A/N: Okay so this chapter is short, but hey, at least it's up. Anyways REVIEW PLEZ. :D
Chapter 11: I'm In Love With Mogami Kyoko
When Ren and Kyoko arrived on set later that day both were still furious and were adamantly ignoring each other. They had arrived separately, Ren before Kyoko who arrived on her bike, leaving the cast and crew utterly perplexed at the sudden animosity between their lead actors. They were currently being briefed by Director Ogata on an upcoming scene all the while stonily refusing to speak or even look at the other person.
They were shooting episodes 7-9 today so pretty much all of the characters were on set including Kinnji, Yashiro, Kanae and Jun. Yashiro paced worriedly as they waited for the director to be done his briefing
"What is wrong with those two? I only left them for 3 hours! How did it turn out to be this? Why in Kami-sama's name are they ignoring each other?" He stared at them as if somehow willing the answer to present itself to them. Kanae shook her head, honestly, this girl is so troublesome!
"Everybody in position?" They heard Director Ogata shout, Shingai had also gone to stand next to his co-director. "Annnnd ACTION!"
"I'm home!" Kazuma entered the apartment to be confronted with his wife and her younger brother is nurse outfits.
"Welcome home dear!" Kyoko ground out, because of her anger with the man, she had been unable to call Fumino, so instead here she was playing Kyoko. She looked up and made eye contact with Ren, finding herself unable to look away from his sudenly cold gaze. She vaguely heard a sigh off set and then,
"CUT! CUT! CUUUUT!"
They both turned to see the directors walking towards them shaking their heads.
"Kyoko, Ren," Shingai said, hand on his head. "This scene between Kazuma and Fumino is supposed to be light and playful! It shouldn't feel like a glaring competition!" The two actors had at least conscience enough to look apologetic.
"Sorry Ogata-san, Shingai-san, I'll do better in the next take - " Kyoko stopped abruptly as Ogata shook his head no.
"I'm sorry Kyoko-chan, Ren-kun, but I think you guys need a break. Shingai-san and I have some business to attend to, so maybe you should use this next hour to pull yourselves together." He smiled kindly at them, making Ren feel even more ashamed of himself. Damn it, what am I doing? Still not looking at each other they bowed to their directors and stalked off in opposite directions to their dressing rooms.
Yashiro and Kanae rolled their eyes at the actors' exit.
"Honestly, they're acting like children. I'll take Kyoko and you take Ren." Nodding at each other, the two went off to find their friends.
As Kanae approached Kyoko's dressing room she could hear the distinct sound of furniture being kicked. Getting closer, she could hear Kyoko muttering to herself, her sentences periodically punctuated with a kick.
"Of all the controlling" thump "egotistical" thump "moronic" thump "IDIOTS!" A particularly hard kick followed. "I hate him!"
Well, Kanae thought wryly, clearly voicing her feelings will not be an issue. She knocked on the door.
"Kyoko?" She heard a low curse and then scrambling as Kyoko was no doubt making her dressing room decent again. Or trying to as it were.
"C-come in!" She heard the young girl call and opened the door, walking inside. Once inside, she looked over the room and had to admit, it looked like a small tornado had gone through the room. There were make-up supplies strewn across the dressing table and her bag had been knocked over, the contents spilling out slightly. Kyoko herself stood in the middle of the room, standing with her hands behind her back, her face pink, like a child being caught doing something naughty.
"So, " Kanae began dryly, "you wanna tell me why you and Ren look like World War Three is about to start?" She watched her face turn stony again, and she crossed her arms over her chest.
"It's all his fault! I don't understand how I fell in love with someone like him!" She muttered, glaring at the floor. Kanae sighed, seeing this could take a while, she pulled out a chair and straddled it backwards and motioned Kyoko to sit down in another chair.
"Alright, tell me what happened, start at the beginning and don't leave out anything."
LINELINELINE
Yashiro approached Ren's dressing room somewhat apprehensively. This was the man's first serious fight with Kyoko and he wasn't sure how he would take it. Violence wasn't like him but that girl brought out new emotions in him that Yashiro had never seen before so he couldn't be certain. Upon going closer however, Ren's dressing room was suspiciously silent. He knocked on the door lightly. There was a moments silence and then a gruff
"Come in." was heard.
