Chapter 4 : Will You be My Model?

The Inukawa residence was a traditional, Japanese house with dark wooden gate. Long before Shino's dad had decided to build their new home in this neighborhood, the house that Inukawa family lived now had been there for a while. The house had been empty for long time. The neighborhood council said that no one ever entered the house. The gate had been locked all the time.

Sousuke opened the door for the boy and his pet. In contrast with Shino's western style house, the front door was, of course, consisted of sliding door and stoned floor with beautifully carved traditional lantern hanging on the wall next to the door. Shino faced a long corridor before his eyes. It seemed that the Inukawa twins had not unpacked all of their stuffs yet. He could still see some boxes here and there.

"Sorry, it's a bit messy," Sousuke said.

"Nah, that's okay. You guys just moved this morning." Shino stared at the traditional Japanese painting hanging on the wall. The painting showed a beautiful wisteria flower blooming at a place that looked like a garden of Buddhist temple. Yup, definitely. Shino caught a small detail of pagoda roof on the far, upper right corner. The boy smirked. Inukawa family sure had a good taste on art.

While Shino was busy observing the painting, Sousuke opened the first sliding door at right side of corridor. "You can wait here, Shino-san. I'm going to get some tea and cake from kitchen."

Hearing the word 'cake', Shino brightened up. He obidiently sat down on the tatami mat with Murasame perching on top of his head. "Your twin isn't here?" Shino asked

"No. Unfortunately he has some things to do," Sousuke answered, "Please wait for a moment."

Sousuke's tall figure vanished behind the sliding door. His footsteps gradually faded away. Shino looked at his surrounding-ordinary Japanese style living room with nothing but wooden low table and television on the right side. Soon, Shino got bored. It was not even five minutes since Sousuke had left. He knew it was rude of him to think the house was too dull and quiet. The boy began dozing off.

"Shino! Shino!"

Murasame's high pitch voice snapped Shino's eyes open. "What?"

"Tree! Tree! Want tree!"

Shino heaved a sigh. Murasame could be such a pain in ass. Like Shino, Murasame did not like staying at the same place too long. He got bored easiy. Shino wondered whether his encounter with Murasame six years ago had been inevitable. The boy opened a glass door that connected the room with veranda. Murasame quickly flapped his wings and flew to the nearest tree.

Being left alone inside tatami room, Shino decided to take a little tour around the house. This place actually was bigger than his. Long corridors. Rows of sliding doors. Outside, huge traditional garden with small pond and decorated stones. It even had storage bulding seperated from main house building. There was also small gate connected to another side of garden. Shino bet it led to tea house-he had seen similar pattern at his grandparents' place.

Man, the Inukawas was very rich.

After a walk around garden, Shino came inside. Sousuke was still nowhere to be seen. "Hmm, guess I'll just make my legs more useful," the boy hummed and began another tour around the house. This time he decided to find kitchen, where Sousuke most probably was. When he walked down the corridor, he caught a glimpse of slighty ajar sliding door. Shino raised an eyebrow before took a peek inside.

What Shino found seconds later amazed him. The room filled with so many paintings. Both Japanese and western style ones. Boxes of colorful inks and brushes were placed on a low table. Piles of canvas at the other side. Sketch books were arranged neatly at bookshelf. An easel stood not far away from it. Two cameras, along with its lenses, planced inside glassed cabinet. Shino held his breath as he studied each painting carefully. His eyes dropped on a western style painting showing a beautiful black haired woman holding two babies. The woman's expression was very serene.

"That's our mother."

Shino shrieked. He had no idea how long Inukawa Sousuke had been there. The said man peered over Shino's petite shoulders. He swore he could feel Sousuke's ticklish breaths on his nape. The youngest Satomi was so taken aback that he tripped on his own feet. Fortunately, Sousuke caught his arm.

"Are you alright, Shino-san?" Sousuke asked in concern.

Shino felt a hot wave hit his cheeks. "Uhm, yeah... Uhm..."

"I was thinking that you have gone back home." Sousuke said and released Shino's arm-much of Shino's dissapointment...wait what?

Shino groaned inwardly at his stupid thoughts. "Well, I got bored and decided to take a look around your house. Sorry."

However, Sousuke only laughed softly. "No, no. It was my fault leaving my guest alone. I'm so sorry, Shino-san. I got phone call from my relative and caught in a long conversation. She would not hung up."

