ENG - [YabuxInoo] - Merry-Go-Round Goes 5(a) - The Whirlabout
Title : Merry-Go-Round Goes
Chapter : 5(a)/8
Pairing(s)/Fandom : Yabu Kota x Inoo Kei / Hey! Say! JUMP, NEWS, Kisumai, more to come
Author : ma_rendezvous
Genre : AU. Romance
Rating : mostly NC-17
Warning : Explicit content. Dirty words. Slight mention of use of drugs. A paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)
Disclaimer : The main story belongs to Garry Marshall's team. I have the improvisations and other things. The rests are idols, everyone owns these idols. Ha ha!
A/N : In the end I can't just make an eight chapter straight. Here we go, yet another (a) part of the fanfic. I'm sorry, but 5k words is a max for me.
Summary : Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.
( 1 / 2 / 3 / 4a / 4b )
Merry-Go-Round Goes
- Chapter 5 -
Part (a)
In complete silence, hugging his knees as he sat on the king sized bed inside the insanely expensive bedroom, Inoo stared at the sleeping face of his employer next to him. The tall, drop dead gorgeous brunette was still deep in his slumber soundly, his broad chest rose and fell in a calm rhythm under the blanket that covered three qurter of his naked body. Inoo knitted his eyebrows and frowned as he rested his head on his folded arms, his eyes never left Yabu’s face. For some reasons, his heart felt so uncomfortable, and despite the fact that the air conditioner was on and he’s supposed to feel the cold wind passing through him, his skin kind of turned dense like an elephant’s. Instead, he felt somewhat feverish and tight in the throat, his eyes hurt, his brain dizzy, as if he caught a summer heatstroke.
Yabu had tried to kiss him. Twice. And the thought and the memory of when their faces were so close to each other’s scared the hell out of him. The image kept rolling like a film in cinemas and it didn’t want to get off of Inoo’s mind. He had been able to feel Yabu’s piece of life against his face, he had been able to recognize the lingered tobacco mixed with light alcohol in his breath. Inoo was so tempted to give in, because nobody had showed him such pure intention in forever. Inoo could see it on Yabu’s face, that his intention to kiss him on the lips wasn’t based on a mere sympathy; neither was it lust. The thing that had made Inoo felt downcasted the most, was because he could feel Yabu emitted something so close to love towards him.
But how? And why? Yabu was only some rich guy who contracted him just like any other customers he had ever had, and their relationship was supposedly only based on money that tied them together. But at the same time Inoo could feel his heart beating fast whenever Yabu touched him. He couldn’t even stop thinking about Yabu and his reaction towards small trivial things that happened to him. And within his subconsciousness, the hooker had began to look forward to the days he would spend with the taller, only the two of them, even if it lasted for no more than a week.
Inoo wanted to ask it out loud, but he didn’t have the power to do so. He didn’t want to fall in love. He didn’t want to let himself fall miserable under Yabu’s momentary affection. He didn’t want to hurt himself by having personal emotion towards Yabu-especially Yabu, because, hell, they were definitely not destined to be together. They were from two different worlds.
They just had no chance whatsoever.
Sighing, Inoo buried his face on his arms. Until the morning sunlight turned more blinding than before, he stayed still in deep confusion, ended up barely sleeping at all.
What the hell do you want from me, Ko-chan?
*-*-*-*-*
Yabu woke up to Inoo sitting on the bed next to him, hugging his knees loosely. The first silhouette that came to his vision was Inoo’s bundle of black hair and his back that was covered with his white shirt-whether the shirt was Inoo’s or his this time, he couldn’t care less. Feeling somehow contented that the raven was still there, Yabu smiled to himself as he reached out his hands, circling them perfectly around Inoo’s slim waist that the hooker half jolted in surprise by his sudden and unexpected act. The tall brunette then buried his face on Inoo’s back, hugging him tighter without even knowing that he just made Inoo’s face turned completely red.
He was just extremely glad that Inoo was around, and he didn’t want to care why.
“Sleep well?” He mumbled, his voice deep and husky.
“Y-yeah, didn’t even dream.” Inoo answered, stuttering. He was definitely lying, but Yabu just failed or purposedly didn’t want to notice the sign.
“Good.” Yabu said, not moving an inch.
He felt Inoo rested his palms on his upper arm and Yabu felt warm in the heart. He had never hugged someone else like this in his life before, and doing this to Inoo just felt so right. He enjoyed every seconds of their heat exchange, he enjoyed the feeling of having Inoo only for himself that morning. They stayed still like that for a while longer, enjoying how comfortable it was to be around each other’s arms, cherishing every seconds because the both of them knew that it just wouldn’t last forever.
Until all of a sudden, the silence was broke by the grumble of Inoo’s stomach which made a vibration that somehow electrocut Yabu’s arms and made him woke up completely and sat straight up in alarm.
“I’m sorry!” Inoo exclaimed. “I think I didn’t get enough carbohydrate last night. I can’t help it, I’m sorry…”
As the raven covered his face with both palms out of embarrassment, Yabu chuckled, almost laughing bemusedly. He reached out to the internal phone on the nightstand before bringing himself closer to Inoo, encircling his left arm around Inoo’s shoulders and set his palm on Inoo’s hair affectionately, closing all the gap between their bodies. Inoo peeked from between his fingers and watched it as Yabu showed him the numbers on the wireless phone in front of his face.
“No need to feel sorry. Here, let me teach you how to order foods from the restaurant so that you don’t have to starve yourself.” Yabu kindly explained. As the taller pushed some buttons, Inoo pulled his palms off of his face and focused rather innocently on where Yabu’s fingers ran onto. “Since you can order food whenever you want and you know I won’t be around most of the time, just remember the number, okay?”
Inoo still watched it as Yabu set the internal phone to his ears. But as Yabu made some orders for their breakfast, Inoo’s focus shifted from the phone to Yabu’s face. He stared at the brunette’s visage-his jawline, his sharp nose, his thin lips, his firm cheekbones, his gorgeous eyes-so longingly, and his own expression went blank like a white paper that waited to be written by a special ink. And then Yabu realized his stare that he turned his face to him in return, and as Yabu’s dark orbs met with Inoo’s lighter ones, at one certain point when their hearts felt the unseen click, as if there’s a thread connecting their pinkies together, yet at the same time without realization of what was actually happening, the two of them crept a warm and loving smile to each other.
*-*-*-*-*
“I was actually surprised that you only bought a set of suits yesterday,” Yabu said, glancing at Inoo who stayed close behind him. “That’s not gonna last for a week, Kei. You’re gonna need more clothes for your stay.”
They walked towards the dinning table where the hotel staff had served the breakfast menus that they had ordered earlier in the morning, with Yabu wearing the white and grey hotel yukata and Inoo still wearing the long plain white shirt, which perfectly covered the short shorts that he’s wearing under. The rich brunette had already been accostumed to Inoo’s behavior of trailing behind him like a lost little kitten somehow, so he could casually speak since he knew Inoo was definitely there. He’s cute that way, Yabu thought, yet not like he’s going to admit it out loud.
