Chapter One

               “Adrianna!” my co-worker called, “bring this to table 8.”

               I sighed and grabbed the plates, one had a giant burger on it, the other had salad. I brought it over to the young couple that sat in the corner. I smiled warmly at them, bowed, and walked away to sort out the next order. I had been working at Hohokan Café in Harajuku since I first moved to Japan a couple years back. They hired me on the spot since I was able to speak both English and Japanese almost fluently, which was perfect since this café got a lot of foreign traffic. The next few hours consisted of me handing out people’s orders. When it was time for me to leave, I started heading to the back, to have the manager stop in my path. He mumbled something about not having enough employees for tonight’s shift, and was wondering if I could stay late. I nodded. I slipped into the back and grabbed my iPhone; I quickly sent a text to my roommate, Takihara Yumi, saying that I was going to be a bit late tonight, and to not wait up for me.

               Once the shift was finally over at 7pm, I grabbed my coat, boots and backpack out of the break room. The next train would be at 8, so I started in the direction of Harajuku Station. My boots clacked loudly on the sidewalk, creating an eerie feeling. I shifted my eyes anxiously from left to right, and pulled my coat tighter. Night made me… Uneasy. I heard a sound behind me, and I decided to pick up the pace. I glanced backwards and next thing I know, I’m sprawled out on the ground. Near my foot lied a black object. I awkwardly shuffled towards it and picked it up; it was a wallet. I opened it and pulled out the I.D, the person didn’t live too far from where I lived, so I tossed it in my backpack, and started on my way again.

               After thinking over the wallet matter, I decided that I would give it back to him tomorrow morning, it would be better to go during the day anyways. Once the train reached my stop, I got off and continued on to my little, run-down apartment. I dug out my keys and walked up the stairs until I reached the door. Yumi Takihara lived there with me, she was my best friend. I had met her in my first year at Tokyo Design Academy. We both had taken a class on different art forms and we coincidently sat beside each other. Having just moved to Japan that month, I was very nervous around Japanese people, since I didn’t think my Japanese was up to par. Yumi started a conversation with me and we became best friends almost instantly. After a year of living in the residence at the academy, we decided to just share an apartment and split the cost. It’s worked perfectly for 2 years now.

               I smiled at the fond memory as I unlocked the door and walked in. “I’m home, Yumi-chan!” I called out.

               Her head popped around the wall of the kitchen, her hair was up in pigtails, and the ends were dyed pink, “Hey Adrianna! I was just making supper, sukiyaki okay?”

               I nodded as I slipped off my boots and jacket. I plunked my bag in the corner and pulled out a few of my text books. I set them down on the kitchen table and started re-reading the section we went over in class today.

               Yumi grabbed my books and set them down on the chair beside me. She placed a plate of sukiyaki down in front of me and one in her place. She said a quick prayer and we dug into our meal. “Adri-chan?”

               “Mmm?” I looked up.

               She smiled widely, “Guess what!”

               I sighed, “You finished another page of your manga?”

               “No. Well yes… But that’s not it! I got us tickets to see Mejibray, Born and Diaura live!” she squealed, “we’re directly in front of the vocalists, so we’ll be able to see all of Tsuzuku’s piercings and tattoos!”

               Her eyes sparkled at the thought of being able to see her favourite bands again. “That’s awesome, I bet it’ll be fun,” I mumbled with a mouth full of food.

               She rolled her eyes at me with a smile. “So anything happen today?” she asked politely.

               I swallowed the chunk of food in my mouth, “Well my boss made me stay late, since they were under-staffed for the evening shift, so I had to walk home in the dark which was terrible. Then I tripped over something on the ground and it was some dude’s wallet, so I’m returning it to him in the morning.”

               “Adrianna doing a good thing?! Oh my god, has hell frozen over?!” she jokingly exclaimed.

               I snickered and shoved her shoulder, “I’m not a jackass,” I laughed.

               She burst out in giggles. I grabbed our plates and brought them over to the sink.

               After I was finished doing washing the dishes, I brushed out my elbow length, dyed black hair and wiped off my black eye shadow and liner. I threw on a black cami and purple PJ pants. When I entered Yumi and I’s room, Yumi was already passed out on her pink futon, hugging a ratty t-shirt that one of her Visual Kei guys threw out into the crowd at a concert. I crawled into my black futon on the opposite end of the room. With one last glance at my fairy nightlight, I fell into a deep sleep.

҉҉҉

               I woke up to Yumi’s alarm blasting K-Pop at 5 in the morning. I groaned loudly and rolled over. I heard a muffled sorry from Yumi as she quickly turned it off and I fell back to sleep.

               I woke up again at 10 in the morning, which was a more decent time for my day off school and work. I showered and dried my hair, pulling it up into a side pony and straightened my bangs. I threw on an oversized Born t-shirt and a pair of tattered black skinnies.

               Yumi was already long gong by the time I got out to the kitchen; the remains of her cereal were in the sink. I grabbed a granola bar and slipped on my coat and a pair of creepers. Re-checking the address in the wallet, I headed out in the direction my map app was indicating. The apartments got nicer and nicer, the closer I got to his place. The apartments turned into Condos, which turned into fairly big houses by the time I arrived.

