Ni~Ya/Sakito - Model Behavior - [7/10]
Title - Model Behavior [7/10]
Author - Chieko (Panda Eater)
Rating - Pg-13
Warnings - Some language.
Pairings - Ni~Ya x Sakito (Nightmare)
Disclaimers - Generic disclaimer rules apply. (Dang.)
Summary - Sakito works as a model in New York, and soon finds himself falling for the new photographer.
ARRRGGGGEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry!!!!! I'm dreadfully late. *shameshame* I would have had this up a week ago, but my compy decided to break down. >[ It had been fixed, and miracuously everything is still here.
I have the next chapter about half way typed so it should be here soon. I promise and will try my hardest to keep my promise this time. *crosses heart*
Everything will be getting sadder from here. D: But I promise it'll have a happy ending! I swear!
Now, onward!!!!
Random Fact: "During World War II pin-up pictures of scantily clad movie stars were extremely popular among US servicemen. However, until the 1950s, the use of glamour photography in advertising or men’s magazines was highly controversial or even illegal." (Wikipedia)
Ch. 6
Ch. 5
Ch. 4
Ch. 3
Ch. 2
Ch. 1
++++++
That night all of the Project Runway models decided to have a party in one of the hotel rooms. They managed to get a few bottles of Champaign and let loose. They even managed to drag some of the photographers with them. Everyone was having a good time, the TV set to a music channel so the room was filled with a steady dance beat and laughter.
Julie and Camille managed to sneak up a few plates of food from the buffet earlier and everyone munched happily on custard tarts and finger sandwiches and skewers of fruit.
But it was a great shock when a few of the models from the other fashion companies showed up at the door, waiting to be let it.
Harsh words were exchanged and tension built up until Emily rushed over and wrapped an arm around one of the other models.
“Guys, guys, please, this is my best friend, Anna, and some of my really close friends,” Emily tried to explain, ignoring the glares from her fellow New York models.
“Friends?” Loretta asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yup! I used to live here in California before I moved to New York. I’ve been keeping in touch with everyone. I hoped you wouldn’t mind that I invited them over. Even though they’re… from the other… company…” the rest of her sentence trailed off as everyone glared daggers at her. Maybe bringing her friends wasn’t such a good idea after all.
After 10 minutes of arguing, the Project Runway models decided to let the others in. But tension was still high in the room as everyone cast dark looks at one another.
Only Sakito and Ni~Ya didn’t seem to notice, who were on one of the two twin-sized beds playing with Sheila and Kelly.
Ni~Ya was acting out a play with a stuffed animal for Sheila, while Kelly sat in Sakito’s lap, the model smiling and clapping her little hands together. The little girls didn’t seem to mind that they couldn’t understand what was being said, but whatever it was it sure sounded good. Claudia was nowhere to be seen (most likely she was up in Smith’s room) so she couldn’t keep an eye on the dark-haired photographer, and Ni~Ya felt much more relaxed without her constant hawk eyes on him.
“And then, Mr. Bunny skipped over to his fallen friend, picked up his gun, and started shooting all of the bad guys. Blood sprayed everywhere, turning the ocean water red,” Ni~Ya smiled as he told his magical story.
“That doesn’t seem like such a good story to tell to little girls,” said an unfamiliar voice. All four heads jerked up and saw a slim girl, maybe in her late teens, standing at the edge of the bed, a bemused smile on her lips. “You’ll give them nightmares.”
“They can’t understand it anyway. But I guess you can, seeing as how I can understand you,” Ni~Ya shot back, scowling slightly at the girl.
“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt your fun,” the girl held up hands as a sign of apology. “Oh, by the way, my name is Kei. Fujiwara Kei,” the girl said, smiling. She had layered black hair that went down to the middle of her back, the tips of it and part of her bangs dyed a deep red color. Her brown eyes were surrounded with black liner, a small star drawn under her right eye. Her striped black and white shirt and blue jeans hung loosely on her slender frame.
