fic; the member-switch program
Title: The Member-Switch Program
Characters: NewS and KAT-TUN
Rating: PG-13
Summary: JE undergoes a member-switch program.
Author’s Note: For the gen-fic-meme. Prompt: Kato Shigeaki is the K of KAT-TUN (and you can put Kamenashi in NEWS if you want).
When Shige arrives at the jimusho one normal Monday morning, it's to utter chaos. Confused, he hurries quickly to NewS' dressing room, hoping for a sanctuary from the shouting groups and juniors. Stumbling past the doorway, he catches his breath and looks around the room, six pairs of eyes locked onto his.
Shige pauses on the face of the person who looked most out of place and questions, "What's Kamenashi-kun doing in our dressing room?"
"Sulking," Kame replies.
"Shige," Koyama says. "Didn't you get the email Johnny sent out last night?"
"Email?" Shige repeats and shakes his head.
"We, uhm, got an email last night where Johnny explained a "member-switch" program."
Shige blinks. "Member-switch?"
"Kamenashi-kun is taking your place in NewS for the day and you are, uhm," Koyama hesitates, "taking the place of KAT-TUN's K."
Shige stares at him for a long moment before bursting into laughter. "T-That's a good one, Koyama. You almost had me going there." He laughs harder and turns to Kame. "You can go back to your group now, Kamenashi-kun. I'm sorry they dragged you here."
But Kame just looks at Shige as if he were an idiot. That's when Shige realizes no one else is laughing and he stops abruptly, eyes growing wide.
"You-You can't be serious!" he exclaims, stares hopefully at Koyama as if this were all a big dream.
Koyama bites his lip and everyone else looks somber. Except perhaps Kame, who still looks sulky, and Ryo, who seems the most glad that Shige was leaving the group for the day.
"Great," Shige mutters under his breath. "Great."
He leaves the room quickly to a round of, "Bye-bye, Shige!" and Koyama flailing with distress.
Shige heads to the stairs and takes them as slowly as he can one flight up, each step feeling like a lead weight in the pit of his belly. Why him? He hardly knows anyone in KAT-TUN, he can't possibly get along with any one of them. They are different than NewS, more individual, more sexual, and Shige's awkward and clumsy.
He takes a deep breath and knocks twice on the door before peeking inside.
"There he is!" someone shouts and he's being pulled into the dressing room with enough force he thinks his arm might be pulled out of its socket.
Shige narrowly avoids meeting the floor as he trips over his feet, and then finds himself looking up into five pairs of eyes.
Koki, Taguchi and Nakamaru all grin at him, while Jin peers at him peculiarly, and Ueda sighs and gives him a look of utmost pity.
"Welcome, Kato-kun," Maru says, gestures for Shige to sit down. He does, awkwardly, beside Ueda and Koki sits next to him.
"You'll have a blast with us, man," Koki says. "We'll show you our group is so much better than yours."
Maru frowns. "That's not a good way to start this, Koki."
Koki just shrugs and claps Shige on the back; Shige jerks forward. "Quit looking so tense. We're not going to hurt you."
"Then make him stop staring at me like that," Shige mutters, glancing at Jin from the corner of his eyes.
Ueda rolls his eyes and kicks Jin from under the table. "Bakanishi, stop scaring him."
Jin seems to snap out of it then. He beams at Shige and Shige feels a shiver run up and down his spine; Jin grinning like that could only mean trouble. Jin jumps to his feet and claps his hands together. "Okay, we're all here! Let's get ready for our photo shoot."
"You're more enthusiastic than normal," Maru comments, surprised.
Jin's grin turns mischievous and he smirks in Shige's direction. Shige swallows down the lump in his throat and blinks around the room, wide-eyed.
"We're really having photo shoots even though the groups are messed up?"
"Didn't you read your email?" Koki asks and Shige shakes his head. "Well, then, let me explain. Yes, we're supposed to do everything we'd normally do, just with a different member. It's no big deal, right?"
