12 Days of Building Trust
Insert disclaimer for Skip Beat! here. Now carry on.
The car came to a screeching halt.Ninth day of Christmas
OoOoO
"Hello?"
"Good morning, Kuu, all well?" Takarada greeted the famous actor in the phone.
"Not at all!" Kuu responded with such vigor that for a second Lory seriously thought something even worse had happened. That was before he remembered who it was he was talking to. "They are trying to starve me to death in this place! Small, tiny sandwiches for breakfast with a tiny cup of coffee and I only get one, teeny, tiny plate of food for lunch and dinner, and only another sandwich in the evening! Please save me from this madhouse!"
Lory suppressed his laughter with a cough. It looked like the actor was pretty much completely recovered then.
"You know you're in a hospital? Their job is to save lives, not to kill people."
"That's hard to believe." Kuu muttered.
"Alright, if you say so. But how about your leg and shoulder?"
"Oh, just fine, just fine." Lory heard movement on the other end, which was followed by a woman shrieking at him to be still. "I'll be ready to get up and run in no time! Unless I die of starvation first."
This time Lory chuckled out loud.
"This is no laughing matter!" He growled but soon brightened up. "Though I do have a good idea! Send my son, the small one… oh, what the hell, send the big one as well over here so she can come and cook for me!" It didn't even sound like he was joking.
"You know I can't do that."
"But… I'm injured… I'm sure you can do something for your poor friend…" He whined.
"No." Lory completely discarded his request, earning a sigh from the other end. "Though this leads to the subject I wanted to talk to you about. I met your son, the big one, on New Year's." He rolled his eyes at the need to say "the big one".
The blonde didn't respond at first, but after a while he asked with caution. "How was he?"
"Don't sound so worried." Lory ordered with annoyance. "He's fine, that's not what I was going to tell you. Well, sort of, at least."
"… What's up with that making no sense-answer? I'm injured, don't try to sneak around things like you usually do. Tell me."
"You said you were fine just a minute ago."
"Well, it's worse now. I might be dying. Tell me."
The pompous king just laughed. Kuu had certainly lived in the same house as Julie for a long time. He dropped all the planned jokes to get straight to the point. What a waste.
"Well… I'm sure Julie told you about what happened the day after the accident?"
"We don't know anything. Only that she went to his house." He grumbled impatiently, clearly waiting for more information.
"Yes. But the next day he came to me, asking if he could borrow the little house on the hill outside the city. Plus he wanted me to give him some traditional New Year's food." Lory imagined how the other man's eyes went wide when he was met by nothing but silence. "He didn't tell me anything, but I'm pretty sure we both know what was going on."
"He was taking her out to the cabin alone?" Kuu suddenly growled (to Lory's great surprise). "What if he did something indecent? I'm going to kill the man who hurts my daughter."
"… Your parenting is very perplexing, never mind confusing." Lory replied and shook his head. "What I meant to say is that this proves that everything went just fine."
Lory's expression softened as he leaned back on his medieval throne, remembering Ren's expression when Lory met him for the first time after that happened.
"I even dare to say that it went better than we could have imagined."
"How did he…" Kuu paused. He wasn't sure how to ask the right question, but he finally settled for something simple. "How did he look?"
Lory laughed and then teased. "Exactly like you did when you realized you loved Julie. It's almost frightening how much you look alike. I'm almost afraid other people will soon put two and two together."
Kuu laughed softly. "That happy, huh."
"Yes, and you know what's even more amazing? The look on her face when I met her the other day."
"What do you mean?"
"You remember that day you realized Julie loved you back?"
"Oh."
"Yes." Lory nodded, even though he knew the actor couldn't see him.
"So, when will my grandkids come to visit me then?" Kuu suddenly ruined the deep atmosphere and the same female voice from before hissed in the background, followed by a loud slap and an "Ow!".
"Not anytime soon." Lory stated firmly, disappointing the actor.