“I’m Edowaka Sakito, and this is Yuji Ni~Ya,” Sakito smiled up at Kei. Ni~Ya waved nonchalantly as he was introduced, still looking Kei over carefully.
“It’s nice to here some language other than English and Spanish here in Hollywood, you know?” Kei chuckled. “My coworkers always get so amazed when I start talking in ‘that strange language that only the Asian chick can understand,’” she rolled her eyes, making quote marks with her fingers.
“Are you from Japan too?” Sakito inquired.
“No, I was born here in America. I’m half Japanese and half Chinese. I can speak both languages though,” the female model explained. “I work for Trap Services as a model.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
All three continued to exchange polite conversation, Ni~Ya and Kei laughing out loud at some points and causing the other occupants of the room to look at them funny. They would have kept on talking if Sheila hadn’t started whining.
“Ni~Yaaaaaa, finish the story!” she cried. Ni~Ya looked down at her, stuffed animal still in hand.
“Aw, don’t worry. Meany Ni~Ya will finish up his story,” Kei smiled at the older of the two girls. Sheila looked at her with wide eyes.
“You can speak Chinese AND English too?” she asked gasped. Kelly copied her sister and gasped from Sakito’s lap.
“Yes, I can speak Chinese and English very easily,” she grinned, tapping the little girl on the nose. “Now come on, mister. Finish up your wonderful story,” Kei said to Ni~Ya, in English. Ni~Ya scowled at her again, then began to finish up his story about how Mr. Bunny killed the entire Navy base and took over the Atlantic ocean with his mermaid friend.
++++++
Sakito felt his sugar-high butterflies return the very next day. It was ten minutes till day 2 of the fashion show started and all of the models were as nervous as they were the day before.
Sakito wondered if all fashion shows had some sort of “theme” to them. He figured that this year’s theme was “Stylish Casual” (he was probably wrong.) He wore a sleeveless greenish-gray hoodie that had a long V-neck cut. Underneath he had a white shirt, pastel flowers and birds screened onto the thin fabric. A pair of faded blue jeans hung on his thin hips, a delicate linked chain hanging from one of the loops. He had his many necklaces on again, and a few bangles as well. His hair had been styled again as usual, his Oriental eyes surrounded with bronze shadow and black liner.
Sakito absentmindedly wondered if jeans were considered “fashionable” in this sort of show. He kept digging his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie, the makeup artists glaring at him and telling him to stop, for fear of wrinkling his clothes. Oh, Heaven forbid.
“Oi, Sakito-san,” he heard someone call. He glanced over and saw Kei and smiled weakly at her. The female model had on a sheer red blouse with a blood red tank top underneath, and a black knee-length chiffon shirt with black boots.
“Dear Jesus, I’m so nervous right now. I feel like I’m going to toss my cookies,” Kei laughed nervously, running a hand through her black hair.
“Excuse me? Cookies?” Sakito asked, confused.
“I mean, I feel like I’m going to throw up,” she corrected. Sakito nodded. There were still many American phrases he had to learn, but now was not the time to do so.
“Maybe after when we’re done, you, me, and Ni~Ya-san can go out to eat somewhere?” Kei suggested, her brown eyes shining with eagerness. Sakito nodded and was just about to answer the Hapa(1) child before he was interrupted.
“Kei! Get your ass over here now!” someone yelled across the room. Kei cursed, bid Sakito farewell, and hurried over to the caller. Sakito was left standing along again, looking at all of his fellow models. Quite a few of them looked sick as well. Loretta was off talking to Rene and Emily, Claudia refused to talk to anyone with a toss of her hair, and Julie was in the bathroom. Discreetly, Sakito tried to peek around at the stage in attempts to catch a glance of Ni~Ya, but pulled back when someone announced that they show was beginning.
Today, Project Runway was the first to go. Sakito nearly fainted when it was his turn to go. He walked down the catwalk, looking around for Ni~Ya as best as he could. He once again found his boyfriend’s eyes, and with a simple smile from the photographer, his butterflies went away. And once again as soon as he got backstage, he collapsed into a chair.
