Come On! Koibito! 7/21
Nino merely blinked at Aiba's wide grin, not entirely sure what it was coming from and equally unsure if he even wanted to know. A quick glance around the room told him what he already kind of figured: no one had any idea what they were doing there. All the contestants had been told to gather in the foyer but nothing beyond that. Nino figured that it was time for the actual challenges to begin (if only they could get off easy and simply have a party every week. A party every week Nino could do) and today was probably the first one.
Everyone looked about as out of it as Nino. Although the cameras were constantly rolling, it had been a little over a week and as surprising as it seemed, most people had already forgotten about them, taking their cameraman's constant presence almost for granted. Not that any of them were particularly close to their cameramen to begin with. It seemed like only Nino and a few others even actually talked to theirs. But it kind of figured, since most of the people here were only on the show to make a name for themselves, as silly as a place this was to do it.
It wasn't like Nino was going to take Ohno's presence for granted any time soon, that was sure. Nino had noticed that he was almost hyper-aware of where Ohno was at any given time. Ohno knew that Nino wasn't a particular fan of the camera he found trained on his figure at all times and would give Nino pauses, chances to slip out of character while he pretended to change film rolls or tie his shoe or simply talk to Nino about anything that sprang to mind. And Nino appreciated that more than he probably expressed to Ohno. The other man didn't seem to need the acknowledgement, though, as after a few minutes, Ohno would always wink at him and push that little red button on the side of the machine, making Nino go back into camera!Nino mode, something that both encouraged and exasperated him.
A glance to the right reminded Nino that at this point in time, too, he was on camera. Ohno noticed his look and gave him a quick grin and a wave of the hand, meant to indicate not so much a greeting (as the two had been glued at the hip since nine am that morning) but to move it along, actually return the attention that Aiba was giving him. Ohno was trying to remind him to make television. A short smile to Ohno and Nino followed his unspoken advice, seeing that Aiba's obsessive glee had not wavered in the few seconds it had taken his best friend to get back to him.
"Okay, what is it?" Nino sighed good-naturedly, fully aware there was a long-suffering tone to his speech. Every aspect of his personality was now thoroughly analyzed internally before being outwardly shown. It might seem a bit much but it was the only way to guarantee that Nino made it to the end of the game. And Nino was going to make it to the end of the game.
The personality Nino had decided to adopt towards Aiba on camera was much the same as the one he had off camera: that of the long-suffering straight man to Aiba's ridiculous amounts of energy. Nino tried to make his reactions play off Aiba's gently, tried to let the real affection he felt shine through his sighs and criticisms of Aiba's ideas. The only real difference between this and reality was the degree of severity he mocked Aiba with: when they were off camera, Aiba was in for whatever Nino could deal. On camera, however, Nino softened the blow. He wasn't sure if the other man had noticed it but once he did, Nino feared he would take advantage. In fact, he was sure he would.
"I got a mail from Sho today!" Aiba squealed, glee radiating from him so heavily it was almost visible. As if to prove the fact, Aiba had pulled out his cell phone, the one the program had provided them with when they had taken away their real phones for purposes of contacting them throughout the game. Not that the producers didn't know where they were at all times.
"I know, Aiba," Nino rolled his eyes. "We all did. That's why we're all here." Nino waved his hand towards the general sea of contestants. It was true. This morning, every one of them had woken up to the sound of their text message alert singing to them a bit more loudly than anyone had earlier suspected a phone alert could sound. There had been a message, ostensibly from Sho but most likely from one of the producers, asking them how their weekends had been and telling them all to meet in the foyer at noon. As sweet as it was that Aiba thought it had been solely to him (and it was sweet, in a weird sort of way), it had simply been a rote message.
"I know you all got a mass message," Aiba waved off Nino's words with one hand as he scrolled through his message inbox on the phone (how many text messages had Aiba received? He only should have the numbers of the program and the other contestants), "but I got one just from Sho!" And with a gleeful grin as he seemed to find whatever it was he was looking for, Aiba thrust the phone in Nino's face, forcing the shorter man to blink and grab the phone out of his friend's hand.
"Good morning," Nino read. "I hope you had a nice weekend and were able to calm your nerves a bit from that exciting elimination ceremony! I know I was certainly nervous! Anyways, I hope you would do me the honor of meeting me in the foyer at noon. Something exciting just might happen! What could it be? Come and see! Sakurai Sho." Nino blinked and looked up at Aiba, slight annoyance coloring his face. "That's the same message we all got."
"Scroll down!" Aiba grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Nino gave him an exasperated glare but followed his direction and scrolled down on the screen. To his surprise, there actually was more to the message. He was about to reach for his own phone, curious if there was a hidden message on his too but Aiba implored him to "just read it!"
