I drive on her streets 'cause she's my companion
I walk through her hills 'cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds and she kisses me windy
And I never worry; now that is a lie.
Under the Bridge, Red Hot Chili Peppers
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Yashiro Yukihito, Age: 31 (an unfortunate age for a single man), Blood type: O, Status: a manager for a certain insufferable man—was witnessing the most intimate details of procreation that he had trouble deciding whether to scream like a deflowered little girl or play Beethoven's 9th symphony for the long-awaited victory-though unexpected-turn of events.
But instead, the fair-haired manager opted to ogle and dislocate his jaw and frizz his hair in the process, complete with the fangirl-squeal-pose—from a scene so outlandish, his glasses fogged.
Of course if it were any other normal manager, such an act was not something to be overly surprised about, but to Yashiro—this scene was worth his fish-out-of-the-water face.
Yashiro knew Ren was just baiting Kyouko. Sure he could 'slightly' feel the pinpricks of anger subtly exuding from his tense gait. But he was also disappointed and a little frustrated that of all the things Ren could possibly do to make a memorable (or at least friendly) reunion was smashed to pieces.
Sometimes...he just couldn't figure out how Ren could possibly win Kyouko's heart with that attitude? Yashiro sneered, it's not like she's the one pining for him. Yet, the younger male was so confident that Kyouko still respects him—he took it in advantage that she will always be by his side.
Sometimes, it's just hard to stomp the urge to smack some common sense in his young charge...
'Tch, one of these days, that tactic could backlash at him...'
Though not all fault lies with Ren. Yashiro was just as equally exasperated at Kyouko's ineptitude when it comes to the matters of the heart. Granted the word "love" had completely been banished (a severe understatement) from her soul, it still doesn't matter! Who would reject the incredibly famous, handsomest and most available bachelor in all of Japan!? It just pains Yashiro to see Ren repeatedly court her in ways that was comparable to wooing a rock. The numbers of rejection and despair could've already pushed a regular man to his limits...but the dark-haired male pressed on.
It was amazing, really.
But that was all Yashiro could do. Support them from the sidelines, play cupid here and there, and pray that someday one of them could give a little inch or two to their blossoming love.
But he wasn't expecting such a sudden 'wide berth.'
The fair haired manager vaguely wondered how Kyouko would think. Better yet, he was infinitely curious of Ren's reaction.
But for the dark-haired actor, it was just a ploy.
An old trick he pulled on her for old-time's sake. Sure he might've went over the board into taking such risks when they've finally reunited after almost two years of separation. But he just couldn't help it.
When the name of her nemesis was uttered from her lips instead of his, some part of him snapped. He didn't know whether his talk with the president made him irritated or the fact that when she's supposed to be meeting him and she was thinking someone else—made the darker side of him surface.
It was a familiar feeling, and totally uncontrollable that it would easily lapse into a sense of cold nonchalance.
He really didn't mean his words.
What he meant to say was: 'I see you're doing well Mogami-san. I'm sorry, but I hope to speak with you later on, I'm still busy today. Perhaps you can join me for a cup of tea later today?'
It was such a smooth, killer line too.
Why then did the words from his head translated so ominously?
No, Ren shook his head. It had to do with that guy's name. Besides it was already too late for him to deny these things any longer. True, he was jealous, angered and bitter at the turn of events and he could see Yashiro silently glaring at him from the corner of his eye-but that really wasn't his problem.
He was frustrated at the fact that he thought Kyouko would know better than to say his name aloud. Ren knew that with his absence, Kyouko and Shoutaro would cross paths eventually and he was infinitely worried because of such constant (though maybe rare) occurrences could make her closer to that egotistical musician.
It had been numerous times he had restrained himself from buying a plane ticket and immediately flying towards her in fear of being forgotten by her.
In truth, Ren was scared.
The little conversations they had on the phone wasn't enough. Lory had given him weekly reports of Kyouko's steady and miraculous growth of her acting abilities. But he fears that she maybe acting or faking good health and are hiding her own anxieties despite outside reassurances.
Although Ren could easily and quite effectively manipulate her to say everything that happened to her during their monthly phone calls, it still wasn't enough. One's vocal chords can be easily altered and suppressed if they have enough skill to imitate or play another's voice, and Kyouko had improved on such a skill over their year and a half of separation.
But deciding against impulse, the raven haired actor knew that whatever accident that happened between her and Sho over the past 18 months were not revolutionary. From her earlier outburst, she still loathes him…how much the musician occupies her mind stemmed from her hatred, however, was what worries Ren.
Though for now, that wasn't important.
The moment he turned on his heel and suppressed the bubbling feelings of bitterness, an arm snaked down his waist and plummeted him down the floor.
