[Fanfic] Where Might You Be?- Maki, Toma, Yamapi, Shun ~~ Ch16
PREVIOUSLY
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
CURRENTLY
Chapter 16
“Makiko,” Yamapi hoarsely said as he held Maki’s hand.
“Eh?” Maki looked at the guys in confusion. Sho helped Maki take her hand from Yamapi’s grasps.
“Pi,” he explained cautiously. “You’re not feeling well right now. You’re probably seeing things. This is Maki, not Makiko, and she’s Shun’s girlfriend.” He pointed to Shun, who waved at him.
“No,” Yamapi adamantly shook his head. “It’s Makiko.”
“No, Pi, it’s not her,” Kazunari tried to explain next. He motioned for Maki to leave the room. She hesitated at first, but seeing it was for the better, she and Shun went outside the room to wait.
Kazunari turned back to his friend. “Pi, you should just rest, okay? You’re really not feeling well.”
Yamapi sighed and closed his eyes. “Makiko,” he whispered over and over until he fell fast asleep.
Sho and Kazunari left the room when Yamapi finally fell asleep. They found Shun and Maki waiting anxiously for them. They stood up as soon as they stepped out of the room.
“How is he doing?” Maki asked, concern evident in her eyes.
“He’s sleeping right now,” Kazunari replied, scratching his head in confusion. “He must be in a trauma to think of seeing this Makiko chick when he saw Maki.”
“I wish I knew who this Makiko is,” Sho complained. “If we do, he’d probably be a lot better by now.”
“Hontou gomenasai, guys,” Maki apologized. “I didn’t mean for your friend to be reminded of this girl.”
“Babe, it’s not your fault,” Shun assured her, and the other two agreed. “You were the only girl standing there, so naturally he thought of Makiko.” He put his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.
“Anyway, guys, it’s getting late,” Shun said. “We better get home. Are you guys going home or staying here?”
“I’m going home to rest for a bit while Nino stays here,” Sho said. “We’re gonna take turns watching over him.”
Shun and Maki greeted goodbye and headed home. A few minutes later, Sho did as well.
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“So, what do we do with her,” Jin asked Yousuke. He was sitting on the chair in front of Yousuke’s desk. They were in his office discussing some plans about the printing plates negotiation between another black market dealer. The topic of discussion had changed to what to do with Makiko. It had been a week since she had been imprisoned in the isolation room. Yousuke rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and then a sinister smile formed his lips.
“Maybe we can use her to get what we want from Park-san,” Yousuke said thoughtfully as the idea came to him. Jin cocked his head to the side as he tried to figure out what Yousuke had in mind. Yousuke smiled at him. “Park-san is into young girls, ne?” he said.
Jin finally understood what he meant. They were going to use Makiko as a bargaining chip to up the ante. He smiled at the idea. It was a clever plan. To get the printing plates, they would use Makiko as part of the payment plus the money. Surely Mr. Park wouldn’t say no to a beautiful young girl as payment. Yousuke and Jin smiled at each other at the idea. Clever plan, indeed.
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Mackenzie watched WaT performed again at a club. It had been a week since the first time she saw them live at the open mic competition. This time, the duo was hired to play for the club tonight. Mackenzie swayed with the music, enjoying her brother’s song, when her phone rang.
She checked the Caller ID and saw that it was an unknown number. She knew it could only be Ariel, so she tried to get Eiji’s attention. When she did, she motioned that she had a call and was going outside to take it. Eiji nodded to her to go ahead and she went out to the front to answer her call.
“Hello?” she answered once she stepped out of the noisy club.
“Hey,” Ariel’s voice came through the line. “How’s Nippon? Did you find me a guy yet?” She giggled. Mackenzie smiled. Leave it to her friend to always think about boys.
“Well, if you want a nice Japanese guy, you can always go out with Eiji,” Mackenzie teased. Eiji had a slight crush on her before, but Ariel always shot him down.
“No offense, Mackie, but your brother is also like a brother to me.” Ariel paused for a moment and Mackenzie could hear muffled words being exchanged in the background.
“Hey, Mackie, someone next to me wants me to tell you ‘hi’ and I told him he should tell you instead.” Ariel said when she got back on the line.
“Um, if he wants to,” Mackenzie said cautiously. She bit her lower lip in anticipation. She heard the phone being passed and some more muffled voices.
