I decided that I wanted to do a re-write of the film The Holiday (2006), a delightful rom-com with Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, and Jack Black, but with Sailor Moon characters. I highly recommend the movie, but also the score as it's composed by Hans Zimmer. It's pretty long for a typical rom-com, but I feel like there's so much more to the story than just a quick romance which is what made me want to write something similar!

This is my first time writing a full story with the characters clearly living in Japan versus my home country, so I hope I do it justice (feel free to PM me if you have notes!).

Aino Minako, Tokyo City, Minato District:

"You won't believe it, he brought her to the office Christmas party," my friend Himari whispered as she leaned against my desk. "And she's wearing the new Chanel dress that's coming out in this year."

I scanned my article, trying to find a way to adjust the lede so that it wouldn't seem like I waited to the last second to finish writing this, though I did, before sending it to the copyeditors. Fashion had always been an interest of mine, ever since I went back-to-school shopping with my parents and a couple gift cards from extended family. At that age, the department store seemed to go on forever with endless possibilities.

Fashion had a lot of options back then, I suppose. You could buy almost anything and layer it, or mix and match with hats, scarves, and overalls. And not everything was always on display.

"So?" I muttered as I glanced up at the framed letter on my short cubicle wall. At first, many might think of it as some crown achievement, to have a black frame with a gold line embossed around all four sides incasing a letter from within the fashion industry, but alas it was just my most recent rejection letter from a modelling agency.

Following my eyes, Himari asked why I still kept that thing on the wall. I didn't want to admit how much it stung that Kairi left me for a model, or rather that he was dating us both and then chose her over me, and I certainly didn't want to discuss issue further.

Hoping to change the subject from Kairi's supermodel girlfriend, I turned in my mesh swivel chair to face my tall friend. "Did Asahi end up using those quotes from that interview with the girl that downed all the diet pills last summer?"

"I don't think so. His editor said it wasn't relevant to the topic of gossamer scarves versus chiffon belts, so it might still be in his notebook, if he hasn't started on his next one yet."

"I should go see if he's still at his desk then. This is due by 3 p.m. today because of the party."

Himari followed me, probably instinctively so that she could see Asahi, and asked how the topic of diet pills came up with chiffon anyways.

"Apparently she just started on a rant about the industry and he just kept recording. From what I recall, it was good info," I said, weaving through the crowd of coworkers that were already waiting around for the office party, talking up their weekend plans, along with Christmas and New Year's.

"Wait, isn't your article supposed to be about how to shed ten pounds fast for a New Year's resolution piece?"

"Yep, and I decided to go a different direction, to showcase the danger of some of the diet pills on the market, and to plead for our readers to involve their doctors in their diet plan."

Himari nodded as she held a nervous smile. "Good luck with that."

Truth be told, I hadn't tried applying again to any agency for the last two years because I knew it still wasn't enough. I wasn't skinny enough. Not androgynous enough either. And I didn't want to crop my long, blonde hair off to a super short bob or at a sharp angle.

The industry had one simple look these days, a look that is unnatural for most, and even those who are born with such traits have to work hard to maintain it. And only front cover celebrities get to smile anymore. All the ladies on the catwalk at the big shows don't get to show any emotion.

I mean, they aren't supposed to fall anyways, but if they trip on their seven-inch heels they can't show how much pain they are in. It's barbaric, and yet, I still hold to the idea that this world is for me, lest it be for anyone, really.

And there was still time, I suppose. I had tried most diets out there, and spent most of my free time exercising, but as I've gotten older, I keep falling into the mistake of bingeing, be that food or an entire TV series. And what did I have to show for my lack of restraint? No boyfriend. Stuck on the wrong career path. And hopelessly in love with someone who clearly doesn't love me back.

Himari smirked. "You know, he took me out to this theater last night? We sat in complete darkness with our food ordered ahead of time, and they played live music to these dancers in all black. It was definitely an experience."

"If the room was pitch black, how did you see the dancers?"

"Well, I mean, we could sense that they were there. They were clearly dancing around us," Himari said as we walked up to Asahi's desk. Honestly, it sounded like a waste of money to me; but so is much of the entertainment in the city.

After I got his notes, with Himari staying behind, I went on to finish my article. When a shadow fell on my desk, I only half expected it to be him, and more of me than I wished to acknowledge wished it was him too.

"Still working whilst the rest of us slack off?" Kairi said charmingly with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and that million-dollar grin. "Your work ethic makes us look lazy."

I smiled as if on cue, because there was really no other way to respond to the things he says to me.

"What are you doing for Christmas Eve? I was thinking we could go out, see a movie?" he tucked a long section of his boy-ish curls behind his ear.

"Wouldn't your girlfriend be mad? Knowing that you're hanging out with me?"

Kairi scoffed in that adorable way as he picked up the stress ball off my desk. "She may be my – girlfriend, but you're my best girl. We're friends, no?"

I know he just said that I was his 'best girl' – whatever that means exactly – but then the 'friend' following it had my head in a daze as my betraying heart melded the two into 'best girlfriend,' which really, is that even a good thing? Didn't that suggest that he was once again dating us both, instead of solely me?

