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Title: The Companion
Pairing: Ohno/Aiba, Ohno/OC
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is having a crisis with his job and his marriage. He meets Aiba, who turns his life around. But Aiba holds a certain secret that will shake their relationship up.
A/N: Dear Avadiablo. You have asked for Tennen pair and drama so I decided to write this one (just please bear the first part XD). This story is loosely based on the movie The Bride of Rip Van Winkle. You don’t need to watch the movie to understand it since I changed quite a lot of the original plot. I’m sorry if there’s OOC-ness here and there. I’m not sure how education system work in Japan but I took liberty to create some situation around teachers and students. So, of course this is totally AU. (‘Planet’ is the SNS apps in the movie).
And also, much gratefulness to my beta for making this story even more tolerable XD.
“Rei-chan, how are you today?”
The girl replied with a quick nod that made the teacher smile. At least she looked better today compared to yesterday, thought the teacher, Ohno Satoshi - in an apartment somewhere in Kyoto. His long fingers, in opposite to his much smaller body reached the screen of his laptop to adjust the position of it so that he could see his student better. His other hand reached behind his ear to adjust his earpiece.
Rei-chan was comfortably seated on a plush chair with a table where her laptop was in front of her, a frilly dress was seen peeking on the screen. She was holding the pencil as stable as she could. The condition of her heart made her weaker, but that didn’t seem to weaken her spirit to study.
What a strong eight year old girl, Satoshi mused as he asked her to open her art book, a similar one to the one in his hand right now.
Satoshi had been her online private home tutor for the last two months through the recommendation of the teaching agency that he was under. The management had shown Sakurai Sho’s application for a tutor when Satoshi had asked for an extra job. Their correspondence was all via internet. Not once have they met physically since the Sakurai family was living in Tokyo, so far away from him. However, the advanced technology nowadays made it possible to be a teacher for Sakurai’s daughter, even if they were so far away from him. He didn’t understand why Sakurai agreed to have his service when there were so many tutors available in Tokyo, but he wasn’t complaining. The additional money was very much welcomed.
It seemed that Sakurai was satisfied with his teaching methods since he had received zero complaints from him. Rei-chan had appeared better than ever compared to when he first saw her and it relieved Satoshi greatly. She was suffering from a heart condition; cardiomyopathy – a disease that affect the heart muscles – that made her heart weak. Sakurai had told him that she had just being diagnosed early this year and she had undergone intensive treatment immediately. She was very quiet and depressive-looking when they started their first lesson together but since weeks ago Satoshi could feel the different in her demeanour in each lesson. Perhaps, her treatment was going well.
Even though his online tutoring had been great for Satoshi--even with just a student under his tutelage--his day teaching job was a much different story.
Just yesterday, he was told that his teaching contract in the private school he taught would not get renewed for another year. There were complaints lodged against him. Satoshi sighed, shaking his head. The thing he feared had come.
A student in the previous school he had once taught told him that he was a boring teacher. He was indeed a much reserved and quiet person. He would be the first one to admit that; but he had tried to be more talkative, trying to engaged his students with various activities in the art classes he held. It looked like it might have been working, even for a little bit because the students were willing to follow his instruction and eventually he didn’t end up a failure. He had missed that school a lot when he had transferred to the current school.
His main subject in college was art, but there seemed to be low demand for that subject. So, he had to improvise himself in order to gain an employment. For a few years, he had been hopping from school to school and since six months ago, he finally thought that he would be settling here longer, and was hoping for a permanent position when he had been given responsibilities for two subjects in his hand.
Therefore, when he wasn’t teaching an art class, he helped took over a few Japanese history classes, temporarily replacing the main teacher who was under maternity leave, and continuing when the teacher had decided to resign from her position because of the poor health condition of her baby. His classes were normally under control, despite a few dreamy looks on the girls’ faces and the bored faces from the boys’ being thrown at him. At first, he had thought that the subject itself was the problem, but after experiencing pretty nightmare-ish situations a teacher could ever be in, he came to a conclusion: he wasn’t fit to be a teacher. Not that he came to hate the job, he just couldn’t handle those hormonal-driven students that he swore came from outer space, not Earth.
Ohno had lost count on how many female students pulled him into an empty classroom to confess to him. He did nothing to them because then he would be betraying his professional value by indulging himself in ruining those girls' love life if he gave in to the temptation. But these girls were stubborn. There were some who followed him back to his house--like creepy stalkers.
A female student had once asked him to bed her. And then the boyfriend of the said student attacked him because he made the girl broke up with him. Then came another one, the lazy, but rich female student had asked him to give her a good grade on the tests, even though she wrote nothing right on the exam papers. She had threatened him if he refused to do what she had said--she would make sure that he would get terminated. Although Satoshi doubted that the girl would hire yakuza to kill him--he dreaded that--but if his service was to be terminated, he wouldn’t have a job to pay his bills.
