Better Than Wine (1)
"So."
Bansei Marin muttered it, rubbing at her forehead.
"What you're telling me is that everyone knew about this except me."
"Well, more or less. Not that we were trying to leave you out."
She was the only surface-dweller in the second generation, and she looked over the genmates huddled together that morning. It was Tenka who had answered, smiling with a touch of awkwardness.
Calling them her genmates was generous, though. Yuri was still out on her jog, and Chiyo was snoring away in perfect peace, so it came down to Ninomae and Tenka alone.
"I know that, dear. You girls would never."
Hers was a body that had once belonged to a girl group—and she had been, in the end, the leader of one that collapsed under its own bad blood. Bansei knew better than most, then, just how warm and easy these colleagues of hers were with one another. To have gathered only girls this kind, this easy to like, was something close to a miracle.
"I'm sorry. I did tell you, but the rule is that we have to keep it hidden from people on the surface."
"Oh, don't. I've got apologies of my own to make, so don't fret over it."
"...?"
Bansei said as much, then looked away. Ninomae's eyes were asking for the rest of it, but this was one story she was reluctant to put into words, however she turned it over.
She could hardly admit to their faces that she had misread the two of them and set a whole adultery-delusion circuit spinning in her head.
"Anyway!"
So she forced her voice up and steered the talk elsewhere.
"Who else at our company knows about this hidden world?"
"Quite a few. From what I hear, the reason the president founded the company in the first place had to do with that side of things."
Support for certain entertainers who had been caught up in anomaly-related incidents and left unable to chase their dreams. That, it was said, had been the purpose behind Anathema Production's first generation.
"Entertainers who couldn't chase their dreams... ah."
The words alone seemed to give her enough to go on. Bansei nodded.
There were two from the entertainment world in the first generation: the actress Guroyuki Sui, who had trouble moving the muscles of her face after a traffic accident, and the idol Natsugahara Hina, whose group had been physically dissolved by a stabbing among its members. From the way Ninomae told it, those incidents had in truth been tangled up with the hidden world.
"...Oh my? Wait. Wait just a moment, dear."
Something seemed to strike her then, and Bansei's eyes went round.
"The rest of the second generation were all chosen by audition, but I was the only one the president scouted, wasn't I?"
"Yes. That's right."
"Don't tell me we were, too...?"
The rumors of discord that had brought the group down—had an anomaly been what set them off? It was hardly strange that Bansei's thoughts should run that far.
"Hmm. I'm not sure. I wouldn't say it's impossible."
On that point, Ninomae let the answer slide.
It was not that she was holding back because she truly didn't know. Quite the opposite. She knew the circumstances, and that was precisely why she found them difficult to bring up.
Han Seoyeon had hinted that the breakup of the girl group VV was probably tied to Bansei Marin's bloodline. Telling the woman herself was another matter. There were not many people who could say, with an easy heart, that the reason the group she had been rather attached to fell apart was her.
"...I see."
Bansei was not so dull as to miss the odd note in Ninomae's reaction, but she smiled anyway, soft and brief. If it was something Ninomae didn't want to say, there was no need to dig. The girl wasn't the sort to hide something important for the sake of her own convenience.
"The managers all seem to be from the surface world, I think..."
"And the seniors?"
"Everyone except Maya. Count Bansei and that makes eight of us, all told."
"...So I really was practically the only one who didn't know?"
No. Maybe it wasn't like that at all. Bansei shook her head, arguing with her own murmur.
If the hidden world were common knowledge, there would be no need for a Secrecy Protocol and all the rest of it. It was nothing but an instinctive guess, but she doubted even one person in ten so much as knew. Anathema Production's share of hidden-world people was simply obscene. A single day after crossing over, Bansei was already coming to see how abnormal her company was.
"Oh, what's this. You're all awake? Well—not truly all of you, of course."
It was about then that Hyakurenno Yuri came into the room in her loungewear.
"Yuri... you're back from your jog?"
"Yes. I went and got a little morning exercise in."
She would hardly have gone jogging dressed like that, so she must have come home, showered, and only then returned. The faintly dewy look of her skin was enough to tell. Whether that volume of exercise could honestly be called a little remained, as ever, an open question.
"Anyway, if you're all up, the timing is perfect. Would you wake Senjoji as well, before too long?"
"Hm? Yes, of course. Is something the matter?"
Ninomae asked even as she took the mumbling Senjoji Chiyo by the shoulder and shook her. From the way Yuri was speaking, it sounded as if there were something that had to be done right now.
"First we eat breakfast. And then..."
"And then?"
Tenka's voice, pressing. At the sound of it Yuri grinned, all mischief.
