JPHiP Forum
AKB48 Fanfics => AKB48 Fanfics => Topic started by: Hirasawaizumi on August 10, 2013, 08:56:14 AM
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Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 1
Watch this series. It's pretty bad, but it's also so damn good. hahahah. This is my re-imagining of the series with extra scenes and shenanigans. And just want people to know that I'm gonna be using my creative license freely. You have been warned. Oh, and a big thank you to mysoju, tranquilsprings and subbers who decided to undertake the mendol project. :D Without the subs, I would not be writing this... so you can either regret subbing it or pat yourself on the back hahaha.
extra language note: I kept some Japanese in this fic cuz it doesn't translate so well into English...
shachou -- president
onee-chan -- older sister
yoroshiku onegaishimasu -- please take care of me
samui -- cold
denpa -- electro-magnetic wave
I want to be an idol!
That was the thought that was pulsating through all the minds of the girls in the room.
I want to be an idol!
However, that phrase rung with a certain desperation in one girl's head. Decked in her school uniform, Wakamatsu Asahi had auditioned more times than she could remember and had failed each and every time. While most people would have given up after the third time, Wakamatsu Asahi was absolutely determined to be an ido even after failing again and again.
This had been her dream, ever since she was young. She wanted to be in the spotlight, not because she wanted fame or money (though those were pretty good reasons too), but because she wanted to make people happy. All of this, this dream of being an idol, stemmed from an experience Asahi had had when she was just a little girl.
When she was young, her and her family had gone to Osaka to visit some relatives and she had gotten lost in the hustle and bustle of Osaka station. Being young and alone had been terrifying and Asahi had wandered around, sobbing and calling for her parents.
All of a sudden, THEY had appeared.
Just a group of musicians promoting their music near the train station, making use of some of the stairs nearby as a makeshift stage, singing their songs in acapella. One of the girls of the group had seen her, walked forward and plucked Asahi out of the crowd that was threatening to engulf her. Trying to cheer up tiny Asahi, this woman had given her a tambourine while one of the guys in this troupe lifted her up on to his shoulder, asking her what her name was.
Soon, the entire group was belting out her name in tune with the music and asking her parents to 'please come find their adorable Asahi-chan'. Her parents who had been half-crazed with worry at losing her, heard the song and had come rushing to find her giggling breathlessly at the funny faces the man who was carrying her was pulling. While her parents tearfully thanked the group over and over, the woman who had saved Asahi from the crowd had bent down to wink at the young child.
"Thank you, onee-san." Asahi had thanked the woman shyly.
"Not scared anymore?" The beautiful woman teased softly, her warm brown eyes sparkling with mischief.
"Noooo..." Asahi puffed up indignantly, not wanting her parents to know she had been crying.
"Well," The man who had been holding her knelt down so he was eye-level with Asahi. "Did you have fun?"
"Yup!" Asahi grinned and nodded enthusiastically.
"Good, good." He beamed at her and nodded, rubbing the top of Asahi's head. "That's our job as idols. To make sure you're happy when you're sad."
Wakamatsu Asahi had decided then and there, that she was going to be like these people, these idols. She was going to be an idol, to make people happy! And the effects of singers, actors, musicians--idols, all of them--had been a continual one. Whenever she was sad, whenever she was unhappy, it was the songs, the drama, the charisma of idols that put a smile on her face. But it was that little group that had made such a huge impact on her. Even though the faces of her saviours that day had faded away to nothing in her memory, she remembered the comfort and joy they provided her in that one moment of mind-numbing childish terror.
"Next!"
Asahi blinked, shocked out of her memory, her nerves overwhelming her again. But she could do this! She could! She just had to put her best foot forward and she was sure one of these producer-types would see her potential!
She just needed a chance.
"I'm number seven, Wakamatsu Asahi." She gave a brilliant, confident smile. "Yumeoka Public School, third year. In the future, I want to be an idol, just like Ray-san!"
Ray was at the top of the charts right now, one of the most charismatic songstresses of her time. Asahi always strived to be like the idols at the top, because that was where the most hard-working, the most dedicated, the most-talented idol of the time was and that was where Asahi wanted to be!
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" Asahi gave another bright smile, her heart hammering in her chest. She'd done this SO many times before, this HAD to be the time when all the auditioning paid off and they at least gave her a chance to--
"Hm." The sleazy looking man in the sunglasses (why was he wearing sunglasses indoors? Who did he think he was?), sneered a little bit and turned to speak to one of the people sitting with him. "Reminds me of my kid back home."
"Right. Next!"
All the hope she had, of this being the audition where they would finally SEE what she could offer to the world, dashed to the ground. Pouting slightly, she walked back to her seat. It was sad, but she was used to disappointment by now. The first time she had been rejected at an audition, she had held in her tears until she could leave the audition room, then walked as nonchalantly as she could to the washroom and cried her heart out. But that was in the past! She wouldn't let minor hurdles get in her way! She would persevere!
"Number eight, Kawachi Nami." The girl named Nami introduced herself casually, her whole body radiating nervous energy, as if she was more used to being in constant motion than standing still. Some of her brown hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and held in place with a yellow scrunchy. "I'm currently working part-time at a convenience store, but I wanna be a singer! I like to be noisy, seriously!"
Her voice was a pleasant alto, but coupled with the ridiculousness of her statement, Asahi feel embarassed for the girl.
"Baaaka." Asahi muttered under her breath as several other girls waiting in the room voiced the same thing. This girl was a bit of an idiot, but Asahi could see that Nami honestly wanted to impress the producers and hoped that this girl would at least get one favorable mention for her enthusiasm...
"Totally NOT sexy at all!" The sleazy man curled up his lip in disgust.
'Well, you're one to talk.' Asahi thought viciously at the sleazy producer, feeling sorry for the boisterous girl. Nami went back to her seat, looking slightly deflated and angry. The next girl, though, caught everybody's attention.
But not in a good way.
"I'm number nine, attending Shirobara Girls' Academy, third year, Otawa Hinata!" It wasn't her perky voice that caught people's attention, nor her big round eyes. It was just an aura of... something that came off the girl.
"My dream," Hinata pressed a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Is to be an angel on Earth!"
"An angel on earth?" Asahi gaped.
"Samui!" Sitting next to each other, Asahi and Nami got a full case of the shivers, like the shivers one gets from nails screeching down a blackboard. Then, Otawa Hinata proceeded to do her tenshi dance.
"Ten-ten-tenshi, tenshi, yo!" It was like feedback from a microphone that was too close to the speaker. All the auditioners cringed, squeezed their eyes shut and covered their ears. So it went unnoticed to them as they were trying to block out the ten-ten-ing, that the sleazy producer was the only one who didn't seem affected by Hinata. In fact, he seemed disturbingly interested in her...
After everybody had auditioned, the producers had a small discussion amongst themselves. All the girls who had auditioned were on the edge of their seats, most notably Asahi, Nami and Hinata.
"Well then... I'm gonna announce the applicants who were successful today." The man announcing the results of the audition kept his eyes studiously on the clipboard he was holding. "Okay, today's successful applicants are..."
Everyone waited with bated breaths.
"No-one!"
---
Asahi let out a huge, weary sigh, day planner in hand as she counted out how many times she had auditioned.
"Forty-nine applications, forty-nine unsuccessful, huh... the next application will be... the fiftieth one?!"
"Seriously?!" A hand spun her around and she was faced with the energetic Kawachi Nami and her gleeful expression. "During the audition, you didn't look THAT bad."
Asahi clutched her day planner to her chest not liking how Nami was looking so incredibly happy at the fact that Asahi had failed AGAIN.
"But this is great!" Nami clenched her hands into fists, raising them slightly in relief and triumph. "There's someone who's worse off than me! And this is only my 38th time!"
Asahi spun on the shorter woman, indignant. "That's nothing to be proud of, is it?"
"Hinata has over a hundred times!" A cheery voice exclaimed.
"SERIOUSLY?!" Nami and Asahi both turned to gape at the owner of the voice, then immediately pointed at the pink-clad woman, screaming their surprise. "AHHH! Denpa!"
"Denpa?" Hinata tilted her head to the side, confused.
Nami pulled a face. "You frequently release electric waves, don't you?"
Nami and Asahi looked at each other and as if on cue, they did Hinata's tenshi dance. "Ten-ten-tenshi, tenshi, yo!"
Hinata smiled, confused. Electric waves? What was wrong with her tenshi dance?
"The two of you are in grade twelve, right?" Nami directed their conversation back on track: their auditions. "Which means that you're 18 years old, right? That's kinda really late to debut, right?"
Even though Asahi was pretty sure that this short girl hadn't meant to make her feel bad, what she said sent a cold knife through her chest. Nami continued talking, not noticing the affect she had on Asahi.
"Recently, elementary school students, no, even kindergarten students are participating in idol competitions!" Nami was on a roll and it was hard for her to stop. It was like... an inevitable car crash. Nami was at the wheel and Asahi was the proverbial car's victim. However, Nami's morbid speel was interrupted by Hinata's peppy voice.
"Then the three of us are the 'long-overdue comrades'!" Hinata grinned, pulling at Asahi's arm and bringing the two of them closer to Nami. "We'll audition together until we're finally discovered!"
Her enthusiasm was pretty infectious. "Ten-ten-tenshi, tenshi, yo! Come on, do it with me!"
Nami and Asahi had been feeling pretty down at being rejected again, but seeing this girl who had failed her auditions more than a hundred times... they felt slightly embarassed at their own discouragement.
"Ten-ten-tenshi, tenshi, yo!" The three chanted together while trying to find their way out of the underground parking lot. The sudden chirping noise from Hinata's cellphone stopped their little group chant, though.
Moshi-moshi, this is Hinata... Really?... okay!" Hinata hung up on the caller then turned around to face her two companions with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry! Hinata's not a comrade anymore!"
"Eh?" Nami and Asahi gaped at Hinata. No way!
"The producer called me just now," Hinata bubbled excitedly. "and told me he has something to tell me tonight! Seeya!"
And with that, the little pink tornado swept out of there, leaving as abruptly as she had arrived.
"Traitor!" Nami kicked out half-heartedly, though she felt kind of good for the girl. After a hundred auditions? Why, what kind of person would Nami be if she didn't feel at least a little bit happy for the denpa?
"Ah!"
Asahi's little scream of delight caught Nami's attention. There was something on the ground and Asahi crouched down to pick it up.
"What is it?"
"It's a purupuru!" Asahi clutched at the toy and pressed it against her face. "It feels goooooood!"
'Is she an idiot?' Nami wondered. 'Who picks things off the ground and presses it against their face?'
Asahi, meanwhile, was just rejoicing. She had found it! This toy, a limited edition purupuru! At one of Ray-san's press conferences, this toy had been released to the press as a thank you for their continued support. Asahi had tried going online to buy the toy but either nobody was willing to part with it, or the toys' price had been knocked sky-high by people trying to outbid each other.
The two girls were suddenly blinded by the headlights of a car that stopped right in front of them. The sound of people filing out was all they heard as the two girls tried to blink the spots out of their eyes. The light went away when the three men who had been inside the car loomed in front of them, their suited bodies casting long shadows.
"Give that to me." The man in the grey suit and sunglasses, with hair slicked back and shiny patent leather shoes pointed at the purupuru in Asahi's hands. He seemed to be the leader this small group. Asahi immediately bristled at the tone. No way was she going to lose this purupuru to some otaku!
"Finder's keepers!" Asahi pouted, not wanting to give up her new-found toy. Wthout even a warning, the man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Asahi's head threateningly. "Eh?"
They stood like that, frozen for a few long seconds, Asahi staring down into the muzzle of the gun. Just when Asahi was going through her flight-or-fight choice, Nami's voice cut through the fear that was starting to take over Asahi. "Ah! I know! You're filming a scene, right?"
"Ah, you're right!" Asahi laughed, feeling the tension go out of her shoulders. Really, who in Japan owned a gun except the yakuza? And even though this man looked the part--he looked TOO in character. It *must* be a costume!
"If not, he wouldn't be staring at us like a snake, right?" Nami said cheerfully, eyes bright with excitement. "Where's the camera?"
Asahi started casting around desperately for a camera. Maybe they were on a reality show! Maybe they could get discovered that way! She had to make sure the camera was filming her more photogenic side!
"Is it here?" Nami poked her finger into the gun's muzzle cheerfully. She loved reality shows! There was always that one person who was an idiot and didn't figure out the joke was on them, but not Nami! The audience would love her for being so quick on her feet--
The snakeman jerked his arm back and fired the gun into the air. Both girls screamed in fear and jumped into each other's arms as an airduct started spraying out steam from the ceiling and creating a hot steam wall between them and the men.
"RUN AWAY!" Asahi grabbed hold of Nami's hand and ran back in the direction of the studio.
"What the hell was that?" Nami screamed as they raced back into the studio. The sound of pursuing footsteps and a quick glance behind them confirmed that they were being chased by the strange men, though thankfully, the gun had been put away so they would be less conspicuous inside the studio. But it was no less scary.
"AHHHH!" The girls screamed, Nami cast around desperately for a way out. Spotting a door leading to a stairwell, she pulled Asahi inside with her.
"GO GO GO GO GO!" Nami squealed as she pushed Asahi ahead of her. The loud bang of the stairwell door bursting open told them their pursuers were hot on their heels.
"Who are they? Why do they have guns?!" Asahi raced up the stairs, two at a time. Despite Nami's short legs, she too, scaled the stairs faster than expected.
"How do I know? They're not filming or anything!" Nami babbled, wheezing a little bit at the pace they were going. Bursting through the third floor door, they looked up and down the crowded halls frantically, then set off in a random direction, heedless of the people they were bumping in to.
"Scuze me! Sorry! Coming through!" Ducking aside into a slightly quieter hall, they yanked open a door and slipped into this dark storage room before closing the door as quietly as they could behind them. Not a second later, they heard two men cursing profusely as they raced past their door.
Trying hard to keep as quiet as they could while catching their breaths, the two girls froze at the sound of a woman's voice. Ducking down behind a bunch of chairs and tables stacked near the door, the girls peered over them curiously to see two women arguing with each other. There was one with black hair cut at some very sharp angles; she had a look on her face that was equal parts smug and unapologetic. The other woman with lighter, slightly wavy hair seemed furious and whom she was angry at was made very clear when her hand shot out and smacked the dark-haired woman across the face.
"Tell me, which woman were you with yesterday?" The hurt was apparent in her eyes though the wronged party held on to her anger tightly. Nami and Asahi both felt their jaws hit their chest as the dark-haired woman, instead of answering, darted forward to claim the other woman's mouth in a passionate kiss. Their tongues twisted and danced with one another's wetly, their loud and laboured breathing echoed in the empty storage room. When they at last parted, mouths bruised from the ferociousness of their make-out session, the anger seemed to have completely gone from the lighter-haired woman.
"Are you jealous?" the dark-haired woman cooed.
"Wha... whatever you say..." all the fight seemed to have gone out of the brown-haired woman.
"Oh? Well then... one more time?"
This time, the make-out session got a little bit heavy as the dark-haired woman pushed the other one back until their backwards motion was stopped by a desk. The light-haired woman was pushed on top of it, the blazer she was wearing slipping from her shoulders and a black-gloved hand moving down the light-haired woman's body slowly to palm and knead her thigh...
"Marilyn... so cute..." The dark-haired woman groaned, sucking on her partner's neck.
Asahi watched in a mixture of fascination and shock, unsure of what to do. Nami, however, was trying to fight down the violent disgust she felt at the sight of the two women kissing each other.
"Uwaaaahhh!" Nami backed away, groping backwards blindly. In doing so, she managed to knock down a whole stack of chairs and a desk. The two women, who had thought they were alone, immediately caught sight of the two girls.
"Uh..." Asahi gave a super polite bow, not really sure if what she was doing was the right reaction to circumstances like this. "Sorry for disturbing you two! Um, please continue!"
Nami also flashed a fake smile, nodding in agreement with Asahi's reaction, before the two fled the little storage room. Rushing into a room marked 'Changing Room 2', they found themselves amidst racks and racks of various clothes, costumes, footwear, headgear and accessories.
"That was a live action L show just now!" Nami exclaimed, disgust still etched in her face.
"What's 'L'?" Asahi blinked, confusion apparent on her face.
"Don't you know?" Nami gaped at the innocence her companion showed and took it upon herself to enlighten the other girl. "The world of L, females kissing... and making love to each other... it's just so sickening!"
Nami shivered and rubbed her arms furiously, feeling a full case of the heebie-jeebies.
"Lets not talk about that," Asahi sighed in frustration, annoyed that the other girl could get side-tracked by kissing women so easily. "We better concentrate on how to escape from those guys! How did we even get involved in this? I seriously don't understand!"
Those men were probably combing the building looking for them so they couldn't possibly leave this room and looking at her cellphone, she realized calling the police wasn't even an option since she had no reception! What could she do? Asahi leaned against a rack of costumes when it suddenly dawned on her. Throwing her bag to the ground, she kicked off her shoes and started taking off her school uniform. Turning, she could see Nami watching her, bug-eyed.
"You have to take off your clothes too!" Asahi reached for Nami's shirt to help the shell-shocked girl, but Nami pushed her away, horrified.
"What are you doing?! Don't tell me you wanna--"
"Stupid!" Asahi barked out. Seriously, this girl was so stuck on the L thing! "We're going to disguise ourselves!"
"Eh?" Nami blinked stupidly then took a look around. Realization dawned on her face. "OH!"
Without another word, the two stripped out of their clothing and picked matching outfits. Hiding their hair underneath a toque and donning baggy jeans, sunglasses that covered most of their face, boots, a loose tee, clunky silver accessories and a faux-leather jacket, they checked each other's appearances before opening the door to the changeroom and peeking out.
Seeing that the coast was clear, Asahi took the lead. "Let's go!"
Walking down the crowded hallways, pretending to look like they had business there, was nerve-wracking. There was a whole bunch of girls mingling around and it seemed like they were all staring at them.
"Shitshitshitshit!" Nami swore under her breath. "What are we gonna do?! Our disguises suck! They probably know we're girls dressed as guys!"
"Calm down!" Asahi whispered back frantically. "They don't know that! They don't!"
"Hey," A girl in a bunny suit called out to them. They stiffened and turned towards her, a smile frozen on their face. the bunny-girl's friends pushed their blushing representative forward, giggling. "Um, are you guys lost? Could we help you?"
"Uh, no..." Realization dawned on Asahi. She had seen girls act like this before. She knew because she had acted like this before in front of cute guys. Oh my god, they thought she, Wakamatsu Asahi, WAS the cute guy! Nami seemed to realize the same thing and was about to give a--probaby rude--retort when she caught sight of something over Asahi's shoulder and a look of panic crossed her face. Nami turned to face the bunny-girl, leaning against one of the walls to try and look cool.
"Yeaaahhh... we're a bit lost." Nami drawled, trying to deepen her voice without sounding ridiculous. "Ahem. Uh, we were just wondering if you girls could, uh, take us to the... uh..."
Asahi glanced behind her shoulder, wondering what had freaked Nami out. The sight of their pursuers sent her to the side of the one of the bunny-girl's friends, who was decked out as a cheerleader.
"Auditions! The men's auditions! Yeah, uh," Asahi coughed, deepening her voice too. Putting an arm awkwardly around the cheerleader's shoulders, she grimaced when she felt the girl swoon a little bit. This was so not how she pictured today going. "Could you? This studio is kinda big."
With two girls on their arms and the rest of bunny-girl's friends following them, they passed the men in dark suits--who gave only a cursory glance at the girls surrounding Asahi and Nami--then continued off.
"Safe!" Nami breathed out.
"Did you say something?" the bunny-girl smiled prettily at Nami and the girl-disguised-as-a-guy shuddered at the sight of bunny-girl batting her eyelashes at her.
Asahi quickly tried to cover for her comrade. "Uh, he meant, 'safe', cuz we won't be late for our audition cuz of you girls, right?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Nami nodded enthusiastically and gave Asahi a thumbs-up. "Good cover-up!"
"Cover up?" the girls looked at Nami curiously again.
"Look, here we are!" Nami pointed to a sign on a big set of double doors that said 'auditions - men', happy to distract the girls away from her 'cover up' slip. "Well, it was nice meeting you girls butwehavetogetgoingnowbye!"
"Bye!" The girls waved goodbye, looking seriously disappointed. "Come find us afterwards, ok?"
"Yeah, sure!" Nami gave them a big fake grin, her dimples coming in to play. The girls sighed or squealed in pleasure, startling Nami, who jumped behind Asahi to hide from their love-stricken stares.
"Uh, thanks girls." Asahi gave them a tiny wave and a small smile. The girls gave the same reaction to Asahi as they did to Nami and Asahi found herself so startled by their blatant admiration that she stumbled backwards right into Nami and through the doors to the men's auditions. Girls were damn scary! And Asahi was about to say that aloud when bright lights suddenly blinded them.
"We're starting! Please get in line!" A voice, made loud through a megaphone, crackled.
"What the--" A group of guys who were dressed quite similar to the two girls ran right into them, pushing them right into the area where the guys were lining up to begin dancing while cameras filmed them, probably for a screen test. Asahi and Nami were pushed right in front of the camera as the guys all danced an obviously pre-rehearsed dance.
"Woah." Nami and Asahi watched the guys going through the simple repetitive choreography, unconsciously memorizing the footwork and dance moves as they stood a little bit off to the side. Asahi looked around the room, feeling slightly embarassed that they had crashed an audition--but the embarassment turned to panic again when she saw the man who had pulled the gun on them, lurking behind the cameras and looking around for them.
"Dance!" Asahi pushed Nami towards the middle of the group of guys.
Nami looked bewildered. "Eh?"
"Those guys are here!" hissed Asahi. Nami caught sight of them and ran into the middle of the group, both of them hoping they would be indistinguishable from the dancing guys. It only took them half a beat to fall into step with the rest of the dancers and they put their all into it, desperately. Their efforts didn't go unnoticed as the producer in charge of the set and his guest noticed them right away.
"Ara ara," The producer smiled a bit, looking at the two in the back. "And here I thought they couldn't dance! They're pretty good!"
The woman in all black with her black hair cut at sharp angles had her eyes locked on the two figures, a small smile pulling up one corner of her lips. Their view of the dancers was momentarily ruined though, by three men in dark suits who walked across the set, ignoring the rolling cameras and the cries of dismay from the crew.
"Hey!" The producer left his guest's side, shouting at the intruders. "Who are you people and why are you on my set?!"
At the distraction, Asahi pulled Nami away and they ran off in the opposite direction of the men in suits. The producer, however, caught sight of the two running for it and immediately gave chase after the promising young 'men'.
"Hey, wait! Please, don't go, wait just a moment--" He went flying as the dark-haired woman pushed him away in her bid to chase down the two disguised girls. Asahi and Nami, meanwhile, had run off to an empty set, slowing when they saw that no-one was following them. Their relief was short-lived though, when a voice called to them from the shadows of the opposite end of the room.
"Excuse me." They froze and turned around, seeing the snake-guy walking towards them with his two lackeys right behind him. "Have you seen two high school girls?"
Struck speechless with fear, they could only keep their eyes on the floor and stay silent, sure that he would be able to tell they were girls as soon as he got a closer look at them or heard them speak.
"I've seen them." A voice rang out. Spinning around, Asahi and Nami immediately recognized the woman they had accidentally spied on in the storage room.
"L!" Nami exclaimed. Asahi immediately clamped her hand over Nami's mouth, hoping to god that this woman wouldn't give up their identities to these men. Although their disguise had fooled the girls from before, Asahi got the impression from this dark-haired woman that she was absolutely NOT fooled. The mischievous smile on her face while the 'L' woman pranced over filled Asahi with dread and anxiety.
"They went that way." The unexpected reply unleashed a flood of relief in the two disguised girls as the snake-guy offered a curt 'excuse me', and he and his men were gone without a second glance at Asahi or Nami.
"Ah, we're saved!" Nami let out an explosive sigh of relief as soon as the men had left.
Asahi was relieved and grateful at being delivered from the gun-wielding men and bowed politely to the black-haired woman. "Thank you very much!"
Instead of answering, the woman walked forward and took off both their toques and their sunglasses, allowing their long hair and feminine features to be seen.
"As I thought," The woman was talking to herself and seemed extremely excited, ignoring Asahi's expression of gratitude. "This is great!"
Before either of them could ask the strange woman what she meant, her eyes focused on the two girls in front of them and she clapped them on the shoulders soundly. "Do the two of you want to be idols?"
"Idols?!"
---
Asahi and Nami had been whisked away in a van with tinted windows, to a charming house that served as both an office and living quarters. They were seated on a beautiful white chaise where two pens and two contracts had immediately been placed on the coffee table in front of them.
"Here you go," The dark-haired woman outlined the dotted line on both contracts with her hand. "You have to sign here."
Everything was coming together for Asahi and Nami! The two girls who had gone to collectively eighty-seven auditions, were finally seeing the fruits of their labours. Their eagerness to achieve their dreams was no excuse, however, for them not reading the contract as they gave a happy affirmative and signed away.
"Here!" They both handed the contract back to the dark-haired woman, who gave them a pleased smile as the contracts were placed in her hands.
"Congratulations. From now on, the both of you are members of Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency. I'm the agency's president, Kamonohatsu Saeko." The dark-haired woman finally had a name. Motioning to the bubbly woman beside her, Saeko continued speaking. "This is my secretary--"
"I'm Marilyn!" The light-haired woman waved, her sunny personality bubbling to the surface.
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" Asahi and Nami both stood up and bowed super-politely, retreated into the prescribed formalities assigned to them by their society. They were just so excited! And Nami, hyperactive with happiness turned to Asahi and grasped the other girl's hand.
"Finally, we can be idols now!" Nami was jumping up and down in excitement and Asahi joined in with her, close to tears.
"Finally, our dreams have been fulfilled!"
While they were squealing excitedly, Marilyn had leaned in to look them over with fascination. "The both of you are exactly what the shachou is looking for to fit the Ikemen image!"
"Really?" Nami was ecstatic that they fit the mold the president was looking for! "Exactly like an ikemen--eh?"
Both Asahi and Nami's excitement was put on hold by their... confusion. Ikemen? Good-looking guy? Was there some mistake?
"Ike...men?"
Kamonohatsu Saeko smirked and brandished the contracts that they had signed so the two girls could read the script that they had ignored before.
"Debuting as a..." Both girls read the line out lout. "male idol?"
"What is this?" Nami demanded. Saeko just threw back her head and laughed, a truly evil kind of laughter that made both girls shiver. Saeko passed the contracts to her secretary and rounded on the two newly made idols.
"This is me, Kamonohatsu Saeko's bet on a wild ambitious start!" Saeko raised her hand in the air, full of confidence.
"Shachou, you're wonderful!" Marilyn cooed at her beloved president with adoring eyes.
"My ambition is to introduce the most ikemen idols to the public, and thus, raise the entertainment world to a whole new level!" Saeko explained, going from slightly frenzied to drastically calm in the next sentence. "However, I haven't found any suitable males who matched my requirements for the past few years."
The level of excitement raised again as Saeko focused on Asahi and Nami. "When I first saw the two of you--" Saeko mimed being shot. "It was like being shot. If males are no good, then we'll use females, females disguised as males, to unify the entertainment industry!"
The same sentence was running through Nami and Asahi's head at this point. 'She's crazy.'
"Why do I have to become a guy?" Nami argued, still not quite believing that this was happening to her.
"That's right," Asahi frowned. "I want to be a normal idol!"
"Ordinary." The president of Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency said in a bored voice.
"Ordinary?" Asahi and Nami gaped at the president.
"I dare and am quite positive to say that the two of you are absolutely ordinary." Saeko deadpanned. Marilyn gave a little giggle at that pronouncement. "People like the two of you have only one route in the entertainment industry..." Saeko paused while the girls leaned in, eager to learn what route this was. "..and that is to become men. If the two of you, who are VERY ordinary girls become men, then the two of you will become the very best!"
Saeko reached up and pulled a rope attached to the ceiling. Immediately, a white screen with two head-shaped holes unfurled from the ceiling right in front of the started Asahi and Nami. Well, white sheet from the girls' vantage points. As they poked their heads out of the holes, they realized it was a drawing of two men's bodies in suits, with the face part cut out so when Nami and Asahi looked through the holes, they looked like they had men's bodies!
"I can see it!" Saeko came forward, eyes agleam. "The light of the future! From now on, you will be Riku" Saeko pointed at Asahi then at Nami. "--and Kai! Your group name will be Persona! The meaning will literally mean that the sky's wearing a mask!"
"Persona?" Asahi frowned.
"Mask?" Nami joined Asahi in the frowning.
"Females disguising themselves in the masks of men!" Saeko continued, unperturbed by their lack of enthusiasm. She pranced over to a mannequin she had in the corner and removed the mask it had been wearing, placing it over her own face. "I'm such a genius!"
Asahi and Nami just stared at Saeko in disbelief as the president started hyperventilating from how excited she was getting.
"Shachou, don't get so worked up!" Marilyn fretted, immediately at her president's side with a paper bag. Nami took this opportunity to brush the giant screen away and confront the L's.
"You've gotta be joking!" Nami growled angrily. "Regarding this, we will definitely--"
"Do it!" Asahi was at Nami's side in a second and interrupted her.
"That's right! We'll definitely do it!" Nami said angrily. It took a second for what Asahi said to sink in. "Eh?"
"Please, you've got to let me do it!" Asahi continued, a little bit of desperation creeping in to her voice.
"Eh?!" Nami gaped at Asahi. What the hell was her 'long-overdue comrade' doing?!
Marilyn and the president exchanged a glance and Saeko murmurred to her secretary, "Surprisingly, this is going smoother than I expected."
Marilyn took everything in stride though. She knew her shachou could do it! Saeko was incredibly resourceful when she wanted to be, just one of the many things that Marilyn admired about the other woman! One of the MANY things.
"Well then, let me give you a tour of the house!" Marilyn bounced over to the office. "This is the office," Marilyn skipped back out. "We're in the living room right now..." The two girls followed her to a door next to the door to the office. "The kitchen, the closet, the washroom, the front foyer! Now lets go upstairs!"
Nami was swept up in the whirlwind known as Marilyn, unable to get a word in edge-wise. Soon, they were pushed into a relatively large room that seemed a little bit crowded because of the furniture in the room. It was comfortable though and brightly lit.
"This will be your room!" Marilyn flung her arms out proudly. She had decorated this room herself! Two mattresses and bedsets on the floor told the girls where they were expected to sleep. It was all a little too much for Nami. "Even though you two are women, no-one will know! From now on, the two of you will be living here!"
"Don't worry," Saeko said soothingly to the two girls. "I'll contact both of your parents. I'll say, for the sake of learning the arts, the both of you are studying abroad in Las Vegas!"
"Like our parents would believe that..." Nami groaned as Saeko swept out of the room.
"Unless they're very stupid parents." Asahi commented thinking of her own parents. Nami realized that her own parents would probably fit under that description too. Mama and Papa Kawachi also had a large brood of children, of which Nami was one of them, so it was hard to keep track of everyone. They would be happy that someone had taken their most energetic child, under their wing.
"The basic things you need have been prepared, feel free to use them!" Marilyn poked them in the middle of their foreheads, then bounced out of the room giddily, happy that they had people signed on at the agency.
"Geez, I hope that there aren't any problems with this agency." Nami spoke her fears aloud, never one to keep quiet when things bothered her, regardless of the fact that what said could offend people or make them unhappy. "That assistant's kinda odd. And now, it's like there's only the two of us." Nami shivered and raised her hands up in the air in anguish. "On top of that, the president's an 'L' and we have to debut disguised as men..."
The energetic girl fell bonelessly to one of the mattresses on the floor, sprawling face-down on the sheets, exhuasted by the day's events.
"Debuting disguised as men, huh?" Asahi rolled the idea around in her head. For some odd reason, she didn't have as much of a problem with it as Nami seemed to.
"Ah yes," Nami suddenly perked up, lifting her face from the comforter. "I almost forgot about it. We haven't called the police yet 'bout that snakeguy!"
The pursuit by the men in suits came back to Asahi. The long-haired girl took out the purupuru from her bag and wondered why grown men were willing to shoot at girls just to get a purupuru. The sound of Nami dialing the number for the police pulled Asahi out of her thoughts and she dived for Nami's phone, closing the flip-phone and ending the call.
"Don't call the police!" Asahi could hear Saeko's voice in her head, telling her and Nami that the only route the two of them could take to become idols was to disguise themselves as men.
"Why not?" Nami tried to grab her phone back. "We could be in danger!"
"In the future, we'll be performing in our disguises," Asahi explained. "So we shouldn't get involved in this."
"But those guys have guns!" Nami protested. Guns! And Nami had stuck her finger in the muzzle thinking it was a camera!
"Don't do it if you're just going to stir up trouble!" Asahi was close to snapping at the other girl. "I'm betting on this chance. I'm already eighteen years old, this could be my last shot at becoming an idol!"
Nami, for once, kept silent, waiting for Asahi to finish what she wanted to say.
"Besides that," Asahi suddenly looked troubled. "Haven't we suffered enough from continuously auditioning? Having perverted old men trying to do things with us, being thrown around like trash... plus, being told really... upsetting things."
The two of them had had all of these things happen to them and had suffered through it bravely, hoping that one day their sacrifices woud pay off. Today, for Asahi, it seemed that this was the pay-off, this was her chance to be an idol. Despite the pretending-to-be-a-man part, this was the opportunity she had been so desperately wishing for.
"I want to be Music 10's top idol and flaunt it in their faces." Asahi remembered all the disgust she felt when she was pawed by perverted producer-types. Remembered how each and every time, she had put her best foot forward and was shot down. Remembered the comments; too fat, too skinny, no boobs, no hips, ugly, stupid, not sexy... she didn't want to audition anymore. And she wanted to show all those people who made her feel like nothing that she was something. That she could make it and she would shine. "Becoming a guy... I don't care how difficult it is; I'm definitely not going to let them see me fail!"
Nami looked up at Asahi and gave the girl a wry smile, the expression on her face one of resignation and wary hope. Maybe with this girl, together they could go places.
Getting up off the floor, Nami tilted her head upwards lightly, nodding at Asahi. "I'm Nami. And you?"
Asahi smiled at Nami, her new partner-in-manhood. "I'm Asahi."
Next chapter (if there IS a next chapter, anyways) might feature more 'scenes' that weren't included in the series. I always thought Mendol coulda been fleshed out some more and drawn out into a long ass series... :banghead:
:welcome :lol: :lol:
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Finally there is mendol fic. Looking forward to the next update.
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intresting, pls continue :thumbsup :twothumbs
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I like this Mendol story.
Can't wait to see how you see going to develop it
Thank you
:twothumbs :twothumbs :twothumbs
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Not to offend you Hirasawaizumi-san but I believe this is plagiarism.
I have read the exact same story in fanfiction.net written by immo. If you are that writer, I am very sorry for accusing you however, if you are not, then I suggest you to not take other people's work and make it as yours.
And I have exact proof to prove it; here is the link where the exact same story is found,
http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol (http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol)
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Not to offend you Hirasawaizumi-san but I believe this is plagiarism.
I have read the exact same story in fanfiction.net written by immo. If you are that writer, I am very sorry for accusing you however, if you are not, then I suggest you to not take other people's work and make it as yours.
And I have exact proof to prove it; here is the link where the exact same story is found,
http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol (http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol)
Ah, I suppost I've not clear myself. sorry bout that.
I'm the author. IMMO. thanks. I'm just reposting it. and IMMO this name is my other name that I use in fanfiction.net
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Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 2
author's note: Hey, so we're back :D And since this fic assumes they are speaking in Japanese... even though it's all in English... anything that is said in English will be italisized. And the non-Japanese people who don't know Japanese that well will reflect it in their speech and it's not a typo or grammar error. Got that? Good! And when Asahi and Nami are in their Riku and Kai persona(haha), I'll be using male pronouns. That goes with Hinata/Kuu too, once she/he shows up.
language! If it was covered last chapter, I'm not going over it again, hahaha:
kochira koso -- me too
-san -- added at the end of a name, sorta like 'Mr/Miss'. But at the end
-sama -- suffix used at the end for someone really important, more respectful
hai -- yes
ara -- sorta like 'oh my', or something along that line of exclamation
tenshi -- angel
kouhai -- lower classmen
---
After the tour of the house and introducing themselves to each other formally, Nami and Asahi excused themselves to go back to their respective homes for some clothes and toiletries. They said good-bye to their families and went back to Kamonohatsu house that they would be sharing together.
"Tadaima," both of the girls dragged their suitcases and various bags into the house, closing the door behind them.
"Okaerinasai!" Marilyn was there to greet them. "Shachou has gone for the day to take care of some things, so the both of you will be working with me today!"
"Hai!" They both replied enthusiastically. "We'll just put these upstairs and then we'll start right away!"
"Oh!" Marilyn seemed to finally notice their luggage. "Well, I'll show you where you can store these. You won't be wearing much of your girl clothes anyways."
"What?" Nami blinked stupidly at Marilyn, pausing half-way up the stairs. Marilyn giggled at Nami's state of confusion.
"Well, the both of you ARE debuting as male idols. You'll have to keep up appearances!" Marilyn bounced up the stairs past them and turned to two other rooms that they had not had not been shown to them earlier. Opening the door to one of the rooms, the girls were faced with racks and racks of clothes obscured in darkness. The only window had heavy curtains blocking the light from coming through and a flick of the lightswitch showed the girls exactly what kind of clothes these were. Men's clothes.
"While you were gone, I called up the station and borrowed some clothes!" Marilyn said cheerily. "I asked for size small to medium in men's size. Clothes for every ocassion from formal to casual; but your stage clothes will be made as soon as I take exact measurements."
"So we'll have to wear men's clothes all the time?" Nami cringed, looking through men's dress shirts in her size. They were nice, sure, but she REALLY liked her own clothes!
Marilyn put a well-manicured finger to her cheek in thought. "Well, no, not ALL the time. Like now, Persona hasn't even made their first appearance and nobody knows you. So you're free to take your free time in your regular clothes. However, you do understand appearances have to be kept up when your job calls for it, right?"
"Haiiii..." Nami and Asahi pouted, dragging their suitcases to a corner of the room Marilyn pointed to. But they couldn't help being a little bit excited. This was it, this was their chance.
"You should change into your male disguises now, though. We have to get to the studio to work on your first song!" A little thrill of pleasure ran through Asahi and Nami's body. Working on a song! They were actually doing this!
"Hai!" They chirped together enthusiastically. At the stern look she got from Marilyn, they lowered their voice a bit. "HAI!"
"Here, you'll need these." Marilyn handed them both a tanktop. This was a special top, though, with extra lycra for extra compression power to bind their breasts down. "Instead of bras, you can wear this! It'll keep your breasts flat and give you a molded, defined men's chest!"
"You've thought about this quite a bit, haven't you?" Nami thought gloomily, looking at the small white tanktop with disgust.
Marilyn ignored Nami's gloomy look. "Come on, we don't have time to dawdle, we have the studio booked and they'll give it to someone else if we're late!"
"Hai!" The girls jumped to it, immediately stripping out of their clothes as soon as Marilyn shut the door. Slipping out of their bras, they donned their binding shirts, struggling a little with the tight fit but paused afterwards to grudgingly admire their now square, masculine chests.
"This is amazing!" Asahi poked at her chest, noting that it felt like hard muscle underneath her fingers. Her usually soft upper body was compacted to a more masculine shape with the ingenuous binding and the hidden extra padding in the tanktop. Plus, it didn't restrict her breathing too much!
"Huh..." Nami poked at her stomach after feeling her chest, goofily smiling at how the top flattened her stomach and made it look like she had abdominal muscles. She'd always wanted a six-pack! "But will this top make our breasts mold into a weird shape?"
"Nothing a nice massage won't fix!" Marilyn called from outside the door. "How long are you girls going to take?"
"3 seconds!" Asahi called back as they both hurried out of their clothes and grabbed a set of clothes while singing quietly to herself, not even really knowing she was doing it. "Sanbyou mitsumeru dake de..."
"Otoshite miseyou ka," Nami laughing sung, making up the following lyrics on the spot. Asahi grinned at Nami as she buttoned up her shirt, the two falling silent as they cast around for clothes and dressed. Meanwhile, Marilyn stood outside the door, stunned. Had shachou discovered... naturals? Shachou had said they were quick to pick up dance steps they didn't know, were they naturally inclined towards making music?
Only one way to find out!
"Here." The two exited the room to be confronted by Marilyn holding out two heads by the neck.
"AGH!!!"
"What are you two screaming about?" Marilyn pouted, brandishing polystyrene heads and looking curiously at the two girls. "Pick a wig. It'll be your hair from now on."
The two girls coughed, embarassed at their own reaction, then concentrated on the wigs on top of the two dummies.
"Hmm..." Asahi pressed a finger to her lips. "Which one..."
Both were short, men-style wigs. One was a stylishly-cut dark brown wig with parts of it highlighted red while the other was a multi-faceted blonde, the style a bit longer and shaggier than the brown. They were excellent wigs and would pass for real hair with no problems.
"Lets try them on." Nami suggested. Marilyn showed them quickly how to tie and clip their hair into place, then put a thin stocking cap on top of it. Then, they were taught how to put the wig on.
"Hm." Asahi ducked back into the change room to look at herself in the full length mirror in the change room, making a face at her blonde hair. "That doesn't look good at all."
"Me too." Nami grimaced, right beside Asahi. "This looks horrible on me. Switch?"
Carefully taking off their wigs so it wouldn't disturb their real hair underneath, they traded and carefully put on the hairpieces.
"This..." The transformed Kai looked at himself in the mirror, unable to stop a grin from appearing on his face. "This is me!"
"And this is me." Riku was grinning too, fiddling with a few strands of errant hair on his head, but otherwise satisfied with his appearance. This hairstyle was edgy and bold, a hairstyle that told whoever looked at it that the owner had impeccable and demanding tastes. Also, it told whoever looked at Riku that he could afford a stylist skilled enough to give him such a perfect cut. The shaggy blonde hair hadn't been 'Riku'. This smart cut with the bold red streaks definitely suited him. Meanwhile, Kai's longer, blonde shaggy hair seemed to match Kai's outspoken personality and lengthen his face, making it a bit more angular and sharp and less feminine
"You look like a yanki," Riku laughed, nudging Kai with his shoulder good-naturedly.
