Come On! Koibito! 20/21
Nino awoke to the sound of Aiba's giggles. It wasn't too surprising--he had been pretty certain Aiba'd manage to wrangle a pass to the taping of the finale--but he hadn't expected him to be there when he woke up. Nino groaned, not quite ready to deal with Aiba's high spirits before noon.
"Aiba, who let you into my room?" Nino's voice was thick with sleep and he squinted to try and make out Aiba's shape across the room, mucking around with his DS in a chair in the corner. If it weren't for the fact that Nino was barely awake, that Nintendo would have been ripped from his hands by now. Nino scratched his head as Aiba looked up.
"You keep your door unlocked, silly," he smiled, closing the DS and pouncing on Nino's bed. Nino made a vague annoyed grumble as he bounced closer to the headboard, frowning at Aiba. "So, are you excited for the finale tonight?"
"No," Nino answered simply, yawning and trying to ignore the bright smile Aiba was radiating at him. "And why are you so happy this early? If it's something gross, I don't have to know."
"Love isn't gross~" Aiba sing-songed, emphasizing his point by tapping Nino on the nose. Nino swatted at his hand.
"You're gross," Nino complained.
"Sho picked me up at seven this morning," Aiba told him, ignoring Nino's comment. "It was completely out of his way but he came anyway. Said I should be there as emotional support. For who, I don't know."
"For me, probably," Nino shrugged. Aiba shook his head, attempting to give Nino a dirty look.
"You don't have any emotions. If you did, you would have quit by now and would be having mad sex with Ohno instead of sleeping alone."
Nino punched him in the arm. "Shut up, Aiba. You don't know anything."
"Oh, don't I?" Aiba moved away from the potentially dangerous arms of his friend. "Come on, Nino. We all know that you don't like Jun and anyone with eyes and an attention span knows that you and Ohno are in love. So the fact that you haven't done anything about it--"
"--I tried!" Nino broke in, surprising Aiba into silence. "I tried to pull him aside yesterday. But I don't know what happened, he didn't want to hear it or something. Nagase called him and he left and he just never came back."
Aiba frowned, watching Nino fiddle with his hands. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Nino sighed. "It's the finale, you know? I think I just need to find him and talk to him. I already know that it's not me so the actual show doesn't matter."
"Jun already told you he's not picking you?" Aiba looked confused. "Isn't that kind of against the rules? When did he tell you that?"
"Like you're one to talk about doing things against the rules," Nino snickered. "Weren't you the one that dropped out of a dating show to start a relationship with the host?"
"Shut up, Nino," Aiba laughed. "Just tell me what Jun said."
Nino shrugged. "He pulled me aside during the visit to my house. Told me no offense but I wasn't going to win. When I pretended to act put out about it, he laughed and told me to just make out with Ohno already. He's known all along! I don't know how he knew but he told me that he'd been prepared to veto if I got voted off until we admitted how we felt for each other."
"That sounds like Jun," Aiba smiled. "I always told you he was a good guy."
"Yeah, yeah," Nino shrugged off Aiba's comment. "Anyways, the point is that I'm not winning anything tonight. So the plan for today is just to find Ohno and, I don't know, figure this out? The finale doesn't really apply to me."
"I knew you'd see reason someday," Aiba smiled, reaching over to attempt to pat Nino on the back. Nino shook him off with a friendly frown. "Tell you what: why don't you get ready and I'll find Ohno and send him up? I bet he's on set already. Then the three of us can find seats downstairs and watch the finale together. You know, if you two can pull your faces apart long enough to watch."
Nino hit him again but gave a small nod, watching Aiba grin deviously before disappearing out the door. Rolling out of bed, he headed over to the dresser. What kind of outfit did you wear when you were finally confessing?
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"Sho~" Aiba called, noticing the sparkle of his bow tie from across the room. Sho turned at his voice and smiled, setting Aiba's heart beating a little bit faster. It was silly; they'd only been dating a little over a week but it already seemed kind of familiar, Sho waving him over with a vaguely self conscious look on his face. Of course, the show had been kind of a crash course and nothing had changed too much since he'd confessed, other than it being official. Still, there was something special about knowing that that shy, if slightly embarrassed in public smile, was only for him.
"Hey, Aiba," Sho smiled, ushering him over out of the way of some of the lighting people, setting up for the shooting that was supposed to take place in a few hours. "Did Nino kick you out already?"
"Actually," Aiba smiled, reaching over and giving Sho's bow tie a small snap, "I kicked myself out. I think he's finally going to talk to Ohno so I told him that I'd send him up." Aiba paused. "You haven't seen him, have you?"
"I don't think I have," Sho shook his head slowly, thinking back on the day. "He definitely hasn't been on set. Which is weird because usually he's here super early."
