Chapter Text
October 5, 2020 | Monday | 3:38 PM
“This is turning out to be one mystery Storadi we're filming…”
Jesse came inside the recording booth and took a seat beside Shin who was checking his phone quickly before hiding it in his pocket. Across them, Kouchi was checking the program outline for this week's Storadi and Juri was waiting for the cue of the staff to start filming. It was clear that they were scattered and definitely not ready to start clean for any of their YouTube videos.
"Okay, guys. We're ready to start," Juri nodded, held up his hands and nodded to the group. No one gave any indication that they heard nor did they look at him.
"On one, two, three... Hello, we're SixTONES!"
It was a mash of Jesse's trademark memeable face, Shin's overly excited grin, and Kouchi nodding excessively with Juri on close up, his forehead almost bumping on the camera he's holding.
"We're just 2/3 SixTONES today since Hokuto and Kyomo are at an interview today," Juri said while looking at the group.
"We usually don't do this," Kouchi replied. He crossed his arms and titled his head. Shin nodded in agreement.
"Well, we've always done things with all 6 of us so this is a different kind of Storadi we're having."
Jesse shot his hand up quickly and stood up. "Yieah! And since Hokuto and Kyomo are not here, we can start talking about them without them knowing. Nyahahahahaha!"
"Well, we did do something like that in our last Storadi. Though the pair was just in the booth in front of us," Juri chuckled.
"It makes it more exciting if the people are not here so we can talk freely," Jesse said, his expression showing complete satisfaction at the idea.
"I think it could be a punishment game for Hokuto and Kyomo who couldn't join us today because they went with their interview today," Juri smiled.
"Let's just not mention we did this and surprise them. It's very SixTONES of us," Shin peeked from Jesse's shoulder.
"No, you're just bullies," Kouchi deadpanned. Everyone laughed at him, calling him bitter for being the bullied one most of the time.
Juri started to solicit topics from the group about what they should talk about. There were a lot of crazy questions from Kyomo's top bizarre remarks to ranking Hokuto's trousers from nay to yay. In the end, they settled with a serious topic.
"Surprisingly, we jumped on a very serious topic," Jesse said. Kouchi rolled his eyes thinking that he brought this upon everyone there's no way for Jesse to work around past this with a gag.
"Well, this could be a service for the general public," Juri replied, giving a thumbs up. "Lots of people have been asking and speculating what's up with those two. We’ve had the face-to-face video back in our Junior Channel. So let's talk about instances where Hokuto and Kyomo directly interacted. Yay!"
Kouchi leaned forward and mock whispered, "I don't think they even had direct interaction. It's usually me who's with Kyomo, you know?"
Shin peeked at Jesse's shoulder again and replied, "True, but I did see them together after work once!"
"Ehhhhh?"
Kouchi, Jesse, and Juri were surprised. They urged Shin to explain and Shin just nudged Jesse backwards since his big build has been blocking off his view.
"It was I think 2 months ago? I saw them in front of the building. They had their heads close together and whispering."
"This is as juicy as it gets!" Jesse laughed loudly.
"Are you even sure it's them?" Kouchi wanted to make sure since he couldn't remember when it could have happened.
"Yeah, it was them. Jesse and Kouchi left early and Juri and I were left at the dressing room. But Juri left soon afterwards since he had to meet someone that day at a yakiniku restaurant..."
"Ah, I remember! I was meeting Fuma for dinner that day. It was late August. I remember now," Juri replied.
"So there. It was when Juri left that I saw them when I packed up for the day. I hid behind a pillar because it was getting awkward."
Jesse slapped Shin's shoulder which surprised him. "Why'd you go shy at that moment, man?"
"..."
The pregnant silence made Shin squirm. Juri raised his eyebrow, urging him to speak.
"I think it was a moment I wasn't supposed to see, is all," Shin replied sighing.
Jesse stood up and wrapped his arms around him, rubbing his arms furiously.
"Ahhh, this is so serious. Why are we talking about this?"
"You asked for this," Kouchi said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
"Ah, but that's something you do rarely see. I mean, they never were left alone in the same room together. The last time that happened was during our previous Shokura performance. Also late August, by the way," Juri said. The tension in the room was getting heavy and he tried to diffuse it by being calm – keep the flow going. There was hesitation to go through with this topic but they had no choice.
"Hmm... I do remember Kyomo messaging me nonstop about it," Kouchi replied and started up at the ceiling. He remembered the panicked messages that time. It was cute, he thought. But thinking about it now, what was up with Kyomo that day, he thought. The messages were not his usual.
"Okay, guys. I have something to share. This is something I didn't bother mentioning but two weeks ago, Taiga came rushing inside the dressing room after rehearsals," Jesse said uncharacteristically, sitting still on his seat.
"What about it then?" Kouchi looked pointedly at Jesse, asking him to continue. The members were really struggling with this topic and everyone's stilted with their speech. The staff were also engrossed as well behind the scene, the booth eerily quiet.
"Well, I asked what was up because he looked like he'd seen a ghost so I went out in the hallway to check or something. And well ..."
"Well?"
Juri by now has forgotten his role as MC. Kouchi and Shin were seconds away from shaking Jesse to speak up faster. Jesse looked like he’d eaten a fly.
"Well, I went and stepped out into the hallway – at the end of the hall was Hokuto. I mean, man, we stared at each other for a few seconds and he had this look I can't explain. He turned his back on me quickly and stepped out of the building. I just pretended that nothing happened."
Juri raised his hand to get the group's attention.
"Am I the only one who didn't see anything? And this is from me who’s with Hokuto most of the time for work stuff."
"Maybe you noticed something off with Hokuto lately?" Shin was surprisingly calm with the turnout of events for this Storadi. 8 minutes have passed, not one gag has been executed nor any signature SixTONES nonsense talk. YouTube viewers would be surprised if this would be uploaded this week.
"Well, there was one time that he asked me if there's a good ramen restaurant nearby. He doesn't usually go for ramen. It's unagi most of the time and cafés."
The unanimous nods confirmed that it's a slightly unusual Hokuto behavior.
"Guys, this is turning out to be one mystery Storadi we're filming," Kouchi said.
"This looks like a job for Conan," Shin replied sagely. A poor attempt at making things light.
"I think Kindaichi could solve this case better than Conan, everyone. Or maybe Mr. Zudon," Jesse said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"What does this have to do with Mr. Zudon?" Kouchi was clearly having none of this nonsense with Jesse.
"Okay, okay! We're getting off topic here. Everyone who's watching this, we'll take this time to play one of our songs. Here's love u... "
Juri tried to balance it out once more and signaled the cue to play their song. With the opening instrumentals to their song, everyone got to calm down and center themselves. It was a weird Storadi this week and he can't really imagine what this would look like on YouTube. But then again, maybe Hokuto and Kyomo would show interesting expressions if they reveal this so that's something to look forward to. Maybe have more answers too, he thought.