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Mafuyu Asahina didn’t like to rock the boat. Best to go along with her classmates, best to go along with her mother, and studying for medical school and… just about everything. It’s not as though she had any better alternatives. She didn’t know what she wanted, nor what she liked or disliked… so going along was fine, right?
That was until Mafuyu Asahina found something she disliked, the newest ‘suggestion’ from her mother. Apparently she needed to choose a proper marriage candidate. “You’re still young… but all the best choices are being snatched up. You wouldn’t want to end up with some middling husband, would you? That’s no way to make a home for yourself.”
Mafuyu needed to meet someone… apparently. Not just anyone, but a boy from a high class family. Someone who can provide for her future household… and some sort of appeal from his family. Some families and their renown were more important for reasons Mafuyu didn’t fully understand.
It didn’t seem all that difficult, she was used to putting on a smile to please others around her, make herself seem normal and acceptable… and likeable. The matchmaking started the next week, it seemed to involve a lot of dinners. Pretending to enjoy food was another specialty she’d built up over time.
Three, four, five of these meetings… with boys her age, though some were in their first year of university. Her mother told her to ask them about their experiences with it, get advice now to help her prepare for what was to come. These meetings were tolerable at first… is what she told herself, but from the very first meeting she would spend the entire duration praying for it to end faster, as fast as possible.
Sons of CEOs, CFOs, high profile Board Directors at such and such company. Out of the five she’d met so far, only one had asked her about herself, all the rest didn’t seem to care. They loved to stare at her though…
Only the fourth she met had any sort of tact, he was a kind sort of boy. Born into a rich family like the rest, but he had manners. This was the one time she didn’t hope for time to speed up, she even considered requesting seeing him again… but she knew what that would entail. As much as he was kind, something about progressing felt… off. Very very wrong.
She exchanged numbers with him. Both of them were aiming for medical school, so it could be worth it to study together in the future. He also seemed interested in her music, so she promised to send him some more in the future.
Friendship wasn’t something Mafuyu knew well, but he could be a close acquaintance… but that was all, and so the meetings continued.
For once, she didn’t bring this up with her… friends. Niigo were her friends, she was fairly sure of that. And friends cared about one another, and tried to help when something was wrong… and she knew they’d see this as something wrong. They’d try to help… and some part of her didn’t want that. She wanted to handle this without them, or at least try.
Her mother was beginning to plan… what was this, the ninth meeting? For the first time in a while… she spoke against her mother.
“Mother… I think we should end these matchmaking dinners.”
“Eh? For what reason? Did you make a choice yet, I think the Gotou boy was sweet, and his father is-”
“No… I haven’t… I’m not planning on meeting any of them again for this purpose, I think it’s just best to end these.”
“Mafuyu dear, it may be difficult at times… but it’s worth it, I promise. You won’t find a proper man without it, I can tell you that much.”
Unless… she had. “But I have. I have a boyfriend already. I can’t go on with these, it isn’t fair to him.” She was used to lying… but this was a bolder one than usual.
“Excuse me? We’re not looking for just a ‘boyfriend’, that’s not worth your time. You need someone worth the effort, from a prominent family, and-”
“He is… he’s from a big family. Set to inherit… an important role in the family business.” This was getting too specific.
Now she just needed her mother to not call her bluff.
“Perfect, bring him over this weekend… I’ll be the judge of him.”
Damnit.
School the next day was nerve wracking… well the school itself wasn’t, but she was never truly able to focus. Not on helping her classmates, or learning, or studying… or anything. She was doomed, there wasn’t anything she’d be able to do. It was Wednesday, she’d claimed she could bring a boyfriend from an important family… on Saturday.
There was nothing she could possibly do… nor something anyone else could do.
Unless perhaps that someone was Emu Otori. She seemed to have a knack for finding Mafuyu, constantly searching her out and trying out jokes that were… hit and miss. Still, her hits were high points in Mafuyu’s day.
“ASAHINA-SENPAI!!! Wonderhoy!!! Ok ok, I thought of a new one! What did the penguin say…” she stopped.
“Mm, what did the penguin say?”
“N-no, that wasn’t the whole joke…” she had her strange face on again… Mafuyu had once thought it to be fear, and yet Emu continuously pursued her, not something any normal person would do for someone that terrified her. This made the assumption Emu was normal, something Emu herself proudly denounced.
“The rest of the joke… um, I can save it for later, are you alright Asahina-senpai? You seem upset today?”
Mafuyu could master her perfect honour student face, spend years honing it… but Emu would always see through it. She knew it was fake, she knew when her smile was real, and she could always see deep into Mafuyu’s heart.
