You're kidding me... right? Why is another merprincess competing to be in the commercial? Kyoko stared at the girl, who seemed to waste no time of showing everyone that she was rich. Kyoko was richer than Erika, but didn't dare to show it off. It was just a simple rule that she learned. Look like a commoner so you won't get anything stolen from you or you won't be held as hostage for money. It was a simple rule that all royalty must follow if they wanted to get around a normal society in peace.

Of course, Erika didn't think so, and she acted like everywhere was her castle. Kyoko couldn't help but feel sorry for the butlers. They had to carry a throne everywhere they went and a trolley of sweets... Oh, that just looked ridiculous, no matter how you saw it. Commoners would gaze at this in awe, but Kyoko could see some sense in this eye rolling act.

Kanae could too, and she wasn't even at the same class as them!

Setting a single hand on her hip, Kyoko muttered, "What are you here, Erika?" she asked.

Gasping, obviously acting surprised, Erika stood up from where she was sitting. She ran up to Kyoko and patted her shoulders. "What? You can call me by my name? Who told you that you can? Was it me?" She opened her mouth, looking around, then pointed at her butlers. "Did you hear what she said to me?"

"Yes, Erika sama! It's disrespectful!"

"Very much!"

"Even we, your trusted butlers, can't call you by name. You shine too brightly for us to!"

"Hohoho! Yes! See?" Erika smiled at her, slapping a hand on Kyoko's shoulder once again. "Learn your place, commoner."

Kyoko twitched.

Erika walked around her, just like how she sometimes would swim circles around her. Not like she could do it very often, as she would be sent away by seeing another handsome prince.

"Don't think that just because you once were just like me, that stripping your title as *princess*", she whispered, "means you're still one." She slapped Kyoko's back, but the girl stood still.

Seeing this, Erika wanted to have another round, just wanting to see that girl break into tears. "You know, I really hate being cooped up in that "house" of mine. It was wonderful when Daddy let me... go out and have fresh air..." She was referring to how she went up to the surface. "Ah... how wonderful is he? And all my jewelry is worth so much up here and-"

She could have continued some more, until Kyoko shrugged. "Blah, blah, blah. I have money and I could do this. I have money and I could do that. Yeah, I really don't care what you do." Kyoko walked past the prissy princess and took a chair to sit. An ordinary chair, not a throne. She patted an empty one down next to her, allowing Kanae to sit.

"Look, Erika. You can brag all you want, but you see... the thing is, I don't care. I'm glad you like your life, I really do. But..."

She turned to glare at her, feeling a thick wave swimming her way. She hated the other princesses more than anything. Okay, scratch that. She hated her other self more, but the princesses were second on her list. They lived lavishly while their kingdoms lived with only fish food. Yeah, that's right. Just food that humans dump in the ocean. It was either that or worms.

"... I don't think I'm the one you should brag about to. After all, just like you stated, I'm not like you. I don't have oodles of money lining up for me to spend (Actually, she does. She just doesn't use it...), and I don't wear clothes once like you do. But the truth is, living like that is the same as living like trash."

And that did it. "WHAT! Me. You're saying I'm living like trash?"

"Erika, forget what I said." Kyoko sighed, leaning back. "You want to participate in the audition, right? I see you want to act, but get this. If you use your name, Koenji, a famous name from the founder of the Koenji Group even once in your audition other than introducing yourself," she glared at the princess, "then get out."

"Wh-what? How dare you say that to me! Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Yeah, you're Koenji Erika. Big whoop. I don't care." A holler was heard as the man directed the girls to go to another room. "Ah... it seems like it started." Getting up, Kyoko calmly went with him, followed by a line of several another girls.

Erika was the last, as she was telling her butlers to stay. As she hurried so she wouldn't lose the line of peasants, she soon was angry at this. She was a princess; she shouldn't be last!

"That Kyoko... how dare she talk to me like that!" she grumbled to herself.

"Oh? The director is absent?" a school girl with brown curls wondered. "I wonder if this audition will be alright."