"Uh-huh, just one second," I replied in a chipper tone, immediately yelling at myself internally for never combining my conscience with my words.

"Is it fun having a brain that works that fast?" he breathed as he rolled the stress ball back to its place, and lingered his hand near mine. The near touch of his hand both excited me and sent off alarm bells.

"Oh, I got you something," I said, immediately pulling away from him as I pretended to dig through my bag for something I knew was right on top.

"Minako, you didn't have to get me anything," he smiled as he accepted the wrapped gift. With a quick tear of the paper, he gaped at the plastic-wrapped book with his bottom lip dropping slightly, and held the gift up. "Wherever did you find this? I've searched for a first edition of this for ages."

"I know," I replied gleefully. "I just sort of stumbled on it, like fate, I guess?" I swallowed the lie that I had spent the better part of the year, and more of my savings than I cared to admit to anyone, outside of my credit card company and bank, trying to find the treasure.

"Well, thank you, Minako," he said resting his hand on my shoulder. "You're a great friend. I'll have your gift to you shortly, I just – forgot it at home is all." Just then, the alarm on my phone went off, letting me know that I needed to submit the article to the copyeditors so they'd have time to review it. "I should get going. See you at the party here soon, yeah?"

We parted with a smile, with mine falling not a moment later when I saw him walk up to her and drape his arm loosely around her tiny waist, and place a kiss on her cheek.

And she was wearing the new Chanel dress with the long skirt, the sheer shoulders, and the black fringe around the shoulders down to just a third of the skirt length. She looked amazing in it, and not only could I never afford something so fantastic, they probably wouldn't make it in my size.

With the party in full swing, I began making my rounds to wish everyone well for the upcoming holidays. I heard about many trips to various places around the country, and even a couple trips abroad, and silently wished that I could do more than a 'stay-cation,' where I just stuff my face with food and watch junk television, but I figured that's what I had waiting for me with my week off. At least I could expect my bonus check on Monday.

Suddenly, the room slowed to a stop.

Ahead, I saw Kairi and his girlfriend. Her laughing, and him smiling, as she showed off her left hand to the group they were mingling with, and on her ring finger was a beautiful diamond setting in gold surrounded by a bunch of smaller, glittering diamonds. My hands tightened their grip to my champagne flute, in an effort to not drop the delicate object, as they kissed in front of me. Kairi must've felt my stare as he immediately looked up to see me there, awestruck.

"I—I have to go," I said to no one in particular as I gathered my belongings, and headed out for my train. All the way home, I sat perfectly still, afraid that even a moment of weakness from my resolve would collapse the walls I had built, and then the messy tears and the sad sobs would start, right there in public.

I shuffled down the hallway to my apartment, my wet boots covered in grey sludge as I gave simple nods to my neighbors, steering clear of apartment 2C as I turned the key for 2B and was greeted by my little sanctuary. And there, at the sound of the door clicking behind me, before even shedding my shoes, I fell to the ground in tears.

Tsukino Usagi, Hakkōda Mountains in Aomori:

The sun peered through the large, open-faced windows, blinding me once again as I rolled my pillow over my head to block out the noise of the morning. Guests were starting their days, some packing up for their trip home while others focused on breakfast and their plans for the day.

And with morning came work. All day; work, work, work.

It wasn't like I wasn't grateful for the financial security, if you could even call it that at this point, and this ryokan had been in my family for several generations, but try as my father might I still longed to be in the city.

"Guess it's time to start another day," I muttered aloud as I shed my warm covers wishing I could spend the morning enveloped in the hot, mineral waters on the onsen, but I had a lot of chores to start with first.

Years ago – this ryokan with the onsen – it was my favorite place to be; not that we went anywhere else. There wasn't much time, so only holidays with extended family sufficed as adventure. My mother would tell us – Shingo and I – fantastical stories of different lands as we drove just a few towns over to see family. We didn't have the best internet coverage out this far in the country, so my free time was spent drawing manga and writing in my journals, short stories mostly. As technology advanced, lack of internet coverage turned into spotty Wi-Fi service, but I had many DVDs of Japanese teen serials set in cities like Sapporo, Osaka, and Tokyo to satisfy my wanderlust back then.

Don't get me wrong, it's not as if I hated this place. More than how familiar it felt to still walk these halls and to have my own dedicated room, and more than the thought that my mother's spirit was still filling it with love, more than all that, I needed change.

Couples, families, solitary travelers – so many spent all year saving up and looking forward to these vacations. The ones that budgeted better or have better finances were more frequent customers that we surely knew by name. But when their trip was up, they went somewhere else. They might wish they had the 'luxury' of an onsen on a daily basis, or got to live in the 'tranquil' mountains, but the truth is this place gets old fast, and leaves a lot to be desired.

I blinked several times as I caught Shingo eyeing me while I poured my first cup of coffee. "What?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, and hurried over to me, passing a couple dressed in matching yukatas. "You're doing it again," he said in a hushed tone. "You're narrating your life aloud, and you're bringing down the ambience."

I scoffed with an eye roll. "Either you're admitting it's easy to bring down the boring façade of this place, or you give me a lot of credit."

