My Important Man

Disclaimer: I do not own SkipBeat or any of the characters from the original story.

Both Kyoko and Ren are confused and troubled by the confusing signals coming from the other person. What will happen when the truth is spoken in the form of a careless whisper?

Chapter 4 – Careless Whisper

Kyoko stared at the ceiling of the darkened hotel room and tried to make sense of the feelings that stirred within her. Never before had she felt so comfortable, and yet so uncomfortable, in the presence of a man as she had on that day. Even now, late at night, she could feel Ren's big, strong hand on her back from that morning. During the day she had tried to tell herself that it was Kain who she was with… that it was Kain who looked at her with those hungry eyes, those affectionate eyes.

But she was Kyoko, and the hand that had sent warm shivers through her body belonged to the very real, very alive Tsuruga Ren; not a fictional character dreamed up by the president of LME. Despite her best intentions she kept running through every moment of the last couple of days.

She had been terrified at first at the idea of spending all of her time with her sempai as his pretend-sister. It wasn't that she disliked spending time with him… she loved being around her magnificent sempai. He was such a good actor, and such a conscientious mentor, that she always learned and grew in his presence. The reason she had been terrified was that she had been afraid to fail him; afraid to disappoint him.

Once she had started thinking of Setsu as a chance to learn character development at the feet of a master, she had been able to relax around him. After all, all that she needed to do was to follow him around and act like a sister with a brother complex. Kyoko blushed a little as she remembered the casual way that she had held his arm and touched him so freely in the last two days. As a sister, such contact was permissible… to a certain extent. But she had been so casual… so comfortable. And the truth of the matter was that she liked being able to touch her sempai. Poor Tsuruga-sempai; he has had to put up with so much, and this isn't even a movie role!

But this time her mind wouldn't let her deny the fact that Tsuruga Ren seemed to have been just as free as her. She remembered each touch. She felt his hand on her back and her shoulder. She felt him holding her hand. She felt his thumb brushing the hollandaise sauce from her lips. She saw him put that thumb in his own mouth. She felt his hand brush her hair away, and she felt his lips touch her forehead…

I love my sister. That is what he said. So it had all only been acting for him. Tsuruga Ren was a professional… the best actor in Japan… and he was just playing another role. For some reason that thought made Kyoko feel like crying.

At that moment, Tsuruga Ren was outside of the hotel room, staring at the night sky and struggling with his own inner demons. It had seemed like such a good idea when he had woken up: To get revenge he would pull out the stops and do whatever is necessary to fluster Kyoko and make her drop her character. That had been his plan. But somewhere in the process he had lost all control of himself. I love my sister! Did I really say that? Idiot!! You finally confessed to Kyoko… only you didn't confess to Kyoko… No! You confessed to Setsu!! He looked up at the stars again, but they offered no comfort, no advice whatsoever. The worst part was that she had actually said the words back. "I love my big brother too." Those three words that I've wanted to hear from her lips for the last two years, and she tells them to Kain. My life is a vortex of irony. I finally meet the girl from my childhood, and I can't tell her who I am. I finally find the girl of my dreams, and she's afraid of love. I finally confess, and she has a brother complex for a fictional character!

Ren stubbed out the cigarette he hadn't wanted in the first place, stretched, and headed back into the hotel room.

Kyoko heard the doorknob turning, and quickly composed herself into an attitude of sleep. She couldn't face her sempai at that moment. There were just too many confusing signals in her brain. She was afraid that she would say something foolish or do something foolish. At this moment she wanted to run away. And at the same time she wanted to hug the tall man who seemed to have taken over her heart and brain over the last few days.

Ren went into the bathroom and changed into his pajamas. He didn't look in the mirror. He didn't want to know what he would see there at that moment. His preparations completed, he opened the door of the bathroom and walked into the main area. He promised himself that he would be a gentleman tonight. He wouldn't look at her perfect, pixie face without her consent. He wouldn't allow himself to stare at her as he had on previous nights. So when he lay down, he turned and faced the opposite direction.

But the urge was too strong, and he turned around to look at her just one time. The curtain was partially open, and the moonlight was shining on Kyoko's beautiful sleeping face. He studied her again; her cheekbones, her cute nose, her small, full lips. A surge of affection shot through him so powerfully that he spoke without thinking… he spoke the words of his heart… "I love you, Kyoko." The words were spoken softly, but clearly. And then he forced himself to turn back around and face the wall.

Had he not turned around, he would have seen golden eyes open in that moonlight. In less than five minutes Tsuruga Ren was softly snoring. But Mogami Kyoko was wide awake.

Ren woke in the morning, half-expecting that Setsu would be hovering over him, eyes twinkling with some mode of revenge. But Setsu wasn't there. He turned to the other bed to see if Kyoko was still asleep, but the bed was made and Kyoko was nowhere to be seen. Did she go out to buy breakfast? He sat up, looking at the bathroom. The door was open, and the little room was dark. Finally, he hoisted himself out of bed and headed toward the bathroom. She'll be back soon.

But when he emerged from his shower, Kyoko still wasn't back. That was when he looked around the room and realized that all of Kyoko's clothing, and her backpack suitcase, were gone.

Kotonami Kanae had to make an early start that day, and she had a full schedule, so she stopped off at LME stash some of the things she would need for her afternoon commitments. All of the LoveMe members had been given keys to the building, just in-case they had to perform some vital duties during the wee hours. Kanae pulled out her keys, let herself in, and headed for the LoveMe Section. She almost jumped out of her skin as she opened the door, flipped on the light, and encountered a zombie-like apparition rocking back and forth and mumbling in the corner. "Kyoko? What happened? Are you hurt? Did somebody do something to you?"

Kanae received no response from any of her queries. Normally she would have been annoyed, but Kyoko looked so distraught that she felt genuinely worried this time. She grabbed her friend's shoulders and gently shook her. Kyoko looked up blankly, not even seeing Kanae, and said, "He told me he loved me."

"What? Who told you he love you?"

"Sempai… he said, 'I love you, Kyoko.'" Kyoko looked down and started rocking again.

"He said that?!" In a way, Kanae wasn't surprised. She had suspected as much for quite a while. The tall man certainly wasn't visiting the LoveMe Section because he had too much time on his hands.

"Kyoko, where have you been for the last three days? The president sent down a message saying you were on some project, but he didn't give us any details. Where have you been?"

Kyoko looked up again, "Hotel room."

"A hotel? But why were you in a hotel room?"

"I was with Sempai. He told me he loved me." Kyoko started rocking again, and Kanae started seeing red.

Takarada Lory was already in his office, as was his habit on Wednesdays. That was the day in LME that the board met to consider new projects, and Lory liked to review before the morning meeting. But he wasn't reviewing this morning. He was on the phone with Tsuruga Ren, who was frantically trying to locate Kyoko. "Settle down, Ren. I'm sure that there's a perfectly good explanation for why she left. Did you try to seduce her?"

"No! Of course not! We had three good days together… everything was going well. She got the job in my movie and she got a modeling job at that princess store. When she went to bed she seemed happy!"

"Well then, I'm sure…" The door burst open and Kotonami Kanae charged into the huge office yelling "Where is he? I'll kill the b*st*rd!!"

Lory told Ren, "I'll call you back." And he hung up. "Okay, Miss Kotonami, who exactly are you planning on killing this morning?"

"You know perfectly well who I mean, Mr. President! I mean the man who told my best friend that he loved her so that he could drag her off to some hotel room somewhere!!"

"Is Mogami Kyoko here right now?"

"YES!! She's huddled in a corner, muttering 'He told me he loved me' over and over again. I've never liked that man, but I didn't think that he would stoop so low as to… and you helped him, didn't you!?! You sent that note down saying that she was on some project. But in reality she was in some hotel room with that man!" Kanae was ready to kill anyone and everyone at that moment.

