In celebration of Hearts Day, this love story.
Genre: fiction, romance, fantasy, contains lime
No infringement intended. Pure fiction
OKAERI, MON AMOUR
The orange and brown autumn landscape was a blur to the man on the superbike hurling at 100 km/hr down the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway. Clad in a custom made Italian black leather jumpsuit with red strips running down the side, gloves, Ferragamo biker’s boots and a mirror finished Shoei helmet, he was a picture perfect model for a sports bike magazine. But he was oblivious to his surroundings, except the biting chill of the wind as he revved up the engine that sent the Ducati 1098 R roaring down the highway. All he wanted to do was to get there, to finally be with the woman he loved.
Meisa Kuroki stood at the curb of the arrival area of the Tokyo International Airport in Narita watching the cars pick up their passengers. She pulled her coat tighter to keep out the cold and unconsciously played with the red ribbon on her right wrist. Her monogrammed luggage was already loaded into the limo that the agency sent to pick her up. She had a brief but polite argument with her Manager who refused to leave her behind. “It’s sixty kilometers to central Tokyo.”, he told her. “Daijobou desu. I’ll be fine.”, she told him, as he reluctantly entered the Mercedes Benz.
From behind dark Gucci glasses, she was searching the crowd for someone, the yearning in her heart was almost unbearable. She was starting to get uneasy as she sensed that some people already recognized her. She had ran all the way from the customs area, her long hair swaying with every movement, black Gucci boots barely touching the floor. The email said“ I’ll be waiting for you at Bay 8 of the arrival area at 5:30 P.M.”
And then she saw him by the 15 minute parking zone, nonchalantly leaning against a glistening red sports bike most probably an import, holding two top of the line Shoei helmets. Meisa smiled, remembering his penchant for anything foreign. He waved, and for a moment she glimpsed the bright red flash of an identical ribbon on his left wrist. Then she hurriedly walked towards the man. With every step of her Gucci-clad feet, she moved closer to her destiny.
Meisa’s thoughts were on her man. Seeing him again today made her heart beat faster. Truly distance made the heart grow fonder. He was a beautiful man but that was not why she loved him.
It was almost midnight, when I saw him at the club. I was off to Paris and London later in the week for three months to shoot a movie and some commercials. Summer was ending and Maki and I wanted to experience the Roppongi night life, after a TV appearance. I wanted to celebrate, I wanted to drink a magnum of champagne.
He was standing by the bar, eyes glazed, laughing, surrounded by a posse of his friends, just as handsome as he was. Maki and I knew some of them as we worked in several dramas together. He suddenly grabbed my hand, and we both recoiled in shock at the electricity as we touched. Ah the sweet pain of static in his touch. He mumbled something and I replied. Hahaha, if that was a pick up line, it worked.
The curious thing was we’ve actually met each other once before when his former bandmate, whom I worked with in a drama invited me to their show. There were no sparks at all between us. Betsu ni, nothing special. Here at the club, before the night was over, I started to feel comfortable in his presence, like I’ve come home. He was even crazier and more random than the stories I heard about him. He made me laugh, but I didn’t believe everything he said, because they were just too way out there for me. But I indulged him his fantasies because being with him felt so weirdly right.
The man lovingly watched Meisa cross the street. He was waiting like always, with infinite patience. His mind wandered to that night in Roppongi three months ago.
White nights in Tokyo, what’s a man to do? Shirota Yuu,Ryo and Yamapi kept me company as we hit the clubs in Roppongi. That’s what best friends were for, after all. I was wired from the adrenaline rush of the big bike competition in a race track in Akasaka earlier in the day. The Ducati’s superb performance was worth every Euro I paid for it. It was also one of those nights. I had to drink and dance to unwind, to get the loneliness and emptiness out of my system.
And then she walked into the club with Maki Horikita, two ingénue celebrities on a rare night out, trailed discretely by bodyguards from their Sweet Power agency.
I grabbed her hand impulsively, surprised at the sting of the static when we touched. "Sister Angela, I suppose?”, I blurted out impishly, referring to the character she played in the drama One Pound Gospel. “Exactly where have you been all my life?”, I continued, then I handed them both a drink.
"Have we met before?" , she asked me sweetly, as she took the flute of champagne. I could feel their bodyguards’ eyes boring a hole into my nape as they watched my every movement. My mind was in a fog from the champagne but I replied in jest "Don't you recognize me?We were lovers in another lifetime." Yuu and Yamapi guffawed at my vintage baka-foolish antics.
Her laughter was like a child’s ,she actually thought it was a joke.
"Baka/fool, we’ve met before! I was just teasing you.“,she said artlessly , ”Don’t you remember, several years ago I was a guest on your TV show where you had a birthday party?”. Of course I remembered. At the set of that episode of Cartoon Kat-tun my senses were overwhelmed by her beauty. But I pretended not to care. Now, I took in her wide eyed, quiet beauty like I was seeing her for the first time.
“Oh man, no fair.” YamaPi said as he pulled Maki to the dance floor,” They’re actually playing your song “Sun Burns Down.” Maki Maki was trying to make sense of the conversation but couldn’t . YamaPi and Horikitty looked like an old married couple dancing. They’ve been in a movie and some dramas together so they were comfortable with each other. Yuu headed for the sexy mixed babes like himself in the club and chugged shooters with Ryo until they almost passed out.
When I touched Meisa's hand, the past came rushing back to fill the vacuum of my memories. Could it be that she was really my lover from a previous lifetime? It came to me in a dream, hazy, in bits and pieces. In my dream, I couldn’t see her face because I always woke up before she took off her mask. This is really strange because I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t have dreams because I can’t remember them.
