Rush Hour 15 1/2
Title: Rush Hour 15 1/2
Characters: Koyama, Jin - appearances by Taichi and Nagase
Rating: PG
Words: 2,635
Warnings: Surprise boykiss? AU
Summary: Jin thinks he's Jackie Chan. Koyama thinks he's crazy.
Notes: *Repost* For elizajet for jerainbowbridge 2010. Originally posted here. Thanks to my betas for their help. Cut text a quote from Rush Hour.
***
Another late day at the office. Jin sighed and stood, stretching tight muscles and shaking his body like a dog. All he wanted right now was to go home, take a nice, hot bath, and settle down in front of the tv with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. He was debating with himself over whether it would be Chunky Monkey or Dublin Mudslide tonight when he stopped outside his boss's door to tell him he was going home. When he went to poke his head in, though, he froze. Inside, Taichi was talking to a tall and very shady-looking character - long black hair slicked back, and his suit screamed yakuza. Taichi shook the man's hand and pushed a wad of bills into the man's pocket.
Jin backpedaled quickly, deciding that Taichi wouldn't mind if he… just left. He ended up eating both pints of ice cream and watching The Godfather. In hindsight, he'd admit later that that was probably not the best idea he'd ever had.
Over the next few days he tried to put the scene out of his mind. Taichi looked so distant, though, wrinkles lining his forehead as he stared off into space when Jin would stop in with a question or report. Jin finally gave in and watched him with mounting suspicion. He looked all innocent, sure. But it was always the quiet ones. Jin bet he was probably planning some sort of shady takeover. He and the company's president were close, everyone knew that. But Taichi was probably harboring some secret desire to carry out a corporate coup d'etat. Jin liked Taichi, but these things were always messy and Jin rather liked his job. There was only one solution - Taichi had to go down.
"Jin," Koyama said slowly. "What are you doing?"
Jin jumped back from Taichi's door with a guilty face. "I was just… thinking?"
Koyama made a face. "Well stop it. It's creepy." He brushed past Jin into Taichi's office with a stack of papers.
Jin watched him suspiciously for any signs that he was an accomplice, but it seemed pretty normal. And besides, Koyama hated for anyone to get hurt. He scurried back to his desk when Koyama came out and glanced pointedly at him.
He decided to do a little reconnaissance that evening and dawdled over his paperwork until everyone else had left. His efforts were rewarded when he walked quietly to Taichi's office and saw the tall man in his office again. They were speaking seriously and Jin crouched down and leaned close to the partially open door. Ha, he scoffed internally. Taichi was bad at this game. He couldn't even scheme properly.
"What," Koyama asked him, looming impossibly tall over Jin's crouched form and raising an eyebrow at him, "are you doing?"
"Koyama!" Jin hissed, and yanked at Koyama's jacket until the man was crouching beside him. "Keep it down!"
Koyama looked around uncertainly and indulgently lowered his voice to a whisper. "What are you doing?"
Jin half-stood and tugged Koyama until they were around the corner. "I didn't want to get you involved in this, but you've given me no choice."
"What?"
"Taichi has been meeting with the yakuza and bribing them. I'm sure he's planning a corporate takeover. You don't want that to happen, do you? Think of Joushima's wife and children. Think of all of us employees! He'd have to get rid of all witnesses and we'd be the first to go. They'd tie rocks to us and toss us in Tokyo Bay!"
"Jin..." Koyama said dubiously. "I think that's unlikely."
"Why else would he be meeting with the yakuza and giving them money?"
"Jin," Koyama said firmly and stood, frowning. "If you wanted a little more excitement in your life, you could have just gone skydiving or something."
"Shhhh." Jin grabbed at Koyama's jacket and pulled him down again. "I don't want him to know we know."
Koyama couldn't help looking nervously around him. Apparently the crazy was contagious.
They heard movement and peeked apprehensively around the corner to see the tall man striding away purposefully.
"I suppose he does look rather suspicious," Koyama said thoughtfully. Then he frowned at Jin. "But that doesn't mean he's yakuza and it definitely doesn't mean that Taichi is secretly seeking presidency through underhanded dealings."
Jin blinked. "Secretly seeking presidency through underhanded dealings?"
"…I've been reading the paper," Koyama replied with a blush.
Jin sighed. "You and your rose-colored glasses. Look at it properly!" he admonished.
Koyama opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted.
"Akanishi? Koyama? What are you doing?" Taichi asked them kindly, if with a bit of a confused-but-benevolent smile.
They stood hastily, stuttering out excuses. "I lost my contact," Koyama said. "I dropped a 500 yen coin," from Jin. They looked at each other.
"Shall I help you look?" Taichi asked concernedly.
"Oh no, we found it," Jin said and tugged at Koyama's sleeve. "We'll be going home now, good night!"
Taichi waved happily after them.
Two days later while Taichi was gone for lunch, Jin pulled Koyama aside and told him to cover him.
"Cover you where?"
Jin clucked his tongue in irritation. "I'm going to go bug Taichi's office. Watch for me." It always worked in the movies. All he had to do was get in there, plant the recorder under the desk and come back in a week and there would be evidence. Simple.
Koyama's eyebrows shot up and he followed after Jin. "That's illegal! You can't just record people's conversations!" he whispered.
Stopping outside Taichi's door, Jin fixed Koyama with a pointed look. "Think of the children, Koyama," he said seriously, and entered the office, shutting the door in Koyama's face and leaving him stuttering.
For the rest of the day Koyama fluttered around him, hissing warnings at him about wiretapping and the legal system, but Jin was good at tuning people out.
Jin didn't bring it up for the next week and he noticed Koyama looking vaguely relieved as each day passed without Jin talking about Taichi and his yakuza ties. But when he told Koyama, 'Cover me, I'm going in,' Koyama whined.
"I thought you were over this. Really. There's got to be a better alternative."
"Koyama, I'm ashamed of you. I thought you liked it here."
"I do," Koyama replied emphatically. "I just think you're crazy."
---
Koyama wasn't nearly as surprised as he wanted to be when he opened the door to his apartment to find Jin standing there with an irritated look on his face.
"I'm sorry. I'm not dressed for guests," Koyama said, trying to shut the door.
Jin pushed past him and slipped his shoes off, whining as he did so. "You didn't answer your phone!"
"Ah," Koyama said, then sighed. "And for some reason you thought that meant I wanted you to come over."
Pausing mid-step, Jin gave Koyama a suspicious once-over. "If it were anyone but you, I'd think you were being sarcastic with me."
"Ah. My reputation undoes me."
Jin sat down in front of Koyama's table and started fiddling with the recorder.
"Are we seriously going to listen to that whole thing?"
"It's voice-activated."
"You do realize just how much talking goes on in Taichi's office, right?"
"The children, Koyama. The children."
They did a lot of fast-forwarding and Koyama might have fallen asleep a few times, but finally Jin was prodding him awake.
"It's him!" he hissed and Koyama looked at him blearily and wiped his mouth.
"Nph."
"Is everything going according to plan?"
"Yep! I called the boys and got it all set up. He'll never know what hit him."
"Good. That's exactly what we want."
"So we'll all meet at your place at seven Saturday night?"
"Yeah. Don't forget to bring that thing we talked about."
Jin paused the tape and looked at Koyama with wide eyes.
"That… does sound suspicious," Koyama admitted grudgingly.
"See? I was right!" he crowed. Then paused as his brain caught up with him. "Wait. That's tomorrow night!"
"I think you'll find that it's actually tonight, Jin. Go home. I want to sleep."
Peering closely at Koyama for a moment got him nothing but a bland, sleepy look and he finally shook his head."I'm beginning to think that sarcasm earlier might have been real…"
Koyama raised his eyebrows at him. "You think?"
"Okay," Jin said, standing. He must be tired if he thought Koyama was being subversive. "But I'll be back at 4pm to discuss our plan of action."
Koyama didn't have it in him to argue. He knew he'd just end up being pulled along, anyway. He really needed to work on turning people down.
