Chapter Text
“And here’s where you’ll be staying for the next three months.”
Kawashima Ami’s heels clacked against the wooden staircase as she followed her uncle up to the second story. The wheels of two massive hardshell luggage bags clacked just out of sync behind both of them. She watched the key turn, unlocking the floor that sat above the main house: the building was partitioned so the second floor could be rented out. As she expected, the hall beyond the door was bare and undecorated. Two more sets of western-style pinewood doors sat parallel on either side.
“The studios are at the back of the hall,” her uncle continued, “We picked the left one for you since the view is nicer. But if you want to move, let me know; your mattress is just on a steel frame.”
“No, the left will be alright. Really, thank you so much!” Ami spoke with an angel’s smile plastered on her face.
She pulled both corners up to form a perfectly symmetrical arc, revealing just the right amount of teeth and just enough of her bottom lip. Her large, glistening eyes flickered in and out of sight as fluttered her lids. It was a well-rehearsed, polished expression.
“Ah…you really are Anna’s daughter.”
Her uncle wasn’t born with the same natural beauty as Ami. She got most of her looks from her mother’s side, after all. Still, her height could’ve been from either, since uncle Keito was a solid 190 cm. He had to duck his head a little while he led her into her new room.
“Speaking of, how’s she been? I’d hardly heard from her or my brother until recently.”
“She just got back from Shizuoka, so I’ve hardly had time to talk to her myself!”
“Oh?” her uncle cocked his head as he wheeled a luggage bag into the corner of the room, “Is she already visiting your summer villa?”
“No, she was filming. Season four: a capybara onsen temptation! Murder on the Izu Peninsula! Do you not keep up with Yuudzuku Reiko?”
“Ah, you caught me. I haven’t had much time, with my job,” Keito said. He was a doctor at a college hospital, and his shift would start in just a few hours.
“Honestly, me neither. But don’t tell mom♡”
Ami brought her other bag over by her bed, and sat down, testing the mattress. Firm, but a little cheap. That matches the rest of the room: it’s got shelves made up quickly with parts from Ikea, and a small TV sitting on a steel rack. The lilac-colored curtains on the other hand seem to be high-quality, heavy, polyester blackout curtains. As expected from a couple that works nights.
“Well, here’s the keys,” her uncle said, tossing two clean, bronze keys onto the bed. “There’s a bathroom with a tub, and a room we use as storage that you’re free to put stuff in too. The keys will work for the outside and inside staircases. Since there’s no kitchen, feel free to eat downstairs with us.”
“It’s perfect! Really, thank you so much for letting me hide out here. I’m sorry for the burden.”
“It’s no burden, really. We weren’t planning to use these rooms for a while,” Keito said with an awkward smile. The corners of his eyes pulled up a little with his cheeks, making his crow’s feet stand out.
Keito and his wife had bought this house with aspirations of raising children upstairs. But with both in the medical field, working odd hours, they’ve hardly even humored that thought since. Ami felt a little awkward, figuring he must be thinking about his familial aspirations when he said that. She was about to speak up, when-
“Sorry my wife went to bed right after greeting you,” her uncle broke the silence first.
“It’s okay! I know she needs to get her rest, so her skin can stay that beautiful.”
Ami decided to keep silent about her aunt and uncle’s matching crow’s feet and stress wrinkles.
“You’re too kind. I’m going to go finish my coffee, while you get comfortable. Want me to pour you a cup?”
“Actually, I’m going to meet the Kitamura’s at a diner in an hour, so I’ll get a drink there.”
Ami bit her lip. Coffee is okay, but she much prefers tea.
“Haha, so busy, just like your father. Well, I probably won’t see you until tomorrow, then, so call me if you need anything.”
Alone at last. Ami laid back on ‘her’ bed and sighed. First, she’d need to buy a desk; why hadn’t they thought of that? She’s a student! And a model…realistically, she would wind up using it as a vanity. A microwave might be nice too…and a fan. It’s already the last day of golden week, so summer is right around the corner.
I’ll have to go shopping later. Or…maybe not.
Ami was only staying here until summer break after all. Just long enough for everything to blow over…Then, she’d return to her fully furnished, high rise condo downtown in Ginza. Just three months…
—————
She didn’t even change her outfit. Just a pair of tortoise-shell Miu Miu sunglasses on top and she was ready to go. Her traveling clothes would have to do: a fitted black cardigan over a red blouse and slim-fit jeans that show off her unnaturally long legs. Her strappy sandals had a 2-inch wedge heel, nothing too high. Like her appearance she left her new room mostly how she found it. After all, that boy was outside her new home, calling at her curtained-window from the streetside.
