Whispers of a Hidden Memory
Hello minna-san!! First time writing here so yoroshiku onegaishimasu!! *bows*
Author: Me!!
Ratings: PG. But will most probably go up soon due to Toma's dirty mouth, Jin's perverseness, Ryo's tongue and more. You will not get any smut from me though. >.<
Disclaimers: Do I look like a perverted old man who owns a whole company full of handsome men? Last time I checked I'm a girl who is completely broke.
Summary: A.U In middle school, Kame got rejected by Jin and Kame, depressed went off overseas... and comes back during college a top-notch model!! Jin is instantly attracted to Kame and wants to get closer to him. The problem? Kame doesn't remember Jin. Yamapi is Jin's best friend but likes Kame since middle school... Akame, PiKame
Dedications:
1) Yan-chan aka xx_lovelain_xx. I promised you this didn’t I? Hehe.
2) And also omichan92 who demanded a fic from me after all the help she gave me. ^^ For you~!!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*Six Years Ago*
“Go on Kame-chan!! There’s nothing for you to lose!!” Toma Ikuta nudged his best friend forward towards the table in the middle of the cafeteria.
“But... but!! What if he doesn’t like me?! The whole school sure doesn’t.” 12-year-old Kamenashi Kazuya muttered the last sentence underneath his breath and he dug his heels into the ground more forcefully. “I know a lost cause when I see one Toma!! There’s no way THE Akanishi Jin will like somebody like me!!”
Kamenashi Kazuya, or as he was affectionately called ‘Kame’ by his family and best friend was what a fashion critic would call a ‘walking disaster wearing a school uniform’. Kame was not exactly pretty, skinny, with bushy eyebrows and a messy hairdo but despite that, he had always gotten straight ‘A’s in his studies. Due to his looks and his perfect grades, Kame was always a constant target for bullies.
Toma smiled more brightly, “Oh, pshaw!! Sure he will!! It’s not the outside which matters,” Toma tapped Kame’s chest once, “it’s what’s in here matters!! You’re the sweetest guy I know!! You have the biggest heart, and the meanest right hook too!!”
“The meanest right hook...?”
Toma laughed nervously as he remembered the bloody noses of bullies after Kame was done with them, “Details, details!!” Here, Toma conjured up a stool from out of nowhere, placed his right foot on top of it and brought forward his right fist Yankumi-style, “GO FORTH MY DARLING KAZU-CHAN!! TRUE LOVE IS A MERE STEP AWAY!!”
“But Toma~!! I don’t want to confess~!!” Kame whined, trying to pull his arm back which Toma had in a death grip, “And besides, we all know that Akanishi Jin is straight!!”
“Straight as a circle that is!!”
“TOMA~!!” Kame wailed pitifully. Akanishi Jin was the most popular boy in Shirokin Gakuen. Girls fawned over him, boys wanted to be his friends and... he happened to be Kame’s secret crush. Keyword: secret. Kame scowled internally, no matter what he did, Toma Ikuta had a thing he called the ‘Kazu-dar’ to figure out almost everything about Kame, including his secret crush.
“Done~!! It’s all in your hands now Kazu-chan!!”
“Huh?! What-” Kame gulped. In the midst of all the confusion, Toma had successfully managed to drag him to where the most popular kids of Shirokin Gakuen sit at. Five pairs of eyes are looking up at him, some curiously and some politely.
Taguchi Junnosuke smiled brightly up at him, “Can we help you?”
Kame had never felt so small in his life. Here, right in front of him were AT-TUN, the most popular boys in the entire school.
Taguchi Junnosuke. Nobody could ever figure out what lies behind the bright sunny smile that he flashes out every single day of every single hour of every single minute. The smile that is the bane of existence of practically the whole school. Ironically, his lame jokes were the butt of everybody else’s jokes and the flipped lunch table at the corner of the cafeteria is the answer from Koki to one of Junno’s many lame jokes.
Tanaka Koki. He is the ‘gangsta’ of the group, with weirdly enough, the biggest heart. No matter how fierce he looks, in a time of need, he will rush to anybody’s rescue, even Taguchi whom he claimed to utterly despise. Take for example; when Junno was being mercilessly bullied for money by the local school bully, Koki would appear out of nowhere, screaming, “NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO MAKE TAGUCHI’S LIFE MISERABLE - except for Ueda - BUT MEEEEEEEE!!!” And proceeded to send the bully flying across the sky with an insane smile on his face.
