This was supposed to be my vacation and yet my manager told me that I have to be there. She kept on harassing my group into convincing me to attend this event. A commemoration for our first album hit. That was already YEARS ago, these people should learn when enough is enough… but no. SHE – my devil horned manager whose name should not be mentioned hence I get jinxed into a bad and miserable life and career, made my friends/group pester me into saying yes. There was nowhere I could hide from her so here I am, in front of all these people, trying to please them with my smile.
I swear I would put a hex on her if she wasn’t that good of a manager; I could have already killed her a long time ago.
“Pi!” Someone called out from behind and grabbed my coat. This made me turn in surprise.
“Buffet with sushi on plate number 5. GREAT.” Masu whispered loudly as he led me towards the table. This made me grin, Masu was somewhat an eccentric person who was also a food critic and I take his comments about food seriously. If he said it was great, then it REALLY was great.
As I followed him a hand clutched my shoulders in a claw like grip making me stop on my tracks. Masu kept heading onto the buffet, leaving me to the shark.
When I braced myself to confront my manager, the face that greeted me was only Koyama and the rest of the guys, much to my relief.
“I thought you were going to abandon us.” Koyama exaggeratedly leaned on my shoulder making me shake my head in disdain. He was the overly acting person in the group.
Another voice pitched in and smacked my head. I knew it was Shige even without looking. He was the only person in the group who does that to me, not without me smacking him back. He scratched his head where my hand hit him and smirked.
“If you didn’t come I would have fetched you anyway.” He muttered slyly.
“Pi… thank goodness you’re here. The devil has been on my tail since this morning!!!” Tego looked like he was about to cry. Being the youngest in the group didn’t help him not to feel threatened by the manager.
“Where’s Ryo?” I asked looking around for the closest buddy I have in the group.
“He was here a few minutes ago. I wonder where he went.” Koyama scratched his head as he turned around to look for Ryo.
That’s when another hand grabbed my collar almost choking me to death. That’s when I confirmed it was HER.
“You are late.” She was wearing that same blood red lipstick on every event, it was my gift. It was somewhat of a bribe. I knew she liked me, but she had a very peculiar way on showing her endearment.
“I want you to meet someone.” I was now dragged away from the boys and on to the nearest business executive that was present.
My eyes blinked as I looked at the person in front of me, it was like I’ve seen her before in real life not just in magazines. My manager smiled casually at the person in front of us like they have known each other for a long time.
“This is Inoue Taiyo, President of the Global Industries.” My manager introduced me as I bowed and reached out my hand for a shake.
“So this is the famous Yamashita Tomohisa… I’ve heard a lot about you.” There was a knowing look in her eyes which told me that there was something else behind those words. Sometimes, being a practiced actor helps me look deeper into what other people meant. Only this talent of mine seemed to repel one person, the person whom I threw out of my house after feeding her.
When it looked like the president was about to say something, a man approached her and whispered something on her ear. This made the woman turn at me and my manager apologetically.
“I’m sorry, but I have some business to attend to. It was nice meeting you in the flesh Tomohisa-san. I’ll look forward on how you will progress.” She bowed gracefully then turned around to leave.
“Make sure you remember that face.” My manager told me then left me behind thinking to myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right now I had to clear my head because I was feeling let down.
I sat on a bench trying to look at the stars.
Sad enough, there were no stars in this part of town. The lights were too bright in this area and the streets were too busy with passing cars that it almost blinded me.
Slowly, I took out my phone to scroll at my contact list. I only had two people in it. Kiosuke and Mother… I had no friends. Not a boyfriend. Not even a drinking partner when I need one.
This made me realize what kind of a pathetic life I have lived for. I don’t watch TV for leisure – I only watch the current news, I don’t use the internet that much unless I need to see the stock market and currency exchange, I don’t date – except for that one time I went into a relationship with my professor in second year college, I hate to go on shopping since it makes me dizzy looking at all those clothes also not to mention my unfashionable sense of style – if it wasn’t for my mother I wouldn’t even be wearing these designer clothes, I don’t go on goukons because I believe that men who goes into goukons are spineless or dweebs who can’t get a normal date and lastly I don’t have friends because… they all tend to use me in the end.
I sighed exasperatedly at my meaningless existence.
So who exactly am I? Aside from being the daughter of a multimillionaire widow who has no life at all.
I would be that someone who loved reading books. Took researches seriously and loved to attend business meetings with my mother. Aside that… there was nothing else I was interested in. My previous boyfriend has been an interesting man until there was that need to meet my mother. If only he could have stood up to her, things might have gone well but he was the type to cower down on power figure people. He wound up marrying a sales clerk instead. While I, on the other hand ended up hiding that senseless relationship from my mother, who eventually made me date several men. But none of them was interesting as… the guy who threw me out of his house today. That is, if I had to compare them all to him right now and not before.
This also made me think, what if Yamapi knew I was the daughter of the Global Industries president, would he still take me in or throw me out? It made me want to let him choose the latter, because choosing the latter meant he doesn’t care who I was.
