fic: Canvas (2/4)
After he came back he let Ran-chan follow him to the clean living room and the dog expressed her gratitude by wagging her tail and barking happily as she jumped to the couch. Kame showed the CDs to Jin apologetically.
“Mind if I work here?” he asked. “It’s music too, so…”
“Okay,” Jin agreed. He seemed somewhat curious and oblivious so Kame assumed their PV hadn’t been shown while the TV had been on. For some reason he felt a bit disappointed.
He turned the TV off and went to the radio to set the first CD in.
“I’m… I sing,” he decided to try explaining the situation to Jin before pressing play. “I’m a singer. And I have to pick a solo… so…”
Jin stared at him and after a while he screamed and covered his mouth.
“Oh my god, are you an idol!?” he screamed loudly. “Are you an idol?! Like a really, really good singer?! I’ve never heard you sing! Why don’t you sing?” he asks him with a high-pitched voice and keeps jumping excitedly. “You must have a really pretty singing voice!”
Kame grimaced. “It’s… don’t make it a big deal. We’re not even that popular. Just… just forget about it,” he shook his head. “Being a singer… it’s nothing special. It’s just work.”
“Ah, I used to dream of being an idol,” Jin told him with a dreamy look on his face as he sat down again. “I practiced like crazy, I was in a choir and got bullied and then I took dancing lessons and got bullied more,” he told him. “But I liked it.”
“…Okay,” Kame felt himself smiling a bit. “But really. It’s not all that glamorous. Do I look glamorous to you?”
Jin quieted down for a while and something sad flashed in his eyes as he studied him. Kame pressed his lips tightly together and somehow his throat clenched.
“Told you so,” he grimaced. “Nothing glamorous.”
“I think you’re really glamorous,” Jin told him quietly. Kame stared at him for a while. After a while Jin pulled his shirt up to cover his face.
“Oh god, stop staring at me!” he yelled. “That’s so wrong!”
Kame felt a blush rising on his face. “What, there’s nothing wrong in looking at you! You’re a painting for god’s sake! And it’s you who’s all the sudden telling me how I look glamorous…”
“Shut up!” Jin told him as he pulled the shirt back down, hiding his abs. “I was being nice! So… so the music?” Jin asked again. Kame decided it would be best to drop the previous subject and nods.
“I need to pick one,” he told him and nodded with a serious expression. “I can edit it and I probably will but… nothing strikes me yet,” he admitted bitterly. “And I can’t really get more, I have to pick by tomorrow which one…”
Jin smiled at him. “I can help. I’m good with music!” he assured him. “I used to play guitar.”
Kame wondered how someone in a painting could play a guitar. But maybe if he’d been in one where had been a guitar then… yeah, maybe. He shrugged. Ran-chan climbed on the armrest and sniffed at Jin, making the little man yelp and withdraw to the farthest corner.
It was a bit amusing. Kame smiled a bit as he pressed play.
They listened to the song and Kame skimmed through the lyric sheets he had with him. Jin simply listened and Ran-chan - after a while of bullying Jin distractively - decided to lie down on his lap. A couple of the other songs went by.
“I like them all,” Jin told him. “Don’t you like them?”
“They’re… not bad,” Kame tried to explain himself. “I just… can’t grasp them.”
“Because they’re about love?” Jin tried to reason out and leaned forward curiously. “Don’t you have anyone you like? Anyone you’ve ever liked?”
“…Yes,” Kame answered and squirmed a little where he sat. “I’m just… I don’t want to think about it. It’s all depressing.”
“Oh, tell me,” Jin nodded. “So you do like someone?”
Kame felt his mood flunk and he lied down to the couch. Ran-chan raised her head and wagged her tail unsurely. Kame kissed her head and kept stroking her.
“I’m gay so it hardly ever works out,” he told Jin bitterly. “And it isn’t like I could go public with a gay relationship when we’re trying to make it to the top. Or even with the fact that I am gay. So… fuck it,” he groaned. “It just never works out.”
Jin nodded again and blushed a little. He lied down as well, lied on his side and kept watching Kame with a warm expression.
“You like a straight guy?” he asked him sadly. Kame bit his lip and nodded.
“It’s just life,” he told him and wiped his still-dry eyes, just in case. “It’s not that important.”
“Life is important!” Jin told him loudly, all fired up and sort of angry all the sudden. “Life is important! Love is important! Love should make you happy!”
“Well, it doesn’t, so what can I do?” Kame asked him as he stood up and walked over to the radio with a new CD, trying to keep himself composed. “Love is just yet another sad song.”
“But there are many forms of love,” Jin pressed with a somewhat childish innocence. “There’s… that dog,” he said, pointing at Ran-chan. “And I’m sure you have friends! You could sing about friends,” he suggested excitedly. “Things that are important to you. You said you could change the lyrics!”
Kame pressed play and walked back to the sofa, not paying any attention to Jin. Jin waved at him.
“Put the lyric sheet down, let me try,” he told him determinately. “I’ll woo you.”
