Chapter 8 Fatigue
After that encounter, we went back to Hayato’s apartment where Tadao said hi to his brother. Hayato was quite surprised when he saw us together, but let it go and made us both drinks and brought us towels. Kida hadn’t seen Tadao for a while, and they were engrossed in some kind of gaming topic. Meanwhile, I took a quick shower and changed into my nightgown, sitting down in front of the TV with Hayato and the two brothers.
“Hey, why don’t you just stay over tonight? It’s already half past ten, mum will be fine with it,” Kida suggested. I bit my lip and stared straight at the TV.
Hayato laughed. “Yeah, that won’t be a problem. I’ll sleep on the sofa and you guys can share the bedroom!
I thought they were joking, but Tadao was actually going to stay with us. Without trying to panic too much, I headed to my room after around fifteen minutes and shut the door. I checked my phone and found a text message from Misato: Hi Risa, can you come for a shoot at 9am tomorrow? Sorry about short notice, we’ve only just found out too. If you can’t make it at 9am, come as soon as you can! M x
I replied saying I could make it and switched the light off, clambering into bed. A few minutes passed before I dozed off, into slumberland.
“Risa, there’s a text from Tadao-kun, do you want to reply? He sounds as if you haven’t talked to him in ages! Aren’t you keeping in touch?” mum questions when I get home from school.
“L-let me see…” I say, taking the phone from her. ‘Risa, please talk to me, I am very confused right now.’ I flip the phone closed and give it back to her. “It’s okay, I think it’s cause I told him a joke last week and he doesn’t get it!” I fake. Mum looks at me intently for a few seconds, then shrugs and goes into the kitchen to carry on making dinner.
“Oh Risa, the plastic surgeon will see you next Saturday morning. Will you be in good shape for then? Two operations in a week isn’t very healthy – I can change it for you if you’d prefer.”
“No that’s okay. I’d rather get it over and done with. Okay I’m going upstairs now,” I reply, hurrying up the stairs and escaping the awkwardness. Of course I haven’t been talking to Tadao; it would pain me too much. I didn’t want to make out that everything was okay, because it isn’t. School isn’t the best thing in the world, because I can hardly speak English. The actual lessons are fun though, it’s very relaxed and people are friendly.
~
My first operation is over now, the one for my lungs. There’s a scar just under my breast that makes it look like I had a breast implant – but hopefully when someone sees it in the future, it’ll have softened a little. The doctor gave me a strong sleeping pill and some anaesthetic and then I fell asleep. When I woke up, everything was over and happy faces were staring down at me. My face isn’t perfect yet, but my lungs are. Next month, when I come out of the hospital, all my excess fat will be gone, my eyes will be aligned and prettier, my nose will be sharper and my lips will be straight. My jaw won’t jut out so much and my cheeks will have shape. I am very excited, but also scared.
~
I huff and puff on the hospital treadmill, red cheeked and sweating. I haven’t seen my face yet – I have been running with bandages on that leave gaps for my eyes, nose and mouth. “You’re doing great Risa, keep going! One more kilometre, then you can stop,” my therapist, Dr Harries encourages. I smile at her and realise that it’s quite painful. My skin feels stretched, but maybe that’s just my bandages. The gym is quite full, with patients exercising for various reasons.
One kilometre later, I stop and get my breath back. Dr Harries takes me back to my room and tells me that she’s going to start taking my bandages off. I am excited, but also afraid. What if it looks different to what I had expected? But I had successfully gotten through surgery, so I didn’t want to turn back. This is it.
I look in the mirror as Dr Harries gently rolls the bandages off, and in the mirror is a horrible creature, uglier than the demon, with hair and harsh features-
“No!” I shouted, sitting up.
“What’s wrong?!” Tadao asked. What was he doing in my room…? I checked the time. 22:48. Only fifteen minutes had passed? Wow. Tadao was next to my wardrobe, looking very sneaky.
“What are you doing in here…?” I inquired sleepily.
“Your brother told me there was a spare duvet in here…” he replied awkwardly.
“Sure… take it… I don’t see why he couldn’t have done it himself…”
He opened my wardrobe doors and took out the extra duvet with ease. It was light and thin, great for the hot weather we were having – but not so much for the air conditioned apartment. He waved goodnight to me and left, but I couldn’t sleep for some time. That dream was a bit too crazy. I was pretty sure that I was excited to reveal my face, not scared. It was twisted, and I should’ve forgotten about it. So I tried my best to sleep, however it just wouldn’t come to me.
At 1am, I went out to get some water and for some reason Tadao was on the sofa instead of Hayato. I was taken aback by this and quickly drank the water before returning to my room. My heart was beating very quickly as I dived into the covers and put my earphones in, hoping that some music would calm me down and get me to sleep.
