Damn if I Do, Damn if I Don't

Surviving Bombs and Anniversaries

2008-09-30T23:31:40Z

Up until last Friday I've been busy. It was fun, in a way, I've had worse homework to focus on, those I don't know shit what to do a day before the delivering date, this time it wasn't the case. Still, I almost didn't live to tell the tale. Hell, I even had a bomb threat by the end of the week!

Yes, I'm doing a very bad joke about something that happens seriously in other countries, but really, I can't help it! When I called my mom to tell her, because, shit, we had a freaking bomb threat in my school and the TV got to us before the bomb squad! The first thing she said to me was "who had a test coming?". NOBODY took it seriously, not even the cops. I kinda wish it had happen on monday because I had a test, not that I didn't want to do the test (I did fine, btw), but it woulda been kinda cool to have cops showing up in the middle of it telling us to please get out and have my teacher complain that until the people taking care of finding the bomb were there, better to keep doing the test, and throw the cops out. Seriously, with that teacher, that's what would have happened!

But it was Thursday and classes started late and we saw the cops coming in. We had presentations to do so we ignored them and went to class, but those who didn't do the presentation stayed out and came only after they found out the true: There was a call with a bomb threat. My reaction: Eyes rolling. We started asking those who didn't do the presentation who had called, because if that wasn't the reason, someone in Design had a project to deliver or maybe one of the Architecture students had an exam coming up. More than that, it just isn't possible, not even being cunning enough to have a building to themselves and take upcoming tests or a monitor from the computer room or take money from somewhere... and no, a real bomb wasn't really in any form a possibility.

It's kinda nice to find out your country, or city, or simply your school, in this case, is safe enough to not take a bomb threat not even remotely seriously. I kept thinking, twenty years ago it wasn't as safe, not at all, but now it is. And now I think there's a facebook group called "I survive the school's bomb". And every now and then, that event is gonna be used as a celebratory excuse to drink (a lot!).

After that, things calmed down. I had a birthday party on Saturday, that lasted all the way through Sunday and I didn't went to sleep until seven in the morning (and I only did for two hours before going home), and it wasn't until that time I came to realize it was the anniversary of Claudia's death. A grim thought, maybe, but I mostly forget the date until it is most of the time, is not like her birthday when I think about the years she doesn't have, I just block this date away. I remembered because my friend, the birthday girl, was a little too drunk and talking to me about her dad, that's been dead for two years now, and she still has issues with him after he's gone because she just put too much pressure on herself.

I seem to be very good at listening, as a friend. We talked until the sun was out again, and I talked with her boyfriend, also my friend, about some of *his* issues, and because I didn't sleep properly that night, it wasn't until Monday morning I got my hangover, gah. Pretty fitting, all in all, with both my friend's endless party and Claudia's anniversary, cus if I did know something about her was that she was of the philosophy of getting wasted to solve everything.

In cheerier subjects, I got a package today! Took a picture of the content and all (with my cell, that's why is not that good!).

Lupe, I love you!! Thank you for this, is lovely! I have it now on my dest next to the pc. It will keep me company!

Fic: Tokyo Tower

2008-09-28T20:12:14Z

Title: Tokyo Tower
Fandom: JE, NEWS
Characters: Ryo, Massu (the rest of NEWS shows up)
Summary: Ryo wonders about people. Lately, he's been wondering about Massu, and that bugs him to no end.
Notes: So sometimes I just think too much. I love both Massu and Ryo, but I think they are the two that less interact with each other in NEWS, probably because they don't have enough common ground? Anyway, I read in Koyama's nikki once that Massu didn't know the name of Tokyo Tower and had never been there. I don't know If that has changed since, but I decided to use it here ^^

Ryo likes to think of himself as a contemplative person. He analyzes himself and his surroundings, and he likes to wonder about people. Human behavior. He isn't a big fan of books and theories like those Tegoshi has to study for class, but he enjoys watching people around him, trying to understand what motivates them.
It's a great past-time when he's traveling from Tokyo to Osaka and back. Just watch people and wonder. He does it a lot.
He also wonders about those close to him, how are they doing and the stuff he wants to do with them once he sees them again. He feels embarrassed of the amount of time those he cares about take out of him without even being close by.
Ryo thinks of his little sister and her married life. He thinks she married too young, but he never takes the time to go visit her and her little kid and see how they're doing, even after two years. He knows he isn't too trusting because she's younger than him, and the idea of himself being married just feels weird, it doesn't matter how many indirect comments his mother sends his way.
His thoughts then go far out and he remembers Kusano, his bandmate so far away now. The crazy kid has been sending postcards now and then, seems to be having a good time in New York, a place Ryo knows he would love to visit one day. He worries about what will happen once Kusano is finally back. If Uchi and Kusano don't come back to the groups right there and then, they never will. Is not like anyone keeps so high hopes on the matter, they've been slap with reality enough, but the possibility is still there until is completely shot down, and Ryo doesn't know if he wants to take that tiny possibility out of its misery once and for all or just keep on hoping like an idiot.
He thinks about his bandmates a lot. All of them, both groups.
Lately, though, he has been wondering a lot about Massu in particular. More that he thinks he should.
He doesn't have a special relationship with the guy. He thinks they get along just fine as coworkers, that's not a problem, but something bugs him about Massu and he doesn't know what it is for sure.
He tries to ignore it, he has better things to do that analyze his lack of interaction with someone when he has a lot of other closer relationships to actually occupy his mind.
There is the family pressure demanding that he spend more time at home, to get to know his in-laws better. There's the fact that Eito and NEWS will be releasing singles around the same time, right when he will be working full time on his new drama. There's the issue of Jin actually listening to him and losing weight, so now he has to worry his friend doesn't go overboard about that.
Still, being a busy guy like he is, he finds time to wonder about Masuda Takahisa.
It's weird, because it's nothing new what's been bugging him. It's the never changing hair, the peculiar clothes, the indecisiveness whenever they go out as a group, that they don't really go out much as a group because he tends to simply say no.
All of that has always bother him about Massu, but what bothers him the most, is that nothing has changed at all.
Everyone changes. Ryo thinks about that a lot, how everyone changes around him, how he has changed over the years. Pi has learned to take care of himself a little better, Uchi doesn't act as much as a girl now that he gets lead roles in dramas, Subaru has gotten more eccentric, if that's actually possible, but more predictable in his weirdness.
Massu, however, like his hair, keeps unchanged. Ryo wonders, though, if he's missing something, because Massu's hair does change sometimes, is just that no one ever notices.

"You know, daydreaming is suppose to be my thing."
Ryo is startled out of his thought by Yamapi, that seems to be ready to go. Practice is over. He looks around and everyone else is moving out of the place into the dressing room.
"How long did I stood in one place?" He asks Pi, as he takes a sip of the bottle of water he had left in the near table before practice.
"Not long, the coach thought you were just tired," he pauses, "are you? You've been spacing out a lot lately."
He gives his friend a small smile. He knows if Pi is paying attention, it means he's worried.
"I've just been too busy. Too many things to think about."
Yamapi nods in understanding and lets him be. If someone knows what Ryo's talking about, that's Pi. Still, he worries about his own worry-ness. Ryo knows he needs a break, and he's certain that having the rest of the day off is not gonna be enough for him to feel rested.
He takes a quick shower while the rest of the group gets ready to go, everyone at their own pace. When he gets out, his bandmates are in the middle of a discussion.
"It scares us a little that you keep forgetting the name of the place, ne."
"You've never been there, really?"
"Are you sure you even know how to get there?"
It seems Koyama, Tegoshi and Shige are drilling Massu for answers on the whereabouts of a place he wants to go. From the outside it looks a little silly, because everyone else acts more worried that the guy going there in the first place.
"Why are you guys so serious?" He asks, more out of curiosity than concern.
"I want to go visit that big orange-y building downtown," Massu explains, as always, with a big smile on his face.
"Tokyo Tower!" Shige and Koyama exclaim together, "the name is Tokyo Tower!"
"Right," Massu nods, "my English still needs work, ne."
Shige seems exasperated with that answer, but ends up only sighing in resignation. Koyama laughs nervously and exchanges looks with Tegoshi, who is maybe the only one amused by the whole thing.
"You've never been to Tokyo Tower," concludes Ryo. He laughs. It actually doesn't surprises him. "What's the problem then?"
"He wants to go today, but we're all busy," Koyama explains.
"So I'm going alone," Massu finishes, still smiling, but also with determination in his eyes.
"But it's more fun going with someone, isn't?" comments Tegoshi, "lets go there on our next shopping trip!"
"We won't be able to go out for another week, right?" Massu reasons, "I don't mind going alone.”
The three other members didn't seem really convinced with this outcome.
"I can go with him."
Everyone turns to look at Ryo. He can't help but feel a little embarrassed.
"You mean that?" Asks Shige, clearly not believing him.
"Are you sure?" Checks Koyama, because everyone in the room seems surprised with Ryo's suggestion.
"What? I don't have anything better to do," he defends himself, "I haven't gone to Tokyo Tower since I was little."
The rest keeps looking at him funny. He decides maybe it isn't such a good idea...
"I can go alone," assures Massu, with an expression Ryo hardly ever sees in him. Is it annoyance?
Seeing Massu with so unusual exasperation makes Ryo more determinate. He doesn't really know Massu, does he? If he can't be sure if the guy in front of him is annoyed or not, maybe he has to work on it a little more. Maybe then he will stop wasting so much of his thinking time on him.
"You can go alone," Ryo repeats, "but I can go with you anyway. You have a problem with that?"
Massu is a little startled with that question, and doesn't answer back, just moves his head to say no and goes to pick up his stuff.

