Mendol - Ikemen Idol!
Chapter 10
author's note: So they meet. WHAT HAPPENS? DUNDUNDUN!
The two groups stared at each other.
And stared.
And stared some more.
Marilyn was trying not to glare at Ohori Megumi, but failing. Megumi and Saeko were looking at each other, pain apparent in both their eyes.
Riku was staring, wide-eyed and afraid at Yuko, who was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
Kai wore a deer-in-headlights expression while Atsuko just frowned at the blonde, wondering why the short young man's face looked so... familiar.
Kuu and Mariko were glaring at each other in unbridled, unchecked HATRED.
"Well." Megumi finally cleared her throat to break the silence. "Why don't we all sit down and wait for the writer to come in? She's running a bit late..."
Nobody moved at first, until Atsuko shrugged and took a seat, Kai immediately going to take a seat opposite the woman. This in turn prompted everyone to grab seats with Yuko facing Riku, Mariko facing Kuu and Saeko facing Megumi with Marilyn sitting beside her manager. But now, with everyone seated, Riku and Kai were both looking down at the table, trying not to make eye contact with the person sitting opposite them. Kuu had a white-knuckled grip on the table, shooting daggers out of his eyes at the smirking woman opposite him just KNOWING that their meeting was no coincidence.
"Well," Ohori Megumi had to clear her throat several times before she could get the words out. "I guess we should do introductions."
"We should." Saeko smiled at Megumi. Marilyn glanced between the two managers, really REALLY unhappy at the looks they were sharing.
"I am Kamonohashi Saeko, of Kamonohashi Entertainment. This is my secretary, Marilyn." Saeko nodded towards Marilyn. The perky secretary gave Megumi a tight smile.
"Ohori Megumi of Ohori Productions." Megumi took off her sexy librarian glasses. "Yoroshiku. And this is..."
Mariko smirked at Kuu, her eyes only for the angry young man. "Shinoda Mariko. Yo-ro-shi, Kuu."
Kuu's left eyebrow twitched, not missing the way Mariko played his name into her greeting. The slim, well-manicured hand she held out to the young man made him even angrier. She was still smirking at him, waiting for him take her hand in his. Well, she could just forget about it-
"Kuu!" Marilyn hissed. "Shake her hand!"
Relunctantly, he reached forward. "I'm Kuu of Persona. Yoroshi-wahhh!"
Kuu yanked his hand back, infuriated. Mariko had tickled his hand! She had tickled the palm of his hand! HE WAS GOING TO KILL HER!
"Kuu!" Saeko GLARED at him.
...Later. He would kill her later when no-one was watching and there were no witnesses.
All three members of Persona mumbled out their 'yoroshiku's and introductions moved on to the next pair.
"Maeda Atsuko." Maeda dipped her head slightly, watching the blonde with the bowed head with interest. It was funny. Most of the new ones wanted to make a good impression, or they would stare at her in slack-jawed awe. This one seemed almost... shy. It was cute.
"Kai of Persona." Kai mummbled and bowed, his head hitting the table. "Ow."
Atsuko let out a little giggle as Kai lifted his head completely, rubbing at the sore spot on his forehead.
"It's not funny." Kai had sadface on.
"It's just a little bit funny." Atsuko smiled at the slight young man. Their conversation flowed easily and she felt an almost instant connection with this person. Why was that?
"Atsuko finds everything funny, though." Kai pointed out, smiling, but immediately clammed up after that and bowed his head again. Atsuko, meanwhile, had both eyebrows raised and was studying Kai. REALLY looking at him. She was SURE she knew him from somewhere, now. The familiarity with how he referred to her and the thing he had said... and his face. She KNEW that face.
"Yoroshiku." Kai mummbled, sweating. Right now, it seemed like Atsuko couldn't really recognize him... but if she did, he would be in for a world of TROUBLE!
Again, a round of yoroshikus passed the table and it was down to the final pair.
"Hai, Oshima Yuko DESU!" The girl with the dimples grinned. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!"
When nobody said anything, Megumi tried to break the tension in the room. It seemed like Saeko's boys were really shy! How precious! "Yuko used to be a child actress, she faded from the public eye for a while, but now she's back and she's become quite popular!"
"I knew it!" Kuu said under his breath.
