Chapter Text
“Mom!” Nino whined.
“What? I already like him better than you,” his mom chuckled. “He deserves a cake more than you who spent most of your time sleeping anyway.”
Sho laughed as he bit down into his cake inhumanely slow, just to piss off Nino. “I see that you have your snarky side from your mom.”
“I’m your son!”
“He’s also my future son,” Kazuko refuted, “And also I already done much more for you with how much the hospital charged me.”
“It’s my money, you just help me pay it.”
“Same difference.”
“Aiba! A little help here?” Nino asked pitifully like he might die if he didn’t get a bite of that damn cake. Aiba had to remind himself that Nino was a professional actor.
“Sorry dude, you still can’t eat a cake no matter how much you throw a tantrum. Doctor’s order.”
Nino threw him a nasty look that Aiba could only answer with a shrug while Sho laughed. It was Hazuki daughter’s birthday cake. They were bummed that their uncle couldn’t make it to the party and requested for her grandmother to give him a slice of the diabetic sugary cheesecake. She didn’t even have to tell Nino the existence of the cake, yet she chose to give it to Sho in front of his eyes just to spite him. But Aiba knew better, she said once that she liked seeing her son getting lively again. She just wanted to bring that reaction out of him.
“Thanks for the cake, mom—”
“Don’t call her that! She is my mom!”
“—but I have to go to work before Jun has my head,” Sho said as he stood up from where he was perched on the foot of Nino’s bed.
He made a beeline for Nino and then give him a kiss to his temple. “See you soon, Nino.”
Aiba still found it amusing every time Nino lost his ability to speak at that and started to blush and fidget before whispering, “See you soon, Sho.”
It had been 2 and a half weeks after Nino started to get hospitalized. Jun was already going to his work more responsibly again, he never been late—Sho’s words—but he still found time to visit and annoy Nino now and then. Aiba was as carefree as a manager whose talent is in hospital, so he spent almost all of his time keeping Nino’s company. They usually just chat or play simple games when Nino didn’t feel like getting emotional. They were still working on lessening Nino’s self-sacrificing tendency, but hey, after some lessons, Nino finally could say that he wouldn’t jump in front of a moving train to save a kitten and he didn’t joke about it. Baby steps.
Kazuko, Nino’s mother, would visit whenever she had the chance. She showered Nino with love and compliment that sometimes couldn’t be differentiated from a straight insult, but Nino got what his mother was trying to say, so it was mostly fine. Maybe the poorness of dealing with emotions just ran in the family. But just like Nino, Kazuko also made some improvements after Aiba practically begged her. She even told Nino a complete sentence of love declaration that didn’t include a snarky remark once. Aiba couldn’t be more proud when he saw Nino teared up.
Other family members started to show up too, now every time Hazuki visited, she brought her husband and daughter. It was chaotic whenever Nino’s niece was around. She once jumped on Nino and almost opening up the stitch holding Nino’s stomach together. She did apologize afterwards while Nino tried hard not just curled up in pain after that. Kazuko had laughed while Hazuki scolded her daughter. Aiba wanted to give her a lesson on how bad it is to laugh at your child’s pain, but he couldn’t bring himself to since he was also laughing.
Daigo cried like a baby the first time he was allowed to visit. She just took like two steps inside, saw Nino smiling at him, then just crumpled to the ground like a paper, sobbing and heaving. Just like that, he spent most of his visit time just crying before it was over. The second time he came, he came prepared. He brought flowers and even made a note of what he should talk with Nino. He was doing great in the first half of the conversation, before he broke down crying again. Nino just laughed while rubbing his back, telling him to calm down and that he was fine.
Ohno also came. At first, he brought ramen for Nino. After knowing that the guy couldn’t eat, he just eat it for him. It was funny seeing Nino getting heartbroken every time Ohno took a bite. After that, he’d just come to chill around, watch some movies, and sometimes he even taught Nino how to draw. They used hospital crayons because Nino was banned from any other thing that might lead him to work, so the result only slightly differ from what a 6 years old would make. Ohno couldn’t accept that result, he said he’d bring his painting tools to the hospital this week. Aiba didn’t even know how he would pass the guard with that much baggage.
Nino received a lot of things from a lot of people. He said, “I’d get stabbed any time if it means I get a lot of presents” which was the reason Aiba smacked his head into sense. But even with how many get well soon gifts he received, he had his special pile of gifts in the corner of the room, reserved for anything Sho brought with him whenever he visited.
