Mercurial Dreams – Chapter Two

Author: tashiichaan
Rating: T
Genre: Romance, angst, humour
Featuring: Sakurai Sho
Banner designed by: tashiichaan
Story Summary: Hiroki never holds expectations for anything. She never expected to be promoted just 6 months into her job; she never expected her housemate to be a little more sane; but of all those damned unexpectations, she didn’t expect to find herself drawn into the life of Sakurai Sho. She didn’t expect to fall in love with him. And it all starts with a can of Coke.

Dictionary Corner:
onegaishimasu – please (more formal form)
baka – idiot
ano – something like “Erm…” when you’re trying to get someone’s attention.
nan da yo – Whaaat?! (Can mean somewhere along the lines of “What the hell?!”)

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Mercurial Dreams
Chapter Two

“Two orders for chicken teppanyaki, onegaishimasu!”

“Hai!” Hiroki answered brightly and turned to heat up the iron griddle, chucking butter unceremoniously onto it.

The cafeteria, situated on the second floor of the company building, was packed for dinner on this busy night. It seemed (from what she eavesdropped from a nearby table) the pretty boys were hitting the exclusive nightclubs in Shibuya tonight, and decided it would be easier to have dinner at the cafeteria. Hiroki was busy with the unusually extra orders for teppanyaki, constantly wiping sweat off her brow as she continued with the incoming flurry of orders.

“You’re working really hard today, Hiroki-chan,” Mayu remarked with twinkling eyes, leaning idly against the bar and fussing over her waitress apron.

“Yeah, and it comes with a price,” Hiroki said pitifully, holding her palms outward and showed her heavily-bandaged hands.

“Eh…” Mayu reacted with wide eyes, “Did you burn yourself again?”

“Not just that, I cut myself with the tip of the spatula,” Hiroki explained, not sparing a dirty look at the kitchen utensil by the griddle.

Mayu sighed as she picked up a fresh dish of teppanyaki from Hiroki. “I don’t know what goes through your mind when you’re cooking. It’s like you’re so deep in your thoughts that you don’t remember putting your hand on the stove.”

Hiroki shrugged casually as Mayu walked off to tend to a customer. It wasn’t like she was clumsy (okay, she could get a little out of control when stressed and/or standing within a close range of a harmless spoon, even). Just that, today there was something else occupying her mind…

Now that Hiroki finished the last order of teppanyaki, she wiped her hands on her apron and checked to make sure no one was paying any attention to her. Silently and fishily, she squatted down behind the bar and pulled out a file she had stuffed inside her shirt. On the smooth parchment-coloured cover, letters printed in black stood out:

DEBUTED JOHNNY’S RECRUIT
INFORMATION FILE
NAME: 櫻井翔
DEBUTED GROUP: 嵐

Hiroki knew how much trouble she’d be in if any of her superiors – or anyone, in fact – knew what she had stolen from the PR department office. It was like breaking a law when she sneaked into the Archive room during lunch hour, and searched through the gazillion files stacked neatly in cardboard boxes. She had extracted the file she spent ten minutes to find and hid it in her shirt as she strolled back out as calmly as she could.

To compensate for the guilt, she even remembered to lock the door nicely and returned the furry-decorated key to her colleague’s drawer.

“I don’t even know what possessed me to look up this baka,” Hiroki muttered to herself as she opened the file with shaky hands.

The first thing Hiroki took in was a much-younger photo of Sho, neatly pasted at the top of the profile page. She looked closer and resisted a snort as she studied his sad attempt on a sexy smile, and the messy bangs of his hair, much longer than his current length.

“He looked so ugly…” Hiroki sniggered. She tore her eyes away from young Sho and went on to read his profile. Birthday… January 25th… oldest of two sons and a daughter… mother’s an English Literature lecturer… father’s a politician… joined Johnny’s Entertainment in 1995…

WAIT.

Hiroki traced back to Sho’s parents’ profession, and sucked in her breath after re-reading it. Lecturer? Politician? What sort of family is the Sakurai? In disbelief, she turned to the next page and studied Sho’s education background.

