Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat.

"Here," Kyoko dropped the bottle into Ruriko's arms.

Man, with how much that midget water cost, I won't be able to buy any lunch, Kyoko gloomily closed her wallet and stuck it back into her purse. When she looked up at Ruriko, the girl was beaming.

"Let's go," She chirped, blue eyes glowing.

Dumbfounded, Kyoko nodded. What a moody person.

The two girls walked through the doors of the convenience store. Suddenly, a deafening beeping shrieked as Kyoko passed through. All eyes were abruptly on her.

"Excuse me, miss," The store clerk stepped up from behind her.

"Is there something wrong?" Kyoko's heart thudded in her chest. She felt her pulse drumming loudly in her ears. Was she in trouble? She hadn't stolen anything so why was she getting dirty looks from fellow shoppers?

To her horror, a policeman chose that moment to step into the store. His ears pricked at the beeping and he lifted a brow at Kyoko, who was frozen under the disapproving glares of the store clerk. Ruriko was standing by with her arms across her chest, lips quirked in a small smile.

"Is there a problem, sir?" The policeman asked.

The store clerk frowned and shifted his arms. "It seems like this girl was shoplifting,"

Kyoko gaped. Her blood was rushing, and her heart was in her throat. Her? Shoplifting?

"B-But I paid for this holy water, even though it was unfairly priced for only four ounces of product,"

Ruriko's smile grew.

Both men scowled. "Miss, please come this way," The policeman clamped a heavy hand down on her shoulder, making Kyoko's spine straighten further in horror.

"Honestly, sir, I-I didn't steal anything! I would never do something so shameful. There must be some sort of misunderstanding - please, listen to me!" She cried while the policeman issued a body search. He patted down her pink overalls, dumped out the contents of her bag, and finally, to add the Cherry of Humiliation to the Ice Cream Sundae of Shame, he removed her fanny pack.

And there, in her fanny pack, was a chocolate bar.

A chocolate bar Kyoko never paid for.

She bit her bottom lip to stop the loud sob building itself up in her throat. No, no, no! This was not happening. That candy bar - that fucking candy bar - she never stole it! How did it end up in her fanny pack? It didn't have little chocolate hands and feet to unzip her pack and climb in, did it?

Kyoko could see it now.

Breaking news! LME Employee shoplifts candy from local convenience store. (read all about it on page 6!)

No. No, she couldn't allow something so atrocious to headline the papers the next morning. She would not bring shame to her agency. She couldn't.

Her eyes stung at the mental image of the President's disappointed face, and the disgusted face of the second most beautiful man she'd ever seen.


Ruriko watched the police officer push Kyoko's protesting head into the police car with a grin.

Good. Now the talentless hussy was destroyed. It wasn't like anybody would help a thief enter show-biz.

Besides, it wasn't like Ruriko was actually going to help that girl. She didn't have time to be a replacement in some stupid, low-budget film for the Love Me freak.

"Ah, I just have enough time to get to the location of my shoot," Ruriko cheerfully tapped her watch. She walked out of the convenience store with her cellphone pressed against her ear and called her bespectacled manager.

"Hello, Ruriko-chan. I was just about to remind you about filming, actually. I'll bring the car by in five minutes, okay?"

"Whatever," Ruriko said impatiently. She chewed her bottom lip as she asked, "Tsuruga Ren...he's in the movie, isn't he?"

"'Ring Doh'? Yes, he is," Her manager chuckled.

"'Ring Doh'?" Ruriko furrowed her brows. Why did that name sound so familiar?

"You forgot the name of the film that you're acting in?"

"I didn't forget," She snapped defensively. "I-I just blanked out a little,"

"Of course. My apologies,"

"Can you tell me the director's name?"

"Eh? The director? Let's see - his name is-"

Beep-beep-beep!

"What?" Ruriko screeched, startling passer-bys on the street. She glared at the screen, which blinked with, "Low Battery. Powering off."