"Shut up!" Kai nudged back, a smile on his face to show he was joking. Kai was very pleased with his new hair. It didn't require too much extra primping, like with Riku's hair and Kai actually liked longer styles on guys anyways. It made them look a bit more dangerous and bad boy and Kai would have to say that with the type of company Nami hung around with, she would've totally been the bad boy type if she had actually been a guy.
"Now, pin it to your heads with these bobby pins!" Marilyn helped them out, showing them how to do it so the bobby pin was invisible and the wig held tight. "See? Because of these strategically placed pins, now even a good sharp pull--" Marilyn pulled at Kai's hair, causing him to scream girlishly. "--won't take it off easily!"
"Right," Riku took a step away from Marilyn nervously. Riku was decked out in a nice black suit with a suit jacket, looking incredibly good-looking and polished. His thin tie was tightened close around his neck in a perfect Windsor knot (how did Asahi even know how to tie a knot like that?), the cufflinks were elegeant and tasteful and the shoes she had donned were patent leather and fit her whole outfit spectacularly well. Kai on the other hand, even though he was wearing a suit too, had a totally different feel about him. He wore his white shirt untucked and cuffs and collar unbuttoned, tie tied loosely around his neck, with his pants hanging low and a wide white belt to compliment his attire. His suit jacket was a silvery-grey and instead of lapels, the jacket had a thin mandarin collar. Kai's clunky boots added a few more inches to his height (which he needed, really) and the large scuffed metal bracelets on his wrists gave him a bit more of an edge. Even though they still had girlish mannerisms, Kai and Riku were trying and if Marilyn wasn't in on the secret, she probably wouldn't have guessed. But they still had a long way to go.
"Okay, this will be your first time out in your male disguises, so remember to always be aware of three things," Marilyn held up three fingers and pointed to the first one. "How you walk, how you talk, how you act. You'll be working with people in the industry now and they all gossip; rumours get around fast. So keep in mind that the two of you are men now! Men amongst men!"
"Doesn't walk fall under act--"
"Completely different!" Marilyn sing-songed. "Com-pu-lete-ly dif-fer-rent! Now, lets head to the studio instead of standing around splitting hairs!"
In no time at all, they were at the studio. The two boys hesitated at the door when they saw a bunch of people look up from their workstation or instruments to stare at them.
"Good afternoon!" Marilyn chirped cheerily. Everybody gave the customary reply, still staring at Kai and Riku curiously.
"Osu!" Both Riku and Kai deepened their voice and greeted the men and women in the room. They all muttered their greetings, the women giggling a bit.
"Uh," Riku stammered, tugging at his suddenly too-tight necktie. "Hi. I'm Riku."
"Hey." Kai gave a nervous smile. "I'm Kai."
A round of 'yoroshiku onegaishimasu's and 'kochira koso's were exchanged. These were the people in the studio that would be helping them out. There was, of course, Marilyn who would be shadowing them everywhere and helping wherever she can, Kurokawa Nao-san who would be providing technical support on the mixing console with Utaka Hideki-san and finally, the musicians who might be rotating throughout their music-making.
"Kurokawa-san and Utaka-san are very good at what they do," Marilyn introduced the techs. Kurokawa Nao was a young woman with long brown-black hair tied up in a loose bun on top of her head. She had a pair of rectangle frame glasses perched on her nose that made her look very librarian-ish, her overall look giving Riku and Kai the feel of someone who was very professional and wanted others to take her seriously. Utaka Hideki, however, looked like a regular tech guy with messy hair, an untucked t-shirt under an untucked and unbuttoned button-up shirt. His jeans were slightly ripped and his sneakers had seen better days. But he carried an air of confidence about him that put Riku and Kai at ease.
"Shachou thought that these musicians might be able to find that sound you're looking for. They're also really good at what they do." Marilyn introduced the musicians, a slightly short (the height of the foreigner surprised Riku but delighted Kai for some reason) bearded New Zealander named Paul who insisted that they call him 'Just Paul' and a small and cute, bright-eyed drummer named Candy from Hong Kong who just nodded shyly at them.
"Candy and Paul aren't completely fluent in Japanese, so you'll have to talk slowly and use simple words." Marilyn told the members of Persona.
"Yes, we are idiots." Paul joked, overhearing them.
"No, no!" Kai tried out her English. "Your Japanese, good!"
"Your English is pretty good too!" Paul replied.
"Yes, pretty?" Riku tilted his head to the side, smiling in confusion. Did Paul just call them 'pretty'?
"Your English really good. Right, Candy?" Paul tried again in Japanese. Candy nodded again, agreeing with Paul but keeping quiet.
"They're so cool!" Kai leaned over to whisper to Riku. They rarely had any kind of interaction with foreigners and Paul's soft, New Zealander accent and Candy's mysteriousness was exciting!
"Well, we hope we can make you look cool too." Paul grinned at them, his fingers plucking a few strings on his bass. "We were just finished warming up. Now what sound you looking for?"
"Well, just... something like..." Riku floundered a bit, looking around the room. He had never done this before!
"Something like this," Kai swooped in to cover for Riku, humming the few lines that they had made up on the spot when they had been changing. "--something like that."
"Good, good..." Paul mumbled, picking up his electric guitar to play the notes Kai had hummed while Candy immediately started writing down notes on a music sheet.
"And this follows it," Riku hummed the next line. The four worked out the notes while Kurokawa-san and Utaka-san pulled up chairs to join them and add their inputs. They also took the time to show Riku and Kai the audio mixer ("My baby," Nao cooed, dropping a little bit of her professionalism) and the equipment in the studio. Before they knew it, they had whiled away a couple of hours and Marilyn had watched, fascinated as the two members of Persona charmed their unsuspecting audience.
'Shachou had wanted to test their appeal, and look at that, they've already won some unknowing fans!' Marilyn was cheering silently in her head. 'They've gotten to calling Kurokawa-san and Utaka-san by their first names and Paul seems to have taken to them. Even Candy seems delighted with them!'
Indeed, with Kai talking animatedly with Utaka-san and Candy, who just nodded or shook her head in reply to Kai's torrent of words, Kai was obviously a hit. The shy girl from Hong Kong who was usually so reserved even LAUGHED a bit at something the energetic blonde said!
Riku wasn't to be left out and sat with Paul and Kurokawa-san, going over the music they had written down and discussing the evolution of the music industry. Riku's serious side was incredibly charming and the way he unknowingly touched Nao's bicep as he talked to her... well, lets say Kurokawa-san's reputation as an ice-queen was melting quite swiftly.
'Oh my, they ARE naturals!' Marilyn smiled widely at the scene before her.
"Man, so that's when *I* said, what the hell?!" Kai finished his story, making Hideki erupt into laughter and Candy try to hide her fit of giggles behind her hand. "Wow. I think maybe I had a bit too much water before, 'scuse me."
Kai left Hideki and Candy's side to stroll over to Marilyn.
"Where's the lady's room?" Kai asked, a little bit too loudly. But fortunately, nobody was really paying attention. Marilyn smacked Kai on the arm anyways.
"Ow!"
"Oh, Kai, you're such a joker!" Marilyn laughed a bit too loudly, staring daggers at the blonde. "The MEN'S washrooms are just down the hall. You have to turn left at the end of the hall, then right, then it's the door on the left. Just follow the signs!"
"Men's?" Kai mouthed to Marilyn. "Seriously?!"
"Just pretend it's a unisex washroom!" Marilyn whispered and winked. Grumbling mutinously, Kai headed out to the washroom, finding it with little to no problem and did his business. But it was trying to get back to the studio that was hard.
"Where the hell am I...?" Kai muttered, wandering around. He had been wandering for a good couple of minutes and was seriously lost. "Maybe this door..."
Kai opened the door and was immediately greeted by a high, feminine yelp.
"Get out!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Kai immediately turned around and closed the door behind him. All he had seen was some woman, wiping at her face with her sleeve. Kai hadn't been able to see her face at all because of that and the fact that the woman had immediately turned away from the door.
"What was that?" Kai frowned a bit. Looking up and down the hallway, he groaned in frustration again. At this rate, he'd NEVER get back to the studio! Taking a deep breath, Kai turned back around and knocked on the door before pushing it open a bit.
"Excuse me--"
"Don't look at me!"
"Okay, okay!" Kai averted his face. "Geez... I was just, uh, wondering if you knew where recording studio five was?"
"I don't k-know! Leave m-me alone!" The woman's voice hitched on a sob, her voice nasally from a stuffed nose.
"Um..." Kai kept his face averted, the sob having caught his attention. He had wanted to leave but he just couldn't. Crying girls were a weakness of his. "You okay?"
"I'll be better i-if you l-leave!" The fact that this girl was obviously hiding out somewhere crying alone pulled at Kai's heartstrings. He could imagine himself in her place, maybe having failed an audition, disappointed and humiliated. Walking backwards into the room, he dug into his pocket and produced his favourite hankerchief, still white and soft because of Kai's diligent care.
"Here." Kai waved the hankerchief backwards, hoping the woman would see it. The woman still had her back to him but she could see the waving piece of cloth out of the corner of her eyes. Sniffling, the crying woman took the hankerchief.
There was a long silence as the woman wiped at her face and nose.
"Thank you."
"Don't worry about it." Kai shrugged his shoulders. "Just... you okay?"
There was another long pause. Then, finally, "No."
"Um. Are you gonna be okay?"
"Nothing's going to be o-okay! I'm trying my best, but it's just not good enough!" The woman's voice was self-deprecating and angry. "I'm trying so h-hard!"
"It'll be alright. Things get tough, you just gotta keep at it! It'll work out in the end!" Kai encouraged the mystery woman.
"You don't know t-that. That it'll a-all work out in t-the end."
"Well, even if it doesn't, you've tried your best, right? Shouldn't you be proud of your effort?" Kai paused. "And the people who don't appreciate you, well, they don't know nothing! Don't give up cuz I bet there's so many people out there who are just waiting for you to shine! Just keep going to your auditions--"
"Auditions?"
"Yeah, just keep at it! You'll be discovered soon!"
There was another long silence, then finally, the woman's voice broke the silence again.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Um... no. ShouldI? I don't really recognize your voice. Did we go to auditions together?" Kai still had his back to the woman and was severely tempted to turn around and take a look, but didn't. She HAD said she didn't want Kai to look at her and Kai understood why that would be. When Nami cried, she didn't want anybody to see her moment of weakness either.
"Nevermind." The woman laughed a bit.
Kai's mouth tweaked up in a crooked smile, pleased to hear such a pretty laugh. "Feeling better?"
"Yes." pause. "Thank you."
"No problem."
"What's your name?"
"I'm Nami--uh. I mean. No. Um--that's not my name--"
"You sure?" The voice held a bit of amusement now. "Your hankerchief says 'Nami'."
Kai cursed sharply. He had forgotten his name was on the hankerchief!
"Um, that is... yeah. Um. Igottagobye!" Kai raced out the door, slipping out before the woman could turn around to face him.
"Strange." The gorgeous woman with red-rimmed eyes sniffled and touched the hankerchief to her nose. It smelled of soap. "She'd forgotten this too..."
"Ray!" Her manager's voice carried down the hall. The long-haired woman, now standing alone in the room, had a pair of fashionably large sunglasses hanging from the front of her shirt and she lifted it up to her face to wear them now. She could see her manager pass by the room, glance in, then come back to do a double-take.
"Ray! Baby!" Her manager entered the room and walked towards her hurriedly, the oily tone of voice he always used to talk to her grating on her nerves. "It was just a little change in the music, why are you so upset?"
"Those were my lyrics!" Ray crossed her arms, feeling all the frustration welling up again, the calming affect Nami had had on her slipping too.
"And they're such good lyrics! They're deep and really full of meaning!" Her manager tried to sooth her. "BUUUUT... they just weren't, sexy, baby. And sexy sells CDs!"
"Ugh." Ray scrunched up the hankerchief in her hands. "Whatever. I'm taking the rest of the day off."
"But-but, Ray! Everyone's here waiting for you! Ray!" But Ray was already out the door and heading towards the escalators that would take her down to the ground floor and out the building. The man watched the diva storm out and blew out a breath, frustrated with the girl. If only she wasn't so willful! Then she woulda been perfect!
"Damnit," Sarukawa Keiji took a glance at his rolex. And he had so wanted to show off Ray to Saeko! Guess he'd just have to meet Saeko's new talents alone...
---
"Kai, it's a good thing we found you... how did you get lost anyways? Come on, before you guys are late," Marilyn was walking incredibly fast in her heels and Riku and Kai were trying hard to keep up. "Shachou told us she has someone important for you two to meet!"
"Who?" Riku asked, impressed with Marilyn's speed.
"You'll see!" Marilyn chirped back mysteriously. Whoever it was, though, was pretty important as they went all the way up to the top floor. The large mahogany double doors were truly impressive and the name 'Sarukawa Keiji - Monkey Productions' on the door told them who they were going to meet.
"Who's that?" Kai squinted at the name on the door. Marilyn knocked on the door, ignoring the question.
"Come in!" A jovial voice boomed from inside. Marilyn pushed the doors open, then casually pushed the the two members of Persona inside, almost toppling them into the room. With a quick 'excuse me', Marilyn had closed the door again. A man currently had his back to them and was talking on his phone behind a large wooden desk with a simple golden plaque that said 'president'. Saeko was sitting on one of the big plush couches in the sitting area of the extravagent room and motioned for the two young men to sit down on the couch next to her.
"Fix yourselves." Saeko hissed at them. They quick walk--more of a jog--to this office had made them slightly breathless and caused them to look slightly ruffled. Riku's hands immediately went to his hair to make sure each strand was in place, while Kai smoothed down his jacket, not really caring about his hair.
"Sorry, we've just run into a bit of difficulty with a recording today." The man who was obviously Sarukawa Keiji, came over and plopped himself down on the couch opposite them. He had thinning hair dyed a copper-brown and wore a dark purple suit with a loud tie.
THIS was the person they were supposed to meet?
Even though his words were directed at Saeko, Sarukawa Keiji's eyes were on the boys in front of him and he leaned forward to study the two sitting on his couch."These are the ones you told me about on the phone?"
"Yes indeed, Sarukawa-shachou! They are..." Saeko turned to look at Riku and Kai, her eyes widening when she saw how they were sitting. Coughing loudly to mask her words, she gave their legs a pointed look. "*cough*Legs*cough*placeyourlegsproperly*cough*cough*!"
The young men quickly uncrossed their legs, spreading them out a bit.
"Hohohoho!" Saeko's laughter was shrill and scary. "Quick, introduce yourself!"
Riku nodded, standing up and puffing out his chest. "OSU! I'm Riku from Persona!"
"OSU!" Kai shot up too, tilting his chin up a bit to look down his nose at Sarukawa-shachou. "I'm Kai!"
Sarukawa gave a little laugh, sitting back to look up at the two men. "You DID say they had an imposing manner... but they also have very cute appearances..."
Saeko gave another one of her shrill laughs as Riku and Kai fidgetted nervously under Sarukawa Keiji's scrutiny.
"Today we have come specially to give our regards to the President of Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency's parent company, Monkey Productions," Saeko motioned for the boys to sit down. "Sarukawa-shachou."
"Don't tell me you're here to ask me for a favour." The President of Monkey Productions crossed his legs, a smirk on his face.
"Actually," Saeko returned the smirk with a smile of her own. Raising slowly from her seat, she meandered slowly over to Sarukawa-shachou, looking very much like a cat who had just spotted prey. "I would like you to let them participate in Music 10's next 'The Indies' performance."
Keiji scoffed, his genial attitude disappearing almost immediately. "These kids? No matter how much you beg me, I can't do it."
"You should be able to," Saeko sat down on the armrest of Keiji's couch, invading his personal space. "After all, you ARE Sarukawa-shachou, the manager of Music 10's Number One, Ray, and the President of the entertainment giant, Monkey Productions."
Saeko's hand had found its way to Keiji's knee and was slowly running up his thigh while Riku and Kai watched, open-mouthed in shock. Sarukawa Keiji didn't have a chance as his brain turned off and all his thinking was done with his groin.
"The both of you," Keiji's voice was rough and low. Motioning to them impatiently, he pointed to the door. "Leave us! Go!"
"OSU!" Kai and Riku were glad to be out of there.
---
Things were happening faster and faster. Saeko had managed to pull some strings, using methods that Kai and Riku didn't want to dwell on and after three days of hurriedly writing their first single and working out the dance steps, they practiced and practiced for their debut. Saeko had even managed to get them fitted for their stage costumes and had them delivered to the office the night before the Indies. The stage outfits actually just looked like a more stylized and fitted version of what the two had picked to wear the first day. The main difference from their outfit at the beginng was that Kai's grey jacket was gone and he sported a black jacket now with a white edge running down the lapels. Riku's clean-cut look from day one had been relaxed and he sported some fingerless gloves to appear tougher. Last, but not least, there were some eye-catching accessories pinned to their jackets.
"Three days... of hellishly styled dance routines..." Riku groaned, feeling all of his muscles complaining. They were up at the crack of dawn for three days either at the recording studio or the dance studio. Sometimes, they would even be at the two studios late in to the night. Riku was really grateful to everyone at the recording studio for getting up early when they needed to, or staying late in to the night.
Kai nodded in agreement, hissing through his teeth as that movement sent muscles twinging. "We'll be dead before we get on stage!"
"Saeko-chan!"
Riku and Kai looked up to see two men approaching them, recognizing them immediately. They were the producers that had auditioned them! But seeing the two men give them only a brief glance and seem to not recognize them at all, Riku and Kai breathed a sigh of relief.
"Producer Kaga!" Saeko greeted the man, bowing and trading words. "Please take good care of us!"
While their manager and Marilyn talked to the two men, Riku glanced around the backstage area. The Indies performance was help in the park near TV Tohto, with a stage set up and all the performers hiding out backstage, waiting for their turn. There was a whole kaleidoscope of genres represented by the artists that had come to perform and Riku knew this was a big deal. Every year at the Indies, bands who did really well and stood out had a huge chance of being pushed in to the mainstream and Riku knew this was what Saeko was aiming for. The sound of the MC introducing the next group to go up and the roar of the large crowd outside sent Riku's heart pounding. They would be going up soon too! They were finally doing this!
"Ahhh... I'm feeling so nervous!" Riku squeaked quietly to himself, looking around at all the other artists backstage trying to keep quiet while trying to rehearse whatever they were going to perform. There were also various crew members running about, making sure everything was running smoothly. Through the hustle and bustle, everybody looked like they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. Except for one person, who seemed out of place. A young man with badly dyed hair wandered around and trying to act inconspicuous, playing with his camera.
"Hm?" Riku did a double-take. "Jiro?!"
"Wait a minute," Marilyn was beside Riku in a heartbeat. "Don't tell me that's someone you know!"
"He lives near my house," Riku confessed, frowning a bit. "Ever since kindergarten, he's kept saying that he wanted to marry me. He's an annoying and persistant idiot."
"Fiance?" Marilyn's voice was on the verge of glee. It was like she hadn't heard anything Riku had said except for 'marry'.
"That's not it," Riku said sullenly. "that's only what he thinks! Three years ago, he left home saying he wanted to be a photographer. I wonder why he's here now?"
Jiro, meanwhile, was mumbling to himself while checking his camera. He wasn't a very good-looking man, with his dull hair and the awkward air around him. As Riku watched Jiro wandering around with his eyes on his camera, he accidentally bumped into the two producers Saeko had been talking to before. There was an exchange of words where Jiro looked sufficiently intimidated.
"Well," Marilyn drew Riku's attention away from Asahi's childhood friend. "Good luck and give it your best shot!"
"Hai!" Riku said smartly and looked around, finally noticing that Kai wasn't by his side. "Ara... Where's Nami?"
Riku finally saw Kai, standing near the entrance to the stage, looking out at the band performing. The crowd wasn't reacting too well to this group of punk rockers and the bad atmosphere was affecting Kai.
"I-I'm going back!" Kai turned away from the stage, eyes wide with fright. "I can't do it! To perform on a stage like that, I can't do it!"
Stage fright had hit Kai hard and it was starting to affect Riku's own confidence.
"Well, that was alright, wasn't it?" The MC's words traveled backstage, along with the boos of the crowd. "Come on everyone, give them a hand!"
There was a grudging round of applause, but the boos persisted.
"Can't win them all, can we?" The MC chuckled. "Next, we have a new group performing today, please put your hands together for 'PERSONA'!!!"
"Come on, you guys are up, go go go!" A guy with a clipboard and a headset was pushing them on stage. Suddenly, Riku and Kai found themselves in the spotlight, with their microphones in hand and a crowd of people staring at them and clapping.
"Osu!" Riku shook himself out of his stupor. "I'm Riku from Persona!"
"K-K-Kai, I'm," Kai stammered. Riku and Kai both froze after that.
"Opening lines!" Marilyn hissed from the side of the stage. "Opening lines! Say the opening lines you rehearsed!"
Riku nodded, taking the reins. "The both of us are men amongst men, that's why we'll always greet you with an 'OSU'! And you guys can reply with a 'BEST'! Lets try it out! OSU!"
Kai raised his hand, struggling to keep a hold of his stage fright. "OSU!"
The line was supposed to be delivered in a witty way and meant to elicit laughter and response, but it just ended up sounding corny. Paul, Candy, Nao and Hideki were in the audience and they all winced a bit as the crowd booed them for such a horrible line.
"Jesus," Paul grimaced. "Even though I don't really understand Japanese, that was still pretty bad."
Candy nodded, folding her arms across her chest. Nao and Hideki also agreed, having understood basically what Paul had said in English.
"Shachou, that was such an awkward scene!" Marilyn was at Saeko's side, wringing her hands. "Maybe it's too soon for them to debut?"
"This is a test." Saeko replied stonily. She had given Persona several tests since they had signed on. Nao and Hideki were a test, because they had seen many of these idols come and go and their interest and approval was a sign that Saeko had picked the right people. Candy and Paul, as foreigners, had little to no interest in Japanese pop stars beyond the customary 'oh, that's interesting'. The fact that they were here, rooting for Persona meant something. "If they can't handle this, they won't be able to make a name for themselves even though they're disguised as men."
"Anyways, please listen to us," Riku charged forward desperately, he could see his dream going down the drain... "Persona's--"
As Persona floundered, drowned out by the heckling of the audience, there was suddenly a flash of pink and a girl in a frilly dress ran on stage.
"Stop that girl!" Security were on the stage including stage-hands and the two producers from before. They all tried to grab the girl, but a boxcutter kept them away. The crowd gasped as a collective whole, watching the girl waving the sharp object around and holding the security guards at bay.
"Don't come closer! I'll do it!" She held the blade to her throat and the security guards froze, some even backing up a few steps. Cameras started flashing.
"Denpa?!" Kai immediately recognized their long-overdue-comrade.
"What is that girl doing?" Riku grabbed at Kai and whispered harshly into his ear.
"Hinata wants to die!" The Lolita-style girl screamed at the security people, announcing her intent, the box cutter inches away from her own throat. "I've always wanted to be an idol, for that I've been to more than a hundred auditions and at last I thought I'd suceeded."
Denpa's eyes sought out Producer Kaga and rested on him. "I was tricked by Music 10's producer, Kaga!"
The man started visibly and looked around, guilt apparent on his face as all eyes turned to him.
"He said such venomous words to Hinata and..." Hinata's voice dropped a bit, but her voice was still audible to all on stage. "...he tried to... he tried to... do bad things to Hinata..."
Riku felt a chill run down his spine, his heart clenching in sympathy on hearing what Hinata had gone through.
"W-What are you saying?" Kaga laughed nervously, then shouted at the girl. "I didn't do anything at all!"
"Stop pretending! Hinata will definitely not forgive you!" Hinata brandished the sharp blade, warning the people away as they tried to approach her again. "If Hinata dies here, everything will be alright again!"
"Don't do anything stupid!" Kaga screamed out, half out of his mind with fear. If this girl killed herself on the stage of Music 10's The Indies performance, it would ruin everything! And who would the guys on top blame? Since Kaga was the producer in charge and was seen to be somehow involved in this mess, Kaga would definitely be in hot water!
"This doesn't look good, Denpa's snapped!" Kai's fretting pushed Riku into action and he stepped forward to call out to Hinata, trying to calm her down.
"Tenshi!"
The frills-clad girl paused, looking over at the person who had called her 'Angel'.
"You're an angel on Earth!" Riku called out, wincing at how bad that sounded, but knowing it would appeal to the half-crazed Denpa. "An angel."
"What?" Hinata croaked out, barely able to speak past the tears clogging up her throat. She had tried so hard, SO HARD. She had believed that one day someone would look at her and tell her she could do what she always wanted to do: make people happy. Then, Kaga had taken that all away, tricked her and then tried to force himself on her. Thank god she always double-triple-quadruple tied her corsets! But the things he had said after... calling her ugly, worthless... she had tried. She had tried SO. HARD. And for what?
"I know that you're an angel on Earth." Riku looked over at Kai, trying to signal the blonde to help him out.
"Uh, that's right." Kai stepped forward, putting on his best 'convincing' face. "A pure angel on Earth!"
"But if you really are an angel on Earth, you have to bring happiness to everybody." Riku shot a sideways look at Kai and took a step forward too.
"Yeah, an angel would never bring sadness." Kai inched even closer, encouraged by Hinata's immobile state and how she was completely focused on them.
"It's hard, but if it's you, you can do it." Riku delivered his speech with gusto. "You can totally make people happy. But if you end it here, you'll never get that chance."
"Really?" Hinata sniffled, her hands trembling, blade still at her own throat. It was as if these two people knew who she was and what she wanted to do! "I could be an angel? No matter how old I am?"
"Yeah," Riku nodded. "Even if you're eighteen years old--"
"--Even if you're over eighteen!" Kai was an arms-length away from Hinata now.
"You're an angel on Earth." Both of them held out their hands to the girl tentatively. Hinata smiled at them, a genuine smile. All she needed was for someone to tell her she could do it. She had tried... and these performers knew. Noted her effort and told her to keep going. Nobody had thought she could do it and everybody had tried to discourage her. Not these two. There was a charged pause before the boxcutter fell to the stage floor and Hinata took Riku and Kai's hands. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause as stage-hands and security swarmed the stage, police had even been called up. They quickly and gently pulled Hinata away from Riku and Kai, reassuring the two young men who had just stopped a suicide that they would take care of everything.
"Well," Riku blinked as the stage cleared and the MC grinned from the sidelines, motioning for them to continue.
"RIKU, YOU'RE SO COOL!!!!!" Paul screamed out from the crowd, eliciting a chuckle from his female companions.
"KAI, I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES!!!!" Hideki, not to be outdone, decided to add his little bit in.
"Uh," Riku and Kai laughed into their mics as similar calls started pouring out from the crowd.
"Sorry bout that, folks." Kai gave a wave. "But we had to help out a bit."
"Today, please let Persona sing on behalf of all the angels on Earth." Riku spoke into his mic, clearly and calmly. He felt no fear now. He remembered why he wanted to be an idol now, remembered a young girl from long ago, lost in the crowds. And how a bunch of performing musicians had saved her.
"Persona's '3 Seconds'!" Kai and Riku said the title together. As their song began, Candy started jumping and clapping, starting a mini moshpit around her that spread quickly until it seemed everybody in the audience was screaming and clapping for Persona.
"So cool!" Jiro crowed. Having been put right near the front of the stage with the rest of the press and photographers, he had caught the whole drama on stage and knew that he would be eating tonight! The story of how Persona saved that girl was going to be news and he had the pictures for it! And this band... they were just too cool for words!
As Persona sang, only aware of the audience and blinded by the lights, something was happening backstage. Performers parted like the red sea for Sarukawa Keiji, leading a bunch of assistants, hair stylists, make-up artists and a group of three bodyguards who kept their precious cargo within their protective circle. As they passed, musicians bowed respectfully to the imposing entourage, like they would to royalty passing by. The woman nestled in the middle of her protectorate was known from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Even people out in the boonies knew who she was!
And as the group made their way to just off-stage, the bodyguards loosened their circle so Ray could see what was happening on stage and the eyes glued to this entourage could see the charismatic diva in all her glory. Ray was decked out in a simple one-piece cashmere sweater that bared her shoulders and clung to her figure in all the right places, ending just a little above mid-thigh. The dress showed off her gorgeously long legs and she had complimented the outfit with simple white stilettos. Simple. But stunning.
"What was that?" Ray took off her sunglasses, eyes following the two performers on stage, hearing the crowd scream for them. Ray hadn't heard this kind of reaction at the Indies since... well, since she herself had performed back when she was still trying to make a name for herself.
"This is becoming interesting, isn't it, Ray?" Sarukawa watched the boys on stage too, pleased that the performance had been saved since he had a few of his artists performing today... but now, he was wary of Saeko's young talents. Best way to keep his people at the top, Keiji had found out, was to make sure the promising young idols in other agencies didn't get a chance. Nip it in the bud.
Ray was wrapped up in her own thoughts as she watched the two young men on stage performing. She had come just to see if there would be anything interesting since she was around the area. Now she just couldn't stop looking at this new group. Ray also found it highly disconcerting that throughout Persona's performance, her eyes would somehow always manage to zoom in on the blonde performer's figure and his pretty face.
"Arrange for me to meet them." Ray said suddenly. Her bodyguards exchanged glances, a bit surprised. Ray NEVER wanted to meet people and Sarukawa arranged Ray's schedule with that in mind. The idol had a public face for her fans; gracious, grateful, charming and humble. But in reality, Ray wanted as little to do with other people as possible. She never wanted to meet her kouhais in her agency, nor help them unless it was absolutely necessary. For her to want to meet some new kids in some other agency was odd.
"What?" Sarukawa Keiji was thinking along the same lines as the bodyguards and gaped at Ray like she had just sprouted a horn. "You want to meet them?"
"Arrange it." Ray shot him a look that said 'or else'. Then she turned to one of her assistants who winced as soon as the diva's eyes rested on her. "What do I have now?"
"Um..." The assistant tapped at her PDA with trembling fingers. "Y-you have a photoshoot and i-interview with Harper's Bazaar, Ray-sama."
"Well," Ray put on her sunglasses again, stealing one last look at the blonde singer. "We don't want to be late, do we?"
The entourage agreed with the diva enthusiastically and they quickly swept out of the area without Persona ever knowing that Ray, the charismatic diva, had been there watching them.
---
"Persona's the best!" Kai and Riku shouted, walking through one of the hallways of the TV Tohto building, heading to the dressing room the tv station had provided for them to rest and refresh in. After Persona had saved Hinata from killing herself, the station had been unbelievably grateful. The station had served Kaga with his termination letter, lined up some interviews that the TV Tohto wanted to do with Persona and wanted to talk further about letting the upcoming group have some late-night air-time! All in all, a productive day!
Pushing open the door to their dressing room, still high from their success, the two guys, their manager and her secretary didn't notice the person in the room until they had closed the door behind them.
"What..."
In a baseball cap, a zip up hoodie and baggy pants, the boy that turned to face them was quite pretty. Very pretty in fact.
"Let-me-join-too!" The pretty boy smiled at them.
"Huh?" Kai frowned, looking at this boy. He *knew* that face. Both Kai and Riku stepped closer, getting the eerie feeling that they, in fact, DID know this person. And this person seemed to know who they were. Who they really really were!
"AH!" Riku pointed at the stranger wearing the baseball cap. "DENPA!"
"AH!" Kai's eyes lit up in recognition. With her long hair under the baseball cap and the boyish clothes, Hinata was actually pretty indistinguishable from a teenage boy!
"An angel on Earth, eighteen years old." Hinata lowered her voice, the natural smoothness plus the huskiness actually sounded pleasant. "I remember what the both of you said to me! We're auditioning comrades, right? Let me join too!"
"What are you saying?" Riku crossed his arms and pouted, remembering how Hinata had ran off that night. And didn't Persona just debut as a two-person group? "Wanting to join us now is--"
"You're in!" Saeko brushed Riku aside.
"Hai?"
"Huh?!"
"HAH?!"
"Your stage name will be," Saeko placed a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "Kuu. From now on, Persona will be a three person group!"
Marilyn was quick to catch on to what Saeko was doing and started clapping excitedly, happy that Persona's manager had solved what could have been a pretty sticky problem. This girl had almost killed herself today because she was so depressed. She also had immediately seen through Kai and Riku's disguises. There was no telling what this 'Denpa' girl would do.
"As expected of the president!" Marilyn cheered. THIS was why she loved Saeko!
"Yay!" Kuu gave a girly cheer then looked at his new groupmates expectantly.
"Yay." The half-hearted cheer made Kuu stick out his lower lip.
"Not like that!" Kuu punched the air with her fist. "Yay!"
"Yay!"
-
Not to offend you Hirasawaizumi-san but I believe this is plagiarism.
I have read the exact same story in fanfiction.net written by immo. If you are that writer, I am very sorry for accusing you however, if you are not, then I suggest you to not take other people's work and make it as yours.
And I have exact proof to prove it; here is the link where the exact same story is found,
http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol (http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol)
Ever thought that they could be the same user on different sites or that THIS user is just Posting it here so more sttantion can be gain encoureging the writter to post more?
On another note...I enjoyed reading this...even though I've seen the show :P
Various Pairings?...does that mean the other AKB girls are gonna make appearances? :?
If so...I hope one of them is Sae :wub:
Keep up the good work :twothumbs
I can't wait for the next part!...if there will be one... :panic:
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Not to offend you Hirasawaizumi-san but I believe this is plagiarism.
I have read the exact same story in fanfiction.net written by immo. If you are that writer, I am very sorry for accusing you however, if you are not, then I suggest you to not take other people's work and make it as yours.
And I have exact proof to prove it; here is the link where the exact same story is found,
http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol (http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5598310/1/Mendol-Ikemen-Idol)
Ah, I suppost I've not clear myself. sorry bout that.
I'm the author. IMMO. thanks. I'm just reposting it. and IMMO this name is my other name that I use in fanfiction.net
Then I apologize for accusing you for plagiarism. :nervous
'Coz I read that story about a year ago and I became a huge fan of it. Well, I have to admit though that you should have said it in the beginning since I feel like a real idiot right now for accusing you.
Again, I'm really really sorry about that. I hope you would forgive me. :bow: :bow: :bow:
I really like that fic of yours, make that I loved it; I've read it like twice or three times, I guess.
I found it really funny and very interesting. It's amazing really. :) :lol: XD
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I've already read this before from that site but I'm not gonna spoil the ending, even though some of you will later on find out that the ending won't be as how you might have expected XD, but that doesn't mean it's not good okay, don't take it as a discouraging message and stop reading the story because if you do, you would have missed a great story with a lot of hilarious moments and and amazing plot, okay I've said enough XD.
P.S.: Can you pls write another mendol/AKB story with my favorite pairing ending up together this time?
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It says "Medol X AKB48" so I assume AKB girls will make and appearance? That would be awesome!! :)
I watched the actual drama and I liked it so this FanFic is very interesting to me!
I hope to see an update soon! Keep it up :thumbup
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Yeah I thought I read it before at fanfiction.net
So it is the same story... Yeah I liked the story so much.
I do hope for you to make a sequel on it.
And also please update 'painter of the wind: butterflies and flowers' that is at fanfiction.net please
Thank you for the clarification.
:twothumbs :twothumbs :twothumbs
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wow cant believe this story is up here too!!! :w00t: I read this back in like prob jan after watching mendol for the first time and well im truly surprise and happy that's its up here I recently reread it on fanfiction.net so im happy about this :twothumbs I truly love this story its one of my favs and my first mendol or akb fic so its something when I see it up here :) I hope that there might be new stuff incorporated into this story I love all the interactions between ray and kai/nami , all the crazy stuff that happen in Okinawa etc I wont go into more details since I don't want to ruin the story for anyone who hasn't read it yet but heres hoping that you might do maybe a little bit something to the ending of the story it was funny epic funny but I was hoping hinata would end up with you know who yeah and asahi with you know which female its was kinda sad that well kai had someone but they didn't if you get what I mean heres hoping for new surprises in this story if not its still awesome I love this story!!! :inlove: :twothumbs
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Finally, one of the best mendol fic writer has posted the works over here. I really enjoyed your story and please! DO A PART 2! I really love how you write!
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@RJay: Nah, It was my fault who didn't clarify myself in the first place. I change my nickname from IMMO to Hirasawaizumi cause it's more japanese-like :P Anyway, I forgive you. :lol: No big deal lol
@theblueknight: Ah, I'm just posting old chapters here... to those who haven't read the story. :lol:
@prataz: Thanks! :lol:
Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 3
author's note: Every time I watch Mendol, it cracks me up, lol
language!:
daisuki -- I really like you
---
"Goddamn that 'L' woman!" Kai cursed. Having just finished recording a show that would air late night, the young men that made up 'Persona' were in the process of changing.
"Mou!" Kuu agreed, rubbing his back against the wall while trying to slip into a pair of grey baggy sweatpants and force his feet into his pair of white sneakers. Kuu shook his head to keep his longish black hair off the back of his neck, the dark-blue highlights in his hair flashing in the flourescent lights.
"Don't do that!" Riku smacked Kuu on the arm while wiggling about in itchiness-induced agony. Saeko had taken their comfortable binding tanktops and made them try binding themselves with bandages. Why? In case their tanktops were misplaced, they would always have ace bandages handy in first aid kits. Biting his lip against the maddening itchiness, Riku tugged on a pair of nicely-pressed khaki slacks, then proceeded to change into a nice blue button-up shirt.
"The only reason we'd lose our tops is if Saeko took them." Kai said bitterly, having already changed into a white, v-neck cotton shirt coupled with a pair of scuffed jeans and black boots. He was currently in the process of reaching under said shirt to get at the scratchy bandages to his chest. They each owned several of these binding tanktops so if one was in the wash, they would have replacements. Saeko was just being overly cautious now! These past few days had been hell, all three of them trying to stop from wriggling from the itchiness while doing late-night segments and such. It was maddening and took all of their will-power to not scratch like flea-invested dogs.
"I'm sooo itchy!" Kuu whined.
"Hey!" The door to the small closet/changeroom burst open, revealing two guys looking in eagerly.
"KYAAA!" Instinct born from years of juvenile attempts at glimpsing girls half-naked from boys prompted the group to action, even though all three were completely dressed. The three 'men amongst men' gave a high-pitched scream, covering their chests with their hands and turning away from the two men.
"What's with those girlish screams?" One of the guys asked, feeling like he happened across a group of girls changing. "But anyways, I got a question for you guys."
Riku squared his shoulders, scowling at the men as he pulled on a nice light-coloured blazer and slipped nto a pair of nice brown loafers. Kai took this opportunity to pull on his biker-inspired leather jacket that matched his whole 'bad-boy' image, while Kuu slipped on his red hoodie and zipped up, snug and comfortable. "What do you want?"
The two guys had magazines in their hands and held up their treasures proudly. The pages of the magazines had half-naked women spread across them, in various erotic poses.
"These breasts," The guy with the goatee, or as Persona liked to call, Guy #1, held up his magazine, then pointed to his friend's. "and these breasts. Which is better?"
"What?" Persona, as a group, blinked in confusion, slightly disgusted by the two guys in front of them.
"I look at the size of the nipples to pick the winner," Guy #2 explained, circling the large diameter of the nipples in his magazine. "This guy says the smaller the nipples, the better!"
"The ones here are better, right?" Guy #1 pushed the magazine forward eagerly.
"No way," Guy #2 scoffed. "The ones here are better."
"Get outta my way." Riku snorted and rolled his eyes, pushing past the two.
Kai followed after, giving a derisive sniff. "Hmph."
"Bleh!" Kuu sneered at the men. It sucked sharing rooms with other people. After the first day of being spoiled by TV Tohto, they were quickly pushed into a dark corner and it was hard work all the way. They even had to share a dressing room... They didn't mind it though, and even accepted the fact that they hardly got any spending money from Saeko and it felt like everything was working against them...
"Men are the worse!" Kuu whispered conspiratorially with Kai.
"You're right about that." Kai grumbled back, shooting a dirty look over at some of the guys. The sour expression on his face melted when he caught sight of some of the shirtless guys walking around. "But maybe not all of them..."
Kai and Kuu had matching dreamy looks as they ogled the men. Kuu's dreamy sigh made Riku roll his eyes.
"Men are THE BEST!"
Kai turned to Kuu, gushing quietly. "The best part of a man is his strong arms!"
"I want to be held against a man's strong chest." Kuu cooed.
Riku gave a weary sigh. "Maybe women are the worst of all."
The door suddenly burst open and Marilyn, obviously excited, rushed in, not caring that this was an all-men's dressing room. Unsurprisingly, none of the men minded that the woman with the short pencil skirt and low-neckline blouse had popped in.
"Hey you guys!" Marilyn gushed, happy to see her three favourite 'boys'. Persona smiled back at Saeko's peppy secretary. They loved Marilyn; she was easy to get along with and was passionate about pushing them to the top. "The release date of Persona's CD has been confirmed!"
"Seriously?!" Kai squealed. Guys #1 and #2 looked up from their respective girly magazines to look weirdly in Persona's direction.
"Uh," Kai cleared his throat, trying to take on a deeper tone of voice. "I mean, is that so?"
"It's true!" Marilyn continued gushing, incredibly excited for what this news meant to the boys. "On top of that, the distributing company is Japan's #1 Top Seller: Sunny Music Company!"
"Awesome!" Kuu squealed, clapping excitedly. Guys #1 and #2, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation, gave Persona another strange glance. Kuu quickly amended his statement, lowering his voice to a ridiculous baritone. "Er... THAT'S GREAT."
"Right now, the president's off to fetch an influential member of Sunny Music Company!"
Riku clasped his hands in front of his chest, ecstatic at the news. "It's a dream come truuuue!" Another look from the girlie-magazine guys prompted Riku to change his tone of voice. "Uh. I mean. It's like a dream come true, yo."
"You're not dreaming," Kai grinned, pinching Riku's cheek. "Here, here..."
"Me too!" Kuu started pinching Riku's other cheek.
Not to be left out, Marilyn reached forward and pinch Riku's nose. "And here too!"
"Stop it, Kai, Kuu and Marilyn too!" Riku pushed their hands away, a gruff look on his face. But he was so happy. So incredibly happy.
"Isn't it wonderful," Guy #1's loud voice carried over to them easily as he nearly shouted at his partner. "to have an influential person backing you? No talent at all, but you can still debut!"
"Ryoji!" His partner hissed, looking over at Persona nervously. But everybody in the dressing room had heard and while Persona as a group was angry at the accusation, Kai was too hot-tempered to not do something about it.
