Chapter 53: I'm Not Japanese
I pass by Syo and Natsuki's room to share the desserts that were sent to me from our family's cafe. I knock on their door and Natsuki was the one that answered the door.
"Ori-chan! What a surprise to see you!"
"Hello Natsuki, I came to share these desserts with everyone." I held the box full of desserts up.
"Oh! You've brought desserts? That's wonderful! Come in then."
I entered the room and saw Syo and Ai looking at a photo album.
"What are you guys looking at?" I said curiously.
Syo turns around to me.
"What's up Kaori? I was looking thru my things a while ago and found a photo album; they're photos of when I was a kid. Haha."
"Cool! Can I see too?"
"Yeah sure, come and sit with us. Eh? What do you have there, Kaori?"
"Oh, I received some desserts from my family this morning. Manager-san was the one who delivered them to me. I brought them over so that I can share it with everyone."
I placed the box of desserts on the table and sat down with everyone. Syo showed his pictures and told us about the time they were taken; Syo was cute when he was a small kid. Syo turns the page of the album and I noticed a photo where Syo was standing on front of a house with a twin. I pointed at the photo.
"Syo, who's that?"
"That's my twin brother. His name is Kaoru like your other self."
"You have a twin? I never knew that; that's cool."
"Aren't they adorable when together, Ori-chan?"
"Haha. Yeah, they look so cute!"
"Do you have siblings, Natsuki?" I asked.
"Sadly, I don't have any. I'm an only child."
"How about you, Mikaze-senpai?"
"I do not have any siblings as well."
Syo thinks for a while then asks, "Kaori, you have two brothers right?"
"Yes. I have an older brother who is sixteen and a half years older than me and a younger brother who is one year and eight months younger than me."
Everyone stared at me for a while.
"Wait! Your older brother is sixteen and a half years older than you?!" Syo said.
"Haha, yes. Our age is quite far from one another, isn't it?"
"Ori-chan, thinking of your age difference, did he come from another parent or something like that?"
"Haha, no. We're all from the same parents; he's not a step sibling."
"Then what's with the age difference?" Syo asked.
"Well, after my mother gave birth to my older bro, they waited a few years before making another baby but then my mother at that time couldn't get pregnant. They wanted to give big bro a sibling so badly that they even resorted to seeing a doctor and getting treatment but she still couldn't get pregnant. Then after sixteen and a half years, I was conceived and then little bro came a year and eight months later. Ta-dah!"
"That's amazing." Natsuki said.
"Where are your parents and siblings now?" Mikaze-senpai asked.
"Let's see...my older brother is working at a hospital abroad as an orthopedic surgeon, my younger brother is taking up computer science in a university, my father is working abroad as an IT manager, and my mother runs the family cafe in Tokyo."
"Wow, you're all quite scattered."
"Yeah. I lived with my younger bro in our house; it was just the two of us but our parents always send us money and we chat with them. We still took part time jobs to earn some extra money for our needs and wants plus we get bored at home at times."
"You've worked really hard, Ori-chan."
"I guess so." I smiled.
I opened the box of desserts.
"Feel free to take any of these. They're from my family's cafe."
"Oh! Then I'm sure they taste good!" Natsuki said.
Mikaze-senpai took one of the desserts and looked at it carefully.
"Kaori, you're actually not Japanese; am I correct?"
Natsuki and Syo were surprised my Mikaze-senpai's words.
"That's right. My family and I aren't actually Japanese. How did you figure it out?"
"The desserts were unfamiliar. I was thinking that these desserts are probably from your home country."
"You're right on the spot Mikaze-senpai, they're desserts from our home country; we make and sell them at our café."
"Kaori, you're a foreigner?" Syo asked in surprise.
"Yup."
"T-then what about your name?! It's Japanese!" Syo couldn't believe that I wasn't actually Japanese.
"It's actually something like a second name I guess. If you would go back to the academy and ask for the class register of S class of our batch, "Yamashita Kaori" doesn't appear because my real name would be there in the register. I only use the name "Yamashita Kaori" to make things easier for everyone plus I don't like it when people don't pronounce my name properly; it's like my Japanese alias or something like that."
Natsuki looks at me carefully. "It's quite surprising to know you're foreign because you look like and dress up like a typical Japanese person."
"When you speak in Japanese, you sound like a native person. Even your actions are so Japanese." Syo says while he was chewing a spoonful of his dessert.
"Well, we migrated to Japan before I entered junior high school due to my father's work. Ever since he started working for the company he's working for now, he was assigned here. So he decided that we all should be together with him but then, by the time I entered junior high, he was assigned to another branch of the company abroad. I guess I've been in Japan for so long that I've absorbed the culture and all."
"It's too bad that your father was reassigned abroad." Natsuki said.
