response to anniv drabble-thon (nami)
The three prompts I chose for the anniversary drabble-thon, aka Nami's Kanjani8/KAT-TUN interaction fic post. They…didn’t quite turn out into drabbles though. Bah. At least they’re all less than 2,500 words? :(
All fics dedicated to the people who wrote the prompts ♥
-kanzenrei
Title: a random act of kindness
Rating: G
Summary: from koneho: Ueda doesn't have any ~BFFs~ in the jimusho. Yasuda, in a fit of his usual overwhelming kindness, designates Subaru as Ueda's ~NEW BEST FRIEND~ Ueda is aptly baffled.
The fifth floor is NEWS’ territory, but it was the only floor with a vending machine that sold Ryo’s favorite carrot juice, so Yasu found himself wandering around the aforementioned area one day. Unable to find the sought-after machine (and worried that Ryo would throw a tantrum if he went back to Kanjani8’s floor without it - Yasu didn’t really have to do these things but he liked being needed, besides, Ryo was a spoiled brat so it couldn’t be helped), he knocked on NEWS’ dressing room door to ask for directions.
The door swung open and a beaming Tegoshi greeted him. “Hey everyone, it’s Yasuda-kun!” he called cheerfully to the room in general, and all its other occupants looked up with polite interest. Massu and Koyama waved enthusiastically.
Yasu smiled. Everyone in NEWS was so friendly! Well, Ryo wasn’t always so nice but… Yasu blinked. “Oh, hello, Akanishi-kun. What are you doing here?”
“I could say the same for you, but I think I already know the answer,” Jin replied, pointing at the vending machine across the room.
Pi merely sighed. “Ryo ordering people around again…”
“Thanks!” Yasu said, grinning and heading for the vending machine.
“Oh, and as for your question, I’m just killing time here with Pi. KAT-TUN’s dance rehearsal doesn’t start in another hour,” Jin explained.
“Why aren’t you with them, then?” Yasu asked confusedly as he bent over to retrieve a can of carrot juice, baffled as to why Jin would rather spend time with other people’s groupmates than his own.
Jin shrugged, mistaking Yasu’s tone for disquietude over KAT-TUN’s professionalism. “Kame and Taguchi just went to get something to eat somewhere. I don’t know where the others are, but Nakamaru and Koki are probably together; it’s easy enough to contact them.”
Yasu frowned, as if he - or Jin - had forgotten something. Or someone. “What about Ueda-kun?”
Jin stared at him blankly for a moment, and then shrugged again. “Ueda? No idea. But he’ll show up for sure - he’s not perpetually late like Nakamaru… Anyway, was there something else you needed?”
“Huh? N-not really. Thanks again; I’ll be going now.” Yasu bowed politely (Koyama waved again and reminded him to take care) and headed back to the eighth floor.
=|=|=
Subaru waved a hand energetically in front of Yasu’s face. “Earth to Yasu,” he said, hand-waving turning to open flailing when Yasu still didn’t respond.
“Tegoshi didn’t do anything to you, did he?” Ryo asked as he chugged down his juice.
“NEWS has a vending machine in their dressing room,” Yoko complained to no one in particular, so no one in particular took notice of him.
Yasu sighed. Subaru stopped flailing and settled for repeatedly poking Yasu on the cheek. Ryo’s cellphone message alert tone rang loud and clear throughout the room.
“It’s from Uchi!” Maru announced, waving Ryo’s cellphone in the air. Ryo held his hand out-Maru threw the cellphone at him-Ryo let out a high-pitched shriek and managed to catch the gadget in his fumbling fingers.
Yasu’s face suddenly became animated. “Ne, Ryo, Uchi’s your best friend, right?”
“You do not throw other people’s keitai around like-what? Of course he is,” Ryo snapped, briefly whipping his head in Yasu’s direction before resuming his task of giving Maru a noogie.
Yasu looked thoughtful. “And Akanishi-kun and Yamashita-kun are best friends, too?”
“Yes, they are,” Ryo answered impatiently, assaulting Maru’s head more brutally (Maru suggested that Ryo should stand on a chair so that Maru wouldn’t have to bend down so low).
“And Tanaka-kun and Nakamaru-kun-”
“What does that have to do with you?” Ohkura asked offhandedly, still watching Ryo and Maru with mild interest.
“Why don’t we have our own vending machine?” Yoko whined. Hina hit him over the head and told him to shut up, which, of course, only gave Yoko a reason to voice more of his complaints.
Subaru sighed. “Want to talk somewhere else?”
=|=|=
“It just occurred to me,” Yasu started worriedly, pacing back and forth.
“What?” Subaru asked.
“Ueda-kun! He doesn’t have a best friend!”
Silence. “…so?” Subaru finally answered.
“So, he must be really lonely!” Yasu wrung his hands in distress, apparently greatly troubled by Ueda’s lack of close personal relations.
Subaru shrugged. “He must have friends outside work.”
“But not best friends!”
“You don’t know that, Yasu.”
Yasu remained unconvinced. “Friends like that won’t be able to empathize with his job! He needs one who’s an insider. Like us!”
Subaru rolled his eyes, getting bored of where the conversation was going but willing to humor Yasu for just a bit more. “Doesn’t he go on trips with Nakamaru in his private time? That means they’re close, right?”
Yasu shook his head. “Nakamaru-kun is Tanaka-kun’s best friend,” he replied, as if Subaru missed the point completely.
Subaru did. He didn’t particularly care about getting it either. “They’re still good friends,” he pointed out. “Isn’t that enough?”
“No!” Yasu said, and Subaru was caught off-guard by his vehemence. “He has to have one. Ueda-kun won’t be so distant to people if he had a best friend to coax him out of his shell!”
Subaru blinked. “And you care about this because…”
“If he won’t make one, we’ll have to give it to him.”
“Eh?”
“I know! Shibuyan, you do it.”
“Eh?”
“As of this moment I declare you Ueda Tatsuya’s new best friend!” Yasu said in his most official-sounding tone, giving Subaru a stern look.
“EH?”
=|=|=
“But I thought we were best friends, Sho-chan,” Subaru complained as they crouched amongst the bushes.
“Shhhh!” Yasu swatted at him, heart not softening at Subaru’s use of the endearing nickname. “Here he comes. Go!”
Subaru almost toppled back on his butt. “What? What am I supposed to do??”
“Just strike up a conversation! Make him feel at ease around you! Don’t let me down, okay?” And with that, Yasu shoved Subaru and he stumbled face-first into the middle of the path. “Good luck, Shibuyan!” a voice whispered, and then the quivering bush became still.
