[Fanfic] A Beautiful Mess (Chapter Fourteen)
I've been updating rather fast lately. :) But I'm sure you guys don't mind at all. :p HAHA!
As usual, comments, suggestions, reactions, criticisms are gladly welcome. Happy reading! :)
*Author's note: Words written in italics and in blue is spoken in English.*
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was such a sunny morning. In the middle of the spring season, the sun is shining radiantly like it was summer. The famous Omotesando road, which is now bloomed with cherry blossoms, is starting to be packed with cars and the sidewalk is beginning to crowd with people who are on their way to work as Matsumoto Jun watches this view unfold from behind the café’s window. The café is situated at a junction, two stories high and filled with tinted glass windows from ceiling to ground. At the second floor, there’s an open air area with dark wooden chair and tables.
Jun arrived at this place thirty minutes earlier than schedule. Not wanting to be late is not his reason though. He didn’t get to sleep much last night, not after he heard her voice and asked him out for breakfast. He was too excited, like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning to open his gifts. Actually, that’s exactly how he felt in bed last night.
As he pass time looking at the people outside, his eyes caught her from the other side of the street. It was only fifteen minutes after seven and she’s already here. It amazes him at how Yana always makes his heartbeat race so fast than normal and how she always makes him admire her even more each time he sees her.
Yana is wearing a white tank top, a long, purple cardigan, denim shorts and a bulky, multi-colored retro sneakers. She’s also wearing a fedora for disguise purposes as her long, straight hair is being blown gracefully by the wind. For Jun, it was the perfect view. He can go for hours staring at her like this and he would never get tired of it.
He watched her carefully as she waits for her turn to cross the street, keeping a low profile by purposely lowering her fedora hat and her eyes focused on flicking through her IPod to avoid contact from others. Standing in the middle of those people who is totally oblivious that a super popular idol is one of them, Yana stood out from the rest of the crowd with her attractive, slightly covered, small face, her flawless, glowing skin tone, the outstanding figure and not to mention the long, smooth legs. He had never stared at her like this before, probably because he never had the chance to watch her from a far. She’s amazingly and almost perfectly beautiful, makes him wonder how such person exist.
As soon as she crossed the street, Yana spotted Jun sitting by the window, she smiled and hurriedly enters the café.
“Look who finally manages to visit me!” A foreign looking man, around his late twenties, greeted her in English as soon as she steps inside. He was also the one who greeted Jun when he arrived.
“I’ve been busy with the drama, you know.” Yana answers back in the same language. She looks over at Jun who’s secretly trying to comprehend their conversation. “I just really miss eating breakfast here that’s why I came and yes, I miss you too, Alex!” she gently nudged him. From the way they talk, looks like they’re pretty close.
Even if Jun can’t fully understand everything in their conversation, he definitely knows what those last few words mean. He wondered if the words ‘I miss you’, whether in English or Japanese, are just a usual expression for her.
“Let’s go to your usual spot. I reserved it as soon as you text me earlier that you’re coming.” The guy whose name is Alex, took her by the shoulder as he started walking.
“Chotto matte!” Yana starts commanding in Japanese and slowly walks towards Jun. “I have company.” she stops in front of Jun and he stood up from his seat. “Jun-kun, this is Alex, he’s owner of this place. Alex, this is Jun-kun.” She introduced them.
Jun was surprised when Alex extends his hand for a handshake. “Of course, Matsumoto Jun-san from Arashi. Hajimemashite.” The guy has a funny Japanese accent.
“Hajimemashite. You have a nice place.” Jun politely shakes his hand.
“Oh, thank you. Come on, I’ll take to your seat.” Alex leads them to a stairs as Yana and Jun follows him from behind.
“Sorry about that. Alex ambushed me as soon as I came in.” Yana whispered to Jun, getting a bit too close as he can smell the strawberry scent of her cologne.
“You have nothing to worry about.” Jun replied, suddenly catching her gaze. Her eyes, unlike before, have a hint of happiness. It was different now, like he can already sense some life to it.