Truthfully, Ren blamed it all on his manager.
That's right, Yashiro.
His useless, conniving manager that does nothing but imagine about flimsy things like love, (his love life, to be exact) and had too much time on his hands to conjure different possibilities of their reunion.
Quite frankly, Ren didn't expect much from meeting Kyouko. He had steeled himself never to expect too much from her. A 'welcome-back-hug' was out of the question and a 'congratulatory-kiss' was too much of an alien action, and the expected reaction from her would be disastrous.
Yashiro annoyingly enough invoked several images of their get-together that was completely out of character and rather disturbing that the younger male completely tuned him out.
All the while suavely stopping his manager's charade of impossible scenarios, explaining that he would be the happiest man in the world just to see her smile at him and say: "Welcome back."
Thus the reason Yashiro had been giving him the "you-poor-sad-man" eyes all the way down the elevator.
But of course, all things were not as planned. And anything that has to do with Kyouko would usually take a turn for the worse…and one could always count on that.
Though creepily enough…Yashiro was right about one thing.
She was no longer that bumbling sixteen year old he fell in love with.
Gravity not only sucks, but contributed to several of his cognitive circuits to go absolutely haywire…not to mention, his skin to become super sensitive in certain parts of his body.
From his harsh treatment earlier, Ren knew she was going to be disappointed—no, extremely troubled (and with her eccentric imagination), that whatever she did that (supposedly) angered him- deserves punishment.
He should be used to it all by now (i.e dogeza bow, 'chopping block' poses, gloomy corners).
But nothing...absolutely nothing prepared him to his trip on the glorious earth...with her tumbling right on top of him.
Yashiro's statements of Kyouko's "growth" flooded his mind, and at such a specific moment in time, Ren froze in observation.
Instinctively as soon as he felt her hand touch his back (after he so rudely brushed her off) he turned in a perfect 180-degree angle just enough for the whole impact of her body colliding with his. Her eyes were wide in complete mortification as Kyouko's brain slowly registered how stupid of her to run with her heels (courtesy of the Daruyama couples' b-day gift).
But the almost agonizingly slow descent was not lost to the dark-haired actor as he swallowed every detail up close as the young actress was not two inches away from his face.
Her physical maturity amazed him, her hair dyed back in her natural raven-grew several inches longer with a soft glow framing her tear-drop face, her cheeks were more pronounced as they held a rosy hue. Long, dark lashes curled boldly over her citrine irises and complimentary peach-colored lips were merely centimeters from his own.
The words of his manager came back to him in vivid pciture, '"Kyoko surely had grown more beautiful."'
'No,' Ren thought absently as he absorbed every pore, movement and emotion of her features that he was so acutely attuned to, 'You're wrong Yashiro-san...beautiful cannot even begin to describe her.'
The last eighteen months cannot render justice to the "growth" she had blossomed into. For all the anger and frustration he felt to her insensitivity, nearly made up all her faults as Ren ingrained her image to memory.
It almost reminded him of a certain event at almost the exact same situation where he rescued the raven-haired beauty from a critical accident in his kitchen.
Of course, while such a situation had been inadvertent and had completely shattered his well-sheltered image and nearly exposed his true nature, for this moment, a different personality comes to the fore. While she was visibly endearing from his view as he stared down at her on his kitchen floor, now she was explicitly...
'Ravishing...'
A whisper in his subconscious mind supplied as the position justified, with her long legs straddling his waist, hands fisted over his dress shirt right over his abdomen (it also wasn't helping that his hands had unconsciously settled over her hips), long hair unbound with a few tendrils framing her face as she worried her lips sensuously and her chest heaving beautifully, almost suggestive of-
Ren quickly blinked, and swiftly filed out such thoughts that were completely out of his frame of thinking. An unnoticeable color creeping over his neck, and barely checked around his cheeks. As to how in the world he had thought of such...er, sensitive details he had yet to figure out, but at this moment, the young actor figured it was just induced anxiety.
They really haven't seen each other for months and her growth had been tremendous (in a very tempting way) that it was unexpected. He was completely unprepared by the onslaught of scenarios of their meeting, but this was certainly too dangerous.
Surely, Ren thought, inaudibly swallowing his suddenly parched throat, it was nothing but a case of nostalgia.
Of course, disregarding the fact that Ren had always felt strong, emotional and pure feelings of love to his kouhai, but it may had been the first that he noticed she was becoming a woman.
The image of a young innocent girl he kept in his mind's eye was growing too fast for his liking. While a blooming woman, developing a full-figured body is of course a natural cycle of life, adjusting to such changes might take time and a whole lot of urges to stomp on.
