Highly Desired

Author’s notes:

This is a yaoi

It takes place in both Japan as well as on a US college campus (dorm)

All sex scenes take place between men who are 18 yrs of age or older

The character Ryuji is referred to by several different names (as per Japanese custom) but it is important to the story that the two main characters (Ryuji and Takahashi) don’t recognize each other by name in the beginning of the story.

Ryuji is also (Emerald-stage name, Emi-pet name twist for stage name, Ito-last name, Wolf-childhood nickname, Ryu-intimate name pet name from his real first name)

Words:

Mattaku – kind of like ‘good grief, damn it boy, for fucks sakes’

This is the ‘cherry popping’ submission, so please feel free to tell me what you think.

I am not Japanese. If you are a Japanese person and find anything that is incorrect, please feel free to send a msg and I’ll make corrections. I’m always willing to learn. Thank you in advance 🙂

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Chapter One: Hot Mic

“Okay Takahashi, Aaaarrre Yyyyyou Rrreeeaady?” The announcer sang to a flustered Takahashi.

“Uh, yes, I think so.” Takahashi stammered.

The studio lights flashed a brilliant blinding white light before a loud obnoxious siren signalled the beginning of the final round. The announcer pulled out his cards and addressed the crowd.

“And Aaararrre YYYOOUU Rrreeeaaady!! He sang to the crowd

The crowd replied “YES WE’RE READY!” in a unified shout.

Confetti fell from the ceiling littering everyone in colorful streamers while the loudly dressed announcer whirled around to face Takahashi.

“So as a reminder, you have ten seconds per question to give an answer. The time you don’t use is added to the next question so you have a total of 1 minute to answer all five questions! The time starts after I ask the question and stops once you give an answer. Your answer should be given within a few seconds so you give the first answer that pops into your head, got it? Think long and you’ll answer wrong!” He gave a big cheesy smile before plucking the cards that were in his hand.

“Oh and as usual, the audience made up these questions so if you want to complain, you can talk to them!” He pointed at the crowd who laughed and waved their pom poms.

Takahashi glanced at the other members of his singing group who all shared the long table with microphones sitting in front of each of them. This was not the sort of thing he had any experience with. Being on stage to sing or even give a speech was normal, but a silly talk show like this one? He couldn’t help but wonder how bad was their standing in the J-Pop world that they were being encouraged to show up on a crazy game show? Who even watches stuff like this? He thought absently when his attention was snapped back to the announcer who was now blaring into the microphone.

“Aaaand first question!” The announcer sang, “What is your favorite thing to put in your mouth!”

Takahashi kept his eyes trained on the microphone in front of him.

“Uh, Rice.” Takahashi felt an inward groan although his face smiled at the stupid answer which was rewarded with light laughter from the audience.

“Where did you lose your virginity?” The announcer shouted with a half step dance to make the audience giggle and make ‘oooh’ noises.

“Huh?” Takahashi looked up

“Seven seconds.” The announcer coaxed.

“Tokyo.” Takahashi said to a now chuckling audience. It was the first place he could think of. This wasn’t going very well. He could already feel his face heating up.

“What time do you bathe at night?”

Takahashi put his hand on his forehead and shook it back and forth, this was ridiculous.

“8pm.” He spoke quickly. He could almost feel beads of sweat starting to form near the top of his hairline. He knew his answers would be stupid, but that was better than saying something that could be a real problem later.

“Who do you want to kiss?”

“Hu..”

“Hurry Takahashi, only six seconds!”

“uh, Emerald!” He blurted to a surprised audience.

The hall erupted with shocked whispers, hushed little “oh my’s” and people who were clearly not expecting that answer. Takahashi’s neck and face morphed into a tomato red bobble head toy as his band mates began laughing their asses off at his expense.

The announcer laughed,

“Okay okay everyone! Calm down.. Everyone has their secret fantasies.” He gave an exaggerated wink that left people laughing again.

“What is your favorite animal?” He crooned as if trying to smooth over the obvious discomfort.

“A parrot!” Takahashi almost yelled in an attempt to get the audience to forget about his last answer.

“Time!” the voice rang from the booth nearby.

