Love Stage: Hidden Love

Rei's conundrum

Rei found the shower at the end of the hall, he took care of himself as he washed up. By midnight, Shougo still hadn't returned. Rei went to sleep on his bed. In the morning he called a cab. He had a few texts from Shougo saying his drummer went into surgery around two. The rest of the band was there waiting.

Rei went to the theater. It was as he thought, just dumb human error. He fixed the props, had lunch, snuck back onto Shougo's school campus to find the teen fast asleep. Rei brushed a hand over his forehead to shoo away the loose strands of hair. He looked peaceful. There was a note beside the boy.

"The bag by the door is for Izumi. Don't leave until I wake up." Rei picked up his book. His phone dinged.

Seiya was texting him. Apparently the kid who was suppose to play the girl In the commercial didn't show up, they want to use Izumi. Izumi was having a meltdown. Since Rei was done in London, could he met them on the set? A plane ticket was emailed to him. Rei let out a frustrated sigh. He scribbled on the back of Shougo's note a quick apology.

Scooping up the bag, Rei rushed out. He caught a taxi, rushed to the mall to buy the first thing of Lala Lulu he could find before hurrying to the airport. It was a long six more weeks until Shougo returned. Izumi eventually did the commercial. They hadn't needed Rei since the boy actor helped out the young Senya.

The family went back home, things fell into their usual routine for Rei. He worked at the theater Seiya owned, he helped with caring for Izumi, then at night... well he had fun with Shougo! That's the way it went for the next six and a half weeks.

One day, while at the theater, Rei was in the office. He had been tasked with fixing the filing system. It was outdated, paper of all things! Rei was inputting everything into a computer program, while filling away the paper copy as well. Something of importance came across the desk he was working on.

It was a work up of Shougo. Apparently, his parents had tried to get him into the business a few years ago. Rei smirked at this. Shougo was a born entertainer, he was sure of it. Their late night calls was only part of the proof he had. As his eyes flicked over the elder Senya's stats, they landed on the date he was brought into this world. April 8!

What!? Rei was furious. The entire family spent days planning Izumi's birthday party. Shougo even flew out special for it! Nothing had been said about Shougo's birthday. It was only a month later! Had his parents even done anything? Rei sat the paper down. What was he going to do? Shougo hadn't told him anything about it. Neither had Izumi?

He picked up his phone. Holding it as he faced the blank screen he pondered. Shougo would be home in just three more days. Rei secretly expected him any time. He had a way of doing things on his own. What could he do to make the day special? He needed to apologize for missing his birthday.

He sat the phone back down. Nothing was coming to mind. He wasn't even sure what kind of relationship they had. Friends with benefits? Employer to employee? Dating? He shivered. Did he want to date Shougo?

Before an answer came a hand slapped down more files before him. "Quite day dreaming there are sixteen more boxes still in the store room!" His coworker informed him.

"Yes, right." Rei turned back to his work.

The issue of Shougo was pushed to the back of his mind. Even though he wasn't actively thinking about it, his brain was processing ideas. Rei worked through lunch. There was so much to do! By five he still had the majority of boxes to go. He closed his eyes as he rubbed them.

"Come in, I didn't expect you to do this all in one day!" Seiya called from the doorway.

"Hey, it's Rei! So this is where you hide all day?" The jubilation in that voice.