Us, For You - 3. Part 1: Summer Nights 3 (Japan)

Part 1

Summer Nights 3 (Japan)

I had dinner, set the alarm, and threw myself on the pillow. Chris didn’t talk to me back in the room but I didn’t care, this way it was easier to sleep, and that day, sleeping was important. “Tomorrow, I wake up early.” The thought of it was enough to make me smile. You want to know how to tell if you are excited? When you wake up before the alarm blasts off. I stood up, turned off the alarm before it rang, got dressed, walked as silently as I could, and went out of the room. The moment I was outside, I almost felt my chest explode.

I practically ran to the elevator; at that hour the hotel looked almost empty, barren of all life, yet, the light s were still on so it didn’t seem like I was still an hour away from sunrise. When I got to the spa the doors opened and I found myself in a long hallway that turned into two. They're a pair of curtains covered the rest. The Japanese letters were a mystery but a sign helped: right for women, left for men.

I crossed the curtains and, despite what my mind imagined, I didn’t found myself with anything of the other world. A room with benches, a weighing scale, lockers, a bathroom door, and a closet full of towels. To my surprise, the place wasn’t empty, several mean, mostly old men and men in their forties, were half-dressed, searching their lockers.

“A part of me feared you wouldn’t come,” I heard Minakami behind me. “Alex,” he greeted me with a small gesture.

“Minakami,” I stumbled with the words, probably butchering his name, at least by his expression, it seemed that way.

“Are you ready?” He took a step and walked to the lockers.

I copied him, walking by his side. The lockers had a key in them, I took them and inside I left the keycard for my room, unsure of what to do, I turned to Minakami.

“Are we taking a massage?” My question seemed to amuse him. That made him laugh a little. God, is it really possible to look that good when laughing? Part of me still didn’t believe I was there.

“No, we didn’t come for massages.” Minakami left his keycard inside his locker and, an instant later, he took off his shirt, folding it inside too.

I couldn’t help it, my eyes went from his lips to his chest, how weirdly tanned he was; Minakami was thin, not skinny, not as tall as me but his chest was more defined, from his pectorals to the channels of the “v” that went from his waist to further down.

I was barely able to enjoy it when he took off his pants too, followed almost instantly by his underwear. My head rapidly turned to the front, the surprise almost made me fall.

“This is not a spa,” Minakami took two little towels from the closet, barefoot. “This is an onsen.”

“Onsen?”

“A hot spring,” he explained. “I believed that’s how you say it.”

“Hot spring?” It was hard not to look away from his face. “You are telling me there is a hot spring at the top of this hotel?”

Minakami seemed confused. “I… why don’t you enter? It’ll be easier than explaining.” I took a step but he stopped me. “I’m sorry, Alex, but you can’t enter a hot spring with clothes on.”

I didn’t say a thing. I turned back to my locker, locked my eyes to the front, and, as the rest, I removed all my clothes, putting them in the locker. I took the key and was about to put it in my pocket before I realized I had none. Minakami laughed when he noticed, that’s when I realized he was looking at me. Not only at me, at all of me.

I lowered my head and went for a towel.

“I never thought you’d be so shy,” he whispered before going through the sliding door to another room, I, walking behind him, went too.

No, there was no secret spring of pure water in the hotel, nor they were real hot springs as you used to see on tv, the room was more something between a pool and a dressing room. It was covered on all sides by grey tiles, there were two big pools in the opposite end, they weren’t deep and reminded me more of a Jacuzzi except for the fact that they let out steam as if they were volcanoes.

A little bit closer, to our sides, there were two rows of little sinks, as if they were meant for kids, with mirrors on the front and shower hose. It wasn’t a completely foreign view, I just didn’t understand what that was for.

And, of course, several men of different ages were walking all around the place, the onsen, most of them in the pool, all without an ounce of clothing. Yet, Minakami and I were the youngest ones by a lot.

“Come,” he said, touching my shoulder.

It took me a while to realize this was the first time he touched me, it was brief, I barely felt him, but I never imagined the first time he would touch me not him nor me would be completely clothless.

We walked to the little sinks. “It’s a tradition,” explained Minakami. “Just do as I do, okay?”

I nodded, nervous. Minakami walked to one of the sinks and, from underneath, took out what appeared to be a plastic stool. He sat on it and open the faucet that leads to the showering hose, then he let the water stream fall over his body. He took a liquid from a bottle and rubbed it on his hair. Only then I realized I was looking at him taking a shower.

I tried to look away but he was looking at me too. I stopped pretending. His torso wasn’t the only pale tanned thing, in general, his skin tone seemed pale, most Japanese people seemed that way. His legs and armpits were devoid of hair, his skin looked soft, delicate, between his legs, however, he had a little bit more. His manhood didn’t seem especially big but it was flawless, soft, resting as if was a living creature, hibernating, its position gave away the emotion he felt by me looking at him.

When I saw my body it was a miracle I was keeping it cool down there; I followed his example and started showering.

As soon as Minakami stood, he put the stool back into its place, then the hose and he finally went towards the two pools. “Come with me.”

I did so without thinking, Minakami entered the spring first, slowly but without stopping, none of the others even looked at him, I was the only one who couldn’t take my eyes from his body.

I stood on the steps but, as soon as the tip of my toe felt the water, I almost screamed. It was steaming, I knew that, but the water wasn’t hot it was boiling. Inside, Minakami laughed discreetly.

