Clear As
Clear As
122. 5 reasons why Tatsuya wears his glasses
01 In which Tatsuya loses a contact
A slight thump and a muffled curse alerted Tanaka Koki that someone - or something - was crawling around underneath the various chairs and tables, possibly blindly.
Intrigued, the rapper stood up and rolled his shoulder, hissing as the bone popped and slid smoothly back in place. With the pain as a reminder to stretch after dance practise, Koki began his search for whatever had made so much noise only a moment before.
Another thump, another swear word. Koki cocked his head to one side, curious in what he was about to find.
“Yoh - what’s up?” Koki greeted, popping his head under a desk and raising an eyebrow.
Tatsuya looked up, his eyes slightly misted and a serious looking bump on the side of his forehead. He squinted and patted Koki’s chin, as though reading him through his hands. When his fingers brushed over the bristles caused by a few days without shaving, his face lightened up.
“Ah… Tanaka,” he finally replied, attempting to straighten up and hitting his head again in the process.
Koki winced as Tatsuya, once again, swore uncharacteristically.
“What are you doing?” Koki asked politely, watching as Tatsuya finally found his way out of the forest of desk legs.
“I dropped a contact…” Tatsuya mumbled, his face reddening.
Koki laughed, quickly covering it as a cough. Tatsuya glared vaguely in his direction and sighed, before standing up and looking around the room.
“Where do you think you dropped it?” Koki tried.
Tatsuya shrugged and began to walk out of the room, hissing in pain every time his knee made contact with a chair or table. A soft popping noise made the singer stop, and he looked forlornly at the ground, slowly lifting his foot and realising that he had walked over his long-lost contact lens.
“Hey… you know that I have a spare pair of glasses, right?” Koki ventured cautiously.
Tatsuya turned around, his bottom lip quivering as his nodded slowly.
“I can let you borrow them until you grab a new pair…” Koki finished lamely, now regretting that he opened his mouth as Tatsuya nearly launched himself on him.
“Thank. You.”
A quick shake of the hand, another bump and a final curse was heard before Tatsuya fell through the door, now in search of Koki’s spare glasses.
02 In which he finds it hard to read
Tatsuya sighed and rubbed his eyes, glancing carelessly at his watch and scowling at what he could make out to be the time. Throwing his book to the other side of the room, he pursed his lips as he watched it sail through the air and land on top of a dressing table, scattering what he guessed was Kamenashi’s make up.
“That was my make up.”
Ueda’s guess was correct.
Tatsuya bowed his head in apology and moved to clean up the mess, only to be stopped by Kamenashi blocking the way.
“Why did you throw it?”
“Eh?” Tatsuya replied blankly.
“Why did you throw the book?” Kamenashi tried again.
Tatsuya let out a breath that he had been holding unawaringly.
“I couldn’t read it,” he finally muttered.
“Why?”
Tatsuya scowled, his porcelain features twisting into an ugly expression and marring is usually stoic face.
“I just couldn’t. Give it a rest,” he surrendered, glancing up from under his eyelashes and letting his gaze land on Kamenashi, who had now begun to clean up his make up strewn across the dressing table.
“Why?” Kameashi pestered.
“Look - I couldn’t read it because I’m blind, ok? Happy now, Kamenashi?” Ueda growled, crossing the room in three large strides and facing him.
“Blind, hm?”
Tatsuya remained silent, fuming as Kamenashi hummed SMACK whilst reordering his array of foundation bases.
“I have a pair of glasses in the first drawer of Jin’s dressing table - he borrowed them last night to read the newspaper. Go grab them.”
As Tatsuya stared at Kazuya, slack jawed, Kameashi straightened and smiled, now exiting the room.
“You never know - you might just look hot in them.”
03 In which driving is a problem
“But… I. Want. Coffee!”
Ueda brushed off the persistent tugging of the sleeve from Taguchi and battled to ignore him, getting more and more annoyed by the second.
“Taaaaatsuuuuuuyaaaaaaaaa,” the other man whined, reminding Tatsuya of a child no older than five.
Tatsuya finally snapped.
“I am this close to ripping every strand of hair out of its roots from the top of your head and stuffing your mouth with it. What. Do. You. Want. From. Me?” Ueda growled dangerously, his eyes shining with a weird sort of brightness.
“Coffee,” Taguchi replied promptly.
“So what?”
“I can’t drive.”
“And then?”
“You can.”
The vein at the side of Ueda’s head pulsed.
“Can’t you just buy coffee at a vending machine?” he tried to reason, walking briskly away from the coffee-craving singer.
“But… I want that American stuff… the Starbucks coffee,” Taguchi continued, him following Ueda not dissimilar to that of a puppy following its owner.
Ueda grimaced and stormed through the multiple corridors, scaring group after group of Juniors, who edged away from him after seeing the fury he had in his eyes.
“Taguchi… can’t you use the bus?” Ueda finally sighed, rubbing his eyes.
“Tatsuya… please? I’ll buy coffee for you too…”
Fifteen minutes later, Ueda was still reasoning with himself on how and why he was in the same car with Taguchi, apparently on the search for Starbuck’s coffee. Suddenly, Taguchi grabbed Ueda’s forearm and stared at him wildly.
