Title: JUMP… Into my arms

Couple: Nicole Midou & Keito Okamoto

Inspiration: B2ST – “I Like You The Best”, Hey Say JUMP – “Hitomi No Screen” & Hey Say JUMP – “Infinity”

Author: Channie

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“The world in our eyes may seem to be b over with sadness
But we won't run away from it any longer, the story of youth”

Her cherry pink lips formed empty words as she silently sang along. A whole week passed by after she tried the Exam that would accept her into Tokyo’s most popular school. She studied for months to show her worth and all she could do was wait. At least Nicole Midou had the voices of Hey Say Jump in her ears to calm her down. It was the only thing that kept her sane during the several late nights in her room looking over differentiation and multiple notes on Catcher in The Rye.

But one boy kept her sane more than the others.

The handsome Keito Okamoto.

Love at first sight to her was nothing compared to how she fell for him. He wasn’t the most popular choice with Hey!Say!JUMPers but he was for her, from the moment she saw him on TV.

That was what encouraged Nicole to study even harder because she heard if she was lucky, Keito Okamoto would be in the same class as her. She would be the luckiest exchange student in Japan. Well, in her mind anyway. No one minus her parents knew she even was a fan. At first glance, she looked like she would be an Arashi fan. Mature and clever yet childish and outgoing. No one would expect she would fall for a Hey Say Jump boy.

They didn’t know the real Nicole Midou.

“Nicole?” The principal, Kohen Takashi walked into the corridor. “If you would like to follow me?” Nicole nodded and stood up, dragging her light blue satchel as she followed Takashi. The walls changed from cream to a blue-gray hue as they passed different classes. “Now, Nicole. You exceeded any exchange student in the past year. You shouldn’t be worried. You worked very hard.”

“Thank you, Mister Takashi.” Nicole bowed and breathed a sigh of relief, looking through the window. Clearing his throat, Takashi knocked the door of Nicole’s new class. No paper airplanes flew. No spit balls were fired. A good start to Nicole.

“Everyone, I’d like to introduce to you our exchange student, Nicole Midou. She’s spent two years in England so do treat her well. I’m looking at you, Yuri.”

“Yuri?” Nicole gasped under her breath and saw two boys who made her blush uncontrollably. Yuri Chinen and the one and only… Keito. His beauty outshined the entire class. Nicole felt a fluster on her cheeks when his eyes fixed on hers. This wasn’t a blush like when your bias would look at you during a concert. Keito was only metres away from her, staring into her eyes. And she was red as a rose in full bloom.

“That girl is pretty cute, don’t cha think?” Yuri whispered to Keito as Nicole was sitting down, only a row and two desks away from them. Nicole to Yuri and Keito was a calm, mature Ice Princess and they both wanted to melt her heart. Especially Yuri. He was staring sweetly at Nicole during the whole lesson.

“Get a room!” Keito scoffed, nudging Yuri with the end of his pencil.

“But she’s so pretty.” Yuri whined, resting his head in his hands as he watched Nicole write down notes. Yuri was love struck. Keito knew it. Usually, Yuri’s affection was in three stages. One – Stare at the girl and sigh like it’s a romantic drama series.

*Sigh*

“Oh god.” Keito muttered in English. Stage One was in motion.  

 Next was Stage Two – act super duper cute for his crush by putting on a baby voice and call her cute nicknames. This was the stage that all the boys would try and suffocate him with a pillow.  

Stage Three? Keito didn’t know what Stage Three was yet but he didn’t want to find out.

RING RING!!

Keito watched the exchange student stand up and walk out the class. When Yuri and Keito followed her out, they were bombarded by the other members of the group.

“Konichiwa~!” The Hey Say Jump boys cheered at the new girl and bowed.

“Hello.” Nicole smiled and bowed back at the boys and walked on, trying to act cool in front of her favourite group.

“Oh my gosh!” Kota looked at Keito and Yuri. “The New Girl looks so pretty.”

“She does…” Yuri sighed, staring at the girl.

“Oh come on!” The boys muttered and groaned in frustration. “Not this again!”

“What?”

“Yuri, don’t do this. You’ll annoy the new girl.” Hikaru held Yuri by the shoulders, trying to shake him out of his trance.

“And you’ll annoy us too.” Kei interrupted, glaring at the love struck boy. They were in for another bumpy ride.

The next day, Nicole was walking to her class to hand a paper assignment to her teacher and noticed Keito in the class, deep in thought. He was piling papers into his bag after a one-on-one tutoring session and she couldn’t help but notice him sighing to himself.

