[series] Dreamcatcher: chapter six
Title: Dreamcatcher 6/??
Pairings: Ohmiya, tba
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own the plot, Arashi owns my heart, and Johnny owns Arashi and my wallet.
Word Count: 2563
Summary: AU. Ohno meets Nino within dreams, but Nino will always wake up again to reality, and Ohno will always be forgotten. Nino isn’t supposed to remember.
Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5
.chapter six.
The days go by at the same pace as always, with the same people doing the same things. Ohno never thought much about the passage of time before, not until time spent became time given, and Ohno found himself wishing that he could peel the numbers off from his life’s ethereal clock and give them all to Nino. Not until time became wasted, stolen, and shoved aside, no longer holding value if it was time used without him. Not until Nino.
Nino dreamt life into the dead of night.
Most of Ohno’s days have been spent searching for explanations with Jun and going through theories that all went over his head. Ohno’s not sure if he wants to understand. In dreams over the past week, Ohno and Nino have danced along the shores of an uninhabited island while wet sand stuck between their toes. They traversed mountains to hidden caves filled with gold in Uzbekistan, running from a gang of yakuza trying to steal Nino’s DS, using silly names and accents, fighting off their assailants with giant cannons and abs made of steel. They mapped the terrain of foreign lands from atop the clouds, flying over oceans and cities and fields blotted with color from flowers like spilled paint, holding hands the entire time.
Sometimes they don’t say anything, leaning against each other’s back while sitting in a comfortable silence. Some nights they exchanged silly stories, or made up new ones themselves (“How about Taka and Yuuji travel to Egypt next?” - “Good idea, Oh-chan! They were summoned there by the pharaoh himself, who demanded they perform for him. So they sang and danced together-” - “And Yuuji played the guitar?” - “And Yuuji played the guitar. But the other entertainers became angry, because the pharaoh favored Ohmiya SK, so they devised an evil scheme to throw them into the Nile. Taka and Yuuji had to make a daring escape by-” - “Threw them into denial of what?” - “…Never mind that part, Oh-chan.”), while other nights, they whispered secrets until the edges of the dream grew fuzzy with awakening. Ohno didn’t even know he had any secrets, but Nino summoned them forth. Or maybe, they’re secrets that Ohno has been keeping from himself.
Shared time with Nino turns into memories, and memories turn into history. Ohno is shocked every time he looks back, because he realizes that Nino has only been remembering for a mere week. Ohno feels as if he could rewrite all of the unwritten pages with their history, every blank page within his nearly twenty-four years of life, but in reality, Ohno has barely shared a fraction of his time with Nino. That’s when Ohno starts thinking that time with Nino is precious but transient, like a dream - and then, Ohno remembers that it is still only a dream that dies into morning, not reality.
When Jun says he wants to try meeting Nino, Ohno wishes with all of his might that Nino would remember Jun, too. In the beginning, Ohno was satisfied with just being remembered, but now, Ohno wants to use his time with Nino in reality. It hurts when Nino wakes up, because it’s a cruel reminder that no matter how real Ohno’s connection to Nino may feel, it’s still not reality. Somehow, it seems as if Nino remembering Jun as well will change Nino into more than a dream.
Ohno sits and waits on the floor of Aiba and Nino’s workspace when Jun enters Nino’s dream. Naga-nii is snoring at his desk, while Sho and Aiba stay awake the entire night, talking about Nino and Ohno. Ohno watches Nino sleep, and he wants to be with him, talk to him, have it be Ohno’s lap he’s resting on, not Sho’s.
Ohno doesn’t know how to fix the sharp pang in his stomach when Sho asks, “Why are we so sure we can trust that guy?” He’s not prepared for the gnawing on his insides, either. Sho is stroking Nino’s hair when Ohno can’t even touch Nino, and Ohno doesn’t know what this emotion is. He’s never experienced it. Still, he can’t stop clenching his fists at the injustice of it all and wondering, Why can’t it be me holding Nino? It’s not fair. Why should everyone be allowed to touch Nino except for me?
