Greetings everyone!!! Thank you SOO much for hanging in there while I've been trying to get this out. I am currently typing this on a borrowed laptop because my Mpu is still in the shop!!! So...many Kudos to my friend Tom for working on her and hopefully I'll see her soon. Until then, get well soon, Mpu!!!! Muah!!!
Now, moving on, this story has evolved on paper....I've been writing and writing and I think I kind of like where this is going. I hope y'all will too. There are some things I have to mention though. With the Taisho's wife, Kyoko calls her Okami-san. I will keep that name because I don't know exactly how it would mesh out into English. Mrs. Okami? Probably, but I'm pushing the Easy Button on this one and just keeping it as Okami-San...and same for Kanae...Kyoko calls her "Moko-san"...I will keep that as such as well. The rest of it all is going to be equated out into American Speak....lol....write what you know. I guess.
So without further ado, and without gilding the lily anymore, I give you the second chapter of Affliction!
POSTED BY: nimblnymph. No editing was done on my part. Just doing a dear friend a favor.
A few days later, Kyoko was running into the studio cursing at herself under her breath. She was soooo late!!! She'd stayed up half the night studying for her English test and in her sleep had turned off her alarm. Now she was stuck with running down the hallways and ignoring the curious stares of the employees she passed in her trek through L.M.E's building.
The filming for Dark Moon was already underway when she busted through the door of the sound stage. She caught her breath as she slowed to a walk at the edge of the stage, watching the drama unfold between Mr. Tsugura and Miss Mimose in their scene. It seemed that Katsuki and Mizuki were having an argument. Kyoko stopped paying attention on what was being said on the set, and started thinking about the odd note she had gotten at Darumaya.
Shaking her head, she smiled. She must have been tired the other night to let a stupid prank like that upset her. Nothing has happened yet, and why would it? There was no one after her. She was after someone, and that someone was Shotaro Fuwa! Her eyes took on a predatory glint as she envisioned Shotaro crying and begging at her feet after she was named the #1 talent in Japan. Her lips curled in a feral grin as he wept openly on her shoes, as he kissed her feet while telling her what an awesome actor she wa--
"Miss Mogami. It's good to see you this morning."
Eyes wide, she jumped to see someone in front of her, "Director Ogata! Good morning! Ah....good morning everyone" She scrubbed the back of her neck and fought a blush as she realized that the filming had stopped and all eyes were on her. Mr. Tsugura's expression was unreadable as he stood on the set with Miss Mimose.
"You and Ren will be filming the next scene, Kyoko. Why don't you hurry up and get ready? Until then, take five everyone!" The young director dismissed the crew and walked over to where the producer sat to discuss the next scene.
The crowd dispersed slowly, murmuring to themselves. Kyoko paid them no heed as she dove into the first dressing room she came to and flipped on the light. Dropping her duffel on a chair, she slipped out of her shoes while stripping off her shirt. Left in shorts and a bra, she carefully unwrapped the dress she'd be wearing as Mio, pausing in front of the mirror where her reflection stared back at her.
Kyoko couldn't help but evaluate her form. Barely shoulder length hair that lay in unruly layers normally was now flat ironed straight for the part as Mio. She had long willowy limbs and a stick like figure...she stared down with a frown at her pretty much non-existent chest. Stubbornly she shook her head and looked up into wide hazel eyes and a mouth that turned up into a saucy smile.
At least she could still smile, not like Mr. Tsugura. He wouldn't know how to smile if his life depended on it! The man knew how to act though, that was for sure. Kyoko sobered at the thought. She stared off into nothing as she thought of Mr. Tsugura playing Katsuki. He fit the part, physically speaking; dark slacks had encased impossibly long legs while a crisp white button down shirt broke up the darkness with a vivid red tie to add a splash of color. His character stood almost a head and a half taller than Ms. Mimose. Talk about a tall, dark and foreboding presence to which Miss Momose's paler complexion suited perfectly.
Kyoko sighed as she slipped out of her shorts in front of the vanity, still lost in thought. She carelessly threw them on her bag. Miss Momose and Mr. Tsugura balanced each other. His height to her shortness. His dark to her light. Yin and Yang. "No wonder Mio is so jealous of them." She muttered to herself as she reached for the dress hanging on the rack.
"Miss Mogami?!" she heard a distinct male voice exclaim.