“Keito-kun?” Nicole said, walking into the class. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s Yuri. He’s being all lovey-dovey again.” Keito sighed and pulled his bag over his shoulder. “Kinda reminds me that I won’t get a girl here.”

“Why is that? I thought girls would throw themselves at you. You’re in Hey Say Jump. One of the most popular boy groups in Japan.”

“Well, I’m not the most popular in the group, Nicole-san.”

“Maybe if you got to know a girl, it won’t be that bad.” Nicole said, putting the papers she had on the desk and walking to the door. “Because a dog doesn’t bark if they know the person.”

Keito’s eyes lit up at Nicole’s comment as she walked off.  

 He knew she was a caring girl over the past few days but those words made him realise that she was that girl she was talking about. She was beautiful, had a good personality and she could cheer someone up without even knowing it.

The idol was idolizing a girl he just met. 

“Man, I’ll be turning into Yuri next.” Keito thought out loud and walked out the classroom with his confidence now sky-rocketing.

Three weeks later and Nicole was noticing something was wrong with the Hey Say Jump boys. One main NOTICABLE change was Yuri’s personality. He was more cuter than ever before.  He would always skip past singing “Hi Nicole~” or “Konichiwa~”. He would even sing songs from his group OUT LOUD for everyone to hear. It was slowly beginning to annoy her.  

 Especially when Yuri was beside her, puffing his cheeks and whining like a baby.

“Nicole~! Please come to the ice cream place with me. I have to get ice cream for everyone and I’m lonely.” Yuri pouted, hanging on Nicole’s arm. Sighing to herself, Nicole looked up to the sky and tried to block Yuri’s cuteness.

“Didn’t you get ice cream like two hours ago?”

“But that was two hours!” Yuri whined, tugging on Nicole’s school shirt. “Pretty please, Nicole. I’ll cry if you don’t.”

“Yuri, I can’t. Your fans will slaughter me.” With that soft but hurtful comment, Yuri covered his face and pretended to cry. Out of all of the members, Yuri was the best at crocodile tears. He could form tears on his face in seconds. Which did in fact happen. Yuri’s eyes were twinkling more than usual, like Christmas lights.

“Nicole doesn’t like me!” Yuri whined, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“Jeez, if I go with you, will you stop crying?” Nicole said, her arms crossing her chest.

“Mmm hmm!” Yuri hummed that phrase like a cute song, nodding his head. Nicole sighed to herself again. Yuri was acting more like a child than usual. She felt like a babysitter.

“Yo, dude!” Ryosuke followed Keito who was watching Yuri and Nicole. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I think Yuri likes Nicole-san.”

“You always think Yuri likes someone when he acts cute.”

“This is something WAY different. Look.” Keito pointed at the ice cream parlour as Yuri skipped out, holding a cone of Mint Chocolate Chip.

“Nicole-Chan!” Yuri squeaked, shuffling over to Nicole’s side. “You didn’t buy anything. Why?”

“Not hungry. Besides, they didn’t have Vanilla.”

“Try mines.” Yuri held out his ice cream cone for Nicole to taste. “Mint Choc Chip is my favourite in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Especially when it’s from this place.”

“You’re right.” Ryosuke sighed, watching Nicole roll her eyes at the cute teen. “This is nothing compared to other girls. Heck, even Ryutaro couldn’t do something like this and he’s cuter than Doremon!”

“That is a worry.” Keito spoke to himself in English, pondering on his plans.

“Maybe Yuri likes her.”

“But he can’t!”

“Why?”

“Because I li…” Keito covered his mouth before he could speak again.

“You like Nicole!” Ryosuke shouted in shock.

“SHUT UP!” Keito slapped Ryosuke’s arm and pouted. This was exactly what he DIDN’T want to happen. Ryosuke was the worst person in Hey Say Jump to tell a secret too. Especially if it’s that you love someone. He would slowly tease you to tell that person and make it torture. Keito knew this all too well. He can still remember the several small bruises Ryosuke got from Ryutaro after he make cute sly remarks on someone he had a crush on in school.

If only Ryutaro was here… Keito sighed to himself … He would know what to do

“HE WOULD!” Keito shouted as Ryosuke walked away.

“Who would?”

“Ryutaro-san! We have to call him.”

“Nuh uh, after the trouble he got into with the boss? Our butts would be on the line.”

“He’s still a friend.” Keito smirked, looking through his phone until he found Ryutaro’s number. Putting it on speaker phone, Keito and Ryosuke held their excitement when they heard that familiar voice.

“Keito? Why are you calling me?”

