Revealed – Chapter 17

Jiro and Sakai arrive home to Ku 6 from Ku 10 in time to get called out again for dinner with their relatives, the Suzukis. Jiro spends the entire meal talking with Masa enthusiastically about the new weapons Masa’s been creating in his workspace. Masa’s wife, Emily, sits across the table and listens to the conversation ping back and forth, back and forth, while their kids run around and hang off Koichi like he’s the local jungle gym.

On the way out, she hugs him tight. “I haven’t seen you this happy in a year,” she whispers in his ear. “What’s happened?”

He squeezes her back. “A second chance.”

Jiro floats on a wave of happiness the whole way home. Sakai’s not in his way. He’s free again, free to live his life. He was prepared to take over the leadership of Sakai clan someday but never alone. He didn’t want to be a bachelor for the rest of time.

When they get home to Sakai building, his parents head to their apartment, and Yoichi and Sakai leave to go out for the evening, each heading in different directions.

What should Jiro do? He has permission on all fronts to date Sanaa and has a date set with her for tomorrow night, but he wants to start now. But with the way she’s been working lately, and the fact she passed out today in Ku 10, she’s probably at home resting. Showing up on her doorstep is not a good idea. He should take this slow.

“I’d love to see your other drawings. I mean, if you wanted to show them to me. You don’t have to, of course.” Her soft stammering voice nearly broke him the other day, and even though he said, “We’ll see,” he’s sure he would have grabbed his tablet right that moment and shown her everything if he hadn’t been so worried about Sakai.

Jiro kicks off his shoes inside the door, grabs a bottle of saké from the fridge, and sits down on the couch. Hmmm. Which sketch should he send her first? He opens the folders from the last three years worth of sketches and immediately eliminates the portraits. He’s never drawn anyone he knows, never his mother, father, brother, family, or friends. But sometimes, when he’s out in the ward alone, he’ll sit and draw other people, men, women, and children. Sanaa wouldn’t know any of them, so best not to arouse her suspicion the portrait is of someone he was fond of. A still life would be perfect for her.

About two years ago, Jiro attended a big music event at the main theater with Kentaro. It was mid-winter and the fans were on high that night because so many people were gathered in one spot. While he waited out front for Kentaro to show up, Jiro stood on the steps and watched the paper lanterns sway in the cool winter drafts, their silk cords twirling underneath.

“Hello, brother,” Kentaro called him brother when they were out together alone. He’s an only child and always wanted a sibling like Jiro has Yoichi.

Jiro sighs and stares out into space. Why did Kentaro have to come between him and Melanie? Why?

Forget her. Forget him. Concentrate on Sanaa now.

Despite the memory the sketch brings up, the lanterns are perfect for her. They’re very Japanese but singular and special, like her. She may have grown up in Ku 5, but her heart is Japanese at its core. She just needs the right person to show her the things she’s been missing.

He attaches the sketch’s file to a mail message, addresses it to Sanaa, and only writes, ‘Lanterns for you.’ Send. This is the first mail message he’s ever sent her. How is it that they’ve seen each other every day for the past five or six weeks and this is the first time he’s crossed this boundary? Somehow sending her mail feels extremely personal though he exchanges mail with people all the time.

He pours himself a drink, slams the saké back, and sets his cup down to stretch out his shoulders. Not working out in the dōjō today was a good idea. He hasn’t observed a day of rest from exercise in a long time. His mailbox pings and thinking it might be a reply from Sanaa, he pounces on his tablet.

But no…

“Jiro, it’s been a while since you’ve been in the restaurant,” Asa writes. “I’d love to see you! I’m working tonight and my offer still stands of a nightcap after my shift. Asa in the morning.”

That girl does not quit, and now she thinks she’s being coy and cute with her new sign-off ‘Asa in the morning’ like it’s their own personal joke. He has to get rid of her somehow. She will not stop otherwise.

He doesn’t even bother to respond and closes her message as his door chimes. How is the building so busy at nine? Just as he’s swinging the door open, he catches sight of the panel read-out on his side and almost slams the door shut. Damn it. He should have checked first but thought maybe Usagi or Oyama were stopping by.

“Jiro!” Risa exclaims, all dolled up and ready to go out somewhere. Her hair is clipped back in perfect waves, her lips dark red, and he swears she’s wearing false eyelashes. “Get dressed and come out with me tonight. There’s a great band playing only a few blocks from here.”

