NEWS VS KAT-TUN
Previous
“We’re gonna what?!” Nakamaru and Masuda cried in unison.
“Phone numbers, from girls,” the producer said again, as he double-checked the camera.
“Is that really necessary?” Nakamaru asked, turning a light shade of pink.
“That’s the event,” the producer said, not bothering to look at the idols again.
“Where are we going?” Masuda asked, gingerly wiping his palms together.
“Centre of Tokyo, an added twist is going to be that you try talking to foreign girls,” one of the P.A.’s added.
Masuda’s eyes widened, “foreign girls?”
The P.A. nodded, “it’s to promote the jimusho , that the charm and enthusiasm of a Johnny can surpass even language.”
Nakamaru looked as though he may be sick, “My ‘charm’ is practically non-existent at this point.”
Masuda nodded in agreement. He was awkward enough as it was talking to girls in his own language, how was he going to manage talking to them in a language he didn’t know?
They picked the worst idol for this, why couldn’t it have been Yamapi? He has but to stare at a girl and they flock to him! Even Tegoshi would have been better, at least he knew a lick or two of English! Even if Jin did taunt him for saying ‘Pissed’ as ‘Peesssed’, at least it could pass as English.
Nakamaru tried taking steadying breaths, and again tried giving himself a pep-talk. He was Nakamaru Yuichi, he was the ‘N’ of KAT-TUN, he sang in front of thousands of girls all the time, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
He closed his eyes, thinking about his group mates. He could practically hear Jin rubbing his hands together in anticipation, see Kamenashi roll his eyes, Koki give him an encouraging pat on the back. He could almost hear Ueda tell Jin to ‘shut up’ and really if craned his neck he could swear he heard the sound of Jin’s favorite Britney Spears song ‘ pour tequila on the rocks, Till you make your body pops to the speaker, Burn it all down, Need to buy another round’ blaring loudly.
“Nakamaru?” Masuda poked the older man in the ribs, Nakamaru opened an eye to see Masuda holding his phone out to him, “I think Akanishi-kun is calling you.”
Indeed his phone was ringing in the annoying ringtone Jin had set to ring whenever he called, gingerly he flipped his phone open and answered.
“You’ve got this in the bag!” Jin cried loudly, there was some shuffling and Nakamaru was sure he’d heard Ueda’s shrill yell of “Bakanishi!”
“Look, you’re going to be fine, just do your best and try not to say anything stupid,” Kamenashi said.
“You make it sound easy,” Nakamaru muttered sullenly.
“It is,” Koki practically hissed into the receiver, “didn’t you read that book I gave you last month?”
Nakamaru felt himself blush, he was fairly certain that his copy of 10 easy steps to lovin was hidden somewhere in his apartment. “I…skimmed it,” he managed to say.
“Butthole!” Jin cried, “that book was pure gold!”
“Well maybe I don’t have an interest in getting laid by the first pair of legs I see in a skirt!” Nakamaru replied hotly.
“Are you even a real guy?” Jin asked sounding disgusted.
Nakamaru’s only response was to splutter and flail indignantly.
“I’ll tell you what, you manage not to act like an idiot and I’ll get Taguchi to wear a dress and run around the agency,” Jin suggested.
Taguchi’s argumentative, “Ehhhh? Why me?” was muffled by Jin.
“Why would I want to see Taguchi in a dress?” Nakamaru cried, utterly scandalized and embarrassed as he started turning a light shade of pink.
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” Jin asked, before he let out a wail, “owww! Ueda that hurt!”
“Good!” Ueda replied, before another ‘smack’ was heard along with a grumbling Jin.
“Listen, just do your best, and I’ll make sure and keep this idiot in line, okay?
“I…I…I guess,” Nakamaru muttered.
“Great, don’t make me pummel you when you get back,” Ueda warned.
“Yeah, sure.”
“GANBATTE NAKAMARU!” Taguchi screeched, making Nakamaru fall out of his seat in surprise.
“Thanks?” He said, once he’d found his seat again.
“I know you can do it,” Taguchi said, before hanging up and leaving Nakamaru dumbly staring at the phone.
He glanced around and noted the odd looks he was getting from the staff, clearly only listening to half the conversation they wouldn’t understand just how crazy his bandmates were.
It seemed only Masuda was utterly unaffected by the phone exchange, he himself seemed much more pre-occupied with his own cell-phone.
He grinned, rather than phone calls, he had received a series of text messages from the members, ranging from Koyama’s ‘Ganbatte!’ and a series of thumbs up emoji to the lovely message from Ryo of ‘Don’t screw this up, or else you won’t get any gyoza!’ that Masuda translated to ‘do your best please! I’ll give you food.”
