#48: Red Eye / ep.2
On the outskirts of Roppongi stood the girls’ bar antiqua, where a bartender who hid her true feelings behind a mask smiled at her customers.
“…You didn’t want to tell Mikoto-san the truth because you didn’t want her pity, did you?”
Confronted with Rinko’s deduction, Shandy faltered.
Her tears would not stop. Taking pity on her, Rinko offered her a handkerchief. After wiping her tears, Shandy let out a feverish sigh. Her amber eyes, like the full moon, were bloodshot and swollen from crying.
“I thought it was a fake name, but who would have guessed it was actually your real name…”
“…Yes.”
The driving licence Shandy had shown her before contained, without a single falsehood, a fragment of the mystery she had guarded so stubbornly.
“Charlotte Gabriel. Twenty-four years old. Born November 24th. How are you supposed to be the ‘mature one’? You’re younger than Mikoto-san.”
“Is it a problem if I’m younger?”
Rinko had no answer. She had no idea what kind of woman Mikoto liked. The only thing she could say for certain was that the woman standing before her was the one Mikoto had fallen in love with.
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me?”
“…I actually trust your words more because you dislike me. It’s easier to read between the lines when someone hates me.”
“You’re infuriating…”
Even with tears in her eyes, Shandy smiled.
In truth, Rinko had been dodging the question. Shandy’s actual age was irrelevant. The fact that Mikoto had loved Shandy remained unchanged. Admitting that was all that mattered would have felt like acknowledging defeat, and that was what Rinko found so frustrating.
“But I’ve figured out who you really are.”
“…………”
To corner the silent Shandy, Rinko scrolled through the photos on her phone.
They were from the first stage play Rinko had ever gone to see after following her favourite, Kurosu Kotone.
“Four years ago, a friend who was a Kotone fan invited me to see a play. At the time, I was completely captivated by Kotone’s first stage performance. She’d only just made her debut in straight-to-video films, and she had barely more than a bit part.”
Rinko showed Shandy the photograph.
It was a commemorative photo she had taken with her friend at the theatre. Behind them, a theatre poster featured a woman Rinko recognised.
The truth was—
“So I remember this play pretty well. The lead actress was using a stage name, but I know what she’s called now. Kuze Fumika. She’s the hotel employee who came between us at Maverick, right?”
With her red eyes, Shandy said “Too bad” in the manner of a quiz-show host laughing at an incorrect answer.
“Insufficient evidence. You can’t conclude that Fumika-chan used to be an actress based on that alone. Couldn’t it simply be someone who looks like her?”
“I thought the same thing, so I looked into it. The company that sponsored this play was Hotel Maverick. Maverick doesn’t just run hotels. They run a theatre company too.”
Rinko skipped the camera roll forward a little, moving from the past towards the present.
“I thought it was strange. The hotel staff at Maverick are all unusually beautiful. And I found it suspicious that Kuze Fumika said it was a false name. A hotel employee, someone working in a business where trust is everything, using an alias? That makes no sense.”
“And?”
“There was an incident involving the theatre company Kuze Fumika belonged to. You’ll probably pretend you know nothing about it.”
After that shocking first encounter with Kotone four years ago, Rinko had become desperate to find out her name. In the process of digging through the theatre company run by Maverick, she had come across a tragic story in a weekly magazine.
Tragic heroine!
— The truth behind actress Akutagawa Alice, who mysteriously died on opening night
Rinko thrust a photograph she had taken of the magazine article at Shandy.
A white actress with black hair, dark-red eyes, and a slightly hunched posture.
Akutagawa Alice.
At the time, the media had sensationalised the tragic actress Akutagawa Alice. But rumours lasted seventy-five days. And in the entertainment industry, where faces and stories were replaced so quickly, a four-year-old scandal had long since faded from public memory.
“Do you know this actress? Her stage name was Akutagawa Alice. Born November 24th. She’d be twenty-four this year if she were still alive.”
“Oh, what a coincidence. But as you can see, I have blonde hair and amber eyes. And I stand perfectly straight. I don’t have much of a chest either.”
“The black hair was a wig. The eyes were coloured contacts. You used to slouch. And your chest was padded. With that many differences, nobody would have recognised you.”
“Fufu. You make it sound as though I’m the real Akutagawa Alice.”
“Just admit it.”
“Nope. Because she died, didn’t she? Oh, perhaps I’m a zombie?”
“Mikoto-san and you… Why does neither of you ever tell me what really matters?”
She was furious. Absolutely livid.
Rinko had made Shandy promise not to lie, yet this woman seemed like the kind of creature that simply could not survive without lying.
“You and Kuze Fumika used to belong to the same theatre company, and you both worked at the same hotel. Hotel Maverick gives actresses who have left the stage somewhere to find new employment. Am I wrong?”
“Fufu.”
Shandy smiled.
There was even a silent pressure in that smile telling Rinko not to say another word. Even Rinko faltered.
Besides, she had no more evidence. No matter how correct her guess seemed, she could not establish the truth unless Shandy actually nodded.
And, above all, Rinko had no intention of digging any deeper into the truth behind the tragic heroine Akutagawa Alice.
If Shandy really was Akutagawa Alice, then she had faked her own death. The gossip articles about the tragic heroine would have been nothing but a spectacular fake news story.
Which meant that another mystery had emerged from the mystery surrounding Shandy.
Why had Akutagawa Alice, Charlotte Gabriel, needed to leave the stage badly enough to fake her own death?
Had the gossip surrounding Akutagawa Alice’s death really been false reporting?
Or had she deliberately spread false reports in order to make the world believe Akutagawa Alice was dead?
“Fine. Leave it at that…”
Rinko stopped prying.
It certainly wasn’t because she was afraid of touching the heart of Shandy’s mystery and hurting her.
If she investigated Shandy’s past in detail and discovered the truth hidden behind the fake news, Rinko felt she might end up sympathising with the tragic heroine who had left the stage by pretending to die.
She might even become incapable of hating her rival.
So instead, she deliberately turned her eyes away from the truth and told Shandy:
“Like I said, I won’t pry into your past. I don’t want to feel sorry for someone like you. The person you need to tell is Mikoto-san, not me.”
“Yes. I’ll tell her when the time comes.”
Their conversation ended there.
Classical music filled the silence inside the bar. The piece was Khachaturian’s Masquerade. A stately, lavishly ornate waltz with something almost sinister about it.
Rinko watched Shandy standing there without saying anything, a smile pasted onto her face. Tear tracks remained on her cheeks. Her make-up had run, yet she still pretended everything was perfectly normal.
“You really are stubborn. Always pretending nothing’s wrong.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
Shandy dodged the question and twisted the conversation in another direction. Rinko wasn’t going to fall for it, so she ignored her and continued.
The subject shifted from Shandy’s past to the reason she and Mikoto had broken up.
“I just thought it was funny that even you could make a mistake. You’d been manipulating everything so perfectly, keeping her dancing in the palm of your hand.”
“I suppose so…”
Shandy turned her gaze away from Rinko and leaned against the wall. A single tear trickled down her cheek as she looked towards the ceiling.
“Serves you right. Good for you.”
“I can’t hear the howling of a loser.”
“You’re a loser too.”
“I’m a cat person, so couldn’t you call me a losing cat instead?”
“Then you’re a stray cat. You stole Mikoto-san from me.”
“Then Rinko-san is a bitch in heat. A foolish, shallow, lustful bitch who thinks she can attract someone with her scent, following her instincts and rutting like an animal.”
“What!?”
Rinko was so angry she wanted to kill her.
But if she lost her temper now, that would be exactly what Shandy wanted. Somehow keeping herself calm, Rinko finally brought up the reason she had come to antiqua tonight.
“Mikoto-san said you don’t believe her.”
“I see.”
“Why won’t you believe her? Even I can see that Mikoto-san—”
The next words were painful to say.
Even so, if she didn’t force them out and make Shandy listen, Mikoto’s feelings would have been wasted.
“—Mikoto-san really loves you.”
Shandy’s eyes widened.
The tears that had finally stopped began spilling again. They flowed like little streams through the make-up she had applied to maintain the appearance of an unshakable bartender.
“…I envy you.”
Shandy managed to force the words out, smiling weakly.
“What do you mean, you envy me? You don’t mean that at all.”
“…I do. I wonder how you can trust another person so easily. It’s not as though you can read their mind.”
“You don’t need to read someone’s mind, do you?”
“If you think that way, you’ll be betrayed eventually.”
“So what if I am?”
From their exchange so far, Rinko had begun to grasp, however vaguely, what Shandy had done to Mikoto.
It was something beyond her already keen five senses, something that might as well have been a sixth sense. Something she had learned from listening to all kinds of romantic troubles at Aromatic.
A woman’s intuition.
And the difference in experience between women.
“You tested Mikoto-san’s love, didn’t you? You were afraid of being betrayed, so you wanted to make sure she really loved you. And you used a horrible method to do it.”
Shandy fell silent.
Rinko knew she had hit the mark, and continued.
“Think about how Mikoto-san felt when you tested her. What would you think if someone did the same thing to you?”
“…Mikoto-san isn’t a horrible woman like me.”
“That means you trust Mikoto-san.”
“Me trusting Mikoto-san and Mikoto-san trusting me are two different things.”
“They’re the same. Isn’t that what love is? Trusting someone without any proof. Even if they betray you and you end up getting hurt, you don’t care.”
“You want me to blindly believe in the existence of something as uncertain as love?”
“At the very least, Mikoto-san believed in you blindly…”
Why was Rinko talking about her views on love with her romantic rival?
Ever since she had arrived at antiqua, everything had been completely out of character for her. Feeling embarrassed and awkward, Rinko turned her gaze away from Shandy, who was leaning against the wall.
Naturally, Shandy was not the sort of woman to miss such a tiny change in her behaviour.
“…Fufu. I’m surprised. You really do believe in something so uncertain, don’t you, Rinko-san?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It’s not like my love will reach Mikoto-san even if I believe in her.”
“No. I wasn’t being sarcastic. I was genuinely impressed. Like I said before, I envy you for being able to believe blindly in the existence of love. How simple.”
“Do people often tell you that you always add one unnecessary remark?”
“Fufu.”
Without being asked, Shandy began making a cocktail.
A can of the beer Rinko had just finished, Wednesday Cat, and some ginger ale. Two chilled, misted glasses, freshly taken from the refrigerator, were placed in front of the counter.
“I suppose I’ll give you one on the house.”
“What’s with that attitude? Aren’t customers supposed to be gods?”
“At antiqua, I’m the god.”
With a heavy sigh, Rinko remained seated and leaned back against the wall.
The coveted seat by the wall, where Mikoto always sat.
Perhaps Mikoto had leaned against that same wall while Shandy toyed with her.
Rinko watched from the corner of her eye as Shandy prepared the complimentary cocktail, which, as far as Rinko knew, was called a Shandy Gaff.
Then Shandy called her name.
“Hey, Rinko-san?”
“…What?”
“I’m going to apologise in advance. I’m sorry.”
The Shandy Gaff was placed on its coaster.
Its pale amber colour resembled Shandy’s eyes. Bubbles fizzed gently up from the bottom of the glass.
“…Did you put poison in it?”
“I may put poison in my words, but never in my drinks.”
“I really hate you.”
“Yes. To tell you the truth, until this very moment, I hated you too.”
She was her romantic rival. Of course she hated her.
But Rinko noticed that Shandy had used the past tense.
“You came to see me. You love Mikoto-san from the bottom of your heart, so you came all the way to antiqua, despite hating it. When it comes to the strength of your feelings for Mikoto-san… I admit defeat.”
“Have you given up on Mikoto-san?”
“No.”
“Then why admit defeat?”
“I simply wanted to show respect to another woman who loves the same woman I do.”
“I don’t want your respect.”
“Then at least accept the cocktail. It’s free alcohol that’s coming out of my own pocket. I’m sure it will taste exceptional.”
Reluctantly drinking the Shandy Gaff, Rinko regretted it inwardly.
The meaning behind Shandy saying she would apologise in advance was probably—
“I’m going to love Mikoto-san. Thoroughly. Until there isn’t even the slightest room left for you.”
“You can’t. Not when you can’t believe in love.”
“After talking to you tonight, I thought I might try believing in it a little. Of course, I can’t give it my complete trust. I’m shy, you see.”
Rinko’s premonition had been correct.
“So I’m sorry, Rinko-san. Your love will absolutely never come to fruition. Charlotte will absolutely, positively never let it. But you’re not the sort of person who would give up just because I told you to, are you? So I’m sorry. I’m going to beat you so thoroughly that you’ll have no choice but to accept defeat.”
The bloodshot eyes had regained their amber glow.
It was a declaration of war, made directly and without the slightest lie.
Shandy, who had been unable to believe in uncertain love, was going to try believing.
She was going to face Mikoto.
She was going to love her, and let herself be loved.
At the same time, it was a final ultimatum to the love Rinko carried in her heart.
By reaching out a helping hand to two troubled women, Rinko had brought about the end of her own love.
“So.”
“Yes.”
“…I’m leaving. How much?”
“Tonight is on the house. A parting gift for Rinko-san, as you set off towards a new romance.”
The moment Rinko had been unable to answer Shandy’s declaration, the winner and loser had already been decided.
But swallowing her defeat just like that was difficult, so Rinko took a thousand-yen note from her wallet and placed it on the counter.
“I’ll draw the curtain on my own love myself.”
“That’s my rival.”
“I’m not happy about being acknowledged by you.”
“Fufu. Are you a tsundere?”
“If you don’t stop, I really will kill you. I’ve got nothing left to lose right now.”
“Oh my. How frightening.”
Shandy giggled, and Rinko let out a weary sigh, dropping her shoulders.
Her romantic rival was an utterly impossible woman.
A formidable woman who could never be dealt with straightforwardly. A troublesome woman who couldn’t believe in love, yet had hidden her horrific past for no other reason than that she didn’t want anyone’s sympathy.
Rinko suddenly realised.
“Ah. So that’s why it’s a game…”
If she revealed the past she had stubbornly locked away, a past that seemed almost unbearably tragic, Mikoto would undoubtedly come to love Shandy even more deeply.
It would be an absolute weapon, one that no other woman could compete with.
—The tragic heroine: Charlotte Gabriel.
And yet Shandy had covered her past with mystery.
Even though revealing everything and making Mikoto think, What a poor, unfortunate woman, would have been enough to win her heart in an instant.
As far as Rinko knew, Mikoto was kind. Too kind to other people.
That was precisely why Shandy’s hidden, terrible past would be her trump card.
The fact that she had never drawn it.
The fact that she had repeatedly shaken Mikoto and tested her love.
“You wanted her to see only who you are now, didn’t you?”
“Fufu. I wonder.”
Looking at that roundabout, troublesome woman smiling knowingly, Rinko understood.
If it had to be her…
Then at least Rinko would rather lose Mikoto to her than to any of the other 3.5 billion women in the world.
“…This time, goodbye. I really won’t see you again.”
“That may be impossible.”
“I’m not planning to become a regular here.”
“At the very least, you’ll definitely have to come here one more time.”
“What the hell does that mean? Stop being so mysterious and just tell me!”
Shandy produced something from somewhere and put on a black wig.
Her eyes were still amber, bloodshot from crying. But with her back hunched, she looked exactly like the actress who had briefly captured the public’s attention four years ago, before disappearing from their memories.
“Would you like to sneak into a dance party with me, Rinko-san?”
“A dance party…?”
Shandy smiled mischievously.