Disclaimer: I do not own Hana Yori Dango.
Chapter 9: An Offer She Can't Refuse
"Sorry I'm late," Tsukushi apologized breathlessly to Kazuya when she arrived at the club later that night. So engrossed was she while listening to cute weird guy's music that she almost forgot she had to go to work that evening. It was only after he finished playing his fourth song that she realized with a start that the sky had grown dark and the stars had come out. She checked her watch and gasped when she saw she had exactly ten minutes before her shift started.
Without a word she left Rui staring at her as she ran out of the park and in the direction of the club.
"No problemo, Tsukushi. There's always a first time," Kazuya anwered cheerily. "Besides, you're only five minutes late. It's no big deal."
"Thanks, Kazuya. You're the best," she replied gratefully as she slid her standard-issue bartender's vest around her shoulders.
Just as she was getting busy attending to her work for the night, three familiar figures approached her at the bar.
The intertwined hands of Yuki and Soujiro didn't escape her watchful eye as they leisurely strode over, with Akira following closely by.
"Yo, Tsukushi," Akira flashed her a megawatt smile as he slid onto the bar stool directly in front of her.
"Hey Akira," she greeted with a smile of her own. "Soujiro," she acknowledged the other man's presence with a curt nod, pointedly staring at his hand, which was still interlocked with Yuki's atop the counter. "Yuki, hasn't your shift just started?"
Neither of the two heard Tsukushi as they leaned against the bar, with Soujiro whispering something into Yuki's ear, in response to which she giggled demurely.
Tsukushi rolled her eyes and Akira nudged his friend with a sharp elbow to the side, causing Soujiro to involuntarily yelp in pain.
"Remember why we came here?" Akira muttered out of the corner of his mouth as the other man glared at him. "Excuse him, Tsukushi," he grinned sheepishly as he turned back to face her. "These two just came from a date," he explained, making Tsukushi remember what Yuki told her a few days ago.
Soujiro whispered something to Yuki, and she laughed softly as she reluctantly let go of his hand and moved away. "Talk to you later, Tsukushi," she called out to her friend as an afterthought.
"What can I get you gentlemen?" Tsukushi asked as she placed her hands atop the bar.
"We'll have our usual."
For the next few minutes Tsukushi busied herself mixing their drinks while the two men conversed in low voices.
"Soujiro, remember what we discussed with Tsukasa earlier. We have got to convince her this time. Shizuka's already left, and the applicants coming in to audition have all but dwindled to none."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But what if we can't change her mind?"
"Failure is not an option," Akira answered, a grim expression on his face.
F4 was desperate. Shizuka had left for the States the previous evening and they still had not found a replacement for her. Earlier that afternoon they met at Akira's house to discuss the situation.
:: flashback ::
Tsukasa was pacing the floor like a caged animal, his face in a perpetual scowl. "There's got to be somebody out there."
Akira looked up at Tsukasa. "Dude, we've been auditioning applicants for two weeks straight. None of them has measured up to your standards, which may I say, are impossibly high. And would you please stop all that pacing?! I'm getting dizzy just watching you." Despite their raised voices, Rui, amazingly had remained sleeping on the threadbare couch.
Tsukasa stopped and sat wearily on one of the chairs scattered around the room. "Well, did any of those who tried out pass YOUR standards? Tell me the truth."
Akira sighed dejectedly. Tsukasa was right. None of the girls who auditioned had what they were looking for. Some had good voices alright, but they lacked Shizuka's versatility.
"Hey, what about Yuki?" Soujiro piped in. "If you change your mind, I can tell her later. I'm meeting her for a date early this evening."
Both Tsukasa and Akira gave him a withering glance. Yuki's singing was okay -- for an amateur.
"Hey," Soujiro raised his hands in mock surrender. "It was only a suggestion. I mean, we ARE desperate. But seriously, we have got to find someone, and soon. We've already turned down bookings for two weddings and several corporate parties over the last week. Even Kazuya has been badgering us 'cause his boss already gave the go-signal for that trial run we talked about."
At the mention of Kazuya, something occurred to Akira. "You know, there is someone I'm sure will meet your standards, Tsukasa."
At this Tsukasa brightened. "You know someone? Well, what are you waiting for? Go call her up now!" he demanded as he shoved his cell phone towards Akira.
Soujiro looked over at Akira questioningly. Then realization dawned on him. "Wait a minute, you don't mean Tsukushi do you?" Akira nodded. "Man, she already told us she's not interested. If she were, she would've come to try out a long time ago."
