JE/NEWS- "Five Reasons Why Shige Hates Tegoshi"
Throwing this up now because YEAH, the KT fic still eludes me. *shakes fist at them* PLAY NICE DAMMIT.
But yeah, Happy birthday Tego! Way to make me feel old, kid.
Title: Five Reasons Why Shige Hates Tegoshi
Universe: JE/NewS
Theme/Topic: N/A
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: NewS (lightly ShigexTegoshi)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC? Crack? Member-ai at it’s best? XD
Word Count: 2,697
Summary: A five part dissertation on why Tegoshi Yuya is annoying, as explained by the brilliant but infuriatingly inconspicuous Kato Shigeaki.
Dedication: For Tegoshi’s birthday fic! Also for Ann, and our um, amazing late night discussions trying to analyze this Tego and Shige dynamic.
A/N: Ann and I both decided that Shige seems to brood excessively on the little things Tego says that don’t even register on the happy-happy Tego-radar. We theorize that he loves Tegoshi a lot but hates himself for doing so since Tegoshi is like, better at everything than him. Shige’s IS SO BITTER AND SELF-DEPRECATING and yet. HE CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE TEGOSHI ANYWAY. It is so interesting. XD
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this. As far as I know.
Distribution: Just lemme know.
1. Tegoshi is Smart
Shige can’t help it; he doesn’t like the fact that Tegoshi is smart.
But at the same time, Shige is famous for looking down on stupid people, which does not explain why Tegoshi’s intelligence bothers him so much.
When he thinks about it, his reasons probably go something like this:
Shige thinks stupid people are annoying, but at the same time, being around them makes him feel even smarter than usual.
Like, for example, when someone-who-will-not-be-named-directly asks him what the word “asymmetric” means, Shige can snort at the asker and shake his head at what a silly question it is, but at the same time, he will also feel superior as he answers, “it means that if there is a line drawn down the center of an object, the two resulting halves will not look exactly the same.”
The asker will then marvel at him appropriately and say something like, “Wow, Shige is smart, ne,” and Shige will feel good for the rest of the afternoon because yes, he is smart.
Shige can’t do that with Tegoshi though, since whenever Tegoshi asks Shige a question it is usually something along the lines of, “I learned it earlier in class ne, but I forgot the details. Shige, do you remember the equation for shell integration for calculating the volume of a solid of revolution again?”
And unlike when the aforementioned person-who-will-not-be-named asks Shige a question, when Tegoshi asks Shige a question, Shige’s initial response is usually to blink at Tegoshi and say, “Um, let me see…” before trailing off pathetically.
In short, the first situation makes Shige feel smart, while Tegoshi’s situation does not.
Shige hates that.
But what’s worse is that that’s not what Shige hates the most about the whole thing. The part that Shige hates the most is what comes after Tegoshi has asked his question, usually while Shige is still in the middle of trying to figure out the answer to it as quickly as possible so that he doesn’t look like a moron.
Because at that point Tegoshi will often get impatient while Shige thinks, and so he will start thinking for himself in the meantime. And since he is smart too, inevitably he will get it, and when he does, he will brighten suddenly and say, “Oh yeah! It was 2 pi multiplied by p(y) where p(y) equals the cylinder’s average radius, multiplied by the length of the cylinder represented by h(y), multiplied by d(y) for the thickness of the shell, ne.” Next he’ll giggle to himself and look sheepish; “I can’t believe I forgot something so simple! Since Shige is so smart, you must think I’m a real dummy, ne.”
And even though the first person and Tegoshi have both told Shige that he is smart after everything is said and done, the two instances don’t mean the same thing at all. Because while the first person’s praise makes Shige feel good, Tegoshi’s praise just makes Shige feel-vaguely- like he is being teased, even though Tegoshi is too self-centered to know he is doing it.
Shige hates that Tegoshi is the only one in NewS who can make him feel stupid.
2. Tegoshi is Cute
Shige normally likes cute things (like his dog, or Massu’s smile, or babies), but for some reason, Tegoshi’s cuteness irritates him.