"No big deal," Shige mumbles as he follows the others outside to the van waiting to take them to the photo shoot location. "Right."
*
Shige has always had an image of KAT-TUN in his head: super cool and attractive, sexy and true performers, with unique talents and an overwhelming presence.
He finds that all of it is true.
They goof around a little on their own, but the moment the cameras start flashing, the atmosphere changes and the serious faces, the sexy poses, they come out at the drop of a hat. Shige can feel that overwhelming presence, feels completely out of place with these five boys who can work the camera like there's no tomorrow.
Shige thinks it's unfair when after the group shots, and he's still trying to stop from falling apart from the sheer power that is KAT-TUN, he gets stuck with Jin for the duo shots.
Jin grins his mischievous grin and slings and arm around Shige's shoulders. Shige stumbles and quickly plasters a smile on his face as the cameras flash. And then, before he realizes it, he’s being attacked from both sides with fingers, tickled until he’s laughing so hard his insides hurt.
Jin laughs triumphantly and gives the camera a peace sign, before hopping to his feet and strolling easily off the set. Shige, trying to calm down, follows after, cheeks flushed a bright pink and staring intently at the floor.
Ueda smiles at him when he sits down and Jin continues to look smug. “That will be a nice shoot,” he says.
“Of course,” Jin says. “Now, will you stop being so awkward?”
Shige blinks at him. “Me?”
“Who else?” he demands. “We are not an awkward group. Quit making us look awkward.”
Shige mumbles a quickly apology, bows his head, and Ueda scoffs at Jin.
“Don’t make him upset! It’ll make him more awkward.”
Jin crosses his arms over his chests petulantly. “I’m just telling it how it is.”
Shige sinks lower into his chair, pulling his knees up to his chest as Ueda and Jin continue on about just how awkward he could be.
He sighs and wishes desperately he were back with NewS.
(“Quit being such a drama queen!” Ryo snaps and snatches the dryer from Kame’s hands.
“Shut up, shorty. Don’t test me,” Kame bites back.
“What the hell did you call me, Kamenashi?” Ryo shouts.
Kame smirks. “You heard me. Or is your hearing as unfortunate as your height?”
Ryo shrieks and lunges. Kame quickly runs in the opposite direction. The rest of NewS huddle close together in the corner and Koyama whimpers.
“Shige’s lucky to be with KAT-TUN, huh?” Tegoshi whispers and Massu nods.
Yamapi shakes his head. “He might be worse off.”)
*
They’re sitting around the dressing room, back in the jimusho building, eating lunch from the provided bentos. Shige watches the others silently, feels the need to say something, anything, to fill the silence that lingers in the room.
It’s much different than with NewS; NewS who always chitter-chatter, laugh, or substitute words in songs with Shige’s name (that, at least, Shige doesn’t miss). But KAT-TUN keep to themselves, mostly. Junno’s occupying himself by playing on his Nitendo DS and Ueda strums on his guitar between mouthfuls of his lunch. Jin has popped in his iPod and is swaying around the room just a bit too provocatively, and Shige makes sure not to watch him, while Koki and Maru work together on a rap/beat-boxing routine.
Shige’s a little stunned by the complete un-group-ness between the members, the-the lack of member-ai as Koyama would say. And before he can stop himself, he finds himself asking, “What do you guys do?”
They all stop and turn to him (except Jin, who can’t hear and continues to dance around the room). They blink and Ueda asks, “What do you mean?”
“Like. What do you do? When there’s nothing going on, what do you do?”
Ueda gives him a Look. “I write music, Taguchi plays games, Koki and Maru work on their routines, and Akanishi-” Jin suddenly belts out a high note. “-does that.”
“But don’t you do anything as a group?” Shige wishes he could just stop talking, but the words keep coming out and he can’t stop. He’s suddenly very curious as to why KAT-TUN can’t do things together.
