247 lbs of Love: The Liar’s Game: Fourth Lie
Three simple rules, thirty short days
Title: 247 lbs of Love: The Liar’s Game
Summary: Jin, Yamashita and Ryo made a bet that Jin couldn’t get into Kame’s pants within a month. Stubbornly, Jin accepted the challenge; what he couldn’t accept were the feelings that came along with it. After all, the third rule was that it was Kame’s job to fall in love; not his
Genre: Romance/Drama
Pairings: Akame (main) [Jin/Kame], mentions of Ryoda [Ryo/Ueda] and Tomapi [Yamashita/Toma]
Other Characters: KAT-TUN, Ryo, Yamashita
Content: Romance, drama, light humor, inevitable angst, major Kokame friendship, slightly cruel plot?
Author: Nerd-san
Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Johnny Entertainment
247 lbs of Love: The Liar’s Game: Fourth Lie
The Liar’s Game: Fourth Lie
Rule 1: No one is to know about any of this being a game
Rule 2: If anyone is to find out about the lies, the game is over
Rule 3: You, by no means, are to fall in love with your victim
Childlike fidgeting that was very much like him.
“What I’m trying to say is…that…somehow…”
Nervous fidgeting that Jin wasn’t used to.
“I somehow fell in love with you, Jin.”
I fell in love with you.
Jin stirred uncomfortably, jolting from the couch with wide eyes. He blinked his weary eyes taking a moment to collect his bearings. He felt an unconscious nudge at his feet before noting Ryo’s peacefully sleeping face on the opposite side of the couch.
Couch.
Jin raised a hand and hurried to work away the beads of sweat gathering atop his forehead. It was just a dream, he reminded himself. A dream and nothing more. Go back to sleep was the first set of information Jin’s mind had presented itself with.
And the man tried to do just that; gently grabbing away bits and pieces of Ryo’s blanket and setting it against his shivering body. Sleep wasn’t as easily met with as he thought it would be and groaning, Jin sat up.
Ryo unconsciously nit-picked at the blanket before taking most of it for himself; Jin didn’t care and allowed his friend to do so, far too awake to think about returning to bed.
He glanced down to see Yamashita’s sleeping figure on the floor, sprawled out in all his model-like glory, mouth slightly ajar and eyes tightly sealed together. Jin prodded himself off the couch and stretched out his drained legs.
He took a moment to sigh quietly, unwilling to wake his friends. Gently he poked the friend sleeping on the plushy carpet, and seeing as the man was not stirring even the slightest, he nodded at his final decision.
It had always been like this. When Ryo and Jin had come to Yamashita’s apartment, he would never sleep in his bed. Neither of the three did. They would much rather be with each other, spaced out against the coarse couches than separated in disconnected rooms.
It was another one of their unspoken rules. Something left unsaid, yet wholeheartedly understood. They wanted to take what little time they had to bask in each other’s presence and that was all there was to it.
“I guess it can’t be helped.” Jin smiled and squatted down next to the sleeping figure, soothingly heaving the outline into his arms.
Jin inwardly rolled his eyes and hauled Yamashita onto the space of the couch he had taken up a second ago. “Tch, and he calls me heavy…”
He met with minimal resistance as he pushed the sleeping Yamashita onto the couch and finally grunted in approval as Yamashita automatically buried his face deeper into the pillows.
An automated reaction that made Jin smile heartedly before heading off to the washroom to prepare for work was all it took for the man to remember Kame. Again.
He wasn’t even sure why anymore; he had long given up trying to force excuses out of himself - the very idea was tiring. He didn’t understand much of anything anymore but being with Kame yesterday just felt…right.
Jin shook his head. That was enough of that. It made no sense; what bound him to Kame. What made him want to stay with the younger man; it made no sense. And no matter how many times Jin had tried to desperately push an answer out of his mind, he was left with nothing.
Nothing but confusion. Nothing but misunderstanding. An empty abyss of misinterpreted nothingness.
Jin wobbled towards Yamashita’s master bathroom, sighing sullenly, staring at his reflection in the mirror in hopes of getting rid of his pestering thoughts.
