Boys For Hire!!

He Loves Me

We arrive back at the house at the planned time, carrying five shopping bags each, all of them probably on the edge of breaking from the weight of what we bought.

"I'm just gonna put it out there, this is probably the dumbest plan in the history of dumb plans." Hotaka grimaces at the weight of the grey plastic shopping bags. I simply shrug as I struggle to reach for the house keys in my back pocket. "Also, how're we even gonna tie-" I quickly shush him.

"You and Akihiko can handle Ichirou, I'll handle Katsumi. Don't make it obvious before you get 'em." I snicker to myself. Oh their in for a world of pain... I return to reality to reassure Hotaka, who's acting a little concerned. "Don't worry." I smile at him. "The plan is full proof." I get the front door open and we quietly creep inside. "I'll get mum to handle the 'ammunition'." I grin, as we drop the groceries down onto the marble kitchen countertop, departing our separate ways to deal with the fighting pair.

***

"Katsumi, come out."

"NO!!"

"Katsumi! What're you gonna do!? Live in the bathroom forever?!" I shout from the other side of the pristine white bathroom door, which the boy has locked himself behind. "Ugh...!" I bang at the door, causing a scuffling sound inside. "Tch, looks like I have no choice." I walk down the hallway and enter my mother's room which is next to the bathroom. I pass her maroon themed bed and slide her embroider curtains to the sides of her window sill. I don't pay much attention to the details of her room, I'm not supposed to be in here anyway. "Well what she doesn't know won't hurt her." Besides, mum was downstairs doing what I asked her to do with the groceries Hotaka and I bought.

I lift the window pane with a small squeak, and shimmy my small body out of the frame. I lift my right leg out of the frame and onto the wood ledger outside. I tuck a piece of rope into my back belt hook, a crucial piece in the plan. The wood ledger was an architectural choice (ugly to be honest), a plank of timber that levelled the floor of the house but on the outside. I lowered my left foot onto the ledge and gripped the sill, now on the outside of the house. I shimmied slowly across the plank, not looking down. I outstretch my arm, reaching for the white frame of the bathroom window. I daringly side step to the sill, my heart skipping a beat when I reach it. I look in through the glass and see a certain loli boy curled up on the floor.

When I'm about to open the window, I hear a rustle in the bushes, and quickly but carefully whip my head around. "Hm..." I ignore it and turn my attention back to the window. I dig my short nails under the pane and haul it upwards.

"OI!! I'LL GIVE YOU A REAL GOOD SCOLDING FOR MAKING ME DO THIS!!" I shout into the bathroom. Katsumi's head whips up in surprise.

"Ahh!!" He yelps and scrambles to unlock the door.

"Oh no you don't!!" I lunge forwards to dip my head under the pane and through the window, but I throw myself too far and the force drives the only foot I have supporting my weight off the timber plank. I scream as I feel the air rush around me, and I grab for anything I can.

***

"C-Chiii..." I hear a sniffle and a tiny cough. I open my eyes drearily and stare into the face of a shocked and scared Katsumi. I'm lying on the cold floor of the bathroom, chill from the tiles vibrates through my spine.

"Katsumi...?" I rub my right eye. "Are you alright?"

"A-Am I...." He sniffs violently and then opens his arms hastily, wrapping his body around mind quicker than lightning. "Am I alright!?" I get a shock. It's rare that Katsumi raises his voice at me. "Y-You almost fell out a window, why're you asking me!? A-And it's all because..." He pauses between his voice breaks, crying through them. "I was too stubborn to open the door!! I was too stubborn to let you in..." He sobs into my stomach as I stroke his hair, running my fingers through his soft locks. After a few moments of simple silence, two or three of Katsumi's sniffs,  and more head stroking, the small boy finally sat up to look at me.

"Have you come up to make me reconcile with Ichi?" He sniffles. Well, I'll credit him for being perceptive.

"You can't keep fighting him like this, you two are basically brothers. Hotaka and Akihiko are becoming distressed as well." I sigh as he puffs his cheek out, still looking resilient.

"I'm not in the wrong, he's the one who started that fight with the CEO's son... He basically threw the first punch."

I gulp. The Boys For Hire CEO's son...? Shintaro? I shake my head of the thoughts. That's something for another day. "Katsumi, it's brave what your doing. And thank you for getting upset on my behalf, but what's really making me upset now is that your fighting with Ichirou."

The small boy looks semi-regretful for a split second. "What's so brave about me... Your ten times braver than I am Chi. Y-You climbed through a window to get t-to me... And were strong enough to convince Ichi and that boy to stop f-fighting that night..." He sniffs. I lift his chin and rest my palm on his soft hair, ruffling it, his tender eyes clouded with tears.

"Standing up to your friends... is way harder than standing up to your enemies." I smile.

Katsumi's gaze lingers on my eyes for a bit, before I watch him blink the tears in his eyes away. "B...But you loved him d-didn't you...?" He turns away, embarrassed. My breath catches and I clench my fists, biting my lip. But... I finally get to realise, it's okay. Katsumi is my friend... And I don't need to bottle up my feelings forever.

