When The Red Rose Blooms

Chapter One

"Excuse me, excuse me! Oh my, I'm so sorry!" Kikumaru Eiji exclaimed whilst making his way out of the crowd hurriedly. With all his effort, he made it to the stairs leading to the exit of the underground, where he was blocked by another huge crowd. He scrunched his eyebrows together and sighed heavily, whilst making some slow small steps up the stairs. He looked at his watch. Oh no! It's already 10.25! I'll never make it there in time, he thought to himself and his heart sank.

It happened a week ago. Eiji was at home that afternoon, catching up on the latest gossip of his favourite JPop group, the Chocolates on TV, when the doorbell rang. He opened the door and there stood Fuji Shūsuke, with a beaming smile on his face. His sudden visit had surprised Eiji.

"Hello, Eiji," said the Fuji with a pleasant grin.

"A-ah Fu-Fujiko! H-hi…" Eiji began, but was immediately distracted and suddenly remembered he still had the JPop album Fuji lent him a long time ago. "A-aaah oh god! I'm sorry, Fujiko, I'll get it straight away!"

An expression of confusion appeared on Fuji's face. "Get…?"

Eiji had already gone back into the house, but he had left the door opened, so Fuji let himself in. He sat on the sofa in the living room and saw what was on TV.

"Now, here are some clips from the Chocolates' live concert in Hokkaidō! But before that, make sure you text your answer to the question to this number, at the bottom of the screen. The person who sends in the fastest response will receive a complete collection of the Chocolates' Live DVDs and the girls will also sign a poster just for the winner! Make sure you text your answer to this number right now!" Fuji chuckled. "Eiji just never changes, still a little kid in love with JPop idols," he thought to himself. He then realised that it had been way over ten minutes since Eiji had gone up to his room to get whatever he said he was going to get. Fuji was not impatient, he was just worried, so he decided to go upstairs to check on him.

"Eiji? Eiji, are you okay?" Fuji called out to his friend in the corridor. He was going to start calling a bit more loudly when he saw Eiji in his room, going through all his drawers and boxes, and it looked like he was ransacking the room.

"What are you doing?" Fuji exclaimed, whilst examining the mess Eiji had made. Eiji looked up with his puppy dog eyes, "Fujiko, I can't find the Ultimate JPop Collection CD that you lent me! I know you love it a lot, but don't get angry please. Please, please, please?"

At first, Fuji smiled, then the smile slowly transformed into a light chuckle, then into a laugh, then back to a smile again. "You can be so cute sometimes." Eiji looked at him, a bit confused, but was more than happy now that he had made sure Fuji would not get angry with him. When a smile had appeared on Eiji's face, Fuji went on, "Actually, I came here today because I have a little something for you, Eiji. I'm really sorry I couldn't get you a ticket to our Aozu concert next week. I don't think any of us have given out tickets to friends, except maybe Ryoma. We aren't allowed to this time," his face darkened as he continued to speak, as if the fact that Eiji could not be at his concert was a huge disappointment. "But," he said with a light smile, "I got this." He then dug into his right pocket and handed a piece of paper to Eiji.

"This is…" Eiji's words trailed off since he did not really know what he was holding in his hands.

"It's a pass, a pass to the backstage. I couldn't get you the normal ticket, but at least now, you can come and meet me in the backstage after the concert. You just have to bring this pass with you on that day."

Eiji looked at the pass, then moved his gaze up to Fuji's face, still with a smile. He took his time to understand what exactly the piece of paper meant, and once he did, he jumped up into the air and did a backflip. "Wow! That's awesome! Really awesome! I didn't know this kind of thing existed, Fujiko!"

Fuji merely laughed at his reaction and said, "The concert should have ended by 10.30, so please come around that time." Then the cuckoo in the cuckoo clock popped out and started singing a song about it being four in the afternoon. Fuji looked at the clock and chuckled, "You've got a new clock, Eiji. It's a very interesting one too." He smiled. "Anyway, I'm going back to the studio now, I have a recording to do at five. Bye, Eiji." With that said, he made his way out of the house.

"See you!" Eiji shouted down the street. Fuji turned around and gave Eiji one more calming smile, before he continued down the road and eventually disappearing around the corner.

