[FIC] LOVE SO BITTERSWEET
✖
r_1_ss_a; doumyoji!jun and makino!nino
title: Love So Bittersweet
fandom/pairing: JE/various (when i say various, i mean various)
rating: PG-13
word count: 2222 (lol)
ONE. two.
Ninomiya Kazunari never liked the color red. It reminded him of the overdue bills waiting back at home, the marks on his exams, and of course, the group of four spoiled brats who triggered his hatred for a primary color. He glared at the red piece of paper that greeted him the moment he opened his locker door. With an air of pride--being poor doesn't mean he doesn't have any, he just knew when it was necessary to lower it--he snatched the paper and crumpled it. Around him, the on-lookers started whispering excitedly, and Nino just rolled his eyes at that. He threw the paper in a nearby bin and went to class.
From the bin, the crumpled edges didn't cover the message on the crimson piece of paper.
"From F4."
--
"Since when did our school allow commoners anyway?"
Matsumoto Jun, the high and mighty leader of F4 demanded. His audience, the other three making up the group, were silent. Sakurai Sho was busy reading his book while Akanishi Jin and Ohkura Tadayoshi focused on their game of poker. The four were status symbols, representing the richest, most elite and most good-looking students in the entire school. Girls adored them, boys repected them. Anyone who went against them was frowned upon by the entire student body. Such is the power of money.
"And how dare he go against me?"
Sho took a small peek from his book to look at his best friend, pacing and mumbling across the room which they branded theirs. Sho decided that he'd rather read than nurse Jun's bruised ego. They were big boys now after all. From the couch, Jin cheered as he revealed two pairs and Ohkura groaned, slapping his own cards against the coffee table.
"No matter. He'll know his place. I'll make sure he does."
--
It was only lunch but Nino's already gotten trash thrown at him, a group of girls tripping him face first in the mud, his desk and chair suddenly appearing on the other side of the building and his lunch box thrown out the window.
There was a slight twitch in Nino's eyebrows as he saw his lunch box and its contents strewn on the ground right outside the classroom's window. He clicked his tongue and dragged his mud-encrusted shoes to pick up his lunch box. The moment he stepped out of the room, flour was suddenly dumped on him.
The classroom was empty and Nino honestly didn't care how those four arrogant boys did it, but he spun around to look for the culprit anyway. Seeing no one, he just tried to get as much flour off as he could, before returning to the matter that was his lunchbox.
"Here,"
Nino looked up from the ground and saw one of those F4 bastards looking down at him, with a white handkerchief on his outstretched hand. He quickly stood up, leaving the sausage--the one he cooked excitedly that morning--on the ground. His eyes scanned the stranger warily.
"What is this, some sort of plan to check how gullible I am?" Nino rolled his eyes, after taking in the man's stylish clothes and shiny shoes. "You can keep your fancy handkerchief, rich boy. I'll manage fine without it."
"You like you need it badly."
"Oh, you of all people would know."
To his surprise, the F4 boy (was he called Sho? Nino didn't pay much attention to the girls' gossip) grabbed his arm and forced his white handkerchief on Nino's flour-dusted hand. By instinct, Nino got ready to kick him, but he stepped back too fast to incur any real damage.
Sho--yes, that was his name, Nino remembered--gave a small nod before leaving. That just made Nino seethe more. What were they taking him for? Some toy they can amuse themselves with?
"This doesn't change anything!" Nino yelled at Sho's back. It was only when the latter was finally out of sight, did Nino use the white cloth to wipe his face.
--
"Ninomiya."
Nino knew that voice. It was the one that started yelling at some student for just being there. He hated bullies too much to let that pass. Indeed, when Nino looked in front of him, Matsumoto Jun was there and behind him was his F4 posse. Nino tried to glare at Sho--he had to understand that taking his handkerchief didn't mean anything at all to him--but Sho was looking around boredly.
"Feeling regretful? Once you bow down to me, it'll all be over."
"No," Nino said, and Jun's eyebrows furrowed at that. "I'm actually feeling quite sorry for you."
"Why you--"
"If this is your idea of amusing yourself then I'm telling you, it's a really disturbing trait to have."
The four's bewildered looks were reward enough for Nino. He turned around and left them, a smirk on his lips.
--
After having water balloons thrown at him, it was just right that he'd get a pass for revenge, right? Nino thought that he was too smart to sink down to Matsumoto Jun's level of childishness, but too much was too much. That man was too full of himself, and someone was bound to go against him sooner or later, right? Why can't it be Nino, who really wanted to do it?
