Not as Clueless as Believed *Chapter 8*
Title: Not as Clueless as Believed (Sequel to “He Needs to Know” and “Why their Dinner Burned”)
Author: Stephie
Chapters:8
Pairings: Inoobu, Takayama, Arijima, Hikato, and Chiitaro
Rating: Pg-13 for the moment... I may fluxuate
Genre: General I guess, I'm not good with the whole Genre thing...
Warnings: Adult Topics
Summary: Even though BEST tried their hardest to keep 7 from finding out Yabu’s secret, they didn’t do a very good job. Either by unconsciously checking or downright, full on looking. BEST kept 7 wondering about their new behaviours and it’s all because of Yabu?
Authors Note: This story is a sequel to my latest Multi-Chapter story “He Needs to Know”, and a side story/sequel to the sequel “Why their Dinner Burned” it may make more sense if you have read those two first, but this story will stand by itself as well. As usual, thanks to my betas monijadechan and audreyfan1 .
Chapter 8: Thank Goodness
Takaki arrived at the hospital the minute visiting hours were allowed once again. He acknowledged the receptionist who was shocked to see a person in the hospital this early in the morning, especially one who was just visiting. Once the morning pleasantries were done with her, Takaki walked over to Yabu’s room expecting his four friends to be inside, like he was told. But, strangely enough, they weren’t. “Ohayou,” Takaki said cautiously, to the three occupants that littered the couches in front of their friend’s door. The three of them were sleeping quietly sprawled out uncomfortably, but at least they were sleeping contentedly. Something bad happened, he could feel it. For one there was only three of them that covered these couches and there were no signs, nor room, of a fourth person sleeping on these couches. Confused at this sudden information, Takaki went over to Daiki, the person he knew to be the strongest emotionally at the moment in time, and tried to wake him but to no avail. “He must be exhausted,” Takaki said quietly to himself, unfortunately waking up someone else in the process.
“Takaki-kun?” Yuto sat up slowly, “ohayou,” he greeted casually, “Dai-chan said that you were coming this morning.”
“Ohayou Yuto-kun, what’s going on? I thought you were all supposed to be in there.” Takaki pointed to the door.
“We were supposed to be, but things got worse,” Yuto said softly. “C’mon, I’ll take you to the doctor.” Yuto unsteadily got up from his feet and held on to Takaki for stability. Takaki was confused. Things weren’t supposed to get worse; they were supposed to get better. “We were supposed to bring you to him once you arrived.” Yuto explained, and together they walked slowly to the doctor’s office, which was down the hall. “Sensei,” Yuto said as he knocked weakly against the door. When they heard a “come in” they entered.
“Ohayou Nakajima-kun,” the doctor said professionally, “did something else happen?”
“Not that I know of, we were asleep,” Yuto said and then gestured to Takaki. “I brought Takaki-kun to you, as requested. He’s our other band mate and the second oldest in the group, Kitagawa-san sent him,” Yuto explained to the doctor.
“Sou ka,” the doctor said, “Please, come in.” the doctor gestured to Takaki who was still at the door frame. Takaki looked warily at Yuto but Yuto assured him that it would be fine. Even though, to him, it wasn’t going to be.
“I have to go back to Dai-chan and Hikaru-kun but we’ll be there when you get out. We aren’t going anywhere until we are kicked out.” Yuto explained and turned to walk away, using the wall for support as he moved.
“Sensei, is he alright?” Takaki asked stepping into the office. “Should I go help him and come back?”
“No, no it’s fine, it’s not far,” the doctor said simply. “I know this may come as a shock to you, but early this morning, a different situation occurred with your band mates. Your director is already aware of this fact but I’m sure you were on a plane by the time it occurred.”
Takaki couldn’t say anything; he needed to know what was going on so he waited patiently for the doctor to continue to speak.
“Last night, Inoo-kun went against my strict orders and placed his hands somewhere on Yabu-kun. The orders were simply to not touch the unconscious boy. I don’t know how much you know of the situation so I’ll just start from the beginning. Your band mate has a, habit, let’s say, of cutting himself. Unfortunately for him, what ever blade he was using or what protection was not using caused him to get an infection in one of the cuts.”
The doctor paused. Takaki had already known this part but he gestured for the doctor to keep going, he wanted to know everything, straight from the horse’s mouth.
When Takaki said nothing, the doctor continued, “This infection caused him to stop eating and lose his appetite almost completely, which in turn caused him to lose his energy resulting him to lose consciousness. Luckily we were able to do some quick surgery on him to remove the infected tissue, but the surgery involved a highly active bacteria. This one bacterium is used to take out the infected area. In other words, it eats, so to speak, the infected tissue leaving only the healthy tissue.”
Takaki knew this as well but he still said nothing, he wanted to know what was wrong with Inoo, and why he wasn’t out in the waiting area with Daiki, Yuto and Hikaru. Takaki still said nothing, he was absorbing it all in and he wasn’t going to say anything until the doctor told him everything.
The doctor sensed that Takaki was going to stay silent so he, once again, continued, “last night when, I’m guessing it was you who called Arioka-kun; Inoo-kun had touched the unconscious boy. Then from what we have concluded, the bacterium transferred to him, because the boy hadn’t eaten since about 14hours prior to this state, he too is now unconscious. For Inoo-kun the situation is simple, it is no more than a very high fever that requires him to be hospitalized until his temperature drops. Also, there is no immediate attention needed for the two of them.”
“That’s good news I guess, I mean the last part,” Takaki said calmly “Not the part about Inoo.” On the outside Takaki looked calm and collected, on the inside, he was just as bad as the others, but he was able to hide it better.