Jin turned on the tap, picking up a toothbrush he had left here the last time he had been to Yamashita’s apartment, blinking back at the reflection bouncing from the lights. Somehow, he rinsed his hands thoroughly; I think I feel a little guilty.
After he was finished, Jin threw down his toothbrush, shoving it back mercilessly into its rightful place as he made his way towards the shower, slowly discarding his clothing one piece at a time.
He began by unbuttoning the top he had slept with the night previous, hesitantly unlacing all the tiny pins. “We’ve been through this once before,” he grunted as he undid the first button, “this’ll be the second time,” he unfastened the second button.
“But this time there’s the bet…” He groaned in frustration as the final button refused to undo itself. He laced his fingers neatly around the metal, tugging it hardheartedly, but still it remained where it was.
Jin didn’t know what to do. So he did the only thing he could do. Exert pressure on the tiny button. And he continued to put forth more force. The next few minutes passed effortlessly: exerting pressure; more and more pressure.
He felt a small tug from the button and soon the tiny metal bounced from his shirt and hit the bathroom wall, falling senselessly to the floor.
Jin frowned looking down at his shirt that was now down a button. He looked back at the shining metal from the floor and hesitantly went to pick it up.
Jin held the petite medallion in his hands, staring at it blankly while listening to the empty sounds of the shower running in the background. He flicked it inaccurately in his hands and sighed.
I deserved it, he thought, looking down at his ruined shirt. I deserved all of it.
He had put forth so much pressure to the point wherein the button couldn’t take anymore. Eventually, it was bound to detonate. To break and never return to him.
Jin’s eyes widened as he enclosed the small bead within his oversized palm. “It’s like…” he choked over his own thoughts, “…what I’m doing to-”
“Jin!”
At the same time Jin threw his shirt to the floor, along with the uncomfortable jeans he fell asleep in, Yamashita’s loud voice was heard on the other side of the door, radiating with it his obvious annoyance. “Jin what the hell are you doing in there?!”
Jin snapped his head back towards the door. “What do you want Pi?” He called back, shoving his pants to the side of the washroom. “I’m trying to shower here!” He grabbed the button from his hand and placed it delicately in the pocket of his pants.
“Wait your turn!”
“I have to pee, get out!”
A morning Yamashita was not one you wanted to get to know. Jin and Ryo knew that. And yet, Jin smiled smugly as he leaned against the small barrier that separated the prey from the predator. “I’m taking a shower,” he said.
Jin could practically hear Yamashita’s frustration. “Take a shower in your own house.” His friend said carefully, knocking on the door once more. “You’ve probably been in there for ages!”
Jin glanced over at his watch. Half an hour. He quietly laughed at his friend’s perceptibly good answer. Still, he wasn’t ready to give Yamashita that satisfaction. He merely turned the shower’s water to an even louder down-pouring, willing his best friend to knock down the door in his irritation.
“Jin, once you step foot outside…”
Jin shrieked in a false fright, “Pi’s threatening me!” He yelped, “Now I’m never going to open this door!”
“Jin if you don’t open the door this instant I’ll-”
There was silence. Tapered creaking and finally, Jin emerged from the bathroom, although not stepping foot outside its boundaries he snuggly kept put within the exclusive bathroom tiles.
Jin opened the door, shirtless with only boxers and Yamashita’s towel dangling carelessly over his neck. Yamashita rolled his eyes and attempted to push past Jin to no avail.
Jin smiled in superiority as he patted his friend’s shoulder softly. “Don’t worry,” he leaned in to close the door, “I’ll be out soon.”
“JIN!”
Jin suppressed a yawn as KAT-TUN flocked over him like a horde of curious birds, examining the growing lump on his forehead that was far from being concealed through his makeup. Koki even had the nerve to touch the bump before Jin winced away in pain.
“Geez…” Jin pushed Koki’s hand away as the rapper and Nakamaru shared a laugh that was soon after joined in by both Taguchi and Ueda.