The smell of french toasts and were so good and delicious that Inoo felt so eager to swallow them all into his stomach. But hearing Yabu commenting something related to clothings had made his smile dropped into an upside down curve all at once. Watching Yabu pouring his brewed coffee into a white cup, Inoo puffed his cheeks and dropped his butt on his ‘usual’ chair-the chair on Yabu’s right.
“What happened?” Yabu shifted his eyes to Inoo and lifted an eyebrow curiously.
“They fucking traumatized me. I don’t want to go shopping anymore, Ko-chan.”
Pausing for a moment, Yabu turned darker responding Inoo’s statement.
“Who made you traumatized?
“That bitch in the shop where I went to. She kicked me away!” Inoo grumbled, his face as bitter as Yabu’s morning coffe. He lifted his feet onto the chair and hugged his knees close to his chest. “Fucking bitch judging and discriminating people just by their looks.”
*-*-*-*-*
The hooker didn’t know how or why, but he ended up hopping into a car with Yabu and a driver taking him back to Ginza. Everything happened so fast like a thunder in a sunny day before he could comprehend nor answer any questions piling up in his head. Yabu had been so angry that Inoo swore he had seen the taller’s eyes turned red like those of zombies’ in zombie apocalypse movies. He had watched Yabu giving a call to his office, telling that he’d gonna be late before then calling the lobby to book a car and a driver. And in a blink of an eye, the both of them had suddenly arrived in front of a huge building with giant “Hankyu” kanji attached on the most top of it. Inoo was still so confused when the driver opened the door for him. He became even more confused when Yabu suddenly took him by the wrist and pulled him into the famous giant department store.
Yabu didn’t stop walking nor did he look back at Inoo behind him. His hand was gripping the raven’s wrist strongly as they entered the building from its main front door. Not like Inoo minded, because, basically Yabu’s grip felt kind of warm and Inoo himself thought that he might melt at any moment. His pale cheeks were smeared in a pretty red and he couldn’t take his eyes off of Yabu’s grip on his wrist, for the moment felt like they were an actual couple, which actually, honestly, felt very nice.
When Yabu stopped and Inoo accidentally bumped onto Yabu’s back, realization hit the Ni Chome prostitute in the head. The two of them were standing hand in hand in the middle of one of the most high end malls all around the country-the Hankyu Men’s Tokyo-but with Inoo wearing his deep v-neck and his cheap and shabby shattered denim. Feeling too out of place, Inoo tried to get rid of Yabu’s hand, but the guy wearing double collar black shirt with red stripes on every edges-as well as greyish pants from Alexander McQueen-tightened his grip instead.
“Ko-chan, you don’t need to-”
“Nobody’s going to be unfair to you here.” Yabu cut mid-sentence, turning his body to Inoo, his visage calm and almost not showing any emotions. It made Inoo’s heart turned uncomfortable, and the raven frowned as Yabu continued, “I have my share in this department store, so worry not, okay?”
But that’s not what I meant…
Inoo wanted to protest but he could do nothing but nod, his eyes wide but slightly annoyed.
He was just not in the mood to shop.
They, nevertheless, ended up spending half of the day entering one shop to another, from Dunhill’s to PRADA’s on the first floor, going up and entered into Tom Ford’s and every Giorgio Armani’s outlets on the third floor. Every shop managers seemed to notice and know who Yabu was, as if he were kind of a prince or something like that and Hankyu was just a small part of his huge empire; and their face always changed everytime Yabu took out his credit cards and showed it to them. New shirts, cool T-shirts, pants, proper jeans, cool jackets, more suits, perfumes, even wristwatches. Yabu bought lots of stuff for Inoo like he’s buying him candies despite being extremely expensive commodities for a normal people’s standard. It was as if he were going to buy the entire department store with his credit card-not like he couldn’t, because he basically had his investation planted there.
But he just didn’t know that it didn’t make Inoo happy.
Or the rich brunette was just densing himself like always, not wanting to know that Inoo was unhappy. He just ignored the fact that Inoo didn’t need Yabu to spend so much money on him. And with Yabu buying him stuff like that, Inoo felt somehow insulted, though the raven didn’t mention it out loud.
At a point Yabu got an urgent phonecall from Kitayama, and he excused himself from the extremely friendly clerk who was showing Inoo a brand new set of clothings. He glanced at Inoo and smiled, and although Inoo smiled back, in silence, the hooker let out a long exhale wristfully. When Yabu approached Inoo back and told the smaller male that he had an urgent meeting he should attend, at the same time he fished his wallet out of his pocket and gave Inoo his credit card, telling the hooker that if he didn’t know how to use it, the clerks would give him a hand.
“Come back to the hotel after Masuda arrive, okay?” Yabu said.
Masuda was the name of the driver who always came along with the car that Yabu rent from the hotel. And from one side, Yabu’s intention of telling Inoo to wait for Masuda and the hotel’s car was so that Inoo could feel convenient, so he wouldn’t have to take the train and come back to the hotel by himself. But instead, on the other side, it made Inoo mad in silence, because he felt like he’s treated like nothing but a whore, showered with luxuries by a heartless customer.
But then he realized that he was the prostitute in this story, and Yabu just happened to be his super rich client. Therefore there were nothing wrong with what Yabu was doing. But Inoo remembered every affection that Yabu had given to him. He remembered this morning when Yabu smiled so fondly at him as if he were his lover, or when Yabu dragged him by the wrist, strong but gentle enough and Inoo could still feel how the taller’s calloused palm felt so good against his skin. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe all of these were just happening inside his head; nothing but a mere exaggerated imagination, and as a result, it made him feel less like a prostitute, which was probably amiss.
What am I doing…
Sighing for the umpteenth of time, Inoo took his phone out of his pocket and typed a text, telling Tegoshi that at the moment, he’s wearing a Calvin Klein’s boxer.
*-*-*-*-*
Tamamori Yuta saw Inoo Kei at the entrance of the first floor lobby of the Park main building when the smaller raven male came back to the hotel. He watched it as Masuda opened the car’s trunk and helped Inoo with his many paper bags of different brands. The manager also immediately noticed the change on Inoo’s appearance-he was no longer appearing with his deep v-neck and shabby jeans like he belonged to the streets, instead, he was now wearing a nice white shirt covered with black sweater which sleeves rolled up to his elbows as well as not-so-tight jeans black jeans-looking casual but proper. His black hair was pure, and his pale skin looked good under the sun, and realized it or not, Yuta was smiling to himself.
He came approaching Inoo and helped Inoo with all his belongings, not just because no hotel staff were around the first floor, but also because somehow Inoo was felt like a magnet that attracted him close. He saw Inoo’s wide and friendly smile, his teeth showing, the corner of his lips making two sharp curves, and his cheeks blossoming like flowers, and Yuta, silently stunned by the view in front of him-something that he shouldn’t have done. But Yuta could swear to any gods that he knew, that at the moment, Inoo Kei looked so beautiful.
