edelweiss - &team

14

The nine were woken up to frantic screeching of metal and the loud engine of a car dying down. Harua, a light sleeper, took a peep from the second floor, before going to shake Yudai awake.

"Yudai, there's a guy outside your house-' Harua couldn't even finish what he wanted to say before Yudai shot out of bed, eyes wide as he scrambled down the stairs.

"What is going on-" Yixiang demanded, following close behind Yudai.

"There's a guy outside," Harua informed, before the said guy shouted,"Yudai! Open the goddamn door or so help me! Hey, can you hear me? Yudai!" The door handle rattled and banging sounds were heard on the door.

Yudai winced and swore, shooting a desperate look to his friends before rushing to the door. "Who is it?" Fuma called after him, and Yudai managed to reply, "My manager." He tried to block the door with his stocky frame yet seem natural at the same time. Which resulted in him leaning against the doorframe with his hip jutting out awkwardly in an attempt to conceal at least one of his friends.

Reading the room, some of them snuck into the kitchen, others hurried back up the stairs, Maki, the brilliant person he was, slid under the dining table.

"Yudai-" A stout man dressed in black and hands jangling a set of keys stood at the door, obviously intent on entering the home. He managed to push through, huffing as he walked through the house, as if he was searching for something and stopped when he saw Maki under the table, the two making eye contact at once.

"Hey, Yuki, everything's all good, I'm fine and-"

His manager finally tore his eyes away from Maki to yell, "You've been uncontactable for days. Your phone's been turned off, all your friends say they haven't seen you and you're telling me you're completely fine?"

Yudai smiled, as though he made a silly little mistake, "Forgive me, these are friends I've known for a...very long time and I thought a gathering after a while would be nice."

Fuma gave a thumbs up to support Yudai's atrocious excuse.

The man jerked off his glasses to rub his eyes, "So you've been hosting a party for three days?"

"Party?" Yudai whipped his head around to see Yuma and Yixiang rapidly arranging bottles of wine, bags of chips and for some reason, some miscellaneous glittery streamers on the dining table.

"Yes, a party," Yudai quickly said, his smile now much more pained and forced.

Thankfully, his manager only furrowed his brows, deep in thought as he scanned the faces of Yudai's friends. His eyes swept over Jo, Harua, Fuma and Riki, finally landing on Yuma, then he remarked, "Hey, you're that...street racer, aren't you? Nakakita...something. The Japanese that competes in Korea."

"Absolutely," Yuma flashed his signature grin, which was enough to dazzle Yudai's manager.

"Well..." The manager scratched his head and studied Yudai's face, not noticing that the actor's left eye was starting to twitch. "If you're safe and alright and nothing crazy happened, that's good."

There was a pause, then his manager asked, "Nothing happened, right?"

"Nothing at all," Euijoo soothed, given his innocent and trustworthy appearance, the manager's worries all eased.

"Alrighty then..." The manager started to head out, "Take care, okay? You don't look so good. I'll cancel your schedules for the next week."

As Yudai saw his manager out, still assuring him all was well and that he didn't have to make such a journey over, Jo and Harua emerged from the kitchen. "Is he gone?"

"He's gone," Yudai returned to the dining room and breathed a sigh of relief.

"How long have you had him? I'm surprised we've never met him, even Maki," Fuma said as he rustled his hair, where Yixiang had cheekily sprinkled some small streamers.

"Oh Maki knows him, sort of," Yudai glanced at Maki, who nodded along. "He's genuinely convinced I'm his brother," Maki laughed, "I don't even look like him!"

"That's why I chose him," Yudai said, "He's clueless. I could shift my nose into a pig's snout in the same room as him and he wouldn't notice."

"Alright no comment," Yuma said as he leapt over Yudai's dining table, miraculously without knocking over any of the wine, "We have other things to do."

Yudai blankly watched as Maki uncorked a bottle and started chugging straight from the green glass bottle.

"It's in Japan for now, we know that," Harua said as he cleared his throat.

"Surely it'll hang around places with an abundance of people," Jo said.

"We'll split up, and try to find it," Euijoo suggested.

"Okay, okay," Yudai took in a few slow breaths, then asked, "When do we leave?"

"We should pick a city to start from."

"Yudai, you pick your favourite city."

"Why should I be the one who-"

"Would you prefer we let Maki decide?"

"Give me a second."