Come On! Koibito! 17/21
No one could say that Aiba lacked determination. Nino always liked to tease Aiba about what he called the "super glue syndrome," his tendency to formulate an idea and latch onto it. Usually it worked out for the best, especially when it came to work. Aiba never abandoned anything and that was, for the most part, in his favor.
So it came as no surprise to anyone that knew him that, ever since he found out about the fake cancellation, his sole goal and objective was Sho. As creepy as it sounded, Aiba was determined to earn back that spot that he had been in earlier in the season. He missed the post scripts in his text messages. He missed eating doughnuts in the makeup tent, watching Sho get ready to shoot intro shots. He missed the easy camaraderie that they used to have.
And not to sound conceited but it seemed like Sho had kind of missed him, too. Aiba wasn't completely sure why such a change had come over the man, especially after he had done his best earlier to distance himself from Aiba. It seemed now, however, that the wall was crumbling down, little by little.
It had started the morning of the hot air balloon challenge. Aiba had done his very, very best to convince Jun that Sho shouldn't have to do the intro spot from the hot air balloon. Jun, however, hadn't been very cooperative.
"I don't see why I should help him, the liar," Jun had replied peevishly, giving Aiba a skew-eyed look. "You shouldn't either, to be honest. I don't know why you even care about him anymore."
"Please, Jun?" Aiba threw out his best puppy dog eyes. "It would mean the world to me."
"You're being a pushover, Aiba," Jun frowned. "I'm not going to do it." And that, as they say, was that.
Aiba had tried Nagase and Kimura, as well, but there really was no stopping it. Kimura was completely set on the idea, partly due to time restraints and partly, Aiba suspected, because of the sheer glee he got out of watching Sho tremble. Not that it was a very hard guess; Kimura's face said it all.
"Sorry, kid," Nagase patted Aiba on the shoulder after Kimura had left with the definitive 'no'. "Better luck next time." Aiba had shrunk a little under the weight of the rejection but as Nagase started to walk away, he turned around as if he had just thought of something. "Maybe you should be there when he lands. Give him a helping hand?"
"Good idea," Aiba readily agreed, not really needing a reason to spend more time with Sho but taking comfort in the fact that Nagase, of all people, seemed to support it. Nino had been spouting nonsense about how Nagase was ultimately the one that had told Sho to back off in the first place for weeks and as much as Aiba wasn't sure if he believed it, knowing Nagase was at least kind of on his side was a reassuring thought.
The staff had readied a giant blue mat "in case he fell out," ensuring that Sho hadn't been in the best frame of mind upon taking off and the heights combined with the fact that he was the only one up there besides the balloonist (a steadicam mounted on one side of the basket filming him) spelled disaster for the poor host.
Aiba had been there when Sho landed. Landed might not be the right word. It was more like tumbled out of the basket. His knees hit the ground first, followed by his elbows and finally his lips as he kissed the ground hello. Aiba chuckled, drawing Sho's attention away from sweet, sweet land.
"You okay?" he asked, smiling and reaching a hand down to help the older man up. Sho accepted it, a weak smile returning Aiba's vibrant one.
"I will be, eventually," Sho admitted roughly, a tremor still shaking his voice slightly. "Just need to get used to the solid ground again."
"Come on. Let's get some coffee or something," Aiba tried to take Sho's mind off of it and tugged at their still joined hands, leading Sho over towards the caterer's tent. Sho tried to argue, convince Aiba that he was fine and that Aiba really should be getting ready for his own trip up in the balloon but Aiba wasn't listening, intent on calming Sho down. Deep down, he could tell Sho appreciated it. Underneath all that hyperventilating.
The week had continued much the same way. Sho would be busy prepping something, filming something, waiting for Kimura to call a shot or Nagase to phone him in to shot a spot and no matter what, Aiba would make sure that he was in some way, able to be around. It was to help, he claimed and sometimes he was helpful but most of the time, he was just a smiling face in the background, someone for Sho to throw pained glances to between takes and distract him while he was getting ready. That's all Sho really needed, anyway, Nino had reassured him.
Aiba was positive that these meetings were working in his favor, that the hope he had all but lost a few weeks before was slowly building up again. He could be wrong but this time, this time, it would all work out. It just had to.
-------
"What's with the about face?" Sho asked in the production tent, on one of the few afternoons Aiba wasn't trailing behind him. Nagase just gave him a bored look, not even acknowledging the question.
"What are you talking about, Sho?" Kimura asked, stepping in the tent, a convenience store onigiri in his hand. "Are we doing some sort of tie in with the military now? Why wasn't I informed?"
