Who Are We? - Chapter 7
Title: Who Are We?
Pairing: Akame
Genre: AU, Romance
Rating: NC-17
Beta: infynitehexes
Disclaimer: Own nothing but the plot, sadly.
Warnings: I don’t know how to warn you without spoiling the story so just read at your own risk. LOL
Summary: He wakes up naked to find himself in bed with a beautiful young man and without any of his memories. What’s his name again?
A/N: A lot of people are confused, and now I’m scared that I’m just confusing you guys xD I think this chapter will start clearing things up, though. I hope. LOL
Chapter 7
Kame doesn’t know how to act around Jin anymore.
It’s all been well and fine ever since that morning, but now, he’s not so sure that this is the way things should have ended up after all. Jin has been dependent - clingy, even - but despite the fact that Kame is the only one Jin can trust at the moment, Kame knows that that very trust is diminishing faster than the grasp he has on what this had all turned into.
Kame had never meant to deceive Jin.
But pure intentions can only go so far. So now, as Kame quietly comes down the stairs with some clothes in his arms, he’s planning to tell Jin the truth. Maybe while he’s doing the laundry, so that he’s busy and has every reason not to look Jin in the eye when he says it. It would be better if Jin’s doing something, too. What can keep Jin busy?
‘Kame… I trust you…’ Jin said yesterday.
Kame perfectly knows why Jin said that, and he isn’t a fool to keep this farce up any longer when he’s as good as found out. He’s not an evil person. It’s just that things really are complicated between them, and Jin’s memory loss has proven to have effectively fucked things up even more.
With or without his memories, Jin has no idea of this side of Kame, and maybe this is the perfect time to let Jin know. This is Kame’s chance to show Jin what he’s been hiding, and the best part is Jin wouldn’t react the way he would typically do, because Jin isn’t the same person anymore.
Kame feels bad about it, but in a twisted sort of way, he’s thankful that the older man lost his memories.
“Aaaah! Kameeee! Aaaah!”
Jin meets Kame at the foot of the stairs, clutching his phone in one hand and practically pulling his hair out with the other. Kame has been very careful around him since yesterday’s random and chaotic sex - which has affected them not only physically but emotionally as well - but then, their circumstances are still the same.
Even with the growing distrust, Kame is still the only one he can turn to at a time like this.
“What’s wrong?” Kame asks, genuinely concerned. He sets down the clothes at the third step.
“N - Nishikido just sent me a message - ”
“What did he say? What happened?”
Kame is seriously worried now. It would be really unfortunate if one of Jin’s friends had some sort of trouble with Jin still unable to remember them.
“He wants to - to hang out - !” Jin exclaims in a strangled voice. “He says it’s gonna be me, him, and the Tomo guy!”
Kame automatically rolls his eyes, “What on earth are you panicking about, then?” he asks, picking the clothes up and resumes walking to the laundry room, Jin following him closely.
“How am I supposed to hang out with people I don’t even know?!” Jin half-whines, peering into the laundry room as Kame sets his cargo down beside the washing machine.
“You hang out with me…” Kame says quietly. He was not able to stop himself from blurting it out, and he doesn’t even know how to follow that up. Awkward.
Jin looks like he thinks it’s a fair enough point, but then protests, “Well, you’re different,” Jin argues, “To begin with, you know what I’m going through.”
“Relax, Jin. You’re going to be fine,” Kame decides to just assure the taller man, putting his hands on Jin’s shoulders and smiling. “And if it gets too tough, you can just tell them. They’re your best friends anyway.”
Jin remains silent for a few moments, like he’s weighing up his options as he stares at Kame. If Kame’s speculation is correct, Jin is trying his best to trust anything Kame says. But there’s no denying that in this case, Kame is right.
It’s the only thing Jin can do anyway.
“In any case,” Kame begins again, turning Jin around by the shoulders and pushing him entirely out the laundry room. “You should get to know your friends.”
Kame makes a last look at the clothes he’s supposed to wash and shrugs inwardly. The laundry - and the things he wants to say - can wait.