“It's… well something is troubling me, but I doubt you’d be able to make it go away.”
“Pfft, who cares! Wanna talk about it? Sometimes just talking can help. Oh, unless it's a secret… but I CAN KEEP SECRETS I PROMISE!!!” Emu’s smile was piercing.
Maybe it was worth a shot to get another perspective.
They found a private spot in the courtyard to talk. Over time… Mafuyu had been more and more comfortable dropping her facade around Emu, if they were alone at least. That seemed to scare her less, and this was one person she knew wouldn’t turn her away.
She told Emu everything, the arranged dinners and matchmaking, and her big lie.
“So, I’m extremely worried. I somehow need to find a boyfriend from an affluent family or big corporation by Saturday…”
“Huh…” Emu pondered, “Well I’m from an affluent family or big corporation! My older brothers manage our Otori financial group! Ah, but they’re definitely too old for this…”
“Ah, so close…” Emu was her age, Mafuyu could trust her, she fit the criteria perfectly… but wasn’t a boy.
Though, was that an issue? “Emu… perhaps you could be my boyfriend for Saturday?”
“EH??? I’m not a boy though, silly!” She giggled as though Mafuyu had just made the most ridiculous proposition in the world.
“Maybe but… you could play the part, right? That's all that matters.”
“WAH, YOU’RE RIGHT??? I’m an actor! I can act as a boy easily, I do it all the time in my troupe! Ok, it’s a deal then!”
Over the next few days, Mafuyu checked in with Emu to make sure their plan was solid, and go over a backstory she’d come up with. How they met, how long they’ve been together, first date, etc…
As well, she wanted to check if Emu had a plan for appearance.
“Don’t worry! Rui-kun knows about this stuff, we have a plan to transform me totally into a boy. It’ll be super cool, just you wait.”
Wait she did, but she didn’t need to for long. Soon it was nearing 4 PM on Saturday, the time Emu should be arriving. Right on cue, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it, it must be him.”
Her mother nodded, still looking skeptical, as Mafuyu raced to the door.
Opening it, she found exactly who she expected… and yet not at all what she expected.
Emu was standing there, wearing a yellow shirt, overalls, and a bright pink jacket. She’d seen her wear this outfit before… they’d crossed paths in the mall once.
“Emu… I thought you’d be dressing masculine.”
“Eh? I’m being a boy! See see, I’m wearing a binder!” She pointed at her chest, or lack thereof, “Rui-kun helped me pick one out! Can’t have a chest showing as a boy.”
“You could have had gynecomastia…”
“Guy no… what?”
“Never mind, it’ll be fine.”
They walked together into the living room, where Mafuyu’s mother awaited. “This is my boyfriend, Emu Otori.”
“Hello!!! It’s super wonderhoy to meet you!!!”
Her mother blinked a few times, taking the boy in fully… “that… Mafuyu dear that’s a girl.”
Damn, she noticed.
“Nope! I get that a lot, I know I look a bit feminine… but I’m a boy! Lots of people think that I’m a girl when they meet me… but could a girl do this!”
He spun around like a top ten times, an action most people could do regardless of gender.
“Yes… a girl could do that.”
“I’m not sure mother…” Mafuyu tried copying him, then feigned falling onto the couch.
Except she never hit the couch, Emu had grabbed her back to stop her from falling.
“Wahhh, Mafuyu noooo. That’s dangerous, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Still being held, she turned her head to face her mother. “Isn’t he such a gentleman?l
“I… ok…” Whether she was buying it or just didn’t care to fight it any longer, her mother sighed and began her actual questions.
“So… Otori was it? I presume that your family runs the Otori financial group?”
“Yup yup! My grandfather founded Phoenix Wonderland and he showed me lots of cool stuff from his past when he was designing it!”
“I see… not somewhere I’ve been for a while, but the Otori group is quite large, even beyond the theme park.”
“That’s true… but I’ll definitely keep working with the park! I want to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps!”
“My daughter doesn’t need some… Ferris wheel operator.”
Emu titled his head, “Eh? I don’t do that, usually that’s Kaede-chan’s job! But umm… I think you’re misunderstanding my goal.”
“Please… enlighten me.” She stared daggers at Emu… clearly his speech wasn’t impressing her.
But he didn’t let it get to him. “My grandfather was a creative visionary… but he was also a businessman. He needed to be both to get the company to where it is today. Ever since he passed… well my brothers are nice but they’re just business guys, nothing more. I need to be both, take his place, and properly grow both the company and… the funpany.” He winked, miming a little drumming motion.
Mafuyu’s mother wasn’t impressed. “And… how exactly do you plan to do that?”
