(no subject)
You’re walking down the street when you come to a spot in the sidewalk with a tree on it. You look around and notice that it’s the beginning of a forest. You start to turn around to leave when you hear a faint call coming from inside the woods. You hesitate, not entirely sure whether or not you should enter the ominous looking trees. But the shouts only get louder and more desperate, and you give in, diving into the forest.
You’re running, trying to find the source of the fraught cries, and you soon find yourself deep within the woods. The shouts now seem to be coming from all directions, and you have no idea which way to turn. You climb a tree to try to see where you are, only to find a small girl in it. She pushes you down, grunting that that tree is taken.
You check more trees and find more kids hiding in them. You ask them if they know who was shouting but they ignore you. You walk along slower now, checking tree by tree. The screams are getting more insistent and you’re getting more and more scared. You’re forced to muscle your way into one of the trees to look out. The kid puts up quite a fight though, and you both end up falling. It seems to go in slow motion. While you’re in the air you manage to catch the kid. You also manage to notice that the kid looks a whole lot like a child version of Chinen. As you hit the ground…you wake up.
You jump to a sitting position, your heart pounding. The shouts have now transformed into the incessant beeps of your alarm clock. You switch it off, chuckling to yourself. Déjà vu much?
You yawn and turn over, lying back down. Your blankets feel so cozy and warm; you don’t want to get up yet. You let yourself drift in and out of sleep for about an hour, before lazily getting out of bed. You notice that it looks like pretty nice weather outside, so you open your window and let the sweet scent of the flowers drift into your room. Then you slip on some clothes, brush your hair, and head to the bathroom to wash your face.
You run into Reon, who’s brushing his teeth. You were going to wait until he was done, but he gestures for you to come on in, (there are two sinks) and you do as you’re told.
He spits, then says, “Well look who’s finally up, sleepy head.”
You just nod and splash your face with water, remembering how he’d told you that you should go with Saki the other day. If he wants me to be friends with his sister instead, then that’s what I’ll do. He seemed nice before, but I guess that was only because he had to be. Now he has someone else to push me off on.
He seems to have sensed your irritation, so he shuts up for a while as he continues to brush. You rub some soapy stuff onto your hands, and are about to pat in onto your face when you hear him start to cautiously speak again.
“So…what’re you getting up to today? You and Saki have plans?”
“I think we’re just hanging out until later. We’ve got tickets to a Hey! Say! JUMP concert this afternoon.”
His eyes widen for a second, and you’re almost positive that you see him start to protest but then change his mind. In the end he just grunts, “Well, have fun then,” as he leaves the room.
You’re a bit confused by all of this, so you decide to ignore it. You bounce downstairs and make yourself a bowl of cereal. Michiyo seems to have already left, and you’re guessing Junichiro is at work. Once you’ve washed your bowl, you join Saki and Reon in the living room to watch T.V.
As you sit down, Saki exclaims cheerfully, “Oh! You’re up!”
You nod, “What’re we watching?”
She shrugs and points to her older brother, “I dunno, you have to ask him. It’s his show.”
Reon snorts, seeming to say ‘what, you don’t even know this? Idiot.’
Saki glares at him and continues, anyways, is there anything in particular that you want to do today? We have a lot of time before we go to the concert.”
“Um… Not that I can think of off the top of my head. I mean, there’s plenty of stuff I want to do, but I spent a big chunk of my money yesterday and I kind of feel like we should conserve our energy for later. So I wouldn’t mind just hanging at home.”
She doesn’t seem to convinced, but after explaining to her that being in a Japanese home at all is an adventure for you itself, she gives in.
Reon is watching some crime fighting show. Since you missed the beginning you don’t really get it, and are soon bored. Saki notices this and you two begin to chat excitedly about the coming evening instead. But you barely get two sentences out before Reon butts in.
“If you’re going to talk, do it in the kitchen!”