After the confession Sho made, it took Nino another restless sleep and a full 3 hours to fully registered what was reality. Aiba had never seen him so embarrassed his whole life. He mumbled how he wanted to die over and over like a mantra that it started to sound real. Aiba had to monitor him for a whole day to make sure that he didn’t undo the doctor’s hard work. When he got past the embarrassment, he went into a denial phase that lasted far longer than the embarrassment phase. Aiba had to actively remind Nino that “this isn’t a simulation, taking out those tubes and choosing death wouldn’t get you to the real world.” It was exhausting. It continued until Sho came again. Aiba didn’t know what exactly happened because he left them alone, but the next thing he knew, they were pretty much official. Aiba asked Nino several times about it, but every time he did, Nino shied down and stopped functioning. Once, he fake fainted to get away from the question altogether. Privilege of being half dead.
After that, the lovebirds were so disgustingly domestic all the time that Aiba had to physically restrain Jun from flunking Sho out of the window. But it was good seeing them happy. Nino started to regain his weight after the doctor let him eat some tasteless mush and his face started to look more like his usual paleness than the sickly paleness. He stayed awake for longer and complained a whole lot more which was a good sign.
Twitter was still chaotic and news outlets were not able to get the scoop that they wanted. The only source of substantial information they got was the press conference Aiba held a week back. He just stated that Nino will probably be fine and Sho didn’t know anything and not to be questioned. He didn’t disclose more on the actual medical situation.
Suzuki’s first trial was going to be held this week and Aiba was dead set on bringing the man down.
A sound of door opening woke Aiba from his thoughts. He thought Sho had forgotten something, but it was Dr. Austen. Aiba loved the doctor, but every time he saw her he couldn’t help but think of the worst.
“Hey, you guys,” Austen greeted, “I’m here for the daily check up.”
Nino groaned. “If this one doesn’t result in you allowing me to eat, I don’t want it.”
Austen gave Kazuko a look. Kazuko just waved it and said, “Don’t worry about him, his attitude is just his defense mechanism toward a near death situation.”
Austen barked a very polite laugh as she studied the monitor attached to Nino. “I’m not worried. I just find it surprising in a good way that your son is very... active. Definitely not how I imagine him from his image on television.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m a 5 years old.”
“If you think this is active, you should see him when he’s drunk,” Aiba joined the conversation.
Austen checked Nino’s pulse and temperature before she hummed in satisfaction to herself. “Good, you’re doing great,” she said with a smile, “Do you still have trouble breathing?”
Aiba gave Nino a pointed look, this time Nino didn’t avoid it. “Yes, sometimes at night, it isn’t as bad though,” Nino said without wavering. It made Aiba so proud that he finally became comfortable enough to be truthful of what he felt without joking or being sarcastic about it.
Austen nodded. “Noted. Also, I have a great news for you!” She said, “you can eat actual food now—not tough things! Soft foods are fine, tell me immediately if it hurts.”
Nino looked close to tears.
Kazuko patted her son’s back gently. “Sorry, Nino. In my defense, I didn’t know that when I give the cake to Sho.”
Nino ignored her. “Can I eat rice now?”
Austen laughed. “That’s what you want to eat? Of course, just be sure that it’s soft enough.”
Nino turned to his mother. The latter sighed. “Okay, I’ll go get some for you.”
Kazuko left the room after Nino dramatically told her how he loved her again and again. Dr. Austen also excused herself after warning Nino for one last time that if he wasn’t sure if he could eat something he should ask the nurse. Nino replied with a very annoying, “yes, mom.”
Once there were only Nino and Aiba left in the room, Aiba gave Nino a knowing look.
“What?” Nino asked, “Spit it out.”
Aiba smiled widely. “I think you’re ready.”
“For what?” Nino sounded afraid.
“You know what.”
“No, I don’t?”
Aiba rummaged through his bag then he pulled out something. Nino’s eyes glinted when Aiba offered it to him.
“Fuck yes.”
♪♪♪
Nino ☑️
@NinomiyaKazu
Morning y’all
22.4K Retweets | 18.1K Quote Tweets | 108K Likes
>> check my bio @riawantsnino
Morning? *Morning?* That’s all you have to
say after disappearing for almost 3 weeks??
