The Bishounen Diaries

It seems that Iwara was a bit impatient. No sooner than I dropped my bags off did I get a message saying he's had a change of scheduling and needed to push the meeting ahead to this evening. At least I would get to shrug off the jet lag with my family. We were all happy to see each other, and my parents were pretty perked up about how I diligently attended to my professional matters...'unlike some of the flaky actors out there'. It was their way of politely allowing me to skip out on the first night back with them. They'd get the extra day with me at the end of the week, though, since I would no longer have the meeting with Iwara.

It seemed odd to meet at a hotel restaurant instead of one on the street or downtown. Maybe Iwara really had a packed schedule and was working out of his hotel room while in town. Perhaps he stayed here often and they had a special dish. In either case, it felt a little odd to get dressed up to go to a hotel for a business dinner.

When I arrived the concierge was waiting at the front desk. He walked me straight to the table where Iwara was waiting. During our introductions I found it odd that the table was set for three, but then I looked around the restaurant, and it was the same setting for all of the tables. Even single customers sat a tables set for three. As we went on talking about a screen adaptation of a novel (in general, not any specific one, nor the one he was considering me for), I then knew we'd have another guest. All the tables were set for three, but our third place had a beverage poured.

Iwara caught me eyeing the glass. "Oh yes, Yori, my daughter will be joining us. I happen to have her with me on my trip here, do be polite."

"I'm sorry Iwara, it seems curiosity just took the better of my concentration. Where were we?"

"The mind's eye."

"Oh yes, the prospect that nothing a producer or director can yield in cinema is ever as perfect as what we create in our own minds from a story of text."

"That's my dilemma, and my purpose."

"Perhaps you could explain more thoroughly, Iwara." I poked. He began to, but we were then interrupted by the arrival of his daughter. Introductions were made as well as the ordering of our meals. It seems that this was a place that the two had frequented, because they ordered without a menu. I found I didn't wish to be outclassed or give them a commoner impression, so I ordered without looking from the menu as well. Every hotel restaurant in Japan serves rice with boiled eggs and vegetables, I could then pick out (when it arrives) my favorite of the vegetables and proclaim that this is one of the few places that marries the flavors well with it. Sly, a lie, but I'm an actor, and I must keep my skill sharp.

"Oh, so it's not the first time you've been here either Yori?

"No, but it is the first time I've had a conversation partner, a good one." I would mix false commonality with a compliment while at the same time switching back to the main subject. I felt strong. When I am in my element I feel like a great boulder rolling down a hill. I would get the part for sure.

"Oh yes, the mind's eye."

"How is it that you use it as your purpose in film, Iwara?"

"You see, movie renditions of books always have a disappointing aspect. Even if one of the hundreds of thousands of words held within a text are omitted in the film from a book that was film worthy, it would be the word that belonged to at least a hundred of its readers. Making the film is easy enough. I get a few fans, the author, and I look the text over myself, and we create the feel of the book on film."

"Sounds like what any producer would do."

"Yes, but then I add another aspect to it. My own mind's eye allure. I am sure my...reputation hasn't eluded you."

"Wow, I thought I was good." The words escaped my mouth instead of staying in my head. I could feel myself losing steam. I understood right there.

"As most actors are introverts, I would expect nothing less, but why admonish me so randomly, our pacing was going so well?"

I switched my gaze to his daughter as I started speaking, so that I wouldn't spill from my mind while I regained focus. She was nothing special, but quiet and polite, if a little portly. I could tell just how often she had eaten here. Four times today or more.

"The scandals that accompany your films. There are never any clear decisions, no convictions, just third hand information. Your fans or the viewers of your films are so busy imagining their perfect versions of what happens behind the scenes, that they don't pick out what you've omitted from their personal view of the book."

"Very sharp."

"It's like you drop a full page of your own into the text whenever there's a spot with a few missing letters."

"Yori, I like you. You will be in 'Glass Walkway'. The lead role will be yours, and I'll even have you bounce a few lines off of your co-star up in my hotel room."