Inoo said he forgot to ask Yabu for the room key, so Yuta gladly asked his employee on the 40th floor to bring a spare key directly to the 50th, as they entered the elevator and went straight there. Yuta even helped Inoo brought his belongings into the room, and Inoo jokingly asking him wheter he needed to give him a tip or not, considering Yuta was the manager and not a mere bellboy. Laughing lightly, Yuta said he shouldn’t, and Inoo’s content was the hotel’s satisfaction. From their interaction Yuta realized, that despite his really bad mouth, Inoo was a good and kind-hearted young man.
And Tamamori Yuta, the manager of the Park Hyatt Shinjuku, ended up noting himself that Yabu Kota must be a very lucky person.
On the other hand, the hooker’s mood lighted up because of Yuta’s presence, for Yuta probably was his first friend ever since Yabu contracted him. Sitting on the front sofas behind the front door, Inoo was excitedly telling Yuta his day at Hankyu and all the things that Yabu had done to him. He kept blabbering about Yabu and his unpredictable motives and any flaws that he could find in the CEO, but then Yuta smiled and complemented how sweet Yabu had been towards him because Yabu had walked like a robot the first time he came to the hotel. And then Inoo’s insecurity about Yabu Kota slowly disappeared. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, really, but at least Inoo began to feel a little grateful-if the feeling could be called that way.
At two past thirty in the afternoon, the phone inside Yabu’s room rang, drawing both Inoo and Yuta’s attention. The manager then realized he had been kind of slacking off of his work, so he excused himself. After Yuta was gone, Inoo approached the wireless phone behind the grand piano and picked it up rather cheerfully.
“Hello?”
“Never, ever, pick up the hotel phone.” Yabu said from the other side of the phone. His voice was gentle, not sounding like he’s scolding Inoo whatsoever, so Inoo found it quite funny.
“What? Then why did you call?” Inoo knitted his eyebrows, but chuckled.
“How’s shopping?”
“I bought the entire Ginza with your credit card.”
“Kei.” Now Yabu sounded worried.
“Just kidding!” Inoo laughed. He skipped to the baby grand piano and sat on its stool, backfacing the piano, while swinging his feet back and forth. “Was fun. Thank you. But you really shouldn’t have done that. I can just go home and take out some spare clothes. Just because you have all the money in the world, doesn’t mean you can just throw them all away like a combustible garbage.”
There was silence, and Inoo couldn’t help but guessing whether he had hurt Yabu’s feeling or not. He bit his lips because suddenly feeling bad to the businessman.
“But that’s just… I just wanted to be sure that you’re treated well.” Yabu answered, with the most gentle and loving voice Inoo had ever heard in his entire life.
Inoo lowered his head and stared at the carpet covering the floor, the pale red color smeared back onto his cheeks, happy to finally know Yabu’s intention. Nevertheless, basically, Yabu Kota was at fault, or so Inoo thought. But being with Yabu for a few days aready, Inoo noticed that Yabu wasn't one to apologize. Not even to the bellboys. Not even to him, so the hooker just gave it way.
“Thank you.”
“Yeah…”
Yabu paused for a moment, the two of them enjoying each other’s silent company despite being on the phone. Then somehow, at a point, Inoo could hear someone half-yelled to the taller, ‘Yabu, come to the meeting room, we need to talk.’, seemingly like he’s being called by a person on the other side of the room. Who’s brave enough to half-yell at a CEO? Inoo wondered, but shrugged it off anyhow. Inoo could also hear how Yabu responded the one calling him with, ‘A moment, I’m in a very important phone.’, which immediately bursted Inoo into mad laughter.
“Don’t laugh.” Inoo could hear Yabu’s threatening voice from afar.
Seriously, is talking to a hooker more important than doing your business? Inoo honestly thought it was so funny, that in his laughter, he shed a bead of tear on the corner of his eyes.
“Anyway, Kei, listen.” Yabu called back, and Inoo’s laughter faded away.
“What?”
“We’re going to see a match this evening. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“Yet another date?”
“This isn’t a date.”
“Alright, alright, I know that.” Inoo rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway.
“I’ll be going. Take care, okay?” Yabu said, and Inoo answered with a hum. “And don’t pick up the hotel phone.”
Yabu was the first one to hang up the phone, so Inoo just set the phone onto the closed lid of the baby grand piano before standing up. He wanted to get something to drink in the fridge, so he headed towards the minibar. He had been, however, some feet away from the phone already when the phone rang again, surprising Inoo that he jolted on his feet. He ran back to the phone, remembering that he’s supposed to not pick it up as Yabu had said. But what if it’s an important call?
“Hello?” Inoo decided to pick it up, resting his arms on the lid of the baby grand piano.
“I’ve told you to never ever pick up the phone.”
Hearing a humorous tone of the one on the other side of the phone, Inoo laughed and bit his lower lip. He remembered what Yuta had said about Yabu being a robot, but now, well, Yabu sounded more like yet a human being, less uptight.
“Then stop calling me!” He said back in a jesting manner.
The taller chuckled on the other side, and not saying anything for a moment, letting a comfortable silence passing thorugh.
“I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Got it, Gorgeous.” Inoo answered, hanging up the phone after Yabu did. And at the moment, he crept a wide, contented, from ear-to-ear kind of grin.
*-*-*-*-*
“Tell me again, Ko-chan, why are we here?”
Inoo fidgeted as they entered the clamorous Sumo dome, hand in hand. The place was so crowded, looking like a boxing arena or even a rock concert stage or something like that, with people come and go with snacks in their hands. But different with any other sports arena, the Sumo dome was kind of fully occupied by people from older ages. Lots of the men that Inoo saw had their hairs turned grey, and yet from the suits that they were wearing, Inoo could guess that they were all rich people. What he had expected when Yabu said he’s taking him to a ‘match’ had probably been a Polo match or a Golf match. But a Sumo match? Inoo didn’t even expect to be taken to such place. He had never seen Sumo matches in television either.
“It’s business.”
“At a Sumo match?”
“People have their own interests, Kei.” Yabu answered, glancing with his amused face to Inoo who was standing next to him. Their hands were still linked together, and he didn’t have the intention to break it away. “And stop fidgeting. You look fine.”
They walked down the stairs to the main ringside seats, passing many people that recognized Yabu Kota, shaking his free right hand every five steps. Inoo glanced at Yabu and saw the taller male offered his undescirbable for-business-sake’s kind of smile to everyone who passed him. The smile that he had seen this morning was very different, and Inoo couldn’t read it, whether Yabu was purely smiling or not. Since Yabu kept introducing him to people he knew, not wanting to look as cold as the CEO next to him, Inoo sincerely smiled.
When they were about to step into the the main ringside stairs, however, something weird happened. Inoo swore Yabu saw someone near the ring and immediately avoided having a contact with him. It was a tall guy with ginger head, his hair long and parted in the middle, and quite chubby for some reason. His narrow eyes looked sharp but cold at the same time, and his lips slanted to the right when he smiled while shaking hands with other people. Inoo’s eyes darted back to Yabu when he felt Yabu’s hand squeezing his tighter, and dragged him to another side, as far away from the guy as possible. Maybe the guy was Yabu’s other enemy?
