Mercurial Dreams – Chapter Ten

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.
Author’s note: Added another chapter because I won’t be able to come on as often, now that school has reopened and I’ve to start studying seriously. Feel free to e-mail me if you wanna nag me for the next chapter XD

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Mercurial Dreams
Chapter Ten

Hiroki knew there was something wrong the moment she stepped into the office lobby. The way the security guards, stationed at the entrance and clad in intimidating dark suits and tinted sunglasses, bowed to her in respect and opened the door for her; the way passerbys in the lobby gaped at her, not in disgust or in strangled sniggers like before, but in awestricken inspiration; the way some people suddenly bowed at her accompanied with a friendly smile; the way some people – whom she swore she had never met before – bowed deeply as she passed by and greeted exuberantly, “Ohayou gozaimasu, Hiroki-san!”

She glanced down at her clothes and wondered if people were taunting her for it. After all, she wasn’t dressed in the proper office attire – a red summer dress was visible under her untied waistcoat, she had a sling bag over her shoulder, and she was wearing sneakers. It was something she put together in a hurry, but so much for casual wear and looking fashionably-eccentric.

After all, Hiroki reasoned angrily, it was a last-minute call.

As she cast her anger at a suitable subject in the form of an insufferable man, Hiroki waited for an elevator and fished out her mobile phone from her pocket. She re-read Aiba’s text message, which told her that:

We’ll be in your supervisor’s office.

For the umpteenth time, Hiroki raised an eyebrow. She racked her brains all the way through travelling to the office, figuring out the message behind this puzzling message. We? Who exactly were these people consisted in ‘we’? And what were they doing in her supervisor’s office in the first place? Hiroki anxiously stepped into the elevator and let it ascend to the 12^th floor, wondering if it had anything to do with her involvement in the Sakamoto scandal, or worst, the matter of losing her job.

Hiroki started to feel her nerves wrack a hole in her insides when she stepped onto the 12^th floor and made small, dragging movements to the PR department. In fact, if she just followed her impulse, she would’ve turned around and ran back to the elevator and out of the building in the matter of seconds.

“Hiroki, you can do this. You can do this,” she told herself quietly. She stood in front of the door with the sign, ‘Fukuda Yuujiro, Public Relations Executive’, with clenched fists around the strap of her bag, and after taking a deep breath filled with resolution, she turned the doorknob and entered the room.

At first Hiroki blushed furiously at the numerous pairs of eyes staring at her, but then she almost gasped aloud in surprise as she studied the people surrounding Fukuda’s desk. There was her supervisor, Fukuda, standing with a grim expression behind his desk; Yuusano, sporting a bandaged head and arm, was sitting opposite of Fukuda with his parents by his side, and beside them was Yuusano’s manager; an unfamiliar, greying man who was previously discussing seriously with Fukuda was now gaping at her outfit with a disapproving glare. Surrounding the desk was Arashi.

“Hiroki!” Aiba called, and approached her with a worried look, “Sorry for the short notice! Daijoubu ka?”

“Hai, daijoubu,” Hiroki assured, forming up a smile to prove it.

Aiba looked skeptical, and was about to fuss over her pale face when Jun came up to Aiba’s side and slung an arm over his shoulder, leaning over and saying softly to Hiroki, “Nice shoes. Converse and a summer dress – a new look this season?”

Hiroki immediately flushed in embarrassment, to which Jun grinned in satisfaction and turned to Aiba. “See? Her skin’s getting some of its colour back. She’s fine.”

Aiba retorted something, but in a light and playful tone. Hiroki didn’t hear his words, because she glimpsed across the room and laid eyes on Sho, who was standing rigidly and staring at her with unreadable eyes, they seemed to exude… desire? Hiroki felt a strange tingle all over her body at that stare, and quickly she looked away.

“What’s going on?” Hiroki inquired loudly, trying to change the subject.

With that, Fukuda coughed loudly and adjusted his glasses, peering directly into Hiroki’s eyes from behind them. “We’re all gathered here to deal with this issue concerning Sakamoto, Yuusano, and you. It appears that we’ve arrived with new witnesses, and Yuusano’s ready to give his statement.” he stated monotonously.

Yuusano refused to have eye contact with Hiroki. He kept looking shiftily at his lap and wringing his hands around his pants. Guilt, Hiroki concluded. With an empathetic sigh, she went to the boy and knelt down beside his chair, levelling a warm smile at him. “Yuusano-kun,” she started, “How’re you feeling? Does your arm still hurt?”

He hesitated, before he shook his head in reply. Hiroki continued, “That’s good. No matter what, I want you to get better so you can go back to class, alright? Don’t make okaa-san and otou-san worried. They want to see you happ—”

She gasped when Yuusano suddenly threw himself at Hiroki. He had clung his arms around her and started sobbing raggedly, choking out his words. “Gomenasai, sensei! I should’ve spoken to them earlier! If I… if I wasn’t such a coward… People wouldn’t talk bad things about you! They wouldn’t have hurt you! Please forgive me, sensei!”

Hiroki hugged the boy back and patted his back to calm him down. “Shh… it’s fine, I never blamed you in the first place. You were never at fault,” she said.

