Unexpected - Chapter 1
Title: Unexpected
Characters: OC, Kato Shigeaki, Tegoshi Yuya, Masuda Takahisa, Koyama Keichiro, Yamashita Tomohisa, Ryo Nishikido.
Rating: N16
Disclaimer: I own the story ONLY
Summery: Some of the best things in life are unexpected... so are the worst.
Chapter 1
Lara woke up and stretched slowly, felling her joints pop. She loved to do that, stretching while still half asleep and with her eyes close.
Her eyes fell on the alarm clock. Time to get up.
She jumped off the bed and removed the sheets and put them in the washing machine. She ran to the closet and looked for a pair of old sweat pants and a t-shirt. They were big for her, but they were clean and warm and she really didn’t care what she wore. She threw the clothes on and took out the sheets and put them on the dryer.
She drank a cup of coffee milk watching TV while she waited for the sheets to be ready. She did the dishes, dried them and put them away. She went to get the sheets and made the bed.
She looked at the clock. It was getting late. As she left the bedroom the phone started to ring and she ignored it as she always did.
****
Koyama was back home.
“Tadaima,” he mumbled at the empty apartment. He left his suitcase at the entrance, removed his shoes and as he walked to the ringing phone he loosened his tie.
“Hello?” He answered. “Oh hi, mom. No. Yeah, I just walked in. Yes, the flight was good, as usual. No. Well there was a little turbulence, nothing we couldn’t handle.” He laughed. His mother worried every time he had a flight and he had many, considering he was a pilot, well copilot for now. “Yes, of course I’m always careful. How are you and dad?... Really? No, no… Because I don’t want you to… Because I don’t want to meet any more of your friends’ daughters… Well… What do you mean I can’t meet a good woman on my own?” He had enough with the one who didn’t really grasp that they weren’t dating anymore. “Look, mom… I’m tired, can we talk later? Yeah, love you too. Bye.”
He was back home after 2 weeks and all he wanted to do was take a shower and take a nap before he went out that night.
He took off the rest of his clothes and went into the shower. He stayed in good hotels when he was abroad but he missed his own bed and his own shower. With his eyes closed reached for the shampoo. Nothing came out. He opened his eyes. Damn it. He still had shampoo when he had left, hadn’t he? Well obviously not. He would buy some later.
He got out of the shower. He looked for his comb. Where the hell was it? He left the bedroom and found the comb next to his bed. He let out an angry breath. He was getting tired of this. He was always losing things and finding them in a different place from where he had left them.
“I’m telling you, you have a ghost,” Tegoshi was telling him. “And I invited someone who can help you with that.”
“What?” This was supposed to be a group date, no a séance.
“Relax. She is easy and seems a little freaky,” his friend said wiggling his eyebrows. Tegoshi had set the date up. He had broken up with his girlfriend 4 month ago out of the blue. After 2 months he seemed a little depressed and had showed up with blond hair, saying that he wanted a change. They had all been a little worried about him but he was back to his usual bubbly and hyper self.
There were only three of them that night.
“Where are the other guys?”
“Ryo and Shige had work, Yamapi was ‘occupied’,” Massu, Tegoshi’s roommate, explained "he’s not telling us something, you know?” And yes Yamapi was hiding something but it couldn’t be that important, he always told them about important stuff.
At that moment three women came in.
“Ah! Over here!” Tegoshi called.
They introduced each other and ordered some food and drinks.
“Sakurako san, this is the friend I told you about, the one that has a ghost” The face of the woman lit up.
“Really?”
“Yes,” Tegoshi answered for him. “Things move on their own and I swear I’ve heard moans in that apartment.” He finished with a gleam in his eyes. Koyama had to work really hard not to roll his eyes at his friend. “And since you always tell how you are sensitive and psychic I thought you might be able to help him.”
“Oh, yes! Is it a spirit? A poltergeist? Is it a demon? Demons are bad.” she said, thrilled with the idea, as she got closer. Well, she was hot so he decided to play along,
“I’m not sure. Maybe it is a demon. How would I know?” Koyama asked giving her a cute worried look.
“Well, you have…” That was all Koyama paid attention to. He really didn’t care, so he nodded and he ‘ah’ and ‘oh’ at the appropriate places while staring at her cleavage.
“But we should really know what kind of entity it is, so how about we go back to your apartment and figure it out,” she drawled at the end of the night tracing the rim of her glass with her finger and smiled.
Why hadn’t he thought of the ghost excuse before? They got out of there and to his apartment.
The girl started walking with her arms in front of her, “sensing the aura.”
“Ooohh I feel something,” the girl said. “There is definitely a presence here.”
He went up to the girl and put his hands on her bare shoulders. “Really, what else do you feel?”
She chuckled. She walked straight for his kitchen. Great, he thought suppressing groan. “Here,” she continued, “It is an old presence.”
Okay, he’d had enough. He shut her up by kissing her. He was getting some tonight, enough talking. He started to run his hand down her back and she took out his jacket and started to unbutton his shirt.
“How ‘bout we take this into the bedroom so we don’t disturb my ghost’s sensitivity?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I kinda like the idea of being watched by someone from the other side.”
Ookaay, freaky, but he wasn’t about to stop now.
They did make to his bedroom, eventually.
Sometime in the middle of the night, a noise woke him up. It was a loud bump, a chair falling down and a soft moan and then the sound of glass breaking and another soft moan.
“Oh, my god!” she squealed, somehow managing to do so in a low voice. “It’s here!”
She jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen where the noise had come from. He followed close behind. When they came in they saw some of their clothes that they had scattered before as well as two chairs on the floor, glasses on the floor next to a dish cloth.
“What the hell is going on?” He whispered more to himself that to the naked girl next to him.
“Well, you, sir, have a poltergeist!” She said with the same excitement as if she was saying ‘we just won a million dollars.’
No way.
***
“You want to do what?”
“I want to put cameras all around my apartment.”
Ryo smiled, “Kinky, I like it. Plus you can sell the videos online, the girls you are with are usually hot and you don’t look bad yourself. We could set some lights…”
“Please, don’t finish that thought.” He took a deep breath. “Weird things are happening in my apartment.”
“Yes, you told us about that night with Sakurako-san,” Shige said.
“Who is still calling me and stalking me by the way. Thank you for introducing us.” He had enough with his boss’s daughter. They had dated a few times and he didn’t know how to break it off so that it wouldn’t affect his job. Or maybe he shouldn’t totally discard her. It might be good to be the boss’s son in law…
Tegoshi merely shrugged his shoulder “I didn’t hear you complain when you were sticking your tongue down her throat or when she asked you to take her to your apartment and I’m sure you didn’t complain that night when you were…”
“Anyway. I hear shuffling of feet and scurrying feet in the middle of the night and when I get up and look, there is no one there. I’ve found broken glasses. And… and my shower drain got clogged and I found… I found long dark hair in it.” He finished repressing a gag.
“Oh, my god! You are going bald!” Massu shrieked putting his hands on his chest.
“Haven’t you ever seen horror movies? The handsome man always finds the hair of the scary ghost right before he dies!!” Koyama didn’t care if his friends thought he was crazy, he was freaking out. “No! I have a fucking ghost! And it’s coming after me… And they always go after the stupid friends who don’t believe the handsome man.”
“So now the handsome man wants to get his friends to help him by calling them stupid and throwing a hissy fit.” Yamapi drawled.
“And it will probably go after the sluttiest one of us,” Tegoshi said looking at Ryo.
“Oi, you’re the stupid blond, they always go first.”
“Hey, who are you calling stupid? And I rock the blond hair.”
“Enough,” interrupted Yamashita. “Okay, you have a ghost, do you have any idea who it might be?”
“No. Well, maybe someone who lived there before me. I’ve only been there for six months. Before me there was this couple who just moved out.”
“Just moved out?”
Koyama nodded. “I don’t talk much with my neighbors, but apparently they lived there for a few years and one day they left.”
“Oohh, I bet they didn’t just leave,” Tegoshi said.
“Hai, hai. Probably the guy killed his wife,” added Massu.
“Yeah, and then hid the body inside the walls of the apartment and just took off,” finished Tegoshi.
“What!!??”
“Stop scaring him!” Snapped Shige. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“But, Koyama, are you sure you want to record it?” Ryo continued. “Those people in Paranormal Activity did it and nothing good came out of it. You are better off filming porn.”
