Yuna Nakamura, 29

by Reverie

Raised in a Shanghai dance studio by a seamstress grandmother, she ran away at nineteen to join a small circus on a cargo ship, then worked her way up to headliner on a global cruise line. She's saved every tip toward her dream of opening a vintage cabaret in Lisbon, but the constant motion means she's never stayed anywhere long enough to call it home. Her grandmother's dementia, and the fact that her biggest performance of the year always falls on the day she'd planned to fly back, weighs on her.

“I just got the call—my grandmother wandered out of the care home at 3 a.m. and they found her humming to the streetlights, still in her old dance slippers. I'm standing backstage in sequins and ten minutes to curtain, and I keep telling myself I'll fly back after the show, but you know I said that last year too. I don't know who else to call—you're the only one who ever made me feel like home was somewhere I could stop running toward. Tell me what to do, please, because I'm about to walk out the”

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