We don't have a gig tonight, but, because it's Akira's birthday, we're going out to explore the clubs in town. I've still not heard anything from Jenny, but it's already past midnight over there and I can't try again today. So, I push thoughts of her from my head and focus on my sister who I can hear squealing and laughing across the hall with Charlotte as they get ready."Kenji, what did you get me?" Akira bounces into my room with a champagne flute in hand, opening and closing all the cupboards in search of her gift."I flew you out here, is that not enough?" I ask, laughing when she mimics what I've said in a silly voice."Come on, where is it? Charlotte, come help me look, Kenji's hidden my present." She hollers through the open door and Charlotte's blonde head immediately appears around the frame."Kira, I'm sorry, I didn't get you anything. I thought bringing you out here for the month would be enough?" I keep my face as relaxed as possible as the two girls trash my room in thei
I've spoken to Kenji every single day for the last three weeks, it's usually while he's chilling out before getting ready for a gig and while I'm heading to bed, which would make me feel like a little old lady if I wasn't completely stressed out with assignments. He even ordered pizza and ice cream to be delivered when I was convinced I'd messed up my Business Law assignment and couldn't get hold of my lecturer to discuss it. Obviously it didn't solve the problem, but it was nicer to sit there sobbing into junk food than it would have been without it.Conversely I am yet to hear from Dane since his sister interrupted us at the party. I've called and text him a bunch of times, but apart from a text telling me he's really busy with uni and work at the moment but will see me soon, I've not heard anything from him. He couldn't even visit last weekend because he had family unexpectedly visiting so his parents made him stay at home.Part of me is annoyed that he hasn't made an effort, espec
I stare at my phone, willing it to ring, even checking I haven't somehow broken it or switched it to do not disturb somehow but everything seems to be as it should be. So why hasn't she called? "Ken, hurry up, we're heading to the bar." Harrison calls from the door of the dressing room. It's nearly 4am and Jenny and I had a phone date an hour ago, but she didn't answer when I tried. "Kenji Ikeda, get your butt out here and take your sister drinking." Akira shouts, then almost a second later she's barging into my room and snatching my phone from my hand. "She's probably still asleep, she'll ring when she wakes up. Come on." "Ok, ok, fine." As soon as I stand up she passes my phone back, dragging me by the arm out of my room to cheers of "finally" from everyone else. I turn the volume and vibrate up full, keeping it in my pocket the entire night, pulling it out every so often to see if I've missed her call, but nothing and I can't help worrying. We haven't missed a call once in thre
"So, Kenji, you've been in the news recently when it was discovered you were in a relationship, anything you can tell us about the lucky lady?" Jonathan Ross' voice comes through the phone of the girls in front of me and without seeing it, I know that the show is showing a picture of him at the airport with his sister and her best friend."Ah, yeah, well, that's actually my sister Akira. Hi Kira." Kenji waves at the camera before turning back to the screen. "And the girl beside her is her best friend and actually Jamie's little sister, Charlotte. Neither of which I am dating.""Bet he's shagged Jamie's sister though." One of the girls comments and they both giggle."Ok, well, does that mean you're single then?" As though I'm watching it again, I can see Kenji laugh, his cheeks turning a little red and Jonathan spots it immediately. "There is someone, come on, tell us all about her.""Right, well, I can't really, it's still really early days, but what I can tell you is she's special. S
"Come on in, quickly." Jenny opens her front door, pulling me through and closing it behind her. She's gotten very good at doing that without being seen from outside which is weirdly impressive to me.Ever since I declared my interest in her on the Jonathan Ross show, I've been followed even more than usual, so I've upped the disguise to avoid being spotted when I come to visit her. I'm lucky it's cold enough for woolly hats and scarves so I blend right in."Fish and chips, I definitely want proper greasy fish and chips tonight. I might even get gravy too. Oooo or curry sauce." The voice in the hallway has her stopping on the spot, her eyes wide with panic and this I'm less impressed by. She's still keeping me secret from her friends, even the couple I accidentally met before. The voices get quieter as they go the opposite way and once we hear a door shut, she relaxes, tugging me along to her room and locking the door behind us."Hi." She finally smiles at me, breathing a sigh of reli
"Oh Jenny, I'm so disappointed, I thought he was just a one night stand. I was so proud." Luke grins as he dodges Cleo who is trying to shut him up. "I've renounced my manwhore ways, but I thought I had converted you, I was going to share tips and live vicariously through you.""Vicariously?" I grin at him, surprisingly relieved that Kenji meeting my friends went better than anticipated. "Did I not use that right?" He stops and Cleo manages to grab him, slapping her hand over his mouth."No, no, you actually did. I'm just surprised you used it at all." I catch the pillow he launches in my direction, then another and somehow a third between the two and toss them back, hitting him in the side of the head. "Don't mess with me, I'm happy and I've got mad ninja skills.""You do seem happy." Elsie walks into the kitchen and grabs a banana. She's very slowly coming around to us all and we make an extra effort to include her whenever she ventures out without Billy by her side."More importa
