Life is Hard But It's Happy
Aiba impatiently walks to and fro outside the door of the News Zero team’s office.
“What’s taking him so long? It’s getting late… Should I still wait for him?” he says scratching his head. “Tsk. I’m hungry.” He says squatting down on the cold cement.
While waiting for Sho, he sits there writing his name with his fingers on the ground. “M-A-S-A-K…” One letter short, he bolts upright as he hears the doorknob click.
“Thank goodness you’re done!! Now let’s go eat gyudon as you promised. I’m starving. I might die even before I reach the entrance of the restaurant.”
Sho’s eyes are a bit red and tears are welling up on his eyes.
“Eeeh? Doshite?” the younger one asks.
“Nanimonai. Let’s… uherrrmm… let’s just have dinner.” The older one says trying to conceal the crack in his voice and the tightening in his throat.
From the door of the New Zero office to the door of Sho’s car, neither one utters even a single word. Not comfortable with the deafening silence, Aiba decides to ask again.
“What happened?”
Sho gives a slight shrug while getting into the car. Rushing to get in, Aiba fumbles through the car door and jumps in as he opens it.
The younger man looks meaningfully at Sho’s face as if searching for clues, even answers to his question. All he sees are tears hanging on to Sho’s lower lashes. Aiba reaches out his hand and wipes Sho’s cheek as a droplet of tear rolled down his face.
Unable to take it anymore, Sho slumps into the steering wheel and cries like a little child, his shoulders shaking.
Aiba scoots over, nearer to Sho. Even though he’s not comfortable with his position, between the driver’s car seat and the passenger’s seat, he runs an arm up and down the length of the older man’s back to comfort him.
“Hush now… What happened?”
In between sniffs and sobs, Sho starts to explain what just happened.
“News… sniff… News Zero has been cut off the air…”
The words dig into Aiba’s chest like sharp daggers. He knows how much Sho loves the news. He knows the things Sho is ready to give up just for the news series.
“But why?!”
Softly shrugging, Sho wipes the tears off his face.
“Tabun, the network is going to replace the news program.”
There are only a few instances that Sho showed his emotional side. He cries, but not much. The only time Aiba has seen him cry was during their first concert, due to the overwhelming response from the crowd. This is just the second time he sees Sho so emotional. Because of this, he feels Sho.
“Do you still want to eat? Coz if not, it’s fine with me. I can pass by the restaurant and ask Okasan and Otosan for dinner anyway.”
“Let’s have dinner. I promised you…”
This is also actually one of the few times Sho is able to keep his promise. His hectic schedule doesn’t allow him to have fun and keep his promises. The last time the older guy made a promise to Aiba was during the Golden Week. It was supposed to be an out of town trip to an onsen Aiba once visited during their “Mayonaka no Arashi” days. He already made reservations and plans for the trip but Sho had to cancel at the last minute because of an urgent call from the News Zero producer.
Sighing, Aiba looks out his window and weighs his feelings. Guilt makes him want to hit himself on the face because of the nagging thought that he’s actually excited that Sho doesn’t have to do NZ anymore. With one less than his current jobs, Sho definitely has more time to spend with the gang. What’s not so happy about that?
His thoughts flying somewhere else, Aiba doesn’t notice that they are already in front of the gyudon house they love eating at. This is actually the first time they’re going to eat there together. What’s funny is that they bump into each other in this restaurant almost every week. But they’ve never tried eating there without Sho’s friends from their Junior days and Aiba’s friends from their block.
Sho inspects the place for blank tables. He spots one at the far end of the eatery. Aiba follows the older man as he weaves his way through the crowded restaurant.
“Aaaah…” Aiba breathes as he plops down on the soft couch-like seat.
“I’ll have one gyudon and one Sapporo miso ramen please.” Aiba says as the waiter approaches them.
Sho stares at the menu blankly.
“He’ll have the same.” The younger one volunteers. “And two bottles of Asahi please.”
“That would be 2 gyudons, 2 Sapporo miso ramen, and 2 bottles of Asahi…” the waiter confirms.
“Hai.”
He then looks at Sho who’s still staring at the menu.
As if having a tacit agreement, both of them sit quietly while waiting for their dinner to be served.
All Aiba hears is the grumbling of his stomach. A little louder grumble comes out of his stomach as his eyes feast on the smoking gyudon in large bowls nearing their table.
