Chapter 13

Author's Note:
Skip Beat! and its characters belong to the creator Nakamura Yoshiki.

Skip Beat! is serialised in 'Hana to Yume' magazine (Hakusensha) and licensed in English by 'Shojo Beat' (VIZ Media, LLC).

The work below is written in the spirit of fan appreciation.
UK English has been used throughout.

-Apparently she then overheard him telling his manager that she was plain, boring, and unattractive, and that he had only brought her to Tokyo to be his maid while he made it in show business. Can you believe that?-

Lory sighed and rubbed a finger between his eyebrows in an attempt to shift the headache that had settled there. So that's why LoveMe no. 1 came to LME in that state. Lory had known that the singer Fuwa Shou had something to do with Mogami-kun's past, but he hadn't uncovered the details until now.

"That manager being Aki Shouko?"

-She didn't say the manager's name.-

"OK. Thank you, Ten. Did she say how long before she approached LME this happened?"

-I got the impression it was mere days.-

"That sounds about right. She was in a very scary mindset when she auditioned. It hurt my heart to see a girl damaged that way."

-At least it seems that Kyouko-chan has been dealing with it in her own way since then. Kanae-chan said that she knew the whole story, so Kyouko-chan must have told her. That's good, right?-

"Yes, it's very good. I also think she's talked to Ren about it. He seems to know a lot about her past, more than I would have expected."

-I have an appointment with Ren-chan this evening. Should I try to get more information out of him?-

"I doubt you could do it in a surreptitious way. He's an untrusting guy."

-That's just with you, Darling. He's learned from experience.-

"Hmph! Anyway, thank you for taking such good care of the LoveMe girls."

-Anytime, Darling.-

Lory sat pondering for a while after the end of the call. What he'd learned from Ten would bear on his next appointment of the day. He would have to be on his best behaviour and resist the impulse to protect LoveMe no. 1 to the detriment of the opportunity before him.

Shouko sat in the opulent waiting room and tried her best not to fiddle with the hem of her skirt. She'd heard many crazy tales about the president of LME, but surely they were just that: tales. She still couldn't believe that Kyouko-chan had arranged this meeting. As far as she knew, the girl was far down the list of talents, languishing in an embarrassing reserve section. What had the girl done on her behalf to get attention? Maybe she was closer to LME's top actor Tsuruga Ren than she had thought. Shou wouldn't like that. Wait! That wasn't her business anymore.

A man in very old-fashioned Western clothes and a curly gray wig interrupted her reverie. "The president will see you now, Aki-sama."

Shouko followed the man through the opulent double doors into the office beyond. She felt like she was walking into a Western period piece. The man behind the desk wore a voluminous curly black wig and fancy silk clothes. He had a powdered face and a stick-on beauty spot. The furniture matched his look. All in all, she felt like she'd stepped through time to the palace at Versailles 300 years or so ago to meet a French courtier.

"Please take a seat, Aki-san." The elaborately coiffured man gestured at a chaise longue in front of his desk.

Shouko bowed and took the seat. She was still lost for words. The stories were all true! The man was certifiable.

"As I'm sure you're aware, Aki-san, one of my employees has come to speak to me on your behalf. She informed me that until recently you managed the singer Fuwa Shou at Akatoki, until you had a relationship with him that fell apart and he outed your indiscretion in retribution. Am I correct so far?"

"Yes, sir."

"My employee informed me that your relationship with the singer in question began before he reached the age of consent. Is that also correct?"

Shouko couldn't read anything at all on the man's face. The face powder wasn't helping. "Y-yes, that's correct."

The president stroked his moustache. "I have my informants at Akatoki. None of them have told me about this part of the story. It seems that it's a big mystery at Akatoki why you were suddenly let go. My own employee is the only one who brought me this information. How is that the case?"

"I, uh, had some dirt on someone at Akatoki whose name I can't mention. This person has done something far worse than I ever did."

"Blackmail, then."

"Yes."

"Do you think it will hold?"

"I'm fairly certain."

He steepled his fingers and stared at her intently for a while. Shouko felt a little bit like an animal in a zoo.

"Tell me in your own words about why you became involved with your charge and how you feel about the breakdown of that relationship."