He thinks it might be related to reason one above; somehow it seems unfair that Tegoshi is smart and cute at the same time, as Shige is smart but definitely not cute, while Massu is cute but definitely not smart. There is a balance to be had by everything in this world, and Tegoshi very clearly throws it off by being both smart and cute when he should only really be one or the other out of fairness to everyone else.
But what’s even more annoying than that is that Tegoshi is not just a little cute, either. He’s so cute that people look at him and automatically think that he’s very dumb.
That’s how cute he is.
In fact, he is so cute that even their senpai-who have grown up around ridiculously cute people in the entertainment industry for their entire lives-always immediately seem take notice of Tegoshi from the very first moment they meet him; Nagase complains early on about how he always unknowingly ends up reading Tegoshi’s blog for some reason while Tsuyoshi calls him “interesting” and “amazing,” with a respectable degree of honesty during NewS’s first appearance on Domoto Kyoudai. Koichi can talk to Tegoshi for three hours in a row after a filming is over and even Taichi marvels at how adorable Tegoshi is on camera. Add to that the fact that all of K8 (who are notorious for bullying, good-natured or not) never seems interested in picking on Tegoshi and that’s when things start getting ridiculous; Eito only seems to want to pinch and kiss the kid’s cheeks all the time at the very worst.
Nakai remembers his name, for crying out loud-that says a lot even if all the other things hadn’t already.
Shige hates that Tegoshi is that cute and that they’re the same age and Shige isn’t cute at all. Nakai definitely doesn’t remember his name.
It’s all really annoying.
But the worst part-and there always is a worst part when it comes to how annoying Tegoshi is-is the fact that even though Shige hates that all of their senpai think Tegoshi is cute, Shige can’t help but think that Tegoshi is cute too.
Because Tegoshi will bounce up to him and wrap his arms around Shige, will put his chin on Shige’s shoulder and look up at Shige through long lashes and go, “Ne, Shige… play with me!” like he’s entitled to Shige’s attention even though he has everyone else’s already.
And Shige knows it’s just Tegoshi being cute and that it is supposed to be really, really annoying and nothing else, but at the same time, he will still look at those big eyes and thick lashes and that sweet smile and earnest expression and always, always eventually sigh and say, “Okay. What do you want to do?”
Then Tegoshi will get even cuter somehow, will light up like a Christmas tree and hug his arms around Shige as tight as he can and say, “I love Shige lots, ne!”
Tegoshi will mean every word of it too, and Shige will probably end up buying him lunch. Again.
Shige hates that Tegoshi’s cuteness is an obvious strategic advantage in life when he already has so many as it is.
He hates it even more that he knows this and always falls for it anyway.
3. Tegoshi is Musically Gifted
Not only is Tegoshi cute and smart at the same time, he is also unfairly talented as well.
He is the best singer in NewS and while his dancing has only improved very recently, he is better at it than Shige is now, arguably better than Koyama and Yamapi. He’s good at playing the guitar and writing lyrics too, and let’s not forget the whole thing where he debuted after less than a year in Johnny’s. Even a jerk like Ryo always says that if he had a choice about who he would want to sing a duet with, it would definitely be his Tego-nyan.
Given this enviable list of credits to his name, Shige cites once again, that Tegoshi clearly has no concept of fair play at all. Some people have to work really hard just to see a fraction of Tegoshi’s stupid natural-talent show up in their lives.
But what boggles Shige most about all of this is why Tegoshi always insists on having Shige write songs with him when he could obviously do a fine job of it all on his own (like everything else).
Shige wonders if Tegoshi is making fun of him when he asks if they can write together; what does Tegoshi really need him for anyway?
It’s probably because the kid just likes to lord his superiority over lesser beings every now and again or something like that; to Shige, it seems like exactly the sort of thing an annoying type of guy like Tegoshi would do. Hell, he would do it too, if he had the credentials.
“Aaah, I like writing with Shige best because Shige’s songs really inspire me, ne!” Tegoshi chirps sweetly and seemingly out of nowhere as they settle inside the karaoke booth they’ve rented out for this week’s session. Shige scoffs to himself when he hears this and thinks that another one of the many things doesn’t like about Tegoshi is that the younger boy just says weird things like that for no reason; it’s completely annoying and Shige doesn’t fall for mindless flattery like that at all, thanks very much.
