Summaries for F Compo Days 90 through 93
Hako has gone home dragging Masahiko and Shioya (Shion in male guise) with her so she doesn't have to face her mother alone. After the confrontation on Day 89, Masahiko is not feeling very comfortable about Hako's relationship with her mother. As they all wait before a lavish dinner for Hako's mother to join them, Hako pretty much tells them her mother is not likely to show. Her mother is always busy and has very little time for anything but running the Ryokan(Japanese Style Inn). Hako seems to take all this as a matter of course, but Masahiko grows more and more troubled. He feels that what is happening here is the same thing as when he lost his mother and his father threw himself into his work to escape his grief, leaving Masahiko out of his life.
When Hako's mother does show for the meal, she tries to talk again about Hako staying and Hako puts a stop to it, then she jumps her mom since she's yet to ask about her school work. Her mother replies that she would have asked if she'd wanted to know. After this, dinner becomes incredibly silent. This makes Masahiko recall the many nights he sat alone at the table at home. Inadvertently he says "ondo ga nai" which means no temperature but by taking the two words apart it sounded better to take it as "there's no warmth". Masahiko apologizes for having spoken and that it was nothing, but Hako's Mom is affected by it. Before anything else happens, Hako's mother gets called away, still thinking about Masahiko's words. Again Hako tells the guys more about her past life at the Ryokan, looking cheery. The more she says, the more Masahiko realizes that their two childhoods were alot alike. They'd both believed that with one parent gone, the two left would become closer to support each other in their gried, but instead grew farther apart.
Masahiko and Shioya get to share a room for the night throwing Masahiko into a tizzy. (This is kinda finny since the two of them had spent time together at another hotel as girls... but then again he had so many problems there too I can't blame him for his discomfort now. Heh!) Shion (now as a girl) teases him until she makes him mad and he makes a run for it into another room. One of the teasing comments was asking him if he was going to sneak away in the middle of the night to visit Hako. Shion is shocked later when Masahiko makes a noise in his side of the closed room and when she looks to see what's going on, she finds he's gone.
In actuality, Masahiko can't sleep because of his thoughts on Hako's family and finally gets up and leaves his room. He goes to the lobby and sits down for a smoke. (Masahiko smokes! Wah! As far as I know this is the first time I've ever seen him light up.) He can't clear his thoughts and slumps forward in misery in the dark and Hako's mom walks in and sees who she thinks is her husband. Once she comes toward him and he sees her, she realizes it's Masahiko and not whom she thought. The two sit to talk, Masahiko wondering what to say, when she brings up what he said at dinner. He then confesses that he was thinking about his situation with his father when he was younger. She then pegs him by saying that her own situation looks much like his. Masahiko, embarassed, tries to deny it, but she pushes on. She then explains her own feelings and the things she'd never meant to happen, as well as the wound she's inadvertetnly given her child.
Meanwhile, Hako is awake, thinking about the date May 5th and
the children's height measurement ritual her father used to go
through with her laying heavily on her mind.
(This time's issue has a neat drawing for the section cover. It shows Shion making a shushing gesture as she touches a window/mirror and her reflection is doign the same but shows her dressed as a guy. There's a caption on the side reading something like "Not a Man, Not a Woman--Shion is both!" :-)
Day 91 continues the story line taking place in Hako's (Youko's) family Ryokan (hotel). Hako shows up at Masahiko's and Shioya's (Shion in male dress) room looking for Masahiko. Shion explains that Masahiko seems to have not been able to sleep and went to the lobby. So Hako comes into the room a thoughtful expression on her face.
Back in the lobby, Masahiko is still talking to Hako's mother. Hako's Mother explains that when she had first come into the room, she had that Masahiko was her dead husband, this had made her recollect other times in the past. It had been her husband's routine to sit in the lobby and smoke at night as he waited for her to finish all her chores. Then, the two of them together would walk the outside and inside of the hotel before turning in for the night. She has not followed that routine in 15 years, since his death. From things she says, Masahiko comes to believe that Hako's mother stays in the ryokan to protect the memories she has of her husband and their lives together. He also thinks about Hako, trying to tell her this place has warmth.
Meanwhile Hako is with Shioya as she drinks beer and talks about this being the place where she became the new her. She seems to be having clashing feelings/emotions and shares them ambiguously with Shioya. She knows what she wants, but is not so sure if she should do it because of her mother. Though Shioya says nothing throughout, when Hako slumps agaist his shoulder, he puts his arm around her. He comforts her in this way until shouting and running footsteps ring from down the hallway. Masahiko opens the door calling for Shioya and finds the two of them sitting there turned away from each other looking guilty. Shioya quickly explains that Hako was looking for him. Masahiko waves that aside and tells them something is wrong with Hako's mom. When they get there, Mom is looking fine and apologizes for making them worry. She says it was nothing though Masahiko protests.
