Chapter 2: J-drama Drama

Wednesday November 30
I decided to skip running today because we had a pool in the backyard. Dad and Manaia sat and watched me swim laps. They seemed to be getting along well as they laughed about something while I pulled myself out of the water. I plopped down on a chair at the table they’d claimed.

“What time did you get in last night?” Dad asked.

“After two,” Manaia grumbled.

Fritz was going to have to send me someone to help Manaia. It was one thing for me to put in the hours, and another for someone to have to watch me 24/7. I would send a text to Fritz later.

“Go get ready, and I’ll make breakfast,” Dad offered.

When I came back, he’d made bacon and eggs with avocado slices and a banana.

“I hear we’re doing golf scenes today,” I said.

“I’ve worked with almost everyone, and they can at least hit the ball,” Dad shared. “Daisuke said that was all I needed to worry about. They would do something called a ‘cutaway.’”

I was impressed that Dad was on a first-name basis with our director. I’d seen different cast members leave for extended periods to get their golf lessons. Kenta had bragged that his father was a director at a large electronics company, and they had a country club membership. That may have been one of the reasons he’d won the role. With him, we at least had one of us who wouldn’t embarrass themselves when we acted like we were golfers.

“That’s where they show someone hit the ball, and then they ‘cut away’ to the shot landing and rolling into the cup. I’m sure that they can just do a ‘continuous shot’ with mine,” I teased.

“It’s good to have a dream,” Manaia said.

We’d gone to the driving range to start our day. Dad gave us each a bucket of balls and let us loose. While we hacked away, the camera crew would focus on each of us in turn. They would use the shots as b-roll later.

Then Mr. Otsuki arrived and set the scene. The four girls watched the three guys hit balls. Misaki, Kana, and Ai discussed the merits of each boy, while Haru’s character stood shyly, embarrassed they would talk about such stuff.

It helped highlight how our cultures differed. Haru’s character’s sweet innocence was probably the way girls behaved when my grandmother was young. It reminded me of middle school so much that I honestly expected them to be passing notes with checkboxes asking whether you liked someone or not.

I’ll admit I thought some of the innocence was missing in America today. But there were other aspects of Japanese culture as it was portrayed that bothered me. Everything seemed awkward, and no one wanted to admit that they liked someone. Girls were regarded as too forward if they expressed an interest in a guy and were then considered the ‘wrong kind’ to bring home to Mom. Guys became frustrated and would act inappropriately, which would get them slapped down and shamed.

I may have read too much into the script because if Japan were really like that, no one would ever find their significant other.

Plopping my character into the middle of all this shy, awkward innocence was the catalyst for the J-drama. No one would consider me a player by American standards, but I wasn’t a good boy, either. In this series, I played someone who was out for a good time and wasn’t awkward about it.

A good example was how they wanted us to notice the girls. In my case, I would look over, smile at them, and then go back to talking to the guys. But Jiro and Kenta would either glance over and quickly look away or would position themselves so they could see the girls without looking like they were interested. It gave them a sneaky, stalker vibe, in my opinion.

During a break, Kenta wanted to talk to me.

“How do I buy an American girl dinner? Every girl I asked has told me ‘no.’”

“I make them buy.”

“You are so arrogant. Is that what they expect? Am I being too respectful?”

“No, I’m just that good-looking,” I joshed.

Kenta ducked his head and nodded. The poor guy apparently thought I was serious.

“Do you have your eye on someone specific?” I asked.

“Could you maybe put in a good word for me with your assistant?”

“What’s in it for me?” I asked, still teasing him. “I’m not sure I want you bothering her.”

Kenta’s eyes got big.

“No. I would never,” he began and then saw my smile. “You are awful. It’s just that ... I don’t know.”

Yes, I did know. Lexi was a gorgeous woman. I was afraid she would destroy Kenta. She would figure out she held all the cards in their relationship and either string him along or get bored with him.

“I’m not sure she’s right for you. Perhaps we should find you an American girl with training wheels before you set your sights so high,” I suggested. “The girl who delivers scripts seems nice.”

Kenta looked away and blushed.

“You already struck out there, I take it?”

“She threatened to report me,” he admitted.

Oh my! That wasn’t good. Maybe my creepy-stalker feeling wasn’t too far off.

“I probably don’t want to know what happened,” I conceded.

Kenta gave me a sideways, shy look.

“No. It’s probably best I not repeat what happened,” he said, and then straightened up. “I’m not the only one. The girls want to meet American men. They seem to like one in particular.”

“Maybe I can introduce them to him.”

“I’m sure you could,” Kenta said with a twinkle in his eye.

Tami calls me ‘stupid boy,’ and I might be slow sometimes, but I picked up on that and let out a heavy sigh. I didn’t need the girls chasing after me.