"Usually, he sleeps over at Nino's," Aiba laughed.
"Point," Sho agreed, looking vaguely uncomfortable at the concept but getting sucked in to Aiba's enthusiasm, laughing as well. "Why don't I figure out where he is? You're not really supposed to be wandering around, you know."
"I know," Aiba conceded, his voice a little let down but a mischievous smile still on his face. "Hey, Nagase!" Aiba noticed the PA on the other side of the set and called over, ignoring Sho's groans of how this was not a good idea.
"Aiba, I don't have time right now!" the older man yelled back, doing his best not to pay attention to the guy who was currently running over towards him, Sho on his heels trying to convince him to just ask someone else.
"Just a quick question," Aiba continued. "Have you seen Ohno anywhere around?"
Nagase had looked beyond annoyed when he first turned around, about ready to strangle Aiba but at the mention of Ohno's name, his arm fell and he looked rather uncomfortable.
"So, you haven't heard, huh?" he asked awkwardly. Sho frowned. Aiba wasn't quite sure what was going on.
"Heard what?"
"Ohno actually quit last night." Nagase scratched the back of his head, not making eye contact with Aiba as he spoke. It was probably for the best as Aiba's face could not contain his emotion, eyes bugging out in shock and immediately turning to Sho for some sort of grounding. Sho looked as shocked as Aiba felt, though, frowning and giving Nagase a kind of look that Aiba couldn't place.
"You let Ohno quit?" he finally asked. Aiba wasn't sure what that meant.
"We didn't have a choice," Nagase shrugged, looking defeated. "He just came in the production tent towards the end of the day and announced it. Said he'd come back next year when he was less of a distraction. Kimura did his best to convince him to stay but he'd already made his choice."
"He said he didn't want to be a distraction?" Aiba asked. Nagase nodded.
"I think something must have happened with him and Ninomiya. It looked like he was regretting something." Aiba frowned. There was no way.
"I have to go talk to Nino," Aiba turned to Sho. The other man nodded, a quick pat on the back as Aiba jumped into a light jog up the stairs. Something weird was going on and Nino was not going to be happy.
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"Welcome, everyone, to the much lauded finale of Come On! Koibito!!" Sho led the studio audience in applauding, some cannon-esque contraption just off camera exploding in confetti all over the stage. Nino just brushed the gold glitter off his shoulder, feeling awkward in the suit the costumers had stuck him in a half hour before.
He didn't even know why he was here. Jun wasn't going to pick him. Ohno had made his decision, quitting the night before, probably just so that Nino couldn't confess. Was turning him down really going to be that bad? God, how could he reject him before he'd even gotten a chance to say anything?
Nino felt Aiba's eyes on him and threw a brief glare towards the brown haired man in the front row. Aiba's sympathy was pretty much the worst part of this whole situation. Sure, it was hard, knowing you weren't going to win and the guy you had feelings for had basically left you without saying anything at the same time but it was even worse with that sad puppy dog face of Aiba's following your every move. He'd tried to foist the man off on Sho but as host, he'd had to set up and get in and out of costume, make up, etcetera.
"How are you doing?" Aiba'd ask every few minutes, tone mournful. Nino really just wanted to turn around and sock him in the jaw but he knew that that would be rude. Also, Aiba'd probably just be sadder and that would have defeated the purpose.
And so here they were, he, Shun and Junpei, standing awkwardly on stage as Sho explained the rules for the studio audience that all already obviously knew them, nodding along as Sho recounted the last few weeks, interspersed with clips from post-production on a big screen they'd wheeled in on the right. Nino really didn't appreciate watching himself competing in stupid challenges as Sho talked, especially as all he could think as he watched was whether or not Ohno had shot that particular angle.
"And now let's bring out the man himself!" Sho began, a fluster of activity going on in the back right of the stage. "Let's hear it for our bachelor, Jun Matsumoto!" The audience went wild as Jun walked out, looking for all the world like he owned Tokyo. Maybe he did. There'd always been something kind of strange about Jun; maybe he was unseemly rich. It'd make sense.
After the clapping died down, Sho continued reading rules, reminding the audience that as this was the last episode, there had been no voting and the winner would be picked by Jun himself. After all, this was the person who was to be his new significant other. Jun had raised an eyebrow at Sho's delivery and it annoyed Nino. It was like there was some different show Jun had been watching, knowing everything that went on behind, in front and in between the scenes. The man might be nicer than he first seemed but he was also infuriating.
Jun was making some opening statements, some blanket phrases about how interesting this whole thing had been and how he appreciated everyone that did everything on set, how it seemed like everyone was working for his own happiness and how grateful he was. Nino had no doubt that Jun meant some of it, maybe even most of it, but there was just some kind of fake sincerity (or was it guilt?) that was flavoring his words. It was weird. All of this was weird. He was getting sick of this charade.