When the doctor said nothing, other than a simple head bob to agree with him, Takaki remembered he had to deliver the letter, so he dug into his bag, which he had yet to put down, pulled out the letter from Johnny and handed it to the doctor. The letter itself was sealed by a wax seal so he wasn’t able to read it prior to meeting the doctor.
The other contents of Takaki’s bag were the different sets of clothing that he was to give the four, well in this case three, boys. All of their other luggage was already sent to the nearest hotel that they would be staying in. They had one room this time. “Sensei, I do not know what is in that letter but I really should be getting back to my band mates, they need to change clothes and get some food in them before they starve themselves.”
“Yes, of course,” the doctor said and Takaki got up to leave, but the doctor seemed to remember something and stopped him, “Takaki-kun.”
Takaki turned. “Hmm.”
“Watch out for Arioka-kun,” the doctor warned, “The other two have already accepted everything and let out their tears but Arioka-kun has yet to accept it, he is fighting to stay stronger than the other two, but I’m afraid that once he sees you, he may break as well.
“Sensei, this morning he told me that he was about to break, so all I asked of him was to stay as strong as he can until I got there. I am already prepared to have him break. It is my turn to show my friends, my band mates that I can be the stronger one. This should have never been left to them in the first place, it shouldn’t have happened to anybody, but it did. I would have stayed but we needed one of us to take the younger ones back. As Hey! Say! JUMP are all so very close to our leader, but for the four of them, the situation is different. They have known him since they each joined the agency at the different times, as we all have but theirs is a longer a much longer span of time, so they are more affected by this new situation.”
“That makes sense,” the doctor concluded after listening to Takaki’s small monologue. “Stay strong; there is still a ways to go before the older one wakes. For now we cannot do anything other than monitor them until they wake. This is the honest truth. Inoo-kun should be awake soon but he’ll be very fragile. Yabu-kun is a different story, we are hoping that he wakes today but he may not. You all must be prepared to have one awake but not the other.”
“I am, and I will try to help the others, to the best I can,” Takaki said and he turned to leave but stopped and turned back around. “Sensei, are we allowed in the room?”
“Not until one of them wakes alright, we shouldn’t even be allowing you to go in there at all but because it was asked by your director, we are allowing you. Your band mates are being monitored 100% so if one and/or the other wakes we will know immediately and help them. Please do not enter the room until I tell you so. Only enter when I tell you, not one of the nurses alright.”
“Alright. Thank-you sensei. For everything.” Takaki said repeating the words that Hikaru had said not three hours earlier and walked back casually to where the others were. He was curious as to what was in the letter but it was obviously private so he wasn’t going to snoop. When he reached the others, Daiki and Hikaru were still asleep. Yuto was lying on the same couch as he was earlier, in a similar position, staring at the ceiling; he was unable to physically move, since both of his legs were asleep but it wasn’t as if he wanted to. “Yuto-kun,” Takaki said leaning over the edge of the couch. Yuto’s eyes changed focus into Takaki’s, “do you want to change into some clean clothes?” Takaki showed Yuto his bag, and Yuto nodded vigorously.
“Yes, I hate not being able to change clothes.” Yuto said and he jumped up from his seat, which turned into somewhat of a fail since his legs were asleep. After a minute of just standing there, waiting for the feeling to come back, he grabbed the handful of clothes that Takaki had taken out of his bag and shuffled weakly over to the nearest washroom, the same place where they had cleaned up a few hours prior. Takaki smiled at the younger one’s antics and settled into the warm couch that Yuto had just been lying. Takaki didn’t want to wake the others just yet. Let them sleep; besides sleep is where nothing truly bad can happen right? They were already living a nightmare, so what else could disturb them.
Yuto came back not five minutes later feeling refreshed, he looked better too. Not that he was, but his complexion was no longer solemn and awful as it had been when Takaki left them yesterday. “Takaki,” Yuto sat down beside him.
“Hmm?” Takaki was exhausted but he had caught some Z’s on the car ride back home as well as the plane ride here, but it was not enough. He had eaten though so his energy level was higher than the other’s at least.
“You look exhausted, why don’t you sleep?” Yuto told him, he was being a good sempai.
“No it’s fine, besides I should get you guys some food to eat,” Takaki said and jumped up from his seat. ‘So much for sitting down for a moment,’ Takaki thought as he headed off in the direction of the hospital cafeteria which he had spent about forty-five minutes in there with Yamada searching for a specific strawberry flavoured food that he could not remember for the life of him, they didn’t have it anyways so it didn’t really matter.
Yuto was unable to do anything but sit there. After about five minutes he was bored. To pass the time, even if for a minute or two, he rummaged through Takaki’s bag. Takaki had left it there for Yuto to watch while he was gone. Yuto threw aside the piles of clothes that were neatly placed in there and found the jackpot sitting at the bottom of the bag was a Nintendo DS; Yuto happily pulled it out and started playing.
“Thanks Yama-chan,” Yuto said aloud smiling at the DS. Takaki did not own a DS but Yamada did this one was red with a strawberry on it, obviously Yamada’s. “At least I have something to do.” Yuto flipped the switch to turn on the game and was soon immersed in it. Nothing was going to break him from his stupor, except maybe hot food being shoved in his face.
~~~~~
Takaki was gone about ten minutes, he had to wait there for the hospital cafeteria staff to actually make something and put it out. He was annoyed. They kept him waiting and his friends could have woken up by now. “What happened to the BEST medicine?” Takaki asked while he was standing there, waiting. “Aren’t we supposed to help our friends?” He was talking to himself although he thought it was inside his head that he was having this inner battle, unfortunately he was speaking aloud and gaining some interesting looks from the few people around him. “Ah sorry,” he said when he finally realized what he had said.