Riku mummbled his greeting and gave a quick bow, keeping his eyes on the top of the table as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Aw, don't be shy!" Yuko said cheerfully. "I don't bite!"
Riku slowly looked up to find Yuko smiling encouragingly at him. She gave the defacto leader of Persona a casual wave.
"Hi!"
"H-hey." There was not a glimmer of recognition in Yuko's eyes. So that meant... she didn't recognize him? Feeling relieved, Riku straightened up a bit and offered a quick smile. "Um. I'm Riku of Persona. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Riku." Yuko dipped her head in a polite bow.
"So, while we're waiting for the writer, do you boys know anything about 'Three Sisters'?" The blank faces the boys pulled at Megumi's question made the woman sigh. "Of course. Boys seldom watch shows like that. Well basically, the story is about three sisters that are very different from one another. It's about their daily lives and the conflicts they have to face together. That's the very basic story."
Megumi motioned to Mariko. "Mariko-sama plays the eldest sister-"
"Cuz she looks the oldest, right?" Kuu shot in, innocently. Yuko covered her mouth to hide a laugh while a corner of Mariko's mouth was pulled back into an ugly snarl.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Kuu fluttered his eyelashes at Mariko innocently. "I mean DISTINGUISHED. The most DISTINGUISHED. Especially with those crow's feet."
There was stunned silence in the room as Kuu smiled pleasantly and Yuko had both her hands covering her mouth to stifle her own laughter.
"Kuu!" Everybody sitting on Kuu's side was looking at him in horror. Kuu usually had more social grace than this! They could be black-listed by these three stars who, from what Marilyn had told them, pretty big names right now!
"No, it's okay." Mariko gave a gracious smile. "I totally understand. It's so nice of you, Kamonohashi-san, to hire someone who was mentally handicapped. I mean, people like him need all the support they can get."
"I'm not mentally handicapped." Kuu glowered at Mariko.
"Oh!" Mariko placed a hand on the side of her face in a show of mock-surprise. "I'm sorry, I just thought, you know... your inability to communicate appropriately with people and you know, you sort of-" Mariko motioned to his face, pursing her lips in contemplation. "-LOOK like you have down syndrome."
Kuu almost lunged over the table at the tall EVIL woman if not for Kai's hand on his arm.
"Kuu!" Kai gave Kuu a frantic look. What the hell was he doing, fighting with the stars of the show they were guest-appearing in?
"Do you two..." Marilyn had a finger on her chin. Their argument, the hostility they were showing each other and the familiarity of which they attacked each other told Marilyn they probably knew each other. "know each other?"
"Yes." The two combatants were locked in a staring competition.
"How did you two meet?" Riku asked curiously.
"Radio. Station." Kuu could barely get the words out. He was just... so... ANGRY!
"We're VERY good friends." Mariko purred. "Right, Kuu-Kuu?"
"I don't like that nickname." Kuu snarled.
"Oh, so you're friends!" Marilyn sighed in relief and everybody at the table let out a laugh. Mariko's laugh was slightly... evil. While Kuu's laughter sounded like a robot's.
"Well, Mariko is the eldest sister and her character name is Fumiko. She's very responsible, works to support her two sisters and has a managerial position at a finance company. She pretty much has her life together. It's just her sisters who are kind of worrisome." Megumi recited the information. There had been numerous co-stars, everybody seemed to want to get in on this drama and this speel was well-rehearsed. "Fumiko also has problems holding down boyfriends because she's intimidating and not 'cute'."
"Like in real life." Kuu said under his breath, loud enough for everyone to hear. Everybody laughed at the joke. Mariko was laughing too, but was also glaring at Kuu, her eyes opened wide in an angry glare. Kuu was laughing uproariously until he suddenly stopped and doubled over in pain.
"Kuu-" Saeko frowned at the young man.
"I'm fine." Kuu gasped out, glaring at Mariko hatefully. Suddenly, Mariko was down on the table too, gritting her teeth in pain.
"Mariko?" Atsuko blinked at the tall woman.
"I'm... fine." Mariko narrowed her eyes at Kuu. Underneath the table, both Mariko and Kuu's shins were developing a nice bruise from the kick delivered by the other.
