chapter 7
a golden bell starts ringing, chapter 7
“Let me continue with my story,” I say and my listener nods, “Sure, go ahead.”
“It was New Year's Eve and I got woken up by my alarm clock at 6:50 a.m.”
“Wow, why that early on New Year's Eve?” the reporter interrupts.
She is so impatient. I just smile.
After a while, she gets it. “Ah, yes, sorry to interrupt you. Please continue.”
“I got woken up by my alarm clock at 6:50 a.m. It was still so early, so the first thing I did was brewing coffee.
When it was done I poured it into a pink cup that made me smile. Yes, this pink cup made me smile, because I got it from Kame as a Christmas present.
It was a casual pink cup with some red hearts on it like you could find it in every mall. For me it was special though.
He gave it to me with a card attached to it that said, “I leave a few parts of my heart with you to warm you up on the cold days without me. You’ll get the other parts when you’re back home.”
My clock said one minute to 7 a.m. when I took my cell phone and dialled a certain number. It was close to 12 a.m. in Japan, so I didn't expect him to answer. And indeed, after a few seconds the voice mail answered my call.
“…Please leave a message after the beep…”
Beep.
“Happy New Year, Kazuya! I wish you - and us - the best for this year! Hope to talk to you soon, love you and miss you. Ciao.” I hung up.
After, I drank my cup of coffee, took a short shower and laid down on the sofa to take a nap. It was way too early for getting up at New Year's Eve. I had planned to party with some friends I had found in the US, so staying up till late required some more sleep.
Soon, I drifted off to dreamland.”
“Oh, oh, oh! What happened at the party?” the reporter asks enthusiastically.
I laugh. “When you wouldn’t interrupt me permanently you’d know it already.”
“Err…yes, sorry,” she smiles sheepishly.
„Well, then I’ll continue…
I woke up around 11 a.m. and had a look at my cell phone. No new calls or messages. Kame was probably still partying with the members after the Johnny’s Countdown concert. I wasn’t bothered by that, he’d call or message later for sure.
As the evening came I got ready for the New Year's party I wanted to go to. I dressed up as usual: A half-baggy style jeans, a plain white t-shirt and a jacket because it was mid-winter and even in California it was a bit cold in the evening.
The memory of Kame complaining in his thick coat made me smile at my own reflection. He was constantly complaining that L.A. was supposed to be warmer than Tokyo, even in winter.
While I was still dreamily standing in the bathroom shaving, the doorbell rang. I washed my face, put some after-shave lotion on and walked to the door to open it.
One of my friends greeted me. “Yoo~, Jin! Ready for part-aaaay?”
“Yeah, always!” I replied taking the keys and leaving the apartment with him.
About half an hour later we arrived at our party location – a club which was attached to a hotel. It wasn’t that crowded yet but people kept filing in and sooner or later the dance-floor would be packed. We sat down on a big table where some of our mutual friends were waiting.
The hours passed by. And perhaps we had a bit too much to drink. Actually I should have known better after the incident with Kame but I drank nevertheless, trying to forget these thoughts.
It was around 11:30 p.m. when my friend came with two girls in tow, a blonde and a brunette. They sat down on the sofa next to me and we began to chit-chat. After some time the girls asked me if I wanted to dance. I didn’t see a problem with that but also agreed without thinking too much about it. The alcohol must have gone into my head already.
Then the countdown came. We counted down to zero and wished each other a 'Happy New Year'. Afterwards I continued clumsily dancing with those girls. One was in front of me, the other back to back with me. My cell phone had been on the table we sat at before so I didn’t hear it ringing.
One of my friends did, though and picked up. I don't know his words exactly, but he supposedly the conversation was as follows:
“Heeeeeeeey, wassup? Happy New Year!!!”
Kame replied confused,“Who is there? Can I speak Jin?”
“Sorry, Jin is busy dancing with two hot chicks,” my friend said.
“He is what?” Kame asked surprised and a bit hurt. Before my friend could repeat what he’d said Kame continued, “Just tell him I called. I’m Kame.” And he hung up.
But then my friend took a picture of me dancing with those girls and sent it to the guy he just had talked to – Kame. Apparently he wanted to picture his words.”
“Oh, that’s bad,” the reporter interrupts again and continues, “But how do you know about that when it happened without you?”
“You can imagine that Kame wasn’t really happy about it but I’ll come to that later, so let me continue,” I reply. She just nods.
