[Fanfic] A Beautiful Mess (Chapter Twenty One)
As an apology for being lazy the past week, I updated fast this time. :D And finally, after so-so updates lately, I'm quite satisfied at how this chapter turned out. This is one of my favorites, actually. (Of course, chapter 18 is the best. LOL.) and I hope everyone will like it also. :)
Reminding you guys again that my fics are unbeta-ed so if there are any mistakes are errors, don't hesitate to tell me. Comment, suggestions, reactions and criticisms are gladly welcomed. Happy reading! XD
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Don’t you think we should establish ground rules on whatever this thing we’re having?”
Matsumoto Jun stare upon her, standing up from his bed to collect her clothes that’s scattered on the floor.
“Ground rules?” He repeats, tossing the piece of rubber to the floor and dropping back to the bed, not bothering to get dressed at all.
“I mean, it’s been what? A month?” She spoke again while putting on her underwear. “Setting ground rules would make it more...”she searched for the proper word. “Simple.” she said, a bit unsatisfied at the word she came up with after seeing him lift his eyebrow. “I mean, if we have rules we know our limitations and by knowing our limitations, we can refrain from committing terrible mistakes in the future.” She smiled, a forced one but Jun is still being iffy about her suggestion.
He shrugged his shoulders obliviously and finally stood up from the bed and picks up his clothes.
She grumbled under her breath, getting a tiny bit irritated that he doesn’t seem to take it seriously. “Think about it, Jun. It’s best for the both of us.” She said, in a much lower tone than usual before disappearing into the bathroom.
Jun heave a sigh and crashed into the couch. He picks up the remote control and turned on the television. It was already past midnight and there’s nothing interesting on TV so he turned it back off. He waits for her to come out, fixing his eyes on the bathroom door but it’s seems like she’ll stay longer inside.
She’s mad. Maybe not mad but disappointed. Or upset. She’s pushing this sex friends thing they are having and it seems like the romance he’s been waiting wouldn’t establish any time sooner. And during times like this when he can’t control his emotions, he would instantly remind himself to take it slow, let her heal, until his emotions eventually cools down. He used to be impatient and moody. If things don’t go his way, he’ll get dismayed but after meeting Yana, he learned to tolerate things in a mild manner and to have self-control, which is good because he also applied this learning to other things like his work.
So maybe he should just give in to this ground rules suggestion but then again he would just fail to live by every code of it.
Yana finally came out from the bathroom and quietly sat on the other side of the couch, there was a deafening silence. She is still obviously upset, it was written all over her face.
“Okay, so what is rule number one?” Jun breaks the silence, uttering those words in such a normal tone.
She turned to face him before she gave into a faint laugh. He laughed too, a bit livelier than hers. Pleasing Yana is an easy task and Jun already got the hang of it.
“No falling in love?” Jun spoke again. Somehow, talking about the ‘no falling in love’ clause of this so-called relationship gets easy as days go by.
“Do you really want to do this? Whole-heartedly want to do this?” Yana tries to confirm. “Coz if you don’t then let’s just forget it and stop this craziness before one of us gets emotionally attached to the other.”
“Let’s do it.” Jun answers immediately. There’s no sense of telling the truth. What if he tells her that he doesn’t want to do these stupid rules? That ever since from the start he already breaks his promise? It will just complicate things and he hates complications with anything connected to her. This sex friends relationship is just perfect for them, simple and easy. And if that is the only way of keeping her, then so be it.
“Okay.” She sighed, putting up both her legs and leaning at edge of the couch. “No jealousy. That’s number two.”
“Sure.” Jun nods. He gets a bit jealous of Nino sometimes and even with the rest of Arashi now that she’s getting closer to them. He gets jealous of Akanishi Jin of all people because they are very close and they have this inseparable bond, also with Nishikido Ryo because they used to be an ‘item’ and even with the rest of her guy friends.
Okay, so two rules already broken. “What’s next?” Jun asked, shrugging off that thought.
“No lying.” She continued.
That makes it three broken rules.
Jun fixed his position on the couch, he’s getting a bit unsteady with every rule she set. “Got it. Next?”
“No going out with just the two of us. It will look like we are on a date.”