Shouko blinked. Did it really matter? But what did she have to lose at this point? "Well, at first I guess I thought it was cute how helpless he was. He needed me, and that felt good. Maybe that was a misplaced maternal instinct. I don't really know." She shook her head, remembering the early days. "He pursued me for a long time. I knew it was wrong, so I resisted. But then he started staying over, saying that I took care of him better than anyone. I made him sleep on the couch. Then when Kyouko-chan left him and he had to move to a smaller apartment, he got a place in the same building as me. He never stayed there, though. He always came to me, hungry and needing my help."

She paused and looked at the president to see how her words were being received. He twirled a finger to keep her talking.

"I guess I started protesting less and less. And then, I don't know, I just caved in. He's a hard talent to manage, OK? He's stubborn and wilful. I started to think that if he wasn't with me, he'd be searching for what he wanted elsewhere, and then I'd lose track of him and probably his career too. It just seemed like the easy option to give him what he wanted so he'd prefer my company over others'." She hung her head. "I knew it was wrong. Not only because he hadn't had his birthday yet, but because I know that he's in love with someone else and he just can't admit to it."

"Oh?"

"He's in love with Kyouko-chan. I don't know if he loved her when they were childhood friends. Actually, I think he didn't. But this new woman she's become since she started pursuing acting: he's in love with her. I started thinking that if only he would admit to his feelings, if only Kyouko-chan would reciprocate them, then the two of them could have a relationship and what I had with Shou would be over. I tried to encourage them. I was scared to tell him to stop coming to my place because I knew he'd be angry, but if he left me ..."

"You must have held resentment towards Mogami-kun for not taking him off your hands as you wished."

"Maybe. I thought for a while she was just being stubborn too, but I'm starting to get the idea now that she really has moved on."

"She has. It's good to see. She was in a very bad state when she came to LME. She's made a lot of progress. But may I ask, if Mogami-kun's failure to partake in your life's drama in the way you had hoped has caused you distress, why was your first thought to talk to her?"

Shouko gripped her knees. She hadn't thought about that before. "Well, maybe because I knew that she would understand better than anyone. And maybe because she just has a certain way about her. We ran into her at Karuizawa last Autumn. She didn't hold any grudges against me even though I was there the day she learned Shou didn't think as highly of her as she had thought. She was rather nice to me, actually. I was stunned at the time. She has a lot of anger in her, but she doesn't throw it around indiscriminately. And if she's not angry, then she's perfectly sweet and pleasant."

The president nodded. "You know LoveMe no. 1 well. Good."

"'Good'?"

"I'm getting ahead of myself. Thank you for clarifying a few things for me."

"May I ask a question, sir?"

The president wriggled his fingers. "Go ahead."

"Why are you even asking about these things? And why are you concerned about what I think of Kyouko-chan? I know you can't do anything for me and this is all just a formality."

"What makes you think I can't do anything at all for you? You underestimate me."

"But you can't give me a job."

The president ran his hands over his wig and patted the curls back into place. "It's always such a sorry sight."

"What is?" Shouko frowned. Was she being made fun of?

"A beautiful, talented person who is lacking in love."

Shouko crossed her arms. "Love? I don't even know what you're talking about."

"Alas, I'm afraid that's true." He leaned his elbow on his desk and his head in his hand. "I've seen people in your situation before. So desperate that you fall prey to situations that you otherwise would be smart enough to avoid. So starved for love that you look for it in the wrong places."

"I'm not starved for love."

"Aren't you? Tell me, Aki-san, can you honestly say that you love yourself?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but paused. What was it to love yourself? She suddenly wasn't sure that she understood the question.

"You sense it, don't you? The reason you fell into that situation was because there was something lacking in your life and you tried to find it with your charge. But the thing you were looking for wasn't something you could find elsewhere. It was something that you need to find within yourself."

Shouko exhaled heavily. "Pardon me, sir, but what does this have to do with my career, or lack thereof?"

"I can offer you a job."

"Pardon?"

"You'll be on probation, of course. It will be a very junior role, on a temporary contract. You will not be allowed to work with under-aged males, just in case I'm wrong about you and you do have a problem of that kind."

"But you can't offer me work, surely. I've been blacklisted!"

"You said yourself that you've blackmailed Akatoki. And I assure you, if word of your indiscretions gets out, LME will drop you like a hot potato. The reputations of our talent, staff, and company will come before your job security. We will claim we had no idea about your past and that it's a huge surprise. There will be no mention in any of our records about the talk we've had today. Understood?"