"Next, we have Atsuko, who will be playing Eri." Megumi continued. "Eri is the middle sister and she's pretty much the bad girl of the group. Her character has lots of boyfriends and she works as a hostess at night to support her spending habits. Her sister Fumiko doesn't know about her job but her younger sister has an inkling. Eri's fun-loving, lively, self-centered and doesn't really care too much about who she hurts, though she does love her sisters a lot. She's a heartbreaker and attracts most of the trouble in the series."
Atsuko smiled a little bit and dipped her head in acknowledgement. Kai looked at Atsuko discreetly, wondering how Atsuko would play the character. Feeling Kai's eyes on her, Atsuko looked up at the blonde who immediately went back to staring at the table.
"Lastly, Yuko plays the youngest sister." Megumi put her glasses back on. "Aki is a quiet girl who's going through university to study to be a doctor. She's very studious and very smart, but she's really timid. At school, she gets picked on a lot by the other students because she's basically the most talented out of all of them and jealousy is an ugly thing. She's easily hurt and she relies a lot on Eri and Fumiko to look out for her. Aki's very trusting and is absolutely devoted to her sisters."
"So the connection between the three sisters is very strong." Riku leaned forward. "It sounds like a very interesting drama."
A knock at the door caught everyone's attention and Megumi smiled at Riku. "You can tell that to our writer personally, then. Kasai-san always loves to hear that someone likes her work."
"Excuse us," A young assistant in a red hoodie and work boots opened the door. She stood aside to let in a whole line up of people as the people already in the room stood up to greet the new arrivals. When everybody was at their place at the table, introductions went around and Persona met the producers of the show, the director and the most important person, the writer.
"Without her," The director laughed. "We wouldn't have a show!"
"That's not true." Kasai Tomomi, a gentle-looking young woman smiled at the people gathered in the room. "Everybody's been very accomodating of me and I'm really grateful."
Kasai Tomomi single-handedly wrote the shows. All the puns, the drama, the little details were worked out by her. Apparently she was a genius in that department and could write an entire story arc within a few days.
"Don't be so humble." A woman with dyed and permed hair and impeccably done make-up patted Kasai's arm, a gesture that spoke of their close friendship. "This is like, the only thing you're really good at. You should be proud!"
"Tomochin-!"
The woman barely managed to sidestep a swipe from Tomomi.
"This is Tomochin-Itano Tomomi." Megumi introduced the mischievous woman. "She's the one to go to for make-up and hair on this set."
"Yoroshiku." Tomochin bowed politely and Tomomi took the opportunity to slap Tomochin on the top of her head.
"Now that we've got the pleasantries aside, should we get down to business?" Saeko was all about work and Marilyn puffed up with pride at the way her shachou commanded the room. She bristled slightly though, when she noticed Megumi looking at Saeko with fond eyes.
"A-actually." Tomomi fiddled with the hem of her blouse. "I haven't gotten to writing in Persona yet, this was so last minute. But-but I want to, um, get a feel for them. To see what characters they could play."
"Well, what can we do?" Riku asked, willing to please. His bandmates nodded, all eager to work. They didn't really understand how things worked and they've never really acted before, but they would try their best!
"Well, I just want to... see all of you in a relaxed setting." Tomomi smiled and her friend Tomochin gave a smirk. "W-why don't we all just have breakfast together? Have you all eaten yet?"
Kai's stomach gave a well-timed growl to answer Tomomi's question.
"No, we haven't." Kai muttered, blushing to the roots of his hair. Atsuko glanced at Kai, amused. That little glance hadn't gone unnoticed as Tomomi tucked that little tidbit away to explore later. It was hard to write up Atsuko's character since Tomomi sometimes sensed she had nothing to work with in Atsuko. There was a void there, sometimes. So having Atsuko play Eri, the heartbreaker, was easy. But it was hard to write in any sort of EMOTIONAL scene with Atsuko. It wasn't that Atsuko didn't try, it was just that the chemistry was always lacking with Atsuko... but it seemed that her and this Kai might be different...
The hotel had spread out a breakfast buffet for them in a meeting room and everyone was digging in. Kai was about to walk back to the table his bandmates had sat down at when he noticed the young assistant in the red hoodie from before eyeing the buffet spread longingly.
"Why don't you eat?"
The girl in the red hoodie shook her head and smiled. Kai knew that she was new here and Tomochin had off-handedly said that she was her assistant and would be following them around. "I gotta wait for everyone else to eat first."