Not letting Inoo to know the real reason, Yabu kept silent about it. Though actually, he avoided Takaki Yuya because he didn’t want the lawyer to make fun of the hooker, since he was probably the only person in his world that already knew Inoo’s real occupation.
They were about to sit on the seventh row of the cushioned seats when suddenly someone said, “So, this is that the person I don’t know?”
Yabu turned on his heels and watched Kitayama grinning widely to Inoo.
“This is Inoo Kei.” Trying to be proper and polite, Yabu introduced Inoo to his other lawyer, this time almost not smiling at all. “Kei, this is one of my lawyers, Kitayama.”
“Nice to meet you,” Inoo shook the lawyer’s hand, his smile friendly and wide.
“Nice to meet you too, Inoo-san, but I’m afraid I have to snatch Yabu away because Ohno Satoshi-san from the parliament wants to talk to him.” Kitayama said, and despite being pragmatic and cold, the irritating smile on his face never faded.
Inoo tilted up his head and stared at Yabu, watching the taller sighed as he patted Inoo’s shoulder gently.
“That’s fast.” The CEO commented to Kitayama, before turning to the smaller guy next to him. “Kei, wait here. I’ll be back soon.”
The raven hair only nodded and watched it as Yabu walked to the other side of the ring behind the guy called Kitayama. The two of them then climbed up the stairs to the box seats. Sighing because he’s left alone, Inoo decided to just sat and enjoyed his solitary in a world so foreign to him. He didn’t know anything about Sumo, didn’t know what’s the essence of two obessed athletes trying to push down each other, didn’t know why they wore shimenawa-the shinto white ropes-around their waists. Above it all, Inoo didn’t understand the correlation between Yabu’s business and a Sumo match.
As he wondered with his eyes staring blankly to the still empty ring, he almost jolted in surprise when a hand suddenly laid itself on his left shoulder. He turned back his upper body to see a wide, excited grin displayed in front his eyes. Inoo remembered the crooked teeth, the thin lips, the rather darker shade of skin, the marble black eyes from yesterday. But he didn’t remember the wrinkles on the corner of those eyes, didn’t remember seeing the so pure and childish grin ever before. Still, though the haircut was shorter than the day before, Inoo could easily recognize the guy in an instant.
It was Yaotome Hikaru.
“Yaotome-kun!” Inoo’s eyes shined. At least he met someone he knew.
“Hey,” Hikaru greeted nonchalantly, the excited grin never left his face. “Inoo Kei, right?”
Inoo nodded, smiling in return.
“You come as well!” Inoo said, his tone somehow raised though he didn’t know why.
“Yeah, it’s kind of an important match in the entire country, since it’s the final.” Hikaru explained.
Oh, so that’s why…
“But seriously, this match is for old people, don’t you think? It’s kind of boring, and sooooo going to be a long match.”
Finally, somebody’s agreed with me!
“I’ve never seen a Sumo match before, so I don’t know anything about it.” The hooker nodded, knitting his eyebrows, letting Hikaru notice his confusion.
“Well, then let’s skip the game!” Hikaru offered, his already wide grin turned even wider from ear to ear, like the Ceshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland.
Not like Inoo had expected it to happen. The smile on Inoo’s face faded as he pulled his shoulders a little backward, making a space between him and the Yaotome Industries’ heir.
“But Ko-chan-I mean, Yabu asked me to stay,”
“It’s gonna be just fine, we’ll just have some fresh air outside for awhile. It’s not gonna take long, he won’t even notice.” All of a sudden, the hand that laid on Inoo’s shoulder then moved to the pale wrist, and with a little power but still as gentle, Hikaru pulled Inoo onto him. “Come on, I promise we’ll be back before the match ends.”
Pausing for a moment, Inoo wandered his eyes around all the entire seats, scanning and trying to find Yabu’s silhouette around him, but finding none in the end. Where the hell is Ko-chan going? Inoo wondered, frowning for he felt he was coming here only to get ditched. When his eyes darted back to Hikaru’s, the now short haired brunette was still smiling towards him, and his palm-which felt twice rougher than Yabu’s-was still around his left wrist. Well, it’s better to have a company rather than sitting alone in a place unknown, right? Inoo thought to himself, before finally nodding to Hikaru. Besides, to hell with Yabu and his business. He wasn’t even Inoo’s lover, and in their unwritten contract, Inoo wasn’t forbid to make as many friends as he like.
Chuckling excitedly, Hikaru said, “There’s some vending machines just outside the dome. Let’s have some coffees there. The cafetaria inside doesn’t make good coffees.”
“Alright.” Inoo nodded as he stood up, his movement mirrored by Hikaru. “You’ve been here before?”
“I’ve been to Sumo matches a thousand of times already. No kidding!” Hikaru answered, pouting and making a bored face which Inoo found very funny. “That’s why I’m so done with it. I mean, watching two obessed athletes trying to push off each other, isn’t that just absurd?”
Inoo covered his mouth with a palm as he laughed out loud. Hikaru had the same thought with him about Sumo, coincidentally, which was entirely unexpected, and it felt somehow reasurring and relieving to Inoo’s side. Thus, Inoo noticed that, so much different with Yabu, Hikaru was so much more humane with his jokes, his laughter, the way he expressed his emotions on his face and the tone of his voice. And the fact that he wasn’t as stiff as Yabu Kota was maybe, just maybe, a little better. And probably he’ll make a good friend too, Inoo noted to himself.
They talked about lots of things around them, mostly about Sumo and the athlets, and also, occasionally Hikaru made some really funny jokes about it that Inoo felt like he just couldn’t stop laughing. The third generation Yaotome led the raven haired male out of the match arena onto the main exit door, his right hand always rested on the center of Inoo’s back, the two of them looking so close as if they were good old friends. Well, quite a bit more than just a pair of old friends, actually, if seen by lay eyes.
Yet such sight between Hikaru and Inoo was caught by a lawyer of Yabu Multinational Corporation. Even from afar, Kitayama Hiromitsu immediately snorted in silence and furrowed his forehead as he saw his company’s mortal enemy walked together side by side with the guy that seemed to be-or so Kitayama thought-his boss' lover.
And a suspicion couldn't help but unfold inside Kitayama's mind.
*-* To Be Continued *-*
A/N :
- Thank you for your concern! I'm fine now, haha. Though my lips aren't as symmetric as it used to, at least it doesn't hurt anymore-not really. But I'm alive! Once again, thank you!
- Summer is really hot I'm so doooooooone _(_u_)_
- I don't have reference note for this chapter, so if you have some curiousity or anything, feel free to ask XD
- As you see, I part the chapter into two again. I don't know that it would be this long, so please spare me :""(
- And I hope this chapter doesn't let you down... so if you happen to read this, please let me know. I would really appreciate it, and I'll love you forever I promise X""")
- I also accept critics!
