Matt and I were walking the noisy streets of Shibuya on a Sunday evening when my phone rang. ‘Nori?’ he asked, and I said, ‘No, it’s Yoshi ... it’s probably Yoshi.’ Yoshi hadn’t called in over a week, but I knew it would be him.
‘Hello! Chelsea!’Yoshi shouted down the line. ‘Can you hear me? It’s Yoshi. What are you doing now?’ I told him I was in Shibuya. ‘In Shibuya? What are you doing? Party?’
‘No, I’m not partying, I’m shopping.’
‘By yourself, ma chérie? Not with a friend?’
‘Yes, I’m by myself. Can you believe it? I’m spending my own money. It’s incredible isn’t it?’ I heard Matt laugh in the background.
‘Oh. Well, why you didn’t call me?’Yoshi pouted.
‘You’re not my sugar daddy, and besides, you told me you’d be busy until the tenth and couldn’t see me because you had some big project ...’
‘Yeah, but why you didn’t call me all day? I was fuckin’ bored, all day.’
‘Boo-hoo. I went to Kamakura with my friend Shin. Why didn’t you call me?’
‘Oh, okay. Kamakura is nice place. So what are you doing this coming weekend? You wanna go to Hungary?’
‘What? You want to go to Hungary? Are you crazy?’
‘No, really. You wanna go somewhere? I miss you, chérie.’
‘Yeah, sure, but not Hungary.’
‘Really? You sure? You’d better be sure,’ Yoshi threatened playfully, and I paused to think about his implications.
‘Yeah, I’m sure.’
‘Okay, I’ll think about where. Maybe Guam. Nice beaches. Anyway, I’ll see you this week, some day. Hai-bye.’ And with that Yoshi was gone.
Great. I couldn’t believe how easily I had welcomed him back in. Just as I was thinking my time in Japan would come to a calm conclusion the water was about to become turbulent. God help me.