How to Date Japanese Idols (The Tenshi Series) Read online

“Anyway, you’re not wearing them now, but I really like your feathers.” She said this with an over-large smile and an enthusiastic waggle of her fingers over her shoulder, mimicking his well-known stage wardrobe.

  She made air feathers? Well, that was a first. He wiped his fingers against his lips, fighting a smile.

  “Your feathers. Very cool.” She gave him two thumbs up, still relying on the universal symbol for awesomeness. “Male idols. With feathers. Classic stuff. I’m thinking of writing a paper.” She scribbled in the air to show what she meant.

  “Paper?” he said, his brow wrinkling in obvious confusion. Was she a student then?

  “Oh yes! The paper!” she said, handing him a group photo, seeming to finally remember that she was there to get an autograph.

  He looked at the two posters she’d handed him. They were some of his favorites, a photo taken years ago at their debut. He’d been a teenager still, nineteen, and with no idea what was about to happen. The other a more recent shot of him on the set of a made for TV rom-com. She knew his history, but he knew nothing about her.

  “Your Name?” he asked, the routine question seeming suddenly vital.

  “Eloise.”

  He smiled and leaned over the photos, beginning to write. He liked the sound of her name. It was a bookish name.

  “Oh, no. No!” She quickly covered his writing hand with her own.

  Gakino felt her touch on the back of his hand more than he heard her voice. The touch of her fingers surprised him. Her grip cool and unhesitant.

  There was an audible gasp from the girls behind them.

  She pulled away as though burned and then bowed repeatedly. “I’m sorry. So sorry.” She even bowed to the fans around her. “You have no idea how sorry. Oh! “Dui bu qi,” she said, apologizing now in Mandarin to the fans. After she stopped bowing, Curly-chan looked up at him with one eye held closed,, squinting, clearly afraid to see his reaction.

  He smiled. He couldn’t help himself.

  She opened both eyes. “I’m Sorry. My friend. That poster’s for my friend. My friend’s name is Mei.” She pointed to the photo. “Not for me. For Mei.” Heat spread across her face and down her neck and chest, turning her pale skin bright pink.

  There it was. Her fan sign. He smiled back at her pleased, thinking that he preferred her blush to any of the other signs in the crowd.

  “Not for mee,” she said, stretching the vowel and pointing at herself. “For may. Do you understand? This other poster, though,” she lifted her hand and placed it on the drama promo shot, “is for me, Eloise. For Mei. For Eloise,” she repeated, moving her hand between the two posters. “Oh, why isn’t it possible to die from shame and awkwardness?” she asked, palming her cheek, exasperated.

  “Mei? M-E-I?” he offered, hoping to help her and trying hard not to laugh.

  “Yes. Mei. Thank you.” She bowed again, grateful that he seemed to understand. “I would say I am not normally this awkward in public, but that would be a lie. This is pretty much how stuff goes for me. I better leave before I start something on fire or … Oh, who knows what I could do to this place. You wouldn’t believe how accidents seem to follow me about. I’ve been in the news before for that kind of thing, you know?”

  He tilted his head at her fast-paced rambling.

  “What a mess,” she muttered.

  Sano leaned close to him and whispered in Japanese, “Do you think you should help her out here? She’s kind of floundering.”

  Without taking his eyes off of Eloise, he shook his head.

  “Why not? She’s so embarrassed.”

  “She’s adorable this way, don’t you think?”

  “That’s cruel, Yoh,” Sano said, laughing.

  “For Mei?” he asked again, intentionally pointing to the image he knew she wanted signed for herself.

  “Oh forget it. Look,” she said, plunking her book down on the table. “I just want to say, I live far from home, and you make me smile. A lot.” She pointed at him. “You,” she said. Then she pointed at her face with both hands and moved her hands outward in the shape of a smile. “Make me smile.” Her blush grew deeper. “So, thanks,” she finished, putting her hands down.