"Darn it." He pouted. Again, the lack of an implied joke frightened the great president. "But what happened?"
"I have no idea."
"What do you mean 'you have no idea'? You're supposed to be the insider, the spy, give me details!" Kuu exclaimed, and yet again there was someone telling him to be still.
"I don't know. I haven't met either of them since two days ago."
Kuu gasped.
"That means he could have done something reckless!"
Lory sighed.
"Hey, you were just talking about grandkids, decide whose dad you are before saying obnoxious things. And no, I wouldn't think so. I don't think Mogami-kun would be out shopping with a friend today otherwise."
"I can be both." He muttered then said more clearly. "But, how do you know that?"
"I happened to overhear her conversation with Maria before. She mentioned it." He tried to sound inconspicuous.
"Then you don't know for sure!" It failed and caused him to roll his eyes for the second time during this conversation.
"Calm down, do you really think Ren would do something to her?"
"No. But Kuon might."
This actually made the President hesitate.
"… You actually have a point there…" Takarada agreed thoughtfully and then simply fell silent.
"… What are you doing?" Suspicion filled the actor when his friend seemed to have completely shut the door in front of his face.
"Thinking."
"Thinking?"
"Something you do with your brain when you want to figure things out. You should try it sometime."
"Ha, ha… oh, lunch!" The sound of cutlery, plates and thank you suddenly interrupted their phone call. "Sorry, what was I thinking… yes, what are you thinking about?"
Lory waited a few more moments before answering.
"That he might just have done something. But that something could be good." He hurried the last sentence fast so the actor wouldn't have time to wail.
"Like what?"
"I just might have an idea." He smiled secretively and even though Kuu couldn't see it, he could well imagine it.
"Let's make a bet." Lory offered, quickly getting rid of the suspicion the actor might have had. It frightened him how easy it was to distract his friend.
"Now we're talking." Kuu replied with equal excitement, completely forgetting all about secrets and other potential important stuff. "About what? And remember! No tricks or meddling!"
"I won't need to." Lory didn't even bother to explain what to bet on. He thought it would be quite obvious anyway. "I'll give them three days."
"Three days?" Kuu laughed out loud. "Not a chance."
"Sure. Whatever you say. What about you?" He answered without a hint of hesitation.
Kuu was slightly taken aback by his reply, considering all the mischiefs he could come up with while talking like that. Though he wasn't about to back down.
"I'll give them at least two more weeks."
Lory laughed.
"Now you're making it too easy for me."
OoOoO
"Could you please concentrate on what you're doing? If you're going to use one of your free days shopping with me, shouldn't you at least put some effort into being present?" Kanae snapped her fingers in front of Kyoko's eyes with annoyance as the girl was currently staring off into nothing.
This had been happening all day long; Kanae tried to talk to Kyoko, but Kyoko was completely zoned out.
At least this finally caught Kyoko's attention. She blinked and looked at Kanae as if she'd been woken up after falling asleep in class.
"I'm sorry, Moko-san!" She suddenly wailed and her lower lip started to quiver. How embarrassing it may have been, Kanae was still relieved that her friend was somewhat back to normal.
Though there was something (particularly) odd about her this day.
"I'm just… tired. I'm so sorry! I was the one who invited you so I'm supposed to only care about you!"
Kanae sighed. She had been secretly happy to go out with Kyoko this day, but now she behaved so weird because of the-one-who-should not-be-named it was unnerving.
She had planned on squeezing every single detail out of her, and she had at least expected to see some signs of reflecting emotions in Kyoko's face. They would have helped Kanae to ask the right questions.
The problem was; Kyoko didn't show any signs of any kind of emotion. She just zoned out like a turned off robot.
"Let's take a break and… eat something." Kanae said the last words with reluctance. But a promise is a promise.
Temporally forgetting about her problems, Kyoko squealed with joy when Kanae grabbed her arm to drag her to the nearest ice cream bar. And when Kanae bought everything for both of them the top of Kyoko's bliss-bar threatened to explode.