He had always know that Kyouko was beautiful. Although she rates herself plain and sub-par to her best friend, she certainly discredits many of her appealing charms. Such as the slow quirk of her lips when he accepts her home made lunches or the twinkle in her golden eyes when she smiles at the thought of fairytales. All of which had the younger actor restraining himself (like pulling her to a hug or smothering her with his lips) with guilty consequences. Such methods of self-control had once or twice almost slipped was proving to be difficult, but now...seems downright impossible to prevent. Though he surmised that reminding himself that in the end, she would surely hate him, would alleviate such desires, and besides she was illegal to society—
"Why Ren, she's eighteen! I wouldn't have thought you'd forget!"
His manager's voice echoed enthusiastically in his memory, completely obliterating his chances for excuses.
'Damn. This is not good.' he groaned in frustration, as his audience stilled in horror.
Kyouko was an idiot.
A complete bumbling fool.
A stupid creation of nature.
An ignorant buffoon of the society.
She was willing to commit suicide if Tsuruga-san so deems it fit.
In truth, she didn't mean to fall down on him.
Not at all.
After he had so casually brushed her off, with just two nonchalant words that was enough to have her demon-anger-sensing antennae drowning in bliss, something in her rose in panic.
All she wanted to do was apologize. To explain why she even dared say that bastard's name, and to prove that she was so not thinking of acting and get famous as a form of revenge.
Sorta.
But of course, it was all just her usual banter to said invisible idiot to encourage her fighting power. That, and Tsuruga-san really had such a horrible timing.
But such excuses, Kyouko knew, the raven-haired actor would turn a deaf ear on it and would give her a blinding, yet silently enraged smile that she would have no other courage left to apologize decently.
With one solid goal in mind, her demons turned around in pursuit to pinion him on the spot, but for some strange force of awe or recognition of the return of their 'god of all evil smiles,' had abandoned her plight and left her alone mid-launch.
Though with her luck, Ren sensed her approach and turned.
Okay, it was not so much as luck as Kyouko felt her heels topple over air and right onto him.
Not only did she pissed him off in their first encounter after eighteen months, but apparently embarrassing him on the same day was too much of a record, that the younger actress knew that the only option was severe punishment.
But, Kyouko pitifully sniffled in her mind, any physical punishment would do except his cold indifference and the possibility of him no longer talking to her.
'Please,' she implored to whoever god cared to listen, squeezing her eyes shut and prepared for the impact 'let me hit the linoleum floor and not Tsuruga-senpai.'
But no, the universe was having too much fun poking at her life to allow her reprieve, and promptly sent them on the floor gracelessly.
It only happened in a matter of seconds to minutes, but Kyouko was too shock and too slow to absorb what had happened. In all honesty, she was going over the ritual rites of her burial and instructing her soul to avenge her death and mourning over the fact that she was not given the chance to kill Shoutaro first.
All her thoughts were so muddled, trying to prioritize whether she should apologize or offer her life for embarrassing her revered senpai, that she was almost hyperventilating.
'What have I done!? Gaahh! Tsuruga-senpai will kill me!!"
She was all oblivious and too ensconced in her own world that Ren was slightly grateful she wasn't aware of the nearly panic-stricken look on his face. There were reporters near the vicinity and if they ever take a shot of this...
Where the hell was his manager anyways?!
Yashiro, of course, was wiping the fog out of his glasses and proceeded to gape at the scene helplessly, or rather incompetently leaving two of LMEs best artists on the floor looking for the world like an intimate couple that couldn't wait to get in bed.
Besides, he's getting a full view of fan service, he might as well milk it for what's it worth, because he was pretty sure this was a one in a trillion chance to occur between the odd relationship of kouhai and senpai. It's like watching a one- time play drama.
Unfortunately, the fair-haired manager was too stunned to move, let alone sense several passer-bys and some reporters and fans clamoring at a nearby corner, shielded by a meager line of LME staff and glass doors to take a glimpse of Tsuruga Ren.
After hearing Ren's barely suppressed groan of frustration (surely, one would not want to know what his manager thought of that), Kyouko was brought back to reality.
The young actress barely registered the fact that she was straddling him and ruining his shirt, but the fact of the matter was that she-with all her weight- was crushing Tsuruga-san and had been sitting there dazedly while he suffered.
With a loud gasp, and more mental scolding of her idiocy, Kyouko tried to quickly relieve the raven-haired actor of her weight, but only further slid down Ren's hips as his eyes minutely widened at the contact.
'Breathe, breathe...'
"S-sorry! Tsuruga-senpai!" Kyouko wheezed and dutifully stilled as she moved, afraid that she might have hurt him as Ren's hands had clamped down on her waist.
