[FIC] LOVE SO BITTERSWEET
title: Love So Bittersweet
fandom/pairing: JE/various (when i say various, i mean various)
rating: PG-13
word count: 2960
notes: some of the characters i have never written before, and i'm quite sure at some points they are acting weirdly. but i hope to grasp their personalities better as the series progresses so please bear with me! :D this was read over by me, but if there are any mistakes please feel free to correct me. enjoy the third chapter :)
one | two | three
“Oh Jun, have you heard the news?” Instead of the usual good morning, this was what Jin greeted his friend. “Apparently, you’re gay.”
“What the hell,” Jun scoffed, grabbing a cup of tea Jin had prepared before taking a seat beside Sho.
“The paper says it all,” indeed, when Jin handed him the recent school paper his name was mentioned in the headline. The high and mighty Matsumoto name was written in bold letters, followed by a sentence that was too impertinently-worded that Jun felt his blood boiling at the sight of it.
Beneath the headline was a photograph of two backs, one of which was undeniably Jun’s, since half of his face was exposed in the picture. Plus no one else would dare wear such an outfit and go outside (bright red together with subdued blue and gray). The mystery was who owned the other back in the photograph. It could be anybody with short black hair and a gray hoodie.
“What? Who lets trash like this get published?” Jun demanded, flinging the paper to one side. “That’s stupid. I should file a complaint, or fire them. Better yet, sue them!”
“On what grounds?” Jin asked, looking at his troubled friend with much interest. All three of them-Jin, Sho and Ohkura-seemed to find this amusing indeed.
“On the grounds that the story is false,”
“But you two do look like you have something going on,” Ohkura piped in. He went to pick up the paper Jun threw. When he saw F4’s leader giving him a glare, he shrugged. “Look, you have your hand on his lower back; you’re grinning widely whilst offering a cup of coffee-I mean, this is just suspicious, regardless of whether your companion is male or female,”
“What if we were good friends?” Jun retorted hotly.
“Ew, I would never do that with you,” the group’s playboy quipped. Jun rolled his eyes and Sho stifled his laughter beside him.
“And you don’t have any good friends besides us,” Sho smiled winningly at him.
“Oh isn’t everyone in good spirits today,” Jun muttered sarcastically. “Why are you even here? Go read your books or something! Never mind, I’ll just go get these people fired,”
As soon as Jun grabbed the paper from Ohkura, he was stomping out of the room. Before Jun could fully exit though, Sho asked a question that made Jun stop. “Who were you with, Matsujun?”
In reply, Jun slammed the door shut.
--
Nino noticed something off about their house that day. He was going to blame it on hunger-no lunch break for today-but he was quite sure that he wasn’t hallucinating all of this. There was a large, brand new television in the middle of their small living room cum dining room. There was even a ribbon on its side, like it was a gift of some sort. In the kitchen were several brand new appliances as well. All these things made their small flat feel even smaller.
“I’m home!” Nino yelled cautiously to the empty room. He took the scarf off his neck and was folding it properly when out of nowhere, a pair came out with large smiles.
“Kazu-chan, you’re home!”
“What did you do with the house?”
“Oh why do you have that face,” Nino’s mother had short black hair and a frilly white apron on. His father called her “Yoko” a lot, but Nino didn’t really know idea why. To avoid confusion he just calls her “Mom” since he had a feeling that calling her “Yoko” was part of that new gimmick old couples do to spice up their sex lives. Which of course, Nino wants nothing to do with. “Aren’t you happy for all these things? Look, have you seen the fridge? It has button and when you press it, ice comes out!”
“Kazu-chan, we always knew that you were this family’s lucky charm,” As for his father, Nino knew he wasn’t the smartest and he drove both his mother and Nino mad sometimes, but he was part of the family and that permanently endeared him to them. Yoko calls him “Aiba” though again, Nino isn’t going to unearth the details of those names. “This is amazing, isn’t it!”
