Title: Happy Singles’ Awareness Day
Author: Unare Haineko
Pairing: MatsuMiya friendship, but elements of Juntoshi and Sakuraiba
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Romance is so overrated. Nino entertains the idea that he might be lacking in the romantic relationship area. But after seeing Sakuraiba and Juntoshi dynamics, he realizes there is only one who makes him happy. Short and bittersweet. *cackle*
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For the lovely
mmestrange …
Happy Singles’ Awareness Day
Ninomiya Kazunari sat at the counter of a secluded bar in Kagurazaka staring into his half drunk glass of beer. The bar itself was rather empty for it was a Sunday evening and Valentine’s Day no less. Even the alcoholics had gone home to their wives to make up for one year’s worth of romantic neglect. How was it possible that he who was good looking enough to read the local news was without a date on Valentine’s Day? It was very possible for someone who had been down on his luck ever since the economy had gone bad.
Nino worked at the small local television station SBS (Storm Broadcasting System-Arashi Housou 嵐放送), a station known to only hire good-looking men and women. Last spring, with the economy the way that it was, many university seniors were putting off job hunting in favor of extending their education another year due to the poor job market conditions. Nino had barely managed to get a job and was one of two employees hired at SBS that year. The other employee that was hired was another young man by the name of Matsumoto Jun, or ‘MatsuJun’ as he was referred to affectionately. Not only was this MatsuJun character better looking than Nino, it always seemed that his presence seemed to overwhelm whatever Nino did. This was constantly a source of annoyance for Nino was clearly the more competent one and never stuttered while reading the news and was always able to say what he needed to say within the time frame he was given. But despite proving his superiority over Jun, people always remembered the ‘taller, better-looking new guy’.
When it came to overall appeal to the opposite sex, of course all the beautiful ladies (sluts, and man whores as well) flocked to Jun. Jun was always polite, but it soon became clear that he was not interested in women or greasy morally impoverished men. Nino thought that Jun’s popularity would decline once people found out that he was gay, but sexual orientation was not a big deal at SBS. In fact, as soon as some of the women found out that he found other men attractive, it was as if Jun now had this moe power that made him that much more appealing-as a gossip subject. For about three months, the entire department was betting on who would take an interest in Jun and who was Jun’s type. During that time, Nino had been assigned to work with the deputy department chief, a tanned, sleepy eyed man with a goatee named Ohno Satoshi. The chief was good-natured, albeit a bit on the spacey side, and along with the usual after-work drinking, he often invited Nino to odd events like art exhibitions and fishing tournaments. Nino could never bring himself to go to the art or fishing events, but he did go drinking with the man.
Then one morning, Nino found that Ohno was replaced with his sempai, a serious looking fellow who liked the ends of his hair curled upward and outward named Sakurai Sho. In the beginning, Nino did not mind the change, but he soon found out through the grape vine that there was a rumor going around about Ohno getting drunk and kissing Jun at the after-party of an art exhibition. It was not long before the two became an item and the subject of a great deal of the office gossip, especially when the department chief was promoted and Ohno became the department chief. Originally, Nino and Jun had been scheduled to do paperwork. But when there was an opening for an entertainment announcer, Nino found it too convenient that Jun was recommended and eventually got the position. There was definitely favoritism, but Nino could not say that it was all to his disadvantage for when there was a position for a sports announcer, it was Jun who recommended Nino.
Jun had no idea that his existence irked Nino to no end, nor had he the slightest inkling that Nino was bitter about how he (Jun) had stolen Ohno. Ohno was not someone who Nino was romantically interested in, but rather he had been a decent and tolerable companion. When Ohno and Jun had become a couple, Nino found that Ohno no longer called him as much or hung around the studio to talk to him as much as he used to. Every time Nino saw Ohno walking alone, it was not for very long. Ohno always seemed to be walking to where Jun was or Jun seemed to know where Ohno was going and appeared out of seemingly nowhere to greet his partner, which made it difficult for Nino to approach Ohno to the point where Nino simply gave up.
