Happy birthday Joanne!
Ok, so I'm late by an hour but she knows why.....apples to apples is one kick ass game.
I didn't have time to write you a fic, but I did write a Massu fic for the JE Remix, so I'm posting it here since he's your favorite. Happy belated~!
Title: NewSWeeeek Flash- Your Smile Brightens My Day
Characters/pairing: NewS, KAT-TUN, Pin, Massu + all
Genre: Gen, mild angst, fluff, friendship
Word count: 3,595
Special Thanks to: My awesome beta and roommate, peroxidepest17.
A/n: I wrote this originally for the JE remix, but HAPPY BDAY JOANNE.
cynicalism doesn't have a lot of longer pieces to remix, but she does have a lot of adorable drabbles. Inspired, I, um, mixed more than remixed several of them. The main plot comes from Jin and Massu on smiling, but at various other points, the following other drabbles are remixed, used, inspired by, selected from, and/or referenced to: job, piggyback, Nakamaru and Massu are the sane ones, stamina, Growing Up, White Lies.
"It's completely unfair that we're the sex group, but you and Ryo get the erotic photoshoot," Jin complained, flipping through his copy of An An on the couch next to Yamapi. "I want an erotic photoshoot."
Yamapi shrugged as he blew at his cup of instant ramen. "It's just work."
"She's such a tiny Caucasian," Jin said. "Why didn't you get someone with a bigger bust?" He held up the magazine and examined the girl critically against the light.
"Put that away," Yamapi said. He made an attempt to grab it, but Jin pulled it out of his reach and grinned. Yamapi was cute when he was embarrassed.
"It is a marker of my twenty-three year old self," Jin said, paraphrasing Pi's jweb. "You wrote two entries about it; it must be something."
Yamapi pursed his lips. "It's not."
"It is. It's something, like how eating out with other NewS members now is something. Nakamaru said that you and Koyama were tag-teaming him about on Shokura."
"We weren't," Yamapi said. He kicked Jin's foot. "Can we watch Dragonball Z now?"
"Guess your otaku days aren’t over after all," Jin said. He put Yamapi's DVD into the PS2 anyway, and moved back to the couch. "It's been so long that I can't remember what's going on."
Yamapi shrugged and pressed the rewind button on the remote until the beginning of the recap of the last episode began to play. "It's only been a couple of weeks."
"That's a long time," Jin said, leaning back. "Ah, I'm jealous of NewS. We don't get to see each other that much anymore. You eat out with them ALL the time."
Jin meant for it to come off as a joke, but Yamapi didn't answer until the first fight scene began to start.
"Not all the time, we just finish late. Besides, I invite you along too. You just never go."
That was true, but Jin didn't want to admit it. "Why would I want to come and get in the way of your member ai?"
Pi said nothing, and Jin knew he was thinking about last night, when Jin had declined to eat with Yamapi, Ryo, Shige, and Koyama. He hadn't felt like it, like how he hadn't felt like accepting other invitations that week-- Maru's invitation to hang out in his apartment, or Ueda's offer to take him to the gym. Truthfully he originally didn't really want to meet with Yamapi tonight either, only Pi was so busy lately that it seemed like a waste not to hang out when he got off of work early.
They went through two and a half discs before Yamapi's eyelids began to droop. He leaned comfortably against Jin, then stretched his legs against the couch, knocking the An An magazine off.
"My porn!" Jin cried in exaggerated protest.
"It's not porn. Shut up," Pi mumbled.
"It's porn," Jin said, just to annoy Yamapi. He went on. "Though it's not my kind of porn. I like my girls bigger, like the ones in LA."
Yamapi cracked an eye at him. "You miss your blondes?"
"I miss everything," Jin said, slowly.
He missed the freedom of Los Angeles, the feeling that he could change his life and be anything he wanted to be, the sense that he was still young and carefree. He missed being able to plan his own schedule, dance anonymously at clubs, and study topics he thought were interesting. He missed the weather, the Santa Monica beach, and the plates of cheap Mexican food.
He missed how things used to be in KAT-TUN, before the quiet fights that were so much less physical than their fights in their younger days but so much more hurtful, before Kame and Koki became such good friends, before Maru and Ueda took a private trip together and didn't invite him. He missed the way they used to think together as a team, with a collective dream of a CD debut. He missed the awkward Kame that made others want to protect him, the caring Koki that sewed up holes in costumes, the outgoing Maru that liked to make a fool of himself on camera, the daydreaming Gackt-obsessed Ueda that wrote songs in a mix of different languages, the happy Junno that used to ask everyone out to eat and sometimes succeeded.
He missed being as busy as and involved in as many diverse activities as Yamapi.
"You okay?" Yamapi asked, both eyes open now.
"Of course," Jin said.
