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) or Mao. I am not whatsoever affiliated with JE either. It’s fiction. Look it up in the dictionary.
Chapters: ?
CHAPTER 6It was a party that got everyone washed out and hammered. Yamapi was supposed to bring Mao home but he had to give Tego a ride home too because he was as drunk as a fish. He didn’t want to put Tego and Mao together in one car otherwise Tego would harass Mao. Mao rode with Shun and the others on the way back, and as eventful as the night turned out to be, she was glad she came. She was able to see her beloved ex-co-stars once more and catch things up with them.
The next couple of days happened and went by so swiftly, as if they were on fast-forward mode. Yamapi and Mao’s sessions continued, and one time, they went to school together using Mao’s car (while Mao drove) so that Yamapi could coach her with directions. This was when they had their first argument. They bickered over which was the better shortcut, debating and arguing like kids until it got to Mao hitting him on the arm multiple times, Yamapi constantly grabbing the wheel, and at one point, using of yakuza language. In the end, Yamapi apologized at least 40 times. Exams were getting nearer and so was their drama. Yamapi felt more pressured everyday. But stressed though as he was, Mao was his silver lining, who never failed to make him happy and in love with each passing day. The same goes with Mao. She lives alone and felt a tad bit lonely and incomplete but when Yamapi came, she felt like she gained a new family and best friend at the same time.
It’s another day, and they were in school sitting at a table in some study lounge studying together, this time, with Koyama. Koyama observed Yamapi’s sudden shift of behavior. He’s never seen him act so differently before. He watched Yamapi trying to steal another picture of Mao with his phone while she was reading. But then she snatched it from him and held it with both her hands. Yamapi reached for it but she wouldn’t give it back. They looked like kindergarteners fighting over a toy.
“Give it.” he said, holding both her wrists.
Mao resisted, not even looking up from her book.
“Sexual harassment. Sexual harass—“ she told him but Yamapi was too strong for her and grabbed his phone back.
Koyama shook his head, knowing too well what was going on between them.
At that moment, a tall, foreign-looking guy (who resembled a bit like Shirota Yuu) passed by their table and waved at Mao.
“Mao-chan.” he said, in a low, manly voice.
Yamapi turned to Mao, who looked pleasantly surprised.
“Koichi-san.” she chirped.
“I’ll see you later.” he said.
“Right.” she replied, before he went.
She kept her smile on even until he went, while Yamapi looked at her as if she had slapped him in the face. Koyama on the other hand, watched the guy walk away in awe, then turned to Mao and Yamapi.
“Kakkoi!” Koyama exclaimed like a fangirl.
This time, Yamapi looked like he was about to punch his friend.
“Who was that?” Koyama asked curiously.
“Koichi-san? He’s a transfer student from England. He’s mixed race. His mom’s half-Japanese and half-Chinese. He’s so good at speaking Chinese I don’t know why he has to take it up.” Mao replied.
“You seem to know a lot about him.” Yamapi said, interested to know how they know each other.
“He sits beside me in class.”
“And what was that ‘I’ll see you later’ part about?”
“Oh, since he’s new he has to make up for the things he missed, which is a lot, so I have to help him.”
“Why does it have to be you?”
“Because it’s the polite thing to do, since I’m his first friend here.”
“So you’re seeing him later?”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t there another guy you have to teach, sensei? Like me?”
“We an study at my house tonight. After I help Koichi-san. You can wait for me in my house, I’ll give you the key.”
“Why do I have to wait? I’m your first student, you should prioritize me.” Yamapi debated.
Mao handed him the keys, then patted his head.
“Don’t worry, you’re still the teacher’s pet.” she said playfully.
She gathered her things and then stood up.
“Ja ne.” she chirruped.
She was about to leave but then Yamapi held her back by the hand.
“Nanni?” she asked.
“Where are you going?”
“Class. I still have one more class.”
“Oh.”
She turned t leave but he didn’t let go of her hand.
“Nanni?” she asked again.
“Where will you and he be studying?”
“At a café nearby maybe.”
“Will you be home by dinnertime?”
“I don’t know. Probably.”
“I’ll cook dinner. SO be early.”
“Eh? All the food in my house is instant.”
“Just don’t take long.”
Mao nodded hurriedly and attempted to go but he still held her by the wrist.
“Tomohisa, I’m late!” she said urgently.
“Call me after your class.”
“Okay.” she said absent-mindedly, trying to break free and run.
“Please?” he asked, a trace of plea in his voice.
“I’ll call you.” she said reassuringly.
At that, he let go and she sprinted away after waving goodbye to Koyama.
Yamapi rested his chin on his palm and looked as if he lost in a match.
