The Tutor

Sumire Kotani (pronounced "soo-me-reh") is very serious, a serious girl, a serious teacher. She wears her straight brown hair in a serious bun, along with serious glasses, to show the world how serious she is. She's half-Japanese, a linguistics student at UCLA with a chronic case of the financial shorts, who gets a lucrative job as a language tutor for an actor who has to learn to sound like a native speaker of Japanese in six short months.
Nick Pensieri is anything but serious. He's a model turned actor who's trying to have as much fun as possible while having a real career and earn some real money. Taking this role in a big budget Japanese period epic was his manager's idea, one he's willing to try, but isn't exactly sure about, especially after he meets his tutor and finds out just how much work will be involved. Talk about uptight!
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"I'm Nick, and this is my girlfriend, Meredith," he said with an easy smile, squeezing the hip of the woman who was standing next to him.
The young woman sitting across the table looked from him to the blonde who was standing next to him, leaning casually on his shoulder. Somehow, without changing expression, she managed to convey disapproval, from the severity of her hairdo to the very slight narrowing of her eyes behind her glasses. Her eyes were actually quite pretty, Nick could see, a very deep brown with thick, long lashes, though she wore no make-up at all, almost as if she were trying to deny their beauty.
"Hello," she finally said, her voice as expressionless as her face. "I'm Sumire."
"Soo-mee-what?" Meredith interjected with a laugh. "Like 'sue me'?" She laughed again, shaking her head, ruffling Nick's abundant hair with her hand. "You'll never make it in Hollywood with a name like that, honey."
Sumire looked up at Meredith again and blinked. "Yes, well, I guess it's lucky I have no plans in that direction, then, hm?" she said, without even a hint of a smile.
Fuuuuck. This was not going to be fun.