Title:EVERYBODY’S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT ME AND MY HONEYStarring: Yamashita Tomohisa and Inoue Mao and a LOT of other famous people
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Love/comedy
Disclaimer: No, I don’t own Yamapi (though I wish and pray hard I do) and Mao. I’m not whatsoever affiliated with JE either. It’s fiction. Look it up in the dictionary.
Chapters: ?
CHAPTER 5His perfume filled her head and stayed on the spot where he had kissed her. It seemed to linger even when she went to bed that night. She had heard everything. She was only half asleep that time, which means she was also half awake. She heard everything he said, even his whispered conversation on the phone with Ryo. She didn’t know how to react. Did she like him back? Yes, she did. Was it equal to the feeling he had for her that he expressed when he thought she was asleep? Maybe. Maybe not. She wasn’t sure. She knows he’s the type who rarely slept alone, who knew how to bewitch girls too well already. That part of him she didn’t like. But she also knows he’s thoughtful, and knows how to make her laugh, and a genuine gentleman. That part she really liked. She thought about this as she tossed and turned in her bed. She didn’t notice it, but her fever slowly went away while she thought and contemplated about him. She slept eventually in the course of the night and dreamt of noodles. The next morning, she was awoken by a surprise.
“Mao-chan…” a voice crooned.
She slightly moved her arm.
“Mao-chan…”
“Pi-chan?” she squeaked, still half asleep.
“Pi-chan?!” the voice said in a shocked tone.
She blinked her eyes open and sat up. Lo and behold, a sight for fangirls: Shun, Abe and Shota in her room, arms crossed and eyebrows arched. It took her awhile to switch to her Makino character.
“Eeeeeehhhh?!” she finally exclaimed.
“Pi-chan? Who’s Pi-chan?” Shun asked, who was the one calling her name. The three of them looked tall and dressed up.
“What’re you doing in here? How’d you get in?” she asked.
“The thing that makes you cute is you’re a little dim-witted. You left your door unlocked, which is dangerous seeing as you’re living by yourself.” Shun said in a tone that worried big brothers and fathers use.
“We thought you were awake so we came in. You should be, because it’s late in the afternoon.” Shota pointed out.
She looked at her clock. It was late in the afternoon indeed.
“We figured we should go together to Jun’s party. For old times’ sake.” Abe said, leaning against the wall. This was a weird twilight-zone Hana Yori Dango scene, she thought.
“Oh. I was sick, I overslept. But now I’m better.” she said, her voice a little hoarse.
“Aren’t you going to get ready now? We’re supposed to be on our way. Unless, you’re not coming, which would definitely upset Jun. You won’t be getting any free tickets to any of his concerts.” Shun remarked.
“I’m going. I’ll take a bath now.” she said, getting up.
“Good.” the three of them said, and just stood there quietly for seconds, as if expecting something.
“Are you going to watch me change or what?” she blurted.
“Oh. Right.” Shun said, and they quickly moved out of the room as if the room was a self-destructive bomb.
After she bathed and got dressed, she went out to let F3 know she was ready. She came out in a little black dress and heels.
“How do I look?” she asked them, who were sitting side by side on the couch, watching TV.
“Who’s Pi-chan?” Shun asked, smiling sardonically.
Mao rolled her eyes and made a face.
“Who’s Mari Yaguchi?” she asked back, which made Shota and Abe laugh and point at Shun, who looked taken aback.
(For those of you who don’t know, Mari Yaguchi is an ex member of Morning Musume, who dated Shun for a long time. When the public found out about them, she quit Morning Musume, because members of MoMusu have to appear as virginal and innocent as possible, much like JE boys, and aren’t allowed to be seen dating. They broke up eventually. Just sharing. ^^)
“Be thankful you’re small and cute.” Shun said threateningly.
So F3 and her went together to Domyouji’s, I mean, Jun and Arashi’s victory party. This party, unlike the kind of party you’d expect from Domyouji, was a different party. It won’t involve fancy ball dresses and suits and a string quartet. This party involved booze—beer, sake, vodka, martini, what have you. Basically a guy party. When they arrived, the party had already begun and it was still early evening. The house was pouring with people, mostly Johnny’s boys and a few unknown people.
“No underage drinking! No underage drinking—Oi! Yaotome, Yabu, put those glasses down!” Jun’s voice was heard all the way from outside.
