A/N: Mwahahahahaa- For Runadaemon. Please tell me if I accidentally let Ren call Kyoko by her first name where it's inappropriate. My inner Ren is tricky.
Premise: A romance where nothing bad happens. No sarcasm, lies, or endorsements.
Disclaimer: I don't own Skip Beat! No one asked me to write this.
A Romance for Runadaemon
Last To Know
"Whoa," Moko-chan uttered as she took in a Kyoko fresh from recent promotional shots for Box-R. Somehow, the manic pink jump suit of the LoveMe uniforms looked especially more cursed on the girl.
"It's that bad?" Kyoko instantly panicked. If Moko could see past the neon pink jumpsuit to how tired Kyoko looked, she must have looked like a horror story. It could only get worse if Kyoko started crying, too.
"Stop! If you cry, I cannot help you!" Moko said, grabbing Kyoko's face and pulling hard on both of the girl's chubby cheeks. The glowing red of her pinch marks played down Kyoko's red eyes and her rosy nose.
"Mooogooo-saaan," Kyoko cried. "I can't face anyone looking like this."
Moko sighed and took her hiccuping friend by the hand to a powder room. Only because Kyoko's eyes were so puffed up she couldn't see straight.
"What the hell happened to you in Gifu Prefecture?"
"Nuffing. It was the part where this morning I threw up the really nice dinner Producer-san treated me and the girls."
"Idiot! Did you gorge on meat after dieting for Nacchan?" The accusation continued. "And then full of Hida beef, you soaked in a hot spring until your body released all its tension?"
Kyoko nodded, blew her nose, and Moko smacked her. "Dab delicately around your nose! Otherwise your nostril skin dries up and peels."
"Look you," Moko said. "I know you haven't lived an easy life so it's hard for you to resist temptation, but if you do make a name for yourself in this town, you have to force yourself to be healthy in good times and bad times. You don't want to be like the stars who burn out in the good life, right?"
"And don't eat a pound of steak after weeks of that monk's food! Too much protein! Got it?"
"Thang yewwww Mogo-saaan."
Her friend softened up a little as she took out her travel make-up kit: some Visine, concealer, and a bright lipstick perked Kyoko's appearance considerably.
Moko eyed Kyoko critically two times before smiling. "The hot springs did wonders for your complexion."
"Ah! Moko-chan, I almost forgot to give you a souvenir! Sugared chestnuts!"
Moko probably hadn't meant to send her through the door that hard in her rough emotional displays. Still, Kyoko was undeterred since her friend had accepted her gift, albeit with a cry of despair on how the candy would threaten her complexion.
"But Moko-chan is shining and bright even no matter how often she breaks her diet," Kyoko reassured herself. Still, she had enough sense to leave Moko alone until their next meeting.
Then Kyoko thought of another souvenir she'd picked up rather impulsively. But he was too classy to accept that sort of thing from a kohai. Yet at the time of purchase, given their time together as Cain and Setsuka, it had seemed right.
Or maybe, as Moko diagnosed, she had been under the influence of protein.
"Kyoko-chan! Long time no see! I never got to thank you for helping me out."
"Good afternoon, Yashiro-san!" To say that looking after Cain Heel was no trouble was in no way truthful. "I didn't go out of my way to do it, or anything, but I'm glad I could."
In fact, looking at the manager's simple, happy face made Kyoko lighten up. "Say, Yashiro-san... you're really good when it comes to weird situations, right?"
"It is part of the job, Kyoko-chan. What weird situation can I help you out of?"
"I wouldn't go so far as to make you do something for me... but I have to know: Is it inappropriate to buy a man a drink?"
Soon as she said it, she knew it sounded wrong. It was too late to fix the damage though, since the devil himself, though subtly referenced in her question, appeared.
"Good afternoon, Mogami."
Yashiro-san almost choked up when Ren greeted Kyoko without the honorific. To that poor guy, such a small step was such a great leap. Yashiro-san felt too much pity to ever point out to Ren that if calling a girl casually by her last name was the greatest leap a guy ever took, the human race would die out. Because of guys like Ren populating the planet.
If only Yashiro-san could text Ren what Kyoko just asked him without frying the Blackberry.
