The human mind is one of the most amazing things we know and we don't even understand it. Thanks to some thousands years of evolution it's learned some cool tricks. One of the most useful ones is your first impression we get, when we meet new people. In 90 seconds we form this first impression. And damn, we are good, no great at this. After just one and an half minute, we are able to identify the character of the other person, even their intelligence and mental problems. The mood of the other periods we can recognize in least than an second. In 50 milliseconds we can see if a person is extrovert and even what kind of relationship this person wants, a long-term one or just an affair. In 100 milliseconds we know how trustworthy a person is, because in this sort period of time we decide if we would give somebody a credit. And again we are good at it. Our success rate is over 70%. And we are hell stubborn about our first impressions. I mean, really stubborn. We alternated this first impression, sure, but normally we only reinforce it and redefine it at the sidelines. We absolutely don't like to accept an impression that is antithetical to our first impression. I mean it, we hate to be wrong and just hold on to our incorrect first impression. We are like a dog with a bone and we are not letting go. But again most of the time we are correct, so all is cool. Pretty impressive, right?
And once again I tricked you into learning something.
Kyoko was nervous too meet her new trainers for the first time. She wanted to make a good first impression. What if they didn't like her and sent her away again, saying she is unacceptable. What should she wear? They are stuntmen, something cool maybe? She still had Setsu's stuff in her wardrobe. Tsuruga-san gave them to her after he argued that it's more than unlikely that he was ever going to need them himself. Her response that he could give them to his girlfriend earned her a strange look and 'Just take them.'. But she wasn't really comfortable in them as Kyoko. She would blush the whole time and try to cover herself. No Setsu's outfit was a no-go. Maybe a sports outfit? Maybe they want to know how fit she is our something. But if they don't do this she would look ridiculous, but if they do it and she doesn't have it with her she would look unprepared. She decides she won't wear it from the beginning but take it with her. But what else should she wear? Her school uniform? She will meet them in the late afternoon/early evening, after she had been at LME. In her school uniform maybe she would look to young, to naive for this training. No something else. No skirt, she would look to girly or like she is afraid to get dirty. Nothing to fashionable for the same reason, but not something completely uncool either. She will go in some jeans and a cool t-shirt.
Kyoko had all these thoughts at 5:30 in the morning before going to school. She wanted to make a good first impression. In the end all this didn't matter, because on her way from school to LME she got drenched in heavy rain and all her stuff was completely soaked. She had to go in her spar LoveMe uniform.
By the way when it started to rain Hirotaka Honda had drove past her. He even had pity with her for getting wet. He hadn't recognized her as an actress from LME or he would have gave her a lift. Not that he was better off. At the next traffic light he had to brake hard and his coffee fell over on his shirt and trousers. This day was one of those I-shouldn't-had-left-the-bed-days. It started that he only had icing cold water for his shower, then he burned his breakfast and his normal road was blocked. When he was finally at LME he got in the middle of the presidents wandering circus and was pulled along in the completely wrong direction. And before you say something, yes from time to time I will force you to follow Hirotakas epic tale of being absolutely unimportant to this story.
The address she had was a bit outside of the city in an industrial area. It was too far to go by bike even for Kyoko, so she took the metro. She got lots of strange looks and she was sure some of the other passengers missed their stop because they were too stunned by her uniform. It took some time to find the address, when it slowly but surely got darker around her. It was a motor repair shop. The garage was closed, but you could see the spare part depot though a big window. Behind it was a big open area that was surrounded by a high fence. A couple of halogen flashlights enlightened the back part of the area in a harsh, unforgiving way. Most likely it was so unforgiving to burn the souls of those who put it up. It whispers: you could have a LED lamp right now, much more environment-friendly and cheaper in its use. Yes, that's why they always make sure you look like ugly as hell, seems reasonable. Next to it was a junkyard, which seemed to bleed over. A lot of old, half-taken apart cars were standing on the sides, like a zombie-car army, waiting to be relieved. Kyoko couldn't find a bell, but a small gate in the fence was ajar. After a short moment of hesitating, she called out and entered. Well, the alternative would have been to wait in a barely lighted, a bit creepy industrial area for somebody and please let it be the right somebody to notice her. Yeah, not the most difficult decision. Nobody answered, but she could hear motor sounds from the enlightened area. She was a bit early, half an hour to be exactly.
