I Do... Not! *Chapter 7*
Chapter 7
“You’re in deep trouble.” Yuu whispered to Jin, looking at Suki and Keiko over at the kitchen. They are doing a welcome back party for Suki over at Jin’s apartment.
“Are you going to tell her?” Yamapi asked, lowering down his voice.
“Of course not!” Jin controlled his voice. “She’ll go mad and will never forgive me!” he said, looking over at her, he faced his friends again and shakes his head. “I betrayed her trust. I’m so stupid for actually believing that she’ll never come back.”
“Now that she’s back, does that mean that you’re back together again?”Ryo asked, all three pairs of eyes are focused on Jin.
“I think so.” Jin answered. “I think we’re back together.” his voice was slowly fading.
“In a few days, the announcement about your relationship with Takako will be going public. How will you explain that to Suki?” Yamapi reminded Jin.
“And how will you explain to Takako that you actually have a real girlfriend?” Yuu added.
“I am really in deep trouble am I?” Jin said, staring into space.
“Yes you are.” His three friends answered in chorus.
^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^
“What happened to being civil?” Jin heard Takako’s voice and looked behind him to see her standing.
“What do you mean?” he asked, surprised that she actually initiate the conversation.
“You’re really quiet...” she answered, sitting beside him. “And you ignored me when I arrived this morning.” she added taking a sip on her water bottle.
“I’m sorry.” Jin said right away. “I’m just tired and sleepy, we had a party last night and I just had two hours of sleep. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” Takako saw the sincerity on his face and couldn’t help but smile. She looked away to avoid him seeing her smiling.
“I understand.” She said assuring him. “Partying, drinking, smoking and meeting up with hot girls?” she raised her eyebrows.
Jin smiled softly. “There’s nothing wrong with that...” he looked at her. “It’s not as bad as the media portrays it to be. They tend to exaggerate and you know that I’m their favourite target.”
“I know. It’s just that you changed a lot since...” Takako stopped her sentence.
“Since we broke up?” Jin asked, ending it. It feels a little awkward for him to be talking about them, but he can’t help but wonder why she brought it up.
Takako looked at him and they stared at each other for a while. “Let’s just not go into that topic, it’s all in the past anyway.” She smiled and looked away.
“Right.” Jin agreed. He was surprised with the sudden friendliness of Takako, just yesterday she’s cold as ice but now she’s taking initiative to talk and she’s even smiling.
“Have you been informed that our ‘relationship’ will be publicized in two days?” Takako asked.
“Yeah, I heard from my manager.” Jin answered, “We’ll be in so much trouble after that.”
“Yeah, stalking paparazzi will increase.” Takako said and Jin nodded.
Even more trouble for me too. Jin thought to himself, he has to tell Suki about it before she can knew all about it from the newspapers, the problem is, he doesn’t know how to tell her without hurting her.
Takako noticed that Jin was drifted away from their talk. “You’re doing that face again.” she said, getting his attention.
“What?” Jin was disturbed with thoughts. “What face?” He asked.
“That face you have since morning.” she answered. He’s been doing that face which looks like he’s having something major to think about. “Is something bothering you?” she didn’t know if asking that is the right thing to do. They just agreed to be civil with each other not to be friends where in they tell each other’s problems.
Jin thought that eventually Takako will know about Suki but he thinks that today is not the right time. They are starting to be friends, they might not talk about it face to face but he knows that things between them are slowly getting lighter. He doesn’t want to ruin it by telling her that his girlfriend is back and they are together again because he’s afraid that she might distance herself again.
“Nothing.” he lied. “Things are going to get tough in a few days, it just worries me.” he lied again. Two days ago, that’s what worries him but now, the only thing that he worries about is Suki.
“It’s not just you, it’s worries me too.”Takako said. Jin looked at her and smiled and she smiled back.
“I’m just wondering...” he said, “You’re being nice. What’s gotten into you?” He joked making her laugh.
“I know you’re kinda taken aback, huh?” she said and Jin nodded. “I just realized what you said yesterday and I know that I’m being such a brat. I was hard on you and I’m sorry. Starting today I’m going to be nice and put aside everything that has happened in the past. I’ll just focus on the present and look forward to the future, how about that?” She smiled proudly.