The train ride is uneventful and silent. They both are a little tired after practice, and neither seems to be able to come up with a decent topic for conversation. They rarely hang out together, of course they wouldn't know what to talk about.
Except Ryo feels a question running around his head. He decides to voice it.
"If you wanted to come alone, why did you tell the others?"
Massu blinks at him, a tentative smile on his face.
"I wanted to see if anyone would want to come with me first. I said I don't mind coming alone, I didn't say I wanted to," he explains, a little more relaxed than before.
Ryo nods, understanding the difference. He likes going out with his friends when he has the time, it doesn't mean he can't hang out by himself when everyone else is busy.
They still don't have a topic of conversation, though. Ryo doesn't feel like talking about work and Massu seems focused on watching out of the window, even though you can't see anything clearly outside, humming an unknown song to himself.
"Ne, Nishikido-kun, why are you coming with me?" He asks, after his song comes to an end.
"I told you, I haven't visit visited Tokyo Tower since I was little."
Massu turns, looks at him. He's about to ask another question, but stops, turns around to the window again.
Ryo frowns.
"You always do that," he complains, then sighs. "If you have something to say, why not just say it?"
Massu doesn't act put out by the question, instead, he takes his time answering.
"Most of the things I said, if I don't think about them first, sound weird to other people. That's why..." He leaves the rest of his answer hanging, his eyes never leaving the view from the window.
Ryo moves to face the window too.
"You say random things to the others all the time," he comments, and Ryo hates sounding like a little kid feeling left out.
Massu looks at him again, open his mouth, then changes his mind.
That pisses Ryo off.
"Shit, just say it! What do you wanna ask?"
"Do you have a problem with me, Nishikido-kun?"
"Yes!"
Silence.
The train stops and open its doors. They get out, finally arriving at Minato. Next they need to go to Shiba Park. Neither says anything, they just start walking.
Ryo feels frustrated. Most people think he doesn't bite his words back, but he does, most of the time. It would be a lot worse otherwise. He hadn't intend saying what he just said. Even if it is true, in a way.
The thing is, there's no point in explaining to Massu what's wrong. He's stubborn as hell, that's why he never changes. Ryo remembers with vivid clarity the last time they got into a real argument. It was some time before the suspension, in the middle of the spring concert tour. Ryo doesn't remember what the fight was about, but he remembers making Massu cry.
"Fuck, why do you have to cry?"
"I... can't... help it!"
"It's not that big of a deal! Why can't you just defend yourself? Say something!"
"What... do you want me to say?"
He gave up then. He can't really fight with a guy that doesn't fight back, that just stays there and takes it, like that time, but doesn't gives him the victory either. Massu never admits to being wrong, not in their arguments, anyway.
"Did you really not remember the name of Tokyo Tower?" Ryo ask, all of the sudden. He wants to make conversation to make his comment go away. "How come you've never been there before?"
Massu manages to smile at him.
"When I was little I used to pass by with my mom or my sister, but we never went up," he explains, his eyes looking up the tower that they can see from the few blocks away where they are. "My mom said it was a waste of money because we weren't tourists."
Ryo thinks that makes some sense. He remembers visiting the tower several years back, the first time Subaru, Hina, Yoko and him came to Tokyo together for work. He also remembers that the first time he ever sat foot inside Osaka Castle was showing Yamapi around Osaka when his friend went to visit him home.
"And the name thing?"
"One time, I forgot. I was distracted," Massu tells him, and now he's smiling for real. "Now I do it on purpose. Koyama's face gets all funny when he thinks I'm losing it."
It takes a moment for Ryo to react to this. He stops on his tracks, blinks, and then laughs. Yes, it is very amusing to play tricks on Koyama like that. He has seen Tegoshi do it often when he wants Koyama to do something for him. It's also a plus that most of those times Koyama drags Shige along with him. He didn't expect Massu to do the same, though.
"I didn't know you had it in you," Ryo recognize, and feels the urge to pat Massu on the back, until he remembers, "but you got annoyed after a while. It backfired on you."
Massu doesn't answer immediately and they keep on walking. They're getting close to Foot Town, at the base of the tower.
"I didn't expect to drag Nishikido-kun to it," Massu finally says, quietly.
"I'm not here because I thought you would get lost," Ryo retorts and when Massu says nothing again, he wonders why the hell he is there. There is a point, right? Somewhere.

They go through the different stores inside Foot Town, until reaching the elevators. Each pays for a ticket to get to the first observation deck, and hop on an elevator with a diverse group of people, none of them fans, thankfully.
Once the doors open and they get out, Massu gets distracted easily by their surroundings. The deck is pretty big and has several different stores to accompany the view. They walk a little faster to get to the edge of the floor, and look outside.
"Wow, Sugee..."
The view from up there is amazing. Tokyo is full of tall buildings from where you get to see the city up high, but none of them are a made for tourists to fall in love with the city kind of view. Ryo loves Osaka and thinks his home is a lot more beautiful, specially because there's a lot more green areas downtown than in Tokyo, but after Osaka, he does likes the capital very much so. He knows there are two look down windows somewhere in the deck, he turns to Massu to ask him if he wants to look for them.
"Massu?"
His younger companion doesn't answer. He's rather fixed in the spectacular view outside. Taking a closer look to his face, though, he looks kind of pale.
"Massu?" Ryo asks again, and his bandmate finally turns his head.
"I think I'm going down again," he says slowly, a weird smile on his face, and immediately starts walking back where they came from.
"What? Why?"
Massu murmurs something unintelligible, but doesn't stop. Ryo has to run to catch up with him. He places himself in front of Massu, forcing him to stop. Now he doesn't look pale, he looks green.
"Shit, are you gonna be sick?" He asks, agitated. Massu looks guilty of charge. "Come on."
Ryo drags Massu to the nearest restroom, and waits outside while the younger boy sits on the ground near the toilet. He doesn't vomit, but he seems to consider his position the safest at the moment, just in case.
"You're not gonna do it?" Ryo asks, once he realizes he's not hearing any disgusting noises.
Massu breaths heavily. "I don't think so."
Ryo figures is safe to look in, and finds Massu in his pitiful position. His face still has colors it shouldn't have.
"What happened?"
"I don't like heights." He breath heavily again, and tries to smile, apologetically. "I'm sorry."
Ryo rubs his neck, avoiding Massu's eyes when he gives his apology. He finds this situation incredibly ridiculous. What are they doing up there if Massu's afraid of heights? Why Massu wanted to come in the first place?
"I like the view," Massu explains, like he could hear Ryo's thoughts. "I wanted to know what I was missing, and the view is worth it." He doesn't look at Ryo anymore, but the ground close to him. "I shouldn't have looked down, though."
Ryo knells in front of him. He lets go a long sigh.
"I don't get you," he finally admits. "I work with Subaru, and Maru, and Pi, and I get them just fine. But I can't get you," he explains, uncomfortable when Massu decides to look back at him. "That's my problem with you."
There's a long moment of silence, when neither of them moves. Then Ryo decides to get up and get out of the restroom, he doesn't think there's anything left to say, but he's stopped at the door by Massu's voice.
"I don't get Nishikido-kun either," Massu says, his voice a lot less shaky than before. "I don't think that's my fault."
Ryo's hand is in the door handle, pressing against it with what Ryo knows it's anger. He turns around to bark something back, but stops himself. He sees Massu slowly standing up.
"You're not dizzy anymore?"
"I don't think so, no."
"Good," Ryo nods, and turns again to open the door. "Come on. We're getting something to drink.”

They sit in a coffee shop, in the corner usually unused because it's the furthest away from the view of Tokyo. Ryo knows drinking alcohol would be his usual choice, but the idea of getting drunk with Massu of all people, for whatever the reason, is weirder that this whole afternoon so far put together.
He does ask for Irish coffee, just to be more comfortable.
"Explain to me how it is my fault," he starts, after they order.
"I didn't say it was Nishikido-kun's fault."
"You implied it!"
Pause. Massu's taking his time coming up with an answer. It doesn't help Ryo's mood. There's always so much silence between them.
"It's just..." Massu stops, thinks again, "I'm not..."
"What?"
Massu finally looks him in the eyes.
"You're very hard to talk to."
Ryo snorts. "And you aren't?"
His bandmate blinks. He seems confused.
"I just don't talk, it doesn't mean you can't talk to me, if you need to," he reasons.
Ryo feels the urge to cross his arms and laid back, defensibly.
"Is not about needing it!" He complains, "and you never listen!"
That makes Massu frown. Finally!
"Not doing what you say doesn't mean I don't listen."
Ryo moves forward.
"If you don't agree with me, then say it! I can't stop bugging you if you don't tell me that I do."
"Shige tells you and you don't stop.” And now Massu's pouting. He actually looks cute, and Ryo relaxes a little.
"We banter, and I think he actually likes it," Ryo defends himself, "I'm trying to tough you guys up. You guys should know there are worse people out there in the industry. When you start crying because I'm mean to you, what are you going to do when someone actually wants to screw you over?"
Massu takes his time again to answer, a long time. The coffee finally come. When he's ready to talk, he looks more serious than before.
"I'm not... I know. That I have to look out for myself. And I do." He places his hands around the warm cup. "I think what Nishikido-kun doesn't seem to understand the most, is that I do know what I'm doing. I've been around almost as long as you have, I'm not a kid. You keep... throwing things at me. Saying I should do this or that, saying that I need to..." He sighs. "I'm not ashamed of crying either. I don't feel like being mean back to you would be any better."
Ryo is lost for words. Hearing all that. All these years not getting it, silence and awkward half conversations. He didn't like thinking about it, even if he did anyway. Now the problems are out and he finally starts to understand.
"Why couldn't you say something like this before? You never say shit when I'm with you, not just when I'm criticizing you."
"Nishikido-kun is very hard to talk to," Massu repeats, and drinks his coffee.
"So why say it now?" He insists. What is it with now? Why are they talking about this now? Why didn't they do it before?
"Why Nishikido-kun came with me here?" Massu asks back. Ryo doesn't say it, but he knows the answer is there. It was time. Then, Massu continues, "I've been meaning to come to Tokyo Tower for a long time," he tells Ryo, a small smile finally back on his face. "Today I decided to stop stalling and come here. I guess is a good day for that."
Ryo feels a smile forming with his mouth too. "I guess it is."

They took their time with the big cups of coffee. And they order some cookies made by the coffee shop with the form of the tower.
"I probably should be going now.," Massu announces some time later, taking a look at his watch.
"I'm amazed you managed to stay up here for so long," Ryo retorts.
"It helps I wasn't looking down, I guess," Massu reasons, and they both laugh.
They actually laugh.
Ryo knows this doesn't solve everything. They are both very stubborn and disagree on many things. Massu thinks he's brash and he thinks Massu is weird, but now they're talking. Maybe with time they will get one another, somewhat, and will stop wondering.
"Let's go down, then," they agree, and walk to the elevators area.
Its quiet. But this time, is nicely quiet. Massu looks likes he wants to say something more, though. Ryo stops walking.
"Whatever it is, just say it."
Massu also stops, but still doesn't say a thing.
"Um," pause. "Thank you. For today."
He's embarrassed and Ryo is too. Damn emotional breakthroughs.
"Yeah, well, I told you I hadn't come here since I was little."
"That's not..."
"I know." Ryo looks him in the eye, and finds understanding. "I know." He's thankful too.

The End

Lately...

2008-09-24T23:06:22Z

OK, so I've not write regularly here for a while. I could say I've been busy, and it would be true, but I've also made time to watch a bunch of stuff, so the truth is I've only been antisocial.

The bigger part of last week I acted like a good student and did all my homework during the week vacation that never felt like one, and I was a dutiful family member taking care of things while my parents were away looking at flowers in the desert. I was grumpy as hell. I think I snapped at my grandma everyday at least once, and my brothers too, even though no one took notice of my mood. That should tell you how we usually get along!

