The sun shone brightly in the sky, its rays entering the coffee shop, warming her cheeks as Sora typed away on her laptop. Her fingers just tapped away as she read the lines that were being poured out from her mind onto the screen. Suddenly, the tapping stopped.

“If only my imagination could magically make me employed.” She thought to herself, “ULGGG.” She groaned as her head fell onto the table. She’s been in Japan for a month now and all she does these days is type away on her computer, writing short stories, starting longer ones and giving up halfway in cafes around Tokyo. Living in Japan isn’t cheap and she’s desperate for a job, but there’s only one problem…

“Ko…Fee…” Sora’s thoughts were interrupted by the voice of a girl in the seat beside her. She mumbled something to herself and tried again, “c-can I.. ha-bu..Ko-Fee.. pee-zuh?..” she read off a sheet of paper.

“Is she practicing her English or something? She looks old enough to be in college I guess… It wouldn’t be surprising for her to be studying…”

A group of people began to enter the café, with large cases and beams. “Why are there so many people at the café so early?” She looked at her watch, “Its 6 AM on a Wednesday… these people should be on their way to work… not a café…” She shrugged her curiosity away as the girl sitting beside her began to greet the people entering the café.

Yawning, she walked over to the counter where she was greeted by a barista. “Um....Can I have a cup of coffee, please?”

The girl looked confused, “ano… ex-excuse me?”

Sora sighed, it’s been a month and she still can’t order coffee without struggling, “um… coffee? You know… er…” She lost confidence in trying. Should she just resort to the Americano… the only thing anyone here seems to understand?

The girl’s face changed from looking confused to terrified, a typical response she got when people realized she, a completely normal looking Japanese girl, only spoke English, the language that seemed to terrify the young population of this country.

Sora sighed and gave up the attempt to consume less caffeine this morning and decided to settle for the espresso, “Am-“

“Kanojo wa kohi o nozonde iru” a male voice chimed in beside her.

The girl at the counter nodded in relieved joy, “hai~ one momen-tuh pee-zuh” she rushed to prepare the coffee.

Sora turned to find a tall guy standing beside her, “uh... thank you” she bowed, feeling embarrassed.

“You’re welcome” he said, with a perfect accent. She looked up at him in surprise. This must have been the first time in the past month where she heard English being spoken so perfectly.

The barista said something at the end of the counter, “Your coffee is ready” he said, smiling and motioning to the end of the counter.

“Oh...uh.. thanks” she bowed again, awkwardly and went to get her coffee.

Heading back to her seat by the window, she saw the commotion happening in the café. It seemed like they were setting up to film something. “That girl must have been practicing her lines,” she thought.

As she took her seat, one of the staff approached her and said something in Japanese, which of course, she did not understand, “um… sorry… I don’t understand.”

And the terror came to eyes of the staff, “ano…” she fumbled with her words, attempting to speak in English, only to cause more confusion. She ran to the tall man from earlier and brought him over to the seat by the window.

“Sorry, but we’re planning on using this area to record a commercial, we didn’t think anyone would be here this early… But do you mind…”

“Oh!” Sora jumped out her seat, closing her laptop. “Of course… sorry…” As if today could not get more awkward, she had to be sitting right in the middle of the film set.

“Since you were here first, we don’t want to kick you out… eh… But if you don’t mind moving your seat, because we will be using this center area for filming.” He said as she started to pack her things.

“Oh...” Truthfully, she was curious of how a film set looked like and didn’t want to leave “Is over there okay?” she pointed to a seat by the wall, behind the cameras and beams set up.

“Yes, of course. Thank you and we’re sorry,” he bowed.

----

The café was closed off from other customers for the rest of the morning for the filming. Sora tried to work on her story, but could not help but become drawn to the scene that was happening before her: the things that go on behind the scenes of filming something as short as a commercial required so many people and equipment, it really was an exciting thing to witness.

Sora watched with interest as the man and girl from earlier acted out their parts. After an hour of attempting to film one scene over and over…and over and over again, the producer seemed to be frustrated with the actress. The man seemed to have been doing his part perfectly, especially with his English lines. But the actress seemed to have trouble focusing on her acting because of her struggle with the English.

The PD called for a coffee break and the girl sat down, practicing her lines, again.

Sora watched the actress, feeling bad that after all the effort she must have put into the role, she was still struggling in getting simple lines like “Can I have a cup of coffee” correctly.

The PD started to walk around the set to relieve some stress and spotted Sora. Sora saw him looking toward her direction and, feeling awkward, turned to her computer screen. He spoke with the staff from earlier and came over to her seat.

Realizing he was coming over to speak to her, she stood up and bowed. But as he began to speak, she could not understand a single word and just started back. 