“I think’s that excellent! I’m glad that you finally come to your senses.” Jin smiled.
Takako laughed and shakes her head, “I can’t believe that I was acting so selfish.” she turned her head to Jin. “I’m really sorry, you’re the one who’s gotten into so much trouble after what we did and yet I was the one who’s acting like I was given the punishment, I didn’t think of how you were under so much sadness with what Johnny-san has put you-”
“I thought that we should put the past aside and focus on the present?” Jin stopped her, he didn’t want to talk about it, he finally accepts that his American dream is gone and he doesn’t want to remember it anymore.
“Okay. No more talking about the past.” Takako nodded.
“Great!” Jin smiled and moments later they are called for the scene.
^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^
The filming ended at 9 o’clock in the evening and everyone’s preparing to leave the location. Jin fixed his things and went out of his dressing room and saw Takako outside the corridor.
“Hey, Good work today. See you on Monday!” Jin said happily.
“Oh, are you not coming for dinner?” Takako asked. “The staff organizes it. Since we don’t have any filming tomorrow they decided to have fun, you know, dinner and then drinking.”
“Ahhh... I have stuff to do tonight.” Jin said. He promised Suki that they’ll have dinner together.
“That’s fine, maybe next time.” Takako answered smiling but she feels a bit disappointed.
“Yeah, I’ll make up for it next time.” Jin assured her. She nodded and walked past him to her dressing room.
“Taka-chan.” Jin called her, it feels weird hearing him call her that after a long time.
She looked at him. “Somehow that sounds weird.” she laughed.
“I’m sorry.” Jin said, “I’ll call you Takako if that’s weird.” he suggested.
“No it’s fine. You can call me anything you want.” she said.
Jin nodded. “I just wanted to thank you.” he said a bit embarrassed.
“I should be the one thanking you for making me realize how awful I was.” she said softly.
“Well, let’s just thank each other, then.” he smiled.
“Yeah. Thank you.” she told him.
“And thank you too.” he replied. Jin’s phone started to ring and he pulled it from his jeans pocket, he looked at the screen and Suki’s name in blinking.
“Hey!” he answered while waving goodbye to Takako she waved back and he started to walk out of the door.
^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^
It was a Sunday afternoon and it’s Takako’s day-off, she’s has plans to meet up with her friend and fellow SPEED member Hiroko. She’s roaming around in the big department store in Shibuya when Hiroko sent her a text that she’ll be a bit late so she decided to shop a bit while waiting for her. She’s in the make-up section when she heard someone talking to her.
“Um, excuse me.” she looked around to see a woman, she’s probably around twenty-four years old and she’s very pretty and tall. She’s doesn’t look like a fan who wants some autograph. “Are you Uehara Takako from SPEED?” the woman asked. She is a fan. Takako thought.
“Yes.” Takako answered with a smile.
“How lucky. I’m a fan.” the woman smiled brightly and Takako smiled .
“Thank you.” Takako replied, getting a bit embarrassed.
“I’m sorry for being so energetic.” the woman apologizes. “I haven’t been in the country for almost a year and I missed this place so much. The music and TV dramas, nothing comes close to J-pop and J-dramas you know.” she said enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I know that.” Takako agreed, she looked at the woman and she looks familiar, “Have I seen you before?” she asked curiously.
“Probably.” she smiled. “I’m a model. You may have seen me while browsing through magazines.” the woman laughed.
Takako finally realize who this woman in front of her is, “You’re the famous daughter of Mari Ishikawa, the fashion designer.”
It’s the woman’s turn to be embarrassed. “Yes, I guess that’s me.” she smiled but not as brightly as before.
“I met your mother in one of my campaigns before and I have to say she’s very nice. Her work is amazing, I adore her designs.” Takako praised her.
“That’s my mom! She’s works so much to even remember her daughter.” the woman said a bit sarcastically. “I’m sorry.” she realized that she has said so much.
Takako felt something in the woman’s words so she decided to change the topic. “What’s your name by the way?” she smiled.
