Chapter Three
Yagyuu walked behind and wondered what the hell he was doing there again. He hated crowded places, so he was curious to know why he was in Shinjuku. What the hell am I doing in one of the largest entertainment, business, and shopping area… and with a woman I'd rather die than spend time with.
By now, he was carrying three of her shopping bags and he seriously wanted to sit down. They had started walking since the station and she just couldn’t stop shopping. I thought this woman couldn’t shop as she pleased…
It's as if heard his thoughts. "Are you wondering where all my money's from?"
"No."
She ignored his answer and continued walking. "My grandfather gave me a trust fund," she explained. "That's why I'm comfortable in using it because it's not my fathers, but that's all I have so I'm careful and shop only once in a blue moon."
He didn’t say anything.
turned around and stood in front of him, making him stop. "Can we go to Isetan?" she asked innocently.
Yagyuu actually paled. Isetan was every man's nightmare. "With a history of more than 100 years Isetan is a veteran among Shinjuku's department stores. The Shinjuku store is Isetan's flagship and consists of ten floors, including a food department in the basement and a restaurant floor." (1) "No," he answered.
“Please…"
"No."
grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him towards her. "You said you were going to be a gentleman about this."
"And I have not been any less," he said, showing her all the shopping bags he's been carrying. "Frankly, I just want to sit down."
"Fine."
"And you said this is a way of apologizing to me. I didn’t know that I was going to be your personal slave by carrying all your purchases," he muttered.
"Gentlemen don't nag!"
He narrowed his eyes and walked towards a restaurant. "I'm not nagging. Now get inside!" he ordered, opening the door for her. "It's lunchtime, so let's eat."
"They don't order women around either." She walked in.
He didn’t reply to her comment. He simply followed her as she took a seat by the window. One thing that did surprise him about today was the way she was dressed. It was not like her usual attire. She was dressed in a crop jeans pants that ended at her knees, a turtleneck and high heels.
They sat down. "What do you want to eat?" he asked, rubbing his eye.
looked up at him. "Why don't you go for laser eye surgery? You've been rubbing your eye constantly."
He let out a sigh. "I had been planning, but I keep postponing it. It's hard with my schedule. I'm supposed to rest for a few days and I can't do that with Sumi around."
"But Sumi's not here now," she pointed out, sipping her juice care freely.
"I live alone at the moment."
She raised an eyebrow. "Isn’t Seiichi coming back?"
Seiichi again? He thought surprised, but looked at her. "Seiichi decided to see his woman in Osaka."
"Osaka?" asked surprised. "That is an interesting piece of information." She watched him. "Well, I'm here. You can get it done and I can watch over you during the day."
"Do you realize what you're saying?" Yagyuu paused after that. Was I just being friendly with her? He thought, glancing at said female.
“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t,” replied.
Yagyuu raised an eyebrow at her. Apparently she didn’t notice the shift in their civility towards each other. It was almost frightening at how familiar they were being with each other. “Really now?”
“I don’t offer anything if I didn’t mean it.”
He looked at her with some skepticism. Before he could even think about this sudden change, a familiar head of silver hair came into view. “Masaharu?”
The silver haired person looked to the side, recognizing the two immediately. “Oi Hiroshi! What are you doing here?”
“I could be asking you the same think Masaharu,” Yagyuu replied, standing to greet the man.
stayed seated. She had a contemplative look on her face, trying to remember where she had seen this person before. When her eyes met his, a memory of a night she’d rather forget flashed through her mind. “Ah! You’re that guy that was at the party.”
Niou Masaharu put up a mock hurt expression. “You don’t remember me?”
“Well I did have other things on my mind when we met,” mumbled, eyes slightly narrowing.
“Well no worries. I knew Hiroshi here back in middle school. I scouted him for the tennis team,” Niou said with a smirk. “Anyway, enough about me. What are you two doing here? On a date?” he asked, sly look in his eyes.
“No! It’s not like that. We’re just here as—” stopped. What were they now? Friends? She mentally scoffed at that. They weren’t anywhere near as close as friends. They were more like acquaintances.
