Yume de Ii Kara (Because it's Good to Dream) [a Sakurai Sho love story] Chapter 2
Singer, dancer, actor, newscaster, model. Idol, to put it simply. But behind Sakurai Sho’s public image is a sincere, dorky, passionate man. Few people get to see a real glimpse of the person behind the lights, except for what he chooses to display.
Friends, sure, but love? That’s impossible, according to the intelligent, beautiful and humble Kaori, a medical school student who doesn’t realize how much she can accomplish. But maybe, just maybe, she’s exactly what Sakurai Sho needs.
All previous chapters in the master post!
----------------------------
A dance studio full of over two dozen Johnny’s Juniors, ranging from around ages ten to seventeen, stared at the professional looking woman in glasses, a bun and short, crisp white resident coat. Trying her best to seem approachable, she did not drop her smile.
Miyamae-sensei addressed the group. “Everyone, this is Kureha Kaori-sensei; she is currently attending Keio University Medical School, but she has been hired by Johnny-san for the summer to tend to your health and well-being during your training. Today, she will be overseeing some of your physicals. Please greet her.”
Kaori was surprised at their discipline as the Juniors all bowed in unison, murmuring polite welcomes.
“Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, minna-san.” Kaori started. Though a little nervous, she tried to make eye contact. “I look forward to - getting to know you all. I’m here to help, so don’t hesitate to ask me anything, ne.”
“Everyone, please continue your practice until you have been called. Kureha-sensei, will you read the first name, please?”
She looked at the long list given to her. “Abe - Abe Ryouhei?” A spritely boy jumped up. “Please follow me to the exam room, Abe-kun.”
When the doctors left the room, several boys turned to speak in amazement.
“Wasn’t that the lady that saved you the other day, Nakamura?”
Nakamura Reia stayed silent, keeping his wonder to himself as he stretched his limbs with a determined manner. He had to focus and get this choreography down perfectly by tomorrow, or else his competition could overcome him in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, while checking his mail in the Communications office, Sakurai Sho heard a gross amount of guttural noise. He glanced around curiously and saw a boy coughing and blowing his nose miserably. They made eye contact and Sho nodded understandingly. It hadn’t been an invitation, but the Junior approached him anyway.
“Sakurai-san, ohaiyo gozaimasu!” the haggard teen quipped.
“Ohaiyo.” Sho said. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your-“
“-Ah sumimasen, Hagiya Keigo desu, member of Hip Hop Jump! I was hoping that Sakurai-san could help me with something.”
“… What would that be?”
The kid tried to hide his sniffles. “Ma, you see the thing is - I’m su-supposed to dance on Shounen Club tomorrow but I’ve got these stu-stupid allergies. Today’s the day for my physical, on top of that. Could you convince the sensei to let me go on anyway? Or at least, do you know any way I can hide this cough?”
This certainly was an unexpected request. “Now look Hagiya-kun, believe me when I know how big of a deal the performance is for you, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to perform when you’re this sick.”
“They’re just allergies!” the boy still insisted unsuccessfully. “I absolutely HAVE to be there tomorrow. I finally got chosen and they even want me to dance in front! If I don’t show I might never be able to get the spot again, and I’ll never get noticed, and I’ll never debut…”
The man didn’t want to be unkind, but, “You can’t persuade your manager yourself?”
The boy shook his head. All this anxiety and insecurity and pressure at such a young age, Sho knew very well. In fact, he vaguely remembered requesting the exact same thing many years before when he was a Junior from his TOKIO senpai Kokubun Taichi.
Sho sighed and consented. Why was he such a softie? “Alright. Just don’t tell anyone I’m doing this, okay?”
Hagiya’s face lit up, and he led the way to the doctor’s office. It wasn’t too far. Sho looked at the surroundings reflectively - he hadn’t passed through the Agency’s Junior wing in what felt like forever, but at the same time, just yesterday.
“I don’t know how much of a help I can be, honestly. Miyamae-sensei’s usually quite strict about these things, being in prime shape.” Sho mentioned.
“Iye, it’s a different doctor this time. She seems kind of new to this sort of stuff, so maybe you can convince her.”
Realization dawned on Sho, and his tension rose a little despite himself. Perhaps it was…?
