Miyuu eyed her sister on the couch of their living room. Mirai had been in her phone for awhile now which was unusual. She sat next to her and opened the tv.

It was showing a showbiz news show.

Miyuu: Ah! Your boyfriend!

Miyuu pointed at the tv that showed Yamada Ryosuke promoting a new drama and Hey Say Jump to sing the OST of the drama. Mirai was surprised at what Miyuu said that she was flustered.

Mirai: Eh?!

Miyuu: (smirks) I am right.

Mirai: Huh? Right about what?

Miyuu: Recently you have been in your phone, visiting Tokyo more often. I thought you finally got a boyfriend and nothing came to my mind but Yamada Ryosuke. Huh! And I was right!

Mirai just look at her sister being all proudly detective-ish.

Miyuu: Ah! That was after that fight, ne? (smirks) You finally realize you like each other!

Mirai: Miyuu! (shushes Miyuu) You’re too loud. (whispers)

Mirai looked around hoping her mom and dad had not heard that.

Miyuu: Don’t worry. I won’t tell them yet. I will let you tell them yourself.

When Mirai looked back at Miyuu, her younger sister had a soft sweet smile on her face that her eyes sparkle that Mirai can’t help but chuckle.

Mirai: What’s wrong?

Miyuu: I am happy. SO HAPPY!

Mirai: (laughs) Idiot! (smiles) Thank you.

Miyuu: Just look at him. (looks at the TV) Isn’t it a jackpot?! He looks so cool. Everybody must be wondering what it feels like to be his girlfriend. (looks at Mirai) What does it feel actually, nee-chan?

Mirai: You’re creepy.

Miyuu: What does it feels like kissing Yamada Ryosuke? (teases)

Mirai just look at her with a weirded expression.

Mirai: I don’t know. (looks down at her phone)

Miyuu: Liar!

*****

Mirai was closing the blinds in the window of the living room. It was already evening and she had a very good stay-at-home. They don’t open the shop once a week and today was its schedule. She ended up watching movies with Miyuu all-day. Something they haven’t done for a long time.

Suddenly her phone rang. Ryosuke was ringing. After the morning short LINE convo, he started working again. So now, he must have had a short break.

Mirai: Hello. How are you?

She dropped back on the couch.

Ryosuke: Hi. Got an hour break before resuming. I’d probably get home by 3 in the morning. What are you doing?

Mirai: That’s quite late. Well, I’m getting ready to sleep.

Ryosuke: That’s nice. I’m jealous.

Mirai: (laughs) You don’t sleep early when you don’t have work too. You basically play video games all night anyway.

Ryosuke: (laughs) I don’t play that much when you are around.

Mirai: But still, you’d rather play than sleep.

Ryosuke: Yeah, I guess so. (laughs) Anyway, do you have anything important to do tomorrow?

Mirai: I’m gonna open the coffee shop.

Ryosuke: Mmmmm~

Mirai: Why~

Ryosuke: Maybe you can drop by at my place? My work will start on the evening so I don’t have anything to do in the morning. (pouts) Just maybe, you want to see me?

Mirai was fully aware of how Ryosuke can be so clingy.

His voice was really low and he was speaking so slow she can see his little pout in her head.

Ryosuke: Isn’t it awhile since we last see each other? Didn’t you miss me?

Mirai: It has been two weeks. And we do talk on the phone.

Ryosuke: Isn’t that quite awhile? Just phone calls. Maybe you have forgotten how I look already.

Mirai: Yama-chan, I see you on TV.

Ryosuke: Now that’s unfair coz I can’t see you. (pouts)

Mirai: Are you pouting right now?

Ryosuke: Yeah.

Mirai: You’re 37 years old.

Ryosuke: Hey!

Mirai: (laughs) You’re weird, really. (sighs) I’ll see you tomorrow.

Ryosuke grinned widely.

Ryosuke: Really?!

Mirai: (nods) Mhm. You’re such a demanding boyfriend, aren’t you?

Ryosuke: You love me tho.

Mirai smiled.

*****

Ryosuke was covered by thick sheets, feeling all cozy and deep asleep in his bed. It was 10 am and he was not bothered by the little light coming from the unproperly closed window blinds.