Saki scowls at her brother, but when you move she fallows you. You sit at the table and you ask her if she’s ever been to a concert before, and what they’re like. She rolls her eyes at this and says that obviously she’s been. But only ever to NEWS and KAT-TUN ones. Her friend, Mei, has been to a lot of Hey! Say! JUMP concerts though. She’s a huge fan of Daiki and Chinen. She tells you that Mei, and her other good friend Fuyu, will actually be coming with you that afternoon. Mei has “connections” apparently and was able to switch Saki’s original four tickets for ones with much better seats. Saki says that Mei usually only uses these perks for herself, so she didn’t even realize they were so powerful until now… You wonder if Mei can get you more tickets in the future.
Saki tells you more about her friends, but most of it just goes in one ear and out the other because it’s too many people to keep track of. So you basically only learn about Mei and Fuyu. Apparently the three of them have been friends since the beginning of elementary school, or the equivalent to it, and they’re pretty much inseparable. Mei is a force to be reckoned with, and is a bit too strait forward. She loves to dress in the gothic Lolita fashion, and even her close friends can’t figure her out. Fuyu is usually sane, unless there’s a cute guy around. She doesn’t exactly share Saki and Mei’s fangirlish views though. Which Saki thinks is a good thing because she’d be scary if she did. She’s a bit of a tomboy, but amazingly pretty, and always seems to get the guy…or won’t stop until she does.
After Saki has talked herself out, she suggests you make some cookies, since Mei said when she called that she’d promised Fuyu a reward for coming along. You agree and Saki gets out the materials.
Since you’re not sure where anything is kept yet, you just get up to stand in the kitchen. You can see into the living room where commercials are now playing, so the T.V. is muted temporarily. Reon is on his phone, talking to someone. You can hear him cancelling his plans with them, then quickly say goodbye when his show comes back on. You wonder why anyone would rather watch T.V. than go out with a friend. Glancing back at the screen you see he’s moved on to another program. Couch potato.
When Saki’s done getting the materials and ingredients out, you unglue your eyes from the screen to go help her. You make some yummy chocolate cookies (after eating almost half of the dough), stick them in the oven and wait as the delicious smell slowly fills the room. When you start putting the cookies into a Tupperware container to bring to share, Reon suddenly pops up.
“Gah!” he spurts when he sees you put them in, “You’re not taking all of them, are you?”
Saki nods and dumps some more in.
“Can’t you spare a few?” he whines, “I was looking forward to them since I first smelled them!”
Saki laughs, “No way, idiot. These are for cool people only.”
He rolls his eyes and slinks over to the sink, “What?! You cleaned the bowl to!?” he pouts.
Saki just smirks and puts the top on the container, “Come on Wirrimusu-san, we should go meet my friends.”
You're hesitant to fallow her as you look at Reon’s disappointed expression. You’re still a little mad at him, but you haven’t eaten the one that Saki gave you ‘for the road’, so you quickly slip it into his hand before fallowing his sister.
You arrive at the concert hall with a lot of time to goof off before anything starts. Saki said that it’s better to be early than late, so you had over an hour to find the others and buy all the merchandise you wanted. You’re glad because a lot of the stalls already had small lines. You wonder if it’s this crazy every concert, or just on the opening day of a new tour.
Saki looks totally uninterested in the idea of buying stuff herself, so you suggest that she look for her friends while you did some quick shopping. You agree to meet back by a certain bench in 20 minutes, and split up.
Since you’d already decided not to spend too much money today, you don’t buy very much. You think about getting an uchiwa, but you can’t decide whose, so you just give up. Instead, you buy a pamphlet with some pictures, interviews, and the song list inside.
Although that didn’t take long at all and you still have about 15 minutes before you agreed to meet, you don’t really have anything else to do, so you head to the bench anyways. You watch as more people slowly start to trickle in. You’re surprised at the variety of people there are there. You were kind of expecting it to be 90% teenage girls, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all so far. Most people appear to be wandering around aimlessly, even though you can see the tiny beginning of a queue starting to form at the main entrance. Which is a bit crazy seeing as you’d decided to meet Mei and Fuyu a whole hour before the concert.
You glance around again to see if you can spot Saki anywhere, but she’s nowhere to be seen. So you look around for someone in a gothic lolita outfit, thinking that’ll be easy to spot. Although you notice one right away, surprisingly you also see two more.
After a few minutes of trying to figure out which one looks most ‘Mei-like’ judging from Saki’s description, you give up on that tactic. Then you try to guess by who they’re with.