There was a knock at the door, and Nakamura Reia, the boy who had had the allergic reaction, shuffled in. “Shitsure shimasu…”
Kaori was surprised. “Nakamura-kun, you came without being called.” But indeed, he was next on the list.
“Hai, we’ve all memorized our alphabetical ranking, sensei.” the boy explained.
“Sugoi…”
Kaori went through the routine procedure as usual, but she noticed that this boy had a lot of emotions that he was keeping bottled up.
… “Yosh, Nakamura Reia-kun, we are finished with your physical. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.” Kaori smiled, updating his charts.
The young boy stared down awkwardly at his knobby knees. “Ahno… Thank you, sensei, for helping me the other day.” he muttered shamefully. “I know it caused a lot of trouble for you and manager-san.”
“Not at all, it’s my job! I’m just glad that you are alright now. Was it - something you ate?” she asked delicately.
“I was being stupid. Everyone else was eating the peanut cookies and they looked so good and they were saying how pitiful it was that I couldn’t have any - so I just thought if I took a bite…” He exhaled angrily, but when he looked up and saw Kaori looking at him without judgment, his young, anxious heart was slightly comforted.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to look at, any questions?”
As he was about to walk out, he turned back. “Actually, sensei…”
“Yes?”
Reia paused and shook his head. “Iye, nandemonai (Nevermind, it’s nothing)… Shitsure shimashita~”
Another boy rushed in as soon as Nakamura had stepped out. What was even more startling was that he was followed in by Sakurai Sho. Sitting still at her desk for a dumb moment, she was lost for words. But she quickly collected herself and shuffled through her list.
“Are you…?”
“I know I’m not next, sensei. Hagiya Keigo desu.” the precocious boy interrupted.
She raised her brows and looked at the other man. “Sakurai-san, why…?”
“Kureha-san… I mean, sensei… Hagiya-kun is feeling a bit under the weather but he has an important performance tomorrow. He wanted me to negotiate, err, allowing him to get a waiver from you.”
“Sou desu ka… Hold on a moment.” It was an unexpected digression, but no big deal. She brought his medical history up on the computer. “Hagiya-kun, age thirteen, from Saitama… Let’s get your vitals first, shall we? Please take off your shoes and step on the scale. This won’t take too long, Sakurai-san.” she added.
Sho curiously and patiently looked on as Kaori carefully, expertly checked Keigo’s height, weight, heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, and peered into his ears, throat and eyes. She laughed with him as she shone a light up his nose and he sneezed, even made small talk as she tapped his knees with a mallet. In her glasses and coat, she looked quite the part of a doctor.
“Yosh, Hagiya-kun, your cough and sinuses… How long have you been sick? Truthfully?”
“About a week…? But I swear it was WAY worse yesterday! It’ll definitely be all gone by tomorrow, sensei.”
Then she turned to the boy’s senpai. “What do you think, Sakurai-san, is he well enough to go on stage? From experience.”
He couldn’t resist the boy’s pleading look. “I think he’ll be fine. As long as he promises to get some good food and rest at home before then, of course.”
Kaori gave the boy a long, sympathetic look and relented. “Here’s what I’ll do - I’ll give you the go ahead. Show this note to your manager, if he disagrees.” She scrawled a memo and handed it to him. “Just don’t push yourself too hard ne, and promise that you will stay home if your temperature rises.”
“Hai! Ar-arigatou gozaimasu!” The boy bowed and hopped out in relief.
Now alone, Sho and Kaori stayed quiet for an awkward few seconds. Why he was still there, Kaori couldn’t really figure out. But she had learned in Patient Relations and Protocol class, that a doctor was supposed to be hospitable in any situation, so…
“That was nice of you, to take the time to do that for Hagiya-kun.” she finally murmured.
The man shrugged. “I’m not busy at the moment so I figured it couldn’t hurt…” He surveyed this small, spotless room that he used to be treated in often. “So how do you like the work so far?”
“The Juniors are all amusing, at any rate. I’m interested in pediatrics, so this is kind of along those lines.”
She paused, not sure what else to say. Why was it so awkward compared to the other day? Then, she realized that he had been standing up the whole time.
“Sakurai-san, please have a seat! Unless you need to be somewhere…”
His eyes widened. “Ah, hai.” He grabbed the nearest stool and in his abruptness, he miscalculated the distance and stability and slid across the slick tile floor on the stool’s wheels, nearly fell off and stood back up stiffly, trying to regain his composure. “… You didn’t see that.” he muttered.
