I never even claimed...
Title: I never even claimed…
Author: Ki-el
Rating: G
Pairing: KoyaShige (friendship)
Genre: Friendship
Summary: NEWS gang up on Shige (by accident… probably…) because he fails… again… thank god he’s got a friend like Koyama… and a notebook.
Koyama had just managed to turn on the lights in the dressing room when Shige already kicked one of the lockers so hard that it rattled really loud. Koyama winced at that sound. Oh dear, this time the others really went too far.
“I hate this!”, his friend uttered with gritted teeth, “I hate this so - much!” He turned around just to give the locker another boot. Even traces appeared now: a small dint formed. Poor locker.
“I never even claimed to be a good singer! Why do I have to be in this fucked up situation now?!” Shige slammed one of the locker’s doors with full force.
Aaaaaaaah~ This was such a fit. But it was twice-overdue. Shige had endured about two years without another “I didn’t even claim”.
So, Koyama smiled sheepishly.
“They mean no harm and you know that.”
"No, of course they mean no harm!” Shige knocked over some bench and Koyama took a mental note: don’t get Shige into a dressing room next time. Too many things to demolish.
“It makes me sick! I am so fed up!”
“Ryo-chan is just making-“
“Making fun?! No! He is HAVING fun! He’s far away from just making fun of me.“
The second bench went flying.
“Still, I’m okay with Nishikido. But Tegoshi...” Shige clenched his fists.
Oh my... this time they really did it. They really had hurt Shige. But above everything else he was just angry and disappointed: angry with himself and disappointed because of his own shortcomings. All Koyama could do was sigh.
The whole situation hadn’t been great from the start. What a way to trample on Shige’s pride.
A few minutes before, NEWS had been together in their meeting room, discussing the b-sides for their new single. The a-side had already been determined but they yet had to decide on the three other songs of course. All of them had listened to various demo tapes and had then chosen three songs to go with. After that, it had been time to decide on the solo parts for each member and this always took a lot of time.
Discussing the a-side was a piece of cake since it was all about bringing out NEWS’ “highlights”. That means they had to find good parts for YamaP und Ryo-chan and to emphasize Tegoshi’s and Massu’s voices to the fullest. This way the arrangement fell into place without much effort and was finished in 30 minutes.
But the b-sides... there was some space to discuss. It always consumed the whole afternoon since they had to talk Tegoshi out of turning every single song into his personal solo. So, half of the time they had to prevent Ryo from killing Tegoshi while YamaP was just fed up at some point and left the room until Massu, Koyama and Shige were able to convince Tegoshi that his lines were the best parts of the song anyway, so he would stop complaining.
But there was another problem child...
“How about giving the first part of the second verse to Shige?”
"Naaa... look, the melody is pretty high-pitched in the end.”
“Bungler.” Ryo shook his head.
“What about the second half?”
“Mh... that isn’t a good idea either. It’s really melodic and striking the right notes is important there...”
“But the bridge...”
“Don’t worry, Tegoshi. No on is going to steal the bridge from you.”
Tegoshi breathed a sigh of relief and YamaP just rolled his eyes.
“Mh... it’s really no easy song.”
“Seriously, Shige, you’re such a loser”, Ryo bristled. “Then just let’s go with this: Shige gets the second half of the second verse. End of story.”
“But we cannot perform the song on concerts then...“, YamaP objected.
“We won’t then! Period! If need be, we’ll only sing the first half! Next! I really have other stuff on today as well.”
Ryo threw another set of sheet music onto the table, everyone skim-read over it, then Tegoshi sighed.
“Still no rap parts.”
“That’s right...” YamaP nodded thoughtfully.
“What if...“, Massu suggested hesitantly and piped up for the first time in this conversation. “What if someone sings together with him...”
“Great idea!” Tegoshi’s face brightened up and he smiled widely at Shige. “Shall I sing with you? Of course you can sing with Massu, too!”, he suggested condescendingly.
It seemed like Koyama was the only one who recognized Shige’s aura getting darker and darker and he also knew that Tegoshi’s comment would be the last straw. Shige just got up, excused himself and then rushed out of the room.
“I...”, Koyama started but YamaP just waved his hand without looking up from the sheets. So Koyama followed his friend, caught up with him on the hallway and guided him towards an unused dressing room.
“I really wish I was part of KAT-TUN!” Shige leaned against one of the lockers. “Taguchi cannot sing one bit better than I can. Tanaka as well. But it doesn’t even matter for them! They have Akanishi and Kamenashi. No one is going to notice when they don’t get even one solo line live...“
“Oh Shige...”
