“I have a favor to ask you!” Kousuke cried. He had no idea who this double of his was, but he didn’t seem like a bad person. If he asked him for help in good faith, and perhaps offered him compensation... Yes, of course it would work!
Sousuke looked at him questioningly.
“I’ll compensate you however I can. I promise I’ll make it worth your while! Please!” Kousuke placed his hands on the ground, prostrating himself in front of the other man, who looked at him dubiously.
●
It was morning, in the classroom at the very start of the day. Chidori Kaname had come to school with time to spare, for once, and sat looking at the weekly magazines which had come out that day with Tokiwa Kyoko and her other class friends before class started.
“Oh, c’mon! There’s no way it’s true!”
“I wouldn’t know. But it does seem like something’s going on, right?”
“No way! I don’t believe it!”
Kyoko and the others were offering their uneducated opinions about an article concerning a recently popular idol—Kira Kousuke—and his supposed affair with a TV announcer.
“It does seem like they’re going out, though...” Kaname whispered. She didn’t really follow entertainment news beyond American soul singers, but even she recognized the name of this new talent who’d just had his big break.
“Speaking of which. I’ve been thinking for a while... doesn’t Kira look a lot like Sagara-kun?” Kyoko mused, gazing at Kira Kousuke’s picture.
“Sousuke?” scoffed Kaname. “Hah, no way.”
“Right? Kira-kun has way softer looks.”
“Yeah! Totally different vibes!”
Kyoko alone tilted her head and hummed to herself speculatively... But just then, Sagara Sousuke himself entered the classroom. “Oh, it’s Sagara-kun. Morning!” Kyoko waved to him.
Sousuke didn’t respond, but looked nervously around the classroom, checking the sign for class 2-4 multiple times. He seemed strangely nervous about something.
“What’s with him?”
“No idea. Probably checking for enemy traps or something,” Kaname muttered indifferently.
“Sagara-kun? Hey!” said Kyoko, calling to him one more time.
This time, Sousuke noticed that he was being addressed, and peered closely at Kyoko’s face. Then he replied, without much confidence, “H-Hey.” He raised his hand to her with a gentle smile.
The Sousuke they knew... had just said...“H-Hey.” For a second the entire class froze up, stiffening like people who’d just sighted some kind of indescribable otherworldly cryptid.
“What’s wrong, guys?” he added casually, a wan smile on his face.
●
They were on the set of a lifestyle information program aimed at housewives, where the host was currently smiling as she spoke to the studio camera. “All right, we’re back,” she announced confidently. “Today’s guest is the rising star showing up in all the dramas and photo books lately, Kira Kousuke!”
There was a round of vigorous applause, and cheerful BGM began to play as Kira Kousuke, the red-hot male idol in question, entered the venue. He looked around him, eyes peeled, with a hand behind his back.
“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come see us,” the host said.
Kira Kousuke said nothing, but nodded in response.
“Come on over here!” the host said, politely indicating the guest sofa beside her.
The famous star glared hard at the sofa for a moment. Then he knelt down in front of it, removed the cushions, carefully put his ear to it, then grabbed the backrest and shook it back and forth a few times.
Unsure of how to react to her guest’s strange reaction, the host simply sat there and watched uncertainly alongside the audience. Then she said, “Excuse me?”
“This seat is unacceptable,” Kira Kousuke announced with a short shake of his head.
“What?”
“There don’t appear to be any traps or explosives mounted within the seat, but it’s in too conspicuous a location. I’m a sitting duck for an enemy sniper.” He looked up at the control room that looked down the studio, and spoke to the show’s producer on the other side of the window. “Shut off the lights. Make it darker.”
“But then the cameras couldn’t—”
“Then use night vision scopes,” said Kira Kousuke. “If that is unacceptable, we can go with audio only.”
The staff behind the camera were in a panic, while Kousuke’s manager paced back and forth in a corner of the studio.
The host managed to regain her composure and let out a forced laugh. “Ah, is this method acting, I guess? We haven’t gotten into this segment yet, but I hear you’re taking on your first action role.”
“If you mean tactical action,” he replied, “that’s a constant for me.”
“Ah-hah... Well, anyway, could you tell us a bit about your daily life?”
“I will tell you what I can,” Kira Kousuke said, eventually choosing to sit at the extreme corner of the long couch, a position from which he could use the host as a shield from the camera’s point of view if need be.
“I hear you’ve been into jogging recently,” she said next. “And that you’re intending to participate in the next Honolulu Marathon.”
The viewers in the studio, mainly housewives, whispered in amazement and began to clap on the assistant director’s cue.
“Jogging?” Kousuke asked.
“Yes.”
