JE Fic "Won't You Stop It Already"
It was late but some shops were still open. Yamapi looked around the small market to see about three people beside the bored clerk behind his counter. He was a little bit drunk and would be more than just a little bit annoyed if someone would recognise him at this time of night. With a black beanie on his head and huge black eyeglasses; he didn’t exactly look conspicuous but he had hurried out of Ryo’s warm cosy apartment without giving a second thought to his attire. They were in the middle of a Wii championship when they realised that they had indeed eaten all of Ryo’s snacks from last time. Yamapi was so sure that he would win at jakenpon when he proposed it but instead he had to go out in this surprisingly cold night.
He grabbed a basket and started to through the aisles. He was glad that he knew Ryo’s and Jin’s tastes well enough; it was quicker that way. His hand was hovering over which pocky box he wanted for himself when he heard a familiar strain of melody.
Yamapi twisted around in surprise, he was alone in this aisle. He could hear the clerk talking to a customer but that wasn’t it. He carefully listened the quiet lull of the radio. It was an old song from the 70’s whose melody wasn’t the one he knew but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He continued to the next aisle to get the American chips that Jin was always whining about when he heard the humming a bit more loudly this time.
His mind automatically found the words and Yamapi cursed inwardly. That damn song. Someone was humming it inside the store, probably another customer. Yamapi wondered if it was a coincidence, the shelves were high enough to hide behind and he had been so sure of been unrecognised. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t been to karaoke with Koyama and Shige last night and forced to sing the song three times during the evening. Yamapi sighed; it was flattering that people liked that song so much after all. He grabbed a few more items before heading toward the cash register. Two people were already in line with their baskets though neither were singing or humming anything. Yamapi twisted around but from the look of it; no one else was within sight.
Yamapi waited shifting the weight of the basket while the old lady in front took, it seems, her money yen coin by yen coin. He thought of the warm couch and the bottles of beer awaiting him and swore to never loose a jakenpon game ever. But the song came floating back, this time with words.
Yamapi twisted violently, raising his neck to check if someone wasn’t hiding in one of the three aisles this store had. The voice was low and obviously male but stopped after the first line of the chorus before Yamapi could figure out if he knew it. But no one was there, Yamapi was just about to move around to check when the clerk called out that it was his turn.
Yamapi quickly handed out a few bills and stuffed his purchases in two white plastic bags. He had to get out before the song would be stuck in his head for all eternity. He wondered briefly if he wasn’t hallucinating because he was overworked and on the brink of exhaustion. Not that it mattered now, he had to get his revenge on Jin and Ryo and win their championship at all cost. Yamapi walked out with a quick pace, stopping at the street corner to wait for the lights to change. He turned to check if cars were coming from the other side when he heard the song again; this time being whistled perfectly.
Yamapi could feel part of his calm slipping away from him. He would never yell or lash out at a fan but tonight he was almost tempted to. Yamapi steeled himself before turning completely to see who was the culprit. At the store’s entrance, Ohkura Tadayoshi waved a little, his smirking face visible from the distance. Yamapi, defeated, waved back awkwardly holding his bag and watched as Ohkura walk away, still whistling. He should have known that it was him and not assume yet again that Ohkura was three hours away in Osaka. Once more, Yamapi was glad that it was Ryo that was chosen from Kanjani8 to be in News, he didn’t even want to think what all these years would have if Ohkura had been chosen instead. Yamapi shuddered when he even thought what the first two years would have been if it had been Ohkura and Uchi. He would had quit News for sure.
It didn’t take long for Yamapi to reach Ryo’s apartment and watched the other two jump on the bags and pull out the snacks while he took off his shoes.
“Ryo-chan, did you talk with Ohkura by any chance?” Yamapi asked sitting next to Jin on the couch.
“Yeah, he wanted to know if I wanted to go to a bar with him. But I told him I was already with you guys.” Ryo answered, his eyes a little glassy from all the beers he and Jin took in Yamapi’s absence.
Yamapi nodded while he took the joystick Jin offered him, ignoring the smirk growing on Ryo’s face.
“He got you again, right?” Ryo asked even if he knew the answer.
Jin turned toward Ryo when it was obvious that Yamapi wanted to ignore the subject.
“What are you talking about?” Jin asked, he knew Ohkura a little bit better than Yamapi, after all they had spend a summer doing Dreamboys together.
“Tacchon likes to sing Yamapi’s solo songs.” Ryo answered in a mock whisper, his eyes twinkling with glee at the mortified face Yamapi was making right now. He reached subtly in his pocket and nodded once to Jin.
Jin caught on, he glanced briefly at Yamapi before starting their game. He waited a minute or two before starting to sing under his breathe.
“Daite, daite, senorita.”
“BAKANISHI!”
Ryo and Jin laughed while Yamapi fumed, throwing away the joystick muttering loudly that he needed to go to the bathroom. While Yamapi was out of the room, Ryo pressed “send” to the video his cell phone just filmed adding as a text message: “Tacchon-5 Pi-0” while Jin grabbed his side in laughter.