Chapter 6: 1.5 Perfectly cut
Mr.Arai didn't come alone, he was with his secretary who was also present yesterday in the trials. Mr.Arai looked at all people present on the table, his eyes cold and sharp. Everyone reflexively tensed, too scary most of them thought. Ishida meanwhile was proud, this was the kind of power his lover should have, he should make a move on Mr.Arai soon.
Ken very naturally sat down opposite to Haruto and no one argued, even Anzu who had saved a seat beside her remained silent. Everyone settled down and after the initial introductions the atmosphere became silent and somewhat awkward. Anzu called for the waiters to bring starter drinks to lighten the mood. Since all the players here were of age, the drinks served were naturally red wine. There was also mildly alcoholic fruit wine and even juice.
Everyone chose their drinks and then Anzu spoke in her melodious voice "Since we don't know each other very well, let's play a game, each of us here should say one confession or one shortcoming of theirs. I will start, I confess I stole money from my father's wallet when I was 13 because my father refused to raise my pocket money." after saying this she drank her drink. Anzu was really talented at being a host. After saying this the mood lightened by a lot.
One by one players and coaches made their confession or stated their shortcomings. "I confess I secretly like someone in this room." one of the players said and everyone Oohed and looked towards Anzu. The boy's face became beat red and he sat down after drinking from his cup. Once Ishida stood up to speak , Shu XinYi became vigilant. "I can't do household chores or even cook, so my shortcoming is that I won't be able to live healthy if someone is not looking after me " Ishida said this and sat down after drinking from his cup.
Akihiko stood up and said "I confess that, me and Haruto are in a relationship and if some-" before Akihiko could continue or the people could take in this information Haruto stood up and said "If someone does not want to support us, they may do as they wish but if they cross the line we won't be silent, as for the sponsors. As you can see we are two grown ups in love with each other, and we know our boundries. This has nothing to do with our game and we wouldn't do things that would take the team down. Even after hearing this if you want to end our sponsorship you can, we came here together so we are not afraid to walk out of here together."
This was the plan Akihiko and Ishida discussed about yesterday, to announce Akihiko and Haruto's relationship, obviously Akihiko wouldn't be affected since his scholarship was secure due to Ishida's father. The same couldn't be said for Haruto. They planned to do this regardless if it was Mr.Arai or a representative of the JJ group's. Especially Mr.Arai wouldn't risk his company for a sponsor. That's why Akihiko was being a loyal loving dog the whole day yesterday so that it would look natural that he announced their "relationship". Moreover he wanted to see Haruto panic and denying him, exposing his true self.
But contrary to Akihiko's expectation Haruto not only didn't panic much less deny and even affirmed it himself. What concerned Akihiko the most was that now if Haruto is out of the team, he will be too or else he will lose a lot of face. He was angry at Haruto, does he intend to take me down? but then he remembered he was the one that planned this and could only shut up.
Ken heard the boy affirm his relation with the young man beside him. He was taken aback, not because he had something against two men dating, but because he heard pure determination in Haruto's words like he would really follow the young man to the ends of the world. The feeling in his heart was indescribable. Ishida was also shocked, he always thought Haruto was a pure naive boy but maybe he miscalculated something.
The man with glasses slowly wrote something down in his book before closing and turning his attention to the table.
"Well as you said you are grown ups and surely know the consequences of your actions. So I hope you will maintain this mindset. As for us we are all grown ups too, what you do in your private life is of little concern to us unless it is directly affecting our lives, right everyone." Anzu again came in with her hosting extraordinary skills and no one refuted her. Then the others continued saying one thing or an other. Anzu called for the waiters after every one was done to bring the main course , which was ofcourse red wine steak.
Well this will be a problem, Shu XinYi thought while looking at the steak and his injured hand. He dealt with the "relationship" situation now how the hell is he supposed to show table manners with an injurned hand.
Ken saw the boy in front of him, who was looking like a lost puppy. He smiled and said "Let me cut it for you then it will be easier to eat." Shu XinYi looked at Mr.Arai like he was his saviour "Snow is he smiling at me (ಥ◡ಥ) he is definitely boyfriend material." Snow was on the verge of having a mental collapse and said "Master should I show you the recording of 10 minutes ago where you boldly confessed your love, live and die together trope with Akihiko?" Shu XinYi shut up and moved his hands to pass the plate.