And Sho keeps asking these questions about dreamcatchers and the Border, some of them things Ohno’s never even considered before. Being a dreamcatcher has been Ohno’s life for as long as he can remember, and it’s always been the only certain thing. Ohno has never been unhappy with his life before - it’s just that once Nino came and filled up Ohno’s mind with concepts and possibilities, everything else became mundane. He lived a routine: go, take, come back, and do it all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Cast the line and reel it in. A picture created with simple strokes. It’s not that the picture isn’t beautiful; a new depth brings it to life when it’s shaded and colored. A curved line in a world that’s always consisted of nothing but straight ones is still, in essence, a line.
Being with Nino is natural. Everyone else is treating it otherwise, but Ohno can’t bring himself to think of it as “abnormal” anymore. Not being with Nino is the thing that feels strange. It contradicts everything Ohno has stood on in the past. Now, there are so many doubts and questions and what-ifs, and Ohno is confused, because he doesn’t know what to do with the realization that he’s been ignorant about the only thing he was certain about.
(Now, Ohno is certain about Nino. The most confusing thing is how something that feels so right could ever be something that “shouldn’t be happening.” He wants to learn every part of the boy, discover everything there is to know about Nino, so Ohno never has to doubt again.)
When Nino wakes up, Ohno is mesmerized by his tousled hair and sleep-crusted eyes, and he’s too busy thinking about what Nino smells like in the mornings to pay attention to anything else, until Nino announces something that breaks him out of his trance.
Ohno whips his head around the room to find Jun, but Jun has already sat down beside him without Ohno noticing. “He… remembers you,” Ohno says slowly.
Jun nods, chewing on his lower lip. “Which means it’s not your fault he hasn’t been forgetting. Nino is the one making this happen.”
Ohno doesn’t see this as noteworthy; he’s assumed this from the start. Nino is special, and he doesn’t get what more there could be to it. “Do you think there’s a way to meet Nino in real life?” he whispers, as if the others will hear them, even when Ohno knows they can’t.
“It’s hard to say,” Jun says with a shrug. “Even if we’ve figured out a little about how this is happening, there’s still too much we don’t know. I suppose we just need to wait and see.”
Ohno can’t wait. He’s wasted too much history already - how could he even think of wasting the future? Ohno stares at the open notebook Aiba left on the table, filled with excited scribbles that don’t add up to mean much. Ohno can’t wait when time is still moving, or he’ll get left behind in the past.
“I think I love him,” he confesses, crawling on all fours up to the table. He doesn’t look at Jun; he doesn’t want to see his reaction.
“It’s only been a week, Ohno,” Jun says quietly after a long moment. “You’re probably just caught up in the thrill of it all. Human love isn’t an emotion you want to play with, Ohno. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
But it’s not mere emotion. It’s not just the way Nino makes his heart flutter and his stomach flip upside-down. Ohno wants to take the present and use it to create a past and a future with Nino. And it’s not a new desire either - Nino has only remembered for a week, but he’s been forgetting for nearly a year. Even if Nino doesn’t know about them, they’re still memories that hold an unbelievable value.
Ohno takes a deep breath, reaches out, and picks up the pen beside the notebook. The entire room is silent as Ohno slowly etches out the words onto paper, the words he wants to say over and over, but he knows that Nino won’t hear them.
Nino, it’s Ohno. I think I love you.
When Ohno looks up, Nino is gaping at the words with his eyes and mouth wide open. Sho looks horrified, and Aiba is giggling, “I knew it!”
Once the pen drops back onto the table, Jun’s hands grab Ohno’s shoulders and yank him back. His eyes are wild and lips are trembling, and he looks as shocked as Sho. “Ohno,” he stammers, glimpsing back to the notebook before staring at Ohno again. “Ohno, how did you- that, I- you can’t-”
“Don’t worry, Matsujun,” Ohno assures him. “It doesn’t take up too much of my energy, I’m fine.”
