[Fanfic] Out Of My League (Chapter Three)
Sorry for not updating for a few days. I've been busy with RL stuff. >.< Anyways, good news is that I update now with a new chapter of Jun and Rina! :)) Happy reading, guys! XD
CHAPTER THREE
Matsumoto Jun arrived thirty minutes late on his magazine photo shoot today, bowing to everyone he met on the set as he heads towards the dressing room and was surprised to see Nino all dressed up on the couch playing with his DS.
“You’re with me today?” Jun asks, sitting on a chair by the mirror.
“Yeah. You’re late again, Jun-kun.” Nino answers nonchalantly. He’s more interested with his game than Jun arriving late. “Well, I should be more alarmed if you’re early, ne?” he adds.
“The rest are with us?” Jun asks again.
“No. Just you and I.” Nino answers.
“Great. You’re all I need to talk to anyways.” Jun says, going through the rack of clothes for the shoot.
“What… Is…. There to… Talk…. About?” Nino trails. “Shit! I died!” He throws his DS in the couch in frustration. “Next time wait for me to finish my game before talking about this sudden mysterious stuff you’re on. What the hell is there to talk about behind the member’s back?”
“You wouldn’t believe what happen to me last Saturday.” Jun gleams at Nino who’s amused by how his face seems to scrunches up with that smile.
“Let me guess. Fans chase after you while shopping in Harajuku because your face is so recognizable in whatever disguise you put on.” Nino laughs.
“No, baka. I accidentally met Rina-san at the grocery.” Jun says, expecting a wild reaction from Nino and getting a bit upset at how he looks so uninterested.
“So? Did she know you were there? Maybe you just stared at her from a distance and left once she finished grocery shopping. What a creeper!” Nino snorted, covering his mouth with his hand.
“What are you talking about? I even spend the whole afternoon with her.” Jun smugly says.
“Oh, what an improvement, Jun-kun! Very impressive!” Nino claps his hand. “Did you get your message across then?”
“What message?” Jun raised his eyebrow.
“Man, I didn’t know you were this slow!” Nino rolls his eyes. “Did you told her that you like her and wanted to score a date with her?”
“No.” Jun shakes his head.
“So slooooowwww!” Nino yells, he can’t believe this is happening. He expects Jun to be fast when it comes to asking a girl out. “If I turn out to be your rival with Rina-san, you’ll be going down now. Thank me for not liking her.” he mockingly says.
“I’m not slow. The problem is you’re too fast!” Jun says as-matter-of-factly. “And she seems to be not the kind of girl who wants it fast.”
“She may not be that kind of girl but you should at least let her know that you’re interested in her.” Nino scratches his head when he realise something. “You’re almost 28 years old! You should know what to do! You’ve been with few girls in your life. You’re acting as if Rina-san is the first one.”
That’s true. What he felt for Rina was something new for him, a feeling her never had with the girls he had before. “She’s different.” Jun answers softly, his eyes is staring into space.
Nino studies Jun’s face, smirking at how he can easily comprehend his facial expressions. “Tell me, how in love are you with Rina-san?” he bluntly says, making Jun look up to him with big eyes.
“At first I thought that it’s just a little crush but after spending time together last Saturday, there’s so much more to her. She’s unexpectedly funny and quirky and cute, very different from how I imagined her to be.” It’s evident in Jun’s face that it brightens up like sunshine when he talks about her.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Nino laughs. “How in love are you with her?” he repeats again.
It took him time before he answers, “She took my heart in just one day. How in love do you think I am?” Jun returns the question to him and Nino is nodding his head, getting the answer he wanted.
“Hold your horses, Jun-kun. You know which family she came from.” Nino reminds him and the bright face like sunshine of him begins to fade away. “I don’t mean to discourage you but you have to know your limits this early on. Falling in love with a girl with such prominent family background is twice as hard as falling in love with an idol.”
Nino wakes him up to reality. He’s too much preoccupied at how fascinated he is with Rina to even think of the circumstances that comes with it and now many questions are filling his head.
---
Jun finishes his schedule early and he went straight home even if it’s just eight in the evening. He’s not in the mood to hang out with his friends, in fact, he’s not in the mood the whole day. He chose to be alone in his house, slouching on the sofa drinking a bottle of beer while staring at the television. What Nino said earlier hit him hard in the heart. Just when he finally found someone he’s interested in after a long time, he’s awakened to the reality that this girl is not a normal one.