The man from earlier was helping the actress with her pronunciation when he noticed the PD speaking to Sora. He approached them and asked if there was an issue.

“uhm… I’m not so sure…” Sora said, “He just came up to me and… I think he’s asking me questions…? But I don’t understand…”

The PD and the man spoke between themselves for a bit as Sora just sat there, watching. “What is going on?” she thought to herself, “Man, maybe I should have learned at least a little bit of Japanese while growing up.”

The actor turned to Sora and looked at her, smiling, but with eyes that showed uncertainty. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ve formally introduced myself.” He said, extending his hand to her, “I’m Yuki Furukawa and this is Jiro Hikaru, the producer for the commercial we’re currently filming.”

Sora took his hand and bowed slightly in confusion, “Takanashi Sora desu.”

Hikaru-san motioned for them to take a seat and Furukawa-san began to explain the situation, “You see. The producer wanted to have me and Sasaki-san, the actress you saw earlier, to act in this commercial, using an English dialogue: her role is an American born Japanese girl who didn’t speak Japanese. We thought it was going to be okay because she didn’t have many lines but, it seems like she is having trouble with her part because of focusing on her lines…”

Sora nodded, it was the same thing she observed. If the actress focused less on how hard the lines were, she would have less trouble figuring out what to do next.

“So….” Furukawa-san continued, “The PD heard from our staff that you spoke English well and as a last attempt to stay with the initial concept, he would like to ask for your help.”

“M-my help?” How was she going to help in this situation? It didn’t seem like she could do anything to help.

“The producer thinks you can help Sasaki-san to become more motivated if you imitated how the scene should be played out in front of her.”

“But… She’s a professional actress… I’ve never acted before. How can that help?” Sora looked over at the actress, who was still looking over her lines.

“Well, of course, we realize that. But you don’t have to act well. We told her earlier that we were going to have someone do a voice-over for her spoken parts if it really was too difficult for her. But she seems to be worried that it won’t seem natural if she spoke Japanese and had an English voice over. So she wants to attempt at the English. But, as you can see, she’s still nervous.”

“How… will me acting in front of her help her nerves then?” Though she was sure these professionals had their reasons, Sora still could not understand how it was helpful.

Furukawa-san translated to the PD her question and he extended his hand as if explaining something.

“He says, he’s worked with Sasaki-san in the past. She has much potential to grow in her acting and is motivated just by watching others. So he knows for sure that watching you, no matter how good or bad your acting is, but just watching you speak her lines would help her visualize how the scene might turn out.”

The PD bowed his head toward the table and Furukwa-san translated, “He asks you to help us for this favor.”

“Well… I guess it’s just a few lines to help her… I could do that…”

The PD smiled and thanked Sora. He called for the crew to get ready and explained to them that Sora was going to demonstrate for Sasaki-san.

Furukawa-san explained the role to imitate: An American born Japanese girl in a coffee shop. She meets someone who can help her out with her language barrier and they start a romance. The commercial is ultimately for a communications company, to promote that they can keep relationships going no matter where the people are. The scene being filmed in the coffee shop only required 3 lines, “Can I have a cup of coffee?” “Thanks” and “Let’s keep in touch.”

Being a character that matched her, a Japanese American that didn’t know and Japanese, it wasn’t very hard to act out confusion and thankfulness for Furukawa-san’s help. But the confidence to approach him for his number was something not in her character. She put herself in the mindset of a confident person, pushing her own thoughts aside and finished the role as best as she could.

After acting out the scene once, Sora saw the male staff from before whispering to the make-up artists. “Did…I do something wrong?” She looked up at Furukawa-san.

He shook his head, “You did really well, especially for someone who has never acted before.”

She laughed nervously, “really?” she scratched her head, “why, thanks. It was kind of fun, actually. Was I of help?” She looked around for Sasaki-san. She was standing to the side, seemingly calmer than before.

“It looks like it,” Furukawa-san said, “She seems like she’s feeling better.”

But Sora saw something else, more like a competitive stare. “Oh… Well that’s good.”

The PD called for Sora and Yuki to watch the scene. He complimented Sora for her ability to do so well in one try and lightheartedly said that with some guidance and practice he would use her for another commercial.

“Heh…” That sounded like a compliment but Sora felt uncomfortable hearing it, “I’m sure Sasaki-san will be able to act it out much better.”

Sasaki-san was called onto the set and she seemed to have forgotten her struggle with her pronunciation, showing much more confidence in herself. Even when she mispronounced “coffee” and said “Ko-Hwee” she continued with such confidence, Sora barely noticed the mistake. Sasaki-san was even more elegant in her acting than Sora had imagined.

“Cut!” the PD called out, pulling Sora out of her amazement. “Oh-kay!” He said happily.