“No, seriously!” Then, as if all energy left him, he slumped down and just huddled on the floor. “I honestly don’t mean to hold everyone up. I can’t remember stepping forward and claiming to be able to sing two octaves like Tegoshi or Massu, or having a voice like Yamashita or Nishikido. I never applied for the position of being compared to a bunch of singing talents!”
Koyama sat down next to his friend, sighing. Then he smiled. Shige really never changed much...
“I never even claimed to be a good dancer!” Kato kicked the toilet door and noticed only then that someone had entered the room. It was one of the other juniors he’d just had dancing practice with.
“Sorry... I...“, Shige said while the other one wanted to apologize, too. “I’ll just leave...” - “No, you shouldn’t. I’m really sorry...“
Koyama, the one who had entered before, took a look at the boy in front of him who was close to tearing his hair out - that’s how depressed he was. He had the appearance of a high school student, Koyama thought. His name was Kato. This he knew, even if it was only since during practice “Kato-kun, you are off again!” was a quite common phrase.
“I’m... Koyama Keiichiro.”
“Ah, right.“ Kato nodded as if his thoughts were somewhere far away. Koyama was not completely unfamiliar to him since he had noticed him a number of times already when they had practice together. He could not be overseen with his blond hair.
„Kato Shigeaki. Nice to meet you“, he introduced himself. It took Koyama a few seconds to consider if it wasn’t weird to console someone older than himself. On the other hand, Kato just looked so completely gutted...
“Don’t worry, it is only a matter of practice...”
“It is, but obviously just for me...” Depressed, Kato leaned against the washing sink and looked to the ground.
Even in JE’s standards, he could still be considered beautiful.
“Oh come on! Don’t be so negative!”
“That’s easy for you to say...”
“Where are you stuck?”
“I don’t even know... halfway through, when the chorus starts, it’s like my feet just won’t move as I want them to.“
“You mean that?” Koyama did some dance steps.
“Exactly.” Kato’s glance got even darker.
“Look, you have to do it this way... and then.... then... wait a minute, what was it like? One, two, three? No... right? Wait... this way? ... Eh? EH??”
When Koyama looked up completely confused with himself, Kato tried to refrain from laughing.
“You’re really a silly klutz, aren’t you?” He tried to sound superior but it was impossible. He was just particularly amused.
Koyama laughed and was proud of himself since he was able to successfully rescue this boy from his little depression. So, without bothering about being called a klutz, he answered cheerfully: “Well, I really don’t know any more! I was pretty sure just one minute ago!” The next sentence that was on the tip of his tongue would have been «Maybe you rubbed off on me?», but he refrained from any comments like that.
“Gosh, it’s like I’m rubbing off on you!”, Kato answered instead, running his hand through his hair and got on his feet again. He didn’t even notice Koyama’s big grin. Instead, he began to think really hard and furrowed his brow. “Wasn’t it something like this, this and then this?”
“There you go!” Koyama clapped his hands. “You can do it!“
“Seems so...” Confused, Kato stared at his feet, then he looked up to Koyama.
“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me instead?”
“Maybe I do.”
Then, both started to grin at each other.
“I wish Kusano and Uchi would still be around! This way I could just take my seat in the last row, shut up and have my part in the chorus together with everyone else!”
“Oh Shige... I’m not the best singer in the band either.”
“At least you can carry a tune and you’re able to hit it straightaway. You’re the band’s MC, too - even if you don’t know what that’s standing for.”
Oops.
“And they actually need you!”
Before Koyama could give an answer to this, his mobile rang. On the other side, there was a slightly annoyed YamaP, asking if the two of them would be so kind to get back to work.
So Koyama got on his feet and reached out for Shige with an encouraging smile. “You’re thinking too much again, Shige.”
“As if I don’t know that!”
Koyama only laughed and while humming “Tambourine”, he pulled Shige back to the backstage room and hoped that he would get the hint.
When they entered the room, YamaP leaned against the table and gave Shige a killing glance.
“You really could have saved us from a whole bunch of troubles, you know?”
Shige felt like a scolded 5-year-old. “I’m sorry... it won’t happen again...”
Anyway, Koyama didn’t have the feeling that YamaP was angry because of Shige’s sudden escape since the scene happening right behind YamaP’s back was just too curious. The other three members were sitting at the table almost on top of each other trying to catch a glimpse of something Tegoshi was holding. When Koyama joined them and leaned over to see something, he realized that Shige’s notebook was the centre of attention.