Kame snorted. So much for not sounding wrong when talking to a gay guy.
“A good song… it’s not about being all happy and everything,” Jin kept assuring him. “It’s about what feels good.”
“Tell me what feels good then,” Kame rolled his eyes as the music played with someone singing the sappy love-story lyrics. Jin clapped his hands and listened for a while, trying to catch the gist of the melody.
“Could you make it play again?” he asked. Kame picked up the remote and pressed the rewind button. Jin stood up and hawked, getting ready. Kame kept petting Ran-chan’s head.
“Te wo tsunaidari koe wo kiitari, waraiaetara iina, doredake no hito to meguriaeru no darou,” he sang with a nice, deep, sad and melodic voice, looking down a bit. Kame listened quietly and watched him, trying to ignore the other lyrics being sung from the record.
“Can you repeat that?” he asked as he pressed stop. Jin blushed.
“I mean, I’m not saying you should sing it, just setting an example,” he told him embarrassedly. “I mean… just sing what’s… what you feel. That’s the point, isn’t it?”
“Repeat it,” Kame repeated his request. “Please.”
Jin fidgeted nervously and an embarrassed smile and a faint hint of a blush appeared on his face. He drew in a breath nervously.
“Te wo tsunaidari koe wo kiitari, waraiaetara iina, doredake no hito to meguriaeru no darou,” he repeated and stopped, rocking on his heels. Kame smiled at him.
“…You have a really beautiful singing voice,” he complimented him. “It’s a shame you’re a painting and not a recording artist.”
“You think so?!” Jin squealed excitedly. “Really?! Thank you! Oh my god, thank you so much!”
Ran-chan jumped back on the armrest and Jin squeaked as he tried to get away from the her again. Kame snorted and joined Ran-chan, leaning his arms to the armrest.
“What, are you afraid of Ran-chan?” he asked teasingly. Jin’s blush deepened.
“Once a dog tried to destroy the painting I was in! I have traumas!” Jin complained loudly to defend his pride. “You should’ve seen it! It was a big dog!”
“Well, this is a small one,” Kame told him and kissed Ran-chan’s fur. “And she’s really, really nice. She probably just wants to play.”
“You love your dog?” Jin asked him, coming closer cautiously. After a moment of thinking Kame nodded.
“Very much,” he told him and moved to hold Ran-chan in his arms. “Sometimes she’s all I have.”
“You have me,” Jin offered with a hint of desperation in his voice. “I’m here for you now. You have me. I’m not going anywhere yet.”
Kame smiled at him and reached his hand out to press the tip of his index finger to the painting. Jin high fived it happily and even though Kame wasn’t able to feel it, he smiled a bit at the gesture.
“We’re going to be good friends,” Jin announced determinately. “I’m going to make you happy again.”
Kame doubted it a little less for some odd reason.
--
“And today we have JK-KYT in the studio! Let’s have an applause!” the show host announces and extends his arm to the direction where they walked on the stage, waving at the audience and smiling with their best charms as they headed for the couch.
“Too small!” Maru winced but Koki pushed him down and jumped on his lap. “TOO HEAVY!”
The audience was laughing as Junno helped Maru out from under him and they fought for their seats on the small couch. Maru complained as he sat on the armrest. Kame merely shrugged, smiled at the audience and sat on Koki’s lap. The audience screamed.
“Aaah, comfortable!” he yelled. “Stop whining, Maru!”
More laughter. It was actually nice so far. Everyone was on a good mood. He was on a bit better mood.
He didn’t feel like he was dragging them down as Koki circled his hands around him and dodged a little to see better.
“We’re excited to play JK-KYT’s… How is the name pronounced again?” the TV host rolled her eyes and leaned forward with a laughted. Koki extended his hand.
“Say Joking Kit! Joking Kit!” he offered. The woman nodded.
“Alright, alright,” she laughed. “We’re excited to be the first ones to play Joking Kit’s upcoming single Yorokobi no Uta in here with Joking Kit performing it on stage! Anyone excited?!”
The audience screamed in unison. For a while Kame felt like an enviable idol.
“Umm, it’s going to be released in a couple of weeks,” Junno leaned forward and bowed a little. “We’re hoping you would buy it and support us. Thank you!”
The host flashed them a toothy smile and clapped her hands, making the audience follow her lead. Kame kept nodding and smiling happily.
“Have you already shot the PV?” she asked them and Ueda shook his head.
“No, but we’ll be doing that soon,” he bowed a bit. “And we’re also working on the new album so we can finish it before the tour. So look forward to it!”
“LOOK FORWARD TO SOME JOKITTING!” Koki yelled and the audience laughed and applauded. Kame wanted to sink through the floor from embarrassment. He could swear his face was burning hot and red. Others, except for Junno who applauded himself enthusiastically and laughed, seemed to be feeling along the same lines as Kame.
When they left the show he and Ueda attacked Koki who whimpered and tried to cover his head and dodge from their slaps directed at his head.
