A Name's Curse - Chapter 6
Pairing: Ohmiya
Rating: PG
Genre: Friendship, Romance
Summary: Nino’s father, a member of the Japanese legislature passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage in Japan. And Nino will be made to undergo an arranged marriage with a guy in accordance to this bill. He is already engaged to marry Ohno.
In this chapter Ohno gets to meet a person from Nino's past. :)
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Chapter 6
Ohno fell on the floor with a loud thud and a grimace hidden from the other occupant of the bed. If that didn’t wake up a sleepyhead like him, Nino didn’t know what would. Ohno stood up and proceeded with his morning routine like nothing traumatic happened just then, awfully aware that Nino was watching him amusedly yet pointedly ignoring the other man.
The day went by in silence. Neither one of them mentioned the elephant in the room until curiosity got the better of Ohno.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I agreed to sleep on your bed?”
“Eh? Do I even have to ask? It’s because you’re attracted to me. That goes without saying.” Nino shrugged as he continued thumbing the keys of his DS.
Ohno started shifting uneasily (and noisily) on the chair as his sketch pad laid forgotten on the table.
Nino sighed grimly, irritated by the constant movement in his peripheral vision, hindering him from concentrating in his game. “Oh-chan, can’t you sit still?”
“Sorry.”
“If you don’t want to tell me why, it’s okay. I’m here to listen when you’re ready.” Nino still seemed to be immersed in his game world but Ohno was unexpectedly moved by Nino’s statement. Nino has his gentle moments after all, Ohno thought.
They did not have that talk again since. Ohno already started treating Nino’s bed as his own as he slept and lazed around on it, on the far side away from Nino, yes, but on the bed nevertheless.
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Hearing shuffling around him, with furrowed eyebrows he slowly opened his eyes to search for the source of the sound. There it was by the window sitting on a stool, a guy around his age with dark brown hair crouching down to put on his socks. Standing up, Nino noticed that he was wearing a plain black V-neck long-sleeves shirt, (a decent one unlike those freebies that Nino liked to tease him about) and a pair of faded jeans ripped at the knee area.
Nino was staring at him, wide awake now, unable to defy the laws of attraction.
He was in the brink of asking whether Ohno was conscious of his charismatic effect on others, or in simple terms, of how hot he was, but Nino stopped himself. He knew the answer anyway. In spite of the short time they have spent together, somehow Nino knew that Ohno was not the type of person who wraps himself in pretense. He’s genuine. And he was genuinely hot with that outfit but Nino kept himself from saying anything.
“Oh. You’re awake.” Ohno said as he stood up and arranged his bag. “It’s my first day. I want to go to school earlier.”
“You don’t have a uniform?” Nino dumbly asked as he stood up from the bed.
“It’s an arts university. That’s actually the point. We don’t have to be uniform.” Ohno said simply.
Before Nino had time to ponder on what Ohno said, the latter already motioned towards the door.
“Wait! I want to go with you.” Ohno rested his hand on the knob of the door as he eyed Nino curiously as if weighing the motives of the other.
“Give me fifteen minutes.” Nino said as he was already gathering his clothes and towel to get ready for shower. “Please?” he looked at Ohno pleadingly. Reply came in the form of a shrug as Ohno laid back on the bed and closed his eyes.
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Tall shrubs with flowers of different colors adorned the perimeter of the university and it was a lovely sight as the two were walking along the pavement towards the entrance. The main gate had pillars on each side made of bricks with an arch on top indicating the name of the school.
They entered, Nino wearing a baseball cap for precautionary measures lest he be driven out by security guards as a trespasser in school grounds. He wasn’t convinced despite Ohno’s attempt to appease him by saying that the guards were quite liberal and there had never been an incident of a reprimanded trespasser.
There were lots of people of around the same age as them who were passing by and chattering merrily and animatedly with each other. It was the first day of school after all. A time of reunions, and for freshmen, a time for new beginnings.
As they walked, they passed by a clique who were hanging out on the gazebo under a tree. Nino’s attention was immediately caught.
