Come On! Koibito! 9/21
It would not be an understatement to say that the house had dissolved into madness. Contestants were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, spouting nonsense about swine flu and pandemics and certain death like the sky was falling. Aiba turned nervous eyes on Nino who simply shrugged. A flu was a flu, as far as he was concerned. So it came from pigs. So what? It was still just a flu.
A lot of people seemed to be packing their belongings, as if they thought that this small occurrence was going to cancel the program. That, of course, was ridiculous. Ever since the famous flu had begun making its rounds, program after program had been affected by leads getting sick. Nino was positive he had yet to hear of a show that had actually been taken off the air because of the affliction, however. There might be a week hiatus or so but nothing more drastic than that, he was sure. Jun would get better soon, anyway. He was a healthy young man. The flu probably wouldn't do him in for more than a couple of weeks, if that.
These views of his, however, didn't seem to be shared by the general population of the mansion.
"We're all going to be infected!" Tegoshi wailed, running out of the kitchen towards his room, poor Gakki trying to film him and keep up with him at the same time. He slipped on the carpet and fell on his chin with a loud 'bang!' that resounded through the very open foyer. Nino snickered and Aiba laughed out loud. Tegoshi favored them with a glare before continuing his panicked journey towards his quarters.
"I don't know. I think we'll be fine," Mizushima threw in, taking an apple that Saki had handed him off camera. "it's not like we've been spending a lot of time with Jun or anything." There was a pause. "Except for you, Matsuda."
"Shut up," Matsuda sulked from the couch, blanket draped on his shoulders and eating Haagen Daz out of the carton. "If I die of Swine Flu, I'm suing the program."
"You're not going to die, Sho-tan~" Aiba sidled up to Matsuda, ruffling his hair and pulling a spoon out of his pocket (why did he have that?) and taking a bite of his ice cream. "You might get the sniffles, though."
"Did you kiss him?" Yamapi wanted to know. "Because if you kissed him, then you're definitely sick. That was only like three days ago."
"No, I didn't kiss him," Matsuda frowned at Yamapi, slapping Aiba's spoon away at the same time. Aiba frowned like a puppy being denied a chew toy. Matsuda didn't seem to care, a man after Nino's own heart. "Not that it's any of your business."
"It's completely our business," Toma piped up, slinging an arm around Yamapi's shoulder, "as we're all aiming after the same man. Can't have anyone getting an unfair advantage, right?"
"Toma's right," Yamapi agreed. "No getting ahead of the game."
"Ahead of the game?" Matsuda frowned. "I was the one that won the last challenge. If I wanted to kiss him, it would have been totally alright."
"But you didn't." Toma began.
"But I didn't," Matsuda conceded.
"So you should be fine," Aiba concluded, taking a big spoonful of ice cream and dashing off the couch before Matsuda could hit him again.
"Hey, has anyone seen Teppei?" Okura came walking out of the kitchen, holding a bag of potato chips and stuffing a few into his mouth.
"No, why?"
"He was freaking out about the flu. Saying nonsense like 'flu ran in his family.' I don't know. His cameraman lost him somehow, though, and is wondering if anyone's seen him."
Everyone looked at each other, shoulders shrugged to their ears. As nice as Teppei seemed to be, the kid was kind of high-strung and it didn't seem all that strange to think he was rushing around, terrified of the sound of his own footfalls. Nino pictured that for a second and snickered. Ohno gave him a sideways grin, not sure what was so funny but enjoying Nino's amusement all the same.
"I guess I'll tell Wentz he's still missing," Okura mumbled and walked back out of the room.
"What are we going to do during the interim?" Toma wondered aloud. Everyone's attention turned towards him. "I mean, the show's postponed for awhile, right? We should do something! Any ideas?"
"I just want to relax," Nino sighed.
"I want to do something but what are we going to do? We're in the middle of nowhere," Hiro complained.
"Well, we have the mansion. Let's use that. Pool party?" Toma suggested.
"Pool Party!" Aiba readily agreed, jumping up with an arm raised in the air.
"Sounds good to me," Yamapi smiled.
