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[UPBEAT DENIAL]
chapter three: the 'best' man
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Of all the places in the fucking world, why pick here? What is wrong with you?!
My brother hasn't said this out loud, but I know this is what he's thinking.
He's got one of those faces that makes it easy to read, especially when he's super irritated and sulky. Which is exactly what he is right now - super irritated and sulky. A priceless, kodak moment that I wish I could capture on film, frame it and gift it to him as a Christmas present.
Too bad we can't take photos here. It's a shame, really. I checked with a cute staff member beforehand, and even with my sweet-talking, and pretending to pull off the foreigner card, she declined my low-key hustling with a polite 'no'. She did say that if we take a photo with any of the staff members, we'd have to pay an additional fee.
With the way Yamato's reacting, maybe I should actually consider…
Ears flushing pink, Yamato's eyes narrow when he finally finds me at the booth. He's halfway through the door. One foot in, one foot out. It's almost like he's dipping a toe in a pool of icy water, testing the temperature in preparation before being engulfed in the depths of dread. I bite my bottom lip from guffawing like a hyena, observing as my dear onii-san internally fights in his head about whether he should ditch me or not.
If it were another person (like Taichi), I'm confident he would bail without a second thought. But I'm a different story. Ever since I was snipped away from our mother's umbilical cord, I had already become a sacrifice to Yamato's overbearing, suffocating, clingy and overprotective clutches. I swear, sometimes I think he worries about me more than our parents.
A maid notices my brother's dilemma, flitting towards him at the entrance. She bends slightly down to give him an overexaggerated curtsy and murmurs some undecipherable words. I watch Yamato stammer a reply, pointing at my direction to indicate that he's with me.
She nods, and just before she guides him to where I'm seated, she raises her voice and releases a high-pitched greeting so everybody can hear it.
"Welcome, Oujisama!"
A chorus of energetic (and also high-pitched) greetings spark from the other maids in the cafe. Yamato's way too shook right now. I'm sure this is his first time, at this extreme calibre, to be referred to as 'prince.' I know it definitely was mine - and boy, has it been hella fun.
Witnessing this is making it hard to breathe. My ribs hurt like crazy from all the laughter that I'm unable to contain, watching as his face colours to an angry red.
I'm going to kill you, Takeru.
His old band may have played in front of multiple crowds before, but Yamato had never been prepped up to endure this kind of - unwanted - attention...especially by all maids. He's a virgin to all this roleplaying, and having the maids treat him like royalty. Perhaps this could turn into his new kink? I've got to tell Sora - not to give them bed ideas (let me squeeze lemons in my eyes, thank you very much) - but because I know she'll have a great laugh out of it too.
Yamato finally takes a seat opposite to me. He grits his teeth as sits parallel to me. The maid gives him instructions, giving him the 411 about the cafe rules, what her favourite anime is, and suggestions of what to pick on the food menu. As soon as she flounces off, Yamato lets out a pained groan.
He glares at me, and says one word. "Why?"
That one word encompasses all seven stages of grief - which makes me laugh harder.
"Just...why?"
I smile, leisurely taking a sip from my bubbly chocolate milkshake.
He erupts, "A maid cafe?! When I got here I thought that I was at the wrong location. When I texted you, you didn't reply."
Yamato lowers his voice when the maid serves a customer next to us, "Takeru, couldn't you have picked something a little, well uh...normal?"
"This was the best option. You did request a midway spot for the both of us. Akihabara ticked all the boxes."
"A normal cafe at Akihabara would have sufficed. There are many other cafes you could have picked from."
"What about a BL cafe then? Is that more your preference? Some boy times boy action? Did you know that if you buy a certain drink from a BL cafe they act out a love scenario?" I smirk.
"And exactly how do you know this?" He shakes his head. "Forget it. I don't want to know."
I puff my chest out, "I'm a man of culture. I'm catching up on what I've missed out on, indulging in my Japanese roots."
"I've lived here all my life, and I was content to not explore this side of town," he says.