After that, Nino focused on something he had not been able to do since he was a second year-video games. In his third year of university, he had a lot of classes and of course job hunting to do. He did not have much time to devote to his hobby during the last two years and this lack of time continued for at least the first six months into his job. But after he got the hang of reading the news and doing paperwork, he became more efficient and was able to leave the office on time so he could play his games all night long. Since the game companies were always coming out with new games, Nino was never bored. He saw each game as a new friend to entertain him. It never occurred to him that he possibly was lacking in the romantic relationship area until the weekend of Valentine’s Day.
On Friday, Nino received a mountain of tiny chocolate boxes from the female staff. From the size, it was all giri-choco (obligation chocolate), chocolate that was given to male coworkers and friends by women. But compared to the chocolate that Jun received (even though everyone knew that he was gay and taken), it was obvious that the chocolates were just a token. Nino did not mind as almost 90 percent of the staff received this kind of chocolate and he was not a huge fan of chocolate anyway. Only popular people like Jun and Sho received mountains of chocolate that would take them until Christmas to consume.
On Saturday, there was more chocolate from the weekend crew and the first barb reminding him of his available status. After the taping and paperwork, Sho dismissed Nino two hours earlier than he normally did. Usually, Sho worked late into the night and kept Nino at least until seven in the evening on Saturdays, but that day was different. At five minutes to five, Sho dismissed Nino and Nino would have sped out the door had the phone not rung right as he passed his desk. Feeling compelled to answer it since it had come directly to his line, Nino took the call. He spent the next ten minutes listening to HR complain that he still hadn’t turned in the revised-revised-renewal form and when he finally got off, he saw that Sho had a visitor.
Up until that Saturday, Nino assumed with the way Sho worked that he must be single. But the person who had shown up with a giant bouquet of roses and three dozen heart shaped balloons tied around the waist of a large teddy bear strangely named ‘Suzuki-san’ was a tall lanky man from the Variety Show Planning Division who Nino recognized as Aiba Masaki. When Nino got off the phone, Aiba was pleading with Sho to leave his paperwork for Monday since it was the night before Valentine’s Day and Sho apparently promised his ‘friend’ that he would be spending the entire day (which Aiba argued began at midnight) with him. Nino found it amusing that this clingy, cheerful man was begging Nino’s stoic sempai to either hurry or abandon his work so that they could have dinner and hang out until midnight where they could begin their intimate celebration.
However, Sho was stubborn and Nino learned that the only reason why he had been dismissed early was because Sho knew that Aiba was coming and he wanted to spare Nino the pain of having to listen to their argument. As Aiba’s balloons and teddy bear now blocked the only exit, Nino was awkwardly forced to listen to Sho lamely argue that he had to finish his paperwork and Aiba lament (while consuming all of Sho’s chocolates) how they would lose their table at six if Sho did not leave at that very moment. Aiba wanted to leave that very second, but Sho insisted that the work had to be done because he did not want to be known as someone who shirked work. Nino was sure that the purchase request for office supplies like copy paper and red ballpoint pens could wait, but Sho had to look up all the stocking numbers and he seemed adamant about finishing what he started.
This quarrel went on for another five minutes before Nino walked up to Sho’s desk and offered to finish the menial paperwork so that Sho could go on his date. Naturally Sho refused and was embarrassed that Nino had to hear the imbecilic nature of their argument, but with a little creative persuasion, Nino was able to convince Sho to leave the work to him as it really was only about twenty minutes more of work. Aiba was thrilled and declared Nino to be his best friend in the whole wide world (after ‘Sho-chan’, an affectionate name that Sho grimaced when he heard spoken in front of his kouhai as with them he was always known respectfully as ‘Sakurai-sempai’). Aiba promised to make Nino lunch and invite the newest employee of the company on a double date the next time he was free. He would have promised more if Sho hadn’t cut him off, reminding him of their dinner plans.
Then, on Sunday after the staff meeting, Nino overheard some of cougars talking to Jun about his Valentine’s Day plans with Ohno. Jun was telling them that he had gone all out and planned a spectacular evening with wine, roses, a nice dinner, and cuddling on his friend’s boat that he had borrowed for the evening. The cougars sighed in envy and Nino only rolled his eyes.
Earlier that morning, Nino had seen the department chief sneaking out of the meeting (not that he was even listening in the first place) during the break. The line for the restrooms was long, so Nino went to the one on the third floor, next to Ohno’s office. He saw Ohno’s back just as he was getting into the elevator and it appeared that the man was dressed to go fishing. It was funny at the time and Nino had wondered if it was normal for the higher ups to ditch meetings to go fishing or play golf.