"You know that's not what I meant," Sho sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair. "It's just that, a month ago you were saying that I was getting too close to Aiba, that I should back off for his sake, and now you're telling me that you were mistaken? That I should spend more time with him?"
"You're complaining?" Nagase asked skeptically, eyebrows raised at the younger man.
"Well, no," Sho admitted. "I like the kid. It's nice having him around. It's just, I don't understand your rationale. Why the sudden change?"
"I think," Kimura slid past Sho towards a chair next to Nagase, "that you are worrying too much. You like hanging out with Aiba, right? So do it. By this point in time, anything you do isn't going to change anything, right? You know how the show goes. The viewers are set. Just enjoy yourself."
"You aren't making any sense," Sho complained, giving the senior staff a confused frown. "The game could easily change now. You know that better than I do. So that must mean," he paused, realization coming over his face, "oh lord, what did you two do?"
"Nothing!" Kimura replied, mock shock on his face. "I'm appalled that you would even think that!"
"Do you know us at all, Sho?"
"I know you so well," Sho answered skeptically, "that I know you two are lying through your teeth." He sighed. "But I also know that you're not going to tell me anything at this point. So, I guess, just don't mess anything up too badly? I don't know what you have planned but just, go easy on everyone."
"We don't know what you're talking about," Kimura smiled, "but if we did, we'd say 'don't worry so much and let us handle it.' Okay?"
"Whatever," Sho muttered, shaking his head and exiting the tent with as much of a angry flourish as he could muster.
"I think he's on to us," Kimura sighed once Sho was out of hearing range. Nagase just fixed him with a long look.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" he asked sarcastically. Kimura ignored him.
"Well, nothing we can do but hope and film. Encourage him if you can? But I think at this point, it's all up to Aiba, now." Kimura turned around to start scanning through footage, intent on drumming up something good for the Sakuraiba section of that week's episode.
Nagase sighed, his head dropping into his hands. "God help us all."
-------
"I can't write songs~" Aiba whined, the pencil dropping from his hand and tumbling down onto the table. "Worst challenge ever. This is what you're good at, Nino."
"I'm not good at it," Nino muttered from across the room, frowning down at a sheet of paper that sat on the desk in front of him. "I just happen to have more experience than you."
"Good at it~" Aiba continued, ignoring his best friend's claims to the contrary. He thought for a second and then smiled encouragingly. "Can you just write mine? I'm totally stuck."
"I'm not writing yours. I'm exhausted enough just writing mine." Nino looked up from his sheet of paper. "Aiba, are you even working?"
"Yes," Aiba monotone-d back, picking up his pencil and twirling it through his fingers. "I'm just not very good at it." He paused, watching his friend set down the pencil and get up, stretching. "You're not done already, are you?"
"Like you said, I'm good at it," Nino winked, giving Aiba a sly grin and heading towards the television. "Besides, like you've also pointed out, I've written songs before. I just copied down one I already had."
"Not fair!" Aiba cried, staring down in his blank page in frustration. "This challenge is way too easy for you."
"Don't care," Nino replied in a sing song voice, flipping on the Playstation and settling down on the floor in front of the television. "Just think about Sho and write something. It'll work."
"I'm supposed to write about Jun," Aiba frowned before looking up approvingly, "but that's actually a pretty good idea."
"Genius, remember?" Nino was restarting a previously saved game. It was ridiculous that he was already at level sixty-five and he'd only been playing for two days. "What's going on with you and Sho, anyway? You hit that yet?"
"None of your business," Aiba responded, setting down his pencil, "but no. I mean, I haven't even confessed."
"Never stopped you before. Besides, what's taking you so long? You're practically his pet the way you follow him around. Everyone's just waiting for it to happen, anyway."
"Like you should be talking," Aiba frowned, "with what you're doing to Ohno."
Nino didn't take the bait, beginning a raid on a goblin horde and not turning around.
"You really need to make a decision already," Aiba sighed from the table, watching Nino's back as the younger man slew more virtual demons, not even bothering to turn around. "Leading Ohno on like this is just cruel. The poor guy gives you puppy dog eyes the minute you turn away."
"And here I thought that you cornered the market in that department," Nino threw back sarcastically, eyes still glued to the screen. Aiba knew he'd hit the mark, though.
"You like him, Nino and I know you don't like Jun. You've already confessed and God knows what else. And yet, here you are, playing video games on a Friday night and not getting it on with your boyfriend. Something is wrong~"
"Shut up, Aiba," Nino barked, pausing the game and turning around. "You don't know anything about it."