He was too tired from work. He finished shooting at 3 am and the moment he’s home, he played video games for 3 hours. It was already 6 in the morning when he slept. So when Mirai arrived, he did not even notice her.

She had a security access through his door so she doesn’t have to knock.

She brought packed food with her when she arrived. She thought of cooking for him coz she knew he’s too exhausted to prepare his food.

Mirai placed the bag of food containers in the kitchen counter before she made her way to his room. He has not even realized that she sat on the side of the bed.

Ryosuke was facing sideways, that half of his face was buried in his pillow and his thick blanket almost covering him entirely like a squishy little stuffed animal.

Mirai pulled the blanket down to his waist.

Mirai: You probably played video games until morning, didn’t you?

Suddenly a grin appeared in Ryosuke’s face, still with eyes closed. He pulled Mirai down and hugged her.

Ryosuke: Sorry. I really did play for 3 hours.

Mirai: It’s fine.

She pulled out from him. Now her arms are preventing her to drift down back into him.

Mirai: You can continue sleeping now. (smiles)

He finally opened his tired eyes.

Ryosuke: Thank you for coming.

Mirai stood up from the bed.

Mirai: I brought you breakfast. I’ll just heat it. But I’ll make you soup too. So you can sleep for a little while more while I’m preparing.

But Ryosuke pulled his back up and sat on his bed, before staring at Mirai, he pulled her back with him on the bed again.

Mirai: Yama-chan!

Ryosuke’s eyes were closed as he tightened his hug on Mirai’s small frame next to him.

Ryosuke: Isn’t it time for you to call me Ryosuke?

Mirai: Mhm? Aah~ I haven’t thought of it. I’m so used to calling you Yama-chan.

Ryosuke: (breathes deep and opens his eyes) So are you gonna call me Ryosuke now? (smiles)

Mirai: (thinks) Mmmm…I don’t know.

Ryosuke: Why tho?

Mirai: I have been calling you Yama-chan ever since were kids. It’s strange.

Ryosuke: What is so strange about it? Chinen used to call me Yama-chan too. Now he calls me Ryosuke.

Mirai: (laughs) Now I’m sure Chinen is the real girlfriend.

Ryosuke laughed as he tightened his hug on Mirai while she tried to get off from him.

Mirai: Ok, fine! (laughs)

Ryosuke let go of her and now they just lied next to each other, face to face.

Mirai: I’ll try.

Ryosuke pouted.

Mirai: It’s a gradual process, Yama-chan!

Ryosuke: (sighs) Looks like it.

Mirai smiled before she pulled herself up and jumped out of the bed.

Mirai: I’m making soup. You should be up when it’s done, okay?

Ryosuke: (smiles) Roger that.

The moment Mirai got out of the room, Ryosuke phone beep.

Ryosuke: Hello Chii.

Chinen: Ryosuke!!! (pants)

Ryosuke pulled his back up and now he is seated on his bed.

Ryosuke: What’s wrong? Did something happen to you?

Chinen: Not to me! To you!

Ryosuke: Eh?!

Chinen: You’re on tabloid Ryosuke!

Ryosuke was so surprised, he was just speechless letting Chinen continue.

Chinen: ‘Yamada Ryosuke Punched an Unknown Man Outside an Apartment in Shibuya!’ What’s this?!

Ryosuke ran his hand on his hair as a big sigh escped from his mouth.

While in the kitchen, as Mirai was putting the vegetables on the cutting board, she heard her phone click.

Mirai: A message from Umika?

“Mirai-chan. Trouble. [link attached]”

Mirai clicked the attached link which lead to an online tabloid new article.

Hey Say JUMP’s Yamada Ryosuke Punched an Unknown Man Outside an Apartment in Shibuya. A Woman is Involved?

Mirai caught her hand shaking as she read the headline.

She read the first few lines of the article.

Yamada Ryosuke (37) was caught in a fight outside an apartment building in Shibuya. The unnamed man is a son of a business tycoon in Tokyo. According to the source, the reason of the fight was a woman Yamada took on a dinner date that night. The woman is said to be the wife of the unnamed man.

