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ninoexchange2014-06-23 12:54 am
nino-mod.livejournal.com) wrote in ninoexchange2014-06-23 12:54 am
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alternatejess (2/2)
For: alternatejess
From:gomushroom
Part 1
The Sunday location shoot is in a district across town, an apartment in a quiet residential area. Apparently this is where they’ve splurged? Nino thinks as he meets the assistant in front of the building. He lets the guy lead him to the fifth floor to enter a loft and meet Sho.
“Follow me,” Sho says in a low tone, hurriedly walking away from the entrance.
“What?” Nino whispers back, stumbling a bit as he follows. As he navigates his way toward the next room, he notices that the set is flooded with natural light, with a few stand lights creating subtle shadows. The vast large windows show the scenery of dusk falling rapidly on the city below. Sho leads him to a small bedroom they apparently arranged as the makeup and wardrobe room.
Yamada-chan looks up at them entering the room but doesn’t move from her chair to work on Nino’s makeup like the day before. She continues to sip her mug leisurely. “They’re still at it?” she asks Sho.
Sho sighs. “Yeah. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to end soon though.”
“What happened? I’m not late, am I?”
“You’re not late. We are.”
“What? How?”
Sho sighs even more loudly, taking a seat on the stool with his back facing the mirror, and he gestures Nino to do the same.
“There’s no other chair,” Nino says, “except if you expect me to kick Yamada-chan out of her chair. But that’d be rude.”
His remark draws a giggle from Yamada-chan across the room.
“You’d kick me out of my chair anytime,” Sho says, a hint of a smile appearing on his face. Nino congratulates himself for a remark well done. “Just use any crate over there. Nothing except Aiba-chan’s frantic call can get me out of this one. I’ve been standing since this morning. My blood is not circulating well enough.”
“Here, use this instead,” Yamada-chan says, bringing the chair for Nino. “I’ll get both of you some coffee. You, especially, look like you really need another one, Sho-kun.”
“I already lost count of how many cups I’ve had today, but thank you all the same, Yamada-chan,” Sho says as she leaves them alone in the room.
Nino thanks her for the chair before sitting down, setting his chair right across Sho. “What happened?”
“We’re two scenes behind. It’s already 6. I only set the room rental till 9. Dusk will soon pass. And we’re two scenes behind. I don’t think you’ll be able to rehearse tonight. We’re two scenes behind!”
“You said it three times in one breath. What happened?”
“Your crush is ruining everything.” Sho slumps in his seat.
“Stop using that word, will you? Soon it’s going to be his nickname, I just know it.” Nino rolls his eyes and smiles afterward when it gets another small smile from Sho. “What did he do? Was he late? Did he break a camera? Did he stumble and destroy Takeda-chan’s lighting arrangement? Did he make Yamada-chan cry? Did he kiss Aiba-chan?”
Sho laughs at the last question before his face turns dark again. “Worse. He’s talking back to Ohno-sensei.”
“Huh?”
Before Sho can give further explanation, his radio beeps and Nino can hear Aiba on the other line whispering. “Sho-chan. Here. Now.”
Sho immediately stands, almost tipping the stool, and runs toward the door, leaving Nino blinking in his seat.
Yamada-chan appears by the door, holding two cups of coffee. “You want to see the live commotion? I have coffee,” she says, raising the cups a little bit into the air.
“Well, since you’ve been kind enough to get me one,” Nino says. “I’ll take one of those. Thank you.”
Yamada-chan leads the way back to the living room, and now Nino can see the cables clearly and navigate his way better. She sits beside Takeda-san, sitting on the edge of a long bench in an unlit corner of the room, and offers him the coffee.
“Thanks,” Takeda says to her before seeing Nino taking a seat beside her. “Hey Nino, I didn’t see you coming in.”
“Good evening. I just got here,” Nino greets him, settling next to Yamada-chan. They have a good view of what’s happening under the spotlight. Sho and Aiba are on the far side of the room, while Ohno-sensei is behind the monitor talking with his assistants. And now that he finally gets a good look at everything, Nino notices the set—a single-seat sofa with a low table—is not empty. Matsumoto is sitting in the seat, waiting, dressed in only a white shirt and trousers, looking like he has had a long day of work, which is probably true since the rehearsal started in the morning.
Takeda sips his coffee gratefully. “I hope they settle this soon. I need the stand lights back by midnight.”
“I think they are going to skip the last scene and cancel the bed scene in the end,” Yamada-chan says. “You must be disappointed, Nino-san.”
He almost chokes on his coffee, before he turns and sees both Takeda and Yamada-chan sending knowing grins at him. “I can see that you’ve all been talking with Aiba-chan. I’m so going to throttle him.”
“Well at least some action is going to happen if you do that,” Takeda says, with a hint of bitterness. “That young man was really into it. Very enthusiastic fellow.”
“Well, he’s new at this,” Yamada-chan replies. “He just needs to get used to the work.”
“I don’t really care. As long as he doesn’t upset the schedule, he’s fine,” Takeda retorts back. “Sho-kun is already near his boiling point.”
Yamada-chan giggles at that. “That’s some fast work all right. Your crush really knows how to ruin a day’s work, Nino-san.”
Nino rolls his eyes in vain. “He’s not my—“
He stops midway when there’s movement on the set. Ohno enters the set and walks toward Matsumoto while signaling Sho to come join them. The three men have a short conversation, mostly involving Sho shoving his tablet toward Ohno, Matsumoto trying to say something, but Ohno-sensei cutting him off with more instructions.
“Takeda-san,” Sho calls out from the set. “Can you come here for a second, please?”
“Yes,” Takeda responds immediately, handing his half-empty coffee cup to Yamada-chan and getting one of his boys to follow him onto the set.
Ohno-sensei points out his instructions for Takeda-san. Sho talks a little bit longer with Matsumoto before calling out again, “Yamada-chan, touch up, please!”
“Okay,” Yamada-chan answers, handing the half-empty coffee cup to Nino, leaving him alone on the long bench to go to the set.
“One cannot have enough coffee, I guess,” Nino says to himself, and continues to sip his coffee while he watches the scene unfold in front of him.
Over the next few minutes, as he stays on his seat, Nino remembers that the scene Matsumoto is rehearsing is scene number 15. From what he remembers, it’s a living room scene with Matsumoto listening to his radio, making phone calls with mostly monologues, and circling the set, with—now he can see why Sho is getting impatient—afternoon lighting from the vast window. It’s completely dark outside now, all the lighting coming from the stand lights, and they are still doing the scene. How that could be beneficial to rehearse he doesn’t know, but apparently Ohno-sensei wants to continue, so they are continuing. At first glance there’s nothing wrong with the scene, in his opinion. They are doing the first two cuts rather smoothly; Ohno-sensei stops the unnecessary turn Matsumoto is making at first and accepts the second even with the unnecessary turn addition. They stop for a while for a sequence check and Matsumoto is talking with Ohno-sensei again.
Realization finally hits Nino after thirty minutes have passed—his coffee finished and now he’s sipping Takeda’s leftovers—and they are still on the same scene: they are using too much time to stop between takes, with Matsumoto talking to Ohno after every take. They then have to spend more time to set Matsumoto’s position back when he comes back onto the set.
No wonder Sho is ready to fly off the fucking handle.
An hour later, it’s Aiba who finds him still sitting on the long chair. He looks relieved to see Nino and settles in immediately beside him. “Here you are. Sho-chan sent me to tell you we’re cancelling tonight.”
“I can see that.”
Aiba leans against the wall and slowly his head finds Nino’s shoulder. “Today has been hell,” he sighs.
“I can see that, too,” Nino says, keeping his tone harsh but shoulder still to support the extra weight.
“You are dismissed, Sho-chan said,” Aiba continues. “Next schedule will be sent to your email tomorrow. If there’s a new schedule, that is. Which I don’t think will exist anyway. We can’t afford another rehearsal.”
“Okay,” Nino says. “I’d offer you coffee but I finished mine and Takeda-san’s, just while waiting.”
Aiba laughs weakly. “You should really talk some sense into that crush of yours.”
“Aiba-chan,” Nino says, tone warning but still not moving, “I bet if I shift suddenly to the left, your head is going to hit the bench pretty hard. It’s going to give you a mild concussion but I’m not going to regret it even a bit because I need to get back to you for gossiping with Takeda-san.”
Aiba ignores the empty threat, too tired to even retort back. “I don’t even know how I’m going to function during the midnight meeting Sho has just now scheduled.”
“Mhmm.”
“But I was being serious, Nino. You should really talk to him. Give him some insight, some words of advice from a concerned and nice senpai or something like that. This cannot happen again.”
“Why am I on babysitting duty all of a sudden?”
“Because you’re the only one who can at the moment?”
“That’s not going to work on me.”
“Oh, come on, Nino. Just talk to him, will you? Sho-chan will appreciate the effort. Heck, the whole team will. I definitely will. Free dinner for a month? Starting from the day this production wraps up, which hopefully will finally come.”
“I smell bribery.”
“Then you know I’m pretty much desperate.”
“That’s so cheap of you.”
“You’re cheap right back.”
At the weak jab, Nino can only sigh. At the end, it doesn’t take very much for Aiba to convince him. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Nice,” Aiba says, still not moving from what it seems to be a comfortable position. “You can take advantage of him, too. We wouldn’t care. In fact, we’ll be rooting for you.”
“I’m so going to shift,” Nino says, “and your head should be hitting this bench right about now.”
Aiba ignores the threat again. “By the way, are you seeing Sho-chan panicking and trying to find me already?”
Nino scans the set quickly and can only make out that Sho’s still talking to Ohno-sensei at the other end of the room. “No, Ohno-sensei still has him busy.”
“Good. I can stay like this for a little longer,” Aiba says, with much relief. “And you’ll talk to him, right?”
Nino doesn’t answer immediately. There are pro and cons, of course; he’s been avoiding the man, that’s fact. But he cannot avoid him forever, sooner or later—he was prepared to get to that sooner tonight but it didn’t happen—the scene will need to happen. Cancelled rehearsal or not, they are going to do it after all. So perhaps better to deal with Matsumoto now, taking one for the team, and settling their footing sooner. “Can dinner be hamburger for the whole month?”
“No,” Aiba says and Nino can feel the smile as Aiba’s cheek moves on his shoulder. “You still need to eat some green things.”
“Dammit.”
“He’s with Yamada-chan right now. You can rescue her from him and accomplish your mission. Wheedle him to buy you fancy dinner or something.”
“I hate you.”
“I know. I hate you, too.”
Just as Aiba said, Nino finds Matsumoto with Yamada-chan in the wardrobe room, inquiring about the trench coat he was using during the first rehearsal scene. The man is already out of his costume, now dressed casually and seemingly ready to go.
“Oh, Nino-san.” Yamada-chan sees him first, and when Matsumoto turns to find him by the door, she makes a small gesture, hinting for Nino to get the man away from her. “I’m done with Matsumoto-san. He’s free to go if you’re waiting for him.”
Nino aims a glare at Yamada-chan. Matsumoto misses the glare and asks instead, “You’re waiting for me?”
“You can say that,” Nino says. “Come on, let’s go. I should escort you out of the building immediately.”
“Excuse me?”
“Let’s just go. We’re done here, I believe.”
“But I’m not—“
“Just go with him, Matsumoto-san. I’ll have a meeting in half an hour.” Yamada-chan smiles to soften her not-so-subtle dismissal.
Matsumoto frowns. “A meeting? At this hour?”
“It’s mostly because of you,” she says under her breath, before smiling again. “I’ll make sure everything’s ready per your requests by the next shoot. Good work today.”
“Good work today, Yamada-chan.” Nino gestures at Matsumoto to come with him. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
The night air hits them as soon as they step out of the apartment building. It’s pleasantly silent in the residential area and the breeze is warm against their skin.
“Are we going somewhere?” Matsumoto asks, standing next to Nino as they come to a sudden halt just in front of the building.
Nino turns slowly toward him. It isn’t entirely nervous-material now that he’s standing outside with him, away from the film set, and it’s just them. But they are going to talk about work again later, and just like that, the nervousness creeps back in. He lets out a loud sigh. “How about some ramen?”
“What?”
“I’m treating you dinner. How’s that? Is ramen okay?”
“I guess,” Matsumoto says, not sounding sure at all. He tries to search for something, staring more at Nino’s face before he fully grasps the invitation. “Wait. You’re treating me dinner?”
“Well, I’m hungry, you’re probably hungry, and I will definitely have Sho-chan reimburse the bill.”
Matsumoto laughs. “Really?”
“Really,” Nino says, also offering a smile in return. Matsumoto stands blocking the street light, and he can only see a silhouette of the sharp features and feel the stare. “I saw a decent cheap shop near the station. Can we go there now?”
“You sure are weird,” Matsumoto says, gesturing Nino to lead the way.
Nino shrugs—it’s going to be a long night, and exciting all the same. Aiba is going to owe him a lot, and Sho is going to pay the price; better enjoy it while it last. Dinner with Matsumoto? Who knew it would happen so soon?—and starts to walk down the road.
Matsumoto follows him, and soon they fall into a comfortable rhythm. They walk at a leisurely pace, passing a quiet park and a few more rows of houses. Nino’s almost hoping for rain to suddenly pour down on them, or anything to distract him from the ‘obligation’ to strike up a conversation. But Matsumoto doesn’t seem to make any effort to change to mood. It’s Nino who’s asked him to dinner after all. Matsumoto is just coming out of courtesy, being a newcomer in all this. Right, Nino’s the senpai here.