Niou’s smirk became wider. “Hmm? This is the second time I’ve seen Hiroshi with the same woman. It’s got to be serious.”
“You’re assuming too much Masaharu,” Yagyuu said, rubbing his eyes again. His right eye was really starting to bother him now. No matter how much he rubbed his eye, the irritation would not go away.
, noticing that Yagyuu looked about ready to take his eye out of its socket, slapped his hand away. “You’ll put a tear in your cornea if you keep rubbing it like that,” she reprimanded. She moved aside his hair that was in the way, cupping his face.
Yagyuu grasped her wrist in surprise. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you with your problem. Now hold still,” replied without thinking. She was so used to doing this with the kids at the kindergarten that she didn’t even realize that the person in front of her was a full-grown man. She moved in closer to his face, examining his irritated eye. “I’m going to blow, okay?” After that warning, she gently blew into his right eye.
Yagyuu blinked at the impact. He continued to blink when his eye started to water from the onslaught of air. As the seconds continued on, he could actually feel the irritation fading at the treatment.
stopped blowing into his eye after about a minute and just watched him as he blinked his eyes. As his rapid blinking started to slow down, she stared into his eyes. Although this wasn’t the first time she had seen him without his glasses, it was the first time she actually saw his eyes. She couldn’t help but admire the smoke grey color of them. So entranced by them that she didn’t realize she was actually moving in closer to him.
“Are you sure you two aren’t serious?”
jerked away from Yagyuu. She looked over to Niou who had the biggest Cheshire cat grin she had ever seen. She mentally kicked herself at forgetting that he was there. Although she barely knew the guy, she had the strongest feeling that he was some sort of troublemaker.
Yagyuu wiped at the excess water that formed at his eye. “Masaharu, don’t jump to conclusions.”
Niou shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever you say Hiroshi. So do you two have any plans that you don’t want me to be a part of?”
“Why do keeping assuming that we’re on some kind of date?” questioned, exasperated.
“Because neither of you has done anything to contradict what you’ve been doing for the past minute,” Niou observed, eyebrow rising in amusement. “And both of you sitting in this restaurant together doesn’t help either.”
“Enough Masaharu. We’re not here on a date and that is final,” Yagyuu stated firmly, glaring at the silver haired man.
At his old doubles partner’s tone, Niou knew when to drop it for the moment. He held his hands up in a surrender gesture. A second later he dropped them, slipping his hands in his pockets. “But seriously, do you two have any other plans?”
“Why?” inquired curiously.
“I have reservations at this restaurant tonight that has bands performing live. The people that I was going to go to it with bailed out on me at the last minute,” Niou explained.
“Why don’t you just cancel the reservations?” asked.
“Because the group that’s playing tonight is a jazz band that I’ve wanted to hear for a while now,” Niou elaborated.
“And you’re asking us to go with you?” Yagyuu asked with a questioning look. For some reason, he felt that there was more to it than what Niou was saying. “Somehow I feel that there’s some hidden agenda that you have in stored.”
“Come on Hiroshi! This is me that you’re talking about,” Niou said, tone defensive.
“Exactly.”
watched the exchange between the two. She wondered if there was something that she was missing out on. In a second, she turned to Yagyuu. "So do you want to indulge him and stay?'
“No."
Niou looked hurt.
"I like jazz, come on." whined. "You know I can't stay if you don't stay! I don’t know this man!"
Niou grinned. "You can get to know me."
ignored him. "Plus, we're all the way in Shinjuku. You know I can't go back late at night by myself."
Yagyuu eyed her. "Tell me why do I have to spend the whole day with you?"
"Because you owe me, damnit!" she hissed.
"I owe you?!" he asked incredulously. "Since when did this situation turn around on me?"
Niou watched in amazement as the two bickered. "Seriously, are you two dating?"
"Shut up," they both snapped.
Niou actually wanted to take cover.
“I don’t see any harm in going,” reasoned. “We’re just going out to eat like we were about to do here.”