“Where did all these come from? You didn’t get involved in some scam again, didn’t you, Aiba?” Nino was never the respectful type, especially when things got to this point (it wasn’t the first time his father would do something idiotic, after all) and calling him Aiba would bother Nino later. Right now, he needed answers.
“Oh no, no!” Yoko smiled sweetly at Nino. “Your father didn’t! He was well behaved actually! These presents are all for you-for us!”
“Who gave them?” Nino narrowed his eyes at his parents, who couldn’t seem to wipe those weird smiles off their faces.
“Why, Matsumoto Jun, of course!”
Nino’s face contorted, displaying a mix of disbelief and disgust.
“We’ll give these back!” The eldest Ninomiya marched up to the TV, which was nearest and proceeded to lug it out of the house when he felt a pair of arms stop him. Make that two.
“Stop! What are you thinking, giving these back!” Yoko shrieked. “You don’t deny blessings when they come at your door, you ungrateful child!”
“I don’t want them! Besides, how can you accept gifts from strangers?” Nino grunted as he tried to wrench Aiba’s hands from the TV.
“He’s your friend from school! He told us he was your friend from school!” Aiba yelled. “And you, I can’t believe you didn’t tell us that you were friends with such a nice rich boy!”
“Stop being stupid,” with a harsh tug, Nino managed to get one of Aiba’s hands off. Now if only Yoko wasn’t gripping him so tightly. “I am refusing these gifts, we don’t need them-”
“Will you stop being selfish!” Yoko reprimanded, hitting Nino’s head. “The family is going through a crisis right now and the moment the gods smile on us, you choose to say no to them!”
Nino winced from the impact, and he let go of the large television to rub the back of his head.
“That’s right, Kazu-chan,” Aiba piped in. “Think about your mother and me, and your younger brother Yasu too! We all were delighted to see these things, but you only think about yourself and your petty reasons.”
Nino frowned, chewed on his bottom lip, and glared at his parents. He could get so annoyed at them, but they were still his greatest weakness.
“We can barely move with all these junk here!” Nino told them, still annoyed.
“Oh Kazu, if that’s the case, we can always find a way.”
It turns out, the way that the Ninomiya couple thought up of was to dispose of all their old appliances in Nino’s room (for the moment-just until someone comes and buys them!) and then pretty up their small place with all the shiny new gifts.
--
“You give me so much trouble,” Nino hissed at Jun the next time they saw each other. “First, you throw unnecessary gifts in my house-what were those, your leftovers?-and then the school paper issue! Honestly, why do you drag me in all of this?”
“Your parents looked happy with my gifts,” Jun smiled smugly.
“My parents don’t know shame sometimes,”
“I’ve already resolved the school paper thing, and your family was happy with the gifts, so what are you all mad about?”
Nino huffed, because he knew that he might say something scathing and that would jeopardize the new appliances in their ownership. He didn’t want his parents to give elaborate speeches to make him guilty again. Also, he couldn’t stand Yasu’s face being sad. It was almost illegal, his family’s effect on him.
“Don’t treat me like some girl,” Nino muttered.
“But why? You’re the first girl I’ve acknowledged!”
“Are you blind, Matsumoto? If you haven’t noticed, I have a di-”
“Such language,” Jun shook his head with mock disappointment. “I would’ve thought you were much more civilized than that.”
“Really, I would like to punch you in the face right now.” The commoner seethed. “But I won’t because I refuse to act immaturely.”
“That’s better,” Jun smiled at him. “Here,”
Nino glanced at the pink envelope handed his way. He took it from Jun’s hands and when he opened it, he found an invitation inside.
“Welcome party for Okada-What the, Okada Junichi? You know him?”
“He’s a childhood friend,”
“That’s amazing! I didn’t know that.”
“Didn’t Sho-kun mention it to you? He had quite a large crush on Junichi-kun back then,”
Nino felt an odd thump. It was then that everything made sense. That was why he found Sho wandering the streets at night, looking wistfully at Okada’s promotional posters.
