The Compromise
(Akane's PoV)
—
The taxi dropped us at the edge of the alley network. No car with functioning suspension was going to survive the maze of narrow streets leading to Hoshiko's studio.
"Thanks for the ride!" I said.
Then, we paid the driver, stepped out into the cold, and I grabbed Shin's hand before pulling him into the maze.
The backstreets here are old. Narrow, cobbled in places, buildings leaning close on both sides, hand-painted signs from shops that closed twenty years ago still hanging over the doors. Tourists never come here. Locals navigate it by instinct.
I've walked this route enough times that my feet know every turn.
"I'm curious. How does anybody find this place?" Shin asked, ducking under a low pipe.
"They don't. That's the point. Hoshiko's clients come by referral only because she's in high demand. If you can't find the studio, you weren't meant to get tattooed."
"That's either very exclusive or very bad for business."
"Both. She doesn't care."
The alley ended in a cul-de-sac.
'There it is.'
A heavy iron door painted black, sitting at the bottom of the lane like the entrance to somewhere that required a password. Above it, glowing pink and blue against the dark brick, was the sign:
'Tsukishiro's Art Sanctuary'
The cursive letters hummed and flickered in the night air, spilling color across the wet cobblestones.
It looked like the entrance to a very expensive secret, which, in a way, it actually was.
"Here we are..." I sighed. "Prepare for—"
The door opened before I knocked.
"BABY WOLF!"
Hoshiko appeared in the doorway like an explosion, arms outstretched.
She had on an oversized band shirt with the sleeves cut off, and her hair was twisted into a chaotic small bun held together by what looked like two chopsticks and divine intervention. Ink stained both forearms. Apparently she'd really been working when she got my message.
She hugged me first, hard enough to compress my ribcage, then released me and immediately grabbed Shin before he had time to defend himself.
"Shin-kun! You're here too! Both of you! At this hour! This is either very romantic or very catastrophic!"
She pulled back, still holding him by the shoulders, and looked between us.
But the joking expression disappeared almost immediately.
"Something's clearly wrong here. The air around you feels weird. What happened?" She finally let Shin go and stepped aside. "Tell me. What's the drama?"
Warmth poured out of the studio behind her, with incense hanging faintly in the air beneath the sharper smell of alcohol and ink.
"Show me the photos first," I said.
Hoshiko lifted a small stack of glossy prints.
"High quality, just like you asked." She handed them over. "Now come inside and talk."
We went inside.
She shut the iron door behind us, cutting off the city outside, and suddenly we were back inside Hoshiko's little neon bunker.
I sat in one of the leather chairs, spread the pictures across the workstation, and told her everything.
Daiki, Izumi, the love hotel, the phone call, the lie... everything I had in mind—even the takoyaki on the pavement.
Hoshiko listened without interrupting, and it was strange.
She leaned against the counter with her arms crossed. Her mouth tightened a little more with every sentence.
"You're talking about... Izumi Yamashiro, right? The young mangaka who created that famous one-shot story... Well... I know her." Hoshiko rubbed her chin.
"How do you know her?" Shin asked.
"Uhm... I think that I met her at an art competition one year ago. We talked for a bit, and she asked me for some drawing tips. Then she came into this studio to get a tattoo four months ago." She said.
"A tattoo? What kind of tattoo?" I asked.
"Uhm... a minimalist rose between her boobs. Precisely there." Hoshiko sighed, indicating the specific place with her fingers. "She said it was important because of a childhood thing. But I didn't care, to be honest. I just sketched in five minutes and then tattooed it on her in one take."
"What a basic tattoo." I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Yeah. Too basic." Hoshiko sighed.
Shin remained silent.
Then I kept talking about the remaining things, and when I finished, she exhaled through her nose.
"Damn," she said. "That's rough. Really rough. What a bitch." Her eyes dropped to the photos.
Two people smiling in front of a door they definitely shouldn't have been walking through together.
"You know, this is exactly why I've always stayed far away from love. Seriously. It's scarier than death."
Shin stood near the door with a bitter little smile. "Yeah."
"No offense to you two," Hoshiko added quickly, waving between us. "You're the exception. You're disgusting in a good way. But everybody else?" She shook her head. "Terrifying." Then she leaned forward against the counter. "So. What are you going to do with these photos, baby wolf?"
My lips curved into a malicious grin.
"Tomorrow morning, the school bulletin board is getting a few surprise additions." For one second, nobody spoke.
"AKANE." Shin's voice sliced through the studio like a blade. "You're not seriously planning to put these on the bulletin board. Do you have any idea what that could do to her?"
"A person like that needs to learn early about the consequences," I said. "Besides, if she has nothing to hide, there won't be a problem. At least this way everything comes out in the open."
