Mercurial Dreams – Chapter Four

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.
Random Note (because it’s an awesome note): Minna, please watch this coming Friday’s Music Station [4th April 2008] because not only Arashi guest appears, but YUI too. And since Hiroki’s physical appearance is based off of YUI… please study her interaction with Sho. For, erm, research. XDDDDDD

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Mercurial Dreams
Chapter Four

The boys started filing out of the classroom in relief, their animated chats going into a diminuendo as they scattered in the hallway. A few boys, however, went against the direction of the chattering crowd and gathered around their teachers’ table in an intimidating fashion.

“Can I help you boys?” Hiroki asked pleasantly, scribbling down a few notes of her observation on the students in her beloved notebook.

“Ano… sensei…” one of them started shyly. He shifted his feet nervously as he looked around at his friends in doubt.

“Yes?”

Takeru sighed at his friend’s hesitation, and turned to Hiroki with wide, curious eyes. He bended closer and whispered so softly as if uttering a forbidden secret, “Sensei… do you have any relationship with Sakurai-senpai?”

At the mention of that name, Hiroki’s hand spun out of control and a huge, ugly scrawl scratched along the page clumsily. Her face suddenly grew hot and tense, and she spoke in a shaky voice, “What do you mean, Takeru?”

Encouraged by Hiroki’s unusual reaction, he continued to interrogate her. “Last week, we saw you with Sakurai-senpai, and Aiba-senpai and Ohno-senpai at the cafeteria. You seem to know Sakurai-senpai very well, so…” Takeru’s voice trailed off, and he winked at Hiroki.

Hiroki coughed, taken aback by this sudden questioning from her young students. In the midst of recent incidents, she never considered the possibility of any witnesses to her so-called friendliness with two thirds of Arashi. Although, her panic was mostly induced by the very thought of Sakurai Sho.

Controlling her growing anxiety by trying very hard to push her spectacles up her nose casually, she coolly said, “Sakurai-san and I are just acquaintances, nothing else. Now don’t jump to any conclusions just because I chatted a little with your idol.”

Takeru, along with his friends, blushed at Hiroki’s comments. “Sou ka…?” he murmured, noting Hiroki’s final tone. He and his friends turned to leave, disappointed by the lack of a confession, but not before Takeru gave a meaningful smile to Hiroki, to which Hiroki pretended not to notice.

“Nosy kids…” Hiroki couldn’t help but groan. Her exceedingly cheery mood was fast ruined by a cruel reminder of that awful night. THAT NIGHT. She traced the accidental scrawl on her notebook absent-mindedly, her mind drifting off to that familiar image… her sore back chilled by the cold carpeted floor, her arms wrapped urgently around strong, muscled arms, such warmth on her chest…

Hiroki closed her eyes tight and repeatedly banged her head on her notebook, forcing herself to wipe that memory off of her mind. Because every time that memory played involuntarily – say, every five miserable minutes – she’d blush furiously, not at the thought of that obscene baka’s face pressed against her not-very-ample bosom, but at the idea of Sho’s well-toned body on top of hers.

Yes, Hiroki wasn’t embarrassed by her non-virginal-thanks-to-Sho bosom. Not as much as she hated how she was more embarrassed by her embarrassment over her wistful thoughts about Sho. In frustration she removed her spectacles and threw it roughly onto the table.

“What’s wrong with me…?” Hiroki cried out in confusion, pressing her forehead deeper into the parchment pages of the notebook. She can’t be falli-

“Hey, catch!”

Hiroki raised her head, and on a brush of impulse she caught a can of Coke that randomly flew right at her. A millisecond late and it would’ve hit her squarely in the face, but that was probably what she needed right now. She looked at the Coke blankly, then up at the culprit who’d flung it, but sucked in her breath at the tall man who was striding slowly into the classroom.

“Thought you needed a drink,” Sho said cautiously, reaching Hiroki’s table very slowly and leaned his hips awkwardly against the side of the desk while gazing at her with worry, “You look kind of pale. Are you okay?”

Hiroki didn’t answer, but instead studied each detail of her calloused hands wrapped around the can. She had no idea why her heart was beating so rapidly, or why her mind was working extra hard to keep up with the sudden dizziness. All this unnatural reaction, just from the presence of just one person?

She almost jumped out of her chair when she felt something hard and cold on her face. Sho had pressed his unopened can of Coke against her cheek gently. But he quickly pulled it away when he noticed Hiroki fidgeting nervously in her chair.

“You know, Aiba’s been talking about you a lot recently,” he remarked, attempting to start a casual conversation.

“R…really? Why would he be?” Hiroki asked, still with averted eyes.