“What?” Ueda asked easily, frowning as the driver behind him swore loudly.
“You do know that you went through a red light, right?” Taguchi said, a line of sweat forming on his brow.
“Really?” Ueda replied, overtaking a truck and pouting as the truck driver shook a fist at him.
“Tatsuya… you can’t overtake a turning truck!” Taguchi whispered, his eyes round with horror.
“He was turning?”
“Tatsuya… how many lanes are there on the road right now?” Taguchi tested cautiously, praying that Ueda would hit the right answer of ‘three’.
“Um… two?”
It was then that Taguchi realised that Ueda hadn’t been wearing his glasses the whole time they were in the car. He had heard rumours of how good Ueda’s driving was from the other KAT-TUN members, basking in the dream of a smooth, turbulence-free ride with good music wafting in the background and plush leather seats. However, he had forgotten the warning Nakamaru had dropped him: “Ueda’s driving is great… but make sure he wears his glasses when doing so… if not, he might actually kill you!”
Taguchi had forgotten the warning the second he had stepped foot in the car.
Thirty minutes later, the two men entered a Starbucks’ café, one relaxed and thanking the other for the idea, and the other holding onto the door frame for support.
“Taguchi?”
“Y-y-y-yeah?”
“Let’s take a detour when we drive back to see the city sights… what do you think? I’ll even use the highway.”
04 In which a photo shoot calls for them
“I needa y’all ta lookit hawt,” the photographer ordered, snapping his fingers in front of Nakamaru’s face and causing the beat-boxer to jump back in alarm.
“Lookit `ere… see ‘ow Kamenashi is all preeti’n’poutin`? I needa y’all ta lookit like ‘at.”
“You’re so preeti’n’poutin`,” Jin snickered as Kamenashi’s cheeks took on a cherry hue, doing his upmost best to ignore his band mates’ teasing.
“What… what’cha doin’? ‘dat `un - yes, ya! Geddit ya feet o’er `ere now!” the photographer snapped, raising his lined eyebrows that were even thinner than Kamenashi’s.
Ueda grudgingly stepped forward, adverting his gaze with the hard-to-hear photographer.
“Gosh - ya sure ya part of KAT-TUN? Ya face innit ‘eally boyband material, ya know?” the photographer mercilessly insulted.
Koki took a step forward, as did Jin. Taguchi opened his mouth to object, but Ueda shook his head, a quick jerk to one side, and then the other.
I’ll deal with this.
“You want me to look like a KAT-TUN band member?”
“Whatta ya think I’m ‘ere for? A Hey!Say!Jump! kid photo shoot? I want what women pay meh for - sexiness.”
“You want me to look sexy?”
“Da ya want meh to repeat mahself?”
“You want me to look hot?”
With his last question, Ueda pulled out a pair of brown-rimmed glasses and slid them up the bridge of his nose, remembering vaguely that Kamenashi had mentioned once that he looked good in glasses. Strutting to the couch, which was the centrepiece of the photo shoot, Ueda lounged almost casually against the arm, pouting for all his worth and emitting a blank stare that sent shivers down the back of his band members’ backs. Grinning to himself, Tatsuya bit his lip and leant forward, looking up at the camera from under his eyelashes, blinking slowly.
The photographer was rendered speechless, before howling to the rest of KAT-TUN why they weren’t as hot and as sexy as the one posing before them.
05 In which…
“… lies. The stupid fangirls voted that YamaPi and Koyama looked best in glasses.”
“Well, I think you look good in them,” Ueda pressed.
Ryo smiled gently and turned to lie on his stomach, brushing a stray strand of hair out of Ueda’s eyes as he moved to close the distance between their lips.
“… the photographer liked me in glasses.”
Ryo stopped and frowned at Ueda’s statement, shifting so that Ueda was now beside him.
“The photographer.”
“Mmhmm,” Ueda answered absently, playing with Ryo’s shirt cuff.
“Was the photographer… good looking?” Ryo questioned cautiously, striving to seem uninterested and failing.
“Mmm…. Yes.”
“WHAT?”
“I’m joking,” Ueda laughed, pulling Ryo in for an embrace. “He was a pain in the ass who thought he knew what style was but didn’t have a clue.”
“Really?”
Ueda rolled his eyes and sat up, running a hand through his hair.
“You are so insecure,” he reprimanded Ryo.
Silence fell upon the pair and as they rested against each other, one lying stomach down, and the other staring at the ceiling, tracing imaginary patterns in the air with his fingers.
“Tatsuya.”
“Mmmm?”
“Why do you wear glasses?”
Tatsuya’s smile spread across his face slowly and he turned over so that he too, was lying on his stomach.
“I wear glasses… to read… to drive… to walk around… to look hot…”
Ryo tilted his head to one side, intrigued with the other man’s answer.
“… and to see you clearly, because if I couldn’t, I would be better off blind,” Ueda finished.
Ryo blushed and looked away as Ueda laughed, sweeping his glasses off his face and leaning in to catch Ryo’s lips in a kiss.
1791 words