fic for vinyaromeniel (part 1)
Gift fic for: vinyaromeniel
From: arashijun
Title: A Name Called Love
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: RyoShige
Warnings: Um....cursing? Lol
Summary: Sometimes you become close to someone when your required to help another person out.
Notes: Fail summary and it was freakin' hard as anything to write but I'm proud I finished it and am pretty happy with the end result even though it's open up from some type of continuation.
He was never too fond of the rain. There wasn’t any real reason, he just didn’t like it. But you don’t need a reason to not like something; Ryo would defend himself when people said he was weird. It was the same with people. You could be the nicest person in the world, but there would always be someone who disliked you for no apparent reason. It wasn’t intentional, just the way it happens.
Ryo was an office worker, day in and day out. Not something he was particularly fond of, but it was a job so why complain? It was one of those jobs that if he was out for a week or just up and quit one day, they wouldn’t miss him. Not something he liked either, but still it was a job. And when living on your own with no other obligations to worry about, it made things easy.
He’d wanted to be a musician; even went to college for it. But things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Ryo was one such example of this cruel fate. He didn’t complain about any of it, but his expressions and his aversion to talking about work in general told enough. His friend understood his feelings vaguely. Well, it would be more efficient to say that one of them understood while the other just thought he was being overly sensitive.
His friends had been on the same boat as him for a while. The boat that says, “Hey, I want to do this for the rest of my life! Let’s work together and catch a break!” but, as it turns out, it just has you float along until you finally give up and look for a stable job. Jin got his breakthough. Ryo threw a fit when he first found out.
“How the fuck do you get a job when I have more talent than you?!” He all but screamed at his friend’s face.
Jin shrugged with a smile, “They love a pretty face, I guess.”
“I’ll show you a pretty face.” When he tried to go after Jin to beat the crap out of him Yamapi broke it up before it could even start.
Resting a hand on his shoulder he said, “That’s not going to help anything.” Ryo jerked away and just started to walk out of Jin’s apartment leaving the two alone, he didn’t care anyway, he had a job, and the pay was decent, so what did it matter?
---
The rainy season was a killer. Only sometimes, though. It could be nice and cooling, but then again if it rained too much, you couldn’t do anything. That’s how Shige felt every time he sat in his apartment looking at the rain hitting the balcony windows.
He wasn’t expecting the sudden downpour (hence it being sudden, Shige) so he was sitting on the floor with his legs folded under him, camera in hand as he watch the water fall down in sheets.
“It’s not like it’s going to rain that hard all day, Shige.” Koyama had tried to cheer up his friend only to have him not allow it.
Shige crinkled his nose, “Yeah, I know, but…by the time it stops it’ll probably be dark out.”
“Why are you being so pessimistic?”
Shige groaned and laid back on the hardwood floor. “Because they want my folder by the end of the week. It’s already Wednesday.”
Koyama held back a sigh, “Did you ever think to take pictures of rainy scenes?”
Shige nearly smacked himself. When in distress he never thought rationally, which is why he loved Koyama for being his friend for many years. Koyama was always there to help him when his mind wasn’t working correctly and when he was being overly pessimistic.
Shige had always loved photography, for as long as he could remember. When his parents bought him his first decent camera (even though it was secondhand) he was ecstatic. He’d decided to take it up as a career when he got older. Obviously, he fared quite well because he was scampering around his apartment looking for an umbrella so that he could go out into the rain to take wonderful pictures that he kept in such a nice place.
---
Ryo crossed his arms as he stood in the doorway waiting for Yamapi to pick him up. He wasn’t expecting the rain that morning so he had to wait it out after work, with the convenience of not having an umbrella. He grumbled as he watched his friend’s car pull up to the curb.
Once the car was at a full stop in front of him he stepped out into the downpour to seek quick shelter in the car only to have someone bump into him as they ran down the street. “Ahh! I’m sorry!” They said rather quickly offering a fast and small bow before taking off again. He didn’t catch the person’s face since the umbrella was covering it, but he did stare after them in a daze for a moment until Yamapi honked the horn getting his attention.
Ryo jumped slightly and scowled. He kicked the car lightly before opening the door. “Calm yourself.”
“You’re the one that called me and said hurry up,” he argued as they pulled away from the curb. “I have to meet Jin in less than a half hour.”
Ryo held back a gag. “You guys are such a couple.”
Yamapi looked before ways before turning onto Ryo’s street. The last thing he needed was an accident. “I thought we covered this already, oh, about a two years ago.”
“It’s still sick.”
---
Shige was running late. Very late. And it was all Masuda’s fault. He didn’t mind having lunch with him since it was a good friend, but Massu liked to eat. A lot. And Shige couldn’t sit there forever while he ordered more food. Finding a way to tell Massu that he had to leave (without hurting his feelings) didn’t come so easy, but he managed. Only to now be running down the street as quickly as possible in the rain getting wet despite the stupid umbrella. He seriously needed to invest in a car, and soon.
When he arrived to drop off his pictures he was soaked. There was a comment about how he looked like a wet cat which he did not find funny in the least, though he didn’t comment back. He handed off the pictures and soon left, saying that staying wet was not on his to do list. When he got back outside with his umbrella in hand and his camera in his bag he decided to head over to visit Koyama since it was closer than his place. (Besides, Koyama would give up some clothes for his friend.)
Koyama opened his apartment door on the third floor to find a very wet Shige with a smile on his face that could say worlds (but Koyama was feeling somewhere along the lines of “Spare some time for a good friend” and “Could you live any higher”). He stared at his friend for a moment before moving aside to let him in.
Upon returning with a dry set of clothes and a towel for Shige, he questioned, “Why do you look like a wet cat?”
“Not funny,” Shige said, roughly taking the towel to dry his hair. “I ran into someone and my umbrella got knocked out of my hand.”
Koyama laughed a little. “It’s called you look when you walk.”
“It’s called I was in a hurry. I had to drop off the pictures before they got wet,” he said over his shoulder as he headed for the bathroom to change.
When he came back in the room Koyama was clanking around in the kitchen making some tea for them. “Maybe you should get a car?”
Shige shrugged. “I should, but I don’t see the point. Most of my time is spent taking pictures, having a car that I’m not going to use is pointless and a waste of money.” He smiled when Koyama handed him the cup. “Besides, why waste money when I have you?”
Koyama couldn’t help but laugh. “See, it’s things like that that make me wonder why I bother with you.”
---
Ryo was getting tired of all the rain. It had been three days and the overcast sky was not showing any hints of clearing up. It was pissing him off. Sure, it was now a weekend and he didn’t have to go outside, but he liked having the option of doing so and not getting soaked to the bone.
He had called Yamapi, wanted to see if his friend wanted to hang out, but he didn’t get such amazing results.
“I’m kinda busy Ryo.”
Ryo grumbled, “Busy doing what?”
“Busy out with Jin.”
Ryo gagged. “Ew, are you guys on a date or something?”
“Yes. If it makes you so sick, why’d you ask?”
“Oh, forgive me! Please have fun with your wonderful boyfriend. Don’t mind me at all,” Ryo said roughly trying to get the point across that he was lonely but still didn’t want to admit that he was desperate.
“Have a fun day alone, Ryo,” Yamapi laughed slightly feeling bad for his friend then hung up.
Ryo threw his house phone down on the couch and crossed his arms as he looked out of the windows only to see the rain coming down as hard, if not harder than the last time he looked only five minutes ago. “Go ahead, taunt me all you want,” he said to the rain and went off to look for something to do that didn’t require going out in the rain. Needless to say, he was bored within ten minutes.
---
Shige was making a trip with Koyama back to his parents place. Koyama’s parents loved Shige to death, so anytime he could he would pay them a visit. And with his current free time he decided to go, though he had to convince Koyama first.
He was smiling his big silly smile that made Koyama’s stomach churn slightly scared when he groggily opened the door that morning. “What...” he mumbled looking over at the clock. “It’s seven in the morning!”
Shige just waved off the time factor. “Let’s go to Sagamihara.”
Koyama sated blankly at his friend and yawned. “I repeat, it’s seven in the morning.”
“Come on, Keii-chan,” Shige pleaded. “I want to pay your parents a visit.”
“Then go, you don’t need me.”
“But it’s not fun going alone.” Shige tried to pull a pouty face, but Koyama was already walking away leaving Shige in the doorway.
“Can’t you wait...like three hours?” He sat down on the couch and curled up on the end.
“But I’m here. I’m ready. Let’s go!”
Koyama threw a couch cushion at him. “I’m tired!”
“Please, Keii-chan?” Koyama looked up to see his friend pouting but quickly closed his eyes and grumbled.
~
The door opened to reveal a smiling Shige and a very tired Koyama. “Keiichiro, Shige-kun! What are you doing here?” Koyama’s mother said with a smile and ushered them inside.
“I was ambushed,” was Koyama’s only reply before headed off into the kitchen to look for something to eat. He greeted his father who sat in the living room as he passed by.
Mama Koyama and Shige were soon in the kitchen with him. They talked for a while, then Koyama looked around for Nyanta, who jumped out of Koyama’s arms the moment he saw Shige and rubbed up against his leg.
