❈♍❈

Two Weeks Later

♍

Kame didn’t think his flu had prolonged for more than a week; even though the fever went down and his throat was feeling better, but his nose just wouldn’t show any sign of recovery. His stuffy nose caused him unable to breathe well at night and many times he had to stay up the night just because he was gagging for air for heaven’s sake. Times like those he would camp out in the living room to watch the sunrise, of course each time like that Jin would always accompany him; for the older man believed that it was not safe to have Kame unattended when sick.

Just yesterday, he was able to breathe normally and thanks to the herbal teas Mi-chan supplied him, the nasal voice was long gone and he was more than happy to have his voice back. One of his selling points in the cabaret club was his smooth silky voice, some customers even came to the club just to listen to him speaking, not the hostesses; he totally didn’t mind it one bit, as long as they gave him good tips, he was willing to serve them the service they deserve, yet his body was not included in the package.

Today, Kame woke up to find himself in the living room, with blanket covering his small frame and Jin’s arm around his waist. He turned over to face Jin, the older man’s sleeping face was one of the cutest thing he had ever seen for years. He smiled at the little frown on Jin’s face, the man must be having one of those nightmares that the other seemed to have lately. Kame didn’t know why but after knowing Jin for almost two months now, he couldn’t erase that mysterious aura about Jin. Sometimes the older man gave him comfort like just now, but some other times, he felt like he had picked the wrong time to tease the other. Believing that he had spent too much time on observing the sleepy form, Kame sleepily removed the other man’s arm from his waist and started to dart off to the bathroom to wash up. He needed to be ready and off to the supermarket to fill the fridge; they had run out of food when he collapsed.

He the water and let it splash against his pale skin, feeling the heated droplets rolling down his body. A refreshment washed over him, how long had it been that he last showered, maybe it was the week before, Mi-chan would never let him soaked in water while he was sick, knowing that it would only worsen his condition, and to have a wet towel wiping his body was not really anything near fulfillment of a hot shower. He was enjoying his time in the shower when he heard the door to the bathroom turned open. He poked his head out of the shower curtain to have a better look of who the person was, but only to find a glory Jin that was also sleepily walking towards him.

“Are you taking a shower?” Jin asked in his sleepy state.

“You want to join?” Kame asked naturally.

“Yea, have work in half an hour,” Jin nodded, inviting himself into the shower, Kame didn’t mind one bit. It had becoming natural for them to share showers for over a month now, plus they were both guys, what was so discomfort about it, in Kame’s logic.

Kame reached his hand over to Jin’s shoulder as the other was taller than him, to grab the body wash, but he seemed to miss the bottle, frowning lightly at the missing bottle, he tiptoed to look up at the spot it was supposed to be. It was a bad move when he lost his balance and stripped forward, knocking Jin onto the shower’s wall. The other man was stunned at the sudden collide for he had been shampooing his hair with eyes closed.

“! Sorry, are you ok, Jin?” Kame hurriedly said, lifting himself away from Jin and checked for any injuries on the man’s tone body. Jin quickly washed the shampoo off his hand and opened his eyes to look at the worried man.

“I’m ok, just a bit surprised, are you hurt anywhere?” Jin asked the other with concern, knowing that Kame had stripped just now.

“Thanks to your body mass, no injury was made,” Kame laughed heartily, “and you should stop showering while sleeping, one of these days you will get drowned in water,” Kame joked, finally managed to grab the body wash from its new position.

“Can’t help it,” Jin shrugged, “sleeping on the floor is not a good idea, I’m telling you,” he added and Kame just laughed to it.

“I didn’t ask you to, you did it voluntarily,” Kame teased.

“Then stop sleeping in the living room by yourself, I’m scared for you,” Jin said with concern.

“Awww~ you are so sweet! Ok, promise today is the last day I do that,” Kame cooed, helping washing the shampoo off Jin’s hair.

“Good,” Jin grunted satisfied, letting the slender fingers do their job on his scalp, it was the best feeling.

At that moment, the bathroom door was once again burst opened, but this time it was a bit harsher than the last. Kame could already guess who it was.

“I’m ok, Koki; not pass out yet,” Kame said predictably.

“Kazu! That was a loud thud, you sure Jin is still in one piece?” Koki said in one breath, quickly grabbed the curtain and yanked it open, revealing two bodies that looked at him expecting. “Whew!” Koki said as wiped his forehead, “the boy is still alive, thanks god,” he said.

