Life Without You

Chapter 10 - Missing Leon

Andy was looking forward to enjoy a day out in Tokyo with his mother. Despite staying there for a two weeks since her press conference, Ariel had no break in between. She had been tirelessly appearing in cooking channels at the TV studios in Tokyo and giving workshops to top chefs from around Japan on how to prepare the finest meals with Fujita sauces.

Today was finally her break.

"What would you like to do today?" she asked him while eating their breakfast at their top-floor luxury hotel room suite at the exquisite Palace Hotel Tokyo.

"I want to see Leon's new movie," he suggested.

Her smile faded at the mention of Leon.

"Sorry mum," his eyes lowered, "But can I, please? PLEASE?"

"Fine," she relented, knowing that she could never fully quench the remembrance of Leon out of Andy's mind. He clearly missed him still, and it was already cruel enough to cut all ties between them, but at least to see Leon in a movie may help with some of his pain and loss.

"Thanks, mum!" he brightened with a broad smile.

———————

Even though a romance dystopia was not an ideal movie for a kid, thank God it was not R-rated or contained anything sexual. Still, to Ariel, Leon should be censored out from the movie! But she was doing it for Andy's sake. Watching the movie was more of a tolerance than enjoyment for her.

While Andy occasionally tapped his mother's hand excitedly every time that familiar face popped up, Ariel would nod along but her eyes focused elsewhere, either at a corner of the screen or at an interesting object in the background of the scene.

No doubt, the movie was fascinating as she realised how well the editing was done to make it look seamless between scenes despite the boring hours on set and the many re-takes that occured. Then in came the infamous kiss.

"Ewww," Andy stuck his tongue out in disgust as Ariel placed her palms over his eyes.

Even though she tried to avoid any scene that had Leon in it, somehow, oddly enough, her eyes refused to turn away. She remembered how it tore her apart while everyone on set cheered and whistled. It looked even more passionate on screen than on set, perhaps because of those up-close camera angles. Leon was clearly a good actor.

She lifted her hands away from Andy's eyes when the scene was over. Finally, the movie ended and she was relieved that they could leave.

"What do you think, mum?" asked Andy after the movie ended.

"Mmm...not too bad."

If it was not for Leon acting in it, the story script was actually very good. Unfortunately, worldwide sales of the movie was not doing so well, thanks to the boycott and fake negative reviews by haters. She felt awful that her kiss with Leon at the gala night tanked the movie, just like how her incarcertion with Mia Marlene terminated their contract.

There were even memes and looping GIFs making amusing comparisons of their gala night kiss to the on-screen kiss circulating in social media, and fans were taking polls and sides on which lady - Ariel or Jasmine - was best suited with Leon. It was terribly annoying and maddening that Ariel never bothered to find out more.

"Leon's a good actor, don't you agree?" asked Andy.

Ariel nodded.

"But that kiss is icky! Did he really do that?"

Ariel chuckled and nodded.

"But I still miss him," Andy sighed with downcast eyes.

"Let's head over to that dessert shop for some fruit parfait, shall we?" she changed the topic and walked him to the dessert shop to eat.

———————

"Look, Madame Tussauds!" exclaimed Andy as their taxi passed by a large window flashing the famed Madame Tussauds logo on a red poster.

"Let's do it!" Ariel said excitedly as she directed the taxi driver in basic Japanese to stop them outside the building.

———————

"Mum! Check this out!" Andy went to pose with a wax figurine of Jonny Depp in his infamous Pirates of the Caribbean outfit.

"Nice one," she grinned as she took a snapshot of him.

They observed each celebrity wax figurine that they passed by, posing, laughing and taking wefies.

"Leon!" Andy cried out when he saw from a distance a wax figurine of that familiar face and ran towards it immediately.

The wax figurine was an exact replica of Leon in every detail - from the texture of his skin to the style of his hair to his height, including his signature dance pose and dancing outfit. It almost gave Ariel a heart attack, but it was too late to run away, Andy was already posing with the fake Leon. She swallowed her discomfort and helped take a snap.

"More, please, more!" cried Andy as he did multiple poses with "Leon" for the camera. It was obvious that he wanted to stay with the wax figurine longer than with the others.

"Aw man, I really miss you, Leon," Andy hugged the wax figurine. "Another snap, mum."

"But you've already taken too many pictures. Besided, there are people waiting for their turns," complained Ariel as she observed through her tinted sunglasses some people waiting behind. Her and Andy's winter hats and winter clothes swelling up to their chins made it hard for the public to recognise them

"Together, pleeease," he gestured his hand to beg her to come.

Hesitantly, she walked towards the figure without touching it and forced a tight smile line as she angled her phone to take a wefie.

"Let me take a picture of you two now," Andy hastily took the phone from her hand.

"No, Andy! I don't want to," she insisted.

"Please mum, PLEASE! Just one, I promise, ok?"

"Then be quick."

Andy took a picture of them and passed the phone to her. She looked at the picture, then at the wax figure next to her. It was so surreal as she observed the details of his face. Even those fake eyes almost matched the real ones, and they still reminded her how they once scared and mesmerised her. When her eyes landed on his lips, it instantly brought to mind the memory of their passionate kiss. Real or fake, being next to "him" was becoming too much for her to handle. She quickly stepped away.

"Hey Andy, shall we have dinner early? I'm starving. There's a famous barbecue restaurant which is a short walk down, how's that?"

"But we've not explored the rest of the famous people yet."

"I know, so let's continue our tour quickly. The queue at the restaurant is long and I'm getting hungry."

"Alright," Andy nodded, but not before waving a last goodbye to "Leon" before heading off.