Hey everyone! I started writing a brief intro to this story and failed miserably, because I am very incapable of being brief when discussing my writing. At the same time, I really feel like the story behind this fanfic is important, so I'm leaving my original "intro" at the bottom as a way to explain myself.
In the interest of not boring you to death before you read the story itself, I'll keep this simple: this is a fanfic for Forbidden Dance, which is a manga series (and which you should totally read if you're into shojo manga). This fanfic primarily follows Aya, Akira, and Tetsuya after the events of the extra chapter at the end of the series. If you haven't read either the series or the extra chapter, no worries. I made sure to keep the story follow-able.
If you haven't read the books and don't want to ruin a prospective series, you've now been warned: spoilers ahead. (Then again, there are only four books. You should go read them quickly and then come back to read my story ;) I think most of the major manga hosting sites have it available.)
Tetsuya watched as Akira strode across the studio. The other COOL members finished up their stretches and began to gather in around their leader. Tetsuya moved forward as well, coming to stand just behind Aya.
"You excited to work on the new material?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him with her large brown eyes.
Tetsuya shrugged, keeping his expression friendly despite the slight uptick in his heartbeat. Even just being near Aya could make him flustered, although he had become rather good at keeping it hidden over the past few months.
"It'll be interesting to see what he's come up with this time," Tetsuya told her. He glanced again at Akira, who was pointedly looking elsewhere. Aya looked over at their leader as well, and Tetsuya couldn't help noticing the way her eyes softened, a small smile flickering across her lips.
"Alright everyone," Akira announced, silencing the small conversations between the troupe members. "Although our new season won't be beginning for another two months, we'll be competing in an exhibition in a little over a month. With that in mind, we're going to need to start working on our five new pieces immediately."
Akira looked at each of the dancers as he spoke, his gaze sweeping across them. Tetsuya met his gaze and Akira quickly looked away, a slight frown creasing his face. Tetsuya nearly sighed, his suspicions confirmed: Akira was definitely avoiding him.
"The timing is a bit tight, so we're really going to have to put in a lot of effort and determination to get these numbers down by the exhibition, even more so than normal." The members all nodded—they understood the responsibility that came with being in the group. If anything, Aya looked even more determined than the rest of them. This would be the first full performance she'd be allowed to participate in, and Tetsuya knew how much it meant to her.
Tetsuya studied Akira closely as the leader launched into an explanation of the five different numbers they'd be working on. It had been two days since Akira had walked in on Tetsuya and a sleeping Aya in the studio, when Tetsuya had confessed to Akira that he liked Aya and that he wouldn't give up. Seeing Akira so flustered had been an unexpected treat—who knew that even COOL's calm, composed leader could produce such a reaction?
However, since then Tetsuya had gotten the feeling that Akira had been avoiding him. He hadn't meant to drive a distance between them. The two of them weren't quite friends—as the head honcho, Akira always had a place slightly above Tetsuya, and the two were hardly confidants. And yet there was a strong bond among all of the COOL members, and it saddened Tetsuya that Akira felt the need to avoid him.
Even so, Tetsuya had meant what he said. Aya was like a ray of sunshine in an often cloudy world, and he didn't intend to give up on her. He supposed—now that he had made his affections apparent to Akira, his chief rival—that he should actually confess to Aya herself. But something was holding him back, and Tetsuya knew that it would be better to take things at his own pace and wait for the right moment. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was push Aya away as he seemed to have done with Akira.
"The last of the five songs," Akira continued, drawing back Tetsuya's full attention, "will be a duet. Since the last duet went over so well, I'll perform this one with Dancer Girl again."
Although the other members were all nodding, Tetsuya felt a flash of worry. Another duet together? Aya and Akira had spent an ungodly amount of time practicing together for the last duet. If they had another, it would mean only that much more time the two were spending together, alone. And now that Akira knew how Tetsuya felt about her, wouldn't he be more likely to try to make a move? Tetsuya wasn't quite sure how Akira felt—after all, the cool dancer could be hard to read at times. But he had his suspicions about Akira's feelings towards Aya.
A glance at Aya showed she was remarkably well composed, given the news. Her face was a mask of determination, and she nodded in agreement to Akira's statement. Still, it was hard to miss the slight blush that crept into the corners of her cheeks. Tetsuya knew all too well how Aya felt about Akira—everyone probably did.
Before he could second guess himself, Tetsuya took a step forward. "How come you get to hog Aya?" he asked in a lighthearted tone, glancing down to throw a small smile at her. Akira looked completely taken aback, but Tetsuya pushed on. "After all, you got to dance with her last time. Aren't you going to give any of the rest of us guys a chance to dance with her?"