“Uh, sorry about that,” Ariel’s voice came back on the line, and Mackenzie’s hope popped. “He had to go to work already. It’s a new job and he wanted to impress the new boss by coming to work early.”
“Um, that’s okay,” Mackenzie said, trying not to sound disappointed. “I totally understand.” Her voice broke a little.
“Oh, Mackie,” Ariel said sympathetically. “Listen, I’ll give him a good talking to, okay?”
“No, don’t,” Mackenzie said sadly. “He probably likes that girl more than me anyway. It’s okay.”
Ariel wanted to tell her that truth, but she knew it wasn’t her business to tell. She felt badly for not telling her best friend that Toma actually loves her, but she wanted Toma to be the one to tell her.
“Oh, guess what?” Mackenzie forced excitement in her voice to change the subject. “My family gets settlement from that case. That means we won.”
“That’s great,” Ariel noticed the change but didn’t acknowledge it. “So, are you ever coming back here?”
“Of course,” Mackenzie said. “In two days, I’m coming home. However….”
“What?”
“I must apologize ahead that a Japanese guy can’t fit in my suitcase, no matter how big the suitcase is, or how small the guy is. Sorry.”
Ariel gave a groan of mock disappointment. “Great,” she sighed. “I guess I’ll just settle with Chun. Oh, hey, I gotta go. This is costing me minutes. Call me about the flight number so I can pick you up, okay?”
Mackenzie agreed, and they greeted farewell before hanging up. She sighed and leaned against the wall. She should really just get over Toma before her heart breaks even more. She knew that it would take a miracle to do that, but she’d try. She decided she’d sleep on it before she makes any rash decisions and went back inside the club to find Eiji.
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Jin walked inside the coffee shop to meet his nine a.m. appointment with Mr. Park’s representative. They had agreed to meet at a neutral territory to negotiate.
He looked around and found three men sitting alone in his own booth and wondered which man would be it. He walked in to a spot where he was approximate the same distance to each man.
“Spring is surely nice, isn’t it?” he wondered out loud. Two of the men, as well as the rest of the people in the shop, looked at him strangely. They wondered who this baka was that was blabbering about spring when it was almost the close of summer and was nearing fall.
“Sakura sake,” the third man answered the code words in Japanese. Jin turned slowly to look at him. He was an American: tall, blond hair, blue eyes. He was dressed darkly and in all Armani - the shirt, the pants, and even the tie. He looked at Jin and gave a tight-lipped smile and a slight nod.
Jin swaggered to him and the gaijin motioned for him to take the seat across from him. Jin obliged, nodding slightly in acknowledgement.
“Order something, my treat,” the man offered in English. Jin shook his head.
“No, thanks. I’m not hungry,” Jin replied in English. “Have you been waiting long?”
“No,” the man answered. “You’re just on time.” He took a sip of his espresso. Jin studied him closely. He appeared to be young, but maybe it’s just the “surfer dude” hairstyle he was sporting.
“Let’s cut this small talk crap and get to the point,” Jin said, taking the lead. The man merely nodded.
Jin slid a document size manila envelope across the table to the man. He picked it up, and opened it. He looked inside, and looked at Jin with a raised eyebrow. He dumped the contents on the table. There were about six pictures of Makiko.
“What’s this?” the man asked suspiciously. He leaned forward across the table to Jin. “Are you running a slave trade as well?”
“No,” Jin replied leaning forward as well. “It’s part of our payment. Mr. Park will stop running Watanabe in circles with this deal, and he gets the girl along with his set price. No plates, no girl.”
“How would I know that there is an actually girl, and these photos weren’t taken from a porn website?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Jin assured the man. “Watanabe wants these plates more than anything. He wouldn’t dare cheat Park and risk losing the plates to another buyer.”
The man thought about it. He looked at the pictures of Makiko and inspected each thoroughly. He agreed to tell Mr. Park about the deal, and that he’d take the pictures with him to show them to his boss. Jin agreed to his terms. The man promised to call as soon as possible when Mr. Park’s decision is set, and soon they both went in their separate ways.
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NYC, NY USA
Toma and Jun were playing basketball on the rooftop of Jun’s apartment building. Occasionally, they try to squeeze in a game or two in spite of their busy schedules: Toma works to support himself in New York, and Jun goes to auditions for various theaters performances and plays to get recognition in the competitive world of entertainment.