When they already settled in a corner seat in the open air area of the café, Alex gave them complimentary lemonade and took their orders before leaving the two alone. The place is still silent as it’s still a bit early for regular customers to come in, much to Jun and Yana’s advantage, they can get the place to themselves for a while.
“You’re quite a social butterfly. You’ve got lots of friends.” Jun commented.
“With our chosen career, people would always want to be friends with us. It’s the one of the perks of being in the entertainment industry.” Yana said. “With Alex, I met him through a model friend here in Japan. He was born and raised in Long Beach in LA, same place where I was born and spent the first five years of my life so we clicked right away.”
“I have this image of you travelling to a lot of places. You’re very westernized… in a good way, course.” Jun smiled.
“As a young girl, other kids my age would dream to ride an airplane when they grew up while I have already rode lots of it at the age of 12.” Yana sighed. “It was crazy. My childhood was very different from a normal one and believe me, it wasn’t all that great and fascinating.”
Yana’s mind begin to wander, her eyes is fixated to a certain tree in the street until it became all blurry because she’s been staring at it without blinking. It was then that she noticed Jun looking at her intently, as if waiting for her to speak up again.
“Anyways, how are you, Jun-kun? You’ve been busy?” Yana shifted their conversation as she removes her fedora and began tying up her hair. Of all the things she can share about her twenty-five years of existence, her childhood is the least thing she wanted to touch on.
“Yup, but I am going to be even busier after you finished your drama because I will replace your timeslot.” Jun informed her.
“Really? That’s great! You haven’t had a renzoku since Smile, right?” Yana casually asked. Jun, other hand, is perplexed. Is she taking note of his dramas?
“Yeah, it’s been a year already.” Jun replied coolly, taking a sip from his lemonade.
Yana took note of his shocked reaction after she seemed to talk like an updated fangirl. “I follow your dramas, you know. Just because you’re so badass the first time I saw you in Hana Yori Dango and I found myself looking forward to every drama project you have.” Yana suddenly became shy at how Jun is smiling at her in surprise.
“Really?” Jun is genuinely shocked by her sudden declaration.
“Uhm.” She nods, smiling timidly behind her lemonade. “When Eri-chan told me that they accepted a drama for me with an Arashi member as my leading man, I was secretly wishing it was you…”
Jun’s ears are clapping for joy with what he heard.
“But man, I’m paired with Mr. Hollywood!” They both laughed at that comment.
“Well, nothing can go wrong with Mr. Hollywood, right? After all, he’s Arashi’s acting leading.” Jun wittily commented.
“Of course, during that time, if I were to choose among the five of you, I will absolutely make him my last option. But now, I was glad I met Nino through the drama. He changed my initial impression on him. He’s very professional. He wouldn’t bring a script on set and play games instead of rehearsing but during actual takes, he’s impeccable. Plus, I learned a lot from him, seeing that I’m just a newbie in the drama world and it’s definitely not my forte.” Yana is full of praises. Jun is not surprised, Nino may play around a lot but he knows that he takes his job seriously, especially on his drama work.
“I see, you and Nino are getting along really well now, huh?”
“Yes, but sometimes, he can still be a brat.” Yana laughed.
“A brat will always be a brat. If he isn’t being bratty, he wouldn’t be Nino.” Jun watched her laughed, he notice that she does this peculiar thing to him whenever she laugh. Her eyes crinkle at the corners and her face lights up like fireworks. She laughs so heartily, so real and the way it sounds is so infectious. And now, he decided that it was one of his favorite parts of her personality.
“Speaking of Nino, what did you do to him?” Jun asked, smirking. Somehow, she has an idea on what he’s talking about but it may be wrong so she ask him in return.
“What did I do to him? What are you talking about?” Yana asked, pretending innocently.
And before Jun can answer back, a waiter came over their table and placed their orders in front of them. He waited for the waiter to be out of sight before speaking again.
