Fic: Smile and the World Similes with You (Abridged Version)
Title: Smile and the World Similes with You (Abridged Version)
Pairing/Characters: JunDa, Nakamaru, brief mentions of Kame
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own any of them since they sold themselves to J&A over 10 years ago.
Word Count: ~3200
Summary: Taguchi and Ueda look back at their relationship on a very special day.
Warning: Un-betaed as usual I need a beta! Any takers? Too much of my bias showing
30th March 2012
“Neh, Do you remember when we first met?” Ueda asked as the waiter served their wine. A 2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falleto.
Perfect for the occasion, he thought.
“Of course I do! How can I ever forget when I met Tacchan?” Taguchi pouted. “Exactly eleven years ago at the dance audition!”
Ueda took a sip of wine to hide his smile.
Well, not exactly…
16th March 2001
“Neh, Maru, aren’t all of these freshmen just so cute? Ahh, I wish I could skip class to attend the ceremony!” Ueda sighed as he and Nakamaru, leaning out of their second floor classroom window, strained to take a proper look at the freshmen filing into the auditorium for their inauguration ceremony.
“Look look that kid’s pretty cute! Look at his smile!” Ueda grabbed Nakamaru’s arm and excitedly pointed animatedly out of the window.
“Nakamaru! You are totally looking at the wrong guy! It’s that one over there, the tall one with a stupid cute grin!” Ueda tried demonstrating the grin, but it looked out of place with his eyeliner and coloured contact lenses. “I wonder what his name is…”
“Taguchi Junnosuke.” Nakamaru ignored Ueda’s stunned look (which too, looked out of place on his face) . “Unlike you, I happen to have good eyesight.”
But even with his bad eyesight, Ueda could see the bright smile on Taguchi’s face. It was the kind of smile he hadn’t seen in a long while. One that came from the heart, one that could brighten up someone’s day, one that was so pure it was as if he had no troubles or worries.
Ueda felt himself hopelessly attracted to Taguchi’s smile.
30th March 2001
It was the freshman audition for the Pop Dance Club which both Ueda and Nakamaru were part of. Despite his serious and gentle appearance, Nakamaru was actually quite talented in dancing; and together with Ueda he had led the club to victory in the annual dance competition in his first year. From that year on, the Shine State High School Pop Dance Club became known throughout Japan as the team to beat.
During the next year, however, due to a major catastrophic incident that no one in the club would ever mention again, they had came in second.
“Seriously, Nakamaru, you said that we were going to stop coming in once we go on to Year 3!”
“Yeah, but that was before that happened.” Nakamaru stopped abruptly and turned to face Ueda, his eyes hard with anger as he thought back to that fateful day last summer.
Ueda sighed. While he was best friends with Nakamaru, he did not like it at all when this side of Nakamaru came out. The juniors called it the Nakamaru-sama mode, in which he would suddenly get all imposing and dictating. It did not come out that at all often, but when it did Ueda often had to clean up after the messes his best friend (although sometimes he considered Nakamaru-sama as another person and hence not his friend) created.
“Well, if it helps, there’s your stupid grin Taguchi kid.” Nakamaru motioned towards the freshmen catching a break between the tough routine he had specially instructed Koyama to put them through.
“Nakamaru-senpai! Ueda-senpai!” Koyama ran up to them excitedly as they entered the studio.
“How are the freshmen this year?” Nakamaru asked with a grave expression which just looked kind of ridiculous on his face.
“Well I think some of them have great potential, but…”
Leaving the two worrywarts to discuss the future of the club, Ueda wandered over to the freshmen. He stood a few metres behind Taguchi and silently observed him.
Taguchi looked exhausted, as with all the other freshmen. Ueda had no doubt that the routine Nakamaru had came up with was definitely both mentally and physically draining. He could imagine the frustration these freshmen felt when they started to lag behind Koyama, not knowing that Koyama himself had spent almost three weeks learning it from Nakamaru during his own freshman year. Ueda watched Taguchi as the latter took a big gulp of water before collapsing on the floor, drained of energy.
Before his brain could give the signal to stop, Ueda’s feet had led him in front of Taguchi. “You! If you give up now, then everything will be over.”
“Huh…? Right! Thanks!” Although Ueda thought that his line sounded like something Nakamaru-sama would say, it seemed to make have made Taguchi happy. He watched in amazement as Taguchi leaped up and began warming up for the next number, though not before flashing Ueda a smile.
