Ruki's Guide to Love and Fear (A JO1/Shiroiwa Ruki Fanfic)

Chapter 4

The members were surprised that Ruki didn't seem scared when he returned to the standby area—after all, they had all heard him screaming multiple times.

"How was it, Ruki?" Ren said to Ruki, hoping for one of Ruki's iconic lines to emerge.

"Easy enough," Ruki replied.

Ren laughed, not realizing that Ruki wasn't joking.

Ruki didn't mind. I feel good, and that's all that matters, he thought, closing his eyes in an attempt to take a brief rest. Except—

His eyes shot open. Except he still had to explain the whole JO1 thing to Momoko. BUT now I'm not scared of Momoko, he reassured himself. So it should be easy. Easier than memorizing a whole dance or pretending to be a prince...

Shutting his eyes again, he drifted off to a precarious sleep.

******

He awoke to someone pulling on his arm. "Ruki!"

"What?" Ruki said, reluctantly opening his eyes, his vision straining against the bright set lights. He could see now that Sho was standing in front of him looking tired. "Oh, it's just you."

"Ruki, you have to get up now. We're going to pick up dinner before heading back to the apartment."

"Right," Ruki said as he got to his feet. Scanning the standby area to make sure he wasn't the last member of JO1 left on the set, he noticed that Junki was talking really loudly, which wasn't particularly unusual, to Syoya and Keigo. Ruki could overhear Junki saying, "When I turned around and saw the ghost, I screamed and swung like this—," he sliced the air in front of him diagonally, "and then the water bottle I had in my hand sprayed all over the ghost!"

Immediately, Ruki's attention was piqued. He beelined to where Junki was standing. "Did you just say you sprayed water all over the ghost?" Ruki asked.

"Oh, I didn't know you were listening, Ruki," Junki said. "Yeah, I sprayed that girl in the building with water. It was on accident, though."

Before Junki could say more, Ruki had already taken off to ask the staff where Momoko was at.

"She's just inside the building," one of the camera operators told him.

Ruki found Momoko sitting near the building entrance, already changed out of her costume. She was wiping her face with a tissue.

"Ito, I found you!" he announced, standing right in front of her.

She looked at her feet. He noticed that her cheeks were slowly turning red.

Oh no. She must really be offended.

Ruki bowed deeply. "I apologize for Junki's reckless behavior and for not properly explaining the situation before you came."

Momoko immediately stood up. "You don't need to apologize! I know he didn't mean to spray water on me, and it's honestly okay I didn't know about JO1 before I came because I would have felt intimidated," she said, her words coming out in a rush.

As he stood up straight, he saw Momoko's face clearly now that she wasn't covering it with a tissue. While drying her face, she had managed to wipe off the dark makeup she wore around her eyes. Just like the first time he met her, he noticed that her eyes were really pretty. His eyes unexpectedly flitted to her lips—the same lips that his had been hovering so close to only an hour or two before. He noticed now that her lips were full and...And what?

His heart started to pound again and he could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. He stumbled away from her in shock. This again? I thought I had mastered my fear once and for all! Weak-ass prince!