"Why, a fashion show, of course!"
"Uegh..."
"It's a little early to start in like that, Ninomae."
"Uuugh, but still."
The car moved so smoothly the sway was almost impossible to feel, and inside it Ninomae was halfway to lying down. Seated right beside her, holding her up, was of course Hyakurenno Yuri, who caught her by the shoulder and set her upright again.
"Do be careful. You'll ruin the clothes, and your hair."
"Okaaay."
Only then did Ninomae compose herself and give her outfit a small straightening. She could hardly step out looking anything less than neat. The car was bound for the meeting place where she had set her date with Han Seoyeon.
That was also why she was wilting like this. All morning she had been her genmates' dress-up doll, under the fine pretext of helping her prepare for the date. Ask whether it had actually helped, and the answer was plainly yes... but doing something she never usually did was bound to leave her a little tired. There was no helping that.
"You never much liked clothes shopping either, did you, Ninomae. Rather unusual, for a girl."
"I think there are plenty of women like me."
It wasn't that she paid fashion no mind at all. A few pieces each season were enough, in Ninomae's honest view, and her growing years were over now. If it came to it, she could simply take last year's clothes back out and wear them as they were.
"But you want to look nice, don't you? For Shion."
"...Yeah. Well."
Even so, the reason she had gone along with them in the end was that she, too, wanted to show Shion a good side of herself. It was hardly that some interest she had never possessed was suddenly boiling over. Still, wanting to take a little care on a day as special as this was a perfectly ordinary feeling.
"Well then. This is where we part for today."
At last the car came to a stop. Yuri looked at Ninomae and smiled, light and easy.
"Y-you're not coming, Yuri?"
"Why would I?"
"No, I just thought, since you like this sort of thing, you might watch from somewhere far off..."
"Ah. So that was what you meant."
Yuri let out a soft laugh at Ninomae's fumbling.
"Even I am not so lacking in tact as to wedge myself into an occasion like this. This belongs to you and Shion, and no one else."
"So go on. Have a good time."
Yuri added it while she looked into Ninomae's eyes.
"Don't be too nervous. You look terribly pretty right now."
She said it as her gaze traveled over her. Chestnut hair gathered half-up, giving her a feeling unlike her usual self. A white off-the-shoulder blouse with frills, baring her shoulders with a boldness the clothes she always wore never had. The skirt, by contrast, was a quiet beige, and long.
"...Well. I'm hardly the one you wanted to hear that from. I won't go on."
"...Thank you, truly, for all of this. Yuri."
Ninomae dipped her head in thanks. A moment later there was a clunk—the driver had stepped out, come around, and opened the door.
"I'll be going."
The voice wasn't loud, but there was a steady will in it. Yuri didn't answer. She only lifted a hand, lightly.
The moment Ninomae stepped down from the car, she could feel the eyes of the passersby drawing in on her. It was only natural. A woman alighting from a sedan that looked expensive even at a glance—and with the driver himself opening the door—could hardly fail to draw notice. It weighed on her a little, but she put on a calm face and let out a long breath.
She walked straight ahead without wavering. Her low chunky-heeled sandals clicked as she went, and her gaze was fixed on the clock tower standing a good way off.
Strictly speaking, the people nearby only called it a clock tower for convenience. In truth it was a small structure, barely three meters tall. A woman stood there with her back leaned against it, a phone in one hand, turning it over and over between her fingers.
A white shirt was tucked into high-waisted jeans, and over that she had thrown on a long overshirt that fell to her knees, worn open. Slowly the woman's head turned, and she looked at Ninomae.
The distance was still too great for her to have felt someone approaching. She had probably caught the scent. And she froze where she stood, her eyes a little wide.
"...Is it strange? Maybe?"
Ninomae, now right in front of her, murmured it, uneasy.
"No. It isn't that. You're just... too pretty."
"Oh, honestly. What are you even saying."
Ninomae gave Han Seoyeon's forearm a light tap, as if complaining. She couldn't hide the way the corner of her mouth had crept up.
"You look different from usual. It surprised me."
"Well... yes. The others fussed over me."
Han Seoyeon gave a quiet ah and nodded. Even so she was a little stiff, as if her soul still hadn't quite come back to her. Ninomae seemed thoroughly satisfied by the sight, and smiled.
"Come on, then. Let's go."
Ninomae held out her hand, smiling. There was no mistaking what it meant, and Seoyeon closed her own around it and held on.
"I'll leave the escorting to you?"
"Yes. As much as you like."
Only then did Han Seoyeon turn to face her as well, with the faintest of smiles.