A different expression crosses his face, and Ohno can’t read it. “Wait, you mean… that’s normal to you? You’ve always been able to do things like that?”
“Yes.” Ohno squirms, trying to get out of Jun’s hold, but the grip tightens.
“Ohno,” Jun breathes. “That… that isn’t normal. I have never heard of anyone being able to interact with the human world like that. It’s impossible, don’t you understand? And if this were something new, I wouldn’t be as concerned; I’d just assume it is part of everything else that’s been happening recently. But… And what were you thinking, writing something like that? I told you not to rush with your feelings two seconds ago and you still do something stupid.”
Ohno peeks back to the others. Aiba is circling the words in hearts and saying something about whether or not dream-weddings were considered legal. Naga-nii woke up at some point, and Sho is filling him in on the details (with occasional bursts of a panicked “OH GOD THE PEN WROTE AND NO ONE WAS MOVING IT AND OH GOD”). Nino still hasn’t moved from his place on the couch, staring at Ohno’s confession, completely dumbstruck. Ohno wishes he’d respond.
“So I was right after all,” Naga-nii sighs, stretching and yawning. “Everything is the result of you being a gay idiot - a gay idiot with a ghost stalker or something. Now, it’s time for you two idiots to get back to work.”
Jun drags Ohno outside, never moving his hands from where they’re planted firmly on Ohno’s shoulders. “Ohno,” he says sternly, “Ohno, I… why… I thought…”
Ohno has never seen a speechless Matsujun before now. He thinks that maybe he should offer more of an explanation to assure Jun that he’s not being irrational, that he really does think he loves Nino, but the way Jun is looking at him makes him feel guilty, even though he isn’t sure what he should be feeling guilty for. So Ohno ducks his head instead, trying to give an unspoken apology for causing trouble.
He’s not sure how much time went by before Jun relaxes his grip and speaks again. “I asked you before,” he says, his voice in a whisper, almost weak, “whether or not you think it’d be worth it. Whether you would rather feel the intensity of human emotions, the good and bad, or you’d rather live the way we always have. I thought… I thought we were happy, Satoshi. But is this… is this really your answer? This is your choice?”
“Yes,” Ohno replies simply. Sounds of Aiba giggling, Naga-nii laughing, Sho groaning, and Nino snapping drifted through the thin walls and under the cracks of the door. Ohno doesn’t see how it could be a choice. How could he ever make anything other than Nino an option?
“Then,” Jun sighs, pausing again before continuing. Ohno’s not sure what sort of resolution the younger boy found. He starts again, “Then, I’ll do what I promised and help you. But along with the other things I made you swear to, I want you to promise me one more thing: no regrets. From here on out, there’s no turning back, because I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to.”
Ohno nods his head so fast it makes him dizzy. “I promise.”
Jun slips his hand into Ohno’s, and the world softens into a familiar haze, whiting out completely before coming back into form. The structures around them solidify within seconds, and while Ohno is still blinking from the sudden transportation from the real world into the Border, Jun his tugging him across the street. It’s dawn in the real world, so most of the dreamcatchers are arriving back home, making their way down the street to drop off the dreams they’ve collected to Johnny. For a while, Jun leads Ohno in the same direction, but then they split from the throngs of people and dart around Johnny’s mansion, to the secluded section of the city.
The hairs on the back of Ohno’s neck stand as the other catchers eye them, curious about their actions. After a dream is caught, dreamcatchers take it and bring it to Johnny’s house, on the far end of the city. Right outside, other catchers - usually juniors, the ones still training to become a dreamcatcher - would gather the dreams from the catchers as they dropped them off, then take them to Johnny at the end of the day. They all had monthly quotas to fill, and if they didn’t reach it, they would be assigned to dreamers, instead of getting to choose whom they collected dreams from. That was how Ohno met Nino - Nino, Aiba, and Sho were all assignments.