"If you'll both excuse me, I have to get out of a weird situation," Yashiro-san said.
"Oh no! I'm just dropping off some forms for my schooling," Kyoko said. "Then I have to catch the train."
"Will you be like a senior now?" Ren asked.
'Say yes, Kyoko! Say yes, Ren, I am more than old enough to buy you a drink!' Yashiro-san willed.
"I'm still a sophomore," Kyoko said, folding her hands behind her back and shuffling one of her legs. She couldn't have looked more like a school girl than if she had her hair in pigtails and a lolly. "I have an incomplete because of a class that conflicted with Box-R, but if I can get that done on top of my usual requirements, then I'm on my way!"
Ren was going to let her leave them with a typically sweet, and slightly suggestive, words of encouragement, but given the MAJOR MAJOR insight into Kyoko's private life that Yashiro just glimpsed, he had to do it. He had to lob the grenade and run away.
"Kyoko! What are your plans for tonight?" Yashiro-san asked, remembering just in time to dial back the interest in his voice.
"Not too much. I will probably do some homework after I get off of work."
Yashiro deflated, and then got a little angry because Ren should be the one sweating. He was going to give Ren one more chance not to wuss out. "We wanted to try out this organic vegan place that opened up. It would be a quick dinner, and an easy way to thank you. Plus, Ren will give us a ride back."
When Kyoko bowed her head as though to consider Yashiro's invitation, Ren's manager called upon the powers of the sun, the moon, and the stars and then he sent Ren a look packed with meaning, and more than just a little threat.
Unknown to Yashiro, he'd picked just the right words to entice one such as Kyoko: organic, vegan, and most importantly, "we."
"Sounds great! Ah! I'll have to take the stairs if I'm going to make it! Leave me a message with the address or an intersection, if you please."
"Of course. We will see you later, Mogami."
"Bye, Kyoko-chan!"
"Would you explain to me, Yashiro-san, what the hell you think you are doing?" Ren was smiling so hard that Yashiro couldn't see his eyes. Young flower buds in the lobby started to bloom all around them.
Down tiger. Yashiro thought.
"I could ask you the same thing despite knowing every intimate, lacking detail of your life. Tell me, Ren, who's trying to call you internationally? How could you hide things? From me? You're, like, my life."
"Oh. That," Ren sputtered. "Goddamn it, Yashiro. I put a password on... Did you jinx my password, too?"
"I don't know," Yashiro said, checking his watch. "Are we going to have a fun dinner or are we going to make another emergency trip to a phone shack?"
"What if we end up standing up Mogami? I haven't done a commercial in a while."
"Leave it to me." Yashiro's glasses gleamed.
As long as Ren had worked in show biz, he could never figure out how Yashiro smoothed out problems while appearing to hang around and text. Despite complications like the commercial deadline being pushed up and bugs in the mic and tempers flying in all sorts of languages, Ren made it out of the war zone.
Relief, mingled with the expectation of seeing Kyoko again, kept up Ren's spirits. The smell of the leather seats and the low hum of love songs blended well with his mood. Yashiro double checking times and names with Ren in the car seemed perfectly natural.
Then he saw a familiar pink jump suit, who had at least a foot of space all around it despite the crowded hordes of pedestrians jonesing for that light to change.
Ren tapped his horn, and as the jump suit waved and ran over to their illegally double parked car, he quickly turned off the station playing romantic tunes. Or tried to. He had no idea why an angry voice and crashing beats now issued from the radio.
Yashiro looked at him like an idiot as Kyoko leapt at the car because of the other cars honking at Ren.
"I didn't know Tsuruga likes foreign rap," Kyoko said to Yashiro through the rolled down window. Her head tilted as she observed this new fact, and could find no way to fit it with the sempai she knew.
Sigh. Yashiro thought. More than ever, he was convinced that he was giving Ren a bigger chance than the moron deserved.
"Oh no, Yashiro-san! You don't need to get out the car to open my door."
"It's no problem. You have to sit up front, Kyoko. I'm on my way out. Broke my phone again; need to pay an arm to recover all my numbers." After warbling out a suitable excuse, Yashiro abandoned them, walking to a Metro PCS that was craftily located within eyesight.