As she got nearer, she saw three motorbikes driving close to each other and throwing some kind of bag between them. They were two guys and one girl on the bikes. One of the guys looked very tall, but it was difficult to say how tall on the motorbike. Kyoko watched in awe and fear (born form the natural self-preservation) as they were driving circle around each other. Would she learn that too? As the girl went into a curve so low that her knee was nearly touching the ground, Kyoko seriously considered turning around and leaving. No way in hell would she do this. That looked crazy and suicidal. What person in their right mind would what to do that? Answer: no one, but lucky everybody who does this isn't in their right mind. The People who mostly do this kind of stuff are completely high on their own adrenaline and serotonin. Before she could be on her way out somebody called out to her. It was a woman in a much, much too big leather jacket. Kyoko hadn't noticed her before. Mostly because she stood on the sidelines and not anywhere near the fast moving deathtraps. So thanks to the anticipated reptile part of our fantastic brain (that tells us: look at the moving stuff, the rest is boring, first me) she was registered, but ignored.
"Hey, who are you? What are you doing here? Ok, you can take a break guys." The last part was said into her headset.
"Um, I'm Kyoko Mogami from LME. I'm here for training." She was pretty sure she sounded as unconvinced as she felt. The other woman went up to her. She was nearly the same height as Kyoko, but she was much more confident than Kyoko.
"Ah. Was that today? Ok. I'm Haru. Guys come over here. We have a visitor." The three bikers stopped behind Haru and turned the motors off. The tall one dismounted first. Kyoko took her first thoughts back. He wasn't tall. He was freaking gigantic. He would dwarf Tsuruga-san next to him, by maybe one head. Kyoko took a step back. Being this tall wasn't normal. As he removed his helmet Kyoko saw that he was a westerner with brown hair and bright eyes. The exact color was difficult to say from Kyokos position.
"This is Bastiaan. We are the bosses here. We make the choreography. You better do what we tell you, got it?"
"Um, hello Bastiaan-sama. Please take care of me." She really really tried not to stare, but it was impossible. She had never seen somebody to huge. He looked as if he could smash her head with just one hand. He seemed to be in his mid to late thirties, the same age Haru appeared to be.
"2.17m." "What?" "That's how tall I am. Everybody wonders that when they first meet me." "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare." "It's ok. I'm used to it. And no, I don't find clothes in my size." He smiled in a good natured way. Kyoko decided he may look dangerous but was very friendly. She didn't have time to talk more with him, because the other guy steped forward. He looked small and fragile next to the giant, even if he probably wasn't in a normal environment. He was definitely taller than her. He nodded politely at her as Haru introduced him.
"This is Tao. He is your mechanic and pyrotechnic. He's a little chatterbox, but don't worry since his accident it's a lot easier to ignore him." Before she could express her confusion in words, he removed his helmet and revealed some gruesome scars on his neck and jaw. To say she was a bit shocked was a bit of an understatement. "How?"
"An accident. Five or six years ago. Lost his voice and around about half of his teeth." The indifferent way Haru told her this left Kyoko very confused, but nobody seemed to care. Tao smiled at her and gestured something.
"Oh shut it, Tao."
At last the girl stepped in front of Kyoko. Her body language was dismissing as she eyed Kyoko and something seemed off with her. When she removed her helmet Kyoko was very irritated. 'She' had a very noticeable chin beard that contradicted 'her'(?) large breasts.
"Who is that? We don't need a little kid running around here." Her/his/its voice sounded male.
"Shin, stop being a bastard." Bastiaan reprimanded him(?). Kyoko decide to go with 'he' until told different. Haru answered him anyway, even when she seemed to be pissed off.
"This is Kyoko, right? She's from LME. We talked about her coming here to train." She shot a warning glare at Shin, not that he seemed to care.
