Takechi left the stage, with a lot of clapping and laughter following him. A man approached him with tears in his eyes from so much laughter and said, “Boy, that was hilarious! Let me tell you, I have been in this business for quite some time, and it’s always a good idea when a comedian uses something particular about his looks or his personal experience to make a funny act. You are on the right track. Continue creating funny stories like that one, and I bet you will be big!”
Takechi Hito vigorously nodded, because he recognised the man from previous visits. He also knew that the man was a famous comedian, and it was rumoured he made an appearance now and then in that club, which was why Takechi started to go there. Takechi made a deep bow and said, “Thank you very much, Matsunaga-san! Your words mean so much to me!”
The man gave a slight smile. “It seems you know who I am…”
“Yes, you are Matsunaga Hoshi. I love your work! It was you that inspired me to write my jokes when I saw you for the first time on television, almost two years ago. You started your career by telling stories from your childhood. I… more or less followed your example, and it was also a way for me to forget the sadness all that bullying caused me…”
Matsunaga Hoshi nodded and took a card from his wallet. He gave it to Takechi while placing one hand over his shoulders. “I know what you are saying. I was also very short for my age, and I grew up without a father. I know very well how kids can be mean. Here it is, my card. You can call or email me if you have questions or need some kind of advice. I can even hear some of your jokes and help you out. I don’t do this very often, but someone did the same for me when I was about your age. This is me passing along the kindness I once received.”
Takechi Hito grabbed the card with trembling hands and asked, “This is like… you are going to mentor me?”
“If you want, I can do that. Or I can be someone to laugh at your jokes. No pressure, okay?”
Takechi bowed again with a big smile. “Thanks for this opportunity, Matsunaga-san! This is so cool!”
Matsunaga Hoshi tapped Takechi’s back and returned to his seat. “Don’t mention it. I bet you will be a brilliant comedian.”
Takechi Hito went to meet his friends, and they received him with a lot of clapping. Tomiko asked while cleaning her tears from all the laughter, “Takechi-kun, I didn’t know you did things like that! And the way you so proudly called yourself Takechi-sama was so funny!”
Takechi answered with an awkward smile, “I did an act on other nights, but I changed some things because everyone kept on calling me Takechi-sama. I… thought it would be funny if I used that as the basis for my jokes.”
Tomiko answered with a glow of admiration in her eyes. “It sure was! You are great, Takechi-kun! You are a great cook, and you are also a comedian! You are a box full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“Yeah… Maybe I am… Unless you don’t like it…”
Tomiko turned bright red and answered, “Why… wouldn’t I like it? Only if I were a fool… Which I am not…”
Everyone looked at the red-faced couple, and Shintaro Nakaoka rolled her eyes from the top of her comfortable chair in the form of the tall and muscular Tadasaburo Sasaki. “Oh, come on, kiss him already, Tomiko-chan! You have been dragging this for so long!”
Tomiko Hari stared at her with dumbfounded eyes and pointed at Tadasaburo Sasaki. “Look who is talking! We know you two liked each other since middle school. Why don’t you follow your own advice and kiss Tadasaburo-kun?”
Shintaro Nakaoka opened her eyes wide and looked at Tadasaburo Sasaki, and saw his red cheeks. “Yeah, you are right! I should follow my advice! Come here, you!”
She gave him a quick kiss and caressed his face. “I should have done this long ago…”
Tadasaburo gulped. “Maybe I am the one to blame. I never tried anything… I was afraid you would refuse my feelings and our friendship would become awkward.”
From their left, they heard the annoyed voice of Yoshinobu Tokuga, “Oh, come on, I won a couple of lovebirds to follow me around? Not fair, Tomiko-chan, totally not fair!”
Shintaro Nakaoka winked one eye at Tomiko Hari and signalled with her head to Takechi. “What are you waiting for? Your turn!”