The hospital staff and the few guests and patients that were around him just shook their heads, a few of them muttering something about teenagers, but Takaki just brushed that off. He had things to do, and people to see. He quickly got some food, things that he could carry, and brought it back to his friends.
When Takaki returned, Daiki and Hikaru were still fast asleep, unnerved by their peaceful slumber, Yuto on the other hand was playing Yamada’s DS. “Where’d you get that from?” Takaki asked simply while placing some food in front of him, unfortunately he got no answer. “Yuto~” Takaki sing-songed, but again he got no response.
After about a minute, Takaki gave up and moved some warm food in front of his face, back and forth, this broke him out of his trance. “Oi! Oh, Takaki when did you get back?”
“A few minutes ago, don’t mind that, eat something warm. I’ll wake the others,” Takaki said while shoving some warmed bread into his friend’s hands. “Dai-chan,” Takaki said soothingly while placing his hand on Daiki’s shoulder, “It’s time to wake up.” He again got no response. Takaki sighed and moved over to Hikaru. “Hikaru, time to get up.” Again he got nothing. He turned to his last hope, “Yuto, why won’t they wake?”
Yuto sighed and moved over to Hikaru, “Hikaru, Keito’s going to share all of his breakfast with you and give you a treat after!” Yuto said happily. Hikaru’s eyes shot open, and he bolted up. Yuto laughed once again, having fooled him more than once.
“Hey! That’s mean!” Hikaru whined while looking at Yuto. “Takaki, scold him. Will you?” Hikaru asked turning his head to Takaki. Yuto fell back into his seat laughing his head off, it worked. “Takaki!” Hikaru realized he was finally there. “When did you get here?”
“About forty-five minutes ago,” Takaki said, looking at his watch. “It’s been hectic for you, hasn’t it, but I brought food, so eat up, while it’s warm.” Takaki pointed to the spread of food that now littered the small coffee table in front of them.
Hikaru nodded unable to really say anything, he was relieved yet scared, he was happy and sad, he was complete and yet he was still broken, but he was getting better. He took in his surroundings wondering why he was on the couches instead of in the room and then it all came back to him. The guilt, the fear, the emotions his expressed yesterday were nothing compared to the mixed feelings he was having right now. Tears welled in his eyes but he fought hard to force them back down, today everything was going to be alright, some announcer is going to pop out and say surprise, then everybody will laugh and say they were just messing with him, and then Yabu and Inoo would come out of the room laughing their heads off and congratulating each other on their fabulous acting skills. But that was not something that was going to happen, that wish went down the toilet as Takaki tried to soothingly wake Daiki.
Takaki turned toward Hikaru and watched him; he wasn’t eating more like staring into space, “Hikaru eat.” Takaki demanded. He picked up a warm bun from the table and placed it in Hikaru’s hands. Hikaru just stared down at it.
Hikaru looked at the bun, then at Takaki, and then at Yuto, a couple times, before finally taking a bite of the bun in his hand. Hikaru wanted to yell that it was delicious, but he remembered where he was and the time of day and stayed quiet.
“Dai-chan, it’s time to wake up!” Takaki said more forcefully, but nothing “How do I wake him up?”
“Just let him sleep,” Hikaru said rudely. “You don’t know what he went through yesterday. Taking care of the three of us was hard for him; I don’t think he has ever had to do that before.”
“Takaki,” Yuto said, “Hikaru’s right, Dai-chan, stayed awake almost the entire night, watching over us while we slept, he was the first one to deal with Yabu’s condition as well, since he was the only one who was able to move let alone hold a conversation yesterday. Dai-chan’s feeling the guilt of what happened with Inoo-chan as well. If he hadn’t left the room for that phone call, Inoo-chan would still be perfectly fine. But don’t blame yourself, you didn’t know. We would all be in there instead of here and we would be waking up to the beeping of the monitors instead of the bustling of nurses.”
“It is all, my fault then,” Takaki said simply.
“No, it’s not, you didn’t know that we were in there, we didn’t know that Inoopapa would wake up, we didn’t know that he would have lost control and went over to Yabu-kun, we didn’t know, and neither could you. Don’t blame yourself for what happened alright. This must have happened for a reason alright, things will get better, but they have to get worse beforehand.”
“That is some weird logic,” Hikaru added once Yuto took a pause.
“Yes, but it makes sense and that is the good thing,” Yuto replied, “Things already went worse now the only thing they can do is get better, right?”
“Wrong,” Takaki said. “Things can always get worse, don’t think that just because two of our group is in there that we’ve hit bottom, there is always the chance that things can get worse. Besides if you say “things can’t get any worse” they always will. No matter how optimistic your point of view is, they will always get worse, we haven’t hit bottom yet, so there is that possibility.”
“Way to be optimistic Takaki,” Daiki said sarcastically.
“Dai-chan you’re awake!” Hikaru turned.
“Yeah, I woke up through the middle of Yuto’s explanation there.” Daiki sat up weakly and shakily reached for a can of coffee. Takaki handed him one instead. “Thank-you for coming Takaki, is everyone home alright?”
“Yes, they are, as I said this morning.”
“I’m sorry, a lot has happened since we got off the phone, how are the others?”
“They are shaken up, they should be at school by now, Johnny-san wanted them to attempt to go back to normal as we will have to as well,” Takaki said. “I want you guys to eat all of this, and then change into some clean clothes; I have to go give Johnny-san a call.”