“Ishikawa Suki. Nice to meet you.” she reached out her hand to shake Takako’s.
“Nice to meet you, Suki-san.” Takako said.
“Oh please, don’t be so formal, you can call me Suki.” she smiled, Takako felt that this woman is very nice and she’s surprisingly humble. She thought that those elite and socialite girls that she frequently sees in society pages are a bit hard to reach but this girl different, her bright warm smile makes Takako comfortable around her.
“Okay then, Suki.” Takako said and both of them laugh.
“Are you shopping alone?” Suki asked.
“No, I was waiting for a friend, she said she’ll be a bit late so decided to shop around.” Takako said. “Are you by yourself?”
“No, I’m with my boyfriend.” Suki replied. “He just bought something in the men’s department.” she smiled. “You know him actually.” she told Takako.
“Really? Is he on the same industry as I am?” Takako smiled.
“Yeah.” Suki replied. “He’s working with you in your recent project.”
Takako was about to say something but she stopped when she saw Jin approaching them.
“Takako...” Jin said, shocked to see her. “Suki...” he stand beside her.
“Speaking of!” Suki said, smiling at him. “I bump into her today and we kinda clicked.” she wink at Takako. “You guys know each other,right?”
Takako smiled softly, she couldn’t believe what was laid in front of her, Jin has a girlfriend she doesn’t have the slightest idea.
“Yes. We’re working together.” Jin replied, he looks a bit shocked too.
“Great! We can go out for dinner one day, you know.” Suki suggested. “Takako-kun, do you have a boyfriend? You can bring him and we can go on double dates together.” she flashed her bright smile again and Takako felt her stomach getting sick. Jin is speechless, this is the least thing he wanted to happen, his girlfriend meeting his ‘wife’.
“I don’t think so. I don’t have a boyfriend.” Takako tried her best to smile at Suki. Before Suki can say anything, Takako’s phone rang and she received a message from Hiroko saying that she’s here. “I have to go, my friend is here.” she told them.
“Okay, it was nice meeting you, Takako-kun.” Suki smiled at her and she smiled back, weakly.
to be continued...
“You’re in deep trouble.” Yuu whispered to Jin, looking at Suki and Keiko over at the kitchen. They are doing a welcome back party for Suki over at Jin’s apartment.
“Are you going to tell her?” Yamapi asked, lowering down his voice.
“Of course not!” Jin controlled his voice. “She’ll go mad and will never forgive me!” he said, looking over at her, he faced his friends again and shakes his head. “I betrayed her trust. I’m so stupid for actually believing that she’ll never come back.”
“Now that she’s back, does that mean that you’re back together again?”Ryo asked, all three pairs of eyes are focused on Jin.
“I think so.” Jin answered. “I think we’re back together.” his voice was slowly fading.
“In a few days, the announcement about your relationship with Takako will be going public. How will you explain that to Suki?” Yamapi reminded Jin.
“And how will you explain to Takako that you actually have a real girlfriend?” Yuu added.
“I am really in deep trouble am I?” Jin said, staring into space.
“Yes you are.” His three friends answered in chorus.
^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^
“What happened to being civil?” Jin heard Takako’s voice and looked behind him to see her standing.
“What do you mean?” he asked, surprised that she actually initiate the conversation.
“You’re really quiet...” she answered, sitting beside him. “And you ignored me when I arrived this morning.” she added taking a sip on her water bottle.
“I’m sorry.” Jin said right away. “I’m just tired and sleepy, we had a party last night and I just had two hours of sleep. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” Takako saw the sincerity on his face and couldn’t help but smile. She looked away to avoid him seeing her smiling.
“I understand.” She said assuring him. “Partying, drinking, smoking and meeting up with hot girls?” she raised her eyebrows.
Jin smiled softly. “There’s nothing wrong with that...” he looked at her. “It’s not as bad as the media portrays it to be. They tend to exaggerate and you know that I’m their favourite target.”
“I know. It’s just that you changed a lot since...” Takako stopped her sentence.
“Since we broke up?” Jin asked, ending it. It feels a little awkward for him to be talking about them, but he can’t help but wonder why she brought it up.