What the heck! Ren froze because he hadn't asked for the address to the vegan place either. Then the tinny voice of the GPS sternly alerting him to the next turn breached the flare of panic. Yashiro was a true mastermind.
Then Ren had a different reason to tense up, because Kyoko smiled at him, nearly causing him to rear end a taxi. He cast around in his mind for a topic.
"Is that a new perfume you're wearing?" Ren blurted. That's no good either!
"Am I wearing too much?" Kyoko asked, laughing a little self-consciously. "It's a sample I picked up when I went shopping with Moko-saaan. Mademoiselle by Chanel."
"I also tried No. 5, too because the nice man at the counter told me that Marilyn Monroe made it famous..." Suddenly, Kyoko's animated chatter broke off and Ren peeped at her flushed face in the side mirror.
"There's something you're not telling me," Ren said, feeling like he finally had an advantage in the conversation.
"It's nothing. I'm probably not remembering it right anyway." The redder she got, the more Ren's curiosity reared its cuddly head.
"What else did the nice man say? I'm going to have Yashiro look it up and tell me about it later."
Horrified that Kyoko would have to face two older men about it, she caved. "M-marilyn was asked by the paparazzi what she wore to bed. And I think No. 9, um, no No. 5 was her answer. It was much cleverer when the salesman quoted her." Kyoko clutched the seat belt and crossed her legs.
Ren didn't see much, except for a flash of the skin on the back of her knee. But he could feel the sweat in his collar. He ended up missing a left turn, and was admonished by the GPS with a crisp "RECALCULATING."
Fortunately, one of them was sensitive to the moods of others. Kyoko, sensing that she had stalled the conversation, moved on to a safe point. "Is this vegan place an Indian place?"
"I'm not sure. I guess. Masala sounds sort of Indian," Ren considered.
"Oh," Kyoko said, unable to keep the hint of disappointment out.
"You don't like curry?" Ren asked.
"No, it's not that.." Kyoko said. "I don't have any antacids on me. Can't be sure what it is but the spice always comes back to me with heartburn."
Ren almost braked the car. "Do you want to go somewhere else then?"
"No," Kyoko tried dissuading him. "I was excited to bump into you again and I didn't think. You should try new things; I don't want to spoil the time you're not set to work."
"Spoiling what?" Ren asked, sweating again from the idea of exciting her. "Eating my salad and yogurt alone in my kitchen? I'm afraid you're underestimating how boring I am."
"Not at all, Tsuruga-san! You can't be boring. The time goes fast when you call me and we end up talking about all sorts of things. It's really a good thing you call me after nine or else the minutes would eat me up alive."
Then before Kyoko realized how much her "little sister" role with Ren made her more open about her inner thoughts, she picked up on the "salad and yogurt alone" part.
"You shouldn't eat cold things before bed, Tsuruga-san. You have such bad eating habits!"
You shouldn't put on perfume before bed, either. whispered Tsuruga's wicked side.
"RECALCULATING."
Tsuruga laughed at the stern woman's voice of the GPS. "I'm sorry, Mogami. Could you switch that off?"
Kyoko laughed too when the GPS snapped at Ren's driving again. "Yes, certainly. What I don't understand is why a rich company would hire an angry mother to tell you directions."
"Honestly, the GPS didn't sound like that when I bought it. I think Yashiro fudged it by accident. He was trying to get the flying pizza to show on the screen."
Suddenly, Kyoko's stomach gurgled.
"Would you like pizza?" Ren asked shrewdly.
"I couldn't," she protested.
"I'll order something when we get to my place. We'll put mushrooms and vegetables on it, I swear!"
Just like that, Ren's worries about an awkward night dissolved. The conversation somehow led to Kyoko offering to cook Ren a healthy, warm meal. Then Ren and Kyoko stopped at an empty convenience place to pick up tofu and noodles.
It felt strange, but welcome for Ren to follow Kyoko as she confidently navigated the aisles after shoving a shopping basket into his hands and loading it up. It gave him a great excuse to trail after her and watch her.