She whirled around, dress in hand. "What do you think you're doing in my dressing room, Mr. Tsugura?!"
"I think you're mistaken. You're in my dressing room," he said bluntly. All the while he kept his eyes on the wall, he wondered idly when she was going to remember that she was very nearly naked.
"No it's not! I took this one!" Kyoko shouted back indignantly. Honestly, was he going to order her around all the time?
"Look around, Miss Mogami; what do you see?" he replied evenly.
"You're avoiding eye contact with me for a start, and I see a clothes rack, table with a duffel bag, my duffel is on the chair, men's clothes...make-up on the vanity and..." her eyes bugged out because she saw herself in the mirror wearing nothing but a bra and panties. "OH MY GOD!!!" She clutched the dress to her chest and glared at him "I see a pervert!"
A flush crept up his cheeks as he hastily turned around. Luckily, Kyoko didn't see it. "I am not," he replied stiffly, feigning calmness. "I kept my eyes averted."
Kyoko wasn't pacified. "Then why aren't you leaving!?" she said in embarrassment.
"Right." He crossed to the door quickly, calling over his shoulder, "Just get your own room, okay?"
Kyoko barely relaxed once he was gone. Did Mr. Tsugura really just see her (almost) naked? Oh, God. She stuffed her street clothes in her duffel, scrambled into the Mio dress and bolted to the farthest dressing room from Mr. Tsugura's. She did not want a repeat performance!
After applying make-up and straightening her hair, she went back out to the stage where it looked like Mr. Katsuki's homeroom.
The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent filming, and Kyoko had some difficulty trying to stay focused. Each time she faced Mr. Tsugura in a confrontation as Mio, she remembered the sight of herself in her skivvies in the mirror of the vanity and she'd lose her place in the dialogue. Scene after scene, take after take they kept having to re-do everything. She kept trying to concentrate but- 'why didn't he leave the room right away? And why didn't she freak out more about it? She should've-'
"CUT!!!! Kyoko, are you trying to see how many takes you can do?!" Director Ogata belted out in frustration.
She blinked and looked at the director, "Huh?" Then she realized that she had messed the scene up… again. "Aww, crap! I'm sorry, Director! It won't happen again!" She bowed in contritely.
"Here you go, Mr. Tsugura." Kyoko glanced over to see an assistant hand the actor a bottle of water.
"Ah, thank you, Hitomi. I didn't know today was going to be so challenging. Isn't that right, Miss Mogami?"
Giving up on shooting venomous glares at the assistant, Kyoko looked to Mr. Tsugura and felt the blood turn to ice in her veins. Oh shit! There, on his face…it was the gentlemanly smile. Mr. Tsugura was PISSED! "Oh…umm…yeah…" Kyoko stammered dumbly. "It's been interesting."
This caused Mr. Tsugura to look pensive, almost like he was remembering something. "Hmm…yes…it certainly has revealed a lot of surprises. And it's barely after lunchtime." He kept an eye on Kyoko as he delivered the barb.
Kyoko felt her eye twitch. He was baiting her?! She turned on her heel and stalked down the hallway. She ignored the amused chuckle that she heard behind her. That man was insufferable!!! Kyoko ground her teeth in frustration and embarrassment. She was not running from him, merely going to her room to change for the next scene. That's what she'd tell anyone who asked.
She yanked the door to her room open and dove into the safe confines. She began to pace back and forth in front of the vanity a few times, muttering angrily to herself. She'd show Mr. Tsugura that she couldn't be distracted by the 'Dressing Room Debacle', as she had begun calling it. She just needed a break to collect herself and her thoughts, that's all.
She placed her bottle of water on the vanity. Oh yeah, and she didn't need an assistant to get her water, thank-you-very-much! Kyoko turned to where her bag lay by the clothes rack and felt herself go numb.
There, propped on the canvas was a plain white envelope with her name printed in the same black text. "What the heck?" She crossed the room and grabbed the envelope, roughly ripping it open.
"IGNORE THIS NOTE TOO, AND YOUR SUFFERING WILL INCREASE."
"Who the hell writes this stuff?" She laughed weakly to herself, but it lacked conviction. This time there was no real sloughing it off. Someone really was after her. No one she knew would carry a practical joke this far. The biggest question was why? They also knew she lived at Darumaya, and not too many people had that info. And with this note, it proved that they had access to the studio as well. Boy, they had her life pegged out. Between the inn and L.M.E, there weren't too many other places she went.
