Miyawaki Sakura has always been a nice girl.

When her mom needed a hand making cupcakes for the annual Christmas party, she didn’t hesitate rolling up her sleeves and decorating 200 cupcakes for 4 hours.

When her Grandma needed assistance with her new iPad, she drove all the way to the nursing home two hours away to help her figure out how to video call the rest of the family and even installed a mahjong app to keep her occupied.

When her assistant, Madoka, was looking for a sub for her recreational dodgeball league, Sakura volunteered even though it ate up her entire weekend.

Sakura was just too nice to say no.

So, when Juri, her long-time best friend, coworker, and editor of Arts & Culture at Bungeishunjū Publications, came down with a nasty case of bronchitis and begged her to help cover her interview, of course Sakura said yes.

As the head of IT department, Sakura’s experience was limited to interviewing potential hires. She did have experience with operating a camera, thanks to a semester of film studies back in university. And apparently Sakura had a voice that would make her a perfect interviewer, whatever that meant. Also, no one else would do it.

Carry the handheld camera and conduct the interview as the subject gives a tour of their apartment, that was all Juri asked for.

She was not entirely sure why Juri placed so much confidence in her.

Juri provided her with some questions, and told Sakura that it is fine to converse with the subject throughout the process without exactly adhering to the list. It was supposed to be natural, casual, and breezy.

Sakura had to admit that it was an interesting concept. Juri did really well pitching and executing the idea. The online series garnered over 10 million views on YouTube, and brought attention to their magazine through these times where print journalism seemed to be losing the public interest.

The series was cheekily called Pièce de Bunge51hunjū . The 51 stood for the amount of questions they would be asking. Juri must have thought she was so funny when she came up with the name.

Sakura parked her car across the street from the apartment where she would be conducting the interview, and took another look at the name of her subject. Kwon Eunbi.

Truth be told, Sakura didn’t know that much about her.

She knew the basics. Kwon Eunbi was an up-and-coming actress, currently promoting the release of Galactic Battles, a neo-noir action thriller set in space, directed by two-time Japanese Academy Award winning director Yabuki Nako.

(Apparently Juri knew her manager, Kojima Mako, on an intimate level, so Bungeishunjū was able to nab an interview slot despite her extremely hectic schedule. “Nepotism is welcomed when it works in your favour,” Juri would say.)

She knew Eunbi was Korean, raven-haired, and beautiful. She had Googled her pictures, after all. And might have lingered a minute or two. Basic research.

Kwon Eunbi apparently had agreed to answer anything and everything (again - thanks to Juri’s not-so-secret lover), as long as they did not violate the Non-Disclosure Agreement between her and the movie studio.

She glanced at the dashboard clock, 1:40 PM. Twenty more minutes until the scheduled interview time. She scoffed at the list of questions. It was a mix of generic “How are you feeling about this upcoming project” type of questions and a bunch of more quirky ones like “Would you rather be in a real-life version of The Walking Dead or a real-life version of Game of Thrones.” Leave it to Juri to come up with these things.

When 1:53 PM hit, Sakura decided to get out of her car. She hoped that Ms. Kwon wouldn’t mind her being slightly early.

She crossed the street and eyed the address of her building in front of her. It was a brownstone apartment that had surely been around since the 1900s. It must cost a fortune to live here, considering its prime location in one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in Tokyo.

Sakura was not the type to get flustered, at least not that much and not that often.

You’re just asking her questions. Don’t sweat it.

Her body, however, betrayed her mind. For whatever reason, she was definitely nervous.

As she walked up the stairs, her hands were getting clammy and she suddenly felt thirsty. She chided himself for not grabbing that bottle of water in her car.

She gingerly knocked, and when the door swung open, she realized that she had every single reason to be nervous.

Because, beyond her pictures she had seen online, Kwon Eunbi was absolutely breath-taking in real life.

She was greeted by a wide smile that quickly turned into a face of confusion.

“You’re not Takahashi Juri.” Eunbi furrowed her brows.

Did Juri not inform her that I’m replacing her today?

“No, my name is Sakura. Miyawaki Sakura.” She pulled out her Bungeishunjū Publications ID tag and held it up for her to see. “Juri is currently battling a serious case of viral bronchitis. She figured you wouldn’t want to catch any of that, considering your busy press schedule…”

Eunbi stared at her tag while reaching for her phone by the entry table. She scrolled through what was likely to be her emails and sighed in relief, “Oh okay, Mako did email me earlier today about the change.”

Sakura shoved her weight from one foot to another while staring at the floor.

“Oh hey, please come on in! I’m sorry if I came across as rude. For a split second I was scared that you were a stalker or a murderer or something…”

“Sorry about that. I promise you I’m neither.” Sakura tried to put her most reassuring voice on. “I’m just gonna put my stuff down here in the corner if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead.”

Sakura gently placed the equipment bag on the floor, crouching over and taking the Nikon D750 camera out. She checked to make sure that the battery was still fully charged, and hooked up the external microphone attachment. she grabbed the list of questions with her other hand, just in case she needed some ideas later.

She took a good look at Eunbi, who was barefooted, wearing a grey cable knit sweater paired with a flowy skirt. She had her hair down in waves with some light make-up. She looked approachable and down-to-earth.

“So... how does this work?” Eunbi fidgeted with her fingers.

“Have you seen the previous interviews before?”

“Not really. I’m not one with that much free time.”

“I follow you around the house while I ask questions.”

She hummed and said, “When you put it like that it sounds so simple.”

“I think it’s supposed to be simple, Miss Kwon.” Sakura grinned at her. She has a bit of a potty mouth, Sakura noticed, and it’s quite endearing.

“Please, call me Eunbi.” She offered her hand before noticing Sakura didn’t have a free hand to offer in return. She reached over and squeezed her forearm instead, and Sakura could have sworn her heart skipped a beat.

“Uh,” Sakura cleared , “so I’ll step back outside to ring the doorbell, and we’ll start right as if you just opened the door for me, and you can be like ‘Welcome to my crib!’ or something like that…”

“Oh my god, who says things like that these days?!” Eunbi playfully swatted her arm.

Be still my treacherous heart.

Sakura tried to hide her smile (and failed miserably), “You get what I mean...”

“Okay, so let’s start here. Ready whenever you are, Sakura!”

And even though Sakura had only interacted with her for a whopping five minutes, there was something about Eunbi that lifted the nervousness and anxiety she was feeling.

*******

EUNBI

Why hello there, Bungeishunjū!

Welcome to my crib!

SAKURA

He-h-hey! How’s it going?

EUNBI

It's going great!

Thanks for asking!

Come on in!

SAKURA

It’s a lovely place you got here.

EUNBI

Thank you!

I just moved in three months ago and it’s been wonderful!

SAKURA

How excited are you about thi