Super GALS Fan Fiction ❯ Silence for Naught ❯ Party of Two ( Chapter 10 )

AN: Sorry this update is so late! I was busy with my wedding, among other projects, but now I’m back and I promise to have more expedient updates. I have about four or five chapters left of this story. Thanks for the continued support!

Silence for Naught

Chapter Ten: Party of Two

The moment Rei and Ran were released from Yumiko’s limo, they both glared at each other before following Yumiko into the club.

For a couple hours before the party, Yumiko had hijacked them and had taken them to several places to get ready. She took them to stores and bought them clothes, and while she bought clothes for herself as well, she ordered several of her personal stylists to do their hair and make up. Ran had just enough champagne in her to let everything happen, soaking in the petting and adoration she received from random strangers. She cooed happily like a child, and Yumiko seemed pleased.

Rei, on the other hand, was his usual self, trying very hard not to let the alcohol get to him, keeping a permanent mask on his face as the events buzzed around him.

More than anything, he tried to not get entranced by how happy Ran was, and instead, he made himself be grumpy so he wouldn’t enjoy her. He always secretly enjoyed her way, but tonight he wouldn’t allow himself to. He was supposed to be mad at her because she wouldn’t let him off the hook about Aya.

And it pained him more than anything to make her angry at him, so instead, he sulked.

“Rei-chan, you’d look so much better if you just smiled,” Yumiko said, coming next to him as he slumped in the salon chair, already made up for the party. He drew his gaze away from the floor and met her eyes.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said, and Yumiko’s bright expression soon dulled. Rei glanced over at Ran, who sighed as she enjoyed her facial. “I’ve done something to her that I’m afraid she won’t forgive me for.”

Yumiko frowned. “Rei-chan…”

“I hurt one of her closest friends. To her I look like dirt,” he said. He began to get up from his chair, and he picked up his coat. “I can’t go to that party tonight, Yumiko-chan. It doesn’t feel right.” It hurts too much, he thought to himself.

Yumiko pulled on his arm. “Please don’t say that, Rei-chan.” He met Yumiko’s face again, full of confidence. He wished he had her optimism. “Just go, if not for Ran-chan, but for me.”

Rei looked dumbfounded. “But Yumiko-chan, I’ll attend many of your wrap parties when I tour with you.”

“Well, that’s true.” Yumiko laughed and gave him a sly grin. “But I really think if you don’t go tonight, you’ll regret it.”

So, despite his better judgment, he continued on with the party. Yumiko’s words had rewound in Rei’s brain for some time until the party started, and while trying very hard to avert his attention from Ran, Yumiko’s party was turning out to be just as he expected.

Inside, Rei loathed being here; he hated having to be around people when he was so angry and hurt and confused about Aya and Ran. On the outside, Rei was more than willing to converse or dance with anyone who would approach him, and he kept his gentlemanly demeanor up with the dancers and staff he had worked with during the video shoot. Many of them already knew him, and he was sure Yumiko had spread around a pity secret on his behalf. Many of the girls were almost too obnoxiously kind to him.

“Hey, Rei-kun, come dance with me,” said one of Yumiko’s dancers, with fake orange tanned skin that horrified him. He didn’t think it could get any worse until she pulled him onto the dance floor. He grimaced through one annoying Para Para beat with her, and then politely excused himself as he made a beeline to the punch table.

Upon hovering over the bowl to get a drink, he immediately noticed that the party punch was spiked.

“Don’t drink too much of that, Otohata,” slurred Ran behind him. He put down the ladle in the punch bowl and turned to meet her. Her eyes were already drooping, and he’d guess that she had already tried the punch herself.

She staggered over to him, and Rei stiffened when he felt her arm brush against his shoulder. Then, she clapped him on the back. “I, for one, will have some more.”

“Kotobuki, don’t you think you’ve had enough?” He gently took the drink from her hand, and she slowly looked up and glared at him.

“Hey, that’s mine!” But no matter how inebriated she was, Ran still had the fire in her voice.

Rei had a quick thought and suddenly made a defying move. He chugged the remainder of Ran’s drink. She let out a squeal in outrage after watching him, and Rei made a bitter face.

“Gees, that is spiked, and badly.” Regardless, he filled up Ran’s glass and continued drinking. In a strange way, he rather enjoyed drinking out of her used glass, his lips pressing where hers once did. Ran, however, was too distracted to notice such a small thing.

She turned to say something to him, and her mouth shut after he placed a soft hand on the top of her head. “I’m cutting you off for the night.”

“What! You can’t do that! You’re not my dad, stupid!” Ran protested. Rei lightly grabbed her arm and directed her to an empty table and stools. Thankfully, she was too busy shooting her mouth off at him to physically protest his direction. She plopped down in the empty seat while he sat next to her.

“Kotobuki, do you really want to go home to your family full of police officers this drunk? You’re still in high school, after all. If they catch you, you may never get to work a job like this again.”

She huffed at him. “When did you suddenly become my conscience?” She looked away from his penetrating eyes and stared at the wet ring from a glass on the table. She pouted.

Rei sighed heavily. “I’m not trying to be. I know you already have a conscience, Kotobuki, you just fail to use it sometimes.”

“Damn, you’re rude,” she whined, slamming her hands on the table. Rei smirked at her as he observed her drunken flushed face and mean attitude. She caught his stare, and threw him a nasty look.

“Why do you get to drink when I don’t?” Ran accused. Rei chuckled at her. He didn’t think he was too drunk, yet he was starting to feel the strong effects. He took another swig of his drink.

He looked at Ran pointedly. “I can drink because my parents are out of town. Remember? So who cares if I get smashed and end up passing out on a bar stool? No one will come looking for me.”

He took another drink, and he noticed Ran had stopped her whining to stare at him in silence. He met her expression and noticed her concern.

“That sounds so lonely… and boring.” She tacked on that last part just to sound antagonistic. To her, Rei thought that showing him her soft side had probably felt unnatural.

“I make no complaints,” Rei said, and after finishing his drink, a shot lady put too greenish colored shots in front of them. Swiftly, he took Ran’s and drank them both before she could even make a peep.

“I never knew you were like this,” Ran huffed again. “You’re so clean cut all of the time. The Rei Otohata I know would scoff at this kind of stuff.”

“Well, maybe you don’t really know Rei Otohata,” he replied sharply. He looked away and could still feel her eyes on him. “Anyway, I don’t want to be here tonight, so this helps…I guess.” He sighed and slammed the shot glass down. “It doesn’t matter.”

Ran said nothing, and Rei turned to her with a weak smile. “Why don’t you go out and dance. You’ll sweat the alcohol out.”

“What about you?” Ran said. For a moment, Rei thought she really cared. He shook his head.

“I’m leaving. I’m going to walk home and do some thinking. You go have fun,” he said with tones of defeat, but he was trying very hard to be noble about this. Ran looked at him skeptically.

“Don’t you dare skip out on my party, Rei-chan!” said a voice behind him. Rei and Ran both turned around to see Yumiko glaring at them, her fists on her hips.

“Yumiko-chan,” Rei said, surprised and a little disappointed she had caught him before he could make a run for it.

Yumiko stared at him furiously, and she pulled at his arm. “If you won’t dance with anyone else here, at least dance with Ran-chan.”

“But…” Rei said. Ran was watching them both with awe.

“You guys are such mopes. You’re making my party look like a bore. I have music critics here, you know. At least you could do is fake that you’re having fun,” Yumiko chided.

“Hey, I was just…Look, Kotobuki is drunk.” Rei tried to explain, but Yumiko would have none of it. She pulled at Ran’s arm too, who dutifully followed the instructions of her idol.

Yumiko, who was stronger than she looked, marched the two of them out to the dance floor and slapped them together. She signaled to the DJ, who then started playing a slow, hypnotic tune.

Things only got worse when the DJ announced that the dance was for couples. Rei groaned, but Ran was still bewildered, hanging onto him. Her eyes blinked several times in surprise.

She did not budge however. Rei hoped she wasn’t going to get sick.

He groaned when a very large ache throbbed in his temple.

“There!” Yumiko said proudly as their bodies started swaying automatically to the music. “Perfect,” the pop singer announced. Rei glowered at her.

“You know what would make this perfect?” Rei asked sarcastically. He didn’t mean to get short with Yumiko, but forcing him and Ran onto the dance floor together was dirty and low, especially how he was feeling about the girl tonight.

“Yes?” Yumiko asked, and not intimidated in the least by his tone.

“A drink.” Rei snorted, to which Yumiko nodded, snapped her fingers, and a drink was quickly handed to Rei. He removed one of his hands from Ran’s waist to retrieve it. He gave Yumiko a half-grimace of a smile. “Thanks.”

