haikusociety

Kame got much luckier than Jin with his family in this story. He didn't really appreciate it properly when he was younger, we guess, but by now he is quite aware that his parents are really nice people.

But hey, how could Kame ever forget Jin at this point? :-) Also, with poor Midori right there to remind him of what he has and what he wants instead. :-/

If Jin had been alone at home for New Year, he would probably just have gone to sleep and told himself he was a lucky guy that he had a place to sleep, and there was no reason for moping. This, however, is much better.

Hm, you think Jin would mind if Kame has feelings for him? ;-)

MWAAHAHA, the chapter link - we cackled inordinately when we came up with that one, we confess. (And then we cackled again at your comment. Evilly.)

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/___clash/

Hm, you think Jin would mind if Kame has feelings for him? ;-)

It sounds silly, right? But I kind of do think he'd feel bad about it if it happened now. I guess it'll be different later on, but at this point they're kind of stuck and, yeah, I think he'd feel bad for, um. I don't even know how to explain that. For not being there yet, or enough, or maybe for not being there more, or for not being able to give more... And of course I just think so because I'd feel bad in his place - which is entirely beside the point! :D

Also, this is Jin and we all know I fail at Jin! D: Why u so complicated Jin?

From:

natsukashi-yume.livejournal.com

This was such a precious chapter and it was really nice and necessary to see that Jin and Kame can find calm and happiness away from each other too. So there's some kind of net to catch them when shit hits the fan. I loved all the small details like Kame's mom's drawing abilities (or lack thereof *snicker*) and the English word game. With Jin, it's lovely seeing him interacting with someone outside his workplace, trusting Tomo enough to throw out something random about his childhood and not feel paranoid about too many questions. Aw, and Midori really is sweet. It's impossible for this to be resolved as a happy ending, but I'm hoping she doesn't get too hurt. T___T

From:

So there's some kind of net to catch them when shit hits the fan.

Nice way of putting it. :-) But didn't we mention that the rest of this epic is going to be nothing but sparkly unicorns?

As for Kame's mum's drawing skills, well, Kame must have got it from somebody.

Jin really needs somebody like Tomo in his life. (Somebody like Tomo's little brother, too...)

Thank you for those comments, they made us happy. :-)

From:

baybeshyne.livejournal.com

This chapter's glimpse into their respective holidays was sweet =)
kame with his family was nice and calm...and probably gave him some time to relax.
although i felt a lil tug when his father said dont worry about what other people think when it comes to your happiness kind of line...i wish it was that easy. =(
jin spending his new years with tomo and his brother was tooo nice!
i like how he is able to spend it so normally. having soba noodles...going to the shrine where he gets his fortune of finding a good wife, and then seeing the sunrise.
loved how he thought of kame here and there and their upcoming date, and with kame also thinking about jin during his holiday too.
next one should be their date, right?!
i cant wait!!!! =)

From:

Kame's dad is a clever man, but he doesn't know the issues Kame is dealing with. So yeah, what he says isn't really very workable in Kame's case. Or Kame thinks it isn't. It is difficult. :/

Jin was really happy to have a normal New Year, too, it was probably the first time in several years.

Hmmm, next time might just be another date... hmmmm. but we're not telling

Thank you for commenting! :D

From:

ladyc2

Hmmm, I never know what to say about Kame & Midori - she seems nice and Kame clearly cares for her - but it just isn't going to end well on that front. Part of me hopes that she knows, at least vaguely, that something is going on with Kame, even if the details aren't there (she comes across as intelligent, but as they say, love is blind). Maybe I'm just trying (trying, but failing I think) not to get too invested on that side of the story so it won't bother me so much later.

Seems like Kame's Dad was worried Kame got married for, well for the reasons Kame did get married really. I wonder what they thought of the whole Souji scandal.

Jin's side of the story was much more fun - I'm glad he wasn't alone for the holiday. I see he's got his work related lie figured out (he just stole Nino's job Lol!)

I wonder what Kame will say when he see's Jin's new turtle keyring :D

I'm also really curious about which one of them will realise first that their relationship is going way beyond the standard and into real feelings and how they will react (another anxiety induced breakdown for Kame????) I know you can't say but the anticipation is building with every new date they have. So exciting.

Looking forward to next week :)

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Yeah, the Kame and Midori thing is kind of sad and there's not much to be said about it. She is definitely intelligent, but otoh they don't see much of each other, and she knows Kame as a decent guy and trusts him... and also, well, he does like her a lot, so it's not like she gets any bad vibes.

Kame's parents were pretty surprised when he suddenly wanted to get married, and, well, they didn't suspect exactly the reasons he had, but they did think he was maybe rushing into something as a result of the whole scare he got. They're very happy that things seem to have worked out well for Kame and Midori. >_<

Ha ha, yes, 'waiter' sounds kind of harmless but explains dressing up occasionally and working weird hours. And... he is in the service industry after all, so it's not that far-fetched.