- Anyway I so dislike Inoo in this chapter I want to stab his eyes with a fork
Chapter : 5(a)/8
Pairing(s)/Fandom : Yabu Kota x Inoo Kei / Hey! Say! JUMP, NEWS, Kisumai, more to come
Author : ma_rendezvous
Genre : AU. Romance
Rating : mostly NC-17
Warning : Explicit content. Dirty words. Slight mention of use of drugs. A paraphrased version of Pretty Woman (1991)
Disclaimer : The main story belongs to Garry Marshall's team. I have the improvisations and other things. The rests are idols, everyone owns these idols. Ha ha!
A/N : In the end I can't just make an eight chapter straight. Here we go, yet another (a) part of the fanfic. I'm sorry, but 5k words is a max for me.
Summary : Based on the movie, Pretty Woman, here Inoo Kei is living a life as a hooker in Shinjuku Ni Chome, the infamous district for queers in the whole Tokyo. And one day, he met his fate; his prince, who happens to be a very wealthy businessman named Yabu Kota. It's just that with him, everything goes unlooked-for.
( 1 / 2 / 3 / 4a / 4b )
Merry-Go-Round Goes
- Chapter 5 -
Part (a)
In complete silence, hugging his knees as he sat on the king sized bed inside the insanely expensive bedroom, Inoo stared at the sleeping face of his employer next to him. The tall, drop dead gorgeous brunette was still deep in his slumber soundly, his broad chest rose and fell in a calm rhythm under the blanket that covered three qurter of his naked body. Inoo knitted his eyebrows and frowned as he rested his head on his folded arms, his eyes never left Yabu’s face. For some reasons, his heart felt so uncomfortable, and despite the fact that the air conditioner was on and he’s supposed to feel the cold wind passing through him, his skin kind of turned dense like an elephant’s. Instead, he felt somewhat feverish and tight in the throat, his eyes hurt, his brain dizzy, as if he caught a summer heatstroke.
Yabu had tried to kiss him. Twice. And the thought and the memory of when their faces were so close to each other’s scared the hell out of him. The image kept rolling like a film in cinemas and it didn’t want to get off of Inoo’s mind. He had been able to feel Yabu’s piece of life against his face, he had been able to recognize the lingered tobacco mixed with light alcohol in his breath. Inoo was so tempted to give in, because nobody had showed him such pure intention in forever. Inoo could see it on Yabu’s face, that his intention to kiss him on the lips wasn’t based on a mere sympathy; neither was it lust. The thing that had made Inoo felt downcasted the most, was because he could feel Yabu emitted something so close to love towards him.
But how? And why? Yabu was only some rich guy who contracted him just like any other customers he had ever had, and their relationship was supposedly only based on money that tied them together. But at the same time Inoo could feel his heart beating fast whenever Yabu touched him. He couldn’t even stop thinking about Yabu and his reaction towards small trivial things that happened to him. And within his subconsciousness, the hooker had began to look forward to the days he would spend with the taller, only the two of them, even if it lasted for no more than a week.
Inoo wanted to ask it out loud, but he didn’t have the power to do so. He didn’t want to fall in love. He didn’t want to let himself fall miserable under Yabu’s momentary affection. He didn’t want to hurt himself by having personal emotion towards Yabu-especially Yabu, because, hell, they were definitely not destined to be together. They were from two different worlds.
They just had no chance whatsoever.
Sighing, Inoo buried his face on his arms. Until the morning sunlight turned more blinding than before, he stayed still in deep confusion, ended up barely sleeping at all.
What the hell do you want from me, Ko-chan?
*-*-*-*-*
Yabu woke up to Inoo sitting on the bed next to him, hugging his knees loosely. The first silhouette that came to his vision was Inoo’s bundle of black hair and his back that was covered with his white shirt-whether the shirt was Inoo’s or his this time, he couldn’t care less. Feeling somehow contented that the raven was still there, Yabu smiled to himself as he reached out his hands, circling them perfectly around Inoo’s slim waist that the hooker half jolted in surprise by his sudden and unexpected act. The tall brunette then buried his face on Inoo’s back, hugging him tighter without even knowing that he just made Inoo’s face turned completely red.
He was just extremely glad that Inoo was around, and he didn’t want to care why.
“Sleep well?” He mumbled, his voice deep and husky.
“Y-yeah, didn’t even dream.” Inoo answered, stuttering. He was definitely lying, but Yabu just failed or purposedly didn’t want to notice the sign.
“Good.” Yabu said, not moving an inch.
He felt Inoo rested his palms on his upper arm and Yabu felt warm in the heart. He had never hugged someone else like this in his life before, and doing this to Inoo just felt so right. He enjoyed every seconds of their heat exchange, he enjoyed the feeling of having Inoo only for himself that morning. They stayed still like that for a while longer, enjoying how comfortable it was to be around each other’s arms, cherishing every seconds because the both of them knew that it just wouldn’t last forever.
Until all of a sudden, the silence was broke by the grumble of Inoo’s stomach which made a vibration that somehow electrocut Yabu’s arms and made him woke up completely and sat straight up in alarm.
“I’m sorry!” Inoo exclaimed. “I think I didn’t get enough carbohydrate last night. I can’t help it, I’m sorry…”
As the raven covered his face with both palms out of embarrassment, Yabu chuckled, almost laughing bemusedly. He reached out to the internal phone on the nightstand before bringing himself closer to Inoo, encircling his left arm around Inoo’s shoulders and set his palm on Inoo’s hair affectionately, closing all the gap between their bodies. Inoo peeked from between his fingers and watched it as Yabu showed him the numbers on the wireless phone in front of his face.
“No need to feel sorry. Here, let me teach you how to order foods from the restaurant so that you don’t have to starve yourself.” Yabu kindly explained. As the taller pushed some buttons, Inoo pulled his palms off of his face and focused rather innocently on where Yabu’s fingers ran onto. “Since you can order food whenever you want and you know I won’t be around most of the time, just remember the number, okay?”
Inoo still watched it as Yabu set the internal phone to his ears. But as Yabu made some orders for their breakfast, Inoo’s focus shifted from the phone to Yabu’s face. He stared at the brunette’s visage-his jawline, his sharp nose, his thin lips, his firm cheekbones, his gorgeous eyes-so longingly, and his own expression went blank like a white paper that waited to be written by a special ink. And then Yabu realized his stare that he turned his face to him in return, and as Yabu’s dark orbs met with Inoo’s lighter ones, at one certain point when their hearts felt the unseen click, as if there’s a thread connecting their pinkies together, yet at the same time without realization of what was actually happening, the two of them crept a warm and loving smile to each other.
*-*-*-*-*
“I was actually surprised that you only bought a set of suits yesterday,” Yabu said, glancing at Inoo who stayed close behind him. “That’s not gonna last for a week, Kei. You’re gonna need more clothes for your stay.”
They walked towards the dinning table where the hotel staff had served the breakfast menus that they had ordered earlier in the morning, with Yabu wearing the white and grey hotel yukata and Inoo still wearing the long plain white shirt, which perfectly covered the short shorts that he’s wearing under. The rich brunette had already been accostumed to Inoo’s behavior of trailing behind him like a lost little kitten somehow, so he could casually speak since he knew Inoo was definitely there. He’s cute that way, Yabu thought, yet not like he’s going to admit it out loud.