               Just outside of the gate to his proposed house, stood a crew of paparazzi. Just who’s wallet did I find? There goes my plan to give it back to him quietly and then go home… I can’t even drop it in his mailbox now. I guess I could come back later, but then I just wasted a whole hour of my day. While I stood around, trying to figure out what to do, the reporters noticed me standing behind them. “You there!” they yelled at me.

               I looked up, pulled out of my thoughts. “Uh yeah?” I said with a confused expression.

               “Are you his girlfriend?” they asked, now surrounding me with microphones pushed up in my face.

               “What?! No, I don’t even know who you’re talking about! I’m just here to return something!”

               “So how long have you been dating?” she persisted.

               “I don’t know what the you’re talking about; get out of my face lady!” I yelled at her.

               They backed up a bit, which gave me an opening to escape. I could see a figure on the 2^nd floor, peeking through the blinds at me as I made my retreat.

               I kept my self busy the rest of the day, by working on my animation project that was due in the next month or two. I sat at my one of the two desks that was in our room back in the apartment. After working on the project for a couple hours, I walked down to the local coffee shop; I got a booth in the back corner and just spent the rest of the afternoon drawing people in the shop.

               I got back to the apartment around 6 and the sun was already starting to set. I looked up to see Yumi roaming around impatiently, probably cooking supper or something. I decided it would be a good idea to try and bring the wallet back now so I head in the direction of his house.

               When I arrived at his house, I was lucky and there weren’t any paparazzi lurking about. I sighed in relief and made my way up to his front door. I fidgeted outside. Should I go up and knock on the door? Or just ring the doorbell and run? Oh god, I hate these kind of decisions! What if he’s some creepy e?! I swallowed down my fear; I pushed the call button and waited, no one answered. I pushed again, and still no answer. I inwardly shrugged, oh well. I walked over to the mailbox and set the wallet in. I turned my heel and started to leave. “Who are you?”

               I jumped and turned around, frightened to see who was behind me. A man, looking about 26, with long, jet black hair. Was standing in the doorway. He was extremely thin, and his pajama pants hung loosely on his waist. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, so it showed off his tattoos and a few piercings. His eyes were almond shaped.

               “I-um-uh found your wallet! I placed it in the mailbox!” I stuttered out.

               I inwardly smacked myself for sounding so stupid.

               His eyes seemed to have adjusted to the light and he was checking me out. I shifted awkwardly. He looked over to the mail box and took out his wallet. “Yeah, this is mine, thanks,” he smiled slightly, “you’re a foreigner, aren’t you.”

               I nodded slightly, “I’m from Canada. My name is Adrianna.”

               “Pretty name, Adrianna,” again the slight smile, “My name’s Tsuzuku.”

               I gave him a confused look, “That wasn’t the name in your wallet?”

               “For my career, I don’t go by that, I go by my stage name.”

               I nodded. “So, would you like to come in?” he asked.

               I glanced at my phone, checking the time, “I’m sorry, but it’s kind of late. I should be getting home, my roommate will worry.”

               There was a flash of disappointment on his face, but it was quickly replaced by his neutral expression, “Okay well, here’s my number, text me if you want to get drinks sometime?”

               I walked a bit closer and took the piece of paper; it was a business card that had his number scribbled on the back. “Thanks again for bringing my wallet back; it was really nice of you to do that.”

               I blushed a bit, “Uh-um it was no problem, you don’t live too far from my apartment,” I stuttered.

               He smiled and waved, “See you around, Adrianna!”

               I smiled back and waved, as I walked down the steps to the sidewalk. By the time I got back to the apartment, it would be 8pm… I picked up the pace, not wanting to spend any more time outside in the dark.

               Once back to the apartment, I slipped my shoes, and coat off at the door. Yumi sat at the kitchen table, eating ramen noodles. “I didn’t know when you were going to get back so I just ate some instant ramen.”

             I nodded and pulled out another container. I placed it in the microwave. “So where were you?” Yumi asked.

               “I brought the man’s wallet back.”

               “Ah, Adri-chan and her good deed,” she teased.

               I frowned as I plunked myself down beside her at the table. She was drawing away on the storyboard for her manga. “I’m going to watch anime, wanna join?” Yumi asked after she finished her storyboard.

               I nodded and we sat down on the couch and hooked up the laptop to the TV. She put on Fairy Tail and we watched that for awhile. “So what did the stranger look like? Was he young and cute?” she interrogated.

               I laughed, “well he was about 3 years older than me and when he opened the door he was only wearing PJ pants. He looked like a VK guy, but I wouldn’t know for sure, I’m not crazy about music like you are.”

               “Imagine if the guy you met was Tsu-chan! That would have been so awesome! God, I wish I could meet him…” she trailed off.

               “It probably wasn’t even him! So there’s no reason for you to get yourself worked up over it,” I exclaimed.

               The whole rest of the night I was wondering who that man actually was.