"Don't be a spoil sport," I retort. I raise my eyebrows when our maid returns with two glasses of water. I say, "Come on, at least the girls here are cute. I'm sure they find you cute too, being all awkward but trying to act cool."
"I swear, Takeru…" He then zeroes in on the menu in front of him, mumbling under his breath how expensive everything is.
I catch the attention of the maid and say, "Boku no nii-san wa kawaii deshou ka."
"Hai! Oujisama wa meccha kawaii desu ne! Nyan, nyan~" She mimics a cat. Her frilly skirt hitches up as she performs a dainty dance for him.
Yamato is sending me a discreet 'fuck you' look from behind the menu. I ignore it, grinning at the maid as I place my order - pointing at the image of a bowl of chocolate ice-cream lathered in a ridiculous amount of rainbow sprinkles. My inner kid is hyped. "A hamburger steak and fries too, onegaishimasu."
Whereas, the older brother is eyeing the menu like a hawk. He's not looking at the images, but scanning how much yen it costs for each item on the menu. I had forgotten how frugal Yamato can be - that, and he is saving for the upcoming wedding too.
"A strawberry milkshake."
When the waitress jots down his order and leaves the table, I comment, "Really?"
He counters, "Really what?"
"I thought you were more the Vanilla type."
Yamato cringes at me, deciding to not reply. It's only been ten minutes and he looks just about to throw the towel. He walked into that one, even though he won't admit it. God, I've missed Yamato - but I've missed giving him shit as well.
"How's work?"
And, it also appears that Yamato likes to deliver shit back to me too - by painfully bringing up boring stuff that I don't like to talk about. He dissected the question carefully, trying to find my weakness about the new job - and also trying to see what our mother is up to.
"Ma's been focused on the new branch in Osaka. She wants to see you next week." I lean back into the cushioning of the artificial, leather booth. "Work is good. It's dry though."
It's an industry I've never envisioned myself in. The pay is pretty decent. I'd like to say I'm starting from the bottom, learning the basics and all - but when your mother is the CEO of a tourism company, you're bound to get special treatment. This, in fact, was what I received too. It's not an easy role, which is a good thing because it has kept me distracted. I don't think I could do it forever though. Knowing myself, there is only much I can do with Japanese-French translating before my brain explodes.
He advises, "Why not try playwriting if it's draining you? You have the talent for it."
Yes, and Yamato also has this uncanny talent for remembering every little detail about every little thing. It's a pain in the ass sometimes - how he remembers like this. Him bringing up my old job makes me feel weird, maybe because it's been long since I've worked in the field. By long...not really. It's been close to eight months since I left the Paris theatre company.
"It's a different ballgame here. I'm still adjusting to the Japanese workplace dynamics," I respond.
I'm saved by the maid and her tray of goodness. My hamburger steak set with an additional bowl of ice-cream.
She slides the lone strawberry milkshake to Yamato. His face is appalled by the froth and the picture of a bear that is drawn in strawberry syrup.
"Why didn't you take Kana-chan with us? She probably would have enjoyed this outing more than I am," Yamato mumbles.
"No way," I snort. "She'd murder me. Funnily enough, she is more like you than me. Though, unlike us, she does have a violent streak. She punched a student the other day."
"Oh?" This gets Yamato's attention. Anything about our youngest sister does tend to rouse his interest. "What did her teacher say?"
"That's the best part of it." I pause for dramatic effect before dropping, "Hikari's her teacher."
"Hikari?" He chokes out, "As in the Hikari that you're not talking to?"
I laugh. "Yeah, that one."
Maybe because story-telling is my forte, I give Yamato a spicy, colourful story about the turn of events. When I get to the highlight, every cell in my body is excited. Yamato's leaning in, taking in every word I say.
"She got off scotch free!"
"Are you serious? No punishment? Not even a detention?"
"Yes!" I exclaim. "The boy pleaded with his mother and Hikari to let Kana go without punishment. The only reasoning I can hypothesise is that the kid has a crush on her. I mean, why else would he be poking fun at her and not wanting her to get punished - if it were me, I'd even throw in false accusations to make her sentence longer."
