Skip Beat! is by Nakamura Yoshiki
Theory of Waiting
They are like two parallel lines drawn on a flat surface, non-intersecting, no matter how close they seem to be. But in a big enough scale, even parallel lines are bound to intersect. Hiou stands in the cusp of adulthood, ponders the bigger world ahead and the possibility of finally capturing Kanae's heart.
Chapter 1: Proxy
"You want me to do WHAT?"
Her shocked outburst caused a fair number of people to glance at their general direction. He grunted in annoyance but paid them no heed as he dragged her over to a secluded corner at the end of the hallway.
Kotonami Kanae, one of LME's rising stars and former LoveMe member number two, brushed a couple of wayward strands from her face before glaring at the slightly panicked young man, "Do you mind running that by me again, Hiou?"
"Tone it down, will you!" Uesugi Hiou growled back in a harsh whisper as he glanced around, making sure that nobody was eavesdropping on their conversation. "You heard me fine the first time. I'm not repeating what I just said, dammit!"
"But seriously, haven't you ever-?"
"No," was his clipped reply despite the heat that was rapidly crawling up his neck and undoubtedly staining his cheekbones.
She opened her bottle of oolong tea and took a drink before commenting, "You know, I've always thought that you would've done it at least once. I mean, with you being in all these dramas and-"
"I've always been casted for much younger roles because of how I looked," he explained, cutting off her rambling before it led to more embarrassing tangents. "So, no - I haven't done it onscreen."
"Well, not yet - you mean." She tilted her head to one side and narrowed her gaze at him, "How about with your girlfriend?"
He shrugged, "Never had one."
Kanae snorted and just had to roll her eyes on that one as she capped the bottle close. "Oh, c'mon, Hiou-kun. My younger brother, who's the same age as you is already on his third," the proverbial knife in his chest twisted as it dug a little deeper, "His younger cousin of two years is in a relationship as well."
Hiou straightened to his full height - all 177 centimeters of his seventeen years, finally towering over her, and glared back. "It just so happens that I'm NOT one of your playboy relatives, Kotonami-san."
The only time that Hiou would refer to her by her last name is when he was really starting to get pissed-off. He had always called her by her name ever since that time when he and Kyouko discovered the reason behind her violent 'play-acting'.
She met his glare and tried to ignore the slight strain on her neck. It was utterly ridiculous. Five years ago, she had to be on her knees for them to see eye-to-eye. Literally. Now, she had to look up and suffer the occasional crick in the neck just to meet his gaze.
"Mou! When did you get to be so freakishly tall?"
"Hey! I resent that!" He knew she was changing the topic, but he just couldn't let this one pass. "It wasn't easy adjusting to a year and a half of growth spurt, you know."
That was an understatement. The year he turned fifteen was nothing short of hell. His limbs were suddenly longer, his hands and feet were larger. He had never felt so awkward in his own body. Even with his new voracious appetite, he was still gangly due to his metabolism which was stuck in overdrive. He even started buying clothes two sizes larger and easily grew into them within a span of months. It was only during the second half of his sixteenth year when everything slowed down to more manageable levels. And even then, he has yet to start tackling the implication of his physical growth regarding his feelings for-
"Oi, Hiou-" A sharp elbow jab brought him out of his reverie, "Mou-! Were you even listening to me?" He blinked down in surprise at the beautiful woman who was frowning at him and shook his head guiltily.
"I asked if it was for a scene," Kanae reiterated for his benefit.
"Y-yeah. The new drama that I'm starring in would require me to do it." He winced, ducking his head to hide his reddening cheeks as he mumbled under his breath, "A lot."
"Fine, I'll read through some of the scenes with you and go over some pointers. You can drop by the flat around 8pm this Thursday. That'll give me enough time to cook us a light dinner. But don't expect anything too fancy," she warned bitingly, "This won't be anything like Kyouko's cooking."
"Or I could just bring something over," he suggested, sealing the deal with an offer she could hardly refuse, "What would you like to eat?"
"Really?" Kanae perked up, a lively grin suddenly breaking across her usually haughty features. Any reason not to slave away in the kitchen was always a welcome reprieve. "Then I'd like to have some chow mein from that Chinese restaurant right next to the train station."
"By the way, won't your roommate mind me hanging around your place that late?"
"Not if you bring us free food," she readily replied, waving his concerns away, "But don't worry, I'll give her a heads-up anyway."
"Ok, got it. Chow mein on Thursday 8pm." Hiou nodded resolutely before letting out a snicker, "Anyone ever told you that you're a cheap date, Kanae?"