"You got a problem or something?" Kai's naturally boyish nature and quick tongue caused him to move forward on the two, even though Ryoji topped Kai by at least a head. Riku and Kuu were quick on Kai's heels, holding back the quick-tempered blonde.
"Watch that tone of voice when you're talking to me," Ryoji stood up and looked down on Kai threateningly while his partner clung to his arm in distress, trying to calm his friend down. "We've been in the industry for ten years already."
"What, ten years?" Kai scoffed as Kuu hit the blonde young man repeatedly on the shoulder, trying to get the hot-headed Kai to shut up. "Never heard of you, that's some talent you have there, huh?"
"What'd you say?!" Ryoji was at near roaring volume. "You wanna go?!"
"Yeah, come on, let's fight one to one!" Kai shot back. Marilyn had a grip on Kai's shirt and immediately lost that when Kai pulled loose to lead the way out of the dressing room and into the hallway.
'Kai sure is manly!' Marilyn thought, pleased. But worried. Definitely worried.
"Don't be like this Ryoji--" Guy #2 tried to hold back his friend.
"Come on, give me your best shot!" Kai taunted, loosening his tie and throwing off his jacket. Infuriated by Kai's cocky attitude, Ryoji pushed his friend aside roughly.
"Kai!" Riku called out, following the stream of young men eager to watch the fight. Riku grabbed Kai's arm, leaning in to hiss into his ear. "You idiot! If you slip your gender here by getting in trouble, what are we going to do?"
"That's right!" Kuu agreed, nodding nervously. Kuu hated fighting!
"Let go of me!" Kai brushed his bandmates away, surprisingly strong. Then he turned back to Ryoji, his chest puffed out and sneering slightly at the taller man. Kai was high on an adrenaline rush and the crowd goading the two combatants on only set his blood racing more. "I dislike, no, I *hate* guys like you who don't do anything but whine all day!"
Kai cracked his knuckles, all set to throw down with the other guy.
"You have a death wish, don't you?!" Ryoji roared, throwing his body into a wild right hook. Kai saw that coming from a mile away and quickly ducked under Ryoji's arm, turning to watch the bigger man's momentum. The blonde's smirk died on his lips as he realized the big man's fist was on a crash course with Riku's face.
"KYAAAA!" Kuu screamed in a high-pitched voice, then quickly amended his voice. "No, I mean, AUGHHHH!!!"
Thankfully, just as Riku was about to be hit, some guy ran in front of Riku and intercepted Ryoji's punch, which K-O'd the interloper effectively. The fight was quickly abandoned as everyone gathered around the fallen man, to look at him curiously.
"Who is he?"
---
"Ow ow ow!" The man with the fashionably-permed and dyed hair shrank away from the hot towel in pain. They had managed to wake him up and help him back to their crowded dressing room where he sat on a chair now, tended by Marilyn. This man had an air of importance around him... or maybe it was just just many assistants fluttering around uselessly that gave Persona that impression.
"Does it feel better?" Marilyn asked meekly, shooting Kai a dark look.
'What?' Kai spread out his hands in a gesture of innocence.
"I apologize sincerely," Saeko bowed formally, her expression one of intense remorse and anxiety. "to have allowed you, Katsuyuki-san, the director of Sunny Music, into harm's way."
"Sunny music?" Kuu tilted his head to one side in confusion. Wasn't the director of Sunny Music an old man? Or, at least that was what Kuu expected...
"Katsuyuki-san is the successor of Sunny Music, and he became the director at such a young age!" Saeko frowned at her charges. They always seemed to be causing trouble!
"Nah, my father's success is due to Saeko-san's care and I wanted to help out as soon as I could." Katsuyuki was fresh-faced and had a neatly trimmed beard growing on his chin. His good looks and breeding were coupled with a gracious mannerism; coupled with his heroics from before, he seemed like the perfect man!
"Ah, I want to take good care of Katsuyuki-san too," Saeko fluttered her eyebrows at the young man, approaching him. For some odd and scary reason, Riku felt that Saeko was radiating the persona of a black widow spider at the moment. Marilyn, meanwhile, was glaring at her lover in frustrated anger. The boys of Persona, used to Saeko's quirks, shuffled off to the side to gossip.
"He's really cool!" Kai gushed quietly.
"And I don't see any wedding ring which means.." Kuu grinned at his bandmates. "...he's single!"
"This isn't the time to talk about relationships!" Riku scolded, though he had to admit that the young director was really good-looking. "We're guys now!"
Kuu and Kai were off in their own dream world as they clasped hands and swung them giddily. "A true ikemen!!"
"Hey, you three!" Saeko's bark snapped the three to attention. "Get over here and apologize to Katsuyuki-san!"
Riku and Kuu walked over quickly while Kai grudgingly lagged a bit behind. He didn't do ANYTHING wrong! But still, he apologized with Riku and Kuu.
"We're really sorry."
"It's okay." Katsuyuki waved off their apology and got up from his seat. Walking behind them, he placed his hands on Kai and Kuu's shoulders, in a friendly manner. "Picking a fight, huh? It's really rare to see young men with backbones nowadays."
"Young men?" Kuu blinked and frowned. "You know, actually, Hinata is--"
Kai and Riku both covered Kuu's mouth with their hands, frantically pulling the boy away from Katsuyuki-san.
"Were you about to say something?" Katsuyuki looked at the three, puzzled.
"No, nothing." Riku's grin was a little bit too wide.
"Yeah," Kai elbowed Kuu in the ribs while keeping his hand over the talkative young man's mouth. "nothing!"
"Well, they're off work on their album and finish recording their studio." Saeko bowed low, drawing attention away from her 'boys'. "Thank you so much for coming by and showing an interest in them."
"It was my pleasure." Katsuyuki smiled and returned the bow. He snapped his fingers, as if suddenly remembering something and turned to Persona. "You guys are new in town, right? I'm always looking for people to party with. Why don't you give me your cell and I'll take you out? Sort of a welcome to Sunny Music party."
"Well..." Riku glanced over at Saeko, not knowing how to respond. At their manager's frantic nod, Riku gave her cell number to the young director.
"Marilyn, take them to the recording studio." Saeko said breezily. "I'll walk with Katsuyuki-san to the entrance."
"I--yes. Of course." Marilyn pouted, her bad mood readily apparent. "Come on, you three! You have a lot of work to do!"
The three gave Katsuyuki a short bow and an 'OSU!' then ran off to follow Marilyn.
"The nerve of her!" Marilyn muttered, power-walking through the hallways.
"Marilyn," Kuu raced up beside the other woman, eager to please. The third member of Persona was distinctly different from her bandmates. While Riku was professional and serious, and Kai was brash and cool, Kuu was sweet and eager to please. "Don't be upset! Shachou loves you!"
"She loves a lot of people, but most of all herself." Marilyn muttered darkly. She gave Kuu a weak smile though, seeing that he so wanted to please. "Don't worry, Kuu. I'm alright."
They arrived at the recording studio soon enough and greeted the regulars in the room. Paul, Candy, Nao and Hideki bowed at them cheerfully.
"Kuuuu!" Nao crooked her finger towards the young man, who eagerly trotted over to Nao. "Sit!"
Kuu joking crouched down on the ground in front of Nao.
"Hand!"
Kuu immediately placed his hand on Nao's outstretched one.
"Speak!"
"Nao, DAISUKI!" Kuu said cheerfully and was immediately gathered into Nao's arms joyfully. Nao's reputation as the ice queen in the recording studios had been completely demolished by Persona and she didn't seem to mind one bit.
"Good boy, you're such a good boy!" Nao cooed. Everybody chuckled and shook their heads. Since Kuu's introduction to the group, he had quickly slipped into the flow of things with little to no resistance. Nao had taken to him like fire to gasoline and so had the guys in the recording studio. Candy also seemed to like him well enough, but since she never really talked, it was hard to know for sure.
"What's up?" Kai went over to Paul and Candy, who had been jamming together before they came in. Candy smiled at Kai and motioned to her drums and drummed a quick beat, communicating quite well was was up.
"Waiting for you guys." Paul pointed to his watch and grinned. "You fight?"
"How does news travel so fast here?" Kai demanded to know, shaking his head a bit.
"Working on 'Water'?" Riku sat next to Hideki, immediately serious. They had a good list of songs half-written for their first CD, but there was still some so much to be done. It was getting easier though, and with Kuu in the mix, it was actually even better. Kuu was, to say the least, a musical genius. Apparently, he knew how to play the violin and the piano quite well, compose music and add the necessary layers to a song that needed just that little bit more. 'Water', the second song on their album, was almost all Kuu with input on lyrics supplied by Riku and Kai. This song was going to be a song with just strings and piano. It made for a very clean sound and had more of an R&B feel to it. 'Water' mixed in well with the other distinct songs on the album but one could tell, after a listen at the half-finished music, that it all would form a cohesive whole. Persona had a good sound going for them with a few surprises and everybody working on the album was enthusiastic about the group's first CD.
"No 'Water', guys." Marilyn said firmly. "All of you need to finish recording '3 Seconds'! We have a single to put out soon so today you boys will be singing mostly."
"Okay..." The 'men amongst men' let out a sigh. They loved their '3 Seconds' song... but seriously, they've been singing it non-stop! It would be nice to work on something different.
"That's how to industry works, guys." Nao gave them a cheery smile. "Sing until you're sick of it! Then, hope that you could only be so lucky to hear your song played-out on the radio stations! So come on, all together now!"
Everybody in the recording studio raised a fist up in the air in solidarity. "OSU!"
They got through their day with little to no problems, working hard and giving it their best. When they were finally back at the Kamonohatsu house, the disguises they wore to transform into the dashing young men of 'Persona' was stripped away and only the three girls, Hinata, Asahi and Nami remained.
"Awwww, why do I have to be disguised as a man?" Nami grumbled.
Hinata had something to say too. "Everything might work out if Hinata could get closer to Katsuyuki-san..."
"You two," Asahi sighed, watching the girls flop down onto their futons.
"Whaaaat?" The two grumbled.
'Children,' Asahi thought internally, trying to draw from her supply of patience. 'They're just like children.'
Just about to explain to them AGAIN why they couldn't just reveal their identity to the director of Sunny Music, a loud crash from downstairs and Marilyn's raised voice traveled up to their rooms.
"What's the meaning of this?"
The three girls exchanged looks. All thoughts of Katsuyuki-san were pushed aside and the girls rose as one to tiptoe out of their room to check out what was going on.
"Looking after Katsuyuki-san's father? Taking care of the bottom part of that perverted president?" Marilyn's accusations flew fast and furious. "Even though you said yourself that men are filthy!"
"I would do everything to help these kids debut." Saeko's back was turned to Marilyn. "Persona is my, Kamonohatsu Saeko, own ambition. No matter how I *bleep* and *bleep* with men, I definitely did it because I want to help them become Japan's Number 1 Top Idol group!"
"But you don't have to *bleep*."
The girls listened on in shock and felt their eyes moisten a bit at the hardship that their manager had gone through for them. But their tearful eyes quickly dried up when Saeko turned to Marilyn, a devilish look on her face and a feather in her hand.
"You're jealous, aren't you?" purred the dark-haired manager, running the feather lightly over Marilyn's exposed skin, made possible by the secretary's usual low-cut blouses.
"Even if you say that, I'm..." Marilyn gasped, obviously turned on. "I'm... not letting you off!"
"Is that so?" Saeko moved behind the secretary, her near proximity and the danger radiating off the manager a complete and utter turn-on to the sexy secretary. The buxom assistant let out a low groan as Saeko alternated between kissing and licking that spot on her neck that she liked so much.
'I'm... letting... her off again...' Marilyn thought hazily before all her thought-processes were put on hold by Saeko's expert ministrations.
"Those two are doing L again!" The three girls whispered in dismay.
Nami felt like she was going to throw up a bit in her mouth. The other two girls didn't have as big a reaction as Nami but it was still really, REALLY awkward when Saeko and Marilyn decided to do it in public places where the girls were likely to stumble upon them!
---
"Sugu ni, ugokenaku naru! Sanbyou mitsumeru dake de," It was recording time in the studio again and Persona was giving their all. Everybody was in casual clothes again today, since all they'd be doing was staying in the recording studio.
"Otoshite miseyou ka!"
They were all in tune and everybody was singing at their very best. Except for one group member, that was, who was trying his hardest to get rid of the distracting thoughts running through his head. These thoughts were of a certain manager and a certain secretary going at it on the couch in the Kamonohatsu house living room, an image that had burned into his head before he had had the chance to retreat and run screaming to the room Asahi, Hinata and Nami shared.
"OmaaaE nO aiii nanteee..." Kai's singing was being affected by his seriously disturbed psyche. Paul, who was hanging around the studio even though it was his day off, watched from behind the soundproof glass that gave a view into the recording room. Frowning a bit at the odd notes coming from out of Kai's throat, he nudged Hideki and nodded towards Kai.
"He's been like that since he came in." Hideki explained and shrugged. "I tried to ask him--"
"UWAAA!!!" The feedback made Nao and Hideki yank off their headphones and look into the recording room just in time to see Riku and Kuu mirror their reaction and Kai freak out.
"I can't take it anymore!" Kai shouted, the look of horror on his face was almost comical. "I'm going to escape the clutches of the L's! Staying there with them SICKENS MEEEE!!!"
"What are you saying?" Riku and Kuu made a grab for Kai before he could run for it. Kai, the guy who seemed unafraid of anything, had reached his limits with the L. Kuu and Riku didn't really have a problem with 'L's or 'Gay's (except for when they have sex in public places... and that goes for boy/girl couples too!), but Kai was going a little overboard.
"Let go of me!" Kai tugged against his bandmates' grasp. "I hate L the most!"
Finally managing to shake off their restraining hands, he ran for the door just as it opened. Like a football player, Kai tried to slip past whoever was blocking the doorway and since Kai was no football player, he only managed to knock right into the man blocking his path.
"WAAAH!" The man was no other than Sarukawa Keiji, president of Monkey Productions. Knocked down to the ground, Sarukawa let out some low-pitched whining while he rubbed his sore arm.
"Sarukawa-shachou!" Riku was quick to act, rushing to greet the man as his bandmates lined up beside Riku. Keiji got to his feet, managing a smile at the three young men.
"Osu!" Riku greeted, giving a quick bow that Kai immediately mimed while Kuu watched the proceedings curiously, unsure of who this man was. Riku pulled Kuu forward and directed Keiji's attention to their newst member. "This is the first time you've seen Kuu, isn't it? Kuu, This is Sarukawa-shachou. He's the President of Monkey Productions, the parent company of Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency."
"Osu! Kuu-su!" Kuu stood up a bit straighter and smiled brightly at the man.
"Ah, so you're the new member. I've heard from Saeko." Keiji grinned at them. "Actually, today I've brought a special guest here."
Taking a step away from the doorway to the side, Keiji allowed for a woman with large sunglasses on, decked out in a white dress that fell just above the knees to walk into the recording studio. She wore a faux-fur vest and supplemented her outfit with long strings of pearls and a lacy scarf that went almost all the way down to her feet, looking like she had just stepped off a cover of a magazine in her fashionable white boots. A large bulky man who looked like he benched 500 pounds everyday walked in after her.
The mystery guest had looked extremely familiar to Persona when she had walked in and as soon as she took off her sunglasses, all three of the young men in the room recognized her immediately.
"R-Ray?!" Riku stuttered, completely stunned that his idol was right in front of him.
"Seriously?" Kai's jaw fell open.
Kuu shot off a line of info, too shocked to do anything else. "Ranked No. 1 continuously for ten weeks on Music 10, the very charismatic singer, Ray! Here! In this studio! Right now! AT THIS MOMENT--"
Only a quick nudge from Riku shut up the babbling Kuu.
Keiji grinned, always proud of the fact that his girl, his Ray, reflected what he, Sarukawa Keiji, had been all those years ago. Number one in the whole of Japan! Persona stood there, in slight awe of the woman in front of them and all three of the men that made up this boyband wore identical shit-eating grins on their faces even though Kai tried really hard to keep his smile in control. He had to be cool! He had to be calm... but... but it was Ray! She was right there, in front of them!
"Ray is under our main department and now is our company's best-selling artist." Keiji pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket, absentmindedly dusting Ray as if she was some sort of golden statue. Ray had to give a discreet cough before her overzealous manager backed off. Seriously. She needed better management.
While her manager gave the group a long list of the awards and honours Ray had received, the Diva studied the three young men in front of her. She noted that while two of them were average height, the blonde one was pretty short for a guy. What had caught her attention then? What about the blonde made it impossible for her eyes to not to follow his figure when he was performing on The Indies' stage? She had been mesmerized by his soft face...
"Ano..." Riku interrupted her thoughts and when the singer looked at him, he fidgeted nervously in place. "I've always been a fan of Ray's. If you don't mind, could I please shake hands with you?"
Kai and Kuu both nodded eagerly but before they even had a chance, someone had beaten them to the punch.
Jumping in front of Riku, a tall man in the light green jumpsuit of a janitorial staff grasped Ray's hands in both of his own, shaking her hand enthusiastically, while professing how honoured he was to be able to meet the songstress.
"Oi!" Kai grabbed the taller man's shoulders before Ray's bodyguard could move into action, then blinked in surprise, recognizing the man with the goatee from yesterday's fight.
"AH! You're that idiot from yesterday!" Kai withdrew her hand, not eager to touch him for more than a moment. "Why the hell are YOU here?"
"When there's no music jobs, I'm here doing janitorial work as part-time to earn some cash." Ryoji growled, a bit angry that the cocky young man from yesterday was interrupting the moment he was having with Ray. Her hand still in his grasping ones, Ryoji grinned at her again, not seeing the boyguard behind him move forward threateningly. Nor did he see Ray's narrowed eyes look over the musician/janitor's shoulder to stop her guard in his tracks.
Ray would deal with this problem herself.
"I... I've always wanted to stand on the same stage with Ray--"
She slapped his hands away. Outwardly, she could have been a sculpture shaped out of ice... inside a storm howled, raging inside of her. The frustration from having her creative input dismissed, the outrage she felt from having some JANITOR be able to sneak past her incompetent bodyguard to paw at her and her natural prickliness found a convenient target.
"That's so old-fashioned."
"Old-fashioned?" Ryoji blinked. Ray's true personality was like an unpleasant splash of icy cold water to all in the room who did not have daily contact with Ray.
"Old-fashioned?" Persona echoed, shocked at how Ray was treating one of her fans. Even if he WAS an idiot.
"Hmm." Ray shook her head, her expression thoughtful. Hiro, her bodyguard, winced at that look. He had seen Ray like this a few times before, right before she pulled out something extremely hurtful to say. Nobody deserved to be on the Diva's bad side.
"Not old-fashioned," Ray rocked on her heels, eyes sharp and cold. "If I'm top-grade caviar, you'd be shark faeces."
'Where the hell does she get these comparisons?' Hiro wondered, feeling sympathy pains for Ryoji who looked ready to cry. The joy that had been lifting him up before quickly disappeared along with his self-worth.
"How could shit and caviar be on the same stage?" Ray turned away, her tone still light and casual, as if asking a question about the weather. "It's sickening just thinking about it."
She strolled over to the little couch in the room and sat down, crossing her legs, a haughty air about her. Kai had watched this all unfold, feeling a righteous anger bubbling up inside him that he was trying to control... but every other word out of Ray's mouth made Kai want to slap her.
"Um... uh..." Ryoji lowered his head a bit, accepting the devastating blows to his pride, unable to defend himself.
"If your status doesn't meet your dreams, you're better off waking up." Ray delivered her finishing blow coldly. "And disappearing."
"Yo, you ugly hag! What the hell is your problem?" Kai couldn't take it anymore and blurted out the words that had been just dying to come out. Ray looked up at Kai from her spot on the couch, trying not to show how shocked she was that someone had DARED to talk back to her.
"What's wrong with peole who want to achieve their dreams? I don't care if you're the most popular singer or whatever! A woman with an ugly character like yours is nothing to rejoice about!"
Actually, everybody was in total and utter shock at Kai's words, not just Ray. Riku was the only one able to shake herself out of it though, horrified at the thought of the trouble Kai's mouth would get them into.
"Oi, how can you say that to Ray-san?" Riku scolded Kai and the blonde bristled. Was EVERYBODY on this spoiled princess' side? Sure, that idiot Ryoji was one of the biggest idiots Kai had ever met, but even HE didn't deserve to be berated like that!
"Get offa me!" Kai pushed Riku back roughly, his attention still on the Diva sitting on the couch. Riku's momentum knocked him back onto his ass and into a small table, upending a glass of water all over the young brunette man.
"Riku!" Kuu used the sleeves of his flannel shirt to try and pat dry Riku's hair, worried that his bandmates' wig might be ruined.
"Listen here!" Kai grabbed Ray's wrist and pulled her up in one fluid motion, getting right up in the Diva's face despite the height difference. Ray's eyes were locked on Kai's, her expression was a bit softer and looking just a bit hurt by Kai's words. "If you don't fix that attitude of yours, you're gonna be lonely for the rest of your life."
Before Kai could continue his rant, Saeko burst into the room and ran at the blonde, pushing him out of the way. Immediately, she turned to Ray, looking completely apologetic.
"I AM SINCERELY SORRY!" Saeko bowed as low as she could without losing her balance, hoping her apology would placate the Diva and Saeko wouldn't immediately have to slaughter Kai to appease Music 10's Number One.
Instead of exploding though, Ray was motionless, her eyes trained on Kai who was picking himself off the ground and grumbling about abusive 'L' managers... before Kai could dust himself off and face Ray again, the Diva had turned around and stormed out of the room.
"Ray!" Keiji and Hiro ran after the singer, but not before Keiji threw a furious look in Kai's direction. Running to catch up to the big bodyguard, Keiji vented on the big man.
"Why didn't you stop that kid from talking like that to Ray?! Now we'll never get anything done today!" Keiji hissed.
"Why didn't YOU do something?" Hiro raised an eyebrow at Keiji. He was being slightly disrespectful, he knew, but Hiro also knew that there were few people Ray could stand and he was one of the few she tolerated around her day and night. So Keiji wouldn't be firing him soon.
'But I messed up big time.' Hiro thought darkly. He had let his guard down, thinking that they were inside the workplace and there wouldn't be crazies around trying to tear off a piece of Ray. Even though that janitor was harmless, what if he hadn't been?
"Ray!" Hiro called out, leaving Sarukawa behind to catch up with the songstress ahead. She had her sunglasses on already and the main bulk of her staff who had been waiting in the hallways while Ray visited with Persona, swarmed around her.
"Yo, man. What happened?" Another bodyguard walked along side Hiro, his voice low. He had heard the raised voices inside the recording room and was in the process of going in to check up on Ray before he was nearly bowled over by her royal highness. Hiro gave a small shake of his head: this was not a good time to be talking about it. The other bodyguard nodded, understood what Hiro was trying to say and knew exactly what kind of stink the Diva could kick up when she was in a bad mood.
"What do I have today?" Ray barked down at a mousy assistant following her. The assistant eeped and quickly rattled off Ray's schedule.
"Fine. But cancel my dinner appointment with what's-his-face." Ray's face brooked no argument.
"Ray," Keiji waded through the crowd. "Ray, I'll get someone to take care of those boys. They won't work in this town, let alone this country--"
"Don't you dare." Ray came to a screeching halt and several people almost toppled over trying to hold themselves back and away from the Diva so they wouldn't crash into her from her sudden stop. "It... it was a misunderstanding, that's all." Her eyes sought out her manager's, the expression in her eyes sharp and unforgiving. "Don't let me find out you've done something stupid."
"Oh... kay." Hiro was starting to get weirded out. Was this really the Ray he knew? Was she... trying to PROTECT someone instead of ruthlessly stamping them out under her heel?
"What's his name?" Ray ignored her flabbergasted manager and asked her assistant softly. "The short, blonde one."
"Um," The assistant blinked rapidly, unused to this side of Ray. "Uh, his name, um... Kai. His name is Kai."
"Kai." Ray smiled a bit. The name fit.
-
Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 4
author's note: Who else is watching Majisuka Gakuen? :D And just a heads-up to all the AKB48 fans that might be reading this fic -- there definitely will be some guest appearances later on from certain members. :D
language!:
gomen nasai - sorry
ecchi - pervert
ohayo (gozaimasu) - good morning
"Why are we here again?" Kuu muttered unhappily, surrounded by girls who were trying to press drinks into his hands. The boys were in nice dress shirts and slacks, Riku had even opted to wear a tie while Kuu and Kai decided to do without. Persona had decided to go out after getting a call from Katsuyuki-san to join him at a very exclusive club. Riku had thought this was the only way to lift the heavy mood from before, after sharing with Hinata the story of Nami and Asahi's brush with the snake-guy. Saeko had allowed them to go, albeit grudgingly, with conditions and a curfew. Riku, Kuu and Kai had all complained at the mention of a curfew but now they wished the curfew was earlier. This was NOT the type of fun they had in mind.
"He's the director of Sunny Music, this is work." Riku explained weakly. He had no idea this was going to be THAT kinda club when he had accepted Katsuyuki-san's invitation.
"Gaaah! Don't touch me there!" Kai hissed, his face scrunched up in pain. Some girls seemed to have taken a shine to Kai and they leaned closer at his exclamation, cooing about how they would 'kiss Kai's boo-boo all better'. Where was Kai's boo-boo? Well... Kai had paid dearly for telling off Ray. Saeko and Marilyn had been furious at Kai's lack of respect and as a way to keep the hot-tempered Nami in check, they had held her down and whipped her ass to drive the point home.
"Don't even THINK about kissing me there! Hentai, get offa me!" Kai was blushing a bright red and his cute sputtering only served to attract even MORE girls to him. It was like dumping a bucketful of blood into the ocean; sharks were bound to appear.
"Ne, ne, we saw how you guys saved that girl on stage during the Indies," The woman on the left of Riku cooed. "It was soooo cool!"
"Ha, yeah..." Riku kept trying to pull his arm out of the woman's grasp, his own face going red when she kept rubbing her two very big assets against his trapped arm. This was not turning out like Riku had planned. The level-headed one of Persona had imagined that they would all go out to eat, have a little to drink and then head home just in time for curfew. He had NOT imagined being surrounded by women who were a bit more touchy-feely than he was used to or comfortable with.
They had had such a difficult morning... besides Kai's argument with Ray, Asahi had bumped into Jiro in her girl form! Riku's entire outfit had gotten wet during Kai's scuffle with Ray and instead of going to the changeroom to change, Asahi had just picked a random empty meeting room to use. Kuu had left his red hoodie with Asahi and then ran to get dry clothes for her. With her wig and pants off, Asahi had snuggled into Kuu's big hoodie and settled down to wait when Jiro had tumbled through an open window.
'Thank god that idiot had jumped to a conclusion right away and left.' Riku sighed, still trying to pull away from the woman holding on to her arm. Now, stupid Jiro thought she was working as an idol and had finally achieved her dream... well... he was right on most points but Riku guessed that Jiro wouldn't have thought that Asahi would be debuting as a man.
"Really," Riku tried to be polite as the woman pressed closer. "You don't really have to hold on to me like this."
"But I feel so good!" Riku's companion fluttered her eyelashes at the young man.
"SAVE...ME..." Kuu was pinned between two women who were arguing heatedly about who Kuu would prefer.
"Oh, sorry for calling you guys out suddenly like that." Katsuyuki-san had two girls on either side of him and he hugged them close, grinning at the three young men. "I'm picking up the tab tonight so everyone, party hard!"
All the other men with them, young up and comers and some older executive types who worked in the industry were there and all of them cheered, ecstatic to hear that the young director was treating.
"Excuse me," The tone of Riku's voice was bordering on annoyed. "What is this place?"
"What?" Katsuyuki-san stopped necking some girl to look over at the young brunette in astonishment. "Haven't you heard of the Fast Club?"
"What, don't tell me it's your first time!" The girl on Katsuyuki's arm was on Riku immediately. "That's sooo cute!"
"Come on, it's okay to touch." The girl was cute, her hair in relaxed curls down her bare shoulders. For some odd reason, all the girls were wearing swimsuits that all seemed a size too small. Letting slip that this was the first time Persona had been to Fast Club was a big mistake as the working girls all focused on the newbies, delighted that there was fresh blood.
"Stupid, leeeeet goooo of meeeeeee!" Kai's horrified cry was lost in the loud music and the giggles of the girls as they pounced on the three boys.
"Nooooo!" Kuu's high-pitched whisper reached Riku's ear as the young man tried hard to push a swimsuit-clad girl off her lap as politely as possible.
"This is wonderful!" Katsuyuki-san turned to one of the other men that had joined him on this outing and they all laughed, enjoying the girls of Fast Club a lot more than the boys of Persona were. Thankfully, a whistle suddenly sounded and most of the girls--including the ones on Kuu, Kai and Riku's laps--vacated the area.
"Your time is up!" A man in a waiter's uniform came up and bowed politely to the customers. "Thank you very much!"
"Thank you very much!" The girls echoed cheerfully before prancing off to see to other guests.
"Byebye!" Katsuyuki-san waved cheerfully. "See you again soon!" As soon as they left, the director sat down next to Riku, a lecherous smirk on his face. "It's not bad, right? The theme's 'High School Girls'. They wear school swimsuits during Physical Education and aprons during Home Ec."
"Katsuyuki-san's a regular here," One of the girls that had stayed, introduced as Aiko, poured a whiskey on the rocks for the director and snuggled up next to him, pouting. "However, he has ten lovers and doesn't come here often."
"But I keep coming back because of you, Aiko." Katsuyuki rubbed Aiko's shoulders, cooing in baby-talk with her as she played the part of the spurned lover.
"Ten?" Kuu pulled a face, his opinion of Katsuyuki falling fast.
Kai leaned over to Kuu. "What a horrible guy."
"Eh?" Katsuyuki sat up a bit, frowning, having caught the end of that.
"No, well, don't worry about it. Um, well, I wanted to thank you for yesterday." Riku said quickly while discreetly pinching Kai's bottom.
"GYAH!!" Jumping up a bit, Kai glared at Riku as everyone at their table looked at the blonde strangely.
"Yesterday?" The young director seemed confused... and a bit distracted since his fingers were dancing lightly over Aiko's breasts.
"Ah yes, you protected Riku from getting punched." Kuu supplied.
"Ah, that!" Katsuyuki grinned, remembering the occasion. "Nah, it wasn't like I wanted to protect him. That time, I was just heading into the building with your manager when we saw you guys fighting. Saeko had run up to seperate you two and I had run after her. I didn't anticipate the fact that she'd stop short of you guys and I bumped into her and tripped a bit. My momentum sorta put me right in front of that guy's fist."
"That means... it's just a coincidence?" Riku was crushed. He had thought he had found a prince, a real man amongst men! But... Katsuyuki-san was turning out to be quite disappointing.
"I have nothing to say." Kai folded his arms, shaking his head.
"Well, forget about that, it's in the past." Katsuyuki motioned to Aiko who had already started preparing drinks for the three members of Persona while other girls were pouring out drinks for the other men sitting at their table. "Come on, drink up."
"No thanks," Riku rejected the offer quickly. "We're still underage."
"What?" Katsuyuki-san scoffed. Everybody else was downing their drinks. "Then... sing!"
"Sing?"
"You guys are singers, right?" Katsuyuki had a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he stood up and clapped, getting everyone's attention. "Hey, everyone! Gather up, the popular group, Persona is going to sing for us!"
There were cheers as everyone enthusiastically agreed to Katsuyuki's idea, extolling his genius and how much they had wanted to hear Persona sing, too. To Kuu, it sounded like everyone was just brown-nosing but hey, what did he know?
"Why must we sing in this place?" Kai grumbled as he and his bandmates were pushed to the centre of the room with mics pressed into their hands and the music in the club turned off. Riku had to agree with Kai this time. He felt like he was a trained monkey and when Katsuyuki said 'dance' they were supposed to dance.
"Hinata doesn't want to sing," Kuu pouted.
"That's Sunny Music's successor, we'd better not upset him." Riku rationalized, making a point in his head to politely put off Katsuyuki-san next time he invited them out at night.
"Hey, hurry up and sing!" Katsuyuki shouted. The other guys at the table joined in on the heckling, starting a chant.
Riku frowned but brought the mic up. "Well then, please listen to us, Persona's--"
A whistle sounded, interrupting them along with the suddenly loud generic music that had been playing in the background. The girls that had left their table before came back in just aprons and lacey lingerie, flooding the table with their girlish giggles and immediately pouncing on Persona.
"Wait a moment--don't--!" Riku barely managed to jump away as hands grabbed at her pants.
"Don'ttakeitoffdon'ttakeitoff!" Kai clutched at his shirt, trying to stop questing hands from popping the buttons on his shirt.
"Pleeeease stop that--" Kuu started off in a girly voice then quickly tried to amend his mistake, sounding like a boy just going through puberty. "I mean, uh, STOP THAT."
The three young men all exchanged frantic looks and all came to a similar consensus: EVERYBODY FOR THEMSELVES!
With that in mind, Riku, Kai and Kuu all ducked down, slipping from the scantily-clad women's grasps. Riku broke free first, glancing behind him to see that his two bandmates had been caught.
"GOMEN NASAI!" Riku blurted out before running away from several girly pursuants who thought this all was a game.
"TRAITORRR!" Kai and Kuu screamed as they were dragged back into the mob of giggling girls. Riku ran for his life, not understanding why she was so deathly afraid of them catching up to her... and the GIGGLING. The giggles were soul-chilling! Ducking around a corner, Riku hid off to the side, waiting for the footsteps of the girls chasing him to fade away.
'But they could come back!' Riku's eyes darted around and he noticed the fire escape. The roof!
"WAAAHHH!!!" Rushing up the stairs, Riku burst through the door, relieved to be away from the suffocating atmosphere of the Fast Club. "What the hell is up with that Katsuyuki? Even though he saved me... but that's just a coincidence." Riku continued muttering to himself, moving to the barrier around the roof. "Asking us to sing, yet indulging himself with women. "As I expected, men are the worst!"
The door to the roof suddenly flying open scared the hell out of Riku, but instead of the pursuing girls he had expected, Katsuyuki-san stumbled through the door with a bottle of cognac.
"What are you doin' up'ere?" Katsuyuki-san slurred.
"Ah, nothing," Riku said hurriedly. He did NOT want to be alone with this idiot. "We should be getting back."
But just as he passed Katsuyuki-san, the young director grabbed a hold of his arm, stopping Riku in his tracks. The tall director regarded Riku with a frown, his breath smelling of strong liquor. "You're a weird guy, you know? A really weird guy."
"Hey," Riku tried to keep his nerves in check, putting a scowl on his face and pulling out of Katsuyuki-san's grasp. But inside, Riku was freaking out. What if the director knew Persona's secret?! What would happen then?! "What do you mean by 'weird guy'?"
Katsuyuki gave Riku a bitter half-smile now. He was tipsy, but he was still thinking quite clearly. "Normally, people will always try to flatter me. If I bring them to places like this, they'll listen to whatever I say." Katsuyuki put down his bottle of cognac on the balcony edge. "But you guys are different."
"That's nothing to be happy about." Riku muttered to himself. They were too different, different enough for other people to notice. They weren't like normal guys. This was bad.
"Eh?"
"Uh, nothing. Well, you know, we're men amongst men." Riku said, hoping Katsuyuki-san would take that excuse. He walked up to lean against the balcony beside Katsuyuki-san as the director gave the young man an appraising look. If anybody else had said they were 'men amongst men', Katsuyuki would have laughed at them. But when this guy said it... well, Katsuyuki believed him.
"I have yet to have someone like that by my side. That's why I've been ordering those around me like idiots." Katsuyuki smiled self-deprecatingly. "I'm the worst of them all."
"It's true that men are the worst." Riku turned to Katsuyuki, suddenly wanting to cheer up the young director. It was just... heart-breaking seeing that hardened bitter look in Katsuyuki-san's eyes. "But because of that, everything becomes interesting."
"Interesting?"
"They're the worst and surprisingly idiotic. But even if they are the worst, if you know the reason their like that, you will know that they're a little interesting." Riku tried to explain, a bit frustrated that she couldn't explain her feelings better. "I mean... Katsuyuki-san, what makes you act the way you do?"
Katsuyuki turned away from Riku, looking out at the city lights. Everything was so pretty...
"My father." Katsuyuki said suddenly.
"Eh?"
"My father, I guess. I feel like everybody expects a lot from me, because of my father." Katsuyuki said slowly. "But most of all, father expects the most from me. And I'm trying... trying really hard, to be more like him. But it feels like I can't be myself. I'm trying to do what my father would do, but I feel like I make bad decisions--"
"But what would Katsuyuki-san do?" Riku tilted his head to the side. "You're trying so hard to be like someone you're not, why not try being yourself?"
Katsuyuki was stunned by the simple, yet insightful answer Riku had given him. It was an answer, really, that anyone would have given him and had been giving him. But when other people said 'Be yourself' they actually meant 'Be like your father. That is who you are'. From this... kid in the industry... it felt like something.
"What was that--" Katsuyuki grinned foolishly, wanting to make light of the suddenly heavy atmosphere. He was a bit drunker than he thought though and tripped over his own feet. Thankfully, Riku was there to steady him.
"Are you alright?" Riku had a firm grip on his arm, pulling Katsuyuki back up.
"Geez," Katsuyuki straightened up, patting Riku's body in appreciation. "Riku, you ARE really manly. You have a small physique..."
'What... what... is going on?' Riku frowned, the girl part of his brain was sounding the alarm. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.
"But your chest is surprisingly solid, huh." Katsuyuki continued pressing his hands against Riku's, chest, palming the flesh in his hands to better appreciate how solid Riku was. Riku, meanwhile, was staring at Katsuyuki in slack-jawed horror.
"ECCHI!" Riku shouted and pushed Katsuyuki away with all his might. Being a bit drunk, Katsuyuki fell like a tree.
"What the hell!" Katsuyuki growled up at Riku, then paused, noticing Riku's tomato-red face and commented on it stupidly. "Your face is really red."
Riku had no words. First, Katsuyuki-san was nice, then they found out it was all an accident AND THEN he's some womanizer and after THAT he seemed really sad and NOW he was feeling Riku up! Without another word, Riku ran back to the doors that lead down to Fast Club. Hurrying down the stairs, he marched back to the main room of Fast Club, determined to gather her group mates and get back home.
"Kai, Kuu, lets go back!" Riku shouted crossly as he entered the loud room. It had been loud before, but now the place was near deafening with the excited shrieks from the girls of Fast Club.
"Kai-chan and--" Kai was swaying tipsily.
"Kuu-nyaa are--" Kuu was also swaying from side to side.
"ABOUT TO START!"
The girls shrieked again as the guys started dancing to the music, funny enough, ridiculously in time to the beat and totally a hit with the girls. Riku wouldn't have minded so much if it was just the dancing, but when Kuu started undoing his belt and suggestively thrusting his hips at some girl, Riku knew he had to do something! Rushing forward, he tried frantically to buckle Kuu's belt again, to the displeasure of both Kai and Kuu. From his proximity, Riku could smell the fumes of alcohol coming off the two in waves. Kai and Kuu were drunk off their rockers!
"We're just about to start our happy time!" Kuu was a little bit too loud and a lot more boyish than usual.
"Thas'right," Kai pulled at Riku's shirt clumsily. "Riku has to take it off too!"
"No, no, Saeko will kill us!" Riku hissed. That seemed to cut through the alcoholic haze Kai and Kuu were in.
"No more whippings!" Kai blurted out fearfully.
Kuu nodded. "No, no, we'll be good!"
"Buuuut..." A sly smile passed over Kai's face. "A drink'sa'right!"
"A glass of shochu on rock, coming up!" A peppy girl was at their side in a moment, holding a too-large glass of alcohol. With his arms held on either side by Kuu and Kai, Riku found the drink pressed to his lips and the surprisingly smooth drink going down his throat.
'Oh, hell.'
And that was the last coherent thought Riku would have all night.
---
"My head huuuurts..." Nami groaned. Every chirp from the birds outside was like a nail driving into her skull. They had somehow all arrived home, changed and slipped in to their futons in the room they shared. Of course, they all smelled of smoke and alcohol and the scent permeated the room.
"Ahhh... Hinata's about to diiieeee..." Hinata agreed.
"We have to get up quickly." Asahi groaned, glancing at the clock on the wall. They were going to be late... "If shachou finds out--"
"Ohayo." Two voices, not very happy-sounding voices, greeted them. Shachou and Marilyn! The three girls promptly jumped to their feet.
"OHAYO GOZAI--" All three stopped as vertigo hit them at the same time, along with nausea and pain.
"GAH!" Nami clutched her head in agony.
"I feel terrible." Hinata clamped a hand over her mouth, hoping nothing would come up.
"It's nothing," Asahi said quickly. "We'll change our clothes as soon as possible--urk."
Saeko took a step closer and took a tentative sniff. She immediately regretted it as the smell of stagnant alcohol hit her.
"Stinks." Saeko coughed, hoping that she wouldn't upchuck the breakfast Marilyn had prepared for her. Holding out a hand, she was happy to feel the familiar handle of her whip in her palm within moments. Marilyn was not just a pretty face, she was an amazing assistant/secretary!
"Seems like the three of you have been out partying, huh?" Saeko glowered at them. The things she had told them not to do they did! They had broken curfew AND they had been drinking! Saeko didn't even want to THINK about any of the girls smoking!
"WHIP." The girls cringed, recognizing the instrument of torture immediately.
"ATTENTION!" Marilyn barked. The girls immediately straightened up, dreading what was to come.
"TURN RIGHT!" The girls all turned until their backs were facing Marilyn and Saeko.
"STICK OUT YOUR BUTTS!"
The girls did so.
"This will make you remember for a hundred years!" Saeko brought the whip down on Asahi's butt as hard as she could.
"AH!"
"You have to be aware of your image as an idol!" Hinata was next in line and Saeko didn't play favourites: Hinata got just as good as Asahi did.
"YAHH!"
"You haven't learned at all from the previous experience, huh?" Saeko came to the last in line and this time, wound up for the strike. Saeko played no favourites, but she seemed to have chosen a favourite whipping-boy... or girl... or boy... whatever... to whip.
"UWAAAAHHHH!!!!!"
---
"It seems as if there are people looking for Nami-chan and Asahi-chan." Marilyn leaned forward to whisper to Saeko. The president of Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency gave a barely perceivable nod of her head as she kept her eyes on her charges in the recording studio. Saeko had already gotten a heads-up about Nami and Asahi's pursuers after 'overhearing' (hidden mics were okay in private spaces like bedrooms, cameras were not) the girls talking about their encounter with the 'snake-guy', Saeko had been prepared for this. Why hadn't that stupid girl Asahi given that purupuru to the men when they had asked for it?