Takako looked at him and they stared at each other for a while. “Let’s just not go into that topic, it’s all in the past anyway.” She smiled and looked away.
“Right.” Jin agreed. He was surprised with the sudden friendliness of Takako, just yesterday she’s cold as ice but now she’s taking initiative to talk and she’s even smiling.
“Have you been informed that our ‘relationship’ will be publicized in two days?” Takako asked.
“Yeah, I heard from my manager.” Jin answered, “We’ll be in so much trouble after that.”
“Yeah, stalking paparazzi will increase.” Takako said and Jin nodded.
Even more trouble for me too. Jin thought to himself, he has to tell Suki about it before she can knew all about it from the newspapers, the problem is, he doesn’t know how to tell her without hurting her.
Takako noticed that Jin was drifted away from their talk. “You’re doing that face again.” she said, getting his attention.
“What?” Jin was disturbed with thoughts. “What face?” He asked.
“That face you have since morning.” she answered. He’s been doing that face which looks like he’s having something major to think about. “Is something bothering you?” she didn’t know if asking that is the right thing to do. They just agreed to be civil with each other not to be friends where in they tell each other’s problems.
Jin thought that eventually Takako will know about Suki but he thinks that today is not the right time. They are starting to be friends, they might not talk about it face to face but he knows that things between them are slowly getting lighter. He doesn’t want to ruin it by telling her that his girlfriend is back and they are together again because he’s afraid that she might distance herself again.
“Nothing.” he lied. “Things are going to get tough in a few days, it just worries me.” he lied again. Two days ago, that’s what worries him but now, the only thing that he worries about is Suki.
“It’s not just you, it’s worries me too.”Takako said. Jin looked at her and smiled and she smiled back.
“I’m just wondering...” he said, “You’re being nice. What’s gotten into you?” He joked making her laugh.
“I know you’re kinda taken aback, huh?” she said and Jin nodded. “I just realized what you said yesterday and I know that I’m being such a brat. I was hard on you and I’m sorry. Starting today I’m going to be nice and put aside everything that has happened in the past. I’ll just focus on the present and look forward to the future, how about that?” She smiled proudly.
“I think’s that excellent! I’m glad that you finally come to your senses.” Jin smiled.
Takako laughed and shakes her head, “I can’t believe that I was acting so selfish.” she turned her head to Jin. “I’m really sorry, you’re the one who’s gotten into so much trouble after what we did and yet I was the one who’s acting like I was given the punishment, I didn’t think of how you were under so much sadness with what Johnny-san has put you-”
“I thought that we should put the past aside and focus on the present?” Jin stopped her, he didn’t want to talk about it, he finally accepts that his American dream is gone and he doesn’t want to remember it anymore.
“Okay. No more talking about the past.” Takako nodded.
“Great!” Jin smiled and moments later they are called for the scene.
^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^
The filming ended at 9 o’clock in the evening and everyone’s preparing to leave the location. Jin fixed his things and went out of his dressing room and saw Takako outside the corridor.
“Hey, Good work today. See you on Monday!” Jin said happily.
“Oh, are you not coming for dinner?” Takako asked. “The staff organizes it. Since we don’t have any filming tomorrow they decided to have fun, you know, dinner and then drinking.”
“Ahhh... I have stuff to do tonight.” Jin said. He promised Suki that they’ll have dinner together.
“That’s fine, maybe next time.” Takako answered smiling but she feels a bit disappointed.
“Yeah, I’ll make up for it next time.” Jin assured her. She nodded and walked past him to her dressing room.
“Taka-chan.” Jin called her, it feels weird hearing him call her that after a long time.
She looked at him. “Somehow that sounds weird.” she laughed.
“I’m sorry.” Jin said, “I’ll call you Takako if that’s weird.” he suggested.
“No it’s fine. You can call me anything you want.” she said.
Jin nodded. “I just wanted to thank you.” he said a bit embarrassed.
“I should be the one thanking you for making me realize how awful I was.” she said softly.
“Well, let’s just thank each other, then.” he smiled.
“Yeah. Thank you.” she told him.
