Phosphorescent Lights: Chapter 7
Every secret has a price…
Title: Phosphorescent Lights
Summary: A photographer with no memories whose goal in life is to seek out what he has lost; a businessman who swore revenge for the death of his lover while desperately trying to escape his fixated reality. Two entirely different men with entirely different lives bound together by the threads of destiny. But little do the two know that they are bounded together by more than just simple destiny…
Genre: Romance/Drama
Pairings: Akame (primary), Ryoda (secondary) mentions of Jinda, Pin, Ryopi, Kokame, Kamaki
Other Characters: Jin, Kame, Ueda, Yamashita, Ryo, Koki, slight appearances from Taguchi, Nakamaru, Tegoshi, Shige, Ayase
Content: Romance, drama, AU [Alternate Universe]
Author: Nerd-san
Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Johnny Entertainment
…are they willing to pay it?
Phosphorescent Lights: Chapter 7
“Stop lazing around and find a job!” Kame stood with his hands on his hips, towering over the lazy Jin who had currently been sprawled out across the small couch, halfheartedly watching the corroded television.
“But Kame!” He whined while he kicked back the blanket he had slept with the previous night. It had been a rather comfortable position, and he’d rather not have been awoken.
He was also incredibly tired. It wasn’t because he had sleepless nights now, tossing and turning thinking of Ueda; Kame’s presence in the room was enough for him to fall into an immeasurable sleep.
Jin looked up at the enraged Kame. He was wearing a pair of ripped blue jeans and a simple mustard-yellow sweater but Jin didn’t think Kame had ever looked better.
Blinking, staring, loosing his right of speech - these feelings came far too fast for Jin to even comprehend. Despite his earlier beliefs of the man, Kame had been pretty nice to him. He didn’t ask for much - asides for ¥560,000 - and allowed Jin to stay with him. And Jin had to admit, the scrawny photographer was beginning to grow on him.
Even though…
“Don’t think that just because you’ve been sort of nice for the past week that I’ve forgotten about the main purpose behind your staying here.” Kame spat in his frustration, throwing the listless Jin spare keys. “The faster you pay me back, the faster you can leave.”
…he was pretty cranky at times.
“Someone’s grouchy today,” Jin rolled his eyes and set the blanket away from himself. He sat up grudgingly and yawned, scratching the tops of his head. He was beginning to get accustomed to his relationship with Kame.
It was love-hate, really. Some days in the past week they’d be pretty kind to one another and Jin would even find himself offering up some sort of condolence about Maki. Other days, Kame would be breathing down his throat to get a job. Today seemed to be one of the latter days.
Jin sighed and began to stand on his unstable feet. “I said I’d pay you back right? So no need to worry! As soon as I get my bank account back I could even double the amount!” It was true. Jin had more than enough money to do many things. At least, back in Tokyo he did.
Kame didn’t sound convinced, however. “Hah, what do you take me for,” he began towards the exit, “an idiot?”
“You really, really think that I’m some sort of poor robber!” Jin gasped at Kame’s insensible logic. How could he, Akanishi Jin, be a thief?
Still, something had been holding him back from taking any action to make the misunderstanding clear with Kame. Something in the back of his mind told him that if Kame knew of his real occupation, his trust in Jin would only lessen.
“Just find a job, okay?” Kame sighed and opened the door. “I’m off to work.”
Cheerily, Jin bounced towards the door and stood behind Kame. “Have a good day!” He cheered as Kame stepped out of the diminutive apartment flat.
He took a step or two before Kame turned back to Jin with a warning glare. “When I get back you’d better be employed-”
“Have a nice day taking pictures!”
Jin gleefully slammed the door shut in the surprised Kame’s face.
It had been a week since Jin had come to stay with Kame. And truthfully, it had been the best week of Jin’s life. He was used to being controlled, to having no say in what to do. But being with Kame for the past week, it had honestly been the best time of his life.
He didn’t have to think about A. Jewelry. He didn’t have to think about Ueda. Or the president. Or the fact that he had only four weeks left. He didn’t care about any of that because he was happy now.
He smiled to himself as he headed to the bathroom, setting aside the spare keys Kame had copied him - the latter said it was because he didn’t want Jin calling him while at work if he had gotten locked out of the house, not because he cared.
Jin grinned to himself, closing the bathroom door. He thought otherwise.
