★

03. Happy Ending

❈

 “How is the wedding planning going?”

Kame turned around and was totally not pleased with the speaker.

“If killing is not a crime, you would have been six feet under by now,” Kame snarled at the person.

“Whoa! Don’t get all cranky up on me,” the person chuckled, “you want to help out, and I just try to please you, plus I have been out of the country, you know work and all.”

Kame gave the other a skeptical stare, “yea, work and all, or trying to escape your duty,” he retorted which only amused the other man even more.

“Awwwww~ look like Kame-chan is mad~ what can I do to make it up to you?” the person snuggled closer to him and rubbing his back intimately.

“Ugh! Get away from me you e!” Kame swatted the other away but the other man only stubbornly snuggled towards him.

 “Oh com’on~ I miss my favorite little darling,” the other made the most painstakingly pout that Kame just want to kick the other out of the office.

“Oh shut! I’m not your little darling, let me remind you that I’m your ing…”

“What’s going on here?” Jin’s firm monotone interrupted the two, Kame smiled widely and felt glad that Jin was here to rescue him from the other person.

“Hey, you’re early,” Kame grinned to greet the taller man as pushed the man off him with success.

“Since I finished the errand early, thought I might just come to pick you up instead,” Jin replied with a smile, not forgetting to give the stranger his heated glare as he wrapped an arm protectively around Kame. The third wheel in the room only smiled with amusement.

“Well look like my Kazu-chan is busy, I’ll bother you at another time, have fun darling,” the stranger waved a good bye as he passed by the two but not forgetting to leave a kiss on Kame’s forehead who only abruptly brushed it down with irritation, while Jin on the other hand felt the need to smack that kiss away for the shorter man in his arm.

“Who is that?” Jin asked once the stranger had disappeared from their sight.

“No one important,” Kame only answered blatantly, still being irritated by the other’s reminder about the wedding planning.

“You seem upset,” Jin noted.

“It’s the stress,” Kame replied shortly, “where we are going to have dinner?” he tried to diverse the topic.

“What are you feeling like?” Jin decided to go along with Kame’s direction.

“Anything is fine, as long as it’s not too fatty. I don’t want to look like a potato sack,” Kame said with a pout. Jin just looked over with a smile.

“You’re like a baby,” Jin laughed at Kame’s protested pout. “Let’s go to my friend’s place, he owns the best ramen shop on our street,” he informed.

❈

“I look fat in this, don’t I?”

Kame rolled his eyes for an umpteenth time that afternoon at the repeated question. He wondered why girls are so self-conscious; it’s just a ing dress! (Ok, wedding dress, but still!)

“Com’on~ answers me,” the girl whined.

Kame looked up to the person and felt like slapping the hell out of her but he tried to control himself.

“No, darling. You look great! Indeed you look fantastic!” Kame felt the need to add the last one into his answer.

“You’re not lying right?” the girl asked again and Kame just was as ready to choke her right on the spot.

“No, why would I?”

“Because I’m being annoyed and you hate it?”

“Wow! You’re just figured it out?”

“You’re so mean~” the girl said with eyes at the brink of tears. Oh why he is even bothered?

“Now, now, I was just kidding,” Kame tried to sooth the person, “why don’t you go change to another dress and see how that goes,” Kame tried to smile the best he can as he continued, “a bride-to-be should not be crying now, right?” the other person nodded and follow the store assistant to her changing room.

Kame massaged his forehead as flopped down on the sofa. He still wondered why he had agreed to this mess. He hates most in this world is waiting, and he definitely doesn’t like whining girl to add to it. The combination of these two, which is happening to him now, will make him want to strangle anyone in his sight to dead, and he is for sure know exactly who would it be right now. He took in a deep breath to calm his nerve; he definitely does need it as he told himself so. It didn’t take long for the bride-to-be reappeared to the scene, and this time she looked a bit happier than before, at least for now.

“I like this one,” she said proudly as quickly made her decision.

“That’s great!” Kame was more than please to hear it.

“Now shall we move on to the groom’s suit?” the store manager said with enthusiasm.

“I guess you’re up,” the bride smiled widely.

“Why me?” Kame whined in return.

“We’re shopping for bridal clothes, remember?” the girl reminded, “and you’re just as perfectly fitting now,” she added.

“Whatever, I don’t like it already,” he fumed childishly.

“Ignore him,” the bride told the assistant and signaled for her to proceed with her job, “make sure he looks good in it,” the bride reminded from behind.

❈

Jin leisurely rested his legs on the coffee table, a popcorn bowl positioning in the middle of his lap: one hand picking up the popcorns while the other holding onto the remote control. He was just enjoying his day off, and he was for sure planning to spend the best of it today. Searching through the channels, he had finally found his favorite variety show. His enjoyment didn’t last long until his phone vibrated loudly on the coffee table.

