I didn't think I would continue this, but elfenknight was kind enough to suggest it be made into a two-shot, so I tried...and it turned into 3 more chapters. So, though this wasn't exactly what you suggested, elfenknight, this one goes out to you. Still don't own Skip Beat.
"Mou! You have got to be the most oblivious person I know," said an exasperated Kaene.
"Eh? What do you mean, Mouko-san?" Kyouko asked.
"I mean, a man doesn't say he loves you as a joke!"
"But he said he was just trying to help me get out of LoveMe," Kyouko protested.
'Yeah, by making you fall in love with him,' Kaene thought to herself. With Kyouko though, she knew she would have to approach her explanation in a different way if she wanted it to sink into that dense head of hers.
"So, he said he wanted to help you get out of LoveMe, right?" she asked.
"Yes!" Kyouko answered with a smile. "Tsuruga-san is always looking out for me, trying to help me improve my acting."
"And why do you think he's always helping you?" she asked leadingly.
"Well," she pondered for a while, "I suppose I need a lot of help. I really have a long way to go before I can even begin to hold a candle to Tsuruga-san."
Kyouko's expression began to darken as she contemplated the marginality of her success when compared to her sempai. It was like she wasn't even on the radar. If she stood next to him, she would be like a ghost invisibly standing there next to a living person, a mortal standing next to a god, a toad standing next to the prince of fairies…but that title belonged to Corn.
Kaene snapped her fingers in front of Kyouko's dejected yet dreamy face. "Hello? Earth to Kyouko? Wake up!"
"Oh! I'm sorry, Mouko-san! I didn't mean to waste our time together! I was just thinking of how troublesome it must be for Tsuruga-san to have to always be helping out such an untalented kohai."
"Do you really think that's why he does it?" she asked "Because you're untalented?"
Kyouko gave a timid nod.
"If you were untalented, he wouldn't waste his time on you, would he?" Kaene forced Kyouko to agree. "And anyway, there are a lot of other kohai who he doesn't help. He doesn't help me."
Kyouko thought for a moment, a look of horror slowly dawning on her face. "I'm so sorry, Mouko-san!" she wailed. "Tsuruga san is so busy helping me that he doesn't have time to be attentive to other more worthy kohai."
"Mou!" Kaene shouted, shaking Kyouko by the shoulders. She took a deep calming breath before continuing. "Ok, let's look at the facts, shall we?"
Kyouko nodded.
"Tsuruga-san said he loved you," she said, pointing to her index finger.
"But he said he was only—"
"Did he ever take it back?" Kaene asked.
Kyouko went over the events in her mind.
"I'm just trying to help get you out LoveMe, Mogami-san," he said.
"But teasing me that way isn't going to make me recover my lost emotion!" she scolded.
"No, I suppose not," he said with a smile the emotions behind which, she couldn't quite identify. It wasn't what she'd call a happy smile. She went over the list in her mind, the emperor of the night, the god smile, the fake gentlemanly smile, but it didn't match any of them. It seemed…sad.
They went back to silently watching TV and Kyouko changed the channel. She made sure not to utter any more promises for the rest of the night.
"Well? Did he?" Kaene prompted, index finger marking fact number one still on display.
"No," Kyouko recalled, "He didn't take it back."
"On to number two then," Kaene said, pointing to the next finger, "He spends a lot of time with you."
"But that was for— " she cut herself off, before thinking and finishing with "work."
"And how many times have you seen each other outside of work?" Kaene asked.
"Not very often," Kyouko said, thinking.
Kaene raised an eyebrow at her. "Sometimes Yashiro-san asks me to cook for him. And there was that one time when Tsuruga-san was perfecting his Katsuki," Kyouko blushed, shuddering at the memory of the emperor of the night before moving on, "And there was the time he helped me with creating my Natsu, and sometimes he gives me rides home."
"And how often does he do those things with other kohai?" she asked.
"Um…I don't know…Tsuruga-san is very busy, and our schedules don't match up very often, so I don't know what he does for other kohai when I'm not around."
