No Surprises (3/15)
Author: ryosukekoibito
Pairing: Okajima, with some side Ariyama, Chiitaro, Takachii, Hikabu, and Inoo/Saya
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Genre: Romance
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from J&A.
Summary: Yuto's life has been planned out from the moment he was born, decisions most of the world got to make all predetermined by his parents. Now as an adult he has to decide if he's going to continue along the path they've lain out for him, or if he's going to abandon it all, risking leaving his family behind in the process.
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2
Yuto's good mood persisted for another two weeks or so before he received a phone call from his father. He'd been in the middle of a business assignment when his phone had gone off, and he hadn't been able to stave off the budding dread in his chest when he had looked at the caller ID and seen who it was. He knew whatever his father wanted to talk to him about, he didn't want to hear, but it had been a while since he'd talked to his parents, and he didn't want to be rude, so he answered. At first it was wonderful; he did genuinely miss his family, and the occasional text from Raiya just wasn't enough sometimes. They spent the first twenty minutes or so catching up-it was what came after that Yuto had been dreading. The proposition. It always changed, but it was always awful, most of Yuto's phone calls with his parents ending in emotional distress. This one was no exception.
This time they wanted him to move back home, leave school, and take a managerial position in his father's company in preparation for his impending succession. Yuto bit his tongue, letting his dad finish before refusing point blank to do it. He didn't have much left in the way of school, and he was determined that he would get his degree. It didn't take long for it to escalate into shouting, unfortunately. Neither of them wanted to back down, and so for nearly twenty minutes they argued about it, Yuto eventually falling back on the phrase 'you can't make me', which made him feel extremely immature. As they argued their voices got higher in pitch as the two men became more distressed, Yuto eventually simply hanging up on his father right before the tears started falling, rolling down his cheeks as he cried loudly.
It wasn't long before Yamada peeked in, the older man coming and sitting next to Yuto on the bed, letting Yuto throw his arms around his shoulders and murmuring
"Was it your family?" Yuto nodded into Yamada's neck. "Did something bad happen? Is someone hurt?" It took Yuto a moment to find his voice again.
"No." His already naturally husky tone had a rough watery edge to it that just made him want to cry more. "It's a stupid thing. My dad, you know-the usual type of stuff." He felt Yamada nod in understanding, and Yuto gulped, trying to get his tears under control. After a few moments Yamada asked another question.
"Did you agree to anything new?" Yuto pulled away to look at his friend.
"No!" Yamada nodded, face serious.
"Okay." Gently Yamada brushed Yuto's tears away with his thumbs, and Yuto swallowed, taking a deep breath, feeling himself beginning to calm down, his mind still weighed down by the harsh words that had been flung sharply between himself and his father. Yamada smiled sympathetically at him, his best friend's hand warm on his shoulder. Yuto tried to smile back, glancing into his lap when he realized that his attempt had his lips twisting into a strangled grimace. "Hey-" Yuto looked back up at the brown haired man. "-everything's going to be okay; you know that, right?" Yuto nodded in thanks, knowing that the words weren't necessarily true, but appreciating that Yamada was trying to cheer him up.
"I'm going to go on a walk." He declared, getting to his feet. "I'll feel better afterwards." Yamada nodded, Yuto giving his friend a weak smile and heading for the elevator, slipping on his shoes by the elevator doors as he waited for it to arrive. The doors had just slid open when Yamada called out to him, hurrying over.
"Wait!" Yuto blinked in surprise, Yamada coming to a halt and placing something in Yuto's hands. He glanced down. It was a camera, one of Yuto's favorites for taking pictures outside in the daylight. He felt gratitude welling in his chest, pushing aside some of the blanketing distress, as Yamada said "Just in case."
"Thank you." Yuto wrapped the neck strap around his forearm, clutching the camera tightly, and with a quick wave to Yamada he was off, exiting the hotel and taking a right, sighing to himself as he walked, his long legs carrying him quickly away from the hotel. As he walked he tried to push the argument with his father from his mind, and he busied himself with his camera, taking candid photos of the people out going about their day. He'd set off on a familiar route, down to the closest shopping area, figuring he'd buy Yamada some chocolate as a thanks for his moral support, and as a result he wasn't really thinking about where he was going, becoming completely immersed in his photography. By the time he had made it to the grocery store he'd managed to calm down significantly, and he was almost halfway home, his shopping slung from one wrist, when he tried to set up a picture, and he noticed a familiar face in the shot.
