4 ✦ Unknown Caller

The ominous glowing screen of the phone illuminated my apartment.

The words UNKNOWN CALLER blinked.

Naoko stood frozen. Her hands were trembling inside the sleeves of my sweater. All the color had vanished from her face.

I had a sneaking suspicion of who that could be.

She shook. “..If I do not answer.. he will send them to me.. he will know I am running. If I answer... I might be able to negotiate."

Before I could stop her, she reached out with a shaking finger and swiped the green icon. She put the phone on speaker, her hand dropping to her side.

For an agonizing few seconds, there was nothing but the faint hiss of static.

A voice spoke. The person spoke entirely in Japanese and with such a heavy weight. It wasn't loud or angry really.. it just had this chillingly calm authority.

“Naoko." Naoko gasped, her posture instantly snapping into a rigid, terrified bow, even though he couldn't see her. “Otou-sama..."

“What an interesting place to hide.” the man continued, his English suddenly bleeding through, crisp and unaccented. It made my blood run cold. How did he know exactly where she was? “But truly, did you believe simply turning off your location services at Narita Airport alone would be enough to blind me? Do you forget what I own?”

“Please..." Naoko whispered, her voice cracking. “Please, do not make me come back. I said it then and I will say it now, I will not marry him. I would rather die a commoner."

A low, humorless chuckle echoed from the speaker.

“A commoner? You? You cannot even boil water without a servant.” The voice hardened.

Silence choked the air for a couple moments, it was almost as if her father couldn’t believe she was serious.

“....Very well then, Naoko. Let us play a game.”

Naoko’s breath hitched. She looked at me, her dark eyes wide with panic.

“Six months." her father commanded. “You have exactly six months in that savage country. You will not use a single yen from your accounts. You will not contact my associates for aid. If you survive, independently, for six months... I will cancel the engagement."

The room was so quiet I could hear the rain hitting the window glass.

“But..." he added softly. “the moment you fail. The moment you are evicted, starve or beg for my money... you will return on the next flight, and you will marry him the following day. I hope you understand. Do we have an agreement?”

“Y-Yes.." Naoko stammered, tears spilling over her eyelashes. “Yes, Father... I accept."

“Well then good luck, because your clock starts now."

The line went dead.

Naoko stared at the black screen of the phone for a long moment as the room filled with silence. The rigid posture she had been holding as if her father was before her, suddenly collapsed. Her knees buckled.

“Naoko..!"

I lunged forward, catching her before she hit the floor. She crashed into my chest, her hands grabbing handfuls of my t-shirt. And then, she broke once more.

She didn't cry gracefully. She sobbed, burying her face into my chest the crushing weight of the impossible task ahead of her.

“I can't do it..." she wailed into my shirt, her fingers digging into my back. “You heard him.. I am useless, Rowan. I cannot do it. He has trapped me."

The crushing weight of the task ahead seemed to be impossible for her to bare.

My heart hammered. I looked down at the way she was drowning in my clothes, at the way she clung to me.

Just a second ago, I had shoved my printed profile in her face and threatened to throw her out. I had called her a stalker, and I had also told her to go to an embassy that would have immediately sold her out to that terrifying voice.

“You are not useless.” I exhaled, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pulling her tight against me. “Naoko, I am so sorry. I truly didn’t know a thing about your situation.”

She just sobbed harder, her face pressed against my collarbone.

“You're not going back.." I reaffirmed. “Please forgive me..”

I rested my chin on top of her head, my hair brushing against hers. “Do you hear me? You're not going back to that guy. I take everything back.”

She sniffled, pulling back just an inch to look up at me. Her dark eyes were red-rimmed. Her eyes still swam in tears. “But... how about how you felt about your privacy? Your money too... you admitted I was a burden."

“I did. But this situation has admittedly been nothing short of insane, all I can ask for is for you to forgive me. Truly.” I said, my blue eyes meeting hers. “But maybe.. if you want a crash course in being a broke American... you can stay if you’d like. We'll figure out the rent, the food, all of it. Maybe together.. we could just figure it out?”

A tiny, watery smile broke through her tears. “You will... permit me to stay in the castle?"

“Yeah," I chuckled softly. “You can stay in the crusty castle."

We stayed like that for a moment, kneeling on the floor of my apartment, locked in a tight embrace. The warmth of her body against mine was suddenly very distracting. I realized, with a jolt of panic, that one of my hands was resting on her waist where my sweater had ridden up.

I cleared my throat loudly.

“Right." I said, my voice cracking slightly. I let go of her and scrambled backward, my face burning. “Okay.. uhmm..-“

Naoko sat back on her heels, her cheeks a dark shade of crimson. She forcefully pulled the sweater down over her knees, suddenly refusing to look anywhere near my face.

“I... apologize for ruining the fabric of your garment with my tears." she stammered, staring at the refrigerator.

“Oh it's fine, it's a crappy Walmart t-shirt." I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck. “I, uh, I need to clean up the ‘hair salon’ and then I should probably go buy us some dinner. I don’t think I can do another night of hot dogs."

“I shall assist in the restoration of the chamber." she declared, scrambling to her feet and looking for a distraction.

The next few minutes were a blur of awkward, hyper-polite avoidance. I grabbed the trash bag full of dye boxes, while Naoko took the plastic mixing bowl to the sink.

But as we were closing to finishing cleaning up, I turned to grab a stray comb off the desk, and my elbow clipped a stack of heavy textbooks. The one at the top, a massive hardcover slid off the edge, about to land directly toward Naoko’s sandaled foot.