And lastly he stared at Shige’s message of ‘Just do your best, those girls won’t know what hit’em!’
Masuda nodded, “Yosh! we’ll do out best, ne Nakamaru?”
Nakamaru nodded determinedly, he wasn’t going to lose.
He was in KAT-TUN damnitt!
* * *
The van pulled up to the rather busy section of Harujuku, the place was flooded with shoppers. Everyone from toddlers with drool running down their face to Gyaru girls to stooped oba-chans swarmed the district.
It wasn’t all that an odd scene, but Nakamaru had a horrible feeling of foreboding, heart hammering as he stepped out of the van and got his first real look at what he would consider a foreign girl as she all but tripped onto his lap.
He stared at her, eyes wide. She quickly collected herself and the bags she was carrying. He hastened to help her, grabbing onto one bag that had actually fallen beneath the truck, he turned to hand it to her, but was instead met with a rather large beefy looking high school kid.
“Are you bothering my girlfriend?” he asked, glaring down at Nakamaru.
Nakamaru shook his head, “no, I just bumped into her, I - she dropped this,” he said, brandishing the small bag in front of him.
The young man’s eyes narrowed, and it was only then that Nakamaru realized what he was holding. It was a small bag of lingerie, he stared at it, eyes widening in horror.
The boy snatched it out of his hands, “What’re you looking at? Don’t think that just because you’re an idol you can go around stealing other people’s girlfriends!”
“No, I didn’t do -“ Nakamaru began.
“Shut up!” the boy yelled, hands balling into fists.
Nakamaru really didn’t want any part in this, and threw the girl a frantic look crying for help.
“No!” the girl cried vehemently, “it’s a misunderstanding Kotaro, really.”
She laid a small hand on the boy’s shoulder. He gave Nakamaru a final glare before grabbing the girls hand and sauntering off.
Nakamaru let out a sigh of relief, this game was already taking years off his life. Clearly he was getting too old for this.
* * *
Masuda happily bolted away from the scene, having sighted the overgrown young man earlier, he’d assumed it would be best to let Nakamaru deal with his problem on his own, he wouldn’t want Ryo to skive off a few pieces of Gyoza just because he was being friendly.
He instead set his sights to a pair of what looked to be girls in their early twenties. Taking a deep breath he steeled himself for what he was sure was going to be one of the hardest things he’d ever have to do.
He strode up to them, or rather beside them and stared in at the display. It was a pet store, with quite a few kittens in the front pen for all the world to see.
The two young women cooed over an orange and white kitten that was busily amusing himself with a mouse toy. Masuda grimaced slightly, letting out a small sound that sounded suspiciously like disgust.
The girls turned to look at him, gave him an odd look, muttered something in what Masuda suspected was Korean and walked away.
So much for looking Korean, obviously it hadn’t helped him any.
* * *
The two groups had been ushered off-stage for the first half of the show, in order to allow the members of JUMP some time to actually MC.
The two had been shuffled into what management called the screening room, and what everyone else called the green room since everything was green and also usually made Taguchi feel a little sea-sick.
They watched as Nakamaru trembled beneath the gaze of an 18 year old boy.
“Are you kidding me?” Ueda asked.
“Clearly not, I mean did you see the size of that guy?” Jin quipped. “No girl is worth losing your teeth.”
“But it’s a high school kid!” Kamenashi said, with a slight shake of his head.
“Pfft, what a loser,” Ryo laughed to himself.
Ueda threw him a murderous look, before turning his gaze to the monitor again.
“I’m sorry did Masuda just growl at a cat?” Koki asked, looking utterly bewildered.
“He doesn’t really like animals,” Koyama said tearfully.
“Explains a lot.”
KAT-TUN nodded.
“Hey someone recognized Nakamaru!” Taguchi cried excitedly, pointing to the corner of the screen where a young high school girl was staring at Nakamaru, with a look of utter adoration and shock on her face.
“He better go up to her,” Jin muttered, leaning forward in his seat.
And indeed, Nakamaru slowly made his way up to her and gave her a greeting.
The girl looked as though she might have a heart attack, it seems Nakamaru suspected as much and quickly introduced himself, and continued with his quick speech that ended with him pulling his cell-phone out and with the girl practically clawing it out of his hands to input her information.
“YES!” the group cried in unison.
“KAT-TUN one, NEWS zero!” Jin yelled as he did a victory dance, “in your faces!”
“Shut up, before I stick my foot somewhere it’s not supposed to go,” Ryo warned.
The camera followed Nakamaru for a few more minutes before switching to Masuda who still looked relatively lost.
NEWS let out a slight groan.
* * *
“Wow Nakamaru-kun finally got a number,” Yuto commented.