Nino's revenge came in the form of a punch.
He knocked Matsumoto Jun down, on the wooden floor of the school lobby.
"You can do whatever you want, but you're never getting an apology from me, Matsumoto." he said slowly. Nino was slightly out of breath, he'd never punched anyone that hard. "I didn't really want to do this, but you're practically begging me to fight back!"
Their eyes met, and Nino's glare intensified another notch. He never thought he could hate a person this much.
--
"Do you think he likes me?"
Jin gave him a look that clearly said he thought Jun must be on drugs to even think of such a thing. At that, Sho chuckled.
"Jun, he punched you in front of the entire school, afterwards telling you he'll fight back. I doubt that he likes you." Ohkura told him patiently.
"But he might mean the opposite. Sometimes men like to be confusing like that." It seems that Jun has already convinced himself and there's no changing that.
"Since when have you been the expert at relationships?" Jin scoffed, thinking that his friend had a long way to go in understanding those things.
"No. I'm sure. He really likes me. Perhaps he even loves me."
"Whatever you say, Jun." Jin sighed and leaned back on his seat.
--
Nino was appalled to find out that his favorite place in the entire school--the staircases where the fire exits are, it was a nice place to get away from all that rich talk--wasn't his alone. He was even more devastated to know that he shared that place with Sakurai Sho.
"What are you doing here?"
"I read my books here." Sho replied calmly, sitting on one of the steps. Indeed, he had a book with him, but it took a lot more than that to get Nino to trust him.
"I don't believe you."
"I don't really care what you believe in,"
Nino glared at him, watching as the rich boy opened his book and started reading again. Silence reigned and Nino wanted to chase him away, though a part of him (a stupid part of him) didn't. It was bad enough that he was now the school's public enemy number one, but now he kept getting into places where he saw too much of Sakurai Sho, best friend of the guy who got him into this mess in the first place.
In the end, Nino let him be. The commoner settled for sitting on a step (two steps lower than Sho's; he couldn't bring himself to sit on his level). He considered chasing him away again, but he knew what the F4 was capable of. Who knows, they might hire professional assassins to hunt his ass down. Not something Nino looked forward to.
"Did Matsumoto send you?"
"You're too suspicious of everyone."
How did Nino feel at ease around this person? He hated it. Also, how did he manage to look that graceful when he just turning a page?
"You can't blame me, you're friends with that arrogant pig."
"Oh. Is that what you call him now?"
He threw Sho a look before stomping inside the building. It wasn't because he didn't have anything to say or that the urge to throw another punch was strong. Nino left because he was starting to enjoy the conversation too much.
--
"Ninomiya."
At that voice, Nino stuffed his books inside his bag and threw it over his shoulder. Today wasn't the day to pick fights with rich brats. He was about to leave when a hand on his shoulder pulled him back.
"Let me go. I'm late for work."
"I'm talking to you. Have some manners and face me properly."
"Because so far you've shown that you have excellent manners too, right?" Nino struggled a bit, but Jun's grip was too strong. "I don't have the time to play with you today, Matsumoto."
Nino considered biting Jun's hand, but after he shrugged his shoulders once more, Jun's hand let go. Nino was surprised at how easy that turned out to be but he didn't give him a glance. Without another word, he left.
--
When he saw the men in black in front of the porridge store where he worked, he knew that they were up to no good. Nino went up to them, peering at their serious faces. He was about to ask if he could help them with something, but before he could finish his sentence, he was grabbed from behind. There was a bit of a struggle involved but Nino saw one of the men bring out a white cloth and with it they covered his nose and mouth.
That shut Nino up effectively.
--
Waking up on a spa table with several masseurs attending to you is not really a pleasing sight. Nino cursed, bolted up and prepared to demand them what they were doing. Before he could do anything, a young man came and pushed him back down. The shock made Nino obey. He had never been massaged like this before--what was happening? was he some sort of human experiment?--and though it was good, he just wanted these men to keep their hands to themselves.
It was a good thing that the massage ended right then, and all the men left. Nino was getting ready to look for his clothes and bolt the hell out of the place, when another group (this time women) entered the mysterious room. He was dragged out and suddenly thrust into a room. The wallpaper was a creamy yellow, adorned with squiggles and lines. It was a fairly large room, about as large as Nino's kitchen back at home, but all it contained was a chair and on it, a black dress.
"I have a feeling I know who's behind this," Nino grumbled as he fisted the dress and held it up to study it. Oh most definitely he had an idea who it was.
--
"I can have you in for kidnapping, you know!"