"Who said that?" Kai scowled. He'd seen how hard assistants worked and he wasn't gonna stand by and let someone starve! "By the time you get to eat, I'm pretty sure there won't be any food left."
The line-up was pretty long and the blonde quickly shoved his own platter of food at the girl. "Hope you like what I got. Now go eat fast cuz they might run you off somewhere."
The girl smiled again, thanked Kai quickly and disappeared while the blonde went back around to get food again.
"That was nice." Atsuko commented quietly. She had noticed how the short young man had given up his plate for Tomochin's assistant.
"Eh." Kai dug into his food, not wanting to look at Atsuko straight in the face, afraid that she would see right through him. Atsuko, meanwhile, had noticed that Kai's plate didn't have any strawberries, while his last plate had a tiny heap of them. The buffet was quickly running out of fresh fruit and there had been no strawberries left when Kai went around to get food again.
'Hm.' Atsuko waited until Kai was distracted talking to Riku then quickly shovelled over a few of her own strawberries. The young actress started eating nonchalently when the blonde turned back and was confused as to how there were now a few strawberries on his plate.
"Thanks, Kuu." Kai nudged his friend sitting beside him, assuming it was Kuu who had passed him some strawberries.
Kuu was eating like an animal while keeping his eyes on Mariko who was sitting opposite him again. He had no idea what Kai was thanking him for but bleated back a quick, "you're welcome."
Kasai, also sitting at their table noticed Atsuko and Kai's exchange, though she seemed to be engrossed in a conversation with Tomochin. Interesting. Really interesting. Atsuko never treated people this nice! Could it be... love?
"Hey guys!" Yuko jogged to their table, having ran off before to the buffet to get some more food. "I got a lot of honeydew! Help yourselves!"
"Thanks!" Kuu tried to spear a honeydew with his fork but hit nothing but plate as Mariko swiped it right from under his nose.
"YOU." Kuu narrowed his eyes at the short-haired woman.
"ME." Mariko laughed, chewing on her stolen piece of fruit. This exchange wasn't lost on Tomomi either, filing away the two's interaction for later. Riku and Yuko seemed to gravitate towards each other, but were neither too friendly nor too stand-offish. They were very professional... except Riku seemed almost afraid of Yuko sometimes when she leaned too close to him-
"Stop working!" Tomochin poked Tomomi, knowing her friend well enough to know that Tomomi was working on the details of the drama in her mind. "You haven't eaten ANYTHING."
"I'm eating, I'm eating!" Tomomi grumbled, picking up fork and knife to dig into her western style breakfast. She took a look at what Tomochin was eating and almost immediately regretted it. Nattou, mayonnaise, dried bonitas, a few pieces of oily bacon, scrambled eggs, slices of oranges smashed into a pulp and ketchup all mixed together to look like... basically something someone threw up.
"Why am I your friend?" Tomomi whimpered as she watched Tomochin scarf the conconction down.
"This is delicious." Tomochin declared. "You leave my food alone!"
Tomomi wasn't the only person who had been watching Persona and the Three Sisters' main stars. The girl with the red hoodie stood discreetly nearby, completely unnoticed. And, completely unnoticed, she had a small camera hidden in her hands and was taking pictures of the people at the table. The person featured in most of those photos?
Kai.
Kasai Tomomi had apparently gotten what she wanted from the breakfast meeting. She had quickly told Tomochin the basic premise of the story and left her to work on make-up and costumes with the boys while she wrote the script.
"Where are you girls going?" Riku asked Yuko as they all waited in the lobby for a van to take them to the filming location.
"Well, we're still filming a couple of episodes from the last story arc that brought us to Okinawa." Yuko explained quickly. Riku, though she was wary of Yuko's perverted ways, was quite impressed by her work ethics. The dimply girl had shown herself to be a hard worker who stayed focused and on task when the situation called for it. Riku really did admire that quality in a person.
"...and that's it for today." Yuko finished listing off what they were doing. "We'll be in the same area as you and we'll probably finish shooting early if the weather continues to be nice like this."
"Lunch is at 1pm for you girls?" Riku glanced at his watch and grinned at Yuko, comfortable enough to make jokes with the girl. "Will you even be hungry then? You tucked in at least three plates!"
"She can eat even more." Mariko jumped into the conversation. "She's watching her figure right now so she ONLY had three plates."
