Kareshi (05/11)
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 5
“Yuu-chan is my brother” Masaki clarified.
For a second, Jun showed no reaction, astonished. So, the lad wasn’t Masaki’s ex-boyfriend and he had meddled into a family argument? He should stay locked up at home, he thought. Just then he would avoid the embarrassment of the unreasonable behaviour he was having recently.
“Nice to meet you” he answered at least, greeting him back.
“Let’s get going, Jun” Masaki said, sternly, breaking the ice. As his boyfriend seemed to hesitate in following him, he took him by the hand and started pulling him towards the car.
“Masaki, please, don’t run away” Yuusuke begged him.
“I’m not running away!” he halted.
“Then, come with me… Papa is sick…”
“You think that I don’t know that? Even then, I will never step into that house again…”
“If you can’t do this for him, at least do it for Mama. She is…”
“She made her choice when she took your father’s side.”
“He is your father too, Masaki!”
“It’s not what it seems when he refers to you as his only child. You will never understand the pain of being disowned by your own parents. Therefore, don’t ask me to visit them, Yuu-chan. I can’t… I don’t want to forgive them. Please, respect my decision,” he pleaded, his voice raspy. “Let me know if the money isn’t enough.”
“Masaki...”
“Come on, Jun-chan” he ordered him, ignoring his brother’s insistence and dragging the fake boyfriend to the car.
Jun only followed him in silence. Only when the car was already in movement he asked, with hesitation.
“Are you all right?”
“I am” was the short answer. After that, during the path, the only sound he heard came from the GPS giving him the directions to Masaki’s house. He only talked to him again when his car stopped in front of an apartment complex.
“Would you like to come in?”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to disturb you.”
“Please, Jun-chan. Stay with me for a bit…”
If it wasn’t for the broken state of Masaki, Jun would have widened his eyes in disapproval at the moment he crossed the threshold. It wasn’t for the tiny size of the apartment. When he was still in the beginning of his modeling career, he had also lived in similar places. However, he had always ensured the organization of his space. Many people called him methodical, but he just liked things in their rightful place.
It wasn’t that Masaki’s house was in a complete mess. Nonetheless, what was the reason for having so many things spread everywhere around?
Considering that it was a small place, shouldn’t it be tidier? If he could adjust his things in a better way, the place would seem larger. Yes, he was aware that his fake boyfriend was a busy man, but he still had some nights off when he could put his things in order.
“Would you like something to drink?” he heard Masaki’s kind voice asking him, pulling him from his thoughts.
“I’m not thirsty. But, can I use your bathroom?”
Masaki pointed at the door and he went in in a rush. He had been feeling the need to go to the bathroom since the moment they left the restaurant. When he arrived at the living room, which also served as a bedroom, he found Masaki in bed, his legs crossed over the mattress, analyzing some bills he had picked up from the mailbox a few minutes before.
“About earlier…” Jun started, approaching him slowly. “I am sorry for introducing myself as your boyfriend to your brother. When I saw you two arguing I mistook the situation and…”
“You thought it was a lovers’ quarrel?” Masaki asked, smiling for the first time since his talk with his brother.
“I apologize for this. I hope I haven't been indiscreet.”
“Don’t worry” he answered, putting the bills aside and facing him. “My brother knows that I’m gay since a long time ago. He found out in the same day as my parents, thirteen years ago.”
Thirteen years? Masaki was still a teenager at the time.
“Would you care for knowing my story, Jun-chan?” Masaki asked him, pointing with his head to an empty space beside him at the bed. “You might be curious about what you have seen…”
“More than curious, I’m concerned” Jun confessed, sitting at the designated place.
Masaki gave him a grateful smile. If he had met Jun in any other situation, the two of them could have become great friends.
“In the third year of High School, my PE teacher caught me with a senpai from my baseball team in the dressing room” Masaki started, with a raspy, but steady voice. “We were just kissing, but the situation had been considered serious enough to make the school advisor and my representative teacher call my parents for a meeting.”
He made a brief pause to wet his lips as if he was gathering the courage to continue. Maybe because the memory was too painful.
“In front of me, my father gave his word the school that he would fix my abnormal behavior.”
“Did he beat you?”
“Not with his fists. My father was never a violent person. However, in the heat of the discussion he told me horrible things. He accused me of being immoral and promiscuous and, no matter what I said, he wouldn’t hear my explanations that there was nothing dirty in my condition. In the end, I was as hurt as if I had been beaten up.”
Moved, Jun held Masaki’s hands in his. He also had gone through the angst of discovering his homosexuality in his early years. Different from him, though, he was already an adult living by himself when he finally admitted to his parents. They didn’t accept it easily, of course. It was still embarrassing to bear with his father’s disapproving stare, but, even then, they were still frequently in touch.
“We have fought every day since” Masaki continued. “Around two months later, when he finally convinced himself that I really like men, he told me he couldn’t accept having a perverted son. He gave a reasonable amount of money and told me to take care of my own life far away from there. Without any trace of emotion, he added that, from the moment when I crossed his house’s threshold, he would only have one son. I lost my ground, Jun-chan… I believed that my mother would stay by my side, but when I asked for her support, she didn’t say a word.”
“You had mentioned that you were living by yourself since seventeen, but I never thought it could be due to such a thing. You must have felt very lonely.”
“Yes. Nevertheless, I didn’t go straight to the streets in the day I left, swearing that I would never again return to that house. I went to my grandmother’s house at first. It was hard to see her divided between my father and myself. Then, I asked her to rent a place for me to stay, in her name. I live by myself since.”