"C'mon!" she said, dragging him and the basket to the check out lanes. "If we stay in here too long, we'll end up buying everything! Now I know why it's bad to grocery shop on an empty stomach."
Of course, when it came time to pay up, Ren stepped up as a man. "Put that away," he told her, mock seriously.
"Half," Kyoko insisted, dipping her hand into her purse.
Their playful fight gave him a great excuse to put his arm around hers and pass off a stack of change to the cashier staring wildly at him.
"No! Don't take it!" Kyoko protested, muffled by Tsuruga's jacket.
"Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Tsuruga Ren?" the cashier asked, fish mouthing.
"Nonsense!" Kyoko blurted nervously. She forgot about wanting to pay and quickly gathered up the bags.
"That guy?" Tsuruga turned to the tabloid shelves where his grainy face smirked back at him. "Nah, I think it's the height. Wait up for me!"
"Wait! Your change is 2000!"
In a couple strides, he caught up with Kyoko, who was darting to his car like a squirrel laden with acorns. She was leaning against her door, and then it registered in Tsuruga's head that she was laughing too hard to hold up the bags of food.
"You do look a bit like Japan's Number One," Kyoko hooted as he drove to his place, grocery bags in the back flapping from the breeze.
"I didn't know I was funny."
"No no. Your sense of humor is terrifying. I was in shock that you didn't get mobbed. That was too too close!"
"People are strange," Tsuruga explained to her. "They don't really think I exist outside the TV. So to see me in a food mart carrying things and not promoting them..."
"This is true, but you don't eat..."
"Then it's a good thing you're coming home with me. To fix that." Ren cursed himself for bringing up his sudden windfall of luck that had brought them together, to his driveway.
"I, um, had something in mind for us tonight." Kyoko told him. Ren nearly floored the car into the garage door. "I got something for you from Gifu! It's a strange gift, but I hope you like it anyway."
Ren blinked, then finally looked past Kyoko's shapely leg and saw a tall sort of bag, with rosy tissue paper fluffing over the edges.
"Wow, thank you," he said.
"You haven't even opened it yet," Kyoko said, laughing.
"I'm touched," Ren said, meaning it. "Being 17 and struggling doesn't feel like that long ago."
"You were 17 when you started acting? You didn't finish school?" Kyoko asked.
"Turning 16. I had a family friend pull strings for me so I could test out of high school... but, technically, I didn't finish school either."
"Which made you 15! And look how far you got," Kyoko breathed, looking at him with admiration.
Ren thanked the skies for the setting sun. Its golden, rosy light hid the coloring of his embarrassed face. It also looked equally pretty, softening up his stainless chrome kitchen.
Kyoko took a minute to absorb all the angular detailing and smooth finishes that Ren never appreciated, and then she got to work. When Ren hung up his jacket, she already had something in the broiler and the sound of the cooking fan and running water and a chopping knife filled the quiet apartment.
She had peeled off her cardigan. He edged up to her, gently, because she did have a cleaver in her hand. "Can I help?"
"Of course! Wash these! And then husk the ends. You know how to, right?"
Ren reached around her for the colander, getting prickles in his skin, as his arm lightly pressed the curve of her back. He slowed the moment down in his head, magnifying the smoothness of her dress and the subtle bite of her perfume... both of which were warmed up by her skin.
If only he could pretend that she was doing the same thing as him, but he knew her so well. After a while, he could predict what she was going to say. He could read her like a script. Yet her breathing, and her smallness, and the uncomfortable joy that flickered in her when she got close to him...In a lot of ways, he risked his life to get closer to her.
His father's words were in his head as she danced around the stove, rummaging and stirring and sprinkling in haphazard but experienced motions. Like his mother, but without the traumatizing aftermath.
"When I met your mother," Kuu said, tucking Kuon in. "I knew my life wasn't really mine anymore. I felt the same way when I met you, too, my cute wittle boy!"
The water felt cold running over his fingers. Ren snapped back into control, shakily.
"Tsuruga-san," Kyoko said. She was leaning into the counter, seemingly keeping a close eye on something simmering. Ren wasn't sure if it was him or their dinner that simmered more.
She seemed like she was trying not to move closer to him or agitate him. Was he slipping that badly? Her eyes drifted to the pile of greens Tsuruga had practically shredded to bits. He handed it to her, murmuring an excuse.