His eyes were ... beaming? Ken thought. Before he could touch the plate he heard someone say "Akihiko, cut the stake for your boyfriend, his hands are injurned, as for you Mr.Arai why don't you help me, as I said before I am not able to take care of myself so help me cut my stake." it was Ishida who spoke. Ken looked at him with cold eyes and said "Haruto is injurned I am sponsoring him so naturally I have to look after him, helping him is etiquette. You meanwhile are perfectly fine, If you want someone to baby you find yourself a nanny and ask her to teach you some table manners."
Everyone on the table turned quite and sato-san looked at Ishida telling him to apologize. Ishida's face turned red for a while, he squeezed out some words barely maintaining his upright posture "I was just suggesting, It's ok if you don't want to. Akihiko can do it for both of us so don't take it to heart Mr.Ken I just thought we were close so I made that request." Ishida said almost out of breath.
Ken thought of something and said "Don't go deciding things on your own. You just said that Akihiko is his boyfriend so he should cut the stake for him. But why should he do it for you? Isn't that interesting?" while saying the last sentence Ken faced Shu XinYi who was a bit dazed, but at his words he made a worried face.
Akihiko saw Haruto look at him with a questioning gaze and he was speechless for a while then said "What are you Implying Mr.Arai, me and Ishida are good friends and Haruto knows that. It is just cutting stake no big deal." he then moved to cut both the stakes.
Ken ate a bite and said "I just said what I found interesting, you didn't need to explain anything but now that you did, really shows the scope of your relationship but it is none of my concern. Also if you cut the stake that way all the sauce will dry up and the taste will go bland, I can't let my person eat that." He then reordered for Haruto and sent the very strangely cut stake back. Akihiko's who face was red with embarrassment he wanted to explain himself to make the situation clear but instead dug a deeper hole.
Wow Mr.Arai is so cool, he face slapped both the protagonist with only some sentences. "Snow did he just refer to me as "my person" hee hee" Shu XinYi was in the stars. Snow was speechless thinking, is Master being dumb intentionally or was he always like this. The reordered steak was perfectly cut by Mr.Arai and it tasted like the best meal Shu XinYi had ever had. He never liked being spoiled or to depend on anyone but right now his brain wasn't even properly functioning to make sense of his odd behavior. "Thankyou for taking care of me today." Shu XinYi said and Ken just smiled in answer.
They had chocolate cake for dessert. They were given the flight and travel details. The food, living, equipment and training expenses will be taken care of by the sponsor budget. The hotel they would be staying at was near the training arena. Rest of the things would be taken care of when they reach country Z. The flight was in two days and a private plane had been booked for their transport.
Before leaving the hotel Haruto asked Akihiko to follow him to the private rest room. Both of them entered and closed the door. Haruto turned around and was fidgeting for a while before saying in a somewhat awkward tone "umm Akihiko I want to trust you because I truly do love you, I don't know how to describe this love to you, but I hope you understand that when we are in with love with someone we tend to become possessive and insecure." His vague words gave Akihiko a bad feeling. He stayed silent and Haruto continued to explain more "At first I didn't want to question you because I didn't want to come of as a jealous wife but after today I want to ask something so just answer with a yes or no. Do you like Ishida or is there something going on between you two? before you answer please think about it and be honest, I will not blame you and although it will be difficult I will leave you two alone. But please don't lie to me."
Akihiko was confused to no end. Why was he suddenly confronting him and even going as far as to say he will leave him. No Haruto can't leave him after playing with him all this while, he wanted to take revenge and make him suffer. Shu XinYi asked these questions knowing what he would answer but he still had to have this conversation as Haruto. "No, I am not with him we are just friends, I only love you like you love me."
They went back to the academy. Haruto went straight to his room to sleep meanwhile Akihiko and Ishida had a fight.
Akihiko said angrily: "Why did you argue with Mr.Arai? now because of that Haruto has started doubting our relationship." Ishida was irritated with this barking dog and said: "I just said what I had to I didn't want Mr.Arai to favour Haruto, also weren't you going to break up with him today?"
