Speaking of strawberries made me feel hungry. My stomach started to grumble loudly. My hands automatically went to my growling stomach. I shifted my eyes to the ground in embarrassment. Akira giggled, “Are you hungry?” I pouted, “Nope, I swear it wasn’t my stomach.” He retorted, “Sure…” I frowned at him, “It’s not like your stomach never makes noises.”
He laughed, “Okay, Ms. Grumpy. Let’s go get something to eat.” I complained, “Grumpy? Wait till you see the real Ms. Grumpy.” I raised my fist in the air in protest. He laughed at my Ms. Grumpy act and pointed at the restaurant across the street. “Let’s go over there.” I instantly wanted to tell him no when I found out what type of restaurant he was pointing at.
It was a western, American style steak house. I’ve never gone to a steak house, and it was because most steak houses were extremely expensive. I was sure to empty my entire wallet by having one meal there. I would have no way of going to school for months if I ate out there. I frowned, “Now that I think about it, I’m not that hungry.”
He must’ve caught on to my desperate need to avoid expensive places, he suggested, “then how about we go over there?” He pointed towards the street stalls that sold grilled meat skewers (yakitori). One skewer was about 90 yen. I could definitely afford that. I nodded, “Let’s go.” The strong scent of grilled meat surrounded the area. It made my stomach growl even louder. I pretended like my stomach wasn’t growling. I rushed to the stall to avoid Akira making fun of me again.
Akira stared at the skewers in wonder once we were in front of the stall. He probably never ate street food in his life. I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s a celebrity that had to avoid attention. It wouldn’t be a smart idea for him to be eating street food. He had crazy girl fans that could easily spot him. I wondered if his disguise was good enough.
His bunny mask was cute. I wondered if people would stare at him more because it was cute. I hope his crazy fans don’t find out. I’m sure it’ll be okay if he doesn’t take off the mask while eating. The stall owner was an older lady that didn’t seem to mind that he was wearing a mask. There were all sorts of people walking around outside. She was used to seeing people with questionable outfits. It didn’t bother her much.
She asked, “How many would you like?” I politely said, “Please give me 3. How much?” She answered, “That should be 270 yen.” I reached into my wallet to hand her the money but was stopped by Akira. He gave her his card. The stall owner frowned and pointed at the sign, “I’m sorry, but we only accept cash.” Akira must’ve only been to expensive restaurants. He didn’t know that most street food stalls didn’t accept card. I pulled out the cash from my wallet and handed her extra money. I added, “Please add another 3 more yakitori.”
Akira put his card back in his pocket while pouting. I patted his back, “I’ll pay this time. You don’t have to worry.” After the lady handed over the skewers, I gave Akira 3. He reluctantly took the skewers from my hands. I felt bad making him eat greasy meat skewers. He probably wasn’t used to this type of food. It’s not very healthy either. Most street stalls added a bunch of spices to make the meat more appetizing. Street foods weren’t the healthiest type of food, but they were pretty tasty.
I took a huge bite out of my skewer and sighed happily, “It’s so good!” Akira followed suit and nodded, “It’s pretty good.” I grinned at him, “I’m sure you’ve never tasted yakitori, right?” He frowned, “I’m not an alien. I’ve had yakitori before. It’s just been a while since I had one.” I could tell that he was just acting like that because he didn’t want to seem weird for not trying yakitori before. He definitely didn’t try it before, I could tell.
He barely ate the rest of his yakitori. I wasn’t able to tell his expression because he had his mask on. It was obvious that he wasn’t used to the spices, and he didn’t seem to like it very much. He didn’t want to offend me, so he acted like it was good. It reminded me at this moment that Akira and I were living in different worlds. He belonged with the upper class while I fit in with the lower class. It made me wonder why he was willing to help me out when he could be living his life like a star. He didn’t need to hang out with a loser like me.
My thoughts were interrupted when Akira’s phone began ringing loudly. He pointed at his phone and gestured to me that he needed to take a private phone call. I continued to finish my skewers while he took his phone call. It must’ve been his agent because I could hear the other person shouting at him through the phone. It wasn’t my intention to eavesdrop, but his agent seemed angry at him.
I could hear him shouting, “What the h*ll are you doing right now? You should be in school. There’s a bunch of news reports about you being downtown. I’ve told you countless times to not be out in public. There are pictures of you with some random girl. Do you know this could be bad for you? This is not the time for you to be caught in a scandal!”
I instantly felt bad for having him come with me. I’m sure he was in deep trouble because he was caught spending time with me outside. Celebrities had it tough when it came to scandals. Regardless of who he was spending time with, there was always people trying to stretch the truth and make news out of nothing. His crazy fans must be disappointed that their idol was out dating some random girl. If my face shows up on the magazine, I’ll be done for…
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