Arashi Fanfic 2: "Kagami" --- Chapter 3
Author’s Notes:
Gomen for the late update. Since I made an LJ post before about why I haven’t updated lately for this fic… I won’t fill these author’s notes with excuses, ohohoho…
So anyways, I’m thinking the apartment building in “Kimi wa Petto” is a sample of what Jap ‘mansions’ look like. And I don’t really know if there’s also a penthouse section in buildings like this in Japan similar to other countries, but I’ve applied that here. My understanding of mansions is similar to paid for condo units… But to keep it simple, I’ll just use the word ‘apartment’ instead of mansion or condo…
Wow, that explanation simply reeked of OCD!
And now… on to the next installment…
Title: Kagami (The Mirror)
Summary: A young woman comes back to Japan to take over the family business, and in the process, she meets the man she’s meant to be with. But is she smart enough to figure out which one he is?
Disclaimer: A fanfiction on Arashi-sama.
Rating: PG to PG-13 (just in case).
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER/S, PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK TO TAKE YOU TO THE MAIN PAGE OF THIS FANFIC…
CHAPTER 3:
She flopped on the living room carpet and stared at her new apartment. Touches of green framed the edges where the walls met the ceiling. But other than that, the rest of it was painted eggshell white. Most of the furniture was modern, but the traditional Japanese décor and ornaments that had once been in her old room when she was growing up didn’t look out of place. She had been apprehensive about moving in when the interior designer had informed her that it was ready. She had not actually seen it finished, preferring to direct the designer from the office rather than meeting him at the condo and spending time away from TBH.
But the moment she stepped in this morning, with her boxes of files and her suitcases, she felt happy and content. It was exactly what she had imagined it would be.
She smiled at the thought of having purchased something this huge just for herself - definitely a rare indulgence. And the best part of it was, this entire apartment building wasn’t owned by any of her family’s companies and she had gotten it free of any strings. Her father had initially asked her to live at their Tokyo family residence, but their truce didn’t last. Even with her younger brother as a buffer, she and her father had ended up at each other’s throats over the running of the company until she had ended up storming off to Suzana’s.
She loved her father. Somewhere deep down, she knew she did. But that didn’t mean that he reciprocated. She was just another expendable person in his life, only right now, he needed her more than she needed him.
Pushing off the melancholy mood, she continued to unpack. And the next box she opened made her smile warmly in memory. She took out her Keio University yearbook and lovingly lifted the pages, searching for her photo, and that of Sho-san’s. Maybe she could bring this to the reunion Sho had invited her to. It would definitely be amusing to compare how everyone looked now from six years ago.
She stopped turning the pages when she spotted Sho, looking so cute, with that chipmunk smile that made him look adorable even when he was wearing a suit. She stared at his face, remembering the time when they had gone out together to celebrate the end of exams week. She traced a finger over his photograph and replayed their dinner at that restaurant. His face and his body had really filled out nicely from his college days. Her eyes lingered over his full and rosy lower lip, and felt herself blush.
The doorbell rang. She got up with a start, feeling guilty over the direction her thoughts had taken.
Looking into the peephole, she suddenly went into hyper-auntie mode and opened the door wide.
“Sayako-chan.” She hugged her niece but felt the young girl tense up in her embrace. She only half heard what Sayako was saying because she concentrated instead on the weird feeling that someone was staring at her. And turning around, she soon realized who exactly that someone was.
“Matsumoto Jun.”
Seeing the shock on her face prompted Jun’s slightly mocking bow at hearing his name from her lips. She actually lived next door to him. He hid the grin on his face, seeing her eyes get rounder with that realization.
“Yey!!! Ba-chan, you remember him from the videos? Or was it the photo books?”
“Iie. She remembers me from last night.” Jun said this slyly as he searched her face and caught apprehension staring back at him.
“You met him? You met him last night and didn’t call to tell me!?!?”
“Ano… Sayako-chan, it was no big deal, really. Sho-san and I were having dinner when he and Aiba-san came into the restaurant.”
“Sho-san? Eh? Why were you having dinner with him?!?! Wait… did you say AIBA-SAN??? As in MY AIBA-SAN?!?!”
