Deeper Meaning (Part 3)
Shige comes home early from Osaka. He decides he wants to spend New Years with his friends (mostly Ryo, but no one needs to know that). He drops into the bookstore on the morning of New Years eve, and finds a teenage girl behind the counter instead of Ryo.
“Excuse me,” he asks her, “Is Nishikido-kun here?”
“Yeah he’s on break. He’s probably around back behind the building,” she tells him.
Shige follows the girl’s directions down a side alley to the rear entrance of the store. Ryo’s there, just like she said, leaning bonelessly against a wall, cigarette dangling between his lips. Odd, Shige didn’t know Ryo smoked. Still, he thinks it suits the guy somehow. Makes him look cooler or more mature or something Shige can’t quite put his finger on.
“Hey,” Shige calls, getting Ryo’s attention from where it was fixed on a piece of graffiti on the wall.
Ryo looks more than surprised to see him there. He drops the cigarette immediately, stomping it out with fervor, as if the glowing butt were a spider or an ant.
“I thought you were supposed to be home with the family?” Ryo asks, and his voice sounds even huskier than usual from the smoke.
“I came back early,” Shige shrugs, “Though I might spend New Years with my friends.”
“You have friends?”
“Shut up!”
They lean against the wall together, talking, Shige telling Ryo about Christmas in Osaka, Ryo thanking him again for the book.
“Hey I didn’t know you smoked,” Shige says casually.
“Oh yeah,” Ryo looks uncomfortable, “Only sometimes.”
“Oh.”
They lapse into a pleasant silence until the girl from the front desk pops her head out the door to tell Ryo to get back to work.
“Oh, and Shige,” Ryo says as he brushes some dirt off his jeans, “You’re welcome to spend New Years with me and my roommates….I mean if you want to that is.”
Ryo suddenly looks like a shy little kid, eyes fixed firmly on his shoes and maybe even a slight blush on his cheeks, though it could have been the cold.
“Sure,” Shige says, “I’d like that.”
Ryo seems to gather himself together and when he looks up, he fixes Shige with a smirk.
“Of course you would. It’s not like you have any other friends.”
Shige very maturely sticks out his tongue.
When Shige shows up at 10:00pm at the address Ryo had texted him, it’s with Koyama in tow. For one, he wants to show Ryo that, yes, he does have other friends. For another, he’s inexplicably nervous to meet Ryo’s roommates. It’s silly, Shige tells himself. It’s not like meeting Aya’s parents the summer before. He’s just going to hang out with his friend and his friend’s friends. For some reason his mind won’t listen to logic.
When he tries to explain it to Koyama, however, his roommate is thoroughly unhelpful.
“Maybe you have a crush on him,” Koyama says through a mouthful of chips.
Shige hits Koyama over the head, because that’s just stupid.
Shige knocks loudly on the door of Ryo’s apartment, and a few second later it’s opened by a tall guy with wide eyes and a relaxed smile.
“Hey, you must be Ryo’s friend. Come on in,” He says, stepping aside and letting them enter the genkan, “I’m Yamashita Tomohisa. I’m Ryo’s roommate.”
Shige and Koyama go through the formalities while they take off their shoes. Just as their sliding on house slippers, another person comes literally running in to the genkan, arms flailing wildly in the air. The person tackles Yamashita to the ground, and Shige can hear a distinct sound of pain from the pile of limbs now spread on the floor.
“Pi,” the second person whines, “I wanted to open the door for him. Why do you get to do all the fun stuff?”
Yamashita pushes the other body off of himself and gets to his feet, extending a hand to the other man.
“Sorry you guys,” Yamashita says to Koyama and Shige (they’re both a combination of shell-shocked and scared), “This is Akanishi Jin. Ryo’s other roommate. You’ll have to forgive him. He’s already drunk.”
“No I’m not,” Akanishi yells, hands on hips and definitely wobbling a bit, “I’m totally fine.”
“You just running tackled me!” Yamashita exclaims.
“Because I wanted to answer the door.”
“Then maybe you should have come when they knocked Bakanishi.”
“Well maybe you should…”
“Will you two shut up,” a voice Shige recognizes as Ryo’s yells from another part of the apartment, “You’re going to the scare the living daylight out of him.”
Shige hears footsteps stomping across the floor and finally Ryo appears in the hallway next to the genkan. Shige thinks he’s probably never been happier to see Ryo in his life, especially if it means getting away from Yamashita and Akanishi whose argument seems to have devolved into an intense janken tournament.
“Come on into the living room,” Ryo says, nodding down the hallways, “Just leave them. They’re probably both already drunk.”
Shige follows Ryo further into the apartment, pulling Koyama behind him who had somehow been roped into being Yamashita and Akanishi’s scorekeeper. Once Ryo, Shige, and Koyama are settled comfortably on the living room sofa, Shige makes the necessary introductions.
“So you really do have other friends,” Ryo remarks.
Shige tries to fake a glare, but laughs instead.
It’s certainly an interesting night. Yamashita and Akanishi are both loud and rambunctious, pushing beers into everyone’s hands and trying to engage Koyama in a drinking contest, which he wisely declines. As the evening wears on, they start to edge closer and closer to THAT point, and eventually they both pass out on the floor around 11:30pm.
“What losers,” Ryo snorts, “Didn’t even make it to midnight.”
“Is it okay to just leave them there?” Koyama asks, and Shige clearly detects the part of his roommate’s personality that everyone calls Koyamama starting to emerge.
“Probably,” is all the reply Ryo gives, but Koyama keeps shooting them nervous glances until Ryo sighs and tells Koyama he can try and corral them into their room if he wants.
Watching Koyama try and convince a drunk and half-asleep Akanishi and Yamashita that they really need to go to bed now is pretty damn hilarious, even to Shige. He actually manages to get them down the hall and into the first room on the left (which Ryo says is theirs). Then Ryo and Shige hear a loud laugh from Yamashita and Koyama screaming, “I MEANT PUT YOUR PAJAMAS ON, NOT STRIP, AKANISHI!”
That has Ryo rolling on the sofa, and when he regains control of himself, Shige can’t help but notice that they’re much closer together than just a second ago. There’s a long pregnant pause where Shige tries to focus on the TV but keeps getting distracted by Ryo’s body heat.
“We’re pretty pathetic, huh?” Ryo asks, randomly.
“What?” Shige responds because Ryo’s words startle him and because he’s only just noticed how close their faces are.
“I mean, the five of us,” Ryo says, eyes locked with Shige’s, “We’re sitting here together on New Years alone rather than being with important people. You even have a girlfriend, man.”
Shige tries to come up with an intelligible answer. He blames the alcohol when he can’t. He blames the way Ryo’s breath falls on his cheek and the way his stare never falters. At that moment, Koyama comes back into the room, looking rumpled and vaguely horrified. Shige can’t tell if he’s relieved or disappointed.
“I told you it was best to leave them.”
Shige looks to the left and Ryo has somehow moved all the way to the other side of the couch. Koyama says nothing; just continues to look appalled as he sits down between the two of them, takes Shige’s beer, and downs the rest in one gulp. On the TV, the countdown starts. The three of them yell out the numbers together enthusiastically, and as a big 0 flashes on the TV, Shige feels Ryo’s gaze on the side of his face. He doesn’t turn to meet it.
In the car on the way home (Ryo had told them goodbye and that they could come again whenever, though Koyama looked absolutely horrified at the idea) Koyama keeps looking knowingly at Shige from the passenger seat.
“What?” Shige asks.
“I definitely think you have a crush on him.”
If Shige weren’t driving, he would hit Koyama again, because it’s still stupid. Totally and completely stupid.
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