And Ueda forgot all his problems too.
30th March 2012
“You mean you’ve noticed me before the audition?” Taguchi blinked, trying to process the information in his head. “Why haven’t you told me?”
“I didn’t really see the need to…” Ueda answered casually. “To me the audition is when we first met and spoke to each other, anyway.”
“So Tacchan must still remember what I said after the audition, right?” Taguchi stared at Ueda, puppy-eyed and all, as if he would start crying if Ueda did not recount every single detail right then.
Oh, how could I ever forget…
30th March 2001
“Senpai! Thank you so much for the encouragement just now, it really helped!” Ueda was ambushed by a gigantic puppy the moment he entered the studio, having left earlier to make a phone call to his private tutor that he would be missing class that day. Said puppy gave him a big bear hug before drawing back and flashing him a dazzling smile.
“Erm, you’re welcome…?” Ueda blushed, visibly startled at the sudden display of affection.
“Senpai, if I pass the audition, will you go out with me? Taguchi asked casually, as if he was asking for the directions to the washroom.
The blush on Ueda’s face deepened. “Huh? Wh--what are you talking about?” He stammered, Taguchi’s words replying in his head.
“This must be love at first sight! When senpai spoke to me, all my fatigue just disappeared! Senpai must be my muse!” Taguchi concluded happily before skipping off to join the other freshmen.
“It’s this great? You actually kind of like him, don’t you?” Nakamaru suddenly appeared and gave Ueda a pat on his shoulder.
Brushing Nakamaru’s hand away, Ueda frowned. “Even if I do, this is way too sudden! We barely even spoke!”
“Well, you can always hope that he doesn’t pass the audition… Although I think he’s pretty good, probably the best here today…” Nakamaru casted an approving look in Taguchi’s direction.
“Hmm, it’s kinda rare for you to approve of anyone’s dancing skills,” Ueda commented, forgetting for a moment his shock at getting a confession out of the blue.
“What are you talking about? I do approve of people’s dancing skills …As long as they are good, that it. This kid is an unpolished gem, with some training he will definitely shine.”
Ueda pondered for a moment before sighing. “You do remember the last time you said that… let’s just say things didn’t turn out that well…”
Nakamaru gave a smile that sent chills down Ueda’s back. “Which is why I need you, Ueda. Since he likes you so much, you can help by keeping him grounded here.”
“Wh--what?! What are you now, some sort of pimp?”
“You know, if I’m a pimp then you’re the…”
“Stop! Not going to do it anyway,” Ueda said, crossing his arms sternly.
“Think about it, you get to hang out with Mr Nice-Smile and the Dance Club gets a new ace. Ueda, I know you care about the club as much as I do, even though you grumble about how troublesome it is all the time...”
“Senpai! I passed the audition!” Taguchi ran over, waving his number tag in the air. “You are free, right? Let’s go on a date!”
“Yes, Ueda-kun is extremely free,” Nakamaru assured. “Have a good date!”
“But I haven’t even…”
“Yes! Let’s go!”
And that was how their relationship began. Although Ueda told himself that he was only going out with Taguchi for the sake of the club (and the fear of Nakamaru-sama surfacing), his heart certainly didn’t agree…
30th March 2011
“You started dating me with such impure intentions!” Taguchi cried with mock anguish.
Ueda rolled his eyes. “Stop that, I’m pretty sure Nakamaru told you at some point of time already.”
“It hurts more hearing it from you! And come think of it, you didn’t even actually say yes to my confession!”
“That’s because you dragged me off for a ‘date’ before I could say anything! And the ‘date’ was just me watching you do your homework in Starbucks!”
“You totally enjoyed it, though. Laughing at how I got stuck at every other Math question.” Taguchi laughed as he recalled the ‘date’.
“Yeah, you still suck at Math, even though I tried tutoring you when you nearly got kicked out of dance because you were failing half your subjects!”
“That was because Nakamaru kept giving me more and more routines as it got nearer to the competition!” Taguchi shuddered at the memory of the endless hours of practice and choreography sessions he went through under Nakamaru’s ‘tutelage’.
16th July 2001
“Listen up! Just because it’s the summer holidays doesn’t mean that we can slack off! We’ll still have practice 3 times a week, understand?” Koyama barked. The juniors, however, were throwing terrified glances at Nakamaru, who was standing behind Koyama with an amused look on his face. Although it had only been less than 4 months since club activities started, they had all heard enough stories about Nakamaru-sama from the seniors to fear the former.