He’s not Koyama.
But Tegoshi has already moved on; “Uwah, I really feel like we’re going to get some good work done today, ne!” he says, and pumps his fist excitedly.
Shige just nods and starts to tune his guitar; five seconds into it Tegoshi gets bored and inputs a song into the karaoke system from memory. Shige glares when the opening beats to a L’arc song start booming through the small room, Tegoshi sees his glare and just smiles back at him sweetly. “You don’t mind, right Shige? It’ll get us in the mood, ne!”
Shige wants to say, “I’m leaving,” and then get up and leave (ha, that’d show Tegoshi), but Tegoshi looks so excited about getting to write and sing today that Shige doesn’t do anything but fantasize about leaving in the end after all. “If you’re going to sing,” he grumbles eventually, “turn down the volume a little.”
“Hai!!!”
And so Tegoshi sings rock ballads while Shige tries to come up with a new melody for a potential song, since, you know, this is supposed to be a songwriting session. He watches Tegoshi out of the corner of his eye as he works and thinks that this next one he creates should be a song about how annoying the younger boy is; maybe that way people will understand where Shige is coming from.
Or Tegoshi’s five million fangirls worldwide will maul Shige in his sleep; it’s a toss up at this point.
Shige scowls in annoyance at the thought and plays an angry chord on his guitar just as Tegoshi hits a high note in the chorus; he blinks and forgets his irritation-momentarily- when the resulting harmony sounds oddly perfect in combination. He does it again and Tegoshi sings obliviously on, throws himself into his rock and roll and forgets all about Shige and the fact that this had been his stupid idea in the first place.
Shige doesn’t know if he’s annoyed or intrigued by what’s happening in the room right now; he settles for neither and lets his fingers ghost over various chords all on their own-instinctively-until a melody is born.
His eyes never leave Tegoshi once the entire time.
And as it turns out, he gets the music for the main melody line of a brand new song all scribbled down on his sheet paper after a record twenty minutes.
And as Shige watches the younger boy croon sweetly into the mic once he’s finished bubbling in the last few notes, he thinks to himself that he could probably write another melody entirely inspired by Tegoshi’s stupid oblivious smile right now, or another about his girly, wicked mouth, or another still about how irritating and cute he is and how much Shige hates him. In fact, he could probably write an entire album’s worth of melodies inspired by how much he doesn’t like Tegoshi if he really wanted to (the likes of which he could add Cacao to, as it is also the result of one of his “Tegoshi is annoying” songwriting sessions). But even though he could do all of this, he doesn’t try for more than one song today in the end; right now he’s too busy fuming at himself because whenever he does this alone, it’s never anywhere near as easy.
Shige hates that Tegoshi makes it impossible for him to write music without Tegoshi there.
4. Tegoshi Does Exactly What He Says He’ll Do
After Tegoshi’s episode of Shounen Club Premium airs, Tegoshi very energetically lives up to his promise to start calling Shige “Shige-san,” instead of just “Shige,” like usual. He does it everywhere they go from there on out; he remembers to do it every single time he talks to Shige and doesn’t even slip up once.
Which would be fine under normal circumstances; Shige would, at the very least, consider it a desirable upgrade in the younger boy’s manners.
Except he only does it to Shige.
Not to Koyama or Masuda or Ryo or anyone else-just to Shige.
Shige hates that Tegoshi is choosing to be so precise about it like that; when Shige had mentioned that particular point on his VTR clip he’d meant to use it to criticize Tegoshi’s lack of etiquette in a general sense, not one specifically pertaining only to his relationship with Shige. It had been advice, dammit; Tegoshi was supposed to infer from what Shige was saying that what Shige really meant was that the kid should be more polite to all of his senpai in NewS, not just to Shige.
To treat everyone who has more seniority than you with the utmost respect is purely common sense, isn’t it? It’s good manners, right?
But no; Tegoshi only applies this change to when he is addressing Shige and not when he is speaking to anyone else in the group. In the end, that’s not really an improvement in his professional conduct, but a case of singling someone out, isn’t it?