"I have a high metabolism!" Yuko protested.
"Our ride is here!" Tomochin announced. All the young idols hurriedly went to the car with Kai making it there first and opened the door for everybody.
"Get in," Kai waved impatiently, looking off to the side. His plan was to sit as far away from Atsuko as possible and sitting in the front passenger seat would do! Atsuko climbed up but almost fell as her foot slipped a bit on the edge of the van's entrance. Kai was quick to put a steadying hand on the small of her back and push her up, nodding brusquely to Atsuko's 'thank you'.
"Oh, what a gentleman!" Kuu and Riku teased on the way in.
"Yeah, yeah." Kai growled. "Don't let the door hit you on the way in."
Atsuko watched as the blonde waited for Tomochin and her assistant to get in before shutting the door and climbing in the front. Even from the back, she tried to peek up at the young man sitting in front, thoughts running through her head...
"-stop it!" Mariko turned to glare at Kuu who had sat right behind her and was drumming against the back of her seat with his feet.
"Stop what?" Kuu asked innocently as he gave a slightly harder kick.
"Stop kicking my seat!"
"I'm not kicking your seat."
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
"Are too, KUU-KUU."
"Riku, tell her to stop calling me that!"
"CHILDREN!" Riku and Yuko both snapped at their friends. Slightly startled at having two people yell at them, both Mariko and Kuu settled down. It was quiet in the car, with all of them wrapped up in their own thoughts when they finally arrived on set. Kai hopped out of the front seat and waited until Atsuko was coming down and offered a hand to help her.
"Don't trip." Kai helped her down then quickly shut the door and joined his friends. Atsuko didn't even have a chance to say thank you before the boys were out of sight, following Tomochin's assistant to a building they had rented out as a temporary headquarters for the filming in Okinawa. It was also very near the beach they had rented to film beach scenes so everything worked out perfectly.
"Come on, everyone's at the beach already." Tomochin herself was in charge of the girls. "My assistant will get the boys done up and I have to work on your make up-Mariko, what's that on the back of your head?"
Patting at the back of her head, Mariko produced a piece of sticky yellow paper.
'I'm Shinoda Mariko and I'm old and love eating boogers!'
"KUU-KUU." The paper was reduced to a crumpled ball in the tall idol's hands. She would get him back for this!
Meanwhile, the boys were in the men's dressing room going through some clothes. Marilyn had sent Tomochin the boys' sizes already and a variety of clothes was laid out for them.
"Okay," The assistant brushed back her red hoodie, revealing silky black hair. "Riku-san, you'll be in smart-casual wear so you can't wear anything more casual than a polo-shirt. The image you're trying to give is rich and on a vacation. Um, no swimwear right now."
"Right." Riku nodded, going to the racks of clothes in his size to find several outfits that fit that description.
"Kuu-san is in business wear almost at all times. But pick out one golfing outfit."
Kuu was at his rack already, going through his clothes. He nodded absentmindedly at the instructions then let out a blood curdling scream as A GIANT SPIDER SRUNG OUT AT HIM FROM THE RACK!
"AHHH!" Kuu swatted the spider away. "Get it off get it off get it off!"
Kai was quick to react, stomping on the huge spider and almost slipped and fell. He grabbed hold of a nearby rack and glared down at the spider.
"It's fake." Kai brushed himself off. "It's made of rubber."
Kuu picked it up off the floor angrily. Pinned to the spider was a little note.
'To Kuu-Kuu. Love, Mariko.'
"Guys, stop playing around." Riku hadn't glanced over at the start of Kuu's screaming and ignored it after. Mariko and Kuu's prankwars was getting ridiculous.
"So..." The assistant stood beside Kai, waiting to catch his attention. "Kai-san, you'll be in casual wear. So t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, runners. Anything you want. But think light colours... less rockstar and more jock/nature boy."
"Sweet." Kai grinned, already rifling through his clothes. He liked formal wear just fine... but casual clothes were so much more comfortable! They played around with outfits for a while until Tomochin came back and hustled them to a couple of chairs in front of well lit mirrors to do some make-up checks.
"All of you have really nice skin," Tomochin murmurred as she tried out a colour on Riku.
"Yeah. We lucked out on that department." Riku tried to stay still.
"Like really nice skin." Tomochin moved on to Kuu. "It's like none of you have stubble."
