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A Week after Kame Moved in

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Without knowing it, a week had passed since Kame moved into Koki’s apartment. There was nothing much to say about the not-so-new environment; however, there was just one change in this living condition: the so called mysterious being, “Akanishi Jin”. For some odd reason, this man had sparked Kame’s interest. He felt like the man is wearing different kind of masks in one day. One second, Jin was this sunshine guy, the next he was this gloomy and quite cranky, and then he could be having this sensual aura around him that was hard for Kame to look away.

Even so, Kame seemed unfazed by all of those auras. He was fine with this being the first few days. He was not there for trouble and he just wanted peace and of course saving enough money for his own apartment in the near future, maybe house if he is fortunate enough. However, the new guy had successfully touched the one thing that Kame dislikes the most on his list of “I’ll never going to ing forgive you for this”.

“It feels he is not human,” Kame exclaimed at one of the usual getting together meetings with his peer. He couldn’t hold in his anger; it kept rising up each second every time the images of the different sides of Jin passed through his mind. Koki rolled his eyes at the younger man, knowing that the drama queen is now making his appearance.

“Kame, as long as he is not PMS-ing like you, then I think there is nothing wrong with his façade,” Koki poked the sore spot, immediately received a flying pillow his way. “AND! You’re one violent child! Plus PMS-ing,” Koki added for good measure.

“I’m just pissed! Not violence! And ing washes your dishes please! The smell is unbearable!” Kame shouted almost deafening everyone in the room.

“What did the new guy do to have him becoming this furious?” Ueda gave the fuming man the sly smile, totally ignored the glare darting his way.

“I think Jin just accidentally washed the queen’s jeans and destroyed it in the process,” Koki said nonchalantly. Ueda nodded his head, not too surprised. If anyone ever decides to ruin Kame’s mood just for fun, it was for sure that clothes is the best choice; the younger man would bite anyone’s head off, not caring whoever that is.

“Kame, find something new next time to make a fuss about,” Ueda said with a challenging look.

“But they are my favorite!” Kame screamed.

“You will find a new ones soon enough,” Ueda remarked matter of fact.

“Yea! ‘SOON ENOUGH’, not ‘NOW!’” Kame turned hysterical.

“Who volunteer to take the queen out shopping today?” Ueda retorted for the peace, he wouldn’t like to have a y and whiny Kame ruining his mood so early into the day.

“I’ll pass,” Maru hurriedly said, “I have the coffee shop to look after,” he added his reason.

“Pass, girlfriend,” Junno immediately bounced off his seat.

“I’ve had enough of the queen, don’t ask me,” Koki shook his head as he pulled the headphone back to his ears.

“You don’t expect me to babysit the queen, do you?” Ueda said with narrowed eyes.

“I hate you all!” Kame fumingly snarled, jumped off the bar stool and headed for the exit.

“Be careful and watch your credit card limit!” Ueda shouted after the figure, knowing exactly where Kame was going to head to. There was no reply, just an angry slamming of the door. Ueda just shrugged.

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The apartment seemed really quiet, too quiet for his taste. It was not like this yesterday or even the day before. This silence was slowly getting on his nerve. Turning left and right on his bed, he didn’t like this dead silence. He would never be able to be ‘normal’ in this condition. He needed to find himself in a crowd, a big and noisy one, just so he could get his mind off things.

Unable to retrain himself in the silence, Jin kicked the comforter away and rolled out of bed. It was Sunday after all, it would be best to find himself walking out on the street than home. People might say that home is safe and the street is what dangerous; but to Jin, it’s the opposite. Home was never safe in his world; it’s suffocating him, making him feel helplessness. The happiest moment of his life was the second he took a step out of that icy cold double antique golden gate, leaving the prison he called home behind his trail and would never turn back for a second glance.

He lazily dragged his feet to the kitchen, something to eat sounded very promising, he would like to start the day with a good meal, maybe a cup of newly brewed coffee to start his morning. Making his way to the kitchen, Jin felt the chilly air brushing his skin, realizing that he has been half- in the cold weather, he made a quick left turn to the laundry room. He dug right into the laundry basket for some kind of t-shirt or pull-over, in the process, he found himself pull out a pair of washed up jeans that had completely torn, he was not sure whether the ragged was from the manufacture or from washing them too much. He picked up the jeans and studied it, realization hit him: they’re KAME’S JEANS. Remembering the raging the young male gave him the night before, Jin closed his eyes grunting, he was a bit overboard last night, and being tired is not an excuse to be rude.  

“Maybe I should apologize,” he sighed; having an argument with a housemate on the second week was not something on his list. He just wanted peace. With that set in mind, he pulled out the first t-shirt that he saw and put it over his shivering form.

He made his way to the kitchen finally; however, the rotten smell entered his nostrils had stopped him on his way. He leaned up to glance over the sink and gave out an irritated grunt up at the mess Koki created last night. After Kame decided to lock himself to rant in his room, whatever left in the sink was unwashed. Without the younger male around, the kitchen had turned into a chaos, and Jin was not going to let the stink intoxicated his living environment. He picked up the towel on the way and covered his nose with it; he tried to start washing the mess. He also noted to himself to kill Koki later for this, there was MOLD! In the sink! The man needed to learn how to clean up after himself.