They're really realizing very different things at different times. We'd say Kame is the more oblivious one by far, but ... okay, well, there are also two things here: whether they realize how they themselves are feeling, and whether they realize how the other one is feeling. Jin realizes one of these things. Kame... is kind of a slow learner. :p

We hope you like next week's one!

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souleater-angel.livejournal.com

I feel so bad for Jin with his past money issues. He shouldn'e have had to go through what he did, his memories of past New Years are so sad. But he seemed to get a little bit of a warm fuzzy feeling when he thought about his upcoming date with Kame. And I'm glad he got the key ring. I have a kame key ring too that I bought in Japan ;]

Kame has it rough as well, in a different way. He has to live with the guilt that he's basically lying to his whole family about his life; whereas Jin has to deal with the consequences of people knowing what he really does, such as his parents. I wonder what will happen when (if?) Tomo finds out.

I love the effort you put into even the more minor characters such as Kame's parents and Tomo's brother. Phallic carrots and English practice :D

And I LOVED Jin's fortune. If you only knew Jin...
Thanks for this ;]

From:

Jo wants a Kame keyring too! (Solo has a red turtle phone thingie. Purely for luck. *g*)

Yeah, Jin's had a rough few years and a LOT of past money issues -- he wouldn't be in the job he's in if he didn't. >.< We enjoyed writing a nicer New Year's for him, with friends who care about him. Well, a friend. His one friend. :-) But still!

And you totally got that right, about how they're each living with the sucky consequences of coming out or not coming out, only in almost exactly opposite ways.

We are very glad the minor characters are coming across well! In an AU like this, original supporting cast is simply a given, and we can only hope that they're interesting even if they're not JE people.

Thank you so much for this comment! As always, it's very much appreciated!

From:

Loved this! This is the kind of chapter that makes you feel all fuzzy and warm and glowy inside. Nice, slow and languorous start to a new year, with both of them thinking about each other. Sunrises and coffee and family and tug of wars with dogs and brothers sneaking hugs and hotpots. Homey and comfortable and super amazing! What's best, you can enjoy reading this without having to worry about how Akame are going to figure their shit out together. This makes you think that they're gonna be all right. After all.

From:

Thank you, we're glad you enjoyed this so much! It's a better holiday for them than Christmas was for sure, and while things are complicated, they both have people in their lives who care about them.

We're glad you liked the little details. Your optimism about how they'll be all right is noted. ;-)

Thank you for this comment!

From:

Um. See, this is basically how, in my mind, I'd end the story, if I were the one writing it: JinKame realize that they have feelings for each other. Kame can no longer hold back. He wants this happiness, and he wants Jin, so, so bad. So. He tells Midori everything. She's heartbroken and devastated, but she understands, isn't that what she's been doing all the way anyway, and Kame has been such a good husband to her, and it was good while it lasted, anway. So, they get divorced. Or are separated. And. Jin sings. Like, really well, so Kame lands him a contract. No more whoring! And they live happily ever after and have give each other great blowjobs. PLEASE MAKE THE ENDING HAPPY. HAVE I EVER WANTED ANTHING ELSE.

Btw, but totally unrelated, I've wanted to ask you guys forever, how's your JLPT prep?

From:

We are sorry, we just have different dramatic needs than you. The truth is that Midori and Kame are going to have a baby, which will make Kame realise his heterosexuality at long last, and he will mend his ways and stop with the escort sex. Jin will be heartbroken, but eventually consoled when he is introduced to Kame's long-forgotten half-sister, who looks exactly like Kame except as a girl, and they fall in love and get married, and everyone is straight and happy.

Sorry if that was a spoiler.

:-p

But thank you for this comment. #cryptic #don't do spoilers #mwahaha

From:

JLPT prep is... preppy. :/ I'm taking N3 and there is so much stuff I need to learn for it and less than a month left now, and I'm snowed under with work. I'm mostly studying kanji, no time for anything else and that's what I'm worst at anyway.

If only I had another 3 months...

From:

A clear understanding of kanji will probably get you through mojigoi and even dokkai bunpou, at least the comprehension part. Hmm. Good luck.

If, well, circumstances are such that you do need to take the test again, you could try Nihongo So-Matome, pick out points which are important, and cross refer it with Kanzen Master and Donna Toki Dou Tsukau Nihongo. It's a lot of work, but totally worth it, and it's what I did, anyway. Also, if you're planning to sit for N2 at some point in time, KM and DTDTN are going to come extremely handy.
Also, I know, I know, okay!! I've been dying to tell you guys this forever!! *facepalm*

From:

Um... just how ignorant am I going to come across if I admit that I have never heard of any of these... books? websites? programs? >_>

You sound so organised about it! I hope it goes well for you!