“You’re good,” Kei commented as she walked over to the tired model.
“Thank you,” he smiled. He felt a bit more talkative now. “When do you guys go on?”
“Um, I think in a couple more minutes,” she said slowly as she looked around with her heavily lined eyes. She nearly fell over when Ni~Ya quickly pushed past her.
“Saki-kun! You looked gorgeous! Again! Oooh, you’re lucky I didn’t jump you when you were up there. I was trying my best not to, believe me,” Ni~Ya cried breathlessly as he knelt down to press kisses to Sakito’s lips, neck, anywhere he could reach.
Kei coughed, eyeing the two with interest. Sakito heard her and blushed profusely, but Ni~Ya just ignored her. He continued to kiss the gorgeous model before him.
Suddenly the sound of a camera phone went off. Both heads turned to look at Kei, cell phone in hand, smirking.
“Xiè xie,”(2) she smiled as she snapped her phone shut and slid it into her small black Coach handbag.
“What the fuck!” Ni~Ya yelled, instantly letting go of Sakito and standing up to face Kei. “Give me that phone! Now!”
“No way, mister!” Kei yelled back. “This is staying in my phone for a long time. Maybe if you chose not to ignore me, I wouldn’t have to resort to this to get your attention!”
Ni~Ya attempted to grab the phone from her, but the female simply held it high over her head, her boots adding to her height and out of Ni~Ya’s reach.
“Kei-san, h-how about coffee when you’re done? Yeah, coffee! Then we can talk about his whole thing,” Sakito tried to reason, getting up to stand next to Ni~Ya, placing a hand on his broad shoulder in attempts to calm him.
“I don’t drink coffee- Mama said it would stunt my growth. But don’t worry, I’ll keep this my nice little secret,” Kei winked as she turned around and headed towards the stage. Ni~Ya was about to follow her but stopped when she stepped out on the catwalk. Oh, he would get her later for that. Mark his words…
Sakito sighed.
++++++
Later when everyone was heading upstairs from the buffet, Sakito was stopped by Smith. His boss asked if he could talk to him for a moment, Sakito nodded, and smiled at this boyfriend to go ahead up to the room. Ni~Ya seemed a little hesitant, but went upstairs anyway.
“Now, Sakito, this is Mr. Stone. He’s the manager of Trap Services,” Smith explained as he and the model and some other man settled in three empty chairs in the lobby. The man called Mr. Stone nodded at the model, who did the same.
“He saw you today out on the runway, and I think he was impressed with what he saw,” Smith continued.
“Oh yes, I liked it a lot. I thought you were a woman at first, and couldn’t believe it when Smith told me you were a guy,” Stone said. Sakito smiled slightly.
“At Trap Services, we like to have both male and female models, and a lot of the time we like for you, our customers, to guess whether the models is a guy or a girl. It’s just a little fun we wanted to throw in while they’re shopping. Do you know a girl named Kei?”
“Kei-san? Oh yes, met her,” Sakito replied.
“Well, sometimes, for models like her, we have them look like guys. And vice versa. And most people get confused when looking at them, but that just intrigues them even more about the outfit the model is wearing. You, Mr. Edowaka, would fit in our company perfectly,” Stone continued.
“So, after doing some talking to Smith here, he’s going to allow me to buy your contract from him, with your permission, of course.”
Sakito’s eyes widened. This guy, who he had never seen before, wanted him to come work for his company! This was starting to feel like déjà vu to the model all over again.
“Considerably, I would pay a lot higher than Smith, of course,” Stone added with a chuckle, earning him a glare from the blond owner of Project Runway.
“So, what will it be, Mr. Edowaka?”
Sakito pursed his lips, thinking hard. If he joined Trap Services, he would still be able to do what he wanted to. And with a higher pay, maybe now he could afford to fly back to Japan to visit his relatives, something he had been wanting to do for a long time. And he would be here in California, a state that seemed so much cleaner and less crowded that New York, a place he wasn’t all that fond of.
