Ukawa Ai
THOUGH IT WAS CLOSED for the day, the two decided to walk over to Ai’s workplace regardless. They would pass Itobayashi Akane’s bookstore on the way. Ai debated telling Julia, but then remembered that the two of them had already met, so he kept it to himself. After all, he wasn’t sure if it was a privacy violation. As they waited at the intersection for the walk signal to change, he began to explain.
“We haven’t been talking much lately, but she’s a teenage girl in high school. First time we met, it was right around here. The way she tells it, she took one look at me and thought I was literally Ai from Girl’s March, so she flagged me down.”
“Wow, she is a go-getter,” Julia replied, sounding impressed. Once upon a time, Ai himself had been surprised to learn that someone would bother reaching out to him without any ulterior motive.
As they crossed the street, they passed dozens of people, but none seemed to recognize Julia. Even if they knew of her, they’d surely never imagine a pop star like her could walk through town like it was no big deal—and that, in turn, made it a viable option. Thinking about it that way, perhaps Akane had always entertained the possibility of meeting a fictional character in real life.
“Tell me about it. Made me wonder what kinda kids they’re raising these days. But when I actually talked to her, she seemed like a good egg, so I gave her my number.”
“Your lack of boundaries is truly something, all right.”
“Look, if she set off any red flags, I was gonna turn her over to the cops, okay?” Up ahead, he could see the yellow record store where he and Akane first met. “Anyway, she told me I had a lot in common with the other Ai—not just my looks or clothes, but a bunch of stuff. So she wanted to…reenact Girl’s March, basically, by copying all the stuff Ai does with the main character. I didn’t see any reason to say no, so I went along with it.”
“How very romantic.”
“You think so? I mean, all we did is buy nail polish, play pool, go to a flower shop… Maybe there were others too, but those are all the same ones you wanted to do. Oh, and take purikura pics.” He remembered how overjoyed she was every time he accepted her invitations. “When you talk to her, though, it’s clear she’s just a normal kid. A normal girl with friends and a boyfriend. She goofs around like any girl her age—but she is a bit of an oddball, of course, since she thought I was a fictional character come to life.”
“She sounds like she’s easily influenced by the media she consumes.”
“That, but cranked up to eleven. When we were playing pool, I got into a situation with these four college-age guys. They were being dicks, but I was like, ‘Eh, forget it, I don’t wanna drag this out.’ But at some point this kid started picking a fight with them on my behalf.”
“Oh god, what a troublemaker.”
“Yeah. For a second, I thought maybe she had a short fuse. But she was halfway to tears, and it was so obvious she couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag. So I did whatever I could to de-escalate the situation, and when I talked to her about it later, she told me she was really scared. So I was like, ‘Well then, don’t start shit,’ but she told me there was a special reason she needed to.”
“Which was?”
To dodge an oncoming passerby, Ai briefly stepped away from Julia, then moved back in to resume the story. “She said the main character of Girl’s March never let anyone talk trash about a friend.”
“Uhhh…” Julia seemed to be thinking this over, so Ai continued.
“In other words, she was so dead-set on imitating Girl’s March that she was willing to defy her better judgment and put herself in danger. That scared the shit out of me.”
“That’s…uh…wow.”
“I think it’s because I wasn’t watching her at the time. Even a grade schooler who watches too many action movies has more sense than that!”
“She sounds wild, but…”
Yes, Ai already knew exactly why Julia looked so confused.
“…I don’t remember any scene like that.”
“Mm-hmm. I don’t think there is a scene like that.”
They made a left and headed up the hill. Out of consideration for Julia’s high heels, Ai slowed his pace.
“She thinks she’s identical to the main character of Girl’s March, and she believes one day she’ll change herself the same way. That’s what keeps her going. I’ve never met anyone so obsessed with a novel in all my life, so it got me curious. Like, I don’t read books normally, but I wanted to know why it drove her to pick fights and shit.”
“Ah, yes, I was wondering what led you to that.”