~
I pressed the snooze button for the fifth time before realising it was eight-thirty. Immediately I got up and blinked a few times, then went into the bathroom to find a certain someone washing their face in the sink.
“G-good morning, Tadao-kun…” I said timidly. He turned round from the mirror and nodded, quickly wiping his face with Kida’s flannel and coming out. I went in and locked the door – something Tadao did not do, and cleaned myself.
Fifteen minutes later, I was dressed in a simple orange cami and denim shorts, completed with some bracelets, two and a half inch wedges and sunglasses. The rain from last night had disappeared and it was a bright, sunny morning. I said goodbye to Hayato and Kida, who were sitting at the table eating breakfast, then hurried by Metro to the studio to start the new project.
“Hey Lily! How are you?” Beru-chin greeted. I answered her and told her about my nose coming loose. “Oh dear – come on, let’s get that fixed straight away. Listen, how about this Saturday I take you to the surgery nearby? I can’t keep gluing it back on, because it’ll become noticeable. I know a doctor who is confidential and really good, I’m sure he can get it fixed in no time.”
“Thank you, Beru-chin. Which studio are we in today?”
Beru-chin took me to Studio D where another shoot was currently going on. Misato was in the middle of lecturing the model, Melissa. She was often modelling for Dolce & Gabanna Japan but I didn’t see her a lot. She seemed to be struggling for new poses, and Misato was angry that she was doing the same ones again and again. I looked at the setting, and saw it was a very rich gold and black scene. She was wearing black trousers with gold lining and sequins, and a white shirt underneath a matching black and gold tuxedo. She wore black gloves and had an umbrella in her right hand, purse in the other. The designer was obviously looking for something sleek and professional, not inexperienced and poorly done.
“Ah Lily, there you are. Will you come and take the place of Melissa? I’ve had enough,” Misato complained. I raised my eyebrows but did as she told me to, and Beru-chin got me ready. Misato drank a bottle of water in one gulp, and rubbed her temples. She looked rather business-like, unlike usual when she would wear all sorts of clothes from the current fashion trends. “Okay, come on – let’s get back to work.”
I started off with some simple poses and changed to more advanced ones, trying my best to please Misato. I didn’t look at her throughout the whole shoot, but once it was over, her expression was completely different.
“Oh Lily! You have saved this shoot from the depths of hell… thank you very much. Melissa, thank you as well, we will send both of your pictures to the magazine department and see. They may well use both. Ok Melissa, you can leave now. Lily – we’ve only just begun!” she said, patting my shoulder and smiling. Melissa bowed and left, tottering down the stairs in her super high heels. Misato got me into my next costume and we continued for another couple of hours with the theme, Empress.
~
I hardly attended school at all the following week. Misato was stressed that suddenly there was so much going on, it being summer and all. There were new lines coming in from all over the world, and the inquiry department was having a hard time too. So I tried my best in every single shoot, whether I was alone or with other people.
It was almost the end of the semester, with just a week and a half until the holidays. The headmaster asked me if I would be attending summer classes, and I hesitantly said no, unsure of what to say. I didn’t know how busy I would be; this week had been so busy so suddenly that I didn’t know what to predict any more. He said there was no problem, but I could pop in if I was free. I thanked him and went into class. There were only five minutes left until the end of lunch, and I had just come in from my last shoot. I had eaten very little as I needed to get back to school, but dismissed the fact that my stomach was growling after a busy morning and concentrated on studying.
“Risa, we’ve missed you!” Yuka cried. “You have been very busy, haven’t you? I can’t imagine how tired you must be, doing modelling every day.”
“Yeah Risa, how do you manage?” Aiko added.
I shrugged. “I suppose… I suppose when you have people who support you, it becomes much easier. I would have loved to come into school, but I knew how important those shoots were. If I didn’t get them done, the whole department would suffer.”
“Oh you’re so wise! I’d never think like that, if I was bored I’d just stop… I really admire you, Risa!” Yuka exclaimed. I tried to smile, and found that it was getting easier. “Say, want to have another meeting this Saturday?”
“Yeah, that’d be fun! Though maybe we shouldn’t go to the planetarium… that was embarrassing for me to wake up leaning on Seita-kun…” Aiko smiled shyly. I chuckled to myself, but also felt guilty for leaving them there.
“Okay, Risa, are you all right with that? We’ll invite the guys, yeah?” I nodded. Aiko and Yuka then discussed how they would feel about modelling all day, but when the bell went they went back to their places in the middle of the classroom and got settled.
“Good afternoon everyone, let’s start!” the teacher said. I looked out of the window at the green oak trees moving to the wind, gently swaying to and fro. “Now today we’ll be looking at an old text from the diner, Nihon Shoki also known as the Chronicles of Japan. There are some great works in here dating back a very long time, so please turn to page 288 of your textbooks. This story is about…”
I drifted off into my own world, thinking about the next shoot. Misato told me that Naoki would be there, and it would be another couple shoot. I didn’t quite know how I felt about that – I hadn’t seen Naoki for a week because I had been so busy. I hoped that it wouldn’t be awkward, and that there would be a lot to talk about; even so, I couldn’t predict the future. Meanwhile, there was Tadao, and I was happy to have diminished the wall between us.
“And what might the answer to that be, Lily-san?”
“Eh?” I looked up and the teacher was expecting an answer, pronto. I opened my mouth to say something but I heard a whisper. It was Tadao, telling me the answer. ‘The author is trying to tell us that the god was angry.’
“The author is trying to tell us that the god was angry, a-and therefore uses the terms ‘wicked’ and ‘wretched’, which also ties in alliteration, really embedding into our minds that Kojiro is a bad person,” I answered with a sweating forehead. The teacher smiled and nodded.
“Exactly, Lily-san. You see, it’s not completely clear at the beginning what kind of person Kojiro is, however this particular person has used another character to make that apparent. Do you see that, everyone?” They all droned a yes in reply and continued sitting at their desks as if they were watching a documentary about the historical buildings of Japan. “Right, continuing…”
The rest of the lessons went by quite quickly, and suddenly it was time for me to get to the studio. If it went on like this, my summer would be rather uninteresting. It felt like God was making me pay for the fun I had on Saturday by giving me a full week of just modelling.
~
“Ala, you both made it on time!” Misato proclaimed, clapping her hands like an excited child. “We’d better go quickly, there’s another shoot at six for you both. After today, I promise you can get a good two day’s rest!”
“Yeah, and then it’s back to work again!” Naoki said in an undertone. Misato heard and slapped him on the shoulder, somewhat lightly.
“Chotto, don’t go badmouthing this business. You enjoy modelling, don’t you? So it should be fun and enjoyable!” She sent us off to get changed and done up by the make-up artists, before sighing and sitting down for a bit. When I was done, I went out to talk to her.
“Hey Misato, didn’t you say I had a stylist who was ill when I first came?” I inquired politely. She looked up from her depressed position, and sat up properly.
“Yes, I’m afraid she can’t do it. She’s in the hospital right now, recovering from a stroke. Sorry, Lily.”
I was shocked to hear this and immediately apologized. She laughed it off and said it was fine, and that she had no time to visit her. “Even so, is she all right?”
She sighed again. “You know, she’s my sister. I’m worried for her, but I’m glad she’s recovering. We both joined this company at the same time, but she received the job I have now and I used to be a stylist. Then she kept being ill and our supervisor said it wouldn’t do – so I took her job and now whenever she is okay she’ll come in and be a stylist.”
“It’s a shame, all this. When people are ill, I guess it can really affect other people’s working lives,” I said, exhaling. “Are we going to get started then?”
She clapped her hands again, happy once more. “Yes! Naoki-kun, come on, we’re all waiting for you! Yano, Dei, are the cameras ready? Ok, let’s get going!”
~
I arrived home at exactly eleven forty pm, and fell in a heap on the welcome mat. The picture taking just wouldn’t stop and I had to conjure up various poses that were different to ones I had done before. In the end, only one or two would be chosen, so did they need to take one hundred and fifty? Hayato came out of Kida’s room and smiled.
“Are you all right? It’s unlike you to come home so late,” he simpered, taking my bag and helping me up. “If your manager is working you too hard, you gotta say, okay?”
“Mhm… okay… can I just get to bed now…?” I murmured. He felt my head.
“Risa, you’re so hot! Oh dear, don’t tell me all this work has given you a fever?! Come over to the table, let me get the thermometer.”
Five minutes later, it came out that I had a fever of 39 degrees Celsius. Hayato brought me to my bed and gave me an ice pack to put on my head, and some water. “Did you have dinner?” I shook my head. “Right, I’ll make you something quickly.”
“Oh no, don’t go to the trouble of doing that…”
He stood up suddenly, having crouched on the floor to put the ice pack on my head. “Risa, you have to take care of your body, otherwise it’ll fail on you one day! I know you love modelling but there are limits to how much you can do. I’m making you some rice gruel, it’ll be easy to swallow. Man, I’m not good at this kind of thing…” he groaned, going out to make something.
I lay there in my bed, thinking about all sorts of things, like if I would be well enough to meet with everyone the next day. I wanted to see Tadao and Seita, and everyone else. I wanted to smile and laugh with them, go shopping and have fun.
~~~
Ok so this chapter was long but a bit half-hearted............. I changed the title like three times ^^' I promise the next chapter will be a bit better! I'm trying to develop the story a bit more, and the characters too. I hope I can finish this before school starts in September - but I highly doubt I will! I'll probably get a new story idea and leave this for ages... ha... Anyway, vote, comment, fan if you really like it! x