That was it! His mind was made up.
“Mr. Stone, I will do it,” the model said with a bright smile.
++++++
It had been only 30 minutes since Ni~Ya had gone up to the room by himself, but it felt like an eternity to him. He bounced around Sakito like an eager puppy when his boyfriend opened the door.
“Saki-kun!” he cooed as he hugged the model tightly.
“Hello there,” Sakito chuckled at Ni~Ya’s zealous to see him.
“So what did Smith want?’ the photographer asked. Sakito instantly froze. He had completely forgotten about Ni~Ya when he was signing the new contract. Moving here to California would also mean leaving Ni~Ya behind. Not just him, but also Loretta and Julie and Emily and Sheila and Kelly, and even Claudia. He had forgotten to think of his friends as he was signing his name on the dotted line.
“H-he wanted to talk about a few new photo shoots he's planning in a few weeks,” Sakito lied.
“Mm, I see,’ Ni~Ya purred as he buried his face in the side of Sakito’s hair, inhaling the fruity smell of styling product.
Sakito only clenched onto the taller man’s shirt, guilt pooling in the bottom of his stomach for lying to his boyfriend. He knew sooner or later he would have to tell him the now dreadful news, as well as all of his other friends.
But Ni~Ya would be the one that would give him the most trouble.
That night, as the couple lay snuggled in bed, Sakito’s mind was racing. He was trying to figure out the best way to break the news to Ni~Ya. He would be coming back to California only a week after they returned to New York, so that gave him a week to tell him.
Sakito had the hardest time falling asleep that night.
++++++
(1)- Hapa literally means "half". There's more specific terms for half of what (hapa haole, hapa pake, hapa pukiki, etc. ) but most people just say Hapa. Therefore, I will simply refer to Kei as Hapa. :]
(2)- I looked this up, and I believe that it means "thanks" in Chinese. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
Ooooh, it's going to get sadder from here. :[
Remember children: always think things through before sighing little pieces of paper. Or else.
Comments appreciated, as usual. XD
Author - Chieko (Panda Eater)
Rating - Pg-13
Warnings - Some language.
Pairings - Ni~Ya x Sakito (Nightmare)
Disclaimers - Generic disclaimer rules apply. (Dang.)
Summary - Sakito works as a model in New York, and soon finds himself falling for the new photographer.
ARRRGGGGEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry!!!!! I'm dreadfully late. *shameshame* I would have had this up a week ago, but my compy decided to break down. >[ It had been fixed, and miracuously everything is still here.
I have the next chapter about half way typed so it should be here soon. I promise and will try my hardest to keep my promise this time. *crosses heart*
Everything will be getting sadder from here. D: But I promise it'll have a happy ending! I swear!
Now, onward!!!!
Random Fact: "During World War II pin-up pictures of scantily clad movie stars were extremely popular among US servicemen. However, until the 1950s, the use of glamour photography in advertising or men’s magazines was highly controversial or even illegal." (Wikipedia)
Ch. 6
Ch. 5
Ch. 4
Ch. 3
Ch. 2
Ch. 1
++++++
That night all of the Project Runway models decided to have a party in one of the hotel rooms. They managed to get a few bottles of Champaign and let loose. They even managed to drag some of the photographers with them. Everyone was having a good time, the TV set to a music channel so the room was filled with a steady dance beat and laughter.
Julie and Camille managed to sneak up a few plates of food from the buffet earlier and everyone munched happily on custard tarts and finger sandwiches and skewers of fruit.
But it was a great shock when a few of the models from the other fashion companies showed up at the door, waiting to be let it.
Harsh words were exchanged and tension built up until Emily rushed over and wrapped an arm around one of the other models.
“Guys, guys, please, this is my best friend, Anna, and some of my really close friends,” Emily tried to explain, ignoring the glares from her fellow New York models.
