I had this idea in my head, and it amused me, so I tried writing it, but I don't know if the execution lived up to the idea. Oh well. Here's hoping!
I do not own Skip Beat!
There was a dark aura surrounding the girl as they approached. She was hunched over with a stacks of books surrounding her, grumbles issuing forth from her mouth.
"What's wrong, Kyouko-chan?" Yashiro asked.
"Oh, good evening, Yashiro-san, Tsuruga-san," Kyouko greeted, her gloom momentarily dispersing.
"We were just coming to see if you needed a ride home," Ren said.
Kyouko's brow contracted as she glanced down at her stacks of reading material. "I have to finish this LoveMe assignment before I can leave."
"Oh? What's the assignment?" Yashiro asked.
"Manga," Kyouko replied.
Ren raised an eyebrow.
"Manga?" Yashiro asked.
"It's a directive straight from the president," Kyouko agonized. "I have to read all this shoujo manga and write about their similarities."
"That sounds like fun," Yashiro said good-naturedly.
Kyouko stared at him, 'Are you kidding me,' written clearly on her face.
"How much more do you have to read?" Ren asked.
"I've already finished the reading part," she said. "The problem is trying to figure out what they have in common."
"Oh, maybe we can help," Yashiro volunteered.
"Thank you for the offer, Yashiro-san," she said. "But unless you've read these, I don't know if you'd really be able to help."
Kyouko had to take a deep breath to avoid laughing at the image that idea conjured. She picture the serious looking suit clad Yashiro and his charge wearing flannel pajamas, painting each other's nails and pouring over stacks of shoujo manga. That definitely didn't suit them.
"I'm sure you can find some similarities between them, Mogami-san," Ren said with a smile. "Just think of it like reading scripts and finding similarities between characters."
"Yeah, if all the characters are stupid helpless girls with nothing but love on their minds," she grumbled. "The problem is, there are too many similarities. I don't know which ones are supposed to be important."
"Well, maybe you can tell us about the plots and we can try and help you decide which similarities are important," Yashiro suggested.
"But aren't you busy?" Kyouko asked, wide eyed. She was sure they had better things to do than to listen to the plot summaries of every shoujo manga in existence…or at least a large percentage.
"We have time," Yashiro assured her, eyes glittering. "After all, Ren is done for the day."
"But it's my assignment," Kyouko argued. "I can't make you help me." Her mind flashed to one of her first LoveMe assignments when she had let Ren help her by carrying a bag.
"We wouldn't be doing it for you, Mogami-san," Ren assured her. "and maybe a fresh perspective would help."
Kyouko looked at him suspiciously.
"Do you really think I would try to trick you, Mogami-san?" Ren asked.
"You did before," she reminded him.
"This is different. I'm just giving input," he said. Not to mention I'm in love with you now...
"Are you sure you want to listen to the plots of a bunch of shoujo manga?" she asked doubtingly.
"I'd be happy to help if I can," Ren replied.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Alright! Now that that's settled," Yashiro said clapping his hands in finality, "Why don't I go get us some dinner while you two get started?"
He was off before either of them had a chance to protest.
"Well, shall we?" asked Ren.
"He didn't even say where we should meet," Kyouko observed.
"I'm sure he'll call if he can't find us," Ren said.
"Alright," Kyouko agreed and followed him over to a nearby table, where she set down her stacks of manga.
"You said these manga all have a lot in common," Ren began, "Would you like to go over it?"
"Well, they're all about stupid girls who fall in love with some boy and chase after him," she explained.
"Perhaps that's an over-generalization?" Ren suggested.
"Well that seems to be what they have in common," she grumbled.
"Maybe if we went through them one at a time?" he suggested, then pointed to one, "How about this one? What's it about?"
"Well this one is about a girl who falls in love with her sempai from her club," she began. "But he loves someone else, so she chases him around until he finally falls in love with her instead of that other girl."
"And this one?" he prompted.
"It's about a girl who has a fear of boys, so she asks her sempai to help her overcome it and they end up falling in love," she said.