This time, everyone looked at me. Of course, I’m the foreign idiot that can’t stand hot water.

“Slowly,” Minakami came by me without stepping out. “Come in, slowly.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted but I hadn’t come all this way just to surrender. I pictured my brother, what he would do, and the ease with which he would have entered. Then, I remembered my bento boxes falling through the window. “Fuck it,” I submerged my foot and let the heat surround me.

If my manhood had shown any sign of excitement before, this surely would’ve taken care of it. I let my legs, pelvis, and chest in, Minakami made himself comfortable by my side.

“What do you think?”

“I’m in a soup,” which made him laugh. “I’m getting cooked.”

“It relaxes you, takes the toxins away, like a rebirth.”

“I’ll definitely need a rebirth, I’m about to die.”

I looked around me, I seemed to be the only one who didn’t know about this. The others had their eyes in some kind of meditation or had their heads slightly back, relaxing.

“Hey, to your right, in the corner,” Minakami whispered.

I tried to look in that direction without seeming obvious but I failed since, there, where Minakami pointed, there was a man, maybe a boy, a little bit older than us, he didn’t seem Japanese. He smiled when he saw me looking at him. I blushed.

“Was he looking at me?”

Minakami laid a hand on my shoulder. “Are you surprised? You have a lot to show.”

If I hadn’t blushed before, that took care of it, even in the boiling water I could feel my member reacting to the comment, my face started to take on a shade of red, if it was excitement, shame, or the water, I didn’t know.

“It really is your first time!”

“Shut up!” I leaned on the edge of the pool. “This isn’t your first time.”

“In an onsen with someone? Yeah, this is my first. But no, this is not my first time naked next to a cute guy.”

Again, everything went to my cheeks. I turned towards him, his impeccable body still on sight, just below the water. “You are not bad, either.”

“I know,” he replied. “I’m not saying because I’m self-centered or something, I say it because back there you couldn’t take your eyes off of me.”

“Look who’s talking.”

Then we received a stern look from the older men on the spring, they didn’t say a thing and, even like that, I understood that people didn’t normally talk that much in a place like that.

Minakami closed his eyes, I copied him. In a way, after you got used to boiling water, it was relaxing, I got why it was called a hot spring.

I could feel, gently, how Minakami laid his hand on my right leg, with enchanting movements, letting his fingers dance over my thigh. I thought he would go further into what lied between my legs but he didn’t, after all, it was a public place.

Just when I was starting to enjoy it, Minakami stood.

“You’ll end up fried if you stay any longer,” I heard him said while I stood up behind him. We took our small towels and went back into the locker room. I thought he would say something, do something, but we just got dressed, left the towel in a basket, and went out of there.

“Did you like it?” He asked in the hallway on the way to the elevator.

“It wasn’t a spa,” I said. “But yeah, a lot. It’s a good…”

“Onsen,” he completed for me.

“Onsen,” I repeated. “Hey, did you… bring me here just to see me naked?”

That makes him laughed, sincere, nervous. “Maybe,” he said with his eyes on the floor. “No, really, maybe a little but I also guessed it would be fun, you know? The full Japanese experience, plus I thought you hadn’t seen one yet.”

“I hadn’t, the thought never came to me.”

We both raised our eyes to the clock, the sun was out, we had spent more than an hour and a half inside, it was time to go back.

“How long are you staying?”

“Four more days, you?”

“Three,” I looked at the floor. “We should see each other again.”

“Oh,” that caught his attention. “Are you saying you liked being with me?”

“Shut up!”

“I’m just messing with you, of course, your phone…?”

“Still not working, tomorrow we can see each other here again.”

Minakami moved his head from side to side. “I’ll be going out early with my father tomorrow. Do you have any free time at the night?”

My parents didn’t have a schedule of what to do every day but there were still places they wanted to visit, things they wanted to do. “I don’t know but I’ll think of something."

“If you can, see me tomorrow in the lobby in the afternoon, at five. My father has a meeting at that time, I’ll be free.”

I wasn’t sure how would I get my family to let me alone at that specific time, they had never given me permission for anything similar.

“If not it’s okay, it was fun being with you.”

“I also had fun with you.”

When he looked at me I saw his wet hair falling on his face, as delicate as his lips, his imperfect smile.

“Remember what I told you about this being my first time with a boy?” Minakami nodded, curious. “Well,” I took a deep breath. “This is also my first time doing this.” I didn’t think about it, I made myself not to, I just leaned towards him, put my hand on his cheek and let my lips meet his.

It was short, brief, still, I felt his skin against mine, the shape of his body leaning towards mine, the soft-touch beating against mine, the sweet movement of his lips against my own. We had barely touched when I stepped back. His eyes were still closed.

“Wow,” he murmured, a wide smile on his face. “I didn’t think you’d do that.”

“It’s like yesterday at the restaurant, if I hadn’t gone to you, nothing would’ve happened. I wasn’t gonna wait, in this life, if you want something, you gotta do it, it won’t become true just by itself.” I looked back at the clock, the arrows of time kept moving forward. “I’ll see what I can do to be free tomorrow at five.”

Minakami nodded. “I’ll be in the lobby, waiting.”

A woman came out of the right side of the hallway, walking beside us, we just stood there, a second in silence. Minakami used the moment to go after her, squeezing into the elevator but, just before, playing, he came to my ear and whispered. “Don’t be late, I can’t wait to see you naked again.”