Ren went to his bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed, feeling his moodiness sealing him in like cold, iron armor. But too much armor wearied the strongest of warriors. He couldn't think. About anything. Except that the lively kitchen sounds seemed subdued. Ren flopped onto the bed, his fingers tugging his hairline back to let the headache escape.
He felt better in his quiet bedroom, until he heard the gentle taps on his door. Ren wondered how long she stood there. It was unsettling. Ren wasn't sure if he felt better alone or at the moment his body sensed hers at his bedroom door.
"Tsuruga-san. I brought something for you," said Kyoko, dangling the gift bag from earlier. As his mood shifted into lighter feelings, Ren realized that it was her. She was making him better. At some point, that was how things always were.
I knew my life wasn't really mine anymore.
His father's voice, which sounded like a warning in his head, died away as Kyoko shyly approached him and held it out to him. The motion of her hands imparted some of her perfume. Ren drank it in deeply, quietly, slowly like a thirsty man.
"Tsurug-"
"Ren," he said, putting authority and urgency into his voice, but only to scare her out of her typical questions and denials. To make her see that he needed this. "House rules. Call me Ren."
She smiled a little at his joke, but slowly withdrew her hand from his.
He put his thumb down, feeling like he was fighting for something important. "Call me Ren."
"I will. Ren." Kyoko paused. "Can you stop with the suspense now? I want to see if you like my gift!" He was grateful to her for holding back the questions. Are you tired? Are you sick? Tsuruga Tsuruga? He didn't want any of it except her.
So he grinned and he pulled it out of the bag, and raised his brows because the bottle was already opened.
"I have it warmed up already," she explained. "C'mon, let's do a toast and eat!"
Kyoko was starting to feel alarmed again because he was just sitting and watching her. Usually when he stood and faced her, she could pretend that he was seeing just the top of her unremarkable head. But when he got any lower like now...
It was over very quickly. Ren stood up and hugged her, lifting her off the carpet a couple feet, and then putting her aside to walk to the kitchen.
Dazed, Kyoko trotted after him, leaving a trail of wounded grudge demons.
She could barely match the edge of her chopsticks to her mouth. Kyoko felt profoundly nervous. She wanted to hug herself and rub at the skin where his sleeves touched her, and she couldn't look at him.
Ren was careful not to smile at her because the meal was delicious and peaceful and didn't need any fainting spells from Kyoko, no matter how funny and adorable she looked swooning. He tried projecting his happy feelings with his eyes. Sparingly.
It must've worked because she appeared to have an easier time picking up the vegetables from her bowl. And then Kyoko raised her cup to him and sipped at the warm sake she'd bought for him.
He mimicked her, but took a slightly bigger pull on his cup. Normally he didn't care if sake itself was cold or hot, but with a good meal and good company, Ren was starting to see why the drink was so popular.
In his five years in Japan, it took the most non-alcoholic girl ever to give him an appreciation for it.
He said as much, happily, as he tucked away the remainder of his servings.
"What were you doing in the past 20 years, Tsu- Ren?" Then she proceeded to tell him the history of sake, its prevalence in family life and entertainment, the sorts of foods built around sake, and even threw in some chemistry to describe its fermentation.
But its greatest property, which accomplished something that Ren never would in a million years, was to get Kyoko to lighten up. Way way up.
"And it's not just heating up the sake physically. You have to "warm" it with friends and food! If you've been drinking it cold, it's no wonder you don't want to eat. Ever!" Kyoko concluded, glowing red and talking vivaciously after just a cup of the stuff. "Heck, you need to eat more good food. With how busy you are, you do not need an excuse to celebrate your free time!"
A brilliant idea seeped into Ren's smiling brain. "I only like your cooking."
"That's only because I am your sempai in these matters! If you really mean it, I will cook more stuff like this, if only to get you up to speed with your culture."
"Of course," Ren said. He perked up at "your sempai", knowing that he could use her words against her for great opportunities.
"I have truly enjoyed your gift," he complimented her. "But since I need help, I think you should come over every week."
"Yes, okay." She nodded, feeling a nice groggy relaxation.