“Alright,” Daiki and Hikaru said together. Yuto had already eaten a good amount of it so he grabbed a can of juice and leaned back into the couch. Takaki got up and went to an area where they could have their cell phones on.
~~~~~~
“Moshi-moshi,” Takaki heard through the phone.
“Johnny-san, it’s Takaki. Have you heard?” Takaki asked casually forgetting completely who he was talking to.
“Yes, Inoo-kun has been infected as well.”
“Yes, what are we going to do now?” Takaki asked, this time more politely. “Are you going to tell the others?”
“I will, when they come for practice they will be told of Inoo-kun’s condition as well as Yabu-kun’s condition. Until then they are to be at school like normal and answer as little questions as possible.”
“Alright, thank-you, are we four now, supposed to stick with the original plan or is that being skewed with too?”
“You four will stay with the original plan, just adapt it a little, the hotel room already booked under your band’s name, the doctor’s already told me that Yabu-kun is expected to wake today but again it is not certain. Takaki-kun, you must be ready for what ever happens.”
“I will be, mentally and physically prepared, I’ve had enough sleep and I’ve eaten so I’m not as weak as the other three are. They are eating at this moment.”
“Good, they will need their strength as well.”
“Johnny-san, you sound as if something bad is going to happen, do you know something that we don’t?”
“Yes, but no I won’t share. All you four can do is be prepared for whatever is going to happen alright,” he said through the phone. Takaki looked at his phone, what was this guy saying? Was he nuts?
“Alright, we will be,” Takaki said, he didn’t know what else to say, what was there to say, the doctors were keeping quiet, their director was keeping quiet, their two friends were unconscious, part of their group was told to stay as normal as possible, the rest them were heartbroken and guilty, displaying a multitude of emotions. “Goodbye.” Takaki said as their conversation finished, he waited for the goodbye in return from Johnny-san before hanging up the phone. He had a lot to think about. “Please wake up soon.”
~~~~~~
When Takaki was gone Daiki Hikaru and Yuto finished off the food that was displayed in front of them, as a favour to Takaki they made sure that they ate it all while he was gone and while it was still warm. “What do you think Takaki had to talk to Johnny-san about?” Yuto asked while looking at the two others.
“Something about the situation, make sure he knows about it and to tell him that he arrived and was now in somewhat of a control on the situation,” Daiki said casually.
“Besides it’s about time right,” Hikaru said.
“Huh?” Yuto asked Hikaru, he was confused.
“BEST medicine,” Hikaru stated simply. “We will help get the rest of BEST better because it is necessary for the medicine to take place.”
“Again huh?” Yuto asked, this time he was looking at Daiki, “what is he talking about?”
“The reason why we had Yabu to confess his, um, problem in the first place is because we were all joking about, we had found out, the hard way that together we are stronger emotionally than separately. Before we even found out about Yabu, and he had just up and left us, we each took separate turns trying to convince him to come back, to let us help him when organizing JUMP, we tried separately and failed, each ending up making the situation worse. I think it was the evening after I talked to Yabu that this all started. Before, he would have just left in an angry fit, escaping the situation that he did not want to be in, but I confronted him at his own house. Something he can’t escape from. If you remember that night when you met us at that café my face was all blotchy like I had been crying, that was because I was. Yabu and I were verbally fighting each other, yelling back and forth until we both snapped. Instead of escaping the situation, we cried, he eventually just kicked me out angrily but he even yelled at his mother while I was on my way out. I really think it all started there.”
“You guys confronted him at his house?” Hikaru asked.
“Yeah, it was stupid I know, but I was bringing his bag back to him, if you remember correctly, you were mad at him for breaking up your water war with Yuto~”
“Which, I won by the way,” Hikaru interrupted.
“Did not!” Yuto fought back childishly.
“Guys! Not here!” Daiki stopped them and then continued, “he was afraid to go in the room because of whatever evil plot you two had cooking, I know you never went through with it because he has disappeared but either way I brought his bag to him and we well have a verbal match with both sides losing.”
“It’s my fault?” Hikaru asked.
“No, don’t blame yourself it’s nobody’s fault.” Takaki said coming around the corner.
“Takaki you’re back!” Yuto said happily.
“Yes I’m back,” Takaki said and he slid into the seat beside Yuto and started to explain, “Johnny-san is aware of the situation with Inoo-kun, Chinen, Yama-chan, Keito and Ryutaro are in school staying quiet, they will be notified of the situation when they are done school, that way it won’t cause any more unnecessary media attention. Tonight we will stay in the nearest hotel to here, and we will return in the morning to check on them. We are also not allowed to enter their room until that doctor says so, not one of the nurses, just him and only him.”
“Hacchibee, Yu-kun, Dai-chan, Takaki-kun, what are you guys doing here?” Four heads turned or looked up to the very familiar voice. Their eyes widened all at the same time.
The End
Author's Note: So there it is, the final chapter to my almost four month-long trilogy. I hope you liked it. Since I am now out of my depressed state I was able to write and write a lot. This chapter was about nine pages in my word processsor making it longer than chapter 6 and longer than chapter 7, that is something I'm quite proud of. But the trick is on you, it's not done yet. If you want more, because there is actually one more chapter written already, like I said I was motivated, Chapter 8 has been split in to Chapter 8 and Chapter 9. This is a sort of a test to see if people actually read Author's Notes or if they just skip to the commenting stage. But I must go to work now, have fun in anticipation. Confetti in comments = love. Thanks to Jasmine (just_mine23 ) for inspiration once again, she, in her own way helped me, our conversations inspired me with these chapters so I thank you for that.