But Kaori, she laughed outright, and Sho couldn’t help but chuckle in embarrassment too. The tension was broken.
“Be careful, Sakurai-san. If Johnny’s prized idol got hurt on my watch I would get fired right away.” she joked.
Sho simpered a little - prized idol, huh?
This was just about the right time for Sho to leave. He excused himself for taking up her time, and on his way to the Arashi briefing room he scolded himself for acting so clumsily and for getting so tongue-tied. What had gotten over him?
Working with Johnny’s Juniors was a unique experience in itself. Kaori was not accustomed to having all her patients be so young and yet so stressed. She didn’t understand why they put themselves through such unforgiving work like constantly jumping between school and work, embarrassing tasks and assignments, scrutiny by their supervisors and double-crossing by their peers. However, she did admire their work ethic, and she genuinely cared about their well-being as they strived for a one-in-a-million shot dream.
Kaori had her own aspirations as well, she just wasn’t yet quite sure what exactly. To be a doctor was sure, but where would she go with that? Would she go back home to Okinawa and work in a small seaside clinic or stay in Tokyo and work in a cutting-edge field at a colossal research hospital? As she walked through the busy Tokyo streets towards the rail station, she gazed up at the giant LCD screens hanging on the skyscrapers, shining brilliantly with moving advertisements for Kose Cosmetics, Lexus, Pocky, Airtransse… One of them caught her attention - it was a commercial for Wii, and Arashi was featured. A realistic yet unbelievably good-looking group, the five idols gathered together on an orange couch in their dressing room and played various Wii games like ski jump and hide and seek; they made the games seem amazingly fun.
The members of Arashi had already realized their dream, she supposed; they were living it. It felt strange - like a large gap of association - to see someone she’d met in person (as in Sakurai Sho) blown up to great proportions for everyone in the city to watch. With one last curious look at their laughing faces she boarded the train.
--------------------------------
I don’t know how realistic it is, for Kaori to do such tasks without being specifically licensed. But I like to imagine that in Johnny’s realm, he makes his own rules as he sees fit.
One thing I find that they have in common: they are both good at analyzing people’s moods and reactions, and acting accordingly.
I promise the following chapters will have more Sho/Kaori stuff :P
Friends, sure, but love? That’s impossible, according to the intelligent, beautiful and humble Kaori, a medical school student who doesn’t realize how much she can accomplish. But maybe, just maybe, she’s exactly what Sakurai Sho needs.
All previous chapters in the master post!
----------------------------
A dance studio full of over two dozen Johnny’s Juniors, ranging from around ages ten to seventeen, stared at the professional looking woman in glasses, a bun and short, crisp white resident coat. Trying her best to seem approachable, she did not drop her smile.
Miyamae-sensei addressed the group. “Everyone, this is Kureha Kaori-sensei; she is currently attending Keio University Medical School, but she has been hired by Johnny-san for the summer to tend to your health and well-being during your training. Today, she will be overseeing some of your physicals. Please greet her.”
Kaori was surprised at their discipline as the Juniors all bowed in unison, murmuring polite welcomes.
“Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, minna-san.” Kaori started. Though a little nervous, she tried to make eye contact. “I look forward to - getting to know you all. I’m here to help, so don’t hesitate to ask me anything, ne.”
“Everyone, please continue your practice until you have been called. Kureha-sensei, will you read the first name, please?”
She looked at the long list given to her. “Abe - Abe Ryouhei?” A spritely boy jumped up. “Please follow me to the exam room, Abe-kun.”
When the doctors left the room, several boys turned to speak in amazement.
“Wasn’t that the lady that saved you the other day, Nakamura?”
Nakamura Reia stayed silent, keeping his wonder to himself as he stretched his limbs with a determined manner. He had to focus and get this choreography down perfectly by tomorrow, or else his competition could overcome him in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, while checking his mail in the Communications office, Sakurai Sho heard a gross amount of guttural noise. He glanced around curiously and saw a boy coughing and blowing his nose miserably. They made eye contact and Sho nodded understandingly. It hadn’t been an invitation, but the Junior approached him anyway.
“Sakurai-san, ohaiyo gozaimasu!” the haggard teen quipped.