They approach the last block before the station. It has to start now or they will reach the shop and the moment will be gone. Nino forces the question out of his mouth. “So, what happened today?”
“Sorry?” Matsumoto turns to him with a frown, pace halted from the sudden question.
“Today,” Nino repeats his question slowly and with emphasis. “On the film set. What happened?”
“Rehearsal did?”
“You’re pretty thick for a good-looking guy,” Nino says, wondering whether being straightforward is going to work with this guy. “Why do I have to rephrase everything?”
“I don’t understand where you’re getting at,” Matsumoto says, both apologetic and sounding genuinely confused. “And you’re very direct.”
“I am.”
“Somehow it’s charming but not that much.”
“And you’re not as thick as you seem to be, I guess,” he manages to say, flushing at the vague compliment. For a split second he loses his snarky charade, warmth creeping up to his cheek, grateful for the dim lighting the street light provides. “Anyway, why are you posing so many questions?”
“Now?”
“No, during filming.” Nino doesn’t bother to prevent himself from rolling his eyes openly, keeping his tone sharp with a grumble. “I’ll take the not-as-thick compliment back right now, thank you.”
“I wasn’t—“
“You sure were. I was there.”
The answer makes Matsumoto halt suddenly, staring Nino in disbelief. “Really? The whole time?”
“No. Just as scheduled,” Nino says, stopping to turn and face Matsumoto; the crossing light is flaring red at the intersection anyway. “You do know that we were scheduled to shoot our scene during the evening.”
Matsumoto walks a few steps forward to get closer to Nino. “I do. And I was wondering why they cancelled that. The night is still young. You can get evening shots anytime.”
“Not anytime. It says it on the script. Dusk.” The crossing light still flares red, and they don’t move even though there are no cars passing through the intersection.
“Yeah, so?”
“Definitely taking the not-as-thick comment back now. Do you how important dusk is to a filming team?”
“No.”
Matsumoto sounds genuinely confused and Nino can’t help but pity the man a little. The light turns green and he walks ahead to cross the road. He hears Matsumoto follow him; a few steps later they are walking side by side again.
“If it says day or night or afternoon,” Nino begins, “that means they could create day or night or afternoon. But if your script says it’s dusk—or dawn—that means you don’t mess with your time. Dusk only happens once a day and it needs to happen at that precise time.”
Nino turns to see Matsumoto. He doesn’t respond and appears to be thinking; perhaps Aiba-chan was right, and the man just hasn’t considered it until just now. He’s got a nice profile, by the way. Nino has to force himself to look ahead and watch the road. He continues, “Meaning that the shot today, the one we should practice is botched because they missed dusk. And they missed dusk because?”
This time Matsumoto responds, trying to complete Nino’s sentence. “They were still doing my scenes.”
“And they were still doing your scenes because?”
“They’ve been doing it since morning.”
Matsumoto is getting a hang of it. Just a little bit more. “And the reason they’ve been doing it—continuously—since morning is because?”
“We haven’t finished.”
Maybe not a little bit. “My patience is running thin here, Matsumoto. The reason they haven’t finished, or to be exact, could not finish on schedule is because?”
“Of me?” Matsumoto stops walking again.
Nino claps his hands, making a fancy turn to find Matsumoto staring at him in true disbelief. “Good. I’ll take the thick comment back right now. Don’t ruin it.” He then realizes that they’re at the last turn before the station, with people around, and it’s not good to cause a scene here. They don’t appear to be drunk enough to be excused for being a public disturbance.
“Wait. Because of me?”
Nino leaves the sentence unanswered and points ahead instead. “We’re almost there here. See? Ganbou Ramen. Come on.”
They settle on a table for two near the back; most of the patrons are salarymen getting the quick dinner fix. Nino gets the smallest serving while Matsumoto dazedly points at a dinner set without inquiring anything. Nino sips his hot tea slowly as Matsumoto recovers from the shock. Their order comes and Nino begins eating even though Matsumoto only stares on his bowl. “You’re awfully quiet for a man who has just been treated dinner.”
“I thought I was being helpful,” Matsumoto finally says. He holds his chopsticks just above his bowl and stops again.
“Now?”
“During the rehearsal today.”
“No point in beating yourself up now that it’s all said and done,” Nino says, slurping his noodles noisily. “And here I am being nice because you look like you’re seriously down.”
Matsumoto turns to him with an expression that says Nino isn’t wrong, which simply gets Nino worried for a second. All the frustration and other things he can't comprehend at the moment flash in those eyes; which is good because that draws Nino’s attention to that sharp gaze, instead of titling back down to those pouting lips. That’ll cancel all good intentions that he’s having right now in a split second.
Nino puts his chopsticks down and decides to give the man a small break. “Listen, I’m just going to say this once. You need to know that they’ll ask if they want any input from us actors. But basically, you just need to do what they want you to do. Speaking from experience, I can also tell you that Ohno-sensei won’t be needing anything. He has his own vision, and no one gets it but him. If you don’t understand something, ask for clearer directions. If no one asks you about anything, then there’s no need to say anything, just do the job.”
“But that’d be—“
“Correct? Ethically correct? Politically correct? Call it whatever you want, doing your job is still doing your job. It’s not the place nor time to do anything else. We’re there to work. We’re getting paid for it.”
“Barely,” Matsumoto says with a small smile.
“Still, there’s money,” Nino continues. “And if you enjoy this acting thing, perhaps you should start accepting business rule #4.”
“Number four?” Matsumoto repeats, but Nino doesn’t explain further. Instead he turns back to his soggy ramen. He finishes his food in record time, giving nothing back to Matsumoto who finally decides to start eating his now-definitely-soggy noodles.
“You’re not just a little weird,” Matsumoto says in between slurps, “you’re truly weird.”
“Weird gets me pretty far.” Nino pats his stomach, setting the bowl further to the side of the table and reaching for his hot tea again. He decides to give the man—the sad man, if he can add, the sad man who’s been down and now has to eat some soggy ramen because his, haha, nice senpai decided to treat him dinner while setting him straight—another small break. “Remember, that was some senpai advice you just got.”
Matsumoto lets out a bitter laugh. “I thought I knew about how things work, but it turns out I didn’t know anything about it.”
He keeps his tone light; this Matsumoto just had a different perception, that’s all, and now he knows. “There’s nothing complicated about it. Actors act. That’s all,” he says.
Matsumoto frowns at the last statement, turning back to his soggy ramen. Nino lets the silence hang and they stay silent for a while, Matsumoto deep in thought and Nino fighting to finish the ramen.
The first thing Matsumoto says when he’s finished his bowl and is now playing with his iced tea is, “I thought you didn’t like me.”
Nino lets out a loud snort, followed by a giggle. “What?”
“You were staring at me rudely during the introduction party and you didn’t even spare me a glance during the production meeting.”
Nino hides his smile behind his hot teacup. “And that makes me not like you how?”
“Well, I thought, I just have this thought,” Matsumoto says, tone getting lower and lower, “that you might be not comfortable working with me, that maybe you don’t consider me as an actor knowing that I model and this is my first film project and now that I made today’s shooting off schedule and—“
“Too much information.” Nino simply cuts off the on-going ramble. “I like you just fine. I think you are good-looking. Strikingly, annoyingly, amazingly good-looking.”
“Huh?” Matsumoto blinks twice, sharp eyes focusing on Nino’s expression, seeking any indication of sarcasm and failing to find anything but Nino’s set expression. He lets out a small laugh. “Really? Oh, thank you. Really?”
“Really,” Nino says, also offering a smile in return. “Let’s leave it at that right now, okay?”
“Was that another piece of senpai advice?” Matsumoto says, eyes sparkling now with what Nino can identify as delight—he sure hopes it’s delight.
He rolls his eyes at the question. “It was a compliment, you jerk.”
The deep and rich sound of Matsumoto’s genuine laughter in response is like music to his ears; he would spend a lot of time and effort trying to draw the same sound from the man again and again. “You’re so weird.”
“And we’re back to weird. I think we’re done here then,” Nino says. “Let me ask for the bill. Hope that dinner set doesn’t cost a lot.”
“I’m sorry?” Matsumoto offers, his bright expression contrary to the apology.
“You’re a fast learner,” Nino smirks back to him. “I knew it.”
During primary shooting days, Nino’s schedule doesn’t allow him to meet with Matsumoto. He works with Ohno-sensei and the crew, completing one scene after another, following the scheduling to the dot—except once or twice when they encounter minor technical details. He’s witnessed Ohno-sensei change the scene details six times before getting what he wanted; he’s giggled over Sho’s mini fit of rage when the catering delivery comes late one afternoon; he’s had to apply his own makeup to keep up with the scene when Yamada-chan was late one morning; and he’s finally kicked Aiba-chan hard in the shin for loudly squealing ‘Nino, your crush is here’ when Matsumoto visits his shoot.
“Ouch, that wasn’t nice of you,” Aiba pouts in pain, but his eyes are shining with glee.
“You weren’t nice first,” Nino replies, suddenly aware of everything; his concentration’s completely blown by the simple presence of the other man.
They are finally getting down to scene number 5; this time a shiny white piano is placed in the middle of the set—Nino doesn’t even want to know how Takeda-san managed to fit it into the basement. He’s already in the black suit; it fits perfectly now that Yamada-chan has done her complete magic—the corsage is light yellow now. All thoughts about Matsumoto on set, or that Sho’s forgotten about giving him a coffee refill again, or that Aiba is still wiggling his eyebrows, are set aside when Ohno-sensei calls for him to enter the set. The stool is the same, and the height is already perfect. He gives the keys a light brush of his fingers and takes his seat in the center of the spotlight, waiting for instructions.
“I need a change of battery,” Ohno instructs his assistant while walking toward Nino, waving the camera in his hand. “And give me the .72.” The assistant takes the camera and moves quickly to the monitor section.
“Nino, we did this before,” Ohno says, standing by the piano next to him, touching the keys lightly.
“Yes.”
“But you’re nervous now.”
Nino flushes. “Sensei, I’m fine. It’s not going to—“
Ohno smiles at him. “Which is good, I think, because I need you nervous during the first few bars. You can play smoother later. That’s better for the scene.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Ohno says, confirming before pointing out more directions. “The door is still over there. Slouch and eyes off the keys. Remember?”
“I do.”
“I'll ask for a few repetitions. Just keep playing. You don’t need to stop, just go back a bar or two, and give me the mood I want.”
“Okay.”
“Good.” Ohno then turns to get the scene going. “My camera, please! And Takeda-san? Two degrees down on the left filler, please.” Takeda-san complies without fuss and Ohno receives his camera again and gives his final instructions. “We’re starting. Call it!”
Two beats after the call is finished, Nino hits the first key.
His fingers dance as he delivers the exact melody that he played during the rehearsal. Ohno gets closer, setting the camera focus on his fingers, and Nino keeps on going. “Repeat!” He smoothly goes back to the refrain, just when Ohno was getting closer before, and reaches the same notes with the same precise hits. “Repeat!” Nino goes back again, in full control of the melody, playing the same bars. “Repeat.” And again. “Repeat.” And again, until he catches the sight of Ohno pulling back in the corner of his eyes, getting a larger frame of the scene. He sets his face straight and ready for the deep close ups.
Ohno’s instructions come in a distant low voice. “The door.” He looks over to the direction of the door and skips the refrain and goes on playing the bridge without altering his rhythm—it’s a much slower part of the song, much more sincere, much more depressed. He fixes his gaze at a point in the right direction and plays the next bar. “I’m not getting the seduction. Repeat.” He takes a deep breath and goes to the beginning of the bridge; this time he lets his eyelids drop slower, taking a more noticeable sigh each time. “That’s it. Keep it going. Repeat!” And he does the exact same action one more time.
Ohno doesn’t give any instructions when he finishes the bridge, so Nino segues to the next part of the song, the final part with the high notes. He hits the keys with more enthusiasm, going for closure at a fast pace. He is almost at the last bar when Ohno comes closer again. “Repeat.” Nino does as instructed, keeping his expression the same as before; he is almost at the last bar again when this time Ohno whispers his instructions. “Tears. I want to see tears.” And Nino can only take a deep breath, letting his emotions and the melody overwhelm him in sudden waves. Of a man he loves, of a man who leaves him, of a man who kicks him when he’s down, of a man who uses him for pleasure, of a man who practice on his heart.
“Repeat.”
Nino gasps and lets the melody takes him this time; there’s no boundaries, no end to the surge of feelings now enshrouding him, letting him hitting the high notes again and again, surrounding everything with sorrow and sadness and the man who never loves him. Tears run freely, as he keeps his blurry vision on the door, still waiting for the man who didn’t come back, who will never come back. “Back one bar. Wipe your tears. Gently.” He sighs this time; there’s no good in hoping for what you can’t get, there’s nothing good in this world, he cannot trust anyone and that’s fact. He uses a finger to wipe the tears from his right cheek, keeping the other hand playing the low tones.
He continues playing the last notes when Ohno doesn’t say repeat this time. The song is coming to an end, the seduction is long forgotten, the sorrow has taken over everything. “Finish it,” Ohno finally says, pulling back to a long shot distance and Nino complies. He turns his eyes away from the door and onto the keys, hits the last note and keeps his head down. He lets a long silence follows—Ohno doesn’t give any further instructions—and follows, until a precise moment, when it is utterly silent and he feels the pang of pain in his chest. His heart is devastatingly broken. He hits the last note again, keeping pressing until the last echo fades under the stage light, until his eyes are dry again, until the end.
