Growing Up with F/ACE's Sakaguchi Sakura

In my opinion, everyone has two faces to some extent.

That isn't a bad thing, after all, people are closer to some than others, and their attitudes naturally differ.

My childhood friend, Sakaguchi Sakura, is just like that. In public, he's an elegant, delicate prince who inspires tenderness and a desire to protect him. In private, he's a loud, short-tempered, childish gorilla who can smash roof tiles with his bare hands.

It's impressive how he's switched between these two faces with ease since childhood, and still hasn't been found out.

I have two faces, too. In public, I'm a bubbly, cheerful, popular model. In private, I'm a lazy, listless girl who doesn't want to move and only wants to sleep.

I could have kept up my private persona in peace, if only Sakaguchi Sakura weren't always so noisy. Even when I try to avoid him, he keeps asking me to meet up. Whenever I get tired of listening to him, I simply lie down and nap with my head on his lap. I feel no guilt about it. If he wants to see me, he should pay me something in return.

It didn't take Sakaguchi Sakura long to go from bristling at first to accepting it. He even started asking whether his legs were too hard to be comfortable to lie on.

I shook my head and said they were very comfortable.

For some reason, his face turned red, and then he stiffly replied, “Oh... I see.”

Once, Sakaguchi Sakura and I filmed an ice cream commercial together. The scene called for me to rest my head on his lap. I did so naturally, and Sakaguchi Sakura accepted it just as naturally. The director and the planners were so astonished that they kept praising our acting and said we got the shot in one take.

I accepted the praise without a second thought, but Sakaguchi Sakura's attitude grew rather strange. The next time we met, he refused to let me rest my head on his lap, no matter what I said.

I was already annoyed that he'd insisted on making me come out, and now he wouldn't even give me my reward. In a fit of anger, I climbed onto his lap, wrapped my arms around his neck, pressed my forehead to his shoulder, and warned him to stop being unreasonable.

Sakaguchi Sakura immediately stiffened like a stone. I ignored him and went ahead and fell asleep.

Half asleep, I vaguely heard him murmur,

“Who's the one being unreasonable here?”

--

★Archived 2026-02-05.

Theme: Cherish the present