A Few Good Dreams

Instructions led Kaho to a specific station exit, where Yutaka was waiting. He wasn’t in his host suit yet, just to be safe, but Kaho still recognized his face from the other night. When she approached, he smiled an honest, neutral smile and bowed slightly before typing on his phone.

“Nozaki Kaho, right?” he asked.

Kaho nodded and bowed.

“Yutaka. This way.”

With that, they followed several winding alleys that eventually led to a one-way service street behind the club. Yutaka typed a numeric password into a keypad and the door opened, leading the two of them into the back rooms of the club.

Shuhei was already with a client so no one was there to greet them. Instead, they simply made their way towards the pulses of the music in the main room.

When they entered the large venue once more, Kaho was immediately hit with the strong scent of cedar and something synthetic. Bass and tempo fluctuations struck her chest, telling her the music was still blaring. People around them laughed at private conversations. Hosts cheered and sang words she did not know or feel. An open booth awaited them, and to her surprise, the four young boys were there waiting again.

Upon seeing her, all three let out a dramatic cheer, which immediately caught the attention of the other attendees. Yutaka noticed Kaho’s nervous glance and began to type again.

“Don’t worry, no one here tells secrets about who visits. If they did, we’d be out of business. No one will rat on you being here.”

Kaho entered the booth and the other three hosts began to clap in rhythm and sing some manner of chant to her. Without knowing what they were saying, Kaho could merely smile a perplexed smile and try to clap along.

They shimmied their hands in unison then wound their arms to point towards a small whiteboard and marker.

“Airu’s idea!” Tatsuo wrote.

“It will be easier for us all to read one another’s words instead of a phone screen.” Ace added as he tried to stop himself from smiling.

Kaho noticed and realized he was not nearly as intimidating as the character he portrayed, so she smiled back at him then held up her hand to block her face. When she lowered it, she was stoic and gloomy. Ace bit his lip to stop from smiling and followed her gesture, resetting his face to be the familiar, spiteful glare. Kaho held up a subtle thumbs up.

“So what am I supposed to do here?” she asked.

“Well, usually, the first twenty minutes are free. You talk to all of us. Then you decide who catches your eye, and you vote for them,” Tatsuo explained.

“Sorry, can you tell me your names again?” Kaho asked.

“Ace, but you remembered that,” Ace replied coldly.

“Tatsuo,” Tatsuo wrote with a slight head bow.

“Yutaka. It’s nice to meet you,” Yutaka said with a wink.

“Airu, your prince, at your service,” Airu said with a flamboyant bow.

Kaho waved an awkward wave then wrote her name.

“Nozaki Kaho. Nice to meet you.”

Airu popped a bottle of champagne and began to pour as Yutaka wrote notes.

“This bottle is free. During this time, we all talk. You are sampling us.”

Glasses were passed and raised in toast. Light hung golden and broken in the champagne bubbles.

“Kanpai!” they all cheered.

Kaho mouthed along with them as the glasses clinked without sound. She’d never liked champagne. It was too metallic for her. This bottle seemed nice enough, so it wasn’t terrible, but she knew it wasn’t her preferred beverage.

“So Shuhei acts like this too? That’s so funny to imagine,” she wrote.

“It’s all acting, so in some ways he does, but his character is more calm, and dignified. He’s more of a man, and we’re the boy toys. So slightly different personas for different clientele,” Ace explained.

Indeed, Shuhei did feel like much more of a ‘man’ compared to these bright-eyed boys who seemed as though the aftereffects of puberty were still in their systems.

“So you all drink every night? Like a lot?” Kaho asked.

Every boy inhaled and nodded. Tatsuo rubbed his abs.

“Turmeric, Curcumin, and Hepalyse are a liver’s best friend,” he wrote.

“And face depuffers, because God do you get bloated drinking all this carbonation,” Airu added.

“We can stop drinking then and just pretend. You can give your livers a rest for a few hours. Can one of you sneak and pour it out and get us water?” Kaho asked.

“Bless you,” Yutaka laughed.

“Great idea. I’ll ‘open’ the next bottle in the prep room and pour it out. Still water okay with everyone?” Ace asked.

Everyone held thumbs up.

“If I order a nice bottle, that’s when everyone cheers right?” Kaho asked.

“Yep. It’s a competition thing. Girls do it to get the spotlight for a moment and feel the rush of that attention. We weaponize that to make the other guests want to do that too.”

“Without saying anything directly, we try to make our clients buy fancier drinks for themselves. Those are super marked up, and that’s how we make most of our money,” Tatsuo explained.

“Is that how girls get in debt?” Kaho asked in a purely curious tone.

Her face wasn’t coy or judgemental, she was simply curious.

They all nodded.

“They’ve passed laws against a lot of kake practices, but it definitely still happens. Reiji has us stay in line though so we don’t get popped. Other clubs might still do it, but we don’t push that too far. There are other ways for us to make money in the end,” Airu added.

Kaho knew what he was referring to.

“Really? That’s a real thing? I thought that was sensationalism,” she replied.