Yamapi studied him but didn't say anything. Jin knew that Yamapi knew he was lying, but he also knew that Yamapi wouldn't question him further. Sure Yamapi had opinions and gave them when he felt they were appropriate, but he didn't talk about how he ever felt; Yamapi wrote about his feelings, but he didn't really like to discuss them openly, not with Jin anyway.
Jin knew this because he knew Yamapi and because he was the same way.
On Monday right after work, Koyama dropped by the KAT-TUN dressing room and invited Jin to be a guest on his radio show, Kei-Chan News.
Jin was about to decline, when Koki spoke first. "You never invite us," Koki protested. He was the only other person still in the room. "He doesn't even have anything to promote."
Koyama gave Koki a confused look. "He can talk about Lips, Kame's drama, and the new Dreamboys 2007 dvd. He has plenty to talk about."
Koki tried to argue that if someone were to promote all three, Kame would be a better pick. Jin knew why-- Koki didn't think that Jin would talk about any of them.
As Koyama placated Koki by reassuring him that he and Kame could go on next time, Jin realized that Koki was right. Jin didn't really like Lips as a song, he didn't watch Kame's drama, and he didn't really care about Dreamboys 2007 mostly because he knew he wouldn't be in Dreamboys 2008. If he went on the radio show, he really wouldn’t want to do any promotional work.
But since it wasn’t a mandated promotional appearance, he wouldn’t have to.
With that in mind, Jin agreed.
Within two minutes after the start of the show, Koyama and Jin were talking about the An An photoshoot; within five minutes they were laughing about something else completely off-topic.
Koyama opened the show for text message and emails after that, and invited listeners to ask either him or Jin questions. Jin answered several questions that he had already answered in numerous interviews, and then Koyama announced ten minutes before the end of the show, "And if anyone from NewS or KAT-TUN is listening, send in your message and we'll definitely read yours!"
"None of them would be listening to this," Jin said. If he never bothered watching Kame promote One Pound Gospel on various TV spots, there was no way that any person in either group would make the effort to listen in.
The first message in, however, was from Massu. It said: "I'm listening, Koyama!"
Koyama laughed. "That's not a question!" he said, but he smiled anyway.
Jin would have been jealous, only it was more or less what he had expected. NewS members practically flaunted how well they got along into everyone's faces, it made sense if at least part of it was based on reality. It seemed almost unfair.
The last message they received was also from Massu. It said, "I'm with Nakamaru," and Jin really didn't know how else to react but grin stupidly.
Koyama grinned back.
On Tuesday, Kato Shigeaki asked Jin if KAT-TUN was busy that night.
Jin had no idea why Kato was talking to him. The last time he had talked to Kato alone was when he had run into him on the street, and the conversation had ended as awkwardly as the silence that occurred whenever Junno tried making obscene puns.
"Maybe, why?"
A strange, awkward silence. Kato fidgeted and glanced around the room, as if hoping someone would interrupt the conversation that he had initiated. "Um," Kato said, "Do you want to, er--"
Jin stared. "What?"
Just as it appeared that Kato was at a loss for words, Massu walked by. He flashed Kato a cheerful smile. "See you tomorrow, Shige!" he called, and then turned his smile toward Jin.
"Hey, thanks for listening yesterday," Jin said.
Massu's smile widened, both cheeks bright. Jin smiled back reflexively, and the smile stayed on his face even after Massu walked away.
"Shopping!" Kato said suddenly, and he smiled, pearly white teeth showing. "Let's go shopping."
And Jin wanted to say no, only he remembered how Ryo and Yamapi liked hanging around Shige now, and he didn’t really know why. Koyama too, was Shige’s best friend, and Jin liked Koyama; yesterday’s appearance had been a nice change of pace.
So Jin said, "Sure."
Although the initial invitation had been awkward, Jin discovered that Pi and Ryo were right-- Shige WAS interesting, and while he was easily embarrassed, he was also good-natured in humoring other people's requests. Even those in a used clothing store of bizarre tastes.
"So why'd you want to go shopping today anyway?" Jin asked as he twirled the used neon-yellow vinyl jacket he was wearing and posed with a pair of aviator sunglasses. "With me."
Shige stepped out wearing the purple polka dot covered collared shirt that Jin had egged him on to try on. He grinned at his own reflection, and then waited for Jin to finish guffawing before answering. "I saw Massu. When you shop with Massu, you discover stores that sell the strangest things. Like here? Massu almost bought that."
Shige pointed to a weird lime green shirt that had some sort of a deformed whale on the front of it. "So I thought that this kind of store would be fun to goof off in. Why'd you accept?"
"Pi and Ryo told me you were fun to hang around with," Jin said.
Shige gave an embarrassed grin. "Oh really?" He hesitated and then said quickly: "Yamashita-kun asked me. But I wanted to." And then, while Jin stared at him in surprise, Shige handed Jin a pair of leopard-spotted tights.
The next day Jin decided to talk to Yamapi.