"Uhn..." the raven-haired actor could barely form a coherent thought, much less a word. When she had finally snapped out of her stupor and innocently tried to get up from her position, it was only made worse when she slid lower at the wrong direction, and his fingers had reflexively tightened their hold on her. At some point, he had nearly lost all frontal sensibility and a new form of his darker thoughts resurfaced with vengeance. Surprising him with suggestive inclinations that involves somewhere with a privacy and a bed.
Although he was quite an experience man with all the women he had in his years before he met Kyouko. Ren was always careful of his thoughts concerning the younger girl. And he was quite disgusted at himself that he'd thought of such things in the middle of an accident.
And he hadn't even spent a half an hour with her yet.
Dear god, if she ever was alone with him—
"Tsuruga-san!"
"We want to see Tsuruga-saaan!"
"Reeeen! We loooovveeee youuuu!"
Finally, all three swerved their attention at a corner in the wall, where a line of reporters and fans broke through the futile line of LME staff and onlookers, and headed towards their goal.
Filing the darker thoughts out of his mind to muse at a later time, Ren quickly disentangled their positions (he was not even going to think about how her lost of warmth disappointed him) with rapid succession before the mob of people turned the corner to find a most shocking front-page scene.
A bit rattled at the sudden change of atmosphere, Kyouko's eyes widened at the amount of people stampeding towards them, the flashing of camera already blinding her sensitive eyes. "Tsuruga-s-senpai, I-"
Ren spotted the fear in her eyes. The thought that she probably would not talk to him today or explain herself, was already eating herself up. He couldn't help but smile gently, his eyes softening. It really was a miracle that she would think he would be too busy to give her the time of the day to talk to her.
If she wanted to, Ren was willing to devote his whole life and time to her as she please.
"Yashiro-san," the raven-haired actor turned sharply to his still dazed manager, but effectively snapping him with a hand on the shoulder, "Please take care of the situation. I'll escort Mogami-san out."
The elder man could only nod dumbly in response, but before Yashiro could ask them where to find the duo, Ren had already gallantly took off his leather overcoat and gently draped them over the younger actress' head to shield her face, one arm over her shoulder easing her to his side as they continued headlong towards the exit with a few aides from the exhausted LME staff. With a brilliantly glowing smile to deter the reporters of the girl pressed against him, Ren diffuse all questions with an amicable disposition and smartly answered all queries that wasn't pertaining to the bundle in his arms.
"Ren how was oversees?"
"It was a great experience." he nodded discretely towards a guard who quickly went ahead of the fray towards the door and his limo.
"When do you think the movie will come out?"
"That is yet still to be decided." his grip tightened as he hurriedly, yet gently tried to guide Kyouko down a flight of stairs.
"Can you tell us more of the plot?"
'Almost there...'
"I assure you, Takarada-kachou and I would brief you all with a press conference in the coming week."
The door of their ride was readily opened for their escape, one more step and they'll be in the comforts of privacy and—
"Ren! Is that your new girl?" a shrewd reporter called out, not missing the earth green layered bolero skirt below the billowing large overcoat that hid the woman's identity.
He quickly stilled at the question, and he could feel Kyouko tensed underneath his arm. The whole cacophony of noises were suddenly hushed in silence as everyone held their breaths, finally spotting an unknown woman tucked beside him.
'It would be the lie of the century if said 'No.''
Ren inhaled a lungful of air. To proclaim his unrequited love for this girl in his arms would surely be his downfall. It was no secret to his father, to the president, to his manager, to the creepy stalker, to that arrogant musician, and maybe, even Kyouko's best friend. But would she be prepared for it?
His grip tightened on her shoulders.
'No,' Ren decided, 'She's far too important.'
Ushering Kyouko down quickly to the leather cushions of the limo, he caught a glimpse of her bewildered eyes. Eyes that were still too scarred, and with wounds still too tender to push his love on her. A small understanding smile flitted on his lips as he nodded and turned, snapping the door shut.
The raven-haired actor then faced his audience with fluid elegance, a dazzling smile perfectly sculptured in place melted all the women in the vicinity (he even faintly heard a thud in the background), waiting with bated breath for his response.
"Perhaps."
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I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for the late update. Er...I kinda got lost on my way to enlightenment. XD I mean! On how to go about this story, so it took me some time to get my fire going. Also, my muse had been attacking me with boatloads of Skip Beat plot bunnies that I'm just "this" close to finding a hatchet and bury it behind its back. It would be this humble one's honor if you can relieve me a few of my pending ideas...before it kills me. -.- Anyways! I do hope you all enjoyed the progress. Hehehe, there's already some Emperor of the Night stealing the scenes here and there, and it will get a lot more frequent! Buwahahahaha! Since you've all been so very patient with this lowly one, I will guarantee that the next chapter...includes Sho.;] And hopefully updated at a faster rate. :D
...I love reviews...:3