“Oh, really, Keiichiro.” His mother sighed picking Nyanta and taking him to another room. “You know Shige-kun is allergic.”
Shige only smiled and waved it off, “I’m fine. I took something this morning.”
His mother let out a sigh of relief before grabbing a list off the counter. “That’s good to hear.” She made sure she had everything then looked over at Koyama. “You’re father and I are going out for a bit. Don’t burn down the place. We’ll be back around dinner.” She kissed him and Shige on the cheek before leaving. The two just sat around watching TV before getting hungry again.
---
He was outside. He was wet. He was not a happy camper.
Ryo was past the point of boredom, whatever that was, while staying inside. It was now at the point where it wasn’t the rain that he detested; it was the fact that it was pouring down in sheets that he didn’t like causing him to be wet in places that he would much prefer not to be wet in.
He was standing in a bookstore, cold and shivering, but not daring to venture out back into the mess that caused him to be in this state. He’d take the cold later on over that. He let out a fairly loud sneeze gaining looks from practically everyone on the store.
Someone made an exasperated sigh and walked over to him handing him a handkerchief. It turned out to be one of Ryo’s friend’s from high school. They left the cold bookstore so Ryo could get something warm to drink while they talked a bit at a nearby coffee shop.
---
“So you’re telling me that this guy has a boyfriend, yet is still putting the moves on you?” Shige asked in disbelief as he stole some of Koyama’s food.
Koyama nodded.
“Do you like him?”
He shrugged.
“Yes or no, Keii-chan.”
Koyama paused and looked up at his friend, “I guess...yes.”
“Then tell him if he’s serious about you that he should break up with the other guy.”
Koyama sighed and pushed away his food. He turned away to watch Nyanta run off chasing after something that couldn’t be seen. Most likely Wagahai since that’s often what happened when Shige came over; Nyanta was run after nothing.
He didn’t speak for a while, just watched as his cat ran and played with Wagahai. Sometimes he wondered if a cat’s life was always that simple. It seemed to be; they slept, ate, and played. He wondered why his life wasn’t like that.
“Because I can’t ask Yamashita-kun to do that.” Finally he looked back at his friend who was frowning. “It wouldn’t be right.”
Shige snorted, “Then he shouldn’t have started anything with you in the first place.” Koyama merely looked away causing Shige to sigh again. “Did he kiss you?”
“No...” Koyama lied.
“What about love? Did he say he loved you?”
“Maybe.” Koyama told the half truth of what happened.
Shige glanced over at Nyanta and Wagahai as well. The room fell silent minus the sounds of the cat running around. “If he really did, you know break up with his boyfriend, would you bother? Or would you tell him to go back?”
Koyama thought this one over for a bit before finally answering. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
---
The rain finally cleared up by the next day Ryo had off to himself. He was overly ecstatic that he didn’t even bother to see if Yamapi and Jin wanted to hang out and just went out for a walk all on his own. It had been days since Ryo even bothered to play his guitar, being distracted by his grouchiness toward the rain was to be blamed, so he decided to take it along with him for one of the few moments that he brought joy to his dull life.
He found a quiet and fairly empty area of the park to sit and play his guitar in. He wasn’t really aiming for any song in particular, just a tune that was floating through his head. It was a rhythm of softer more melancholic chords than what you would have expected from his current delight. The chords rang out through the quiet area, making them seem louder than they really were. They were overly expressive to the point where you had no idea what they were trying to tell you. He continued to play the same song over and over in a loop.
When he finally decided to end the song, he strummed the last chord and looked up and scowled to see someone looking at him with a camera in hand. Not moving from his position, he looked over the person for a long moment and the person stared back not moving after they had lowered their camera.
Finally, he opened his mouth, “What are you doing?”
---
Shige and Koyama left a few days later when Shige got a call from work saying they wanted him to start gathering pictures for the next issue, and that this time he would have a special section all to himself to not only show off some more personal photographs that he wanted to publish, but also to express himself in words (since he did also go to school for writing).
He first spent a day in his house thinking of what he wanted to capture but nothing was coming to mind, so he wound up spending the day reading.
He spent the next day talking to Koyama over the phone to get ideas, but he wasn’t offering much help to Shige’s dismay. He was worked up over the his thing with “Yamashita-kun,” or as Shige would mock, “Yamashita-who-can’t-make-up-his-mind-and-wants-to-fuck-my-best-friend-kun,” but that is strictly neither here nor there.
Shige was a good friend, though, and listened to everything Koyama had to say, even offering what little help he could. By the time they finished Shige was nursing a headache and ready for bed, so he gave up.
The next day it was no longer raining. In fact, they sky was so clear and blue that Shige grabbed his camera off the dresser and snapped a photo of a lone cloud that looked like cotton candy.
He was in a good mood- no, a great mood! Shige was ready for the world with his camera, and he set out to look for something’s to capture. He covered lots of ground; his entire neighborhood and about three parks in within the vicinity of his home before he was left shocked.
He was attracted by the most beautiful sound he had ever heard just outside the park on his way back home. He stopped and closed his eyes to listen to where it was coming from and followed it until the sound was all around him. He opened his eyes to see someone sitting contently, playing their guitar. Shige pulled out his camera to snap the photo, only to freeze up when the music stopped and he heard a voice.
“What are you doing?”
Shige blinked a lowered his camera to stare at the person. “I was just...”
“It was a rhetorical question stupid. It’s pretty obvious what you were doing,” the man grumbled.
Shige only stared at the person a bit more before the sky opened up, letting out heavy rain along with a loud crack of thunder that Shige could feel in his very being. Coming out of his daze he quickly put his camera back into his bag, hoping that there wasn’t any damage to it. When he looked back up, the other person was holding a guitar case on his back and walking away not seeming in a very good mood.
He watched after him until he was no longer in his sight. Another clap of thunder made him jump and race home for some dry clothes.
---
Ryo came into Jin’s apartment scowling and dripping wet. Jin just blinked as Ryo dropped his guitar case and kicked off his shoes, pulling his wet shirt over his head as he walked back toward Jin’s room for a towel and clothes.
“Hello to you too, ass,” Jin said after getting up and following him.
“Fuck you,” Ryo grumbled as he looked through Jin’s clothes before yelling out in frustration. “What the fuck, Jin, don’t you have any clothes that fit?!” He threw his wet shirt at Jin.
Jin crossed his arms when the shirt missed his head. “You missed, and what do you mean? They fit!”
Ryo pulled out a pair of Jin’s smallest jeans and held them up to Jin’s frame (which was obviously bigger than his) and then to his own. “Really? These fit? Because from what I can see, these are your smallest pair and still look like they’ll fall off your ass without a belt.” He threw them to the side and kept looking.
“What the fuck, Ryo? You’re making a mess and leaving a puddle!” Jin complained and grabbed towel, threw it over his head, and then proceeded the fold up the clothes that Ryo was throwing all over the place.
Ryo moved the towel so he could see and grabbed a pair of Jin’s shorts and a belt. He pulled off his own wet jeans letting them fall into a puddle and took the towel to dry off then pulled the shorts up that were practically big enough to be pants on him and pulled the belt through the loops. He then moved on to look for a shirt which he was thankful weren’t as big and Jin’s pants (at least he wouldn’t have to force the man out to buy some better clothes) and pulled a random one over his head then proceeded to dry off his hair.
Jin grumbled as Ryo walked past him and out into the living room, “Oh, sure, leave your wet pants on the floor. I don’t fucking care!” He picked up Ryo’s wet clothes and took them off to the laundry room to dry them, thankful he got an apartment with washer and dryer.
“Let’s get this straight,” he said walking back to where Ryo was searching his kitchen for food only to produce ramen with a scrunched up nose but made it anyway. “Once your clothes are dry, you are leaving.”
Ryo waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
“Are you listening to me?!”
“Alright!” he shouted. “Fuck, Jin, don’t get your panties in a bunch. God, I’ll leave when my clothes dry.” The microwave beeped letting him know that his instant ramen was done and he smiled grabbing chopsticks and taking his ramen over to the couch where he began to eat when Yamapi came in looking a little wet himself.
“Jin,” he said taking his shoes off then giving him a kiss, “you never told me there was a photographer living in your apartment complex.”
“He is?” Jin asked giving Ryo a look as he began coughing on his ramen. “That’s what happens when you take other people’s food!”
“Fuck you.” Ryo managed to say around his ramen.
“Apparently. At least, I met someone in the hall who has a friend who does.” Yamapi shrugged.
“Since when do you talk to people in the hall, Pi?”
“Since when it’s raining and someone rushes past me almost knocking me over.”
Jin stared at him for a moment not expecting a serious answer out of the man, “That...works.” He raised an eyebrow slightly before moving over to sit next to Ryo on the couch. Yamapi followed suit, sitting on the other side of Ryo.
“Why are you wet?”
Ryo didn’t answer but just stabbed him in the leg “lightly,” causing him to yelp out in pain and Jin to freak out saying that stabbing someone isn’t an answer.
---
Shige stood outside his apartment dripping wet and waiting for Koyama to show up with the spare key. He was getting a little cold too. A series of sneezes left him as Koyama slowly trudged down the hall with a sad look on his face. “Thanks for getting here fast, Koyama,” he said sarcastically holding his hand out for the key. “Because I totally don’t feel a cold coming on.” He sneezed again.