"And since you're my sempai now and I am your sempai at other times, you would say that we're on more equal footing now?"
"Yes." Gosh, his voice sounded so nice.
"And since you're calling me Ren now..."
The nice voice led her to a very nice conclusion. "Oh! So you call me Kyoko then. I wouldn't make you call me sempai since that would be going too too too far."
Whatever else the voice said was irrelevant. The car ride home was like a dream. She felt like someone was holding her hand the whole way through, and then leading her up the steps, and waiting for her to go in and the lock to click securely.
Then Kyoko woke up, and completely flipped out when her recall seemed more than a little fussy around the edges. And the sake that had warmed her belly last night ran cold in her blood.
"Oh my GOD! What did I just promise to" His name stuck in her throat. "Ren after I let that awful, cursed drink get the better of me? How embarrassing!" Kyoko allowed herself ten minutes wiggling around in abject misery.
Then she sat up as a trembling hope moved in her, like a newborn fawn. Maybe Ren remembered as much as she did. Kyoko decided this was a good thing, totally overlooking the down side of drunk driving.
With a solid block of denial tamping down on the images of her foolish behavior and Ren's amusement from last night, Kyoko was able to function. Homework, work, and paperwork were nothing! Anything to put more hours between last night and the present!
It was around ten when her cell phone rang, startling Kyoko enough that she scattered her essay all over the place. And then had to dig around under the papers to locate the source of the ringing.
"Moshi moshi?" she answered.
"Hey. Is everything okay on your end?" Ren asked. It was like her day hadn't happened yet, and she was in her dream where nothing she did was foolish.
"Oh ha ha heh nooo. I was just finishing up stuff." Smooth Kyoko. Smooth.
"Am I bothering you? I do not want to lower your grades." He sounded reluctant, but ready to hang up. Which was precisely why Kyoko talked fast.
"You are why I made it this far in the first place. And now you're my role model since you have sort of a diploma AND a career! There's no way you could kill my grades." Shut up Kyoko. Shut up!
"Are you sure you're okay then?" he asked worriedly. Kyoko immediately ceased the negative things she was yelling at herself.
"No, I'm fine. Can I do anything for you?"
"Yeah. Are we on for dinner next week, Kyoko? What was that sound just now?"
Kyoko sprang up from the floor where she'd hit her head falling on it. "Um. The customers downstairs are a little rowdy." She said a silent apology to the friendly men downstairs who only ever gave her decent tips.
"Anyway," she said. "I'm not so sure about the dinner."
"Oh, right. You're probably filming the finale and drawing up the next season. How about the week after? I can't drink the sake myself, now that I know better."
Kyoko smiled widely. "Just throw a party, Ren. That, if nothing else, will get rid of your bottle."
"If I were to do that, would you go, too?" He paused. "And I don't mean to cater the party. I want you to enjoy yourself."
"I- You make it hard to argue. You should be a lawyer and go after criminals."
"That would be an interesting role for me." Just when Kyoko breathed in relief, Ren got right back to the point. "So next next week, come over and we can draw up plans. Over dinner. I like your idea of a party. We could make it small, as long as we keep it from President Lory."
They both shuddered.
"No President? You mean you don't want a champagne lake with a gigantic ice mermaid?"
"Don't joke," Ren groaned. Then his voice brightened. "But I wouldn't mind a punch bowl. Maybe put soda in it for a kick."
"I think you're right about being a boring person."
"Then how interesting are you if you think I'm the fun one?"
They teased each other for several minutes, until Ren whispered goodnight in a gravelly sort of voice that made Kyoko stare blankly at her phone for an unblinking thirty seconds.
For months, they had fun, in earnest, once every couple of weeks when schedules allowed for it. Although Kyoko made sure to pour only half a cup of sake for herself. When they weren't looking forward to their dinners, they were talking on the phone.
"Hey Kyoko... you don't tell anyone about spending this much time on me, do you?"
To be honest, it hadn't occurred to her to share this with anyone. "No, I haven't. Should I? I didn't even think about mentioning it to Moko-chan."
"I'm sorry. I'm normally reserved and private, so I was just-"
"No no no. I understand that people might get the wrong idea, and I don't want to make you look bad."
