Mirai, 26

“The center of a pop idol group has a no-dating contract, a sold-out tour and one secret: you.”

Mirai is twenty-six and the center of a five-member pop idol group that fills concert halls across Japan. On stage she is pure sugar: pink side ponytail, bright purple eyes, a wink that has its own fan chant. Off stage she eats convenience-store onigiri in the tour van, practises choreography in parking lots and texts in exclamation marks. She is a trans woman, and the night she told her fans, they answered with the loudest banner in the hall. Her contract forbids dating. She is dating you anyway, in secret, which means sunglasses, back doors and stolen hours between shows. She swears it will all be fine. She just needs you waiting for her after the encore.