[Yama fic] Rental Lover (Chapter 23)
Title: Rental Lover
Pairing: Yama (Ohno x Sho)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, fluff, romance, drama
Summary: Sho discovered the reason behind his father's desperate need of money. Something might happen to put the Ohno's in danger.
Chapter 23
Even though Nino had a mind full of questions to ask Sho, he kept his words and did what Sho told him to. He left the campus with Ohno immediately after the phone call with Sho and went to a movie and karaoke and ate, then went back to Nino’s place for some video gaming before he let Ohno went home. Celebrating the beginning of summer break was his excuse which was perfectly convincing to Ohno.
It was one of the rare occasions when Nino could not concentrate on the fun things he was doing. Ohno took the opportunity to give the gaming expert some good teases on losing his battles a few times. Nino couldn’t get his mind off of his childhood friend. Why did Sho want him to take Ohno off campus? Why did he sound so anxious? What happened with him for the past few weeks? All these questions kept lingered on his mind. He had the urge to call Sho immediately after Ohno left, but fought hard to overcome it. There must be a reason for Sho to ask him to call at a certain time and it’s better for him to follow if he wanted Sho to talk.
A night of video games couldn’t make him feel time passed fast enough.
**********************************
Sho was relieved he caught Nino in time to get Ohno away. Hearing his father mentioning Ohno’s name earlier that day gave him an uneasy feeling. During the past few days his father had been more fidgety than usual, barely stepped out of the apartment and jumped every time the phone or door bell rang. He didn’t know what’s going on. Every time his father’s tall, big-built friend, Tanaka, called or stopped by, they talked in secrecy.
Normally Sho could care less about his father’s affairs, but after what Tanaka said about they needed more money and only had a few days, and that they even asked him to go to Ohno for money, he sensed something was not right. He had been paying close attentions to the old man ever since. Nothing seemed alerting until earlier that day when he heard the two talking on the balcony.
"Ask your son again." Tanaka said to Sho's father.
Sho's father shook his head "No use. His part time jobs don't pay much. It's enough for us to make small bets, but not this."
"Then what do we do? We can't just sit here. We need to have the money today!" Tanaka became agitated.
"Shut up! Let me think." Sho's father walked up and down the balcony with his head down.
All this time Sho was standing behind the curtain and the two men didn't see him.
Sho's father looked at his watch and said to his friend. "Let's go. If we go now we can still catch him. He should be coming out of class soon. I know his schedule well." He then grabbed his friend and came back into the apartment towards the front door. Sho hid himself with the curtain to avoid being seen. The two men were too preoccupied themselves to notice Sho anyway.
"Where are we going? Who is coming out of class? What does this have to do with getting money?" Tanaka kept asking questions while being pushed out the door.
"Don't ask, just follow me -- " Sho's father left the apartment with his friend and closed the door.
After they left, Sho recalled what his father was mumbling about just then. Almost immediately he knew his father was going to Ohno, for money. The old man had no problem with breaking his promise to his son, but willing to take the risk of being turned in to authorities from contacting Ohno meant that he’s pretty desparate, and that worried Sho. He must not let his father go near Ohno.
Later in the evening Sho was contemplating on another issue. He was forced to promise Nino to tell him where he was. He didn’t want to, worried that Ohno would find out from Nino sooner or later, but he didn’t want to break his promise to his long time friend either. He just had to find a way to make Nino promised not to tell Ohno and he knew his friend was not easy to convince.
It’s time to get ready to work. He just had to worry about it when Nino called tomorrow. May be Nino lost the number and would not call. Chuckling at the silly thought, he went into the bathroom to freshen up.
“Baka, baka”
Sho heard the voice of his father in condemning tone outside the bathroom. He knew Nino had succeeded in getting Ohno away.
“Where did that mutt go? Damn it.” Sho’s father banged hard on the dining table. “He usually hangs out on campus for a while after class. What made him leave so soon today?”
“But he was not there. It’s no use wondering why now. We still have a problem to solve here.” His father’s tall friend commented. “What are we going to do? You know how they work. Interest is accumulating while we speak. The longer we wait the more money we’ll be oweing. And if we don’t starting repaying something - ”
“OK, OK, don’t you think I know how loan sharks work?” Sho’s father cut his friend off. “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.”