Work dragged on for Kame, it was a rather usual day with predictable conversations. While coming out of the dark room of the building, he casually made his way over to the shared office.
“Hey, Kamenashi!” Kame stood at the doorway of the small cubicle of a bureau, sighing inwardly at his manager’s expected formality and expected smoking habits.
Both feet perched up on the desk, cigar sticking out of his otherwise pale mouth, he threw the unusually sullen Kame a disoriented grin. “What happened to that little lady of yers, huh?” He motioned the hand with the rolled-up newspaper at the empty space beside Kame.
“Excuse me?” Kame blinked at the rapidity of the comment.
Kame didn’t hate work. In fact, he loved it and didn’t think there to be a better career choice for him than photography. Sure, the pay wasn’t the best or the most, but the sincerity of loving his job was more than enough.
He had even come to see the people in his workplace as his sort of awkwardly dysfunctional family. Their manager was like a father, by no means did he actually act like one, but with his constant pestering and discomfited answers, he was more than likely to account for one.
There was Shigeaki Kato, too. He mostly kept to himself, minding his own business, taking photographs on his own. And even though there had been a year difference between him and Kame, he acted as if he were Kame’s older brother, silently looking out for the latter.
Ayase Haruka was a little different. She was direct with her sharp tongue and treated Kame like the little brother he wasn’t. She made her presence known and mixed with the manager’s normally loud and childish attitude, work was never a quiet venture for Kame.
“Oh geez Kamenashi don’t tell me you were played!” The manager groaned with a hand over his head, throwing the newspaper aside and obliviously puffing smoke in the coughing Shige’s direction.
Ayase sighed audibly, bouncing into the room, bypassing Kame as she brought hot coffee for the other three men inside the room. “I told him she was too out of his league!” She placed one cup on the manager’s desk and one on Shige’s, who remained entangled in his fit of coughs.
She took a sip of her own mug, tapping her chin, pondering. “Her parents own…how many was it again?”
“37.” Shige stated calmly, typing away at his laptop.
“Yeah! Yeah!” She nodded her head furiously and turned back to Shige in amusement. “Her parents own like 37 establishments only in Okinawa, how many do ya think they’d own in all of Japan?”
“We should get to work,” Kame sighed and finally made his way into the small, overcrowded room.
“Ahh, don’t feel too bad Kamenashi! It was plain and obvious that she were usin’ ya!” The manager laughed and slammed the cup back down on the counter. Kame growled as he walked in, heading to his own desk to place his newly developed pictures.
“How ’bout we give him the day off ’cus he was dumped!” Ayase giggled and Shige sighed, gently placing down his goblet of black coffee.
“I wasn’t dumped,” Kame managed to keep the crude comments that followed the sentence to himself. “And why are you bringing this up just now? It’s been a week since I’ve last come with…Maki.” The name tasted funny in his mouth now.
The manager shook his head in disagreement. “It’s either you was cheated, or cheated.” He yawned, taking his feet off the desk. “Life’s like that, kid.” He warningly wagged the cigarette in Kame’s direction. “Give or take; never both.”
“Obviously Kamenashi got cheated!” Ayase shouted, plopping down onto her own chair, fiddling with her expensive camera. “He’s not the type who’d cheat!”
Kame frowned and pushed his way past his nosy colleagues. “Shut up…”
“I’d like to second that notion.”
“A-Akanishi?!”
“Hi~” Jin waved teasingly.
Kame ran up to him, clearly flustered by the man’s sudden presence. Looking at the frowning Jin now, he also wondered how much of the conversation he had overheard. It wasn’t that Jin hadn’t already known of Maki - to an extent, he did - but Kame’s ego refused to allow the man to hear anything further.
“What’re you doing here?!” Kame hissed, grabbing Jin by the arm in an attempt to drag him out of the small bureau. “How did you find this place?! Shouldn’t you be employed? I already told you, Akanishi - money doesn’t grow on trees!”
When it came to Jin, Kame always had too much to say at once that it usually came out as a messy jumble of mixed words. Sometimes he was surprised Jin even understood.
“Wuaah! Who is this, Kamenashi?!” The girl cooed, jumping off her chair and running towards Jin’s lean figure. She stood a good distance back as she gawked in awe at the body. “I-Is he your friend?”
“Actually,” Jin began with a large smile, grabbing Kame’s torso and holding him tightly so the latter didn’t try to escape. “He’s my boyfriend.”