"Oh fantastic. We get an actress here and we get an eyesore." The way he looked at her made sure, he wasn't just taking about the uniform.
"SHIN! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"What? Just because you thought it's a fantastic idea to get pregnant, we now need to entertain some little freak, who her agency doesn't know what to do with! I agreed to this because I thought she would look good enough to fu-" He didn't finish his sentence because Bastiaan hit him in the back of his neck.
"Shin, I mean it. Stop being an ass. I'm sorry for his behavior. He thinks he has to prove his manliness because of the amount of time he has to wear those lucky fake boobs." Bastiaan had a nice deep voice and he talked accent free. Kyokos first impression was made. She couldn't stand Shin, but the tall foreigner was nice. Shin turned around and left without apologizing. Haru was still angry and didn't even try to calm down.
"You little piece of shit. Come back here!" She stormed after him like a bull after his torero and they screamed at each other some more. The other two sighed and Kyoko just stood there and felt intimidated. She wishes herself anywhere else but here. Ok, apart from anywhere near to Sho, now that would be worst.
"Let us show you around, ok. They will need some time to calm down." Tao and Bastiaan offered her. Ok, Bastian offered Tao nodded euphoric. How could she say no to that? The chance to get away from two downright dangerous people that look ready to kill each other amd everything that can't run away fast enough. Considered that they have motorbikes Kyoko didn't see her chances to high in that race. Better get an headstart now and as a bonus she even got a guy to hide behind who looks like he could take a frontal crash with a motorbike without getting a scratche.
"Well, my home is my junkyard or my junkyard is my castle, something like this. You see, we repair and fix the cars we are going to destroy ourselves. Like Haru already said, Tao-kun here is our man for that. But we are all able to repair our babies."
They tried their best, but Kyokos mind was still on the fight she just saw. /Was that normal? Are they always talking like this with each other? I want to go home!/
"Am I causing trouble for you?" A part of her desperately wanted to answer to be yes. It would a great excuse NOT to be part of this craziness. She could go to Sawara-san and explain that it's not her fault, or something. Yes sounds fantastic!
"No no. It has nothing to do with you. We have a contract for a movie that starts in five months. The choreography is nearly done and we are now building everything we are going to crash." She tried not to walk too closely to the giant, because if you look up to somebody who's stomach is on your eye-level is a sure bet for neck ache. With Tsuruga-san it was difficult enough sometimes but with him she could at least get a clear view on his face without his chest blocking her view. Oh don't get her wrong, Tsuruga-san has a really nice chest with great muscles, very firm and nice and all. What was the subject again? Oh yeah, trying not to look at Bastiaans chest. Not that he had an ugly chest (not as nice as Tsuruga-sans, but not ugly). He had a strongman build, wide shoulders, strong torso, huge chest. Not the lean build of Tsuruga-san and not the over the top look of a bodybuilder, but like a healthy man who got his muscles from hard work. So not ugly, but still she tried to avoid looking at his chest. One, because again the neck pain and two, do you know how frustrating it is that three out of four people you meet have a bigger cup-size then you and add insult to injury only one of them is a girl.
"It wasn't really planned that Haru get pregnant and the doctor said she shouldn't drive on the bike, nevertheless doing stunts. This could cost us a bit of money. That's why we train you. Your agency pays us for this." Tao gestured something she couldn't understand. "Naa, we will first see how she is doing and if she likes it, before we talk about something like this. So don't try to talk her into something, understood? Sorry, he is talking non-stop, you can ignore most of his chatter." It was strangely fascinating how they switched between two completely different concepts of speech without even realizing it.
"I don't think that's going to be a problem for me. I first have to learn how to understand him..." "Oh right. Hmm, don't worry too much about that. It's not as if he says anything worth listening to." They started to shove each other like five-year-olds or more accurate a five-years-old and his five years older brother. It ended with Tao being in a headlock and being dragged around by Bastiaan.
"We will show you how to drive a bike. If you want you can learn how to drive a car too, but a bike is more fun. Apart from that we would take you with us in our normal work. You can tell us if you want to learn something or we see something we think you should know. How does that sound?"
