Mercurial Dreams – Chapter Three

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.
Notes: I think Sho is a little OOC here? I’m not sure, if he is then please tell me, and I would so fail as a Sakurai wifey *dramatic failure*

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Mercurial Dreams
Chapter Three

The hallways on the 12^th floor were empty, the cold air hung still and awfully silent. It was obvious the offices would be deserted by now, as it was a late Friday night and normally everyone would hurry off as soon as the clock struck 5pm for a long night of heavy drinking. So typical of businessmen.

Along the quiet corridor, outside the pristine, translucent glass walls of the PR department office, four figures hid in the dim lighting of the ceiling lights as they attempt to peep through the glass.

“Someone’s desk has his lamp on…” Ohno said, and as quietly as he could he turned to Hiroki with an expressionless face, “Is someone’s still here?”

“That’s Moriyama-san’s table – he always forgets to turn his table lamp off,” Hiroki whispered back. She then looked away from the glass and apprehensively peered at the others, “You guys really don’t need to do this, I can return this myself. You can go home if it’s too troublesome…”

“Maa, maa…” Aiba said, brushing Hiroki off quickly with a lazy wave of his hand and casting fascinated eyes towards the office, “I’ve never been to this floor, so it’s a good time to take a look!”

“Me too,” Ohno said in his serene, soft voice, “we’re going out for drinks later anyways. You can come along after we put back Sho’s file.” Ohno stated it so matter-of-factly as if it was certain Hiroki would tag along.

“Hey… they even recorded down my favourite underwear!” Sho blurted out loudly, horrified at the opened file in his hands. But he winced at the whack he got from Aiba for the noise he made, and mumbled an inaudible curse at the taller man.

“Okay…” Hiroki said uncertainly, still maintaining a look of concern at the three guys. It was very peculiar indeed that Ohno and Aiba – and a reluctant Sho – would willingly help her when they’d only met more than an hour ago. As much as she was thankful for their promise to keep their mouth shut about this business, she suspected Sho was the entire reason behind this generosity. She wanted to prod further, but there wasn’t any chance when she handling her own anxiety of sneaking around off-limit areas.

Speaking of which, she’d been ignoring that baka all the time they made their way to the office. It was, after all, for the best of both parties. And, in her embarrassment, she wordlessly allowed him to hold the file for safety measures.

“C’mon,” she motioned, and guided them into the office. She immediately made a beeline for Moriyama’s table and tested the second drawer, relieved to find that it was kept unlocked. She fished out the pink furry key she stole not so long ago, and strode over to a plainly-decorated door at the back of the office.

“Hiroki-chan, where’s your table?” Aiba called out gleefully, blindly searching each table for any hint to guessing the right table. Aiba also forgot the very basic rule of sneaking which was to be as quiet as possible.

“By the glass window, the one with artificial gladioluses on the table,” she told him, absent-mindedly inserting the key and unlocking the door. Cautiously she peeked inside, as if afraid someone might suddenly pop in and catch her in the act. However, nothing from her frenzied imagination actually occured, of course, and she noiselessly stepped into the narrow room.

“Hiroki, can I ask you a question?” Sho asked as he followed her inside.

She glanced at him, calculating any ulterior motive behind the unreadable expression he had put on. He simply stood there with his curious eyes on her, the file still held wide open in his hands. She sensed no hostility from him, but in suspicion she nodded her consent.

“What were you really doing with my file?” he questioned.

Hiroki studied his curious gaze while hiding her confusion from that question. Why was he asking such a question out of nowhere? She knew it was bound to come – indeed it was odd that she would dig up that baka’s file, steal it too, which she herself couldn’t comprehend her actions. Carefully, she replied, “I… wanted to know. That’s all.”

“Know what?” he pressed on, moving closer and narrowing the gap between them, “What is it you want to know so badly that you had to steal it?

“I don’t know! Like, if you’re really as smart as you claim,” she snapped, starting to get annoyed and very distracted by the close distance between them. Now that he’d gotten on her nerves, she was beginning to hate his very existence once again.

“Now that you’ve gone through my file, you should know that very well,” he said with a sneer, an air of ego building around him.

“Firstly, I didn’t read from cover to cover because you interrupted me, and secondly, I now know you’re a stuck-up and a smarty pants who derides himself among these pretty boys!” she lashed out at him, thrusting her nose furiously up in the air to match his arrogance.

“You… you’re a snob yourself!” Sho barked, sharply closing the file jabbing her in the chest with the tip of it.

Hiroki gasped aloud at the contact Sho made. She held her hand on her chest in insult, and poked him back in the chest in retaliation. “Don’t you dare touch me, Sakurai!”

“Not like anyone wants to,” he drawled, sneering at her squarely in the eyes.