“EHHHHHHHHH?!”
Ayase looked crestfallen as she stumbled back onto her chair; the manager had even choked on his cigar before putting it out and stealing a glimpse at the two men at the doorway.
The only person who seemed unaffected by the rather sudden news was Shige who only continued with his report.
The manager coughed and straightened himself back on his chair. He had known Kame for three years now. Kame had been with Maki for those three years. Kame wasn’t the type to cheat. At least, that’s what the manager had convinced himself of.
“Wait…so yer sayin’…” he looked at the man in the doorway, “Kame’s the one who cheated?”
Distraught, Kame was about to shake his head and clear up Jin’s evident misunderstanding but Jin’s words were faster than his. “Of course!” He laughed good-naturedly. “Why the hell would my beautiful Kame ever need anyone asides me?” he didn’t pose it as a question, but more as a statement.
The girl, seemingly unconvinced, looked up at Jin with her hands crossed squarely across her chest. “So…you knew about Maki?” She blurted without hesitation.
“I’m Kame’s boyfriend!” Jin declared again, louder. Kame angrily nudged the man in the ribs to shut him up. “I know everything about him!”
Ayase stood her ground and crossed her arms further. She stood tall and marched up to Jin, looking at him directly. “So ya’ know everything about Kamenashi, huh?” Shige stood up as well, slowly advancing towards the girl. “Do you know that he’s probably gonna’ forget-”
He dropped his report papers in front of her.
“H-Hey you did that on purpose!” She whined as the latter merely shrugged and bent down slowly, picking the report papers up one by one.
Sighing, she too bent down and began picking up the onslaught of fallen documents.
Shige continued to stack the paper back as he gave Jin a what-are-you-still-here-for look. Jin bowed a little in thanks as he understood. “Well,” he bellowed, “I guess it’s time we made our leave, ne Kame?”
“Akanishi, you buffoon-”
“I love you too Kame, now let’s get out of here!”
The manager made some loud and rather inappropriate whistling noises as Jin dragged Kame out of the office, leaving the reddened Kame to Jin.
Kame didn’t let go of Jin. He didn’t ask Jin to disband the hold, either.
Simply, the two walked hand-in-hand towards Kame’s apartment. And quietly, Kame began to ponder to himself why he had been rather happy about Jin. Jin was supposed to be annoying. Jin was supposed to be a low-life thief.
Jin was supposed to leave as soon as he paid Kame back…
“…it’s fun.”
Kame snapped out of his clouded thoughts and hesitantly turned to Jin. “Huh?” He asked, confused.
“Where you work…it’s really fun.” Jin’s smile widened and he gave Kame a sideways glance. “Everyone seems to really like each other.” His tone held one of envy. Envy like Kame had never heard before.
Kame laughed as he unconsciously tightened his hold on Jin’s hand. “You mean those crazies?” He asked, surprised. “Save for Shige, all they ever do is pick on me.”
“Because they care about you.” Jin corrected.
Kame laughed as he saw his apartment in the distance. “Maybe…”
◦●○◦
Ueda mercilessly drummed his fingers against Nishikido’s shiny, wooden desk. “It’s been a week.” Nishikido looked up from his files to spare the man a furtive glance. “What do you think Jin’s doing?”
Ueda had been unusually meek for the past week and for some reason, Ryo wished could offer up some sort of condolence. Instead, all he had was the curt “I don’t know” that escaped his lips.
The latter took a hesitant seat on one of the various chairs in the general manager’s vast office, peeking at Nishikido through his carefully-styled bangs. “I miss him.” He murmured to himself, but in passing Ryo heard.
“If you want to please the president enough to allow you some time off you might as well pretend you’re with me.” He stated the fact so casually that Ueda felt like punching the man right across his flawless face.
“Don’t you get it, Nishikido?” He growled, fiddling anxiously with the buttons on his suit. “The president doesn’t give a rat’s ass if we’re together. He just knows Jin’d think we were and that he’d leave.”
“The last thing Kitagawa wants is Akanishi to leave.” Ryo put down the files and sighed.
“Then why…?”
“Has Akanishi ever told you about Yamapi?”
“Yamapi? No…”
“Yamapi - Yamashita Tomohisa, Akanishi’s ex-boyfriend.” The edge of Ryo’s mouth stiffened. “You’ve never once heard Akanishi mention him?”