His mobile phone rings on the side table and he lazily picks it up to read the mail, his heart jump after seeing the sender’s name.
From: Nakagawa Rina
Hey, neighbor. Are you home?
Want to have dinner with me
across the street? :)
That mail from her somehow made him feel better, he can’t help but admire that quirky vibe of hers. But the sudden change of mood was cut short, he doesn’t want to fall even more with her and he knows that if he agreed to have dinner with her, his feeling will get even deeper when the night ends. He throws his phone on the side table and laid his body on the sofa, putting the fluffy pillow over his face, growling underneath as he fight the urge to reply a mail to her.
And he stayed that way for like forever, thinking, constant rumbling, throwing a punch on the sofa, listening to the random sounds from the television and feeling his heart beat faster with every thought of Nakagawa Rina’s face slipping through his mind along with the few beer bottles now laying on the floor.
---
“Matsujun!” Jun saw Aiba running towards his car as he’s about to take off. Their schedule for the day is over and he plans to go straight home and sleep. The past days have been quite hectic for them as their new album is coming out soon and they’re doing some finishing touches in the studio. It works well in Jun’s favor because he has reasons to say no to the constant invitation he gets from Rina. Today though, it seems that she’s fed up as Jun hasn’t received any mail from her since morning.
“What?” Jun asks, rolling down his window.
“Let’s go have dinner!” Aiba is still catching his breath from running.
“I’m going straight home, I want to sleep. Just ask the others.” Jun replied coolly, stepping on the clutch.
“Chotto matte!!” Aiba begs and Jun stopped again, glaring at him. “Nino has dinner plans with some girl he met, Riida said he doesn’t want and Sho-chan is going straight home to Aki-chan. You’re my only hope.” He explains with a pleading face that Jun can’t say no to.
“Fine.” Jun gives in and Aiba is jumping for a celebratory dance. “The usual? Meet me there.” Aiba nodded and Jun waves at him before accelerating to the highway.
It’s been three days since that day when Jun decided to ignore his growing feelings for Nakagawa Rina and it’s not doing him any good. He spends his nights after work drinking alone at home, his cigarette intake has doubled up and his mood at work is affected. The members of Arashi have noticed the sudden mood swings of their youngest member but they decided to let him be for the mean time but little did the three knows, Aiba is flying solo to talk to him about his problems.
“The tour is coming up! Aren’t you excited?” Aiba happily opened a safe topic as soon as they settled in their seat.
“Yeah.” Jun mumbles, there’s no excitement visible in his face rather an uninterested and bored expression can be seen. Aiba knew that it’s going to be hard for him tonight.
“What are you up to these days? You always reject me whenever I ask you to have dinner.” Aiba asks casually, he doesn’t want to sound like he’s mingling into his business.
“Just tired. Schedule’s been hectic, right?” Jun answers, his eyes are staring into thin air.
“Ahh, sou ka…” Aiba nods his head a few times, thinking of ways on how to get into his mission tonight.
There were silence but Jun doesn’t seem to mind and just chugs down on his food. He doesn’t want any questions from Aiba, he knows what’s he’s getting into and he doesn’t want to tell him anything about it. Talking about her will only make him remember the feelings he tried to ignore for the past three days.
“Ano… Matsujun…” Aiba starts again and Jun looks up from his plate. “If you want to talk, you can talk to me about it.” He puts in gently, not wanting to trigger Jun’s mood.
“What’s there to talk about?” Jun asks, not meeting Aiba’s eyes.
“It’s quite evident how you’ve been all moody the past few days.” Aiba surveys him face and he pursed his lips as if admitting guilty. “And Nino kinda blabbed to us about what he told you about Aki-chan’s sister.”
“He did what?” Now, Jun’s voice is annoyed and Aiba can feel his pulse beating fast.
“Just me and Riidaa. He didn’t told Sho-chan.” Aiba adds, as if making Nino less guilty by not telling Sho. “You know Nino, he can’t stop his mouth from telling those kind of things especially when-” he stops midway when he met Jun’s glare.
He didn’t ask Nino to keep it a secret to begin with, so he shouldn’t be so mad about it and he should have expected him to tell the other about it. “It’s fine.” Jun murmurs, his tone calmer that earlier.
There was silence again, both were thinking of what to say.
“I guess he’s right.” Jun says and Aiba is sudden by his statement. He’s on the verge of giving up on getting Jun to talk. “Rina-san is different. It’s going to be hard.” He looks up on the ceiling and sighed.