"Iwara, you move fast." I darted a look back over to his daughter to be polite. She was listening to the conversation this entire time respectfully, I should not omit her from it. She happened to be looking at me, which wasn't a surprise, but when our gaze met I noticed something. It sent a chill up my spine. The eyes. I've seen them three times now. My fear was broken by the arrival of our meal.

"Yori, I wish you to do the same, I'm going to have my daughter take you up to my room. There you'll get the manuscript and meet your co-star. I'll send your meals up after you, but I must stay down here to meet with my next client. Make sure to read everything she gives you, as you know I put more in my films than the books do."

It felt a bit awkward but I didn't want to refuse him at this point, so I agreed. I'd just make sure to keep a close eye on his daughter. Those eyes scared me.

All the way to the room she was polite and shy, and when we went in, it looked as anyone would expect a mobile office to look. A computer out, clothes folded on the dresser, and a few take-out boxes not yet disposed of. His daughter handed me the screenplay. I sat down on one of the cushioned chairs and skimmed it over. She sat down on the bed. She was watching me read, but it was with a more anticipating gaze than creepy, like she wanted to know what I thought of my part. Soon I came across extensive dialogue between my character and a female character. This must be the co-star.

"Who is Maisy?" I asked.

"I am." the daughter returned. It made a little more sense to me. She must have been a fan, and her father was setting it up so that she would get to read lines with me. How kind. I hadn't heard anyone else in the room ,so that must be the case. We began to read our lines to one another, and it began to slip into a cliffhanger romantic scene from what I could attain. The end of a page called for a kiss. As we reached it her cheeks began to redden slightly.

She wasn't bad looking, just plush. Why not, I'll give her a peck and then call it a night. That'll be my little scandal for Iwara's film.

She looked hesitant. I leaned over and closed my eyes, pressing my lips against her cheek. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled tight.

"Okay, okay, that's enough," I began softly. " I'm pretty sure it calls for a change scene on the next page and our dinner will be arriving." She grabbed her copy of the screenplay and flipped the page, then pointed it out to me. I was shocked. It read in explicit words 'SEX SCENE'. And there was an MP3 disk taped to the page. I began to feel nervous.

"So our lines continue on the memory card through an audio file or something?" I was assuming Iwara wouldn't make his daughter bounce pillow talk off of me. She seemed so polite.

"Father's right, " she replied, putting the disk into a piece of audio equipment next to the bed. " you are sharp." She pressed a button and then just sat there, looking at me. There was no sound. The file must not have been cropped. I took a second look at the audio player. The red light was on. Any actor knows that means it's recording.

"Maisy, you pressed the record button, that's why the lines aren't reading, switch it over just incase the disk is full, so it doesn't overwrite the lines."

"The disk is blank, we're making the lines." She replied coldly as she began to undo her blouse.

"You can't mean..."

"My father's never seen you in one of these scenes, he wand’s to know how you do with some girl you've never met before."

"That doesn't mean you have to disrobe?"

"You're still not understanding. Your partner is me. You finish what I put in front of you like my father said or you aren't getting the part." She threatened, removing her top.

"So, how far is this going?"

"All the way." she answered, loosing the back clasp of her bra, removing it to show her ample chest.

"I suppose. There is a way we professionals do this. We keep our undergarments on, and the rest is camerawork. Boy, your dad sure is a steep assessor of acting."

"And you're a poor assessor of reality." She stabbed, standing up and pulling her panties down from under her skirt. I wouldn't think her father was in on this, she was taking her power too far.

"Put your underwear back on Maisy. I'll do the scene with you, but as a professional. Any more of this and I'll be leaving." I wasn't about to get this deep into one of Iwara's scandals.

"You don't understand, Yori. I want you. My dad has given you to me. He wins no matter what happens here. You chose whether to win or lose."

"What, like a birthday present? I refuse to be taken advantage of like this."

"You are a birthday present, my birthday present. If you walk out that door, you walk out on the lead role, and on your career. The audio tape is ours, we can fix it as we like. Your choice whether we make or break you."

"I hate being forced into this."