“I haven’t. What does it matter if he’s Jin’s ex-boyfriend or not. Jin and I were…are…in love.” Ueda stood his ground.
“As long as Akanishi’s with A. Jewelry, he’ll never be able to freely love anyone. You do realize this, right? Because he’s the president’s-”
“I don’t care!” Ueda interrupted fiercely. “If Jin and I love each other, we love each other. Who or what tries to get in our way-”
“Listen to yourself!” Ryo snorted. “You should know by now that the president’s word is law.”
He sighed and placed the papers on his desk in chronological order. “I’ve already had a few of my men look into which hotel Akanishi might be at staying now. The results should be in by the end of the week.”
“So he’s really in Okinawa?”
“Yes.”
Silence slowly engulfed the room.
“Who was Yamashita-san?” Ueda hated himself for giving into his human curiosity. “Did he work here?”
“Pi?” Ryo seemed taken aback by Ueda’s sudden interest. “Oh no, he didn’t. He’s always hated it here - he refused to come within a ten meter radius of this place,” Ryo chuckled at the commemoration. “He was a really awkward guy.”
“Oh.” Ueda’s face dropped but he picked it up sooner than later. “So…he and Jin…they were?” He had a hard time finishing his sentence, but thankfully for him, Ryo did.
“Boyfriends.” He stated casually, the side of his mouth twitching in an eerie recollection. “Since high school, actually.” He traced the lines on his desk mindlessly, drawing little circles with the tip of his finger. Ryo hadn’t thought of the accident for a while now.
Ueda frowned at the thought of Jin with someone else. His frown creased at the fact that Jin had never once mentioned Yamashita to him. Even Ryo, who was now awkwardly fidgeting at his desk, seemed to know about him.
“Pi, Jin and I were best friends.” Ryo said lowly, as if afraid someone else might have heard. “Until A. Jewelry took that away.”
“Oh.” Ueda said desolately. What else could he say? He watched wordlessly as Ryo mindlessly drew tiny circles on his desk as if asking himself why the ends could never be connected.
Somehow, Ueda felt a strange longing to go over and comfort the man. But instead, he stood where he was, in the middle of the room, blankly staring at everything, at nothing. Why should he care this much about the man who brought him his sadness?
“It was like any other day,” Ryo muttered, refusing to lift his gaze, “we haven’t seen each other that much because of work - A. Jewelry had a new project coming out for the first time in a long time…so everything was full of activity.”
Ueda nodded hesitantly, as if timidly telling Ryo to continue. He did.
“We just wanted to cool off. We just wanted…” His sentence broke halfway through, his voice hitching an octave as Ryo balled his hands into pale fists.
“There was a car accident that day.” He let out a shaky breath and Ueda’s eyes widened. He had heard something about an accident happening at A. Jewelry - he had written it off of course, rumors were just rumors. He had no time to waste in believing them.
“Jin and Pi…they got into an accident.” Finally Ryo tore his gaze from the desk and shallowly, his eyes bore holes into Ueda’s. Ueda wished he hadn’t looked. The man looked so desperately derelict. He didn’t like thinking of Nishikido as helpless, as defenseless. It didn’t fit his image.
And so, with embarrassment, Ueda felt himself taking steady yet reluctant steps towards Nishikido. Ryo ignored his advances as if forgetting Ueda had been in the room. Ueda stood beside Nishikido’s chair now, awkwardly wondering what a person did when they wanted to comfort someone they didn’t like.
“That god damn drunk driver…he…he…so carelessly…” Ryo shut his eyes as if wishing the images away. “And Pi didn’t…he didn’t…”
Ueda had had enough. Carefully, he bent down and grabbed onto Ryo’s shoulders from behind. Stiff, self-conscious and oddly comforting - it had been the weirdest hug Ueda had ever given anyone.
“A. Jewelry was behind it.” Ryo spat angrily. “I just know it.” He stiffened, Ueda could feel it. And he did the only thing he could - tighten his hold on the man. “Jin knows it too.” Shyly, Ryo felt his fingers crawling up to where Ueda’s were, taking the tiny fingers in his own and holding them still.
“W-We promised each other…we promised Pi that we’d…we’d kill whoever it was.” He confessed darkly, now unable to keep the salty tears from leaking.
“By the time I got to the hospital…the drunk driver had already passed.” Ueda mumbled a few incoherent words to ease Nishikido’s pain, but deep down he knew that no words would be enough to take away the years of hurt this man had suffered.
