Gift Fic for lilly0
Sep. 8th, 2015 03:23 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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A piece of rainbow for
lilly0
Title: Electric Eye
Pairing: Matsumoto Jun/Sakurai Sho
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 because of implications? Slight inaccuracy over the release of Arashi advertisements
Summary: Sho takes selfies and sends them to people. It takes Jun a while to understand why.
Notes: Hello
lilly0. I hope this is something you can enjoy. This is heavily inspired by the Ura Ara Talk from AoKimi single, the one revealed that Sho takes selfies with his own ads, as well as the 08/15/2015 Shiyagare with Daigo. My thanks and love to A and M who introduced the term “old man selfies” to me, to A who looked over this, and to B who improved this thing and held my hand from the very beginning. Title is from the same Judas Priest song.
Jun’s phone beeps in the middle of a production meeting, and so he does the polite thing to do and flips it, screen facing the table. It took him a day to decide the lighting arrangement for the first half of the concert refinements, and this meeting requires all of his attention.
He only remembers it when the lighting and sound staff collectively agree to take a short break and he decides to pass the time by fiddling with his phone.
He’s greeted by a series of messages. A laughing emoji from Aiba, a warning about a "barrage of selfies. He's at it again" from Nino, and finally, one from Sho.
A photo from Sho, to be precise.
Jun knows Sho’s filming for his incognito segment in attempts to rediscover Japan. Sho has always been the enthusiastic traveler, ever the passionate learner, but Jun has yet to travel with him anywhere. His knowledge of this side of Sho comes mostly from years of working together and the recent NTV VTRs.
Sho's telltale forehead under the bucket hat—which he still believes to be inconspicuous—fills most of the sent picture, while the JAL ad they did together serves as the background.
Under the photo is a typed caption: It’s only missing you!
Jun suppresses the urge to smile. He texts Nino a thank you for the warning, even though he’d received only that one picture. Sho has the habit of taking selfies with his own ads, and while there’s nothing too strange about that (strange becomes relative, and eventually becomes normal, when you're an idol), it’s the fact that he sends such photos to people afterwards that makes it odd.
Well, Sho’s the guy who edits his own travel videos by adding whatever shitty effects his movie editing program has to offer. Jun hasn’t seen a video yet, but Leader and Nino both have, and the “shitty text effects” comment came from Nino.
There’s nothing odd about getting a photo from Sho. But there is something weird about getting such kind of photos complete with equally weird captions. Aiba once told him that Sho sent him a selfie from the Great Wall, but that the view encompassed twenty percent of the photo and the rest of it was Sho’s huge, happy face.
“He’s really awful at this photo thing,” Aiba said, laughing. “But don’t tell him that. He’d stop sending them, and I honestly think they’re cute.”
Jun thinks about how to reply. Whether he should thank Sho for remembering him or not. It would be weird to do that, right? But Jun doesn't want it to be weird or awkward. He has spent nearly all of his youth being weird and awkward around Sho and he doesn't want a repeat of that now that they're both in their early thirties.
Well, Jun types, fingertips swiftly tapping the screen, it’s not like we can take one together. That will cause panic.
Without giving it much thought, he presses send and tucks away his phone just in time for the meeting to restart.
--
It’s been days since the JAL selfie and Sho’s reply to his message was a single :( that Jun had no idea how to interpret. But perhaps Nino’s warning of “barrage” indicated that the JAL one is only the beginning.
He’s in the car on his way to film for VS Arashi when his sadly futile attempts to squeeze a dinner with Toma and Ryo into his busy weekend schedule are interrupted by a notification of a new picture from Sho.
Pleasantly surprised, he immediately exits the reminders app and taps on his messages, waiting for the photo to load. He’s not fully awake for any of this, but his eyes grow wider when he sees Sho’s unmistakable head at the bottom of the screen, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration as he snapped this photo in front of Jun’s poster for Pazudora in the train station. From the looks of it, it was taken in Tochomae.
The caption this time says Good job on catching that one!
Jun’s confusion grows the longer he looks at his phone. Sho’s appearing in the same ad. Hell, the five of them have the contract. Why would he take a selfie with Jun’s poster as his background, with his head positioned right between Jun’s legs? Granted, Jun was the only one in such a position when the photoshoot happened, but he doesn’t understand the context of this one. He doesn’t get what Sho’s point is, and it annoys him somehow because he doesn’t know what to say or think.
And he dislikes not understanding and being speechless when it comes to Sho. It reminds him of his youth too much.
He checks the time and starts typing. Aren’t you going to be late, Sho-san? Filming’s at 8.
Sho’s never late because he’s that diligent, but Jun can’t find anything else to say and doesn’t want to leave this unanswered.. At times like this, when he’s feeling out of his depth, he resorts to reminding Sho of their obligations, that they have jobs to do and that there’s a call time.
His phone beeps, and he almost smiles at the reply he received. Almost, but he’s not caffeinated enough and it’s still too early by his standards so he simply shuts off his phone and tries to take a short nap.
I’m here already, and since you didn’t ask, yes, I caught a ball too.
Attached to it is another selfie, this time with Sho and his own poster serving as his background.
--
Soon Sho’s habit of sending him selfies out of nowhere becomes such a regular occurrence that Jun can predict when it’ll happen next based on Sho’s schedule. He gets nothing when Sho’s due to work at Zero, and Jun compensates for that silence by catching Sho on the news and thanking him for his hard work as soon as it’s over.
He always receives one when Sho’s filming for his segment on Shiyagare, sometimes containing Sho’s enthusiastic face and an otherwise breathtaking scenery (if only Sho’s face didn’t cover more than half of the photo). Sometimes it’s simply a photo of the food Sho’s eating along with the chopsticks and the thumbs-up emojis.
When Sho has a day off, Jun definitely gets more than one. That one time Sho went to the convenience store and could’ve been busted in his private time, Jun received a selfie of his masked face standing beside a cardboard cutout of Jun for Je l’aime. Sho had even given a peace sign in that one, the cap Jun gave him for his birthday hiding most of his forehead.
So Jun is somehow used to him sending selfies, but he still doesn’t understand the context. Sometimes he gets the regular Sho selfies featuring iconic monuments or popular tourist spots. He even got one with Sho standing beside Hachiko some weeks ago.
