Sumire Kotani (pronounced "soo-me-reh") is very serious, a serious girl, a serious teacher. She wears her straight brown hair in a serious bun, along with serious glasses, to show the world how serious she is. She's half-Japanese, a linguistics stud...
To the rest of the world, their relationship probably appeared pretty much unchanged. Japan was a pretty reticent country, anyway, as far as PDAs were concerned, Nick reflected. It wasn't like there were lovers lurking in quiet corners of local parks, or couples holding hands as they walked along the streets. Not that Nick would've wanted anything like that. He spent enough of his life being pawed at by fans, or by the fling of the week or the day. Throw into the mix the fact that Sumire was the way she was, and it made perfect sense that things would appear unaltered between them to the world at large.
Nick, however, enjoyed the secret joy of feeling her slim fingers clasp his in the back of the car as they looked at the early fall foliage out the window on their way to the set. He rubbed her knuckles and saw her little smile in her reflection, and smiled back at her.
Darcie could tell right away, however, based on one photo he sent her from the set the next day, however, which he found astounding. It was one of the first fittings of Sumire one of her kimonos after she agreed to take the part, and Nick wanted Darce to see the beautiful pattern, so when he found out the costumer had taken a picture of Sumire in it, he asked for a copy of the photo so he could forward it to his sister in New York.
It turned out that Nick was in the picture, too. He was handing Sumire a bottle of water and smiling at something she'd said as he passed it to her; Sumire was grasping the other end of the bottle, in the act of taking it from Nick.
"Isn't this the shit?" he sent as the caption.
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"Oh god, Nicky, I think 'gorgeous' is the word you're looking for," Darcie wrote back. "And what the hell is up with you and Sumire, hmmmm?? I can feel the heat through my phone!!"
And their driver, Mino-chan, of all people, could apparently see something as well. As he was driving them to the manor house, he kept smiling at them in his rear view mirror, and when Sumire finally asked him why, he told her in Japanese that "Nick-san seemed like he'd make a very nice boyfriend."
The mood on the set was much lighter as soon as Sumire appeared and told everyone she'd take the part. The director, Murakami-sensei, actually hugged her, patted her head, and called her a "good girl" while smiling. After that, she was sent off for her kimono fitting while the papers were being drawn up, and Martin Stabler was sent for so she'd have representation at the signing, which was scheduled for the next day.
"Hey, I was wondering," Nick asked while Sumire stood on a dais, being pinned into yet another kimono. Every kimono would have to be taken in and taken up a good eight inches because she was so much shorter than Minami had been.
"Yeah?" Sumire looked over at Nick without moving so she wouldn't get poked anywhere.
"Right here?" Nick reached over and carefully touched the back of Sumire's neck, which was exposed where the material of the kimono pulled away quite a bit, exposing her back and a circular portion of her shoulders.