Subaru cursed under his breath, registered the stinging pain on his chin. A pair of shoes loomed in front of him.
“Shibutani-kun?” A second, and he was being hauled up by the elbow, his eyes meeting a pair of concerned brown ones as he stood.
Subaru gulped and laughed nervously. “A…hahaha! Thanks, Ueda.”
Ueda inclined his head slightly forward, a casual acknowledgment of Subaru’s seniority, and Subaru noticed Ueda’s concerned expression smoothing into a blank mask once more. And then he started walking away.
“H-hey, wait!” Subaru gripped Ueda’s upper arm, searching his mind for an excuse to keep talking - Why am I doing this again? - he thought hard, something to talk about, something in common… “Ah! You play the guitar too, right?”
Ueda looked politely confused. “Yeah, I do.”
Subaru nodded. “Oh.”
Silence. A branch fell off a nearby tree.
Ueda clears his throat. “Er, I have a rehearsal in a few minutes…”
“Right! Okay. It was nice talking to you,” Subaru managed not to stammer, dropping Ueda’s arm like a piece of hot coal.
Ueda shot him a vaguely weirded-out look and headed down the path.
Subaru exhaled loudly.
=|=|=
Ueda sat down on the bench and took a swig of water, quenching his thirst after a long dance practice.
Nakamaru stuck his head into the room. “Ueda, someone’s here to see you.”
Ueda looked up; Subaru stood uncomfortably in the open doorway, and Nakamaru gestured him inside, Subaru taking small, mechanical steps until he reached the piece of floor right in front of Ueda. “Er. Hi again! Um, so, I was just wondering if you didn’t have anything scheduled later? I mean, you probably do, since you’re busy promoting KAT-TUN’s new single and all, but I thought that, you know, if you had some free time then-”
Ueda stared at him. “I don’t have anything lined up after five,” he finally answered politely after another minute of Subaru’s agitated babbling.
For a split second, Subaru appeared disappointed, but then he grinned. “Great! Oh, I didn’t mean that it’s great you weren’t given a lot of work-ah, don’t have a lot of work...right now…haha-” Ueda’s eyes narrowed “Uh, so, do you want to eat dinner somewhere together? My treat.”
Ueda still looked slightly suspicious. “Sure, I don’t mind.”
=|=|=
Ueda was certainly at a loss. It was the fifth time that Subaru had dragged him to ‘hang out’ this week, and today Subaru was equipped with an electric guitar. Ueda wondered if Kanjani8 was on some special sort of crack - maybe just Subaru, it was kind of hard to tell - or if this was just the result of one of their intoxication-induced bets. Either way he concluded that it was a very elaborate prank.
And a costly one, at that. Didn’t Subaru commute to and from Osaka everyday?
“I like this song. Let’s play this one!” Subaru told him bossily, poking at an open page of one of Ueda’s many song books.
“Okay,” Ueda agreed, and Subaru broke into a little half-smile that seemed more real than any of the huge grins he had given Ueda in the past week.
Ueda found himself smiling back.
If it was all a joke to make Ueda feel bad, then it wasn’t a very good one.
=|=|=
Subaru never imagined that he could spend more than two hours in the same room as Ueda Tatsuya. Hell, he never thought he could spend more than two hours talking to Ueda Tatsuya. Subaru tended not to shut up whenever he was around Eito, but that was different; he’d been around them all for at least a decade, and even if he hadn’t he would be able to tell that Ueda couldn’t be more unlike them. Eito was loud and silly and random, all explosive laughter and harmlessly dirty jokes; Ueda was soft-spoken, earnest and precise, a chance rare smile and perfectly refined language.
Their only common trait was that of being brutally blunt - Ueda never hesitated to say exactly what was on his mind, whether it was just-this-side-of-insulting or not.
Subaru always thought that Ueda was weird, the random mysterious acquaintance that would be a bother to force conversation with, the type of person you wouldn’t go out of the way to befriend. But watching Ueda’s eyes light up with an emotion other than calculated indifference, listening to his seldom-heard animated voice as he explained why a particular line from a song evoked more feelings from the listener than another, Subaru started seeing him the way Yasu probably did - an engaging but underappreciated person who just needed someone to make him shine.
=|=|=
“Progress report!” Yasu hollered, leaping at Subaru as he strolled into the studio.
Subaru smiled proudly. “We tried composing a song on the piano today. And I made Ueda smile three times in thirty minutes!”
Yasu applauded enthusiastically. “Good job, Shibuyan!”
Ryo looked like he was restraining himself from saying something, and it came out sounding like a derisive snort.
Subaru rounded on him. “You’re just jealous because you’ve never seen Ueda really smile,” he accused.
Ryo rolled his eyes. “If I wanted to see fish lips flash his teeth, all I had to do was watch his group’s lame talk show.”
Yoko snickered. “You do realize that you as good as admitted to watching it yourself.”
Ryo spluttered indignantly and averted his gaze, cheeks flushing pink. “Jin made me,” he muttered.
“I’m so happy that Ueda-kun is growing on you guys!” Yasu exclaimed, teary-eyed.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ryo said with a scowl.
=|=|=
“Uedaaaaa! Long time no see,” Subaru exclaimed, flapping his hands excitedly.
Ueda adjusted his sunglasses. “Do you usually yell out people’s names like that in public?” he asked in his usual monotone, glancing around to check if Subaru had attracted anybody’s attention.
“This is a high-end district. No one’s looking at you.”
“Right,” Ueda said, allowing Subaru to drag him by the wrist as they passed a wide-eyed teenage girl who suddenly looked away and started pressing buttons furiously on her cellphone.
Ten minutes later they were in a secondhand clothes shop, and Subaru happily rummaged through the racks while Ueda wrinkled his nose at the various selections. He would never understand Subaru’s passion for bargain stuff like this.
“I think I know why you go to this kind of store so much,” Ueda remarked as Subaru discarded four shirts out of the seven he was currently clutching.
“Eh? What?” Subaru muttered distractedly, glancing at Ueda.
Ueda smirked. “The fact that there’s usually just one piece of everything here - it’s convenient because you don’t have to ask the saleslady for your size, right?”
Subaru glared at him. “For your information, I do occasionally go to department stores and buy new clothes there-”
“With Yasuda, your shopping interpreter,” Ueda deadpanned.
That was uncalled for, Subaru sniffed, and effectively got his feelings across by throwing two shirts in Ueda’s face. Ueda simply snickered.