Growling, Ruriko smashed her cellphone on the sidewalk and stomped off to LME.


He didn't handcuff her.

Kyoko imagined her sniffling and her pitiful fetal position in the backseat of the squad car made him pity her a little.

Her humiliation was enough punishment.

How could I get arrested on the job? Director Shingai needed a replacement and I failed him. I failed the President. My career as an actress is over. Kyoko's face fell. Her stomach clenched in despair. How did this happen to her? Why did these things happen to her? She squeezed her eyes shut. Orange brows tugged together in distress. Her cheeks were wet and her jaw ached from keeping her mouth shut to stop herself from bawling like a baby.

Disappointment. Kyoko was a disappointing daughter and a disappointing actress. She hadn't even begun her acting career and it was already over.

No, Kyoko forced herself out of her self-pity. Something like this can't stop me from getting my revenge on Shotaro. I can't give up now. No way, not me! I did not come all this way just to lose my chance at destroying Shotaro and Tsuruga Ren to a bar of chocolate.

Fiery gold eyes hardened. She summoned her special brand of Mogami Kyoko-determination with two fists tightening in her lap. There was not going to be a dirty smudge on her record. She was no criminal and she knew it. She was a hundred percent sure she wasn't subconsciously smuggling candy into her fanny pack. In fact, Kyoko didn't indulge in junk food anyway. She didn't want cavities on the smile that would soon become the trademark of every billboard in Japan and then some.

Mogami Kyoko was going to protect herself as an aspiring actress.

First, she clapped her hands together in prayer and sought forgiveness to every religious figure she knew.

Forgive me Buddha, Hades, Jesus, Joseph, Amaterasu-omikami~.

Then Kyoko opened the car door and rolled the fuck out.

In the distance, she heard the police officer shouting. She heard tires squealing, drivers screaming, and the sound of her overalls shredding on the asphalt.

Kyoko felt a wicked case of vertigo when she felt her body hurtling downwards. Blades of grass slashed at her cheeks and she felt the dull ache of forming bruises and the stinging of cuts and scrapes. Her mind was spinning, like her brain was in a blender. She clenched her eyes and mouth shut, and formed a protective X over her face with her arms.

Kyoko screamed.

Her foot snagged on something, and she emptied her lungs in agony when she felt her leg jerk harshly. It felt like her leg was going to be ripped out of its socket.

At last, Kyoko's hellish descent ended.

Kyoko's face smashed into a grassy field. When she lifted herself up with her upper body, she almost blacked out at the Godzilla-sized pain ripping through her body.

It felt like somebody was drilling into her ankle. Actually, that would have felt soothing at that moment. Truly, it felt like a crew of construction workers sawing her foot off at the ankle, slicing through nerves, snapping bones, and forcing her to experience physical pain that was only measurable to her emotional pain. Kyoko bit down harshly on her bottom lip so she wouldn't scream again.

"Oh...Oh God…zilla," She gasped. "Th-This...this is what they call divine punishment,"

Her face slammed back into the grass.


When Kyoko came to, one thought rose above all others.

It hurt everywhere.

She felt dazed at first. Black dots spotted her vision at the slightest turn of her head. A dizzy spell had her brain and her tummy churning. Her bottom lip was bleeding from how hard she had been biting. Her entire body was scratched and torn up from her tumble down from the highway to the steep hill. Rocks, litter, and discarded car parts branded her skin with burning cuts and bruises.

Her vanity applauded her on not damaging her face. Her hair was beyond saving, and she would need a new uniform.

Fear tore through her veins when she remembered that the police officer could come down and look for her. Not only would she have (wrongly accused) shoplifting on her record, but now she would be in trouble for fleeing. Mogami Kyoko - fugitive at large.

Shotaro would have a field day with that.

Kyoko experimentally lifted her injured foot and paid dearly for it with more Godzilla-pain.

Kyoko grimly realized she had escaped one mess to enter another.

