Topsy-Turvy

It was finally the day off for him. Saturday. He looked forward to Saturday so much. Away from all the difficult customers, and nosy co-workers. He could just be by himself and just enjoy the peace and the quiet in the noisy restaurant. Not that they were all screaming. It was all the register, utensils hitting the plates and chairs sliding against the tiled floor. Then they were the murmurs from other patrons. It was still better than the congested bank.

He would just continue with his spicy chicken wings and enjoy his day of rest.

“Hey”.

He looked up to see a woman. Well she wasn’t that advanced, so young woman. There was still that youthfulness on her.

“Yes” he replied.

“Are you single?” she asked casually.

“Uh” was his dumb reply.

What was happening? Was he being propositioned just like that? In public? Was this some sort of prank show? He looked around to see if anyone was recording.

“Sorry” she laughed. “I meant did you come here on your own?”

“Uh-huh” he nodded dumbly. How was it that he had lost his voice?

“Cool” she dropped her tray and pulled the chair opposite him back. The legs scraped the tiles making him cringe. She smiled wider as she sat down. “Don’t mind me sir. Just go ahead with what you were doing”.

It was hard for him to just ignore her. She was doing her own thing. Eating her chicken quite fast and not caring that he had stopped and was blatantly staring at her. He was honestly scared she was going to choke. He didn’t see any liquid close to her.

Looking round, he didn’t see any empty chairs. It was quite full today so he could see why she came to him first. It was weird eating directly in front of a stranger. But he wouldn’t be all awkward when she wasn’t.

Then he remembered she called him sir. Either she was being respectful or he was really old. The stress from his job was getting to him. He must have wrinkles at such a young age.

“Done” she said cleaning the side of her lips with a salve. “Pardon my eating habits. I tend to eat so unlike myself when I’m famished” she explained.

“Do you just get friendly with strangers?” he asked bemused.

“Just the ones that are nice to me” she stopped smiling. “Not that I just go along with people that are nice to me or anything”.

“Are you sure you’re not hungry anymore?” she had eaten it pretty quick. He wondered how hungry she must have been. And why she had let herself get so hungry.

“I’ll survive” she chirped. That wasn’t a no.

“Student?” he remembered what he had gone through during his finals.

“Nah” she shook her head and stretched.

Okay so she had graduated then. He wouldn’t make the mistake of asking her age. Before he could ask, she stretched her hand.

“My name is Brooke”.

“Daisuke” he shook her hand.

“So Daisuke…” she tested his name slowly. “Do you just let strangers sit with you?”

“Only the nice ones” he said what she had told him earlier.

“So you just let every nice girl sit with you. Good to know” she chuckled. “What do you do Daisuke?”

“I’m a banker. Do you work?”

“Yes I do” was her only answer. Looks like she wasn’t going to speak further about it. The conversation was nearing its end and he didn’t want it to. She was peculiar and he found her very interesting.

“Where are you from?”

“Brooklyn” she replied immediately.

“Brooke from Brooklyn. I knew the accent sounded rather odd”.

“You watch American films then”.

“I indulge sometimes. When I have the time. All the way from Brooklyn to here? Why?”

“I’ve been answering that question since I got here. I’ll keep saying the same thing. No one knows me here” she replied straight-faced.

“So you’re here by yourself. No family? No guardian or anything”.

“No” and she said it without any emotion. Very peculiar indeed. It wasn’t his business to pry, but he was intrigued. He wanted to know her story.

“Don’t you ever miss home? You don’t get homesick at all? No friends? No relatives?”

“I do not. But I will admit I do miss home cooked food. Real food cooked at home. I don’t care what it is. I just want it to be cooked over a stove. Not in a restaurant or with all the grease”.

“You want to cook it yourself?”

“Someone cooking it will be better” she leaned back resigned. “What’s the time anyway?”

“Just a few minutes after eleven”.

“Thank you for sharing your space with me. I have to go now”.

“You work today?” it wasn’t weird but he still wondered what sort of job she did that she never said.

“Yes I do. Every day” she stood up taking her tray.

“What do you do anyway?”

“Hmm. Sort of hard to explain” she scratched her arm. “Anyway, see you around Daisuke”.

He didn’t know if they would ever run into each other again. Tokyo was a huge place.

“See you Brooke from Brooklyn”.

“You’re the only one that gets the humour in that” and she walked away from him with a small wave. Now he could eat, but his wings had gotten cold. It was no matter.