"Do what you want," Nino shrugged, pulling his DS out of his back pocket and settling in on the couch. It was going to be a long afternoon with his friends in these spirits. He watched them march out to the backyard, an odd parade of gangly men probably too old for the games they were off to play.
Ohno, seeing he wasn't going to get much footage if Nino decided to play video games all afternoon, turned off the camera and settled on the couch himself. He leaned over towards Nino, fully intending to watch the other man play games. His mom used to play video games when he was younger and he had a lot of memories of sitting on the couch as a little boy, watching as his mother slay dragons and various other monsters.
What he failed to remember, however, was that was normally before his nap and sure enough, he was soon asleep, heading resting on Nino's shoulder. It took the younger man a good fifteen minutes to realize it himself, having been absorbed in his fantasy, but as the music played at the defeat of the fifth level's boss, he turned slightly to investigate the weight on his shoulder. Realization made his body grow stiff for a second, thoughts racing through his mind before he finally made himself focus back on the DS. There were princesses to be saved, after all. He'd let Sleeping Beauty sleep for now.
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"I still don't see why we can't just tell them," Jun sighed, frustrated by his talk with Kimura that seemed to be getting nowhere. Kimura sat next to Jun's bedside (a precaution Jun thought was ridiculous considering the fact that he didn't even have the flu but Kimura kept going on and on about 'authenticity'), a patient grin on his face, as if he were dealing with a child. It annoyed the hell out of Jun. "I'm not even really sick!"
"We told you when you signed on to this program that we were going to change it up this year when it came to challenges," Kimura informed him again, that same annoying smile on his face. Jun wanted to rub it off. Arrogant bastard. "We decided to keep up with the times. Someone in the production meeting thought to have the bachelor catch H1N1 and see how they reacted. I, personally, think it's been a big success. Did you see how fast Tegoshi ran when he got the text message?" Kimura laughed again solely at the memory. Jun frowned.
It wasn't the fact that they were lying to the contestants, exactly, but more the fact that Jun had had to sit in a bed for the past three days, regardless of the fact that he wasn't even sick, and forced to watch cameras of the other men running around like idiots, terrified of a disease that wouldn't hurt them because for one, no one on set had it and secondly, it was just the flu.
The idea, obviously, was to see how the contestants would react in times of stress, especially concerning him. In truth, although a few of them were idiots who were freaking out at the mere mention of a sneeze, most of them had been pretty chill with the fact that they were getting a break due to illness. That Toma guy had even had a pool party at the announcement. It was kind of cute, if also kind of insensitive. Maybe he was just trying to get rid of the anxiety of the moment.
At least some good had come out of the situation. For one thing, Sho and Jun had become halfway close over the past few days, as the older man had to pretend to be checking on Jun's status to update the contestants. Somehow, the two had started talking. Jun liked the semi-serious man, especially since he seemed to find the fake illness as silly as Jun. It was clear to Jun that Sho had taken a particular liking to a few contestants and for him, Jun was making sure to keep an eye on Aiba, Nino, and Hiro. Not that he wouldn't be keeping an eye on Aiba to begin with. That guy was a handful.
According to Sho, after the pool party that first day of the announcement, Aiba had felt a sense of guilt for playing while Jun was so sick and had taken to pestering Sho to let him visit Jun, if only to cheer him up. It was sweet and Jun had a feeling that Sho probably enjoyed Aiba's constant nagging a bit more than the program would wish him to. If that's how it was, though, that's how it was. Jun was down to watch Sho make a fool out of himself with that idiot. He might even tell Kimura that there was more interesting show going on backstage. If he ever got to be in the show again, that was.
And so here he sat, three days after the announcement of the fake illness, and still nothing had happened. Some contestants had freaked out. Some had relaxed. That Nino kid had beaten four video games. Honestly? Jun was bored.
"Yeah, it was great. When do we announce to them that I'm fine? That it was all a joke?" Jun tried to let his annoyance seep into his tone. He could remember being told one time that he could be very intimidating if he wanted to and it must have been true, if such things could be judged by the way Kimura's eyes widened and the sideways glance he gave the younger man.