Only Kame remained quiet, a frown completely unsuitable to his naturally flawless visage on his face. “Guys,” he warned and made sure to crook his head to the side Koki wasn’t on, “you should just leave him alone. The manager’s already given him enough trouble…”
Koki sighed inwardly. Even if Kame wasn’t facing him, the man knew what his friend was thinking. Predictable Kame. Predictable, trustworthy Kame. Predictable, trustworthy Kame that was always there for both his friends and loved ones.
Koki glared at Jin, tracing his eyes for any signs of deceit. He then shook his head. Jin was his friend; there was no reason to doubt Jin’s intentions.
He watched the scene unfold before him; Jin complaining to the rest of KAT-TUN to be more like Kame, Kame pretending he didn’t care, but Koki saw through this and caught the genuine smiles Kame wore when no one was looking.
Jin’s hand casually on Kame’s shoulder, Jin playfully poking away at Kame’s reddening neck, Kame reluctantly pushing Jin away with a smile - Koki saw through the day’s activities between KAT-TUN’s infamous pair.
He felt the excitement Kame was feeling. After being one of the very few who knew of how broken Kame truly was after Jin’s departure, it was as if all of Kame’s patient waiting was being rewarded. Koki had never felt happier.
“Ne, Koki?” Nakamaru walked up beside Koki, handing his boyfriend a water bottle. Both men had towels draped with sweat laced around their necks as proof of the day’s hard dance rehearsals.
Koki gratefully took the water bottle; chugging most of it down in one go. “What is it?”
Nakamaru shrugged, unsure of how to say what he had wanted to. “What’s going on between those two all of a sudden?”
He pointed his chin out to where Kame was currently resting, sitting in all of his childish innocence only to have Jin walk up behind him, tightly hugging him from behind.
The pair watched as Kame giggled at something Jin must have said and saw how the younger man’s face lit up with sheer delight as Jin seated himself next to the excited Kame.
“Isn’t it a good thing?” Koki asked, genuinely wanting to hear the beat-boxer’s opinion.
Nakamaru scratched his nose in confusion as he and Koki both took a seat of their own. Tired, he rested his head against Koki’s shoulder. “They’ve acted like complete strangers up until yesterday,” he stated, “it’s just all…rather…sudden.”
Koki felt Nakamaru’s head stiffen against his skin. “It’s not that I’m not happy for them - I am.” He sighed halfheartedly and Koki followed his boyfriend’s stare to the now cuddling coupling of Jin and Kame.
“It’s just…”
“You’re worried about Kame?” Koki finished with a small smile and laughing along, Nakamaru nodded.
“Don’t worry about it,” he rested his head against Nakamaru’s, “he has us. He has KAT-TUN,” he smiled, “and most importantly - he has Jin.”
“Ne, ne, ne~”
The two immediately pulled away from each other, clearly more embarrassed about showing their affections in public than Jin, as Taguchi came bouncing along to KAT-TUN’s official couple.
His PSP dangled in his hands as he cocked his head to the side at Jin and Kame.
Jin was hounding Kame for his red-colored scarf, playing with the ends and then intertwining it with his own as Kame gently protested even though it was evident by his facial expression alone that he was not bothered at the slightest.
“Are they going out?” Taguchi asked directly and Nakamaru could only shrug.
Koki shook his head soon after. “They’re just friends; like they were before.” Before Jin disappointed Kame, Koki thought over the past occurrences. But if Kame was willing to look over them, then so was he.
“Jin likes Kame.”
The four turned their gazes up to Ueda who had just walked into the room with an identical towel around his neck and a half-emptied water bottle in hand. Finally digesting their official leader’s words, Nakamaru nearly spit up his drink.
“E-Eh?!” He gasped.
Ueda shrugged over in Jin’s direction. “It’s obvious.” His cool glaze swarmed over Koki with inquisitiveness as if the rapper were keeping something from them. “I have to admit, though, I don’t know what the sudden change of heart is.”
“Sudden change of heart?” Taguchi perked up from his game and squatted down in between Nakamaru and Koki, much to the two’s reluctance to be apart. He remained oblivious to Koki’s eyes shooting lethal daggers at him. “What sudden change of heart?”