“He’s like that when he meets a new person. It’s typical of Aiba-chan to get all excited about the growing population of his friends, which include his dogs, the cockroaches in his bathroom, and his stuffed animal toy.”

A soft giggle escaped Hiroki’s throat, and she dared herself a slight glance at Sho. One small look at him and she felt a sudden flutter in the pits of her stomach. The tank top he wore did nothing to hide the bulging muscles on his arms, and she could see he’d probably just came from a workout, judging from the drenched towel he draped over his shoulder.

Bloody hell, why was Hiroki’s face reddening all over again?!

Sho shakily opened the can and took a swig of it to calm his nerves, and stammered, “Erm, have you… returned my file?”

“Yeah.” Desperately, Hiroki distracted herself by attempting to erase the scrawl off the page with a correction tape.

“Have you been keeping your notebook safely?”

“Of course!” Hiroki retorted, reluctantly sent a glare at him, but at the small smile she caught on his lips she quickly looked back at her notebook. She studied the messy result with irk, but decided she wasn’t in the best mood for perfection and closed the notebook hurriedly.

Sho inhaled deeply, and squatted down beside Hiroki’s chair so that they were on the same eye level. “Look, I’m really sorry about the other day. It’s stupid for me to run off just like that, and I know I owe you one even if it was an accident. So… I’m sorry,” he said sincerely.

Sho’s serious face shone with apology and guilt, and Hiroki succumbed in her compassion, as much as she tried to convince herself (and fail) that she wasn’t supposed to. She bit her lip in deep consideration before she spoke. “It’s okay, it’s not so much a big deal now that it’s over. I really appreciate it though, Sakurai-san,” she added.

Sho’s eyes enlarged in surprise, to which Hiroki backed a little timidly.

“…What?” she asked quietly.

“You… you called me ‘Sakurai-san’, for the first time. Nicely, too,” Sho noted, a dimpled grin slowly forming across his face.

“S… s… so?” Hiroki’s palms were sweating profusely, which she tried to wipe off on her black pencil skirt in desperation. His improving mood was rubbing onto her anxiety and it wasn’t helping her nerves at all.

Sho got back onto his feet and drank his Coke brightly. “This is good progress, us handling a conversation without snapping at each other.”

Now that Sho mentioned it, it struck Hiroki how true it was. They weren’t biting at each other’s throats, nor were they sending daggers at each other. Instead they were sharing a completely normal talk and even exchanging smiles. Oh it was seriously not good for her heartbeat rate.

“So, now that we’re on good terms… can I call you Sorae?”

Hiroki stared hard at his glittering eyes in apprehension. How did he know…? Then she noticed her notebook and mentally hit herself for her daftness. It written quite obviously on the cover, the text bold and large for noticeable effects: Hiroki Sorae.

“No one calls me by my given name…” Hiroki filled him in, lightly tracing her fingers on the deep dent she made from pressing her pen too hard when she wrote her full name on it.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t like it,” Hiroki refuted in distaste, half-glaring at her own name, “my parents wanted a boy, but when they got me instead, they just named me ‘Sora’ and stuck an ‘e’ behind just because I’m a girl.”

“I think it’s a beautiful name… Sorae…” Sho breathed. The name rolled on his tongue in a soft and light intonation, like a feather. Hiroki shivered when Sho called her name. It felt so foreign, so strange to her ears, and yet so inviting… and comforting. She couldn’t suppress a small smile just waiting to curl the corners of her lips upward, and happily she opened the can in her hands and took a plentiful gulp.

“Ehhh… minna, kochi koi! Kochi mitte!”

Midway through her third swig, Hiroki turned sideways towards the door and almost choked at the sight of four heads popping out of the doorframe. She recognised Aiba and Ohno, along with two unfamiliar faces, spying on her and Sho in unconcealed anticipation. Were they listening to their conversation the entire time? Hiroki’s cheerfulness quickly evolved into horror.

“Ah… we got caught,” Aiba announced rather joyfully (as if he wasn’t ashamed one bit for being caught in the act), and skipped over to Hiroki’s desk in unimaginable speed. He wrapped his arm around Sho and whispered excitedly, “Sho-chan, yatta ne!”

Sho squirmed at Aiba’s following giggles, but didn’t reject Aiba’s arm draping his shoulder tightly. He shifted his feet in nervousness, casting uncomfortable looks at the rest of Arashi.

“What’re you doing here?” he demanded.

“We thought Hiroki-chan might’ve murdered you!” Aiba answered in dramatic fear. He gave his pitiful glistening eyes to Sho, who just snorted in reply, glancing at the rest of the intruders

“Sho-chan, it’s not funny! What if we found you twisted and bullied and squished like a poor beetle by Hiroki-chan? It’d be sooooo embarrassing!”

~