"Well, actually, we're not going to let them know it was fake." Before Jun could flip out, however, Kimura continued. "We don't want them losing confidence in the reality of the show. We'll tell them when they get voted off, and at the end of the program, of course. We'll just tell them that you've recovered after a few days or so. In fact, we're going to have the elimination ceremony tomorrow night. You can watch on the monitor, if you want."
"I can't even go to the elimination ceremony?" Jun knew he sounded like a child but he didn't care anymore. He was being treated like one, in any case. "Why are we even having one, anyway? It's not like they've done anything. I know we have enough footage for a show but what are they going to think?"
"They're going to think that the audience voted for them on the basis of compassion for your illness. Which, come to think of it, is what the audience is going to vote on because they don't get to know it was a hoax, either."
"What!? Why not?" Everyone was going to think he had Swine Flu. This was humiliating.
"I've gotten some intelligence," Kimura smiled, obviously loving that he could use that phrase, "that certain contestants have been going on the forum boards. I don't want to discourage that--yet--but I don't want them to know it was all a joke, either. So, sorry, but it looks like you've got good, ole' H1N1 for awhile longer."
"I hate you," Jun frowned.
"Love you too, kid," Kimura smiled and clapped Jun on the back.
-------
"How are we going to have an elimination ceremony if there wasn't even a challenge?" Nino asked Ohno a few evenings later, as he slipped into his blazer and checked his hair in the mirror. Watching his cameraman frown in thought in the reflection, Nino gulped down his flush and schooled himself one more time: You're here for the money, not for the cameraman.
"They collected all the footage we shot of your reactions to the news and such. People'll probably vote on who they thought was more compassionate and stuff." Ohno considered his answer for a second before shrugging. "I don't know; I don't edit it. That's just what I'd guess."
"Well, I wish they would have warned us, at least," Nino frowned. "I was planning on having some more time off and then that flirt of a host mails us this morning with news of the ceremony." Nino spun around so he was facing Ohno. "Do you know that he included a postscript on his mail to Aiba again? So annoying. Aiba's head is going to explode if it gets any bigger."
Ohno chuckled.
"I think the point was not to warn you," Ohno smiled. "More authentic that way, you know?" Noticing Nino's scowl, he added, "And I know that's no fun and I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I didn't know, either."
Nino considered this.
"It is consolation," he finally decided, "so thanks." He grabbed his DS off the desk. "Think I'll have time to play Dragon Quest if I stand in the back? I only have two bosses left and I really want to finish it before the next challenge."
"Probably not," Ohno said as sympathetically as he could. "And from what I hear, Jun's almost 100% back on his feet so the next challenge is probably going to be in a day or so."
"Damn," Nino muttered. "Well, darling," Nino addressed his DS, "I think you and I shall have to be parted for a little while. But fash not. I will return to you with wings on if you just but hold your breath."
"That was beautiful."
"I write poetry in my spare time."
"As you should."
"Anyway, can we get on with this?" Nino sighed, stepping into his dress shoes. "I hate these stupid ceremonies. And if I'm gone tonight," he shrugged at Ohno's raised eyebrows, "then that just means more time to vanquish the monsters."
Ohno didn't respond for a moment, walking backwards so that he could get in the hallway first, so as to film Nino walking out of his room. As Nino gave him the signal that he was going to start walking and thus, Ohno should turn the camera on, Ohno gave him one last serious look.
"I'll be seeing you tomorrow, Ninomiya."
And when the camera began to roll, it captured the largest grin seen on that young man's face, a grin that, to Ohno, was a guarantee of his previous words.
~
I did it! I was hoping to get this chapter out in time for the 15th and the anniversary and I did it with one hour to spare! My time, at least. I know it's only been two days or so since the last chapter but no one minds, do they? xD This chapter's a little bit shorter than the rest but, well, there's only so long you can talk about faking an illness and I'm pretty sure we're all sick of hearing about Swine Flu, right? ;3 Hope you enjoy the special update! I'll try and get the next chapter out soon!