The three members of Persona felt a trickle of anxiety.
"Well, you know, trade secret," Kuu laughed nervously. "We, uh, pluck."
"Pluck?" Tomochin raised an eyebrow. "That'll take a long time."
"Y-yup." Kai nodded stiffly. "But we get it when it first comes in. And if there's a lot, we wax."
"Hm. I guess." Tomochin ran a finger along Kuu's jawline. "Your jaw is quite smooth."
They spent the whole morning checking out make-up and outfits until Tomochin had called it a day and they broke for early lunch, the boys huddling together near the table with different types of boxed lunches.
"We don't have stubble." Kuu was looking through the boxed lunches and wondering if he could grab two. He was a nervous eater and damn, he was nervous right now! "Just soft SMOOTH SKIN. What are we going to do? Ai-chan and Fuu-chan are the only ones who did our make-ups for us before and Saeko's okay'd them! But Tomochin-"
"Calm down." Riku was also loading up his plate. "It'll be fine. Trust me. She seemed to buy your plucking excuse. And Saeko's no help right now, she has to deal with administration stuff. We gotta deal with our identities ourselves!"
Kai was looking through the boxed lunches and listening intently to Riku and Kuu's whispered conversation. So when his phone rang, he didn't even look to see who had called him and picked up right away.
"Moshi-moshi." Kai grabbed a sweet-and-sour pork and rice combo then moved on to look at what kind of drinks they had for lunch.
"Kai?"
Kai grabbed a vegetable juice box. "Yup."
There was silence on the other end. Then, "...Nami?"
"Yeah." Kai turned around to find a table to sit at, his attention pulled in several different directions. But the phone call... the phone call was important. What was so important about the phonecall?
"Nami, look up." the voice on the phone commanded.
Kai obeyed and looked up, seeing Atsuko at the entrance to the lunchroom. Atsuko had an unreadable expression on her face as she looked at Kai from across the room. Her phone was pressed against her ear and she smiled a small smile that didn't seem to reach her eyes.
"Nami. Can you see me?" Atsuko asked, her voice coming crystal clear over the phone. Kai's face had paled considerably and he nodded.
'Why didn't I notice right away?' Atsuko wondered as she looked at Kai from across the hustle of the lunchroom. Nami's nose, her chin, her eyes, HER HEIGHT. The way Kai moved like Nami did. Atsuko remembered watching Kai scarf down his breakfast, so like how Nami had eaten her dessert yesterday by the beach.
It hadn't been until Riku and Kuu had made the 'gentleman' comment that Atsuko had finally placed that face. How could she have been stupid? She had the picture that Nami and her had taken as the wallpaper on her cellphone! Everytime she opened her phone, she would see Nami's face.
"I can see you." Kai pushed his lunch and drink into Riku's hand and motioned for him to help him take it to a table and Kai would be right with them. Riku and Kuu shrugged and walked off.
"Nami." Atsuko pursed her lips. "We need to talk."
"Now?" Kai felt like someone was tightening a belt around his ribs. A sense of immense pressure. The secret was out. He had ruined it for everyone. Atsuko seemed to sense his mood and her mouth pulled up into a slightly strained smile to try to reassure him.
"I just want to talk, Nami. Don't worry. I haven't told anyone."
"My name is Kai right now." Kai blurted out. "Just... I'm Kai. At this moment. Do you want to talk now?"
"Not now." Atsuko shook her head. "Tonight?"
"Wanna have dinner?"
"Sure."
"I'll probably be back at the hotel before you... wanna call me when you get back?"
"I can do that."
A beat of silence, then, "Are you on lunch?" Kai asked softly.
"I am... but I'm not hungry." Atsuko waved to Kai. "I'll see you tonight. Ja ne."
Atsuko hung up and left the lunch room, leaving Kai there, staring at his phone, at the wallpaper he had set of Nami and Atsuko together. Atsuko was angry at him. He just knew it. Stuffing his cellphone back in his pocket, Kai went back to his table and found that Yuko and Mariko had joined them. Kuu was embroiled in another bickering match with the short-haired woman and Yuko and Riku were exchanging stories about their mornings with each other.
"Kai, you alright?" Riku noticed Kai's shell-shocked expression in a second.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Kai tried a smile, wondering when he had gotten so good at faking it so well.