"Mou! Shut-up, brat!" Kanae managed a mock glower as she reached out to slap his arm, "This is what I get for agreeing to help you?"
"Aiya~ Gomen, gomen," Hiou laughed as he fielded her hands with a thin booklet he pulled out from his messenger bag, "Here's the script. I've already marked the scenes that we need to work on."
"You still have this bad habit of rolling them up," she complained, handing him the bottle of oolong tea she was drinking before taking the script.
Hiou watched her un-roll the booklet as he drank the rest of her tea. "Figured you'd want to read through the scene... hey, wait! You don't need to read it NOW!"
'Poor Hiou, he obviously found the whole kissing ordeal embarrassing'.
Kanae was strangely happy that he decided to come to her for help and not anyone else. "Fine, fine. I'll read it on my way home."
"Good enough." He threw the empty bottle in a nearby recycling bin and broke into his usual smirk, "Okay, I gotta run. I have a shoot in an hour. See you on Thursday, Kanae."
"Bye, Hiou."
~o|0|o|0|o|0|o~
"She turned down the role? I was pretty sure she would've been ecstatic to work with you."
"I was under the same impression as well," Shingai Seiji replied with a resigned smile, absently tapping his fingers against the darkwoord tabletop, "But given her current condition, circumstances proved to be otherwise."
"Considering the theme of this drama, the best decision would be to get a new lead actress," his fellow director, Kurosaki Ushio, mused aloud with a sigh. "Two months before filming starts - I guess you have more than enough time to choose a new actress, make an offer and have her sign the contract."
He watched his friend take a satisfying drag off his cigarette before asking the next relevant question, "So, who was your second choice?"
"We don't have one. It was a unanimous decision between the writer, myself and the producer to have her play the lead role."
"Well... that was collectively stupid," Ushio bluntly stated, a slight frown knotting his brow as he sipped his coffee.
"I know," Seiji admitted, surprise overshadowing his acute embarassment at hearing his friend point out their blunder. "Got any suggestions?"
Ushio reached for a paper napkin, pulled out a pen and started scribbling. Once done, he handed the napkin to Seiji.
He stared at the three names on the list and smiled, "I'll have my secretary call their agencies right away." He then reached out and flicked the stupid looking 'lampshade' hat off his friend's head, "Thanks, Kuro-ushi! I owe you one."
Ushio scrambled to make a quick grab for the hat and growled at the sight of his so-called friend's back disappearing among the Saturday afternoon crowd, "I'm hate that nickname."
~o|0|o|0|o|0|o~
Koenji Erika could feel her manager's eyes on her as she leafed through the script. The theme itself reeked of cliche - older woman falling for a younger man - like one of those cheap soft-core pornish shoujo manga. She would have thrown the entire script down after reading the summary if her manager had not convinced her to read through the second act. She did, and found it hard to stop there. She breezed through the third and fourth act and practically devoured every word on paper as she read all the way to the tenth act.
Erika was hooked.
The scripted dialogue was nothing short of brilliant. The stereo-typed characters were given life and freedom to grow beyond their boundaries. It was if the entire thing had been written for the sole purpose of breaking the very cliché the story was based on.
"Koenji-san, you can take the script home to read and just tell me your decision tomorrow regarding the audition."
It was exactly what she needed to rise above the banal roles she had been type-casted lately. In short, this role was her big ticket to recognition and stardom since she made her break in acting two years ago.
"I'll give you my answer now," Erika looked up, determination shimmering in her eyes, "Competition be damned, I intend to play the lead role for this drama."
~o|0|o|0|o|0|o~
"MOKO-SAAAAN! CHIORI-CHAAAAN! I missed you two so very much!"
It was the only warning they got before the bright-haired girl barreled into them and latched on like an over-zealous monkey.
"Mou! Could you show a bit more restraint?" Kanae groused, though she had no problem returning Kyouko's hug despite her chastising tone, "We just saw each other last week."
"Where's Tsuruga-san?" Chiori prompted, wondering where the famous actor could be since it was fairly rare to see Kyouko without her husband shadowing her.
"He was running late for his appointment with the President, so he finally agreed to just drop me off here after the check-up," Kyouko explained as she placed herself between her two friends and tucked an arm along each of theirs. "C'mon, let's grab something to eat. I'm sooo hungry!"
Chiori expected Kanae to brighten up at the news and was surprised to see the shuttered expression on her face instead.