“Then what do I do?” He asked ignoring the last part. “Keep buying extra glasses and only sleep with chicks that like all that supernatural shit?”
“Okay, okay, relax. Ryo, can you get us a couple of cameras?” Shige asked.
“Sure, I can get a couple from work.” Ryo worked in a TV station.
“Good. I’ll help you with the cameras and we’ll see what happens. When do you have your next flight, Kei?”
“The day after tomorrow but it’s not a long trip, I’ll be back in 48 hours.”
“Perfect, come pick us up tomorrow and I’ll set everything up and we’ll see.”
The next day in the afternoon they all met at Ryo’s. They were all curious. Ryo had gotten a couple of cameras that could be set up high up on the walls.
They finally got to Koyama’s apartment and when he opened the door he froze. His TV was on.
“I didn’t even turn my TV on today,” he told his friends and then right in front of them the TV turned off on itself.
Tegoshi and Massu got closer and seemed about to hug.
“I told you! I have…”
“Calm down and stop screaming. Look, you guys take him for a walk and I’ll stay with Ryo to fix everything up.” Shige intervened.
“I don’t want to stay in a haunted house,” whined Ryo
Shige rolled his eyes and said: “Give me a break. You are staying, the rest go.”
****
Lara decided that, since she had to stay in, she could wash her clothes, do some exercises and watch some TV. She put her clothes on the washer and then put on some music. She started stretching and doing warm up exercises. Even though she wasn’t dancing at the moment she had to keep up her training.
She should put on some sweats and a shirt… who cares. She was alone in the apartment, the drapes were closed so no one would see her and no one would come. After a while her favorite song came on and she just started dancing to it. One of the great things about having a whole apartment to yourself was to do these kinds of stupid things and no one was there to judge you.
After she worked up a sweat, she put her clothes in the dryer and took a long bath.
Clean and relaxed she made herself some dinner and ate it while watching some romantic dorama. The main guy had finally worked up his courage and told the girl he loved her and that he was sorry for being a jerk to her for half the show.
“Yeah, right. Don’t believe him. He’s lying! No no. Don’t let him hug you! Urgh and now you kiss him. Great. Don’t forget I warned you.”
She turned off the TV angrily. She grabbed her beer and looked out the window. The view was beautiful. That was one of the things that had convinced her… them, to move in. They would drink a beer, wrapped up in each other and maybe a blanket. They would talk, and he would kiss her neck…
She shook her head. How had everything ended up so bad? She moved away from the window briskly. Enough about him. She went to the room and lay on the bed. She turned on the TV and fell asleep in front of it.
She didn’t hear the alarm clock at first. When she finally opened her eyes, she was late. She jumped out of the bed and straightened the sheets. She put on the same sweats and shirt, she really didn’t care what she wore, ran her fingers through her hair and left the room.
****
He was back from his flight and his friends were all sitting in front of his laptop. Tegoshi had come with him, since they worked in the same airline and Tegoshi had been the flight engineer in his flight. The rest were just curious and had ditched their jobs to play ghost hunters. They had set one of cameras in the kitchen and, since the activity seemed to be focused there, they started with that camera. They fast forwarded the beginning and then started watching closely.
After a few minutes all the blood went to their feet and their hearts started beating fast. The kitchen cabinet door, below the sink, started to open and a pale hand came out. The door opened further and they saw the head. The face was completely covered in dark hair and the body was bent in an awkward shape. The figure crawled out of the small space, too small for any human being to fit in, and stood. It seemed like a child or maybe a small woman and was wearing light colored clothes. With a tumbling pace it left the kitchen. They fast forwarded until the figure showed up again. It's pace was more agile now, but the hair was still covering the face. It went to the kitchen sink opened the door of the cabinet and, again bending at an awkward angle crawled back into the cabinet. A few minutes later, Koyama appeared on the screen, came in, opened the fridge to take out the beers they were now drinking.
They were all frozen in place and then as one, they looked towards the kitchen.
****
They were pushing him into his kitchen.
“Wait, wait. Let’s call the police.”
“I doubt they handle ghosts,” Tegoshi said.
“Stop pushing me! And I don’t want to go alone… Shige, maybe I can move in with you.”
“No,” was Shige’s brief answer.
“Fine, I’ll go with you,” Yamapi offered and they both went in. Immediately after, the rest of them came in. Koyama turned around to look at them.
“Why the hell did you make a fuss if you were all going to come with me anyway?” Koyama whispered, not knowing why he was whispering.
They all shrugged at the same time and Tegoshi pushed him forward again.
When he got to the cabinet door he grabbed a plunger and held it as a bat.
“How is that going to help with a ghost?”
“Shut up, Ryo.”
Koyama yanked the door open and there was nothing there. He took the flashlight Yamapi had in his hand and gave him the plunger.
“There is nothing here” he said and screamed when a pair of eyes behind long black hair stared back at him from a little hole in the wall on the side of the cabinet.
Chapter 2
At first Koyama froze, and then jumped back screaming.
“What is it??” someone shouted.
“Aaaaahhhhh!” was Koyama’s answer pointing at the sink with his finger. Tegoshi and Massu ran to the other side of the kitchen table and hugged each other. Yamapi approached the sink cautiously, flanked by Shige and Ryo. Hesitantly, he duck and looked inside.
He jumped back and opened his eyes wide.
“What the… who are you?” He reached out and touched the very flesh and blood person in the small space, who flinched.
Yamapi looked out and said: “It’s not a ghost it's a person. Come out of there.” The girl looking out at him just stared with wide eyes but didn’t move. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” Nothing. “You don’t want us to call the police do you?” That got a reaction. She opened her eyes wider, even if it hadn’t seemed possible. She shook her head and started to come out, bending like before.
When she was finally out she stood up. By then, Koyama, Tegoshi and Massu had composed themselves and they were all looking at the girl. She was short and seemed extremely small, although it might have been the effect of the excessively baggy clothes, which Koyama noticed were his.
“Those are my clothes!”
They all looked at him and Shige said: “You find a woman under your sink and that’s what you are focusing on?”
Koyama shrugged. “Who are you? What were you doing under my sink and why are you wearing my clothes?”
The girl looked at him wide eyed. “Um… uh…” She started.
“Does she even understand what we are saying? She doesn’t look Japanese.”
“Tegoshi is right,” Ryo agreed.
“I don’t care, I calling the police,” Koyama said and started walking to the living room.
“No!” The girl finally spoke. “I-I understand what you are saying. I’m sorry I took your clothes. Please don’t call the police.”
She spoke with a slight accent. Koyama stared at her with an eyebrow raised. “Okay, you have two minutes to explain and then I’m calling the cops.”
She stood there, biting her lower lip. Koyama lift the phone.
“Wait!” She said.
“Koyama, give her a minute,” Massu intervened and then turned to the girl. “I’m Masuda Takahisa, what’s your name?”
“Lara.”
“Okay, Lara-san, let’s go to the living room. Tegoshi make some tea and we’ll talk.”
“Um, okay.” She answered and they all went to the living room, leaving Tegoshi making tea and Koyama fuming.
Lara was sitting surrounded by 6 guys looking at her expectantly. She could only recognize the tall one from the photos in the apartment.
“So talk, now,” he demanded.
“Um… I don’t have a place to stay or money to find one.” She said and shut up.
“I’m gonna need a bit more than that,” Koyama said.
“That’s pretty much it.”
“Don’t you have a job?”
“No. I can’t really get one.”
“Why not?”
Koyama was still looking at her crossly, not that she blamed him. Still, she wasn’t sure that answering that particular question would actually help.
“Well, I’m… not…”
“What?!” Koyama snapped again.
“Not entirely legal in the country…”
“What!” Was the general reaction.
“Okay, now I have to call the police. I’m not harboring an illegal alien.” Koyama said shaking his head and going to the phone. She was so screwed.
“Please, no! I’ll leave, I swear, and no one would know.” Though she had no idea where she would go.
“Okay, sounds good.”
“Hold on, Kei,” that was… Yamashita? Yes, Yamashita. “Lara-san, do you have anywhere to go?”
“Who cares? We are committing a felony right now,” this Kei was such a sweetheart, wasn’t he? “Tell them, Shige!”
“Yes, it is a crime… still… it feels wrong to kick her out on the street,” he finished in a mumble.
“Oh, for the love of…” Koyama said throwing his hands to the air.
“So, do you have a place to go?” Shige asked, ignoring his friend.
“If I did, I would be there already.”