Only Yamapi, he discovered, was having one of his busier work days. He dropped by the NewS dressing room in the morning, only to see Yamapi's dressing room table empty and to hear from Koyama that he’d just missed him--Yamapi had been late that morning and was behind schedule.
Jin dropped by again at his next break. This time Yamapi's table had a bottle of Ramune, but was otherwise empty.
At lunch, the Ramune was joined by a can of Boss Coffee.
At his next break, a bottle of Calpis.
After work, Jin finally caught Yamapi at his table. He wasn't alone; Massu was giving him a can of Pocari Sweat. Jin hung back and waited for them to finish talking. He didn't quite catch what Yamapi and Massu were talking about, but he did see the end result-- Yamapi and Massu both smiling at each other before Massu left.
"What's this?" Jin asked, waving his hand in the direction of the drinks.
"Massu gave them to me," Yamapi said, as he popped open his Ramune. "He told me it’s to raise my stamina. Want one?"
Jin shook his head. Yamapi shrugged and took a swig of his drink.
"So what's going on?"
Pi knew immediately what he meant; they always knew each other like that. He looked down and fiddled with his drink. "You didn't seem happy on Sunday, so I thought to myself, what makes me happy lately? And it's NewS."
"NewS," Jin repeated.
"So I asked them if any of them was interested in taking you out this week, and they were all very excited."
"So what-- every day this week--"
"A day with NewS." Pi gave him a thumbs up.
Jin was tempted to tell Yamapi that the whole idea was stupid, only, well-- spending time with Koyama and Shige had been interesting, and his schedule for the upcoming week was rather calm. What harm could it do?
"All right, I’m in. So who is it today?"
"Me," Pi said, and they spent that evening watching the first disc of Dragonball GT.
When Massu approached Jin on Thursday, Jin was ready and already looking forward to whatever Massu had planned.
"Um, Akanishi-kun," Massu said, looking nervous.
Jin grinned. "So what are we doing today?"
The look of relief on Massu's face was for only a brief second, before it was replaced by a heartwarming smile. The sheer happiness in Massu's smile was so overpowering that Jin found himself smiling back.
"Let’s eat gyouza!" Massu declared.
Jin almost laughed; he should've seen it coming.
As they headed out together, Massu smiled and bid farewell to everyone they came across-- staff members, random juniors, and even the custodian. Every "See you tomorrow!" was punctuated with a smile and each one of Massu's smiles earned one back.
Jin couldn't believe it-- he was finding it hard to smile for photoshoots lately, let alone for the entire population of everyone within the Jimusho headquarters.
"Aren't you tired?" Jin asked Massu.
Massu didn't get it. "Of what?"
Jin pointed at Massu's right dimple. "Smiling all the time. I don't know how you do it."
Massu looked thoughtful for a minute before he concluded, "It's not tiring when it's fun, though, right? I always have fun with NewS, so I don't get tired of smiling. It's the same for you, isn't it? Isn't that why you came back?"
Jin wanted to disagree, because he wasn't having fun, not really, not lately. But Massu was smiling and it was too hard to tell someone that happy that he wasn't happy, so Jin didn't. Instead he thought he'd concentrate on just having fun in the moment.
They had gyouza for dinner, and Massu-- Massu smiled throughout all of it.
Jin decided that this was a terrible idea after all when he found Ryo in a terrible mood Friday after work.
"God, I don't want to see your fat face today," Ryo growled. "Did you gain weight again? It must've been all of those fucking lollipops."
"My drama was over months ago," Jin huffed.
Ryo responded, "Good riddance." But the crease in his eyebrow told Jin that he was feeling a little more repentant, so Jin knew he could let it all go-- Ryo was just in a bad mood, and the other scathing insults he threw at everyone else walking in their path on their way out supported Jin's conclusion.
The last person they ran into was Massu, who took one look at Ryo's face and said, "Are you all right, Nishikido-kun?" and smiled.
Jin's first instinctive reaction was to warn Massu, because he has seen Ryo make Massu cry in the early days of NewS' formation, and seeing a crying Massu now would just be depressing.
But even Ryo's anger had trouble facing Massu's smile and when Massu gave Ryo his last Nikuman bun-- it lost completely.
Ryo gave Massu a tired smile. "Thanks," he said, and Massu beamed at him.
Jin always knew Ryo was a softie.
Jin and Ryo went clubbing that night and they both had a good time.
By process of elimination, Jin knew that he was going to spend Saturday with Tegoshi. But he doesn't get any word about it, and so by the time he got off of work (a light schedule for the weekend), he was a bit miffed. After all, even Ryo text messaged him and kept his word when he was in a bad mood.
So Jin decided to crash NewS' work. He asked around, found out where NewS was having their photoshoot, and went to the set.
He arrived to see Tegoshi giving a terrified Massu a piggyback.
"That's great!" The photographer exclaimed, and snapped away. Tegoshi did a pretty good job of keeping Massu up too-- until he shifted his weight and they both toppled over.
