Cupid - Part 1
Ninomiya san, thank u.
I like the girl.
She is perfect for me.
Ninomiya 'Nino' Kazunari smiled looking at the text message he had just received. A few minutes ago, he received a similar message from the girl who went on a date with the client who texted him. Luck was on his side as he had once again paired up a perfect couple. Good! A perfect couple means he would get extra commission this month.
Nino sent a text, informing his client how happy he was to know that the client had found his perfect match. Then, he put his phone on the table, ready to analyze the next client he had.
"Wah!" Said Kame, who sat next to him. "That is a long list,"
"It is," Nino agreed without taking his eyes off the screen. He was reading a list of what kind of woman his client liked. Urgh, the client was quite demanding. Remembering how the client acted when they met a few days ago, Nino was not surprised to know he didn’t have a girlfriend.
"Is it possible to find a match for him?" Kame asked curiously.
"I don't know but I will try,"
"I'm sure you can find the perfect match for him. You are our cupid, after all,"
Nino only responded with a smile. He had been working at a matchmaking agency owned by his friend, Matsumoto Jun, for two years now. Initially, he didn't want to work here. However, it was hard to find a job and when Jun offered the job to him, he reluctantly agreed. He changed his mind as soon as he started working. Listening to the clients talking about what kind of person they want as their partner was enjoyable for Nino. It was pure happiness when he successfully paired up his first couple. Even though he only contributed a little, Nino was happy when they thanked him for finding the perfect person for them. Since then, he had been working hard at the agency. All of the couples he made ended up together. Because of that, his colleagues started to call him Cupid.
“Nino!” Both Nino and Kame were startled to hear Jun’s loud voice calling him. They looked at the boss’s office and Jun signalled for him to come to his office now.
Nino didn’t waste any second and quickly went to meet his boss. Once he was inside, Jun asked him to close the door so he did as he was told.
“What’s wrong?” Nino asked. He couldn’t guess what Jun was feeling right now. His friend looked excited and anxious at the same time. Other people might not be able to see how anxious Jun was. But, as Nino had been his friends for a long time, he could see it in his eyes. He was curious to know why Jun acted like this. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m okay!” Jun answered as he frantically searched for something on his table. There were a lot of files on the table. No one was allowed to touch his stuff and Jun had no time to organize those files. That’s why his table was a mess. “Eh, where did I put the list? I’m sure it’s on the table,”
“What are you looking for?” Nino asked. It was weird to see Jun like this.
“An email that I printed a few weeks ago. I might have accidentally deleted the email because I could not find it. But, I remember printing it,” Jun told him. As he couldn’t find what he was looking for on the table, he now searched for it in the documents on the shelf. “It was from someone named Sakurai Sho. He wants to find a girlfriend and describes the characteristics of the girl he wants in the email. I almost forgot about it… I thought he wasn’t serious… but, he called me just now to ask if I have found the perfect match for him. I told him that I’m still working on it even though I haven’t started anything yet. The thing is he wants to meet tomorrow and he hopes that I have a few candidates,”
Sakurai Sho? Nino had heard the name before. But, where? Nino thought hard about it.
Ah…
No wonder the name sounded so familiar. Nino rushed out of Jun’s room, ignoring Jun who was calling him. He went to his table and grabbed a file before dashing towards Jun’s room. He flipped the paper in the file until he found the printed email he was looking for. The name of the sender in the email was indeed Sakurai Sho.
“Is this the email you’re looking for?” He asked, shoving the file to Jun.
“Yes!” Jun shouted, relieved to see what Nino gave him. “This is the email I’m looking for. Why is this email with you?”
“Duh… because you give it to me, obviously,” Nino snorted. “You give this client to me, remember?”
“Really?” Jun grinned as he scratched his head. “Have you started working on it?”
Nino rolled his eyes at Jun. The answer was obvious, wasn’t it? He always took his job seriously. So, of course, he had been working on it. In fact, he had found a few candidates for Sakurai Sho. It wasn’t hard because Sakurai wasn’t as demanding as the other clients.