Ah… Why won't the people walk a little faster already? And why does it have to be a Friday? Fuji knows Friday nights in Tokyo are really busy! Eiji thought to himself as he realised he was no more than halfway up the stairs. He looked at his watch again, where he saw 10.31. Remembering what Fuji had told him, he exclaimed in an extremely loud voice, "It's already over!" People around started to give him weird stares, especially the businessmen. Quickly, he thought of something. He thought he might as well use this awkward moment to his advantage, and he started acting spontaneously. "Hang in there mother! My mother is ill! Please let me through! Her operation just finished, it's already finished! So please, let me see my ill mother!" As he was shouting, he forced tears to appear near his tear ducts and faked whimpers. He also made sure everyone around him heard everything clearly, and just like he wanted, people around started to make way for him. He then ran up the stairs and said "Thanks a bunch!" multiple times. He did feel bad about lying, but going to the concert was more important.

It was not a short walk from the station to the arena, where Aozu was having their concert, but Eiji did his best and reached there in just a couple of minutes. He dashed to the main entrance and saw that people are already coming out. Crowds, again, he thought. He carefully hurried through the sea of people, not wanting to hurt any of them, since most of them were young girls. When he was just a metre away from the entrance, he bumped into a girl, who then fell because he was basically power walking.

He immediately helped her up and asked, "Are you okay? Sorry about that, I'm in a big hurry. Are you hurt? Anywhere?"

The girl shook her head and looked up to him. "Ki-Kikumaru-senpai?"

There was a moment of silence. "Sakuno-chan…?" There was another moment of silence before Eiji started to flood Ryusaki Sakuno with tonnes of questions, "Oh my god, are you okay? Sakuno-chan? Did I hurt you? Oh Lord, don't let ochibi know about this or he'll surely kill me! I'm so sorry, Sakuno-chan!"

"P-please don't be. I'm fine," Sakuno muttered. "Se-Senpai, do you possibly know the way to the backstage?"

"Backstage? Ah! You're here for ochibi, aren't you? He's so lucky to have you as a girlfriend," said Eiji in a teasing tone.

"E-eh? O-of course not! I'm not Ryoma-kun's girl-girlfriend. Ju-just a friend." Sakuno managed to give Eiji a reply, however with a completely red face.

"You're blushing! You're blushing!" Eiji began singing. "Right, so let's go to the backstage, shall we?" He took out his backstage pass and thought to himself, "I wonder if this'll really work. I'm a big fan of JPop concerts and yet, I've never got one of these before."

On the way to the backstage, Sakuno had loosened up a bit and decided to start a conversation with Eiji because she had noticed that he looked somehow troubled. "Kikumaru-senpai has the backstage pass? I guess Fuji-senpai was talking about you after all. Ryoma-kun and I were there when he asked the manager for one ticket, any kind will do. He said the night wouldn't be enjoyable at all if that person couldn't come. Kikumaru-senpai must be really important to Fuji-senpai."

That left Eiji speechless. He would never in his life imagine that he would be the person Fuji chose to invite to his concert, if he was only allowed to invite one. Somehow, this surprised him, but at the same time, it made him more than happy.

The pair entered the backstage, already filled with a lot of other fans, who have managed to get backstage passes too. More crowds, Eiji thought to himself and sighed. He tiptoed and tried to find Fuji in the sea of people, when suddenly, he felt that someone had given Sakuno a yank. He turned around swiftly and wanted to see if it was one of those crazy fan girls. But when he had turned around, his eyes met a familiar-looking face.

"What are you doing here, Eiji-senpai?"

"Ochibi!" Echizen Ryoma was then greeted with a hug, which he swiftly ended by pushing Eiji away. "Ochibi! That's so mean! Meanie! Meanie! Meanie!" Eiji faked a sad pout.

"Just so you know, Fuji-senpai is over there," said Ryoma, after Eiji's endless complaint about his detached attitude towards him. "Come on, let's go, Ryusaki." He then grabbed Sakuno's hand and walked out of the backstage, the two of them hand-in-hand.

Eiji smiled at the sight, and then turned his head to look for the person who invited him here, his heartbeats going faster by the second.

To be continued…

Author's note: Please leave comments; tell me what you think about it and what other pairings you'd want to see.