"PS, Aiba. Please no liquid nitrogen this time. Nagase's still worried you're somehow going to make the house explode. Don't want to give him nightmares. ... and a winky face?" Nino looked back up at Aiba, obviously confused as Aiba just smiled and grabbed his phone back from Nino's hand.
"See? He likes me~~," Aiba sang, twirling on one foot, phone clutched to his chest. Nino just shook his head and pulled his own phone out of his pocket, checking for a personal message of his own that he was pretty sure wouldn't be there. Something made his body tense and a glance backwards proved that, indeed, Ohno had shifted closer, trying to look over Nino's shoulder at the phone, face curious to see if Nino had gotten small talk as well. Nino grinned and shifted his body so that Ohno could see, too.
"...nothing," Nino concluded, shutting his phone and sticking it back in his pocket. "Either Mr. Sakurai doesn't like me or he particularly likes you." Aiba smiled at Nino's words. "Which is nice and all," Nino quickly added, "but we're on this show to win Matsumoto's heart. Close but no cigar, Masaki."
"Um, Nino?" Aiba's eyes were a little wide, his smile was a little devious and he obviously wasn't responding to Nino's statement.
"Hmm?" Nino hadn't noticed any of these things.
"I don't think Ohno can film you like that."
"Like what?" Nino asked, turning to see Ohno and find out what the problem was. Within seconds, however, it became very clear. At some point during the cell phone debacle, Ohno had gotten closer to Nino to see what was going on. Thinking back, Nino had probably unconsciously backed up, himself. At any rate, they were now close. Very close. Close enough that there was no way Ohno's camera was filming anything other than an extreme close up of Nino's hair. Close enough that Nino could feel Ohno's warmth against his back.
Dear God, was he leaning against Ohno?
"Oh! Sorry!" Nino jumped forward, suddenly very aware of his surroundings. He could feel a blush (damnit!) flushing his face and racing up his ears. "I didn't mean to..."
"Don't worry about it," Ohno smiled, not really seeming to mind at all. Maybe this happened a lot? Somehow that thought wasn't very comforting.
A tinny wail came over the set of speakers they had installed in the foyer the day earlier, saving a grateful Nino from having to deal any further with the awkward situation or having to give an answer to the mischievous grin on Aiba's face. That devious smile was quickly replaced by unrepentant awe, however, as the object of Aiba's affections came down the stairs (when did he get up there?) and towards the front to greet everyone. Everyone clapped at his entrance. Aiba cheered.
"Hello everyone! I trust you all slept well?" General cheers in the affirmative. "I'm glad to hear it because today," Sho leaned down, as if he were sharing a secret with them, "today is when we have our very first challenge!" At the word challenge, Sho jumped up, arms wide in the air and most of the other constants cheered. Aiba definitely cheered. Nino smiled, slightly bemused at the whole scene and slightly worried. There weren't many things Ninomiya Kazunari could not do but the possibility of such a thing did exist.
"Now, as you everyone knows, there are many ways to a person's heart," Sho began, something almost like a gleam in his eye. "There's romance, there's flowers, there's teasing, there's just blatant pick up lines." The audience laughed. "But one thing that is sure to win in every situation exists! And that is: food!"
Food? A food challenge? Nino quickly went through all the recipes he knew in his head. They weren't many.
"Yes, one of the easiest ways to make someone fall for you is to cook them a dish so delicious, they'll want to eat that and only that for the rest of their lives! Or something like that," Sho winked. "So what better first challenge to have than to have each of you cook our bachelor a meal?"
There were general grumbling from the audience. Apparently Nino wasn't the only one that hadn't done much cooking in his life.
"You each get an hour and use of a kitchen to cook and prepare one dish that you would like to serve for lunch. If you need any more ingredients, feel free to ask the staff but just a warning: you have to have it done by one thirty, so if they have to go get you something at the store, you're going to have a lot of your time eaten up!"
Out of the corner of Nino's eye, he could already see a few of the PAs shuffling around, preparing for something. There were fourteen of them; surely they were going to have use of more than just the one kitchen?
"If you would kindly follow the PA that calls your name, he'll lead you to the kitchen where you'll be allowed to prepare your meal." Ah.
Sho turned to them with one last smirk. "Good luck! And may the best cook win!"
"Okay, everyone!" Nagase called from behind them, "listen as I call the list of names and please follow the correct PA to the correct room. I don't have time for you to be screwing around." Not that anyone would, with the look on Nagase's face.