“I don’t want to go,” Nino finally said, returning the invitation back to Jun.
“Why not,”
“Because I don’t. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going off to work,”
--
“Okada Junichi, huh?” Kame paused in his clearing of the table. “Those rich boys have all the connections, I see.”
“I know. Maybe it comes with all the money they have.” Nino shrugged.
“Okada Junichi is that actor who’s always in commercials, isn’t he?” Ohno suddenly said, taking a seat on one of the chairs.
“Yeah. He endorses almost everything. He appears a lot in dramas too!”
“Wasn’t he in France or something?” Kame’s brow furrowed. “I think he went there for some commercial shooting, I think.”
“What a fancy commercial, needing to be shot in France.”
Nino just stayed silent, watching as the two continued to talk about Okada. He shouldn’t feel that tiny smudge of jealousy, because he can’t even compare to such a person. Okada was rich, he was famous and he was no doubt in Sho’s league. There was no way that Nino can even compete.
Then they heard the bell, and all three of them simultaneously looked up.
“Sakurai Sho?”
“Ah, Nino-chan, it’s good that you’re here,” Indeed, F4’s Sakurai Sho was on their door, in a white, crisp shirt, beige slacks and leather sandals. He looked like he stepped out of a beach commercial, and for a moment, nobody spoke. “I was looking for you at school, but they said that you already left.”
“Uh yeah, I did.” Nino was blabbering. He also felt really stupid.
“I just wanted to invite you to a party this weekend. My friend’s coming back from overseas and we’re throwing a welcome party. It would be great if you could come.”
“Yes,”
Nino replied so fast, Kame stared at him in disbelief.
“I guess I can go,” Nino said once again. “I’ll definitely be there.”
“That’s awesome.” Sho grinned, leaving the the pink envelope-the same one Jun handed to him just minutes ago-on the table. “Well, I need to be going now. I’ll see you at the party, Nino-chan.”
Sho left, and all three of them were still in awe. The whole thing was quite surreal, but all three were suddenly jolted awake when a bunch of girls entered the room, all squealing and giggling. Nino took the envelope quickly and clutched it to his chest. Kame threw him a smirk and Nino gave a helpless shrug.
“That’s right, girls! F4’s Sakurai Sho has stepped on this very floor you’re stepping on!” Kame yelled to the female customers. “Yes, that one-he touched that very table over there! But now that you’re here, won’t you have some hot yummy porridge?”
“Nino-chan,” Ohno said, watching as Kame take orders from the excited customers. “You’re good for my business.”
Nino smiled.
--
“My, my, my,” The moment Nino saw Miyake Ken and his group approach him, he was getting ready to hide behind the large ice sculpture. The three of them-Ken, Tego and Ueda-were all in flashy outfits. Tuxes that were too sparkly matched with jewelries that were all too large for their small hands and necks. “Nino-chan is all dressed up. Where did you get the tux?”
Nino looked down at his tux-something that his father borrowed from his friend at the last minute. It was a bit large for him, but Nino didn’t mind. As long as he was wearing something decent.
“Wow, you guys really know how to outshine a disco ball,” Nino smiled sweetly at them, grabbing a delectable looking cake from the buffet table and placing it down on his plate.
When the comeback he was expecting didn’t really come, Nino was about to grin up to them and taunt them some more when he felt something wet on his head.
“Serves you right,” Tego said scathingly.
Nino frowned, champagne-so that was it, huh-dripping from his chin. In an impulse, he threw his plate’s contents on Ken’s tux. The wiped the smirk off the minx’s face. Because he could feel stares on him again, Nino went outside.
“Are you all right?”
Sakurai Sho has got to stop coming to his aid every time something bad happens. Nino hated it, but at the same time was happy about it. He hated being happy about it. In the end, he just hated it. He felt Sho standing beside him, and he gripped his chair tightly. Nino felt something he could bet was another of Sakurai’s expensive handkerchiefs, and he winced at the contact.