  He couldn’t help his own wide grin or the mirth that built inside him. So much more cute this way. He laughed and said, “Arigatou,” holding out the posters he’d signed according to her instructions.

  She glanced down at them and smiled in return.

  “You’re right. She’s cute. Very cute.” Honto ni Kawaii. Sano said, chiming in.

  “Kowai or kawaii?” she asked, her eyes large, clapping a hand over her lips as though the question had slipped out.

  “Now, that’s your fault, Sano,” Gakino mumbled.

  Before he could answer her, she grabbed the poster in his outstretched hand, bowed, and moved quickly away, nearly running. As she approached the exit, she spared him one last glance and found that he was still watching her.

  Poor Eloise, he thought, she didn’t know whether they were calling her scary or cute, her ear was too untrained to hear the difference.

  *

  As Gakino climbed out of the shower, he still couldn’t get Curly-chan out of his head. Where had Eloise come from and how she had ended up prettily pink in front of him? He thought of her smile, her blushes. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he laughed, remembering. Air feathers.

  “Hey, you left this at the signing. They thought it was mine.”

  Gakino looked up to see Sano, who had come in with his usual calm and peaceful demeanor, handing him a battered book.

  “I know you’re reading this again.” Sano held the novel between his thumb and forefinger toward Gakino. His grip was firm, but relaxed as he held the book, his toned arm barely flexing as it lifted in Gakino’s direction.

  “Oh,” Gakino breathed, confused. He took the book and considered it. He was reading Jane Eyre again; it was one of his favorites, but he never brought them to the signings. His identity was carefully crafted. Gakino Yoh was the lovable baka, not the bookish sort. That was Sano.

  He flipped the cover open and was surprised to see its pages filled with notes and marks. Scanning an early chapter, he found a scene where Jane is still under the torturous power of Mrs. Reed and her terrible son. Friendless young Jane is warned by a servant how to earn the care of her reluctant guardian. He saw this underlined: “What we tell you is for your good,” added Bessie, in no harsh voice, “You should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure.” To the side of the servant’s well-intentioned advice, he saw in neat but feminine script, ‘Sage counsel. But poor, darling, moody little Jane.’

  “This isn’t mine,” he shouted excitedly. “This is not mine.”

  Shun, rubbing the water from his long hair with a towel, wandered in from the showers, eyeing Gakino. His piercing eyes were scanning Gakino’s face, thoughtfully. “What’s not yours?”

  “This book.” Gakino turned the pages until he found the inside of the cover. It was full of stickers bearing the addresses of places he didn’t know, but he did recognize something. “It’s her book. She must have left it.”

  “Who?” Shun asked, impatiently.

  “The foreign girl,” Sano reminded him.

  “Eloise. Her name was Eloise.” Gakino muttered absently.

  “Eloise.” Shun rolled the name over awkwardly, nearly turning the “L” into an “R.” “She was that girl talking about feathers, right?”

  “Yeah,” Gakino laughed. “She got an autograph for her friend, too.”

  “She was very cute,” Sano said, grinning at him.

  “Not scary at all.” Gakino grinned back, arching an eyebrow.

  “Seriously. Why didn’t you tell her you spoke English?” Sano asked.

  “It was more fun at first when I realized she thought I didn’t. I was going to, but she just kept saying cute things, so I couldn’t. Plus, I don�
�t know. I was worried that the fans would hear me.”

  Sano nodded his head slowly, understanding.

  “Well, at least she was fun. All that signing and miming. I won’t forget that for a while,” Shun said, shrugging.

  Shun and Sano laughed and moved to finish cleaning up, but Gakino stared down at the book in his hand, unmoving. He flipped to the first page and began reading Eloise’s words and Jane’s.

  *

  Gakino spent the night reading alongside Eloise through her notes. By morning, he had added many of his own. He had also discovered that she worked at a boarding school not far from the signing in Taipei.