“Oh, sorry.” Koyama dropped the key in his hand and followed Shige inside his apartment and made tea while Shige went off to change out of his wet clothes into pajamas since he wasn’t going back out in that mess.
Shige came into the kitchen as Koyama was pouring the tea. He watched his friend for a bit before taking the cup and sipping it. “Something wrong, Keii-chan?”
Koyama didn’t answer at first, but stared into his cup. Not until Shige’s was empty and his own long cold did he answer. “I saw him. Yamashita-kun.” Shige only nodded. “In the hall on my way up.” Koyama looked up at Shige now had an unreadable expression. “I-his boyfriend, he lives on the other end of the hall.”
Shige nearly fell out of his seat. “Seriously?!”
Koyama nodded, “He said he was visiting. I told him that I was here because you forgot your key.”
“And?” Shige pressed on.
“Nothing.”
His head fell to the counter top. “What.” He mumbled into it, although it was more a statement than a question.
“He smiled and walked down the hall.”
Shige looked up at Koyama after a few minutes and sighed blowing his damp bangs out of his face. He then got up from his seat and headed over to the door with the towel still draped around his neck. “This ends everything then. I’m going to tell him that you no longer want anything to do with him.”
“What!?” Koyama yelled running after his friend trying to stop him. “That would mess up their relationship!”
Shige scoffed. “Keii-chan, really?” He slipped his shoes on, “He’s going out with another guy while putting the moves on you and making your feelings a total mess. And don’t say he isn’t because I can read it all over your face. But all you can worry about is messing up their relationship?” He turned to look at his best friend with the most worried expression he’d ever had in his life. “Don’t you care about yourself a little more than that?”
Koyama stopped and looked at him dead in the eye for what seemed like hours, but he never answered. So, Shige turned and opened the door to his apartment, causing Koyama to start up all over again. But just as soon as Shige started to move again he stopped and stared out into the hall, making Koyama run right into him flailing like an idiot.
“Shige, what are you...” He trailed off seeing the look on his face then looked out in the hall. “Shige, who’s this?” he asked, but Shige didn’t hear him, his mind was somewhere far from where Koyama was, and for a split second, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to ever come back.
---
Ryo was walking down the hall from Jin’s apartment slightly annoyed, but not as much when he showed up. Just enough where it could die easily or grow huge if pushed. He decided to leave not to long after Yamapi showed up because the two began to act all lovey-dovey on him and he would have liked to keep his ramen in his stomach once finished.
His clothes weren’t dry, but they weren’t exactly wet either. Kind of stuck in that limbo of clothes that feel warm but as they cool off you can feel the dampness still, and it wasn’t the best thing ever. But he much preferred his own wet clothes that fit over Jin’s big. dry clothes that didn’t fit.
He wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of going back out in the rain-that Yamapi had supposedly said had lightened up since he came in but he didn’t believe it (because Pi had a tendency to lie to Ryo when he wanted to spend alone time with Jin which made Ryo even sicker). But he figured he could always take a cab; he wasn’t in the mood to get sick.
Ryo stopped in the hall when he heard a door open right next to him so, curiously, he looked over only to feel every bone in his body freeze, his blood run cold, and probably his mind stop. But only for a second. Then he was overcome with annoyance. The type of that was hard to explain because you had no idea where it came from, but you knew it was there. There, right across the hall from him, was that face. That same face from the afternoon that had left this feeling in the pit of his stomach that he didn’t know what it was called so he decided to call it annoyance with a tinge of something terrible.
“Shige, what are you...” Someone said behind the man who was apparently named Shige (who was now staring at Ryo with this look that had no name), then stopped. “Who is this?” He asked but Ryo was no longer caring for he was looking back at the one named Shige.
There was something about this guy that already annoyed him. He wanted to blame it on the fact that the man had been taking pictures of him in the park, but he couldn’t because deep down it made him kind of happy, in a weird sort of way. So he decided to just make himself say it was the picture taking and give the reason that it was rude and creepy to take pictures of people in the park without a reason.
“You’re the guy from the park,” Shige breathes finally and Ryo blinks for the first time in what he feels in his entire life, and he can tell that Shige feels like that breath was his first ever too.
“Yeah,” Ryo says dryly. “And you’re the one who took my picture.”
A blush crept up to color Shige’s cheeks and he tried to play it off by doing what Ryo could tell was a total fake cough. “Sorry,” he said softly only to have his friend or roommate or whatever the guy behind him was say something.
“Shige, you took his picture? Do you know how creepy that sounds?”
“Shut up, Keii-chan,” Shige grumbled while forcing himself not to kick his friend. “At least I am not in confusion city with love.” The man named Keii-chan stepped back a bit Ryo noticed but then turned his attention back on Shige.
“It’s not like I can do anything about it...” He looked down the hall and paused before looking back at Shige. “I just don’t want to see my picture anywhere. Got it?” But before Shige could answer Ryo shifted his guitar case on his shoulder then started off down the hall again leaving Shige to stare after him.
---
For the next three days all Koyama would do was ask Shige who the man at the door was, and each time Shige would divert the question with either a question of his own or something completely irrelevant. On the fourth day, Koyama gave up. Inside, Shige threw a party, constantly telling himself he won, but on the outside he would just smile occasionally for no reason, causing Koyama to think he’d finally lost his mind. Maybe he had, but he would never say so out loud.
Ryo on the other hand, he was trying his best to just forget the incident all together and it had worked at first, but then after two days, Jin had invited him over for drinks and told him to bring his guitar. Needless to say, as he was walking down the hall to Jin’s apartment, he passed Shige’s once again and he wasn’t exactly happy with remembering all that. He drank himself stupid.
---
Shige’s personal project for the magazine was not going too well. Sure they’d given him a deadline for the end of the month, but he didn’t want to put it off until then because he would be in a total rush and then it might not come out well as he wanted, and he wanted it to be perfect since it was his first chance working on a project so large. But he still didn’t know what he wanted to do. He already had a ton of pictures, but he didn’t feel like he had what he wanted. He started to bring his camera everywhere, capture everything.
It was interesting at first, Koyama thought. Watching how Shige would take in what was around him. He would observe things, talk less, and just watch. But then it started to get dull, because that’s all he was doing. Taking pictures. Observing. And then finally it got annoying.
“Do you have to take a picture of everything?” Koyama asked at lunch one day.
Shige snapped his photo. “No.”
“Then stop.” He took Shige’s camera and put it in the empty chair next to him.
He frowned. “Really, Keii-chan, that’s not fair. I want to do the best I can on this one.”
“Just one meal,” Koyama pleaded. “One and then-” He trailed off and stared behind Shige’s head at the entrance to the restaurant. He didn’t even notice Shige’s hand waving in his face.
He looked down quickly then. Shige was alarmed at his friend’s strange behavior. But he saw it as a chance to get his camera but only made it to reach across the table when someone called out Koyama’s name and Koyama jumped before looking up.
“Yamashita-kun.” Shige looked up at the two who were standing next to the table. The one that he assumed was Yamashita had brown hair that was in a silly perm that he honestly couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh at or take a picture of. The other, when he finally noticed him, was shorter, had black hair that was also short but with bangs long enough to fall just a bit into his eyes. He also had on a suit. He held back a gasp and looked back at Koyama.
“What are you doing here?” Yamashita asked.
Koyama held out his hand. “Having lunch with my friend. Kato Shigeaki.” Shige stood up and bowed slightly.
“Funny,” the other friend said flatly, “because I’m pretty sure that’s why we came here, Pi.” Yamashita waved him off. “I have a limited lunch break, you know!”
“You can sit with us,” Koyama offered moving Shige’s camera from the seat next to him which Shige snatched away quickly before he could react. Koyama only looked at him when he noticed his hands to be empty.
Shige picked his bag up from the seat next to him, “No more pictures. I got it.”
Yamapi sat next to Koyama but the other just stood there. “This is my friend, Nishikido Ryo,” he said to mostly Koyama, but looked at them both. “Sit down, Ryo.”
Ryo looked at Yamapi then at Shige before sitting down. Shige could feel the change in the air around him right away and suddenly he wasn’t hungry. He didn’t know what he was. Confused, yes. But that was it. On one hand he wanted to get up and leave right then and there. But he also wanted to see what happened between Koyama and this Yamashita-kun. Then there was also this strange part of him that wondered about Nishikido Ryo. That was the part that confused him the most.
---
Ryo watched everything at lunch carefully. He’d noticed how strange Yamapi was acting once they had passed the restaurant. Now, usually, Ryo didn’t have lunch with him. But when Yamapi had suddenly called out of the blue he couldn’t very well say no. So he agreed to go with him to a restaurant close to his office. Yamapi was strangely hyper, jumpy almost. Ryo didn’t know what to make of it.
When they got to the restaurant, Yamapi didn’t calm down at all. He was even more jumpy, if that was even possible. He met the people from the picture taking incident again. Koyama was the guy’s name, and Shige. Ryo noticed how the one named Shige was just as uncomfortable with the current lunch situation as he was.