Sometimes it’s Sho’s selfies with his own ads. Jun has received one featuring the duck from Aflac, along with the caption of This is one cool puppet whenever they make him move alongside me.
And yet sometimes, it’s Sho with Jun’s face, with Jun’s own ads accompanied by hard-to-reply-to captions like So do you eat the top one first or the bottom or both? like the one he got for his Kinoko no Yama for Meiji. When it comes to Jun’s ads, Sho makes sure Jun’s face is in the photo, a diligence he never displayed in any of the regular ones.
Jun’s photo folder is full of Sho’s forehead now, and he thinks it’s time to ask what’s the point of all of it. He just doesn’t know how to bridge the topic. Saying “So is there any particular reason why you keep taking photos of yourself as you stand beside my own ads?” might seem rude, and for all he knew Sho might be doing the same for MR. BAKE or Salonpas or Mister Donut.
It’s Leader he ends up talking to about it, when he needs a good ear and a potentially good advice.
Ohno has been to his apartment for a few times, and it only takes one can of Kirin for Ohno to start listening to what he has to say.
Unfortunately, unlike Ohno, it takes Jun more than just beer to get to the topic. He needs to be sufficiently inebriated to get the ball rolling, so he opens a bottle of wine and ends up finishing half of the bottle when he finally shows Ohno his photo folder.
“Oh, it’s all Sho-kun,” Ohno says, sipping his beer. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it for long. Ohno suddenly chuckles, tapping at the photo of Sho’s face with Jun’s GOO.N ad. “Tell me you still remember the caption he had for this one, Matsujun.”
Jun does, and he takes one good sip from his 1985 wine before he says it. “He asked me if it’s as soft as I make it out to be and if he can touch it for himself, provided I have one.”
Ohno laughs, his shoulders shaking. He had to put the beer on the coaster Jun provided him with as he gave in to genuine amusement. “Isn’t that weird?” Jun asks, frustration showing. “Why would I have diapers around here?” Just because he endorses it doesn’t mean the company sends him complementary items, and he’s positive Sho knows that. Sho can’t have bottles of Essential stacked in his bathroom, can he?
He punches Ohno lightly on the arm when the man doesn’t cease laughing. “It’s really not that funny.”
Ohno wipes the corner of his right eye with a finger, shaking his head. “Sho-kun’s really cute, wouldn’t you say?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Jun answers, swirling his wine glass in his hand. “He’s weird. Well, he was always weird, but lately he’s becoming weirder. Is he sending the same things to you guys?”
Ohno lightly scratches his nose, picking up his Kirin from the table and taking a sip. “Sometimes,” is his enigmatic reply, and that makes Jun frown.
Only sometimes? Jun checks the photo folder he has specifically created for Sho’s selfies. The number is nearing 50+, and it has only been months since he started with that JAL one. Jun feels like he gets photos from Sho all the time.
“He sends me one, like, three times a week at most,” Jun says. “I don’t know what to say most of the time, and when I don’t reply, he just sends another one.”
That makes Ohno laugh again. “He just wants to know what you think.”
“What I think about what? His face? I see it all the time. Even when I’m not around you guys, I see him everywhere.” The last time Jun boarded a train, Sho’s ad for Ajinomoto was right in front of him, pasted on the sides of the train car. He still thinks that one is the most fitting endorsement for Sho. If only the fans knew how much of a big eater Sho truly is, they would undoubtedly agree with Jun’s assessment.
“He just wants to know what you have to say. He has always been that way. He wants your feedback,” Ohno tells him, patient in a way Jun doesn’t understand. He wonders if there’s something Ohno knows that he doesn’t.
Jun shrugs, putting down his wine glass. “That’s the thing, Leader. I don’t know what to say. How do you reply to such things? I can understand if it’s a photo of him standing in Shibuya crossing without getting busted, I really can. But when it’s his face and my face and captions of how the photo’s only lacking me, what do I say?”
Ohno looks at him, a slight frown on his face. “Well, what did you say?”
Jun recalls the JAL one, the photo that began it all. “I told him it’s not like we can take one together. It’ll cause panic.”
Ohno gives him a strange look as he lifts the can of beer to his lips. “Sho-kun has it hard.”
That confuses Jun. “What?”
Ohno doesn’t comment anymore, instead fumbling around the couch for the remote to Jun’s TV. No matter how hard Jun prods him, he doesn’t say anything else. In the end, Ohno stays over, sleeping on the couch to the sound of late night Gundam reruns.
--
He can't get the conversation with Ohno out of his head. It brought even more confusion instead of clarity, and now each time Sho sends him a photo, he remembers Ohno saying that Sho has it hard. Jun wonders if there’s something he doesn’t understand, if he’s the only one not getting the picture. He doesn’t dare ask Nino or Aiba, because Nino would tell him to just go ask Sho himself. Aiba would offer to ask for him but won’t tell him Sho’s answer. Aiba’s that kind of a friend, keeping the answer to himself if letting it play out would be more entertaining.
So he doesn’t talk about it to anyone else. Sho keeps sending him photos and he sticks to his usual replies, something choosing not to reply to anything at all.
The first time he does that, Sho just sends in another one.
But when the frequency of Jun doing it increases, Sho suddenly stops.
It takes a while for Jun to notice that he’s stopped getting selfies from Sho. A quick check of the conversation thread tells him that the last one had been sent twelve days ago. It was a photo of Sho with their Kirin ad as the background, accompanied by a caption of If they asked you to cover my eyes, would you have done it?
Jun hadn’t replied to it because he didn’t know what to say, and before he’d realized it, the selfies had stopped. He used to get another one when he chose not to reply, but not this time. And with Sho putting on his usual ridiculous persona at work, and even turning it up a notch for Shiyagare, Jun doesn't know what to do about it.
He’s sure Sho has finished filming his incognito segment for the week, but he didn’t get even the typical So do you think I should change my disguise? or the less frequent one Is it the hat that does me in and tells people that ‘hey, this is Sakurai Sho right here!’ or am I just that obvious?
Jun hates that he got used to this, even started liking—whatever it was between them— expecting a photo from Sho every now and then, but what he hates more is the fact that he hadn’t realized it sooner.
Somehow receiving the messages left him less time to think about why it happened, but now, now that they stopped all he does is think why it started and why it abruptly ended.