“Cut. We’re done with this scene.”
Nino lets out a big sigh, and for a moment, silence still envelops the set before there’s round of applause. He can hear Aiba’s catcalls and Sho’s ‘yeah’s from under the dark shade beyond the stage light. Ohno approaches him, giving him a squeeze on the shoulder. “Nicely done. That’s a wrap.” And Nino grins to his audience, giving a two-finger salute.
Everyone is thanking him for letting them off work sooner than scheduled time when he exits the set. Takeda-san begins to break down the lighting stands and Yamada-chan is giving him a thumbs-up, saying she’s going to wait at the wardrobe room and he can take his time.
“This. This is the only reason why I keep up with your being such a pain in the ass all the time.” Sho gives him a loose hug and a kiss on the cheek before going to finish the work for the day. “You’re as brilliant as ever.” Aiba failed-winks at him, leans in closer, and whispers ‘your crush was tearing up like a proud boyfriend,’ before quickly running along to follow Sho and avoid another hard kick to the shin.
Matsumoto is standing with his back against the wall, hands folded on his chest and a blank expression.
“Hey. I heard you were here since earlier,” Nino greets him. “And you were tearing up.”
Matsumoto doesn’t laugh at the jab as Nino has expected. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Now you’re being thick,” Matsumoto says. “Do what you just did now?”
“Play the piano?”
“How do you act like that?”
It isn’t comfortable at all to be under the scrutiny. Matsumoto keeps on staring at him, the way he was staring at the man during their first meeting; and now he knows how it is to be the one under an intense stare. “Was that another question for senpai?”
“It was a compliment, you jerk.” Matsumoto throws Nino’s words back at him but his tone remains tense and distant.
“That’s just acting,” Nino says, completely confused on how Matsumoto is reacting to the scene. He had expected praise—of course—or perhaps a harsh criticism, or a playful rib, but he certainly hadn’t expected this. What is this?
“That’s not acting,” Matsumoto says with eyes down as if in defeat but with a hint of awe and pride, “that was talent in its most mind-blowing form.”
The next week, Nino is about to leave his apartment for work when Sho’s frantically calling him to cancel the shoot for the next few days. “What’s with this sudden schedule change? Sho-chan, what happened? Yuriko-chan is not going to like this. This means I’m going to work on the weekend, right? I already promised to help her at the store.”
“Your crush is making things difficult. Again.”
“Stop using that word, will you? And I did talk to him. Talked some sense into him, just like Aiba-chan said. You finally approved the bill last week. I thought everything went smoothly with his shooting days.”
“Calling him your crush gives me so much satisfaction and I have to rant when I have to rant,” Sho rattles on. “I just got back from the apartment agent, trying to extend the rent for two more days and he gave me hell. It’ll cost us a lot and Ohno-sensei is not in his best mood, so basically everything is a mess. I still have to deal with—“
“Okay, I got it. Everything is a mess. But your dumping this on me will not get you anything. You should just—“
“At this rate, I don’t even know how we’re going to finish this goddamn film—“
“Okay. Too much information. Two days, right? I got it. Can you just rant to the next available person instead of taking it all out on me?”
“Two days,” Sho sighs heavily on the other end of the line. “Fine. I’ll call you later and dump all this crap on this nice lady sitting beside me on the bus stop. Thank you very much.”
Nino giggles at the thought of Sho ranting at a stranger. “Take care, Sho-chan.”
“Now that wasn’t so hard, right? Nice to have you finally say nice things to me. I already feel better.”
“I save the nice words only for the ones who’re in a pinch.”
“Ass.”
Nino hangs up on Sho with laughter. What happened now? He and Matsumoto didn’t actually part ways nicely the last time they met but it wasn’t something to worry about. He was exhausted after an intense scene that day and Matsumoto has been, dare he say it, a little bit insecure, which is not a problem for him, since it’s about the production first before anything. But if that leads Matsumoto to cause another problem for the production that means that he needs to deal with it again. He curses Aiba-chan in his head, for being a faux voice of reason, and himself for being overly attached to—okay, perhaps it’s finally time to admit the fact—his crush.
Nino has just finished ringing up the last purchase, bowing slightly to the lady costumer when he sees Matsumoto entering the store.
“How?” Nino can only gape at the man approaching the counter. “Why are you here? What do you want?”
Matsumoto stops right in front of him and asks calmly. “Can you teach me how to act?”
“What?”
“Now that was direct,” Yuriko chirps as she materializes beside Nino. ”And you look so much better in person, Sir.”
“Oh, shut up, he’s not a costumer.” Nino tries to silence her. “And you. Answer my question. Why are you here?”
“Thank you.” Matsumoto sends a distracted smile toward Yuriko. He turns back to Nino, offering a weak smile. “Well, I think there’s—“
Yuriko turns to Nino. “I’m not shutting up. I am the boss here. Even I—“
“Sorry,” Matsumoto says, unsure of whether he should go on with his explanation or not.
“No, you’re not sorry, you’re here already. Don’t mind her.” Nino waves away Matsumoto’s apology, encouraging him to continue instead. “What happened? And how the hell did you know that I work here?”
“I think I messed up. Big time,” Matsumoto says quietly. “Aiba-chan told me that I can find you here, that you might be able to help me.”
“That jerk,” Nino says, both for the location tattletale and the so-not-subtle effort to have Matsumoto consult him.
Yuriko coos at the explanation. “Oh, so Aiba-chan definitely approves.”
Matsumoto frowns at her. “Approves of what?”
Nino cuts her off before she can respond more. “If I promise to call you boss lady for the rest of my employment here, will you shut up and stay the hell out of this?”
“No. This opportunity is way too good to pass up,” she replies firmly, staring openly at Matsumoto without flinching. “I can definitely see why you’re nervous.”
Matsumoto replies to her. “I'm not nervous. Not that much.”
“Yuriko-chan!” Nino says exasperatedly to her. “She doesn’t mean you, Matsumoto.”
“So you both are nervous?” Yuriko blatantly ignores Nino and starts to lean over the counter to give some space to the two of them and an opportunity to herself to observe. “That’s so sweet. I approve of this, too!”
Matsumoto reads the situation better this time, ignoring Yuriko’s nonsensical comments and directly responding to Nino. “Can we get coffee? Or lunch? Or anything you want? Somewhere we can talk. Please.”
“Oh. Your treat?” Yuriko turns her gaze to Nino and scoots closer. “A serious man after your weak heart, Nino. He even asks nicely.” She actually winks at Matsumoto. “You’re okay, Matsumoto, even if you take Nino away on the weekends sometimes.”
“Yuriko-chan! I swear—“
Matsumoto is left confused, but he isn’t shaken. “I did? And thanks but have we met you before? I feel like we haven’t. I can’t be sure though.”
“Well,” she says, ignoring Nino, who’s fuming in his spot, right back. She takes a not-so-subtle side-glance toward the magazine rack. “I can definitely say we’ve met before.”
“So we’ve met before? I’m sorry, I don’t—“
“Can we just—okay, wait. Wait a minute you two. Don’t start a conversation out of blue as if you were friends or something. Just stop talking for a minute.” Nino holds his hands out as a final effort to stop them both from talking. He turns to Yuriko, stepping closer to deliver his message clear. “First. boss, can I have an extended lunch break?” Then he turns to Matsumoto. “And you. Will you just step outside and wait till I settle this with this bossy friend of mine? I’ll be out in a minute.”
“That’s boss lady to you, mister,” Yuriko scolds Nino, nudging him lightly.
“Whatever, I need—“
“I’m sorry. I’ve disturbed your work,” Matsumoto says, sounding heavily apologetic. “Yes, I’ll wait outside. I’m sorry.”
Yuriko shrugs, staying in her spot. “Well, I’m not going anywhere. I have a store to keep in order.”
“—Ryo-chan. I need him.” Half-shouting, Nino desperately tries to end this scene. “Ryo-chan, get here now!”
Matsumoto then walks toward the door in silence and heads out of the store, but not before aiming a confused gaze toward the two behind the counter.
Once the sliding door shuts, they stare at each other; Nino with a flushed face and Yuriko with a big creepy smile.
“So you better be back before 3 PM sharp or I’m going to start calling Aiba-chan and telling him that you’ve eloped with your gorgeous co-star and left me here alone with Ryo-chan during the afternoon rush hour.”
“No one is eloping and it won’t take more than an hour. And you’re enjoying this too much. I hate you,” Nino says. “Ryo-chan!”
“He’s probably still out back trying to sort out the leftover morning bentos. I’ll get him. You can go on and help him with acting,” she says, smiling wider and wider, “after you take that silly apron off though. I won’t approve of any misuse of store property outside of work hours.”
“I hate that now I have to thank you,” Nino says, taking off his apron quickly and storing it under the counter.
Yuriko sends a dismissive wave toward him. “I hate to say ‘you’re welcome’ but being a boss is tough work, being a good example and such.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I am a good example, thank you very much. Now, go. I can see he’s been staring at us since he stepped outside.”
“You’re definitely calling Aiba-chan the moment I’m gone, aren’t you?
“Definitely.” She grins widely before she turns her attention outside and sees Matsumoto staring at his shoes. “Oh and I think he’s going to start crying any minute from the look of it. You better get him. Offer some comfort or something.”
“Not funny.”
“He’s worth being nervous for though. Maybe you’ll get lucky this time.”
“Still not funny.”
“I wasn’t joking. Really, perhaps you’ll do well with this one,” Yuriko says, still with that creepy smile of hers, which means that she’s still teasing him; Nino knows better. “Have a nice lunch. Be back at 3! Or I’ll call Aiba-chan and Sho-kun.”
“Nothing’s stopping you after all.” Nino goes around the counter and heads toward the sliding door with his arm outstreched. “Tell Aiba-chan, I’ll murder him for this later.”
They don’t walk far; Matsumoto suggests they share coffee at the coffee shop a block from the store, and Nino, too drained from dealing with Yuriko to care, agrees. They settle for two black coffees at the corner table.
“Since we’re getting coffee now, that means you still owe me lunch.”
Matsumoto slides his cup farther aside on the table, taking his time with sugar and cream. “Fine, I’ll cook you lunch some other time.”
“That’d be nice.” Nino takes his phone out from his pocket and sets it on the table, face up, glancing at the time. “But the clock is ticking. I won’t be able to live it down if I get back later than 3 o’clock. So what happened?”
“I’ve been messing up my scenes.”
“And becoming the sole cause of this schedule delay we’re all experiencing right now?
Matsumoto looks more lost than embarrassed. “Yes.”
Nino sighs heavily. “Stop looking so lost and confused. It doesn’t suit you.”
“But I’m feeling lost and confused. I now know that there’s so much at stake, people are relying on me to execute the scene and move on to the next thing on the schedule, and I haven’t been—“
“Just stop.”
“I’m telling you what happened on the set. Nino, I can’t do this, I’m going to sabotage the whole production, and there’s nothing—“
“Stop!” Nino says, a little bit louder than he intends to. A few people turn their heads toward them but he chooses to ignore them. “Too much information. I don’t need to know about the schedule and such. That’s Sho-chan’s business. I asked you what happened. What kind of mess have you made? Which scene? Why?”
“I think it was because of you.”
Nino groans. “And do not bring me into this. I didn’t do anything!”
Matsumoto ignores him this time and continues with his explanation. “I kept thinking about your piano scene.”
“Thanks, but that’s not my fault at all.”
“And how to incorporate so many feelings into a scene, to display so many emotions from such short instructions from Sensei,” Matsumoto says, hands waving as he animates his points. “It got me thinking. My scenes, the ones I have completed, are nothing like that. Far from it. They always involve various poses, short lines of dialogue. And I feel like Sensei is asking something that I cannot bring to surface so everything feels… empty.”
Nino leans against the seat to marvel at Matsumoto, spurting out his thoughts, his concerns on him. How did this happen anyway? He remembers being nervous—with some eye-rolling avoidance tactics he was ready to employ—around the man, and one ramen treat later they are sharing—or maybe it’s Matsumoto who’s doing the sharing, he doesn’t do anything—worries and concern.
“How many times have you read the whole script?”
“Ten times from cover to cover, and then more on my specific parts.”
“And how would you describe the character you play?”
“Aloof, lonely, and an opportunist.”
“Does his life feel empty then?”
A spark of recognition. “Yes.”
“There. You’ve got it then. Problem one solved.” Nino raises his coffee mug to give a salute before taking a small sip. “Anything else? You know, I should charge you by the minute. I’d be a rich man by now if I’d thought about this earlier.”
Matsumoto stares at his untouched coffee. “I keep asking for a retake, and I talked to Ohno-sensei especially about this. I think he doesn’t really like my performance on this project. He said he wasn’t expecting me to deliver such a performance but he’ll make do.”
Nino considers his answer for a while. “He said he’ll make do, right?”
“Yes, but—“
“Then he’ll make do. Why does it bother you then?”
“Because I’m not able to deliver a kind of performance at your level.”
“Of course you can’t.”
Matsumoto looks completely dejected by the answer.
“Oh, I said stop it with the lost and confused look, I can only handle so much,” Nino says, drawing a small smile from Matsumoto. “What I wanted to say was that there’s no way you can deliver my kind of performance. Because it’s only me who can. No one else could.”
“Well, still.”
“I’m seeing no real life-threatening, suicide-inducing problem here. It’s all you, wrapped up in your own worry and causing problems for the production people. Again. I thought we talked about this.”