“I still don’t see why we should go. Isn’t it kind of sudden to do this?” Yagyuu bargained, trying to weasel his way out of this.
“Oh quit being a hermit! Life would be too boring if you didn’t make sudden decisions,” said. She glanced at him and decided to go in for the kill. “Besides, what happened to all that talk yesterday about being a gentleman? I’m sure as a gentleman, you wouldn’t want me to go home all by myself so late at night where anything could happen to me.” She did a mental victory dance when she saw the brown haired man’s conviction crumble away.
Yagyuu sighed in defeat. He knew that his gentleman nature would come back and bite him one day. "Fine, but just this once. I am not doing this again," he muttered. "I don’t even have a suit on me."
"I have an apartment here," Niou offered. "You guys can change there and I can lend you a suit. I'm sure -sama has a new dress and pair of shoes in all her purchases that she can wear," he said dryly, eyeing her shopping bags.
"That's fine by me," nodded. She stood up, picking up her cell phone. "I am going to take this opportunity and get my hair done at Isetan then." She waved before Yagyuu could say something. "You have my number, so wait for me." With that she was off.
Both males looked after her until she was out of sight. Niou plopped down onto the now vacated seat. “You know, after that display, you’re making me wonder why you’re lying to me.”
Yagyuu rubbed his aching temple. "I hate that woman, Masaharu. She hates me too as well."
Niou blinked. "Then why…"
"Don't ask," he interrupted.
Niou still wondered, but he didn’t ask. He knew Yagyuu very well and he knew Yagyuu has a devil side of him if he was pushed. The two men sat in silence while Niou smoked away until her highness returned.
~~~
was on the couch reading a book. She knew if Yagyuu hadn’t agreed to go with her, then she would’ve just returned back with him. However, she wasn’t sure what she got herself into. She was at Niou's apartment, sitting on the sofa and reading a book she had purchased.
Yagyuu was asleep on the sofa next to where she was reading while Niou left to take care of some things. It seemed that she tired him out from dragging him all over place. The second he lied down on the sofa, he was out like a light.
She glanced at the man that had accompanied her all day. She had to admit that she felt the slightest pang of guilt for dragging him shop to shop and making him carry all her bags. Although they fought every once in a while, it was all in fun. At least she thought so.
went back to her book. Or at least tried to. Her mind seemed to drift back to the little incident that had happened between them earlier. His eyes caught her attention. There was just something about them that drew her in. Placing her book down, she looked at him again. The urge to see them one more time started to overwhelm her.
Standing from her seat, went over to his side, crouching down to his level. She stared at his sleeping face, noticing for the first time how peaceful and relaxed he looked compared to when he was awake. She slowly raised her hand, gently brushing his hair aside that obscured the eyes that she wanted to see again. However, it wouldn’t have helped anyway since lids that denied granting her sudden desire covered them.
“I’m back.”
jerked away, standing quickly as Niou came to view. He gave her a questioning glance before shaking his head. “I’m not even going to ask anymore.”
“S-so, did you finish what you needed to do?” asked, shuffling away from the sleeping man.
“Yeah. We should get ready to go. Don’t want our seats to be given to someone else if we don’t show up,” Niou suggested, making his way over to Yagyuu. “Oy Hiroshi! Get up. Need to get ready to go.”
He blinked his eyes and let out a sigh. He moved tiredly to his side and shook his head. "I need to shower."
"You can use the bathroom in the guest room," Niou said. "There's a suit for you on the bed."
He muttered something and went to the bathroom. Yagyuu took off his clothes and hit the shower. He was so tired that he seriously needed to feel fresh again. He allowed the warm water to attack him unmercifully until he decided that he had had enough.
He used the towel and then wrapped it around his waist, while he took another and placed it around his shoulders. He walked out and stopped for a second when he saw her sitting in front of the mirror applying mirror. Under normal circumstances, a half naked man should scare a woman, he thought, but didn’t seem to even care.
He just grabbed the suit and went back to the bathroom, putting them on. After walking out, he found her still there. "What are you doing?"
