Konna Otoko wo Aisuru no wa. -- [Chapter Four]
Title: Konna Otoko wo Aisuru no wa. (To love a man like him.)
Group: Arashi, Toma, NEWS, Kanjani8.
Pairing: Junma.
Rating: PG-13. (maybe the rating will go up later.)
Warning: AU. Ages are twisted, hard. Bad English. Bad Japanese.
Summary: Thanks to Yamashita Tomohisa and his persuasive power, Matsumoto Jun is stuck with the task of taking care of a teenager, as a part of the 'Teimai wo Toriagemashoo' project. Lacking oniisan-like abilities and subtlety, Matsujun finds the task one of the hardest things he have ever done... but one of the most amusing too.
N/A: Long time, no see, huh? Well, the wainting is OVA'. :D Here I am with a short, saltless, motionless chapter. But well, in compensation, the next chapter will be super fast - no joke - and you will love this fic again. Remasterized! Now in full HD lol. Old comments were screened. :D
Small glossary:
Oniisan/oneesan = Older brother/older sister.
Otouto = Younger brother.
Shinsaibashi = Osaka's main shopping district. Is known for having high fashion and luxury brands establishments.
[Introduction] [Chapter One] [Chapter Two] [Chapter Three]
Chapter Four.
The adding.
Release day arrived; there were parties all over the place, and Matsujun could go to none. Not that he truly wanted to go to one of them - since he was not the party type of guy - but it was frustrating to be locked in his own house because of a mere broken arm. Even Toma, who had twisted something like his entire right side of the body, was released by the doctor after two days of resting. Which meant Jun was not only locked in his own house, but locked in his own house alone. It was uncomfortable, especially after the burglar incident and especially after he became so used with hitting Toma with the cast.
However, one side of him welcomed these resting days as a divine gift. The most stressed out side of him, that’s it. He could sleep properly, eat properly, read actual books and also do some proper writing; when would him have another chance to do everything so my-pace? Never. Even with the cast making things a bit harder, he enjoyed it a bit.
Also, it was happening, and he was not sure how he felt about it: he was getting closer, just a bit closer, to Toma, slowly. Now, he knew what was the boy’s favorite TV show (Saijoukyuu Yatsura, a weird, very weird talk show), what was his favorite subject on school (literature, although his grades were not very good) and he least favorite activity ever (staying quiet). They had even doodled Jun’s cast together, and now the white plaster was covered in a strange dialogue and a bunch of stickmen doing the strangest things ever, like aerobics or holding a giant fish.
It was a good sign. If things remained this calm, he could go on smoothly with having the Ikuta hurricane as his otouto.
Yet, he forgot the tropical storm that was coming closer and closer.
“I’m home!” Toma’s voice invaded the house around 2 PM, cheerful as always.
“Welcome back,” Matsujun answered distractly, barely looking at the teenager since he was holding a very hot frying-pan with his left hand.
“Oi! Why are you cooking? The doctor said you have to rest for at least a week,” Toma shouted, going to grab the frying pan from Jun’ hand. Jun clicked his tongue.
“I’m tired of instant udon. And I was resting...” he added, snatching back the frying pan from his otouto’s hands. “...just in an unusual way.”
“Of course,” Toma rolled his eyes at him, pulling juice out of the refrigerator. Hey, what kind of “younger brother” attitude was that? Not respectful at all.
Jun, however, limited himself to eating his freshly made salmon omelet, since it was already late and he was very much hungry. Hm, it was good. It somehow lacked a bit of salt, but it was good anyways.
“Ah, I felt so nervous while coming back home!” Toma blurted out, drinking his juice in one gulp. Jun looked at him strangely. “I was feeling like someone was following me. Brrr.”
“Maybe you’ve become paranoid,” suggested Jun, as sympathetic as an oyster’s shell. “Because of the burglars.”
“Yeah... it’s possible, isn’t it?” Toma said hesitantly, scratching the back of his neck absent-mindedly.
“Did you notice someone familiar along all the way to here?”
“No...” he interrupted himself, making a reflexive face. “I mean, there was a woman walking down the block before this, and she seemed a bit familiar to me, but it was the only time I saw her during the walk.”
“Hm,” Jun consented, eating slowly. “How was her? What was she dressing?