“I went home shortly after 3 a.m., because my head felt like it would explode any second. I asked the bartender to call me a taxi. My friends didn’t want to go home yet and were too drunk to drive, anyway.
At home I looked at my cell phone again, still waiting for a message or call from Kame.
“Message has been sent,” was written on the screen.
I wondered which message since I hadn’t looked at my cell phone the whole evening. I searched the out-box and saw it. The sent picture. The picture which showed me dancing with the girls whose names I didn't even remember now. I was shocked to see it and even more shocked when I’ve read the addressee of the message – Kame. ‘Oh shit,’ I thought.
I called him right away, even in my drunk state I knew that picture wasn’t good to be seen by my boyfriend.
After the 6th ring he finally picked up.
“What do you want?” he asked, sounding annoyed. Understandable.
“Kazuuuuu, when diddschouuuu call?” I asked.
“You’re drunk, go to sleep,” he kind of ordered.
“Whooooooo picked upp when dchouuuuu called?”
“Not you, you were ‘too busy dancing with those two hot chicks.’” Obviously that was a quote.
I was instantly a bit more sober when I heard his words. “Tell me, who picked upp?”
“How the hell should I know?! A friend of yours I suppose. I told him to tell you that I’ve called but next thing I got was that ‘nice’ picture of you dancing with those two bitches.” Kame was getting really angry.
“You know…,” I began, “…I’m kinda drunk and just felt like dancing with them.”
Together with the anger in his voice, I could hear disappointment, too. “And just because you felt like doing so, you did it? And when you feel like fucking someone you’re doing that too?”
“Kazuuu, don’t say such things, I’d never cheat on you! It was just dancing,” I tried to calm him.
“What if you would have drunk more and wouldn’t even notice what you were doing with those bitches? Huh? What then? Never say never, huh?! Akanishi, I’m done with you!” He almost shouted the last part and hung up. Leaving me with a sting in my heart. I was miserable and not anywhere near sober, so I went to bed first before I could think about it again. This year had begun bad already and again alcohol was one of the reasons.”
“He broke up with you because of you dancing with two girls?” the reporter asks shocked. She notes something into her notepad. I don't want to know what exactly.
Sighing, I say, “Well…kinda.”
“That was an unexpected turn of the story after the nice time you obviously spent on Christmas,” she says thoughtful.
I nod approvingly. “Yeah, and he didn’t answer any of my calls or messages after. I cannot express in words how worried that made me. Of course I contacted my friends in Japan, even Pi or Ueda when they found the time. Upon being asked how Kame was doing, they always said, ‘Busy as always but even busier’ which made me worry even more. I hoped he listened to my voice mails, because they were full of apologies about the happenings at New Year's.”
“But he didn’t call back or sent a message, I guess?” she asks.
I shake my head as an answer.
“Instead, at the end of January I got a call from our manager.”
My phone rang and our manager was on the end of the other line.
“Akanishi-kun, it’s been a while! How are you doing over there? Listen, the band will have an appointment in New York in two weeks, that's why I’m calling you. The members and Johnny-san will decide about your future then. And you’ll have a photo shoot for special shop photos too, so please make sure to look acceptable.” It wasn't exactly a conversational tone he used.
“I’ll send you the ticket from Los Angeles to New York in a few days,” he added.
I replied, “Okay, thank you for the information, see you in two weeks then.”
So in two weeks' time my future would be decided for me. By the members and the big boss himself. I wondered why the members were included but that fact made me worry a bit less.
I was looking forward to the New York appointment; finally I could try to apologize to Kame in person and hoped he'd forgive me. But I am a person who always sees a glass half empty, so I couldn't avoid the thought that he might not forgive me, too. It made me so sad. He was my most precious person in the world and I didn’t want to lose him just because of me dancing with two meaningless women.
But two days before the New York appointment was supposed to be, I received mails from an anonymous sender.
All had the same content, just different pictures and articles attached. Those mails made me sad and disappointed.”
“What were those mails about?” the reporter asks curiously.
“Kame dating Koizumi Kyoko-san,” I almost whisper, the sadness swinging in my voice.
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So, das wars erstmal an update.
Chapter 8 ist eigentlich schon fertig, aber da mein beta seit Monaten beschäftigt ist, muss ich noch paar Sachen ändern und so ^^
