ENG - [YabuxInoo] - Merry-Go-Round Goes 5(b) - The Whirlabout
Title : Merry-Go-Round Goes
Chapter : 5(b)/8
Pairing(s)/Fandom : Yabu Kota x Inoo Kei / Hey! Say! JUMP, NEWS, Kisumai, mention of Arashi
Author : ma_rendezvous
Genre : AU. Romance
Rating : mostly NC-17
Warning : Explicit content. Dirty words. Slight mention of use of drugs. A paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)
Disclaimer : The main story belongs to Garry Marshall's team. I have the improvisations and other things. The rests are idols, everyone owns these idols. Ha ha!
A/N : お待たせ致しました！！！ Thanks for waiting! Oh, and...[a little spoiler...]EVERY SINGLE ONE IN THIS CHAPTER IS CONSIDERED ASSHOLE, THANK YOU.
Summary : Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.
( 1 / 2 / 3 / 4a / 4b / 5a )
Merry-Go-Round Goes
- Chapter 5 -
Part (a)
Inoo was puzzled witnessing Yaotome Hikaru choosing a can of Black Premium rather than a more decent cup of black coffee sold at a cafetaria inside the Sumo arena, which probably had much of a better quality. The hooker had seen Yabu being so royale with his life, wearing clothes from world class designers, ordering all foods in the menu for breakfast, taking him to shopping, brewing what seemed like the most expensive coffee beans in the morning. But yet here in contrast, outside the arena under the blue sky and bright sun, Hikaru, who’s just seen wearing a plain sky blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows and first snap left unbuttoned, was happily picking up his cheap coffee can from inside the cheap vending machine, looking so ‘normal’ like any other middle class workers, as if he weren’t someone who in the future would be the president of a massive dockyard. Hikaru had just treated Inoo a can of Mountain Dew, but really, these two cans were no more than four hundred yens in total, and it left Inoo amused if not wondered.
“Thank you,” Inoo said as he received his green can, watching as Hikaru took a seat next to him with a somewhat contented exhale which sounded more like a tired uncle after a day of hard work. The black haired male was smiling, because, simply, really, who wouldn’t?
“You’re welcome.” Hikaru nodded, smiling in return. He opened his can of cold Black Premium and took a sip, wriggling a little to its bitter taste. “Ah, damn, so hot! I think my sweat just started sweating!”
“It is! I too think so! Summer is really horrible in Tokyo!” The ravenette giggled, opening his can of cold Mountain Dew. He hadn’t been giggling for a long time, but it seemed like Hikaru wouldn’t judge, so he let it out.
“I know, right? If not because of this business and stuff, I might have been just staying in Sendai-which isn’t this bright and killing! Do you know that Sendai is chill and windy because we have lots of trees in the middle of our streets? Unlike Tokyo. Tokyo is bald like an old man's head!”
Inoo laughed, covering his mouth with the back of his hand, the same hand he used to hold his green can of soda. His eyes were narrowing and he almost shut them completely, that he didn’t realize that next to him, Hikaru was staring.
“You’re kind of very funny, Yaotome-kun-”
“Just call me Hikaru, please?” Hikaru cut him mid-sentence fast. He turned his face to Inoo in one sharp motion before slanting his smile to a side which then made one of his cheeks puffed. Hikaru’s eyebrows had this almost flat shape that made him, somehow, in Inoo’s opinion, despite joking around, looked rather sad for no apparent reason. “Trust me. Nobody’s ever called me Yaotome before.”
“Really? But you’re like…”
“The heir of Yaotome Industries and all?”
“Yeah?” Inoo blinked.
“It’s four friggin’ syllabels; it’s hard to utter! Ya-o-to-me. Right? It's hard!” Hikaru laughed. He drank again his Black Premium before continuing, “And anyway, I’m just a candidate. By candidate I mean I have rivals, and I still have so much to learn before I could take over my Grandfather’s position.” He lowered his gaze before turning them forward. “They said I’m not ready for this, that the company shouldn’t be led by a little brat like me. They don’t know how serious I can be. Do you think I’m a brat?”
Inoo saw through Hikaru’s black marble eyes, a spark of earnestness of a young leader going-to-be. Hikaru did look kind of humorous, with his blunt expression, his sparkling smile and everything. But his eyes spoke different, and Inoo noticed that. Hikaru looked tough and hard to defeat-as expected of someone who emotionally dared to cuss Yabu Kota on a business dinner, and Inoo believed that Hikaru wouldn’t get hurt that easily. The hooker then smiled reasurringly to Hikaru. Of course Hikaru is the best candidate for a family business, Inoo thought, but ended up not saying a word about it.
“I think you have really weird eyebrows.” Inoo joked instead, chuckling.
Hikaru’s eyes widened instantly.
“No way! I can’t believe even Ino-chan said so too!” Hikaru whined, his fingers touching his flat eyebrows, his lips pouting childishly.
Ino-chan?
The hooker knitted his eyebrows ever so slightyly.
And then out of the blue, Hikaru’s expression drastically changed that he didn’t look like he’s joking anymore. The smile on his face dropped into a thin curved upward line, his eyes seemed so concerned and his cheeks no longer puffed. He stared straight through Inoo’s eyes and Inoo found the stare piercing into his brainpan. The stare was so intense yet at the same time tender, soft, soothing, almost endearing, almost as if he were admiring Inoo in a way, and Inoo found it suffocating. He couldn’t read the meaning behind Hikaru’s compassionate stare to him. He couldn’t even tell Hikaru’s real intention of taking him out of the Sumo arena, away from the reach of Yabu Kota.
“But though you actually have weird eyebrows yourself,” Hikaru said unexpectedly, his tender black marble eyes never left Inoo’s light brown ones. “I think you’re really pretty.”
The raven dropped his smile, feeling like his heart just missed a beat. No, his heart didn’t miss a beat. His heart rattled really hard in his heart that he believed it was even faster than the fastest bullet train in the whole country. Spontaneously, both his brain and his heart simultaneously converted himself into a defensive mode, building shield for no apparent reason.
But did Hikaru just say that Inoo’s really pretty?
Hikaru looked so serious that Inoo almost believed he meant every words. He knew Hikaru didn’t mean no harm; hell, Inoo bet Hikaru didn’t even know that Inoo was a prostitute. Nevertheless, Inoo was reminded of Yabu’s existence, that he was completely Yabu’s at the moment, and he should be Yabu’s and Yabu’s only. However, he couldn’t even call himself as Yabu’s someone officially, because the taller wasn’t even his lover! He was just a mere customer of his, and that he’s actually a hooker; a goddamned prostitute! How many times should he remind himself of his occupation? Then again, why did he make himself defensive from another guy? Hadn’t he got used to being called pretty all the time around Shinjuku Ni Chome and some love hotels around the town during sex?
So why was Hikaru’s different?
What the hell’s with Hikaru’s face?
Inoo’s system went blank. All the struggles inside him made the raven hooker scream internally, that he wanted real bad to break down…
Because not even Yabu had ever said such word to him.
And at a point he realized he actually wanted so hard for Yabu to say such word to him.
“What’s wrong?” Hikaru asked, looking concerned since Inoo looked like brooding over. “I’m sorry, did I offend you?”
“No! of course not!” Inoo shook his head quickly, trying to clear off his mind. What the hell am I thinking? “I just saw a giant bee behind your ear but now it’s gone.” He giggled, telling yet another lie for the day.
“…Okay,” Though still concerened, Hikaru tried to shrug it off. Maybe he realized Inoo was lying, maybe he didn’t. The short haired male took another sip of his black coffee, scorning while staring at his can afterward. “And Ino-chan, to be honest with you, I don’t like coffees.”
“Huh?” Inoo was surprised hearing Hikaru’s amusing confession. Still, he was trying hard to supress the thunderstruck inside of him, but the friendly smile never faded off of his face. “Then why did you buy and drink it if you don’t like it?”
“I’m training myself to be a CEO, what else?” Hikaru reasoned, again, pouting. His humorous visage, his childishness, and all the other comic crept back to his face. “Aren’t all CEOs in the world into black coffees? And though I don’t get it myself, apparently they drink it every morning.”
Inoo, who recalled in mind that earlier in the morning Yabu was drinking a black coffee he brewed himself, again, bursted out laughing onto Hikaru’s amusing kind of silly reasoning. He covered his mouth with the back of the hand he’s using to hold his green can of Mountain Dew. But as he laughed, the black haired hooker didn’t notice that Hikaru was smiling contentedly-if not admiringly-towards his profile at all.
There was a sadness in Inoo’s laugh, yet Hikaru found it beautiful.