“They are aware I have a girlfriend, right?”

“Oh, yes. Haru and Jiro have both told them they have no hope. But that doesn’t seem to dissuade them; it makes it more of a challenge.”

If I was wise to what they were up to, then I was safe. I’d fended off plenty of girls with no trouble. All I had to do was remember Brook, and they suddenly held no interest. It was a little startling to realize that. I knew I loved her, but never expected it would make me feel that way. I was a guy, after all.

Then I had an idea. My character was supposed to stir the pot, romantically. Why not give it a little truth? I would ask one of the girls to lunch. The logical choice was Misaki Hayashi because she was the first of the group who would make a run at me in the J-drama.

I was reading lines with Hana when Lexi popped her head into the room.

“Caryn received a strange request. Gordon Parker from Springbok, the shoe company, wants to meet with you and your dad. He suggested dinner tomorrow night.”

“Did he say what it was for?”

“No. Do you want me to find out?” Lexi asked.

“I’m just trying to figure out if I need an agent or manager there or not,” I said and then scratched my head. “He requested Dad and me?”

“Yeah. I’ll find out what it’s about,” she said and turned to leave.

“Hey, before you take off? Is there time for me to take someone to dinner tonight, or am I booked with the shoot?”

“You have an hour and a half around eight. Did you want me to make reservations?”

“If you could, that would be great.”

“Who are you taking?” Hana asked.

“I planned to ask Misaki so I could get to know her better.”

The look they both gave me reminded me to call my girlfriend. This may have been the longest we’d gone without either seeing each other or talking since we started dating. I’d received a couple of text messages that had frowny faces on them. I’d better make time, or I would be seeing a frowny face on her when she arrived.

We were scheduled for another group golf scene. When I arrived on set, the girls were all talking and giggling, while the guys looked bored. If I didn’t know better, I would have guessed they were all in high school. I walked straight up to the girls, and suddenly, all conversation stopped.

I looked at Misaki and gave her my best smile.

“Would you do me the honor of having dinner with me tonight?”

“I, uh,” she stammered.

Her stunned look was priceless. Before we could say anything else, Mr. Otsuki hustled over. He’d been eavesdropping.

“Hang on! Stop!” he barked out. “I need you to do that again, and I want the same reaction.”

Misaki looked around, dumbfounded, as did the rest of the cast.

Hana quickly came over and helped me learn how to say it correctly in Japanese.

It’s never as easy as you would think. We had to do it with four different camera angles and nail the expressions each time. Misaki did a great job, but the other three girls got the giggles, which turned out to be an even cuter response.

When Misaki stammered, she ad-libbed and stood a little straighter, and then bowed her head in acceptance. Asian girls acting submissive really turned me on. That caused me to get a big smile, and I turned to Kenta and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Uwa! Sugoi!,” Kenta complained (which roughly translates to: ‘Wow. Can’t believe what I’m hearing or seeing,’ or ‘Wow. Amazing.’).

Once the scene was in the can, Misaki made a beeline for me.

“You weren’t serious, were you?” she asked.

“Yes. I was asking if I could take you to dinner.”

She gave me a suspicious look.

“My driver will pick us up at eight, and we’ll be back in time for the rest of the day,” I said.

She just nodded again and scurried off. It took all of two seconds for Kenta and Jiro to corner me.

“What was that all about?” Kenta demanded.

“You said you wanted to learn how to ask a woman out, and I thought that was a good example.”

“You can’t just ask them,” he whined.

“I think he just did,” Jiro pointed out.

“But...” Kenta stammered and then turned and left us.

Jiro found it all amusing, and he had a good laugh before we had to go back to playing golf.

My little question had the cast stirred up. Mr. Otsuki loved it. He left the cameras running a few times when the girls got together and gave Misaki advice on what she should do on the date. Hana was my spy and would fill me in when they said something I should know. Of course, I could see where this little drama might blow up in my face, so I made it a point to call Brook.

“I take it you’ve been busy,” she answered right out of the box.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Lexi called me and told me that you’re working crazy hours,” she said, and then changed topics. “What’s this I hear that you’re seeing Halle?”

It sounded like Halle had called to give my girlfriend a hard time.

“Her movie was in trouble, and they needed a little star power.”

That made her laugh.

“More like you wanted an excuse to hang out with her.”

Brook knew me too well.

“You got me,” I said, and then added, “We’re treating this like Vegas, right? What happens in LA stays in LA?”

“Maybe I’ll have to call Little Tony and put a hit out on you. I’ve heard they bury people in the desert for whatever ‘happens in Vegas’ that they don’t like. I’m sure there are some places in the LA hills where you could disappear.”

“We could call it a Christmas gift to Halle. The girl has everything, and I never know what to get her.”