Ueda blinks, opens his mouth, then shuts it again, at a loss for words. Junno looks at his feet and Koki looks a bit awkward and Maru laughs nervously. He rubs the back of his neck and says, “We, uhm, don’t really have that kind of bond, I guess.”
Shige thinks he needs to stop spending so much time with Koyama when he makes a Koyama-worthy gasp and flails in the appropriate way that Koyama would had he been there to witness the same thing.
“But you guys are a group, aren’t you?” Shige exclaims.
“Look, Kato-kun,” Jin suddenly says, pulling the headphones from his ears and peering down at Shige from the other side of the couch. “We’re not like your group or like Arashi or Kanjani8. We don’t have that lame member-ai thing.”
“It’s not lame,” Shige defends immediately.
“Whatever,” Jin replies, hopping over the couch and plopping down beside Shige. “You guys might have that, and we might have had it too-once. But it’s different now.”
“Why does it have to be?”
Jin blinks, a little thrown. “W-What?”
“Why does it have to be different now?” Shige repeats, but Jin, nor anyone else, can find an answer.
A tense silence falls over the group and Shige shifts away from Jin, deep in thought. It’s a few minutes later when Junno asks quietly, “What kind of group things do you guys do, Kato-kun?”
Surprised, Shige falters a bit before saying, “Lots of things. Most recently we played a game of cards, and the loser had to strip during a song at a concert.”
AT-TUN laughs and Koki asks, “Who lost?”
“I did,” Shige mumbles, staring at his feet and the rest howl in laughter.
“That sounds like fun,” Jin muses, lips curving into a grin. “Should we try?”
Ueda checks his watch. “We have enough time before the next photoshoot.”
“That’s a yes, then!” Koki shouts and Junno goes to his bag to pull out a deck of cards. Ueda pulls up chairs around the table and drags Shige over to sit down. Jin takes the spot next to him and slings an arm over his shoulders again, grinning. The others sit down and all beam at him and Shige feels his stomach flutter a little. Smiling and trying to hide his blush, he takes the cards from Junno and teaches them the game.
*
“He’s not back yet, why isn’t he back?” Koyama frets, pacing back and forth across the room.
“Can’t I leave?” Kame says loudly.
“No!” Koyama says. “Not until Shige gets back first.”
Kame glares and slouches against the couch.
“Should we just go look for him?” Massu suggests through a mouthful of gyoza.
Kame jumps to his feet. “Good idea! Let’s go.” He rushes out the door and the rest of NewS follow him up to KAT-TUN’s dressing room.
The six of them stop suddenly in front of the door as they hear loud laughter from the other side. Kame furrows his brow, wonders what’s happening; KAT-TUN normally doesn’t laugh that much together. He opens the door and peers inside, the rest of NewS looking over his shoulder, and lets out a yelp when Ryo pushes his head out of the way.
Inside, T-TUN and Shige are laughing loudly as Jin pouts and throws his cards in Koki’s face.
“This game sucks!” he whines, crosses his arms over his chest.
“Akanishi, you lost three times. It means you have to go through with it,” Ueda says between laughs, his eyes shining with amusement.
“I hate you, Shige,” Jin says, but Shige only smiles at him, surprised yet pleased by the change in the way Jin says his name.
“Don’t hate him,” Maru says. “He’s brilliant.”
“Exactly!” Koki says, ruffles Shige’s short hair, and they burst into laughter again.
Kame’s eyes widen at the sight of his band mates acting so amiable together, so friendly, so close, like a real group should. Something tightens in his chest and he wants to look away, but finds he can’t, that the sight mesmerizes him in a strange, slightly painful way.
That’s when he’s finally noticed, Jin turning towards the door, and grins upon seeing them.
“Hey! What’re you doing in the doorway?”
Kame pulls back and walks inside, NewS following suit.
“Sounds like you’re having fun,” Koyama comments, looking pleased.
