Yume de ii Kara (Because it's Good to Dream) [a Sakurai Sho Love Story] Chapter 38
Yume de Ii Kara Chapter 38
Pairing: Sakurai Sho/OC, Arashi/non-Johnny's females
Rating: PG
Genre: Realistic romance, friendship, family
Disclaimer: I don't own any of Arashi, or anything of Johnny's Entertainment. And sorry if I've misused any Japanese phrases.
Summary
What can you do when you fall in love with someone that is out of your reach, someone as distant and brilliant as the stars? Can one dare to dream? 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!
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A bright orange glow suddenly flooded into Kaori’s consciousness and she groggily pried her eyes open. Outside their wide living room windows, the sun was bright in the sky. She shifted slightly and felt the warm body besides her rising up and down with each slow breath. They had fallen asleep on the couch by accident. A content smile played across her face at the languid passage of the morning.
Then her eyes flew back open and darted up anxiously at her peaceful husband. Why was he still there?
“Yabai, what time is it?” she hissed and nudged his arm. “Sho, you’re late for work.”
Sakurai Sho drowsily stretched out before his muscles slacked once more like a big lump.
“Sho, get up!“
The man yawned grouchily. “ButIdonthaveworktuhday…”
“Hountou ni? Then you must have some other things scheduled, deshou?”
“Today’s my Kaori Day. I’ve planned a lot for it, naturally.”
“Eh, nani sore…?”
A sly smirk played on his lips as he watched Kaori’s expression light up in dubious surprise. As much as Sho appreciated his parents’ efforts to support their family as he grew up, they’d always been too busy and too serious to really show affection to each other - and through the years, Sho had long noticed the subtle but lasting consequences. If he could help it, he didn’t want that trajectory for him and Kaori.
It seemed a logical approach; he had compiled a list of things that his wife seemed to have been missing. First was a shopping spree for the inner magpie she hadn’t released in months. The man patiently tagged at her feet as she powered through all of Omotesando Hills, her favorite glamorous shopping district. Sho’s cringe-worthy clothing item suggestions made Kaori snicker just like the judges on Mannequin 5. But instead of leaving him unsold, she dressed them both with her expert taste. They grabbed lunch at an open air café like any normal fashionable couple.
Second, for much-needed relaxation and rejuvenation, Sho booked them a private spa session. During the entire treatment, Sho tried to stay very serious with cucumbers and yogurt smeared all over his face. On the massage beds, Kaori turned and giggled at the difficult time the masseuse was having; Sho’s perpetually cramped muscles were proving quite a challenge. It seemed like he needed this pampering more than she did.
Inadvertently, he also brought back to Kaori her laughter.
The last plan for the evening caught Kaori by surprise; a bowling alley certainly did not fit Sho’s personality. But then she understood the situation when they were suddenly rushed upon by a swarm of their old college classmates. She had truly been missing her friends. How long had it been since they’d simply gotten together to have some fun? The neon lights and trendy music reminded Kaori of simpler times.
Being Keio alumni, all these people were linked together one way or another and it would have been nostalgic if not for the fact that everyone had brought their spouses as well. A competition was proposed - couple vs. couple - and the innate spirits of rivalry quickly emerged the intellectuals. In any sort of game, they were in it to win. There was no other option.
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While waiting for their turns, Kaori and Sho sat back in awe to observe the crossfire that ensued. Husbands and wives argued over the weights of bowling balls they should use, blamed each other on gutter balls and spares, and threw their arms up in the air when they were losing. It would have seemed like a mess had they not known that this was their normal dynamic. The Sakurai couple/combi eyed each other with stifled laughs at the flying insults and mused that perhaps they themselves weren’t in such bad shape, after all.
Soon it came down to the tenth frame, and Kaori and Sho had miraculously climbed to second place. Sho marched up to the waxed lane backed by his friends’ goading calls.
“Nani kore? Those aren’t your usual clothes, Sho-kun!” “Looking cool won’t get you a strike!” “Better straighten those sloping shoulders!”
Wheeling back to repay the harassment with his own rude comment, he was caught by his wife’s glare; Kaori give him a look full of “You got dis” boss attitude. “Ganbatte!” she mouthed earnestly. With a deep breath he swung and released the heavy ball - and knocked down only three pins.
“EHH?”
Could Kaori turn the match around? Everyone hooted “Oshare~!” as Sho helped loosen up her neck like a coach and his MVP. Kaori jumped up determinedly and squared her sights on the end of the lane - sent the ball cruising down the middle - and cleared the rest of the pins with a beautiful clattering collision.
A ruckus of cheers and groans ensued from the sidelines (as bets were won and lost). An ecstatic Kaori returned straight to Sho who hooted and jumped around with her proudly. They made a great team, didn’t they?
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The victors had earned the pick of restaurant, so they moved as one entourage to the noodle shop just off of Keio University grounds - the place where Kaori and Sho had had their first impromptu dinner together. As everyone in the circle chattered and perused the choices, Kaori and Sho’s flickering dark eyes locked like magnets over the tops of their menus. It felt like just yesterday that they had shared awkward apologies and uncertain questions over ramen as mere acquaintances, wondering where the strange jolts in their chests were coming from. To think that that had just been the beginning…! They have certainly come a long way.