“I miss you, you big dork. You leave Halle alone. I’ll be out shortly, and you’ll forget all about that hussy,” Brook assured me.

I told her about dinner with Misaki and the drama it had created. Brook’s only advice was to remember her feelings and not to go overboard.

Frank Ingram, my publicist, showed up right before eight.

“Frank, what’s up?” I asked as I shook his hand.

“It’s been busy. I wanted to advise you that the video of the paparazzi dustup hit all the gossip sites today. I’ve gotten several calls from people in the business, loving it. It’s fun to see the shoe on the other foot for a change. This time it was them with their pants down.”

“It was a little disconcerting when they boxed me in. I hate that kind of stuff. If they had just asked, I would have stopped and talked to them.”

In my opinion, they should outlaw the ones on motorcycles. That was how Princess Diana died years ago. It was bad enough to be harassed; you didn’t need the danger that the bikes added.

“I understand. I also wanted to give you a heads-up,” he said.

That didn’t sound promising.

“Lexi obtained the video of you asking Misaki out, with the permission of the College First team. I got the word out to a few key people, and they’ll be out to film you going on your date.”

“Don’t tell me you had to pay off some favors and decided to sacrifice me,” I said.

“You know how it works. I asked Caryn to call your girlfriend to warn her,” Frank said.

It was good that I’d beaten Caryn to the punch. Not calling for three days and then having Caryn call Brook to let her know I was having dinner with a Japanese starlet might not have gone over very well. Sometimes you get lucky.

“Are they aware we don’t have long for dinner? I don’t want to spend half of it talking to the press,” I warned.

“All good,” Frank said, holding up his hands. “You might want to change your clothes.”

I’d planned to wear what I’d worn on set all day, but he was right. I needed to look a little better than that for my big date.

It was good that I’d changed because Misaki had dressed up for dinner. We were met out front by a couple of the gossip shows. Misaki did a good job holding her own when they started to ask questions. It worried me at first when she acted shy. But once she got started, she was a little chatterbox. Finally, I had to tell them that we had reservations so they would let us go.

I was happy when we pulled up to Nobu. I’d heard a lot of hype about the place and wanted to try it out. It was a cozy and more casual atmosphere than I expected. The bar was packed with people waiting to get seats, but they seated us quickly once they confirmed our reservations. Misaki’s head was on a swivel, watching all the celebrities and beautiful people who were there. I spotted what I would want in a trophy wife once I reached my dotage. The waitress told us the specials and then left us alone for a moment.

“I doubt we have time for the tasting menu,” Misaki said.

“How about we have sushi?” I asked.

She smiled.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t want to. Would it be okay if I picked out what we have?” she asked.

“I’m sure you know better than I would. But I do like tuna.”

Misaki turned out to be a delightful young lady. She was from the island of Kyushu and lived in Fukuoka. The city was surrounded on three sides by mountains and was an important port. Her parents had a place on Hakata Bay. Misaki had an older brother who owned a coffee shop, and she had two nephews who were under three. She also had a boyfriend who was in finance at an electronics company.

Misaki was shocked to discover I was ten years younger than her. She’d assumed that, like most actors, I played someone younger. In my case, I was playing an older character—that is, older than me. Once she figured out she was my senior, Misaki decided she would be my big sister and boss me around.

“Why was Kenta acting put-out when you asked me to dinner?”

I explained our talk about how to ask American women out to dinner and how he was striking out. She knew about what had happened with the script girl and scowled.

“He was trying to be the big star and dominate her. The script girl is our hero. She rejected him out of hand.”

“What’s it like, dating in Japan?” I asked.

“We don’t normally show affection in public. People here hold hands openly, and that’s not something you often see back home. The big problem is finding time to date. Most young people work long hours to establish their careers. What you do is important. Even more important is your family. A Japanese girl wants to make sure that she gets along with a boy’s mother. They can be a real problem if you don’t,” she shared.

“If you have a boyfriend, why did you go out with me?” I asked.

“I should ask the same of you. Someone said that you have a girlfriend.”

“I asked first.”

She blushed.

“You’re the big American movie star. Haru sings your praises and gushes about what you did to help her career when you did My Butterfly with her. And I felt it would be rude to say no in front of everyone.”

“Thank you for not embarrassing me like that,” I said with a smile.

“Somehow, I imagine you would survive my rejection. Plus, I enjoyed the prestige of being the first you asked out,” Misaki said as she sat up a little straighter.

“I take it prestige is important.”

“Why, of course. Haru had told us that she would be the one to catch your eye. You’ve made an old woman happy.”

I liked that she was self-deprecating. By the end of dinner, I was glad that I’d asked her out. We had a good time talking, and it gave me a chance to quiz her about her country while she questioned me on mine.

“You have to do something for us: we want to go to an American party. We’ve read about them and want to experience one,” Misaki said, catching me totally by surprise.