He immediately lowered his camera, mouth hanging open a bit in surprise, as the handsome man from the music store looked up from his phone, their eyes locking from across the street. The guy blushed a bit, waving tentatively, and Yuto found himself waving back, smiling as-to his surprise-music store guy crossed the street to stand in front of him. There was a pause, the two of them just looking at each other, matching expressions of awkward, nearly contained excitement on their faces, before the other man held out a hand as if to shake, blushed, withdrew the hand, and bowed instead, saying
"I-sorry. I'm Keito. Okamoto Keito." He raised his head. "I'm um...from the music store. We ran into each other." Yuto found himself smiling, and he nodded, saying honestly
"I remember you." He followed his assurance with an introduction of his own, and the other man's smile grew wider at Yuto's words. "It's an amazing coincidence that we've managed to run into each other again, isn't it? I walk this way-" He gestured, his motion sweeping along the route he was taking. "-often, but I've never seen you here before."
"I, um, I just moved back to Japan a few weeks ago, so...you wouldn't have been able to see me before."
"Where did you live before?"
"Oh...England. I was going to school there." Yuto blinked, instantly curious as to this handsome man's life. He was attractive, soft spoken, and interesting, and Yuto had run into him twice now. It was as if fate wanted him to know the guy, he decided, using that as an excuse to take to opportunity to say
"That's cool!" There was a pause, Yuto debating how straightforward he wanted to be, before deciding to just go for it and ask. "Are you free? I know a great place for coffee; we could sit and talk there, instead of standing out here on the sidewalk. My treat!" To his pleasure Okamoto Keito nodded, and as the other man fell into step next to Yuto, he felt his stomach do a little flip, his heart squeezing a bit, as Yuto directed the two of them to a less busy part of town, asking questions about England the whole way. Yuto himself had visited the country a few times while on vacation with his family, but he'd never lived anywhere outside of Japan before, and so it was easy to ask lots of questions.
Okamoto answered the inquiries shorty as they passed through the streets, but once they'd reached the coffee shop, and weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, Yuto found that he had to fish for information less and less, Okamoto becoming more relaxed as they settled into their booth, their coffees resting on the tabletop in front of them. Yuto's curiosity seemed to be encouraging him to talk, and he was obviously trying hard to give the most accurate answers he could; yet he often stumbled over his words, and the more comfortable he got, the more English words mixed into his Japanese. It was cute, Yuto thought, when the other man would slip into English, and then realize that he was no longer speaking Japanese, and blush, apologizing.
That wasn't to say that Okamoto was doing all of the talking. He was very careful in asking Yuto just as many questions as Yuto asked him. It was in this passing of questions that they eventually fell into a naturally flowing conversation, discussing the various culture differences between the Japanese and the English, eventually evolving to music, and the effect of pets on their owners. As they talked Yuto found himself completely enthralled in the other man. Keito's strong appearance was at a complete juxtaposition with his soft, unassuming voice, and it was something Yuto found that he really liked, and he found himself raising his camera, taking pictures of the other man as they talked.
They talked until their coffees went cold, Yuto having long forgotten the argument he'd had with his father, instead warm and happy; Okamoto Keito someone Yuto immediately took to, and liked. It was surprising just how much disappointment he felt when the other man announced that he had to be going, thanking Yuto politely for the coffee and getting to his feet. Yuto didn't want just a few pictures to remember Okamoto Keito by, and he too stood, stopping the man with a hand on his shoulder.
"Can we exchange numbers?" Keito blinked, surprise clear on his features, and Yuto felt himself blushing, but he didn't want to miss this opportunity. "I just..." He felt himself faltering. "This was fun." Now Okamoto's face was red too, but he was smiling, and he nodded, pulling his phone from his left front pocket and handing it over to Yuto. He entered his number quickly, under his first name, and when Okamoto saw the entry his blinked in surprise, saying quietly
"Yuto?"