“Let’s start by having you call them ‘Ryo,’ and ‘Tomo,’ okay?”
oOo
It’s a quarter past seven in the evening and Jin had just finished dressing up when he hears the front door shut with a snap, followed by quite a cheery greeting. “Kame-chan!” he hears someone say - yell - and naturally, Kame shushes at them.
“Can you not yell at me in my house, YamaPi?” Jin hears Kame say, and it’s another new thing Jin’s discovering about his boyfriend. Jin has seen Kame being goofy and silly around the house, and he’s also seen him act cool and carefree at school, but now it seems Kame’s acting yet another persona.
“I’m not yelling at you,” the guy called YamaPi - Tomo, Jin reminded himself - replies, coming into the house.
Jin is standing at the top of the stairs now, and he stays there, listening. For a moment, he catches sight of the two, passing by the foot of the stairs on their way to the living room. Tomo had short brown hair, about the same shade as Kame’s.
“Where’s Jin?” the visitor asks audibly.
“Upstairs, getting ready,” Jin hears Kame answer.
“So, what were you talking about earlier?” Tomo then asks.
Jin doesn’t hear a reply anymore, which confuses him, causing him to come down the stairs in a hurry. But then, coming down to the first floor, he realizes Kame is talking, but in a voice so low that it was inaudible from the second floor. Jin fights the urge to barge into the living room and instead settles with sitting at the foot of the stairs, inadvertently eavesdropping on his boyfriend and his best friend.
Not that Jin hears much, however. The two carry on speaking in such quiet tones that Jin doesn’t even get the gist of their topic anymore. He does occasionally catch some words - mostly from Tomo who seems to be agitated despite his hushed demeanor - such as ‘girlfriend,’ and ‘cheating,’ and ‘deceiving.’ Interesting as it is, Jin is confused now more than ever.
He can only hear the low rumble of masculine voices, so now Jin creeps slowly and noiselessly down the short hallway. Peeking into the living room, he sees Tomo standing beside the couch, leaning over a dejected looking Kame.
“He’s not the easiest person to be with, Kame, I know you’ve had your share of hardships… and that’s exactly why you need to let him know…”
Tomo’s voice trails off, but the thoughts start rolling out in Jin’s head once more. They could only be talking about him, right? He’s not easy to be with? Considering the previous ‘keywords’ he had heard from their conversation, it could only mean one thing: Jin had been cheating on Kame.
Jin was just about to start feeling guilty for suspecting his boyfriend when he hears a knock on the door. Consequently, he bolts up at the same time Kame and Tomo emerge from the living room.
“Jin!” his best friend approaches him, arms wide open in what he could only assume to be an invitation for a hug.
Jin catches a glimpse of Kame ushering a man with curly hair into the house when he feels fingers on his collarbones and the next thing he knows, he has violently pushed Tomo off of him. Despite his brutal reaction, this seems to be expected of him because Tomo - now standing at arm’s length, thankfully - is laughing lightheartedly. Kame, too, is grinning at the two of them before turning to the newcomer.
“Koki, please don’t tell me you forgot to bring your manuscript -” Kame protests upon surveying his visitor and observing that the man didn’t have anything with him.
The moment seems to freeze for Jin, because in that instant he sees that strange façade go up again - like Kame suddenly wearing a mask - and he doesn’t know anymore if his boyfriend is pretending around these people, or pretending around Jin.
“I brought a soft copy, okay! And I have it online, too,” the man - Kame called him ‘Koki’ - explains in defense.
“You guys are such nerds, you know? We have months to work on that shit,” Tomo joins in, straightening up and recovering from his laughing fit.
“Well, Kame’s the real smartass around here, I’m just being a supportive friend,” Koki shrugs, grinning as well. “Oh, hi Akanishi,” he adds, looking past Tomo and nodding at Jin.
The grin is notably absent as he greets Jin.
“Hey,” Jin nods back, and for a second he sees the look of panic on Kame’s face, which is probably due to the fact that he has not provided Jin the slightest idea of who this man is.