“But they hurt your hand! And you fainted… and Sakurai-san had to bring you to the hospital because you were bleeding…”

At the mention of that name, Hiroki shuddered. She closed her eyes so Sho wouldn’t read her joyful expression, but inwardly she cursed at the hot shivers now prickling under her skin. The frenzied rush of her beating heart thumped heavily against her chest, and she wondered if Yuusano could feel it. So, those strong arms are…!

“The boy is still traumatised,” Yuusano’s manager spoke up feebly, “perhaps we shouldn’t interrogate him…”

Sho set Yuusano’s manager the deadliest and iciest glare, which immediately shut him up. Behind him, Nino sniggered and gave a thumbs-up to Sho, who just rolled his eyes silently and returned to gazing at Hiroki and Yuusano.

Suddenly Hiroki perked up, and scanned the room, noting a missing presence. “Where… where’s Sakamoto?” she asked coldly.

“Not here, evidently,” Fukuda explained wearily, as though all this drama wasn’t necessary in his office, “Kitagawa-san has given approval to sack him out of the agency.”

“W… what?”

At this, the man whom Hiroki didn’t recognise stepped up and cleared his throat. “Sakurai went to talk to Kitagawa-san himself, along with the rest of these boys, and decided on his own will,” at this, he fixed a disapproving glare at Sho and the other four unapologetic men, “that Kitagawa-san should kick up some of his authority and deal with this issue himself, or it’d get out of hand. Those are his exact words, not mine,” he added.

Jun clicked his tongue in annoyance, and said, “Manager-san, I know you don’t want us to be involved, but it’s done. Now cut to the chase.”

“The thing is,” Fukuda boomed, clearly trying to maintain control in his office, “the truth is out. With Yuusano’s story and Arashi backing it up, Sakamoto is no longer part of the agency, and word of Hiroki’s innocence has been spread.”

Hiroki blinked dumbly at each and everyone. Her legs (thankfully knelt on the ground) trembled slightly as she stammered in disbelief, “What…?”

Aiba grinned. “Hiroki-chan, your name’s been cleared!”

“You’re free to return to work,” Nino said brightly. He nudged a silent Ohno, who started nodding vigorously with a goofy smile.

Yuusano released Hiroki. He wiped his tears childishly and pleaded to her, “Come back and teach us, sensei.”

Finally… finally… the long-awaited truth took harder to sink in. She stared around at everyone’s joyful face, trying hard to believe that she was finally free of her misery. She gazed at Sho, who smiled joyfully and nodded, as if to answer her inaudible question, is this for real? When it all sank in, her eyes started to well up with floods of tears. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed with gratitude and of all, relief. She was happy; so happy and elated, a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

“Yokatta ne…” she whispered.

Everyone smiled along, feeling just as relieved as Hiroki was. They were all glad that Hiroki, who was forced to bear the brunt of all unkind gossips, finally had her innocence proven. No one said a word as Hiroki continued sobbing, but they exchanged thankful glances with one another; the boys among Arashi grinned and nodded at each other, as if saying, we’ve done our part.

Arashi’s manager suddenly broke the silence by coughing unkindly. “Well, now that we have that cleared…” He pulled out a wad of papers from his parchment folder and thrust it out to Hiroki who, between sniffling and wiping her tears, took it.

“What is this?” she inquired.

“A list of Arashi’s public appearances, musical performances, news conferences, TV shows’ filming, you name it. Along with it are necessary notes to assist you in your tasks, and also names and contact numbers of people you should refer to.”

Hiroki still didn’t comprehend any of his words. What did she have anything to do with Arashi? She stood up and gaped at Arashi’s manager blankly. “What do you mean? Why’re you giving me this?” In complete bafflement, she turned to Fukuda for an explanation, to which he obliged.

“Hiroki, you’re no longer conducting the PR classes for the Juniors. After reviewing your capabilities and recommendations from certain parties,” at this, Fukuda raised a thick, grey eyebrow at Arashi, “Kitagawa-san has personally requested to have you transferred to, err, a different field. Said he’s confident you can pull this off.”

The two greying men’s god-unhelpful suspense was very much a breaking point of frustration. Everyone was exasperated at it, with exception of Hiroki, who was as puzzled as the fly on the wall and practically dying for a straightforward answer. Sho thought so too, and with a roll of his eyes, he stepped out and announced with pride, “You’re going to be our new PR agent.”

Arashi’s… PR agent? Working for Arashi? Hiroki thought she heard wrong, thought she was probably still dazed in happiness. But oh was she wrong on both counts. Still knelt on the floor and her eyes blotched from the tears, she finally absorbed the shock and widened her eyes to the size of almonds, when Nino walked up and bowed to her, and wished her oh-so-eagerly, “We’ve wanted to work with you. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”

Ohno, Aiba and Jun all followed suit and bowed along with such euphoric grins, reciting a deep chorus of “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”

“No way…” Hiroki mouthed.

Sho, the last of the five who remained standing upright, fixed her an amused grin, and bowed to her. “Yoroshiku.”

~