Koemi Tanaka was trapped. She struggled weakly against her binds before falling back, exhausted. It was humiliating if she was honest. How, exactly, did one get stuck in their own blankets? Was it even possible? Evidently, yes. Yes, it was. She thought about calling for her assistant before remembering she’d given her the day off.

To say she’d been in a similar situation before wouldn’t be too gross an overstatement. Though she’d never been innocent of blame before. Usually, she’d been too blown out from partying the night before. This time she was sick. She’d been called in by Sachi for yet another in an endless series of vocal retakes and had been subsequently trapped by her overachieving older sister for hours in the studio to get the “proper tonal inflection” in one line. She groaned and tried to flail about; the blankets wrapped around her made it impossible to do more than writhe piteously. She was sick and absolutely, uselessly miserable.

After working late into the night Koemi hadn’t even had the energy left to go dancing. She’d simply gone home, crawled into bed, and wrapped herself in blankets to ward off the sudden chill from her fever. In hindsight the blankets might have been a bad idea seeing how her current situation was playing out. What could she do?

She could call Sachi, but it was Valentine’s Day and no doubt her and Akari were going to spend the day getting slippery. Though she had no doubt Sachi would come over and rescue her if she called, she would never be allowed to live down the humiliation of needing to be rescued from her own blankets. No, Sachi wasn’t an option and, by extension, neither was Akari. Mari and Yukiko were most likely similarly engaged in eating kitty, and she didn’t mean sketchy chicken from some back street food stall.

“Heh,” Koemi chuckled weakly at her own naughtiness. Rei? No, not an option since she was “antiquing” today, whatever the hell that meant. It was Valentine’s day so, maybe she was going on a date with some old person? No, there was no one to help. She’d simply have to extricate herself.

“Nooooooo!” Koemi groaned as she rolled about on her bed. The sheets were satin and, though they seemed like a good idea at the time, were not cooperating in the least. The shiny grey demon fabric exacerbated her predicament, making it impossible to get any purchase. Finally, lacking options Koemi rolled off the bed completely with a thud and groan of pain and then across the floor like an egg roll coming undone. Mmm, she thought, egg rolls sounded good.

Leaving the blankets sprawled on the bedroom floor Koemi staggered to her feet and made her way to the bathroom. Nineteen varieties of eyeshadow, twenty lipsticks, blush by the dozens, mascaras, creams, ointments, bases, everything under the sun she could find to make herself look beautiful or edgy or however she was feeling that day could be found in her bathroom. Not one thing to make her feel better, though. A tactical blunder to be sure, Koemi thought ruefully. Thousands of yen spent on making her already staggeringly amazing beauty more staggeringly amazing (staggeringlyer?) and not a single goddamn pain reliever? Yes. A blunder to be sure.

Reluctantly pulling on a pair of grey sweats and over-sized “Sexah Kittah” shirt with a stencil of a cat looking over its tail, she prepared herself for the horror of going outside. Completing her ensemble with a pair of tennis shoes and a Chunichi Dragons baseball cap she made her way downstairs toward the drug store.

Koemi realized immediately on exiting her apartment building she’d made yet another tactical blunder by failing to realize it was mid-February in Tokyo. The wind blew cold and vicious through the steel and glass towers surrounding her and caused her eyes to water as she stood stock still and shivering in the cold. She looked down the street to the lights of the drugstore and then glanced back toward the door of her apartment, her already aching head and body shivering uncontrollably. Did she go back to get a jacket or did she just chance hypothermia and go to the drugstore? Her laziness finally won out and she trudged as quickly as she was able down the street toward the distant doors. Her stomach growled angrily, as if prompted by her incessant shivering to speak up for itself.

The warmth of the drug store was immediately offset by the peculiar smell which seemed to linger in the place, reminding Koemi vaguely of her grandmother’s bathroom. Mothballs, medication, old lady scented shampoo and the smell of pills used to control every ailment known to man coalesced into an olfactory assault Koemi could barely stomach in her current weakened state. Resolving herself to get in and out as quickly as possible she made her way to the cashier staring blankly up at something in the rafters.

“Pain killers?” She asked, fighting down the urge to look at what he was staring at. He blinked and looked in her direction, though several centimeters over her head as if unwilling to make any sort of eye contact.

“Do you have a prescription?” He tried to affect a helpful tone but stopped somewhere around disinterested obligation and let his tone stay there. She shook her head. “Aisle 4, then.” Koemi thanked him and stumbled toward Aisle 4.

“How are there so many different types of pain pills?” She muttered to herself in frustration. The entire right side of the aisle was filled with bottles, pouches and powders all proclaiming themselves to be the best pain killer money could buy. They couldn’t all be the best and, honestly, she couldn’t be bothered to read labels so, taking a more is better approach, she simply grabbed four bottles which seemed the most convincing and made her way back to the cashier who’d switched his attention to the windowsill behind him. She dragged the credit card from her pocket and paid for her purchases before reluctantly heading back outside.

“So far away,” she moaned, staring balefully at the apartment building entrance in the distance. Her head was swimming and the idea of walking down the street filled her with a sense of existential dread. Maybe call a taxi? It was ok to call a taxi for three blocks, right? She wasn’t sure but she was almost positive she’d pass out and roll into the sewers beneath Tokyo if she tried to walk that far. Suddenly, the smell of rice and beef and wonton floated to her nose and, like a primitive Pavlovian response she started to salivate, and her head swung to the right. Half a block away someone was coming out of a building and that very building was the source of the heavenly smell.