"You're so kind…" She complimented happily as she tasted her strawberry sorbet. "I couldn't be luckier. And you even know my favorite flavor!"
"That's what friends are for." Kanae mumbled and changed the subject before Kyoko got the chance to tackle her down to the ground. "So, how did it go?"
"What?" Kyoko asked innocently, smiling brightly.
"Your date?" She said the words with such distaste and was both pleased and horrified to see the other girl's easy-going expression stay the same… only to be turned into stone.
"Please don't use such foul words." She was still smiling. "You're an actress, you shouldn't curse in public." Her voice sounded like the one you hear at a train station.
Kanae raised her eyebrows.
"It was that bad?"
"We didn't go on a date." Kyoko replied with friendliness that somehow managed to be frightening. "Please forgive me for using such a disgusting word."
"It's… okay?" Kanae didn't exactly know how to reply to that one. "Then what happened?"
Kyoko paused for a moment. That's a very good question. She had spent the entire first day of the year wondering about the same thing.
"There are three things you still have to figure out about me."
This sentence replayed itself as a bad song stuck on repeat and made her want to jump off a cliff in pure frustration.
"Nothing special, really…" She finally answered hesitantly, though trying to sound as if nothing really had happened. Of course that was a complete lie. "He picked me up at nine and we drove off to a nice cabin on the top of a hill outside the city-"
"Alone?" Kanae shrieked but quickly lowered her voice because of the stairs she got. "Seriously?"
"Yes. Then we ate some food and watched the city as the clock struck twelve. Then he drove me home." She didn't exactly lie. She just didn't tell her the whole story.
It didn't work.
"I don't believe you." Kanae snapped and crossed her arms. "You wouldn't turn into a space cadet if 'nothing special' happened."
"But-"
"No buts, I'm not stupid, nor am I blind. What happened?" She demanded and leaned over the table to stare into Kyoko's frightened eyes and said with a menacing voice. "You better tell me."
Kyoko was stunned. At any other time she would have blurted all of her secrets out without hesitation, but now she was just dumbfounded at what she was supposed to do.
She loved her best friend more than life itself, but this secret, it was…
" I… can't." It was impossible. "Please don't hate me…"
The look on Kyoko's face was so conflicting and desperate, and the pleading in her voice made everything so much harder for the taller girl.
She'd understood that there was something big going on, but this big? Based on Kyoko's face it looked as if it was a matter of life and death.
She clenched her hands tightly and released an angry sigh after a few moments of frantic thoughts of want, need and moral.
"Alright. Don't tell me." Kyoko drew a breath in surprise and secret relief and it managed to aggravate Kanae even more. She felt a jealous pang in her heart as she realized that her friend was trusted some great secret that she couldn't take part of. "But you can at least confirm this: Something happened?"
Kyoko's face was still filled with concern, but at least she nodded, though reluctantly.
"It's nothing dangerous?"
Define dangerous. Kyoko joked darkly to herself, but at least she shook her head in denial.
"Then that's all I need to know." … For now. "But if you're not going to talk about that, tell me what you got yesterday and today." She demanded half-heartedly, trying to revert back to her old self, saving herself from the troubled energy her friend was emitting.
At least this made Kyoko revert back to her old self. Her left eye seemed to twitch for a second before a look of pure joy graced her face which then turned into one of grief a second later.
"What?" Kanae asked blatantly, not even surprised about the reaction.
"I haven't gotten the one for today yet, and I won't open it when I get it either. Though I had been planning on not accepting the one for yesterday either since this person forced me to wear one of the Rose Petal dresses and loads of other stuff I got-"
"He what?" Her eyes widened in surprise.
"I had no choice! What if I ended up on a grand party and looked plain and stupid?" Oh. Kanae had thought she meant that the person had shown up in her house.