“But I just don’t know what to do. Now they are postponing everything for two days because Aiba-chan cannot get an extension on the warehouse and Sho-kun has to deal with equipment rental extension.”
“Too much information.” Nino waves away his concern again. “How do you know about these things anyway?”
“I ask them.”
“So you’ve been busy, worrying yourself to death and snooping around production team business.”
“Pretty much,” Matsumoto says, offering a sad smile. “Now that I’ve talked it out with you it does seem pretty stupid.”
“I should get you to call me senpai for the rest of my life. Seriously. All the advice I’m throwing your way seems to be bouncing back uselessly. Remember what I said about us actors?”
“We actors act.”
“And what have you been doing the past week?”
“Worrying myself to death and snooping around production team business.”
“Exactly,” Nino says with finality.
They fall into silence as they finish their coffee; Matsumoto offers to order another cup and Nino agrees—there’s still 20 minutes on the clock after all.
“Thank you,” Matsumoto says. ”I feel calmer now that I’ve talked to you. Sorry for the outburst and for bothering you with your work.”
“You are so hard to resist sometimes.” Nino shrugs. “And I have the worst friends on the planet.”
“They are very kind, you’re lucky,” Matsumoto says. “In fact, you know your way with the whole production team. I never have that closeness with my colleagues. You act like you are annoyed with all of them but you treat them well.”
“I’m still going to murder Aiba-chan the first chance I get.”
Matsumoto laughs at that, his eyes kind and thankful, and Nino falls; later, he tells himself, later when the project is done, when the scene is done, when everything is no longer complicated—yet when are things ever not complicated, he wants to argue. He glances down at his phone instead; 10 more minutes.
“10 more minutes,” he says to Matsumoto. “Anything else? Because if not, you should ask for the bill and send it to Sho-chan. I mean it. He needs to pay for this. I’m doing all the work around here.”
Two days later, Sho stops by at the store in the morning to meet him and buy some disgusting egg salad packages. “Everything is settled and we’re starting with your days again on Monday.”
“Roger that.”
“And your crush-slash-boyfriend is having an all night shooting day if you’re curious.” With eyebrows wiggling, and toned-down laugher, Sho emphasizes his last sentence.
“Sho-chan, I can get Yuriko-chan here in under 5 seconds and you’re going to eat your words.” He puts all of Sho’s items in a plastic bag after he rings them up. “4,500 yen.”
Sho gives him a 5000 bill, beaming smugly. “He’s been in your care. We all owe you for slapping him back into shape. Running all smoothly now.”
“You’re doing this to get back at me for of all the nagging I did during pre-production, right? Stopping by here so early in the morning.”
“Damn right. It’s good to finally have the chance to get back at you,” Sho says merrily. He’s about to add something else when a series of blinks and chirps come out from his tablet.
“But your mighty device is calling you.” Nino points helpfully to said device. “Now go away before I truly get Yuriko-chan here.”
“Want to try hugging each other first?” Matsumoto asks off-handedly in the wardrobe room. He’s already topless, and walking around the room, hands waving as he speaks.
Nino gapes at him in shock. “What?”
“We do need to practice. I haven’t as much as touched your hand,” Matsumoto coolly says.
“What?” Nino asks again, now that he realizes that they aren’t alone on the room. Yamada-chan is currently sitting on the floor next to his feet, fixing the bottom part of his over-sized pajama trousers, while Aiba-chan is trying his best to not audibly giggling as he reads the memo for today by the door.
“I don’t think I should make another ‘thick’ comment because the hilarity is beginning to wear thin. At least I can pay you back for the ‘can you teach me’ mess last week. I can’t act as well as you but I am good with posing. You don’t need to be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” Nino says, a little bit too fast. “Don’t you trust these two jerks if they are telling you otherwise.”
“Yes, you are,” Matsumoto shrugs, not caring about audience, and that somehow annoys and impresses Nino at the same time. “Aiba-chan has been giving some hints but I didn’t think that far ahead. I’ve been too wrapped up in everything being so new around, moving so fast, and I totally didn’t notice it at first. But now that I think about it, you are—“
“—not nervous,” Nino finishes his sentence, sending a glare toward Aiba. “And I’m going to murder that tattletale Aiba-chan eventually.”
“Right.” A smile blooms on Matsumoto’s face, beautifully as he tries to not roll his eyes. “I’ve done a nude shot before,” he adds. “Really, it’s not that big a deal.”
“Too much information,” Nino says. Near his feet, Yamada-chan is definitely snorting as she works on his outfit, but he decides not to step on her hands because he’s a pro at this. “And you’re telling me this now, in the presence of these two members of the gossip troupe, because?”
Matsumoto stops in front of him, in all his barechested glory, and Nino is thinking that he probably could get used to it eventually—but probably not, it’s a sight to behold and he’s enjoying the view so far, even more that he probably should be.
“Well, if you’re curious, I can tell you few simple pointers. It shouldn’t bother you at all. It’s just work after all,” Matsumoto says, before realizing something. “Ah, perhaps that’s how acting is for you.”
“Not curious. Not at all.” Nino wishes he had his phone so he could at least seem to genuinely ignore Matsumoto. “And of course it’s just work. What are you thinking, you, over there trying to look busy with your paperwork?” He turns to point violently at Aiba, who only responds with an extended hand shrug and an eyebrow wiggle.
“Yes. It’s nothing personal.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that. I don’t need to remind you that I’m the senpai in all this.”
“No need indeed,” Matsumoto says, his tone serious. It doesn’t take much to realize that he was deliberately trying to comfort Nino. “I was just telling myself that it’s nothing personal. Nothing personal.”
“Shut up. Now you’re making me nervous,” Nino says. “And Yamada-chan, how much time you need to fix the seam of my pajamas anyway? I think you just want to be here to listen to our conversation and report back to Sho-chan later.”
She grins. “Mhm, but this needs serious, life-and-death level of serious, fixing, I probably would be here until they call you back to set. Yeah, I think I should stay here, you know, like a fly on the wall, or a wardrobe woman on an assignment.”
Aiba finally explodes into hiccup-giggles, and Matsumoto and Yamada-chan join in on the action, and it finally draws a relaxed smile from Nino.
Ohno meets them with raised eyebrows when they arrive at the set. “I heard some commotion back there.”
“It was all Matsumoto’s and Aiba-chan’s fault, Sensei,” Nino quickly explains. “They’re having too much fun with this.”
Ohno smiles. “And setting you both in good mood, I see. Good. We can start now if you’re ready.”
Matsumoto nods. “Sure.”
“I need few running test-shots first,” Ohno explains. “But since we’re short of time, the light and all, consider this as a real take. We’re doing all the shots in sequence, chronologically. Just like a photo shoot, Matsumoto. You lead the action. And Nino, you follow him.”
Nino nods and feels his entire body warm up in anticipation. Matsumoto turns to him, now looking not as confident as he was a few minutes ago, and Nino knows that they are going to do this properly; they can be nervous together and get the job done.
Ohno directs them to sit by the bed. “Let me arrange the background first. Takeda-san?”
Takeda-san comes onto the set, and with his team, he shifts the lighting for the vast window. It’s still daytime now, early afternoon, but they are going to do this at dusk so they are putting a few filters on the window, setting the mood of the bedroom into something dim and hazy.
“Okay. Positions.” Ohno has his assistant rearrange the overhead microphone as Nino lies down on the bed, waiting for Matsumoto to cover him with his body. Matsumoto’s chest is as clammy as his palms, and Nino feels a slight relief. They can do this. He’s not alone on this one; he has Matsumoto with him. He stares up at the eyes hovering above him, clear brown, seeing through his nervousness; he offers a small smirk and closes his eyes, ready for Ohno’s instructions. He hears rhythmic breathing from Matsumoto, and waits.
“Call it. Music!”
Music? Nino opens his eyes slowly to meet Matsumoto’s eyes, with more intensity, and catches the first bar of his piano piece drifting in at a low volume, so far yet so close. It’s heady, and the sole sight he can focus on is Matsumoto’s eyes, his hands moving to wrap around the man, waiting for his cue to ask for more; why didn’t they practice this?
Yet as it turns out, he’s glad they have never practiced this particular scene; everything is so new, so warm, so intoxicating. The bridge of his piano piece comes in repeat and— “Kiss him, Matsumoto. Slowly.” For a split second Matsumoto keeps on staring into Nino’s eyes, seeking permission he already has, before slowly lowering his lips—his lush lips, ones that have been haunting Nino since the day they met—to meet Nino’s. Soft and wet touches land on his lips and Nino swallows his moans; he returns the touches, meeting the slow rhythm Matsumoto sets as they keep their kisses unhurried, accentuating each touch with the light puffs of air they share.
“Repeat.” Matsumoto pulls back a little before repeating the same path again, this time properly starting from one corner of Nino’s mouth, making his slow way toward the other; it’s getting more and more difficult to keep his eyes open but Nino tries, keeping his eyelids heavy and letting Matsumoto control the rhythm before it falters a little bit when Ohno moves on with his camera closer to get them from the side. “Repeat.” Matsumoto shifts again, and this time Nino moves his hands on Matsumoto’s back a little bit lower, giving him more leverage to meet Matsumoto’s lips more every time he’s given another soft touch.
“Give me a deep kiss.” Matsumoto doesn't hesitate to set a faster pace, his hands moves up to thread his fingers in Nino’s hair, keeping his head still as he deepens the kiss; Nino stops trying to swallow his moans, letting them escape his mouth when Matsumoto pulls back. “Repeat.” Matsumoto does a good job, in his hazed mind, to keep the pace exactly the same, it’s becoming pattern after pattern. “Repeat. Long shot now. Legs, Matsumoto.” Ohno sounds so far at the moment and Nino feels Matsumoto shifts, pressing him further into the bed, while his lips repeat the pattern.
They repeat the long shot frame twice before Ohno’s voice sounds closer again. “Forehead. Keep still for few seconds, before you open your eyes.” Nino follows the instructions, counting his rapid heartbeat before again, finding Matsumoto’s eyes, heavy-lidded and shining with lust, so close. He breathes through his mouth, still open and wanting, wanting those lips to touch his again, and concentrates on not smiling. “Close your eyes and repeat.” And again, those eyes drown him. “Nino, close your eyes.” He complies and feels the bed shift on his right. His breathing is still a little bit erratic, and he doesn’t do anything to even it out; it feels right. “Look at Matsumoto. Open your eyes.” This time a lens looks back at him. “Give me warmth.” Nino brings the image of the sharp eyes—he’s seen it full of doubt, full of guilt, full of happiness, and now full of desire, dark and wanting. He wants more so he asks permission, seeks understanding, and wants love in return.
“Cut. Video check!”
“You’re good,” Matsumoto says, sighing happily. They are waiting for Ohno to decide another shot, sitting on the chairs on the left side of the set far from the commotion on behind the monitor. Except for when Yamada-chan gives them their bathrobes, no crew members—not even Aiba-chan and Sho—approach them. Whether it’s for the sake of the shooting mood or not, Nino is grateful he doesn’t have to deal with them right now.
“Thanks. I can certainly return the compliment to you.”
“Nino.”
“Yes—“ He turns and finds Matsumoto leaning toward him, dropping a soft kiss on his right cheek and pulling back with a big smile.
“W-what?”
“Let’s start with cheek kisses first. We have plenty of time before we need to jump to bed.”
Nino feels his cheeks flushing, but it isn’t an unwelcome feeling, in fact it feels tingly, good the kind of tingly. Everything is warm again and Matsumoto just kissed him on the cheek. “We just spent a day half naked in bed, pressed into each other—“
“That didn’t count.”
“Says you.”
“Says I,” Matsumoto says. “I’ve decided that while I might be terrible at acting, I learned a lot these two months. I don’t know if I’m going to do it again. It sure is more difficult that just posing for the still camera.“
“You should save the speech for the wrap-up party,” Nino mutters his protest—it’s getting hard to protest for something that he doesn’t want to protest in the first place.
“Yet I’m glad I got to practice with you.”
Nino can’t help but smile at the sentiment, but for now he keeps the sentiment to himself. Not yet. They haven’t even finished filming yet. Not until the last scene is done, not until the wrap-up party is done, not until he gets his next project. Not until Matsumoto can convince him again; he’ll be waiting. “If I didn't know better, I’d take that as a cheap comment, an effort to be on my good side and have me treat you to ramen again even when you still owe me a lunch.”
“Maybe.” Matsumoto smiles knowingly at him. “Or maybe I just hate you,” he adds with the same delight sparkles in his eyes.
They are the same sparkles Nino finds sending nice warmth creeping up to his cheeks, the ones that have kept him staring during the first meeting, the ones that keeps him nervous all along, the ones mirroring his. He turns to Matsumoto with a wide grins and replies, “I hate you, too.”
.
alternatejessFrom:
gomushroomPart 1
The Sunday location shoot is in a district across town, an apartment in a quiet residential area. Apparently this is where they’ve splurged? Nino thinks as he meets the assistant in front of the building. He lets the guy lead him to the fifth floor to enter a loft and meet Sho.
“Follow me,” Sho says in a low tone, hurriedly walking away from the entrance.
“What?” Nino whispers back, stumbling a bit as he follows. As he navigates his way toward the next room, he notices that the set is flooded with natural light, with a few stand lights creating subtle shadows. The vast large windows show the scenery of dusk falling rapidly on the city below. Sho leads him to a small bedroom they apparently arranged as the makeup and wardrobe room.