"We'll just have to watch them more closely now. But," Saeko glanced at Marilyn. "Make sure nothing leads back to us. We have to protect these boys."
"Hai." Marilyn said smartly, her stomach fluttering a bit at how intense shachou was. Saeko was just so awesome! Even with a frown marring the dark-haired shachou's face. A frown? Marilyn followed Saeko's gaze, through the sound-proof glass, into the recording room. The problem was apparent: Kai was messing up the recording.
"I don't feel so good." Kai gagged, clapping his hands over his mouth. They had showered and dressed in casuals again, Kai and Kuu going a bit more casual than usual and had opted to just wear sweat pants, hoodies and t-shirts. Even the normally straight-laced Riku was in a t-shirt, casual jacket and jeans.
"You idiot, we're going to get whipped again if you do that!" Kuu pointed discreetly at the window. Saeko stared back at them and brandished her whip. Riku and Kuu smiled pleasantly and gave Saeko a small nod, feeling cold sweat bloom on their foreheads.
"I know, but I--" Kai practically threw off his headphones as he gagged again, making a mad dash for the exit. Ignoring Riku calling his name, Kai got out of the recording room and headed towards the door marked exit.
'Fresh air fresh air fresh air fresh air--' With that mantra repeating in his head, Kai pounded up the stairs and exploded out on to the roof.
"I can't take it anymore, my head hurts and I feel like barfing." Kai leaned against the roof's railings, feeling just a little better now that he was outside. But with that said, the blonde still felt like shit and was thankful that the sky was a bit dim today. If there was sunlight, it would've been like knives sticking into his eyes. As Kai moaned quietly to himself, he was unaware that there was someone else on the rooftop and that someone was slowly walking towards Kai.
Ray had come up to the rooftop to get some air and think. She had worked the whole day yesterday and gone home early just so she could relax. But she just couldn't seem to. Ever since Kai yelled at her yesterday, Ray had been feeling... odd, to say the least. Nobody, and that included her family, NOBODY had ever yelled at her before. Nobody had had to. She was the perfect child and if she was out of line, it was acceptable because she was Ray.
But then, Kai had yelled at her. It had been a shock, to say the least. And it had been... different. People 'suggested' things to Ray. They never yelled. And over the years, Ray had realized something. It seemed as if everybody held her at arms-length. Everybody asked her politely or told her things matter-of-factly. Everybody kept a detached air around her, even her bodyguards and personal assistants knew better than to cross that line with Ray. But Kai had not only crossed that line, he seemed to have completely disregarded it and had gotten right into her face to tell Ray what was wrong.
It had come to her that night, when Ray was curled up alone in her condo watching a movie alone, why what Kai had said struck her so much. Ray had always had people extolling her virtues... but nobody who cared enough to yell at her. As long as she was selling, as long as her music was good and the face she showed the public was the one they wanted to see, nobody cared how she really acted.
But Kai had scolded her. And strangely enough, she knew it was strange... but she felt incredible. Ray wasn't a masochist or anything... but... it had, for the longest time, felt like nobody cared about her enough to scold her. To want her to stop being the spoiled princess that she was. She was incredibly happy that someone cared about her enough to yell at her like that.
Ray approached the blonde, unsure of how to begin a conversation with the other singer. He obviously cared about her, but was he still angry at her for yesterday?
"Do you have a hangover?" Ray cursed herself for sounding so unsure, but at least her question got Kai's attention.
"R-Ray...-san." Kai blinked rapidly, pushing himself off the railings to face the Diva. "Why are you here?"
Ray's heart was pounding... why did she feel so nervous around this young man? He was short and brash. Not at all like some of the tall and suave men that had tried to win her heart. When had she completely fallen for this blonde?
"Um, actually," Kai rubbed his sweaty hands on his sweatpants. "I'm really sorry about the previous time we met. I have no hard feelings and I was just casually saying what came to mind, no, I mean that... um..."
His stuttering apology was just SO cute! Obviously Kai was having difficulties telling Ray how he felt about her and Ray had always been a go-getter. She didn't mind making the first move at all. With a pleased smile, Ray took the last few steps forward and placed her hands on his shoulders. The songstress did not see the look of utter shock on Kai's face as she leaned down to claim Kai's in a soft kiss.
-
Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 5
author's note: AKB48 is taking over my life!!!!! But it's alllll good.
Language!
Aniki -- Older brother
Hentai -- pervert
Kawaii -- cute
I~TE! -- ouch (pronounced ee-tay)
newhalf -- new half. Transexuals, in the case of Ai-chan and Fuu-chan, female-to-male transexuals
---
Kai's eyes had widened to the size of saucers as Ray's lips moved so slowly against his own. The blonde was drawing a blank as his brain shut down momentarily, overpowered by the furious hammering of his heart and the thundering rush of blood to his face. It felt like Kai was going hot and cold at the same time and this indescribable feeling of sheer ADRENALINE was overwhelming his limbs, confusing him---
"WAH!" Kai pushed Ray away, the confusing feelings disappearing along with Ray's lips, replaced by horror. "What are you doing?!"
Ray just smiled at him again, the smile managing to stun Kai.
'So this is the power of the Diva...' Kai's brain mused, the blonde shut down once more as Ray's lips pressed against his own, his lower lip caught in between Ray's own. He could feel his own lips responding minutely, TOTALLY against his will. But the soft tickling of the songstress' long eyelashes coupled with the electric feel of Ray's mouth was just SO inviting, so soft and warm and wet...
Ray was practically BUZZING from her connection with Kai. It felt like the first time she had gotten to number one on Music 10, except A MILLION times better. The feelings blossoming in her chest was like fireworks blowing up inside of her... the soft brush of Kai's nose against her cheek, the feel of his lips suddenly moving oh so carefully, as if tentatively exploring the feelings Ray had for Kai...
Carefully, the Diva moved her hand up to cup the back of Kai's neck, trying to deepen the kiss--but the moment was shattered when flashes from a camera blinded and interrupted her and Kai's moment. Kai pulling away from her so quickly was like... being in an extremely warm and comfortable lodge and then suddenly being thrown out into the middle of the bitterest, coldest winter storm.
"A scoop!" the oily-haired paparazzo screeched, running away from the scene. "A scoop, I've got it!"
'Shit!' Kai thought, seeing his bandmates there on the roof. They had seen everything! Thankfully, though, Kuu was in too much of a shock to do much except gape at Kai and Ray, while Riku ran after the paparazzo.
Paparazzo.
"OH SHIT!" Kai pushed Ray away roughly and managed to not only NOT budge the Diva much, but trip and fall on his ass. "What are you doing?!"
"We've been photographed, huh?" Ray's amused voice, showing none of the panic that Kai felt, scared Kai even more as he struggled back to his feet.
"Why are you saying that like it's not a big deal?" Kai wiped the gravel from off his sweatpants angrily, frustrated with the other singer's lacklustre reaction to compromising photo that had just been taken of them. "You're Japan's No. 1 Diva! This'll be scandalous! It won't look good for you!"
'Kai's looking out for me!' Ray was delighted. And Ray really, REALLY could care less if the photos were publicized. In fact, she would LOVE IT if the whole world knew that she and Kai were an item! Sarukawa-shochou had always been trying to pair her up with random good-looking men, even some of the Johnny boys, but she would have none of that now! Her heart belonged to one and ONLY one!
"It's fine, because I belong to Kai now!" Ray said blithely, not aware of the huge panic attack the announcement was causing Kai.
"HUH?!"
"I'm actually glad that a magazine or entertainment reporter took our photo." Ray continued, transferring the straps of her handbag from the crook of her elbow to her hands and swinging said handbag to-and-fro girlishly. "I belong to Kai and Kai belongs to me! And now, I can tell everyone!"
"I feel dizzy right now," Kai didn't know if it was the hangover or the overwhelming situation that he had just been put in. What the hell had just happened?
"What the hell?" Kuu, who had ducked back around the corner to peek at Kai and Ray, shook his head, flabbergasted. "How did things get like this?!"
"I'm..." Ray blushed girlishly. "really happy about those things you said to me yesterday."
THIS was why Ray was suddenly in love with her? Kai racked his brain. What HAD he said to her? All he remembered was cussing the Diva off for being so rude to that idiot--
"That?!" Kai gaped in astonishment.
Still eaves-dropping, Kuu's lip twitched in disbelief. "Happy?"
"I'm very successful in the industry," Ray explained, suddenly unable to look Kai in the eye. He was just so cute! "So no one dares to lecture me even when I'm being selfish."
"That's not something to be proud of," Kai muttered to himself, hoping that his heart would stop its hammering rhythym.
"But now I understand," Ray spun back to Kai, grasping the blonde's hand in both of her own, the very image of girlish delight. "Kai, you said those mean words to me because you care for me. Those words were your expression of love!"
"You've got it all wrong!" Kai blurted out, dashing away Ray's hand. "I was just telling the tru--"
The heartbroken look on Ray's face froze Kai. Ray's lower lip was quivering and the look of sheer sorrow on the Diva's face was unbearable.
"You mean to say... you really don't like me?" Ray's voice ended in a high squeak that surprisingly, sent a painful stab into Kai's heart.
"That is... I mean..." Kai panicked again. He hated it when girls cried! And if he made the Diva unhappy again... Saeko would KILL HIM! "You just... we have to... take things... slow?"
Ray sniffled, the soul-crushing disappointment she had felt before lifted and a grin nearly split her face in half. It wasn't an entirely charming smile, Sarukawa-shachou had told her, so she rarely smiled too wide, if at all. But Ray just couldn't help herself. "Kai...?"
"It's... I--um... well that is..." The blonde sputtered, trying to make everything right. He didn't want to die, he didn't want Ray all over him, and he didn't want THIS! "We don't really know each other..."
"Well, since we're dating now, we'll get to know each other over time!" Ray said hurriedly. THAT was why Kai was so unsure! He wanted to get to know her better! He really DID care about her! "Kai, I'm so happy!"
Before Kai could say anything to the contrary, Ray had thrown her arms around Kai's neck and attacked his lips with a fervour that the Diva never ever showed before with anyone else. Kai made her hot and cold at the same time, made her feel things that she had never felt before. Her body was hot against his and all she wanted to do, even though there was barely any space in between them, was make it so they were even CLOSER. Oblivious to Kai's flaying arms, Ray raised her hand, hoping to bury her fingers in Kai's soft-looking blonde hair--
A loud... screaming noise that was slowly getting louder registered somewhere in Ray's brain, but she paid no attention to it until with no warning at all, Kai was snatched away from her arms.
"Kai!" Ray looked around, dazed, finally focusing on one of Kai's bandmates--the source of afore-mentioned screaming--running away from her with Kai in tow. "Hey! That's mine!"
Kuu ran with Kai, down the stairs, back into the recording studio. Screaming, the both of them ran past people, not caring where they were running but just RUNNING. Finally, Kuu pulled open a door, saw that there was no-one inside, pushed Kai inside before jumping in also and shutting the door behind them.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Kai screamed, clutching his head in shock.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Kuu agreed, screaming.
"WHAT THE HELLLLL!!!!!!"
Getting that out of their system, Kai cutched at the front of Kuu's t-shirt and hissed at his dark-haired bandmate. "Why the HELL did it take you so long to save me?!"
"I was in shock!" Kuu protested. "You were kissing her!"
"She was kissing ME!" Kai shook Kuu, her eyes shining with anger. "Get that right! SHE kissed ME! Ughh... I *hatehatehatehateHATE* L!!!"
"Well, it's not really L if she thinks you're a guy--"
"SHUT UP!"
---
"So Jiro thinks you're like some superman," Kuu mused. The three were back at Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency after a long, LONG day. The paparazzo had turned out to be Riku's childhood friend, Jiro. The oily-haired photog had been casing Ray for quite a while now and the shot he got would've been a bomb on the entertanment world if it had gone out.
"And shachou managed to delete the pictures he had of Kai and Ray kissing. All in all, a good day." Riku said cheerfully. It had all worked out. Saeko had prevented the pictures from gong out; explaining to Riku that Sarukawa-shachou might not like having to deal with that kind of publicity with Ray especially if he didn't orchestrate it himself. Sarukawa-shachou might make working hard for Persona if Ray's popularity took a dive. Also, Jiro hadn't recognized Asahi in her Riku disguise, which meant something to the tallest member of Persona. If even her childhood friend could be fooled, than it set Riku's mind at ease about people finding out that the male-group Persona was actually made up of three girls.
"Ahhh, you've got to be kidding me!" Kai groaned. After Kai had left the recording studio, he had bought a bottle of Listerine and had continuously been gargling to rid himself of the taste of Ray's french-vanilla lipgloss, which was persistantly staying behind! "Why's my first kiss gotta be with another woman?!"
"First kiss?" Kuu and Riku's interest perked up.
'Shit.' thought Kai.
"Ah... no... that... uh..."
"Acting as if you're experienced with men..." Riku grinned, sidling up on Kai's left. One late night conversation, they had been taking about the handsome Katsuyuki-san and Asahi's relationship with Jiro when Nami had started giving in-depth insight about men and how they thought. Which lead to Hinata and Asahi assuming that Nami was really experienced with men and Nami had never corrected them. The outspoken girl indeed had a lot of experience dealing with guys... because she had a lot of guy friends and her guys all treated her as one of them and talked freely about their relationships, thoughts and feelings with Nami.
Kuu sidled up on to Kai's right. "But you've never actually been in a relationship before?"
"Shut up!" Kai pushed them off. "There are a lot of people wooing me, it's just that I haven't picked anyone yet."
Kuu and Riku shared knowing looks. "Hmmm."
"Anyways," Kai was blushing furiously. "I don't wanna be a guy anymore." Undoing the bobby pins that kept Kai's hair in place, Nami pulled off her wig and threw it on the ground, her shoulder-length growth of hair immediately softening her features so there was absolutely no mistaking Nami for a boy.
"I'm not going to stay in the world of L," Nami proclaimed. "I'm definitely, DEFINITELY not doing this anymore!"
"There always will be scandals happening behind an artist's back," Saeko's smooth voice silenced the up-and-coming group.
"But lets not dwell on that!" Marilyn chirped cheerfully. "The date for the photo shoot for your upcoming single's cover has been finalized! In addition, the photographer is--"
"Tenka's Shiroyama Kichin." Saeko said smugly, a proud look on her face.
"Ten--" Riku's eyes widened as he recognized the name of the magazine. "Isn't that the most popular erotic magazine in the country?"
Nami's mouth fell open. Shiroyama--she KNEW that name! Again, because she had lots of guy friends and they had those types of magazines around all the time and discussed the contents of such magazines as if it was THE most important thing in the world!
"Shiroyama, the expert in erotica?!" Nami shook Riku in excitement then turned to Kuu and did the same thing. "That's awesome! That's TOTALLY awesome! Wait 'til the guys hear about this--"
"Nami, didn't you say you were quitting?" Kuu raised an eyebrow at Nami's enthusiasm.
"It's a completely different matter when you're gonna be photographed by Shiroyama Kichin!" Nami pulled Kuu's arm back and forth excitedly, eliciting a small pink smile from Kuu even though he was still leery of Nami changing her mind so much.
"Our ideal image is going to be perfect." Saeko announced, ignoring Nami's excited babbling. "Our Persona's first CD jacket."
The energy coming off of Saeko was infectious and the three member-group found themselves leaning forward. "In other words: Riku."
Riku nodded, fired up.
"Kai."
Nami couldn't contain her ear to ear grin.
"Kuu."
Kuu raised a fist, energized.
"The three of you are going to be nude!"
The three young singers paused, hoping that they had heard wrong. But a quick look at each other and they knew they had all heard the same thing.
"EHH?!"
"The radiant skins," Saeko started off, and Persona knew the president of Kamonohatsu Entertainment Agency was off in her own world again. "The sexiness of taking it all off! Exceeding the extremes of Michaelangelo's sculpture of David! The nude body of a man!"
The excitement was too much for Saeko as her frenzy started her hyperventilating.
"Shachou!" Marilyn bounced forward with a paper bag that she always seemed to have handy.
Persona was less worried about their shachou, who had these attacks everytime she had a stroke of 'brilliance', and more about what Saeko had just revealed to them about their photo shoot. "Nude?!"
---
Persona, now out of 'costume', were in their shared room furiously doing stretches, push-ups and sit-ups.
"We definitely won't be able to pull off nude!" Nami, who some might say was quite pessimistic, was actually just the most realistic one of the group. This was their reality: Persona could NOT do nude.
"It's obvious--" Hinata did a sit-up, "we'd expose--" another sit-up. "our female identities!"
"Even if we try our best," Asahi did a push-up, feeling the burn in her arms. "It's useless!"
They let out a huge sigh and flopped down to the ground. They all disagreed with the nude idea, not only because it exposed them as girls, but it just... EXPOSED them. Was that kind of CD jacket even allowed?! But they did believe in Saeko, no matter how sketchy she was some times and her disregard for their innocence when she did 'L' with Marilyn in places they would rather not think of... so the girls spent most of the night thinking about how they could POSSIBLY pose nude without exposing their identities. But no matter how they wracked their brains, there was NOTHING they could think of that could possibly do. So with troubled minds, the girls all went to sleep, hoping an answer would come to them in the morning.
Unfortunately, the answer didn't come at night. Instead, the girls were all plagued with nightmares. Hinata dreamed of Saeko and Marilyn doing 'L' things in the middle of a group of half-naked men, Nami dreamed of Ray chasing her and not being able to run away fast enough to avoid the songstress' assault and Asahi dreamed of Jiro taking pictures of her as she slowly took off her clothes...
"Last night I had a dream. And it was just... horrible." Kai shuddered, remembering his dream in vivid detail. All three were dressed in their stage costumes, the stylized suits that Saeko had had made for them. Today's shooting would be at a warehouse complex and as they made their way up the stairs to the second floor where the photographer was waiting for them, the feelng of dread increased with every step.
"Hinata had an awful dream, too." Kuu shuddered too.
Riku had a full case of the chills as he remembered his own dream. "Ditto."
Finally, scaling the stairs and arriving on the second floor, they pushed open the stairwell door and stepped into their shooting location.
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu--"
"I refuse to take nude shots of men!" A slightly tubby man in tight red pants, black suspenders and a white shirt unbuttoned to mid-chest stormed by them with Marilyn following close behind him, wringing her hands. "It's true that I've taken up this project. But I, Shiroyama Kichin, even if I'm dying, will only take off women's clothes!"
"Kichin-san!" Marilyn groaned in frustration. Saeko had SAID that Kichin would do nude shots, but now the famous photographer was refusing to! He had claimed it was a momentary lapse of judgement on his part to agree to it, but now that he could think clearly, he absolutely REFUSED!
"Today I'm going to take photos of extremely beautiful men." Kichin grinned. He could work with this, even if his usual subjects were women. He could make this work!
"But that'll go against shachou's radiant concept--"
"It's okay, Marilyn." Saeko's voice interrupted her secretary. "Let's just leave it."
"Seriously?" Kai exchanged gleeful glances with his bandmates.
Kuu nodded, clasping his hands in front of his chest. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Kichin!"
"We don't have to take off our clothes now!" Riku grinned at Kai and Kuu, when suddenly, a big lighting fixture hit him.
"WAAAH!"
"Ahh, sorry--Aniki!" Jiro, Asahi's childhood friend gaped at the de-facto leader of Persona.
What was Jiro doing at the shoot? "Jiro! What are you doing here?"
Before Jiro could explain himself, Kichin's voice roared his displeasure. "YOU DUMBASS!" Rushing the blonde-haired part-time paparazzo, Kichin took a running leap and kicked Jiro right in the chest. "The equipment is more important than your life!"
"I'm really sorry!"
"I only let you come here to help me today because I heard that you have no money." Kichin towered over the fallen Jiro and stomped a foot down on the young man's chest. "I'm only having you as my special assistant for today! If the equipment is damaged in any way, I won't let you off this easy!"
"Hai!" Jiro squeaked, barely able to take a breath before Kichin let up and walked back to the shoot to fiddle with his camera.
"Your childhood friend sure has it tough." Kai leaned over to Riku to whisper sympathetically.
"That has nothing to do with me." Riku said, almost heartlessly. He was bothered by Jiro's abuse, but what could he do? They were at a job.
"Aniki," Jiro was suddenly in Riku's face again, breathing harshly. "I will support you!"
"This has nothing to do with me..." Riku repeated to himself as Jiro raced away to set up the equipment, fired up to help his 'aniki'. "NOTHING to do with me..."
"Alright, we're starting the photo shoot soon!" Kichin shouted. Riku didn't have the chance to dwell on Jiro's fate as they were quickly herded over to make up to touch up their appearance.
There were three seats set up for Persona in front of three mirrors as stylists came to help the boys with their make-up. These two stylists were hired by Marilyn not only because of their skill, but because of their ability to be absolutely discreet. They had been let in on the secret that Persona wore wigs when they were on stage and were under contract not to reveal that trade secret to anyone. Ai-chan and Fuu-chan, both 'newly-made' women, knew the importance of keeping secrets. They had worked for many famous celebrities and were one of the few skilled and trusted enough to tend to those celebrities who had 'special needs' in the make-up and styling department. The stylists introduced themselves quickly before immediately getting down to business.
"Oh, you have such pretty skin." Ai-chan, a buxom faux-blonde fluttered her eyelashes at Kuu, who smiled back, pleased at the compliment.
"Thank you! You have really beautiful skin too!" Kuu chirped back, making Ai-chan swoon a bit. This boy looked soooo cute, he was almost like a girl! Ai-chan LOVED gentle-looking men! Fuu-chan the buxom brunette, on the other hand, liked her men a bit rough but also tall and masculine so she gravitated towards Riku and Kai naturally.
"Well, we'll just be putting on a little powder for you, okay?" Fuu-chan patted Kai's cheek delicately. Kai, still thinking about his dream from last night, nodded distractedly. His stand-offish attitude only made Fuu-chan's heart beat a bit faster.
"He's like that all the time." Riku explained apologetically to Fuu-chan, thinking she was put-off by Kai's demeanour. Fuu-chan let out a dreamy sigh.
'Riku-sama is sooooo caring!' Fuu-chan nodded at Riku's explanation. 'And they didn't even give me or Ai-chan weird looks for being newhalf.' Really, the three-member group did NOT know their stylists were newhalf women, so they had no real reaction to it. The stylists did their jobs quickly and professionally and in five minutes, the boys were ushered over to Kichin for further direction.
"Okay." The famous photographer, not used to shooting male subjects, was drawing a slight blank. Pointing to the grand piano that had been brought to the warehouse as a prop, he ordered them to pose naturally around the piano and he was just going to take some test shots. The three then shuffled themselves over to the piano and started doing some generic poses they had under their belts. Once in a while, Ai-chan or Fuu-chan would hustle forward to get rid of some shine on their nose or fix their hair a bit. All through this, Kichin kept taking photos. But as he took these photos, a strange sensation was coming over him. An... excitement of sorts. When Kuu took off his jacket because of the heat from the bright lights, he felt almost... light-headed.
"Tilt your heads!" Kichin barked out the order, panting heavily. This... this was totally unexpected! Something strange was going on... why WAS he getting so excited?
"Why is he panting?" Kai grinned, speaking through his teeth. Riku and Kuu had noticed the panting too and were getting... nervous.
"Kichin-san," Jiro, who had been holding up a white board to help reflect the light on to the three idols better, voiced their concerns. "Are you alright?"
"This is weird," Kichin stood up, his entire body THROBBING with the same excitement he got from taking pictures of girls. "There's a reaction in my radar!"
"Radar?" Jiro looked down and eeped slightly when he noticed... something... bulging in Kichin's pants.
"STOP!" Saeko shouted in triumph. Everyone stared at her strangely as she started monologuing to Marilyn in a low, harsh whisper. "Kichin has always been like that when he's with women. He becomes really excited and starts panting fast and hard. No matter how hard the three of them try to disguise themselves as men, they won't be able to avoid Kichin's senses. Kichin will DEFINITELY get them to pose nude."
"As expected of shachou!" Marilyn clapped her hands in delight. Saeko was BRILLIANT! "You have everything planned!"
"What the hell... I should only have this reaction with women." Kichin stepped away from the camera, approaching the three 'men'. "Why do I have a reaction with the three of you? Are the three of you... really men?"
The question made the three in question break out in a cold sweat as they felt the eyes of the staff helping out at the photoshoot scrutinizing them.
"Shachou!" Kai mouthed the word, trying desperately to catch Saeko's eye. "SHACHOU!"
"They're too naive. To think I would actually help them..." Saeko was looking Kai directly in the eye from her position far, far from the three young men. "No way would I do that."
"Kichin-san, what are you saying?" Jiro laughed, finding the whole situation ridiculous. SURE, his Aniki was a bit delicate looking, but he was a man amongst men! Riku was awesome! "Aniki's a man amongst men--"
"SHUT UP!" Kichin snarled, still eyeing Persona strangely. "This is strange... something really strange is going on here."
"This is bad!" Kai grimaced.
Kuu nodded, speaking to his bandmates in a low, hushed tone. "At this rate, we'll definitely be exposed!"
Riku, seeing the distress his bandmates was in finally decided to throw in the towel. They needed serious help!
"Shachou! Shachou!" He shot a pleading look in the direction of his shachou--only to find that she wasn't there anymore. And neither was Marilyn! The instant they had taken their eyes off their manager and her secretary, the both of them had DISAPPEARED!!!
"She's gone... this shows that she never wanted to help us in the first place!" Kai's hands tightened to fists, immediately reverting to a familiar emotion: anger.
They needed to get out of this situation, quickly! They needed Kichin to continue thinking they were men, or else they'd have to do a NUDE SHOOT! And a nude shoot meant that they would be EXPOSED!
"Excuse me!" Riku was slightly panicked. "We need a break! Please let us have a break!"
Their break request was okay'd, since Kichin wanted a few moments to sort out his thoughts too. The boys were shown to a medium-sized dressing room with coffee, tea and juice. There were also some plates of light snacks, but the three couldn't appreciate the care that the staff at the photoshoot had put in for them.
"We have to conceal ourselves properly from that Kichin!" Riku huddled with his two bandmates, almost mindless with worry. Where the HELL was Saeko?!
"We've done our best! What else can we do?!" Kai listed off the things they had taken extra care to do that morning. "We wore our tightest binding tanktops, we're in our boxers, I have a roll of socks in my underwear--"
"You have a roll of socks in your underwear?" Kuu blinked. This was news to him! He quickly shook himself out of that line of thought though. The situation they were in was dangerous! "How are we going to convince Kichin that we're men--?"
"KAI!" They're discussion was cut off by the door banging open and someone yelling the blonde's name gleefully. Kai turned just in time to catch Ray in his arms.
"Woah!" Kai kept the grasping soungstress at arms' length, which was harder than it sounded. Ray was like an octopus! She had him and was just REFUSING to let go! "Ray! What are you doing here?!"
Unpeturbed by Kai's display of 'shyness', Ray continued trying to pull the struggling Kai into an embrace. "I heard you were here doing a photo shoot for your CD cover so I came to visit~!"
"Don't touch me!" Kai begged desperately. "Get back you hentai!"
Ray giggled at Kai's almost girlish modesty. "Kai, kawaiiiii!"
While Kai struggled with Ray, Riku suddenly got an idea.
"Oh, I have an idea!"
Quickly pulling Kai aside and placating Ray by telling the songstress they'd give Kai back in a bit, he outlined his plan. Kai was leery of ANY plan involving Ray, but his opinion changed when Riku told him what he had to do.
'I can do this!' Kai gave his groupmates a thumbs-up as they left to lure Kichin to their dressing room. 'This'll be a piece of cake!'
"Kaaaiiiii..." The way Ray said his name, the weight of the Diva and her arms wrapped around his neck from behind... and those two mounds of flesh pressing into Kai's back gave the shortest member of Persona the goosebumps!
'I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...' Kai repeated the mantra in his head, shivering at the feel of Ray's nose nuzzling at his ear. The Diva let out a contented sigh, Kai smelled so good... like soap... the scent was so calming and familiar... where had she smelled this scent before?
"Ray, we have to talk." Kai spun around to grab Ray's hands in his own, looking up at the Diva seriously.
"About?" Ray felt her heart skip a beat at the suddenly intense look Kai had on his face.
"Our relationship... if we're to have one." Kai replied. "I want you to sit down."
Ray's heart was hammering in her chest...they were going to talk? They were going to TALK! About their RELATIONSHIP! Kai lead Ray over to a chair and gently pushed her down into it but instead of immediately saying whatever he was going to say, Kai walked away from her and began to pace the room. The way he was treating this whole relationship, the seriousness of this whole situation made Ray happy. But Ray had to compose herself for her man! He was going to say something important!
Little did the Diva know Kai was just waiting for Riku and Kuu to come back with Kichin and it wasn't long before the blonde saw his friends and Kichin peek in to the room. Kuu waved a little bit and gave Kai a wink. That was the signal! It was time!
"What is it that you wanted to tell me?" Ray grinned at the small blonde's back. He whirled on her now, stomping over like he was on a mission. His hand shot out to grab hold of her chin.
"Stop grinning and listen up!" Kai's voice was a low, dangerous growl. Ray couldn't help smiling at Kai again... he was so close to her she could feel the heat coming off his body! His thumb absentmindedly stroking her jawline made her want to purr, but he wrenched his hand back before she could emit a sound, fire in his eyes.
"You gotta understand, if you wanna be my woman, you--you must not sleep earlier than me!" Kai racked his brain for the most outrageous demands he could think of. "You must not wake up later than me! Your cooking must be good and you haveta always look beautiful!"
"I can do all of that, no problem!" Ray sing-songed. Was that it? Ray was notoriously hard-working and the Diva was pretty sure that her cooking skills were top-notch too! And wasn't Ray the most popular, the most beautiful, the NUMBER ONE idol in Japan right now?
"You have to do better than that!" Kai slapped his hand on the table hard, trying to keep on the facade of the arrogant asshole boyfriend, but his plan hit a snag as pain lanced through his finger and his face contorted into a pained grimace.
"Kai?" Ray's joy disappeared and the worry she felt was... indescribable. What was wrong? How did he hurt himself? WHERE was Kai hurt? How could she help?!
"I~TE!!!!" Kai howled, held up his hand and Ray was able to see that there was a small thumb tack buried in his pointer finger. The blonde wrenched it out and threw it on the ground angrily. "Why the HELL is there a thumb tack here?!"
"Are you alright?" Ray was on her feet so quick, her chair toppled backwards. Grabbing Kai's hand, Ray inspected her beloved's injured finger, feeling an immeasurable amount of relief when she saw that there was only a pinprick of blood to show where he had hurt himself.
'Stupid Kai, I was so worried!' Ray breathed a mental sigh of relief, looking at the young blonde man with a certain amount of fondness. 'I'll have to tease him a bit for scaring me like that...'
"W-What are you going to do?" Kai's spider-sense was suddenly off the charts as Ray pinned him with her bedroom eyes. But it was the thing she did next that short-circuited something in his brain. It all happened in slow motion in Kai's mind, but he just couldn't get his body to obey him! Completely frozen, he couldn't pull his finger away as Ray captured his wounded digit within the warm, wet confines of her mouth. The suction, the heat, the feel of Ray's tongue swirling around Kai's finger was making the blonde extremely light-headed.
"Let go!" Kai pleaded, his voice cracking slightly. "Let go! Let gOooo..."
Ray did, her mouth turned up in a small pink smile as she slipped her tongue out to give his finger a final playful parting lick. She had only sucked on Kai's fingers for a few seconds, but it had felt like HOURS of strange confusing feelings accompanied by the loud roar of waves...
"All better?"
"What the hell!" Kai clutched his hand to his chest, his heart literally thundering a mile a minute--SHIVERS running up and down his spine, spreading goosebumps all over his skin and making the hair on the back of his neck stand at attention.
"Kaiii..." Ray approached the blonde, bright and beautiful, sexy and dangerous. Kai found himself locked in that half-lidded gaze again, turned his head around to desperately search out his bandmates. The sound of his compatriots and Kichin scrambling off made Kai curse them extensively in his head. He cursed even more when he noticed that a table was in the way of his escape and suddenly realized he had made a fatal mistake--breaking eye contact.
"DAMN--"
Ray had him trapped between the table and herself in no time, her arms on either side of Kai's body, her face, too close for comfort as her nose nudged against his cheek softly.
"R-Ray--no!" Kai squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the inevitable. Seeing this reaction, Ray paused and smiled softly at the young man. He was just so cute. Through his bluster and energy, Kai was just a shy young man who had managed to capture a lonely singer's heart. And she just couldn't seem to keep her hands off him, but she... had to try.
"Okay." Ray said relunctantly and gave Kai's cheek a chaste kiss, settling to rest her arms around his neck in a loose embrace. "I don't know why, I just can't keep my hands off you."
"Hentai." Kai muttered, cracking one eye open to look at the songstress. Ray gave a pretty pout.
"Only for you!"
"Don't even say that!" Kai blushed even more. "What if someone heard? Then they'll know me and you are sort of... and then there'll be trouble!"
The smile died from Ray's face as something occurred to her, something quite troubling. "Kai..." Ray was on the verge of tears, just the thought of this being true. "Are you... a-a-ashamed of people finding out we'd be together?"
The quick 180 that Ray had just turned left Kai completely and utterly bewildered. WHAT the HELL was Ray going on about?
"What?" Kai blinked, unable to think of anything to say.
"Y-you're ashamed of me." The frown on Ray's face was growing. "Why? Am I not good enough? I can do ALL of the things you want me to do--except... is it because I'm not beautiful enough?!"
"Huh?!" Now Kai was BEYOND confused. What had just happened?
"That's it, right?" Ray spun away, hugging herself close. Ray knew, without a doubt, that she was beautiful. But the thought of Kai thinking she was ugly in any way, that she didn't fit his ideal... devastated her. Maybe he wanted someone cuter? Someone smaller than him? Ray had been the awkward tall child when she was young, but now her height worked to her advantage. But maybe Kai liked smaller women?
"NO!" Kai shouted in frustration. What the HELL was going on? And what the hell was Ray saying?! "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on! Why would you even think you weren't beautiful enough?! Some guys would crawl through mud to have you just smile at them!"
"Really?" Ray's voice was comically squeaky. Ray was, but would DIE before she'd admit it, a LITTLE self-conscious about her smile. Anybody would be if your manager kept telling you not to smile so much because, and to quote Sarukawa-shachou 'because your smile's too big and it's not attractive'. "Do YOU like my smile?"
"Yeah!" Kai blurted out without thinking. "I think you have the best smile in the world!"
"Kai!" Ray was on Kai like an octopus again and Kai was desperately struggling to keep Ray at arm's length.
"Get off me!" Kai pushed at Ray again, unsure of how he got into this situation but sure of the fact that he needed to get out of it RIGHT AWAY!
---
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Three new chapters on my birthday! That makes my day even better ^_^
This is sooo good!!! You are a great writer! :)
So far I feel like I'm rewatching Mendol! :hee:
Looking forward to the next update and an AKB girl appearance. :D
You should make Acchan like a rival of Ray.. hehe.
Keep it up!! :thumbup
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yo immo-san, i read this ff too like a thousand times, i love this thats why imma ask again if ur going to write a sequel. i mean, theres still the story of KojiYuu and MariMii left hanging hahhaha :rofl:
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Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 6
author's note: And this chapter starts seriously deviating from the series with additional scenes and DUNDUNDUN! guests!
---
"Gaaaah..." Kai shuddered, patting his pockets desperately for salt. He needed to throw some over his shoulders to ward off the miasma of evil Ray brought along every time she came to see Kai. It had taken a while to convince Ray to leave and thankfully, the Diva's handlers (that she had managed to give the slip to before) had tracked her down and helped Kai push/drag her away. But it was all worth it if Kichin believed that they were men. Joining her band mates again, she looked at them eagerly. "So, is Kichin-san convinced that I'm a man amongst men?"
His two bandmates looked at him unhappily and shook their heads. "Failed, Kai."
"Mission failed?!" Kai gaped, feeling like everything he had done before was for nothing. He had let Ray violate his finger with her tongue! He had let Ray grope him! He had let Ray nuzzle her nose in that spot behind his ear that gave him a full case of the chilly-willies! And all of that WAS FOR NOTHING?!
"Well, during the first half, Kai displayed his manliness perfectly..." Riku was pouting at Kai, willing the hot-tempered blonde to calm down. If looks could kill, Kai would've already killed Riku and Kuu ten times over!
"But," Kuu piped up. "after Kichin-san saw Ray sucking on your finger, he panted even harder!"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Kai blurted out. "I had a hard enough time convincing Ray to leave! I refuse to do this again!"
"But if we can't hide the truth from Kichin.." Kuu trailed off. All three of them knew what would happen. They would be totally exposed!
Speak of the devil, Kichin walked past them, scrutinizing them from head to toe. "This is strange..."
The three young men huddled together fearfully, watching Kichin as he disappeared into the washrooms nearby. That was when Riku got his stroke of brilliance. And looking around, he had the perfect tools to quickly fashion his tool!
"I have another idea!" Riku quickly outlined the plan to the boys, knowing they had limited time to implement this plan. A quick game of jankenpon later and a relunctant Kuu was pushed in the directions of the washrooms.
"I dun wanna, I dun wanna, I dun wanna!" Kuu screeched, dragging his heels.
"You lost in janken! So you got no choice!" Riku had quickly put his item together and stuffed it inside Kuu's jacket while Kai pushed Kuu towards the washrooms.
"Hinata hates these open-door toilets the most!" Kuu struggled against the blonde but felt himself slowly getting pushed forward as Riku joined Kai in pushing Kuu to the toilets.
"Stop stalling and GET IN!" Kai and Riku gave a last shove, propelling Kuu into the washrooms. If Kai had to go through everything he had to with Ray, Kuu can suffer a little bit in the washrooms! Kuu almost stumbled during his forward momentum but managed to come to a stop before he hit a wall. His sudden entrance surprised Kichin, who gave a little start at Kuu's appearance.
"Osu!" Kuu said carefully.
"Oh." Kichin nodded carefully. Kuu crept over to a urinal a few spots away from Kichin, cringing at the thought of stepping on pee. The feeling of someone watching him made Kuu look over to Kichin. The older man quickly retreated, but he had been leaning over in hopes of catching a glimpse of Kuu's equipment.
'Here goes...' Kuu unzipped the front of his pants and hid his 'equipment' in his hands. Not long after, a slow drizzle of water came flowing out, the soft tinkling sound of liquid hidding porcelain filled the suddenly quiet washroom. After Kuu was done, he shook a few times, tucked his 'equipment' back in and zipped up.
"Osu!" Kuu said cheerfully then skipped over to the sink to wash his hands. Cheerfully, he was out the door and back in the arms of his band.
"How was it?" Riku questioned eagerly.
"Hinata did it perfectly!" Hinata brought out the smal bottle of green tea and the plastic tube that had been forced through the lid of the bottle. Pressing it into Riku's hands, the leader of the group quickly disposed of it in a large empty metal barrel that was currently being used as a garbage bin and not a moment too soon, as Kichin stepped out of the washroom looking seriously puzzled.
"It's true, look!" Kai nodded over to the famous photographer. "He's stopped panting."
But Kai had spoke too soon as Kichin started panting again, like a stubborn motor that just refused to die.
"Not again, mission failed!" Kai's voice held an edge of desperation to it. It was gonna be the end for them!
"Nude!" Kichin exclaimed, catching everybody's attention. "NUDE! Lets take some nude photos!"
Kichin had enveloped the three young men in a bear hug and started pushing them towards the grand piano they were supposed to be posing in front of.
"Stop that!" Kai dug his heels in but it was impossible to stop Kichin's forward momentum.
"I don't wanna!" Riku screeched.
"Let go!"
"I don't wanna!"
"Hentai!"
"Wait a second. We're guys!" Riku craned his neck back to look at Kichin. "Why are you still doing this?"
"Male or female, it doesn't matter any more!" Kichin exclaimed. He had been struck by a vision! Kai and Ray's little scene in the change room had opened his eyes to the possibilities of men, especially gentle men like the boys that made up Persona! It would be subtle, it would be powerful... their skin would glisten against the piano, the light reflecting off their smooth frames... he *could* make this work! Saeko was right, it would be magnificant!
"The three of you have made me, Shiroyama Kichin, go crazy with desire!" Kichin grabbed Kai's jacket and practically ripped it off the blonde's body then went for Kuu's jacket, throwing Kai's aside.
"Everything is perfect!" Kichin's eyes searched out Jiro and pinned him with a look. "Change the lens! Stylists, make sure they're ready to bare it all! We're gonna do this!"
"Got it!" Jiro and the stylists saluted Kichin, his commanding personality not letting them do anything else except obey.
"You've gotta be kidding me." Kai hissed at his fellow bandmates. "We can't do nude! I'm... I'm quitting Persona!"
"What?!" Riku and Kuu gaped at the blonde.
"Kai!" Riku's disappointment was evident and Kai tried not to let that bother him, though it did.
"The idea of making women into men was already a mess!" Kai argued. "And now they want us to do nude? It's impossible! They just want us to quit, right? They wanted to give us hope, then humiliate us by pulling the carpet out from right under our feet!"
"Hinata will strip." Kuu said softly.
"What?" Kai's eyes almost popped out of his head.
"Hinata's afraid of that kind of person losing their temper." Kuu whispered. "Hinata can do it!"
"I'm not letting you do that!" Kai said furiously. "Are you insane? You hate doing stuff like this for perverted men!"
Riku stilled Kuu's hands on his tie, trying to sooth the young man. "It'll be over for us if you take off your clothes, remember? And if you don't want to do it, we won't let anybody do this to you!"
"Yeah!" Kai growled. "We'll walk! I'll go first!"
"Wait a second!" Riku gripped at Kai's arm, stopping the other man. "Where do you think you're going?!"
"I'm GOING. That's what I'm doing!" Kai pushed at Riku, but the taller boy grabbed hold of Kai, struggling to keep the blonde there.
"If you want to do it, do it alone!" Kai snarled. Their fight had drawn an audience as everyone, including Kichin, stared at the scene unfolding before them, not knowing what was going on since they didn't hear the beginning of the argument. They only heard that Kai wanted to leave. Everyone was frozen to the spot except for one person.
"Stop fighting!" Jiro ran at them and pushed the two away from each other. He hated to see his Aniki and his Aniki's bandmates fighting! Jiro's shove was unexpected and Riku tipped over, falling on his behind.