By then Sho had moved closer to the door to listen to the conversation. When he heard the term loan sharks he gasped. All these years he knew his father pawned things, borrowed money from friends and families, even scammed people for money, but it was the first time he heard him borrowing money from load sharks. And this made his heart skipped a beat.
Bang Bang Bang
Suddenly there was a loud noise coming from the front door. All three people in the apartment jumped. Sho tried to keep quiet as he did not want to be noticed.
"Oh no, they're here." Tanaka said in a panicky voice. "Let's hide."
"Stupid. Where can we hide? They must know we're here before they come." Sho's father argued. His voice also trembling.
Bang Bang Bang
"Open the door or we'll break it down. We know you're in there." The people ouside demanded. Even though Sho couldn't hear too clearly from inside the bathroom, he could still tell whoever ouside the apartment was anything but friendly.
"OK, OK, we're coming." Sho's father walked towards the front door only to be grabbed by his friend.
"Are you crazy? We have no money to give to them. They’ll kill us."
"They won't leave until they see us. It's better than letting them break down the door. We only missed one payment, they probably won’t kill us yet. They still want their money. May be we can ask for a few more days."
"If -- if you say so, but I seriously doubt they will -- "
Reluctantly, Sho's father unlocked the front door. Before he even turned the door knob, the men outside already did that and swung opened, so hard that it hit the side wall next to the door and left an indent.
Two men from outside pushed their way into the apartment, grabbing Sho's father and Tanaka with them. Sho was scared, but he desperately needed to know what's going on outside, so he took a deep breath and slowly opened the bathroom door just wide enough that he could peek outside. He saw his father and Tanaka being pushed down on the dining chairs and two men pinned their shoulders with one hand and pointing fingers at their faces with the other.
"You two jerks want to hide from us? You think we're that dumb, huh?" One of the guy held Sho's father tight and threw several punches to his stomach. The other guy did the same to Tanaka.
"Ouch!" Both curled up and screamed in pain. "We didn't -- we were just -- "
"Save your breath for you non-sense. Where is the money? I don't think you dare to forget about it, or have you?" Another punch hit Sho's father's abdomen.
Sho almost screamed in horror. He had to cover his mouth to keep himself from making any noise.
"We -- don't have it yet. But we promise -- " Sho's father said with a shuddering awe.
"What?" The guy that was holding him cut him off. "No money? You want to die?" The guy raised his hands getting ready to hit Sho's father again.
"Wait! Please, we just -- couldn't get the money on time. That's all. We'll have it tomorrow, I promise -- "
"Fine, don't say that we're too harsh on you. Tomorrow it is, but there will be another 10% of interest on top."
"10% more interest? It's just one night! You guys are worse than real sharks!" Tanaka protested.
Surprisingly the two loan sharks did not get angry. They even laughed and released Sho's father and Tanaka. "We are smarter than real sharks. Real sharks just blindly follow blood trails for food. We create our own blood trails. Ha ha ha -- "
The two men turned around and walked towards the front door. “We'll be back tomorrow and you better have money then. Or else - arrange someone to collect your bodies.” With a last warning the two loan shark men left the apartment when Sho’s father and Tanaka still curled up in pain and trying to catch their breath.
Sho was in total shock and horror. He could hear his own heart beats. For a brief moment he was wondering if what he saw was just an act, just like when his father tricked him into giving him money. But then he realized his father wasn’t supposed to know he’s home, and tricking his son again wouldn’t benefit him anymore. What Sho saw was real! His father was more hopeless than he had ever imagined.
“Are you out of your mind? Promising to pay them tomorrow. How are we going to find money?” Tanaka said still rubbing his stomach to ease the pain from the punches.
“If I didn’t say that, how else would they leave so easily? You and I would probably be half dead by now.” Sho’s father defended his impromptu action. “At least this buy us a night.”
“So now what? We have to think of something. Too bad we didn’t catch that rich boy this afternoon.”
Sho’s father thought for a while, then he said, “We don’t need to catch him. I have a better idea. We can get a lot more from the treasures in his home.”
Sho was still trying to calm himself down with what just happened. But what his father just said forced him to put his shock and fear aside. He needed to pay attention to the conversation outside and find out what the two men outside were up to.
“What are you talking about?” Tanaka asked in confusion.
