Kareshi (02/11)
Title: Kareshi - Boyfriend for Rent
Author: Fabi & Dani ( dani_mathoz )
Translator: br_arashi Thank you ♥
Pairing: Junba (main), Ohmiya (mentioned)
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG-13 (This chapter)
Summary: 'One need a lover, the other need money... The only condition? Don't fall in love.'
Disclaimer: I don't own them, sadly ;-;
Just a reminder, English is not our first language so please be kind ♥
CHAPTER 2
Masaki felt Jun’s hand shaking slightly against his. Glancing at him, he noticed his undefined expression: proud, but hesitating, as if that was a defining moment. Even unable to understand the man’s lie, he was the first to recover. Letting go of Jun’s hand, he offered his to the newcomer.
“Hi! I'm Aiba Masaki” he smiled friendly at him.
Although the greeting was directed to Shun, Jun realized that he had ignored the man's name until then.
“I'm Oguri Shun. It is nice to meet you” he said, after an obvious inspection.
“The pleasure is mine. I…”
“Masaki” Jun interrupted him, calling his name for the first time. “Why don’t you go get dressed first?”
Only then, the sax player noticed he was wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a boxer.
“Oh! I’m sorry for this” he asked, embarrassed, while running towards the bedroom. He only noticed that Jun was following him when he closed the door behind them.
“I’m sorry for putting you into this mess…” he whispered softly.
“No problem, Matsumoto” Masaki answered while taking Jun’s t-shirt off to dress his own.
For a few seconds, Jun admired the slim but defined body. His gaze paused on a caramel colored birthmark on the man’s shoulder. Beautiful.
“Is he the guy that Nino said he had broken your heart? The person who rejected you yesterday?”
“I wasn’t rejected!” Jun argued in a muffled voice, resuming their talk. “I just found out he is getting married to someone else.”
Masaki stopped zippering up his pants half way and faced him with compassionate eyes.
“I’m so sorry…”
“It’s all right. Nothing that I can’t overcome, Aiba-san.”
“Overcome? You will give up without a fight?”
“It’s not a matter of fighting or not. He has already taken his decision and…”
“And you would rather run away like a coward, pretending to have someone else?”
Jun lowered his head, ashamed.
“I’m sorry about this. I shouldn’t have involved you in my problems.”
“I’m not complaining, Matsumoto.”
“Nevertheless, we barely know each other; I shouldn’t have used you like this. Please, forgive me.”
“It’s all right,” reaffirmed Masaki with a comforting smile. “If this lie helped you in any way, I don’t mind being used. I just can’t understand why you are not fighting for him…”
“That’s not of your business!” Jun raised his tone.
“You’re right. I’m just a stranger to you. I have no right to tell you what to do. You’d better go back to the living room, Matsumoto, unless you want Oguri to suspect of your little lie…”
“I owe you one, Aiba-san” Jun said, softening his tone, already regretting his rudeness.
“Don't mention it” Masaki answered with a sincere smile.
When Jun got back to his living room, Shun was sat at the table, taking a sip of coffee on the mug he had previously used.
“Did I interrupt anything?” Shun asked as soon as he saw him. “I had no idea you were seeing someone.”
“Neither did I know you were getting married.”
“I’m sorry for this, Jun. I should have warned you…” Shun stood up, walking towards him until they were so close that they could feel the heat on each other’s breath. “But everything happened so fast and…”
“Don’t worry, Shun” Jun shivered when he felt the man’s hands resting over his shoulders, an intense desire to throw himself in his arms taking over him. “We never actually made a commitment, right? You don’t owe me any explanation.”
Oguri sighed in relief.
“For a moment, I thought that you… your reaction at the restaurant… I thought I had hurt you.”
“You thought wrong!” Jun cut him, moving away from Shun’s arms, his heart wrecked.
“I’m aware of this now. As you mentioned, we don’t owe each other any explanation. However, I never thought you would find someone while I was away. Aiba-san shall be very important to you.”
“Right now, he is the most important person in my life” Jun answered with honesty. If it wasn’t for the providential presence of Masaki at the moment Shun entered the apartment, he would probably have kneeled at his feet, pathetically begging him to give him another chance.