Ryo still had that odd feeling about Shige, the one he couldn’t put into words so he continued to call it annoyance tinged with something else. But he was also getting a strange feeling about Yamapi. He had never seen the guy so happy and smiling. Not even with Jin, but it wasn’t making him sick. Just very worried. So worried that he couldn’t even eat his lunch anymore.
He noticed Shige shift in his seat and pick his things up before he looked at Koyama. “I should get going.” Koyama looked up at him, breaking off his conversation with Yamapi. “I need to get to work. I don’t have other things to do than my project, Keii-chan.” He held up his camera and smiled weakly.
Ryo saw this as the perfect time. He looked at his watch. “Ah, I have to get back to work too.” He glanced at Yamapi who didn’t seem the least bit concerned. There was actually a pleased look in his eyes. “You’re paying, right, Pi?” He nodded and Ryo stood up.
He noticed a shift in the air as he got up from the table and followed Shige out of the restaurant. The two walked in the same direction for a little bit when Ryo stopped and looked at Shige once they finally away from the resturant.
“You,” he started off, squinting at the sun in his eyes, only to stop and rethink his words. “There’s something going on between them.”
Shige nodded, but didn’t make eye contact.
“Do you know anything?”
He nodded again.
“Well?”
“Yamashita-kun...” He trailed off before actually looking at Ryo, “apparently has a thing for Keii-chan.” He saw no change in Ryo’s face. “But Keii-chan knows he is in a relationship.”
“With Jin,” Ryo sighed and looked off into the street. “And so what does Koyama think?”
Shige just stared at him before slinging his bag over his shoulder. “He’s confused.”
Ryo looked back at Shige. There was a look there, one that Ryo didn’t know. One that had no name. The same look that Ryo probably had himself. He had a feeling that something was going to happen. But he didn’t know what, though at the moment he wanted to know more about things between Yamapi and Koyama. “You live in Jin’s building, don’t you?”
“Jin?” Shige questioned absentmindedly, pulling his phone out to look at the tikme.
“Akanishi.”
Shige’s eyes widened. “Shit.” He mumbled and looked at the time. “The photoshoot!” He brushed his bangs out of his face and looked behind him at the street for a taxi with no luck.
Ryo watched as panic started to take over the other, while he mumbled about how he was going to be late, and this was his first big job. He was amused at how the young man failed to get the attention of every taxi that passed them. Finally not seeing it as funny anymore, he tapped Shige on the shoulder then stuck his hands in the pockets.
“You aren’t going to get a taxi at this rate.” He figured he could do something nice. “I’ll give you a ride.”
Shige looked flabbergasted at him, “Wait, what?” He looked at the time again. “Don’t you have to go back to work?”
“I lied. I still have a half hour.” He started to walk off, assuming that Shige would soon follow after seeing that his luck with taxis wasn’t so great.
---
Shige had exactly one month until his project was due for the magazine, and he had no idea what he was even going to do for it, but he did know that there were a few things more important than that. The little thing with Koyama was weighing heavily on his shoulders right now and that weight was increasing as the days passed.
He would occasionally talk to Nishikido, who he could still tell wasn’t exactly comfortable talking to him about the whole thing. It helped since Koyama’s love interest was Ryo’s best friend. He still thought that it was pretty stupid, though. Who goes after someone else when they were already in a relationship for over two years (the length, he found out with Ryo’s help).
Ryo on the other hand a slightly different view on the current state of affairs. He never was a supporter of Jin and Pi’s relationship, and supported Koyama’s love for the man that was turning into a cheating whore. Though he didn’t voice that much of his opinions. He did, however, voice that it would be better for Jin in the future to get his relationships over with now, while he was still low in the entertainment food chain.
“What do you mean?” Shige questioned.
Ryo scrunched up his face while looking around Shige’s simple yet (as much as he hated to admit it) lovely apartment. “Well, there have already been rumors about Jin, and he’s only been working in entertainment for two years officially. It’s bad enough that every single news reporter and magazine company has information of our failed debut back a few years ago.”
Shige nodded slightly understanding what Ryo said. “So it order to protect himself you think it would be better that he doesn’t have a relationship with Yamashita-kun.”
“Exactly.”
“Then tell him.” He still didn’t support the break up, if it ever happened. But he’d rather save Ryo’s Jin from total failure and have his friend in a relationship that wasn’t probably good for him than to have all three go to love triangle hell. But that was just him.
They wound up exchanging phone numbers. Their schedules didn’t leave them with much time to talk in person without being suspected by the others, and this way Shige had more time to focus on his photography, or so was the original plan.
He had explained to Ryo, who was obviously an office worker just by the way he dealt with people, that he had a project due at the end of the month. Couldn’t happen at a better time, Ryo comment sarcastically, causing Shige to glare, but he explained further that it was something he’d been waiting for since he started working- no, since he started photography. He was excited, but also distressed about this all at once.
The passion that Shige had in his eyes whenever their conversations just happened to go in the direction of his job almost made Ryo want to cry. He used to be like that. So excited for everyday because he got to do something he loved. Ready to just stay up for days on end just to do what he loved doing even if it meant drinking 10 cups of coffee a week later while still recovering from lack of sleep. He remembered it all. And it hurt. He was envious of Shige’s passion, but never said a word. Only nodded and kept a straight face until Shige realized he was ranting again and excused himself to get more tea.
Silently, from the shadows of his heart, a place he didn’t even know of, he was cheering on Shige for his project, wishing that the younger would do well. But one day it slipped out, just something small when Shige said he had to go to bed early because he was going out the next day to take photos in hopes of getting something good to use.
“Good luck,” Ryo said as he stood outside of Shige’s apartment. He was as shocked as Shige was. They stared at one another for a few minutes before Shige smiled and thanked him. On the way home, Ryo questioned his sanity and almost opted for staying home from work the next day due to “oncoming mental illness.”
Shige was getting annoyed again. Mostly at himself, but Koyama was starting to think otherwise with the way his attitude had been sour for the past few days. He didn’t dare touch his camera, just the sight of it was annoying him, making his nerves turn to a jumbled mess. It happens to the best of us, Koyama mused.
“When a good deal of your job rests on a project this big not being able to work is not a good thing,” Shige stated flatly staring at the blank note book before him as he tried to think of what the hell he was going to do.
Koyama noticed the panic that started to set into his face only for it all to vanish when Shige’s cell phone vibrated on the table and he dropped the pencil in hopes of getting a small break.
3:57 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Pi’s gonna ask out Koyama to dinner tonight.
Shige only frowned as he typed out his reply.
Did he say why?
-Message sent-
He set his phone back on the table expecting Ryo to take ages to respond because that’s just how Yamapi worked sometimes when it came to the subject of Koyama.
4:02 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Something about wanting to know how Koyama really feels.
Idk, he’s being a total sap today. =/
Shige held back his laughter, remembering that Koyama was keeping a close eye on him due to his flaky behavior only to smirk as he replied.
You always say that.
I don’t know what to believe anymore.
-Message Sent-
-----
4:08 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
You’re not makin my job any easier, Kato.
What I say bout Pi right now is not the issue.
What would Koyama most likely say?
He frowned again.
That he wouldn’t care what the world said about him as long as Yamashita was happy.
And no I didn’t ask him. It’s an obvious response from Keii-chan.
-Message Sent-
-----
4:12 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
That’s good then!
-----
That is not good Nishikido-kun!
He’s still going out with Jin right?
-Message Sent-
-----
4:15 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
He said he’s probably going to break up with Jin.
They never see each other anymore.
Hell, no one ever sees Jin anymore.
-----
But isn’t dating a celeb one of those relationships you just have to be patient with?
-Message Sent-
-----
4:20 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Your being stupid Kato
It’s Jin. He’s a sex monster and I bet he’s already sleeping with others.
*gags*
-----
But Yamashita really shouldn’t be talking.
After all he went after Koyama while still in a relationship.
-Message Sent-
-----
4:23 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
That’s why Pi wants to end it.
He doesn’t think it’s fair to Jin
-----
Then he shouldn’t have started this!
-Message Sent-
-----
4:25 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Stop being such a chick kato!
Im calling you
Answer
Shige started to panic again and tried to type out his reply only to hear the ringer on his cell phone, making him jump and look up at Koyama, whose eyes didn’t leave him once during that texting session.
“Hello?” His voice was weak.
“Why do you sound like a creeper?” Ryo asked forgetting about the topic at hand.
“I can’t talk right now,” Shige said still not sounding himself, “I have a friend over.”
“Koyama?” Ryo whispered since he was still hanging out with Yamapi and didn’t want the other to know.
“Yeah, I’ll call you back later tonight,” he said then hung up not waiting for a response from Ryo saying that they should finish the conversation in text. He shut off his phone then smiled up at Koyama weakly. “Just someone from work.”
“Shige,” Koyama sighed, “you were texting for a half hour.”
He looked at the clock behind him, “Huh...” He mused thinking it was a lot shorter than that. “Do you want to go out to eat?” Diverting the subject. He knew that Koyama would say yes, and they would go out and then before their food even came he would get a call from Yamapi asking him out to dinner. Koyama would then say yes without a second thought and tell Shige some lie saying that he was needed for a problem at work or something and then leave.
It had all happened before. But now, Shige had a way to make that disappointment in his best friend go away, even if it was just for a few hours. His name was Ryo.