"Look out!" I yelled.

Naoko didn't flinch. Without looking, reacting as quick as a cat, her leg swiftly moved out of the way of danger and dodging the falling book. Afterward she popped it upward with the top of her foot and caught it casually in her free hand.

She placed it back on the desk without a word.

I stood frozen, the trash bag dangling from my hand. “...Are you a Kunoichi too?”

She blinked, looking at her own hand as if surprised the book was in it. “I merely... reacted to danger."

“Right.” I stared at her. This woman is giving me whiplash. She couldn't operate a shower knob, but she also has the reflexes of a gymnast. “I'm going to the store. Don't... kick anything else while I'm gone.”

You know, after all that, the damp air felt good. I walked to the cheap corner convenience store a few blocks down.

A scary billionaire father and a six-month survival bet. What’s next? Am I going to win the lottery? That would be nice.

I bought a frozen pizza, two boxes of cheap ramen, and a six-pack of store-brand soda. Doritos. One Monster Energy. The essentials. Sweet.

When I returned to the apartment complex, the elevator STILL wasn’t working (fantastic) so I had to walk through the quite dim lit concrete parking garage located beneath the building to reach the back stairwell.

The garage was empty, only illuminated by flickering yellow lights up above.

But as I walked past a concrete pillar, I heard a sound.

It was the sharp squeaking of rubber soles on concrete, followed by a heavy, exhaled breath.

I stopped. I peeked around the pillar.

Naoko was there.

She had found a relatively clean, empty parking space near the back. She was still wearing my oversized black athletic shorts and the grey sweater.

She had her phone propped up against a parking block. It wasn’t even playing music, a metronome was ticking out a beat.

And she was dancing.

It was nothing like the bouncy K-pop routine she had been doing in the chair earlier this was really raw and visceral, it was like she was a classical sweeping blur of energy.

She moved across the oil-stained concrete like it was a stage. She leaped, her body extending in a perfect, impossible line, before collapsing into a controlled beautiful roll across the ground.

I watched on mesmerized.

The grey sweater slipped off her shoulder again, but she didn't care. Her face showed her passion, her energy. Her true nature. She looked so fierce, but.. free.

The metronome stopped. Naoko sank into a final, breathless pose, her chest heaving, her chestnut hair sticking to her forehead.

The frozen pizza slipped from my fingers. It hit the concrete with a loud, depressing smack.

Naoko gasped, spinning around. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw me standing by the pillar. She immediately crossed her arms over her chest, shrinking in on herself, the princess vanishing.

“Rowan!" she squeaked, her face turning scarlet. “How long have you been lurking in the shadows?!"

“I-I wasn't lurking..?!" I said, stepping into the yellow light, leaving the pizza on the floor. “I live here... why are you dancing in a parking garage?"

She looked away, kicking at a loose pebble with her sneaker. “The apartment is too small. I needed to stretch my limbs. I... I apologize. It is improper. I will stop."

“Stop...? Why?" I walked closer. “Naoko, that last bit of whatever it was that you were doing.. that was.. amazing. I mean it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone move like that."

Her head snapped up, her dark eyes searching my face for mockery. “You... you do not find it vulgar?"

“Vulgar? What do you mean vulgar? That was art." I frowned. “Why would anyone think this is vulgar?"

She wrapped her arms tighter around herself. The chill of the garage seemed to finally reach her. “Because that is what my father called it."

She looked at the concrete floor her voice dropping to a quiet murmur. “When I was young, before the duties of the House became absolute, my mother enrolled me in a ballet and contemporary academy. I loved it. I could.. move like the birds that flew in the morning..”

She let out a bitter laugh. “But as I grew older, my father discovered it. He said a woman of my standing does not sweat on a stage for the amusement of strangers. He said it was interfering with my studies, my etiquette, my... grooming for marriage. He banned it. He burned my shoes..”

“...for years, I have only danced in my mind.."

I stared at her.

“He's an idiot." I said bluntly.

Naoko gasped, looking around as if her father's ninjas were hiding in the rafters. “Rowan! You cannot speak of the Baron that way!"

The image of this talented, passionate girl being forced to lock herself away, to repress the one thing that brought her joy.. that.. that made a hot spark burn deep in my chest.

“He's a real idiot." I repeated, louder this time. I walked over and picked up the frozen pizza. “You... you have a hidden talent. You just spent your whole life being judged. With the way you move.. you could be a prodigy."

“A prodigy..?" She tested the word on her tongue. A faint and hopeful smile played on her lips.

“Yeah. And you need a job, right? To survive the six months?"

She nodded slowly.

“Then we're going to find you one.." I declared, my blue eyes locking onto hers. “And no, you’re not going to be washing dishes and you’re not going to be answering phones. We are going to find a way for you to dance. Even if we have to enter every competition in Seattle to win prize money to pay my rent.”

Naoko stared at me, her mouth slightly open. The shock on her face was comical. “You... you would aid me in this? You would defy my father's mandate?"

“I already find him insulting. Why not?” I offered her a lopsided smile.

“But most of all, I want to help you.” I finished.

She looked at me. Her eyes searched me. For a moment, the air between us felt heavy again, charged with that same electric awkwardness from the apartment, but underneath it something felt warm.

“You are a very strange commoner, Rowan." she said softly, her eyes shining.

“And you are a very high-maintenance princess." I shot back, grinning. “Now please, can we go inside? I have to be at 7-Eleven in an hour a half and the pizza is literally deforming in my hands.”

Naoko let out a genuine, bright laugh that echoed in the stairwell as she followed me back up.