"It's okay. We're used to it plus we chat from time to time; papa also calls us sometimes so it's fine. Mama on the other hand is always messaging haha. Oh, by the way, our family cafe is in Kyoto so mama is staying in Kyoto. That's where we first lived when we moved here to Japan."
"That's kind of cute, Ori-chan."
"Hm? What's cute?"
"It's kind of cute that you call your parents "papa" and "mama"."
I turned a bit red on the face.
"Haha, that's quite true." Syo said.
"People of your age usually call their parents "mom and dad" or "father and mother"." Mikaze-senpai said.
"Well I like to call them that way because for me it's more endearing, okay!"
I pouted a bit in embarrassment.
"You're like a little child." He added as he took a bite of his dessert.
*ring ring ring*
My phone was ringing and I took it out and looked at the caller ID; it was Manager-san. I pressed the answer button.
"Kaori! Where are you right now?"
Manager-san sounds happy.
"Manager-san, I'm with Syo, Natsuki, and Mikaze-senpai in their room. We're enjoying the desserts you gave me fro—"
Manager-san then suddenly busts open the door of the room and suddenly enters; we all had heart attacks from his sudden entrance. He sure was fast! The phone call was still ongoing when he arrived.
"Kaori! I've got something good for you!"
He was really happy and gave me a thick magazine. I looked at it and it was a ManAge magazine; it's the issue that I modeled for. I was surprised to find myself on the cover together with Yuu-san. Manager-san was shining in happiness while I had a big smile on my face as I stared at it. Syo, Natsuki, and Ai moved over to me and Manager-san to look at the magazine.
"Whoa! You've made it to the cover of ManAge!" Syo said as he looked at the magazine.
"It appears that ManAge has grown fond of you." Mikaze-senpai said.
"Ori-chan, who's this person?" Natsuki points at Yuu-san on the cover.
"Oh, that person is Makoto Yuu-san."
"Makoto Yuu. 21 years old. Blood type A. Currently under Captivate modelling agency. A well-known male model and is one of ManAge's favorite models." Mikaze-senpai said.
"Wow, you worked with a famous model, Ori-chan!"
"I was surprised when the photographer made us do some shots together. Yuu-san was really amazing and was really beautiful in person. I felt really lucky to be able to work with him in a project."
I opened the magazine to look at the contents; the magazine compiled the pictures by model and theme of clothing. All the other models looked really good especially Yuu-san; everyone really looked well and the clothes were equally good. I turned over some more pages and found the section where it was me as the model for the clothing.
"T-that's really you?! You look totally awesome and different, Kaori!" Syo said as he took the magazine from my hands and looked at the pictures in disbelief.
Natsuki was surprised as well with my looks and pictures in the magazine. I was equally surprised as everyone when I saw my pictures; they were so good that I wanted to wish that Kaoru was a different person and date him. Haha.
"Those pictures aren't the only things that I want to show you, Kaori."
Manager-san borrowed the magazine from Syo and turns to a certain page found at the end of the magazine. It was a little interview from the photographer of the magazine, the designers of the clothing, and the company itself. Manager-san points to a certain section of the photographer's interview where he was asked who were the top three models that caught his attention or liked the most.
"That's a hard question to answer but if I really had to choose three models from the photo shoot, I enjoyed working with Yuu-san, Komaru-san, and Yamashita-san the most. They were really good during the photo shoot and I like the outcome of their photos a lot. I would certainly like to work with them again in the future."
I smiled and felt really happy about Photographer-san's comment.
"Manager-san, he mentioned me." I said like a little child who received candy for doing a good job.
"Haha, there's more Kaori. Look over to this page."
Manager-san points at a question that one of the designers answered. The designer was asked about how he felt when the models wore the clothes he designed.
"I was the one who designed the edgy and cool looking clothes. The new model who was asked to substitute for one of ManAge's models who got sick was the one who showcased my clothes; the model's name was Yamashita Kaoru. I really was very happy when I saw the pictures from the photo shoot because the clothes that I designed were shown really well by Yamashita-san. He was able to make the clothes very attractive and made them look really good on cam. I'd like him to model again for my future works."
I received praise for my work and I really wanted to jump in joy. We continued to browse thru the magazine together with Manager-san who didn't look thru it yet. This really is so far the best modelling job I've ever had.
"Ori-chan, you're really good at modelling. Have you ever modeled as yourself before?"
"Hm...Now that you mentioned it, I never have. I've always modeled as Kaoru."
"You should try modelling as yourself."
We all looked at Mikaze-senpai who suddenly spoke. He took a bite of his dessert before speaking again.
"It's surprising to know you haven't. If you can model as Kaoru then for sure you can model as Kaori. You have some looks anyway." he took another bite of his dessert.
I lifted the magazine up and pretended to read a part of the interviews but in reality I was using it to cover my face; I felt my cheeks getting warm.