"Aniki!" Jiro was instantly sorry, but it was too late for him as someone had caught the tail-end of that.
"You..." A growl from the stairwell caught Riku's attention. There was Katsuyuki-san, surrounded by his assistants and looking furious. Rushing forward, he had grabbed Jiro by the front of his shirt and punched the Asahi's childhood friend before anybody could stop him. "What are you doing with Riku?!"
All Riku could do was watch as Katsuyuki-san's assistants pulled the young director back, who was still raring to go and roaring at them to let him finish Jiro off. All Riku could think of as he watched Katsuyuki-san fight against the people holding him back was how incredibly sexy a man could be when he was all fired up to fight for something--
'That's it!' Riku got up to his feet, glaring at his bandmates. He could make this work!
"Don't screw with me!" Riku snarled, storming towards Kai and Kuu. Grabbing the two by the fronts of their shirts, he shoved them back, hard, making them trip and fall to the ground. All eyes were on them again, Ai-chan and Fuu-chan squealing quietly and hugging each other for comfort. Kichin, camera in hand, watched the young men. A strange... feeling was coming over him. It was different from the feeling he got from them before. It was a different kind of excitement that called to him and made his blood boil. Bringing the camera up, he took an experimental shot, capturing the moment. It was powerful, with Riku standing over his two fallen bandmates, his body radiating violence and the stunned disbelief on the other two's faces. It was priceless.
His back to their audience, Riku looked down at his friends, hoping they'd understand.
"You're gonna give up that easily?" Riku goaded them, trying to convey what he meant with his eyes. "Come on! Where's your fighting spirits?!"
Kai and Kuu exchanged looks, then both of them got up and rushed Riku, tumbling him to the ground.
"Is that all you got?" Riku got back up, laughing. "Bring it!"
All hell broke loose as the three young men started fighting in earnest, tussling amongst each other as the camera flashed again and again. Kichin stood at just the edge of the fight, yelling at anybody who tried to stop Persona's in-fighting. This was beautiful! It was perfect! The look in their eyes as they sized each other up, their faces bruised and bloodied. It was beautiful!
The fight didn't last long though, as Kai raised a hand in defeat after a few minutes, leaning against the grand piano and panting hard. Riku, seeing that the blonde was out of the fight, collapsed to one knee, feeling more than a little bit exhausted. Kuu had dragged himelf to the piano bench and the discordant notes from the piano told them Kuu had made the keys his temporary head rest.
"Yes!" Kichin's camera kept flashing as he skirted around the three members of Persona, sprawled in a perfect scene around the piano. "Beautiful! This is it! This is the shot!"
With Kichin shouting excitedly for his staff to fix the lighting and get different filters and lenses for his shot, Kai gave Riku a smile.
"You're brilliant."'
Kuu laughed hoarsely. "Yeah, Riku. You're awesome."
"Thanks, guys." Riku groaned as Kichin scurried forward to reposition them around the piano.
"Come on," Kai held out a hand to Riku and pulled his friend to his feet.
---
"Kai." The three were in their change room, tending to their own cuts and bruises. It was just the three of them and it was finally the end of a day that had been way too long.
"Yeah?" Kai looked up from the small mirror he was using to assess the damage to his face. Thankfully, he only had a bruised lip. All three had pulled their punches and tried to aim a bit when the target was each other's faces.
"What's with you?" Kuu's quiet query caught Riku's attention too. "I mean, we're trying our hardest... and... and you just keep giving up when things get hard."
Riku turned in his seat, wanting to add his two cents. "Yeah. I thought you were all for this, Kai. We started together before Kuu and you've said you wanted to quit twice already--"
"It's just--" Kai frowned, shredding the tissue in his hand he had been using to dab at his lip. "It's just... I don't want to. You know? I don't wanna do things that aren't... me."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean..." It was so hard for the blonde to get the words out. "You know, I always wanted to be an idol. Always. But it was always hard. I tried to keep my auditions a secret, but some of my classmates found out when they saw my day planner. Everybody told me that I wasn't idol material and I would never be. And even my family laughed when I told them what I wanted to be."
Kuu and Riku sat there quietly, listening to Kai pour his heart out. "They kept saying 'Nami's too boyish' or that 'Nami's not pretty enough' or that I wasn't interesting enough for people to idolize. So I don't ever wanna stray from who I really am. This whole outfit isn't me. I want to be an idol, but I want to do things my way and let people see who I am. I want to be able to give some little girl out there an example of what you can do if you stay true to yourself. I want her to look at me and go 'hey, if that boring, uninteresting, ugly girl can do it, why can't I?'. I know I have to compromise a bit with the situation we're in and I've been nothing but trouble. I'm sorry, guys. I'm... trying my best. But some times I'm like this cuz... I'm just an idiot for being so stubborn, I guess."
There was silence after that heavy confession. So this was Nami's story?
"We don't think you're an idiot." Riku broke the silence.
Kuu nodded, agreeing with Riku. His soft, pleasant voice soothing Kai's ruffled emotions. "I think you're interesting."
"And we think you're boyish--" Kai's glare made Riku and Kuu giggle a bit. "But you can be surprisingly girlish too. And we like you whether you're boyish or girlish."
"I think you're really cool, Kai." Kuu said sincerely. He really, really did. Kai was trying his best and under all of that negativity Kai spoke of before, Kuu knew how hard it was not to be tempted to give up. But Kai persevered. Kai had things that he hated, like all things 'L', yet he was trying his best in his situation with Ray and shachou and Marilyn. The blonde was unbending when it came to things that he felt passionate about like staying true to himself, and Kuu admired that.
"It's good and all to be true to yourself, but we all have to give up something to do this." Riku explained quietly.
"I know." Kai put his hands on his thighs and lowered his head, accepting Riku's admonishments. "It's an image I have to cultivate. We're 'Persona'. Our name implies that we aren't who we say we are. I'll try my best not to disappoint you guys--"
"You didn't disappoint us." Riku shook his head. "We just didn't know why you were coming from and you did a lot, helping us with Ray."
"Yeah," Kuu giggled and shared a grin with Riku. "Kai, you're soooo manly!"
"Shut up!" Kai squealed, slapping them girlishly while shrieking. Kuu and Riku shielded their heads, also shrieking and giggling until there was a rap at the doors.
"Ahem," Riku coughed, deepening his voice again. "Who's there?"
"If it's shachou..." Kai narrowed his eyes at the door, his voice a low growl. Kuu nodded, a slight snarl on his lips. The boys were still pretty worked up from the fight.
"Riku?" Katsuyuki's voice floated through the door. "Can I come in?"
"Ooooo.." Two pairs of eyes watched Riku slyly.
"Stop it!" Riku hissed then raised his voice a bit. "Come in."
"Well, we're going to talk to Kichin about those pictures." Kai grinned, arm around Kuu's waist and Kuu's arm around Kai's shoulders. Companionably, they strolled out of the room together, snickering as Katsuyuki side-stepped them into the room.
"Riku." Katsuyuki watched the young man with the red-streaked hair turn his back to him. For some odd reason, the young director felt a painful stab in his heart when the young idol did that. His heart hurt even more when the young man let out a small noise of discomfort while tending to his bruised cheek.
"Let me help you." Katsuyuki-san strode forward and pulled a chair over. Taking a new piece of cotton swap and water, he dabbed at Riku's face gently. As he helped Riku clean his face, Katsuyuki could feel himself getting a bit angry at the young man and his inventory of bruises and cuts.
"Thank you." Riku coughed. "You know, I really thought of running away. But... seeing you fighting, it got me going too... so... I'm going to fight this battle to the very end. It's hard, but I'm going to keep trying."
"Stop it." Katsuyuki-san packed away the bandages angrily. Was this what would happen? Riku would get hurt? Katsuyuki-san didn't want that! "This is why I worry about you! I can't get you out of my mind. That's why, earlier on, I rushed in to protect you when you were attacked."
What did he mean? Riku blinked, confused. "Katsuyuki-san?"
"Ah, I mean--" Katsuyuki panicked a bit. What had he just said?! "You're our company's merchandise, you know? As director of Sunny Music, it's expected that I show concern for you."
"Oh." Riku was slightly disappointed. He had thought, for just a second, that Katsuyuki-san was saying something else.
"Don't leave marks on your face, okay?" Katsuyuki sighed, looking at the young man. "Seems like not only Kai's hot-tempered, you're a fighter too."
Riku pouted. "Don't group me in with Kai!"
Katsuyuki laughed and patted the singer gently on the shoulder. "You guys are making my life a lot more interesting. I'll see you around, my schedule's packed today and I just wanted to see if you--you guys were doing alright. You guys. Well... uh... see ya."
It had been a long day indeed and right after their photo shoot, they had a tv recording to go to. It was just a small tv program that talked about young, upcoming idols and Persona had been invited on. Concealer worked wonders for their bruises although the hosts of the show still noticed their injuries and pointed them out. Kuu took that opportunity to talk a little bit about the photo shoot and plug in news about their upcoming single. They were even invited to perform it!
All through this, Saeko watched from the sidelines with Marilyn, her eyes sparkling with pride.
"Those poor boys, they've had a long day." Marilyn cooed.
"But they learned a lot, didn't they?" Saeko leaned over to whisper in Marilyn's ear, giving the secretary's ear a little nibble. Just a little nibble since they were on work time, to hint at things to come tonight. "Today, they've learned to deal with problems that could arise regarding their disguises. And they've learned to deal without me. We can't be there for them 24/7 and in emergencies, well, now I know they can handle them."
"Shachou is amaaaaazing." Marilyn sighed dreamily. And while Saeko and Marilyn watched the boys attentively, cultivating the young talents; someone else was keeping a close eye on their progress too.
"I don't like this." Keiji Sarukawa was in his office, taking a look at the tv program schedules. The new group, Persona, was getting a lot of coverage. Also, they were still getting publicity with that little suicide stunt at the Indies. The news stations were using this to highlight the state of young people nowadays, mentioning Persona a lot and their successful diffusing of the situation. Keiji wished that girl in the pink had really offed herself, then Persona wouldn't be getting all this attention. Already, two of the young talents in his own agency had been pushed aside for segments about Persona.
"That'll change soon..." Keiji muttered, shooting off some nicely worded emails to several of those television stations. Ray was always a seller and ratings went through the roof whenever she appeared on any of those programs. He would just hint that Ray might have made an appearance with her kouhais if their segments were still on. The producers at those stations would know what steps to take to just have a CHANCE at the elusive Diva gracing them with her presence. But of course, Ray would have to be convinced to sit there with her juniors. Keiji couldn't really control his products that well so whenever they got too rowdy, he would cut them off and bring in a new talent. Ray was special, however. She was wildly popular and had brought in more revenue for him than
'And her attachment to Kai is... worrying.' Keiji frowned a bit at the news that was circulating amongst the staff. Soon, it'll get out to the entertainment news hounds and then there would be trouble. He'd have to keep Ray busy so she couldn't slip her handlers any more and go off looking for the blonde from Persona...
It wasn't just the blonde that was worrying. If it was just one of the members of that group, the situation could be dealt with. But unfortunately, the whole group was a problem. Riku of Persona was highly charismatic without knowing it, charming the hell out of the staff and the higher-ups that had met the disarming young man. Hell, it seemed even the young director of Sunny Music, notorious for having a different favourite person every DAY, was slightly attached to the young Riku. Kuu, the newest addition, was also trouble. Keiji had stood outside the room they had booked for recording and heard a bit of what Kuu had composed. It was... breath-taking, really, how good it was.
His computer suddenly chirped out a melody and Keiji smiled upon seeing a reply to the email he had sent out. His smile widened to a grin as he read over the email quickly. The producers at so-and-so station understood Ray's busy schedule and would try to accomodate Monkey Productions... they would also push Persona's TV appearance to their late-night slot.
"Excellent," Keiji chuckled to himself and grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl on his desk as a prize. The next few seconds saw similar replies from all the people he had sent emails out to. If Keiji was asked about what he thought about Persona's future in the entertainment world, he would have to say that they would be like a shooting star... its appearance brief and possibly brilliant but noticed by few.
---
Riku found himself daydreaming more and more lately. And usually, his dreams featured the handsome Katsuyuki-san. He didn't know why, but he found himself thinking about the tall young director all the time.
"No, no... focus." Riku muttered to himself, doing up the buttons on his shirt.
"Yo, stop zoning out." Kai, in his tanktop and pulling on his trousers, grumbled. Kai was definitely not a morning person and extra grumpy in the morning especially since they've been staying up late in the recording studios. They would have to stop by a radio station for an interview, then Ai-chan and Fuu-chan would be waiting for them at TV Tohto for make-up and THEN a mid-day show. And all of this would be done in a shirt and a tie which the blonde had discovered, he abhorred. Kai had found out that his style of dress leaned more towards the comfortable bagginess of jeans and t-shirts. It would be a hectic morning and Kai was hoping there was nothing after the filming. "Today's an important day."
"Yes, that's right." Kuu had dark circles under his eyes and he was swaying side to side unsteadily as he buttoned up his shirt. The late nights were hitting Kuu especially hard since he was used to early bedtimes before he became an idol. But Kuu was doing his best! "Um... what's happening again?"
"It's the release date of our CD." Kai let out a huge sigh of exasperation.
"So this is the CD pamphlet that's gonna be distributed in music stores." Riku, Kai and Kuu had just gotten a copy of the pamphlet the night before, hot off the press. They were finally somebody! They were doing this! "I'm not dreaming, am I?"
Riku pinched himself experimentally and Kai and Kuu quickly joined in in pinching their leader.
"That hurts! It hurts!" Riku slapped their hands away. "Stop that!"
"Of course you're not dreaming." Kai grinned, suddenly excited. It was hitting all of them, in fact. Their CD debut! Their first single! "Lets go buy a copy after work!"
"For sure!" Kuu and Riku jumped up and down excitedly. "Lets go! Lets definitely go!"
The sounds of a whip cracking made all of them flinch and try to hide behind each other for shelter. They all KNEW what that sound was, they had all experienced the sharp sting of the whip and had developed an abject FEAR of the object.
"The three of you better hurry up!" Saeko barked, standing at the entrance of their room. "Everyone knows rookies arrive earlier at their appointments at least 20 minutes early!"
"H-HAI!" The three scurried around grabbing shirts, ties and jackets before rushing out of the room, eager to be away from Saeko and the punishment she was so happy to inflict on them with her whip. Within minutes, the boys were sitting in the back of a dark van with tinted windows and Marilyn was driving them to the radio station.
"Okay, remember," Saeko turned around to pin the three members with a piercing look. "You boys have to watch what you say, since you're on live. There are no second takes. Talk about your CD and try your best to be INTERESTING."
"But relax," cooed Marilyn, her eyes studiously on the road. "have fun."
"Try to be as natural as possible." Saeko added. "but not TOO natural. You have to be aware that if you say something stupid--"
"You're scaring us!" Kuu whined.
"Because you SHOULD BE SCARED." Saeko, scary face in place, was freaking out Persona.
"Shachou," Marilyn sighed. It was going to be a long ride to the radio station. Indeed, by the time they had arrived, all three members of Persona were significantly freaked out.
"We can do this." Riku exited the parked van on shaky legs. "We can do this..."
Kai exited the van, looking pale and unwell, Saeko's scare tactics having worked splendidly on the blonde. Kuu also, didn't look well but for another reason altogether. Kuu was a nervous eater and when he was nervous, he needed snacks.
"I'm hungry." Kuu announced. That jolted everyone out of their thoughts and Kai and Riku were at his side attentively.
"You didn't eat, did you?" Kai was glad to concentrate on someone else's problems instead of her own.
"Kuu, you have to eat breakfast, you know?" Riku scoffed. "It's the most important meal of the day!"
"I think the radio station might have some stuff set out for you guys." Marilyn placed a finger to her chin thoughtfully, then glanced at her wristwatch. "And we have plenty of time for a little something to eat!"
"OSU!" The three raised their hands in the air in excitement.
"Well, get something to eat." Saeko tsked. "I'm going to meet with some people and I'll come get you guys later."
The small group entered the building, of which the 33rd floor housed Tokyo's most popular radio station, Toki-Wave FM. Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, GLAY, SMAP; and even foreign stars like Avril Lavigne and one time, Michael Jackson! Arriving on their floor, the elevator doors opened to a reception area where the girls manning the front greeted them politely and one of them lead them to a waiting area where drinks and refreshments had been set out for guests. As they walked through a long corridor, bright lights off to the side caught Kuu's attention. In a side corridor that lead to the kitchen, an American-style vending machine with American-style snacks beckoned to the young man.
"Mmmm..." Kuu skipped over gleefully, forgetting totally that he should be following his friends. Licorice, gummy bears, sour peaches... all the candy that Kuu couldn't get in Japan, was there in that vending machine! And... was it possible... yes, it was... JOLLY RANCHERS!
Before Kuu could get to the machine, however, someone had stepped in front of him and blocked his way. Kuu skidded to a stop, looking at the back of the person in front of him. She was pretty tall, with short, light brown hair. She had on a pair of tight ripped jeans tucked into a pair of fashionably-worn cowboy boots, a cream-coloured peasant top on and necklaces and earrings that made a nice jangling sound every time she moved.
"What to eat, what to eat..." The mystery girl took off her sunglasses and squinted at the goodies inside the vending machine.
"Ano..." Kuu smiled at the woman when she lookd back at him. "What are you looking for? Something salty? Sweet? Sour?"
"Hmm... salty." The woman hung her sunglasses from the front of her shirt.
"Well, these are good." Kuu pointed to the dill and sour cream potato chips then to the hickory smoked potato sticks. "Or these, if you're looking for salty."
"What are you getting?" The woman asked him curiously. Kuu grinned and pointed to the last pack of jolly ranchers in the vending machine. "These! My dad brought some back for me on a trip to America and since we don't sell them in Japan, it's hard to get!"
"Are they really good?"
"They're the best!" Kuu grinned. The woman nodded, taking out a 500yen coin and putting it in the machine, then depressing the button for the jolly ranchers.
"Hey!" Kuu pouted. "I thought you said you wanted something salty!"
"You convinced me to get these." The devilish woman chuckled as she slowly unwrapped a jolly rancher and popped it in her mouth. She made a truly obscene face to show how much she enjoyed the taste of the candy. "Mmmm... It's sooooo good!"
"You're a horrible woman! You're horrible!" Kuu blurted out, almost near tears.
"There, there." The woman patted the top of Kuu's head and the tearful young man jerked his head away. "Would you like one?"
Kuu immediately brightened. "Yes, please!"
"Too bad." In slack-jawed disbelief at the sheer EVILNESS of that short-haired woman, Kuu watched her walk away. It was in this state of stunned anger that Kai and Riku found Kuu.
"Kuu, why'd you wander off?" Riku scolded and was startled to see tears at the corner of Kuu's eyes. "Wha-what'd I say?!"
"Did you get lost?" Kai patted Kuu on the back sympathetically which immediately set off the young man. Bursting into angry tears, Kuu's sob-filled angry babblings were barely understandable.
"You.. candy... what?" Riku frowned, confused as he tried to comfort his friend.
"Jolly ranchers? Evil... woman?" Kai exchanged looks with Riku and they both shrugged. "Come on, Kuu! Pull yourself together, we're on in five!"
Kuu accepted some tissues from Riku, dabbing at his eyes and blowing his nose, still very angry at having his treat stolen. Who the hell was that woman?! How could she have done this?! But he had to put all that aside... they were on!
The recording room was small and there were three chairs set up for them with headphones and mics, with two windows looking into the recording room. One window was connected to the control room and the other window was situated just beside the control room window behind Kai and Riku while Kuu was seated right beside the DJ and able to look out the window. The DJ greeted them quickly, introducing herself as Oshima Mai then ran the boys through a quick test of the equipment and then got the signal from one of the techs in another room that they had ten seconds before they went live.
"And we're back on Toki-Wave FM, Tokyo's number one music station!" Oshima Mai sounded quite professional. "Today we have Persona stopping in for a visit, despite this being a busy day for them since it's the release date of their single, '3 Seconds'. Thanks for coming in, guys."
"It's no problem at all." Riku said demurely as his bandmates echoed his statement. "We're happy to be here."
"Well, why don't you guys introduce yourselves?" Mai smiled at the three young men. Two of them looked quite nervous while one looked like someone had just kicked his dog. She hoped these kids would do alright!
"Well, I'm Riku."
"Kai."
"And Kuu." Kuu growled, still remembering the woman who had stolen his candy.
"We're Persona." Riku added quickly, nudging Kuu with his knee. What was wrong with Kuu? "Wow... well, we were just talking about how we can't believe that we've come to this, you know. Putting out our first single, working on our first CD..."
"Yeah." Kai nodded. "From nothing to something, it took a lot of hard work and a lot of support from a lot of different people for us to get here today."
"How did you guys end up together? What's the story behind it?" Mai leaned over, in a show of interest. "At the beginning, when you guys first came into the public eye, there were only the two of you--Riku and Kai--in Persona. How did the three of you get together?"
"Well..." The three in question exchanged glances and Riku started speaking first. "We had actually met before, we had come in for an audition--"
"--and bombed it." Kai laughed a bit, remembering that fateful day they had met. "But we met each other."
"And me and Kai accidentally stumbled on to an audition where our manager saw us and signed us right away." Riku explained. "It all happened pretty quickly."
"How about Kuu?" Mai turned to the other member of the group. "How come only the two of you were signed?"
"Well, Kuu had another... offer before, but then he rejected it." Riku said carefully. Saeko and Marilyn had come up with a 'first meeting' cover story for them already. The story was close enough to the real story so they wouldn't be too confused.
"I joined up with Riku and Kai after the Indies performance." Kuu said quietly. The tone of his voice, the seriousness drew everyone's attention. "When they helped that girl at the Indies, they really reached out to her. And I thought to myself, 'these guys would be great people to be friends with', you know. They'd be people I'd trust to back me up and be there when I needed someone. And I'd be proud to be counted as one of the people they needed too."
"When you guys saved that girl, you know everybody's calling you heroes," Mai nodded, encouraging her guests to talk.
"We're not heroes." Kai shook his head. "The people who ARE though, are the everyday people that try their best. But it's hard to keep going and we all need someone to tell us that we ARE doing our best."
"And just a quick little sidenote," Riku interrupted with a small smile. "There are people out there who do care and whom you could talk to if you're depressed, lonely and feeling suicidal. You can search for Befrienders, I don't have the webpage address but--"
"--we at Toki-Wave will have that site up on this station's homepage after this show." Mai nodded seriously. "This topic, one of suicide, should be tackled head on and shouldn't be avoided because many people suffer from suicidal thoughts and feelings and we shouldn't push these people aside."
There was a small pause before Mai continued with a slightly lighter tone of voice. "Well, that was a heavy topic that needed to be touched on. I believe after the security at the Indies helped that young girl, you guys sang '3 Seconds' for the first time on that stage. Could we get Persona to sing us a bit of that song to lighten the mood?"
Riku exchanged looks with his bandmates, both who gave their leader a nod. "Yeah, sure, we can do that."
On the count of three, Persona launched into an a cappella version of '3 Seconds', singing the first part of their song and the chorus for '3 Seconds'. It was unrehearsed and hadn't gone through the machinations of song-making to filter out undesirable sounds like off-key notes or unscripted key-changes. But their raw voices melded well together, each finding a different pitch suited to them and reaching a polyphonic harmony that sounded beautiful, even better than the recorded version.
"That was great!" Mai clapped enthusiastically, and so did the techs in the control room though Kuu was the only one in position to see them. He was also the only one in position to see a certain woman pass by the hallway window, then come back for a double take.
'You!' Kuu narrowed his eyes and glared at the short-haired woman at the window who grinned at him, then walked off again. Two seconds later, a manicured hand holding up an opened package of Jolly Rancher candies popped up from the bottom of the window.
"Wow, you guys." Mai fanned herself a bit. "Three seconds with Persona has made me a fan! And it seems that we have several callers who want to talk to you!"
Kuu watched that package of Jolly Ranchers waving from side to side, murderously intent on the tantalizing multi-coloured treats.
"Kuu, so what do you do for fun?" Kuu whipped his head around to look at Mai intently, who balked at the way Kuu was staring at her.
"I like eating candy." Kuu answered, then turned back to the window, only to find the Jolly Ranchers and the hand holding them up, GONE.
"O-okay... well, we have another caller on the line! Her name is Mariko... Mariko, are you there?" Mai smiled encouragingly, though the listener probably couldn't see her.
"Hi, this question's for the one with the hair with blue streaks." The voice was familiar to Kuu, but he couldn't quite place it...
"Hi." Kuu said hesitantly and tried to loosen up and focus back on this interview. He remembered reading somewhere that people could hear you smile through the phone so he tried that. "That's me! I'm Kuu; the one with the blue streaks."
"Alright, Kuu..." The next thing this person said made her immediately recognizable. "What type of candy do you like?"
The woman was back at the window, waving the package of Jolly Ranchers with one hand and holding her cellphone to her ear with the other. Mai could also see this person in the window and just sat there frozen, not really knowing what to do.
"I. Like. Jolly Ranchers!" Kuu said through gritted teeth, trying to keep a smile on his face.
"Oh, I've never heard of them. Can you tell me more?" Mariko smirked a bit.
"They're American candy and they're hard to get in Japan." Kuu said quickly, his voice high and falsely bright. "And they're my favourite! I *just* found some in this station and some WOMAN took the last pack of them!"
"Wellthat'sallthetimewehavefortoday!" Mai pressed the 'hang-up' button several times, just to make sure their caller was gone. Mariko smirked one last time, blew Kuu a kiss through the window and walked off.
"Thank you Persona, for coming in! We're so happy to have you here at Toki-Wave FM and hope that you guys come back some time soon!" Kai and Riku, a bit confused at Kuu and Mai's strange behaviour, replied with polite thank you's. "And here's Persona's new single, '3 Seconds'!"
As soon as the light that signalled they were live went off, Mai threw off her headphones and turned to Kuu.
"I'm so sorry about that!" Bowing as low as possible to Kuu while sitting in her chair, Mai was on her way to prostrating herself on the ground to her guests.
"No, it wasn't your fault." Kuu tried to take deep steadying breaths. Who the HELL was that woman?!
"What's going on?" Riku looked from Kuu back to Mai, confused.
"Nothing. It's nothing." Kuu shrugged, forcing himself to be calm. He had to let it go. That woman was just trying to get a rise out of him.
"We better get going." Kai took a look at his watch. "We've gotta get to TV Tohto soon." Giving Mai a bow, he flashed the girl an apologetic grin. "Sorry to have to run out."
"No, no, it was great having you guys here, really!" Mai gushed. Indeed, it had been really nice to have these guys here. They were a breath of fresh air, totally without an air of pretense about them. They certainly were new, but the way Kuu had handled Mariko's teasing was quite impressive.
As Persona filed out of the room and hustled back to the waiting room to get their stuff, Kuu kept his eyes opened for that 'Mariko' woman, but she was nowhere to be found. However, while Saeko was hustling them out of the waiting area, a young woman, obviously an assistant of sorts, rushed in to the room, asking if anybody had seen "Mariko-sama's" bottle of Calpis soda.
'REVENGE.' Kuu spotted the bottle on a table... right next to a salt shaker. This was TOO easy. The sweet drink was quickly doctored with the contents of the salt shaker and left it for the assistant to find. After the young woman had rushed out the room, Kuu slipped away from her own group to follow the assistant.
"--getting a lot of guests today!" Mai was back on the air with her latest guest. "Shinoda Mariko's also managed to pop by for a visit! You started off modeling, is that correct?"
"Yes, it started as a part-time job, but it branched out to something a lot more full-time."
"But now you're doing a bit of acting, right? You've been in a couple of dramas before, but I hear you've gotten a starring role in a new movie coming out."
Kuu didn't hear the reply, even though there were speakers outside of the recording room allowing anybody looking in through the window to listen in. He was too focused on the drink in Shinoda Mariko, that evil woman's, hand. Mariko was in a very good position. She was sitting to the right of Mai, facing the window to the hallway, but was too intent on what Mai was saying to notice Kuu at the window right away.
'REVENGE.' Kuu glared daggers at Mariko when she finally caught sight of him. Smirking a bit, the model raised her bottle of calpis soda at him in a little 'cheers' motion, placed the bottle to her lips and tilted her head back to drink. In a few short seconds, Mariko had sprayed the doctored calpis soda all over the floor, thankfully missing Mai completely.
Only then did Kuu allow himself an evil smirk of his own, meeting Mariko's furious eyes as he watched her wipe soda from her chin.
"Steal my candy? That's what you get." Kuu let out a low, evil chuckle and blew Mariko a little kiss of his own before running off to find his bandmates.
---
"It was scary yesterday, my heart was racing." Riku whispered to Kai. Finally, they had a little down time after hustling over to TV Tohto from Toki-Wave FM where they had lost Kuu several times. Now, the the three young men that made up Persona plus Saeko and Marilyn were traveling up the elevator to their tv shoot and the boys decided to take this time to go over what had happened yesterday night. Yesterday, after the photo shoot, Persona had decided they needed a break. Putting away their boy disguises, they had gone out dressed up like normal girls and gone to an arcade to have fun. Little did they know that the snakeguy who had tried to take Asahi's purupuru was there and had started after them when he had spotted them! "I thought I was going to die!"
"I know." Kai frowned, seriously worried. Those guys had guns! "I wonder what that snakeguy wants from us. I wonder why he's chasing us."
'Don't tell me..." Riku slipped out his cellphone, fingering the purupuru doll that was hanging from his cellphone. "it's because of this?"
"It can't be." Kai said stubbornly. "What the hell would an old man want with a purupuru?"
Riku nodded. Kai was right. What would an old man want with a purupuru anyways? Sure, it was limited edition and hard to find...
As the two members of the group pondered this dangerous person stalking them, the elevator chimed, signaling a stop. The sudden appearance of the VERY man that was stalking them almost made Riku and Kai's heart stop as they tried their best not to gape at their pursuer. Seeing the elevator door closing behind him, Riku and Kai tried to dodge around the guy and escape, but they pulled back from the closing doors, leaving them trapped in the small cramped elevator with him.
"Help us--!"
"That's dangerous." Kuroda said gruffly to the two young boys. Really, at their age and playing on elevators? Riku and Kuu looked over at their pursuer in disbelief and he gave them a small nod and a smile. He didn't recognize them!
"Thank you very much," Saeko thanked the tall man demurely, while reaching out pinching fingers towards her two rowdy boys. "Really, they're a bunch of reckless kids."
"I-te-teee!...OSU!" Riku and Kai clenched their teeth and bore the pain admirably. Kuu, standing quietly in the corner, remained silent. The elevator ride continued on in silence until they all got off on the same floor.
"Haaaa... THANK GODDD!" Kai and Riku watched until their pursuer disappeared around the corridor and breathed a sigh of relief. Their relief was short-lived as Saeko took hold of their ears and pinched them hard, stopping Riku and Kai in their tracks.
"That guy just now," Saeko growled, "That's the one chasing the two of you, right? What the hell did you two dooooo..."
Saeko twisted their ears painfully and the two young men could only flail about helplessly.
"That hurts--we REALLY don't know!" Kai hissed.
"We didn't do anything at all!"
"Well, it's none of my business." Saeko glowered at them. "But if I find out you two are causing trouble, it's a hundred strokes for the both of you!"
"Hai." Kai and Riku sighed, resigned to their fate.
"Ara," Marilyn's confused exclamation caught their attention. "This is bad... Kuu's missing!"
The elevator suddenly chimed behind them and the doors opened to reveal a sleepy-eyed Kuu.
"I'm sorry," Kuu yawned, plodding slowly up to Marilyn. "I overslept!"
"You were sleeping with you eyes open?" Kai gaped at the taller boy who shrugged and grinned sheepishly.
"It's a talent, I guess."
"Stop disappearing on us!" Kai sighed. "Really, Kuu."
"Yes," Marilyn glanced at her watch and let out a tiny gasp. "Come on, quickly! We're going to be late!"
"OSU!"
-
Chapter 7
language!:
language notes:
urusai - shut up
baka - idiot, stupid
u-so - no way
Out of their 'work' clothes, the girls brushed their long hair, reveling in the feeling of being in comfortable non-boy clothes. Saeko had given the girls an evening off and they had decided to celebrate the release date of their single, '3 Seconds'. When they had gone to buy it, it had been disappointing to see that there wasn't many of their CDs on sale but it was heart-warming to see that they did have a fan out there who wanted to buy their CD.
"Ray sure is popular though..." Hinata said thoughtfully, running a comb through her hair. "Did you see that wall of CDs they had for her? Peole say that her new album 'H', is pretty good..."
"Don't buy it. I'm warning you." Nami gave Hinata a dirty look. "We see enough of her already. We don't need more of her during our off-time."
"Ooooo..." Hinata gave Nami a cheeky grin. "Someone wants Ray alllll to themselves!"
Urusai! Baka." If looks could kill, Hinata would've been dead before she hit the ground.
"Do you looooove her?" Asahi decided to join in the good-natured ribbing, enjoying how Nami's face and ears were quickly turning red.
"S-S-Shut up!" Nami took up a pillow, starting an impromptu pillow fight.
"Ah!" Giggling, Hinata ducked a thrown pillow, rolling out of the way like James Bond. While rolling, she managed to pick up a pillow and return fire. Unfortunately, she missed her mark and hit Asahi.
"Mou!" Asahi grabbed the pillow and threw it at Hinata, who launched herself out of the way, giggling insanely.
"Get her!" Nami grinned, brandishing a pillow of her own. Asahi and Nami both ran after Hinata, laughing out loud. Marilyn and Saeko had gone home to do... unmentionable things all night long, so the three had a free night. It felt so good to be out of boy clothes and to drop the boy persona, even though they had gotten used to it over time. It felt good to have a seperate identity from Persona to take a break from the hectic work schedule. Their girl clothes marked the times they were off while boy clothes meant they were on the clock.
"I give up!" Hinata was rolled up into a ball, hiccuping with laughter as her two groupmates brought the pillow down on her body. "I give!"
"I can't get enough of this feeling of freedom!" Nami flopped down onto the futons, still breathless from laughing.
"This is the only place we can really be ourselves." Hinata agreed, unrolling from her ball and sitting up. For her troubles, she got a face full of pillow from Asahi and was down again.
"And the 'L's aren't here tonight!" Asahi added cheerfully.
"Hey," Hinata sat back up again. "Do you guys wanna throw a CD release party with just the three of us?"
"We shouldn't!" Asahi frowned a bit. "What if shachou suddenly comes back? We'd be in trouble!"
"It's fine!" Nami grinned and rolled over from her spot on the futon, looking up at her two friends. "If she said she won't let Marilyn sleep and they'll play all night, that means-"
"they won't come back!" Nami and Hinata said in unison.
The wheels in Asahi's head turned slowly and finally a smile crept up on her face. "That's true... then... shall we?"
"Lets do it to it!" The three cheered. In no time at all, they had round up some orange juice, cookies, sweets and put their CD promotional posters all over the walls of their shared room. It was cozier up here and they had a mini kitchen, which meant they didn't have to go downstairs for much. Besides... it was better not to be downstairs just because they might bump into Saeko and Marilyn doing unspeakable things! So it was just much safer upstairs.
"Cheers!" The three toasted to their success, feeling positive about their future and all of them happy that it had ended up with the three of them together. Kai was the joker of the group; funny, brash and loud, with the ability to lighten up a tense situation but he was also serious and hard-working when it came down to it and pushed her group to be all that they could be. Kuu, well, Asahi seriously thought that without Kuu, musically they would've been mediocre at best. Also, the soft-spoken member of the group was gentle and kind and entirely too cute for words and he charmed the staff left and right. Riku kept everyone in line, without really knowing it. Kai and Kuu were prone to be distracted but Riku kept his eyes on the target like a heat-seeking missile and the decisions he made were sound and extremely helpful to the group.
About to drink to their success, the three were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.
"Who could that be at this hour?" Asahi shared puzzled looks with her group.
"I'll go check." Nami volunteered. Meanwhile, the doorbell kept ringing. Whoever it was was eager to get in! As Nami came down the stairs, she spotted shachou's whip sitting on one of the mismatched chairs in the living room.
"Shachou musta forgotten something and came back to get it." Nami grinned. Even the thought of the L's couldn't kill her good mood! Jogging to the door, she unlocked it and pushed it open, grinning, imagining Saeko's flustered face. "Hey-"
"I'm here!"
Nami's eyes almost popped out of her skull as the LAST person she wanted to see EVER stood in front of her in all her Diva glory. RAY. Apparently, Nami was the last person Ray wanted to see too as the brilliant smile dropped from her face as she realized this person in front of her, though oddly familiar, was not her beloved Kai. Whipping off the sunglasses that covered half her face, Ray stared at Nami in a mixture of stunned surprise and anger. She KNEW this was the right house. Who was this girl? Nami wasn't going to be giving any answers though as she slammed the door in Ray's face and locked it.
"U-SO!" Nami screeched, running back into the house and up the stairs two at a time.
"Who are you?" Ray pounded on the door, pissed that the girl had DARED slam the door in her face. "Open up! Could it be-are you a burglar? I'm calling the police!"
"Ray's here!" Nami burst through the door to their room. Asahi and Hinata stood up in alarm, sharing the panic Nami felt.
"Why?"
"How should I know?" Nami threw up her hands.
Hinata looked from Nami to Asahi, getting more and more panicked as the drumming on the front door got louder. "What should we do?"
"If she sees me like this..." Nami grabbed at the front of her shirt, panicking. What if Ray had guessed? What if Ray recognized her?
"What do we do? Shachou's for sure gonna find out about this!" Hinata was not making this better. In fact, she was just making everybody stress out even more.
"What if she calls the cops? Persona'll be exposed!" Nami was also not helping and was making everyone even MORE panicked.
"Well," Asahi was trying to calm down and think but it was hard with two girls babbling beside her and one crazy Diva pounding at her front door! "Nami, change into your disguise and calm her down!"
They all scurried to help Nami change with Asahi quickly and expertly pinning up Nami's hair and securing the tiny girl's blonde wig and Hinata throwing a baggy black zip-up sweater at Nami and a pair of baggy khaki shorts.
"Go go go!" Asahi pushed Nami out the door to their room, watching the other girl hopping about trying to zip up her shorts while rushing down the stairs.
"Open this door NOW!" Ray demanded, now more than a little angry as something occurred to her. A girl? In the same house as KAI? What was a girl doing here? What was Kai doing with a girl? As the door opened, revealing Ray's love interest, Ray could only feel helpless anger raging inside her.
"Kai, who was that woman earlier?" Ray demanded to know. Bringing her hands up, she wrapped them around Kai's neck and started shaking the blonde. "Being with her while you've got me~!"
"That was just a neighbour," Kai lied through his teeth, pushing off Ray's strangling hands. "She needed to borrow some soy sauce! But it's alright now, she went home. Well then, bye-"
The sound of Ray's booted foot stopping the door from closing shook the house as Ray glared down at the small blonde idol.
"Hmmm... Is that so?" The layout of the house prevented Ray from seeing the rest of the house from her vantage point at the door. But that would NOT stop Ray! "I want to see for myself."
Pulling the door open and brushing past Kai, she stormed into the house.
"She's coming!" Asahi had been looking over the banister from the second floor and now ducked down. "Quick, we gotta change!"
"Whaaaat?" Hinata pouted, resting her chin on the banister. Asahi JUST manged to pull Hinata out of sight as Ray looked up. Ray searched the kitchen, looked into Saeko's office, looking around to see if there were any signs of that girl being here. But there were none. Why had that girl looked so familiar...
"She's not here." Ray said quietly, feeling foolish.
"Right?" Kai smiled, relieved that Ray had stopped her rampage. If she had decided to storm up the stairs... well... Kai didn't know how he would explain Hinata AND Asahi. Putting his hands on Ray's shoulders and turning the Diva towards the front door, he started GENTLY leading her towards the exit. "Nevermind that. What did you come for?"
"Ah, that's right!" Ray beamed at Kai. "Congratulations on your CD debut!"
Kai finally noticed that Ray had brought a cake box in a plain white paper bag and was now offering it to Kai The Diva sounded incredibly cute and girlish as she beamed at the blonde. "To celebrate, I made a cake for you!"
The shortest member of Persona couldn't help feeling touched by Ray's thoughfulness but was distracted from the gift as Riku flew down the stairs in a pair of slacks and a casual white button-up shirt.
"That's so nice of you! Thank you!" Riku rambled, holding out his hands to take the cake, but the bag was quickly pulled away from Riku.
"It's not for you!" Ray held the box to her chest like it was some priceless treasure. "It's for Kai!" Turning back to Kai, Ray pressed the cake into Kai's hands with another brilliant smile. "Here!"
"Thank you." Kai smiled back weakly and accepted the bag. Riku, pouted. How come he didn't get any cake?
"For some reason, your hair looks weird today." Ray commented, looking at Riku strangely.
Kai winced. DAMNIT! Riku had screwed up!
"You've got the wrong wig." Kuu came down the stairs in Riku's wig, a t-shirt and blue basketball shorts, having realized the error himself when he was putting the final touches on his hair.
"Wig?"
All three members of Persona exchanged another flurry of panicked looks, wondering how they were going to cover this up...
"Uh... haven't you heard about that new hairstyle 'wig'? It's all the rage in New York." Riku babbled quickly. "Yeah, we're researching new hairstyles right now."
Ray gave Riku and Kuu a weird look and let the topic drop. She didn't think too much on it as she really didn't care about Kuu or Riku. Her only concern was Kai. Turning back to her beloved, Ray moved closer to Kai, her eyes gleaming excitedly. This was the first time she had made a cake and she had to say, it was pretty much a success!
"Lets eat the cake together." Ray smiled at Kai.
"Sure!" Kai pushed Ray towards the couch. "You take a seat, I'll go get us some plates. Do you want tea?"
Talking quickly to distract Ray, Kai motioned for his bandmates to go into the kitchen and Riku and Kuu quickly exchanged wigs in the kitchen before Kai joined them.
"I can't believe this," Kai spoke in a low voice. "She chased me all the way here."
"This is the only place we can be ourselves after a hard day's work," Riku pouted at Kai, still a little bothered that he wasn't allowed to have a bit of cake. "You're her lover right? Get her to go away."
"I told you, we're not lovers or anything!" Kai protested.
"Oooo..." Kuu stared at Kai accusingly. "Even though she gave you your first kiss, eh?"
"Shaddup." Kai's eyes narrowed.