“Is that why you’re silent and moody these days?” Aiba asks.
“Yes. I’ve been trying to avoid her but she’s appearing in my mind wherever I go, whatever I do. She even sent me mails asking me to hang out but I keep on saying no because I wanted to forget this feelings that I developed towards her. Seeing her would just make it deeper and maybe I’ll just sink into it and I won’t survive.” He just let it all out, after all, he realized that maybe he need someone to pour his heart out.
“You’re obviously in love with her, are you?” Aiba asks with a small smile.
“I think I am…” Jun says uncertainly. “No. I am in love with her. Yes I am but I don’t want to be.” He clarifies.
“Why are you supressing it? Just because Nino told you that it’s going to be hard you’ll just believe him and would never dare to try?” Aiba says and gives Jun an accusing look.
“What do you mean?” Jun asks.
“You’re giving up without even trying. How coward of you!” Aiba shakes his head in disappointment.
“I may be a coward but what can I do? We’ve heard Sho-kun and Aki’s story, it took them seven long years before reaching their happy ending.”
“You’re not going to be like Sho-chan because you’re different from each other. And besides, you learned from his experience.” Aiba pointed out. “Why don’t you try, Matsujun? There’s no harm in trying. Who knows, maybe she feel the same way as you do?” he says encouragingly.
“I don’t know…” Jun is still hesitant.
“Come on!” Aiba nudge him in the arm. “Don’t let her get away. And you have to remember, she’s Aki-chan’s sister, even if you tried to ignore her, there are still chances of seeing her around.”
“Well, she’s my neighbor so I will really see her around.” Jun laughs and Aiba’s eyes widened in shock.
“Neighbor?” Aiba confirms.
“Yeah. Isn’t it too coincidental? She lives in the building opposite mine.” Jun smiles, for the first time tonight, he’s actually starting to feel better.
“Coincidental? More like fated.” Aiba grins, articulating on the word fate.
“You’re just saying that to make me feel good!” Jun playfully slaps Aiba’s head.
“Seriously, Matsujun, just try before you regret it in the future. That will be even more painful, right? Having regrets? Asking what ifs? At least you have tried and if it didn’t work out, your fated someone will come in the right time.”
“Okay. I’ll try.” Jun smiled at him and reaches for his mobile phone in his jeans pocket. “I’ll ask her out for a date tomorrow.”
CHAPTER THREE
Matsumoto Jun arrived thirty minutes late on his magazine photo shoot today, bowing to everyone he met on the set as he heads towards the dressing room and was surprised to see Nino all dressed up on the couch playing with his DS.
“You’re with me today?” Jun asks, sitting on a chair by the mirror.
“Yeah. You’re late again, Jun-kun.” Nino answers nonchalantly. He’s more interested with his game than Jun arriving late. “Well, I should be more alarmed if you’re early, ne?” he adds.
“The rest are with us?” Jun asks again.
“No. Just you and I.” Nino answers.
“Great. You’re all I need to talk to anyways.” Jun says, going through the rack of clothes for the shoot.
“What… Is…. There to… Talk…. About?” Nino trails. “Shit! I died!” He throws his DS in the couch in frustration. “Next time wait for me to finish my game before talking about this sudden mysterious stuff you’re on. What the hell is there to talk about behind the member’s back?”
“You wouldn’t believe what happen to me last Saturday.” Jun gleams at Nino who’s amused by how his face seems to scrunches up with that smile.
“Let me guess. Fans chase after you while shopping in Harajuku because your face is so recognizable in whatever disguise you put on.” Nino laughs.
“No, baka. I accidentally met Rina-san at the grocery.” Jun says, expecting a wild reaction from Nino and getting a bit upset at how he looks so uninterested.
“So? Did she know you were there? Maybe you just stared at her from a distance and left once she finished grocery shopping. What a creeper!” Nino snorted, covering his mouth with his hand.
“What are you talking about? I even spend the whole afternoon with her.” Jun smugly says.
“Oh, what an improvement, Jun-kun! Very impressive!” Nino claps his hand. “Did you get your message across then?”
“What message?” Jun raised his eyebrow.
“Man, I didn’t know you were this slow!” Nino rolls his eyes. “Did you told her that you like her and wanted to score a date with her?”
“No.” Jun shakes his head.
“So slooooowwww!” Nino yells, he can’t believe this is happening. He expects Jun to be fast when it comes to asking a girl out. “If I turn out to be your rival with Rina-san, you’ll be going down now. Thank me for not liking her.” he mockingly says.