One of Sho’s male friends leaned over and mischievously hissed in his ear, “Oi, no bedroom eyes at the dinner table.”
The humble yet satisfying dishes, the cramped seating, and the old face of the owner brought back waves of nostalgia. Talk naturally gravitated to the past. Gouta had been the first of their cohort to get married and Ishiyaki had been the first to own a car. Fukao was starting his own tech business while Tenshin was considering a job overseas. Throughout all these life stages they had cheered on and supported one another from a distance, and there was still much more to look forward to.
Their other common thread, of course, was marriage. Sho and Kaori’s story had always seemed most unlikely and thus most fascinating.
“How did you two meet?”
Kaori said, “My senpai, who was working for Johnny’s, introduced me to Sho at the TBS Station one day.”
Sho shook his head mysteriously. “Actually… we met at the Disc Jockey.”
Everyone gasped; they were definitely aware of the popular music shop nearby campus where they had wasted many afternoons. But Kaori stared at him as if he were imagining things.
“Eh? It was definitely TBS, with the anaphylaxis incident; you forgot?”
“Of course I remember that. But after we’d been dating for awhile, I realized that I’d seen you before we’d officially “met.” You were the one dancing by yourself to that CD at the Disc Jockey. I swear.”
The woman’s brow furrowed as her mind flipped back through her memories. That did sound vaguely familiar…
“The Devendra Barnhart CD, remember? I bought it because you said it was good.”
She searched his expression with softening wide eyes and found that he was indeed telling the truth. “Usso…!” Kaori’s glowing astonishment was intensified by Sho’s knowing smirk. He had been waiting for the right moment to tell her that strange secret. Maybe it really was meant to be.
“Fate!” the others cooed all around. “Mou, you two are too much! Stop it with the fairytale!”
That evening, the first biting chill of winter slowed down the frenzy of the city. A promise of frost naturally drew people closer together in search of warmth and some luckily did not have to look far. The Sakurai couple hurried to their car and headed home.
“Some people don’t really change, do they?” Kaori chuckled, referring to their old classmates. “Everyone’s just as crazy as ever.”
“Did you have a good time?”
“Honestly, this was one of the best dates I’ve ever had.” she said matter-of-factly.
Both smug and shocked, Sho muttered, “Eh, majide? What about our trip to Singapore, or when we went to see wild snow monkeys?”
“Those times were super fun too, but this entire day - it showed how much we’ve learned about each other over the years. It’s quite surreal.”
As they stopped at a intersection, Kaori leaned against the car window and gazed up at the towering Arashi billboard for AU KDDI cell phones. The five members’ perfectly cool, angular faces illuminated the street below like the top idols they were, but that was not where it ended for her. She then contently turned back to her husband in the flesh, to find his eyes fixed on her with a tender light that tugged at her heart.
An impatient car behind them rudely honked. They were holding up traffic. “Sho, the light’s green.”
“Oh, right--” Hiding his crooked grin, he hurriedly faced forward and urged the car on.
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The following morning was one to look forward to as much as the next. Kaori heard Sho’s early alarm sound for one blaring millisecond before he reached to turn it off. She pretended to still be asleep and listened to the usual sounds of Sho brushing his teeth, taking a shower, and going downstairs to get the daily paper. Cautiously, she reached over to her phone and dialed her other home.
“Kaori, why are you calling so early…?” her mother in Okinawa answered drowsily but worriedly. “Daijoubu?”
“Okaa-san, do you remember those old wives tales you and obaa-chan used to tell me?” Kaori whispered intently.
“What do you mean?”
“The stories about the premonitions before - before you had each of your children.”
There was a gasp from the other end of the line. “You had one of THOSE?! What happened in it?”
In Kaori’s dream, she had been humming a simple Arashi tune and carrying a soft load on her hip. Sunshine filtered in through the windows. She continued to slowly walk down the halls with the weight on her side, and as she sat down in front of the television, she looked down to see the fuzzy hair of a little baby. The child’s chubby fists flailed along to the tune that five colorful men danced to on the screen…
She suddenly heard her father’s deep, muffled, grouchy yawn. “Etsuko, who are you talking to? Why are you crying?”
“Kaori - Kaori dreamt of a l-little baby…!”
Kureha Nobuyuki had listened to these stories with each of his wife’s pregnancies, and immediately knew what she was alluding to. “I’ve said this every time - those dreams are scientifically nonsensical and cannot prove a thing…” Yet, he was trying to calm the excitement in his tone.
Kaori heard Sho climbing back up the stairs. “Sorry - got to go!” and she stuffed her phone in the pillowcase.
The man walked back in and tried not to be distracted by the woman sitting up in bed with tousled hair and covered with nothing but cotton sheets. “Gomen - did I wake you up?” he called from the closet.
“Iye…” she muttered with possibilities whirling inside her head.
A quick dresser due to his training, Sho returned in his casual clothes and pecked her on the forehead. He did not catch the bubbling anticipation in her shaded eyes. “I’ve got to go.”
“Itteresshai.”
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The Disc Jockey meeting refers all the way back to chapter 1 :)