Everyone in the room, Jin included, burst into laughter.
The cameraman declared afterwards that they were done for the day, and then Tegoshi finally looked at Jin.
"Akanishi-kun," Tegoshi said, still smiling, "We're going to play today, right?"
"Right," Jin said, smiling back.
They ended up going to karaoke and singing twelve L'arc~en~Ciel songs together in a row.
After "New World," just for the hell of it, Jin entered in "Miso Soup." Tegoshi sang Massu's parts, and Jin sang Tegoshi's.
"TegoMass has such a cute and innocent image," Jin said when they finished.
Tegoshi giggled. "Because we are cute," he said, and it would've been an arrogant thing to say if anyone besides Tegoshi had said it.
"Aren't you guys worried about getting stuck with it?" Jin asked. "Like when you're past the age of cute and you want to do more adult-like songs."
Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have a problem. Yamapi, who had cultivated such a wholesome image for years, was now allowed to have his An An photograph shots. Naked photographs with a naked girl. Jin thought it was unfair-- he was sick of having to maintain the same sex image that KAT-TUN had almost always had. It was a lot of work to try to constantly look -- well, sexy, especially when the act of pretending to be sexy had lost its novelty.
Moreover, the sex image was now somehow working against him-- when Jin had shown his manager the An An photoshoot and asked if he could get one too, his manager refused on the account that "the readers might actually think it was real." It appeared that Jin was destined to pose sexily alone for the rest of his working life.
Tegoshi shrugged. "Massu told me once. That it's just a job, ne. I mean, I love singing, and it's what I want to do for the rest of my life. But it’s just a job."
"It's just a job?" Jin asked.
"It's not all that we are," Tegoshi said, and then smiled. "But it's still important that you have fun, ne, because when it's fun you smile."
"Massu told me the same thing," Jin said.
Tegoshi laughed. "Well Massu is right."
Sunday was one of the few days that Yamapi had off, so he and Jin drove to the beach.
"So did you have a good time this week?" Yamapi asked as they walked, their feet sinking in the wet sand.
"Yeah," Jin said. "But I'm a little bit jealous of NewS."
Pi raised an eyebrow. "Why's that? Our Member Ai?"
"Sort of," Jin said. It was and it wasn't. It wasn't just Member Ai-- it was just the way everyone in NewS was. Jin groped for the words and summed it up with the best example he could think of. "You guys have Massu. He makes you all smile."
Yamapi scooped up a handful of sea water and threw it at Jin, causing Jin to yelp.
"Bakanishi," Pi said, and he smiled one of his rare smiles. "Massu is just one person."
"Let's get dinner," Jin said to Nakamaru the next day at work, when it was just him and Nakamaru in the dressing room. "All of us."
Nakamaru gave him a skeptical look. "I don't mind, but all of us? That'll be kind of hard."
Jin thought, "Isn't this why you came back?" and said, "All of us. You get Koki and Ueda, tell them that it's a group meeting that Kame wants. I'll get Kame and Junno."
Nakamaru laughed. "You want me to lie in Kame's name?"
"You know you want to."
"What’s the occasion?"
Jin grinned. "Massu’s smile." He chuckled at Nakamaru’s befuddled expression. "Stop asking so many questions. Let’s just do it."
Nakamaru smiled and said, "Okay."
Jin convinced Junno easily enough. He then approached Kame with a long mental list of arguments.
To Jin's surprise, Kame agreed without him even needing to use it.
"It's been a while, hasn't it," Kame said.
Jin smiled. "Yeah."
The dinner was awkward at first-- Koki was annoyed that he had been lied to, Ueda was upset that Maru had betrayed him, Kame was angry at being used as an excuse, Junno was sad that no one really wanted the dinner, Nakamaru was guilt-ridden, and Jin was regretting that he had ever thought this was a good idea.
Then Junno broke the tension with a dumb joke. The effect was instantaneous-- Koki kicked him, Maru laughed, Kame relaxed, Ueda snickered, and Jin smiled.
There was drinking and jokes and laughter and of course, a fight-- but the fight dissipated back into laughter. There wasn’t any hugging or arms around each other’s shoulders or declarations of love and friendship, but by the time they left the restaurant, everyone was grinning.
Jin wasn't sure how long it would last-- but he was having fun.
Massu met Nakamaru at Massu’s favorite izakaya, the bar that served the best appetizers. He dropped the handcuffs he had been holding (Tegoshi was trying a new magic trick) into a bag, and took a seat.
"Order whatever you like, it's on me," Nakamaru said. "We're celebrating."
"You sure?" Massu asked. When Maru nodded, Massu smiled brightly. "Okay, thanks! What's the special occasion?"
"Your smile," Maru said.
Massu laughed. "I smile all the time-- that's not an unusual occasion."
"No," Nakamaru said, "But it's pretty special."
Massu smiled. "What do you mean?"
