I was always your smile || An anime love story

Chapter 7: Rivals

That afternoon when my work schedule was ending, I leave Parm building, leaving Junnie with Eri, I'm suddenly encountered by Jun. "J— What the heck?" I ask with my brows furrowed. "Wow, what a greeting." He rolls his eyes. "We should go on a date."

"A date?" I cock my head to the side by his sudden offer. "I-I can't do that." I reject. "Why not?" Jun asks me. Just as I'm about to answer back, I feel my shoulders weighing down a bit. "Cause she's already going on a date with me." I can hear the familiar Ryo tone. "Wha?! N-no I'm not." I quickly protest. Jun furrows his brows when he sees Ryo too close to me. "Hands off my girl, man." He demands as he tugs on my arm, making me go to his side. "W-what the heck?"

"She ain't your girl. Katsumi's mine." Ryo glares at Jun. the two of them starts arguing as they tug on my arm.

Jun: Sike, she's mine.

Ryo: No way, she's with me.

Jun: Excuse me? She was mine first.

Ryo: First or not, I was by her side when you weren't.

Jun: Doesn't matter, I'm here now.

Not wanting to take this any longer, I forcibly throw my arms down to get both of theirs off mine. "I'm not anyone's! Stop claiming I'm yours will you?" I shout at the two of me at how ridiculous they were acting. The two of them sigh in reluctant as they roll run their eyes. "Whatever, looks like I've found a rival huh?" Jun raises a brow. "Guess you're right." Ryo agrees.

I hit my hand on my face, knowing that they're not listening to me. "Honestly." 😪 Just when I thought they were going to start betting on something, Ryo's phone starts ringing. He picks it up and it sounds as if he needed to leave. "Gosh, what bad timing." He groans then turn to me, that's when Jun's phone starts ringing. "Well, bye Katsumi." He says and plants a kiss on my cheek. "You—" 😳

"Jerk!" Jun glares at Ryo teasing face. That's when I get another kiss on the cheek, but from Jun. "You—" 😳

"Jerk!" Ryo glares. "Yo!" I can hear the voices of both of their phones calling out. "I'm going, I'm going." Ryo replies to the phone as he walks away. "Geez, give me a break." Jun answers his phone in annoyance as he also leaves.

"What the heck...?" I mumble confusingly as those two just left me like that but just left without a care about they were acting.

*~*

That next day early in the morning as usual, me and Junnie walk into Parm when everyone stops what they were doing and stare at me with excitement in their eyes. I stare at all of them confused and Junnie gives a bark. That's when they all squeal and run up to me, literally crowding me and calling out my name. "What the heck? It's too early in the morning to be excited about something!" I shout through all the commotions.

"But Katsumi-chan! We saw you yesterday with Jun-sama and Kyo-kun!" Mei squeals. "Um...which part?" I ask her. "When they were fighting over you!" Natsumi cuts in with a jealousy look. "Like, what the heck! They even kissed you on the cheek!" She looked like she was just about to burst out in tears.

"Uh...sorry?" I tell her, unsure about what to say in return. "Okay, okay, calm down people. Go back to work, stop crowding Katsumi-chan." Maki walks into the crowd as she calms those people. All of them leaves reluctantly, disappointed that they don't get to talk more to me.

That's when Maki turns to me with a pat on the shoulder. "Keep up the good work." She winks with a smirk. What the heck Maki? I look at her weirdly confused when she walks away. Junnie then barks. "Yeah, it's about Jun and Kyo, that's what's up." I roll my eyes and walked towards my working office with Junnie.

Of course, the photo shoot is still going on so everyone's busy and excited at the same time, when Jun and Kyo will come. It was finally 11:30 when the guys came in and the whole room was filled with squeals and so many commotions. I can hear them even from my office door. "Ugh, shut up, shut up, shut up." I pray out loud although that didn't helped.

Going back to my sewing, I couldn't concentrate with all the loudness from out there so I stopped sewing and slump against my chair. "What a life." I mumble under my breath. A knock on the door makes me jump right out of my seat as I'm expecting Maki to show up.

Sure enough, it was her. "Katsumi-chan, you should be out there with Jun as his personal designer remember?" She reminds me. "R-right..." I tell her as I'm picking up some working stuff and follow Maki out of the door. "Maki, I don't exactly know what being a personal designer means so can you please elaborate on that?" I ask her and she happily starts explaining things to me.

"Get to know him a bit, of course, you already know Jun but what I mean is, get to know his style. What he likes and what looks good on Jun. Jun's apparently working on a movie starring Ryo, that's why he's also here. When Jun's at his acting studio stuff, you'll be there with him as his designer."

"Wow that's a lot. What about my other works?"

"Until your work as Jun's personal designer is over, your other works will be on hold." Maki explains. "How did I end up being Jun's personal designer?" I ask her curiously. "Oh he requested it." Maki smiles. I gasp in horror the Maki turns to me with a serious face. "Now, as you know, Parm is one of the best fashion business in Japan so I don't want you to mess things up okay? But I know you can do this Katsumi-chan, I believe in you but you never know if you'll mess up."

"Yes Maki." I gave a slight nod, that's when she starts smiling and walking again, as if that had never happened.

When we got to the big room where Jun and Ryo was taking a photo shoot at, Maki gestures me to sit next to me and tells me to start working on some sketches. "Maki, what kind of movie are they making?" I softly whisper to her. Maki turns to me and gave me that 'what the heck' look. "Girl you seriously need to start watching the news."

"Sorry." I apologize. "Keep that in mind." Maki demands and I nod. "Anyways, the movie is an action movie, crimes and stuff you know? Jun and Ryo are apparently partner in crime. That's basically it." She gives me a brief summary of the movie. "I see." I gave a couple of nods then start sketching and looking at Jun. For some reason, many ideas about how Jun would look like came pouring out to me, it was incredible.

Once their photo shoot was done after an hour or so, I go up to the guys with a smile on my face. "Wow, good job out there. You guys ,yet be tired right? I'll make you coffee if you want." I offer. Jun chuckles. "I mean it wasn't that tiring but if you're offering then—"

"Make mine more creamier." Ryo cuts in. "Excuse me? She ain't making you any." Jun quickly protests.

Ryo: She didn't asked just you, she also asked me too.

Jun: Sike, that's what you heard. You must be deaf huh?

Ryo: The only deaf person here is you!

Jun: Excuse me? Call me deaf again and I'll hit you so freaking hard you'll be hurting for the rest of your life.

Ryo: Deaf!

Jun: You—

"Oh forget it, I'll just make my own coffee!" I cut in as I'm quickly walking away. "Wait! Make me coffee!" Ryo shouts behind me. "No, make me!" Jun adds. Frowning, I turn to the two of them with my arms against my hips.

     "Come on guys, you'll draw attention if you keep arguing like that. But, it's funny. I never thought I'd see you two ever act like this. It's...cute." 😊 Before I know it, I'm smiling a real smile. Seeing that, Jun and Ryo walks over to me, patting my head. "Well aren't you cute?" Ryo teases. "I told you, calling a guy cute isn't cute." Jun frowns.

I instantly froze. He...remember...?

As if reading my mind, Jun smiles. "Of course I remember, who wouldn't. That was our first date together remember?"

"First date?!" Ryo's voice rises as he's showing some jealousy on his face. "Heh, let's not start a fight here." I say, sensing Jun wanting to tease Ryo with that.