“Who is texting me at this hour?” he grunted as sat up to pick up his phone. His frown soon was replaced with a smile at the sender.

--
From: Kazuya
Text: Save me from bridal shopping?
--

He chuckled at the content and quickly input a reply.

--
To: Kazuya
Text: You got this one upon yourself, so no complaining. LOL
--

It didn’t take long for the next reply to come.

--
From: Kazuya
Text: Actually I didn’t ask to be one =.= just call me or something so I can have an excuse to get out of here. Pleaseeeeee~~ *puppy eyes*
--

Jin laughed loudly at the last message and did as being instructed by holding up his phone and press call to Kame’s number.

“Moshi moshi, Kamenashi is speaking,” he didn’t have to reply when Kame quickly followed by the next sentence, “Sagawa-san? About the contract? I see, I see. So you want to meet up to finalize the contract? When do you want it to be?” Jin snickered loudly and pretended to play along.

“Right now,” Jin answered to Kame’s question and the other man was more than happy to see an escape.

“Right now?” Kame repeated with hope, “Great! I’ll be there in a few.” And with that Kame hung up the phone.  Jin shook his head at the childish play and placed his phone back to the coffee table as continued with his morning show. A short time later, his phone vibrated again with a message.

--
From: Kazuya
Text: Want to grab lunch? As a compensation for helping me out earlier.
--

Jin replied with a yes and quickly got up to change out of his pajama. Guess he knew where to spend his day off today and with whom.

--

“She decided to change the dress at the last minute. We’re THREE WEEKS away from the wedding!” Kame said with his hand up high in the air, the need to vent it all out had given him the energy to be mad.

“Why don’t you tell her that you’re tired and she needs to make up her mind on those things, it would save you so much time,” Jin consulted as he carefully studied Kame’s expression changing from pouting to total bizarre. He just only laughed at the sudden change.

“Wish I can,” Kame said pouting, “she is like a freaking princess and just does as she pleases, never actually listen to anyone on any matter,” he added as his body made small shivering gesture from the thought.

“You shouldn’t have let her making it a habit to boss over you all the time, that’s not a healthy relationship,” Jin commented on the matter, which only resulted in Kame’s eyes gotten bigger at those words.

“I’ve tried,” Kame informed and sighed dejectedly, “but I just can’t stop giving in to her. When I tried to be firm with her, she would give me these kicked puppy eyes that I just don’t have a heart to say no to her,” Kame said with regret. “I’m such an easy person, aren’t I?” He looked up at Jin for help and the older man just wished that he didn’t ask for this.

“Well, girls are cute, it’s not wrong to give in to them, yet you just have to let them know that you can’t always be there for them at all time, so they need to learn to be a bit independent,” Jin said with careful thought, “yet that doesn’t mean they have to be strong all the time, we guys love to pamper girls, that’s a fact,” he was proud at his speech and the bright smile Kame giving him was like a reward for his words, and he just damn loving it.

“For a host, you do know girls well,” Kame praised with sincere.

“That’s what I do for a living,” Jin laughed, “but not just girl, I do understand boys as well, the biual ones though,” he added with a light laugh.

“Now that’s interesting,” Kame glee with a smile, “that means you know how to treat a ‘boy’ well?” he said with big grin.

“Depend…” Jin answered with a slight smile, “what type of ‘boy’ we’re talking here?” he added.

“Hmm…” Kame made a thoughtful sound, “how about ‘boys’ you’re interested in?” he shrugged an answer.

“You might need to be specific on whom, since there is quite a few that interested me,” He laughed and Kame just rolled his eyes.

“Aren’t you a playboy?” Kame added with a laugh.

“Only to those I don’t take an interest in,” Jin replied softly, “to those I do, I’ll be sincere,” he looked straight at Kame with earnest in his eyes that made a chill running up Kame’s spine at the stare.

“Anyway,” Kame cleared his throat and quickly looked away, “you will come to the wedding, right?” he tried to change the topic.

“Hmm…not sure, should I?” Jin was hesitated.

“Why not?” Kame said with innocent tone.

“I’m not sure if I will be free that day,” Jin said with a tinge of regret.

“I can ask senpai for you,” Kame pleaded.

“Nah, it’s ok, I’ll see to it,” Jin said.

“I hope you can come or she will throw a tantrum,” Kame pouted and Jin frowned at the revelation.

“Why?” Jin asked quite curiously.

“Since Tsubasa has been talking about you, and knowing that you helped pick out the wine, now she wants to see you, like really want to see you,” Kame said with an exaggerating gesture.

“I don’t know how to feel about that,” Jin said unsurely, “Let me see about it, I still don’t get why she wants to see me,” Jin shook his head, “That would be awkward,” he added.