Lory kept his cool and waved Sebastian off when he came around the corner. "First of all, Kotonami-san, you have no idea what you're talking about. Sit down so that I can explain what is really going on and we can figure out what has Mogami-san upset."

"I know what has her upset, you…!!"

"SIT DOWN!" Lory ordered. His commanding tone broke through Kanae's angry rant. She looked at him defiantly, but she sat down. "Okay, first things first; I have to call Ren and tell him that Mogami-san's here so he can stop panicking." Kanae started to speak, but Lory held up a hand for silence. "Ren… she's here… did you tell her that you loved her?... as Setsu? Good grief, I'm going to put you in the LoveMe Section… no, just stay where you are… I'll call you after I've spoken with her."

Lory looked at the phone and sighed in resignation. "Okay, I'm obviously going to have to explain all of this to you. Understand this clearly: what I tell you will have to stay in this room…" He went on to explain about Ren's project and his alter ego. Then he explained about Kyoko, and her Setsu alter ego.

"So let me get this straight, Mister President. You've just made a seventeen year-old girl… she is only seventeen, by the way… you've just made a seventeen year-old girl spend the last three days living in the same hotel room with an over-experienced, oversexed, twenty-one year old man. Am I right so far?"

"It sounds really bad when you put it in that context, I'll admit. Where in the world did you get the idea that Tsuruga Ren is over-experienced and oversexed? Ren hasn't gone on a single date in over a year."

Kanae looked at the president in disbelief, "Tsuruga Ren… Japan's Most Desirable Man… and you're trying to tell me that he hasn't dated anyone for over a year? I find that hard to believe."

"Not since the day that he fell in love with your best friend."

Kotonami Kanae sat quietly and said nothing as she looked at the older man. "Over a year ago would make her only sixteen years old, President Takarada."

"Actually, they didn't like each other at first. But you have to admit that Kyoko grows on a person rather quickly. The point is this, Kanae-san: Ren is deeply and totally in love with Mogami-san, and he would never do anything to harm her. In fact, he's so cautious that he may never work up the courage to tell her how he feels."

"Well, he certainly must have worked up the courage now, because he told her that he loved her."

"I just talked to him, and he said that while he was pretending to be Kain he said that he loved his little sister." Lory shook his head in amusement.

Kanae looked confused, "That's not what she just told me. She specifically said that his words were, 'I love you, Kyoko.'"

Lory frowned and tilted his head, "She said that? Where is she now?"

"Acting like some frightened woodland creature, hiding in the corner of the LoveMe room."

Lory stood up, "Well then, let's go talk to her."

But when they got to the LoveMe room, Kyoko was gone. There was a note on the table that read, "Moko-san, I have a job acting as Tsuki in a movie. I have to go. Sempai wouldn't like it if I was late. Please forget what I told you. Kyoko."

"Great! What do we do now?"

Lory looked over the note again, "We respect her wishes. Whatever happened, she is obviously determined to work through it. So let's back off and see how those two respond before we mess everything up."

Notes: Several people were a little freaked about my last chapter. I hope that you really didn't think that I was going to write a story that had a brother and sister in an inappropriate relationship. After reading some of the reviews, I added the following note to the previous chapter:

"Don't worry; I have no intention of creating some type of forbidden sibling-love story. The idea was only that they could talk and act more freely because it wasn't a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. Obviously both of them know that they aren't brother and sister. But for the moment it took away one barrier and allowed for personal interaction. Whether she can admit it or not, Kyoko is in love with Ren. She is just terrified of being rejected again, so she won't open up to Ren under normal circumstances."

I hope that this alleviates your concerns.

Next: How will Kyoko act now that she has heard Ren's secret confession? Will she be able to continue to act as Setsu? Can she fulfill her role as Tsuki? And will Kyoko allow herself to take a chance on love again?

Please read and review… it helps to know that people appreciate my crazy ramblings.