Two tall, handsome dark-haired men were seen running across Ueno park but they were at once lost to the sight as they disappeared behind the dense growth of trees leading to a rarely visited area where a statue of a man stood silently, bearing the cold wind bravely with its bronze body. And beside it were three young men, one of them with a distinctive hair colour of red and wearing a furious expression on his face.

As soon as Akira and Kaede saw the trio, they halted hesitantly before the fox-eyed man resumed his strides to face the olive-skinned man.

"Let him go," demanded Kaede lowly.

The man relented with a small smile and released the struggling redhead out of his iron-grip grasp. "With pleasure."

Immedietly Kaede pulled Hanamichi towards him and when he saw the gun on the man's hand, he pushed the redhead to stand behind him before slowly backing away. Akira joined them, sandwhiching Hanamichi from behind while keeping an eye on the kidnapper.

"Who is that guy?!" Hanamichi hissed angrily, "He said he's one of the Kanagawa!"

"He is," Akira answered slowly, "He's my brother."

Hanamichi spun around to stare at the brunette in disbelief. "Your brother!?"

Akira sighed. "Hai. Kanagawa Sinichi. He's my half-brother on my father's side."

"And just why the hell did your brother kidnap me!!??" demanded the redhead, before shouting pointedly to the much hated person who was still standing near the statue smiling that much hated smile, "AND THE DIRTY BASTARD USED A GUN!"

Akira's brother snorted. "I didn't say it was a gun."
Sinichi directed the nuzzle of the 'weapon' to the tip of his cigarette and pulled the trigger. A small flame sparked out, lighting the man's cigarette. When he was done, he pocketed the 'gun' back into his coat with a small smile on his face. As he took a drag out of his nicotene stick, he watched in amusement at the incredulous expression on the redhead's face.

"A-A lighter!?"

"Hm." Maki shrugged.

Akira quickly held onto Hanamichi before the redhead could lunge towards Sinichi. "Son of a-!"

"This was a cruel trick to play, Sinichi," Kaede said lowly.

Maki looked at the redhead who was struggling in Akira's grasp before turning back to regard the fox-eyed brunette. "I can see that he's important to you, Kaede. Imagine that. There is actually someone here who was able to break into that cold heart of yours. Someone this special is normally difficult to acquire."

"I will take care of him," Kaede said coldly.

"Ah, but will you be able to keep your head in the mean-time?" Maki asked, "Your reputation as the shrewd businessman will be compromised sooner or later. People can't think straight when their heart is affected. Human emotion is weakness. That is why I like to play with that fact to my advantage."

"What do you want? Hakuba resort? You're dreaming, Sinichi."

"You might as well give me Nanno Group while you're at it."

Kaede narrowed his eyes.

"With what I know about you now, you can be sure that I'll try something else. Something original next time."

The redhead was enraged. "Why I oughta-!"

Sinichi's husky laugh rang in the clearing before he turned and walked away, followed by his quiet companion who gave them a parting bow before he left. Hanamichi struggled anew to run after them but Akira merely tightened his grip. When the two men were gone, the brunette quickly released the redhead who spun around to yell at him.
"Your brother!? Your brother!?"

"Half-brother," Akira reminded him placatingly.

"Why is it that when I get into trouble, a Kanagawa is involved!?" cried Hanamichi in exasperation.

Akira pouted. "How could you say that? I'm not that bad. Sinichi is different."

"He's different, alright," Hanamichi continued to rant, "He held me at gun point! Okay, so it wasn't a gun - but he made me think it was!"

"Well," Akira pondered out loud, "he is one of the worst Kanagawa in the family. He's always playing these dangerous games. Sometimes we don't know whether he's for real or not. He and I don't always see eye to eye. That's why I left the house and got my own apartment. And sometimes I sleep over at Kaede's."

"Always is more like it," Hanamichi vaguely heard Kaede say. Akira shot his cousin a wounded puppy look.

Ignoring the tall brunette, Kaede turned to fully face the redhead with a serious look. "From now on, wherever you go, there should be someone to accompany you."

Hanamichi protested, "I can take care of myself.

But Kaede was firm. "You don't know anything about Sinichi. We do. Accept my protection or we can break off the deal between us right now."

Hanamichi scowled darkly before he finally relented in reluctance.
"Alright, alright. Whatever."

Kaede turned to walk away, leaving Akira and Hanamichi staring after him. Suddenly, the redhead felt an arm go around his shoulder and he could almost see the smile in the whisper. "Hey, Hana-kun. Did you see the look on Kaede's face when we went looking for you? Another priceless moment, that."

Hanamichi's grim expression softened into a smile. "Yeah. I saw."
And I'll always remember that, he added silently to himself.

The next day at school, Hanamichi stepped out of the black Benz quickly as if running out of the jaws of a shark. It was bad enough he was driven to school with a very distinctive luxurious car that dwarfed the principal's Toyota, but did Hasegawa have to stop right in front of the school gate where everyone would stare? If he knew that Kaede's employee would do that, he would have had threatened the poor man earlier into dropping him off away from school. Far, far away. The further the better.

"I'll come by later to pick you up, Sakuragi-san."

"Yeah, sure," the redhead mumbled, striding away quickly, vainly trying to ignore the other students gaping at the spectacle of a cultured person bowing respectfully at one of the students known for getting into trouble at school.

When Hanamichi finally reached his classroom he breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that no one stopped him to query about the driver. Not that they would dare, especially with a threatening look on his face.
At least people who came early didn't see-

"Hey, Sakuragi. Nice car," Yohei called out from his seat at the window. In front of him stood Haruko and Fujii, staring at him as if he was royalty who came for a visit.

Hanamichi stomped angrily towards his desk beside Yohei and growled, "It wasn't my idea!"

Haruko at once stopped staring and quickly ran to her desk in front of the classroom to fetch something from her bag. A few seconds later, she came back with a magazine in her hands and dropped it in front of Hanamichi, pointing excitedly.
"Page 27," she said.

Hanamichi made a face as he saw what magazine it was. "This is a girl's magazine. I know I'm dating a guy but you don't have to rub it in."

Haruko shook her head furiously before she picked it up and flipped it quickly to the page that she wanted.
"See here," she said, thrusting the article in front of the redhead's face, "It's about you, Kanagawa-san and Akira Sendoh."

"What does it say?" Fujii asked curiously.

"'Dream of Dreams'," Hanamichi read the title before moving on the passage, "'One of the people behind the scene from the popular new drama is Akira Sendoh's lover! And it is non other than the much publisized redhead, Sakuragi Hanamichi, the official boyfriend of Kanagawa Kaede!'"

The redhead blinked stupidly as his three friends stared at him in silence. After a few moments of digesting the information, he sputtered in disbelief, "What the hell!?"

"Two men, Sakuragi?" Yohei sniggered, "You dog!"

"Shut up, Yohei," Hanamichi snapped, "It's not true!"

Haruko wrung her hands in agitation. "But Sakuragi-kun. It fits my reading perfectly. I even did it a few times after I left the after-press-conference-party for the drama. And it stayed the same!"

"B-But Haruko..."

"Forget about the article. If my reading is true, then you won't be able to stop what will happen in the future."


~~~~

"This pisses me off!" Hanamichi ranted.

"Hahaha! Look at this one, Kaede. It said here that I'm gay. And that I'm having an affair with you!"

"What's so exciting about that?" Kaede snorted.

"Hehehe! Imagine me being gay. I love both men AND women! Lots of 'em!"

"You are a pervert since you were born."

"Are you two listening to me!?" the redhead yelled at the two Kanagawa.
Akira was sitting in a chair, laughing his head off while Kaede stood behind his cousin to read the magazine that Hanamichi brought for them.

"This is no laughing matter!" the redhead insisted.

"Aww, c'mon, Hana-kun," Akira returned good-naturedly, "It's no use getting all bent up about it. Everyone's probably read it already. All we can do is scoff and laugh at it for our sake."

"Hanamichi may be right," Kaede said, suddenly contemplative, "This may have a negative impact on Hakuba resort. That person who printed this article had the information about us. And of the play."

Akira frowned, suddenly sobre. "Sinichi?"

"Most probably," Kaede shrugged, "But at the moment, we needn't worry. The drama has been getting good reviews and rating. It's the after-show period that we need to think about."

Akira and Hanamichi fell into thoughtful silence.


~~~~

"I'm starting to understand why that article came out the way it did."

The redhead scowled at the script while Kaede stood beside him, watching Akira do a shoot of the 12th episode of the Nanno Group production.

"Hm?" Kaede said turning around.

"The synopsis said that Akira, as a businessman, became a ruthless and heartless tycoon. It said here that '...he started sleeping around with men of his stature before he met a woman whose weakness he despised, but soon fell in love of her gentleness...' Hmph... Akira's being portrayed as someone who has no moral and conscience. The person who dare write this for public viewing must be some sort of pervert."

"That pervert would be me," Kaede told him.

"Nani!?" cried the redhead. The fox-eyed young man winced, relieved that they were watching the shooting at a sound-proofed viewing room for Hanamichi's voice tend to get too loud too often.

"When this part comes out, Akira's price will drop for sure!"

"No, it won't," Kaede assured him, "I have utmost confidence in him. He will keep his reputation intact. If not eradicating the gossip that he is gay, he would at least make people believe that he is bi - which he is."

Hanamichi frowned. "But how?"

"Akira is a good actor," Kaede explained, "Whatever part he plays makes him the favourite of the show. In this drama, the lead actor has a lot of layers. Any angry words that he utters has it's reasons. Any bad action that he makes has it's reasons. A black and white drama with grey edges. And Akira is like that. That is why I trust him to make this work."

Hanamichi looked at the brunette for a moment before his face broke into a sunny grin.
"Ah, souka."

Kaede was puzzled at the smug expression on the redhead's face.

"You keep fighting with Akira, but I can see that you like him. I can go as far as to say that you admire him."

Kaede arched an eyebrow to that. "And how did you deduce that?"

Hanamichi stepped forward to gaze into the brunette's blue eyes.
"It's your eyes. Kinda like when you look at me... only different."

The redhead thought he saw a hint of red on the young man's cheek before Kaede turned away.
"I'm a businessman. It's my job to know how people behave."

Hanamichi nodded, unseen. "True. Then that means that you understand me. How I feel about you. And Akira."

Kaede turned back to regard him with an odd look on his androgynous face before he turned away again to walk out of the room. "Excuse me. I have a meeting with the director in five minutes time."

Hanamichi's grin grew wider before he made to follow the brunette.
And I'm starting to understand more of you, he thought with pleasure upon remembering that first-time experience of witnessing the naked worry on Kaede's face at Ueno park a few days ago. And it was because of him.


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