The smell of french toasts and were so good and delicious that Inoo felt so eager to swallow them all into his stomach. But hearing Yabu commenting something related to clothings had made his smile dropped into an upside down curve all at once. Watching Yabu pouring his brewed coffee into a white cup, Inoo puffed his cheeks and dropped his butt on his ‘usual’ chair-the chair on Yabu’s right.
“What happened?” Yabu shifted his eyes to Inoo and lifted an eyebrow curiously.
“They fucking traumatized me. I don’t want to go shopping anymore, Ko-chan.”
Pausing for a moment, Yabu turned darker responding Inoo’s statement.
“Who made you traumatized?
“That bitch in the shop where I went to. She kicked me away!” Inoo grumbled, his face as bitter as Yabu’s morning coffe. He lifted his feet onto the chair and hugged his knees close to his chest. “Fucking bitch judging and discriminating people just by their looks.”
*-*-*-*-*
The hooker didn’t know how or why, but he ended up hopping into a car with Yabu and a driver taking him back to Ginza. Everything happened so fast like a thunder in a sunny day before he could comprehend nor answer any questions piling up in his head. Yabu had been so angry that Inoo swore he had seen the taller’s eyes turned red like those of zombies’ in zombie apocalypse movies. He had watched Yabu giving a call to his office, telling that he’d gonna be late before then calling the lobby to book a car and a driver. And in a blink of an eye, the both of them had suddenly arrived in front of a huge building with giant “Hankyu” kanji attached on the most top of it. Inoo was still so confused when the driver opened the door for him. He became even more confused when Yabu suddenly took him by the wrist and pulled him into the famous giant department store.
Yabu didn’t stop walking nor did he look back at Inoo behind him. His hand was gripping the raven’s wrist strongly as they entered the building from its main front door. Not like Inoo minded, because, basically Yabu’s grip felt kind of warm and Inoo himself thought that he might melt at any moment. His pale cheeks were smeared in a pretty red and he couldn’t take his eyes off of Yabu’s grip on his wrist, for the moment felt like they were an actual couple, which actually, honestly, felt very nice.
When Yabu stopped and Inoo accidentally bumped onto Yabu’s back, realization hit the Ni Chome prostitute in the head. The two of them were standing hand in hand in the middle of one of the most high end malls all around the country-the Hankyu Men’s Tokyo-but with Inoo wearing his deep v-neck and his cheap and shabby shattered denim. Feeling too out of place, Inoo tried to get rid of Yabu’s hand, but the guy wearing double collar black shirt with red stripes on every edges-as well as greyish pants from Alexander McQueen-tightened his grip instead.
“Ko-chan, you don’t need to-”
“Nobody’s going to be unfair to you here.” Yabu cut mid-sentence, turning his body to Inoo, his visage calm and almost not showing any emotions. It made Inoo’s heart turned uncomfortable, and the raven frowned as Yabu continued, “I have my share in this department store, so worry not, okay?”
But that’s not what I meant…
Inoo wanted to protest but he could do nothing but nod, his eyes wide but slightly annoyed.
He was just not in the mood to shop.
They, nevertheless, ended up spending half of the day entering one shop to another, from Dunhill’s to PRADA’s on the first floor, going up and entered into Tom Ford’s and every Giorgio Armani’s outlets on the third floor. Every shop managers seemed to notice and know who Yabu was, as if he were kind of a prince or something like that and Hankyu was just a small part of his huge empire; and their face always changed everytime Yabu took out his credit cards and showed it to them. New shirts, cool T-shirts, pants, proper jeans, cool jackets, more suits, perfumes, even wristwatches. Yabu bought lots of stuff for Inoo like he’s buying him candies despite being extremely expensive commodities for a normal people’s standard. It was as if he were going to buy the entire department store with his credit card-not like he couldn’t, because he basically had his investation planted there.
But he just didn’t know that it didn’t make Inoo happy.
Or the rich brunette was just densing himself like always, not wanting to know that Inoo was unhappy. He just ignored the fact that Inoo didn’t need Yabu to spend so much money on him. And with Yabu buying him stuff like that, Inoo felt somehow insulted, though the raven didn’t mention it out loud.
At a point Yabu got an urgent phonecall from Kitayama, and he excused himself from the extremely friendly clerk who was showing Inoo a brand new set of clothings. He glanced at Inoo and smiled, and although Inoo smiled back, in silence, the hooker let out a long exhale wristfully. When Yabu approached Inoo back and told the smaller male that he had an urgent meeting he should attend, at the same time he fished his wallet out of his pocket and gave Inoo his credit card, telling the hooker that if he didn’t know how to use it, the clerks would give him a hand.
“Come back to the hotel after Masuda arrive, okay?” Yabu said.
Masuda was the name of the driver who always came along with the car that Yabu rent from the hotel. And from one side, Yabu’s intention of telling Inoo to wait for Masuda and the hotel’s car was so that Inoo could feel convenient, so he wouldn’t have to take the train and come back to the hotel by himself. But instead, on the other side, it made Inoo mad in silence, because he felt like he’s treated like nothing but a whore, showered with luxuries by a heartless customer.
But then he realized that he was the prostitute in this story, and Yabu just happened to be his super rich client. Therefore there were nothing wrong with what Yabu was doing. But Inoo remembered every affection that Yabu had given to him. He remembered this morning when Yabu smiled so fondly at him as if he were his lover, or when Yabu dragged him by the wrist, strong but gentle enough and Inoo could still feel how the taller’s calloused palm felt so good against his skin. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe all of these were just happening inside his head; nothing but a mere exaggerated imagination, and as a result, it made him feel less like a prostitute, which was probably amiss.
What am I doing…
Sighing for the umpteenth of time, Inoo took his phone out of his pocket and typed a text, telling Tegoshi that at the moment, he’s wearing a Calvin Klein’s boxer.
*-*-*-*-*
Tamamori Yuta saw Inoo Kei at the entrance of the first floor lobby of the Park main building when the smaller raven male came back to the hotel. He watched it as Masuda opened the car’s trunk and helped Inoo with his many paper bags of different brands. The manager also immediately noticed the change on Inoo’s appearance-he was no longer appearing with his deep v-neck and shabby jeans like he belonged to the streets, instead, he was now wearing a nice white shirt covered with black sweater which sleeves rolled up to his elbows as well as not-so-tight jeans black jeans-looking casual but proper. His black hair was pure, and his pale skin looked good under the sun, and realized it or not, Yuta was smiling to himself.
He came approaching Inoo and helped Inoo with all his belongings, not just because no hotel staff were around the first floor, but also because somehow Inoo was felt like a magnet that attracted him close. He saw Inoo’s wide and friendly smile, his teeth showing, the corner of his lips making two sharp curves, and his cheeks blossoming like flowers, and Yuta, silently stunned by the view in front of him-something that he shouldn’t have done. But Yuta could swear to any gods that he knew, that at the moment, Inoo Kei looked so beautiful.