> go to part 2
From: arashijun
Title: A Name Called Love
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: RyoShige
Warnings: Um....cursing? Lol
Summary: Sometimes you become close to someone when your required to help another person out.
Notes: Fail summary and it was freakin' hard as anything to write but I'm proud I finished it and am pretty happy with the end result even though it's open up from some type of continuation.
He was never too fond of the rain. There wasn’t any real reason, he just didn’t like it. But you don’t need a reason to not like something; Ryo would defend himself when people said he was weird. It was the same with people. You could be the nicest person in the world, but there would always be someone who disliked you for no apparent reason. It wasn’t intentional, just the way it happens.
Ryo was an office worker, day in and day out. Not something he was particularly fond of, but it was a job so why complain? It was one of those jobs that if he was out for a week or just up and quit one day, they wouldn’t miss him. Not something he liked either, but still it was a job. And when living on your own with no other obligations to worry about, it made things easy.
He’d wanted to be a musician; even went to college for it. But things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Ryo was one such example of this cruel fate. He didn’t complain about any of it, but his expressions and his aversion to talking about work in general told enough. His friend understood his feelings vaguely. Well, it would be more efficient to say that one of them understood while the other just thought he was being overly sensitive.
His friends had been on the same boat as him for a while. The boat that says, “Hey, I want to do this for the rest of my life! Let’s work together and catch a break!” but, as it turns out, it just has you float along until you finally give up and look for a stable job. Jin got his breakthough. Ryo threw a fit when he first found out.
“How the fuck do you get a job when I have more talent than you?!” He all but screamed at his friend’s face.
Jin shrugged with a smile, “They love a pretty face, I guess.”
“I’ll show you a pretty face.” When he tried to go after Jin to beat the crap out of him Yamapi broke it up before it could even start.
Resting a hand on his shoulder he said, “That’s not going to help anything.” Ryo jerked away and just started to walk out of Jin’s apartment leaving the two alone, he didn’t care anyway, he had a job, and the pay was decent, so what did it matter?
---
The rainy season was a killer. Only sometimes, though. It could be nice and cooling, but then again if it rained too much, you couldn’t do anything. That’s how Shige felt every time he sat in his apartment looking at the rain hitting the balcony windows.
He wasn’t expecting the sudden downpour (hence it being sudden, Shige) so he was sitting on the floor with his legs folded under him, camera in hand as he watch the water fall down in sheets.
“It’s not like it’s going to rain that hard all day, Shige.” Koyama had tried to cheer up his friend only to have him not allow it.
Shige crinkled his nose, “Yeah, I know, but…by the time it stops it’ll probably be dark out.”
“Why are you being so pessimistic?”
Shige groaned and laid back on the hardwood floor. “Because they want my folder by the end of the week. It’s already Wednesday.”
Koyama held back a sigh, “Did you ever think to take pictures of rainy scenes?”
Shige nearly smacked himself. When in distress he never thought rationally, which is why he loved Koyama for being his friend for many years. Koyama was always there to help him when his mind wasn’t working correctly and when he was being overly pessimistic.
Shige had always loved photography, for as long as he could remember. When his parents bought him his first decent camera (even though it was secondhand) he was ecstatic. He’d decided to take it up as a career when he got older. Obviously, he fared quite well because he was scampering around his apartment looking for an umbrella so that he could go out into the rain to take wonderful pictures that he kept in such a nice place.
---
Ryo crossed his arms as he stood in the doorway waiting for Yamapi to pick him up. He wasn’t expecting the rain that morning so he had to wait it out after work, with the convenience of not having an umbrella. He grumbled as he watched his friend’s car pull up to the curb.
Once the car was at a full stop in front of him he stepped out into the downpour to seek quick shelter in the car only to have someone bump into him as they ran down the street. “Ahh! I’m sorry!” They said rather quickly offering a fast and small bow before taking off again. He didn’t catch the person’s face since the umbrella was covering it, but he did stare after them in a daze for a moment until Yamapi honked the horn getting his attention.
Ryo jumped slightly and scowled. He kicked the car lightly before opening the door. “Calm yourself.”
“You’re the one that called me and said hurry up,” he argued as they pulled away from the curb. “I have to meet Jin in less than a half hour.”
Ryo held back a gag. “You guys are such a couple.”
Yamapi looked before ways before turning onto Ryo’s street. The last thing he needed was an accident. “I thought we covered this already, oh, about a two years ago.”
“It’s still sick.”
---
Shige was running late. Very late. And it was all Masuda’s fault. He didn’t mind having lunch with him since it was a good friend, but Massu liked to eat. A lot. And Shige couldn’t sit there forever while he ordered more food. Finding a way to tell Massu that he had to leave (without hurting his feelings) didn’t come so easy, but he managed. Only to now be running down the street as quickly as possible in the rain getting wet despite the stupid umbrella. He seriously needed to invest in a car, and soon.
When he arrived to drop off his pictures he was soaked. There was a comment about how he looked like a wet cat which he did not find funny in the least, though he didn’t comment back. He handed off the pictures and soon left, saying that staying wet was not on his to do list. When he got back outside with his umbrella in hand and his camera in his bag he decided to head over to visit Koyama since it was closer than his place. (Besides, Koyama would give up some clothes for his friend.)
Koyama opened his apartment door on the third floor to find a very wet Shige with a smile on his face that could say worlds (but Koyama was feeling somewhere along the lines of “Spare some time for a good friend” and “Could you live any higher”). He stared at his friend for a moment before moving aside to let him in.
Upon returning with a dry set of clothes and a towel for Shige, he questioned, “Why do you look like a wet cat?”
“Not funny,” Shige said, roughly taking the towel to dry his hair. “I ran into someone and my umbrella got knocked out of my hand.”
Koyama laughed a little. “It’s called you look when you walk.”
“It’s called I was in a hurry. I had to drop off the pictures before they got wet,” he said over his shoulder as he headed for the bathroom to change.
When he came back in the room Koyama was clanking around in the kitchen making some tea for them. “Maybe you should get a car?”
Shige shrugged. “I should, but I don’t see the point. Most of my time is spent taking pictures, having a car that I’m not going to use is pointless and a waste of money.” He smiled when Koyama handed him the cup. “Besides, why waste money when I have you?”
Koyama couldn’t help but laugh. “See, it’s things like that that make me wonder why I bother with you.”
---
Ryo was getting tired of all the rain. It had been three days and the overcast sky was not showing any hints of clearing up. It was pissing him off. Sure, it was now a weekend and he didn’t have to go outside, but he liked having the option of doing so and not getting soaked to the bone.
He had called Yamapi, wanted to see if his friend wanted to hang out, but he didn’t get such amazing results.
“I’m kinda busy Ryo.”
Ryo grumbled, “Busy doing what?”
“Busy out with Jin.”
Ryo gagged. “Ew, are you guys on a date or something?”
“Yes. If it makes you so sick, why’d you ask?”
“Oh, forgive me! Please have fun with your wonderful boyfriend. Don’t mind me at all,” Ryo said roughly trying to get the point across that he was lonely but still didn’t want to admit that he was desperate.
“Have a fun day alone, Ryo,” Yamapi laughed slightly feeling bad for his friend then hung up.
Ryo threw his house phone down on the couch and crossed his arms as he looked out of the windows only to see the rain coming down as hard, if not harder than the last time he looked only five minutes ago. “Go ahead, taunt me all you want,” he said to the rain and went off to look for something to do that didn’t require going out in the rain. Needless to say, he was bored within ten minutes.
---
Shige was making a trip with Koyama back to his parents place. Koyama’s parents loved Shige to death, so anytime he could he would pay them a visit. And with his current free time he decided to go, though he had to convince Koyama first.
He was smiling his big silly smile that made Koyama’s stomach churn slightly scared when he groggily opened the door that morning. “What...” he mumbled looking over at the clock. “It’s seven in the morning!”
Shige just waved off the time factor. “Let’s go to Sagamihara.”
Koyama sated blankly at his friend and yawned. “I repeat, it’s seven in the morning.”
“Come on, Keii-chan,” Shige pleaded. “I want to pay your parents a visit.”
“Then go, you don’t need me.”
“But it’s not fun going alone.” Shige tried to pull a pouty face, but Koyama was already walking away leaving Shige in the doorway.
“Can’t you wait...like three hours?” He sat down on the couch and curled up on the end.
“But I’m here. I’m ready. Let’s go!”
Koyama threw a couch cushion at him. “I’m tired!”
“Please, Keii-chan?” Koyama looked up to see his friend pouting but quickly closed his eyes and grumbled.
~
The door opened to reveal a smiling Shige and a very tired Koyama. “Keiichiro, Shige-kun! What are you doing here?” Koyama’s mother said with a smile and ushered them inside.
“I was ambushed,” was Koyama’s only reply before headed off into the kitchen to look for something to eat. He greeted his father who sat in the living room as he passed by.
Mama Koyama and Shige were soon in the kitchen with him. They talked for a while, then Koyama looked around for Nyanta, who jumped out of Koyama’s arms the moment he saw Shige and rubbed up against his leg.
“Oh, really, Keiichiro.” His mother sighed picking Nyanta and taking him to another room. “You know Shige-kun is allergic.”
