[Arashi Fanfic] Love, Courage and Cherry Pie - Chapter 13
Just 2 more chapters to go. This one's a bit more "experimental" in terms of style, I hope you guys don't mind. Inspiration hit me one night, and I stayed up til 5am writing this, for some random unknown reason. So please forgive any spelling/grammar mistakes, even though it's pretty much edited.
See the sharp blade? Before the sun rises, you must strike it into his heart, and when his blood warms your feet, they will become a tail, and you will be a mermaid once more. He or you must die before sunrise!
Yuuki woke up, in cold sweat and panting for breath. The story of The Little Mermaid haunted her mind, becoming a recurring nightmare which followed her every night, standing like a monster between her and the haven of a peaceful slumber. It was three or four in the morning, the darkest hours of the night, and she knew that it'd be impossible to fall asleep again. Sighing, she got up, turned on the lights in the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea.
The nightmares started some time after a random trip to the convenience store, a fortnight after her birthday. It was during the Golden Week holidays, she was at Nikko station, looking for the day's newspaper and a drink for the trip back to Tokyo. One of the gossip magazines had a headline with "Arashi and Yamapi: Scandalous relationship with the same girl?!"-she picked it up out of curiosity, and expected to get a laugh out of it. But when she flicked through the magazine and actually saw the article, waves of shock and disbelief overtook her. The girl in the grainy photographs was not only familiar…it was herself. Calmly, she closed the magazine, strolled to the counter as casually as she could, and bought the three items in her hand: her drink, the newspaper, and the mag.
Yuuki didn't know how she made it onto the express train. Her mind was blank, yet it reeled in panic. Panic not for herself, but for the guys. The train was well out of Nikko when Yuuki finally opened the magazine again, and studied the article, along with the 'evidence', in detail-it was not a long one (only a double page), and the photographs were the same ones Johnny showed her some while ago. Of course, as usual, the Jimusho had made no comment-that was the standard practice. But the matter obviously was not such a big one as the Hikari nightclub incident; there was no reason for Johnny to take the magazines off the shelf just because the paparazzi think that the boys have been seeing the same girl. She reached inside her handbag and took out her day planner. Johnny's business card was inside, and it was time Yuuki called the boss.
"Hello?" A gruff voice answered, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
"Ano…Johnny-san, this is Yuuki." She replied, "I…saw the mags. Is there anything I can do, or should do?"
The boss gave a laugh. "You get straight to the point, don't you? There's nothing to worry about. I've taken action already. Those bastards won't know what hit them."
"Are any of them in trouble?" She asked, hesitantly.
"Not yet." He replied. "But they'll have to follow the rules more strictly for a while. And so will you."
"Wakarimashita. Don't worry Johnny-san, they won't hear from me until I'm out of the country."
"Thanks, Yuuki. This should never have happened. Those bastards."
She stuck to her word: no one associated with Johnnys heard from her after that week. They tried to look for her, calling and messaging endlessly for the first two weeks or so, then slowly the messages dwindled; their busy schedules and watchful eyes of their managers prevented that. It was for the best, and in their hearts they knew, she was still their friend. She, on the other hand, welcomed the change. As much as the guys now meant to her, Yuuki wasn't sure if she could face them again: Tomohisa, whose heart she broke; and Aiba, who broke her heart without knowing it. Everything was so complicated, yet all she ever wanted was a simple love. And so the "scandal" became her excuse to run, and not face the truth: the truth of Aiba's feelings, whatever they may be; and her own.
She spent no unnecessary moment outside her apartment, and became, basically, a recluse. Whenever she was not in class, the library or at the shops, she was in her apartment, a book in her hand and a cup of tea within arms reach. They were mainly fairy tales, in the unabridged form; yet she skipped the endings of each one, and chose to believe that all endings were merely new beginnings.
You must put up with a great deal to keep up appearances.
Hisako showed up at Yuuki's doorstep one afternoon, unannounced. She was greeted with the sight of a tired, empty being; it was as though Yuuki's spirit had left her body. It took Hisako a bit of persuasion before Yuuki spilled all: from the first time she met Johnny Kitagawa to the promise she made back in the beginning of May. By the end of the tale Hisako was in shock, but knowing Yuuki as she did, she wasn't surprised by her choice of actions.
"Gomen ne, Yuuki-chan, I had no idea."
"I've been expecting this to come, the moment I found out about Tomo-kun. Guess I should have kept my distance from the beginning. Anyway, how are things between you and your boyfriend?"
"Oh, he's great. We went to the aquarium yesterday…"
Yuuki smiled and nodded every now and then, as Hisako talked about her dates and adventures. Somehow hearing Hisako's voice calmed her, and momentarily Yuuki forgot about her worries and her loneliness; and she was happy again.
"Thank you, Hisako," Yuuki whispered as she hugged her friend goodbye. Her eyes followed the shadow of Hisako's back, until her friend was finally out of sight. It was a warm summers night, and the sky was clear. The moonlight shone a beautiful silvery shimmer, unaccompanied by stars; and for a moment, Yuuki doubted herself. Am I doing the right thing?