*-*-*-*-*
Inside the arena itself, Yabu had been asking anyone he knew and had introduced Inoo Kei to whether they’d seen the ravenette around or not. He went as far as to search for Inoo from one block of seat to another, trying to come across the hooker’s bundle of black hair and fair pale skin, only to find none of the faces were Inoo’s beautiful one. And since Inoo was nowhere to be found, Yabu began to feel worried whilst so many possibilities came across his mind; what if Inoo ran away because he saw someone who knew him, what if he were harrassed and made fun of and decided to get away from the venue, or what if he were kidnapped?
Yabu didn’t want to imagine any bad things happening to his Kei, since he was starting to cherish Inoo’s presence and feel comfortable around the smaller guy. He was just not willing to lose him. At least not yet, though he still ignored the fact that he cared.
The tall brunette then initiated himself to look for Inoo outside the arena. He was probably at the cafetaria to get something to eat, since Yabu began to note himself that Inoo was rather glutonous kind of person. Therefore without a second thought, as the referee of the Sumo game announcing the beginning of the final’s first round, Yabu dashed out of the arena’s large double door onto the hallway, going straight to the cafetaria and seeking for Inoo’s silhouette. When he found Inoo wasn’t at the cafetaria at all, not along the hallways, not even inside the toilets, Yabu started to get panicked inside. He still looked calm outside, nonetheless, with his expression as flat as ever. But it’s just because he couldn’t and wasn’t used to showing his concerned emotion to anyone else.
As he walked along the hallway of the west wing, he saw Takaki finished talking with some random higher ups around. Yabu really didn’t want to talk to Takaki somehow, but before he could get away from his childhood friend after turning on his heels, he heard his name being called. He stopped his track though he didn’t want to, just because he was obliged to answer Takaki’s call. Turning back to Takaki, Yabu boundedly greeted the ginger head back.
“You are avoiding me, ain’t you?” Takaki said, a little coldly.
“Yes.” Yabu said back.
“How unbelievable. After half of our age, seriously?” Takaki rolled his eyes. “I can read you like a book, Kota.”
At that point, Yabu decided to look for Inoo again and therefore he started walking along the hallway. And though he got annoyed with the fact that Takaki was catching up with his feet, following him like an aide, the taller brunette didn’t say anything about it. The two of them walked along the hallway with the red carpet, with Yabu concentrating himself nervously searching for Inoo’s tip of nose, and Takaki simultaneously distracting him irritatingly with yet another business talk.
“You’ve been reported, don’t you? Yaotome-san’s raising your offer.” Takaki said. “And apparently, the old man’s kind of mortgaging every pieces of his coins into the bank. You won’t believe where he’s securing his mortgage, I tell you.”
“Yeah, where?” Yabu said, obviously not giving a damn about anything that his lawyer had just said. He averted his gaze to somewhere else, busying himself looking for the hooker he hired instead of listening to Takaki, his childhood friend, his lawyer, the one who contributed to his company from the very start until the very moment.
“It’s not just kind of bank. It’s Muzuho Bank.” Takaki continued, turning his eyes to his childhood friend as well as the company’s boss walking beside him. The lawyer chuckled and grinned merrily of his own thought. “The director of the bank is a great friend of your father, so all you’ve got to do is call the bank and cancel Yaotome’s mortgage and any of his deal, and he’ll definitely collapse.”
Yabu stopped walking near the exact front door of the Sumo arena, where people were passing come and go. He turned his heels, his eyes were piercing into Takaki’s with ‘Right now I just don’t care’ kind of glare, and as the lawyer began to realize, his smile immediately faded.
“I wonder, what are we actually doing?” Yabu asked all of a sudden, and the question came out of nowhere. There were sadness in Yabu’s eyes and confusion in his voice. It was as if Yabu was on the verge of giving up, or whether he had been feeling sick of talking about the means, and Takaki didn’t like it at one bit. “We’re not building anything, Yuya. We’re not making anything.”
“We’re making money. What the hell is wrong with you?” Takaki firmly said. He was mad and almost losing his mind, that he couldn’t control his usually calm demeanor. With his eyebrows knitted and his forehead furrowed, the lawyer kept on, “Excuse me to agree with Kitayama this time, Buddy, but we’ve worked for a whole fucking year for this project. And I know it, I witnessed it myself, I was there when you promised your father to handle Yaotome Industries. You said this is what you want. And now Yaotome Goro’s jugular is exposed, all you have to do now is to flick your blade! Let’s finish this, and we can go back to New York City to have our lives back.”
Takaki’s persuasive advice passed through Yabu’s ears, but wasn’t able to possess the taller’s brain. Yabu threw his gaze onto somewhere seemingly far-though in fact it was just the creamy white wall right across the room. He was almost not thinking about anything when he remembered Inoo Kei, the hooker, the one negotiating a six hundred thousands worth of contract, the one calling him pure capitalist for trying to buy someone else’s assets, which he had done since the day he got his undergraduate degree. Did he miss something else about the prostitute?
Suddenly he remembered the fact that he actually saw Inoo’s unhappy face when they entered Hanyu Department Store. And as sudden as that, Yabu remembered what Inoo had said on the phone earlier…
Just because you have all the money in the world, doesn’t mean you can just throw them all away like a combustible garbage.
What was that even supposed to mean?
Yabu’s mind was whirling inside.
The tall brunette, however, intended to say something about Yaotome Goro and his mortgage on Muzuho Bank when suddenly Kitayama called his name and ran onto them.
“Yabu, hey, Yabu!” Kitayama greeted with an extremely wide grin on his face. He pulled Yabu’s upper arm a little so that the taller brunette got the best spot of view of the outside of the Sumo dome’s glass front door. He looked up to Yabu and waited for whatever he was waiting to happen.
And that was it.
Yabu’s eyes grew wide like he never did before. His jaw hang down and his mouth left half opened seeing the view of the outside of the arena near the red and white automatic vending machines under the sunny sky of summer. The young CEO was probably losing his mind at the moment, because he finally, finally, found Inoo next to the vending machines, sitting, drinking something off of a can, looking refreshed and happy. But the black haired male wasn’t alone. Yabu saw someone else there. And though with shorter hair, he knew it was Yaotome Hikaru. In Yabu’s vision, the both of them were laughing and joking about anything that he couldn’t hear, and they looked happy.
And it broke his heart.
“Isn’t that the sweet guy you introduced to me before?” Kitayama asked, acting his best to look concerned, though the sly smirk on his face was still as apparent.
Takaki, who got curious of what Yabu and Kitayama was seeing, walked closer to the both of them and saw the guy who was still unknown to him talking with Hikaru. He averted his gaze to Yabu, and immediately able to recognize who the pretty black haired male actually was.
“What’s his name, again? Inoo Kei?” Kitayama kept his act on. “He looks really close to Hikaru-kun, isn’t he. Is he working? What does he do for the living?”
Yabu was boiling that he wanted to break something right on the spot. He was angry. He was feeling betrayed, or something, anything that resembled jealousy-but not jealousy, because he didn’t want to admit it; though he did not have any reasons for having such feeling, since Inoo was certianly nothing to him. But it somehow mattered, Inoo mattered. Yet breaking down wasn’t what a corporate raid leader’s supposed to do, so he just sighed and buried his emotions under his calm visage.
Still, as he turned his eyes back to Kitayama, suspecting whatever would be Kitayama’s motive which smelled obviously scheming and sly, the calmness of his face turned cold
“Why do you want to know?” Yabu asked bitterly.
“Well, I mean, we’ve been friends for a long time, right? And I see you’re gradually changing.” Kitayama shrugged, acting concerned. “If you were into-like-you know?-that kind of love-then maybe he’s the one bringing the change to you. And the change is-down at hill. Especially that right now he’s talking so closely with Yaotome Hikaru. Look!”
“I introduced them in dinner the other night.” Yabu said, his voice shifted from cold to hurt, but not even Takaki noticed that.
“And now they’re best friends or something?” Kitayama sneaked. His smirked turned into anger, and his voice raised up. “He appears out of nowhere! And now he’s with the heir of a company we’re about to buy. I personally think it’s a little stink-it’s too good to be a mere coincidence! I’m afraid if he’s actually selling our company’s informations to the Yaotome-to make us go bankrupt! If that happened then we’re doomed! You know the term ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’, right? Don’t you think this Inoo guy is a stinky snoop, seriously?”
Yabu glared at Kitayama. He couldn’t think of anything at the moment, but his instinct found out what Kitayama was suspecting was something considerably stupid. Kitayama did not know anything about Inoo, no, not at all, but he talked about Inoo as-a-matter-of-factly like he’d known him for years. Kitayama was plainly judging, just so typically him, and Yabu wanted to laugh out loud about how stupid his lawyers could be. And gradually, though his heart and mind was still confused, Yabu had successfully densed himself over again with his thick brick walls.
