The Actor (Complete)

"How about giving them a discount, then?"

"They're just former classmates. The kind we're on terrible terms with."

"Is that so?"

The buzz-cut man jerked his chin at the two girls, then pointed to the white sneaker on his right foot.

"Then no discount. That'll be one million yen."

"It's just got a little mud on it. How could it possibly cost that much? And why are you picking a fight with a cat?"

Ichinose Maki called out from behind Karuizawa Kei, holding the cat in her arms.

It had all started when Hotaru had been running around carelessly on the mountain path and accidentally brushed against the man's shoe. He kept shouting that it was some limited-edition brand, but as far as Ichinose Maki was concerned, an apology and reasonable compensation would be more than enough.

"What would a brat like you know?"

The buzz-cut man pulled a cigarette from his pocket, completely ignoring the nearby sign that read "No Smoking in the Scenic Area." He lit it and held it between his lips.

"One million yen. Once you pay up, my buddies and I will leave right away."

Karuizawa Kei eyed the five or six students who looked like delinquents standing behind the man. On this steep, narrow mountain road, she wasn't confident she could get herself and Ichinose Maki—who had almost no strength left—to the crowded area at the foot of the mountain.

"Ken-ge, I actually have another idea."

Karuizawa Kei watched as Emi Eura clung to the man's ear like a snake and whispered with a flick of her forked tongue:

"If she can't pay, why not have her lick it clean for you?"

Her words were like a sharp knife, slicing open the wound that had only just scabbed over. Karuizawa Kei pressed her lips tightly together as she stared at the former classmate who had been the first to bully her. Even though the school had expelled the girl after she plunged a knife filled with pure malice into Kei's left side, Kei's life had already been ruined. From the age of fourteen to now, at sixteen, the label her tormentor had branded her with—"victim of bullying"—still clung to her.

"It's okay."

She quietly reassured Ichinose Maki.

When the bullying had first started, Karuizawa Kei had tried crying to her parents and complaining to her teachers. But it hadn't stopped. So she had learned to stay silent and endure it. Sometimes, after licking a girl's shoes, being doused with water in the bathroom, or cleaning dead rats out of her desk, she would go to a nearby grove and cry alone. She would cling to a tree or a rock and weep, pretending they were living beings. In her imagination, she created protectors for herself.

Of course, those wooden and stone protectors never really got up and walked around to protect her. The only things they could teach Karuizawa Kei were loneliness and endurance. Relying on those two skills, she had stumbled her way to where she was now.

Until a few days ago, when they had suddenly come to life and reached out to help her.

Ichinose Maki's phone had died an hour earlier, so Karuizawa Kei could only operate her own phone behind her back, sending her location and a recording to the first person at the top of her contacts list.

Only after she had done all that did Karuizawa Kei finally raise her head and look Emi Eura in the eye.

She believed he would come. He would definitely come.

Karuizawa Kei had known Kitagawa Ryo for only a few days, but in the short time they had spent together, there was one thing she was confident she had more of than Ichinose Honami.

That was her trust in him.

It was enough.

It had to be said: although a straight trail had been built to the summit, most visitors didn't stick to it and climb the mountain properly. There were also various winding paths trampled into the woods nearby. Many visitors seemed to think they brought them closer to nature. Since the park regularly closed off the mountain to clear the forest, there wasn't any danger from wild animals or the like. If Ichinose Honami hadn't been wearing a skirt today, perhaps the two of them would have taken one of those trails, too.

After climbing along the trail for half an hour, they spotted a pavilion where visitors could rest. There was also a large vending machine inside. Kitagawa Ryo went over to take a look. It sold mostly drinks, snacks, and bottled water, and the prices were a little higher than outside.

"Want to take a break?"

After checking the time on his watch, Kitagawa Ryo took Ichinose Honami by the hand and led her into the pavilion to sit down. There weren't many visitors today, perhaps because the weather was so hot. Most had climbed halfway up the mountain before taking the cable car to the summit, so Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose were the only ones in the pavilion.