“Mmm, he did a good job finding a fan,” Yabu added.
“Yes, aren’t Nakamaru-kun’s fans great?” Yamada asked the audience.
The shrill yell of ‘yes’ was enough of an answer.
“Do you think he’ll be able to ask for someone else’s contact information?” Keito wondered allowed.
“I’m sure he will,” Takaki answered.
“Ne, Masuda-kun looks like he’s found someone,” Hikaru cut in, pointing to the screen.
The screen cut to Masuda, who looked to be contemplating something. The camera zoomed in to see that he was staring at food vendor selling gyuudan.
“Ah, Masuda-kun, don’t lose sight of your goal!” Daiki called out.
It seemed that Masuda couldn’t hear his kohai through the television monitor and continued to contemplate the food before him.
He walked right up to the vendor and bought enough to feed at least five people.
The young boys on stage stared in rapt attention, “is he really going to eat all of that?” Keito asked.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Inoo said.
However rather than eating the food, Masuda decidedly poked a toothpick through each piece of meat, and arranged them in a symmetrical triangle on the carton, and continued to walk around the area, this time however marching right up to a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties, and not at all Japanese.
“Hello,” he began in his splintered English.
The woman glanced up at him, with an expression of ‘are you really talking to me?’
Masuda continued, “Hallo, nishe is to meet you,” he said with a slight smile.
The woman seemed to warm to that and nodded in response, “Hello, and who might you be?”
Masuda stared at her, not a clue as to what she’d said.
The woman stared at him, amused, before she decided to put him out of his misery and repeated the phrase, this time in rather good Japanese.
Masuda let out a sigh of relief, and continued in his conversation, much more comfortable in his own tongue. “I’m sorry to bother you, but would it be alright to offer you a complimentary piece of gyuudan?”
The woman stared at the tray, before nodding slowly and helping herself to one.
She stared at him as she chewed, “it’s very good,” she said.
“Really? Okay well would it be okay to have you’re e-mail address?”
She was taken aback, generally speaking she didn’t usually exchange e-mail addresses with kids.
“Please?” he quipped.
She faltered, and within moments had her phone out and was exchanging information with Masuda.
“Thank you, very mush,” he said in English, bowing his head rather low, making the woman blush, before waving and walking away.
“Huh, looks like it’s one to one now,” Yabu said.
“It’s bound to get even better!” Takaki cried.
* * *
Nakamaru shifted his weight from foot to foot, as he stared around the complex trying to figure out who else he may ask for contact information. He’d already approached an old lady who gave him an odd look before hobbling off, a middle-school who’d stared at him in terror, and even up to a foreign young woman who simply walked away from him mid-sentence.
He had to say, it really wasn’t doing much for his ego.
“10 minutes left,” the camera-man warned.
In the last half-hour all Nakamaru had managed to get was a total of two numbers, and one of them he was sure was fake.
This was calling for drastic measures. He took a quick look around, until his eyes landed on a pair of teenagers belting out random enka songs on their very own microphones.
He stared, and almost unconsciously got to his feet and started walking towards them.
Masuda it seems had the same idea and managed to reach the stand seconds before he did.
“Can I borrow your microphone please?” they asked in unison.
The teenagers blinked up at them, one of them staring at Masuda in wide-eyed shock.
“You’re from TegoMassu!” she spluttered.
Masuda nodded, “Can I borrow your microphone?”
The girl nodded, handing him her microphone.
Her partner was staring at Nakamaru rather quizzically, “hey, aren’t you that guy from that group?” she asked, in accented Japanese.
Clearly she wasn’t a native.
“Yeah,” Nakamaru replied impatiently.
“The group that talks funny, right?” she clarified.
“We don’t talk funny,” Nakamaru began.
“Kanjani8!” She cried, pointing a finger up at his nose.
Nakamaru blinked at her confusedly, before slowly shaking his head.
“Yeah, you’re what’s his face, you know the old guy,” she continued.
Nakamaru shook his head furiously, “nope, no I’m not.”
“Maru!” she yelled, grinning at him triumphantly.
“Can I just borrow your microphone, please?” Nakamaru asked, desperately holding his hand out for the stick.
“ ‘Kay,” she agreed, hopping off her post and handing him the microphone.
Masuda had to stifle a laugh, before he made his announcement. “I’m sorry to bother you all,” he began, “But I’m Masuda Takahisa of NEWS and would greatly appreciate your attention.”
There was a shrill call from a girl standing a few feet away, “MASSUUU!” She screeched, practically bolting towards him.
Masuda could do little else but stare at the attacking girl, before he practically stumbled off the stand in retreat.