“Ouch, ouch! What did I do, stop it!” he complained and grabbed both of their wrists. Kame kicked him in the knee. Not hard, he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. Just fool around and get back at him for the embarrassment.
“Can you drop the jokitting part already?” he complained. “Seriously. No wonder we aren’t taken seriously! Do you want us to be like Kanjani8?”
“Kanjani8 is popular,” Koki shrugged and flashed them a smile. “Come on, it’s a little funny.”
“It totally isn’t,” Maru shook his head with wide eyes, expression certainly not amused. “It totally isn’t!”
“I want to be taken seriously,” Kame sighed. “I don’t want to be a joke…”
“We’re always going to be a joke. We’re going to make people happy like that,” Koki assured him and threw his arm around his shoulders. He ruffled his hair. “Come on. Let’s make some girls happy~”
Ueda shook his head and they all walked back to the dressing rooms. Kame didn’t withdraw from Koki’s hold.
--
Kame stepped home, dripping water to the floor. Ran-chan ran to greet him with a wagging tail and excited barking before she ran straight back to the living room.
“What, that’s all I get?” Kame yelled after it. “Come on, Ran-chaaan. Come here!”
He heard her running and for a while she stood at the doorframe again and howled a little. She ran a full circle before running back to the living room.
Kame sighed and pulled his shoes off before strolling in the kitchen. He cleaned Ran-chan’s cups and gave her fresh food and water before heating a microwave meal for himself and following the noise to the living room.
“Evening!” Jin greeted him with an excited wave. “Oh my god, you were so amazing!” he screamed excitedly and clapped “We were watching! It was so amazing, you were all so funny! And you looked really good there!”
“Thanks I guess,” Kame answered as he sat down to the armrest. Ran-chan stood on her feet and tilted her head with a begging look. Kame sighed.
“No, your food is in the kitchen,” he told her strictly. “Go on. Eat.”
She whimpered before running of. Jin only hummed and nodded.
“She was really hungry,” he told Kame. “…You don’t really look so happy, though.”
Kame shook his head and picked up noodles with his chopsticks to put in his mouth. “Mmn.”
“Did something happen?” Jin asked him with a worried expression. “Are you okay? You seemed happy in the TV.”
Kame kept poking his food on the plate absent-mindedly. He was quickly losing his appetite.
“Can we not talk about me tonight?” he asked Jin. “Let’s… let’s talk about you.”
“Okay!” Jin chirped and smiled at him. “What about me?”
“…How long are you actually going to stay?” Kame asked him as he set the plate on the table and took a better position on the armrest. Jin looked a bit taken aback by it.
“As long as you’re depressed,” Jin answered him unsurely. “When you’re happy you don’t need me anymore.”
“What if…” Kame tried to explain himself, swallowing the food from his mouth and wiping his lips. “What if… you would become my friend?”
“Do you want me to?” Jin asked happily. “I’d love to be your friend! Can I?”
“Mm, sure,” Kame shrugged. “It’s not like we don’t spend time together.”
Jin’s smile could've lit up the whole city, Kame was sure. He let out an unsure laughter.
“What are you smiling like that for?” he mumbled. Jin tried to wipe his smile away but failed. He didn’t answer. Kame drew in a long breath and nodded.
“But then… when I’m not depressed anymore, you’re going to leave,” he reasoned. “Isn’t that a bit stupid? That you would first fix my life and then just… go?” he asked a little anxiously. Jin bit his teeth together.
“I… You don’t need me anymore then,” he tried to assure him again. “I’m just… I just have to make you happy.”
“Have to?” Kame snapped at him and glared at the little man. Jin shook his head and waved his hands again.
“No no no, don’t misunderstand! I want to, it’s not just that I have to, I really want to!” Jin tried to yell. “I… I know what it’s like. So… I want to. I want to make you happy,” he assured him desperately. “I… anything. I’d do anything. All I can do.”
Kame nodded a bit, slightly embarrassed at his almost-outburst. He picked up his food again and decided it was probably better to eat. Jin had been right - it did improve his mood. If just a little.
“So you… you’ve been depressed?” Kame asked him, looking down at his plate as he kept picking food up. Jin nodded and sat down uneasily.
“Yeah,” he confessed quietly. “When I was a teenager.”
“Wasn’t it hard then? Making people happy?” Kame asked him, munching his food and not really looking at Jin. It felt like he was walking on thin ice. “I can’t make people happy when I’m down. I just… I just make it worse,” he shrugged. “So it must’ve been really difficult for you.”
Jin blinked, staring at him momentarily in confusion. Then he yelped.
“Ah, no! No! I wasn’t stuck in the painting yet at that point!” he fixed Kame’s assumptions and shook his head. Kame looked at him, startled. “That came after. …Kind of. Well, kind of, the line is a bit hazy…”
“You… you haven’t always been there?” Kame asked him curiously. “Then how did you get there?”
“…I don’t… I helped someone out,” Jin lowered his head. “I… it might’ve been stupid but… I don’t… I don’t regret it.”
