Hello all, thanks for reading. I have finally gotten access to a computer, though I am not sure when I will be able to next. Also, my school computer wiped all of the files on my flash drive where I kept all of my fanfictions so now I have absolutely no idea what I wrote and no back up T_T And I had a lot written so unfortunately I will not be able to update anything else until I write them all again. Thank you all for your patience…. Lesson learned.
DISCLAIMER: I have no ownership of Skip Beat! Or its characters…
Chapter 12: The Party
Kuon watched as Jelly did her magic on Kyoko going into a semi-panic mode for the nth time tonight. The reason for the aforementioned panic attacks were the suspicious looks he was getting from her every time she looked at him. Not even Jelly's magic and make-up distracted her. She had asked him before they arrived at the designated room why jelly was dressing them up instead of getting to the party herself. After all, she was one of Lory's closest people. He could barely come up with an excuse to that one as he hadn't even thought of that himself. With a triumphant yell from Jelly, he was brought out of his thoughts.
"Ah! Finally done! You look so pretty Kyoko-chan!" Jelly clasped her hands together as she surveyed her handy work. Indeed, Kyoko was a complete work of art tonight. She was dressed in a form fitting sleeveless, knee length navy blue dress with a pair of borderline ridiculous high heeled navy blue pumps. Light make-up and an adjustment of her hairstyle and she was ready to charm the crowd.
Kuon, dressed in a tailored Armani suit with a navy dress shirt - the first few buttons undone, moved from his position leaning on the far wall and came up to guide Kyoko out the room and to the massive ballroom filled with everyone waiting just for her.
As Ren guided Kyoko to the double doors of the hall located inside of LME. She was still a little suspicious of the whole special treatment thing but she kept quiet, deciding instead to focus on walking in the 4 inch heals Jelly Woods had given her so that she can be closer to Ren's beautiful face, all according to Jelly herself of course.
As they doors opened up, all she could see was pitch black darkness. She gave a strange look to Ren who just smiled reassuringly telling her "It's all according to plan" as he escorted her in.
The room was deathly silent as they entered much to her dismay. They kept walking about a good 3 yards into the room where Kyoko knew the walls fanned out into the ball room before pausing. She took a breath to ask him what they were doing when several spotlights turned on, bathing the couple in semi-bright blue and white lights. She looked around wide eyed trying to see into the dark while Ren laughed at her surprise.
"Come on Kyoko, let's go in further." It was more of a whisper than anything but she straightened her posture and continued on to what she assumed was the middle of the room as her face slowly changed from a tight smile to a small frown as the cogs began to turn in her head. Of course, on the inside she was already pointing fingers at the President and Ren, the only culprits she could think of that would love to put her on more of a spotlight than she already was.
Suddenly there was the sound of a microphone turning on before spotlights went to the center of the stage on the opposite wall as well. Stepping into the center was little Maria who then announced, "Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us in our celebration for Kyoko-chan's debut!" As Kyoko's name left her mouth, all of the lights slowly came on as to not blind anyone. The unbelievably large – in Kyoko's mind – crowd began to cheer loudly as Kyoko looked around, once again wide-eyed. As the applause started dying down, a large projector screen came down behind Maria and clips from all of Kyoko's work started playing ranging from the Kurara commercial to her newest movie, Elements.
"Alright everyone, let's get this thing started. There is food on both sides along the walls as well as drinks on the corners and the middle. The staff will be filtering in with finger foods and drinks throughout the night. At 10:30 we will be playing Kyoko's new movie Elements so please enjoy yourselves."
At the overly familiar voice, Kyoko turned her attention to the stage only to find Kanae standing by Maria. Those two! I can't believe they did this! Oh they are going to get a chewing tomorrow! Her thoughts were interrupted as director Ogata came up to the couple, congratulating Kyoko on her debut and saying something about having amazing friends and an overexcited president.
