The Liar's Truth - An Ohmiya Fan-fiction
THE LIAR’S TRUTH
By: Ami
An Ohmiya fan-fiction（嵐）
Not beta-ed. English is not my mother language and it’s my first attempt writing Arashi, so I might have made some mistakes.
Note:
(1) Arashi’s prank to their dear leader can be viewed at Himitsu no Arashi-chan 13. It’s very hilarious and a must-see for Oh-chan’s fans.
Standard Disclaimers Apply
1. Prologue
That day after the shooting of Shukudai-kun, which was the last of their schedule for the day, Nino looked like he was in a real hurry to leave.
It wasn’t all that unusual. He did that once in a while, when he finally got his hands on whatever intriguing game he was obsessed with. The one unusual thing that kept Ohno’s attention was the fact that Nino had dragged Sho along with him as he hurried to leave the room.
Ohno opened his mouth to ask why the younger man needed the one-man extension, only to hear Aiba’s loud protest instead of his.
“Wait! Where are you two going? Let’s eat together!” The miracle boy tossed his almost-empty karaage bento in to his bag messily, along with his dirty clothes and empty bottles. The jovial man only had half of his shoes on, but he didn’t seem to realize it as he lugged his bag on his right arm and his jacket on his left.
“Oi, oi, haven’t you just had your meal? And put on your shoes, for God’s sake.” Jun reprimanded him half-heartedly as he tossed his cleaning facial cotton in to the bin and proceeded to pack up his stuff as well.
Ohno remained seated on the couch, watching blankly as Nino made up some blatant, hilarious nonsense to prevent Aiba from following him and Sho. Ohno pretended to be busy tending his dirty nails when Aiba turned back inside to put on his other shoe, looking pathetically dejected.
“We’re leaving!” Nino excused himself and Sho with a bright smile, before dragging the equally-cheerful-looking man away with him.
“Riida,” Aiba nudged the older man with a pout once two of their fellow teammates could no longer be heard, “Let’s have hot steamy drunk sex too.”
Ohno only smiled weakly as he rose up from his comfortable hunched position and offered to take Aiba out for ramen. Just as they were about to leave together, Jun reminded them to borrow the staff’s camcorder in case they wanted to imitate Nino and Sho’s premeditated activity thoroughly. Ohno decided to start walking away when the curvy-haired man offered to teach them how to upload the videos to popular streaming sites.
XXX
2. THE LIAR’S TRUTH
Three months prior…
Nino must have been very pissed at him. Ohno could somehow sense it. The other members hadn’t seemed to notice, which Ohno found very strange because he wasn’t used to hold the observant role who noticed… things. It was Sho’s, or Jun’s, or even Aiba’s part. All of his friends were such attentive and considerate fellows that Ohno had never felt the need to develop this pretty much unattended part of his personality.
It had been almost two years since their bitter separation, in which Ohno had turned to fishing and Nino had chosen Nagasawa Masami as replacements. Ohno wasn’t all that surprised that Nino was able to keep resenting him for an awfully long time, because apparently he himself was able to keep his affection for the younger man for the same awful long period of time. The reason why Nino was the one being resentful while he was the one who had been dumped was no longer relevant for the lead singer. It had been such a long time. It was more than enough time for Ohno to forgive the man who had taught him how to love.
“Riida,”
Ohno looked up to the mirror to find Jun standing behind him, looking somewhat apologetic. He knew the reason why the handsome singer was there, especially because Sho and Aiba had showed up earlier with the exact same intention.
“Do you think we went too far with the prank earlier?” Jun’s large eyes looked even larger when he was worried, “If so, I’d like to apologize. You must have worked hard to prepare this CM(1). You did everything very well earlier.”
“Ah, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Ohno replied with a soft laugh, “I’m not mad at all. Actually, sorry for not showing a better reaction in front of the camera. I must have ruined the show.”
Jun wasn’t as easy to convince as the previous two, although he looked considerably more relaxed, “Well, I apologize anyway. To be honest, I would have been pretty mad too if I were you.”
“Really?” Ohno smiled tiredly, “It’s nothing. I’m okay. You worry too much, Matsumoto-san. I’m a loose character, remember?”
Jun’s expression softened at the impish grin gracing his leader’s boyish face.
“Anyway,” Ohno looked down at his ridiculous costume and the remainder of the overly spicy instant ramen his friends had pranked him with, “Who had come up with this prank first?”
“It’s Nino.” Jun replied, “he also volunteered to sneak in to the set. I suggested to bring up Ni No Arashi, but he refused to put his name on the whole thing. So Aiba took over to direct the plan.”
