Chapter 4

Despite his efforts and preparations, Jun’s confidence proved to be fickle. Instead of immediately approaching the girl with all the swagger and bravado that he had on the silver screen, he found himself drifting from place to place in the bar, letting his courage recharge like a battery each time he stopped. Nearly fifteen minutes later, he found himself seated at the other end of the bar from the girl, who was reading the menu with a far-away expression.

Come on Jun, almost there. You’re in the homestretch. You’ve got this, just do what you always do on screen, he thought, trying to hype himself up to make his move. He looked back at Renji in hopes of receiving one last act of reassurance. Only, Renji had, unsurprisingly, succumbed to his libido once more and was fraternizing with the group of college girls sitting in the corner booth. Junichiro made a mental note to tear his friend a new one at a later juncture. He exhaled, steeling himself one final time as he stood up from the barstool and made his way towards the captivating mystery girl that sat at the end of the counter.

Junichiro approached her, suddenly acutely aware of the sweat greasing his palms, and sat down nearby. He was at least mindful enough to realize that a girl by herself might be off-put by someone sitting down right next to her, so he left a seat in between them. Up close, she was even more breathtaking than she had been when he first saw her. Junichiro felt like he was staring at an artist’s rendition of beauty with how picturesque she looked.

She sat on a barstool at the end of the bar counter, absentmindedly tracing the edge of her glass with her pointer finger. The streetlights outside the windows of Yakazai cast their light through the windows behind her, bathing her in a soft, almost ethereal glow. Her eyes reflected off the surface of the drink in her glass as they gazed wistfully into it, as if searching for some portent in a crystal ball. The faint scent of pine emanated from her. Junichiro found himself at a loss for words, his eyes glued to the girl in front of him. He wasn’t trying to stare, staring was weird, but the longer he looked at her, the harder it was to tear his eyes away.

“Um…”, he finally managed to choke out. Junichiro felt heat rush to his ears, immediately chastising himself. ‘Um’?! Don’t start a conversation with ‘Um’, idiot! She’ll know you’re nervous!

At Junichiro’s vocalization, the girl let out something between a squeak and a yelp as she jumped. It seemed like she had been lost in thought and hadn’t noticed his presence. As she jerked, her finger got snagged on the rim of her glass, knocking it over. Her drink spilled out across the surface of the counter, sending ice and liquid alike careening onto the floor below. She sat frozen in surprise for a moment before letting her shoulders slump with an exasperated sigh.

“Shit… I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t… I mean… I wasn’t trying to…” apologized Junichiro, word soup spilling from his mouth as he stammered.

The girl turned to him as she seemed to suddenly remember he was there, her deep blue eyes shining with renewed vigor and whatever unknowable emotions laid beneath her gaze. “No, no, no! Don’t worry about it. This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I’m just glad it didn’t get on my dress.” she said hurriedly, ending her last sentence with a soft giggle.

Junichiro blinked. He was transfixed for a moment before realizing he was staring again and opened his mouth to break the silence. “Uh…yeah.” he paused, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “…I was gonna come over to offer to buy you a drink anyway, so maybe it’s for the best that it spilled?”

He felt stupid the moment the words left his mouth, like a student who’d just given a blatantly wrong answer to a teacher’s question. He felt like diving out the window simply to escape the impending awkwardness. Buying a girl a drink when they first met was one of his staples in his movies; he thought he’d be used to it and could pull it off flawlessly with as many times as he’d done it on screen. Of course, he now realized that doing something on set inside the safety net of a script was vastly different from doing something in reality. His eyes clamped shut as he braced for the inevitable scathing remark, scornful jeer, or even a disdainful slap.

No matter how long he waited though, none of those things came. Instead, the air was filled with a sweet, intoxicating laughter, like honey to the ears. Junichiro dared to open his eyes and was met with an unexpected sight. The girl was bent over, hands clutching her stomach and tears glinting like diamonds in the corners of her eyes as she giggled uncontrollably. Her reaction was so unexpected in fact, that Junichiro couldn’t stop a goofy smile from spreading across his face as he let out a few chuckles of his own. She laughed uninterrupted for nearly two minutes, until she finally began to calm down and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“I…haven’t laughed like that in a while. Thanks for that.” the girl said softly, peering up at him through her long eyelashes. “I didn’t really think guys did that kind of thing any more—offering to buy girls drinks, I mean. It kinda struck me as an old-fashioned thing that only guys in movies from the 80’s and 90’s would do.”

Junichiro silently cursed the fact that most, if not all of his romantic knowledge came from the nostalgia-ridden minds of the directors and script-writers of his movies. He hadn’t considered that fact before and the realization put a pit in his stomach that made him even more nervous.

“As for your offer…” she continued, “I think I’ll take you up on it. I mean, it is kinda your fault my drink got spilled in the first place. Oh, I’m Kanae Kageyama, by the way, but you can just call me Kanae. Nice to meet you.”