The door to the apartment clicked open, entering Kame attaching with bags on his arms whom having a hard time to get himself through the door. He groaned loudly when the door almost slammed on his foot, luckily he wore combat boots today so the damage was not severe, just slightly stinging from the harsh slamming.

“Let me help you,” Jin said behind the door as he steadied it for the smaller man, Kame looked up from his position, not forgetting to glare at the man. He still accepted the help nonetheless.

“Thanks,” he mumbled not too grateful, letting himself into the apartment and walking straight to his room without taking off his shoes, his manner could hold off for a few seconds.

Jin watched the other hurried away from him as he let out a sigh, it would be tough to apologize to the little kitten. He knew that he would have to do it one way or another, before he could call it a day free of worries. He made his way slowly to the other man’s room and knocked on it lightly, waiting for an answer.

“Yes?” the inside voice asked.

“Can we talk?” Jin asked warily, testing the other’s mood.

“I’m busy now,” Kame replied quite hastily.

“I believe those bags can wait,” Jin tried to pry the other out.

“Maybe for you, but not for me,” Kame said; irritation in his voice.

“Look, I’m sorry about last night. I should know better that you value your clothes more than your dear life, you did give me a head up before hand but … I’m sorry that I snapped,” Jin sincerely said.

There was a long silence; no movement was heard on the other side, as if there was not even a beings resided there. After a short moment, the door opened a small crack; Kame poked his head out to stare at Jin’s expression, studying the man in front of him with observant meaning.

 “Did you fix the jeans?” Kame asked as he let the door wide open after a secured assurance.

Jin quirked his eyebrows at Kame, slightly surprised at the man’s question, indeed clothes were the only things he care in his life. “They are still in the laundry basket, untouched…” Jin said hesitantly, “and I don’t think it is fixable” he added eerily.

Kame made a leaning gesture towards the laundry room, thought for a few seconds then shrugged, “if that’s the case then it’s fine, I have found a new pair,” he informed, “HOWEVER,” he quickly added, “you owe me a shopping spree, those jeans worth more than 200,000 yen,” he leisurely put the tab on Jin’s name.

“But you just went shopping!” Jin’s eyes widened at the request, he blurted out the logic in his mind.

“So what?” Kame said with the nonchalant expression.

“Mind I ask do you really wear all of them?” Jin said pointing to the pile of bags on the floor and the pile of newly bought clothes, tags still on, on the bed. The older male believed that it would be three months until he would go shop again for clothes.

“One set for each night I work, that makes it six sets a week; I separate them in the order of working clothes, outdoor clothes, and indoor clothes; and I don’t intend on wearing the same thing every day, meaning each week there will be at least 10 sets of clothes change for me,” Kame said as if it was the most natural thing ever. Jin blinked, unable to progress the logic; now there was no doubt this guy is a sissy; he decided so in his mind.

“AND I’M NOT A SISSY,” Kame screamed, knowing exactly what Jin was thinking as the other man’s expression changed into that I-know-what-to-call-this-man-in-this-situation expression.

“You must have getting it a lot,” Jin added, grinning at the pouting Kame.

“Don’t make me hate you two times in a row and it has not been 24 hours yet,” Kame warned, not seeing the point in carrying on with the teasing.

“Ok, ok, ok; just saying,” Jin laughed swinging up his hands in the giving up gesture, “have you eaten yet?” he asked after a short while.

“I ate at the mall, but I can join you for snack, if you want company,” Kame offered, sorting out his clothes. Jin watched as the younger male roaming through the newly bought clothes.

“Are you sure that you are not working as a stylist? And where did you get the money to buy these?” he said pointedly at the man in front of him.

“My salary is sufficient enough for me to shop the whole Shibuya if I want to,” he answered shortly, Jin blinked his eyes at the man, still not getting it. Kame shook his head at him as walking towards Jin, “ask Koki, he tells all,” he informed, smirking when Jin nodded his head. Indeed, Koki tended to be the informant in every situation like these.

“I’ll wait outside then, we’ll head to Three-Leaves Café, Koki said the food is really good there,” Jin said, turning around and off to his room. On the way, he could hear Kame’s loud scoff at the mention of the place’s name.

“Do you mean the girls are good?” Kame retaliated with a grin, “don’t trust Koki when it comes to ‘café’; his definition of “a place for food” and normal people’s definition are different, unless you are of his kind,” Kame said amusingly, finally out of his room and to the main door.

“I don’t know, you are more familiar with here than I am,” Jin appeared shortly after, following Kame out of the apartment.

“Just to make sure,” Kame turned to Jin as they stepping down the stairs, “we are cool now; however, don’t ever touch my clothes again, I don’t like it when I can’t find them when I need them,” he stated solemnly; Jin nodded and made a note to never get his hand on Kame’s clothes, like NEVER EVER!