Shige only smiled and waved it off, “I’m fine. I took something this morning.”
His mother let out a sigh of relief before grabbing a list off the counter. “That’s good to hear.” She made sure she had everything then looked over at Koyama. “You’re father and I are going out for a bit. Don’t burn down the place. We’ll be back around dinner.” She kissed him and Shige on the cheek before leaving. The two just sat around watching TV before getting hungry again.
---
He was outside. He was wet. He was not a happy camper.
Ryo was past the point of boredom, whatever that was, while staying inside. It was now at the point where it wasn’t the rain that he detested; it was the fact that it was pouring down in sheets that he didn’t like causing him to be wet in places that he would much prefer not to be wet in.
He was standing in a bookstore, cold and shivering, but not daring to venture out back into the mess that caused him to be in this state. He’d take the cold later on over that. He let out a fairly loud sneeze gaining looks from practically everyone on the store.
Someone made an exasperated sigh and walked over to him handing him a handkerchief. It turned out to be one of Ryo’s friend’s from high school. They left the cold bookstore so Ryo could get something warm to drink while they talked a bit at a nearby coffee shop.
---
“So you’re telling me that this guy has a boyfriend, yet is still putting the moves on you?” Shige asked in disbelief as he stole some of Koyama’s food.
Koyama nodded.
“Do you like him?”
He shrugged.
“Yes or no, Keii-chan.”
Koyama paused and looked up at his friend, “I guess...yes.”
“Then tell him if he’s serious about you that he should break up with the other guy.”
Koyama sighed and pushed away his food. He turned away to watch Nyanta run off chasing after something that couldn’t be seen. Most likely Wagahai since that’s often what happened when Shige came over; Nyanta was run after nothing.
He didn’t speak for a while, just watched as his cat ran and played with Wagahai. Sometimes he wondered if a cat’s life was always that simple. It seemed to be; they slept, ate, and played. He wondered why his life wasn’t like that.
“Because I can’t ask Yamashita-kun to do that.” Finally he looked back at his friend who was frowning. “It wouldn’t be right.”
Shige snorted, “Then he shouldn’t have started anything with you in the first place.” Koyama merely looked away causing Shige to sigh again. “Did he kiss you?”
“No...” Koyama lied.
“What about love? Did he say he loved you?”
“Maybe.” Koyama told the half truth of what happened.
Shige glanced over at Nyanta and Wagahai as well. The room fell silent minus the sounds of the cat running around. “If he really did, you know break up with his boyfriend, would you bother? Or would you tell him to go back?”
Koyama thought this one over for a bit before finally answering. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
---
The rain finally cleared up by the next day Ryo had off to himself. He was overly ecstatic that he didn’t even bother to see if Yamapi and Jin wanted to hang out and just went out for a walk all on his own. It had been days since Ryo even bothered to play his guitar, being distracted by his grouchiness toward the rain was to be blamed, so he decided to take it along with him for one of the few moments that he brought joy to his dull life.
He found a quiet and fairly empty area of the park to sit and play his guitar in. He wasn’t really aiming for any song in particular, just a tune that was floating through his head. It was a rhythm of softer more melancholic chords than what you would have expected from his current delight. The chords rang out through the quiet area, making them seem louder than they really were. They were overly expressive to the point where you had no idea what they were trying to tell you. He continued to play the same song over and over in a loop.
When he finally decided to end the song, he strummed the last chord and looked up and scowled to see someone looking at him with a camera in hand. Not moving from his position, he looked over the person for a long moment and the person stared back not moving after they had lowered their camera.
Finally, he opened his mouth, “What are you doing?”
---
Shige and Koyama left a few days later when Shige got a call from work saying they wanted him to start gathering pictures for the next issue, and that this time he would have a special section all to himself to not only show off some more personal photographs that he wanted to publish, but also to express himself in words (since he did also go to school for writing).
He first spent a day in his house thinking of what he wanted to capture but nothing was coming to mind, so he wound up spending the day reading.
He spent the next day talking to Koyama over the phone to get ideas, but he wasn’t offering much help to Shige’s dismay. He was worked up over the his thing with “Yamashita-kun,” or as Shige would mock, “Yamashita-who-can’t-make-up-his-mind-and-wants-to-fuck-my-best-friend-kun,” but that is strictly neither here nor there.
Shige was a good friend, though, and listened to everything Koyama had to say, even offering what little help he could. By the time they finished Shige was nursing a headache and ready for bed, so he gave up.
The next day it was no longer raining. In fact, they sky was so clear and blue that Shige grabbed his camera off the dresser and snapped a photo of a lone cloud that looked like cotton candy.
He was in a good mood- no, a great mood! Shige was ready for the world with his camera, and he set out to look for something’s to capture. He covered lots of ground; his entire neighborhood and about three parks in within the vicinity of his home before he was left shocked.
He was attracted by the most beautiful sound he had ever heard just outside the park on his way back home. He stopped and closed his eyes to listen to where it was coming from and followed it until the sound was all around him. He opened his eyes to see someone sitting contently, playing their guitar. Shige pulled out his camera to snap the photo, only to freeze up when the music stopped and he heard a voice.
“What are you doing?”
Shige blinked a lowered his camera to stare at the person. “I was just...”
“It was a rhetorical question stupid. It’s pretty obvious what you were doing,” the man grumbled.
Shige only stared at the person a bit more before the sky opened up, letting out heavy rain along with a loud crack of thunder that Shige could feel in his very being. Coming out of his daze he quickly put his camera back into his bag, hoping that there wasn’t any damage to it. When he looked back up, the other person was holding a guitar case on his back and walking away not seeming in a very good mood.
He watched after him until he was no longer in his sight. Another clap of thunder made him jump and race home for some dry clothes.
---
Ryo came into Jin’s apartment scowling and dripping wet. Jin just blinked as Ryo dropped his guitar case and kicked off his shoes, pulling his wet shirt over his head as he walked back toward Jin’s room for a towel and clothes.
“Hello to you too, ass,” Jin said after getting up and following him.
“Fuck you,” Ryo grumbled as he looked through Jin’s clothes before yelling out in frustration. “What the fuck, Jin, don’t you have any clothes that fit?!” He threw his wet shirt at Jin.
Jin crossed his arms when the shirt missed his head. “You missed, and what do you mean? They fit!”
Ryo pulled out a pair of Jin’s smallest jeans and held them up to Jin’s frame (which was obviously bigger than his) and then to his own. “Really? These fit? Because from what I can see, these are your smallest pair and still look like they’ll fall off your ass without a belt.” He threw them to the side and kept looking.
“What the fuck, Ryo? You’re making a mess and leaving a puddle!” Jin complained and grabbed towel, threw it over his head, and then proceeded the fold up the clothes that Ryo was throwing all over the place.
Ryo moved the towel so he could see and grabbed a pair of Jin’s shorts and a belt. He pulled off his own wet jeans letting them fall into a puddle and took the towel to dry off then pulled the shorts up that were practically big enough to be pants on him and pulled the belt through the loops. He then moved on to look for a shirt which he was thankful weren’t as big and Jin’s pants (at least he wouldn’t have to force the man out to buy some better clothes) and pulled a random one over his head then proceeded to dry off his hair.
Jin grumbled as Ryo walked past him and out into the living room, “Oh, sure, leave your wet pants on the floor. I don’t fucking care!” He picked up Ryo’s wet clothes and took them off to the laundry room to dry them, thankful he got an apartment with washer and dryer.
“Let’s get this straight,” he said walking back to where Ryo was searching his kitchen for food only to produce ramen with a scrunched up nose but made it anyway. “Once your clothes are dry, you are leaving.”
Ryo waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
“Are you listening to me?!”
“Alright!” he shouted. “Fuck, Jin, don’t get your panties in a bunch. God, I’ll leave when my clothes dry.” The microwave beeped letting him know that his instant ramen was done and he smiled grabbing chopsticks and taking his ramen over to the couch where he began to eat when Yamapi came in looking a little wet himself.
“Jin,” he said taking his shoes off then giving him a kiss, “you never told me there was a photographer living in your apartment complex.”
“He is?” Jin asked giving Ryo a look as he began coughing on his ramen. “That’s what happens when you take other people’s food!”
“Fuck you.” Ryo managed to say around his ramen.
“Apparently. At least, I met someone in the hall who has a friend who does.” Yamapi shrugged.
“Since when do you talk to people in the hall, Pi?”
“Since when it’s raining and someone rushes past me almost knocking me over.”
Jin stared at him for a moment not expecting a serious answer out of the man, “That...works.” He raised an eyebrow slightly before moving over to sit next to Ryo on the couch. Yamapi followed suit, sitting on the other side of Ryo.
“Why are you wet?”
Ryo didn’t answer but just stabbed him in the leg “lightly,” causing him to yelp out in pain and Jin to freak out saying that stabbing someone isn’t an answer.
---
Shige stood outside his apartment dripping wet and waiting for Koyama to show up with the spare key. He was getting a little cold too. A series of sneezes left him as Koyama slowly trudged down the hall with a sad look on his face. “Thanks for getting here fast, Koyama,” he said sarcastically holding his hand out for the key. “Because I totally don’t feel a cold coming on.” He sneezed again.