Ueda Tatsuya. The number one enemy of NEWS’s ‘Sexy Osaka Man’ -or sullen dwarf as Ueda would scoff- Nishikido Ryo. He was ultimately the group’s leader, but prefers to watch over AT-TN rather than tag along with their crazy adventures. He also practically worships Gakct, and is famous for being able to see fairies. Despite his feminine appearance, Ueda proved that he was not as feminine whenever a certain dwarf was in sight. AT-TN had always wondered why Ueda did took up boxing classes but after the whole school witnessed him almost pummelling Ryo to death, everybody knew to keep their distance.
Nakamaru Yuichi. The ultimate peacemaker of the group. Nakamaru, also known as Maru, would always try to solve every problem especially those that resides from their group itself. Together with Koki, they make an interesting comedy duo. Despite being popular, he was considered... normal to his absolute annoyance. To prove otherwise, he did many abnormal things like beat boxing while riding a roller-coaster but sadly, nobody was around to see him do it and hence, he is still considered normal.
Akanishi Jin. The very person that causes Kame’s heart to beat furiously in his ribcage. The ultimate playboy that descended from Playboy Mansion himself. He was the king of breaking hearts. He brought the song ‘This Is How a Heart Breaks’ to shame. But that didn’t stop Kame’s hormones from going on a raging war whenever he appeared. For the first few weeks, Kame willed the fact that his hormones went on that rampage was because he, unlike the rest of the student body, doesn’t play Tonsil Hockey 101 every other day.
“Eto...Ano...” For once in his life, Kame didn’t have anything to say. ‘Yeah, I’d like to bury my head six feet deep into the ground. Can you help me with that?’
“Would you like to sit down?” Nakamaru asked kindly, scooting over to make space for the newcomer.
“Ah...no thank you,” Kame flashed a tiny smile to the peacemaker of the group.
“Then what do you want?” Jin asked curiously albeit a bit flatly. “OW!” He glared at Koki who had jabbed him roughly in the stomach. “Don’t be rude!” scolded the rapper.
“Please excuse them for their childish behaviour, especially Jin’s-”Ueda apologise softly with Jin’s indignant reply of, “OI!” in the background.
Kame lifted his eyes up to where his so-called best friend stood. Toma grinned wider and waved frantically, giving him a thumbs-up. ‘When I’m done with this, I’ll bury MYSELF and YOU into the ground!!’ Taking a deep breath, Kame shut his eyes tightly and blurted out, “Akanishi-san, I like you!”
A complete silence engulfed the whole cafeteria, minus Toma who had started whooping loudly.
“So?”
Kame’s jaw dropped, as did the others. Jin wasn’t even looking at him! An invisible hand came and wrapped its fingers around his heart, squeezing the very life out of him. “Jin, what are talking about? He’s declaring that he likes you! Give him some sort of reply!” Koki started, shooting almost frantic looks to Kame whose face has gotten paler.
“And I did. So what? I don’t care if he likes me or not,” Jin shrugged, taking a bite from his lunch. Nakamaru exchanged worried looks with Koki. Friend or not, this was too much. Ueda was frowning and even Junno looked concerned about how Jin was acting towards Kamenashi Kazuya. Sure he was not as gorgeous as anybody whom Jin had previously dated but that was no reason for Jin to be as harsh to Kame.
Kame couldn’t move. “Look at him!” For the first time, Jin looked at him, pointing to Kame, “He’s ugly! Why would I,” he pointed to himself proudly, “want to date someone like him?”
“JIN!” Junno actually looked serious for once with a rare frown on his face, “You are acting extremely self-absorbed. Don’t think you’re all that when you’re not.”
The said self-absorbed person stood up and pointed Kame out, “Seriously, look at him! His eyebrows are so bushy like a caterpillar on his face! His glasses are hideous!” Jin sneered at Kame, “Haven’t you heard of contact lenses? And what about a comb?” He took out his own comb and threw it at Kame, “Here! Use mine to comb out that unruly mop that is supposed to be your hair!”
“AKANISHI JIN.” Ueda spoke darkly, standing up and slamming his hands on the table, “You are out of the line. Who gave you the right to say those things?”
“I’m REALLY sorry for his attitude,” Maru reached out towards the stunned Kame, trying to soothe the obviously hurt boy.
Completely and utterly horrified, Kame turned on his heel and ran out. “KAME!” Toma shouted after his best friend before turning dark eyes on the ‘A’ of the group. A black aura practically roared from deep within his veins, Toma hissed acidly, “You better watch your step, Akanishi. Kame-chan may be too nice to get you back but don’t worry,” A sickly and sarcastically sweet smile spread across Toma’s face, “I’m not.”