Immediately she walked toward the now closed door. Even if she did manage to get home without becoming a sewer dweller, she still had only a couple bottles of wine and some dry noodles and whipped cream for food there. She wanted…no, she needed fried rice and jasmine tea and crab Rangoon and something pork-like.

“Welcome!” The man at the host station greeted her warmly. He was handsome enough but put off something of a “dumb as a bag of sticks” vibe. Koemi nodded weakly and leaned on the counter for support. She drew closer to him and fixed him with a desperate gaze.

“Char Siu,” she mumbled. “Stat.”

“W-well, how about we get you a table first!” He enthused, grabbing a menu, and gesturing her to follow. She flung herself weakly into the booth he gestured to and struggled to open the intricately folded menu.

“Nanami will be your server today and she’ll be right with you,” he smiled at her and cocked his head slightly to the side, looking a bit like a cocker spaniel. Koemi tried to smile, failed, and simply nodded. Her fever was getting worse, she thought. Her watery gaze wandered between the menu and the bag of pills as if trying to decide what the priority was right now. Her stomach finally won out and she grunted softly, trying to force the intransigent menu open.

“Welcome, customer,” a voice said at her elbow. Koemi jumped in surprise and turned to the new voice. The woman standing there was, quite honestly, stunning. Her long black hair was delicately piled into a bun on top of her head and secured with two long hair pins. Her eyes were large and brown beneath her delicate eyebrows and her small nose perched adorably atop her full peach lips. Her body was clad in a thigh length purple Cheongsam, showing a tantalizing strip of skin where the slit ran up her leg. “My name is Nanami and I’ll be your waitress today. Can I start you off with something to drink?”

“Jasmine tea,” Koemi muttered, not taking her eyes off the soft pale skin of the waitress’ thighs.

“I’ll be right back, then,” Nanami made a note on the pad she carried and walked away. You have an amazing butt, Koemi marveled, watching as her pert backside moved effortlessly as the waitress sashayed toward her station. “I’m sorry?” Nanami turned around and Koemi’s already flush face reddened dangerously.

“Did I say that out loud?” Koemi asked herself out loud.

“You did, yes, dear customer,” Nanami chuckled.

“Not ideal,” Koemi told herself, again out loud. “Though true, I should apologize.” Koemi smiled and fixed Nanami with bleary eyes, unaware her inner monologue had somehow broken down. “I apologize!”

“No need,” Nanami chuckled. “Thank you for the compliment.” Koemi grinned awkwardly as Nanami turned and continued on.

“That went perfectly,” Koemi congratulated herself. She turned back to the stubborn menu and tugged listlessly at it for a moment before giving up. She knew what she wanted and didn’t need a troublesome menu anyway. She turned back to the bag and fished through it before dragging out a box with the picture of a happily oblivious child grinning at her mutely on the front. She ripped open the box and took the bottle from within, the same troubles which had beset her all morning continuing on with the bottle of pills. “Child safety lock, what the fuck?” Koemi muttered, straining to figure out how to open the top. “Can only kids open this thing? God dammit!” She banged the bottle on the table in front of her helplessly, the plastic silently judging her for her inability to get the lid open.

“Do you need a hand, customer?” Nanami, who had reappeared beside the table asked as she set the pot of tea and a cup down.

“A hand?” Koemi asked cocking her head to the side. A deliciously lewd thought raced through her mind and she giggled wildly.

“I mean with the bottle, dear customer,” Nanami gestured at the bottle Koemi was still banging limply on the table.

“It won’t open,” Koemi’s fevered brain wasn’t producing much in the way of coherent thought and it was becoming more and more difficult to focus. She pointed a finger of her other hand at it while still smacking it against the polished wood. “I think it’s only for kids to open.”

“Let me help you with that,” Nanami took the bottle gently from her and pushed down and twisted the lid to open it.

“Sugoi!” Koemi breathed in awe as Nanami handed the bottle back. Koemi shoved her finger through the foil film on top of the bottle and peered inside.

“Those are children aspirin,” Nanami pointed out. “I’m not sure those will be helpful, dear customer. You seem to have a fever if I’m not mistaken.”

“No, it’s ok, I have a fever,” Koemi mumbled incoherently.

“Hmm, I’ll tell you what, my shift is pretty much over, would you like me to see you home?”

“Home?” Koemi thought wistfully. “Yes. With Char Siu.”

“Do you have any other pills in the bag?” Nanami asked patiently. Koemi held the bag out helpfully toward her.

“Yes,” she agreed.

“Here, take these,” Nanami opened a different bottle and handed two pills to Koemi. “I’ll be back in just a minute, ok?” Koemi stared at the pills in her hand and nodded. It was far more difficult manipulating the pills than she’d originally thought it would be, but after several starts and stops, she managed to get the pills down with the help of the glass of water on the table.

“Ok, I’m ready,” Nanami was now covered in a long woolen coat and had a bag in her hands filled with luscious smells. “Where do you live, dear customer?”

“Live?” Koemi thought for a long moment. Nanami sighed and shrugged.

“I guess you live with me today,” she finally said. “Come along and let me help you up. What’s your name, anyway? I can’t just keep calling you ‘dear customer’ after all.”

“I am Koemi,” Koemi declared proudly.

“Come along, then, Koemi, let’s get you some rest.” Koemi nodded dumbly and, leaning heavily on Nanami, made her way outside into the cold.