"Mm."

A fine layer of sweat had already formed on her forehead. Ichinose Honami sat nearby, breathing a little heavily as she rested. Without thinking, she took out her phone as if to check her sister's location.

"You seem a little distracted today, Honami. Are you tired?"

Kitagawa Ryo lay back in his seat and looked up, counting the patterns carved into the pavilion ceiling. They seemed to be cuckoos. One, two, three, four—there were four in total.

"I'm fine."

Ichinose Honami guiltily put her phone away. She was a little worried that Ichinose Maki's location had stayed still for almost twenty minutes, but she couldn't ask Karuizawa Kei, who was with her sister, about it just then. She could only apologize to Kitagawa Ryo and say:

"Maybe it's just too hot."

The sun really was scorching. She took a handkerchief from her bag and offered one to Kitagawa Ryo, then wiped the sweat from her own forehead.

"Honami."

Every time he spoke, her heart jolted, as if it had shot up into the clouds in an instant, only to crash back into her chest the next.

"Mm? What is it?"

But she still had to pretend nothing was wrong, like an actor who had already botched a performance and was forcing herself to finish her lines.

"I dreamed last night that we were playing together as kids."

Ichinose Honami watched the smile on the boy's face across from her. For some reason, she felt a restless resistance to the subject.

She was a girl more interested in the future than the past. At seventeen, Kitagawa Ryo still missed being seven, while at ten, she had already wanted to leap straight to twenty. The strange gap between them filled her with an inexplicable resentment.

Almost every moment of Kitagawa Ryo's childhood had been filled with Ichinose Honami's shadow. But her own childhood had held not just Kitagawa Ryo, but also her younger sister, her mother, and a father whose face had grown so indistinct she could no longer recognize it. As a child, Ichinose Honami often dreamed of a faceless monster, with her mother beside it.

Only later did she realize that the monster had been her father. She hadn't seen him since she could remember, let alone remembered what his face looked like.

Fortunately, after Ichinose Honami turned twelve, she never had that dream again. At last, she could banish the nonexistent man from her life. She no longer mentioned her father, whether in reality or in her dreams, and it made her feel lighter than ever before.

"Mm. What did you dream about?"

She asked another unnecessary question, completely out of the blue. Normally, Ichinose Honami would have noticed, but her mind was in such turmoil that she was caught up in her own negative emotions, desperately trying to force them back down and become the Ichinose Honami she had been before.

"I dreamed about those soda-flavored ice pops we used to get for just sixty yen."

Kitagawa Ryo didn't seem to notice anything amiss with Ichinose Honami. He continued describing the treat, lost in his memories, though it wasn't sold anymore.

"Oh, those really were good. I remember there was a chance to win something, too, right?"

When Ichinose Honami raised her head again, her usual gentle, amiable expression had returned. She had already made up her mind. Now that she had come this far, she had no intention of leaving herself a way out.

But when her eyes met Kitagawa Ryo's dark ones, she still felt a little cruel. She was the kind of person who cared more about other people's feelings than her own. If she were an actor, the audience would barely have a chance to react before she felt awkward on their behalf.

"Mm. And then you'd have another one."

Kitagawa Ryo sighed softly.

"Too bad you can't buy them anymore. Maybe in a couple of years, kids won't even know they ever existed."

"Isn't it enough that the people who ate them remember?"

Ichinose Honami propped her head on her hand and sighed along with him.

"But they really were cheap. If you won, wouldn't that make each one thirty yen?"

"When we were little, who would've bothered doing the math? Whenever I won, I just felt like I'd gotten sixty yen for free. Sometimes I was even too stingy to trade it in for another ice pop."

Kitagawa Ryo's earnest tone made Ichinose Honami burst out laughing.

"Didn't the leftover stick feel dirty?"

"No, no."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head in disagreement.