She skipped through the comment section.

“Is this a case of cheating?”

“Oh my god! Yamada is involved with a married woman?!”

“Disgusting!”

Mirai immediately dropped her phone on the table, panting hard in shock. Suddenly Ryosuke stepped outside of the room, looking at Mirai.

She briefly looked back at him before she ran to him and hugged him. She was already crying as pressed his back and clenching on his white shirt.

Mirai: I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Yama-chan.

Ryosuke: Hey, hey! It’s okay. (rubs the back of her head) I told you, you don’t have to be sorry, didn’t I?

Mirai: But t-this is all my fault.

Ryosuke pulled her gently by the shoulder and looked at her eyes.

Ryosuke: Mirai, look at me. (smiles) I’m gonna fix this. Don’t worry.

Mirai: No…I should fix this! (gulps) I know what to do. Y-You don’t have to say anything. If you have to deny it, just deny it.

Ryosuke: And deny you?

Mirai: They are making negative assumptions about you. I can’t let that!

Ryosuke: As long as they don’t say things about you, I don’t care about what they say about me!! I can’t lie about us, Mirai…I am never gonna deny our relationship!

Mirai: You’ll be in trouble.

Ryosuke: I have been dodging trouble all my life. Let me face this.

Mirai stared at Ryosuke, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

Ryosuke: (sighs) They did not recognize you…Ryusei was unnamed. Only my name is involved here. (smiles) My agency is in control of the situation now. I just gotta cooperate to get a little control of what they do. (sighs) You know Johnny’s.

Mirai: (sobs) They’ll gonna beat you.

Ryosuke: (chuckles) They are not gonna beat me. But yeah, they’d be mad.

Mirai’s tears hasn’t stopped. She ran her hands on his cheeks.

Mirai: (sobs) I’d rather be denied than you get badmouthed.

A brief grin was drawn on Ryosuke’s face. The grin turned to a soft smile as she stared at her crying face.

Ryosuke can’t help but pull her in a hug.

*****

There’s a big slam on the table but Ryosuke did not even flinch. Boss 1 who was fierce elder petite woman stood from her seat and crossed her arms in front of her chest, eying Yamada Ryosuke in front of her.

Boss 1: Damn Yamada! This is not just a case of violence but of cheating too!! What just got into your head?!

Ryosuke: There isn’t any case of cheating involve here. She was already divorced when we started dating. I was not even the reason of the divorce!

Boss 1: That’s not what the article implies!

Ryosuke: That is why I wanted to clear things to the public!

Boss 2, a tall big man turned to Ryosuke.

Boss 2: No, you are not saying anything! We’ll take control of everything!

Ryosuke’s brows collided looking at his bosses.

Ryosuke: This is my problem too. I think I should have a choice as to how to solve this!

Boss 3, an old frail short guy smirked as he eyed Ryosuke.

Boss 3: So what do you plan of doing?

The other 2 bosses looked at Boss 3 in shock.

Boss 2: Why are you asking him that?! He should be out of this!

Ryosuke: I want to release an official statement through our site. I can use JUMP’s blogsite for that. Very simple.

Boss 2: That’s not gonna work. It’ll divide the the people’s reaction still.

Ryosuke: All I want is to correct all the misunderstanding!

Boss 1: You mean you’ll admit that you’re dating the woman?

Ryosuke: Yes! Coz we did nothing wrong!

Boss 1: We need to stop this scandal before it gets big. If you release a statement such as that, that’ll just bubble the situation.

Ryosuke: I’m sure the people will understand! I just want to tell the truth. I believe in my people.

There was smile in Boss 3’s lips.

Boss 3: Who is this woman?

That made Ryosuke look at the old man next to him.

Boss 3: (smiles) Whoever she is, she did an amazing job braven up a used-to-be such a coward boy.

Boss 1: Boss3-san!!!

Boss 3: (laughs) Sorry! Sorry! I am just amazed our Golden Boy is getting his heart in his head! He used to hide all the time, getting uninvolved. Heart and mind on his job, prioritizing the agency all the time.