Thanks again to all those who have read and stuck by me these past few months. Your comments were really appreciated so I am taking time to aknowledge them now.
Author: Stephie
Chapters:8
Pairings: Inoobu, Takayama, Arijima, Hikato, and Chiitaro
Rating: Pg-13 for the moment... I may fluxuate
Genre: General I guess, I'm not good with the whole Genre thing...
Warnings: Adult Topics
Summary: Even though BEST tried their hardest to keep 7 from finding out Yabu’s secret, they didn’t do a very good job. Either by unconsciously checking or downright, full on looking. BEST kept 7 wondering about their new behaviours and it’s all because of Yabu?
Authors Note: This story is a sequel to my latest Multi-Chapter story “He Needs to Know”, and a side story/sequel to the sequel “Why their Dinner Burned” it may make more sense if you have read those two first, but this story will stand by itself as well. As usual, thanks to my betas monijadechan and audreyfan1 .
Chapter 8: Thank Goodness
Takaki arrived at the hospital the minute visiting hours were allowed once again. He acknowledged the receptionist who was shocked to see a person in the hospital this early in the morning, especially one who was just visiting. Once the morning pleasantries were done with her, Takaki walked over to Yabu’s room expecting his four friends to be inside, like he was told. But, strangely enough, they weren’t. “Ohayou,” Takaki said cautiously, to the three occupants that littered the couches in front of their friend’s door. The three of them were sleeping quietly sprawled out uncomfortably, but at least they were sleeping contentedly. Something bad happened, he could feel it. For one there was only three of them that covered these couches and there were no signs, nor room, of a fourth person sleeping on these couches. Confused at this sudden information, Takaki went over to Daiki, the person he knew to be the strongest emotionally at the moment in time, and tried to wake him but to no avail. “He must be exhausted,” Takaki said quietly to himself, unfortunately waking up someone else in the process.
“Takaki-kun?” Yuto sat up slowly, “ohayou,” he greeted casually, “Dai-chan said that you were coming this morning.”
“Ohayou Yuto-kun, what’s going on? I thought you were all supposed to be in there.” Takaki pointed to the door.
“We were supposed to be, but things got worse,” Yuto said softly. “C’mon, I’ll take you to the doctor.” Yuto unsteadily got up from his feet and held on to Takaki for stability. Takaki was confused. Things weren’t supposed to get worse; they were supposed to get better. “We were supposed to bring you to him once you arrived.” Yuto explained, and together they walked slowly to the doctor’s office, which was down the hall. “Sensei,” Yuto said as he knocked weakly against the door. When they heard a “come in” they entered.
“Ohayou Nakajima-kun,” the doctor said professionally, “did something else happen?”
“Not that I know of, we were asleep,” Yuto said and then gestured to Takaki. “I brought Takaki-kun to you, as requested. He’s our other band mate and the second oldest in the group, Kitagawa-san sent him,” Yuto explained to the doctor.
“Sou ka,” the doctor said, “Please, come in.” the doctor gestured to Takaki who was still at the door frame. Takaki looked warily at Yuto but Yuto assured him that it would be fine. Even though, to him, it wasn’t going to be.
“I have to go back to Dai-chan and Hikaru-kun but we’ll be there when you get out. We aren’t going anywhere until we are kicked out.” Yuto explained and turned to walk away, using the wall for support as he moved.
“Sensei, is he alright?” Takaki asked stepping into the office. “Should I go help him and come back?”
“No, no it’s fine, it’s not far,” the doctor said simply. “I know this may come as a shock to you, but early this morning, a different situation occurred with your band mates. Your director is already aware of this fact but I’m sure you were on a plane by the time it occurred.”
Takaki couldn’t say anything; he needed to know what was going on so he waited patiently for the doctor to continue to speak.
“Last night, Inoo-kun went against my strict orders and placed his hands somewhere on Yabu-kun. The orders were simply to not touch the unconscious boy. I don’t know how much you know of the situation so I’ll just start from the beginning. Your band mate has a, habit, let’s say, of cutting himself. Unfortunately for him, what ever blade he was using or what protection was not using caused him to get an infection in one of the cuts.”
The doctor paused. Takaki had already known this part but he gestured for the doctor to keep going, he wanted to know everything, straight from the horse’s mouth.
When Takaki said nothing, the doctor continued, “This infection caused him to stop eating and lose his appetite almost completely, which in turn caused him to lose his energy resulting him to lose consciousness. Luckily we were able to do some quick surgery on him to remove the infected tissue, but the surgery involved a highly active bacteria. This one bacterium is used to take out the infected area. In other words, it eats, so to speak, the infected tissue leaving only the healthy tissue.”
Takaki knew this as well but he still said nothing, he wanted to know what was wrong with Inoo, and why he wasn’t out in the waiting area with Daiki, Yuto and Hikaru. Takaki still said nothing, he was absorbing it all in and he wasn’t going to say anything until the doctor told him everything.
The doctor sensed that Takaki was going to stay silent so he, once again, continued, “last night when, I’m guessing it was you who called Arioka-kun; Inoo-kun had touched the unconscious boy. Then from what we have concluded, the bacterium transferred to him, because the boy hadn’t eaten since about 14hours prior to this state, he too is now unconscious. For Inoo-kun the situation is simple, it is no more than a very high fever that requires him to be hospitalized until his temperature drops. Also, there is no immediate attention needed for the two of them.”
“That’s good news I guess, I mean the last part,” Takaki said calmly “Not the part about Inoo.” On the outside Takaki looked calm and collected, on the inside, he was just as bad as the others, but he was able to hide it better.