"Anyway, I didn't want it. I was angry." She remembered when she got the small square box from Sebastian, Lory's butler, who had been waiting for her outside her home for who knows how long. "But then I read the rhyme!" She exclaimed and stretched her arms over the table.
"… What did it say?" Suspicion filled the taller girl's voice. Was it a threat?
"Eight magic beings to protect this place,
I'm sure this will put a smile on your face."
"Oh." Of course. That made sense.
"Yes." Kyoko muttered. "Before I knew it I had opened it, and do you know what was in there? A snow globe! And the foot was decorated with eight fairies."
"Wow, he's good." She admitted. "What are you going to do with it?"
"Give it back." She sighed sadly. She wished she'd never opened it in the first place.
"Really? Are you even capable of doing that?" She snorted with disbelief.
Kyoko frowned at this as she looked down on her ice cream.
"I don't have a choice."
OoOoO
… Or did she?
About two hours after they'd finished their fat-bombs, as Kanae liked to call them, the girls had parted ways and Kyoko was now sitting on her futon while holding the precious globe she'd spoken of earlier in her hands.
She wanted desperately to keep it, but the Giver had obviously gotten his way too much. She was sure that this was his goal all along; to make her accept expensive things as a game. It was really very typical for him, and she felt stupid for not realizing this sooner.
Of course it was him. The greatest schemer of them all. It was Sebastian who gave it away. Who else would be capable of buying all these stuff to her and know so much about her likings anyway? And how could he have known and told Ren about it otherwise?
It was only logical.
She stared at the white photo album with a cute kitten painted on the front that was lying peacefully in front of her. It was the gift she'd gotten today.
"Nine lives should be enough to protect,
All the sacred memories you will collect."
She just couldn't resist opening them.
She sighed. She would wait out the next three days and then tell him that she had figured it all out since she didn't want to spoil his fun too early. She really didn't like the thought of a pirate captain or an alien crying on her doorstep. Though she didn't exactly feel that she owed him that much.
She turned the globe upside down, held it there a few seconds, and then turned it upright again to see the snow fall down on the perfect little forest.
A perfect world.
This made her consider things. If she lived in the same world as that forest, how would she be living right now?
Would Sho have loved her back from the start? Perhaps she would never have met him? Would she have gone to Tokyo and met all her friends there? Would it be different?
What is a perfect world?
"Tell me in which one of those worlds you would be sitting here beside me?"
"None." She replied the memory in a sad voice. If he also lived in the perfect world she would never have met him. He would never have come to Japan in the first place because he would never have had those problems from before.
Her thoughts trailed back to that night.
What she didn't know was that a certain person in another part of the city was doing the exact same thing.
To be perfectly honest, it was all he could think of.
"You know?" She remembered the hoarse whisper from that night. Even though he had stopped the car he was still staring right ahead, looking at nothing but the empty road.
Kyoko just fidgeted and felt fear rise in her body. Not because he could be dangerous, but because he could get angry with her for not telling him, or even worse, revert back to not being himself again and not returning, threatening to shut down all the walls between them again.
But wasn't that what she wanted?
She bit her lip and thought about the alternatives. No matter how hard she tried she knew it was a lie. She didn't want that.
"Yes…"
"For how long?" His eyes were now closed and he took a deep breath, holding it, as if he was preparing himself for an impact.
"Not long, just before we went to the car earlier this evening."
Ren nodded stiffly in understanding.
"You froze." He simply stated, not seeming to be capable of forming longer sentences.
"Yes." She confirmed, not surprised he remembered her strange behavior. She was more surprised he hadn't tried to pry it out of her sooner. "I… saw something on our way out."
He didn't move or say anything. Just waited.
"It was a gossip magazine someone must have forgotten on one of the tables, and it had a picture of you on the cover." She paused for just a moment before she whispered. "Or at least that's what I thought."
Ren was still not looking at anything or showing any signs of relaxing or any other kind of reaction. His expression was still completely focused on something unknown to her. It frightened her and made her tremble.