"Akane, I can't accept something like that. It's simply wr—"
"What's worse," I cut in, "is that your best friend is probably sitting in his room right now crying over a pathological liar. And knowing her type, after the photos she'll go straight to Daiki and start explaining why somehow none of this is actually her fault. Or she'll say that it's a misunderstanding, who knows."
Shin stared at me. "After that phone call yesterday, you seriously think she won't try to blame him?"
I tapped one of the pictures. "If necessary, I'll tell her privately that it was me. In the worst case, she can't accuse me of anything." I stretched my arms.
His fists tightened at his sides.
I could almost see what he was thinking. He was surely furious with Izumi, but that also didn't mean he thought revenge made this okay.
"Akane. No." His voice came out strained. "What she did makes me sick, but we can't go this far. Daiki needs to heal on his own, and we need to be there for him."
"Absolutely not. She has to pay." I folded my arms. "I hate cheaters."
"Akane, what if she didn't cheat and it was all a misunderstanding for real? Daiki should just break up and move on." Some tension left his shoulders. "Also, what if someone sees you? What if you face consequences for that? You can't risk something like that, especially after the letter you've received."
"I don't care. I'm not doing this for Daiki. I'm doing this because I hate cheaters." I replied.
Hoshiko lifted both hands. "H-heyyy!" Her voice was softer now. "Look, I love drama. And I am genuinely enjoying watching you two argue because you're adorable. But maybe don't murder each other inside my shop."
Neither of us answered; we just kept staring into each other's eyes.
She sighed.
"How about a compromise?"
That got my attention.
"I'll blur the faces. Enough that random people can't instantly identify them, but anybody who actually knows her might figure it out."
Shin frowned.
Hoshiko pointed at the photographs. "She'll get nervous, and then people will start asking questions, but we're not throwing her face onto a public board like a wanted poster. Plus, I'm sure that a lot of rumors would start spreading. That's how school works, right?" She looked between us, her eyes soft. "Deal?"
I then stared at the photos. Unfortunately, the reasonable part of my brain had barely survived the evening, and annoyingly, Shin had a point.
Hoshiko's version was somehow smarter than mine.
"Fine," I said. "That's the only compromise I'll accept."
Shin exhaled through his nose.
"Fine..." he sighed.
Hoshiko then clapped once.
"Wonderful! Nobody committed a felony in my studio tonight."
Then, she sat at the workstation and pulled the photos toward her.
She worked fast. Scan, adjust, print. The same precision she used on tattoo designs, except this time she was carefully obscuring the faces of two idiots leaving a love hotel.
Ten minutes later, she handed me two new prints.
Same door and same figures. Just enough blur across their faces that you'd need to already know them to be certain.
"Here." She held them out. "Use them wisely, baby wolf."
I slipped them into my bag and zipped it shut. "Thanks, darling."
"You're welcome!" Hoshiko smiled.
Then, as I turned my eyes away, something in the far corner caught my eye. A sleeping bag.
It was laid over a thin mat between the bookshelf and the wall, complete with a pillow and folded blanket. A small, suspiciously organized nest.
"Hoshiko." She froze. "Why is there a sleeping bag in the corner of your shop?"
Her shoulders twitched. "A-ah... that? It's nothing. Don't worry about it." She waved dismissively, but for half a second her eyes went somewhere else.
I then walked over and pinched her cheek.
"Ow ow ow! Okay! Fine! I'll talk!" She swatted at my hand until I released her. "Jeez, your grip hasn't gotten any gentler..." She rubbed her cheek. "So... basically, there have been electrical problems in my apartment. The wiring is old, the breaker keeps tripping, the electrician from Kaitoyama Industries keeps saying he'll fix it, but he disappeared." She scratched the back of her head. "It's been dark in there for three days."
I stood silent for some instants, staring deeply into her eyes.
Then, her voice got quieter. "And I'm... a little afraid of the dark. That's all."
I looked around. Every light in the studio was on. Not only the normal ceiling lights. Every neon display too, including the ones she usually turned off after closing. There wasn't a dark corner anywhere.
"So I've been sleeping here," she finished.
I put a hand on her shoulder and sighed. "You scared me for a second, Hoshiko. I thought something serious happened."
"Sorry, sorry..." She leaned slightly into my hand. "It's actually not that bad! This sleeping bag is super comfortable, and the air conditioning here works perfectly. It's basically a luxury hotel if you can endure the smell of ink and some sandalwood." She glanced toward the tattoo station. "Well... a luxury hotel with more ink and needles."
While we were talking, Shin had wandered toward the far wall.
Hoshiko kept her design portfolio there: tattoo sketches, flash sheets, original illustrations, half-finished concepts pinned wherever she could find space. He stared at them for a while, and then stopped.
"Yuki," he said. "Is that..."
I followed his eyes. So did Hoshiko.
Pinned between a dragon design and a geometric sleeve were three drawings that looked completely different from everything around them. They were detailed illustrations.
The kind somebody spends far too many hours on when they care about the subject more than they're willing to admit.