“Sometimes I wonder if all your cells are in your muscles and none in your brain.” Sho’s father smacked Tanaka’s head and continued. “Inside the rich boy’s home there are many antiques, paintings and possible jewelries that worth a fortune. If we can just get a few pieces - ” A crafty smile appeared on the man’s face.
“Oh! That sounds great.” Tanaka became all excited. “But how can we get our hands on any of them?”
“Sho’s rich boyfriend let me into the backside of the villa once to keep me out of Sho’s sight when he gave me money. Ha ha, perfect opportunity for me to look around the estate. Now it finally comes in handy.”
“But nobody will let us in this time - ”
“I think I know a way that we could break in. The servants all sleep in a quarter separated from the main house. So there should only be the rich boy and his parents in there. We can sneak in and just grab a few things easily without being noticed.”
“OK, let’s go then. We won’t need to worry about lacking betting money anymore.” Tanaka started to leave before being called back.
“Wait!” Sho’s father called his friend back and went towards the kitchen. He opened a drawer and took out a chef’s knife. He wrapped it with a towel and hid it inside his jacket.
“What’s that for?” Tanaka asked anxiously. Even though he got into fights a lot, but they were only with punches and kicks, never with real weapons. “I thought we would only steal a few things from there, not robbing them.”
“Well, of course I’m not planning to rob them, but we need some leverage if we got exposed. Just in case. Come on, let’s go.”
Tanaka was not too thrilled about the knife idea, but he thought his friend might be right. The two men left the apartment heading to the Ohno villa.
Sho found himself shaking and sweating. What he heard gave him chills and yet drops of sweats were falling down his face. He felt as if he’s world was turning upside down in the last two hours. He knew he should have gone out and stopped them but his feet glued themselves to the floor and wouldn’t move an inch.
Why wasn’t he at work? If he was then he wouldn’t know any of these horrible things and would not be feeling so dreadful now. But then what would happen if he worked like any normal night and the next day he woke up with the news that the Ohno villa had been burglarized, and even worse if someone got hurt during the process.
“No! No! No!” Sho shoke his head trying to get the idea out of his mind.
One way or another someone he loved bound to get hurt and he couldn’t let that happen. He had to stop this from happening.
But, how?
To Be Continued....
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Pairing: Yama (Ohno x Sho)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, fluff, romance, drama
Summary: Sho discovered the reason behind his father's desperate need of money. Something might happen to put the Ohno's in danger.
Chapter 23
Even though Nino had a mind full of questions to ask Sho, he kept his words and did what Sho told him to. He left the campus with Ohno immediately after the phone call with Sho and went to a movie and karaoke and ate, then went back to Nino’s place for some video gaming before he let Ohno went home. Celebrating the beginning of summer break was his excuse which was perfectly convincing to Ohno.
It was one of the rare occasions when Nino could not concentrate on the fun things he was doing. Ohno took the opportunity to give the gaming expert some good teases on losing his battles a few times. Nino couldn’t get his mind off of his childhood friend. Why did Sho want him to take Ohno off campus? Why did he sound so anxious? What happened with him for the past few weeks? All these questions kept lingered on his mind. He had the urge to call Sho immediately after Ohno left, but fought hard to overcome it. There must be a reason for Sho to ask him to call at a certain time and it’s better for him to follow if he wanted Sho to talk.
A night of video games couldn’t make him feel time passed fast enough.
**********************************
Sho was relieved he caught Nino in time to get Ohno away. Hearing his father mentioning Ohno’s name earlier that day gave him an uneasy feeling. During the past few days his father had been more fidgety than usual, barely stepped out of the apartment and jumped every time the phone or door bell rang. He didn’t know what’s going on. Every time his father’s tall, big-built friend, Tanaka, called or stopped by, they talked in secrecy.
Normally Sho could care less about his father’s affairs, but after what Tanaka said about they needed more money and only had a few days, and that they even asked him to go to Ohno for money, he sensed something was not right. He had been paying close attentions to the old man ever since. Nothing seemed alerting until earlier that day when he heard the two talking on the balcony.
"Ask your son again." Tanaka said to Sho's father.
Sho's father shook his head "No use. His part time jobs don't pay much. It's enough for us to make small bets, but not this."
"Then what do we do? We can't just sit here. We need to have the money today!" Tanaka became agitated.
