Come On! Koibito! 10/21
"Think I'm dressed alright?" Aiba asked Nino, jumping in the younger's room unannounced, much like normal. Ohno and Nino turned from the closet area where Nino had been looking through clothes himself, Ohno filming his meager wardrobe, to get a better look at what he was wearing.
"Did you pick it out yourself?" Nino asked after a beat, doing his best to ignore the stifled chuckle coming from Ohno. Aiba's face fell and he brushed his hands over his shorts.
"I thought it looked fine," he pouted, turning his eyes up to meet Nino's. "What's wrong with it?"
Nino recalled with displeasure the text message that had woken him up at eight am that morning. Much like all the past messages, it was full of excited language and veiled hints of the day to come. It had also stated, in less ambiguous terms, that all contestants were to meet downstairs at two, dressed to go outdoors. Nino wasn't particularly looking forward to anything that had him dressing for the outside world but there was nothing he could do but make sure he picked pants with pockets big enough so that he could fit his DS in them.
All this in mind, Nino let his eyes rove over Aiba's outfit, trying not to judge his hasty friend's taste too harshly. The shirt wasn't horrible, nor was the vest. It seemed odd that he had also put a denim jacket over it but Nino would let it pass. Even his dully colored rainbow shorts were kind of cute, in an odd way. But there was one thing Nino couldn't let go.
"....why do you have binoculars?" Nino asked dryly, Ohno laughing silently at his side. Aiba glanced down at the black spectacles that hung around his neck, fiddling with the knob in the center.
"These? Well, I know we must be going outdoors somewhere and with my tendency to get lost, I thought that with these, I could see a lot farther and then find the group again when I've wandered off."
"That is surprisingly self aware of you, Aiba," Nino admitted. Aiba just grinned back stupidly, making Nino wonder if he had praised him too quickly.
"You look nice, Nino," Aiba started again, eyeing Nino's choice of outdoor wear. "I like the rolled up sleeves."
"You do?" Nino perked up, smiling down at the sleeves of his green jacket. "I didn't know if they looked good that way or not but I ran into Rosa-chan in the hallway and she said it looked better like this."
Aiba frowned. Why was Nino going to Moko's camerawoman for advice? He glanced over at Ohno, looking for any hint of jealousy but finding none. The cameraman's face, although almost obscured by the camera he held, showed only an enigmatic half smile that Aiba couldn't see through. Not fair. Ohno was going to have to help him along if this was ever going to work.
"It's time," Yoko knocked on the doorframe, throwing Aiba a glance like he knew what he was thinking. He probably did. Aiba had attempted to get the other man in on his plot. Yoko had promised not to hinder the plan by any means but he wasn't particularly optimistic, either. At Aiba's fallen face, he had claimed it was because Ohno could be so withdrawn and he didn't know if they would be able to get him out of his shell. The truth was that anyone that halfway knew Ohno knew that he had taken a shine to his charge; it was just that Yoko didn't trust a plan formulated by Aiba at all. But he would happily watch the attempt and hopefully get it all on film.
"Do we have to be down there already?" Nino sighed, grabbing his DS from the desk and stuffing it in his back pocket. Ohno gave him a look but Nino shrugged it off. He knew that Ohno didn't think Nino should play games during filming (it looked bad, he claimed for some reason) but Nino couldn't help it if he knew there were only a few more levels left in his latest game. He was sure there'd be time in between shots to kill a few more bosses.
-------
The foyer was filled with nervous contestants, restless from the lack of challenges with the long break caused by Jun's illness. With the elimination of Teppei a few days before, everyone had begun to realize how very easy it was to lose your place in the program. Teppei hadn't even done anything, which was probably precisely the point. The boy had spent a majority of the week off camera, hiding from the flu, and the lack of face time was most likely what had done him in. That's what Ohno had said, at least and Nino was keen to believe him.
Before anyone could worry too much, Sakurai appeared before them, dressed just as much for the outdoors as them. Nino thought the shoes were a bit much but at least, for once, it wasn't a sequined bowtie.
"Good afternoon!" the host greeted them all. "I hope everyone managed to have a relaxing week since we didn't have anything to do. Nothing like some pool party fun, eh?" Aiba would swear later that Sho had winked at him at that line. Nino denied it but mainly because he didn't want Aiba's ego to become too inflated. He really needed to have a talk with Ohno and see just how big a flirt this host was and if he should be worrying about his best friend.
"Well, I'm sure you're all wondering what I meant in the mail I sent you this morning and why we're all dressed like this." Sho gestured to his own outfit. "The truth of the matter is, it's getting to be the end of summer and the staff and I have realized that we haven't been kind to you guys yet, haven't given you a chance to enjoy your surroundings. So, today, we're going to have a picnic!"