I did leave the house for other reason beside grocery shopping, and that was to get together with Berni and Cesar and do some window shopping downtown. Fun, really, really fun.

I also ended up watching the finale of ReGenesis, that I didn't know it was the finale until I watched it, cus, really, you don't get more final than that (except for that time when everything went BOOM). It was... interesting. There's a lot of reasons why I loved this show, starting for the fact it was Canadian-based and had a multi-racial cast. But mostly, because it was about science like science should be, exciting and twisted and opening new doors to understand the world better. I was never good at science in school, I still suck at it, but I find it fascinating. I'm pretty sure this show went very much to the science fiction side of things, but it used all those myths and desires the scientific community would love to prove real and possible. It helped a lot that the characters were interesting and so incredible human even though they were super smart and you didn't know what were they talking about half the time. True, it was a procedural show when you couldn't phantom a guest as how things came to be and how to end it, but it was so appealing and I loved that it was never one plague or virus at a time, but several showing up all over the place between Mexico, the US and Canada. Great, great tv show. I'm gonna miss it.

I could talk about the new season, but so far the only decent season premiere was NCIS, I think. House was OK, but it's boring me fast, and Heroes... Uhm, I don't know yet. Of the new shows, I may watch Fringe, if only because Joshua Jackson is in it and I had a crush on him since the first Ducks movie.

Wait, I almost forgot! SPN!! Of course that was a good one! How is it I've come to love this show so much? I guess is for the pretty and the twisted and the fact that the cast and the crew, and mostly, the writers, know how pretty the two leads are and abuse it every single time. And Jared and Jensen are living together now, which I know is driving fans crazy with joy!

I have more homework to do, can you see I'm stalling? Gah, I want to fangirl about NEWS properly and their winter tour. And complain that Arashi is doing the theme song for Ryo and Nino's new drama, it's seriously annoying me, I wanted Kanjani8 doing it, or someone else altogether! I love Nino and Arashi, but I find it a little unfair. Also, is having both leads on this drama touring while they film the drama a good idea? Please, Ryo-chan, after this, take a BREAK! With Pi! To celebrate his graduation! Take Jin with you and make fans write lots and lots of porn cus seriously, it's lacking lately, almost nobody has been writing!

And yes, I plan on working on the stuff I promised to work on this weekend. I need to write that fic for je_holiday soon!

Anything else? I'm in love with Mizukawa Asami. She just keep showing up everywhere! I gave up! Now I love her even more than Inoue Mao. She's just that cool and pretty and awesome.

New Found Respect for CNN

2008-09-24T11:03:55Z

Her birthday

2008-09-15T18:58:36Z

September is a bad month for me. I don't like it. It's kind of sad to have friends with birthdays during this month. Not because of them, of course not! I celebrate them all I can on their respective dates. Is just that other dates during the month always carry more weight, even after so long.

It's been five years today since Claudia had her last birthday.

The first year I went to the cemetery. I haven't gone since cus, in all honesty, it makes little sense to me to do so. I got drunk two years ago, that felt nice, the numbness, but I don't like to drink alone, so I'm not doing that today.

Two days ago I watched Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series. Awesome movie, all on its own, until I realize half way in that I'm watching a movie about a guy that die several years ago and all his friends regret not giving him a proper goodbye, and that they need to move on. Good movie, bad taming to watch it, really.

I gave my goodbyes to Claudia that time in the cemetery. And I move on the moment I left her funeral, like it or not. Doesn't mean I forget, though. And I still get all depressed and contemplative on her birthday, today, so just I don't do the same on the anniversary of her death, two weeks from now.

I really, really want September to be over.

I'm gonna go distract myself with something fluffy and nice, or homework, probably.

Kimi no haPPy birthday~~

2008-09-11T18:03:25Z

Ok, NEWS' Happy Birthday PV?

LAME.

But, oh, so sweet!

There's something about the lighting in this one I didn't like, is very bad, specially comparing it to Summer Time. It also feels shorter and rushed. I mean, there's like three times Yamapi is in front of Tegoshi and some out of frame stuff that don't work.

BUT. SWEET.

As usual, the people in charge of the PV decided to put NEWS together in a room with random objects and waited for the magic to happen. It's usually better without the objects, though, cus then they touch each other a lot more cus their hands are free!

And I would LOVE to have a NEWS monopoly game or whatever that boardgame was about. It has Nyanta in it! Cus the cat was totally Nyanta, it show up just when Koyama and Shige sang together!

Another thing, what was up with the RyoTego here?? I mean, I'm not a fan, but they kept looking *meaningfully* at each other!

I kinda liked how they bow in the chorus. It fits, I think. Also, the heart is adorable!!

Result? Not the best PV (that's still Weeeek), far from it, but not the worse either (Umm, I think the jury is still out on that one: Kibou Yell or Akaku Moyuru Taiyou? The flowered wallpaper outfit or the gay love boat?)

I'm gonna go watch it again.

EDIT: Gods, I think NEWS stole Arashi's rainbow. Wonder if they actually miss it?

NEWS Con DVD

2008-09-08T02:16:27Z

Last week I finally got my copy of the Pacific Con DVD. I live pretty much by the end of the world, so of course it was gonna take time for the thing to get to me. So, I went to Valparaiso to visit Daniela so we could watch it together. Always better to do this kinda stuff with friends, right? That's the reason why neither of us watched the concert before even though it was so easy to download!

Sadly, her computer didn't read the discs for some reason, so we ended up watching the downloaded version anyway XD

In any case, it was pretty awesome. Mostly because Daniela's family doesn't bug her about the level of noise so we heard the concert loud and clear and we sang everything there was to sing even though neither of us can really sing that well at all, haha.

Of course, I feel like talking about it, because there's a lot to talk about. It was a fun concert, but I can't help but think it coulda been better, mostly because... what the hell was up with the music selection??

Oh, I liked the songs. I missed IZaNaIZuKi, like most people did, and I woulda loved to watch Massu's Pumpkin and Boom Boom Power again, but the choices that ended up in the list were pretty good nonetheless. I have a thing for Beach Angel live, I don't really know why. And Nandex2 Dame is perfect for live performances too, it sounds a lot more like a NEWS song when it's live.

The problem for me was the order. Why, oh WHY, was Nantoka Naru Sa after Private Hearts?? Was it really a good idea to put Dreams and Hoshi wo Mezashite together? Isn't it a little too much emotion at once? And Fiesta right after that, seriously? Why was Fiesta in the middle of the con in the first place when it should have been at the beginning?? And Hadashi no Cinderella Boy at the beginning? Umm, that songs plays good at the end because the boys get fired up when they sing it, which doesn't come to much at the beginning when they are already fired up. And don't get me started with Ai Nante right after Chirarizumu, because even if it is somewhat hilarious, it doesn't work like that, damn it!

Then we had Vibration. As much as I loved the idea, a little, I don't really like that they rip it off from Arashi. La Tormenta is something that's really, well, *them*. So for NEWS to come and do the same... I don't know. Specially because NEWS can't rap to save their lives. Not when they themselves have to write it too. I mean, the best one was Tegoshi's and he cheated and made Sho do it for him! Ryo's was funny, though, and very accurate. I think it should have been better at the middle of the concert, in any case, not closer to the end.

But not everything is complains! It was great to finally watch Ai no Matador live, and this con's version of Gomen ne Juliet was the best one yet, same goes for Code. Snow Express is always appreciated (specially if naked Shige is involved). Watching Shige with that crown again (and a guitar!) was pretty cool too, Happy Music is a great song. The fans screaming Shige's name in Sayaendo was awesome! He got a lot of love during this tour, I'm glad. Weeeek as an opener should be something to make a permanent fix, it just works perfectly that way. Ryo and Koyama messing around during Kiss was seriously cute, and of course I loved the RyoPi interaction during Daite Señorita, Seishun Amigo and Zukkoke Otoko Michi, even as backdancers in Chirarizumu.

Ah! And then there's Shock me vs Devil or Angel. Freaking cool, and way much better than that time NEWS and KAT-TUN did something similar in Summary, mostly because this ended with hugs and that other time was follow with a huge fistfight!

That Sho and Nino were at the concerts makes me ask a lot of questions. I love that they were there, but what they were *doing* there?? I mean, Massu often goes to Arashi and T&T concerts, but that's because he's an actual fan! And he and Koyama went to KAT-TUN's last concert probably because of Nakamaru, just as Pi went to see Jin. I know Nino and Pi are somewhat friends, but I don't see it as enough reason to go to the con, nor is Sho's fondness for Tegoshi... They were probably pretty bored that day and decided to crash a concert just to do something different. Well, that's healthier than any alternative Nino can come up with, I guess!

Now, the clothes! I LOVED the weeeek outfits. Massu in yellow just rocks my socks and I want his hoodie. Shige in green looks pretty good too, and all the outfits seemed comfortable enough. After that one, the silver outfits are my other favorites. They're comfy and somewhat stylish and Massu's pants are awesome. I missed the black ones they used in N.E.W.S. for Snow Express, though. I didn't like those with the military parts randomly attached, nor the freaky things they used for Vibration, but all in all, the outfits in this tour looked, well, usable, in the sense that it's them using the outfits, not the outfits using them!

As for the documentaries, I think they coulda been longer. Not because is something I wish for, but because they were more stuff to see. We all know the stories about Taipei. Tegoshi almost killing himself is one, and Yamapi stripping and trying to do a backflip is another. I wanted to see that. And it was in this tour that Uchi showed up and apologized to his fans on the NEWS side. I REALLY wanted to see that.

Other than that, they were pretty good. Yes, there was a lack of Massu, but the guy is pretty quiet, we already know that, and I like that he is that way, so I understand why he doesn't mess around that much. In any case, we all know we watch this thing to see what Koyama and Shige can come up with, with Tegoshi's help now. Oh, and Ryo bulling Shige. And NEWS bathing. and food. Yes, that sums it up, right?

Finally, we have the design that was the face of this concert tour. I want the t-shirt and the towel so badly!! I mean, it's a pretty great design to begin with, but it was also made by Massu! It has a buta stamp!

So, I liked it, enjoy it a lot like I do most of anything NEWS. I coulda been way better, yes, but that doesn't mean it wasn't great anyway. Hopefully they'll get another concert tour soon. At the beginning of next year, maybe? I don't actually want them touring before that time because I think Ryo's overworking himself and this new drama with Nino is gonna take a lot of his time. I also hope TegoMass gets the opportunity of a concert too, I think those two can come up with something amazing. And Massu should keep designing NEWS' image!

A matter of time, then. In the meanwhile, I better go back to work on those fics I have to finish sometime this month!