“Great! As expected of our Cupid!”
“Who is this Sakurai Sho?” Nino asked. Looking at the way Jun panicked earlier, Sakurai seemed to be someone important. But, Nino couldn’t recall anyone with that name.
“Ah…” The sparkle in Jun’s eyes returned. “Actually, Sakurai sent the email on behalf of his boss,”
“Oh…” Nino looked at the description in the email. “So, the girlfriend is for his boss. Who is his boss?”
Jun’s smile grew wider. “Someone famous. Ah... if he ends up marrying the person we match him with… can you imagine how popular our agency is going to be?”
“Who is he?” Nino asked again, hoping Jun would answer him this time. His friend smirked at him before he announced the name. A name that made Nino widen his eyes and drop his jaw.
“Ohno Satoshi,”
Wow! The owner of the largest hotel network in Japan used the service from Jun’s matchmaking agency. That was hard to believe.
The two of them went to Ohno’s office the next day. Usually, the client would come to their office for a consultation. However, as Ohno is someone famous, they had to go to his office. Jun, of course, wouldn’t mind this. He was willing to do anything for his business.
“Matsumoto san?” A handsome man greeted them before they could talk to the receptionist.
“Yes, I am Matsumoto,” Jun answered, turning around to face the man. “Are you Sakurai san?”
“Indeed, I am Sakurai Sho,” The guy introduced himself before he addressed the receptionist. “I will take them to Ohno sama,”
Sakurai then asked both Nino and Jun to follow him. As they walked, Nino examined the guy. He had seen Sakurai before. He was always with Ohno and acted as the spokesperson whenever Ohno had an interview.
Sakurai brought them to the highest floor in the office. He had stayed silent as they walked. When they got down on the intended floor, he looked at Nino curiously.
“Pardon me if I sound rude…” Sakurai began, politely nodding at Nino. “May I know who this gentleman is?"
“Oh…” Jun glanced at Nino. “He is Ninomiya Kazunari. He’s the one in-charge for Ohno san,”
Sakurai nodded understandingly. “Please sit here for a while,” Sakurai said, pointing at the sofa near them. “Let me check if Ohno sama is ready to meet you,”
Both Nino and Jun nodded their heads as they sat on the sofa, watching Sho go to a corridor.
"Are you nervous, Nino?" Jun asked. Nino shrugged him off. He seldom felt nervous.
"Ah, I'm worried," Jun started to shake his legs, looking at the corridor where Sakurai left. "What if Ohno san didn't like any of the candidates?"
"Relax. I'm sure he will choose one of them," Nino said, trying to comfort his friend. As he had never failed in pairing up people before, he was confident in his skill. Ohno would be impressed with his choices.
"You are our cupid, right?" Jun looked at him intently. "Do your magic and shoot the arrow for both Ohno san and the person he chose. This is very important for us,"
Nino rolled his eyes, couldn't believe that his boss was making a lame joke about cupid and arrow. "Whatever,"
"Nino!"
"Ohno sama is ready to meet you," Sakurai appeared from the corridor, saving Nino from Jun's nagging. The two of them stood up and followed Sakurai to Ohno's room.
Nino gulped as he saw Ohno sitting at the table. Ohno had ordered both of them to sit down while Sho stood by his side. The businessman was no different than what he saw on television and newspapers. In fact, he looked even more handsome than Nino expected. Ohno was around the same height as Nino with sleepy eyes and chubby cheeks. His skin was darker than the average Japanese. However, despite his small stature and gentle look, Ohno still exuded power and confidence.
The room was quiet until Ohno glanced at Sakurai, silently ordering him to begin. In return, Sakurai nodded his head, looking at both Jun and Nino, and began by introducing the two of them to his boss.