“And Taguchi, you will be receiving one-to-one coaching from Nakamaru-senpai himself! Report to him later after I dismiss you.” Taguchi grimaced as he felt the looks of pity directed towards him from all the other juniors.
“Taguchi, I’ve got a whole list of interesting routines that I just can’t wait to try on… I mean, try out with you,” Nakamaru smiled as Taguchi approached him.
“Nakamaru senpai… I’ve been meaning to tell you this but…” Taguchi started hesitantly.
Nakamaru narrowed his eyes. “Are you intending to quit the club?” He asked.
“No, no, absolutely not! Why should I quit when Ueda-senpai is here? It’s just that I’ve been asked to go for summer remedial lessons…”
“Remedial lessons? I thought you only need to go for those if you fail more than three subjects?” Ueda, who had been standing around, asked curiously. As top students, he, nor Nakamaru, had been anywhere near remedial lessons.
Taguchi’s brows tightened into a frown. “I failed… 4 subjects…” He said sheepishly.
“FOUR?!” Ueda and Nakamaru exclaimed in unison.
“This will not do. Taguchi, if I remember correctly, there is a test you can take to exempt yourself from these classes, right?”
“Yes, but the test is just next week and I doubt I can pass…”
“Good. We still have a week. Ueda, you shall be in charge or tutoring Taguchi 24/7 until he can pass the test!” He clapped his hands together and concluded happily.
“Wh--what? I have to study for the university entrance tests too, you know?”
“It’s settled. Taguchi, you will move into Ueda’s house tonight since his parents are currently out of town. I’ll excuse you both from practice but be prepared because when you come back…”
Ueda could practically see the evil thoughts coming out of his best friend’s head. Still, he knew that there was no use arguing with Nakamaru once he had decided on something. He turned to look at Taguchi, who gave him a wide smile and silently mouthed ‘Let’s work hard together!’.
Ueda and Taguchi had been ‘dating’ since that fateful day 4 months ago. They ate lunches together, (Ueda always tried to get Nakamaru to come along, but the latter would usually disappear at strategic timings to avoid that) did homework together (Actually it was more of Taguchi asking Ueda for help, especially in the Science subjects. Still, Ueda couldn’t believe that Taguchi managed to fail four subjects!) and occasionally went on normal dates in town. Ueda had to admit that his attraction to Taguchi was growing day by day, and he had practically forgotten that they had only started dating due to Nakamaru’s insistence. With the university entrance examinations coming up, Ueda could practically feel the stress weighing him down each day; but when he was around Taguchi, it was as if his problems would just disappear for a little while and he would receive a little strength to go through each day.
Still, he felt a little nervous about spending nights alone with Taguchi in his house. What if he tries to… Although Ueda was pretty sure that he was the one with more experience, Taguchi had the physical advantage so he if really felt like it…
Pushing the funny thoughts out of his head, Ueda turned to Taguchi and declared, “We shall not do anything except studying, understood?”
“Eh? Not even…”
“No!”
“We can’t even eat?”
“Don’t be stupid, of course we can eat,” Ueda rolled his eyes. “Just no doing… other things.”
“What other things?” Taguchi asked curiously.
“Nothing! See you tonight at 8pm!”
16th July 2001, 10pm
“So after you differentiate this equation, you set it to zero to find the turning point…” Ueda explained patiently.
“But how do I differentiate it in the first place?”
“… Let’s just take a break first. Here, have some cake.” Ueda sighed and closed the book in resignation.
“Yay cake! I love cake!” Taguchi chirped happily. “Senpai, can I call you Tacchan?”
Ueda nearly choked on his cake. “Well… if you want to…” He blushed.
“Really? Then Tacchan can call me Junno too!” He happily declared. “By the way, Tacchan, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but Nakamaru-senpai seems to get angry every time someone brings it up so…”
“Is it about what happened last year?” Ueda guessed. Nothing could get Nakamaru as worked up as that. “Well, it wasn’t that big a deal, really. Last year, there was a really talented freshman whom Nakamaru took a liking to immediately, kind of like you, really. He put in a lot of effort training him but the guy bailed out on us just before the big competition. Thanks to that we only managed to come in second, and Nakamaru had been bitter about that since then.”
