Operation Love Life

My Life is a Movie

Yoichi loved movies.

When he was still young and living with... her, Yoichi would try keep to himself by sneaking away and turning on the cable to watch TV. And although he could never find the remote half the day, and the channel was always stuck on the weird classic film network, the small boy was still enamoured by it all. He enjoyed watching the black and white, over-the-top stories of women getting a little too intimate with their bosses. It was so easy to get lost and laugh at the outdated humour he didn't understand, so easy to forget that upstairs there was a woman he was supposed to call family, despite her never ending hatred for him. When she didn't want him, he could always go back to the movies. They were always there.

Funnily enough, the day he went to the fair, he wanted to try convince Mama to watch a movie with him when they came back home.

What a load of crap.

After that day, when he was left to fend for himself, he didn't get to see any movies. The glamour of the tales he watched were drowned out by the harsh reality of the streets. Cold and lost, Yoichi quickly gave up on enjoying anything. There really was nothing to see, nothing to dream about. The only thing he wanted to do was survive.

But at least he had Yuki. She would be his movie, his go to thing for happiness. It stayed like that for a while, maybe for too long.

Then he tried to steal from a knockoff sheriff, and his life changed forever.

The movies he watched with Yoshi and Aiden could easily represent his transition from the streets to the security of Camp Buddy. Instead of the old, never changing black and white films, they were colourful and bright, wonderful stories full of happiness and family. Maybe Yoshi showed them to him on purpose, he didn't know. But, slowly and surely, he came to treasure those childish and silly movies he didn't get to watch before.

Needless to say, Yoichi's connection with movies was a deep one for him. And in a way, he always thought of his life as a movie. Horrible parents, traumatic childhood, found family, he was 100% sure that he could stroll into Hollywood, slam his life story on a desk of a director and walk out with every Oscar under the sun. Still was patiently waiting for a call from Disney Studios though.

He was his own star living out his own movie. And like every main character, he had a goal. A mission of sorts, guidelines to help him get through whatever he needed. It was simple, really:

Under every circumstance, do not fall in love.

As far as Yoichi was concerned, love didn't get you anywhere. Love left you stressed, confused and downright miserable. And sure, in the movies the couple always looked all happy and smiley in the end, but Yoichi always noticed that before that there's was some heartbreak, or some conflict, or whatever stupid shit happened to make a person cry.

Maybe love was a good thing, he didn't know. But it was definitely not for him. He didn't need it.

Yoichi Yukimura would not fall in love.

Yoichi Yukimura was also dead wrong.

Like every movie, our story needs a beginning. So of course we must go where it all began, because our story takes place in Yoichi's home, Camp Buddy.

It was a nice late August morning, and Yoichi had just sat down at one of the long tables of the mess hall to enjoy a late breakfast because of his usual lie in. It had been around two weeks after the camp season had come to a close. It was always weird to go from the busy energetic aura to the inactive quietness that was off season, but to be frank it could never really be quiet when he was around. That was in no way his fault.