“Shige, you’re a genius!” Tegoshi looked up, literally glittering at Shige but ignorant of the fact that he was the one to get him into this situation in the first place.
“Eh?” Shige stared at him wide-eyed.
“Honestly, Kato-kun, just tell us right from the start. We are wasting our time here!“
“What are you talking about?“
“Your notes, idiot. Could you boot up your brain for once?”
YamaP flashed Ryo a glare before he turned back to Shige. “Really. Next time, please just let us know about your ideas right from the start instead of waiting until our crises reaches its peak…”
“And we have to take a peek at your notes…”, Massu comented. “Huhuhuhuhu.”
Only now Shige began to realize what was happening here. Still, the first thing that came to his mind was: “You... you looked through my bag?”
“Well...” YamaP turned away embarrassed and also Massu was suddenly very interested in the surface of the table.
“We did!” Tegoshi on the other side was all smiles, not wasting even one thought on the idea that he could have been doing something wrong.
“But you guys cannot just...” Shige was speechless.
“But Shige... what options did we have?“ Tegoshi looked at him with his big eyes. “You were not here... and Kei-chan wasn’t here either... there was no one left to know what’s up with you!“
“B-... I-...”
Shige gave up. He simply could not stand a chance against Tegoshi’s way of logic.
Tegoshi’s talk with Shige gave Massu enough time to take the notebook from the youngest member and hand it to Koyama who flipped through the pages with great astonishment.
Shige never failed to surprise him: he had written comments on every song, not only including the arrangement of solo lines but also suggestions for little changes, how to make specific lines better singable for himself or how to highlight Ryo’s and Tegoshi’s voices even more. When did he have the time to prepare something like that, speaking of concerts, interviews, K-chan NEWS, rehearsals, photo shootings... oh, yes, and this minor matter called “law studies”?!
“Okay guys, I want to catch the train at five, so everyone, sit down, shut up and work!”
Only five minutes later the b-side was completely arranged and Shige was left in charge of always preparing stuff like this in the future.
It was already late when Shige went home. When he was on the train and flipped through his notebook to write down an idea he had for a new essay, the next page was not empty. There was already something written and undoubtedly it was Koyama’s handwriting:
“No one ever claimed that NEWS doesn’t need you.”
The text was followed by some <3 and so Shige could only smile to himself.
“He really is a silly klutz“, he mumbled.
Author: Ki-el
Rating: G
Pairing: KoyaShige (friendship)
Genre: Friendship
Summary: NEWS gang up on Shige (by accident… probably…) because he fails… again… thank god he’s got a friend like Koyama… and a notebook.
Koyama had just managed to turn on the lights in the dressing room when Shige already kicked one of the lockers so hard that it rattled really loud. Koyama winced at that sound. Oh dear, this time the others really went too far.
“I hate this!”, his friend uttered with gritted teeth, “I hate this so - much!” He turned around just to give the locker another boot. Even traces appeared now: a small dint formed. Poor locker.
“I never even claimed to be a good singer! Why do I have to be in this fucked up situation now?!” Shige slammed one of the locker’s doors with full force.
Aaaaaaaah~ This was such a fit. But it was twice-overdue. Shige had endured about two years without another “I didn’t even claim”.
So, Koyama smiled sheepishly.
“They mean no harm and you know that.”
"No, of course they mean no harm!” Shige knocked over some bench and Koyama took a mental note: don’t get Shige into a dressing room next time. Too many things to demolish.
“It makes me sick! I am so fed up!”
“Ryo-chan is just making-“
“Making fun?! No! He is HAVING fun! He’s far away from just making fun of me.“
The second bench went flying.
“Still, I’m okay with Nishikido. But Tegoshi...” Shige clenched his fists.
Oh my... this time they really did it. They really had hurt Shige. But above everything else he was just angry and disappointed: angry with himself and disappointed because of his own shortcomings. All Koyama could do was sigh.
The whole situation hadn’t been great from the start. What a way to trample on Shige’s pride.
A few minutes before, NEWS had been together in their meeting room, discussing the b-sides for their new single. The a-side had already been determined but they yet had to decide on the three other songs of course. All of them had listened to various demo tapes and had then chosen three songs to go with. After that, it had been time to decide on the solo parts for each member and this always took a lot of time.
Discussing the a-side was a piece of cake since it was all about bringing out NEWS’ “highlights”. That means they had to find good parts for YamaP und Ryo-chan and to emphasize Tegoshi’s and Massu’s voices to the fullest. This way the arrangement fell into place without much effort and was finished in 30 minutes.