They all nod and Jin complains to Yamapi about losing three times in a row. Ryo says he’s not surprised and Jin punches his arm.
“How were things for you?” Maru asks Massu.
Massu smiles and says, “Interesting!”
“But Shige’s meant to be with us,” Yamapi adds and grins at Shige who smiles and gets to his feet.
He bows towards AT-TUN and says, “Thanks for everything. Today was fun.”
“We should be thanking you,” Ueda says and the others nod fervently.
Koki punches his shoulder playfully, Junno beams, Maru shakes his hand, and Jin claps him on the back and says, “You make a pretty decent K.”
Shige feels heat in his cheeks and mumbles, “Thanks,” before he leaves with the rest of NewS.
Kame watches him disappear behind the door, then turns to meet the gazes of the other members. They stand awkwardly on their feet, not sure what to say, but Kame breaks the silence first, sitting down in Shige’s previous seat and saying, “Seems like an eventful day for you guys.”
Maru nods and sits as well. “It was interesting.”
“Fun,” Jin adds, grinning still. “He’s a good kid.”
“A better K, too, huh.” The words are out of his mouth before he can stop them, and he stares down at his lap as the statement lingers heavily in the air.
“No,” Ueda finally says. “You are our K. Just like Akanishi’s our A, even though he left for L.A., and just like the rest of us are our respective letters.”
“You guys seemed like a better group with him, though.”
“He was showing us how to be a group. It’s something we’re seriously lacking.”
Kame laughs, short and hollow. “We’re kind of a mess, aren’t we?”
“But do we have to be?” Junno says and they all glance around at each other nervously. They all know many years have passed since they were once close friends, many things have changed about each of them, as a group and as individuals.
“No, we don’t,” Maru finally decides and they all nod at each other, smiling faintly, feeling a new kind of warmth settling in their hearts.
Jin grins at them, reaches for the deck of cards and says, “Kamenashi, let’s play a game.”
And Kame returns the grin and nods.
end.
Characters: NewS and KAT-TUN
Rating: PG-13
Summary: JE undergoes a member-switch program.
Author’s Note: For the gen-fic-meme. Prompt: Kato Shigeaki is the K of KAT-TUN (and you can put Kamenashi in NEWS if you want).
When Shige arrives at the jimusho one normal Monday morning, it's to utter chaos. Confused, he hurries quickly to NewS' dressing room, hoping for a sanctuary from the shouting groups and juniors. Stumbling past the doorway, he catches his breath and looks around the room, six pairs of eyes locked onto his.
Shige pauses on the face of the person who looked most out of place and questions, "What's Kamenashi-kun doing in our dressing room?"
"Sulking," Kame replies.
"Shige," Koyama says. "Didn't you get the email Johnny sent out last night?"
"Email?" Shige repeats and shakes his head.
"We, uhm, got an email last night where Johnny explained a "member-switch" program."
Shige blinks. "Member-switch?"
"Kamenashi-kun is taking your place in NewS for the day and you are, uhm," Koyama hesitates, "taking the place of KAT-TUN's K."
Shige stares at him for a long moment before bursting into laughter. "T-That's a good one, Koyama. You almost had me going there." He laughs harder and turns to Kame. "You can go back to your group now, Kamenashi-kun. I'm sorry they dragged you here."
But Kame just looks at Shige as if he were an idiot. That's when Shige realizes no one else is laughing and he stops abruptly, eyes growing wide.
"You-You can't be serious!" he exclaims, stares hopefully at Koyama as if this were all a big dream.
Koyama bites his lip and everyone else looks somber. Except perhaps Kame, who still looks sulky, and Ryo, who seems the most glad that Shige was leaving the group for the day.
"Great," Shige mutters under his breath. "Great."
He leaves the room quickly to a round of, "Bye-bye, Shige!" and Koyama flailing with distress.