"Koike, Hayami, Okura! You're with Nakai! Matsuda, Taguchi, Kamenashi and Tegoshi! You're with Taka! Yamashita, Ikuta, Mizushima, Oguri! You're with Okada! And lastly, Ninomiya, Aiba and Mizobata, you're with me. Everyone got it? Good. Now scat!"
His speech had been over in perhaps fifteen seconds flat but everyone had already committed everything to memory. Aiba and Nino obediently shuffled over so that they were behind Nagase, Junpei quickly joining them, and the four (plus cameramen) made their way out to a car where Nagase explained that they were just going to drive them a few blocks over to a studio with kitchens that they had rented for the day. Nino was slightly nervous but Aiba was all smiles.
"This is going to be a piece of cake!" Aiba grinned. "My parents own a restaurant, you know."
"I know," Nino replied, annoyance eating at him as he watched his best friend bounce around in his seat.
"Junpei-kun doesn't know, don't you?" Aiba addressed his sing-song speech to the other man sitting next to him who blinked back in response, not having realized he was being talked to.
"I don't know what?" Junpei asked, not looking particularly interested either way, his mind probably on the dish he would have to prepare.
"Nevermind him," Nino waved Aiba off. "He's just excitable."
"I am not," Aiba frowned at Nino who just laughed and slid an arm around the back of Aiba's shoulders, leaning into him. Probably understanding that Nino just needed to get a little strength from the physical contact, Aiba let him stay there and leaned back slightly himself. As much as Aiba seemed to be all passion and little thinking, there was a lot behind those big eyes of his and Nino knew that Aiba was always there for him, regardless of whether he actually understood what he was providing comfort for or not. It was just another thing Nino loved about the man.
After a few minutes of driving, the group found themselves at a small studio and were herded inside, taken to a large room that looked like an industrial kitchen. There was no way that they had any use for most of the appliances they found, Nino was sure, but at least there was going to be a lot of space. Nagase took the time to point out where they had left ingredients for them to use ("I won't be going out for more!") and quickly left for another room, telling them he'd be back at one twenty to get them to wrap up.
"Do you know what you're going to make?" Nino asked the other two, glancing through the various foodstuffs and trying to figure out what his meager kitchen skills could scrounge out of the offerings.
"Gyoza!" Aiba grinned, snatching ingredients from the pile and eagerly rushing over to one of the work stations to begin cooking. He made it look so easy. In truth, he would probably mess it up at least four times and there might even be a fire or two but somehow, someway, they would probably turn out delicious, like they always did. Nino had no idea how Aiba did it but just this once, he was sort of jealous.
"I'm not sure," Junpei eyed the pile with Nino before grabbing a packet of curry seasoning. "I guess I'll just make curry. At least I know I can't mess that up too horribly." And with another optimistic grin, the other man took a handful of food materials and walked over towards where Aiba was already chopping ... something.
Somehow, Nino hadn't even noticed Ohno's approach, thoughts completely absorbed in trying to figure out how to turn what he saw as random foodstuffs into some semblance of a meal. He wasn't getting very far.
"What are you going to make?" Ohno asked quietly, looking at the pile himself, a frown on his face. Ohno was probably bad at cooking, too. He looked like someone who was bad at cooking. In fact, Nino thought, he was probably one of those guys that still lived at home and had his mother cook all his meals for him. The thought just seemed to fit and Nino started chuckling, ignoring the confused look on Ohno's face as he responded.
"No clue."
"Well," Ohno began, seemingly deep in thought, "I see all the stuff you need for chahan. You could make that."
"I don't know how to make chahan," Nino admitted to his shoes, not able to meet the earnestly optimistic look in Ohno's eyes.
"Well, I do," Ohno smiled. "I could lead you through it. Through hand motions and written notes, of course." He quickly added, fully aware he had to film the whole scene and not get caught helping his contestant.
Nino wanted to jump on the offer but he knew he couldn't appear too eager. He kicked an imaginary rock on the floor and kept his gaze at shoe-level.
"Well, I suppose that could work," he said almost lazily, trying to sound like he was only taking up Ohno's offer because he couldn't think of anything better. But with his eyes on his shoes, he missed Ohno's amused smile as he grabbed a bag of rice from the pile and began to take it over to what would be Nino's work station.
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Nagase, true to his word, came back into the room at one twenty on the dot. He was surprised to find, however, that all three of his charges were, in fact, already done. There was a pot of curry simmering in front of Mizobata, a steaming plate of gyoza by Aiba, and Ninomiya was tending to a bowl of chahan. It was much less of a disaster than the PA was expecting.