"So, it's confirmed? How far along are you?" Kanae asked. The question caught Chiori's attention and had her glancing at the bright-haired girl between them.
Kyouko, however, was positively glowing like a small sun. "The doctor said that I'm well into the start of my second trimester."
All three women stopped walking. Each with a different expression on their face.
Kanae glance down at their friend's flat stomach and raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yes. Really."
Chiori finally managed to close her mouth with a snap, only to open it again to let out a squeal of delight, "Congratulations, Kyouko-chan!" she chortled, clapping her hands in excitement. "Tsuruga-san sure works fast. It hasn't even been two months after the wedding and you're already..." she trailed off as the figures in her head did not quite add up the way she expected them. It took her a moment to confirm the math before she asked, "Is that what the Americans would call a 'shotgun wedding'?"
"Eh?" Kyouko frowned, not familiar with the foreign idiom.
"That's not quite right, Chiori. The definition is actually a situation where a man is threatened at gunpoint into marrying the girl he got pregnant," Kanae explained, her voice dropping a few octaves and a few degrees lower as she remembered her best friend's wedding day. "If I recalled correctly, the groom looked disgustingly happy and even downright smug for it to be anything like a 'shotgun wedding'."
Kyouko suddenly blushed a beet red, Chiori laughed at the tell-tale sign and Kanae reached out to pinch her friend's blushing cheek, "If anyone got tricked into that marriage, it would be this naïve pregnant idiot here!"
"Moko-saaaa~n!" Kyouko whined, rubbing at her stinging cheek. "What do you have against my husband, anyway?"
Suddenly, Kyouko's entire body seized up as if she was caught up in an epileptic fit. Any other person would have either backed away in fright or called the ambulance. Chiori and Kanae shared a smirk as former LoveMe Number One oscillated in tandem to the dull buzzing sound coming from her small handbag.
Kanae did not miss the way Kyoko's brows furrowed when she pulled out her phone and noticed the caller's name on the display panel.
"Sorry, but I have to take this call," Kyouko said, excusing herself with a slight bow, "I'll meet up with you girls at that Italian restaurant across the street. We have a table reserved under my name. See you there."
Sure enough, after giving Kyouko's name, they we immediately ushered into a quiet little booth with a view of Odaiba. They placed their orders, with Kanae choosing a shrimp pasta for Kyouko, and sent the waiter off.
"By the way, Hiou's dropping by Thursday night for a reading session," Kanae said, taking a sip of water from her glass, "He's bringing some chow mein for dinner. Hope you don't mind."
"I don't mind as long as he brings us free Chinese food," Chiori started to grin, only to falter when she remembered something and finally voiced out her concern, "But your boyfriend might."
"And why should he? Last I checked, it's OUR flat, not his." Kanae let out an exasperated breath and quickly changed the subject, "So, I just heard from Sawara-san that you got an offer for a lead role in a new series."
Chiori could tell that Kanae wanted the matter dropped and decided to pacify her by answering the question about work, "It's an audition, not an outright offer. But I don't think I can do it."
"And why not?" she asked, a belligerent frown on her brow.
"Because I've broken my head over that script for almost three days now! I'm no closer to figuring out why the female lead acts the way she does when the she's supposedly a very sensible and level-headed person." Chiori brought out the script and handed it over to Kanae, "Here, let's see you make something out of it."
"Maybe she's schizophrenic," Kanae offered jokingly as she started skimming through the script that had been marked out.
-~-=.0.=-~-
ACT III Scene V
Sumire and Takeshi coincidentally meet up in front of a vending machine, each of them ends up buying a canned drink.
Takeshi: (Smirks)Having fun?
Sumire: Like you can talk.
Takeshi: What are you going to do about tomorrow?
Sumire: Huh?
Takeshi: If your boyfriend's going to be dropping by, I could just go and crash at a friend's place for about 2 to 3 days.
Sumire: What are you saying? You don't have anywhere to go, do you?
Takeshi: (Drinks before answering)Yeah, I do.
Takeshi: I have a bit of money.
Takeshi: And since I'm such a good-looking guy, I'm bound to find someone who'd feed me.
Takeshi: Just because I don't have you to look after me doesn't that I'm going to end up dead in some ditch somewhere.
Sumire: Ah...well. I see. If that's the case, then I won't expect you to come by for a few days.
Takeshi: Got it. You can mess around all you want.