“Friends?” Loretta asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yup! I used to live here in California before I moved to New York. I’ve been keeping in touch with everyone. I hoped you wouldn’t mind that I invited them over. Even though they’re… from the other… company…” the rest of her sentence trailed off as everyone glared daggers at her. Maybe bringing her friends wasn’t such a good idea after all.
After 10 minutes of arguing, the Project Runway models decided to let the others in. But tension was still high in the room as everyone cast dark looks at one another.
Only Sakito and Ni~Ya didn’t seem to notice, who were on one of the two twin-sized beds playing with Sheila and Kelly.
Ni~Ya was acting out a play with a stuffed animal for Sheila, while Kelly sat in Sakito’s lap, the model smiling and clapping her little hands together. The little girls didn’t seem to mind that they couldn’t understand what was being said, but whatever it was it sure sounded good. Claudia was nowhere to be seen (most likely she was up in Smith’s room) so she couldn’t keep an eye on the dark-haired photographer, and Ni~Ya felt much more relaxed without her constant hawk eyes on him.
“And then, Mr. Bunny skipped over to his fallen friend, picked up his gun, and started shooting all of the bad guys. Blood sprayed everywhere, turning the ocean water red,” Ni~Ya smiled as he told his magical story.
“That doesn’t seem like such a good story to tell to little girls,” said an unfamiliar voice. All four heads jerked up and saw a slim girl, maybe in her late teens, standing at the edge of the bed, a bemused smile on her lips. “You’ll give them nightmares.”
“They can’t understand it anyway. But I guess you can, seeing as how I can understand you,” Ni~Ya shot back, scowling slightly at the girl.
“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt your fun,” the girl held up hands as a sign of apology. “Oh, by the way, my name is Kei. Fujiwara Kei,” the girl said, smiling. She had layered black hair that went down to the middle of her back, the tips of it and part of her bangs dyed a deep red color. Her brown eyes were surrounded with black liner, a small star drawn under her right eye. Her striped black and white shirt and blue jeans hung loosely on her slender frame.
“I’m Edowaka Sakito, and this is Yuji Ni~Ya,” Sakito smiled up at Kei. Ni~Ya waved nonchalantly as he was introduced, still looking Kei over carefully.
“It’s nice to here some language other than English and Spanish here in Hollywood, you know?” Kei chuckled. “My coworkers always get so amazed when I start talking in ‘that strange language that only the Asian chick can understand,’” she rolled her eyes, making quote marks with her fingers.
“Are you from Japan too?” Sakito inquired.
“No, I was born here in America. I’m half Japanese and half Chinese. I can speak both languages though,” the female model explained. “I work for Trap Services as a model.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
All three continued to exchange polite conversation, Ni~Ya and Kei laughing out loud at some points and causing the other occupants of the room to look at them funny. They would have kept on talking if Sheila hadn’t started whining.
“Ni~Yaaaaaa, finish the story!” she cried. Ni~Ya looked down at her, stuffed animal still in hand.
“Aw, don’t worry. Meany Ni~Ya will finish up his story,” Kei smiled at the older of the two girls. Sheila looked at her with wide eyes.
“You can speak Chinese AND English too?” she asked gasped. Kelly copied her sister and gasped from Sakito’s lap.
“Yes, I can speak Chinese and English very easily,” she grinned, tapping the little girl on the nose. “Now come on, mister. Finish up your wonderful story,” Kei said to Ni~Ya, in English. Ni~Ya scowled at her again, then began to finish up his story about how Mr. Bunny killed the entire Navy base and took over the Atlantic ocean with his mermaid friend.
++++++
Sakito felt his sugar-high butterflies return the very next day. It was ten minutes till day 2 of the fashion show started and all of the models were as nervous as they were the day before.
Sakito wondered if all fashion shows had some sort of “theme” to them. He figured that this year’s theme was “Stylish Casual” (he was probably wrong.) He wore a sleeveless greenish-gray hoodie that had a long V-neck cut. Underneath he had a white shirt, pastel flowers and birds screened onto the thin fabric. A pair of faded blue jeans hung on his thin hips, a delicate linked chain hanging from one of the loops. He had his many necklaces on again, and a few bangles as well. His hair had been styled again as usual, his Oriental eyes surrounded with bronze shadow and black liner.