“I see…”
Ohno nodded slightly when Jun excused himself before staring back down at the half-eaten instant ramen in front of him, just because he didn’t want to confirm the obvious disappointment marring his face. He had been really sure too that Nino would have taken him back… or at least talked about their relationship when the young man had called early that morning, cheerfully saying that the older man was going to be really surprised that day.
“This is… the worst prank.” Ohno suddenly felt very old as he lay motionless on the chair and simply waited until the staff finished cleaning up. Nino never did show up.
XXX
“Oh-chan?”
“Hmm… Nino. What’s wrong?”
“Oh sorry, did I wake you?”
“It’s okay. Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to hear Samii’s sleepy voice.”
“…Umm… Nino, I…”
“Oh, my game has finished loading. Gotta go.”
“…Okay.”
“Oh-chan is shooting for your newest CM today, right?”
“Yes.”
“Prepare to be surprised.”
“Huh? What do you---“
*click*
XXX
A month later, Ohno had almost forgotten about Nino’s prank. He had also stopped his stiff behavior around the younger man, knowing that Nino would act casually around him if he was willing to do the same, and Ohno would rather have a Nino as a friend rather than no Nino at all. And just when he thought that everything was relatively well with the world again, another problem was already set in motion.
It was started by an anonymous letter his mother put on his desk. He opened the envelope three days after it arrived to his house and was greeted by several shots of himself during shooting. There was nothing else inside the envelope which could be used for identifying the sender. Ohno tossed the photos in to his drawer and didn’t open it until the second envelope came the next day.
The content of the envelope hadn’t varied, it contained several photos of him in the shooting set.
Ohno compared the photos from both envelopes and could come up with absolutely no idea about who might have taken them. No matter how hard he tried to memorize yesterday’s shooting, he couldn’t remember meeting or seeing anyone suspicious. Unable to come up with a good suspect, Ohno tossed the second set of photos in to the same drawer and shut it tight.
XXX
It wasn’t until the fifth envelope Ohno realized that the sender might have probably been a stalker. Although he had had several incidents like this before, there had never been one who had managed to sneak in to the set to take his picture.
While still wondering whether he should be feeling wary or not, he informed the rest of his group to help him watch his surroundings if there were suspicious people with a camera. Jun, who seemed to be the most experienced stalker-victim, took the matter very seriously and made him promise to report it to the police when the harassment escalated. Aiba and Sho expressed their concerns earnestly and promised they would watch out for him, while Nino simply gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before calmly walking away.
He hated to think that Nino was pleased with his current circumstances, but it clearly seemed so. Ohno had gotten very good at reading Nino’s expression. The younger man wasn’t worried at the slightest. In fact, he looked a lot more cheerful after Ohno’s announcement.
Due to his gloomy quality, Ohno usual talking quota was cut in a half in Shukudai-kun’s shooting that night.
XXX
Two weeks passed with little incident, other than the nameless envelopes which kept coming every two days to Ohno household. Sensing Ohno’s discontent, Ohno’s mother once stopped delivering the envelope to Ohno’s room, but Ohno who had gotten used to the routine of viewing the photos after he got back from work eventually gave in to his curiosity and demanded the envelopes back. Ohno’s mother reluctantly gave them back after making sure that no one was harassing his son at work.
Ohno, probably from the influence of his role in Maou, eventually taped the photos on his wall and spent the majority of the night looking at them while imagining the photographer’s position for each photograph. Most of the photos were taken from behind and only captured half of his face. It was never comfortable to look and observe his own face, but these photos had made it a lot more comfortable. He could never stop feeling amazed by this person’s skills. To be able to capture his best features, he had a feeling that this person knew him more than well and was never tired of watching him.
“He couldn’t be a bad person,” he concluded at around half past four that morning before promptly falling asleep.
XXX
Three days later, another envelope came. Ohno couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed to find that the envelope didn’t contain any photos anymore. Instead, a piece of letter was attached, with printed words that offered Ohno to meet the anonymous sender somewhere. If Ohno agreed, the letter instructed him to wear a specific colored shirt to work tomorrow.
The next day, Aiba commented how pink didn’t compliment Ohno’s skin tone.
XXX
Two days later, which happened to be Ohno’s day off, Ohno put on a simple disguise before leaving for a town park nearby. He sat on the instructed bench and spent a few minutes looking around before a group of over-excited fangirls suddenly showed up and forced him to retreat. The envelope stopped coming from the day on, so Ohno assumed that the sender had to be one among the pack of girls he had barely escaped from. It was too bad she had stopped, though. Ohno would very much like to meet this interesting individual and ask her how she managed to sneak in to every shooting set he had set his foot on.