Sayako’s voice had continuously gone half an octave higher. Her aunt had gotten used to it with the constant “Arashi this” and “Arashi that” she had been subjected to whenever she saw her niece. And things would only get worse when Sayako visited and Suzana was there. Her head would sometimes pound with the many exclamations of “Kyaaa!!!” coming from those two.
Matsumoto, she noticed, seemed unperturbed by Sayako’s growing hysteria. And when their eyes met, he quirked one of those thick eyebrows at her as if to say “just another day in the life of an idol.”
Egotistical prick.
Ignoring him, she put all her attention on the young girl who seemed hurt by her inattention.
“Sayako-chan… it’s not like I was deliberately keeping this from you… you only just got here, and I was planning to tell you all about it tonight. I’ll even tell you the joke I made that had Aiba-san and Sho-san laughing so much that the waiter asked us to keep it down.”
That statement sobered Jun up, making him lose all traces of enjoying the moment.
“Gomen, Ba-chan. I sometimes forget that you’re one of the busiest people in the world. Sorry for being a bit irrational. I guess it comes with being a teenager…” Sayako shrugged her shoulders, looking uncomfortable as she classified herself among that lot. “Ano, Matsumoto-san? Do you mind if I just grab something really quickly and have you sign it?”
Feeling her embarrassment, Jun smiled tenderly at the young girl and nodded. Seeing that made her aunt grow suspicious of whatever bond had formed between these two that she wasn’t aware of. Sayako made a dash for the living room TV and began searching her aunt’s collection for some of Arashi’s DVDs, which were practically the only things she could have signed right now.
That, of course, left Jun alone with the person Aiba now called Kaichou-san.
“Weren’t expecting to see me so soon?” Jun asked her that as he lounged on the door.
“Never again, actually.”
“So I’m not just imagining things.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t like me.”
She never expected to have to answer that, but the way Matsumoto was looking at her grated on her nerves.
“No, I don’t.”
“Mind if I ask why?”
She smiled smugly just as Sayako returned with her Arashi DVDs.
“Yes, I do mind.”
“Matsumoto-san, if you could sign these please!” Sayako cheerfully asked with all the adoration shining in her eyes and Jun wondered just what exactly she would do if it was Aiba standing in front of her instead. He took the pen and signed some of the DVD covers.
“Ummm… Matsumoto-san…?”
“Hai?” Jun continued signing.
“Will you be meeting with the other members tomorrow?”
One of Jun’s lips twitched in amusement.
“No, tomorrow’s my day off. And I’m not going out to meet with anyone.”
Jun thought he had covered all bases just in case the young girl asked him to play messenger for her beloved Aiba. Or ask that she tag along if they were indeed meeting tomorrow.
“So that means you’re staying in tomorrow?”
“Hai.” Jun handed her back her DVDs.
“That’s great! So you can come over tomorrow and have breakfast with us!”
Whatever Jun was expecting her to say, it definitely wasn’t that. He looked at his new neighbor to assess how she was taking the invitation her niece had made, and he could see her already shaking her head. She glared once at him like it was his idea and that made his temper rise.
“Sure, I’d love to.”
“Hontou?” Sayako smiled at him eagerly.
“Hai, that is, if your aunt doesn’t mind…”
Sayako let out a whooping noise, totally forgetting that she had earlier scorned such exaggerated displays of fangirlism. Any objections her aunt made to the invitation fell on deaf ears.
It was Jun’s turn to look smug.
-0-0-0-0-0-
It was 8:30 am. Sho was tired as he had more or less only four hours of sleep. He had been pouring over the newspapers he had been unable to finish yesterday because of the taping they did for one of their shows. He had felt unprepared for Monday’s News Zero broadcast and sometimes the strain of trying to keep up with the latest happenings was getting to him.
He had to be prepared to discuss anything and everything. A newscaster didn’t just read or relate information. He had to be informed and capable of talking about the news intelligently.
He was actually feeling pretty foolish at having to come to NTV so early in the morning when there was nothing for him to do. Today was a Saturday and amazingly enough, he only had a brief meeting with a few producers at 10am and he was done for the day. He could have sent someone to get what he needed from the TV station but he feared sending an assistant, or anyone else for that matter, to rummage through his things.