The next half hour consisted of exchanges from the casts of Dark Moon and Box-R as well as some of the attendees from several of Kyoko's small projects. At one point, the Ishibashi brothers came up to her as well though Ren guided her along when he saw that Hikaru was planning on having more than just small talk. As they headed away from a slightly confused Hikaru, Kyoko and Ren came up behind Kanae and Maria.
The two were busy scouting the room for what, or perhaps who, Ren had no clue but he decided to announce their presence before the evil and slightly aggravated look on Kyoko's face became any more pronounced. He cleared his throat and chuckled as the smaller of the two threw herself at Kyoko with a joyful cry of "Onee-sama!" completely missing the mood of the actress. Kanae herself seemed to ignore her sour mood as she smiled at her best friend.
"Kyoko! There you are we've been looking for you all over. So what do you think of the party, surprised?" The rare enthusiasm in her best friend's voice had Kyoko's mood doing a 180 as she smiled brightly at both Kanae and Maria.
"Moko-san, Maria-chan, the party is great! I was so surprised I thought it really was for the President." I'll get my revenge later. Guess I might as well enjoy it since everyone worked so hard… She hugged them both when she heard Ren sigh in relief next to her. Turning to him she asked, "What was that for?" knowing that he was in on the whole thing.
He smiled down at her saying, "Nothing really, I just thought you might explode when you saw them with that face you were making. No doubt you were thinking that President Lory was behind all of this, weren't you?" The trio laughed as Kyoko blushed scarlet, stuttering as she tried to deny his spot on accusation. She finally settled with swatting his arm playfully as the three continued to snicker at her expense.
Ren turned to Kanae again, looking curious as he asked, "Kotonami-san, aren't the guests supposed to be everyone who Kyoko has worked with up until now?"
Kanae looked a little worried as she replied with a sheepish "Yes". Please tell me he's not thinking about that snotty singer!
"Oh, I didn't know you worked with the Ishibashi Brothers, Kyoko." He turned to her with the beginnings of his super sparkly gentleman's smile as she avoided eye contact like the plague. Their game of cat and mouse stopped as Kanae let out an uncharacteristic snort. Both turned to her, Ren with a raised eyebrow and Kyoko with a look of dread.
Kyoko instantly shrank behind Ren, begging her dearest friend not to get her incinerated tonight with a few gestures, including the now perfected puppy dog eyes. Instantly Kanae burst into a fit of laughter much to Kyoko's dismay. However, Ren was not going to get an answer since Yashiro came waltzing up to the group.
"Good evening ladies, Ren. Did I miss something?" He asked as he took in Kanae's state and Kyoko's semi-dreadful expression.
"N-nothing really Yashiro-san, how have you been this evening? Ren has been with me all night so I had no idea what you were up to." Kyoko said, breaking the silence as Kanae continued smiling rather largely. Even Maria seemed lost but Kyoko was not going to expose herself in front of all these people, especially since Ren divulged so much information to what he thought was a random chicken - uh, person in a chicken suit. I won't tell, even if Moko-san is laughing at me for the rest of the night. That just means I have to get extra revenge on her! Oh, I know, I can bake Moko-san a super sweet cake and cook a huge meal! YES, she'll love it and hate it all at the same time! Woohoo! I'm a genius! Kyoko began letting out evil little snickers that turned into low cackles that could be heard by those near her. Luckily for her, the only ones within hearing distance were the ones she has been speaking to. Of course, seeing as Kyoko was looking straight at her, Kanae sobered up looking quite scared for her life. The rest just took a step back and sweat dropped.
"W-well I have been fine, I have been speaking to President Lory since before you came in. Speaking of which, Ren, the President would like to speak to you. I shouldn't have let him wait this long anyways. It seemed important." With that, he dragged Ren through the crowd to practically the other side of the room leaving the three girls to entertain themselves.