“I’m Nakamaru Yuuichi of KAT-TUN, and I’d like to ask any of my fans to please make an orderly line here, in front of me if you’d be willing to exchange contact information!” Nakamaru said quickly, taking advantage of Masuda’s momentary lapse in concentration.
Masuda nearly pouted, and crossed his arms across his chest, making a few girls in the near vicinity practically swoon. The tight material of his shirt, closely hugging his biceps as he flexed unconsciously.
“Masuda-san, do you want to exchange information as well?” one of the girls asked, eagerly coming forward.
“Umm, yes?”
Response was instantaneous , as a near stamped took place as girls hurried to stake a place in line to give their idol their phone number.
The cameraman had a near accident as he hurried to stand behind Masuda, while a few girls practically clawed their way to the front.
Nakamaru stared in awe.
One should never underestimate the power of their fans.
* * *
Shige stared at the screen, slack-jawed in absolute shock.
“He’s not really doing that,” Koyama said with a shake of his head, as though saying it would will it to life.
“That’s absolute suicide!” Ryo cried, eyes wide.
“I hope your happy, if Massu comes back as a flattened banana it’s going to be all your fault!” Shige shot at Ryo.
“HA?”
“You’re the one who pressured him!” Shige replied, looking murderous.
“Me? You’re the one that made him wear that tight shirt, what girl in their right mind would turn away from that!”
“It was your idea!”
“But you went along with it!”
Shige let out a huff, before turning back to the screen.
“Uh-oh, trouble in paradise,” Jin sing-songed rather gleefully.
“I’d keep an eye on your own bandmate, if I were you,” Koyama advised, icily.
Jin turned back to the monitor in time to see Nakamaru get swarmed.
“This idiot,” Ueda mumbled with a forlorn shake of his head.
“Does this mean I don’t need to wear that dress?” Taguchi asked hopefully.
“Nope, Jin’s going to do it instead,” Kamenashi quipped throwing a dirty look at Jin, “It was his idea to begin with.”
“WHAT?” Jin shouted.
“You’ll look better than me in a dress,” Taguchi said, patting Jin on the shoulder reassuringly.
“I think I might hurl if I have to see Akanishi in a dress,” Tegoshi said with an eyeroll.
“Not like you look much better in one,” Jin bit back.
“Oh yeah?” Tegoshi challenged.
“Hell yeah, you’ll look dead awful!”
“Wanna bet?” Tegoshi asked, a rather mischievous glint in his eye.
“Oh please tell me this isn’t happening,” Yamapi muttered to himself.
“What’re you offering pretty boy?” Jin asked.
“Loser has to run through the jimusho naked,” Tegoshi said without a moment’s hesitation.
“You’re on,” Jin replied.
“Do you want to scar the juniors?” Koyama asked exasperatedly, as Tegoshi leaned his head on the older man’s shoulder.
“Not all the juniors, just FiVE,” Tegoshi replied with a sly grin.
Koyama had to fight not to roll his eyes.
It went without saying that the challenge would be executed as soon as they were allowed back on stage.
“You’re a real idiot,” Koki said with a sigh.
“What d’you mean? I’m totally going to win this!” Jin replied.
Kamenashi, Ueda, and Taguchi snorted.
“You just agreed to wear a dress on stage, genius,” Kamenashi said.
Jin stared at his bandmate, the consequence of his action finally dawning on him.
“I suggest you wear the sailor moon costume,” Ueda said a Cheshire cat grin on his face.
Jin paled at the idea, much to his bandmates amusement.
* * *
“Oh, Masuda-kun has many fans,” Yamada commented.
“Mmm, isn’t it nice when you get to meet your fans?” Yabu asked.
The group nodded.
“Lucky Masuda-kun and Nakamaru-kun got to meet so many today,” Chinen said.
“Yes, I’m jealous,” Yuto said with a nod. “Aren’t you jealous, Keito?”
To be frank Keito wasn’t jealous at all, although he didn’t have quite so many fans as his senpai, the thought of meeting them all in that particular context really just scared the crap out of him. However that wasn’t a thought voiced in front of a few hundred fangirls, instead he smiled complacently, “Mmm, very.”
Inoo had to mask his laugh in a cough.
The group continued to stare at the screen, “ten seconds to go!” Hikaru cried excitedly.
The countdown began, “10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1! TIME UP!”
The general roar of excitement that exuded from the hall nearly deafened the group.
“Well, as Nakamaru-kun and Masuda-kun make their way back to the theatre we’ll let you hear an all new summertime medley.” Yabu announced.
“Let’s welcome FiVE and Kis-My-ft2 with ‘Ho!Summer’ “ Daiki cried, as the nine other members swiftly made their way off-stage and were quickly replaced by the army of popular juniors.