“Is that a challenge? I’ll show you! Next time, next time!” Subaru said loudly, shaking his fists comically.
Ueda full-out laughed, and Subaru did too, because Ueda’s laugh was kind of contagious, if one was blessed enough to hear it. “If you’re looking for support, then bringing Yasuda with you is probably more advisable,” he replied.
“Then I’ll get the two of you to come along with me.”
A look of surprise flashed across Ueda’s face; Subaru’s was pensively serious. Ueda smiled softly.
“That’d be great.”
Title: too much to ask for
Rating: PG
Summary:from insane_desire: JE tells K8 to be cool like KAT-TUN
“Could you repeat that?” Yoko finally says after a long silence.
Kanjani8’s manager coughs exasperatedly. “The company has been discussing this since the rising amount of sales that Kanjani8’s singles have been making in the past few months. Your fan base outside the Kansai region has significantly increased, and of course, we have to take their preferences into account. A comedian-slash-idol image simply isn’t feasible anymore, at this point.”
“But isn’t that image the main reason we’ve gone this far in the first place?” Ryo points out with a frown. “It’s what sets us apart from the other groups in the company. If we suddenly changed it, then we wouldn’t be Kanjani8.”
There were murmurs of general assent from the other members. “Ryo-chan’s right,” Hina said. “Exactly how do you expect us to go about this?”
“There is a set duration for you to ease into your new image, a ‘trial period,’ if you may. You have an entire month to make the transition.” Their manager glances at each member in turn, face blankly impassive. “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to direct them to me or your marketing team. That is all.”
=|=|=
“Well?” Hina prompts as soon as Ohkura walks into the room.
Ohkura looks vaguely upset. “He told me that we had to act cooler.”
Six confused faces stare back at him.
“Hah?” Yasu finally utters.
“Cooler how?” Maru adds delicately.
Ohkura bites his lip. “He said…like KAT-TUN.”
Ryo drops Yoko’s DS Lite (Yoko howls). “WHAT?!”
=|=|=
“This is stupid,” Subaru says aloud. He has been in a foul mood all morning, which Kanjani8 is currently spending on polishing all their songs’ new choreographies as per management’s instructions.
“Why are you guys so grumpy?” Yoko asks, face shining with excitement. “Don’t you know what this means? We don’t have to be silly in front of the camera all the time anymore! Other celebrities are going to start taking us seriously.”
“You mean people will take us seriously if we started moving around on stage like strippers?” Ohkura answers dryly.
“How do you dance sexily to Sukiyanen, Osaka?” Maru calls out in distress.
Hina whaps him on the head by reflex, then realizes that Maru is dead serious. Hina starts developing a migraine.
=|=|=
Ryo’s mood is ten times fouler than Subaru’s, but everybody still talks to him because they’re used to it. And no one in Kanjani8 really finds him intimidating, anyway.
Yasu is not an exception. “Ryo-chan, I don’t get this step. Are we supposed to swing our hips first, and then point suggestively at our crotches, or is it the other way around?”
As was Maru. “Ryo-chan, this part of the choreo looks a lot like the one in one of your solos; could you dance a bit of it and show me?”
A tick goes off on Ryo’s forehead and he opens his mouth. Hina hits him over the head and scolds, “No yelling.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Ryo says petulantly, and Hina runs off to stop Subaru and Yoko’s impromptu floor-wrestling match (Yoko had tricked Subaru into attempting a hip-swivel, Akanishi style, and Yoko had unwisely laughed).
Maru and Yasu stare at Ryo expectantly, and Ryo sighs, proceeding to flailing his arms and twirling around within a two-foot radius in a cruel but accurate impression of Ueda during a song performance.
“If you can’t keep up with the steps, dance like this,” he informs them.
Ohkura snickers. “Low, Ryo-chan.”
Ryo puts on an innocent face. “Just following orders.”
=|=|=
It is their first performance as the new-and-improved Kanjani8. Maru thankfully remembers not to make faces at the others while they are on standby, but Yoko has his ‘kakkoi’ face on and Subaru and Yasu are restraining the urge to giggle. Ryo’s eyes are closed as he wills himself to imagine that he is with NEWS. NEWS. Not Kanjani8. NEWS. Not Kanjani8. NEWS-
“And here’s Kanjani8 with a special medley!”
Ryo starts singing the opening lines of Osaka Rainy Blues. The deep-throated tone he uses is supposed to sound sexy anyway so he does it effortlessly, which the other members think is a bit unfair. Yoko surreptitiously kicks Subaru as he turns in place, hissing “Not in Enka style.”
“I know,” Subaru hisses back, and when he sings his voice is breathier, more suggestive.
Yoko’s snicker escapes his mic’s amplification. Subaru kicks him; he believes in returning favors. Yoko stumbles once, invades Maru’s dancing space, and causes Maru to pull a fantastically hilarious expression that does not go unnoticed by Yasu, who guffaws. Yasu’s mic is more efficient than Yoko’s and relays the sound through all the surrounding speakers.
Ohkura fumbles in the middle of a line - the next word isn’t supposed to be pfffft - but he isn’t too worried; Ryo’s trembling notes are worse than his.
And as one, they all burst out laughing, which is just as well because the next song on the list is Wahaha.
Backstage, the manager sighs as he glances at the television screen, where the members of Kanjani8 goof off for the rest of the medley. He then stares pointedly at the marketing head.
The marketing head shrugs. “Old selling points die hard,” he says wisely.
Title: wonder boy and the samurai lover
Rating: G
Summary: from maya_morning: Junno and Yoko swap places for the day. Yoko spends the entire time trying to stalk Akame whilst Junno drives Kanjani8 mad with bad puns.
“So I thought, this chance is amazing! I mean, I’m not a T, so I didn’t expect that they would be serious about it, but it turns out that they weren’t kidding. For this day you’re not KAT-TUN anymore, ah, I’m in it too so it should be we. Then, we’re not KAT-TUN, we’re…KAT-YUN, right? Doesn’t it have a nice ring to it? Eh? Eh?” Yoko beams at Koki and Ueda, who simply stare at him, having seldom encountered a person who is capable of talking ten times as much as Nakamaru does.
“Ah, Yokoyama-kun, since you’re swapping with Taguchi, it would theoretically be KAY-TUN,” Nakamaru gently corrects, flashing Yoko a friendly smile.