“You make no sense,” Kame shrugged and picked more food in his mouth. “I don’t get it.”
“You don’t have to,” Jin smiled at him strongly. “I’m just fine! So no worries.”
For a while there was a distant feeling. Kame sniffed at the silence and studied the small man in the painting closely. Jin withdrew a little, fidgeting where he was.
“So you were a normal human once?” Kame tried to continue the conversation. The silence felt a bit too heavy. Jin exhaled in gratitude and nodded.
“Yeah. I came here when I was seventeen,” he told Kame. “I was actually where you were. I was… Well, you see, my mum painted beautiful paintings,” he went on telling with a dreamy look and a sad smile on his face as he rocked slowly. “She painted all of these really, really beautiful paintings. And I was depressed and then one day there was this person,” he smiled at Kame. “And then I became happy.”
“…Okay,” Kame laughed a bit unsurely. “That was simple.”
“Yeah,” Jin sighed heavily. “I just wonder… you know, my mum and brother, they never… Because I kind of just disappeared, so…”
Jin bit his lip and somehow Kame felt immediately a strong urge to go and hug the little man. He pressed his finger to the canvas and Jin laughed a bit shakily.
“What are you doing?” he asked. "You can’t touch me,” he reminded him with a smirk. Kame shrugged.
“I just… closer to you,” he tried to explain himself unsurely. “You seemed lonely and sad and there’s nothing I can really do…”
“Eh?” Jin exclaimed. “You don’t have to worry about that!”
“If we’re friends then I can worry for you too,” Kame groaned. “I don’t want to be selfish. I can’t be happy if there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“But you do so much,” Jin answered him with a quiet voice. Kame blinked. “You do so much for me Kame, you don’t have to do anything else! You talk to me and you even let me watch TV, you’re being really nice!”
“…Is that really all I can do for you?” Kame asked sadly. “You seem so lonely.”
“I have you,” Jin answered him. Ran-chan jumped on Kame’s lap and stole some of his food, making him cry out loudly and lift his plate trying to save it, already knowing he was too late.
“Bad dog!” he yelled. Ran-chan whined and tried to wag her tail.
“And Ran-chan,” Jin continued with a smile. “She’s actually really nice. I like her.”
Kame smiled at him as he set the plate down. Ran-chan had already gotten to it after all, there wasn’t any point in eating it. Could just as well give a treat for the dog. Never mind that the dog didn’t really deserve it and would learn bad habits.
“Can you die?” Kame asked curiously. Jin nodded.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m a human!”
Which was an odd thing to say from someone in a painting. Kame laughed a bit nonetheless.
“Is it if I destroy the canvas?” he asked curiously. Jin shook his head.
“No then… then I’ll be forced to move on to the next one,” Jin bit his lip. “But if I’m too slow or something then you technically could make me lose limbs or get hurt and so on and it could result in my death and my reactions aren’t really the best, so…”
“I won’t do anything to you,” Kame assured him. “Then if not like that then… how?”
“Try aging?” Jin laughed. “I don’t think I look like a seventeen-year-old anymore.”
“Ah, sure,” Kame felt a bit stupid. “Right.”
“Or if I get a sickness. Like cancer or something!” Jin babbled. “Or a bad cold. Or a painting poisoning.”
“What, you can get a cold?” Kame asked worriedly. His apartment was pretty cold and Jin was wearing only a T-shirt. “And… painting poisoning?”
“Yeah,” Jin nodded. “Of course I can get a cold, I’m a human! There are things my little body can’t take!” he jumped grumpily. “Don’t degrade me just because I’m small and stuck in a canvas! And I told you about not painting on me,” Jin continued. “If I get paint in my mouth or wound or something… Never seen but I did hear stories,” he winced. “Nasty.”
“Okay,” Kame nodded worriedly. “But… but otherwise it’s fine?”
Jin bit his lip and shook his head a little. “Well… if you get paint on me then I get stuck,” he told Kame quietly. “I… don’t want to be stuck.”
“I won’t paint on you, I promise,” Kame told him. “Never.”
Jin smiled. “I like Kame.”
Kame pressed his palm against the canvas. “I like Jin too.”
--
“Hello,” Kame greeted the camera as he walked to the dressing rooms. He waved and smirked and Maru clapped his hands. “Fourth! Ueda’s late again.”
Kame laughed as he sat in one of the chairs. “Can’t say I’m surprised. And I painted my nails,” he told proudly and showed his fingernails to the camera, some of them black. Maru stared at him in disbelief.
“Woman,” he accused. “Don’t be late for that!”
“Can’t help it…”
“Heeere,” Ueda walked in.
“LATE!” Koki accused and Junno walked back to the room, already wearing his attire. Kame hummed to himself as he stood up and walked over to his clothing rack.
“Ah, I like the colour scheme,” he noted happily.
Somewhere amidst all of it, he started wondering if Jin ever missed wearing anything but his jeans and a T-shirt.
Somehow with Jin in his thoughts, wondering about things from his perspective and imagining showing the PV’s Making Of to him, Kame wanted to look happy and make him astonished about everything.