Mao had to laugh. When the four of them got inside it was ikemen paradise. Johnny’s were littered all over the place. But even the non-Johnny’s stood out too, like F3 and Shirota Yuu, and the few girls and models that were present (which were probably girlfriends or undercover fangirls who gatecrashed). It was crowded and noisy and the aroma of liquor and gyoza was thick—the smell of a true party. They spotted Jun and the rest of Arashi by the pool table (Yes, I assumed Jun has a pool table). Jun saw them coming over and greeted them.
“Yo!” Jun cried out.
“Congratulations.” Mao and F3 chorused, nodding at the Arashi members in acknowledgment.
“This is Shun, Abe and Shota.” Jun introduced to his members, purposely excluding Mao for fun. Mao just smiled in a childish was, amazed that Jun still has that Domyouji personality that liked to bully her.
“Oh I didn’t see you there, you’re so small.” Jun said in a fake surprised tone as everyone laughed, and Shun patted Mao’s head.
They got on with the exchange of greetings where Mao smiled warmly at Sho, whom she had worked with before. Jun told them to do whatever they want and eat whatever they want and the first thing they wanted to do was eat gyoza. Meanwhile, Yamapi was in the living room with a dozen other people. There was a karaoke going on and Toma Ikuta was singing. Somehow he found himself sitting intimately close to his ex, Goto Maki, who he was crazy about. Keyword there is "was". By the way she was talking to him and touching him since the party started it seemed like she wanted to rekindle their long-gone flame. She clung to him and whispered sweet nothings and acted all cutesy the way she always did when they were together. Just then, Toma Ikuta, who was clutching the mic (and who was tipsy) called out “Mao-chan!” and waved at someone from afar. Yamapi turned to see who it was and it was indeed Mao, with Shun. Mao waved back.
“Shun! Shunkerbell!” Toma added, and Shun waved back as well.
“Come here! Hurry, hurry! I’m going to sing for you two!” Toma said, beckoning them to come over.
Bad idea, Yamapi thought. They came over, saying hello to everyone present. When Mao saw him (along with Goto Maki who clung to him as if she was a koala bear and he was a tree) she looked a bit surprised, but smiled at him as if nothing was wrong. Yamapi wanted to stab himself.
“I’ll just go to the bathroom.” Maki said to him and got up. Yamapi looked at Mao, who was conversing with Shun. He didn’t know how to approach her at that moment. He somehow felt obligated to explain himself to her. He was thinking hard on what to do before Goto came back, but then Tego came to him, a distraction.
“Pi. Mao-chan is your friend, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Is she dating anyone?”
She’s going to be dating me if that’s what you mean, Yamapi thought.
“No. Why?”
“I have a crush on her, ne. Ever since I saw her on TV with the uniform. The way she talk is cute too. I actually have fantasies of her sometimes, but not the fantasies like—“
“What fantasies?” Yamapi cut him off, startled by the word fantasies. He looked at Tego in a scary, threatening way.
“If I told you it involved a bikini, coconuts and chocolate syrup would you be mad?” Tego asked back.
“Yes.” Yamapi replied shortly.
“Then don’t ask.” Tego muttered, then left.
Yamapi shook his head at him, then went back to thinking. He had to make it clear to Maki that it’s not going to work anyway so there’s no point in getting back together. He got up and decided to talk to her before Mao gets the wrong idea.
“Maki-chan, let me in.” he said, knocking on the bathroom door. She opened it, and he quickly got in before anyone saw them.
“You’re a little too excited, don’t you think?” she smiled.
Yamapi looked down and smiled.
“We can’t get back together.” he simply said, not beating around the bush.
By the look on her face, he could see she knew it was coming.
“You’ve met someone, haven’t you?” she asked, though she knew the answer to that already.
Funny you should ask that, he thought.
“Yeah. I have.” he replied.
“She smiled a sad smile and hugged him. He hugged her in return.
“I just miss you.” she sighed, fastening her arms around his waist tighter. In truth, he did too. She was one of those few who he really fell head over heels for. But things are different now. Without warning, she kissed him. It was so sudden he didn’t know what to do, except freeze in place. As if he wasn’t disconcerted enough, the door swung open and of all the people in the party to barge in, it had to be Mao. Her eyes widened as she gaped.
“Sorry!” she hastily said, then closed the door as fast as she had opened it.
Yamapi and Maki stared at the door, then let go of each other. Yamapi fixed his hair and exhaled loudly. The world has a twisted sense of humor, he thought.
