ONE

It is an another productive and tiring day for him, and for NEWS. The filming ended at 6:30 in the morning. He went home, took a shower, slept for two hours and a half before he received a wake-up call from his manager and Koyama. 

Tegoshi! Good morning! It’s already 10 am, where are you?

“Kei-chan” he answered with a raspy voice “I’m sorry, i just woke up.” He said as he get up.

Eh?!

“Sorry, i’ll be there at 10:40.” He said after glancing at the clock on the bedside table “I promise.” He added before he ended the call and made his way slowly towards his closet. 

His manager managed to drive the car faster than usual (because he kept on telling him he needs to be there before 10:40) and managed to arrive at the green room at 10:30am. With a triumphant grin, he opened the door and greeted the three members of new NEWS sleepily.

“You’re late” Shige replied but went toward him with a starbucks coffee on his hand. “Here, to keep you alive” he added.

Tegoshi’s face lit up at the sight of coffee and he happily said his gratitude to shige. “I badly need coffee, thanks for this!”

“You are tired. Do you need a massage?” Koyama asked as he sat beside him on the sofa.

“Thanks Kei-chan but I’m okay. No need for a massage.” He added when Koyama started to massage his shoulders.

“I heard the filming ended late. But your manager didn’t tell us what time it ended.” Massu said with his eyes locked on the magazine he is reading without looking at him.

“Let’s just say, I managed to sleep for a while before Kei-chan kept on calling me” he nonchalantly said, blowing on his coffee.

“Sorry” Koyama replied

“Why are you sorry” Tegoshi asked, looking up at Koyama with wide eyes, lips slowly turning up. 

“Well, I woke you up.”

“Of course you need to wake me up.” He giggles “Kei-chan, it’s work. I’m good.” Tegoshi stares at Koyama for a while, noticing their new leader’s worried face, he added “I have medicines in my bag, if I won’t feel well, I’ll take it. Stop worrying, Kei-chan”

Koyama hesitantly nod his head then went back on his place on the sofa right next to the younger. “Sleep, Tegoshi. I’ll wake you up if it’s time for us to leave.” He said, arranging the pillows on the sofa for Tegoshi.

---

Tegoshi squinted his eyes when it caught a blurry white square shaped hanging on the wall. As his vision became visible, he cursed. “Oh .” It’s already 11:30! Their photoshoot begins at 11:00 am. Where did the others go? He looked around their green room, noticing no one else but him is inside the room. He bolt out to the door at the same time the door was opened by someone.

“Massu!” You guys didn’t wake me up!?” He accused. The older one only raised his brow.

“Oh yes we did try, but you won’t wake up. You didn’t even budge so we let you sleep.” The older casually replied, eyes at the younger.

Tegoshi slightly blushed at Masuda’s answer “O-oh.. But still!”

“Knowing you badly needed a rest, we decided to pair Koyama and Shige instead of you and Koyama since both KoyaShige still have things to do afterwards.”

“….that’s—”

“And I have coffee here.” He lifts up a cup of coffee “… And lunch” he added, lifting a white plastic bag with two bentos inside.”

“…. Thanks, Massu.” Tegoshi softly said with a genuine smile. Masuda  only winked in reply as he ushered him back to the sofa.


TWO

It’s raining. The streets are filled with black, transparent, and colorful orbs. People hastily walk with their umbrellas shielding them from the rain. Except one. Black hair moved back and forth as the guy wearing baggy pants and pink-gray checkered shirt sways his head alongside the music playing on his playlist.

Masuda tried to cheer his own self as tiny droplets of water fell from the sky. He doesn’t like rain… Well, sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn’t. And he doesn’t like how it’s raining , right now. He doesn’t have an umbrella with him; the weather is making him sleepy, tired, grumpy, wet, and cold. Every inch of him screams for home—hot chocolate and cookies on the table, a magazine lying beside it, and music playing in the background. He sighs heavily as images played and played in his head.

“Yo, Massu!” A familiar calming voice entered the image he had in his head.

“huh?” Tegoshi? In my head? He frowned, confused.

“Hey, what’s with the frown?” Tegoshi asked, appearing in front of him.

“oh..” He blinked “tegoshi, you are here!” He added with a big smile on his face. “What are you doing here?” Masuda asked as he looked around, noticing how people didn’t spare them a glance knowing tegoshi is not wearing any disguise to hide his self (compared to him). The younger is wearing black pants and black boots topped with grey v-neck shirt and a black cardigan hanging on his left hand.

“don’t worry, massu. They know it’s us, obviously, but they won’t bother us because it’s raining.”

“really?” He asked doubtfully “so, why are you here?”

“I was on my way to this café when I saw someone doing his best to enjoy the weather.”

“urgh.. You know me well”

“of course! So come on! Let’s go to my favorite café!” Tegoshi gleefully said

“huh? Wh—” masuda started but stopped when tegoshi started walking away. “hey! Wait for me!” He hastily said as he walked on big steps to reach tegoshi—to take cover under tegoshi’s umbrella.