I wake up with a dead arm, my fingertips tingling but feeling foreign on my arm which is acting like it's doubled in size overnight and Jenny's housemate is singing loudly again as he walks past her room while his girlfriend tries hard to make him be quiet. I'm not sure why she still tries, I've only slept here a dozen or so nights and even I can tell it doesn't work, in fact, it might just make it a little bit worse. "I hate him so much." Jenny moans, curling into me further and releasing the pressure on my arm which is then swamped with the prickle of pins and needles as it comes back to life. "It's five in the morning... On a Saturday. It's like he has to punish those of us who aren't masochistic enough to voluntarily get up that early." "Shh he's gone now, go back to sleep." I whisper, stroking her hair with my normal, tingle free hand, loving the feel of her snuggled into my chest. It's been so good the last few weeks, we've hung out with her friends quite a bit and even her si
Kenji is not a morning person, if anything I would say he's an anti-morning person, he's happy to stay up until the early hours, but getting him out of bed before ten o'clock is challenging. He pretends not to notice when I'm trying to escape his clutches and when I finally manage to get up, he burrows deep under the quilt and fakes being asleep, therefore he apparently can't hear me talking to him. This also means that the first thing he wants to do when we get into town is to go and get brunch, which seems to be fairly difficult when he's also trying to keep himself disguised from being recognised. "Oh em gee, are you Kenji from Kokoro?" A woman shoves past me to sit beside Kenj as soon as he removes his scarf. "Nanishiteruno." (What are you doing?) Kenji shouts suddenly, standing up and taking my hand. "Daijōbu desu ka?" (Are you ok?) I have no idea what he's saying but I'm guessing it's Japanese and am incredibly impressed that he can speak it. I don't know why I never assumed
The year abroad was the best year of my life, Kenji and his band were amazing, obviously, but the things we did and saw outside of the performances were amazing too. I completely filled up the rest of the scrapbook Priya made, as well as two others and I'm making sure to keep scrapbooking even though I'm back and studying again. Not only does it give me downtime to relax while I'm studying, but it also reminds me to enjoy myself too, so I don't get too caught up in studying all the time. I also got a part time job at a solicitor's, I actually started before I went back to uni so I knew it was definitely what I wanted and it really, really is, I even sat in during a hearing a few weeks ago and it cemented in me that this is my dream career. I feel like a different person, I'm still focused, but more balanced, which is great. Kenji and I are still together, I think I can truthfully say I am completely head over heels in love with him, but I mean who wouldn't be? He made me an office i
The guys are really excited about the tour, and I am too, it's what I've dreamt about for as long as I can remember. I would rather Jenny was with me, I'd love to share it all with her, but I know she needs to follow her own dream too and as my Okasan so wisely said, love finds a way and if we're meant to be together, it'll work out. So I'm allowing myself to get fully excited about the trip, where we're going and what we'll be earning, which I hadn't seen before but it's considerably more than we've ever earnt for a tour before! I'm pretty sure if I sat down and worked it out, it's probably more than we've earnt for all our previous tours combined! Akira has already told me when she's visiting, all the cities that are hot and have beaches funnily enough, and I've made a list of places that we'll be during Jenny's uni breaks so she can choose which ones to come for. All of them hopefully but I won't push it. I've done my shopping, with Akira's help, or so she told me. But it's a
I'm trying not to show everyone how stressed I am, but I'm so close to losing it and having a meltdown in the middle of class. I was stupid to take so much time off especially after everything thats been going on since I met Kenji. I've missed so much and now trying to catch up it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day. I lied to everyone, my tutor didn't recommend trying to catch up, she thinks that's an impossible tasks, so she suggested I drop out now and repeat the year next year. She tried reassuring me that loads of people do it. But I'm not loads of people, I'm me, and I don't give up. Besides, once I'm caught up, the stress will be over and I'll be able to spend a few weeks of the summer wherever Kenji happens to be, which will also mean getting to explore another part of the world. So it's all going to work out, if I could stop daydreaming about exploring the world that is.I've deliberately not looked at his itinerary, otherwise I know I'll start thinking about and