But the b-sides... there was some space to discuss. It always consumed the whole afternoon since they had to talk Tegoshi out of turning every single song into his personal solo. So, half of the time they had to prevent Ryo from killing Tegoshi while YamaP was just fed up at some point and left the room until Massu, Koyama and Shige were able to convince Tegoshi that his lines were the best parts of the song anyway, so he would stop complaining.
But there was another problem child...
“How about giving the first part of the second verse to Shige?”
"Naaa... look, the melody is pretty high-pitched in the end.”
“Bungler.” Ryo shook his head.
“What about the second half?”
“Mh... that isn’t a good idea either. It’s really melodic and striking the right notes is important there...”
“But the bridge...”
“Don’t worry, Tegoshi. No on is going to steal the bridge from you.”
Tegoshi breathed a sigh of relief and YamaP just rolled his eyes.
“Mh... it’s really no easy song.”
“Seriously, Shige, you’re such a loser”, Ryo bristled. “Then just let’s go with this: Shige gets the second half of the second verse. End of story.”
“But we cannot perform the song on concerts then...“, YamaP objected.
“We won’t then! Period! If need be, we’ll only sing the first half! Next! I really have other stuff on today as well.”
Ryo threw another set of sheet music onto the table, everyone skim-read over it, then Tegoshi sighed.
“Still no rap parts.”
“That’s right...” YamaP nodded thoughtfully.
“What if...“, Massu suggested hesitantly and piped up for the first time in this conversation. “What if someone sings together with him...”
“Great idea!” Tegoshi’s face brightened up and he smiled widely at Shige. “Shall I sing with you? Of course you can sing with Massu, too!”, he suggested condescendingly.
It seemed like Koyama was the only one who recognized Shige’s aura getting darker and darker and he also knew that Tegoshi’s comment would be the last straw. Shige just got up, excused himself and then rushed out of the room.
“I...”, Koyama started but YamaP just waved his hand without looking up from the sheets. So Koyama followed his friend, caught up with him on the hallway and guided him towards an unused dressing room.
“I really wish I was part of KAT-TUN!” Shige leaned against one of the lockers. “Taguchi cannot sing one bit better than I can. Tanaka as well. But it doesn’t even matter for them! They have Akanishi and Kamenashi. No one is going to notice when they don’t get even one solo line live...“
“Oh Shige...”
“No, seriously!” Then, as if all energy left him, he slumped down and just huddled on the floor. “I honestly don’t mean to hold everyone up. I can’t remember stepping forward and claiming to be able to sing two octaves like Tegoshi or Massu, or having a voice like Yamashita or Nishikido. I never applied for the position of being compared to a bunch of singing talents!”
Koyama sat down next to his friend, sighing. Then he smiled. Shige really never changed much...
“I never even claimed to be a good dancer!” Kato kicked the toilet door and noticed only then that someone had entered the room. It was one of the other juniors he’d just had dancing practice with.
“Sorry... I...“, Shige said while the other one wanted to apologize, too. “I’ll just leave...” - “No, you shouldn’t. I’m really sorry...“
Koyama, the one who had entered before, took a look at the boy in front of him who was close to tearing his hair out - that’s how depressed he was. He had the appearance of a high school student, Koyama thought. His name was Kato. This he knew, even if it was only since during practice “Kato-kun, you are off again!” was a quite common phrase.
“I’m... Koyama Keiichiro.”
“Ah, right.“ Kato nodded as if his thoughts were somewhere far away. Koyama was not completely unfamiliar to him since he had noticed him a number of times already when they had practice together. He could not be overseen with his blond hair.
„Kato Shigeaki. Nice to meet you“, he introduced himself. It took Koyama a few seconds to consider if it wasn’t weird to console someone older than himself. On the other hand, Kato just looked so completely gutted...
“Don’t worry, it is only a matter of practice...”
“It is, but obviously just for me...” Depressed, Kato leaned against the washing sink and looked to the ground.
Even in JE’s standards, he could still be considered beautiful.
“Oh come on! Don’t be so negative!”
“That’s easy for you to say...”
“Where are you stuck?”
“I don’t even know... halfway through, when the chorus starts, it’s like my feet just won’t move as I want them to.“
“You mean that?” Koyama did some dance steps.
“Exactly.” Kato’s glance got even darker.
“Look, you have to do it this way... and then.... then... wait a minute, what was it like? One, two, three? No... right? Wait... this way? ... Eh? EH??”
When Koyama looked up completely confused with himself, Kato tried to refrain from laughing.
“You’re really a silly klutz, aren’t you?” He tried to sound superior but it was impossible. He was just particularly amused.