“Here you are sir.” The waiter says while fixing the table mat and putting the gyudon bowls on the center of each mat. Finally he put the chopsticks on top of each smoking bowl.
Mist fills Aiba’s eyes as he salivates at the sight of the juicy beef on top of white short-grained rice. The reason why he keeps on coming back to the gyudon house is because the beef is so soft and juicy with the right combination of saltiness and a hint of sweetness, something that he can’t get at other gyudon eateries. Two tall glasses of Asahi follow after a few seconds.
Ready to feast on the bowl of beef and rice meal, Aiba takes notice that Sho doesn’t seem to have the appetite. Among the five members of Arashi, both of them have the most insatiable appetites. This makes him suddenly lose the desire to take the bowl in just a few seconds.
“Ne, Sho-kun, you should eat. I bet you haven’t eaten your lunch yet.”
Sho looks at Aiba and forces a smile.
“I’m okay. Don’t worry about me. Just go on, eat yours. I know you’re hungry.”
“How can I eat when you look like that?”
Those words just slipped out of his mouth. “a gomen..”
Lazily, Sho takes the pair of chopsticks on top of his bowl and stabs at his meal. He feels the hunger but doesn’t feel the desire to eat.
Trying to lighten the mood, the younger guy takes a few strips of beef using his chopsticks and feeds it to Sho. This time, Sho smiles genuinely as he appreciates the gesture. A blotch of pink appears on his cheeks.
“No need!” he says a little embarrassed because the place is just so filled with people.
Aiba retracts the chopsticks and feeds himself with a loud “Armph!”
For a moment there, Sho envies the younger guy. The childishness in Aiba makes him want to be the other guy even just for a day. Realizing that the network had already decided and made a final decision, he can’t do anything else than accept that he won’t be able to do NZ anymore.
“Ne, Masa-kun. What do you think we go around Tokyo tomorrow? Let’s just have some fun.”
Almost dropping off his seat, Aiba looks at Sho with a shocked expression.
“Uwa! I’d love to!!”
But then again, he remembers that time Sho broke his promise.
“100% sure? No last minute calls?” Ooops! Another careless slip-of-the-tongue comment from Aiba.
“I’m sure. I’ll pick you up tomorrow, say 7 am. Then we’ll just drive around town.”
Aiba can’t hide the joy in his eyes, like a child whose parents just promised to take him to the carnival.
Sho recovers his appetite as he actually figures that not having NZ would mean he’ll have more time to himself and to his friends. Well aware that a few weeks from now, his body will be looking for that hectic schedule and his mind will be starving for that mental activity, he decides to just put it aside and take after Aiba’s steps. “I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.” He thinks to himself.
--**--
Aiba wakes up to the loud ringing of his alarm clock. He wakes up almost instantly as he remembers that he and Sho are going around Tokyo today.
Within 30 minutes, Aiba finishes showering, changing his clothes and even styling his hair. 15 minutes before 7, just in time!
Just as he finishes getting ready, his phone rings. Sho’s name appears on the screen. Afraid to take the call Aiba hesitates for a few seconds. Worried that Sho will be canceling again, he picks up only after the 5th ring.
“Hey! Sleepy head! You awake?” Sho’s cheerful voice booms in from the other line.
“Yes.” Expecting the worst, Aiba waits for Sho’s next words a little worried.
“Be there in 5 minutes. Sure you’re ready okay.” Followed by a busy tone.
Aiba plops onto his bed and cheerfully puts on his socks, very relieved that it’s not another cancellation that Sho wanted to talk to him about.
After a few minutes, Mrs. Aiba appears at the door of Aiba’s room.
“Masa-chan. Sho-kun’s waiting for you. Better hurry up.” She says smiling at her son.
“Ok. Ok. I’ll be ready in just a few seconds.” Then he runs down the stairs.
“Let’s go.” Aiba says.
Sho suggests they stop at a convenience store first. He tells Aiba to make sure that they’ll have enough food and drinks for the whole day. With that, Aiba fills in two baskets with different goods: chips, bread, spreads, drinks, and candies. Carrying 3 big bags of convenience store stuff, the two happily drive off to their first destination.
“Where to?” the older guy asks Aiba.
“Uhhh… I’ll decide?” the other one replies.
