Chapter 4
I went to see who had passed the auditions, and I'm more than happy to find that the guy who was so rude to the twins had failed. And I was even happier, when I see my number on the list.
"Ryo-nii!" I glance down to corridor and see Rin and Ran running towards me. I wave at them, reliving my position.
"...Huoh..Did..puh you...get...Pant... through?" Rin and Ran ask at the exact same time. 'Huh, they even pant in sync.'
"Yep!" I grin at them and raise my hands for high-fives. They give them to me with smiles.
"Knew it! But we'll go to our seats then! Can't miss the others, right? Show them Ryo-nii!" Rin cheers before running off. Ran huffs at her, and gives me a quick grin.
"You better not fail, Ryo-nii!" And off he goes.
I chuckle by myself for a while before going to the waiting area. 'Alright LME, throw what ever you want at me, I'm ready!'
~O~
"Alright everyone! On the next part, I will come to get you one by one to the stage, and judges will tell you what to do next." The staff member from earlier explains. After getting a butch of agreeing sounds, he gets started.
"First #3, would you get here?"
And it went like that for a while. I realize that some were up longer than the others.
'Hmm, either they have a different test for each of us, or it's a reaction test. First one is hard to accomplish, since they would have to plan all of them before hand or in a go. But this is LME, so it's better if I don't close any options out.'
I'm leaning against the wall, and observing others. They are all nervous and on edge. Some are better than the others, sitting or warming up by doing stretches.
'Hmm, they could also be trying to see how we can hold pressure. Many is nervous wreck by now, and only few is looking like they could actually perform.'
Really, I have no idea how some of them got here. I swear that one guy is mumbling prayers, and few others look ready to pass out.
'Pathetic.'
"#13, your up!" And I walk to the door.
~O~
When I get to the stage, I keep my poker face. There is a girl standing on the stage, and she looks to be in her early twenties. She has brown eyes and a blond hair, that's on a messy bun, but I can see that it's dyed. She holds heshelf proudly and she looks like she thinks that she is ready to crush me.
'Sorry sister, but not today.' This girl has no idea who she is taking on here.
I turn to the judges for an explanation. Lory locks gazes with me immediately, and I see that he is searching for something. I keep my poker face, but inwardly I'm panicking/having a fan-overload. I know my eyes are burning with excitement, and why the hell they shouldn't be? I'm in LME! I have got to the second pace, which mean they are interested!
Whatever Lory is looking for, he seems to find it as he grins a little and drops my gaze, before turning to look at the girl and then back at me.
"Alright, in this part, you have to act out an improvisation scenario. This is Susuki, she is one of our company's actors and she will be your partner in this scenario." I nod, showing that I have understood. I see Susuki bristling slightly when I don't even glance at her way, or greet her.
"You will be the leading character in this. You are supposed to be a couple who has broken up a long time ago, and she has been with another man for months.
Now it has turned out, that she has become pregnant with this other man's child. But the man won't take responsibility over his actions and dumps her.
She comes to you looking for help. You can play this out however you want, but the scene has to end with you both smiling and hugging each others." Lory pauses and looks at me.
"Any questions?" I shake my head. "Alright I give you two minutes and then I will start the scene. Alright? Good! Time starts now!"
'Hmm, if I was deeply in love with her, but she would leave me for another guy, I would naturally bee angry. But I would also be happy for her, since she has fount someone to love after me. I would be disappointed in her for being so carless, but happy that she would want my help... Okay, I got this!'
"START!"
~O~
Third POV for the scenario..
~O~
Ryo's pangs drop over his eyes and he crosses his arms. Then, out of nowhere, a dark aura surrounded him.
'What's with this pressure?! The mood is completely different from before!' Runs through everyone else's minds.
Susuki can feel that all of that pressure is pointed at her. 'Wha?! What have I done?! What's wrong with this mood?!' Ryo isn't moving or saying anything and the pressure is making her nervous. Without realizing it, she starts to squirm.
Ryo leans back, but doesn't say anything. Everyone in the room are tense. Susuki can't handle the suffocating silence any longer and is opening her mouth, when Ryo finally speaks up.
"So, how is he?" His voice is cold as a blizzard and uncaring as it could get, Susuki isn't able to see his eyes, but she is pretty sure that she didn't want to. She gets thrown off by the sudden question and her brains just black out.
"W-What?"
"I asked, how is he?" There is a tag of irritation when Ryo says 'he'. Then it hits her. 'Ah! His asking about my new lover!'
"Why would you be interested?" Susuki says, trying to get her act together.
"No reason, I'm just wondering... That if he is so amazing, why are you here?" His tone is carefree at the start but it has a sharp edge. A VERY SHARP EDGE. Susuki feels a bang of guilty, but she doesn't even know why. She also feels a need to defend herself, even is she hasn't done anything wrong!
"H-he is! I-I-I just..." Susuki doesn't know what to say, the pressure is too much for her and words are failing her. She is sifting her gaze around, looking everywhere but at Ryo. This is getting overwhelming.
"Just what? Came to taunt me? If that's the reason, then go home." His voice is sharper than a knife, and Susuki winces. She isn't sure if she is even acting at this point. Everything is happening too fast, and she isn't registering that her mouth is opening.
"I...I can't... The truth is, he-... He-" Susuki's thoughts turn to her ex-boyfriend for some reason. This situation is remaining her too much of him and her wall is rumbling down. Hard.