When the doctor said nothing, other than a simple head bob to agree with him, Takaki remembered he had to deliver the letter, so he dug into his bag, which he had yet to put down, pulled out the letter from Johnny and handed it to the doctor. The letter itself was sealed by a wax seal so he wasn’t able to read it prior to meeting the doctor.
The other contents of Takaki’s bag were the different sets of clothing that he was to give the four, well in this case three, boys. All of their other luggage was already sent to the nearest hotel that they would be staying in. They had one room this time. “Sensei, I do not know what is in that letter but I really should be getting back to my band mates, they need to change clothes and get some food in them before they starve themselves.”
“Yes, of course,” the doctor said and Takaki got up to leave, but the doctor seemed to remember something and stopped him, “Takaki-kun.”
Takaki turned. “Hmm.”
“Watch out for Arioka-kun,” the doctor warned, “The other two have already accepted everything and let out their tears but Arioka-kun has yet to accept it, he is fighting to stay stronger than the other two, but I’m afraid that once he sees you, he may break as well.
“Sensei, this morning he told me that he was about to break, so all I asked of him was to stay as strong as he can until I got there. I am already prepared to have him break. It is my turn to show my friends, my band mates that I can be the stronger one. This should have never been left to them in the first place, it shouldn’t have happened to anybody, but it did. I would have stayed but we needed one of us to take the younger ones back. As Hey! Say! JUMP are all so very close to our leader, but for the four of them, the situation is different. They have known him since they each joined the agency at the different times, as we all have but theirs is a longer a much longer span of time, so they are more affected by this new situation.”
“That makes sense,” the doctor concluded after listening to Takaki’s small monologue. “Stay strong; there is still a ways to go before the older one wakes. For now we cannot do anything other than monitor them until they wake. This is the honest truth. Inoo-kun should be awake soon but he’ll be very fragile. Yabu-kun is a different story, we are hoping that he wakes today but he may not. You all must be prepared to have one awake but not the other.”
“I am, and I will try to help the others, to the best I can,” Takaki said and he turned to leave but stopped and turned back around. “Sensei, are we allowed in the room?”
“Not until one of them wakes alright, we shouldn’t even be allowing you to go in there at all but because it was asked by your director, we are allowing you. Your band mates are being monitored 100% so if one and/or the other wakes we will know immediately and help them. Please do not enter the room until I tell you so. Only enter when I tell you, not one of the nurses alright.”
“Alright. Thank-you sensei. For everything.” Takaki said repeating the words that Hikaru had said not three hours earlier and walked back casually to where the others were. He was curious as to what was in the letter but it was obviously private so he wasn’t going to snoop. When he reached the others, Daiki and Hikaru were still asleep. Yuto was lying on the same couch as he was earlier, in a similar position, staring at the ceiling; he was unable to physically move, since both of his legs were asleep but it wasn’t as if he wanted to. “Yuto-kun,” Takaki said leaning over the edge of the couch. Yuto’s eyes changed focus into Takaki’s, “do you want to change into some clean clothes?” Takaki showed Yuto his bag, and Yuto nodded vigorously.
“Yes, I hate not being able to change clothes.” Yuto said and he jumped up from his seat, which turned into somewhat of a fail since his legs were asleep. After a minute of just standing there, waiting for the feeling to come back, he grabbed the handful of clothes that Takaki had taken out of his bag and shuffled weakly over to the nearest washroom, the same place where they had cleaned up a few hours prior. Takaki smiled at the younger one’s antics and settled into the warm couch that Yuto had just been lying. Takaki didn’t want to wake the others just yet. Let them sleep; besides sleep is where nothing truly bad can happen right? They were already living a nightmare, so what else could disturb them.
Yuto came back not five minutes later feeling refreshed, he looked better too. Not that he was, but his complexion was no longer solemn and awful as it had been when Takaki left them yesterday. “Takaki,” Yuto sat down beside him.
“Hmm?” Takaki was exhausted but he had caught some Z’s on the car ride back home as well as the plane ride here, but it was not enough. He had eaten though so his energy level was higher than the other’s at least.
“You look exhausted, why don’t you sleep?” Yuto told him, he was being a good sempai.
“No it’s fine, besides I should get you guys some food to eat,” Takaki said and jumped up from his seat. ‘So much for sitting down for a moment,’ Takaki thought as he headed off in the direction of the hospital cafeteria which he had spent about forty-five minutes in there with Yamada searching for a specific strawberry flavoured food that he could not remember for the life of him, they didn’t have it anyways so it didn’t really matter.
Yuto was unable to do anything but sit there. After about five minutes he was bored. To pass the time, even if for a minute or two, he rummaged through Takaki’s bag. Takaki had left it there for Yuto to watch while he was gone. Yuto threw aside the piles of clothes that were neatly placed in there and found the jackpot sitting at the bottom of the bag was a Nintendo DS; Yuto happily pulled it out and started playing.
“Thanks Yama-chan,” Yuto said aloud smiling at the DS. Takaki did not own a DS but Yamada did this one was red with a strawberry on it, obviously Yamada’s. “At least I have something to do.” Yuto flipped the switch to turn on the game and was soon immersed in it. Nothing was going to break him from his stupor, except maybe hot food being shoved in his face.
~~~~~
Takaki was gone about ten minutes, he had to wait there for the hospital cafeteria staff to actually make something and put it out. He was annoyed. They kept him waiting and his friends could have woken up by now. “What happened to the BEST medicine?” Takaki asked while he was standing there, waiting. “Aren’t we supposed to help our friends?” He was talking to himself although he thought it was inside his head that he was having this inner battle, unfortunately he was speaking aloud and gaining some interesting looks from the few people around him. “Ah sorry,” he said when he finally realized what he had said.