He had fun.
--
Part 3
“Mind if I work here?” he asked. “It’s music too, so…”
“Okay,” Jin agreed. He seemed somewhat curious and oblivious so Kame assumed their PV hadn’t been shown while the TV had been on. For some reason he felt a bit disappointed.
He turned the TV off and went to the radio to set the first CD in.
“I’m… I sing,” he decided to try explaining the situation to Jin before pressing play. “I’m a singer. And I have to pick a solo… so…”
Jin stared at him and after a while he screamed and covered his mouth.
“Oh my god, are you an idol!?” he screamed loudly. “Are you an idol?! Like a really, really good singer?! I’ve never heard you sing! Why don’t you sing?” he asks him with a high-pitched voice and keeps jumping excitedly. “You must have a really pretty singing voice!”
Kame grimaced. “It’s… don’t make it a big deal. We’re not even that popular. Just… just forget about it,” he shook his head. “Being a singer… it’s nothing special. It’s just work.”
“Ah, I used to dream of being an idol,” Jin told him with a dreamy look on his face as he sat down again. “I practiced like crazy, I was in a choir and got bullied and then I took dancing lessons and got bullied more,” he told him. “But I liked it.”
“…Okay,” Kame felt himself smiling a bit. “But really. It’s not all that glamorous. Do I look glamorous to you?”
Jin quieted down for a while and something sad flashed in his eyes as he studied him. Kame pressed his lips tightly together and somehow his throat clenched.
“Told you so,” he grimaced. “Nothing glamorous.”
“I think you’re really glamorous,” Jin told him quietly. Kame stared at him for a while. After a while Jin pulled his shirt up to cover his face.
“Oh god, stop staring at me!” he yelled. “That’s so wrong!”
Kame felt a blush rising on his face. “What, there’s nothing wrong in looking at you! You’re a painting for god’s sake! And it’s you who’s all the sudden telling me how I look glamorous…”
“Shut up!” Jin told him as he pulled the shirt back down, hiding his abs. “I was being nice! So… so the music?” Jin asked again. Kame decided it would be best to drop the previous subject and nods.
“I need to pick one,” he told him and nodded with a serious expression. “I can edit it and I probably will but… nothing strikes me yet,” he admitted bitterly. “And I can’t really get more, I have to pick by tomorrow which one…”
Jin smiled at him. “I can help. I’m good with music!” he assured him. “I used to play guitar.”
Kame wondered how someone in a painting could play a guitar. But maybe if he’d been in one where had been a guitar then… yeah, maybe. He shrugged. Ran-chan climbed on the armrest and sniffed at Jin, making the little man yelp and withdraw to the farthest corner.
It was a bit amusing. Kame smiled a bit as he pressed play.
They listened to the song and Kame skimmed through the lyric sheets he had with him. Jin simply listened and Ran-chan - after a while of bullying Jin distractively - decided to lie down on his lap. A couple of the other songs went by.
“I like them all,” Jin told him. “Don’t you like them?”
“They’re… not bad,” Kame tried to explain himself. “I just… can’t grasp them.”
“Because they’re about love?” Jin tried to reason out and leaned forward curiously. “Don’t you have anyone you like? Anyone you’ve ever liked?”
“…Yes,” Kame answered and squirmed a little where he sat. “I’m just… I don’t want to think about it. It’s all depressing.”
“Oh, tell me,” Jin nodded. “So you do like someone?”
Kame felt his mood flunk and he lied down to the couch. Ran-chan raised her head and wagged her tail unsurely. Kame kissed her head and kept stroking her.
“I’m gay so it hardly ever works out,” he told Jin bitterly. “And it isn’t like I could go public with a gay relationship when we’re trying to make it to the top. Or even with the fact that I am gay. So… fuck it,” he groaned. “It just never works out.”
Jin nodded again and blushed a little. He lied down as well, lied on his side and kept watching Kame with a warm expression.
“You like a straight guy?” he asked him sadly. Kame bit his lip and nodded.
“It’s just life,” he told him and wiped his still-dry eyes, just in case. “It’s not that important.”
“Life is important!” Jin told him loudly, all fired up and sort of angry all the sudden. “Life is important! Love is important! Love should make you happy!”
“Well, it doesn’t, so what can I do?” Kame asked him as he stood up and walked over to the radio with a new CD, trying to keep himself composed. “Love is just yet another sad song.”
“But there are many forms of love,” Jin pressed with a somewhat childish innocence. “There’s… that dog,” he said, pointing at Ran-chan. “And I’m sure you have friends! You could sing about friends,” he suggested excitedly. “Things that are important to you. You said you could change the lyrics!”
Kame pressed play and walked back to the sofa, not paying any attention to Jin. Jin waved at him.
“Put the lyric sheet down, let me try,” he told him determinately. “I’ll woo you.”
Kame snorted. So much for not sounding wrong when talking to a gay guy.