>> They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
Morning, nino, now can you tell us WHAT
THE FUCK HAPPENED
>> They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
If you refuse to give us an explanation
then @king_aiba tell us what happened
>> This is Aiba ☑️ @king_aiba
I gave him his phone back
1,321 Retweets | 546 Quote Tweets | 10.1K Likes
>> Sakurai Sho ☑️ @sakuraisho
Welcome back🥰
>> Nino ☑️ @NinomiyaKazu
I’m back❤️
6,547 Retweets | 4,222 Quote Tweets | 14.2K Likes
SHO LIKED MY TWEET
@neensama34
Nino IS FINALLY BACK ON TWITTER🙌🧎
Does he give us an explanation? No
Does he tweet anything worthwhile? No
But he does replied to sho with a FUCKING HEART EMOJI😩😩 I think theyre official guys, it could be a friendly heart emoji but
Do I care? No, I do not
twitter.com/NinomiyaKazu/sta...
10.4K Retweets | 3,492 Quote Tweets | 22.3K Likes
>> Poseidon hates me @ladysakurai
There’s no such thing as a friendly heart
Emoji🤷 if my knowledge as sho’s lifelong
fan is right, i think that’s very
characteristically of him to realize a crush
after a life or death situation
>> I have a job @linithuan
Ah, classic sho
>> Pop Pop 🐍 @vipoppers67
I love how Nino went from “👺🔪😡don’t
fucking talk to me👊👹🖕” to “😍💫💓
Sakurai Sho👨❤️💋👨💐🦋”
9,540 Retweets | 4,551 Quote Tweets | 10.2K Likes
>> They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
I think this is the right time to bring this back
This is a thread i made about nino’s last LNS
episode, it was drowned in the news of you-
know-what, but i think now is fine to gush
about how cute theyre again! 💖
twitter.com/SNmagnet/sta...
They pulled me ❤ ️💛
@SNmagnet
You guys already know about my lip reading friend, and i joke you not, she found something BIG on today’s LNS live
I know nino declared there’s nothing between them but can you still THINK THAT AFTER READING THIS??🌡️🥵🔫 (cont)
[Photo of Nino and Sho smiling at each other from the first interview]
>> They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
First, Nino was Late with capital L, he really
takes the title of the show seriously. Being
nervous is so not him but I won’t put it past
him when he’s about to share a stage with
sho freaking sakurai after a love rumor👀
[LNS turning into commercials.mp4]
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
NOW THIS IS THE ✨TEA✨ during the
commercials, sho said something unclear to
the audience and looked panicked. I have it
on tape (i have my ways)
[Blurry pacing Sho on stage.mp4]
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
I sent it to the friend and guess what she said
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
[Screenshot of a bubble chat saying “I’m
pretty sure he’s saying something about a
kiss and someone being a bad kisser”
followed with “Could be wrong tho, the angle
of the camera is not the best and it’s blurry
as hell”]
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
I-I can’t even- if this is true i bet that sho is
the bad kisser because nino kisses for job, he
ought to be good in it but also HOLY SHIT
DID THEY KISS?????!!!!!!!!
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
That’s it, if this is my last breath, i just want
to say that it’s been an honor knowing them
and all of you who shipped them too
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
BUT BEFORE THAT, i need to make a
separate tweet appreciating how fucking
HOT nino looked tonight🔥🔥just see how
sho was barely functioning when Nino
opened his jacket, i mean, i was too
[NINO OPENING SUIT JACKETTSS.gif]
|
They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
❗UPDATES❗
Just saw the news, now some things from
this LNS ep makes much more sense.
Praying for Nino’s safety
>> IS GLAD Nino came back @sakuraisho1999
WHY OH WHY JUST NOW THAT THIS THREAD
IS BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION???? Twitter
algorithm sucks
>> Sho’s personal whore @LNSbitch
Are you a bad kisser? @sakuraisho
>> I have a job @linithuan
Clarify @sakuraisho
>> check my bio @riawantsnino
How dare you kiss nino badly???
@sakuraisho
>> SHO LIKED MY TWEET @neensama34
You don’t understand how *gorgeous* he is
in that ep, i have filled like a whole 40 GB of
my storage to fit all the screenshots and
videos from that one specific episode🤡
i have no regret
Sakurai Sho☑️
@sakuraisho
I’m not a bad kisser...