“Wait. How did you get in?” Koyama asked. “I never found a broken window and the door was never broken… how did you get in?”
She sat back on the sofa and tried to make herself small and then looked up with wide eyes and a shy half smile.
“What are those puppy eyes for?” Koyama frowned.
Still, she said nothing.
“Holy…!” Ryo exclaimed. “She’s always been here.”
“That is sooo creepy,” Masuda, everybody calls me Massu, shivered.
“What?! That’s… no… I mean… no,” Koyama stammered, his small eyes looking huge and Lara was this close to crawling back under the sink.
“We are checking every single space in our apartment when we go back home,” Tegoshi mumbled under his breath and Massu nodded.
“You better start explaining because… that’s just… wrong,” Yamashita said shaking his head looking a little freaked out.
“Explain? Explain? No, I’m calling the police…”
“No, no. Please,” Lara interrupted Koyama. She took a deep breath and then words just started pouring out. “I used to live here with my husband… ex husband. He left me and took everything and now it turns out, I don’t have a visa because there would always be time to start on the residency later, or so he kept saying. So I have nowhere to go. All our friends here were his friends and I didn’t know that many to begin with.”
She took a deep breath and let it out. She lifted her eyes.
“I just didn’t know what to do, so I stayed here. When I heard someone come in to show the apartment I went under the sink. That hole had always been there and Tackey, my ex, said he would fix it, but never did. I never intended to stay after the apartment was rented out but…”
“You decided to stay and use my clothes.” Koyama finished.
She rolled her eyes. “No, you moved in and I hadn’t figured out what to do yet. When I heard you were a pilot I figured you would be absent a lot.”
“How did you know I was a pilot?”
“I heard you speaking on the phone in the kitchen. I hear everything that happens in the kitchen.”
“EVERYTHING?” How much bigger could his eyes get?
“But I hear nothing from any other room,” she offered and went on. “And the clothes, I’m sorry but you threw away all me clothes.”
“What?”
“Why would you do that, Koyama?” Tegoshi asked the other man who frowned, thinking.
“Ah,” he gasped. “That bag of clothes I found in the closet? How was I supposed they belonged to the woman living under the sink, I didn’t know about? I gave those away.”
“Okay so that explains how you ended up here so…”
“Man, does she have a great rack under those baggy clothes!” She heard someone exclaim.
She looked around and there were only 5 men around her now. Ryo, the one who had spoken, was sitting in front of a laptop with his back to her and she could see… herself on the screen stretching… in her old underwear.
She ran to the computer, pushing the other guys who were all watching the screen, reached over Ryo and closed the laptop.
“You perverts!” She screamed. “You… you’ve been filming the house? Why? So you could all watch the screamer from the other night? How long have you had the cameras? You perverts!”
Most of them were looking down, except Ryo, who was staring at her with a smile on his face, and Koyama.
“We only put those two days ago! Relax! And why would you do that in your underwear?” Koyama said.
“I have no clothes and I had to wash the ones I was wearing. I wasn’t expecting any perv to film me so he could watch with his lecherous friends.”
“I’m sorry, Lara-san,” Massu said. “We honestly didn’t know. Kei though he had a ghost so we set up cameras to see what was going on.”
She could understand that. In the last weeks she had been clumsy, dropping glasses and having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Still…
“Would you stop staring at my chest?” she snapped at the still smiling Ryo.
“What did you mean the screamer?” Tegoshi asked with a smirk.
“Huh? Oh. He came home with some woman and they just had to do it in the kitchen. She was very loud and kept saying that maybe they would have an experience from out of this world and maybe the ghost would join them… You have no idea what I had to hear. Perv!” She finished looking at Koyama. His five friends burst out laughing; Tegoshi, Ryo and Shige were openly laughing grabbing their stomachs. The other two were also laughing but more discreetly and Koyama was looking at her with a weird mix of surprise, embarrassment and murderous intent.
“She is out of here!” He roared.
“What? Why?” She asked offended.
“Why? You have the nerve to ask me why?”
“Okay, let’s calm down,” Shige intervened composing himself and succeeding, mostly. “Let’s sit down and talk and maybe have a drink.”
“And I’m hungry, too.” Tegoshi chimed in.
“Are you guys insane?” Koyama asked in earnest. He was really starting to doubt his friends' sanity.
“No, Kei,” Shige soothed “we are just reluctant to throw a girl on the street or to jail without discussing it first.”
“Specially a girl with such a nice rack.” Ryo added.
“Yes, a very nice rack,” Tegoshi agreed.
Lara wanted to punch both of them but, since they were arguing her case, she swallowed her words and sat back down while they ordered food and got some drinks.
“Why don’t you go back home?” Koyama asked Lara. He was trying to think any way in which she would be out of his house.
“I have nothing back home either. I used to have an apartment but I sold it when I came here. And my mother… well, she’s not an option. So I would be on the streets just in a different country. And I kinda like living here, I already got used to it.”
“How long have you been here?” Massu asked.
Who cared? Koyama thought. Why were they all talking to her as though they had been friends forever? And she had just come out from under their fricking sink, which still creep Koyama out.
She looked up, thinking. She was pretty, Koyama supposed. She had pretty green eyes, wide and almond shaped, full lips and her hair was long wavy and it was dark with a hint of red in it. It looked soft, the sort that made you want to tangle your fingers in it. If he wasn’t still creeped out by her crawling from under the sink. No, he still couldn’t forget it, and wouldn’t for a while.
“Five years. I got married when I was 20 and we came here. I’ve been alone here for the past 8 months,” she finished as if she was just realizing it. She drank from her beer, heavily. His friends did the same and he couldn’t be less, so he drank as well.
They kept drinking. It got dark and at this point they were, well, a little tipsy.
“So, we have to figure out a way for you to stay,” Tegoshi stated putting his hands on his thighs with a determined nod.
“How?” She asked.
“Stay? I think…”
“Shige,” Ryo interrupted ignoring Koyama completely, “you’re a lawyer, how do we make her stay?”
“That’s not really my area…”
“Right,” Yamashita said bringing the laptop.
“No, no, no. You are not watching me stretch naked ever again!”
“Relax, we are just going to search for what you need to get your visa back. Ryo told you he erased your video.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t trust Ryo on that.”
“Ah, already she knows you so well,” Massu chuckled. “But I did see him erase it.”
“Okay, so, visas… Here,” Yamashita pointed at the screen. “Skilled labor… Are you a good cook? Can you cook meals from your country?”
“Um… not really. I can cook… a little but not much.”
“I doubt you are an animal trainer… how about pilot, Koyama can help you with that!”
“I think they mean that she should already be a pilot for an airline, Yamapi,” Koyama countered.
“Oh… Legal, accounting services?”
Lara just stared and then just started laughing; she was soon followed by everybody else. No, it wasn’t that funny but they were all pretty drunk at this point. The only consensus was that they needed to find her a job and Shige would help with the legal part afterwards. And, after Koyama was too drunk to argue with any effectiveness, it was decided that she would stay at his apartment until the situation was resolved. He really didn’t want to, but he lost at rock paper, scissors, so, what could he do?
*********
Light filtered through the window. They had fallen asleep as they were the night before. At some moment Ryo had rolled over and had ended up almost spooning Tegoshi. Yamashita was curled up in a little ball by the small table and Massu was sprawled on the other side.
Lara started to wake up, slowly. She was confused. Where was she? She was lying on top of something warm, soft with hard ridges at the same time. A person, he smelled nice too. Mmhh, Tackey, she thought. Hadn’t he left? No, that had probably been a dream. She slid her arms around his waist and she felt his arms hug her a little closer as he settled back. It had been so long since they had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Tackey had been affectionate at first but, after the second year, something had changed. She often lay awake at night trying to think what had changed, exactly. It didn’t matter now. She just rejoiced in the feeling of him and the smell of him. Although he did smell different and he felt a little different too. It didn’t matter, it felt so good to be held, in silence, with no recriminations, no fights.
Lara nuzzled the chest beneath her through the shirt. His arms tightened a little more and, feeling bold, she blindly felt for his throat and started kissing him. She felt him nuzzle her hair and start caressing her back. His hand went down her spine, all the way down and pressed her against him. It was getting harder to breath. It felt so much better than any time before, even though she was still half asleep and he seemed to be too.
“Tackey,” she said in a soft inaudible sigh.
“Well, whenever you too are done groping each other, we can wake the others up and have breakfast and I can tell you my good news,” Shige said.