A book in a concert

2008-08-28T21:28:14Z

So I am watching Eito's documentary for their tour of last year. It was released by BNS a few weeks ago, I think. I'm watching it, right? And after seeing Ryo avoid the camera as always, Tacchon being completely adorable and Maru making Yoko sweat in the dressing room, Hina shows what he has in his backpack, and one of the items in there is the book he's reading at the time, it has an orange with an apple cover in it and somehow, it looks oddly familiar to me... Of course, because it was the same book I was reading a year ago when this documentary was filmed! Awesome!

The book, btw, it's called Freakonomics. A very fun book if you like economics but think it's a hard subject to understand. I recommend it whole-heartly!

And that reminds me I haven't yet read The Undercover Economist, that goes on the same path than the other book. I do like economics a lot, I wish I was better at it!

KINKY

2008-08-27T20:18:57Z

I've been distracting myself lately (the last two days or so) being very, very dirty and reading seriously kinky smut. I myself didn't even know I liked to read that kind of stuff until I got my hands on it. I specially enjoyed a horrible one where Jin and Ryo are farmers and Pi is a cow. I am SO not kidding with this. I would give the link, but you have to join the community to read it, so if you want it, ask me. Like I said, I actually liked it, it was very well developed, but it was kinky as hell, and full on non-con.

How come I've never before enjoy reading this stuff, but now I do? Because is based on real people? I guess it could be, as twisted as that is. I have always had a hard time being able to read kinky stuff with anime, it doesn't appeal to me. Maybe on Weiss, but that's because, once again, the story is made for that, as it is for the angsty-angst, and the character deaths, and everyone being psychos. There are other animes and mangas out there that are even more fucked up, but I can't get myself to like them like I like Weiss, because Weiss manages a balance between the freaky-ness, and the right on dorky-ness. Weiss is silly in a lot of ways, just like it is awful and dark in others. The other stories are just plain horrible and depressing.

So I had no interested in kinky, fucked up fics in any other of my fandoms. Save the occasional fic here and there that is well written enough to survive my screen test to read, but I don't remember any right of the bat, so they really weren't that great. But then... then I got interested in JE. And I enjoy crack, and general angst, and romance (if it is good enough) and lots of member ai fics. I even get action fics with the AUs. Then, I start to read porn just for the sake of reading porn. And I like it. A lot. But that's OK, these are real people, so is easier to picture them having sex and it isn't just "characters", they aren't drawings.

But the kinky, seriously disturbing, not nice at all half the time non-con sex with an excuse? I've come to like that? Gah, there's something wrong with me. I can understand the reasons for writing them, though. It's good for experimental purposes when writing, and it helps as stress relief. Better write it than do it, right? I think I wrote two stories in the Digimon fandom with this plot. They weren't really long and they were, in all truth, experimentations with my writing. I was never really explicit, in any case. Both stories ended up in murder, too. But the only real story OF murder I wrote didn't really have a murder at all, because the guy dead was just an invention of one of the character's mind. Or something like that. It was a very complicated story.

I guess I have to come to terms with this. Will I ever *write* one of those stories again in this new fandom I'm in now? I don't know. I don't think I have the time to write something twisted like that, even if some ideas come to mind easily. I think of the time because it would take twice as long to write it and then make sure it actually makes sense. Awful and dark as those stories are, they only work if the writer is skilled enough to do them. If not, is a bunch of nonsense that doesn't survive anyone's screening tests.

Passing by

2008-08-25T01:53:39Z

I actually worked on a power point presentation I have to do on Thursday before writing in here. How responsible am I, huh? Well, I still have to gather information on radiation and dendrochronology for tomorrow, but really, I'm working on it!

Except for the part when my mom felt like shit and we had to take her to the hospital, this was a pretty decent, busy week.

My mom's doing fine, by the way. Thanks for caring. She rested a lot, changed her meds and she even went with the rest of the family to the movies yesterday.

My dad asked me to work on a translation for him. I asked Alejandra for help (since she's a translator and all), but it looks I got lucky and the subject was easy (about cloud seeding, fun!), so the text is finished and I'm gonna make a lot of money out of it. Translators earn a LOT of money for this kind of stuff, since they charge for word. I was actually thinking of charging my dad less, but he talked me out of it. It wasn't exactly his money, and it was professional work, so I deserve it. Fine by me.

It made me think that I should have charged more for those phrases I translated to English and Japanese for a calendar at the end of last year. I actually thought I was doing my dad's friend a favor, not really working for him.

Hell, I'm happy if this keeps up. I've been thinking of studying for the TOEFL now that I don't have English in school (yes! I got out of it, this level and the next!). It could help me get a good job this summer.

I'm really sorry I wasn't able to wish flipbookfrog a happy birthday on the day itself, I wasn't around. HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! Happy sixteen years and four days! I'm sure you had a great time on your day (and hopefully on the days that came after that!). I owe you a fic! Hopefully when I'm not so busy I will give it to you ^^ any preferences?

Sleepy

2008-08-20T07:40:19Z

So it's 3.30 in the morning here and I'm awake.

Why? I just came back from a trip with my mom to the hospital. She was feeling like crap and her blood pressure was sky high. They took tests and gave her something for now and tomorrow (today) she'll have to go to her personal doctor to check on her meds and stuff.

It wasn't really scary, but still...

And I have classes tomorrow (today) at 8.30. Fun.

My weeeek

2008-08-15T16:57:16Z

So, my life? Let's review the highlights of the week.

On Monday I had geology. It's gonna be hard, again (this is level III). The good thing is that I can pass this class with only attendance and going to all the field trips. Everything else I do for it is a plus!

I also had English. See, I know my English is pretty good. Not perfect, of course, I still have a lot to learn, but it's good enough for me to being able to translate freaking geography texts to my classmates for the past two years before having this class! So, I don't need it. Seriously. I didn't know how to tell my teacher that, though. He was blunt enough to say that, because I took the test to not do the class two years ago, my English is probably not good enough now and I should have done the class before (this is level III, too). I kept telling him I wanted to do the test again to not do his class, but he said it was out of his hands.

I like English, is my favorite language to learn because, as much as I love Japanese, is freaking hard to learn. English is not. For me, in any case. I could move right now to an English-speaking country and survive without any trouble. I did that last summer! Most of the books I read are in English, I have a journal where I always write in English! I don't need a class were the level is way too basic for me to actually learn something, specially if my English is actually at the same level than the teacher! Not that I will ever say that to him, but if I have to do this class... I mean, the British guy that teaches the lower levels knows me and likes me because I can speak with him in English when nobody else does. He told I shouldn't do this class. Sadly, he doesn't teach it.

Moving on...

On Tuesday I had rural geography. I won't like this class. I know that because I don't like the teacher (I had classes with her before) and because I don't like the subject. I've never been a fan of the countryside. I don't hate it, but I'm a city girl, I get bored easily with the quiet and the living far away of everything and everyone. I am not, in any case, an idiot when it comes to it, though. I lived in the countryside for two years when I was growing up. That's why I know I don't like it. I won't react like a city kid that has never been in the countryside like the teacher expect us all to react. I hate it when teachers do that.

I started my last semester of GIS on Wednesday. I have a new teacher for that class, someone with a plan. Someone that wants us to do stuff with all the GIS (geographic information systems) programs we can get our hands on. I kinda like him. Still, it worries me that the last three semesters with this class we have barely learned the stuff we need to know now for what the teacher wants us to do. He's gonna get frustrated. And so will we. Hopefully, though, we will manage to make something useful out of some middle ground. Hopefully.

Berni came to my house that afternoon. We talked a little about the worrying future of our adulthood (I know, "fun"). I also talked to her about NEWS and JE. She's not gonna loved them like Nataly and Lupe do after I attacked with info and clips and stuff about them, but she's gonna give them a chance, that's good enough for me.

Speaking of that, I now have the complete dvd that came out that day subbed thanks to newshfan, but I'm not gonna watch anything until I get my own copy, that should get here next week. And then I'm gonna wait until I can go to Valparaiso and watch it with Daniela. It's fun to just watch it, but it's a lot more fun to watch it with friends!

On Thursday I didn't have classes. I'm suppose to have soil geography? ground geography? I don't know how to translate the name of that class. Is about the ground. The teacher made a mistake about the hour of the class and got pissed because we didn't show up, but of course we didn't show up because that wasn't the hour we got for the class! Not our fault! So I got out of bed that day for nothing. Sigh.

This week I finished cleaning my room. It looks pretty nice now. I don't think it's gonna last long, so I will take pictures, but today the weather is depressing and it looks darker than it really is.

I found out a few hours ago that we at least got one olympic medal this year at the olympic games. Of course, in tennis. We did extremely good in Athens on that. We won gold, bronze and gold again in the pairs competition. It was pretty awesome, even if I say so myself. This time around we kinda screw everything up, but at least González is up to gold or silver in two days! Yay!

I have more ideas to write. Hopefully I'll do that this weekend, before things get tough in school.

Something else? No, I don't think so.

That VOICE!

2008-08-11T01:59:56Z

So, back in the day? I watched a lot of anime. It's been a while since then. Last year I probably watched two, a series about baseball and a movie about time travel. Loved them both. Still, I just don't watch anime the same way anymore. Is too tiresome.

Still, because Liz and Lupe talked really well of this one, and Berni made me a copy with all the episodes, as an "end of vacation" goodbye list, I decided to watch Lovely Complex. It's been nice so far, cute, and I certainly can't show it to my mom cus she's gonna laugh for all the wrong reasons (my mom is around 15 centimeters taller than my dad).

I love Seiko-chan and it's kind of amazing finding the opposite case to Nao in Kinpachi-sensei in so little time (I've just finish watching that drama two days ago). Here is a girl trapped in a boy's body while Nao is the other way around, and Seiko-chan's way more comfortable with it than Nao is, though by the end of the drama, with the support of his classmates (and then in season 7, when he finally starts treatment) he does get more comfortable with his own skin.

In any case, that's not why I came here to write. I came here to vent. Because Haruka is driving me crazy!! Is not the character's fault, is his voice!!!

See, back in the day when I watched lots of anime? I was VERY good with the seiyuus. The voices of the characters. I had a thing for Seki Tomokazu, a tendency to fall in love with ALL his characters. Shindou Shuuichi, Hidaka Ken, Souma Kyou... in some cases I even liked the characters in manga before any anime version, and Seki still managed to show up there and make me love him even more.

Now, Seki doesn't give Haruka his voice. I know that. The problem is I can recognize that freaking voice but I can't remember the name, and I WANT to go look for the name, but at the same time, I want to remember by myself. This voice can't win over me!

I'm frustrated, that's why I'm here to vent.

And, you know, to not think that tomorrow I have classes again.