"If you're ready to present the candidates to Ohno sama, we may begin now,"
Nino took a deep breath and then started presenting the potential partners for Ohno. He described their personalities and interests. Of course, all of them didn't have all the characteristics that Ohno wanted. But, some of them shared the same interest as Ohno. For sure, they could tolerate here and there to make the relationship work.
"How about you, Ninomiya? Do you like art?" Ohno suddenly asked when Nino was in the middle of talking about a woman who enjoyed drawing just like Ohno.
"Eh?" The question took Nino by surprise.
"Do you like art?" Ohno asked again. His voice was so gentle. His expression showed that he was genuinely interested to know what Nino thought about arts.
"Well…" Nino tilted his head, thinking about how to answer. It never happened before. None of his clients ever asked him about his preferences when he presented the potential candidates to them. "I admire those who can draw. But, I'm not good at making arts,"
"I'm sure that's not true," Ohno said gently. Nino didn't know how to respond to that so he continued his presentation.
It continued in silence. Ohno didn't interrupt him after that. Not until he finished talking about the last potential partners.
"Do you want your partner to spoil you, Ninomiya san?"
This time, Nino wasn't surprised to hear Ohno ask another question. In fact, he had expected it. However, he didn't know how to answer.
"Hmm…" Once again, he was at a loss of what to say. "I will enjoy it. But, I also want her to give me some space sometimes as I will do the same for her. We can stay in the same room and do different things. We may not have the same interest but I believe the relationship will work if we understand each other,"
Nino didn't find the questions odd. Maybe Ohno had no dating experience and he asked those questions to know how to treat his future life partner.
Ohno smiled at him. A gentle smile that could make a heart-fluttering upon seeing it. "Your girlfriend must be lucky,"
"Maybe not. Jun said I'm a brat so it's hard to handle me," Nino said. Ohno only laughed to hear that. "Besides, I haven't found the right person for me,"
Nino had no idea why he added the last part. It didn't seem appropriate to tell Ohno about it. He glanced at Jun, hoping that his boss would not be angry at him for talking about something personal. But, Jun only smiled awkwardly.
"Are you interested in anyone, Ohno san?" Jun asked, bringing them back to the real reason they were here.
"Yes," Ohno answered, chuckling. It was a cute sound, Nino noted. There was a sparkle in Ohno's eyes. The way someone will look when they fall in love. Nino wondered which candidates Ohno was interested in.
"Great!" Jun said enthusiastically. Nino wanted to laugh to see how happy his boss was because of their successful meeting. "Tell us which one you're interested in and then we can discuss the next step,"
"Him," Ohno answered.
Eh? Ohno's answer indicated that he was interested in a guy. But... Nino lowered his eyes to look at the pictures of the candidates on the table. All of them were women. Sure, one of them had short hair but her features were clearly feminine. So, did he hear Ohno correctly?
Nino raised his head, about to ask Ohno what he meant by that. However, he gasped when he saw Ohno smiling and the young businessman's finger was pointing at him.
"Eh?"
Poll
A/N: Okay, first thing first. HAVE YOU GUYS WATCHED THE LATEST OHMIYA TIKTOK VIDEO? OMG, I TOTALLY DIDN'T EXPECT TO SEE THEM IN THAT POSITION AND I LOVE IT! I LOVE OHMIYA SO MUCH!
Next, well, you may have watched the photos that Arashi posted in SNS. The one with time on it. Like, Nino is AM8:45. So, when I look at the pic, I thought of writing something. And this idea was in my head for a few months. So, I decided to finally write it for the pic. How it would fit, I will try my best to do it.
I decided to use the same format as How Dare You for this. You will decide what will happen next. I hope this will go well.
Okay, I haven't forgotten all those unfinished fics. I've been working on them. In fact, the next part for one of them was halfway done and hopefully I could post it soon. It was a fic that I haven't updated for a while. So, here comes a quiz. Which one do you think it is. If you could guess correctly, I will write a story for you.
As always, I hope you will enjoy this fic. And hopefully, I could finish all my fics. Comments are very much appreciated :)