Apparently, she was able to pull it off in just one cut. They all clapped at the ending of their filming and began to pack up. Sora, realizing it was already lunch time, went to pack her things. “I can’t believe I spent all morning here…” she thought to herself, “I should be spending more time looking for a job…”

Someone tapped her shoulder and she turned to see the male staff from before. He said something in Japanese but motioned as if to do something together.

Sora’s brows raised in confusion.

“Ah...” She heard Furukawa’s voice coming toward them, “he says we should leave together.”

Confused, she looked at the 20 something year old boy. “ano… w-why?”

“Because we spent more time than expected here and the crowd outside seems to be a lot bigger than anticipated. It might be safer if we all left together.” Furukawa-san explained.

“Oh…” Sora looked out the window and saw a large crowd of people with signs and phone cameras out. It seems the students are out for their lunch break.

“Actually,” Furukawa said, glancing over at the PD, “I think producer Hikaru wants to talk to you at the studio. I think he is considering to ask you to do the voice over, if you are willing, of course.”

Sora’s attention shot back up to Furukawa, who stood a head taller than her. “What?”

“Well, I’m not so sure, but he said he wanted to talk to you about it, if you’re willing to come by the studio.” Furukawa said, seemingly uncomfortable. Sora suddenly felt apologetic for having him translate everything for her the entire day. Seeing all the fans gathered around outside, he and Sasaki-san are probably really popular. She nodded, “um… Okay… well, do you need help packing your things?”

The boy raised his hands as if to stop her, “Daijoubudesu…it-suh, oh-kay”

Furukawa-san smiled down at him and nodded, “Yeah, the staff will handle it. This is Ken Yamamoto, he’s sort of like my manager.”

Sora bowed, “Takanashi Sora desu.”

Yamamoto-san bowed back and said something to Furukawa-san before rushing back to the set.

“He said he’s going to clean up a bit and then we’ll be able to leave.”

Sora nodded slowly, “okay… wow…” she couldn’t help but watch the team take down the set and return the café to the state it was in this morning. “Their work is amazing. It’s like they made another world with their hands and once the time is over, they make it disappear as if it never existed.”

She heard Furukawa chuckle and looked up. She suddenly realized she must have said too much, Japanese people don’t really talk about their thoughts much, unlike she, who is used to Americans that always have to voice their opinion. “Oh, sorry.” She lowered her head, “I tend to blurt things without thinking sometimes.”

“No…” he said with a smile, “I’ve just never heard it put in that way.”

“Oh…” Maybe it’s because she hasn’t had a long conversation with anyone for a month, but it felt like that’s all she could say. “Oh, and… thank you for today. I feel bad you had to keep translating for me” she awkwardly scratched her head, “It must have been bothersome to be the middleman.”

He smiled politely, “That’s okay. I haven’t used my English in a while. It’s good practice.”

Yamamoto-san came to tell us it was time to go, with a large duffle bag hanging from his side.

They exited the café, with a few staff used as a human shield to keep the fans away from the two actors. Yamamoto-san was careful to keep Sora close to him as they pushed through the crowd into the van sitting outside the café.

----------

The car ride was busy, with managers reading schedules to the stars and discussing where they were to go next. Sora was sitting in the back row corner watching everything unravel before her. She was actually sitting in a van with two Japanese stars.

Sasaki-san suddenly turned to Sora and smiled “Hello!” She said cheerfully.

Sora tipped her head, not knowing how else to respond.

Furukawa turned his head to translate what she was saying, “This is Sasaki Aoi. She thanks you for your help earlier today.”

“Oh, it was nothing.” Sora said quietly, “I think Sasaki-san’s acting was beautiful to watch. It was really a once in a life time experience to see you guys filming first hand. Thank you for letting me have the honor…” He voice trailed off toward the end of that last statement. Though it was true, it sounded awfully awkward to say those words out loud, since it isn’t really an expression American’s say often.

“She asks where you’re from,” Furukawa-san translated.

“ah… my parents are Japanese and met in America when they were in collage. I was born and raised in America.. so, I don’t know much Japanese.” She looked down at her fidgeting fingers, feeling embarrassed that she was blabbering on so much.

“ehh~” Sasaki-san said something enthusiastically and smiled in a cute way. Sora looked at Furukawa-san, not knowing how to react.

“She says, she thinks it would be fun to learn English from you while she teaches you some Japanese.” He said with a smile. He turned to Sasaki-san and said something along the lines of, “Let’s stop, she must be tired.”

“The studio is about 20 minutes from here. If you’re tired, you can take a nap. We’ll wake you up when we arrive.” He said to Sora.

Sora nodded again and looked out the window, the world outside seemed to be holding more secrets than it let on.