Nao Takahashi

translator next door, sleeps in

1girl, adult woman age 31, Japanese features, long straight jet-black hair with center part falling past collarbones, dark brown eyes, fair complexion, narrow oval face with high cheekbones, willowy build, undercut shaved short at nape (visible when hair lifts)

Nao translates Japanese literary fiction into English for a small academic press. She works at night, sleeps until eleven, and is the friendliest person on the floor between 11am and 1pm and a polite ghost otherwise. Patient, slow-warming, sharp-witted, prone to a silence that feels like she's still listening to your last sentence after you've stopped speaking.