She rested her forehead on the ground and sighed softly. Her ears prickled when she heard rustling nearby. Her eyes snapped open in alarm. What if it was a bear? Or...or…two bears? Or a Mama bear, a Papa bear, and a Baby bear? A hungry family of bears who liked the taste of human girl?

Kyoko began to frantically wiggle, but stopped when the rustling turned into footsteps.

She froze.

Kyoko lifted her stare up to a pair of huge, leather-shoed feet, mile-long legs, lean and muscled arms leading into big hands stuffed in the pockets of a pair of white jeans, and the calm, cool face of Tsuruga Ren.

She wiggled feverishly. Of all of the people to find me! I'd rather have Papa bear! Damn, damn, damn-

Kyoko's mouth went dry when his smoldering eyes ran over her body. Their eyes met, effectively stunning her. Tsuruga took in the tattered, dirty overalls, and the various injuries on her body. Finally, his gaze settled on her ankle.

"Tsuruga-san,"

His dark eyes snapped back to her face.

To anybody other than Kyoko, Ren looked like he was nonchalantly observing a sculpture or a painting. However, she had caught the stunned, slight widening of his eyes when he saw her lying there like a decomposing corpse. And maybe that crinkle between his brows was worry.

"Let me take a look at that,"

Kyoko's widened her eyes when Tsuruga Ren squatted by her feet. He grabbed her foot, and twisted her body around in the most viciously painful position. Kyoko gritted her teeth and beat the ground with her fist. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it huuuuuurts!

"Aw, shit," Another male voice said from over Tsuruga's shoulder. "I thought she was a dead animal or something,"

A third man muttered in awe, "She looks like she's in a world of pain,"

A galaxy of pain. A universe of pain. Ow. Oww.

With surprising gentleness, the handsome actor lightly ran his cool fingertips over her ankle. She hoped he wouldn't feel the goosebumps blossoming across her skin at his soothing touch. Tsuruga sagely delivered the verdict, with his long fingers still curled around her ankle. "I think she fractured her bone,"

She stopped beating the grass senseless and whipped her head up. It can't be!

"Did you get in a fight or something?" He cocked a brow at her.

"You should've seen the other guy," She grunted. Kyoko hissed when he set her foot back down.

A tiny smile quirked a corner of his mouth but it vanished as quickly as it came.

"Well, we can't do anything by staying here," Tsuruga Ren patted his knees.

Kyoko narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean by tha-AH! Tsuruga-san!"

He ignored her cry and lifted her up with his hands under her thighs and back.

Like a princess, Kyoko thought miserably. She might have enjoyed it if she didn't feel like blacking out every time her head moved.

"I mean," Tsuruga said, dare she say it, playfully? His hot breath brushed against her ear, sending chills throughout her body. "You look like a mess,"

She grimaced at the reminder of their earlier conversation.

"It's not my fault you have bad timing," Kyoko huffed. "What are you doing here anyway?"

His face was decidedly detached. "I am filming a movie here,"

Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Of course you are," She muttered. "I am fine, so please put me down!"

"Fine?" Tsuruga scoffed in disbelief, eyes darkening at her. "You look like you picked a fight with a shark,"

"That is none of your concern, Tsuruga-san. I could be run over, shot at, and mauled by lions and it still wouldn't be of your concern," Kyoko squirmed in his warm, hard arms. "I don't need your false sympathy, so please leave me alone!"

"False sympathy?" His fingers tightened around her thighs, making her flinch at a bruise forming there.

"Y-Yes, 'false sympathy'. You lead people into believing you are helping them, and then you betray them," Kyoko accused, cheeks red in embarrassment and anger.

"And you are pursuing an acting career for the wrong reasons. Show business is not a game," He smiled, though his eyes were cut hard enough to cut diamonds. "I do not appreciate such disrespect towards this profession, or any profession for that matter,"

"As I said before," Kyoko wheezed when his hold became crushing. She could practically smell what brand of detergent he was using at how he was smushing her against his hard chest. "That is not of your concern. What I do or don't do is not your business,"

"It becomes my business when you offend something I value," His steely eyes blazed in unbridled annoyance. "Acting is my life,"

Kyoko glared right back. "Tsuruga-san has his reasons to be an actor and I have mine,"

He narrowed his eyes. Fear coursed through her veins, along with adrenaline. His aura was darkening, suffocating and chilling. Kyoko's golden glare persisted, her own demonic aura clashing with his. Her pulse hummed in her neck. The little Grudge antenna gushed over both its Master's and Tsuruga Ren's fury.

"You abused my good intentions," He murmured thoughtfully, suddenly changing the subject. In a moment that Kyoko could have missed, his stare flickered to her lips. Granted they were bloody, but she could've sworn she saw a little more than hatred in his eyes. "Instead of thanking me, you threw a temper tantrum,"

"I don't remember asking for your help!" She shoved at his chest, which only made her face feel hotter. How was he so nicely built? "For you to kindly help me, these must be some ulterior motive, for sure!"

"I am not one to bully an injured woman. I am also made of flesh and blood," And titanium metal, you cyborg prick!

Passer-bys watched in awe as Tsuruga Ren carried a battered and heavily wounded young girl in dirty pink overalls. She was shouting at him, her body language stiff and uncomfortable.

"Amazing," A member of the crew remarked. "That cool guy Ren can actually be disliked by a girl,"

"Truly unexpected," Another mumbled in shock.

"I just don't want to owe you any favors!"

"Since you put it that way," Tsuruga set her down on a bench. "I'll drop you off here,"

Tsuruga Ren walked away, without sparing another look her way.

Kyoko awkwardly shifted herself on the bench. She watched him walk towards a man in glasses. She studied his body language critically.

He isn't mad, is he? Ooh, damn you, Tsuruga Ren. Now I feel bad. I should apologize for fidgeting so much and shouting at him...he did find me and help me after I was so badly injured.

"Hello," The bespectacled man Tsuruga Ren was talking to walked over to Kyoko with a kind smile. "You can call me Yashiro. I'm Ren's manager,"

"Yashiro-san," Kyoko looked up at him in wonder. He pulled out a First Aid kit and a roll of bandages and set them on the bench besides her.

"You are Kyoko-chan, right?"

"Uh, yes. Mogami Kyoko," She bowed as best as she could while sitting. Yashiro-san smiled at her effort.

"Ah, Ren told me you fell down a hill. How did you manage that?"

I was escaping a moving vehicle.

"I, uh, tripped,"

"Down a hill from a highway?"

She nodded quickly.

"Okay, okay," He pulled on a pair of gloves. Yashiro-san rolled up her pants so that he could bandage her ankle. "I won't ask any further if you don't want me to,"

"Thank you," She sighed gratefully.

He quickly and carefully secured the bandage around her ankle. It was beginning to swell horribly, so Kyoko was glad that the white bandages obscured her view.

"Kyoko-chan, I'm going to have to take you to the hospital,"

"Hospital?" Kyoko asked, baffled. "But you already bandaged it,"

"Yes, but this is temporary. You need to get this checked and you need your cuts cleaned. You don't want any infections. And from how unfocused your eyes are, you might have had a mild concussion,"

"I have to return to my job," Kyoko lifted herself up with the help of the crutches Yashiro-san had gotten her.

"And where is your job?"

"The set of 'Ring Doh' in-"

Yashiro-san gave her an odd look. "But Kyoko-chan, you are on the set of 'Ring Doh'."


Meanwhile, the police officer scratched his head as he looked over at the grassy clearing that odd girl had fallen into. He hoped a bear hadn't eaten her or something.

It wasn't like he was planning to jail her, anyway. He shook his head and got back into his car. He was just going to let her off with a warning.


I'm having Kyoko refer to Ren as "Tsuruga", just because (correct me if I'm wrong) calling someone (mentally) by their last name in Japanese culture is a sign of disrespect.

Happy reading :)