Still though, she didn't have time to think about this right now. She stuffed the note in her bag and gulped some water down her dry throat. She willed her shoulders to relax and forced herself to calm down. So she had a crazy stalker after her--so what? If she didn't get the rest of her lines right this afternoon the stalker would have to get in line. Because Director Ogata and Mr. Tsugura would be the first to kill her!!
The crew started assembling once the break was over. Ren waited by the set for Kyoko to show up. Certainly she'd gotten over his teasing by now? If her flight to her dressing room was any indication, he'd scored a direct hit. Not that he had any intention of telling anyone what had happened in his dressing room. It had shocked him just as much as Kyoko to see her like that.
True, she'd been covered by the same amount of cloth as a bathing suit, but the innocence of the matching lacy white bra and panties had caused his mouth to go dry. And that had really unnerved him. This was Kyoko he was thinking about! A high school student--and a former pain in his ass. He still didn't approve of her reasons for joining the agency-but he did admire her grit. He may have stopped disliking her, but that didn't mean he wouldn't needle her from time to time. It would keep her on her toes. As an actor, one had to be prepared for anything. Or so he kept telling himself.
He looked up to see Kyoko exit the make-up booth. She was dressed in a simple black number that Mio frequently appeared in. Even with the stage make-up and from this distance Ren could see something was amiss. It was right there on her very animated face. Poor Kyoko, she still hadn't learned to school her features yet. Still, her obvious unease troubled him. Was it from his teasing? For all her spontaneity he had to keep reminding himself that she was still a young girl… alright, woman. They were touchy about things like nakedness and the opposite sex. He would do better to hold his tongue in the future.
"Ready to go?" Kyoko forced a bright smile as she breezed by him to enter the set, this time designed to look like Mio and Mizuki's home.
"Miss Mog-" Ren started to say but he was cut off by the crew.
"Places people! Ren! Okay….Dark Moon- Scene 268- Take one!" Director Ogata called out.
"Sir," Ren answered and took his place on the set. He would find out if he'd gone too far with his teasing after work.
Kyoko struggled through the rest of the afternoon. She'd had to go back over several takes for each scene and that had made her even more flustered. Each take ramped her up more, which in turn caused her to screw up more. She just couldn't get that note out of her head. Who would be after her? She was a nobody, barely had her foot in the door at L.M.E Agency. Didn't the stalkers come when she'd reached Mr. Tsugura's level?
"That's a wrap! Let's call it a day everyone!" Ogata called out. "Kyoko, can I see you for a moment?"
"Yes!" She replied quickly. She spared a glance at the cast walking towards the dressing rooms, but she couldn't see her door from where she was. "Kyoko?" Director Ogata called impatiently.
"Oh, right." She swung her attention to where he stood before her.
"What happened today?" he asked plainly. "I've never seen you this distracted. Is something the matter? Are you sick?" Concern shone in his eyes as he asked.
"Ah. No. Nothing's the matter, Director. Just had an off day, that's all." She forced a hearty laugh.
"I'm not sure I believe you," he responded solemnly, "but please try to focus more tomorrow. If I have to pull you off for a few days, I will." His voice was stern.
"NO!" Kyoko shouted, winced quickly and then continued in a softer tone, "I mean, no thank you, sir. I'll be fine." She smiled and backed away from him, only to back into a hard chest-wall. She turned, eyes wide and pulse racing, only to see Mr. Tsugura had reached up to steady her by holding her shoulders.
"Miss Mogami," he said calmly.
"Mr. Tsugura." She broke away from him to go to her dressing room, leaving behind two men who were very confused at her erratic behavior.
"She's sure acting odd," Director Ogata murmured softly.
"Yeah," Ren agreed.
"Do you know what it is?" Ogata asked, looking up to the taller, dark haired man.
Ren fought the blush that threatened to grace his cheeks. "Um… I might have an idea, but I'm not totally sure."
"Is she in trouble?" The director pressed, eyes narrowing.
Ren smiled. "It's Kyoko, when is she not causing trouble?"
Ogata smiled as well. "True. But…"
"Don't worry, I'm going to find out." Ren's voice was firm.
"Good." Ogata clapped Ren on the back. "Keep an eye on her." He walked off while waving over his shoulder.