“Would that guy happen to be named... Akanishi?” Taguchi asked hesitatingly. “Akanishi-kun was my senpai in dance, back in junior high. All of us sort of heard about it,” he explained.
“Yep, Akanishi Jin. Flew off to the States to become a big star and forgot all about us,” Ueda sneered. “Were you guys close?”
“Not really. Kame was really close to him, though. They were childhood friends.”
“Kame?”
“Kamenashi Kazuya. We’ve been in the same class since junior high. He’s really good at dancing too, even better than I am, but he has given up on it since we entered high school. I’ve always suspected that it has something to do with Akanishi-kun, but he always changes the subject when I ask.”
“Well, if he doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t force him to. Everyone is entitled to secrets sometimes.”
“I hope there are no secrets between us, though,” Taguchi said quietly.
30th March 2011
“You totally kept secrets from me, though,” Taguchi sulked.
“Technically I didn’t promise not to, you know. Besides, like I said, everyone is entitled to secrets sometimes,” Ueda argued.
“So is Tacchan keeping anymore secrets from me?”
“Well… not really…”
25th July 2001
Under Ueda’s close supervision (and some pressure from Nakamaru), Taguchi managed to pass the test with flying colours and hence was exempted from remedial. Although he wasn’t really sure what Nakamaru had prepared for him was any better.
“Nakamaru-senpai! I really need a water break!” He cried. Ueda looked up from his tuition homework and threw a bottle of water at Taguchi’s direction.
“Thank you, Tacchan!” Taguchi beamed.
“Did I say you can stop?” Nakamaru marched over, arms crossed.
“Come on, Nakamaru, give him a break! You guys have been at it all morning!” Ueda placed his hand on Nakamaru’s shoulder to stop him from approaching Taguchi, who was sprawled out on the studio floor.
“It’s ok, Tacchan! I can still go on! As long as Tacchan is here, I always feel energized!” Taguchi jumped up and began stretching again. “Don’t look so down, Tacchan, smile! Smile and someone else will smile back at you! If you don’t smile, happiness will pass you by!”
“What rubbish are you talking about? Stop dilly-dallying and come back to practice now!” Nakamaru shouted.
Ueda watched Taguchi hop off to another round of practice and looked backed at his homework.
Three days later, Ueda walked into the hall for first round of entrance examinations for Waseda University. Nakamaru was spared from the exam since, as former captain of the Dance Club, he had gotten through to the second round through recommendation. He was worried; he hadn’t been studying as much as he would have liked to for the past few months, due to the time he spent with Taguchi and at the Dance Club. He was pretty sure he knew every formula and equation he had to know by heart, and there wasn’t a single type of question he hadn’t attempted (his parents hadn’t hired that Todai-graduate tutor for nothing, you know); but it was Waseda, so it was also pretty obvious that whatever he knew wouldn’t be enough.
Ueda took a deep breath as he sat down at his assigned desk. No. 010330, the tag on it read. What a coincidence, Ueda thought. His mind drifted off to Taguchi, who had wanted to come with him but was once again captured and dragged away by Nakamaru. Suddenly, the imaginary!Taguchi in his head smiled and spoke.
“Don’t look so down, Tacchan, smile! Smile and someone else will smile back at you! If you don’t smile, happiness will pass you by!”
Smile, huh?
As Ueda picked up his pen, his lips widened into a smile.
Notice
Congratulations to the following students:
Saotome Junichi (Class 3A)
Sonoda Yukiko (Class 3A)
Hayashi Reiko (Class 3A)
Ueda Tatsuya (Class 3B)
Nakamaru Yuichi (Class 3B)
for entering Waseda University.
30th March 2011
“I’m glad that my smile was able to motivate Tacchan too!”
“I don’t normally say this, but since this is a special day, I shall. I’m really glad to have met you, Junno.” Ueda smiled as he lifted up his glass, motioning for a toast. “Don’t ever expect me to say it again, though.”
“Me too,” Taguchi smiled as he clicked his glass against Ueda’s. “Happy anniversary.”
The End
Author's Notes:
Written for sugiex's birthday! Happy Birthday! :)) Hope you enjoy the day ahead!
- I apologise to Johnny-san for making Ueda steal his encouraging words to Junno.
- This version has less Nakamaru compared to the unabridged version
- It also has less loose ends, although I can still probably hang myself with them.