"Shut up! Let me think." Sho's father walked up and down the balcony with his head down.
All this time Sho was standing behind the curtain and the two men didn't see him.
Sho's father looked at his watch and said to his friend. "Let's go. If we go now we can still catch him. He should be coming out of class soon. I know his schedule well." He then grabbed his friend and came back into the apartment towards the front door. Sho hid himself with the curtain to avoid being seen. The two men were too preoccupied themselves to notice Sho anyway.
"Where are we going? Who is coming out of class? What does this have to do with getting money?" Tanaka kept asking questions while being pushed out the door.
"Don't ask, just follow me -- " Sho's father left the apartment with his friend and closed the door.
After they left, Sho recalled what his father was mumbling about just then. Almost immediately he knew his father was going to Ohno, for money. The old man had no problem with breaking his promise to his son, but willing to take the risk of being turned in to authorities from contacting Ohno meant that he’s pretty desparate, and that worried Sho. He must not let his father go near Ohno.
Later in the evening Sho was contemplating on another issue. He was forced to promise Nino to tell him where he was. He didn’t want to, worried that Ohno would find out from Nino sooner or later, but he didn’t want to break his promise to his long time friend either. He just had to find a way to make Nino promised not to tell Ohno and he knew his friend was not easy to convince.
It’s time to get ready to work. He just had to worry about it when Nino called tomorrow. May be Nino lost the number and would not call. Chuckling at the silly thought, he went into the bathroom to freshen up.
“Baka, baka”
Sho heard the voice of his father in condemning tone outside the bathroom. He knew Nino had succeeded in getting Ohno away.
“Where did that mutt go? Damn it.” Sho’s father banged hard on the dining table. “He usually hangs out on campus for a while after class. What made him leave so soon today?”
“But he was not there. It’s no use wondering why now. We still have a problem to solve here.” His father’s tall friend commented. “What are we going to do? You know how they work. Interest is accumulating while we speak. The longer we wait the more money we’ll be oweing. And if we don’t starting repaying something - ”
“OK, OK, don’t you think I know how loan sharks work?” Sho’s father cut his friend off. “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.”
By then Sho had moved closer to the door to listen to the conversation. When he heard the term loan sharks he gasped. All these years he knew his father pawned things, borrowed money from friends and families, even scammed people for money, but it was the first time he heard him borrowing money from load sharks. And this made his heart skipped a beat.
Bang Bang Bang
Suddenly there was a loud noise coming from the front door. All three people in the apartment jumped. Sho tried to keep quiet as he did not want to be noticed.
"Oh no, they're here." Tanaka said in a panicky voice. "Let's hide."
"Stupid. Where can we hide? They must know we're here before they come." Sho's father argued. His voice also trembling.
Bang Bang Bang
"Open the door or we'll break it down. We know you're in there." The people ouside demanded. Even though Sho couldn't hear too clearly from inside the bathroom, he could still tell whoever ouside the apartment was anything but friendly.
"OK, OK, we're coming." Sho's father walked towards the front door only to be grabbed by his friend.
"Are you crazy? We have no money to give to them. They’ll kill us."
"They won't leave until they see us. It's better than letting them break down the door. We only missed one payment, they probably won’t kill us yet. They still want their money. May be we can ask for a few more days."
"If -- if you say so, but I seriously doubt they will -- "
Reluctantly, Sho's father unlocked the front door. Before he even turned the door knob, the men outside already did that and swung opened, so hard that it hit the side wall next to the door and left an indent.
Two men from outside pushed their way into the apartment, grabbing Sho's father and Tanaka with them. Sho was scared, but he desperately needed to know what's going on outside, so he took a deep breath and slowly opened the bathroom door just wide enough that he could peek outside. He saw his father and Tanaka being pushed down on the dining chairs and two men pinned their shoulders with one hand and pointing fingers at their faces with the other.
"You two jerks want to hide from us? You think we're that dumb, huh?" One of the guy held Sho's father tight and threw several punches to his stomach. The other guy did the same to Tanaka.
"Ouch!" Both curled up and screamed in pain. "We didn't -- we were just -- "
"Save your breath for you non-sense. Where is the money? I don't think you dare to forget about it, or have you?" Another punch hit Sho's father's abdomen.
Sho almost screamed in horror. He had to cover his mouth to keep himself from making any noise.