Chapter 3
“Well, whenever you two are done groping each other, we can wake the others up and have breakfast and I can tell you my good news,” Shige said.
That’s when they both opened their eyes. Lara jumped back and screamed: “What the hell… You were grabbing my ass!!”
“What?! You were grabbing me all over and kissing me! And you started it. I was still half asleep.”
“Well, I was half asleep too. I would have never done that otherwise. I… I th…” She didn’t finish the sentence. What was she going to say? That she missed her ex? That she was still hoping to wake up with him even though he had left her and taken everything, EVERYTHING. That in spite having returned to an empty apartment, yes he had taken all except for her clothes and shoes, and even though she hadn’t heard from him in 8 months, a part of her wanted him to come back. How pathetic was that?
She glared in Koyama’s general direction but she wasn’t glaring at him. She was glaring at her own stupidity.
Koyama glared back but before they could continue with the shouting and bickering, Shige said: “Okay, you took care of waking everybody up; Thanks, you two were very efficient.”
“But loud,” groaned Ryo.
“What time is it? It’s late!” Yamapi exclaimed. “Um, I have to make a phone call.”
“Okay,” Koyama shrugged.
“Um, in private…”
Koyama’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay, go in the kitchen and make some coffee while we set what Shige brought.”
“Food! I was getting sooo hungry,” Massu said eagerly.
“Sooo hungry,” echoed Tegoshi.
They set up the things, taking turns to go to the bathroom. Since it was Saturday nobody had to go to work, a fact about which Koyama kept grumbling about.
“Aren’t you guys ever gonna leave?” he kept asking under his breath. The others simply ignored him, which gave Lara the impression that Koyama didn’t really mean it. Or the other men simply didn’t care.
Lara noticed that Yamapi hadn’t come back and she decided to go help him get the coffee. She was feeling guilty about squatting so she wanted to help out as much as she could.
She was inside when she realized he was still talking on the phone.
“Again, I’m sorry, I said I called you… Yeah, I know,” he chuckled a little, “Um… When can I see you again?” He sighed. “Why do you keep saying that? I want to see you, I do. If it’s because…” He seemed to catch himself and was silent for a moment. “Just friends then. I don’t know why you feel that way, but I’ll respect it… I just want to see you again… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in this position. Sorry.” He chuckled a little again awkwardly. “Well, we’ll talk later… Yeah, bye.”
It had been definitely a woman.
Lara opened the door and closed it so he wouldn’t know she’d listened. When he heard the door, Yamapi turned around.
“Hi, I thought you might need help with the coffee?” She said trying to sound casual.
“Oh, yeah, thank you. Um… did you hear…?”
“Mhh, no, I just came in…”
“You are not a very good liar are you?”
She groaned, “I’m sorry, I really wasn’t snooping around. I really wanted to help you with the coffee.”
He gave her a sideway smile. Man, what kind of woman could say no to him? He was… well, yummy.
“That’s fine,” he said and went to the coffee maker. Lara got the cups and brought them to him.
“No, it’s not fine.” She frowned. “You know me as the woman who spent the last 6 months living under your friend’s sink, eating his food and using his apartment while he wasn't around. You probably think I walk around naked every time, I really don’t, I just really needed to wash the clothes and I DIDN’T know about the cameras. And then you find out I’m illegally staying in the country, then this morning… I really didn’t know what I was doing. And now I hear your conversation. You must think… I don’t even know what you all must think. Well I’m pretty sure what Koyama thinks…”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “I think you need to breathe, you are started to look all red.” She took a deep breath and he laughed. “I don’t think anything bad. You found yourself in a bad situation and yes, there might have been other ways to handle it, but what’s done is done. I can tell Massu and Tegoshi like you, and Ryo will support anything with a nice rack, so you’re fine as far as he is concerned. Shige seems to have a solution already; he wouldn’t have done that if he disliked you. And Koyama is a very nice guy, so he’ll come around.”
She sniffed, great, now she was gonna cry. When had she become such a wreck?
“It’s fine, really.”
She looked up and took deep breaths and held in the tears until she calmed down a few seconds after. She nodded and they both set the cups on a couple of small trays.
As she was heading back, Yamapi stopped her. “Could you not tell anybody about it? What you heard?”
“I really didn’t hear much. But I won’t say anything.”
“Thanks.”
As they made their way back and set the trays on the table, Koyama said: “We were about to go looking for you two, I was afraid you would attack Yamapi too.”
Lara glared at him.
“Just give her a break,” Yamapi said.
“And you seemed very cozy, and not really trying to fend off an attacker,” added Shige.
Koyama scowled at everyone and said: “Didn’t you have a solution to all this so I can finally have my apartment for myself again?”
“Right. I got up early to get you all breakfast and get information… and I still haven’t heard a thank you.”
“Thank you, Shige!” Everybody said, most of them with their mouths stuff with food.
Shige rolled his eyes and said: “Fine, let’s say that counts. So this morning, while everybody was still sleeping, I got up and called one of the senior lawyers at my firm. He owes me a couple of favors, of which I will NEVER talk about, so I won’t lose my job by calling him up Saturday morning. He said that you may have a chance. Did your husband file for divorce?”
“Yeah, he did. Um, when I came home I found the apartment empty except for my clothes and the divorce papers.” Lara looked down feeling ashamed. Admitting all this was not easy but if Shige could help her...
“Can I see the papers?”
“Sure.”
Lara stood up and went to the kitchen. She was glad she hadn’t left the papers with her clothes but had stashed them away. She went under the sink again and came out with the papers. When she turned around they were all looking at her.
“How can you fit under there?” Koyama asked in wonderment.
She shrugged. “Haven’t you ever seen those people who fit in those small glass boxes? It’s like that. Though, here I tend to get a lot of scraps.” She turned around and showed them one of her shoulders. She had scraped it one time she had to go in a hurry. One of the guys hissed. She laughed a little. “It’s not that bad, it’ll go away. I try not to use tank-tops though. So thank you for the clothes.” She said looking at Koyama with a smile and looking embarrassed again.
Koyama said nothing this time. He couldn’t bitch about her taking his clothes so that she wouldn’t get hurt, could he? And he was still impressed that she had been able to live under that small space for hours, maybe days. He remembered he’d had some weeks off and had stayed in. It was still creepy, but it hadn’t been a picnic on her either, he supposed. Not that Koyama was about to admit that.
They went back to the living room. Lara took out the papers from a carefully closed plastic bag and gave them to Shige. He read them. Finally he nodded.
“Did you agree on getting divorced?”
“I didn’t know he wanted one before that day. I mean, things were not good and it had crossed my mind that that was where we were heading, but it was never discussed.”
“He somehow got a divorce by mutual agreement. As soon as you sign these papers you are divorced.”
“I swear I…”
Shige stopped her. “I believe you. You being a foreigner might have helped if he found a judge who didn’t like foreigners. But, the good news is, according to the lawyer I talked to, we can get a hearing with a judge he knows that would be sympathetic. We can’t do that right now, we’ll have to wait but we need to make you look good in front of the judge. Some of us can speak for you and it would be good if you could find old friends to speak for you as well. Also, we need to get you a job. You have to be good at it and your boss would have to say so at court.”
“Doesn’t sound bad,” Tegoshi said.
“Not at all,” Massu agreed. “We can help you to get a job. Though, first, you need clothes, and shoes.”
“Some make up would be good too,” Ryo added.
“Right, so, since it’s Saturday, we are going shopping.”
“Wait Yamapi, I don’t have any money to buy all those things.”
They all looked at Koyama. “What?”
“Well, you threw away all her things.”
“I’m not buying her anything! Isn’t it enough she’s been living here rent free?”
“Under the sink,” Yamapi pointed out raising an eyebrow.
“Well, she doesn’t have to go back there…” Koyama said.
“Ah, so she can stay!” Tegoshi said.
“Wait, I didn’t say…”
“Good, then it’s settled. She stays here and we’ll go out to buy some clothes so she can get a job. Think of it as an investment. The nicer she looks, the sooner she gets a job and her visa back and the sooner she leaves.”
Koyama seemed to grudgingly accept this. At that moment the bell rang and a female voice said: “Koyama-kun! Open up baby!”
They all looked at each other.
“Koyama-kun, It’s Sakurako. Open up!”
Inside, Lara opened her eyes wide when she recognized the voice burned in her head, “Oh, my god, the screamer!”
I hope you like this new story. If anybody is reading, let me know what you think!