“Why do you keep appearing?” Nino groaned.
“You don’t want me to?”
“No,”
A lie. A complete lie. Nino was good in lying. Sho didn’t reply to that, and he just continued to pat Nino’s head dry.
“I have someone I want you to meet,” Sho murmured in such a soft voice that Nino almost thought that he was hallucinating the entire thing.
“Sho-kun, so you were here,”
At the sound of that voice, Nino looked up and saw Okada Junichi. He really was a good-looking guy. When Nino first saw him that evening (he ducked out of Jun’s sight and headed straight to the buffet table), he looked like he was happy. It was weird, since Nino knew he wasn’t the type of guy who was always the smiling type. Okada was wearing a snazzy outfit, something Nino knew was expensive. He wouldn’t have expected less.
“I was just about to get you,” Sho smiled at him. There was something different about that smile of his; it was like all of Sho’s smiles paled in comparison to it. Like this was his first genuine smile. Nino felt elated to have seen it. “This here is my friend, Ninomiya Kazunari.”
“Good evening.” Nino bolted from his seat and gave a small bow.
“Okada-kun’s my friend from France.” There was definitely something different about Sho tonight. “He just came back yesterday.”
“Okada-san, it’s nice to meet you.”
“So you were the Nino-chan Sho-kun’s told me so much about.” Okada smiled up at him. “It’s great to finally meet you too. But what happened to your tux?”
“Oh.” Nino looked down at his stained shirt, cursing at the thought of what Aiba would say (though he’ll probably just say that it couldn’t be helped). “I just slipped and tipped the glass over me. I-I’m clumsy like that.”
“I’ll go help you change,”
“What? No, no. I don’t need to-it’s okay thank you very much,”
“I wouldn’t want Sho’s friend to be going around in a wet tux, come on,” Okada’s small hand wrapped around Nino’s wrist, and Nino wasn’t quite sure what happened after that.
--
“You look good in it,”
The person in the mirror agreed too, and Nino looked at him with mild curiosity. Such a simple tux brought a drastic change, it was almost unbelievable. He looked completely different.
“Thank you.” Nino spun around, watching his reflection. “This is amazing. I’m sorry for the trouble.”
“It’s all right. You're Sho-kun’s friend, and that makes you my friend too,”
“Oh no.” What a misconception. Nino felt like he had to correct that one immediately. “Sakurai and I aren’t friends. He just likes to come to my aid at the worst possible time.”
“Sounds like you’ve been getting some pretty royal treatment from Sho-kun,”
“No way, he’s just looking for something to waste some time on-”
“He doesn’t usually go around offering his help to people. You’re special to him, Nino-chan. I can tell.”
Okada’s smile contained some mystery, but Nino didn’t let himself be bothered by it. He wanted Okada’s words to be true, but he knew-oh how he knew-that it wasn’t.
--
“Where have you been?”
Jun cornered him sometime after Nino got out of Okada’s room. The mere sight of the guy had Nino wanting to kick somebody. He thought he could escape Jun’s grasp just for tonight, but it was harder than he thought.
“I was just-getting changed,” Nino told him.
“You disappeared right after I saw that bratty guy pour his glass over you. Are you all right?”
“I’m not that frail,”
“You’re more frail than you think.”
“Excuse me, but I think I’d know that better than you.”
“Ninomiya, you really-”
“Matsujun. Nino-chan.”
Nino looked up from Jun’s scowling face and saw Sho looking at them. He had a apologetic look on his face, like he disturbed something important. For some reason, Nino didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. Not about this thing, definitely not about this.
But then Nino saw something in Jun’s eyes harden. Jun met Sho’s stare head on, and the atmosphere in the corridor suddenly changed. Nino had no idea how he got into this mess, but it seems like it was going to be tough to get out of it.