“Hold on… What if we get really hungry in the middle of the night? Do we need to call a friend just to accompany us to eat?” Jun raised a question. “You know, there’s nothing wrong with eating out with just the two of us. We’ve done that before. And it’s not like we’re just plain fuck buddies, we’re actually friends, remember?”
Yana did this lip twitching whenever she’s thinking and Jun smiled with the sight of it. She actually does it unconsciously and he finds it really cute.
“Okay. We can go out together just don’t take me to those fancy and fine dine restaurants… I don’t really like going to those kinds of places anyways.”
Jun nodded. At least he haven’t break that rule. Not yet.
“Are there more?” he asked, praying that the fourth one is the last one.
“No surprises of any kind. I hate surprises in general so…”
“Even on your birthday?”
“Especially on my birthday!” She firmly stated.
“Fine… Just how many rules are you trying to establish?” he sarcastically said.
“No fighting.” She continued, ignoring his grumbling.
“In the ‘no fighting’ clause, does that include the ‘no frowning and getting upset and locking oneself inside the bathroom’? Coz I swear, someone just did that blunder a while ago.” He teased her, containing his laughter.
She threw a pillow at him and then he starts laughing.
“Shut up, Matsumoto!” She reached for his ear but he was quick to avoid it, rather, he clutches her wrist and pulled her towards him. She likes pulling his ear whenever he teases her as revenge. “I’m PMS-ing. It’s the hormones talking.” She struggled to release her wrist from his hard grip but to no avail.
He hugs her from behind, locking her waist on his arms. “So every time you PMS, rule number five is invalid? That’s unfair, you know. There should be one rule that can be nullified for me every month… since you PMS every month.” He stated smugly and then reaching for a kiss on her cheeks.
“Rule number seven, no cuddling!” She yelled as she gets away from him.
“Cuddling is okay every month, since I like cuddling.” He giggled seeing that she’s starting to get annoyed.
“You’re such a girl.” Yana accused him, rubbing her fingers on her wrist.
“I’m sorry, are you hurt?” Jun reached for her wrist to check but she pulled away.
“Of course I’m hurt! You gripped me hard!” She retorts back, getting up from the couch and entering his bedroom to look for her bag.
It was the scarred wrist that he gripped. He never saw that scar before or at least he never told her that he saw it and she never plan on telling him everything about it.
“I’m going home, Jun.” She reappears from the room with her bag and a watch on her wrist to hide her protected scar.
“You’re not sleeping over?” He asked.
“I think we should lessen the sleepovers and eating breakfast together… it’s very couple-ish.”
Jun got up from the couch and walk towards her. “Is that rule number eight?” he asked, this time, it was a serious question.
“It’s not.” She shakes her head. “Because I like it.” She chuckled before gazing down on the floor.
“Then stay. Sleep here.” Jun lifts up her chin to look at him. “Because I like it too.”
She smiled, that faint smile that she makes whenever her heart is battling with her mind.
Jun took both her hands and gently squeezed it on his, she was trembling a bit, he can feel it. He moves closer and tenderly placed a kiss on her lips.
“Stay here, okay?” He softly said, brushing the hair on her face and cupping her right cheek. She nodded, she was a little hesitant by the look on her face but she still nodded. “Good.” He mumbled before reaching in for another kiss.
---
Jun searched around the crowded bar, it was unusually packed tonight, seeing that it’s just the middle of the week and all these people swarmed at the same time. He can’t find Shun in the crowd. He looked for the bar, not there, scanned the tables, not there also. He was about the go outside to call him when the man he was looking for appears behind him.
“Bad timing. Look at all these people.” Jun points at the crowd. “Let’s find a quieter place.”
“This is fine. Our friendly bartender reserved a seat for us.” Shun smiled before pointing at the two empty stools at the edge of the bar.
They settled at the reserved seats and ordered their alcohol.
It was Shun who asked for this drinking session, saying that it’s been a while since they last hang out. In truth though, Jun is avoiding his best friend since that night in the club. Shun doesn’t like Yana, it was written all over his face that night but what can Jun do, he’s crazy for her.
“So, how are things? Been busy?” Shun started the conversation.
“Umm.” Jun nodded. “The drama takes my time these days.” As long as they settle on safe topics, it’s fine with him. He just doesn’t want this conversation to go to Yana because he is sure that there will be an argument, he just doesn’t know how heated it will be.