Nakamaru said, "It multiplies," and demonstrated.
I didn't have time to write you a fic, but I did write a Massu fic for the JE Remix, so I'm posting it here since he's your favorite. Happy belated~!
Title: NewSWeeeek Flash- Your Smile Brightens My Day
Characters/pairing: NewS, KAT-TUN, Pin, Massu + all
Genre: Gen, mild angst, fluff, friendship
Word count: 3,595
Special Thanks to: My awesome beta and roommate, peroxidepest17.
A/n: I wrote this originally for the JE remix, but HAPPY BDAY JOANNE.
cynicalism doesn't have a lot of longer pieces to remix, but she does have a lot of adorable drabbles. Inspired, I, um, mixed more than remixed several of them. The main plot comes from Jin and Massu on smiling, but at various other points, the following other drabbles are remixed, used, inspired by, selected from, and/or referenced to: job, piggyback, Nakamaru and Massu are the sane ones, stamina, Growing Up, White Lies.
"It's completely unfair that we're the sex group, but you and Ryo get the erotic photoshoot," Jin complained, flipping through his copy of An An on the couch next to Yamapi. "I want an erotic photoshoot."
Yamapi shrugged as he blew at his cup of instant ramen. "It's just work."
"She's such a tiny Caucasian," Jin said. "Why didn't you get someone with a bigger bust?" He held up the magazine and examined the girl critically against the light.
"Put that away," Yamapi said. He made an attempt to grab it, but Jin pulled it out of his reach and grinned. Yamapi was cute when he was embarrassed.
"It is a marker of my twenty-three year old self," Jin said, paraphrasing Pi's jweb. "You wrote two entries about it; it must be something."
Yamapi pursed his lips. "It's not."
"It is. It's something, like how eating out with other NewS members now is something. Nakamaru said that you and Koyama were tag-teaming him about on Shokura."
"We weren't," Yamapi said. He kicked Jin's foot. "Can we watch Dragonball Z now?"
"Guess your otaku days aren’t over after all," Jin said. He put Yamapi's DVD into the PS2 anyway, and moved back to the couch. "It's been so long that I can't remember what's going on."
Yamapi shrugged and pressed the rewind button on the remote until the beginning of the recap of the last episode began to play. "It's only been a couple of weeks."
"That's a long time," Jin said, leaning back. "Ah, I'm jealous of NewS. We don't get to see each other that much anymore. You eat out with them ALL the time."
Jin meant for it to come off as a joke, but Yamapi didn't answer until the first fight scene began to start.
"Not all the time, we just finish late. Besides, I invite you along too. You just never go."
That was true, but Jin didn't want to admit it. "Why would I want to come and get in the way of your member ai?"
Pi said nothing, and Jin knew he was thinking about last night, when Jin had declined to eat with Yamapi, Ryo, Shige, and Koyama. He hadn't felt like it, like how he hadn't felt like accepting other invitations that week-- Maru's invitation to hang out in his apartment, or Ueda's offer to take him to the gym. Truthfully he originally didn't really want to meet with Yamapi tonight either, only Pi was so busy lately that it seemed like a waste not to hang out when he got off of work early.
They went through two and a half discs before Yamapi's eyelids began to droop. He leaned comfortably against Jin, then stretched his legs against the couch, knocking the An An magazine off.
"My porn!" Jin cried in exaggerated protest.
"It's not porn. Shut up," Pi mumbled.
"It's porn," Jin said, just to annoy Yamapi. He went on. "Though it's not my kind of porn. I like my girls bigger, like the ones in LA."
Yamapi cracked an eye at him. "You miss your blondes?"
"I miss everything," Jin said, slowly.
He missed the freedom of Los Angeles, the feeling that he could change his life and be anything he wanted to be, the sense that he was still young and carefree. He missed being able to plan his own schedule, dance anonymously at clubs, and study topics he thought were interesting. He missed the weather, the Santa Monica beach, and the plates of cheap Mexican food.
He missed how things used to be in KAT-TUN, before the quiet fights that were so much less physical than their fights in their younger days but so much more hurtful, before Kame and Koki became such good friends, before Maru and Ueda took a private trip together and didn't invite him. He missed the way they used to think together as a team, with a collective dream of a CD debut. He missed the awkward Kame that made others want to protect him, the caring Koki that sewed up holes in costumes, the outgoing Maru that liked to make a fool of himself on camera, the daydreaming Gackt-obsessed Ueda that wrote songs in a mix of different languages, the happy Junno that used to ask everyone out to eat and sometimes succeeded.
He missed being as busy as and involved in as many diverse activities as Yamapi.
"You okay?" Yamapi asked, both eyes open now.
"Of course," Jin said.
Yamapi studied him but didn't say anything. Jin knew that Yamapi knew he was lying, but he also knew that Yamapi wouldn't question him further. Sure Yamapi had opinions and gave them when he felt they were appropriate, but he didn't talk about how he ever felt; Yamapi wrote about his feelings, but he didn't really like to discuss them openly, not with Jin anyway.