“oh? I forgot you don’t have umbrella.” Tegoshi innocently said but the smirk plastered on his lips says otherwise. Masuda ignored him with a grunt as they walked in sync. Minutes after, the silent street became noisy and people looked at them in amusement but they don’t give a damn when tegoshi started laughing loud while masuda pouted as he ranted and ranted about the weather. 


THREE
“We are not going to pursue this one, Tegoshi.” 

This is what Koyama and Shige heard when they open their green room’s door, Masuda’s stern voice. Both glanced at the duo then at themselves as they stayed near the now closed door.

“But Massu, we need to, we have to.” Came Tegoshi’s reply

“You are not well. We can always have the promotion—”

“No, Massu. Those have been scheduled before this damn acute bronchitis happened. And I’m not weak.  Listen to me, I can do it.”

“Not weak, yeah. But—”

“Massu, I can do it and don’t—” the younger of the two reached out a hand to put on his partner’s hand, pulling him to sit beside him on the couch. Masuda exhaled rather harshly as he sat on the couch, dropping his head back to rest it on the comfy couch. Koyashige then knows they have been arguing for a while now and that Masuda just lost, or more likely, surrendered. “—don’t say ‘but’ there is no ‘but’. You are going to be there. You can cover me if you want to. You can treat me like a very fragile child if it’d make you feel at ease.” Tegoshi laughed a little at the image before he coughed.

“Okay, you gave me your word.” Masuda nonchalantly replied, his eyes on Tegoshi as he said so. He saw Tegoshi’s eyes widen a bit and he flashed him a smirk.

“You’ve got to be kidding me” he pouted. Just then, Koyama and Shige made their appearance visible to them.

“Now that it’s settled, no more arguing. And Tego, listen to Massu. And to Shige too, ‘cause you are going to be together this afternoon for promotion, right? Oh and you listen to me tomorrow, uh no, you should listen to me always—”

“Kei-chan” Tegoshi whined while his partner beside him flashed Koyama a big smile “that statement was supposed to be a joke. It’s not supposed to be taken seriously” he said with a grunt.

“Your health is more important, Tegoshi. No more talking back, now let’s go.” Masuda said as he pulled the younger toward the door, leaving Koyama and Shige behind.

“W-wait! I still have to discuss something with Tegoshi!” Shige hastily ran to the door when he remembered the reason why he went with Koyama to the green room. His shouting never reached Tegoshi’s ears though. Well, Masuda heard it—since he is not wearing any earphones, only Tegoshi—but he only waved at Shige. “Maybe later” he added grumpily, walking back to the room.


FOUR

It’s already night time yet he still has his eyes on the sky—and to its blinking stars. (Compared to the morning sky, the evening sky is just as breathtakingly amazing as it is with the morning sky.) It became a habit of his to look at the sky. He looks at the sky for comfort, for his mind to flap its wings and flew beyond the vast blue sky—what did he had in mind and where did his mind go, only him knows. Always and forever. He smiles when he repeated the words he heard in his head, he had been whispering the same phrase to the open sky since before—when his mind and heart, his entire being is full of love (and still full of love)—the only change that happened is, it’s not his voice that he heard, but his voice.

He felt a puff of warm air on his nape followed by warm arms wrapping on his waist, pulling him closer to him. He didn’t turn—just put his hands above his hands.

“You’re home” Masuda softly said. “Welcome home, Yuya”

“I’m home” Tegoshi replied then tiptoed to kiss him on his right cheek. “Come on Taka, you have work in the morning. You still have to wake up early tomorrow.” He added with a smile as he turned him to the direction of his bed, never letting his hold on him loose.

“Why are we not paired again on our photoshoot tomorrow?” Masuda playfully asked, though there’s a hint of sadness and grumpiness in his voice.

“Because, tomorrow’s theme is not just right for the Tegomass duo to be paired together.”

“Yeah yeah. And that means tegoshige is right” he grumpily replied

“Geez, Taka.” Tegoshi giggled “We can always play and put it in the behind-the-scenes. It’s more fun to play with our fans like that, you know.” He added, putting Masuda under his covers first.

Masuda looked at Tegoshi, eyes following him as the younger went to his closet and looked for the attire he claimed as his pjs. “You know, you really should just bring your things here.” He voiced out when Tegoshi slipped under the covers. Well… He has been thinking and thinking and thinking about it.. But with Tegoshi’s eyes looking back at him, like that—as if telling him are you serious?— he went silent.  Silence engulfed the bedroom until he saw a hint of smile on Tegoshi’s face.

“Well, I just bought a house not too far from here. Why not you bring your things there?” The younger revealed leaving him speechless for a minute. He blinked then started laughing as he literally threw his body on the younger making him laugh.