After Toma ran after Kame, the whole cafeteria started buzzing with life once again. From the NEWS table right next to AT-TUN’s table, Yamapi stood up and for once in his life, gave an utterly disgusted look to Jin and said to his best friend, “Nice going, Bakanishi.”
Koyama muttered under his breath, “Let’s see if I make you anymore cookies.”
Shige nodded solemnly, “Even Ryo isn’t THAT much of a jerk.” The rest of NEWS agreed before Ryo realized what SHIGE had just said and yelled out an insulted ‘OI!’.
Nobody realized Yamapi’s fists clenching so hard until blood dripped down his fingers. ‘Kame...’
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kamenashi Kazuya never turned up for school ever again after that.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Yamashita Tomohisa didn’t mope. As far as he was concerned, he BROODS. Moping was for emotional people who had nothing to do with their lives.
Yamashita Tomohisa didn’t mope. He sits in one quiet corner and laments over things. He thought things out thoroughly like a mature adult. So he was understandingly aghast when Tegoshi Yuya happily bounded over to him, pointed and exclaimed cheerfully, “You’re moping~!!”
“No, I’m NOT.” Said mature adult pouted to the amusement of Koyama who placed a plate of cookies on the table and Tegoshi immediately pounced on it happily.
Massu walked up to the duo and said between mouthfuls of his beloved gyoza, “Why is Yamapi moping?”
“I’M NOT MOPING!! I’m... brooding.”
Ryo snickered, helping himself to one of Koyama’s home-made cookies, “Same thing.”
“Who asked you dwarf?” At this point, Yamapi couldn’t care less about Ryo’s height complex, Massu’s gyoza and Koyama’s cookies as he stalked to the door, intent on getting some fresh air and AWAY from his friends. Huffing, he slammed the door shut, relishing in the loud BAM that followed soon after.
Yamapi was normal. As far as normal one can be in a clique that consists of a gyoza-lover (Masuda Takahisa), a guy with a freaky smile (Kato Shigeki), the group’s sweetheart (Tegoshi Yuya), the sullen dwarf (Nishikido Ryo) and a guy who goes around promoting member-ai (Koyama Keiichiro).
Yamapi himself was considered one of the coolest guys in school. Calm, collected, intelligent and good-looking. Somehow, the first three traits seemingly took a hike whenever a certain Kamenashi Kazuya was in sight.
Yamapi’s face darkened at the thought, “well, WAS in sight.”
After that horrible incident back in middle school, nobody has heard head or tail of Kamenashi Kazuya. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of the Earth. Yamapi would ask that person about Kazuya if they were actually on good terms in the first place. It’s too bad that the only person who knows where and what Kazuya is doing happens to be the person who hates his best friend, Akanishi Jin.
Toma Ikuta. Everybody knew that he was Kamenashi’s only friend. Yamapi was surprised that he hadn’t followed Kamenashi to wherever the latter had went. But it was pretty obvious that he took the brutal rejection of Akanishi Jin much more personally than Kamenashi did himself.
Yamapi allowed a half-smile to grace his features as he remembered the attempts Toma did to get back at Jin for rejecting his best friend. Exploding bento boxes, several botched attempts at Jin’s collarbones and if it weren’t for government laws and a restraining order against Toma, Toma would have ripped Jin to pieces and happily fed his remains to his rumoured pet piranhas. Not to mention burn down the Akanishi mansion and drag all of its occupants to hell with him fully decked out in a black cloak and a scythe. And of course with Toma laughing maniacally all the way as he drags Akanishi Jin to hell by his oh-so-wonderful hair.
Everybody knew not to mess with Toma Ikuta after they witnessed his endless murder attempts on Akanishi Jin. It was so bad until Jin had to file for a restraining order against Toma but that didn’t stop Toma from shooting death glares at him in class or stab a voodoo doll that creepily looks exactly like Jin in full view of everybody. Toma made sure that Jin saw him violently mutilate the Jin voodoo doll he had bought from somewhere with an equally creepy smile on his face.
Later on, Jin had admitted to Yamapi, although he’d probably outright deny it if asked, that Jin had seriously feared for his life. It didn’t help that Ueda thought he deserved it and Ryo thought it was just plain hilarious.
Yamapi would never admit it, but there was never a day which had passed without him thinking about Kamenashi. How is he? Where is he? Is he still alive in the first place?! Sure, Kamenashi Kazuya wasn’t the most popular kid in school or even the prettiest but Yamapi didn’t care. He knew first-hand how kind the other boy was. He had been lucky to have been at the receiving end of Kamenashi’s kindness and it was then that Yamapi first saw Kame’s sweet, sincere smile.