He just didn’t want to feel anything right now.
“Thanks for your hardwork.” Yabu said in cold blood before walking back to the inside of the Sumo arena, leaving Kitayama puzzled with mouth hang open.
But Takaki was there the whole time, witnessing in silence. He had been watching every bits of Kitayama’s suspicion towards Inoo Kei and found it very funny. Yet he completely agreed with Kitayama about the change in Yabu; because that was what he had been sensing from the older male. So, Takaki stepped to Kitayama’s side, glancing at the view outside the front door where the pretty hooker was still talking with Hikaru, before turning to Kitayama with a chuckle.
“He’s not a spy.” Takaki confirmed bemusedly. He didn’t think about any consequences whatsoever. He thought this was a great opportunity to seek revenge, in order to make Yabu come back to real life and finish the business they had started. Takaki wanted so bad for Yabu to be able to go back on his track. Therefore he kept on and said, “That Inoo guy is a hooker.”
The small lawyer turned his face to Takaki in an abrupt motion. His eyes widened in disbelief.
“A-what?”
“You know. Male prostitute. A sex doll. Sucking dicks for money.” Takaki said casually, his eyes darted back to Inoo far across of them. He admitted that the hooker had a kind of really pretty appearance, and although maybe, just maybe, if Yabu were actually attracted to the hooker because of his mere look, well, Takaki might as well do so. “Yabu found him on Ni Chome. In my car.”
Hearing Ni Chome being mentioned, Kitayama was stunned for a moment before suddenly bursting out laughing. He laughed until he almost got to his knees and his stomach hurt, and not even Takaki’s parting gesture could get him back to reality.
Ni Chome.
Shinjuku Ni Chome.
The smaller lawyer was just not expecting it to happen. He knew Ni Chome. Of course he did. He knew every bit of the part of the city because he’d been working in Shinjuku for years already. And Ni Chome was a red district, a rather forbidden district, where lowborn whores and naked dancers-all male-were to gather and party together like wild animals, and nothing came out good from that filthy place. But here, at the moment, his boss, probably one of the richest enterpreneurs in the whole world, was probably the only millionaire in the world who hired a cheap male prostitute, a prostitute of Shinjuku goddmaned Ni Chome. And Kitayama found it ridiculously amusing.
When Kitayama saw Hikaru leaving Inoo alone, his laughter died away, and a smirk crept on his turning ever more cunning face.
*-*-*-*-*
“Oh, shit, I forgot.” Hikaru exclaimed as he fished his ringing smartphone out of his pants pocket. “My Grandpa’s collague is calling. He’s probably already in the arena.” The phone stoped ringing, and Hikaru averted hiz gaze back to Inoo. “Do you want to go back inside, Ino-chan?”
“Right now? Nah, I’m fine.” Inoo shook his head, but smiled anyway. “I haven’t even finished with my MontDew. I’ll just catch up later.”
“Are you sure? I feel responsible now that you skip the game, you know.”
“No, don’t! And don’t worry!” Inoo laughed. “Yabu’s probably still talking with his collague as well, so…”
“Alright.” Hikaru chuckled, placing his palm on top of Inoo’s head as he stood up. He didn’t ruffle those black hair, but the feel of Inoo’s soft hair against his skin was great in a way. And Inoo looked so cute while staring up at him, Hikaru just couldn’t help it. “It’s really nice to talk to you, Ino-chan. We’ll keep in touch, okay?”
“Sure!” The black haired male nodded. The two of them then waved hands at each other before Inoo watched Hikaru walked back towards the front automatic door of the Sumo dome.
As Hikaru left him alone outside, Inoo wandered his eyes around. He exhaled contentedly and smiled as his eyes set to the blue sky. People passing him endlessly; they came and went carelessly. But the sky was blue and Inoo felt somehow contented, because this might be the very first time after awhile he could make normal friends and laughed normally to normal people. Being normal felt good, and after talking to both Tamamori Yuta and Yaotome Hikaru, Inoo felt as if the heavy and burdening tomuro stones were lifted off of his shoulders. He knew he would go back to the dark alley of his job again, but right now, without having to be worried about what kind of clients would you face at night, what kinks they would like to do, or how much pain you should endure when your clients abused you for pleasure just because they have money, he wanted to just become a common people.
It felt reasurring. And somehow, for whatever reasons, he felt like he’s ready to face Yabu Kota again, for life is never that bad in the first place.
But life is, at the same time, never fair.
At least not for Inoo, at the very moment.
Inoo was still tilting his head a little while drinking his white soda when he caught the glimpse of Kitayama from the corner of his eyes. He smiled politely to Kitayama, who approached him with a wide grin, without suspecting anything from the lawyer. They exchanged greeting as Kitayama bought something from the vending machine. The can he bought was blue and it was probably coffee, but Inoo didn’t care.
At first the raven haired male didn’t mind it when Kitayama took a seat next to him, the same seat where Hikaru was sitting before. There was obviously something odd from Kitayama, but Inoo wanted to think positive, wanted to believe that Kitayama was actually a good person.
“Nice weather, isn’t it? Are you enjoying the day?” Kitayama said, chit-chatting normally.
“Yeah, I have a great time.” Inoo answered, smiling, sipping his rare-to-find Mountain Dew. Really, Inoo was carefree, feeling great because though it’s hot it’s still a good weather, so he was not aware of what kind of storm would dash onto him.
“This kind of situation is extremely different with Ni Chome down there, isn’t it?”
Inoo’s heart skip a beat. His vision fell onto the pavement as his eyes grew wider. He felt his nape becoming cold, and the hand he used to hold the green can of Mountain Dew was shaking really bad. The world suddenly turned upside down, and it felt like his ship was sinking and he was drowning in the depth of the deepest ocean. Someone had just recognized him. Kitayama knew him. He knew Inoo was from Ni Chome. But how? Who told him that?
“…What?” Inoo slowly turnend his eyes to Kitayama. He watched it as the small lawyer smirked like a devil.
“I think we, officials of Yabu Multi Corp, have already acknowledged where you come from.” There was lust that Inoo could recognize sparked on Kitayama’s eyes. They were that kind of lust that always appread whenever guys were looking for a release. “Don’t worry, I’m not dangerous in bed.” Kitayama added. He reached his hand onto Inoo’s face and laid his point finger on the hooker’s cheek, stroking it in a sensual manner. If Inoo wasn’t a prostitute at the first place, it was actually considered a sexual harrassment. “Listen, maybe, uhm, you and I can get together sometimes, yeah? Sex, I mean. Of course after Yabu leaves. I’ll pay good, I promise.”
Officials? What do you mean officials? Does everybody in the company know?
Does that mean… Hikaru actually knows and that’s why he suddenly came to me earlier?
The numb feeling of a hooker came back to Inoo’s sense. He became as dense as a concrete wall again. His eyes hurt, but he couldn’t cry. Instead, though every pulses in his body felt painful, he slanted a smirk, a smirk of a prostitute that was trying to hook a customer for money. He didn’t care about anything. He was angry, so angry, but he didn’t have place to go.
No, life isn’t fair.
And Inoo should have had known that once a hooker, no matter where he go, he would always be.
“Yeah, sure,” Inoo answered, his smirk sharp and tantalizing as if he's actually inviting him to his bedroom. But his eyes glared disgustedly at Kitayama, hatred obviously showed in there. “Why not?”
“We’ll just have to do that, hmm?” Kitayama remarked, stroking Inoo’s cheek with both insult and lust.
*-*-*-*-*
Yabu and Inoo didn’t talk during their way back to the Park Hyatt hotel once the Sumo match was over. They ignored Masuda the Driver, who had tried to break the ice between them. They kept silent, keeping distance between them in the car, avoiding any contact with each other as the car kept moving forward. Yabu was still not comfortable with the fact that he became angry for an unbelievable reason, especially because the one making him feeling that way was Inoo's apparent friendliness with Yaotome Hikaru. But he didn’t know why Inoo had this very mad expression in his face, because that’s just not how he’s supposed to react. Yabu was clueless, and in the end, it was him who asked whether Inoo was okay.
But Inoo did not answer, nor did he speak. He gradually looked angrier everytime Yabu tried to talk to him. It made Yabu confused, and by and by he wanted to know why suddenly Inoo became so angry at him. The atmosphere between them was getting cold and cloudy, not the least comfortable, and it felt like the storm was coming and the thunders were heading towards their directions. No consolation, no reasurring feelings whatsoever. Was it because of Hikaru? Did Hikaru tell Inoo something really bad about Yabu that the raven didn’t want to talk to the businessman anymore?