He found the mastermind seated comfortably on an elegant chair, in an equally elegant room. Nino didn't take the time to ogle at architectural masterpieces when there were much more demanding matters at hand.
"It suits you," was all Jun could say. He had a small smile on, and Nino found that to be quite insulting.
"I'm a boy, Matsumoto." Nino told him exasperatedly. He gave up on the black heels that came with the dress, but those things might come in handy should Nino suddenly feel like stabbing Jun, so he brought them along, one in each hand. "Boys don't wear dresses. If I wasn't naked back there after that stupid massage of yours, I woudn't have worn this thing!"
"Don't be like that. The dress costs a million yen."
"A-a-a million? Are you crazy? Why would you pay one million yen for your dress--"
"It's yours."
"What?"
"I'm giving it to you. As a present." This time, Jun looked him squarely in the eye.
"What am I going to do with a dress, you prick?!"
--
"Why would he give you a dress?"
Dusty hands gripped the bat and watched the pitcher--this time Nino's best friend Kamenashi Kazuya--as he readied the pitch. Just the reminder of the event made Nino want to break something in half. He was so tempted to just sell the dress and get it over with, but after he heard from Matsumoto that it was made for him, how could he?
"He's an idiot," Nino muttered sourly.
"Why don't you just sell it? A girl would be happier to have it. Not to mention they can actually go out wearing it." Kame adjusted his cap over his dark locks and glanced at his friend. From the home base, Nino made a face and sighed.
"Fine, fine. I'll sell the fucking thing tomorrow."
Kame then pitched the ball. Nino missed.
"Strike three. You're out, buddy."
--to be continued
notes: now that you've finished reading everything, suggest titles for me? i absolutely suck at them >: uhm the proposed number of chapters for this AU is five chapters, so i'm trying to compress everything i can in one chapter. tell me if i was too much? or if my characters don't suit hana yori dango's story? i would also like to mention that i've just finished watching boys over flowers (the korean hana yori dango) so i might use up a lot of their scenes there, since those are the ones that are still fresh in my mind. :D comments and constructive criticism are most most most welcome. lastly, i don't own the characters, or the story and this did not undergo a beta. :)
THE AWESOME TITLE CAME FROM
ika_rasu's BEAUTIFUL BRAIN. ♥
r_1_ss_a; doumyoji!jun and makino!nino
title: Love So Bittersweet
fandom/pairing: JE/various (when i say various, i mean various)
rating: PG-13
word count: 2222 (lol)
ONE. two.
Ninomiya Kazunari never liked the color red. It reminded him of the overdue bills waiting back at home, the marks on his exams, and of course, the group of four spoiled brats who triggered his hatred for a primary color. He glared at the red piece of paper that greeted him the moment he opened his locker door. With an air of pride--being poor doesn't mean he doesn't have any, he just knew when it was necessary to lower it--he snatched the paper and crumpled it. Around him, the on-lookers started whispering excitedly, and Nino just rolled his eyes at that. He threw the paper in a nearby bin and went to class.
From the bin, the crumpled edges didn't cover the message on the crimson piece of paper.
"From F4."
--
"Since when did our school allow commoners anyway?"
Matsumoto Jun, the high and mighty leader of F4 demanded. His audience, the other three making up the group, were silent. Sakurai Sho was busy reading his book while Akanishi Jin and Ohkura Tadayoshi focused on their game of poker. The four were status symbols, representing the richest, most elite and most good-looking students in the entire school. Girls adored them, boys repected them. Anyone who went against them was frowned upon by the entire student body. Such is the power of money.
"And how dare he go against me?"
Sho took a small peek from his book to look at his best friend, pacing and mumbling across the room which they branded theirs. Sho decided that he'd rather read than nurse Jun's bruised ego. They were big boys now after all. From the couch, Jin cheered as he revealed two pairs and Ohkura groaned, slapping his own cards against the coffee table.
"No matter. He'll know his place. I'll make sure he does."
--
It was only lunch but Nino's already gotten trash thrown at him, a group of girls tripping him face first in the mud, his desk and chair suddenly appearing on the other side of the building and his lunch box thrown out the window.
There was a slight twitch in Nino's eyebrows as he saw his lunch box and its contents strewn on the ground right outside the classroom's window. He clicked his tongue and dragged his mud-encrusted shoes to pick up his lunch box. The moment he stepped out of the room, flour was suddenly dumped on him.