I'm currently using renshuu.org (the pro version) for my kanji studying, and I'm finding it really helpful. The format suits me well (it can get kind of addictive) and at least you can select all relevant vocab for a level. It just doesn't do much for the reading or grammar stuff, never mind listening.

I'm hoping that my exposure to J-drama and KT programs will help me with the listening stuff anyway... fingers crossed.

Edited Date: 2011-11-06 01:44 pm (UTC)

From:

Well. I kinda had an idea that you didn't, which is the reason I was dying to tell you. All three of them are grammar books, and hopefully can be ordered through Amazon in your country. The catch is, all the explanations are in Japanese(except sa-matome, are some things there are frustratingly unclear), so you'd probably need to translate them. Or, um, if that's a lot of work for you, I could help you out? With the grammar explanations since I already have them in English. :) Also, practice previous N2 papers, if you have the time! Sometimes they repeat questions.

If I'm not being too intrusive, are you studying to be a translator/interpreter? Or, um, is it just for fun?

From:

Oh wait, if they are books... I bought some N2 books off ebay a short while ago, maybe they are among them... checking.

Hm, no, these are JLPT specific books but they don't have those titles. They're more like drill for the actual exam, I think. It might make sense to get myself a book with explanations before I try to do that, now there's a novel thought...

Now that I know you're out there, I may well ask you for help. :-) If I get past the N3, that is. We'll see about that.

I'm afraid it's just for fun. I love languages, and I find Japanese really interesting, and of course it helps not to have to wait for subs to stuff and to be able to figure out magazine articles for myself (I won't call it 'reading', since I associate a somewhat faster process with that.) I'm taking the test mostly to see 'where I am', and also, the idea was that it would get me studying again. There are no classes where I live, and sometimes it's difficult to keep the motivation up, and for the last 2 years I've felt like I was on this sort of plateau and not going anywhere except possibly backwards.

You are doing it for school, right? Do you hope to be a translator?

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Well, it is difficult to keep the motivation up, all by yourself. That you've planned to sit for N3 only on the basis of self-study is roundabout 56.7984 million shades of awesome, I think. ~~I guess Akame helps in more ways than one. It is truly and deeply inspirational, OK. :P~~ .

Well, no. I study Computer Applications, so Japanese is just a well....not exactly a hobby but it hasn't really morphed into something serious, either. I'm wondering if I should get serious about it. I keep wondering what the perks of being a translator could be, but I'm yet to decide. Basically, I'm doing a diploma course in Japanese from a language school, so umm. That's where the knowledge of What To Study To Ace JLPT comes from.

Ask away! Hopefully you'll keep me going for N2, so it's a win-win situation for the both of us. Sadly I keep finding that I have no time for Japanese nowadays. Hmm. It's kind of a good thing I stalk people. Comes handy sometimes. :DD

From:

Yep, Akame have a lot to answer for!

Your plan sounds... well thought out. Only if it works, Jin will be sad. VERY SAD.

Hm, computer applications vs translating; I suspect you could get better paid with the computer applications, unless you end up translating for international summits or something. But the question is also what's more fun, or where you want to end up.

I'll be happy to keep you going for N2. Oh, btw, I am Jinius! >_< I decided a few weeks back that I wanted to make sure I wouldn't totally forget the stuff from the previous JLPT, so I added it into the website drill as 'revision material'. Only I'm really not good with numbers, okay? Last night I noticed that I'd added in N2 material, not N4. I was wondering where all those weird words came from.

BTW we could take this off LJ and out of these comments (wow, this'll look like the chapter with the most comments ever) and onto email, if you like. You can write me stuff in N2 Japanese and I can clumsily reply in N3... My email addy is me.n.thee at gmail dot com.

From:

jo-lasalle.livejournal.com

I'm not taking the JLPT this year. >.< I'd thought about it (level 4, I'm not really all that good), but I have a lot of work, and a lot of travel for work at the moment and in the next few months, and I wouldn't have time to study, really. Or I would have, but then... it's basically I can work and study Japanese, or work and write stories. For now I chose writing. *g*

It makes me a bit sad because my Japanese progress has really... gone into reverse, but, well. Such is life. Maybe next year, when at least the travelling has eased up!

What about you, what level are you looking at?

From:

Well, I'm going to sit for N2, next year. I'm well.....pretty badly screwed at the moment because, well, you know, I haven't really been studying. Especially Kanji. OR ANYTHING ELSE, ACTUALLY. Been busy with....university. At level 4, though, you shouldn't have much of a problem. I know this advice is like, totally unsolicited, but Nihongo Shoho and previous JLPT papers should be enough to tide you over. Especially since the Choukai part is relatively easier nowadays.