Shun chuckled then shakes his head, Jun stares at him blankly.
“Come on, Jun. We both know why we are here.” Shun said and Jun cursed inside his head. “I know you don’t want to talk about it but-”
“So let’s not talk about it. We both know we won’t come into an understanding anyways.” Jun maintained his cool. He doesn’t really want to argue with Shun.
There was silence. Shun constructing his words carefully on his head before speaking it out loud.
“I’m happy with her. I wish that’s enough reason for you to stop doubting her.” Jun firmly stated.
“You don’t know her, Jun. I’m just protecting you, you’re my best friend and I don’t want to see you getting devastated in the end when she leaves you. Yana is not the girl you thought she is.”
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that!” Jun raised his voice, he can’t control it anymore. A few customers near them turned to look.
“I may not know the old her but it doesn’t matter, because it’s all in the past. What’s more important is that she changed and I know exactly everything about that girl now. I know her more than anyone else.” He was calmer as he spoke those words but still, there’s that edgy tone.
Shun remained silent, Jun is mad and he doesn’t want to provoke him anymore, not here where there are a lot of eyes looking.
They didn’t utter a word to each other for almost thirty minutes and within these thirty minutes, they finished a bottle of liquor, it was when it was empty that Shun decided to speak.
“You’re already in love with her.”
For the first five minutes since the silence started, he already came into that realization and for the remaining twenty-five minutes, he was thinking of a way to say it out loud.
Jun isn’t the type of guy who falls in love easily, Shun knows that very well and if he ever did, it was a crazy love. The type of love that is too dangerous, because Jun dedicates himself one hundred percent to the other person to the point that he’ll ignore every negative thing that comes with it. Jun loves blindly and recklessly, it can possibly be his downfall.
It took him a while to reply. “I am and I can’t stop it.” Jun pursed his lips before pouring his glass from the new alcohol bottle and drinking it in one go.
---
Yana is seated at the edge of the table, her elbow resting on the table and a hand placed on her right cheek. She looks at the person beside and he is attentive enough to look back at her but he suddenly giggled and it annoyed her so she rolled her eyes on him and shifts her attention to the people on the next table. It was a family, parents and two teenage daughters, the younger one approached her earlier to ask for a picture and she gladly accepted the request. It was better to look at them rather than witness Yamapi struggle to speak straight English to his foreign date, Shirota Yuu is there to correct him anyways.
Yamapi asked Yuu and her to accompany him since his new ‘girlfriend’ doesn’t speak Japanese at all and being a good friend both of them agreed but Yana was taken aback by this girl. She’s a total ditzy person and she hates that type and when she heard that all of them are celebrity, she starts clinging mercilessly at Yamapi, much to his enjoyment.
“Are you enjoying your stay in Tokyo so far?” Yana heard Yuu speak English to the girl introduced to them as Fiona, Yamapi is trying hard to catch up to this conversation and she almost wanted to laugh at how pitiful he looks.
This Fiona girl, replied in the most annoying way and if Yana can read her body language, she’s flirting with Yuu in front of her date who just happen to be their friend, who, unfortunately, doesn’t understand a thing they are saying.
“You know, Fiona, Yuu has a girlfriend and they’ve been together for almost three years now and he’s planning to propose to her already! Right, Shirota? It’s a pity she can’t come with us but if she were here, she’ll crushed you for flirting with her boyfriend.” Yana blurted out, her annoyance for this girl just reached its limits.
Fiona’s jaw dropped at Yana’s bluntness. “You’re a bitch!” Fiona stood up from her seat and accused her. Yuu was gob smacked and Yamapi stood up on impulse, he knew what that word means.
“And so are you.” Yana replied fearlessly and the girl just stormed out of the restaurant.
“What the hell, Yana?” Yamapi reproached her before following his date outside.
Yana’s eyes followed Yamapi before he disappears from the entrance. She took her wine glass and drank it straight. Yuu’s eyes were watching her the entire time.
“What is wrong this time?” Yuu asked knowingly. “Matsumoto Jun problem, I’m positive.”
Yana looked at him before stealing his wine glass and drinking it straight again.
“You know, you have to apologize to Yamapi for ruining this date of his.” he smiled.