His teammates seemed to be either amused, relieved or pleased when he told them about his experience, with the exception of Nino, who looked particularly touchy that morning. Ohno tried not to dwell on the fact and offered to take Nino out for ramen because no matter how many times Jun had argued his logic, he still believed that ramen could heal everything. The food-hating Nino gloomily agreed.
XXX
A peaceful week passed until another unidentified package reached Ohno household once again. Ohno was both shocked and delighted to see that the rather large package contained the fishing pole he had been secretly saving up for. He asked his parents if they had somehow read his mind and bought it for him. To which his mother replied that, no, they hadn’t bought it for him, and no, they couldn’t read his mind, but yes, he was rather obvious with his obsession with this particular fishing pole, since when Ohno was interested in something, he would unconsciously bring it up in every conversation.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ohno ended up calling the delivery service to ask if they had gotten the wrong address. The polite receptionist on the line kindly informed him that, no, they hadn’t gotten the wrong address, yes, the package was meant for Mister Ohno Satoshi, and no, the sender hadn’t registered his name; only a return address. Ohno hung up the phone before the kind woman asked him if he would like her to spell the return address once more in case he wanted to write it down.
The next day, Ohno brought the outrageously expensive pole to work. His friends, who wasn’t into fishing, didn’t seem very impressed with the simple-looking fishing pole. Surprisingly, Nino was the one who seemed the most interested, as he kept asking him about the advantages of using the pole and what made the pole special. Once Ohno started talking about this favorite subject of his, he couldn’t stop, but Nino kept listening patiently, while silently shuffling his cards and making impressed noises when Ohno expected him to respond. In the middle of dinner that night, Ohno’s mother amusedly pointed out that Ohno had been talking about Nino all the time.
XXX
“It might be from one of your fans,” Jun indicated, as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, when Ohno expressed his uneasiness to use such an expensive pole because he didn’t know who had sent it to him. “I get some anonymous presents too sometimes.”
“They mostly send flowers, stuffed animals and cards, though.” Aiba added, “I have this gigantic stuffed penguin in my room. It was send anonymously too, along with a really sweet love letter.”
“There’s no letter in the package?” Sho asked curiously, “You’re sure you didn’t drop it when you opened the package?”
“I’m sure…” Ohno replied thoughtfully, “I’ve called the delivery service and they said the sender didn’t leave a name there, only a return address.”
Nino chose that very moment to choke on his water. Sho, motherly as always, hurried to offer him some tissue.
“Did you write down the return address? Is it from someone you know?” Sho asked while keeping a comforting hand on Nino’s back. Ohno couldn’t help but stare at the small gesture and wished that he had chosen to sit on the couch with Nino earlier. After all, an excuse to openly touch Nino was even extraordinarily rare.
“I don’t think so,” Ohno replied absentmindedly, “No, I didn’t write it down.”
Jun held up his hands in defeat. “Well, you can either accept and use it with utmost gratitude or simply send it back to the return address and come home guilt-free.”
“You can’t send it back! She would be very disappointed!” Aiba exclaimed, “Just use it and be grateful, Riida!”
“I can understand his concern, you see,” Jun intercepted, “To be honest, I would have also sent back a gift which I deem over-zealous, especially from a fan. I mean, I hate to be so negative about our own fans, but it’s a fact that there are all sorts of bad people out there. It’s better not to give them a chance to use an act of generosity against us.”
Ohno agreed and promised to send the gift back as soon as possible, while keeping his eyes on Nino’s displeased frown all the time.
XXX
“Nino,”
Ohno fought to keep his face calm as his ex-lover turned back with an obvious displeasure in his face.
“What is it?” Nino shifted his small bag to his other hand while casually diverting his eyes to the floor. Nino who refused to look at his eyes was never a good news for Ohno, but the older man refused to back down. It hadn’t been an easy decision for him to have stood there and called out for the slightly taller man. He had only realized how much he had missed Nino after their lively chat about the fishing pole several days before. He had been fighting to act casually around the younger man for more than two years and he didn’t think he could go for another year without at least trying to express his earnest feelings.
“I know I’ve said this before and you have answered… I got your answer before… but…” Ohno paused for a moment, “Do you think… we can start over?”
Nino’s expression was decidedly bland. Ohno had imagined it among the other probabilities he had considered the sleepless night before. It was probably a good thing to do this before a good night’s sleep. He might have not gotten this far fully-awake.