Did he say something wrong? He hadn’t said anything at all, so was that the problem? Was Sho expecting him to reply every time? Was he angry at Jun for not responding? If he was, why didn’t he show it in all those days they filmed shows together?
Jun’s finger hovers on the last photo Sho sent him, Sho’s face mostly hidden by the lighting. He was standing against the light in front of Jun’s face for the ad. It’s the five of them in the billboard, Jun’s certain, but it’s only his face that’s in the photo along with the undeniable silhouette of Sho’s head wearing a cap in hopes of being not too obvious.
If Jun could venture a guess, he’d say Sho’s even wearing the one Jun gave him.
He checks his schedule, verifying with his manager that he has tomorrow off. He’s relatively free nowadays, and he won’t be seeing Sho until Tuesday of the following week.
He thinks somewhere around Narita would be a good place to start, and he sets up alarms for tomorrow.
--
Planning it had been the easy part. Going through with it, as Jun has now realized, is an entirely different thing.
But if he doesn’t do it soon, he’ll attract attention. Even hiding most of his face with a fedora and his trusty shades would still only take one good fan’s eye to bust him.
This is not Sho’s segment, he thinks, a little annoyed. He hates that this area is too crowded for what he wants to do in peace. He does a mental count, and when he reaches a hundred, he squares his shoulders and loses the shades. If he’s quick enough, no one will find out.
He raises the phone, taps quickly, checks how it turned out and leaves while pulling back on the shades, grumbling under his breath all the while. This is all Sho’s fault. Jun knows he may have done something embarrassing, and if photos of him surface on Twitter, he’s definitely going to blame Sho for all of it.
As soon as he’s safely inside a cab, hidden from curious bypassers’ looks, he scrolls down his messages to look for Sho’s name, fingers tapping to attach the incriminating photo he has just taken, all the time hoping that this stunt won’t end up in tomorrow’s tabloids.
If anyone ever asks, no, he did not just stand in front of his Class J JAL ad and took a photo with it. He was doing it to repair a possible dent in his relationship with Sho. He’s doing it for Arashi. He’s doing it for their fans, to preserve Arashi’s camaraderie.
He spends the next few seconds pondering on the proper caption. The photo itself isn’t much, just Jun’s fedora and his unmistakable eyebrows and his huge eyes at the bottom, himself holding a cup of coffee and Sho with his laptop serving as his background. It’s nothing like the one Sho took, albeit similar in nature.
The fact that he’s starting to take selfies similar to the ones Sho is prone to taking makes him shudder. Nino said Sho took “old man selfies”. Aiba claimed that Sho “has no talent for it but he’s cute so it’s okay”. Ohno refers to such selfies and Sho in general as cute, but Ohno’s the oldest one among them so perhaps it’s because if Ohno takes selfies, it’s automatically in the “old man” category.
For Arashi, Jun repeats in his mind, once again shuddering at the image of Nino mocking him forever when he finds out about this, as his fingers begin typing. He sends it without glancing at it again, trying to bury it at the back of his mind. The things he does for the five of them. If only Leader and the others knew… or better not, never.
His phone beeps after a few minutes, and Jun checks it warily. But his wariness turns into a content smile and he shakes his head as he reads Sho’s reply. He wants to accuse Sho of having zero originality, but then again, he’s no better.
It’s only missing you, is what Jun sent.
Well, it’s not like we can take one together. That will cause panic, is what he gets.
He’s about to type out a reply to that when his phone vibrates once more, and he deletes whatever characters he first had on the text box when he reads Or maybe we can. Next time? from Sho.
Next time, Jun sends back.
When he receives a selfie of Sho doing a thumbs up, he laughs, not caring that he’s still inside a cab.
--
Next time doesn’t happen soon, and Jun starts thinking it was just them being idealistic about it. But Sho resumes the photo-sending routine, and this time, Jun doesn’t take it for granted. He replies when he can, sometimes sending Sho photos of what he’s doing when Sho sends him photos of his face with various things or in various places.
When Sho sends him a selfie with food along with a raving review and lots of thumbs up emojis, he takes a photo of whatever he’s eating or about to eat and sends it back as a reply. The thread of their conversation on Jun’s phone mostly consists of photos now, and Jun is content to let the pictures do the work.
Jun’s designated folder for Sho on his phone is now between high seventies and low eighties, and he hopes he won’t have to show it to anyone. He and Sho don’t talk about it so nobody really knows aside from them. Jun would rather inconspicuously take selfies in Narita than let Nino see it. Nino will undoubtedly give him that annoying smile, the one that does whenever he knows something Jun doesn’t and refuses to share his insight.
He still hasn’t answered Sho’s questions about Meiji or GOO.N or Kirin, but at least he and Sho are communicating regularly now, so that Sho suddenly going silent is the least of his worries. Sometimes Jun even takes the initiative and sends Sho one.
The first time he did it, it didn’t take a minute for Sho to reply, although that reply only consisted of surprised emojis. Jun was about to berate him, tell him to shut it, but he immediately received a photo of Sho, half of his face hidden by the newspaper.
Jun can still remember when he typed out as a reply. Thank you for your hard work, Zero-san.
So it’s a normal thing for them now. Months ago it was a weird phenomenon for Jun, but he can’t deny that it’s now a part of his life. His photo exchanges with Sho are something he looks forward to, especially when Sho’s filming his segment for Shiyagare. When Jun’s filming his, he can only send a few ones. Sho has never complained, but sometimes Jun wonders if that’s because his messages are mostly photos now. They hardly use characters, save for their captions. Sho’s captions remain weird and difficult to understand, but Jun is used to it. Most of Jun’s captions have emojis on them. Unlike Sho, he rarely uses words and tries to keep it that way most of the time.
“So I heard Sho-chan’s going to Papua New Guinea,” Nino tells him one day, when they’re both waiting for the make up artists to finish styling Leader’s and Aiba’s hairs. “Bet you he’ll send us a ton of photos from there.”
A ton doesn’t cut it, Jun thinks. The others also receive selfies from Sho, but he’s certain he’s the one who receives the most. And with Sho going out of the country, he’s bound to get more.
He makes a mental note of what he can send back, in preparation for anything Sho might have for him.
When it happens though, Jun’s pretty much just staring at his phone, the idea of showing Sho a view of his potted plants on his veranda going up in smoke.