Characters: OC, Kato Shigeaki, Tegoshi Yuya, Masuda Takahisa, Koyama Keichiro, Yamashita Tomohisa, Ryo Nishikido.
Rating: N16
Disclaimer: I own the story ONLY
Summery: Some of the best things in life are unexpected... so are the worst.
Chapter 1
Lara woke up and stretched slowly, felling her joints pop. She loved to do that, stretching while still half asleep and with her eyes close.
Her eyes fell on the alarm clock. Time to get up.
She jumped off the bed and removed the sheets and put them in the washing machine. She ran to the closet and looked for a pair of old sweat pants and a t-shirt. They were big for her, but they were clean and warm and she really didn’t care what she wore. She threw the clothes on and took out the sheets and put them on the dryer.
She drank a cup of coffee milk watching TV while she waited for the sheets to be ready. She did the dishes, dried them and put them away. She went to get the sheets and made the bed.
She looked at the clock. It was getting late. As she left the bedroom the phone started to ring and she ignored it as she always did.
****
Koyama was back home.
“Tadaima,” he mumbled at the empty apartment. He left his suitcase at the entrance, removed his shoes and as he walked to the ringing phone he loosened his tie.
“Hello?” He answered. “Oh hi, mom. No. Yeah, I just walked in. Yes, the flight was good, as usual. No. Well there was a little turbulence, nothing we couldn’t handle.” He laughed. His mother worried every time he had a flight and he had many, considering he was a pilot, well copilot for now. “Yes, of course I’m always careful. How are you and dad?... Really? No, no… Because I don’t want you to… Because I don’t want to meet any more of your friends’ daughters… Well… What do you mean I can’t meet a good woman on my own?” He had enough with the one who didn’t really grasp that they weren’t dating anymore. “Look, mom… I’m tired, can we talk later? Yeah, love you too. Bye.”
He was back home after 2 weeks and all he wanted to do was take a shower and take a nap before he went out that night.
He took off the rest of his clothes and went into the shower. He stayed in good hotels when he was abroad but he missed his own bed and his own shower. With his eyes closed reached for the shampoo. Nothing came out. He opened his eyes. Damn it. He still had shampoo when he had left, hadn’t he? Well obviously not. He would buy some later.
He got out of the shower. He looked for his comb. Where the hell was it? He left the bedroom and found the comb next to his bed. He let out an angry breath. He was getting tired of this. He was always losing things and finding them in a different place from where he had left them.
“I’m telling you, you have a ghost,” Tegoshi was telling him. “And I invited someone who can help you with that.”
“What?” This was supposed to be a group date, no a séance.
“Relax. She is easy and seems a little freaky,” his friend said wiggling his eyebrows. Tegoshi had set the date up. He had broken up with his girlfriend 4 month ago out of the blue. After 2 months he seemed a little depressed and had showed up with blond hair, saying that he wanted a change. They had all been a little worried about him but he was back to his usual bubbly and hyper self.
There were only three of them that night.
“Where are the other guys?”
“Ryo and Shige had work, Yamapi was ‘occupied’,” Massu, Tegoshi’s roommate, explained "he’s not telling us something, you know?” And yes Yamapi was hiding something but it couldn’t be that important, he always told them about important stuff.
At that moment three women came in.
“Ah! Over here!” Tegoshi called.
They introduced each other and ordered some food and drinks.
“Sakurako san, this is the friend I told you about, the one that has a ghost” The face of the woman lit up.
“Really?”
“Yes,” Tegoshi answered for him. “Things move on their own and I swear I’ve heard moans in that apartment.” He finished with a gleam in his eyes. Koyama had to work really hard not to roll his eyes at his friend. “And since you always tell how you are sensitive and psychic I thought you might be able to help him.”
“Oh, yes! Is it a spirit? A poltergeist? Is it a demon? Demons are bad.” she said, thrilled with the idea, as she got closer. Well, she was hot so he decided to play along,
“I’m not sure. Maybe it is a demon. How would I know?” Koyama asked giving her a cute worried look.
“Well, you have…” That was all Koyama paid attention to. He really didn’t care, so he nodded and he ‘ah’ and ‘oh’ at the appropriate places while staring at her cleavage.
“But we should really know what kind of entity it is, so how about we go back to your apartment and figure it out,” she drawled at the end of the night tracing the rim of her glass with her finger and smiled.
Why hadn’t he thought of the ghost excuse before? They got out of there and to his apartment.
The girl started walking with her arms in front of her, “sensing the aura.”
“Ooohh I feel something,” the girl said. “There is definitely a presence here.”
He went up to the girl and put his hands on her bare shoulders. “Really, what else do you feel?”
She chuckled. She walked straight for his kitchen. Great, he thought suppressing groan. “Here,” she continued, “It is an old presence.”
Okay, he’d had enough. He shut her up by kissing her. He was getting some tonight, enough talking. He started to run his hand down her back and she took out his jacket and started to unbutton his shirt.
“How ‘bout we take this into the bedroom so we don’t disturb my ghost’s sensitivity?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I kinda like the idea of being watched by someone from the other side.”
Ookaay, freaky, but he wasn’t about to stop now.
They did make to his bedroom, eventually.
Sometime in the middle of the night, a noise woke him up. It was a loud bump, a chair falling down and a soft moan and then the sound of glass breaking and another soft moan.
“Oh, my god!” she squealed, somehow managing to do so in a low voice. “It’s here!”
She jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen where the noise had come from. He followed close behind. When they came in they saw some of their clothes that they had scattered before as well as two chairs on the floor, glasses on the floor next to a dish cloth.
“What the hell is going on?” He whispered more to himself that to the naked girl next to him.
“Well, you, sir, have a poltergeist!” She said with the same excitement as if she was saying ‘we just won a million dollars.’
No way.
***
“You want to do what?”
“I want to put cameras all around my apartment.”
Ryo smiled, “Kinky, I like it. Plus you can sell the videos online, the girls you are with are usually hot and you don’t look bad yourself. We could set some lights…”
“Please, don’t finish that thought.” He took a deep breath. “Weird things are happening in my apartment.”
“Yes, you told us about that night with Sakurako-san,” Shige said.
“Who is still calling me and stalking me by the way. Thank you for introducing us.” He had enough with his boss’s daughter. They had dated a few times and he didn’t know how to break it off so that it wouldn’t affect his job. Or maybe he shouldn’t totally discard her. It might be good to be the boss’s son in law…
Tegoshi merely shrugged his shoulder “I didn’t hear you complain when you were sticking your tongue down her throat or when she asked you to take her to your apartment and I’m sure you didn’t complain that night when you were…”
“Anyway. I hear shuffling of feet and scurrying feet in the middle of the night and when I get up and look, there is no one there. I’ve found broken glasses. And… and my shower drain got clogged and I found… I found long dark hair in it.” He finished repressing a gag.
“Oh, my god! You are going bald!” Massu shrieked putting his hands on his chest.
“Haven’t you ever seen horror movies? The handsome man always finds the hair of the scary ghost right before he dies!!” Koyama didn’t care if his friends thought he was crazy, he was freaking out. “No! I have a fucking ghost! And it’s coming after me… And they always go after the stupid friends who don’t believe the handsome man.”
“So now the handsome man wants to get his friends to help him by calling them stupid and throwing a hissy fit.” Yamapi drawled.
“And it will probably go after the sluttiest one of us,” Tegoshi said looking at Ryo.
“Oi, you’re the stupid blond, they always go first.”
“Hey, who are you calling stupid? And I rock the blond hair.”
“Enough,” interrupted Yamashita. “Okay, you have a ghost, do you have any idea who it might be?”
“No. Well, maybe someone who lived there before me. I’ve only been there for six months. Before me there was this couple who just moved out.”
“Just moved out?”
Koyama nodded. “I don’t talk much with my neighbors, but apparently they lived there for a few years and one day they left.”
“Oohh, I bet they didn’t just leave,” Tegoshi said.
“Hai, hai. Probably the guy killed his wife,” added Massu.
“Yeah, and then hid the body inside the walls of the apartment and just took off,” finished Tegoshi.
“What!!??”
“Stop scaring him!” Snapped Shige. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“But, Koyama, are you sure you want to record it?” Ryo continued. “Those people in Paranormal Activity did it and nothing good came out of it. You are better off filming porn.”
“Then what do I do?” He asked ignoring the last part. “Keep buying extra glasses and only sleep with chicks that like all that supernatural shit?”