“You’re the T after the hyphen?” Yoko blinks at Koki, who opens his mouth but doesn’t get to say anything as Yoko presses on as if the exchange hadn’t occurred, “So who else isn’t here yet? AHHH! AkaKame!!!” He whirls around so violently that Koki nearly jumps out of his seat.
“They stepped out for a while,” Ueda tells him calmly, when Yoko stares at the empty doorway as if willing ‘AkaKame’ to appear.
Yoko looks slightly disappointed, and he falls back onto his chair. “When will they be back?”
=|=|=
Six out of Eight look at Junno with varying degrees of polite interest. Kanjani8’s manager, dwarfed by the much taller man, claps him on the shoulder.
Junno takes a step forward. “Iriguchi deguchi Taguchi desu!”
There is a moment of silence, and then Yasu’s delayed laughter fills the room. “Hahahahaha! That’s a good one, Taguchi-kun!”
Junno beams.
Ryo shuffles away from them in disgust, and Junno’s face falls a bit.
“You shouldn’t mind Ryo-chan,” Maru reassures him. “The one you should really watch out for is Murakami-kun.”
“Hey,” Hina protests. “I’m not that bad.”
“He is. All lame jokes attract his tsukkomi,” Subaru informs him bluntly. Ohkura coughs. Subaru glances curiously at him, then turns to Junno, misinterpreting his now-downcast eyes. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you!”
=|=|=
“I swear someone was following us!” Jin tells the group animatedly, eyes wide and unsettled.
“No there wasn’t,” Kame snaps. His arm hurts where Jin had been clutching it the whole time they walked back to the complex from the nearby café, and his nerves are frayed because personally he knows that Jin’s claims aren’t entirely off base.
But as a professional paparazzi evader, of course he isn’t going to admit that.
“There were flashes of light,” Jin emphasizes, wringing his hands and imploring the rest of KAT-TUN to believe in his case.
“Heh, so this is the power of KAT-TUN’s popularity,” Yoko offhandedly comments.
“Yes, but Kanjani8 has the same problem, right?” Kame answers.
Yoko shrugs and continues customizing his cellphone’s camera settings unnoticed. “You two should be more careful next time.”
=|=|=
“Your aim is to deliver a joke as good as that,” Ohkura tells Junno, gesturing at Maru grinning and Hina laughing on and on and on.
Subaru throws one of his vitamin bottles at Hina. “Stop it already. Why do you laugh so long?”
Junno rounds on him eagerly. “Because Kanjani8 is a laugh a minute!”
Hina falls silent, and the rest of Kanjani8 groan very, very quietly.
“Try harder,” Yasu finally remarks, and Junno hangs his head.
“…I don’t even feel like hitting him anymore,” Hina says in a tired tone.
“Just shut up altogether,” is Ryo’s generous advice.
=|=|=
“Yokoyama seems pretty interested in you,” Jin observes, surreptitiously glancing at Yoko.
“That’s ridiculous,” Kame responds, looking at Yoko at the corner of his eye. “I’m just sitting beside you; it’s you he’s been looking at for the past five minutes.”
Yoko walks toward them.
“He’s coming this way,” Jin hisses at Kame, who shrugs.
“Hey, AkaKame,” Yoko greets, sitting on the coffee table across the two. He looks unusually cheerful.
Jin is confused. “Sorry, did you just say Aka-”
Kame bites his lip and wordlessly elbows Jin in the side. Yoko unfortunately doesn’t miss this exchange and leans forward. “You two are pretty close, aren’t you?”
“Huh? Yeah, I guess-” Jin winces; Kame’s elbows are sharp, “Not-not really.”
Yoko smiles strangely at them, and Jin scoots a little closer to Kame warily. Yoko coughs. “Okay, I’ll just go over there and…bother Nakamaru! Yeah. Have fun!”
Jin shoots Kame another puzzled stare. “Have…fun?”
Kame sighs. “Why can’t you ever shut up?”
=|=|=
“I hate you,” Ryo says, tightening his grip on the cell against his ear.
“Who’s Nishikido talking to?” Junno asks Yasu, the only one other than Ryo who isn’t stuffing his face with food.
“Uchi,” Yasu answers before bringing a huge piece of barbecued pork to his mouth. He chews on the food with a happy (but disturbingly so) expression on his face. “So good… Have you tried this one, Taguchi-kun?”
Ryo chews angrily on a mouthful of rice. “What do you mean, why? If you were here, you’d have to put up with him too!”
“Pass the veggies,” Maru requests two chairs down from Junno, and Junno complies, first handing the bowl to Ohkura.
“Does Ohkura eat okra?”
Ryo wails into the phone. “Make him stop.”
=|=|=
Junno walks into the studio and waves. “Good morning!” His waving hand stops abruptly in mid-air when Jin glowers at him in greeting.
“Kame’s mad at me! This is all your fault!” Jin accuses.
“Eh?” Junno responds. “What did I do?”
“I can’t believe you can manage to be annoying even if you’re not here,” Jin grumbles, scowling darkly at him. “You…annoying, smiling idiot! And your puns suck!”
Junno stares, bewildered, as Jin stalks away.
Are his puns really that bad?
=|=|=
A very happy Yoko bounces into Kanjani8’s lounge room. “I’m back! Did you guys miss me?” He almost does a double take when Subaru hurls himself at him and wraps him in an oxygen-depleting hug.
“Don’t ever leave us again,” Subaru threatens, glaring steely up at him.
Yoko tries to pry Subaru off him, and fails. “What’s gotten into you, man? You trying to freak me out? Get-off!”
“I agree with Subaru,” Ryo says flatly, crossing his arms. Ohkura nods fervently beside him.
Yoko turns to look at him, face glowing. “Aww, I’m touched. You guys just can’t live without me, right?”
Hina slaps him upside the head.
“Ow! Show a little more appreciation to your lifeline, will you?” Yoko complains.
“You,” Hina starts, “owe us big time.”
“I do?” Yoko asks, rubbing at his bruised head.
“YES,” Subaru seconds.
Yoko looks confusedly down at Subaru’s head then turns to Hina. “Then, I’ve got stuff to tell you that’ll more than make up for it…”
=|=|=
The next Thursday night, Jin is ushered into Recomen’s radio booth. Yoko and Hina explain to the listeners that their special guest will make a prank call to all the other KAT-TUN members.
Koki, Ueda and Nakamaru are the first victims.
When it is Kame’s turn to pick up the call, he answers on the first ring, asking Jin why he is calling so late again. After the call, Yoko devotes ten full minutes to picking on Jin and dissecting AkaKame’s relationship.
