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ENTRY ONE cont. :  Ari

“I Like Who Again??”

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Once alone, Viva and I glanced back up at the stage once more as we left down the carpeted hall, going out the double doors and into the crisp evening air.

“Hm. That reminds me. I wonder if Shogo’s still out here.” Viva murmured. “He might ask us how it went, and we could ask him about the whole Akanishi thing.”

I agreed, and looked for the ticket booth. But it was gone. Shogo was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, well.” Viva jumped up onto the ledge of the water fountain out front that was calmly trickling and spraying water into the air. “Now that we’re out of there, I can start practicing my beatbox!” She covered with her hand, drawing in a deep breath.

I held out a hand in front of Viva’s face. “Hold it. Do we really want to see this?”

She let out the breath she’d taken in with a big huff, glaring at me. “You never know until I try. Now, watch me work it!” Viva took in another breath. 

I hastily stepped backward. “Just let me get out of the spit zone!”

She shot me a look before beginning her attempt at beatbox. She actually…wasn’t terrible. I gave her a surprised look.

“Hey…has Nakamaru influenced you or something? You actually aren’t too bad. Let me try.” I ignored her loud ‘HA!’ and started to create a beat. She waited a second or two, caught the beat, and then joined in. We sent each other shocked looks as we beatboxed. We sounded really great together, actually. I hadn’t expected that.

When we finally dwindled to a close, we hooted at the top of our lungs out into the night air, slapping each other five and bumping shoulders.

“We iz da new Nakamaru, yo!” I threw a fist in the air, though what I said made absolutely no sense. What was even stranger was that Viva actually agreed with me, but I was used to our no-sensedness by now. YES I just made up a word. And there is nothing wrong with that.

“Want me to show you something funny?” I stood on the ledge next to her. 

“Always.”

“You know the show Cartoon KAT-TUN?” I asked innocently.

“Yes, you pathetic child, oh my GD! You are an obsessive fazzing fangirl, for Hero’s angel-like sake. Of course I know it, from all of your J-Popping the whole livelong day. Sheesh, ohmaigatsun…” She trailed off, muttering.

Wow, if anyone would have heard that but me, I doubt they would’ve understood it. I rolled my eyes. “Well, I can do some imitations.”

“’Kay. Imitations. Fine. You’re good at that sort of thing.”

I stared at Viva intensely, trying not to laugh, before breaking out into a wide cute grin, spreading out my hands like I’d just won the lottery. “Iriguchi deguchi Taguchi desu!” I waved my hands around exaggeratedly, still smiling with my eyes like crescent moons. Viva busted out laughing. “Oh my gosh, that was so perfect!” She choked out. “That was totally Junno! Now let me do Jin!”

She put on a constipated face and started strutting around like a peacock, model-walking. I clapped, reciprocating by staring into an imaginary camera, and jumping up with my hands spread out, like a Vegas showgirl jumping out of a cake. “Cheeeck it out, yo!”

Suddenly, I felt a foot plant itself firmly on my behind, pushing me hard and off the ledge. “Ow! What the heck?!” I looked up to see Viva grinning her retarded head off.

“You said that Koki always kicked Junnosuke’s . So that’s what I did.” She began giggling again. I winced as I stood. 

“Yeah, but that hurt!” I didn’t want to ruin the mood, so I hooked my thumbs through the waist of my mini and pretended like I was going to pull it down. “Hey, do I have a bruise?” I said in a high fake voice. “’Cause that so left a mark!”

“Don’t stop now.” I heard a low voice from behind me. I froze with my hands still on my waist. The horror. I knew that voice. Cuz I was sure as heck that Viva did not have a voice that deep.

Viva swiveled around in shock.

I mouthed incomprehensibly as I tried to think of something to say, anything, to break the awkwardness. Suddenly, I saw five more shapes appear behind Jin. Joy. 

One figure spoke. “Yes, don’t stop now.” He laughed. He was speaking in Japanese, and I realized that it was Koki. “This was just getting interesting.” I saw him glance at my leather mini. I flushed and dropped my hands to my sides.