The classroom was empty and Nino honestly didn't care how those four arrogant boys did it, but he spun around to look for the culprit anyway. Seeing no one, he just tried to get as much flour off as he could, before returning to the matter that was his lunchbox.
"Here,"
Nino looked up from the ground and saw one of those F4 bastards looking down at him, with a white handkerchief on his outstretched hand. He quickly stood up, leaving the sausage--the one he cooked excitedly that morning--on the ground. His eyes scanned the stranger warily.
"What is this, some sort of plan to check how gullible I am?" Nino rolled his eyes, after taking in the man's stylish clothes and shiny shoes. "You can keep your fancy handkerchief, rich boy. I'll manage fine without it."
"You like you need it badly."
"Oh, you of all people would know."
To his surprise, the F4 boy (was he called Sho? Nino didn't pay much attention to the girls' gossip) grabbed his arm and forced his white handkerchief on Nino's flour-dusted hand. By instinct, Nino got ready to kick him, but he stepped back too fast to incur any real damage.
Sho--yes, that was his name, Nino remembered--gave a small nod before leaving. That just made Nino seethe more. What were they taking him for? Some toy they can amuse themselves with?
"This doesn't change anything!" Nino yelled at Sho's back. It was only when the latter was finally out of sight, did Nino use the white cloth to wipe his face.
--
"Ninomiya."
Nino knew that voice. It was the one that started yelling at some student for just being there. He hated bullies too much to let that pass. Indeed, when Nino looked in front of him, Matsumoto Jun was there and behind him was his F4 posse. Nino tried to glare at Sho--he had to understand that taking his handkerchief didn't mean anything at all to him--but Sho was looking around boredly.
"Feeling regretful? Once you bow down to me, it'll all be over."
"No," Nino said, and Jun's eyebrows furrowed at that. "I'm actually feeling quite sorry for you."
"Why you--"
"If this is your idea of amusing yourself then I'm telling you, it's a really disturbing trait to have."
The four's bewildered looks were reward enough for Nino. He turned around and left them, a smirk on his lips.
--
After having water balloons thrown at him, it was just right that he'd get a pass for revenge, right? Nino thought that he was too smart to sink down to Matsumoto Jun's level of childishness, but too much was too much. That man was too full of himself, and someone was bound to go against him sooner or later, right? Why can't it be Nino, who really wanted to do it?
Nino's revenge came in the form of a punch.
He knocked Matsumoto Jun down, on the wooden floor of the school lobby.
"You can do whatever you want, but you're never getting an apology from me, Matsumoto." he said slowly. Nino was slightly out of breath, he'd never punched anyone that hard. "I didn't really want to do this, but you're practically begging me to fight back!"
Their eyes met, and Nino's glare intensified another notch. He never thought he could hate a person this much.
--
"Do you think he likes me?"
Jin gave him a look that clearly said he thought Jun must be on drugs to even think of such a thing. At that, Sho chuckled.
"Jun, he punched you in front of the entire school, afterwards telling you he'll fight back. I doubt that he likes you." Ohkura told him patiently.
"But he might mean the opposite. Sometimes men like to be confusing like that." It seems that Jun has already convinced himself and there's no changing that.
"Since when have you been the expert at relationships?" Jin scoffed, thinking that his friend had a long way to go in understanding those things.
"No. I'm sure. He really likes me. Perhaps he even loves me."
"Whatever you say, Jun." Jin sighed and leaned back on his seat.
--
Nino was appalled to find out that his favorite place in the entire school--the staircases where the fire exits are, it was a nice place to get away from all that rich talk--wasn't his alone. He was even more devastated to know that he shared that place with Sakurai Sho.
"What are you doing here?"
"I read my books here." Sho replied calmly, sitting on one of the steps. Indeed, he had a book with him, but it took a lot more than that to get Nino to trust him.
"I don't believe you."
"I don't really care what you believe in,"
Nino glared at him, watching as the rich boy opened his book and started reading again. Silence reigned and Nino wanted to chase him away, though a part of him (a stupid part of him) didn't. It was bad enough that he was now the school's public enemy number one, but now he kept getting into places where he saw too much of Sakurai Sho, best friend of the guy who got him into this mess in the first place.
In the end, Nino let him be. The commoner settled for sitting on a step (two steps lower than Sho's; he couldn't bring himself to sit on his level). He considered chasing him away again, but he knew what the F4 was capable of. Who knows, they might hire professional assassins to hunt his ass down. Not something Nino looked forward to.
"Did Matsumoto send you?"
"You're too suspicious of everyone."
How did Nino feel at ease around this person? He hated it. Also, how did he manage to look that graceful when he just turning a page?
