Thank you for the votes and comments ^^

CHAPTER 4

"Okay, Mr. Ichinose! Beguile us with your racy smile, perhaps? Okay, perfect!"

Name: Ichinose Tokiya

Age: 34

Occupation: Actor, singer, model

Status: Married

Partner: His job

Himura chuckled, feeling devilishly and childishly satisfied as his fingers typed the word 'married' and 'his job' on Tokiya's profile with his company tablet. That was one of his methods in order to distract himself every time he heard the photographer demanded the 'best' poses from Tokiya. Like a boy with a lot of free time to spare, he would edit and delete everything that he playfully added on the said profile. However, he almost jumped from his chair when a sudden sound wave of screech, produced by a group of female staffs, not far from him.

At this rate, I might lose my hearing for good, Himura thought. His free hand stroked his pitiful ear while looking daggers at Tokiya's fans. Yet, of course, they were too ecstatic to notice him. Instead, they continued screaming like boiling kettles and blushing madly but not as cute as a tomato.

But, funnily enough, unlike with the sweet talker Ren or a chummy guy like Otoya, nobody had the guts to directly show how much they adored Tokiya's silky blue hair or his captivating blue eyes and Himura knew why. Tokiya was not the type of guy who easily struck up conversations with girls which made him appeared rather stand-offish compared to his teammates.

"Great job like always, Mr. Ichinose!" The magazine editor-in-chief exclaimed as she touched Tokiya's exposed chest.

Here we go, the nth harassment for today, the manager thought disgustedly. Even he had witnessed countless flirtation from different people, ways, and directions, Himura still could not be immune to it. He hated to see the ravenous attention because he knew that Tokiya also abhorred it.

But apparently, that was not the last one for today.

"Ichinose-san!" A four-member female idol group squeaked as soon as they saw Tokiya, preparing to go home with Himura. The manager could guess that after they had a performance, they just rushed to the studio in order to meet Tokiya, given they still wore their stage outfits.

"Yes?" The blue-haired idol immediately put on a neutral smile even deep inside, he really wanted to leave the studio as soon as possible.

"We are Canna. We used to work together in our latest PV," Kahoko, the leader of the group bowed, followed by other members. "But I bet you don't remember us, considering a lot of idol groups had asked you to help them before."

"I do remember you guys," Tokiya replied. "The song was 'Our Secret', right?"

Why won't I? After such a 'strong' impression, Tokiya scoffed in his mind. Being blessed with a very good memory which came in handy when he memorized a script, he had taken note of everyone he had collaborated with.

"Really!?" Two of them including Kahoko squealed shamelessly while the other two whispered 'he remembered us! He remembered us!' to each other while intertwining their fingers.

Hahahahaha. That's not something that you should be happy about, girls. In fact, when he said 'I remember you', he meant 'I am watching you guys so if I catch you slack off again, you'll experience hell from me', Himura thought, nervously. His brown eyes glanced at Tokiya who was slightly taller than him but the idol did not show any sort of expressions that suggested his annoyance.

Typical Tokiya.

"You were so dreamy in the last PV! Our previous collaboration was victorious and it's all because of you, Ichinose-san," a girl with colorful nails exclaimed while holding Tokiya's arm. "So, this time, may we... I mean, may we..."

"Yes?" Tokiya made sure that he did not use his notoriously intimidating tone every time his co-stars failed to be punctual without any solid reason.

"You tell him, Kahoko," the girl whispered to the leader, patting her skinny arm.

"I thought you want to say it. Come on. Our manager is waiting outside. We cannot stay too long here," Kahoko murmured, anxiously.

"Yeah, she's right. Our managers are waiting for us. We cannot stay too long here," Tokiya supplied, throwing a sympathetic glance at the startled Himura. His flat but somehow sarcastic remark sent them recoiled.

"We... We would like to collaborate with you again on our latest PV," Kahoko finally said. They certainly picked the right leader since the black-haired girl was the only one who could talk properly without having her words stuck in her throat.

"Oh..." The T of STARISH sighed, pretending to feel bad since he was about to turn them down. "I wish I could, girls. I really wish but my schedule is quite packed. Right, Himura-san?"

Himura did not need to be a genius to realize that Tokiya was shooting his 'just confidently say that I am busy and turn them down' look at him. The girls simultaneously turned to face Himura, which was the only sign that they acknowledged his presence.

"Yeah, Ichinose-san is right," Himura confirmed with a poker face. It was something that he had learned from a great actor like the blue-haired guy.

