Princes of Rock
by Suke
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Chapter 7: A Scandalous Chapter
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How Ato-cious! (Dec 21, 2003, Sunday -- By Great Reporter Inui)
In the midst of concert preparations has come the arrival of the prerequisite scandal. Apparently, photographs of a compromising nature taken of Atobe Keigo and a member of his posse, Akutagawa Jiroh, were sent to various magazines and tabloids early this morning.
Tomorrow's papers promise to be full of these pictures or, at the very least, commentaries on them. Akutagawa has been a part of Atobe's entourage since the rock star entered the scene although it is not certain what position he has on the team. The photographs strongly suggest what this position or positions might be however.
Fans and friends alike are astonished, claiming that they had never suspected such a relationship between the two men. Atobe's camp is currently denying it but has offered no explanation for the photographs. This could (87%) be bad news for Atobe and his fans as he could easily lose his place in the upcoming concert.
Hiyoshi Wakashi, another rock singer on Atobe's label and long heralded as the next Atobe, has expressed that he was shocked at the news. Should Atobe be removed from the concert, Hiyoshi is likely (94%) to be his replacement.
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"It's okay," Oishi smiled obligingly. "But please try to come earlier tomorrow. Rehearsals start at nine in the morning."
"We're really very sorry," Choutarou said apologetically.
"Yes, we'll try to be here on time tomorrow," Kisarazu Atsuji, Yuuta's personal assistant, added.
Kajimoto nodded politely in agreement.
Oishi was all-merciful to the representatives of the three camps whose singers had been consistently late for the past few rehearsals. Momo thought that Oishi was maybe just a little too kind to them. After all, they had promised to be early after every rehearsal only to arrive later and later everyday. Today, the first to arrive was nearly three hours late.
They watched the three representatives file out of Oishi's dressing room. And then, it struck Momo.
"Oishi-san, we only begin at noon tomorrow," Momo said as he realised Oishi's error. "Did you forget? We'd better go tell them."
"Aa?" Oishi blinked and laid a gentle but firmly restraining hand on his arm. "I'm sure it'll be okay."
Sometimes, Oishi was just a little bit sneaky.
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The feeling in the air was not good. A sweet brown-haired boy with huge brown eyes sat on the edge of the stage and nervously observed the fellow occupants of the concert hall. The rock singers were clearly not getting along.
Standing on one side of the stage, the diva Atobe and pretty Wakato had broken into an outright screaming match. Apparently, they had problems agreeing over the coordination of the cheering of their fans. Wakato's slanted eyes were unfocused with anger while Atobe's voice was cracking with rage as they hurled insults at each other.
Fortunately, curly-haired Mizuki was not around having left the stage to attend to what he called real work. Yuuta, bereft of his agent, sat a little sulkily between his bodyguard and personal assistant.
The last of the rock stars was busy trying to avert an argument between his agent, spiky-haired Momoshiro, and the concert's fashion designer. For some reason, since meeting a few days ago, the two were constantly quarrelling and equally unwilling to lose.
"Why don't you want to be a singer? I'm a good agent. You'll be famous," Momo promised.
"Mada mada dane," Echizen muttered.
"Mada mada yourself! That doesn't even make sense! Become a singer!"
"Iyada," the boy merely said.
"Come on, Echizen -- "
" -- mada mada -- "
" -- are you afraid?" Momo taunted.
"I'm not afraid!" Echizen yelled, glowering at the taller boy.
Momo smirked at having managed to rile the fashion designer. The boy was so cute when he was annoyed. Oishi frowned at him but Momo just grinned in reply. Echizen pouted. The feeling in the air was not good.
Possibly the only good thing that had happened today was that all four singers had been miraculously on time.
"Taka-san," the concert director approached him with the microphone. "Let's do a sound check."
The brown-haired boy nodded in the affirmative and stood up to take his place at the front of the stage. He reached down a received the microphone from the director and waited for the soundman's cue. The temperature in the heated concert hall rose a few notches and eyes turned towards the appearance of a powerful presence.
"MORUZE BURNINGU! COME ON, BABY! ARE YOU READY? NO? TOO BAD! IT'S TIME TOPARTY!"
Several people sweat-dropped simultaneously. It took about five others and fifteen minutes to subdue the raving host the pry the microphone from his hand while he taunted their ineffectuality.
"Gomen," the mild boy had returned and apologised.
"Thank you, Taka-san, that will be all," the director said before turning to the soundman. "I think we should have his mic off."
"Oh, Yuuta! Come see this!" Mizuki burst into the room at this point carrying a whole stack of various magazines and newspapers. "Aren't you lucky, Atobe-san? You're on the front page of all these tabloids!"
And then, he quickly turned aside to Yuuta, flipping open a magazine to the largest picture he had managed to find.
"Mizuki-san," Yuuta said, blushing suddenly at the contents of the photograph.
"I know what you mean," Mizuki agreed understandingly. "People these days have no morals. And with his employee too! I heard he might get kicked out of the concert!"
"Really now, I never took Atobe-san for that type of person. Sure he's an idiot but I didn't think he'd go this far!" Wakato had suddenly become Mizuki's best friend, joining them at the magazine pile.
"Atobe-san is not like that!" The white-haired member of Atobe's entourage defended him.
"Oh? Are you sleeping with him too?" Mizuki returned.
"Shut up! Choutarou would never do something like that!" Temperamental Shishido Ryo cut in angrily. He spun around to face Yuuta and Wakato. "Like the two of you aren't sleeping with your agents!"