One of the three is with a boy, so you rule her out. The second one is with a very pretty, tall bleached haired girl who you think may be Fuyu. But she’s not so lolita like, more just dressed in all black. And then a shorter brown haired girl, a fiery orange haired boy and a silver haired boy with cool purple eyes join her too. Or, is the silvery one a girl? You can’t tell. Either way you can eliminate that girl out too.
That leaves only one, at least that you can see. This one is further away, so you can’t really make out much other than that she’s holding a very big bag of merchandise. There’s a figure next to her, but you can’t tell from this far away if she’s pretty like Saki had said. Or even if she is a she.
Bored, you check the time again. Five more minutes. You look up at a banner by the entrance. It says “Hey! Say! JUMP!” in big bold letters. You realize that all the members are inside that very building, and you get a little more excited. This is the closest I’ve ever been to the JUMPeans in my entire life! Well, except for Chinen. And I’ll be even closer once I’m inside. God this is so exciting! I can’t wait for it to start!
You squeal and check the time yet again. You can’t wait to get in line now, so you’re getting even more impatient. You look up to check your far off figures, only to see that they’re not so far off anymore. And Saki is with them! You hurry over and join them.
Once all the introductions and over, you all get in line for the seemingly excruciating long wait. Fuyu disappears again to swap the tickets, and Saki brings out the cookies that you all start to devour.
Contrary to what you were expecting, the wait actually went pretty fast. You were worried that all Fuyu would want to talk about would be America, but it turns out that instead of questions about where you were from, she had questions about Hey! Say! JUMP. (Saki was also curious.) You could answer these questions much easier, since you didn’t know too much about what was different yet. You figured you have to get to know both places before you can say. Your pamphlet came in great handy when it came to explaining things too. When Mei got back she joined you in the quick briefing.
Soon they let everyone take their seats (and yours are, as promised, pretty amazing) and before you knew it the music started playing.
The first half was amazing. They opened with a powerful remix of UMP before introducing everyone with quick dance solos. Then they do a quick medley of all of their older songs before breaking off into different groups. There were lots of new songs, and lots of solos. It’s very high energy and keeps you on the edge of your seat-not that anyone is sitting. You’re blown away. Then Hikaru slows it down with a calmer song, which each of the members slowly join into. They’re walking slowly around the theater in a wide circle through the small aisles, each of them causing a wake of screams. Your seat is right in front of the middle of the main stage, next to both small sets of stairs. So all of the members pass right by you when they come off the stage. You are even able to make eye contact with a few. You wonder if they’re surprised that a foreigner is there.
You’d actually lost count as you watched each of your idols go by, but you soon notice Mei grabbing your arm and saying something. You bend in so that you can hear.
“He’s coming! The only one left is Chinen! Do you think he’ll notice me? Do you think he’ll walk by? Oooh! I hope he does! Kya!”
You think she’s talking more to herself than you, so you stop listening after that to look back up at the stage. Sure enough, there he is. Tree boy. Standing right above you. The chorus of the song starts to repeat, and all the members stop where they are for a minute.
Mei seems to be overjoyed. When she snaps out of her disbelief, she screams, loud, right in your ear. OW!
You never got why people scream at concerts. When people aren’t singing, then you guess it kind of makes sense, to show your excitement during the applause and such, but why cover up the songs? Anyways, this particular scream caused Chinen to look down on you and your friends. You take your hands off your ears and look back up at him. You feel the urge to scream yourself when your eyes meet his. You were expecting him to be looking at Mei, but you guess that’s not the case. He smirks at what you’re sure is a pretty weird expression on your part, looking quite amused. You’re not sure if it’s because you’re here in the front row, or if it’s because he thinks you were the one that screamed. It’s a rather arrogant smirk.
You smile back at him sheepishly and wave. For a second it looks like he’s going to laugh, but instead the music kicks up a bit faster, they go back and they repeat the chorus again, and he looks away. At the end of the chorus, the climax of the song hits, and they all do a dance together. Then you notice Chinen reach into his pocket. All of the members pull out small rubber balls, which, judging by Chinen’s, are all signed by the 10 members. All at once, they throw the balls out into the audience. You watch in disbelief as Chinen bends down, and holds his out to you. It catches the light and you see it glint bright red. When you don’t react right away, he lobs it to you before standing up again and returning to the middle of the stage, where everyone seems to be congregating now. Luckily, you catch it.