--to be continued.
fandom/pairing: JE/various (when i say various, i mean various)
rating: PG-13
word count: 2960
notes: some of the characters i have never written before, and i'm quite sure at some points they are acting weirdly. but i hope to grasp their personalities better as the series progresses so please bear with me! :D this was read over by me, but if there are any mistakes please feel free to correct me. enjoy the third chapter :)
one | two | three
“Oh Jun, have you heard the news?” Instead of the usual good morning, this was what Jin greeted his friend. “Apparently, you’re gay.”
“What the hell,” Jun scoffed, grabbing a cup of tea Jin had prepared before taking a seat beside Sho.
“The paper says it all,” indeed, when Jin handed him the recent school paper his name was mentioned in the headline. The high and mighty Matsumoto name was written in bold letters, followed by a sentence that was too impertinently-worded that Jun felt his blood boiling at the sight of it.
Beneath the headline was a photograph of two backs, one of which was undeniably Jun’s, since half of his face was exposed in the picture. Plus no one else would dare wear such an outfit and go outside (bright red together with subdued blue and gray). The mystery was who owned the other back in the photograph. It could be anybody with short black hair and a gray hoodie.
“What? Who lets trash like this get published?” Jun demanded, flinging the paper to one side. “That’s stupid. I should file a complaint, or fire them. Better yet, sue them!”
“On what grounds?” Jin asked, looking at his troubled friend with much interest. All three of them-Jin, Sho and Ohkura-seemed to find this amusing indeed.
“On the grounds that the story is false,”
“But you two do look like you have something going on,” Ohkura piped in. He went to pick up the paper Jun threw. When he saw F4’s leader giving him a glare, he shrugged. “Look, you have your hand on his lower back; you’re grinning widely whilst offering a cup of coffee-I mean, this is just suspicious, regardless of whether your companion is male or female,”
“What if we were good friends?” Jun retorted hotly.
“Ew, I would never do that with you,” the group’s playboy quipped. Jun rolled his eyes and Sho stifled his laughter beside him.
“And you don’t have any good friends besides us,” Sho smiled winningly at him.
“Oh isn’t everyone in good spirits today,” Jun muttered sarcastically. “Why are you even here? Go read your books or something! Never mind, I’ll just go get these people fired,”
As soon as Jun grabbed the paper from Ohkura, he was stomping out of the room. Before Jun could fully exit though, Sho asked a question that made Jun stop. “Who were you with, Matsujun?”
In reply, Jun slammed the door shut.
--
Nino noticed something off about their house that day. He was going to blame it on hunger-no lunch break for today-but he was quite sure that he wasn’t hallucinating all of this. There was a large, brand new television in the middle of their small living room cum dining room. There was even a ribbon on its side, like it was a gift of some sort. In the kitchen were several brand new appliances as well. All these things made their small flat feel even smaller.
“I’m home!” Nino yelled cautiously to the empty room. He took the scarf off his neck and was folding it properly when out of nowhere, a pair came out with large smiles.
“Kazu-chan, you’re home!”
“What did you do with the house?”
“Oh why do you have that face,” Nino’s mother had short black hair and a frilly white apron on. His father called her “Yoko” a lot, but Nino didn’t really know idea why. To avoid confusion he just calls her “Mom” since he had a feeling that calling her “Yoko” was part of that new gimmick old couples do to spice up their sex lives. Which of course, Nino wants nothing to do with. “Aren’t you happy for all these things? Look, have you seen the fridge? It has button and when you press it, ice comes out!”
“Kazu-chan, we always knew that you were this family’s lucky charm,” As for his father, Nino knew he wasn’t the smartest and he drove both his mother and Nino mad sometimes, but he was part of the family and that permanently endeared him to them. Yoko calls him “Aiba” though again, Nino isn’t going to unearth the details of those names. “This is amazing, isn’t it!”