But now it all made sense. My intense feelings for her even then, made me remember in the present how that love was, as I searched and waited for her return. But why couldn’t she remember, I agonized. And why didn’t I recognize her immediately when we first met at the TV show? Love was never easy even in my dream because I was a samurai and she was a ninja princess.
It’s funny, how our paths must have crossed numerous times since we were both in showbiz. Of course we knew of each other from a friend of a friend of a friend, putting the six degrees of separation theory in motion. And when she showed up tonight, and we touched, I said to myself, at last the long wait is over.
That night at the club, after the initial shyness on her part we only had eyes for each other. I told her about my recurring dream of a forbidden love with a ninja princess who lived in Kyoto 400 years ago .I told her of the pain when we were forced to separate and I was sent off to Edo to become part of the Shogun’s elite samurai commando.
She listened patiently but skeptically nodding her head politely saying,“Oh just like the ninja lovers Oburo and Gennosuke from the anime Basilisk?” “Yes,” I replied,” only in my dream one was a samurai and the other a ninja. “
I was starting to believe my story, my dream. Did I just make it up as I went along, to hold her attention, to keep her by my side?
“ So I waited, from one lifetime to the next, kept alive and hopeful by her words of love “Aishisteru, come back to me!”, I continued.
Suddenly, somewhere from the depths of my being a haiku bubbled and needed release in writing. I scribbled it on a paper napkin, amazed I could compose in the din of the club, my brain in a champagne induced stupor.
Meisa joined her best friend Maki, and my ichiban tomadachi/ best friends YamaPi, Ryo,Yuu and the rest of the hot babes for a photo taken by the club’s manager . She looked adorable, like a happy little girl.
I slipped her the poem and winked as she gave me a look that said, “Nani-what is it?” “It’s a gift. Read it when you can.”, I murmured in English against her hair, resisting the urge to forced kiss her.
I staggered to the exit for a whiff of polluted Tokyo air. It cleared my head, I wasn’t hyper anymore. Suddenly Meisa was beside me with a bodyguard saying, “ Oyasumi….Good night. I had a great time.” “Presentu, arigatou desu.Thank you for the gift.”, she added in Nihonglish. It was three o’clock in the morning.
We sort of kissed. Our lips barely brushing the other in an air kiss but I could smell the sweetness of the champagne on her breath. Suddenly, I felt the invisible red thread of fate/akai ito tightly binding us forever. But only I knew it!
The next day I was at her apartment. I bribed my production assistant with promises of a hotpot dinner to bribe Meisa’s production assistant with a bento of sushi for her address and cellphone no. They didn’t really need the gifts. They were only too happy to help me out knowing how pissed old man Johnny-sama will be when he finds out I was romantically inclined towards someone. I didn’t really give a hoot anyway about all these rules that the jimusho-agency forced on us since we were juniors. After going solo and debuting in the U.S. music market I was even more determined that somehow there are things I just needed to do on my own.
Meisa opened the door like she was expecting me, and before I could finish saying “ I just had to see you again.” She placed a finger on my lips to silence me. And she looked at me like I imagined my ninja princess would look as she recited the lines I wrote:
How long is forever
when I am in your arms?
How long is eternity
when we kiss?
Tell me
I was captivated, I couldn’t tell if Meisa was acting or it was for real. And then she asked me the most random question.
“ What would you do if this were the last day of the world.”,she asked. I said” I’d spend it with you.” And then we kiss, just like that Britney Spear’s song and the rest of the week was a blur. We disappeared, left the bright lights of Tokyo for the serenity of a ryokan-inn just outside of Kyoto, where it all began 400 years ago in my dream.
And just like in the haiku, it felt like eternity when we kissed. “In love there is only one law, to make your love happy.”, I told her, borrowing a line from Stendhal, not sure if Justine Timberlake had a song with the same meaning. And then it was time for her to leave. We made no promises. We were both going to be busy. She was shooting a movie, some commercials and several magazine pictorials in Paris and London. I had the my live concerts in America and Canada, photo sessions,album recordings, and the post production work on my first Hollywood movie. We agreed not to communicate with each other. Because we knew if we heard each other’s voice, despite the distance, we would both drop everything and run back to each other in a heartbeat. What’s three months compared to 400 years of loving that we passed up in my dream.
Music- Jin Akanishi- Eternal
I tied a red ribbon around her right wrist and she did the same for me on my left wrist, as I told her about the ancient legend.
"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but it will never break."
Summer was ending but the white nights in Tokyo grew longer.
Music: Jin Akanishi- Seasons
And now its autumn, but never in my heart. The seasons change but not my love for her. I watched the woman I love come running back to me.
“Tadaima- I’m back.” Meisa said, her face glowing with anticipation. Jin lovingly looked at the smiling face of his beloved whom he wrapped in a tight embrace.“ Okaeri, mon amour. Welcome home,my precious one.”, Akanishi whispered to the woman he was waiting for.
Somewhere in the parking lot, a camera flashed. The couple laughed knowing that when the photos made it to the papers, their agencies will go ballistic. Throwing caution to the wind, they kissed, gently at first, then with passionate urgency. And just like in the movies, the world around them stopped, frozen in time like a special effect.
The sky in the horizon was bright red like the ribbon of fate that bound them as Jin zoomed towards the city with Meisaa on the Ducati 1098 R superbike. For Akanishi, who waited 400 years for his ninja princess to return, the dream had become reality.