"Oh... Too bad," Kahoko said. Her teammates lowered their heads, concealing their growing disappointment. "Then, next time, if you are free enough, is it okay if we work together again?"

"Sure. I am willing to help."

If only they did not spend more time flirting with him before having a tussle because they wanted to kiss Tokiya in the last scene of the promotional video, Tokiya would be glad to help them again.

With a very relieved sigh since they finally reached Tokiya's house, Himura placed all gifts from the idol's fans on the table, right in front of the television. His eyes settled on Tokiya, staggering towards the kitchen to get some water. Heavy sighs accompanied his pace while his blue eyes were half-lidded, fighting the fatigue at its best.

Again, typical Tokiya.

This perturbing sight became normal to Himura. Tokiya always ended up so tired once he was at home. It seemed like the sumptuous apartment had absorbed his energy and until now, it never failed to amaze Himura that Tokiya still managed to save himself from bumping into the wall.

"Do you want tea, Himura-san?" The vocalist of STARISH asked, softly.

"No, thanks. I want to go back home anyway," Himura said before slightly bending his torso towards the kitchen's direction. "Remember, Tokiya. Tomorrow is packed with action scenes so you need to take sufficient rest."

It was very quiet. Himura was about to check on the idol in case he already passed out in the kitchen when Tokiya appeared, out of the blue with a blank face.

"But I have to memorize..."

"I believe, you already have every single word of the script in your head, Tokiya. Don't treat yourself that dumb so for once, use your brain to save your time and sleep properly," Himura said, also with the same expression.

"But, there's one book..."

"You can survive many days without books. It doesn't even degrade your intelligence. I bet given your situation right now, the more you read books, the stupider you get. Jeez, you should get your social life back..."

"I don't have a social life," Tokiya said, so flat that it could make the caring Himura cried in any second. The way he stood and answered Himura's advice reminded the manager of a very handsome sculpture but the vast difference was Tokiya could talk and...

Way more hard-headed even apparently, he was not made by stone.

I mean STARISH, you idiot! Jeez, if it's not because he needs his face for his job, I would have slapped him!

Just like a brother who loved to see how well his little brother had grown up, the same goes for Himura. He liked it the most when Tokiya hanged out with his STARISH friends because that was when a stoic like him would smile the most. Even most of the time, he would give Otoya or Ren an earful for bothering him, at least, he would also smile or chuckle at their lame jokes.

"Ren contacted me this morning," Himura said and as expected, Tokiya locked their eyes, unconsciously showing his curious look. Tokiya might be reserved but anybody could tell he cared a lot about his friends. "He said Masato was paralyzed all of sudden. It seemed his legs are getting weaker."

"Oh..." was Tokiya's response. His blue eyes looked around and it seemed he strived to come up with a very different topic.

Anything but about his friends especially Masato.

"Don't you want to visit him, Tokiya? I believe you still see him as your friend, right?"

Again, no answers accompanied the questions so Himura knew, it was a sign for him to stop bringing up the sensitive topic about STARISH. Tokiya was quite secretive and preferred to solve his problem alone instead of asking opinions from other people.

As expected from a person who endeavored alone to become an idol when his parents opposed his dream.

"Back to your job, I am certainly not your mother but you always made me think that I have a son who is only ten years younger than me. I don't want to worry about you since you are an adult who is old enough to have kids but with the way you behave now, no wonder my whole family concerns about you. I am starting to think that you are purposely getting obsessive about your job because you don't want to think about your friends."

Little did Himura know, his assumption was like a punch, aiming straight at Tokiya's handsome face. Yes, now Himura was behaving like his mother. He suddenly possessed the ability to read his mind, given how long it had been since the man in his 40s had become his manager.

"I just remember that I have a gift for you, Himura-san," Tokiya said.

"Gift? What gift?" Himura's eyes sized up.

Where did it come from? Is he really that desperate to stop me from talking about his friends? And what's wrong with me? I am supposed to go back home now but here I am, lecturing this stubborn guy like usual?

"Wait for a second," Tokiya turned his heels to his bedroom. It just took him a few seconds to reach whatever gift he wanted to hand to his manager before appearing with a small box of a posh perfume.

"Here, I hope you like it," the blue head said, putting the brown box onto Himura's palm.

"What is this?" Himura asked, suspiciously. Looking at the box alone was scary enough for a middle-class employee like him.

"It's a perfume," Tokiya shamelessly snatched the dark brown box from Himura back before opening the lid, revealing a square-shaped and golden bottle of fragrance.