“And thank you too.” he replied. Jin’s phone started to ring and he pulled it from his jeans pocket, he looked at the screen and Suki’s name in blinking.
“Hey!” he answered while waving goodbye to Takako she waved back and he started to walk out of the door.
^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^
It was a Sunday afternoon and it’s Takako’s day-off, she’s has plans to meet up with her friend and fellow SPEED member Hiroko. She’s roaming around in the big department store in Shibuya when Hiroko sent her a text that she’ll be a bit late so she decided to shop a bit while waiting for her. She’s in the make-up section when she heard someone talking to her.
“Um, excuse me.” she looked around to see a woman, she’s probably around twenty-four years old and she’s very pretty and tall. She’s doesn’t look like a fan who wants some autograph. “Are you Uehara Takako from SPEED?” the woman asked. She is a fan. Takako thought.
“Yes.” Takako answered with a smile.
“How lucky. I’m a fan.” the woman smiled brightly and Takako smiled .
“Thank you.” Takako replied, getting a bit embarrassed.
“I’m sorry for being so energetic.” the woman apologizes. “I haven’t been in the country for almost a year and I missed this place so much. The music and TV dramas, nothing comes close to J-pop and J-dramas you know.” she said enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I know that.” Takako agreed, she looked at the woman and she looks familiar, “Have I seen you before?” she asked curiously.
“Probably.” she smiled. “I’m a model. You may have seen me while browsing through magazines.” the woman laughed.
Takako finally realize who this woman in front of her is, “You’re the famous daughter of Mari Ishikawa, the fashion designer.”
It’s the woman’s turn to be embarrassed. “Yes, I guess that’s me.” she smiled but not as brightly as before.
“I met your mother in one of my campaigns before and I have to say she’s very nice. Her work is amazing, I adore her designs.” Takako praised her.
“That’s my mom! She’s works so much to even remember her daughter.” the woman said a bit sarcastically. “I’m sorry.” she realized that she has said so much.
Takako felt something in the woman’s words so she decided to change the topic. “What’s your name by the way?” she smiled.
“Ishikawa Suki. Nice to meet you.” she reached out her hand to shake Takako’s.
“Nice to meet you, Suki-san.” Takako said.
“Oh please, don’t be so formal, you can call me Suki.” she smiled, Takako felt that this woman is very nice and she’s surprisingly humble. She thought that those elite and socialite girls that she frequently sees in society pages are a bit hard to reach but this girl different, her bright warm smile makes Takako comfortable around her.
“Okay then, Suki.” Takako said and both of them laugh.
“Are you shopping alone?” Suki asked.
“No, I was waiting for a friend, she said she’ll be a bit late so decided to shop around.” Takako said. “Are you by yourself?”
“No, I’m with my boyfriend.” Suki replied. “He just bought something in the men’s department.” she smiled. “You know him actually.” she told Takako.
“Really? Is he on the same industry as I am?” Takako smiled.
“Yeah.” Suki replied. “He’s working with you in your recent project.”
Takako was about to say something but she stopped when she saw Jin approaching them.
“Takako...” Jin said, shocked to see her. “Suki...” he stand beside her.
“Speaking of!” Suki said, smiling at him. “I bump into her today and we kinda clicked.” she wink at Takako. “You guys know each other,right?”
Takako smiled softly, she couldn’t believe what was laid in front of her, Jin has a girlfriend she doesn’t have the slightest idea.
“Yes. We’re working together.” Jin replied, he looks a bit shocked too.
“Great! We can go out for dinner one day, you know.” Suki suggested. “Takako-kun, do you have a boyfriend? You can bring him and we can go on double dates together.” she flashed her bright smile again and Takako felt her stomach getting sick. Jin is speechless, this is the least thing he wanted to happen, his girlfriend meeting his ‘wife’.
“I don’t think so. I don’t have a boyfriend.” Takako tried her best to smile at Suki. Before Suki can say anything, Takako’s phone rang and she received a message from Hiroko saying that she’s here. “I have to go, my friend is here.” she told them.
“Okay, it was nice meeting you, Takako-kun.” Suki smiled at her and she smiled back, weakly.
to be continued...