“So… what do you think?”
Ohno couldn’t recognize his own voice. He only concentrated on Nino’s face which he so dearly adored. Five minutes passed in silence before Nino turned around and walked away.
“Kazu, I love you.”
A slight jerk of Nino’s back was more than enough of a respond to learn the impact of those words on the introverted young man. Ohno's smile resurfaced, along with the confidence that Nino’s delayed answer would come sooner than he expected.
XXX
3. EPILOGUE
Ohno probably still thought that Nino had dumped him, being the gullible cute bastard he was.
Nino took comfort in knowing at least the harsh world had never crushed his most favorite part of Ohno Satoshi; the laid-back leader of Arashi, the skilled artist with long, ideal fingers, and the victim of most of Nino’s best pranks.
The truth was, Nino had needed more time to rethink about their circumstances. The fact that they were both idols unsurprisingly instigated more problems than the fact that they were both men. Nino had never liked troubles. He always gladly chose an easy way out, always basing his decisions on the lesser efforts. The fact that he had chosen to separate temporarily rather than everlastingly actually showed how much he cared about Ohno and their fleeting relationship, but Ohno, who never bothered with subtlety, most probably never even played with the idea; just the way Nino would like him to.
Ohno shouldn’t know that Nagasawa Masami had passed along with the end of Yasashii Jikan’s shooting. The more Ohno was convinced that Nino had left him for good, the better his shocked expression would be when Nino finally succeeded with his plan. The more he waited, the more Nino felt giddy with anticipation. The talented actor was sure that his rewards would be well worth it.
“Nino, I’ve got the camcorder,” Sho finally came out of the room. At Nino’s questioning look, he gestured to the smiling staff behind him who kindly offered to carry the device to their car. “Shall we go now?”
Nino nodded and muttered an apology under his breath. He hadn’t meant to bother so many people to proceed with his plan, but now that he had come to a final decision, he needed to do this right, and as Nino-ly as possible.
As if sensing the younger man’s hesitation, Sho put a comforting hand on the slight man’s back with a smile, “I’m proud of you, you know. Nobody else would have put so much effort on a love confession like you would. I’m sure Satoshi-kun will be pleased.”
“Yeah, if he does notice this time.” Nino replied skeptically.
“He has to. It’s gyakukaiten this time. It’s your theme. And it isn’t exactly as subtle as the ones we’ve tried before.”
“I don’t think a love confession written on the bottom of an instant ramen bowl was exactly subtle either.” Nino retorted with a growl, “I was really sure that he was going to finish it and be shocked during the shooting too.”
“Perhaps we made it a bit too spicy for riida’s taste,” Sho chuckled in a good humor, “And your idea to stalk him was really sweet. It would have worked if you had chosen a more secluded, fangirls-free place to meet.”
“Nobody would have wanted to meet a stalker in a secluded place!”
The overlooked staff who had been closely following them from behind was starting to look a bit pale in the face.
“I even went as far as buying that expensive fishing pole for him. Just how dense can a person be? Didn’t he realize that I could have bought PS3 with that ridiculous amount of money?!”
“I told you to include that love-letter in the package. If you have done so, he would have known that the ‘mysterious package’ came from you.”
“Don’t remind me.” Nino massaged his forehead tiredly, “I just can’t believe he hasn’t memorized my address yet. And he even had the nerve to ruin my whole plan and confessed to me first!”
“That’s the Satoshi-kun we all love and know, but I thought you have resold that pole and bought a PS3?”
“Serves that bastard right for wasting my greatest sacrifice ever. I even plan to withhold sex for three months after taking him back for this. Do you have the copy of the backward script anyway? I intentionally left mine on the couch. Oh-chan didn’t seem to notice it was there, though.”
“He’ll understand sufficiently when we send him our backward tape.”
“He’d better do. Or else I’m going to throw it to his face and ask him to pay for all damage bills.” Nino put on his glasses and seemed to be reading the flimsy piece of paper with the same amount of concentration he used for studying his drama script. “Do you think I should say, ‘even if you’re a lousy lay’ or ‘even if you’re an insufferable fisherman’ before the ‘I love you’ part here?”
“I think you’d better stop acting like a tsundere and just tell him straight about your undying love.”
“Don’t make me hit you, Sho-kun.”
XXX
The next week, Nino and Ohno came to the shooting set holding hands and grinning like a pair of lovesick idiots. For a moment Sakurai wondered about one particular staff who refused to look at them in the eyes, but eventually stopped paying attention once Nino started groping Ohno’s ass on national TV.
XXX
おわり
By: Ami
An Ohmiya fan-fiction（嵐）
Not beta-ed. English is not my mother language and it’s my first attempt writing Arashi, so I might have made some mistakes.
Note:
(1) Arashi’s prank to their dear leader can be viewed at Himitsu no Arashi-chan 13. It’s very hilarious and a must-see for Oh-chan’s fans.
Standard Disclaimers Apply
1. Prologue
That day after the shooting of Shukudai-kun, which was the last of their schedule for the day, Nino looked like he was in a real hurry to leave.
It wasn’t all that unusual. He did that once in a while, when he finally got his hands on whatever intriguing game he was obsessed with. The one unusual thing that kept Ohno’s attention was the fact that Nino had dragged Sho along with him as he hurried to leave the room.
Ohno opened his mouth to ask why the younger man needed the one-man extension, only to hear Aiba’s loud protest instead of his.
“Wait! Where are you two going? Let’s eat together!” The miracle boy tossed his almost-empty karaage bento in to his bag messily, along with his dirty clothes and empty bottles. The jovial man only had half of his shoes on, but he didn’t seem to realize it as he lugged his bag on his right arm and his jacket on his left.
“Oi, oi, haven’t you just had your meal? And put on your shoes, for God’s sake.” Jun reprimanded him half-heartedly as he tossed his cleaning facial cotton in to the bin and proceeded to pack up his stuff as well.
Ohno remained seated on the couch, watching blankly as Nino made up some blatant, hilarious nonsense to prevent Aiba from following him and Sho. Ohno pretended to be busy tending his dirty nails when Aiba turned back inside to put on his other shoe, looking pathetically dejected.
“We’re leaving!” Nino excused himself and Sho with a bright smile, before dragging the equally-cheerful-looking man away with him.
“Riida,” Aiba nudged the older man with a pout once two of their fellow teammates could no longer be heard, “Let’s have hot steamy drunk sex too.”
Ohno only smiled weakly as he rose up from his comfortable hunched position and offered to take Aiba out for ramen. Just as they were about to leave together, Jun reminded them to borrow the staff’s camcorder in case they wanted to imitate Nino and Sho’s premeditated activity thoroughly. Ohno decided to start walking away when the curvy-haired man offered to teach them how to upload the videos to popular streaming sites.
XXX
2. THE LIAR’S TRUTH
Three months prior…
Nino must have been very pissed at him. Ohno could somehow sense it. The other members hadn’t seemed to notice, which Ohno found very strange because he wasn’t used to hold the observant role who noticed… things. It was Sho’s, or Jun’s, or even Aiba’s part. All of his friends were such attentive and considerate fellows that Ohno had never felt the need to develop this pretty much unattended part of his personality.
It had been almost two years since their bitter separation, in which Ohno had turned to fishing and Nino had chosen Nagasawa Masami as replacements. Ohno wasn’t all that surprised that Nino was able to keep resenting him for an awfully long time, because apparently he himself was able to keep his affection for the younger man for the same awful long period of time. The reason why Nino was the one being resentful while he was the one who had been dumped was no longer relevant for the lead singer. It had been such a long time. It was more than enough time for Ohno to forgive the man who had taught him how to love.
“Riida,”
Ohno looked up to the mirror to find Jun standing behind him, looking somewhat apologetic. He knew the reason why the handsome singer was there, especially because Sho and Aiba had showed up earlier with the exact same intention.
“Do you think we went too far with the prank earlier?” Jun’s large eyes looked even larger when he was worried, “If so, I’d like to apologize. You must have worked hard to prepare this CM(1). You did everything very well earlier.”
“Ah, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Ohno replied with a soft laugh, “I’m not mad at all. Actually, sorry for not showing a better reaction in front of the camera. I must have ruined the show.”
Jun wasn’t as easy to convince as the previous two, although he looked considerably more relaxed, “Well, I apologize anyway. To be honest, I would have been pretty mad too if I were you.”
“Really?” Ohno smiled tiredly, “It’s nothing. I’m okay. You worry too much, Matsumoto-san. I’m a loose character, remember?”
Jun’s expression softened at the impish grin gracing his leader’s boyish face.
“Anyway,” Ohno looked down at his ridiculous costume and the remainder of the overly spicy instant ramen his friends had pranked him with, “Who had come up with this prank first?”
“It’s Nino.” Jun replied, “he also volunteered to sneak in to the set. I suggested to bring up Ni No Arashi, but he refused to put his name on the whole thing. So Aiba took over to direct the plan.”
“I see…”
Ohno nodded slightly when Jun excused himself before staring back down at the half-eaten instant ramen in front of him, just because he didn’t want to confirm the obvious disappointment marring his face. He had been really sure too that Nino would have taken him back… or at least talked about their relationship when the young man had called early that morning, cheerfully saying that the older man was going to be really surprised that day.
“This is… the worst prank.” Ohno suddenly felt very old as he lay motionless on the chair and simply waited until the staff finished cleaning up. Nino never did show up.
XXX
“Oh-chan?”
“Hmm… Nino. What’s wrong?”
“Oh sorry, did I wake you?”
“It’s okay. Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to hear Samii’s sleepy voice.”
“…Umm… Nino, I…”
“Oh, my game has finished loading. Gotta go.”
“…Okay.”
“Oh-chan is shooting for your newest CM today, right?”
“Yes.”
“Prepare to be surprised.”
“Huh? What do you---“
*click*
XXX
A month later, Ohno had almost forgotten about Nino’s prank. He had also stopped his stiff behavior around the younger man, knowing that Nino would act casually around him if he was willing to do the same, and Ohno would rather have a Nino as a friend rather than no Nino at all. And just when he thought that everything was relatively well with the world again, another problem was already set in motion.
It was started by an anonymous letter his mother put on his desk. He opened the envelope three days after it arrived to his house and was greeted by several shots of himself during shooting. There was nothing else inside the envelope which could be used for identifying the sender. Ohno tossed the photos in to his drawer and didn’t open it until the second envelope came the next day.
The content of the envelope hadn’t varied, it contained several photos of him in the shooting set.
Ohno compared the photos from both envelopes and could come up with absolutely no idea about who might have taken them. No matter how hard he tried to memorize yesterday’s shooting, he couldn’t remember meeting or seeing anyone suspicious. Unable to come up with a good suspect, Ohno tossed the second set of photos in to the same drawer and shut it tight.
XXX
It wasn’t until the fifth envelope Ohno realized that the sender might have probably been a stalker. Although he had had several incidents like this before, there had never been one who had managed to sneak in to the set to take his picture.
While still wondering whether he should be feeling wary or not, he informed the rest of his group to help him watch his surroundings if there were suspicious people with a camera. Jun, who seemed to be the most experienced stalker-victim, took the matter very seriously and made him promise to report it to the police when the harassment escalated. Aiba and Sho expressed their concerns earnestly and promised they would watch out for him, while Nino simply gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before calmly walking away.
He hated to think that Nino was pleased with his current circumstances, but it clearly seemed so. Ohno had gotten very good at reading Nino’s expression. The younger man wasn’t worried at the slightest. In fact, he looked a lot more cheerful after Ohno’s announcement.
Due to his gloomy quality, Ohno usual talking quota was cut in a half in Shukudai-kun’s shooting that night.
XXX
Two weeks passed with little incident, other than the nameless envelopes which kept coming every two days to Ohno household. Sensing Ohno’s discontent, Ohno’s mother once stopped delivering the envelope to Ohno’s room, but Ohno who had gotten used to the routine of viewing the photos after he got back from work eventually gave in to his curiosity and demanded the envelopes back. Ohno’s mother reluctantly gave them back after making sure that no one was harassing his son at work.
Ohno, probably from the influence of his role in Maou, eventually taped the photos on his wall and spent the majority of the night looking at them while imagining the photographer’s position for each photograph. Most of the photos were taken from behind and only captured half of his face. It was never comfortable to look and observe his own face, but these photos had made it a lot more comfortable. He could never stop feeling amazed by this person’s skills. To be able to capture his best features, he had a feeling that this person knew him more than well and was never tired of watching him.
“He couldn’t be a bad person,” he concluded at around half past four that morning before promptly falling asleep.
XXX
Three days later, another envelope came. Ohno couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed to find that the envelope didn’t contain any photos anymore. Instead, a piece of letter was attached, with printed words that offered Ohno to meet the anonymous sender somewhere. If Ohno agreed, the letter instructed him to wear a specific colored shirt to work tomorrow.
The next day, Aiba commented how pink didn’t compliment Ohno’s skin tone.
XXX
Two days later, which happened to be Ohno’s day off, Ohno put on a simple disguise before leaving for a town park nearby. He sat on the instructed bench and spent a few minutes looking around before a group of over-excited fangirls suddenly showed up and forced him to retreat. The envelope stopped coming from the day on, so Ohno assumed that the sender had to be one among the pack of girls he had barely escaped from. It was too bad she had stopped, though. Ohno would very much like to meet this interesting individual and ask her how she managed to sneak in to every shooting set he had set his foot on.
His teammates seemed to be either amused, relieved or pleased when he told them about his experience, with the exception of Nino, who looked particularly touchy that morning. Ohno tried not to dwell on the fact and offered to take Nino out for ramen because no matter how many times Jun had argued his logic, he still believed that ramen could heal everything. The food-hating Nino gloomily agreed.
XXX
A peaceful week passed until another unidentified package reached Ohno household once again. Ohno was both shocked and delighted to see that the rather large package contained the fishing pole he had been secretly saving up for. He asked his parents if they had somehow read his mind and bought it for him. To which his mother replied that, no, they hadn’t bought it for him, and no, they couldn’t read his mind, but yes, he was rather obvious with his obsession with this particular fishing pole, since when Ohno was interested in something, he would unconsciously bring it up in every conversation.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ohno ended up calling the delivery service to ask if they had gotten the wrong address. The polite receptionist on the line kindly informed him that, no, they hadn’t gotten the wrong address, yes, the package was meant for Mister Ohno Satoshi, and no, the sender hadn’t registered his name; only a return address. Ohno hung up the phone before the kind woman asked him if he would like her to spell the return address once more in case he wanted to write it down.
The next day, Ohno brought the outrageously expensive pole to work. His friends, who wasn’t into fishing, didn’t seem very impressed with the simple-looking fishing pole. Surprisingly, Nino was the one who seemed the most interested, as he kept asking him about the advantages of using the pole and what made the pole special. Once Ohno started talking about this favorite subject of his, he couldn’t stop, but Nino kept listening patiently, while silently shuffling his cards and making impressed noises when Ohno expected him to respond. In the middle of dinner that night, Ohno’s mother amusedly pointed out that Ohno had been talking about Nino all the time.
XXX
“It might be from one of your fans,” Jun indicated, as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, when Ohno expressed his uneasiness to use such an expensive pole because he didn’t know who had sent it to him. “I get some anonymous presents too sometimes.”
“They mostly send flowers, stuffed animals and cards, though.” Aiba added, “I have this gigantic stuffed penguin in my room. It was send anonymously too, along with a really sweet love letter.”
“There’s no letter in the package?” Sho asked curiously, “You’re sure you didn’t drop it when you opened the package?”
“I’m sure…” Ohno replied thoughtfully, “I’ve called the delivery service and they said the sender didn’t leave a name there, only a return address.”
Nino chose that very moment to choke on his water. Sho, motherly as always, hurried to offer him some tissue.
“Did you write down the return address? Is it from someone you know?” Sho asked while keeping a comforting hand on Nino’s back. Ohno couldn’t help but stare at the small gesture and wished that he had chosen to sit on the couch with Nino earlier. After all, an excuse to openly touch Nino was even extraordinarily rare.
“I don’t think so,” Ohno replied absentmindedly, “No, I didn’t write it down.”
Jun held up his hands in defeat. “Well, you can either accept and use it with utmost gratitude or simply send it back to the return address and come home guilt-free.”
“You can’t send it back! She would be very disappointed!” Aiba exclaimed, “Just use it and be grateful, Riida!”
“I can understand his concern, you see,” Jun intercepted, “To be honest, I would have also sent back a gift which I deem over-zealous, especially from a fan. I mean, I hate to be so negative about our own fans, but it’s a fact that there are all sorts of bad people out there. It’s better not to give them a chance to use an act of generosity against us.”
Ohno agreed and promised to send the gift back as soon as possible, while keeping his eyes on Nino’s displeased frown all the time.
XXX
“Nino,”
Ohno fought to keep his face calm as his ex-lover turned back with an obvious displeasure in his face.
“What is it?” Nino shifted his small bag to his other hand while casually diverting his eyes to the floor. Nino who refused to look at his eyes was never a good news for Ohno, but the older man refused to back down. It hadn’t been an easy decision for him to have stood there and called out for the slightly taller man. He had only realized how much he had missed Nino after their lively chat about the fishing pole several days before. He had been fighting to act casually around the younger man for more than two years and he didn’t think he could go for another year without at least trying to express his earnest feelings.
“I know I’ve said this before and you have answered… I got your answer before… but…” Ohno paused for a moment, “Do you think… we can start over?”
Nino’s expression was decidedly bland. Ohno had imagined it among the other probabilities he had considered the sleepless night before. It was probably a good thing to do this before a good night’s sleep. He might have not gotten this far fully-awake.