The foyer erupted into applause. Aiba was grinning like mad. Aiba had always loved the very idea of picnics: sitting out on fresh green grass with a nice homemade lunch, comfy blanket and good company. He often tried to drag Nino out to have picnics in the little park near their apartment but always failed, mostly because of Nino's view of picnics: an uncomfortable few hours of sitting on the hard ground, fending off bugs and feeling guilty about eating when there was sure to be at least a few homeless people in the park that just wished they could have your lunch. No, Nino was very much anti-picnic. So this was going to be an awful challenge.
"But I'm sure you're wondering how we're going to have a picnic with so many people. Even we don't have a blanket large enough for all of you. No, gentlemen, today is the very first group date!" Sho's eyes shone with excitement, though Nino was not entirely sure why. The group dates always seemed so awkward on television. So there were fewer people competing for the bachelor's attention at the same time. It didn't change the fact that you were going on a date with one person and five other competitors. That was almost the definition of awkward.
Everyone else seemed pretty excited about it, though. Aiba was smiling. He turned to Nino and mouthed 'We finally get to hang out with him!' before turning back to Sho. Nino supposed it would be nice to finally spend a little time with the man he was trying to win the love of. Maybe he'd learn more about him than his name and the fact that he was vaguely good looking.
"We've already separated you into two groups," Sho was saying. "The first group will be going now and the second group in a few hours, so as not to overfeed our lovely bachelor who is already waiting for you in the park. Have fun~" Sho smiled before walking off amidst the flood of cameramen shutting off their machines for travel. Nagase walked up to take his place, per norm.
"Okay, if I call your name, you're in the first group. Oguri, Mizushima, Kamenashi, Okura, Mizobata, and Ninomiya, follow me to the cars. The rest of you, sit tight. You'll be on in few hours."
Aiba slapped Nino on the back, grinning. "Knock 'em dead!"
"Yeah, thanks, Aiba," Nino replied, rubbing the spot on his back where Aiba had been a little too vigorous.
"Oh!" Nagase added, jumping back in front for one last announcement. "Since we're doing this group style, we're not taking all the camerapeople. You know how it is. So," his eyes scanned the crowd, "Aibu, Tabe, and Toda, sit this one out. And before you complain, you already know you're still getting paid for the time so just chill in the tent or something."
"Lucky!" Ohno smiled, giving a surprised Nino a high five.
"Is it really that big a deal?" Nino asked. "Nagase just said the others'll get paid just the same. Wouldn't you rather have paid free time?"
"They get paid, sure, but it's only half of what onsite workers are getting. It's some loophole production found. Basically, you want to be working at all times."
"Plus," Aiba added with a grin, "Ohno doesn't want to send you off all alone where he can't keep an eye on you." The speech was accompanied with a waggle of his eyebrows. Nino grimaced at Aiba's implications, cuffing him on the head as Ohno blinked, confused.
"Wait, what?" he asked just as Nagase noticed the pair in the back, not heading towards the double doors.
"Ninomiya! Ohno! Get over here!"
"I'll tell you when you're older, Ohno." Aiba winked.
"But I'm older than you," Ohno frowned, still not sure what was going on.
"Shut up, Aiba," Nino frowned over his shoulder at his friend as he pulled his cameraman towards the angry PA.
"Was that a good idea?" Yoko asked Aiba once the other two were out of earshot. "Ohno had no idea what you meant and now Nino's on to you."
"Don't worry," Aiba smiled, full of confidence, "Nino knows I'm just looking out for his well being. He should be thanking me."
"If you say so."
-------
Well, the picnic wasn't a total bust. At least, not yet. The weather was nice, there didn't seem to be any terrible, horrible bugs and the food was actually really good, at least a few steps up from normal picnic food. Ohno had whispered that it was probably from a catering company when Nino had asked. Nino wasn't complaining. Anything tasty that he could eat and not have to pay for was good in his book.
Jun had been there when they had arrived, welcoming them with smiles and glasses of champagne in plastic wine glasses. There was something about Jun that was different from every other time Nino had seen the guy. He seemed even more enthusiastic somehow, talking to everyone with a kind of excited attitude that both didn't match his image at all but was still some how kind of endearing. Maybe it was from being cramped up for so long. That flu must have sucked.
It wasn't long into the picnic that Jun had started a conversation about what everyone had been doing during his unfortunate incapacitation. It turned out that Jun was shown all the footage that had been filmed while he was sick. It was kind of a sad image: a sick guy sitting in his bed, watching a bunch of people have fun because he was so ill. Nino would have felt guilty if it hadn't been for the fact that Nino hadn't really changed his living pattern due to the free time, like the others.
"That pool party looked like fun," Jun said wistfully, eyes faraway, almost like he was trying to make them feel bad. He probably was. Kame and Junpei shifted uncomfortably.