Inoo said he forgot to ask Yabu for the room key, so Yuta gladly asked his employee on the 40th floor to bring a spare key directly to the 50th, as they entered the elevator and went straight there. Yuta even helped Inoo brought his belongings into the room, and Inoo jokingly asking him wheter he needed to give him a tip or not, considering Yuta was the manager and not a mere bellboy. Laughing lightly, Yuta said he shouldn’t, and Inoo’s content was the hotel’s satisfaction. From their interaction Yuta realized, that despite his really bad mouth, Inoo was a good and kind-hearted young man.
And Tamamori Yuta, the manager of the Park Hyatt Shinjuku, ended up noting himself that Yabu Kota must be a very lucky person.
On the other hand, the hooker’s mood lighted up because of Yuta’s presence, for Yuta probably was his first friend ever since Yabu contracted him. Sitting on the front sofas behind the front door, Inoo was excitedly telling Yuta his day at Hankyu and all the things that Yabu had done to him. He kept blabbering about Yabu and his unpredictable motives and any flaws that he could find in the CEO, but then Yuta smiled and complemented how sweet Yabu had been towards him because Yabu had walked like a robot the first time he came to the hotel. And then Inoo’s insecurity about Yabu Kota slowly disappeared. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, really, but at least Inoo began to feel a little grateful-if the feeling could be called that way.
At two past thirty in the afternoon, the phone inside Yabu’s room rang, drawing both Inoo and Yuta’s attention. The manager then realized he had been kind of slacking off of his work, so he excused himself. After Yuta was gone, Inoo approached the wireless phone behind the grand piano and picked it up rather cheerfully.
“Hello?”
“Never, ever, pick up the hotel phone.” Yabu said from the other side of the phone. His voice was gentle, not sounding like he’s scolding Inoo whatsoever, so Inoo found it quite funny.
“What? Then why did you call?” Inoo knitted his eyebrows, but chuckled.
“How’s shopping?”
“I bought the entire Ginza with your credit card.”
“Kei.” Now Yabu sounded worried.
“Just kidding!” Inoo laughed. He skipped to the baby grand piano and sat on its stool, backfacing the piano, while swinging his feet back and forth. “Was fun. Thank you. But you really shouldn’t have done that. I can just go home and take out some spare clothes. Just because you have all the money in the world, doesn’t mean you can just throw them all away like a combustible garbage.”
There was silence, and Inoo couldn’t help but guessing whether he had hurt Yabu’s feeling or not. He bit his lips because suddenly feeling bad to the businessman.
“But that’s just… I just wanted to be sure that you’re treated well.” Yabu answered, with the most gentle and loving voice Inoo had ever heard in his entire life.
Inoo lowered his head and stared at the carpet covering the floor, the pale red color smeared back onto his cheeks, happy to finally know Yabu’s intention. Nevertheless, basically, Yabu Kota was at fault, or so Inoo thought. But being with Yabu for a few days aready, Inoo noticed that Yabu wasn't one to apologize. Not even to the bellboys. Not even to him, so the hooker just gave it way.
“Thank you.”
“Yeah…”
Yabu paused for a moment, the two of them enjoying each other’s silent company despite being on the phone. Then somehow, at a point, Inoo could hear someone half-yelled to the taller, ‘Yabu, come to the meeting room, we need to talk.’, seemingly like he’s being called by a person on the other side of the room. Who’s brave enough to half-yell at a CEO? Inoo wondered, but shrugged it off anyhow. Inoo could also hear how Yabu responded the one calling him with, ‘A moment, I’m in a very important phone.’, which immediately bursted Inoo into mad laughter.
“Don’t laugh.” Inoo could hear Yabu’s threatening voice from afar.
Seriously, is talking to a hooker more important than doing your business? Inoo honestly thought it was so funny, that in his laughter, he shed a bead of tear on the corner of his eyes.
“Anyway, Kei, listen.” Yabu called back, and Inoo’s laughter faded away.
“What?”
“We’re going to see a match this evening. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“Yet another date?”
“This isn’t a date.”
“Alright, alright, I know that.” Inoo rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway.
“I’ll be going. Take care, okay?” Yabu said, and Inoo answered with a hum. “And don’t pick up the hotel phone.”
Yabu was the first one to hang up the phone, so Inoo just set the phone onto the closed lid of the baby grand piano before standing up. He wanted to get something to drink in the fridge, so he headed towards the minibar. He had been, however, some feet away from the phone already when the phone rang again, surprising Inoo that he jolted on his feet. He ran back to the phone, remembering that he’s supposed to not pick it up as Yabu had said. But what if it’s an important call?
“Hello?” Inoo decided to pick it up, resting his arms on the lid of the baby grand piano.
“I’ve told you to never ever pick up the phone.”
Hearing a humorous tone of the one on the other side of the phone, Inoo laughed and bit his lower lip. He remembered what Yuta had said about Yabu being a robot, but now, well, Yabu sounded more like yet a human being, less uptight.
“Then stop calling me!” He said back in a jesting manner.
The taller chuckled on the other side, and not saying anything for a moment, letting a comfortable silence passing thorugh.
“I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Got it, Gorgeous.” Inoo answered, hanging up the phone after Yabu did. And at the moment, he crept a wide, contented, from ear-to-ear kind of grin.
*-*-*-*-*
“Tell me again, Ko-chan, why are we here?”
Inoo fidgeted as they entered the clamorous Sumo dome, hand in hand. The place was so crowded, looking like a boxing arena or even a rock concert stage or something like that, with people come and go with snacks in their hands. But different with any other sports arena, the Sumo dome was kind of fully occupied by people from older ages. Lots of the men that Inoo saw had their hairs turned grey, and yet from the suits that they were wearing, Inoo could guess that they were all rich people. What he had expected when Yabu said he’s taking him to a ‘match’ had probably been a Polo match or a Golf match. But a Sumo match? Inoo didn’t even expect to be taken to such place. He had never seen Sumo matches in television either.
“It’s business.”
“At a Sumo match?”
“People have their own interests, Kei.” Yabu answered, glancing with his amused face to Inoo who was standing next to him. Their hands were still linked together, and he didn’t have the intention to break it away. “And stop fidgeting. You look fine.”
They walked down the stairs to the main ringside seats, passing many people that recognized Yabu Kota, shaking his free right hand every five steps. Inoo glanced at Yabu and saw the taller male offered his undescirbable for-business-sake’s kind of smile to everyone who passed him. The smile that he had seen this morning was very different, and Inoo couldn’t read it, whether Yabu was purely smiling or not. Since Yabu kept introducing him to people he knew, not wanting to look as cold as the CEO next to him, Inoo sincerely smiled.
When they were about to step into the the main ringside stairs, however, something weird happened. Inoo swore Yabu saw someone near the ring and immediately avoided having a contact with him. It was a tall guy with ginger head, his hair long and parted in the middle, and quite chubby for some reason. His narrow eyes looked sharp but cold at the same time, and his lips slanted to the right when he smiled while shaking hands with other people. Inoo’s eyes darted back to Yabu when he felt Yabu’s hand squeezing his tighter, and dragged him to another side, as far away from the guy as possible. Maybe the guy was Yabu’s other enemy?