The next day, Shioya wakes up to find Masahiko already putting his futon away and giving her the cold shoulder. When Shioya asks what's up, he gets hit back with the question of what were he and Hako talking about last night.
At breakfast Shioya still is trying to tell Masahiko nothing went on even as Masahiko counters with saying "if that's so, then why were the two of you acting so strangely?" Luckily for Shioya, Hako chooses that moment to walk into the room. She apologizes for her Mom the night before and they ask her how is she doing. Hako tells them she must be fine as she was up before her. Hako says something about probably inheriting the place and this gets Masahiko to ask her for them all to go outside for a bit. It looks like he tells her of what her mother thought and Hako laughs it off. Masahiko continues to try and get Hako to undertand her mother's feelings. Hako eventually just says she has to go be by herself.
Shioya tries to pick on Masahiko for trying to do too many things and interfering, and Masahiko turns it back on Shioya by asking "Oh, and did you find all this out from Hako, last night?" Shion disappears in a hurry.
Hako's Mom finds Hako at her favorite spot. Mom tells her she knew she'd be there as she knows she loves the place as it brings her memories of her father since he also loved that spot. Hako tells her that she does love the spot but not for the memories. She doesn't need a place like her mother does to remind her of her father. She also tells her mom she looks foolish, keeping such a place just for that. When her mom tries to explain to her that she is not strong and needs the memories, Hako jumps back in telling her she's not a child, and that her mother doesn't need a place for memories. She tells her how she's lived alone for 15 years as he mother has wallowed in the hotel and the memories it gives her. That that's all her mother cares about. Mom slaps her, shocked to find herself doing it. Hako counters by telling her she has no intention of ever inheriting the hotel and all it's accompanying responsibilities. She takes off, her mom calling after her. Then mom collapses. Hako hears the sound and turns around only to see her mother unconscious on the ground.
The doctor says mom is okay, that she just needs rest and quiet for a while. Shioya and Masahiko talk to one of the main hostesses and talk about how it's time for Hako to leave. Then it comes up that none of them has seen Hako in a while. What is she up to? We then get a flash of Hako standing before a mirror wearing a hostesses kimono. To be continued...
Hako's mother regains consciousness with Masahiko, Shioya, and her top aid watching over her. She instantly asks about Hako and Masahiko is forced to say they haven't seen her for a while. Mom seems to have expected this and then tries to get up to go back to work. Everyone protest but she doesn't listen until a loud voice orders her back to bed from outside. The door opens and Hako is revealed in kimono. She tells her mother she is the adult now and her mother the child and she needs to do as she is told. (Shioya of course takes this opportunity to tease Masahiko as his cheeks grow red from seeing Hako all dressed up. :-)) Mom is overwhelmed by Hako's manner and gives in. Hako tells her as she is leaving, that she has not changed her mind, and is only taking her place for a day.
Masahiko and Shioya go after Hako offering to help. Hako talks to the staff and is surprised by their willingness to have her take over for her mother. They've expected her to do this for sometime and also in the future. Hako keeps her opinions about this to herself and thanks them. Shioya and Masahiko work like they've never worked before! (Heh) There's a cameo by Makimura and Kaori out of City hunter!!! (Masahiko also wants to kill Shioya because she keeps insisting she can't help with certain chores like cleaning the mens' bathing area because she's a woman (though here she's dressed as a guy). Unknown to Masahiko, she still gets her big section of work too. Heh.
At one point, the main helper tells Hako how well she is doing, how no one would know it was her first day. Hako thinks to herself how she knows what to do since she had watched her mother go through the process for so many years. She's even got the welcoming smile down pat. Yet it is when she's talking to one of the departing guests that her thoughts start to change. The guest tells Hako how it is such a good Ryokan (hotel), how it has the spirit of her mother all through it. Though he's been to many other hotels of this type, this is the only one he wants to come back to year after year, because it is so filled with the spirit of those managing it. The man's grandchild even waves before they leave saying she wants to come back again. Hako realizes for the first time how the ryokan is imbued with the feeling of home.
In the middle of the late afternoon, there's a lull in the work and everyone can rest. Hako is surprised to discover her mother in the resting area serving tea. Hako tries to tell her she shouldn't be up, until her mom points out it is resting time and she thought Hako would like some tea. Hako thanks her and sits down to drink it with her. Her mother then admits that she'd never known Hako had felt the way she does. But she also tells Hako it is not the only thing she now understands. She explains that she was not preserving her husband's memory only for herself, she was doing it also for Hako. That her father would not have wanted her to forget. Hako distracts her by asking her if she remembers the markings on the post where her father kept track of Hako's height. She says it is this that reminds her the most of her father and that in her own way her mother had been protecting that for her as well. "Your foolish daughter, until now, hadn't realized that. Thank you, mother."