00000

Brooke walked back. She was fed and she had rested a little. She had work today and that was where she was headed. She didn’t have her phone with her because it was overwhelming with all the calls and messages. She took a taxi. She never took the bus or trains. That was not how she went about places. She was classy and she would have a car if she wasn’t in her current situation. She took a taxi and soon she was in her place of work.

Moving to Japan was quite the decision. Some that didn’t know her would say it was dumb seeing as they had a first language that she didn’t speak. She understood a little. And the reading was zero. So how did someone illiterate in Japanese get a job in Japan?

It was just a name.

Hinata.

She entered the office and Hinata sat there behind the desk. There was a question that had been bothering her ever since she met the person. She had no idea if Hinata was a male or a female. The confusion had been there since they met that day at the airport. The voice was soft, but it was also deep. There was makeup, but she had never seen the outline of boobs. There were girls like that who were really flat chested so she just couldn’t conclude. There was the height and broad shoulders, but there was still the lithe slender build. And she couldn’t just ask that stupid questions to her co-workers.

Her life currently was a tale as old as time. Young adult travelling on her own was subjected to being prey of the evil out there. At the airport she had been lost and overwhelmed with the multitudes of people and the loud voices. She had clothes and she had money. She was here legally. She had done everything she needed to do to get here but she had forgotten the main factor.

She had just sat there for a while close to crying when Hinata approached her. He didn’t speak a lot but he must have known what she was going through. Seems like there were other girls before her with the same story.

He asked her what her name was. Then he asked if she needed a place to say. She had replied yes and he took her to an apartment. She had expected him to ask for s*x. Well at that time she was thinking he was male. But he didn’t.

He dropped his card and left her there. It was quite odd. She didn’t feel like a prisoner and he didn’t come back like she had expected. She was free to leave and come back as she pleased. Well she couldn’t help but be suspicious. Weird place, weird helpful guy and with the stories of what happened to innocent girls on their own in a different country.

No friends. No family. And she couldn’t just sit there. Her money was depleting at quite the rate. She called Hinata and he came to see her. She had thought he would finally do something to her. Different scenarios played in her mind of how she was going to escape if it happened, but he explained the kind of job for her. It was weird. Not weird like what she had done which were a lot.

But she did feel indebted towards him. Even if Hinata was a good person there might still be the fact he would want something in the end. Not everyone was so good. Who would just pick up a stranger and give them a place to say? So yes there was a plan for her but it was still nice. She couldn’t just continue to live like this. Just taking advantage of his kindness. And he must have known that she was going to say yes because he gave her time to think.

She had never envisioned herself doing what he suggested. No matter how he tried to make it sound not as bad as it was, it still was. She agreed after four days. She noticed that she was running low on groceries. And that was what led her to accepting. But Hinata was able to give her another job she could do on the side. She had to qualify for the citizenship and she couldn’t put s*x worker.

She would never forget her first night as a ‘delivery health worker’. Her client had invited her over to his house and there had been a chaperone. The man had been older, quite good-looking and seemed rich. She thought that she could handle it. That there would be no actual penetration so yay a loophole. She burst into tears and fell onto the floor like a baby.

That had startled the man and she was sure she was going to get it from Hinata. He surprised her by actually calming her down. They sat down together and she actually said her sob story which she had been saying back home. He actually listened. What was more perplexing was that nothing sexual happened that night. He did tip her. That progressed into a budding relationship. He became a regular client.

“Afternoon boss. Have a job for me?”

“Your regular client”.

“Any requests?”

“Bunny girl”.

“Done” she nodded and left.

Walking out the door a blonde was walking up to her. Her name was Olivia. In a place when they were the minority, girls like them had to stick together.

“Still on for later?” Olivia asked.

‘Yes. Something happened today that I have to tell you”.

“Me too. You shouldn’t forget your phone this time”.

“I won’t” she waved and walked away to go and get a bunny costume.

Hinata had been thorough when she was being educated on her new line of ‘work’. It was quite different from what she was used to back home. Not all men who got with hookers slept with them. Some wanted comfort, some wanted fantasies fulfilled. It depended on the type of man. That line of work wasn’t legal around these parts but there were loopholes.

Hinata had told her that the term for her here was Gaijin. It wasn’t uncommon. It’s expected everywhere you go. He had told her that it wouldn’t affect her work. There was assurance when that was said and now she was a believer. She wouldn’t call it a fetish because everyone had what they liked. But it was termed here. White girl fetish, black girl fetish and she had also heard fiery Latina.

She had studied their sexual stuff and she had seen alien pornstars on some of their websites. So being Gaijin affected some other things like where she ate, and places that she could enter but not her work. Yes there would be the stigmat