Fic: Study Group

2008-08-09T16:11:32Z

Title: Study Group
Fandom: JE, NEWS, KAT-TUN
Characters: Nakamaru, Massu, the rest of NEWS
Summary: Nakamaru is desperate for a place to study in peace. Massu may be the one to find it for him.
Notes: For the Massu-thon. Prompt nº57, ANYTHING INVOLVING MASSU AND NAKAMARU BEING CUTE AND BFF-Y. They're not exactly cute, but Massu getting Nakamaru what he needed works the BFF part!

Thinking back now, Nakamaru had always know, in the back of his mind, that it would be problematic. What surprises him, though, when he tries to analyze his decision, is that he's going through with it anyway, even when he thinks his end is a cold staircase in the six floor, all alone with his books.
It isn't his bandmates' fault. They are not obnoxious on purpose. Akanishi has always sing from the top of his lungs with his made up English lyrics (or what everyone hopes is English) when he's bored, and Ueda plays whatever instrument he has at hand just to try and tune Akanishi out. Taguchi tries time and again to make conversation between them all, and Koki and Kame like to practice when they have the time.
Before, he didn't mind much. He practiced his beatboxing with Koki and laughed at Taguchi's lame jokes. Everyone did his own thing and nobody cared they were being loud. They leave the concentration and the quiet to rehearsals and photoshoots and meeting. In the dressing room? Just chaos is let in.
But things are different now. He's a university student now.
He needs concentration during every free minute he has between photoshoots, recordings and dance lessons. He needs to study. He actually likes learning his stuff, something that is only for him to know, in a sense. It makes him feel special. But he just can't study in the dressing room when everyone else is there making noise. He doesn't think it's fair to ask them to be quiet for him, either.

Once he realizes he isn't going to be able to ever study with his bandmates close by, he starts looking around the building.
Popular belief says that, if you want privacy, you can take one of the empty rehearsal room. This is not actually true. Mostly because you never know which room is going to be empty and for how long, so he just waste more time looking for an empty room and making sure it stays empty than using it for his studies.
Then, he tries the cafeteria. That is a one time only. His longest break is always around lunch time, and he likes to take full advantage of that, but around lunch time, as is expected, the place is packed with people working for the agency and juniors running around everywhere. The one time he is there, two tables down there's some kind of competition going on between the members of Kisumai that involves doing commercial impersonations with food on their mouths, and Kawai as judge. When that inevitably evolves in a food fight, Nakamaru has to get out before any junior uses him as shield.
Corridors were a no-no because it involves even more juniors running around and there is no hour of the day when a hallway is quiet.
That leaves him the fire-scape stairs, that are way too cold, even in spring, but he sits down anyway and opens his book. It is always quiet there, so he thinks it's going to work. This is going to be him from now on, in a cold staircase, in the hard ground, making every minute count.

"What are you doing here?"
Nakamaru is startled and hits his head with the wall when he looks up. Masuda is standing in front of him, curiosity in his eyes.
"Ah, hi. I'm, just..." he looks back down at his book and the notebook on his side. "Studying."
He feels embarrassed, like he's caught doing something weird. He knows Masuda isn't one to judge, not him or his bandmates, but he doesn't want to explain his situation.
"Huh." Masuda doesn't question him further, thankfully. But he does say, "you look hungry."
Nakamaru blinks. He didn't expect that comment. Then he thinks about it for a second, and realizes that, even if Masuda isn't all about food, it's still an important part of his life, and one that, for once, likes to share with others.
And he is kind of hungry. It is lunch time.
It is then that he realizes Masuda is carrying two full bags of food with him. He knows his friend eats a lot, but it seems a little overboard...
Masuda is looking around one of the bags, and then he turns again to Nakamaru with a smile.
"There's enough here. Come on."
He picks up Nakamaru's notebook from the ground and make a gesture to follow him. Nakamaru gets on his feet and does exactly that. Masuda keeps walking up the stairs until the next floor.
"Why were you taking the stairs?"
"I decided to buy lunch out today. Tegoshi got tired of eating the cafeteria's ramen."
That doesn't really answer his question, but Nakamaru leaves it at that, and decides not to ask why Masuda is buying Tegoshi lunch in any case. He has heard from Koki how people like to spoil the younger idol even when they know they shouldn't, so he figures this is one of those times.
When they get to NEWS' dressing room, though, he realizes it is a little more than that.

KAT-TUN' dressing room is chaotic and loud. NEWS', instead, is chaotic and, well, quiet.
The five other members of NEWS gather all around the small table they have in the middle of the room. Kato is sitting on the ground at one end of the table, completely engrossed in a huge book he's reading. At his side is Tegoshi, writing with a certain desperation on a small pink and black laptop. On the couch is Yamashita reading what looks like a script, with Nishikido's head carefully placed on his lap, and the Osaka man is sleeping soundly. Books, notebooks and scripts are spread everywhere on, below and around the table and Koyama keeps moving them trying to make space to put cups of tea for everyone to drink.
"The food is here." Masuda announces, giving his bandmates a huge smile.
Koyama seems to be the only one to hear him and looks up with a smile in return. He stands up to help with the bags and then looks behind Masuda.
"Eh? Nakamaru?" Koyama sees him by the door and makes a motion to let him in. "KAT-TUN is also here today?"
"Uh, yeah. We are on a lunch break right now."
"So you're joining us?"
Massu answers for him with a nod. "He needs to study, ne."
That comment makes Tegoshi look up.
"Ne, how's school going? You haven't asked for my advice yet." He makes a pout and Nakamaru feels a little guilty for that old comment showing up in a newspaper. "I've been waiting," the younger boy insists.
He doesn't manage an answer when Kato starts moving the heaviest books around causing more sound that it is intended and waking up Nishikido.
"What the hell, Shige?" Complains the older boy moving out of Yamashita's lap, and sitting properly.
"Sorry, I can't find my criminal law stats book." Kato looks at Tegoshi with a frown, but the other boy just denies taking it, then he looks at Yamashita.
"I'm playing a doctor, not a lawyer. I didn't take it."
"I did," Nishikido admits, rubbing his hand on his face, trying to wake up. "I left it in the corner yesterday." He points at a pile of books in the far end of the dressing room. "You need better books, Shige. The cases in there are from forty years ago, there's no way those apply anymore."
"Why did you take it, then?" Kato complains when he finally found it and comes back to sit where he was.
Nishikido gives him a crooked smile. "I needed something to fall sleep."
Kato snorts, but doesn't say anything else, and the rest just laughs. Masuda and Koyama start giving the others a box each with a pair of chopsticks. Masuda moves around more books from the table to make space for Nakamaru. He places the notebook he had with him and a box with food, and makes Nakamaru sit there like it is completely normal. Koyama then gives him a cup of tea, and continues to help around with the lunches.
"Ah, kurobuta! Thanks, Massu!" Yamashita smiles when he see the food. He leaves his script aside and starts eating.
The others do the same except for Tegoshi, who seems eager to finish whatever it is he's writing first.
"Yes! Done!" He exclaims moments later, and turns his laptop to Koyama. "Can you read it now?" He gives his laptop to Koyama and starts to eat his lunch.
Nakamaru doesn't know exactly what to do. Nobody seems to be questioning his presence there, though they seem kind of busy to notice, too. He looks at Masuda, sitting on the ground not far from him, eating his food happily.
"Are you sure this is OK?" He asks his friend, still nervous.
"You need to study, right?" Masuda points the book Nakamaru still has on his hand. "Tegoshi and the others need to study, too," he says, and continues to eat.
He looks around one more time. Now Nishikido is eating and complaining to Yamashita about something he read in his script, Kato writes stuff in a notebook from what he is reading between bites and Koyama laughs at something he reads in Tegoshi's report. "I'm pretty sure you were trying to say 'old-style', not 'lunar calendar', right? Or at least, I hope so..."
"Eh? Really?" Tegoshi places his food down to check what Koyama points out.
And Masuda keeps eating quietly.
Then, Nishikido seems to finally notice Nakamaru is there.
"If you're gonna study that's fine. What's not fine is your homework involving checking us out like we're a freak show," he complains, making Nakamaru stop what he's doing to look back at him. "Stop. Staring."
"Uh, yes. Right."
He does just that. He opens his book again and keeps on reading while eating what he is sure is Masuda's extra portion for himself.

Now, ending up like this he didn't expect at all, but maybe, in the back of his mind, he knew all along it was going to work out somehow, and that's why he's going through with it. It is worth it on a lot of different levels.

The End

Fic: Dating?

2008-08-09T04:45:38Z

Title: Dating?
Fandom: JE, TegoMass
Characters: Massu, Tegoshi
Summary: Tegoshi finally pops the question.
Notes: This is for tsubasa_lupin, fluff-y tegomass for you!

One sunny day at the beginning of August, the question hanging between them is finally asked.
"Ne, Massu, are we dating?"
Massu looks up from the strawberry ice cream they decided to share when neither was satisfied with the first ice cream they ate. He has just realized he ate half of it and the other half, then, is Tegoshi's, but his friend is not eating it.
"What brings the question?" he asks, frowning a little because so much ice cream makes his head hurt a little.
"That's what everyone is saying, right? That the stuff we do together equals dating."
Massu looks at the ice cream and then back to Tegoshi. His friend looks like he has given the subject a lot of thought, so maybe the ice cream can wait.
"You think we shouldn't go out together as much?"
"No. I like going out with you."
They both smile.
"Well, I like going out with you too."
Massu assumes the subject is dropped, but Tegoshi still won't eat his share of the ice cream. Massu thinks that's a terrible waste because the ice cream is melting away and soon neither of them will be able to eat it.
"Where would you take a girl on a date?" Tegoshi asks, never looking at the ice cream like Massu does.
He sighs.
"Don't we answer to that every two magazine interviews?"
"Yeah, but..."
"I would take her to eat ice cream."
Massu hopes Tegoshi takes the hint and eats the ice cream, but instead, the younger boy seems to shine with realization.
"We are dating!"
Massu stops looking at the ice cream. He thinks about it.
Huh.
"Does this mean I can take your share?" He decides, then. "You're not eating it."
Tegoshi blinks.
"Wouldn't that mean we're not sharing and you just bought another ice cream for yourself and not one for your date?" He frowns. "You're not a very good date."
"You are the one that's calling this dating."
"Well, you implied it."
"Yes, but-"
Massu can't finish his sentence because right then Tegoshi shoves a spoon full of strawberry ice cream into his mouth.
"This is the way to do it." Tegoshi explains, as the older of the two swallows. "Because I'm a very good date."
Massu blushes when Tegoshi takes another piece of ice cream with the spoon and offers it to him. He ponders for a moment if this dating thing is going to get more complicated, but then he realizes they've been doing it for a while now, and seems to work for them both. He accepts the offer.
"You can't be better than me if we're doing it at the same time," he reasons, after a while.
"I wait for you in every place we go shopping," Tegoshi responds trying to win one over him.
"I let you win at bowling."
"What? Wait-"
Tegoshi can't finish his protest with his mouth full of ice cream provided by Massu's quick spoon.
"We're sharing, right?" Massu smiles at the surprised look of his companion. "I'm being a good date."
Tegoshi swallows and can't help but smile back.
"Then you have to let me decide which songs we sing at karaoke."
Massu laughs.
"Tegoshi, you already do that."
"I know, because we're dating."
They both nod and exchange more spoons full of strawberry ice cream.
"Because we're dating."

