Chapter Seven

Kijima smiled to his long-term girlfriend as they exited one of the restaurants in the center of the downtown area. This was one of those classy restaurants that was mostly frequented by the wealthy business people and celebrities. "I ate too much," he said as they walked to the edge of the road. "I can give you a ride home if you want. I want you to move in with me but -"

"But I promised my family I wouldn't live with anyone I wasn't engaged to," she smiled and Kijima sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Guess I'm going to have to propose, aren't I," he winked before his girlfriend kissed his cheek. Kijima heard some gossiping and sighed as he pushed his hand through his hair but he realized people weren't looking at him this time and he saw some people pointing to a man who just seemed to be pacing back and forth. Kijima stared at the man, tall, blonde, wearing sun glasses at night, beard, wearing the wrong sort of clothes for the rainy weather. "No way, it couldn't be." Kijima said before kissing his girlfriend, "Do you think that it's okay for me to go check him out. I don't think he's who I -"

"Friend of yours?" his girlfriend asked, "I wonder what's so special about him, he looks homeless."

"I have to go check it out anyway if it really is Tsu—Hizrui," Kijima said and his girlfriend nodded. Kijima hugged her before waiting for the lights to make it safer so that he could run across the road. He went over to Kuon and put his hand on his arm, stopping him. He saw Kuon pull back and take some heavy breaths. "Hey, Tsurug-sorry, Hizuri, you okay? Do you know where you are?" he asked him and Kuon stared at him taking off the sunglasses. "Okay. It is you. I've got that answered for me. Do you know where you are?" he asked as he noticed Kuon's spaced out expression.

Kuon looked around as if he was in some sort of trance. "I'm sorry," he whispered before wrapping an arm around his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he whispered and Kijima took a deep breath in.

"Kuon?" he asked as the blond looked at him. "What are you doing without a jacket? Do you know where you are? You look like shi-hell." Kijima sighed before pushing an umbrella into Kuon's hand. He looked down at the item in his hand as if he didn't know what it was.

"Do you know where you are?" Kijima asked as he studied him and Kuon looked around still acting as if he were a zombie, he shook his head. "Look, I heard what happened and no one blames you for it. Are you with someone? Kyoko? Is she with you?"

"No. No she's not here," he said and Kijima stared at him and saw that he was still holding the umbrella but more or less was acting like a zombie. "Okay. We need to get you somewhere dry. You want to go get a drink or something?" he asked and Kuon shook his head. "Okay. Well let's drive somewhere, I've got a couple towels in my car, maybe a jacket or something," he said looking at the loose T-shirt that Kuon was wearing that was completely soaked through. "My car is -"

Kuon pulled back and handed Kijima the umbrella, a complete look of terror in his eyes. "I can't…I can't…someone will get hurt. I can't hurt someone else. I can't…" he shivered and Kijima sighed.

"You're not going to hurt anyone," Kijima sighed as he took back the umbrella and looked around for somewhere that they could go if Kuon was resisting getting into a car. He had to at least get him out of the rain. "You are completely messed up, man," he said before pointing to a famous and high-end karaoke bar. "Okay. We're going to go there. We'll get a room and I'll make a few phone calls, maybe get Kyoko down here since she must be really worried about you."

Kuon shook his head and then looked at the ground. "I can't, not at a time like this, I can't sing. I have to repent. I have to make sure that the family knows I didn't mean it and that I'd give anything to bring back their son. I need to take my punish-"

"I'm going to take your atheist ass there one way or another," Kijima frowned. "I mean, not only do I consider you a friend but I owe you a lot and I'm sure that you haven't made a claim on any of the dozens of favors I owe you. I won't make you sing but if you walked all this way and don't want to get into a car I can't do much short of knocking you out and forcing you into the back seat."

Kijima put his hand on Kuon's shoulder and tugged him to the karaoke bar with people watching. They were vultures anyway for pouncing on Kuon like this. He didn't think Kuon was on drugs but his mind had slipped somehow from where it was. "What brought you out here anyway?"

