Fangirl Invasion 2 – Chapter Three

Story Title: Fangirl Invasion 2
Chapter: 3
Author: tashiichaan
Type: Short Story
Genre: Crack fangirl humour, ENCORE XD
Length: Estimated 5 chapters
Chapter length: 1,662 words
Banner designed by: tashiichaan
Summary: The new year’s approaching, and Arashi is given a few days off to prepare themselves for the upcoming Johnny’s Countdown. However, as far as they’re concerned, their relaxing days are about to be interrupted by the return of three very, very familiar girls.
Comments: FINALLY. CHAPTER 3. THERE YOU GO. FLAIL IF YOU WISH. I DO NOT HOLD REPONSIBLE FOR ANY CASUALITIES LIKE NOSEBLEEDING AND/OR DYING XD

To understand the conversations better:
English words that are italicised - are spoken in English
Japanese words that are italicised - are Japanese words spoken in Japanese (durrr lool xD)
Normal English words – are spoken in Japanese

Dictionary Corner:
abunai yo – it’s dangerous/watch out!
Moshi mo – Hello (spoken into a phone, and spoken with a slang)
shabu-shabu - Japanese hot pot
sake – Japanese rice wine.
okaa-san – Mother
dashi - broth used in shabu shabu

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Fangirl Invasion 2
Chapter Three

“What in the world am I even doing here?” Jun grumbled under his breath as he spun the steering wheel aggressively and turned into a junction. The silver Nissan 350Z weaved through the smooth traffic of Chiba city in a reluctant objective to reach a restaurant in Hanamigawa district.

“Hoi, Jun-kun abunai yo!” Reiji shrieked from Jun’s left, but then giggled in a high-pitched voice at Jun’s glare and placed her hand purposely on his lap.

“Hands off!” he retorted and squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. He shook her hand off and returned to the road, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose.

“Reiji, control yourself, for god’s sake,” Sakura warned from the backseat, casting exhausted eyes at the excited girl practically ready to pounce on the driver.

Reiji looked over her shoulder with a mischievous glint in her eye and said very casually to her friend, “You know, now that Shun had to go off early, you don’t have to follow us if you don’t want to.”

“And watch you ambush Matsumoto-san? I’m practically here to protect him from your rabid fangirl attacks,” Sakura snorted, and pressed her back deep into the leather cushion in leisure as Reiji’s grin fell.

“I can’t do anything when you’re around!” she whined, starting to put on a pout.

“Your loss, not mine!” Sakura replied with an evil grin. She plugged on her iPod and deafened herself completely with J-pop music and totally ignored the two occupants in front.

Childishly Reiji turned back round to the front and in boredom she gave another undefeated attempt to snake her hand onto Jun’s arm, when Jun abruptly pulled out his mobile phone from his pocket and dialled an all too familiar sequence of numbers.

“Moshi mosh,” came a very-bored voice on the other end of the line.

“Riida!” Jun exclaimed in relief, “Did Aiba-kun call you and Nino to meet him up at his family’s restaurant? He said something about dinner…”

There was silence for a few seconds on Ohno’s side, and then Ohno asked very nonchalantly as if to hide his surprise, “You’re actually going?”

Jun frowned. “What, you’re not going to show up?”

“Well… I’m busy painting, as you should know.”

Jun could just imagine his leader doodling his paint brush on the large canvas in his room and practically dying to get off the phone. “He thinks we should meet up since the girls have returned to Japan. I’ve got one of them sticking herself to me right now.” He didn’t spare a dirty look at Reiji.

“Oh, Reiji is there? Tell her I say hi, and to the rest of them too.”

He rolled his eyes dramatically at Ohno’s lack of enthusiasm. “Oh you’re hopeless.” And with that he hung up.

Reiji was well ready to attack him with never-ending questions, but Jun cut her in a desperate, warning voice. “If Aiba ever asks anything about Riida, anything at all, please, please don’t say a word.”

Reiji raised her eyebrow questioningly, and then asked very innocently, “I tell Aiba we… don’t know… er… where Riida?”

“Yes, and I’ll tolerate your fangirl molesting if need be,” Jun gulped at the death wish. He immediately regretted saying that when Reiji fished the English translation out of Sakura and starting squealing in her seat.

The car broke off from the main road and rounded into the private property of a restaurant. Jun parked his car at the dark end of the parking lot and got out since there was no one around, followed by Reiji and Sakura. A large signboard pronounced each of its syllables to them with unexplainable warmth and a tug in the stomach: “桂花楼”.

“Through the back door,” Jun instructed them, and he led the two girls to the back of the restaurant stealthily. He entered through the door and followed the noisy chatters to the small, hidden dining room at the back, and –

“REIJI-CHAN!”

“AAAAH, PAIRU-CHAN!”

“TASHII!”

“AAH O-HISASHIBURI, SAKURA!”

“SOU DESU NE!”

“Ah, Matsujun, you made it here safely,” Aiba commented with a wry smile. He found it amusing that the four girls had practically pounced onto each other and greeted in high-pitched voices as they spoke in rapid English and uncontained fangirl excitement.

“I’m going to strangle you in your sleep if there isn’t a good reason to drag me out on my holiday,” Jun growled as he avoid the group of girls cautiously and crossed over to Aiba and Sho.