"How about this one?" he asked, moving on.
Kyouko proceeded to summarize volume upon volume of manga, all with one rather blatant similarity.
"And you're not seeing the pattern?" Ren asked, a little leery of being the one to bring it to her attention.
"They always end up falling in love?" she asked.
"Well, besides that," he prompted, "Any other patterns."
"Um…stupid girls? Love triangles?" she asked.
"Think about the people who fall in love," he hinted.
Kyouko stared at the stack of manga.
"They're all sempai and kohai!" Yashiro blurted out at the same moment comprehension was dawning on her face.
"Yashiro-san, When did you get back?" she asked surprised at his sudden reappearance.
"Um…just now," he said, holding out the dinner he'd brought. "Let's eat."
They agreed and began to eat. Kyouko multitasked, eating her dinner and writing about the similarities between the manga, namely the romantic interests all being sempai and kohai. She finished about the same time that Ren and Yashiro finished eating.
"Why don't you submit that, and I'll drive you home," Ren offered.
"Alright," she agreed and went off to turn it in.
"Don't even think about it," Ren warned before Yashiro even opened his mouth.
"What?" he asked innocently.
"I'm back," Kyouko announced before Ren could enlighten him, "Sorry to make you wait for me."
"It's not problem at all, Mogami-san," Ren assured her, giving one last warning glance to Yashiro.
"You know, it's funny," Yashiro began, "You two fit the pattern for all the romantic interests in the mangas Kyouko-chan has been reading."
"Eh?" Kyouko said.
Ren glared.
"You two are also Sempai and kohai," he continued with a grin. "I guess that means it's meant to be."
"But that's impossible!" Kyouko squeaked. "Tsuruga-san in my respected sempai. I could never insult him by thinking of myself as a suitable partner for him!"
"That's not disrespectful, Kyouko-chan," Yashiro explained. He was really beginning to feel sorry for Ren. He couldn't fathom where this girl got some of her ideas from. "A sempai and kohai can fall in love too, just take a look at the report you wrote."
A car pulled up outside.
"Oh look! Here's my cab," he exclaimed.
"I thought Tsuruga-san was giving you a ride too," Kyouko said in confusion.
"Something came up," he replied cryptically, and got into the vehicle. "Have a good night!"
Kyouko's face fell and her brows contracted in worry. Ren was making plans to kill Yashiro when she spoke.
"Tsuruga-san?" Kyouko asked looking up at him with teary eyes.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Could it be that I upset Yashiro-san?" she asked.
"What?" he asked. "Why would you think that?"
For a moment, his heart had been pounding in his chest. He was half terrified and half overjoyed thinking that maybe Kyouko had finally picked up on what Yashiro was hinting at, but instead of that, somehow she'd gotten it into her head that he was upset with her.
"Well," she explained, "I didn't really like all this shoujo manga, but Yashiro-san was so quick to see the connection between the stories…I was wondering if maybe he likes it and I offended him by insulting it."
Ren held back a laugh. "No, I really don't think that was it, Mogamis-san."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"I can't attest to what Yashiro does at home, but I have never seen him reading a shoujo manga or mentioning a liking for it," he assured her. "And even if he did, I don't think he would be offended just because you felt differently."
Kyouko recalled Yashiro's hinting about the sempai-kohai relationships and his joke about Ren and Kyouko being 'meant to be.'
"Then, is he trying to set us up or something?" Kyouko said bursting into laughter. "Imagine Yashiro-san as a matchmaker!"
"Um…yeah…" Ren replied, "That certainly would be…unexpected…"
Ren dropped her off without further event, and later that night, all three of them laid awake in bed, Kyouko laughing at the idea of a matchmaking Yashiro, Ren contemplating how to kill said matchmaking Yashiro, and the matchmaker himself wondering why he kept shivering even underneath so many blankets. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the manga idea to the president.
AN: I tried I hope it was enjoyable. If you'd like to let me know what you think, please leave a review. Thank you for reading!