"Oh, you're definitely a storyteller," he weaved past me to adjust the thermostat on the wall. "Perhaps if we weren't so busy you could focus on your drawings a little more, and publish something; in another life you'd be a famous manga author, but here, on Earth, you are supposed to be helping us run this ryokan."

Noticing the ledger in his hands, I walked over to the front desk and booted up the laptop screen. "Are we having trouble finishing the month's books again?"

Shingo nodded. "We're losing more business. The economy isn't doing the best, so people are looking for other places to stay – cheaper places – and they're either going to standalone onsens for day-trips or forgoing the experience for just time in the mountains. I mean, it's not like we're a ski lodge, but we nearly charge enough money for one."

"H-how are we losing business to other places? And how else would we afford to keep this place open?" Shingo shook his head. "I didn't know we had other hotels in the area." I tried to think if there had been any new builds recently, but our area was still very rustic and untouched in many ways. It was part of the charm, I suppose. "And what experience from the mountains?"

"Usagi, have you not heard of Airbnb yet? People rent out their own properties, either for home exchange or for when people own more than one apartment or home."

It was an intriguing idea; I wished I had thought of it. What a million dollar idea!

"More like billion dollar idea," Shingo said, revealing that I was once-again doing my own narration. "Besides, you might not care for it much, but people love nature. We all need time to be around flora and fauna, the mountain and the sea. Father sees that people want nature, it's why he hasn't shut this old place down yet." He refilled his mug with more coffee as he gave a polite nod to another couple.

I moved closer and muttered, "Dad hasn't shut this down because he still feels mom's spirit here. It's also why he won't make any changes, like update us to modern technology."

A guest walked up wanting to know what scheduled activities there were for the day, and was disappointed when I said that we only had the one for today, which was teapot painting, taught by my grandmother. It'd be better if we had our ryokan chef teach some cooking basics, or something more than a nature walk, and I'm sure he'd love to do it.

With his arms crossed, Shingo leaned in, almost elbowing me in the side, "Why are you so obsessed with television? Real life is not what you see in your dramas."

"Maybe if we tried something different we'd have less cancellations and more nights at-capacity, Shingo." I grabbed the computer and moved to the small library. It took a long while to load the search results, and then the page itself, but I managed to pull up this Airbnb website that he was talking about. After fifteen minutes of searching it was clear that we had a lot more rentals in the area than I thought.

"If this keeps up, we'll end up closing the ryokan for sure," I whispered to myself. "But," I paused as I tried another search, "maybe that means we'll have to go to the city for work, and I can finally get out of this place. Wouldn't it be good to have a little background on the area before moving there?"

The results loaded and I saw so many expensive rentals in Tokyo. They were gorgeous though, with light colored walls, and sleek, tan furniture. Everything looked so bright and clean.

I adjusted the filter for basically the lowest price per night, and found some more reasonably-priced options. When clicking on one such apartment in the Azabu-jūban area of Minato, Tokyo, I accidentally clicked the message box and started a chat with the owner.

Usa-buni: Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to open a chatbox.

I waited for a response, but when I didn't get one I figured they weren't inconvenienced anyways. As I moved to close the laptop, I heard a ding.

Mina-P: That's totally fine ^_^ Were you interested in staying in Tokyo?

I thought for a moment, and responded faster than I could tell myself not to; ignoring the internal monologue supplied mostly by Shingo and my father, with just a little bit of my grandmother.

Usa-buni: I was thinking about it. I'm a little short on finances at the moment, so I'm not sure if I can swing it right now.

And even faster still, the owner responded.

Mina-P: Well, my area is fairly inexpensive for rentals, compared to other areas with how close you'd be to the city's highlights, and I could leave you with a list of shops and restaurant recommendations to get the most bang for your buck.

"Hmm, that'd be cool," I said as I started a reply when I heard the ding again.

Mina-P: Actually, where are you from? If you want, we could do a home-exchange. Like, you live here for a couple weeks, and I stay where you live. A switch-up sort of deal.

Usa-buni: So we wouldn't pay rental fees?

Usa-buni: I live in Aomori, near the Hakkōda Mountains.

Mina-P: Just for our own food, like normal.

Mina-P: Oh my gosh! Really? Your house must be beautiful!

I sighed, shaking my head at the naivety of city-dwellers.

Usa-buni: Not a house, per se, but a ryokan. My family operates one as part of an onsen.

Mina-P: You've got to be kidding me. Why would you ever want to leave?

I didn't know how to respond to the question, one I had been asked all too many a time, so she added to her message.

Mina-P: Please, just tell me, there are no available men in the area? I'm looking for some time away from it all, and men just… suck right now.

I thought for a moment, trying to recall the few people in the village nearby, most of the ones I had dated were either married or in long-term relationships now, and then I wondered if she would even stray that far from the ryokan. After all, everyone (else) loves an onsen. Besides the village, Shingo was in a long-distance relationship with a girl studying in the States, and no one else came to mind…

Usa-buni: Nope! We're deficient in the available male populace. You shouldn't have any trouble here.

Mina-P: Great! I can be there tomorrow!