The hospital staff and the few guests and patients that were around him just shook their heads, a few of them muttering something about teenagers, but Takaki just brushed that off. He had things to do, and people to see. He quickly got some food, things that he could carry, and brought it back to his friends.
When Takaki returned, Daiki and Hikaru were still fast asleep, unnerved by their peaceful slumber, Yuto on the other hand was playing Yamada’s DS. “Where’d you get that from?” Takaki asked simply while placing some food in front of him, unfortunately he got no answer. “Yuto~” Takaki sing-songed, but again he got no response.
After about a minute, Takaki gave up and moved some warm food in front of his face, back and forth, this broke him out of his trance. “Oi! Oh, Takaki when did you get back?”
“A few minutes ago, don’t mind that, eat something warm. I’ll wake the others,” Takaki said while shoving some warmed bread into his friend’s hands. “Dai-chan,” Takaki said soothingly while placing his hand on Daiki’s shoulder, “It’s time to wake up.” He again got no response. Takaki sighed and moved over to Hikaru. “Hikaru, time to get up.” Again he got nothing. He turned to his last hope, “Yuto, why won’t they wake?”
Yuto sighed and moved over to Hikaru, “Hikaru, Keito’s going to share all of his breakfast with you and give you a treat after!” Yuto said happily. Hikaru’s eyes shot open, and he bolted up. Yuto laughed once again, having fooled him more than once.
“Hey! That’s mean!” Hikaru whined while looking at Yuto. “Takaki, scold him. Will you?” Hikaru asked turning his head to Takaki. Yuto fell back into his seat laughing his head off, it worked. “Takaki!” Hikaru realized he was finally there. “When did you get here?”
“About forty-five minutes ago,” Takaki said, looking at his watch. “It’s been hectic for you, hasn’t it, but I brought food, so eat up, while it’s warm.” Takaki pointed to the spread of food that now littered the small coffee table in front of them.
Hikaru nodded unable to really say anything, he was relieved yet scared, he was happy and sad, he was complete and yet he was still broken, but he was getting better. He took in his surroundings wondering why he was on the couches instead of in the room and then it all came back to him. The guilt, the fear, the emotions his expressed yesterday were nothing compared to the mixed feelings he was having right now. Tears welled in his eyes but he fought hard to force them back down, today everything was going to be alright, some announcer is going to pop out and say surprise, then everybody will laugh and say they were just messing with him, and then Yabu and Inoo would come out of the room laughing their heads off and congratulating each other on their fabulous acting skills. But that was not something that was going to happen, that wish went down the toilet as Takaki tried to soothingly wake Daiki.
Takaki turned toward Hikaru and watched him; he wasn’t eating more like staring into space, “Hikaru eat.” Takaki demanded. He picked up a warm bun from the table and placed it in Hikaru’s hands. Hikaru just stared down at it.
Hikaru looked at the bun, then at Takaki, and then at Yuto, a couple times, before finally taking a bite of the bun in his hand. Hikaru wanted to yell that it was delicious, but he remembered where he was and the time of day and stayed quiet.
“Dai-chan, it’s time to wake up!” Takaki said more forcefully, but nothing “How do I wake him up?”
“Just let him sleep,” Hikaru said rudely. “You don’t know what he went through yesterday. Taking care of the three of us was hard for him; I don’t think he has ever had to do that before.”
“Takaki,” Yuto said, “Hikaru’s right, Dai-chan, stayed awake almost the entire night, watching over us while we slept, he was the first one to deal with Yabu’s condition as well, since he was the only one who was able to move let alone hold a conversation yesterday. Dai-chan’s feeling the guilt of what happened with Inoo-chan as well. If he hadn’t left the room for that phone call, Inoo-chan would still be perfectly fine. But don’t blame yourself, you didn’t know. We would all be in there instead of here and we would be waking up to the beeping of the monitors instead of the bustling of nurses.”
“It is all, my fault then,” Takaki said simply.
“No, it’s not, you didn’t know that we were in there, we didn’t know that Inoopapa would wake up, we didn’t know that he would have lost control and went over to Yabu-kun, we didn’t know, and neither could you. Don’t blame yourself for what happened alright. This must have happened for a reason alright, things will get better, but they have to get worse beforehand.”
“That is some weird logic,” Hikaru added once Yuto took a pause.
“Yes, but it makes sense and that is the good thing,” Yuto replied, “Things already went worse now the only thing they can do is get better, right?”
“Wrong,” Takaki said. “Things can always get worse, don’t think that just because two of our group is in there that we’ve hit bottom, there is always the chance that things can get worse. Besides if you say “things can’t get any worse” they always will. No matter how optimistic your point of view is, they will always get worse, we haven’t hit bottom yet, so there is that possibility.”
“Way to be optimistic Takaki,” Daiki said sarcastically.
“Dai-chan you’re awake!” Hikaru turned.
“Yeah, I woke up through the middle of Yuto’s explanation there.” Daiki sat up weakly and shakily reached for a can of coffee. Takaki handed him one instead. “Thank-you for coming Takaki, is everyone home alright?”
“Yes, they are, as I said this morning.”
“I’m sorry, a lot has happened since we got off the phone, how are the others?”
“They are shaken up, they should be at school by now, Johnny-san wanted them to attempt to go back to normal as we will have to as well,” Takaki said. “I want you guys to eat all of this, and then change into some clean clothes; I have to go give Johnny-san a call.”
“Alright,” Daiki and Hikaru said together. Yuto had already eaten a good amount of it so he grabbed a can of juice and leaned back into the couch. Takaki got up and went to an area where they could have their cell phones on.