“A good song… it’s not about being all happy and everything,” Jin kept assuring him. “It’s about what feels good.”
“Tell me what feels good then,” Kame rolled his eyes as the music played with someone singing the sappy love-story lyrics. Jin clapped his hands and listened for a while, trying to catch the gist of the melody.
“Could you make it play again?” he asked. Kame picked up the remote and pressed the rewind button. Jin stood up and hawked, getting ready. Kame kept petting Ran-chan’s head.
“Te wo tsunaidari koe wo kiitari, waraiaetara iina, doredake no hito to meguriaeru no darou,” he sang with a nice, deep, sad and melodic voice, looking down a bit. Kame listened quietly and watched him, trying to ignore the other lyrics being sung from the record.
“Can you repeat that?” he asked as he pressed stop. Jin blushed.
“I mean, I’m not saying you should sing it, just setting an example,” he told him embarrassedly. “I mean… just sing what’s… what you feel. That’s the point, isn’t it?”
“Repeat it,” Kame repeated his request. “Please.”
Jin fidgeted nervously and an embarrassed smile and a faint hint of a blush appeared on his face. He drew in a breath nervously.
“Te wo tsunaidari koe wo kiitari, waraiaetara iina, doredake no hito to meguriaeru no darou,” he repeated and stopped, rocking on his heels. Kame smiled at him.
“…You have a really beautiful singing voice,” he complimented him. “It’s a shame you’re a painting and not a recording artist.”
“You think so?!” Jin squealed excitedly. “Really?! Thank you! Oh my god, thank you so much!”
Ran-chan jumped back on the armrest and Jin squeaked as he tried to get away from the her again. Kame snorted and joined Ran-chan, leaning his arms to the armrest.
“What, are you afraid of Ran-chan?” he asked teasingly. Jin’s blush deepened.
“Once a dog tried to destroy the painting I was in! I have traumas!” Jin complained loudly to defend his pride. “You should’ve seen it! It was a big dog!”
“Well, this is a small one,” Kame told him and kissed Ran-chan’s fur. “And she’s really, really nice. She probably just wants to play.”
“You love your dog?” Jin asked him, coming closer cautiously. After a moment of thinking Kame nodded.
“Very much,” he told him and moved to hold Ran-chan in his arms. “Sometimes she’s all I have.”
“You have me,” Jin offered with a hint of desperation in his voice. “I’m here for you now. You have me. I’m not going anywhere yet.”
Kame smiled at him and reached his hand out to press the tip of his index finger to the painting. Jin high fived it happily and even though Kame wasn’t able to feel it, he smiled a bit at the gesture.
“We’re going to be good friends,” Jin announced determinately. “I’m going to make you happy again.”
Kame doubted it a little less for some odd reason.
--
“And today we have JK-KYT in the studio! Let’s have an applause!” the show host announces and extends his arm to the direction where they walked on the stage, waving at the audience and smiling with their best charms as they headed for the couch.
“Too small!” Maru winced but Koki pushed him down and jumped on his lap. “TOO HEAVY!”
The audience was laughing as Junno helped Maru out from under him and they fought for their seats on the small couch. Maru complained as he sat on the armrest. Kame merely shrugged, smiled at the audience and sat on Koki’s lap. The audience screamed.
“Aaah, comfortable!” he yelled. “Stop whining, Maru!”
More laughter. It was actually nice so far. Everyone was on a good mood. He was on a bit better mood.
He didn’t feel like he was dragging them down as Koki circled his hands around him and dodged a little to see better.
“We’re excited to play JK-KYT’s… How is the name pronounced again?” the TV host rolled her eyes and leaned forward with a laughted. Koki extended his hand.
“Say Joking Kit! Joking Kit!” he offered. The woman nodded.
“Alright, alright,” she laughed. “We’re excited to be the first ones to play Joking Kit’s upcoming single Yorokobi no Uta in here with Joking Kit performing it on stage! Anyone excited?!”
The audience screamed in unison. For a while Kame felt like an enviable idol.
“Umm, it’s going to be released in a couple of weeks,” Junno leaned forward and bowed a little. “We’re hoping you would buy it and support us. Thank you!”
The host flashed them a toothy smile and clapped her hands, making the audience follow her lead. Kame kept nodding and smiling happily.
“Have you already shot the PV?” she asked them and Ueda shook his head.
“No, but we’ll be doing that soon,” he bowed a bit. “And we’re also working on the new album so we can finish it before the tour. So look forward to it!”
“LOOK FORWARD TO SOME JOKITTING!” Koki yelled and the audience laughed and applauded. Kame wanted to sink through the floor from embarrassment. He could swear his face was burning hot and red. Others, except for Junno who applauded himself enthusiastically and laughed, seemed to be feeling along the same lines as Kame.
When they left the show he and Ueda attacked Koki who whimpered and tried to cover his head and dodge from their slaps directed at his head.
“Ouch, ouch! What did I do, stop it!” he complained and grabbed both of their wrists. Kame kicked him in the knee. Not hard, he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. Just fool around and get back at him for the embarrassment.