“Sure. You’re the head of this trip.”
This makes Aiba even more excited.
“Ueno!!”
First destination: UENO
Sho watches Aiba as the younger one’s eyes sparkle with delight while viewing everything Tokyo Museum has to offer. He smiles as the taller guy looks at him while pointing at something interesting.
“Uwa! Sugoi!” Aiba exclaims as he sees weird masks hanging on the walls. “That looks like Ohno in one of his Maou episodes right?” he asks Sho.
Remembering Ohno makes Aiba’s heart almost leap out of his chest. From last night up to today, he didn’t actually tell anyone of Sho’s condition.
“Ne, about the other guys, do they know?” he suddenly asks the older guy who’s now inspecting some of the bronze masks located at his left.
“I’ll tell them later. I e-mailed Nino about it last night when I got home. He called me right after he received the e-mail. I told him we were going out today but he has some recording to do.”
“How about the other guys?”
“I don’t know how to tell them. Probably, Nino told them already.”
Aiba just nods as he watches Sho who is looking intently at one of the masks.
“Are you okay with it already?”
“There’s nothing more I can do right? I can’t beg the network to put back NZ. It’ll take time until I can fully understand why this thing happened but… Let’s just enjoy this day okay. I want to forget about it even just for a while.” This time, he looks at Aiba and smiles. “Tis been a long time since I last did this.”
“Hai. Me too.” Aiba says smiling back.
After the museum, Aiba said they should buy some souvenirs for the 3 guys.
The first thing Aiba sees is a purple tote that he thinks Jun will love. “Uwa!! Jun-bag!!” he exclaims.
Sho inspects the bag and looks at the intricate design that he thinks would definitely make Jun shout and hug the bag tightly and never let it go.
As he peels his eyes off the bag, Sho sees an art book up the rack against the wall entitled “Japanese Freestyle”, he suddenly thinks of Ohno. He asks the lady at the counter to get it for him. Taking the plastic off carefully, he leafs through the pages and satisfies himself. “I’ll take this.”
For the last item, Sho and Aiba both agree as they set their sight on the same thing at the same time.
“Nino would definitely love this.” Aiba says grabbing a guitar phone strap hanging on chained musical notes.
“Definitely. I can just imagine him put it on his DS.” Sho says admiring the simple beauty of the strap.
Before paying, Sho stops by the shirts section. Browsing through some designs, he finally sets his eyes on a black shirt with green stick and dot drawing of the human form. He takes two and heads for the counter.
Satisfied with what they have, they leave the museum with 2 bags full of souvenirs.
It’s almost noon time. Sho could practically hear Aiba’s tummy make some funny sounds.
“Where’d you want to eat?” Sho asks.
Aiba takes out a pamphlet he remembers taking from the museum’s counter. Sho amuses himself by watching the younger guy look at the pamphlet just like tourists do.
“Ueno Seiyoken” he says as he reads that the restaurant is serving French cuisine. “Jun would love it there. I want to try something Jun loves doing.” Aiba says smiling awkwardly.
Instead of taking the car, they walk to the restaurant, which at this time is filled with tourists rather than locals.
“Excuse me, sumimasen.” The receptionist calls out to the two guys. “Table for how many sir?” the lady asks.
“Two.” Sho answers.
The lady directs them to their table. “This way sir.”
“Here’s the menu sir. Have fun dining.” She says as she heads off to her post.
“Hmmmm… What’s good to eat?” Aiba runs his pointing finger down the list. “Yappari, only Jun knows what these things are. Hmmm… I’ll have…” he closes his eyes and points at the menu. “Kore… I’ll have this.” Not knowing how to pronounce it he just points it to Sho.
Thinking of what he said to himself last night, Sho does the same. He closes his eyes and points randomly at the menu.
Aiba raises his pointing finger to call one of the waiters weaving through the place. One of them takes notice and gracefully makes his way towards the two.
“What is it that you want sir?” he asks.
Not knowing how to pronounce the entrees, Aiba points at the two things they wanted.
“That would be one Bouef Bourgignon and one Salmis de Palombes. How about some appetizers sir? I’d like to recommend our Soup au Pistou.”
“Ok. Ok.” Aiba says.
“Wine sir?”
Not waiting for Aiba to decide, Sho looks at the menu and finds the wine section on the lower right side. He closes his eyes once again and randomly points at the list of wines.