I sighed over my homeless act and pathetic kind of thinking. This made me sigh for the hundredth time and stare ahead blankly. The sauna was only at the other side of the street, all I had to do was cross it and I would have a place to stay for the night. Earlier this evening, I’ve been deciding between renting a cheap motel room or sleeping in the sauna when my practicality kicked in. If I rented a room that would take off more from the money I have right now instead of saving it for food. Staying in the sauna was cheaper than staying in a motel room and besides where’s the fun in that if I didn’t get to sleep in a sauna during this whole experience?
With a final decision I grabbed my duffel bag and started to cross the intersection without checking the road. As I stepped on the pavement my collar seemed to be caught onto something that it made me stagger backwards and almost made me lose my balance.
At that moment a truck swished right in front of me. It could have run me through if my collar was not pulled at that instant.
“I already told you before not to be an idiot.” Someone scolded me from behind, the voice was very familiar.
I swirled around to look at the person, when I recognized the face my eyes went wide with disbelief.
It was Yamapi.
“Were you following me all along?” I asked in astonishment.
“No.” He replied with an irritated look then continued, “You just seem to haunt me anywhere I go.” He was scowling at me but I was too distracted when I saw the stunning guys behind him. I thought I had gone blind or something has gone wrong with my eyes because they were all good-looking.
Yamapi was still clutching the collar of my shirt.
“Who’s she?” One of the guys with jet black hair cocked his head near Yamapi then stared gingerly at me as if I was a specimen for display.
This made Yamapi gaze at me then with a smirk he replied, “A homeless cat.”
“Eh!?!” All of the guys exclaimed and looked at him weirdly.
“It’s a long story.” He told them looking peeved.
“Bring her along with us, the night is pretty young. We do need a muse among ourselves.” A guy with cat-like eyes and puffy lips suggested.
Yamapi looked me over from head to foot.
“Looking like that?” He said sounding doubtful as he released his hand from my collar.
I was dressed casually, with a loose brown collared polo-shirt, khaki pants and a pair of black doll slip-ons that was comfortable enough for me to move around. If I compare my clothes to Yamapi and the rest of the guys, I was under dressed and a pitiful sight to look at.
Someone suddenly placed his arms across my shoulder; it was the guy with the reddish hair. He looked so young and yet there was something about him that told me he’s not the kind of boy he seems.
“It doesn’t matter what she wears, she’s gonna’ be with us anyway.” Youngest-looking-reddish-haired guy shrugged at Yamapi.
I stood there rigid and silent, waiting for them to just ignore me so I could go on my way, though I really wanted to thank Yamapi for saving me multiple times for two consecutive days but then the guys started bickering on bringing me along with them or not that I couldn’t help myself but ask Yamapi something that has been nagging in my head the moment they appeared in front of me.
“Ummm…” I tugged onto Yamapi’s long sleeves and asked, “…are they your friends? Are they actors too?” I meant the question for him to hear only but I ended up saying it out louder than expected.
Everyone stopped talking and stared at me.
“Is she serious?” The guy with the thinnest lips and cute button nose stared at me with a bewildered expression on his face.
“Unfortunately she is.” Yamapi shook his head, completely embarrassed.
The guy who wanted to take me along with them stared at me hard then finally, he grinned widely and stretched his arm for me to shake.
“Koyama. My name is Keichiro Koyama. It’s not every day that people doesn’t recognize us.” I shook his hand reluctantly.
“That’s Yuya, Tegoshi Yuya…” he pointed at the guy who took me under his shoulder and then grabbed the arm of the nearest guy to him, “this is Masu, Takahisa Masuda.”
Masu seemed to be the quiet one, with a strange attitude by the way he looked around seeming indifferent at things but his face was too adorable for me to find him weird. His face was round with plump cheeks that I had this sudden urge to pinch them but I couldn’t move because Yuya, the youngest looking guy’s arm was still around my shoulder. My eyes darted from the other guy who was still gawking at me and the one who stood beside Yamapi and asked who I was.
“That’s Shigeaki Kato, most of us calls him Shige since he hates his name.” Yamapi said then smacked Shige’s head before saying, “Stop staring at her like she’s an alien. It’s disgusting.”
“But she doesn’t know us!” He muttered bitterly.
“Just think of her like she’s a foreigner or something.” Yamapi said in an annoyed tone.
“She doesn’t look like a foreigner to me.” The guy who stood beside Yamapi muttered loudly.
“Ryo, Nishikido Ryo.” He nodded at me from where he stood.
“We’re the group called NEWS. How did you get to know Yamapi?” Ryo asked.
“I…” I started to say but then Yamapi interjected.
“It’s time to go boys. I’ll just drop off this stray cat home then I’ll follow you to that bar.” He announced, quickly stirring me away from them. Koyama and Yuya suddenly complained about bringing me along instead. When I tried to turn my head to look at them one last time while Yamapi clutched my shoulders, I caught Ryo’s stare. His eyes bored into mine indefinitely that I quickly looked away embarrassed and let Yamapi push me off.
------------------To be continued------------------
Notes from the Author:
Have I mentioned I like Masu? He’ll have more appearances in this fic. I really like the picture of him in the correlation chart, he’s soOo… cute! Haha… Bringing NEWS together wasn’t a bad idea either. I didn’t think of them before I made chapter 2. Who would Yamapi be without NEWS right? Also, please forgive the personality descriptions for each person. I really have no idea of their real characters and attitudes since I’m not that familiar with them. *off to next chapter*
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