Celestial Moon Episode 8

Episode 8: How To Play… (Tamari’s Episode)

Funny. Walking to the TV Tokyo station to meet my two friends being led by a complete stranger is something I would never do, not in a million years. This must have been the millionth year. Dr. Pepper-san continued to tug on my hand, guiding me to the building. I already stopped by the store to get Isoka a soda. I couldn’t find Pepsi, her favorite drink, so I got her a Dr. Pibb instead. I still don’t know why Dr. Pepper-san was staring at the bottle, but I didn’t feel like asking. Dr. Pepper-san is really weird… Anyways, there we were, about 5 blocks from a place I’ve been to before. “<There we are,>” he said, “<We’re almost there.>” He began running as I was forced to run along. “Look,” I said, “I understand that you said something about burgers and almost. I can’t speak English very well, so just talk in Japanese.”
“Me no Japanese,” he said.
“Stop messing with me.”
“Me love long time?”
“Stop it! You were speaking Japanese when we first met!”
“Maybe I forgot how to speak it. <You never know what will happen.>”
“<You never what know happen!>” I yelled. I think that was an insult or something…
“See? You’re getting better,” he laughed. What was he doing? Was he trying to give me English lessons while we were running to TV Tokyo? And why? What would he get out of me speaking English? “It doesn’t make sense. Why would he teach her how to speak in a new language?” I asked out loud. I really need to work on keeping my thoughts to myself. I started to blush when he laughed at me. So embarrassing… this was not something that could be laughed off so easily.

“Who are you taking about, dear?” he said, making me blush more. “Um… I was just thinking about something totally different,” I said. I wonder what he’s thinking. He’s probably thinking about how weird this girl is. I was set to answer the question I knew he was going to ask; why are you so weird. But as we stopped in front of the tower-like structure, her turned to me, still holding my hand mind you, and said, “By the way, I don’t remember you telling me your name.” His head inched closer as he said each word. He smelled nice… almost like…cola. My face was completely red by now yet I still don’t know why. Isoka told me once when I was younger that when something like this happens, it’s normally love at first sight. I never could believe her silly tales about how life was back then, but I couldn’t help but think… “My name is Tamari… Itawamba Tamari!” I blurted out. I covered my month quickly. Sure enough, he was laughing again. How embarrassing… Oh well… at least we’re here, I thought.

“<Looks like we have arrived,>” he said.
“<Japanese,>” I said.
“<What about Japanese?>”
“<Japanese.>”
“<I know, I’m Japanese, you’re Japanese. We are in Japan.>”
“<Japanese.>”
“<You know, these conversation we have aren’t very fun if you don’t give me some dialog.>”
“Damn it all, stop fucking around and speak to me in gotdamn Japanese!” It took a while before I notice what I said. This guy that seemed to make me blush also was the first person to piss me off. He stood stunned. It was just then when I started to realized what I had yelled. “Umm… I’m really sor…” His laughing interrupted me. “Well well well,” he said, “the sweet little girl has some venom.” He smiled. “I like that.” Why the hell couldn’t I stop blushing? I thought back to what Isoka told me long ago… No no no!!! No way could I be in love with… this… let’s say man… He was too over the top, too weird, too crazy…okay, I get it. I just described myself. And yes I know, I shouldn’t judge a book by its yayaya, but he wasn’t anything like I envisioned my knight in shining armor to be. Oh well, such is life I guess…

We entered the building and got the information needed to find Isoka. The press release was on the 23rd floor in press room 3B. I was too lazy to take the stairs, so while Dr. Pepper-san started to walk over to the staircase, I was already pressing the up bottom on the elevator. I guess he understood that there was no way he was going to make me walk up 23 floors. The lift lowered and opened its doors, allowing us to enter. I walked in first, Dr. Pepper-san followed. “You know I was messing with you, right?” he asked me.
“Oh, so now you can speak Japanese?” I retorted. I didn’t sound it, but I was mad at him for toying with my mind like that.
“No need for sarcasm, Tamari,” he replied. I looked away from him, blushing again slightly but keeping a frown on my face. I was still angry at him… I think. “Don’t talk to me as if you know me,” I told him. He walked over to me and stood beside me. How long will it take for us to get to the 23rd floor, I thought. “You know,” he began, “you should learn to enjoy this little game of ours.” He ran his fingers through my hair, making me jump a little. My face was on fire… why was he torturing me like this? Why did it seem like I wanted him to continue? I smacked his hand away in panic. My face was fire red. “This is all just a game to you?” I found myself yelling.
“Well,” he replied, “yes. But it’s fun only if you know how to play it.”
“What do you mean? That makes no sense…”
“First level of our game: flirt. So far, it seems to be a one player game.” He ran his fingers through his afro. “Player two has yet to insert token.”
“Wait,” I entered, “What is flirt?” He looked at me as if I was crazy. “You know, like flirting…” he said. “No, I don’t know,” I replied honestly. I looked clueless, wondering what that word meant. I guess I would have to look it up later, I thought. After a while, Dr. Pepper-san laughed again. “Tamari, you’ve yet to even read the instruction manual,” he said. Ding! The elevator stopped at our floor. Dr. Pepper-san walked out first. I slowly followed. My eyes were focused on the ground as I could feel my face still red hot. “We better get a move on,” he called to me, “before we’re late. They won’t let us in if…”

“Teach me.”

Dr. Pepper-san stopped and turned to me, looking as shocked as I felt. I can’t believe it; those words seemed so relaxing to say, so calming to my racing mind. “What?” he asked. He lost his cool on me. It made me feel good for some reason. I walked over to him, slowly. I don’t know what I was thinking really. I mean, I never felt like this before, a mixture of happy and angry, fear and calm, confusion and understanding. It was odd. The more I thought about it, the more I remembered Isoka’s words long ago. I wasn’t sure if this was the first love thing she was talking about but why shouldn’t I try to find out? This is crazy, I thought, I just met him today. I don’t know a thing about this guy… and yet, I couldn’t help but want him near me. There… I said it. I don’t know if I want to fall in love with him, but I wanted him around. I wanted that feeling I got from him more…

“I want you… to teach me,” I said without fear but with angst. His face was still frozen in shock. I didn’t blame him. If he did that to me, I would have done the same thing. I walked on, stopping when I was right beside him. I leaned into his ear to whisper to him. “Teach me how to play this game of yours, Dr. Pepper-san…” I slowly continued to walk down the hall, looking for the press room Isoka would be in. Dr. Pepper-san smiled and followed.