"I did, Katsumi." After a long silence full of contemplating, I speak. The small boys head which was previously in my lap, shoots upwards at the sound of my voice. "I loved him... So much." I breathe heavily, trying to keep it together. "It was like a dream. Even after we started dating, I'd always be so nervous around him. Even so... Not for one second," I fiddle with a strand of my hair. "Did he fake around me. He was a playboy, we both knew it. But not for one second did he deny it or tell me otherwise. And that was like... Having a best friend and a lover all in the same package." I bite my tongue, letting it go slowly. "Even though I'm an otaku, even if I was a dope and no good at studying, even if at the time I had a bit of a girl crush on Maki Nishikino..." I chuckle at my own sad joke. "He loved me all the same."

Katsumi's heavy gaze on me was slightly unsettling, but I wasn't going to stop. "No matter how much I screwed up, no matter how stupid I was being or how weird or crazy I was, he loved all of that, because it was me." I touch my cheek with my left palm and draw back when I feel a dampness. There's a few more moments of silence, before Katsumi sits up and wraps his arms around me again.

"H...He was stupid to let go of a girl like you..." He hesitates before rephrasing his sentence. "He was stupid to let go of you, Chi." I hug the boys body and let him comfort me, shutting my eyes. But then, we hear a crash and a yelp from downstairs.

"W-What was that!?" Katsumi's affectionate hug turns into a scared one and I chuckle deviously.

"That's right... I forgot." I stand up and slyly grab the piece of rope I had brought earlier from it's place in my back belt hook. "Do me a favour, and sit still for me will you Katsumi~?"

***

"HEEEEELP! THEIR TORTURING US!!"

"CHIIII UNTIE ME UNTIE ME!!!!"

Hotaka and I smile mischievously as we stand in our swim suits on the lawn. Hotaka and Akihiko have got their blue and green board shorts on as they start securing the rope around Ichirou and Katsumi who have been stripped and forced into an unattractive pair of speedos. I put on a plain white tee and an orange pair of bikini bottoms on, not a fan of showing skin neck down. Luckily, it's a warm sunny day, perfect for this attire.

"Is this even legal?" Akihiko, who's normally pinpointed as the princely leader of the group, asks me suspiciously.

"Well, we're not gonna kill 'em or anything." I smirk as Ichirou looks at me nervously. "Maybe." The bad boy starts squirming for escape and I laugh at his efforts. When Hotaka and Akihiko are finished securing the boys to opposite sides of the one tree we have in my yard, I pull out a bucket of liquid filled balloons.

"Here's how it's gonna go down boys." I fold my arms. "Unless you apologise to each other," I pick up a balloon and squeeze it in my hand. "and fast, us three," I motion to Akihiko, Hotaka and myself. "Are gonna pelt you with these balloons."

"And if we don't apologise till you run out of water balloons?" Ichirou smirks at me.

I return the favour with a smirk of my own. "Oh, they aren't water balloons." I pelt Ichirou's chest with one of the balloons with all my might, and it explodes in a glorious array of red. As soon as it splatters on the boy, he's immediately repulsed.

"Holy s**t what is that!?" He yells.

Hotaka picks up a balloon for himself and toys with it. "Tomato juice mixed with garlic paste. Chiseki's own invention." The black haired boy smirks before pelting Katsumi with one. It explodes just as magnificently as the first one.

"G-G-Gross!!!" Katsumi struggles harder, as if trying to escape the red.

Akihiko, Hotaka and I take turns in pelting the poor defenceless boys with the balloons. As we reached the half way supply of balloons and both boys were covered in red head to toe, I was starting to doubt my plan. Until...

"Okay!!!! Okay! Stop!" Ichirou yells just as Akihiko's about to throw his balloon. "Katsumi! I'm sorry for getting mad at you! I shouldn't have started that fight with the Boy-" He hesitates. "Shintaro. And I'm sorry Chi, that I made you cry. It was totally out of line and I shoulda apologised sooner." He hangs his head in shame, and Akihiko lowers his hand which was about to throw the balloon. "Katsumi... At the time... In a weird sorta way, it felt as if you were choosing the feelings of the other guy over me." Ichirou bites his lip. "Your like my little brother, and just the thought... made me so angry."

"I...I'm sorry too." Katsumi pouts, but not in the usual cutesy way he does it. Regret and shame fills his facial features. "You were just trying to protect Chi, you were trying to look out for us like you always do...In the only way you knew how." The smaller boy sniffles. "I'm sorry...! I'm really sorry Ichi!!"

I sigh and walk up to the tree, using a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the rope holding them to the thin bark of the eucalypt. As soon as their free, Katsumi whomps Ichirou with a hug, almost toppling the bad boy over, but he gladly accepts it.