From:

jo-lasalle.livejournal.com

I did kind of assume that level 4 wouldn't be soooo impossibly hard, but given that I'd have to spend money on it, and spend money on travelling to a test site, without maybe managing any studying at all, it just seemed like extra stress I didn't need.

Your unsolicited advice is not at all unwelcome! :-) I appreciate tips, especially as I wouldn't really know where to start yet if I do go for it next year. Thank you for that!

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You're very welcome! :D

From:

ayalonet.livejournal.com

I'm reading Kame's part in this chapter and there's something that I don't understand. I don't remember if it was mentioned in the previous ones either.
This whole Souji ordeal was very public and written in the papers.. So Kame's parents and Midori must be aware that he had a past relationship with another guy, no?
I mean Kame is a public figure and if that mess exploded in the media, his parents, colleagues and wife read some of it.. How come it isn't mentioned? They are all supportive, and act like they don't know and like none of it ever happened.

I'm confused.

Other than that, it was heart warming to read that Jin didn't spent the New Year's all by himself, but with someone (Tomo) who knows that he prefers guys, if not what he does for a living.. At least he wasn't alone which made me happy :)

From:

Thanks, that's a good question. The Souji scandal was very public indeed, and the parents definitely read about it, as did Midori. But the parents simply believed Kame that it was all lies -- and since they're not paranoid about Kame being gay the way that certain other people's parents were, it's actually easier for them to believe -- and simply thought this was about a not-very-nice 'friend' of Kame's making trouble for him for money. Midori was actually Kame's best friend at the time, so she saw how distraught he was, and since she knew him as a basically decent guy, she had no reason not to believe him either when he swore upside down that it was all lies.

Midori *is* aware that this happened when Kame goes all uptight about being photographed with Morioka and those kinds of things, and she knows he's paranoid about it, but she just attributes it to the media and one (bad) former friend having been dicks to Kame, rather than that Kame lied and this guy really was his boyfriend and he's still living in a closet and terrified of being found out.

Does that help? :-)

We're glad Jin didn't have another miserable holiday and actually got to spend it with a real friend, who, as you say, at least knows Jin likes boys, even if Tomo doesn't know about Jin's job.

Thank you for commmenting!

From:

brindhakrishnan.livejournal.com

Ah missed out commenting on this chapter on time!! Assignments are to be blamed. But I was so glad to have a new update to read! :) You know I think afew chapters back, I felt that Jin and Kame were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. If they had met under other circumstances, they might have made a good couple. I still do think that.

Jin and Kame are such different people. And we need reminder of this from time to time. Kame has such a beautiful family, his parents adore him so much particularly his Dad. And Midori I think is a "reasonable" wife for him.

I am glad though that Jin has found a friend like Tomo. Reading their interactions, Jin seems so relax with him.

Ooo I wonder what is going to come next. I donot expect Jin to quit his job immediately but I definitely want to know how that could impact Akame.

Thanks for sharing this, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this though was late in commenting! :/ See you next week!~~

From:

No apologies necessary! Your comments are appreciated and squeed over whenever. :-)

If they had met under other circumstances, they might have made a good couple. I still do think that.

Yes, we think that's true. A lot of how badly this went is circumstance. And of course there is always the Akame spark... one is helpless against it.

(Though to be fair, if things had been different in a different way, they might also just not have paid much attention to each other -- you know, with Kame being busy being closeted and Jin being busy hating his life and disliking clients.)

Kame got really lucky with his family, yeah. We didn't think everyone in this should have douchey parents like Jin's. And Midori is a really nice, sensible lady -- just married the wrong guy. :-/

Jin still has to save up for a good while, but yeah, it raises... interesting questions. For everyone. :-)

Thank you for this comment, we were really glad to hear from you on this chapter, especially in light of all the work you've got to do!

From:

lieben-kame.livejournal.com

This "non date" chappie I really liked too, well, Jin's part with Tomo and his brother anyway. XD Kame's parents are wonderful and everything, but the fact that he's hiding so much, that he's not the happy perfectly-sane son/husband/actor that they think he is, puts a damper on everything. :/ I only really like him when he's with Jin, haha, since, he doesn't have to put up the facade with him and it's soooo much better. <3

On the other hand, Jin with Tomo in his apartment just gives off so many warm fuzzy feels- even with Jin remembering past sad memories and his family, it makes you understand why he really appreciates being in Tomo's tiny crowded place. And generally, appreciates small little things that most people take for granted. And this will be the first New Years in awhile that he won't feel sad about the next year. :') It was really lovely reading him enjoying himself and talking to both of them with ease, it's always nice to see him happy apart from the club and away from Kame. :) The cute little stuffed turtle adds a nice touch too. <3 Jin is just really so lovable OTL

And random, but I love the Japanese way of celebrating New Years- much more awesome than the American way which is either, getting drunk at a party or a family gathering that has the potential to be boring. XD

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