Title:It's all just a game of love
Starring:NEWS
Genre: Romance, angst, humor
Pairings: Not quite sure of Shige as of yet, but some group pairings are a definite yes.
Summary: Shige feels he and love don't mix, quite a few people seem to disagree...
Authors Note: Yes the summary is a bit vague and all, but I've never been all that good at summaries, I actually tried a variation, and well it was pretty bad. But read please =)
Previous Chapters
Chapter OneChapter TwoChapter Three
Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own anything, besides the plot and a few OC's, the boys all belong to Johnny, the lucky old man!
Chapter Four
Hang on, boxes don’t float in mid-air… he thought, before he saw a slight tuft of black hair above the boxes. He hurried over and caught the boxes just in time, as one of them slipped and almost hit the floor.
“Here,” he said taking the boxes, only to set eyes on the strangest thing he’d ever seen in his life.
Shige glanced down at the girl standing breathlessly before him. She looked rather strange. “Ah, thanks,” she managed to say, as she caught her breath.
“Um, no problem,” he said, still staring at her, “Are you uh, moving in?” he asked.
The girl nodded, “so then you must be Risa-chan’s neice?” He asked as he shifted the boxes to his other hand.
The girl nodded again. It was a bit strange, when Risa had mentioned that her niece was strange, he somehow imagined a strange little gothic girl that would scream about brightness if she ever set foot out in the sun. Then again it might just be that he’d been watching a little too much of Tegoshi’s drama, and had expected a Sunako to be popping out at him.
Indeed the girl did look rather different, she had jet black hair and streaks of vibrant red in her hair, the style was also rather different. It was artistically styled, with a fringe of bangs partially covering her right eye.
Not only that but beneath the fringe a pair of bright, wide, honey colored eyes peered up at him. They were nothing like the usual almond shaped eyes he himself had. Rather hers were round, bright, and seemed to shine through with complete and cool intellect.
He found himself feeling rather self-conscious as she gazed at him. “I’m your neighbor,” he finally said.
“Ah yoroshku,” she said smiling at him brightly, revealing a set of perfectly straight teeth. “I’m Yoshida Arianna,” she said. “And you must be Kato-san?”
Shige stared at her, how in the world did she know his name? unless she was a fan…
“My aunt told me about you,” she explained, noticing the rather confused expression Shige had.
“Ah,” was Shige’s only response. And he glanced down at the boxes he was holding, “so do you need any help?” he asked.
“Oh, well I’m just about done,” she began.
“Where would you like me to put this?” Shige asked, indicating to the boxes he was holding.
She quickly pushed the door to her new apartment open, and allowed Shige past. “You can just set them there, on the counter,” she said, pointing to the kitchen counter, that was already slightly cluttered with boxes. Shige glanced at them, they were labeled in English, rather than in the usual Kanji.
“You speak English?” he asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” she responded as she hauled another few boxes into the apartment. Shige hurried over to help her.
“My dad’s an American, military man, so I learned from him,” she explained.
“that’s interesting,” Shige said, of course he might have guessed it, she looked like a complete gaijin. Everything from her hairstyle, to the her bright eyes to the heavier pigment of her skin indicated it.
“So, do you want me to help you move some more stuff in?” Shige asked, noticing the large pile of boxes that were still sitting outside on the pavement, waiting to be lugged in.
“Oh, no it’s fine, I’m sure I can manage, I’d rather not bother you,” She said.
“It’s no problem, I’ve got time,” Shige replied, with a smile.
“Well, if you really don’t mind, I’d really appreciate the help,” she responded, sending Shige a smile of her own.
“Nope, not a problem,” and it really wasn’t he didn’t need to be in the studio for another 2 hours. So he had a good chunk of time to help.
Together the two hefted the boxes up the stairs and deposited them in Yoshida’s apartment. Shige insisted on taking the heavier boxes, allowing Yoshida only to take the lightweight boxes, it was a good thing he could read a bit of English so it was easy for him to pick out the boxes that contained the heaviest things. Although Yoshida protested a bit, Shige remained adamant about it. And so after 45 minutes all the boxes had safely been deposited into the apartment.
It was then that Shige took a good look about the apartment, it was empty, as all apartments usually are when new tenants arrive, but it seemed the new tenant had already maneuvered some of the furniture.
“Did you move all this on your own?” Shige asked, indicating at the sofas and tables.
“No, actually the movers brought those in for me,” she replied, her back turned to him as she rummaged through one of the boxes.
“And they didn’t help with the rest of the boxes?” Shige asked.