"You can't blame me, you're friends with that arrogant pig."
"Oh. Is that what you call him now?"
He threw Sho a look before stomping inside the building. It wasn't because he didn't have anything to say or that the urge to throw another punch was strong. Nino left because he was starting to enjoy the conversation too much.
--
"Ninomiya."
At that voice, Nino stuffed his books inside his bag and threw it over his shoulder. Today wasn't the day to pick fights with rich brats. He was about to leave when a hand on his shoulder pulled him back.
"Let me go. I'm late for work."
"I'm talking to you. Have some manners and face me properly."
"Because so far you've shown that you have excellent manners too, right?" Nino struggled a bit, but Jun's grip was too strong. "I don't have the time to play with you today, Matsumoto."
Nino considered biting Jun's hand, but after he shrugged his shoulders once more, Jun's hand let go. Nino was surprised at how easy that turned out to be but he didn't give him a glance. Without another word, he left.
--
When he saw the men in black in front of the porridge store where he worked, he knew that they were up to no good. Nino went up to them, peering at their serious faces. He was about to ask if he could help them with something, but before he could finish his sentence, he was grabbed from behind. There was a bit of a struggle involved but Nino saw one of the men bring out a white cloth and with it they covered his nose and mouth.
That shut Nino up effectively.
--
Waking up on a spa table with several masseurs attending to you is not really a pleasing sight. Nino cursed, bolted up and prepared to demand them what they were doing. Before he could do anything, a young man came and pushed him back down. The shock made Nino obey. He had never been massaged like this before--what was happening? was he some sort of human experiment?--and though it was good, he just wanted these men to keep their hands to themselves.
It was a good thing that the massage ended right then, and all the men left. Nino was getting ready to look for his clothes and bolt the hell out of the place, when another group (this time women) entered the mysterious room. He was dragged out and suddenly thrust into a room. The wallpaper was a creamy yellow, adorned with squiggles and lines. It was a fairly large room, about as large as Nino's kitchen back at home, but all it contained was a chair and on it, a black dress.
"I have a feeling I know who's behind this," Nino grumbled as he fisted the dress and held it up to study it. Oh most definitely he had an idea who it was.
--
"I can have you in for kidnapping, you know!"
He found the mastermind seated comfortably on an elegant chair, in an equally elegant room. Nino didn't take the time to ogle at architectural masterpieces when there were much more demanding matters at hand.
"It suits you," was all Jun could say. He had a small smile on, and Nino found that to be quite insulting.
"I'm a boy, Matsumoto." Nino told him exasperatedly. He gave up on the black heels that came with the dress, but those things might come in handy should Nino suddenly feel like stabbing Jun, so he brought them along, one in each hand. "Boys don't wear dresses. If I wasn't naked back there after that stupid massage of yours, I woudn't have worn this thing!"
"Don't be like that. The dress costs a million yen."
"A-a-a million? Are you crazy? Why would you pay one million yen for your dress--"
"It's yours."
"What?"
"I'm giving it to you. As a present." This time, Jun looked him squarely in the eye.
"What am I going to do with a dress, you prick?!"
--
"Why would he give you a dress?"
Dusty hands gripped the bat and watched the pitcher--this time Nino's best friend Kamenashi Kazuya--as he readied the pitch. Just the reminder of the event made Nino want to break something in half. He was so tempted to just sell the dress and get it over with, but after he heard from Matsumoto that it was made for him, how could he?
"He's an idiot," Nino muttered sourly.
"Why don't you just sell it? A girl would be happier to have it. Not to mention they can actually go out wearing it." Kame adjusted his cap over his dark locks and glanced at his friend. From the home base, Nino made a face and sighed.
"Fine, fine. I'll sell the fucking thing tomorrow."
Kame then pitched the ball. Nino missed.
"Strike three. You're out, buddy."
--to be continued
notes: now that you've finished reading everything, suggest titles for me? i absolutely suck at them >: uhm the proposed number of chapters for this AU is five chapters, so i'm trying to compress everything i can in one chapter. tell me if i was too much? or if my characters don't suit hana yori dango's story? i would also like to mention that i've just finished watching boys over flowers (the korean hana yori dango) so i might use up a lot of their scenes there, since those are the ones that are still fresh in my mind. :D comments and constructive criticism are most most most welcome. lastly, i don't own the characters, or the story and this did not undergo a beta. :)
THE AWESOME TITLE CAME FROM
ika_rasu's BEAUTIFUL BRAIN. ♥