“Can you drop the jokitting part already?” he complained. “Seriously. No wonder we aren’t taken seriously! Do you want us to be like Kanjani8?”
“Kanjani8 is popular,” Koki shrugged and flashed them a smile. “Come on, it’s a little funny.”
“It totally isn’t,” Maru shook his head with wide eyes, expression certainly not amused. “It totally isn’t!”
“I want to be taken seriously,” Kame sighed. “I don’t want to be a joke…”
“We’re always going to be a joke. We’re going to make people happy like that,” Koki assured him and threw his arm around his shoulders. He ruffled his hair. “Come on. Let’s make some girls happy~”
Ueda shook his head and they all walked back to the dressing rooms. Kame didn’t withdraw from Koki’s hold.
--
Kame stepped home, dripping water to the floor. Ran-chan ran to greet him with a wagging tail and excited barking before she ran straight back to the living room.
“What, that’s all I get?” Kame yelled after it. “Come on, Ran-chaaan. Come here!”
He heard her running and for a while she stood at the doorframe again and howled a little. She ran a full circle before running back to the living room.
Kame sighed and pulled his shoes off before strolling in the kitchen. He cleaned Ran-chan’s cups and gave her fresh food and water before heating a microwave meal for himself and following the noise to the living room.
“Evening!” Jin greeted him with an excited wave. “Oh my god, you were so amazing!” he screamed excitedly and clapped “We were watching! It was so amazing, you were all so funny! And you looked really good there!”
“Thanks I guess,” Kame answered as he sat down to the armrest. Ran-chan stood on her feet and tilted her head with a begging look. Kame sighed.
“No, your food is in the kitchen,” he told her strictly. “Go on. Eat.”
She whimpered before running of. Jin only hummed and nodded.
“She was really hungry,” he told Kame. “…You don’t really look so happy, though.”
Kame shook his head and picked up noodles with his chopsticks to put in his mouth. “Mmn.”
“Did something happen?” Jin asked him with a worried expression. “Are you okay? You seemed happy in the TV.”
Kame kept poking his food on the plate absent-mindedly. He was quickly losing his appetite.
“Can we not talk about me tonight?” he asked Jin. “Let’s… let’s talk about you.”
“Okay!” Jin chirped and smiled at him. “What about me?”
“…How long are you actually going to stay?” Kame asked him as he set the plate on the table and took a better position on the armrest. Jin looked a bit taken aback by it.
“As long as you’re depressed,” Jin answered him unsurely. “When you’re happy you don’t need me anymore.”
“What if…” Kame tried to explain himself, swallowing the food from his mouth and wiping his lips. “What if… you would become my friend?”
“Do you want me to?” Jin asked happily. “I’d love to be your friend! Can I?”
“Mm, sure,” Kame shrugged. “It’s not like we don’t spend time together.”
Jin’s smile could've lit up the whole city, Kame was sure. He let out an unsure laughter.
“What are you smiling like that for?” he mumbled. Jin tried to wipe his smile away but failed. He didn’t answer. Kame drew in a long breath and nodded.
“But then… when I’m not depressed anymore, you’re going to leave,” he reasoned. “Isn’t that a bit stupid? That you would first fix my life and then just… go?” he asked a little anxiously. Jin bit his teeth together.
“I… You don’t need me anymore then,” he tried to assure him again. “I’m just… I just have to make you happy.”
“Have to?” Kame snapped at him and glared at the little man. Jin shook his head and waved his hands again.
“No no no, don’t misunderstand! I want to, it’s not just that I have to, I really want to!” Jin tried to yell. “I… I know what it’s like. So… I want to. I want to make you happy,” he assured him desperately. “I… anything. I’d do anything. All I can do.”
Kame nodded a bit, slightly embarrassed at his almost-outburst. He picked up his food again and decided it was probably better to eat. Jin had been right - it did improve his mood. If just a little.
“So you… you’ve been depressed?” Kame asked him, looking down at his plate as he kept picking food up. Jin nodded and sat down uneasily.
“Yeah,” he confessed quietly. “When I was a teenager.”
“Wasn’t it hard then? Making people happy?” Kame asked him, munching his food and not really looking at Jin. It felt like he was walking on thin ice. “I can’t make people happy when I’m down. I just… I just make it worse,” he shrugged. “So it must’ve been really difficult for you.”
Jin blinked, staring at him momentarily in confusion. Then he yelped.
“Ah, no! No! I wasn’t stuck in the painting yet at that point!” he fixed Kame’s assumptions and shook his head. Kame looked at him, startled. “That came after. …Kind of. Well, kind of, the line is a bit hazy…”
“You… you haven’t always been there?” Kame asked him curiously. “Then how did you get there?”
“…I don’t… I helped someone out,” Jin lowered his head. “I… it might’ve been stupid but… I don’t… I don’t regret it.”
“You make no sense,” Kame shrugged and picked more food in his mouth. “I don’t get it.”