Sakito absentmindedly wondered if jeans were considered “fashionable” in this sort of show. He kept digging his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie, the makeup artists glaring at him and telling him to stop, for fear of wrinkling his clothes. Oh, Heaven forbid.
“Oi, Sakito-san,” he heard someone call. He glanced over and saw Kei and smiled weakly at her. The female model had on a sheer red blouse with a blood red tank top underneath, and a black knee-length chiffon shirt with black boots.
“Dear Jesus, I’m so nervous right now. I feel like I’m going to toss my cookies,” Kei laughed nervously, running a hand through her black hair.
“Excuse me? Cookies?” Sakito asked, confused.
“I mean, I feel like I’m going to throw up,” she corrected. Sakito nodded. There were still many American phrases he had to learn, but now was not the time to do so.
“Maybe after when we’re done, you, me, and Ni~Ya-san can go out to eat somewhere?” Kei suggested, her brown eyes shining with eagerness. Sakito nodded and was just about to answer the Hapa(1) child before he was interrupted.
“Kei! Get your ass over here now!” someone yelled across the room. Kei cursed, bid Sakito farewell, and hurried over to the caller. Sakito was left standing along again, looking at all of his fellow models. Quite a few of them looked sick as well. Loretta was off talking to Rene and Emily, Claudia refused to talk to anyone with a toss of her hair, and Julie was in the bathroom. Discreetly, Sakito tried to peek around at the stage in attempts to catch a glance of Ni~Ya, but pulled back when someone announced that they show was beginning.
Today, Project Runway was the first to go. Sakito nearly fainted when it was his turn to go. He walked down the catwalk, looking around for Ni~Ya as best as he could. He once again found his boyfriend’s eyes, and with a simple smile from the photographer, his butterflies went away. And once again as soon as he got backstage, he collapsed into a chair.
“You’re good,” Kei commented as she walked over to the tired model.
“Thank you,” he smiled. He felt a bit more talkative now. “When do you guys go on?”
“Um, I think in a couple more minutes,” she said slowly as she looked around with her heavily lined eyes. She nearly fell over when Ni~Ya quickly pushed past her.
“Saki-kun! You looked gorgeous! Again! Oooh, you’re lucky I didn’t jump you when you were up there. I was trying my best not to, believe me,” Ni~Ya cried breathlessly as he knelt down to press kisses to Sakito’s lips, neck, anywhere he could reach.
Kei coughed, eyeing the two with interest. Sakito heard her and blushed profusely, but Ni~Ya just ignored her. He continued to kiss the gorgeous model before him.
Suddenly the sound of a camera phone went off. Both heads turned to look at Kei, cell phone in hand, smirking.
“Xiè xie,”(2) she smiled as she snapped her phone shut and slid it into her small black Coach handbag.
“What the fuck!” Ni~Ya yelled, instantly letting go of Sakito and standing up to face Kei. “Give me that phone! Now!”
“No way, mister!” Kei yelled back. “This is staying in my phone for a long time. Maybe if you chose not to ignore me, I wouldn’t have to resort to this to get your attention!”
Ni~Ya attempted to grab the phone from her, but the female simply held it high over her head, her boots adding to her height and out of Ni~Ya’s reach.
“Kei-san, h-how about coffee when you’re done? Yeah, coffee! Then we can talk about his whole thing,” Sakito tried to reason, getting up to stand next to Ni~Ya, placing a hand on his broad shoulder in attempts to calm him.
“I don’t drink coffee- Mama said it would stunt my growth. But don’t worry, I’ll keep this my nice little secret,” Kei winked as she turned around and headed towards the stage. Ni~Ya was about to follow her but stopped when she stepped out on the catwalk. Oh, he would get her later for that. Mark his words…
Sakito sighed.