“I’m not slow. The problem is you’re too fast!” Jun says as-matter-of-factly. “And she seems to be not the kind of girl who wants it fast.”
“She may not be that kind of girl but you should at least let her know that you’re interested in her.” Nino scratches his head when he realise something. “You’re almost 28 years old! You should know what to do! You’ve been with few girls in your life. You’re acting as if Rina-san is the first one.”
That’s true. What he felt for Rina was something new for him, a feeling her never had with the girls he had before. “She’s different.” Jun answers softly, his eyes is staring into space.
Nino studies Jun’s face, smirking at how he can easily comprehend his facial expressions. “Tell me, how in love are you with Rina-san?” he bluntly says, making Jun look up to him with big eyes.
“At first I thought that it’s just a little crush but after spending time together last Saturday, there’s so much more to her. She’s unexpectedly funny and quirky and cute, very different from how I imagined her to be.” It’s evident in Jun’s face that it brightens up like sunshine when he talks about her.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Nino laughs. “How in love are you with her?” he repeats again.
It took him time before he answers, “She took my heart in just one day. How in love do you think I am?” Jun returns the question to him and Nino is nodding his head, getting the answer he wanted.
“Hold your horses, Jun-kun. You know which family she came from.” Nino reminds him and the bright face like sunshine of him begins to fade away. “I don’t mean to discourage you but you have to know your limits this early on. Falling in love with a girl with such prominent family background is twice as hard as falling in love with an idol.”
Nino wakes him up to reality. He’s too much preoccupied at how fascinated he is with Rina to even think of the circumstances that comes with it and now many questions are filling his head.
---
Jun finishes his schedule early and he went straight home even if it’s just eight in the evening. He’s not in the mood to hang out with his friends, in fact, he’s not in the mood the whole day. He chose to be alone in his house, slouching on the sofa drinking a bottle of beer while staring at the television. What Nino said earlier hit him hard in the heart. Just when he finally found someone he’s interested in after a long time, he’s awakened to the reality that this girl is not a normal one.
His mobile phone rings on the side table and he lazily picks it up to read the mail, his heart jump after seeing the sender’s name.
From: Nakagawa Rina
Hey, neighbor. Are you home?
Want to have dinner with me
across the street? :)
That mail from her somehow made him feel better, he can’t help but admire that quirky vibe of hers. But the sudden change of mood was cut short, he doesn’t want to fall even more with her and he knows that if he agreed to have dinner with her, his feeling will get even deeper when the night ends. He throws his phone on the side table and laid his body on the sofa, putting the fluffy pillow over his face, growling underneath as he fight the urge to reply a mail to her.
And he stayed that way for like forever, thinking, constant rumbling, throwing a punch on the sofa, listening to the random sounds from the television and feeling his heart beat faster with every thought of Nakagawa Rina’s face slipping through his mind along with the few beer bottles now laying on the floor.
---
“Matsujun!” Jun saw Aiba running towards his car as he’s about to take off. Their schedule for the day is over and he plans to go straight home and sleep. The past days have been quite hectic for them as their new album is coming out soon and they’re doing some finishing touches in the studio. It works well in Jun’s favor because he has reasons to say no to the constant invitation he gets from Rina. Today though, it seems that she’s fed up as Jun hasn’t received any mail from her since morning.
“What?” Jun asks, rolling down his window.
“Let’s go have dinner!” Aiba is still catching his breath from running.
“I’m going straight home, I want to sleep. Just ask the others.” Jun replied coolly, stepping on the clutch.
“Chotto matte!!” Aiba begs and Jun stopped again, glaring at him. “Nino has dinner plans with some girl he met, Riida said he doesn’t want and Sho-chan is going straight home to Aki-chan. You’re my only hope.” He explains with a pleading face that Jun can’t say no to.
“Fine.” Jun gives in and Aiba is jumping for a celebratory dance. “The usual? Meet me there.” Aiba nodded and Jun waves at him before accelerating to the highway.
It’s been three days since that day when Jun decided to ignore his growing feelings for Nakagawa Rina and it’s not doing him any good. He spends his nights after work drinking alone at home, his cigarette intake has doubled up and his mood at work is affected. The members of Arashi have noticed the sudden mood swings of their youngest member but they decided to let him be for the mean time but little did the three knows, Aiba is flying solo to talk to him about his problems.