“Yea, he is in one piece, now give me the towel,” Kame demanded with a laugh, Koki rolled his eyes and reached for the towels to give them to the two, he then exited the bathroom to make breakfast for the three of them, it was his turn this week anyway.

❈

Kame was busy filling the orders for every customer in the club; the place was like a banquet or something. With the news of his return, the customers immediately filled the place within the first thirty minutes of opening that night; and the spacious area (around 1,800 square meters) was completely crowded with people, voices filled the space, barely leave any room for whispers that was impossible to have in this chaos.

“Kazu-chan~ another Japanese slipper¹, please,” one of the girls called from her table, Kame turned over to voice and nodded in acknowledgement. The bar was located at the middle of the spacious area, therefore, it made things easier for Kame whenever a hand signal was made, he could easily catch them, and the person only need to give him the number, normally. However, due to today’s special event (hence, Kame’s return), it was impossible to figure out all of the hand signals. The best of all for now was to shout out the name so he could catch it.

“Japanese slipper for Eri-chan,” Kame yelled out the name, and within seconds it was grabbed and delivered to its rightful table.

“Kazu-chan, Midori Sour, please~” another voice shouted from his right, Kame nodded again, chuckling at the name of the drink.

“If Mi-chan was here, she would pout like a baby,” Kame murmured to himself as he poured the Sprite soda, the last ingredient, to the melon liqueur and whisky sour mix, and then stirred them together creating the mystified clear green color as the chemical sparks its magic.

“Not really, but I don’t like to be associate with a drink,” Mi-chan voiced from behind Kame, causing the man turned around abruptly from shock.

“Stop doing that,” Kame rolled his eyes, placing the drink on the counter and shouted, “Midori Sour for Nana-chan,” once again, it was swiftly taken away.

“It feels odd to have the same name with a cocktail,” Mi-chan laughed.

“Well, but those sell fast,” Kame noted the important fact, he had to admit that Midori Sour had become one of the best drink seller at the club the moment Mi-chan became the number 1 hostess and then later becoming the owner of this place. That drink was still at its peak, just like the Midori person herself.

“Whatever sells I guess,” Mi-chan retorted to agreement, making her way around and settling down on the stool right in front of Kame. “Take a break,” she ordered, turning to the secondary bartender in the bar and signaling for him to take over for Kame.

Putting down the towel and taking off the black apron, Kame exited the bar and sat down next to Mi-chan as the girl ordered. Kame felt something was not right about this situation, because Mi-chan was being nice to him at the club. Normally, the girl would mercilessly ask him to attend to the customers’ orders and pestered him about creating new drink to keep the club updating every day for competition purpose. However, today she was a bit too nice; that drama queen attitude was nowhere to be seen and that was scary.

“I don’t bite, Kazu-chan,” Mi-chan chuckled at Kame’s reluctant.

“No you don’t, you devour people alive,” Kame corrected with a laugh.

“Ok ok ok, enough about me being the evil witch, now let’s turn the limelight to you and your love life,” Mi-chan grinned at the dumbfounded expression.

“What love life?” Kame asked with a frown.

“Don’t act innocent, I heard it all from Koki,” Mi-chan said with another giggle.

“I swear I have no clue what Koki told you but they must be gibberish,” Kame nodded.

“I heard that you and Jin share a shower for over a month now, that’s new,” Mi-chan nudged Kame’s shoulder with her own.

“It’s normal, we are both guys, plus it helped to cut down the water bill, so why not?” Kame just shrugged, not really getting into the conversation.

“Uh huh; very natural,” Mi-chan laughed and Kame felt that laugh was creepy.

“Really Mi-chan, me and Jin? We will never happen,” Kame deadpanned.

“You can never tell, Kazu-chan,” Mi-chan said lovingly.

“One is enough,” Kame stated sadly, “one is enough.”

“You can’t just give up just after one failed relationship, Kazuya,” Mi-chan’s tone was changed to that seriousness.

“One failure is enough of a lesson to learn from,” Kame touched his forehead, rubbing the tiredness from his face.

“We are not talking business or a lesson for life here; emotion and feelings can’t be classified as business,” Mi-chan stated her point.

“I have one question for you Mi-chan,” Kame turned to the girl with a serious look, “have you ever earnestly smiled for a man after that?” he strike, knowing that it was cruel to bring it up but he just had to state his point.