“Ohaiyo.” Sho said. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your-“
“-Ah sumimasen, Hagiya Keigo desu, member of Hip Hop Jump! I was hoping that Sakurai-san could help me with something.”
“… What would that be?”
The kid tried to hide his sniffles. “Ma, you see the thing is - I’m su-supposed to dance on Shounen Club tomorrow but I’ve got these stu-stupid allergies. Today’s the day for my physical, on top of that. Could you convince the sensei to let me go on anyway? Or at least, do you know any way I can hide this cough?”
This certainly was an unexpected request. “Now look Hagiya-kun, believe me when I know how big of a deal the performance is for you, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to perform when you’re this sick.”
“They’re just allergies!” the boy still insisted unsuccessfully. “I absolutely HAVE to be there tomorrow. I finally got chosen and they even want me to dance in front! If I don’t show I might never be able to get the spot again, and I’ll never get noticed, and I’ll never debut…”
The man didn’t want to be unkind, but, “You can’t persuade your manager yourself?”
The boy shook his head. All this anxiety and insecurity and pressure at such a young age, Sho knew very well. In fact, he vaguely remembered requesting the exact same thing many years before when he was a Junior from his TOKIO senpai Kokubun Taichi.
Sho sighed and consented. Why was he such a softie? “Alright. Just don’t tell anyone I’m doing this, okay?”
Hagiya’s face lit up, and he led the way to the doctor’s office. It wasn’t too far. Sho looked at the surroundings reflectively - he hadn’t passed through the Agency’s Junior wing in what felt like forever, but at the same time, just yesterday.
“I don’t know how much of a help I can be, honestly. Miyamae-sensei’s usually quite strict about these things, being in prime shape.” Sho mentioned.
“Iye, it’s a different doctor this time. She seems kind of new to this sort of stuff, so maybe you can convince her.”
Realization dawned on Sho, and his tension rose a little despite himself. Perhaps it was…?
There was a knock at the door, and Nakamura Reia, the boy who had had the allergic reaction, shuffled in. “Shitsure shimasu…”
Kaori was surprised. “Nakamura-kun, you came without being called.” But indeed, he was next on the list.
“Hai, we’ve all memorized our alphabetical ranking, sensei.” the boy explained.
“Sugoi…”
Kaori went through the routine procedure as usual, but she noticed that this boy had a lot of emotions that he was keeping bottled up.
… “Yosh, Nakamura Reia-kun, we are finished with your physical. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.” Kaori smiled, updating his charts.
The young boy stared down awkwardly at his knobby knees. “Ahno… Thank you, sensei, for helping me the other day.” he muttered shamefully. “I know it caused a lot of trouble for you and manager-san.”
“Not at all, it’s my job! I’m just glad that you are alright now. Was it - something you ate?” she asked delicately.
“I was being stupid. Everyone else was eating the peanut cookies and they looked so good and they were saying how pitiful it was that I couldn’t have any - so I just thought if I took a bite…” He exhaled angrily, but when he looked up and saw Kaori looking at him without judgment, his young, anxious heart was slightly comforted.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to look at, any questions?”
As he was about to walk out, he turned back. “Actually, sensei…”
“Yes?”
Reia paused and shook his head. “Iye, nandemonai (Nevermind, it’s nothing)… Shitsure shimashita~”
Another boy rushed in as soon as Nakamura had stepped out. What was even more startling was that he was followed in by Sakurai Sho. Sitting still at her desk for a dumb moment, she was lost for words. But she quickly collected herself and shuffled through her list.
“Are you…?”
“I know I’m not next, sensei. Hagiya Keigo desu.” the precocious boy interrupted.
She raised her brows and looked at the other man. “Sakurai-san, why…?”
“Kureha-san… I mean, sensei… Hagiya-kun is feeling a bit under the weather but he has an important performance tomorrow. He wanted me to negotiate, err, allowing him to get a waiver from you.”
“Sou desu ka… Hold on a moment.” It was an unexpected digression, but no big deal. She brought his medical history up on the computer. “Hagiya-kun, age thirteen, from Saitama… Let’s get your vitals first, shall we? Please take off your shoes and step on the scale. This won’t take too long, Sakurai-san.” she added.