The system, from all that Ohno could see, is flawless. Accidents were rare occurrences, everyone got along well, and things almost always ran perfectly to the routine. The Border is a small city that runs as a community full of harmony and bliss. Ohno still remembers the words Johnny spoke to him and Machida, on the first day they arrived.
“The Border is the city that reality dreams of, wishing it could become.”
Ohno never really considered Johnny’s words. There hasn’t been a reason to compare the Border and reality before.
And suddenly, Ohno understands what Jun meant by “choice.” He doesn’t mean choosing between having and not having Nino; he asked Ohno to choose between the Border and reality. A lump forms in Ohno’s throat. Reality, or the world reality wishes it could be? Reality, or the world Ohno has always treasured?
Reality, or Jun?
Ohno clings tighter to Jun’s hand and swallows hard. This is the reality that Jun warned him about, Ohno thinks: the reality of choice. Jun, Machida, all of the people he’s known and cared for are within the Border, while Nino, Aiba, and Sho were trapped in the real world. It’s a choice that Ohno must carry with both hands; he can’t hold on to both. Ohno has just made his choice. He loves Jun, but Jun understands, or at least he will one day. Ohno will keep his promise to follow through without regrets. He doesn’t see any reason not to, any reason to hesitate.
But he’s still afraid to let go of Jun’s hand.
---
A/N: To everyone following the story, please READ THIS POST.
So, this chapter - finally, a step forward for Ohmiya! But even more strangeness. If Nino is the reason behind all of this, how is Ohno doing things that are, as Jun put it, impossible? Is it even related? What about the questions Sho is asking? The mysteries keep piling up.
The next chapter is a little special, from a POV outside of Arashi. Even though I can't promise it'll be posted by next week, I'll get it up as soon as I can. I'm having a lot of fun writing and posting this series, so I'm truly happy to know that all of you are enjoying it. No matter how busy college gets, I'll be seeing this story out to the end, so thank you to everyone reading!
Pairings: Ohmiya, tba
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own the plot, Arashi owns my heart, and Johnny owns Arashi and my wallet.
Word Count: 2563
Summary: AU. Ohno meets Nino within dreams, but Nino will always wake up again to reality, and Ohno will always be forgotten. Nino isn’t supposed to remember.
Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5
.chapter six.
The days go by at the same pace as always, with the same people doing the same things. Ohno never thought much about the passage of time before, not until time spent became time given, and Ohno found himself wishing that he could peel the numbers off from his life’s ethereal clock and give them all to Nino. Not until time became wasted, stolen, and shoved aside, no longer holding value if it was time used without him. Not until Nino.
Nino dreamt life into the dead of night.
Most of Ohno’s days have been spent searching for explanations with Jun and going through theories that all went over his head. Ohno’s not sure if he wants to understand. In dreams over the past week, Ohno and Nino have danced along the shores of an uninhabited island while wet sand stuck between their toes. They traversed mountains to hidden caves filled with gold in Uzbekistan, running from a gang of yakuza trying to steal Nino’s DS, using silly names and accents, fighting off their assailants with giant cannons and abs made of steel. They mapped the terrain of foreign lands from atop the clouds, flying over oceans and cities and fields blotted with color from flowers like spilled paint, holding hands the entire time.
Sometimes they don’t say anything, leaning against each other’s back while sitting in a comfortable silence. Some nights they exchanged silly stories, or made up new ones themselves (“How about Taka and Yuuji travel to Egypt next?” - “Good idea, Oh-chan! They were summoned there by the pharaoh himself, who demanded they perform for him. So they sang and danced together-” - “And Yuuji played the guitar?” - “And Yuuji played the guitar. But the other entertainers became angry, because the pharaoh favored Ohmiya SK, so they devised an evil scheme to throw them into the Nile. Taka and Yuuji had to make a daring escape by-” - “Threw them into denial of what?” - “…Never mind that part, Oh-chan.”), while other nights, they whispered secrets until the edges of the dream grew fuzzy with awakening. Ohno didn’t even know he had any secrets, but Nino summoned them forth. Or maybe, they’re secrets that Ohno has been keeping from himself.