"Is that the same brand that you wear every day?" Himura asked. The way he contorted his face made it sound like Tokiya just gave him a disgusting carcass.

"Yes, I bought this last night."

"You bought that last night!?" Himura shouted. It felt very convenient since the apartment was soundproof. "But, you told me that you went straight to bed!"

This idiot... Is it so hard to take a rest?

"I am sorry, Himura-san. I had to lie to you because I was... bored?" Tokiya said. The dark blue eyebrows lifted, showing that he was asking his manager either his excuse was plausible enough or just plain ridiculous.

"Tokiya," Himura, on the other hand, sounded sterner. His scowl turned so sharp that it might kill a dog.

"How about... Nothing interested me at home and I couldn't sleep?"

"Mr. Ichinose."

"So I decided to take a walk in the mall and as soon as I saw this, it reminded me of you?" Tokiya still did not give up, pretending to be oblivious of Himura's upcoming fury.

"Ichinose Tokiya!" Himura was this close to bang Tokiya's head with the wall. His eyes pierced at Tokiya, whose finger covered his ear as Himura's voice stung his eardrum. "Giving a gift to me is not important! My point is if you're bored, you should sleep! Why do you always try so hard to fight your tiredness?"

"Press it, Himura-san. It's really good," Tokiya who tried his best to stop Himura from turning into a lecturer ended up spraying the perfume around Himura's body.

"The smell is too sophisticated to me, Tokiya. It only suits someone like you," Himura said, weakly. Realizing that his lecture fell on deaf ears, he ended up playing along with Tokiya's random perfume CF.

"What do you mean someone like me? You also should wear this so that those rude girls from earlier will greet you too. Teenagers nowadays. Who taught them to be so impolite when you and their fathers are most probably the same age?" Tokiya said while taking off his black jacket, followed by his watch. Yet, Himura knew Tokiya never took a certain red bracelet off his right wrist.

Fair enough, Himura chuckled. Seriously, he's still upset about that?

"But seriously, Himura-san, just take this. Share it with Kakeru. As for your wife's, I will buy her one next time. Someone seemed to recognize me last night and I didn't want to take a risk by staying there any longer."

"There is no way I will allow my ten-year-old son to wear this kind of perfume and end up being like you. It'll be a pain since unlike you, he's still green to know that having a lot of fans who always follow you around is scary."

Tokiya chuckled, making his tired eyes puffier.

"Yeah, fair enough. I am sorry because you've gone through a lot of trouble because of me. I can't thank you enough for being a good manager," Tokiya said. It was casual but it tore Himura's heart because the sincerity was there. Tokiya felt deeply guilty and he took Himura's sarcasm way too seriously.

Meanwhile, as soon as Tokiya fished his phone out of his jeans pocket, he found something that made his heart beat fast.

"What? Three missed calls?" Tokiya exclaimed as he checked his phone. "Oh... It must be Harumi," he muttered when the screen showed Haruka's number.

"What? You still contacted that Harumi? I mean, as in, Masato's daughter?" the new information piqued Himura's curiosity.

"What's wrong with her being someone's daughter?" the idol asked back, flatly.

"Nah, nothing."

You know that better than anyone, Tokiya.

Despite Himura's lecture, Tokiya knew he did have something to do tonight and would not sleep early, thanks to Harumi.

"Hello, Tokiya ojichan!" Unlike the previous calls when Tokiya always recoiled due to her high and overexcited voice, the idol managed to not spill his tea since Harumi talked in a softer manner.

"How are you?" He said as he cracked a smile. His blue eyes glistened as he tried to immerse himself in the stargazing activity.

"I am fine," he could picture a glum face with her infamous pout as she replied him rather in a sad tone. "How about you?"

"Good. How about the others? Are they fine?"

"Mitsuki is fine but... Daddy and Mommy... It seemed they hid something from me and they don't talk a lot with me anymore," Harumi remarked. She could not brace herself to conceal what she battled against in her mind. She needed Tokiya to listen to her rants. She needed her uncle to be close to her heart when she felt that her parents grew distant from her.

I see, Tokiya thought. No wonder Harumi desperately called him. She just wanted a shoulder to cry on. He slowly got up, with a cup of tea in his other hand, leaving the balcony. He settled on a sofa, waiting for Harumi to vent everything on him.

He was always ready for the lovable girl.