That idiot. He should have just called my cellphone and given me a heads up.
She gave her house key its debut as she locked behind herself as she left through the exterior staircase.
“Hey, Ami! It’s been a while, haha!”
The young man stood on the sidewalk with his hands akimbo. Since the last time Ami had seen him, he’d grown to surpass her in height, but only a little. He’d gotten more handsome, too, but his older brother was always a looker, so Ami wasn’t shocked. Unlike his brother, though, he was cursed with poor eyesight, so his charming green-hazel eyes are hidden behind thick, fogged-up lenses. He’d bulked up too; Ami could tell from a quick look at his arms. Those thin, rounded glasses seemed out of place on his nose.
“Yuusaku! You look great!”
She thought he looked stupid. He was wearing a black polyester gakuran and his black school slacks. There’s no school during Golden Week! And what was he doing, causing a ruckus in a residential area?
But she wouldn’t mention any of that. The second her foot stepped off the staircase, it was like Ami passed through a portal and transformed. A playful smile fixed itself on her face and her eyes turned into a doe’s within a half-a-second. Her shoulders moved back, and down, making her frame even more lithe, and she lifted her left heel and pointed her toes inward.
Ami became the girl-next-door.
“Sorry I’m early! I didn’t know if you’d brought a bike, so I wanted to leave enough time to walk.”
“Awww, that’s so sweet, Yuusaku! But, I thought I was just meeting you there…silly, me! I should have known you would come to make sure I didn’t get lost~♡”
Yuusaku’s glasses slid down the bridge of his nose when he raised his eyebrows in response; he promptly re-aligned them with his pinky.
“Uh-huh. But, Ami, we used to go to Johnny’s all the time. Did you really forget where it is?”
“Oh, you know me! There’s no way I could remember!”
She definitely remembered.
“Well, anyway, I thought it would be nice if we could walk there together and catch up. Shall we get going?”
“Sure, Yuusaku!”
Walking side-by-side down the street, the two made for an attractive young couple. It wasn’t the first time they’d walked together through this sleepy town. She clenched her teeth behind her smile and swallowed down the faint pang of nostalgia bubbling up in her gut.
“I’m excited to have you start at Ohashi High. You’re not going to miss your old school, are you?”
“My old school?” Ami missed a step as she repeated the question, “Well, it was a lot more convenient for my modeling job. But doesn’t a town like this just have more charm?
“Mm. You’re right!”
Yuusaku avoided eye contact as he looked straight ahead. A moment passed in silence; it was too soon for cicadas and this ‘charming town’ was missing the laughter of children enjoying their break. Even the sun seemed muted today, so she decided to take her expensive shades off. Ami leaned forward as they walked, trying to catch his attention.
“Hey, Yuusaku. You’ll look after me at school, won’t you?”
“I’ll do what I can to make sure everyone welcomes you. I’m class officer, after all.”
“That makes sense. You’ve always been so reliable. I bet you’re on student council, too.”
Kitamura tilted his head up, and a prideful, or maybe self-indulgent smile crept up to his cheeks.
“Actually, I am. I’m Vice President!”
Bingo. Ami certainly didn’t miss the shift in his demeanor. if the smile didn’t give it away, the new bounce to his voice meant she’d found his weakspot: praise.
“We had some duties today, so that’s why I’m dressed for school. But I wouldn’t have even joined if not for the president! You’ll have to meet her tomorrow. Kanou Sumire, the class president: people call her the patriarch, or just Kaichou. She keeps all of us in line, and-”
“Oh, she sounds lovely! You’ll introduce us?”
It wasn’t the praise…it was something else. Ami furrowed her brow, careful not to let her eyes show any of what was going on behind her eyesockets.
“You’ll meet her at the morning assembly tomorrow. Ah, look! There it is!”
Johnny’s was completely unchanged from how she remembered it, except that the walls were painted a bright orange now. Your run-of-the family diner, with Japanese and Western food both on the menu.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten at a place so cozy!”
“I bet, since you’re a model! I bet you must diet, right?”
“Whaaat, Yuusaku! You shouldn’t ask a girl about that sort of thing!”