8,420 Retweets | 5,497 Quote Tweets | 51.6K Likes
♪♪♪
“Don’t, don’t whine to me, don’t talk to me—in fact, don’t even think of breathing in the same space with me right now,” Jun said as he continued walking, “You kind of brought this upon yourself.”
Sho tried to argue with that, but found that he really didn’t have anything backing him up. He did talk about that kiss during commercial and yes, yes he did make a response tweet about that when he could just not, but were all of them Sho’s fault? Yes they were actually. Sho chose to maintain his most pitiful expression in hope that it would crumble Jun’s resolution and make him do his damage control magic.
Jun rolled his eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. It isn’t me who made every existing tabloids talk about love rumor again in a span of 5 minutes after Nino went back to Twitter.” If Jun wore a high heels, he would be making a very mean clacking noises right then. “Also, this scale of things is not something even I can handle. Just wait it out and pray your boyfriend won’t make it worse.”
Sho still shivered whenever Jun called Nino his boyfriend. Then he shivered because of something else entirely.
“Oh no.”
♪♪♪
Nino ☑️
@NinomiyaKazu
I can vouch for this
twitter.com/sakuraisho/sta...
9.7K Retweets | 20.1K Quote Tweets | 76K Likes
>> IS GLAD Nino came back @sakuraisho1999
Is this a sign that we’re going to get a
confirmation of their relationship soon?????
🥺🙏🏻@JEnt @king_aiba
3K Retweets | 1.2K Quote Tweets | 18K Likes
>> This is Aiba ☑️ @king_aiba
Will you guys have mercy on me and let
this one pass? Just blame it on whatever
the doctor gave him and I’ll quietly take
his phone back, okay?
>> check my bio @riawantsnino
DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE
♪♪♪
Nothing was really resolved at the end. No one actually knew if Sho and Nino were actually a thing, hell, no one actually knew if Nino was still alive and kicking and it was all not just a meticulously planned internet stunt made by his agency to make sure that the news that he’s dead will be as dramatic as possible. But people would take what they could get. It was a source of entertainment not just for the fans, but also general public. It became a running joke on internet to the point that LNS’ guests started to refer on it. If Sho was done with the joke, he didn’t show it. Instead, he got unbelievably awkward every time the ship was brought up. Which could be a good and bad sign depend on how you see it.
The court was put on hold because Nino, the main victim, was still recovering. But even without much progress, the court had deemed Suzuki to not be insane as per experts’ tests, which led to his lawyer pressuring him to plead guilty. So, yeah, it was a short fight and kind of unsatisfactory. Mostly for Aiba. He was really prepared to go to hell and back to give the man the punishment he deserved only to be told that he didn’t have to try. A lot of that pent up resentment was shifted to Twitter. Aiba started to tweet more, whether it was about the accident or not, and people were eating his content up.
Nino made an accusation tweet of him trying to go independent and make a name for himself to which Aiba answered with “go ahead and find a new manager that can put up with your shit then.”
He got thousands of followers overnight.
Jun was still sleep deprived. His notoriety went up as the ship sailed uncontrollably, but unlike Aiba, he didn’t relent under peer pressure and still kept all of his social media accounts private. He was always on Sho’s, Aiba’s, and Nino’s though so, really, he didn’t have the luxury of privacy. But he changed a bit. He started to take more vacation and leave work on time. He had visited hospital one too many time that he started to make sure that he wouldn’t end up in one. In a way, Jun was thankful that Nino went ahead and get hospitalized before him.
The news outlets were saying that Nino had been discharged for quite a while now, but he had been laying low. The public knew that he must be somewhere doing shoots that were interrupted for the new CM he supposed to do, because he’d choose money over rest anytime. All he did was shit tweeting on Twitter with no real information in it or replying to Sho’s and Aiba’s tweets and people understood. They had anticipated that Nino wouldn’t show his face again for sometime after such an incident.
But then they were proven wrong. The first time he appeared again was surprising. Not only because of the timing, but also because where and how he appeared. Not on television or radio or the agency’s website, but on a TikTok video, with a very oblivious foreigner.
♪♪♪
Blake was a trying influencer. He wasn’t the most famous, but he felt like he was doing pretty good for himself. His contents were ranging from boring random facts with satisfying videos behind it to a political ted talk with a member of congress. Most of his contents were made on a whim, but one theme was a recurring in his social media. A video where he find talents. It was only a coincidence that he was on a vacation to Japan and he wanted to put his Japanese skill into test. What’s the better way than making a content out of that? That’s killing two birds with one stone.