"Well, who knows, maybe she changed her mind. Maybe we can still get her to change her mind." That was Akira -- ever the optimist.
"What's she like?" Tsukasa, Akira and Soujiro had not noticed that Rui had already awakened, since he was still stretched out on the couch with an arm flung over his eyes, so they were startled by his sudden question.
Akira and Soujiro looked at each other and scratched their heads.
"Well, she's really nice for a bartender, always serving our drinks with a smile. Cute too. Actually, there's not much we know about her, except that she mixes a mean Kamikaze and she has this incredible singing voice," Soujiro answered. He and Akira related to their two friends how they discovered Tsukushi's singing talent when they went to Frenzy a week ago.
"Come to think of it, Soujiro, Tsukushi's never told us much about herself," Akira remarked.
"Well, find out more then," Tsukasa barked impatiently. "If she's as good as you guys say she is, then I want her in the band. Find out what we can do to entice her to join us. There must be something."
"Fine, I'll see if I can pry some information out of Yuki later. You guys wanna meet up at Frenzy tonight so we can all talk to Tsukushi to convince her?"
"I'll go," Akira said. "I'll meet you there after your dinner with Yuki." He looked at Rui and Tsukasa expectantly.
Tsukasa shook his head. "I can't. There's this new song I want to work on tonight."
Rui stood up. "I'm not in the mood to go clubbing. You guys go on without me."
With that, the three left Akira's home. Tsukasa went home to work on his new composition, Soujiro went to fetch Yuki for their date, and Rui went to the park.
:: end of flashback ::
"Here are your drinks, guys," Tsukushi said as she placed their glasses before them. They had to wait a full half hour while she attended to the orders of other customers before they could get her attention again. It was a Saturday after all, and the club was packed.
"Refill?" she inquired when they signalled her to come to them.
"That, and we need to talk to you."
"Shoot." Tsukushi rubbed the back of her neck to ease the stiffness she was beginning to feel.
Akira and Soujiro took advantage of the temporary lull in her work to make their case.
"We still haven't found a new singer. We're here to ask you to reconsider," Soujiro began.
"I dunno, Soujiro. . . Actually, I was considering it seriously earlier. . ."
"And?. . ." Akira pounced eagerly
"Hey, hold your horses!" Tsukushi laughed. "As I was saying, I was seriously thinking about it earlier, but then I remembered. . . if ever I do make it in, I'd have to let go of this job. And that is absolutely unacceptable. This job is my bread and butter, and by the end of this month, it'll be the only job I have. I'm about to lose my day job."
"Day job? You mean you have another job besides this one?" Soujiro asked.
"Well, of course," Tsukushi replied before pausing. "Don't you? I cannot believe for one minute that playing in a band earns you enough money to maintain your lifestyle. I mean, look at you both. . . signature clothes, expensive watches, you go clubbing almost every night. . . Hey, no offense, but your band isn't famous, so I doubt you earn that much to live the way you do."
"We may be struggling musicians but we are also astute businessmen," Akira said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, really?" Tsukushi was curious.
"Yup," Soujiro spoke this time. "Tsukasa, Rui, Akira and I co-own this record bar at the mall. It's not that big, but it's doing pretty well. We opened it after we graduated from university by pooling together our life savings. At first we took shifts manning the store, but now that it's doing quite well, we can afford to hire the personnel to manage it. Meanwhile, we can pursue our dreams of becoming a well-known band. That store is OUR bread and butter. Well, that plus the dividends we get from our respective stock portfolios."
"That's nice." By now Tsukushi was only half paying attention to them because a fresh wave of drink orders had come in.
As she got occupied with her work again, Soujiro and Akira pondered on what she just told them.
"That's it!" Soujiro exclaimed exasperatedly. Tsukushi was their last card and it turned out that she was a dead end as well.
Akira mistook Soujiro's exasperated tone as one of enthusiasm. He looked at his friend excitedly and asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Soujiro was puzzled at Akira's strange reaction. "Um, let's just give up and face Tsukasa's wrath?"
"No, you idiot! Remember Michiko, that cute sales assistant at the record store?"
Soujiro nodded dumbly. He didn't know what Michiko had to do with the predicament they were in right now.
"Well, didn't she just hand in her two weeks' notice to us the other day?"
Finally Soujiro caught on to what Akira was thinking of. "We can offer her that job! That's what we can use to sweeten the deal! But wait. She'll still have to quit bartending here if she's gonna join the band. How can we convince her to let go of this job?"
"We'll have to offer her a deal she can't refuse. That's where you come in."
"Huh?"