The old man stood and slowly walked out of the meeting.

Boss 3: As Johnny-san’s entrusted right hand, I allow Yamada-kun to do his part in this.

Boss 1: That’s not what Johnny-san will do if he is here.

Boss 3 stopped walking, turning his body half way enough for them to see his smile.

Boss 3: That is why, I have been trying to undo what he did and do what he didn’t. (walks) Let the boy do what he can do. All we have to do now is back him up.

That made Ryosuke smile in relief while the other bosses can just shake their heads.

*****

Yabu gathered all the JUMP except Ryosuke who was still on the bosses’ ward. As the leader and onii-chan of the group, he felt responsible in helping Ryosuke who has been the group’s front man all these years. Prioritizing the group despite his personal struggles and even his love life.

Yabu: Malicious articles are now sprouting online after the tabloid article. And false witnesses posting too. We need to track them and report the site to me. I have already contacted the proper authorities to check on this fake news. Just keep on sending the links.

Chinen, Hikaru and Daiki were on their laptop.

Hikaru: Most are of the same source. But different links.

Chinen: I don’t know but something tells me, all these articles are just from one writer.

Yuto turned off his phone after a phone call.

Yuto: I called Keito, he also had asked help from a friend.

JUMP looked at him.

Yuto: Okay, we hired hackers! They are faster that Kochan’s authoritized people!

Yuya: Well, Yuto has a point.

Hikaru: Yeah, I can see the progress in the amount of articles related now.

Daiki: Uuugghh!!! Some fans are already bringing up names of celebrities!

Inoo jumped behind him to look at the monitor.

Inoo: Eeh? Some of these celebrities are not even personally involved to Yama-chan. What are they thinking?

Yuto: The article was not specific about the identity of the woman, so I guess all they can do is speculate.

Yabu: I think we should address that too!

Inoo: I’ll take care of that! (smirks) For all you know, I have a dummy account in twitter posing as Tobikko. An Inoo Kei stan of course. (pulls his phone) I have 4,000+ followers, I can address that matter.

Chinen: Cool. You should also stop all the Yamada bashers! They’re enjoying this!

Inoo: Leave it to me!

Yuto sat next to Chinen.

Yuto: How about Mirai-chan? How is she?

Chinen: I think it’s a breather that her name was not involved here. That means she’s safe.

Daiki: Oh fck!

Chinen: What?!

Daiki: She’s no safe anymore.

The whole group panicked as they gather behind Daiki and all eyes on the monitor screen.

“It’s retired actress Shida Mirai.”

Chinen read.

Yuto: Just that? I think no one will mind this.

Daiki: You can say that…not until…

Daiki refreshed the page and the single tweet has now 2000+ replies, 12K retweets, 10K QRTs and 14K likes.

Yuto: What the fck!!!

Daiki clicked on some quoted retweets and read them one by one.

“Yamada-kun and Shida-san were in a drama when they were kids right?”

“I heard they were high school classmates too. But some of the fans think they actually dated before.”

“Oh I heard about the girl being petite and cute. It could be her.”

“And she’s married too! I can’t believe this! It could be Shida Mirai!”

“Shida seemed to be so innocent. But she’s actually a cheater! Disgusting!

“Yamada-kun is a let down. He can date anyone, but a married woman? And it’s Shida Mirai?”

“I only know her because she was once being linked to Yama-chan by some fans. I didn’t know they are actually dating!”

“Are we back in 2010-ish? YamaShi is back!? But now they are involved in cheating! I don’t know what to feel about this.

JUMP sighed after reading all the comments.

Yabu: Let’s upgrade our plan.

JUMP nodded.

Yuto pulled his phone and texted Ryosuke.

“Yama, they are exposing Mirai now.”

*****

Mirai had been in her phone some time now. She finally decided to put it down and took a deep breath before she pulled her bag and dashed out of Ryosuke’s unit but she was surprised when she saw Umika, Saaya, and Suzuka on the elevator hall.

Umika: Mirai!

Mirai: You guys are here!

Saaya: Yeah, Yamada-kun want us to accompany you.

Mirai: Don’t tell him but I am going to Ryo.