- In case anyone is curious, 16th March 2001 is the day KAT-TUN was first formed, and 30th March was when they first appeared on TV. (according to wikipedia)
Pairing/Characters: JunDa, Nakamaru, brief mentions of Kame
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own any of them since they sold themselves to J&A over 10 years ago.
Word Count: ~3200
Summary: Taguchi and Ueda look back at their relationship on a very special day.
Warning: Un-betaed as usual I need a beta! Any takers? Too much of my bias showing
30th March 2012
“Neh, Do you remember when we first met?” Ueda asked as the waiter served their wine. A 2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falleto.
Perfect for the occasion, he thought.
“Of course I do! How can I ever forget when I met Tacchan?” Taguchi pouted. “Exactly eleven years ago at the dance audition!”
Ueda took a sip of wine to hide his smile.
Well, not exactly…
16th March 2001
“Neh, Maru, aren’t all of these freshmen just so cute? Ahh, I wish I could skip class to attend the ceremony!” Ueda sighed as he and Nakamaru, leaning out of their second floor classroom window, strained to take a proper look at the freshmen filing into the auditorium for their inauguration ceremony.
“Look look that kid’s pretty cute! Look at his smile!” Ueda grabbed Nakamaru’s arm and excitedly pointed animatedly out of the window.
“Nakamaru! You are totally looking at the wrong guy! It’s that one over there, the tall one with a stupid cute grin!” Ueda tried demonstrating the grin, but it looked out of place with his eyeliner and coloured contact lenses. “I wonder what his name is…”
“Taguchi Junnosuke.” Nakamaru ignored Ueda’s stunned look (which too, looked out of place on his face) . “Unlike you, I happen to have good eyesight.”
But even with his bad eyesight, Ueda could see the bright smile on Taguchi’s face. It was the kind of smile he hadn’t seen in a long while. One that came from the heart, one that could brighten up someone’s day, one that was so pure it was as if he had no troubles or worries.
Ueda felt himself hopelessly attracted to Taguchi’s smile.
30th March 2001
It was the freshman audition for the Pop Dance Club which both Ueda and Nakamaru were part of. Despite his serious and gentle appearance, Nakamaru was actually quite talented in dancing; and together with Ueda he had led the club to victory in the annual dance competition in his first year. From that year on, the Shine State High School Pop Dance Club became known throughout Japan as the team to beat.
During the next year, however, due to a major catastrophic incident that no one in the club would ever mention again, they had came in second.
“Seriously, Nakamaru, you said that we were going to stop coming in once we go on to Year 3!”
“Yeah, but that was before that happened.” Nakamaru stopped abruptly and turned to face Ueda, his eyes hard with anger as he thought back to that fateful day last summer.
Ueda sighed. While he was best friends with Nakamaru, he did not like it at all when this side of Nakamaru came out. The juniors called it the Nakamaru-sama mode, in which he would suddenly get all imposing and dictating. It did not come out that at all often, but when it did Ueda often had to clean up after the messes his best friend (although sometimes he considered Nakamaru-sama as another person and hence not his friend) created.
“Well, if it helps, there’s your stupid grin Taguchi kid.” Nakamaru motioned towards the freshmen catching a break between the tough routine he had specially instructed Koyama to put them through.
“Nakamaru-senpai! Ueda-senpai!” Koyama ran up to them excitedly as they entered the studio.
“How are the freshmen this year?” Nakamaru asked with a grave expression which just looked kind of ridiculous on his face.
“Well I think some of them have great potential, but…”
Leaving the two worrywarts to discuss the future of the club, Ueda wandered over to the freshmen. He stood a few metres behind Taguchi and silently observed him.
Taguchi looked exhausted, as with all the other freshmen. Ueda had no doubt that the routine Nakamaru had came up with was definitely both mentally and physically draining. He could imagine the frustration these freshmen felt when they started to lag behind Koyama, not knowing that Koyama himself had spent almost three weeks learning it from Nakamaru during his own freshman year. Ueda watched Taguchi as the latter took a big gulp of water before collapsing on the floor, drained of energy.
Before his brain could give the signal to stop, Ueda’s feet had led him in front of Taguchi. “You! If you give up now, then everything will be over.”
“Huh…? Right! Thanks!” Although Ueda thought that his line sounded like something Nakamaru-sama would say, it seemed to make have made Taguchi happy. He watched in amazement as Taguchi leaped up and began warming up for the next number, though not before flashing Ueda a smile.