“What? What?” Jun taunted in Japanese to Toma as he tried to block him from making a basket. “Are thinking of going to the left? You trying to psyche me out?” He moved from side to side. Toma didn’t say anything, then faked Jun out and swooped under his arms and leaped to make a two-point shot.
“Yatta!” Toma said. “You owe me $10.” He pumped his arms up in the air in victory. Jun scowled at him.
“Two out of three,” he suggested. He hated losing, especially when his money was involved. Toma agreed saying he would love to take more of Jun’s money, when his phone rang. He went over to the courtside and picked up the phone from his backpack. The Caller ID registered an unknown number. Curious, he answered it.
“Ha! I tricked you,” Ariel yelled at him. Toma grimaced. He thought of hanging up but Ariel beat him to the punch. “If you hang up on me, I’ll come over there at Jun’s apartment and tell him what you told me about how you really think about his dancing skills.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” Toma agreed without missing a beat. Angry Ariel he could deal. Angry Jun, well, was suicidal. “Where are you calling from anyway?” He sat down on the ground knowing that it could take a while.
“My phone. I had my number block so that you wouldn’t know it was me. Sucker!”
“Yeah, yeah. What do you want?”
“Oh, just wanna know why you’re so stupid, that’s all,” Ariel replied nonchalantly. “It was quite rude to blow off Mackie like that, and with such a stupid excuse no less.”
“I didn’t blow her off,” Toma started to complain, but Ariel cut him off.
“Save me the excuse,” she said harshly. “Why don’t you just be a man and just apologize for not calling her, huh? You know, I’m starting to think you don’t really like her at all. Are you still hung up with Zie_Gurl? She’s just your fantasy girl. Nothing was happening between you two at all.”
“I’m not hang up on Zie_Gurl, okay? I really love Mackie.” Toma saw Jun whipped around and stared at him. He came over and sat next to him and started poking his index finger on Toma’s arm.
“Hontou ni? Hontou ni? Hontou ni?” Jun asked over and over like a broken record. Toma turned to face the other way and tried to ignore him. Jun crawled to the other side and repeated the same thing. Toma pushed him away, and Jun stopped asking. This time he just stared at Toma with a creepy smile, which was more annoying than his incessant questions.
“You know what?” Ariel’s voice pulled Toma back to the call. “I think Mackie was really crushed. She told me that I shouldn’t scold you for being unkind to her. I think she’s giving up on the idea that you like her back.”
“She implied that you shouldn’t talk to me about her anymore?” Toma said sadly. Jun gave a shock expression and hit him upside the head.
“Itai! What did you do that for?” Toma exclaimed. “No, sorry, Ariel. Jun just hit me.” Jun’s eyes narrowed at him.
“What did you do to Mackenzie-chan?” he asked crossly. Toma ignored him.
“I know a way you can redeem yourself, Toma,” Ariel suggested. “If you’re man enough.” She taunted.
“Hey! You take that back!” Toma exclaimed. Then he sighed. “What should I do?”
“Well, in two days, you can. I’ll call you when I have the details work out.” With that, Ariel hung up before Toma could ask say anything. He closed his phone and sighed.
“Doushite?” Jun asked. Toma shook his head slowly.
“I think I blew it,” he said dejectedly. Jun shrugged.
“So redeem yourself and follow Ariel’s plan,” Jun said as he stood up. “I gonna leave you mope around for a while. I’ll see you later.” He waved goodbye and headed down to his apartment below.
Toma watched him leave and sighed. He knew they were right, and admitted to himself that he should really be a man about it and apologize. He really loved Mackenzie, and if she was having doubts, then it was time to step out and tell her so. Gathering his things, he got up and headed down to go to his job. He decided to trust Ariel and follow what she had in mind.
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A/N: Ahhh, a lighter chapter. I'm really working hard on this story and updating more, ne? I hope I won't lose the momentum, and just strive to be like the Energizer bunny. You know, "Keeps going and going and going..." lol.
Mini-dictionary:
hontou gomenasai- really sorry
sakura sake- Arashi song, hehe, seriously, cherry blossoms bloom (or something like that)
gaijin- foreigner
yatta- I win, hooray
hontou ni- really
itai- ouch
doushite- what's wrong
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next update. Ciao, mon amis.
Next
Chapter 17