So he went around Tokyo and asking people about their talents. What he didn’t take into account was how shy Japanese people are. He was about to give up when he finally met someone who was willing to be featured in his content. How the man was fluent in English was just an added bonus. So really, he didn’t think much about it. He went back to his hotel, edited the footage, uploaded it, and left it to sleep. Usual business.
He didn’t expect he’d pull a Justin Bieber and became an internet sensation overnight.
When he woke up the next day, his innocent TikTok video had blew up. There were too many comments that it was physically impossible for him to read them one by one, but a name was a recurring in every comments.
Ninomiya Kazunari.
♪♪♪
The video started shakily containing short clips of Blake going around asking people only to be rejected. Most of their faces were blurred. Until finally he approached two men with masks walking side by side. One of them had their face blurred too.
“Excuse me, do you have a talent?”
The man stopped on his track and looked at Blake who’s behind the camera weirdly. “I hope so, yeah?”
“Do you mind performing your talent for the camera?”
The man frowned a little before he opened his mask and half whispered, “What is this for?”
“It’s fro—I mean, for TikTok,” Blake said after stumbling over his words a little.
“For... TikTok?” The man smirked while his companion laughed beside him, it was a very familiar sound, clearly there was something Blake didn’t know. Suddenly the man switched his language to English. “By the way, English is fine.”
“Cool!” Blake said, “So, what do you say?”
The man shrugged before breaking down to chuckles. “I mean, sure, why not?”
Blake made a happy noise. “By the way, you’re quite good looking.”
The man looked dumbfounded before he smiled. “Thank you, it’s a part of my talent.”
The video was cut into another scene, now Blake appeared on screen with the man. The scenery behind them showed a quiet street. Both of them had microphones in front of them.
“Hey, this is Blake and today I found—”
“Nino,” the man said as he bowed with a serene face, clearly comfortable in spotlight. “And I can—I can sing, I think?”
Someone off-camera laughed. It was Nino’s companion.
The music started and Nino started to sing. It was Hoshino Gen’s Koi. At first, he was singing in moderation, but with time he looked like he was having fun singing it and he kept getting derailed from giving the camera and Blake attention and instead focusing toward somewhere off-camera.
Blake on the other hand looked star struck beside him. He shared the same expression with a few pedestrian who went past them. But instead of in awe like Blake was, most of them were just downright shocked. Once the song was fading, Blake turned to ask, “You’re not a professional singer, right?”
Nino grinned. “No.”
“Have you considered becoming one?”
“No, I’m happy with my current job,” he answered, “Beside, I have a lung capacity of a drowned child.”
The camera zoomed in on Blake’s confused face. “Then, what am I supposed to give you in return if you don’t want a promotion?”
Nino laughed before he turned to look at camera and bowed once again. “Then, please be kind when you see me again.”
Then the video ended.
♪♪♪
Blake Liskova
Found this talent at Tokyo🗼🕺 ❤️6.1M
#fyp #singer #hoshinogen more 💬99.8K
🎵 original sound – Blake Liskova ➦276.1K
99.8K comments
alicia
EXCUSE ME SIR, you didn’t *find* ❤️34.4K
any talent, that’s NINOMIYA
FUCKING KAZUNARI😭😭 03-10
view more replies (784) ↓
Ria Risisi
I love how everyone is confused in ❤️12K
the video 03-10
> neensama34
it’s funnier when you put into ❤️641
account how he literally has no
lung capacity post-operation
03-11
> Poppy the horse
Not him contemplating ❤️17
whether he could sing or not
03-11
----- view more ↓
SN MAGNET
People be saying that this dude ❤️3.1K
didn’t discover a talent since Nino
is already discovered. But, do YOU
KNOW HE COULD SING?? Blake be
doing God’s work for this vid 03-10
view more replies (221) ↓
Chicken Emperor
That laugh, that figure, that ❤️10.7K
fashion choice? That’s Sho. You
can’t fool us❤️💛 03-10
> jeeeeaaannnnnn
They’re on a date. Change my ❤️31
mind 03-11
----- view more ↓
Linithuan
Lol, praying for Aiba 03-10 ❤5.5K
view more replies (513) ↓
esther_RN
His voice is so damn pretty? 03-11 ❤375
> trouter77
Honestly, he should make ❤21
singing his actual career at
this rate🙇 03-11
> LNS edits
AND HE HAS THE AUDACITY TO ❤9
BE HUMBLE ABOUT IT?! This is
why my standard in men is too
high🤦🤦 03-11
----- view more ↓
Tareesh Atreen
I don’t understand how could there ❤79
be a person who doesn’t recognize
nino. The only award he hasn’t
bagged is literally just kid’s choice
award ((i did my research)) 03-10
> Good Jolene
FR i thought he was going to ❤22
show his acting when he was
asked about his talent. THIS is
10/10 solid content 03-11
----- view more ↓
♪♪♪
Aibashi: is it really you in the video?