They went up straight to the fiftieth floor, still without Inoo saying a single word. What was more confusing was once they were inside the penthouse, Inoo dashed heavy and fast towards the bedroom, leaving the taller male clueless and perplexed. Yabu was getting annoyed by Inoo’s sudden change in behavior, so he yelled from the livingroom, bossy and demanding. He didn’t know what was happening, and he just had to figure it out.
“Kei. Talk to me. Tell me, are you ok?” Instead of asking nicely, Yabu was rather commanding Inoo to tell him. It made the smaller guy threw a glare from the doorway of the bedroom, angry and murderous.
“I’m fucking okay, you asshole.” Inoo answered with a flat tone. He went further into the bedroom, leaving Yabu dumbfounded in the living room.
“…”
Yabu couldn’t say a word. His eyes were growing wider in surprise. It was hard to make someone so calm and composed like Yabu surprised, but Inoo had completely caught him off guard. What was that supposed to mean? Yabu tried to ask himself. The businessman then walked into the bedroom, only to find Inoo standing near the bed, with his black v-neck tee on his left arm.
“Fuck you! You fucking asshole!!” Inoo yelled from across the room. His eyes were still glaring at Yabu, and he looked like he wanted to cry. “Tell me again why did you force me to 'dress up properly' if you’d just gonna tell every single one in your company that I am-in fact-a goddamned whore??!”
The remark was unexpected. Yabu almost dropped his hands if not the joint was still there. But telling his whole company that Inoo was a prostitute? No, not even in forever Yabu would do that.
“What?! I didn’t-”
“Oh, yes, yes you did, Mr. CEO, you did. How did I know?” Inoo cut him mid-sentence. The tone was raised and Yabu could easily recognize the tremble in Inoo’s voice. “Because Kitayama has just fucking bargained me!! Go on. Tell everybody I suck dicks for money!” Inoo kept yelling frustratedly, as he bent down and picked up his long abandoned blonde wig from inside the nightstand’s drawer. “I can just walk into your office naked if you want, just tell me!! It’s easy, isn’t it?! You don’t have to make me dress like some rich motherfucker-because I am not your fucking doll!”
The tall and gorgeous businessman felt somewhat offended hearing what Inoo had said. No, he did not to see what Inoo had just threatened him with. And no, Yabu had never even thought to treat a precious person like Inoo as a mere doll.
“I am not allowing you to show your skin to other man while I engage you-and-and it was not me who told Kitayama about you, I didn’t even-”
“THEN WHO DID??!” Again, Inoo yelled, cutting fast, this time the loudest, the most hurt. He dashed onto the other side of the vast bedroom, shooting a deadly yet tired look to Yabu Kota.
Yabu dropped his head and stared at the carpet under his room slipper, thinking about whoever dared to expose Inoo’s real occupation, because he could swear to God that he had never told anyone but Takaki about Inoo being a hooker of Shinjuku Ni Chome. He had also been avoiding to draw Inoo and Takaki together, so how could Kitayama find out…
A realization struct Yabu like a thunder all at once. He remembered it now. He remembered earlier when he met Takaki while he’s searching for Inoo. He remembered Kitayama thought Inoo was someone selling his company’s information to Yaotome Hikaru. He remembered when he left Kitayama alone, there was Takaki in there. And he remembered Takaki should have been the only one who knew Inoo’s occupation, because Yabu was the one who told him the truth in the first place. It should have been him who had dissolved Inoo's secret.
But as he told Takaki about Inoo the first day Inoo had slept in the penthouse, he had never expected this kind of whirlabout would happen.
Yabu had just been betrayed by his topnotch friend, and it boiled every cells of inside his body.
“Takaki…” It came out almost like a whisper, but Inoo could hear it clear and right, as bright as the day, as limpid as the deep blue sea.
“Who the fuck is Takaki?!”
“He’s my friend. Kei, listen-” Bewildered, Yabu tried hard to explain to Inoo what was happening. He wanted really bad to explain to Inoo that this was all a misunderstanding. It was his fault to talk about Inoo in the first place, but it was when Yabu thought his feeling to Inoo wouldn’t get any deeper like this.
“Oh. Well, thank you, Asshole, you just added a customer on my list!” But Inoo kept cutting whatever Yabu was trying to say. He gathered every pieces of his belongings as he did so, and only stopped when he talked to Yabu like he talked to his heartbreaker. “Now what does this make you, my pimp or something?! Should I pay you half my fare for introducing that fucking Kitayama and that Takagi-whatever to me?!”
“STOP. FUCKING. YELLING. JUST LISTEN TO ME!!” Feeling so angry and frustrated, Yabu finally cut Inoo’s sentence in return. And Inoo felt chill down his spine because Yabu had never, ever, cursed before. He stopped gathering his things and stared at Yabu Kota, who seemed like he's regretting everything. Inoo could see as crystal clear that Yabu deplored his own action. “I’m sorry. I really am! I have never expected who I supposed was my best friend could have the heart to betray me like that. I swear for you, Kei. I swear to God I didn’t mean it!”
Inoo had noticed that Yabu had never apologized for anything. He’d only been days being with Yabu, and not even once Inoo had ever heard Yabu said sorry to anyone. But now he did. Yabu said sorry to him; he apologized to him, and therefore Inoo knew Yabu was pure. He could sense that Yabu did regret it, that’s why he threw out his ego and wanted forgiveness from the raven hair. But Inoo’s heart had been so torn up into pieces, and at the moment everything just felt hurt, he just couldn’t forgive Yabu’s fault. The raven haired male had the remaining of his heart locked up because never before being a prostitute felt so painful like this.
And he wanted to hate Yabu.
He wanted so bad to cut everything he had with Yabu.
Because they were just never meant to be together.
“I’m sorry.” Inoo said, finally, after a long pause that felt so suffocating. There was a hope in Yabu’s eyes that Inoo could notice, but the hooker didn't have other choice but to break it down. “I’m sorry I met you. I’m sorry I got in to your stupid car!!”
Yabu was snapped by such sentence that he yelled back rather coldly, “I’ve never forced you to get in in the first place.”
“This is so stupid! I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life before!”
Yabu’s head hurt. His brain felt like it spinned endlessly inside his skull. His eyes hurt, his throat hurt. He could no longer yell at Inoo. He could no longer feel anything in his heart, as he watched Inoo packing up all his belongings into one paper bag with popular brand printed on it. It seemed like Inoo was going to go away. It felt like Inoo was seeking for a runway for him to fly, away, as far as he could from Yabu’s reach. The tall brunette gradually became angry to himself, and his anger spread onto his every cells that he felt like he really need at least a gulp of ethanol.
But he did not want to lose Inoo.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving. I want my money.” Inoo said as cold as the peak of Everest, the ice stuck into Yabu’s heart, making him almost as numb.
No, Kei, don’t go…
The businessman did not know what to do, for he didn’t want to listen to his heart. He just took his case out of the cupboard, fishing a thick brown envelope out of it, and taking out sixty bundles of ten thousands yen, throwing them off onto the bed for Inoo to pick up later. After leaving such amount of money, a full contract, Yabu walked out of the bedroom, limp from head to toe. He went straight to the mini bar inside his penthouse and not even once look back over his shoulders. Behind the bar, Yabu prepared a shot glass and a bottle of whisky, but at the same time all his sense were, subconsciously, focusing to any sign Inoo was making.
The front door of the penthouse was thrown open, before the sound of the door slam shut, the whisky didn’t matter anymore. Because Yabu swore to God he could hear Inoo’s soft sob, the first sob he ever heard from the smaller male since the day they met.
*-* To Be Continued to Chapter 5(c) *-*
A/N :
[A little about my sparta summer trip]- In the beginning of this summer holiday, I decided to travel alone to Sendai. Well, it was a nice city, a little bigger than Kanazawa. I wanted to post this chapter while I was in Sendai, but I ended up being really busy with my trip plans and the fact that I woke up really late almost every day XD
- The Sendai that Hikaru described in this chapter is the Sendai that I saw and experience. The main streets in Sendai city was really green and refreshing!! But I hate the buses -_-
- I also visited Shinjuku! I went shopping at F21 near Park Hyatt Shinjuku, and I ate udon at Marugame in Shinjuku San Chome!!! But I didn't get to Ni Chome because I was with a friend and I'm afraid my friend wouldn't like it (srsly, she's not the type you'd ask to accompany you to a RED district) so yeah, I just missed it.
- So yeah, the reason why I became so late in updating Marry-go-round Goes is because I'm too busy with TRIPS AND GOING HOME AND EATING HAHAHAHA.
- Once again, thanks for waiting!
- I'm sorry for making such mess with the characters. Especially Takaki's.
- And I'm sorry I decided there would be a 5c.