  It was early in the morning, and the band was supposed to return to Japan today. He held the book in both hands on his lap and stared at it, looking for answers. His own words sat next to hers now and something felt right about that. His silent conversation with her thoughts had given him something he had missed lately. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his role in the band. He had enjoyed being Yoh, devoted idol and group punch-line for the past nine years. He’d grown up in this band with these men. They worked hard. They made people happy. It was a good way to spend your life. But, in that life, he had a role to play, and it wasn’t really him that people wanted to see; it was his smile they were after. They wanted a simple, pleasant, silly little fool, and he was happy to give it to them. After all, his character wasn’t far from who he was, it just wasn’t all he was. It had been fun to spend a night with Eloise and Jane, and he didn’t want it to be over yet.

  The band leader, Hiroya, or Hiro as he was called by the others, stumbled into their shared living room at the hotel suite. He was not known for his early morning personality. His perfectly pressed clothing contradicted his bed-rumpled hair and, per normal, sleep-lazy eyes. It was a good thing the stylists didn’t let him dress himself anymore.

  “Oh, you’re already here.” Hiro slumped into the seat next to him. “What’s that?” He pointed to the book Gakino held in his hands.

  “Eloise’s book.” Gakino looked sideways at Leader.

  He stared back. “Why do you have some girl’s book?”

  “I… She left it at the signing table,” he mumbled, his thumbs stroking the cover.

  “Shouldn’t you give it back?”

  “I…uh…yes. That would be a good idea. But she lives here, and we’re leaving soon. We’ve got jobs to do.”

  Leader seemed to consider this for a moment.

  “So?”

  Gakino smiled.

  CHAPTER 2

  “Where are you?” His manager’s voice boomed in his ear the minute he picked up the phone on his way into the school.

  “I have some…business to take care of.”

  “Business? What kind of business?”

  “Oh, just, you know, some fan requests.” Gakino laughed.

  “Fan requests I don’t know about? Yoh! You have an interview with the local media in two hours!”

  “It’s fine. I’ll be back in time.”

  “You can’t just run off—“

  Gakino closed the phone and put it in his pocket.

  Yoshida-san, their manager, had called three times on his way to the school, but he’d let them go to voicemail. Yoshida-san would be pissed, but he also wouldn’t have let Gakino run this particular errand. Not if he knew what it was.

  Gakino dodged a herd of kids as they ran by at full speed, the bell ringing through the long hallway. He’d managed to find her workplace by ‘creative investigating.’ Mostly, he flipped through her book until he’d found an address in Taiwan, and then quickly rented a car and driver.

  Kids continued to run by him, nearly knocking each other over in their rush to get to class at the last minute. He kept his head down. He didn’t really have a plan other than to find Eloise and give her the book back. As the hall cleared, he decided to keep walking down the long tile hallway until he either found her or someone who knew where she was.

  He peered into the windows that ran the length of each classroom above the chest-high lockers. He passed three classrooms before he found her.

  Curly-chan stood at the front of the classroom, pointing at the board and to individual students while she talked. He could hear her voice, but not her words. Her hair was pulled up into a loose bun, brown curls escaping the bow that trapped most of them. Her face, full of focus and purpose, looked nothing like the shy, adorable woman who’d told him she loved his feathers.

  Yet, he liked this face just as much.

  Leaning against the lockers with one arm, Gakino rested his chin in his hand, just enjoying watching Eloise. Until he felt someone staring. He pulled his eyes away from Eloise. A pair of her students was staring at him, whispering to each other.

  He turned back to Eloise to see if she had noticed him.

  Nothing.

  She was still teaching, but she did notice her students’ lack of attention. He was impressed with the way she deftly stepped around the classroom’s round table to stand behind the two girls. She didn’t stop teaching to admonish them. She simply put herself near them and they stopped whispering to each other, turning back to their notebooks.

  She hadn’t see him.

  He wanted to get her attention, but, he wanted her to notice him instead of having to announce himself. He suddenly wanted to see her become the girl from the signing in this place.

  He only took a minute before deciding on a course of action.

  He had one plan he knew would work.