"You make it sound like she's in jail."
"School is a jail, is it not?"
"Somehow I don't believe everything you are saying. Maybe I'll ask her next time about it." He's not fully projecting it, but I know he wants to get to know Kana more.
I didn't tell him that Kana chose to stay home today. She feels ridiculously shy around Yamato. She's only met him once ever since coming to Japan, and had kept behind my mother the whole time.
When she's slightly more settled, I'll force her to go out with me and Yamato. It was only after the school meeting that I noticed how actually overwhelmed she was with adjusting to the new country. Early in the morning I had gone for a toilet break, and as I crossed past her room - I noted that her bedside light was still glowing. I crept into her room and found her asleep on her desk, head resting on a textbook of Japanese proverbs. I picked her up, and tucked her into bed - ah yes, that's what I need to do. After my catch up with Yamato, I'm meant to stop by a Kinokuniya to grab her some Japanese textbooks and-
"-sorry, Takeru."
"Huh?" I blink at him. Yamato makes a face at me because I had zoned out on him.
"About not making you Best Man." He fiddles with the edges of his serviette.
This makes me heavily guffaw in laughter. Hard.
That's why he wanted to meet up with me. He's been holding this guilt for so long and genuinely thinks I'll be upset that he didn't ask me to be his Best Man. I had found it weird that he wanted us to meet up when we had already seen each other this week. Finding out that he had been worried about picking Taichi over me is amusing...and...well, something very Yamato-like that I hadn't even considered. All this time, Yamato had been letting these guilty feelings fester.
He gazes at me, irritated that I'm laughing.
I reassure him, "Aniki, this is nothing. I know how close you are to Taichi. He's your best friend. I hadn't even thought about it, to be honest. I already knew he'd be your Best Man."
"But-"
"We're not preschoolers," I tell him.
Yamato gives me a hesitant smile. "I thought you were upset."
I can label a million things that are more upsetting to me right now…
"When do I ever get upset?" I reply instead.
"That's why I don't know with you, Takeru." Yamato says. "I just felt that you might have been hurt by it, and I didn't want you to get offended."
He's more considerate of others than I am. He sees many steps ahead, whereas I'm always (trying) to live in the moment. My brother may act like a tough cookie, but deep down he actually cares a lot more than one would think.
If anything, it's Yamato who really is 'the best man'.
Whenever I'd feel like I'd be going through a rough patch in France, I'd look at the small metal, airplane figurine he had bought me for my sixth birthday (Takeru, your brother used his year's worth of allowance to buy you that gift - my mother would like to remind me). I was never close to dad, but the only real man I've looked up to has always been my brother - maybe because we're so different from each other.
Just don't tell him I said that.
"How about you take a photo with our maid?" I joke. "That way I won't be really offended."
It doesn't take a lot for me to convince him. I may see him as the older brother to depend on, but he also sees me as his younger brother that he never tires to dote on. Is it bad that I feed on the years we've lacked being together to get him to do my selfish and horrible biddings?
Probably.
But it's worth it because I know that I will keep this memory in my wallet forever. The memory of a disgruntled Yamato, captured in Polaroid form as he poses like a cat in between two maids, is something I intend to keep to the grave.
Remind me to include this in my will.
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*Oujisama - Prince
**Boku no nii-san wa kawaii deshou ka (my older brother is cute, isn't he?)
***Hai! Oujisama wa meccha kawaii desu ne! Nyan, nyan~ (Yes! The prince is very cute. *Cat gestures/sounds/*)
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(a/n) So...I've always wanted to write a maid cafe in one my fanfics - who knew that it would be this one? Haha. Takeru is very glossed out at the moment...so there is still a lot of story to go xD Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading. :)
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P.S. There might be a glitch with email/alert notifications on fanfiction atm. I don't know if it's permanent (considering this platform is super old), but in case you prefer following me on AO3, my username is 'objectivity'. I'll upload this story there too.
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