“I don’t entirely follow your meaning, but I do run regularly,” he admitted. “Running through the mountains with forty kilograms of equipment on your back is excellent exercise.”
“Wow! You do cross-country as a hobby as well?”
“It’s not a hobby; it’s part of my work. Anyone who wants to survive in this business must be prepared to do at least that much,” Kousuke told her seriously.
“Wow,” said the host. “So the secret to succeeding in show business is to run around the mountains with forty kilograms of equipment on your back?”
“No, you need far more than that.” He slowly shook his head. “Firearms, explosives, communication equipment—you must learn to use all of them comfortably, and then regularly hone your skills. A professional that can anticipate various threats and deal with them appropriately—”
“—is a true entertainer?”
“Affirmative. If you aren’t prepared to do that much, you should quit the business immediately.”
●
Back in English class, Kagurazaka Eri was speaking from the lectern. “Okay!” she said. “Example C on the next page, please. Can anyone translate it? Sagara-kun?”
When Eri called on him, Sousuke panicked openly. “M-Me?”
“Please.”
“I... I don’t know.”
Eri, angry about this answer, scolded him. “Are you making fun of me, Sagara-kun? You’re always speaking fluent English over the phone with your suspicious foreign friends!”
“But... I just... I can’t—”
“What? Is this some new form of rebellion? It’s unsettling, so please stop!”
“No. I just... I just...”
“Oh, forget it,” she said irritably. “Stand in the back of the class.”
“No!” Sousuke protested. “I’m not some elementary school student from back in the day—”
“Don’t talk back to me! Go stand in that usual ‘at rest posture’ of yours!”
Sousuke decided to stop arguing and grudgingly stood up from his seat. Timidly, he took his place at the back of the class.
The students promptly began whispering to each other.
“Did you hear how timid he sounded?”
“Does he have food poisoning or something?”
“He’s definitely acting strange today...”
Needless to say, the “Sousuke” who everyone thought was acting so strangely was actually Kira Kousuke, who had achieved a flawless transformation into the other man thanks to a former Hollywood makeup artist acquaintance of his. After begging the reluctant Sousuke and offering him a certain form of compensation, they had agreed to swap lives for a day.
To enjoy a carefree high school life, even for just one day...! That had been Kousuke’s wish, but it didn’t seem like it would work out that way. During their lunch break, Kousuke attempted to make cheerful conversation with the classmates of whom Sousuke had shown him pictures of in advance, but every single one of them responded to him as if he were some kind of unsettling creature.
For instance...
“Hey, Kazama-kun. What’s up?” Kousuke said to the young man in glasses, Kazama Shinji.
Shinji, in response, shrank down and gave him a stiff smile. “J-Just fine. Um... Sagara-kun?”
“What is it?”
“Did you take some weird medicine this morning?”
“What are you talking about? I’m as healthy as ever, man.”
But this seemed to make Shinji even more flustered. “I... I see. By the way, where’s the Ingram silencer you said I could borrow before?”
“I... Ingram what?”
“Ingram silencer,” Shinji repeated. “The used one. The Tokarev, too.”
Naturally, Kousuke had no idea that these were the names of firearms parts. He just assumed they were the names of bands he’d never heard of, perhaps from the indies circuit. “Oh, no, I forgot. Sorry.”
“I see...”
Seeing the look of disappointment on Shinji’s face, Kousuke quickly tried to make up for it. “I-I’m really sorry,” he said. “I have other Ingrams, though. I’ll lend one to you next time. And... the Tokarev? I love the Tokarev. I just wasn’t thinking...” Kousuke went silent as he noticed the strange look on Shinji’s face.
“You love... the Tokarev?” Shinji ventured cautiously. A Tokarev was a kind of old Soviet handgun, primarily known for how cheap it was to make, its inaccuracy, and its prolific use by Japanese lowlifes. It wasn’t an excellent gun by any stretch of the imagination—there was no way a professional like Sousuke would say he loved that particular brand.
But this was another thing Kousuke had no way of knowing. Feeling the sweat rise on his forehead, he had no choice but to nod with a vague smile on his face. “Y-Yeah. I never told you?”
“I mean... the Tokarev?” Shinji repeated. “Seriously?”
“What’s wrong with the Tokarev? They could get their big break soon,” Kousuke protested.
Shinji then examined his face very carefully and said, with tremendous seriousness, “Sagara-kun, I really think you should go to the hospital.”
●
Around that same time, Sousuke was eating a fruit-flavored CalorieMate inside the car on the go. He didn’t touch the packed lunch the young person from the studio had offered him, but just pulled the CalorieMate out of his bag and ate it instead.
“Kira-san, what’s wrong with you?!” Kotomi, his manager, asked from the driver’s seat.