Jin knew this because he knew Yamapi and because he was the same way.
On Monday right after work, Koyama dropped by the KAT-TUN dressing room and invited Jin to be a guest on his radio show, Kei-Chan News.
Jin was about to decline, when Koki spoke first. "You never invite us," Koki protested. He was the only other person still in the room. "He doesn't even have anything to promote."
Koyama gave Koki a confused look. "He can talk about Lips, Kame's drama, and the new Dreamboys 2007 dvd. He has plenty to talk about."
Koki tried to argue that if someone were to promote all three, Kame would be a better pick. Jin knew why-- Koki didn't think that Jin would talk about any of them.
As Koyama placated Koki by reassuring him that he and Kame could go on next time, Jin realized that Koki was right. Jin didn't really like Lips as a song, he didn't watch Kame's drama, and he didn't really care about Dreamboys 2007 mostly because he knew he wouldn't be in Dreamboys 2008. If he went on the radio show, he really wouldn’t want to do any promotional work.
But since it wasn’t a mandated promotional appearance, he wouldn’t have to.
With that in mind, Jin agreed.
Within two minutes after the start of the show, Koyama and Jin were talking about the An An photoshoot; within five minutes they were laughing about something else completely off-topic.
Koyama opened the show for text message and emails after that, and invited listeners to ask either him or Jin questions. Jin answered several questions that he had already answered in numerous interviews, and then Koyama announced ten minutes before the end of the show, "And if anyone from NewS or KAT-TUN is listening, send in your message and we'll definitely read yours!"
"None of them would be listening to this," Jin said. If he never bothered watching Kame promote One Pound Gospel on various TV spots, there was no way that any person in either group would make the effort to listen in.
The first message in, however, was from Massu. It said: "I'm listening, Koyama!"
Koyama laughed. "That's not a question!" he said, but he smiled anyway.
Jin would have been jealous, only it was more or less what he had expected. NewS members practically flaunted how well they got along into everyone's faces, it made sense if at least part of it was based on reality. It seemed almost unfair.
The last message they received was also from Massu. It said, "I'm with Nakamaru," and Jin really didn't know how else to react but grin stupidly.
Koyama grinned back.
On Tuesday, Kato Shigeaki asked Jin if KAT-TUN was busy that night.
Jin had no idea why Kato was talking to him. The last time he had talked to Kato alone was when he had run into him on the street, and the conversation had ended as awkwardly as the silence that occurred whenever Junno tried making obscene puns.
"Maybe, why?"
A strange, awkward silence. Kato fidgeted and glanced around the room, as if hoping someone would interrupt the conversation that he had initiated. "Um," Kato said, "Do you want to, er--"
Jin stared. "What?"
Just as it appeared that Kato was at a loss for words, Massu walked by. He flashed Kato a cheerful smile. "See you tomorrow, Shige!" he called, and then turned his smile toward Jin.
"Hey, thanks for listening yesterday," Jin said.
Massu's smile widened, both cheeks bright. Jin smiled back reflexively, and the smile stayed on his face even after Massu walked away.
"Shopping!" Kato said suddenly, and he smiled, pearly white teeth showing. "Let's go shopping."
And Jin wanted to say no, only he remembered how Ryo and Yamapi liked hanging around Shige now, and he didn’t really know why. Koyama too, was Shige’s best friend, and Jin liked Koyama; yesterday’s appearance had been a nice change of pace.
So Jin said, "Sure."
Although the initial invitation had been awkward, Jin discovered that Pi and Ryo were right-- Shige WAS interesting, and while he was easily embarrassed, he was also good-natured in humoring other people's requests. Even those in a used clothing store of bizarre tastes.
"So why'd you want to go shopping today anyway?" Jin asked as he twirled the used neon-yellow vinyl jacket he was wearing and posed with a pair of aviator sunglasses. "With me."
Shige stepped out wearing the purple polka dot covered collared shirt that Jin had egged him on to try on. He grinned at his own reflection, and then waited for Jin to finish guffawing before answering. "I saw Massu. When you shop with Massu, you discover stores that sell the strangest things. Like here? Massu almost bought that."
Shige pointed to a weird lime green shirt that had some sort of a deformed whale on the front of it. "So I thought that this kind of store would be fun to goof off in. Why'd you accept?"
"Pi and Ryo told me you were fun to hang around with," Jin said.
Shige gave an embarrassed grin. "Oh really?" He hesitated and then said quickly: "Yamashita-kun asked me. But I wanted to." And then, while Jin stared at him in surprise, Shige handed Jin a pair of leopard-spotted tights.
The next day Jin decided to talk to Yamapi.
Only Yamapi, he discovered, was having one of his busier work days. He dropped by the NewS dressing room in the morning, only to see Yamapi's dressing room table empty and to hear from Koyama that he’d just missed him--Yamapi had been late that morning and was behind schedule.