"Yeah, me too. You know that fight between those two girls? That other one, the one that... I think her name was Erika? Erika kept screaming insults at her, and that girl was calm the whole way through! I wouldn't have been able to stand two seconds!"

"I know, right? That was just scary to begin the day."

"Okay! Settle down, people!" an executive shouted. He was sitting next to an empty chair, the chair where the absent director would have sat. "The director isn't feeling well today, so we're taping this. The director would see it once we send it to him and-"

A clatter interrupted his explanation. And when everyone looked to see who made it, it was none other than Erika. "I am Koenji Erika!" she cried out, performing a grand jeté. Her legs were in a split, mid air, and she landed to cover in a spot in front of Kanae. "My hobbies are horseback riding and traveling abroad. I am a pro in professional ballet, as you can see!" she exclaimed, twirling around.

"Hey! Stop standing in front of me!" hissed Kanae, quite annoyed that Erika was saying all of this with her back towards her.

Kyoko would to, if someone did that, but... why was Erika standing in front of Kanae?

"If you have me in this commercial, use the Koenji Group name and it will be an instant success!"

And that was her favourite playing card. Even when Kyoko warned her not to, she still did it.

"Oh? Then we have ourselves a winner!" the executive exclaimed. "If it's you, then our product will be a succe-"

"WAIT!" Kyoko shouted. She crossed her legs and her arms. She was just furious. Now she remembered Erika's relationship with Kanae. Ugh... how could she forget? "You haven't even interviewed us yet. Remember, this is an audition." Standing up, Kyoko walked up to Erika. Her arms were still folded as she hissed. "I warned you not to use your name."

Her opponent shrugged. "Hey, I introduced myself. That's all I did."

"Erika... Erika... Erika..." Kyoko shook her head lightly, sighing at Erika. She looked like she was sorry for her. "I'm sorry, but I have to say you must be the most forgetful person in the world." Motioning one of the cameramen, she said, "Can one of you bring one of your cameras over here? I would like to replay something for the..." Kyoko looked up and down at Erika. "The girl..."

What? Erika gritted her teeth, furious as Kyoko took the camera. She pressed a couple of buttons, before it played out her words. Word for word.

"I am Koenji Erika!"

"One." Kyoko held up a finger, still glaring at Erika. She pressed fast forward and paused to play another clip.

"If you have me in this commercial, use the Koenji Group name and it will be an instant success!"

"Two." She held up two fingers. "I told you to only say Koenji to introduce yourself and nothing else."

"What? I can't introduce myself as the daughter of-"

"No, you can't," Kyoko firmly said. She then looked at the executives, and saw them sweating at the little verbal fight that was happening.

"Misters, I believe it's not only you that gets to make the decisions, but also the director. If you chose Erika, and ignored all of us, what do you think he'll say?" She patted the camera in her hand. "This is only one of the cameras that is filming today's audition. If that one," Kyoko pointed to the other boy's camera, "is the other one, then don't you think he would only see me scolding you? Won't that be a bore?"

Kyoko walked up to the men, still smiling. "Ah, and the executives of a drink company only want money, not talent. Oh, what has the world come to?" She slammed the table, almost spilling the drinks that were in front of them. "Now listen here. Everyone here didn't come here just so you could pay attention to one girl and forget about the rest. If that was the case, then we would have left the room by now, and that's not really an audition, now is it?"

She then growled at them. They were sweating more now. What was this girl doing, arguing to them? But they couldn't argue back, as she did make a point.

"Tomorrow, when the real audition starts, don't favour Erika only for her money. Do that again, and I'm sure everyone here," She motioned the other contestants, "will feel an unfair game is happening."

"Ah! I think the audition ended already!" Kanae exclaimed. She went and winked at everyone. "It looks like we lost to Erika. There doesn't seem a need to audition anymore. Actually, there isn't a need to audition for any of Kyurara's products."

"Yeah!" a girl exclaimed, standing up from her seat. "I'm sure to tell everyone that all of Kyurara's executives only cared for someone's money, not talent, What a waste of my time!" she muttered.