Suzuka: Why?

Mirai: I have a feeling he has something to do with this. I need to talk to him.

Umika: But Mirai-chan, Yamada-kun said he will take care of it.

Mirai: I can’t just sit there and wait Umika.

Umika: But Mirai, it’s not safe outside. There are media men outside the building.

Mirai: That’s why you are here right? To back me up?

The security of the building was strict so they have a secret back door in the building so that paparazzi wouldn’t know who gets out of the car—maintaining the privacy of the people living in the building. But they only can give access to this to their tenants.

They arrived at Ryusei Holdings using Akihito’s car. With Saaya’s husband and his influence, they were able to access the secret back door and left Ryosuke’s place safely.

Mirai: Thank you so much.

Saaya: We are just here. We’ll wait for you.

Umika: Call us if you need back up.

Mirai sighed and a small smile as she made her way inside the company building. The reception seemed to be astonished to see her.

As she got in she can hear the people murmuring things.

She passed the marketing department where Ryo’s office was.

Employee 1: Isn’t that Mirai-san?

Employee 2: I heard Mirai-san actually cheated first. That’s why they divorced.

Mirai can just grit her teeth as she listened to the murmurs.

Employee 3: What is she doing here?

Employee 2: She’s all over the news now. Seems like she cheated Ryusei-san with an idol.

Employee 1: You mean Yamada Ryosuke-kun, right? I heard that too.

Mirai can’t help but pushed Ryo’s door aggressively as she went in.

Ryo was shocked to see Mirai panting before his door.

Ryo: Mirai?

Mirai: HOW DARE YOU!!!!!

It was too loud, the people outside his office might have heard it.

Ryo: What are you talking about?

Mirai pulled his tie across the table.

Ryo: How can you do this, Ryo!

Her angry expression turned softer when tears started to form around her eyes.

Mirai: I did everything for you! I loved you with no question! I never hesitated you, not even once in the entire 10 years that were together! I presented myself the way you liked it. When you cheated, I never told anyone! Not even my family! I forgave you so many times! Gave you numerous of chances! And now, just because I gave up on you. finally gave up on you…you are putting me in the bad light? You have always been selfish, Ryo! But I can’t believe you can enjoy the pleasure of hurting others for your sake.

She let go of Ryo’s tie while Ryo can just look at her surprised.

Mirai: You have caused me so much pain! Even now that I already divorced you, you keep on doing it! I can take it. You can hurt me! But dragging along the only person who made it better for me after all the pain you’ve caused? I am not letting you lay a finger on Ryosuke!

Suddenly a silhouette of a woman can be seen getting out of the other door. Konno Ayuri was watching them.

Ryo: Mirai…

Mirai dashed out of the office.

Ryo sighed as he slid his eyes to the side.

Ryo: Ayuri…What did you do?

Konno Ayuri stiffened on her toes and she tried to relax her agitation.

*****

Ryosuke hit the button as he finally posted his official statement on the site.

You must have heard it now. I know it’s easy to be swayed by what we see and read on the internet, on tabloids or even with the power of the mouth. That is how amazing words can be. But sometimes, it was not the real story—not even the entire story.

There are things that are published and things that are kept in private. Today, even if there are things that should be left in private, I will address it.

It’s true. I am in a relationship. But I thought it’s okay. I am not that teenager boy banned to look at the girl I like. Am I?

I fell in love. I do fall in love too.

I met her in an unexpected time. She was a childhood friend…was my first love.

We did not hurt anyone who might be involved. Both of us are free from responsibilities of such when we decided to be together. Know that I will never be involved in such scene of unfaithfulness just like how it was written.

I hope we don’t tolerate these types of articles.

Despite that, know that I will always give my 101%. Thank you for all your support.

~Yamada Ryosuke~

Ryosuke pulled his phone out of his pocket when he heard a beep. He got a message for Yuto.

“Yama, they are exposing Mirai now.”

Ryosuke gulped as he clenched on his fist. Suddenly, he slammed his hands on Boss 1’s desk.

Ryosuke: I want to call a press conference!

Boss 1: What?!

TO BE CONTINUED...