"You could never do that. So when's the next time..."
Kyoko never thought that she would do a lot of things in her young life. One of these things included testing out Ren's new sound system. A really catchy pop song started up, and then Ren danced around as he helped clear the table. And then Kyoko was laughing, refusing to join him, and somehow they had a fight with the dish towel and the movable hand nozzle.
Which then gave them great ideas for Ren's party, to show the world that he wasn't boring.
"Kyoko, what's the meaning of this?" Moko-chan asked, waving an invitation in her face.
"Ren's inviting some friends over for a private party," Kyoko said, double checking her bag in the LoveMe lockers for her cell phone.
"I don't recall having a conversation with the guy," Moko said, still suspicious. I'm pretty sure breaking up the one between you and Tsuruga doesn't count. And...Ren? Really?
"Are you introducing me to your boyfriend?" Moko asked, putting her hands on Kyoko's shoulders.
"It's not like that," Kyouko said. "He's grateful to me for something small and dumb I did a while ago."
Despite Kyoko's reassurances and watery jokes, Moko did something she would never ever do. She hugged Kyoko, squeezing once, twice, and then "Be careful with this one."
"It's okay, Moko-chan," Kyoko said, her eyes watery this time. "If you knew what he was like..."
"Mo! I'm not saying I'm not going. Tsuruga's bound to know some big names. I'm sure he won't object to me networking and taking advantage of his hospitality."
"But you! What are you doing in all of this?"
"Me, Moko?"
"Since you helped plan it and probably cook-"
"Not at all!" Kyoko smiled apologetically for interrupting her best friend. "I'm not allowed to prepare a thing. He said he wanted me to enjoy myself." She felt it was important to tell Moko this.
"I see what he's doing. Good," Moko said, firm and approving. "If I break my diet eating your food one more time..."
Kyoko did her best to shake off Moko's worries, but she found it difficult to sleep at night and the easy, spontaneous calls halted. Ren had sounded hurt when she made up another excuse to get off the phone. She truly did have work to be done, but it could have, in fact, waited 10 minutes.
Kyoko even considered canceling their dinner plans, though Ren had promised to tell her more about the party besides who was coming. They had spent a lot of time deliberating how many and who to invite. It was particularly frustrating that Ren wanted to keep the location of the party under wraps.
"You're a Guest," he teased her. It took a moment for Kyoko to reach far back into her memories. She remembered how put-together he'd looked as she'd gone through the rites of serving him tea. He was as captivating as ever, but different. The mystery just made him more captivating.
She was so confused, though, by how unwilling she was to give up this amazing time with him although something didn't sit right with her. How many times had they privately dined together? She'd only agreed on helping him empty his sake bottle. Yet it never reached more than just halfway.
She decided to call him and leave him a message to cancel dinner. To her surprise, he picked up.
"Is everything okay?" he asked her, whispering. She could hear many voices and quite a bit of bustling.
"Hi Ren. About dinner tonight..."
"Oh good," he said, his relief throwing her off. "My co-star's having a rough time right now, so it's taking a while to get scene. Do you mind if I'm late? I will send you a message as soon as we clear it. It might be a couple hours."
"Um, okay."
"Yashiro-san, stop being," she heard Ren say before the connection died.
Kyoko clicked the phone, and then knocked her head into the wall. "When you're not in a chicken suit, don't act like one, stupid stupid..."
"Bo, do you mind keeping your little routine down?"
"Oh! Sorry!" In dismay, Kyoko realized that she was wearing a chicken suit. She was too pathetic to even yell at herself properly.
Well, it didn't matter. She was going to suck it up and maybe do something to ruin a decent friendship. Or was it more like a co-sempai agreement?
The silly thought depressed her. If she was going to make a fool of herself again, she might as well do it in style. Not that she spent the entire evening in her room thinking up things to wear, besides checking her phone compulsively.
"UGH! Why am I acting like I'm in middle school?"
Wondering if the bow in her hair was too much, Kyoko trudged to the familiar silver car he drove. When she got to the car door, she slid inside meekly. The small plastic bag in her hand rustled slightly.
