Burikaesu (Chapter 2)
I didn’t go through too much schooling but I knew what “fight or flight” meant. The first thing that went through my mind was to get some place safe and then worry about my foot. When Sakurai lunged at me, I miraculously dodged and made my way out of the room. This was one of the times that I was thankful for being small. I ran to the bathroom which I securely locked after slamming the door closed. Thank goodness for a parent who liked Western things. I slowed my breathing, even though it was hard to control, and listened for footsteps.
‘Stupid…he’s going to find you,’ I thought. My thinking of locking myself in a private place could only get worse from here. It was small and had a window, which only meant to me, another place he could get in if the door doesn’t open for him and really no place for me to hide. I didn’t hear anything and my heart started to slow down, as did my breathing. I sat up on the toilet seat and propped my slightly injured foot on my knee so I could get a better glance at the cut. It was a tiny dot but it was still bleeding, and dirty, probably from the running I did when I got startled. I filled my hand with toilet paper then wet it with some water from the sink and started to clean it. I then looked up to see 2 golden eyes full of lust, stare at me from the height of where my foot was. Sakurai had found a way in and I was going to die. He grabbed my foot with his hands and the next thing I knew I had fainted.
~~~~~
“Hey! You alright?!”
I knew that my body was shaking but I didn’t feel like opening my eyes; however I couldn’t keep them shut.
“Ah~ Thank goodness!” Sakurai was right above me, he was the one doing the shaking. I backed away and then hit my head on the shelf above my bed while panicking. Sakurai started to laugh, I couldn’t tell if he was laughing because I was miserable or if it was because I just hit my head on something I should have avoided.
“I shouldn’t be laughing,” he smiled. “But, is your head okay? Do you have a headache?”
My hand shot up to where I had hit my head. It felt as if my ears were ringing and I couldn’t see straight so I closed them for a second. When I had opened my eyes again and got some of my senses straight, I stared right at him. He didn’t have fangs and he didn’t have golden eyes…what the hell was I thinking? Could it just have been a bad dream? Maybe…but what about my foot?
I scrambled to sit with my foot on my knee to see if there had been a cut from the tack and there was nothing. Not even a scar from healing. Maybe it had been a bad dream after all and I was just going through the paranoid after effects.
“I’m sorry! I threw a pillow at you pretty hard. It hit you in the head and then you slammed it into the shelf where you were sitting.” His tone was serious now, not the laughing funny guy he had been earlier.
“Damn…well…it hurt,” was all I managed to say. I don’t remember it happening but I might as well shrug it off and go with it.
“You were only out for a few seconds. I started to panic because I didn’t know what to do. Thank goodness you’re alright!” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Should we sleep?”
‘Sleep? I just got hit on the head…I don’t know if I want to sleep. What if I died in my sleep?’
“Why do you look so confused? You won’t die from being hit on the head a couple of times,” he laughed.
“How would you know? Wasn’t there that actress in America who died because of a ski accident where she hit her head?” I threw back at him, looking at my hand every now and then, making sure I wasn’t bleeding. I’d really need to go to a doctor then.
“You are just over-reacting, Nino,” he said.
“Don’t call me Nino,” I mumbled angrily.
Only Oh-chan had the right to call me nicknames. Well, my mom did too, but she only call me ‘Kazunari.’ I certainly didn’t trust this guy even though Ohno did and while I did feel terrible about that little fact…I didn’t care. I should just tell him to leave, however if I did, where would that put my friendship with Ohno? I don’t have many friends to begin with and if we fought (which has never happened so far) that would probably be one less person to care for.
“Excuse me. If you want, I can stay up and watch over you to make sure nothing happens,” he said.
This guy was starting to piss me off. How is it that he can go from complete moron to serious in the matter of seconds? It certainly made me want to kick him out.
“You’d do that? What about you? Don’t you need sleep?” I just had to ask. I did have something to do tomorrow and I absolutely needed sleep for it. I checked the clock and it was now 2 in the morning.
“I did say that I didn’t have to sleep at the moment.”
I slowly lowered myself into the covers of my disheveled bed, taking his offer. He turned to sit with his back to the bed frame. I did feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness and then within a few minutes I was out and in dream land.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up early the next day for filming and found Sakurai curled up in the futon sound asleep. I didn’t bother to even touch him. I did silently thank him though just before I left the room for staying up and watching over me and shut the door quietly.
I ate a quick breakfast which consisted of an onigiri and water while walking towards my manager’s car around the street corner and got in.
“You look sleep deprived,” my manager said as I got in and sighed. I stared at him wide-eyed as if I didn’t hear what he said even though I did.
“I had a rough night.”
“Okay, well you better get ready. You have a busy day today. You’ve got filming today until noon and then an interview with Popolo and then another interview with a TV Guide…”
I didn’t hear the end of what he had to say. I was too busy thinking about the dream I had last night. The, I guess you could call it, ‘chance encounter’ with Sakurai the dream…vampire. Golden eyes, sharpened teeth, incredible speed…there was no way he could be anything else. Maybe I’ve had too many days off and played video games too much.
“Could you do me a favor?” I asked suddenly, cutting my manager off. “I only work 2 days this week. Could you tell the drama staff that if I don’t finish my scenes in the next 2 days, I’ll come another 2 times in the week? I’ve had too many days off recently.”
Now, I hated working, even though I liked the work itself. However, work is work, and I couldn’t afford not working with how much I spend, which really resulted to nothing but I was saving up for something big. Some days it just took too much of the time that I could be spending watching a movie or playing video games with Ohno. I would only really ask for more days if I knew I could get away from something.
“You have a full schedule this week, Ninomiya. I can’t do anything about it.”
I must have frowned a little bit because the manager looked at me with a cocked head. With that, I just stared out the window of the car. The same ‘dream incident’ replaying in my head all the way to the studio.
~~~~~~~~~~
I couldn’t focus on work. It was hard enough staying awake with the lack of sleep and the incident constantly repeating itself over and over. And then, when I was filming, I looked over at the crowd that was forming, watching my performance, and noticed Sakurai standing there. He was as bright as a beacon through the crowd. His perfect hair, perfect eyes…there was something seriously off about this guy and it made me feel like a wimp. I wasn’t going to lose to this pretty boy. I gathered myself together and tried to perform to the best of my ability, while being followed everywhere by the eyes of fans, managers, other talents and the news caster.
~~~~~~~~~
The interviews didn’t go any better. They were back to back. I knew he would be waiting outside in the hall with the rest of the staff. He wasn’t going to leave me so freely; he was going to wait until I was finished with my work for the day. We sat in a small room, just me and the interviewer. The questions were the same as always for the first interview. Are there any love interests? What can we expect in the next few years from you? Who would you marry in your talent agency? Questions that would make any fan girl flail over. But quite frankly, it was becoming annoying. Sure I do pay attention and I do give honest answers but after doing it for so many years…the questions repeat themselves. Most of the questions I either ignored by saying ‘it’s a secret~ <3’ or by just completely ignoring the question all together and being a smart ass. The second interview made some progress but it was still boring. Luckily, the TV Guide interview just had several questions about the drama that I was filming and what fans can expect from the final project. Filming was still happening but the first episode was going to be aired soon. The interviews ended and it was time to go on to filming for the movie I was going to star in. Tired already and it wasn’t even 4 p.m. The filming hadn’t even begun yet. I was just aware that I had received a role from the casting director and filming was to begin tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Ninomiya-san?”
Staring out the window, I kept thinking. How was I possibly going to deal with Sakurai? I could ask him. Vampires were fictional and there was no way that one could possibly live. They’d burn up and die in the sun light, and it sure was sunny today. There had been no accidental deaths reported in the news, or any missing person’s reports for that matter. Every continent, except for probably Antarctica perhaps, had some kind of vampirical legend. If video games taught me anything it’s that whatever lives can be killed, but I certainly wasn’t going to go around staking people upon suspicion of being a vampire. It would be foolish and too crazy. Not to mention I’d lose my job, my fans, everything…
“Ninomiya-san!”
I snapped to reality when I heard my name. “Oh, sorry…what is it?”
“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off. I can contact-“
“What? No! I’m fine, really.” I nervously laughed. “Let’s go film!” I shouted in my best English.
~~~~~~~
Filming went by pretty quickly but I once again noticed Sakurai standing in the staff section, watching me. It really made me unnerved as he just kept staring as if he was looking directly into your soul. I did happen to notice that he was wearing street clothes and was surprised to see that he wasn’t getting a crowd surrounding him and girls asking to marry him because of his high status and good looks. If I was a girl, I’d probably be all over him.
‘You’re working, damn it!’
~~~~~~~~
Filming had finished about 11 p.m. and I was ready to collapse. Karma had it out for me. I learned that I was playing the part of a vampire who falls in love with a girl that he’s fallen for over many centauries over. He continues to find her soul throughout time and consistently falls in love with her. I couldn’t take how the vampire theme kept popping up so suddenly.
Sakurai was still waiting around, although he did separate himself from the rest of the staff and leaned up against a wall that was near the door. Studio filming was quite possibly the easiest thing for me.
I walked past Sakurai after we had finished for the night and told him to ‘meet me outside after I’m done.’
My manager followed me to the dressing room where I started to undress and get ready to leave.
“Ninomiya-san, that was a great performance! You must be exhausted by now. I’ll go get the car ready to leave.”
“Don’t bother. My friend’s friend is here. I’m just going to walk home with him. He’s been waiting all day for me to finish. Thank you, though.” I said and dismissed him to go home. Not like I had any power over him; I simply told him to go home and spend time with his family.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I noticed Sakurai waiting outside, leaning against the building. I was still throwing my jacket on when I walked out in a fury. February in Tokyo was pretty cold. The city was cold to being with, but with all the buildings there was a wind that passed through and made it even colder. I stormed out because I was angry that he showed up at filming without telling me and then waited for the entire day.
“What do you think you’re doing waiting for me?” I talked angrily at him while picking up my pace. I was fuming mad. I even wondered if there was a worse word.
“Well, I figured that you wouldn’t mind. There was nothing to do at your home and your parents were preparing for the restaurant and I thought that I’d be in their way. So I left,” he said, trying to keep up with my pace.
“You should have just stayed in my room and played video games! You wouldn’t have been in the way then!”
I stopped walking and turned to face him. I couldn’t take it anymore. I took my hands and shoved them to his mouth, pulling back his lips to see his teeth. They looked like ordinary teeth, but they looked like something a chipmunk would have, they were so big. Then I got really close to his eyes and inspected them. They remained the light, doe color brown they were when I met him.
“What the hell was that?” he said looking at me funny with a puzzled face and his hands rubbing his cheeks.
I was slightly embarrassed at what I had done but I wasn’t going to apologize. I continued to walk the same way I had been going.
~~~~~~~~~
OOC: Confused yet? :D What'd you think?
Chapter 3
‘Stupid…he’s going to find you,’ I thought. My thinking of locking myself in a private place could only get worse from here. It was small and had a window, which only meant to me, another place he could get in if the door doesn’t open for him and really no place for me to hide. I didn’t hear anything and my heart started to slow down, as did my breathing. I sat up on the toilet seat and propped my slightly injured foot on my knee so I could get a better glance at the cut. It was a tiny dot but it was still bleeding, and dirty, probably from the running I did when I got startled. I filled my hand with toilet paper then wet it with some water from the sink and started to clean it. I then looked up to see 2 golden eyes full of lust, stare at me from the height of where my foot was. Sakurai had found a way in and I was going to die. He grabbed my foot with his hands and the next thing I knew I had fainted.
~~~~~
“Hey! You alright?!”
I knew that my body was shaking but I didn’t feel like opening my eyes; however I couldn’t keep them shut.
“Ah~ Thank goodness!” Sakurai was right above me, he was the one doing the shaking. I backed away and then hit my head on the shelf above my bed while panicking. Sakurai started to laugh, I couldn’t tell if he was laughing because I was miserable or if it was because I just hit my head on something I should have avoided.
“I shouldn’t be laughing,” he smiled. “But, is your head okay? Do you have a headache?”
My hand shot up to where I had hit my head. It felt as if my ears were ringing and I couldn’t see straight so I closed them for a second. When I had opened my eyes again and got some of my senses straight, I stared right at him. He didn’t have fangs and he didn’t have golden eyes…what the hell was I thinking? Could it just have been a bad dream? Maybe…but what about my foot?
I scrambled to sit with my foot on my knee to see if there had been a cut from the tack and there was nothing. Not even a scar from healing. Maybe it had been a bad dream after all and I was just going through the paranoid after effects.
“I’m sorry! I threw a pillow at you pretty hard. It hit you in the head and then you slammed it into the shelf where you were sitting.” His tone was serious now, not the laughing funny guy he had been earlier.
“Damn…well…it hurt,” was all I managed to say. I don’t remember it happening but I might as well shrug it off and go with it.
“You were only out for a few seconds. I started to panic because I didn’t know what to do. Thank goodness you’re alright!” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Should we sleep?”
‘Sleep? I just got hit on the head…I don’t know if I want to sleep. What if I died in my sleep?’
“Why do you look so confused? You won’t die from being hit on the head a couple of times,” he laughed.
“How would you know? Wasn’t there that actress in America who died because of a ski accident where she hit her head?” I threw back at him, looking at my hand every now and then, making sure I wasn’t bleeding. I’d really need to go to a doctor then.
“You are just over-reacting, Nino,” he said.
“Don’t call me Nino,” I mumbled angrily.
Only Oh-chan had the right to call me nicknames. Well, my mom did too, but she only call me ‘Kazunari.’ I certainly didn’t trust this guy even though Ohno did and while I did feel terrible about that little fact…I didn’t care. I should just tell him to leave, however if I did, where would that put my friendship with Ohno? I don’t have many friends to begin with and if we fought (which has never happened so far) that would probably be one less person to care for.
“Excuse me. If you want, I can stay up and watch over you to make sure nothing happens,” he said.
This guy was starting to piss me off. How is it that he can go from complete moron to serious in the matter of seconds? It certainly made me want to kick him out.
“You’d do that? What about you? Don’t you need sleep?” I just had to ask. I did have something to do tomorrow and I absolutely needed sleep for it. I checked the clock and it was now 2 in the morning.
“I did say that I didn’t have to sleep at the moment.”
I slowly lowered myself into the covers of my disheveled bed, taking his offer. He turned to sit with his back to the bed frame. I did feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness and then within a few minutes I was out and in dream land.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up early the next day for filming and found Sakurai curled up in the futon sound asleep. I didn’t bother to even touch him. I did silently thank him though just before I left the room for staying up and watching over me and shut the door quietly.
I ate a quick breakfast which consisted of an onigiri and water while walking towards my manager’s car around the street corner and got in.
“You look sleep deprived,” my manager said as I got in and sighed. I stared at him wide-eyed as if I didn’t hear what he said even though I did.
“I had a rough night.”
“Okay, well you better get ready. You have a busy day today. You’ve got filming today until noon and then an interview with Popolo and then another interview with a TV Guide…”
I didn’t hear the end of what he had to say. I was too busy thinking about the dream I had last night. The, I guess you could call it, ‘chance encounter’ with Sakurai the dream…vampire. Golden eyes, sharpened teeth, incredible speed…there was no way he could be anything else. Maybe I’ve had too many days off and played video games too much.
“Could you do me a favor?” I asked suddenly, cutting my manager off. “I only work 2 days this week. Could you tell the drama staff that if I don’t finish my scenes in the next 2 days, I’ll come another 2 times in the week? I’ve had too many days off recently.”
Now, I hated working, even though I liked the work itself. However, work is work, and I couldn’t afford not working with how much I spend, which really resulted to nothing but I was saving up for something big. Some days it just took too much of the time that I could be spending watching a movie or playing video games with Ohno. I would only really ask for more days if I knew I could get away from something.
“You have a full schedule this week, Ninomiya. I can’t do anything about it.”
I must have frowned a little bit because the manager looked at me with a cocked head. With that, I just stared out the window of the car. The same ‘dream incident’ replaying in my head all the way to the studio.
~~~~~~~~~~
I couldn’t focus on work. It was hard enough staying awake with the lack of sleep and the incident constantly repeating itself over and over. And then, when I was filming, I looked over at the crowd that was forming, watching my performance, and noticed Sakurai standing there. He was as bright as a beacon through the crowd. His perfect hair, perfect eyes…there was something seriously off about this guy and it made me feel like a wimp. I wasn’t going to lose to this pretty boy. I gathered myself together and tried to perform to the best of my ability, while being followed everywhere by the eyes of fans, managers, other talents and the news caster.
~~~~~~~~~
The interviews didn’t go any better. They were back to back. I knew he would be waiting outside in the hall with the rest of the staff. He wasn’t going to leave me so freely; he was going to wait until I was finished with my work for the day. We sat in a small room, just me and the interviewer. The questions were the same as always for the first interview. Are there any love interests? What can we expect in the next few years from you? Who would you marry in your talent agency? Questions that would make any fan girl flail over. But quite frankly, it was becoming annoying. Sure I do pay attention and I do give honest answers but after doing it for so many years…the questions repeat themselves. Most of the questions I either ignored by saying ‘it’s a secret~ <3’ or by just completely ignoring the question all together and being a smart ass. The second interview made some progress but it was still boring. Luckily, the TV Guide interview just had several questions about the drama that I was filming and what fans can expect from the final project. Filming was still happening but the first episode was going to be aired soon. The interviews ended and it was time to go on to filming for the movie I was going to star in. Tired already and it wasn’t even 4 p.m. The filming hadn’t even begun yet. I was just aware that I had received a role from the casting director and filming was to begin tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Ninomiya-san?”
Staring out the window, I kept thinking. How was I possibly going to deal with Sakurai? I could ask him. Vampires were fictional and there was no way that one could possibly live. They’d burn up and die in the sun light, and it sure was sunny today. There had been no accidental deaths reported in the news, or any missing person’s reports for that matter. Every continent, except for probably Antarctica perhaps, had some kind of vampirical legend. If video games taught me anything it’s that whatever lives can be killed, but I certainly wasn’t going to go around staking people upon suspicion of being a vampire. It would be foolish and too crazy. Not to mention I’d lose my job, my fans, everything…
“Ninomiya-san!”
I snapped to reality when I heard my name. “Oh, sorry…what is it?”
“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off. I can contact-“
“What? No! I’m fine, really.” I nervously laughed. “Let’s go film!” I shouted in my best English.
~~~~~~~
Filming went by pretty quickly but I once again noticed Sakurai standing in the staff section, watching me. It really made me unnerved as he just kept staring as if he was looking directly into your soul. I did happen to notice that he was wearing street clothes and was surprised to see that he wasn’t getting a crowd surrounding him and girls asking to marry him because of his high status and good looks. If I was a girl, I’d probably be all over him.
‘You’re working, damn it!’
~~~~~~~~
Filming had finished about 11 p.m. and I was ready to collapse. Karma had it out for me. I learned that I was playing the part of a vampire who falls in love with a girl that he’s fallen for over many centauries over. He continues to find her soul throughout time and consistently falls in love with her. I couldn’t take how the vampire theme kept popping up so suddenly.
Sakurai was still waiting around, although he did separate himself from the rest of the staff and leaned up against a wall that was near the door. Studio filming was quite possibly the easiest thing for me.
I walked past Sakurai after we had finished for the night and told him to ‘meet me outside after I’m done.’
My manager followed me to the dressing room where I started to undress and get ready to leave.
“Ninomiya-san, that was a great performance! You must be exhausted by now. I’ll go get the car ready to leave.”
“Don’t bother. My friend’s friend is here. I’m just going to walk home with him. He’s been waiting all day for me to finish. Thank you, though.” I said and dismissed him to go home. Not like I had any power over him; I simply told him to go home and spend time with his family.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I noticed Sakurai waiting outside, leaning against the building. I was still throwing my jacket on when I walked out in a fury. February in Tokyo was pretty cold. The city was cold to being with, but with all the buildings there was a wind that passed through and made it even colder. I stormed out because I was angry that he showed up at filming without telling me and then waited for the entire day.
“What do you think you’re doing waiting for me?” I talked angrily at him while picking up my pace. I was fuming mad. I even wondered if there was a worse word.
“Well, I figured that you wouldn’t mind. There was nothing to do at your home and your parents were preparing for the restaurant and I thought that I’d be in their way. So I left,” he said, trying to keep up with my pace.
“You should have just stayed in my room and played video games! You wouldn’t have been in the way then!”
I stopped walking and turned to face him. I couldn’t take it anymore. I took my hands and shoved them to his mouth, pulling back his lips to see his teeth. They looked like ordinary teeth, but they looked like something a chipmunk would have, they were so big. Then I got really close to his eyes and inspected them. They remained the light, doe color brown they were when I met him.
“What the hell was that?” he said looking at me funny with a puzzled face and his hands rubbing his cheeks.
I was slightly embarrassed at what I had done but I wasn’t going to apologize. I continued to walk the same way I had been going.
~~~~~~~~~
OOC: Confused yet? :D What'd you think?
Chapter 3