“Naoya Yukimura, but I guess you can call me Naoya. And uh…same.” Junichiro replied as he flagged down the proprietress. “Can we get another drink here for Kanae-san? Her last one…didn’t like its accommodations.”

Kanae giggled at his remark and the salt and pepper haired woman simply gave him a wry smile and shot him a wink before getting to work pouring another glass of beer from the tap. A moment later, she placed the fizzy golden nectar down on the counter after wiping away what remained of the last glass. “Try not to lose this one.” she teased before going off to tend to other customers.

The two of them were fairly silent for a while, the only sounds between them being Junichiro’s foot nervously tapping the floor and Kanae occasionally taking a sip of her beer. Junichiro checked his phone, trying to calm his nerves. The clock on screen showed that it was 7:33pm. He chided himself in his mind, Come on, man! Think of something to talk about, anything to keep her from losing interest. Things are going pretty decently, don’t lose momentum! Idea after idea floated through his mind, none of them particularly conversation-worthy. Just as he began to lose hope, Junichiro remembered a topic he was very well-versed in, something he could talk about for hours on end without getting bored.

“So…” he began, adjusting his glasses, “do you…like movies?”

Kanae’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as she turned to face him. “I love movies! Action movies, sci-fi, thrillers, horror flicks, you name it. Oh! Romance stuff especially, the way that they can so clearly capture feelings and emotions between two characters just through shot angles and lighting is so-” She cut herself off, a slight pink tint coloring her cheeks as she realized she had been rambling without meaning to.

“Magical?” Junichiro asked, trying to finish her sentence.

“Yeah…” she sighed dreamily, “Sorry, I’m just really passionate about movies and films.”

Junichiro’s posture softened as some of his worries melted away. Even as pretty as she was, she was just a normal person like him. Someone who had passions, interests, and dreams. It felt like a trickle of his usual movie-star confidence had returned, washing away some of the nerves and anxiety that prevented him from interacting with Kanae like a regular human being. He was still a far cry from the heartbreaker he pretended to be on screen, but he no longer feared simply not being enough to talk to Kanae.

Thus, a topic of conversation was found and the two talked the night away. They discussed favorite movies, genres, and actors (Junichiro was careful to avoid discussion of himself). They talked about technical things like camera angles, special effects, and CGI. They talked about costumes, props, and makeup. They talked until they started to run out of things to talk about. It felt like time was of no consequence and they could just keep talking forever, in their own little world. At least, until the proprietress walked up to them and brought them both back to reality.

“I hate to put a stop to the fun,” she interjected, “but I need to close up, and I’d hate for either of you to miss the last train.”

The pair simply blinked at her. Junichiro quickly pulled out his phone and turned on the screen. Sure enough, it was 11:01pm. He turned around and looked around the establishment. Everyone had already left besides the staff, it seemed. Even Renji appeared to have slipped out at some point without him noticing. How could he have noticed? He was locked in deep conversation with Kanae for nearly three and a half hours. Junichiro and Kanae looked at each other and snickered, both clearly thinking the same thing: We really sat here and talked non-stop for that long, huh?

The two of them paid for their drinks and left Yakazai’s inviting embrace after thanking the proprietress. Outside, the two stood without saying anything for a few moments, simply taking in the sounds of the city. Junichiro felt a pang in his heart, he wasn’t ready to leave her yet.

“It was nice meeting you, Kanae-san. Are you alright? Do you want me to walk you home or anything?” Junichiro asked, reluctant to separate.

“No, thank you, I’m fine. We talked so much that I only really got through half of my drink, so I don’t even feel buzzed.” she giggled. “Though…I would like to exchange contact info with you, if that’s okay.”

She held her phone out in front of her gingerly, waiting for Junichiro’s response. It was a plain black smartphone without any kind of protective case or even a screen protector. On the screen sat a QR code that would add Kanae to Junichiro's friend list. Junichiro smiled and took out his phone with its plain black case, quickly scanning the QR code. The phones both dinged as their names popped up on each other's phones. Junichiro breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw ‘Naoya Yukimura’ pop up on Kanae’s phone. It was a good thing he’d remembered to change his account name.

“Thanks for tonight, Naoya-kun.” Kanae said softly, “I had a lot of fun. We should do this again sometime.”

With that, she turned and walked off into the night. Junichiro did the same, moving silently through the city streets and alleyways until he made it back into his apartment. He had scarcely made a sound the entire way home, but that changed when he got to his apartment. As soon as his bedroom door closed, he whooped and cheered so loud that he worried he was going to get a noise complaint. When he finally settled down, he fell into his bed and began messaging Renji to tell him what had happened, not even bothering to change out of his disguise.

Halfway across the city, a shower turned off, leaving only the noise of stray water droplets hitting the drain. The curtains were pushed open as Kana Shirahama stepped out and dried off. She brushed her teeth and put on her night clothes as she got ready for bed. As she finished and went to leave her bathroom, she took one final glance at the shower to watch the last remnants of black HueShift hair dye wash down the drain.