“That sucks, huh.” Koyama said sympathetically.
“Shut up.” Yamapi said miserably.
All throughout the afternoon, Yamapi didn’t think about anything except of the probability of Mao being swept away by the handsome, multi-lingual transfer student, who looked like he was better than anyone in sports. I bet I can beat him in surfing, though, Yamapi thought. When the day was about to end, Yamapi headed to Mao’s place. He browsed through her kitchen cupboards and drawer.
“Wow, everything really is instant.” he said, after seeing all the instant cups of noodles and soup.
“That’s why she’s so thin, ne Hug-chan?” he smiled at the dog, which was happily wagging its tail at him.
His phone rang loudly and he fumbled over himself to answer it, knowing that it was her calling.
“Pi-chan, my class is done.” she said immediately, sounding chipper.
“Where are you going now?”
“I’m with Koichi-san right now. We’re on our way out of school.”
“Did you hear that Hug-chan? She left us for another guy. What do you say to her?” Yamapi told the dog and held his phone in front of Hug-chan as it barked.
“See? He’s pretty mad at you.” Yamapi pointed out.
Mao laughed on the other line.
“I’ll just give him a kiss when I get home, and he’ll forgive me.” she said.
“Well I won’t forgive you even if you kiss me.”
“You can stay made at me then.”
“Don’t be late.”
“Why? Yesterday you were late.”
“That was different. I had a photoshoot. You have to come home early or else I’ll look through your underwear drawer.”
“Haaahh?! Majide! You really are hard to deal with!” she said, half-laughing.
“Hurry up or I’ll lock you out of your own house. Okay? Konkon!”
“Bye bye.”
They hung up, both laughing while doing so.
“Was that your boyfriend?” Koichi asked as they got in his BMW.
“Yamapi? No. He’s my student. And my co-star.”
“Student?”
“I’m helping him the way I’m helping you now. He’s been very buys being famous and all and missed a lot of classes.”
“You call him Pi-chan?” he asked, rather amused.
Mao laughed quietly, smiling to herself.
“Yeah, he prefers I call him that, the weirdo.”
They did their studying in a café nearby. They did a lot of talking and Mao found out he was basically into all kinds of sport there is., that he’s a fan of L’arc~en~ciel and SMAP, and that he’s been to all the places that she visited in the U.S. She also realized that he had the same brownish grey eyes as Eiji Wentz. He was quite skilled in Chinese, so he didn’t need much reviewing in that area. Out of the blue they found themselves conversing in Chinese, the way she and Abe used to do during HYD days.
“Ni ming bai ma?” she asked, after telling him the whole scope of what he missed.
“Wo ming bai le.”
“Sugoi. Now what’s that in English?” Mao said, still not over the fact that he speaks well.
“I understand.” he said with a thick British accent.
Mao looked thoroughly impressed, her eyes widened and looked like saucers.
“Kakkoi!” she gushed, which made him laugh.
“Ni zhen de ke ai.” he said, as if entertained.
Mao smiled humbly.
“Of course.” she said in Engrish and laughter followed.
She was having so much fu with using different languages she didn’t realize the time. Yamapi was waiting for her impatiently. Just as he had feared, she was running late. He did all kinds of things to keep himself preoccupied—clean the house, give Hug-chan a bath, paint his toenails using her nail polish and then erasing it afterwards, do 80 push-ups and so on.
“I shouldn’t call her, right Hug-chan? If she’s going to be late, which I told her not to be, she should call.” he told the innocent dog.
“Yosh. I’ll just start on my own.” he decided, picking up one of his books and flipped through its pages idly. He sat on the couch, flipping the pages leaf by leaf, but his gaze was fixed on the door and it stayed there.
“Thank you for the ride.” Mao said hurriedly, before getting off from Koichi’s car and closing the door.
“Thank you for your time. I’ll see you then.” Koichi said through the window and Mao waved while rushing into the building.
Yamapi is almost tearing his own books by the way he’s turning the pages. His eyes were still fixed on the door, and he wasn’t even blinking. When he heard running footsteps from outside, he laid down on the couch ad pretended to be so into reading the book. The door swung open without delay.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.” Mao panted as soon as she got in.
Yamapi didn’t budge. Hug-chan ran to her and as promised, she gave him a kiss. Now her only problem is the other one, who seemed as if he didn’t hear a thing. She came up to him, knelt on the floor, and nudged his arm.
“Pi-chan. Pi-chan I’m home.” she twittered, thinking that calling him that would help. But apparently it didn’t. She shook his arm and sighed.
“I’m sorry okay? I didn’t realize the time because we were so into talking Chinese. I was going to call you and tell you I’m late but I figured you’d be mad anyway.” she explained, sounding like she really felt bad about it. And she really did.