"K-Kyoko, I was just kidding, please, whatever you are planning right now, please stop! I don't want to know. I promise I won't tell him anything so please!" Kanae begged as soon as Ren and Yashiro were out of hearing. Unfortunately for her, Kyoko just smiled, not acknowledging the plea for peace. Instead she turned around, grabbing both girls in each hand and began trekking to the nearest food table and unknowingly towards the one that could possibly turn this night upside down. The trio broke to fill their own plates, Maria going for the sweets on the other end while Kanae drifted over there as well. Kyoko went over to fill her plate with some more meat and cheese as she was expecting that Ren might be back soon. That is when it happened.
Out of nowhere an arm snaked its way around her waist and dragged Kyoko towards a darker corner table and sat her in a chair, blocking her path to go back to her friends. She was too shocked to even say anything much less fight back against the very male presence that grabbed her. She set her plate, which surprisingly didn't drop anything, on the table as Shou's face came into her view. He brought his chair up in front of her and sat down, his long legs stretching out at the sides of her chair. Her eyes narrowed as he made himself comfortable before he began to speak.
"All night I was in a corner of this room, watching as you went around the room greeting everyone and conversing with a few too many males. What's worse is that you were always hanging off of that irritating Tsuruga Ren. What do you have to say for yourself? What are you doing hanging around all of these guys all the time? I thought you had a job to do, when are you going to grow up Kyoko? You think it's cool to start hanging around all of these guys all of a sudden? Is that how you got up the ladder so fast, you're selling yourself to these bastard actors and directors? Well, answer me Kyoko!" In the duration of the rant his voice just got more and more bitter and towards the end he snarled out the last sentence, getting even more irritated since he got no reaction from Kyoko except a few eye twitches. Angrily, he shoved a cube of cheese in his mouth as he waited for her to answer, forgetting his image in favor of venting his anger.
Kyoko sat there for a good five minutes just soaking up everything Shou spat out at her. She allowed herself to find some amusement as she watched him stew in agitation, eating all of her meat and cheese cubes. Then, a brilliant idea came to her. I am totally on a mean streak tonight. She snickered and Shou's eyebrow twitched.
"What are you laughing for? Just answer the question, damn it!" He quieted as an all too familiar smile appeared on Kyoko's face and her posture relaxed.
She crossed her legs and leaned back, appraising him from top to bottom before she started to speak, Natsu in full control. "Shou, I really thought you would have learned your lesson from the last time. I'm surprised you actually showed up, did your devoted manager talk you into it?" She smirked as she saw him flinch at her tone. "Kyoko," she continued, "has no time to be answering foolish questions about her career. If you're jealous, why don't you just say so? No one will hate you for admitting it. In fact, no one will hate you for admitting that you want to take back what you said about her being plain and boring. After all, anyone who looks at you can see that you're love sick yet you know I don't want anything to do with you. What do you want me to tell you Shou? Hard work can get you up the ladder faster than you think. You know that well enough. Everyone acknowledges that you are a professional when it comes to work so why are you slandering mine?" Natsu started to slip as the rant went on, finally settling on Kyoko's heated golden eyes flaring in the dark. When she got no answer from him, Kyoko got up and pushed past his knees as he sat there still quiet.
Kyoko made her way back to the food table, starting again to refill her plate. Kanae and Maria came up to her. "What happened to you Kyoko, where'd you go?" Kanae asked, slightly worried.
Kyoko smiled, "I was just talking to Shou. No worries, everything is fine, we just had a friendly little chat." As she spoke, the three walked back to a table near the front that Kanae and Maria originally set up for Kyoko and company.
Ten minutes into picking at their plates, Kanae complaining about eating all of those calories, Ren and Yashiro came up to the table and took a seat next to Kyoko and Kanae. Maria was seated in between the two women and a seat was left for Lory in between the two males.
Before anyone could begin talking however, there was a loud noise on the stage followed by Lory asking for everyone's attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming out to celebrate the debut of one of LME's promising young actresses! I hope you all are ready for the show because the showing of Elements is about to begin. Please make your way to your tables and enjoy!" As he spoke, the screen came down behind him once again. He exited to the left and made his way to Kyoko's table just as the beginning credits started.
Again, thanks for reading :)