The End

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

2008-08-08T04:41:42Z

Now I'm three days away of going back to classes. And I've been true to my word. I spend less time around here during vacation time that when I'm busy with school.

In any case, on monday I went to see the Batman movie with Nataly. It was pretty cool. I'm gonna miss Heath Ledger. I managed to enjoy the movie even with a HUGE headache bothering me. I've been having some of those in the past few months, and that bugs me, but is never bad enough to cause problems.

I went to cut my hair after that. I don't know if I like the end result yet, but still, I needed the change. I get bored easily with my hair, and I won't dye it until summer, so the cut was a good idea.

on tuesday I went to visit Misa and her baby. She seems to be a lucky mom, cus her kid is usually quiet and sleeps most of the night. Isn't that awesome for a one month old? She showed me a video of her wedding, and really, I don't like traditional catholic weddings cus I'm not a believer, but she did look beautiful with the white dress and stuff. I'm kind of glad I was in the States back then, though, cus going to that wedding meant wearing a formal dress and hills. No thank you.

Wednesday was Berni's day. I went to her place and we drank too much coffee and she gave me anime to watch. I think I'll try one tomorrow, as part of my "stuff to do on vacation" list. I'm glad she called me and we got together. I'm awful at keeping in touch sometimes, but is so easy to spend the time with her, and with Eduardo, whom I expect to see soon because I've still his b-day present around here somewhere.

Today I went downtown to pay my mom's bills and buy my grandma's really expensive pills. And then I got my room half-clean. I'm still working on it. I've also started writing again, thankfully. I haven't finish my book, though, and I want to do that by tomorrow.

I also want to go have lunch with my dad. Maybe visit Alejandra. Manage to get my mom out of the house when her work is finished would be awesome!

And then classes again. Sigh. Well, until september anyway.

Keeping busy

2008-08-04T04:42:13Z

Three days into my week vacation and I've already accomplished several things I had wanted to do for a while now.

We went out to eat as a family to a Swedish restaurant because my mom wanted to try fondue. Then everything else in the menu reminded her of something her mom used to cook when she was little and everything she eat at home was in German. I actually asked for something I didn't know what it was and tried some of the stuff that were around in the table. Yummy.

Before that I went with my dad and one of my brothers to the stadium to watch a soccer game. It's been years since I had gone, so I decided to go with them after I actually convinced them to go. Our team won, so we left the place really happy and nobody destroyed anything (that I know of). We had no mayor issues with the police except for the fact they kept not paying attention to me when we went in and I keep thinking it would be really easy for me to kill someone inside because they would never, ever, consider me a suspect.

I'm also half way through my first vacation book. I'm reading Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams. I'm guessing I'll be giving this book to my mom after I finish it, cus it's just her style to want to go visit lost islands with endangered species and take pictures of them. Just the kind of thing I will never do because as much as I love the stuff I watch in the Discovery Channel, I'm much of a paranoiac to go to a place where the list of ways I can die doubles just by trying to get there.

Alejandra and her boyfriend came by just a little while ago to pick up my mom's laptop, cus I asked him to fix it so it'll have all the programs my mom wants in it. Yes, I am that good of a daughter. And I shouldn't be, cus I've just found out my mom watched my Saint Patrick's Day's pictures that I stupidly left in the laptop for her to find. Fuck it. I didn't want my mom seeing me in that state. I know there's a video in there when I'm trying to bust a friend's confidence by telling her her boobs are great and then the two of us (Milagros and I), plus Jessica, danced too close to each other for the camera and it was more ridiculous than sexy and I was (kind of) drunk. Argh.

Tomorrow I'm going to the movies with Nataly and then I'm cutting my hair. I've had enough of it already. On tuesday I'm visiting Misa and her baby and sometime on friday I have to check on Alejandra to let her complain about work because she wasn't able to do much of it tonight.

I have to call Berni and Vesna and Josemar one of this days. To have coffee at least. I miss them, and I know it will be Cesar's birthday soon, and I want to see him, so hopefully everything between him and Vesna is going fine.

Katia's birthday is the week after this one, and I have to send her at least a postcard. I haven't talk to her since last year, and she hasn't post anything in her LJ. I know she was planning on traveling outside of Mexico for some time, but she would have say something, right? I'm worried. I could call her home, but I'm always an idiot on the phone. I know I should try writing her an e-mail, and I will. When did I became such a lousy mail-writer? That's how we first communicated, before blogs and LJs. Then things became easier and I became lazy.

I have manage to make a decent order of my PC, though. I have all my music in one place again, which is a lot to say, considering it's over 30 GB of files and mp3s. I'm also coping every drama and tv show I have in dvds and in order. Which means I also started downloading the stuff I was missing to have complete sets. Buffy, Farscape and the season I didn't have from Scrubs are now downloading.

Considering I haven't have a real vacation since the last winter vacation last year, cus the vacation in september it was kinda messy and I didn't have any summer vacation, I'm doing pretty good organizing my time!

Feet Pain

2008-07-31T23:54:34Z

I have my grade. I passed without problem. I won't have to worry about an exam. Yay!

BUT, the moment I came back home, because it is my mom's b-day, there was a bunch of food waiting for me. I lost count of the amount of empanadas I ate today.

So, my stomach hurts. And because I've been so worried lately my head kinda hurts and my body is dead tired.

And I decided to watch V6's last appearance in Hey!x3 (that you can download here)

Fuck. I almost fell out of my chair. Gods, Macchan in pain was hilarious enough, but Okada?? For a moment there I really thought he wasn't gonna feel anything (he IS really stoic!), but I couldn't help but laugh hard and loud seeing him in immediate pain XD

Damn Japanese people, their tv shows are full of crazy stunts that shouldn't amuse me so much!

Great for my mood, though.

Killing time

2008-07-31T04:05:21Z

I've been in an Arashi kinda mood lately so I watched MatsuJun's SCP interview.

So Arashi isn't all about rainbows and member ai as one may think. Good. it would be sickening otherwise. They get along just fine and they like each other, but that doesn't mean MatsuJun doesn't get fed up with Nino's pranks and his passive aggressive behavior. And both him and Sho have strong personalities, so I'm sure their discussions can turn really interesting. A little freaky that Ohno does live up to his reputation of odd old man, though.

And I got confirmation of the weird relationship Jun has with Ryo and Jin. Drinking buddies. Ryo calling him Jun-san sounded a little off, though. Jun isn't as much of a senpai for him to call him that. I woulda loved to watch a message from Jin to Jun too, though. Just to see if he acts like a good little kouhai too. Both Ryo and Jin can be so camera shy is cute. But those two drunk are probably a pain in the ass, why does Jun stand them?

It's seems there's no SCP yet for Sho and Nino, that are my favorites. Not fair. I don't think Nino is a great conversationalist, but Sho is. He probably has a lot of interesting things to say.

I got my hands into a lot of Arashi clips. Until I find out my grade, I'm watching them. I won't be on vacation until I get that grade, so I haven't call anyone to go out and enjoy the free time. I'm not going to until that grade shows up, so I'm stuck with Arashi for a while.

I'm not writing either. It's like I can't concentrate until I get out of the hole and finish the freaking semester.

I did watch Densha Otoko the movie (cute and hey, Eita is in it!) and the Taiwanese drama Rolling Love (what? I like Jiro). I'm probably watching one of the Arashi movies next.

This is a little depressing. I'm not even reading fics. Or books, for that matter.

GAH

2008-07-28T21:23:20Z

I'm not officially on vacation yet. I still need to know my grade in the last Geobiography test to know if I need to give an exam to past the class or not. So far I haven't done so well. I just found out the test from last friday where I thought I did good, I didn't, and I'm kind of piss about it, because it's not the same to do bad when you don't know shit and do bad when you think you did good and didn't. I had good grades in that class and now my final grade dropped and I don't really know why. Not fair. I HAVE to do better next semester. I don't care much for classes were the teachers are crappy, but I liked Geoeconomy and I liked the teacher, just like I like Territorial Organization and its teacher, and I did crappy in his test too, though that's for a valid reason (I was feeling like shit). I don't care about Geobiography or the teacher, though, but I don't want to give an exam and suffer through that.

What did made me feel better after the last long, long week, was spending the weekend with Daniela. We went to see the X Files movie (She liked it, I didn't, but it was still fun), and watched JE concerts and Shokura episodes and a musical with D-boys in it until six in the morning. It was really nice to ramble with her about nothing important and enjoy the winter vacation even though I'm still not free from school.

Now I have the week ahead of me, hopefully I'll know my grade soon and get out of that mess to be able to enjoy the nothing to do days and watch dramas and such. And I have to buy my mom a present for her up coming birthday. That's about it. Writing? Hopefully.

Oh, Lupe had this and I asked for it so I guess I should put it here too. Meme where, if you comment, I will:

a) tell you why I friend-ed you,
b) associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.,
c) tell you something I like about you,
d) tell you a memory I have of you,
e) ask something I've always wanted to know about you,
f) tell you my favorite user pic of yours,
g) and in return, you must post this in your journal.

About that drama...

2008-07-23T22:17:42Z

Ok, everyone has been talking about Nino and Ryo's new drama on october. I wasn't gonna mention it because, well, everyone has been talking about it!! But now, really...

Kudo Kankuro is working the script?? FOR REAL???

I was gonna watch it. I mean, the story sounded appealing enough to check it out. And It's Nino. And Ryo! Together! (And Erika, whom I also like, but that's beside the point and not enough reason for me to like something)

But now Kudo Kankuro is behind it? I'm gonna freaking LOVE IT! All the actors can drop out if they want. I'm gonna watch it anyway!

Does this mean all the other roles are for some of the familiar faces of Kudo's other works? He's doing the script based on a book, so it's gonna be different. And his three main leads are guys he hadn't work before with. Hopefully it pans out. I mean, it's KUDO KANKURO!

So what? I love the guy.