"Good?" /Like you don't have a real plan what you want to do!/
"Fantastic. So you want something to drink?" He clearly intentionally ignored her uncertainty and pulled his poor friend, who took on an unhealthy color, with him to the back of the repair store.
"Ok." "Do you have any questions? It didn't need to be work-related." "Where are you from? I mean you speak Japanese very well." "I would hope so. I was born and raised here." "I'm sorry. I didn't... I thought, you were..." "It's ok. Everybody thinks that. My parents moved here before I was born. They are from the Netherlands, one of those small countries in Europe. We just have too few foreigners here."
Kyoko was still red from her mistake when Tao offered her sweet lemonade. It was a bit too sweet for her taste, but she was too polite to refuse. He had freed himself from the headlock by actually biting into Bastiaan's side. This seems to be normal behavior for them. Here she was completely wrong. This wasn't normal for them. This was their grown-up-acting-because-they-have-a-visitor-behavior, but she is going to realize her mistake with sometime around them.
"Thank you, Tao-sama." "Sama, hmm? Don't call him that. It will go up his head."
Before anyone could answer to this Haru and Shin entered, both in an absolute miserable mood, but they didn't look like the fight had gone physical.
"You showed her around already?" "A bit. The rest I want to show her when we have a bit more light to see something. I wanted to take a look at her schedule to see when she is coming by." "Ok. Do you have anything we have to worry about?" "In the morning I have high school. I can skip sometimes, but I would like to know when. If you want me to come in early, please tell me as soon as possible." "You are still in school? How old are you?" "17. Is that a problem?" "No, Just interesting. Anything else?" Once again no emergency exit for Kyoko. "Hmm acting school and of course my drama shoot, that schedule is always a bit different, oh and Wednesday afternoon I have a regular part. Apart from that I only work at LME and at the restaurant, but those two are very flexible and shouldn't be a problem." She was met with lots of raised eyebrows.
"At last we know you don't have a boyfriend." "What?" "There is no way you would have time for one. Write down your schedule for the next three weeks and I will send it back to you with your times here." While she wrote down everything, Tao seemed to ask something. "Oh, he wants to know what drama you are shooting." "It's called Box-R. The first episodes were aired just a short time ago. I play Natsu in it." "Nice. Ok where are you living? One of us is dropping you off." When they heard her address they all looked at Shin. He on the other hand looked at her as if she was some kind of disgusting worm.
"If I have to," Then he turned around and left. When he was out of the door he called back. "Coming? I'm not going to wait for you." "Ah, good bye everyone. I'm happy to work with you." She bowed to the other three and hurried after her ride.
"Here put on the helmet." "We are going by bike?" This worried her a lot. She wasn't ready for that. She first wanted to watch some more before going near one of those things. "Of course. Now hurry, I don't have all night." Kyoko swallowed uneasy, but put on the helmet and took place behind Shin. He didn't care that he had a bike novice behind him. Ok, that's wrong he did care and drove extra risky. Accordingly shaken Kyoko jumped from the bike when she was home. This ride and the time she was forced to spend close to Shin were on her comfort scale on the same level with a very mean mosquito bite on the ass, that you couldn't scratch because it would look very rude.
"Stop being such a nuisance. I will most likely drop you off a lot in the next time." His voice and eyes were cold as he gave Kyoko one last glare. He made sure to let her know that her antipathy was a two-way road.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Both looked irritated around. Where did that even come from?
It was Hirotaka. His suboptimal day ended with his key being broke in two in the lock. It was impossible that anyone had a worst day than him today. He was sure about that.
You know may ask yourself: did Kyoko for a wrong first impression from Shin, like it was hinted at the beginning of the chapter? No, he is a sexist asshole and, you don't know it yet, with a terrible unfunny sense of humor. Nevertheless Kyoko and you with her have to get used to him.
Not My best chapter but sometimes this interducing chapters are needed... Thank you XxLovelyStoryXx for betaing this chapter.
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