Jin's plan of action was as simple as he was, Koyama decided as they sat side-by-side in the front seat of Jin's brother's beat-up Honda. Reaching over silently, he grabbed Jin's fingers to stop the incessant tapping against the steering wheel. "Jin, please. You're giving me a headache."
"Ten to seven. Where are these people?" Jin whined. "Maybe there's a super secret back door entrance. He wouldn't want people to know he was dealing on the dark side."
"…This really isn't Star Wars."
Jin scoffed. "I sure as hell hope not. Though if it were, my light saber would totally be bigger than his." He looked over at Koyama. "What's with that face?"
"It's called abject horror," Koyama replied miserably.
"Ah!" Jin said and Koyama followed his gaze to Taichi's front door. "I guess he really is stupid." Three men came up the walk and were let into the house.
"They looked pretty normal to me…"
"They're in disguise."
Closing his eyes, Koyama leaned back and sighed. "Jin, this is really ridiculous. Can we please go home?"
"Quick!" Jin suddenly hissed. "Someone's coming," and he tugged Koyama toward him.
Koyama's eyes flew open just in time to see Jin's face dangerously close and then their lips met and Koyama was too shocked to do anything at all until he felt Jin's tongue poke at his lips.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!" he cried, shoving Jin away and flapping his hands at him. "What the hell?!"
"Shh! Shut up! It's standard procedure! If they can't see our faces, they don't know who we are."
"So you had to make out with me?" Koyama gazed wide-eyed at Jin before pressing his forefinger to Jin's lips and giving him a deadly serious look. "Never. Do that. Again."
Jin blinked rapidly and waited until Koyama lowered his hand. "'kay," he replied meekly. He was certain he had never seen that look on Koyama's face before and he would do anything in his power to never see it again.
Avoiding Koyama's gaze for the next fifteen minutes, he kept his eyes on the house, drumming nervous fingers on the steering wheel. "Okay," he said finally. "Let's get closer and see what we can find out." He opened the door and super-cool stalked toward the house.
"What? No!" What the hell was Jin doing, he looked like an idiot, did he think no one could see him? Oh my god they looked like such creepers as they crept up toward the bay window of the house. "Jin," he hissed. "We are not inconspicuous at all. This is the front of the house."
"Shh. We can't see them from the side. Look," he said, pointing inside. "It's the tall guy. He must have come early." He felt Koyama fidgeting beside him. "Stay still, would you? You're going to attract attention."
"Oh right," Koyama spat quietly. "Because crouching under some guy's house in the suburbs and looking into his living room isn't suspicious at all."
Jin glared at him. He was pretty sure at this point that Koyama was actually being a smartass. Narrowing his eyes thoughtfully at his coworker, he thought back over the past few years that he'd known him. "Hey," he said, realization dawning on a certain comment made a few months ago about his alleged ability to schmooze the ladies. "When you said…"
"Ummm… Jin?" Koyama interrupted. "Where is the tall one?"
"He's right behind you," someone who was definitely not Jin replied before they were both scruffed and dragged kicking, and most certainly not screaming (maybe cursing, in Jin's case, and whimpering, in Koyama's), into the house.
Taichi sat relaxed in a chair, smiling politely. "Come for a visit? Please, have a seat."
They sat awkwardly side-by-side on the loveseat.
"Nagase, I'd like you to meet two employees of mine. Akanishi and Koyama."
Koyama's cheeks were bright red as they bobbed their heads in response. "Pleased to meet you," they mumbled.
"What I want to know," Nagase asked, eyebrows raised, "is what they were doing under the window. Are they spies for Joushima?"
"Now now, I'm sure they're not. I'm sure they have a completely understandable reason for everything."
"Hey," one of the other guys spoke up, "weren't you two making out in the car across the street a while ago?"
Okay. Now Koyama was bright red. "Er. No?" Jin ventured.
"It's okay, Koyama. I'm sure Sato was seeing things. What can I help you boys with tonight?" He checked his watch quickly before smiling at them again. "I have to leave in a few minutes for something important but I'm sure I can address your concerns first thing tomorrow. Obviously it must be important for you to have come all the way out here."
"Well…" Jin turned to Koyama with a pleading look. He was good at facilitating talking. He was in PR. But Koyama was giving him an incredulous look that Jin figured meant he was on his own. What would Jackie Chan do?
"Perhaps you didn't expect that I would have company. I would offer you a moment alone, but I'm afraid that unless it's an emergency, I'm going to have to go."
When Taichi stood, though, Jin launched himself at him only to find himself pulled up short by his collar. Poor shirt. He liked this one and it was probably ruined now, he thought sadly, and caught a glimpse of Koyama with his face in his hands. Then suddenly Koyama was talking. He figured it wouldn't be good when it started with, "I'm so sorry Taichi, sir. Akanishi is an idiot and easily influenced and I just didn't know how to get him to understand that this wasn't some American cop film." And ended with Taichi laughing loudly and holding his stomach as he squirmed in his seat.
"You really…" Taichi struggled to sit up straight again and wiped his eyes. "Thought that I was trying to overthrow Joushima?"
Jin glared at him. "The recording. And this guy," he jerked his thumb at Nagase towering beside him, casually leaning toward Jin in case he moved again.
"Nagase is an old friend with questionable taste in clothing, that's all." An irritated grunt from Nagase had Jin deciding it was an old topic for mockery. "And we've been planning Joushima's surprise birthday party. His wife asked us to do it because he's been a bit off lately."
Clearly this was all a cover-up. Like Jin was going to believe all this was about a birthday party.
"He's forty on Wednesday," Koyama supplied helpfully.
Jin could have cried.
---
Taichi had been pretty good about the whole thing. Except for the way kept creeping past Jin's desk with his hands pressed together like he was holding a gun. Apparently he thought that was funny. And now Jin knew that Koyama wasn't as goody-two-shoes as he seemed. That had to count for something.
"What's this," Jin asked suspiciously when Koyama handed him an envelope at the water cooler.
"Something I think you need," Koyama replied with a mischievous smile and walked away.
Opening the envelope, he pulled out a slip of paper, read it, and laughed.
A certificate to Bungy Japan.
Bungy Japan is apparently Japan's only bridge bungee jump, located in Minakami, Japan.
Characters: Koyama, Jin - appearances by Taichi and Nagase
Rating: PG
Words: 2,635
Warnings: Surprise boykiss? AU
Summary: Jin thinks he's Jackie Chan. Koyama thinks he's crazy.
Notes: *Repost* For elizajet for jerainbowbridge 2010. Originally posted here. Thanks to my betas for their help. Cut text a quote from Rush Hour.
***
Another late day at the office. Jin sighed and stood, stretching tight muscles and shaking his body like a dog. All he wanted right now was to go home, take a nice, hot bath, and settle down in front of the tv with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. He was debating with himself over whether it would be Chunky Monkey or Dublin Mudslide tonight when he stopped outside his boss's door to tell him he was going home. When he went to poke his head in, though, he froze. Inside, Taichi was talking to a tall and very shady-looking character - long black hair slicked back, and his suit screamed yakuza. Taichi shook the man's hand and pushed a wad of bills into the man's pocket.
Jin backpedaled quickly, deciding that Taichi wouldn't mind if he… just left. He ended up eating both pints of ice cream and watching The Godfather. In hindsight, he'd admit later that that was probably not the best idea he'd ever had.
Over the next few days he tried to put the scene out of his mind. Taichi looked so distant, though, wrinkles lining his forehead as he stared off into space when Jin would stop in with a question or report. Jin finally gave in and watched him with mounting suspicion. He looked all innocent, sure. But it was always the quiet ones. Jin bet he was probably planning some sort of shady takeover. He and the company's president were close, everyone knew that. But Taichi was probably harboring some secret desire to carry out a corporate coup d'etat. Jin liked Taichi, but these things were always messy and Jin rather liked his job. There was only one solution - Taichi had to go down.
"Jin," Koyama said slowly. "What are you doing?"
Jin jumped back from Taichi's door with a guilty face. "I was just… thinking?"
Koyama made a face. "Well stop it. It's creepy." He brushed past Jin into Taichi's office with a stack of papers.
Jin watched him suspiciously for any signs that he was an accomplice, but it seemed pretty normal. And besides, Koyama hated for anyone to get hurt. He scurried back to his desk when Koyama came out and glanced pointedly at him.
He decided to do a little reconnaissance that evening and dawdled over his paperwork until everyone else had left. His efforts were rewarded when he walked quietly to Taichi's office and saw the tall man in his office again. They were speaking seriously and Jin crouched down and leaned close to the partially open door. Ha, he scoffed internally. Taichi was bad at this game. He couldn't even scheme properly.
"What," Koyama asked him, looming impossibly tall over Jin's crouched form and raising an eyebrow at him, "are you doing?"
"Koyama!" Jin hissed, and yanked at Koyama's jacket until the man was crouching beside him. "Keep it down!"
Koyama looked around uncertainly and indulgently lowered his voice to a whisper. "What are you doing?"
Jin half-stood and tugged Koyama until they were around the corner. "I didn't want to get you involved in this, but you've given me no choice."
"What?"
"Taichi has been meeting with the yakuza and bribing them. I'm sure he's planning a corporate takeover. You don't want that to happen, do you? Think of Joushima's wife and children. Think of all of us employees! He'd have to get rid of all witnesses and we'd be the first to go. They'd tie rocks to us and toss us in Tokyo Bay!"
"Jin..." Koyama said dubiously. "I think that's unlikely."
"Why else would he be meeting with the yakuza and giving them money?"
"Jin," Koyama said firmly and stood, frowning. "If you wanted a little more excitement in your life, you could have just gone skydiving or something."
"Shhhh." Jin grabbed at Koyama's jacket and pulled him down again. "I don't want him to know we know."
Koyama couldn't help looking nervously around him. Apparently the crazy was contagious.
They heard movement and peeked apprehensively around the corner to see the tall man striding away purposefully.
"I suppose he does look rather suspicious," Koyama said thoughtfully. Then he frowned at Jin. "But that doesn't mean he's yakuza and it definitely doesn't mean that Taichi is secretly seeking presidency through underhanded dealings."
Jin blinked. "Secretly seeking presidency through underhanded dealings?"
"…I've been reading the paper," Koyama replied with a blush.
Jin sighed. "You and your rose-colored glasses. Look at it properly!" he admonished.
Koyama opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted.
"Akanishi? Koyama? What are you doing?" Taichi asked them kindly, if with a bit of a confused-but-benevolent smile.
They stood hastily, stuttering out excuses. "I lost my contact," Koyama said. "I dropped a 500 yen coin," from Jin. They looked at each other.
"Shall I help you look?" Taichi asked concernedly.
"Oh no, we found it," Jin said and tugged at Koyama's sleeve. "We'll be going home now, good night!"
Taichi waved happily after them.
Two days later while Taichi was gone for lunch, Jin pulled Koyama aside and told him to cover him.
"Cover you where?"
Jin clucked his tongue in irritation. "I'm going to go bug Taichi's office. Watch for me." It always worked in the movies. All he had to do was get in there, plant the recorder under the desk and come back in a week and there would be evidence. Simple.
Koyama's eyebrows shot up and he followed after Jin. "That's illegal! You can't just record people's conversations!" he whispered.
Stopping outside Taichi's door, Jin fixed Koyama with a pointed look. "Think of the children, Koyama," he said seriously, and entered the office, shutting the door in Koyama's face and leaving him stuttering.
For the rest of the day Koyama fluttered around him, hissing warnings at him about wiretapping and the legal system, but Jin was good at tuning people out.
Jin didn't bring it up for the next week and he noticed Koyama looking vaguely relieved as each day passed without Jin talking about Taichi and his yakuza ties. But when he told Koyama, 'Cover me, I'm going in,' Koyama whined.
"I thought you were over this. Really. There's got to be a better alternative."
"Koyama, I'm ashamed of you. I thought you liked it here."
"I do," Koyama replied emphatically. "I just think you're crazy."
---
Koyama wasn't nearly as surprised as he wanted to be when he opened the door to his apartment to find Jin standing there with an irritated look on his face.