“Shrek.” Viva whispered. “We got the whole brigade out here. Caught in the act. We are so screwed it is not even funny! So fatally, unbelievably, undeniably screwed!”

I turned towards Viva slowly. “Okay. Shush. Don’t make any. Sudden. Moves.” I whispered quietly. “These J-Pop dudes are like sharks. They can smell fear.” Before Viva could respond with what I was sure would be a comment about my half-Nemo reference (hop into my mouth, if you want to live), I put a grin on my face and turned to the six guys walking forward towards us. Just like a magazine shoot. It kinda creeped me out. Freaked the bajeezers out of me. Especially Jin’s face.

“Nice to see you again, Akanishi-san.” I bowed a little, though I couldn’t stop the subtle sarcasm from leaking out. “We enjoyed the concert.” I avoided looking at any of the guys but Jin, afraid that I’d lose my composure and start screaming like I was possessed. 

He lowered his head. “Thank you. I’m glad.”

“Akanishi. You know her?” I heard one of the guys say in Japanese. Judging from the voice, I realized it was Nakamaru speaking. Mr. Beatbox King, wahoo!!

“Hai.” Jin answered, sounding kind of bored.

I turned to Nakamaru indignantly, willing myself not to freak out from the fact that his spiky hair looked even hotter in real life. “Um, I’m right here, Nakamaru-san.” I spoke delicately in Japanese. I was still working on the language, so it was annoying and hard to flipping talk in their impossible accent…okay, rant later. “My name is Ari, by the way.”

And Viva chimed in with a little Japanese she already knew, “Nice to meet you, I’m Viva.” With the way Japanese was structured, it sounded like ‘Beeba.’ Pfff.

“Wait a minute.” I turned to her, trying to calm the anxiety I felt. Freaking mother, I was standing in front of KAT-TUN!! “Let’s give them easier names to call us by. That way they can pronounce them.”

“O-oh.” Viva agreed, still a little tense as well. “Okay. I’m sorry.” She apologized to them in hesitant Japanese. “Call me…uh…”

I racked my brain for some names I knew and liked. “Aiko. That’s Aiko, and I’m Jaiya.” We smiled, nodding at the J-Pop stars while freaking out in our minds.

“Oiiii…” All the guys glanced at each other, impressed looks on their faces. 

“American girls who know Japanese! A rare phenomenon.” Koki adjusted his cap so that it tilted more to the side, a gesture of his that I never dreamed I’d ever see in real life.

Each of them introduced themselves, though they really had no need to. I knew who they all were already…but we had to act cool. And stuff. Yeah.

“How do you know Japanese?” The man on the far right questioned, brushing his bangs from his eyes. I in a low breath. That was Kame. 

Viva discreetly raised a hand to check her hair.

“Uh…KAT-TUN influenced me.” I said, barely inaudibly. It was the real reason, and it was embarrassing. I don’t know why, but I found that I couldn’t just make up a reason. Viva shot me a sideways glance. She couldn’t follow the conversation anymore. I translated quietly.

“Then we’re honored.” Kame gave one of his grins, which I knew Viva would be freaking out about silently in her head, because she’d always had a thing for dimple creases on guys. I wanted to smirk, but resisted the urge. Mr. Dimples…number two? It was a joke between the two of us- the first Mr. Dimples being, of course, Hero/Youngwoong Jaejoong.

“Which one of us inspired you?” Koki spoke up, stealing my smirking idea. 

I gaped at the question. “Ah…I don’t want to say…”

KAT-TUN all leaned in now, curious. “C’mon, tell us.” Nakamaru grinned. “If it isn’t me I won’t be mad.” He joked.

“Yes, tell us, Jaiya-san.” Jin smirked at me. Oh, SHIZ. He already knew! I told Viva that he’d heard us outside the bathroom! “Um…I…” I just knew I was turning red. Suddenly, Junnosuke of all people saved my life. I love him and he is forever my favorite. I mean, J-Pop wise.