Of course it is!
Because when everyone in NewS is already so used to hearing Tegoshi say, “Ne, Shige!” when he is talking to the older boy, if they are to suddenly hear something like, “Excuse me, Shige-san,” instead, Shige suspects that it is just going to very plainly call everyone’s unwanted attention to him in the end.
He’s right; when Ryo hears it he snorts at Shige and says, “You actually prefer that?” in a sort of disgusted, disbelieving tone, while Koyama laughs nervously and cites, “It’s oddly formal for our Tego-nyan, ne.”
Tegoshi blinks at Koyama and Ryo when he hears them. “But that’s what Shige-san wanted, ne. I just want him to be happy.”
“Ah, that’s true, he did say that,” Massu concedes, and then smiles at Shige too. “Shige-san, then.”
Ryo smirks. “Fine… Shige-san.”
Shige sighs as the whole thing soon becomes yet another way for his groupmates to tease him; he curses Tegoshi just a little bit more for turning his criticisms around on him like this, even if he does always seem to do it with no ill-intentions.
The group ends up going on like that for the rest of the day; they eventually even get Koyama and Yamapi in on it as well. Shige sighs to himself and can’t believe that Tegoshi has now found a second way to make his own name embarrassing to him.
It makes him annoyed.
What’s more, it makes him something else too, something worse than annoyed.
Because to hear “Massu, Kei-chan, Yamapi, and Ryo-tan,” warmly called out all in a row, only to have it be followed by something odd and distant like “Shige-san,” makes Shige start to feel strangely lonely on top of everything else.
Naturally, his mood is black for the entire remainder of the rehearsal.
Shige hates that Tegoshi can make him eat his own words.
5. Everyone Really Does Love Tegoshi
The thing that Shige hates the most about Tegoshi-and by most he means the thing he hates about Tegoshi more than anything else he hates about Tegoshi- is that despite all of the reasons to hate Tegoshi that Shige has clearly and eloquently and convincingly listed above; Shige can’t help but love him too.
Maybe even more than anyone else.
Shige hates that Tegoshi has clearly made him crazy.
END
EDITS PLZ.
But yeah, Happy birthday Tego! Way to make me feel old, kid.
Title: Five Reasons Why Shige Hates Tegoshi
Universe: JE/NewS
Theme/Topic: N/A
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: NewS (lightly ShigexTegoshi)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC? Crack? Member-ai at it’s best? XD
Word Count: 2,697
Summary: A five part dissertation on why Tegoshi Yuya is annoying, as explained by the brilliant but infuriatingly inconspicuous Kato Shigeaki.
Dedication: For Tegoshi’s birthday fic! Also for Ann, and our um, amazing late night discussions trying to analyze this Tego and Shige dynamic.
A/N: Ann and I both decided that Shige seems to brood excessively on the little things Tego says that don’t even register on the happy-happy Tego-radar. We theorize that he loves Tegoshi a lot but hates himself for doing so since Tegoshi is like, better at everything than him. Shige’s IS SO BITTER AND SELF-DEPRECATING and yet. HE CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE TEGOSHI ANYWAY. It is so interesting. XD
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this. As far as I know.
Distribution: Just lemme know.
1. Tegoshi is Smart
Shige can’t help it; he doesn’t like the fact that Tegoshi is smart.
But at the same time, Shige is famous for looking down on stupid people, which does not explain why Tegoshi’s intelligence bothers him so much.
When he thinks about it, his reasons probably go something like this:
Shige thinks stupid people are annoying, but at the same time, being around them makes him feel even smarter than usual.
Like, for example, when someone-who-will-not-be-named-directly asks him what the word “asymmetric” means, Shige can snort at the asker and shake his head at what a silly question it is, but at the same time, he will also feel superior as he answers, “it means that if there is a line drawn down the center of an object, the two resulting halves will not look exactly the same.”
The asker will then marvel at him appropriately and say something like, “Wow, Shige is smart, ne,” and Shige will feel good for the rest of the afternoon because yes, he is smart.