Yoko apologizes to the listeners afterward, because they’ve run out of time to call Junno.
Hina oddly becomes more energetic for the rest of the show.
All fics dedicated to the people who wrote the prompts ♥
-kanzenrei
Title: a random act of kindness
Rating: G
Summary: from koneho: Ueda doesn't have any ~BFFs~ in the jimusho. Yasuda, in a fit of his usual overwhelming kindness, designates Subaru as Ueda's ~NEW BEST FRIEND~ Ueda is aptly baffled.
The fifth floor is NEWS’ territory, but it was the only floor with a vending machine that sold Ryo’s favorite carrot juice, so Yasu found himself wandering around the aforementioned area one day. Unable to find the sought-after machine (and worried that Ryo would throw a tantrum if he went back to Kanjani8’s floor without it - Yasu didn’t really have to do these things but he liked being needed, besides, Ryo was a spoiled brat so it couldn’t be helped), he knocked on NEWS’ dressing room door to ask for directions.
The door swung open and a beaming Tegoshi greeted him. “Hey everyone, it’s Yasuda-kun!” he called cheerfully to the room in general, and all its other occupants looked up with polite interest. Massu and Koyama waved enthusiastically.
Yasu smiled. Everyone in NEWS was so friendly! Well, Ryo wasn’t always so nice but… Yasu blinked. “Oh, hello, Akanishi-kun. What are you doing here?”
“I could say the same for you, but I think I already know the answer,” Jin replied, pointing at the vending machine across the room.
Pi merely sighed. “Ryo ordering people around again…”
“Thanks!” Yasu said, grinning and heading for the vending machine.
“Oh, and as for your question, I’m just killing time here with Pi. KAT-TUN’s dance rehearsal doesn’t start in another hour,” Jin explained.
“Why aren’t you with them, then?” Yasu asked confusedly as he bent over to retrieve a can of carrot juice, baffled as to why Jin would rather spend time with other people’s groupmates than his own.
Jin shrugged, mistaking Yasu’s tone for disquietude over KAT-TUN’s professionalism. “Kame and Taguchi just went to get something to eat somewhere. I don’t know where the others are, but Nakamaru and Koki are probably together; it’s easy enough to contact them.”
Yasu frowned, as if he - or Jin - had forgotten something. Or someone. “What about Ueda-kun?”
Jin stared at him blankly for a moment, and then shrugged again. “Ueda? No idea. But he’ll show up for sure - he’s not perpetually late like Nakamaru… Anyway, was there something else you needed?”
“Huh? N-not really. Thanks again; I’ll be going now.” Yasu bowed politely (Koyama waved again and reminded him to take care) and headed back to the eighth floor.
=|=|=
Subaru waved a hand energetically in front of Yasu’s face. “Earth to Yasu,” he said, hand-waving turning to open flailing when Yasu still didn’t respond.
“Tegoshi didn’t do anything to you, did he?” Ryo asked as he chugged down his juice.
“NEWS has a vending machine in their dressing room,” Yoko complained to no one in particular, so no one in particular took notice of him.
Yasu sighed. Subaru stopped flailing and settled for repeatedly poking Yasu on the cheek. Ryo’s cellphone message alert tone rang loud and clear throughout the room.
“It’s from Uchi!” Maru announced, waving Ryo’s cellphone in the air. Ryo held his hand out-Maru threw the cellphone at him-Ryo let out a high-pitched shriek and managed to catch the gadget in his fumbling fingers.
Yasu’s face suddenly became animated. “Ne, Ryo, Uchi’s your best friend, right?”
“You do not throw other people’s keitai around like-what? Of course he is,” Ryo snapped, briefly whipping his head in Yasu’s direction before resuming his task of giving Maru a noogie.
Yasu looked thoughtful. “And Akanishi-kun and Yamashita-kun are best friends, too?”
“Yes, they are,” Ryo answered impatiently, assaulting Maru’s head more brutally (Maru suggested that Ryo should stand on a chair so that Maru wouldn’t have to bend down so low).
“And Tanaka-kun and Nakamaru-kun-”
“What does that have to do with you?” Ohkura asked offhandedly, still watching Ryo and Maru with mild interest.
“Why don’t we have our own vending machine?” Yoko whined. Hina hit him over the head and told him to shut up, which, of course, only gave Yoko a reason to voice more of his complaints.
Subaru sighed. “Want to talk somewhere else?”
=|=|=
“It just occurred to me,” Yasu started worriedly, pacing back and forth.
“What?” Subaru asked.
“Ueda-kun! He doesn’t have a best friend!”
Silence. “…so?” Subaru finally answered.
“So, he must be really lonely!” Yasu wrung his hands in distress, apparently greatly troubled by Ueda’s lack of close personal relations.
Subaru shrugged. “He must have friends outside work.”
“But not best friends!”
“You don’t know that, Yasu.”
Yasu remained unconvinced. “Friends like that won’t be able to empathize with his job! He needs one who’s an insider. Like us!”
Subaru rolled his eyes, getting bored of where the conversation was going but willing to humor Yasu for just a bit more. “Doesn’t he go on trips with Nakamaru in his private time? That means they’re close, right?”
Yasu shook his head. “Nakamaru-kun is Tanaka-kun’s best friend,” he replied, as if Subaru missed the point completely.
Subaru did. He didn’t particularly care about getting it either. “They’re still good friends,” he pointed out. “Isn’t that enough?”
“No!” Yasu said, and Subaru was caught off-guard by his vehemence. “He has to have one. Ueda-kun won’t be so distant to people if he had a best friend to coax him out of his shell!”
Subaru blinked. “And you care about this because…”
“If he won’t make one, we’ll have to give it to him.”
“Eh?”
“I know! Shibuyan, you do it.”
“Eh?”
“As of this moment I declare you Ueda Tatsuya’s new best friend!” Yasu said in his most official-sounding tone, giving Subaru a stern look.
“EH?”
=|=|=
“But I thought we were best friends, Sho-chan,” Subaru complained as they crouched amongst the bushes.
“Shhhh!” Yasu swatted at him, heart not softening at Subaru’s use of the endearing nickname. “Here he comes. Go!”
Subaru almost toppled back on his butt. “What? What am I supposed to do??”
“Just strike up a conversation! Make him feel at ease around you! Don’t let me down, okay?” And with that, Yasu shoved Subaru and he stumbled face-first into the middle of the path. “Good luck, Shibuyan!” a voice whispered, and then the quivering bush became still.