And Ueda forgot all his problems too.
30th March 2012
“You mean you’ve noticed me before the audition?” Taguchi blinked, trying to process the information in his head. “Why haven’t you told me?”
“I didn’t really see the need to…” Ueda answered casually. “To me the audition is when we first met and spoke to each other, anyway.”
“So Tacchan must still remember what I said after the audition, right?” Taguchi stared at Ueda, puppy-eyed and all, as if he would start crying if Ueda did not recount every single detail right then.
Oh, how could I ever forget…
30th March 2001
“Senpai! Thank you so much for the encouragement just now, it really helped!” Ueda was ambushed by a gigantic puppy the moment he entered the studio, having left earlier to make a phone call to his private tutor that he would be missing class that day. Said puppy gave him a big bear hug before drawing back and flashing him a dazzling smile.
“Erm, you’re welcome…?” Ueda blushed, visibly startled at the sudden display of affection.
“Senpai, if I pass the audition, will you go out with me? Taguchi asked casually, as if he was asking for the directions to the washroom.
The blush on Ueda’s face deepened. “Huh? Wh--what are you talking about?” He stammered, Taguchi’s words replying in his head.
“This must be love at first sight! When senpai spoke to me, all my fatigue just disappeared! Senpai must be my muse!” Taguchi concluded happily before skipping off to join the other freshmen.
“It’s this great? You actually kind of like him, don’t you?” Nakamaru suddenly appeared and gave Ueda a pat on his shoulder.
Brushing Nakamaru’s hand away, Ueda frowned. “Even if I do, this is way too sudden! We barely even spoke!”
“Well, you can always hope that he doesn’t pass the audition… Although I think he’s pretty good, probably the best here today…” Nakamaru casted an approving look in Taguchi’s direction.
“Hmm, it’s kinda rare for you to approve of anyone’s dancing skills,” Ueda commented, forgetting for a moment his shock at getting a confession out of the blue.
“What are you talking about? I do approve of people’s dancing skills …As long as they are good, that it. This kid is an unpolished gem, with some training he will definitely shine.”
Ueda pondered for a moment before sighing. “You do remember the last time you said that… let’s just say things didn’t turn out that well…”
Nakamaru gave a smile that sent chills down Ueda’s back. “Which is why I need you, Ueda. Since he likes you so much, you can help by keeping him grounded here.”
“Wh--what?! What are you now, some sort of pimp?”
“You know, if I’m a pimp then you’re the…”
“Stop! Not going to do it anyway,” Ueda said, crossing his arms sternly.
“Think about it, you get to hang out with Mr Nice-Smile and the Dance Club gets a new ace. Ueda, I know you care about the club as much as I do, even though you grumble about how troublesome it is all the time...”
“Senpai! I passed the audition!” Taguchi ran over, waving his number tag in the air. “You are free, right? Let’s go on a date!”
“Yes, Ueda-kun is extremely free,” Nakamaru assured. “Have a good date!”
“But I haven’t even…”
“Yes! Let’s go!”
And that was how their relationship began. Although Ueda told himself that he was only going out with Taguchi for the sake of the club (and the fear of Nakamaru-sama surfacing), his heart certainly didn’t agree…
30th March 2011
“You started dating me with such impure intentions!” Taguchi cried with mock anguish.
Ueda rolled his eyes. “Stop that, I’m pretty sure Nakamaru told you at some point of time already.”
“It hurts more hearing it from you! And come think of it, you didn’t even actually say yes to my confession!”
“That’s because you dragged me off for a ‘date’ before I could say anything! And the ‘date’ was just me watching you do your homework in Starbucks!”
“You totally enjoyed it, though. Laughing at how I got stuck at every other Math question.” Taguchi laughed as he recalled the ‘date’.
“Yeah, you still suck at Math, even though I tried tutoring you when you nearly got kicked out of dance because you were failing half your subjects!”
“That was because Nakamaru kept giving me more and more routines as it got nearer to the competition!” Taguchi shuddered at the memory of the endless hours of practice and choreography sessions he went through under Nakamaru’s ‘tutelage’.
16th July 2001
“Listen up! Just because it’s the summer holidays doesn’t mean that we can slack off! We’ll still have practice 3 times a week, understand?” Koyama barked. The juniors, however, were throwing terrified glances at Nakamaru, who was standing behind Koyama with an amused look on his face. Although it had only been less than 4 months since club activities started, they had all heard enough stories about Nakamaru-sama from the seniors to fear the former.