"I need you to find out from Yuki how much Tsukushi's making, with her day job and as a bartender here, inclusive of tips. I need that info tonight so I can crunch up the numbers to show her she'll be earning more than what she's currently getting, if she accepts our package deal -- the job at the store PLUS vocalist in our band."
Soujiro suddenly grabbed Akira by the sides of his head and planted a loud kiss on his forehead. "You, my man, are a fuckin' genius!"
Akira grinned idiotically. "I am, aren't I?"
They signalled for Tsukushi to come over as soon as they saw she wasn't so busy anymore.
"Hey Tsukushi, guess what? We can give you two, yep, count 'em, two jobs," Soujiro said as he held up two fingers.
Tsukushi raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
Akira spoke. "You said you'll be needing another job to replace the one you're losing soon, right? Well, we can give you a job at our record store. But only if you'll agree to join our band as a vocalist."
Tsukushi narrowed her eyes suspiciously, unsure whether or not to take the two playboys seriously.
" Just come tomorrow and we'll tell you the details. Hey, you don't have anything to lose, do you? So we'll expect you tomorrow, say around 11 a.m., hmm?"
She paused to consider. It's true that she didn't have anything to lose by showing up tomorrow. And she was really curious as to what they had to offer. Oh well, she thought. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"Fine. I'll see you guys tomorrow at 11."
*********************
A/N: Sorry for this long, boring chapter. It was necessary so there wouldn't be any loose ends about Tsukushi's job later on.
aoringo-chan: Glad you finally understand it, hahaha. Well, this chapter was a little longer than usual so I hope you liked it. But usually I just write about 1,000 to 1,500 words per chapter.
InvisibleRain: Thanks! Well, I hope I can write an interesting chapter on when they finally meet. *crosses fingers*
XxSwtDreamerxX1: Hehe, don't worry. I'm still leaning towards a TxT pairing for this fic.
fresh8: Well, maybe not everything, but at least something in common. LOL. Did I use the word incorrectly?
Toinks: Hey girl, good to have you back reviewing! Don't worry, Tsukushi WILL audition, even if I have to bribe her to do it, hahaha.
Thank you for continuing to support this story and leaving your reviews. They really encourage me to write on. If not for your comments, I probably would've lost interest in this fic a long time ago. So keep 'em coming! See you next chap!
Chapter 9: An Offer She Can't Refuse
"Sorry I'm late," Tsukushi apologized breathlessly to Kazuya when she arrived at the club later that night. So engrossed was she while listening to cute weird guy's music that she almost forgot she had to go to work that evening. It was only after he finished playing his fourth song that she realized with a start that the sky had grown dark and the stars had come out. She checked her watch and gasped when she saw she had exactly ten minutes before her shift started.
Without a word she left Rui staring at her as she ran out of the park and in the direction of the club.
"No problemo, Tsukushi. There's always a first time," Kazuya anwered cheerily. "Besides, you're only five minutes late. It's no big deal."
"Thanks, Kazuya. You're the best," she replied gratefully as she slid her standard-issue bartender's vest around her shoulders.
Just as she was getting busy attending to her work for the night, three familiar figures approached her at the bar.
The intertwined hands of Yuki and Soujiro didn't escape her watchful eye as they leisurely strode over, with Akira following closely by.
"Yo, Tsukushi," Akira flashed her a megawatt smile as he slid onto the bar stool directly in front of her.
"Hey Akira," she greeted with a smile of her own. "Soujiro," she acknowledged the other man's presence with a curt nod, pointedly staring at his hand, which was still interlocked with Yuki's atop the counter. "Yuki, hasn't your shift just started?"
Neither of the two heard Tsukushi as they leaned against the bar, with Soujiro whispering something into Yuki's ear, in response to which she giggled demurely.
Tsukushi rolled her eyes and Akira nudged his friend with a sharp elbow to the side, causing Soujiro to involuntarily yelp in pain.
"Remember why we came here?" Akira muttered out of the corner of his mouth as the other man glared at him. "Excuse him, Tsukushi," he grinned sheepishly as he turned back to face her. "These two just came from a date," he explained, making Tsukushi remember what Yuki told her a few days ago.
Soujiro whispered something to Yuki, and she laughed softly as she reluctantly let go of his hand and moved away. "Talk to you later, Tsukushi," she called out to her friend as an afterthought.
"What can I get you gentlemen?" Tsukushi asked as she placed her hands atop the bar.
"We'll have our usual."
For the next few minutes Tsukushi busied herself mixing their drinks while the two men conversed in low voices.