“Yours and mine are two different matters, we can’t put them together as one,” Mi-chan snapped, eyes hardening at the man who brought up her past pain.

“Maybe they are, but the ones who suffered share the same betrayal and hurt; what you are feeling is what I am feeling; don’t try to force me into things,” Kame stated sternly as he stood up, “that break was a bit too long, I should heading back and you should too,” he said firmly. Mi-chan understood the subtle meaning and left the topic for another time; it was impossible to erase that scar in Kame’s heart, it was too deeply cut.

---1. Japanese slipper is a cocktail made from Midori (melon-flavored liquor), Cointreau, and lemon juice.

❈♍❈

Two Days Later

♍

Jin bustled from table to table to get all orders down on his pad; it was hard to jot everyone’s order down in these busy hours. Why must people have to come in right at 7pm? Oh wait, it was dinner time, of course there would be parties of people.

“Akanishi, table ten!” his co-worker yelled from the other side of the room. Jin nodded as he quickly moved to said table, greeting a group of teenagers with his smile.

“Good evening, ladies. What would you like for tonight?”

The group of girls turned speechless at the charming smile and some even couldn’t tear away from staring at his broad shoulder cladding in the high class butler suit. Jin looked at them expecting, yet inside he knew what had struck them. However, he decided that it was best to just being nice.

“Ah,” one of the girls spoke up finally, “I would like number sixteen,” the order was placed. Jin was more than glad to have someone speak up.

“Ok, number sixteen,” Jin repeated the order and moved his gaze to the next person.

“Twenty please,” the girl hurriedly said without looking at the menu, as if on cue, the rest started to name their orders as if wanting his gaze to land on them.

“So we have sixteen, twenty, two, twenty one, and four; is that correct?” Jin repeated the order to be sure and the rest nodded their heads in trance. He smiled and then took his leave, heaving out a relief sigh, thanks god that was fast.

“Why are there only numbers in the orders taken by you?” his manager asked when he finished punching the numbers with their respective name into the machine and had it transfer to the kitchen.

“Beat me; maybe they guess it’s better to give me number than to stumble on their words?” Jin said with his arrogant remark.

“I’m not surprised,” his manager nodded agreeing. “Anyway, how is your housemate?” the manager asked after a short pause.

“Kazuya?”

“Yea, whatever his name that had you took some days off,” the manager shrugged.

“He’s well now,” Jin replied, “but I don’t think he should be back to work yet, and alcohol is not good for his health plus he as a bartender does not look like it helping much,” Jin reasoned with his logic.

“You do care a lot about him, I see,” the manager winked.

“Just look out for him, like a housemate should,” Jin shrugged.

“Yea, I can see that,” the manager smirked, not wanting to reveal the whole intention.

“Yamaa-san! Party of thirteen for Honda-san!” one of the waiters called from the front desk, the manager nodded his head and walked up to the party to lead them to their private room. The ding sound in the kitchen had Jin’s attention back to the busy restaurant; he quickly grabbed the order and delivered it to its rightful table.

Jin’s night shift at the restaurant didn’t end until the last customer was out of the door, that was when he actually looked at the clock for time, 11:30 was what presented to him.

“This late already?” Jin murmured, groaning at the late hour, he would have to skip dinner again.

“Have you eaten yet?” Yamaa asked when he finished finalizing the day sales. Jin just shook his head, this was the result of busy hours, he would definitely forget about his break time.

“I’ll eat when I get home,” Jin replied, seeing that he had less than thirty minutes to clean up the last table before the last train.

“Let’s eat out then,” Yamaa suggested, “and I’ll drive you back,” he added, knowing that Jin would use that as an excuse. Jin gave it a thought and then nodded; it had been so long since he last hung out with his childhood friend anyway.

“Sure, but is there a place open this late?” Jin asked since he didn’t know any decent restaurant that would open by the time they finished up in here.

“I know this one café that is really good, and their food is as good as restaurant level, not some ty café food if that is what you’re thinking,” he informed the frowned man. Jin looked at the other doubtfully, not sure if it was best to take up his childhood friend’s suggestion, but it was better than none for now. He was starving.

❈

Jin didn’t know there was a café in this part of the city; of course in the middle of Tokyo there wer several restaurants open until late hours but to actually have one open this late in the suburban side of the city was rare. The decorations in the café were simple yet very artistic with the simple abstract drawings of flowers and buildings on the made-crumbled wall, giving the customers the feel of elegant yet untamed nature. They quickly placed their orders and waited for the food to come, Jin turned to Yamaa for a conversation.

