Rollercoater
By RD
Chapter One
"Can I have a smoke?"
"Fuck off."
Me and Daisuke are leaning on the balcony outside the flat. We do pretty much every night, since it's so hot inside now. Winter, and we freeze our arses off because they can't get the heating to work. Summer, and it finally comes on, and everyone melts. The place stinks because of the sweat. It's really quite disgusting, but I love my little shithole of a flat. Dad's dead pissed off, because it was really expensive, and even though it looks really nice and it's penthouse and everything, it still reeks in summer. Now it's calm and cool and silent. We're not chatting because we talk so much in the day to take our minds off the heat. Ken says me and Daisuke are kindred spirits, but I don't know about that. If he was, he'd buy me smokes and pierce my ears, but he won't.
"You're not old enough to smoke, and even if you were I still wouldn't let you because your Dad would kill me."
He always, always says that. Dad's so overprotective of me and it sucks, I can tell you. He's so careful about everything I do and he's always watching me, which I'm sure will be so off-putting when I get a boyfriend. He's trying to make my life as normal as possible, I think. Ordinary. But my life's never been normal or ordinary, and I love it that way.
Firstly, I live with four extremely famous guys who, in their younger days, saved the worlds a lot. Yeah, worlds, plural. There's loads connected together that we still haven't discovered, but one we have is called the Digital World...they saved it. And now that everyone knows about the Digital World, they're mega celebrities, which is great of course.
I also happen to live with four extremely gay guys. Ok, so Daisuke claims he's bi, but I don't believe him. I reckon Dad thinks I'm going to have a nervous breakdown in my later years because of this, but I'm totally fine about it. No scarring incidences. People whisper at school, but they're narrow-minded freaks I can ignore.
There's Dad (everyone calls him Izzy though really his name's Koushiro) and his boyfriend Taichi. They adopted me when they were pretty young. Loads of people think Dad's my biological father because we look creepily alike. Dad told me when I was about 5, because he was adopted himself and his parents never told him, he discovered for himself, which left him pretty shaken up. Then there's Daisuke and Ken. I consider Daisuke my best friend, even though he's twice my age, and Ken's so nice no-one can't like him. He's a genius too, which is handy when I need help with my homework. And, I am embarrassed to admit, I love watching Ken and Daisuke kiss. They're so perfect together. They've been a couple for 18 years, and I don't think they'll ever break up.
"Yeah well, Dad's not around right now, so it doesn't matter!" I'm determined not to let him win this fight. And I'm telling the truth. Every few months, Dad and Taichi go away for a few days to Okinawa. I have no idea what they do and no-one seems willing to tell me, so I learned not to ask.
"Oh, that reminds me!" Daisuke crushes his cigarrette under his foot before I can get a puff. "You'll be on your own tomorrow, I've gotta go set up an exhibition, and Ken'll be at work, so I'll leave the keys on the cooker, okay?" Daisuke's a photographer, you see, and he often has to go out of town for displays and things. I nod. "Now you, there's no more smokes, so it's time for bed." I frown, even though it's pretty late, but Daisuke practically drags me inside the house and throws me into my room, so I give up and go to sleep.
The next morning, everyone's gone when I wake up. Ken's left me a note saying when he'll be home, as well as a slip of paper witb the instructions on how to cook some fancy pasta dish. Ken has this thing about eating properly. He doesn't even like walking past McDonalds. And the keys are there too.
...Holy fuck, YES!
Daisuke's left me the key to his photo room! He always takes it off, and I'm never allowed in there. I think he's shit scared I'll mess up his prints or something, but he forgot this time! I grab the key and dash to his and Ken's room. Anyone would think it was just a cupboard, but it's really a door leading into this little room. I've tried picking the lock before, but it never worked, and besides, Taichi caught me once and now I'm not allowed to have hair-pins. Which has just made me wanna see it even more. The click of the lock sounds so satisfying as I turn the key and swing back the door.
Woah! The room's small, but it's overflowing with photos. They take up all the folders on the shelves and spill onto the floor, plus there's another few boxes of them right at the back. All the folders are labelled with dates or subjects or places. I figure out that the boxes are professional ones, whereas the shelves are just everyday photos. There are about four shelves just of photos of Ken, which makes me giggle. I look through a few of these. I especially love the ones of him when he was younger, because he looks so different. I can tell when Daisuke went professional, because then some of the photos are done in his studio.
I spot a folder labelled 'Studio / 2016 Catalogue / Aya'. Oh my god, these are so old...Back when I used to model kids clothes for Daisuke. That brings back so many memories...
After a few minutes of searching, I find the ones of Dad and Taichi. I pick up a few folders labelled '2007 / Hokkaido / Group'. This must've been a holiday or something, because all four of them are there, with some others I don't recognise. 2007...that'd make Dad 16. They're really amazing; Daisuke's so talented.
...Oh. Dad wasn't with Taichi back then obviously...Oh, this must be Yamato. He's in a lot of the photos. I know about him, though I never met him. He was Taichi's old boyfriend, when he was younger, but he went away and lost contact with all his old friends. He was in a famous band before I was born, and we've got a few old his albums. Taichi told me no-one knew where he went, or why, he just...left.
Ah, here are the ones of Dad! He looks weird without his glasses!
Some fat girl I don't know. Oh no wait, she's pregnant, not fat. Man, she's looks way too young to be pregnant...And-
...What...Why is...Why's Dad holding her hand...? And...looking at her like that...? Why'd he...kissing her bump? ...What's going on...?