"Well, that's all good and all but..." Hotaka, from where he's standing on the grass next to Akihiko, motions to the bucket of tomato juice filled balloons which still has half of the content remaining. "But what do we do with those?"

Ichirou and I eye each other mischievously, and before I know it we're racing to grab as many balloons as we can.

"Don't even think about it, Ichi!"

"Your the one that went for them first!"

I run from Ichirou whose aim is set on me. I scream as I feel a cold splat on my back and then a sudden disgusting stench. "Oh you little-!" I throw one at Ichirou and he dodges it. I watch in horror as it splats onto Akihiko's  chest. I clasp my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing when he lifts the balloon he had originally planned to splat on a tied up Ichirou and slaps it right into Hotaka's hair.

"Oh your gonna get it prince-boy."

"Come at me ya' emo."

As if dropping their assigned types and roles, Hotaka and Akihiko sink into their regular selves simultaneously and just plainly enjoy chasing each other around the lawn.

I smile at their banter good naturedly till I feel a cold splat on my right arm. I whip my head around and see Katsumi nervously smirking.

"Oh c'mere you little twerp!"

"Oh no you don't, girly!!" Just as I'm about to come after Katsumi, I'm grabbed from behind and lifted into the air.

"Truces aren't fair, Ichi!" I exclaim, yet laughing my guts out. I struggle in Ichirou's strong arms as the boy's openly pelt me with the balloons, smiling and laughing all the way.

***

All five of us are enjoying a pleasant dinner while my mum is watching a TV show in the living room.

"Ugh, you stink Ichi!"

"You smell twice as bad!!"

Ichirou and Katsumi are back to normal, maybe even better, and Akihiko shoots me a respectful gaze as we observe their exchange. I would wish these happy moments could last forever, yet do they ever...

There's a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." I sit up and walk chirpily down the hallway towards the front door, the pitter patter sound of my bare feet echoing through out the hall, still combined with the loud voices of the boys from the dining room.

I open the door smiling, but to who I see, that smile quickly turns into nothingness.

"Arian Chiseki, have you made you decision?"

It's the same man who offered me the contract... To become a...

"Whether or not you'll become a Girl For Hire?" He questions again, noticing my expression. I grip the door frame nervously, I feel a cold sweat down my back. As if sensing my doubt, the man is quick to re-persuade me. "Don't you want to be with him? You'll be able to see Shintaro everyday, your lover, your best friend." My eyes widen. "And think about it," He knocks on the brick wall that makes up the front of the house. "How long do you think your single mother will be able to keep up with the bills on this place? Don't you treasure your mother at all?"

I bite my lip. All these voices are rerunning lines in my head.

My father.

My mother

This man.

Katsu.

Masashi.

Shiroi.

Haruo.

Naozumi.

Naoyuki.

Akihiko.

Ichirou.

Hotaka.

Katsumi.

Shintaro.

I bite my tongue, trying to keep my head from exploding. Shintaro... T...That's right. I shut my eyes and take a few deep breaths.

"I don't have anyone else, but I feel like I have you. I want to have you. And one day I want you to say that your mine. Even if you can't say it back, I want to have your heart, if only for a second."

The words that I kept in my heart. The words Shintaro spoke to me before our first kiss. The words that finalised the first night I had truly fallen in love.

"Sorry," I lift my head high, unafraid. "But I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

The man is taken aback. "But Shin-"

"Then you mustn’t know Shintaro for who he really is." I stand tall with confidence, finally feeling sure of myself. "He loves me for who am and he'd never ever  want me for change for someone's fantasy. He believes in me..." I grip my shoulder. "Because I'm someone he wants to believe in, and I don't have to have him around to be that. That alone..." I grin. "Is a constant reminder that Shintaro loves me!"

There's astonished silence from the man, whose face is laced with shock and surprise. But suddenly, the silence is broken by a slow clap from the drive way. I notice a black BMW parked on the grey strip of concrete, a tall man leaning against the car's back door. His blonde hair has noticeable grey streaks in it, his fine navy suit contrasting against his pale skin in the moonlight. But that smirk... I'd know it from anywhere.

"S...Shintaro's... Father..." My eyes widen as I look at him, his piercing gaze baring every bit of resemblance of his son's. My mind flashes back to what Katsumi said to me in the bathroom, and a shiver runs down my spine. "The CEO... of Boys For Hire." The man smirks at me, the wrinkles around his mouth creasing at the gesture. He straightens himself and stands up, tapping on the black tinted window of the car door he was leaning on.

"Did you hear her little speech, Shintaro?"

I freeze up, my heart beating miles per minute. The window the man had tapped on rolls down with a buzzing sound, and soon my heart starts beating so hard it starts hurting, my head spinning.

"Oh I did, father." A snarky playboy leans out the window, the moonlight tracing his delicate features gorgeously just like it did on the night the same playboy confessed his love for me. "She's a resilient one, stubborn, headstrong and stupidly beautiful," He winks at me and my heart flutters just as it always does.

"She's my girlfriend after all."