“How did you find this place?” Jin asked still mesmerized by the place.

“By coincidence,” Yamaa answered, sipping a small gulp of water.

“This place is nice,” Jin commented, “I didn’t know it exists here.”

“My thought when I first entered here,” Yamaa grinned. “Wait until the best part to come,” he added, wiggling his eyes.

“I can guess why you are a regular here now,” Jin said with a chuckle, his childhood friend would never pass a chance for some cuties.

“You know me a bit too well, and that’s scary,” Yamaa smacked Jin’s arm playfully, knowing his friend had already guessed his intention.

“Anyway, how are things with your family?” Yamaa started the forbidden question, he knew it was inappropriate but that didn’t mean he had to pretend nothing went wrong.

“Same old routine,” Jin shrugged.

“You know your mom misses you right?” Yamaa looked at Jin for any emotion.

“I know,” Jin nodded, “but I’m not going back,” he deadpanned.

“Don’t be stubborn, they’re your parents after all,” Yamaa stated the obvious.

“I know but you also know what went on in that house for the past twenty years of my life,” Jin noted to Yamaa the other side of the happy family.

“You’re what they have left, after Leo decided to move to New York and cut all ties with them,” Yamaa said in his defeated tone, “I just hope you wouldn’t do the same, because looking at them now, even I feel some sympathies for them; despite what they had done in the past,” Yamaa exhaled slowly.

“Sometimes I wonder how I even survived in that cold home, maybe I had grown numb to the coldness,” Jin laughed bitterly.

“It’s called adapting,” Yamaa tried to joke and that had Jin let out a small genuine smile.

They moved their conversation onto another topic about Jin’s new life at the apartment in the unfamiliar neighborhood which had absolutely no connection with any of his friends or family. Yamaa called him daring and wild while Jin just shrugged and said it was for a new beginning. Their food came at the right time when their stomachs were grumbling with anger. They quickly shoved their meals into their mouths, too hungry to even start any small chat; they didn’t need one in this state they were in now.

The door chimed its announcement of new customers entered the place, a cheerful greeting and a happy voice lit up the quiet room. Jin noticed Yamaa had slowdown and his eyes focused to the entrance direction; his food was forgotten. He wondered what had caused the other to turn statue within seconds, he turned his head to the direction of the door.

“Eh? Akanishi-san?” Mi-chan asked chirping, didn’t expect to see the other man here. The man next to Mi-chan also turned to Jin’s direction, smile adorning the flawless face.

“Jin!” Kame called out, happily skipped towards the table with Mi-chan.

“Oh…and Mr. Stalker,” Mi-chan said wickedly, eyes narrowed at Yamaa. Jin cocked his brows at the girl then turned to Yamaa and he had understood the whole ordeal.

“What brought you here?” Kame asked, pulling a chair to sit down next to Jin; Mi-chan found her seat on Jin’s other side.

“My friend here,” he pointed towards Yamaa, “suggested we have dinner here, and I didn’t know this place has such great food in such area.”

“It’s an odd area for a café, I know,” Kame laughed, eyes moved to Yamaa and bowed lightly.

“Oh, I forgot!” Jin said slapping his forehead, “this is Yamaa Tomohisa, my childhood friend and also my manager,” he then turned to Yamaa and continued, “This is my housemate, Kamenashi Kazuya, and this is his cousin, Kudo Midori.”

The three people bowed and greeted each other after Jin’s introduction; however, Yamaa could feel the tense in Mi-chan’s glare.

“So Mr. Stalker does have a name,” Mi-chan scoffed.

“Sorry for being anonymous,” Yamaa replied with a shy smile.

“If only you open your mouth to talk, not open your eyes to stare, then I wouldn’t have named you Mr. Stalker,” Mi-chan shrugged.

“Wow, Mi-chan you do snipe!” Kame said with his wicked smile.

“You! Don’t start it,” Mi-chan warned and Jin just patted the girl.

“Anyway, so this is the housemate that got you take a few days off from work?” Yamaa pointed to Kame, knowing exactly why Jin was willing to take care of someone.

“You make it sound like I’m the cause of his deducted paycheck,” Kame said almost pouting.

“Don’t take it the negative way, I’m just trying to confirm my guess,” Yamaa assured Kame and smiled when the other man lit up a smile.