"Anyways," Riku nodded towards the living room. "If you eat that cake with her, it'll probably please her. If you make her angry again..."
All three remembered very well the whipping Nami had been subjected to when she had pissed off the Diva. None of them wanted to experience the pain of the whip again.
"Okay, I'll eat the cake and make her leave." Kai nodded.
"Hinata LOVES cake!" Kuu cheered, clasping his hands together and was met with the fierce disapproving glares from Kai and Riku. The smile dropped from Kuu's face and he pouted at his friends. What?
Plates, forks and tea was prepared, soon they were all sitting around the table in the living room with Ray and Kai occupying the chaise and the other two members of Person pulling up single chairs.
"Okay, I'm going to open it!" Ray leaned forward and pulled off the lip of the box. "Taadah!"
"GEH!" Riku and Kai made a face as they stared at the abortion of a cake. It was aqua-green icing and was topped with raspberries, chocolate kisses, nuts, raisins, chocolate sprinkles, pieces of peach and a slice of pineapple in the centre.
"What?" Kuu looked around the table. "It looks delicious!"
"Yeah," Kai smiled weakly at Ray. "I was just... so surprised that it looked so good!"
Kuu, meanwhile, had swiped a bit of icing from the cake with a finger and tried it out. "It's pretty good!"
Riku tried a bit too but immediately regretted it, a sour taste exploding in his mouth that was mixed with a cloying sweetness, too sweet to be good. The cake's icing also seemed to numb his tongue. While Riku tried to discreetly get rid of the taste in his mouth, his face told Kai everything that the blonde needed to know. This cake would be horrible.
"Who said you two could eat it?" Ray scowled at them. "This is all for Kai!"
"Dozo, dozo." Riku grinned, now not at all upset that he would have to skip out on the cake. Kai grimaced, mouthing out the word 'Traitor!' to Riku. Looking at the cake with a large smile that looked more like a grimace to Riku and Kuu, Kai picked up a fork and quickly took several bites.
"Is it good?" Ray prodded, looking at Kai eagerly.
Kai, trying not to gag on the taste of the cake, gave Ray his best smile. "It's delicious. Thank you."
"I'm so happy that you're eating it so joyfully!" Ray threw her arms around Kai and the blonde immediately stood up as Ray's arms came too close to her unbound chest.
"I'm not strapped down!" Kai hissed to himself, uncomfortably aware of that fact as Ray settled for wrapping her arms around Kai's tiny waist and hugging him tightly.
"Strapped down?" Ray looked up at Kai curiously who quickly sat down, scrambling to cover for his slip.
"I was just thinking, that uh, your hair feels so nice..." Kai leaned forward and touched Ray's hair, running his fingers quickly through the silken strands then leaned forward to take a quick smell, smiling at the Diva. "It smells so good, too."
"You can touch it any time!" Ray gushed, feeling her cheeks heat up at the compliment. If baking a cake for Kai was all it took to get results like this, she'd bake him cakes all the time! Kai, meanwhile, was taking big gulps of tea from his teacup, trying to wash away the taste. It was SORT OF helping...
Kai managed to wolf down a couple more bites of cake before Ray excused herself to the washroom.
"Get rid of the cake while you've got the chance!" Riku said as soon as Ray was gone. Kai jumped to action, hiding the horrible cake underneath the sofa to be dumped later. Honestly, how could anything taste so horrible?
"How did she find out where we lived?" Kai grabbed at his hair in frustration.
"Well, Monkey Pro is our parent company..." Kuu started to say with a shrug.
Kai, who wasn't really listening to Kuu, continued pacing. "Why is she here?"
"To give you a cake to celebrate your CD debut." Kuu answered Kai's question again. The sound of the washroom door opening stopped Kai's pacing and the blonde pasted a smile on his face.
"That cake sure was good!" Kai rubbed his stomach to emphasize the point. "Well, you'd better be leaving now, you've probably got work tomorrow, right?"
Holding out his hand to Ray, the Diva took it eagerly as Kai pulled her towards the door, determined to finally get rid of the singer.
"Are you concerned about me?" Ray smiled at the diminutive blonde's back. He was small and slim, almost like a girl... but the way he walked, the way he seemed to radiate confidence made him seem like a giant to her. "Kai, why are you so nice?"
"Eh heh... yeah..." Kai ducked a hug and settled for a companionable pat on the back while pushing the beautiful woman out the front door. "Bye bye!" And underneath his breath as he shut and locked the door, he muttered, "Don't come back."
"She's gone!" They all let out a sigh of relief and flopped down on to the upholstery. Their rest was short-lived however, as the doorbell rang again.
"Now THAT might be shachou." Kai had an arm flung over his eyes. "She left her whip."
"I'll bring it to her and the we can continue with our party!" Riku picked up the instrument of torture and trotted to the door, knowing that Saeko didn't like to be kept waiting, but instead of the president's familiar face, another familiar and uninvited face appeared.
"Shachou, did you forget something-"
"Yo, Riku!" Katsuyuki grinned, delighted to see Riku. "I was in the neighbourhood so I thought I'd drop by and congratulate you on your CD debut!"
"O-oh." Riku nodded, pasting a smile on his face. "Uh, thanks!"
"Well," Katsuyuki stood at the threshold to the house, feeling a bit nervous as Riku stood at the doorway. "Um... well, if you're busy-"
"No!" Years of good Japanese upbringing made Riku automatically step aside and wave Katsuyuki-san in. "Please come in! We were just having some tea..."
Kai and Kuu were, to say the least, displeased with this new guest when they had just gotten rid of the last one.
"Oh, you already have refreshments set out. Are you expecting someone?"
"No, nobody really." Riku blurted out. "We just wanted tea. Now we want juice. Do you like juice? We'll get you some juice. GUYS, LETS GO TO THE KITCHEN!"
The three-man boyband escaped to the kitchen again.
"Why'd you let him in?" Kai asked in a soft voice.
Riku peeked out at Katsuyuki who was messing around with a weird stuffed calf Saeko kept in the living room. "What choice did I have? He came all this way to congratulate us."
"You're really covering for him, eh?" Kai crossed his arms, finding an opportunity to get Riku back for teasing him about Ray. "Do you like him?"
"Not a chance." Riku's cheeks puffed up in indignation.
"There totally is a chance." Kai sing-songed.
"Stop pissing me off." Riku growled. Being in man-mode got Riku's testosterone pumping.
"What are we gonna do?" Kuu's voice interrupted their argument.
Kai, thoroughly enjoying Riku's discomfort, crossed his arms. "You do something this time."
Riku bared her teeth at Kai, who did it right back. Grabbing four glasses of orange juice, they went back to the living room to join Katsuyuki-san.
"Thanks." He took the juice gratefully and was about to drink when he caught sight of Riku's face. The smooth-skinned Riku was sucking his juice through a straw... it was almost sinful, the way he was doing it-
"Could it be..." Kuu's voice barely pierced the haze around Katsuyuki brain. "that Katsuyuki-san likes Riku?"
"There's no way!" Katsuyuki laughed a bit too loudly, getting way too ahead of himself. "Two men kissing? There's no way I'd so something stupid like that!"
The three young men looked up at Katsuyuki in horrified fascination. It was like watching a train-wreck. The young director of Sunny Music wasn't convincing ANYONE of his not-liking Riku.
"Oh yeah, Riku, lets arm wrestle! Men need to be manly!" Katsuyuki was on his feet, eager, some might even say desperate to change the topic.
'Do guys arm-wrestle for fun?' Riku's puzzled look directed at Kuu earned her a shrug.
"Yeah, men do need to be manly..." Riku stalled, casting a look at Kai. The blonde leaned forward to confer with Riku discreetly.
"This is bad, he'll totally figure you out cuz you're weak." Kai said bluntly.
"I'm not weak," Riku pouted. "And you told me to do something!"
"Arm-wrestling?"
"What's up?" Katsuyuki looked at the two whispering boys nervously. Were they talking about him?
"Nothing!" Riku stood up, false enthusiasm on his face. "Lets do this!"
The table was cleared for the two combatants. Katsuyuki thought he had found the perfect out, some friendly competition between two good-looking men-not that he thought Riku was particularly good-looking. Or that Katsuyuki-san noticed things like that or thought that the way Riku looked when he was concentrating was completely and utterly hot... no. Katsuyuki, the young director of Sunny Music was 100% hetero-OH MY GOD, RIKU'S HAND WAS SO SOFT!
'Why is my heart racing?' Katsuyuki was had to restrain himself from panting as he tried to focus on the task at hand.
"Okay," Kai was self-appointed ref and Kuu enjoyed his role as spectator. "Ready-"
"Wait a sec!" Katsuyuki nearly threw himself away from Riku and turned away from the three young men, muttering to himself. Unknowingly, loud enough for them to hear. "Calm down... I should like women. I *do* like women! I like women... I like women..."
As Katsuyuki-san repeated this mantra to himself, Kai was chuckling gleefully at Katsuyuki's problem.
"This is HILARIOUS." Kai whispered to Riku. "Is he gay?"
"No way." Riku grinned at the hilarity of it all. Katsuyuki-san looked so straight!
"Okay, I'm ready!" Katsuyuki took off his jacket and flung it on the chaise. "This is a fight between two men!"
They clasped hands again and Kai was there to set them up.
"Ready... Go!" Katsuyuki immediately started putting the pressure on, but it didn't seem like Riku was letting up either with Kai and Kuu cheering their bandmate on. However, the singer seemed to be struggling as he leaned forward little by little, trying to get some leverage by shifting his body forward a bit. It was too much for the director of Sunny Music though as he panicked from Riku's near proximity.
"I... I can't do it!" Katsuyuki, once again, flung himself away from Riku, lying on the floor with his hand covering his eye. "I can't do this, I can't-"
Opening his eyes again, he was greeted by the sight of Ray, looking down at him.
"What are you doing here?" Forgetting his Riku problem for the moment, he blinked up at the Diva in confusion.
"I forgot my bag." Ray answered, picking up her bag from the floor beside the chaise, turning to Kai after she retrieved her belonging. "And your door was unlocked! It would be bad if Kai ran into some crazy stalker, so I made sure to shut and lock it!"
'Lock it? Then we'll just have to unlock it again when she leaves now.' Kuu thought in confusion.
'She could've just taken her bag and left. Locking the door behind her is just one extra step.' Riku was trying to puzzle out why the Diva would lock their door behind her. Only the blonde member of the group was sure of the reason Ray had locked the door behind her.
'SHE WANTS TO STAY LONGER!' The gleam in Ray's eyes as she looked at Kai hungrily told the shortest member of Persona that he had hit the nail on the head.
The sudden pounding on the door caught all their attention.
"See! Just like I said, a stalker!"
Saeko's voice demanding to be let in sent the Persona-boys into panic-attacks.
"Oh no, the president's back!" Riku looked at their two guests.
"RULE NUMBER 15: NO GUESTS! RULE NUMBER 15! NO GUESTS!" Soul-numbing fear was making Kuu repeat rule number fifteen of Kamonohatsu agency.
"Hurry, hide them!" Riku grabbed Katsuyuki and his jacket, tugging him towards the hallway closet while Kai grabbed Ray and headed to Saeko's office. Riku pushed Katsuyuki in to the hallway closet and to keep him from protesting, jumped in too to slam his hand over the director's mouth to stop any and all protests.
"What's going on?" Ray let herself be lead, enjoying the action-star quality Kai had suddenly taken.
"You have to hide! And keep quiet!" Kai hissed while pushing the Diva underneath the desk. The blonde made to leave but was tugged under the desk with Ray.
"If I'm hiding," Ray giggled quietly, feeling very much like a kid playing hide-and-seek again. "You. Are. Too!"
"What-"
"Shhh..." Ray pressed a finger against Kai's lips. Crouched in this small space together, the space just got infinitely smaller as Ray turned Kai's face towards her with gentle hands. Kai was frozen like a deer in the headlights of a speeding car as Ray oh-so-carefully leaned in and placed a timid kiss on Kai's lips, suddenly shy in this small cramped space.
"Ray-"
"Shshsh," Ray shushed Kai again and leaned forward, stopping all words between them perfectly.
"Why are you wearing your Persona outfit?" Saeko, meanwhile, had been interrogating Kuu. This was all so very suspicious, very, VERY suspicious. The few long seconds it took for Kuu to reply was even MORE suspicious.
"I'm practicing!" Kuu replied. "Practicing our dance routine!"
Leaning forward, Saeko sniffed at Kuu's clothing while the boy stood, frozen to the spot.
"You smell." Saeko scrunched her nose up, her sharp eyes pinning Kuu with a knowing look. "You smell of lies."
The president of Kamonohatsu agency wanted to investigate further... but she HAD left Marilyn... QUITE tied up. Her secretary could wait for a while but to make her wait too long would make the usually docile woman unbelievably pissy.
"Well, whatever." Saeko grabbed her whip from it's resting place. "But if you guys go out and come back smelling like cigarettes and booze in the morning again... you will get the whip."
"Osu." As Saeko breezed past towards the front door, Kuu gave a super-polite bow and saw Saeko off. As soon as the whip-wielding woman had left, Kuu let out a sigh of relief.
"She came back for it!" Kuu announced for the people in hiding. Now they could get rid of their guests and get back to the CD release party! "Hey, it's alright, she left!"
Kuu opened the hallway closet door to reveal Riku and Katsuyuki-san, locked in a very heated whispered argument... something about Katsuyuki-san worrying about what Riku meant by shoving the both of them in the closet while Riku growled back that it meant nothing, with a red face.
"Um... guys-"
"We're busy!" They both snapped before pulling the door closed behind them. The stunned silence afterwards told all three they had not expected that. Riku and Katsuyuki-san now stood in the closet, frozen like deers in headlights, staring at each other. They were alone again.
"W-why did you close the door?" Katsuyuki-san started.
"Why did YOU close the door?" Riku shot back, embroiled in their back and forth arguing again.
"Fine." Kuu pouted, hurt that they had raised their voices at him and walked over to Ray and Kai's hiding place, hoping to at least get Kai to join him. "Kaiiii, lets continue our party!"
Moving the rolling leather chair out of the way so Kuu could look under the desk, Kuu gaped at the sight before him. There was Ray, kissing Kai with a lazy leisure. Kai, meanwhile, had completely frozen and just sat there, letting Ray do whatever she wanted, unable to stop her.
Kuu's lips turned down, feeling very sad and just a tad envious. Everybody had somebody.
'Riku has Katsuyuki-san and Kai has Ray.' Kuu went back upstairs. He felt like the third wheel... and he hated that feeling. He was unwanted. Well, if they didn't want him, he was going to go out and celebrate by himself! 'Nobody wants to be with me, even though it's our CD release date.'
With that lonely thought in mind, Hinata changed into a lolita dress she had smuggled in, then went back downstairs cautiously. But she felt even lonelier when she came down and Ray's giggles floated out to her from shachou's office and Riku and Katsuyuki-san's whispered arguing hadn't stopped. Throwing open the front door-and not noticing that she had slammed it against a hiding Jiro's head-Hinata stormed off into the night.
She didn't get too far though, noting that the trains were far away from their house and the neighbourhood offered little in ways of entertainment except for the odd hostess bars and convenience stores.
"What should Hinata do to celebrate?" Hinata asked herself brightly, trying to keep a stiff upper lip. She really wanted to cry. "I know! Hinata remembers that there was a karaoke a few blocks over! Hinata can go sing!"
She had wanted for nothing in her life. The only child born to a well-off family, she was given everything she could possibly ask for. She was afforded a top-notch education and home-schooled for the beginning part of her life by the best teachers that her parents could afford, classically trained in music which she loved. Her parents loved her... but were distant and always off on one business trip or another.
Hinata had no cousins, no siblings, no friends. She had insisted on going to public school and thought that her situation would change and she would meet friends. But she was too eccentric and a bit too smart for everyone. And she came in the middle of the year, where people had already met friends. And it wasn't that they bullied her, it was just that she didn't exist to her classmates. Finally, Hinata had turned to the world of Lolitas that attracted the young misfits of society... but she disliked how superficial these friendships could be. She liked the clothes, though. Finally, Hinata, disparing that she would ever find friends, heard a song. It was a simple song but it was a song that made her feel like it was all going to be okay.
She had heard it briefly, the end of that song, but the lyrics struck her so profoundly. Something about not worrying and things would be alright and if anything should happen... this female singer singing this song said she'd be there to sing another song for her audience to help them through the hard times. Hinata felt like this unknown voice was singing directly at her.
The song had faded from memory, the artist unknown and Hinata couldn't for the life of her, find this artist again. But that song was what had started her love for these idols, these bright shining presences on stage and the airwaves. They made her feel better, they offered comfort in the times when she most needed them. That was why she was trying so hard to be an idol, to bring happiness and alleviate some of the loneliness for some shy, lonely kid who just wanted to know someone cared-
"Hey you, how does forty thousand yen sound?"
Hinata turned around, confused. Forty thousand yen? Doesn't it just sound like paper? Or if it was all in coins, it would sound like a lot of coins... facing the man who had asked the question, she noted dimly that he looked cheap and skeevy, even though he was wearing an expensive suit. And who wears sunglasses in the middle of the night? He seemed to recognize her, though, as he took off his sunglasses, did a double take and gave a short scream of surprise.
"AHH!" Hinata suddenly remembered who this skeazy man was! "Hentai producer!"
"I got fired, thanks to you! You ruined me, you know?" He tucked his sunglasses into the inside of his jacket then grabbed out at her. "Come here!"
"No, no, let go!" Hinata screeched, suddenly fearful. Suddenly, someone was by her side, grabbing the hentai producer's wrist in a painful grasp, twisting it and pushing him away with one hand.
"She clearly doesn't want to." The older, distinguished looking man faced down Hinata's attacker.
"What'd you say?" The former producer Kaga threw an erratic punch that was easily caught by Hinata's rescuer. Putting pressure on the fist, Kaga crumpled easily, gasping from the pain.
"Let go, please!"
"Promise to never do it again?" Hinata watched her prince in shining... well, prince in a dark business suit... growled at Kaga.
"PLEASE! Let go!" Hinata's rescuer shoved Kaga away, then brushed himself off as if touching the unpleasant former-producer dirtied him.
Still gasping in pain and embarassed by the stranger who had come to the frilly girl's aid, he held his hand gingerly against his body and backed away, screaming at them. "You got lucky this time! But no matter what, you're an ugly girl! Just an ordinary ugly girl!"
Hinata blew a raspberry out at the man's retreating back as he ran, suddenly furious and no longer scared. How dare he try to cut her down! "I'm not ordinary anymore! I'm chasing my dream! I won't let anyone get in the way of my dream!"
The man who had saved her smiled just a little bit at the young girl's spunk and turned, walking away from her.
"Um!" Her voice made the man pause. Bowing as politely as she could, she mustered up all the gratitude she could and tried to convey it in her voice. "Arigatou gozaimashita!"
He gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod of his head and kept on walking.
"We'll meet again, right?" She called after him. He didn't reply and before she could call out again, her phone chirped at her.
"Moshi moshi."
"Hinata!" Riku's voice was panicked. "Nami's in trouble!"
"What?" Hinata was suddenly hit with instant worry.
"Where are you?"
"I'm coming back!" Hinata turned around, heading back to the Kamonohatsu house.
"We were worried about you! When we finally got Ray and Katsuyuki-san to leave and you were missing-"
"Where is she?" Kai groaned in the background. "Is she okay?"
Hinata felt her insides warm at the thought of her friends worrying about her, even though one of them sounded like he was dying. She had friends! "I'll be back ASAP! Just hold on!"
Picking up speed, she was back at the shared house in no time. She was at the door-not noticing Jiro crouchd in the corner waiting for a photo opportunity-and yanked it open. Trying to continue her forward momentum, she lost control and tripped over her own feet. Riku was at the door and seeing Hinata come flying forward, he reached out to catch her and the both of them when flying to the floor, jarring loose Riku's wig.
"Ita-ta-ta..." Asahi hissed, her natural hair pooling to around her shoulders as she sat up.
The flash and tell-tale sounds from a camera filled the air and Asahi found herself in the crosshairs of a papparazzo's camera. A familiar papparazzo with limp blonde hair.
"Asahi?" Jiro lowered his camera, gaping at the woman in front of him. Before he could say anything else, he was tugged into the house by Kai and the door slammed shut behind them.
-
Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 8
author's note: And at the end of this chapter is where we're gonna start wandering off into non-canon land. :D
"Do you think he'll keep quiet?" Hinata's voice rang out in the darkness. The girls were all sleeping in their futons, too wired to go to sleep.
"He will." Asahi said with more conviction than she felt. Jiro had looked stunned and kept shaking his head when Asahi was explaining to him and begging her long-time friend to not rat them out. He had said he needed time to absorb all of this and had left the Kamonohatsu house, uncharacteristically quiet.
"He better." Nami muttered.
"Anyways, are you feeling better?" Hinata turned over to look at Nami. Nami gave the girl a small smile. "Yeah, thanks to you. Gingerale does help."
"We better stock up." Asahi giggled. "Looks like Ray might want to make more food for her boyfriend."
"Shut up." Nami growled.
"Oooo..." Hinata giggled. "Nami and Ra~ay, under the desk. K-I-S-S-I-N-G-"
"You saw that?" Nami screeched, jumping up.
"You guys were kissing?" Asahi sat up, not wanting to miss an opportunity to tease Nami.
"CHIGAUUU!" Nami protested loudly. "She frickin' attacked me! I was frozen in terror! Anyways, why'd you run off, Hinata?"
The attention turned to her, the pig-tailed girl rolled over, avoiding her bandmates' questioning eyes. "Well... I thought you guys were having fun without me, so, I didn't want to disturb you guys..."
"Why would you think that?" Sensitive to Hinata's fragile nature, Nami sat down and scooted over to the loli. "It was supposed to be our party! Then those two idiots came and totally barged in on it."
"Yeah." Asahi nodded, feeling a little bit of irritation creep in. Stupid Ray wouldn't give her any cake! Though maybe that was a good thing, seeing how Nami turned out after eating the toxic creation... but Hinata had looked so happy finishing off that ugly monstrosity. "I wanna celebrate with people I made my CD with. The only other people I want with us is the rest of the recording crew, Marilyn and MAYBE shachou."
Silence reigned in the dark room and finally, it was broken by a little sob.
"Are you crying?" Nami gaped at the lump under the blankets that was Hinata.
"N-no." Hinata obviously was.
"Hey." Asahi got out of her futon now and sat beside Nami to join her in poking at Hinata under the blanket. "Why are you crying?"
"I-I-I've never h-had any f-friends." Hinata confessed, hoping that the two girls wouldn't think she was weird. "I was h-home-schooled w-when I was y-young and I was a w-weirdo."
"You're still a weirdo!" Nami blurted out and hissed in pain as Asahi punched her on the arm. "But we still like you!"
"Thanks." Hinata sobbed, half-laughing, half-crying. Her two bandmates exchanged a look, then on an unvoiced signal, they slipped into Hinata's futon, one on each side.
"What-"
"Tell anyone and I'll kill you." Nami grumbled, snuggling closer to Hinata.
"Snuggling is fun!" Asahi chirped and she and Hinata giggled while Nami continued mumbling about 'stupid bandmates'.
"Don't think about stupid things, okay?" Nami remembered quite well, the girl standing in the middle of the Indies' stage threatening to kill herself. "We're here for you and don't you forget about it."
"Nami's so sweet, isn't she?" Asahi giggled. "That's why she gets all the girls!"
"SHUT UP."
Heart fluttering in her chest, Hinata was so happy she felt like she could fly away! Kai and Riku definitely were idols that she loved, but if Asahi and Nami were idols... well, Hinata was pretty sure she would fall for them too! With that thought in her head and the sound of Asahi and Nami's good-natured bickering in her ears, Hinata fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
I'm listening to your CD now! (*^_^*) hearing Kai's voice makes me feel so good inside!
Kai shuddered at the message she got from Ray, loosening his tie to get a bit more air. To make the Diva leave their house that day, Kai had to exchange her phone email and number with the long-haired beauty. Then, with the help of Katsuyuki-san, they had forced the woman to leave. Jiro, meanwhile, was not a problem. Or at least Riku kept reassuring his bandmates that he wouldn't be a problem.
"You sure?" Kuu leaned over to ask nervously again.
Riku was getting annoyed. Their questions were making her nervous! "I'm sure."
"Well, if you say so." Kai shrugged. "Come on, lets concentrate on the task at hand."
Right now, they were at TV Tohto again, arriving to get ready for a variety show called 'TV Junkie'. To get more time on TV to publicize their single, they would have to jump into a small pool of ice cold water with a bunch of other young idols! The ones who stayed in the water the longest would get more commercial time to talk about their work.
Saeko had jumped through a lot of hoops to get this done and she was coming across a lot of problems. Too many of them, in fact, to be normal. She was quite sure Sarukawa was behind all of it, too. He had been lurking around every time a problem had shown up but Saeko had smoothed it out with Marilyn helping out, unbeknownst to the boys. Persona didn't know their management had had to literally STAND OVER the production line to make sure their CDs came out at the right time, or make sure that the CD booklets and posters got printed out with no mistakes. They also didn't know that someone was deliberately shutting them out during publicity events, either. It had taken Saeko a lot of groveling to get this spot on 'TV Junkie' for the three... luckily, the boys' slim physique worked in their favour. The show needed losers and they thought Persona would give up on the cold water as soon as they got in.
But Saeko believed in the boys.
Even though she thought all three of them were moronic children some times and didn't even know who the great Ruby Gates was! All of his fifty-six singles had reached the number one spot on the charts, he's sold ten million albums and he'd instantly sold out concerts at Budokan for over a month! He's the man who had created legends in several areas of the Japanese music scene! The most amazing part was that he could make a woman reach ecstasy with his singing! This great man had finally come out of retirement and was going to sing again! Did the boys not understand how IMPORTANT Ruby was and how bad the disappointment would be if Ruby refused to sing after saying he would?
The boys from Persona's only reaction to this news was: "He's before our time."
Before Saeko could come down on them for their stupidity and ignorance of great figures in Japanese popular culture, she was interrupted.
"Why do I have to apologize?" The arrogant voice of one of Sarukawa's young idols echoed in the hallway as they came down a stairway towards them.
"Oi, Keigo." Sarukawa growled. This guy was infuriating! Ever since Sarukawa had started grooming the young Keigo to start a group similar to Animal Crush, the young boy had been incorrigible. And Sarukawa had poured so much time and effort into polishing him up, it was a shame to cut him loose to be picked up by some other agency. Besides, Sarukawa was thinking of pairing him up with Ray, possibly putting out a duet. But Keigo had just managed to offend the great Ruby Gates!
"Calm down, shachou." Katsuyuki-san was walking alongside Sarukawa. He thought Keigo had been unnecessarily rude, but it wasn't worth making a scene over.
"Sarukawa-shachou!" Saeko greeted the men coming towards them and her boys and Marilyn gave a polite bow.
"Ah!" Sarukawa pasted a smile on his face. Saeko was a bit of a headache but her body made up for the trouble she caused him. Really! The young idols she was grooming was managing to steal a lot of his own people's limelight and he was working hard to keep Persona under wraps!
As Saeko mined the men for information, Kai's eyes had locked on to Keigo, noting his VERY masculine good look. In torn jeans, black boots and a low-cut shirt, he REEKED the scent of man! THIS would get Kai's mind off Ray! Charging forward to grab Keigo's hand, the blonde shook it enthusiastically, giving his best smile.
"I'm Kai from Persona! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" Kai pumped Keigo's hand up and down enthusiastically and grinned again. The intensity she was giving off frightened Keigo a bit.
"Uh, hey there." Keigo gave a little smile, too taken aback to be rude.
"Keigo, right?" Kai grinned. "So we'll be seeing a lot of each other!"
Keigo was confused. "We will?"
Before Keigo could question further, Kai had ran back to his friends, full of glee.
"After dealing with Ray, I need to go for this!" Kai grabbed his compatriots close and whispered. "What's wrong with the occasional guy?"
"You've never even kissed anyone before." Kuu pointed out.
Riku grinned. "Except for Ray."
"Several times!" Kuu high-fived Riku.
"SHUT UP!"
As the boys giggled amongst themselves, Sarukawa tried to put his foot down on this issue. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile!
"We're going to Ruby's dressing room." Sarukawa's tone of voice left no room for negotiations.
But Keigo wasn't afraid at all and snorted at his manager's tone of voice and gave a derisive snort. "Why don't you just go alone?"
Disregarding the irrate man, Keigo sauntered off. Riku and Kuu wrinkled their noses at that scene. Arrogance was really unattractive on a man, especially when there was, in Riku and Kuu's humble opinion, absolutely nothing to be arrogant about! Sarukawa-shachou raced after his young star, flashing the people around a quick, confident smile that looked absolutely fake. It seemed as if Keigo just wasn't going to be reigned in.
"Oi, KEIGO!" The manager was fast losing his temper as he ran after the shaggy-haired young man. Something to his left caught his attention and he noticed Persona's Kai following along.
"Along for the ride!" Kai gave a thumbs-up.
"Shouldn't you be with Saeko?"
"It's fine, it's fine." Kai waved away the question. He had plenty of time! And Keigo seemed to have stopped! "We've caught up!"
He was standing outside the door, looking into a recording studio through the small window in the door.
"Whatchu lookin' aaaaattttAAAHHH!" Kai wordlessly screamed as she spotted Ray in another room behind the glass. Quickly ducking, he tugged at Keigo. "Yo, that's Ray!"
"I know." Keigo shrugged, then cast a look at Sarukawa-shachou. "Why hasn't she been introduced to me yet?"
This was one thing Sarukawa-shachou knew not to give way on, or else there'd be hell to pay.
"Nobody sees Ray unless it's for business or she approves it."
"We're going to be working together, aren't we?" Keigo's voice was demanding.
"No." Keiji smiled wryly, a little bit condescendingly. "She didn't approve it."
"I'm the fastest rising star in this agency!" Keigo tilted his head up a bit. "Why the hell won't she work with me?"
"Cuz she's crazy?" Kai only caught the last part of Keigo and Sarukawa-shachou's argument, too caught up in the pounding of his heart.
"She must be." Keigo nodded and patted Kai on the shoulder. "I need more people like you around."
Hearing that made Kai feel pretty good. "Osu!"
"No no no no no." Sarukawa chuckled, stepping in between Keigo and the door to Ray's recording studio. "Turn around and walk away, this isn't open to negotiations."
Keigo, of course, wasn't used to having people say no to him and reached around his manager to open the door, ducking under Keiji's arms but running straight into a huge man blocking the door.
"Sarukawa-shachou." Hiro nodded at the manager who smiled at the bodyguard. "What's this skinny guy doing here?"
"I'm here to see Ray." Keigo tried his best to look intimidating but it was hard when you had to look up at the person you were trying to intimidate. "Do you know who I am?"
Hiro chuckled. Oh, Ray was going to tear him a new one if THIS guy managed to get past.
"Don't know who you are and I don't think it matters either." Hiro folded his arms across his broad chest. "No-one gets to see Ray unless they're on her list. And you," Hiro gave him a sneer. "Are definitely, NOT on her list. Now get out of here before I have to embarrass you."
As Hiro talked down to this arrogant young man, the bodyguard suddenly noticed Kai off to the side. The guy was so tiny the bodyguard had barely seen him! "Yo! How's it going?"
"Uh," Kai blinked, taken off guard. "I'm fine. How are you?"
"Manners, too!" Hiro let out a deep laugh and grabbed Kai in a one-armed hug then gave Keigo another look. "Now, see? This is who gets to be on the list."
"THAT guy? What's he got that gets him on the list? I'm so much taller!" Keigo tried to push his way inside but Hiro was a rock and used one hand to push right back, sending Keigo onto his ass.
"Yeah, whatever." Hiro tsked, then moved aside to let Kai in. "In you go, bro."
"Thanks!" Kai beamed up at Hiro and walked in, while Hiro walked out, closing the door behind him so he could make sure that the annoyance left the premises. Kai's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the control room of the recording studio, making out the some-what familiar forms of Ray's entourage Kai recognized.
"Hey guys-ahhhh!" Kai slapped his hands against the side of his face, suddenly realizing he had just walked into the lion's den! WHY HAD HE COME IN?
"Kai!" Ray had spotted him through the glass and was jumping up and down calling him excitedly. Before he knew it, Ray had thrown off her headphones and burst through the door connecting the control room to the room Ray was singing in.
"Kai! You came to visit me!" Aware of the people in the room, it seemed that even RAY, the clingy, sexual-harassment woman knew better than to throw herself at Kai. Though she was REALLY pushing the personal space bondary by stopping bare CENTIMETERS away from the object of her affections, face flushed and smiling brilliantly.
"Uh, haha, yeah!" Kai took a nervous step back. "I ws just passing by, and, uh, I didn't mean to-"
"You're not bothering me at all!" Ray blurted out, a little bit afraid that Kai wouldn't visit her anymore and her hand shot out to grab his hand. "Come on, take a look at my new song!"
Kai shuddered as Ray pulled him forward and a sheet of music was thrust into Kai's hand. The Diva motioned for the technician at the workstation to start playing what they've recorded so far, wanting to share everything with Kai.
"Listen." Ray grinned. "What do you think?"
Kai, on seeing the music, immediately felt a bit of interest. This was the biggest selling star right now! How did she create her music? Kai had to admit he really wanted to know.
"It's really..." Kai frowned as he followed the lyrics on paper with the music but tried to smile when he saw Ray start to pout. "It's really... mainstream?"
Ray shrugged self-consciously. "It's what sells."
"I remember your first album was really good." Kai said distractedly, his eyes running over the lyrics. "It was... fuller. I think. And the lyrics were a little bit better."
"Well, what do you think I should do?" Ray asked, genuinely curious.
Kai shrugged, not noticing several musicians that were in the room glaring at him. Ray had never cared about THEIR opinion! What was so special about this short guy? "Well, I dunno, really. I'm just a rookie, right?"
"Indulge me a bit." Ray watched the young blonde nod and look over the music again. His long lashes fluttered against his cheek, the fierce expression he sometimes wore wasn't there but the way he bit his lower lip in concentration was soooo sexy...
"Okay, just a suggestion, but," Kai's voice shook the Diva out of her lustful thoughts. "Why don't you change some of the lyrics so it's more your style and the... pacing of your singing? Like the song seems like it's just plodding along on the same beat. I dunno. Do you know what I'm talking about? I dunno if it'll work, I mean-"
Ray had gently taken the piece of music from Kai and was looking over it carefully, singing the song in her head. If she changed it a little bit here, then the music right there... it was sort of like how she had wanted the song to sound like before she had been 'encouraged' to change it under Sarukawa-shachou's directions.
"Well, I gotta get out of here," Kai waved to Ray's entourage. "I gotta get back before shachou kills me."
"See you later?"
"Sure." Kai said automatically, then grimaced. His mouth really did work faster than his brain! Thank god his mouth wasn't the only thing that was fast as he quickly ducked Ray's grasping arms and ran out the door, slamming it behind him with a quick 'bye!' He then immediately bumping into Hiro.
"Yo." Hiro grinned at the small blonde. Hiro really liked the little guy! With him around, Ray was always in a good mood and a lot easier to manage! "Where you off to in a hurry?"
"Gotta get back to work." Kai looked up at Hiro then around hopefully. "Keigo gone?"
"Yeah.I scared him off." Hiro chuckled, wondering at the crestfallen look on Kai's face. Were the two young men, friends? Kai seriously needed to rethink his friendship with that rude guy, though. "And oh, hey, you come by any time, alright? You're on Ray's good list. The list that doesn't have to be renewed every day."
"She really has a list?" Kai's mouth was hanging open in disbelief. He thought Hiro had been joking!
"Yeah. That's our princess for you." Hiro said wryly. "So take advantage of it. Not many people get on her good list."
"Well, see you later-oof!" Kai was embraced in another one-armed hug that knocked the air out of Kai's lungs.
"Later, shortie!" Hiro gave the shortest member of Persona a thumbs-up, then slipped back into the recording studio. Kai started off back to the room they would be changing in when she bumped into Keigo again.
"Hey, I thought you had left-"
"How do you know Ray?" Keigo had been hiding around the corner, listening to the conversation the dimunitive singer had been having with Hiro.
"I was introduced," Kai shrugged. "She came out to see us when we were recording our single."
"Ray doesn't see anybody and she wanted to see Persona?" Keigo paced the halls, letting out a short bark of laughter. "What the hell is that?"
"And what the hell do you mean by that?" Kai bristled, not liking Keigo's tone of voice. Seeing that he had upset Kai, Keigo raised his hands in a placating gesture.
"Nothing, man. You know Ray doesn't just see ANYBODY, so I'm surprised is all. Anyways, lets exchange info." Keigo whipped out his cellphone, an idea forming in his head. Kai must be pretty close to Ray, so if Keigo wanted an introduction... he was SURE that Kai would be able to give him one sooner than Sarukawa-shachou! Keigo was also sure that as soon as Ray met him, she'd fall head-over-heels for him then they would come out to the world as the most perfect couple in the entertainment world, maybe even bigger than Angelina and Brad!
"Sure!" Kai, not realizing Keigo's intentions, immediately whipped out his own cellphone to exchange details. "I gotta go now though, mail me later, okay?"
'He's a bit of an ass,' Kai thought as he jogged to the changing room. 'But I need real men in my life! With Ray hanging all over me, I feel like I'm getting 'L' germs!'
It didn't take him long to find the room they had been assigned. Kai knocked on the door and waited for Riku. The defacto leader was already changed into a tracksuit and he cautiously opened the door, ushering Kai in.
"I saw the snake guy!" Riku blurted out as Kai started undressing.
"What?" Kai almost fell over, his pants pooled around his ankles, remembering very well their pursuit by this guy. "Did he recognize you?"
"I wouldn't be here if he did." Riku said sourly.
Something suddenly occurred to Kai. "Where the hell is Hinata?"
"Speaking of her... but no, she'll be fine!" Riku played with the zipper on his red tracksuit. "That guy's only looking for the two of us right? He shouldn't know about her."
"But if they met somewhere and he asked her about us," Kai was slowly building a picture in Riku's head. "and that bimbo told him the truth..."
"AH!" Riku could see it clearly in his head. He wsn't sure... but Kuu could be kind of careless some times... "I'm gonna go find her!"
Riku had bolted out of the change room with Kai not far behind him as they started their search for the elusive Kuu, brought them to a room where they spotted Saeko and Marilyn, talkng to each other quietly and looking very much like they were scheming.
"Are you sure it's okay to send Kuu to greet Ruby Gates?"
"Ruby's gay. And his favourite type of guys are the young, innocent-looking ones." Saeko said lazily. "I basically served Kuu up on a silver platter for Ruby. If Ruby 'eats' Kuu, Persona gains a huge upper hand."
That was all the boys needed to hear as Kai shoved the door open, infuriated.
"Is all of that true?" Riku's voice was dangerously calm. Kai, on the other hand, was raring to go.
"You're gonna let that old guy eat Hinata?"
"You two-"
"If that's what needs to be done for business, yes." Saeko said emotionlessly. "That's the entertainment world and that's me."
"You L!" Kai snarled. Riku didn't even bother, running out the door to find Kuu. Kai gave their management one last furious look before running out the door to follow Riku.
"You guys-!" Marilyn was SURE Saeko had a different plan. She had to... right? Marilyn's beloved Saeko wouldn't serve up one of their talents to be 'eaten'! "But if he takes the bait, won't he realize that Kuu's-" Marilyn lowered her voice to a whisper looked around nervously, you never knew who was listening. "-a girl?"
"When he gets to the point when he's about to take Kuu, we'll jump in and rescue him." Marilyn brandished a video camera that she had pulled out of nowhere.
"What?"
"You still don't get it?" Marilyn resisted the urge to laugh evilly. "I'll use the video to blackmail him. I'll make him say something in front of the media that'll give Persona a big push. We'll be selling like hot cakes, then!"
"Just as I would expect from you!" Marilyn clasped her hands together, knowing that her shachou wasn't the type of person to sell out her talents like that. Saeko would do anything to make sure that Persona would succeed. "You're so dark!"
"I'll call this:" Saeko paused for dramatic effect. "Mission Gaypossible!"
Meanwhile, Kai and Riku were desperately trying to find Kuu, running through the hallways towards Ruby Gates' dressing room. So focussed on their goal, Riku didn't slow down as they were taking a corner and crashed right into someone.
"Yo, watch it!" Kai bent down to help his friend up.
"Ah, sorry! Are you alright-ah!" The blonde photographer friend of Riku gave a tiny exclamation of surprise on seeing them. Since finding out Asahi and Riku was one and the same, the 'boys' hadn't really talked to Jiro at all. Riku was actually really dreading the next time they'd meet.
"Jiro!"
"Perfect timing, I was looking for you!" Jiro got up, dusting himself off.
"If it's about Persona, I don't care what you think!"
"I'll support you!" Jiro exclaimed fervently.
"Huh?"
"I was so moved by what happened... or... shocked." Jiro said, emotions chasing each other across his face until three triumphed. Pride, love and determination. "Anyways, for you to go this far... you really do wanna be an idol! You're amazing! So amazing! You're really-"
"Shaddup already!" Kai ran forward and body-checked Jiro out of the way. "Get the hell outta our way, we're in the middle of an emergency!"
"Right!" Riku nodded, remembering their task at hand and the urgency behind it. Running to Ruby Gates' room, they burst through the door, hearts freezing when they saw that the man in the room, they suppose was probably Ruby Gates, TOUCHING KUU!
"WAHHH!" As one, Riku and Kai tackled Kuu away from Ruby, the three landing in a heap on the floor.
"Owwww..." Kai hissed.
"What's with you two?" Kuu blinked at his two companions.
"Are you okay?" Riku grabbed Kuu, searching for signs of trauma. "He didn't do anything to you, right?"
"Yo, old man! What were you planning to do to him, huh?" Kai stood up, providing a physical barrier between Ruby and his friends.
"What... we were just gonna have some casserole." Kuu pouted. He had wanted chocolate casserole! The best casserole of all! "Right?"
Ruby didn't say anything, glad that his sunglasses hid his eyes. The older man with the long mane of wild hair was aged well and still exuded a aura of greatness around him, moving like a proud lion. Watching the three young men, Ruby was torn between fury and amusement at the small blonde's aggressive stance.
"Hey, I know!" Kuu almost jumped up and down in glee. "Why don't the four of us go together? It'll be fun!"