Toma looked at him weirdly. Jun just raised an eyebrow, waiting for his answer.”
“Erm... I can’t remember well. Common Tokyo woman, I guess,” Toma paused, drinking a bit more juice. “But she had hot pink sunglasses on. I found that weird.”
Pink sunglasses.
It did sound familiar to Jun. He forced his own brain, looking so concentrated to his omelet that anyone would believe he was trying to burn it with laser beams.
Pink sunglasses. Why was that familiar? He knew someone who owned pink sunglasses...
Oh.
Oh, damn it.
“MATSUMOTO JUN!” a voice shouted powerfully at the door, making both Jun and Toma to choke with what was in their mouths at the moment. “KINDLY OPEN THE DOOR!”
MatsuJun groaned, burying his face on his hands with all his might while the owner of the voice began knocking on the front door with the strength of a rhinoceros. Looking confused from the door to MatsuJun to the door again was Toma, still with his mouth full with juice.
“Jun, don’t make me repeat myself or you’ll have to pay for this goddamn door,” the voice threatened dangerously, what made Jun promptly raise from his door and go to there, opening the door just a bit to see who was it, holding the rest with his left arm.
Black straight hair, high cheekbones, fashionable clothes, piercing eyes and the pink sunglasses.
It was her.
“I told you to come next week!!” Jun shouted at her, slamming the door right on her face. Yet, he was not fast enough to lock it, and she opened it violently, almost knocking him off his feet.
“Sorry, Your Highness, but I’d be busy next week and, hell, why not today?” she reasoned, smiling sweetly just to piss him off. “Now, go get dressed, I haven’t had lunch yet,” a pause. “And what the hell happened to your arm?
“M-matsujun?” A voice called worried from the kitchen. “Are you ok?”
Toma emerged from the kitchen, almost tiptoeing, and the woman turned her head towards him quickly, alert.
Awkward pause. She frowned deeply, piercing through Toma’s very soul with her cold eyes, which intimidated the teenager. A lot. MatsuJun, on the other hand, glared at her intensely, wanting her to leave.
“So, Jun,” she began slowly, scrutinizing the boy as saying every syllable cautiously. “Who’s that?”
“Ah... erm... g-good afternoon, madam,” Toma tried, fidgeting under her stare. “I’m Ikuta Toma,” Then, he bowed deeply, probably trying to escape from those piercing eyes.
She raised her eyebrows, making Toma even more nervous, then removed her sunglasses, slowly.
“He’s really, really cute, you know,” she said, the corner of her mouth curving up slowly as if she was trying to hold back a smile. “Right now, I’m imagining all the sorts of bad things about your love life, Jun.”
“MIE!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” Jun shouted, his face immediately getting bright red. That sick woman! “He’s just my younger brother!!”
“Younger brother?” any hints of a smile disappeared from Mie’s face. “What the heck did your mother do this time?”
“It’s not like that either!!” Jun objected, facepalming.
“I’m just rented,” Toma suddenly butted in, shoulders scrunched up in a polite gesture. “He adopted me as an otouto because of a project we have here. Don’t mind me.”
Toma words caused silence in the room... what obviously got him embarrassed.
“Erm...” he scratched the back of his head, panicking a bit while Mie walked toward him. “I mean, it’s not a-”
However, whatever he meant was never said, because he was immediately attacked by Mie’s painfully strong cheek-pinching.
“What a pair of soft cheeks you have here, little boy!” she exclaimed, pulling Toma’s cheeks as if trying to rip his face apart. “May I know your name?”
“I-Ifuta Foma,” Toma did his best to talk, but the fact that his lips were stretched didn’t help. Rolling his eyes, Jun decided to stop that and walked toward them, forcefully tearing Mie’s hands away from Toma’s cheek.
“Don’t be rude to him, Mie,” he scolded, looking at Toma’s red cheeks with a hint of pity in his eyes.
“You’re such a selfish brat, Jun,” she sighed, crossing her arms. “I wish I had the chance to choose a new younger brother, you know. Then I’d pick a cute little boy like Toma-chan, not a bad-tempered prick like you.”
“Uh?” Toma looked at Jun, then at Mie, then at Jun again. “You two are relatives?”