“You don’t have to,” Jin smiled at him strongly. “I’m just fine! So no worries.”
For a while there was a distant feeling. Kame sniffed at the silence and studied the small man in the painting closely. Jin withdrew a little, fidgeting where he was.
“So you were a normal human once?” Kame tried to continue the conversation. The silence felt a bit too heavy. Jin exhaled in gratitude and nodded.
“Yeah. I came here when I was seventeen,” he told Kame. “I was actually where you were. I was… Well, you see, my mum painted beautiful paintings,” he went on telling with a dreamy look and a sad smile on his face as he rocked slowly. “She painted all of these really, really beautiful paintings. And I was depressed and then one day there was this person,” he smiled at Kame. “And then I became happy.”
“…Okay,” Kame laughed a bit unsurely. “That was simple.”
“Yeah,” Jin sighed heavily. “I just wonder… you know, my mum and brother, they never… Because I kind of just disappeared, so…”
Jin bit his lip and somehow Kame felt immediately a strong urge to go and hug the little man. He pressed his finger to the canvas and Jin laughed a bit shakily.
“What are you doing?” he asked. "You can’t touch me,” he reminded him with a smirk. Kame shrugged.
“I just… closer to you,” he tried to explain himself unsurely. “You seemed lonely and sad and there’s nothing I can really do…”
“Eh?” Jin exclaimed. “You don’t have to worry about that!”
“If we’re friends then I can worry for you too,” Kame groaned. “I don’t want to be selfish. I can’t be happy if there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“But you do so much,” Jin answered him with a quiet voice. Kame blinked. “You do so much for me Kame, you don’t have to do anything else! You talk to me and you even let me watch TV, you’re being really nice!”
“…Is that really all I can do for you?” Kame asked sadly. “You seem so lonely.”
“I have you,” Jin answered him. Ran-chan jumped on Kame’s lap and stole some of his food, making him cry out loudly and lift his plate trying to save it, already knowing he was too late.
“Bad dog!” he yelled. Ran-chan whined and tried to wag her tail.
“And Ran-chan,” Jin continued with a smile. “She’s actually really nice. I like her.”
Kame smiled at him as he set the plate down. Ran-chan had already gotten to it after all, there wasn’t any point in eating it. Could just as well give a treat for the dog. Never mind that the dog didn’t really deserve it and would learn bad habits.
“Can you die?” Kame asked curiously. Jin nodded.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m a human!”
Which was an odd thing to say from someone in a painting. Kame laughed a bit nonetheless.
“Is it if I destroy the canvas?” he asked curiously. Jin shook his head.
“No then… then I’ll be forced to move on to the next one,” Jin bit his lip. “But if I’m too slow or something then you technically could make me lose limbs or get hurt and so on and it could result in my death and my reactions aren’t really the best, so…”
“I won’t do anything to you,” Kame assured him. “Then if not like that then… how?”
“Try aging?” Jin laughed. “I don’t think I look like a seventeen-year-old anymore.”
“Ah, sure,” Kame felt a bit stupid. “Right.”
“Or if I get a sickness. Like cancer or something!” Jin babbled. “Or a bad cold. Or a painting poisoning.”
“What, you can get a cold?” Kame asked worriedly. His apartment was pretty cold and Jin was wearing only a T-shirt. “And… painting poisoning?”
“Yeah,” Jin nodded. “Of course I can get a cold, I’m a human! There are things my little body can’t take!” he jumped grumpily. “Don’t degrade me just because I’m small and stuck in a canvas! And I told you about not painting on me,” Jin continued. “If I get paint in my mouth or wound or something… Never seen but I did hear stories,” he winced. “Nasty.”
“Okay,” Kame nodded worriedly. “But… but otherwise it’s fine?”
Jin bit his lip and shook his head a little. “Well… if you get paint on me then I get stuck,” he told Kame quietly. “I… don’t want to be stuck.”
“I won’t paint on you, I promise,” Kame told him. “Never.”
Jin smiled. “I like Kame.”
Kame pressed his palm against the canvas. “I like Jin too.”
--
“Hello,” Kame greeted the camera as he walked to the dressing rooms. He waved and smirked and Maru clapped his hands. “Fourth! Ueda’s late again.”
Kame laughed as he sat in one of the chairs. “Can’t say I’m surprised. And I painted my nails,” he told proudly and showed his fingernails to the camera, some of them black. Maru stared at him in disbelief.
“Woman,” he accused. “Don’t be late for that!”
“Can’t help it…”
“Heeere,” Ueda walked in.
“LATE!” Koki accused and Junno walked back to the room, already wearing his attire. Kame hummed to himself as he stood up and walked over to his clothing rack.
“Ah, I like the colour scheme,” he noted happily.
Somewhere amidst all of it, he started wondering if Jin ever missed wearing anything but his jeans and a T-shirt.
Somehow with Jin in his thoughts, wondering about things from his perspective and imagining showing the PV’s Making Of to him, Kame wanted to look happy and make him astonished about everything.
He had fun.
--
Part 3