‘It was that smile...’ Yamapi thought, smiling almost bitterly to himself, ‘It was that smile that made me fall for you. You’ve stolen my heart and I know that I’ll never ever get it back. But... I guess... it’s fine.’
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Stop drooling over that magazine Akanishi. It’s too pathetic to even watch.” Ueda Tatsuya droned out monotonously as he approached their usual lunch table. Akanishi Jin just stuck out his tongue childishly at him and resumed to what he was doing previously, ignoring Ueda whose eyebrows twitched madly in annoyance.
‘How did I get myself stuck with these freaks again...?’ Ueda thought as he sat down next to Taguchi Junnosuke who was pushing the buttons on his PSP madly, muttering ‘DIE! DIE!!’ under his breath while Tanaka Koki looked like he was holding himself back from flipping over their lunch table AGAIN. Nakamaru Yuichi looked torn between being amused and just plain horrified and was busy patting Koki’s hand, trying to calm the rapper down.
“He’s HOT.” Jin breathed out, tracing the featured model on the magazine he was reading with his fingertips. T-TUN rolled their eyes and muttered simultaneously under their breath, “Shuji.”
Shuji was a famous model in L.A. and he had been featured on the front page of hundreds of magazines. Other than his model name, absolutely nothing else is known about the breath-taking model and that fact alone made him more appealing to people all around the world, including Akanishi Jin who had fell in love with the model at first sight.
“Shuji again Jin? Nobody even knows his real name!! And besides, he lives in L.A. There’s absolutely NO way for you to meet him.” Koki said almost tiredly, earning him a frown from Jin.
Jin pouted, “How can you understand bouzu?” -“Bouzu janai!!”- “I know Shuji and I are just meant for each other!! We’re connected by the red thread adorning our pinky fingers!!”
“So says everybody else who’s lusting after Shuji.” Ueda muttered under his breath, causing Nakamaru to snicker despite Jin glaring holes into his body.
“Maa, maa. Let’s not get into a fight AGAIN about Shuji-kun alright? We’re students here in Shirokin College. Shuji-kun is a successful model thousands of kilometres away from us. There’s nothing wrong about liking him but don’t let it interfere with your life here alright? It’s not healthy.” Nakamaru said soothingly, patting Jin’s head.
Junno nodded, smiling brightly, “Iriguchi, Deguchi, Taguchi desu!!”
A complete, utter silence rang out in the cafeteria.
“Taguchi.”
“^_^ Yes?”
“SHUT UP.”
Koki’s eyes were twitching madly as he squeezed his empty water bottle tightly in his right fist, “That... was so lame words cannot describe it.” His hands were violently convulsing, itching to strangle Taguchi and Ueda’s knuckles were fisted so tightly and his smile looks strained.
“Let’s just pretend this didn’t happen.” Nods of agreement followed up and Taguchi’s smile surprisingly didn’t even waver.
Jin turned his attention back to the magazine and smirked almost predatorily as he traced Shuji’s face once again, “I’ll make you mine.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*Present time, Los Angeles*
“Beautiful!! That’s it!! PERFECT!!” The photographer cried out as the model twirled once, peering into the camera with a coy smile on his flawless face. Lifting up reddish-brown locks to reveal warm brown eyes, the model gave out another dazzling smile and allowed himself to be blinded by dozens of blinding flashes from high-tech cameras.
“All right people!! We’re done for the day!! Very well done Shuji-kun!!” The director beamed brightly at ‘Shuji-kun’, who merely smiled and bowed.
“No, it’s a pleasure to be working here,” Shuji murmured softly as he smiled crookedly, picking up his duffel bag and making his way outside. Shuji sighed. “I’m going to go blind one of these days...” He muttered absent-mindedly to himself and fished out his cellphone, calling a number he knew by heart. Humming absent-mindedly, he grinned when he heard a familiar albeit groggy voice, answer his phone. ‘Ah, I forgot about the time difference! Never mind...’
“Toma? Guess what? I’m finally coming home.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 2
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I’m finally done! This is my first Akame fic so go easy on me!! I apologize if any characters seemed OOC. Comments are love~!!
I can’t believe it, but I bought it despite having little to no money. I bought KAT-TUN III Queen of Pirates. T.T It blew a hole right through my bank account!! BUT IT’S WORTH IT~!! *spazzes* I wanted the limited version but they don’t have it!! Never mind... I’m grateful for what I have!!
Translations
Bouzu: Baldy. I think most of us know by now ne? Haha.
Bouzu janai: I’m not bald!!
Tonsil Hockey 101: Making out. I didn’t know about this either until Leandra told me about it. I’M SAD.