Sho sent him a normal photo, the hair wet and swept back, goggles oddly serving as a headband. There’s even a snorkeling tube attached to the goggles, resting close to his ear. He looks like he just came back from a dive, wearing a black shirt that clings to his torso. The photo isn’t blurry, and when Jun double taps his phone screen, he can see droplets all over Sho’s face, many of which linger under his chin and trace his jawline.
Jun blinks at it, unsure of how to reply. Sho’s attractive, always has been, but he’s also ridiculous, what often dilutes his attractiveness to manageable levels. Jun’s positive Sho bore him no ill will with this photo, if the caption The water’s really clear here, Macchan! is any indication.
The problem is that Sho definitely has no idea how good he looks in this one. It throws Jun off. His finger lingers for too long on the photo, and the ‘Save Photo’ option eventually pops up.
Now, Jun had no problems saving Sho’s so-called “old man selfies”. Even if most of those showed how massive his forehead is— a fact Jun had known since they were Juniors— they were easy to archive into his phone memory.
This one is too different to be included in the same folder that houses Sho’s bucket hats and odd facial expressions. Jun blames the wet hair and the way his shirt clings to his body, highlighting the line of his shoulders. As sloping as they might be, they seem sturdy, confirming Jun’s suspicions that Sho’s hiding an impressive set of muscles underneath all the sweats and loose fitting shirts he wears.
Before he can reconsider his decision, he saves the photo. An impersonal photo of his potted cactus imported from Brazil is what he sends as a reply, adding This one’s from my sister as a caption, hoping Sho doesn’t notice how out of sorts he is because of that picture.
He still doesn’t understand Sho, but he thinks, as he peruses his growing collection of Sho selfies, maybe he’s the one being weird, seeing things that aren't there.
--
Eventually the day comes when Sho's antics escalate.
He hadn’t sent Jun any photos of a similar nature ever since the memorable one from Papua New Guinea, but whoever contracted GENKING-san to appear in Shiyagare must have been an accomplice in one way or another.
The game is simple, not too different from the usual Arashi Calendar. They are taught to take selfies, something that makes Nino— the asshole— snicker when cameras aren't on him, and makes Jun wonder how much he knows about his "totally normal", friendly picture exchanges with Sho. Then they’re tasked to produce something of quality based on what they just learned.
Jun should have known that Sho would pick this time to up his game when they're asked to produce something of quality based on what they've just learned. He should have suspected that the innocuous selfies featuring his humongous forehead and the hideous bucket hats wouldn’t last for long.
Nino warns him about it before the unveiling, casually whispering into his ear that Sho’s theme might be a little alarming, that Sho’s definitely up to something. Jun chooses to believe that Nino only warns him because that's what Nino does whenever a phone camera and Sho are put together, if only because the alternative of him knowing about the selfie exchange is not something he wants to think of now.
“The theme?” Sho asks, looking at everyone else but him. “‘Just woke up’ king.”
Jun frowns at that, sharing a look with Nino. Nino returns his look of confusion, then suddenly Nino’s looking past him, his eyes wide as he goes, “Wow!”
The “Whoa!” is out of Jun’s mouth before he can help it.
He’s pretty certain Sho’s talking, explaining his theme and all, but he’s still blinking at the monitor and trying to process what he’s seeing. Forget “old man selfies”, Jun thinks. This is something Sho never sent him, and a part of Jun is annoyed that he never did, especially now that he’s finding out how adept Sho seems to be at it.
“The upper half is naked,” Sho declares, much to the audience’s delight. Jun almost rolls his eyes since the idea of Sho stripping just to win a goddamn segment is as ridiculous as Sho himself, but the result is far from that. “The lower half, I leave to your imagination.”
Well, that does it, Jun thinks. He makes a mental note to record this episode, just so he can see Sho’s face when he explains his photo. He’s thankful the camera isn’t focused on him when he has his tongue against his cheek, his eyes still on the monitor. It will take him a while to get over this one, far longer than he needed to get over the diving one from Papua New Guinea.
The filming wraps up without much happening, and when Jun checks his phone, there’s a notification that Sakurai Sho sent him a photo, preceded by a series of messages. He opens them when he’s sure he’s alone and starts reading from the top.
Nino says I should be more direct. By the way, he’s the one who suggested the GOO.N photo, if you still remember that. I can’t believe you didn’t get that.
Jun’s confusion grows, but he keeps on reading.
I thought I was direct enough when I sent you the JAL and the Pazudora one but :(
He doesn’t get it and continues scrolling, hoping that the next one will finally clear it all up..
And when you didn’t answer my question for Kirin, I just thought of giving up, you know? But Aiba-chan said it will only take the right photo, and Satoshi-kun told me he has spoken with you and that I shouldn’t give up.
Give up on what? Jun thinks, his thumb moving to scroll down.
Much as I find your obsession with potted plants cute, Macchan, that’s totally not what I wanted to get when I sent you that one from the dive.
Is he harboring a grudge? In Jun’s defense, that photo was difficult to reply to, and being impersonal and detached was as good of a reply as any when your honest response would be at least inappropriate and probably unwelcome or even offensive.
So if you still don’t understand this one then I don’t know what else I could say. Nino and Aiba-chan blame my lack of skills when it comes to this, telling me that my photos need more work, that if I want you to get the picture I should send a really good picture.
The messages end there.
As Jun scrolls, he sees that he has received a photo similar to the one Sho has shown on set earlier, only that this one is an outtake from his “just woken up king” theme. It’s still him lying on the filthy carpet of the green room, his cheek resting against his arm, but his eyes, the one Nino complimented earlier by claiming they’re really “sparkling”, have changed. In this one, Sho’s more half-lidded, his bottom lip practically jutting out and shining.
The caption is the same thing he said on set.
The lower half, I leave to your imagination.
Jun quickly taps on the text box, no longer overthinking anything. Before he can send what he has in mind, his phone vibrates, another message from Sho popping up in their conversation box. Jun laughs when he reads it, grateful that he’s alone in this part of dressing room.
Or we can have dinner first, if you want.
Jun amends his initial reply of I’m pretty creative with my imagination, Sho-san, adding Will be ringing your doorbell and intruding, then at the beginning before tapping Send.
Sho’s reply comes too quick, proving that he’s waiting somewhere on the way back home in anxiety. There’s a thumbs up emoji that sends Jun to another fit of amused laughter followed by a simple question of How creative?