"We could have another one, now that you're better," Shun suggested, trying to ease the uncomfortable air that had settled around the party. "It'd be more fun if everybody was there, anyway."
"Shun's right!" Junpei added in. "It's not only you that didn't go. Kame didn't come because he was scared."
"I wasn't scared," Kame rebutted, an annoyed pout on his face. "Well, much." he admitted after a beat. "I just get sick really easily is all."
"Do you get sick easily, too?" Hiro asked Nino, a playful glint in his eye. Nino sighed.
"No, I'm just not a big sun person. I prefer to have fun indoors." And it was true. No one could fault him for that. And that way they didn't have to know that he didn't know how to swim. Or that he hated water. No, they didn't have to know that.
"That's understandable," Jun agreed, much to Nino's delight. "There's plenty of stuff to do indoors. Sometimes it's strange to think that people come outside at all, with the amount of things you can do from home."
"It's convenient," Nino jumped to agree, happy someone saw his point. "Sometimes I can just stay inside for days and not even realize I haven't gone out."
"But isn't that lonely?" Shun asked. "Sure, you can get tons of things done but you also don't see anyone."
"I have a roommate," Nino shrugged. "It's kind of hard to feel lonely when Aiba's trying to turn our couch into a fort every time I turn my back."
"You don't want to see anyone other than Aiba?" Hiro added. Nino didn't like that he was getting ganged up on. Since when was he so fascinating?
"A fort complete with working cannons." Nino replied, deadpan. Everyone blinked, thought for a second, and let it go, just like Nino had hoped. Really, taking care of Aiba was almost a full time job.
In the moment of silence, Nino realized that Okura hadn't spoken in a while. Turning to glance at him, he saw that the younger man's attention was completely focused on an area seemingly right over Nino's right ear. Throwing his head backwards, Nino found what had so clearly captured his attention.
Across the way, three beautiful, big-breasted blonde foreign women were setting up a picnic, much like their own. It was almost comical how perfectly planned it seemed. Even their blanket looked suspiciously like the one Nino was sitting on now. Rolling his eyes, Nino turned his attention back to the conversation.
"Well, we're out in the park. Might as well do something fun," Junpei suggested.
"Good idea," Kame smiled. "Do we have anything to work with?"
"The staff handed me this when we left the van," Okada suggested, putting his camera down for a second and pulling a basket out from his camera bag.
Everyone started digging through it, finding a strange mixture of sport balls, frisbees and fireworks. After much debate, it was finally decided that they should play frisbee, as it was a sport no one was very good at and thus, no one would have the advantage of looking cool while playing. Ohno, Tsuyoshi and Okada positioned themselves at various points of the circle, in order to get some good shots.
It turned out to be a spectacular idea as no one was aware of just how bad they were at frisbee, the disk getting lodged in tree after tree, going farther past their heads that it took ten minutes to fetch and even hitting one of the blondes in the back of the head one point. Okada quickly volunteered to go and retrieve it.
"Okada keeps looking at those girls," Kame took this opportunity to pipe up. "Think he thinks they're pretty~?"
"They're foreign. Of course they're fun to look at," Junpei shrugged. "Okada's just easily distracted."
"If you say so," Kame shrugged, clamming up as the person himself walked back up.
The game went on for another twenty minutes, to the surprise of all the cameramen who were sure the men would get tired of it in five. After a little more food and light conversation, Nagase drove up in the van again to inform them that it was almost time for group two's turn so they'd all have to pack up in the next five minutes. All the men grumbled as they cleaned up, trying to make it nice for the next group of contestants.
"Hey, Nino. Can I steal you for a minute?" Nino was surprised to look up in the face of none other than the bachelor himself.
"Um, yeah. Of course," Nino shrugged, still not sure what was going on but not complaining. 'Had Jun fallen in love with him after only three meetings?', Nino thought to himself, amused. Not that he was going to flatter himself but hey, it could happen.
Jun waved his hand and led Nino over to a tree, just out of earshot of the other contestants. When they reached it, he turned around, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. Nino didn't know how to feel about it.
"How many games did you beat while I was sick?"
Well, that wasn't what he was expecting. Ignoring the weird way his stomach was flip-flopping, Nino started counting in his head. There was the newest Dragon Quest, Professor Layton, that weird rpg that Aiba had gotten him for his birthday last year that Nino decided to play because he was running out of things...
"Four?" Nino blinked, pretty sure that was the right answer and not entirely sure why Jun cared either way. But Jun's gaze was pretty locked on his face and Nino felt himself flushing under the attention. He always hated how easily he blushed. Jun just grinned wider.
"And you didn't go to the pool party with everyone because you don't like the outdoors," Jun smiled. What was with this guy? There was obviously something else he wanted to say but for the life of him, Nino couldn't figure out what it was. It was kind of unnerving.