++++++
Later when everyone was heading upstairs from the buffet, Sakito was stopped by Smith. His boss asked if he could talk to him for a moment, Sakito nodded, and smiled at this boyfriend to go ahead up to the room. Ni~Ya seemed a little hesitant, but went upstairs anyway.
“Now, Sakito, this is Mr. Stone. He’s the manager of Trap Services,” Smith explained as he and the model and some other man settled in three empty chairs in the lobby. The man called Mr. Stone nodded at the model, who did the same.
“He saw you today out on the runway, and I think he was impressed with what he saw,” Smith continued.
“Oh yes, I liked it a lot. I thought you were a woman at first, and couldn’t believe it when Smith told me you were a guy,” Stone said. Sakito smiled slightly.
“At Trap Services, we like to have both male and female models, and a lot of the time we like for you, our customers, to guess whether the models is a guy or a girl. It’s just a little fun we wanted to throw in while they’re shopping. Do you know a girl named Kei?”
“Kei-san? Oh yes, met her,” Sakito replied.
“Well, sometimes, for models like her, we have them look like guys. And vice versa. And most people get confused when looking at them, but that just intrigues them even more about the outfit the model is wearing. You, Mr. Edowaka, would fit in our company perfectly,” Stone continued.
“So, after doing some talking to Smith here, he’s going to allow me to buy your contract from him, with your permission, of course.”
Sakito’s eyes widened. This guy, who he had never seen before, wanted him to come work for his company! This was starting to feel like déjà vu to the model all over again.
“Considerably, I would pay a lot higher than Smith, of course,” Stone added with a chuckle, earning him a glare from the blond owner of Project Runway.
“So, what will it be, Mr. Edowaka?”
Sakito pursed his lips, thinking hard. If he joined Trap Services, he would still be able to do what he wanted to. And with a higher pay, maybe now he could afford to fly back to Japan to visit his relatives, something he had been wanting to do for a long time. And he would be here in California, a state that seemed so much cleaner and less crowded that New York, a place he wasn’t all that fond of.
That was it! His mind was made up.
“Mr. Stone, I will do it,” the model said with a bright smile.
++++++
It had been only 30 minutes since Ni~Ya had gone up to the room by himself, but it felt like an eternity to him. He bounced around Sakito like an eager puppy when his boyfriend opened the door.
“Saki-kun!” he cooed as he hugged the model tightly.
“Hello there,” Sakito chuckled at Ni~Ya’s zealous to see him.
“So what did Smith want?’ the photographer asked. Sakito instantly froze. He had completely forgotten about Ni~Ya when he was signing the new contract. Moving here to California would also mean leaving Ni~Ya behind. Not just him, but also Loretta and Julie and Emily and Sheila and Kelly, and even Claudia. He had forgotten to think of his friends as he was signing his name on the dotted line.
“H-he wanted to talk about a few new photo shoots he's planning in a few weeks,” Sakito lied.
“Mm, I see,’ Ni~Ya purred as he buried his face in the side of Sakito’s hair, inhaling the fruity smell of styling product.
Sakito only clenched onto the taller man’s shirt, guilt pooling in the bottom of his stomach for lying to his boyfriend. He knew sooner or later he would have to tell him the now dreadful news, as well as all of his other friends.
But Ni~Ya would be the one that would give him the most trouble.
That night, as the couple lay snuggled in bed, Sakito’s mind was racing. He was trying to figure out the best way to break the news to Ni~Ya. He would be coming back to California only a week after they returned to New York, so that gave him a week to tell him.
Sakito had the hardest time falling asleep that night.
++++++
(1)- Hapa literally means "half". There's more specific terms for half of what (hapa haole, hapa pake, hapa pukiki, etc. ) but most people just say Hapa. Therefore, I will simply refer to Kei as Hapa. :]
(2)- I looked this up, and I believe that it means "thanks" in Chinese. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
Ooooh, it's going to get sadder from here. :[
Remember children: always think things through before sighing little pieces of paper. Or else.
Comments appreciated, as usual. XD