"Looking sexy," she answered automatically, applying lipstick that she had purchased as well.
"You are as vain as Masaharu."
She turned the lipstick away and closed the lid. "I have every right to be," she said, standing up. "Check out these curves," she said posing for him in her spaghetti strap blue dress that certainly hugged her curves. The bodice for the dress was made of satin material that had touches of bead and embroidery work. The satin material ended at her hips where chiffon-like material began, done in light layers with the back slightly longer than the front, showing her legs from the knees down.
Yagyuu swore softly. "Masaharu, did you spike her tea?" he shouted, making glare.
let out a sigh and walked towards him. "You're no fun at all," she muttered, standing in front of him. She moved her hand to his collar and began fixing his tie for him.
"I can do that, you know."
"Just shut up. I hate waiting, so this is something for me to do." began fitting his tie for him. As she worked, she saw Niou walk in.
Niou paused. "Are you sure you're not…"
"Yes, we’re sure!" they both interrupted at the same time.
Niou backed out again. “Might want to hurry it up. We got to get going before the reservations are given away.”
finished straightening his tie and stepped away from him. Nodding in satisfaction, she went to get the heels she bought to match her dress and her small handbag. “All right let’s go.”
Yagyuu just nodded in agreement. He let exit the room first, following right after her. They made their way to the living room where Niou was waiting for them.
Niou whistled. “If you’re certain that you’re not together then how about going out with me?”
“How about not?” replied flatly. She didn’t even bat an eye at the mock hurt expression on his face. “Are we heading out or what?”
“Right. Let’s go then,” Niou declared, grabbing his keys.
It wasn’t long before they pulled up to the same restaurant they were at earlier. They were promptly seated near the stage that wasn’t there in the afternoon where the band would be playing. Minutes later a waiter came by and took their orders before heading to the back area.
As they waited, took the time to appreciate the décor of the place. She was in awe at how different it looked during the evening. As her eyes glanced over the place, movement by the stage caught her attention. She let out a gasp when she recognized one of the persons there. “What a two timer!” She hissed out angrily.
Niou and Yagyuu turned to her in confusion. They followed her line of sight, trying to see who was the victim of the glare she was sporting. They recognized the person almost immediately.
“Jackal?!”
The person was glaring at turned around at the exclamation of the name to reveal that he was indeed the half Brazilian that the two men went to school with. He excused himself from who he was talking to and made his way to the trio’s table. “Niou, Yagyuu! It’s been a while!” He greeted the two men, surprise in his voice. He turned to the third member of the table and flinched.
“You two timer!” accused with a pointed glare, standing up to face him.
“!” Jackal took a step back at her fierce glare. He racked his brain to figure why she was giving him a glare. What she said finally clicked. “It’s not what you think!”
“Oh really? Please explain yourself then!” she demanded, crossing her arms.
“I’m the manager for the jazz band that’s playing tonight. He was one of the band members,” Jackal explained quickly, his hands up in a defensive manner. “You know I would never do that to him.”
“That’s right you wouldn’t or else you would have to deal with me,” said with an evil smirk.
Niou looked from one person to the other. His eyes then settled to Yagyuu, who didn’t look like he really cared, so he decided to ask the main question. “You two know each other?”
That question brought and Jackal’s attention to the two ignored men who had been sitting there watching the exchange the whole time. Both of them were giving the pair looks of confusion, more so Niou than Yagyuu.
“I only know him because he’s going out with ,” replied nonchalantly.
“Eh?!”
Jackal just scratched his head, a sheepish grin on his face.
“Jackal, I didn’t know you swung that way,” Niou said, a bit of surprise in his voice. A second later his expression changed to his usual smirk. “Well whatever. As long as you’re happy.”
Yagyuu just nodded in agreement.
Jackal’s nervousness morphed into one of relief at his old teammates’ acceptance. “Thanks guys.”
“And how do you guys know each other?” questioned, looking at the trio of men before her.
“We went to middle school together,” Jackal answered.
