Vol 2 Chapter 1 Part 3

“Oh, so it’s the owner’s seventy-seventh birthday!” Kaori’s eyes lit up.

“It’s Saturday afternoon, if you’re interested. I’ll be going in the morning to help set up, though.”

“Sounds like fun. Count me in!”

“Thanks… I wasn’t expecting this. I thought you’d say you weren’t interested.” Her immediate answer surprised me, and I put my hand on my chest in relief.

“I mean, it’s a party for Seiji Yagashira! I bet there’ll be all sorts of famous guests. You probably don’t know since you moved here last year, but he was appearing on regional TV up until a couple years ago.”

“Huh? I never heard about that.”

“You know that show, Heirloom Hunt?”

Heirloom Hunt… It was a program where they appraised people’s heirlooms. It was pretty popular, but if I recall correctly, it ended a long time ago because they ran out of households that had enough of them…

Kaori continued, “It was really popular in Kansai, so they regularly had special programs here.”

“Oh, really?”

“Seiji sometimes appeared on those programs as the appraiser, so he’s famous across the region.”

“I had no idea.” Geez, why didn’t anyone tell me that? But now I see. People everywhere treat him like a huge deal, and that might be the power of television at work.

“I didn’t watch the show much since it’s targeted at old people, but Seiji comes across as an influential, refined gentleman on TV, so he apparently captured the hearts of housewives everywhere.”

“…A refined gentleman?” Apparently, the owner put on quite an act when he was on TV. I wasn’t sure why, when his free-spirited personality probably would’ve been even more popular with the masses.

“So, there might be some real celebs coming!” Kaori’s eyes lit up again.

“C-Celebs?” I was startled. Now I’m nervous! What if celebrities really do come?! Suddenly, a face came to mind. It was Akihito, the middle brother from a case Holmes and I had been involved with. Come to think of it, he was a performer too, and pretty good-looking at that. I felt my anxiety immediately disappear.

“I’m so excited!” Kaori smiled happily.

I was a bit taken aback. “Kaori, you’re pretty fangirly, huh?” I thought she was a more placid girl.

“What do you mean? Everyone in Kyoto’s more or less like this.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yep. A lot of them just try not to show it. We also love new things, pastries, Western food, and ramen!”

“There are a lot of bakeries and ramen restaurants around here.”

We exchanged looks and laughed.