~~~~~~
“Moshi-moshi,” Takaki heard through the phone.
“Johnny-san, it’s Takaki. Have you heard?” Takaki asked casually forgetting completely who he was talking to.
“Yes, Inoo-kun has been infected as well.”
“Yes, what are we going to do now?” Takaki asked, this time more politely. “Are you going to tell the others?”
“I will, when they come for practice they will be told of Inoo-kun’s condition as well as Yabu-kun’s condition. Until then they are to be at school like normal and answer as little questions as possible.”
“Alright, thank-you, are we four now, supposed to stick with the original plan or is that being skewed with too?”
“You four will stay with the original plan, just adapt it a little, the hotel room already booked under your band’s name, the doctor’s already told me that Yabu-kun is expected to wake today but again it is not certain. Takaki-kun, you must be ready for what ever happens.”
“I will be, mentally and physically prepared, I’ve had enough sleep and I’ve eaten so I’m not as weak as the other three are. They are eating at this moment.”
“Good, they will need their strength as well.”
“Johnny-san, you sound as if something bad is going to happen, do you know something that we don’t?”
“Yes, but no I won’t share. All you four can do is be prepared for whatever is going to happen alright,” he said through the phone. Takaki looked at his phone, what was this guy saying? Was he nuts?
“Alright, we will be,” Takaki said, he didn’t know what else to say, what was there to say, the doctors were keeping quiet, their director was keeping quiet, their two friends were unconscious, part of their group was told to stay as normal as possible, the rest them were heartbroken and guilty, displaying a multitude of emotions. “Goodbye.” Takaki said as their conversation finished, he waited for the goodbye in return from Johnny-san before hanging up the phone. He had a lot to think about. “Please wake up soon.”
~~~~~~
When Takaki was gone Daiki Hikaru and Yuto finished off the food that was displayed in front of them, as a favour to Takaki they made sure that they ate it all while he was gone and while it was still warm. “What do you think Takaki had to talk to Johnny-san about?” Yuto asked while looking at the two others.
“Something about the situation, make sure he knows about it and to tell him that he arrived and was now in somewhat of a control on the situation,” Daiki said casually.
“Besides it’s about time right,” Hikaru said.
“Huh?” Yuto asked Hikaru, he was confused.
“BEST medicine,” Hikaru stated simply. “We will help get the rest of BEST better because it is necessary for the medicine to take place.”
“Again huh?” Yuto asked, this time he was looking at Daiki, “what is he talking about?”
“The reason why we had Yabu to confess his, um, problem in the first place is because we were all joking about, we had found out, the hard way that together we are stronger emotionally than separately. Before we even found out about Yabu, and he had just up and left us, we each took separate turns trying to convince him to come back, to let us help him when organizing JUMP, we tried separately and failed, each ending up making the situation worse. I think it was the evening after I talked to Yabu that this all started. Before, he would have just left in an angry fit, escaping the situation that he did not want to be in, but I confronted him at his own house. Something he can’t escape from. If you remember that night when you met us at that café my face was all blotchy like I had been crying, that was because I was. Yabu and I were verbally fighting each other, yelling back and forth until we both snapped. Instead of escaping the situation, we cried, he eventually just kicked me out angrily but he even yelled at his mother while I was on my way out. I really think it all started there.”
“You guys confronted him at his house?” Hikaru asked.
“Yeah, it was stupid I know, but I was bringing his bag back to him, if you remember correctly, you were mad at him for breaking up your water war with Yuto~”
“Which, I won by the way,” Hikaru interrupted.
“Did not!” Yuto fought back childishly.
“Guys! Not here!” Daiki stopped them and then continued, “he was afraid to go in the room because of whatever evil plot you two had cooking, I know you never went through with it because he has disappeared but either way I brought his bag to him and we well have a verbal match with both sides losing.”
“It’s my fault?” Hikaru asked.
“No, don’t blame yourself it’s nobody’s fault.” Takaki said coming around the corner.
“Takaki you’re back!” Yuto said happily.
“Yes I’m back,” Takaki said and he slid into the seat beside Yuto and started to explain, “Johnny-san is aware of the situation with Inoo-kun, Chinen, Yama-chan, Keito and Ryutaro are in school staying quiet, they will be notified of the situation when they are done school, that way it won’t cause any more unnecessary media attention. Tonight we will stay in the nearest hotel to here, and we will return in the morning to check on them. We are also not allowed to enter their room until that doctor says so, not one of the nurses, just him and only him.”
“Hacchibee, Yu-kun, Dai-chan, Takaki-kun, what are you guys doing here?” Four heads turned or looked up to the very familiar voice. Their eyes widened all at the same time.
The End
Author's Note: So there it is, the final chapter to my almost four month-long trilogy. I hope you liked it. Since I am now out of my depressed state I was able to write and write a lot. This chapter was about nine pages in my word processsor making it longer than chapter 6 and longer than chapter 7, that is something I'm quite proud of. But the trick is on you, it's not done yet. If you want more, because there is actually one more chapter written already, like I said I was motivated, Chapter 8 has been split in to Chapter 8 and Chapter 9. This is a sort of a test to see if people actually read Author's Notes or if they just skip to the commenting stage. But I must go to work now, have fun in anticipation. Confetti in comments = love. Thanks to Jasmine (just_mine23 ) for inspiration once again, she, in her own way helped me, our conversations inspired me with these chapters so I thank you for that.
Thanks again to all those who have read and stuck by me these past few months. Your comments were really appreciated so I am taking time to aknowledge them now.