That night, the dreams started. Dreams that haunted Yuuki, each and every night, without fail. And each time, Yuuki wondered if the choice she made was really the right one, and would ask herself the same question over and over: am I doing the right thing? Tears would down her face, into the cup of tea in her hands, as her eyes gazed at nothing in particular. And she would sit there, as still as a statue, staring blankly into the distance, until it was time to leave the house.
If only I could become the foam in the sea, or the transparent figure in the air.
But she missed them. She missed Ohno's calmness, and Nino's tricks; she missed Tomohisa's understanding smile. Most of all, she missed Aiba: his genki spirit, his laugh, his frown, his tears…his everything. She gave up almost everything to be by his side, yet she never told him the truth. Just as the little mermaid never told the Prince, because he was happily in love with someone else. And no matter how much it hurt, she would still smile, and nod, and continue to encourage him, just to see the smile reappear on his face once more.
What if the little mermaid chose to save herself and killed the prince? Would people understand? Would they believe her tale, and forgive her? Would they still love her, as they did before? Or would they condemn her, for being a self-centred murderer, concerned for no one but herself?
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"Kampai!"
It was the last day of semester, and Yuuki was in a restaurant, along with the rest of her classmates.
"Ah, Yuuki," one of the girls, Sanae, piped up, "today was your last day of uni with us, ne?"
Yuuki gulped her drink quickly and nodded.
"Eeh? Really?" Another girl, Misako asked. "So you'll be leaving soon, ne?"
"Yeah, around mid-August."
"Isn't that like two weeks away? Is that enough time for packing and all?"
"Actually," Yuuki answered, "I'm sending most of the stuff home in the next couple of days or so. I'll be doing a bit of travelling around before heading back, so this will probably be our last night together."
Sanae sighed. "I can't believe a year passed by already. I'm gonna miss you, Yuuki."
"I'll miss you too." Yuuki bit her lip and stopped herself from crying. "Saa, since it's our last night together, we might as well make it an enjoyable one. How about we go karaoke after this?"
"Ha-i!"
It was well past midnight when Yuuki finally made it home. As she walked down the corridor to her apartment, she saw a figure sitting on her doorstep.
"Tomo…kun?"
Despite it being the middle of the night, he had a baseball cap and aviator sunglasses on. He raised his head, his brows furrowed as his eyes registered the face above him.
"What are you doing here? Does Suzuki-san or Johnny-san know that you're here?" She asked, in a hushed voice, as her hands fumbled to open the door. "Hurry up and come in! What if someone sees you?"
"It's good to see you too, Yuuki."
"Ah, so Sho and Hikari are getting married in two weeks," Yuuki said as she placed two glasses of drinks on the table. "That's great. And Johnny approves?"
"Sure looks like it. He's been complaining about the arrangements ever since, though. Security and all that. Sakurai-kun will make the announcement tomorrow, and Johnny's making all the managers work overtime to help organise everything. All the paparazzi should be tailing Sakurai-kun at the moment, they won't be worried about me." Tomohisa replied, as he took a sip of the iced tea. "What about you, Yuuki? How's things?"
"Everything's fine."
"No they're not, Yuuki. You know they're not. Why haven't you answered our calls, Yuuki? We were really worried."
"Gomen ne. I was busy-"
"Cut the crap, Yuuki, It was the gossip mag, wasn't it?"
Yuuki looked at him, eyes round from surprise.
"Kato-san, he told me everything." Tomohisa sighed. "He told us about a week after we started calling. Told us to stop. That it was your choice."
Yuuki turned her head away, so that he couldn't see her face.
"Why, Yuuki? You didn't have to do it. It was just an article in a gossip magazine. Besides, it wasn't as though-"
"I just wanted to run," Yuuki interrupted, "Ever since that first time Johnny-san called me to the office, I've wanted to run."
Momentary silence.
"Why?"
"I can't deal with attention as well as you, Tomo-kun. Knowing that someone has photos of me. That someone might be following me. That someone might know my every move. That-"
"You're lying, Yuuki."
"I am not-"
"We're like two peas in a pod. We've been hurt when we open up to others, which is why we distance ourselves from everyone, including our friends and sometimes our family. We say that no one really understands us, but we never give them a chance to do that. It had nothing to do with the photos, Yuuki. You ran because we were getting too close."
"That's ridiculous."
"It's the truth, Yuuki." Tomohisa chuckled. "But it was sure like you, to ignore our calls like that. No wonder the boss wanted you to work for him. I can't think of a fangirl who actually had the guts to ignore a call from her idols. Let alone countless calls for two weeks."
"I'm sorry."
"Ah well, now that I know you're still alive, guess I'll just let it all go." He gave an exaggerated wink, before seriousness returned to his face. "Have you told him, Yuuki?"
"Told who?"
"Aiba-kun."
"Told him what?"
He gave her a knowing look. "You haven't, ne? Maa, that's expected, you are Yuuki, after all. You might want to know that we didn't organise your birthday, it was entirely Aiba-chan's doing." He pulled out an envelope from his pocket and placed it on the table, before getting up to leave. "Think of this as your last chance, Yuuki. Find your courage. Tell him, before it's too late. Don't do something you'll regret."