Fic: Singing, Acting, Eating and Doing the Hip Roll Together

2008-07-20T06:53:07Z

Title: Singing, Acting, Eating And Doing The Hip Roll Together
Fandom: JE, NEWS, KAT-TUN
Characters: Jin, Massu (plus Yamapi, Ryo, the rest of NEWS, Nakamaru, the Shirota brothers, and mentions of the rest of KAT-TUN and Jin's brother)
Notes: For the Massu-thon, even if it is more about Jin than Massu. It involves a little bit of every prompt with Jin in it, but it started as a response to nº16 Jin tries to teach Massu how to dance.

- "YOU, work together!"

"Huh?"
"This is still a preliminary talk, there's nothing official about it yet, but Johnny-san seems quite convinced that this will work perfectly for the both of you."
Jin still can't take his eyes off the managers. He folds his arms and frowns.
"You're shitting me."
KAT-TUN's manager coughs and ignores the curse.
"We're being serious, Akanishi-kun. We're looking for the right project for the two of you and once that's done the unit will be announced. If you have suggestions until then they'll be well received."
Jin takes his eyes off his manager to look at the boy next to him. He's smiling happily, like there's nothing wrong with all this!
"He already has a unit!" Jin exclaims, pointing at him.
"When that has that ever stopped anyone here?" retorts dryly the other manager. He's NEWS' manager.
"True." Jin doesn't know what else to say.
It isn't so much that he's against it, but he doesn't understand the point behind it all. Does this mean he'll have to act fluffy and cute for the next two or three months?
"Wait. What are you gonna call us?" he asks, alarmed. All the possible variations of mixing up their names come up in his head and nothing sounds right. He'll die first than let the managers call them 'MASSIN'. He can picture Ryo quite easily laughing his ass off after hearing about all this. Damn it.
How a unit between sexy playboy Akanishi Jin and sweet, innocent Masuda Takahisa is ever going to work?

- NEWS

When Pi and the rest of NEWS find out, Ryo laughs so hard he falls off his chair.
Jin's mood is going down pretty fast. He wants Pi to make it all better, but doesn't want to deal with Ryo. It isn't fair.
"It's completely fair. This was your exact reaction when you saw the PV for 'It's My Soul'!" Ryo exclaims, once he calms down and Pi helps him getting up. "The boss is clearly lacking better ideas if he wants to pull this off."
"I think it's great. It helps groups have a closer relationship!" says Koyama, patting Jin in the back, smiling. "Now we'll have a closer relationship with KAT-TUN."
Jin forces himself to smile back. It's a nice thought, but he remembers how everyone reacted when Kame went off to work with Pi in Shuuji To Akira. Pi's relationship with KAT-TUN didn't improve after that. Units aren't perceived as good ideas to his bandmates, but as opportunities to show off and leave the others behind.
"I don't like it." Tegoshi finally speaks. The younger boy looked deep in thought before, and a little hurt. "There's something wrong with TegoMass? Why are they moving Massu with Akanishi-kun?"
"Because he needs it," Ryo explains, pointing at Jin. "Not Massu, or you," he says, ignoring Jin's attempt to protest. "He's probably pissing off the boss again and now he's forced to work on a sweet and nice image for a while."
"Johnny-san could have him working with TegoMass instead of just Massu," Tegoshi insists.
"You have exams coming up next month,” Kato interrupts. "You should be grateful Johnny-san is giving you room to study."
Tegoshi's going to keep protesting, and so is Jin, because he has not done anything wrong (this time) and he doesn't deserve any punishment, but his eyes meet Pi, and his best friend is smiling.
"Just give your best," Pi says, with the confidence of been there, done that, and Jin figures it is as good a reason as any to be confident. "You'll do just fine. Don't worry so much."
Jin sighs and looks back to his new bandmate.
Massu keeps smiling like the situation isn't weird at all.

- KAT-TUN

"So, Masuda told me about the unit."
Nakamaru comes to find him before meeting the rest of the group. Today they are going to be informed about the new development. Right after that Jin has another meeting and this time, he hopes they'll tell him what exactly are they suppose to do.
"Did you tell the others?" Jin doesn't know what's worse, having the group prepared to express their anger or let them improvise in the middle of the meeting. "How mad are you?"
Nakamaru blinks, looking a little confused.
"I haven't talk to anyone," he says. "And I'm not mad... I'm just worried."
"About what?" Now Jin is confused.
"Well, you and Masuda don't have a lot in common." Nakamaru looks down, a little embarrassed. "Masuda's a cool guy, OK? Just, be patient with him."
He doesn't say more and goes inside the meeting room. Jin gets a few more seconds to prepare for whatever reaction the others will come up with.

- Past Tense

"I heard the KAT-TUN meeting was quite an event this morning."
"Oh, shut up."
Jin wants to keep reading the magazine in his hands, but Pi's in a teasing mood.
"I heard that was exactly the problem," Pi insists. "No one said anything!"
Jin moves away from the couch when Pi sits next to him.
"It went just fine. Drop it."
"I will when you understand why I'm making fun of you." Pi becomes serious. Jin has to stop acting like he's busy with something else. "You do know, right?"
"Because I was a pain in the ass when Shuuji To Akira was formed," he finally admits.
"And you've been acting like the world is out to get you now because..."
Jin sighs.
"Because," he pauses, passes a hand through his hair, "I was afraid everyone would treat me like crap just like we did with Kame."
"And me," Pi adds. "Your group wasn't that nice to me around that time either."
He doesn't need to voice that their friendship wasn't much of a friendship back then either.
Units make life difficult. That's what Jin thinks. He doesn't want to be in anything but KAT-TUN.
"They didn't treat you like crap this time, though," Pi reasons.
"But it was worse! They acted like they were OK with it when they weren't, I could tell." Everyone was uncomfortable with the subject, even Kame. It brought bad memories. "The only one to say anything was Nakamaru and he only said that Massu's a cool guy and I should be patient. I don't know what that means!"
Pi moves closer to Jin and places his hands on Jin's shoulders, trying to calm him down. Then he makes Jin sit next to him in the couch again.
"Have you talked to Massu about all this?" he asks. "Cus, you know, you should have started from there. See how you two can work something out."
He hasn't. He has been freaking out about his group and how all this was not going to work because he doesn't sing cutie pie songs anymore. It's been two days and he hasn't have a decent conversation with the guy he's gonna be working with, like it or not, for the next few months. That isn't fair to Massu.
"You have his phone number?"

- Bonding Over Food

One of the few things Jin actually knows of Massu for sure is that the younger guy likes food. Jin himself is very fond of food so maybe they can start the necessary bonding there. He invites Massu to eat.
"Nagano-kun told me to ask for the house specialty the last time we were here. It was pretty good."
"You get along with Nagano-kun?"
"A little. He knows a lot about food."
OK, so food is the right way to go, it seems. Now what?
Silence. Except for a few comments about food the two of them share, Jin can't find another good topic of conversation. He can't read Massu to know if he's comfortable or not.
When the food finally comes and Massu smiles, he decides to get to the point.
"Um, I know I haven't show the best disposition to work on this unit..."
"Yeah, you seemed a little upset when they told us."
Jin has to laugh at that. Yeah, he was a little upset. He acted like a brat, but Massu doesn't look too troubled about it.
"My group doesn't deal with change very well," is his excuse.
Massu doesn't answer to that because he's busy eating. Jin wonders if this is going to be it, because he doesn't know what else to say about it. So he decides to do the same and eat.
"Wow," he manages, once he tries the shabushabu Massu suggested for him. He remembers eating ox in America somewhere, but it tastes really different here. "This is delicious!" he exclaims, and then eats some more.
"I know!" Massu nods, and shows he's enjoying his plate too.
They don't say more for the rest of the main course. Now, though, Jin understands that Massu really likes food, and that he's having a good time enjoying the food, so the silence doesn't bother him. Jin's like that sometimes when he goes out with Pi and Yuu and they are too tired to talk, they just buy something tasty and eat like the world is about to end. Ryo comes with them sometimes, but he doesn't seem to get it the same way. He's glad he at least has one good thing in common with Massu for real.
"So," he starts again, once they ask for some dessert. "What do you think of all this?"
Massu takes his time to answer. Jin wonders if maybe he hasn't thought about it at all. He hasn't hear Massu voice his opinion on anything that has been discussed this past two days.
"I don't know how our voices will sound together."
Jin blinks. "Our voices?"
"Yeah. Your voice has a wider range than mine, right? Like Tegoshi's, a little bit, but yours can be more raspy, I guess," Massu starts moving his hands to explain what he was saying, and it looks weird because his hands are exemplifying voices. "I've been wondering what would be like if instead of going with high notes like I usually try with Tegoshi, we get a song with a lower sound. I think it would be fun because I don't do it often but I don't really know if I can do it right with you just yet."
Jin's following the hand gestures, but then he goes back to Massu's face and his smile and realizes he hasn't thought about all that at all. About the music. He thought about the image, the interaction, what everyone else is going to say about it. He actually thought about the lyrics and how they are probably gonna be sweet and innocent, but not about the sound of it. He knows that's because the music has never been an issue. He sings songs he like and songs he doesn't like and most of the time he nails them and everyone praise him because his voice is great. The only times KAT-TUN's voice coach pays any attention to him is when the group sings together and they can't seem to harmonize to save their lives, but that's (almost) never his fault.
But Massu has been giving it some thought. He has been thinking about making good music for them to enjoy doing it.
Except for listening to 'Miso Soup' in the countdowns, Jin has never pay much attention to TegoMass. The songs aren't his style. Maybe that has to change.
"You wanna go to karaoke after this?"
Massu gives him a blinding smile.

- Storytelling

They finally get a script for a drama two days later. It seems the script was an old project for some other unit that was never formed (Jin doesn't have the courage to ask what happened there), and it looks like the screenwriter is available to work in the plot once more. The story looks simple at first, but once he finishes what's the outline for the pilot episode Jin is left wondering if he has the acting skills to pull it off.
At the beginning the story shows Jin's character and the care-free life he lives in Hakone. Then he gets in a car accident and meets Massu's character, a newcomer to the town. Their friendship doesn't spark anything particularly different, though Massu's character seems to be hiding something. Then everything changes and Jin's character starts to see ghosts because of his accident. That reminds Jin of something he once watched with Okada-kun and Nagase when they were younger. It wasn't that good of a drama, that one, but it got both Okada-kun and Nagase were they are now, so maybe it can be kind of cool. But then, things change again in the script, because Massu's character gets killed, and he has no idea who killed him or how he die, so Jin's character has to help him out. The big question is, why does all this happens in the first place?
"You'll have to ask the screenwriter that," suggests Yuu, after Jin gets all his friends into reading the script so they could help him out. "It got us wondering, though. That's good."
"Massu's character is very Massu-like," Pi comments. "But, you know, dead."
"And hiding something," Ryo adds. "I may actually watch this. Even if it has you both on it." As close as reassurement from Ryo, Jin guesses.
"So you're singing the ending of this?" Asks Jun, after everyone gets a suggestion on what, exactly, could have happened to Massu's character.
"Usually they use whatever song we've been working on at the time for the drama one of us in KAT-TUN is gonna act in, but I don't know how this is gonna go," he admits.
Ryo snorts.
"This means for once they're doing it right!" he explains. "You guys can work on a song that makes sense with the story."
"Probably a slow song." Yuu assumes. "It won't be too corny, at least." He pats Jin in the back.
"It won't be slutty, though," says Jun, and with a little cynic smile he adds. "I don't think you'll get a hip roll opportunity. Poor you."
Jin feels his world crashing down.