Shige can’t do that with Tegoshi though, since whenever Tegoshi asks Shige a question it is usually something along the lines of, “I learned it earlier in class ne, but I forgot the details. Shige, do you remember the equation for shell integration for calculating the volume of a solid of revolution again?”
And unlike when the aforementioned person-who-will-not-be-named asks Shige a question, when Tegoshi asks Shige a question, Shige’s initial response is usually to blink at Tegoshi and say, “Um, let me see…” before trailing off pathetically.
In short, the first situation makes Shige feel smart, while Tegoshi’s situation does not.
Shige hates that.
But what’s worse is that that’s not what Shige hates the most about the whole thing. The part that Shige hates the most is what comes after Tegoshi has asked his question, usually while Shige is still in the middle of trying to figure out the answer to it as quickly as possible so that he doesn’t look like a moron.
Because at that point Tegoshi will often get impatient while Shige thinks, and so he will start thinking for himself in the meantime. And since he is smart too, inevitably he will get it, and when he does, he will brighten suddenly and say, “Oh yeah! It was 2 pi multiplied by p(y) where p(y) equals the cylinder’s average radius, multiplied by the length of the cylinder represented by h(y), multiplied by d(y) for the thickness of the shell, ne.” Next he’ll giggle to himself and look sheepish; “I can’t believe I forgot something so simple! Since Shige is so smart, you must think I’m a real dummy, ne.”
And even though the first person and Tegoshi have both told Shige that he is smart after everything is said and done, the two instances don’t mean the same thing at all. Because while the first person’s praise makes Shige feel good, Tegoshi’s praise just makes Shige feel-vaguely- like he is being teased, even though Tegoshi is too self-centered to know he is doing it.
Shige hates that Tegoshi is the only one in NewS who can make him feel stupid.
2. Tegoshi is Cute
Shige normally likes cute things (like his dog, or Massu’s smile, or babies), but for some reason, Tegoshi’s cuteness irritates him.
He thinks it might be related to reason one above; somehow it seems unfair that Tegoshi is smart and cute at the same time, as Shige is smart but definitely not cute, while Massu is cute but definitely not smart. There is a balance to be had by everything in this world, and Tegoshi very clearly throws it off by being both smart and cute when he should only really be one or the other out of fairness to everyone else.
But what’s even more annoying than that is that Tegoshi is not just a little cute, either. He’s so cute that people look at him and automatically think that he’s very dumb.
That’s how cute he is.
In fact, he is so cute that even their senpai-who have grown up around ridiculously cute people in the entertainment industry for their entire lives-always immediately seem take notice of Tegoshi from the very first moment they meet him; Nagase complains early on about how he always unknowingly ends up reading Tegoshi’s blog for some reason while Tsuyoshi calls him “interesting” and “amazing,” with a respectable degree of honesty during NewS’s first appearance on Domoto Kyoudai. Koichi can talk to Tegoshi for three hours in a row after a filming is over and even Taichi marvels at how adorable Tegoshi is on camera. Add to that the fact that all of K8 (who are notorious for bullying, good-natured or not) never seems interested in picking on Tegoshi and that’s when things start getting ridiculous; Eito only seems to want to pinch and kiss the kid’s cheeks all the time at the very worst.
Nakai remembers his name, for crying out loud-that says a lot even if all the other things hadn’t already.
Shige hates that Tegoshi is that cute and that they’re the same age and Shige isn’t cute at all. Nakai definitely doesn’t remember his name.
It’s all really annoying.
But the worst part-and there always is a worst part when it comes to how annoying Tegoshi is-is the fact that even though Shige hates that all of their senpai think Tegoshi is cute, Shige can’t help but think that Tegoshi is cute too.
Because Tegoshi will bounce up to him and wrap his arms around Shige, will put his chin on Shige’s shoulder and look up at Shige through long lashes and go, “Ne, Shige… play with me!” like he’s entitled to Shige’s attention even though he has everyone else’s already.
And Shige knows it’s just Tegoshi being cute and that it is supposed to be really, really annoying and nothing else, but at the same time, he will still look at those big eyes and thick lashes and that sweet smile and earnest expression and always, always eventually sigh and say, “Okay. What do you want to do?”