One was wearing a gray parka over another grey parka. The other was wearing what seemed to be a wooly helmet even though they were inside campus and a motorcycle was not in sight. The tallest guy was wearing a crimson jacket paired with crimson pants, carrying out a striking look. Shorts, knee-high socks and eyeglasses were the chosen outfit of another. The only girl in the group was wearing a pink wig of shoulder length, a glittery dress and a pair of boots decorated with studs.
Nino only realized that he was staring at the group in awe when Ohno nudged him at the ribs.
“Fashion department.” Ohno muttered as he continued to walk, almost dragging Nino along.
“No wonder.” Nino was fascinated with their bravery to wear something like that. He admired the courage to stand out and make a statement no matter how bizarre and downright weird other people may perceive them.
Ohno tried to divert Nino’s attention from the peculiar group. “The university is divided into two main sections: visual art on the left side and music on the right, but we are free to roam anywhere we want.”
To have a good look at the buildings, Nino had to tilt his head higher because of his cap that was diminishing his field of vision.
“Ohno-kun!” came a sudden female voice. As Nino turned his head to direction of the source, he saw a girl around his age with long straight hair, wearing a loose baby pink shirt and colorful tights. She was giving an energetic arm wave at Ohno. Yes, she used not her hands, but her arms in waving.
Ohno shyly waved back. “I’ll see you later, Nino.”
“Wait, aren’t you going to introduce me to-“
“No.” Ohno said curtly as he walked away.
From afar, Nino had a hunch that he had already seen that girl before, that he had already talked to her and spent time with her but he was unsure. He sprinted to Ohno’s side, while still examining the face of Ohno’s friend. “Becky?”
“Eh?” came the response from both Ohno and the girl. Ohno wondered how Nino could possibly know someone from his class.
The girl nodded tentatively as she too examined Nino’s face, trying to figure out who he was.
“Nino.” The owner of the name offered and Becky’s eyes widened in recognition. “Nino!” she exclaimed pointing her fingers at Nino as if she victoriously remembered the name right.
“Is it really Becky? The same Becky who liked to play with our dog but then she got scared when it barked loudly and chased her around? The same Becky who always had dirty clothes because she reveled in playing in the mud? The Becky who had a crush on-” Becky lunged towards Nino and immediately covered his mouth with her hand which was fortunately not stained with mud. Nino still continued with his sentence regarding Becky’s crush but the words were muffled and far from being understandable. Becky was relieved.
“Well, I don’t have to wonder if it was really Nino who liked to play with girls. There’s just no mistake.” Becky slacked her hold on Nino but still on defense mode.
“Baseball and gardening role playing. It was not like I was playing Barbie dolls with you. Can’t you come up with a better counter-attack to embarrass me? Oh wait, I’m sorry!” Nino gasped in faked shock after realizing something. “Was that why you grew up to be boyish? Too bad you didn’t get to confess to-” As if on cue, Becky wrapped her hand around his mouth once again, to hush the horribly embarrassing information Nino was about to spill.
Ohno was extremely entertained watching the comical exchange between the two. Indeed, it was a day of reunions.
“What are you doing here anyway?” Becky demanded rather rudely. However, considering how Nino playfully tormented her with embarrassing memories of her past, she was not being rude at all, relatively speaking.
“Oh yeah! I’m here with Oh-chan. We’re married!” Nino said cheerfully as he entangled his chubby fingers with Ohno’s slender ones.
There was a rather ridiculous story behind their marriage. Ohno still continued working at the coffee and tea shop while Nino still worked at the convenience store until the vacation ended to have something to busy themselves with instead of lolling around at home. One particular evening, when they came back, the certificate of marriage that they both signed already disappeared from the top of their desk.
They found that it was already filed. Just like that.
They were already married, as uneventful as that. No ceremonies whatsoever. Nino didn’t even get a ring yet for Ohno. The lingering feeling of ‘being married’ or ‘being together’ was non-existent.
Even Nino almost forgot that they were already legally married until Becky asked him what he was doing there.