“Two glasses of Pauillac. Nice choice. It’s one of our best wines here. Anything else sir?”
“That’s all.” Aiba says as he pushes the menu towards the waiter.
The waiter leaves taking the menu with him.
Aiba giggles while looking at Sho.
“You’re different!” he says as he notes the difference in Sho’s attitude. He’d usually shy away from doing goofy stuff. Remembering one time when Jun asked them to go to one of the newly built French restaurants near his place, he didn’t even touch the menu because he was so afraid to look stupid in front of other people. He let Jun do all the ordering and, of course, Aiba who, despite of not knowing what the hell he’s ordering, still went on taking the liberty of randomly pointing at stuff.
Feeling a whole lot better, Sho smiles at the person across him saying “I… actually this is fun.”
This day’s appetizers arrive in a tray carried by the graceful waiter. He sets down the first bowl in front of Aiba and the second one in front of Sho.
His senses tingling, Aiba closes his eyes as smoke from the hot meal enters his nostrils.
“Smells wonderful!!” he says.
Sho does the same as he smells the heavenly scent of basil.
With one loud slurp, Aiba starts to feast on the soup that has just been served. “Atsui!!! Itai itai itai!” he exclaims as he feels the hot soup burn his tongue. He takes his tongue out and wipes it with the table napkin on his lap.
This makes Sho laugh. “That’s what you get for being such a pig.” He says still laughing.
“How can you laugh like that when I think I just injured myself?” he says taking a gulp at the ice cold water set on his table.
“That’s because you’re such a pig!” Sho repeats this time laughing doubly hard. “Ne, you remember that time you spurted out the wine we ordered at the French restaurant Jun took us to? I could just remember Mats’Jun’s face when his white shirt got sprayed on with violet.”
Once again, Aiba giggles at the thought.
“And you even said that you’re such a good designer that maybe you’ll quit Arashi and design clothes by spurting liquor on them. Jun was so embarrassed that his face turned red in an instant.”
“Yeah. But you must admit his shirt looked better with the splotches of wine, deshou?”
“Only you could think of that kind of thing during those kinds of situations. I would have held on for my dear life if I did that to Jun’s clothes.”
“But Jun just laughed it off ne? He didn’t even give me that deadly glare.”
Sho smiles and sits back as he remembers Jun’s face at that moment. Yes, it’s true that Jun didn’t even get angry at Aiba. If it was someone else, Jun would have tossed and turned every single table he could grab in that restaurant. But who could get mad at Aiba?
Aiba provided much of the entertainment before the main entrée arrived. In normal occasions, Sho would now be shouting at the waiter and demanding to see the manager for the late food. But Aiba’s animated stories even made him forget that he was already hungry.
Finally, two smoking plates of food arrive. This time, Sho closes his eyes and lets himself appreciate the smell of garlic and onion.
Aiba’s giggle makes him snap out of it.
“Doshite?” Sho asks a little embarrassed.
“You’re like a child.” The taller guy answers.
Sho chuckles as he remembers that he’s just copying Aiba’s every move. “Yappari, doing things Aiba’s way is just so relaxing. Now I know why this guy never gets tired.” He thinks to himself.
“Itadakimasu!” Aiba says digging into the beef plate he ordered. “Uhmmmmm… Umaiiii!” he says despite of his sore tongue.
The food is great. “Let’s bring the rest of Arashi here some time.” Sho says while savoring the goodness of his own meal.
“Hai. Umaiiiii…”
The wine arrives a bit late. The waiter pours some to Aiba’s glass with one hand, the other hand just under the wrist of the hand holding the bottle. He goes on to Sho’s glass and pours the same amount and bows as he leaves with the bottle of red liquor.
The younger guy takes a sip rather than a gulp, taking extra precautions not to spray everything on Sho.
“hmmm.. even their wine tastes so good!” he says as the bittersweet liquid hits that part of his tongue near his tonsils.
They spend the whole lunch just eating and talking a bit. Sho carefully watches Aiba’s every expression and reaction as they talk. He seems to have absorbed everything that at the end of their meal, he realized he was chuckling like Aiba already. This makes him laugh at the thought that he’s already Aibanized. But it doesn’t alarm him. In fact he feels very happy that he actually had time to do this with his friend.