“Where did all these come from? You didn’t get involved in some scam again, didn’t you, Aiba?” Nino was never the respectful type, especially when things got to this point (it wasn’t the first time his father would do something idiotic, after all) and calling him Aiba would bother Nino later. Right now, he needed answers.
“Oh no, no!” Yoko smiled sweetly at Nino. “Your father didn’t! He was well behaved actually! These presents are all for you-for us!”
“Who gave them?” Nino narrowed his eyes at his parents, who couldn’t seem to wipe those weird smiles off their faces.
“Why, Matsumoto Jun, of course!”
Nino’s face contorted, displaying a mix of disbelief and disgust.
“We’ll give these back!” The eldest Ninomiya marched up to the TV, which was nearest and proceeded to lug it out of the house when he felt a pair of arms stop him. Make that two.
“Stop! What are you thinking, giving these back!” Yoko shrieked. “You don’t deny blessings when they come at your door, you ungrateful child!”
“I don’t want them! Besides, how can you accept gifts from strangers?” Nino grunted as he tried to wrench Aiba’s hands from the TV.
“He’s your friend from school! He told us he was your friend from school!” Aiba yelled. “And you, I can’t believe you didn’t tell us that you were friends with such a nice rich boy!”
“Stop being stupid,” with a harsh tug, Nino managed to get one of Aiba’s hands off. Now if only Yoko wasn’t gripping him so tightly. “I am refusing these gifts, we don’t need them-”
“Will you stop being selfish!” Yoko reprimanded, hitting Nino’s head. “The family is going through a crisis right now and the moment the gods smile on us, you choose to say no to them!”
Nino winced from the impact, and he let go of the large television to rub the back of his head.
“That’s right, Kazu-chan,” Aiba piped in. “Think about your mother and me, and your younger brother Yasu too! We all were delighted to see these things, but you only think about yourself and your petty reasons.”
Nino frowned, chewed on his bottom lip, and glared at his parents. He could get so annoyed at them, but they were still his greatest weakness.
“We can barely move with all these junk here!” Nino told them, still annoyed.
“Oh Kazu, if that’s the case, we can always find a way.”
It turns out, the way that the Ninomiya couple thought up of was to dispose of all their old appliances in Nino’s room (for the moment-just until someone comes and buys them!) and then pretty up their small place with all the shiny new gifts.
--
“You give me so much trouble,” Nino hissed at Jun the next time they saw each other. “First, you throw unnecessary gifts in my house-what were those, your leftovers?-and then the school paper issue! Honestly, why do you drag me in all of this?”
“Your parents looked happy with my gifts,” Jun smiled smugly.
“My parents don’t know shame sometimes,”
“I’ve already resolved the school paper thing, and your family was happy with the gifts, so what are you all mad about?”
Nino huffed, because he knew that he might say something scathing and that would jeopardize the new appliances in their ownership. He didn’t want his parents to give elaborate speeches to make him guilty again. Also, he couldn’t stand Yasu’s face being sad. It was almost illegal, his family’s effect on him.
“Don’t treat me like some girl,” Nino muttered.
“But why? You’re the first girl I’ve acknowledged!”
“Are you blind, Matsumoto? If you haven’t noticed, I have a di-”
“Such language,” Jun shook his head with mock disappointment. “I would’ve thought you were much more civilized than that.”
“Really, I would like to punch you in the face right now.” The commoner seethed. “But I won’t because I refuse to act immaturely.”
“That’s better,” Jun smiled at him. “Here,”
Nino glanced at the pink envelope handed his way. He took it from Jun’s hands and when he opened it, he found an invitation inside.
“Welcome party for Okada-What the, Okada Junichi? You know him?”
“He’s a childhood friend,”
“That’s amazing! I didn’t know that.”
“Didn’t Sho-kun mention it to you? He had quite a large crush on Junichi-kun back then,”
Nino felt an odd thump. It was then that everything made sense. That was why he found Sho wandering the streets at night, looking wistfully at Okada’s promotional posters.