“So!” Tomo cuts in, and Jin doesn’t know if that’s on purpose or not. “We’ll be going now!” he says, placing an arm over Jin’s shoulders. “You two enjoy, well, writing your papers,” he adds, grimacing at Kame and Koki.
Jin looks back at the house as he and Tomo walk past the gates and down the quiet street, a soft evening breeze ushering them out. He was looking forward to a good night, as Kame had convinced him that his friends were totally cool and would be accommodating despite his memory loss, but now there’s this sense of foreboding he can’t shake off. Setting his gaze ahead of him once more, he catches Tomo looking at him, and both men avert their eyes.
“Kame and Koki are very good friends, just like you and I,” Tomo then says, as if he had read Jin’s mind. “If you’re wary over the thought of the two of them alone, what do you think Kame feels every time you leave?”
Jin would have wanted to point out that he doesn’t remember, but he doesn’t want to create superfluous debate over his memory loss. At the moment, Tomo’s words cut through him like a knife, confirming his theory that, well, he was the worse partner in his relationship with Kame. Jin feels it’s unfair that he has to suffer a guilt trip like this when he doesn’t even know what dreadful things he’s done, but maybe that’s the point of it.
Maybe this is his punishment.
oOo
“AHAHAHAHA! Annoying bitch! You know what I did to her?”
“Kicked her out of the taxi like you did to that one girl - ”
“No! I’ve learned my lesson, kicking them out of a taxi isn’t even fun. I bit her! Hahaha! You should have seen the look on her face!”
Jin is starting to feel groggy, but he’s sure it’s not because of the alcohol. He’s been sitting here for a little over three hours, and he hasn’t even finished one bottle. He is determined not to get drunk, because god knows what would happen if he did.
It turns out Ryo is the guy who high-fived Jin on his way out the building when he went to school the other day. Right now he has turned really red. He’s also relentlessly yapping about the dates he’s had in the past week, though from what Jin had gathered from their conversations, Ryo actually already has a girlfriend.
“Bit her?” Tomo, who looks a bit tipsy himself, tries to confirm, looking sideways at Ryo.
They are seated on Tomo’s bigger couch, while Jin is occupying the solo one across the center table. Yamashita Tomohisa’s small flat is quite cozy, Jin thinks, and he can actually imagine coming over and hanging out with this guy in the future. He’s really okay. Ryo, however, Jin will take some time getting used to, maybe.
“Oi Jin, why are you so quiet?” Ryo suddenly barks at him.
“Er, I was wondering where Yuu is -” Jin tries out randomly.
“He said he’s busy with soccer practice,” Tomo replies quite eagerly. “Funny how he’s the one who continued playing until we got older, huh. To think he was the most reluctant to join the team back in highschool - ”
“Don’t you mean ‘Shirota-san?’” Ryo abruptly interrupts Tomo.
He’s leering at Jin in a freaky kind of way, and Jin’s not sure if he’s like this all the time or just because he’s drunk. Either way, Jin looks at him quizzically, because he has no idea why he should call his close friend by his surname.
“Bet you don’t even know what he looks like - ”
“What.”
“Ryo.”
Tomo says firmly, and Ryo does shut up for the moment, still sneering at Jin like a maniac. Tomo sighs.
“It’s alright, Jin. We know about your memory loss.”
Jin blinks back at the two of them, uncertain of how he should react. It figures, though, since Kame and Tomo do seem really close, that Kame would tell Tomo, and Tomo would tell Ryo. And everything should be fine, Jin guesses, but somehow Ryo’s stare is getting to him and he doesn’t understand what Ryo exactly wants.
“I - that’s - thanks…” Jin ends up saying, unsure why he’s thanking them. For understanding his situation? For not laughing? If Kame told Tomo everything, then they should know that Jin lost his memories because of some incredible sex.
“You’re welcome,” Ryo replies smugly, leaning back in his spot on the couch and grinning at Jin. “Why else wouldn’t I be running to you and climbing on your lap -”
“What?”