“Didn’t Jin reject Kame before?” Ueda asked and even though it was in a hushed tone so the two at the other side of the room couldn’t hear, it was loud enough for the four of them.
Nakamaru nodded along with Ueda’s words. “I think so.” He turned helplessly to Koki, “even though neither of the two said anything it was rather obvious Kame liked Jin wasn’t it?”
T-TUN, sans Koki, nodded. Instead the rapper quirked a curious brow at his boyfriend’s words, “liked?” He asked, emphasizing the past tense KAT-TUN’s older member was referring to.
Taguchi put his game down for a minute, regarding the conversation carefully. “Kame can’t like Jin now. Why would you continue to like someone you know can’t return the same feelings?” He fiddled anxiously with the buttons of his game.
Taguchi coughed, “I think Kame wouldn’t…wouldn’t still like Jin.”
“Kind of ironic now, huh?” Ueda commented.
Nakamaru nodded in agreement. “To think that the tables would turn,” he laughed a little and Taguchi and Ueda joined in, “and now it’s Jin who’s after Kame. Just goes to show you that anything’s possible. We should all be happy; for Kame.”
The three nodded and Koki only sighed. He didn’t think Kame’s façade was actually that believable. Or perhaps it was because they were such good friends that he was easily able to pass through the front walls the younger man built for himself.
Everyone else seemed convinced, however. Convinced that Kame had no longer harbored feelings for Jin. Convinced that there was nothing more than the ‘like’ they all referred to, to begin with.
Koki knew that Kame’s feelings ran too deep to be considered as merely ‘like’. Saying that Kame merely liked Jin would be belittling the man’s infinite feelings.
It was love; genuine love that came around as rarely as once in a lifetime. It was love; it always had been. Kame knew it. And Koki knew it. But, Koki looked around at T-TUN who seemed too engrossed in spying on Jin and Kame, if T-TUN believed it was just ‘like’, then that was fine.
“Koki!”
Snapping out of his own world and returning to reality, Koki looked around for the source of the voice.
He was startled and even jumped back a little as he saw Kame’s face mere inches away from his own.
He pursed his lips together sarcastically, “you scared me.”
Kame smirked in triumph and seated himself beside Koki. It was only now that Koki was beginning to realize the disappearance of his other friends who had been beside him a second ago.
Taguchi was contently walking around, chatting away with the bustling camera crew while still playing with his game in the other hand. Nakamaru seemed to be sleeping soundly in one of the corners with Ueda sitting beside Jin, discussing something about a new drama coming out.
That left him and Kame; Kame who was smiling as if he were the happiest person in the world. Koki snuck another peek at Jin; perhaps Kame was the happiest person in the world right now.
“You seem well,” Koki noted with a hint of casualness even though he knew Kame was able to see past his words.
If he did, he made no attempt to make the fact clear. “He bought me this.” Kame didn’t bother in trying to hide his growing smile as he flashed the red scarf that swung offhandedly over his neck.
“Really now?” Koki’s grin matched Kame’s as he swayed his hand to scoop up some of the delicate material in his hands.
He examined the fabric carefully with a smile, locking eyes with a confused Jin on the other side of the room for a second. He turned back to his friend, who was, seemingly in his own world. “Are you guys going out?”
Koki bit his tongue at the bluntness of his question and Kame flushed with embarrassment. He fidgeted nervously in his seat and Koki inwardly chastised himself for asking such a careless question.
“I’m sorry I just-”
“I don’t think he really-”
Two entirely different sentences and even though spoken at the same time, they held a variety of dissimilar meanings with Koki’s straightforwardness and Kame’s reluctance.
The two friends said nothing for the longest time. Kame finally spoke; taking a deep breath and tilting his head lightly toward his best friend. “I asked him over.”
“To your house?” Koki asked, somehow unrelieved. It wasn’t that the thought of leaving Kame alone with Jin that scared him. At least, he thought it wasn’t.
Somewhere along the lines of their friendship, Koki had become like a second mother to Kame. He denied this fact when Kame teased him, of course. And now, looking at Kame’s eager face, he felt like a mother being informed of her daughter’s first date. Only Kame and Jin were not dating.
And to Koki’s hopes were never going to. Even though the two were a likely plausible pair, Koki still found Jin and Kame ill-suited for one another. Like two parallel lines, they were never to meet but somehow their…whatever they had…defied the laws of normality.
As always.
That was why when Kame stretched tiredly making his way of his kitchen, he wasn’t surprised that it was already practice and that Jin was over. Even if Koki sounded unenthusiastic, Kame wasn’t.
He squeezed past the corridor, hoping desperately that Jin still liked his coffee black.
It was surprising when Kame had first found this out; he had never thought that someone as playful and sweetened as Jin wouldn’t like even a trace of sugar in his coffee.
He pushed his stray thoughts aside and walked into the living room. He glanced around the room for Jin and for a second, his heart had stopped. He looked about more frantically now, turning left and right in hopes of spotting the man.
None.
He felt his hands beginning to shake but only took notice tot his when tiny spots of a blackened brown liquid started to make their way onto his bare hands. He didn’t want to think it. He refused to believe it. But somewhere in the back of his mind - he knew. Jin left.
Liar, pools of water began to lurk in the corners of Kame’s normally bright eyes, Jin you stupid liar. And he even nearly dropped the coffees when he saw familiar strands of dark hair peeking out from the corner of the couch.
“J-Jin?” Kame called out carefully, not wanting to give himself any false hope as he stray closer to the hair. “Jin?”
Kame didn’t know which feeling came first: relief or curiosity.
He decided to simply feel both at once and quietly crouched down next to Jin, who had seated himself comfortably behind the couch. His back was to Kame so he couldn’t see the latter but he was simply too absorbed fiddling with his fingers to even notice his presence.
Kame held the purely dark coffee in front of Jin’s face, swinging it teasingly and smiled, “what’re you doing?” He cooed.
Jin barely looked up and continued with his hunched back to Kame. “Stitching back this button…” he muttered and then finally noticed the black coffee dangling in front of him.
He looked back at Kame, eyes tingling with inquisitiveness and then finally, understanding as he laughed.
Kame pouted, “What’s so funny?”
Jin gratefully took the coffee, setting aside the mess of his old shirt. His smile grew as Kame’s whining lengthened and even playfully pushed the older man out of a false frustration. “Tell me!”
His face hardened as he looked at the open caffeine in Jin’s hands. “You don’t like coffee anymore?” He asked, trying to feign offhandedness. Of all things I had to get him coffee. Idiot, idiot, idiot! Why didn’t you just get him a bottle of wine or something else that he would like? Great going, Kazuya…now he’s going to hate you forever.
“Ne, when was the last time we had coffee together?” Jin changed the topic, glaring down at the pool of black coffee underneath his lips. Kame shrugged.
Jin smiled, taking a small sip before placing the cup next to himself on the floor. “It’s been a while, huh?”
Kame nodded at the recollection, or lack of. “You don’t like black coffee anymore?” He asked, slightly afraid of the answer. Jin bobbed his shoulders up then down.
“I add a cube of sugar now,” he said this carelessly as Kame’s heart began to sink. “It doesn’t matter.” Jin picked his cup back up, gulping down the rest of the bitter caffeine.
He let out a short breath and then sighed. “It’s been a while since I drank coffee like that,” he grinned and then turned back to his previous work, “thanks. It reminded me of when we were younger.” Jin cocked his head back to look at Kame, who now crouched down beside Jin. “We were the only two who liked our drinks pure, weren’t we?”
Kame blinked. He still liked his coffee plainly untainted. “Were?”
Jin nodded. And that was the end of that. Kame said nothing and simply watched as Jin worked away with his stitching, careful not to poke his fingers but at the same time careless enough to work wonders in seconds.
“Why are you wasting your time with that?” Kame piped up, tired of the quiet atmosphere that he had grown accustom to. “Just buy a new one, baka!”
Jin stopped mid-stitch and glanced sideways at Kame in horror. He felt his eyes watering for reasons unknown. How could Kame think so desolately like that? “No!” He shrieked, too defensively and held the shirt tightly as if Kame was going to take it away from him.
“…G-God, I was just kidding, Jin.” Kame raised his hands in defeat. “No need to get so worked up.”
Jin let down his defenses as he placed the shirt back in his lap. “I’m not leaving it broken. I can’t. It’s a part of this shirt. It’s where it belongs.”
“Jin.” Kame said in all seriousness, facing the older man. “It’s just a button. Get over it.”
“It’s not just a button,” Jin mumbled quietly, “it’s my button.”
Kame rolled his eyes, “and that makes all the difference.”
“Hey if you’re just here to make fun of me, then you can just go sit over there like a quiet little boy and wait for me to finish.” Jin pointed squarely to the other side of the couch and Kame bristled.
He crossed his arms against his chest. “H-Hey! You’re treating me like a kid!”
Jin smirked as he dropped the sewing needle. “But you’re my baby, baby.”
“Jin.”
“Yes?”
“That was the crappiest pickup line ever.”
“Sorry.”
The two shared a secret smile before breaking out into laughter. Kame doubled over in pain as Jin tried to steady his breathing again. Jin blinked and looked up at Kame who sat on the couch behind him. His smile was genuine and pleasant; as if he were really enjoying himself.
He didn’t want to ruin the harmony. In fact, that was the last thing Jin wanted to do. He had agreed with himself that he’d take things slowly - that way Kame’s heart would truly succumb to him on its own.
But he couldn’t help himself. Being like this with Kame was simply too painful. He allowed the diminutive button to drop from his grasp and onto the floor, turning around and griping the edge of the cushion, roughly hoisting himself forward and pressing his lips against Kame’s unsuspecting ones.
Silence.
Kame’s brain had stopped functioning, unable to process even the simple request of pushing the man away.
Jin grinned satisfyingly, pushing the rest of his body against Kame’s smaller one. Gently, he grabbed a thread of Kame’s hair, pushing it softly behind his delicate ears.
When his speech had finally returned to him the only thing Kame could choke out was a strangled, “J-Jin…”
Jin didn’t seem to mind this and Kame’s timid reluctance only allowed his grin to spread out further onto his face. “Oops,” he laughed quietly, “I just kissed my good friend.”
Kame cursed his brain for yielding to his heart; unable to push the man away. “J-J-Jin…” he suffocated on his own words, staring in wonder at what Jin had just done.
One week to rekindle their friendship. One week to progress from friends to lovers. One week to further their relationship and finally, one week to ravish him.
That had been Jin’s original plan. And even he couldn’t understand the rashness of his actions.
Better to play it safe, he told himself. It’s too late to turn back now.
He sighed melodramatically, pressing a finger to his forehead, chewing away at the insides of his mouth, feigning nervousness. “Kame, we don’t have to be good friends anymore.”
He hauled the thinner frame against his body, feeling the warmth radiating from the younger man. “We can be so much more.”
I still can’t pull away, Kame frowned. “But I thought…”
“I was stupid then, Kame.” Jin interrupted, “I want you.” He bit the corners of his mouth, eliciting stray tears at the corner of his eyes. “I’ve always wanted you. I was just too scared. But I’m ready to move on. Really ready.”
“Are you?” He stood up, and slowly Kame followed.
Bashfully, Kame nodded.
Jin broke out into another smile, larger this time. “Really?!”
As Kame laughed and nodded furiously and Jin was ready pull the smaller man into his arms for another kiss but before he could do so, Kame had already stepped forward pressing his body shyly against Jin’s.
“I’m sure,” he muttered breathlessly into Jin’s chest, “really sure.”
Jin placed his head contentedly atop Kame’s. I’m going to win at this rate, he felt Kame’s hand tightly holding onto the hem of his dress shirt as if he were afraid Jin would leave. But why should I care?
Being with Kame like this.
Holding on to him like this.
It was just a game, wasn’t it?
-
I’m sorry Kame…I really, really, really tried to watch your new drama…I couldn’t even finish the first episode…I’m sorry >_< - ! I’ll try again another time…
(\___/)
(=>.<=)
(")__(") Bunny-chan apologizes too D: