Flight 109 - Destination: First Love [Chapter 18: PART THREE]
FIVE
"Matsumoto-san," A distinct voice is calling him. "Matsumoto-san"
He tries not to hear it and decides to keep insisting on the dream that is comfortably enveloping him for the time being. The voice can keep calling him but he has no problem to not let the voice bothering him.
The voice gets a help from a hand. A hand that shakes his shoulder, then he no longer can keep the darkness in.
Matsumoto Jun lifts his heavy eyelids and the face of Aino-san, the AD for his current movie, comes into the view.
"I am sorry for waking you up, but the stylist is done with your hair. You can rest in your green room now, it is more comfortable," Aino-san smiles warmly. She is quite soft-spoken for an AD and her eyes are gleaming as she studies Jun's made-up hair and make up as if approving what she sees. The kind of look from girls that made Jun felt uncomfortable from time to time.
"Ah, gomen. I fell asleep," Jun stands up to his two feet.
"It's okay. I'll walk you to your green room," Aino-san opens the door, "The camera department has some technical stuff to take care of first, so you can rest for a while now."
"Ah, sou ka?" Jun lifts an eyebrow as he follows Aino-san through the hallway of the studio, "Will it be long?"
"It will be a while. I am sorry for the wait."
"No worries. Waiting is a part of the job," he shrugs nonchalantly, still ignoring Aino-san's eyes on him, "Are the rest of the members here already?"
"Yes, they're in the green room."
---
The time Jun arrives at the green room, every other members of Arashi are already making themselves comfortable in the big sofas surrounding the room.
Sakurai Sho lifts his face a bit from the script he is reading, "Your hair sure takes a lot of time."
Jun throws his body to the space between Sho and Nino, who is of course, playing a game on television with Aiba, "I fell asleep. I bet it was done sometime ago before that."
Jun tries to wipe the sleepiness from his eyes without smudging his made-up eyes, and he stares to the white ceilings, "Had a weird dream."
Nino throws a glance to him when he just scores a goal over Aiba's virtual soccer team, "Eh? You don't have that often, right?"
Jun still stares blankly at the ceiling, "Yeah, I don't."
Ohno Satoshi lifts a page from his script, "Eh? How do you read this, Sho-kun?"
The conversation stirs from Jun's dream for a moment as Sho explains the questionable kanji to Ohno.
"Eh, why they give me such a difficult character to play..." Ohno mumbles.
"You'll do great. I am excited, it's been a while since the last time we did a movie together, ne?" Aiba mumbles back in between his attempts in doing a goal over Nino's virtual defense.
"I still think we should do something lighter, though. A comedy of some sort," Sho tilts his head behind his script.
"One without too much dialogue! I agree!" Aiba exclaims as his virtual offense intensifies on the game.
Nino then gives a positive view towards the script they are currently working on whilst Jun listens to them silently as he keeps staring on the ceiling. At a particular point when Aiba starts to talk on how he wants to bring the character he is playing on screen, Jun starts to shake his head and chuckles.
"What is it, Jun-kun?" Nino who notices that chuckle asks.
"Nah, just remember something."
"Share, share, share," Aiba joins in.
"It's just.. weird."
"The dream?'
"No. We are."
Jun's chuckles turn into laughter, "I am so used to you guys meddling in other people's business, talking about nonsense in the green room just for a dose of a nonsensical laughter. And now I got this. Some serious talk about the film we are doing, about how this character will do this on screen and how we can make the audience relate..."
They all share a smile between each other. Jun continues, "Maybe without us realizing, we have turned into these five boring adults, huh? Maybe this is why they don't give us a comedy, Sho-kun. Five years ago you all, well, except for Sho-kun maybe, would not stop bugging me whether my weird dream was giving me an erection or not."
Nino and Ohno both look up to Jun, with mocked wide eyes and gaping mouths.
Sho plays along and with mocked surprised he exclaims in English, "OH MY GOD!"
Nino whispers to Aiba, loud enough for everybody to hear, "Did he just say 'erection'?"
Aiba laughs, "Ne, Matsujun is still young, eh? He is after all the youngest. It's okay, Jun-kun, you don't have to feel ashamed if you still have those kinds of dreams."
Ohno seems to be thinking before he finally says something, "You know, if you need to let it out, Jun, AD-san seems to have an eye for you."
"Eh! You notice that as well!" Nino pauses his game, overtly excited.
"Of course! Who would not?" Aiba starts the game again, figuring that he will finally have his virtual goal if Nino doesn't pay much attention. But, Nino pauses it again and grabs the console out of Aiba's hand, "Stop it!" he warns.
Nino then turns to Jun, "You know, you should take this chance, Jun. She's not bad. Besides, theories that you are gay has started to circling around the staff."
But Jun just keeps staring at the ceiling. Sho looks at him and smile, "I bet he is not interested."
"I dreamt about her," he whispers to the ceiling.
"Aino-san?" Aiba dumbfounded-ly asks.
Nino slaps the taller man with his joystick and hisses, "Baka!"
The room falls silent. It is the first time in years Jun ever said something.. private.
Sho coughs after a minute of silence, "So that meant you had an erection because of that dream?"
Jun laughs at that, "It is not that kind of dream. I just dreamt about the day when we first met, but things worked out differently. For one, I won at that janken with her."
\
Sho and Nino exchange glances. Aiba scrunches his eyebrows. Noone dares to say anything for a good minute and all you can hear is their breaths and Jun's deep sigh. Nino and Sho think that they know who Jun is referring to but none of them knows the details of their first encounter. They want to ask further to make sure but knowing each other for decades has given them enough knowledge to just keep their curiousity for themselves for now.