"You can just call me Yuto!" Yuto said, and after a pause, Okamoto Keito said
"Then, you should also call me Keito, Yuto-kun." Yuto nodded, a smile blooming on his lips, and he waved cheerily as Keito left, an immense sense of anticipation for the future filling his body, ballooning up inside of him, and he couldn't wait to tell Yamada and Chinen all about his chance encounter with the handsome man from the music store. The first words out of his mouth, in fact, when he got home, were
"So I met someone while I was out." Yamada, who had been trying to convince Chinen to help him cook, the younger man seated indignantly on the countertop, whirled around at the sound of Yuto's voice, frowning, concern in his eyes.
"Where the hell have you been you idiot? You've been gone for hours!" Yuto wasn't expecting the reprimanding harshness in Yamada's tone, and he blinked in surprise, slipping off his shoes haphazardly and handing Yamada the shopping bag with the chocolates in it.
"What're you so angry for? I wasn't gone for that-" his eyes caught on the clock. He'd been gone for over three hours. Oh. He felt a blush growing on his cheeks in embarrassment. "I got those for you." He amended, gesturing to the bag.
"That doesn't matter-oh, thank you-you imbecile! We thought you'd thrown yourself off a bridge or were mugged or lost or something." Yamada had calmed down a bit, the words coming out less harsh and more exasperated. Chinen hopped down from his place on the counter, snagging the chocolates from the plastic bag and opening up the box, helping himself, a smile on his face.
"I was just at a coffee shop. That one with the rose colored seats." Yuto explained, still trying to do some damage control.
"Wait." Chinen interjected, a chocolate in his hand. Yamada snatched the box away from the younger man, and Chinen rolled his eyes pointedly before continuing. "You said you'd met someone, and now you're saying you were at your favorite coffee shop. Did you meet someone...like someone?" Both of his friends were looking at him now, their eyes wide, curious and serious.
"What? What, no!" Yuto scoffed, sitting down at their table next to Chinen. "I mean, we got along really great, and he was really fun to talk to, but he didn't make any moves on me or anything. Besides, Keito-"
"So it's a he, and he's named Keito." Chinen teased, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Yuto sighed, unwrapping the strap of his camera from around his forearm and setting it down on the tabletop in front of him.
"Did you get any pictures of him, Yuto? I wanna see this new friend of yours." Yuto smiled gratefully up at Yamada for not insinuating anything, the way Chinen was insisting on doing, and he nodded, turning his camera on and flicking through the photographs he'd taken throughout their conversation until he found one he really liked. He handed the camera over to Yamada, Chinen craning his neck to peer at the little device's screen. Chinen nodded in a wishy-washy sort of way, his head tilting back and forth.
"He's kinda hot." Yuto raised an eyebrow at the younger man.
"That-that wasn't the point." It was at that moment that his phone went off, a little noise announcing that he had a new text. Yuto dug into his pocket, and when he saw the name on the screen he couldn't help but grin.
"Who is it?" Chinen pressed, as Yamada handed Yuto back his camera. Yuto set the camera back down, opening the message.
"It's Keito." Chinen oohed. "He just wants to know if I made it home safely; calm down." Yuto told his friend.
"Sure." Chinen said, standing daintily. "For now." Yamada rolled his eyes, grabbing the tiny man by the shoulder.
"Don't think you can escape helping me make dinner. C'mon." Yuto laughed, quickly typing out a response to Keito and getting to his feet to help join in the dinner preparations.
In the weeks to come Yuto found himself texting Keito frequently. They sent messages back and forth every day, asking about how the other one was and sharing little pieces of their lives in their messages. It was a lot more fun than Yuto had thought it would be. Yuto grew to like Keito more the more they talked. Keito was sweet, sincere, and although he didn't understand half of Yuto's jokes, he always was so enthusiastic that it more than made up for it. He did an amazing job of remembering the little things Yuto told him. Things like what university Yuto went to, and his roommates names, and that Yamada was a model. Yuto had never met a more genuine person in his life, and it was something he found not only refreshing, but positively stunning. He found himself reaching for his phone whenever anything even remotely noteworthy happened in his life, eager to tell the other man.
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