“Eh, I’m more interested in the way you imitated me.” He gave a light laugh. I mustered up all my willpower…and looked at Junnosuke. 

GAAAHHH!!! I almost died from the cute grin on his face and his smiling crescent eyes. Does he have laser vision or something? His hotness is burning a hole in my face!!

“It was pretty good. Almost scary. I wanted to laugh, but Akanishi made us all be quiet so we could watch you.” Junno rubbed his neck, smiling.

I glared at Jin, who shrugged. “It was entertaining.” 

“That is seriously stalker-ish.” Viva muttered after I’d translated. 

“From when were you watching?” I asked, side-glancing at Viva and hoping to all heaven that they hadn’t heard our conversation and Viva’s offensive imitation of Jin.

Kame answered, staring straight into my eyes. His use of direct eye contact was admirable, and very intense. Maybe I’ll use that trick in the future... “From ‘check it out, yo.’ Though you had been speaking in English, we knew that much. Jin translated for us as you spoke.” This was just getting better and better. 

“Did you like the way Aiko-chan kicked me?” I spoke to Koki now. “She imitated you so well!” I rubbed my behind jokingly, wincing a little because it was still sore.

Junnosuke nodded knowingly as Koki laughed, shoving Junnosuke’s shoulder. “I know the feeling, Jaiya-san.”

My world froze. My name (well, not my real name, but still…) coming out of Junnosuke Taguchi’s mouth was the single COOLEST thing I’d ever experienced in my entire eighteen years of living.

I know the feeling, Jaiya-san.

And the crowd goes wild! HAAAHHH!

“Yo, you listening?” Koki came forward and tapped me on the head lightly, making me jump. “I asked if you could do any other imitations for us, if you wouldn’t mind. We like to see what people think of us, y’know?”

“Oh! Um, we could do one…” I whispered to Viva. She swallowed and nodded. We jumped back up on the ledge of the fountain, slightly nervous. “Presenting…Nakamaru’s beatbox from ‘Rescue’!”

Nakamaru looked interested. Ueda raised an eyebrow. Seriously, I’d have forgotten that he was there if not for his speaking up now. He never did like to speak much, but his voice was deep and it scared me half to death. “You can beatbox?” 

I grabbed Viva’s water bottle for a microphone, and raised it to my lips. “Ladies and gentlemen…dis my beatbox…chhh!” And we did the entire bit, including the hand motions and the disk-scratching. KAT-TUN exchanged surprised and awed glances. Nakamaru gaped. “Sugoi!”

“Wah!” Junnosuke began to clap as soon as we finished, and then all the guys burst into applause. It was sad, but needless to say, Viva and I were grinning our heads off, flushing. How unbelievable would it be if KAT-TUN told people about us and then we could get all famous and meet awesome people? Ah, but those are just dreams.

Okay, these dudes have stop staring so intensely. NOW. Or I was going to scream like the fangirl I was. I turned quickly towards poopy Jin-face as an excuse, remembering something. “Hey Akanishi-san…do you know someone called Nakajima Shogo?”

Jin blinked. “Yeah. He’s our good friend. Do you know him?”

I swiveled around towards Viva. “Jin knows Shogo.” I said in English.

“I knew it!” She glanced over at Jin. “He told about an Akanishi, that he was going to brag that…well, he can tell you himself.”

“By the way.” Jin mentioned, straightening his fedora, and tilting it better over the left side of his face. “It’s uncomfortable being called Akanishi-san, would you mind calling me Jin? All of my American friends call me that.” 

Yes, but we aren’t your friends, buddy-boy. “Oh…kay…” I said slowly. I felt Viva pinching my arm and knew she wanted nothing better than to bust into hysterical laughter right then and there. Self-confidence practically oozed out of his every pore. I was glad the sky was dark, as our expressions were somewhat hidden. It also gave us an excuse to ditch the dude. I looked up at the sky.