It wasn’t only that. Some, that didn’t like him, especially the male students that claimed their girlfriends were being taken by Satoshi’s love trap, made fun of his soft voice. When they found out that he had a decent voice during a karaoke session in the school event that was held once, a microphone was put on top of his desk in the teacher’s room, and on his desk inside the class. They asked him to sing during classes and made noises when he refused to until the Vice Principal came to check on him. That was so embarrassing.
The bullying in this school was a bit too much for him to handle, but he still survived.
Because sometimes he believed that they did listen to him. It was what appeared to Satoshi anyway, and it made him think that it was going to be okay… until he saw the classes’ performance.
The marks from the latest test he was compiling from made him cringe. The results for the art classes were pretty average and it was understandable since the school focused more on other subjects. But all his history classes? The Principal would surely be outraged if he presented these kinds of results. Satoshi couldn’t understand it at all. What had happened? He thought at least he had prepared the classes well enough before the exam?
As expected, he was called to the Principal’s office not long after. Satoshi was speechless when instead of receiving an earful of lecture from the fearful Principal, he was dismissed from his job. True, the school could dismiss him if his performance was unsatisfactory since he was just a contract teacher. But to not give him another chance to make an improvement was kind of cruel to him. The Principal had shaken his head when he begged him. Apparently, his tough stance was made tougher when he showed Satoshi all the complaints he received from the parents.
Satoshi wanted to cry. He never knew all those parents would threaten to sue the school when they made accusations that one of the teachers was seducing their children, and they had stated clearly who that teacher was.
It wasn’t true! Satoshi had tried to explained to the Principal, but there was nothing to be done. In this private school, the parents held a lot of power and to fire Satoshi was the stance of the school to show the parents that they had taken action--whether the action was right or a wrong one was another matter. The Principal told him that he should be grateful that he wasn’t being reported to the police too.
Therefore, Satoshi had lost his main income. He scratched his head thinking how he could survive by having only the tuition fee which only came from the parent of the eight-year-old girl. And he had just quit the part-time job in a convenient store because he wanted to focus on his teaching profession.
“Sensei, are you moving out?” a weak sound came out through his ear piece, making Satoshi’s wandering mind snapped back into his head.
Satoshi scratched his slightly chubby and tan cheek. His young student was a pretty observant one, just like her father. He smiled, confirming to her that he would be moving to Tokyo to get married. The news made her grin so wide. It was the first time Satoshi saw her so happy his heart swell. Well, despite all that had happened he had a good news.
Yes, he would get married within a month. His fiancée was also a teacher, but she taught in an all-boys school in Tokyo. It was a miracle that he was marrying so early, but the persistency of his fiancée had made it possible.
They met through social media. He wasn’t into social media but since everyone around him was, he decided to try it out.
Yokoyama Michiko had replied to one of his many anonymous complaint about his students. They had conversations, mostly bitching about the students nowadays. Even though Satoshi was still wondering how he got himself into a relationship with her, he was glad that he wasn’t alone to bear all those troubles life had thrown at him. He was being realistic, but somewhere in his heart, he did feel fear, especially when he had asked himself whether their marriage could survive the test of time when his parents’ marriage didn’t.
With much persuasion from Michiko, their parents had met in an expensive restaurant and things had led to one thing to another then suddenly they were engaged.
Satoshi’s parents had gotten a divorce when he was barely a high school student. His father ran away with a much younger woman, leaving his mother in distraught. He had been living with his mother ever since then in Kobe, before he moved out to attend university and then resided in Kyoto after he finished his degree and got himself a job as a teacher. He got through university partly with the money his mother sent, and partly from the money he had saved through his multiple part-time jobs. At first, he thought it was a waste for him to enter university, but one’s of his employer’s son, Okada Junichi, had managed to talk his ear out on the importance of education until he found himself making a living through the education system, although he was always second-guessing his decision throughout college.
Ever since he was a child, he had aspired to be a manga artist. At least his teaching job quelled some of his hunger to draw before it was wrenched away from him. And now, he wondered if he could get his teaching life back after his contract termination.
He told his fiancé about his situation, whether she wanted to pursue the marriage since he was literally jobless except for his small tutoring gig with Sakurai’s daughter. She had assured him that they loved each other. Therefore, there was no reason to withhold their marriage for such a small reason. She said that Satoshi could find other job in Tokyo later.
So that was why he decided to move to Tokyo. If he couldn’t get his teaching life back, he could try to be an apprentice to a manga artist. He wanted to revive his artistic aspiration if the profession he pursued in college failed him.
Two hours later marked the end of his tutor session with Rei-chan. Sakurai had tucked the girl into her bed and before he closed the video transmission, the young and handsome father thanked Satoshi for another productive two hours for his only girl. Satoshi smiled gratefully. At least Sakurai and her daughter reminded him why he took a decision to be a teacher. At least someone appreciated his effort.
With that, he ended up in bed with a smile despite his turbulence future.