Jun stands up, packs his things, telling his manager that he’s taking the train. It’s the fastest way from here to Sho’s place, only thirty minutes if he gets on it soon enough.
He only sends his reply when he’s standing outside Sho’s apartment, a finger pressing the doorbell.
I’ll show you.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Title: Electric Eye
Pairing: Matsumoto Jun/Sakurai Sho
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 because of implications? Slight inaccuracy over the release of Arashi advertisements
Summary: Sho takes selfies and sends them to people. It takes Jun a while to understand why.
Notes: Hello
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Jun’s phone beeps in the middle of a production meeting, and so he does the polite thing to do and flips it, screen facing the table. It took him a day to decide the lighting arrangement for the first half of the concert refinements, and this meeting requires all of his attention.
He only remembers it when the lighting and sound staff collectively agree to take a short break and he decides to pass the time by fiddling with his phone.
He’s greeted by a series of messages. A laughing emoji from Aiba, a warning about a "barrage of selfies. He's at it again" from Nino, and finally, one from Sho.
A photo from Sho, to be precise.
Jun knows Sho’s filming for his incognito segment in attempts to rediscover Japan. Sho has always been the enthusiastic traveler, ever the passionate learner, but Jun has yet to travel with him anywhere. His knowledge of this side of Sho comes mostly from years of working together and the recent NTV VTRs.
Sho's telltale forehead under the bucket hat—which he still believes to be inconspicuous—fills most of the sent picture, while the JAL ad they did together serves as the background.
Under the photo is a typed caption: It’s only missing you!
Jun suppresses the urge to smile. He texts Nino a thank you for the warning, even though he’d received only that one picture. Sho has the habit of taking selfies with his own ads, and while there’s nothing too strange about that (strange becomes relative, and eventually becomes normal, when you're an idol), it’s the fact that he sends such photos to people afterwards that makes it odd.
Well, Sho’s the guy who edits his own travel videos by adding whatever shitty effects his movie editing program has to offer. Jun hasn’t seen a video yet, but Leader and Nino both have, and the “shitty text effects” comment came from Nino.
There’s nothing odd about getting a photo from Sho. But there is something weird about getting such kind of photos complete with equally weird captions. Aiba once told him that Sho sent him a selfie from the Great Wall, but that the view encompassed twenty percent of the photo and the rest of it was Sho’s huge, happy face.
“He’s really awful at this photo thing,” Aiba said, laughing. “But don’t tell him that. He’d stop sending them, and I honestly think they’re cute.”
Jun thinks about how to reply. Whether he should thank Sho for remembering him or not. It would be weird to do that, right? But Jun doesn't want it to be weird or awkward. He has spent nearly all of his youth being weird and awkward around Sho and he doesn't want a repeat of that now that they're both in their early thirties.
Well, Jun types, fingertips swiftly tapping the screen, it’s not like we can take one together. That will cause panic.
Without giving it much thought, he presses send and tucks away his phone just in time for the meeting to restart.
--
It’s been days since the JAL selfie and Sho’s reply to his message was a single :( that Jun had no idea how to interpret. But perhaps Nino’s warning of “barrage” indicated that the JAL one is only the beginning.
He’s in the car on his way to film for VS Arashi when his sadly futile attempts to squeeze a dinner with Toma and Ryo into his busy weekend schedule are interrupted by a notification of a new picture from Sho.
Pleasantly surprised, he immediately exits the reminders app and taps on his messages, waiting for the photo to load. He’s not fully awake for any of this, but his eyes grow wider when he sees Sho’s unmistakable head at the bottom of the screen, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration as he snapped this photo in front of Jun’s poster for Pazudora in the train station. From the looks of it, it was taken in Tochomae.
The caption this time says Good job on catching that one!
Jun’s confusion grows the longer he looks at his phone. Sho’s appearing in the same ad. Hell, the five of them have the contract. Why would he take a selfie with Jun’s poster as his background, with his head positioned right between Jun’s legs? Granted, Jun was the only one in such a position when the photoshoot happened, but he doesn’t understand the context of this one. He doesn’t get what Sho’s point is, and it annoys him somehow because he doesn’t know what to say or think.
And he dislikes not understanding and being speechless when it comes to Sho. It reminds him of his youth too much.
He checks the time and starts typing. Aren’t you going to be late, Sho-san? Filming’s at 8.
Sho’s never late because he’s that diligent, but Jun can’t find anything else to say and doesn’t want to leave this unanswered.. At times like this, when he’s feeling out of his depth, he resorts to reminding Sho of their obligations, that they have jobs to do and that there’s a call time.
His phone beeps, and he almost smiles at the reply he received. Almost, but he’s not caffeinated enough and it’s still too early by his standards so he simply shuts off his phone and tries to take a short nap.
I’m here already, and since you didn’t ask, yes, I caught a ball too.
Attached to it is another selfie, this time with Sho and his own poster serving as his background.
--
Soon Sho’s habit of sending him selfies out of nowhere becomes such a regular occurrence that Jun can predict when it’ll happen next based on Sho’s schedule. He gets nothing when Sho’s due to work at Zero, and Jun compensates for that silence by catching Sho on the news and thanking him for his hard work as soon as it’s over.
He always receives one when Sho’s filming for his segment on Shiyagare, sometimes containing Sho’s enthusiastic face and an otherwise breathtaking scenery (if only Sho’s face didn’t cover more than half of the photo). Sometimes it’s simply a photo of the food Sho’s eating along with the chopsticks and the thumbs-up emojis.
When Sho has a day off, Jun definitely gets more than one. That one time Sho went to the convenience store and could’ve been busted in his private time, Jun received a selfie of his masked face standing beside a cardboard cutout of Jun for Je l’aime. Sho had even given a peace sign in that one, the cap Jun gave him for his birthday hiding most of his forehead.
So Jun is somehow used to him sending selfies, but he still doesn’t understand the context. Sometimes he gets the regular Sho selfies featuring iconic monuments or popular tourist spots. He even got one with Sho standing beside Hachiko some weeks ago.
Sometimes it’s Sho’s selfies with his own ads. Jun has received one featuring the duck from Aflac, along with the caption of This is one cool puppet whenever they make him move alongside me.