"He what?" Even though his voice is annoyed and angry, there isn't that sharp edge anymore, and Susuki can't help herself. She bursts into tears.
"...Sniff... He-he-he left me alright?! Are you happy now?!" She screams while whipping her tears away furiously. "He-he left me a-and said t-that I wasn't worth the effort!"
The whole room seems to freeze, and slowly the pressure lessened, but it doesn't disappear. Ryo doesn't have that dark aura around him anymore, but the air is still tense.
"...Oh... Did you really love him that much?" His tone is soft but little dark, and his left eye is peaking out from behind his hair. His jade green eyes are miserable and look heartbroken.
Susuki just nods while looking at the ground, she couldn't dare to look up at his face. Not only did she just scream at him, she broke down in the middle of the act. Ryo just sighs before putting his hands in his hoodie's pockets.
"Then he doesn't know what he just missed." Susuki's head shots up and she stares at Ryo in shock. His voice sounds so honest that she couldn't believe her ears. Ryo's bangs are finally out of the way, and his eyes say that he really means what he said. They are longing, desperate and down right miserable. It's like he was looking at something that was forever out of his reach, and it was dicking a deep wound into his heart.
"Ryo..." The name slips past her lips without meaning to, but she doesn't realise it.
"I knew what I had lost, and it hurt to let you go. But you looked so happy with that guy, that I couldn't bring myself to take it away from you. You always looked the most prettiest when you were smiling."
He gives her a gentle, tender but nostalgic smile. 'He means every word...'
"But, that's in the past. Now, I think you still have something else to tell me, right?" His voice isn't cold anymore, it's actually warm and welcoming, even if it's clear to see that the words hurt.
Susuki is confused for a second before remembering that she was supposed to be acting pregnant. She blushes and stares down at her shoes. 'I forgot that we were supposed to act!'
"I-I'm... I'm p-pre-pregnant!" She can't help but shout at the end. 'SO EMBARRASSING!'
There was a beat of silence... Before Ryo gives a nervous laugh.
"Ahaha... Please say that you're joking..." Susuki just keeps blushing and looks away. 'It was embarrassing enough that I forgot my role, and that we are acting, and saying that is definitely not easy once, don't make me repeat myself!'
Ryo is silent for a moment, shock spreading on his face. But he takes a deep breath, and slowly, the gape turns into a gentle smile.
"So... You came to get help... From me?" The hope in his voice makes Susuki's heart flutter, but she can tell that he is still not quite believing it. He doesn't want to get his hopes up for nothing. Susuki, still embarrassed and not trusting her voice, just nods. Ryo's smile grows at that, and he starts to make his way in front of her.
"You, and I, we are like fireworks and symphonies,
Exploding in the sky."
Ryo starts singing with a soft tune, while taking a very puzzled Susuki's hand.
"With you, I'm alive.
Like all the missing pieces of my heart,
They finally collide"
"So stop time right here in the moonlight,
'cause I don't ever want to close my eyes"
Susuki stares at Ryo, mesmerised but a little confused, she knew the song but what was he doing?
"Without you, I feel broken
Like I'm half of a whole
Without you,
I've got no hand
To hold,
Without you, I feel torn,
Like a sail in a storm.
Without you,
I'm just a sad song."
Susuki finally gets what he wants, as he opens his other hands palm at her in invitation, and she opens her mouth..
"With you, I fall,
It's like I'm leaving all my past
In silhouettes up on the wall"
Ryo grins as they sing together, taking a hold of both of her hands.
"With you,
I'm a beautiful mess,
It's like we're standing hand in hand with,
All fears upon the edge."
As they sang, Ryo pulls Susuki closer, and they start to dance in slow circles, and slowly, Susuki starts to smile too.
"Without you,
I'm just a sad song..."
Finally Ryo stopped singing and he looked down at Susuki, smiling brightly.
"Of course I'll help you. I'm nothing without you, after all."
Susuki breaks down to tears again, but this time she is smiling. She hugs Ryo with all her mind, once again not actually acting.
"Thank you..."
~O~
Back to Ryo's POV...
Everyone are silent after our little performance. Then there is a loud 'thung'.
I swirl around in surprise towards the judges, and to my shock, they are all crying. Sawara-san has stood up, and his chair just fell down. There is a beat of silence before they started clapping, AGAIN!
'WHA- oh, right, forgot they were here again... Maybe I should visit a doctor or something? It'd be bad if this keeps happening...'
"Ah, um, Thanks? I'm sorry Lory-san, I forgot you guys even were there..."
What else I could say? Beside, Lory is sitting there like a stone... Shit.. His eyes are unfocused and his mouth is open. His hands were crossed over the table, and he looks like he wasn't moving any time soon. I want him to react somehow, damn it!
"Oh boy, please say I didn't break the president of LME..." others, even Susuki, (Who was still hugging me, btw), snap out of it. Susuki lets go of me in a rush and she is blushing madly, while the other judges try to bring some life back into Lory, but their tries go in vain.
"Um, I'll just go now..." No one objects as they fuss over Lory, so I just walk to the staff member, who is supposed to show me the way back. Even he is in slight shock, but from what, I have no idea.
'Well... I think it went well?'
Huh, this was hard to come up with! and sorry for grammar mistakes, I was writing this from 23.00-02.45, so it may not be best chapter, but I wouldn't want it any other way! Thank you for all your support, I appreciate it!
Edited; 4.7.2017