“Bye.” he said to her then left.
Mao’s heart was beating madly after she saw them. She felt so flustered and hot but mostly, she felt like getting out of there fast. She came up to Shun and had to yell in his ear for him to be able to hear her because of all the noise.
“I’m going outside.” she said loudly while he leaned down to hear her.
“Okay.” he said.
She walked as fast as she could out of the house with her heart still pounding like crazy. When she got out she kept on walking, with nowhere to go. It was cold and dark, but the galaxy of stars above provided light, and so did the moon, which was in its full cycle. She didn’t understand why she felt as if he had done a big crime to her. She knew he was that kind of guy, and they weren’t together so he’s entitled to kiss whoever he wanted to. But what about what he said yesterday, Mao thought.
“He sounded so sincere and serious. He poured out his feelings and confessed. Was that my imagination or something?” she found herself talking to alone.
“He told me to stay and wait…stay and wait while he makes out with girls? Like hell I would.” she continued to grumble. She didn’t realize how upset she really was, because she forced herself to believe that she wasn’t upset, but she really was. Exhibit A—ranting to herself.
“Maybe he doesn’t know what he wants. He’s probably putting me on reserve so if he runs out of girls I’m his spare. I’m like his in-case-of-emergency spare.” she went on vehemently. An empty can of cake was lying on the ground and she kicked it hard out of her way as if it was a football—exhibit B. Wait a minute, she thought and stopped dead in her steps.
“If I walk out of the party, it will seem as if I’m affected, which I’m clearly not. I have to go back in there to show that I am not at all affected.” she told herself, then turned back.
“Aaaahhh!” she yelped and staggered slightly.
She found herself facing Yamapi, who was only a few feet away from her. She clutched her chest and breathed deeply, thankful she didn’t have an attack.
“What are you doing?” she asked him, who just stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking at her with those intense eyes of his.
“Were you following me?” she asked, looking nervous all of a sudden.
“Yep.” he casually said.
Damn it, she swore under her breath.
“Since when?”
“Since I saw you running out of the house like you wanted to pee badly.”
“Heh? So, so…so you heard—“
“Yeah I heard everything you said.”
See kids, this is why people don’t talk to themselves alone especially while walking outside at night.
Yamapi walked towards her in a slow and suave manner.
“You also heard everything I said last night, didn’t you? You weren’t asleep.” he said, though his question was rhetorical. Mao didn’t look at him, but nodded in reply. Now it turned into an awkward situation, where they just stood there avoiding each other’s eyes, not knowing what to say to each other.
“Are you mad?” he asked, after a brief silence.
“Of course I’m mad, you follow me without warning and almost give me a hard attack.” Mao said, faking a laugh, trying to make it seem she didn’t care about what she saw, and Yamapi knew this, just by looking at her.
“Mao-chan.” he said, as if pleading her to stop hiding.
“I don’t want to be mad. I have no right to be. But yesterday you told me things. You opened up yourself and you got me thinking all night, I couldn’t sleep. And now it turns out that you’re back with your girlfriend—“
“We’re not back together. She wanted to, but I don’t. What you saw was in the bathroom was goodbye.” he explained, interrupting her. Mao blinked multiple times at him before responding.
“Oh. So…”
“So you’re not a spare.”
“Oh.” she mumbled, looking quite speechless.
Well this is awkward, she thought. Yamapi cracked a smile with his eyes glinting.
“You’re jealous weren’t you?” he taunted.
Mao quickly felt her face turn hot and red—the color of guilt. She covered up by scoffing.
“I’m not the jealous type. Just so you know.” she lied. The way she said it was so endearing to Yamapi he had to pinch her nose.
“You never stop being cute don’t you?” he said, while she cringed and complained.
“Ow!” she cried, pushing his hand aside.
He hooked his arm around her neck and they began walking back.
“Let’s go back before Matsujun yells at us for ditching him.” Yamapi said, almost squeezing Mao’s head, while Mao struggled under his arm.
“You have a heavy arm!” she whined, squirming under him.
“Because of all my muscles.” he bragged.
Mao rolled her eyes and smile.
“Kyaaa.” she faked the fangirl expression.
They returned to the party but broke free from each other before going in so as not to cause a sensation and speculation. They both don’t know what they are or what their relationship really is. What they do know is that they’re both waiting for the right time.
--END OF FIFTH CHAPTER--