"You had to wash it clean and keep it in your pocket. Thinking back, I'd even show it off to my classmates. If someone got it dirty or stole it, I'd tell the teacher and make them give it back."

"You boys really are something."

Ichinose Honami glanced at her phone and asked, puzzled:

"Did Maki send you a message? I haven't been able to reach her for an hour."

Only then did Kitagawa Ryo take out his phone. He had kept it on silent all day because he planned to spend time alone with Ichinose Honami.

He unlocked it, and the first thing he saw was a location pin and a recording from Karuizawa Kei.

It had been sent—

Three minutes ago.

Karuizawa Kei was undeniably a beautiful girl, far above the standard. But being pretty didn't always work in a girl's favor. This was one such occasion.

According to Emi Eura, Kei was a weakling who could be pushed around without complaining or fighting back. Whether girls dragged her into the bathroom to douse her with water and beat her, forced her to pick up and eat a lunchbox that had been knocked onto the floor with her mouth, or pulled down her skirt in public, Karuizawa Kei had always meekly endured it.

If Emi Eura hadn't stabbed her in the stomach back then, she might have gotten to play with this toy for another two years.

Emi Eura picked at her nails, thinking with some regret. She and Karuizawa Kei were the same type of girl, but Emi was better at dealing with people. That was why she had become the leader of the girls' group shortly after entering middle school, naturally isolating and bullying Karuizawa Kei.

Why had she disliked her so much in the first place?

Emi Eura glared viciously at Karuizawa Kei, who was pressing her lips together. Kei's pale blue eyes met hers without a trace of fear. She even glared back.

Tch.

Only now did Emi Eura realize that she had bullied Karuizawa Kei out of the simplest reasons: jealousy and malice.

She just wanted to see that annoying face under her feet.

"Didn't you hear what Ken-ge said?"

Emi Eura urged her again. She had already decided that the moment Kei gave in, she would stomp her right back into the dirt without hesitation.

"Or do you want me to...?"

Ken-ge stopped Emi Eura from threatening her. Grinning, he addressed the two girls:

"It's not like there's no room for negotiation. If you don't want to pay or lick my shoes, how about having a drink with us when we head down the mountain?"

The delinquents behind him hooted with laughter. Emi Eura's expression darkened, but knowing she couldn't afford to offend Ken-ge, she could only keep watch over Karuizawa Kei like a snake.

"My boyfriend's coming over soon. He just went to buy water."

Karuizawa Kei took a step back, as though someone were really standing in front of her.

"Your boyfriend? Then we'd better run."

Emi Eura stepped forward, finding her moment in the spotlight, and teased Ken-ge:

"After all, half the boys in our school have been confessed to by Karuizawa."

Her exaggerated gestures and words made the delinquents behind her laugh again. Even Ken-ge chimed in with a grin:

"That is a little scary. Middle schoolers these days look young, but they sure get up to a lot."

"Hey, Karuizawa, if you really have a boyfriend, what does he think about that scar when you sleep with him?"

Emi Eura wasn't done yet.

"Why not pout and tell him it's a scar from having a baby?"

All kinds of filthy, lewd remarks washed over Karuizawa Kei. She silently had Ichinose Maki cover her ears, then took a deep breath and remained unmoved.

"Ken-ge, just slap this bitch once and she'll behave. I've seen people like her before. They act all composed now, but in a minute they'll be crying harder than anyone."

Emi Eura noticed Karuizawa Kei's fingers trembling slightly. She knew Kei wasn't nearly as strong as she appeared. She was just putting on an act for the kid behind her.

When Ken-ge nodded toward her, Emi Eura came over to Karuizawa Kei and whispered in her ear:

"Karuizawa? It's exhausting, pretending, isn't it? No matter how much you hide it, you're still scared."

"What are you scared of? Are you scared of me? You are, aren't you?"

She licked her lips, the tip of her tongue scarlet.

"Though I have to admit, I'm surprised you haven't been broken yet. I guess those other girls weren't as rough as I was."

Her hand rose high into the air.