“Okay, okay, relax. Ryo, can you get us a couple of cameras?” Shige asked.
“Sure, I can get a couple from work.” Ryo worked in a TV station.
“Good. I’ll help you with the cameras and we’ll see what happens. When do you have your next flight, Kei?”
“The day after tomorrow but it’s not a long trip, I’ll be back in 48 hours.”
“Perfect, come pick us up tomorrow and I’ll set everything up and we’ll see.”
The next day in the afternoon they all met at Ryo’s. They were all curious. Ryo had gotten a couple of cameras that could be set up high up on the walls.
They finally got to Koyama’s apartment and when he opened the door he froze. His TV was on.
“I didn’t even turn my TV on today,” he told his friends and then right in front of them the TV turned off on itself.
Tegoshi and Massu got closer and seemed about to hug.
“I told you! I have…”
“Calm down and stop screaming. Look, you guys take him for a walk and I’ll stay with Ryo to fix everything up.” Shige intervened.
“I don’t want to stay in a haunted house,” whined Ryo
Shige rolled his eyes and said: “Give me a break. You are staying, the rest go.”
****
Lara decided that, since she had to stay in, she could wash her clothes, do some exercises and watch some TV. She put her clothes on the washer and then put on some music. She started stretching and doing warm up exercises. Even though she wasn’t dancing at the moment she had to keep up her training.
She should put on some sweats and a shirt… who cares. She was alone in the apartment, the drapes were closed so no one would see her and no one would come. After a while her favorite song came on and she just started dancing to it. One of the great things about having a whole apartment to yourself was to do these kinds of stupid things and no one was there to judge you.
After she worked up a sweat, she put her clothes in the dryer and took a long bath.
Clean and relaxed she made herself some dinner and ate it while watching some romantic dorama. The main guy had finally worked up his courage and told the girl he loved her and that he was sorry for being a jerk to her for half the show.
“Yeah, right. Don’t believe him. He’s lying! No no. Don’t let him hug you! Urgh and now you kiss him. Great. Don’t forget I warned you.”
She turned off the TV angrily. She grabbed her beer and looked out the window. The view was beautiful. That was one of the things that had convinced her… them, to move in. They would drink a beer, wrapped up in each other and maybe a blanket. They would talk, and he would kiss her neck…
She shook her head. How had everything ended up so bad? She moved away from the window briskly. Enough about him. She went to the room and lay on the bed. She turned on the TV and fell asleep in front of it.
She didn’t hear the alarm clock at first. When she finally opened her eyes, she was late. She jumped out of the bed and straightened the sheets. She put on the same sweats and shirt, she really didn’t care what she wore, ran her fingers through her hair and left the room.
****
He was back from his flight and his friends were all sitting in front of his laptop. Tegoshi had come with him, since they worked in the same airline and Tegoshi had been the flight engineer in his flight. The rest were just curious and had ditched their jobs to play ghost hunters. They had set one of cameras in the kitchen and, since the activity seemed to be focused there, they started with that camera. They fast forwarded the beginning and then started watching closely.
After a few minutes all the blood went to their feet and their hearts started beating fast. The kitchen cabinet door, below the sink, started to open and a pale hand came out. The door opened further and they saw the head. The face was completely covered in dark hair and the body was bent in an awkward shape. The figure crawled out of the small space, too small for any human being to fit in, and stood. It seemed like a child or maybe a small woman and was wearing light colored clothes. With a tumbling pace it left the kitchen. They fast forwarded until the figure showed up again. It's pace was more agile now, but the hair was still covering the face. It went to the kitchen sink opened the door of the cabinet and, again bending at an awkward angle crawled back into the cabinet. A few minutes later, Koyama appeared on the screen, came in, opened the fridge to take out the beers they were now drinking.
They were all frozen in place and then as one, they looked towards the kitchen.
****
They were pushing him into his kitchen.
“Wait, wait. Let’s call the police.”
“I doubt they handle ghosts,” Tegoshi said.
“Stop pushing me! And I don’t want to go alone… Shige, maybe I can move in with you.”
“No,” was Shige’s brief answer.
“Fine, I’ll go with you,” Yamapi offered and they both went in. Immediately after, the rest of them came in. Koyama turned around to look at them.
“Why the hell did you make a fuss if you were all going to come with me anyway?” Koyama whispered, not knowing why he was whispering.
They all shrugged at the same time and Tegoshi pushed him forward again.
When he got to the cabinet door he grabbed a plunger and held it as a bat.
“How is that going to help with a ghost?”
“Shut up, Ryo.”
Koyama yanked the door open and there was nothing there. He took the flashlight Yamapi had in his hand and gave him the plunger.
“There is nothing here” he said and screamed when a pair of eyes behind long black hair stared back at him from a little hole in the wall on the side of the cabinet.
Chapter 2
At first Koyama froze, and then jumped back screaming.
“What is it??” someone shouted.
“Aaaaahhhhh!” was Koyama’s answer pointing at the sink with his finger. Tegoshi and Massu ran to the other side of the kitchen table and hugged each other. Yamapi approached the sink cautiously, flanked by Shige and Ryo. Hesitantly, he duck and looked inside.
He jumped back and opened his eyes wide.
“What the… who are you?” He reached out and touched the very flesh and blood person in the small space, who flinched.
Yamapi looked out and said: “It’s not a ghost it's a person. Come out of there.” The girl looking out at him just stared with wide eyes but didn’t move. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” Nothing. “You don’t want us to call the police do you?” That got a reaction. She opened her eyes wider, even if it hadn’t seemed possible. She shook her head and started to come out, bending like before.
When she was finally out she stood up. By then, Koyama, Tegoshi and Massu had composed themselves and they were all looking at the girl. She was short and seemed extremely small, although it might have been the effect of the excessively baggy clothes, which Koyama noticed were his.
“Those are my clothes!”
They all looked at him and Shige said: “You find a woman under your sink and that’s what you are focusing on?”
Koyama shrugged. “Who are you? What were you doing under my sink and why are you wearing my clothes?”
The girl looked at him wide eyed. “Um… uh…” She started.
“Does she even understand what we are saying? She doesn’t look Japanese.”
“Tegoshi is right,” Ryo agreed.
“I don’t care, I calling the police,” Koyama said and started walking to the living room.
“No!” The girl finally spoke. “I-I understand what you are saying. I’m sorry I took your clothes. Please don’t call the police.”
She spoke with a slight accent. Koyama stared at her with an eyebrow raised. “Okay, you have two minutes to explain and then I’m calling the cops.”
She stood there, biting her lower lip. Koyama lift the phone.
“Wait!” She said.
“Koyama, give her a minute,” Massu intervened and then turned to the girl. “I’m Masuda Takahisa, what’s your name?”
“Lara.”
“Okay, Lara-san, let’s go to the living room. Tegoshi make some tea and we’ll talk.”
“Um, okay.” She answered and they all went to the living room, leaving Tegoshi making tea and Koyama fuming.
Lara was sitting surrounded by 6 guys looking at her expectantly. She could only recognize the tall one from the photos in the apartment.
“So talk, now,” he demanded.
“Um… I don’t have a place to stay or money to find one.” She said and shut up.
“I’m gonna need a bit more than that,” Koyama said.
“That’s pretty much it.”
“Don’t you have a job?”
“No. I can’t really get one.”
“Why not?”
Koyama was still looking at her crossly, not that she blamed him. Still, she wasn’t sure that answering that particular question would actually help.
“Well, I’m… not…”
“What?!” Koyama snapped again.
“Not entirely legal in the country…”
“What!” Was the general reaction.
“Okay, now I have to call the police. I’m not harboring an illegal alien.” Koyama said shaking his head and going to the phone. She was so screwed.
“Please, no! I’ll leave, I swear, and no one would know.” Though she had no idea where she would go.
“Okay, sounds good.”
“Hold on, Kei,” that was… Yamashita? Yes, Yamashita. “Lara-san, do you have anywhere to go?”
“Who cares? We are committing a felony right now,” this Kei was such a sweetheart, wasn’t he? “Tell them, Shige!”
“Yes, it is a crime… still… it feels wrong to kick her out on the street,” he finished in a mumble.
“Oh, for the love of…” Koyama said throwing his hands to the air.
“So, do you have a place to go?” Shige asked, ignoring his friend.
“If I did, I would be there already.”