A couple of the other members chuckled, and Okada even called, "Yeah, when's our turn?" Tetsuya felt a rush of relief—luckily everyone seemed to have taken his recommendation as a joke.
Akira stumbled a bit, glancing around at everyone. "The exhibition is really close," he warned them. "Whoever does the duet is really going to have to put in a lot of time to make sure they get it right."
But the guys shrugged the comment off. They had all been with the group for some time—everyone except Aya had been with COOL even longer than Tetsuya had. They knew full well the amount of work their shows required.
Even so, the joke seemed to be wearing off. Worried that the subject would drop before any changes were made, Tetsuya shrugged. "I mean, unless you were planning on keeping Aya all to yourself."
It was a dirty trick, but Tetsuya couldn't help the small surge of satisfaction at the very slight flush that entered Akira's cheeks.
"Yeah right," Akira shot back, a touch too quickly. "All I'm concerned about is whether we perform our numbers without a hitch." Aya shifted slightly at Tetsuya's side, and he glanced over to see her lips pressing together. A dirty trick, indeed, although Tetsuya was still having a hard time making himself feel guilty.
"So one of us can do the duet with Aya?" Tetsuya pressed. Akira hesitated, still looking a bit thrown off. Then he shrugged, once again resuming his calm, unperturbed expression. "Sure. What do I care?" he replied. With a look around the studio, he asked, "Anyone interested?"
"I am," Tetsuya replied, raising his hand. The rest of the members were silent, and Tetsuya couldn't blame them. They were already going to be working hard on the other four numbers to have them ready in time. It was no surprise that they weren't racing to sign up for more work, even if it meant holding a more prominent role in the performance. Then again, Tetsuya was fairly certain none of the other guys were interested in Aya the way he was.
Akira fixed Tetsuya with his strong stare, finally looking at him fully in the eye. "You really think you can get this dance down in one month?" he asked. Leave it to Akira not to mince his words. Tetsuya nodded, becoming serious. "I will not disappoint you."
And, Tetsuya realized, he wouldn't. It wasn't just that he wanted to dance with Aya. He really respected Akira as a dancer and had looked up to him for years now. He wanted to make Akira proud, to make this the best performance he possibly could. With a sigh, Akira nodded. "Alright, then," he said. "The last number will be a duet between Tetsuya and Aya. Now get in position—I want to start going over the first number immediately."
As they walked across the studio to take up their positions, Tetsuya placed his hand on Aya's arm, grabbing her attention. "You don't mind, do you?" he asked her softly. After all, Aya had seemed to be excited about the chance to perform another duet with Akira. But Aya just smiled at him broadly, face lit up. "Of course not," she replied. "I'm looking forward to dancing with you."
Heart beat picking up once more, Tetsuya went to his position on the floor.
Akira hit "Play" on the sound system, then crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, watching his troupe. There was a momentary pause as the CD found its place, then the song began.
The troupe members were listening intently to the music, familiarizing themselves with their new songs. Akira, on the other hand, already had both the music and the dances memorized—he had choreographed them, after all—so he didn't really need to pay attention at the moment. Instead, his attention was focused at the end of the studio, where Tetsuya and Aya stood in place near one another.
Akira frowned, trying to push down his frustration with Tetsuya. What game was Tetsuya playing at, calling him out in front of the whole troupe like that? The question had taken him off guard, and Akira had handed over his prize duet before he was even aware what he had done.
Tetsuya noticed his gaze, and Akira quickly tore his eyes away, instead focusing on Aya. She was watching straight ahead toward the wall-length mirror that stood before her, eyes focusing on some distance point as she listened to the flow of their first new song. The Dancer Girl had proved her mettle during the Anniversary performance, and Akira had no doubt that she would work hard and easily hold her own during the exhibition.
The first song dwindled to a close, followed by a pause before the next song began. Akira didn't bother to say anything—everyone knew the drill, and he would be going over each song in far more detail in just a little bit.
Aya shifted where she stood, recapturing Akira's attention, and he frowned once more. As much as he had been trying to avoid admitting it to himself, he was mad that Tetsuya was stealing away his dance. He had written it specifically to be performed by Aya and him, whether he had been conscious of the fact at the time or not. After all, it only made logical sense that the two of them would perform it, given how spectacularly their previous duet had gone.
Not that any of the troupe needed to know that he had written it with the two of them in mind. Of course, he hadn't meant anything by it—it was just a dance for their performance. And yet the way Tetsuya had phrased it… Unless you were planning on keeping Aya all to yourself.
