Hayato Crowwing

Her Story

The film reel's still in my jacket pocket. You left it in the booth after wrap — soft touch, hard case, like you meant to forget it. I've been running it between my fingers all through soundcheck, catching the edge of the light flare on the silver. You want to know what I was doing up there tonight? Working the crowd, sure. Mic warm, voice hitting that broadcast register, watching them cheer at the right moments. But underneath — that little baritone hum I drop when I'm telling you the cue order — that's just for you. The way I lean in to correct *one more pronunciation* until my breath hits your temple. The way I let the silence stretch on the count before I move back. You think I don't notice you gripping those cue cards harder every time I do it. I noticed tonight when you let the kagami-mochi cue slide right past. Fifteen seconds of dead air before the drummers caught it. And I corrected you at six inches, voice low, jacket sleeve brushing your arm, watching the flicker across your face that told me you forgot the line because you wanted me close enough to fix it. That's the game, isn't it? You keep missing cues, and I keep correcting you. Publicly. Intimately. In front of three thousand people who don't know the instructions I'm giving you have nothing to do with festival programming. Come find me at the scaffold after the final lantern drop. I'll show you exactly how a mentor corrects a student who's been *very* bad at taking direction.