a lovely conversation with your Eloise tonight. She seems really wonderful. She even thanked me for inviting her to this party. Did I invite her?”
Gakino refused to rise to the bait. He waited for Sugiyama to tell him some lie or threaten him further with Kishimoto’s disapproval.
“Well, she seems to think so, doesn’t she, Gakino?”
“What’s your point Sugiyama? Are you thinking Kishimoto is going to punish me for this by grounding me again?”
“You boys think you’re so smart, don’t you?” Sugiyama’s face twisted coldly. He hefted the wine bottle against his thigh. “Finding venues and running around doing what you want regardless of what you should be doing. You think you’ve won, don’t you?”
Gakino crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on one leg, staring straight into Sugiyama’s cold eyes. The man was no match for him, not physically. Gakino might be lean, but he was also a tall, strong man. At the moment, he wanted to show Sugiyama just how unlike a boy he was. Right here in this hallway. Or better yet, front and center in that room behind the double doors.
“Your point, Sugiyama. Get to it.”
“My point, Yoh-kun, is that I may not be able to stop you or the rest of Tenshi, but I am going to make you pay for it.” Sugiyama shoved the white wine bottle into Gakino’s hands and pushed through the doors. Gakino held the cold bottle of white wine and wondered what exactly Sugiyama thought he held over him now.
*
"Cheers," everyone shouted, clinking their glasses and bottles together in the bar just off of the lobby of the party venue. She followed the assistant past the exuberant JAL and KM workers and headed for the car that would take her to the hotel and to peace and quiet.
"We start work tomorrow, but we still have tonight," someone beside her yelled.
Behind her, the giant TV above the lobby door was showing an advertisement for Japan Airlines. Gakino had been chosen as the representative for China and Taiwan. He was speaking now in some cute and awkward Chinese on the TV screen, "Welcome to Japan." She wondered, idly if he had selected the place himself or if it had been chosen for him. She also wondered if the bad accent was something that had been planned. He was the most approachable member of the group, the kindest. To everyone else, he was a jokester, a little bit of a simpleton. She knew he was savvy and smart and willing to perform the role of baka for the rest of Tenshi.
The difference between the two of them was that Gakino enjoyed the pretense. He liked the person he played. It made him happy to make others laugh. She hated the role she was asked to play, and was even angered by it. He insisted that she didn't need to change, but how could that be true if they were going to have any real future?
She wished there had been some disaster, some cataclysmic event that made it impossible to love him, inconceivable to return to him. She knew her limits, and she could not be the woman he wanted. A senator's daughter. An idol's wife. Completely different. Utterly the same. Loving a man wasn't enough to make him yours. She had lived most of her life trying to be the daughter her step parents wanted, but they couldn't make themselves love her and she couldn't force it from them. She couldn't pretend, either, that it didn't matter that she didn't measure up. The thing was, she was happy with herself. She didn't want to change. She didn't lament anything. She just wished the rest of the world would leave her alone.
She wanted a normal life. She didn't want to be in the papers. She wanted to be anonymous. Small and anonymous and beneath the notice of the rest of the world. She just wanted to be herself. The problem was she also wanted Gakino to fit into that small corner of her anonymous world and he was too big and blazingly bright to fit either requirement.
CHAPTER 15
She’d been in Japan for two days and alone in Gakino’s company for precisely two minutes.
Just before yesterday’s little gala, Gakino had pulled her to the side and told her she was beautiful. He’d mentioned his phone call with his mother, and they’d almost had a real conversation. But then they’d been swept up in a meet and greet that still left her cheeks aching. After the JAL junket, she’d expected Gakino to return with her to the hotel, but he’d never come. He texted her that he had a late dinner meeting with the head of advertising for JAL. Then, at 5 a.m., he texted to say he was finally on his way home and that he hoped his text wasn’t waking her.
As if she could sleep.
But she wasn’t angry. Not yet. In fact, hiding her hands in her skirts, she had two sets of fingers crossed that she’d get another few minutes with Gakino before this evening started. She was dressed in pure white tonight, her body wrapped from neck to knee in a stiff, well-fitted fabric, her thighs covered in piles of tulle. Although her dress hit just below the knee like most cocktail dresses, the flouncy skirt and the color made her decidedly nervous. Her stylist had even added a small pile of sheer material on the top of her head. It reminded her uncomfortably of a veil. It was a barrette, she reminded herself. It was even angled dramatically to the left. But she felt like a bride. And, because of that, she felt ridiculous. If she could just see Gakino’s face for a minute, maybe she’d feel like Eloise again, and she’d make it through this evening.
“You look like a dollop of cream,” a hot voice whispered in her ear.
“You’re here.” She said, turning to face Gakino.
“Of course," he said, smiling at her and wrapping his arms around her. "This is kind of my party you know. There’s this little TV show in which yours truly is the star.”
“How could I forget?
“Well, this is what I brought you here for. So I came over determined to lecture you about doing your best, but seeing you in this dress, I’m just looking for a nearby closet. I have wicked plans for you Eloise.”
“Yoh-san?”
At the soft female voice behind her, Eloise drew in a breath. She’d forgotten they were in a busy hallway.
Gakino’s arms dropped from her waist and he bowed. Turning, Eloise angled her head toward another woman dressed in white. Taller than Eloise who came to Gakino’s shoulders, the woman’s head ended just under his eyes.
“Eloise. This is Rei Fujiwara. Fujiwara-san, this is my girlfriend, Eloise-san.”
The woman bowed to her, so Eloise followed suit.
“I’m pleased to meet you,
Ms. Bromleigh.”
“And I you, Ms. Fujiwara.”
“Yoh-san spoke of you on set last week.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, a darling little story about how you first met. Something about your not knowing he spoke English.”
“Is that so?”
“Such a refreshing story,” she said, twisting so that her shoulder faced Eloise. Then Fujiwara spoke to Gakino in rapid-fire Japanese.
“Oh, I see. I’ll meet with them in just a few minutes.” He glanced at his watch. “We have time before this all kicks off.”
At least Gakino was smart enough to reply in English so she’d have some idea what was happening. Unlike Ice Queen who started in again with Japanese.
“Oh, right now? Well, if it can’t be helped.” Grabbing Eloise’s hands, he bowed at Fujiwara, saying, “If you’ll excuse me.”
Pulling Eloise aside, he said, “I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you when this starts. In the meantime, ask the stylist if you can keep this dress for the night. I want to see if I can rip it off you.” Giving her a quick dry kiss on the cheek, he ran after Fujiwara.
Five minutes later, a handler came, and with a good bit of miming, led Eloise out from the backstage area and up onto a steel dais that was lined with stools. Discouraged, Eloise realized they’d be up here for a while. She stood, not knowing where to sit, and was grateful she remembered not to gawk. There were at least a hundred people in the audience. Good lord, let them not all be press. Avoiding the cameras, she put her back to the audience and glanced above her to a towering promotional poster and an unsettling ten-foot Gakino.
How to Date Japanese Idols (The Tenshi Series) Page 19