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Chapter 9
Although the news of the stolen sheets were hastly told to Miss. Itô the news did not seem to stress her. Not as much as the absense of students. She could take props missing, she could take unusual notes but she could not allow the students to leave the club. She had cancelled the practise almost immediately and told the ten members who did show up to go home and barate the others. Makoto and Ito had to return some of the props to the prop table behind the stage. They had noticed the locker where they kept the costumes for their current plays had been forced open. The odd thing was nothing had been stolen.
As the days passed the events became odder but the cast and crew were more concerened with trouble brewing onstage rather than anything the phantom did.
"Why do I have to do a romance scene with Yoshiro?" Ito asked, not liking the new roles very much.
Miss Itô shook her head; Makoto could tell she was getting frustrated with Ito constantly asking this question. "Just pretend it is Makoto-san." She was stressed out as it was with the sheets being stolen the day before she did not need her lead actress to start complaining about the role.
Makoto laughed. He found it funny how much playing the part with Yoshiro bothered Ito. Yoshiro, who was assigned the role of Raoul, was surprisingly a good choice for Raoul and when Makoto asked him why it has been no surprise: he could relate to him because of the trouble he had in telling Misaki how he felt. His character didn't really question his love for Christine, as Yoshiro had done, but Christine would constantly push him away, like Misaki, and his messages of love had trouble reaching her.
She never used to have trouble with playing romance scenes with him but recently both of them had become a bit more shy in their romance scenes. Makoto figured it had something to do with the fact that now both of them had their own love lives off the stage, and with both of their love partners being in the drama club, it made them uneasy about acting out romance scenes in front of them. However, Yoshiro was a bit better at hiding his embaressment than Ito (most likely because Misaki gave him a good lecture) .
Makoto saw Yoshiro's true, gentle, nature shine on stage as he rehearsed with Ito. Although she blushed like crazy hearing him say the sweet, soft, words of Raoul.
"Oh come on Ito!" Yoshiro began to protest against her. "How come you can do romance scenes with a girl but not a boy!"
Makoto saw the cheery read spread over her cheeks and she turned away from Yoshiro. "It's just…I can't do it with you!"
Yoshiro threw his script down to the stage. "Let's just get a new Christine, Miss Itô! I'm sure I can do this scene fine with Misaki!"
Miss. Itô shook her head, "Nope, sorry I can't have anything that conflicting on stage. Besides, it's been known that if people are in a romantic relationship off stage it doesn't carry well on the stage. The chemistry between them is gone!"
Makoto raised his eyebrows about this new information as he wondered how Ito and he appeared on stage. He raised his head back as he looked up at the curtains, he was sitting right under them, if they were to have another fiasco like on the first practise: he'd be dead.
Even worse would be if it happened on the day of the show. This was his precise spot where he had to be for act two scene one. He had to slouch in front the Styrofoam gargoyle on the left of the stage. Yoshiro confessed his love to Christine in centre and vowed to protect her from the phantom, soon Misaki, who played one of Christine's friends would enter, tell them both to come back inside. Once all three had left it was time for Makoto to give his monologue.
However, it seemed that they would never get to his monologue. Ito was still having trouble standing beside Yoshiro while he spoke of love. Makoto could sense the trouble everyone else felt about this scene and so, asked Miss. Itô for a five minute break, saying he may be able to help Ito.
Miss. Itô allowed it and soon Makoto was outside, at the front entrance, with Ito at his side. He turned to her and asked what the problem was. She answered that she just could not do the scene with Yoshiro. "I just can't see him saying stuff like that to me!"
Makoto nodded, he thought that would be the problem. Ito and Yoshiro could only do love scenes together if they were fraud and were only for satire.
Remember, time is running out, if you do not do a performance to my liking I will cause the drama club such misery the only option you will have is to disband.
The words from the note echoed in Makoto's mind as he watched Ito on stage. He could not allow the club to disband. Ito could do these scenes, he knew it, she was just having a few problems. He had to correct those problems before the actual play. He asked for Miss. Itô's permission and soon Ito and himself began to head to the front doors. Only stopped three times by Sakamoto, who wanted a hug from each of them because the drama club had been too hard on him for sitting on the props (however, at the time he had not complained about any of the beatings he had recived from the group).
Once they were outside, Makoto found himself suggesting what Miss. Itô had suggested. "Why don't you just pretend it is with me?"
She let out a large sigh. "Because you're still on stage, I know that you're there." She began to walk a bit as she continued. "On all the other romance scenes I can pretend he's you because you're not on stage so it's not like I'm confessing my love to somebody else and you're standing there listening. I can image him being you since you're not there, I guess when you're there...reality sets in." She sat down on the frozen ground before adding. "If that makes any sense."
Makoto sighed and sat down. "I guess it does. If we're not playing the scene together I just image that whoever I'm playing it with is you and that's how I can get through most of the scenes. However, I have had more trouble when both the real you and the person I'm pretending is you are both on stage."
Ito nodded and looked to the ground, the play was going bad enough without her being able to act. Makoto kneeled down to be at eye level with her. "But…" he said in a happier voice, hoping she'd look up quicker. "I've managed to stop that."
Ito raised her eyebrows and turned her whole body to look at him. "Andhow'd you dothat?"
Makoto smiled slyly and pushed Ito's hair out of her face. He leaned in closely, his smile widened with every word he said. "You've already seen it. I image my stage. Only you and I can stand on that stage and so it doesn't matter who I'm saying my lines with, I can only see you. You alone on stage with me and the audience below us."
He felt Ito nod and felt relieved. "I guess I could try that." She whispered into his ear and he felt that she meant it.
"Good." He whispered as he wrapped his arms around her back and leaned closer into her so she could feel the embrace better. He felt her body stiffen for a moment but then she seemed to relax and she began to hold him too.
"Must you use every opportunity to hug me?" She tried to sound annoyed when she spoke but it didn't carry on her voice.
He was about to answer her with a blissful yes but they heard somebody approaching and Ito had to push him off. For fear of somebody questioning him, he knew but he could tell that Ito had not wanted to do that. Come graduation she won't have to push him away when somebody looks their way.
Unfortunately the person had seen. Takashi looked down at them with a sneer. "What a disgusting display of public affection—who wants to see that?"
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