“I don’t want to go,” Nino finally said, returning the invitation back to Jun.
“Why not,”
“Because I don’t. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going off to work,”
--
“Okada Junichi, huh?” Kame paused in his clearing of the table. “Those rich boys have all the connections, I see.”
“I know. Maybe it comes with all the money they have.” Nino shrugged.
“Okada Junichi is that actor who’s always in commercials, isn’t he?” Ohno suddenly said, taking a seat on one of the chairs.
“Yeah. He endorses almost everything. He appears a lot in dramas too!”
“Wasn’t he in France or something?” Kame’s brow furrowed. “I think he went there for some commercial shooting, I think.”
“What a fancy commercial, needing to be shot in France.”
Nino just stayed silent, watching as the two continued to talk about Okada. He shouldn’t feel that tiny smudge of jealousy, because he can’t even compare to such a person. Okada was rich, he was famous and he was no doubt in Sho’s league. There was no way that Nino can even compete.
Then they heard the bell, and all three of them simultaneously looked up.
“Sakurai Sho?”
“Ah, Nino-chan, it’s good that you’re here,” Indeed, F4’s Sakurai Sho was on their door, in a white, crisp shirt, beige slacks and leather sandals. He looked like he stepped out of a beach commercial, and for a moment, nobody spoke. “I was looking for you at school, but they said that you already left.”
“Uh yeah, I did.” Nino was blabbering. He also felt really stupid.
“I just wanted to invite you to a party this weekend. My friend’s coming back from overseas and we’re throwing a welcome party. It would be great if you could come.”
“Yes,”
Nino replied so fast, Kame stared at him in disbelief.
“I guess I can go,” Nino said once again. “I’ll definitely be there.”
“That’s awesome.” Sho grinned, leaving the the pink envelope-the same one Jun handed to him just minutes ago-on the table. “Well, I need to be going now. I’ll see you at the party, Nino-chan.”
Sho left, and all three of them were still in awe. The whole thing was quite surreal, but all three were suddenly jolted awake when a bunch of girls entered the room, all squealing and giggling. Nino took the envelope quickly and clutched it to his chest. Kame threw him a smirk and Nino gave a helpless shrug.
“That’s right, girls! F4’s Sakurai Sho has stepped on this very floor you’re stepping on!” Kame yelled to the female customers. “Yes, that one-he touched that very table over there! But now that you’re here, won’t you have some hot yummy porridge?”
“Nino-chan,” Ohno said, watching as Kame take orders from the excited customers. “You’re good for my business.”
Nino smiled.
--
“My, my, my,” The moment Nino saw Miyake Ken and his group approach him, he was getting ready to hide behind the large ice sculpture. The three of them-Ken, Tego and Ueda-were all in flashy outfits. Tuxes that were too sparkly matched with jewelries that were all too large for their small hands and necks. “Nino-chan is all dressed up. Where did you get the tux?”
Nino looked down at his tux-something that his father borrowed from his friend at the last minute. It was a bit large for him, but Nino didn’t mind. As long as he was wearing something decent.
“Wow, you guys really know how to outshine a disco ball,” Nino smiled sweetly at them, grabbing a delectable looking cake from the buffet table and placing it down on his plate.
When the comeback he was expecting didn’t really come, Nino was about to grin up to them and taunt them some more when he felt something wet on his head.
“Serves you right,” Tego said scathingly.
Nino frowned, champagne-so that was it, huh-dripping from his chin. In an impulse, he threw his plate’s contents on Ken’s tux. The wiped the smirk off the minx’s face. Because he could feel stares on him again, Nino went outside.
“Are you all right?”
Sakurai Sho has got to stop coming to his aid every time something bad happens. Nino hated it, but at the same time was happy about it. He hated being happy about it. In the end, he just hated it. He felt Sho standing beside him, and he gripped his chair tightly. Nino felt something he could bet was another of Sakurai’s expensive handkerchiefs, and he winced at the contact.