They finish the song and some of the members (7+Yabu) sit on some chairs you assume were put out while they were singing to start an MC segment.
You’re a little bit distracted by Fuyu fuming with jealousy beside you, but you still manage to listen in.
He says that for this tour, they’re trying something a little new. They picked at random three fans to come and help them with it.
You look around, wondering whom they chose.
“Well then, could the three people that caught the colored balls please head up to the stage? Don’t be shy!”
You look down at the ball in your hands, and then back up at the stage. You shake your head and pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming. This, this can’t be happening! I don’t believe it! Too good to be true! Can’t be!
But sure enough, Fuyu is growling on one side of you, and from the other Saki is giving you a push forward. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see the other picked fans raising their hands and being brought forward. You notice Keito and Yuto have gotten up to lead them up. You stagger forwards, terrified that in this dreamlike state you won’t be able to keep moving once Saki takes her hands off your back. You make out Chinen nudging Ryosuke and whispering something to him before the older boy spots you and runs over. He gives you his hand and helps you pulls your gently up to the chair waiting for you next to the other fans.
You’re still in a daze as you listen to Yabu explain that they’re letting you three ask whatever questions you want. (Although it’s implied that you can’t really ask anything.) It’s a good thing that one of the other fans has plenty of questions because your mind is having a total blank. Why did Chinen give the ball to me? I have no idea how to act in front of so many people. It was hard to see anything off the stage because of the lights, but you could feel all the eyes on you. You just try your best to keep smiling and not appear as freaked out as you really are.
You watch as one fan is chosen to play a game with Yuto and Keito. Apparently you’re each doing something as per to the color of your ball. You gulp as you realize that means you’re going to have to do something too.
The game the first fan-the one with the yellow ball-is playing looks like a version of chubby bunny. Which actually is pretty hilarious, so it helps you loosen up a little by laughing. You wonder why they would play a game that doesn't exactly make you look good, but you’re also glad that the boys don’t seem to care. In the end, Yuto wins.
The next fan-blue ball-plays telephone/charades type game with the whole 7 unit. Yabu gives Ryutaro, the first in the chain, something to act out and it’s passed along the line. The last person is the fan, and he has to act it out for Ryosuke to guess. Just so happens the thing they’re acting out is Ryosuke himself! He didn’t get it right, but it was still really funny. And the fan was actually a pretty good dancer! (They did the Asia no Yoru dance in Yama-chan’s style.)
When they’re done, the other fans are lead back off stage, and the members start leaving too. You almost wonder if they forgot about you. But then Yabu comes up behind you and leads you to the front of the stage. You almost go down the stairs, but then he starts to say, “Well then, for our lucky winner with the red ball…”
You gulp. Oh great, what has Chinen gotten me into? What am I going to have to do?
“…Chinen here is going to sing her a song.”
WHAT? What do I do? Sing me a song? Is he crazy? How embarrassing! Fuyu is going to kill me! And aren’t the other fans going to be jealous too? This isn’t the best move. Whyyyy????
You’re led again to the center of the stage. Yabu tells you to just stay there, and then leaves, handing his microphone to Chinen. The music starts and you hold your breath both in anticipation and sort of to keep yourself from exploding.
The song reminds you a lot of Yabu’s “Angel Come to Me”. It’s that kind of style and it’s also almost completely in Engrish. But somehow it feels more…sad? It definitely has a melancholy twinge to it. Not what you were expecting anyways, Chinen usually does cuter and more upbeat things. All the lights have gone out in the theater off the stage. There’re small spotlights on you and Chinen, then tiny rays of light all over the stage. You can’t decide if it looks like rain or stars. You can’t see anything else, since it’s all dark, and feels like you and Chinen are the last people on earth.
He’s not doing any particularly special dance moves; basically just slowly moving around you actually. But somehow it’s captivating.
You’re soon snapped out of it though. The Engrish is just horrible! You have to bite your tongue to keep from laughing out loud. Instead, you just end up grinning widely.