Subaru cursed under his breath, registered the stinging pain on his chin. A pair of shoes loomed in front of him.
“Shibutani-kun?” A second, and he was being hauled up by the elbow, his eyes meeting a pair of concerned brown ones as he stood.
Subaru gulped and laughed nervously. “A…hahaha! Thanks, Ueda.”
Ueda inclined his head slightly forward, a casual acknowledgment of Subaru’s seniority, and Subaru noticed Ueda’s concerned expression smoothing into a blank mask once more. And then he started walking away.
“H-hey, wait!” Subaru gripped Ueda’s upper arm, searching his mind for an excuse to keep talking - Why am I doing this again? - he thought hard, something to talk about, something in common… “Ah! You play the guitar too, right?”
Ueda looked politely confused. “Yeah, I do.”
Subaru nodded. “Oh.”
Silence. A branch fell off a nearby tree.
Ueda clears his throat. “Er, I have a rehearsal in a few minutes…”
“Right! Okay. It was nice talking to you,” Subaru managed not to stammer, dropping Ueda’s arm like a piece of hot coal.
Ueda shot him a vaguely weirded-out look and headed down the path.
Subaru exhaled loudly.
=|=|=
Ueda sat down on the bench and took a swig of water, quenching his thirst after a long dance practice.
Nakamaru stuck his head into the room. “Ueda, someone’s here to see you.”
Ueda looked up; Subaru stood uncomfortably in the open doorway, and Nakamaru gestured him inside, Subaru taking small, mechanical steps until he reached the piece of floor right in front of Ueda. “Er. Hi again! Um, so, I was just wondering if you didn’t have anything scheduled later? I mean, you probably do, since you’re busy promoting KAT-TUN’s new single and all, but I thought that, you know, if you had some free time then-”
Ueda stared at him. “I don’t have anything lined up after five,” he finally answered politely after another minute of Subaru’s agitated babbling.
For a split second, Subaru appeared disappointed, but then he grinned. “Great! Oh, I didn’t mean that it’s great you weren’t given a lot of work-ah, don’t have a lot of work...right now…haha-” Ueda’s eyes narrowed “Uh, so, do you want to eat dinner somewhere together? My treat.”
Ueda still looked slightly suspicious. “Sure, I don’t mind.”
=|=|=
Ueda was certainly at a loss. It was the fifth time that Subaru had dragged him to ‘hang out’ this week, and today Subaru was equipped with an electric guitar. Ueda wondered if Kanjani8 was on some special sort of crack - maybe just Subaru, it was kind of hard to tell - or if this was just the result of one of their intoxication-induced bets. Either way he concluded that it was a very elaborate prank.
And a costly one, at that. Didn’t Subaru commute to and from Osaka everyday?
“I like this song. Let’s play this one!” Subaru told him bossily, poking at an open page of one of Ueda’s many song books.
“Okay,” Ueda agreed, and Subaru broke into a little half-smile that seemed more real than any of the huge grins he had given Ueda in the past week.
Ueda found himself smiling back.
If it was all a joke to make Ueda feel bad, then it wasn’t a very good one.
=|=|=
Subaru never imagined that he could spend more than two hours in the same room as Ueda Tatsuya. Hell, he never thought he could spend more than two hours talking to Ueda Tatsuya. Subaru tended not to shut up whenever he was around Eito, but that was different; he’d been around them all for at least a decade, and even if he hadn’t he would be able to tell that Ueda couldn’t be more unlike them. Eito was loud and silly and random, all explosive laughter and harmlessly dirty jokes; Ueda was soft-spoken, earnest and precise, a chance rare smile and perfectly refined language.
Their only common trait was that of being brutally blunt - Ueda never hesitated to say exactly what was on his mind, whether it was just-this-side-of-insulting or not.
Subaru always thought that Ueda was weird, the random mysterious acquaintance that would be a bother to force conversation with, the type of person you wouldn’t go out of the way to befriend. But watching Ueda’s eyes light up with an emotion other than calculated indifference, listening to his seldom-heard animated voice as he explained why a particular line from a song evoked more feelings from the listener than another, Subaru started seeing him the way Yasu probably did - an engaging but underappreciated person who just needed someone to make him shine.
=|=|=
“Progress report!” Yasu hollered, leaping at Subaru as he strolled into the studio.
Subaru smiled proudly. “We tried composing a song on the piano today. And I made Ueda smile three times in thirty minutes!”
Yasu applauded enthusiastically. “Good job, Shibuyan!”
Ryo looked like he was restraining himself from saying something, and it came out sounding like a derisive snort.
Subaru rounded on him. “You’re just jealous because you’ve never seen Ueda really smile,” he accused.
Ryo rolled his eyes. “If I wanted to see fish lips flash his teeth, all I had to do was watch his group’s lame talk show.”
Yoko snickered. “You do realize that you as good as admitted to watching it yourself.”
Ryo spluttered indignantly and averted his gaze, cheeks flushing pink. “Jin made me,” he muttered.
“I’m so happy that Ueda-kun is growing on you guys!” Yasu exclaimed, teary-eyed.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ryo said with a scowl.
=|=|=
“Uedaaaaa! Long time no see,” Subaru exclaimed, flapping his hands excitedly.
Ueda adjusted his sunglasses. “Do you usually yell out people’s names like that in public?” he asked in his usual monotone, glancing around to check if Subaru had attracted anybody’s attention.
“This is a high-end district. No one’s looking at you.”
“Right,” Ueda said, allowing Subaru to drag him by the wrist as they passed a wide-eyed teenage girl who suddenly looked away and started pressing buttons furiously on her cellphone.
Ten minutes later they were in a secondhand clothes shop, and Subaru happily rummaged through the racks while Ueda wrinkled his nose at the various selections. He would never understand Subaru’s passion for bargain stuff like this.
“I think I know why you go to this kind of store so much,” Ueda remarked as Subaru discarded four shirts out of the seven he was currently clutching.
“Eh? What?” Subaru muttered distractedly, glancing at Ueda.
Ueda smirked. “The fact that there’s usually just one piece of everything here - it’s convenient because you don’t have to ask the saleslady for your size, right?”
Subaru glared at him. “For your information, I do occasionally go to department stores and buy new clothes there-”
“With Yasuda, your shopping interpreter,” Ueda deadpanned.
That was uncalled for, Subaru sniffed, and effectively got his feelings across by throwing two shirts in Ueda’s face. Ueda simply snickered.
“Is that a challenge? I’ll show you! Next time, next time!” Subaru said loudly, shaking his fists comically.
