CHAPTER SEVEN

Disclaimer: I do not nor have I ever owned the rights to Skip Beat! This is purely fanfiction.

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Kanae secretly, not so secretly, loved her best friend but sometimes that girl drove her crazy. Kyoko's mood swings were so erratic that they often caught Kanae off guard leaving her feeling awkward. More often than not, that girl was happy to the point of stupidity. Kanae was learning how to cope with the flowers blooming around her friend and how to look into her twinkling eyes without feeling nauseous but this new emotion that had been dominant over the past few weeks left Kanae feeling helpless which was worse than feeling awkward.

"This is why I didn't want friends."

Kanae didn't like watching her friend suffer especially while not knowing how to bring relief. That's why she had left LME's break room not long ago; her helplessness was making her feel angry. And then, she had to run across that four-eyed man who was always with him. Ren Tsuruga now topped Kanae's hit list, even over that stupid idiot Sho Fuwa. Nobody made her best friend cry and got away with it, not even if that person happened to be Japan's number one gentleman.

"Pfft," Kanae scoffed, "gentleman my ass."

She would think of some way to deal with him before the next time they ran across each other at LME and she would make him regret ever messing with her pink partner. She wanted him on his hands and knees, nose touching the ground, begging Kyoko for forgiveness and then she wanted her to deny him her friendship. She knew that her friend was too kind to not forgive him but, Kanae could at least make sure he begged.

Feeling powerful after her decision regarding Ren, Kanae pushed the doors of LME open a little too hard on her way out sending them flying apart causing the people who were entering to stagger backward a bit. Now that she had a plan, Kanae felt less helpless; she only needed to figure out how she was going to bring that idiot to his knees before she saw him again.

Needless to say, she was horrified when she noticed her object of hatred leaning against a silver sports car sitting in the parking lot talking on his cell phone.

"Too soon, I wasn't ready!"

Mustering every ounce of courage she had within her, Kanae decided to honor her decision by confronting Ren immediately. She closed her eyes and tried to channel Doc Holliday, imagining the cocky overconfident cowboy, "I'm your huckleberry," she said to herself and as she opened her eyes she was no longer simply Kanae Kotonami, but rather some mixture of herself and the legendary man.

She narrowed her eyes and swaggered over to the tall man hurting her friend exuding such an air of self-assurance that she was sure to intimidate anyone she came in contact with. Encouraged by that notion, Kanae marched directly toward Ren, stopping a mere couple of feet away from him, and even had the audacity to interrupt his phone conversation.

"How dare you," Kanae spat through clenched teeth. This man was not going to get away with hurting Kyoko unscathed. She didn't care that he was more famous than her and by extension more important to the company and could probably have her fired for her impudence, her best friend was worth more than her career; a thought that she had not had until she met Kyoko.

Ren, always the gentleman, excused himself from the conversation he was already having to address the fiery woman before him, "Kotonami-san, I believe, nice to see you. What can I do for you?"

"You can go apologize to Kyoko, that's what you can do for me."

Ren clenched his jaw, muscles bulging slightly from the strain, closed his eyes, and rubbed the area above the bridge of his nose. The palm of his hand ran down the length of his face then rested on the hood of his car. An aggravated sigh escaped his lips as he opened his eyes to look at the fierce girl in front of him. He was glad that Kyoko had such a good friend to support her since he no longer allowed himself to be near her.

"Are you and Yashiro working together?" Ren straightened his stance, towering over Kanae, "I have nothing to apologize to Mogami-san for."

Refusing to be intimidated, Kanae took a step closer and lowered her voice, "If you have nothing to apologize for, why, Tsuruga-san, are you hiding out in the parking lot while Kyoko is on the verge of tears inside LME?"

Ren's chest felt like collapsing, his heart hurt, he had made Kyoko cry. "Don't cry, I'm sorry," Ren internally plead with Kyoko hoping that somehow she would hear him.

For the briefest of moments, Kanae saw Ren's face shrouded in pain and wondered why he would rather hurt both Kyoko and himself than to say he's sorry. "Is his pride really that important to him?"

"I have nothing to apologize for," Ren, regaining composure, wanted to get rid of Kanae before she could injure him with any more words. Hearing that Kyoko was nearly crying was painful enough, he didn't need any more details. "I see my manager coming," Ren gestured to Yashiro who was exiting LME, "I'm sorry, but we must be on our way."

"I was wrong about you," Kanae frowned, "and I hate being wrong. I thought that you were in love with her after all the special treatment you had given her, that she had the same feelings for you even if she hadn't realized it yet, and that I could approve of you because you were a decent person who would treat her well. But, it turns out that you're just like him. You're just like that jerk that threw her away. You're essentially doing the same thing to her right now. Don't ever come near her again."

Kanae turned away from Ren, flipping her hair over her shoulder, and began to walk away.

"She threw me away," Ren calmly replied as he got into his car.

Kanae nearly forgot how to walk. "She threw him away? What does that mean?" She was so absorbed with these newly presented questions that she didn't notice Yashiro say hello as he passed.

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Yashiro was bursting at the seams and could barely contain himself as he slipped into the passenger seat of Ren's car. He could feel an embarrassingly goofy grin covering his face but was unable to remove it for more than half of a millisecond; the information he possessed was too good to keep to himself. A quick glance at the driver told him that Ren was not the least interested in what he found so amusing.

"Boring as ever," Yashiro thought. The man never failed to disappoint him. "I happened to run into Kyoko-chan while I was inside LME a minute ago," Yashiro volunteered hoping to tear away the indifferent atmosphere that surrounded his companion.

"Mmm," was the only response Ren gave. He refused to engage in another discussion about that girl for fear that he might just break down and run inside to see her.

Ren started the car and put it in reverse, his hand on the back of Yashiro's headrest and his head turned looking out the back window. After safely pulling out of the parking spot, his hand returned to the steering wheel; he would need it to squeeze if the incessant man sitting beside him decided to proceed with the conversation.

"Yes, and as a matter of fact the conversation took an unexpected turn." "Come on, bite. Take the bait you boring old man."

"Oh." Ren reached for the radio knobs. He didn't like to listen to music while he was driving, he found it too distracting, but he was willing to make an exception right now. He needed to be distracted from the ramblings of his manager.

"She told me why she left with Fuwa instead of with you. And, to be honest, I was surprised when I heard her story." Yashiro watched as Ren's hand dangled mid air hesitating between the steering wheel and the radio. "But, I'm sure you aren't interested." "Bite!"

Ren decided against music telling himself that the stupid blond man might be on the radio and he didn't want to listen to that garbage. "Yeah…"

"You are so infuriating," Yashiro screamed inside his head. "Actually, she didn't want to go with the singer but he was a guest that night on the show she works at."

"And she couldn't have just told me that? I would have gone with her." "That's not enough to make you forgive her Ren. You can't, it hurts too much to be with her."

"She didn't tell you because she didn't want to embarrass you. At least that's what I gathered." Yashiro paused hoping for some reaction. He got none. "Apparently she thought that you would be ashamed to find out that she knew too many of your secrets. It seems you poured your heart and soul out to her character on the show, Bo." "Ha! Just try not to respond to that. I dare you."

Ren no longer saw the cars surrounding him, the streets vanished, and even Yashiro disappeared. "Mogami-san … Bo," was all that he could say.

"REN!" a distressed voice brought the actor back to reality. He looked over to see his manager drained of color holding onto the door handle as though it were a life support.

"She's Bo? The chicken? The chicken that I told …"

Smirking, Yashiro felt a sort of superiority over his friend. "So it seems. She also told me that she encouraged you to pursue a relationship with the girl you said you were interested in. Who would have thought that you had already confessed to her?"

"No, I never told Bo the name of the girl. Thank goodness. To think that it was her the whole time."

Yashiro was defeated. He was so sure that Kyoko knew the name of the girl Ren was in love with that he immediately ran to Ren to tell him the good news. He should have ascertained that fact before he had excused himself from her company.

"But, surely this is good news anyway, Ren. If Kyoko thinks it's alright for you to be with a girl in high school then that makes it easier for you."

Ren grimaced at his manager. "You don't see it do you. She knows everything and yet she never thought the girl could be herself. That just means she has no feelings for me whatsoever." The words hurt him as they passed his lips. "It's better this way."

That was enough; Yashiro could take no more of Ren's nonsense. "Are you an idiot? She trusted that stupid singer only to be hurt by him. You are the first man she's trusted since him and what are you doing to her? Exactly the same thing. I guess I was wrong when I assumed you loved her. A decent human being wouldn't do this to someone they cared about. I'm done."

"I'm hurting her just like Fuwa. That's what Kotonami-san said too." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I don't know what to do, Yashiro."

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A/N: Thanks for reading my story long enough to reach this chapter and another thanks to everyone who had reviewed so far. For those of you who the Doc Holliday reference was lost on, it's from the movie Tombstone which is based on a true story. Doc Holliday is by far the most awesome character I've ever seen and, though I hate western movies, he made me fall inlove with the movie. He's seriously bad ass. Also, I'm excited that I've finally gotten to the point where Ren is helpless and confused. In my head a foolishly in love Ren is the cutest thing on the planet. I want him to show up with flowers crawling on his hands and knees begging for forgiveness. But, we all know that isn't his style so, alas, it shan't be written.