Shioya and Masahiko get to go home, exhausted but knowing things have gotten better between mother and daughter. Then that evening, Masahiko gets a call from Hako saying she and her mother had a big fight. Masahiko is panicking until Hako mentions that she'll be going back to the ryokan next week. She just wanted to warn him that's where she'd be going off and on if he saw her at the station. A much happier Hako is seen in the end returning home once more. (Yay!)
Masahiko freaks in the middle of class by something told to him by Ejima. After getting reprimanded for disrupting the class, we find out that Ejima seems to be working on a new top secret project for the film club, which he is calling "Your Illusion". For this project, which he hopes to turn into an Erotic Intimate film (I think), he is looking for a woman who can pass as a man and has a voice that is neutral so she can get away with it. (Masahiko is panicking because he knows one who can do this already all too well! Hahaha!)
Masahiko tells Shion about this and she thinks it is too funny! She can envision only too clearly Masahiko's panic. While Shion thinks it will be a fun project, Masahiko is quick to point out that she's forgetting too easily the tricks Ejima tried to pull when she was working for the film club. That changes Shion's opinion real quick.(Ejima and the others set up a camera in the shower trying to catch Shion bathing to add a nude scene to the picture--they got Masahiko instead.:-))
The club has decided to allow Ejima to try to do this film. He is beyond rapture at this. So later, when the interviews are being conducted, Shioya (Shion as a male) gets Masahiko to follow him to spy on them. As they're trying to get a look at the candidates, someone comes up behind them and inadvertetnly scares them into the room by asking them what they are doing. Ejima yells at them until he sees who is at the door. A lovely young woman. Ejima instantly kicks Shioya and Masahiko out. But before he can close the door, the girl calls out "Tanshio". Shioya pauses and looks back. "You're Tanshio, aren't you?" (Tanshio seems to translate to something like meat fat?) Shioya stares and then answers "Negi...boozu?" (That seems to be something like green onion face?)
The moment the girl says "Yes! Of course it's Tanshio!" Shioya gets a weird look on his face and turns around and walks off without another word. Masahiko runs after him.
Masahiko tries to ask Shioya if he knows this girl, and Shioya is very non commital. To Shioya's chagrin, however, the girl is waiting for them at the university exit. She invites them to tea.
The girl and Shioya know each other from 10 years before from Elementary school. They were classmantes until she had to move away. Masahiko realizes that she knew Shion during one of her male phases. Shioya asks the girl about her interest in the film and she answers she hasn't decided to be in it as she hadn't been clear on what it would entail. Then she mentions the two of them are going to the same college. Shioya tells her to quit calling him "Tanshio". "You know I hate that name. You haven't changed." When she apologizes, Shioya just gets up, dumps some money and leaves.
That night, Masahiko catches up to Shion. He tells her how awful she's been when she hasn't seen this girl for so long. Shion tells him it's only because the two of them fought all the time.
Masahiko asks what happened to them that they were so bad to each other and her answer floors him. "That girl was my first love." While Masahiko stammers, Shion explains she was her first love in a boy phase.
(Flashback scenes)
A young Shioya races up and calls out "Hey, Negiboozu!" He tells the girls he's calling her that because that's how her face looks. That's when she retaliates by telling Shioya that she hates meat fat and that his name will now be "Tanshio" because she hates him too. The war begins. Shioya puts frogs in the girl's backpack, the girl throws water out the window hitting Shioya who is sweeping below, the two fight back and forth with brooms and dust pans, laser beam eyes flash at each other in emnity. Then the day comes that it is announced Negiboozu is leaving the school. She makes eye contact with Shioya but he looks away. Later as he's staring at her empty desk and missing her, Shioya finds a letter in his desk. "To Shion-kun: It was fun being in Shion-kun's class together. Thank you. In truth, I like Shion-kun. I love Shion-kun. Good bye." Shioya breaks down.
(End of flashback)
Masahiko looks at Shion with feeling. He tries to say something to her about it, but chickens out. He thinks to himself how Shion had loved this girl in her childhood. He also tells himself how those feelings don't always change.
The next day, Shioya runs into the girl. He apologizes for his behaviour the day before, then she says "I, even now, love Wakanae." As the shock registers on Shioya's face, the angle pulls back and we see that Masahiko has heard this as well! (Let the fun begin!!!!!)