“Well I’ve already started at a small scale! My troupe and I have been traveling around to advertise to the park. We've already increased attendance and revenue, and brought people back to our once dead stage! That uh, helps with crowd control and helps keep attendance rates up.”
Mafuyu could tell he wasn’t… fully comfortable using professional sounding lingo like ‘revenue’ and ‘crowd control’, but he clearly understood them… and the operations of the park.
“Plus! My brothers have been mentoring me in business stuff, and I’m thinking about going to some business course after high school to get me prepared.”
A business program after high school? That sounded like… the most un-Emu thing in the world, was he just lying?
“Alright… there’s at least some sense in you. Mafuyu, it’s time for you to start preparing dinner.”
“Yes, right away.” She headed towards the kitchen… and someone followed.
“I’ll go help her!” Emu proclaimed, racing ahead.
“No no, don’t worry. She’s plenty capable.”
“Of course! Still, it’s better with more people! You can double team stuff, plus…” he put the tips of his fingers together, a bit sheepish, “anytime with her is… worth spending.”
Mafuyu felt a pang in her heart… damn Emu was a good actor. Working in musical theatre must do that to you.
“Fine, I’ll go phone your father Mafuyu. Don’t take too long with the food.”
It was just the two of them left, ready to prepare the food.
“Jeez… your mom’s scary.”
“She’s… just looking out for me.”
“I think she was more looking in my direction… and she definitely had it out for me.”
Mafuyu chuckled… sometimes this girl, or boy today, was funny. She couldn’t help but react to him this way.
“Hey, Emu… about business school, did you mean that?”
“Eh? Yeah! I wanna be like my grandpa!”
“Hmm, business school just doesn’t seem… like your sort of environment.”
He sulked just a bit, “yeah well… it might not be as fun, but it’ll be worth it!” He said this to Mafuyu… but it felt more for himself, as reassurance.
“I hope you do your best…”
Dinner was on the table faster than usual, Emu didn’t look it… but he was quite helpful in the kitchen. Mafuyu had expected a bit more chaos trying to wrangle him in, but even he could behave himself when needed.
Mafuyu’s mother seemed pleasantly surprised by the early meal. Her questions felt less harsh, her tone was softer… had this plan really worked?
Emu looked particularly pleased with the food. Watching him eat was always intriguing, every bite he took produced some sort of new facial expression, it was strange.
It made the occasional lunch periods they spent together more interesting.
“I guess my only other question… what do you like about my daughter? Ah, wait that sounds a bit cruel, there’s plenty to like, I’m just wondering what particularly drew you in.”
“Hmm…” Emu took a few seconds to consider, his face shifting and twisting as he did. “Mm, we’ll probably… because she’s relaxing to be with? She has a sort of… zen atmosphere, it makes all the stress fly away just sitting next to her! Ah, also umm… well I get a bit chatty sometimes and she doesn’t mind much, that’s good!”
Suddenly he turned to face Mafuyu, “Though you don’t talk enough… you should, I think. Your voice is pretty!”
Mafuyu’s heart collapsed under his golden smile as he spoke. This… her feelings… was this method acting she was doing by accident? She didn’t want to think about it more.
“How sweet… alright, take proper care of her, understand? Your own future as well.”
“Gotcha!“ he held up his hand in a peace sign, before checking his phone and… “WAAH! Ah, I’m sorry I gotta run! My sis told me to be back home… and I’m gonna be late. Thank you so so so much for having me!”
He raced to the door, the Asahina’s following behind.
“Thank you for coming. Ah, and perhaps try getting a more masculine wardrobe? Dressing like that you’ll be mistaken for…”
“Nope, I’m good!” Before Mafuyu’s mom could double down, Emu disappeared into the night.
“Well… he’s a hyper boy, doesn’t seem like he’d gel with you.”
“He does. He really does.”
That was the truth.
“Mafuyuuuu!!!” Emu ran at her in the halls, as usual. “Saturday was fun! I think maybe your mom liked me by the end. Also, being a boy is fun I’m gonna do it more!”
Mafuyu wasn’t sure what doing it more meant in this context, but… Emu would find a way.
“Thank you again for helping. I’m sure pretending to be my boyfriend wasn’t easy, especially with my mother grilling you like that.”
Emu’s eyes bugged out of her head, “WHAT??? We were pretending? I thought I was your boyfriend now!”
He looked genuinely confused, had… he really thought that all along?
Though… “alright… then it was real.”
Emu’s cheers rang through the halls, and his arms held Mafuyu tight.
Maybe this part of her life didn’t have to be pretend.