Before you know it, the music is fading again and the rest of the fan’s presence makes itself very apparent again with defining screams. I have to admit, that was pretty awesome. And the fact that he can make all these people so excited so easily is crazy cool. But it also reminds me that he’s doing this because the agency told him to. Your special feeling is gone and your nerves come back. You worry again about what Mei’s going to do when you get down. You look out on the mass of fans. It kind of makes him seem like just a flirt, in a weird way.
He reaches for your hand and gives it a fake kiss, causing another eruption from the crowd. Your grin is gone.
He leads you back to the stairs and as he’s helping your down and your hand is slipping out of his grip he whispers, “Nice to see you again,” his smirk returning.
You just return to your friends, who are now squealing and telling you over and over again how lucky you are.
You watch detachedly as more solos are performed. You’re worried about what Mei is thinking; she’s been silent for a while now. As the concert ends you’re able to get your good mood back at least temporarily and enjoy it. All in all, your first concert has been better than awesome. It was unbelievable, and you know you’ll remember it for a long time.
After you get outside, you and Saki are reluctant to say goodbye to everyone so quickly. So you stay talking to Fuyu for a while.
Mei still isn’t being very garrulous. You ask her if she’s okay, and she just replies, “I have to get Arioka-san’s autograph,” and hurries away.
You and the others exchange looks that say, ‘what is she thinking? How’s she going to do that??’ before running to catch up.
You know that this can’t lead to anything good, but you can’t exactly just leave either. You know that the chances of getting caught are very high, but if you don’t try to stop Mei then not only will you lose one of your very few friends that you have here but she’ll just go anyways. You have to stop her.
The three of you catch up to your crazed friend at what looks like a back entrance. Not surprisingly, it’s guarded.
Saki hisses, “Come on Mei, they won’t let us in. You can buy an autographed picture or something later.”
She tries to pull her friend from the door, but Mei stands her ground and grins. She takes a small card out of her bag and shows it to the guard.
You hold your breath as he examines it. He looks at Mei skeptically and you dread what’s going to happen next. You flinch and start to inch backwards before he reaches out and…opens the door!
He stands aside and you fallow in disbelief as Mei strides in. When the door closes and no one is in sight she turns back at you all, looking quite worried.
“You guys are obvious. Stay cool okay?”
Fuyu is the first to recover from the shock, and is able to ask, “So that isn’t a real I.D.?”
Mei shakes her head and chuckles to herself, “Nope, but apparently it’s a pretty good one.”
“Um, if someone comes along, will that keep us safe?”
“Probably not.”
Your anxiety returns. What’ll happen if they catch us? Even if they just kick us out, they might recognize me as the person Chinen sang to! What if they tell Chinen that I was back here? What will he think? After he said that I was the cool kind of fan… I’d feel like I was betraying him!
“Mei, I really think we should go…” you plead.
She shakes her head and says stubbornly, “Not until I get Arioka-san’s autograph!”
“Wirrimusu-san is right,” Saki pipes up, “Don’t you think Arioka-san would like it better if you didn’t sneak and break the rules to get to him too? He’s going to think you’re crazy.”
“He would never-“ she stops and whirls around, “Did you see that?!? Someone just passed down there! Maybe it was him!”
You did see something-or someone-dart by, but you really don’t want to go deeper. There are probably more people in there. You hesitate before fallowing the others.
When you turn the corner into the next hallway you sigh in relief. They’re at the opposite end, and thankfully there are no Johnny’s to be seen. The hallway is completely empty except for the scattered doors that line its length.
Just as you take your first step towards your companions, you hear a creak behind you. You turn slowly, in utter terror to see a set of hands come out of the dark closet you’re in front of.
Before you can even scream, the hands grab you. One slaps itself over your mouth, smothering your desperate cry, and the other grabs your around the waist and drags you into the darkness.
The door closes behind you.
No matter how you squirm, your captor’s grip doesn’t loosen. You try to kick them, and although you’re satisfied when you hear a yelp, the grip only gets tighter.
You hear someone swear, “I can’t find the light switch!”