"Hair dye," Kuon said as he looked away. "I wanted to buy it."

"Well it's a good thing that I stopped you from doing that then. First of all, your stylist would probably kill you for putting that low grade stuff in your hair and second, it works best for you to stay blond or at least it works for all of us other actors who are still living in the shadow of Tsuruga Ren. I mean, now that we know your secret of being some American prince of the Hizuri family, we're not trying to get the same parts but you're still a success that Japan likes to take claim of," he said wondering how much of this Kuon was following along with. He sighed and held the door open ready to shove Kuon through if necessary. "I mean, it's good to see you again. Everyone missed you. I missed hanging out with you. I'm glad to see that you're alive."

7.2

Kijima took a deep breath in as he noticed that Kuon had fallen asleep atop of one of the sofas in the room. He had had the staff bring in some water and food as well as some towels and asked them for their confidentiality. He had booked the room for four hours but hoped they wouldn't be there that long. He sighed as he stared at the poor guy wanting to do more for him but not quite knowing how.

He looked through the long list of contacts on his phone before he found Kyoko's number. He dialed it and heard it being picked up almost immediately.

"Kuon!?" she asked quickly, "Are you -"

"Sorry. I'm not Kuon," Kijima said, "but he is with me."

"Kijima-san?" Kyoko asked as she exhaled in relief.

"Yeah, glad you recognized my voice. I'm glad I still rank in Hizuri's close friend group," Kijima said before sitting down opposite the worn out father and husband. "I have him here. We're at Star Karaoke in Shinjuku, do you know the one?"

"I know it," Kyoko replied. "How is he there? He left his phone, his car, his jacket here."

"I found him wandering around in the street. Not sure how many of the paparazzi found him but he's safe here. Just ask for my name and they should show you the room, I said that somebody would come here asking for me. If you can't come then -"

"I'll come. I have someone watching Aurora so I'll come right now. I'm going to be bringing Kuon's father as well," she said and Kijima paused.

"You're bringing…him?" he asked as he looked at his own appearance. Okay. He had gotten used to Kuon being seen as Hizuri royalty but when it came to Kuu Hizuri, he had spoken with the guy maybe three times and those were always at event parties that Kyoko and Kuon were hosting and there were numerous other people there. The only thing that made it so he could talk to Kuon without numerous questions about the rest of the Hizuri family was that he had known him and been friends with him as Ren Tsuruga. "Okay. Yeah. Can you bring something for him to wear, his jacket or a coat or something and an umbrella. It's coming down worse than I've seen it for a while."

"Kijima-san, relax. Fa-Kuu is just like everyone else. He just wants to make sure that Kuon is okay. Thank you for finding him and taking him there," Kyoko said the worry fading slightly in her voice. "I'll come as soon as possible."

"You know, the majority of us don't think he did anything wrong, in fact we're kind of impressed with how much he tried to do. I don't think that I could have handled that situation that well," Kijima commented as he saw how worn out Kuon was. He was too skinny and he had never thought he'd see the man with facial hair like that unless it was for a role.

"Thank you," Kyoko sighed. "However, until he starts to forgive himself and move forward there's not a lot that we can do to help him. I'll see you soon," she told him.

"Thanks Kyoko, I'll keep him here for you. See you soon," he said before looking over to Kuon who was staring at him. "Kyoko's coming for you. Your dad's coming as well." He saw Kuon attempt to get up from the sofa and reached out to prevent him. "You want to talk about it? What made you wander around tonight?"

"Why are you here?" Kuon asked as he appeared to look through the other actor. "That boy is dead because of me. Why do you even care about what happens to me?"

"First of all, you may have been in the car that impacted with him but you did not have control of that car and it was an accident, you tried to prevent it and so did the stunt driver but your plans conflicted and one of the worst possible things happened. It was an accident. And second, don't think that we're not friends and this is what I do for my friends. Now, I might not want to sleep with you but haven't we always gone to a bar or a restaurant or somewhere together when either I'm in the US or you're in Japan. Don't tell me you don't consider us friends?"