"That would be an orgy." Kai and Riku growled, frustrated with Kuu's innocence. Ruby, finally, took off his sunglasses.
"Sorry, but I'm not in the mood right now for... casserole." Ruby's voice was smokey and heavy, a true rock star's voice. Moving to the couch in his room, he sat down heavily and threw his sunglasses on the small coffee table. His room was filled with flowers and gifts from TV Tohto and important people in the entertainment industry. But his heart wasn't lifted by the beautiful colours and thoughtful presents.
"Why? That sucks." Kuu pouted.
"I'm seriously getting annoyed with you." Kai snapped at the clueless Kuu, though the blonde was relieved that there was no danger.
"Um," Riku fidgetted nervously. Here they were, in front of this great legend. He was confused though... after not performing for so long "Why aren't you gonna perform? I mean, your fans have been waiting for so long..."
"You guys are really rude." Ruby growled. He had had one upstart stripling insult him. He didn't need THESE three to have a go at him too!
"Sorry." Riku apologized, quickly soothing Ruby's ragged feelings. The man gave the three boys a sidelong glance. They looked truly repentant... and they hadn't meant any harm. Plus... they were cute.
"But I guess I should answer your question." Ruby sighed, feeling depressed. "My voice won't come out like it used to."
"Your voice?"
"They say that my voice has the power to make women reach ecstasy."
"We heard." Kai said with a mixture of awe and disgust.
"They say that one hundred percent of women reach ecstasy!" Kuu said gleefully, giggling.
"Now it's thirty percent... on a good day."
"Thirty percent is amazing!" Riku protested.
"Yeah-"
"It's not enough." Ruby said gruffly. "You guys sing. You should know that."
"...yeah." The three nodded, immediately knowing how Ruby felt, feeling sympathetic towards the great star.
"Sarukawa got me to go along with this, but right before it was supposed to start, I knew... I'm not as good as I used to be." Ruby spoke without any emotion, straight-forward and blunt. "I'm pathetic."
"Ruby-san."
"I finally decided." It was heart-breaking, just thinking about it, not being about to do what he loved the most... but Ruby couldn't bare the thought of not living up to his fans expectations. "I'm going to quit singing."
The weight of Ruby's statement pressed down on all of them.
"Are you really gonna quit?" Riku finally had to say something, not at all at ease with the older man's decision. "I don't think anyone can give up on something they love so easily. We failed so many auditions, but we never gave up."
Ruby stared at the boys, weary and a bit resentful. They were so young. They didn't know anything yet! Just small fry in a pool of sharks...
"We won't quit. No matter what we do or what happens, we won't quit." Riku announced. "We're finally where we wanted to be."
Ruby let out a little laugh. "That's so naive."
"Sing again!" The boy with the blue-streaked hair encouraged.
"Don't give up, old man-ow!" Kai yelped as both Riku and Kuu punched Kai in the arm.
"You should sing, Ruby-san." Riku said gravely. Looking at the three of them and the expectations in their eyes, Ruby had to turn away from them. He couldn't do it anymore. He just... couldn't. The boys stood there for a few seconds, not knowing what else to say.
"Come on." Kai nodded towards the door. "We got that ice cold commercial thing to do."
"Yeah..." Riku gave one last glance at Ruby, then followed Kai's lead. Kuu was the last one in the room, unsure.
"Are you sure?" Kuu asked that one last question before hurrying after his bandmates.
"What the hell, that looks so cold!" Persona, along with three other bands and a couple of solo singers, all vying to get more publicity time, stood at the edge of a small pool full of water and at LEAST twenty-five percent ice. A huge display over the pool showed that the water was at six degrees celsius, DAMN COLD.
"Do we have to?" Some of the other idols whined.
"Yeah," Kuu was giving Riku 'sad face'. "do we have to?"
"We do." Kai eyed the icy cold water in trepidition.
"Yeah." Riku looked up at the temperature on display. "It's only six degrees! We can do this!"
"Everybody ready?" The host laughed it up, disregarding the looks on everyone's face, whistle to his lips. "Readyyyyy... GO!"
At the shrill blast of the whistle, nobody jumped in, each looking at the other. The people filming in the studios laughed.
"You guys chicken?" A visual kei group growled at Persona.
"Whatever, who you calling chicken?" Kai snapped back.
"All of you are useless!" A young female singer sneered, though she was also standing high and dry.
"I don't see you jumping in." Kuu muttered. As the young idols argued amongst themselves, their managers were getting frustrated.
"Riku, Kai, Kuu!" Saeko's voice was heard from off-stage. The three looked over at their manager who made a whipping motion with her hands, eyes glaring murderously at them.
"What's she saying?" Kuu whispered, watching Saeko mouth something at them.
"I think..." Kai squinted, "I think she's saying..."
"I... will..." Riku gulped, reading Saeko's lips. "...kill... you... idiots..."
"Ready?" The host tried again, bringing his whistle up. "GO!"
At the sharp blast from the whistle, Persona, as one, jumped in. It was one thing to be cold. But it was ANOTHER thing to nurse their red bottoms after Saeko had set her whip on them! The other young idols jumped in too just a little bit after Persona, but almost immediately, most of the contestants climbed out again leaving only Persona, the young female idol who had called them useless, and the visual kei group in the waters.
"BLARGH!" Kai thrashed around in the water. It was cold! It was DAMN COLD!
"COLD!" Kuu's teeth were chattering! "C-c-c-cold!"
Only Riku remained silent, trying to move about as much as possible, hoping desperately it would keep him warm.
"I'm losing feeling in my toes!" One of the members of the visual kei group swam to the edge, pulling himself out. Unable to stand the water, the rest of his team followed.
"Aren't you g-g-guys cold?" The young female idol treaded water near the edge. "Why d-d-don't you g-get out?"
"S-shut up!" Kai hissed. As they argued in the freezing water, none of them noticed that Ruby Gates had slipped into the studio and was watching Persona with intense interest.
"Just g-give u-up!"
"NEVER!" Riku finally said something, throwing the girl a truly intense look. "I'm not giving up!"
As everyone laughed at Riku's answer, Ruby felt truly touched by these boys. They were so young... but that fighting spirit... when had Ruby lost that? When had he become disillusioned and discouraged? And Ruby Gates kept watching as their one competition finally dragged herself out of the pool while Persona swam in that freezing cold water, cheering triumphantly. They had beat the record previously set before!
They pulled themselves out of the waters after a few more seconds of swimming around and though their lips were blue from the cold, they were grinning at each other happily.
"And we have our winner!" The host grabbed Riku's hand and raised it in the air. The runner-up was already wrapped in a warm towel, smiling at the three young men grudgingly.
"You guys did alright." She gave them a quick bow.
"You were pretty good too." Riku smiled back.
"That's right, for a thirteen year old, she sure is spunky!" The host said cheerfully.
"What the hell-you're only thirteen?" Kai gaped at the young girl. She looked AT LEAST seventeen!
"Didn't you know? She's Matsui Jurina. She's quite popular nowadays." Kuu looked at her bandmates in exasperation. "Honestly."
As they bickered good naturedly and took a break to change out of their wet clothes, Ruby Gates slipped out of the studio, knowing what he had to do.
Saeko pursed her lips in disappointment. Mission Gaypossible had failed. Ruby hadn't taken the bait and the boys had ruined the only chance Saeko had had of getting Ruby in a compromising position. The schedule book she had in front of her was entirely empty except for this cold water commercial. She doubted that it would make much of an impact in sales, though. She needed more publicity but the door was firmly closed on them! Ruby would have knocked the door down, hell, the whole HOUSE if he had talked about them to the media in his highly publicized return to singing!
"Shachou!" Marilyn ran into Saeko's office, interrupting Saeko's melancholy thoughts. "It's Ruby Gates! He-"
"I don't want to hear a word about him!" Saeko said petulantly, slamming her schedule book closed. "He didn't eat them... Mission Gaypossible was a failure!"
"No, it was a success! He's on TV right now!" Marilyn picked up the remote control on Saeko's desk and flipped on the television.
"-think the thing that made me want to sing again was being able to meet Persona. They have the power to really make a person listen." It was the interview after the Ruby Gates performance. "They still aren't developed as artists, but they have something precious that they try to tell people. I'm really looking forward to seeing them from now on."
Ruby Gates looked directly at the camera, a smirk on his face. "Of course, I won't lose to them, either."
"There you have it!" The reporter said excitedly. "Japan is looking forward to a new Ruby Gates. What can we expect from you in the future-"
Saeko's cellphone ringing prompted Marilyn to put the tv program on mute while the president of Kamonohashi Talent Agency answered the phone call.
"It's been a whole, Kamon."
Saeko smiled, almost tenderly despite what she had been willing to do to the speaker on the phone. "Ruby Gates is the only one who I will let call me that."
"Correct." Ruby's deep, smoldering voice sent a thrill down Saeko's spine. Truly, Ruby hadn't lost his touch.
"I just saw you on TV. You're one hundred percent back. Congratulations."
Saeko could HEAR Ruby's smile through the phone. "When I saw those three in that ice cold water, something deep inside me was shocked and a ruby shower enveloped my whole body. And then I just had to sing."
"So you got it back. The old you." Saeko had seen Ruby Gates languishing and feeling the heat when he had reached the top of the mountain. The pressure of being a legend had gotten to him, so much so that singing had become a burden and he lost his nerve. She was glad he was back.
"You found some good guys."
Saeko allowed herself a small smile. Hearing something like that from such a big name in the industry made her so proud of her boys. Someone like Ruby, recognizing her talents as SOMETHING.
"They'll definitely be big. I guarantee it." Ruby Gates' voice held a promise. He was grateful for what Persona had done for him and he wanted Saeko to know he would back the group. Ruby would DEFINITELY smash through the barriers that had been set up to stop Persona from succeeding.
"Later." Ruby hung up casually and Saeko closed her flip phone. A few seconds later, the house phone suddenly rang.
"Hai," Marilyn picked up the phone, eyes still locked on to the TV program. "this is Kamonohashi Talent Agency...what? You'd like Persona to make an appearance? Alright. Alright... yes, I understand!"
Their other line rang, as calls started pouring in and Saeko looked at the phone happy and the flashing lights on her phone lines. They were going to be busy this month.
"You can't make excuses, you can't even say they're not popular enough now. I want Persona to replace the actors we have slated for next week's shooting." The tall woman with the short haircut crossed her arms, glaring at her manager who was glaring right back. "I don't care if you have some drama with their management. Now there's no excuse! It makes perfect sense-" The tall woman looked over to her left at a pretty girl lounging on the couch, watching something on her cellphone. "-right?"
"Hey," The girl on the cellphone grinned nervously, her dimples making her even cuter. "Leave me out of this."
"Stop looking at naked girls and help me out!"
"They're not naked," The girl on the cell mummbled, slouching down. "They have all their clothes on and they're all beautiful people that should be respected for more than their bodies."
The last girl in the office who was sitting off to the side and reading a textbook, looked over her book at the girl sitting on the couch in amusement.
"Your majesty," The girls' manager scowled, using the title sarcastically. "You cannot do as you please."
"This is the FIRST time I've asked for something like this. And you're just being stubborn because you have petty issues with their manager!"
"They're. NOT. PETTY. ISSUES!" The manager gritted out, tossing her long hair angrily over her shoulder.
"Then here's your chance to work it out! I get what I want and so do you." The tall woman ponted out. "Do something about it."
Their manager was quiet for a while. Then she retreated to the big leather chair behind her desk, her brow furrowed in thought.
"You know, the director isn't going to be happy about this. I'll have to go to the producer with this and get it okay'd."
"Persona's really hot right now. If you can guarantee their management okays this, I bet you the producer will be okay." The tall girl leaned forward eagerly. "In fact, I KNOW he'll be okay. I heard recently that he's been trying to get a hold of them and meeting with the writers to write roles for them into the show. So make it happen, Megumi-shachou!"
Ohori Megumi looked up at the tall woman wryly. "I never pegged you for a fan of Persona, Mariko-sama."
"I'm not." Shinoda Mariko smiled. The smile was honestly, not a very nice one. In fact, it was downright scary.
"Whatever, Mariko!" The girl on the couch sing-songed. "De-nial's not just a river in Egypttttt..."
"Yuko, don't make me burn your photobook collection of pretty girls." Mariko sighed.
Oshima Yuko let out a gasp, sitting up. "You WOULDN'T."
"She would." Megumi flipped open her phone, finding the number of the person she had not called in a long time, but had never really forgotten. But before she pressed the 'dial' button, she looked over her three main talents. "You're all okay with this?"
"They're fine." Mariko narrowed her eyes and shot Yuko a look. The girl on the couch gave a dimpled smile and a wink, before concentrating on the video in her cellphone again. Megumi, taking that as affirmation from Yuko to go ahead, focused her gaze on the relatively quiet girl sitting in the corner.
"Atsuko?"
Maeda Atsuko looked over the top of her book at the eyes that were trained on her. Then she shrugged and turned her attention back to her textbook.
"Do what you like."
-
Omg, AKB girls start to make an appearance!!
Excited to see who gets paired up with who!!
What's gonna happen to Kai x ray??? :?
Looking forward to the next update :)
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Omg! I love this! This was the fic that made me into akb fanfiction! And is one of my favorite ones o/
I'm rereading with pleasure *.*
Thank you for wrinting this fic :love:
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Finally AKB members made an appearance! HAHAHAHAHA!
I'm curious how will they make Persona's life more complicated :D
Really love Kuu and Mariko's interaction. Ue Kara Mariko indeed. Hope YukoxRiku and KaixAachan next chapter, or forever. hahaha! let's ignore Jiro and Ray. jk :w00t:
Please update soon!
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Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 9
author's note: And... this is where this fic completely veers away from the mendol timeline. Get ready! WARP SPEED AHEAD! By the way, ffnet is a bitch and keeps killing all the formatting so if stuff looks weird... blame ffnet.
"I can't believe we're heading there alone!" Asahi sat in between Nami and Hinata, pouting. Hinata was looking out the window in wonder while Nami was fiddling with the tv console in front of her. They were all out of disguise, but dressed in comfortable clothes on the plane.
"Those damn 'L's, " Nami agreed distractedly. After the ice-cold commercial and Ruby Gates pushing their name on all his interviews, they'd been getting a lot of jobs, so much so that traveling from one place to the next was the only time they got to relax. Right now, they were heading to Okinawa where they had been asked to be in the drama 'Three Sisters' (no relations to the Korean drama at all), that was doing spectacularly well in the ratings. All three members of Persona had not been able to watch this show since they had been so busy, but Saeko had assured them that it would be great and boost their popularity.
"But at least they'll be able to catch the next flight out!" Hinata said cheerfully. Their manager and Marilyn had gotten... distracted, in one of the public restrooms. Something about 'harder to get into the mile-high club now that we're on their watch-list so we have to get some time in before boarding'... anyways, the girls had refused to check on them when the boarding call came and had finally gotten a text when their plane was rolling out to the runway from Marilyn saying they would catch the next flight and that the girls should fend for themselves for one day in Okinawa.
"This sucks!" Asahi pouted.
"Well, think about it! One day without the L's watching us." Nami pulled her headphones off and grinned at Asahi. "Freedom!"
"We can do whatever we want!"
Hinata and Nami wriggled in their seats happily, squealing quietly like little piglets in the mud. Asahi went over all the things that could possibly go wrong and finding none, joined in her bandmates' excited squealing. They would have a day off! And they were going to OKINAWA!
"Okinawa!" Hinata clapped excitedly.
"Beaches!" Nami agreed.
"Bikinis!" Asahi sighed in bliss. She so wanted to wear her bikini...
"Bikinis?" Nami thought about it for a while. Then her face fell. "I didn't bring mine!"
"What? You're going to Okinawa and you didn't bring yours?" Hinata looked down her nose at Nami and scoffed. "I'm already wearing mine under my clothes!"
"That's a bit strange." Asahi commented.
"I'm gonna go out to buy a bikini when we get off the plane." Nami announced. "Wanna go shopping?"
"I want to, I want to!" Hinata raised her hand in the air, excited.
"But first..." Asahi grabbed her purse from under the seat in front of her and produced a schedule book from it's depths. "Marilyn gave me a list of things we might need since there were some things in our wardrobe that was unaccounted for."
The list of things they needed to buy were just men's clothes in general for hot, Okinawan weather. It wasn't that they didn't have any prepared for them, it was just shachou and Marilyn thought it would be good to get some that the girls actually picked themselves from a store. Only Nami needed to go buy men's swimwear since she was too small and it had been hard for Marilyn to find fashionable swimwear in her size.
"Seriously?" Nami frowned at the list. "I'm not that small."
Hinata pouted. "Hinata doesn't want to buy men's clothes!"
"What if we didn't have to pay?" Asahi produced a bulking white envelope and smiled at her companions. "Marilyn gave this to us and told us to use it wisely. And... if we're smart with our money, we might even be able to sneak in a bikini into the purchases."
"What's in the envelope?" Hinata asked curiously.
"Doofus." Nami flicked Hinata in the ear. "Obviously, money!"
"Money?"
Asahi opened the envelope and a stack of 1000 and 5000 yen bills was brandished discreetly. "She said we could split it."
Squealing quietly, the three quickly split the money in between each other. Granted, the split only gave them around thirty thousand yen each, but they were still pretty happy with the split. It was free money! Well... hard-earned free money. And the money was just for a little while, until Marilyn and Saeko could get to Okinawa and help them out with their shopping.
"Lets buy clothes!" They all cheered soundlessly, careful not to disturb the other passengers on the plane.
"We've got everything?" They had checked in to their hotels then went to the shopping district nearest them. Shopping had been pretty fast... they had all picked out a couple of casual clothes, almost going over their budgeted amount. It was funny how now they looked at men's clothing with a different eye and it was actually quite fun to pick out their alter-egos' clothing. Riku always went with a nice, clean-cut look because that was what Asahi liked. Kuu had a fun, sporty feel to him because that was Hinata. Kai was a little more edgy, his clothing a lot more alternative and badass because Nami herself liked that kind of look.
"So now, all we have left is Kai's swimwear." Riku checked off the items on the list Marilyn had given him. "So lets go to a place that sells swimming-"
"I can go alone." Kai said gruffly, his cheeks red from embarassment. "It'll be fine. I can meet you guys on the beach after, I know you wanna get out of your clothes."
"Well, okay." Riku and Kuu agreed readily, really wanting to get out of their boy disguises that they had on to go shopping. Trying on men's clothes when you looked like girls was weird.
"Call us!"
Kai watched her friends leave the current floor of the department store, descending out of sight on an escalator. Letting out a huge sigh, the shotest member of Persona went to the escalator that headed upwards towards the men's swimwear section. It was embarassing shopping for men's clothes because of his small stature. Kai didn't know why he had such a complex about it but it was frustrating and had been a bit mortifying to keep asking the sales' for smaller sizes when he was buying some t-shirts. He really didn't want to go through the same thing in the swimwear department.
"And especially not with those two," Kai muttered to himself. Wearing flip-flops, loose shorts, just his binding tank top and a short-sleeved zip-up hoodie, Kai browsed the various stores with men's swimwear. Unfortunately, as he went from store to store, he felt disheartened at the lack of swimwear in his size.
"Irrashaimase!" The small and slim salesman with the wildly-permed hair greeted the blonde immediately. Kai nodded distractedly, fingering the pair of black and green swimming trunks that had caught his eye. It was on display on a male, headless mannequin. It was a dark, rich green with swirls of black pattern on it, looking VERY cool. Kai had never seen this design anywhere before. It was very bold.
"You have a good eye, sir." The salesman said politely. "This is a new product from one of our local designers and it's limited edition. We've managed to sell out the few we had in stock to some foreigners."
"What sizes do you have?" Kai looked at the pair of swimming trunks dubiously. "I'm rather small..."
"Well, there's only this size on display." The sales started to say and Kai felt his heart sinking. The clothes on the mannequins would not fit him. Well, he had assumed it would be tough to find swimwear...
"However," The sales grinned at Kai. "I actually have a pair that might fit you. It's one or two sizes smaller than a men's small. It was a factory defect apparently, and I have them in storage to be sent back. Do you want to-"
"YES." Kai immediately replied. The swimming trunks were brought out and when Kai tried them in the changeroom, they fit him perfectly. After looking through all the other stores, he had finally found a pair of trunks he could fit into!
"I'll take them!"
"Thank you, sir." As the slim young man rung Kai up, he leaned over the counter and spoke in a conspiratory whisper.
"I have a hard time finding clothes that fit me, too." He grinned at Kai. "Us small guys should stick together!"
"For sure!" Kai nodded happily, just completely amazed that he had finally found something in his size without having to go to the kids' department. Kai was even happier when he saw the sales had given him staff discount. Humming happily to himself, the blonde walked off and ducked into a women's washroom when no-one was looking and he was sure there was no-one inside. Quickly going to a stall, Kai transformed back into similarly small but very female Nami. With a nice top, a pair of tight shorts and a different, more feminine pair of flip-flops, she exited the stall, shouldering the duffel bag that carried all her men's clothes. After tying her hair up into her customary high ponytail, resting her aviator sunglasses on her head and doing her make-up, Nami left the washrooms and started down the escalators. She had to pass through the women's clothing area on her way down and was going to breeze through the area when a small commotion at one of the stores stopped her from continuing her descent. Nami looked over curiously at a few rather large men who were pressing in on a young woman.
"We loved you in your last movie!" One guy, wearing a large blue backpack said excitedly.
Another guy nodded in agreement, pushing his glasses up his nose but having them slip down again.
"Thank you for your support. But, um, I really have to go." The young woman had on a hat and a surgical mask people wore during allergy season or when they had a cold. Nami assumed it was probably a disguise, if she really was a celebrity...
"We're some of your biggest fans!" A guy with small eyes set close together had a hand on her arm, refusing to let go. "We're just... just, could you just come with us?"
"We can go for food." Backpack-man said desperately, weaving this way and that to prevent her from ducking around them.
"No, thank you. I'm waiting for someone."
"Who are you waiting for?" Small-eyes' eyes narrowed in suspicion. Then he got excited. "Is it another idol?"
"Um..." The girl's hesitation set the men off and their excitement became something else.
The guy with the hand on the girl's arm tightened his grip, the tone of his voice accusatory. "Are you just making excuses so you don't have to hang out with us?"
"Are you really waiting for someone?" The questions came fast and angry.
"We're your fans. Shouldn't you want to make us happy?"
"Ano..." The salesgirl was desperately trying to get the three men to stop harassing her customer but she was having little success.
"Hey, sorry to keep you waiting!" Nami called out loudly and trotted over. She was small, but the way she walked and the booming quality of her voice made the men part for Nami, who immediately moved in front of the harassed woman. "We're gonna get icecream, right?"
"Who are you?" One of the men demanded. He was the one with the small eyes.
"Her friend." Nami glared back, not liking how these three guys were hounding this one girl. "Honestly, get lost before I call security."
The two guys behind small-eyes grabbed their friend nervously.
"Come on, lets go." A security guard was actually heading their way, finally hearing the commotion. The three harassers beat a hasty retreat.
Nami turned around to face the woman she had been defending. "You alright?"
The young woman's eyes were full of relief and gratitude as she pulled down her mask, revealing the sweetest smile Nami ever had the pleasure of seeing. "Yes, I'm fine now. Thank you so much for your help."
"It's fine." Nami grinned, feeling gangly and hyper in the wake of that smile. "Some guys just don't know when to take a hint."
Accepting a few more 'thank you's, Nami watched the woman walk away, a little bit intrigued by this girl. She was really pretty, from what Nami could see of her face. Real pretty.
"Thank you so much." It was now the salesgirl's turn to thank Nami and even the security guard that had showed up smiled at her and gave her a nod of approval. Nami brushed off the thank you's awkwardly, not used to this much gratitude. Finally, she turned away and headed to the escalators, taking out her cellphone to start emailing Asahi to tell her friends she was on her way. Engrossed in her phone, Nami was startled when a pair of arms circled around one of her own.
"Hey, I decided to wait for you here instead of the icecream place! Did you get what you needed?" The pretty woman from before smiled down at the shorter Nami.
Bewildered, Nami was about to pull away. "What-"
"Onegai shimasu." The smiling face hid the panic in the other girl's wide eyes as they darted off to the side, then back to Nami, then back to the side again. Nami looked over discreetly and could see the three guys that were harassing her from before, lurking around in a shop and glancing their way from time to time.
"Onegai." It was hard to resist the pleading tone laced in the words the pretty girl whispered through her too-wide smile.
"Yeah! I got what I needed!" Nami said loudly enough for everyone within a ten foot radius to hear, smiling back at the woman. "Which icecream place do you want to go to? Oh, or would you rather have crepes?"
"Whichever you prefer." The woman leaned a bit closer and whispered the next words. "I'm so sorry. Really, I just panicked when I saw them then I saw you and grabbed you immediately. I just don't want this to become a big thing and have to get the authorities involved."
"It's fine." Nami smiled, feeling oddly at ease with this other girl she didn't know. The surgical mask came off and the woman gave another smile that was just too sweet for words.
"I'm Maeda Atsuko."
"Umm... I'm Kawachi Nami. Hajimemashite." Nami returned the smile with a bright one of her own. Atsuko, meanwhile, was slightly disappointed that this girl didn't seem to know who she was. Usually, she was hardpressed to find people who didn't know who she was. And secretly, Atsuko would've been really happy if her saviour was a fan of hers.
Girls, change of plans. I have a mission to run and I'll meet you for dinner afterwards! Nami typed out the message quickly and sent it. Her phone chirped back at her within a few seconds.
Booo. You suck. We'll check out guys without you then - from Asahi and Hinata.
"Sorry, did you have other plans...?" Atsuko felt a prickle of conscience as Nami cursed her friends under her breath.
"No, no." Nami grinned, quick to reassure her new-found friend. She could go to the beach any time. But right now, she was on a mission of mercy! "The important thing is getting rid of these guys and making sure you're okay. Come on, lets run and try to lose them!"
Grabbing hold of Atsuko's hand, Nami started running and Atsuko followed the spirited girl, laughing with pleasure, enjoying the excitement on Nami's open face.
"Yeaaaah!" Hinata was out in the water, splashing around excitedly just like a little kid. In fact, she LOOKED like a little kid with arm floaties on and a big inflatable ring she had around her waist. She was barely knee-deep in the water and would run back up the beach when waves came rushing in, squealing excitedly.
"Be careful!" Asahi was sitting down under a beach umbrella they had rented, relaxing, half-heartedly flipping through a magazine and people-watching. In a cute pink bikini with a floppy wide-brimmed straw hat, she sighed blissfully.
"Asahi! Come in, the water's warm!" Kids ran around Hinata, naturally attracted to her exuberance. "We can have a sea cucumber fight!"
"Sea cucumber?" Asahi frowned. That didn't sound fun at all and she voiced her opinion. "That's not fun!"
"It is! They're squishy!"
"Are there even any around there?" Asahi called back, still frowning. "Aren't they dangerous?"
Hinata shrugged happily. "The kids are helping me find some. Right, kids?"
The children around Hinata all raised one fist in the air in unison. "RIGHT!"
"She naturally attracts children, huh?" A voice next to Asahi startled her. Crouching next to her blanket was a young woman in a blue and yellow bikini and short jean shorts, smiling at her with the most charming dimples. "Your sister?"
"No, my friend." Asahi sighed as Hinata giggled histerically, fishing for pieces of coral in the shallow waters.
"It's easy to mistake you two for sisters," The mystery girl rubbed her chin, a smile on her face. "You're the older sister, of course, watching her younger sister carefully to make sure she doesn't drown."
"She's barely wet." Asahi pointed out.
"I bet if she disappeared, you'd be all like, 'NO! Where is she? I'm soooo worried!' It'll be so older sister of you!" The dimpled girl teased.
"I'm not her older sister-" Asahi looked back out into the ocean again, suddenly aware that Hinata's excited gigglings didn't fill the air anymore. Nor was she standing tall in the midst of the splashing children. "Where is that girl? Hinata? Hinata!"
But there was no reply. There was no way Hinata could have ran off somewhere that quickly, Asahi was sure! Getting up frantically, the tall girl tore her hat off and ran towards the ocean, feeling a bit light-headed with panic.
"Hinata! Hinata!" Asahi shouted, wading in to almost knee-deep before she was startled by Hinata suddenly emerging from the water like some deep sea creature. "Yaaaaa!"
"AHHH!" Hinata joined in Asahi's screaming, happily. A quick bop on the head stopped Hinata though and she pouted as Asahi put her hands on her waist, furious.
"You idiot! I was afraid you had drowned!"
"I was looking for sea cucumbers." Hinata muttered, rubbing her head.
"See," The girl with the cute smile was splashing towards them. "Totally big sister attitude."
"Asahi totally has a big sister feel to her, doesn't she?" Hinata agreed with the stranger. "A pretty older sister type."
"Yeah." The smile-y stranger reached up, and to Asahi's astonishment, tugged gently at one of her ears. "Her ears are so cute!"
"Right?" Hinata nodded happily, reaching up to tug on Asahi's other ear.
"Stop that! Guys, stop it!" Asahi shook her head, freeing her ears from the grasping hands.
"I love Okinawa!" Hinata exclaimed, loving the fact that she was with friends and playing in the sun and water. If only Nami was here too, it would be even better!
"Geez, the sun is so hot," The blue-and-yellow bikini'd stranger commented. "Why don't we go get some drinks at some of the beach-side stalls?"
"Lets go, lets go!" Hinata splashed around excitedly. "I want lemonade! And corn! I want roasted corn!"
It wasn't until the three girls had settled down with corn and cold beverages in the shade that Hinata looked up from her food at Asahi and asked, "Hey, who's your friend?"
"I don't know her." Asahi looked at the girl sitting next to her on the bench eating her corn happily. Seeing the two girls eyeing her, the smile-y girl quickly took a sip of lemonade to clear the food in her mouth and grinned at the two.
"Hajimemashite. Oshima Yuko desu!" Yuko introduced herself cheerfully.
"Hajimemashite." Hinata gave a polite bow. "Otawa Hinata desu."
"Wakamatsu Asahi." Asahi shifted away a bit because this strange girl was sitting almost shoulder-to-shoulder with her, but Oshima Yuko followed right along, moving so close that she was practically sitting on Asahi's lap.
"Oshima Yuko..." Hinata tapped her chin with a finger, saying the name aloud. "Oshima Yuko... would you be... THE Oshima Yuko?"
"Oshima Yuko?" Asahi couldn't move away any further from Yuko, having reached the end of the bench and was quite unhappy as Yuko wrapped one arm around Asahi's arm.
"She used to be a child actress and faded from the public eye for a while. Now she's making a comeback and she's been in the public eye a lot... you look a lot like her." Hinata rubbed her chin and studied Yuko suspiciously.
"No, that ain't me!" Yuko laughed loudly, waving her hand in front of her in a 'it ain't me!' kinda gesture. "But it's surprising, really. I know who you're talking about cuz TONS of people think I'm THAT Oshima Yuko... apparently I look a lot like her. And it's even funnier cuz I have the same name as her!"
"Hm," Hinata's eyes were still narrowed suspiciously. "Are you suuuuure?"
"Hey, if I was really that Oshima Yuko, would I be telling everyone who I was?" Yuko pointed out with a grin.
"Yeah, that's true..." Hinata conceded and finally smiled.
"Hey, lets hang out together!" Yuko suddenly suggested enthusiastically. "The friend I was with ran off to prepare for some co-workers that would be arriving soon, says she has a surprise for one of them. So I'm all alone..."
"Yeah, lets all hang out together!" Hinata agreed before Asahi could say anything. "One of our friends also ditched us!"
"Boo on them!"
"Yeah!"
Hinata and Yuko were getting along quite well, it was only Asahi who had reservations.
"Come on, nyan-nyan." Yuko hugged Asahi's arm closer to her bosom and the taller girl wondered if the other girl realized her boobs were rubbing up against Asahi. "We'll have so much fuuuun!"
"Yeah, nyan-nyan!" Hinata giggled at the nickname.
"Why are you calling me nyan-nyan?" Asahi pouted.
Yuko tugged on Asahi's ear again, a mischeivous smile on her face. "You remind me of a cat I had. Nyan-nyan."
"Stop that!" Asahi pressed her hands against her ears, blushing hotly. She was a bit sensitive about her big ears. Back in grade-school days, classmates had called her 'Dumbo'. The nickname had gotten so popular, even her teachers had casually referred to her as that!
"So lets go back to the ocean, nyannyan!" Yuko waggled her eyebrows at Asahi. "You haven't even gotten your top wet!"
"You're like a big pervert, aren't you?" Asahi dragged her heels as Hinata and their new-found friend pulled her towards the ocean. Despite Asahi's misgivings about Yuko, the three of them had lots of fun, playing with the kids that Hinata had been hanging out with before. They spent time looking for shells and corals that the ocean left on the beach, built sand castles and ran into the ocean when it got too hot. There were quite a few guys 'casually' walking by who stopped to chat the girls up but Yuko always put them off. Asahi, though she enjoyed the attention from the guys, was fine with that. Just playing with kids in the water with Hinata and Yuko was enough and she really wanted to relax after all the work they had been doing and will be doing soon.
And now, they were all out in the water playing with a beach ball.
"Catch, Hinata!" Asahi hit the multi-coloured beach ball in Hinata's direction. Hinata hit it upwards and one of the children bopped it back into the air towards the space between Asahi and Yuko.
"I got it!" Yuko ran for the ball but far from getting it, it bounced off her head and she lost her balance, arms doing crazy circles while trying to catch her balance.
"Yuko-" Asahi waded forward, to try and stop the smaller girl's faceplant into the ocean when Yuko desperately grabbed at Asahi's chest, righting herself in the process.
"Thanks!" Yuko grinned up at Asahi. Asahi frowned. Something was definitely wrong...
"Hm." Yuko had a strange look on her face, her brows furrowed as she squeezed the softness in her hands experimentally. It was... it... this was incredible! This feeling of FULLNESS in her hands, as if these boobs were MADE to mold perfectly into her hands! There was the right amount of squishiness and resistance as Yuko continued squeezing, and, lifting a bit-the exactly perfect amount of bounce and jiggle!
"Your..." Yuko actually had tears in her eyes. "Your boobs are a work of ART!"
"S-stop!" Asahi pulled away but not before letting out a truly lewd sound. "Ahnnnnn!"
"Woah." Hinata watched the scene, wide-eyed while the children giggled a bit, unsure of what was going on but like all children, they found anything to do with 'boobs' or 'penis' hilarious. Mortified, Asahi started running towards the shore. Yuko was quick on her heels, a determined look in her eyes. From the very first moment she had spotted the long-haired beauty on the beach, she KNEW Asahi was special! She had the body of a goddess and now her boobs... god, HER BOOBS.
"Chotto matte!" Yuko hit the beach running, the wet sand not slowing her down at all. She was pretty athletic while Asahi, who was flailing her arms wildly as she ran, was obviously not.
"Nyan-nyan!" Yuko ran ahead of Asahi and tried to make the girl face her. Unfortunately, Asahi couldn't stop her forward momentum and barreled straight into Yuko, bringing them down into the sand.
"Oof!" The air was completely knocked out of Yuko's lungs and she was seeing stars since her head hit the wet sand pretty hard.
"Daijoubu?" Asahi was quick to ask and was about to move off Yuko when the other girl's HANDS ON HER ASS stopped her.
"You're..." Yuko was crying. Whether from pain or from the sheer AWESOMENESS of the feel of Asahi's ass in her hands, nobody would really know except for Yuko. "PERFECT."
It had been an awesome day to say the least. They had lost the weirdos chasing Atsuko and were now at a beachside restaurant, sitting out in the patio. The two had gotten crepes after running away from the guys then decided to get out of the area in case those three fans were still around. They had gone from the shopping district to Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, holding hands like children as they gaped at the various ocean life. There, Nami found out the girl with the cute face loved manta rays while Atsuko found out that her short companion found the whale shark unbelievably fascinating.
Even though Nami and Atsuko could've parted ways after the aquarium, Atsuko had asked Nami to hang out with her. They were having a lot of fun, for some odd reason, so Nami had agreed. And here they were now, late in the day and still with each other. There wasn't anybody else on the patio and they were laughing together which they had been doing all day. Nami would say something funny, Atsuko would give a funny reply... they just got along really well, like a house on fire!
"Your friends must be missing you right now." Atsuko pointed out when their laughter finally died down. Sipping her iced coffee with the sun lighting up her fair features, Nami couldn't help noticing that her friend was beautiful and felt a little bit self-conscious.
"N-nah." Nami distracted herself by wolfing down a spoonful of her cream and fruit parfait. A chiming sound and Nami looked up just in time to see that Atsuko had taken a photo of her with her cellphone.
"What?"
"I wanted to capture Nami's cute moment." Atsuko giggled and showed Nami the photo. "Kawaiiii!"
"That's a horrible picture!" Nami protested upon seeing herself on Atsuko's phone with a 'deer in headlights' look and cream and chocolate sauce all over her lips.
"I think it's cute." Atsuko pouted. "And I'm always right!"
Spending the day together, they had plenty of inside jokes already and Nami felt like she was talking to an old friend. As the shorter of the two girls got ready to protest the 'always right' comment, she was interrupted as Atsuko grabbed Nami's phone.
"Hey, don't just take people's phones." Nami half-heartedly protested, not really minding. Atsuko just smiled and walked over to Nami's side leaning in close, holding the phone up in the air to take a photo of the both of them together.
"Ichi, ni, san... chiii-zu!" Nami's phone chirped and Atsuko turned the phone back around so the both of them could look at the picture. Nami grinned at the photo. It was pretty cute with Atsuko giving a smile that scrunched up her nose adorably and Nami's toothy grin with a 'peace' sign thrown in.
"Yours too." Nami picked up Atsuko's phone and pressed the camera button. "Hai! Chiii-zu!"
They took a look at the picture and both of them started cackling at the faces they had pulled. Nami had one eyebrow raised with her chin tilted up a bit, looking hardcore. Atsuko was pouting her lips out, looking about to kiss Nami's cheek while giving the camera an 'oh no! caught on camera!' look.
"Send me that pic!" Atsuko shook Nami's shoulder excitedly and they both turned on their infrared function to send each other the pictures they took. Right after the send completed though, both of them got a message on their phone.
Nami! We're going back to the hotel and you should meet us there! Asahi's gone into shock! Hinata's mail was worrisome.
What happened
I'll explain when you get to the hotel!
I'll be there soon
"It looks like my friends need me." Nami closed her flip phone with a snap, just as Atsuko finished sending her own reply to the message she received.
"I have to go too..." Unhappiness was evident in Atsuko's voice.
"Hey, maybe we'll see each other again some time before we leave Okinawa." Nami said, her voice falsely bright. Both of them knew the truth, though. The one topic they had both not touched on was what they did for work. Nami didn't ask Atsuko if she really was a celebrity and Atsuko didn't ask Nami what she did either. Nami knew, with her busy schedule now, there would be no time at all to see Atsuko.
"Yeah, or maybe we'll be able to meet once we both get back to Tokyo." Again, both of them knew it would be impossible. Atsuko's schedule was packed enough as it was. On a rare day off, most people had other things to do and didn't have time for Atsuko. Atsuko was sure her new friend wouldn't make time for her if she ever got a day off...
"Hey, don't be sad." Nami had Atsuko in a gruff hug, not really one for physical affection, but showing it because she knew Atsuko needed it.
"Hey..." Pressed up against Nami and hugging back fiercely, Atsuko relished how good Nami's hug felt. "Um... well.."
"What?" Nami asked gruffly, still hugging Atsuko. For some odd reason, Nami could feel herself blushing and she didn't want to let go of Atsuko until the heat in her face subsided.
"Maybe we can exchange emails?" Her tentative question actually made Nami 'awwww' on the inside.
"What?" Atsuko saw the look on Nami's face, feeling very subconscious. "Um... you don't have to, you know-"
"No, no!" Nami picked up her phone again. "Infrared! I'll send you my info!"
While Atsuko was fiddling with her phone, Nami took a quick picture of Atsuko. With the sun in the back and a light wind sweeping Atsuko's silky hair up, the picture looked almost professional.
"Okay, ready!"
"You're very photogenic, eh?" Nami pointed her phone at Atsuko's phone as they sent their contact information to each other. Knowing that they had to part soon was putting a damper on their spirits as they paid for their drinks and made for the front. There was only one taxi there so Nami held the door open for Atsuko.
"What a gentleman." Atsuko teased.
"Yeah yeah," Nami rolled her eyes. "Don't let the door hit you on the way in."
"Mean!" Atsuko grinned at Nami as she ducked into the cab. Neither one seemed willing to go, though. Atsuko kept one hand on the door to prop it open, half-in the car. Nami had a hand on the door, unwilling to shut it.
"Well..." Nami chewed on her lower lip, really not wanting Atsuko to leave.
"I'll see you around?" Atsuko pulled out her phone and opened it. The wallpaper was the picture of her and Nami, pulling their funny face. Brandishing it, she shook the cellphone. "I'll mail you!"
"Yeah." Nami smirked, then held out her hand. "Well. See ya."
Atsuko took Nami's hand and shook it firmly, once. "I'll be seeing you, Kawachi Nami."
"Later, Maeda Atsuko." Nami watched Atsuko slide in and closed the door for the beautiful woman, watching as the taxi pulled away. Atsuko was also watching Nami's small figure getting smaller until the taxi turned a corner and Nami was gone from her sight.
"Miss, where to?"
"Oh!" Atsuko pulled out a piece of paper from her bag, scanning the information on it. "Um, Okinawa Marriott, please."
Nami had felt a pang when Atsuko had finally disappeared from sight and let out a loud sigh. Her melancholy was interrupted by the sound of her phone alerting her to a new message. Hinata again.
Remember, your room is for Kai. So Nami shouldn't show up at the front desk.
"Right," Nami breathed out and headed back into the restaurant. She'd change in the washroom then grab the next taxi to her hotel. Meanwhile, she just kept on thinking about Atsuko. It had been weird how quickly and how well they got along. Atsuko and Nami's personalities were almost completely different from each other, but it was like a meeting of souls today.
"Huh." Nami quickly changed into Kai, stepping out of the stall to check his hair in the mirror, wondering dryly what Atsuko would think of Kai.
'Hopefully nothing like how Ray thinks of Kai.' Kai shuddered, suddenly feeling a chill run down his spine. The way the charismatic diva hung all over him was frickin' weird! 'Speaking of which... I'm due for a daily update from the songstress herself right-'
Kai's phone chimed, signaling he had a message.