And yet sometimes, it’s Sho with Jun’s face, with Jun’s own ads accompanied by hard-to-reply-to captions like So do you eat the top one first or the bottom or both? like the one he got for his Kinoko no Yama for Meiji. When it comes to Jun’s ads, Sho makes sure Jun’s face is in the photo, a diligence he never displayed in any of the regular ones.
Jun’s photo folder is full of Sho’s forehead now, and he thinks it’s time to ask what’s the point of all of it. He just doesn’t know how to bridge the topic. Saying “So is there any particular reason why you keep taking photos of yourself as you stand beside my own ads?” might seem rude, and for all he knew Sho might be doing the same for MR. BAKE or Salonpas or Mister Donut.
It’s Leader he ends up talking to about it, when he needs a good ear and a potentially good advice.
Ohno has been to his apartment for a few times, and it only takes one can of Kirin for Ohno to start listening to what he has to say.
Unfortunately, unlike Ohno, it takes Jun more than just beer to get to the topic. He needs to be sufficiently inebriated to get the ball rolling, so he opens a bottle of wine and ends up finishing half of the bottle when he finally shows Ohno his photo folder.
“Oh, it’s all Sho-kun,” Ohno says, sipping his beer. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it for long. Ohno suddenly chuckles, tapping at the photo of Sho’s face with Jun’s GOO.N ad. “Tell me you still remember the caption he had for this one, Matsujun.”
Jun does, and he takes one good sip from his 1985 wine before he says it. “He asked me if it’s as soft as I make it out to be and if he can touch it for himself, provided I have one.”
Ohno laughs, his shoulders shaking. He had to put the beer on the coaster Jun provided him with as he gave in to genuine amusement. “Isn’t that weird?” Jun asks, frustration showing. “Why would I have diapers around here?” Just because he endorses it doesn’t mean the company sends him complementary items, and he’s positive Sho knows that. Sho can’t have bottles of Essential stacked in his bathroom, can he?
He punches Ohno lightly on the arm when the man doesn’t cease laughing. “It’s really not that funny.”
Ohno wipes the corner of his right eye with a finger, shaking his head. “Sho-kun’s really cute, wouldn’t you say?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Jun answers, swirling his wine glass in his hand. “He’s weird. Well, he was always weird, but lately he’s becoming weirder. Is he sending the same things to you guys?”
Ohno lightly scratches his nose, picking up his Kirin from the table and taking a sip. “Sometimes,” is his enigmatic reply, and that makes Jun frown.
Only sometimes? Jun checks the photo folder he has specifically created for Sho’s selfies. The number is nearing 50+, and it has only been months since he started with that JAL one. Jun feels like he gets photos from Sho all the time.
“He sends me one, like, three times a week at most,” Jun says. “I don’t know what to say most of the time, and when I don’t reply, he just sends another one.”
That makes Ohno laugh again. “He just wants to know what you think.”
“What I think about what? His face? I see it all the time. Even when I’m not around you guys, I see him everywhere.” The last time Jun boarded a train, Sho’s ad for Ajinomoto was right in front of him, pasted on the sides of the train car. He still thinks that one is the most fitting endorsement for Sho. If only the fans knew how much of a big eater Sho truly is, they would undoubtedly agree with Jun’s assessment.
“He just wants to know what you have to say. He has always been that way. He wants your feedback,” Ohno tells him, patient in a way Jun doesn’t understand. He wonders if there’s something Ohno knows that he doesn’t.
Jun shrugs, putting down his wine glass. “That’s the thing, Leader. I don’t know what to say. How do you reply to such things? I can understand if it’s a photo of him standing in Shibuya crossing without getting busted, I really can. But when it’s his face and my face and captions of how the photo’s only lacking me, what do I say?”
Ohno looks at him, a slight frown on his face. “Well, what did you say?”
Jun recalls the JAL one, the photo that began it all. “I told him it’s not like we can take one together. It’ll cause panic.”
Ohno gives him a strange look as he lifts the can of beer to his lips. “Sho-kun has it hard.”
That confuses Jun. “What?”
Ohno doesn’t comment anymore, instead fumbling around the couch for the remote to Jun’s TV. No matter how hard Jun prods him, he doesn’t say anything else. In the end, Ohno stays over, sleeping on the couch to the sound of late night Gundam reruns.
--
He can't get the conversation with Ohno out of his head. It brought even more confusion instead of clarity, and now each time Sho sends him a photo, he remembers Ohno saying that Sho has it hard. Jun wonders if there’s something he doesn’t understand, if he’s the only one not getting the picture. He doesn’t dare ask Nino or Aiba, because Nino would tell him to just go ask Sho himself. Aiba would offer to ask for him but won’t tell him Sho’s answer. Aiba’s that kind of a friend, keeping the answer to himself if letting it play out would be more entertaining.
So he doesn’t talk about it to anyone else. Sho keeps sending him photos and he sticks to his usual replies, something choosing not to reply to anything at all.
The first time he does that, Sho just sends in another one.
But when the frequency of Jun doing it increases, Sho suddenly stops.
It takes a while for Jun to notice that he’s stopped getting selfies from Sho. A quick check of the conversation thread tells him that the last one had been sent twelve days ago. It was a photo of Sho with their Kirin ad as the background, accompanied by a caption of If they asked you to cover my eyes, would you have done it?
Jun hadn’t replied to it because he didn’t know what to say, and before he’d realized it, the selfies had stopped. He used to get another one when he chose not to reply, but not this time. And with Sho putting on his usual ridiculous persona at work, and even turning it up a notch for Shiyagare, Jun doesn't know what to do about it.
He’s sure Sho has finished filming his incognito segment for the week, but he didn’t get even the typical So do you think I should change my disguise? or the less frequent one Is it the hat that does me in and tells people that ‘hey, this is Sakurai Sho right here!’ or am I just that obvious?
Jun hates that he got used to this, even started liking—whatever it was between them— expecting a photo from Sho every now and then, but what he hates more is the fact that he hadn’t realized it sooner.
Somehow receiving the messages left him less time to think about why it happened, but now, now that they stopped all he does is think why it started and why it abruptly ended.
Did he say something wrong? He hadn’t said anything at all, so was that the problem? Was Sho expecting him to reply every time? Was he angry at Jun for not responding? If he was, why didn’t he show it in all those days they filmed shows together?