“It wasn’t really in their contract, I was actually a bit surprised they helped me bring in the bigger pieces of furniture,” She explained. “Are you thirsty?” she asked, as the moved to the kitchen with two oddly shaped glasses in her hand.
“Uhm, sure, I guess,” he replied, still staring about the room. He glanced down at a box by his foot, it was partially open and he could just make out a few of the items in the box, they looked like sheets of some kind, but he couldn’t really tell.
“Here you go,” she said, handing Shige the cup, it was filled with Iced tea and ice. He gingerly took the cup, and stared at it, the drink itself looked rather normal but the cup however, did not.
The bottom was flat, however the rest of the shape seemed rather strange, it looked almost like a modern art piece, the center of the cup was empty and the sides crossed eachother giving the cup the unique shape of an ‘x’.
“Something wrong, Kato-san?” Yoshida asked, noticing Shige’s expression.
“Ah, no, I was just looking at the cup,” Shige said, before he took a deep gulp of the tea.
“It’s strange isn’t it?” She said, glancing down at her own cup which was rather oddly shaped like an open-ended tear drop/
“It looks artistic, Shige commented, before he downed the last remnants of the tea. Yoshida could only stare as he drank it down.
“Don’t you have brain freeze?” she asked inquisitively.
Shige blushed a bit, maybe he shouldn’t have drank it down like that, but he was thirsty, and he actually had to start getting ready to go.
“No, but thanks for the drink,” Shige said, before handing her the cup. “I’ve actually got get going, I have to get ready for work.”
“Oh,” she responded rather flustered. “I hope I didn’t keep you or anything.”
“Nah, it’s fine, but I’d better go,” Shige said turning to go.
“Okay, and thanks again Kato-san,” She said as she headed into the kitchen to dump the cups in the sink.
“No problem, Yoshida-san, and if you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?” Shige said, pleasantly.
“”Thanks, oh and Kato-san?” She called just as he was about to leave.
“Really, Hontoni Arrigatou,” she said, giving him a deep bow.
“It’s fine, really,” Shige said, before giving her an awkward wave. She seemed to be pretty proper.
What a weird girl, he thought to himself, as he hurried to get his things ready. He packed his gym bag with all his things, it’d be a long day of rehearsals.
He left the house moments later and quickly drove to the Jumisho. He entered the building after greeting the guards, and quickly made his way through the building to the dressing room set aside for the senpai’s.
Once he entered, he noted that he was bit early, and that only Masuda and Koyama were inside. Koyama sat by one of the mirrors brushing his hair, while Masuda sat on one of the couches and was texting on his phone.
“Yo,” Shige said, dropping his gym bag in a corner.
“Shige!” Koyama cried in greeting. It’d been a few days since he’d seen his best friend.
Shige grabbed a few things from his bag, one of them was a plastic container, that he dropped on the table.
“Masu,” he called, Masuda glanced over at him. “I brought you some of the gyoza that Risa-chan gave me yesterday,” he said, indicating at the container.
Immediately Masuda headed for the table, and was happily digging into the contents of the container.
“Omai!” Masuda said, through a mouthful of the dumpling.
Shige let out a snort, “enjoy it while you can.” He said, “You won’t be getting any for a while.”
“Why?” Koyama asked, as he sneakily snatched one from under Masuda, surprisingly Masuda didn’t swat at him like he usually would, but just sat contentedly munching.
“Risa-chan left yesterday,” Shige said.
“EH?” Masuda said, nearly choking on the bit of gyoza he’d been chewing on.
“Yeah, I told she was moving out to the country didn’t I?” Shige said in response to Masuda’s out burst.
“No, you didn’t! That means you won’t be bringing anymore of the good gyoza!” Masuda all but wailed.
Shige blinked, of course Masu would react like this, he let out a sigh. “Calm down Masu, I’ll still bring food from time to time, I mean I can cook after all,” Shige said.
Masuda pouted slightly, “but you can’t make gyoza,” he said.
“But Kei-chan, can,” Shige said, turning to Koyama, who’d been eerily silent during the whole intercourse.
“I guess,” Koyama replied. “So she moved? Were you that much of a bad neighbor?” he asked with a grin.
Shige gave Koyama a look, “Do I even need to answer that?”
Koyama laughed, “Okay, I guess not, but why’d she leave? That’s a pretty good apartment she had.”
“She wanted to head back to the country,” Shige explained. Koyama nodded.
“Understandable,” Masuda said, in agreement, “after all she was an old oba-chan already.”
“Well there’s that and she left her apartment to her niece too, she just transferred out to Tokyo or something,” Shige explained absently.