Shared time with Nino turns into memories, and memories turn into history. Ohno is shocked every time he looks back, because he realizes that Nino has only been remembering for a mere week. Ohno feels as if he could rewrite all of the unwritten pages with their history, every blank page within his nearly twenty-four years of life, but in reality, Ohno has barely shared a fraction of his time with Nino. That’s when Ohno starts thinking that time with Nino is precious but transient, like a dream - and then, Ohno remembers that it is still only a dream that dies into morning, not reality.
When Jun says he wants to try meeting Nino, Ohno wishes with all of his might that Nino would remember Jun, too. In the beginning, Ohno was satisfied with just being remembered, but now, Ohno wants to use his time with Nino in reality. It hurts when Nino wakes up, because it’s a cruel reminder that no matter how real Ohno’s connection to Nino may feel, it’s still not reality. Somehow, it seems as if Nino remembering Jun as well will change Nino into more than a dream.
Ohno sits and waits on the floor of Aiba and Nino’s workspace when Jun enters Nino’s dream. Naga-nii is snoring at his desk, while Sho and Aiba stay awake the entire night, talking about Nino and Ohno. Ohno watches Nino sleep, and he wants to be with him, talk to him, have it be Ohno’s lap he’s resting on, not Sho’s.
Ohno doesn’t know how to fix the sharp pang in his stomach when Sho asks, “Why are we so sure we can trust that guy?” He’s not prepared for the gnawing on his insides, either. Sho is stroking Nino’s hair when Ohno can’t even touch Nino, and Ohno doesn’t know what this emotion is. He’s never experienced it. Still, he can’t stop clenching his fists at the injustice of it all and wondering, Why can’t it be me holding Nino? It’s not fair. Why should everyone be allowed to touch Nino except for me?
And Sho keeps asking these questions about dreamcatchers and the Border, some of them things Ohno’s never even considered before. Being a dreamcatcher has been Ohno’s life for as long as he can remember, and it’s always been the only certain thing. Ohno has never been unhappy with his life before - it’s just that once Nino came and filled up Ohno’s mind with concepts and possibilities, everything else became mundane. He lived a routine: go, take, come back, and do it all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Cast the line and reel it in. A picture created with simple strokes. It’s not that the picture isn’t beautiful; a new depth brings it to life when it’s shaded and colored. A curved line in a world that’s always consisted of nothing but straight ones is still, in essence, a line.
Being with Nino is natural. Everyone else is treating it otherwise, but Ohno can’t bring himself to think of it as “abnormal” anymore. Not being with Nino is the thing that feels strange. It contradicts everything Ohno has stood on in the past. Now, there are so many doubts and questions and what-ifs, and Ohno is confused, because he doesn’t know what to do with the realization that he’s been ignorant about the only thing he was certain about.
(Now, Ohno is certain about Nino. The most confusing thing is how something that feels so right could ever be something that “shouldn’t be happening.” He wants to learn every part of the boy, discover everything there is to know about Nino, so Ohno never has to doubt again.)
When Nino wakes up, Ohno is mesmerized by his tousled hair and sleep-crusted eyes, and he’s too busy thinking about what Nino smells like in the mornings to pay attention to anything else, until Nino announces something that breaks him out of his trance.
Ohno whips his head around the room to find Jun, but Jun has already sat down beside him without Ohno noticing. “He… remembers you,” Ohno says slowly.
Jun nods, chewing on his lower lip. “Which means it’s not your fault he hasn’t been forgetting. Nino is the one making this happen.”
Ohno doesn’t see this as noteworthy; he’s assumed this from the start. Nino is special, and he doesn’t get what more there could be to it. “Do you think there’s a way to meet Nino in real life?” he whispers, as if the others will hear them, even when Ohno knows they can’t.