“What exactly are you expecting at this ‘American party’?”

She put her hand over her mouth and blushed.

“We hear that Americans are easy. Why do you think Kenta wants to date an American girl?”

“Ah,” I said, suddenly understanding.

“Will you help us?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised.

It shocked me a little that she would want to go to a party to hook up. I wouldn’t have expected that from someone who said she had a boyfriend. Then again, I was sure this type of behavior happened everywhere.

When we got back, the girls whisked Misaki away to talk about her big date. I found Kenta and Jiro waiting for me in wardrobe.

“You must give us details,” Kenta said.

I looked at the two of them and shook my head.

“We had a lovely dinner. If you want to know what happened in the car on the way back, you’ll have to talk to Misaki,” I said.

Then I pushed them out of the dressing room.

That was probably the wrong thing to say because they both jumped to conclusions and scampered off.

Misaki was a different woman when we were back on set. She no longer stood back and acted the wallflower. She took her role as my new big sister seriously and did things like fuss over my clothes and bring me tea. Lexi wasn’t happy because she felt that was her job. I made eye contact with my PA and let her know to give Misaki this.

I was really starting to hate the Japanese work ethic, mostly because it was about to kill me. We didn’t wrap up until well after two in the morning. There were promises that we would get off early tomorrow and not resume filming until Sunday afternoon.

Thursday December 1
This morning, I skipped exercising in exchange for sleep. Lexi finally had to roust me out of bed so I would be on set on time. When I made it out to breakfast, Fritz was drinking coffee with my dad.

“You look like hell,” Dad said.

“Whoever said acting was easy was nuts. We were on set until almost three again last night,” I said.

I spotted the coffee and held up one finger for them to hold that thought while I poured myself a cup.

“It must be bad if he’s drinking that,” Dad said.

“Thanks for sending me the text. I hadn’t realized your hours were so long. I gave Manaia the morning off,” Fritz said.

“After our rough start, he’s been okay,” I conceded.

“He’s actually a good guy, just a little rough around the edges. I figured you could get him straightened out,” Fritz said.

“More like, if David didn’t cause him to quit, then he could do this for anyone,” Dad said.

“If I weren’t so tired, I would argue with you,” I said. “Is there any food?”

“In the oven. I made a breakfast casserole.”

I made plates for myself and Fritz. Like me, he could always eat.

“I hear we have a dinner meeting with Springbok. Do you know what that’s all about?” Dad asked.

“Lexi was supposed to find out. We need to ask her when she finally gets ready,” I commented as I saw her coming down the hall.

“Coffee,” Lexi moaned. She was as sleep-deprived as I was.

We waited for her to pour a cup and grab a plate of breakfast. Dad asked her about the meeting.

“They were vague as to the purpose of the meeting, according to Caryn. She said they thought you would find it beneficial.”

“Do you think it has to do with modeling?” Fritz asked.

“I doubt it,” I weighed in. “Springbok has signed up some high-profile universities recently. They’re catching up to Under Armour as the number three shoe company in collegiate sports, behind Nike and Adidas.”

“David couldn’t model for them and keep his eligibility with the NCAA,” Dad explained.

“That’s why I’m puzzled. Why would a shoe company want to talk to me while I’m still in high school?” I asked, confessing my ignorance.

“Sounds like you each need bodycams and pen-mics. I’ll get it arranged before the meeting,” Fritz said.

He was probably right. It would be better to record the encounter and find it was something innocent than not to do so and discover we had a problem. We could always delete it later. If they were up to something, we might need the leverage of an accurate recording at some point.

We worked until noon on the button and then were told to relax for a couple of days. You could see the relief in the cast and crew, as everyone had been working the same hours I had. I had all of two minutes to enjoy my freedom.

“The car is waiting,” Lexi said, reminding me that I had other commitments.

I was supposed to start shooting my part in Halle’s movie Love Letters today.

Manaia had replaced Fritz and was waiting for us out front. I started to get my phone out to call Brook.

“She said she would call you later,” Lexi said, guessing what I was doing.

“It sounds like you talk to my girlfriend more than I do. I can’t wait until she gets here.”

She handed me today’s script, and I studied it as we drove to the studio. When we arrived, Lexi guided me to wardrobe to get changed.

My character was supposed to be Halle’s best friend in whom she confided everything. It was a plot ploy to let the audience in on what Halle’s character was thinking, which can be hard to do sometimes.

I’d known that they’d been toying with the idea of me being in the film for a while. Rita had just confirmed it yesterday. Word had gotten back that they had changed their minds several times as to what they wanted out of my character. It had run the gamut from ex-boyfriend to gay best friend. From reading the script, they’d decided on something in the middle. I was to play her longtime friend who secretly had a crush on her.