In the Changing Room - Chapter 8
Story Title: In the Changing Room
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Rule Number 3
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"You jerk. You're the one who called me up late last night?" Jun asked Nino, glaring at him, cellphone in one hand, currently displaying its call history page, as they were sitting at a coffee table in the afternoon, preparing for a shoot as they waited for the rest.
"Yes, sorry about that. Had to do it. What, didn't you realise it was me?" Nino replied, not sounding even the least bit sorry.
"HAD to? Seriously, for a game? No way, don't think so."
"Yes way, I had to."
"The heck- What game was it anyway?" Jun asked, tapping his phone lightly against the table.
"Oh, a new sort of MMORPG game. You won't know," Nino said airily.
"Huhhh, then what about the rules?"
"Huh?"
"What kind of rules were they?"
"Oh! Errr...You know...The usual..."
"The usual...?"
"Yeah-"
Nino's averted his eyes away from Jun's, staring at the door instead. At that very moment, the door opened and Aiba walked in.
"Ah Aiba! Just arrived?" Nino waved casually at the newcomer who had just entered the room, carefully hiding his relief at the interruption.
"Yo!" Aiba waved back and settled happily on the seat next to Matsujun's. "What's up?"
"Nothing much really." Nino answered.
Jun snorted. "Will you believe this guy called me up late last night to ask about a GAME?"
"REALLY? Was the game fun?" He asked Nino eagerly. Jun glared at him. Nino cleared his throat.
"Yes, well, by the way, I was wondering if we could all go and have dinner after this? We haven't had dinner together in a while since Jun-kun's been busy with his drama. But since the drama is already over a few months back, why not? We'll ask the others if they can make it when they arrive."
"Sounds great! How about it Matsujun? Wanna have dinner together? Or do you have drama filming after this?"
"Nope. Sure, that sounds like a good idea."
"Good its settled then." Nino smiled at the both of them.
---
"Duuude. It does smell weird!" Aiba said, batting off the air in front of his nose with his sleeve. Nino drew his hand back away from Aiba and placed the cap back on the recently-used perfume bottle. The five of them had just finished dinner and were just drinking away the rest of the night when Nino brought out his perfume.
"Right?"
"Ehhh!! It can't be that bad! It's a PERFUME." Sho interjected, looking at Aiba with disbelief. Nino snorted and thrusted his hand right under Sho's nose. He took a whiff and jerked back.
"Wheww! That's weird. What was your sister thinking?"
"I told you. ....Wanna try it, Leader?"
"Hnnnn?" came the unclear response.
"Leader??" Nino turned to look at Ohno, who was apparently slumped in his seat, half-unconscious, a goofy grin on his face.
"Too much vodka for you." Nino said, patting him on his arm. He turned over to his other side, where the last member of Arashi sat.
"Jun-kun, wanna have a go at it?"
"Heehee! Sure!...Hic!" The other members turned to stare at Jun. He was sitting on his side of the sofa, leaning forward towards the table, a glass of alcohol in one hand, smiling brightly at Nino. Nino drew back instantly, shuddering from the sudden chill that went up his spine.
'Come on Nino! Get a hold of yourself! Take this chance now!' He thought to himself. He raised his hand to his nose and sniffed.
"Hmmm. There's no smell anymore here..."
"Nino, I think this one's a goner too, there's no point in letting him smell it." Aiba said. Ignoring him, Nino reached across the table and grabbed Sho's hand, and raised his bottle of perfume. "What?!" Sho exclaimed.
"Let's try it here then!"
Nino moved his hand as if to spray the bottle onto Sho's hand. In a split second, the perfume was swiped away from his hand. Nino turned around to find Jun holding the bottle carelessly above his head, looking at the contents swirling inside it, obviously in a stupor.
"Hmmm. Hehehehe! Looksh norhmal to me, hehe!" He brought the bottle down and tried sniffing at it. Keh! Nino thought.
"Not shtrong at all. Maybe..." He unscrewed the bottle and sniffed inside.