“It was splendid to see you again, Ninomiya-san.” Becky said with an air of sarcasm. “But Ohno-kun and I need to go now. Bye!” she swiftly grabbed Ohno’s wrist and pulled him towards their building.
“Take care of Oh-chan, ne!” Nino said sweetly and Becky was 100% sure that he was acting casual to annoy her.
“He really blurts out random things, that guy.” Becky said. Nino’s teasing left an aftershock on her as she was still flustered.
“What he said was true, though.” Ohno murmured.
“Oh, you don’t have to believe what he said about the dog, the mud, and especially about the--” Becky flushed just thinking about her crush when they were young. Luckily she stopped blabbering at the right time.
“I meant what he said about us being married. It’s true.” Ohno said calmly as he proceeded walking, leaving Becky pausing on her tracks in bewilderment, with a mouth gaping in astonishment.
After she recovered her cognitive faculties, she sprinted towards Ohno and stood face to face with him and held both his shoulders, in an act of confrontation.
“You’re joking, right?” Ohno merely shook his head slightly.
“Why did you marry a horrible person like him?” Becky asked dramatically. “Did he blackmail you? Did he drug you? Did he put a love potion in your drink without you noticing it?” Ohno snickered at Becky’s wild speculations. Becky released her hold on his shoulders but still watched him anxiously.
“He’s not so bad.” Ohno said simply. Becky felt Ohno’s serene aura and decided to let it rest. She would just pester Ohno some other time.
“He was really mean to me when we were young.” Becky muttered mostly to herself as she recalled their young selves playing in the Ninomiya garden, along with another girl named Meisa who was Becky’s cousin. Their families were close so Becky got to visit almost every weekend and especially during vacations. Meisa and Nino were neighbors and every time Becky was there, the three of them would play gardening role playing in the Ninomiya place bringing colorful plastic shovels and toy wheelbarrow with size appropriate for their tiny selves. They gathered fallen leaves, ripped them into smaller pieces and then cooked them in their tiny plastic frying pans. For snacks, they sloppily ate mangoes and tried to plant the seeds on a randomly chosen area of soil. Those were the carefree years of childhood.
“That just means he liked hanging out with you.” Ohno said, waking Becky from her reverie.
She never saw it that way before. “You seem to know him well.” Becky commented.
“I know him well enough to marry him.” She giggled at how honest Ohno was being. The Ohno she knew did not talk that fondly of other people. The Ohno she knew had a world that revolved around art, fishing and toy cars, and lacking in human interaction. The Ohno she knew has evolved into the guy beside her who was already showing emotions no matter how subtly. She already decided that she liked this Ohno better.
Maybe she should reconsider her impression of Nino. He seemed to have cracked the shell Ohno had been dwelling for years since Becky met him in the university.
“What are you grinning about?” Ohno asked sharply.
“Nothing.” She replied, still grinning. Ohno just shrugged it off.
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Nino dared to enter the building which Ohno identified to be the music department, despite him being an outsider.
If his attention was called, he would just give an excuse that as he was lost. If an I.D. was required of him, he would just say that he was a freshman, nervous on his first day and unintentionally forgot his I.D. at home and then bow politely. Nino had a list of possible excuses up his sleeve, if confronted. If there’s a will, there’s a way.
The hallway was dotted with people; some in particular caught Nino’s attention. A small chubby guy fitting a reed on his clarinet. A girl’s slim fingers gliding through the strings of her classical guitar. A guy with hair dyed blond tuning his electric violin with a face contorted in concentration. A girl with long straight hair expertly twirling drum sticks as she chatted with her friends. They had at least one thing in common: passion evident in their countenance.
Upon hearing the cacophony of sounds in the corridor, Nino’s blood steadily warms and rushes as if calling him.
In the expanding commercialization and industrialization of Japan, professions geared towards science, engineering, business and medicine to name a few, are more favored and are more likely provide job security after college education. In other words, competitions aside, people who pursue these careers have a clearer future than those who pursue the arts.