As they climbed the gentle slope, they passed by the bookstore; Ai peered inside, but Akane wasn’t there. Or at the very least, he couldn’t see her.
“Yeah, so I read it, and it scared me even more. Like you said, there was no scene about a fight. And there was a handful of other stuff she said was in the book that I never encountered at all. It doesn’t even describe Ai’s clothes or face.”
“It’s all very vague.”
“Very. And on top of that, I was told Ai is a guy who presents like a woman. But no, she is a woman, right?”
“I believe so, yes. At the very least, a female actress plays her in the movie.”
A loud group of five or six people was approaching up ahead, so the two of them stepped out of the way. For the most part, this district had no concept of quiet, which made it the perfect setting to gossip behind someone’s back.
“At first I thought I had the wrong book, or that she was lying to me, but then I asked her about it. Turns out she wasn’t lying or joking—she was dead serious. Supposedly it’s just a matter of interpretation, although I notice none of the scenes she described were in the movie, either, except for Ai being a smoker.”
“So she just has an uncommon interpretation?”
“I figure that’s probably what it is. She said the hints of Ai being a guy are really subtle, and somehow she had a clear image of the character right from the first time she read the book. I guess the person she pictured was me.”
“But she hadn’t met you at that point, had she?”
“No, she said she read it way before they announced the film adaptation.”
“Some kind of miraculous coincidence…?”
“Eh, maybe she got a glimpse of me somewhere. But really, it’s not important.”
“It’s not?”
“I mean, yeah, I was surprised we each came away with such wildly different impressions, but as long as she doesn’t mean any harm, then it doesn’t matter.”
“That’s such a you thing to say.”
“Is it? Even if she did mean harm, it’s not like it actually hurt. I’m more concerned about her saying she’s identical to The Girl and wanting to change herself.”
Whenever Ai talked about a friend, he envisioned their face at the same time. He could see Akane clearly—her goofy grin, her wide-eyed surprise, her scowl, her pout. But his opinion of the book hadn’t changed since the day he told it to her, and now he decided to relay it to Julia as well.
“The protagonist of Girl’s March is extremely two-faced, constantly thinking about how to manipulate people into doing what she wants. You get the sense she’s never had a normal friendship before, you know?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“I know the rest of the story is about how meeting Ai changes her for the better, but I mean…my friend really doesn’t strike me as the two-faced type. I genuinely believe she’s a good person.”
“Oh?”
“For one thing, she’s never tried to manipulate me. I’ve seen her fret over a friend’s lack of spine. And when I brought her to my work, she was very polite to the staff—in fact, one time, she showed up when I wasn’t there and had a fun chat with my coworker. So the impression I have is that she’s sweet, friendly, and at most a little weird. Sure, maybe it’s just the version I see, but I mean…no one can disguise every single aspect of who they are! Why would she need to?”
Julia, not knowing Akane personally, didn’t respond. He continued.
“The way I see it, her personality isn’t something she should be stressed over. She just doesn’t seem like a bad person.” He simply wasn’t the kind of person to lie to himself. “So I reassured her that she’s nothing like The Girl, because I felt she deserved to hear it.”
“…What?”
“I was like, ‘Maybe instead of pretending to be a fictional character, you should just let people see the real you.’ What’s the matter, Julia?”
“You told her that?”
“Huh? Yeah, I did. She was like, ‘Ai would never say that!’—referring to the character, of course, not me. But I’m a real person! Obviously I’m not gonna be identical to some made-up character in a story!”
“Ai.”
They passed by a general store, where bright light streamed out through glass windows. There, Julia came to a sudden stop. He followed suit, turning to look at her as she stood a few paces behind him. Then, failing to parse her expression, he frowned. “Julia?”
It didn’t make sense. Why did she look like she was in agony?
At the sound of her name, she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, struggling to gather her thoughts atop her tongue, until at last a trembling voice rolled out from behind her lips and teeth.
“You can’t do that.”
Even then, he still couldn’t get a read on what she was feeling.