"Soujiro, remember what we discussed with Tsukasa earlier. We have got to convince her this time. Shizuka's already left, and the applicants coming in to audition have all but dwindled to none."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But what if we can't change her mind?"
"Failure is not an option," Akira answered, a grim expression on his face.
F4 was desperate. Shizuka had left for the States the previous evening and they still had not found a replacement for her. Earlier that afternoon they met at Akira's house to discuss the situation.
:: flashback ::
Tsukasa was pacing the floor like a caged animal, his face in a perpetual scowl. "There's got to be somebody out there."
Akira looked up at Tsukasa. "Dude, we've been auditioning applicants for two weeks straight. None of them has measured up to your standards, which may I say, are impossibly high. And would you please stop all that pacing?! I'm getting dizzy just watching you." Despite their raised voices, Rui, amazingly had remained sleeping on the threadbare couch.
Tsukasa stopped and sat wearily on one of the chairs scattered around the room. "Well, did any of those who tried out pass YOUR standards? Tell me the truth."
Akira sighed dejectedly. Tsukasa was right. None of the girls who auditioned had what they were looking for. Some had good voices alright, but they lacked Shizuka's versatility.
"Hey, what about Yuki?" Soujiro piped in. "If you change your mind, I can tell her later. I'm meeting her for a date early this evening."
Both Tsukasa and Akira gave him a withering glance. Yuki's singing was okay -- for an amateur.
"Hey," Soujiro raised his hands in mock surrender. "It was only a suggestion. I mean, we ARE desperate. But seriously, we have got to find someone, and soon. We've already turned down bookings for two weddings and several corporate parties over the last week. Even Kazuya has been badgering us 'cause his boss already gave the go-signal for that trial run we talked about."
At the mention of Kazuya, something occurred to Akira. "You know, there is someone I'm sure will meet your standards, Tsukasa."
At this Tsukasa brightened. "You know someone? Well, what are you waiting for? Go call her up now!" he demanded as he shoved his cell phone towards Akira.
Soujiro looked over at Akira questioningly. Then realization dawned on him. "Wait a minute, you don't mean Tsukushi do you?" Akira nodded. "Man, she already told us she's not interested. If she were, she would've come to try out a long time ago."
"Well, who knows, maybe she changed her mind. Maybe we can still get her to change her mind." That was Akira -- ever the optimist.
"What's she like?" Tsukasa, Akira and Soujiro had not noticed that Rui had already awakened, since he was still stretched out on the couch with an arm flung over his eyes, so they were startled by his sudden question.
Akira and Soujiro looked at each other and scratched their heads.
"Well, she's really nice for a bartender, always serving our drinks with a smile. Cute too. Actually, there's not much we know about her, except that she mixes a mean Kamikaze and she has this incredible singing voice," Soujiro answered. He and Akira related to their two friends how they discovered Tsukushi's singing talent when they went to Frenzy a week ago.
"Come to think of it, Soujiro, Tsukushi's never told us much about herself," Akira remarked.
"Well, find out more then," Tsukasa barked impatiently. "If she's as good as you guys say she is, then I want her in the band. Find out what we can do to entice her to join us. There must be something."
"Fine, I'll see if I can pry some information out of Yuki later. You guys wanna meet up at Frenzy tonight so we can all talk to Tsukushi to convince her?"
"I'll go," Akira said. "I'll meet you there after your dinner with Yuki." He looked at Rui and Tsukasa expectantly.
Tsukasa shook his head. "I can't. There's this new song I want to work on tonight."
Rui stood up. "I'm not in the mood to go clubbing. You guys go on without me."
With that, the three left Akira's home. Tsukasa went home to work on his new composition, Soujiro went to fetch Yuki for their date, and Rui went to the park.
:: end of flashback ::
"Here are your drinks, guys," Tsukushi said as she placed their glasses before them. They had to wait a full half hour while she attended to the orders of other customers before they could get her attention again. It was a Saturday after all, and the club was packed.
"Refill?" she inquired when they signalled her to come to them.
"That, and we need to talk to you."
"Shoot." Tsukushi rubbed the back of her neck to ease the stiffness she was beginning to feel.
Akira and Soujiro took advantage of the temporary lull in her work to make their case.
"We still haven't found a new singer. We're here to ask you to reconsider," Soujiro began.
"I dunno, Soujiro. . . Actually, I was considering it seriously earlier. . ."