“Wait. How did you get in?” Koyama asked. “I never found a broken window and the door was never broken… how did you get in?”
She sat back on the sofa and tried to make herself small and then looked up with wide eyes and a shy half smile.
“What are those puppy eyes for?” Koyama frowned.
Still, she said nothing.
“Holy…!” Ryo exclaimed. “She’s always been here.”
“That is sooo creepy,” Masuda, everybody calls me Massu, shivered.
“What?! That’s… no… I mean… no,” Koyama stammered, his small eyes looking huge and Lara was this close to crawling back under the sink.
“We are checking every single space in our apartment when we go back home,” Tegoshi mumbled under his breath and Massu nodded.
“You better start explaining because… that’s just… wrong,” Yamashita said shaking his head looking a little freaked out.
“Explain? Explain? No, I’m calling the police…”
“No, no. Please,” Lara interrupted Koyama. She took a deep breath and then words just started pouring out. “I used to live here with my husband… ex husband. He left me and took everything and now it turns out, I don’t have a visa because there would always be time to start on the residency later, or so he kept saying. So I have nowhere to go. All our friends here were his friends and I didn’t know that many to begin with.”
She took a deep breath and let it out. She lifted her eyes.
“I just didn’t know what to do, so I stayed here. When I heard someone come in to show the apartment I went under the sink. That hole had always been there and Tackey, my ex, said he would fix it, but never did. I never intended to stay after the apartment was rented out but…”
“You decided to stay and use my clothes.” Koyama finished.
She rolled her eyes. “No, you moved in and I hadn’t figured out what to do yet. When I heard you were a pilot I figured you would be absent a lot.”
“How did you know I was a pilot?”
“I heard you speaking on the phone in the kitchen. I hear everything that happens in the kitchen.”
“EVERYTHING?” How much bigger could his eyes get?
“But I hear nothing from any other room,” she offered and went on. “And the clothes, I’m sorry but you threw away all me clothes.”
“What?”
“Why would you do that, Koyama?” Tegoshi asked the other man who frowned, thinking.
“Ah,” he gasped. “That bag of clothes I found in the closet? How was I supposed they belonged to the woman living under the sink, I didn’t know about? I gave those away.”
“Okay so that explains how you ended up here so…”
“Man, does she have a great rack under those baggy clothes!” She heard someone exclaim.
She looked around and there were only 5 men around her now. Ryo, the one who had spoken, was sitting in front of a laptop with his back to her and she could see… herself on the screen stretching… in her old underwear.
She ran to the computer, pushing the other guys who were all watching the screen, reached over Ryo and closed the laptop.
“You perverts!” She screamed. “You… you’ve been filming the house? Why? So you could all watch the screamer from the other night? How long have you had the cameras? You perverts!”
Most of them were looking down, except Ryo, who was staring at her with a smile on his face, and Koyama.
“We only put those two days ago! Relax! And why would you do that in your underwear?” Koyama said.
“I have no clothes and I had to wash the ones I was wearing. I wasn’t expecting any perv to film me so he could watch with his lecherous friends.”
“I’m sorry, Lara-san,” Massu said. “We honestly didn’t know. Kei though he had a ghost so we set up cameras to see what was going on.”
She could understand that. In the last weeks she had been clumsy, dropping glasses and having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Still…
“Would you stop staring at my chest?” she snapped at the still smiling Ryo.
“What did you mean the screamer?” Tegoshi asked with a smirk.
“Huh? Oh. He came home with some woman and they just had to do it in the kitchen. She was very loud and kept saying that maybe they would have an experience from out of this world and maybe the ghost would join them… You have no idea what I had to hear. Perv!” She finished looking at Koyama. His five friends burst out laughing; Tegoshi, Ryo and Shige were openly laughing grabbing their stomachs. The other two were also laughing but more discreetly and Koyama was looking at her with a weird mix of surprise, embarrassment and murderous intent.
“She is out of here!” He roared.
“What? Why?” She asked offended.
“Why? You have the nerve to ask me why?”
“Okay, let’s calm down,” Shige intervened composing himself and succeeding, mostly. “Let’s sit down and talk and maybe have a drink.”
“And I’m hungry, too.” Tegoshi chimed in.
“Are you guys insane?” Koyama asked in earnest. He was really starting to doubt his friends' sanity.
“No, Kei,” Shige soothed “we are just reluctant to throw a girl on the street or to jail without discussing it first.”
“Specially a girl with such a nice rack.” Ryo added.
“Yes, a very nice rack,” Tegoshi agreed.
Lara wanted to punch both of them but, since they were arguing her case, she swallowed her words and sat back down while they ordered food and got some drinks.
“Why don’t you go back home?” Koyama asked Lara. He was trying to think any way in which she would be out of his house.
“I have nothing back home either. I used to have an apartment but I sold it when I came here. And my mother… well, she’s not an option. So I would be on the streets just in a different country. And I kinda like living here, I already got used to it.”
“How long have you been here?” Massu asked.
Who cared? Koyama thought. Why were they all talking to her as though they had been friends forever? And she had just come out from under their fricking sink, which still creep Koyama out.
She looked up, thinking. She was pretty, Koyama supposed. She had pretty green eyes, wide and almond shaped, full lips and her hair was long wavy and it was dark with a hint of red in it. It looked soft, the sort that made you want to tangle your fingers in it. If he wasn’t still creeped out by her crawling from under the sink. No, he still couldn’t forget it, and wouldn’t for a while.
“Five years. I got married when I was 20 and we came here. I’ve been alone here for the past 8 months,” she finished as if she was just realizing it. She drank from her beer, heavily. His friends did the same and he couldn’t be less, so he drank as well.
They kept drinking. It got dark and at this point they were, well, a little tipsy.
“So, we have to figure out a way for you to stay,” Tegoshi stated putting his hands on his thighs with a determined nod.
“How?” She asked.
“Stay? I think…”
“Shige,” Ryo interrupted ignoring Koyama completely, “you’re a lawyer, how do we make her stay?”
“That’s not really my area…”
“Right,” Yamashita said bringing the laptop.
“No, no, no. You are not watching me stretch naked ever again!”
“Relax, we are just going to search for what you need to get your visa back. Ryo told you he erased your video.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t trust Ryo on that.”
“Ah, already she knows you so well,” Massu chuckled. “But I did see him erase it.”
“Okay, so, visas… Here,” Yamashita pointed at the screen. “Skilled labor… Are you a good cook? Can you cook meals from your country?”
“Um… not really. I can cook… a little but not much.”
“I doubt you are an animal trainer… how about pilot, Koyama can help you with that!”
“I think they mean that she should already be a pilot for an airline, Yamapi,” Koyama countered.
“Oh… Legal, accounting services?”
Lara just stared and then just started laughing; she was soon followed by everybody else. No, it wasn’t that funny but they were all pretty drunk at this point. The only consensus was that they needed to find her a job and Shige would help with the legal part afterwards. And, after Koyama was too drunk to argue with any effectiveness, it was decided that she would stay at his apartment until the situation was resolved. He really didn’t want to, but he lost at rock paper, scissors, so, what could he do?
*********
Light filtered through the window. They had fallen asleep as they were the night before. At some moment Ryo had rolled over and had ended up almost spooning Tegoshi. Yamashita was curled up in a little ball by the small table and Massu was sprawled on the other side.
Lara started to wake up, slowly. She was confused. Where was she? She was lying on top of something warm, soft with hard ridges at the same time. A person, he smelled nice too. Mmhh, Tackey, she thought. Hadn’t he left? No, that had probably been a dream. She slid her arms around his waist and she felt his arms hug her a little closer as he settled back. It had been so long since they had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Tackey had been affectionate at first but, after the second year, something had changed. She often lay awake at night trying to think what had changed, exactly. It didn’t matter now. She just rejoiced in the feeling of him and the smell of him. Although he did smell different and he felt a little different too. It didn’t matter, it felt so good to be held, in silence, with no recriminations, no fights.
Lara nuzzled the chest beneath her through the shirt. His arms tightened a little more and, feeling bold, she blindly felt for his throat and started kissing him. She felt him nuzzle her hair and start caressing her back. His hand went down her spine, all the way down and pressed her against him. It was getting harder to breath. It felt so much better than any time before, even though she was still half asleep and he seemed to be too.
“Tackey,” she said in a soft inaudible sigh.
“Well, whenever you too are done groping each other, we can wake the others up and have breakfast and I can tell you my good news,” Shige said.