Viva caught on, glancing at her watch. We’d planned to go see a late movie, so we really did have to get going, but I didn’t want to leave JunnoTagu!! Nooo my Junno!

“Oh! We have to get going now.” Viva jerked her head at them all, grinning widely and starting to pull me away. “It was nice meeting you.”

“Oi, oi, Aiko-san!” Koki spoke up lazily. “One would think that you didn’t even want our phone numbers.”

“What?” I said blankly, not quite processing. I froze in place. “Ph-phone numbers?” I translated this in a high-pitched sort of tone to Viva, who in response looked as though someone had hit her over the head.

“Yes.” Kame spoke up. “You’re as entertaining as we are. That in itself is pretty intense, neh? The least we can do is exchange numbers. Don’t worry- they’re our second phones. Fans can use the numbers and leave messages to us. But it can only happen if we ourselves give the person the number.”

I was confused. “But don’t you think that these numbers would be all over the Internet by now?”

“No.” Ueda said. “Would you share the cellphone number which you personally got from a member of KAT-TUN?” He smiled a rare smile, his teeth together.

How true. 

They all pulled out their awesome and extremely expensive cell phones one by one. Oh my GD. I caught sight of Jin’s phone and I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. It was one of those phones that snapped open when you pressed a button, the one that Jin used to hit everyone on the head with when they were making the music video of ‘Signal’.

“Something funny?” Jin asked me, staring at his phone, then at me. I began to laugh as I took the phone from Jin and shut it quietly. He watched me as I crept behind Koki. I held the phone up and snapped it open to hit the side of his head. It wasn’t hard enough to actually hurt, but by now all of the members especially Jin realized why it was so funny.

Jin did that thing where he laughed while holding his hand backwards against his mouth. I wanted to roll my eyes, but resisted as he took back his phone. I swiveled around to Koki to bow deeply.

“Sorry. I just used you to answer Jin’s question. I hope you can forgive me.” I wanted to snort. Koki raised my head up again. I blinked, flushing.

“Nah, it was funny. You don’t have to bow to me. Anyway…” He pressed a few buttons on his phone. “What’s your number?”

Oooh, that sounded so scandalous! I cursed my thoughts before telling him and the rest of the members. Then they all gave us their numbers. As Viva and I typed their names into our phones, I felt a thrill. This was really happening!

I turned to Junnosuke. “Okay, now your number. Send it to me.”

He held up his phone close to his face, the glowing screen of his phone illuminating a bright rectangle on his face. “Oh-kayyy, ready? Sen-diiing!” He sang.

I picked up my phone as it began to buzz. “Rec-ievinggg!” I played along in the same tone of voice, knowing that those lines were from that LoveCom movie in Japan. It was so cute that he’d watched it too! Somebody just freaking marry us!

Eventually, we made our escape, because KAT-TUN had to rush to a photoshoot deeper into the city. So with KAT-TUN’s numbers in our phones and Junno’s love in my heart (sorry had to do that), I, Jeiya, took off into the city night with Viva, newly named Aiko. We felt unstoppable.

“Are they out of sight yet?”

“No, not yet…”

“How ‘bout now?” I asked calmly.

“Yep.”

We stopped walking. Turning to each other, we clasped hands and screeched at the top of our lungs for the good part of twenty minutes, replaying every word of the conversation and forgetting everything around us.

“WE MET KAT-TUNNNN!!!! AHHHHH!!!!”

“I love that we decided to walk out that back door. Don’t you love that we decided that?”

“I seriously can’t believe it. They’re so normal.Well, except for Jin. And Ueda’s miraculous gender. I am officially going to start calling him an it.”

“No arguments there…”

“Oh!” Viva clapped her hands to . “We’re going to miss our movie! I am not missing ‘Beastly’ for anything!” 

I hailed a passing cab. “And that’s all you can worry about after we just met KAT-TUN.”

“Hey, the world still goes on. Vaguely.”

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