“No, thanks. I’m a little busy.”

She takes him in, from his messy head of hair down to his socks. “What, pray tell, are you busy doing?”

“Work.”

“I’m sure you can put it off one night. Get dressed.”

My gods, she’s so bossy.

“Risa, I’m not in the mood. I was all over the city today and already been out for dinner. I have work to catch up on.”

He tries to close the door, but her hand snaps out and holds it open. Her nails tap on the solid composite, little bleach white ovals.

Risa rolls her eyes and sighs. “Come on! You always turn me down for a night out. This time you owe me.”

She’s impossible.

“Nooooo. I don’t owe you anything. And if you knew me at all, you’d know I don’t do spontaneous nights out to see ‘great bands’ playing.”

“You don’t need to be so stuck up about it.” Risa crosses her arms, tapping her nails on her upper arms. “Fine. Don’t come then. Next time, though, you can’t refuse.”

She turns and stalks off down the hall, swaying her ass from side-to-side, and Jiro shuts the door before she can glance back at him.

“I am going to continue to refuse you for the rest of my gods damned life,” he mumbles at the closed door. She’s his second cousin. There’s nothing more disgusting than dating your own cousin.

Jiro flops down on his couch with a heavy sigh. He has two girls he doesn’t want falling all over him, but the one he’s really into is out of reach. He’s in a dark room swinging his arms around, and Sanaa is just past his fingertips the entire time. Someone needs to turn on the light.

He leans forward to pour himself another drink when his tablet jumps to life, blinking and pinging, and it jolts him so badly, saké spills everywhere. It’s Sanaa, and she’s on chat. For the first time in over three weeks. Once he and Sanaa were getting along well at the dōjō, he set up this private alert to let him know if she ever came online. He wanted to get to know her outside of the dōjō and NishikyōNet counts.

Okay, he’ll give her a little time to settle in before he pings her. He doesn’t want it to look like he’s stalking her or anything, which he totally is, but what Jiro wants, he gets, eventually. He can be patient for ages if he has to. This is why he’s been sitting and waiting for things to happen, desperately hoping she wouldn’t get involved with someone else in the interim, not likely since Sakai was overworking her, but you never know. He certainly never expected to meet Melanie while running that errand.

After what happened today in Ku 10, she probably spent the evening resting at home. He hopes she’s okay. Anxiety seizes control of his chest. He can’t wait a minute longer to talk to her. What if she’s hurt or sick? Maybe she needs him?

“I hope you’re all right after today. How’s your head?” he writes. A nice, easy flow into online communication, he thinks, not prying too much, but friendly and caring. He hovers over his tablet waiting while the system tells him she’s writing a response.

“Fine, actually. No bump. Just tired. Been a long day… Well, long few months. I don’t sleep much at night.”

Still? He frowns down at the tablet. How long can she go on like this? But he doesn’t want to be over-protective and smother her right off the bat. Concern is one thing, but lecturing is another. He’ll try to bring a smile to her face instead.

“Me neither. Too much to think about.” I’m thinking about you, Sanaa.

“I lie around for hours and hours staring at the ceiling and letting my brain work.”

“No wonder you’ve been so tired at practice. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” True to his word, he hasn’t mentioned how tired she looks since the time her hands shook in practice, but he can mention it now.

“Sorry. I wish I could sleep. I could use real, deep sleep. Maybe if I were well-rested more of life would make sense to me.”

Why does Jiro feel like life will never make sense to either of them?

“I will just have to work harder at tiring you out so you collapse from exhaustion every evening.” If only she’d drop her guard a little, he’d invite her over finally and keep her up all night long. Oooh, he wonders if she got his implication.

There is a slight pause on the other end…

“You’re doing an excellent job already, thank you very much.” Jiro claps his hands and laughs.

“Okay, then. Get some rest. Oh, and before I go, I’ve sent you a drawing. I hope you like it. Sleep well.” 

He sets down his tablet and stares at the screen, wanting it to come back to life with more correspondence from Sanaa. Please, please, please, let this be the right move. He’s opening up in a way he never has before, to a girl he’s so smitten with that he’s terrified of screwing it up.

Ping! New mail from Sanaa.

“I love it.”

A long breath leaves Jiro’s chest so slowly he almost asphyxiates. She loves it.

“I can’t wait to share more with you,” he says to his tablet as he turns it off.

His tablet doesn’t answer him. It’s not the same.