“Oh, sorry.” Koyama dropped the key in his hand and followed Shige inside his apartment and made tea while Shige went off to change out of his wet clothes into pajamas since he wasn’t going back out in that mess.
Shige came into the kitchen as Koyama was pouring the tea. He watched his friend for a bit before taking the cup and sipping it. “Something wrong, Keii-chan?”
Koyama didn’t answer at first, but stared into his cup. Not until Shige’s was empty and his own long cold did he answer. “I saw him. Yamashita-kun.” Shige only nodded. “In the hall on my way up.” Koyama looked up at Shige now had an unreadable expression. “I-his boyfriend, he lives on the other end of the hall.”
Shige nearly fell out of his seat. “Seriously?!”
Koyama nodded, “He said he was visiting. I told him that I was here because you forgot your key.”
“And?” Shige pressed on.
“Nothing.”
His head fell to the counter top. “What.” He mumbled into it, although it was more a statement than a question.
“He smiled and walked down the hall.”
Shige looked up at Koyama after a few minutes and sighed blowing his damp bangs out of his face. He then got up from his seat and headed over to the door with the towel still draped around his neck. “This ends everything then. I’m going to tell him that you no longer want anything to do with him.”
“What!?” Koyama yelled running after his friend trying to stop him. “That would mess up their relationship!”
Shige scoffed. “Keii-chan, really?” He slipped his shoes on, “He’s going out with another guy while putting the moves on you and making your feelings a total mess. And don’t say he isn’t because I can read it all over your face. But all you can worry about is messing up their relationship?” He turned to look at his best friend with the most worried expression he’d ever had in his life. “Don’t you care about yourself a little more than that?”
Koyama stopped and looked at him dead in the eye for what seemed like hours, but he never answered. So, Shige turned and opened the door to his apartment, causing Koyama to start up all over again. But just as soon as Shige started to move again he stopped and stared out into the hall, making Koyama run right into him flailing like an idiot.
“Shige, what are you...” He trailed off seeing the look on his face then looked out in the hall. “Shige, who’s this?” he asked, but Shige didn’t hear him, his mind was somewhere far from where Koyama was, and for a split second, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to ever come back.
---
Ryo was walking down the hall from Jin’s apartment slightly annoyed, but not as much when he showed up. Just enough where it could die easily or grow huge if pushed. He decided to leave not to long after Yamapi showed up because the two began to act all lovey-dovey on him and he would have liked to keep his ramen in his stomach once finished.
His clothes weren’t dry, but they weren’t exactly wet either. Kind of stuck in that limbo of clothes that feel warm but as they cool off you can feel the dampness still, and it wasn’t the best thing ever. But he much preferred his own wet clothes that fit over Jin’s big. dry clothes that didn’t fit.
He wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of going back out in the rain-that Yamapi had supposedly said had lightened up since he came in but he didn’t believe it (because Pi had a tendency to lie to Ryo when he wanted to spend alone time with Jin which made Ryo even sicker). But he figured he could always take a cab; he wasn’t in the mood to get sick.
Ryo stopped in the hall when he heard a door open right next to him so, curiously, he looked over only to feel every bone in his body freeze, his blood run cold, and probably his mind stop. But only for a second. Then he was overcome with annoyance. The type of that was hard to explain because you had no idea where it came from, but you knew it was there. There, right across the hall from him, was that face. That same face from the afternoon that had left this feeling in the pit of his stomach that he didn’t know what it was called so he decided to call it annoyance with a tinge of something terrible.
“Shige, what are you...” Someone said behind the man who was apparently named Shige (who was now staring at Ryo with this look that had no name), then stopped. “Who is this?” He asked but Ryo was no longer caring for he was looking back at the one named Shige.
There was something about this guy that already annoyed him. He wanted to blame it on the fact that the man had been taking pictures of him in the park, but he couldn’t because deep down it made him kind of happy, in a weird sort of way. So he decided to just make himself say it was the picture taking and give the reason that it was rude and creepy to take pictures of people in the park without a reason.
“You’re the guy from the park,” Shige breathes finally and Ryo blinks for the first time in what he feels in his entire life, and he can tell that Shige feels like that breath was his first ever too.
“Yeah,” Ryo says dryly. “And you’re the one who took my picture.”
A blush crept up to color Shige’s cheeks and he tried to play it off by doing what Ryo could tell was a total fake cough. “Sorry,” he said softly only to have his friend or roommate or whatever the guy behind him was say something.
“Shige, you took his picture? Do you know how creepy that sounds?”
“Shut up, Keii-chan,” Shige grumbled while forcing himself not to kick his friend. “At least I am not in confusion city with love.” The man named Keii-chan stepped back a bit Ryo noticed but then turned his attention back on Shige.
“It’s not like I can do anything about it...” He looked down the hall and paused before looking back at Shige. “I just don’t want to see my picture anywhere. Got it?” But before Shige could answer Ryo shifted his guitar case on his shoulder then started off down the hall again leaving Shige to stare after him.
---
For the next three days all Koyama would do was ask Shige who the man at the door was, and each time Shige would divert the question with either a question of his own or something completely irrelevant. On the fourth day, Koyama gave up. Inside, Shige threw a party, constantly telling himself he won, but on the outside he would just smile occasionally for no reason, causing Koyama to think he’d finally lost his mind. Maybe he had, but he would never say so out loud.
Ryo on the other hand, he was trying his best to just forget the incident all together and it had worked at first, but then after two days, Jin had invited him over for drinks and told him to bring his guitar. Needless to say, as he was walking down the hall to Jin’s apartment, he passed Shige’s once again and he wasn’t exactly happy with remembering all that. He drank himself stupid.
---
Shige’s personal project for the magazine was not going too well. Sure they’d given him a deadline for the end of the month, but he didn’t want to put it off until then because he would be in a total rush and then it might not come out well as he wanted, and he wanted it to be perfect since it was his first chance working on a project so large. But he still didn’t know what he wanted to do. He already had a ton of pictures, but he didn’t feel like he had what he wanted. He started to bring his camera everywhere, capture everything.
It was interesting at first, Koyama thought. Watching how Shige would take in what was around him. He would observe things, talk less, and just watch. But then it started to get dull, because that’s all he was doing. Taking pictures. Observing. And then finally it got annoying.
“Do you have to take a picture of everything?” Koyama asked at lunch one day.
Shige snapped his photo. “No.”
“Then stop.” He took Shige’s camera and put it in the empty chair next to him.
He frowned. “Really, Keii-chan, that’s not fair. I want to do the best I can on this one.”
“Just one meal,” Koyama pleaded. “One and then-” He trailed off and stared behind Shige’s head at the entrance to the restaurant. He didn’t even notice Shige’s hand waving in his face.
He looked down quickly then. Shige was alarmed at his friend’s strange behavior. But he saw it as a chance to get his camera but only made it to reach across the table when someone called out Koyama’s name and Koyama jumped before looking up.
“Yamashita-kun.” Shige looked up at the two who were standing next to the table. The one that he assumed was Yamashita had brown hair that was in a silly perm that he honestly couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh at or take a picture of. The other, when he finally noticed him, was shorter, had black hair that was also short but with bangs long enough to fall just a bit into his eyes. He also had on a suit. He held back a gasp and looked back at Koyama.
“What are you doing here?” Yamashita asked.
Koyama held out his hand. “Having lunch with my friend. Kato Shigeaki.” Shige stood up and bowed slightly.
“Funny,” the other friend said flatly, “because I’m pretty sure that’s why we came here, Pi.” Yamashita waved him off. “I have a limited lunch break, you know!”
“You can sit with us,” Koyama offered moving Shige’s camera from the seat next to him which Shige snatched away quickly before he could react. Koyama only looked at him when he noticed his hands to be empty.
Shige picked his bag up from the seat next to him, “No more pictures. I got it.”
Yamapi sat next to Koyama but the other just stood there. “This is my friend, Nishikido Ryo,” he said to mostly Koyama, but looked at them both. “Sit down, Ryo.”
Ryo looked at Yamapi then at Shige before sitting down. Shige could feel the change in the air around him right away and suddenly he wasn’t hungry. He didn’t know what he was. Confused, yes. But that was it. On one hand he wanted to get up and leave right then and there. But he also wanted to see what happened between Koyama and this Yamashita-kun. Then there was also this strange part of him that wondered about Nishikido Ryo. That was the part that confused him the most.
---
Ryo watched everything at lunch carefully. He’d noticed how strange Yamapi was acting once they had passed the restaurant. Now, usually, Ryo didn’t have lunch with him. But when Yamapi had suddenly called out of the blue he couldn’t very well say no. So he agreed to go with him to a restaurant close to his office. Yamapi was strangely hyper, jumpy almost. Ryo didn’t know what to make of it.
When they got to the restaurant, Yamapi didn’t calm down at all. He was even more jumpy, if that was even possible. He met the people from the picture taking incident again. Koyama was the guy’s name, and Shige. Ryo noticed how the one named Shige was just as uncomfortable with the current lunch situation as he was.
Ryo still had that odd feeling about Shige, the one he couldn’t put into words so he continued to call it annoyance tinged with something else. But he was also getting a strange feeling about Yamapi. He had never seen the guy so happy and smiling. Not even with Jin, but it wasn’t making him sick. Just very worried. So worried that he couldn’t even eat his lunch anymore.