Jin dropped by again at his next break. This time Yamapi's table had a bottle of Ramune, but was otherwise empty.
At lunch, the Ramune was joined by a can of Boss Coffee.
At his next break, a bottle of Calpis.
After work, Jin finally caught Yamapi at his table. He wasn't alone; Massu was giving him a can of Pocari Sweat. Jin hung back and waited for them to finish talking. He didn't quite catch what Yamapi and Massu were talking about, but he did see the end result-- Yamapi and Massu both smiling at each other before Massu left.
"What's this?" Jin asked, waving his hand in the direction of the drinks.
"Massu gave them to me," Yamapi said, as he popped open his Ramune. "He told me it’s to raise my stamina. Want one?"
Jin shook his head. Yamapi shrugged and took a swig of his drink.
"So what's going on?"
Pi knew immediately what he meant; they always knew each other like that. He looked down and fiddled with his drink. "You didn't seem happy on Sunday, so I thought to myself, what makes me happy lately? And it's NewS."
"NewS," Jin repeated.
"So I asked them if any of them was interested in taking you out this week, and they were all very excited."
"So what-- every day this week--"
"A day with NewS." Pi gave him a thumbs up.
Jin was tempted to tell Yamapi that the whole idea was stupid, only, well-- spending time with Koyama and Shige had been interesting, and his schedule for the upcoming week was rather calm. What harm could it do?
"All right, I’m in. So who is it today?"
"Me," Pi said, and they spent that evening watching the first disc of Dragonball GT.
When Massu approached Jin on Thursday, Jin was ready and already looking forward to whatever Massu had planned.
"Um, Akanishi-kun," Massu said, looking nervous.
Jin grinned. "So what are we doing today?"
The look of relief on Massu's face was for only a brief second, before it was replaced by a heartwarming smile. The sheer happiness in Massu's smile was so overpowering that Jin found himself smiling back.
"Let’s eat gyouza!" Massu declared.
Jin almost laughed; he should've seen it coming.
As they headed out together, Massu smiled and bid farewell to everyone they came across-- staff members, random juniors, and even the custodian. Every "See you tomorrow!" was punctuated with a smile and each one of Massu's smiles earned one back.
Jin couldn't believe it-- he was finding it hard to smile for photoshoots lately, let alone for the entire population of everyone within the Jimusho headquarters.
"Aren't you tired?" Jin asked Massu.
Massu didn't get it. "Of what?"
Jin pointed at Massu's right dimple. "Smiling all the time. I don't know how you do it."
Massu looked thoughtful for a minute before he concluded, "It's not tiring when it's fun, though, right? I always have fun with NewS, so I don't get tired of smiling. It's the same for you, isn't it? Isn't that why you came back?"
Jin wanted to disagree, because he wasn't having fun, not really, not lately. But Massu was smiling and it was too hard to tell someone that happy that he wasn't happy, so Jin didn't. Instead he thought he'd concentrate on just having fun in the moment.
They had gyouza for dinner, and Massu-- Massu smiled throughout all of it.
Jin decided that this was a terrible idea after all when he found Ryo in a terrible mood Friday after work.
"God, I don't want to see your fat face today," Ryo growled. "Did you gain weight again? It must've been all of those fucking lollipops."
"My drama was over months ago," Jin huffed.
Ryo responded, "Good riddance." But the crease in his eyebrow told Jin that he was feeling a little more repentant, so Jin knew he could let it all go-- Ryo was just in a bad mood, and the other scathing insults he threw at everyone else walking in their path on their way out supported Jin's conclusion.
The last person they ran into was Massu, who took one look at Ryo's face and said, "Are you all right, Nishikido-kun?" and smiled.
Jin's first instinctive reaction was to warn Massu, because he has seen Ryo make Massu cry in the early days of NewS' formation, and seeing a crying Massu now would just be depressing.
But even Ryo's anger had trouble facing Massu's smile and when Massu gave Ryo his last Nikuman bun-- it lost completely.
Ryo gave Massu a tired smile. "Thanks," he said, and Massu beamed at him.
Jin always knew Ryo was a softie.
Jin and Ryo went clubbing that night and they both had a good time.
By process of elimination, Jin knew that he was going to spend Saturday with Tegoshi. But he doesn't get any word about it, and so by the time he got off of work (a light schedule for the weekend), he was a bit miffed. After all, even Ryo text messaged him and kept his word when he was in a bad mood.
So Jin decided to crash NewS' work. He asked around, found out where NewS was having their photoshoot, and went to the set.
He arrived to see Tegoshi giving a terrified Massu a piggyback.
"That's great!" The photographer exclaimed, and snapped away. Tegoshi did a pretty good job of keeping Massu up too-- until he shifted his weight and they both toppled over.
Everyone in the room, Jin included, burst into laughter.
