Chapter Text
Here you are now, calling me up
But I don’t know what to say
I’ve been picking up the pieces
Of the mess you made
In the week after Fuwa’s party, Mimori was too busy to consider talking to anyone, let alone a new acquaintance. She woke up early to get to early morning drama recordings and spent the afternoons at photoshoots. Evenings were spent with her parents and going to bed early so she could wake up refreshed for the next day’s work. Work was consuming her days, but it had been for a while now. She still found time to do her hobbies, having taken up knitting to exchange cute little knit animals with Hanami for festivals, and give to Misa to decorate her home to keep her company while she studied.
In the early morning of a Wednesday, Mimori slid into the front seat of Rei’s car and settled her bag at her feet. “Good morning, Rei. How are you?”
“A little tired,” said Rei. “I was up a bit later than usual trying to sort out your schedule.”
“Are there overlaps in obligations?” asked Mimori.
“A few,” admitted Rei. “But I was really looking at your schedule and I got- well, worried that I am pushing you too hard. That you’re not getting enough time to take care of yourself.”
Mimori nodded slowly. “I haven’t had a lot of time outside of work lately.”
“That’s my concern. I booked a meeting room for the two of us to go over your schedule and offers so we can make a schedule that works for you. Burning you out isn’t good.” Rei drove them to Akatoki’s building and led Mimori to a small meeting room that was mostly table with three chairs around it. They sat in chairs next to each other and Rei opened her briefcase and pulled out a paper scheduler and a stack of folders with offers in them.
“So what seems to be the problem?” asked Mimori.
Rei opened the scheduler to the month view and Mimori blanched at the amount of blue and black ink across the pages. Every day had something – usually at least two things – written on it. Unthinkingly, Mimori turned the page to the next month, which looked mostly the same. As was the next month. She flipped back to the first page they had been looking at, then to the month before. She looked up at Rei, confused.
“Isn’t it good that I’m busy? That I’m being booked a lot?”
Rei pursed her lips. “Yes and no. You are busy, almost as busy as the top artists, but Mimori, you haven’t ever been as driven as they are. You like this work, but it isn’t most important to you. I don’t know that you’ve found what is most important to you.”
“That’s true, I guess.”
“I’m not saying quit,” Rei assured her. “You were happiest in the last year of your high school, and I think that’s because you got to see friends, and you were focused on goals, and you had your hobby to do. You had a life beyond work and it made you sparkle.”
“So what do I do?” Mimori twisted her hands together. Rei settled a hand over the writhing fingers.
“We’re going to figure out what you desperately want to do, what you really want to do, and what you just want to do, and find a way out of the other things that don’t fit,” said Rei. The manager hesitated for a moment then continued, “Are you still living on an allowance from your parents?”
“Yes. They get my paycheques. They need my support.”
“There are ways to do that without giving up financial control. In my personal and professional opinion, you need to open a bank account without your parents on it and get your pay put there. You’re twenty, and a legal adult in every way. Work something out with your parents around maybe paying rent, or grocery money maybe? You shouldn’t be responsible for your parents, not yet.”
Mimori frowned. “How do I do that? And how do I get my pay transferred to that account?"
“We can look at different banks later today, and pick one later this week,” said Rei. “What do you want out of that you’re currently committed to?”
They spent two hours going over everything that was on Mimori’s schedule, Rei making phone calls to get her out of some engagements. Mimori sat with white knuckles through each call, relief flooding her when they were done and there was less on her plate. They then went to the first set of the day, and Mimori considered the morning conversation. In between jobs Mimori brought up something that had been bothering her.
“Why do you want me to have less work?” asked Mimori. “Won’t that mean less money for you?”
“In the short term, yes,” said Rei. “In the long term, it means a more stable income. And I feel like not many people in your life stand up for you, not even you. It’s one of the reasons I was and still am proud of you for breaking things off with Fuwa. I’ve known you for long enough to know that you’re lonely. I want you to work less because it’ll make you happier and you do better work when you’re happy.”
“I see,” said Mimori, thinking this over. “I met someone at Fuwa’s party.”
“A friend of his?”