Shun smiled. Was it just a feeling or Jun had noticed a sparkle of sadness in his act?
“I can see that. You two look great together.”
“You really think so?” Jun asked in disbelief. He was disappointed to realize that the man he believed to know everything about him didn’t really understand him that much. How hadn't he even recognized a lie?
“Of course! You introduced him as your boyfriend. I thought you wasn’t fond of commitments… Besides, you allowed him to turn your impeccable living room into a real mess.”
Jun looked around, trying to follow his train of thought. Only then, he noticed the blanket with which he had covered Masaki in the middle of the night thrown over his expensive and sophisticated white couch. He had always been very methodical regarding his things, getting to the point of getting annoyed with any kind of mess.
“Also, he is using your favorite t-shirt” Shun concluded.
“My what?”
“That t-shirt of the Giants that I gave to you on your last birthday. If you weren’t lying to me, you told me it was your favorite.”
He suddenly remembered what Masaki was wearing when he found him sleeping on his couch. Still a bit disoriented by the alcohol, it took him a while to understand who was that stranger snoring on his living room, until he remembered it was the sax player of Nino’s band.
Grateful and still hurt by the happenings of the day, he didn’t even noticed he was wearing the t-shirt that Shun had given him and that it was truly one of his favorites.
“His clothes got wet when he helped me in bath. Besides, he put it on when I was already sleeping and…” he stopped talking when he remembered that he didn't owe that man anything.
“Are you really going to share with me your intimate details?”
Jun bit his lower lip, realizing how dubious his words had sounded. He blushed when he thought about things on Shun’s perspective as soon as he entered the apartment and saw him holding hands with a half-naked Masaki while staring at him attentively.
“It’s not what you think. We just…” he once again shut his mouth, not wanting to say more than he should. For all he cared, Shun could understand things in any way he liked.
“It’s all right, Jun. It isn’t the first time you are caught in an intimate situation. Do you remember that time when Sho almost caught us…?”
“That’s different!” he cut, with sadness. That time, he was really about to give in to a second round of sex, if it wasn’t for Sho barging into his bedroom without a notice. At that time, he was still sharing an apartment with his friend.
“Don’t be silly, Jun. I know quite well how intense you are. A bit slow in the mornings, but… This Aiba must have really got under your skin! Taking by the dark circles around your eyes, you didn’t sleep much last night…”
‘I was suffering because of you, you moron!’ he thought, annoyed. Even at that moment, he was having to deal with a massive hangover.
“I’m sorry for interrupting you.”
“You didn’t interrupt anything. I was about to leave to meet you before work” Jun lied. He didn’t remember to have scheduled any breakfast with him at all. Actually, apart from the information that he was about to get married, Jun hadn’t paid any attention to anything that the lovey-dovey couple had said in the restaurant. “We were just saying goodbye.”
“It didn’t seem like a goodbye to me. By the way you were looking at him, you seem about to be starting something, instead of ending…”
The way that he said it made him more distressed than joyful. Sure, Jun wanted Shun to believe in his relationship with Aiba, but wasn’t he at least a tad bit jealous? Wasn’t he even a little hurt with him for allegedly finding someone else in his absence?
“Shun…”
“Excuse me” Masaki asked, meddling into their conversation. “I’m leaving to work, Jun-chan…”
“Wouldn’t you like to join us for breakfast?” Shun offered in a polite tone. “Or, if you prefer, Jun and I can reschedule this meeting and you two can have some privacy…”
“I appreciate the invitation, but I really can’t” Masaki answered with a smile. “I’m running late for work. Besides, I wouldn’t like to get between the two of you. You two have a lot to catch up.”
“You won’t be getting between us. And you have to eat anyway, right?” Jun begged him with his eyes, trying to make him understand he didn’t want to be left alone with Shun.
“Did you forget I work in a bakery, baby?” Masaki asked him teasingly, approaching him with a slow and dangerous walk as a tiger walking on a savanna.
Jun showed no reaction when the taller man's lips touched his own for a few seconds.
“I will call you later, ok?” Masaki concluded with an amused smile, as if enjoying the situation to the fullest.
Jun, once again, showed no reaction when he felt one of his fake boyfriend’s hands touching his butt in a soft slap.
