Don't own skip beat. The only credit I can receive is the shitty writing. The idea? Well, I doubt it's radical by any means. lol

CHAPTER 0

This was bad. This was really, really bad!

Chitose brushed her nose further against her sleeve as she stood still as possible, trying to stop herself from shaking. Calming down her breath wasn't bad enough, it was the scream she wanted to let loose. She was scared beyond belief. Why was Natsu so hell bent on trying to get her? It made no sense! Weren't they friends? Sure Natsu-san was cold, and sometimes did things that were slightly twisted, but why would she try to hurt her? It wasn't her fault! She-She had nothing to do with it!

"Did you find her?"

"Damn ditz got away." Hissed Kaori. Chitose wouldn't-couldn't forget that voice even if she wanted to.

Chitose pressed herself further against the wall. This-This had to be a dream! There was no way Natsu would do this? She was the class representative. She bit her lip. Even if there was some ulterior motive, and she was misunderstanding the situation ... she didn't want to get out of this corner. Her stomach might as well have dropped to the floor now. Her feet had gone cold even though she was running for the last half hour. Her sweat wasn't running against warm flesh, but more comparable to it being that of a corpse. She was scared.

"Come on. She'll go to the front of the school."

"Alright." Grunted the other girl and the two ran off in the opposite direction. Chitose waited for their footsteps to start echoing. It meant they were getting further away. Natsu didn't chase her. She didn't have to. Her friends did that for her. She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. She had to get to a teacher. Outside. Somewhere they couldn't get her. She had to mentally think for her feet up to even step forward. Forcing herself forward she ran towards the back entrance. She could hop the fence, and make a home run for it. Fumio-kun would help her. He said that if she ever needed it, she could ask him. He was so kind to her! He'd keep her safe!

All she had to do was get to the back entrance. Then she would be safe. Be safe. Turning a corner was probably the worst thing she had ever done. She stood at the edge of the hallway, facing her back. Chitose didn't move. Partly because she realized that if she did, she'd be beaten like Mako. The other is the fact that her legs threatened to give out. She shook. Praying to god, gods, whoever was out there to keep Natsu-san from turning around. Eyeing the hallway, she shuffled her feet slowly back. She didn't hear me. She didn't hear me. I ran lightly. Chitose replayed the three phrases on a loop as a mantra. Natsu's head rotated to the right. In her direction. Chitose gave up on subtlety and dashed back. Maybe they wouldn't stay at the front for too long? The thought was hopeful more than anything. Chitose ran like mad down the stairs. Legs moving so quickly that she didn't care any more if it looked indecent. Stomping down the polished hallways, her shoes squeaked with every contact.

"There she is!"

Chitose didn't look back. Instead she ran for it. Who gave a damn if they chased her? As long as they didn't catch her she was fine!

Throwing the doors of the school open, Chitose breathed in the chilly air. Her hair stood on edge. School uniforms weren't a good substitute for coats, and pants. Ignoring the winter chill lashing against any exposed skin Chitose ran to the heavy entrance gate. She grasped the metal bars, shaking to get out. It was locked. Well, it did make sense-considering the sky had almost gone dark, with only a faint glimmer of sun in the horizon. But still! She shook the gate agian.

"Looks like you don't have anywhere to go."

Chitose turned around to see the white puff travel from Kaori's mouth as she stood behind her. Arms crossed. She wasn't running. She wasn't hunched over from the sprint. She just stood there triumphantly. The brown haired girl was about to make her run for it, if it wasn't for the other blond girl who rushed and pinned her to the iron bars.

"Pl-Please let me go- I didn't do anything! I'm-mmm sorry!" Chitose sobbed out. Blubbering and whimpering from the pain, cold, fear, and helplessness. She was flipped after to face Natsu's right hand.

"Natsu-san gave you an invitation to come with us to sing. You don't think it's rude that you just rejected her?" Kaori lifted a groomed eyebrow as she walked closer. Voice dripping with malice. Malice that Natsu had never let loose in hers.

Chitose shivered. She couldn't help but back away into the other group member.

"That's enough Kaori."