“No-”
“Yes, we are. Unfortunately,” Mie made a face. “I’m this guy’s older sister, Matsumoto Mie. Nice to meet you, Toma-chan. Since you’re my younger brother’s otouto, you’re my otouto too now,” she smiled sweetly, this time sincerely.
“Thank you,” Toma looked beyond embarrassed. Jun scoffed.
“Then, how about we go shopping?” Mie offered, both for Jun as for Toma. Jun just ignored her, so she turned back to the younger boy. “Nee-chan will buy you really trendy clothes, okay?”
“I’d love to!” Jun could see for the fast answer that Toma liked shopping a lot. “Erm, I mean, you really don’t-”
“Of course I do,” she paused briefly, “whatever you were about to say. Now, go get dressed, okay? We’ll be out in five minutes,” then, she turned to Jun. “You too, grumpy otouto.”
“Don’t go ordering people around,” Jun took the chance to object as Toma went to his bedroom. “Especially if they don’t know you.”
“Look who’s talking,” Mie threw back, petting Jun’s hair. “How did you break your arm?”
“In a heroic way,” he answered simply, rolling his eyes.
“Okay. Nice doodles, anyways,” as always, Mie accepted his brother’s laconic answer with a chuckle. “How are you going with this thing of being an older brother?”
MatsuJun opened his mouth to answer, but, suddenly, his answer didn’t seem good enough, so he gave up and just shrugged. Mie smiled knowingly, which made him wish for a witty retort for that.
“Go get dressed, then,” she urged, pushing Jun’s good shoulder lightly. “Just be happy you have me with you today.”
-x-
MatsuJun wished he had never been gifted with an older sister.
Why such hateful thoughts? Well, he was currently standing in a store - an expensive, trendy clothes store - holding bunches of bags and clothes with his good hand. Even though his arm was broken and the doctor ordered him to get rest, there he was, being used as a hanger by his own sister.
And his mother used to scold him when he called her a devil. It’s not his fault he couldn’t keep the truth inside.
“Junjun, give me those,” Mie suddenly appeared from nowhere, picking some of the clothes Jun was holding. “It’s impressive how anything looks good on him. I should send him to mom, with him as a model the sales would go up absurdly.”
“You would be put in jail for sending him to mom,” he growled. “She’s just as bad as you are around younger people.”
“Don’t be so ill-tempered, Jun,” Mie warned, ready to go back to Toma. “I bet you haven’t taken him for shopping yet, so I’m doing it, but his official onii-san is still you. You need training in being the older one, if anything. I’m subtly providing this,” with this, Mie grinned wisely, petting his hair. “Don’t worry. I’m not stealing your cute brother, if that’s why you’re mad.”
“It’s not that!!” but she fled away before he could finish his sentence, clothes folded over an arm. Jun clicked his tongue, annoyed.
-x-
“The richness of your family,” Toma said to him later. “is shocking.”
It was already evening; the shopping had ended in twenty bags of sorted stores, some for Toma, some for Mie herself, and there was even a necklace for Jun - shop-a-holic was a good definition for the Matsumoto siblings after all. They were now in a fancy restaurant, and Mie had gone to the toilet when the phrase was said.
Jun held back a snort.
“We’re not exactly rich,” he corrected, toying a bit with his food. He had been quite hungry during the afternoon, since Mie didn’t even let them finish lunch before dragging them out, but now he felt too tired to eat. “Well, Mie is, but she is an exception.”
“In what does Mie-nee-chan work?” asked Toma, mouth full with sushi.
Jun looked at him with an eyebrow raised and a jesting smirk growing on his lips; promptly, the boy blushed and looked at the table.
“She said I was supposed to call her like that,” he pointed out, still not facing Jun. The older had to hold back a snort. “So, in what does she work?”
“She’s a manager of a big department store in Shinsaibashi,” answered Jun, finally putting some food in his mouth. He chewed it slowly before going on. “It’s a really fancy place. I’ve been there before.”
Toma made a small ‘oooh’ sound, munching his sushi thoughtfully. Jun was almost trailing off present time - thinking about all the work he would have to do when he got back to work - when Toma spoke again.
“At first, I didn’t think you were really siblings,” he began casually, looking at his food. Matsujun wondered what he meant by that. “But after a while, I noticed… you are really alike.”