  He thought of her blush, her worry over being scary or cute, and laughed. Loudly.

  Her head shot up in surprise from checking a student’s notebook.

  So did the heads of the two girls who had been watching him.

  He waved, smiling his best and brightest idol smile, the one he reserved for close-ups. Gakino couldn’t decide who looked more surprised, the students or Eloise.

  No, actually, that was easy.

  Eloise looked like she thought she was hallucinating. He waved again. He watched as she dropped the notebook and saw that she was gripping the table. Another student, a boy, jumped up and looked from the notebook to Eloise and then up to Gakino. Eloise murmured something to the kids, her eyes glued to him. Without looking again at her students, she somehow knew they had all started their work and then she walked toward the door.

  Gakino turned, one arm still resting on the lockers, the zipper of his light jacket scraping against the wood. A little nervous, he straightened his collar and blew at the hair that had fallen into his eyes.

  The door opened, and there she stood. Eyes wide, one hand trembling over her lips. Eloise pulled the door shut behind her with a resounding ‘clack.’ Her hand still clutched the doorknob. He figured he’d better explain himself.

  “You left a book at the signing.” He held up Eloise’s book, smiling.

  "You speak English?" she asked, cutting him off.

  “They thought it was my book, but I…”

  "You speak English?" she repeated.

  "Yes. I speak English."

  "You lied to me."

  "No."

  “Why didn’t you tell me at the signing?” She covered her eyes with her hands and he knew what she was remembering."Did I entertain you?"

  "Well, yes. I--”

  "Why are you here?"

  "You left this," he said, holding out her copy of Jane Eyre. She had cut him off before he could tell her what he really wanted her to know. He tried again with a deep breath. “And--”

  "You came all this way to return this? How did you find me?"

  Since she had not taken the book yet, he flipped it open to its cover page. Every time she moved she added a new address label to her battered book. He read, "The States. Italy. Mexico. Germany. And now Taiwan."

  She pulled the book out of his fingers roughly. "Yes, and now Taiwan. Thank you for bringing my book. Now, could you please leave. I need to return to my students, and you shouldn't be in the halls distracting them like those two." She p
ointed behind her to the two girls who were staring through the windows with intense focus.

  “How do you see them when you’re back is turned?”

  “Please just leave.”

  "Please leave. This is all you have to say to me?"

  "What else should I say?"

  "Thank you," he said, slowly, stretching his vowels, making his eyes wide and his mouth rollover the words, as though he were teaching her strange vocabulary. "Or a-ri-ga-to-u-o. I have come from so long away."

  "You might have mailed it," she insisted.

  He laughed. "How about you just say I like your feathers?" He pointed to a small button on his lapel where there were three soft small feathers.

  She blushed. "I don't like them. Not right now. Please, let me get back to work." She put her hand on his bicep and pushed him backward into the hall and away from her classroom door.

  "You need to work. Ok. I will wait for you."

  "You won't just go?" Eloise’s voice went up a little too high at the end. She pushed him further down the hall toward the door he’d come in.

  "I will wait."

  "You'll have to wait hours. It's only 11. School isn't over until after four." Both of her hands were on him now, pushing.

  "I am not leaving until you talk to me.” Gakino stopped, Eloise’s hands pressing uselessly at him until she jerked them back toward her body with a deep sigh. His skin tingled where her hands had been. “Just five minutes. That’s all I need.”

  “Seriously? I’m at work all day. I told you.”

  “Five minutes.”

  “I can’t promise you anything...but I’ll try to come out...to the parking lot...in between classes or something.”

  “I will wait."

  She nodded and turned quickly toward her class, looking left and right, but not back.

  This couldn't be happening.

  The world she lived in was being invaded by the world she fantasized safely about from her living room. How was it even possible that Gakino Yoh could exist in the halls of the school she taught at? How could the same man she’d seen posting Instagram photos of what he was eating for lunch or wearing for his latest music video on an official Facebook fan-page be here?