Junior Year Box Set

“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:My little butterfly with the broken wings …

Haru:What are you doing?

David:Oh, sorry. I thought we were alone. I always liked your sister and just wanted to make sure she was being well taken care of. Do they know what happened to her?

Haru:Her system was full of drugs. They’re not sure why she survived. Some of the drugs are used on mentally ill patients to help control them.

David:Sounds like some science fiction story where the government tests their drugs on unsuspecting women.

Action: The pieces of the puzzle come together for Haru. She realizes that it’s Jason (David) who is taking the girls.

Haru:It’s you!

David:Oh, Emiko. You were just too curious for your own good. I never wanted your sister to be this way; I’d hoped she was stronger. From the beginning, I wanted her to be mine, but she and her friends made it clear that I was beneath them, so I marked them as my butterflies. My plan was to slowly change them so they would want me.

Haru:You drugged them and took them from the parties.