“Did he answer all five?” The announcer asked while looking toward the booth.

“Yep! He wins this round! Congratulations!” Came the voice from the booth.

The announcer was now in front of the long table leaning toward Takahashi.

“Now you know before we can continue, you have to clarify the answer that has left our audience speechless.”

Takahashi groaned which was apparently picked up on mic since several audience members began shifting in anticipation or giggling as if sharing his nervousness.

The announcer leaned in as if preparing for an intimate conversation and lowered his voice even though he was still using the microphone.

“Soooo Emerald huh? You mean Emerald the model?” He looked over his shoulder a moment and made a face at the audience before continuing, “You mean Emerald, the MALE model right?” he emphasized to make it clear to his audience.

Takahashi tried to laugh it off and turn it into a joke.

“Wait, wait!” He continued a small giggle while waving his hands around defensively “It was just the name that popped in my head! I probably saw his picture or something before coming on the show!” He laughed hoping the audience would laugh with him.

The announcer laughed lightly before moving toward the 2nd lead, his ever faithful Ray who typically shared a mic when a duet was going to occur.

“So Ray, did you know your lead singer over there dreams of hot guys he wants to kiss?”

He wiggled his bushy eyebrows making them bounce up and down causing the audience to erupt in laughter.

Takahashi was mortified but tried his best not to show it.

Ray laughed and shook his head allowing his long red hair to fly in a million directions.

“I doubt he really wants to kiss Emerald, but to be fair, Emerald does look a bit like a chick.”

The audience laughed a bit louder while murmuring in agreement.

Takahashi silently thanked Ray for the attempted save.

Chin, one of the back up baritones reached over to poke Ray lightly,

“I bet we know who you would want to kiss.” He wiggled his eyebrows mimicking the announcer causing the audience to join in the playful banter.

The announcer moved back toward Takahashi

“So, you and Emerald huh? Well at least you two would make an adorably cute couple!”

The game show drummer played the short ‘comic rim shot’ before the announcer danced around the stage to tally the score and announce the prizes they had won.

Their competition, an all girl band, sat at the table near theirs. They made faces, giggled and threw little rubber chickens at the guys after the announcer let them know they had lost the game and could toss chickens at the winners.

Takahashi tried to maintain a neutral medium sized smile to keep the attention on the jokes and antics and away from him. He had a sinking feeling that this was going to become a PR nightmare.

He was hoping against hope that this whole thing would be seen as a slip of the tongue and nothing more.

He had no such luck.

By the end of the week, it was all the tabloids could talk about. After browsing several magazine covers in the quick shop store near the entrance of their dorm, he was worried and irritated. Granted they were finally on a magazine cover and it was pretty cool seeing his face so close to Emerald’s on so many of them, but he couldn’t see how this was going to be a good thing or work in his favor.

His group, Mozu-Taka, was promoted as being a group of sexy young men who crooned love ballads to teenage girls. How would they clean up a borderline confession of their lead singer being gay?! He swore under his breath, he knew the band needed publicity to get them higher in the recognition department, but this wasn’t the publicity he had signed on for.

By the beginning of the following week, his manager called him into the office. After putting a ‘luck’ charm in his back pocket he gave a silent prayer before entering the room. He’d never been called into the manager’s office before.. Not in the whole eight years he’d been with Mozu!

“Hi Takahashi, take a seat please.” Nakamura said without looking up from his desk.

He continued shuffling a few pieces of paper around while his security guard remained stock still to the right of the long cherry wood desk with the scratch glass protective covering centered on top of it to keep pens and scissors from nicking the expensive wood.

Takahashi took the seat offered and folded his hands in his lap. His right thumb pressed over his left thumb in a nervous stroking manner to keep his legs from twitching. He had seen the manager a few times, but never close up or face to face like this.

Normally each band had a representative of sorts and that was who they dealt with all the time. For Mozu-Taka, it was Deku, who was a pretty laid back sort of guy who never got too personal with any group he worked with. With him it was always all business all the time, well except when anyone had a question about sex or girls.. Then he was all ears!