“The tour is coming up! Aren’t you excited?” Aiba happily opened a safe topic as soon as they settled in their seat.
“Yeah.” Jun mumbles, there’s no excitement visible in his face rather an uninterested and bored expression can be seen. Aiba knew that it’s going to be hard for him tonight.
“What are you up to these days? You always reject me whenever I ask you to have dinner.” Aiba asks casually, he doesn’t want to sound like he’s mingling into his business.
“Just tired. Schedule’s been hectic, right?” Jun answers, his eyes are staring into thin air.
“Ahh, sou ka…” Aiba nods his head a few times, thinking of ways on how to get into his mission tonight.
There were silence but Jun doesn’t seem to mind and just chugs down on his food. He doesn’t want any questions from Aiba, he knows what’s he’s getting into and he doesn’t want to tell him anything about it. Talking about her will only make him remember the feelings he tried to ignore for the past three days.
“Ano… Matsujun…” Aiba starts again and Jun looks up from his plate. “If you want to talk, you can talk to me about it.” He puts in gently, not wanting to trigger Jun’s mood.
“What’s there to talk about?” Jun asks, not meeting Aiba’s eyes.
“It’s quite evident how you’ve been all moody the past few days.” Aiba surveys him face and he pursed his lips as if admitting guilty. “And Nino kinda blabbed to us about what he told you about Aki-chan’s sister.”
“He did what?” Now, Jun’s voice is annoyed and Aiba can feel his pulse beating fast.
“Just me and Riidaa. He didn’t told Sho-chan.” Aiba adds, as if making Nino less guilty by not telling Sho. “You know Nino, he can’t stop his mouth from telling those kind of things especially when-” he stops midway when he met Jun’s glare.
He didn’t ask Nino to keep it a secret to begin with, so he shouldn’t be so mad about it and he should have expected him to tell the other about it. “It’s fine.” Jun murmurs, his tone calmer that earlier.
There was silence again, both were thinking of what to say.
“I guess he’s right.” Jun says and Aiba is sudden by his statement. He’s on the verge of giving up on getting Jun to talk. “Rina-san is different. It’s going to be hard.” He looks up on the ceiling and sighed.
“Is that why you’re silent and moody these days?” Aiba asks.
“Yes. I’ve been trying to avoid her but she’s appearing in my mind wherever I go, whatever I do. She even sent me mails asking me to hang out but I keep on saying no because I wanted to forget this feelings that I developed towards her. Seeing her would just make it deeper and maybe I’ll just sink into it and I won’t survive.” He just let it all out, after all, he realized that maybe he need someone to pour his heart out.
“You’re obviously in love with her, are you?” Aiba asks with a small smile.
“I think I am…” Jun says uncertainly. “No. I am in love with her. Yes I am but I don’t want to be.” He clarifies.
“Why are you supressing it? Just because Nino told you that it’s going to be hard you’ll just believe him and would never dare to try?” Aiba says and gives Jun an accusing look.
“What do you mean?” Jun asks.
“You’re giving up without even trying. How coward of you!” Aiba shakes his head in disappointment.
“I may be a coward but what can I do? We’ve heard Sho-kun and Aki’s story, it took them seven long years before reaching their happy ending.”
“You’re not going to be like Sho-chan because you’re different from each other. And besides, you learned from his experience.” Aiba pointed out. “Why don’t you try, Matsujun? There’s no harm in trying. Who knows, maybe she feel the same way as you do?” he says encouragingly.
“I don’t know…” Jun is still hesitant.
“Come on!” Aiba nudge him in the arm. “Don’t let her get away. And you have to remember, she’s Aki-chan’s sister, even if you tried to ignore her, there are still chances of seeing her around.”
“Well, she’s my neighbor so I will really see her around.” Jun laughs and Aiba’s eyes widened in shock.
“Neighbor?” Aiba confirms.
“Yeah. Isn’t it too coincidental? She lives in the building opposite mine.” Jun smiles, for the first time tonight, he’s actually starting to feel better.
“Coincidental? More like fated.” Aiba grins, articulating on the word fate.
“You’re just saying that to make me feel good!” Jun playfully slaps Aiba’s head.
“Seriously, Matsujun, just try before you regret it in the future. That will be even more painful, right? Having regrets? Asking what ifs? At least you have tried and if it didn’t work out, your fated someone will come in the right time.”
“Okay. I’ll try.” Jun smiled at him and reaches for his mobile phone in his jeans pocket. “I’ll ask her out for a date tomorrow.”