Everyone began to stand up and walk to the door until one of the executives cried out, "WAIT!" Everyone looked at him and he sighed. "Audition is tomorrow. Bring your A-game and prove to me that we shouldn't choose Erika."

And this was good news.

"I totally forgot that Erika kept using her money just to get the lead at your school," said Kyoko. They were both in their Love Me uniforms right now, cleaning the floors, and trying to get rid of the extra wax Kyoko made before. "She always did that as a princess, just to get boyfriends, but all the guys were after her money."

"She doesn't care, unless she gets what she wants," Kanae dumped the mop into the soapy water. She went on all floors and began scrubbing off the wax. "You weren't there, since you were taught at your palace, but Erika was once taught at my school. Her father wanted her to experience what "commoners" had to go through and wanted her to compare them to us. To not act like us. She then experienced it... and she found out that she loved acting."

"And she used her money to get the lead all the time... I know, I know."

"I'm just sick and tired of that! She even made me not being able to go in the Drama Club just because she paid the teacher enough money to... to... UGH!" She slammed the towel down to the ground. A lot of people were passing them by and were looking strangely at them. But after that, they just went on their way. "I hate that about her! To hide behind her family name and claim to have talent when you don't!"

A slap fell to the floor. The wet floor. Kanae looked up and saw Ren just passing by, with a script in his hand. Or at least, it was in his hand. It was now just lying there at floor, getting soaked up. Maybe the ink was spreading?

"Uh... your script?" Kanae picked it up, and gently gave it back to him. Ren just nodded.

He tilted his head and said, "You're talking about Koenji Erika, right? If you are, she also tried to enter our company with her name."

The raven beauty hollered with annoyance. "I can't believe her! She even thought that doing that would help! To pay the President when he's already rich," she muttered.

Kyoko chuckled lightly. "Well, when you're suddenly head over tai- I mean heels, in money, that can happen to you. You suddenly get stupider and start wasting your money." She patted her head, still laughing. She looked over and asked what Ren was doing here.

"Ah. Well, I'm going to have an interview with a director. He should be here right now... but I just soaked the script he gave me yesterday..." he said, pinching the wet pieces of paper that were binding together. "Oh well..." He shrugged. "Anyway, why are you talking about Erika?"

"She was in an audition with us and does what she normally does: say her name, mainly her last name, and uses her money to bribe the judges. Or at least, that's what she's going to do when the director get better."

"That's something she would do..." Ren took the towel Kanae offered. He began to wipe his script.

"And now we have to find a way to stand out..." muttered Kyoko. "Her method was using just her name, but what could we use? Something that would attract attention so easily..."

"...Mogami san?"

"Yes?" Huh? Did he call me Mogami san? He never said my name before!

"What about what you two are wearing right now?"

"Huh?"

He pointed at her. "Your Love Me uniforms are hard to forget."

Looking down, she suddenly understood what he was saying.

"Don't tell me..." Ren twitched an eyebrow. "... you have gotten so used to it these past few days that you forget the stares you get from them?"

She nodded. "It's not so bad once you wear it a couple of times."

"Kyoko chan is going to go to an audition tomorrow?" Yukhito smiled. "That's great!"

"It is, isn't it? She said she's going to do it with her friend, Kotonami san, because she wants to compete with her."

"Compete?"

Ren turned to look at him. He chuckled softly. "Kotonami san is Kyoko's former acting teacher, best friend, and the second Love Me member."

"S-second? What's she in for?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"She just entered the Love Me section to be with Kyoko."

Still confused why anyone would enter it willingly, Yukhito could only conclude that it was because of their friendship. "Is that so?"

"Yeah..." They both walked in silent until, "And Koenji Erika is at the same audition."

"Koenji?" Yukhito rolled his eyes. "Ah, her. Ren, you have to forget about her. Sure, she's using her parent's famous name, but you didn't do the same. You actually used your talents to-"

"Yeah, but it scares me that no matter how many times I have bury my past, there are still little things that bring it back up to the surface."