“Jin was crying; oh god I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tears in my life. The man…the drunk man…he only had one kid.” Simultaneously, Ryo and Ueda’s grips tensed. “Jin and I promised…we promised we’d get revenge on him for what he did to Pi!”
“We promised…we promised…” Ryo continued, repeating words as if he were a broken cassette player.
“It’s okay…everything will be fine. The sky’s usually clearer after the storms’ passed. You told me that. Remember?” Ueda whispered in the softest voice he could muster. He dropped his head onto the crook of Ryo’s hot neck.
“Everything will be fine so don’t worry,” Ueda gulped and held the man tighter, “Ryo.”
◦●○◦
“Hey how come I always have to sleep on the couch?” Jin asked as soon as the two had finished their dinner. Kame’s homemade food, Jin had to admit, was far better than that of his cooks. He silently wondered how many more meals he could be able to share with Kame.
“I only have one bed, Akanishi.” Kame cleared up as he washed the dishes in the sink while Jin dried them off. “Now shut up and eat. Not that you have much problems with the latter.”
“I wouldn’t be making fun of me if I were you, Kame.” Jin smiled secretively, putting away the dried dishes. “You were holding my hand all the way home.”
That caught Kame off-guard as he nearly dropped the slippery plate in his hands. He was hoping to put that incident behind him. “I-I was not!” Frustrated at his skin’s naturally red complexion, Kame turned off the tap and marched out of the kitchen. “I’m going to bed.”
“Can I come?” Jin called back as he pushed away the dishes, running after Kame.
Why was it that Akanishi’s stupidity never surprised him? “What?!” Kame shouted back with Jin hot on his heels. “Sleep on the couch!” He barked.
“But it’s so painful. I wake up all sore and stuff.” Jin complained, trespassing into the gap between the general apartment and Kame’s room. He looked around the small space in awe. It was the first time he had been in Kame’s room.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed; you’re not even here when I wake up every other day.” Kame steadied his voice, hoping to keep it from breaking out in curiosity. “Speaking of which…where do you go?” Too late.
“Secret~”
“Pervert.”
“Hey it’s not like I go clubbing!” Jin defended himself. “So let me sleep in your bed, Kame!”
“S-Stupid, you don’t go around asking people that.”
“Why not? The couch’s uncomfortable. Wanna see the scars that thing’s leaving on my back?” Jin began to push up his thin shirt and embarrassedly, Kame turned away. “Look, see-”
“Okay! Okay!” Kame closed his eyes and self-consciously turned away, hoping to spare himself the sight of a partially-nude Jin. “Just shut up already, I feel a migraine coming on.”
“Yatta!” Jin laughed as he jumped into the bed.
“Kame’s so cuddly~”
“I’m fine by myself so don’t try to hold me.” Kame muttered from his side of the bed, prying the overly-eager Jin off. Obediently but a little reluctant, Jin obeyed as he sighed and wished Kame a good night. And yet, my heart silently races on its own around you.
I have no time or desire for love. Not anymore. If I fall in love, I’ll just be going back and forth. I’ll be setting myself for more hurt later, I know. But still…am I longing for you?
Kame muddled himself deep in thought as the already subconscious Jin kicked him from his side of the bed.
Kame groaned inwardly and resisted the urge to kick Jin back. No way...I’m not a fool for love. He felt another nudge from the jittery, unconscious Jin. But…I know you’ll never say it, so I’ll never tell you “I love you”.
Kame sat up in sheer shock. Wait…am I falling in love?
He couldn’t be.
There wasn’t an ounce of chance that he would ever even consider Akanishi as a lover. It’s because of their various acts, Kame convinced himself. Their various acts of pretending to be lovers for each other’s sake - that was why Kame was beginning to feel the word’s true meaning.
“Oh god…what are you doing to me?” Kame frowned fervently, hiding himself under the covers. He had never been conscious of Jin’s presence before, so why start now? He felt the uncanny warmth radiating off the man’s back that was facing him.
Despite feeling awkwardly self-conscious, Kame smiled as he closed his heavy eyes, moving closer to Jin’s unaware kindliness. Just your being here brings brilliant colors to these otherwise ordinary days.
He smiled a tinge as he shut his eyelids. “Not that I’d ever tell you.”
◦●○◦
Ryo and Ueda are finally nice-ish to each other…and all it took was a mental breakdown 8-)