“Ryo!”
Jin and Tomo say the same words once again, and Ryo laughs, “Sad… you don’t remember at all.”
“Remember what?” Jin asks, and he feels stupid to be asking at all, because he doesn’t remember anything, and Ryo is being such a prick.
“Just when I thought everything between us was perfect, you lose your memories and forget all about me,” the man explains, though Jin isn’t sure it’s counted as ‘explaining’ at all because all it’s doing is fucking up his head. Does Ryo mean what Jin thinks he means?
“What do you mean - are we - ?”
“See, I told you he doesn’t remember,” Ryo fires at Tomo, and the latter sighs again.
“Ryo, you’re drunk as fuck - ”
“I’m your boyfriend,” Ryo says, getting up and squatting in front of Jin.
“You’re my - what? What?” Jin sputters, unable to come up with a proper reaction. Was he cheating on Kame with Ryo?!
“I’m your boyfriend, Jin!” Ryo repeats, yelling in Jin’s face now.
Jin shoots a sideways glance at Tomo, and the guy looks like he just wants to dissolve into the couch, his lips pursed and his brows scrunched together.
“I - I thought - Kame - ”
Ryo sits down on the carpeted floor in front of Jin, grabbing a fresh bottle and taking a swig before turning to Jin once more.
“That bastard’s managed to fuck you up real good, huh?” Ryo says, eyes out of focus.
Jin doesn’t know anymore if he should take this guy seriously or it’s the alcohol talking, so he looks at Tomo again, questioningly now. Tomo’s face is buried in his hands. Jin isn’t sure if he’s still awake, but Ryo talks to him anyway.
“Oh come on, Yamashita Tomohisa. Stop protecting your poor Kame-chan and help me enlighten Jinjin here - ”
Ryo is now almost lying on the floor, just his elbows supporting him up to peer at Tomo from behind the center table. The other man finally raises his gaze and looks at the disheveled pair, pokerfaced.
“First off, Jin, Ryo isn’t your boyfriend - he’s just messing with your head because - ”
“But I couldn’t because Kamenashi’s already done a very good job - ”
“ - because his own is already messed up by the beer - ”
“I’m not yet drunk!”
And then Jin recalls the talk he had with Kame a few days ago, when Kame first told him about his friends from highschool…
‘It’s Nishikido Ryo, and I don’t dislike him. It’s more of… he doesn’t like me.’
So this is what Kame was talking about. From the looks of it, Ryo really does seem to hate his guts. But without his memories, Jin can’t possibly fathom why and how his boyfriend and one of his best friends would be on such bad terms.
“I’ve heard that you and Kame aren’t really okay with each other,” Jin says, having newfound confidence with his understanding of why Ryo was being such a dick.
“Un, did Kamenashi tell you that?” Ryo snaps back, chuckling at his beer bottle.
“Why do you dislike him so much?” Jin asks, genuinely intrigued. This, after all, is something he can’t get out of Kame even if he tried, considering Kame’s stubborn evasion from some unpleasant topics.
Tomo’s face is hidden behind his palms again, but Jin knows he’s listening.
“You know why I don’t like him? Because he’s a lying, cheating, selfish bastard. Look at what he did to you. You’re not even gay, Jin. Kamenashi struck gold with you losing your memories. Maybe he even drugged you to make you lose it.”
Jin looks at Ryo, and the latter looks back at him with an unexpectedly sober expression. This man is supposed to be one of his closest friends, and he’s speaking ill of Kame. Kame, who has been Jin’s guide all along.
Maybe he even drugged you to make you lose it.
Ryo does come across as the type who would badmouth someone just because he doesn’t like them. But if one would think about it, what with the doubts Jin has been having, Ryo’s words don’t sound too farfetched. Jin doesn’t know exactly what he’s feeling at the moment - because nothing’s ever sure, and words are just words - but it’s quite similar to getting the rug pulled out from under his feet.
To be continued…
oOo
Comments are very much appreciated! :D
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