“And you have never seen your parents again.”
Masaki lowered his eyes, ashamed.
“Not face to face. In the beginning, however, I tended to find myself in front of the house, watching the movement. Whenever my mother left to buy groceries, I would follow her from afar and I used to watch, hidden in the other side of the street, my father working in his shop.”
“And you never got closer? Have you never tried talking to them?”
“What my father told me hurt me badly, Jun. At the same time that I wanted to forget those words, they kept hammering inside my head, filling me with doubts. I never told anyone, but I even wondered if I wasn’t in the wrong side… if it is really a sin to be different. I wondered if I should start dating women, getting married, having kids… In the end, nonetheless, I couldn’t deny who I am. Therefore, I stepped aside for good.”
“What about your brother? You two seem to be very close.”
“We never parted ways. He always figured out a way to meet me in secret. An year ago, he came looking for me. He told me that my father was sick and he was facing some difficulties at the store. My father is the owner of a store of Chinese articles. In order to try and settle his debts, he mortgaged the house and, when he saw himself about to lose it, he got involved with loan sharks. Hence, he ended up with thrice the debt he had at first. He was about to lose the store…”
“When you took over his debts” Jun concluded for him, finally understanding the reason for his fake boyfriend having such a need for money.
“Yuusuke still helps me when he can, but he has his own family. I couldn’t just turn my back on them. Even though my father has disowned me, he is still the person to whom I owe my life.”
“Does he know that you are helping him?”
“No! If he knew, he would never accept it. Yuu-chan is always insisting with me to tell him…”
“I agree with your brother. You should go after him, Masaki. It’s been so long…”
“I can’t, Jun! Just as you, I also have my pride…”
“In your case, it’s not about pride” Jun said, facing him with a serious expression. “You are afraid of being rejected once again.”
Masaki bit his lower lip, in resignation. He knew that Jun was right.
“Maybe you are right. I’m not ready to see, once again, that glimmer of disappointment and distaste in his eyes…”
“What if he changed his mind? Maybe he is sorry…”
“In this case, why should I go after for him? Shouldn't it be the other way around?”
“I have no answer to that, Masaki. But… I can offer you my support. Financial support, I mean. If you want, I…”
“You don’t have to do this. Besides, there is only a few months left for this situation to end. However, thanks for the offer and, more importantly, for listening to me. I have been keeping this grudge for myself for such a long time…”
Jun smiled, the sparkle on his eyes reflecting Masaki's teary ones.
“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I wouldn’t listen to my partner’s outburst?”
In spite of the tears that was threatening to come, the barman smiled.
“Baka!”
Jun returned his smile. Then, his expression became serious all of a sudden. The man in front of him intrigued him. Since the first moment when he caught him sleeping in his sofa with an almost childish expression, he had wished to know a bit more about him. And, the more he knew about him, the closer to him he wanted to be.
“You are admirable, Masaki…”
Without notice, he sank his fingers on Masaki’s hair, in the nape of his neck, pulling him closer. As at the dinner’s night, the kiss started shy and slow. Their tongues explored themselves sensually, sensing each other’s taste. Then, greedily, they increased the speed of their lips, their hands working to keep their bodies as close as humanly possible.
When they parted, they were both gasping and blushing.
“You owe me 1,200 yen…” Masaki whispered in a hoarse voice.
“Eh? But, last time, you told me you wouldn’t charge…”
“Because then, I was the one to take the initiative. This time, it’s my boss who is requesting my services…”
“And this amount shall be paid immediately after the execution of the act?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, Masaki. I believe I might have 2,400 yen in my wallet…” Jun told him, just before attacking Masaki’s lips once again.
***********************************
Masaki opened his eyes feeling a different scent in the house.
Soup?
He smiled after stretching his body without a rush. His body, satisfied by the good night of sleep, was starting to recover from the lethargy.
Since when hasn’t he slept that well? How long hasn’t he felt someone else’s body warming him through the night?
Nothing had happened, true. They had just slept in the same bed, sharing the space. Even then, the feeling of companionship was amazing.
He sat on his bed, lazy, taking his surroundings bit by bit. Why did everything seem so different? Where were all the objects spread around the apartment? What happened to his clothes that were thrown over the chairs? And where had gone the bills that were scattered over the drawer?
He stood up with curiosity. Had Jun done the housecleaning? Was he feeling so fine or so tired that he didn’t even hear the sound of the man cleaning his things up?
Even the dirty clothes on his laundry basket had been abducted?
In the dinning table, there was a small banquet. He didn’t even remembered having all those ingredients in his fridge.
He sat down, starving.
In the center of the table, folded in a stylish way, there was a note.
‘I hope you don't get mad with me for organizing your things. I put your clothes in the washing machine, you just have to hang them. As for the breakfast… ‘I didn’t forget that you work in a bakery, baby’, but it’s important to eat some homemade food every now and then. I hope you enjoy.
The Boss
PS: The total amount of my domestic service is 3,600 yen. Therefore, you owe me a kiss.’
Masaki smiled, almost wishing that their relationship wasn’t a lie.
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Note: Hello minna! Here another chapter, SO SORRY to be late but RL is very crazy to us in the final of semester… Well here we happy a really serious and sweet chapter!
For the ones who was wondering why Masaki need that money that much and why he didn’t told more about his life to Jun before… The next chapter will come in the next week full of funny moments, ok?
Thank you so much for your beloved comments, so don’t forget Comments are ♥