Then Tegoshi will get even cuter somehow, will light up like a Christmas tree and hug his arms around Shige as tight as he can and say, “I love Shige lots, ne!”
Tegoshi will mean every word of it too, and Shige will probably end up buying him lunch. Again.
Shige hates that Tegoshi’s cuteness is an obvious strategic advantage in life when he already has so many as it is.
He hates it even more that he knows this and always falls for it anyway.
3. Tegoshi is Musically Gifted
Not only is Tegoshi cute and smart at the same time, he is also unfairly talented as well.
He is the best singer in NewS and while his dancing has only improved very recently, he is better at it than Shige is now, arguably better than Koyama and Yamapi. He’s good at playing the guitar and writing lyrics too, and let’s not forget the whole thing where he debuted after less than a year in Johnny’s. Even a jerk like Ryo always says that if he had a choice about who he would want to sing a duet with, it would definitely be his Tego-nyan.
Given this enviable list of credits to his name, Shige cites once again, that Tegoshi clearly has no concept of fair play at all. Some people have to work really hard just to see a fraction of Tegoshi’s stupid natural-talent show up in their lives.
But what boggles Shige most about all of this is why Tegoshi always insists on having Shige write songs with him when he could obviously do a fine job of it all on his own (like everything else).
Shige wonders if Tegoshi is making fun of him when he asks if they can write together; what does Tegoshi really need him for anyway?
It’s probably because the kid just likes to lord his superiority over lesser beings every now and again or something like that; to Shige, it seems like exactly the sort of thing an annoying type of guy like Tegoshi would do. Hell, he would do it too, if he had the credentials.
“Aaah, I like writing with Shige best because Shige’s songs really inspire me, ne!” Tegoshi chirps sweetly and seemingly out of nowhere as they settle inside the karaoke booth they’ve rented out for this week’s session. Shige scoffs to himself when he hears this and thinks that another one of the many things doesn’t like about Tegoshi is that the younger boy just says weird things like that for no reason; it’s completely annoying and Shige doesn’t fall for mindless flattery like that at all, thanks very much.
He’s not Koyama.
But Tegoshi has already moved on; “Uwah, I really feel like we’re going to get some good work done today, ne!” he says, and pumps his fist excitedly.
Shige just nods and starts to tune his guitar; five seconds into it Tegoshi gets bored and inputs a song into the karaoke system from memory. Shige glares when the opening beats to a L’arc song start booming through the small room, Tegoshi sees his glare and just smiles back at him sweetly. “You don’t mind, right Shige? It’ll get us in the mood, ne!”
Shige wants to say, “I’m leaving,” and then get up and leave (ha, that’d show Tegoshi), but Tegoshi looks so excited about getting to write and sing today that Shige doesn’t do anything but fantasize about leaving in the end after all. “If you’re going to sing,” he grumbles eventually, “turn down the volume a little.”
“Hai!!!”
And so Tegoshi sings rock ballads while Shige tries to come up with a new melody for a potential song, since, you know, this is supposed to be a songwriting session. He watches Tegoshi out of the corner of his eye as he works and thinks that this next one he creates should be a song about how annoying the younger boy is; maybe that way people will understand where Shige is coming from.
Or Tegoshi’s five million fangirls worldwide will maul Shige in his sleep; it’s a toss up at this point.
Shige scowls in annoyance at the thought and plays an angry chord on his guitar just as Tegoshi hits a high note in the chorus; he blinks and forgets his irritation-momentarily- when the resulting harmony sounds oddly perfect in combination. He does it again and Tegoshi sings obliviously on, throws himself into his rock and roll and forgets all about Shige and the fact that this had been his stupid idea in the first place.
Shige doesn’t know if he’s annoyed or intrigued by what’s happening in the room right now; he settles for neither and lets his fingers ghost over various chords all on their own-instinctively-until a melody is born.
His eyes never leave Tegoshi once the entire time.
And as it turns out, he gets the music for the main melody line of a brand new song all scribbled down on his sheet paper after a record twenty minutes.