Yuuta blushed furiously and stormed off. Wakato grinned lazily and winked. Kajimoto groaned at his client's flippancy. Jiroh was still fast asleep in his corner under Kabaji's watchful eye. Oishi looked very anxious.
Atobe Keigo gave everyone a superior smirk and sauntered out of the concert hall, his posse following him with backward glares at the others.
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"Are you a baka? How could you do something like that and get caught?" Shishido accosted his boss despite his earlier defence of him against similar accusations.
"Atobe-san, it really was very irresponsible of you," Choutarou added.
Atobe stopped walking, his head bowed. There was silence as he paused and his staff wondered over this change.
"So you really think I did it too," the rock star said quietly, without the arrogance of his usual self.
"How do you explain the pictures then? And the fact that you had called in sick in the morning only to be photographed frolicking in the backyard with Jiroh?" Shishido demanded. "The concert organisers will not be happy and neither will Oshitari."
"I see I'm not going to have a chance to explain myself after all," Atobe said sadly and walked into his dressing room and shut the door.
"Shishido-sempai!" Choutarou smacked his arm after another long silence spent staring at the closed door. "We should have believed him! Now he's hurt!"
"What? There were pictures!"
"It might have been a misunderstanding!"
"Okay," Shishido acquiesced. "Then, explain this one." He pointed at one of the pictures in the magazine.
"Maybe they just fell down. After all, Atobe called in sick and maybe he felt faint after going out for some fresh air."
"And this one?"
"Looks like Jiroh is helping Atobe get something out of his eye."
"How about this one?"
"Um, it only looks like that. It's probably the angle they used. They're just, well, a bit close."
"Uh huh, and this?"
Choutarou blushed at the picture. There was a moment of silence.
"You know how they can do all kinds of tricks on the computer now."
Another pause.
"Well, there's nothing we can do now!" Shishido threw down the magazine in frustration.
"No, there's only one thing we can do," Choutarou decided, determination in every line and the boy could be very scary when he was determined. "We'll find out who did it and make him clear Atobe's name!"
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They were seated in Atobe's living room on the soft white leather couches, feet steeped in thick cream carpet. It was finally over. The mastermind of the whole photography fiasco had been Atobe's kouhai, Hiyoshi Wakashi and as soon as they had figured that out, it was s simple matter of threats and blackmail.
The tabloids today had Hiyoshi's picture on the front page. He had publicly admitted to doctoring the pictures and apologised to Atobe in a letter printed beside his photo. It was probably the end of his career if anything. And Shishido was left wondering how Choutarou had managed to get Hiyoshi to give up all that. What could Choutarou have threatened him with?
Hiyoshi was another singer on the Oshitari-Gakuto label. He was a very good singer but he had appeared on the scenes later than Atobe. People in general assumed that he was to be the next big thing, or next Atobe but he never really measured up to Atobe's standards.
They had found him at home and he had felt so secure of his position that he had let them all into his house without preamble. Hiyoshi admitted at once that the pictures were his doing. He had gotten someone to stake out Atobe's backyard for the past few weeks. However, he claimed that the photos were for real -- even after a great deal of persuasion.
Finally, Choutarou had taken the singer to another room. It had taken only ten minutes and they had the confession. Shishido knew he would never underestimate the white-haired boy again.
Atobe stood up and stretched, catlike. He was quite he usual self again, pompous and arrogant and mean, and they were secretly pleased about it.
"Jiroh, come." Atobe summoned and, amazingly, the sleepy boy stood up and followed him.
"Just what are you doing?" Shishido growled.
"I'm going to my room to do unspeakable things to Jiroh," Atobe drawled without stopping.
"That's a good one, Atobe-san," Choutarou laughed.
Shishido rolled his eyes. What a lame joke. He watched the beautiful Atobe strut into his room and the ever-sleepy adorable Jiroh stumble after him. There was a moment before the door shut where it seemed Atobe leered at Jiroh and the bright-haired boy had a predatory look in his eye. The click of the lock could be heard.
Impossible.
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Kawamura Takashi: Burning Up! (Dec 22, 2003, Monday -- From the Inui files)
Better known to the world as Taka-san, Kawamura Takashi is one of the most popular event hosts in the world with his own prime time talk show, "Burning Issues". It is said that he is a calm, quiet person until he is holding a microphone when he turns into the whole different hard-talking, hard-hitting, intense persona his viewers are more familiar with.
It is confirmed that he will be joining the current line up of stars at the Christmas concert as the host and has just flown back to Japan solely for this purpose.
There has also been talk about his running for senator.
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Nya, hoi hoi! Review kudasai!!!
Cheeseburger of Doom: Thank you for always reading and reviewing! I'm so touched I'm going to cry. I'm so glad to be back too!
Nall: Haha, there seem to be so many Fuji fans out there. No worries, the next chapter will be a Fuji and Fuji one ^_^ and yes, Fuji (the aniki) will be evil.
Fuji Eiji: Thank u! ^_^ Yup, this chappie is on Atobe-sama! I hope you liked it although there isn't really so much Ore-sama T_T...
Regatto!!: Hoi, yes, I was so upset that the last chapter was so short too! Golden pair deserve much longer but Suke-san is so lousy! So much was left unresolved! I realised that I even left the whole Oishi and Tezuka hugging explanation out -- they're just good friends of course but now I want to write a Oishi-Tezu ^_^;
Rumiko Nadajima: Kikumaru was just unbouncy because he was trying so hard to be cool so Oishi would like him. Aw, isn't that sweet? Hee, I'm sure the golden pair will sort it out soon! ^_^