"Oh, I see." Then...silence. Shino scratched his head, looked up to meet Sousuke's eyes. "Hmm...so are you a painter?"

"My major is Japanese painting."

"Huh? You are a...college student?"

Sousuke nodded.

"I thought he's older," Shino muttered in small voice but somehow clear enough to be heard. When he saw Sousuke's amused face, Shino frowned slightly. "So, you are...what? Twenty something?"

"Twenty two, to be exact."

Only a year older than his nii-san?! Gosh, this Sousuke was full of surprise. "So, you are twenty two and majoring in Japanese painting. Are all these yours?" Shino scanned the room, pointing at several paintings.

"All paintings in this house are my works...like that one in the entrance," Sousuke answered politely, trying not to look as if he was showing off.

"Wow, that's super cool! I thought that painting was done by professional. Your work is as good as one. You must be very talented!" Shino grinned widely.

Sousuke never expected that kind of reaction from the boy. "Shino-san, this morning your mother told me you have just entered high school. Where is it?"

The conversation went smoothly after that.

.

Rio pushed the pile of documents into far corner. There were about three documents left to be re-checked. He was sitting on the desk in his professor's office when the clock read seven past ten. His professor had gone to meet another faculty staff. Rio leaned back, wondering whether Shino already had dinner or not. Every time Rio noticed how Shino seemed never gain any more weight, he always tried to find whether the boy was doing proper diet or not.

'Stop studying, get a life.'

Why on earth he suddenly remembered those stupid line from his idiotic cousin?

The young man frowned. True, he had been spending so much times on studying. People had high expectation on him, including his parents. Well, they never demanded him to always get good marks but... Again, the Satomis must be excellent right? If Rio wanted to follow his father's step as politician, he needed to plan it in perfect way.

'You need to get laid.'

Dammit Kaname.

He did not need to get laid. The idea of him dating a girl was out of question now. Besides, he could not stand their squeking, high pitch voice or their trying-to-be-cute pouting. Hmph, his Shino was far cuter than those crazy girls!

Speaking of Shino, Rio decided to send his little brother an e-mail.

/Have you eaten yet?/

The reply surprisingly came fast. Shino probably had his cell phone on hand. /I'm actually eating dinner at Sousuke's place now. Mom is with dad at some party./

Rio's facial expression was still calm when he read first words but it swiftly changed into pure horror-if twitching five times in a row could be counted as horror-when he read Sousuke's name. Sousuke's place? Dear kami-sama of Japan, why was Shino with their new neighbor on the first place?! Wait! Sousuke? Why did Shino call the man without honorific suffix anymore?

/Dinner with Sousuke-san?/ Rio typed furiously on his smart phone. /Don't cause him so much trouble, Shino./

Another reply. /He's the one who invited me./

That's it! He had noticed it vaguely how one of the Inukawa twins had laid an interest on Shino. Rio recalled the scene when he had seen Sousuke bending over to meet Shino's eye level. How he had smiled gently at the boy. How he had easily won Shino's heart by befriending Murasame. 'What a low human-beings,' Rio growled inwardly, 'using a mere pet as a tool to attract my angel's attention.'

Rio snatched a piece of yellow post-it and wrote a short note for his professor, telling him he needed to be at home immediately. Family emergency, Rio wrote down. He promised to drop all finished documents by tomorrow morning. Shoving all his stuff into his bag, Rio stepped out of the office like a madman.

.

"So tired..."

Inukawa Ao dragged his feet all the way from station to his home. He ran his fingers onto his dark blue hair. Today was definitely not one of his favorite. This morning he and Sousuke moved to a house they had never seen in their life before. Freaking huge house with layers of dust here and there. He predicted that they would spend a week only to clean the entire house. Until this noon, thanks to Sousuke's dilligence, they had managed to clean half of first floor. However, around two hours later, unexpected things happened and he was summoned by so-called relatives to another freaking huge mansion.

Ao inhaled the spring air deeply as he reached the house gate.

"Oi, Sou, I'm home," he greeted, sliding open the front door. Finding his twin not answering, Ao paid attention to a pair of much smaller shoes at the entrance stoned floor. A guest? The young man walked down the corridor and finally heard two laughing voices coming from Sousuke's studio room.

The sliding door was opened. Ao halted on his step when Sousuke asked his guestin such gentle tone, "Would you be my model, Shino?"

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tbc