“And Taguchi, you will be receiving one-to-one coaching from Nakamaru-senpai himself! Report to him later after I dismiss you.” Taguchi grimaced as he felt the looks of pity directed towards him from all the other juniors.
“Taguchi, I’ve got a whole list of interesting routines that I just can’t wait to try on… I mean, try out with you,” Nakamaru smiled as Taguchi approached him.
“Nakamaru senpai… I’ve been meaning to tell you this but…” Taguchi started hesitantly.
Nakamaru narrowed his eyes. “Are you intending to quit the club?” He asked.
“No, no, absolutely not! Why should I quit when Ueda-senpai is here? It’s just that I’ve been asked to go for summer remedial lessons…”
“Remedial lessons? I thought you only need to go for those if you fail more than three subjects?” Ueda, who had been standing around, asked curiously. As top students, he, nor Nakamaru, had been anywhere near remedial lessons.
Taguchi’s brows tightened into a frown. “I failed… 4 subjects…” He said sheepishly.
“FOUR?!” Ueda and Nakamaru exclaimed in unison.
“This will not do. Taguchi, if I remember correctly, there is a test you can take to exempt yourself from these classes, right?”
“Yes, but the test is just next week and I doubt I can pass…”
“Good. We still have a week. Ueda, you shall be in charge or tutoring Taguchi 24/7 until he can pass the test!” He clapped his hands together and concluded happily.
“Wh--what? I have to study for the university entrance tests too, you know?”
“It’s settled. Taguchi, you will move into Ueda’s house tonight since his parents are currently out of town. I’ll excuse you both from practice but be prepared because when you come back…”
Ueda could practically see the evil thoughts coming out of his best friend’s head. Still, he knew that there was no use arguing with Nakamaru once he had decided on something. He turned to look at Taguchi, who gave him a wide smile and silently mouthed ‘Let’s work hard together!’.
Ueda and Taguchi had been ‘dating’ since that fateful day 4 months ago. They ate lunches together, (Ueda always tried to get Nakamaru to come along, but the latter would usually disappear at strategic timings to avoid that) did homework together (Actually it was more of Taguchi asking Ueda for help, especially in the Science subjects. Still, Ueda couldn’t believe that Taguchi managed to fail four subjects!) and occasionally went on normal dates in town. Ueda had to admit that his attraction to Taguchi was growing day by day, and he had practically forgotten that they had only started dating due to Nakamaru’s insistence. With the university entrance examinations coming up, Ueda could practically feel the stress weighing him down each day; but when he was around Taguchi, it was as if his problems would just disappear for a little while and he would receive a little strength to go through each day.
Still, he felt a little nervous about spending nights alone with Taguchi in his house. What if he tries to… Although Ueda was pretty sure that he was the one with more experience, Taguchi had the physical advantage so he if really felt like it…
Pushing the funny thoughts out of his head, Ueda turned to Taguchi and declared, “We shall not do anything except studying, understood?”
“Eh? Not even…”
“No!”
“We can’t even eat?”
“Don’t be stupid, of course we can eat,” Ueda rolled his eyes. “Just no doing… other things.”
“What other things?” Taguchi asked curiously.
“Nothing! See you tonight at 8pm!”
16th July 2001, 10pm
“So after you differentiate this equation, you set it to zero to find the turning point…” Ueda explained patiently.
“But how do I differentiate it in the first place?”
“… Let’s just take a break first. Here, have some cake.” Ueda sighed and closed the book in resignation.
“Yay cake! I love cake!” Taguchi chirped happily. “Senpai, can I call you Tacchan?”
Ueda nearly choked on his cake. “Well… if you want to…” He blushed.
“Really? Then Tacchan can call me Junno too!” He happily declared. “By the way, Tacchan, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but Nakamaru-senpai seems to get angry every time someone brings it up so…”
“Is it about what happened last year?” Ueda guessed. Nothing could get Nakamaru as worked up as that. “Well, it wasn’t that big a deal, really. Last year, there was a really talented freshman whom Nakamaru took a liking to immediately, kind of like you, really. He put in a lot of effort training him but the guy bailed out on us just before the big competition. Thanks to that we only managed to come in second, and Nakamaru had been bitter about that since then.”
“Would that guy happen to be named... Akanishi?” Taguchi asked hesitatingly. “Akanishi-kun was my senpai in dance, back in junior high. All of us sort of heard about it,” he explained.