Ueda full-out laughed, and Subaru did too, because Ueda’s laugh was kind of contagious, if one was blessed enough to hear it. “If you’re looking for support, then bringing Yasuda with you is probably more advisable,” he replied.
“Then I’ll get the two of you to come along with me.”
A look of surprise flashed across Ueda’s face; Subaru’s was pensively serious. Ueda smiled softly.
“That’d be great.”
Title: too much to ask for
Rating: PG
Summary:from insane_desire: JE tells K8 to be cool like KAT-TUN
“Could you repeat that?” Yoko finally says after a long silence.
Kanjani8’s manager coughs exasperatedly. “The company has been discussing this since the rising amount of sales that Kanjani8’s singles have been making in the past few months. Your fan base outside the Kansai region has significantly increased, and of course, we have to take their preferences into account. A comedian-slash-idol image simply isn’t feasible anymore, at this point.”
“But isn’t that image the main reason we’ve gone this far in the first place?” Ryo points out with a frown. “It’s what sets us apart from the other groups in the company. If we suddenly changed it, then we wouldn’t be Kanjani8.”
There were murmurs of general assent from the other members. “Ryo-chan’s right,” Hina said. “Exactly how do you expect us to go about this?”
“There is a set duration for you to ease into your new image, a ‘trial period,’ if you may. You have an entire month to make the transition.” Their manager glances at each member in turn, face blankly impassive. “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to direct them to me or your marketing team. That is all.”
=|=|=
“Well?” Hina prompts as soon as Ohkura walks into the room.
Ohkura looks vaguely upset. “He told me that we had to act cooler.”
Six confused faces stare back at him.
“Hah?” Yasu finally utters.
“Cooler how?” Maru adds delicately.
Ohkura bites his lip. “He said…like KAT-TUN.”
Ryo drops Yoko’s DS Lite (Yoko howls). “WHAT?!”
=|=|=
“This is stupid,” Subaru says aloud. He has been in a foul mood all morning, which Kanjani8 is currently spending on polishing all their songs’ new choreographies as per management’s instructions.
“Why are you guys so grumpy?” Yoko asks, face shining with excitement. “Don’t you know what this means? We don’t have to be silly in front of the camera all the time anymore! Other celebrities are going to start taking us seriously.”
“You mean people will take us seriously if we started moving around on stage like strippers?” Ohkura answers dryly.
“How do you dance sexily to Sukiyanen, Osaka?” Maru calls out in distress.
Hina whaps him on the head by reflex, then realizes that Maru is dead serious. Hina starts developing a migraine.
=|=|=
Ryo’s mood is ten times fouler than Subaru’s, but everybody still talks to him because they’re used to it. And no one in Kanjani8 really finds him intimidating, anyway.
Yasu is not an exception. “Ryo-chan, I don’t get this step. Are we supposed to swing our hips first, and then point suggestively at our crotches, or is it the other way around?”
As was Maru. “Ryo-chan, this part of the choreo looks a lot like the one in one of your solos; could you dance a bit of it and show me?”
A tick goes off on Ryo’s forehead and he opens his mouth. Hina hits him over the head and scolds, “No yelling.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Ryo says petulantly, and Hina runs off to stop Subaru and Yoko’s impromptu floor-wrestling match (Yoko had tricked Subaru into attempting a hip-swivel, Akanishi style, and Yoko had unwisely laughed).
Maru and Yasu stare at Ryo expectantly, and Ryo sighs, proceeding to flailing his arms and twirling around within a two-foot radius in a cruel but accurate impression of Ueda during a song performance.
“If you can’t keep up with the steps, dance like this,” he informs them.
Ohkura snickers. “Low, Ryo-chan.”
Ryo puts on an innocent face. “Just following orders.”
=|=|=
It is their first performance as the new-and-improved Kanjani8. Maru thankfully remembers not to make faces at the others while they are on standby, but Yoko has his ‘kakkoi’ face on and Subaru and Yasu are restraining the urge to giggle. Ryo’s eyes are closed as he wills himself to imagine that he is with NEWS. NEWS. Not Kanjani8. NEWS. Not Kanjani8. NEWS-
“And here’s Kanjani8 with a special medley!”
Ryo starts singing the opening lines of Osaka Rainy Blues. The deep-throated tone he uses is supposed to sound sexy anyway so he does it effortlessly, which the other members think is a bit unfair. Yoko surreptitiously kicks Subaru as he turns in place, hissing “Not in Enka style.”
“I know,” Subaru hisses back, and when he sings his voice is breathier, more suggestive.
Yoko’s snicker escapes his mic’s amplification. Subaru kicks him; he believes in returning favors. Yoko stumbles once, invades Maru’s dancing space, and causes Maru to pull a fantastically hilarious expression that does not go unnoticed by Yasu, who guffaws. Yasu’s mic is more efficient than Yoko’s and relays the sound through all the surrounding speakers.
Ohkura fumbles in the middle of a line - the next word isn’t supposed to be pfffft - but he isn’t too worried; Ryo’s trembling notes are worse than his.
And as one, they all burst out laughing, which is just as well because the next song on the list is Wahaha.
Backstage, the manager sighs as he glances at the television screen, where the members of Kanjani8 goof off for the rest of the medley. He then stares pointedly at the marketing head.
The marketing head shrugs. “Old selling points die hard,” he says wisely.
Title: wonder boy and the samurai lover
Rating: G
Summary: from maya_morning: Junno and Yoko swap places for the day. Yoko spends the entire time trying to stalk Akame whilst Junno drives Kanjani8 mad with bad puns.
“So I thought, this chance is amazing! I mean, I’m not a T, so I didn’t expect that they would be serious about it, but it turns out that they weren’t kidding. For this day you’re not KAT-TUN anymore, ah, I’m in it too so it should be we. Then, we’re not KAT-TUN, we’re…KAT-YUN, right? Doesn’t it have a nice ring to it? Eh? Eh?” Yoko beams at Koki and Ueda, who simply stare at him, having seldom encountered a person who is capable of talking ten times as much as Nakamaru does.
“Ah, Yokoyama-kun, since you’re swapping with Taguchi, it would theoretically be KAY-TUN,” Nakamaru gently corrects, flashing Yoko a friendly smile.
“You’re the T after the hyphen?” Yoko blinks at Koki, who opens his mouth but doesn’t get to say anything as Yoko presses on as if the exchange hadn’t occurred, “So who else isn’t here yet? AHHH! AkaKame!!!” He whirls around so violently that Koki nearly jumps out of his seat.