Yashiro peeked in and was relieved to see the room in one piece. then he took note of the atmosphere in the room. Shivering, he realized that Ren was not "somewhat" angry. He was downright furious.
"Ren?" Yashiro asked hesitantly, his charge only grunted in acknowledgment.
"What's wrong? What happened with you and Kyoko?" As expected he received only silence as an answer. He sighed and turned to leave, hand on the door.
"Ren please, we're friends aren't we? At least I thought we were, maybe not I guess. I just want to help you." This seemed to get Ren's attention. He sat up straight from his hunched over position on the couch.
"I'm sorry Yashiro, I just - " He stopped and narrowed his eyes at his manager. " Hang on a second, what do you mean 'you'd like to be my friend' We are friends." Yashiro looked taken aback.
"O-oh. Sorry. you just don't act like we are. You always keep me at arms length. It seems you talk more to the chicken from Bridge Rock than you do to me." Ren chuckled dryly.
"Yeah my chicken friend.."
"Alright so what happened?" Yashiro asked, leaning against the wall near the couch. Ren sighed and looked away.
"Ren.." Yashiro said warningly.
"Look I just snapped okay!" His sudden outburst effectively shut down all speech from Yashiro. "After the interview we went back to my apartment and I realized that no matter what I do, he'll always matter more to her than me. Be it hatred or love, he owns a bigger a part of her heart than I do. Besides the line between the two is pretty fuzzy. How am I supposed to compete with that?" He buried his hands in his hair. "And to make it worse, she kissed him - kissed him Yashiro - on live TV! Doesn't she understand what she's done? Every gossip columnist, blogger, and tabloid writer in the country, not to mention the paparazzi will be after her. She's only 16, how is she supposed to deal with all of that? She'll be hunted down! But as always, he matters more to her than that. Had it been me, she would be more concerned with propriety and would be pulling her out in terror over what she's done. But she's calm right now, she doesn't give a damn about any of it! It's so irresponsible that I can't stand it!"
Out of breath, the only sound in the silent room was Ren's heavy breathing. Yashiro moved from his position against the wall and gingerly sat down across from Ren in a chair, looking him straight in the eye.
"ARE YOU A GODDAM IDIOT?"
LINELINELINELINE
"I SHOULD KILL YOU RIGHT THIS DAMN MINUTE!" Kyoko jumped, startled at Kanae's sudden yell.
"Moko-san?"
"Don't 'Moko-san' me you colossal moron! I should wring your neck right now!" Kanae said, looking like she was about to start pulling out her hair.
"W-why? What did I do?" Kyoko looked genuinely confused, so Kanae forced herself to calm down.
"Look, " she began, holding a hand to her forehead, she was going to have a huge headache by the time she went home today. "Ren's behaviour wasn't the best, that I admit, but he has a point."
"What? Are you siding with him?" Kyoko got up, incensed. Kanae fixed her with an icy glare.
"Sit. down." With a small eep of fright Kyoko propped back into her seat. "I'm not finished with you yet." She pinned her best friend with an exasperated look. "Seriously. Ren is an idiot. We both know that, but even he's not such a jerk that he would deliberately try to hurt you. Hasn't he always had your best interests at heart? Besides from the conversation you've told me, it sounds like a different issue entirely, it sounds like -" Kanae stopped, staring at Kyoko, thinking quickly.
"Moko-san? Aren't you going to finish what you were saying?" An idea suddenly hit and Kanae had to stop herself from grinning.
"Nope. I think you should figure it out yourself." Kyoko looked horrified at the very idea.
"Nu-uh. No way. I am not talking to him."
"Maybe you won't talk to him. But I'm positive he's gonna go looking for a certain chicken today, don't you think?" Kanae looked meaningfully at her and Kyoko froze.
"You - You know?" She squeaked, her face going scarlet as Kanae nodded.
"Oh my god, this is so embarrassing!" She buried her face in her hands. Kanae rolled her eyes.
"What? Did you think I wouldn't come back to check up on you? And what do you think I found? Mogami Kyoko, pretending to be a man in a chicken suit and playing counsellor to Tsuruga Ren." Kyoko made another squeak of mortification.
"Honestly, though, who cares? Anyways, you're playing Bo today right? You better pull yourself together then," she said at Kyoko's nod. "I guarantee you, he's going to come find you, but for now, quit causing everyone else trouble and do your job."
"Right."
LINELINELINE
That night, Kyoko sighed after she stepped out of the studio after her segment on the show. She had managed to give a decent take after her hour long banishment but her enthusiasm was noticeably diminished. All through today's Bridge Rock taping, she had been terrified she would run into Ren after talking with Kanae. So far though, he hadn't shown up. As she walked past the hallway he was known to frequent, she froze.
OH MY GOD HE'S HERE! Now what? If I walk away he'll hear the stupid suit squeak! Argh! Okay, phew. I can do this. I just have to pretend I don't want to drop kick him in the face. Taking a deep breath, she approached Ren, who was so lost in his depressed world that he didn't hear her approach.
"Yo."
Ren snapped his head up and found himself face-to-face (face-to-beak?) with the man - chicken?- he had come here looking for.
"H-hey." he said weakly, making the chicken frown.
"Well that was enthusiastic." She settled herself next to him on the bench he was sitting on. Act normal, act normal, she repeated internally, like a mantra.
"So you're depressed again. What happened? Did they change the script on you again?" Looking at this anonymous chicken, Ren wondered why he was able to talk to him with such ease. It hit him suddenly that the reason lay in the chicken's anonymity. Had he been looking at an actual face, Ren doubted he would have been able to confide in him so easily.
"OOoooi." A hand (wing) waved in front of his face. "Quit staring at me like that, you're making me shy!" Ren rolled his eyes.
"Right."
"So what's the problem? If you don't tell me I cant -"
"I'm an idiot. A class A moron."
Kyoko stopped abruptly at this statement from him.
"Now what the hell does that mean?" She found herself asking.
" Have you ever made a really stupid mistake?"
Kyoko raised an eyebrow at him.
"Doesn't everyone at some point?"
Ren snorted.
"Yeah, but the one that I just made was so stupid I could kick myself." Kyoko felt inclined to agree but realized he seemed to regret doing it.
"So what did you do? Come on out with it."
"I-" He sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. "I snapped and yelled at a colleague and said some things I shouldn't have." Kyoko realized that now for sure he was talking about her.
"Why?" She asked cautiously.
"Have you seen this morning's Mai Takano Show?" She shook her head mutely.
"Well there was a...situation, the colleague's childhood friend was on the show and experienced a severe allergic reaction." She nodded
"Go on." It was strange to hear this from his point of view.
"Well, my colleague just flew into action and took over. To make matters worse, she kissed him on the forehead on live TV." Kyoko could feel herself bristling but forced herself to remain neutral.
"Why does it matter?"
"Why does it -" Ren looked at her incredulously. "You mean you don't get it either?" He groaned, then straightened to look at her properly. "Look my colleague is a 16 year old girl. She's very new to the industry and even her childhood friend has been here longer than her. But yet, here she is, on her first ever live TV interview and she hugs AND kisses him!" Kyoko still didn't see his point.
"Argh! Don't you get it? Because of that simple gesture, every reporter, gossip blogger, and tabloid writer in the country is out for her blood! And for god knows how long! I've seen way too many talents crack under that pressure. They can't handle being scrutinized every minute of the goddamn day! I'm worried that she'll be hounded by paparazzi and that producer's will hire her for her publicity and not her ability. And she still doesn't get it! It's just too damn irresponsible!" he flopped his head over the back of the bench, exhausted by his speech.
Kyoko was speechless. So all that rage was because he was worried about her? She had to know more.
"So you yelled at her and told her all that?" She watched as Ren shook his head no, surprised by the blush on his face.
"Well-no."
"Then how is she supposed to know Einstein? She probably just got mad at you instead."
"And that's exactly what happened . I just snapped and yelled things like 'you can't do that!' I couldn't tell her, besides then she would know!"
"What's that supposed to mean? What would she know"
"It means how was I going to tell her that? I can't tell her that because its not the only reason I got so mad! How was I supposed to tell her that I was jealous?"
Huh?
"You wanna run that by me again?" She asked nervously as she watched Ren's face go crimson.
"Remember the high school I was telling you about?" He practically whispered the next sentence. "That would be her. I'm in love with Mogami Kyoko."