“Do you want us to leave you somewhere?” Shun asked, recovering before Jun from the unusual scene. Since when did he let people touch him with such freedom and in public? No matter how intimate they been, he had never dared to touch Jun in such a way in front of other people.
“Thanks. But the station is close by.”
“Are you sure?”
Masaki nodded his confirmation.
“Have fun! It was really nice to meet you, Oguri-san” he said, before turning his back on them and walking towards the elevator.
**********************************************
“You have invited Shun and his fiancée to have dinner in your apartment?” Sho yelled, his wrathful eyes staring at Jun behind the office desk.
“How could I refuse?” Jun tried to defend himself, while nervously sketching a costume with his colored pencils. “He practically invited himself. He said that he talked so much about my famous pasta to Hara-san that she just had to taste it…”
“You are an idiot.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“What about confessing your true feelings for starters?” the photographer asked him without hesitating. “Since when have you started being such a coward, Jun? I have never seen you giving up in face of any obstacle in your business...”
“It’s different, Sho. This is not about being a coward… it has to do with proud, self-esteem and dignity. Do you really think I’m going to expose myself to such humiliation?”
“You love him, right?” Sho asked, holding his friend’s chin and forcing him to face him. “There is no humiliation when you are fighting for your love…”
“Fight… You say it as if it’s such a simple thing…” he said, slapping Sho’s hand away from his face. “Have you any idea of how I felt when Shun told me he was getting married? The way my insides wriggled when I saw that girl’s happy eyes and her captivating smile?”
“It’s called envy, Jun. You wanted to be on her place.”
Jun looked at Sho with hurt. He hated when his friend was relentless with his words. Especially when he was right.
“Maybe…” he admitted. “That is why it’s so hard! It was a very painful blow. I wasn’t able to recover completely yet. It’s true that we had an open relationship; we have never demanded anything from each other. I have always believed that a commitment wasn’t necessary, that we could keep our relationship like this forever, but…”
“You started to wish for more.”
“Yes. He never thought this way, nonetheless. I wonder if he has ever considered me one day. As much as I try to do otherwise, all I can think is that I was just a distraction… Therefore, please, don’t tell me that it’s easy to fight against what I am feeling now. If things were as easy as you and Aiba think it is, believe me, I would steal Shun from the altar.”
“You don’t need to be so radical, Jun. You can do so before he gets there. You just need to be honest about what you are feeling.”
“You didn’t listen to a single thing from what I said, did you? Shun has never loved me!”
“Have you ever considered that he might think the same thing about you?”
“What do you mean?” Jun asked him, in confusion.
“Have you ever told him that you love him?”
Jun looked at his friend, astonished. They really had never said anything of the sort. They were affectionate whenever they made love, they verbalized the pleasure of being together, but they had never said any word that could refer to a commitment.
“You always had this lonely aura around you, Jun. It’s rare for you to let anyone invade your perfectly organized space. You have always acted as if you were quite happy alone.”
“That’s not true! I…”
“Apart from Nino, Satoshi and I, how many friends do you have?”
“Shun is my friend too!”
“That’s the point! Your friend. Have you ever, at any moment, made him believe that you wanted him to become something more than this?”
Never.
Jun sighed, swallowing hard. Sho was right. He had never said anything to show him how important he was, how much he loved and wanted him in his life. On the other hand, why Shun hadn't taken the initiative as well?
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Sho-kun. He is getting married to someone else and I can’t do nothing to prevent it.”
“Are you really willing to carry on with this stupid idea? Can’t you see that you are giving up on your happiness?”
“I will keep my pride, however.”
Sho’s laughter echoed around his office, increasing as he considered the words that his friend had just said.
“Pride? Sure, you were really proud when you pretended to date someone you don’t even know!”
“You know how to be quite cruel when you want it, don't you?” Jun asked his friend, with a pout. “I couldn’t let Shun to see me down.”
“Then, you preferred to make him believe that you are totally in love with this Aiba guy?”
“The worst is that he wants to introduce him to his fiancée in the said dinner.”
“And what are you going to do about it?”
“What can I do? I will tell them that Aiba-san has a professional issue and is unable to go…”
“And then? How many excuses will you use when your alleged boyfriend doesn’t show up in future events?” Sho insisted, feeling a guilty pleasure for teasing his friend.