Yamada-chan looks up at them entering the room but doesn’t move from her chair to work on Nino’s makeup like the day before. She continues to sip her mug leisurely. “They’re still at it?” she asks Sho.
Sho sighs. “Yeah. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to end soon though.”
“What happened? I’m not late, am I?”
“You’re not late. We are.”
“What? How?”
Sho sighs even more loudly, taking a seat on the stool with his back facing the mirror, and he gestures Nino to do the same.
“There’s no other chair,” Nino says, “except if you expect me to kick Yamada-chan out of her chair. But that’d be rude.”
His remark draws a giggle from Yamada-chan across the room.
“You’d kick me out of my chair anytime,” Sho says, a hint of a smile appearing on his face. Nino congratulates himself for a remark well done. “Just use any crate over there. Nothing except Aiba-chan’s frantic call can get me out of this one. I’ve been standing since this morning. My blood is not circulating well enough.”
“Here, use this instead,” Yamada-chan says, bringing the chair for Nino. “I’ll get both of you some coffee. You, especially, look like you really need another one, Sho-kun.”
“I already lost count of how many cups I’ve had today, but thank you all the same, Yamada-chan,” Sho says as she leaves them alone in the room.
Nino thanks her for the chair before sitting down, setting his chair right across Sho. “What happened?”
“We’re two scenes behind. It’s already 6. I only set the room rental till 9. Dusk will soon pass. And we’re two scenes behind. I don’t think you’ll be able to rehearse tonight. We’re two scenes behind!”
“You said it three times in one breath. What happened?”
“Your crush is ruining everything.” Sho slumps in his seat.
“Stop using that word, will you? Soon it’s going to be his nickname, I just know it.” Nino rolls his eyes and smiles afterward when it gets another small smile from Sho. “What did he do? Was he late? Did he break a camera? Did he stumble and destroy Takeda-chan’s lighting arrangement? Did he make Yamada-chan cry? Did he kiss Aiba-chan?”
Sho laughs at the last question before his face turns dark again. “Worse. He’s talking back to Ohno-sensei.”
“Huh?”
Before Sho can give further explanation, his radio beeps and Nino can hear Aiba on the other line whispering. “Sho-chan. Here. Now.”
Sho immediately stands, almost tipping the stool, and runs toward the door, leaving Nino blinking in his seat.
Yamada-chan appears by the door, holding two cups of coffee. “You want to see the live commotion? I have coffee,” she says, raising the cups a little bit into the air.
“Well, since you’ve been kind enough to get me one,” Nino says. “I’ll take one of those. Thank you.”
Yamada-chan leads the way back to the living room, and now Nino can see the cables clearly and navigate his way better. She sits beside Takeda-san, sitting on the edge of a long bench in an unlit corner of the room, and offers him the coffee.
“Thanks,” Takeda says to her before seeing Nino taking a seat beside her. “Hey Nino, I didn’t see you coming in.”
“Good evening. I just got here,” Nino greets him, settling next to Yamada-chan. They have a good view of what’s happening under the spotlight. Sho and Aiba are on the far side of the room, while Ohno-sensei is behind the monitor talking with his assistants. And now that he finally gets a good look at everything, Nino notices the set—a single-seat sofa with a low table—is not empty. Matsumoto is sitting in the seat, waiting, dressed in only a white shirt and trousers, looking like he has had a long day of work, which is probably true since the rehearsal started in the morning.
Takeda sips his coffee gratefully. “I hope they settle this soon. I need the stand lights back by midnight.”
“I think they are going to skip the last scene and cancel the bed scene in the end,” Yamada-chan says. “You must be disappointed, Nino-san.”
He almost chokes on his coffee, before he turns and sees both Takeda and Yamada-chan sending knowing grins at him. “I can see that you’ve all been talking with Aiba-chan. I’m so going to throttle him.”
“Well at least some action is going to happen if you do that,” Takeda says, with a hint of bitterness. “That young man was really into it. Very enthusiastic fellow.”
“Well, he’s new at this,” Yamada-chan replies. “He just needs to get used to the work.”
“I don’t really care. As long as he doesn’t upset the schedule, he’s fine,” Takeda retorts back. “Sho-kun is already near his boiling point.”
Yamada-chan giggles at that. “That’s some fast work all right. Your crush really knows how to ruin a day’s work, Nino-san.”
Nino rolls his eyes in vain. “He’s not my—“
He stops midway when there’s movement on the set. Ohno enters the set and walks toward Matsumoto while signaling Sho to come join them. The three men have a short conversation, mostly involving Sho shoving his tablet toward Ohno, Matsumoto trying to say something, but Ohno-sensei cutting him off with more instructions.
“Takeda-san,” Sho calls out from the set. “Can you come here for a second, please?”
“Yes,” Takeda responds immediately, handing his half-empty coffee cup to Yamada-chan and getting one of his boys to follow him onto the set.
Ohno-sensei points out his instructions for Takeda-san. Sho talks a little bit longer with Matsumoto before calling out again, “Yamada-chan, touch up, please!”
“Okay,” Yamada-chan answers, handing the half-empty coffee cup to Nino, leaving him alone on the long bench to go to the set.
“One cannot have enough coffee, I guess,” Nino says to himself, and continues to sip his coffee while he watches the scene unfold in front of him.
Over the next few minutes, as he stays on his seat, Nino remembers that the scene Matsumoto is rehearsing is scene number 15. From what he remembers, it’s a living room scene with Matsumoto listening to his radio, making phone calls with mostly monologues, and circling the set, with—now he can see why Sho is getting impatient—afternoon lighting from the vast window. It’s completely dark outside now, all the lighting coming from the stand lights, and they are still doing the scene. How that could be beneficial to rehearse he doesn’t know, but apparently Ohno-sensei wants to continue, so they are continuing. At first glance there’s nothing wrong with the scene, in his opinion. They are doing the first two cuts rather smoothly; Ohno-sensei stops the unnecessary turn Matsumoto is making at first and accepts the second even with the unnecessary turn addition. They stop for a while for a sequence check and Matsumoto is talking with Ohno-sensei again.
Realization finally hits Nino after thirty minutes have passed—his coffee finished and now he’s sipping Takeda’s leftovers—and they are still on the same scene: they are using too much time to stop between takes, with Matsumoto talking to Ohno after every take. They then have to spend more time to set Matsumoto’s position back when he comes back onto the set.
No wonder Sho is ready to fly off the fucking handle.
An hour later, it’s Aiba who finds him still sitting on the long chair. He looks relieved to see Nino and settles in immediately beside him. “Here you are. Sho-chan sent me to tell you we’re cancelling tonight.”
“I can see that.”
Aiba leans against the wall and slowly his head finds Nino’s shoulder. “Today has been hell,” he sighs.
“I can see that, too,” Nino says, keeping his tone harsh but shoulder still to support the extra weight.
“You are dismissed, Sho-chan said,” Aiba continues. “Next schedule will be sent to your email tomorrow. If there’s a new schedule, that is. Which I don’t think will exist anyway. We can’t afford another rehearsal.”
“Okay,” Nino says. “I’d offer you coffee but I finished mine and Takeda-san’s, just while waiting.”
Aiba laughs weakly. “You should really talk some sense into that crush of yours.”
“Aiba-chan,” Nino says, tone warning but still not moving, “I bet if I shift suddenly to the left, your head is going to hit the bench pretty hard. It’s going to give you a mild concussion but I’m not going to regret it even a bit because I need to get back to you for gossiping with Takeda-san.”
Aiba ignores the empty threat, too tired to even retort back. “I don’t even know how I’m going to function during the midnight meeting Sho has just now scheduled.”
“Mhmm.”
“But I was being serious, Nino. You should really talk to him. Give him some insight, some words of advice from a concerned and nice senpai or something like that. This cannot happen again.”
“Why am I on babysitting duty all of a sudden?”
“Because you’re the only one who can at the moment?”
“That’s not going to work on me.”
“Oh, come on, Nino. Just talk to him, will you? Sho-chan will appreciate the effort. Heck, the whole team will. I definitely will. Free dinner for a month? Starting from the day this production wraps up, which hopefully will finally come.”
“I smell bribery.”
“Then you know I’m pretty much desperate.”
“That’s so cheap of you.”
“You’re cheap right back.”
At the weak jab, Nino can only sigh. At the end, it doesn’t take very much for Aiba to convince him. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Nice,” Aiba says, still not moving from what it seems to be a comfortable position. “You can take advantage of him, too. We wouldn’t care. In fact, we’ll be rooting for you.”
“I’m so going to shift,” Nino says, “and your head should be hitting this bench right about now.”
Aiba ignores the threat again. “By the way, are you seeing Sho-chan panicking and trying to find me already?”
Nino scans the set quickly and can only make out that Sho’s still talking to Ohno-sensei at the other end of the room. “No, Ohno-sensei still has him busy.”
“Good. I can stay like this for a little longer,” Aiba says, with much relief. “And you’ll talk to him, right?”
Nino doesn’t answer immediately. There are pro and cons, of course; he’s been avoiding the man, that’s fact. But he cannot avoid him forever, sooner or later—he was prepared to get to that sooner tonight but it didn’t happen—the scene will need to happen. Cancelled rehearsal or not, they are going to do it after all. So perhaps better to deal with Matsumoto now, taking one for the team, and settling their footing sooner. “Can dinner be hamburger for the whole month?”
“No,” Aiba says and Nino can feel the smile as Aiba’s cheek moves on his shoulder. “You still need to eat some green things.”
“Dammit.”
“He’s with Yamada-chan right now. You can rescue her from him and accomplish your mission. Wheedle him to buy you fancy dinner or something.”
“I hate you.”
“I know. I hate you, too.”
Just as Aiba said, Nino finds Matsumoto with Yamada-chan in the wardrobe room, inquiring about the trench coat he was using during the first rehearsal scene. The man is already out of his costume, now dressed casually and seemingly ready to go.
“Oh, Nino-san.” Yamada-chan sees him first, and when Matsumoto turns to find him by the door, she makes a small gesture, hinting for Nino to get the man away from her. “I’m done with Matsumoto-san. He’s free to go if you’re waiting for him.”
Nino aims a glare at Yamada-chan. Matsumoto misses the glare and asks instead, “You’re waiting for me?”
“You can say that,” Nino says. “Come on, let’s go. I should escort you out of the building immediately.”
“Excuse me?”
“Let’s just go. We’re done here, I believe.”
“But I’m not—“
“Just go with him, Matsumoto-san. I’ll have a meeting in half an hour.” Yamada-chan smiles to soften her not-so-subtle dismissal.
Matsumoto frowns. “A meeting? At this hour?”
“It’s mostly because of you,” she says under her breath, before smiling again. “I’ll make sure everything’s ready per your requests by the next shoot. Good work today.”
“Good work today, Yamada-chan.” Nino gestures at Matsumoto to come with him. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
– NIGHT
EXTREME CLOSE UP.
The night air hits them as soon as they step out of the apartment building. It’s pleasantly silent in the residential area and the breeze is warm against their skin.
“Are we going somewhere?” Matsumoto asks, standing next to Nino as they come to a sudden halt just in front of the building.
Nino turns slowly toward him. It isn’t entirely nervous-material now that he’s standing outside with him, away from the film set, and it’s just them. But they are going to talk about work again later, and just like that, the nervousness creeps back in. He lets out a loud sigh. “How about some ramen?”
“What?”
“I’m treating you dinner. How’s that? Is ramen okay?”
“I guess,” Matsumoto says, not sounding sure at all. He tries to search for something, staring more at Nino’s face before he fully grasps the invitation. “Wait. You’re treating me dinner?”
“Well, I’m hungry, you’re probably hungry, and I will definitely have Sho-chan reimburse the bill.”
Matsumoto laughs. “Really?”
“Really,” Nino says, also offering a smile in return. Matsumoto stands blocking the street light, and he can only see a silhouette of the sharp features and feel the stare. “I saw a decent cheap shop near the station. Can we go there now?”
“You sure are weird,” Matsumoto says, gesturing Nino to lead the way.
Nino shrugs—it’s going to be a long night, and exciting all the same. Aiba is going to owe him a lot, and Sho is going to pay the price; better enjoy it while it last. Dinner with Matsumoto? Who knew it would happen so soon?—and starts to walk down the road.
Matsumoto follows him, and soon they fall into a comfortable rhythm. They walk at a leisurely pace, passing a quiet park and a few more rows of houses. Nino’s almost hoping for rain to suddenly pour down on them, or anything to distract him from the ‘obligation’ to strike up a conversation. But Matsumoto doesn’t seem to make any effort to change to mood. It’s Nino who’s asked him to dinner after all. Matsumoto is just coming out of courtesy, being a newcomer in all this. Right, Nino’s the senpai here.
They approach the last block before the station. It has to start now or they will reach the shop and the moment will be gone. Nino forces the question out of his mouth. “So, what happened today?”
“Sorry?” Matsumoto turns to him with a frown, pace halted from the sudden question.
“Today,” Nino repeats his question slowly and with emphasis. “On the film set. What happened?”
“Rehearsal did?”
“You’re pretty thick for a good-looking guy,” Nino says, wondering whether being straightforward is going to work with this guy. “Why do I have to rephrase everything?”
“I don’t understand where you’re getting at,” Matsumoto says, both apologetic and sounding genuinely confused. “And you’re very direct.”
“I am.”
“Somehow it’s charming but not that much.”
