❝𝕄𝕠𝕞𝕠𝕜𝕠 𝕚𝕟 𝕋𝕠𝕜𝕪𝕠❞✔️ (1)

❤︎Chapter Four❤︎

"Come back to my apartment with me."

Ba-thump!

My heart reacts to Yuji's unexpected proposal before I can even register it in my brain. It's so quiet between us as we stare into each other's eyes that I'm able to pick up every noise surrounding us. Car horns are honking from the streets along the alleyway we're standing in. There's the typical buzz from the busy city people, shouting or talking on their phones...I can hear a child crying about wanting a new toy...the mother talking about how expensive it was...

...Expensive!

That's right! I still needed a job!

It's enough to snap me out of the trance I had been charmed in by the oh-so-full-of-himself idol Yuji.

I yank my hand away and point at Yuji accusingly.

"Oh! I recognize you now! You're that stuck up playboy Idol who's recently been giving himself a bad image. You argue with your co-stars, show up drunk to interviews, have girls running in and out of your dressing rooms, and more importantly, you were having an affair with your manager until she--"

"Shut up!"

I'm caught off guard by the power in Yuji's voice as he shouts for me to stop my ranting. When I look up at him, he automatically averts his eyes, his cheeks pink and his face twisting in what looks like pain.

An immediate pang of guilt begins to assuage my anger, causing me to lower my hand. I suddenly remember a conversation with my grandmother when I was younger. I came home feeling disappointed when I found out my favorite singer had overdosed on drugs and decided to quit being a singer when he woke up in the hospital afterwards.

"Why are you so upset, Momoko?" My grandmother had asked, her eyes so warm and kind as ever.

"Because!" I was blubbering like a baby like then, an emotional teenage girl who fangirled about anything. I had loved the singer so much, always went to his concerts, spoke about him with friends, wished to meet him...

"He's quitting! How selfish of him to end up in the hospital from something so stupid and then deciding to quit! He's not thinking of his fans at all."

"Momoko..." my grandmother placed her hand on my back as I cried into her lap. I remembered how the tears kept coming no matter how hard I wiped at my eyes and wanted them to stop. I wanted to be angry, I didn't want to cry.

"That man is a person, too Momoko. We all go through things, even things we don't want to talk about. We might act out, or do things to help us cope, and usually they're not very good things. It might look bad on the outside, but it's also a cry for help."

I stopped crying and looked up at my grandmother, wiping away one more tear. Something about her wise words reminded me that idols were mortal. They were touchable, though they didn't seem that way in all their glory. Of course they went through things! They were human! We might want them to make better decisions to help them, but it's not like we could control them....sometimes you can't get that close...

"I'm sorry..." I finally said, shaking my head at my words "..that was.."

"...whatever..it doesn't matter. I still want you to come back with me to --"

"NO!" I duck under the arm that Yuji was raising toward me and run as fast as I can down the alley.

"Hey! Wait a second! I'm just trying to --"

VRRRRRRR!

"Whoa!"

I'm taken completely aback when a perfectly polished black car pulls up right in front of me, stopping so that I'm standing right in front of the car doors. I nearly smack into it as I slid to a halt, unintentionally falling backward into Yuji's arms.

I hear an impatient sigh right behind me as Yuji lifts me back up onto my feet.

"Why don't you just come quietly?"

"Come quietly?! I'm not going with you beca---waaaah!"

I jump back so that I'm standing and facing Yuji, ready to start shouting at him about being sketchy and a stranger at that, but right when I open my mouth to say it, I lose my balance and fall backward.

Instead of feeling the painful collision of my body against the solid ground, I only feel cushion. I'm surprised when I land on the leather seats of the car, my arms flailing back behind me. Yuji ducks smoothly into the car, grabbing me by my waist and pushing me  into the car so that I'm sitting in the seat opposite him. Yuji closes the door behind us, sliding his hands in his pockets after putting on his seatbelt. I sit in my seat, flattening myself against the door to stay as far away from him as possible.

Resting his head against the seat, Yuji glances at me sideways, "You gonna put on your seatbelt?"

The driver turns on some relaxing music and starts the car back up again. I'm relaxed before I know it, my hands moving to put my seatbelt on.

What is this guy up to?! I really hope I don't regret not jumping out of a moving car later on..