Next
“We’re gonna what?!” Nakamaru and Masuda cried in unison.
“Phone numbers, from girls,” the producer said again, as he double-checked the camera.
“Is that really necessary?” Nakamaru asked, turning a light shade of pink.
“That’s the event,” the producer said, not bothering to look at the idols again.
“Where are we going?” Masuda asked, gingerly wiping his palms together.
“Centre of Tokyo, an added twist is going to be that you try talking to foreign girls,” one of the P.A.’s added.
Masuda’s eyes widened, “foreign girls?”
The P.A. nodded, “it’s to promote the jimusho , that the charm and enthusiasm of a Johnny can surpass even language.”
Nakamaru looked as though he may be sick, “My ‘charm’ is practically non-existent at this point.”
Masuda nodded in agreement. He was awkward enough as it was talking to girls in his own language, how was he going to manage talking to them in a language he didn’t know?
They picked the worst idol for this, why couldn’t it have been Yamapi? He has but to stare at a girl and they flock to him! Even Tegoshi would have been better, at least he knew a lick or two of English! Even if Jin did taunt him for saying ‘Pissed’ as ‘Peesssed’, at least it could pass as English.
Nakamaru tried taking steadying breaths, and again tried giving himself a pep-talk. He was Nakamaru Yuichi, he was the ‘N’ of KAT-TUN, he sang in front of thousands of girls all the time, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
He closed his eyes, thinking about his group mates. He could practically hear Jin rubbing his hands together in anticipation, see Kamenashi roll his eyes, Koki give him an encouraging pat on the back. He could almost hear Ueda tell Jin to ‘shut up’ and really if craned his neck he could swear he heard the sound of Jin’s favorite Britney Spears song ‘ pour tequila on the rocks, Till you make your body pops to the speaker, Burn it all down, Need to buy another round’ blaring loudly.
“Nakamaru?” Masuda poked the older man in the ribs, Nakamaru opened an eye to see Masuda holding his phone out to him, “I think Akanishi-kun is calling you.”
Indeed his phone was ringing in the annoying ringtone Jin had set to ring whenever he called, gingerly he flipped his phone open and answered.
“You’ve got this in the bag!” Jin cried loudly, there was some shuffling and Nakamaru was sure he’d heard Ueda’s shrill yell of “Bakanishi!”
“Look, you’re going to be fine, just do your best and try not to say anything stupid,” Kamenashi said.
“You make it sound easy,” Nakamaru muttered sullenly.
“It is,” Koki practically hissed into the receiver, “didn’t you read that book I gave you last month?”
Nakamaru felt himself blush, he was fairly certain that his copy of 10 easy steps to lovin was hidden somewhere in his apartment. “I…skimmed it,” he managed to say.
“Butthole!” Jin cried, “that book was pure gold!”
“Well maybe I don’t have an interest in getting laid by the first pair of legs I see in a skirt!” Nakamaru replied hotly.
“Are you even a real guy?” Jin asked sounding disgusted.
Nakamaru’s only response was to splutter and flail indignantly.
“I’ll tell you what, you manage not to act like an idiot and I’ll get Taguchi to wear a dress and run around the agency,” Jin suggested.
Taguchi’s argumentative, “Ehhhh? Why me?” was muffled by Jin.
“Why would I want to see Taguchi in a dress?” Nakamaru cried, utterly scandalized and embarrassed as he started turning a light shade of pink.
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” Jin asked, before he let out a wail, “owww! Ueda that hurt!”
“Good!” Ueda replied, before another ‘smack’ was heard along with a grumbling Jin.
“Listen, just do your best, and I’ll make sure and keep this idiot in line, okay?
“I…I…I guess,” Nakamaru muttered.
“Great, don’t make me pummel you when you get back,” Ueda warned.
“Yeah, sure.”
“GANBATTE NAKAMARU!” Taguchi screeched, making Nakamaru fall out of his seat in surprise.
“Thanks?” He said, once he’d found his seat again.
“I know you can do it,” Taguchi said, before hanging up and leaving Nakamaru dumbly staring at the phone.
He glanced around and noted the odd looks he was getting from the staff, clearly only listening to half the conversation they wouldn’t understand just how crazy his bandmates were.
It seemed only Masuda was utterly unaffected by the phone exchange, he himself seemed much more pre-occupied with his own cell-phone.
He grinned, rather than phone calls, he had received a series of text messages from the members, ranging from Koyama’s ‘Ganbatte!’ and a series of thumbs up emoji to the lovely message from Ryo of ‘Don’t screw this up, or else you won’t get any gyoza!’ that Masuda translated to ‘do your best please! I’ll give you food.”