"Ninomiya?" Nino heard Sho call his name. He looked up to find everyone looking at him. Uh oh, had they said something to him?
"Yes?" he asked, feeling awkward but kind of not caring. All the pride and worry that he used to have in front of the camera was slipping out of him like sands from an hourglass. What did it matter? It wasn't like Ohno was here.
"Do you have any comments about the show, before Jun makes his final decision?" Sho was looking at him with pity in his eyes. Aiba must have told him. Lord, did the entire world know?
"Comments about the show?" Nino asked, trying to buy time to think of something to say. Sho nodded. Jun was looking at him pretty intensely, too. Only Junpei and Shun were looking at him with no sympathy in their eyes. For a second, he had a flash of gratitude for the fact that they'd never become too close. But all of this, all these nerves and pitiful looks and whispers backstage were getting to him. Did he have a comment about the show? Why yes, he did.
"This whole show is a sham," he finally smiled vindictively. The audience gasped but it only added fuel to Nino's fire. "Jun doesn't love me and I don't love him. We both know it. I should never have gotten this far. I haven't been trying for weeks. In fact," he added, looking specifically towards the audience, getting a kick out of shocking them, "I'm in love with someone else. Someone who is not here. So, honestly, I don't know why I am."
Nino turned with a feline grin back to Sho who was looking shocked. Good, he should.
"Sorry, Sho," he smiled. "I think I'm going to take Aiba's lead and quit. It doesn't matter, anyway." Nino turned to walk offstage, loving every minute of the shocked silence. A thought popped into his head and he turned one last time.
"Oh, and if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on you, Shun." He gave an apologetic nod to Junpei. "Sorry, kid. It'll take a little bit longer to see you on a billboard."
Nino was almost off camera when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, ready to shake Sho or Aiba off only to find that it was the director himself. Nino hadn't had many run ins with Kimura but he knew better than to try and simply ignore him so he granted him the best he could give: a grunt of acknowledgement.
"Where are you going?" Kimura asked, a twinkle in his eye that Nino didn't like. It was like he was almost excited about Nino ruining his show.
"Away," Nino shrugged. "I don't have a reason to be here anymore. Don't see the point."
"I have a feeling I won't be able to convince you to stay," Kimura began. Nino just looked at him, not in a mood. "Is there any chance I could suggest a place for you to go?"
"Where?" Nino asked, hearing the acidic tone in his voice and not really caring. Kimura just gave him that queer smile again as he began writing an address on a slip of paper. When Nino glanced down at the paper as Kimura slipped it into his hand, he felt his stomach drop. "This is Ohno's address."
"Yeah, about that," Kimura scratched the back of his head, obviously trying his best to look lovable which set off a warning bell in Nino's head. "You see, it might kind of be our fault. We kind of upped the ante with you and Ohno."
Nino blinked. "You knew?"
"We knew. And we broadcasted it. There may or may not be hidden cameras in your room. We may or may not have been playing up you two as the third love story of the season." Nino felt his stomach bottom out, Kimura still attempting to give him a puppy dog face.
"You what?!"
"Don't worry!" Kimura was waving his hands in front of his face, in both an apologetic and protective manner. "We edited everything so nothing too outrageous aired on television. And we kept private things private, of course. But the point is," Kimura stressed, noticing the murderous intent in Nino's eyes, "Ohno came to me last night saying he wanted to quit. Not because of anything other than the fact that he thought he was becoming a distraction. Ninomiya, was Ohno a distraction to you?"
Nino thought about Kimura's words for a moment. Biting back the need to strangle the older man, he finally managed to reply. "Well, yes but, you know, in the best possible way."
"I think," Kimura smiled, as gently as possible while still kind of on the defensive, "that you should go tell him that."
Kimura was right. Damn it, he was right. Before he could convince himself that it was a bad idea or that killing the director was a good one, he found his feet carrying him towards the door, Aiba's cheers ringing vaguely in his ears.
Kimura waited until Nino was gone before yelling at Nakai.
"I got a bug into his pocket. Tell me you slipped a DV camera into his bag during light prep." Nakai grinned in response.
~
I am so happy this chapter is done. It was proving kind of difficult but I finally managed to wrangle it down! And, with its completion, we've only one chapter left. I can't believe it. There'll probably be a double release of both the last chapter and the epilogue next Saturday so keep an eye out for it. I'm also working on a new series and a new one-shot so something might be out in the interim, I don't know. All I'm saying, basically, is Christmas Break is making me write and I hope you guys check some of it out. Hope you enjoy this chapter! ♥