And as Shige watches the younger boy croon sweetly into the mic once he’s finished bubbling in the last few notes, he thinks to himself that he could probably write another melody entirely inspired by Tegoshi’s stupid oblivious smile right now, or another about his girly, wicked mouth, or another still about how irritating and cute he is and how much Shige hates him. In fact, he could probably write an entire album’s worth of melodies inspired by how much he doesn’t like Tegoshi if he really wanted to (the likes of which he could add Cacao to, as it is also the result of one of his “Tegoshi is annoying” songwriting sessions). But even though he could do all of this, he doesn’t try for more than one song today in the end; right now he’s too busy fuming at himself because whenever he does this alone, it’s never anywhere near as easy.
Shige hates that Tegoshi makes it impossible for him to write music without Tegoshi there.
4. Tegoshi Does Exactly What He Says He’ll Do
After Tegoshi’s episode of Shounen Club Premium airs, Tegoshi very energetically lives up to his promise to start calling Shige “Shige-san,” instead of just “Shige,” like usual. He does it everywhere they go from there on out; he remembers to do it every single time he talks to Shige and doesn’t even slip up once.
Which would be fine under normal circumstances; Shige would, at the very least, consider it a desirable upgrade in the younger boy’s manners.
Except he only does it to Shige.
Not to Koyama or Masuda or Ryo or anyone else-just to Shige.
Shige hates that Tegoshi is choosing to be so precise about it like that; when Shige had mentioned that particular point on his VTR clip he’d meant to use it to criticize Tegoshi’s lack of etiquette in a general sense, not one specifically pertaining only to his relationship with Shige. It had been advice, dammit; Tegoshi was supposed to infer from what Shige was saying that what Shige really meant was that the kid should be more polite to all of his senpai in NewS, not just to Shige.
To treat everyone who has more seniority than you with the utmost respect is purely common sense, isn’t it? It’s good manners, right?
But no; Tegoshi only applies this change to when he is addressing Shige and not when he is speaking to anyone else in the group. In the end, that’s not really an improvement in his professional conduct, but a case of singling someone out, isn’t it?
Of course it is!
Because when everyone in NewS is already so used to hearing Tegoshi say, “Ne, Shige!” when he is talking to the older boy, if they are to suddenly hear something like, “Excuse me, Shige-san,” instead, Shige suspects that it is just going to very plainly call everyone’s unwanted attention to him in the end.
He’s right; when Ryo hears it he snorts at Shige and says, “You actually prefer that?” in a sort of disgusted, disbelieving tone, while Koyama laughs nervously and cites, “It’s oddly formal for our Tego-nyan, ne.”
Tegoshi blinks at Koyama and Ryo when he hears them. “But that’s what Shige-san wanted, ne. I just want him to be happy.”
“Ah, that’s true, he did say that,” Massu concedes, and then smiles at Shige too. “Shige-san, then.”
Ryo smirks. “Fine… Shige-san.”
Shige sighs as the whole thing soon becomes yet another way for his groupmates to tease him; he curses Tegoshi just a little bit more for turning his criticisms around on him like this, even if he does always seem to do it with no ill-intentions.
The group ends up going on like that for the rest of the day; they eventually even get Koyama and Yamapi in on it as well. Shige sighs to himself and can’t believe that Tegoshi has now found a second way to make his own name embarrassing to him.
It makes him annoyed.
What’s more, it makes him something else too, something worse than annoyed.
Because to hear “Massu, Kei-chan, Yamapi, and Ryo-tan,” warmly called out all in a row, only to have it be followed by something odd and distant like “Shige-san,” makes Shige start to feel strangely lonely on top of everything else.
Naturally, his mood is black for the entire remainder of the rehearsal.
Shige hates that Tegoshi can make him eat his own words.
5. Everyone Really Does Love Tegoshi
The thing that Shige hates the most about Tegoshi-and by most he means the thing he hates about Tegoshi more than anything else he hates about Tegoshi- is that despite all of the reasons to hate Tegoshi that Shige has clearly and eloquently and convincingly listed above; Shige can’t help but love him too.
Maybe even more than anyone else.
Shige hates that Tegoshi has clearly made him crazy.
END
EDITS PLZ.