Ume: "I grew up near Hanno City in Japan. That's near Tokyo. My family used to own farmland out there. Some of it was sold to pay debts and others to pay for vices. Gambling and vanity mainly. I got along with the other kids growing up but never felt like I belonged. After high school, I left as quickly as I could.
Let's see? My parents considered me a problem child. My grandfather never spoke to me after the 5th grade. I wasn't manly enough. The joke was on him, That was because I wasn't a guy at all. The one exception was when he made a deal with me to marry Hanayomi-shin. "If you don't have lumber, bamboo will do." That is how he described me.
Except to go to my grandfather's funeral I haven't seen my family since.
Tomo: "Ume. I had to talk her out of investing in a maid cafe in Hanno and not paying some scam publisher to look at her stories.."
Ume: "All true. But least gullible sounds like a good thing. Tomo wouldn't believe me about Mikawa being a ghost even after she tried to kill me and Shiomi several times. Mikawa literally had to knock on our door before he would believe me."
Instead of letting me go, she said, “You shouldn’t. That’s a graveyard and she’s dead.”
Everyone said that, but it was a mistake. I had seen Mikawa, and she was definitely alive. Why wouldn’t Ume let me go? All I wanted to do was be with my girlfriend. Did this damn bitch think I would go with her when I had Mika?
“Fuck you,” I said and tried to get away. “She’s waiting. Mika is waiting.”
A slice-of-life character sketch developing Kan-chan as a character a year after the close of “My Girlfriend Almost Got Me Killed.” An altered version of this may appear in “For Love of a Konbini Idol.” Please regard this story as an AU and not canon.
By the way, it is a shaggy dog story. There isn’t a point to it, but I talk a lot about a dog, Tomino.
Ume: My right to exist. It was made clear to me that who I felt I was, was unacceptable. I learned to hide in plain sight and did a good job of pretending I was something I wasn't.
I never liked my grandfather and he disliked me but I have to thank him for helping me escape my family and go somewhere where I could transition safely. Bless his soul, he would hate that. #Trans#KonbiniIdol
Both Shiro and Kaori share with Kan-chan. It is one of her roles in their relationship. Shiro and Kao worry far too much about upsetting or hurting the other. Kan-chan would share with either but especially Kaori.
#KonbiniIdol
Ume and Tomo share secrets with each other. Their relationship is probably healthier but not as deep as Shiro and Kaori's. If Shiomi shares her deepest secrets with anyone it would be with Mega an old co-worker via text. She really doesn't have anyone else.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
They have a ways to go before they get to the real thing.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
Quote: I looked at the cigarette in my hand, thought, “What the hell?” and took a puff; “Ugh, unflavored.” But I’d finally gotten a kiss from my konbini girl, a secondary kiss, but a kiss.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Romantic moments
Quote: Shiomi quietly told her story and smoked. Periodically, a gentle soft light from outside would bring her face into sharp contrast, and other times, she was just a silhouette. Either way, I kept finding myself looking. I noted the elegant practiced motion of how she smoked, like a heroine from a Bogart film. “Lauren Becall,” I thought. Impulsively I said, “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Shishi? You just put your lips together and blow.” It was a fitting thing to say, I thought, but earned me a puzzled look. She obviously wasn’t a film buff, or maybe my translation was bad.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Romantic moments or not
Quote: I mentally did a double-take. I was getting yelled at for saving her from her dead ex, who, as far as I could tell, had been a nasty piece of work when she was alive.
But Shiomi had me pegged right. I was still thinking of myself as a white knight rescuing a fair damsel. Only the damsel didn’t want to be saved. She never had, and I kept expecting her to be grateful.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
When you care even when the other doesn't.
Quote: Over her protests, I got her into bed. She wasn’t making much sense. Something about shadows and wanting to leave. I didn’t know where she thought she would go. Out into the night, I suppose, looking for Mikawa. Shiomi calmed down after I gave her another smoke and sat by her bedside.
Like before, she dozed off, leaving her smoke unfinished. I took what was left from her limp fingers and put it out in the ashtray on the nightstand. No secondary kiss this time.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
I grabbed Shiomi’s arm, and she looked briefly at me with glassy eyes. Her unbrushed light blue hair fell heedlessly across her pale face, and her dress looked like she had slept in it. But that wasn’t what caused me to reach out and grab her arm. It was the woman ten meters ahead. Long black hair, flying in a wind no one but she could feel, framed a blackened and bloated face. It was the face of a corpse returned from the grave.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
There were no lights on the bridge and the fog off the river was sending tendrils over the railing. All I had to do was cross the bridge and walk two blocks past the roads leading to Enpukuji. Mikawa wouldn’t bother me again, would she? That had been a warning.
These thoughts gave me no comfort. The distance seemed huge in the dark, and I didn’t place much trust in the forbearance of an apparition. I had her girlfriend at my house, after all. Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the bridge and hurried forward.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Tomo looked peeved when I told him I had given Shiomi permission to stay with us. He squinted more than usual and cocked his head to the side as he replied, “It’s your house. But you really do have bad taste in women.”
“Just as bad with guys.” I retorted.
“If you’re dissatisfied, I can move out.”
I had been living with Tomo long enough to tell from his tone that he was only half joking. I couldn’t blame him. Shiomi looked like a load of trouble. Even I knew this wasn’t the brightest decision I had ever made.
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Sometimes it's small things...