"Pwhhhhhhhhhh!!! Thatsh strong!" He thrusted the bottle away from him, and in doing so, spilled most of the perfume...onto Sho's shirt. Sho stared down at his shirt numbly.
"Jun-kun!" Nino exclaimed.
"Ohhh shyeet, sorry Sakurai-sannn!"
"N-no worries! I'll get it cleaned up in a jiffy." Sho stood up to go to the restroom.
"Wait, we might as well go back home, it's pretty late anyway." Aiba said.
"You're right," Sho replied, "but...I'll still need to go and do something about this nasty stuff on my shirt."
"Okay! Then we'll pay up and go ahead first alright? I think Nino should get Leader home, and I'll take Matsujun back home."
Sho felt something tug at his heart inside him, and clenched his fists at the last statement, although not being quite sure why he did it.
"Fine with me." Nino replied, tugging Ohno by his arm and shaking him awake. "Come on, let's go, Leader."
---
Sho had finished rinsing his shirt and drying it as best as he could inside the restaurant's restroom and was about to exit, when hands grabbed him roughly from behind, turned him around and pushed him against the restroom wall, hard.
"What the-!" Sho began and stopped.
Matsujun stood in front of him, a few inches away from him, glaring at him with a killer's intent, looking stone cold sober, definitely far from being drunk.
Sho's heart did a not-all-too-good somersault, and he flattened himself against the wall almost instinctively.
"Y-you. Aren't you supposed to be with Aiba?"
"Hehhh." Matsujun smirked. "Don't think that I don't know what's happening."
"Eh? W-what are you talking about Matsumoto-san?"
"You and Nino, had some sort of agreement didn't you? To see whether I can break my own rules?"
"N-no! There wasn't any agreement of that sort!" Sho tried to slip away sideways, but was stopped by Jun's hands, which he had placed on either side of the older man, cornering him like a rat, with no way to escape.
"Hah! Like I'd believe that!"
"R-really!" But Jun wasn't even listening. Instead he leaned in even closer to Sho, and grabbed him by the collar.
"This. Was for rule #3 wasn't it?"
"Eh?"
"I'll tell you now, that MY rules are MINE, and it is entirely up to ME whether I am breaking them or not."
Sho gulped, and tried to recall what rule no. 3 was supposed to be, but wasn't given the chance to think long enough.
Swiftly, almost gracefully, Jun had closed in on Sho's collar, and began, slowly and torturously, to Sho at least, breathing in the faded scent that still remained on his shirt. And almost as if he did it purposely, he'd breathe out warm air against the skin of the older man's collarbone, causing him to shudder.
Sho's heart thumped erratically as he clenched his fists, bracing himself against the illogical thoughts that were racing through his mind at that moment, thoughts that he normally wouldn't think of. He himself was breathing in the scent of the younger man who was so close to him. A bittersweet scent mixed with that of alcohol that blended together with that weird yet almost sensuous scent of Nino's perfume from his own person, slowly turning his mind into a hazy confused state.
After what seemed a century to Sakurai Sho, Jun finally pulled himself away, but not before flashing a rather sly wicked smile at him.
"Sandalwood, lavendar, neroli, bergamot, and a few others of that type. I think Nino's sister didn't buy the perfume. She probably made her own mix to give him a hint."
"W-What do you mean?" Sho asked dazedly, still shaken. His head was still in a haze as he tried to make sense of what the younger guy said.
"Don't you know?" Jun leaned in closer, and whispered into Sho's ear. "They are all aphrodisiacs."
He pulled away, observed the stunned older man for a while before nodding and giving him a most satisfied smile, which Sho was sure, that says, 'Revenge is sweet'. And he walked away.
Sho slid to the ground, his legs seemingly having turned to jelly, and finally remembered the one rule that had seemed to him and Nino more like the greatest joke out of all the rules at that time,
"Rule number 3: No Smelling."
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To Chapter 9 -->>