“Awkward?” Kame questioned, “what’s so awkward about seeing her?” he said.

“It just feels like it, it’s like I’m trying to hit on you and here you asked me to meet the bride,” Jin said a bit flustered.

“You were trying to hit on me?” Kame said with wide eyes, slightly surprised, “You were hitting on me?” he repeated the phrase a bit surely this time.

“You’re making it awkward right now,” Jin said facepalming himself. 

“No, I was just surprised,” Kame said with a glee, “I thought I misinterpreted your action,” he grinned wider.

“So you know I hit on you,” Jin started to change the subject due to the newly revealed secret.

“I’m not three, of course I notice you hit on me,” Kame said with a smile, “but I thought it was just me thinking too much, but now it has been confirmed,” he said with a newfound confidence.

“You see, that’s why I said it’s awkward to meet the bride,” Jin said with an awkward aura.

“Hold on,” Kame stopped himself from teasing the other man and started to connect all the dots, “you thought that is my bride?” he reconfirmed his thought with Jin and received a nod, in which caused him to laugh hysterically like a crazy maniac. “Oh my god, this is so gold,” Kame’s action made Jin arching his brow at the crazy laughing man.

“You’re scaring me right now,” Jin said with unsure tone.

“Ok, ok,” Kame tried to control himself, “I think it’s partly my fault for not clearly stating whose wedding it is in the first place,” he tried to recompose himself and then continued, “that demanding, controlling, and crazy freak of a bride is actually my lovely-yet-evil cousin; and she has been such a pain in the neck for the past couple of weeks to me, even though I love her dearly,” Kame stated with a straight face.

“Cousin?” Jin repeated the word.

“Mhm,”

“Cousin,”

“Yup,”

“Cousin.”

“How many times do I have to said ‘yes’, ‘right’, ‘uh huh’ so you can understand?” Kame slightly annoyed at Jin’s repetitive speech.

“I’m more than surprise than you think,” Jin said with a heave of relief.

“Well, you never actually ask me directly, and only assuming,” Kame countered with a teasing tone.

“You should have corrected me when I first assumed it,” Jin defended back.

“I only knew you then, so why would I need to explain to you?” Kame just shrugged.

“You really can’t be reasoning,” Jin just chuckled.

“You just notice?” Kame playfully answered back and made a face at Jin, who in turn just rolled his eyes and followed Kame to their next destination.

❈

“So I’ve heard that the two of you have started dating,” Tackey teased Jin the moment his kouhai walked into the room. Jin just rolled his eyes at the others and ignored the remark.

“I take it as the beginning phrase, where shyness and embarrassing are included in the package,” Tackey tried again and Jin tried his best to not answer because he knows the older man is trying to pry something out of him if he tries to even say a word. He tried to busy himself with organizing his locker even though it is already in order.

“Ignoring me, I see how that goes,” Tackey tried to sound pity, but Jin just disregarded him even more. Rolling his eyes at his kouhai, Tackey decided to just leave things as it is and moved on with the magazine in his hand.

“Akanishi-senpai!” one of his co-workers called him and Jin turned his head to answer the other, “I heard you and Kamenashi-san are dating,” the co-worker said with a chirping smile. Jin abruptly turned his head to Tackey with an you-said-it face.

“Oops,” Tackey said with a grin and quickly dashed out of the room before Jin could catch him.

“Seriously? Do you have to announce to the whole world?” Jin yelled after his senpai with a defeated tone. As much as he loves his senpai, he just doesn’t like it that his private life is the center of discussion in the next few days. Both him and Kame would like to spare themselves from some of that.

“Uh…is it a bad thing?” his co-worker was slightly confused but Jin just shook his head.

“Nothing,” Jin said assuredly, “I was just surprised that the news got out so quick,” he added.

“Ah, I see. No wonder Kamenashi-san gave me this death glare, I guess you two are not ready to let the whole world know about your relationship,” the co-worker said with understanding without knowing that he had just made Jin feel mortified at the knowledge that Kame had learned their relationship is being known by the whole club.

“Where is Kamenashi-san now?” Jin asked with a sigh, now he had to make sure that nothing bad is going to happen.

“I think he went off to Tsubasa-san’s room,” the co-worker said and Jin was quick on his heels to head out to find Kame.

*

“How did everyone knows about us already?” Kame was breathless when he entered Tsubasa’s room after one of the hosts asked him about dating Jin. He didn’t know that the news got that fast. They just started two weeks ago, how the heck that everyone already got a hold of that.

“Know about who?” Tsubasa tried to play innocent, slightly amused at Kame’s shocked face.

“Me and Jin,” Kame pointed to himself.

