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♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
Aran has often been told by people that they envy him for his job. Getting to hang around top idols and traveling the world with them while getting paid to do so does seem like the kind of glamorous, ideal job that most people would aspire for. But truth be told, it is a tedious and headache-inducing job 90% of the time.
Just trying to keep the twins in line is enough to drive a man insane. If they aren’t busy cracking jokes and playing pranks on others, they are too preoccupied with arguing with each other. At some point, Aran has gotten used to apologizing for 20 minutes straight for the disturbances during photoshoots or MV shootings caused by the twins refusing to be on the same scene together because of some petty reason or the other.
Suna may seem easier to handle, but Aran has to make sure Suna doesn’t mess around too much with the official social media account. Aran has constantly been changing the password to the official twitter account, but somehow Suna always manages to find out what it is. After a couple of days, an unflattering photo of one of the members or a highly zoomed in photo to Atsumu’s nose or Osamu’s ear would be posted on the account.
Kita often keeps the other 3 in line (for the most part); schedules are slightly less of a pain when Kita is around, and the other 3 at least pretend to behave when Kita’s watching them. But sometimes, Kita himself is the source of a prank, as unlikely as it may seem. One time, he had been offered a banana that strangely tasted like vinegar by Osamu, who swore the one he had eaten from the same bunch tasted normal. He found a bottle of water nearby and drank some, only to find out it also tasted like vinegar. When reprimanding the members to find out who pulled the prank, Kita had looked over to the twins and Aran also found himself thinking it was one of them. But after a long-winded investigation, they all found out it had been Kita behind the prank. After that, Aran learned that he has to pull himself together and watch out for all four of the members.
But despite all the trials and tribulations involved in being the manager of I*4, he still finds himself caring deeply for the members, especially since they treat him more as a friend than as a manager. Sure, it is troublesome that he often ends up playing along with the twins’ jokes or having his photo posted on the official account by Suna, and that he’d had a few existential crises after some strangely deep conversations with Kita, but maybe overall, his job isn’t so bad.
♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
The group had a fansign scheduled that day. Usually the members of the group are well behaved (or at least better behaved than usual) in front of their fans, and it isn’t so bad, but Aran had received a text message that morning that Kita will be skipping out since he had caught a cold. And so Aran braces himself for the chaos involving the other 3 members of I*4.
He arrives at the dorm 30 minutes earlier than their scheduled pick-up just to make sure all members are already awake (they’d had too many close calls since Atsumu had the tendency to press snooze and resist waking up) but to his surprise, all four were ready to go.
Before they leave the dorm, Kita had walked into the living room–wearing a mask and covered up with a heavy blanket–to say “Aran, I trust you to keep them in line” in between coughs. Aran nods and promises that the fansign would go smoothly, and Kita gives a small bow before heading back to his room.
The trip to the fansign venue is strangely quiet; the twins aren’t arguing today, though he can hear the sound of Atsumu sighing every once in a while, and he can hear hushed whispers being exchanged between Suna and Osamu.
While Atsumu is in a dejected mood the whole trip to the venue, he brightens up once he’s in front of the fans. But Aran can tell it’s his stage smile, not a real one.
The fans don’t seem to notice however, and the fansign proceeds smoothly. Every once in a while, the twins will crack a joke or two for their fans, and Suna poses for a selfie. The three indulge their fans by wearing the props that have been brought to the fansign, and at one point Aran lets them place a cutesy hat with bunny ears on his head (to the squealing of fans, who also took pictures of him wearing said cute hat).
Once the fansign ends though, Atsumu is in a gloomy mood again. On the ride home Atsumu vetoes Osamu’s request to stop by a restaurant in favor of going straight home and instead of putting up a fight, Osamu quickly relents, much to Aran’s surprise.
Upon reaching the dorm, Atsumu immediately puts on a face mask and heads straight for Kita’s room. Aran looks to Osamu and Suna for an explanation, but the other two simply shrug, and Aran decides to leave it at that.
♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
“Were ya well behaved during the fansign? Didn’t give Aran too much trouble?” Kita rasps out.
Atsumu nods and attempts to move closer to him, but Kita motions for him to stay away.
“You’ll get sick, Atsumu,” Kita mumbles, and even though he’s also wearing a mask, Atsumu could tell Kita is frowning. Atsumu settles for sitting at the foot of Kita’s bed, which seems to be fine with the other man.
“Ya feelin’ better?” Atsumu’s question is met by a cough from Kita, who weakly nods.
“It’s not as bad as yesterday, though my throat still hurts. I can’t talk much, so tell me ‘bout yer day?”
Kita is snuggled in a thick blanket with only his head peeking out, and it takes everything within Atsumu to restrain himself from throwing all caution to the wind to cuddle with Kita. Still, he knows the other man wouldn’t like it at all if he got sick too, so he stays put on his side of the bed.
“It’s mostly the same as with our usual fansigns. And some of the fans who show up all the time were there and were askin’ how yer doin’ so we said yer down with a cold but ya’ll get better soon. There’s an empty seat ‘cause they still prepared four seats so we asked Aran ta sit down with us at some point and some of the fans even asked for his autograph, made him wear cutesy hats too.” Atsumu reaches for his phone, and scrolls to a picture of Aran blushing brightly while donning a princess tiara. He shows it to Kita, who chuckles and says, “It suits him, don’t ya think? Next time we should just ask for five seats, he can sit with us all the time. Our fans like him too anyway.”
Atsumu nods in reply. “Yeah, we should drag him along for when we hafta wear cute stuff for fans, I think he secretly likes it too he’s just not sayin’ it out loud. Oh yeah, durin’ the fansign some of yer fans got ya some more fox plushies, I kept them in my room for now. Ya can add them to yer display cabinet. I also saved the post-its meant for ya, so that you can go through them when yer feelin’ better.”
“Thank you, Atsumu.” Even though Kita was wearing a mask, Atsumu can envision the soft smile gracing Kita’s lips. He smiles in return.
“Hey, anythin’ for ya. I really missed ya a while ago, ya know?”
“It’s been less than a day, Atsumu,” Kita says with a laugh, and Atsumu whines, “Still too long without ya.”
Atsumu continues to recall the details of the fansign–from how they had a bunch of overseas fans teach them greetings in their own languages, and how their fans asked them to do a manzai skit and Aran had (of course) indulged in playing tsukkomi –and Kita periodically laughs and coughs in turns.
Soon, Kita’s eyelids are too heavy for him to keep them open, and Atsumu can’t help but smile fondly at his sleeping form. Atsumu shuffles closer to place a kiss on his forehead and removes Kita’s mask so that he can sleep better. He tucks Kita into bed before leaving the room and closing the lights.