“Oh look, Akio is heading over. Koji doesn’t look happy.”
“Those two are funny. They really are good friends, but they compete for everything. Give it a minute, and Koji will be over, unleashing his charm.”
Jiro was right. Koji couldn’t help himself and was soon flirting with Hana.
“It would be funny if you just strolled over and stole her from them,” I said.
“She would never go for me.”
I found a slip of paper, wrote a note on it, and folded it in half.
“Give this to her,” I said.
I made a point of being close enough to hear the exchange.
“I was wondering if you might have lunch with me,” Akio said.
“He has terrible taste in food. I know this little place that has the best sushi. Why don’t we go there and we can get to know each other better?” Koji offered.
Hana looked back and forth at them, trying to make up her mind, when Jiro walked up and handed her the note. She read it and laughed, and a huge smile lit up her face.
“Sorry, boys, but I just got a much better offer,” she said as she slipped her arm under Jiro’s arm and guided him away.
I almost was caught chuckling as they looked at each other in stunned silence. I hurried to where my note told Hana to take Jiro.
“That felt good. I don’t think they ever imagined I could get the girl,” Jiro said.
“I need to learn my lines. Come to lunch with us so you can honestly say you had lunch with Hana,” I suggested.
Jiro took us to a noodle place, and Hana worked with me for the first half of lunch. Then she turned her attention to Jiro. It became apparent that she really hadn’t seen him before with the other two hunks, as she called them, on set. I could see I was the third wheel, so I returned to the set.
Akio and Koji found me as soon as I walked in.
“Where did Hana go?” Koji asked.
“We went to a noodle house to grab a bite to eat and so she could help me with my lines. I had to get back, but she and Jiro seemed to be hitting it off when I left.”
“Did she say anything about us?” Akio asked.
“No, nothing I can remember.”
When a smiling Jiro and Hana walked onto the set arm-in-arm, I could see Akio and Koji took it well. It wasn’t like they didn’t have girls chasing them. They both made a point to congratulate Jiro and tease him good-naturedly.
◊◊◊
It wasn’t until the last two episodes that my character was revealed as the one taking the girls. The story had me keeping them in a warehouse near the water. I was drugging them and making them dependent on me. I wasn’t ready to take Emily’s character so soon, but I’d had to when she began to look at me suspiciously.
The first girl I’d taken was Miki, Haru’s character’s sister. She suddenly was found wandering the city. Her mind wasn’t all there due to a miscalculation of the dosage on my character’s part. I wasn’t a killer, so I’d let her go, knowing she couldn’t identify me. I showed up at the hospital to make sure.
Setting: Miki’s hospital room. Emiko finds Jason (David’s character) sitting next to Miki’s bed, brushing her hair back.
David:
Haru:
David:
Haru:
David:
Action: The pieces of the puzzle come together for Haru. She realizes that it’s Jason (David) who is taking the girls.
Haru:
David:
Haru: