Playing Games With The Billionaire (KageHina)

21 - The Start of War

It was the day before the second Red Rose Ceremony and Shoyo was making himself a late breakfast.

He just felt like eating something warm and filling today. His coffee sat on the bench behind him along with half of his meal that he had cooked so far.

Akuma walked in and Shoyo refused to acknowledge the man.

"Hinata, pass me my juice."

Shoyo's eyebrow twitched at the whiny tone and lack of manners. "Get it yourself."

"You'll get snippy at me for walking into the kitchen and end up getting something broken again. It's in the door."

"Fine. Whatever."

Shoyo turned and pulled out the juice, sliding it over to the bitchy manager and huffed as he took it wordlessly. Not even a thanks. Rude.

He carried on, finishing up his cooking and cleaning up while he polished off the last of his coffee.

He was finishing the last of his breakfast when he noticed that he was feeling a little bit woozy.

Odd. Maybe he was getting sick?

He tried to take a step and stumbled. The room spun and the edges of his vision darkened.

Something steadied him and he leaned heavily against it, grateful for the support.

He looked up only to be met by Akuma's burning eyes.

"Here, let me help you, Hinata."

Shoyo vaguely registered the too smug tone of voice before his vision went blank.

*****

Tobio sat stretched out on the couch in the main living room with several of the remaining contestants.

For once, it was a relatively peaceful atmosphere with everyone idling around and chatting amongst themselves.

Being the day before the next Red Rose Ceremony, he would have assumed that everyone would have been at him trying to curry last minute favor but someone, most likely Shoyo, must have said something and it was a relief.

The tiredness was bone deep at this point and the last thing he wanted to deal with right now was drama over stupid things.

"Oh! Shoyo is using his twitter for once! It must be the first time ever!" Hitoka giggled as she tapped away at her phone. "Now let's see what he's posting."

He expected a photo from the roof top or food or something so very Shoyo but a bad feeling twisted his gut as Hitoka's expression twisted into a frown.

"What?" she whispered, her lower lip trembling as her eyes misted over.

Tobio traded an alarmed glance with Lev who was reclining on the single couch beside him and Saeko reached over to snatch the phone from the now teary idol.

"Oh, hell no! What the fuck is this?!" Saeko practically roared in rage as she glared at the phone. "This is bullshit, what does he think he's doing?!"

Tobio's eyebrows were virtually in his hair at the language but Lev beat him to the punch.

"What's happened?"

"Hinata has posted all this nasty shit about everyone here. Something about how he's finally letting out his 'true' feelings. What the fuck," she was still scrolling through, so there must be more than one little rant.

He noted the use of Shoyo's last name instead of the usual 'Shoyo'. Saeko was fiercely protective of her friends and Hitoka's tears seemed particularly potent.

Still, something seemed off about the situation as Shoyo didn't have a mean bone in his body. He could be blunt and too honest but not nasty or calculating.

Akuma took that moment to waltz in to the room and he had to fight down a groan of annoyance.

The man was in work out gear with a towel wrapped around his neck as though he had just come from the built-in gym.

"What are you screeching about?"

"Oh, that's rich coming from you," Saeko sneered back, "But Hinata's posting shit about everyone on our twitter. No one's been left out. I kinda agree with him that you're a slimy little bitch though."

Akuma snorted and went to sit down on the small foot stool on the other side of the room.

"So, his true colors have come out, huh? I didn't think that cutesy, happy persona could be his real personality. No one's that nice. And I return the sentiment whole heartedly."

Tobio bit the inside of his cheek to stop from commenting as they traded sneers, instead making sure his blank expression was in place.

Something was wrong, and he would not get involved until he figured it out because Shoyo's personality was genuine, Tobio had no doubts on that account.

The ginger head couldn't lie to save himself and truly placed others welfare above his own.

Also, why suddenly start using the twitter program now after all this time?

Saeko was shrieking again, and he noticed even Lev looked troubled.

"He better had a damn good reason for this or I'm going to beat his ass!"

Hitoka's watery voice spoke up, "Am I really vapid and useless? He is always so nice, is that how he really feels?"

"Oh, honey. No, don't let those nasty comments get to you. Just treat it like those nasty people online that don't know you."

"But he does know me! It hurts worse because I thought he was a friend..." Hitoka looked like she would start crying again and Akuma snickered in the corner.

Tobio was going to have to have a good look at the cameras from the last few hours.

He had just stood to go in search of Aone whose team was in charge of monitoring the cameras for security when the man in question stumbled in to the room.

Shoyo stopped just inside the doorway and seemed to sway on the spot as he stared at everyone in apparent confusion.

There was complete silence, and no one moved for a long extended moment before the entire room suddenly erupted in uproar.