Shouko snapped her jaw shut. Somewhere along the way her mouth had fallen wide open in surprise. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. What duties would you like me to carry out?"

"Aki-san, what do you know about our LoveMe section?"

Ren sat in one of the chairs in Woods-san's salon. His roots were covered in goopy brown hair dye, as were his eyebrows.

"Then after I did their hair, we had a dress-up session," Woods-san was saying.

If the story wasn't partially about Kyouko, he wouldn't be interested at all, but as it was he listened and participated. "Oh? What kind of dress up?"

"I gave them fashion advice and showed them what kinds of clothes to wear in which promotional situations. I started off by putting Kyouko-chan in a really sexy red dress, though, because I wanted to see for myself if she could carry it."

"Did you take any pictures?" He bit his tongue. How had that slipped out?

Woods-san swatted him on the arm. Hard. "Not for you, I didn't! Today's session was all about the girls, their professional development, and their confidence. It wasn't so I could get pictures for horny young men like you to ogle!"

Horny?!

"Don't give me that indignant look, Ren-chan. I know how you feel about her. The only person in Japan who has known you longer than me is Darling."

She was right about that. It was probably why he had trouble keeping his mask up around her. She'd known him since before he had even sculpted that mask. Hell, she'd helped him create it: the Tsuruga Ren look was her creation. He knew he couldn't fool her into thinking he was a perfect gentleman.

"What do you think I feel for her?" There was no point asking who she meant.

"I know you're in love with her. I knew before I ever saw you look at her. I knew because of Darling's meddling. I know him well enough to know that he would have sent the girl you love to be Setsuka Heel."

Ren snorted.

An alarm went off on Woods-san's phone. "Time to rinse it out. Over here, Ren-chan."

She set him up at the basin and began rinsing the hair dye out. "You know," she said as she worked, "Kyouko-chan said a few things today that made me concerned."

"Oh?" Ren had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Had she told Woods-san about his poor conduct when he dropped the Cain act? He was still half-afraid that he would get in trouble for that one day. He'd treated Kyouko very poorly. He still couldn't believe that she'd forgiven him. She treated him far better than he deserved.

"She told me about Fuwa Shou-kun."

Ren's hands clenched.

Woods-san must have seen his reaction. "Darling said you knew the story and I see that he's right. Is there anything that she would have held back about when she told the story that we should know about?"

"Pardon me, Woods-san, but I'm sure she would have told you as much as she was willing to at the moment. I wouldn't want to go behind her back and tell you more than she would be comfortable with you knowing." He closed his eyes when Woods-san began rinsing his eyebrows.

"Hm," she said. "I can't figure out if I'm more disappointed that I won't get to learn more, or proud of you for immediately considering what's best for her."

"I know which I'd prefer."

She slapped him on the shoulder, lightly this time, then began giving his hair a second rinse.

A short while later he slid into his car. He was about to put the key in the ignition when his phone rang. This time of night, usually only one of three people would be ringing him: the president, Yashiro-san, or Kyouko. However, when he pulled out his phone he found that the call was from a number he didn't recognise.

"Hello?" he answered cautiously. He didn't want to give his name to an unknown caller.

-Tsuruga-san? This is Kotonami. I'm sorry to bother you this late. Is now a good time?-

Kotonami-san? He'd never received a call from her before. It gave him flashbacks to when Kyouko was hip-deep in her family problems with her mother and they'd both been concerned for her wellbeing. "Has something happened to Mogami-san again?"

The girl on the phone burst out laughing. -Oh, you have got it bad. No, she's fine as far as I'm aware. I got your number from your manager. I accosted him in the hallway. I think he gave it to me because he's scheming.-

"I'm sure he is. It's his hobby. What can I do for you?"

-First, has the dress arrived yet?-

"Yes, actually, it arrived today. I also bought us a card to sign."

-Good. Perfect timing. Second, do you remember how I said you owe me? Because I have a big favour to ask of you ...-

OverheardAtLME 7h
"What's that thing on his face?" "It's called a beauty mark." "It looks like a small bird pooped on him." "Shhh, he'll hear you!"

Next time: It's party time at the Kotonami household.