Murashita closed his manga and scratched his head. ‘Yeah, I thought he might be here to see you too, but I figured it was better to read my manga than make a fool of myself.’
‘Same here,’ Tomohiko said.
‘Maybe I should’ve told you guys there’d be someone else,’ Ryo said, sitting across from Murashita. He looked over at the counter. ‘I’ll take a Brazil,’ he called out.
The old man nodded. Ryo must be a regular.
Tomohiko picked up his coffee and moved over to the big table. Ryo motioned him to sit down next to Murashita.
Ryo looked at the two of them, squinting, tapping the table with his right index finger. Tomohiko didn’t care for the way he was looking at them. Like he was sizing them up.
‘Eat any garlic lately?’ Ryo asked.
‘Garlic?’ Tomohiko’s eyebrows drew together. ‘No. Why?’
‘It’s complicated. But as long as you haven’t, you’re cool. How about you, Murashita?’
‘I ate some dumplings about four days ago.’
‘C’mere.’
Murashita leaned over the table, bringing his face up to Ryo.
‘Breathe,’ Ryo said.
Murashita coughed a little.
‘Harder,’ Ryo directed him.
Murashita breathed out a big breath and Ryo gave it a good sniff. He nodded and pulled a piece of peppermint gum out of his pocket.
‘You’ll want to chew this once we get going.’
‘Sure, whatever,’ Murashita said, growing a little irritated, ‘but what are we going to do? Spit it out, come on. I don’t like this mystery crap.’
Tomohiko felt relieved he wasn’t the only one completely in the dark.
‘I told you already. You’re going to go someplace, and talk to some girls. That’s it.’
‘Man, I don’t get it, I thought —’
Murashita was interrupted by the arrival of Ryo’s coffee. Ryo lifted up his cup, took a long sniff of the aroma, then slowly took a single sip. ‘Outstanding, as always.’
The old man smiled as he retreated behind the counter.
Ryo turned back to them. ‘Look, it’s not rocket science. You two will do just fine. That’s why I picked you.’
‘Just fine at what?’ Murashita asked.
Ryo pulled a red box of cigarettes out of the breast pocket of his denim jacket, put one in his mouth, and lit it with a Zippo.
‘What I mean is, they’ll like you.’ A thin smile spread on his lips.
‘They… you mean the girls?’ Murashita asked, his voice low.
‘Yeah, the girls. Don’t worry. They’re not ugly or all wrinkled or nothing. Just totally normal girls. Maybe a little on the older side, but that’s a good thing.’
‘And our job is to talk to them?’ Tomohiko asked.
Ryo blew smoke at him. ‘That’s right. There’s three of them, by the way.’
‘Can you be a little more specific? Who are these girls and where are we talking to them and what are we supposed to talk to them about?’ Tomohiko asked, his voice growing a little louder.
‘It’ll be obvious when we get there. And as far as what you’ll be talking about – whatever comes up. You can talk about your hobbies or whatever you feel like. They’ll like that,’ Ryo said, smiling.
Tomohiko shook his head. He felt he had even less idea what they’d be doing now that it had been explained to him.
‘I’m out,’ Murashita said abruptly.
‘Yeah?’ Ryo said. He didn’t seem that surprised.
‘I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right.’ Murashita stood.
‘I’m paying three thousand three hundred yen an hour,’ Ryo said, raising his coffee cup. ‘Three thousand three hundred and thirty-three, to be exact. That’s ten thousand in three hours. You can’t tell me you’ve had a better offer than that.’
‘OK, now I know it’s illegal,’ Murashita said. ‘Look, I stay out of that stuff.’
‘Nothing illegal about it. And as long as you keep this to yourselves, you won’t get any trouble. Guaranteed. And I can promise you one other thing: When you’re done, you’ll thank me. You can go read the help-wanted ads from cover to cover and you won’t find anything sweeter. Anyone would want to do this. But not everyone can. See, you two are the lucky ones. Because I spotted you.’
‘I don’t know…’ Murashita gave Tomohiko a hesitant look.
More than three thousand an hour, ten thousand in three hours – that was hard for Tomohiko to pass up. ‘I’ll do it,’ he said. ‘But on one condition.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I want you to tell me who we’re meeting and where. So I can psych myself up.’
‘There’s no need for any of that,’ Ryo said, stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray. ‘But fine, I’ll tell you once we’re outside. But I’m not taking just you, Tomohiko. If Murashita’s dropping out, I’m calling the whole thing off.’
Tomohiko looked at Murashita, who grimaced. ‘You sure we’re not going to get in trouble for this?’
‘Not unless you want to,’ Ryo said. Maybe it was the irritation in Tomohiko’s face that pushed Murashita, but eventually he nodded. ‘OK. I’m in.’
‘Smart boy.’ Ryo stood, thrusting one hand into the back pocket of his jeans to pull out a brown leather wallet. ‘Bill, please.’
The man raised an eyebrow and pointed at the table, making a circle with his finger.
‘Yeah, all together.’
The man scribbled on a piece of paper and passed it over to Ryo.
Tomohiko watched as Ryo pulled a thousand-yen note from his wallet and regretted not ordering a sandwich.
The kids didn’t wear uniforms at Tomohiko’s high school, thanks to the efforts of his predecessors back during the student protest days. They had organised and staged a demonstration against the uniform code and they had actually won. There was a standard, school-approved uniform you could buy, but it wasn’t compulsory, and only about one in five students bothered with it at all. Particularly after their first year, nearly everyone just wore whatever they felt like. It was also against the rules to get a perm, but hardly anyone paid any attention to that either. The same went for make-up, which was why some of the girls came in to school looking like they’d just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine, an invisible cloud of perfume trailing them as they took their seats. As long as it didn’t interfere with the class, the teachers turned a blind eye.
Civilian clothes helped the kids blend in when they hit the town after school was out, too. If a shop assistant gave them trouble, they could just say they were college students. Which was why, on a sunny Friday like today, hardly any of them went straight home after school.
The only reason Tomohiko wasn’t out there today was because of the shoplifting incident. He was broke.
That was why Ryo had found him, earlier that afternoon, sitting in the back of the empty classroom, reading Playboy. Sensing someone, Tomohiko looked up.
Despite the fact that Ryo was in the same class as Tomohiko, they’d hardly exchanged a word in the two months since school started. Tomohiko wasn’t a recluse; on the contrary, he was already friends with about half the class. It was more Ryo who seemed to put up walls between himself and the other students.
‘You free today?’ Ryo spoke first.
‘Yeah, why?’
That’s when Ryo lowered his voice and told him about the job.
‘All you have to do is talk a little and I’ll pay you ten thousand. Not bad, huh?’
‘What, just talk?’
Ryo held out a piece of paper. ‘If you’re interested, be here, five o’clock.’
‘The girls should be there already,’ Ryo told them. When he wanted to he had a way of talking without moving his lips much.
They’d left the café and got on the subway. The carriage was mostly empty and there were seats to go around but Ryo remained standing by the door, possibly to avoid being overheard.