“I don’t think they actually know each other. Murasame Taira. Have you heard about him?”
“The bad boy with a heart of gold persona actor?” Rei sounded surprised. “Yeah, I don’t think he’s a fan of Fuwa. If you want, I can get the gossip on him, try and find out what’s true.”
“That would be nice,” said Mimori. “We exchanged phone numbers, and he called me when he got home and we talked and it was nice.”
“He called you first? Hm.” Rei looked thoughtful. “I’ll see what I can find. Take your time, okay?”
“I will,” said Mimori. “He paid more attention to me than Fuwa did at the start of our relationship. Treated me better too.”
“That’s good. Here we are.”
At the end of the day, Mimori dragged herself into her parents’ house, neatly setting her shoes to one side and hanging up her coat. Her mother was watching something on TV and barely acknowledged Mimori when she said hello. Her father was just coming out of the bath and was a bit more welcoming.
“Have you had dinner, Mimori?” he asked. “There’s leftovers in the fridge.”
“I did, thanks,” said Mimori. “I ate on set, it was pretty good.”
“Good,” said her father. “What are you up to this evening?"
“I think just bath and bed,” said Mimori. “I’m so tired. How was your day?”
“Oh boring,” said her father, waving a hand. “It’s done, dinner was good, and the bath was nice. I’m going to do some reading before bed.”
“Have a good night then, Dad,” said Mimori. They went their separate ways and in the bath, it occurred to Mimori that her parents paid as much attention to her as Fuwa had. Some of the things that Rei had said settled in as she dried her hair and brushed it out. To have control over her own money would be wonderful, to have her own bank account would make being an adult a little bit more real.
Mimori stayed up a bit later than usual, trying to get an idea of what bank accounts were and what she could do with them. All the terms and types were confusing, but Mimori was okay with that. She could learn about them and make a decision, her last year of high school had taught her all about that. And Rei had promised to help her, so Mimori wouldn’t be doing this alone.
Chapter Text
People like you always want back
The love they pushed aside
But people like me are gone forever
When you say goodbye
The shrill trill of her phone woke Mimori out of a dead sleep. She checked the phone and saw that it was a blocked number. Declining the call, she checked the time: 3am, three hours before Mimori had to get up for her day. She flopped back into bed and closed her eyes, wiggling to find a comfortable position to sleep. Her phone rang again, and Mimori threw back the covers and answered the phone with a sharp, “What?”
“That’s no way to answer your phone,” a familiar, unwelcome voice said.
“Goodbye,” snapped Mimori. She disconnected the call and went back to bed. Again the phone rang, and Mimori checked the number before declining the call again. She put her phone on Do Not Disturb and returned to her peaceful slumber. When her alarm went off at 6, she got up and got ready for the day, meeting Rei in front of her house. Double checking her phone, she saw that she had six more missed calls, all before 4am. She sighed heavily.
“What’s wrong?” asked Rei.
“Fuwa called me nine times last night,” said Mimori grumpily. “I know it was him because I answered the second time and heard his voice. I had to put my phone on Do Not Disturb to get any sleep.”
“Maybe you should have talked to him? Just to get it over with?”
“Not at 3am, I’m not. Whatever he has to say to me, he can say when it’s a decent time of day.”
“That seems reasonable to me. We need to make a detour to the office before your first engagement for the day.” They drove in silence as Mimori looked over the schedule for the day, noting where she was going and trying to pull up co-star names to prepare for her work. Once they reached Akatoki, Rei engaged her in small talk about her day as they went up to the modelling department to pick up requests for Mimori.
“Mimori, take a seat in here,” said Rei. “I need to talk to a few people before we go. You don’t have to be on set for another 45 minutes, right?”
“Right,” said Mimori. “I’ll look through offers and sort them out for us to talk about.”
“Wonderful,” said Rei. “I’ll be right back.” She left the office and Mimori sat at an empty desk and began reading the offers that had come in for her. She was sorting the pages into three piles, the yes pile being the smallest. She was almost done when a hand swept down and pushed her papers off the desk. Mimori looked up, annoyed, to find Fuwa making himself comfortable on the edge of the desk.
