Ren adjusted the collar of his shirt and pulled down the hem of his leather jacket. He straightened his posture, which made him looked even taller than he already is. He looked at Kyoko with fierceness and unrestrained anger reminiscent of the first time Ren and Kyoko met. He flattened his lips into a thinned line to show his extreme displeasure. He couldn't believe what he's hearing from Kyoko. Did she just said she doesn't love him, and she never did. Ren felt something feral inside him gained control and lost his composure. He grabbed Kyoko's right arm roughly and grounded out, "Can you really say you really don't love me?" he sounded a little more rough than he intended, he realized and for a moment felt like he should apologize. But, something about the look in Kyoko's eyes made him hold his tongue.
Kyoko looked at Ren with a mixture of fear and anger, at the way Ren is going out of control. She couldn't but help feeling fear for Ren's life. Because, she knew if she doesn't tell him, that she doesn't love him, then he's life will be in danger. Kyoko made up her mind, she closed her eyes and took a deep breathe to calm herself. But, the deep breath only made the tears that are threatening to come up, flow even more freely. Kyoko hardened her resolve and locked her heart away. She's going to reject Ren to save his life. Kyoko turned towards Ren with thunderous flash of her eyes and told Ren, "That's right. I don't love you." she said through clinched teeth. Kyoko fervently prayed in her mind that Ren would believe the lie that she's telling right now, for once in his life.
Ren searched Kyoko's face for some clues that this is all a great big joke and someone is going to jump out of the closet and yell surprise and then tell him that everything is back to the way it was. But, the way Kyoko looked at him, made him realize that she wasn't joking and that he is really being dumped by the one great love of his life. Ren felt the feral being inside of him taking over and making him see red. What is this tightness in his chest. He needs to get away before he lash out and hurt the one person that meant the world to him. Ren let go of Kyoko by throwing the arm he was holding back at her, "Fine!" he said with slow deliberate coldness, calculated to maim with every word. Kyoko felt a sensation like being stabbed in her heart. By heavens, he's really going to say it. "Don't expect me to come back." and Kyoko felt something seizing her throat and her chest, rendering her frozen on the spot, unable to speak.
Ren walked out of the apartment that he shares with his precious Kyoko. He ripped the door open and then slammed it with all his might as he walked away from the only bright spot in his dull, dreary life. Damn it, he slammed his fist into the wall to his left. He took a few steps and started pacing like a caged animal. He had to get away, it's hurting too much. He can't stand it. Ren felt a blazing headache coming on. He touched his forehead against the nearest wall. An unwelcomed and unabided thought invaded his now hurting head. He punched the wall and screamed DAMN IT in his head. He turned around and ran down the stairs four, five steps at a time. He needs to find a way to think it out.
Kyoko heard Ren's foot steps going out of the apartment complex. She willed herself to stay strong so he wouldn't hear her cry. So, that he wouldn't hear her begging him to come back, and that she didn't mean it by anything she said. She just wanted him to be safe, and not get involved in the mess she's in. She willed herself to stay together until he's out of the range to be able to hear the pain in her heart. She heard his retreating steps echoing on the street below. Suddenly, the loneliness of the apartment became very apparent. Kyoko felt even more cold and desolate than before. She couldn't keep herself together anymore. Ren's gone, forever. Kyoko crumpled into a heap of weeping mass onto the floor of her now empty apartment.
The silence of the modest apartment crushed in on Kyoko. The oppressive silence increased by the surprising quietness of the apartment and even the unusual lack of pedestrians taking a nightly stroll or cars driving by trying to get from places to places. There was no signs of anything alive, except for the weeping echoes. The echoes of her broken heart bouncing off the wall of the apartment, and the street below. Making the ambiance of the loneliness of the apartment even more apparent.
The silence of an oppressive void dragged on, and on, and on .................................................................................................................................................................................................
Then, a man walked up to Kyoko, crouch down to her level and hold out a slap board in front of her face. A voice off to her very far right yelled "Cut! That's a print!" Suddenly, the little
apartment came alive with the noise of twenty odd film crews dragging and towing equipments around. Fukushima kando-kun, the same one that directed her in Box R, stood up from the director's chair and started clapping his hands, and the clapping spread as the rest of the crew also gave Kyoko a long ovation. "Kyoko-chan, that was wonderful." said Fukushima-san. "Ladies and gentlemen, Japan's next biggest idol." Kyoko got up from the floor of the apartment, and blushed in response to all the praise. Yue-kun, Fukushima's assistant, spoke into the headset and told the director "Tsuruga-kun on standby." The director nodded and told Yue-kun to have Ren brought up.
After awhile, the footsteps of another twenty or so crew members and one very famous Japanese movie idol stepped through the door. Ren looked at Kyoko with amusement and praised her acting, "You were great, Mogami-san." as he smiled down at her. Kyoko looked up at Ren and smiled, "Thank you. You were great, too, Tsuruga-san." Fukushima went up to the two actors and said, "That's it for the day. Thank you for staying late to finish the shoot. Great jobs, Kyoko-chan, Tsuruga-kun. Great jobs, people. That's what I like to see."