Except for Ohno, who is utterly confused, "Hold on, who are we talking about again?"
"Definitely not the AD-san, right?" Aiba mutters carefully.
But Jun just chuckles again to the ceiling and shakes his head, "Baka. Of course not. Let her think that I'm gay."
"You can use Sho-kun. Grab his butt at the right moment and everybody will think that you are," Nino finally says again as he starts his game again without any notice to his virtual rival, who hollers in protest.
Nino adds again as he scores another goal, ignoring Aiba's protests of him cheating, "Or you can use any of us. I don't mind if you use me," He winks at Jun and gets a pillow thrown to his face for a reply.
Nonsensical laughter fills the supposedly adult Arashi's green room once more.
---
Sakurai Sho, for one, can't seem to concentrate on what he is supposed to say in his scene along with the other four members. Yes, he keeps messing it up. Jun can't believe that Sho can mess it up after reading the lines over and over again in that green room.
Jun raises an eyebrow at him and whispers to him when AD-san leaves them to check with the director, "What's wrong? Something is bothering you?"
Sho sighs in between takes, "Yeah, I keep thinking that you should grope my butt."
Jun laughs at that and punches a shoulder, "I will if you keep messing this up, you know, I wanna sleep some more. If that can make you concentrate...."
But Sho doesn't let him continue his sarcastic remark and cuts in mid-sentence, "I saw her in Okinawa. I met her."
Jun is taken aback from the sudden confession, "Eh? Who?"
"Minako."
"Huh?"
"Years ago. How long has it been? Eight?" Sho doesn't dare to glance at Jun's shocked face even though he really wants to. It is an expression Matsumoto Jun rarely ever does.
"Nine," Nino adds softly from behind him.
Jun turns to him and looks at him in question. He is about to open his mouth when AD-san gives them the call to start a take again.
And now it is Jun's turn to mess up his part. AD-san then tells them to take a five. Some staff comes to the set with their drinks. But Jun doesn't care about his drinks.
"Okay, what was that?" Jun hisses at Sho between his gritted teeth.
"I said I met her, okay? In a bar. The time when you left Arashi but before she left you. She was crying her heart out. Completely coincidential, I saw her and talked to her. And she left you. I'm sorry," Sho mumbles nervously.
"How come you never told me?"
"Would you forgive me if I did?"
"Well," Jun sighs in frustration, "Well, of course I would. You forgave me for leaving Arashi."
"For two weeks. She left you for nine years," Sho mutters softly.
Jun keeps his sight to the ground, "What did you say?"
"That's the thing. I couldn't pinpoint what I said wrong. I was just saying that everything has its price tag. Our popularity, our friendship. Your relationship, her love," Sho takes a deep breath, "And then she just smiled at me and thanked me. That smile haunted me all these years, Jun, really. I am sorry."
But Jun just smiles at the nine years late apology, "You're not the only one who was haunted with her smile."
It is now Sho's turn to sigh, "I bet."
AD-san again gives the notice that they'll start again soon. Sho and Jun walks back to the set along with the other members.
As AD-san gives the call to camera and sound department, Sho studied his fellow member who is trying to drown his feelings for just a moment.
"Geez, you should be sorry more for the timing, Sho," Jun hisses.
Sho holds back his smile and pats Jun's back, "We are making dreams to come true for other people, Jun. It's a good thing to do. One day, yours will too. I believe that. I don't think she has stopped loving you as well."
Jun scoffs at that and then he shrugs, "Maybe, one day."
Sho turns serious again, "Was it worth it, though? Our price tag?"
"What price tag?"
Sho glances around the studio where blinding lights, three other Arashi members and the movie staff surrounds them.
"All this. This costs you, well, all of us. Privacy, a normal life, broken hearts, you name it," Sho tilts his head thoughtfully, "is it worth it?"
"You know what?" Jun looks at him in the eyes sharply, then to Nino who is teasing Aiba telling him that his standing position is not on the right mark, and then to Ohno who is peacefully staring into space. Jun's face breaks into a smile, "With you guys, sometimes it is."
AD-san hollers, "Action!"
At the call, Jun's smile changes into a professional frown under the colorful blinding lights that at a glance it resembles the five of seven colors of a rainbow.
But it is not a rainbow. It is the gleaming faces of Sho, Nino, Aiba and Ohno reciting their lines along with Jun.
Together.
Jun turns around as he is supposed to do and exclaims his lines again, staring further to the future ahead.
Yes, one day. After everyone else's, he will make his dreams come true. He is sure at that.
He closes his eyes for a second and remembers the kiss she gives him in that dream. The memory gives him enough reason to smile again.
Until that one particular day when he will walk into that CD store once more and he will find her in a secluded section of weird music both of them secretly like.
She will be surprised as so will he when they both will take the same exact CD. What the CD is, it is not important anymore. What important is that the CD becomes the catalyst of their fate. They will smile to each other. They will mouth each other's name but no sound will be able to come out of their mouth. And they will janken for that catalyst, and he will win. Just as it happened in his dream.
He will take the CD and she will call out for his name, not too loud so he won't get found out.
She will ask for a rematch but he won't give in. No, he just won't. Not this time around. The CD is his. He wins it from her fair and square.
So instead he will offer her the CD for something in return. Just like that day when she asked him to introduce her to Sakurai Sho.
She will nod in agreement to his request with a gleam in her eyes. She will ask whether he wants to be introduced to someone.
He will shake his head. Then, he will whisper to her ear and ask for a kiss.
Yes, a kiss.
Not just any simple kiss. Not necessarily a passionate one nor a sweet one.
Just a kiss that will last forever.
And she will say yes.