Kuon sighed and looked to Kijima before sighing. "I'm sorry. I haven't been very worthy of friendship lately. I do consider you a friend but that doesn't mean I'm not responsible for that boy's death. As you said, I was in the car that killed him."

"Yes. The car killed him and it's obvious you tried as hard as you could to prevent it. It's good that you're talking normally now. We've all been supporting you. We're all concerned about you. So, can I ask what inspired this zombie act? You must have walked for over an hour to get here," he said and Kuon looked at the ceiling, his depression sinking in.

"The petition," he said and Kijima sighed.

"Trolls who are jealous of your acting talent. People who are intimidated by you coming back to Japan despite you doing it for Kyoko's benefit. I've had it myself, stupid ass people telling me that I should step down from acting. Of course, I've heard it all, that I'm not handsome enough for a part or that I'm a womanizer, one even said that I wasn't educated enough to play a role and it needed to be recast," Kijima sighed before looking over at Kuon. "All actors get it you have to be ready to tune that stuff out."

"It was the petition saying that Aurora needed to be taken away from me by child protective services," Kuon further explained and Kijima looked absolutely disgusted by that.

"Ouch. That is a lot of bull crap. I didn't know about that but you know that they are just talking crap about things they don't know about. You're an amazing father, Hizuri. Both Aurora and Kyoko absolutely adore you. On the last project I worked with Kyoko, she couldn't stop talking about how great of a father and husband you are and you came back to some small country like Japan even though you won an Academy Award because you wanted to be there for your girls. I mean, damn, most fathers don't prioritize their kids that much."

Kijima saw the pain in Kuon's eyes and looked away. "Nobody who knows anything will take that kid away from you. She's lucky enough to have both you and Kyoko not to talk about your extended family. Aurora came to set maybe a month ago and she kept saying how much she loves you and how excited she was to see you. That girl, both of them, think the world of you and you really do live up to all their hype. So don't listen to them. They shouldn't be targeting Aurora like that."

"I remember when I first dyed my hair back to its natural color and came out to Japan, you wouldn't even talk to me for a bit," Kuon said and Kijima looked at him before rolling his eyes.

"Okay. Hizuri, I had trouble believing it. You managed to fool everyone. It was jarring at first. The sophisticated respected Tsuruga Ren was actually made up by Hizuri Kuu's son who had his own personality and might be a bit reckless and a little twisted. It didn't mean I didn't like you but it was a shocker. I mean, we all thought we knew you." Kijima stared at him before gesturing to the food. "You look famished so eat something, will you? You know Kyoko will ask if you had anything to eat and I don't want to be the one to tell her no."

Kuon sat up slowly and looked at the food in front of him before tentatively taking a small amount.

"We need to hang out more. You need to know there's a whole world of people who care about you," Kijima said before hearing a buzzing and smiled. "Okay. They came quicker than I thought," he said before turning to Kuon. "No one hates you or blames you. We all want for you to get better but we haven't been reaching out because we felt you needed space."

Kijima listened to the front desk before unlocking the door to the room and sat down again. "I expect to see you in no more than one month," he told Kuon as he pointed to him and Kuon stared at him before nodding. "The best thing about your talent and your good looks, your unachievable good looks, is that you're hitched and now you've been off the market for a while, it makes the rest of us look better." Kijima said not mentioning how loyal he was to his girlfriend.

He sat up as he saw the door open and Kyoko came running in followed by Kuu who was holding some towels and both a hoody and a coat with an umbrella hooked onto his arm. Kyoko ran over to Kuon and wrapped her arms around him. She reached for one of the towels before putting it over his head and patting down his hair. "You idiot! Always take your phone with you."

"Thank you," Kuu said with a bow to Kijima who immediately stood up and returned the action. "Thank you for taking care of Kuon."

End of Chapter Seven

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