Sho curiously and patiently looked on as Kaori carefully, expertly checked Keigo’s height, weight, heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, and peered into his ears, throat and eyes. She laughed with him as she shone a light up his nose and he sneezed, even made small talk as she tapped his knees with a mallet. In her glasses and coat, she looked quite the part of a doctor.
“Yosh, Hagiya-kun, your cough and sinuses… How long have you been sick? Truthfully?”
“About a week…? But I swear it was WAY worse yesterday! It’ll definitely be all gone by tomorrow, sensei.”
Then she turned to the boy’s senpai. “What do you think, Sakurai-san, is he well enough to go on stage? From experience.”
He couldn’t resist the boy’s pleading look. “I think he’ll be fine. As long as he promises to get some good food and rest at home before then, of course.”
Kaori gave the boy a long, sympathetic look and relented. “Here’s what I’ll do - I’ll give you the go ahead. Show this note to your manager, if he disagrees.” She scrawled a memo and handed it to him. “Just don’t push yourself too hard ne, and promise that you will stay home if your temperature rises.”
“Hai! Ar-arigatou gozaimasu!” The boy bowed and hopped out in relief.
Now alone, Sho and Kaori stayed quiet for an awkward few seconds. Why he was still there, Kaori couldn’t really figure out. But she had learned in Patient Relations and Protocol class, that a doctor was supposed to be hospitable in any situation, so…
“That was nice of you, to take the time to do that for Hagiya-kun.” she finally murmured.
The man shrugged. “I’m not busy at the moment so I figured it couldn’t hurt…” He surveyed this small, spotless room that he used to be treated in often. “So how do you like the work so far?”
“The Juniors are all amusing, at any rate. I’m interested in pediatrics, so this is kind of along those lines.”
She paused, not sure what else to say. Why was it so awkward compared to the other day? Then, she realized that he had been standing up the whole time.
“Sakurai-san, please have a seat! Unless you need to be somewhere…”
His eyes widened. “Ah, hai.” He grabbed the nearest stool and in his abruptness, he miscalculated the distance and stability and slid across the slick tile floor on the stool’s wheels, nearly fell off and stood back up stiffly, trying to regain his composure. “… You didn’t see that.” he muttered.
But Kaori, she laughed outright, and Sho couldn’t help but chuckle in embarrassment too. The tension was broken.
“Be careful, Sakurai-san. If Johnny’s prized idol got hurt on my watch I would get fired right away.” she joked.
Sho simpered a little - prized idol, huh?
This was just about the right time for Sho to leave. He excused himself for taking up her time, and on his way to the Arashi briefing room he scolded himself for acting so clumsily and for getting so tongue-tied. What had gotten over him?
Working with Johnny’s Juniors was a unique experience in itself. Kaori was not accustomed to having all her patients be so young and yet so stressed. She didn’t understand why they put themselves through such unforgiving work like constantly jumping between school and work, embarrassing tasks and assignments, scrutiny by their supervisors and double-crossing by their peers. However, she did admire their work ethic, and she genuinely cared about their well-being as they strived for a one-in-a-million shot dream.
Kaori had her own aspirations as well, she just wasn’t yet quite sure what exactly. To be a doctor was sure, but where would she go with that? Would she go back home to Okinawa and work in a small seaside clinic or stay in Tokyo and work in a cutting-edge field at a colossal research hospital? As she walked through the busy Tokyo streets towards the rail station, she gazed up at the giant LCD screens hanging on the skyscrapers, shining brilliantly with moving advertisements for Kose Cosmetics, Lexus, Pocky, Airtransse… One of them caught her attention - it was a commercial for Wii, and Arashi was featured. A realistic yet unbelievably good-looking group, the five idols gathered together on an orange couch in their dressing room and played various Wii games like ski jump and hide and seek; they made the games seem amazingly fun.
The members of Arashi had already realized their dream, she supposed; they were living it. It felt strange - like a large gap of association - to see someone she’d met in person (as in Sakurai Sho) blown up to great proportions for everyone in the city to watch. With one last curious look at their laughing faces she boarded the train.
--------------------------------
I don’t know how realistic it is, for Kaori to do such tasks without being specifically licensed. But I like to imagine that in Johnny’s realm, he makes his own rules as he sees fit.
One thing I find that they have in common: they are both good at analyzing people’s moods and reactions, and acting accordingly.
I promise the following chapters will have more Sho/Kaori stuff :P