This is going to sound crazy, but I think I met someone.
He's a lot older than me, but he doesn't look it. I think he looks younger than I do, but there's no way he is. He has a restaurant, the one down on Bay by the tracks, and he says he used to be a police officer before he came to America. No way he could have been a police officer and be that young. He said he came over here to work as a contractor, got tired of the stress, and retired to start a restaurant. He said he thought about a car dealership, but his cousins wouldn't give him a discount. I'm not sure if he's joking about Japanese cars or not. Pretty brave if he is.
That's what he's like. He's so cheerful and optimistic. He hums when he sets out the buffet, and more often than not it's old J-pop songs he's too old to like. He tells jokes if you get him talking, and while his English isn't good, his charisma is incredible. I think he could sell things if he wanted. I'm surprised he's not an actor or something. He's just so funny. I find myself going there just to listen to him.
What made me decide to ask him out? Well… this is going to sound silly. You know that report they did on the Kira supporters ? It was playing on one of the TVs in the restaurant while he was bussing tables, and he dropped a plate when they suggested some Japanese policeman had Kira sympathies. It shattered. I asked him if he was ok, and he just murmured and ran off. He came back a few minutes later to sweep it up. He told me he worked with that guy's father, that his old partner would be furious they sullied his name like that. Well, actually, he said "pissed." That's the only time I've heard him swear.
I looked him up, and his name doesn't really exist, but why would it? If he were on the Kira taskforce over there, he'd have taken a new name over here. I wasn't sure what to think. I already dated a pro-Kira zealot; I don't want to go out with an anti-Kira one.
I asked him one day, "When they said Kira died… how did it make you feel?"
I expected him to say he was happy, that he rejoiced at it. I expected him to say he was relieved. He frowned, and said. "I'm sure Kira meant well at first. If there's one thing I learned from that… You should never be happy about death, even if someone has to die."
…I'm asking him out for coffee. It won't be as good as his, but what kind of date would that be? Someone else can make him the coffee for once.