And lastly he stared at Shige’s message of ‘Just do your best, those girls won’t know what hit’em!’
Masuda nodded, “Yosh! we’ll do out best, ne Nakamaru?”
Nakamaru nodded determinedly, he wasn’t going to lose.
He was in KAT-TUN damnitt!
* * *
The van pulled up to the rather busy section of Harujuku, the place was flooded with shoppers. Everyone from toddlers with drool running down their face to Gyaru girls to stooped oba-chans swarmed the district.
It wasn’t all that an odd scene, but Nakamaru had a horrible feeling of foreboding, heart hammering as he stepped out of the van and got his first real look at what he would consider a foreign girl as she all but tripped onto his lap.
He stared at her, eyes wide. She quickly collected herself and the bags she was carrying. He hastened to help her, grabbing onto one bag that had actually fallen beneath the truck, he turned to hand it to her, but was instead met with a rather large beefy looking high school kid.
“Are you bothering my girlfriend?” he asked, glaring down at Nakamaru.
Nakamaru shook his head, “no, I just bumped into her, I - she dropped this,” he said, brandishing the small bag in front of him.
The young man’s eyes narrowed, and it was only then that Nakamaru realized what he was holding. It was a small bag of lingerie, he stared at it, eyes widening in horror.
The boy snatched it out of his hands, “What’re you looking at? Don’t think that just because you’re an idol you can go around stealing other people’s girlfriends!”
“No, I didn’t do -“ Nakamaru began.
“Shut up!” the boy yelled, hands balling into fists.
Nakamaru really didn’t want any part in this, and threw the girl a frantic look crying for help.
“No!” the girl cried vehemently, “it’s a misunderstanding Kotaro, really.”
She laid a small hand on the boy’s shoulder. He gave Nakamaru a final glare before grabbing the girls hand and sauntering off.
Nakamaru let out a sigh of relief, this game was already taking years off his life. Clearly he was getting too old for this.
* * *
Masuda happily bolted away from the scene, having sighted the overgrown young man earlier, he’d assumed it would be best to let Nakamaru deal with his problem on his own, he wouldn’t want Ryo to skive off a few pieces of Gyoza just because he was being friendly.
He instead set his sights to a pair of what looked to be girls in their early twenties. Taking a deep breath he steeled himself for what he was sure was going to be one of the hardest things he’d ever have to do.
He strode up to them, or rather beside them and stared in at the display. It was a pet store, with quite a few kittens in the front pen for all the world to see.
The two young women cooed over an orange and white kitten that was busily amusing himself with a mouse toy. Masuda grimaced slightly, letting out a small sound that sounded suspiciously like disgust.
The girls turned to look at him, gave him an odd look, muttered something in what Masuda suspected was Korean and walked away.
So much for looking Korean, obviously it hadn’t helped him any.
* * *
The two groups had been ushered off-stage for the first half of the show, in order to allow the members of JUMP some time to actually MC.
The two had been shuffled into what management called the screening room, and what everyone else called the green room since everything was green and also usually made Taguchi feel a little sea-sick.
They watched as Nakamaru trembled beneath the gaze of an 18 year old boy.
“Are you kidding me?” Ueda asked.
“Clearly not, I mean did you see the size of that guy?” Jin quipped. “No girl is worth losing your teeth.”
“But it’s a high school kid!” Kamenashi said, with a slight shake of his head.
“Pfft, what a loser,” Ryo laughed to himself.
Ueda threw him a murderous look, before turning his gaze to the monitor again.
“I’m sorry did Masuda just growl at a cat?” Koki asked, looking utterly bewildered.
“He doesn’t really like animals,” Koyama said tearfully.
“Explains a lot.”
KAT-TUN nodded.
“Hey someone recognized Nakamaru!” Taguchi cried excitedly, pointing to the corner of the screen where a young high school girl was staring at Nakamaru, with a look of utter adoration and shock on her face.
“He better go up to her,” Jin muttered, leaning forward in his seat.
And indeed, Nakamaru slowly made his way up to her and gave her a greeting.
The girl looked as though she might have a heart attack, it seems Nakamaru suspected as much and quickly introduced himself, and continued with his quick speech that ended with him pulling his cell-phone out and with the girl practically clawing it out of his hands to input her information.
“YES!” the group cried in unison.
“KAT-TUN one, NEWS zero!” Jin yelled as he did a victory dance, “in your faces!”
“Shut up, before I stick my foot somewhere it’s not supposed to go,” Ryo warned.
The camera followed Nakamaru for a few more minutes before switching to Masuda who still looked relatively lost.
NEWS let out a slight groan.
* * *
“Wow Nakamaru-kun finally got a number,” Yuto commented.