Akira nearly growled in frustration. What was Tetsuya trying to imply, anyway? That he needed to box Aya in, somehow? She was the one who had relentlessly pursued Akira, forcing her way into COOL and wriggling into his personal business. He didn't need to box her in—he practically needed a stick to keep her out! And hadn't she been the one to kiss him during their last performance? That seemed like a fairly clear message to Akira, though he still had no idea how he was supposed to respond to it—how he wanted to respond to it.
Akira was reminded, again, of Tetsuya's words only two nights before: he liked Aya, and he wasn't going to give up. For some reason, the thought only made Akira more upset. As the second song ended and the third one began, he did his best to force this line of thought from his mind and instead lose himself in the rhythm of the music.
A/N: I hope you're enjoying the story! Please R&R. (Although I'm not sure if anyone will even read this. I don't how many hits the "Misc." page gets. So far I seem to have a habit of writing fanfics for series with small to no followings on FanFiction… Oh well.) Anyway, there will definitely be more chapters to come—I think this will turn out somewhere between eight and ten chapters. I'll do my best to keep the time between chapters to a few days, at most.
You really don't have to read anything else past this point. But, as I mentioned at the beginning, my intro turned out huge. As an English major, I find it hard to resist an opportunity to discuss my favorite books at length, even when they're manga.
I just recently re-read Forbidden Dance. I love the characters and think the story is interesting (even if it gets a bit melodramatic at times. It's a shojo manga, whatcha gonna do?). If you haven't read the manga, you should go search it out and read it. It's short, sweet, and enjoyable, imho. Plus, most scanlation hosting websites have it available, such as MangaHere or MangaGo (although I can't verify how well they're edited. I have the Tokyopop English translation hard copies).
The ending of the series is kind of open. The two main characters (Aya and Akira) don't wind up together, although it's implied that they probably will eventually. What really intrigued me when I re-read it, however, was an extra chapter that came afterward. (Sadly, it doesn't look like this chapter has been scanned online at all. Boo.) The last chapter follows a side character, Tetsuya, and explains what has been subtly hinted at throughout the entire series: he has a major crush on Aya. And in the last four pages of this bonus chapter, Tetsuya tells Akira that he loves Aya, and basically that he hasn't given up yet. Which leaves Akira all (adorably) flustered. And, as far as I can tell, there haven't been any other additional chapters.
WHICH IS INFURIATING. As a US American, I like to have my endings wrap up nicely. Don't get me wrong—I can, and often do, appreciate a well written open ending. But I like my mangas the way I like my drinks: sweet and bubbly. And when I go reading a fluffy shojo manga, I like to have them tied with a pretty bow at the end. (Side note: From what I've heard, this is a common trait among US Americans. For instance, they shot an extra ending to the 2009 Pride & Prejudice movie specifically for the US audience. Because we're silly like that.)
Since Forbidden Dance does NOT wrap up all nicely, it left me inspired to write my own ending to the love plot. Feel free to sue me for the love triangle. After some recent contemplation about the prolific amount of love triangles in most of my favorite mangas, I came to a conclusion: their profusion in the shojo genre is probably primarily because they're fun to read. I dunno, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you guys have grown tired of them. But time and again I find myself loving stories that tend to rely on them. I don't always—love triangles can definitely be done poorly—but I think the times I love them the most are when they push the two characters who do wind up together to look more deeply at their relationship. And let's face it, Akira would have taken his damn sweet time to finally say something to Aya if Tetsuya hadn't suddenly burst into the scene as a challenger.
Also, can I just add how difficult it can be to manage PoV when dealing with manga fanfics? This is something I've noticed before, although it became really apparent with this story. Manga can easily allow the reader to dive into multiple characters' heads and emotions, often in just one scene. And although some manga definitely go a more third person semi-omniscient route, where you only get one character's thoughts, often they don't hesitate to give you a quick peek into a character's mind when it's really important to their development or the scene (or for just the fun little comments on what's happening, especially from sardonic characters). This approach is fantastic—I love getting that kind of well-rounded knowledge of what's happening. However, in my own writing I don't like doing third person omniscient where you get ALL of the characters' thoughts all at once. I know it's a preference kind of thing, but it just feels weird to me, and I dislike writing like that.
For this particular fanfic, I'm really struggling with trying to juggle when to switch PoV and whose PoV would be best to view a scene from. When I plotted the story out, I did it more from a manga perspective, considering each of the character's actions, reactions, and emotions as they happened rather than focusing on a certain PoV in a given scene. So now that I'm going back to actually write those scenes, it's become really difficult to choose. I don't want to constantly be switching back and forth between viewpoints every couple of lines-that would ultimately just become disruptive. But at the same time, I want to make sure I could capture as much of the important emotions and inner dialogue for each character as possible. Anyway, I hope it will turn out well!