Jun’s finger hovers on the last photo Sho sent him, Sho’s face mostly hidden by the lighting. He was standing against the light in front of Jun’s face for the ad. It’s the five of them in the billboard, Jun’s certain, but it’s only his face that’s in the photo along with the undeniable silhouette of Sho’s head wearing a cap in hopes of being not too obvious.
If Jun could venture a guess, he’d say Sho’s even wearing the one Jun gave him.
He checks his schedule, verifying with his manager that he has tomorrow off. He’s relatively free nowadays, and he won’t be seeing Sho until Tuesday of the following week.
He thinks somewhere around Narita would be a good place to start, and he sets up alarms for tomorrow.
--
Planning it had been the easy part. Going through with it, as Jun has now realized, is an entirely different thing.
But if he doesn’t do it soon, he’ll attract attention. Even hiding most of his face with a fedora and his trusty shades would still only take one good fan’s eye to bust him.
This is not Sho’s segment, he thinks, a little annoyed. He hates that this area is too crowded for what he wants to do in peace. He does a mental count, and when he reaches a hundred, he squares his shoulders and loses the shades. If he’s quick enough, no one will find out.
He raises the phone, taps quickly, checks how it turned out and leaves while pulling back on the shades, grumbling under his breath all the while. This is all Sho’s fault. Jun knows he may have done something embarrassing, and if photos of him surface on Twitter, he’s definitely going to blame Sho for all of it.
As soon as he’s safely inside a cab, hidden from curious bypassers’ looks, he scrolls down his messages to look for Sho’s name, fingers tapping to attach the incriminating photo he has just taken, all the time hoping that this stunt won’t end up in tomorrow’s tabloids.
If anyone ever asks, no, he did not just stand in front of his Class J JAL ad and took a photo with it. He was doing it to repair a possible dent in his relationship with Sho. He’s doing it for Arashi. He’s doing it for their fans, to preserve Arashi’s camaraderie.
He spends the next few seconds pondering on the proper caption. The photo itself isn’t much, just Jun’s fedora and his unmistakable eyebrows and his huge eyes at the bottom, himself holding a cup of coffee and Sho with his laptop serving as his background. It’s nothing like the one Sho took, albeit similar in nature.
The fact that he’s starting to take selfies similar to the ones Sho is prone to taking makes him shudder. Nino said Sho took “old man selfies”. Aiba claimed that Sho “has no talent for it but he’s cute so it’s okay”. Ohno refers to such selfies and Sho in general as cute, but Ohno’s the oldest one among them so perhaps it’s because if Ohno takes selfies, it’s automatically in the “old man” category.
For Arashi, Jun repeats in his mind, once again shuddering at the image of Nino mocking him forever when he finds out about this, as his fingers begin typing. He sends it without glancing at it again, trying to bury it at the back of his mind. The things he does for the five of them. If only Leader and the others knew… or better not, never.
His phone beeps after a few minutes, and Jun checks it warily. But his wariness turns into a content smile and he shakes his head as he reads Sho’s reply. He wants to accuse Sho of having zero originality, but then again, he’s no better.
It’s only missing you, is what Jun sent.
Well, it’s not like we can take one together. That will cause panic, is what he gets.
He’s about to type out a reply to that when his phone vibrates once more, and he deletes whatever characters he first had on the text box when he reads Or maybe we can. Next time? from Sho.
Next time, Jun sends back.
When he receives a selfie of Sho doing a thumbs up, he laughs, not caring that he’s still inside a cab.
--
Next time doesn’t happen soon, and Jun starts thinking it was just them being idealistic about it. But Sho resumes the photo-sending routine, and this time, Jun doesn’t take it for granted. He replies when he can, sometimes sending Sho photos of what he’s doing when Sho sends him photos of his face with various things or in various places.
When Sho sends him a selfie with food along with a raving review and lots of thumbs up emojis, he takes a photo of whatever he’s eating or about to eat and sends it back as a reply. The thread of their conversation on Jun’s phone mostly consists of photos now, and Jun is content to let the pictures do the work.
Jun’s designated folder for Sho on his phone is now between high seventies and low eighties, and he hopes he won’t have to show it to anyone. He and Sho don’t talk about it so nobody really knows aside from them. Jun would rather inconspicuously take selfies in Narita than let Nino see it. Nino will undoubtedly give him that annoying smile, the one that does whenever he knows something Jun doesn’t and refuses to share his insight.
He still hasn’t answered Sho’s questions about Meiji or GOO.N or Kirin, but at least he and Sho are communicating regularly now, so that Sho suddenly going silent is the least of his worries. Sometimes Jun even takes the initiative and sends Sho one.
The first time he did it, it didn’t take a minute for Sho to reply, although that reply only consisted of surprised emojis. Jun was about to berate him, tell him to shut it, but he immediately received a photo of Sho, half of his face hidden by the newspaper.
Jun can still remember when he typed out as a reply. Thank you for your hard work, Zero-san.
So it’s a normal thing for them now. Months ago it was a weird phenomenon for Jun, but he can’t deny that it’s now a part of his life. His photo exchanges with Sho are something he looks forward to, especially when Sho’s filming his segment for Shiyagare. When Jun’s filming his, he can only send a few ones. Sho has never complained, but sometimes Jun wonders if that’s because his messages are mostly photos now. They hardly use characters, save for their captions. Sho’s captions remain weird and difficult to understand, but Jun is used to it. Most of Jun’s captions have emojis on them. Unlike Sho, he rarely uses words and tries to keep it that way most of the time.
“So I heard Sho-chan’s going to Papua New Guinea,” Nino tells him one day, when they’re both waiting for the make up artists to finish styling Leader’s and Aiba’s hairs. “Bet you he’ll send us a ton of photos from there.”
A ton doesn’t cut it, Jun thinks. The others also receive selfies from Sho, but he’s certain he’s the one who receives the most. And with Sho going out of the country, he’s bound to get more.
He makes a mental note of what he can send back, in preparation for anything Sho might have for him.
When it happens though, Jun’s pretty much just staring at his phone, the idea of showing Sho a view of his potted plants on his veranda going up in smoke.
Sho sent him a normal photo, the hair wet and swept back, goggles oddly serving as a headband. There’s even a snorkeling tube attached to the goggles, resting close to his ear. He looks like he just came back from a dive, wearing a black shirt that clings to his torso. The photo isn’t blurry, and when Jun double taps his phone screen, he can see droplets all over Sho’s face, many of which linger under his chin and trace his jawline.