“Why do you keep appearing?” Nino groaned.
“You don’t want me to?”
“No,”
A lie. A complete lie. Nino was good in lying. Sho didn’t reply to that, and he just continued to pat Nino’s head dry.
“I have someone I want you to meet,” Sho murmured in such a soft voice that Nino almost thought that he was hallucinating the entire thing.
“Sho-kun, so you were here,”
At the sound of that voice, Nino looked up and saw Okada Junichi. He really was a good-looking guy. When Nino first saw him that evening (he ducked out of Jun’s sight and headed straight to the buffet table), he looked like he was happy. It was weird, since Nino knew he wasn’t the type of guy who was always the smiling type. Okada was wearing a snazzy outfit, something Nino knew was expensive. He wouldn’t have expected less.
“I was just about to get you,” Sho smiled at him. There was something different about that smile of his; it was like all of Sho’s smiles paled in comparison to it. Like this was his first genuine smile. Nino felt elated to have seen it. “This here is my friend, Ninomiya Kazunari.”
“Good evening.” Nino bolted from his seat and gave a small bow.
“Okada-kun’s my friend from France.” There was definitely something different about Sho tonight. “He just came back yesterday.”
“Okada-san, it’s nice to meet you.”
“So you were the Nino-chan Sho-kun’s told me so much about.” Okada smiled up at him. “It’s great to finally meet you too. But what happened to your tux?”
“Oh.” Nino looked down at his stained shirt, cursing at the thought of what Aiba would say (though he’ll probably just say that it couldn’t be helped). “I just slipped and tipped the glass over me. I-I’m clumsy like that.”
“I’ll go help you change,”
“What? No, no. I don’t need to-it’s okay thank you very much,”
“I wouldn’t want Sho’s friend to be going around in a wet tux, come on,” Okada’s small hand wrapped around Nino’s wrist, and Nino wasn’t quite sure what happened after that.
--
“You look good in it,”
The person in the mirror agreed too, and Nino looked at him with mild curiosity. Such a simple tux brought a drastic change, it was almost unbelievable. He looked completely different.
“Thank you.” Nino spun around, watching his reflection. “This is amazing. I’m sorry for the trouble.”
“It’s all right. You're Sho-kun’s friend, and that makes you my friend too,”
“Oh no.” What a misconception. Nino felt like he had to correct that one immediately. “Sakurai and I aren’t friends. He just likes to come to my aid at the worst possible time.”
“Sounds like you’ve been getting some pretty royal treatment from Sho-kun,”
“No way, he’s just looking for something to waste some time on-”
“He doesn’t usually go around offering his help to people. You’re special to him, Nino-chan. I can tell.”
Okada’s smile contained some mystery, but Nino didn’t let himself be bothered by it. He wanted Okada’s words to be true, but he knew-oh how he knew-that it wasn’t.
--
“Where have you been?”
Jun cornered him sometime after Nino got out of Okada’s room. The mere sight of the guy had Nino wanting to kick somebody. He thought he could escape Jun’s grasp just for tonight, but it was harder than he thought.
“I was just-getting changed,” Nino told him.
“You disappeared right after I saw that bratty guy pour his glass over you. Are you all right?”
“I’m not that frail,”
“You’re more frail than you think.”
“Excuse me, but I think I’d know that better than you.”
“Ninomiya, you really-”
“Matsujun. Nino-chan.”
Nino looked up from Jun’s scowling face and saw Sho looking at them. He had a apologetic look on his face, like he disturbed something important. For some reason, Nino didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. Not about this thing, definitely not about this.
But then Nino saw something in Jun’s eyes harden. Jun met Sho’s stare head on, and the atmosphere in the corridor suddenly changed. Nino had no idea how he got into this mess, but it seems like it was going to be tough to get out of it.
--to be continued.