"...Yes. That's what I said at the picnic, isn't it?" Nino shrugged, not sure what to respond, simultaneously aware of both Jun's enigmatic smile and the camera that Ohno had focused on his face.
"And it isn't because you're scared of water?"
Nino felt his stomach drop out from under him and panic flood in in it's place. How did he know? No one knew. No one except his mother, his sister and ... Aiba.
But that still didn't make sense. How would Aiba tell Jun? He'd seen Jun the same amount of times that Nino had. There was no way Aiba had blurted Nino's deathly fear of water to Jun in the two meetings those two had had already. Unless, oh God, unless he told Sho who told Jun. Oh, he was going to kill Aiba.
Jun was obviously enjoying watching the emotions pass over Nino's face, a small smirk on his lips. When Nino met his eyes again, the other man just shook his head and pointed towards the van where almost everyone else was already on board and Nagase was waving for Nino to join them.
"You know," Jun observed as he started walking back in the direction of the rest of the staff, "you're kind of cute when someone takes you down a peg." And with that, he sent him on his way.
-------
"What do you think the challenge was?" Nino asked, sprawled over his bed later that evening, facing Aiba and his tub of ice cream. Jun's face was still dancing in his mind's eye. Why had he singled him out like that? Why did he know about his fear of water? Aiba had sworn up and down that he hadn't spoken a word to anyone about it and considering that Nino was this close to dangling him over the balcony, the older man was probably not lying. So why had he known?
"I don't know," Aiba shrugged. "We didn't really do anything other than eat and play soccer. Although it was kind of hard to play soccer with only five people."
"Five people?" Nino blinked. "But there were six of you on the date plus Jun. Why did you only have five people?"
"Well, while we were eating," Aiba explained, "three really pretty foreign girls were just setting up a picnic. They didn't look like they really knew what they were doing so Moko and Tegoshi went over to help them out. Then they ... didn't really ever come back."
"I knew it!" Nino grinned in triumph to Aiba's confused face. "I knew it was too good of timing! It was a temptation challenge. Those girls were probably actresses. They were tempting us away from Jun." Nino smiled, proud of himself before a horrific idea crossed his mind. "Aiba, you didn't go over and hit on them, did you?"
It was entirely plausible. Aiba had almost no control over his emotions half the time. If he saw someone he thought was halfway pretty, there was a good chance that, at the very least, he would try to strike up a conversation with them, let alone more. And if this was a temptation challenge...
"Of course not!" Aiba replied indignantly. "I was too busy playing soccer. Plus, what would Sho have thought if he saw me with those busty girls? Seriously, Nino."
Aiba was obviously a little put out that Nino thought so little of him but it was a relief to the younger man. He wasn't ready to have to ford this competition without his best friend, not yet.
"Jun did ask me a question about you," Aiba stated matter-of-factly, bringing Nino back to reality.
"He what?" Nino replied, smartly. Aiba grinned.
"It was like what you asked me earlier. He asked if you had some problem with water." Aiba paused.
"What did you say?" Nino's face was blank but there were millions of thoughts swirling underneath.
"I said I didn't know. I didn't tell him." Nino let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "God, Nino, of course I didn't tell him." Aiba seemed mad that Nino had even doubted him, even though Nino knew that Aiba would never let out a secret that important. Nino felt all his weight sink into the mattress, unconsciously melting into the bed. Aiba sighed.
"I think he likes you, Nino. He's fascinated, at the very least." Nino raised an eyebrow at him from the bed. "Don't look at me like that. You can interest people. It's happened before. Besides, you have a little something going on with Ohno, don't you?"
Nino sat up immediately, on the defensive.
"I do not and I wish you would stop insinuating that. It's bad for my image and Ohno doesn't need to be teased by his coworkers." Nino glared at his best friend but Aiba wasn't letting it go, having built up a tolerance to Nino's glares long ago.
"Well, you like him at least, don't you?"
"Let it go, Aiba," Nino growled.
"Whatever you say, Nino," Aiba smiled, taking another big bite of ice cream. "But I bet at the end of this competition, you'll be up one boyfriend, be he rich or photographically inclined."
Nino just sighed and collapsed back on the bed, tired of dealing with Aiba's nonsense. God, did Jun really like him? This should be good news. Why was it giving him the chills?
~
Once again, this chapter is about a day later than I wanted it to be but at least it's out. Teppei's voted off! We learn a little bit more about the politics of filming a dating show! Jun knows something about Nino? What's Nino's big secret about water? And why was Sho barely in this chapter at all (sorry, Sho)? Oh, and Aiba, Sho, and Nino's outfits from this challenge were obviously based on their outfits for the "outdoor date" episode of Mannequin 5, pictures of which you can see here. Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. See you again soon~