Yana pouted, before leaning into the backrest of her chair. “I’m going crazy, Shirota. Help me!” She pleaded as she collapsed into his chest and Yuu starts laughing while patting her head.
Reminding you guys again that my fics are unbeta-ed so if there are any mistakes are errors, don't hesitate to tell me. Comment, suggestions, reactions and criticisms are gladly welcomed. Happy reading! XD
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Don’t you think we should establish ground rules on whatever this thing we’re having?”
Matsumoto Jun stare upon her, standing up from his bed to collect her clothes that’s scattered on the floor.
“Ground rules?” He repeats, tossing the piece of rubber to the floor and dropping back to the bed, not bothering to get dressed at all.
“I mean, it’s been what? A month?” She spoke again while putting on her underwear. “Setting ground rules would make it more...”she searched for the proper word. “Simple.” she said, a bit unsatisfied at the word she came up with after seeing him lift his eyebrow. “I mean, if we have rules we know our limitations and by knowing our limitations, we can refrain from committing terrible mistakes in the future.” She smiled, a forced one but Jun is still being iffy about her suggestion.
He shrugged his shoulders obliviously and finally stood up from the bed and picks up his clothes.
She grumbled under her breath, getting a tiny bit irritated that he doesn’t seem to take it seriously. “Think about it, Jun. It’s best for the both of us.” She said, in a much lower tone than usual before disappearing into the bathroom.
Jun heave a sigh and crashed into the couch. He picks up the remote control and turned on the television. It was already past midnight and there’s nothing interesting on TV so he turned it back off. He waits for her to come out, fixing his eyes on the bathroom door but it’s seems like she’ll stay longer inside.
She’s mad. Maybe not mad but disappointed. Or upset. She’s pushing this sex friends thing they are having and it seems like the romance he’s been waiting wouldn’t establish any time sooner. And during times like this when he can’t control his emotions, he would instantly remind himself to take it slow, let her heal, until his emotions eventually cools down. He used to be impatient and moody. If things don’t go his way, he’ll get dismayed but after meeting Yana, he learned to tolerate things in a mild manner and to have self-control, which is good because he also applied this learning to other things like his work.
So maybe he should just give in to this ground rules suggestion but then again he would just fail to live by every code of it.
Yana finally came out from the bathroom and quietly sat on the other side of the couch, there was a deafening silence. She is still obviously upset, it was written all over her face.
“Okay, so what is rule number one?” Jun breaks the silence, uttering those words in such a normal tone.
She turned to face him before she gave into a faint laugh. He laughed too, a bit livelier than hers. Pleasing Yana is an easy task and Jun already got the hang of it.
“No falling in love?” Jun spoke again. Somehow, talking about the ‘no falling in love’ clause of this so-called relationship gets easy as days go by.
“Do you really want to do this? Whole-heartedly want to do this?” Yana tries to confirm. “Coz if you don’t then let’s just forget it and stop this craziness before one of us gets emotionally attached to the other.”
“Let’s do it.” Jun answers immediately. There’s no sense of telling the truth. What if he tells her that he doesn’t want to do these stupid rules? That ever since from the start he already breaks his promise? It will just complicate things and he hates complications with anything connected to her. This sex friends relationship is just perfect for them, simple and easy. And if that is the only way of keeping her, then so be it.
“Okay.” She sighed, putting up both her legs and leaning at edge of the couch. “No jealousy. That’s number two.”
“Sure.” Jun nods. He gets a bit jealous of Nino sometimes and even with the rest of Arashi now that she’s getting closer to them. He gets jealous of Akanishi Jin of all people because they are very close and they have this inseparable bond, also with Nishikido Ryo because they used to be an ‘item’ and even with the rest of her guy friends.
Okay, so two rules already broken. “What’s next?” Jun asked, shrugging off that thought.
“No lying.” She continued.
That makes it three broken rules.
Jun fixed his position on the couch, he’s getting a bit unsteady with every rule she set. “Got it. Next?”
“No going out with just the two of us. It will look like we are on a date.”
“Hold on… What if we get really hungry in the middle of the night? Do we need to call a friend just to accompany us to eat?” Jun raised a question. “You know, there’s nothing wrong with eating out with just the two of us. We’ve done that before. And it’s not like we’re just plain fuck buddies, we’re actually friends, remember?”