Jun blinks at it, unsure of how to reply. Sho’s attractive, always has been, but he’s also ridiculous, what often dilutes his attractiveness to manageable levels. Jun’s positive Sho bore him no ill will with this photo, if the caption The water’s really clear here, Macchan! is any indication.
The problem is that Sho definitely has no idea how good he looks in this one. It throws Jun off. His finger lingers for too long on the photo, and the ‘Save Photo’ option eventually pops up.
Now, Jun had no problems saving Sho’s so-called “old man selfies”. Even if most of those showed how massive his forehead is— a fact Jun had known since they were Juniors— they were easy to archive into his phone memory.
This one is too different to be included in the same folder that houses Sho’s bucket hats and odd facial expressions. Jun blames the wet hair and the way his shirt clings to his body, highlighting the line of his shoulders. As sloping as they might be, they seem sturdy, confirming Jun’s suspicions that Sho’s hiding an impressive set of muscles underneath all the sweats and loose fitting shirts he wears.
Before he can reconsider his decision, he saves the photo. An impersonal photo of his potted cactus imported from Brazil is what he sends as a reply, adding This one’s from my sister as a caption, hoping Sho doesn’t notice how out of sorts he is because of that picture.
He still doesn’t understand Sho, but he thinks, as he peruses his growing collection of Sho selfies, maybe he’s the one being weird, seeing things that aren't there.
--
Eventually the day comes when Sho's antics escalate.
He hadn’t sent Jun any photos of a similar nature ever since the memorable one from Papua New Guinea, but whoever contracted GENKING-san to appear in Shiyagare must have been an accomplice in one way or another.
The game is simple, not too different from the usual Arashi Calendar. They are taught to take selfies, something that makes Nino— the asshole— snicker when cameras aren't on him, and makes Jun wonder how much he knows about his "totally normal", friendly picture exchanges with Sho. Then they’re tasked to produce something of quality based on what they just learned.
Jun should have known that Sho would pick this time to up his game when they're asked to produce something of quality based on what they've just learned. He should have suspected that the innocuous selfies featuring his humongous forehead and the hideous bucket hats wouldn’t last for long.
Nino warns him about it before the unveiling, casually whispering into his ear that Sho’s theme might be a little alarming, that Sho’s definitely up to something. Jun chooses to believe that Nino only warns him because that's what Nino does whenever a phone camera and Sho are put together, if only because the alternative of him knowing about the selfie exchange is not something he wants to think of now.
“The theme?” Sho asks, looking at everyone else but him. “‘Just woke up’ king.”
Jun frowns at that, sharing a look with Nino. Nino returns his look of confusion, then suddenly Nino’s looking past him, his eyes wide as he goes, “Wow!”
The “Whoa!” is out of Jun’s mouth before he can help it.
He’s pretty certain Sho’s talking, explaining his theme and all, but he’s still blinking at the monitor and trying to process what he’s seeing. Forget “old man selfies”, Jun thinks. This is something Sho never sent him, and a part of Jun is annoyed that he never did, especially now that he’s finding out how adept Sho seems to be at it.
“The upper half is naked,” Sho declares, much to the audience’s delight. Jun almost rolls his eyes since the idea of Sho stripping just to win a goddamn segment is as ridiculous as Sho himself, but the result is far from that. “The lower half, I leave to your imagination.”
Well, that does it, Jun thinks. He makes a mental note to record this episode, just so he can see Sho’s face when he explains his photo. He’s thankful the camera isn’t focused on him when he has his tongue against his cheek, his eyes still on the monitor. It will take him a while to get over this one, far longer than he needed to get over the diving one from Papua New Guinea.
The filming wraps up without much happening, and when Jun checks his phone, there’s a notification that Sakurai Sho sent him a photo, preceded by a series of messages. He opens them when he’s sure he’s alone and starts reading from the top.
Nino says I should be more direct. By the way, he’s the one who suggested the GOO.N photo, if you still remember that. I can’t believe you didn’t get that.
Jun’s confusion grows, but he keeps on reading.
I thought I was direct enough when I sent you the JAL and the Pazudora one but :(
He doesn’t get it and continues scrolling, hoping that the next one will finally clear it all up..
And when you didn’t answer my question for Kirin, I just thought of giving up, you know? But Aiba-chan said it will only take the right photo, and Satoshi-kun told me he has spoken with you and that I shouldn’t give up.
Give up on what? Jun thinks, his thumb moving to scroll down.
Much as I find your obsession with potted plants cute, Macchan, that’s totally not what I wanted to get when I sent you that one from the dive.
Is he harboring a grudge? In Jun’s defense, that photo was difficult to reply to, and being impersonal and detached was as good of a reply as any when your honest response would be at least inappropriate and probably unwelcome or even offensive.
So if you still don’t understand this one then I don’t know what else I could say. Nino and Aiba-chan blame my lack of skills when it comes to this, telling me that my photos need more work, that if I want you to get the picture I should send a really good picture.
The messages end there.
As Jun scrolls, he sees that he has received a photo similar to the one Sho has shown on set earlier, only that this one is an outtake from his “just woken up king” theme. It’s still him lying on the filthy carpet of the green room, his cheek resting against his arm, but his eyes, the one Nino complimented earlier by claiming they’re really “sparkling”, have changed. In this one, Sho’s more half-lidded, his bottom lip practically jutting out and shining.
The caption is the same thing he said on set.
The lower half, I leave to your imagination.
Jun quickly taps on the text box, no longer overthinking anything. Before he can send what he has in mind, his phone vibrates, another message from Sho popping up in their conversation box. Jun laughs when he reads it, grateful that he’s alone in this part of dressing room.
Or we can have dinner first, if you want.
Jun amends his initial reply of I’m pretty creative with my imagination, Sho-san, adding Will be ringing your doorbell and intruding, then at the beginning before tapping Send.
Sho’s reply comes too quick, proving that he’s waiting somewhere on the way back home in anxiety. There’s a thumbs up emoji that sends Jun to another fit of amused laughter followed by a simple question of How creative?
Jun stands up, packs his things, telling his manager that he’s taking the train. It’s the fastest way from here to Sho’s place, only thirty minutes if he gets on it soon enough.
He only sends his reply when he’s standing outside Sho’s apartment, a finger pressing the doorbell.
I’ll show you.