- Oh, I have a little problem; my Last.fm doesn't want to scrobble (TwT)
Chapter : 5(b)/8
Pairing(s)/Fandom : Yabu Kota x Inoo Kei / Hey! Say! JUMP, NEWS, Kisumai, mention of Arashi
Author : ma_rendezvous
Genre : AU. Romance
Rating : mostly NC-17
Warning : Explicit content. Dirty words. Slight mention of use of drugs. A paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)
Disclaimer : The main story belongs to Garry Marshall's team. I have the improvisations and other things. The rests are idols, everyone owns these idols. Ha ha!
A/N : お待たせ致しました！！！ Thanks for waiting! Oh, and...[a little spoiler...]EVERY SINGLE ONE IN THIS CHAPTER IS CONSIDERED ASSHOLE, THANK YOU.
Summary : Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.
( 1 / 2 / 3 / 4a / 4b / 5a )
Merry-Go-Round Goes
- Chapter 5 -
Part (a)
Inoo was puzzled witnessing Yaotome Hikaru choosing a can of Black Premium rather than a more decent cup of black coffee sold at a cafetaria inside the Sumo arena, which probably had much of a better quality. The hooker had seen Yabu being so royale with his life, wearing clothes from world class designers, ordering all foods in the menu for breakfast, taking him to shopping, brewing what seemed like the most expensive coffee beans in the morning. But yet here in contrast, outside the arena under the blue sky and bright sun, Hikaru, who’s just seen wearing a plain sky blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows and first snap left unbuttoned, was happily picking up his cheap coffee can from inside the cheap vending machine, looking so ‘normal’ like any other middle class workers, as if he weren’t someone who in the future would be the president of a massive dockyard. Hikaru had just treated Inoo a can of Mountain Dew, but really, these two cans were no more than four hundred yens in total, and it left Inoo amused if not wondered.
“Thank you,” Inoo said as he received his green can, watching as Hikaru took a seat next to him with a somewhat contented exhale which sounded more like a tired uncle after a day of hard work. The black haired male was smiling, because, simply, really, who wouldn’t?
“You’re welcome.” Hikaru nodded, smiling in return. He opened his can of cold Black Premium and took a sip, wriggling a little to its bitter taste. “Ah, damn, so hot! I think my sweat just started sweating!”
“It is! I too think so! Summer is really horrible in Tokyo!” The ravenette giggled, opening his can of cold Mountain Dew. He hadn’t been giggling for a long time, but it seemed like Hikaru wouldn’t judge, so he let it out.
“I know, right? If not because of this business and stuff, I might have been just staying in Sendai-which isn’t this bright and killing! Do you know that Sendai is chill and windy because we have lots of trees in the middle of our streets? Unlike Tokyo. Tokyo is bald like an old man's head!”
Inoo laughed, covering his mouth with the back of his hand, the same hand he used to hold his green can of soda. His eyes were narrowing and he almost shut them completely, that he didn’t realize that next to him, Hikaru was staring.
“You’re kind of very funny, Yaotome-kun-”
“Just call me Hikaru, please?” Hikaru cut him mid-sentence fast. He turned his face to Inoo in one sharp motion before slanting his smile to a side which then made one of his cheeks puffed. Hikaru’s eyebrows had this almost flat shape that made him, somehow, in Inoo’s opinion, despite joking around, looked rather sad for no apparent reason. “Trust me. Nobody’s ever called me Yaotome before.”
“Really? But you’re like…”
“The heir of Yaotome Industries and all?”
“Yeah?” Inoo blinked.
“It’s four friggin’ syllabels; it’s hard to utter! Ya-o-to-me. Right? It's hard!” Hikaru laughed. He drank again his Black Premium before continuing, “And anyway, I’m just a candidate. By candidate I mean I have rivals, and I still have so much to learn before I could take over my Grandfather’s position.” He lowered his gaze before turning them forward. “They said I’m not ready for this, that the company shouldn’t be led by a little brat like me. They don’t know how serious I can be. Do you think I’m a brat?”
Inoo saw through Hikaru’s black marble eyes, a spark of earnestness of a young leader going-to-be. Hikaru did look kind of humorous, with his blunt expression, his sparkling smile and everything. But his eyes spoke different, and Inoo noticed that. Hikaru looked tough and hard to defeat-as expected of someone who emotionally dared to cuss Yabu Kota on a business dinner, and Inoo believed that Hikaru wouldn’t get hurt that easily. The hooker then smiled reasurringly to Hikaru. Of course Hikaru is the best candidate for a family business, Inoo thought, but ended up not saying a word about it.
“I think you have really weird eyebrows.” Inoo joked instead, chuckling.
Hikaru’s eyes widened instantly.
“No way! I can’t believe even Ino-chan said so too!” Hikaru whined, his fingers touching his flat eyebrows, his lips pouting childishly.
Ino-chan?
The hooker knitted his eyebrows ever so slightyly.
And then out of the blue, Hikaru’s expression drastically changed that he didn’t look like he’s joking anymore. The smile on his face dropped into a thin curved upward line, his eyes seemed so concerned and his cheeks no longer puffed. He stared straight through Inoo’s eyes and Inoo found the stare piercing into his brainpan. The stare was so intense yet at the same time tender, soft, soothing, almost endearing, almost as if he were admiring Inoo in a way, and Inoo found it suffocating. He couldn’t read the meaning behind Hikaru’s compassionate stare to him. He couldn’t even tell Hikaru’s real intention of taking him out of the Sumo arena, away from the reach of Yabu Kota.
“But though you actually have weird eyebrows yourself,” Hikaru said unexpectedly, his tender black marble eyes never left Inoo’s light brown ones. “I think you’re really pretty.”
The raven dropped his smile, feeling like his heart just missed a beat. No, his heart didn’t miss a beat. His heart rattled really hard in his heart that he believed it was even faster than the fastest bullet train in the whole country. Spontaneously, both his brain and his heart simultaneously converted himself into a defensive mode, building shield for no apparent reason.
But did Hikaru just say that Inoo’s really pretty?
Hikaru looked so serious that Inoo almost believed he meant every words. He knew Hikaru didn’t mean no harm; hell, Inoo bet Hikaru didn’t even know that Inoo was a prostitute. Nevertheless, Inoo was reminded of Yabu’s existence, that he was completely Yabu’s at the moment, and he should be Yabu’s and Yabu’s only. However, he couldn’t even call himself as Yabu’s someone officially, because the taller wasn’t even his lover! He was just a mere customer of his, and that he’s actually a hooker; a goddamned prostitute! How many times should he remind himself of his occupation? Then again, why did he make himself defensive from another guy? Hadn’t he got used to being called pretty all the time around Shinjuku Ni Chome and some love hotels around the town during sex?
So why was Hikaru’s different?
What the hell’s with Hikaru’s face?
Inoo’s system went blank. All the struggles inside him made the raven hooker scream internally, that he wanted real bad to break down…
Because not even Yabu had ever said such word to him.
And at a point he realized he actually wanted so hard for Yabu to say such word to him.
“What’s wrong?” Hikaru asked, looking concerned since Inoo looked like brooding over. “I’m sorry, did I offend you?”
“No! of course not!” Inoo shook his head quickly, trying to clear off his mind. What the hell am I thinking? “I just saw a giant bee behind your ear but now it’s gone.” He giggled, telling yet another lie for the day.
“…Okay,” Though still concerened, Hikaru tried to shrug it off. Maybe he realized Inoo was lying, maybe he didn’t. The short haired male took another sip of his black coffee, scorning while staring at his can afterward. “And Ino-chan, to be honest with you, I don’t like coffees.”
“Huh?” Inoo was surprised hearing Hikaru’s amusing confession. Still, he was trying hard to supress the thunderstruck inside of him, but the friendly smile never faded off of his face. “Then why did you buy and drink it if you don’t like it?”
“I’m training myself to be a CEO, what else?” Hikaru reasoned, again, pouting. His humorous visage, his childishness, and all the other comic crept back to his face. “Aren’t all CEOs in the world into black coffees? And though I don’t get it myself, apparently they drink it every morning.”
Inoo, who recalled in mind that earlier in the morning Yabu was drinking a black coffee he brewed himself, again, bursted out laughing onto Hikaru’s amusing kind of silly reasoning. He covered his mouth with the back of the hand he’s using to hold his green can of Mountain Dew. But as he laughed, the black haired hooker didn’t notice that Hikaru was smiling contentedly-if not admiringly-towards his profile at all.
There was a sadness in Inoo’s laugh, yet Hikaru found it beautiful.