"I think," Aiba countered, fixing Nino with as skeptical a stare as he could muster, "that I know a lot more than you realize. You're scared, Nino. You put a lot on the line for this show and now you don't know if you want to give it all up for one guy. Well, you know what? You need to get over yourself for once. Suck up your pride and just go for it. Heaven knows when you'll find someone who actually wants you again."
"Go to hell, Aiba," Nino muttered. "It's not like you're doing any better than me."
"Fine," Aiba rejoined, taking Nino at the challenge in his words. "You're on."
Nino just gave him a disbelieving glance and returned to his game. But it was too late. Aiba had an idea and there was no way he was backing down now.
-------
"I liked your song," Ohno tried, rubbing a hand on his leg out of nervous energy. "What was it called? Niji?"
"Yeah, that was it," Nino replied awkwardly, not making eye contact. It had been like that for two weeks. Ohno was beginning to believe that that night had been a dream. A wonderful, wonderful dream that somehow was never going to let him return to reality.
"Well, it was pretty," Ohno tried again, looking down so that Nino wouldn't even have to worry about meeting his eyes. "I liked the line about shadows overlapping. It was nice."
"Thanks." An awkward pause. Nino looked at his hands. Ohno looked at Nino's hands, too. "Well, I should probably get into formation. We'll probably start shooting in a few minutes."
"Yeah, right," Ohno agreed. He watched Nino walk over towards the stage, take a place next to Aiba on the left. He looked small in his clothes, like a little boy that was trying on his father's shirt. Like someone who had lost a purpose. It didn't feel right. Ohno frowned.
He didn't have much time to contemplate this, however, as the elimination ceremony was about to get underway. Ohno hadn't been sure if he even wanted to come to this one. He'd come every week before; Nino had always begged him to come "for good luck". With the weirdness lately, however, Ohno had started to wonder if Nino would even notice if he didn't show up. It wasn't like they needed his camera on set for any reason.
Upon further reflection, though, Ohno decided that if Nino was voted out, he didn't want to find out about it later; he wanted to be there. And so, here he found himself, standing like a fool, watching his friend and potential one night stand (did it even count as that if they only made out?) prepare himself for the possibility of it all coming to an end.
"Welcome, everyone, to this week's results ceremony!" Sho began, walking onto set with the usual fanfare. Jun watched him from the right, the contestants from the left. Aiba looked more nervous than usual, not that Ohno could figure out why. He shot Yoko a questioning glance but the younger man just shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't like people knew what Aiba was thinking at most any time, though, so it really didn't come as a surprise.
"As you all know, last week we had to say goodbye to poor Mizushima." Sho hung his head, as if giving a moment of silence for the latest voted off contestant. "And once again, we must say goodbye to someone tonight.
This week, we had our song writing contest. Did everyone enjoy themselves?" The contestants gave Sho a weak round of applause as perhaps he deserved, knowing very well that no one had enjoyed the song writing contest. Ohno chuckled quietly. "Well, all the entries were amazing, anyway. But as you know, regardless of how well you sing, it all comes down to how many people at home sang for you.
As everyone is probably aware, we spent three hours last night collecting your votes from phone calls, mails and online submissions. The votes have been tallied and the contestant with the least number of votes will be asked to leave the program." Sho paused. "But you all knew that already, right? So let's get on with the show."
Aiba reached over to grab onto Nino's arm. Nino gave him a questioning look but Aiba didn't even spare a look at his friend, simply gripping at Nino's upper arm. Unconsciously, Nino looked over and made eye contact with Ohno. Ohno's breath caught and he took full advantage of the situation, trying to communicate to Nino that he had no idea what Aiba was nervous about, either. Seeing Ohno's confused shrug, Nino seemed to remember himself and quickly broke the moment, glancing back to Sho.
"When I read your name," Sho was continuing, "please come and join Jun on my left side. Feel free to grab a glass of Champagne. Whoever is left standing to my right when I put the paper away, I'm sorry but we'll have to ask you to leave the studio."
Sho paused, giving Nagase a chance to play some ridiculous background music as he pulled a small piece of paper out the inner pocket of his suit jacket with a flourish. He unfolded the paper and glanced down, prepared to start reading.
"Ikuta Toma."
Toma gave a sigh of relief at the pronouncement, high-fived Junpei and walked over towards Jun. Jun gave him a nod when he reached the other side. Sho gave him a second before continuing.
"Oguri Shun."
Shun smiled, giving a nod to the other contestants before crossing over and joining Toma and Jun. Toma gave him a high five which Shun eagerly returned.