"I saw you and Atsuko talking to each other over the phone! I didn't know you and Atsuko had already exchanged numbers!" Yuko teased. "Kai, you dog, you! Our princess NEVER gives her number out!"
"What?" Mariko was on Kai in a moment. "Really? I didn't think she liked your type of guys!"
"And what's that supposed to mean." Kai growled back.
"Well," A mischeivous twinkle in Mariko's eyes told Kai that he was going to be the butt of someone's jokes again. "I imagined her liking someone... taller."
"I'm not short."
"I never said you were, shortie."
"You just enjoy getting into arguments with people." Kai surmised suddenly. "No wonder you and Kuu are such good friends."
Kuu pointed at Kai, "You take that back! GOOD FRIENDS? WITH THIS WOMAN? Don't make me laugh!"
"Me and Kuu?" Mariko also wanted to give Kai a piece of her mind. "I... I can't believe you would say something hurtful like that!"
Mariko and Kuu started bickering again, one step away from chucking food at each other. Yuko and Riku, who had gotten used to Mariko and Kuu's fighting, attacked Kai with their questions as one.
"So what'd you two talk about?"
"Probably a date." Riku teased, grinning like crazy. "Ray would be sooooo jealous!"
"Shut up about Ray!" Kai felt a sharp stab of guilt. Why? He wasn't doing anything wrong!
don't look at any girls
Kai still had that text message on his phone and it felt like his phone was burning a hole through his pocket. What the hell did Ray mean anyways? Don't look at any girls. Really. The stars of the series he was a guest on were all girls! How could he not look? ...and why was he feeling guilty?
"Ray?" Mariko was back in the conversation again. "THE Ray? I heard rumours..."
Riku was intrigued. "What did you hear?"
"Well," Mariko tapped her chin with one manicured finger. "If you were going on a date with Atsuko, Ray would be VERY unhappy."
"Ray isn't the boss of me," Kai snapped. He and Ray were NOT together like that! "I can go out to dinner with Atsuko if I want to!"
"Dinner?" Yuko squealed gleefully. "Hey, lets all go together!"
"No," Kai immediately rejected the idea, regretting his slip of tongue. "We're just eating dinner alone."
"It IS a date!" Kuu exclaimed, excited. Then his face turned sly. "Ray's going to KILL you!"
"It's not a date and I don't have to answer to Ray!"
Arguing with each other, Kai finally got them off their back when he agreed, grudgingly, to make the dinner a group thing. Finally, everyone dispersed. Riku and Kuu went back to Tomochin to finish up and Yuko and Mariko had to run back to their set. Kai had excused himself to the washroom but instead of going, had run back to the buffet table to grab an extra boxed lunch and a drink.
"You've got a real healthy appetite, huh?" Tomochin's assistant startled Kai and the blonde grinned sheepishly.
"Actually, uh, it's not for me."
"For Maeda?" The girl in the red hoodie was right on the money.
"Yeah." Kai confessed. "Actually, do you know where she is right now?"
"She's practising right now. But I can take you to her."
Kai nodded and followed after the assistant as she lead the way.
"You're like, food guy, right? That's your thing?"
"It's my thing when I have it and someone else doesn't." Kai answered. Something suddenly occurred to him. "Oh damn, I'm sorry! I never caught your name-"
"I never gave it." Kai suddenly noted that the girl's impish smile was just a tiny bit scary. "My name's Watanabe Mayu."
"Nice to meet you." Kai said belatedly, grinning sheepishly. "I'm Kai."
"I know who you are, of course." Mayu turned around to study Kai, that eerie smile still on her face. She was still leading the way and avoided any obstacles in her path easily, as if she had eyes at the back of her head. They finally stopped outside a door where Kai could hear Atsuko's voice inside. It seemed like she was reciting her lines... "Here you go!"
Without another word, Mayu was gone as suddenly as she appeared. Kai didn't even get the chance to thank her yet!
"Well.." Kai shuffled restlessly outside the door. Taking a deep breath, he knocked politely.
"Who is it?"
"It's Kai."
"... I don't want to see you right now. Could we talk later tonight?"
Her answer made Kai's heart sink to his stomach and there was a sudden tightness in his throat.
"Um. Well, I brought you something. I'll leave and you can get it after." Kai put his offering down and left quickly, feeling upset.