*-*-*-*-*
Inside the arena itself, Yabu had been asking anyone he knew and had introduced Inoo Kei to whether they’d seen the ravenette around or not. He went as far as to search for Inoo from one block of seat to another, trying to come across the hooker’s bundle of black hair and fair pale skin, only to find none of the faces were Inoo’s beautiful one. And since Inoo was nowhere to be found, Yabu began to feel worried whilst so many possibilities came across his mind; what if Inoo ran away because he saw someone who knew him, what if he were harrassed and made fun of and decided to get away from the venue, or what if he were kidnapped?
Yabu didn’t want to imagine any bad things happening to his Kei, since he was starting to cherish Inoo’s presence and feel comfortable around the smaller guy. He was just not willing to lose him. At least not yet, though he still ignored the fact that he cared.
The tall brunette then initiated himself to look for Inoo outside the arena. He was probably at the cafetaria to get something to eat, since Yabu began to note himself that Inoo was rather glutonous kind of person. Therefore without a second thought, as the referee of the Sumo game announcing the beginning of the final’s first round, Yabu dashed out of the arena’s large double door onto the hallway, going straight to the cafetaria and seeking for Inoo’s silhouette. When he found Inoo wasn’t at the cafetaria at all, not along the hallways, not even inside the toilets, Yabu started to get panicked inside. He still looked calm outside, nonetheless, with his expression as flat as ever. But it’s just because he couldn’t and wasn’t used to showing his concerned emotion to anyone else.
As he walked along the hallway of the west wing, he saw Takaki finished talking with some random higher ups around. Yabu really didn’t want to talk to Takaki somehow, but before he could get away from his childhood friend after turning on his heels, he heard his name being called. He stopped his track though he didn’t want to, just because he was obliged to answer Takaki’s call. Turning back to Takaki, Yabu boundedly greeted the ginger head back.
“You are avoiding me, ain’t you?” Takaki said, a little coldly.
“Yes.” Yabu said back.
“How unbelievable. After half of our age, seriously?” Takaki rolled his eyes. “I can read you like a book, Kota.”
At that point, Yabu decided to look for Inoo again and therefore he started walking along the hallway. And though he got annoyed with the fact that Takaki was catching up with his feet, following him like an aide, the taller brunette didn’t say anything about it. The two of them walked along the hallway with the red carpet, with Yabu concentrating himself nervously searching for Inoo’s tip of nose, and Takaki simultaneously distracting him irritatingly with yet another business talk.
“You’ve been reported, don’t you? Yaotome-san’s raising your offer.” Takaki said. “And apparently, the old man’s kind of mortgaging every pieces of his coins into the bank. You won’t believe where he’s securing his mortgage, I tell you.”
“Yeah, where?” Yabu said, obviously not giving a damn about anything that his lawyer had just said. He averted his gaze to somewhere else, busying himself looking for the hooker he hired instead of listening to Takaki, his childhood friend, his lawyer, the one who contributed to his company from the very start until the very moment.
“It’s not just kind of bank. It’s Muzuho Bank.” Takaki continued, turning his eyes to his childhood friend as well as the company’s boss walking beside him. The lawyer chuckled and grinned merrily of his own thought. “The director of the bank is a great friend of your father, so all you’ve got to do is call the bank and cancel Yaotome’s mortgage and any of his deal, and he’ll definitely collapse.”
Yabu stopped walking near the exact front door of the Sumo arena, where people were passing come and go. He turned his heels, his eyes were piercing into Takaki’s with ‘Right now I just don’t care’ kind of glare, and as the lawyer began to realize, his smile immediately faded.
“I wonder, what are we actually doing?” Yabu asked all of a sudden, and the question came out of nowhere. There were sadness in Yabu’s eyes and confusion in his voice. It was as if Yabu was on the verge of giving up, or whether he had been feeling sick of talking about the means, and Takaki didn’t like it at one bit. “We’re not building anything, Yuya. We’re not making anything.”
“We’re making money. What the hell is wrong with you?” Takaki firmly said. He was mad and almost losing his mind, that he couldn’t control his usually calm demeanor. With his eyebrows knitted and his forehead furrowed, the lawyer kept on, “Excuse me to agree with Kitayama this time, Buddy, but we’ve worked for a whole fucking year for this project. And I know it, I witnessed it myself, I was there when you promised your father to handle Yaotome Industries. You said this is what you want. And now Yaotome Goro’s jugular is exposed, all you have to do now is to flick your blade! Let’s finish this, and we can go back to New York City to have our lives back.”
Takaki’s persuasive advice passed through Yabu’s ears, but wasn’t able to possess the taller’s brain. Yabu threw his gaze onto somewhere seemingly far-though in fact it was just the creamy white wall right across the room. He was almost not thinking about anything when he remembered Inoo Kei, the hooker, the one negotiating a six hundred thousands worth of contract, the one calling him pure capitalist for trying to buy someone else’s assets, which he had done since the day he got his undergraduate degree. Did he miss something else about the prostitute?
Suddenly he remembered the fact that he actually saw Inoo’s unhappy face when they entered Hanyu Department Store. And as sudden as that, Yabu remembered what Inoo had said on the phone earlier…
Just because you have all the money in the world, doesn’t mean you can just throw them all away like a combustible garbage.
What was that even supposed to mean?
Yabu’s mind was whirling inside.
The tall brunette, however, intended to say something about Yaotome Goro and his mortgage on Muzuho Bank when suddenly Kitayama called his name and ran onto them.
“Yabu, hey, Yabu!” Kitayama greeted with an extremely wide grin on his face. He pulled Yabu’s upper arm a little so that the taller brunette got the best spot of view of the outside of the Sumo dome’s glass front door. He looked up to Yabu and waited for whatever he was waiting to happen.
And that was it.
Yabu’s eyes grew wide like he never did before. His jaw hang down and his mouth left half opened seeing the view of the outside of the arena near the red and white automatic vending machines under the sunny sky of summer. The young CEO was probably losing his mind at the moment, because he finally, finally, found Inoo next to the vending machines, sitting, drinking something off of a can, looking refreshed and happy. But the black haired male wasn’t alone. Yabu saw someone else there. And though with shorter hair, he knew it was Yaotome Hikaru. In Yabu’s vision, the both of them were laughing and joking about anything that he couldn’t hear, and they looked happy.
And it broke his heart.
“Isn’t that the sweet guy you introduced to me before?” Kitayama asked, acting his best to look concerned, though the sly smirk on his face was still as apparent.
Takaki, who got curious of what Yabu and Kitayama was seeing, walked closer to the both of them and saw the guy who was still unknown to him talking with Hikaru. He averted his gaze to Yabu, and immediately able to recognize who the pretty black haired male actually was.
“What’s his name, again? Inoo Kei?” Kitayama kept his act on. “He looks really close to Hikaru-kun, isn’t he. Is he working? What does he do for the living?”
Yabu was boiling that he wanted to break something right on the spot. He was angry. He was feeling betrayed, or something, anything that resembled jealousy-but not jealousy, because he didn’t want to admit it; though he did not have any reasons for having such feeling, since Inoo was certianly nothing to him. But it somehow mattered, Inoo mattered. Yet breaking down wasn’t what a corporate raid leader’s supposed to do, so he just sighed and buried his emotions under his calm visage.
Still, as he turned his eyes back to Kitayama, suspecting whatever would be Kitayama’s motive which smelled obviously scheming and sly, the calmness of his face turned cold
“Why do you want to know?” Yabu asked bitterly.
“Well, I mean, we’ve been friends for a long time, right? And I see you’re gradually changing.” Kitayama shrugged, acting concerned. “If you were into-like-you know?-that kind of love-then maybe he’s the one bringing the change to you. And the change is-down at hill. Especially that right now he’s talking so closely with Yaotome Hikaru. Look!”
“I introduced them in dinner the other night.” Yabu said, his voice shifted from cold to hurt, but not even Takaki noticed that.
“And now they’re best friends or something?” Kitayama sneaked. His smirked turned into anger, and his voice raised up. “He appears out of nowhere! And now he’s with the heir of a company we’re about to buy. I personally think it’s a little stink-it’s too good to be a mere coincidence! I’m afraid if he’s actually selling our company’s informations to the Yaotome-to make us go bankrupt! If that happened then we’re doomed! You know the term ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’, right? Don’t you think this Inoo guy is a stinky snoop, seriously?”
Yabu glared at Kitayama. He couldn’t think of anything at the moment, but his instinct found out what Kitayama was suspecting was something considerably stupid. Kitayama did not know anything about Inoo, no, not at all, but he talked about Inoo as-a-matter-of-factly like he’d known him for years. Kitayama was plainly judging, just so typically him, and Yabu wanted to laugh out loud about how stupid his lawyers could be. And gradually, though his heart and mind was still confused, Yabu had successfully densed himself over again with his thick brick walls.