"I'm sorry. I'm not dressed for guests," Koyama said, trying to shut the door.
Jin pushed past him and slipped his shoes off, whining as he did so. "You didn't answer your phone!"
"Ah," Koyama said, then sighed. "And for some reason you thought that meant I wanted you to come over."
Pausing mid-step, Jin gave Koyama a suspicious once-over. "If it were anyone but you, I'd think you were being sarcastic with me."
"Ah. My reputation undoes me."
Jin sat down in front of Koyama's table and started fiddling with the recorder.
"Are we seriously going to listen to that whole thing?"
"It's voice-activated."
"You do realize just how much talking goes on in Taichi's office, right?"
"The children, Koyama. The children."
They did a lot of fast-forwarding and Koyama might have fallen asleep a few times, but finally Jin was prodding him awake.
"It's him!" he hissed and Koyama looked at him blearily and wiped his mouth.
"Nph."
"Is everything going according to plan?"
"Yep! I called the boys and got it all set up. He'll never know what hit him."
"Good. That's exactly what we want."
"So we'll all meet at your place at seven Saturday night?"
"Yeah. Don't forget to bring that thing we talked about."
Jin paused the tape and looked at Koyama with wide eyes.
"That… does sound suspicious," Koyama admitted grudgingly.
"See? I was right!" he crowed. Then paused as his brain caught up with him. "Wait. That's tomorrow night!"
"I think you'll find that it's actually tonight, Jin. Go home. I want to sleep."
Peering closely at Koyama for a moment got him nothing but a bland, sleepy look and he finally shook his head."I'm beginning to think that sarcasm earlier might have been real…"
Koyama raised his eyebrows at him. "You think?"
"Okay," Jin said, standing. He must be tired if he thought Koyama was being subversive. "But I'll be back at 4pm to discuss our plan of action."
Koyama didn't have it in him to argue. He knew he'd just end up being pulled along, anyway. He really needed to work on turning people down.
Jin's plan of action was as simple as he was, Koyama decided as they sat side-by-side in the front seat of Jin's brother's beat-up Honda. Reaching over silently, he grabbed Jin's fingers to stop the incessant tapping against the steering wheel. "Jin, please. You're giving me a headache."
"Ten to seven. Where are these people?" Jin whined. "Maybe there's a super secret back door entrance. He wouldn't want people to know he was dealing on the dark side."
"…This really isn't Star Wars."
Jin scoffed. "I sure as hell hope not. Though if it were, my light saber would totally be bigger than his." He looked over at Koyama. "What's with that face?"
"It's called abject horror," Koyama replied miserably.
"Ah!" Jin said and Koyama followed his gaze to Taichi's front door. "I guess he really is stupid." Three men came up the walk and were let into the house.
"They looked pretty normal to me…"
"They're in disguise."
Closing his eyes, Koyama leaned back and sighed. "Jin, this is really ridiculous. Can we please go home?"
"Quick!" Jin suddenly hissed. "Someone's coming," and he tugged Koyama toward him.
Koyama's eyes flew open just in time to see Jin's face dangerously close and then their lips met and Koyama was too shocked to do anything at all until he felt Jin's tongue poke at his lips.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!" he cried, shoving Jin away and flapping his hands at him. "What the hell?!"
"Shh! Shut up! It's standard procedure! If they can't see our faces, they don't know who we are."
"So you had to make out with me?" Koyama gazed wide-eyed at Jin before pressing his forefinger to Jin's lips and giving him a deadly serious look. "Never. Do that. Again."
Jin blinked rapidly and waited until Koyama lowered his hand. "'kay," he replied meekly. He was certain he had never seen that look on Koyama's face before and he would do anything in his power to never see it again.
Avoiding Koyama's gaze for the next fifteen minutes, he kept his eyes on the house, drumming nervous fingers on the steering wheel. "Okay," he said finally. "Let's get closer and see what we can find out." He opened the door and super-cool stalked toward the house.
"What? No!" What the hell was Jin doing, he looked like an idiot, did he think no one could see him? Oh my god they looked like such creepers as they crept up toward the bay window of the house. "Jin," he hissed. "We are not inconspicuous at all. This is the front of the house."
"Shh. We can't see them from the side. Look," he said, pointing inside. "It's the tall guy. He must have come early." He felt Koyama fidgeting beside him. "Stay still, would you? You're going to attract attention."
"Oh right," Koyama spat quietly. "Because crouching under some guy's house in the suburbs and looking into his living room isn't suspicious at all."
Jin glared at him. He was pretty sure at this point that Koyama was actually being a smartass. Narrowing his eyes thoughtfully at his coworker, he thought back over the past few years that he'd known him. "Hey," he said, realization dawning on a certain comment made a few months ago about his alleged ability to schmooze the ladies. "When you said…"
"Ummm… Jin?" Koyama interrupted. "Where is the tall one?"
"He's right behind you," someone who was definitely not Jin replied before they were both scruffed and dragged kicking, and most certainly not screaming (maybe cursing, in Jin's case, and whimpering, in Koyama's), into the house.
Taichi sat relaxed in a chair, smiling politely. "Come for a visit? Please, have a seat."
They sat awkwardly side-by-side on the loveseat.
"Nagase, I'd like you to meet two employees of mine. Akanishi and Koyama."
Koyama's cheeks were bright red as they bobbed their heads in response. "Pleased to meet you," they mumbled.
"What I want to know," Nagase asked, eyebrows raised, "is what they were doing under the window. Are they spies for Joushima?"
"Now now, I'm sure they're not. I'm sure they have a completely understandable reason for everything."
"Hey," one of the other guys spoke up, "weren't you two making out in the car across the street a while ago?"
Okay. Now Koyama was bright red. "Er. No?" Jin ventured.
"It's okay, Koyama. I'm sure Sato was seeing things. What can I help you boys with tonight?" He checked his watch quickly before smiling at them again. "I have to leave in a few minutes for something important but I'm sure I can address your concerns first thing tomorrow. Obviously it must be important for you to have come all the way out here."
"Well…" Jin turned to Koyama with a pleading look. He was good at facilitating talking. He was in PR. But Koyama was giving him an incredulous look that Jin figured meant he was on his own. What would Jackie Chan do?
"Perhaps you didn't expect that I would have company. I would offer you a moment alone, but I'm afraid that unless it's an emergency, I'm going to have to go."
When Taichi stood, though, Jin launched himself at him only to find himself pulled up short by his collar. Poor shirt. He liked this one and it was probably ruined now, he thought sadly, and caught a glimpse of Koyama with his face in his hands. Then suddenly Koyama was talking. He figured it wouldn't be good when it started with, "I'm so sorry Taichi, sir. Akanishi is an idiot and easily influenced and I just didn't know how to get him to understand that this wasn't some American cop film." And ended with Taichi laughing loudly and holding his stomach as he squirmed in his seat.
"You really…" Taichi struggled to sit up straight again and wiped his eyes. "Thought that I was trying to overthrow Joushima?"
Jin glared at him. "The recording. And this guy," he jerked his thumb at Nagase towering beside him, casually leaning toward Jin in case he moved again.
"Nagase is an old friend with questionable taste in clothing, that's all." An irritated grunt from Nagase had Jin deciding it was an old topic for mockery. "And we've been planning Joushima's surprise birthday party. His wife asked us to do it because he's been a bit off lately."
Clearly this was all a cover-up. Like Jin was going to believe all this was about a birthday party.
"He's forty on Wednesday," Koyama supplied helpfully.
Jin could have cried.
---
Taichi had been pretty good about the whole thing. Except for the way kept creeping past Jin's desk with his hands pressed together like he was holding a gun. Apparently he thought that was funny. And now Jin knew that Koyama wasn't as goody-two-shoes as he seemed. That had to count for something.
"What's this," Jin asked suspiciously when Koyama handed him an envelope at the water cooler.
"Something I think you need," Koyama replied with a mischievous smile and walked away.
Opening the envelope, he pulled out a slip of paper, read it, and laughed.
A certificate to Bungy Japan.
Bungy Japan is apparently Japan's only bridge bungee jump, located in Minakami, Japan.