Sumire: Hey! Was that meant to be sarca-
Takeshi grabs Sumire by the arm and pulls her in for a kiss. She struggles, but he simply pins her against the vending machine and deepens the kiss even more. Sumire finally manages to break free and slaps Takeshi hard, making him drop his drink. Sumire is in shock, breathing heavily as she valiantly tries to regain her composure.
Takeshi: (Picks up his can while avoiding Sumire's gaze) Well, bye-bye then.
Sumire: (Angrily) Don't bother coming back home! Ever! Stupid asshole!
-~-=.0.=-~-
Kanae's brow knotted even deeper as she started to speed read through the entire act, her fingers clenching into the paper.
"I just can't 'see' myself becoming her." Chiori continued on, oblivious to Kanae's heated face as the long-haired woman flicks through the script and starts reading again from a random page.
-~-=.0.=-~-
ACT V Scene VI
Sumire: Is there something on your mind? Is there something I can do?
Takeshi: Yeah...
Sumire: (Excitedly) Go on, you can tell me anything you want.
Takeshi: But it's useless telling Sumire-chan...
Sumire: (Looks dejected as she backs away) Ah... I... I get it now. Well, goodnight, then.
Sumire proceeds to the bathroom for her bath and starts to take off her clothes. The bathroom door opens, Takeshi steps in and walks up to Sumire whose top is only covered by her bra.
Sumire: (Covers herself) Wha-!
Takeshi grabs her arms and tries to pry them apart.
Sumire: What the hell's gotten into you?
Takeshi suddenly forces Sumire's arms apart, exposing her chest and leans in close to whisper against her cheek.
Takeshi: (Speaks in a flat voice) Anything I want, right? What if I said I wanted you?
-~-=.0.=-~-
"You, however, would have been perfect for this role," Chiori declared, not even bothering to hide the envious tone in her voice.
Kanae refused to rise to the bait and simply shot the other girl a dirty look, "Don't even start. Besides, you're the one to whom they gave the script, not me."
"Rumor has it that they already had someone in mind to play the female lead," Chiori continued her 'matter-of-fact' tone that lent credence to the gossip, "But I heard that she had to turn down the offer because of her pregnancy."
The silence stretched unnaturally long after her statement, as if the world itself was holding its breath, waiting for them to realize something.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kanae asked tentatively.
"You bet I am!" Chiori groaned in dismay, "Now I have to go through with the audition. I wouldn't be able to respect myself, otherwise!"
"Heh! I knew you were going to say that."
"Hi, I'm back!" Kyouko announced breathlessly as she settled down with her friends, "Hope, I didn't miss much."
The waiter then arrived with their orders, momentarily curtailing any chance of further discussion on the topic. The conversation that followed mostly revolved around Kyouko's pregnancy: Chiori asking the questions, Kyouko apprehensively answering them to the best of her ability, and Kanae throwing in a precious tidbit or two based on personal experience with her huge family. It was not until they were having desserts when they finally managed to touch on the topic again when they were discussing Kyouko's current workload.
"I already had to turn down a couple of projects just last week," Kyouko admitted guiltily while poking at her sherbet, "Remember the call I received earlier? I had to tell Shingai-sensei that I could not go through with the drama after all. Based on the doctor's feedback, I'm bound to start showing before we could start filming the second half of the series."
"Any clue on who they short-listed for the new female lead?" Chiori nervously asked, "I heard they have the role open for audition."
"Actually, it was Kurosaki-sensei who came up with the list for him," Kyouko smiled as she said this, casting a glance at her former Kyurara co-star.
Kanae was quick to react, "Mou! What's that yakuza director got to do with it?"
"He apparently just became a co-producer for the drama." Kyouko revealed with a flourish, "And he has two LME talents in his list."
"What- wait! Two from LME?" Chiori leaned across the table, her brows drawn together in curiosity, "If it's not you, then who's the other one?"
A/N01:
Ok. Finally got back into my writing groove!
And yes, this is my second official SB series - I just adore this scandalous Kanae and Hiou pair-up. Reviews not needed, but would be much appreciated. (^.^)v Critique and feedback = happiness. Not that they would help to get me churning out the next chapter any faster though. (-_- ;;) Anyone who's been reading my previous SB work would know that I write slooow as molasses and usually update at my own pace.
A/N02:
The script snippets were from Kimi wa Petto by Ogawa Yayoi (Tramps Like Us - I've no idea how they came up with this for the English title). I wrote the snippets from memory and was searching like crazy for the title of the manga. Good thing one reviewer (miss-x-larie) posted the title.
Hope you guys enjoyed the revised first installment.