Shige heads to the stairs and takes them as slowly as he can one flight up, each step feeling like a lead weight in the pit of his belly. Why him? He hardly knows anyone in KAT-TUN, he can't possibly get along with any one of them. They are different than NewS, more individual, more sexual, and Shige's awkward and clumsy.
He takes a deep breath and knocks twice on the door before peeking inside.
"There he is!" someone shouts and he's being pulled into the dressing room with enough force he thinks his arm might be pulled out of its socket.
Shige narrowly avoids meeting the floor as he trips over his feet, and then finds himself looking up into five pairs of eyes.
Koki, Taguchi and Nakamaru all grin at him, while Jin peers at him peculiarly, and Ueda sighs and gives him a look of utmost pity.
"Welcome, Kato-kun," Maru says, gestures for Shige to sit down. He does, awkwardly, beside Ueda and Koki sits next to him.
"You'll have a blast with us, man," Koki says. "We'll show you our group is so much better than yours."
Maru frowns. "That's not a good way to start this, Koki."
Koki just shrugs and claps Shige on the back; Shige jerks forward. "Quit looking so tense. We're not going to hurt you."
"Then make him stop staring at me like that," Shige mutters, glancing at Jin from the corner of his eyes.
Ueda rolls his eyes and kicks Jin from under the table. "Bakanishi, stop scaring him."
Jin seems to snap out of it then. He beams at Shige and Shige feels a shiver run up and down his spine; Jin grinning like that could only mean trouble. Jin jumps to his feet and claps his hands together. "Okay, we're all here! Let's get ready for our photo shoot."
"You're more enthusiastic than normal," Maru comments, surprised.
Jin's grin turns mischievous and he smirks in Shige's direction. Shige swallows down the lump in his throat and blinks around the room, wide-eyed.
"We're really having photo shoots even though the groups are messed up?"
"Didn't you read your email?" Koki asks and Shige shakes his head. "Well, then, let me explain. Yes, we're supposed to do everything we'd normally do, just with a different member. It's no big deal, right?"
"No big deal," Shige mumbles as he follows the others outside to the van waiting to take them to the photo shoot location. "Right."
*
Shige has always had an image of KAT-TUN in his head: super cool and attractive, sexy and true performers, with unique talents and an overwhelming presence.
He finds that all of it is true.
They goof around a little on their own, but the moment the cameras start flashing, the atmosphere changes and the serious faces, the sexy poses, they come out at the drop of a hat. Shige can feel that overwhelming presence, feels completely out of place with these five boys who can work the camera like there's no tomorrow.
Shige thinks it's unfair when after the group shots, and he's still trying to stop from falling apart from the sheer power that is KAT-TUN, he gets stuck with Jin for the duo shots.
Jin grins his mischievous grin and slings and arm around Shige's shoulders. Shige stumbles and quickly plasters a smile on his face as the cameras flash. And then, before he realizes it, he’s being attacked from both sides with fingers, tickled until he’s laughing so hard his insides hurt.
Jin laughs triumphantly and gives the camera a peace sign, before hopping to his feet and strolling easily off the set. Shige, trying to calm down, follows after, cheeks flushed a bright pink and staring intently at the floor.
Ueda smiles at him when he sits down and Jin continues to look smug. “That will be a nice shoot,” he says.
“Of course,” Jin says. “Now, will you stop being so awkward?”
Shige blinks at him. “Me?”
“Who else?” he demands. “We are not an awkward group. Quit making us look awkward.”
Shige mumbles a quickly apology, bows his head, and Ueda scoffs at Jin.
“Don’t make him upset! It’ll make him more awkward.”
Jin crosses his arms over his chests petulantly. “I’m just telling it how it is.”
Shige sinks lower into his chair, pulling his knees up to his chest as Ueda and Jin continue on about just how awkward he could be.
He sighs and wishes desperately he were back with NewS.
(“Quit being such a drama queen!” Ryo snaps and snatches the dryer from Kame’s hands.
