He started yawning before he even made it out of the apartment complex. The day before had been far too stimulating, and he’d had a lot of trouble drifting off. Waking from a weird dream was never a good way to start the day.
Yawning again, he made his way through the residential streets. There was a single bridge he had to cross on the way. As he neared the station, the buildings around him grew taller. It grew more crowded, too—everyone was heading the same way he was.
He eventually reached the main road, waited for the light, and crossed at the crosswalk. As he passed business hotels and consumer electronics shops, the train station finally came into view.
All in all, the walk took about ten minutes.
His destination was Fujisawa Station, located in the heart of Fujisawa, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture. Clumps of students and office workers on the way to school or work streamed by.
On the station’s first floor were the Odakyu Lines. Incoming trains bound for Shinjuku and trains stopping here to head back toward Katase-Enoshima. On the second floor were gates for the JR Tokaido and Shonan–Shinjuku Lines.
Sakuta joined the throngs headed up the stairs but turned away from the JR gates.
He went down a thirty-yard connecting passage that led to the Odakyu Department Store. Not that he was planning to go shopping. This early, the store was still closed. He turned left at the shuttered doors, into the other Fujisawa Station.
The Enoshima Electric Railway. Enoden for short—den being the first sound in the Japanese word for electric railway. It was a single-track railway that stopped at thirteen stations on the way to Kamakura—about a thirty-minute ride.
Sakuta flashed his commuter pass and was through the gates just as the train pulled in. The train was green, with the window frames in cream—kind of a retro look. Trains on this line were short, only four cars long.
Sakuta walked down the length of the platform, entering the front car.
Short, medium, and tall, there were a lot of passengers in uniforms. The rest wore business suits. Before he moved here, Sakuta had assumed this line was for tourists, but plenty of locals used it for their daily commutes.
Sakuta grabbed a spot by the door.
As he did, someone spoke to him. “’Sup.”
The boy who joined him while stifling a yawn was quite handsome—if there were a rumor that he was repped by a famous male idol agency, it’d be very believable. He had sharp-edged features and, at a glance, could be somewhat intimidating, but the moment he smiled, that impression vanished, leaving only the face of a friendly child. This appeared to be a huge hit with all the girls.
His name was Yuuma Kunimi. A second-year student and a starter on the basketball team. And he had a girlfriend.
“Sigh…”
“That’s no way to greet someone.”
“That pleasant smile of yours is the last thing I need this early in the morning. Instant depression.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
They chatted about this and that. Eventually, the departure bell rang, and the doors closed.
The train heaved itself into motion, traveling at a speed so slow it always seemed like it must still be getting up to speed. Before it ever did, though, it began slowing on the approach to Ishigami Station.
“So, Kunimi.”
“Mm?”
“About Sakurajima…”
“You poor thing.”
Before he could finish the question, Yuuma cut him off, giving Sakuta a comforting pat on his back.
“Why are you pitying me?”
“I’m thrilled to see you express interest in a girl besides Makinohara, but, well… She’s out of your league.”
“I didn’t say I was in love or planning to ask her out.”
“Then what?”
“I just wondered what she was like.”
“Hmm… I mean, for one thing, she’s famous.”
“I know that.”
Yes—Mai Sakurajima was a legitimate celebrity. Every student at Minegahara High knew who she was. It’s likely that 70 to 80 percent of the population of Japan did. She was so famous that figure didn’t even sound exaggerated.
“She started acting when she was six. Then the morning soap she was on got ratings so high it was like the golden age of television, turning her into a sensation.”
Her popularity exploded, leading to appearances in all kinds of movies, shows, and commercials. She was so in demand that not a single day went by without her showing up on everyone’s TV screens.
Certainly, two or three years after her meteoric rise, the “Everything must have Mai Sakurajima” fad passed, but by that point, her sheer skill as an actor kept the offers flooding in.
In a business where it wasn’t unusual for performers to fade out in a single year, she worked steadily into her junior high years. That alone was impressive enough, but she was about to get another big break.
By the age of fourteen, Mai Sakurajima had grown into a girl wise beyond her years. A starring role in a hit movie set off another surge of media attention so intense that there were weeks where it seemed like her smiling face was on the cover of every magazine.
“I had a major crush on her back in junior high. Like, she had it all! Cute! Sexy! Mysterious!”
Yuuma was hardly the only one. Legions of boys felt the same.
Her popularity reached a new peak, but just as it did—Mai suddenly announced she was taking a break. This was just before she graduated junior high. No clear reason was ever given—and a little over two years had passed since then.
When Sakuta had learned the Mai Sakurajima was attending his school, he’d been pretty surprised.
Wow, famous people really do exist, he’d thought.