Yana did this lip twitching whenever she’s thinking and Jun smiled with the sight of it. She actually does it unconsciously and he finds it really cute.
“Okay. We can go out together just don’t take me to those fancy and fine dine restaurants… I don’t really like going to those kinds of places anyways.”
Jun nodded. At least he haven’t break that rule. Not yet.
“Are there more?” he asked, praying that the fourth one is the last one.
“No surprises of any kind. I hate surprises in general so…”
“Even on your birthday?”
“Especially on my birthday!” She firmly stated.
“Fine… Just how many rules are you trying to establish?” he sarcastically said.
“No fighting.” She continued, ignoring his grumbling.
“In the ‘no fighting’ clause, does that include the ‘no frowning and getting upset and locking oneself inside the bathroom’? Coz I swear, someone just did that blunder a while ago.” He teased her, containing his laughter.
She threw a pillow at him and then he starts laughing.
“Shut up, Matsumoto!” She reached for his ear but he was quick to avoid it, rather, he clutches her wrist and pulled her towards him. She likes pulling his ear whenever he teases her as revenge. “I’m PMS-ing. It’s the hormones talking.” She struggled to release her wrist from his hard grip but to no avail.
He hugs her from behind, locking her waist on his arms. “So every time you PMS, rule number five is invalid? That’s unfair, you know. There should be one rule that can be nullified for me every month… since you PMS every month.” He stated smugly and then reaching for a kiss on her cheeks.
“Rule number seven, no cuddling!” She yelled as she gets away from him.
“Cuddling is okay every month, since I like cuddling.” He giggled seeing that she’s starting to get annoyed.
“You’re such a girl.” Yana accused him, rubbing her fingers on her wrist.
“I’m sorry, are you hurt?” Jun reached for her wrist to check but she pulled away.
“Of course I’m hurt! You gripped me hard!” She retorts back, getting up from the couch and entering his bedroom to look for her bag.
It was the scarred wrist that he gripped. He never saw that scar before or at least he never told her that he saw it and she never plan on telling him everything about it.
“I’m going home, Jun.” She reappears from the room with her bag and a watch on her wrist to hide her protected scar.
“You’re not sleeping over?” He asked.
“I think we should lessen the sleepovers and eating breakfast together… it’s very couple-ish.”
Jun got up from the couch and walk towards her. “Is that rule number eight?” he asked, this time, it was a serious question.
“It’s not.” She shakes her head. “Because I like it.” She chuckled before gazing down on the floor.
“Then stay. Sleep here.” Jun lifts up her chin to look at him. “Because I like it too.”
She smiled, that faint smile that she makes whenever her heart is battling with her mind.
Jun took both her hands and gently squeezed it on his, she was trembling a bit, he can feel it. He moves closer and tenderly placed a kiss on her lips.
“Stay here, okay?” He softly said, brushing the hair on her face and cupping her right cheek. She nodded, she was a little hesitant by the look on her face but she still nodded. “Good.” He mumbled before reaching in for another kiss.
---
Jun searched around the crowded bar, it was unusually packed tonight, seeing that it’s just the middle of the week and all these people swarmed at the same time. He can’t find Shun in the crowd. He looked for the bar, not there, scanned the tables, not there also. He was about the go outside to call him when the man he was looking for appears behind him.
“Bad timing. Look at all these people.” Jun points at the crowd. “Let’s find a quieter place.”
“This is fine. Our friendly bartender reserved a seat for us.” Shun smiled before pointing at the two empty stools at the edge of the bar.
They settled at the reserved seats and ordered their alcohol.
It was Shun who asked for this drinking session, saying that it’s been a while since they last hang out. In truth though, Jun is avoiding his best friend since that night in the club. Shun doesn’t like Yana, it was written all over his face that night but what can Jun do, he’s crazy for her.
“So, how are things? Been busy?” Shun started the conversation.
“Umm.” Jun nodded. “The drama takes my time these days.” As long as they settle on safe topics, it’s fine with him. He just doesn’t want this conversation to go to Yana because he is sure that there will be an argument, he just doesn’t know how heated it will be.
Shun chuckled then shakes his head, Jun stares at him blankly.