'-now.' Popping his phone open, he opened the message and grimaced. It was who he expected it to be.
Kai! *heart*heart*heart* How's Okinawa? I have filming for a late night show tonight, will you watch it? I hope you will! Tell me what you think! I miss you SOOOOO much. Oh, and don't look at any girls *angry face* Instead, look at me! When you get back, lets go out together, okay? You can tell me all about your trip! *heart*heart*heart* Ray
The diva had taken a picture of herself giving the camera a very sultry look. She was in a very cute dress with one strap slipping off her shoulder and the dress hanging dangerously low.
"Big pervert." Kai grumbled as he typed back a reply. He had to admit though, Ray looked incredible in that picture.
It's hot here. And I'm not looking at any girls, don't worry. Don't work too hard, okay?
Kai sent the message and stuffed his phone back into his pocket and headed out of the restaurant and into a cab. While heading to the hotel, he pondered over the way his life had changed since entering Persona, especially the Ray aspect of it and these emails from her. It was hard to just ignore the charismatic diva. Her messages were just so... infuriating! Kai just HAD to reply. Like really, what the hell was with that 'don't look at any girls' and that sexy photo?
Fuming, Kai practically threw money at the taxi driver when they arrived at Okinawa Marriott. No matter what, Ray always worked him up into a fervour!
"Kai!" Kuu waved Kai over, all of them dressed in their clothes from the late morning shopping trip. Marilyn and Saeko were at the front desk, signing in for themselves.
"What happened?" Kai's fury at Ray's message subsided when he saw Riku's dead expression.
"Riku's been like that since..." Kuu lowered his voice. "Some girl we met at the beach grabbed Asahi!"
"Riku?"
"No, ASAHI. Female ASAHI." Kuu whispered.
"What?" Kai was confused.
"We were hanging out with some girl we met at the beach. Then..." Kuu shrugged. "She started feeling up Asahi." Kuu went over briefly what had happened. "...then after Asahi had gotten up, she slapped the other girl and ran for it back to our spot on the beach and grabbed all our things then insisted that we leave. She hasn't talked since then."
Kai stared at Riku. Actually spent a good few seconds staring. Then the blonde exploded, howling with laughter. That snapped Riku out of it as he glared at Kai.
"It's not funny!" Riku snapped. Kai just continued laughing, doubled over.
"It's loud over there." Mariko noted, trying to look over and see what was going on in the lobby. However, several pillars were in the way and she gave up quickly, turning back to a depressed Yuko. Atsuko was sitting on the other side of the morose woman, patting Yuko's back sympathetically. All three were sitting at a bar with Mariko and Atsuko trying to stop Yuko from running up a huge tab.
"She was perfect!" Yuko moaned glumly, downing her gin and tonic in one gulp. "Bartender!"
The bartender wordlessly placed another drink in front of Yuko.
"I didn't even get her number!"
Far from comforting her like Atsuko was doing, Mariko was scolding the perverted actress.
"Serves you right!" Mariko crossed her arms, scowling. "You know, most girls let you feel them up because-I actually don't know why they let you, but this girl didn't! That's the normal reaction to sexual harassment-"
"SKINSHIP!" Yuko bleated.
"SEXUAL HARASSMENT." Mariko snapped back, then lowered her voice. "You're just so gay!"
"I'm not gay!" Yuko shot back. "I just appreciate women's bodies a lot!" Yuko gave Mariko a slightly pitying look. "Even those with no shape-"
"You shut the hell up!" Mariko's eyes narrowed. She was just really skinny! Her body-type was perfect for modeling! Yuko just didn't appreciate that!
"Look at this-" Yuko had both hands pressed against Mariko's bosom to emphasize her point and immediately, her mouth turned down in a frown. "WHAT is this?"
"Stop that." Mariko slapped Yuko's hands away who immediately turned to Atsuko to cup the other girl's breasts. Atsuko just stared at Yuko impassively.
"Atsukoooo..." Yuko had tears in her eyes, her lower lip trembling. "She was PERFECT."
In reply, Atsuko flicked Yuko on the forehead with her fingers and the smaller woman grabbed her forehead, hissing in pain.
"Anyways," Mariko crossed her arms. "Don't be all lovey-dovey with the guys from Persona tomorrow. That'll cause a scandal for sure."
"How could I even think about guys now?" Yuko threw up her hands helplessly, then reached for her drink. Tossing it back in one gulp, she motioned for another one. "I let perfection get away! Why didn't I ask for her number?"
"If you're not good tomorrow, Ohori-san will kill you." Mariko warned. Yuko waved away the tall girl's concern, sipping at the new drink in front of her.
"She's useless right now." Mariko sighed and shook her head at Yuko. "So gay."
"She'll be fine tomorrow." Atsuko said confidently. Yuko had a pretty high tolerance for alcohol and even if she got drunk, she never got a hangover.
"Here's to perfection!" Yuko raised her glass in the air, toasting the one that had gotten away.
"We'll be meeting with the writer again," Mariko sighed. "She's experiencing some writer's block and wants to see Persona and us together, maybe get a feel for our chemistry."
"Maybe I can save her some time. Here's what I'll be feeling: indifference." Atsuko deadpanned, now wishing she could drink too. She had heard about her co-stars and really didn't feel like meeting more young up-and-comers. Doing this drama, 'Three Sisters', had seen them go through a lot of co-stars and she HATED the young ones the most. She was pretty young herself, but she'd have to say she took her job a lot more seriously than most of the new ones. It was always drama with them and she hated that they thought that working with her automatically made them BFFs. She wished Nami was here...
"There there, it'll be alright." Mariko reached over to pat Atsuko's hand sympathetically. She understood Atsuko's prickliness and shared some of it herself, though she was better at hiding it than Atsuko. That was why Atsuko didn't have very many friends.
"Why did you insist on getting that group to come co-star with us?" Yuko, though slightly tipsy, was still together enough to join in on the conversation. "You usually don't like your men young-"
"I don't like them!" Mariko growled, her eyes narrowed to slits and the look on her face was terrifying. "This is revenge."
Kuu, just passing the restaurant on the way to the washroom gave a little shiver. It felt like someone had just walked over his grave...
"Hurry up! Saeko wants to go eat soon!" Riku walked past Kuu, catching his friend's arm and pulling him along.
"Wait up, guys!" Kai wasn't far behind as they trotted towards the restrooms. Atsuko turned around just in time to catch the back of a blonde head disappearing round the corner.
'Can't be.' Atsuko shook her head, turning back to her friends who had started arguing animatedly. 'I'm going crazy.'
-
Atsumina and kojiyu
Next marimii right?
Atsumina is cute together at all! :inlove:
Yuko so pervert :lol:
Atsuko will subspect about kai and nami :?
I think ray problem will coming soon :shocked
I can't wait please update :bow: :bow:
:cow: :cow: :cow: :cow:
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So it's going to be atsumina, kojiyuu and marimii?? Nice!! :D
Uh oh, did atsuko find out about nami's secret???? :O
And yuko.... Perverted as always. Hehe ;)
Anyways... Looking foward to the next update!!!!
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Thought it was a new fic on Mendol... Then realised it's one of my all time favourite that actually got me into akb fanfiction fandom!! :onioncheer: :on woohoo: :on gay: Have read this on fanfiction.net repeatedly since I saw the drama earlier this year! Hopefully there would be a sequel? :wriggly: Love all the ray X kai/nami fluff :luvluv2:
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I think things are getting more interesting now hohoho
Yuko and Asahi's scene is too damn funny :lol: :twothumbs
Can't wait for Mariko's revenge to Kuu
Please update soon! :D
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I freakin' love this :) :)
This is one of the fanfics that I've read when I was still new to the AKB fandom and I'm still reading it :lol:
This will always be one of my favorites and I had a great time reading it.
I was smiling the whole time :)
Thanks for creating such a wonderful story and stay awesome :)
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Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 10
author's note: So they meet. WHAT HAPPENS? DUNDUNDUN!
The two groups stared at each other.
And stared.
And stared some more.
Marilyn was trying not to glare at Ohori Megumi, but failing. Megumi and Saeko were looking at each other, pain apparent in both their eyes.
Riku was staring, wide-eyed and afraid at Yuko, who was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
Kai wore a deer-in-headlights expression while Atsuko just frowned at the blonde, wondering why the short young man's face looked so... familiar.
Kuu and Mariko were glaring at each other in unbridled, unchecked HATRED.
"Well." Megumi finally cleared her throat to break the silence. "Why don't we all sit down and wait for the writer to come in? She's running a bit late..."
Nobody moved at first, until Atsuko shrugged and took a seat, Kai immediately going to take a seat opposite the woman. This in turn prompted everyone to grab seats with Yuko facing Riku, Mariko facing Kuu and Saeko facing Megumi with Marilyn sitting beside her manager. But now, with everyone seated, Riku and Kai were both looking down at the table, trying not to make eye contact with the person sitting opposite them. Kuu had a white-knuckled grip on the table, shooting daggers out of his eyes at the smirking woman opposite him just KNOWING that their meeting was no coincidence.
"Well," Ohori Megumi had to clear her throat several times before she could get the words out. "I guess we should do introductions."
"We should." Saeko smiled at Megumi. Marilyn glanced between the two managers, really REALLY unhappy at the looks they were sharing.
"I am Kamonohashi Saeko, of Kamonohashi Entertainment. This is my secretary, Marilyn." Saeko nodded towards Marilyn. The perky secretary gave Megumi a tight smile.
"Ohori Megumi of Ohori Productions." Megumi took off her sexy librarian glasses. "Yoroshiku. And this is..."
Mariko smirked at Kuu, her eyes only for the angry young man. "Shinoda Mariko. Yo-ro-shi, Kuu."
Kuu's left eyebrow twitched, not missing the way Mariko played his name into her greeting. The slim, well-manicured hand she held out to the young man made him even angrier. She was still smirking at him, waiting for him take her hand in his. Well, she could just forget about it-
"Kuu!" Marilyn hissed. "Shake her hand!"
Relunctantly, he reached forward. "I'm Kuu of Persona. Yoroshi-wahhh!"
Kuu yanked his hand back, infuriated. Mariko had tickled his hand! She had tickled the palm of his hand! HE WAS GOING TO KILL HER!
"Kuu!" Saeko GLARED at him.
...Later. He would kill her later when no-one was watching and there were no witnesses.
All three members of Persona mumbled out their 'yoroshiku's and introductions moved on to the next pair.
"Maeda Atsuko." Maeda dipped her head slightly, watching the blonde with the bowed head with interest. It was funny. Most of the new ones wanted to make a good impression, or they would stare at her in slack-jawed awe. This one seemed almost... shy. It was cute.
"Kai of Persona." Kai mummbled and bowed, his head hitting the table. "Ow."
Atsuko let out a little giggle as Kai lifted his head completely, rubbing at the sore spot on his forehead.
"It's not funny." Kai had sadface on.
"It's just a little bit funny." Atsuko smiled at the slight young man. Their conversation flowed easily and she felt an almost instant connection with this person. Why was that?
"Atsuko finds everything funny, though." Kai pointed out, smiling, but immediately clammed up after that and bowed his head again. Atsuko, meanwhile, had both eyebrows raised and was studying Kai. REALLY looking at him. She was SURE she knew him from somewhere, now. The familiarity with how he referred to her and the thing he had said... and his face. She KNEW that face.
"Yoroshiku." Kai mummbled, sweating. Right now, it seemed like Atsuko couldn't really recognize him... but if she did, he would be in for a world of TROUBLE!
Again, a round of yoroshikus passed the table and it was down to the final pair.
"Hai, Oshima Yuko DESU!" The girl with the dimples grinned. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"
When nobody said anything, Megumi tried to break the tension in the room. It seemed like Saeko's boys were really shy! How precious! "Yuko used to be a child actress, she faded from the public eye for a while, but now she's back and she's become quite popular!"
"I knew it!" Kuu said under his breath.
Riku mummbled his greeting and gave a quick bow, keeping his eyes on the top of the table as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Aw, don't be shy!" Yuko said cheerfully. "I don't bite!"
Riku slowly looked up to find Yuko smiling encouragingly at him. She gave the defacto leader of Persona a casual wave.
"Hi!"
"H-hey." There was not a glimmer of recognition in Yuko's eyes. So that meant... she didn't recognize him? Feeling relieved, Riku straightened up a bit and offered a quick smile. "Um. I'm Riku of Persona. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Riku." Yuko dipped her head in a polite bow.
"So, while we're waiting for the writer, do you boys know anything about 'Three Sisters'?" The blank faces the boys pulled at Megumi's question made the woman sigh. "Of course. Boys seldom watch shows like that. Well basically, the story is about three sisters that are very different from one another. It's about their daily lives and the conflicts they have to face together. That's the very basic story."
Megumi motioned to Mariko. "Mariko-sama plays the eldest sister-"
"Cuz she looks the oldest, right?" Kuu shot in, innocently. Yuko covered her mouth to hide a laugh while a corner of Mariko's mouth was pulled back into an ugly snarl.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Kuu fluttered his eyelashes at Mariko innocently. "I mean DISTINGUISHED. The most DISTINGUISHED. Especially with those crow's feet."
There was stunned silence in the room as Kuu smiled pleasantly and Yuko had both her hands covering her mouth to stifle her own laughter.
"Kuu!" Everybody sitting on Kuu's side was looking at him in horror. Kuu usually had more social grace than this! They could be black-listed by these three stars who, from what Marilyn had told them, pretty big names right now!
"No, it's okay." Mariko gave a gracious smile. "I totally understand. It's so nice of you, Kamonohashi-san, to hire someone who was mentally handicapped. I mean, people like him need all the support they can get."
"I'm not mentally handicapped." Kuu glowered at Mariko.
"Oh!" Mariko placed a hand on the side of her face in a show of mock-surprise. "I'm sorry, I just thought, you know... your inability to communicate appropriately with people and you know, you sort of-" Mariko motioned to his face, pursing her lips in contemplation. "-LOOK like you have down syndrome."
Kuu almost lunged over the table at the tall EVIL woman if not for Kai's hand on his arm.
"Kuu!" Kai gave Kuu a frantic look. What the hell was he doing, fighting with the stars of the show they were guest-appearing in?
"Do you two..." Marilyn had a finger on her chin. Their argument, the hostility they were showing each other and the familiarity of which they attacked each other told Marilyn they probably knew each other. "know each other?"
"Yes." The two combatants were locked in a staring competition.
"How did you two meet?" Riku asked curiously.
"Radio. Station." Kuu could barely get the words out. He was just... so... ANGRY!
"We're VERY good friends." Mariko purred. "Right, Kuu-Kuu?"
"I don't like that nickname." Kuu snarled.
"Oh, so you're friends!" Marilyn sighed in relief and everybody at the table let out a laugh. Mariko's laugh was slightly... evil. While Kuu's laughter sounded like a robot's.
"Well, Mariko is the eldest sister and her character name is Fumiko. She's very responsible, works to support her two sisters and has a managerial position at a finance company. She pretty much has her life together. It's just her sisters who are kind of worrisome." Megumi recited the information. There had been numerous co-stars, everybody seemed to want to get in on this drama and this speel was well-rehearsed. "Fumiko also has problems holding down boyfriends because she's intimidating and not 'cute'."
"Like in real life." Kuu said under his breath, loud enough for everyone to hear. Everybody laughed at the joke. Mariko was laughing too, but was also glaring at Kuu, her eyes opened wide in an angry glare. Kuu was laughing uproariously until he suddenly stopped and doubled over in pain.
"Kuu-" Saeko frowned at the young man.
"I'm fine." Kuu gasped out, glaring at Mariko hatefully. Suddenly, Mariko was down on the table too, gritting her teeth in pain.
"Mariko?" Atsuko blinked at the tall woman.
"I'm... fine." Mariko narrowed her eyes at Kuu. Underneath the table, both Mariko and Kuu's shins were developing a nice bruise from the kick delivered by the other.
"Next, we have Atsuko, who will be playing Eri." Megumi continued. "Eri is the middle sister and she's pretty much the bad girl of the group. Her character has lots of boyfriends and she works as a hostess at night to support her spending habits. Her sister Fumiko doesn't know about her job but her younger sister has an inkling. Eri's fun-loving, lively, self-centered and doesn't really care too much about who she hurts, though she does love her sisters a lot. She's a heartbreaker and attracts most of the trouble in the series."
Atsuko smiled a little bit and dipped her head in acknowledgement. Kai looked at Atsuko discreetly, wondering how Atsuko would play the character. Feeling Kai's eyes on her, Atsuko looked up at the blonde who immediately went back to staring at the table.
"Lastly, Yuko plays the youngest sister." Megumi put her glasses back on. "Aki is a quiet girl who's going through university to study to be a doctor. She's very studious and very smart, but she's really timid. At school, she gets picked on a lot by the other students because she's basically the most talented out of all of them and jealousy is an ugly thing. She's easily hurt and she relies a lot on Eri and Fumiko to look out for her. Aki's very trusting and is absolutely devoted to her sisters."
"So the connection between the three sisters is very strong." Riku leaned forward. "It sounds like a very interesting drama."
A knock at the door caught everyone's attention and Megumi smiled at Riku. "You can tell that to our writer personally, then. Kasai-san always loves to hear that someone likes her work."
"Excuse us," A young assistant in a red hoodie and work boots opened the door. She stood aside to let in a whole line up of people as the people already in the room stood up to greet the new arrivals. When everybody was at their place at the table, introductions went around and Persona met the producers of the show, the director and the most important person, the writer.
"Without her," The director laughed. "We wouldn't have a show!"
"That's not true." Kasai Tomomi, a gentle-looking young woman smiled at the people gathered in the room. "Everybody's been very accomodating of me and I'm really grateful."
Kasai Tomomi single-handedly wrote the shows. All the puns, the drama, the little details were worked out by her. Apparently she was a genius in that department and could write an entire story arc within a few days.
"Don't be so humble." A woman with dyed and permed hair and impeccably done make-up patted Kasai's arm, a gesture that spoke of their close friendship. "This is like, the only thing you're really good at. You should be proud!"
"Tomochin-!"
The woman barely managed to sidestep a swipe from Tomomi.
"This is Tomochin-Itano Tomomi." Megumi introduced the mischievous woman. "She's the one to go to for make-up and hair on this set."
"Yoroshiku." Tomochin bowed politely and Tomomi took the opportunity to slap Tomochin on the top of her head.
"Now that we've got the pleasantries aside, should we get down to business?" Saeko was all about work and Marilyn puffed up with pride at the way her shachou commanded the room. She bristled slightly though, when she noticed Megumi looking at Saeko with fond eyes.
"A-actually." Tomomi fiddled with the hem of her blouse. "I haven't gotten to writing in Persona yet, this was so last minute. But-but I want to, um, get a feel for them. To see what characters they could play."
"Well, what can we do?" Riku asked, willing to please. His bandmates nodded, all eager to work. They didn't really understand how things worked and they've never really acted before, but they would try their best!
"Well, I just want to... see all of you in a relaxed setting." Tomomi smiled and her friend Tomochin gave a smirk. "W-why don't we all just have breakfast together? Have you all eaten yet?"
Kai's stomach gave a well-timed growl to answer Tomomi's question.
"No, we haven't." Kai muttered, blushing to the roots of his hair. Atsuko glanced at Kai, amused. That little glance hadn't gone unnoticed as Tomomi tucked that little tidbit away to explore later. It was hard to write up Atsuko's character since Tomomi sometimes sensed she had nothing to work with in Atsuko. There was a void there, sometimes. So having Atsuko play Eri, the heartbreaker, was easy. But it was hard to write in any sort of EMOTIONAL scene with Atsuko. It wasn't that Atsuko didn't try, it was just that the chemistry was always lacking with Atsuko... but it seemed that her and this Kai might be different...
The hotel had spread out a breakfast buffet for them in a meeting room and everyone was digging in. Kai was about to walk back to the table his bandmates had sat down at when he noticed the young assistant in the red hoodie from before eyeing the buffet spread longingly.
"Why don't you eat?"
The girl in the red hoodie shook her head and smiled. Kai knew that she was new here and Tomochin had off-handedly said that she was her assistant and would be following them around. "I gotta wait for everyone else to eat first."
"Who said that?" Kai scowled. He'd seen how hard assistants worked and he wasn't gonna stand by and let someone starve! "By the time you get to eat, I'm pretty sure there won't be any food left."
The line-up was pretty long and the blonde quickly shoved his own platter of food at the girl. "Hope you like what I got. Now go eat fast cuz they might run you off somewhere."
The girl smiled again, thanked Kai quickly and disappeared while the blonde went back around to get food again.
"That was nice." Atsuko commented quietly. She had noticed how the short young man had given up his plate for Tomochin's assistant.
"Eh." Kai dug into his food, not wanting to look at Atsuko straight in the face, afraid that she would see right through him. Atsuko, meanwhile, had noticed that Kai's plate didn't have any strawberries, while his last plate had a tiny heap of them. The buffet was quickly running out of fresh fruit and there had been no strawberries left when Kai went around to get food again.
'Hm.' Atsuko waited until Kai was distracted talking to Riku then quickly shovelled over a few of her own strawberries. The young actress started eating nonchalently when the blonde turned back and was confused as to how there were now a few strawberries on his plate.
"Thanks, Kuu." Kai nudged his friend sitting beside him, assuming it was Kuu who had passed him some strawberries.
Kuu was eating like an animal while keeping his eyes on Mariko who was sitting opposite him again. He had no idea what Kai was thanking him for but bleated back a quick, "you're welcome."
Kasai, also sitting at their table noticed Atsuko and Kai's exchange, though she seemed to be engrossed in a conversation with Tomochin. Interesting. Really interesting. Atsuko never treated people this nice! Could it be... love?
"Hey guys!" Yuko jogged to their table, having ran off before to the buffet to get some more food. "I got a lot of honeydew! Help yourselves!"
"Thanks!" Kuu tried to spear a honeydew with his fork but hit nothing but plate as Mariko swiped it right from under his nose.
"YOU." Kuu narrowed his eyes at the short-haired woman.
"ME." Mariko laughed, chewing on her stolen piece of fruit. This exchange wasn't lost on Tomomi either, filing away the two's interaction for later. Riku and Yuko seemed to gravitate towards each other, but were neither too friendly nor too stand-offish. They were very professional... except Riku seemed almost afraid of Yuko sometimes when she leaned too close to him-
"Stop working!" Tomochin poked Tomomi, knowing her friend well enough to know that Tomomi was working on the details of the drama in her mind. "You haven't eaten ANYTHING."
"I'm eating, I'm eating!" Tomomi grumbled, picking up fork and knife to dig into her western style breakfast. She took a look at what Tomochin was eating and almost immediately regretted it. Nattou, mayonnaise, dried bonitas, a few pieces of oily bacon, scrambled eggs, slices of oranges smashed into a pulp and ketchup all mixed together to look like... basically something someone threw up.
"Why am I your friend?" Tomomi whimpered as she watched Tomochin scarf the conconction down.
"This is delicious." Tomochin declared. "You leave my food alone!"
Tomomi wasn't the only person who had been watching Persona and the Three Sisters' main stars. The girl with the red hoodie stood discreetly nearby, completely unnoticed. And, completely unnoticed, she had a small camera hidden in her hands and was taking pictures of the people at the table. The person featured in most of those photos?
Kai.
Kasai Tomomi had apparently gotten what she wanted from the breakfast meeting. She had quickly told Tomochin the basic premise of the story and left her to work on make-up and costumes with the boys while she wrote the script.
"Where are you girls going?" Riku asked Yuko as they all waited in the lobby for a van to take them to the filming location.
"Well, we're still filming a couple of episodes from the last story arc that brought us to Okinawa." Yuko explained quickly. Riku, though she was wary of Yuko's perverted ways, was quite impressed by her work ethics. The dimply girl had shown herself to be a hard worker who stayed focused and on task when the situation called for it. Riku really did admire that quality in a person.
"...and that's it for today." Yuko finished listing off what they were doing. "We'll be in the same area as you and we'll probably finish shooting early if the weather continues to be nice like this."
"Lunch is at 1pm for you girls?" Riku glanced at his watch and grinned at Yuko, comfortable enough to make jokes with the girl. "Will you even be hungry then? You tucked in at least three plates!"
"She can eat even more." Mariko jumped into the conversation. "She's watching her figure right now so she ONLY had three plates."
"I have a high metabolism!" Yuko protested.
"Our ride is here!" Tomochin announced. All the young idols hurriedly went to the car with Kai making it there first and opened the door for everybody.
"Get in," Kai waved impatiently, looking off to the side. His plan was to sit as far away from Atsuko as possible and sitting in the front passenger seat would do! Atsuko climbed up but almost fell as her foot slipped a bit on the edge of the van's entrance. Kai was quick to put a steadying hand on the small of her back and push her up, nodding brusquely to Atsuko's 'thank you'.
"Oh, what a gentleman!" Kuu and Riku teased on the way in.
"Yeah, yeah." Kai growled. "Don't let the door hit you on the way in."
Atsuko watched as the blonde waited for Tomochin and her assistant to get in before shutting the door and climbing in the front. Even from the back, she tried to peek up at the young man sitting in front, thoughts running through her head...
"-stop it!" Mariko turned to glare at Kuu who had sat right behind her and was drumming against the back of her seat with his feet.
"Stop what?" Kuu asked innocently as he gave a slightly harder kick.
"Stop kicking my seat!"
"I'm not kicking your seat."
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
"Are too, KUU-KUU."
"Riku, tell her to stop calling me that!"
"CHILDREN!" Riku and Yuko both snapped at their friends. Slightly startled at having two people yell at them, both Mariko and Kuu settled down. It was quiet in the car, with all of them wrapped up in their own thoughts when they finally arrived on set. Kai hopped out of the front seat and waited until Atsuko was coming down and offered a hand to help her.
"Don't trip." Kai helped her down then quickly shut the door and joined his friends. Atsuko didn't even have a chance to say thank you before the boys were out of sight, following Tomochin's assistant to a building they had rented out as a temporary headquarters for the filming in Okinawa. It was also very near the beach they had rented to film beach scenes so everything worked out perfectly.
"Come on, everyone's at the beach already." Tomochin herself was in charge of the girls. "My assistant will get the boys done up and I have to work on your make up-Mariko, what's that on the back of your head?"
Patting at the back of her head, Mariko produced a piece of sticky yellow paper.
'I'm Shinoda Mariko and I'm old and love eating boogers!'
"KUU-KUU." The paper was reduced to a crumpled ball in the tall idol's hands. She would get him back for this!
Meanwhile, the boys were in the men's dressing room going through some clothes. Marilyn had sent Tomochin the boys' sizes already and a variety of clothes was laid out for them.
"Okay," The assistant brushed back her red hoodie, revealing silky black hair. "Riku-san, you'll be in smart-casual wear so you can't wear anything more casual than a polo-shirt. The image you're trying to give is rich and on a vacation. Um, no swimwear right now."
"Right." Riku nodded, going to the racks of clothes in his size to find several outfits that fit that description.
"Kuu-san is in business wear almost at all times. But pick out one golfing outfit."
Kuu was at his rack already, going through his clothes. He nodded absentmindedly at the instructions then let out a blood curdling scream as A GIANT SPIDER SRUNG OUT AT HIM FROM THE RACK!
"AHHH!" Kuu swatted the spider away. "Get it off get it off get it off!"
Kai was quick to react, stomping on the huge spider and almost slipped and fell. He grabbed hold of a nearby rack and glared down at the spider.
"It's fake." Kai brushed himself off. "It's made of rubber."
Kuu picked it up off the floor angrily. Pinned to the spider was a little note.
'To Kuu-Kuu. Love, Mariko.'
"Guys, stop playing around." Riku hadn't glanced over at the start of Kuu's screaming and ignored it after. Mariko and Kuu's prankwars was getting ridiculous.
"So..." The assistant stood beside Kai, waiting to catch his attention. "Kai-san, you'll be in casual wear. So t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, runners. Anything you want. But think light colours... less rockstar and more jock/nature boy."
"Sweet." Kai grinned, already rifling through his clothes. He liked formal wear just fine... but casual clothes were so much more comfortable! They played around with outfits for a while until Tomochin came back and hustled them to a couple of chairs in front of well lit mirrors to do some make-up checks.
"All of you have really nice skin," Tomochin murmurred as she tried out a colour on Riku.
"Yeah. We lucked out on that department." Riku tried to stay still.
"Like really nice skin." Tomochin moved on to Kuu. "It's like none of you have stubble."
The three members of Persona felt a trickle of anxiety.
"Well, you know, trade secret," Kuu laughed nervously. "We, uh, pluck."
"Pluck?" Tomochin raised an eyebrow. "That'll take a long time."
"Y-yup." Kai nodded stiffly. "But we get it when it first comes in. And if there's a lot, we wax."
"Hm. I guess." Tomochin ran a finger along Kuu's jawline. "Your jaw is quite smooth."
They spent the whole morning checking out make-up and outfits until Tomochin had called it a day and they broke for early lunch, the boys huddling together near the table with different types of boxed lunches.
"We don't have stubble." Kuu was looking through the boxed lunches and wondering if he could grab two. He was a nervous eater and damn, he was nervous right now! "Just soft SMOOTH SKIN. What are we going to do? Ai-chan and Fuu-chan are the only ones who did our make-ups for us before and Saeko's okay'd them! But Tomochin-"
"Calm down." Riku was also loading up his plate. "It'll be fine. Trust me. She seemed to buy your plucking excuse. And Saeko's no help right now, she has to deal with administration stuff. We gotta deal with our identities ourselves!"
Kai was looking through the boxed lunches and listening intently to Riku and Kuu's whispered conversation. So when his phone rang, he didn't even look to see who had called him and picked up right away.
"Moshi-moshi." Kai grabbed a sweet-and-sour pork and rice combo then moved on to look at what kind of drinks they had for lunch.
"Kai?"
Kai grabbed a vegetable juice box. "Yup."
There was silence on the other end. Then, "...Nami?"
"Yeah." Kai turned around to find a table to sit at, his attention pulled in several different directions. But the phone call... the phone call was important. What was so important about the phonecall?
"Nami, look up." the voice on the phone commanded.
Kai obeyed and looked up, seeing Atsuko at the entrance to the lunchroom. Atsuko had an unreadable expression on her face as she looked at Kai from across the room. Her phone was pressed against her ear and she smiled a small smile that didn't seem to reach her eyes.
"Nami. Can you see me?" Atsuko asked, her voice coming crystal clear over the phone. Kai's face had paled considerably and he nodded.
'Why didn't I notice right away?' Atsuko wondered as she looked at Kai from across the hustle of the lunchroom. Nami's nose, her chin, her eyes, HER HEIGHT. The way Kai moved like Nami did. Atsuko remembered watching Kai scarf down his breakfast, so like how Nami had eaten her dessert yesterday by the beach.
It hadn't been until Riku and Kuu had made the 'gentleman' comment that Atsuko had finally placed that face. How could she have been stupid? She had the picture that Nami and her had taken as the wallpaper on her cellphone! Everytime she opened her phone, she would see Nami's face.
"I can see you." Kai pushed his lunch and drink into Riku's hand and motioned for him to help him take it to a table and Kai would be right with them. Riku and Kuu shrugged and walked off.
"Nami." Atsuko pursed her lips. "We need to talk."
"Now?" Kai felt like someone was tightening a belt around his ribs. A sense of immense pressure. The secret was out. He had ruined it for everyone. Atsuko seemed to sense his mood and her mouth pulled up into a slightly strained smile to try to reassure him.
"I just want to talk, Nami. Don't worry. I haven't told anyone."
"My name is Kai right now." Kai blurted out. "Just... I'm Kai. At this moment. Do you want to talk now?"
"Not now." Atsuko shook her head. "Tonight?"
"Wanna have dinner?"
"Sure."
"I'll probably be back at the hotel before you... wanna call me when you get back?"
"I can do that."
A beat of silence, then, "Are you on lunch?" Kai asked softly.
"I am... but I'm not hungry." Atsuko waved to Kai. "I'll see you tonight. Ja ne."
Atsuko hung up and left the lunch room, leaving Kai there, staring at his phone, at the wallpaper he had set of Nami and Atsuko together. Atsuko was angry at him. He just knew it. Stuffing his cellphone back in his pocket, Kai went back to his table and found that Yuko and Mariko had joined them. Kuu was embroiled in another bickering match with the short-haired woman and Yuko and Riku were exchanging stories about their mornings with each other.
"Kai, you alright?" Riku noticed Kai's shell-shocked expression in a second.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Kai tried a smile, wondering when he had gotten so good at faking it so well.
"I saw you and Atsuko talking to each other over the phone! I didn't know you and Atsuko had already exchanged numbers!" Yuko teased. "Kai, you dog, you! Our princess NEVER gives her number out!"
"What?" Mariko was on Kai in a moment. "Really? I didn't think she liked your type of guys!"
"And what's that supposed to mean." Kai growled back.
"Well," A mischeivous twinkle in Mariko's eyes told Kai that he was going to be the butt of someone's jokes again. "I imagined her liking someone... taller."
"I'm not short."
"I never said you were, shortie."
"You just enjoy getting into arguments with people." Kai surmised suddenly. "No wonder you and Kuu are such good friends."
Kuu pointed at Kai, "You take that back! GOOD FRIENDS? WITH THIS WOMAN? Don't make me laugh!"
"Me and Kuu?" Mariko also wanted to give Kai a piece of her mind. "I... I can't believe you would say something hurtful like that!"
Mariko and Kuu started bickering again, one step away from chucking food at each other. Yuko and Riku, who had gotten used to Mariko and Kuu's fighting, attacked Kai with their questions as one.
"So what'd you two talk about?"
"Probably a date." Riku teased, grinning like crazy. "Ray would be sooooo jealous!"
"Shut up about Ray!" Kai felt a sharp stab of guilt. Why? He wasn't doing anything wrong!
don't look at any girls
Kai still had that text message on his phone and it felt like his phone was burning a hole through his pocket. What the hell did Ray mean anyways? Don't look at any girls. Really. The stars of the series he was a guest on were all girls! How could he not look? ...and why was he feeling guilty?
"Ray?" Mariko was back in the conversation again. "THE Ray? I heard rumours..."
Riku was intrigued. "What did you hear?"
"Well," Mariko tapped her chin with one manicured finger. "If you were going on a date with Atsuko, Ray would be VERY unhappy."
"Ray isn't the boss of me," Kai snapped. He and Ray were NOT together like that! "I can go out to dinner with Atsuko if I want to!"
"Dinner?" Yuko squealed gleefully. "Hey, lets all go together!"
"No," Kai immediately rejected the idea, regretting his slip of tongue. "We're just eating dinner alone."
"It IS a date!" Kuu exclaimed, excited. Then his face turned sly. "Ray's going to KILL you!"
"It's not a date and I don't have to answer to Ray!"
Arguing with each other, Kai finally got them off their back when he agreed, grudgingly, to make the dinner a group thing. Finally, everyone dispersed. Riku and Kuu went back to Tomochin to finish up and Yuko and Mariko had to run back to their set. Kai had excused himself to the washroom but instead of going, had run back to the buffet table to grab an extra boxed lunch and a drink.
"You've got a real healthy appetite, huh?" Tomochin's assistant startled Kai and the blonde grinned sheepishly.
"Actually, uh, it's not for me."
"For Maeda?" The girl in the red hoodie was right on the money.
"Yeah." Kai confessed. "Actually, do you know where she is right now?"
"She's practising right now. But I can take you to her."
Kai nodded and followed after the assistant as she lead the way.
"You're like, food guy, right? That's your thing?"
"It's my thing when I have it and someone else doesn't." Kai answered. Something suddenly occurred to him. "Oh damn, I'm sorry! I never caught your name-"
"I never gave it." Kai suddenly noted that the girl's impish smile was just a tiny bit scary. "My name's Watanabe Mayu."
"Nice to meet you." Kai said belatedly, grinning sheepishly. "I'm Kai."
"I know who you are, of course." Mayu turned around to study Kai, that eerie smile still on her face. She was still leading the way and avoided any obstacles in her path easily, as if she had eyes at the back of her head. They finally stopped outside a door where Kai could hear Atsuko's voice inside. It seemed like she was reciting her lines... "Here you go!"
Without another word, Mayu was gone as suddenly as she appeared. Kai didn't even get the chance to thank her yet!
"Well.." Kai shuffled restlessly outside the door. Taking a deep breath, he knocked politely.
"Who is it?"
"It's Kai."
"... I don't want to see you right now. Could we talk later tonight?"
Her answer made Kai's heart sink to his stomach and there was a sudden tightness in his throat.
"Um. Well, I brought you something. I'll leave and you can get it after." Kai put his offering down and left quickly, feeling upset.
"So who is she to you?" Marilyn felt like they kept on having this argument. She couldn't help it! Saeko just drove her crazy all the time.
"She's just someone from my past." Saeko said cryptically.
Usually Marilyn let things go because Saeko didn't seem to be serious about whatever had happened or she did 'stuff' for work. This other WOMAN was from Saeko's past! And a past she was hiding from Marilyn! "That's not a good enough answer!"
"Excuse me." A knock at the door and someone slipped in the room, closing the door behind her.
"We're having a private conversation here." Marilyn snapped.
Ohori Megumi gave the irrate secretary a wry smile. "I can hear your 'private conversation' from down the hall. And since this sort of involves me, I think I should be in on this too."
Saeko had fallen silent at the sight of Megumi and only after Megumi had finished her speel did Saeko finally say something. What she said though, surprised Marilyn.
"I'm sorry." Saeko was bowing at almost a 90 degree angle.
"There's nothing to be sorry for, sempai." Megumi smiled sadly at the woman who had taught her everything she knew about the business. She had been young, unexperience and clumsy. Nobody really wanted to take this awkward thing to be their assistant because she just kept screwing up. Saeko, however, had been different. She had walked her through everything that one needed to know in this profession, walked her through things as many times as it took Megumi to learn it.
Then, Saeko had fired her unceremoniously. Megumi had been devastated.
"You had your reasons. I'm sorry I blamed you without knowing." It was Megumi's turn to bow this time and Marilyn suddenly felt horribly awkward. Things hadn't been as it had seemed!
"Um..."
"Saeko-sempai taught me everything I needed to know about the business. Then she fired me and kicked me out of Kamonohashi Entertainment." Megumi remembered it like it was yesterday. "I was so angry. She had yelled at me, saying I was too stupid, too slow. So I started Ohori productions to beat out her agency."
"You almost managed to squash me, too." Saeko raised an eyebrow. "But then all of a sudden you stopped. Why?"
Megumi took off her glasses, suddenly angry. "Why didn't you tell me Sarukawa-san was black-balling you?"
"What could you have done?" Saeko shrugged. "Stayed with a baby agency that could barely stay afloat? If I hadn't cut you off, you would've clung on and been on the streets with me if I had failed."
"That's why you fired me."
"You hadn't been paid in months." Saeko muttered. "It was embarassing."
"I would've stayed!"
"I wouldn't have wanted you to. He would have black-listed you, too."
There was a lot of water under the bridge between these two. In the horrible, heavy silence, Marilyn couldn't contain herself and burst out with an apology. "I'm sorry, I thought-"
"It's okay." Saeko smiled at her secretary. "But... could you give us some time alone?"
Marilyn, just a little bit mortified, apologized again and walked out the door. So they had a professional relationship! Hearing such good things about Saeko, however, made Marilyn even happier that she was with her shachou.
"So, I guess omitting our PERSONAL relationship with each other was a smart move on my part?" Megumi chuckled as soon as she knew Marilyn was far enough away from the room not to hear.
"A very smart move. I did teach you well." Saeko smiled but made no move forward.
Megumi grinned, trying to crack a joke. "I remembered you teaching me about the business, but I think in bed it was a bit different."
Saeko, who seemed to have no shame, surprisingly blushed scarlet and let out a weary sigh. "I can't believe some... CHILD knew more about adult relationships than I did. I thought I was pretty experienced back then."
"I wasn't a kid, even back then." Megumi smiled smugly. "And obviously, you weren't as experienced as you thought you were."
There was a long silence, their easy sexual innuendo-laced banter was gone.
"It's... awkward now, isn't it?"
"A bit." Saeko fidgetted. Sex was just sex... but Saeko had cared about Megumi and now she cared about Marilyn. It would be disrespectful to the both of them if feelings got involved.
"We can be friends. I'm not looking for anything more." Megumi had left the heartache behind, her initial anger at Saeko, of course, had helped with the healing process. Now all she wanted to do was rebuild bridges.
Saeko smiled and took Megumi's hand in hers. "I'd like that."
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ah its sooo interesting, Atsuko figured out that Minami is Kai, I hope Atsuko won't be mad at her X3 and can't wait for the dinner date :shy2:
Miichan and Mariko is always funny, hope to see them be nicer to each other hahaha
update soon onegai shimasu :kneelbow:
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i can't get over with this story seriously T^T
now that Aachan already knew Kai's secret. And Mariko and Kuu's interactions are so funny haha!
Please update soon :)))
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Ahhh, I love this story!! :)
The new characters that keep getting introduced!! Mayuyu??? Do I sense Yukirin coming into the story? But she was taking pictures of KAI secretly? WHAT?? LOL :lol:
I can't wait for the next update!! Keep it up! :D :twothumbs
Update Soon!! :bow: :bow: :bow:
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I'm really waiting for the next chapter :twothumbs
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Please update this if you have time Hirasawaizumi-san. :bow: :bow:
And, thank you. Great fic. :twothumbs
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:gyaaah: :gyaaah: :gyaaah: PLEASE UPDATE IT SOON :gyaaah: :gyaaah: :gyaaah:
:kneelbow: :kneelbow: I 'M WAITING FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER :kneelbow: :kneelbow: :kneelbow:
SOOOOO.....PLEASE........UPDATE.....IT
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OMFG :mon wtf:
I've already read this fic countless time before.. :farofflook:
All I CAN SAY IS YOU'RE AMAZING, THIS FIC IS AMAZING, and i am amazing :mon dance:
I love it how you made it not too fluff, but interesting to read. Heck i'm an hardcore Kojiyuu's & mainstream pair shipper so of course, there's A LOT of moments when i'm laughing like a maniac over this, and yes don't forget that i'm also crying on some parts, XD so yeah.. pardon me my heart's really weak when it comes to my ship.. ;)
seriously this fic result me ditched my bed time the last time i read it :V :dizzy:
And ugh, i don't know what more to talk about, since this is my all the time fav fic we're talkin about~ :sweatdrop:
BUT YASH
I'll definitely reread it again with pleasure, and look out for your fic~ :cheers