“Ne ne, Hiroki-chan, I like the cute photos you put up all around your table!” Aiba chuckled excitedly, scrambling into the room at full speed. Unfortunately, he didn’t see Sho by the doorway, and hence knocked head on and hard into him. Sho, in a physical train of momentum, fell forward clumsily and onto a smaller-framed and unexpecting Hiroki.

“AAAAAAAAAAHH!” Hiroki shouted painfully. Her shrill voice was followed by a very loud ‘thud’, another blunt-forced ‘thud’, a tormented groan, and a dull knock against the boxes stacked atop another at the side. The room, however, remained immaculate as it was before aside from a few fallen cardboard boxes, and that was a really close shave.

After recovering from the shock and amidst the mayhem, Aiba got onto his feet hurriedly and bowed his head to apologise. “Gomen, gomen! Hontou ni -”

But Aiba didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he just stared speechless and scandalised at the two of them lying on the cold floor, his jaw evidently dropped to emphasise his expression.

Hiroki had her legs tangled around Sho’s and her arms around his shoulders, and Sho’s face was buried in Hiroki’s bosom.

-~-

“Uso?! Sho-san did that?!”

Jun’s incredulous voice rang throughout the dance studio. Sho, with his back leaning against the full-length mirrors, closed his eyes hard and counted to ten to calm down, as Aiba retold the incident to the rest of the Arashi members.

“Really!” Aiba squealed, practically bouncing his feet in anticipation as he faced his audience sitting on the floor, “Sho-chan stood up, his face went all red and weird like this,” Aiba demonstrated a dumbfounded expression just like Sho’s, “he mumbled an apology, and ran off!”

“How could you do that, Sho-san!” Nino exclaimed in frustration, spinning around to face his senpai at the other end of the studio, “you molested the poor girl and ran off without a word?”

“I was embarrassed, okay?!” Sho shouted back. Unconsciously, his face was turning a shade red at the thought of the scene replaying in his head for the thousandth time that day, and he quickly draped his towel over his face to hide it.

Thankfully, the five members of Arashi could openly discuss this ‘serious issue’ (as Aiba declared it) since the studio wasn’t occupied except for them alone. Arashi was meant to practise their dance moves for their public performances next week with an assigned choreographer, but Aiba had shooed her out (“Tegumi-san, Ohno-san can take it from here. I’m sure you’re exhausted now, you can retire first! Bye!” and the door slammed shut) and spilled the beans to the others.

“But, Sho-san, it’s rare that you get so involved with a girl. Why haven’t you asked her out for a date yet?” Jun inquired in puzzlement.

“Because I’ve got a busy schedule,” Sho retorted lamely from under the towel, “and that girl is a nuisance! She starts cursing at me when I do or say nothing! Would you date a hot-tempered girl like that?”

“You don’t talk nicely to her, that’s why,” Ohno pointed out, “Molesting her isn’t a good way to break the ice.”

Sho straightened his back and jerked up, the towel slipping down onto his lap and revealing his face contorted in anger. “I did NOT molest her! It was an accident!”

Nino shook his head in disappointment at Sho. “Now I know why Sho-san hasn’t got a girlfriend. Girls are frightened of you…”

“Sho-chan,” Aiba started, wrapping an arm around Sho’s shoulders in brotherly understanding, “If you’re scared… do you want me to talk to her for you?”

“NO!” Sho shouted in frustration, shrugging Aiba’s arm off of him.

“I’m serious,” Aiba said, his face completely straight and concerned.

Sho scowled at the rest of his bandmates, who had gone into fits of laughter while rolling around the pine-furnished floor. “I’m going to get a drink,” he muttered angrily, and stomped out of the studio.

“Go one floor up! I think Hiroki-chan should be teaching at this time!” Sho heard Aiba calling out to him, which he purposely ignored.

Assholes… Sho cursed inwardly. He didn’t enjoy being teased at, especially over something so foolish and childish. He scolded himself over and over again for that stupid act; it wasn’t like him to lose his usual calmness in a situation. He knew he should’ve apologised more sincerely to Hiroki, but he was too embarrassed; too proud and arrogant. He felt so guilty and ashamed of himself.

Instantaneously, he could perfectly recall the sensation of the soft, pillow-like surface he had his face stuffed into, the quickened heartbeat he could indistinctly hear from within, and the weird thoughts going through his head… He quickly shook his head furiously to erase the scene from his head.

Is she angry? Is she going to tell others about this? Are people going to gossip, and call me a pervert?

Deep in his thoughts, Sho took a completely different route and reached the elevators. He looked at the elevator he stood in front of, catching a glimpse of his reflection on the silver-polished door, his furrowed eyebrows and crossed arms over his chest.

After a while of contemplation, he then dug his hand into his pocket, pulling out a bundle of coins and counted. There was enough money for two cans of Coke. With determination and mellowed pride, he punched the ascend button.

~