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They were on a music show being interviewed when it slipped out.
No one outside Arashi would have realized it was a slip-up at all, but Ohno could see the signs that everyone within was quite aware.
He said it like a funny anecdote, the kind they were getting used to producing at a moment's notice, and everyone laughed on cue. Aiba leaned forward, grinning a little too widely, and beyond him Ohno could see Nino looking down with a wry twist to his mouth. Jun's sincere eyes were masked by his toothy smile, and Sho, radiating fondness towards their leader, was thinking through every possible finish to the story so that he could know who should speak next, and what they should say, and what kind of face he should make when they said it. Ohno could see his brain working through it, but he also knew that the fondness was not an act, and he felt again how glad he was that these were the people he'd been given, because he'd never been very good at lying. He could exaggerate himself, and hold himself back, but if he'd been with other people he wasn't sure he'd have been able to fake the warmth and overwhelming support that Arashi had become.
The concern of the members only made him feel worse for blurting something out that had seemed trivial and funny at the time and now seemed important, and growing more important with every blink of Aiba's over-bright eyes.
He'd been asked if the members got along, and had agreed to that with no problems, but when asked if he was worried about anything, he had said something he hadn't expected. He wasn't quite sure what he'd said, exactly, as often happened it had started in his head phrased one way and ended in the air phrased another. He'd learned that this wasn't a bad thing, that it could be part of his public persona, but this time it felt different.
He had said something the gist of which was that Aiba was eternally curious and always asking people what they were doing and why and hadn't they ever thought about doing this or that, and that part was fine, and everyone had laughed genuinely. But then Ohno, following his own thought process, finished with what he was actually wondering, which was why Aiba so rarely asked him anything like that, or seemed curious about him at all, at least in comparison to his overwhelming curiosity about the other three.
Arashi had rolled with this immediately, Sho positing that Ohno was so easy to read that Aiba didn't need to ask, while Nino countered that Ohno's mind worked in ways no one could predict and Aiba couldn't begin to understand. Jun questioned why that would stop him from asking, and Nino retorted that Aiba may be an idiot but at least he knew his limits.
Ohno laughed along with a purposely intent expression, like he was listening hard to hear what would put his mind at ease. Aiba had been laughing, too, but finally he finished the bit with his input, which was, "When it comes to Leader, I already know everything that matters."
At least, that was the last thing Ohno heard of the conversation, it seemed to go on from the sounds and laughter and the way Aiba ended up getting smacked on the head. Ohno was sure there was more to the answer than Aiba had given on national television, but he could feel the kernel of truth in the matter-of-fact words, and he sat smiling goofily while everyone jabbered entertainingly around him.