Nino: what video
Aibashi: don’t act dumb
Aibashi: the tiktok one
Nino: oh
Nino: yea why
Aibashi: do you want the good news first or the bad one
Nino: give me your worst
Aibashi: okay so, everyone knows it was Sho
Aibashi: which means no social media for you in a while while the agency sort this out
Nino: bummer
Aibashi: the good news is, you’re overflowing with job offers
Aibashi: honestly if you want, I could easily find a record house for you if you want a career change
Nino: is that supposed to be a joke
Aibashi: in a way
Aibashi: what im trying to ask is are you fine with making singing into your gigs because we got one hell of a demand
Aibashi: not immediately of course, you need to rest now
Nino: Ill think about it later then
Aibashi: sure just let me know
Aibashi: oh also, remember the big invitation for you before you went and getting stabbed? You gotta tell me who will you bring by the end of the week at the latest
Nino: can’t I just take you?
Aibashi: absolutely not?
Aibashi: i don’t have anything to wear and there’s a reason a manager doesn’t share a spotlight with his talent
Nino: says someone who’s mostly an influencer already
Aibashi: it’s different. I’m just venting and I’m not trying to influence the public in any way
Aibashi: not my fault that they found my page interesting
Nino: of course theyll find it interesting when you constantly tweeted about me
Nino: how dare you left me on read
♪♪♪
“You know, sometimes I think you don’t even try to hide that you’re with Nino nowadays,” Jun said from where he leaned on his desk while scrolling through his tablet.
Sho turned to look at him. “Huh?” he leaned onto the couch and frowned. “You’re right.”
Jun stopped his scrolling and shifted his blank stare toward Sho. “That’s your reaction after all the drama you had me go through, really?”
Sho thought about it one more time, but he didn’t find anything that make him unreasonably terrified about their relationship. He was strangely at ease these days. It wasn’t even that long since the last time Sho would trade his lifetime fortune to keep everything quiet. Maybe it was because how now people seemed to wholly support them somehow or how they just kind of took it as a joke. But even if they took it seriously and were against it, Sho found himself surprisingly fine with that too.
“You’re right,” Sho said again, “Why is it?”
Jun gave him a look like he was never been told that he was wrong in his entire life. Which for his standard, could easily be the truth. Then he just sighed and went back to his tablet.
Sho on the other hand couldn’t just shrug it off. Once Jun brought the question up, it was all that he could think of. Why wasn’t he scared anymore and what was he so scared of in the first place?
He shifted on his seat and brought his chin to rest on his hand. “Maybe because the worst I could think of has happened anyway so I don’t have anything to be scared anymore?” Sho asked to no one in particular, but Jun gave him a grunt as a response. “That’s not it... Well, that’s a part of the reason, but not all of them.”
Sho stood up from his seat, suddenly became restless. “Why is it?” he echoed.
Their personal lives and names still could be ruined with the revelation. And was Sho absolutely sure that the worst had passed? No. And if he was so scared of not knowing what was waiting for him, this should be the thing he was scared of the most. Why is it?
“Because he was a job for you, at first,” Jun answered easily.
It stopped Sho on his track. At that moment, everything fell into place.
To begin with, Nino was an obstacle in his work that he needed to conquer. Even when they started to see each other, Nino was still a spectacle that Sho tried to understand. Sho was a person who needed to know as much information as needed before plunging into something by nature and Nino was just the right person to delve into. But now, now Nino wasn’t just an enigma to be pick apart and be put inside his database. The incident was a huge part that contributed in Sho realizing that there was no such thing as a constant. He was always striving for the impossible, yet this time Nino was enough of a constant for him to feel safe. Even if everything crashed down on him later, he somehow knew that he’d be fine as long as Nino was there with him.
