Chapter 3: I lacked the things you need the most, you said…

Leaving LME for the evening, Kyoko debated asking Kimura-san for advice. She trusted that the older woman would keep her secret, but putting her question into words made her feel nauseous.

"Is everything alright, Kyoko?" asked her manager from the driver's seat. "After such a powerful performance I expected that you'd be more energetic."

"Kimura-san… when a guy says "I need you" what does he mean?"

The car swerved. Of all the conversation topics in the world, Kimura-san never expected Kyoko to bring up boy troubles.

Quickly regaining her composure, she replied, "It really depends on the situation and the way he says it."

Stupid Tsuruga, way to be ambiguous and confuse poor Kyoko! You're never going to get laid like that!

"Well, I don't really know his circumstances exactly... but he said "I need you" and then told me his hotel room number."

"Don't go." Kimura's response was immediate and final. But, seeing that Kyoko was giving her wide-eyed attention, Kimura-san figured she'd better elaborate. "Err… the way I understand it, most men use that line to… ah… influence women."

Kyoko tilted her head, her face still full of patient curiosity. How is this girl so naive? Kimura wondered with a mix of annoyance and awe. They hadn't even been working together for a full year yet, but already she felt oddly protective of Kyoko. If the young actress ever got herself into trouble, she wouldn't hesitate to do whatever it took to come to her rescue. The young star had a nostalgic innocence that she wanted to shelter from the big bad world. It felt as if, by preserving Kyoko's pure views on life, she could somehow restore her own.

And because of that, she didn't want to be the one to corrupt the girl. "Ok, um… I would say that men in general say such things to make women feel… appreciated. But - and this is the important part - some men use that feeling of appreciation to get... things they shouldn't have… Do you understand?"

Kyoko fell silent, a black cloud forming and crackling above her head.

Appreciated? Isn't it a little late for that?

She turned to face the window. The setting sun's reflection off glass-windowed buildings cast an orange glow across her face. She slid hands over eyes to block out the glare.

Misreading her charge's attitude, Kimura-san continued, "Kyoko, I know you're dating now, but if any man says "I need you" right as you are about to leave his place, Do Not listen to him!"

Kyoko snapped out of her daze. "Huh? Even if it's Tsuruga-san?"

"Especially Tsuruga-san!"

"Why?"

"Just trust me on this."

Sorry Tsuruga, but I'm not going to make deflowering the princess easy!

Pulling up to the Darumaya, Kimura noticed that Kyoko was still deep in thought. To get her attention, she mussed Kyoko's hair. "Don't worry so much about it. I'm sure you'll understand what he meant soon enough."

"Yeah," Kyoko sighed, getting out of the car. "I guess I will."

Her unhappy response made Kimura frown as she drove away. Maybe it hadn't been Tsuruga-san afterall.

Shou didn't call her again. Every time she looked at her phone, Kyoko felt her heart speed up. For the whole next week, every call made her jump. The tension was getting to her. Leaving things with him unresolved bothered her, like a loose thread that she couldn't help but pick at.


Kanae was waiting outside the President's office impatiently. There were still a few minutes before their meeting, and now that she was there, she worried that maybe she was overreacting.

Why am I taking time out of my busy schedule for this?! I should be preparing for my shoot this afternoon, not playing Mother Hen to my oblivious friend!

Best friend, she corrected, biting her finger nervously.

Since the JMAs, even the mention of Shou's name put Kanae in a rage. The way he'd so casually stomped all over Kyoko's career made her blood boil. This time she wouldn't ignore the bad feeling he gave her, and maybe she could derail whatever plan he had before it even started.

Unbidden, her mind played back the news clip that had nearly destroyed Kyoko's reputation.

Fuwa Shou stepped out of his limo. Black boots heavy with chains and buckles emerged first, promising an aggressive outfit was to follow. More black and silver continued up his long legs, and it looked like he was wearing dark pants covered in buckles. But then the camera angle shifted and it became obvious that there were no pants at all - his legs were wrapped only in black straps from ankle to groin. The top was made of black and gold snakeskin fabric, a t-shirt connected to long fingerless gloves of the same material by more straps and buckles. His hair was spiked all over, shockingly blonde except for a streak of black near his left eye. As usual, Fuwa Shou's V-kei was nose-bleed worthy, and his confident smile said he knew it.

After the crowd of reporters had asked him the usual questions about his outfit, the interview took a personal turn. One of the reporters from Boots magazine, a blonde, asked him about his date for the night. Shou answered smoothly with a line about belonging to all women that he couldn't pick just one. While the other newscasters ate it up, the Boots reporter seemed to have an ulterior motive.

"What about Kyoko? I heard that you two were close."

"Who?" Shou asked, a bit too forcefully.

Because he seemed to know something juicy, the other paparazzi moved to give the blonde more room.

"The actress who played one of the angels in your PV for 'Prisoner'," he continued, "She also played 'Natsu' on the hit drama 'BoxR'."

More reporters gathered around him upon hearing that, microphones multiplying in front of him like mushrooms after the rain; all of them asking, "What about Kyoko?"

