Part 9
“Hanketsu Part 9” Yuki Sembommatsu, edited by Louie
The black angels were dancing and singing around Luna’s bedroom using their halos like hula hoops. The dance and the song they sang was like an incantation to summon demons like something you might see in a horror movie.The pink angels were at the bar opening bottles and drinking. They were laughing hard at each other because they were drunk, and their pink faces slowly turned red.
Kevin was floating at the ceiling looking down on himself drinking the pink cocktails. There was a rainbow-colored shaker in one of the bartender’s hands. Kevin reached for the shaker and licked the inside greedily, shoving his tongue as deep as it would go. It has a very strong metal taste that was exactly what was missing from the ‘pink squirrel cocktails’ he had at the live music club.
The drunk pink angels, now a bright red, were all still holding a bottle in tiny hands and emptied them one by one, all the while looking at Kevin’s hanketsu in the hanketsu bikini bottom and remarking, “That’s actually not too bad!” The black angels passing chimed in, “Yeah, not bad.”
Pink angels opened their tiny suitcases and found their hanketsu bikini bottoms. They were made with a shinny silver cloth to match with their halos. They posed in front of Luna’s big decorative mirror and discussed with one another how good they looked in their hanketsu bikini bottoms. Just before he passed away from drinking too many cocktails, Kevin shouted, “I want to change my life!”
Tears streaming down her face, Luna said, “Kevin, I knew you’d been struggling with your life, but I’ve never had a chance to make you happy.”
She moved close to him and kissed him gently on his lips. Takuya dashed to Kevin and licked his ‘not bad’ hanketsu. Kevin had a flashback. He grew up with Luna back in California. He never knew she really cared for him. He always thought of her as a self-centered, spoiled rich kid.
Kevin and his companions were in a hurry getting back to Kentaro’s stage. The red angels′ drunk driving was terrible but with the help of a few pink squirrels, somehow, everyone managed to come back to “The Live Music Club Rainbow” in Shibuya.
Kevin was really enjoying jumping with the punks and taking Kentaro’s hanketsu videos with the kids. The place was packed like a crowded train in Tokyo. He realized he’d lost the jacket that he wore at the interview. He didn’t care if he lost his jacket because he decided not to take their offer anyway. In the middle of the crazy screaming kids, he was having the happiest moment of his life next to the sex he’d had with Kentaro in the water at that beautiful beach.
Kentaro and his group performed three encores. The fans, still wanting to be close to them, went outside and found the luxurious, deep purple Cadillac. Kevin was with the kids and tried to look inside the car but it was hard. People were pushing each other and the Cadillac had black windows so no one could see inside.
A big, burly security guard grabbed Kevin with his big hand, opened the door and tossed him into the car as easy as you might toss a coat. One of the pink angels was left behind outside the car. When Kevin let her in she was crying loudly. He held her in his arms and patted her head. Then he realized there was Kentaro by himself in the car. Kevin tossed the crying angel in with the rest of the angels. He saw the driver from the back wearing a suit and stereotypical Japanese cab driver hat. Kevin kissed Kentaro like they had been separated for years. Kentaro was on top of Kevin. He liked older men, so he was comfortable this way. Curious sets of pink eyes were staring at them.
“Kentaro, you’re really a big star! I guess this Cadillac is worth more than 15,000,000 yen.”
“These guys have been nice to me because they are trying to get us to sign a contract.”, he said like proud of himself.
“What contract?”, Kevin asked.
“They want us to go to the States and make music, but we don’t want to do that. We want to be close to our fans and show them my real-time live streaming hanketsu dance. We’ve been trying to get into the South Korean music market because if we could make it big in Korea, we could become big anywhere in the world.”, he said with big dreamy eyes.
“Kevin, did you like my hanketsu performance on the stage?”, he asked between kisses as Kentaro’s hand lightly, as if it had been a gentle breeze, brushed Kevin’s penis.
Kevin showed him the best video he took. The cheerful music ran throughout the Cadillac. After he came back from Hayama, he didn’t care for anything. He pushed people to get the best spot and recorded his shaking and dancing and, of course, that wonderful golden hanketsu.
Kevin whispered, “I could masturbate to this video at least three times a day.”
Kentaro’s phone was playing the familiar “London Calling” ringtone.
“Dad, how many dying relatives do we have? Sorry, I’m not going this time. No, I’ve already got that game!“, he shouted and hung up.