“What is wrong with you?” asked Mimori, picking up her papers from the floor.
“You were ignoring me,” said Fuwa with a charming smile.
“And?”
“I wanted your attention.”
Mimori shuffled the papers on the desk. “Interesting story. I’m busy.”
“You didn’t take my calls.”
“You were calling at 3am, of course I’m not going to take your calls. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“All you wanted was my attention. So here I am, giving it to you.”
“That was years ago. And as I said, I grew up. Maybe you should too. And for the record, adults don’t call people for anything short of an emergency at 3am.”
“So if I call you during the day, you’ll answer?”
“No. I got over you.”
“And yet you’re still single.”
“That’s not your business.” Mimori shook her head. “Not as sweet, she said. Did you do this to Kyoko too? Are you just some weirdo that gets off on stalking girls who rejected you?”
“What the fu-? No of course not.”
“Really? Because from where I’m standing, you’re two for two.”
“I’m not stalking anyone.”
“And why try and contact me now? What’s changed?” Mimori eyed him for a moment. “You haven’t had a girlfriend in a while and people are asking questions.”
“I wanted some space for myself.”
“Even when you’re in a relationship, you take a bunch of space for yourself.”
“Alright Mimori, that’s all taken care of,” said Rei as she came back in, looking through some papers. “Are you ready to go?”
“I think we’re done here,” said Mimori, causing Rei to look up. She blinked at Fuwa and nodded to Mimori.
“That’s good,” said Rei.
A moment later, Fuwa’s manager appeared. “Sho! Where have you been? What are you doing here?”
“I needed to talk to Pochi,” said Sho nonchalantly.
“Don’t you ever call her, or any other woman, that,” snapped Rei. “Her name is Mimori Nanokura. Remember it, as she’s doing better than you are right now. She doesn’t need you. Miss Aki, please keep your client under control. He called Mimori nine times at 3am today. That’s not normal and not good.”
“I’ll try to prevent that from happening,” said Aki, “but I can’t control everything he does.”
“If it continues, there will be repercussions,” warned Rei. “Mimori, we have to go.”
They left the office, and as they entered the elevator, they heard the raised voice of Shoko Aki lecturing her client about…whatever she thought the problem was, Mimori couldn’t be bothered to listen and from the volume neither could Fuwa. Mimori could tell that Rei was fuming, muttering to herself with the same energy that she used to scold Mimori on the occasions when she needed it. She almost didn’t want to interrupt her manager, but something that Rei had said was bothering her.
“When you said I was doing better than Fuwa,” said Mimori a bit hesitantly, “What did you mean?”
“Oh that,” said Rei. “That was one of the things that I was getting, office gossip. I don’t talk about you, of course, but others talk about people who aren’t necessarily their charges. I was asking about Murasame for you, all good things for the most part, but someone mentioned that Fuwa isn’t getting booked as much as he used to be. It’s not visible to the public yet, but it might be soon enough. He’s not making the agency as much money as he was, is the point.”
“And I’m making the agency more money because more people want to book me,” said Mimori, understanding the point.
“Your face is not quite everywhere,” said Rei, “and that’s good, it’s keeping you on people’s minds. I think this is a good level of popularity for you. And your fanbase isn’t just young men anymore either, there are girls too who are interested in your work. That’s good too, teenage girls drive trends.”
“I remember, it wasn’t so long ago that I was a teenage girl,” said Mimori.
“I know,” said Rei, “but you’ve grown a lot since you were a teenager. Have you thought about bank accounts?”
“I looked last night, but I couldn’t really understand most of the terms. I was hoping that you could explain it to me?”
“Of course.” Rei proceeded to explain what a chequing account was, what a savings account was, why it was important to have both, and the importance of have a plan for her finances. It left Mimori with a lot to think about. Rei suggested that they have lunch at the office and go over different banks to see which one would suit Mimori the best. Mimori agreed, and soon after Rei parked at the studio for her first shoot of the day.