“Yep, Akanishi Jin. Flew off to the States to become a big star and forgot all about us,” Ueda sneered. “Were you guys close?”
“Not really. Kame was really close to him, though. They were childhood friends.”
“Kame?”
“Kamenashi Kazuya. We’ve been in the same class since junior high. He’s really good at dancing too, even better than I am, but he has given up on it since we entered high school. I’ve always suspected that it has something to do with Akanishi-kun, but he always changes the subject when I ask.”
“Well, if he doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t force him to. Everyone is entitled to secrets sometimes.”
“I hope there are no secrets between us, though,” Taguchi said quietly.
30th March 2011
“You totally kept secrets from me, though,” Taguchi sulked.
“Technically I didn’t promise not to, you know. Besides, like I said, everyone is entitled to secrets sometimes,” Ueda argued.
“So is Tacchan keeping anymore secrets from me?”
“Well… not really…”
25th July 2001
Under Ueda’s close supervision (and some pressure from Nakamaru), Taguchi managed to pass the test with flying colours and hence was exempted from remedial. Although he wasn’t really sure what Nakamaru had prepared for him was any better.
“Nakamaru-senpai! I really need a water break!” He cried. Ueda looked up from his tuition homework and threw a bottle of water at Taguchi’s direction.
“Thank you, Tacchan!” Taguchi beamed.
“Did I say you can stop?” Nakamaru marched over, arms crossed.
“Come on, Nakamaru, give him a break! You guys have been at it all morning!” Ueda placed his hand on Nakamaru’s shoulder to stop him from approaching Taguchi, who was sprawled out on the studio floor.
“It’s ok, Tacchan! I can still go on! As long as Tacchan is here, I always feel energized!” Taguchi jumped up and began stretching again. “Don’t look so down, Tacchan, smile! Smile and someone else will smile back at you! If you don’t smile, happiness will pass you by!”
“What rubbish are you talking about? Stop dilly-dallying and come back to practice now!” Nakamaru shouted.
Ueda watched Taguchi hop off to another round of practice and looked backed at his homework.
Three days later, Ueda walked into the hall for first round of entrance examinations for Waseda University. Nakamaru was spared from the exam since, as former captain of the Dance Club, he had gotten through to the second round through recommendation. He was worried; he hadn’t been studying as much as he would have liked to for the past few months, due to the time he spent with Taguchi and at the Dance Club. He was pretty sure he knew every formula and equation he had to know by heart, and there wasn’t a single type of question he hadn’t attempted (his parents hadn’t hired that Todai-graduate tutor for nothing, you know); but it was Waseda, so it was also pretty obvious that whatever he knew wouldn’t be enough.
Ueda took a deep breath as he sat down at his assigned desk. No. 010330, the tag on it read. What a coincidence, Ueda thought. His mind drifted off to Taguchi, who had wanted to come with him but was once again captured and dragged away by Nakamaru. Suddenly, the imaginary!Taguchi in his head smiled and spoke.
“Don’t look so down, Tacchan, smile! Smile and someone else will smile back at you! If you don’t smile, happiness will pass you by!”
Smile, huh?
As Ueda picked up his pen, his lips widened into a smile.
Notice
Congratulations to the following students:
Saotome Junichi (Class 3A)
Sonoda Yukiko (Class 3A)
Hayashi Reiko (Class 3A)
Ueda Tatsuya (Class 3B)
Nakamaru Yuichi (Class 3B)
for entering Waseda University.
30th March 2011
“I’m glad that my smile was able to motivate Tacchan too!”
“I don’t normally say this, but since this is a special day, I shall. I’m really glad to have met you, Junno.” Ueda smiled as he lifted up his glass, motioning for a toast. “Don’t ever expect me to say it again, though.”
“Me too,” Taguchi smiled as he clicked his glass against Ueda’s. “Happy anniversary.”
The End
Author's Notes:
Written for sugiex's birthday! Happy Birthday! :)) Hope you enjoy the day ahead!
- I apologise to Johnny-san for making Ueda steal his encouraging words to Junno.
- This version has less Nakamaru compared to the unabridged version
- It also has less loose ends, although I can still probably hang myself with them.
- In case anyone is curious, 16th March 2001 is the day KAT-TUN was first formed, and 30th March was when they first appeared on TV. (according to wikipedia)