“The other day, it was really weird. We were filming for VIP Room and we have this model turned actress turned singer guest. After filming, Nino suddenly asked her out for a date. The four of us are stunned out.”
“Good for him. At least he’s thinking of having fun going on dates with girls instead of his game consoles. What does that it has to do with me?” Yana still pretended to sound unknowingly.
Jun is grinning like a stupid boy in his seat. “Stop pretending. The rest of the four of us and you, knew very well that he likes you. Why would he suddenly ask someone out when just last week he’s all over you?”
To be perfectly honest, Jun is shocked by the fact that Nino is trying to date someone else. Of course, he was a tad bit happy but everything is just so sudden. Knowing Nino, he wouldn’t give up whenever he set his mind on something but this thing with Yana unexpectedly changed it.
Yana is smiling as she starts digging into her French toast but she’s very aware that Jun is watching her. “I asked him to try to date someone else besides me.” She said nonchalantly.
“You mean he confessed already?” If Jun follows everything carefully, he came into a conclusion that Nino already told her his feelings.
“Yes and I told him I’m not yet ready.” Yana finally looks up and her eyes went straight into his since he’s leaning on the table.
Those eyes again. Just when she thought that she was over mesmerizing over those pair of big, brown eyes, it assaulted her again. This time, it was so close that she suddenly wanted to lay a hand just to know how it feels to touch the skin around it.
Jun leaned back to his seat after seeing that she was a bit uncomfortable at how their faces are so close with each other.
“Now I understand.” Jun said, stuffing a sausage in his mouth. “You dumped him.” He smirked playfully.
Yana snorts at how he carelessly released those words. “We are still friends. Nothing has changed since that night.” It was a bit true. Nino is still the same after that night, except that sometimes, Yana would catch him staring admiringly at her in between takes and she would find it a bit distracting. “It’s good for him, dating a girl who willingly wants to. It would take his mind away from me.”
Just as Jun figured out from the start, it’s best to take it slow with Yana. Right now, he’s just watching where this budding friendship would take him.
People start filling up the café now and a group young office ladies occupies a table near them. Jun and Yana puts on their disguise of hat and big sunglasses as they started noticing them.
“You know, I’ve been caught with Akanishi a lot of times here, to the point that we don’t disguise ourselves anymore.” Yana kept her tone low but she was smiling beneath those big sunglasses.
“You’re very close with him, right? Like he treats you differently from others.” Jun inquired. Knowing how Akanishi Jin is, he wondered why he’s so gentle when it comes to Yana.
Even though her face is covered, Jun can still see the smile her lips. “He’s like a big brother to me, although he’s just a few days older than I am. Eighteen days older to be exact.” Yana pointed out. “I don’t really know why he treats me differently but I guess he saw me struggled before and maybe he doesn’t want that to happen again that’s why he takes care of me so much. I saw the sincerity in him that why I trust him straightaway.”
Jun can tell from how Yana talks about Jin that their friendship has reach a certain level already and he wondered theirs can surpassed that. He doesn’t feel jealous, though. It more like envy, that Jin has known her so well through all these years and he’s secretly wishing that he can get to know her like that someday.
“Oh, I remember!” Yana claps her hand in the air, recalling something. “Do you know that I’m guesting in VIP Room?” There she goes again with the smile in her lips.
“Really?” Jun was honestly surprised. “I don’t know about it but we’re having a meeting with the staff at TBS later regarding the next recording… So it’s going to be you?” Just the thought of them being together in the same set talking about her interest and hobbies and whatnot makes him very excited.
“I was informed a few days ago and yesterday some staff came to interview me. I was really excited!” She was getting hyper all of a sudden and Jun is finding it cute at how bouncy she gets whenever she’s excited. “It’s my first time on a variety show!”
“We’ll make it a memorable first, I promise. Now, I can’t wait for the recording.” Jun truthfully commented.
“I can’t wait either!” She almost squeals in response making Jun laugh boisterously at her and making the other customers look at them. They both apologized by bowing slightly and went back to laughing quietly now by themselves.