#103: Scandal / ep.1
What was waiting for Mikoto when she stepped out of the red SUV was a white stone chapel standing amid lush green lawns.
In Azabu, Minato Ward, not far from Roppongi. A place where those who loved one another came to swear eternal love. The car park was packed with imported cars belonging to wedding guests.
“I actually came here…”
“I’m excited, Mikoto-san!”
Toko, who had answered Kotone’s call on the first ring and immediately said, “I’m in, I’m in!”, had spent the entire drive repeatedly declaring how excited she was, as though this were her own wedding.
Mikoto’s entire body ached, right down to her limbs, and she had no idea what would become of the wedding-venue tour they had somehow arranged at such short notice. Just imagining herself standing beside one of the hexagonal-column monuments lining the garden was enough to make her writhe with embarrassment.
“The Kurosu-sama who made the booking… Huh?”
The female member of the wedding-venue staff froze when she saw Kotone. Given that an actress whose star was rising at breakneck speed had suddenly made a booking for a venue tour, it was only natural.
“I’m just accompanying her. We’re very close sisters. Aren’t we, Big Sis?”
“Haha…”
Kotone had put on her innocent act so skilfully that Mikoto’s escape route was gone. The staff member, visibly relieved, led them inside.
A solemn chapel set amid an immaculately maintained garden. Beyond the avenue of plane trees stretched the skyscrapers of Shinjuku.
Just then, the newlyweds and their guests began streaming out of the chapel after the ceremony. At the centre of the happy crowd, the bride, the star of the show, tossed her bouquet high into the air. It traced a big arc against the blue sky before falling into the arms of someone who looked to be one of the bride’s friends.
A scene of happiness straight out of a picture book.
Without even meaning to, Mikoto found herself superimposing her own image with Shandy’s onto the two figures at its centre. Both of them in pure white dresses. Beneath the blue sky, surrounded by family and friends, the two of them tossing their bouquets together. The image took shape in her mind.
“Mikoto-san! Over here, over here! They’re going to explain everything!”
Mikoto had been so entranced that she did not notice until Toko called out to her.
She had always thought a wedding ceremony was little more than a rite of passage. But having someone with whom she had vowed to share her future made it feel completely different.
She wanted to stand there with Shandy. To wear a dress like that bride, gaze into each other’s eyes, swear their love, and be celebrated beneath a thunderous roar of applause.
To make that happen, she knew she had to take the next step.
She wanted to find out why Shandy refused to move beyond their engagement. If the reason lay in her past, Mikoto wanted to understand it. She wanted to warm that frozen heart by telling her that it was all right, that their relationship was not something so fragile that it could be destroyed by something like that.
They were taken to a meeting room in the office, where they were given an explanation of the plans.
The venue could accommodate around a hundred people. Unless there were religious reasons to do otherwise, the ceremony would be a Christian service held in the chapel, followed by the reception in the adjoining restaurant. They could accommodate everything from allergies to religious and ideological dietary requirements, and the staff went on to explain wedding-cake designs, rental dresses, the number of outfit changes, and all manner of other details.
“If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them.”
Though she was invited to ask, Mikoto had nothing to say. She had spent the entire time fantasising about marrying Shandy, so almost none of the explanation had registered, let alone sunk in.
“Big Sis, you were fantasising and didn’t listen to a word, weren’t you?”
“Love-drunk already?”
Kotone giggled away, still wearing her expertly constructed innocent mask. Mikoto was embarrassed because she was exactly right.
The moment the staff member temporarily left the room, presumably to see off the newlyweds they had encountered earlier, Mikoto buried her face in the table.
“Ahhh…!”
“The bride was so cute!”
“So cute! I’d always vaguely thought I might like to try wearing one, but now that I realise I’m actually going to wear one, or have someone wear one for me, I just…”
“Oho, calm down, calm down.”
“You look like a girl dreaming about her wedding.”
With the cheerful chatter of the three women as background music, Mikoto browsed the brochure with the estimated costs.
It was fairly expensive given the location, but with her current savings and her Hibiya salary, it was not beyond her means. The contrast between the city and the garden was beautiful, and the restaurant was clearly extraordinarily particular about its food. Most importantly, it was on a small hill very close to antiqua. There was a shrine halfway up the hill where she had confessed her feelings for the first time, and at the foot stood the mixed-use building where antiqua was located.
If she were to make a presentation to Shandy, she could hardly have asked for better conditions.
While Mikoto pored over the brochure with wide eyes, the conversation moved merrily from one topic to another. Three women together were a noisy bunch.
“I kind of wish I’d had a ceremony before registering our marriage.”
“Sanae-nee does seem like the type who’d hate ceremonies.”
“She said, ‘I have no desire to voluntarily subject myself to public humiliation.’ It’s once in a lifetime, though.”
“What about a photo wedding? Sanae-san might not find that embarrassing.”
“If I’m doing it, I want to invite loads of people and throw a huge party! Mikoto-san, you have to give the speech as my representative of the friends!”
“Heh heh heh. Bet you’d stumble over every word, Sis.”
Mikoto raised her head when her name was called. She had completely lost track of the conversation.
“Huh?”
“Who would you invite, Mikoto?”
“Hmm…”
The question made her think.
She knew a lot of people, but she did not frequently keep in touch with them. Besides, inviting people who would not understand would only leave them confused.
“For starters, Kotone? And Aoi-chan.”
“Well, they’re family.”
“And our parents, but… I wonder if they’d understand.”
She had introduced Shandy to them, but told them they were sharing a house rather than living together as a couple. If it came to registering their marriage or holding a wedding, there would be another wall to climb.
Rinko spoke without much interest.
“Why not just leave them out of it? Parents, I mean.”
“Exactly.”
For people who had, at least technically, been born to the same parents, she and Kotone certainly had very different ways of thinking. All Mikoto could do was hope that her parents would understand.
“Then I’d want Toko-san and the others to come too. There’s no need to explain anything to them, and Sanae-san and I have a professional relationship.”
“I’ll definitely come! Sanae might even say she wants one too! Sanae in a dress would be absolutely adorable!”
“She might refuse because she’s such a shorty.”
“Sounds like her.”
Given the nearly twenty-centimetre difference in height between Toko and Sanae, it was easy to imagine how Sanae might feel about it.
As for people close enough that she could invite them without having to explain herself, there was Hashikura-senpai from university and her partner. From work, perhaps Kuto and Michelle.
Just as Mikoto was thinking it over, Rinko spoke up.
“Huh? I’m not invited?”
Mikoto did not have the courage to invite Rinko to her wedding with Shandy.
“Well, I’d feel a bit awkward…”
“Doesn’t Rinko-chan have a heart covered in bristles?”
“You know that woman will invite me anyway. She’s a fucking woman who loves to show off.”
“Then why don’t you kidnap Big Sis and run away? Like in The Graduate.”
“I’ll escape! To the ends of the earth!”
“You can’t butt into Miko-Shandy! That’s a landmine!”
Kotone cackled, invoking the classic film.
And yet, Mikoto was happy.
The anxiety of remaining in an engagement with no progress was being painted over by hope for the future. She wanted to be surrounded by kind friends and have them celebrate with her. And she wanted to tell Shandy who would presumably be standing beside her:
Everyone is celebrating the beginning of our journey together. They believe in us.
You don’t need to lock yourself away in that cold past anymore.
“Oh, sorry. Phone.”
“Ah. Mine too.”
Almost simultaneously, Rinko and Toko’s phones rang. They each moved to the corner of the meeting room and began talking. From the way they spoke, Rinko’s call was probably work-related, while Toko’s was probably Sanae.
And then, simultaneously:
“What?!”
They both exclaimed at once. Their eyes turned towards Kotone, who was sitting beside Mikoto.
Toko ended her call quickly and hurried over. Her normally cheerful expression had been replaced by a face so grave that Mikoto felt an ominous premonition.
“Koto-chan, we’ve got a problem. Can you see the tweets?”
“What happened?”
“Well…”
Toko hesitated, then glanced at Rinko. Perhaps it was some sort of code only the two of them understood. Rinko gave a small OK sign with her fingers while speaking quietly.
“You’ve been caught out. You and Rinko-san.”
The trends on the smartphone were lined up one after another. The item that had shot straight to the top was Kurosu Kotone and homosexual. On the weekly magazine website that was going viral, a sensational headline was blazing across the page.
Kurosu Kotone: Living With and Romantically Involved with Female Manager?
“Wait, this is…”
Compared with the sensational headline, the article itself was thin on substance.
It took secretly photographed shots of Kotone and Rinko walking around the neighbourhood and the red SUV emerging from the underground car park of their apartment building, then stretched those images into an interpretation of cohabitation and a romantic relationship. It concluded with a comment from some mysterious source whose identity was not even given, saying that “marriage might be just around the corner.”
“Fucking gutter press…”
“Seriously.”
Rinko, having finished her call, matched Kotone’s foul-mouthed dismissal.
The situation was urgent. Even Mikoto could tell that much. Sanae had contacted Toko because Kotone was Hibiya’s poster girl. Whether the story was true or not, Hibiya’s publicity department was almost certainly in uproar.
“Kotone, you should get home. Quickly.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
With a perfunctory reply, Kotone left the meeting room. Mikoto apologised profusely to the staff member returning at that moment before they went back to the car.
Despite having just visited a wedding venue, the atmosphere inside the car was positively funereal. Perhaps this was what it meant to have a wedding and a funeral arrive at the same time.
“Mikoto-san, have you heard from Shandy-san?”
“I’ve been calling her, but she isn’t answering. I think she’s asleep.”
“That fucking idiot woman, of all times…”
Just then, Kotone’s ringtone sounded again.
Rinko answered on behalf of Kotone, who was driving, pressed the call button, and handed the phone to Mikoto. The screen displayed Kurosu Aoi.
“Aoi-chan? Kotone’s driving.”
“IIII’M SO SORRY!”
The volume of her sobbing nearly blew Mikoto’s eardrums. She waited for the ringing in her ears to subside before speaking.
“W-what happened?”
“We didn’t know anything about this! The other day when we were out for a walk, a woman came up and talked to us! She asked, ‘Are you Mikoto-nee’s cousin?’ and I said yes, and then…!”
“I’m sorry, I’ve lost the thread! What happened!?”
“That’s why! She said, ‘Congratulations to both sisters on their marriages!’ and I said, ‘Thank you!’!”
“Ah, ah! So that’s what happened…”
The mysterious source quoted in the article was Aoi.
Aoi had not actually leaked anything. She had simply been trapped by a leading question. Once the reporter brought up Mikoto’s name, an ordinary member of the public like Aoi was hardly going to remain on her guard.
“What’s she saying, Aoi?”
“She says the reporter tricked her into talking.”
“That idiot!”
“Aoi-chan didn’t do anything wrong. The person who wrote it as though she were some kind of insider is the one at fault.”
Through the rear-view mirror, Kotone’s eyes lowered awkwardly. Apparently she had calmed down.
“Is Aoi-chan all right?”
“Y-yeah… I’m taking Hifumin and hiding out at Mikoto-nee’s place. Is that okay, Mikoto-nee…?”
“Yeah. That’s probably best. We’ll meet up at my place.”
Celebrities had no such thing as a private life. No matter how carefully they kept their address secret, it would inevitably be exposed to paparazzi who stalked their targets through sheer manpower. Hifumi, who worked at the same agency, lived next door, and had appeared in the media herself, would inevitably be subjected to a media onslaught as well.
Aoi’s voice on the phone was replaced by Hifumi’s quiet mumbling.
“Don’t go back to Yokohama…”
“Yeah. Toko-nee, sorry, but we can’t go to Musashi-Kosugi.”
“Okay! I mean, out of everyone here, I’m the only one whose face isn’t known to the public. You might need to buy things and stuff, so rely on me as much as you need!”
“Thank you, Toko-san. You’re a huge help…”
Rinko continued making calls to the agency and various other people involved. Toko kept sharing information with Sanae.
Meanwhile, Mikoto repeatedly tried calling Shandy, but neither her calls nor her LIME messages received any response. Shandy was normally asleep at this hour, so it was understandable, but the timing could hardly have been worse.
“I just hope this doesn’t make her even more anti-media…”
The day before yesterday, the magazine reporter Miyashita Kanade who had visited antiqua had projected the aura of a woman who knew exactly how to do her job. And in fact, she was good at it too, even if Mikoto had her complaints about the way she had handled antiqua. To an outsider, at least, the article had been excellent.
But there were reporters like these too, people who pried into other people’s private lives and trampled all over them as they pleased. How many public figures had had private matters they never wanted exposed dragged into the light under the convenient excuse of the “celebrity tax”?
“Also, Sis, I might have to stay with you for a while. Sorry.”
“Kotone, you haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Yeah. I’m lucky to have a big sister like you.”
The engine roared.
The car raced west along the Shuto Expressway Route 3.
Their destination was their refuge: Kyōdō. At the very edge of the legal speed limit, they sped along the evacuation route through the early afternoon.
“Nice shot! Kuto-san, you’re so cool!”
Meanwhile, in Nakameguro.
On the top floor of a three-storey building surrounded by artificial turf resembling a garden, Akazawa Kuto was blasting white golf balls away with full swings from a seven-iron.
And this was on a weekday. During working hours, no less.
“There’s nothing like playing at the driving range while skiving off work. Wanna give it a try, Michelle?”
“W-wait, wait, can I do it? I’ve never tried before…”
“I’ll teach you.”
Technically, they were working.
On Sanae’s orders, Kuto and Michelle had been tasked with conducting surveillance on an affiliated company in Nakameguro. All they had to do was receive a USB stick containing data from the spy already embedded inside.
Once they had accomplished their objective, there was no problem with killing time. Sanae was the perfect boss for the utterly self-directed Kuto: as long as you got the job done, she never complained.
“Hold the club like this…”
“Kuto-san, that tickles.”
“Hehe. Around here?”
“Don’t tease me! Ahahaha…”
Kuto was standing behind the petite Michelle, holding her as she gripped the club. To teach Michelle the proper posture for her swing, she was giving her an extremely hands-on lesson, quite literally using her whole body.
“A golf swing is just like a waltz. Three beats. Pull the club back from the starting position, then swing it with a whoosh.”
“Un, deux, trois?”
“That works too, but I recommend…”
She placed the club head in front of the white ball. Starting position.
“Kuro.”
She said it, then drew both arms back.
“Sumi.”
Then she swung the club towards the white ball.
“Koto!”
Because Michelle had relaxed her arms, the club head caught the ball cleanly, sending it flying with a satisfying crack.
“Kuro-Sumi-Koto?”
“That’s right. That rhythm’s easiest for me, so why don’t you try it too, Mi-chan?”
“Yeah, yeah! Kuro-Sumi-Koto!”
Michelle’s swing missed completely. But after Kuto adjusted her stance, her second shot sent the white ball flying, albeit with a slight slice.
“I hit it! I hit it, Kuto-san!”
“See? Since you’re so cute, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching you send them flying.”
“Yeah, yeah! Kurosu Mikoto is amazing! I feel like I could swing just by looking at Mikoto-san!”
“Let’s not do that, okay?”
Kuto and Michelle would not learn about the scandal until their long, long lunch break was over.
We have come to Kyōdō again, for the first time in a while.
I did ring the doorbell, but there was no response from Shandy-san, who should have been home. She ignored the phone too, and even my barrage of stickers has not produced a read receipt.
“It’s okay, Hifumin.”
“……”
Hifumin was trembling. After sharing a house with her for about a year, I had learned to understand what the taciturn Hifumin, who loved silence above all else, was trying to say. She even spoke a little to me, so she was easier to read than the hamsters, Setoka and the others. She was a very strange person, though, for a human being.
“There were loads of people outside the apartment, and it was scary. It’s okay here.”
“…Yeah.”
There had been a huge crowd of reporters at the entrance to the Minato Mirai apartment building. Hifumin and I happened to have been out for a walk, and when we saw the swarm of reporters, we decided not to go home and instead fled here with nothing but the clothes on our backs.
Hifumin hated crowds. When surrounded by strangers, she became physically unwell. Despite being a celebrity. Despite being an artist.
That meant I had to protect her. In return for having someone take care of my food, clothing, and shelter, I had to repay that kindness properly. It was more work than my salary covered, but a freeloader had a freeloader’s pride too.
“Shandy-san. I’m coming in.”
There was no answer when I rang the bell, so I called through the door before using the spare key. The locks on Big Sis and Shandy-san’s place had not been changed. It was unbelievably careless, but their laziness was proving useful.
When I opened the door, Mimosa came to greet me.
“Long time no see!” I said to Mimosa, but something about her was different today.
“Meow. Meow.”
“What’s wrong, Mimosa?”
She kept meowing.
It was strange. Mimosa was unusually perceptive, a clever little thing who always knew how to behave. And normally she completely ignored me. According to Big Sis, that was because she was a noble queen.
Yet that queen kept meowing. Somehow, she sounded anxious.
“…Aoi, something smells bad…?”
“I took a bath!”
“…No. This house.”
“Hmm. You’re right. It does smell a little.”
There was a sour smell hanging in the air. Shandy-san and Big Sis were both clean freaks. They would never leave the source of a smell lying around.
I handed Mimosa over to Hifumin and followed the smell drifting all the way to the entrance. Through the hallway, towards the door leading into the living room. It had been left slightly open after Mimosa passed through, and the smell seemed to be leaking out from there.
“Shandy-san…!?”
The source of the smell was in the living room.
More specifically, Shandy-san.
The living-room floor was covered in vomit. That was where the sour smell was coming from. It was watery, with pieces of what looked like the ramen she had eaten for lunch mixed into it.
And Shandy-san was lying in the middle of the puddle.
Her naturally pale, beautiful face had become gaunt and bluish-white. Her eyes were closed, her body motionless. If that were all I had seen—
“Shandy-san! Shandy-san, wake up!”
“What… is this…?”
It must have been too much for Hifumin. She had collapsed onto the floor, still holding Mimosa, who was meowing frantically in her arms.
“Is she dead…?”
“She has a pulse, and she’s breathing! She’s probably just asleep!”
“Really…?”
“Shandy-san, wake up! Wake up!”
I shook Shandy-san, lying on her side, praying she would wake up. I patted her cheek a few times, and eventually her brow knitted ever so slightly and her eyes opened a fraction.
They were usually as beautiful as jewels, but now they looked so faint and fragile that I felt anxious.
“Mm…”
“Shandy-san! Can you hear me? Do you know who I am?”
“Aoi-chan…”
Her voice was hoarse and breathy, almost as though the air were leaking from her lungs.
She was conscious. When Shandy-san began coughing, I rubbed her back and gave her some water for the moment.
There were a huge number of empty bottles on the table. She must have drunk so much that she threw up. I could hardly believe that Shandy-san, who was normally so good with alcohol, had become this drunk.
“Drinking this much is bad for you.”
“Yes… I’m working tonight too…”
Shandy-san could barely muster the strength to stand. She staggered about like a newborn fawn, her body covered in vomit, yet she headed for the bathroom.
Maybe she was still able to stand and walk, so it wasn’t bad enough to call an ambulance, but there was no way I could let her go to work in this condition.
“You can’t!”
“…I’m fine.”
“You’re obviously not!”
“I have to go.”
“Big Sis will be sad!”
“I’m going for Mikoto’s sake! Move!”
Her skin was pale as death.
But there was a powerful emotion in Shandy-san’s eyes. This was not one of her usual playful staring contests. She was looking at me with genuine anger.
“Shandy-san…?”
“…I’m sorry for shouting. I’m fine.”
“But…”
“Could you clean this up so Mikoto doesn’t find out? You can have the ice cream in the freezer.”
I wasn’t a child who could be bribed with something like that.
“I’ll clean it up. But I can’t keep it secret from Big Sis.”
Shandy-san said nothing. She simply left, running away as though she were trying to escape, wearing whatever clothes she had grabbed without even putting on make-up.
She did not even thank me or Hifumin, who were doing our best to clean up after her.
“What happened to her, I wonder…?”
As promised, I ate a Häagen-Dazs while waiting for Big Sis and the others to return. Mimosa remained curled up on Hifumin’s lap the entire time.
Something bad was happening.
I wanted Big Sis to come back soon.
Because she was the only one who could save Shandy-san.