"And?. . ." Akira pounced eagerly
"Hey, hold your horses!" Tsukushi laughed. "As I was saying, I was seriously thinking about it earlier, but then I remembered. . . if ever I do make it in, I'd have to let go of this job. And that is absolutely unacceptable. This job is my bread and butter, and by the end of this month, it'll be the only job I have. I'm about to lose my day job."
"Day job? You mean you have another job besides this one?" Soujiro asked.
"Well, of course," Tsukushi replied before pausing. "Don't you? I cannot believe for one minute that playing in a band earns you enough money to maintain your lifestyle. I mean, look at you both. . . signature clothes, expensive watches, you go clubbing almost every night. . . Hey, no offense, but your band isn't famous, so I doubt you earn that much to live the way you do."
"We may be struggling musicians but we are also astute businessmen," Akira said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, really?" Tsukushi was curious.
"Yup," Soujiro spoke this time. "Tsukasa, Rui, Akira and I co-own this record bar at the mall. It's not that big, but it's doing pretty well. We opened it after we graduated from university by pooling together our life savings. At first we took shifts manning the store, but now that it's doing quite well, we can afford to hire the personnel to manage it. Meanwhile, we can pursue our dreams of becoming a well-known band. That store is OUR bread and butter. Well, that plus the dividends we get from our respective stock portfolios."
"That's nice." By now Tsukushi was only half paying attention to them because a fresh wave of drink orders had come in.
As she got occupied with her work again, Soujiro and Akira pondered on what she just told them.
"That's it!" Soujiro exclaimed exasperatedly. Tsukushi was their last card and it turned out that she was a dead end as well.
Akira mistook Soujiro's exasperated tone as one of enthusiasm. He looked at his friend excitedly and asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Soujiro was puzzled at Akira's strange reaction. "Um, let's just give up and face Tsukasa's wrath?"
"No, you idiot! Remember Michiko, that cute sales assistant at the record store?"
Soujiro nodded dumbly. He didn't know what Michiko had to do with the predicament they were in right now.
"Well, didn't she just hand in her two weeks' notice to us the other day?"
Finally Soujiro caught on to what Akira was thinking of. "We can offer her that job! That's what we can use to sweeten the deal! But wait. She'll still have to quit bartending here if she's gonna join the band. How can we convince her to let go of this job?"
"We'll have to offer her a deal she can't refuse. That's where you come in."
"Huh?"
"I need you to find out from Yuki how much Tsukushi's making, with her day job and as a bartender here, inclusive of tips. I need that info tonight so I can crunch up the numbers to show her she'll be earning more than what she's currently getting, if she accepts our package deal -- the job at the store PLUS vocalist in our band."
Soujiro suddenly grabbed Akira by the sides of his head and planted a loud kiss on his forehead. "You, my man, are a fuckin' genius!"
Akira grinned idiotically. "I am, aren't I?"
They signalled for Tsukushi to come over as soon as they saw she wasn't so busy anymore.
"Hey Tsukushi, guess what? We can give you two, yep, count 'em, two jobs," Soujiro said as he held up two fingers.
Tsukushi raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
Akira spoke. "You said you'll be needing another job to replace the one you're losing soon, right? Well, we can give you a job at our record store. But only if you'll agree to join our band as a vocalist."
Tsukushi narrowed her eyes suspiciously, unsure whether or not to take the two playboys seriously.
" Just come tomorrow and we'll tell you the details. Hey, you don't have anything to lose, do you? So we'll expect you tomorrow, say around 11 a.m., hmm?"
She paused to consider. It's true that she didn't have anything to lose by showing up tomorrow. And she was really curious as to what they had to offer. Oh well, she thought. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"Fine. I'll see you guys tomorrow at 11."
*********************
A/N: Sorry for this long, boring chapter. It was necessary so there wouldn't be any loose ends about Tsukushi's job later on.
aoringo-chan: Glad you finally understand it, hahaha. Well, this chapter was a little longer than usual so I hope you liked it. But usually I just write about 1,000 to 1,500 words per chapter.
InvisibleRain: Thanks! Well, I hope I can write an interesting chapter on when they finally meet. *crosses fingers*
XxSwtDreamerxX1: Hehe, don't worry. I'm still leaning towards a TxT pairing for this fic.
fresh8: Well, maybe not everything, but at least something in common. LOL. Did I use the word incorrectly?
Toinks: Hey girl, good to have you back reviewing! Don't worry, Tsukushi WILL audition, even if I have to bribe her to do it, hahaha.
Thank you for continuing to support this story and leaving your reviews. They really encourage me to write on. If not for your comments, I probably would've lost interest in this fic a long time ago. So keep 'em coming! See you next chap!