He just didn’t want to feel anything right now.
“Thanks for your hardwork.” Yabu said in cold blood before walking back to the inside of the Sumo arena, leaving Kitayama puzzled with mouth hang open.
But Takaki was there the whole time, witnessing in silence. He had been watching every bits of Kitayama’s suspicion towards Inoo Kei and found it very funny. Yet he completely agreed with Kitayama about the change in Yabu; because that was what he had been sensing from the older male. So, Takaki stepped to Kitayama’s side, glancing at the view outside the front door where the pretty hooker was still talking with Hikaru, before turning to Kitayama with a chuckle.
“He’s not a spy.” Takaki confirmed bemusedly. He didn’t think about any consequences whatsoever. He thought this was a great opportunity to seek revenge, in order to make Yabu come back to real life and finish the business they had started. Takaki wanted so bad for Yabu to be able to go back on his track. Therefore he kept on and said, “That Inoo guy is a hooker.”
The small lawyer turned his face to Takaki in an abrupt motion. His eyes widened in disbelief.
“A-what?”
“You know. Male prostitute. A sex doll. Sucking dicks for money.” Takaki said casually, his eyes darted back to Inoo far across of them. He admitted that the hooker had a kind of really pretty appearance, and although maybe, just maybe, if Yabu were actually attracted to the hooker because of his mere look, well, Takaki might as well do so. “Yabu found him on Ni Chome. In my car.”
Hearing Ni Chome being mentioned, Kitayama was stunned for a moment before suddenly bursting out laughing. He laughed until he almost got to his knees and his stomach hurt, and not even Takaki’s parting gesture could get him back to reality.
Ni Chome.
Shinjuku Ni Chome.
The smaller lawyer was just not expecting it to happen. He knew Ni Chome. Of course he did. He knew every bit of the part of the city because he’d been working in Shinjuku for years already. And Ni Chome was a red district, a rather forbidden district, where lowborn whores and naked dancers-all male-were to gather and party together like wild animals, and nothing came out good from that filthy place. But here, at the moment, his boss, probably one of the richest enterpreneurs in the whole world, was probably the only millionaire in the world who hired a cheap male prostitute, a prostitute of Shinjuku goddmaned Ni Chome. And Kitayama found it ridiculously amusing.
When Kitayama saw Hikaru leaving Inoo alone, his laughter died away, and a smirk crept on his turning ever more cunning face.
*-*-*-*-*
“Oh, shit, I forgot.” Hikaru exclaimed as he fished his ringing smartphone out of his pants pocket. “My Grandpa’s collague is calling. He’s probably already in the arena.” The phone stoped ringing, and Hikaru averted hiz gaze back to Inoo. “Do you want to go back inside, Ino-chan?”
“Right now? Nah, I’m fine.” Inoo shook his head, but smiled anyway. “I haven’t even finished with my MontDew. I’ll just catch up later.”
“Are you sure? I feel responsible now that you skip the game, you know.”
“No, don’t! And don’t worry!” Inoo laughed. “Yabu’s probably still talking with his collague as well, so…”
“Alright.” Hikaru chuckled, placing his palm on top of Inoo’s head as he stood up. He didn’t ruffle those black hair, but the feel of Inoo’s soft hair against his skin was great in a way. And Inoo looked so cute while staring up at him, Hikaru just couldn’t help it. “It’s really nice to talk to you, Ino-chan. We’ll keep in touch, okay?”
“Sure!” The black haired male nodded. The two of them then waved hands at each other before Inoo watched Hikaru walked back towards the front automatic door of the Sumo dome.
As Hikaru left him alone outside, Inoo wandered his eyes around. He exhaled contentedly and smiled as his eyes set to the blue sky. People passing him endlessly; they came and went carelessly. But the sky was blue and Inoo felt somehow contented, because this might be the very first time after awhile he could make normal friends and laughed normally to normal people. Being normal felt good, and after talking to both Tamamori Yuta and Yaotome Hikaru, Inoo felt as if the heavy and burdening tomuro stones were lifted off of his shoulders. He knew he would go back to the dark alley of his job again, but right now, without having to be worried about what kind of clients would you face at night, what kinks they would like to do, or how much pain you should endure when your clients abused you for pleasure just because they have money, he wanted to just become a common people.
It felt reasurring. And somehow, for whatever reasons, he felt like he’s ready to face Yabu Kota again, for life is never that bad in the first place.
But life is, at the same time, never fair.
At least not for Inoo, at the very moment.
Inoo was still tilting his head a little while drinking his white soda when he caught the glimpse of Kitayama from the corner of his eyes. He smiled politely to Kitayama, who approached him with a wide grin, without suspecting anything from the lawyer. They exchanged greeting as Kitayama bought something from the vending machine. The can he bought was blue and it was probably coffee, but Inoo didn’t care.
At first the raven haired male didn’t mind it when Kitayama took a seat next to him, the same seat where Hikaru was sitting before. There was obviously something odd from Kitayama, but Inoo wanted to think positive, wanted to believe that Kitayama was actually a good person.
“Nice weather, isn’t it? Are you enjoying the day?” Kitayama said, chit-chatting normally.
“Yeah, I have a great time.” Inoo answered, smiling, sipping his rare-to-find Mountain Dew. Really, Inoo was carefree, feeling great because though it’s hot it’s still a good weather, so he was not aware of what kind of storm would dash onto him.
“This kind of situation is extremely different with Ni Chome down there, isn’t it?”
Inoo’s heart skip a beat. His vision fell onto the pavement as his eyes grew wider. He felt his nape becoming cold, and the hand he used to hold the green can of Mountain Dew was shaking really bad. The world suddenly turned upside down, and it felt like his ship was sinking and he was drowning in the depth of the deepest ocean. Someone had just recognized him. Kitayama knew him. He knew Inoo was from Ni Chome. But how? Who told him that?
“…What?” Inoo slowly turnend his eyes to Kitayama. He watched it as the small lawyer smirked like a devil.
“I think we, officials of Yabu Multi Corp, have already acknowledged where you come from.” There was lust that Inoo could recognize sparked on Kitayama’s eyes. They were that kind of lust that always appread whenever guys were looking for a release. “Don’t worry, I’m not dangerous in bed.” Kitayama added. He reached his hand onto Inoo’s face and laid his point finger on the hooker’s cheek, stroking it in a sensual manner. If Inoo wasn’t a prostitute at the first place, it was actually considered a sexual harrassment. “Listen, maybe, uhm, you and I can get together sometimes, yeah? Sex, I mean. Of course after Yabu leaves. I’ll pay good, I promise.”
Officials? What do you mean officials? Does everybody in the company know?
Does that mean… Hikaru actually knows and that’s why he suddenly came to me earlier?
The numb feeling of a hooker came back to Inoo’s sense. He became as dense as a concrete wall again. His eyes hurt, but he couldn’t cry. Instead, though every pulses in his body felt painful, he slanted a smirk, a smirk of a prostitute that was trying to hook a customer for money. He didn’t care about anything. He was angry, so angry, but he didn’t have place to go.
No, life isn’t fair.
And Inoo should have had known that once a hooker, no matter where he go, he would always be.
“Yeah, sure,” Inoo answered, his smirk sharp and tantalizing as if he's actually inviting him to his bedroom. But his eyes glared disgustedly at Kitayama, hatred obviously showed in there. “Why not?”
“We’ll just have to do that, hmm?” Kitayama remarked, stroking Inoo’s cheek with both insult and lust.
*-*-*-*-*
Yabu and Inoo didn’t talk during their way back to the Park Hyatt hotel once the Sumo match was over. They ignored Masuda the Driver, who had tried to break the ice between them. They kept silent, keeping distance between them in the car, avoiding any contact with each other as the car kept moving forward. Yabu was still not comfortable with the fact that he became angry for an unbelievable reason, especially because the one making him feeling that way was Inoo's apparent friendliness with Yaotome Hikaru. But he didn’t know why Inoo had this very mad expression in his face, because that’s just not how he’s supposed to react. Yabu was clueless, and in the end, it was him who asked whether Inoo was okay.
But Inoo did not answer, nor did he speak. He gradually looked angrier everytime Yabu tried to talk to him. It made Yabu confused, and by and by he wanted to know why suddenly Inoo became so angry at him. The atmosphere between them was getting cold and cloudy, not the least comfortable, and it felt like the storm was coming and the thunders were heading towards their directions. No consolation, no reasurring feelings whatsoever. Was it because of Hikaru? Did Hikaru tell Inoo something really bad about Yabu that the raven didn’t want to talk to the businessman anymore?
They went up straight to the fiftieth floor, still without Inoo saying a single word. What was more confusing was once they were inside the penthouse, Inoo dashed heavy and fast towards the bedroom, leaving the taller male clueless and perplexed. Yabu was getting annoyed by Inoo’s sudden change in behavior, so he yelled from the livingroom, bossy and demanding. He didn’t know what was happening, and he just had to figure it out.
“Kei. Talk to me. Tell me, are you ok?” Instead of asking nicely, Yabu was rather commanding Inoo to tell him. It made the smaller guy threw a glare from the doorway of the bedroom, angry and murderous.
“I’m fucking okay, you asshole.” Inoo answered with a flat tone. He went further into the bedroom, leaving Yabu dumbfounded in the living room.
“…”
Yabu couldn’t say a word. His eyes were growing wider in surprise. It was hard to make someone so calm and composed like Yabu surprised, but Inoo had completely caught him off guard. What was that supposed to mean? Yabu tried to ask himself. The businessman then walked into the bedroom, only to find Inoo standing near the bed, with his black v-neck tee on his left arm.
“Fuck you! You fucking asshole!!” Inoo yelled from across the room. His eyes were still glaring at Yabu, and he looked like he wanted to cry. “Tell me again why did you force me to 'dress up properly' if you’d just gonna tell every single one in your company that I am-in fact-a goddamned whore??!”
The remark was unexpected. Yabu almost dropped his hands if not the joint was still there. But telling his whole company that Inoo was a prostitute? No, not even in forever Yabu would do that.
“What?! I didn’t-”
“Oh, yes, yes you did, Mr. CEO, you did. How did I know?” Inoo cut him mid-sentence. The tone was raised and Yabu could easily recognize the tremble in Inoo’s voice. “Because Kitayama has just fucking bargained me!! Go on. Tell everybody I suck dicks for money!” Inoo kept yelling frustratedly, as he bent down and picked up his long abandoned blonde wig from inside the nightstand’s drawer. “I can just walk into your office naked if you want, just tell me!! It’s easy, isn’t it?! You don’t have to make me dress like some rich motherfucker-because I am not your fucking doll!”
The tall and gorgeous businessman felt somewhat offended hearing what Inoo had said. No, he did not to see what Inoo had just threatened him with. And no, Yabu had never even thought to treat a precious person like Inoo as a mere doll.
“I am not allowing you to show your skin to other man while I engage you-and-and it was not me who told Kitayama about you, I didn’t even-”
“THEN WHO DID??!” Again, Inoo yelled, cutting fast, this time the loudest, the most hurt. He dashed onto the other side of the vast bedroom, shooting a deadly yet tired look to Yabu Kota.
Yabu dropped his head and stared at the carpet under his room slipper, thinking about whoever dared to expose Inoo’s real occupation, because he could swear to God that he had never told anyone but Takaki about Inoo being a hooker of Shinjuku Ni Chome. He had also been avoiding to draw Inoo and Takaki together, so how could Kitayama find out…
A realization struct Yabu like a thunder all at once. He remembered it now. He remembered earlier when he met Takaki while he’s searching for Inoo. He remembered Kitayama thought Inoo was someone selling his company’s information to Yaotome Hikaru. He remembered when he left Kitayama alone, there was Takaki in there. And he remembered Takaki should have been the only one who knew Inoo’s occupation, because Yabu was the one who told him the truth in the first place. It should have been him who had dissolved Inoo's secret.
But as he told Takaki about Inoo the first day Inoo had slept in the penthouse, he had never expected this kind of whirlabout would happen.
Yabu had just been betrayed by his topnotch friend, and it boiled every cells of inside his body.
“Takaki…” It came out almost like a whisper, but Inoo could hear it clear and right, as bright as the day, as limpid as the deep blue sea.
“Who the fuck is Takaki?!”
“He’s my friend. Kei, listen-” Bewildered, Yabu tried hard to explain to Inoo what was happening. He wanted really bad to explain to Inoo that this was all a misunderstanding. It was his fault to talk about Inoo in the first place, but it was when Yabu thought his feeling to Inoo wouldn’t get any deeper like this.
“Oh. Well, thank you, Asshole, you just added a customer on my list!” But Inoo kept cutting whatever Yabu was trying to say. He gathered every pieces of his belongings as he did so, and only stopped when he talked to Yabu like he talked to his heartbreaker. “Now what does this make you, my pimp or something?! Should I pay you half my fare for introducing that fucking Kitayama and that Takagi-whatever to me?!”
“STOP. FUCKING. YELLING. JUST LISTEN TO ME!!” Feeling so angry and frustrated, Yabu finally cut Inoo’s sentence in return. And Inoo felt chill down his spine because Yabu had never, ever, cursed before. He stopped gathering his things and stared at Yabu Kota, who seemed like he's regretting everything. Inoo could see as crystal clear that Yabu deplored his own action. “I’m sorry. I really am! I have never expected who I supposed was my best friend could have the heart to betray me like that. I swear for you, Kei. I swear to God I didn’t mean it!”
Inoo had noticed that Yabu had never apologized for anything. He’d only been days being with Yabu, and not even once Inoo had ever heard Yabu said sorry to anyone. But now he did. Yabu said sorry to him; he apologized to him, and therefore Inoo knew Yabu was pure. He could sense that Yabu did regret it, that’s why he threw out his ego and wanted forgiveness from the raven hair. But Inoo’s heart had been so torn up into pieces, and at the moment everything just felt hurt, he just couldn’t forgive Yabu’s fault. The raven haired male had the remaining of his heart locked up because never before being a prostitute felt so painful like this.
And he wanted to hate Yabu.
He wanted so bad to cut everything he had with Yabu.
Because they were just never meant to be together.
“I’m sorry.” Inoo said, finally, after a long pause that felt so suffocating. There was a hope in Yabu’s eyes that Inoo could notice, but the hooker didn't have other choice but to break it down. “I’m sorry I met you. I’m sorry I got in to your stupid car!!”
Yabu was snapped by such sentence that he yelled back rather coldly, “I’ve never forced you to get in in the first place.”
“This is so stupid! I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life before!”
Yabu’s head hurt. His brain felt like it spinned endlessly inside his skull. His eyes hurt, his throat hurt. He could no longer yell at Inoo. He could no longer feel anything in his heart, as he watched Inoo packing up all his belongings into one paper bag with popular brand printed on it. It seemed like Inoo was going to go away. It felt like Inoo was seeking for a runway for him to fly, away, as far as he could from Yabu’s reach. The tall brunette gradually became angry to himself, and his anger spread onto his every cells that he felt like he really need at least a gulp of ethanol.
But he did not want to lose Inoo.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving. I want my money.” Inoo said as cold as the peak of Everest, the ice stuck into Yabu’s heart, making him almost as numb.
No, Kei, don’t go…
The businessman did not know what to do, for he didn’t want to listen to his heart. He just took his case out of the cupboard, fishing a thick brown envelope out of it, and taking out sixty bundles of ten thousands yen, throwing them off onto the bed for Inoo to pick up later. After leaving such amount of money, a full contract, Yabu walked out of the bedroom, limp from head to toe. He went straight to the mini bar inside his penthouse and not even once look back over his shoulders. Behind the bar, Yabu prepared a shot glass and a bottle of whisky, but at the same time all his sense were, subconsciously, focusing to any sign Inoo was making.
The front door of the penthouse was thrown open, before the sound of the door slam shut, the whisky didn’t matter anymore. Because Yabu swore to God he could hear Inoo’s soft sob, the first sob he ever heard from the smaller male since the day they met.
*-* To Be Continued to Chapter 5(c) *-*
A/N :
[A little about my sparta summer trip]- In the beginning of this summer holiday, I decided to travel alone to Sendai. Well, it was a nice city, a little bigger than Kanazawa. I wanted to post this chapter while I was in Sendai, but I ended up being really busy with my trip plans and the fact that I woke up really late almost every day XD
- The Sendai that Hikaru described in this chapter is the Sendai that I saw and experience. The main streets in Sendai city was really green and refreshing!! But I hate the buses -_-
- I also visited Shinjuku! I went shopping at F21 near Park Hyatt Shinjuku, and I ate udon at Marugame in Shinjuku San Chome!!! But I didn't get to Ni Chome because I was with a friend and I'm afraid my friend wouldn't like it (srsly, she's not the type you'd ask to accompany you to a RED district) so yeah, I just missed it.
- So yeah, the reason why I became so late in updating Marry-go-round Goes is because I'm too busy with TRIPS AND GOING HOME AND EATING HAHAHAHA.
- Once again, thanks for waiting!
- I'm sorry for making such mess with the characters. Especially Takaki's.
- And I'm sorry I decided there would be a 5c.
- Oh, I have a little problem; my Last.fm doesn't want to scrobble (TwT)