Kanae hated how Fuwa's cool image faltered for a moment, briefly revealing a guilty, panicked expression, because it made his words sting all the more. He knew what he was doing - and he didn't care.

"Like I would care about a boring girl like her," he scoffed. "Besides, she was horrible to work with. Haven't you noticed that all of her roles are exactly the same? It's not even acting for her, she's just naturally a scary, hateful person!"

"Ahem." The President's assistant, Sebastian, cleared his throat to get Kanae's attention. She blinked herself back to reality and gave him a smile that said she was listening. "The President will see you now."

"Thank you."

Walking into the President's office, Kanae admired his art collection that graced the walls. It gave the room an international flavor that fit so well with his ever-changing image. Today's image was bad, Kanae realized as soon as she spotted the man in question, but sadly it wasn't the worst outfit she'd seen him in.

President Lory Takarada was doing push-ups in the parlor, his dark curly hair held out of his face by a neon green sweatband.

"Ah, Kotonami-san!" he called, jumping to his sneakered feet. The brightness of his two-piece track suit nearly blinded the actress. That much neon should not be allowed to exist in the same room all at once. "Please have a seat. Would you like some tea?"

Kanae politely declined. They sat across from each other, but his outfit gave Kanae a hard time trying to keep eye contact.

"Now about your concerns, I feel like Kimura-san would be better suited to-"

"Forgive me, President," Kanae interrupted, "But I think we'll need someone with more connections for this to be effective."

"We're talking about Queen Record's Fuwa Shou, right?" Lory asked with a serious tone. Kanae nodded. "I know that he's caused Kyoko troubles in the past, but other than a restraining order, there really isn't anything we can do to keep him away."

A slight twitch of her brow was the only indication that Kanae was annoyed. She was a good enough actress to keep her emotions in check, especially when talking to her boss. But unfortunately for her, the President had a sixth sense for matters relating to love.

"Listen, Kotonami-san." Lory clasped his hand and moved as close as he could to Kanae. His face emitted a sincere fatherly aura that kind of pissed her off. "I can tell how much you care for Mogami-san. I know you are worried for her safety, but this is something that she has to get through in order to grow."

Kanae opened her mouth to disagree, but Lory shook his head to stop her.

"From the first day I met her, I could tell that Mogami-san had endured something terrible. She found it impossible to love and accept love from others, a concept that deeply troubled me. Over her time in the LoveME section, she found a way to acknowledge her own self-worth and last year she made amazing progress all on her own, when she finally reconciled with her mother. With her new-found perspective on love, I think she's finally ready for the last step in her LoveME training."

"And what is that?" Kanae asked abrasively. Letting Shou toy with her emotions a second time?

"She needs to forgive the one that broke her trust in love."


Shou lay on the carpeted floor of his hotel room, staring up at the ceiling. He'd been in Japan for eight days already, but had only left the hotel twice. Room service delivered his meals and his company credit card paid the bills. His manager Shouko stopped by a few times early on, but he'd pulled the chain across the door so she couldn't barge in. She'd yelled at him through the crack between the door and its frame about being professional and taking responsibility, but her rants washed right over him without effect. His phone was on, but he screened his calls and messages, not answering any of them. There was only one person he wanted to talk to, someone who always knew exactly what he wanted to hear.

A knock on the door pulled him out of his lethargy.

"Room Service."

He slowly got to his feet and, after checking the peephole, he removed the chain and opened the door. "You're late."

The employee flinched. Her black bangs covered her eyes and she was a little taller and younger than the last server they'd sent up, but she was otherwise unremarkable. Shou gave her a questioning glare when she didn't move from the doorway. "What the hell? Are you going to bring it in or are you going to make me do it?"

Straightening her shoulders, the hotel employee seemed to come to her senses. "My apologies, Fuwa-sama! Please excuse my rudeness!" she said, quickly rolling the cart with his food into the room.

Shou sighed. So much for my alias. Apparently the staff at the hotel had finally figured out who he was. That explained her oddly stiff and formal behavior. As much as he used to find it annoying to deal with star-struck women, his isolation made him realize how much he missed it. The more nervous they are, the more fun it was to play with them...

The woman paused in the center of his suite, clearly unsure of what to do next.

"The table is over there," he pointed to the corner of the room next to the window. Obediently, she rolled the cart over and started unloading its contents, her movements quick and graceful.

When he closed the door and meandered over, ready to do some shameless teasing, she lifted her head and smiled at him. It was a warming smile that caught him completely by surprise. Having expected her to be flustered and embarrassed, Shou had no idea how to react. She took his silence as a signal and motioned to the table saying, "Today's special is curry with pork and seasonal vegetables and a green bean and fennel salad on the side. Please enjoy."

As the woman bowed and moved to leave the room, Shou had a strange impulse to keep her a little longer.

"Wait!"

Her hand let go of the doorknob and she turned to face him. "Yes, Fuwa-sama?"