“Haaaaa…” Aiba cries out as he leans on his chair rubbing his tummy. “Nothing would ever beat this!”
“Hai. I agree.”
It’s almost 2 when they finish settling their bill.
“It’s expensive to have fun!” Sho says as he takes out 3000 yen just for himself.
“Hai. Maybe let’s just eat fried street foods next time. Or we should have just eaten our convenience store snacks.” As he takes out 3000 yen for his meal.
“Hmmmm… But I don’t mind. I had lots of fun. And about our convenience store snacks, you almost emptied the three bags on our way here so I think that’s not an option.”
Aiba decides to go to the Ueno zoo just after the meal. He thinks that they should burn the calories off by walking around the zoo after the heavy lunch.
One of the things Aiba takes interest in is zoos. Since starting Tensai Shimura Doubutsuen, he had included zoos as one of the places he goes to during his days off.
This is the first time Sho has set foot on a zoo after a long time. He recalls that the last time he entered a zoo was during his Junior days. That’s about 10 years ago.
He takes the camera hanging on his neck, which he almost forgot he had, and takes a snap at Aiba who’s looking at the lemurs watched by a group of small children huddled and pointing at a lemur which was enjoying its audience.
“Hey!! No pictures.” Aiba says. “No pictures unless you tell me.”
Sho smiles and grabs Aiba roughly by the neck. He raises the camera and estimates the position where they’ll both fit the frame then orders Aiba to give his biggest smile. The two smile at the camera at Sho’s third count. Aiba laughs so hard as he sees Sho’s enlarged nostrils on the screen of the camera. This makes the older man laugh too.
“Don’t delete that!!” the younger one says attempting to grab the camera.
“No… No… I won’t!” the older one replies as he shuts the camera off.
Pandas are the most amazing creatures Aiba has worked with. Grabbing Sho’s hand, Aiba runs towards the white and black furry animals as he spots them.
“Kawaii!!” Sho exclaims as he sees a baby panda cling on to a larger panda.
“Ah!! Look at that!!” Aiba exclaims as he points to two baby pandas tackling each other.
They both stand there amazed at how the small pandas resemble Arashi’s playfulness. Aiba laughs as he sees one panda accidentally hit his own face after his hands slip off the other one’s ear. The little panda falls backward and rolls off the ground.
After roaming the zoo for about 2 hours, Aiba tells Sho that he’s already tired. Feeling the same, Sho says that it’s better if they head home. On their way out, they pass by an ice cream cart, so colorful that Aiba looked twice. This takes Sho’s attention so he decides to stop by and buy cones of bubblegum and coffee flavored ice cream. He hands the blue ice cream over to Aiba who’s found himself a bench where they could temporarily relax in.
“I think this day’s pretty different…” Aiba says as he licks the cold treat.
“Hai. I’ve never felt this relaxed since… I can’t even remember when!”
“What do you think should we do tomorrow? I don’t have work… You don’t have work too… Let’s go to an onsen!!” Aiba says excitedly.
Sho can’t even remember the last time he went to a hot spring.
“Hai. Let’s invite the guys!!” he says cheerfully.
“Sou. Sou. Mats’Jun’s done with his HYD promotions so I think he’s available tomorrow. Ohno is done with Maou. Nino’s recording will continue next week… Then, everyone won’t find any excuse not to come!” Aiba says.
After finishing their ice cream, they both drive home, tired but happy with the day’s events.
Losing NZ is indeed a very sad thing for Sho. But remembering that he has more than what he had asked for, a friend who’s inspired him to take life lightly, the joy of having more time to enjoy life, accepting the loss of one of the things he loves doing isn’t as hard as he thought.
“Masa-chan, arigato.”
Aiba looks at Sho and giggles. “Why become so mushy all of a sudden?”
“I just wanted to thank you.” Sho says. “For always being the cure to my sadness. I’ve always wondered how you can take things so lightly. Being with you, even for just a day, made me think that life is wonderful.”
Aiba smiles as he realizes the big change in his friend.
“Of course! I’m an angel!!” Aiba says and receives a slight shove from Sho.
“If you’re an angel, I’m God.”
This makes the two laugh while driving home. Sho holds on to the steering wheel as he excitedly looks forward to tomorrow’s onsen trip with the whole gang.