He didn’t know when, but Nino had became one of the few unchanging thing in his life.
Sho snapped his neck so fast toward Jun that he thought he was going to have a whiplash. “You’re right,” Sho sighed.
Jun shook his head, but smiled nonetheless. “That’s all you guys always told me.” He waved his hand to dismiss Sho.
Immediately, Sho ran out of Jun’s office. Because out of the many things that Jun got right, Jun was precisely right about one thing, Sho was great at winging things.
Once he was in his office, he immediately went after his phone on the desk and dialed Nino’s numbers.
Nino didn’t answer.
He tried again because he could and he was high on adrenaline.
Nino still didn’t answer, but this time Sho received a text message.
Aiba Masaki: this is aiba, got your number from nino’s phone you kept calling btw
Aiba Masaki: he’s shooting right now and your calls literally interrupted the most tense scene lmao so have fun being yelled at later
Aiba Masaki: also doesnt you like know his entire schedule?
Sho’s first thought was he did know Nino’s schedule and Nino had even mentioned it verbally before that he was going to spend that day fully for shooting.
Then his second thought was that he really wasn’t that good at winging things.
He could heard Jun cackling from his room across.
♪♪♪
Nino ☑️
@NinomiyaKazu
Thanks @sakuraisho for ruining my scene
1,433 Retweets | 3.2K Quote Tweets | 11K Likes
>> Nino ☑️ @NinomiyaKazu
Jun told me you had a moment of
enlightenment whatever the fuck that
means
>> They pulled me❤️💛 @SNmagnet
Context????????
17 Retweets | 186 Quote Tweets | 1.2K Likes
>> Sakurai Sho ☑️ @sakuraisho
I thought you’re banned from SNS within
undetermined time?
>> This is Aiba ☑️ @king_aiba
That’s also what I thought....
2K Retweets | 7,543 Quote Tweets | 9.2K Likes
♪♪♪
Sho appeared at his doorstep, bringing Nino a box of fried chicken, so Nino really didn’t have any choice but to let him in. He was strictly prohibited from eating junk food for his job, but neither Sho nor the director needed to know anything. Also even though Nino was mad at him for ruining his shooting that day he couldn’t bring himself to show it because: a) it was partially his fault for not muting Sho in the first place and, b) they had just been to their long promised date and Nino would be in a good mood for God knows how long.
It was funny how they were trying to keep their date incognito and proceed to be featured in a TikTok video. The date was Nino’s doing, because the promised date was interrupted by him dying before. Despite that, he spent almost the entire date getting embarrassed when he supposed to be the one charming the other party by his immaculate planning (he had a gut feeling that Sho gets off from the most boring thing). Singing was a part of the date. They should had gone to a karaoke at the end of the date where Nino would reveal his absolutely banger of a singing voice and have Sho head over heels for him, but he sure wouldn’t survive being in an enclosed space with only Sho while singing a cheesy love song. Either it would end with steamy stuff or Nino would get—mentally—injured.
So when some influencer popped up with the right prompt at hands, he took it. He thought he’d handle himself better when a camera was involved, but when he looked at the video, he was looking absolutely smitten.
Which was insane. He had a noble attached to his name and he couldn’t act for his life when Sho entailed.
He didn’t even think of the consequence. He really thought that the video would get nowhere when reality it got covered in like 6 different news channels. Aiba had said, quote unquote, “What do you mean will gets nowhere? It’s you in the video. The you who more or less is clinically dead in public eyes. Of course it’ll fucking blow up.” Then proceed to punch Nino not so jokingly. Everything was resolved nicely though, everyone on internet mutually agreed that it wasn’t possible that whoever with Nino in that video wasn’t Sho (they were right) and he only got a small backlash he almost didn’t notice.
So yeah, he was in a good mood. Even when Sho made his movie production late, the exact moment Nino saw him, all of his irritation just vanished without a trace.
The first thing Sho did right after Nino closed the door was leaning toward him and gave him a chaste kiss. Which still made Nino weak in the knees no matter how much he did that at that point. He didn’t even get to close his eyes before Sho pulled away and smirked down at him.
“You should quickly change your address so I can kiss you right when you opened the door,” Sho said.
Nino was about to get dragged by the flow Sho’s created when it hit him. “Bringing the big guns, are you?” Nino grinned. “Scared much I’ll be angry with you?”