"How much free time do you think he has to be hauling all his kohai all over the place and practicing with them and eating with them?" Kaene asked. "You think he can manage more than just you?"
"I must take up so much of Tsuruga-san's time!" she wailed.
In the back of her mind, she vaguely wondered where he found time to see the high school girl he was in love with if he spent all his free time with her.
"Forget about that for now," Kaene instructed, "Besides, he wouldn't do it if he didn't want to."
Kyouko stemmed her tears and nodded, waiting for Kaene to continue.
"So, one, he said he loved you, two he spends all his spare time with you, and three, he treats you specially."
"Eh?" Kyouko asked.
"You already mentioned a lot of ways he treats you special," Kaene reminded her. "He doesn't have dinner with me or give me rides or practice acting with me."
"Mouko-san—" Kyouko's lip trembled and her eyes began to fill with apologetic tears.
"I don't care, ok?" she told her. "It's not like I want those things, I'm just making a point."
"What sort of point?" Kyouko asked.
Kaene took a deep breath. "You are going to kill me one day, you know that?"
"Eh? I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever—" Kyouko blubbered.
"Mou! I didn't mean it like that!" Kaene yelled, shoving a box of tissues across the table. "Dry your eyes, you look like a leaky faucet."
"Mouko-san! You're so kind!" Kyouko sniffled.
"Anyway," Kaene continued, "The point I was trying to make was that Tsuruga-san loves you."
"Eh? That's impossible!" Kyouko exclaimed. "Tsuruga-san already has someone he loves."
As soon as she'd spoken, she clapped both hands over her mouth. She wasn't supposed to know that, let alone tell it. Only Bo knew, and Bo was a chicken who communicated via whiteboard, not the proverbial little bird who's always telling people everything.
"Spill!" ordered Kaene.
"But, Mouko-san! It's not my secret to tell!" she explained, "Tsuruga-san doesn't even know I know!"
'This is getting more and more interesting,' Kaene thought.
"Spill!" she ordered again.
"But Mouko-san!"
"I guess I was the only one valuing our friendship," Kaene said rising to leave. She knew it was kind of dirty to play the friendship card, but it was for Kyouko's own good.
"No! Mouko-san! Wait! I'll tell you!" Kyouko relented.
Kaene sat back down and Kyouko recounted the whole tale…minus as many embarrassing details as she could spare Ren from. Still, it was enough for Kaene to realize that the high school girl he was in love with was Kyouko. Half or even a quarter of the detail would have been sufficient to convince her of the fact. She wanted to scream and shake her, call her an idiot and tell her that it was obviously her…but this was Kyouko. She would not believe that someone loved her…especially someone like Tsuruga Ren, without concrete evidence, which was why she devised a little scheme.
"He's never told Bo the name of the girl he loves, has he?" she asked, knowing full well that he had not. Though, knowing Kyouko, she might have brushed it off, rationalizing that Kyouko was a very common name.
"No," Kyouko replied.
"Try asking," Kaene said.
"Eh? How can I do that? It's an invasion of privacy!" she vehemently declared.
"No it isn't," Kaene assured her. "He and Bo are friends, right?"
"…sort of," Kyouko replied.
"Close enough," she said, brushing aside Kyouko's reservations. "If you know who he loves, maybe you can help him. You'd be an ambassador of love just like the President wants. This could help you get out of LoveMe like Tsuruga-san wanted, and it could help him get the girl he loves. It's win-win."
"But—" Kyouko protested.
"Don't you want to pay him back for all the help he's given you?" she urged.
"Well, yes, but—"
"Good, then you'll ask the name of the girl he loves and then you can help him and get yourself out of LoveMe," Kaene said as if it was a done deal.
"But Mouko-san! I don't even know the next time I'll see him as Bo!"
"Well, just do it whenever the next time is," she told her. If Bo was Tsuruga Ren's love counselor, she had a feeling, Kyouko wouldn't have to wait too long after that failed attempt at a confession he'd pulled on her.
"Um…alright…" Kyouko mumbled unconvincingly.
"Promise?"
"I promise," she said begrudgingly.
AN: And on to the next chapter. Hope this didn't detract too much from chapter one