“It’s hard to say,” Jun says with a shrug. “Even if we’ve figured out a little about how this is happening, there’s still too much we don’t know. I suppose we just need to wait and see.”
Ohno can’t wait. He’s wasted too much history already - how could he even think of wasting the future? Ohno stares at the open notebook Aiba left on the table, filled with excited scribbles that don’t add up to mean much. Ohno can’t wait when time is still moving, or he’ll get left behind in the past.
“I think I love him,” he confesses, crawling on all fours up to the table. He doesn’t look at Jun; he doesn’t want to see his reaction.
“It’s only been a week, Ohno,” Jun says quietly after a long moment. “You’re probably just caught up in the thrill of it all. Human love isn’t an emotion you want to play with, Ohno. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
But it’s not mere emotion. It’s not just the way Nino makes his heart flutter and his stomach flip upside-down. Ohno wants to take the present and use it to create a past and a future with Nino. And it’s not a new desire either - Nino has only remembered for a week, but he’s been forgetting for nearly a year. Even if Nino doesn’t know about them, they’re still memories that hold an unbelievable value.
Ohno takes a deep breath, reaches out, and picks up the pen beside the notebook. The entire room is silent as Ohno slowly etches out the words onto paper, the words he wants to say over and over, but he knows that Nino won’t hear them.
Nino, it’s Ohno. I think I love you.
When Ohno looks up, Nino is gaping at the words with his eyes and mouth wide open. Sho looks horrified, and Aiba is giggling, “I knew it!”
Once the pen drops back onto the table, Jun’s hands grab Ohno’s shoulders and yank him back. His eyes are wild and lips are trembling, and he looks as shocked as Sho. “Ohno,” he stammers, glimpsing back to the notebook before staring at Ohno again. “Ohno, how did you- that, I- you can’t-”
“Don’t worry, Matsujun,” Ohno assures him. “It doesn’t take up too much of my energy, I’m fine.”
A different expression crosses his face, and Ohno can’t read it. “Wait, you mean… that’s normal to you? You’ve always been able to do things like that?”
“Yes.” Ohno squirms, trying to get out of Jun’s hold, but the grip tightens.
“Ohno,” Jun breathes. “That… that isn’t normal. I have never heard of anyone being able to interact with the human world like that. It’s impossible, don’t you understand? And if this were something new, I wouldn’t be as concerned; I’d just assume it is part of everything else that’s been happening recently. But… And what were you thinking, writing something like that? I told you not to rush with your feelings two seconds ago and you still do something stupid.”
Ohno peeks back to the others. Aiba is circling the words in hearts and saying something about whether or not dream-weddings were considered legal. Naga-nii woke up at some point, and Sho is filling him in on the details (with occasional bursts of a panicked “OH GOD THE PEN WROTE AND NO ONE WAS MOVING IT AND OH GOD”). Nino still hasn’t moved from his place on the couch, staring at Ohno’s confession, completely dumbstruck. Ohno wishes he’d respond.
“So I was right after all,” Naga-nii sighs, stretching and yawning. “Everything is the result of you being a gay idiot - a gay idiot with a ghost stalker or something. Now, it’s time for you two idiots to get back to work.”
Jun drags Ohno outside, never moving his hands from where they’re planted firmly on Ohno’s shoulders. “Ohno,” he says sternly, “Ohno, I… why… I thought…”
Ohno has never seen a speechless Matsujun before now. He thinks that maybe he should offer more of an explanation to assure Jun that he’s not being irrational, that he really does think he loves Nino, but the way Jun is looking at him makes him feel guilty, even though he isn’t sure what he should be feeling guilty for. So Ohno ducks his head instead, trying to give an unspoken apology for causing trouble.