Classless idiot.
A part of Ami was glad Kitamura was still childish in some ways. That goof in the glasses next door was always the earnest type.
“Aha, sorry! My parents are probably getting a seat now. They took a late lunch, so they’ll have to go after we finish eating.”
Right before the stairs to the entrance, Kitamura stopped. His four eyes wandered to a magazine and newspaper stand.
“Let’s hurry in, then!” Ami said with a smile. She linked her arm under his as she tugged him to the door.
But her eyes finally glinted; she had spotted it too. This month’s CanVi!, complete with Ami herself on the cover.
—————
“It was lovely to see you, Ami-chan. We’re so glad to have you back.”
Miss Kitamura stood at the table and bowed as she said her goodbyes. The skin around her jaw was saggier, but she was the same woman Ami remembered. Even her glasses matched the ones in Ami’s memory. The mister had already left in a hurry after taking a work call.
“No, the pleasure was mine, Kitamura-san. I hope Yuusaku and I can get along like we used to.”
The pleasantries came and went in an incredibly dull twenty minutes. Ami bites the corner of her bottom lip to keep a sigh from breaking free. The food was nice, but was this a good use of her time? Her eyes darted to the exit. Once she’s home, she’ll start her skincare early and get some extra sleep before her first day at school.
“Ah, look! What a coincidence!”
Yuusaku’s eyes and mind were somewhere else entirely. Tapping Ami on the shoulder, he guided her across the diner to a booth by the window.
Ugh, what now, Yuusaku?
“What is it, Yuusaku~?
“Aisaku! Takasu! Haha, you two are as close as ever!”
Two kids are in the booth, sitting on the same side. They’re frozen in place in an awkward position, only turning their heads to stare at Yuusaku. Did they catch them while kissing?
No. The high school-age girl & boy duo seemed to be in the middle of grade school-age roughhousing.
“Ami, these are my good friends,” Kitamura said, addressing her, oblivious to the fact that Ami had already figured that out.
“Oh! How lucky; I’m happy to meet anyone Yuusaku is friends with!”
Her smile is dialed up to eleven. Her cherubic cheeks warm themselves and glow a peachy pink. She can feel several pairs of eyes pointed her way—not two sets, not three sets, but half the eyes in the diner! She flutters her lashes once for each stare she’s collected.
“I’m-” Ami is cut off.
“Kawashima Ami!?” the girl in the booth wails., slamming her hands down onto a magazine on the table. Like she’s possessed, she flips it to a full-page spread with Ami on it.
You don’t have to say my name so loudly…but at least it’s boosting my name recognition.
“Oh, oh no! You already figured it out? I guess I can’t hide that I’m a model…”
With a puff of her cheeks and a pouty bottom lip, she balances her sulky appeal towards both the boy and the girl.
The girl, however, already shifted her focus to Yuusaku; how peculiar. Now that she looks, this girl really is peculiar. She’s as short as Ami was at the start of junior high, but her face isn’t immature; on the contrary she has a bit of a dignified look to her. And yet her skin is pale and supple and completely blemish-free, and she’s not even wearing make-up. Her amber eyes are glassy like the marble eyes of an antique doll. That’s what she looks like: a bisque doll.
Ami liked dolls well enough as a kid, but not ones like this girl; she liked fashionable dolls she could dress up and play house with, or throw into the pool. But this girl was wearing a sweet mint green A-line dress and sleeves with ruffled cuffs. A black ribbon was tied near her likewise-ruffled collar. Her hair was ashy; it was a light brown, lighter than chestnut, and long enough to engulf half her silhouette like a cloud of smoke. Ami thought she wouldn’t look out of place fading away on a dusty windowsill at French vineyard. But here she was, in a booth at a family restaurant.
“K-Kitamura-kun, what are you…” the doll stammered, delicate words floating from her lips and shattering before a sentence could finish.
“Ami and I are childhood friends! She lived next door; I’ve known her since before kindergarten!”
“Whoa…” the boy said, finally unfreezing as Ami refocused her gaze on him.
When they were approaching, she thought he looked plain, but she was wrong! The eyes of a shark stare back at her. Two intense, white eyes with pinpoint irises and the bloodlust of a rabid doberman. She thought the ghost of Shimizu Jirocho must have possessed this man (she’d been watching too many movies, it seems).