“Mmm, he did a good job finding a fan,” Yabu added.
“Yes, aren’t Nakamaru-kun’s fans great?” Yamada asked the audience.
The shrill yell of ‘yes’ was enough of an answer.
“Do you think he’ll be able to ask for someone else’s contact information?” Keito wondered allowed.
“I’m sure he will,” Takaki answered.
“Ne, Masuda-kun looks like he’s found someone,” Hikaru cut in, pointing to the screen.
The screen cut to Masuda, who looked to be contemplating something. The camera zoomed in to see that he was staring at food vendor selling gyuudan.
“Ah, Masuda-kun, don’t lose sight of your goal!” Daiki called out.
It seemed that Masuda couldn’t hear his kohai through the television monitor and continued to contemplate the food before him.
He walked right up to the vendor and bought enough to feed at least five people.
The young boys on stage stared in rapt attention, “is he really going to eat all of that?” Keito asked.
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Inoo said.
However rather than eating the food, Masuda decidedly poked a toothpick through each piece of meat, and arranged them in a symmetrical triangle on the carton, and continued to walk around the area, this time however marching right up to a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties, and not at all Japanese.
“Hello,” he began in his splintered English.
The woman glanced up at him, with an expression of ‘are you really talking to me?’
Masuda continued, “Hallo, nishe is to meet you,” he said with a slight smile.
The woman seemed to warm to that and nodded in response, “Hello, and who might you be?”
Masuda stared at her, not a clue as to what she’d said.
The woman stared at him, amused, before she decided to put him out of his misery and repeated the phrase, this time in rather good Japanese.
Masuda let out a sigh of relief, and continued in his conversation, much more comfortable in his own tongue. “I’m sorry to bother you, but would it be alright to offer you a complimentary piece of gyuudan?”
The woman stared at the tray, before nodding slowly and helping herself to one.
She stared at him as she chewed, “it’s very good,” she said.
“Really? Okay well would it be okay to have you’re e-mail address?”
She was taken aback, generally speaking she didn’t usually exchange e-mail addresses with kids.
“Please?” he quipped.
She faltered, and within moments had her phone out and was exchanging information with Masuda.
“Thank you, very mush,” he said in English, bowing his head rather low, making the woman blush, before waving and walking away.
“Huh, looks like it’s one to one now,” Yabu said.
“It’s bound to get even better!” Takaki cried.
* * *
Nakamaru shifted his weight from foot to foot, as he stared around the complex trying to figure out who else he may ask for contact information. He’d already approached an old lady who gave him an odd look before hobbling off, a middle-school who’d stared at him in terror, and even up to a foreign young woman who simply walked away from him mid-sentence.
He had to say, it really wasn’t doing much for his ego.
“10 minutes left,” the camera-man warned.
In the last half-hour all Nakamaru had managed to get was a total of two numbers, and one of them he was sure was fake.
This was calling for drastic measures. He took a quick look around, until his eyes landed on a pair of teenagers belting out random enka songs on their very own microphones.
He stared, and almost unconsciously got to his feet and started walking towards them.
Masuda it seems had the same idea and managed to reach the stand seconds before he did.
“Can I borrow your microphone please?” they asked in unison.
The teenagers blinked up at them, one of them staring at Masuda in wide-eyed shock.
“You’re from TegoMassu!” she spluttered.
Masuda nodded, “Can I borrow your microphone?”
The girl nodded, handing him her microphone.
Her partner was staring at Nakamaru rather quizzically, “hey, aren’t you that guy from that group?” she asked, in accented Japanese.
Clearly she wasn’t a native.
“Yeah,” Nakamaru replied impatiently.
“The group that talks funny, right?” she clarified.
“We don’t talk funny,” Nakamaru began.
“Kanjani8!” She cried, pointing a finger up at his nose.
Nakamaru blinked at her confusedly, before slowly shaking his head.
“Yeah, you’re what’s his face, you know the old guy,” she continued.
Nakamaru shook his head furiously, “nope, no I’m not.”
“Maru!” she yelled, grinning at him triumphantly.
“Can I just borrow your microphone, please?” Nakamaru asked, desperately holding his hand out for the stick.
“ ‘Kay,” she agreed, hopping off her post and handing him the microphone.
Masuda had to stifle a laugh, before he made his announcement. “I’m sorry to bother you all,” he began, “But I’m Masuda Takahisa of NEWS and would greatly appreciate your attention.”
There was a shrill call from a girl standing a few feet away, “MASSUUU!” She screeched, practically bolting towards him.
Masuda could do little else but stare at the attacking girl, before he practically stumbled off the stand in retreat.