If only he could provide his future family by only teaching a single student, he would. He chuckled, thinking about how impossible it would be. But, recent technology was amazing. Perhaps he could recruit more online students in the future.
Unfortunately, the news from his agency wasn’t as encouraging as he hoped. When Satoshi went there on his free day to ask for more tutoring job, he found out something shocking. His name went viral on the internet. The parents talked about him like he was some pest that wanted to invade their houses--they refused to let him teach their children. In dismay, Satoshi walked away from the office, looking more distraught than ever.
He sat on a bench overlooking a river. He closed his mind, refusing to think about anything. What had his life had become? He rubbed his face in frustration, thinking that he couldn’t provide for his future family. What if Michiko’s parents heard all the lies that had been thrown around about him? And how about his own mother? His hand made a move to his pocket to locate his phone. He nearly dialled his mother’s number, but he cancelled it. His mother would get too worried, and being a person of few words--ironic since he was a teacher--he didn’t know what to say to her.
And also, what scared him the most was if Sakurai had heard the same baseless rumour. He could be losing Rei-chan too.
Satoshi’s body slumped in defeat. His life as a teacher was threatening to be closed forever.
A few days later, Satoshi hauled his luggage on the train to Tokyo. He had turned in the lease paper of his apartment to the landlord just now. With a bullet train ticket to the Tokyo station in his hand, he sat down on one of the available seats inside the half-packed train.
Satoshi woke up from his slumber. The Fuji mountain came into view indicating that the train wasn’t far from its destination. He stared at the view, ingraining it to his memory. He would become one of the many residents in Tokyo to find a living in the most populated and busy city in Japan. No regrets, he told himself.
Dragging the luggage out of the station, Satoshi hailed a taxi. Not so long after, he arrived at Michiko’s apartment block. Michiko had sent him a copy of her house keys to him and he welcomed himself into the apartment. He had been here a few times before so he knew his way around.
He put the luggage in the living room. He felt tired, even after taking a long nap in the train. He fell asleep again on the couch. He woke up when his fiancée came back from work.
After dinner, they discussed the wedding plans. Satoshi asked her again whether they wanted to proceed. Michiko insisted, saying that it was too late to back out now. The wedding reception was just around the corner.
Michiko had planned everything, from the venue, the theme, and the decoration for the wedding. She had already bought the wedding gown for herself, and a suit for Satoshi too. Satoshi could only nod, his enthusiasm dwindling down the more he thought about the costs. He had savings but with Michiko’s plans, it would probably take too much out of his savings, and he wasn’t sure how much would be left after the wedding.
Satoshi sighed, wondering if he could cancel the wedding reception. For him, he didn’t need a big reception; to know that they’re a registered couple was enough. But obviously, Michiko didn’t share his view. It was her dream to hold a big celebration for her marriage and nothing would stop her from fulfilling her dream.
It was already too late to back out now when after just a week of living together, they went to the registration office to hand in their marriage form. Satoshi and Michiko were officially husband and wife. Satoshi couldn’t believe that he would be sharing his life with a woman, when he nearly had given up on marriage after his parents’ divorce. Somehow fate could be funny. He hoped that he won’t be regretting it later. He hoped that he would find his happiness with this marriage.
Another great news came to Satoshi. Sakurai insisted him to stay on as Rei-chan’s tutor. Satoshi wasn’t sure whether Sakurai had heard the story about him or not. Nevertheless, the decision made him happy.
Satoshi and Michiko had many discussions about the reception. Satoshi mostly agreed to whatever Michiko said, and much to his relief, Michiko’s father would be sponsoring the wedding. It was later that Michiko asked him about how many attendees on his side that they could invite. Shockingly, Satoshi had just realized that he didn’t have any relatives and friends aside from his estranged parents. To Satoshi’s amazement and his mother too, his father had given a good cooperation and willing to come to his wedding. But besides that, who would he invite?
Feeling troubled, he turned to his anonymous account on one of the uncommon social media sites, Planet, to pour his problem out. It was much like Facebook, but instead of displaying his private information for all to see, it allowed him the anonymity of his username. He was much more comfortable hiding behind the internet. He could type anything he wanted without anyone finding out who he was. Even his wife didn’t know the existence of the account.
A reply from a username called ‘Amuro Ray’ to his post caught his attention. They sometimes chatted a bit, even if they didn’t know each other in real life. This ‘Amuro Ray’ was a fan of the famous Gundam character. Amuro Ray had found his account when Satoshi, holding a Dragon Ball’s character, Goku3104 had post a sketch of his favourite character and Amuro Ray had praised his drawing skill. Their similar enthusiasm on manga characters had brought them together virtually, something akin to a friend in real life. However, Satoshi couldn’t invite him to his wedding when he didn’t even know how this Amuro Ray looked like, right?
However, much to Satoshi’s own surprise, Amuro Ray proposed a plan for him. He told Satoshi that he had a friend who could arrange actors to pose as his relatives. At first he was sceptical of the plan, thinking that it wasn’t proper to bring strangers into his own wedding. It would even be more dangerous if Michiko’s side discovered the lie, but Amuro had assured him that his friend was a professional, and that nobody would find out the secret.
A few days later, Satoshi met the friend in a small secluded café somewhere in Shinjuku. The man, a few inches taller than him, with broad shoulders and prominent eyebrows greeted him. The guy took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of expressive eyes. They bowed cordially at each other. The man who was dressed in a dark, casual suit gestured for him to sit. Awkwardly, Satoshi sat opposite the man who was looking at him in interest. He wasn’t really good at meeting people. Meeting this man with a high fashion sense made him self-conscious when he looked down at his own clothes. But the man gave him an assured smile. He fished his pocket for something, and took out two cards: one was a simple white card with just a company name and number on it, and the other was his personal business card. He handed them to Satoshi. The company name was ‘The MJ’.
“I’m also an actor,” said the man, gesturing to his name card on Satoshi’s hand. He saw the word ‘actor’ engraved on the dark card.
“Matsumoto Jun?” Satoshi read the name aloud. It was a common name but he was pretty sure that he never saw this man in any movies or dramas on TV before if he said he was an actor.
“No, no, I only take smaller parts in small productions so you’ve probably never seen me before.”
Ah. Satoshi heaved a relieved breath, he nearly thought the man was a fraud.
“So what’s ‘The MJ’ all about?”
“A jack-of-all trade. We do anything the clients want us to do.” Satoshi looked alarmed. Is this man…
“Well, except violence and such,” Matsumoto added, very much understanding Satoshi’s concern. He heaved a breath again. At least this man wasn’t a murderer or something.
“Then, I’ll explain our service,” Matsumoto began, while showing Satoshi the package deal on his iPad.
“The basic payment for an attendee is 8000 yen per day. And it’ll be 5000 yen for additional wedding speech to the groom and the bride, plus 5000 yen per entertainer, or if you want anything else, we’ll be able to provide it.”
Satoshi thought hard. Most of the things that were required in the wedding, Michiko already took care of them. All he needed was a few ‘relatives.’ But the thing was, this package was too expensive for him. He was literally an unemployed man, he needed to spend as little as he possibly could before he got a new job. So he told Matsumoto that.
“Don’t worry, Ohno-san. Since you’re Amuro Ray’s friend, I’ll give you a discount,” Matsumoto said benevolently, and it reassured Satoshi a little.
Eventually, they came to an agreement. Satoshi decided to hire three families, each one consisting of about three to four people. They shook hands before they went their own separate ways.
As Satoshi walked back to his shared apartment with Michiko, he took out his phone and dialled his mother. It was really hard to explain to his mother at first but then she agreed after it was obvious that they weren’t able to think up of any real relatives to be invited. They were, in a simple word, estranged from the rest of his family. With his both grandparents deceased, his mother had been left alone. She had an uncle but he had moved to somewhere his mother couldn’t contact. His father’s side of family? Well it was better not to say anything about that.
A few days before the wedding took place, Matsumoto gathered all the actors in a rental conference room for a rehearsal. Satoshi’s parents were invited too to make sure they were familiar with the fake relatives to avoid any awkwardness later. Satoshi and his parents were introduced to them, remembering all the families’ names that Matsumoto suggested before Satoshi had to rush out to help Michiko with the preparations.
Then came the big day. Satoshi’s eyes ran to the place where the guests were seated. There, he saw Matsumoto joining his ‘relatives’ seated at the designated tables. His ‘relatives’ were looking at ease, like they were his real family. He also caught his parents’ eyes who looked at him reassuringly, like they were convincing him not to worry, and that everything would run smoothly. Satoshi took a deep breath as the piano began to play music as his wife walked down the aisle with her father.
Eventually the wedding ceremony finished without any hitch. Satoshi was so relieved that he could get out of his wedding attire. He was becoming tired of all the celebration. He was uncomfortable socializing with Michiko’s relatives and friends, he was afraid that Michiko and her parents would become suspicious of his fake relatives. It was better if they had minimal contact with Michiko’s family.
Satoshi and his wife lived a quiet life after that. They moved to an apartment that was gifted to them by Michiko’s parents. His father-in-law was quite a wealthy person, and he often showered his only daughter with things. It made Satoshi uncomfortable because it made him look like he entered the family to share the inheritance, although it was the last thing on his mind. However, he should be grateful for it because otherwise he wouldn’t be getting a place in Michiko’s father factory after his failure to get another teaching position. Despite his new job, he still found time to tutor Rei-chan. He was thankful for Rei-chan’s existence in his life because otherwise, he would be saying goodbye to his life as a teacher forever.
Two months flew by in a blink of an eye. Satoshi was getting used to working in a job that was so different from teaching. He became busy as more responsibilities were put on his shoulders as the time went by. He had to work hard since he had to show his father-in-law that he could take care of Michiko, and also being a good worker who could contribute to the company’s success without taking advantage of his status as the son-in-law.
Part Two
Pairing: Ohno/Aiba, Ohno/OC
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is having a crisis with his job and his marriage. He meets Aiba, who turns his life around. But Aiba holds a certain secret that will shake their relationship up.
A/N: Dear Avadiablo. You have asked for Tennen pair and drama so I decided to write this one (just please bear the first part XD). This story is loosely based on the movie The Bride of Rip Van Winkle. You don’t need to watch the movie to understand it since I changed quite a lot of the original plot. I’m sorry if there’s OOC-ness here and there. I’m not sure how education system work in Japan but I took liberty to create some situation around teachers and students. So, of course this is totally AU. (‘Planet’ is the SNS apps in the movie).
And also, much gratefulness to my beta for making this story even more tolerable XD.
“Rei-chan, how are you today?”
The girl replied with a quick nod that made the teacher smile. At least she looked better today compared to yesterday, thought the teacher, Ohno Satoshi - in an apartment somewhere in Kyoto. His long fingers, in opposite to his much smaller body reached the screen of his laptop to adjust the position of it so that he could see his student better. His other hand reached behind his ear to adjust his earpiece.
Rei-chan was comfortably seated on a plush chair with a table where her laptop was in front of her, a frilly dress was seen peeking on the screen. She was holding the pencil as stable as she could. The condition of her heart made her weaker, but that didn’t seem to weaken her spirit to study.
What a strong eight year old girl, Satoshi mused as he asked her to open her art book, a similar one to the one in his hand right now.
Satoshi had been her online private home tutor for the last two months through the recommendation of the teaching agency that he was under. The management had shown Sakurai Sho’s application for a tutor when Satoshi had asked for an extra job. Their correspondence was all via internet. Not once have they met physically since the Sakurai family was living in Tokyo, so far away from him. However, the advanced technology nowadays made it possible to be a teacher for Sakurai’s daughter, even if they were so far away from him. He didn’t understand why Sakurai agreed to have his service when there were so many tutors available in Tokyo, but he wasn’t complaining. The additional money was very much welcomed.
It seemed that Sakurai was satisfied with his teaching methods since he had received zero complaints from him. Rei-chan had appeared better than ever compared to when he first saw her and it relieved Satoshi greatly. She was suffering from a heart condition; cardiomyopathy – a disease that affect the heart muscles – that made her heart weak. Sakurai had told him that she had just being diagnosed early this year and she had undergone intensive treatment immediately. She was very quiet and depressive-looking when they started their first lesson together but since weeks ago Satoshi could feel the different in her demeanour in each lesson. Perhaps, her treatment was going well.
Even though his online tutoring had been great for Satoshi--even with just a student under his tutelage--his day teaching job was a much different story.
Just yesterday, he was told that his teaching contract in the private school he taught would not get renewed for another year. There were complaints lodged against him. Satoshi sighed, shaking his head. The thing he feared had come.
A student in the previous school he had once taught told him that he was a boring teacher. He was indeed a much reserved and quiet person. He would be the first one to admit that; but he had tried to be more talkative, trying to engaged his students with various activities in the art classes he held. It looked like it might have been working, even for a little bit because the students were willing to follow his instruction and eventually he didn’t end up a failure. He had missed that school a lot when he had transferred to the current school.
His main subject in college was art, but there seemed to be low demand for that subject. So, he had to improvise himself in order to gain an employment. For a few years, he had been hopping from school to school and since six months ago, he finally thought that he would be settling here longer, and was hoping for a permanent position when he had been given responsibilities for two subjects in his hand.
Therefore, when he wasn’t teaching an art class, he helped took over a few Japanese history classes, temporarily replacing the main teacher who was under maternity leave, and continuing when the teacher had decided to resign from her position because of the poor health condition of her baby. His classes were normally under control, despite a few dreamy looks on the girls’ faces and the bored faces from the boys’ being thrown at him. At first, he had thought that the subject itself was the problem, but after experiencing pretty nightmare-ish situations a teacher could ever be in, he came to a conclusion: he wasn’t fit to be a teacher. Not that he came to hate the job, he just couldn’t handle those hormonal-driven students that he swore came from outer space, not Earth.
Ohno had lost count on how many female students pulled him into an empty classroom to confess to him. He did nothing to them because then he would be betraying his professional value by indulging himself in ruining those girls' love life if he gave in to the temptation. But these girls were stubborn. There were some who followed him back to his house--like creepy stalkers.
A female student had once asked him to bed her. And then the boyfriend of the said student attacked him because he made the girl broke up with him. Then came another one, the lazy, but rich female student had asked him to give her a good grade on the tests, even though she wrote nothing right on the exam papers. She had threatened him if he refused to do what she had said--she would make sure that he would get terminated. Although Satoshi doubted that the girl would hire yakuza to kill him--he dreaded that--but if his service was to be terminated, he wouldn’t have a job to pay his bills.
It wasn’t only that. Some, that didn’t like him, especially the male students that claimed their girlfriends were being taken by Satoshi’s love trap, made fun of his soft voice. When they found out that he had a decent voice during a karaoke session in the school event that was held once, a microphone was put on top of his desk in the teacher’s room, and on his desk inside the class. They asked him to sing during classes and made noises when he refused to until the Vice Principal came to check on him. That was so embarrassing.
The bullying in this school was a bit too much for him to handle, but he still survived.
Because sometimes he believed that they did listen to him. It was what appeared to Satoshi anyway, and it made him think that it was going to be okay… until he saw the classes’ performance.
The marks from the latest test he was compiling from made him cringe. The results for the art classes were pretty average and it was understandable since the school focused more on other subjects. But all his history classes? The Principal would surely be outraged if he presented these kinds of results. Satoshi couldn’t understand it at all. What had happened? He thought at least he had prepared the classes well enough before the exam?
As expected, he was called to the Principal’s office not long after. Satoshi was speechless when instead of receiving an earful of lecture from the fearful Principal, he was dismissed from his job. True, the school could dismiss him if his performance was unsatisfactory since he was just a contract teacher. But to not give him another chance to make an improvement was kind of cruel to him. The Principal had shaken his head when he begged him. Apparently, his tough stance was made tougher when he showed Satoshi all the complaints he received from the parents.
Satoshi wanted to cry. He never knew all those parents would threaten to sue the school when they made accusations that one of the teachers was seducing their children, and they had stated clearly who that teacher was.
It wasn’t true! Satoshi had tried to explained to the Principal, but there was nothing to be done. In this private school, the parents held a lot of power and to fire Satoshi was the stance of the school to show the parents that they had taken action--whether the action was right or a wrong one was another matter. The Principal told him that he should be grateful that he wasn’t being reported to the police too.
Therefore, Satoshi had lost his main income. He scratched his head thinking how he could survive by having only the tuition fee which only came from the parent of the eight-year-old girl. And he had just quit the part-time job in a convenient store because he wanted to focus on his teaching profession.
“Sensei, are you moving out?” a weak sound came out through his ear piece, making Satoshi’s wandering mind snapped back into his head.
Satoshi scratched his slightly chubby and tan cheek. His young student was a pretty observant one, just like her father. He smiled, confirming to her that he would be moving to Tokyo to get married. The news made her grin so wide. It was the first time Satoshi saw her so happy his heart swell. Well, despite all that had happened he had a good news.
Yes, he would get married within a month. His fiancée was also a teacher, but she taught in an all-boys school in Tokyo. It was a miracle that he was marrying so early, but the persistency of his fiancée had made it possible.
They met through social media. He wasn’t into social media but since everyone around him was, he decided to try it out.
Yokoyama Michiko had replied to one of his many anonymous complaint about his students. They had conversations, mostly bitching about the students nowadays. Even though Satoshi was still wondering how he got himself into a relationship with her, he was glad that he wasn’t alone to bear all those troubles life had thrown at him. He was being realistic, but somewhere in his heart, he did feel fear, especially when he had asked himself whether their marriage could survive the test of time when his parents’ marriage didn’t.
With much persuasion from Michiko, their parents had met in an expensive restaurant and things had led to one thing to another then suddenly they were engaged.
Satoshi’s parents had gotten a divorce when he was barely a high school student. His father ran away with a much younger woman, leaving his mother in distraught. He had been living with his mother ever since then in Kobe, before he moved out to attend university and then resided in Kyoto after he finished his degree and got himself a job as a teacher. He got through university partly with the money his mother sent, and partly from the money he had saved through his multiple part-time jobs. At first, he thought it was a waste for him to enter university, but one’s of his employer’s son, Okada Junichi, had managed to talk his ear out on the importance of education until he found himself making a living through the education system, although he was always second-guessing his decision throughout college.
Ever since he was a child, he had aspired to be a manga artist. At least his teaching job quelled some of his hunger to draw before it was wrenched away from him. And now, he wondered if he could get his teaching life back after his contract termination.
He told his fiancé about his situation, whether she wanted to pursue the marriage since he was literally jobless except for his small tutoring gig with Sakurai’s daughter. She had assured him that they loved each other. Therefore, there was no reason to withhold their marriage for such a small reason. She said that Satoshi could find other job in Tokyo later.
So that was why he decided to move to Tokyo. If he couldn’t get his teaching life back, he could try to be an apprentice to a manga artist. He wanted to revive his artistic aspiration if the profession he pursued in college failed him.
Two hours later marked the end of his tutor session with Rei-chan. Sakurai had tucked the girl into her bed and before he closed the video transmission, the young and handsome father thanked Satoshi for another productive two hours for his only girl. Satoshi smiled gratefully. At least Sakurai and her daughter reminded him why he took a decision to be a teacher. At least someone appreciated his effort.
With that, he ended up in bed with a smile despite his turbulence future.
If only he could provide his future family by only teaching a single student, he would. He chuckled, thinking about how impossible it would be. But, recent technology was amazing. Perhaps he could recruit more online students in the future.
Unfortunately, the news from his agency wasn’t as encouraging as he hoped. When Satoshi went there on his free day to ask for more tutoring job, he found out something shocking. His name went viral on the internet. The parents talked about him like he was some pest that wanted to invade their houses--they refused to let him teach their children. In dismay, Satoshi walked away from the office, looking more distraught than ever.
He sat on a bench overlooking a river. He closed his mind, refusing to think about anything. What had his life had become? He rubbed his face in frustration, thinking that he couldn’t provide for his future family. What if Michiko’s parents heard all the lies that had been thrown around about him? And how about his own mother? His hand made a move to his pocket to locate his phone. He nearly dialled his mother’s number, but he cancelled it. His mother would get too worried, and being a person of few words--ironic since he was a teacher--he didn’t know what to say to her.
And also, what scared him the most was if Sakurai had heard the same baseless rumour. He could be losing Rei-chan too.
Satoshi’s body slumped in defeat. His life as a teacher was threatening to be closed forever.
A few days later, Satoshi hauled his luggage on the train to Tokyo. He had turned in the lease paper of his apartment to the landlord just now. With a bullet train ticket to the Tokyo station in his hand, he sat down on one of the available seats inside the half-packed train.
Satoshi woke up from his slumber. The Fuji mountain came into view indicating that the train wasn’t far from its destination. He stared at the view, ingraining it to his memory. He would become one of the many residents in Tokyo to find a living in the most populated and busy city in Japan. No regrets, he told himself.
Dragging the luggage out of the station, Satoshi hailed a taxi. Not so long after, he arrived at Michiko’s apartment block. Michiko had sent him a copy of her house keys to him and he welcomed himself into the apartment. He had been here a few times before so he knew his way around.
He put the luggage in the living room. He felt tired, even after taking a long nap in the train. He fell asleep again on the couch. He woke up when his fiancée came back from work.
After dinner, they discussed the wedding plans. Satoshi asked her again whether they wanted to proceed. Michiko insisted, saying that it was too late to back out now. The wedding reception was just around the corner.
Michiko had planned everything, from the venue, the theme, and the decoration for the wedding. She had already bought the wedding gown for herself, and a suit for Satoshi too. Satoshi could only nod, his enthusiasm dwindling down the more he thought about the costs. He had savings but with Michiko’s plans, it would probably take too much out of his savings, and he wasn’t sure how much would be left after the wedding.
Satoshi sighed, wondering if he could cancel the wedding reception. For him, he didn’t need a big reception; to know that they’re a registered couple was enough. But obviously, Michiko didn’t share his view. It was her dream to hold a big celebration for her marriage and nothing would stop her from fulfilling her dream.
It was already too late to back out now when after just a week of living together, they went to the registration office to hand in their marriage form. Satoshi and Michiko were officially husband and wife. Satoshi couldn’t believe that he would be sharing his life with a woman, when he nearly had given up on marriage after his parents’ divorce. Somehow fate could be funny. He hoped that he won’t be regretting it later. He hoped that he would find his happiness with this marriage.
Another great news came to Satoshi. Sakurai insisted him to stay on as Rei-chan’s tutor. Satoshi wasn’t sure whether Sakurai had heard the story about him or not. Nevertheless, the decision made him happy.
Satoshi and Michiko had many discussions about the reception. Satoshi mostly agreed to whatever Michiko said, and much to his relief, Michiko’s father would be sponsoring the wedding. It was later that Michiko asked him about how many attendees on his side that they could invite. Shockingly, Satoshi had just realized that he didn’t have any relatives and friends aside from his estranged parents. To Satoshi’s amazement and his mother too, his father had given a good cooperation and willing to come to his wedding. But besides that, who would he invite?
Feeling troubled, he turned to his anonymous account on one of the uncommon social media sites, Planet, to pour his problem out. It was much like Facebook, but instead of displaying his private information for all to see, it allowed him the anonymity of his username. He was much more comfortable hiding behind the internet. He could type anything he wanted without anyone finding out who he was. Even his wife didn’t know the existence of the account.
A reply from a username called ‘Amuro Ray’ to his post caught his attention. They sometimes chatted a bit, even if they didn’t know each other in real life. This ‘Amuro Ray’ was a fan of the famous Gundam character. Amuro Ray had found his account when Satoshi, holding a Dragon Ball’s character, Goku3104 had post a sketch of his favourite character and Amuro Ray had praised his drawing skill. Their similar enthusiasm on manga characters had brought them together virtually, something akin to a friend in real life. However, Satoshi couldn’t invite him to his wedding when he didn’t even know how this Amuro Ray looked like, right?
However, much to Satoshi’s own surprise, Amuro Ray proposed a plan for him. He told Satoshi that he had a friend who could arrange actors to pose as his relatives. At first he was sceptical of the plan, thinking that it wasn’t proper to bring strangers into his own wedding. It would even be more dangerous if Michiko’s side discovered the lie, but Amuro had assured him that his friend was a professional, and that nobody would find out the secret.