“It is in some ways, but it definitely happens. About a third of my revenue comes from after hours activities. And by after hours activities, I of course mean pickleball,” Ace explained.

It was strange. Kaho didn’t feel shocked or humiliated or concerned about Shuhei. Their directness had reduced everything to a simple transactional analysis, rendering it to simple job perspectives on the darker fringes of the economy. Shuhei had warned her that bad things happened there, and now she knew what he was referring to. As she processed the information, Airu noticed and offered an olive branch.

“Shuhei doesn’t do that. If he did, it was years ago, before I knew him. In case you were concerned,” he wrote.

Kaho smiled and realized she wasn’t actually concerned.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“Wow look at that, we’re out of champagne. I think I need another bottle,” Tatsuo jokingly wrote, then stood to excuse himself.

Kaho felt the seat cushion as she looked around the room. It was quality leather, smooth and supple to the touch, with firm padding beneath. Her nose was adjusting to the scent, and the music’s pulses were now simple thuds against her skin. She wondered where Shuhei was at that moment.

He was above her, in the shadows of a private booth, currently trying to hold his focus as he engaged with a very confident commercial real estate broker.

“You’re not as talkative anymore,” she observed as she leaned back to sip her cocktail.

His focus returned and he nodded in agreement.

“No. Heart’s not in it anymore. I’m sorry. That’s not fair to you. Want me to find you someone else for the night?” he asked.

She smiled as she took another sip.

“I didn’t come here for someone else. I came for you.”

“I thought I could get back into it when I got back here. And I did, for a little while. But then she showed up.”

His date smiled and tilted her head in amusement.

“You truly care about her, don’t you?” she asked.

“I do. And… and I think that means I don’t care to do this anymore…”

Saying it aloud brought a wave of new scenarios crashing into Shuhei’s imagination as he grappled with the realization that after all this time and everything he’d done, he was starting to lose interest in his plan. The implications were substantial, but as he sat in that familiar chair reflecting on the possibility, he wasn’t concerned.

His date noticed.

“It’s fitting then that I was planning on tonight being our last night together,” she said.

Shuhei faced her once more. They had always enjoyed one another’s company, and she was truly gorgeous in an intense, polished way. Her collarbones had always caught his eye so she had consistently worn tops that showed them off. They were both older now than they had been when they first met at the end of quarantine.

“Last night?” Shuhei asked.

“I’m leaving Tokyo,” she replied.

Shuhei leaned forward, realizing she was serious.

“Really?”

She nodded.

“And I sense you will be before too long. You’ve thought about it haven’t you?”

Shuhei nodded.

“Tokyo will devour us if we let it. I’m not ready for a quiet life, but a simpler pace in Sapporo was offered to me, so I’m taking it. I’m going home. If I play my cards right I’ll be managing director in two years.”

“That’s wonderful. Congratulations!” Shuhei said as he extended his hand to her.

“But I sense something different for you. You want to leave all of this.”

“That was the whole reason I even started this. I wanted to make enough money that I could leave it all and never look back. But now… I don’t even know. I’ve lost my plan, and I feel rudderless, but I feel calm.”

“Because of her?” the girl asked.

“Not just because of her, but she was certainly part of it.”

Her fingers ran along his wrist.

“I doubt I’ll find another Shuhei in Sapporo… Maybe my host club days are over.”

She leaned forward, letting her blouse fall open so that he could have one final glance.

“I did enjoy our Halloween rendezvous that year, though. If it’s all right with you, I’ll hold on to that memory for nights when I’m feeling lonely and need to comfort myself.”

Her teeth gently clamped down on the edge of his ear. He chuckled and kissed the top of her hand in farewell.

“It was a good night. Good luck in Sapporo, Shiona.”

She leaned back with a last devilish smile.

“As a parting gift, would you tell me that I’m better than her?” she purred.

Shuhei’s smile faded slightly as his eyes narrowed.

“Sorry, no… no I won’t do that. Not with her.”

Shiona smiled in honest surprise and held his jaw.

“Wow. I’ve finally been beaten... I’m truly happy for you, you deserve it, Shuhei. I wish you both sincere happiness.”

She bowed and collected her things.

“I pray you are not so foolish in love to think this peace you both have can continue like this for much longer. Tokyo doesn’t allow peace for people like us.”

Shuhei shook his head.

“No, I know it will catch up to us, and Kaho knows too. But we wanted to have at least a few good dreams before we woke…”

Shiona looked out at the club one last time.

“Didn’t we all?” she asked with a wink.

With that, she left Shuhei to his thoughts and half-finished Old Fashioned. Down below, Kaho watched the beautiful, confident woman descend the stairs. Their eyes met briefly and Kaho knew she had been with Shuhei. The beautiful woman bowed ever so slightly then made her way to the exit.

When Kaho looked up to the balcony, she could finally see Shuhei, who was no longer in the shadows. Kaho waved to him and he once again signed ‘beautiful’ to her.

Her phone buzzed and she looked down to see a message from him.

“Would you want to go to Nikko for a night or two? I’d like to get away from this attention and light pollution with you, if you can.”

Kaho smiled.

“I’d love that.”