“So… what do you think?”
Ohno couldn’t recognize his own voice. He only concentrated on Nino’s face which he so dearly adored. Five minutes passed in silence before Nino turned around and walked away.
“Kazu, I love you.”
A slight jerk of Nino’s back was more than enough of a respond to learn the impact of those words on the introverted young man. Ohno's smile resurfaced, along with the confidence that Nino’s delayed answer would come sooner than he expected.
XXX
3. EPILOGUE
Ohno probably still thought that Nino had dumped him, being the gullible cute bastard he was.
Nino took comfort in knowing at least the harsh world had never crushed his most favorite part of Ohno Satoshi; the laid-back leader of Arashi, the skilled artist with long, ideal fingers, and the victim of most of Nino’s best pranks.
The truth was, Nino had needed more time to rethink about their circumstances. The fact that they were both idols unsurprisingly instigated more problems than the fact that they were both men. Nino had never liked troubles. He always gladly chose an easy way out, always basing his decisions on the lesser efforts. The fact that he had chosen to separate temporarily rather than everlastingly actually showed how much he cared about Ohno and their fleeting relationship, but Ohno, who never bothered with subtlety, most probably never even played with the idea; just the way Nino would like him to.
Ohno shouldn’t know that Nagasawa Masami had passed along with the end of Yasashii Jikan’s shooting. The more Ohno was convinced that Nino had left him for good, the better his shocked expression would be when Nino finally succeeded with his plan. The more he waited, the more Nino felt giddy with anticipation. The talented actor was sure that his rewards would be well worth it.
“Nino, I’ve got the camcorder,” Sho finally came out of the room. At Nino’s questioning look, he gestured to the smiling staff behind him who kindly offered to carry the device to their car. “Shall we go now?”
Nino nodded and muttered an apology under his breath. He hadn’t meant to bother so many people to proceed with his plan, but now that he had come to a final decision, he needed to do this right, and as Nino-ly as possible.
As if sensing the younger man’s hesitation, Sho put a comforting hand on the slight man’s back with a smile, “I’m proud of you, you know. Nobody else would have put so much effort on a love confession like you would. I’m sure Satoshi-kun will be pleased.”
“Yeah, if he does notice this time.” Nino replied skeptically.
“He has to. It’s gyakukaiten this time. It’s your theme. And it isn’t exactly as subtle as the ones we’ve tried before.”
“I don’t think a love confession written on the bottom of an instant ramen bowl was exactly subtle either.” Nino retorted with a growl, “I was really sure that he was going to finish it and be shocked during the shooting too.”
“Perhaps we made it a bit too spicy for riida’s taste,” Sho chuckled in a good humor, “And your idea to stalk him was really sweet. It would have worked if you had chosen a more secluded, fangirls-free place to meet.”
“Nobody would have wanted to meet a stalker in a secluded place!”
The overlooked staff who had been closely following them from behind was starting to look a bit pale in the face.
“I even went as far as buying that expensive fishing pole for him. Just how dense can a person be? Didn’t he realize that I could have bought PS3 with that ridiculous amount of money?!”
“I told you to include that love-letter in the package. If you have done so, he would have known that the ‘mysterious package’ came from you.”
“Don’t remind me.” Nino massaged his forehead tiredly, “I just can’t believe he hasn’t memorized my address yet. And he even had the nerve to ruin my whole plan and confessed to me first!”
“That’s the Satoshi-kun we all love and know, but I thought you have resold that pole and bought a PS3?”
“Serves that bastard right for wasting my greatest sacrifice ever. I even plan to withhold sex for three months after taking him back for this. Do you have the copy of the backward script anyway? I intentionally left mine on the couch. Oh-chan didn’t seem to notice it was there, though.”
“He’ll understand sufficiently when we send him our backward tape.”
“He’d better do. Or else I’m going to throw it to his face and ask him to pay for all damage bills.” Nino put on his glasses and seemed to be reading the flimsy piece of paper with the same amount of concentration he used for studying his drama script. “Do you think I should say, ‘even if you’re a lousy lay’ or ‘even if you’re an insufferable fisherman’ before the ‘I love you’ part here?”
“I think you’d better stop acting like a tsundere and just tell him straight about your undying love.”
“Don’t make me hit you, Sho-kun.”
XXX
The next week, Nino and Ohno came to the shooting set holding hands and grinning like a pair of lovesick idiots. For a moment Sakurai wondered about one particular staff who refused to look at them in the eyes, but eventually stopped paying attention once Nino started groping Ohno’s ass on national TV.
XXX
おわり