Not letting Inoo to know the real reason, Yabu kept silent about it. Though actually, he avoided Takaki Yuya because he didn’t want the lawyer to make fun of the hooker, since he was probably the only person in his world that already knew Inoo’s real occupation.
They were about to sit on the seventh row of the cushioned seats when suddenly someone said, “So, this is that the person I don’t know?”
Yabu turned on his heels and watched Kitayama grinning widely to Inoo.
“This is Inoo Kei.” Trying to be proper and polite, Yabu introduced Inoo to his other lawyer, this time almost not smiling at all. “Kei, this is one of my lawyers, Kitayama.”
“Nice to meet you,” Inoo shook the lawyer’s hand, his smile friendly and wide.
“Nice to meet you too, Inoo-san, but I’m afraid I have to snatch Yabu away because Ohno Satoshi-san from the parliament wants to talk to him.” Kitayama said, and despite being pragmatic and cold, the irritating smile on his face never faded.
Inoo tilted up his head and stared at Yabu, watching the taller sighed as he patted Inoo’s shoulder gently.
“That’s fast.” The CEO commented to Kitayama, before turning to the smaller guy next to him. “Kei, wait here. I’ll be back soon.”
The raven hair only nodded and watched it as Yabu walked to the other side of the ring behind the guy called Kitayama. The two of them then climbed up the stairs to the box seats. Sighing because he’s left alone, Inoo decided to just sat and enjoyed his solitary in a world so foreign to him. He didn’t know anything about Sumo, didn’t know what’s the essence of two obessed athletes trying to push down each other, didn’t know why they wore shimenawa-the shinto white ropes-around their waists. Above it all, Inoo didn’t understand the correlation between Yabu’s business and a Sumo match.
As he wondered with his eyes staring blankly to the still empty ring, he almost jolted in surprise when a hand suddenly laid itself on his left shoulder. He turned back his upper body to see a wide, excited grin displayed in front his eyes. Inoo remembered the crooked teeth, the thin lips, the rather darker shade of skin, the marble black eyes from yesterday. But he didn’t remember the wrinkles on the corner of those eyes, didn’t remember seeing the so pure and childish grin ever before. Still, though the haircut was shorter than the day before, Inoo could easily recognize the guy in an instant.
It was Yaotome Hikaru.
“Yaotome-kun!” Inoo’s eyes shined. At least he met someone he knew.
“Hey,” Hikaru greeted nonchalantly, the excited grin never left his face. “Inoo Kei, right?”
Inoo nodded, smiling in return.
“You come as well!” Inoo said, his tone somehow raised though he didn’t know why.
“Yeah, it’s kind of an important match in the entire country, since it’s the final.” Hikaru explained.
Oh, so that’s why…
“But seriously, this match is for old people, don’t you think? It’s kind of boring, and sooooo going to be a long match.”
Finally, somebody’s agreed with me!
“I’ve never seen a Sumo match before, so I don’t know anything about it.” The hooker nodded, knitting his eyebrows, letting Hikaru notice his confusion.
“Well, then let’s skip the game!” Hikaru offered, his already wide grin turned even wider from ear to ear, like the Ceshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland.
Not like Inoo had expected it to happen. The smile on Inoo’s face faded as he pulled his shoulders a little backward, making a space between him and the Yaotome Industries’ heir.
“But Ko-chan-I mean, Yabu asked me to stay,”
“It’s gonna be just fine, we’ll just have some fresh air outside for awhile. It’s not gonna take long, he won’t even notice.” All of a sudden, the hand that laid on Inoo’s shoulder then moved to the pale wrist, and with a little power but still as gentle, Hikaru pulled Inoo onto him. “Come on, I promise we’ll be back before the match ends.”
Pausing for a moment, Inoo wandered his eyes around all the entire seats, scanning and trying to find Yabu’s silhouette around him, but finding none in the end. Where the hell is Ko-chan going? Inoo wondered, frowning for he felt he was coming here only to get ditched. When his eyes darted back to Hikaru’s, the now short haired brunette was still smiling towards him, and his palm-which felt twice rougher than Yabu’s-was still around his left wrist. Well, it’s better to have a company rather than sitting alone in a place unknown, right? Inoo thought to himself, before finally nodding to Hikaru. Besides, to hell with Yabu and his business. He wasn’t even Inoo’s lover, and in their unwritten contract, Inoo wasn’t forbid to make as many friends as he like.
Chuckling excitedly, Hikaru said, “There’s some vending machines just outside the dome. Let’s have some coffees there. The cafetaria inside doesn’t make good coffees.”
“Alright.” Inoo nodded as he stood up, his movement mirrored by Hikaru. “You’ve been here before?”
“I’ve been to Sumo matches a thousand of times already. No kidding!” Hikaru answered, pouting and making a bored face which Inoo found very funny. “That’s why I’m so done with it. I mean, watching two obessed athletes trying to push off each other, isn’t that just absurd?”
Inoo covered his mouth with a palm as he laughed out loud. Hikaru had the same thought with him about Sumo, coincidentally, which was entirely unexpected, and it felt somehow reasurring and relieving to Inoo’s side. Thus, Inoo noticed that, so much different with Yabu, Hikaru was so much more humane with his jokes, his laughter, the way he expressed his emotions on his face and the tone of his voice. And the fact that he wasn’t as stiff as Yabu Kota was maybe, just maybe, a little better. And probably he’ll make a good friend too, Inoo noted to himself.
They talked about lots of things around them, mostly about Sumo and the athlets, and also, occasionally Hikaru made some really funny jokes about it that Inoo felt like he just couldn’t stop laughing. The third generation Yaotome led the raven haired male out of the match arena onto the main exit door, his right hand always rested on the center of Inoo’s back, the two of them looking so close as if they were good old friends. Well, quite a bit more than just a pair of old friends, actually, if seen by lay eyes.
Yet such sight between Hikaru and Inoo was caught by a lawyer of Yabu Multinational Corporation. Even from afar, Kitayama Hiromitsu immediately snorted in silence and furrowed his forehead as he saw his company’s mortal enemy walked together side by side with the guy that seemed to be-or so Kitayama thought-his boss' lover.
And a suspicion couldn't help but unfold inside Kitayama's mind.
*-* To Be Continued *-*
A/N :
- Thank you for your concern! I'm fine now, haha. Though my lips aren't as symmetric as it used to, at least it doesn't hurt anymore-not really. But I'm alive! Once again, thank you!
- Summer is really hot I'm so doooooooone _(_u_)_
- I don't have reference note for this chapter, so if you have some curiousity or anything, feel free to ask XD
- As you see, I part the chapter into two again. I don't know that it would be this long, so please spare me :""(
- And I hope this chapter doesn't let you down... so if you happen to read this, please let me know. I would really appreciate it, and I'll love you forever I promise X""")
- I also accept critics!
- Anyway I so dislike Inoo in this chapter I want to stab his eyes with a fork