But after the meeting, Nino was assigned a small project to finish that took him until seven that night to complete because he put the variables on the wrong axis and had to redo everything. Nino went to the bar nearby to hang out and was enjoying his time to himself when all of a sudden an angry storm cloud stumbled into the bar. It was Jun, seething under his floppy hat. He spotted Nino and sat down next to him.
“Hey,” Nino waved awkwardly.
“Hey.”
Several moments of silence followed as Nino pondered whether he should try to pursue a conversation with him.
“I thought you were supposed to have a hot date with the chief tonight,” Nino laughed uneasily.
“We got into a fight. He went fishing all day long and forgot about me,” pouted Jun.
“I see,” Nino replied uneasily.
“He forgot that it was Valentine’s Day! Can you believe that?!” shouted Jun. “I had everything planned out! It was supposed to be perfect and he ruined it!”
“Calm down, no need to raise your voice,” Nino said raising his hands defensively, facing his palms toward Jun.
“You know, I’ve never been alone on Valentine’s Day since I was in middle school. Do you always spend it alone? I mean, are you not lonely?”
“I’m not lonely,” Nino shrugged nonchalantly. “I actually prefer solitude.”
“Solitude?” Jun laughed bitterly. “What’s that, a euphemism for ‘loneliness’?”
“Look, I don’t need anyone-give us two Snake Bites and two Alabama Slammers,” Nino said to the passing bartender. “I choose to be alone. If I was lonely, it would be as if I actually wanted company-and I don’t…Well, I don’t need it, at least.”
The bartender placed the first set of shots in front of Jun and Nino.
“Happy Singles’ Awareness Day,” Nino said, raising his glass to Jun as he took the first shot.
“Yeah…single…awareness…” Jun muttered, following suit without much enthusiasm.
“Don’t be so down and desperate,” Nino advised, taking out two bills and handing them to the bartender when he brought the second round. “I don’t know about you, MatsuJun, but I’d rather be happy and single than taken and miserable. But that’s just me.”
Nino pushed the second shot towards Jun and tapped his glass against Jun’s before taking his second shot. When Jun did not take his shot, Nino sighed as he heard the crazy voice in his head tell him to put away the snide remarks and cynicism and cheer Jun up.
“So you had a fight on Valentine’s Day and you feel like the whole day has been ruined. It’s not the end of the world just because you don’t have the most romantic celebration of martyrdom. If you two break up over something like this, then was it all lust and no love, right? Do you even love him?”
“I do…” Jun whispered as he stared at his shot glass glumly. “And I’m sad we can’t spend the day together-”
“The world doesn’t stop just because you’re miserable. If you want to spend the day with him that badly, what are you doing here taking shots in a half empty bar with a happily single person? If you leave now, you still have one more hour before the day is over. Would you really rather spend it with me than the chief?”
Jun looked at his watch and stood up.
“Don’t worry; I won’t be insulted if you don’t choose me,” shrugged Nino, opening his bag.
“You’re right,” Jun said, taking the shot and slamming the glass on the counter. “Thanks for putting things in perspective.”
Jun reached for his wallet, but Nino held up his hand.
“You can get next time.”
“Alright,” Jun bowed and ran out.
When Jun left, Nino took out his portable game console and placed it against his left cheek.
“No one could ever come between us. Right, DS-chan?” Nino said, rubbing the rectangular console against his face before turning it on.
When the screen flickered on and the familiar chime of the system starting reached Nino’s ears, he smiled. No person could ever compare to his lovely DS with her infinite scenarios and personalities. She was better than any person. She never complained from lack of attention, he never had to buy her jewelry or flowers, and if things were going well, he saved; if not, he just restarted. She was the ideal companion and no one would ever convince him otherwise.
“Ojisan! French fries and a beer!” shouted Nino, over the cheerful BGM as he swam under the ocean collecting coins and other oddities.
“You got it! On the house for your moving advice to the tall gentleman!” the old man laughed.
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Happy Valentine’s Day! Well, at least it’s still the 14th on my side of the world. This idea came to me and I had to write it out. Not very well planned out, but not everything’s gonna be an epic tale like Itsumademo.