Chapter 2.1: Kendama

"Jackson!" Louise shrieks in Spanish as soon as she sees her only friend at work.

She struts into the cemented pathways of the rink in her wobbly office pumps that can come off any second. She pleaded with him to accompany her into the interview, but he still has some work left to do on his computer this morning, and she's glad he made it on time. He's standing in front of the rink's entrance, checking his watch.

"Where have you been? The interview's going to start."

"You won't believe what I just saw today."

He gave her a weird look upon seeing her flushed face and messy hair, giving him a hint that something must have happened. This friend of his could be the patron saint of misfortune, so someone has to look out for her.

"Listen carefully...I saw...the HOTTEST guy in Tokyo!" She exclaims, like she can't highlight the word enough.

He rolls his eyes at her, sighing. "That's what you told me when you saw Levi Ackerman's life-size cutout in Don Quijote. Now come on, let's go inside. We've got some work to do."

"No, you don't understand Jackson. He's not a 2D. He's an effin 3D!"

He made a face. "Is that even possible?" he asks, not believing her.

It just happened that for them, Otakus, finding an attractive real person (3D) is almost impossible because of their anime characters (2D) standards.

"I saw him with my own eyes. A tall, sleek black-haired, gorgeous..." She pauses, recognizing a poster behind him. She steps in for a closer look. It was a promotional poster of an upcoming skating competition with a male figure skater posing on it, and his name was written beside the picture in huge font. OJIRO KORISHIMA.

She felt her mouth suddenly go dry.

"That is Ojiro Korishima?"

"Yeah, the guy's pretty famous. His face is everywhere."

It was like the world suddenly unraveled in front of her eyes. Her jaw drops looking at her surroundings; in every entrance, on lamp posts, and even on the arena's LED screen outside, Ojiro Korishima's face is there. And it was the same face as that hot guy she met at the vending machine.

A group of people utters some excuse in Japanese behind her, so she steps aside automatically. They are carrying a huge poster of Ojiro, his eyes looking straight through her soul.

"I'm fucked." she muttered under her breath.

When they arrived at the rink's staff room, Ojiro's team was already there. They introduce themselves to them, and Jackson helps to set up the video camera for the interview as per the promotion team's instructions.

Louise pretends to flip through the papers she was holding, her hands trembling.

She's a nervous wreck. The Spanish voice in her head is praying to all dead souls and freaking out.

Portodos los Dioses los Santos Y Las Virgenese...

Ojiro Korishima finally arrives, and everyone in the room stops what they are doing to greet and bow to him. Louise is the only one left standing, so Jackson elbows her out of her trance, startling her. She bowed immediately and said the wrong greeting in Japanese. She felt the burning look from everyone in the room.

"Okay, let's start," she stands with a red-hot face and a forced smile, accepting her fate.

They set up two chairs in front of a white wall, where Louise and Ojiro sat for the interview. Before the camera rolls, Louise hands him the interview questions. He thanks her casually and reviews it while a team of stylists tends to his hair. He changed from jersey clothes to a formal one now. She peeks at him behind her interview script and shoots him a death glare.

            Te maldigo! I sympathized with you

        treated you to a five-dollar beer

    prayed to God for your eternal guidance,

    and this is what you'll give to me in return?

You should have at least made the effort of introducing yourself right so I avoided this kind of embarrassment.

How dare you! How dare—

He looks up from reading the script, so she quickly changes her expression from intense glaring to her sweetest smile. Pure talent, she thought.

She learned that just by living and working in Tokyo.

"Hi, Korishima-san! How are you doing these days? You look so good in that suit, like a producer of a movie!" She said, in her fake ecstatic tone.

Hmmm, how's that? You really think you can make me look like a stupid fool again?

Then someone whispers to her that Ojiro is in fact one of the major producers of the studio project they are currently working on.

"Oh, yeah! I already know that. They mentioned it in our meeting. Silly." She laughs.

Of course, my seniors never told me that. They are just a bunch of useless pricks.

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