Kaori twisted around quickly. Her twisted expression had disappeared, instead replaced by an almost innocent bashful one. Although Chitose could once say that she had never felt disgusted by anyone, she would have to recall that statement. The two-faced nature of Kaori wasn't something she could stomach.

"But-"

"No."

One simple word immobilized Kaori, calming her down, as she made way for her. Natsu stood almost laxly in front of Chitose. Looking at her almost sympathetically.

"It's alright if she doesn't accept Kaori. We'll just have to convince her." Her mouth slid outwards creating a smile that sent Chitose's heart to the undertaker. Life seemed to slow to a deathly rate. "Won't we?"

"AND CUT!"

"And that's a wrap!"

Kyoko relaxed out of her character, as did everyone on set. Rumi instead of a happy sigh continued crying. She really was as scared as she let on during filming. "Natsu-san is so scary!"

"Rumi-chan, it's not real, Natsu's not real!" Kaori's actress soothed. It became a habit that she had to play the truth card to get the idol to calm down. "See?" She gestured to Kyoko, who took it as her cue to make a warm face, which she did. The air head sniffed quietly.

"No?"

"No!" Kyoko grinned as she tried to get the feel of the scene out of her system. It was only one of the first scenes that Natsu would even bully Rumi, not to mention the lightest in terms of psychology. How they'll manage later on only mystified her.

"Fuck. Where the hell are we supposed to get a replacement? We start airing in two weeks."

Kyoko's ears perked up. The director of the show was more gruff than the others that who she worked with. But this was the first time she heard him even demote himself past a 'damn'. The only person who she knew used language like that was that blithering blond idiot. DAMN HIM TO HELL! Her demon's threatened to explode again from the most recent memory of him. Sure Tsuruga-san had a point that there was no point to fumble over such a kiss, after all it had no real emotion in it, but it was against her will! And by Sho's hand... mouth no less. Was he picking a fucking fight with her? Since when the hell did he get that underhanded!

Then again. He was never noble to start with.

"How long is he in the hospital?"

The director pressed his ears further against the cell phone. His tone quietened down.

Kyoko shook off her momentary irritation. Hospital was never a good sign.

"Tell him not to worry about the soundtrack. He'll get out in three weeks right? Fumio doesn't enter into play until episode 2, and he's minor then. We can add in his injuries into the script. It's fine. Tell him to relax."

That meant that air-date might get pushed back. The hired the pop-singer for the soundtrack, and offered him a role to go along with it. He signed a contract so he was had. He couldn't just let him loose. Sides the director couldn't just let him go. LME wasn't a agency he wanted to piss off. Fumio was a double agent. Although he was there to help Chitose, he wasn't picky if Natsu managed to rope him into her schemes. By the end he would become more likable to the audience, but until then, his intentions were more clouded than the sky. February seemed colder than January. How? Something about freak winds.

"No, we won't get a replacement actor. Masahiko-kun will still get to act, the soundtrack however is something we can fish for."

Pause.

"He won't have enough time. We won't have enough time. Get him better."

With that the conversation ended. At first Kyoko considered that he'd announce the news, watching his face it became clear that he was debating the idea. In the end he just walked off. Either too worried of the reaction, or he had something up his sleeve. Whatever it was, it should be show-saving.

"What the hell was that?"

"Not sure. So how was the verity show filming?" Move the discussion away from it.

Chiori flared pink, she hated that piece of shit. If she had to think of it any more she'd have to buy another Poison Note. "Don't ask."

It's not something she wanted to talk about. It was more of a game show than anything else.

"You never told me, what other dramas are you in?"

Kyoko paused at the thought. There was nothing really. As far as Setsuka went, she was never given a script, story outline. She knew nothing of what was going on. And why. Hell the whole idea confused her more than anything. There was the other drama that she was going to ...

"Well .. " She raised a single finger. "There's this one other-"

"Is it Mio-Like?"

Kyoko hung her head. She made the resolution to explore the dark role, but it wasn't as easy as she had thought it to be. Natsu came to her easier, mostly because her history was mostly unknown. So she just had a personality to churn out. The aura.

"What's the drama?"