“And you’re not as thick as you seem to be, I guess,” he manages to say, flushing at the vague compliment. For a split second he loses his snarky charade, warmth creeping up to his cheek, grateful for the dim lighting the street light provides. “Anyway, why are you posing so many questions?”
“Now?”
“No, during filming.” Nino doesn’t bother to prevent himself from rolling his eyes openly, keeping his tone sharp with a grumble. “I’ll take the not-as-thick compliment back right now, thank you.”
“I wasn’t—“
“You sure were. I was there.”
The answer makes Matsumoto halt suddenly, staring Nino in disbelief. “Really? The whole time?”
“No. Just as scheduled,” Nino says, stopping to turn and face Matsumoto; the crossing light is flaring red at the intersection anyway. “You do know that we were scheduled to shoot our scene during the evening.”
Matsumoto walks a few steps forward to get closer to Nino. “I do. And I was wondering why they cancelled that. The night is still young. You can get evening shots anytime.”
“Not anytime. It says it on the script. Dusk.” The crossing light still flares red, and they don’t move even though there are no cars passing through the intersection.
“Yeah, so?”
“Definitely taking the not-as-thick comment back now. Do you how important dusk is to a filming team?”
“No.”
Matsumoto sounds genuinely confused and Nino can’t help but pity the man a little. The light turns green and he walks ahead to cross the road. He hears Matsumoto follow him; a few steps later they are walking side by side again.
“If it says day or night or afternoon,” Nino begins, “that means they could create day or night or afternoon. But if your script says it’s dusk—or dawn—that means you don’t mess with your time. Dusk only happens once a day and it needs to happen at that precise time.”
Nino turns to see Matsumoto. He doesn’t respond and appears to be thinking; perhaps Aiba-chan was right, and the man just hasn’t considered it until just now. He’s got a nice profile, by the way. Nino has to force himself to look ahead and watch the road. He continues, “Meaning that the shot today, the one we should practice is botched because they missed dusk. And they missed dusk because?”
This time Matsumoto responds, trying to complete Nino’s sentence. “They were still doing my scenes.”
“And they were still doing your scenes because?”
“They’ve been doing it since morning.”
Matsumoto is getting a hang of it. Just a little bit more. “And the reason they’ve been doing it—continuously—since morning is because?”
“We haven’t finished.”
Maybe not a little bit. “My patience is running thin here, Matsumoto. The reason they haven’t finished, or to be exact, could not finish on schedule is because?”
“Of me?” Matsumoto stops walking again.
Nino claps his hands, making a fancy turn to find Matsumoto staring at him in true disbelief. “Good. I’ll take the thick comment back right now. Don’t ruin it.” He then realizes that they’re at the last turn before the station, with people around, and it’s not good to cause a scene here. They don’t appear to be drunk enough to be excused for being a public disturbance.
“Wait. Because of me?”
Nino leaves the sentence unanswered and points ahead instead. “We’re almost there here. See? Ganbou Ramen. Come on.”
They settle on a table for two near the back; most of the patrons are salarymen getting the quick dinner fix. Nino gets the smallest serving while Matsumoto dazedly points at a dinner set without inquiring anything. Nino sips his hot tea slowly as Matsumoto recovers from the shock. Their order comes and Nino begins eating even though Matsumoto only stares on his bowl. “You’re awfully quiet for a man who has just been treated dinner.”
“I thought I was being helpful,” Matsumoto finally says. He holds his chopsticks just above his bowl and stops again.
“Now?”
“During the rehearsal today.”
“No point in beating yourself up now that it’s all said and done,” Nino says, slurping his noodles noisily. “And here I am being nice because you look like you’re seriously down.”
Matsumoto turns to him with an expression that says Nino isn’t wrong, which simply gets Nino worried for a second. All the frustration and other things he can't comprehend at the moment flash in those eyes; which is good because that draws Nino’s attention to that sharp gaze, instead of titling back down to those pouting lips. That’ll cancel all good intentions that he’s having right now in a split second.
Nino puts his chopsticks down and decides to give the man a small break. “Listen, I’m just going to say this once. You need to know that they’ll ask if they want any input from us actors. But basically, you just need to do what they want you to do. Speaking from experience, I can also tell you that Ohno-sensei won’t be needing anything. He has his own vision, and no one gets it but him. If you don’t understand something, ask for clearer directions. If no one asks you about anything, then there’s no need to say anything, just do the job.”
“But that’d be—“
“Correct? Ethically correct? Politically correct? Call it whatever you want, doing your job is still doing your job. It’s not the place nor time to do anything else. We’re there to work. We’re getting paid for it.”
“Barely,” Matsumoto says with a small smile.
“Still, there’s money,” Nino continues. “And if you enjoy this acting thing, perhaps you should start accepting business rule #4.”
“Number four?” Matsumoto repeats, but Nino doesn’t explain further. Instead he turns back to his soggy ramen. He finishes his food in record time, giving nothing back to Matsumoto who finally decides to start eating his now-definitely-soggy noodles.
“You’re not just a little weird,” Matsumoto says in between slurps, “you’re truly weird.”
“Weird gets me pretty far.” Nino pats his stomach, setting the bowl further to the side of the table and reaching for his hot tea again. He decides to give the man—the sad man, if he can add, the sad man who’s been down and now has to eat some soggy ramen because his, haha, nice senpai decided to treat him dinner while setting him straight—another small break. “Remember, that was some senpai advice you just got.”
Matsumoto lets out a bitter laugh. “I thought I knew about how things work, but it turns out I didn’t know anything about it.”
He keeps his tone light; this Matsumoto just had a different perception, that’s all, and now he knows. “There’s nothing complicated about it. Actors act. That’s all,” he says.
Matsumoto frowns at the last statement, turning back to his soggy ramen. Nino lets the silence hang and they stay silent for a while, Matsumoto deep in thought and Nino fighting to finish the ramen.
The first thing Matsumoto says when he’s finished his bowl and is now playing with his iced tea is, “I thought you didn’t like me.”
Nino lets out a loud snort, followed by a giggle. “What?”
“You were staring at me rudely during the introduction party and you didn’t even spare me a glance during the production meeting.”
Nino hides his smile behind his hot teacup. “And that makes me not like you how?”
“Well, I thought, I just have this thought,” Matsumoto says, tone getting lower and lower, “that you might be not comfortable working with me, that maybe you don’t consider me as an actor knowing that I model and this is my first film project and now that I made today’s shooting off schedule and—“
“Too much information.” Nino simply cuts off the on-going ramble. “I like you just fine. I think you are good-looking. Strikingly, annoyingly, amazingly good-looking.”
“Huh?” Matsumoto blinks twice, sharp eyes focusing on Nino’s expression, seeking any indication of sarcasm and failing to find anything but Nino’s set expression. He lets out a small laugh. “Really? Oh, thank you. Really?”
“Really,” Nino says, also offering a smile in return. “Let’s leave it at that right now, okay?”
“Was that another piece of senpai advice?” Matsumoto says, eyes sparkling now with what Nino can identify as delight—he sure hopes it’s delight.
He rolls his eyes at the question. “It was a compliment, you jerk.”
The deep and rich sound of Matsumoto’s genuine laughter in response is like music to his ears; he would spend a lot of time and effort trying to draw the same sound from the man again and again. “You’re so weird.”
“And we’re back to weird. I think we’re done here then,” Nino says. “Let me ask for the bill. Hope that dinner set doesn’t cost a lot.”
“I’m sorry?” Matsumoto offers, his bright expression contrary to the apology.
“You’re a fast learner,” Nino smirks back to him. “I knew it.”
During primary shooting days, Nino’s schedule doesn’t allow him to meet with Matsumoto. He works with Ohno-sensei and the crew, completing one scene after another, following the scheduling to the dot—except once or twice when they encounter minor technical details. He’s witnessed Ohno-sensei change the scene details six times before getting what he wanted; he’s giggled over Sho’s mini fit of rage when the catering delivery comes late one afternoon; he’s had to apply his own makeup to keep up with the scene when Yamada-chan was late one morning; and he’s finally kicked Aiba-chan hard in the shin for loudly squealing ‘Nino, your crush is here’ when Matsumoto visits his shoot.
“Ouch, that wasn’t nice of you,” Aiba pouts in pain, but his eyes are shining with glee.
“You weren’t nice first,” Nino replies, suddenly aware of everything; his concentration’s completely blown by the simple presence of the other man.
They are finally getting down to scene number 5; this time a shiny white piano is placed in the middle of the set—Nino doesn’t even want to know how Takeda-san managed to fit it into the basement. He’s already in the black suit; it fits perfectly now that Yamada-chan has done her complete magic—the corsage is light yellow now. All thoughts about Matsumoto on set, or that Sho’s forgotten about giving him a coffee refill again, or that Aiba is still wiggling his eyebrows, are set aside when Ohno-sensei calls for him to enter the set. The stool is the same, and the height is already perfect. He gives the keys a light brush of his fingers and takes his seat in the center of the spotlight, waiting for instructions.
“I need a change of battery,” Ohno instructs his assistant while walking toward Nino, waving the camera in his hand. “And give me the .72.” The assistant takes the camera and moves quickly to the monitor section.
“Nino, we did this before,” Ohno says, standing by the piano next to him, touching the keys lightly.
“Yes.”
“But you’re nervous now.”
Nino flushes. “Sensei, I’m fine. It’s not going to—“
Ohno smiles at him. “Which is good, I think, because I need you nervous during the first few bars. You can play smoother later. That’s better for the scene.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Ohno says, confirming before pointing out more directions. “The door is still over there. Slouch and eyes off the keys. Remember?”
“I do.”
“I'll ask for a few repetitions. Just keep playing. You don’t need to stop, just go back a bar or two, and give me the mood I want.”
“Okay.”
“Good.” Ohno then turns to get the scene going. “My camera, please! And Takeda-san? Two degrees down on the left filler, please.” Takeda-san complies without fuss and Ohno receives his camera again and gives his final instructions. “We’re starting. Call it!”
Two beats after the call is finished, Nino hits the first key.
His fingers dance as he delivers the exact melody that he played during the rehearsal. Ohno gets closer, setting the camera focus on his fingers, and Nino keeps on going. “Repeat!” He smoothly goes back to the refrain, just when Ohno was getting closer before, and reaches the same notes with the same precise hits. “Repeat!” Nino goes back again, in full control of the melody, playing the same bars. “Repeat.” And again. “Repeat.” And again, until he catches the sight of Ohno pulling back in the corner of his eyes, getting a larger frame of the scene. He sets his face straight and ready for the deep close ups.
Ohno’s instructions come in a distant low voice. “The door.” He looks over to the direction of the door and skips the refrain and goes on playing the bridge without altering his rhythm—it’s a much slower part of the song, much more sincere, much more depressed. He fixes his gaze at a point in the right direction and plays the next bar. “I’m not getting the seduction. Repeat.” He takes a deep breath and goes to the beginning of the bridge; this time he lets his eyelids drop slower, taking a more noticeable sigh each time. “That’s it. Keep it going. Repeat!” And he does the exact same action one more time.
Ohno doesn’t give any instructions when he finishes the bridge, so Nino segues to the next part of the song, the final part with the high notes. He hits the keys with more enthusiasm, going for closure at a fast pace. He is almost at the last bar when Ohno comes closer again. “Repeat.” Nino does as instructed, keeping his expression the same as before; he is almost at the last bar again when this time Ohno whispers his instructions. “Tears. I want to see tears.” And Nino can only take a deep breath, letting his emotions and the melody overwhelm him in sudden waves. Of a man he loves, of a man who leaves him, of a man who kicks him when he’s down, of a man who uses him for pleasure, of a man who practice on his heart.
“Repeat.”
Nino gasps and lets the melody takes him this time; there’s no boundaries, no end to the surge of feelings now enshrouding him, letting him hitting the high notes again and again, surrounding everything with sorrow and sadness and the man who never loves him. Tears run freely, as he keeps his blurry vision on the door, still waiting for the man who didn’t come back, who will never come back. “Back one bar. Wipe your tears. Gently.” He sighs this time; there’s no good in hoping for what you can’t get, there’s nothing good in this world, he cannot trust anyone and that’s fact. He uses a finger to wipe the tears from his right cheek, keeping the other hand playing the low tones.
He continues playing the last notes when Ohno doesn’t say repeat this time. The song is coming to an end, the seduction is long forgotten, the sorrow has taken over everything. “Finish it,” Ohno finally says, pulling back to a long shot distance and Nino complies. He turns his eyes away from the door and onto the keys, hits the last note and keeps his head down. He lets a long silence follows—Ohno doesn’t give any further instructions—and follows, until a precise moment, when it is utterly silent and he feels the pang of pain in his chest. His heart is devastatingly broken. He hits the last note again, keeping pressing until the last echo fades under the stage light, until his eyes are dry again, until the end.
“Cut. We’re done with this scene.”
Nino lets out a big sigh, and for a moment, silence still envelops the set before there’s round of applause. He can hear Aiba’s catcalls and Sho’s ‘yeah’s from under the dark shade beyond the stage light. Ohno approaches him, giving him a squeeze on the shoulder. “Nicely done. That’s a wrap.” And Nino grins to his audience, giving a two-finger salute.
Everyone is thanking him for letting them off work sooner than scheduled time when he exits the set. Takeda-san begins to break down the lighting stands and Yamada-chan is giving him a thumbs-up, saying she’s going to wait at the wardrobe room and he can take his time.
