‘So who are they?’ Tomohiko asked.
‘Let’s call them… Ran, Sue, and Miki,’ Ryo chuckled, using the names of the members of a singing group that had broken up the year before.
‘Come on, you said you’d tell us.’
‘I didn’t promise names. And besides, it’s better for you if there aren’t any names. I haven’t told them who you are, either, or what school we go to. So let’s keep it that way.’
There was a hard light in Ryo’s eyes that made Tomohiko suddenly nervous.
‘What are we supposed to do if they ask?’ Murashita wanted to know.
‘I really don’t think they will but if they do just tell them it’s a secret. Or make up a fake name if you want.’
‘Just what kind of girls are these?’ Tomohiko asked, changing tack.
Unexpectedly, Ryo broke into a grin. ‘Housewives.’
‘Whoa! What?’
‘Bored housewives. No hobbies, no jobs, no one to talk to all day. They get frustrated. And their husbands sure as hell don’t talk to them. So they want to chat with some young guys. No harm in that, right?’
Tomohiko was reminded of a recent skin flick with something in the title about ‘apartment block wives’. He hadn’t actually seen it.
‘And they’re paying ten thousand, each, just to talk? I don’t know —’
‘Hey,’ Ryo cut him off, ‘don’t worry so much. They’re paying, just take the cash.’
‘So why me and Murashita?’
‘Because you got the look. I mean, you know you do, right?’
The way Ryo spoke was so unflinchingly straight, Tomohiko found himself stunned into silence. It was true he thought he had the face for the big screen if he wanted to go there. He dressed the part, too, despite being broke.
‘That’s why I said not everyone can do this job,’ Ryo said, nodding at the evident wisdom in his own words.
‘And they’re not old?’ Murashita said.
Ryo grinned. ‘Not that old. I’d say probably somewhere between thirty and forty?’
‘That’s pretty old, man. What are we supposed to talk to them about?’ Tomohiko was starting to get nervous.
‘Don’t even think about that. Just keep the conversation harmless and you’ll be fine. Oh, you’ll want to comb your hair when we get off the train. Get some hairspray on that too.’
‘I don’t have any,’ Tomohiko said, and Ryo opened his duffel bag to reveal a stash of hairspray and brushes. He even had a dryer.
‘I figured, why not go all out? Make you guys into some leading men, right?’
At Nanba station they switched from the Midosuji line to the Sennichimae line, taking that to Nishinagahori station. Tomohiko was familiar with the place. This was where the central library was located. In the summer, kids studying for college admission tests would be lined up to use the study rooms.
They walked right past the library, going several minutes further before Ryo stopped in front of a small, four-storey apartment building. ‘This is the place.’
Tomohiko looked up and swallowed.
‘What’s with the face? Try to loosen up.’
Ryo chuckled and Tomohiko absently massaged his cheekbones with his fingers.
There was no elevator, so they walked up the stairs and Ryo pressed the button by No 304.
‘Yes?’ came a woman’s voice over the intercom.
‘It’s me,’ Ryo said.
The door opened almost immediately. A woman wearing a skirt and black shirt with more than a few buttons open at the neck was holding the doorknob. She was short, with a small face and short hair.
‘Hi.’ Ryo smiled.
‘Hello,’ she replied. Her eyes were dark with make-up and two bright red round earrings hung from her ears. She might have been dressed young, but there was no mistaking her for a twenty-year-old. There were tiny wrinkles beneath her eyes.
She looked over at Tomohiko and Murashita behind him. He felt like she was scanning them from top to bottom, like the light on a photocopier.
‘Your friends?’ she asked Ryo.
‘I told you they were the real deal.’
The woman smiled at that. She opened the door wider and invited them inside.
Tomohiko followed Ryo in. A dining room and kitchen were just inside the entrance. There were chairs set at the table but no cupboards or pieces of furniture other than the shelves built into the wall, and no cooking utensils in sight, just a small, one-person refrigerator and a microwave sitting on top of that. It was clear that no one actually lived here. It must have been rented for the occasion.
The short-haired woman opened a sliding door to the back of the room, revealing a wide space that had been made by removing the divider between two smaller Japanese-style rooms. At one edge of the room sat a simple, steel-frame bed.
There was a television in the centre of the room where two more women were sitting. One had her brown hair in a ponytail. She was thin, but Tomohiko’s eyes were drawn to the ample swell beneath the breast of her knee-length jersey dress. The other woman was wearing a denim miniskirt and jacket. Her face was rounder and her shoulder-length hair had a gentle wave to it. She was probably the plainest of the three, but that might just have meant that the other two had on too much make-up.
‘We were wondering if you’d ever get here,’ the woman with the ponytail scolded Ryo. She didn’t sound particularly angry.
‘Sorry. It took a while to get everyone ready,’ Ryo apologised, smiling.
‘What, you had to lie to them about the old ladies they were going to meet?’
‘Never!’ Ryo said, stepping into the room. He sat down cross-legged on the tatami-matted floor and indicated with his eyes for Tomohiko and Murashita to join him.
The two other boys sat. Then, almost immediately, Ryo stood again and the short-haired woman took his place, leaving Tomohiko and Murashita surrounded.
‘Beer good?’ Ryo asked the women.
The three women agreed that beer would be great.
‘Beers all around, then,’ Ryo said, without waiting for Tomohiko and Murashita to reply. He went back into the kitchen, where they heard him taking bottles out of the refrigerator.
‘Do you drink a lot?’ ponytail asked Tomohiko.
‘Sometimes.’
‘I’ll bet you can hold your liquor,’ she said.
‘Not really.’ He tried to smile as he shook his head.
Tomohiko noticed the women exchanging glances. He wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, but it seemed like they weren’t dissatisfied with Ryo’s selections. He breathed an inward sigh of relief.
It was a little dark in the room. Tomohiko glanced over at the window to see that the shutter had been pulled down on the outside. The only light in the room came from a single bulb that hung from the ceiling beneath a wicker lampshade. He assumed it was to hide the women’s age, but even in the dim light, when he looked at the woman with the ponytail, he could tell her skin was completely different from that of the girls in his class. It was even more obvious this close.
Ryo brought in three tall bottles of beer, five glasses, and a tray with peanuts and other snacks. Placing these in the middle of the room, he went right back to the kitchen. When he returned, he was carrying a large pizza.
‘You two are hungry, right?’ he said, looking at Tomohiko.
The women filled the boys’ glasses and everyone brought their glasses together in a toast that Tomohiko wasn’t convinced was necessary. Back in the kitchen, Ryo was going through his duffel bag. He didn’t seem to be joining them.
‘You have a girlfriend?’ ponytail asked Tomohiko.
‘Not right now.’
‘Really? Why not?’
‘Because… I don’t know, because I don’t have one.’