"You're all done?" he asked in as gruff a voice as he could muster. It wasn't that he wasn't as strict as he liked to present himself; he just knew that he had to make the image constant if anyone was ever going to heed his words. His bark might be bigger than his bite but he could bite down pretty damn hard if he needed to. And for once? It didn't seem like he had to.
"Done!" Aiba responded, throwing on a pair of kitchen gloves to grab his plate and run up in front of Nagase. He looked a bit overly eager to get back. There was something going on with that kid and Nagase really wished he could figure out exactly what it was. His instincts led him to think it had to do with the way he followed Sakurai around like a puppy half the time. Not that the idiot wasn't encouraging it, insisting on sending a ridiculous personal message this morning. If he ended up with a stalker, it was his own damn fault.
"Alright. Everyone grab their food. We're going back to the main house." And much to Nagase's surprise, that's exactly what they three did. All three followed him obediently back to the car and rode in almost silence back to the main complex. Was this too much to hope for? A normal group of people for once?
Nagase turned his head back to get another glance at the contestants. Aiba and Mizobata were talking about something to do with their dishes, conferring over something or other. Both looked ridiculously excited about something but Nagase was pretty sure he didn't particularly want to know what it was. Ninomiya, meanwhile, was talking to Ohno, his cameraman. It was vaguely surprising. It wasn't the first time a contestant had befriended his cameraman, to be sure, but this was Ohno. Ohno was damn good at his job and the reason for that was because of how well he faded into the shadows. Ohno could be a complete non-entity at times. Maybe Kimura was right. Maybe there was more to this Ninomiya kid.
In a blink of an eye, they had arrived at the main house and joined the rest of the teams in the foyer. Each contestant had a small table already laid out, courtesy of the other PAs in their free time. The plan was to have a mini-dinner party for each contestant and Jun, give them a few minutes alone while Jun tried their food. It was a good idea but Nagase was a bit worried Jun might over-eat. He had warned him earlier in the day just to take a bite or two of each meal, get an idea of whether he liked it or not, and make short conversation. Hopefully, the kid had taken his advice to heart. It would be seriously annoying if he had to deal with a bachelor with an upset stomach.
Sakurai went through the whole song and dance of getting Jun downstairs. Most of the contestants clapped. Nagase wasn't entirely sure they knew what they were clapping for. It was almost sad how sheepish each group of contestants seemed to be. This one seemed better than past groups, to be sure, but there was a certain level of predictability.
Jun began at one end of the room, eating some kind of fish (who had bought fish?) Oguri had made. He seemed to like it. Nagase didn't particularly care. Sitting down in one of the chairs back behind the main camera, he decided to let himself zone out for awhile. He caught a few small reactions: Jun choking a bit on Hayami's chicken, burning his tongue on Aiba's gyoza, trying to struggle through Taguchi's sickeningly sweet peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All in all, it was more of the same.
After an hour of eating and talking and most of the contestants mugging for the camera, Jun went off for a small conference with Sho where he ended up picking Matsuda and his pasta as the winner. The prize was a one on one date to a snazzy new restaurant in Azabu-juban. Nagase was a little happy Matsuda won because Tamaki was his cameraman and he knew that he had always wanted to try that place. Maybe he could scrounge up a few scraps before they had to leave and get the footage back for editing.
The challenge over, the crew began packing up and deconstructing the set. Most of the contestants returned to their rooms, cameramen following on their heels. Ninomiya and Ohno were talking as they walked, Nagase noticed. He'd have to keep an eye on that. I didn't make sense at all. But hey, stranger things had happened than Ohno Satoshi making a friend.
Movement from the corner of his eye brought Nagase's attention back to the front where Aiba was once again hanging off Sakurai, speaking a mile a minute about heaven knew what. Nagase was about to go and pull the young man off of his colleague when he noticed something rather peculiar: Sho was actually nodding, trying to follow along with Aiba's almost nonsensical speech.
A stranger thing to happen than Ohno actually conversing with someone? Sho enjoying talking to a groupie. What the hell was the world coming to?
~
Wow, guys. So sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I was eaten by school starting (I go to school out of state so that was a bit of a hassle) and the fact that my best friend left for France for three months today so I've been spending time with her. The upside of that was that she helped talk me through the whole plot of this and I think I have it officially planned out. And I've realized something: this is going to be long. Really long. So I hope you guys don't mind because this might take a while.
As for the contest, this is the last chapter to enter! Since next chapter someone is going to get kicked off and with each less contestant, your odds get better and we don't want an unfair advantage for anyone, do we? :) So remember: your pick for top three and ultimate winner. ♥
I hope I didn't lose anyone during my little two week hiatus there. Things should be on track for at least a chapter a week for a good long while now so I hope you all enjoy this and I'll see you soon~