Characters, symbols, scenes... All from one very specific manga.
Shin stepped closer. "These are from..."
"Oh, those?" Hoshiko's voice jumped a half-octave. "Those are just some designs I made. Simple sketches. Nothing serious." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, the baby wolf here kind of promised me something nice if I ever got to tattoo you someday, so I... sort of... made a few designs." She cleared her throat. "Just in case."
I stared at her, and then I remembered.
When she called during a cuddle moment on the couch, I had told her that she had just called after we ended the third round, and she said, 'Can I join?', followed by my 'Maybe, in a few years, when you'll give him a few tattoos of your personal creations.' Tch—. She was serious.
"Hoshiko..." I pinched her other cheek.
"Hehe..." She giggled through it. "You thought I forgot? I never forget promises, baby wolf. Newwwer!"
I then released her, and she rubbed both cheeks while giving me a theatrical pout.
Shin was still looking at the drawings. Luckily, he didn't understand. "So these are... tattoos for me?" He asked, his voice soft.
Hoshiko blushed. Actually blushed. I've known her for years. I think I've seen that happen four times, maybe.
She nodded.
"This tattoo artist needs to learn a thing or two about the word boundaries," I said, cracking my knuckles, my voice teasing.
"Well," Hoshiko said, shrugging and grinning. "Boundaries are for people who don't live in their own workplace."
I laughed, genuinely.
After everything that had happened today, it felt good to arrive at an emotion that didn't require revenge, crying, or somebody wasting poor, undefended food onto a pavement.
Was I a little jealous? Sure. But it was harmless. The kind that could sit next to affection without turning ugly. Hoshiko is such a treasure.
Shin, meanwhile, had missed every layer of subtext in the room. He was still staring at the designs with the dazed concentration of someone who had just realized that another person had spent hours making something with him in mind.
Then, I had an idea. "Hoshiko."
"Mm? What?"
"Why don't you stay at my place tonight? With Shin and me." I said.
She looked at me.
Shin's eyes widened.
Hoshiko's widened more.
"What did you just say, baby wolf?" Her voice came out about two octaves higher than usual.
"Exactly what you heard, you fox." I smiled. "My couch is comfortable. Definitely better than sleeping on the floor of your shop, no matter how good the air conditioning is. Plus, I have lots of vinyls and also guitars."
Hoshiko stared at me. One second. Two. Three.
Then she made a noise loud enough to register on local seismographs.
"YES! YES, OKAY! YES!" She threw herself at both of us, one arm around my neck and the other around Shin's, smashing the three of us together. "SLEEPOVER! THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE! I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I SAID ABOUT LOVE BEING SCARY! LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL! FRIENDSHIP IS BEAUTIFUL! EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL!"
"Hoshiko, you're crushing my windpipe—" I tried to speak.
"I DON'T CARE! THIS IS HAPPENING!"
Shin, trapped under her other arm, produced a strangled noise that I interpreted as acceptance.
Once Hoshiko finally released us, she spent the next four minutes packing a bag with the energy of someone who had just won a surprise vacation.
And then, we left.
She locked the iron door, patted the neon sign goodnight like she apparently did every evening, and joined us in the narrow cobblestone alley.
Naturally, she talked for the entire walk. About the manga, the tattoo designs, and even a client who came in last week asking for a tattoo of his own face on his own arm.
"I told him I'd do it, but only if he let me make one improvement."
Shin looked over. "What improvement?" He asked.
"A better face."
He laughed.
"He left." Hoshiko giggled.
"Well, I would've said something worse, I think," I said.
"I know, baby wolf. I know." Hoshiko was literally jumping instead of walking. "In the end, he chose to tattoo a gothic sword on his right forearm. I made that sword personally, so it was really nice..."
She continued without taking a breath, moving on to the ramen place she'd found for Saturday, the chocolate she planned to bring, and several topics I lost track of somewhere around the third alley.
Shin listened and laughed in the right places.
I walked on Hoshiko's other side with my hands in my pockets, my bag with blurred photographs, and far too many thoughts still sitting in my head.
About twenty minutes later, my apartment building came into view.
We stepped inside and climbed toward the fourth floor, with Hoshiko practically bouncing up every flight of stairs, as if paradise were waiting at the top.
And there it was. Apartment 402.
I unlocked the door. Warm air and sandalwood greeted us.
"Welcome to my castle," I said, inhaling as much air as I could. "Remember, no shoes into this sanctuary."
I stepped inside and kicked off my boots.
Hoshiko stayed in the doorway for a moment.
Her eyes moved across the acoustic foam on the walls, the three electric guitars resting on their stands, the turntable in the corner, the amber lighting.
"Baby wolf," she whispered. "This place is perfect."
"I know."
And for the first time all day, standing inside my own apartment with my best friend, my boyfriend, and a bag full of consequences, I could finally breathe...