“I’m Nakamaru Yuuichi of KAT-TUN, and I’d like to ask any of my fans to please make an orderly line here, in front of me if you’d be willing to exchange contact information!” Nakamaru said quickly, taking advantage of Masuda’s momentary lapse in concentration.
Masuda nearly pouted, and crossed his arms across his chest, making a few girls in the near vicinity practically swoon. The tight material of his shirt, closely hugging his biceps as he flexed unconsciously.
“Masuda-san, do you want to exchange information as well?” one of the girls asked, eagerly coming forward.
“Umm, yes?”
Response was instantaneous , as a near stamped took place as girls hurried to stake a place in line to give their idol their phone number.
The cameraman had a near accident as he hurried to stand behind Masuda, while a few girls practically clawed their way to the front.
Nakamaru stared in awe.
One should never underestimate the power of their fans.
* * *
Shige stared at the screen, slack-jawed in absolute shock.
“He’s not really doing that,” Koyama said with a shake of his head, as though saying it would will it to life.
“That’s absolute suicide!” Ryo cried, eyes wide.
“I hope your happy, if Massu comes back as a flattened banana it’s going to be all your fault!” Shige shot at Ryo.
“HA?”
“You’re the one who pressured him!” Shige replied, looking murderous.
“Me? You’re the one that made him wear that tight shirt, what girl in their right mind would turn away from that!”
“It was your idea!”
“But you went along with it!”
Shige let out a huff, before turning back to the screen.
“Uh-oh, trouble in paradise,” Jin sing-songed rather gleefully.
“I’d keep an eye on your own bandmate, if I were you,” Koyama advised, icily.
Jin turned back to the monitor in time to see Nakamaru get swarmed.
“This idiot,” Ueda mumbled with a forlorn shake of his head.
“Does this mean I don’t need to wear that dress?” Taguchi asked hopefully.
“Nope, Jin’s going to do it instead,” Kamenashi quipped throwing a dirty look at Jin, “It was his idea to begin with.”
“WHAT?” Jin shouted.
“You’ll look better than me in a dress,” Taguchi said, patting Jin on the shoulder reassuringly.
“I think I might hurl if I have to see Akanishi in a dress,” Tegoshi said with an eyeroll.
“Not like you look much better in one,” Jin bit back.
“Oh yeah?” Tegoshi challenged.
“Hell yeah, you’ll look dead awful!”
“Wanna bet?” Tegoshi asked, a rather mischievous glint in his eye.
“Oh please tell me this isn’t happening,” Yamapi muttered to himself.
“What’re you offering pretty boy?” Jin asked.
“Loser has to run through the jimusho naked,” Tegoshi said without a moment’s hesitation.
“You’re on,” Jin replied.
“Do you want to scar the juniors?” Koyama asked exasperatedly, as Tegoshi leaned his head on the older man’s shoulder.
“Not all the juniors, just FiVE,” Tegoshi replied with a sly grin.
Koyama had to fight not to roll his eyes.
It went without saying that the challenge would be executed as soon as they were allowed back on stage.
“You’re a real idiot,” Koki said with a sigh.
“What d’you mean? I’m totally going to win this!” Jin replied.
Kamenashi, Ueda, and Taguchi snorted.
“You just agreed to wear a dress on stage, genius,” Kamenashi said.
Jin stared at his bandmate, the consequence of his action finally dawning on him.
“I suggest you wear the sailor moon costume,” Ueda said a Cheshire cat grin on his face.
Jin paled at the idea, much to his bandmates amusement.
* * *
“Oh, Masuda-kun has many fans,” Yamada commented.
“Mmm, isn’t it nice when you get to meet your fans?” Yabu asked.
The group nodded.
“Lucky Masuda-kun and Nakamaru-kun got to meet so many today,” Chinen said.
“Yes, I’m jealous,” Yuto said with a nod. “Aren’t you jealous, Keito?”
To be frank Keito wasn’t jealous at all, although he didn’t have quite so many fans as his senpai, the thought of meeting them all in that particular context really just scared the crap out of him. However that wasn’t a thought voiced in front of a few hundred fangirls, instead he smiled complacently, “Mmm, very.”
Inoo had to mask his laugh in a cough.
The group continued to stare at the screen, “ten seconds to go!” Hikaru cried excitedly.
The countdown began, “10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1! TIME UP!”
The general roar of excitement that exuded from the hall nearly deafened the group.
“Well, as Nakamaru-kun and Masuda-kun make their way back to the theatre we’ll let you hear an all new summertime medley.” Yabu announced.
“Let’s welcome FiVE and Kis-My-ft2 with ‘Ho!Summer’ “ Daiki cried, as the nine other members swiftly made their way off-stage and were quickly replaced by the army of popular juniors.
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