“Ryu, we- I mean I got a problem-“

“HI RYUTARO-CHAN!!” Ryosuke shouted down the phone.

“Ryosuke!” Ryutaro chuckled as Keito pushed Ryosuke away from him. “So Keito, what’s the problem?”

“I like this girl but Yuri’s pulling his Look-At-Me-I’m-Cute manoeuvre.”

“Ah, that is a problem.” Ryutaro pondered for a second before he replied. “I think you gotta beat him at his own game.” Keito’s smile dropped into a look of shock.

Cute? Him? No way in hell!

However, if it was for Nicole, he was willing to try everything.

“Ryutaro, how do I act…” Keito choked on the word as he thought of himself acting cutesy and childish for Nicole. “Cute?”

“That’s easy. You have to pout a lot… say –san and –chan whenever you can… more cute expressions, oh and if you really wanna push the boat out, pretend to be sad and cry. If Yuri can do that, no harm in trying.”

“This is awesome!” Keito smiled.

“This is wrong!” Ryosuke rolled his eyes. He knew, like everyone else, someone like Keito would fail miserably at cuteness. He’s an English-Gentleman kind of character. Any cuteness was only in small amounts. Forced and it would be like a Computer overload. The plan would blow up in his face. Before Keito could launch his plan, Yuri skipped away, followed by a bored Nicole. "Keito, are you seriously gonna do this?"

"Yeah! YURI-SAN!!" Keito pretended to be cute and run up to Yuri. "Konichiwa~!" 

"Hi Keito-kun." Nicole bowed to her bias, who smiled and clapped like a ten year old.

"Ahh~ Ryosuke-chan, she called me Keito-kun~!" Keito jumped on Nicole's back and giggled. Yuri pouted and walked off, Ryosuke following him. 

"He was joking, Yuri." Ryosuke sighed, nudging Yuri.

"But.... I like her." 

"What?!" Keito and Ryosuke said in unison.

"Yeah, and I wanna tell her before she leaves in three days."

"THREE DAYS?!" Keito shouted and ran off again. Ryosuke sighed, covering his face with his hands.

"I wish that kid would stop running so much."

Nicole enjoyed her time in the school but soon, her time was drawing to a close but she didn't want to go before going to a Hey Say Jump concert. She waited outside Tokyo Dome with her closest best friend of her exchange student experience, Kairi for the doors to open. 

However, Keito noticed the girls through the hotel window.

"She's a JUMPER." Keito chuckled, watching Nicole fix her hair under her baseball cap so she wouldn't be noticed. He smirked to himself. This was the perfect time to finally confess to the girl he liked. And he knew just the way to do it.

An hour later and the boys were on stage. Performing to the thousands of fans and now it was Keito's solo.

He stood in the middle of the stage and sang a self-composed ballad in English. The fans squealed at him as he walked down to the crowd, wearing a crisp white suit. To Nicole, he was like a prince. She couldn't keep her eyes off him. Keito looked over at Nicole and smiled. He walked closer, and closer until he was above her on stage. Singng to his love, he gave her a deep red rose with a small note on it - "Meet me backstage. We need to talk."

Nicole blushed as Keito walked back, giving one last wink to her. She couldn't think straight for the whole concert.

Until she had to meet Keito.

She saw him in the same suit he had in his solo and blushed again.

"You like this outfit? I picked it to wear for you." Keito smiled.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Nicole stuttered and stepped forward until Keito was right in front of her.

"You didn't notice? I thought it would be easy because you're a JUMPER."

"I didn't say that." Nicole giggled and looked away.

"Nicole, I really like you." Keito sighed and spoke in his English voice. "I wanted to tell you but with Yuri doing his cute act, I couldn't. I liked you ever since you talked to me. You really helped me when I was down and now I don't want to see you leave."

Nicole smiled at her prince. She loved him since she first saw him but she never thought this would happen. She was in a daze. She heard Keito's chuckle and something gentle on her lips. Keito kissed her, holding her in his arms. "Don't forget me, Nicole. Okay?"

"I won't. I can always write to you." Nicole giggled, pushing a lock of hair behind her ears.

"Good. Because I still want to talk to you when you're gone. A dog doesn't bark if they know the person, right?"

Nicole burst out laughing and leaned forward to kiss him again.

She now felt safe in his arms and it was like she just saw him on TV again. Her heart was racing and she could feel a tear of happiness on her cheek.

“The world in our eyes may seem to be b over with sadness
But we won't run away from it any longer, the story of youth”

Nicole knew this lyrics far too well, now that she had Keito in her arms.