Suddenly he had no idea what he was doing. This girl was just an employee doing her job. The smile she was giving him was only a professional courtesy. Was the loneliness of this week getting to him so much that he was imagining a connection with the hotel staff? Did he just need someone to talk to, after all?

"Ah," he hesitated, scratching his blonde hair shyly, "Thanks for the food. It smells really good."

Another pleasant smile graced her lips and her amber eyes filled with tenderness. "You're very welcome, Fuwa-sama."

"And…" he said to her back as she turned to leave again. "Could you keep my name a secret from the rest of the staff?"

"Of course," she replied, pausing in the open door. "Good night, sir."

When Shou sat down to eat, he noticed an extra dish on the table that the woman hadn't described. She seemed new, he considered, maybe she made a mistake. As he lifted the lid of the dish, his eyes bugged out in recognition of the familiar coloring of Kurigo pucchin pudding. With explosive speed he wrenched the door open, looking both up and down the hall for the woman, but she was gone.

Sitting back down at the table, Shou's head was spinning. Why would a high class hotel serve convenience store products? And, more importantly, only one person knew about his weakness for custard. Reaching for the pudding he muttered a quick "itadakimasu" before devouring its contents.

Kyoko… what are you doing?


"Kyoko, what are you doing?!" she whispered to herself as she stripped out of the borrowed hotel uniform.

Despite promising everyone that she would stay away from Shou, Kyoko's curiosity had gotten the best of her. A week of wondering why he'd called and if it had anything to do with his poor record sales and the cancellation of his world tour or whether he was calling to invite her to yet another awards show where he could publicly humiliate her or maybe something happened back home at the ryokan and his parents were dying and they needed her kidneys or… Seriously, her imagination was running wild with possibilities. But still, she had promised not to meet with him and asking him over the phone seemed just as insincere. So Kyoko had come up with a plan.

As long as it's not Me visiting him, Kyoko reasoned, it should be fine if I just happen to see him.

After school she'd taken a taxi to the Tokyo Palace Hotel, with her Hiyori wig and some makeup in her bag. Walking in like she was supposed to be there, she found the staff laundry room and borrowed a uniform and assembled her disguise. Everything else had fallen into place so naturally that she'd hardly had time to marvel at what she was doing.

To think that I put that much effort into spying on Shou!? Kyoko hung her head in disgust. All she'd learned from this excursion was that she was an idiot for worrying about that bastard. Though there had been a moment when he'd almost seemed like a normal person… She recalled his bashful smile when he'd thanked her for the food and couldn't deny that it had been cute.

But a simple "thank you" shouldn't be a big deal! That is supposed to be common courtesy! Get it together Kyoko!

Next time, I'll definitely give him a piece of my mind.

Having changed and gathered her belongings, Kyoko flagged down a taxi. Inside the car she turned her phone back on, only to have it start ringing in her hands.


It was nearly 10:00 pm when Shou finally got the nerve to pick up the phone. Lying around the hotel room all day, waiting for something to change had finally gotten on his nerves. If things were going to go badly at work, well, then he'd just have to face the consequences. It was his fault that the world tour had been such a failure. He'd put his career on the line for his already over-sized ego. The plan had been to crush Kyoko once and for all. It was ironic that, after having destroyed himself, the only person he wanted to see was her. And, even in disguise, she'd managed to encourage him in all the ways he needed her to. That pudding felt like a message, saying "gambatte!" (do your best!). And, after pacing around the hotel room a few times, looking at the phone, sitting down, picking it up, putting it down, and pacing again, he'd finally gathered enough courage to press "send".

"Shou, the President of Queen Records would like to see you."

"I know."

Shouko picked Shou up for what would be the last time. Her tight blouse stretched across her chest couldn't even divert Shou's attention from the dread that was swirling in his stomach. It was late, and the sky had already turned black. They didn't talk on the ride over; two people alone in the darkness of their own imaginations.

All he could remember was sitting in an uncomfortable brown chair, trying to sort out his shoulders, while Shouko beside him begged the President for another chance.

"He has lots of material that he keeps on stand-by! Just give us a few months and we'll have another album ready to go platinum!"

The President, an old man with a strong sense of loyalty, shook his head stubbornly. "It's too late for these assurances, isn't it? We at Queen Records have stretched ourselves thin trying to make this blasted world tour a success. And how did he repay our efforts? He quit half-way and went into hiding because his feelings got hurt! I can't support this prima donna bullshit going on in my company. As I see it, the moment he didn't show up on stage was his letter of resignation.

"We have nothing further to discuss, Fuwa." The President got up and gestured to the door.

His legs felt like rubber as he got to his feet. The room was spinning and his ears were ringing. How he made it to the door, he couldn't say. There was one last thing he remembered, and it stung more than he expected it to - the moment when he knew he was truly on his own -

"Shouko, please come in on Monday for your reassignment."


A/N: Wow, lots happened in this chapter... you've heard what Shou did at the Japan Music Awards (JMAs) and what's been going on in his life lately (he just got fired?!), and Kyoko finally visited him (in disguise, but it still counts). The next chapter gets crazy dramatic! Be excited!

XD