Jun stared at him.
“Why are you saying that?” not that Jun didn’t have something in common with his sister, but nothing that someone would notice after spending an afternoon with them. It was something Jun himself only discovered after a few years living with her, damn it.
“You two have the same sense of fashion,” he pointed out as if it was too obvious to humanity, laughing. “Like, exactly the same. And you too have the same eyes. Also, she acts like you too.”
Jun cocked his head to the side, frowning softly. “How?” he incited Toma to continue.
“You two are a bit introverted, I think,” Began Toma, looking at the window. “I mean, Mie-nee-chan is really talkative, and you’re a bit acid, but in the end you two are introverted in a way. When it’s about your true feelings” Toma made a thoughtful face, as if he hadn’t thought about that before. “Like when I moved in with you. When nee-chan teases you. It’s like you always act the opposite of what you’re feeling.”
A silent pause followed the statement; Jun didn’t advert his stare, so Toma did, going back to his meal.
“Or at least it’s what I think,” he added, shrugging.
Jun just kept on staring, paying even more attention, even though nothing was being said anymore.
It was a bit unfair. While Matsujun himself, a grown up man in his twenties, failed in seeing through a shiny youthful smile, this boy had successfully mapped a trait of his personality after such a short time with him. It was like Toma had drilled a tiny hole on his hard shell and was now peeking at what he stored deep inside.
Jun didn’t like it. It felt like losing, and he hated losing.
“Hell, I survived to that toilet, I’m practically invincible now,” Mie announced her arriving with incomparable finesse. “Jun, sushi is probably allowed in your Super Duper Diva diet, so please eat, okay.”
Matsujun clicked his tongue, but complied nonetheless.
-x-
Jun was still thinking about what Toma had said during the ride back home, later in that night.
On the backseat, Toma was lying against the door, completely out. Poor Toma. Jun himself, who was used to sleeping late and having busy days, was having problems in keeping his eyes open - it was comprehensible that the teenager had fallen asleep.
“I hope you two had fun,” Mie said softly beside him and smiled. She was the one driving, obviously, and didn’t look the slightest bit tired. “Albeit I don’t really care. I had fun.”
“As expected for you to say,” Jun rolled his eyes. Mie just grinned, not even looking away from the street.
“You have such a sweet otouto, Jun,” she said, checking Toma through the rear view mirror. “I want to steal him.”
“Be my guest,” Jun said bitterly, images of his living room destroyed appearing in his mind. “You don’t know what he’s really made of yet.”
“Don’t judge him. He’s a teenager,” Mie side-glanced at him. “When will you take the cast off?”
“The doctor said I have still to stay with it for two weeks, and I have to rest for one more day,” he made a face. “I guess two now, since today I got no rest at all.”
“You’re not going to tell me how it happened?” she insisted.
Jun looked at Toma’s reflection in the rear view window. He wasn’t even moving in his sleep.
“Someday I will,” he assured.
Mie clicked her tongue. Jun knew she was worried with him, but felt like that was not the time to tell his adventure chasing the Runaway Bride to the four extremes of the world. A dramatic byname, yes, but he liked the things like that.
“Ah, Jun... I believe I forgot telling you...” Mie interrupted his thoughts. “I got vacations.”
“Really? How nice,” he raised his brows. “So, where are you going?”
“I considered going to Paris again, but I like the French summer better than this tasteless Autumn,” she said, sighing. “Then, I thought about New Zealand, but I bet everyone’s going to New Zealand already so...”
“You’re too extravagant,” accused Jun. “But well, where are you going, then?”
“Oh, rather than going, I liked the idea of staying better,” a grin appeared on her face, and Jun had a quirky feeling about that - she was up to no good. “So I’ll spend my vacations here in Tokyo.”
“WHAT??” Jun stopped himself from shouting just in time; he didn’t want Toma to wake up, after all. The grin was still there. Ah, he knew it! “Why the hell are you staying in Tokyo? You can visit here anytime you want to, you don’t even need to be on vacations!”
“But I’ve never stayed here during vacations, you know,” she shrugged. “I want to know what it’s like. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you and Toma-chan, I’m going to stay with Kyoko-chan,” she turned to him briefly, raising his brows. “It’ll be nice to have me around, right?”