Kevin was telling Kentaro what happened to him tonight in a serious voice, “I travelled to Hayama. It was just like a roller coaster ride and I met myself in Luna’s bedroom that night… ”
When Kevin said her name, the driver suddenly shouted with a surprise, “Kevin, is that you?”
“What? Dad! What’re you doing here?”
Luna’s dad sent me to get those kids’ asses to the states. “, he said joyfully and continued, “We’ve been having lots of fun doing it so far, eh Kentaro?” Kentaro was laughing his ass off.
“Dad, why didn’t you say anything to me?”, Kevin asked.
“Because you never pick up the phone when I call.”, he answered.
Kevin didn’t like his father. He avoided calls from him. Since Kevin was a kid, his dad was always in an affair with an actress on one arm and a fashion model on the other. Kevin had many stepmothers with fake blonde hair and fake breasts. Kevin couldn’t stand them and studied hard at schools and learned Japanese so he could get away from the life he hated. His dream was to get a job in a big Japanese company, but now, he lost his job-hunting jacket and he didn’t care.
“I told Luna that I was coming and she said she was gonna tell you.”, he explained.
Kevin was upset. Luna didn’t give him the message. He thought Luna was nice and cared for him but now he thought that was only his imagination. She was still a spoiled kid and didn’t care for him at all.
Kevin’s dad’s name was Clark, named after the actor Clark Gable. His mother had loved the movie “Gone with the Wind”.
Clark said, “I want to talk to both of you but I’m driving on the wrong side of the road. Is there a good place to stop?”, he asked.
Kentaro said, “Well, there’s nobody at home because everybody is attending at a funeral.”
Clark said, “Oh, sorry to hear that.”
Kentaro said, “It’s okay, I’ve never met her or him when she or he alive.”
Kentaro’s house was in Shinagawa where old houses and old shopping streets were. Those places reminded Kevin of the movie “Tokyo Story”, directed by Yasujirō Ozu, one of the most influential film makers in the world.
Kevin wanted to walk around. His memories of the scenes in the movie came back and made him cry. Clark was walking with him. Kevin thought that he looked like he’d gotten a little smaller. They hadn’t seen each other more than five years because Kevin didn’t approve of his lifestyle.
“Dad, what’s your latest wife’s name?” he asked.
“Kira.” he answered.
Kevin had never heard the name. He didn’t want to ask him how many wives he had, instead he asked, “And how old is this Kira?”
“Twenty three.”, he giggled.
“Same age as me!”, he was amazed. The old Kevin would have been disgusted at this.
“You know Kevin, I made her a big star. I know what show business is all about. We want to show Kentaro’s hanketsu to the world.”, he said with confidence.
The three sat in the living room. There were no table or chairs. They sat on the tatami floor just like the movie. Kentaro made tea for everyone. Kevin, for the first time realized that Kentaro was wearing orange colored contact on the left side and blue one on the right side. Kevin was only thinking about his hanketsu.
Kevin remarked, “Kentaro, I didn’t know you spoke such good English.”
“I grew up with listening to British rock bands and my parents sent me to English class.”, he explained.
Clark was not Japanese at all. There is a derogatory term for people like him - ‘bananas’ - yellow on the outside but white on the inside. Clark had never been serious, always thinking about having fun. His sons were the opposite.
Kentaro turned on TV to show them some South Korean idol groups. He said, “A lot of our fans have been coming to our live streams for more than ten years. We don’t want to leave them. I want to show them my hanketsu while I’m close to them. We’ve been thinking about going to Korea.
Clark interrupted him, “They all look and sound same to me.”
Kentaro replied, “Seoul is only two hours away. Korean guys in the music business really know what they’re doing.”
The TV was showing a popular Korean group. Just then about ten angels, each with different colored hair, came up in front of the TV and started dancing and singing along with the idols on TV.
Kentaro was amazed and said, “They’re so cute!”.
Clark shouted, “Their dancing and singing was amazing!”
Kevin looked at Kentaro and Clark, and found they were not watching the TV. They were looking at the angels in hanketsu bikini bottoms. The angels bent down to show their cute hanketsu to them and shake it just like Kentaro did tonight.
Clark said, “That’s great! We should take them to America.”
Kevin said with smile, “I’m afraid that not many people can see them.”