“Oh, you two,” Tsubasa chuckled, “is it about time to let the club know?” he said obviously, “it’s not fun to keep things from them, because they will definitely dig it out of you one way or another; they are just too sharp for their own good and not to mention that they have noticed Jin had always been after you from the beginning,” he informed the other of the so obvious fact.

Kame blinked his eyes rapidly at the piece of information, “Say what?” he was slightly shocked.

“You’re just too slow for your own good,” Tsubasa laughed out lightly and stood up from his chair to walk over to ruffle Kame’s hair. “Everyone in the club knows that Jin has been after you but you were the one that seems to not know about it,” he smiled and watched the other’s reaction.

Kame’s face changed to a thoughtful one as he tried to replay all the events in his head to see if he actually missed out on something that was so important. He was never one to ignore small details yet recently the only one thing on his mind was the wedding. Therefore, it was possible that he missed out on something that he listed as trivial. Seeing that troubled face, Tsubasa smirked and decided to guilt trip Kame some more, “Poor Jin, the guy thought that you have been busy preparing for your wedding. The poor guy was having this internal conflict with himself where he had to fight with his own morals of whether to snatch you away from the bride or not,” Tsubasa sighed with a dejected look. Kame’s eyes widen at the piece of information, feeling even more remorse now.

“Stop guilt trip him, I don’t know what to do if he decides to avoid me after this,” Jin said out from his spot, which got the attention of the two in the room.

“Sometimes you just have to say it clearly to him like this,” Tsubasa said with a smile, “or else he would never know,” he added with a genuine smile.

“Let’s go Kame, before your senpai driving you away from me,” Jin took Kame’s wrist and pulled the younger man out of the room with him. They both walked out of the club using the back door and within second they were entering the street with busy people. Jin felt a bit uneasy when Kame didn’t say anything.

“Sorry,” Kame finally broke the silent with an apology.

“For what?” Jin said gently as stopped to turn to the younger man.

“For being so ignorant,” Kame said in an even lower voice.

“It’s only natural to be that way, don’t apologize for something you didn’t do wrong,” Jin tried to comfort the younger man. “Now, shall we go and pick out my suit for the wedding or you want me to wear my normal working suit?” Jin pinched Kame’s cheek to cheer the other man, “I don’t mind but I don’t think your cousin would appreciate it,” Jin laughed lightly.

“Oh, trust me, she will be more than thrilled and will be all over you if you wear them,” Kame laughed at the thought, “she is a veteran at those host club, she likes them dashing and fancy. Everyone in the family thought that she would marry a host someday, that’s why it came as a shock when her groom turned out to be someone from the fashion industry,” Kame informed with a shivering, “remember that guy that you saw at my office the other day? That’s the groom,” he added and Jin turned shock.

“That flirty guy?” Jin said with disapproval.

“Being a fashion designer, that’s his way of acting. He was not being flirty, just being a good sale man talking to his customer, since I’m also one of his longtime customers. Now think about it, I think it was me who introduced them.” Kame carefully reflected on his old events. “I think their love started to bloom because of me,” he asked himself with an even more obvious fact.

“No wonder, the bride has been bothering you all the time, because she wants your help on something you started for them,” Jin grinned and that only made Kame more mortified.

“Ugh! Now I understand why she keeps saying that I’m the one should take responsibility when the groom is not around,” Kame slapped his face after learning the truth behind all of his sleepless nights.

“Where did the groom go?” Jin asked with curiosity.

“He had a fashion show in Paris for a whole month before their wedding, and it’s something that very important to designers; therefore, he can’t miss out on it. He asked me to help with the wedding planning until he comes back,” Kame answered.

“I see, is he back yet?” Jin asked and Kame nodded. “So you don’t have to take care of the planning any more, right?” Kame nodded again and Jin smiled, “give me your phone.” Kame was slightly confused but gave his phone to Jin anyway.

Jin quickly went through Kame’s message inbox and swiftly replied to one of Kame’s message. Kame looked on interestedly, wanting to know what Jin doing. When Jin gave back his phone, he quickly went to his inbox and laughed out loudly.

“You just did not do that,” Kame chortled and Jin nodded confidently.

“Yup I just did,”

“She will hate you,” Kame pretended to warn Jin.

“Do I look like I care?” Jin chuckled and Kame just shook his head. “Now, let’s go find my suit, you are mine from now on,” Jin took Kame’s hand in his and dragged the younger man with him. Kame followed suite still smiling like an idiot at the text Jin just sent out.

---
From: Kazuya
Text: Since your groom is back to his duty. You kids go ahead and play husband and wife, while we adults (Kame and I of course) are going to play our adult game *grins* Don’t bother us or you might see or heard something you kids do not want to see *big smirk*
-Jin-
 P.S: Nice to meet you, I’m Jin, Kame’s boyfriend.
---

❆❤❆

The End