"We -- don't have it yet. But we promise -- " Sho's father said with a shuddering awe.
"What?" The guy that was holding him cut him off. "No money? You want to die?" The guy raised his hands getting ready to hit Sho's father again.
"Wait! Please, we just -- couldn't get the money on time. That's all. We'll have it tomorrow, I promise -- "
"Fine, don't say that we're too harsh on you. Tomorrow it is, but there will be another 10% of interest on top."
"10% more interest? It's just one night! You guys are worse than real sharks!" Tanaka protested.
Surprisingly the two loan sharks did not get angry. They even laughed and released Sho's father and Tanaka. "We are smarter than real sharks. Real sharks just blindly follow blood trails for food. We create our own blood trails. Ha ha ha -- "
The two men turned around and walked towards the front door. “We'll be back tomorrow and you better have money then. Or else - arrange someone to collect your bodies.” With a last warning the two loan shark men left the apartment when Sho’s father and Tanaka still curled up in pain and trying to catch their breath.
Sho was in total shock and horror. He could hear his own heart beats. For a brief moment he was wondering if what he saw was just an act, just like when his father tricked him into giving him money. But then he realized his father wasn’t supposed to know he’s home, and tricking his son again wouldn’t benefit him anymore. What Sho saw was real! His father was more hopeless than he had ever imagined.
“Are you out of your mind? Promising to pay them tomorrow. How are we going to find money?” Tanaka said still rubbing his stomach to ease the pain from the punches.
“If I didn’t say that, how else would they leave so easily? You and I would probably be half dead by now.” Sho’s father defended his impromptu action. “At least this buy us a night.”
“So now what? We have to think of something. Too bad we didn’t catch that rich boy this afternoon.”
Sho’s father thought for a while, then he said, “We don’t need to catch him. I have a better idea. We can get a lot more from the treasures in his home.”
Sho was still trying to calm himself down with what just happened. But what his father just said forced him to put his shock and fear aside. He needed to pay attention to the conversation outside and find out what the two men outside were up to.
“What are you talking about?” Tanaka asked in confusion.
“Sometimes I wonder if all your cells are in your muscles and none in your brain.” Sho’s father smacked Tanaka’s head and continued. “Inside the rich boy’s home there are many antiques, paintings and possible jewelries that worth a fortune. If we can just get a few pieces - ” A crafty smile appeared on the man’s face.
“Oh! That sounds great.” Tanaka became all excited. “But how can we get our hands on any of them?”
“Sho’s rich boyfriend let me into the backside of the villa once to keep me out of Sho’s sight when he gave me money. Ha ha, perfect opportunity for me to look around the estate. Now it finally comes in handy.”
“But nobody will let us in this time - ”
“I think I know a way that we could break in. The servants all sleep in a quarter separated from the main house. So there should only be the rich boy and his parents in there. We can sneak in and just grab a few things easily without being noticed.”
“OK, let’s go then. We won’t need to worry about lacking betting money anymore.” Tanaka started to leave before being called back.
“Wait!” Sho’s father called his friend back and went towards the kitchen. He opened a drawer and took out a chef’s knife. He wrapped it with a towel and hid it inside his jacket.
“What’s that for?” Tanaka asked anxiously. Even though he got into fights a lot, but they were only with punches and kicks, never with real weapons. “I thought we would only steal a few things from there, not robbing them.”
“Well, of course I’m not planning to rob them, but we need some leverage if we got exposed. Just in case. Come on, let’s go.”
Tanaka was not too thrilled about the knife idea, but he thought his friend might be right. The two men left the apartment heading to the Ohno villa.
Sho found himself shaking and sweating. What he heard gave him chills and yet drops of sweats were falling down his face. He felt as if he’s world was turning upside down in the last two hours. He knew he should have gone out and stopped them but his feet glued themselves to the floor and wouldn’t move an inch.
Why wasn’t he at work? If he was then he wouldn’t know any of these horrible things and would not be feeling so dreadful now. But then what would happen if he worked like any normal night and the next day he woke up with the news that the Ohno villa had been burglarized, and even worse if someone got hurt during the process.
“No! No! No!” Sho shoke his head trying to get the idea out of his mind.
One way or another someone he loved bound to get hurt and he couldn’t let that happen. He had to stop this from happening.
But, how?
To Be Continued....
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