Jun even wanted to say anything else, but he had no words. Absolutely no words.
Group: Arashi, Toma, NEWS, Kanjani8.
Pairing: Junma.
Rating: PG-13. (maybe the rating will go up later.)
Warning: AU. Ages are twisted, hard. Bad English. Bad Japanese.
Summary: Thanks to Yamashita Tomohisa and his persuasive power, Matsumoto Jun is stuck with the task of taking care of a teenager, as a part of the 'Teimai wo Toriagemashoo' project. Lacking oniisan-like abilities and subtlety, Matsujun finds the task one of the hardest things he have ever done... but one of the most amusing too.
N/A: Long time, no see, huh? Well, the wainting is OVA'. :D Here I am with a short, saltless, motionless chapter. But well, in compensation, the next chapter will be super fast - no joke - and you will love this fic again. Remasterized! Now in full HD lol. Old comments were screened. :D
Small glossary:
Oniisan/oneesan = Older brother/older sister.
Otouto = Younger brother.
Shinsaibashi = Osaka's main shopping district. Is known for having high fashion and luxury brands establishments.
[Introduction] [Chapter One] [Chapter Two] [Chapter Three]
Chapter Four.
The adding.
Release day arrived; there were parties all over the place, and Matsujun could go to none. Not that he truly wanted to go to one of them - since he was not the party type of guy - but it was frustrating to be locked in his own house because of a mere broken arm. Even Toma, who had twisted something like his entire right side of the body, was released by the doctor after two days of resting. Which meant Jun was not only locked in his own house, but locked in his own house alone. It was uncomfortable, especially after the burglar incident and especially after he became so used with hitting Toma with the cast.
However, one side of him welcomed these resting days as a divine gift. The most stressed out side of him, that’s it. He could sleep properly, eat properly, read actual books and also do some proper writing; when would him have another chance to do everything so my-pace? Never. Even with the cast making things a bit harder, he enjoyed it a bit.
Also, it was happening, and he was not sure how he felt about it: he was getting closer, just a bit closer, to Toma, slowly. Now, he knew what was the boy’s favorite TV show (Saijoukyuu Yatsura, a weird, very weird talk show), what was his favorite subject on school (literature, although his grades were not very good) and he least favorite activity ever (staying quiet). They had even doodled Jun’s cast together, and now the white plaster was covered in a strange dialogue and a bunch of stickmen doing the strangest things ever, like aerobics or holding a giant fish.
It was a good sign. If things remained this calm, he could go on smoothly with having the Ikuta hurricane as his otouto.
Yet, he forgot the tropical storm that was coming closer and closer.
“I’m home!” Toma’s voice invaded the house around 2 PM, cheerful as always.
“Welcome back,” Matsujun answered distractly, barely looking at the teenager since he was holding a very hot frying-pan with his left hand.
“Oi! Why are you cooking? The doctor said you have to rest for at least a week,” Toma shouted, going to grab the frying pan from Jun’ hand. Jun clicked his tongue.
“I’m tired of instant udon. And I was resting...” he added, snatching back the frying pan from his otouto’s hands. “...just in an unusual way.”
“Of course,” Toma rolled his eyes at him, pulling juice out of the refrigerator. Hey, what kind of “younger brother” attitude was that? Not respectful at all.
Jun, however, limited himself to eating his freshly made salmon omelet, since it was already late and he was very much hungry. Hm, it was good. It somehow lacked a bit of salt, but it was good anyways.
“Ah, I felt so nervous while coming back home!” Toma blurted out, drinking his juice in one gulp. Jun looked at him strangely. “I was feeling like someone was following me. Brrr.”
“Maybe you’ve become paranoid,” suggested Jun, as sympathetic as an oyster’s shell. “Because of the burglars.”
“Yeah... it’s possible, isn’t it?” Toma said hesitantly, scratching the back of his neck absent-mindedly.
“Did you notice someone familiar along all the way to here?”
“No...” he interrupted himself, making a reflexive face. “I mean, there was a woman walking down the block before this, and she seemed a bit familiar to me, but it was the only time I saw her during the walk.”
“Hm,” Jun consented, eating slowly. “How was her? What was she dressing?
Toma looked at him weirdly. Jun just raised an eyebrow, waiting for his answer.”