Painting, photography, fashion, music: talent and perseverance with a touch of originality and self-confidence are weapons to get through these fields. The arts offer no home for those of weak heart.
The talented ones are praised. The unique ones stand out. There is no room for mediocrity because if you as much as slack for a while, other people could overtake you in the blink of an eye.
Attending an arts university despite knowing the hardships one will face not only in school but also in their careers in the future is immensely commendable, in Nino’s opinion. He respected them.
Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to remove the wearisome pair of spectacles he had been wearing and see the world through an artist’s eyes. Perhaps they have the ability to look beyond average everyday things and see the beauty.
Nino couldn’t help compare the university to his own, where the people looked prim and proper, brought about by strict upbringing. Nino’s university was a masquerade; some people genuine but many with a false facade of goodness. It was up to Nino to discern who to trust, which was an emotionally taxing task to do.
In Tokyo Arts University, Nino felt that students were given the most important freedom they need: the freedom to imagine. On the other hand, in the university he was attending, students were fed with information discovered by people before them, leaving no more room for exploration and critical thinking. However in retrospect, Nino realized that the reason for that rested in him, and the fact that he was not interested in the subject that much.
Now that his train of thought was towards self-pity, he decided it was time to leave before he ended up disastrously depressed.
As Nino was standing at the gate ready to step out, a cherry blossom petal fluttered in front of him as if a greeting. He caught it in its slow fall and examined its fragility and elegance. Nino was not particularly sentimental, but since sentimentality, like destiny, make things more interesting in the world, he figured it would be alright to indulge himself in it once in a while.
He brought out his wallet and meticulously slid the petal in the place where photographs are supposed to be inserted. It was previously devoid of a picture anyway. Photographs in wallets, in Nino’s opinion, are supposed to represent what was important to the owner. In his case, he was still unsure of what was important in his life at the moment and he didn’t bother to reflect on it yet so he just inserted random stuff in there such as receipts with random scribbles at the cleaner side and now, a cherry blossom petal.
He gazed back and saw cherry blossom trees in full swing to the beat of the April wind, cherry blossoms marking spring, the season of birth, of life, and of new beginnings.
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A month had already passed and before they realized it, Nino’s birthday was already a few days away. Corollary to that, the public announcement of their marriage was also just a few days away. Invitations were already sent to close friends, political supporters of Nino’s father, and to the media as well for press coverage. The event was to be held in the Ninomiya garden, which was spacious enough to accommodate a hundred people.
On the day itself, round tables dotted the place, with pristine white table cloth and navy blue napkin. The utensils and the goblets were in their precise spots. Each table was adorned with a small vase of different flowers such as roses and tulips of various colors, flowers which have been picked fresh from the Ninomiya garden itself. There was a platform on one side to serve as the stage for the program.
Ohno didn’t like parties very much, most especially when his name would be announced and be made to go onstage. He observed the venue with apprehension, knowing that those empty seats would eventually be filled by people foreign to him, with eyes assessing him if he was suited to be Nino’s partner in marriage.
He heaved a sigh as his thoughts wander. It took a while for him to notice that there was someone calling him.
“Ohno-san.”
He turned around a saw a woman wearing a gray and black tube cocktail dress, wrinkled on the torso area and reached just below her knees. She wore silver high heels along with her tall stature; Ohno had to tilt his head up to see her well.
Entranced, Spell-bound. Those words could describe Ohno’s reaction to the presence before him. She emitted a cool vibe, like a supermodel. And with that height, Ohno wouldn’t wonder if she really was one.
“I-If you’re looking for Nino, I...” Ohno stuttered. “I don’t know where he is.”
“Actually, it’s you I want to talk to.” She said determinedly as she held his gaze.
“Oh.” Ohno responded, unconsciously biting his lower lip, waiting for the woman to speak.
“My name is Kuroki Meisa. I am Kazu’s ex-girlfriend.”
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To be continued...
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AN: They actually had swimmer Kitajima as guest! And Nino will be learning guitar from Lenny Kravitz next episode.. and I can’t wait for VS Arashi this week! Men in Black!