“They stepped out for a while,” Ueda tells him calmly, when Yoko stares at the empty doorway as if willing ‘AkaKame’ to appear.
Yoko looks slightly disappointed, and he falls back onto his chair. “When will they be back?”
=|=|=
Six out of Eight look at Junno with varying degrees of polite interest. Kanjani8’s manager, dwarfed by the much taller man, claps him on the shoulder.
Junno takes a step forward. “Iriguchi deguchi Taguchi desu!”
There is a moment of silence, and then Yasu’s delayed laughter fills the room. “Hahahahaha! That’s a good one, Taguchi-kun!”
Junno beams.
Ryo shuffles away from them in disgust, and Junno’s face falls a bit.
“You shouldn’t mind Ryo-chan,” Maru reassures him. “The one you should really watch out for is Murakami-kun.”
“Hey,” Hina protests. “I’m not that bad.”
“He is. All lame jokes attract his tsukkomi,” Subaru informs him bluntly. Ohkura coughs. Subaru glances curiously at him, then turns to Junno, misinterpreting his now-downcast eyes. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you!”
=|=|=
“I swear someone was following us!” Jin tells the group animatedly, eyes wide and unsettled.
“No there wasn’t,” Kame snaps. His arm hurts where Jin had been clutching it the whole time they walked back to the complex from the nearby café, and his nerves are frayed because personally he knows that Jin’s claims aren’t entirely off base.
But as a professional paparazzi evader, of course he isn’t going to admit that.
“There were flashes of light,” Jin emphasizes, wringing his hands and imploring the rest of KAT-TUN to believe in his case.
“Heh, so this is the power of KAT-TUN’s popularity,” Yoko offhandedly comments.
“Yes, but Kanjani8 has the same problem, right?” Kame answers.
Yoko shrugs and continues customizing his cellphone’s camera settings unnoticed. “You two should be more careful next time.”
=|=|=
“Your aim is to deliver a joke as good as that,” Ohkura tells Junno, gesturing at Maru grinning and Hina laughing on and on and on.
Subaru throws one of his vitamin bottles at Hina. “Stop it already. Why do you laugh so long?”
Junno rounds on him eagerly. “Because Kanjani8 is a laugh a minute!”
Hina falls silent, and the rest of Kanjani8 groan very, very quietly.
“Try harder,” Yasu finally remarks, and Junno hangs his head.
“…I don’t even feel like hitting him anymore,” Hina says in a tired tone.
“Just shut up altogether,” is Ryo’s generous advice.
=|=|=
“Yokoyama seems pretty interested in you,” Jin observes, surreptitiously glancing at Yoko.
“That’s ridiculous,” Kame responds, looking at Yoko at the corner of his eye. “I’m just sitting beside you; it’s you he’s been looking at for the past five minutes.”
Yoko walks toward them.
“He’s coming this way,” Jin hisses at Kame, who shrugs.
“Hey, AkaKame,” Yoko greets, sitting on the coffee table across the two. He looks unusually cheerful.
Jin is confused. “Sorry, did you just say Aka-”
Kame bites his lip and wordlessly elbows Jin in the side. Yoko unfortunately doesn’t miss this exchange and leans forward. “You two are pretty close, aren’t you?”
“Huh? Yeah, I guess-” Jin winces; Kame’s elbows are sharp, “Not-not really.”
Yoko smiles strangely at them, and Jin scoots a little closer to Kame warily. Yoko coughs. “Okay, I’ll just go over there and…bother Nakamaru! Yeah. Have fun!”
Jin shoots Kame another puzzled stare. “Have…fun?”
Kame sighs. “Why can’t you ever shut up?”
=|=|=
“I hate you,” Ryo says, tightening his grip on the cell against his ear.
“Who’s Nishikido talking to?” Junno asks Yasu, the only one other than Ryo who isn’t stuffing his face with food.
“Uchi,” Yasu answers before bringing a huge piece of barbecued pork to his mouth. He chews on the food with a happy (but disturbingly so) expression on his face. “So good… Have you tried this one, Taguchi-kun?”
Ryo chews angrily on a mouthful of rice. “What do you mean, why? If you were here, you’d have to put up with him too!”
“Pass the veggies,” Maru requests two chairs down from Junno, and Junno complies, first handing the bowl to Ohkura.
“Does Ohkura eat okra?”
Ryo wails into the phone. “Make him stop.”
=|=|=
Junno walks into the studio and waves. “Good morning!” His waving hand stops abruptly in mid-air when Jin glowers at him in greeting.
“Kame’s mad at me! This is all your fault!” Jin accuses.
“Eh?” Junno responds. “What did I do?”
“I can’t believe you can manage to be annoying even if you’re not here,” Jin grumbles, scowling darkly at him. “You…annoying, smiling idiot! And your puns suck!”
Junno stares, bewildered, as Jin stalks away.
Are his puns really that bad?
=|=|=
A very happy Yoko bounces into Kanjani8’s lounge room. “I’m back! Did you guys miss me?” He almost does a double take when Subaru hurls himself at him and wraps him in an oxygen-depleting hug.
“Don’t ever leave us again,” Subaru threatens, glaring steely up at him.
Yoko tries to pry Subaru off him, and fails. “What’s gotten into you, man? You trying to freak me out? Get-off!”
“I agree with Subaru,” Ryo says flatly, crossing his arms. Ohkura nods fervently beside him.
Yoko turns to look at him, face glowing. “Aww, I’m touched. You guys just can’t live without me, right?”
Hina slaps him upside the head.
“Ow! Show a little more appreciation to your lifeline, will you?” Yoko complains.
“You,” Hina starts, “owe us big time.”
“I do?” Yoko asks, rubbing at his bruised head.
“YES,” Subaru seconds.
Yoko looks confusedly down at Subaru’s head then turns to Hina. “Then, I’ve got stuff to tell you that’ll more than make up for it…”
=|=|=
The next Thursday night, Jin is ushered into Recomen’s radio booth. Yoko and Hina explain to the listeners that their special guest will make a prank call to all the other KAT-TUN members.
Koki, Ueda and Nakamaru are the first victims.
When it is Kame’s turn to pick up the call, he answers on the first ring, asking Jin why he is calling so late again. After the call, Yoko devotes ten full minutes to picking on Jin and dissecting AkaKame’s relationship.
Yoko apologizes to the listeners afterward, because they’ve run out of time to call Junno.
Hina oddly becomes more energetic for the rest of the show.