“Come on, Jun. We both know why we are here.” Shun said and Jun cursed inside his head. “I know you don’t want to talk about it but-”
“So let’s not talk about it. We both know we won’t come into an understanding anyways.” Jun maintained his cool. He doesn’t really want to argue with Shun.
There was silence. Shun constructing his words carefully on his head before speaking it out loud.
“I’m happy with her. I wish that’s enough reason for you to stop doubting her.” Jun firmly stated.
“You don’t know her, Jun. I’m just protecting you, you’re my best friend and I don’t want to see you getting devastated in the end when she leaves you. Yana is not the girl you thought she is.”
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that!” Jun raised his voice, he can’t control it anymore. A few customers near them turned to look.
“I may not know the old her but it doesn’t matter, because it’s all in the past. What’s more important is that she changed and I know exactly everything about that girl now. I know her more than anyone else.” He was calmer as he spoke those words but still, there’s that edgy tone.
Shun remained silent, Jun is mad and he doesn’t want to provoke him anymore, not here where there are a lot of eyes looking.
They didn’t utter a word to each other for almost thirty minutes and within these thirty minutes, they finished a bottle of liquor, it was when it was empty that Shun decided to speak.
“You’re already in love with her.”
For the first five minutes since the silence started, he already came into that realization and for the remaining twenty-five minutes, he was thinking of a way to say it out loud.
Jun isn’t the type of guy who falls in love easily, Shun knows that very well and if he ever did, it was a crazy love. The type of love that is too dangerous, because Jun dedicates himself one hundred percent to the other person to the point that he’ll ignore every negative thing that comes with it. Jun loves blindly and recklessly, it can possibly be his downfall.
It took him a while to reply. “I am and I can’t stop it.” Jun pursed his lips before pouring his glass from the new alcohol bottle and drinking it in one go.
---
Yana is seated at the edge of the table, her elbow resting on the table and a hand placed on her right cheek. She looks at the person beside and he is attentive enough to look back at her but he suddenly giggled and it annoyed her so she rolled her eyes on him and shifts her attention to the people on the next table. It was a family, parents and two teenage daughters, the younger one approached her earlier to ask for a picture and she gladly accepted the request. It was better to look at them rather than witness Yamapi struggle to speak straight English to his foreign date, Shirota Yuu is there to correct him anyways.
Yamapi asked Yuu and her to accompany him since his new ‘girlfriend’ doesn’t speak Japanese at all and being a good friend both of them agreed but Yana was taken aback by this girl. She’s a total ditzy person and she hates that type and when she heard that all of them are celebrity, she starts clinging mercilessly at Yamapi, much to his enjoyment.
“Are you enjoying your stay in Tokyo so far?” Yana heard Yuu speak English to the girl introduced to them as Fiona, Yamapi is trying hard to catch up to this conversation and she almost wanted to laugh at how pitiful he looks.
This Fiona girl, replied in the most annoying way and if Yana can read her body language, she’s flirting with Yuu in front of her date who just happen to be their friend, who, unfortunately, doesn’t understand a thing they are saying.
“You know, Fiona, Yuu has a girlfriend and they’ve been together for almost three years now and he’s planning to propose to her already! Right, Shirota? It’s a pity she can’t come with us but if she were here, she’ll crushed you for flirting with her boyfriend.” Yana blurted out, her annoyance for this girl just reached its limits.
Fiona’s jaw dropped at Yana’s bluntness. “You’re a bitch!” Fiona stood up from her seat and accused her. Yuu was gob smacked and Yamapi stood up on impulse, he knew what that word means.
“And so are you.” Yana replied fearlessly and the girl just stormed out of the restaurant.
“What the hell, Yana?” Yamapi reproached her before following his date outside.
Yana’s eyes followed Yamapi before he disappears from the entrance. She took her wine glass and drank it straight. Yuu’s eyes were watching her the entire time.
“What is wrong this time?” Yuu asked knowingly. “Matsumoto Jun problem, I’m positive.”
Yana looked at him before stealing his wine glass and drinking it straight again.
“You know, you have to apologize to Yamapi for ruining this date of his.” he smiled.
Yana pouted, before leaning into the backrest of her chair. “I’m going crazy, Shirota. Help me!” She pleaded as she collapsed into his chest and Yuu starts laughing while patting her head.