“This. This is the only reason why I keep up with your being such a pain in the ass all the time.” Sho gives him a loose hug and a kiss on the cheek before going to finish the work for the day. “You’re as brilliant as ever.” Aiba failed-winks at him, leans in closer, and whispers ‘your crush was tearing up like a proud boyfriend,’ before quickly running along to follow Sho and avoid another hard kick to the shin.
Matsumoto is standing with his back against the wall, hands folded on his chest and a blank expression.
“Hey. I heard you were here since earlier,” Nino greets him. “And you were tearing up.”
Matsumoto doesn’t laugh at the jab as Nino has expected. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Now you’re being thick,” Matsumoto says. “Do what you just did now?”
“Play the piano?”
“How do you act like that?”
It isn’t comfortable at all to be under the scrutiny. Matsumoto keeps on staring at him, the way he was staring at the man during their first meeting; and now he knows how it is to be the one under an intense stare. “Was that another question for senpai?”
“It was a compliment, you jerk.” Matsumoto throws Nino’s words back at him but his tone remains tense and distant.
“That’s just acting,” Nino says, completely confused on how Matsumoto is reacting to the scene. He had expected praise—of course—or perhaps a harsh criticism, or a playful rib, but he certainly hadn’t expected this. What is this?
“That’s not acting,” Matsumoto says with eyes down as if in defeat but with a hint of awe and pride, “that was talent in its most mind-blowing form.”
The next week, Nino is about to leave his apartment for work when Sho’s frantically calling him to cancel the shoot for the next few days. “What’s with this sudden schedule change? Sho-chan, what happened? Yuriko-chan is not going to like this. This means I’m going to work on the weekend, right? I already promised to help her at the store.”
“Your crush is making things difficult. Again.”
“Stop using that word, will you? And I did talk to him. Talked some sense into him, just like Aiba-chan said. You finally approved the bill last week. I thought everything went smoothly with his shooting days.”
“Calling him your crush gives me so much satisfaction and I have to rant when I have to rant,” Sho rattles on. “I just got back from the apartment agent, trying to extend the rent for two more days and he gave me hell. It’ll cost us a lot and Ohno-sensei is not in his best mood, so basically everything is a mess. I still have to deal with—“
“Okay, I got it. Everything is a mess. But your dumping this on me will not get you anything. You should just—“
“At this rate, I don’t even know how we’re going to finish this goddamn film—“
“Okay. Too much information. Two days, right? I got it. Can you just rant to the next available person instead of taking it all out on me?”
“Two days,” Sho sighs heavily on the other end of the line. “Fine. I’ll call you later and dump all this crap on this nice lady sitting beside me on the bus stop. Thank you very much.”
Nino giggles at the thought of Sho ranting at a stranger. “Take care, Sho-chan.”
“Now that wasn’t so hard, right? Nice to have you finally say nice things to me. I already feel better.”
“I save the nice words only for the ones who’re in a pinch.”
“Ass.”
Nino hangs up on Sho with laughter. What happened now? He and Matsumoto didn’t actually part ways nicely the last time they met but it wasn’t something to worry about. He was exhausted after an intense scene that day and Matsumoto has been, dare he say it, a little bit insecure, which is not a problem for him, since it’s about the production first before anything. But if that leads Matsumoto to cause another problem for the production that means that he needs to deal with it again. He curses Aiba-chan in his head, for being a faux voice of reason, and himself for being overly attached to—okay, perhaps it’s finally time to admit the fact—his crush.
Nino has just finished ringing up the last purchase, bowing slightly to the lady costumer when he sees Matsumoto entering the store.
“How?” Nino can only gape at the man approaching the counter. “Why are you here? What do you want?”
Matsumoto stops right in front of him and asks calmly. “Can you teach me how to act?”
“What?”
“Now that was direct,” Yuriko chirps as she materializes beside Nino. ”And you look so much better in person, Sir.”
“Oh, shut up, he’s not a costumer.” Nino tries to silence her. “And you. Answer my question. Why are you here?”
“Thank you.” Matsumoto sends a distracted smile toward Yuriko. He turns back to Nino, offering a weak smile. “Well, I think there’s—“
Yuriko turns to Nino. “I’m not shutting up. I am the boss here. Even I—“
“Sorry,” Matsumoto says, unsure of whether he should go on with his explanation or not.
“No, you’re not sorry, you’re here already. Don’t mind her.” Nino waves away Matsumoto’s apology, encouraging him to continue instead. “What happened? And how the hell did you know that I work here?”
“I think I messed up. Big time,” Matsumoto says quietly. “Aiba-chan told me that I can find you here, that you might be able to help me.”
“That jerk,” Nino says, both for the location tattletale and the so-not-subtle effort to have Matsumoto consult him.
Yuriko coos at the explanation. “Oh, so Aiba-chan definitely approves.”
Matsumoto frowns at her. “Approves of what?”
Nino cuts her off before she can respond more. “If I promise to call you boss lady for the rest of my employment here, will you shut up and stay the hell out of this?”
“No. This opportunity is way too good to pass up,” she replies firmly, staring openly at Matsumoto without flinching. “I can definitely see why you’re nervous.”
Matsumoto replies to her. “I'm not nervous. Not that much.”
“Yuriko-chan!” Nino says exasperatedly to her. “She doesn’t mean you, Matsumoto.”
“So you both are nervous?” Yuriko blatantly ignores Nino and starts to lean over the counter to give some space to the two of them and an opportunity to herself to observe. “That’s so sweet. I approve of this, too!”
Matsumoto reads the situation better this time, ignoring Yuriko’s nonsensical comments and directly responding to Nino. “Can we get coffee? Or lunch? Or anything you want? Somewhere we can talk. Please.”
“Oh. Your treat?” Yuriko turns her gaze to Nino and scoots closer. “A serious man after your weak heart, Nino. He even asks nicely.” She actually winks at Matsumoto. “You’re okay, Matsumoto, even if you take Nino away on the weekends sometimes.”
“Yuriko-chan! I swear—“
Matsumoto is left confused, but he isn’t shaken. “I did? And thanks but have we met you before? I feel like we haven’t. I can’t be sure though.”
“Well,” she says, ignoring Nino, who’s fuming in his spot, right back. She takes a not-so-subtle side-glance toward the magazine rack. “I can definitely say we’ve met before.”
“So we’ve met before? I’m sorry, I don’t—“
“Can we just—okay, wait. Wait a minute you two. Don’t start a conversation out of blue as if you were friends or something. Just stop talking for a minute.” Nino holds his hands out as a final effort to stop them both from talking. He turns to Yuriko, stepping closer to deliver his message clear. “First. boss, can I have an extended lunch break?” Then he turns to Matsumoto. “And you. Will you just step outside and wait till I settle this with this bossy friend of mine? I’ll be out in a minute.”
“That’s boss lady to you, mister,” Yuriko scolds Nino, nudging him lightly.
“Whatever, I need—“
“I’m sorry. I’ve disturbed your work,” Matsumoto says, sounding heavily apologetic. “Yes, I’ll wait outside. I’m sorry.”
Yuriko shrugs, staying in her spot. “Well, I’m not going anywhere. I have a store to keep in order.”
“—Ryo-chan. I need him.” Half-shouting, Nino desperately tries to end this scene. “Ryo-chan, get here now!”
Matsumoto then walks toward the door in silence and heads out of the store, but not before aiming a confused gaze toward the two behind the counter.
Once the sliding door shuts, they stare at each other; Nino with a flushed face and Yuriko with a big creepy smile.
“So you better be back before 3 PM sharp or I’m going to start calling Aiba-chan and telling him that you’ve eloped with your gorgeous co-star and left me here alone with Ryo-chan during the afternoon rush hour.”
“No one is eloping and it won’t take more than an hour. And you’re enjoying this too much. I hate you,” Nino says. “Ryo-chan!”
“He’s probably still out back trying to sort out the leftover morning bentos. I’ll get him. You can go on and help him with acting,” she says, smiling wider and wider, “after you take that silly apron off though. I won’t approve of any misuse of store property outside of work hours.”
“I hate that now I have to thank you,” Nino says, taking off his apron quickly and storing it under the counter.
Yuriko sends a dismissive wave toward him. “I hate to say ‘you’re welcome’ but being a boss is tough work, being a good example and such.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I am a good example, thank you very much. Now, go. I can see he’s been staring at us since he stepped outside.”
“You’re definitely calling Aiba-chan the moment I’m gone, aren’t you?
“Definitely.” She grins widely before she turns her attention outside and sees Matsumoto staring at his shoes. “Oh and I think he’s going to start crying any minute from the look of it. You better get him. Offer some comfort or something.”
“Not funny.”
“He’s worth being nervous for though. Maybe you’ll get lucky this time.”
“Still not funny.”
“I wasn’t joking. Really, perhaps you’ll do well with this one,” Yuriko says, still with that creepy smile of hers, which means that she’s still teasing him; Nino knows better. “Have a nice lunch. Be back at 3! Or I’ll call Aiba-chan and Sho-kun.”
“Nothing’s stopping you after all.” Nino goes around the counter and heads toward the sliding door with his arm outstreched. “Tell Aiba-chan, I’ll murder him for this later.”
They don’t walk far; Matsumoto suggests they share coffee at the coffee shop a block from the store, and Nino, too drained from dealing with Yuriko to care, agrees. They settle for two black coffees at the corner table.
“Since we’re getting coffee now, that means you still owe me lunch.”
Matsumoto slides his cup farther aside on the table, taking his time with sugar and cream. “Fine, I’ll cook you lunch some other time.”
“That’d be nice.” Nino takes his phone out from his pocket and sets it on the table, face up, glancing at the time. “But the clock is ticking. I won’t be able to live it down if I get back later than 3 o’clock. So what happened?”
“I’ve been messing up my scenes.”
“And becoming the sole cause of this schedule delay we’re all experiencing right now?
Matsumoto looks more lost than embarrassed. “Yes.”
Nino sighs heavily. “Stop looking so lost and confused. It doesn’t suit you.”
“But I’m feeling lost and confused. I now know that there’s so much at stake, people are relying on me to execute the scene and move on to the next thing on the schedule, and I haven’t been—“
“Just stop.”
“I’m telling you what happened on the set. Nino, I can’t do this, I’m going to sabotage the whole production, and there’s nothing—“
“Stop!” Nino says, a little bit louder than he intends to. A few people turn their heads toward them but he chooses to ignore them. “Too much information. I don’t need to know about the schedule and such. That’s Sho-chan’s business. I asked you what happened. What kind of mess have you made? Which scene? Why?”
“I think it was because of you.”
Nino groans. “And do not bring me into this. I didn’t do anything!”
Matsumoto ignores him this time and continues with his explanation. “I kept thinking about your piano scene.”
“Thanks, but that’s not my fault at all.”
“And how to incorporate so many feelings into a scene, to display so many emotions from such short instructions from Sensei,” Matsumoto says, hands waving as he animates his points. “It got me thinking. My scenes, the ones I have completed, are nothing like that. Far from it. They always involve various poses, short lines of dialogue. And I feel like Sensei is asking something that I cannot bring to surface so everything feels… empty.”
Nino leans against the seat to marvel at Matsumoto, spurting out his thoughts, his concerns on him. How did this happen anyway? He remembers being nervous—with some eye-rolling avoidance tactics he was ready to employ—around the man, and one ramen treat later they are sharing—or maybe it’s Matsumoto who’s doing the sharing, he doesn’t do anything—worries and concern.
“How many times have you read the whole script?”
“Ten times from cover to cover, and then more on my specific parts.”
“And how would you describe the character you play?”
“Aloof, lonely, and an opportunist.”
“Does his life feel empty then?”
A spark of recognition. “Yes.”
“There. You’ve got it then. Problem one solved.” Nino raises his coffee mug to give a salute before taking a small sip. “Anything else? You know, I should charge you by the minute. I’d be a rich man by now if I’d thought about this earlier.”
Matsumoto stares at his untouched coffee. “I keep asking for a retake, and I talked to Ohno-sensei especially about this. I think he doesn’t really like my performance on this project. He said he wasn’t expecting me to deliver such a performance but he’ll make do.”
Nino considers his answer for a while. “He said he’ll make do, right?”
“Yes, but—“
“Then he’ll make do. Why does it bother you then?”
“Because I’m not able to deliver a kind of performance at your level.”
“Of course you can’t.”
Matsumoto looks completely dejected by the answer.
“Oh, I said stop it with the lost and confused look, I can only handle so much,” Nino says, drawing a small smile from Matsumoto. “What I wanted to say was that there’s no way you can deliver my kind of performance. Because it’s only me who can. No one else could.”
“Well, still.”
“I’m seeing no real life-threatening, suicide-inducing problem here. It’s all you, wrapped up in your own worry and causing problems for the production people. Again. I thought we talked about this.”
“But I just don’t know what to do. Now they are postponing everything for two days because Aiba-chan cannot get an extension on the warehouse and Sho-kun has to deal with equipment rental extension.”
“Too much information.” Nino waves away his concern again. “How do you know about these things anyway?”
“I ask them.”
“So you’ve been busy, worrying yourself to death and snooping around production team business.”
“Pretty much,” Matsumoto says, offering a sad smile. “Now that I’ve talked it out with you it does seem pretty stupid.”
“I should get you to call me senpai for the rest of my life. Seriously. All the advice I’m throwing your way seems to be bouncing back uselessly. Remember what I said about us actors?”
“We actors act.”