"Ninomiya Kazunari."
Ohno let out the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding as he watched Nino visibly relax, giving Aiba a wide smile of encouragement before joining the other three. Shun pat him on the back and Nino gave him a grateful smile. Thoughts about how Nino used to look at him like that entered Ohno's mind unbidden and he tried to shake them away.
"And now we're down to our final two," Sho made a show out of the last bit of the program, knowing that production always wanted him to milk these few seconds of tension before it resolved itself. Aiba and Junpei looked at each other, taking deep breaths. Aiba looked considerably more nervous than Junpei for some reason.
"The person who is continuing on in this competition is..." Sho began. He never got the chance to finish the sentence, however, as Aiba took a step forward to stop him.
"Just a second," Aiba began, looking almost sick to his stomach but somehow hopefully as well, something Ohno was sure only Aiba could pull off. "I have something I want to say before you read that card."
Ohno frowned in confusion and stole a glance over at Kimura. The man was beaming.
"Um, sure," Sho glanced around, looking for someone to tell him otherwise. "I suppose that's okay. What's up, Aiba?"
"This is, this is actually more to you, Sho," Aiba admitted rather quietly, not making eye contact with anyone on set. That was probably for the best considering the entire set was dead quiet, eyes locked on Aiba, everyone with an idea of what the man was going to say but disbelieving that this was actually happening.
"Oh," Sho gulped, vaguely uncomfortable, doing his best to ignore the stare of the rest of the staff. "Well, okay. What is it?"
"Well," Aiba began, still not managing to look at anything but the ground, "first of all, it doesn't matter what's written on that piece of paper because I'm quitting the show."
Ohno's peripheral vision registered dumbfounded shock on Nino's face and a kind of pleasant surprise on Jun's. This was, this was pretty surprising. There had been no hint, as far as Ohno knew, that Aiba was considering this. He looked over at Kimura again to find the man tugging on Nagase's sleeve, ecstatic surprise on his face. This obviously wasn't planned but Ohno would be surprised if Kimura wasn't about to milk all he could out of it.
"Are you sure about that, Aiba?" Sho asked, concerned, slowly beginning to forget they were on camera, it seemed.
"I'm sure," Aiba nodded, finally managing to look up at Sho. "I mean, as I'm sure you've noticed, I've kind of been sticking close to you for the past few months. Cause, you know, I like you. I always thought that the feelings would pass, that I'd fall in love with Jun or something. But Jun's just like a friend or a brother or something, like Nino, and, well, nothing's changed."
"Oh," was all Sho could manage, swallowing noticeably.
"So, Sho," Aiba continued, taking a step forward, closer to the man he was addressing, "I am quitting this program for two reasons. One: It's not fair for me to be in it if I'm not in love with Jun." Aiba took a second to fix a glare in Nino's direction but no one seemed to notice.
"And two?" Sho prompted, no trace of support or discouragement in his voice.
"And two," Aiba followed his lead, "is that I would like to be with you." Aiba looked down again, smiling. "If you'll have me."
Sho looked dumbfounded but not particularly surprised, if that was even possible. The rest of the contestants clearly had no idea how they should react, their eyes wider than dinner plates. Jun was smiling. So was Kimura.
Before anyone could get a word in, however, Nagase was all over the scene, pulling on a pin mike and walking up so that he was in the middle of the frame, between Aiba and Sho. He smiled widely for the camera and Ohno realized somewhere in the back of his brain that this was the first time Nagase had ever gone on air.
"Well, what a program, folks!" He mugged for the camera. "What will Sho say to this sudden love confession? Is Aiba about to get his heart broken? Is CoKoi going to create more than one super love couple this season? Turn in next week and find out!"
Nakai killed the feed on Nagase's signal. Aiba looked around, confused as to the commotion that had suddenly begun. He made a motion to walk closer to Sho but it wasn't going to happen.
"I said tune in next week, didn't I?" Nagase asked plainly, fixing Aiba with a hard look. "You get an answer next week, kid." He turned to Sho and gave him a deadly smile. "So you better be ready." And with that, he signaled Okada over, who pulled Aiba off in one direction while Nagase pulled Sho in another.
Ohno stole a glance over at Kimura one last time. He was smiling like CoKoi had just been extended for a twelve season run.
"Couldn't have written it better myself."
~
And there you have chapter seventeen. I can't believe we're already that far. Wow, this story is taking over my life. But that's okay. Just a heads up: Tuesday's a special day for me and to celebrate, there just might be an update of senkawa that day. Keep an eye peeled. Until then, hope you liked the latest chapter and see you soon. :)