“Thank you;" Shiomi said. "it has been a long time since anyone bought me a meal and I had a pleasant time.” She was smiling, looking happier than I had seen her for a long time. The look transcended cute. She was stunning.
“You welcome,” I said, a little flustered. It seemed such a small thing and raised a new question: Had my buying her ramen been that special?
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Any port in a storm
“Now, what am I going to do?” I thought.
I glanced around and saw that the other woman, or should I say ghost, was gone. So I bent down to see if I could rouse my charge. Her eyes fluttered. The feral gleam was gone, replaced by sadness. She muttered, “I need a drink.”
I didn’t think so. I could smell the sour odor of alcohol on her breath already, but anything to get her out of there before Mikawa reappeared. “Sure,” I said. “I have some beer at my place.”
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Everyone is angry
“Don’t swear at me!” The situation was wearing on my nerves, or I might have let it pass, but the swearing grated. It clashed with the image of Shiomi I kept trying to build in my mind. I was tired, my cigarette tasted foul, and I had just risked my life for the third time. And for what, an ungrateful woman who didn’t have the sense to see her lover was a rotting corpse!
“I’ll swear if I want to, White Knight-sama. I’d be with my girlfriend right now, instead of wandering around these desolate hills, if it wasn’t for you. You’re as bad as Mika, riding in on your fucking white horse and fucking my life up! I hate you! Damn it, I hate you!”
I already am. We are good friends and like Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s characters they on occasion complain about what I do to them. All I can tell them is unlike Kurt Vonnegut I write happy endings.
Seriously, I feel like I am a friend of all the pro-tag characters. The ant-tag characters don't care one way or another about me. Which is good because if they did, I would have terrible nightmares.
#KnowYourAuthors#Writing 5. Would you want to be friends with your MC and/or antagonist? Why? Cont
How about outside my head?
Per Arisu: Sure they are cool people. We share interests, and have similar values. Arisu might be leery of me because of my interest in Saeki. But once I convinced her I don't poach monogamous women we would do fine.
Per Girlfriend: As for Shiro, she is the kind of Dom one dreams of. And Kaori and Kan-chan would be great sisters. #polyamory And she has demonstrated that she isn't weirded out about #asexual partners.
Per #KonbiniIdol: Once they work out the problems they are having, I would fit right in. Shiomi would be gaga about finding someone with my musical tastes and I have a fellow wota to go to shows with.
Listening through Underground Idols 2015-2019 and suddenly I got a clear picture of what my MC Ume likes, I already knew she had the Burst Girl CD and thought Yurapico was cute, but nothing else seemed to fit. It's important since she is "not" infatuated with an ex-idol.
Melon Batake a Go Go.
Ume is a GoGo.
Which also means that Garuda is in play. Garuda and Yuffie are def Ume's style.
#PennedPossibilities 215 — Is your MC inclined to help others, or will they only do it when it benefits them, if at all? What makes them this way? Has it ever gotten them into trouble, or inconvenienced them?
For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Ume: "I'm not the kind of person who goes out of their way for others."
Tomo: "Don't let her fool you. She could no more walk past a stray kitten than stop breathing. You can't believe the trouble she has dragged us into."
Kan-chan: My relationship with my parents was never good but they were totally unable to understand my disinterest in dating, marriage, or having kids. They just never lay off and make sarcastic comments."
Shiro: "As far as I can tell she has no interest in repairing that relationship, so we just leave it alone."
Just ran into this passage in the chapter from Konbini Idol I am posting this week. A short explanation. First Fumihiko is a male name and Fumiko is a female name. Second, the scene is from the funeral of the patriarch of the family and the MC has come back after several years in the US.
--- Chapter 6 of Konbini Idol
I bowed politely, “Father, Mother.”
There was a look of horror on their faces. I had always been a wayward child, drinking and smoking long before I was of legal age. My grandfather had held me in contempt and yet had paid for my college over my parents’ protest. They thought there were better uses for the money. But now I had exceeded all dire expectations and refused to live as the male heir to the family.
“Fumihiko?” my mother managed, while my father turned away. I had ceased to exist in his eyes.
“Fumiko,” I corrected her. “And you had better set Uncle Kakuya straight before there’s a scene and I bring more shame on you.” Perhaps I should have been less confrontational, but the memory of all those years of hiding fueled a sullen resentment that I had never expressed.
#WordWeavers#Writing 2/2. If your MC stayed in your place for a few weeks, what would their favorite room be and why? 1/2
Compete work
Arisu and Kaori would be fascinated by my office and poke through all the merch and manga. we all share musical taste so they wouldn't even be bothered by my music.
Saeki and Shiro would prefer my housemate's office. It would be the quietest place to study.
Arius or Kaori would have to ask for them since they are too polite and wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone.
From: For Love of a Konbini Idol
I Faced Her Onryo Lover
Join Ume, Shiomi, and Tomo as their relationship develops. In a creepy world where “love” never dies.
Quate: It turned out Mika was nasty-jealous. If I so much as looked at another woman, I’d pay for days. And Ume was worth looking at. She had nice legs when you could see them. She usually wore jeans or slacks; a flannel lumberjack shirt or some other butch top; and until now, no makeup. I think she had tats, but I’m not sure. Maybe when summer came, I’d see. She looked fit, like she worked out. Bet she had a tight ass. A first-class butch. But like I said, if Mika saw me looking, I would hear no end of it.