“Shut up, shorty. Don’t test me,” Kame bites back.
“What the hell did you call me, Kamenashi?” Ryo shouts.
Kame smirks. “You heard me. Or is your hearing as unfortunate as your height?”
Ryo shrieks and lunges. Kame quickly runs in the opposite direction. The rest of NewS huddle close together in the corner and Koyama whimpers.
“Shige’s lucky to be with KAT-TUN, huh?” Tegoshi whispers and Massu nods.
Yamapi shakes his head. “He might be worse off.”)
*
They’re sitting around the dressing room, back in the jimusho building, eating lunch from the provided bentos. Shige watches the others silently, feels the need to say something, anything, to fill the silence that lingers in the room.
It’s much different than with NewS; NewS who always chitter-chatter, laugh, or substitute words in songs with Shige’s name (that, at least, Shige doesn’t miss). But KAT-TUN keep to themselves, mostly. Junno’s occupying himself by playing on his Nitendo DS and Ueda strums on his guitar between mouthfuls of his lunch. Jin has popped in his iPod and is swaying around the room just a bit too provocatively, and Shige makes sure not to watch him, while Koki and Maru work together on a rap/beat-boxing routine.
Shige’s a little stunned by the complete un-group-ness between the members, the-the lack of member-ai as Koyama would say. And before he can stop himself, he finds himself asking, “What do you guys do?”
They all stop and turn to him (except Jin, who can’t hear and continues to dance around the room). They blink and Ueda asks, “What do you mean?”
“Like. What do you do? When there’s nothing going on, what do you do?”
Ueda gives him a Look. “I write music, Taguchi plays games, Koki and Maru work on their routines, and Akanishi-” Jin suddenly belts out a high note. “-does that.”
“But don’t you do anything as a group?” Shige wishes he could just stop talking, but the words keep coming out and he can’t stop. He’s suddenly very curious as to why KAT-TUN can’t do things together.
Ueda blinks, opens his mouth, then shuts it again, at a loss for words. Junno looks at his feet and Koki looks a bit awkward and Maru laughs nervously. He rubs the back of his neck and says, “We, uhm, don’t really have that kind of bond, I guess.”
Shige thinks he needs to stop spending so much time with Koyama when he makes a Koyama-worthy gasp and flails in the appropriate way that Koyama would had he been there to witness the same thing.
“But you guys are a group, aren’t you?” Shige exclaims.
“Look, Kato-kun,” Jin suddenly says, pulling the headphones from his ears and peering down at Shige from the other side of the couch. “We’re not like your group or like Arashi or Kanjani8. We don’t have that lame member-ai thing.”
“It’s not lame,” Shige defends immediately.
“Whatever,” Jin replies, hopping over the couch and plopping down beside Shige. “You guys might have that, and we might have had it too-once. But it’s different now.”
“Why does it have to be?”
Jin blinks, a little thrown. “W-What?”
“Why does it have to be different now?” Shige repeats, but Jin, nor anyone else, can find an answer.
A tense silence falls over the group and Shige shifts away from Jin, deep in thought. It’s a few minutes later when Junno asks quietly, “What kind of group things do you guys do, Kato-kun?”
Surprised, Shige falters a bit before saying, “Lots of things. Most recently we played a game of cards, and the loser had to strip during a song at a concert.”
AT-TUN laughs and Koki asks, “Who lost?”
“I did,” Shige mumbles, staring at his feet and the rest howl in laughter.
“That sounds like fun,” Jin muses, lips curving into a grin. “Should we try?”
Ueda checks his watch. “We have enough time before the next photoshoot.”
“That’s a yes, then!” Koki shouts and Junno goes to his bag to pull out a deck of cards. Ueda pulls up chairs around the table and drags Shige over to sit down. Jin takes the spot next to him and slings an arm over his shoulders again, grinning. The others sit down and all beam at him and Shige feels his stomach flutter a little. Smiling and trying to hide his blush, he takes the cards from Junno and teaches them the game.