"Because of the accident, he's been the center of the media's attention, so it shouldn't be surprising that there was a picture of him from when he was younger on the cover."
Ren clenched the steering wheel as another heavy silence fell upon both actors.
"You are… his son, aren't you? You're Hizuri Kuon."
He finally moved. He slowly nodded and opened his eyes as he turned to face her, and it was as if… it pained him to see her expression.
She could see the same pain mirror in his eyes for just a split second before he turned to look down on his hands instead of her with the most agonizing look.
"… And that scares you." He stated.
"Yes." She confirmed in a week whisper, trying hard not to let her voice break.
For a moment she was sure his breathing stopped altogether.
"Why?" It sounded as if he already knew.
Kyoko didn't answer right away. She couldn't tell him the whole truth, but she couldn't stay silent and make him worried.
"I'm… scared that what if I was able to figure out because of a picture, others might recognize it as well and everything you've worked for goes to a waste?"
The actor's head snapped back up with a baffled expression as he stared into her eyes, hypnotizing her with his intense gaze.
"Let me get this straight so I'm not fooling myself." He looked at her with the most astonished look. "You're afraid for me, not of me?"
Kyoko blinked in surprise.
"Why on earth would I be scared of you?" She laughed without amusement.
This had the effect of angering him for some reason, because his eyes suddenly darkened and some of his control he had seemed to be holding before was fleeting away.
If there ever was a trace of Ren left it had completely vanished by now.
"Because not only have you seen me do horrible things, you now also know that there's some kind of pained past tied to my family's name. To my dad." He replied as if it was obvious. It was obvious. He continued in an even angrier, lower voice, though more directed to himself rather than her. "Because I'm a monster that you've failed to see."
"You are not a monster." She snapped at him with equal anger before he could say anything more. "I have told you this already. That side of you is not you."
"How can you be so sure of that?" He retorted between clenched teeth.
"Because you are here." She replied with determination. "And if you're going to be angry with me, why did you want to tell me in the first place?"
"I told you. It's because that will make you understand how important you are to me. That perhaps if you know me fully, you'll be able to trust me as much as I trust you."
Kyoko was stunned. She would never have imagined such a sincere answer. Her heart was quivering at every single implication of every word that was said.
He trusted her like his absolute best friend… or something else, and her heart was failing of just the sight of him. Everything about him was so very unbearable.
Her values and former morals were in turmoil and she had no clue as to what she was supposed to do or react.
She settled for looking sad, masking more pain than anything else inside of her.
"I do trust you…" She reassured quietly.
"But…?"
"But… I don't trust myself." She could never have been more truthful. She barely knew herself anymore. Everything confused her and made her disorientated. She couldn't even tell herself what she wanted or thought anymore. Whenever she settled for something, another side of her told her to do differently.
It was like having split personalities.
He didn't reply to this. She didn't look at him, so she couldn't see his expression and guess what he was thinking. She could only wait for him to say something.
All she could think was that he either understood her more than she did herself, or that he was at a complete loss. She wanted to say she hoped for the second, but her heart told her something else. A clear example of her conflicting emotions.
"How can I help?" He sounded desperate.
Stop giving me all this affection and go back to how it was before? She didn't like this thought.
"Can you find me?" She asked with both hope and despair.
Nothing was being said between the two, and no eye contact was made either, but she could feel his gaze.
"What if I say I've already found you, would that be enough?" The tone in his voice was perplexing. It didn't match the situation at all.
It sounded almost… sweet.
"Then… who am I?" She retorted with a pout, trying to sound angry, which was hard to do when he sounded like that.
She looked up at him.
And when he looked like that.
"The part of you that's the most overpowering. Your true personality, remember?"
Of course he had to use her own words against her.
"That doesn't help." She stated flatly, not even trying to cover the annoyance that was actually real this time.
He didn't answer. At first she thought he just couldn't answer and it kind of disappointed her, but that figuring look told her otherwise.
"Let me drive you home." He finally said as he started to focus on the road again, stopping every single word she might have wanted to say.
They got to the restaurant only five minutes later, since he'd stopped the car just a few blocks away from her home. When they got there he told her to wait as he got out of the car.
He walked around it quickly and opened the door to let the embarrassed and still confused girl out of the vehicle.
"That's really silly you know." She muttered with a small blush. She didn't know what a proper response would be. The mood changed so quickly from heavy and depressing to happy and light that she hadn't really been able to adapt just yet.
"Well, I wanted to do it."
It was almost unnatural and made her suspicious.
When he didn't seem to have anything more to say she was yet again left with no idea as to how she should respond. She decided to try something normal.
"Um, alright… eh, Hizuri-san, thanks for a wonderful, and strange, night and…" She didn't know how to end that sentence. She didn't even know if the night had ended yet or if…
All of a sudden he gently grabbed her hand to quiet her down, though that beaming, soft smile was enough to make her breath catch in her throat and erase anything related to "language" out of her head anyway.
"I'm going to give you a riddle."
"A riddle?" She managed to say, or rather, squeak.
"Yes, just going to give you something to think about." Oh, and there we go. Go ahead; smile like a scheming angel. It's not like she needed her eyes or brain or anything. Stupid American. "There are three things you still have to figure out about me."
"And how, did you imagine, am I supposed to do that?" She pulled her hand away from his and crossed her arms in annoyance. It was even more annoying to see his smile almost falter at her action.
"You already know the answers."
"I do?"
"Yes, just think about it." He nodded. "I think it will help you find what you're looking for." He reached out his hand to gently caress her arm, but he quickly withdrew it with what looked like uncertainty. "Alright. Thanks for a lovely evening and I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Kyoko."
And with that, he quickly got into his car with a secretive smile, leaving her alone in awe and angry confusion. She was even too baffled to even register that he'd used her first name.
Even now, when she was sitting on her bed thinking about it, she was angrily confused.
"This makes no sense! How can I know something I haven't figured out yet?" She exclaimed to herself as she put the globe down in front of her beside the photo album.
Even though she knew it was impossible, it still made her space out all the time while trying to understand.
Even yesterday after she'd woken up, the couple had been worried about her weird behavior, the Taicho looking most suspicious.
Then there was something even worse that was going to happen the next day, the day when everyone would go back to work after the New Year celebrations.
It was time to continue the filming on Wake me up. It was inevitable for her not to have to face him again and she had no clue as to how she should react or behave. She was scared of facing him since she had no idea who she would meet. Would he be himself, or act as if nothing had happened. Probably the latter.
Then there was that other thing. Now that she knew and now that he had trusted her with the greatest secret he had, something that made him so very vulnerable to her, she had no way of controlling herself.
She hated all of this.
But she didn't want to make it undone.
All this stress was pressing down on her like a ton of concrete and made her more restless than ever.
"Who am I and what do I want?" She hugged her legs tightly against her body with desperation as she watched the perfect world in front of her rest in its safe globe.
She didn't even notice the tears that streamed down her face as she wished she could be in there and escape the storm inside of her.
A/N: You know what I said a few chapters ago that that would be the longest one? Well, I lied. Thank you Leavesfallingup for sparing me and my computers life, it's very much appreciated, even though I couldn't handle the deadline. ;) And BrizzyBabber; not fair. Not fair. Good thing you didn't meet David Tennant though, because then I would have died of jealousy. Just a side-note; I've said it before; I don't like the word date. At least not applied to Ren and Kyoko. I just feel that they don't need it. Though Kyoko doesn't like it for an entire different reason. XD Hope you have a lovely week and I'll see you soon!/RDC
Oh! And I'm so not used to guys opening doors for me either, I find it weird since I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself thank you very much, and I happen to have a boyfriend that is very fond of this. Yes, it creates some unintentional funny moments at times.