While cooking and humming along to one of IDOLiSH7's song, Mitsuki opened up the fridge to grab some more ingredients.
"Hmm?" Mitsuki noticed something different.
It wasn't the beer or pudding that usually either increased or decreased. Something else felt different somehow. It's more like some of the groceries were missing and was replaced by some other things that he didn't remember buying. Who knows? Maybe it's just because of the busy schedules recently which made him forget about the smallest details of what he bought. It was a little strange, but at least the items were edible.
The six sat down and finished their meal. After they decided to hang around the living room before separating into their own room.
"Hey Sogo, did you cook something recently?" Mitsuki asked Sogo.
If it was anyone, Sogo would've been the most likely person to cook other than Mitsuki. Yamato would just order delivery food and Iori would've just deal with it waited for the next meal. Tamaki and Nagi can't cook at all so they were pretty much useless in the kitchen.
"Hmm? Not really. Why did you ask?" Sogo replied curious.
"Well... recently I've noticed that some groceries would go missing and be replaced with something else." Mitsuki said.
"...and he couldn't even buy the right thing to replace the food that he 'stole'." Yamato sigh, quietly mumbling to himself.
"Did you say anything, Nikaido-san?" Iori, who sat next to Yamato, asked.
"N-no! You must've imagined it." Yamato brushed it off.
There was nothing that could be done to help. It's not like Riku could just fit a fridge in his room. His pendent doesn't work as a fridge too. All the food he stored in there would go bad sooner or later.
***
"I see... Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Iori-san." Tsumugi thanked.
"No problem, Manager." Iori replied.
Tsumugi and Iori just had a brief if meeting about upcoming job offers and plans. After that, Iori walked down the hallway towards IDOLiSH7's training room as the others already started warming up and doing stretches.
Takanashi Productions isn't a big company yet, so naturally the office isn't that big. Despite IDOLiSH7 being the only talents in the production, Iori had always wondered why there were more training room than needed. At most they only needed 3 training room but he noticed that there was another on further down in the corridor.
Just before Iori was about to enter IDOLiSH7's training room, he heard faint coughing that didn't came from inside, but rather somewhere else.
Curiosity got the better of him and he decided to follow the sound, leading him towards the training room furthest down the hallway.
As he got closer, the coughing eventually died down but he still could help but wonder who was coughing. Did someone break in? Or did Otoharu recruit another talent without them knowing?
Making close to no noise possible, Iori turned the door handle open and peeked inside.
Crimson, or now what he knows is Riku, is inside with his back towards the wall resting with a bottle of water by his side and a handkerchief that he was probably coughing on.
Unnoticed by Iori, stains of red where identified on the handkerchief.
Taking a deep breath, Riku's eyes wondered towards the door and noticed Iori's gaze, which surprised him.
"I-iori?!" Quickly shoving the handkerchief into his pocket as if getting rid of evidence, Riku started another coughing fit again.
Purely out of instincts, Iori quickly went to his side and searched his bag for anything that would help.
What am I doing? My body's moving on it's own. Somehow this feels familiar... as if it happened before. Iori thought to himself as he finally found an inhaler. Quickly, Iori tried to helped Riku use the inhaler but it didn't seems to be working.
Visible panic is painted across Iori's face as he think of ways to help.
"Io...ri... I'll... be... fine... soon... so... don't... worry..." Riku weakly gasped out as if they were his last words.
"Nanase-san! Don't talk. Conserve your energy." Iori shouted.
A tall shadow suddenly looms from behind Iori as he felt the temperature in the room drop. Iori bravely turned around to see a large fox with nine tails blocking the lights, to see if it can somehow help Riku.
As the two's eyes meet, the fox turned into a regular baby sized fox and went to Riku's side. Iori held the temptation of wanting to pet the fluffy animal aside as there was a more important thing on hand.
The hostility in the air disappears as it raises it's paw to touch Riku's arm. At first, Iori wanted the fox to stay far away from Riku as it could worsen his asthma, but a part of him told him to not to. A green light appeared and faded quickly afterwords as Riku's coughing fit died down.
"Wa~! Thanks Iori, Kitsune!" Riku smiled after catching his breath.
Kitsune blankly started at Riku as it takes a leap and headbutts him in the head, causing Riku to fall over.
"Nanase-san?!" Iori exclaimed, shocked at what the fox did.
"Ouch..." Riku sat back up and sulked. "That hurt!"
Kitsune didn't reply but only shot a glare at Riku, knowing that he overworked himself again.
"*sigh* This is Kitsune. Here." Riku picked Kitsune and handed it to Iori. "You want to pet it, right?"
"..." Iori silently accepted the offer. Just how much does this guy know about me?
Hesitantly, Iori brushed his fingers on the white fur as soft as clouds. Despite his stiff expression, Riku could tell that Iori's enjoying his time.
His time was unfortunately cut short as the door swung open.
"Riku-kun. It's time to take a break! I got some tea and chicken katsu bento for you- Eh? Iori-kun?!" Banri cheerfully said but was shocked to see that Riku's not alone.
"Ogami-san?" Iori too was shocked to see Banri so casual with Riku. He didn't even seems surprised to find Riku here, so obviously he knew. "I think there's a lot of explaining you need to do there."
"Eh? Iori-kun doesn't remember yet?" Banri sets the food down and slowly backed out the door, knowing that the explanation is going to take a long time. "Ahaha... Look at the time. I better get going now."
"Wait Banri-san-! Ahh..." Banri ran away before Riku could even ask for help. "*sigh* You better get back to the rest of the group before they start searching for you. Just tell Sogo-san, Nagi, or Yamato-san that you're looking for me after you're done with practice. But don't let Mitsuki-san or Tamaki know."
***
"... and that's how Banri-san became my manager. Kind of." Riku finishes explaining everything that happened. Sure it took a lot of time, but it's better for them to know to the truth. "It was really fun to watch his shocked expression when he remembered me."
Sogo brought Iori to Riku's room at the end of the day. Yamato and Nagi did not partake in this 'meeting', as it would be suspicious to the remaining two that's doesn't know to find the dorm dead quiet while everyone in Riku's room.
"Have you found a lead yet? To possible enemies that is." Iori asked.
"Hmm... Not quiet yet... though I have a plan on how..." Riku thought out loud, answering Iori's question.
YOU ARE READING
Runaway Prince {IDOLiSH7 fanfic} -Discontinued/will be rewritten-
FanfictionA prince that smiled so brightly was forgotten one day and lived through hardship. Just when he thought that his life is at the happiest moments, everything went downhill again, forcing him to starts from scratch. He decided that he is not going to...