“Erm... I can’t remember well. Common Tokyo woman, I guess,” Toma paused, drinking a bit more juice. “But she had hot pink sunglasses on. I found that weird.”
Pink sunglasses.
It did sound familiar to Jun. He forced his own brain, looking so concentrated to his omelet that anyone would believe he was trying to burn it with laser beams.
Pink sunglasses. Why was that familiar? He knew someone who owned pink sunglasses...
Oh.
Oh, damn it.
“MATSUMOTO JUN!” a voice shouted powerfully at the door, making both Jun and Toma to choke with what was in their mouths at the moment. “KINDLY OPEN THE DOOR!”
MatsuJun groaned, burying his face on his hands with all his might while the owner of the voice began knocking on the front door with the strength of a rhinoceros. Looking confused from the door to MatsuJun to the door again was Toma, still with his mouth full with juice.
“Jun, don’t make me repeat myself or you’ll have to pay for this goddamn door,” the voice threatened dangerously, what made Jun promptly raise from his door and go to there, opening the door just a bit to see who was it, holding the rest with his left arm.
Black straight hair, high cheekbones, fashionable clothes, piercing eyes and the pink sunglasses.
It was her.
“I told you to come next week!!” Jun shouted at her, slamming the door right on her face. Yet, he was not fast enough to lock it, and she opened it violently, almost knocking him off his feet.
“Sorry, Your Highness, but I’d be busy next week and, hell, why not today?” she reasoned, smiling sweetly just to piss him off. “Now, go get dressed, I haven’t had lunch yet,” a pause. “And what the hell happened to your arm?
“M-matsujun?” A voice called worried from the kitchen. “Are you ok?”
Toma emerged from the kitchen, almost tiptoeing, and the woman turned her head towards him quickly, alert.
Awkward pause. She frowned deeply, piercing through Toma’s very soul with her cold eyes, which intimidated the teenager. A lot. MatsuJun, on the other hand, glared at her intensely, wanting her to leave.
“So, Jun,” she began slowly, scrutinizing the boy as saying every syllable cautiously. “Who’s that?”
“Ah... erm... g-good afternoon, madam,” Toma tried, fidgeting under her stare. “I’m Ikuta Toma,” Then, he bowed deeply, probably trying to escape from those piercing eyes.
She raised her eyebrows, making Toma even more nervous, then removed her sunglasses, slowly.
“He’s really, really cute, you know,” she said, the corner of her mouth curving up slowly as if she was trying to hold back a smile. “Right now, I’m imagining all the sorts of bad things about your love life, Jun.”
“MIE!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” Jun shouted, his face immediately getting bright red. That sick woman! “He’s just my younger brother!!”
“Younger brother?” any hints of a smile disappeared from Mie’s face. “What the heck did your mother do this time?”
“It’s not like that either!!” Jun objected, facepalming.
“I’m just rented,” Toma suddenly butted in, shoulders scrunched up in a polite gesture. “He adopted me as an otouto because of a project we have here. Don’t mind me.”
Toma words caused silence in the room... what obviously got him embarrassed.
“Erm...” he scratched the back of his head, panicking a bit while Mie walked toward him. “I mean, it’s not a-”
However, whatever he meant was never said, because he was immediately attacked by Mie’s painfully strong cheek-pinching.
“What a pair of soft cheeks you have here, little boy!” she exclaimed, pulling Toma’s cheeks as if trying to rip his face apart. “May I know your name?”
“I-Ifuta Foma,” Toma did his best to talk, but the fact that his lips were stretched didn’t help. Rolling his eyes, Jun decided to stop that and walked toward them, forcefully tearing Mie’s hands away from Toma’s cheek.
“Don’t be rude to him, Mie,” he scolded, looking at Toma’s red cheeks with a hint of pity in his eyes.
“You’re such a selfish brat, Jun,” she sighed, crossing her arms. “I wish I had the chance to choose a new younger brother, you know. Then I’d pick a cute little boy like Toma-chan, not a bad-tempered prick like you.”
“Uh?” Toma looked at Jun, then at Mie, then at Jun again. “You two are relatives?”