The shoot went well, and before long, they were back at Akatoki in an unused meeting room with Rei’s laptop. Rei pulled up the websites for each major bank and they went through the options, making a list and comparing the equivalent accounts. After an hour of debating while eating her lunch, Mimori decided, and they went to the nearest branch to open her bank accounts. Rei took her to the accounting department and they updated Mimori’s pay information, to be passed on to the payrolls for the different longer term projects she was working on. By the time Mimori got home from her day, all that was left was talking to her parents.
“How was your day, Mimori?” asked her mother.
“It was really good,” said Mimori happily. “I got to do a really fun shoot, and I opened a bank account of my own. The rest of the day was so-so—why do you look like I’m a ghost?”
“You opened your own bank account?” said her father, ashen and finally putting his newspaper down.
“I did,” said Mimori. “I’m an adult now, I should manage my own finances. Do you want me to be helpless for the rest of my life?”
“Mimori, we rely on your income to make this household function,” said her mother. “Why do you think we got you into modelling in the first place?”
“I am willing to contribute to household expenses,” said Mimori. “But if it’s a problem, then you need to get a job, Mom. What will you do when I get married, or if I move out to live with a roommate or by myself? I work hard for that money, and I should get a say on what it’s being spent on.”
“Your father is the head of this household, Mimori.”
“To some degree, Mimori is right. We cannot keep her helpless forever.” Mimori’s father sighed. He dragged his hand down his face. “What do you propose?”
“I can pay you rent and contribute to the grocery bill,” said Mimori. “We can work out exact numbers, but that’s what I’ll do, along with taking care of my laundry as usual.”
“Darling, we can’t afford to listen to her,” said her mother to her father.
“If we don’t negotiate with her, then we will get no money from her and things will get harder,” countered her father. “And she’s right. When she gets married, we will be in the same position of not having money from her.”
“But the expenses!”
“Mimori, your mother and I will discuss the household expenses and what we can pay with only my salary,” said her father with finality. “We will return to this discussion once we have done some accounting.”
“Thank you, Dad,” said Mimori. “I’ll do some accounting as well. I don’t even know how much I make for my work!” With a wave, Mimori went upstairs and flopped onto her bed. She’d get the numbers from Rei tomorrow and start figuring things out from there. Maybe searching for how much an apartment is would help her get started.
Chapter Text
Hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand then
Why’d you have to lock me out
When I let you in
It took a week of looking at numbers and getting information about how much rent was in Tokyo, and how much groceries were on average for a family of three for Mimori to come up with a proposal for what to pay her parents. In Mimori’s opinion, she was being fair, but then, she had no idea how much running their household cost. It was down to a conversation with her parents.
Rei had helped a lot with setting up a budget and understanding what her expenses were, along with understanding how much money she made per hour of work. It boggled Mimori’s mind to see how much money she had left over. Rei had also been helpful when it came to industry gossip as well.
“So about Taira Murasame,” said Rei as they drove from one shoot to another, “he’s apparently a good guy. A bit rough around the edges, but he treats people well unless they’re complete jerks to the rest of the cast and crew. Then he calls them out for bad behaviour. He’s really dedicated to his job, and is a hard worker. He also is single by all accounts.”
“Thanks Rei,” said Mimori, her mood falling a bit. “He hasn’t called me again.”
“Have you called him?”
“It goes to voicemail. I left one message but that’s it. I’m not losing myself chasing after a man. It’s good to know that he’s single. I mean, as far as we can know.”
“You said it yourself, he isn’t Fuwa. And he’s on a location shoot, according to the gossip mill. Maybe he’ll call you when he gets back?”
“We’ll see.”
Mimori spent the rest of the ride texting Misa and Hanami to arrange a lunch on a day when they were all free. They settled on a Saturday in two weeks, as that was the only time they were all free and didn’t have other plans already. She let Rei know and it went into her schedule so nothing would be booked for that day.
Contentment from having plans with her friends carried Mimori through her day of photoshoots and chats with acquaintances who wanted to know what the deal was with her and Fuwa, as by now everyone had heard about her rejecting him at his own party. Mimori told them the truth: she was well over him and nothing he had done since their breakup had convinced her to take him back. Besides, she hinted, someone else had caught her interest. She knew that would rev up the gossip mill, and if Murasame didn’t work out, well everyone would be speculating for a long while. In the meantime, she would focus on her work.