- The Hip Issue

The next day there's another meeting and the unit's single is discussed. They are going to record two songs, actually. The main one is for the drama, and, as Yuu said, it's a slow song about faith and lost love. The second one, that gets Jin's complete attention, is going to be a special treat to keep the unit going a little longer, it has dance steps and the lyrics are more provocative. This second song's going to be part of the regular edition of the single, because the limited is going to have a bigger booklet and maybe a DVD if everything works fine. Another two songs will be added from a list of old songs they have sang in concerts before.
The meeting ends informing them that next week they are going to be full on working on their vocalization and they have a trip to Hakone planned to see the shooting location for the drama, so they better enjoy their last free sunday for a while.
Jin decides not to lose any time and invites Massu over to his house. His parents are out of town and he kicks Reio out with the excuse that he's needed at Jun's store. On a sunday. Yes, he isn't the only 'Bakanishi' of the family.
After Massu lets him know he cares about their voices working together, Jin starts thinking of every technical issue he usually ignores because he doesn't have a problem with it in KAT-TUN or because someone else solves it for him. Going to karaoke with Massu twice helps them both to get familiar with their voices, and they manage to sing pretty decent versions of several Kinki Kids songs.
But what concerns him the most is the dance. Ryo told him Massu's a little freaky in that respect, because he can remember complicated dance moves like he just made them up. This is fine by Jin, but it doesn't mean Massu can dance the way Jin wants them to dance.
So he decides to teach Massu the hip roll.
"Is not that hard, if you let yourself go." He tries to explain. He knows he isn't that good of a teacher, most of the stuff he's good at come naturally, but Massu's paying attention, so maybe he isn't doing it wrong. "If Kame can do it, being as stiff as he can be, I think everyone can."
"You have a great sense of rhythm." Massu compliments him, once he demonstrates his awesome hip roll with music.
"Thanks. Now, come here." He makes Massu stand in front of him, and he looks from head to toe at his new bandmate without feeling any sexiness emanating from him. Jin sighs. "OK, smile."
Massu give him his best winning smile, because he seems to be having fun, but that doesn't work for Jin.
"Not so much." And Massu tries to, but he still looks like the sweet guy he is. "See, when a song has provocative lyrics, you either act cool and intense and then you don't need to smile, or you do like me and do smile, but not..." he pauses for the right words, "not like you smile."
Massu frowns.
"There's something wrong with my smile?" he asks, a little alarmed.
"No! I'm just asking if you have another type of smile."
Massu now looks confused. Jin decides to move on.
"OK, forget that. Lets try the hip roll."
Jin presses play on his radio again and places himself behind Massu so they can move at the same time. Every time he has ever try to teach the hip roll (because he's a good guy like that), people freak out having him so close with his hand on their hips. Massu, though, seems quite comfortable. So they move, and move, one side, the other...
Until Massu starts laughing.
"Sorry, I'm a little ticklish."
Jin tries to get into position again. The moment his hands touch Massu's skin when his t-shirt meets his pant while they were moving, Massu start laughing again.
"It's just that, when you do this," Massu lets himself into position next to Jin, and without the help of Jin's hands, he moves his hips with a rapid twist. Jin has to move back, because that caused friction from Massu's low back to his... um. There. "It tickles."
That's one way to put it.
"I think you can try without me guiding you," Jin suggests, and takes another step back.
Massu turns himself to be looking right at Jin, and for the first time shows his nervousness. He's biting his lower lip.
Bu then he does it. The hip roll. Once. Twice.
"Um," Jin feels the urge to cough, "I think you got it."
Massu stops biting his lip and smiles one of his big, white smiles.
"Really? I was thinking of playing the hula hoop, you know? The way you were moving before, it looked like that." And Massu does the hip roll again.
Jin takes a third step back. He decides to look anywhere but at Massu.
"Yeah, that looks about right. Er," he pauses. He's getting more uncomfortable. "I have to go to the bathroom. Get yourself something to eat in the meanwhile, OK?" And he flees to the other room.
He hears Massu give his thanks and Jin realizes that even if the dance issue is resolved, the result is maybe going to cause a bigger problem.

- The Name

Monday comes and the announcement is made.
"You guys finally have a name," their managers tell them.
"Please let it not be MASSIN," Jin murmurs under his breath.
The managers seem to have listen him anyway, because they exchange looks.
"MASSIN? Now, why didn't we think of that?"

The End

Fic: Moody

2008-07-15T20:39:35Z

Title: Moody
Fandom: JE, NEWS
Characters: Yamapi, Massu
Summary: Different groups deal with moodiness differently.
Notes: So I fail at writing Massu alone. My apologies to cynicalism, I'll keep trying! I just wanted to point some similarities in the differences between my two favorite Johnnys.

Contrary to popular belief, there's no room for divas in the Jimusho. You only get special treatment from your own co-workers if they feel like being nice, and everyone works their asses off to be where they are now.
Of course, with so many stuff to do, stress does get to people, and that makes them cranky. So every once in a while, someone shows up to work in a bad mood and his group has to deal with him for the rest of the day.
Every group seems to have their own technique dealing with moody members. Something they have come to learn and perfected after years and years of working together and dealing with each others' crap.
For example, if someone in Arashi is being snappy, another member has to come and sit on him until he either feels better or apologizes. Outsiders don't really know how sitting on someone can make them feel better, but after an hour the cranky guy in question always seems to be in a better disposition to do his work, if only to not have someone sitting on him again.
Everyone knows that Kanjani8 members are loud when they're having fun. They're also loud when they are complaining, and as such, the rest of the group usually shuts the complainer up by throwing things at him. This tends to evolve in huge food or pillow fights including the whole group and afterward everyone is way too tired to complain about anything anymore.
KAT-TUN deals with bitchiness and snappy remarks on a daily basis. That's just how they communicate. But when one of them is acting more like a petulant child than the others, they will annoy the hell out of him until he goes away, and the problem is solved, for the moment.

Things don't really work like that for NEWS. Because this group is formed by very different people, each of them has to be dealt with differently.
When Shige is in a shitty mood, the rest has to talk to him until it gets into his thick skull that whatever he thinks is going wrong is not actually happening, even when sometimes it is. To be reassured about some things is enough to change his mood a little, that and that he knows they won't stop nagging him about it, for better or worse.
When Ryo is in a shitty mood, the rest tries to not get in his way, do the best they can during practice to not give him an excuse to abuse them and point the way to Eito's dressing room, where Ryo can throw things at people and have a braver group than theirs throw things back at him.
When it's Tegoshi, which doesn't happen as often as the previous two but it does happen, the members have to give him what he always ask for: attention. Someone stays there for him and listens to him complain about whatever it is that's bothering him. This usually falls into Koyama, not because he's the more empathic and a better listener, but because he always loses at jan-ken-pon.
Koyama in a bad mood is trickier. He never snaps at people, but doesn't have the same disposition to help others that he usually has, so everything starts to crumble when juniors don't know what to do and Kei-niichan is not there to help them out. Thankfully, the fact that he's needed and that the rest of the group tries to cover for him and fails miserably seems to be enough for him to smile again and take care of the emergencies at hand.

The two members nobody seems to know what to do with when they're having a crappy day are Yamapi and Massu.
Is not often that you see them with a bad disposition, and they never voice their issues, but you can tell they're upset about something because of just that. When they are happy they radiate positive energy. You see Yamapi being playful and Massu blinding people with his sunny smile. But when they are not... they're quiet and pensive and is better to leave them alone. Or so the rest of the group thinks.
Yamapi has never liked being alone. Sadly, he is not a social person, so being alone comes natural to him. Even with his friends close by, he doesn't see the point of asking them to stay with him when he feels like crap and doesn't know himself how to deal with it. So he stays alone until all the bad goes away.
Massu, on the contrary, has no problem being alone. He's a friendly person, even if he has few close friends, but he works on his own rhythm, so he doesn't mind when he's left behind. He thinks that's better than having people forcing him to hurry up. Still, sometimes he wished it wasn't so hard for him to express himself, because maybe then someone could stay back with him and keep him company until all the bad goes away.

One day, as it turns out, both of them show up to a photoshoot in a bad mood. It is an exterior shoot on a sunny day, which should be enough to make them happy, but the day before Yamapi worked until very late at night and he's dealing with a headache and Massu feels himself burning up with the heat of the day. It is too hot for them both.
The others keep their distance and do their job, enjoying the summer day running around and having fun. Massu has to be told to "smile, please", and Yamapi isn't polite enough to give his thanks when he's done first and goes inside the make-up van to take a nap.
He wakes up an hour later with Massu at his side and their summer day turned into pouring rain.
He looks out the window. "Rain?"
"It started half an hour ago." Massu informs him. "Photographer-san said we'll wait another half hour while he checks what's been done so far, and if it doesn't clear we'll go and finish somewhere inside."
Yamapi moves to sit properly, finally realizing it's only him and Massu in the van. "Where are the others?"
"In the tent." He points across the park to the big tent that seems to gather not only the rest of the group but the crew as well.
Yamapi is grateful he didn't wake up alone. His headache is dissipating thanks to the nap, and his mood seems to be improving now that it isn't so hot outside. He looks at Massu and notices a small smile in the younger boy, while his eyes keep following the drops running through the window.
They were both feeling like shit an hour ago. What changed it? The weather?
"Ne, what can we do for the next half hour?" He asks, enjoying the simple fact he wasn't in a crappy mood anymore. Whatever the reason for it is.
Massu turns to look at him and for a moment he doesn't say anything, but when Yamapi smiles tentatively at him, he smiles back.
"I wanna play in the rain." He confesses, voicing his wishful thinking.
Yamapi thinks of the consequences of getting wet and ruining their clothes and their make-up and their hair... And then he figures he can convince the photographer easily enough that a wet photoshoot is a way better idea than whatever else they could be planning, because the rain doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon.
"Lets play in the rain." He agrees, and takes Massu's hand to go outside.

The End