It was a little unnerving that Deku wasn’t there to back him up. He bit his lip unconsciously chewing on it wondering vaguely if he were going to be fired. That thought hadn’t crossed his mind until he realised he was there alone, like really seriously alone!

Takahashi looked up toward the manager again when he noticed the guy had stopped shuffling papers and was examining his face.

“You still have a sellable face, which was one reason you were chosen for Mozu. I just finished reviewing your team’s overall stats. To be frank, you guys have been doing this for ten years although you’ve been here eight according to your contract, but overall, you guys have not really produced the kind of sales we expected from you.”

He tapped the desktop with his index finger as if forcing Takahashi’s attention onto the expansive desk that separated them.

“The board members had been considering if it were cost effective to renew your contracts this upcoming season because frankly you guys aren’t really standing out. You’re not losing money for us yet, but the other groups are out selling yours in almost all markets.”

He sat back again and searched Takahashi’s face for a reaction. Not seeing the results he desired, he continued talking using a firm businesslike tone.

“The board members had some major decisions to make regarding Mozu in our last meeting, which was about a week ago now. The first decision involved putting you guys in a 6 month contract which is similar to probation status. This is of course to see if you guys can compete with the other J-pop groups that are popping up out there. I know competition is rough, but we can’t throw good money after bad, you know.” He sucked in a breath and reached into his drawer to retrieve a cigar which he examined as if it were his first time seeing one.

“Second, we’re moving your group from Deku to Yamamoto. Apparently part of your slow growth is due to his laid back policies when it comes to his management style. Don’t worry though, he’s not being fired. We’ve just decided that your group needs a firmer hand in management style. Apparently you guys aren’t self starters like some of Deku’s other teams. You guys aren’t hungry enough, like you don’t really want it.”

He pulled out an expensive gold plated lighter and lit the cigar with a considerable amount of effort from his fat fingers that were attached to what almost appeared to be ‘baby hands’.

Once he got it going, he took a long pull as if smoking a cigarette before setting the fat smoking tube onto the edge of an ashtray. He coughed a moment making his eyes turn red, then smacked himself on the chest a few times.

Takahashi watched with more than a little apprehension. Yes, he was the lead singer for Mozu which for some reason translated to the public as him being the leader of the group overall. He never saw himself as the leader, in fact the guy who started the group had always been the leader. Lucky bastard, no one ever honed in on him with crazy shit like this. Was the manager going to fire the whole group and expect Takahashi to break the news to everyone? He wasn’t a negotiator or anything so it wasn’t like he would know what to say about any of this to the Mozu team or to management! Takahashi squirmed a bit uncomfortably in his seat, he could almost hear his heartbeat pound in his chest like a hammer hitting the final nail in his inevitable coffin.

To his surprise, he heard a low rumble that appeared to be a chuckle from the manager. The noise started to grow like someone revving up an engine. Bravely bringing his eyes to eye level with the manager, Takahashi watched the fat man’s jaws swell into round cherry swirls of giddiness as he was unable to contain his laughter.

“Who the hell knew that ‘gay’ was the new keyword that would throw you guys onto the charts!” His laughter had swelled into a coughing fit which he quickly controlled by slowing himself down and taking a few deep breaths.

As if on cue, a middle aged woman entered the room bearing a tray of tea cups, a small kettle, a couple of water bottles and tiny finger cookies. She meticulously placed the items on the table then backed out of the room while keeping her eyes on the floor the whole time. Takahashi marvelled at her skill. That wasn’t something you see everyday.

The older man chuckled again while grabbing a finger sized cookie and shoving the whole thing in his mouth. Takahashi had to look away from the blatant display of general bad manners momentarily until he heard the manager’s gruff cookie filled voice.

“Go ahead, help yourself! Your slip of the tongue may have just saved your little band from extinction.” He laughed again as Takahashi reached for the bottled water unsure he could handle pretending to enjoy a tea or choking down a dry ass cookie.

“In case you’re curious, your group managed to crack the top 20 searched groups this past week which basically puts you out of probation status and back into another regularly renewed contract. Granted, it’s only three years this time but if you milk this little scandal you’ve created, you guys might make a bit more money from this!”

The water bottle had stopped midway between chest and mouth when the old guy had made his laughing declaration. All Takahashi heard was, ‘contract renewed’! He could have shouted for joy but knew to maintain his professionalism. Remembering for a moment that he was holding a drink, he closed the bottle cap and set it gently on the tray. The old guy was happily flipping through a pile of magazines he had on the far side of his desk.

“Of all the guys in the world, you pick Emerald!” He laughed again and shook his head. “Damn, completely brilliant! I don’t think I would have thought of that myself!” He looked up and straightened in his chair to peer into Takahashi’s face.

“Okay so really, are you gay? Is this an actual crush or is this a publicity stunt?” He put the magazine down and leaned back in his chair. “Honestly, I don’t care one way or the other, I just need to know how to spin this. It would suck to get your audience worked up only for you to announce you don’t like guys when it’s all said and done you know?”

Takahashi swallowed so hard he could feel his eardrums swimming for a moment.

“Well, Sir. I don’t think I’m gay. I don’t really know for certain but um.” He looked at his hands again, this was going to be hard to explain without giving this guy a total wrong impression.

The manager shook his head. “So you’re a virgin?” He raised a brow in disbelief.

Takahashi cleared his throat lightly, now this was getting into muddy water for real!

“Um, no sir. I’m not a virgin… or anything. I mean I’ve had sex but..”

The manager seemed slightly irritated.

“Mattaku! Speak up boy! You’re a fucking singing celebrity and you’re hemming and hawing like a school girl! You do know half your songs promote sex right?” He rubbed his temples impatiently

“Let me clarify while reminding you of what has just occurred. That little slip up or stunt you pulled put Mozu-Taka higher in the name recognition charts. Your little off hand comment has worked wonders for our public relations department. Your band has gone from spot 45 up to 25 already on the overall site recognition chart. Search engine data shows a more than 65% increase in things related to the band, the members, you and of course Emerald. In a nutshell son, this means you had better come up with satisfactory answers that will keep this ball rolling in the right direction. If you haven’t had sex, maybe you should go get laid so you can add that to some sort of back story if this thing blows up! This is EMERALD we’re talking about! You can’t get much more publicity than that!”

Takahashi’s eyes widened with the unexpected revelation.

Who knew that a guy implying he wants to kiss another guy on a stupid B rated game show, could create such a great amount of interest in such a short period of time! Of course the bigger issue, how was he going to explain this to Ryuji (Emerald), for that matter, to his brother! Takahashi’s thoughts were already spiralling, this was good but.. not good. Things could get real ugly unless he found a way to fix this before it got out of hand.

The old fat guy was steadily filling his mouth with cookies by the handful while continuing to talk around them which sent a constant spray of crumbs spattering the table.

“I’m mentioning it, because I intend to find a way to milk this to put you guys near the top of the chart.” He continued talking, which left Takahashi thinking he had probably missed half of what this guy had said. The old man finally stopped eating and leaned back in his chair while taking labored breaths. He grabbed another magazine that featured Emerald on the front cover. Apparently it was from some sort of Halloween special in which the green eyed god sat on a barrel with his legs spread wide while holding some sort of candy on a stick up to his lips but not going inside his mouth. There was no missing the implication in that scene. Takahashi looked away for fear that he’d spring a boner and get stuck in this chair for another twenty minutes.

“Hmm, yes.” He nodded while looking at the pictures as if this was the first time he had seen this very young popular model. “Yes, we can work with this. If we can create a little love story it would increase your recognition and sales exponentially. I’m just glad you mentioned someone who is already very popular.” He drummed his fingers on the table while looking up at the ceiling a bit lost in thought.

“Although getting Emerald’s agent to go along with this could be problematic. His agent really treats him like a child, I’m not sure I’ve even heard him have a single interview!”

Takahashi was dumbstruck, he swallowed hard.

“Um Sir, what do you mean by ‘love story’? As in you want our fans to think I’m gay?”

The manager laughed

“Well if that works, sure why not! But seriously, I’m thinking more along the lines of you having a sort of boy crush that was unattainable or something like that, you know garner sympathy. I mean, the guys are right, Emerald looks like a girl so it’s not unusual for a man to be attracted to him while still remaining hetero you know?”