Tomiko stared at Takechi with her face all red and was stared back at by a red-cheeked Takechi. She approached him and asked, in a low voice, “Do you… want to…”
Takechi held Tomiko’s hands, and while on his tiptoes, kissed her. He made a slight smile in the end and answered, “I would be crazy if I didn’t want to…”
Tomiko made a slight smile, feeling her heart trying to come out of her mouth, and Hangaku Mae clapped, with Shubuyaky Tomoe joining her. Hangaku grabbed a cup of juice from the table and raised it. “A toast to the happy couples! Finally! I was going crazy, waiting for you guys to make a move!”
They all joined her on the toast, and Tomoe asked Sakamo in a low voice, “What about you and that beauty on your lap? No kiss?”
“We already did that. I am going slowly. You know I like to be careful.”
“Yeah, but don’t be too slow, or she might get desperate and attack you. Or, who knows, she could get tired of you and find another boy. You are too slow sometimes, Ryu-kun, really slow…”
The announcer called their attention to the next act, and Takechi’s face lit up as he saw his idol, Matsunaga Hoshi, entering the stage. Tomiko wrinkled one eyebrow and asked Takechi, “I think I know that man. He is famous, right?”
“Yes, he is Matsunaga Hoshi. He gave me his card when I left the stage and offered to be my mentor. You know how cool that is, to have someone like him teaching me? He even said he loved my jokes!”
Tomiko nodded with a smile and held his hand while looking at the stage, waiting for the act to start.
With joke after joke, he almost made the ceiling come down with all the laughter. In the end, Matsunaga Hoshi made a deep bow and left, waving at the crowd. When he sat at his table again to join his group of friends, he smiled at Takechi and got a thumbs-up from the smiling boy.
Hojo Masako warned them it was better to go, because it was getting late and they still had to catch the train to go home, and for the ones that lived on the outskirts of the City, it was going to be a long ride. Sakamo called the waiter, but no one let him pay. They all divided the bill among them, paying for Sakamo and Tomoe because she was a guest and he had already paid last time for all of them at the coffeehouse of Yoshinobu Tokuga.
When they paid, everyone followed Takechi Hito to the street, and he frowned at the man dressed in a dark blue suit, standing next to a car. Sakamo approached and signalled for Tomoe to join him.
She stared at the man, wondering who he was, and Sakamo explained, “I called for him while we were inside. He will take you to your hotel and make sure you arrive there undisturbed.”
Tomoe wrinkled one eyebrow while looking at the serious man from top to bottom. “Are you sure he can be trusted? Because he looks awfully suspicious to me! I don’t want to be found at the bottom of the river tomorrow!”
“I know, but you can trust him as if it was me, right?”
The man slowly nodded without changing his expression. “Of course. My daughter is also a fan. I wouldn’t dare put your life in jeopardy. Sakamo-san gave me the afternoon off, and I was at the Stadium with my family. Your concert was truly amazing, as was every single one that I attended previously. When I find the time, I always try to take my daughter to your concerts.”
Tomoe made a big smile and nodded at Sakamo. “I guess I can trust him if you even vouch for him. Let’s go, you big, scary man. I need to go to bed because tomorrow I have work to do! Wait a minute… Hangaku-chan, where must I go tomorrow?”
Hangaku looked for a piece of paper in her purse and wrote the address. “Here. Be there at nine. We will be there until a little after lunch.”
“So early? I need to sleep! Let’s go!”
Tomiko pulled Sakamo’s bodyguard to follow her, and Hangaku shouted as Tomoe was entering the car, “That’s why I told you to go to bed early. You were the one that wanted to come here, remember?”
Tomiko waved at everyone and entered the car. She opened the window and shouted, “Ryu-kun, thanks for this. I had a blast! Goodbye, everyone!”
The car went off as she was waving from the window, and the others followed Takechi Hito to the train station.
They kept on talking about the concert and Hangaku’s surprisingly good voice, ending with the sudden appearance of Takechi-sama, the Great One, on stage at the comedy club. Their train arrived, and they entered, still talking, and one by one or in groups, they left at their several stations.
When it was getting nearer to Takechi and Sakamo’s station, Hangaku whispered, “Can Tomiko and I sleep in your house? I am too tired to go home….”
Sakamo whispered, after thinking for a few seconds, “You don’t need to warn anyone if you are going to sleep somewhere else?”
“My parents are still travelling, so I told my housekeeper that I was going to a concert, and then I was going to sleep in Tomiko-chan’s house. She told her parents that she was going to sleep with me, so I have everything covered. I… more or less bet on your kindness to grant us a nice and comfy bed again.”
Sakamo slowly nodded. “Okay, but don’t you dare step a foot in my room. I need to wake up very early tomorrow because I have to meet a very annoying woman, and I can’t risk arriving there late because I overslept, or she will take my head! I can prepare breakfast before leaving if you want.”
Hangaku bit her lower lip and nodded slowly. She thought about tempting him during the night, but the way he was looking at her so seriously was a clear sign that if she tried anything, she would fail, and he would probably be angry.
When the train stopped, the four of them left, waving at the others who continued their voyage.
Along their walk, Tomiko kept on talking with Takechi, and Hangaku asked in a low voice, “Who are you going to meet tomorrow? You sounded way too serious.”
“Just someone that is still furious with me. One day I might introduce you to her, but be prepared, because she is difficult to impress.”
Hangaku went silent, wondering who that woman could be, and after a couple of minutes, she changed the conversation by talking about the concert and his surprising demonstration with Tomoe. He kept on giving short answers, and she realised it was something that he didn’t want to talk about.
After saying their goodbyes to Takechi, they left him alone with a red-faced Tomiko, who gave him a long goodnight kiss and ran to meet the others, who didn’t wait for her.
Upon entering Sakamo’s house, Tomiko went to the spare room with a big smile plastered on her face, and Hangaku stopped and gently pulled Sakamo’s arm. “Are you angry at me? Did I do something wrong? Because you seem to avoid talking or looking at me.”
Sakamo took a deep, slow breath and looked at her in the eyes. You did nothing wrong. I’m just having trouble resisting the urge to grab you. I am also a little worried about my meeting tomorrow, and I am wondering if I should take you with me or not after your volunteer work, but it’s probably too soon.”
“Is that so serious? Who is that woman, anyway?”
Sakamo gave a slight smile and kissed her forehead briefly, and he then said in a gentle tone, “You told me that your parents might not approve of me being with you, that woman might think the same about you, and I don’t want to put you in that kind of situation so soon. I need to tell her first that I met the most beautiful girl I have ever met, with a hypnotic smile and gentle eyes that draw me in every time she looks at me. That woman is someone very important to me, and I don’t want to take any risks with you because I have the weird idea that she is planning to join me with the daughter of one of her friends. I keep on refusing her veiled invitations to a blind date with some of those girls, but she is becoming more insistent each week.”
Hangaku frowned and poked his chest. “Probably that’s a good reason to take me with you so that I can tell her you are already taken. I don’t want other girls around you.”
“Well… I have another problem, one concerning her daughter. She is younger than us, but she has a crush on me. I see her as if she were my younger sister, like Tomoe-chan, and I don’t want to see her sad. I need to talk with her about you so I can prepare her. She might get angry, but I hope to make her understand.”
“Ok… You have a lot of secrets, Sakamo-kun. That makes you very interesting, but I hope you share some of them with me. We can’t have a relationship based on secrets, right?”
Sakamo suddenly remembered about Shinatobe and Sarutahiko Okami and gulped, “Yeah… Sorry about that, but little by little I will tell you, or show you, everything about me. You just have to be patient. I need time to adjust to this situation. It’s all very new to me.”
“What, a girl liking you or you liking a girl? You have never dated a girl before?”
Sakamo slowly shook his head. “No, not really. Remember, I lived a very sheltered life. I am not used to all these feelings, I need time.”
Hangaku gave him a long kiss and felt her heart going crazy. She caressed his face and looked deep into his eyes. “I can wait for you for as long as you need if that makes you love me forever.”
She left with those words, and Sakamo mumbled while touching his cheek, “She really plays me like a violin… I almost pulled her to my room… That girl is dangerous, and if I am not already in love, I am going to be very soon…”
Sakamo went to his room, feeling his sped up heart.