"What does it matter if Mr.Arai does favour him and obviously I couldn't break up since Haruto said all those things otherwise I would lose a lot of face. I didn't anticipate Haruto to say such things." Akihiko said, he was having a headache. Ishida was in a sour mood as well but he still maintained his calm . He couldn't fight with Akihiko right now he still had use for him, as for Mr.Arai he had 4 months time now to carefully tame him until then he had to keep Akihiko around. So he changed his attitude and said "You are right both of us didn't think Haruto would be such a scheming bi*ch trying to drag you down with him. So don't be angry at me I tried my best to remain calm when you announced him as your boyfriend because I so desperately wanted to be the one you held. I am sorry I was jealous."
Akihiko looked at Ishida who was sincerely apologizing, he thought this was very cute "Don't worry baby, you are the one I love. I will announce our love to the world not just a mere dinner meeting, rest for now we will deal with Haruto later." Shu XinYi was listening in to this very psychotic love duo with the help of Snow and was really questioning the protagonists intelligence, "How did he even become the protagonist with that IQ? I have to end this relationship, I can still become a higher existence without being in a relationship with him." Shu XinYi said to Snow , Snow knew what the Master actually wanted and said "Master, Mr.Arai will be around for four months so you should break up in around one month so you will have 3 months to form a stable relationship with Mr.Arai."
Shu XinYi blushed a little and said in a angry tone "Who wants to form a relationship? I just want to get out of one. Tell me is the third human source code in this world that Mr.Kenjiro the glasses guy?" Snow knew Master was changing the subject but still gave him an answer after 2 seconds "No he isn't, he has an unknown source code. The human source code is of the small forward selected with you, Nomura kyoushi. He is a little technical genius. He was bribed by Ishida to get close to Haruto and keep him in check , he was also the one who later gave Haruto addictive drugs in the lowest time of his life. Furthermore he also made sure that Ishida's public image was clear and none of his scandals made it to the public eye."
Shu XinYi thought about the Nomura guy who played with him in the trials, He was the smallest in the team around 5.9ft and the least intimidating, who would expect him to be prodigy? Shu XinYi again had to praise Ishida's good eye for people he got the best picks really.
The next two days Akihiko and Ishida were failing to come up with a plan but they didn't mind since they hand many opportunities in the future. Shu XinYi made sure to pack all the necessary stuff properly. He would buy new clothes from his sponsor budget. He had already signed the contract and saw the amount of monthly sponsor budget the JJ group would be giving him every month. It was no joke when calling the JJ group the most prosperous and prestigious company. He didn't know what the other companies and their budget was but he wasn't concerned.
The plane was very luxurious, atleast that's what Shu XinYi thought seeing the huge comfortable seats. There were two single seats opposite each other with a little table in between it was really comfortable for a 6 hour flight. Shu XinYi found his seat and saw that this area was emptier from the rest. Both the chairs were at a reasonably comfortable distance where they would still be able to hear the one sitting in front .
Shu XinYi was just about to ask why he was here alone When Mr.Arai's voice sounded from behind him "I don't like being around people and since you are the only person I sponsored, You'll be here alone with me." Shu XinYi didn't argue and sat down at one of the twin seats and Mr.Arai sat down in front of him. The flight would take off 10 minutes so Shu XinYi just looked out of the window.
"So will I have a single hotel room as well? since I am the only one you are sponsoring." Shu XinYi asked carefully, he didn't really care about the hotel rooms, he just wanted to know what kind of a person Mr.Arai really was. Mr.Arai answered "Naturally yes, Asahi will be looking over and managing your things, if you have a complain or a request go directly to him." Asahi was Mr.Arai's secretary.
Ken was answering the boy honestly, he made sure all his sponsors get VIP treatment. "Then why are you here?" Ken heard the boy say. Ken understood his meaning and said "Asahi will be managing you, I am here to overlook your performance, there is a difference. Would you rather have Asahi or someone else here instead of me?" Shu XinYi didn't really care infact he was happy Mr.Arai was here. Since Mr.Arai entered the room and they were alone He felt strangely peaceful like a breath of fresh air after being locked underground.
"No, I would rather not have someone besides you." Shu XinYi answered. These were his words not Haruto's. They didn't talk for a while and just nodded if they caught eyes. The environment was very calm and not awkward at all. Like sitting quietly beside each other was a very natural thing to do. Mr.Arai felt the same it was like both of them had a tactic understanding with each other so no extra words were needed.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone