Chapter Text
The members of Eden were dating each other.
This wasn’t public knowledge, of course. While the attitude towards idols being in relationships had improved over the years, it still would result in a huge scandal if it became public that all four of them were in a gay polyamorous relationship. Not to mention that the attitude to queerness in Japan, despite having come a long way in recent times, was still rocky at best. If the information fell into the wrong hands, it could destroy not only Eden, but all of CosPro, and would likely have irreparable effects on Ensemble Square itself. Because of this, it was information kept under lock and key, only given to people on a need-to-know basis.
Very few people need to know.
(Naturally, this didn’t stop a veritable horde of fans writing stories, making art, and crafting theories about their torrid love affair based solely off of their onstage presence, but none of them knew for certain. Besides, Ibara knew that fanworks were an unavoidable part of the simple act of having fans in the first place. As long as Eden was active and making money, he could never completely stop it, so he simply chose to let it run its course. Trying to stop it would probably make it look more true anyway…)
The point is, the members of Eden were dating each other, and to Ibara, this counts as a perfectly platonic business relationship.
Mentally, he breaks it down as such:
- Premise 1: All of the members of Eden are coworkers.
They work together, so they’re coworkers. Their job is singing and dancing on stage, appearing in photoshoots and interviews and advertisements and radio shows and so on and so forth ad nauseum. Regardless of whether or not they’re dating, they’re still undeniably coworkers. That much is simply a legal fact.
- Premise 2: Dating someone means that the people involved have good chemistry.
Naturally, there are exceptions, but these exceptions don’t tend to last very long. Even if two people aren’t in love with each other, they can make a romantic relationship work so long as they are both committed, and have good chemistry. To Ibara, this is the bread and butter of romance.
- Premise 3: Having good chemistry is a great quality to have between coworkers.
For idols, doubly so. With Eden especially, part of the package that they sell to their audience is their fanservice; whether that’s directly interacting with the fans, or interacting with each other in specific ways to make the audience go wild. Adam’s fanservice tended towards the former, while Eve’s tended towards the latter, but when they combined as Eden, their talents merged to create the perfect paradise of decadence and desire that they advertised themselves as on stage. As such, it was vital that they had good chemistry in their personal lives that they could show off in front of their fans.
- Conclusion: It makes complete and absolute sense that the members of Eden would date each other.
Yes they went on dates, and yes they indulged in various… physical pleasures with each other. But why wouldn’t they? The more intimately they knew each other, and the more comfortable they were with each other, the better and more genuine their fanservice would be, and in the idol industry, fanservice translated directly into money.
So yes, they were all dating each other, and this was all completely normal.
They were on a date right now, as a matter of fact, sitting in one of the cafes owned by the Tomoe Foundation (as per his highness Hiyori’s suggestion, as it so often was).
“Oh, oh!” Hiyori interrupted his own rolling monologue about the new clothes that he was wearing. “And~!” He stuck his leg out from underneath the table, lifting it up to show the three of them. Ibara would’ve scolded him for this and demanded that he at least try to keep a lower profile- if Hiyori’s family didn’t own the place they were sat in. “These jeans are from that new high-end boutique on Saison avenue!” Hiyori looked ecstatic, and to be fair the jeans did look great on him, but just next to him, Jun visibly winced.
“...uh-huh, yeah, they look great on you, ohiisan,” He didn’t even look at Hiyori as he spoke. “Now tell them how much they cost.”
Hiyori paused, mouth half-open. His gaze flitted between his new jeans, Ibara, and then back to Jun. He settled into a picture-perfect smile, but his eyes creased in a barely-concealed glare towards his partner.
“Hmm, no. I don’t think I will.”
Something inside Ibara churned horribly at the implications there.
“Your highness, if I find out that you’ve-”
“Ohhh, absolutely not.” Hiyori’s expression immediately turned into a slight scowl, the sudden change forcing Ibara to pause his incoming rant about the importance of money management. “How much money I spend is none of your business,” Hiyori lifted his arm directly across the table in front of him, and brought his finger up to Ibara’s opening mouth as if to prevent him from getting a word in before he finished, “especially when it’s not even your money, viper.” His hands returned to his own personal bubble, and his arms crossed as he smiled. Ibara quietly sighed. “It’s my family’s money! So I can do whatever I please with it, okay? Hmph, I swear, you’re always so quick to assume the worst, you know? I’ll have you know that the Tomoe Foundation has been doing quite well for itself as of late - thanks in no small part to the thankless work that I’ve been doing as an idol - so I’m free to spend as I please~!”
As much as Ibara wanted to protest, he did also genuinely trust Hiyori’s judgment. Despite the fact that Hiyori projected the image of a spoiled and arrogant prince, he was actually very smart, and wouldn’t spend so extravagantly if he didn’t know for certain that he could comfortably afford it. Ibara sighed, helpless against Hiyori’s stubbornness.
“...Very well, your highness. Even so, you should still be cautious about what you’re spending your money on.”
“Of course, of course~!” Hiyori casually waved his hands, swatting away Ibara’s ceaseless worrying. “It’s no worry, after all. Besides, ¥250,000 is actually quite a good price for these jeans, believe it or not.”
Ibara choked.
“TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-?!”
“Um, which… which one of you ordered the ruby hot chocolate…?”
The waitress delivering their drinks spoke with a quiet and mousy voice, clearly somewhat intimidated after hearing Ibara’s raised voice so suddenly. Ibara bit his lip, uncomfortable with his own public outburst, brief as it was.
“...Ah, that would be me.” Nagisa said, breaking his silence, and reached out to gracefully accept the mug from her.
The waitress sat down the other drinks, before returning to the bar to collect the food that they’d ordered.
“Jun-kun, I can’t believe you, you know!” Hiyori complained. Jun looked up at him, confused.
“What? What’d I do this time?”
“Umm, what did you do?” Hiyori raised an eyebrow and pointed to his drink. “I give you the option of anything you’d like in this entire cafe, very generously paid for by yours truly, and you decide to go for plain water?!” He threw his hands up in indignation, before settling them by crossing his arms. “That’s such foul weather if you ask me! You really ought to show more respect for your beloved senior…” Hiyori looked away from Jun, as if unable to look him in the eye. From where Ibara was sat opposite him, he looked the very image of a spoiled child not getting what they wanted. Jun stared at him incredulously.
“What? Come on, wouldn’t it be more rude if I decided to spend more of your money? Water is the cheapest thing you have on the menu here.” He shook his head. “And that’s besides the point! I wanted plain water, so I got plain water! I’m not gonna order something fancy that I don’t like just because it’s fancy, that’s just ridiculous!”
“Just plain water?” Hiyori looked at Jun from the corner of his eye. “Plain? Not sparkling, or flavored? We have strawberry flavored water here too, you know! At least that would’ve been more interesting…” Jun opened his mouth to respond, but Hiyori beat him to it. “Oooh! I think this is my quiche~!” He tapped his fingers on the table in anticipation, and the waitress made her way back to the table, placing their orders down in front of them.
Just as he’d said, Hiyori’s salmon quiche was placed down in front of him first. It was exactly as he liked it too - no doubt a cafe owned by his family used his preferences as a baseline for their own recipe. Jun and Nagisa had opted to share a large slice of strawberry shortcake together, and it was placed down between them, with a separate fork for both of them. It was beautifully presented. The icing was pure white, and looked incredibly soft, while the strawberries were bright red and fresh, dusted with a bit of icing sugar to give them the appearance that they’d been snowed on. And finally, Ibara was presented with a relatively simple millionaire’s shortbread. He originally didn’t want to order anything, but decided to have that instead, on Hiyori’s suggestion (as well as Hiyori’s “suggestion” that he’d throw an absolute fit if Ibara didn’t order a single thing besides his black coffee, not to mention Nagisa’s little pout, and Jun’s furrowed eyebrows).
Ibara took a fork, and chipped off one of the corners to eat.
“Hehe, a millionaire eating a millionaire’s shortbread, how cute!” Ibara decidedly ignored Hiyori’s comment.
“...Mhm. Ibara’s always cute when he’s eating sweet things.” Ibara paid neither of his seniors any mind. Clearly they were out to get him to react, and he wasn’t going to give them that particular pleasure. Not out in public at least.
“I dunno,” Jun commented, “Wouldn’t a ‘billionaire’s shortbread’ be more accurate or something? I haven’t seen what Ibara’s bank account looks like, but-”
“And you won’t get to see what it looks like.” He took a sip of his coffee to wash down the sticky chocolate and caramel that clung to the back of his throat. “Although I wouldn’t necessarily count myself as a billionaire. Millionaire, definitely, but I actually put a lot of the money I earn directly back into COSPRO, as well as my other businesses, so I don’t think my personal account has tipped over into the billions just yet.”
Jun blinked at him.
“That doesn’t sound right. You really haven’t gotten over a billion yen yet?”
“I’ve definitely made over a billion, but I haven’t kept over a billion.” Ibara looked towards Jun, who was shoving a whole strawberry into his mouth, and squinted at him. “I don’t think you quite understand how big the difference between a million and a billion is…” Jun shrugged in response.
“Eh. Prob’ly not.”
“Don’t speak while you’re eating, Jun-kun,” Hiyori said through a mouthful of quiche. “It’s rude.”
“You’re one to talk…”
Letting the banter between the two members of Eve fade into the background, Ibara took another bite of his millionaire’s shortbread, and another sip of his coffee, before noticing that strange and pervasive feeling of being watched - more so than the act of simply being in public usually entailed. He quickly took survey of the room, subtly taking note of all of the people in the room that could possibly be considered ‘suspicious’, before looking to his side and- Nagisa, gazing straight at him with an unblinking expression that Ibara couldn’t quite decipher.
“...What is it, your excellency?”
“...Hm?” Nagisa hummed, seemingly unaware that he was staring at Ibara for as long as he was. “Ah, I suppose I was just thinking about how beautiful you are. Especially in this lighting. You look a bit like a sunset.” Nagisa smiled softly at the imagery.
Ibara paused for a moment, unsure of where the compliment came from, before reminding himself that he needed to actually respond to it.
“Ah, thank you very much, your excellency! Of course, as an idol, it is my-”
“Oh it’s all work and no play with you isn’t it?” Hiyori interjected after a long sip of his frothy vanilla latte. “One of us tries to give you a genuine compliment and you’re all like ‘as an idol’ this, and ‘as a businessman’ that. We’re talking about you, Ibara. You realize that we all think you’re beautiful as yourself, right?”
Ibara didn’t realize this, of course. These things that Hiyori spoke of: ‘as an idol’, ‘as a businessman’, these were all things that Ibara was. He didn’t understand the distinction that Hiyori was trying to make here, and quite frankly, he didn’t quite care enough to bother asking for clarification.
“Aye aye, your highness!” Ibara saluted, his other hand cradling his cup of coffee. “I hear you loud and clear!” Hiyori just squinted suspiciously at him in return.
“Hmm. Whatever you say, viper.” He took another bite of his quiche, and Ibara was finally free from his critical gaze.
“Y’know…” Jun swallowed the bite that he’d taken before continuing. “It wouldn’t hurt for you to respond to our compliments like a normal person once in a while.”
“Jun-kun!” Hiyori exclaimed, “That’s rude! Ibara has made it very clear to us that he’ll return our affections in his own time.” Hiyori turned to Ibara, with a gentle expression that Ibara didn’t know how to interpret, and gently took hold of one of his hands. “Isn’t that right, viper-chan~?”
In any other circumstance, perhaps Ibara would’ve just mindlessly agreed to whatever social play they were attempting. After all, with them, it was quite easy to just let them get on with it, and Ibara would simply follow their lead, saying whatever it was they wanted him to say. But Hiyori’s hand on his made him pause. They knew that Ibara had no interest in actually dating them outside of work, right? They knew that this was all just a business plan to improve their teamwork as a unit, right?
…right?
If they were dating as something other than colleagues then that would be…
Something buried deep within Ibara’s chest bubbled dangerously at the very thought, and Ibara decided to interpret it as discomfort.
A deep chuckle rang out from next to him, breaking him out of his stupor.
“…I think you may have broken him, Hiyori-kun.”
“Ahh, still not there yet, are we?” Hiyori sighed melodramatically. “That’s fine, that’s fine. I suppose I’ll just have to wait more patiently than I already am. You really do have such impossibly high standards, Ibara. Not everyone is going to wait around for you like I would.” Jun chuckled.
“I dunno, maybe you should do this more often. I think I prefer Ibara when he’s too shocked to spea- hey!” Ibara swatted at Jun’s fork as he tried to grab another bite of the quickly-dwindling shortcake. “What gives?!”
“You’re lucky that I let you buy such a large slice in the first place.” Ibara glared at Jun, seemingly back to normal after his short-lived wave of paralysis. “I’ll be taking a full review of your diet and exercise routine as soon as I get back to work.” He threatened. Jun huffed in response.
“Yeah right, because I’m the one that blue-screened you by holding your hand for like half a second…” Jun took another bite of one of the decorative strawberries on top. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. Nagi-senpai, about that manga that I gave you…” The attention was finally turned away from Ibara, and from that point on, the banter between the four of them continued as it usually did. Ibara didn’t pay much attention to it, too focused on maintaining his composure as he tried to figure out what was going on in his own body when Hiyori had touched his hand, and thankfully it seemed like the other three were content to ignore him for now.
The afternoon ended uneventfully, with the four of them returning to ES, and going about their nights as per usual.
Ibara decided to avoid thinking about it. It was probably just the shortbread, anyway.