You’re not sure if you want to see these people. You try licking the hand on your mouth, since it’s all you can do because you can’t open it wide enough to bite at the moment. The hand shifts a little, but doesn’t let go. You can hear the person whimper.
Apparently they finally find the light, because it suddenly gets much brighter. You can finally see…sort of. Your eyes need to adjust. You can make out three people including the one holding you. One stumbles towards you.
You blink a few times, then try to ask him, “Chinen?!? What’s going on!?” It comes out all muffled though, what with the hand in your mouth.
He makes the ‘shh’ sign, then tells the person holding you that he can let you go. You turn your head to see it was Takaki! And you guess the thing your kicked was actually Inoo, since he’s on the ground holding his shin. Takaki lets go of you reluctantly, as if he doesn’t really believe you won’t scream.
As soon as you’re free, you bend down to help Inoo, whispering and asking if he’s okay.
He says he is, and accepts your hand up. He leans on the Yuya, “You have quite a kick, you should play soccer or something.”
You apologize again, but then as soon as you’re done worrying, your fear returns. Oh god. This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen! Well, actually it’s a lot weirder, but Chinen still found me! What’s he going to think?
You look over at him, attempting to read his expression. At first you can’t tell what he’s thinking at all, he just sighs, “You seem to have quite a knack for popping up.”
“Do you know her?” Takaki looks confused.
“Sort of.”
You gather up your courage and whisper, “Look, Chinen-san, I’m really sorry I’m back here. I’m just trying to get my friend out, and once I do that, I’ll leave right away. Be out of your hair. I’m sorry I keep bothering you…”
There’s that smirk again. You cringe and look at your feet.
“Relax. I just told them to bring you in here because I figured you could help us.”
You perk up at the hint of hope, but still can’t look him in the eyes.
“We were heading to the dressing room when we heard you and your friends around the corner. Dai-chan probably wouldn’t mind giving her an autograph, but the thing is, he had to leave really quickly today. He already left.”
Crap, what is Mei going to do…
“So could you just get them out of here? They’re heading to the dressing room. If they go in there they’ll definitely be caught, and it would be a drag for all of us. So please? Quickly?”
He starts to nudge you to the door, but you resist.
“Mei isn’t going to leave just like that. Even if she did believe that Arioka-san was gone, she’ll just try another way.”
“Then give her the autograph,” Chinen says matter-of-factly.
“I don’t think she’ll be tricked by a fake one.”
“No, but you can give her a real one.”
“Where am I going to---“ you stop, realizing what he’s getting to. He wants you to give her the red ball.
You grab your pocket, as if to protect it, “But…”
He rolls his eyes and starts to nudge you again.
“Chii, come on, to one of our fans that ball is like…like that signed board you got from Ohno at his concert,” Inoo explains.
The nudging stops.
Now it’s Chinen’s turn to protest, “But we have to get them out!”
“I-it’s alright. I guess I could-“
“No! That’s not fair.” Takaki objects.
“But if I really have to I guess I don’t mind…”
Not one of them believes you. You really don’t want to give it away, and it shows.
“Do you have a phone that works here?” Takaki asks.
You nod slowly, wondering how that’s going to help.
“Okay then, do you have a pen?”
You find one in your bag and hand it to him.
“Chii, give me your hand. What’s your number?”
You hesitate, but then tell him.
He writes it on Chinen’s palm and then pushes you out of the closet whilst instructing you, “Find your friend, give her the ball and get out. I’ll make sure Chinen finds a way to pay you back.”
“But I gave it to her in the first pl---“
Now Takaki’s hand is over Chinen’s mouth and you are back in the hallway.
You wander stealthily through the halls until you see the others. As predicted, Mei agrees to leave after you offer her the ball. You’re not surprised since you’re pretty sure that her jealousy over it was what caused this whole incident. You manage you herd your friends out of the building without seeing anyone or being seen. Once outside, you and Saki say goodbye to Fuyu and Mei.
On the train Saki keeps telling you how amazing it was that you were sung to, and how she hopes they do that sort of thing at a NEWS concert. Once she’s off into her fantasy she’s pretty much entirely gone, so you are able to just lead her home while wondering to yourself how Chinen is going to repay you.
Continue to part J2.