The cameraman declared afterwards that they were done for the day, and then Tegoshi finally looked at Jin.
"Akanishi-kun," Tegoshi said, still smiling, "We're going to play today, right?"
"Right," Jin said, smiling back.
They ended up going to karaoke and singing twelve L'arc~en~Ciel songs together in a row.
After "New World," just for the hell of it, Jin entered in "Miso Soup." Tegoshi sang Massu's parts, and Jin sang Tegoshi's.
"TegoMass has such a cute and innocent image," Jin said when they finished.
Tegoshi giggled. "Because we are cute," he said, and it would've been an arrogant thing to say if anyone besides Tegoshi had said it.
"Aren't you guys worried about getting stuck with it?" Jin asked. "Like when you're past the age of cute and you want to do more adult-like songs."
Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have a problem. Yamapi, who had cultivated such a wholesome image for years, was now allowed to have his An An photograph shots. Naked photographs with a naked girl. Jin thought it was unfair-- he was sick of having to maintain the same sex image that KAT-TUN had almost always had. It was a lot of work to try to constantly look -- well, sexy, especially when the act of pretending to be sexy had lost its novelty.
Moreover, the sex image was now somehow working against him-- when Jin had shown his manager the An An photoshoot and asked if he could get one too, his manager refused on the account that "the readers might actually think it was real." It appeared that Jin was destined to pose sexily alone for the rest of his working life.
Tegoshi shrugged. "Massu told me once. That it's just a job, ne. I mean, I love singing, and it's what I want to do for the rest of my life. But it’s just a job."
"It's just a job?" Jin asked.
"It's not all that we are," Tegoshi said, and then smiled. "But it's still important that you have fun, ne, because when it's fun you smile."
"Massu told me the same thing," Jin said.
Tegoshi laughed. "Well Massu is right."
Sunday was one of the few days that Yamapi had off, so he and Jin drove to the beach.
"So did you have a good time this week?" Yamapi asked as they walked, their feet sinking in the wet sand.
"Yeah," Jin said. "But I'm a little bit jealous of NewS."
Pi raised an eyebrow. "Why's that? Our Member Ai?"
"Sort of," Jin said. It was and it wasn't. It wasn't just Member Ai-- it was just the way everyone in NewS was. Jin groped for the words and summed it up with the best example he could think of. "You guys have Massu. He makes you all smile."
Yamapi scooped up a handful of sea water and threw it at Jin, causing Jin to yelp.
"Bakanishi," Pi said, and he smiled one of his rare smiles. "Massu is just one person."
"Let's get dinner," Jin said to Nakamaru the next day at work, when it was just him and Nakamaru in the dressing room. "All of us."
Nakamaru gave him a skeptical look. "I don't mind, but all of us? That'll be kind of hard."
Jin thought, "Isn't this why you came back?" and said, "All of us. You get Koki and Ueda, tell them that it's a group meeting that Kame wants. I'll get Kame and Junno."
Nakamaru laughed. "You want me to lie in Kame's name?"
"You know you want to."
"What’s the occasion?"
Jin grinned. "Massu’s smile." He chuckled at Nakamaru’s befuddled expression. "Stop asking so many questions. Let’s just do it."
Nakamaru smiled and said, "Okay."
Jin convinced Junno easily enough. He then approached Kame with a long mental list of arguments.
To Jin's surprise, Kame agreed without him even needing to use it.
"It's been a while, hasn't it," Kame said.
Jin smiled. "Yeah."
The dinner was awkward at first-- Koki was annoyed that he had been lied to, Ueda was upset that Maru had betrayed him, Kame was angry at being used as an excuse, Junno was sad that no one really wanted the dinner, Nakamaru was guilt-ridden, and Jin was regretting that he had ever thought this was a good idea.
Then Junno broke the tension with a dumb joke. The effect was instantaneous-- Koki kicked him, Maru laughed, Kame relaxed, Ueda snickered, and Jin smiled.
There was drinking and jokes and laughter and of course, a fight-- but the fight dissipated back into laughter. There wasn’t any hugging or arms around each other’s shoulders or declarations of love and friendship, but by the time they left the restaurant, everyone was grinning.
Jin wasn't sure how long it would last-- but he was having fun.
Massu met Nakamaru at Massu’s favorite izakaya, the bar that served the best appetizers. He dropped the handcuffs he had been holding (Tegoshi was trying a new magic trick) into a bag, and took a seat.
"Order whatever you like, it's on me," Nakamaru said. "We're celebrating."
"You sure?" Massu asked. When Maru nodded, Massu smiled brightly. "Okay, thanks! What's the special occasion?"
"Your smile," Maru said.
Massu laughed. "I smile all the time-- that's not an unusual occasion."
"No," Nakamaru said, "But it's pretty special."
Massu smiled. "What do you mean?"
Nakamaru said, "It multiplies," and demonstrated.