“No-”
“Yes, we are. Unfortunately,” Mie made a face. “I’m this guy’s older sister, Matsumoto Mie. Nice to meet you, Toma-chan. Since you’re my younger brother’s otouto, you’re my otouto too now,” she smiled sweetly, this time sincerely.
“Thank you,” Toma looked beyond embarrassed. Jun scoffed.
“Then, how about we go shopping?” Mie offered, both for Jun as for Toma. Jun just ignored her, so she turned back to the younger boy. “Nee-chan will buy you really trendy clothes, okay?”
“I’d love to!” Jun could see for the fast answer that Toma liked shopping a lot. “Erm, I mean, you really don’t-”
“Of course I do,” she paused briefly, “whatever you were about to say. Now, go get dressed, okay? We’ll be out in five minutes,” then, she turned to Jun. “You too, grumpy otouto.”
“Don’t go ordering people around,” Jun took the chance to object as Toma went to his bedroom. “Especially if they don’t know you.”
“Look who’s talking,” Mie threw back, petting Jun’s hair. “How did you break your arm?”
“In a heroic way,” he answered simply, rolling his eyes.
“Okay. Nice doodles, anyways,” as always, Mie accepted his brother’s laconic answer with a chuckle. “How are you going with this thing of being an older brother?”
MatsuJun opened his mouth to answer, but, suddenly, his answer didn’t seem good enough, so he gave up and just shrugged. Mie smiled knowingly, which made him wish for a witty retort for that.
“Go get dressed, then,” she urged, pushing Jun’s good shoulder lightly. “Just be happy you have me with you today.”
-x-
MatsuJun wished he had never been gifted with an older sister.
Why such hateful thoughts? Well, he was currently standing in a store - an expensive, trendy clothes store - holding bunches of bags and clothes with his good hand. Even though his arm was broken and the doctor ordered him to get rest, there he was, being used as a hanger by his own sister.
And his mother used to scold him when he called her a devil. It’s not his fault he couldn’t keep the truth inside.
“Junjun, give me those,” Mie suddenly appeared from nowhere, picking some of the clothes Jun was holding. “It’s impressive how anything looks good on him. I should send him to mom, with him as a model the sales would go up absurdly.”
“You would be put in jail for sending him to mom,” he growled. “She’s just as bad as you are around younger people.”
“Don’t be so ill-tempered, Jun,” Mie warned, ready to go back to Toma. “I bet you haven’t taken him for shopping yet, so I’m doing it, but his official onii-san is still you. You need training in being the older one, if anything. I’m subtly providing this,” with this, Mie grinned wisely, petting his hair. “Don’t worry. I’m not stealing your cute brother, if that’s why you’re mad.”
“It’s not that!!” but she fled away before he could finish his sentence, clothes folded over an arm. Jun clicked his tongue, annoyed.
-x-
“The richness of your family,” Toma said to him later. “is shocking.”
It was already evening; the shopping had ended in twenty bags of sorted stores, some for Toma, some for Mie herself, and there was even a necklace for Jun - shop-a-holic was a good definition for the Matsumoto siblings after all. They were now in a fancy restaurant, and Mie had gone to the toilet when the phrase was said.
Jun held back a snort.
“We’re not exactly rich,” he corrected, toying a bit with his food. He had been quite hungry during the afternoon, since Mie didn’t even let them finish lunch before dragging them out, but now he felt too tired to eat. “Well, Mie is, but she is an exception.”
“In what does Mie-nee-chan work?” asked Toma, mouth full with sushi.
Jun looked at him with an eyebrow raised and a jesting smirk growing on his lips; promptly, the boy blushed and looked at the table.
“She said I was supposed to call her like that,” he pointed out, still not facing Jun. The older had to hold back a snort. “So, in what does she work?”
“She’s a manager of a big department store in Shinsaibashi,” answered Jun, finally putting some food in his mouth. He chewed it slowly before going on. “It’s a really fancy place. I’ve been there before.”
Toma made a small ‘oooh’ sound, munching his sushi thoughtfully. Jun was almost trailing off present time - thinking about all the work he would have to do when he got back to work - when Toma spoke again.
“At first, I didn’t think you were really siblings,” he began casually, looking at his food. Matsujun wondered what he meant by that. “But after a while, I noticed… you are really alike.”
Jun stared at him.