HIGHEST EDUCATION LEVEL: University (Keio University, BA in Economics)

Hiroki’s jaw dropped. All she knew, from the three months she’d been working for Johnny’s & Associates, that Sakurai Sho was a well-educated person and highly-respect senior. She was just convincing herself he was just a big mouth. But, but… Keio graduate?!

She definitely messed with the wrong person this time.

“Ano… what’re you doing down there?”

Hiroki froze at the deep voice she heard and slowly turned her head upward. Her guilt-ridden face met an upside-down shocked face of the very person she was re-evaluating in her head.

“You!” Sho merely said, pointing a finger at Hiroki.

“Y-y-y-y-you!” Hiroki stuttered. At the sight of the real Sho, all the memories of their (immature, now that Hiroki considered) argument no more than a few days ago returned to her mind. She had the sudden urge to say something mean to him, but realised he was now eyeing the file left open so vulnerably on her lap.

“What’s that?” Sho asked curiously.

“Nothing!” Hiroki insisted, closing the file hurriedly and was about to hide it back in her shirt, when Sho reached out and grabbed it from her.

“Oy!” she yelled angrily. She stood up and readied herself for an outburst of fury, even brandishing her teppanyaki spatula threateningly at Sho, when she stopped short at the two unfamiliar occupants beside Sho, putting their heads closer to study the file Sho’s reading intently.

“Ne, Sho-chan, why does this girl have your file?” Aiba asked curiously. He glanced at a completely transfixed Hiroki, but after studying Hiroki’s face intently for a few seconds his eyes widened. “Ah! It’s you! It’s you!”

Hiroki turned her horror onto Aiba. “M…me?” she asked meekly.

“You’re the girl Sho-chan met the other day, ne?” Aiba asked, a broad grin forming on his lips. “What’s your name?”

“H…Hiroki…”

The shorter guy on Sho’s other side leaned forward and looked at Aiba questioningly. “Aiba-kun, who’s this girl?”

Ohno’s bluntness unfazed an excited Aiba, who gladly filled him in on the details. “Ne Riida, remember the other day, ne, Sho-chan took a long time to get our drinks? I went to look for him, and he was talking with Hiroki-chan!” Aiba giggled, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

“What’re you doing with my file?” Sho asked Hiroki suspiciously, staring at her above the file.

“I… I…” Hiroki started, and gulped down the lame excuse she was about to give.

“Are you spying on me?”

“NO!”

“Are you interested in me?”

“Hell no!”

“You don’t want to know what sort of girl I’m interested in?”

“NO!” Hiroki retorted instantaneously, but slapped her hand over her mouth when she realised what she just admitted.

Sho grinned slyly at her reddening cheeks. “I don’t think you have any permission to obtain this file… I can report you for this. You know how Johnny-san is strict about our privacy,” Sho said, a distinct threat in his voice.

Hiroki bit her lip as panic rose into her face. “Don’t, please,” she pleaded, as grudgingly as she did, but nevertheless she needed to save her skin. The only thing hurt would be her bloated pride, and that was nothing compared to getting fired just after three months of employment.

“I’ll do anything,” Hiroki continued, “I can cook free teppanyaki even, but please don’t report me… this job is important to me!”

“It should teach you to mind your own business,” Sho growled at her, “It’s not funny when some smartass starts digging into my background.”

“Sho-chan!” Aiba exclaimed, turning to Sho with an Ohno-okaasan-worthy glare and whacking him on the back of his head, “Don’t be such a meanie to Hiroki-chan! We do it this way: we get free teppanyaki, and we help return the file to its original place!”

“Nan da yo, Aiba!” Sho said in exasperation, glaring at Aiba, “Just because you get free food, and you’d do anything for this stranger who stole my information file?!”

“Hiroki-chan probably just wants to find out Sho-chan’s favourite food, ne?” Aiba said with an irresistibly childish grin at Hiroki. He leaned closer to Sho and whispered cheekily into his ear, “Don’t scare another girl away; you know you need a girlfriend!”

Sho shoved a giggling Aiba away from him irritably. Aiba poked Ohno out of his stoning reverie, and asked his captain, “Riida, what do you think?”

Nonchalantly, Ohno looked at Hiroki’s desperate expression to Sho’s creased eyebrows of impatience, and decided. “Three chicken teppanyaki, please. And what’s your name again?”

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