"Mommy doesn't let me see Daddy. Daddy always sleeps in his room and this morning, when I met Daddy, Daddy..." Harumi suddenly burst into tears. "Daddy didn't remember me and Mitsuki. He didn't hug us back. I think Daddy doesn't love me and Mitsuki anymore, ojichan. I don't know what to do."

"Hey, hey. Don't say that," Tokiya who just could not disregard the cracked voice from the broken girl decided that it was the time for him to comfort her. His body hunched, as if the girl was in the same place with him, all crying and whining. It would be better if he could meet her in the flesh. He would give her a hug as an extra comfort. "Your parents love you so much. You know that, right?"

"Then why doesn't Daddy remember his own daughters? Why doesn't Mommy allow me to meet Daddy? I want to play with Daddy," Harumi asked. "Do you have the answers, ojichan? Usually, you know everything."

"Hm... Well, I don't know everything but... The other uncles told me that your daddy is sick and that's why things in your house turn a bit chaotic."

"Daddy is sick?" Harumi's heart sank. No wonder her daddy did not go to work anymore. No wonder her daddy always slept in his room.

Obviously, Haruka doesn't tell the truth to her children. Am I at wrong here for spilling the beans?

"Yes. Just like how we cannot hold anything if our hand is sick or we cannot walk if our legs are sick, that's the same with your daddy. You see... Daddy uses his brain to remember your mommy, to remember you and your sister but something bad happened to his brain so he cannot easily remember all of you anymore. "

"Oh... But Mommy doesn't let me see Daddy. How am I supposed to know?" Harumi complained as she felt bitter with Haruka for keeping such an important matter from her.

Haruka should not do that. Their children also have to know about their sick parents. But, maybe she is just too sad about her situation right now, Tokiya justified in his mind.

That really sounded like the Haruka who he knew since 17 years ago.

"I think it's because Mommy doesn't want to make you sad. She loves you and Mitsuki and she knows you both love Daddy so please don't be angry with Mommy, okay? Mommy is tired. She has to take care of everyone on her own. Don't you pity your Mommy? Do you want to see her crying, hmm?"

That was when Haruka's weary face crossed her mind. Tokiya was right. Haruka always looked exhausted every time she saw her. She never saw her mother rested properly. Haruka woke up so early in the morning to do house chores. On top of that, she was busy composing songs to fulfill the demand she received.

"No. I don't like to see Mommy crying," Harumi replied quickly, making the idol smiled in relief.

Harumi might be sensitive but she was a very obedient daughter. As expected from Masato and Haruka who led a very upright lifestyle. They certainly knew how to educate their children.

"Then, after this, I need you to say sorry to Mommy and Daddy. Be nice to them. Ask Mommy if she needs help, okay? Mommy will be happy and she will not cry anymore. The most important thing is please don't call your parents bad, okay? That's not nice."

"Okay, ojichan!" the girl replied, cheerfully. "Thank you, Tokiya ojichan! It felt nice to talk to you! You always know how to say the things that make me happy."

"You're welcome, dear," he released a relieved sigh. He considered himself as a bad counselor but for some reason, Harumi always ended up looking for him first. The reserved girl normally would not be this open with her other uncles.

"By the way, ojichan, when are you going to visit us? Don't you want to see Daddy?" Harumi answered with a full expectation.

Tokiya forced a smile as he felt something heavy tugged his heart. "I wish I could but I am so busy right now. I will visit him when I am free, okay?"

"You will, right, ojichan?" She asked. "I saw it on TV. You always wear the red bracelet that we gave to you. That means you never forget us, right?"

"Oh..." He unconsciously stroked the red bracelet as his mind slowly brought up the memory beyond the object. "Who said I forget you? I wear this all the time because... I miss you a lot."

"Really!? Me too, ojichan! I miss you sooooo much! My wish to see you is veeeeery big. It's as big as my school!"

Tokiya chuckled. He could imagine her gesturing the 'veeeery big' expression with her delicate arms.

"How about you, ojichan? How big is yours?"

"Huh? Well..." he stroked his nose, finding the suitable comparison. "I think it's too big. Bigger than this earth."

"Wow, that's too big! Then, I am sure you'll visit us soon. This is why I love you so much, ojichan!"

Her confession was too warm for his heart. It felt like something heavy was lifted from his shoulders. The girl always gave him the feeling that his life would be perfect if he had a daughter.

The girl had no idea how much she meant in his life.

"I love you too, dear."

But I don't think I can visit your father soon. The last time we saw each other, I said to him that I hate him. 

As usual, if you have something to say about this chapter, please let me know, okay? ^^