“It looks like you’ve been getting on well with the Spanish girl,” Sho said, gesturing at Reiji who was on the point of shrieking like a manic banshee to her friends while pointing at Jun.

Jun grunted irritably and slumped onto a chair beside Sho. Aiba clicked his tongue in disapproval at Jun’s ignorance and reprimanded him like Ohno-okaasan, “She’s your fan – and you know the rules! Treat her nicely or I’m gonna tell on you!”

“I don’t think she even knows about the rules, so screw it,” Jun refuted with a sly grin, and stole Sho’s tea while Sho was about to drink it.

The door, unceremoniously abused lately by the unexpected reunion of peculiar friends, flung open once again and waiters filed into the room, bringing in all the rich, amazing variety of raw food, plates, cutlery, pots and even a portable electric-heated pot. All the equipment readily set up for shabu shabu.

“So everyone’s here already?” Aiba’s mother questioned chirpily as she walked into the room as gracefully as she placed the plate of Japanese seaweed and cabbage on the table.

“Hai!” Tashii so enthusiastically replied, and bounced over to help the older woman arrange the food and fussed over the position of the shabu shabu pot on the table.

“You don’t need to help, Tashii, you’re a guest,” Aiba’s mother reasoned in a final tone, gently swatting Tashii’s hand before she could reach out to distribute the chopsticks. She nodded at the waiters to dismiss them from their task and smiled at the rest of the occupants in the room, “The shabu shabu’s on the house, seeing how Masaki has brought so many friends today, even from as far as Europe! Oh, and where’s Satoshi? And Kazunari too, now that I noticed.”

Jun suddenly coughed out loud. At this diversion, Reiji giggled and started nudging Jun playfully in the ribs to tease him of the secrecy they were sworn to. Everyone turned to Sakura for a wordless explanation, and Sakura just shrugged in distaste.

“Oh well, it’s their loss then. Enjoy your food, dears! And Masaki,” Aiba’s mother cast her stern eyes on her eldest son standing innocently across the dining table, “lay off the sake if you want to stay sober for the countdown tomorrow.”

“I know that, okaa-san!” Aiba retorted indignantly with reddened cheeks, pouting at his mother’s retreating figure.

Sho chuckled in agreement at Aiba’s mother’s comment. “Don’t worry, Aiba-chan, we’ll make sure you stay sober.” And with an evil grin at Aiba, Sho downed a cup of sake heartily.

“You’re heartless and cruel, Sho-chan!” Aiba whined.

“Now now, no fighting!” Pairu warned. She sat between the two glaring men to be the driving force of logic and reason, even though her truthful reason was to ensure a seat beside Sho was secured for her.

Jun, who was on Sho’s other side, was enjoying his complete ignorance to the banter and happily dunking thin beef slices into the dashi. His greatly-improved mood was largely due to his appreciation to Sakura for sitting beside him and hence forcing Reiji to sit at the end of the line. Reiji wasn’t happy with this formation.

“SAKURA LET ME SIT BESIDE JUN-KUN DAMNIT.”

“No I’m not going to, because Matsumoto-san needs to eat in peace…”

“YOU LIKE HIM DON’T YOU?! THAT’S WHY YOU’RE SO PROTECTIVE OF HIM?!”

“It’s really the matter of having a proper meal without any molesting…”

“YOU’RE MY LOVE RIVAL NOW! I WON’T GO EASY ON YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE MY FAVOURITE NIHONJIN FANGIRL HERE.”

“Blah.”

“Beef?” Jun asked Sakura with a wide smile, offering a bundle of cooked beef that was clipped between his chopsticks midair above Sakura’s empty plate. He didn’t even bat an eyelid at Reiji.

Sakura blushed furiously. “H…h…hai,” she stuttered, and thanked Jun. In fangirl jealousy, Reiji went into a long outburst of Spanish words, which the non-Spanish-speaking people could only assume she was cursing Sakura to a thousand years of KAT-TUN deprived pain.

“So you’re all prepared for Johnny’s Countdown tomorrow?” Pairu asked the men in hopes of distracting them from the highly-dramatic argument going on the other end of the table.

“Yeah, we’ve been rehearsing for the whole month now, and tomorrow will be the final fully-dressed rehearsal before the actual show,” Sho told her as he started filling the dashi with mushrooms and seaweed.

“You girls are coming to watch, right?” Aiba asked hopefully in his childish voice.

“Of course we are!” Tashii exclaimed, as if appalled they would’ve been caught otherwise. In the hype she very carefully fished out the tickets from her purse and shoved it in front of everyone’s nose very delicately like a prized possession.

“We came to support Arashi,” Pairu added with a genuinely admiring smile mainly cast as Sho, “because we’re friends of Arashi, and friends support each other especially when they’re hosting a huge event, ne?”

Lost for words at the honest loyalty in her words, Sho, Jun and Aiba looked around among each other, a very familiar understanding passing between three fifth of the band that has stuck together for eight years now. The girls went a long way from being fangirls, to friends, to true friends of their idols. Not something to expect nor to ever hope for, eh?

“JUN-KUUUUUUUUUUUN!” Reiji squealed. She sneaked up behind Jun and wrapped her arms joyfully around him, and his reaction came in the form of a very high-pitched I’m-being-raped scream.

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