Chapter 3
“Well, whenever you two are done groping each other, we can wake the others up and have breakfast and I can tell you my good news,” Shige said.
That’s when they both opened their eyes. Lara jumped back and screamed: “What the hell… You were grabbing my ass!!”
“What?! You were grabbing me all over and kissing me! And you started it. I was still half asleep.”
“Well, I was half asleep too. I would have never done that otherwise. I… I th…” She didn’t finish the sentence. What was she going to say? That she missed her ex? That she was still hoping to wake up with him even though he had left her and taken everything, EVERYTHING. That in spite having returned to an empty apartment, yes he had taken all except for her clothes and shoes, and even though she hadn’t heard from him in 8 months, a part of her wanted him to come back. How pathetic was that?
She glared in Koyama’s general direction but she wasn’t glaring at him. She was glaring at her own stupidity.
Koyama glared back but before they could continue with the shouting and bickering, Shige said: “Okay, you took care of waking everybody up; Thanks, you two were very efficient.”
“But loud,” groaned Ryo.
“What time is it? It’s late!” Yamapi exclaimed. “Um, I have to make a phone call.”
“Okay,” Koyama shrugged.
“Um, in private…”
Koyama’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay, go in the kitchen and make some coffee while we set what Shige brought.”
“Food! I was getting sooo hungry,” Massu said eagerly.
“Sooo hungry,” echoed Tegoshi.
They set up the things, taking turns to go to the bathroom. Since it was Saturday nobody had to go to work, a fact about which Koyama kept grumbling about.
“Aren’t you guys ever gonna leave?” he kept asking under his breath. The others simply ignored him, which gave Lara the impression that Koyama didn’t really mean it. Or the other men simply didn’t care.
Lara noticed that Yamapi hadn’t come back and she decided to go help him get the coffee. She was feeling guilty about squatting so she wanted to help out as much as she could.
She was inside when she realized he was still talking on the phone.
“Again, I’m sorry, I said I called you… Yeah, I know,” he chuckled a little, “Um… When can I see you again?” He sighed. “Why do you keep saying that? I want to see you, I do. If it’s because…” He seemed to catch himself and was silent for a moment. “Just friends then. I don’t know why you feel that way, but I’ll respect it… I just want to see you again… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in this position. Sorry.” He chuckled a little again awkwardly. “Well, we’ll talk later… Yeah, bye.”
It had been definitely a woman.
Lara opened the door and closed it so he wouldn’t know she’d listened. When he heard the door, Yamapi turned around.
“Hi, I thought you might need help with the coffee?” She said trying to sound casual.
“Oh, yeah, thank you. Um… did you hear…?”
“Mhh, no, I just came in…”
“You are not a very good liar are you?”
She groaned, “I’m sorry, I really wasn’t snooping around. I really wanted to help you with the coffee.”
He gave her a sideway smile. Man, what kind of woman could say no to him? He was… well, yummy.
“That’s fine,” he said and went to the coffee maker. Lara got the cups and brought them to him.
“No, it’s not fine.” She frowned. “You know me as the woman who spent the last 6 months living under your friend’s sink, eating his food and using his apartment while he wasn't around. You probably think I walk around naked every time, I really don’t, I just really needed to wash the clothes and I DIDN’T know about the cameras. And then you find out I’m illegally staying in the country, then this morning… I really didn’t know what I was doing. And now I hear your conversation. You must think… I don’t even know what you all must think. Well I’m pretty sure what Koyama thinks…”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “I think you need to breathe, you are started to look all red.” She took a deep breath and he laughed. “I don’t think anything bad. You found yourself in a bad situation and yes, there might have been other ways to handle it, but what’s done is done. I can tell Massu and Tegoshi like you, and Ryo will support anything with a nice rack, so you’re fine as far as he is concerned. Shige seems to have a solution already; he wouldn’t have done that if he disliked you. And Koyama is a very nice guy, so he’ll come around.”
She sniffed, great, now she was gonna cry. When had she become such a wreck?
“It’s fine, really.”
She looked up and took deep breaths and held in the tears until she calmed down a few seconds after. She nodded and they both set the cups on a couple of small trays.
As she was heading back, Yamapi stopped her. “Could you not tell anybody about it? What you heard?”
“I really didn’t hear much. But I won’t say anything.”
“Thanks.”
As they made their way back and set the trays on the table, Koyama said: “We were about to go looking for you two, I was afraid you would attack Yamapi too.”
Lara glared at him.
“Just give her a break,” Yamapi said.
“And you seemed very cozy, and not really trying to fend off an attacker,” added Shige.
Koyama scowled at everyone and said: “Didn’t you have a solution to all this so I can finally have my apartment for myself again?”
“Right. I got up early to get you all breakfast and get information… and I still haven’t heard a thank you.”
“Thank you, Shige!” Everybody said, most of them with their mouths stuff with food.
Shige rolled his eyes and said: “Fine, let’s say that counts. So this morning, while everybody was still sleeping, I got up and called one of the senior lawyers at my firm. He owes me a couple of favors, of which I will NEVER talk about, so I won’t lose my job by calling him up Saturday morning. He said that you may have a chance. Did your husband file for divorce?”
“Yeah, he did. Um, when I came home I found the apartment empty except for my clothes and the divorce papers.” Lara looked down feeling ashamed. Admitting all this was not easy but if Shige could help her...
“Can I see the papers?”
“Sure.”
Lara stood up and went to the kitchen. She was glad she hadn’t left the papers with her clothes but had stashed them away. She went under the sink again and came out with the papers. When she turned around they were all looking at her.
“How can you fit under there?” Koyama asked in wonderment.
She shrugged. “Haven’t you ever seen those people who fit in those small glass boxes? It’s like that. Though, here I tend to get a lot of scraps.” She turned around and showed them one of her shoulders. She had scraped it one time she had to go in a hurry. One of the guys hissed. She laughed a little. “It’s not that bad, it’ll go away. I try not to use tank-tops though. So thank you for the clothes.” She said looking at Koyama with a smile and looking embarrassed again.
Koyama said nothing this time. He couldn’t bitch about her taking his clothes so that she wouldn’t get hurt, could he? And he was still impressed that she had been able to live under that small space for hours, maybe days. He remembered he’d had some weeks off and had stayed in. It was still creepy, but it hadn’t been a picnic on her either, he supposed. Not that Koyama was about to admit that.
They went back to the living room. Lara took out the papers from a carefully closed plastic bag and gave them to Shige. He read them. Finally he nodded.
“Did you agree on getting divorced?”
“I didn’t know he wanted one before that day. I mean, things were not good and it had crossed my mind that that was where we were heading, but it was never discussed.”
“He somehow got a divorce by mutual agreement. As soon as you sign these papers you are divorced.”
“I swear I…”
Shige stopped her. “I believe you. You being a foreigner might have helped if he found a judge who didn’t like foreigners. But, the good news is, according to the lawyer I talked to, we can get a hearing with a judge he knows that would be sympathetic. We can’t do that right now, we’ll have to wait but we need to make you look good in front of the judge. Some of us can speak for you and it would be good if you could find old friends to speak for you as well. Also, we need to get you a job. You have to be good at it and your boss would have to say so at court.”
“Doesn’t sound bad,” Tegoshi said.
“Not at all,” Massu agreed. “We can help you to get a job. Though, first, you need clothes, and shoes.”
“Some make up would be good too,” Ryo added.
“Right, so, since it’s Saturday, we are going shopping.”
“Wait Yamapi, I don’t have any money to buy all those things.”
They all looked at Koyama. “What?”
“Well, you threw away all her things.”
“I’m not buying her anything! Isn’t it enough she’s been living here rent free?”
“Under the sink,” Yamapi pointed out raising an eyebrow.
“Well, she doesn’t have to go back there…” Koyama said.
“Ah, so she can stay!” Tegoshi said.
“Wait, I didn’t say…”
“Good, then it’s settled. She stays here and we’ll go out to buy some clothes so she can get a job. Think of it as an investment. The nicer she looks, the sooner she gets a job and her visa back and the sooner she leaves.”
Koyama seemed to grudgingly accept this. At that moment the bell rang and a female voice said: “Koyama-kun! Open up baby!”
They all looked at each other.
“Koyama-kun, It’s Sakurako. Open up!”
Inside, Lara opened her eyes wide when she recognized the voice burned in her head, “Oh, my god, the screamer!”
I hope you like this new story. If anybody is reading, let me know what you think!