Koyama laughed and was proud of himself since he was able to successfully rescue this boy from his little depression. So, without bothering about being called a klutz, he answered cheerfully: “Well, I really don’t know any more! I was pretty sure just one minute ago!” The next sentence that was on the tip of his tongue would have been «Maybe you rubbed off on me?», but he refrained from any comments like that.
“Gosh, it’s like I’m rubbing off on you!”, Kato answered instead, running his hand through his hair and got on his feet again. He didn’t even notice Koyama’s big grin. Instead, he began to think really hard and furrowed his brow. “Wasn’t it something like this, this and then this?”
“There you go!” Koyama clapped his hands. “You can do it!“
“Seems so...” Confused, Kato stared at his feet, then he looked up to Koyama.
“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me instead?”
“Maybe I do.”
Then, both started to grin at each other.
“I wish Kusano and Uchi would still be around! This way I could just take my seat in the last row, shut up and have my part in the chorus together with everyone else!”
“Oh Shige... I’m not the best singer in the band either.”
“At least you can carry a tune and you’re able to hit it straightaway. You’re the band’s MC, too - even if you don’t know what that’s standing for.”
Oops.
“And they actually need you!”
Before Koyama could give an answer to this, his mobile rang. On the other side, there was a slightly annoyed YamaP, asking if the two of them would be so kind to get back to work.
So Koyama got on his feet and reached out for Shige with an encouraging smile. “You’re thinking too much again, Shige.”
“As if I don’t know that!”
Koyama only laughed and while humming “Tambourine”, he pulled Shige back to the backstage room and hoped that he would get the hint.
When they entered the room, YamaP leaned against the table and gave Shige a killing glance.
“You really could have saved us from a whole bunch of troubles, you know?”
Shige felt like a scolded 5-year-old. “I’m sorry... it won’t happen again...”
Anyway, Koyama didn’t have the feeling that YamaP was angry because of Shige’s sudden escape since the scene happening right behind YamaP’s back was just too curious. The other three members were sitting at the table almost on top of each other trying to catch a glimpse of something Tegoshi was holding. When Koyama joined them and leaned over to see something, he realized that Shige’s notebook was the centre of attention.
“Shige, you’re a genius!” Tegoshi looked up, literally glittering at Shige but ignorant of the fact that he was the one to get him into this situation in the first place.
“Eh?” Shige stared at him wide-eyed.
“Honestly, Kato-kun, just tell us right from the start. We are wasting our time here!“
“What are you talking about?“
“Your notes, idiot. Could you boot up your brain for once?”
YamaP flashed Ryo a glare before he turned back to Shige. “Really. Next time, please just let us know about your ideas right from the start instead of waiting until our crises reaches its peak…”
“And we have to take a peek at your notes…”, Massu comented. “Huhuhuhuhu.”
Only now Shige began to realize what was happening here. Still, the first thing that came to his mind was: “You... you looked through my bag?”
“Well...” YamaP turned away embarrassed and also Massu was suddenly very interested in the surface of the table.
“We did!” Tegoshi on the other side was all smiles, not wasting even one thought on the idea that he could have been doing something wrong.
“But you guys cannot just...” Shige was speechless.
“But Shige... what options did we have?“ Tegoshi looked at him with his big eyes. “You were not here... and Kei-chan wasn’t here either... there was no one left to know what’s up with you!“
“B-... I-...”
Shige gave up. He simply could not stand a chance against Tegoshi’s way of logic.
Tegoshi’s talk with Shige gave Massu enough time to take the notebook from the youngest member and hand it to Koyama who flipped through the pages with great astonishment.
Shige never failed to surprise him: he had written comments on every song, not only including the arrangement of solo lines but also suggestions for little changes, how to make specific lines better singable for himself or how to highlight Ryo’s and Tegoshi’s voices even more. When did he have the time to prepare something like that, speaking of concerts, interviews, K-chan NEWS, rehearsals, photo shootings... oh, yes, and this minor matter called “law studies”?!
“Okay guys, I want to catch the train at five, so everyone, sit down, shut up and work!”
Only five minutes later the b-side was completely arranged and Shige was left in charge of always preparing stuff like this in the future.
It was already late when Shige went home. When he was on the train and flipped through his notebook to write down an idea he had for a new essay, the next page was not empty. There was already something written and undoubtedly it was Koyama’s handwriting:
“No one ever claimed that NEWS doesn’t need you.”
The text was followed by some <3 and so Shige could only smile to himself.
“He really is a silly klutz“, he mumbled.