"So who is she to you?" Marilyn felt like they kept on having this argument. She couldn't help it! Saeko just drove her crazy all the time.
"She's just someone from my past." Saeko said cryptically.
Usually Marilyn let things go because Saeko didn't seem to be serious about whatever had happened or she did 'stuff' for work. This other WOMAN was from Saeko's past! And a past she was hiding from Marilyn! "That's not a good enough answer!"
"Excuse me." A knock at the door and someone slipped in the room, closing the door behind her.
"We're having a private conversation here." Marilyn snapped.
Ohori Megumi gave the irrate secretary a wry smile. "I can hear your 'private conversation' from down the hall. And since this sort of involves me, I think I should be in on this too."
Saeko had fallen silent at the sight of Megumi and only after Megumi had finished her speel did Saeko finally say something. What she said though, surprised Marilyn.
"I'm sorry." Saeko was bowing at almost a 90 degree angle.
"There's nothing to be sorry for, sempai." Megumi smiled sadly at the woman who had taught her everything she knew about the business. She had been young, unexperience and clumsy. Nobody really wanted to take this awkward thing to be their assistant because she just kept screwing up. Saeko, however, had been different. She had walked her through everything that one needed to know in this profession, walked her through things as many times as it took Megumi to learn it.
Then, Saeko had fired her unceremoniously. Megumi had been devastated.
"You had your reasons. I'm sorry I blamed you without knowing." It was Megumi's turn to bow this time and Marilyn suddenly felt horribly awkward. Things hadn't been as it had seemed!
"Um..."
"Saeko-sempai taught me everything I needed to know about the business. Then she fired me and kicked me out of Kamonohashi Entertainment." Megumi remembered it like it was yesterday. "I was so angry. She had yelled at me, saying I was too stupid, too slow. So I started Ohori productions to beat out her agency."
"You almost managed to squash me, too." Saeko raised an eyebrow. "But then all of a sudden you stopped. Why?"
Megumi took off her glasses, suddenly angry. "Why didn't you tell me Sarukawa-san was black-balling you?"
"What could you have done?" Saeko shrugged. "Stayed with a baby agency that could barely stay afloat? If I hadn't cut you off, you would've clung on and been on the streets with me if I had failed."
"That's why you fired me."
"You hadn't been paid in months." Saeko muttered. "It was embarassing."
"I would've stayed!"
"I wouldn't have wanted you to. He would have black-listed you, too."
There was a lot of water under the bridge between these two. In the horrible, heavy silence, Marilyn couldn't contain herself and burst out with an apology. "I'm sorry, I thought-"
"It's okay." Saeko smiled at her secretary. "But... could you give us some time alone?"
Marilyn, just a little bit mortified, apologized again and walked out the door. So they had a professional relationship! Hearing such good things about Saeko, however, made Marilyn even happier that she was with her shachou.
"So, I guess omitting our PERSONAL relationship with each other was a smart move on my part?" Megumi chuckled as soon as she knew Marilyn was far enough away from the room not to hear.
"A very smart move. I did teach you well." Saeko smiled but made no move forward.
Megumi grinned, trying to crack a joke. "I remembered you teaching me about the business, but I think in bed it was a bit different."
Saeko, who seemed to have no shame, surprisingly blushed scarlet and let out a weary sigh. "I can't believe some... CHILD knew more about adult relationships than I did. I thought I was pretty experienced back then."
"I wasn't a kid, even back then." Megumi smiled smugly. "And obviously, you weren't as experienced as you thought you were."
There was a long silence, their easy sexual innuendo-laced banter was gone.
"It's... awkward now, isn't it?"
"A bit." Saeko fidgetted. Sex was just sex... but Saeko had cared about Megumi and now she cared about Marilyn. It would be disrespectful to the both of them if feelings got involved.
"We can be friends. I'm not looking for anything more." Megumi had left the heartache behind, her initial anger at Saeko, of course, had helped with the healing process. Now all she wanted to do was rebuild bridges.
Saeko smiled and took Megumi's hand in hers. "I'd like that."
endnote: ended it with a little bit more of Saeko than I really wanted, hahaha. But I needed to tie up that loose end about her and Megumi's past. I love Ohori Megumi and this is my take on her so far. :P Next chapter... what will happen? SHOCK!