We've been home a month and my house is looking good, Jenny has been working crazy hours to catch up so I've barely seen her and I miss her like crazy. I’m going to ask her to move in with me, I wanted to when we were in Australia but she was in a strange headspace. To be honest ever since we've gotten back she's been weird, like she's not quite present when we're together, which is the main thing that's stopped me asking her already. But I'm planning to ask her when she comes over for dinner tonight.I've got flowers, candles and her favourite meal nearly ready. She should have been here half an hour ago but she's been late a few times recently, saying she lost track of time while studying. I'm trying not to think the worst, I don't know what I'd do if she lost interest in me. I’ve fallen head over heels for her.After an hour of waiting, I give up and call her.“Hey, are you on your way?” I ask cheerily, when she answers the phone.“Um… what?” She says, her voice sounds strained.“J
I don't want to go home and go back to university, back to my boring normal life. The thought has been getting stronger and stronger the longer I've been out here and it's worrying. I brought some textbooks with me, planning to study while Kenji was working or sleeping or whatever, but I've done nothing even remotely academic. There's just too much to see and do. The world is so big and I've been practically nowhere. It's never bothered me before, I had a plan and I stuck to it, never wavered, not until Kenji came along and I know my family will probably be annoyed that I've lost focus, but I can't seem to keep my mind on what I'm learning.Even now, I'm sitting with my books out in front of me, the band is with Fred sorting out the chaos that happened last night and Ivy is sitting quietly watching TV on the sofa near me. After saying good morning and then sitting on the opposite side of the room it was obvious she doesn't want to talk, I think she's still shake from last night, she'
The last week has flown by, I'm exhausted but I've never been happier. Every night we do a show and Jenny is there with Ivy cheering us on, then we go to the after parties and everyone loves her. Even Fred has come around to the idea once he saw the positive response from the pictures of Jenny at our show the first night she arrived. I reposted it on my Instagram page, where I clarified that we are together and very happy but most definitely not in an open relationship. There have been some upset and even some angry fans with some very negative posts about the situation and, Jenny in particular, but I've focused on the positive posts, replying to only those on my page and the positive posts are increasing every day. There are even a few who have started copying her style, posting pictures of themselves wearing outfits they've seen her in on her Social media. I haven't told her about that yet, I think it might freak her out and I just want her to enjoy her time with me here without wo
I'm having the best holiday of my life. I emailed my lecturers this morning and for lack of a better excuse, I actually told them all that I'd flown to Australia to meet my boyfriend for the last two weeks of his tour. I don't know how that'll go down, but hopefully I'll get points for being honest, maybe? I'm all up to date with my work and they know I'll catch up on whatever I've missed anyway but from the moment I sent the email and I fell back to sleep beside Kenji, I've not thought about my course at all, which is so not like me, but I'm happy and relaxed, which is also so not like me. After breakfast in bed, Kenji told me to get dressed because he was taking me out and the next thing I know he's driving me across the country towards a mystery location.I think I saw a camel!!We rushed passed so quickly that it might have been a horse standing oddly, but I swear it was a camel, which as ridiculous as it sounds since I flew for half a day, made me realise I'm in a different coun
I've been trying to get hold of Jenny for hours but her phone keeps going to answerphone and I can't pretend I'm not starting to panic. I've got two weeks left over here but I'm seriously considering what the repercussions would be if I skipped the rest of the tour and got on the next plane home.Keeping my phone in my hand, I drag myself to the pre-gig meeting and sit through it without really hearing a thing.A plane rumbles overhead and it's almost like a sign, or at least that's how I'm taking it and as soon as the meeting finishes, I grab my passport and hide it in my jacket pocket. "Oi, what's got you looking so serious?" Harrison kicks my foot with his in the car, jolting me so I'm not sure if I've clicked on the right flight."Nothing " I grumble, going back and reselecting one that I should be able to make if we finish on time, but then with encores?Just as I'm about to pay for the ticket, my phone starts ringing and my entire body goes into panic as I see it's Jenny's sist
I sit on my bed staring at my phone, I'm not sure what time it is or how long I've been sitting here, but I just can't bring myself to move. Texts come through, making my phone buzz in my hand but it's like my brain's shut off because I can't fathom quite what they say. Well, at least that part of my brain isn't working, there's another part that is more than active. The part that's going wild about the fact that Kenji actually thought I'd slept with those men. I never doubted him, even with the photos, but he didn't even question it, I can't shake that look in his eyes from my mind. He didn't trust me and without trust, how can we say we're in love? It feels like I've been in a sort of bubble since getting together with Kenji, there's been so much drama, one way or another, maybe that's why it feels like we've fallen for each other so quickly. But what do we really know about one another? Why do we like each other? Aside from physical attraction? Do we even have anything in common?