Mimori closed her dressing room for her last shoot of the day. It had gone okay, but it would have been better if the other girl had been more professional. Mimori snorted, that could have been her once. She had thrown a similar tantrum on the set of Prisoner over Fuwa and Kyoko’s closeness. She wondered how Kyoko was doing, but it wasn’t like she could just call the other woman out of the blue. They just didn’t have that kind of relationship. Really, they were just classmates who had a lot of trouble over a boy.
Her phone rang. Without looking at the screen, she answered.
Fuwa’s voice came out of the little speaker. “Finally! Why aren’t you taking my calls?”
“Goodbye Fuwa.” Mimori hung up.
She headed out to the main hall where Rei was waiting to drive her home. She greeted her manager, bid the others in the hall goodnight, and followed Rei to the car. As they got into the car, Mimori’s phone rang again. She answered the phone without thinking. “Leave me alone, Fuwa.”
“I have good news, I’m not Fuwa,” said Murasame with amusement through the phone. “Has he been calling you?”
“Yes, and it’s very annoying.” Mimori caught Rei’s eye, and Rei pressed her lips tightly together. Mimori turned her attention back to her phone call. “How are you?”
“Pretty good, just landed from a shoot in Okinawa,” said Murasame. “It was a little remote and I forgot to get a roaming package so I couldn’t call you.”
“I was wondering why you weren’t picking up,” said Mimori. “I um, called and left a message. Just one though.”
“I saw. I wanted to call you as soon as I could. Hang on, let me grab my bag from the baggage claim.”
Mimori waited, hearing the sounds of reunions and the clatter of the baggage claim. Murasame let out a grunt of effort as he picked up his suitcase and set it down. The sound of the arrivals area dimmed as he walked. “So what have you been up to, Mimori?”
“Mostly work and getting some independence from my parents,” said Mimori with a soft laugh. “That sounds so lame, getting independence at my age. But I’m glad I did it.”
“Well that’s good to hear,” said Murasame. “And it’s better to do it when you’re young, I think. Gives everyone some time to adjust before parents get old. And it lets you have your own life.”
“That was kind of what I was thinking,” said Mimori. “How was the shoot?”
“It was fun, but also a bit boring,” said Murasame. “One of my co-stars kept forgetting her lines, so we had to do twenty takes of the same scene before we got a passable one. But the evening get togethers were good and I think no one has any bad feelings about the repeated scenes or the flubbed stunts.”
“That’s good. It’s hard when there’s resentment. My coworker on one of my shoots today threw a full blown tantrum.”
“Really? That’s uncomfortable. Did they say why?”
“Something about not wanting to work with me. It reminded me of a similar tantrum I threw years ago about another girl. In fairness, my ex was into her and ignoring me, but still, very unprofessional.”
“It was Kyoko, wasn’t it?”
“It was. How did you guess?”
“Apparently it happens on every set she’s on. Someone tries to get her fired or hurt. Do things like that happen to you?”
“No, but then, I’m not half as good as Kyoko is.”
Rei interrupted, “We’re almost at your house.”
“Thanks Rei,” said Mimori, holding the phone away from her mouth. She returned to Murasame. “Sorry, I’m just on my way home.”
“That’s alright,” said Murasame. “Are you free in the next couple of days? I’d like to meet you for lunch, if you’re up for it.”
“Let me check my schedule,” said Mimori, flipping through the book quickly. “I’m free the day after tomorrow from one to three. Does that work?”
“It does. I’ll see you then. Want me to pick you up?”
“Sure. We can decide where we want to go when you pick me up.”
“Sounds good. Goodnight Mimori.”
“Goodnight.” She hung up the phone and penciled her lunch date into the schedule.
“Well then,” said Rei. “That seemed to go well.”
“It did,” said Mimori, a warm glow filling her chest. “He called as soon as he was off the plane.”
“And you have a lunch date.”
“Yeah. I really hope it goes well. I’m nervous.”
