Instances
"Oh, Soujiroh-kun! Just where are you taking us, you naughty boy?"
"Ooh! Hotel? King's Deluxe Luxury Suite?"
"Your room!"
"Gasp! Oh my! We're going to the Nishikado house - hold me, Haruka-chan, I'm about to swoon!"
Sometimes, being a gentleman frustrated the hell out of Nishikado Soujiroh. See, being a gentleman meant him needing to follow certain rules and regulations on how to, say, talk to women. A gentleman would never say, "No, you stupid bunch of airheads with too much make up and foul breaths! I told you we were going to see a movie, didn't I, you morons? So shut the hell up and let me think for a minute! And you - keep your mouth closed, please! I'd like to breathe some time this month!" He could never say those things, no matter how much the words were already on his tongue, just begging to be released.
Instead, Soujiroh piled on the charm. He placed a finger on top of one woman's lips to keep her from exhaling and flashed a small, beguiling smile. "I told you, ladies - I'm in the mood to watch a movie today." Not that he had, you know, any idea what movies were on this century. He wasn't much of a movie enthusiast, anyway.
He checked his watch; an hour had already passed since he had the unfortunate luck of witnessing Akira and Yuki leave the dango shop together. There was not enough time to beat the hell out of Akira, let alone ask oh-so-casually just what movie they were going to see. And Soujiroh had no plans of stopping by every damned movie house on the planet just to check if that movie house was the one they were in. He wasn't that crazy yet, after all!
So! Soujiroh used a tactic he had found very effective since the tender age of three: bribery.
And sure enough, his phone rang.
He grinned at his harem of giggling women and shushed them with a gesture and a wink. "Yes?"
Three seconds later and the call had been ended. A minute more and he had began to move. "Driver!" Soujiroh yelled, tapping the glass that separated them. "Stop right here!"
He led the way out of his vehicle, still smiling his best Most Impersonal Yet Very Attractive smile. The girls swooned at this and, predictably formed a cocoon of worship and adoration around him. This scene, of course, did not escape the discerning eye of the public, and soon every single woman within the vicinity had dropped whatever they were doing in order to flock towards him and scream his name in adulation.
Soujiroh snorted, then elegantly ran his hand through his hair, causing women everywhere to sigh and dream of babies and love.
Yes, he thought. I still got it.
He had just proven that it was most definitely Matsuoka Yuki's loss that she seemed to have moved on from him to Mimasaka Akira. Or, in his words, from green, lush fields to deader, decaying pasture.
This thought caused a dark cloud to rain over his initial happy thoughts - but only for a second. Well. Well. He'd show her! And that damned Akira too! Some best friend he turned out to be.
"Come, ladies," he said, smiling some more and even winking here and there so hard his eyelid began to hurt. "My treat. I'm in the mood... to fall in love."
Oh, the slow burn he had felt, when he had found out that Akira and Yuki had gone to the movie house to watch a romantic film! What the hell was going on with the world? Akira had long ago sworn that the only reason he would be watching romantic flicks was if a sword was pointed at his jugular and his family was suspended by their ankles atop a pot of boiling oil. What made him, the heir to a Yakuza regime, change his mind? Was Yuki far more resourceful than Soujiroh had given her credit for? Had she, by chance, managed to do the unthinkable: blackmail one Mimasaka Akira?
Yes, that was probably it.
The other alternative - that maybe they have fallen in love - was unthinkable. So unthinkable that Soujiroh had stopped thinking about it and vowed never to think such a stupid thought ever again.
He and his harem approached the entrance. He raised a brow at one guy, and immediately this man bowed before him and went inside the moviehouse. Soon a commotion of people shouting "What the--" "Move!" "But this is my seat--" "Not anymore!" "What do you mean--" "I said move over there!" could be heard.
"Soujiroh-kun?" one woman asked him, a bit alarmed. "What's going on?"
"I wanted us to have a perfect view," he replied. Soujiroh looked around him. "I hope that is alright with you...?"
This sensitive, thoughtful question was predictably met with sighs and adoring looks.
The guy he had paid to clear one area for him reappeared at the door. "Nishikado-sama. Your seats are now ready."
"Thank you, Kanjou-san." Soujiroh grabbed a wad of cash out of his pocket and handed it to the man, who accepted it gratefully.
"Come on, ladies," he said, bracing himself. "Let's go."
-
It was dark and the movie was already reaching its half when they entered. Soujiroh gritted his teeth; the women were making too much noise, so he shushed them attractively (yes, attractively damnit) to make everyone shut the hell up.
He took a seat, and casually looked around him. It didn't come as a surprise to see two people glaring at him from the seats before theirs; well, one was. The other was shaking his head.
"Ah! Yuki-chan! Akira!" he said, perfectly intoning his 'surprise'. "Isn't this a funny coincidence? What are you two doing here?"
"I think we should be asking you that question, Nishikado-san," Yuki told him, and the flickering lights of the movie revealed she was definitely not happy.
"Well, the answer's fairly obvious, isn't it?" Soujiroh said. "We're in a movie house. There's a movie playing right now in front of us. I think it's fairly safe to say we're watching a movie." He smiled. "Logic, Yuki-chan."
Akira turned towards him - and in the dim lights it was harder to say if he was teasing or not. "Really?" he said. "What movie are we watching, then?"
Soujiroh's careless smile froze at Akira's question. Damn it he should have been prepared for this! He should have, oh, peeked at the gigantic posters which were proudly displayed outside!
But there was always a handy solution available.
He grabbed the shoulders of the woman closest to him. "What's the title of this film again, darling?"
"Ooh!" she said, giggling. "Soujiroh-kun, you are such a funny man! It's Asu no Egao no Tameni." She looked at Yuki-chan and Akira. "Don't tell me you two don't know what you're watching?"
"Well, love," Soujiroh said sorrowfully. "Some people are just unobservant like that."
Yuki fairly huffed and turned to watch the movie again. Akira kept his eyes on Soujiroh, before casually setting his arm around Yuki's shoulders and pulling her closer to him.
Soujiroh froze again.
"Mimasaka-san!" came her voice. Then she giggled. "You're so--"
"Hush, Yuki-chan," said Akira. "Let's just watch the movie in peace."
Yuki sighed. "If you say so. I--"
But Soujiroh had heard enough.
Without thinking, he stood and made his way out of the movie house, ignoring the gasps and the women clamoring to follow him. He did not stop walking until he had reached his car, and once in he had almost shattered his windows when he closed the door.
"Driver!" he yelled. "Get me the hell out of here! Now!"
Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. And thank you for your reviews! See you in the next chapter I hope!