He noticed Shige shift in his seat and pick his things up before he looked at Koyama. “I should get going.” Koyama looked up at him, breaking off his conversation with Yamapi. “I need to get to work. I don’t have other things to do than my project, Keii-chan.” He held up his camera and smiled weakly.
Ryo saw this as the perfect time. He looked at his watch. “Ah, I have to get back to work too.” He glanced at Yamapi who didn’t seem the least bit concerned. There was actually a pleased look in his eyes. “You’re paying, right, Pi?” He nodded and Ryo stood up.
He noticed a shift in the air as he got up from the table and followed Shige out of the restaurant. The two walked in the same direction for a little bit when Ryo stopped and looked at Shige once they finally away from the resturant.
“You,” he started off, squinting at the sun in his eyes, only to stop and rethink his words. “There’s something going on between them.”
Shige nodded, but didn’t make eye contact.
“Do you know anything?”
He nodded again.
“Well?”
“Yamashita-kun...” He trailed off before actually looking at Ryo, “apparently has a thing for Keii-chan.” He saw no change in Ryo’s face. “But Keii-chan knows he is in a relationship.”
“With Jin,” Ryo sighed and looked off into the street. “And so what does Koyama think?”
Shige just stared at him before slinging his bag over his shoulder. “He’s confused.”
Ryo looked back at Shige. There was a look there, one that Ryo didn’t know. One that had no name. The same look that Ryo probably had himself. He had a feeling that something was going to happen. But he didn’t know what, though at the moment he wanted to know more about things between Yamapi and Koyama. “You live in Jin’s building, don’t you?”
“Jin?” Shige questioned absentmindedly, pulling his phone out to look at the tikme.
“Akanishi.”
Shige’s eyes widened. “Shit.” He mumbled and looked at the time. “The photoshoot!” He brushed his bangs out of his face and looked behind him at the street for a taxi with no luck.
Ryo watched as panic started to take over the other, while he mumbled about how he was going to be late, and this was his first big job. He was amused at how the young man failed to get the attention of every taxi that passed them. Finally not seeing it as funny anymore, he tapped Shige on the shoulder then stuck his hands in the pockets.
“You aren’t going to get a taxi at this rate.” He figured he could do something nice. “I’ll give you a ride.”
Shige looked flabbergasted at him, “Wait, what?” He looked at the time again. “Don’t you have to go back to work?”
“I lied. I still have a half hour.” He started to walk off, assuming that Shige would soon follow after seeing that his luck with taxis wasn’t so great.
---
Shige had exactly one month until his project was due for the magazine, and he had no idea what he was even going to do for it, but he did know that there were a few things more important than that. The little thing with Koyama was weighing heavily on his shoulders right now and that weight was increasing as the days passed.
He would occasionally talk to Nishikido, who he could still tell wasn’t exactly comfortable talking to him about the whole thing. It helped since Koyama’s love interest was Ryo’s best friend. He still thought that it was pretty stupid, though. Who goes after someone else when they were already in a relationship for over two years (the length, he found out with Ryo’s help).
Ryo on the other hand a slightly different view on the current state of affairs. He never was a supporter of Jin and Pi’s relationship, and supported Koyama’s love for the man that was turning into a cheating whore. Though he didn’t voice that much of his opinions. He did, however, voice that it would be better for Jin in the future to get his relationships over with now, while he was still low in the entertainment food chain.
“What do you mean?” Shige questioned.
Ryo scrunched up his face while looking around Shige’s simple yet (as much as he hated to admit it) lovely apartment. “Well, there have already been rumors about Jin, and he’s only been working in entertainment for two years officially. It’s bad enough that every single news reporter and magazine company has information of our failed debut back a few years ago.”
Shige nodded slightly understanding what Ryo said. “So it order to protect himself you think it would be better that he doesn’t have a relationship with Yamashita-kun.”
“Exactly.”
“Then tell him.” He still didn’t support the break up, if it ever happened. But he’d rather save Ryo’s Jin from total failure and have his friend in a relationship that wasn’t probably good for him than to have all three go to love triangle hell. But that was just him.
They wound up exchanging phone numbers. Their schedules didn’t leave them with much time to talk in person without being suspected by the others, and this way Shige had more time to focus on his photography, or so was the original plan.
He had explained to Ryo, who was obviously an office worker just by the way he dealt with people, that he had a project due at the end of the month. Couldn’t happen at a better time, Ryo comment sarcastically, causing Shige to glare, but he explained further that it was something he’d been waiting for since he started working- no, since he started photography. He was excited, but also distressed about this all at once.
The passion that Shige had in his eyes whenever their conversations just happened to go in the direction of his job almost made Ryo want to cry. He used to be like that. So excited for everyday because he got to do something he loved. Ready to just stay up for days on end just to do what he loved doing even if it meant drinking 10 cups of coffee a week later while still recovering from lack of sleep. He remembered it all. And it hurt. He was envious of Shige’s passion, but never said a word. Only nodded and kept a straight face until Shige realized he was ranting again and excused himself to get more tea.
Silently, from the shadows of his heart, a place he didn’t even know of, he was cheering on Shige for his project, wishing that the younger would do well. But one day it slipped out, just something small when Shige said he had to go to bed early because he was going out the next day to take photos in hopes of getting something good to use.
“Good luck,” Ryo said as he stood outside of Shige’s apartment. He was as shocked as Shige was. They stared at one another for a few minutes before Shige smiled and thanked him. On the way home, Ryo questioned his sanity and almost opted for staying home from work the next day due to “oncoming mental illness.”
Shige was getting annoyed again. Mostly at himself, but Koyama was starting to think otherwise with the way his attitude had been sour for the past few days. He didn’t dare touch his camera, just the sight of it was annoying him, making his nerves turn to a jumbled mess. It happens to the best of us, Koyama mused.
“When a good deal of your job rests on a project this big not being able to work is not a good thing,” Shige stated flatly staring at the blank note book before him as he tried to think of what the hell he was going to do.
Koyama noticed the panic that started to set into his face only for it all to vanish when Shige’s cell phone vibrated on the table and he dropped the pencil in hopes of getting a small break.
3:57 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Pi’s gonna ask out Koyama to dinner tonight.
Shige only frowned as he typed out his reply.
Did he say why?
-Message sent-
He set his phone back on the table expecting Ryo to take ages to respond because that’s just how Yamapi worked sometimes when it came to the subject of Koyama.
4:02 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Something about wanting to know how Koyama really feels.
Idk, he’s being a total sap today. =/
Shige held back his laughter, remembering that Koyama was keeping a close eye on him due to his flaky behavior only to smirk as he replied.
You always say that.
I don’t know what to believe anymore.
-Message Sent-
-----
4:08 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
You’re not makin my job any easier, Kato.
What I say bout Pi right now is not the issue.
What would Koyama most likely say?
He frowned again.
That he wouldn’t care what the world said about him as long as Yamashita was happy.
And no I didn’t ask him. It’s an obvious response from Keii-chan.
-Message Sent-
-----
4:12 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
That’s good then!
-----
That is not good Nishikido-kun!
He’s still going out with Jin right?
-Message Sent-
-----
4:15 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
He said he’s probably going to break up with Jin.
They never see each other anymore.
Hell, no one ever sees Jin anymore.
-----
But isn’t dating a celeb one of those relationships you just have to be patient with?
-Message Sent-
-----
4:20 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Your being stupid Kato
It’s Jin. He’s a sex monster and I bet he’s already sleeping with others.
*gags*
-----
But Yamashita really shouldn’t be talking.
After all he went after Koyama while still in a relationship.
-Message Sent-
-----
4:23 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
That’s why Pi wants to end it.
He doesn’t think it’s fair to Jin
-----
Then he shouldn’t have started this!
-Message Sent-
-----
4:25 pm
From: Nishikido-kun
Stop being such a chick kato!
Im calling you
Answer
Shige started to panic again and tried to type out his reply only to hear the ringer on his cell phone, making him jump and look up at Koyama, whose eyes didn’t leave him once during that texting session.
“Hello?” His voice was weak.
“Why do you sound like a creeper?” Ryo asked forgetting about the topic at hand.
“I can’t talk right now,” Shige said still not sounding himself, “I have a friend over.”
“Koyama?” Ryo whispered since he was still hanging out with Yamapi and didn’t want the other to know.
“Yeah, I’ll call you back later tonight,” he said then hung up not waiting for a response from Ryo saying that they should finish the conversation in text. He shut off his phone then smiled up at Koyama weakly. “Just someone from work.”
“Shige,” Koyama sighed, “you were texting for a half hour.”
He looked at the clock behind him, “Huh...” He mused thinking it was a lot shorter than that. “Do you want to go out to eat?” Diverting the subject. He knew that Koyama would say yes, and they would go out and then before their food even came he would get a call from Yamapi asking him out to dinner. Koyama would then say yes without a second thought and tell Shige some lie saying that he was needed for a problem at work or something and then leave.
It had all happened before. But now, Shige had a way to make that disappointment in his best friend go away, even if it was just for a few hours. His name was Ryo.
> go to part 2