C1 Part4

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Part 1 Story 4: Date and Secrecy

Translator: Ririi Rain

Yokohama Station was crowded with people

even during the daytime on weekdays. There were busy office workers who walked

hurriedly and also people who came to shop going back and forth quickly.

Moving on, we could find a young woman

raising her lovely voice on the fashion floor inside the station building.

"Eeh, this is cute!"

"They also come in trendy colors for

this season〜. It's like the one I wear right now, but

you can make it a little more classical with spring-like tops such as this〜"

"You're right, it's really cute〜. May I try them on? "

"Ye〜s,

certainly. Is it okay to bring out just these two kinds?"

"Ah, add this one too."

Ringo was restlessly standing alone, glancing

at Secret who talked happily with the shop assistant of the apparel shop.

It seemed that he was kind of not used to

the shop assistant's nasal voice. The people around him who were 100% female also

made him uncomfortable.

"...Are you really going to buy that

much?"

"It’s because I had a lot of extra

income yesterday. It is a reward for myself!"

"I see.."

A moment later, she had changed into a

denim dress that she had just bought. She left the shop while holding shopping

bags from multiple places. Secret seemed happy.

The strangely flashy and highly exposing

clothes were like work clothes for her, and when she wore ordinary clothes, her

adorable features were more noticeable.

The sighs of men and women passersby of

all ages could even be heard.

"Fufu, the Terada group officially

agreed to look after Grand Lou’s butt (ketsumochi)1,

so it was solved, and I got a lot of brokerage fees."

Taking the request fee from Grand Lou,

taking advantage of the Terada Group's underlings’ protection fee case as she

please, and making the Terada Group do shinogi2

for real.

At a side, a man was fascinated by Secret

and even wanted to call out to her. She looked like a porcelain doll, but the

details of her talk were awful.

"What do you mean by looking after

their butt (ketsumochi)?"

He asked while frowning because he was pressed

by some shoppers.

"We talked about the protection fee

yesterday, right? In return for receiving the protection fee, for example, if a

lady got stalked, then the yakuza will take care of it for the shop they had

ties with. When something like that happened, the yakuza acts like a bodyguard.

That's what ketsumochi is."

Stopping in front of a mirror in a nearby

storefront, she tied her long chestnut-colored hair with a new red ribbon.

Leaving the shopping bags on a nearby

locker3, she held Ringo's arm tightly with both of her free hands.

"Eh, eh eh?"

A soft sensation traveled from his arm and

reached his brain.

Secret looked up at him with a full-blown

smile, without seeming to mind Ringo who was panicked and had a bright red

face.

"It's the long-awaited day off, so

let's have a date today?"

"Date?!"

It was a word that was too out of reach for

the boy who attended an all-boys school junior high school.

Even at the high school that he had

attended for only a few days, he had only talked to his aunt and an elderly

female teacher.

His arm was pulled with enthusiasm and he

was taken around the station.

First, the two stopped by a bookstore and

browsed the new mangas that had just been released while standing side by side.

Then, with a single sentence from Secret, which was "I’m curious〜", they watched

a recently released action movie.

They talked about their impressions of the

movie and together, they lined up at a popular bubble tea shop to take a break

and drink the lump of tapioca pearls.

"Is it okay to play so much like

this?"

He had spent his youth studying and studying

for the last few years. It had been a while since he went out with someone like

this.

"Do you feel guilty about playing,

Ringo-kun?"

Secret tilted her head to the side while

she relentlessly chased the remaining boba at the bottom of her cup.

When he was about to answer her, they overheard

the conversation of two high school girls who were sitting next to them.

"You know, yesterday, Lena met a strange

person! It's super scary."

"What? Such as a molester?"

"Hmー, the man

was wheezing, slobbering, and she said that he was chasing her with great speed.

When she was running, she crashed into a trash can."

"What's with that, scary! Is Lena

okay?"

"Since she was at the station, it

seemed that the station officers helped her. And, there was a good-looking guy

that made her heart skip a beat."

The high school girls were giggling

together at the unexpected outcome.

Ringo and Secret looked at each other,

thinking that this was not a jolly conversation.

"Most of the stores in Chinatown are

always crowded, but there is a little-known good restaurant over there."

As the sun goes down, Ringo and Secret

boarded the Minatomirai Line and got off at the Motomachi-Chukagai Station.

As Secret told him, the restaurant they

went to was sparse with customers and they could enter immediately.

Ringo asked a question while having fried

rice in his mouth

"Secret, you are quite familiar with

Yokohama, aren't you?"

"Well, it's already been three years

since I started living here. It seems that you who used to live in Tokyo are

not used to it yet."

At a table where a lot of dim sum was

placed on it, they had their meal face to face.

There was a couple who seemed to be

college students sitting next to them, and Ringo ended up being nervous again

as he was thinking of whether the two of them also looked like lovers from

other people’s perspectives.

"Um, can I ask you a question?"

"What?"

"Secret, are you a Japanese?"

"Nー, well, I have

Japanese blood."

With a smile like a flower in bloom, she

snacked on the steaming xiaolongbao4 and downed

the Chinese rice wine.

Secret had a peculiar face. She would be

convincing to be both East Asian and Westerner, and if she wore a hijab, she would

even look like she came from around Iran in the Middle East.

Because of the ambiguous reply, Ringo

asked again after a little silence.

"How tall are you?"

"It's as you can see, maybe it’s around

a bit under 160cm."

"What is your first language?"

"Wellー, that's

a secret〜"

"What kind of family structure do you

have?"

"Secret."

"Your eyes are blue, does that mean you

are half Japanese?"

"Ehe, secret.”

"Who is the client who asked you to

protect me?"

"Professionals have the obligation to

keep confidentiality, you know!"

He tried asking a question that went a

step further, but she placed her index fingers in front of her mouth and made a

cross mark.

Ringo relaxed his shoulders as if he had

given up, and he smiled bitterly.

"What is your favorite food?"

"This, xiaolongbao! And then there is

chocolate."

Secret answered cheerfully as usual, and

Ringo picked up a xiaolongbao with his chopsticks, dipped it in soy sauce, then threw it into his mouth.

Soup that contained umami was bursting in

his mouth. After chewing and swallowing it, he stared at the mysterious woman

in front of him.

"Your real name, what is it?"

"It’s a secret!"

It had been a week since she helped him

from the brink of death because of a false charge and also since he started

living together with her.

It seemed that she hid Ringo for a job,

and Ringo still only knew about the occupation of this woman, along with her

favorite food.

***

Notes:

1 Ketsumochi(ケツ持ち): a slang, it means to place stores and the like under protection by receiving compensation. Secret will give you more details in a few more sentences after this↩

2 It was the same as in the previous chapter. If you forgot, it is the yakuza’s job, in other words, the group was working for real, not a scam↩

3 The translation literally means locker, but I think it is coin lockers (コインロッカー). In Japan, there are automated lockers that can be used to store things, anytime you want. They are most often used for storing luggage, but people regularly also use it while they are out shopping. They store their many purchases, so they don't need to carry heavy bags around all day. ↩

4 Xiaolongbao: Soup dumplings. Inside the dumplings are little pockets of gelatinized broth made from chicken, pork, and cured ham.↩

Previous chapter | Novel page | Next chapter