Jun sighed in defeat. The photographer was right. For how long would he be able to keep that lie?
“I don’t know… I have no idea of what to do, Sho.”
“You have two options.”
Jun stared at him, with hope sparkling in his eyes.
“Either you tell the truth to Oguri or... you make the lie come true.”
“What are you saying?”
“You are the businessman here, Jun. Figure it out.”
The stylist looked at Sho for a few of minutes, trying to understand his friend's thoughts. When he finally grasped it, he almost smiled, encouraged.
“How can I find him?”
“That’s easy. He is in Nino’s band, right?”
Jun nodded, grabbing his cellphone.
*****************************************
“Ohno-kun told me you fancy Chinese food” Jun said, pointing at the chair in front of him, as soon as Aiba arrived at the restaurant in which they had scheduled to meet.
“It's my favorite” Masaki smiled, accepting the menu offered by Jun. “How have you been?”
“Fine, thank you. I apologize for not getting in touch with you before. I have been quite busy lately, working in a new collection.
However, I didn’t forget that I owed you at least a lunch in gratitude for having saved my ass that time.”
“You owe me nothing, Matsumoto. But I'm really glad for the invitation.”
They made the order and chatted about frivolities while waiting the dishes to arrive. Masaki was lively and made him feel at easy. It felt as if they had known each other for ages.
While his companion was starting to eat his mabo tofu, Jun noticed his serene expression, his perfect features. He was gorgeous and captivating, the kind that probably had many people gathering around. Most certainly, he had someone.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Masaki asked suddenly, bring Jun from his daydreams.
“Oh, of course. I got lost in my thoughts for a moment, sorry.”
“Thinking about that Oguri guy? Have you two talked things through?” Masaki asked unceremoniously.
“He is still planning to marry someone else,” Jun answered, his expression becoming serious all of a sudden.
“Won’t you do anything about it?”
“It’s not as easy as you think. Besides, he believes we are dating.”
Masaki smiled, skeptical.
“You are still keeping that lie?”
“I am” he admitted, embarrassed. “I know it sounds crazy, but I really need your help again.”
The sax player stopped eating, seeming to gain a sudden interest in the conversation.
“Are you free tomorrow night?”
“Matsumoto-san, I know this is not of my business, but for how long are you planning to keep this lie? Wouldn’t it be far simpler to just confess your feelings to him?”
“Have you and Sho been talking to each other?” Jun asked with annoyance. Maybe he should introduced him to his best friend. They would surely make a great couple.
“I have no idea of who this Sho is, but he seems to give some wise advices.”
“You will never understand…”
Masaki sighed, with resignation
.
“You are right, Matsumoto-san. Maybe I will never come to understand, but who am I to judge you? However, unfortunately, I will not be able to help you this time. I work in the bar tomorrow.”
“Can’t you skip one day?”
“And lose a day of my payment? I have bills to settle in the end of the month.”
“I can pay you for a day. All you need to do is tell me how much.”
Masaki looked at him with a mix of curiosity and interest.
“I receive monthly, so I would have to calculate for a day. It is not that simple, though. The salary is not a big deal, but I can’t afford to lose the tips.”
“I can pay you a month salary plus the tips.”
Masaki smiled, considering the offer for a moment. Jun should be really desperate to make him such a proposal. How important it was for him not to allow Oguri to know about his feelings?
“Are you willing to hire me?”
“I wasn’t thinking that way, but if you put things this way… I need a boyfriend and, for what I see, you need money. How about we join our needs?”
The man licked his lips, seeming to consider the idea.
“So… would you like to work for me? As my rental boyfriend?”
“You will really pay me the same amount I receive in the bar plus the tips?”
“As much as you want.”
“Have I already told you how beautiful you are today, Jun-chan?”
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Note: Hello minna! Here is the second chapter and finally Jun did ‘rent’ a boyfriend, from now on many comics things will happen, please stay tunned!
Plus were really happy for that lot of comments in the first chapter, that was a big and amazing surprise, lately we don’t see many Junba readers nor fics so we hope you follow us till the end! Our big thank you! I you start to reply right now :D
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