"It's historical." That itself drained her mind dry.

Chiori blinked. A historical drama? The target audience was more mature and older than Kyoko's past two dramas. That itself was risky.

"Have you actually watched any yourself?"

Kyoko flexed her memory muscle. She didn't watch many things to begin with. So she swiftly shook her head. Chiori's brain tried searched for another solution. Nothing actually came to mind. She wanted to help Kyoko, to at least get to a friend status. This wasn't the way to go though. Goddamn it why weren't there any good fucking thoughts in her head? Then again, why didn't she watch TV now and again? It was just as good as finding out about the industry. But on the other hand there was so many fucked up shows lately. Couldn't any of them actually act RIGHT?

"Well, there's a first time for everything I suppose. But you're going to be in for a hard time."

Kyoko raised her head suddenly. A challenge?

"Who do you think watches Historical Dramas?"

Kyoko's brown eyes watched Chiori, who at this point seemed like a wise-old-man. From the lack of a true response Chirori continued.

"Old people."

The generalization hit her. Wait. What did that exactly mean? Historical dramas might be more popular with older people, but the younger generations also liked them. Mature minded?

"Why is that important?"

"It means that you'll have a lot more to consider." As much as Chiori wanted to tell Kyoko that she was going to be in for a hell of a lot of repetition, and the drama was probably going to cause her popularity to go down sharply if she didn't do it right, a light hearted drama could be forgiven, but traditional historical stories tended to have a stricter audience and criteria, if you bomb once, you get the scars, she couldn't force her tongue to roll and tell her the truth and reject the drama. As much as she saw Kyoko as a possible companion, she also wanted her as a rival, after all, it was only thanks to her that she even managed to get away from the half-hearted approach that she was going to use to acting.

"So what do you think?"

The room grew quiet from the proposal. If Junsei Masahiko was no longer in action, it only left few people who could replace him musically. The entire space was populated by four people, all in charge of overseeing the production of Box R. None of which could easily come to a joint conclusion.

Three names that they put forth were Husei, Kein, and DANCER.

They did want an edge popular soundtrack. Who else other than pop stars?

"I don't think we can let either DANCER or Kein in. Kein's in trial for drug-possession and DANCER's music is rarely outside of two notes."

"Hold on! Using that logic we can't invite Husei either!"

"As if there would be any point! The man can't even pick up a pen without spinning some sort of fucking insult!"

"He wrote better than Kein ever did!"

This was going to get out of hand. No one here agreed on anything until Junsei came along. His music was fresh, bright. If Sho Fuwa wasn't dominating the charts, he would probably be in the top ten. They wanted the best. They didn't go after Fuwa because he seemed unattainable. Masahiko was a good choice because of his smaller experience ring in the show business. He would be just more inclined to experiment with the different parts of music. Rather than a ridged performer as Fuwa. They assumed that he would just turn them down, but in this situation maybe they could actually think about the possibility. If Fuwa composed ... it would give their show one giant publishing bonus. People who usually wouldn't just might be inclined to at least buy or download the soundtrack. Promotion would be better too.

"What if we asked Fuwa Sho?"

The bickering stopped. Everyone looked at the director as though he lost his marbles. Hell, maybe he did.

"What if we asked your mother? Fuwa's hot news. Having him compose for us would be beneficial, but he refused the last two shows. And hell, they weren't hosting no-names like you are."

That was insulting. "Maybe we can offer it to him in the same way we did to Masahiko. Offer it to him as a chance to broaden his horizon-"

"How much broader does he need them to be? He's resinging his old songs in ENGLISH. AMERICA has his CD's."

What do you know? He never realized that his producer was so anti-Fuwa.

"What are our other options then?"

The room tensed up together.

"Husei or Fuwa. "

"Contact both."

AN: review? Let me know your opinions. (:
I dunno. I have to get back into the groove for writing. The reason why everything's sort of stale and ... choppy is cause I haven't really figured out a solid plot flow yet.

I only have a rough idea. v_v; Then again this was an introduction. :D

by the time I post chp. 1 I will probably have a better grasp over everything. Anyone willing to be my beta for the story?