“Why are you saying that?” not that Jun didn’t have something in common with his sister, but nothing that someone would notice after spending an afternoon with them. It was something Jun himself only discovered after a few years living with her, damn it.
“You two have the same sense of fashion,” he pointed out as if it was too obvious to humanity, laughing. “Like, exactly the same. And you too have the same eyes. Also, she acts like you too.”
Jun cocked his head to the side, frowning softly. “How?” he incited Toma to continue.
“You two are a bit introverted, I think,” Began Toma, looking at the window. “I mean, Mie-nee-chan is really talkative, and you’re a bit acid, but in the end you two are introverted in a way. When it’s about your true feelings” Toma made a thoughtful face, as if he hadn’t thought about that before. “Like when I moved in with you. When nee-chan teases you. It’s like you always act the opposite of what you’re feeling.”
A silent pause followed the statement; Jun didn’t advert his stare, so Toma did, going back to his meal.
“Or at least it’s what I think,” he added, shrugging.
Jun just kept on staring, paying even more attention, even though nothing was being said anymore.
It was a bit unfair. While Matsujun himself, a grown up man in his twenties, failed in seeing through a shiny youthful smile, this boy had successfully mapped a trait of his personality after such a short time with him. It was like Toma had drilled a tiny hole on his hard shell and was now peeking at what he stored deep inside.
Jun didn’t like it. It felt like losing, and he hated losing.
“Hell, I survived to that toilet, I’m practically invincible now,” Mie announced her arriving with incomparable finesse. “Jun, sushi is probably allowed in your Super Duper Diva diet, so please eat, okay.”
Matsujun clicked his tongue, but complied nonetheless.
-x-
Jun was still thinking about what Toma had said during the ride back home, later in that night.
On the backseat, Toma was lying against the door, completely out. Poor Toma. Jun himself, who was used to sleeping late and having busy days, was having problems in keeping his eyes open - it was comprehensible that the teenager had fallen asleep.
“I hope you two had fun,” Mie said softly beside him and smiled. She was the one driving, obviously, and didn’t look the slightest bit tired. “Albeit I don’t really care. I had fun.”
“As expected for you to say,” Jun rolled his eyes. Mie just grinned, not even looking away from the street.
“You have such a sweet otouto, Jun,” she said, checking Toma through the rear view mirror. “I want to steal him.”
“Be my guest,” Jun said bitterly, images of his living room destroyed appearing in his mind. “You don’t know what he’s really made of yet.”
“Don’t judge him. He’s a teenager,” Mie side-glanced at him. “When will you take the cast off?”
“The doctor said I have still to stay with it for two weeks, and I have to rest for one more day,” he made a face. “I guess two now, since today I got no rest at all.”
“You’re not going to tell me how it happened?” she insisted.
Jun looked at Toma’s reflection in the rear view window. He wasn’t even moving in his sleep.
“Someday I will,” he assured.
Mie clicked her tongue. Jun knew she was worried with him, but felt like that was not the time to tell his adventure chasing the Runaway Bride to the four extremes of the world. A dramatic byname, yes, but he liked the things like that.
“Ah, Jun... I believe I forgot telling you...” Mie interrupted his thoughts. “I got vacations.”
“Really? How nice,” he raised his brows. “So, where are you going?”
“I considered going to Paris again, but I like the French summer better than this tasteless Autumn,” she said, sighing. “Then, I thought about New Zealand, but I bet everyone’s going to New Zealand already so...”
“You’re too extravagant,” accused Jun. “But well, where are you going, then?”
“Oh, rather than going, I liked the idea of staying better,” a grin appeared on her face, and Jun had a quirky feeling about that - she was up to no good. “So I’ll spend my vacations here in Tokyo.”
“WHAT??” Jun stopped himself from shouting just in time; he didn’t want Toma to wake up, after all. The grin was still there. Ah, he knew it! “Why the hell are you staying in Tokyo? You can visit here anytime you want to, you don’t even need to be on vacations!”
“But I’ve never stayed here during vacations, you know,” she shrugged. “I want to know what it’s like. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you and Toma-chan, I’m going to stay with Kyoko-chan,” she turned to him briefly, raising his brows. “It’ll be nice to have me around, right?”
Jun even wanted to say anything else, but he had no words. Absolutely no words.