Idiot that he was, he had scribbled her name along the edges of his notes during the News Zero meeting yesterday. And it was only last night, when he was reviewing newspapers that he realized he had left those notes at the News Zero green room.
Sho closed his eyes and shook his head as he entered the elevator.
Baka!
He was pretty careless about some things but this was taking his sloppiness to a new level. When the elevator doors opened, he saw a familiar figure sitting on one of the couches of the floor lobby.
“Eh? Sakurai-san?”
“Ohayou… Morimoto-san.”
He remembered my name!
Suzana reigned in her inner “kyaaa” and reminded herself she was here on business.
“It’s pretty early for a meeting, isn’t it?” She noted that he was dressed casually in faded jeans and a shirt, a silver chain hanging from his neck and a baseball cap on his head. He was carrying a leather file organizer which had made her assume he was here for a meeting.
“Ah, my meeting isn’t until later but I came to pick up some stuff I left. You’re here pretty early, too…” Sho let the sentence hang like a question.
“Ano… I received the finished taping of your interview with Kaichou and I just wanted to go over it with the staff. This was the only time the editing room was free so… that’s why I’m here.”
Sho smiled as he picked up on one of the words she used. “Do you all call her ‘Kaichou’?”
“Oh… no, no… I call her by her first name, we’re really good friends… but I guess it’s become habit for all of us at TBH to call her that.”
“Morimoto-san, we’re ready for you.” One of the News Zero staff members called her for their editing session. Inclining his head to both her and the staff in farewell, Sho made his way to the green room.
The clutter on his desk looked the same as when he had left it.
Yokatta.
He began stuffing papers into his leather case. And when that was done, he took a deep breath in relief. Looking at his watch, he realized that his meeting wasn’t on for another hour or so.
Sho dropped onto the couch, and just before closing his eyes to sleep, he sent his manager a text message to fetch him from the green room before the meeting started. With how tired he was and all the stress over his own stupidity, he’d probably sleep through his cell phone’s alarm.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Morimoto Suzana was the best at what she did. And it was no small feat to land an executive position at TBH and get promoted to one of the marketing director positions as well as publicist within only two years. Some said that her connection to the president’s daughter had a hand in her getting this job. But anyone who knew the current patriarch of TBH would know that he only hired the best.
It was sad that he acknowledged that trait in all of his executives but ignored his own daughter’s accomplishments. Suzana took the re-edited video from the staff and placed it in her bag. Waiting at the cafeteria for almost an hour for them to finish all the changes she wanted done and then exporting the video into DVD was definitely worth it.
As she pressed the elevator door, it opened to reveal Sakurai Sho, making this her second encounter with him for the day. She smiled and greeted him as she got in.
“Did you finish the editing?”
“Hai. Now all that’s left is to take this to Kaichou and have her approve it. And I’m positive she will.”
“You’re taking that to her now?”
“She told me to bring it as soon as it was finished.”
Sho was impressed.
“The both of you sure work hard.”
She bowed in response to his praise. “As do you.”
A sudden thought entered Sho’s head.
“You’re going back to the office, right?” He didn’t wait for her to reply, and rushed into his true objective. “I can drive you there, I’ve also been meaning to talk to your Kaichou about something, if she’s not too busy, that is.” Sho hoped that his excuse in trying to see her wouldn’t get noticed by Morimoto-san. He actually didn’t know what he would say when he got there. But the lunch hour was drawing near, and she had to eat sometime.
“Iie… I’m taking this to her at her apartment.”
“Apartment? You mean she’s not at the office?”
“No, but if it’s too much trouble for you to drive me there instead, I’ll be sure to relay any message you might have for her.”
Suzana smiled to herself. If she was judging this man right, it would seem that her best friend was definitely not harboring unrequited feelings all these years. And Morimoto Suzana was going to give her the best surprise of her life by bringing Sakurai Sho straight to her doorstep.
-0-0-0-0-0-
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Author’s Notes:
I’ve been replaying Sho’s Hanamaru Café and Oshaerism interviews… and niban’s sense of humor is just so amazingly awesome! Sigh!
Hopefully I can post my next chapter before I go on hiatus from May 27 to June 1… I’m going on a trip with college friends… probably my last, or semi-last outing before the summer ends …
So what are your thoughts on Chapter 3?