A few days later, Satoshi met the friend in a small secluded café somewhere in Shinjuku. The man, a few inches taller than him, with broad shoulders and prominent eyebrows greeted him. The guy took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of expressive eyes. They bowed cordially at each other. The man who was dressed in a dark, casual suit gestured for him to sit. Awkwardly, Satoshi sat opposite the man who was looking at him in interest. He wasn’t really good at meeting people. Meeting this man with a high fashion sense made him self-conscious when he looked down at his own clothes. But the man gave him an assured smile. He fished his pocket for something, and took out two cards: one was a simple white card with just a company name and number on it, and the other was his personal business card. He handed them to Satoshi. The company name was ‘The MJ’.
“I’m also an actor,” said the man, gesturing to his name card on Satoshi’s hand. He saw the word ‘actor’ engraved on the dark card.
“Matsumoto Jun?” Satoshi read the name aloud. It was a common name but he was pretty sure that he never saw this man in any movies or dramas on TV before if he said he was an actor.
“No, no, I only take smaller parts in small productions so you’ve probably never seen me before.”
Ah. Satoshi heaved a relieved breath, he nearly thought the man was a fraud.
“So what’s ‘The MJ’ all about?”
“A jack-of-all trade. We do anything the clients want us to do.” Satoshi looked alarmed. Is this man…
“Well, except violence and such,” Matsumoto added, very much understanding Satoshi’s concern. He heaved a breath again. At least this man wasn’t a murderer or something.
“Then, I’ll explain our service,” Matsumoto began, while showing Satoshi the package deal on his iPad.
“The basic payment for an attendee is 8000 yen per day. And it’ll be 5000 yen for additional wedding speech to the groom and the bride, plus 5000 yen per entertainer, or if you want anything else, we’ll be able to provide it.”
Satoshi thought hard. Most of the things that were required in the wedding, Michiko already took care of them. All he needed was a few ‘relatives.’ But the thing was, this package was too expensive for him. He was literally an unemployed man, he needed to spend as little as he possibly could before he got a new job. So he told Matsumoto that.
“Don’t worry, Ohno-san. Since you’re Amuro Ray’s friend, I’ll give you a discount,” Matsumoto said benevolently, and it reassured Satoshi a little.
Eventually, they came to an agreement. Satoshi decided to hire three families, each one consisting of about three to four people. They shook hands before they went their own separate ways.
As Satoshi walked back to his shared apartment with Michiko, he took out his phone and dialled his mother. It was really hard to explain to his mother at first but then she agreed after it was obvious that they weren’t able to think up of any real relatives to be invited. They were, in a simple word, estranged from the rest of his family. With his both grandparents deceased, his mother had been left alone. She had an uncle but he had moved to somewhere his mother couldn’t contact. His father’s side of family? Well it was better not to say anything about that.
A few days before the wedding took place, Matsumoto gathered all the actors in a rental conference room for a rehearsal. Satoshi’s parents were invited too to make sure they were familiar with the fake relatives to avoid any awkwardness later. Satoshi and his parents were introduced to them, remembering all the families’ names that Matsumoto suggested before Satoshi had to rush out to help Michiko with the preparations.
Then came the big day. Satoshi’s eyes ran to the place where the guests were seated. There, he saw Matsumoto joining his ‘relatives’ seated at the designated tables. His ‘relatives’ were looking at ease, like they were his real family. He also caught his parents’ eyes who looked at him reassuringly, like they were convincing him not to worry, and that everything would run smoothly. Satoshi took a deep breath as the piano began to play music as his wife walked down the aisle with her father.
Eventually the wedding ceremony finished without any hitch. Satoshi was so relieved that he could get out of his wedding attire. He was becoming tired of all the celebration. He was uncomfortable socializing with Michiko’s relatives and friends, he was afraid that Michiko and her parents would become suspicious of his fake relatives. It was better if they had minimal contact with Michiko’s family.
Satoshi and his wife lived a quiet life after that. They moved to an apartment that was gifted to them by Michiko’s parents. His father-in-law was quite a wealthy person, and he often showered his only daughter with things. It made Satoshi uncomfortable because it made him look like he entered the family to share the inheritance, although it was the last thing on his mind. However, he should be grateful for it because otherwise he wouldn’t be getting a place in Michiko’s father factory after his failure to get another teaching position. Despite his new job, he still found time to tutor Rei-chan. He was thankful for Rei-chan’s existence in his life because otherwise, he would be saying goodbye to his life as a teacher forever.
Two months flew by in a blink of an eye. Satoshi was getting used to working in a job that was so different from teaching. He became busy as more responsibilities were put on his shoulders as the time went by. He had to work hard since he had to show his father-in-law that he could take care of Michiko, and also being a good worker who could contribute to the company’s success without taking advantage of his status as the son-in-law.
Part Two
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