...What don't I know?!
Chapter One
"Can I have a smoke?"
"Fuck off."
Me and Daisuke are leaning on the balcony outside the flat. We do pretty much every night, since it's so hot inside now. Winter, and we freeze our arses off because they can't get the heating to work. Summer, and it finally comes on, and everyone melts. The place stinks because of the sweat. It's really quite disgusting, but I love my little shithole of a flat. Dad's dead pissed off, because it was really expensive, and even though it looks really nice and it's penthouse and everything, it still reeks in summer. Now it's calm and cool and silent. We're not chatting because we talk so much in the day to take our minds off the heat. Ken says me and Daisuke are kindred spirits, but I don't know about that. If he was, he'd buy me smokes and pierce my ears, but he won't.
"You're not old enough to smoke, and even if you were I still wouldn't let you because your Dad would kill me."
He always, always says that. Dad's so overprotective of me and it sucks, I can tell you. He's so careful about everything I do and he's always watching me, which I'm sure will be so off-putting when I get a boyfriend. He's trying to make my life as normal as possible, I think. Ordinary. But my life's never been normal or ordinary, and I love it that way.
Firstly, I live with four extremely famous guys who, in their younger days, saved the worlds a lot. Yeah, worlds, plural. There's loads connected together that we still haven't discovered, but one we have is called the Digital World...they saved it. And now that everyone knows about the Digital World, they're mega celebrities, which is great of course.
I also happen to live with four extremely gay guys. Ok, so Daisuke claims he's bi, but I don't believe him. I reckon Dad thinks I'm going to have a nervous breakdown in my later years because of this, but I'm totally fine about it. No scarring incidences. People whisper at school, but they're narrow-minded freaks I can ignore.
There's Dad (everyone calls him Izzy though really his name's Koushiro) and his boyfriend Taichi. They adopted me when they were pretty young. Loads of people think Dad's my biological father because we look creepily alike. Dad told me when I was about 5, because he was adopted himself and his parents never told him, he discovered for himself, which left him pretty shaken up. Then there's Daisuke and Ken. I consider Daisuke my best friend, even though he's twice my age, and Ken's so nice no-one can't like him. He's a genius too, which is handy when I need help with my homework. And, I am embarrassed to admit, I love watching Ken and Daisuke kiss. They're so perfect together. They've been a couple for 18 years, and I don't think they'll ever break up.
"Yeah well, Dad's not around right now, so it doesn't matter!" I'm determined not to let him win this fight. And I'm telling the truth. Every few months, Dad and Taichi go away for a few days to Okinawa. I have no idea what they do and no-one seems willing to tell me, so I learned not to ask.
"Oh, that reminds me!" Daisuke crushes his cigarrette under his foot before I can get a puff. "You'll be on your own tomorrow, I've gotta go set up an exhibition, and Ken'll be at work, so I'll leave the keys on the cooker, okay?" Daisuke's a photographer, you see, and he often has to go out of town for displays and things. I nod. "Now you, there's no more smokes, so it's time for bed." I frown, even though it's pretty late, but Daisuke practically drags me inside the house and throws me into my room, so I give up and go to sleep.
The next morning, everyone's gone when I wake up. Ken's left me a note saying when he'll be home, as well as a slip of paper witb the instructions on how to cook some fancy pasta dish. Ken has this thing about eating properly. He doesn't even like walking past McDonalds. And the keys are there too.
...Holy fuck, YES!
Daisuke's left me the key to his photo room! He always takes it off, and I'm never allowed in there. I think he's shit scared I'll mess up his prints or something, but he forgot this time! I grab the key and dash to his and Ken's room. Anyone would think it was just a cupboard, but it's really a door leading into this little room. I've tried picking the lock before, but it never worked, and besides, Taichi caught me once and now I'm not allowed to have hair-pins. Which has just made me wanna see it even more. The click of the lock sounds so satisfying as I turn the key and swing back the door.
Woah! The room's small, but it's overflowing with photos. They take up all the folders on the shelves and spill onto the floor, plus there's another few boxes of them right at the back. All the folders are labelled with dates or subjects or places. I figure out that the boxes are professional ones, whereas the shelves are just everyday photos. There are about four shelves just of photos of Ken, which makes me giggle. I look through a few of these. I especially love the ones of him when he was younger, because he looks so different. I can tell when Daisuke went professional, because then some of the photos are done in his studio.
I spot a folder labelled 'Studio / 2016 Catalogue / Aya'. Oh my god, these are so old...Back when I used to model kids clothes for Daisuke. That brings back so many memories...
After a few minutes of searching, I find the ones of Dad and Taichi. I pick up a few folders labelled '2007 / Hokkaido / Group'. This must've been a holiday or something, because all four of them are there, with some others I don't recognise. 2007...that'd make Dad 16. They're really amazing; Daisuke's so talented.
...Oh. Dad wasn't with Taichi back then obviously...Oh, this must be Yamato. He's in a lot of the photos. I know about him, though I never met him. He was Taichi's old boyfriend, when he was younger, but he went away and lost contact with all his old friends. He was in a famous band before I was born, and we've got a few old his albums. Taichi told me no-one knew where he went, or why, he just...left.
Ah, here are the ones of Dad! He looks weird without his glasses!
Some fat girl I don't know. Oh no wait, she's pregnant, not fat. Man, she's looks way too young to be pregnant...And-
...What...Why is...Why's Dad holding her hand...? And...looking at her like that...? Why'd he...kissing her bump? ...What's going on...?
...What don't I know?!