Ren noted the bow and other little touch-ups that must have taken time. He was rather speechless that she had taken time to look extra nice. Given how he was more tired than usual, Ren didn't trust himself to sneak more than one cursory glance at her legs.
"It's not a good day for either of us, is it?" Ren said.
He could see her smile in the side mirror. "The sun's gone down, so maybe the bad day's over."
The cure for a bad day is a great night. He sneaked another glance when she crossed her legs in the other direction. It really didn't help that he'd just done a lovemaking scene today.
As soon as he parked, Ren hustled-dashingly, of course- out of the door just in time to help her out of the car and take the bag out of her hand.
"Thank you," she said. Her smile seemed very sad to him now that he was looking at it directly.
Before he could stop her, Kyoko ducked his questions by making the loudest dinner he could recall being put together in his kitchen. Ren was pretty sure renovations, which involved drilling and sawing, had been a notch quieter. If Ren didn't know about the wonders that sake did on Kyoko, he wouldn't have taken this treatment. Plus, he needed time to shake off the day and his sadness that Kyoko had rejected his offer to help out.
However, when he ran out of a quick shower wearing slacks and a nice shirt, Ren caught a glimpse of Kyoko's real face as she stared at his empty chair.
"Kyoko, what's wrong?"
She smiled at him, but Ren felt like she'd shut the door in his face. Oh no. If he let her get away with this, she might revert to Tsuruga-san. He couldn't have that.
"Moko-chan said something that's been making me think." Kyoko shook her head and then palm slapped her forehead. "It's been bothering me, but I didn't want it to trouble you either."
"What is it, then?" He couldn't sit down with her until he was sure she wasn't running away.
"Don't trouble yourself. Sit down and eat." She was definitely shutting him out. Fortunately, Ren wasn't a man to be bribed with food. He stood over her and drew her up to his level.
"My entire life, I've been nothing but trouble," Ren said, smiling fondly at her. "Whatever it is, I know that I'm scarier."
Kyoko blinked fast, as though staring into a bright light. "That's it. That's it exactly."
"What?"
"You are scary."
"I know."
"No! I mean you really are. I'm not talking about Cain or BJ. Ren, I'm- I am confused about all this. I can't-" She took a deep breath.
"What's there to be confused about?" he asked.
"Um, for starters, you're hugging me. And we have dinner. And it's just us. And I've been calling you Ren for weeks now. What is this?"
He wanted to lean in and give her the answer, but he knew that it was worth it if she understood all by herself.
"It's me asking you to dinner. And then to a party. And getting a proper introduction to an actual friend of yours. And maybe your landlady. I'm being surprisingly normal about it, aren't I?"
Her breath hitched, and she pushed him away. "Moko-chan's right! You are dating me!"
Then Kyoko spun on her heel and started poking him. "Why are you dating me? I never said yes!"
Ren grinned. "You didn't say no. Are you breaking up with me? We've been dating long enough that technically speaking, you can break up with me. Yashiro's been scheduling time for me so I could keep asking you out."
"Oh my god! Who else knew that we were dating?"
"Just me. And Yashiro. And your friend Moko. And the other pink one. Probably your landlady. Probably Lory. And anyone who's seen us together. But not Sho, because he's a self-centered brat. "
Which meant everyone worth caring about.
"And now you're in on it! It's looking like a good night after all."
She wanted to punch him, so badly. He was an easy target, leaning closer to her, with his mouth slightly open, and soft looking.
"It's late in the game, but, will you go out with me pretty girl?"
Kyoko leaned into him because he was whispering it too quietly, and Ren misinterpreted her movement, but still managed to do the right thing in the end, by kissing her.
It was short and sweet, and to the point. Even Kyoko knew that the best thing for her in this weird situation was to pull on his shirt and initiate kiss number two.
Kiss number three happened when Kyoko had a little something on her mouth. Kiss number four knocked the sake bottle off the counter to its wasteful end. Kiss number five ended the fight that Kyoko picked with Ren when he stupidly showed her another bottle of the same brand.
Many kisses later, after pissing off a lot of people, Kyoko and Ren were girlfriend and boyfriend who had progressed nicely beyond liplock by that time.
THE END