*
“He’s not back yet, why isn’t he back?” Koyama frets, pacing back and forth across the room.
“Can’t I leave?” Kame says loudly.
“No!” Koyama says. “Not until Shige gets back first.”
Kame glares and slouches against the couch.
“Should we just go look for him?” Massu suggests through a mouthful of gyoza.
Kame jumps to his feet. “Good idea! Let’s go.” He rushes out the door and the rest of NewS follow him up to KAT-TUN’s dressing room.
The six of them stop suddenly in front of the door as they hear loud laughter from the other side. Kame furrows his brow, wonders what’s happening; KAT-TUN normally doesn’t laugh that much together. He opens the door and peers inside, the rest of NewS looking over his shoulder, and lets out a yelp when Ryo pushes his head out of the way.
Inside, T-TUN and Shige are laughing loudly as Jin pouts and throws his cards in Koki’s face.
“This game sucks!” he whines, crosses his arms over his chest.
“Akanishi, you lost three times. It means you have to go through with it,” Ueda says between laughs, his eyes shining with amusement.
“I hate you, Shige,” Jin says, but Shige only smiles at him, surprised yet pleased by the change in the way Jin says his name.
“Don’t hate him,” Maru says. “He’s brilliant.”
“Exactly!” Koki says, ruffles Shige’s short hair, and they burst into laughter again.
Kame’s eyes widen at the sight of his band mates acting so amiable together, so friendly, so close, like a real group should. Something tightens in his chest and he wants to look away, but finds he can’t, that the sight mesmerizes him in a strange, slightly painful way.
That’s when he’s finally noticed, Jin turning towards the door, and grins upon seeing them.
“Hey! What’re you doing in the doorway?”
Kame pulls back and walks inside, NewS following suit.
“Sounds like you’re having fun,” Koyama comments, looking pleased.
They all nod and Jin complains to Yamapi about losing three times in a row. Ryo says he’s not surprised and Jin punches his arm.
“How were things for you?” Maru asks Massu.
Massu smiles and says, “Interesting!”
“But Shige’s meant to be with us,” Yamapi adds and grins at Shige who smiles and gets to his feet.
He bows towards AT-TUN and says, “Thanks for everything. Today was fun.”
“We should be thanking you,” Ueda says and the others nod fervently.
Koki punches his shoulder playfully, Junno beams, Maru shakes his hand, and Jin claps him on the back and says, “You make a pretty decent K.”
Shige feels heat in his cheeks and mumbles, “Thanks,” before he leaves with the rest of NewS.
Kame watches him disappear behind the door, then turns to meet the gazes of the other members. They stand awkwardly on their feet, not sure what to say, but Kame breaks the silence first, sitting down in Shige’s previous seat and saying, “Seems like an eventful day for you guys.”
Maru nods and sits as well. “It was interesting.”
“Fun,” Jin adds, grinning still. “He’s a good kid.”
“A better K, too, huh.” The words are out of his mouth before he can stop them, and he stares down at his lap as the statement lingers heavily in the air.
“No,” Ueda finally says. “You are our K. Just like Akanishi’s our A, even though he left for L.A., and just like the rest of us are our respective letters.”
“You guys seemed like a better group with him, though.”
“He was showing us how to be a group. It’s something we’re seriously lacking.”
Kame laughs, short and hollow. “We’re kind of a mess, aren’t we?”
“But do we have to be?” Junno says and they all glance around at each other nervously. They all know many years have passed since they were once close friends, many things have changed about each of them, as a group and as individuals.
“No, we don’t,” Maru finally decides and they all nod at each other, smiling faintly, feeling a new kind of warmth settling in their hearts.
Jin grins at them, reaches for the deck of cards and says, “Kamenashi, let’s play a game.”
And Kame returns the grin and nods.
end.