“So…” Jin started to join in after a short pause, “I take it that you come here for dinner very often?” Kame and Mi-chan nodded to the statement.

“It’s on the way home anyway,” Kame informed.

“And it’s the only edible place around here,” Mi-chan added.

“How was the club today?” Jin asked casually, putting down his spoon when he was done with his meal.

“Totally packed, thanks to Kazu’s comeback, the club has been packed for the past two days; we’ve made enough to last two years!” Mi-chan said with her happy tone.

“I see that this skeleton guy is popular,” Jin teased, poking Kame’s side.

“Really? Are you going to call me anorexic?” Kame glared playfully at Jin.

“But I do agree with him! You need some meat, I’m the one that needs to get some fat off my body,” Mi-chan said pouting.

“I don’t think you need to, you’re perfect the way you are,” Yamaa popped in. Jin, Kame and Mi-chan turned to him with surprised eyes.

“Uh…I think I need a refill,” Yamaa quickly held up his cup as a signal for a refill and then back to his unfinished food.

“Well, thank you; that was very nice of you,” Mi-chan said with a smile, turning to the waiter who came to the table to refill Yamaa’s cup, “Junno-kun~ I’m hungry~” she spoke with her cute girlish voice to the tall waiter who shook his head as a reply.

“Your food is almost done, Maru is having a headache with your odd order,” he laughed heartily.

“So this is the infamous Bakanishi?” Jin turned to the deep voice and was met with the second most girlish guy he had ever seen in his life, Kame was the first.

“Don’t call him pretty, he can punch the light out of you,” Kame whispered, knowing what was on Jin’s mind.

“Thanks,” Jin whispered back gratefully.

“It’s Ueda Tatsuya,” Ueda introduced himself, smiling at Jin.

“Nice to meet you, Ueda-san, and I see I don’t have to introduce myself here,” Jin grinned looking at Kame giggling.

“Just Tatsuya is fine, and yup you’re quite famous among us,” Ueda said, nodding his head at the counter, there were another guy poked out his head and placed the food on the delivery counter.

“Mi-chan! I hate you!” the guy shouted at the girl who just stuck out her tongue at him.

“I love you too, Maru-chan!” Mi-chan laughed heartily and couldn’t wait to have a taste on her food.

“So they are the weirdos that Mi-chan mentioned?” Jin leaned to Kame and asked, receiving light nod from the younger man.

“Don’t tell them that, or they would have a protest about how much of a not-weirdo they are,” Kame mumbled quietly, enough for the two of them to listen.

“They’re nice, quite different from Koki but still nice,” Jin whispered back, smiled genuinely.

“Thanks,” Kame said with gratitude, “you’re the first to call them nice and not weird,” he smiled.

“I don’t know who is weirder: them or my childhood friend,” Jin looked at Yamaa who now had his eyes fixated only on Mi-chan.

“He has it bad,” Kame snickered, “poor him, it will be hard to get her to look at him, unless he has money as in a fortune of money,” Kame stated the most basic.

“Really?” Jin said with surprised, “I never know Mi-chan is the hard-to-get and money lover type,” he commented.

“Nah, she is not, let just say she doesn’t trust men when it comes to romantic love; and she lives on the belief that men with no money are useless,” Kame shrugged, “complicated past we have,” Kame pointed to himself and Mi-chan.

“So you also share the same belief that moneyless women are useless?” Jin quirked his brows, interest showed on his face.

“I don’t hate women or have such theory about them; I just don’t like how plastic they are, considering my working environment I’ve seen enough of such types, asides from Mi-chan I don’t think I can trust any of women’s words. Old wound runs deep,” Kame let out a small sigh.

“You’ll get through it,” Jin ruffled the younger man’s hair, “I’m here for you if you need advise on women,” Jin proudly said as patted his chest.

“Thanks,” Kame laughed, “by the way, I think Koki has been complaining about us sharing a shower.”

“He can join us, but it would be too cram for three persons, and isn’t that he has the whole bathroom to himself in his master bedroom?” Jin wondered.

“And it’s huge,” Kame added.

“We shall invade his bathroom the next time we take shower, so he stops his complain,” Jin suggested and Kame nodded agreeing. The two were too indulged in their conversation that they missed the mischievous look Yamaa shooting at them, the three pairs of eyes observing their closeness, and of course Mi-chan’s master plan for the two of them.