Rei reached over and squeezed her hand. “Perfectly normal reaction. It’s a first date. There doesn’t have to be a second if you don’t want there to be.”
“Thanks Rei.”
“I’m going to deal with this Fuwa situation tomorrow,” said Rei resolutely. “This is becoming harassment and I won’t stand for this treatment for you.”
“I appreciate it. You take really good care of me.”
“You are my charge, and almost a daughter to me. We’ve been through quite a bit together. I want you to be happy and safe.” Rei parked the car in front of Mimori’s house and they said their goodnights. Mimori went inside and put away her shoes and bag.
Her parents were waiting for her in the living room. Mimori took a seat across from them, noting the folder on the coffee table between them. Mimori dragged the numbers she had researched up in her memory and waited.
“Welcome home Mimori,” said her father.
“I’m home,” said Mimori.
“We wanted to talk to you about your offer to pay rent and contribute to bills, while controlling your own money,” said her father. “And we’ve done up some figures.”
“May I see them?” asked Mimori.
Her father handed her the file and Mimori flipped through the pages, noting all the expenses that the house had. Her mother had a large allowance for fun things for herself, on top of an allowance for household expenses like groceries. Her father also had large expenses that made no sense to Mimori. His salary was also listed, and wasn’t enough to cover all of this. She looked at her parents, understanding her role fully for the first time.
“So I’ve been funding spa days and happy-ending massages?” said Mimori.
“Massage therapy,” corrected her father. “No happy endings involved.”
“But I’ve been working hard so you can have leisure activities, while I barely get enough allowance to let me go out with friends and have a hobby? Isn’t it the job of the parent to care for the child?”
“Well, yes,” began her father.
“Mimori, we’ve cared for you your whole life,” scolded her mother. “And it’s fine for us to have some quality of life.”
“What about my quality of life?” retorted Mimori. “I work hard for my money, and I deserve to spend it as I see fit. As for caring for me, you pushed me to continue a relationship where I didn’t even know how miserable I was until I was out of it. You don’t care about my emotional well-being. Rei cares more than you do.”
“Be as that may, we are willing to compromise with you,” said her father. “The last page has our proposal for what you would pay us in rent, including utilities and grocery money.”
Mimori flipped to the last page and stared at the number. Flipping back to the page with her father’s salary, she recognized it as the difference between the current expenditures and his salary. Anger flooded her mind. How was this a compromise? It would leave her with twice her current allowance, true, but it wouldn’t let her live without having to plan and save for things she wanted while her parents would continue to live the way they wanted.
Mimori got up and get her notebook that she had done her calculations in from her bag. She flipped to the page where she had written things down and shoved it across the table. Her father picked it up and looked at it, eyes widening. Mimori’s offer was less than half of what they were asking.
“Mimori, this is too low,” said her mother. “How are we to keep up our lifestyle with this little?”
“Fewer spa days and massages,” said Mimori. “Less shopping for clothes that you wear once, and more wearing clothes in several outfits more than one time. Lower allowances. This is compromise. I have enough to move out and rent a room, and then you won’t have any money from me. That is my compromise. You don’t want to give up anything, but you won’t let me expand my horizons as an adult.”
“Then we need to negotiate,” said her father. He named an amount slightly less than their original offer. Mimori retorted with an amount a few hundred yen above her original offer. They went back and forth, but eventually, around two in the morning, came to an agreement. They wrote up the agreement, with much protest from her mother and by four in the morning Mimori had a contract with her parents for renting her room and paying some of the utilities.
She texted Rei before she went to bed to let her know, and asked her to make her apologies to her morning appointments. Mimori went to bed and thought over her day, deciding it was a good one, and drifted off to a sleep uninterrupted by phone calls. When she woke around ten in the morning, she called Rei, who confirmed that she had cleared Mimori’s morning on grounds that she wasn’t feeling well, and then took the liberty of clearing her afternoon and evening as well. Mimori thanked her and promised her that she would work hard to catch up on her work.
After the phone call, she got dressed and went out. Breakfast and a trip to the craft store sounded great. She could spend the rest of the day working on her hobbies and having some leisure time of her own.