Yumiko left quickly when her work was finally done. Rei couldn’t help but finish off his new drink quickly. Ran’s breathing against his neck was distracting, as was her warm body swaying against his.

He was so flustered and excited by her closeness that he wanted to scream – and the alcohol would spin him out of control if he didn’t contain himself.

“Kotobuki,” he whispered. He heard a low ‘what’ and then more heavy breathing. He wasn’t even sure if she was paying attention to him.

“You don’t have to do this. I know you hate me right now,” Rei said, trying to release from her. Suddenly, he felt very fuzzy and he was scared that if he let her go, he’d lose his balance and fall over. He gripped her arms and pulled her close, his headache only getting worse. The background around them became a blur.

“I don’t hate you,” she said, her voice low, but she didn’t seem like herself. They continued to sway, but the music had changed.

“Kotobuki….” His hand fell to her hips. He tried desperately to keep the touch platonic, but his mind didn’t want to stop there. “I need to…”

Suddenly, she shifted to meet his face, and in her eyes, she appeared more in control. She was quiet for some reason, and he wondered if she was starting to sober up. She gave him a perplexed look.

“I’m sad, Otohata. When I found out that you liked me, everything changed. Our friendships changed,” she said dejectedly. Rei couldn’t have felt guiltier. If there was one thing he understood about Ran above all else, it was that she valued her friendships. By breaking up with Aya, and with Tatsukichi leaving her, things probably seemed so unfixable to her.

“You didn’t have to mind me, Kotobuki. I was happy just being on the sidelines. I never expected that you would…”

“Shut up. You could have worked things out with Aya. You could have learned to care for her in time,” Ran said heatedly.

Rei sighed. “Then you really don’t know me.” His head was spinning. Convincing Ran was becoming a losing battle for him. “I would never do that to anyone and treat them as second best. It’s not fair to the other person and you know it.”

“But why me?” Ran demanded. She looked lively, as if she was regaining her senses amidst the alcohol.

Rei smiled at her weakly. His hand, though he could barely feel the muscles anymore, reached up and cupped her jaw. “It’s simple really.” Ran watched him, expecting him to say more, but he really couldn’t hold out any longer.

The alcohol hit him, and he started to get a strange feeling in his stomach. Ran’s confused face in front of him began to get darker and darker.

Then, she gasped, and Rei felt warm as her breath fell over his face.

--

“Yumiko-chan!” Ran yelled among the gasps on the dance floor. Rei had fallen on her, and she struggled to keep on her feet as his full weight was pressed against her.

Suddenly, Yumiko emerged from the stunned crowd. Ran gave her a pleading look with a sheepish smile.

“Otohata passed out,” Ran said.

Yumiko frowned. “I’ll have to get the car to take him home.” She looked over at her boyfriend Makoto. “I should take him. I’m responsible. He’s too young to be drinking so much.”

Her boyfriend nodded and gave her shoulder a squeeze. Yumiko smiled cheerfully to all her guests. “I’ll be back though, so everyone, please enjoy the party.” She turned to her boyfriend and whispered in his ear, which Ran had barely caught. “Try to explain things to the music critics. They don’t need to know how young Rei is.” Makoto nodded, and soon he had on his ‘business’ face as he tried to soothe the crowd.

“Ran-chan, you can enjoy the party. I’ll take care of Rei-chan,” Yumiko said, pulling at Rei’s arm to try to support him. Two of her bouncers swooped from the shadows to assist her.

“Wait,” Ran said, feeling lousy that Rei was like this. She’d never seen him unconscious like this. He looked so vulnerable. She glowered at his sleepy form. “Stupid Otohata.” She then turned to Yumiko. “I’ll help. Your bouncers don’t need to come.”

Yumiko smiled at her. Ran pinched Rei’s cheek and said to him, “You can’t talk back now, so I’m just going to say, Otohata, that you’re a stupid jerk for drinking so much.”

Ran snorted and shot a look to Yumiko. “Let’s get him home.”

And the two girls supported Rei out to the limo waiting for them. The driver helped them tuck Rei inside, and Yumiko took his hand as he leaned against her shoulder. Ran watched him sleep from the other side of the seats.

‘Stupid Otohata, why’d you have to do that?’ she thought. ‘Why’d you have to drink because of me?’

Suddenly, Ran felt like she understood this boy less than ever.

TBC…