“Let me guess. You were on the tennis team too?” When she received a nod in confirmation from the half Brazilian, she let out a sigh.
Jackal looked at her and then at the two men. "Who's yours?" he asked .
"Neither," replied, sitting down. She crossed her legs, picking up her wine glass and sipped it.
"Then how?"
"It's a long and boring story." smiled, winking at him. "Now shut up and sit with us before I tell that I saw you with another man."
Jackal laughed.
Niou watched his old teammate. "You're the manager of this band? Damnit, if I had known sooner then I wouldn't have had to run around the place to get a reservation. I had to book it months ago."
Jackal smiled and pulled a card from his jacket. "I would never say no to an old friend,” he said, handing Niou his card.
Niou flipped the card and read it. "Interesting."
Jackal folded his hands and turned to Yagyuu. "And how have you been?" he asked, noticing that the serious one in the group looked tired.
"Tired," he answered, acknowledging his assumptions.
Before Jackal could say anything to that, intervened. "I'm afraid I'm to blame. I've been dragging him around all day." She stole a glance at Yagyuu, who was just nibbling on bread sticks.
They remained quiet for a while until finally their food arrived. broke the silence again. "What type of jazz is this?" she asked, realizing that she wasn't very familiar with the music.
"It's Latin-jazz," Jackal answered. "Latin-jazz has two varieties: Afro-Cuban and Brazilian.(2) "
"And this is?"
"This is Brazilian," Niou answered, taking a spoonful of his rice. He took a swig of his wine and poured another glass for himself. He looked up, feeling sets of eyes staring at him. “What?”
“How’d you know that?” questioned, eyebrow raised.
“I like jazz,” Niou replied with a shrug. “Wouldn’t it be logical for someone who likes jazz to know all styles of it?”
“I didn’t know you liked jazz that much Masaharu,” Jackal mused. “Then again, it’s been a while since we’ve been together like this.”
The four spent more time together, casual chatting filled their seats. glanced several times at Yagyuu and noticed that he really was anti-social at the moment. He was quiet, just listening to the band and hardly contributed to the conversation going on. She actually felt a bit guilty making him spend the evening with them. He was sitting on his chair, with his head to the side, watching the band quietly while his arms were crossed.
As more time passed by, was beginning to feel woozy. Her eyes were starting to get blurry a bit and she somehow blamed it on the four empty wine glasses in front of her. Uh-oh…she thought, shaking her head. She felt an arm around her and she looked to see that it was Niou.
“I think…" Niou chuckled. "I think that you're as drunk as me."
giggled mischievously.
"Damnit," Jackal muttered. " can't handle more than a few glasses."
"You think Masaharu can?" Yagyuu mumbled, knowing that Niou had been like that since earlier ages. He saw that Niou still hadn’t taken his arms off . He was whispering something in her ears, or wait… is he nibbling on her ear? He thought. He swore softly and stood up. "Up!"
They both looked at him confused.
"It's clear that you're both very drunk. Let's leave before you two make fools of yourselves."
pouted. "I want to stay."
"Me too." Niou looked at him with misty eyes.
Yagyuu let out a sigh. "Come on."
They both pouted, but stood up. Yagyuu took out his wallet, but Jackal stopped him. "This is my treat, Hiroshi.'"
"But…"
"You get those two out," he said, pointing at the two that were so engrossed in each other's company. was standing in front of Niou with her hands on his chest as he whispered things in her ears.
Yagyuu rolled his eyes at the scene the two were causing. He turned back to the half Brazilian and gave him a nod in appreciation. “Take care of yourself.”
“You too. Let’s meet up again some time,” Jackal suggested with a smile. He gave a small wave as Yagyuu directed his two companions towards the exit.
~~~
By the time Yagyuu dragged the two out, he knew he was screwed and wouldn’t be in the warmth of his bed tonight. They were both so drunk that he knew he couldn’t leave either of them alone tonight. So he hauled the both of them back to Niou's apartment. He dragged Niou to his bedroom, throwing him on the bed and then dragged to the guest room who didn’t protest.