“Niece?” both Massuda and Koyama asked, interestedly.
“Yep,” was Shige’s only reply as he shuffled through his bag, looking for his clothes.
“When does she move in?” Koyama asked, nosily as was usual.
“She came earlier this morning,” Shige said, once he finally found the sweats, “found them!” he said holding them above his head triumphantly.
He turned to see both Masuda and Koyama staring at him expectantly.
“What?” he asked.
“What do you mean ‘what’?” Masuda said, impatiently.
“What’s your neighbor like?” Koyama asked.
Shige paused, for a moment to ponder who he should respond. “Like a neighbor?” Shige said, uncertainly, and shrugged, before heading out to change, leaving the unsatisfied boys to munch on cold gyoza.
When he returned the last three members were already present in the dressing room. Ryo was flicking through a magazine, already dressed to start, Tegoshi was chatting loudly about something that had happened during filming a few days before, and Yamapi was talking on his cell phone.
Masuda and Koyama however continued to stare at Shige.
“What?” he asked, feeling rather self-conscious, thinking perhaps he’d put something on backward, it wouldn’t be the first time, but a quick glance down, told him he was dressed properly.
“your neighbor,” Masuda began,
“What’s she like?” Koyama finished.
“She?” Tegoshi asked, glancing over at Shige rather interestedly.
“You’ve got a new neighbor?” he asked.
Shige nodded. “What’s she like?” Tegoshi asked.
“Like a girl?” Shige said unsure of how to answer. It wasn’t like he gave all that much attention to the girl, although he had to admit, she seemed a strange one, but strange in a good way. He smiled a bit.
“Wow, a smile, this must be good,” Koyama said, with a mischievous smile.
“Not really.” Shige shrugged. And before they could ask again their manager called them to the conference room.
* * *
Shige was thankful the day had ended without any serious injuries, and considering how much dancing they’d done he was surprised he could still stand.
However the rehearsal had gone rather smoothly, the group had been debriefed on their upcoming schedule, with a new single coming out they’d be having to do a lot of promotional appearances in the upcoming weeks.
The first one would be in a week, and would be released on Johnny’s site, and then a week later they were expected to guest on a television show.
It’d be a busy few weeks. As he was leaving, Koyama caught up with him. “Shige!”
“Let’s hang out,” Koyama said.
“Hang out? Now?” Shige asked, rather taken aback.
“Yeah it’s still early,” Koyama said, “how about we head over to your place?” he said, hopefully.
Shige’s face fell, “you can be really annoying sometimes, you know that right?”
“Please?” Koyama pleaded, However Shige merely shook his head. He knew exactly what his friend was after, and Shige had no idea why he was so adamant about meeting his new neighbor. He himself didn’t even know her all that well, he had no idea why Koyama wanted to meet her so badly. Wait no, Shige knew the reason, it was because Koyama was Koyama.
“Kei-chan, I’m beyond tired, I need sleep,” Shige said, and indeed Shige looked nearly dead on his feet, bags were beginning to show under his eyes.
Finally Koyama relented, taking pity on his best friend, he’d just bother him another time.
“Shige I’m taking you to dinner this week,” Masuda announced.
“Eh?” Shige said, taken aback.
“I’m taking you to dinner this week,: Masuda responded. “I have extra money so I’m taking you out.”
Shige blinked. Koyama looked unsurprised, but merely gave an eye roll, and gave a wave before walking off.
Ryo and Yamapi had left earlier, Yamapi to meet with his new ‘love’ and Ryo had just said he had things to do.
Which left Tegoshi and Masuda as the only other members left besides Shige himself.
Tegoshi seemed a bit preoccupied with his bag, which he was trying to stuff with a few more items. And Masuda was always the last to leave because he had a weird OCD of leaving things perfectly in order before he left.
“Why me?” Shige asked.
“Because I owe you for all the food you gave me,” Massuda replied.
“But I,” Shige began, however Masuda cut him off.
“No but’s we’re going and that’s it.”
And before Shige could utter a word in protest Massuda had given Shige a pat on the shoulder and had left, leaving Shige alone with Tegoshi.
“What was that?” Shige muttered, rather confused.
Tegoshi merely grinned at Shige mischievously from his place by the mirror.
=Chapter End=
Author's Note: So, there we are with Chapter Four. Hope you all liked it. I've got the next Chapter written, mostly because Masu, has a lot to do in the next chapter, so I had a lot of fun writing it =) So I promise to have the next Chapter up in the next few says, some editing and it'll be ready for posting!
Anyway, thanks for reading, and comments are always appreciated.