Her ironclad, sweetie-pie face wavered for only a split second from this mini-yakuza’s visual assault. Once she looked past his sanpaku, no, shihaku eyes, he wasn’t too bad looking. His jaw was well-defined and his nose made him look sharp, almost dashing. His black hair was brushed, but tactfully unkempt, and his long, fluffy bangs that fell between his eyes were trendy. If Ami lent him her Miu Miu’s, he might look the part of a celebrity’s bodyguard, or perhaps a character from MiB.
No, he wasn’t muscular enough for that; he was leaner than Yuusaku, so they probably weren’t on a sports team together. Ami wondered how he met this delinquent? He wasn’t in uniform, like Yuusaku, so he wasn’t his buddy on the student council. He was wearing a white polo shirt over a midnight blue, long-sleeve shirt, and boring brown pants with a set of cargo pockets. Not only did he not seem to match Yuusaku, he was completely mismatched with that girl next to him.
But, it didn’t matter.
“It’s really nice to meet you,” she spoke in a melodic tone and extended a hand to the thug-eyed man, while tilting her head slightly, “What was your name again? I totally forgot, I’m so sorry!”
“T…Takasu Ryuuji. But, it’s okay! I actually hadn’t said it yet, so you don’t need to apologize!”
His voice was more gentle than Ami expected. She watched as his killer eyes fell to Ami’s hand.
“Oh, stupid me! Everyone’s always saying I’m an airhead, a ditz! You were thinking it too, just now, right? Wah…” Ami whined, pushing her lips into another pout.
This was too easy. Men were pretty simple, or at least they turned simple around a beautiful girl like her. It didn’t matter if he had a cute girlfriend; it was subliminal, and Ami knew it. Still, she was disappointed he didn’t take the handshake bait; skin contact turns boys to putty.
“Oh, and handshakes are too old-fashioned, aren’t they? Stupid Ami-chan, I’m embarrassing myself. Oh, and you know I’m a model, but here I am in such simple clothes and light makeup and-”
Just as Ami raised her hand to put it on her cheek, Takasu grabbed it and shook it. It caught her a little off-guard, even moreso because this rough man’s skin was almost as soft as her own.
“It isn’t too old-fashioned at all! And you look…well, like a model, s-so…” Takasu said, his teeth chattering. That could have been a smooth line, if it came from a playboy. This was no playboy.
“That’s so sweet!” Ami held up a finger to Ryuuji’s face, right in front of the til of his nose, “But you can be honest! My hair’s totally frizzy because I forgot I was going out…‘Ami-chan, such a ditz’!”
Ami chuckled, riding the high of a successful meet-and-greet. But that high crashed a little when she noticed the girl shooting bullets at her with her eyes. For a moment, they looked as scary as Takasu’s, but she was just overthinking it; the girl is otherwise well-composed.
Don’t worry, I don’t want some creepy doll’s creepy boytoy.
“Ami, why don’t we sit and have drinks with them? It’s a chance encounter, after all!” Kitamura gestured to the other booth and ushered Ami in first, “Aisaka, why don’t you introduce yourself? I’ve gotta go pee.”
“Eeh, too descriptive, Yuusaku!”
“Sorry. Haha, be right back!”
Kitamura waved and walked away, but Ami noticed that he turned back to glance at Ryuuji. What’s with that guy…?
“Aisaka…Taiga,” the girl, more like a statue than a girl spoke, through gritted teeth. She barely moved a muscle, and seemed reluctant to even move her lips.
Takasu avoided eye contact with Ami and Aisaka both, the soft skin on his face ripening with warmth.
Ami, for her part, wore her ironclad mask. She leaned her elbow on the table and put her chin on her hand, then gave them a cherubic smile that she should charge money for.
None of them gave an inch. This was a stand-off. A terribly awkward duel at high noon between the beautiful sheriff and Bonnie & Clyde.
“I…need to use the restroom too.”
Clyde surrendered, and left Bonnie high and dry.
“So…Aisaka-san.”
It was worth trying. It was just some girl, and she hadn’t done anything wrong, but it was worth trying, for Yuusaku’s sake. No, she didn’t care about that; the awkward air was just too terribly stifling!
“Wanna grab us some drinks?”
She didn’t flinch.
“Is that guy your boyfriend? Like, wow…”
She didn’t budge.
Ami sighed, lifting her head and staring at her own acrylic nails. None were chipped, of course. They were as perfect as you’d expect.
