hct-aristocrat has a new one shot!
i got his/her permission to put this here so enjoy
another wmatsui by hct-aristocrat taken from his/her LJ: hct-aristocrat.livejournal.com
Lunch Box
Rena was still groggy after her short nap on her way to Tokyo from Nagoya. She dragged her feet to the back room of a television station where the
rest of the 48 family members were waiting.
“Good morning,” she greeted everyone politely with a bow.
She sat in front of a mirror and yawned. Her eyes were half closed and she had no strength. Last night, Rena could only sleep for three hours after she
finished her schedule and early in the morning, she had to go to Tokyo for a one hour appearance at a variety show.
“Here’s your breakfast,” a staff put a boxed breakfast in front of Rena. She said thank you and opened the box. It was fried rice with vegetables on the
side. When she was about to eat, she noticed a stacked of food boxes on the floor at the corner of the room. It seemed like everyone already had their
breakfast. But there was one box left unopened, it was lying on a chair right next to Rena.
“Hurry up and eat. We have a briefing in fifteen minutes,” Takamina sat on Rena’s left side, checking her hair in the mirror.
“Ah, yes,” Rena started eating. She scanned the room through the mirror and noticed there were some people missing. “Where is Yuuko-san, Mayuyu-
san and… Jurina?”
“Oh, they’re on the morning news interview,” Takamina answered. “It was supposed to be everyone in UZA’s senbatsu but the only one available were
them, so….”
Rena looked to the side, to the food box on the chair next to her. “Is that Jurina’s breakfast?”
Takamina nodded. “I guess. She didn’t have breakfast again, huh? That girl….” The leader of AKB shook her head and sighed in disappointment.
She was not the only one disappointed, Rena was too. Jurina had been skipping meals lately and it annoyed Rena to her very core. Especially when she
suddenly blacked out during a handshake event.
“Jurina is….”
“Stubborn,” Takamina finished Rena’s sentence.
**
After the recording ended later that day, Rena hopped into the van along with Jurina and Rie. Rie quickly picked the backseat and lied down while Jurina
sat next to Rena.
“You were late today,” said Jurina.
“Yes. I spent the night in Nagoya.”
The van drove along the street of Tokyo, heading back to Nagoya. The winter sun was nice and Rena quickly found herself dozing off. But then her
stomach grumbled. She realized that it was lunchtime and she had a sudden craving of ramen. And speaking of hungry, Rena turned to Jurina. The
latter girl was listening to music through her earphones, hands tapping her thighs in unison of the rhythm. Jurina did not have breakfast and if Rena who
did have breakfast felt hungry already, she could only imagine how Jurina would feel right now.
Rena touched Jurina’s arm and made the girl’s head turn to her direction.
“You okay? You didn’t eat breakfast, right?”
Jurina smiled, a confident and reassuring smile. “I’m okay. I can handle it.”
**
After a few hours ride, the van arrived at SKE Theater. As soon as she entered the changing room, her eyes were set to a lunch box wrapped neatly in
a plastic bag on a table. Hungry as she was, Rena gobbled the food in no time. Rie was eating with her and she started just a second later after Rena
but she was still halfway through her lunch. The girl stared at Rena in amazement.
“It’s like watching a girl eating for the first time after she got lost in the woods in the middle of a blizzard for four days and only have snow and dead
bugs to eat, Rena-san,” she said.
Rena could only smile in return. What can she say? She was dead hungry. When she was going to put the lunch box away, she noticed that a lunch box
was still resting inside the plastic bag. It was completely untouched.
“Rie-san,” said Rena, “where’s Jurina?”
Rie pointed to the direction of the dance hall with her chopsticks. “Teaching a few kenkyuusei some dance routine.”
That’s it, Rena thought. Her blood boiled up and she grabbed the lunch box roughly. She stomped her way out of the changing room and headed to the
dance hall. Rena pushed the door opened and shouted.
“Jurina!”
Three kenkyuusei were in the room, gasped and yelped in surprised. Jurina was standing in front of them, just as surprised. “Re – Rena-chan?”
“You haven’t even touched your lunch yet.”
“Um – I,” Jurina opened her mouth.
“You have to eat!”
“But I-.”
“I don’t care!” Rena yelled out and it put the three kenkyuusei in the room shivered in fear. “You three get out.”
The kenkyuusei were frozen.
“I said get out!”
Then they ran to the door and shut it behind her.
“Rena-chan?”
“You are neglecting your body, Jurina. You’ve been working way too hard and you even got skinny! Do you want to pass out like you did at the
handshake even!? Huh!?”
“I-.”
“How many times do I have to see you get sick before you finally realize that your body has a limit? You have to eat!”
Jurina was loss at words. She could only stare at Rena in silence.
“I can’t see you drop down again, Jurina…,” Rena’s voice started to break, lips trembling and her breath was out of rhythm. “Don’t make me see you
lying helpless on a hospital bed again. Because I don’t think I can take that anymore.”
Jurina swallowed her saliva and slowly walked to Rena. She took the lunch box from Rena’s hand. “Um-.”
“Don’t say anything…,” Rena wiped her eyes. “Just eat.”
Jurina bit her lower lip as she looked into Rena’s eyes. “Rena-chan….”
“What?”
“I already ate my lunch,” Jurina pointed to an empty lunch box at the corner of the room. “I don’t think this is mine.”
Rena’s eyes widened in an instant and she gasped. “Oh.”
“I am taking care of my body.”
“Oh, God!” Rena turned away from Jurina and covered her whole face with her hands. “Oh, God! I’m sorry!”
Jurina made an awkward smile. Rena walked to the door. All she wanted was to storm out of there, leaving Jurina… no, leaving everyone in the world
and just jump to an ocean and let her body rot or get eaten by a shark so no one would have to see her anymore. She was embarrassed to a
magnitude scale.
But Jurina didn’t let her. She grabbed Rena’s hand and stopped her. “Wait.”
Rena cringed as she waited for Jurina’s next words.
“Thank you,” Jurina spoke. Her voice was gentle and soft, like a whisper. “Thank you for… thinking of me.”
Jurina’s hand slid down to Rena’s hand and she intertwined their fingers. She pulled Rena a little bit closer and looked her into the eyes. “I’m… happy
you said all that.”
Rena’s face burst into pink and she had to look down to the floor to hide it. “I’m sorry. I should’ve asked first. I shouldn’t have yelled at you in front of
those girls.”
Jurina smiled. There was a long moment of silent between them before Rena could finally raise her head and looked at the younger girl in front of her.
They looked into each other’s eyes, peeking into their souls through it for a while. Nothing can be said and the only thing they could at that time was
leaning closer to each other, not knowing what forced them to close the distance between them. They found their noses touched and when Jurina closed
her eyes, a voice came from the corridor just outside the room.
“Does anyone see my lunch?”
It was Kumi’s voice, looking for her lunch box.
Rena broke into laugh and so did Jurina. They looked at each other one more time and decided to end the moment right there. “I better give this to
her,” Jurina said and she walked to the door.
“Right,” Rena was still blushing when she let Jurina’s hand go.
The younger stopped, turned around and ran to Rena, giving her a hug and a peck on the cheek. “Thanks again.”
Jurina went out the door and closed it gently while Rena…, well, Rena was left smiling alone in the dance hall, dancing a little even, but when she saw
how idiotic she looked in the mirror, she stopped.
Though her body stopped showing how happy she was, her heart clearly didn’t. She had butterflies flying around her stomach for the rest of the day.
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