“And what have you been doing the past week?”
“Worrying myself to death and snooping around production team business.”
“Exactly,” Nino says with finality.
They fall into silence as they finish their coffee; Matsumoto offers to order another cup and Nino agrees—there’s still 20 minutes on the clock after all.
“Thank you,” Matsumoto says. ”I feel calmer now that I’ve talked to you. Sorry for the outburst and for bothering you with your work.”
“You are so hard to resist sometimes.” Nino shrugs. “And I have the worst friends on the planet.”
“They are very kind, you’re lucky,” Matsumoto says. “In fact, you know your way with the whole production team. I never have that closeness with my colleagues. You act like you are annoyed with all of them but you treat them well.”
“I’m still going to murder Aiba-chan the first chance I get.”
Matsumoto laughs at that, his eyes kind and thankful, and Nino falls; later, he tells himself, later when the project is done, when the scene is done, when everything is no longer complicated—yet when are things ever not complicated, he wants to argue. He glances down at his phone instead; 10 more minutes.
“10 more minutes,” he says to Matsumoto. “Anything else? Because if not, you should ask for the bill and send it to Sho-chan. I mean it. He needs to pay for this. I’m doing all the work around here.”
Two days later, Sho stops by at the store in the morning to meet him and buy some disgusting egg salad packages. “Everything is settled and we’re starting with your days again on Monday.”
“Roger that.”
“And your crush-slash-boyfriend is having an all night shooting day if you’re curious.” With eyebrows wiggling, and toned-down laugher, Sho emphasizes his last sentence.
“Sho-chan, I can get Yuriko-chan here in under 5 seconds and you’re going to eat your words.” He puts all of Sho’s items in a plastic bag after he rings them up. “4,500 yen.”
Sho gives him a 5000 bill, beaming smugly. “He’s been in your care. We all owe you for slapping him back into shape. Running all smoothly now.”
“You’re doing this to get back at me for of all the nagging I did during pre-production, right? Stopping by here so early in the morning.”
“Damn right. It’s good to finally have the chance to get back at you,” Sho says merrily. He’s about to add something else when a series of blinks and chirps come out from his tablet.
“But your mighty device is calling you.” Nino points helpfully to said device. “Now go away before I truly get Yuriko-chan here.”
A pair of lips lock. Audible panting. Forehead against forehead. Close. Sharing air.
“Want to try hugging each other first?” Matsumoto asks off-handedly in the wardrobe room. He’s already topless, and walking around the room, hands waving as he speaks.
Nino gapes at him in shock. “What?”
“We do need to practice. I haven’t as much as touched your hand,” Matsumoto coolly says.
“What?” Nino asks again, now that he realizes that they aren’t alone on the room. Yamada-chan is currently sitting on the floor next to his feet, fixing the bottom part of his over-sized pajama trousers, while Aiba-chan is trying his best to not audibly giggling as he reads the memo for today by the door.
“I don’t think I should make another ‘thick’ comment because the hilarity is beginning to wear thin. At least I can pay you back for the ‘can you teach me’ mess last week. I can’t act as well as you but I am good with posing. You don’t need to be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” Nino says, a little bit too fast. “Don’t you trust these two jerks if they are telling you otherwise.”
“Yes, you are,” Matsumoto shrugs, not caring about audience, and that somehow annoys and impresses Nino at the same time. “Aiba-chan has been giving some hints but I didn’t think that far ahead. I’ve been too wrapped up in everything being so new around, moving so fast, and I totally didn’t notice it at first. But now that I think about it, you are—“
“—not nervous,” Nino finishes his sentence, sending a glare toward Aiba. “And I’m going to murder that tattletale Aiba-chan eventually.”
“Right.” A smile blooms on Matsumoto’s face, beautifully as he tries to not roll his eyes. “I’ve done a nude shot before,” he adds. “Really, it’s not that big a deal.”
“Too much information,” Nino says. Near his feet, Yamada-chan is definitely snorting as she works on his outfit, but he decides not to step on her hands because he’s a pro at this. “And you’re telling me this now, in the presence of these two members of the gossip troupe, because?”
Matsumoto stops in front of him, in all his barechested glory, and Nino is thinking that he probably could get used to it eventually—but probably not, it’s a sight to behold and he’s enjoying the view so far, even more that he probably should be.
“Well, if you’re curious, I can tell you few simple pointers. It shouldn’t bother you at all. It’s just work after all,” Matsumoto says, before realizing something. “Ah, perhaps that’s how acting is for you.”
“Not curious. Not at all.” Nino wishes he had his phone so he could at least seem to genuinely ignore Matsumoto. “And of course it’s just work. What are you thinking, you, over there trying to look busy with your paperwork?” He turns to point violently at Aiba, who only responds with an extended hand shrug and an eyebrow wiggle.
“Yes. It’s nothing personal.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that. I don’t need to remind you that I’m the senpai in all this.”
“No need indeed,” Matsumoto says, his tone serious. It doesn’t take much to realize that he was deliberately trying to comfort Nino. “I was just telling myself that it’s nothing personal. Nothing personal.”
“Shut up. Now you’re making me nervous,” Nino says. “And Yamada-chan, how much time you need to fix the seam of my pajamas anyway? I think you just want to be here to listen to our conversation and report back to Sho-chan later.”
She grins. “Mhm, but this needs serious, life-and-death level of serious, fixing, I probably would be here until they call you back to set. Yeah, I think I should stay here, you know, like a fly on the wall, or a wardrobe woman on an assignment.”
Aiba finally explodes into hiccup-giggles, and Matsumoto and Yamada-chan join in on the action, and it finally draws a relaxed smile from Nino.
Ohno meets them with raised eyebrows when they arrive at the set. “I heard some commotion back there.”
“It was all Matsumoto’s and Aiba-chan’s fault, Sensei,” Nino quickly explains. “They’re having too much fun with this.”
Ohno smiles. “And setting you both in good mood, I see. Good. We can start now if you’re ready.”
Matsumoto nods. “Sure.”
“I need few running test-shots first,” Ohno explains. “But since we’re short of time, the light and all, consider this as a real take. We’re doing all the shots in sequence, chronologically. Just like a photo shoot, Matsumoto. You lead the action. And Nino, you follow him.”
Nino nods and feels his entire body warm up in anticipation. Matsumoto turns to him, now looking not as confident as he was a few minutes ago, and Nino knows that they are going to do this properly; they can be nervous together and get the job done.
Ohno directs them to sit by the bed. “Let me arrange the background first. Takeda-san?”
Takeda-san comes onto the set, and with his team, he shifts the lighting for the vast window. It’s still daytime now, early afternoon, but they are going to do this at dusk so they are putting a few filters on the window, setting the mood of the bedroom into something dim and hazy.
“Okay. Positions.” Ohno has his assistant rearrange the overhead microphone as Nino lies down on the bed, waiting for Matsumoto to cover him with his body. Matsumoto’s chest is as clammy as his palms, and Nino feels a slight relief. They can do this. He’s not alone on this one; he has Matsumoto with him. He stares up at the eyes hovering above him, clear brown, seeing through his nervousness; he offers a small smirk and closes his eyes, ready for Ohno’s instructions. He hears rhythmic breathing from Matsumoto, and waits.
“Call it. Music!”
Music? Nino opens his eyes slowly to meet Matsumoto’s eyes, with more intensity, and catches the first bar of his piano piece drifting in at a low volume, so far yet so close. It’s heady, and the sole sight he can focus on is Matsumoto’s eyes, his hands moving to wrap around the man, waiting for his cue to ask for more; why didn’t they practice this?
Yet as it turns out, he’s glad they have never practiced this particular scene; everything is so new, so warm, so intoxicating. The bridge of his piano piece comes in repeat and— “Kiss him, Matsumoto. Slowly.” For a split second Matsumoto keeps on staring into Nino’s eyes, seeking permission he already has, before slowly lowering his lips—his lush lips, ones that have been haunting Nino since the day they met—to meet Nino’s. Soft and wet touches land on his lips and Nino swallows his moans; he returns the touches, meeting the slow rhythm Matsumoto sets as they keep their kisses unhurried, accentuating each touch with the light puffs of air they share.
“Repeat.” Matsumoto pulls back a little before repeating the same path again, this time properly starting from one corner of Nino’s mouth, making his slow way toward the other; it’s getting more and more difficult to keep his eyes open but Nino tries, keeping his eyelids heavy and letting Matsumoto control the rhythm before it falters a little bit when Ohno moves on with his camera closer to get them from the side. “Repeat.” Matsumoto shifts again, and this time Nino moves his hands on Matsumoto’s back a little bit lower, giving him more leverage to meet Matsumoto’s lips more every time he’s given another soft touch.
“Give me a deep kiss.” Matsumoto doesn't hesitate to set a faster pace, his hands moves up to thread his fingers in Nino’s hair, keeping his head still as he deepens the kiss; Nino stops trying to swallow his moans, letting them escape his mouth when Matsumoto pulls back. “Repeat.” Matsumoto does a good job, in his hazed mind, to keep the pace exactly the same, it’s becoming pattern after pattern. “Repeat. Long shot now. Legs, Matsumoto.” Ohno sounds so far at the moment and Nino feels Matsumoto shifts, pressing him further into the bed, while his lips repeat the pattern.
They repeat the long shot frame twice before Ohno’s voice sounds closer again. “Forehead. Keep still for few seconds, before you open your eyes.” Nino follows the instructions, counting his rapid heartbeat before again, finding Matsumoto’s eyes, heavy-lidded and shining with lust, so close. He breathes through his mouth, still open and wanting, wanting those lips to touch his again, and concentrates on not smiling. “Close your eyes and repeat.” And again, those eyes drown him. “Nino, close your eyes.” He complies and feels the bed shift on his right. His breathing is still a little bit erratic, and he doesn’t do anything to even it out; it feels right. “Look at Matsumoto. Open your eyes.” This time a lens looks back at him. “Give me warmth.” Nino brings the image of the sharp eyes—he’s seen it full of doubt, full of guilt, full of happiness, and now full of desire, dark and wanting. He wants more so he asks permission, seeks understanding, and wants love in return.
“Cut. Video check!”
OVER THE SHOULDER. Warm eyes.
Heat radiating; random deep violet flash over soft yellow light.
“You’re good,” Matsumoto says, sighing happily. They are waiting for Ohno to decide another shot, sitting on the chairs on the left side of the set far from the commotion on behind the monitor. Except for when Yamada-chan gives them their bathrobes, no crew members—not even Aiba-chan and Sho—approach them. Whether it’s for the sake of the shooting mood or not, Nino is grateful he doesn’t have to deal with them right now.
“Thanks. I can certainly return the compliment to you.”
“Nino.”
“Yes—“ He turns and finds Matsumoto leaning toward him, dropping a soft kiss on his right cheek and pulling back with a big smile.
“W-what?”
“Let’s start with cheek kisses first. We have plenty of time before we need to jump to bed.”
Nino feels his cheeks flushing, but it isn’t an unwelcome feeling, in fact it feels tingly, good the kind of tingly. Everything is warm again and Matsumoto just kissed him on the cheek. “We just spent a day half naked in bed, pressed into each other—“
“That didn’t count.”
“Says you.”
“Says I,” Matsumoto says. “I’ve decided that while I might be terrible at acting, I learned a lot these two months. I don’t know if I’m going to do it again. It sure is more difficult that just posing for the still camera.“
“You should save the speech for the wrap-up party,” Nino mutters his protest—it’s getting hard to protest for something that he doesn’t want to protest in the first place.
“Yet I’m glad I got to practice with you.”
Nino can’t help but smile at the sentiment, but for now he keeps the sentiment to himself. Not yet. They haven’t even finished filming yet. Not until the last scene is done, not until the wrap-up party is done, not until he gets his next project. Not until Matsumoto can convince him again; he’ll be waiting. “If I didn't know better, I’d take that as a cheap comment, an effort to be on my good side and have me treat you to ramen again even when you still owe me a lunch.”
“Maybe.” Matsumoto smiles knowingly at him. “Or maybe I just hate you,” he adds with the same delight sparkles in his eyes.
They are the same sparkles Nino finds sending nice warmth creeping up to his cheeks, the ones that have kept him staring during the first meeting, the ones that keeps him nervous all along, the ones mirroring his. He turns to Matsumoto with a wide grins and replies, “I hate you, too.”
.
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I love production AUs and I had a great time reading this. Thanks!
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I love your Nino voice and I could truly see Jun offering so much (well-meaning) opinions but not realizing that he's jeopardizing the filming himself. I should also mention that I was in a trance while watching (reading?) Nino act in that piano scene ♥
I also love how you write your women in this fic. Yuriko as a boss lady who flusters Nino and Yamada-chan's “Mhm, but this needs serious, life-and-death level of serious, fixing, I probably would be here until they call you back to set. Yeah, I think I should stay here, you know, like a fly on the wall, or a wardrobe woman on an assignment.” JUST. KILLED. ME. XD
the Matsumiya sensual scene OMG Ohno is a genius. You are a genius :D
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Yeah, that piano scene is the one that I'm most proud of. :D :D I am probably enjoying writing Yuriko too much in this fic. LOL. So the sensual scene works then?! Yeah. Mission accomplished. :D /hugsssssss.
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I have so many things I want to flail about but my brain can't put them to words but all I got to say you made me happy and all smiles reading this one, although I feel like intruding since this fic is written for alternatejess but I'm so grateful to be able to read this here. Thanks a lot for writing and sharing ♥
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