“How short are you, by the way?” Ami’s sweet voice coated some venomous words, “142cm? 136cm?”
Ami noticed Aisaka’s arm muscles tighten, like she was clenching her fists. She wouldn’t have noticed, if everything else about her wasn’t so still. But a reaction is a reaction; Ami found a button to push.
“It must be hard shopping for clothes that fit. Is that why you bought that magazine?”
The poison from her lips was slowly melting her mask away, but Ami, in her irritation, wasn’t about to stop. She began running down a slippery slope to get a response. Her round, dewy eyes sunk into a half-lidded state.
“Well, nothing in there’s going to suit you at all. You should’ve bought a children’s mag.”
She wanted more than a reaction. The left corner of her innocent little mouth twitched up and down as she lightly chuckled to herself.
“Did your boyfriend strain his eyes trying to see such a small thing? Is that why he looks like that?”
She wanted more than acknowledgement. Her thin and gentle eyebrows cocked inwards, like the pointed arrow-shape of a devil’s tail.
“Seriously!? Are you deaf? Or just dumb? Are you really that mad because I could steal your man?”
She wanted something greater than all of that. She bit her bottom lip one last time as her smile became a toothy grin.
“Okay, then maybe I will steal him! And then I’ll dump him right after! Your taste in men, really? Going for the bad boy because you’re such a rebellious little princess? Haha!”
She tilted her head back as she laughed, and her irises shifted to look down upon Taiga. Ami-chan the seraph had fully transformed into a fallen angel.
“He…is not…my boyfriend,” Taiga finally let her thoughts slither from her mouth. Unlike when she spoke before, her voice was flat and quiet, like a tiger growling.
“Ohhh? Well, I don’t really care. Must be slim pickings in a boring place like this. I mean, what do you even do for fun around here? Wait; you wouldn’t really know much about having fun, would you? And that dull boy…”
Ami hadn’t heeded the tiger’s warning. She pounced.
SLAP!!!
An explosion occurred at Johnny’s that day.
Ami held her right cheek, her hand trembling wildly. Her words had been swallowed whole by the tiger. Her beautiful face, her model’s pride, had been tattooed with a tiny handprint. Her eyes were dewy once more, but not by Ami’s design.
Aisaka Taiga, this girl, this tiny girl, was towering over Ami. She had climbed over the table, over the barrier dividing them, and she had asserted her dominance.
What Ami wanted most…had been taken by this monster.
“I finally shut that mosquito up,” Taiga said, her words full of nonchalance and disinterest.
“Wh-What did you…” Ami couldn’t even move her mouth properly.
“Oh. It was just a fly.” Taiga sat back in her seat, and stared at the palm of her hand, then showed the tiny carcass off to Ami by dropping the fly onto the table.
Ami slammed her hands down on the table, now being the one to rise up. But her legs were wobbling and her stance was a far cry from a model’s.
“How could you!?”
“I was doing you a favor,” Taiga’s tongue lashed against her own teeth as she spoke; her rage was being contained. “If your face got all eaten up by bugs, you wouldn’t be able to sell yourself. Damaged merchandise. Be grateful.”
Whether the atmosphere was hot or cold, it was hard to say.
“Grateful!? Grateful my ass! What is the matter with you!? This is why I never wanted to come to a lousy, run-down place like this!”
But as for Ami, she was certainly boiling over.
“Shut up. You’re so noisy. Such a spoiled brat,” Taiga spoke, her tone still level but her volume slowly rising.
And with that, Ami cowered and slunk down into her seat. She hunched over, and began to softly sob; it wasn’t an act. She had been outmatched.
“Ami!!!” Yuusaku came running over, dashing across the diner. Takasu, running just behind him, rushed to Taiga’s side.
“Yuuuuuuusakuuuuuu!”
Ami’s sob was no longer soft. Her wet eyes shed drippy globs of sparkling water; she looked just like a mermaid. Ami-chan was reborn.
She stood from her seat and ran to Yuusaku, throwing her arms under his and around his chest. She dramatically wailed, directly into his ribcage.
“I wanna go hooooome!”
“Shhh, calm down Ami! I know, I know, come on. Sorry for the fuss, you two; I’m taking this one home now.”
Yuusaku led her away, but Ami made sure to sneak a peek at Taiga just as she left.
Taiga was staring at her hand, quivering.