"Is it me? I'm sure if I were in better shape you wouldn't have a problem with it. You men are all so shallow."

"This is a moral problem, it has nothing to do with your appeal!"

"Yeah, beauty is a moral problem, 'sexy' is a moral problem, in that if I were your morals wouldn't be a problem."

"You're a fine girl, Maisy, I don't like the blackmail." I only now realized I was talking to her breasts the entire time. I focused back up on her to see she was tearing up.

"No you won't like it, I'll make sure of that." She was hurt now, cursing with her words. I had to make a decision. Feel morally clean in my minds eye, or remain morally clean in the public's eye. One person (me) would get to feel unhappy, or everyone around me.

"Just go. I know I'm a pig. My dad spoils me and I like the tastes of sweets. I can't refuse him because it makes him so happy to see me enjoying myself. I want to keep what's left of our family happy, so I can't tell him no. He's only home so often, and he can't get me anything I don't already have from my allowance, but he can bring me cake, and sweet bread from the store on the way home-." She turned into waterworks. Family.

Family.

Not only would I be shamed in the eye of the public, but in the eye of my family. I'm going to be with them for the next week. There would be no avoiding the outbreak. I would do this for family.

Family.

"Maisy." I reached for her crying face and she swatted my hand aside. What she said couldn't have been understood through the sobbing, but I'm pretty sure it was another curse to leaver her alone. I grasped her chin with my free hand and put my thumb in her mouth. She stopped suddenly. "Am I sweet, Maisy?"

She replied with a teary nod.

"Then your father has given me to you and you can't refuse me." She was speechless. Her entire body became flush and I could see redness on her face, her shoulders, and the top of her chest.

"Yori." She choked out. Then she lunged at me. Her hands pulled mine to her bust, and she tugged me into a kiss. Her mind wasn't too overcome by my charm I could see as she was working her skirt down. I could tell god later it was for my family. I just hope she's clean. After a little more making out, I supposed it was my turn to disrobe. I backed away as I began and she just lay there on the bed, open to me in wait. I could only smell the light scent of soap, even with the glistening I could see. She was a polite girl, through and through, front to back, front to back.

I wasn't her first time, as she knew what I was doing, but she didn't have much experience. She was just there, watching happily. The bed held her curves a little more graciously than clothing, and she wasn't afraid to be exposed. We didn't change anything up and I was about done with my audition. I pulled back as we didn't have a barrier and she gave me an odd look.

"I'm just being safe is all." I told her.

"Just a little more." She asked. Why not, I could time it a little better I'm certain. I entered again. She could tell when I quickened pace as she began to do some acting of her own. It was time to go.

"What?!"

My escape was blocked, she had clamped onto my sides with her hands, and locked my backside with her feet, I couldn't get out. She looked at me with a teary smile. "Don't you know silly, the frosting's the best part of the cake?" She stuck out her tongue as I emptied myself into her. The amount of euphoria I felt only increased my guilt and worry that my frosting would make her gain another 5 kilograms over the next 9 months.

I don't know how long I was standing there once I finished, but her grip had relaxed as I threw the idea of juggling an unplanned child and an acting career around. She broke my daze as she let go with her hands and leaned back.

"Come lay with me for a while, the scene calls for some pillow talk." She gave me a bit of a tug with her legs and I began to topple as the high left me. I tried to separate from her as I lay on my side. "You can't leave yet, just stay like this while we talk, for me."

Her welling eyes were lit by the lights outside of the window. She was still crying, but she wasn't choked up at all. She propped her had up on her hand and just smiled at me.

"Maisy, you're a nice girl. Your dad is always looking out for you, but you've got to look out for yourself as well."

"What do you mean, my dad can protect me from anything."

"What were doing now, what you just accepted from me, it's what starts a family. You wouldn't be a daughter anymore, but a mother. Your dad can't give you that. He can't protect or prepare you for that." I'm sure my words would reach her in this moment of clarity.

"You ARE good." She replied. "I didn't know you read the book!"

Apparently I had paraphrased something from it. I left knowing that the shoot was in 4 months. I guess I'd find out if we had a family then.