He’s not sure how much time went by before Jun relaxes his grip and speaks again. “I asked you before,” he says, his voice in a whisper, almost weak, “whether or not you think it’d be worth it. Whether you would rather feel the intensity of human emotions, the good and bad, or you’d rather live the way we always have. I thought… I thought we were happy, Satoshi. But is this… is this really your answer? This is your choice?”
“Yes,” Ohno replies simply. Sounds of Aiba giggling, Naga-nii laughing, Sho groaning, and Nino snapping drifted through the thin walls and under the cracks of the door. Ohno doesn’t see how it could be a choice. How could he ever make anything other than Nino an option?
“Then,” Jun sighs, pausing again before continuing. Ohno’s not sure what sort of resolution the younger boy found. He starts again, “Then, I’ll do what I promised and help you. But along with the other things I made you swear to, I want you to promise me one more thing: no regrets. From here on out, there’s no turning back, because I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to.”
Ohno nods his head so fast it makes him dizzy. “I promise.”
Jun slips his hand into Ohno’s, and the world softens into a familiar haze, whiting out completely before coming back into form. The structures around them solidify within seconds, and while Ohno is still blinking from the sudden transportation from the real world into the Border, Jun his tugging him across the street. It’s dawn in the real world, so most of the dreamcatchers are arriving back home, making their way down the street to drop off the dreams they’ve collected to Johnny. For a while, Jun leads Ohno in the same direction, but then they split from the throngs of people and dart around Johnny’s mansion, to the secluded section of the city.
The hairs on the back of Ohno’s neck stand as the other catchers eye them, curious about their actions. After a dream is caught, dreamcatchers take it and bring it to Johnny’s house, on the far end of the city. Right outside, other catchers - usually juniors, the ones still training to become a dreamcatcher - would gather the dreams from the catchers as they dropped them off, then take them to Johnny at the end of the day. They all had monthly quotas to fill, and if they didn’t reach it, they would be assigned to dreamers, instead of getting to choose whom they collected dreams from. That was how Ohno met Nino - Nino, Aiba, and Sho were all assignments.
The system, from all that Ohno could see, is flawless. Accidents were rare occurrences, everyone got along well, and things almost always ran perfectly to the routine. The Border is a small city that runs as a community full of harmony and bliss. Ohno still remembers the words Johnny spoke to him and Machida, on the first day they arrived.
“The Border is the city that reality dreams of, wishing it could become.”
Ohno never really considered Johnny’s words. There hasn’t been a reason to compare the Border and reality before.
And suddenly, Ohno understands what Jun meant by “choice.” He doesn’t mean choosing between having and not having Nino; he asked Ohno to choose between the Border and reality. A lump forms in Ohno’s throat. Reality, or the world reality wishes it could be? Reality, or the world Ohno has always treasured?
Reality, or Jun?
Ohno clings tighter to Jun’s hand and swallows hard. This is the reality that Jun warned him about, Ohno thinks: the reality of choice. Jun, Machida, all of the people he’s known and cared for are within the Border, while Nino, Aiba, and Sho were trapped in the real world. It’s a choice that Ohno must carry with both hands; he can’t hold on to both. Ohno has just made his choice. He loves Jun, but Jun understands, or at least he will one day. Ohno will keep his promise to follow through without regrets. He doesn’t see any reason not to, any reason to hesitate.
But he’s still afraid to let go of Jun’s hand.
---
A/N: To everyone following the story, please READ THIS POST.
So, this chapter - finally, a step forward for Ohmiya! But even more strangeness. If Nino is the reason behind all of this, how is Ohno doing things that are, as Jun put it, impossible? Is it even related? What about the questions Sho is asking? The mysteries keep piling up.
The next chapter is a little special, from a POV outside of Arashi. Even though I can't promise it'll be posted by next week, I'll get it up as soon as I can. I'm having a lot of fun writing and posting this series, so I'm truly happy to know that all of you are enjoying it. No matter how busy college gets, I'll be seeing this story out to the end, so thank you to everyone reading!