Sho’s entire demeanor immediately changed, his shoulders sagged and his smile turned bashful. “Yes,” he said without hesitation. Nino laughed at that.
“If you want to appease me, you shouldn’t do it half-assedly.” Nino leaned in and stared at his lips only to push Sho away and made his way to his couch. “So what is it you want to say?”
Nino sat down and looked up at Sho. He was sure that the host would join him on the couch, but he was just standing where he was, looking at Nino intently.
“What is it? You’re scaring me—”
“Let’s announce it,” Sho said, “Us.”
Nino was glad that he was sitting down for this conversation.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Nino asked carefully.
“Yes.”
Nino shifted on his seat. It was like a dam had burst inside his head, all kinds of thoughts and emotions just rushed and he didn’t have the capacity to deal with all of them at the same time. He knew that his gaze went unfocused, because the next thing he knew Sho was already sitting on his side and taking his hands on his.
“Don’t think about it too much,” Sho whispered.
“Are you sure?” Nino asked, “Aren’t you against it? This could be bad for your image, you know? And-and does Jun know? Is he fine with it? What if you lose your job over this? It’s me, you know what that means right? What about your privacy—”
Sho shut him up with a kiss. This time it was a proper deep kiss that made Nino’s skin tingled. It was over before he could properly kiss him back and it left shiver right to his spine. His lips were still burning like amber, never to melt.
Sho rested his head on the crook of where Nino’s shoulder met his neck. And almost instinctively, Nino put his hand through Sho’s hair, gently carding through each strands. He mumbled something Nino couldn’t quite hear, but he knew that it was probably a reprimand of some kind. It felt like a lifetime, but also nowhere near enough before Sho pulled himself away.
He stared right into Nino’s eyes.
“Those are things that I should be worried about,” Sho said, “What about you, are you worried about anything beside of them?”
Nino gave it a thought, but nothing really came up. “No.”
“Same here.” Sho smiled. “I’m not worried about anything.”
Nino wanted to keep his neutral face, but he couldn’t help but gave him a ghost of a smile. He really was a shitty actor around Sho.
“There won’t be turning back,” Nino said as his last resort of argumentation that he hoped would knock some sense into Sho, but both of them knew he didn’t really want that.
Sho just chuckled. “Same goes for you.”
It didn’t matter who initiated the kiss after that, because what mattered was Nino had Sho on him. The kiss was rushed but loving and it led to a dozen of other slow and deep kisses. And they continued the touching until Nino had to painfully reminded Sho that he was still a patient and it would be too funny if the news caught a wind that he opened his stitches because he got laid. Certainly, that wasn’t what Sho meant when he said they should reveal their relationship.
So they just sat there, cock-blocked by a stab wound and just basking in each other’s body heat, hoping that somehow it would bring down their libido or something. It did not.
“So,” Nino drawled, trying to shift their attention to anything else possible, “How do you think we should announce it?”
“I don’t know, maybe like livestreaming it through your Instagram or something?”
Nino looked at him incredulously. “You really didn’t think much about this, huh?” he snorted. “I’m amazed, but also scared because you always plan everything ahead.”
“Well, do you have better idea?”
Nino paused to think then he remembered the thing Aiba kept pestering him about. He turned to grin at Sho.
“I do actually.”
“What is it?” Sho asked with a gaze full of distrust. “If you’re suggesting to come back to LNS and announce it there because that’s where it started or anything, I disagree. Because first, it is not how we should use the platform and second, Jun would have me beheaded.”
Nino’s smile just got wider. “No, I have an even better idea.”
Sho shoved Nino’s shoulder playfully, but Nino could see how desperate he was to know. “Out with it already!”
“You know, I’m invited to this big event where I could bring someone with me,” Nino said, “You could come and make it obvious that we’re a thing.”
“What event?” Nino just stared at him, so Sho asked again, “Nino, what event?”
Nino shrugged. “The Met Gala,” he said nonchalantly.
He could see Sho visibly losing his marbles.
“The Met Gala?” Sho mumbled, “Tell me that’s a knock-off event of the actual Met Gala.”
“No, the real thing.”
Before anything could get inside his head, like how he have no fashion sense or how he didn’t have a thing to wear and how he couldn’t afford anything close to the Met Gala standard, he chose to stare blankly at Nino.
“I think I’ll leave everything to Jun.”
“Wise choice.”