Yamapi was reading the same line over and over again since she came in. Mao looked around and noticed how clean her place is.
“You cleaned the place…” she said under her breath.
Yes, he did, among many other things.
She snatched the book from him viciously.
“I’ll do anything. I’ll accept your punishment.” she said determinedly.
Yamapi had no facial expression whatsoever while he sat up and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Sing and dance Seishun Amigo.” he said flatly.
“Haaahh?! Are you serious?”
He looked dead serious.
Mao made an exasperated face.
“This sucks.” she said to herself, as she stood up.
“Yosh. If you laugh, even the slightest bit, I will hurt you. Here goes.” she said nervously.
She breathed deeply, then, to Yamapi’s delight, she sang and even did the dance to the chorus of his own song. Her voice was high-pitched, and he wasn’t used to hearing his song being sung in such a pitch. But the way she danced was just too adorable and cute for him to resist. He felt like grabbing her and eating her up, all anger forgotten. Who was he kidding; he couldn’t stay mad at her even for 10 minutes. When she finished the chorus, she just stood there, waiting for his ‘I forgive you’ but after a good 5 seconds, Yamapi burst into laughter, crouching down and stomping his feet. Mao frowned and hit him hard on the arm, her favorite spot.
“Itai! Nanni? I forgive you already!” he said, still laughing.
She attempted to turn him into a punching bag but he grasped both her arms and stood up.
“Okay, okay, I’ll stop.” he said happily.
She gave him one last punch on the chest, which was hard as a rock.
“You really are horrible.” she whined.
“See, that’s what you get for forgetting me.” he remarked, sitting back down. She sat down beside him as well, tired from all the dancing and hitting.
“My back ached from all the cleaning I’ve done. Massage me?” he said in a pained expression.
“Fine. Turn around.”
And he did as he was told and started giving him a back rub. Yamapi never had a massage this good.
“I didn’t forget you. I just didn’t look at the time.”
“And why didn’t you?”
“Well, instead of me teaching him, it was him who taught me new Chinese and English words. It was so cool. He has this cool British accent.”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
Mao smiled coyly and taunted him.
“Nanni, nanni? Are you jealous?” she said in sing-song, expecting hi to get all defensive and agitated.
“Yes. Crazy jealous. What you should know about me is that I easily get jealous. Just as you easily get sick.” he said straightforwardly, looking over his shoulder.
“Well you shouldn’t be.”
“But I am. You had too much fu with him. You like hi don’t you? Let’s be honest here. I was honest about my feelings, now it’s your turn.”
Mao was fed up with his childish whining; she pressed her knuckles hard on his back, her face distorting as she did so.
“Aaahh! Itai!” Yamapi cried, flinching.
Mao stood up with an annoyed expression and Yamapi look at her with the same expression. She turned her back to him and folded her arms over her chest.
“You just don’t get it do you?” she asked.
“Get what?”
She inhaled and exhaled and braced herself before answering.
“The person I like is you. Ba~ka.”
There. She had finally said it.
Yamapi’s lips curled into a big smile. If only he could stand on the couch and do a victory dance he would, but as a man, he had to hide his giddiness, otherwise, he would drive Mao away. He tried not to come off as pathetic and desperate with his response.
He cleared his throat, making sure there was no trace of giddiness in his voice.
“So, you want to be my girlfriend or what?”
Real smooth, Pi. Really smooth.
Mao turned to him, obviously caught off guard.
“Aren’t you the one who said that you’re cursed and we can only be friends?”
Good point, he thought. But in his mind, different movies and stories and songs about love played, and none of them mentioned about love being conquered by some curse. None of them were about holding back and hiding. A foreign movie he once watched had a line that said, “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
Will he marry her now? Of course not. Was he that in love? Maybe. What he knows for sure is that he wanted to take the opportunity and the risk. Strike the iron while it’s hot. You get the gist. If, in case, the curse really is true, he will not let her go at any cost. He let go of everyone else in the past, but this time, he will beat the odds. He went back to reality and got back to her last statement.
“I think you’ll break the curse.”
“How are you so sure?”
He looked at her for a fleeting moment, a moment that lasted for a few nanoseconds but in those nanoseconds he made a great decision. He walked towards her, held her face and kissed her. It was a kiss that seemed to last forever but at the same time the kind that was so momentary. It felt to him as if it was his first kiss—magical, inexplicable really, and tingly. Coincidentally, she felt the same. When they broke free from it, they looked at each other as if they were dazed and hypnotized. At that, he knew he was sure.
“I’m sure.” he simply said.
--END OF SIXTH CHAPTER--