He went to the bathroom to wash his face, after making sure that they had both calmed down. He took off his jacket, followed by his tie, and then unbuttoned his shirt. He went to get an extra shirt from Niou, but froze by the door. He found and Niou in a tight embrace, kissing furiously on his bed.
He swore softly again and walked towards them. "Are you two idiots?!" he snapped, separating them. "Do you want to do something stupid?" he asked, pushing Niou to one side and then moving to the other. "You're both too drunk."
fell against Yagyuu's back and hugged him. "You shouldn't have let me drink," she whined.
"I'm not your babysitter."
laid her head on his back and hugged him tighter. "But is not here," she said softly.
Yagyuu moved her hands away and turned around. He lifted her up with one quick move and took her to the bathroom. "What are you doing?" she asked, looking at him as he placed her in the bathtub.
"You're going to regret what you did tonight even more if I don't do this," he said simply, turning the shower on.
~~~
"Achoo…"
"Did you catch a cold?" asked, noticing that hadn’t stopped sneezing for a while now.
rubbed her nose and sniffled. She held the phone closer to her ears and tried to pull a few tissues out with her other hand. "I'm fine," she said softly, talking to her friend.
It was two days later and was in her apartment. The minute she had woken up the day after the dinner, she had been dragged back to Shibuya. She couldn’t remember anything, but she vividly remembered when Yagyuu had dropped her into the bathtub and turned the cold shower on her.
And she remembered it even more when she woke up with a bad cold the next day. Now she was currently stuck in bed, wrapped up in blankets and talking to her European friend. She didn’t know which was worse: being stuck in bed with a cold or being healthy with nothing to do.
“You don’t seem fine to me when you’re voice sounds nasally and have been sneezing almost the whole time you’ve talked with me,” pointed out.
“Shut up,” said, annoyance in her tone. “By the way, I met Jackal the other night.”
“Jackal?” seemed to perk up at the name of his boyfriend.
“Yeah. You never told me he was the manager of a jazz band,” accused. “Anyway, I went to the restaurant that his band was playing at. They’re very good.”
“How’d you manage to get a seat at that restaurant?” asked, curiosity itching at him.
“Well, we met—”
“Wait. Who is ‘we’?” interrupted, wondering who could have been out with.
“Yagyuu and me,” answered simply, not really thinking about her answer.
“Yagyuu? As in Yagyuu Hiroshi? Sumi-chan’s father?” questioned in disbelief. He hoped that his hearing hadn’t gone bad during the few days he had been in Europe.
“Yeah. So?”
“So?! I thought Yagyuu Hiroshi was the man that you absolutely did not like. What were you doing together?” inquired, mischief evident in his voice.
sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“Well then you better start narrating,” urged. He definitely wanted to hear this story.
released another sigh. The next hour was spent telling the kindergarten teacher what had happened the past few days, leaving out the minor details.
"And?"
"And what? That's it!" snapped. "Don't assume anything or saying something stupid. I do not like that man. I even like him less after…" she stopped.
"After?"
swore softly. "Forget it," she muttered.
"-chan."
She sneezed and blew her nose. "Seriously , drop it."
He let out sigh, understanding her tone and dropped it. He talked to her for awhile and updated her on his doings and finally hung up.
threw the phone aside and fell on her bed. She closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep, for her head was pounding. She almost fell asleep when her phone rang after some time of quiet. She groaned and picked it up. "Hello…" she said groggily.
"When I first started dating , he warned me that he comes with a certain woman calls ."
didn’t say anything when she heard Jackal's voice.
"He told me to call you and make sure you're still sane."
"He loves me," she mumbled.
Jackal laughed. "He loves me more."
mumbled something under her breath.
"Will you allow me to treat my man's woman to dinner?"
sneezed. "Why are you talking like that? You sound like some freaking straight man," she said. "I'm too tired to move. It's all your friend's fault. If I had the energy I would kill him first."
"Friend? Did Niou do something to you?"
slapped her pillow. "Noo…" she groaned. "It's that