Chapter Twenty
Acknowledgments: Runadaemon for beta-reading and Ecki for some technicalities.
Dedications: Mmm... for the girls (at least I think all of us are girls) in the forum (if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's most not likely you) - your scattered pieces of help have proved invaluable to writing this story. I'd enumerate, but I don't know who among you guys actually read this fic. XD
Disclaimers apply. Too lazy to type all of it.
Kyoko sneaked a glance at Tsuruga-san as she cautiously approached and said. "Umm... Tsuruga-san?"
He turned to her and asked, "What is it?
"Um..." She fidgeted. "About the upcoming scene... I'm... actually feeling kinda... uncomfortable and... not very... confident about it..."
Tsuruga-san just stared at her blankly then Kyoko shuddered as she saw the change in him as the Demon Lord awakened. "Not comfortable or confident about it?" he said in a dark, ominous voice. "You mean to tell me that you wasted your free time planning dinner parties and dining with Hollywood royalty when you haven't figured out what you're going to do about it???"
"I'm sorry!" Kyoko cried out flustered. "I've been meaning to ask you, but I keep getting sidetracked!"
"Sidetracked???" Kyoko winced and howled in pain as Tsuruga-san's dark aura shoved her hard and she fell to the floor. "Idiot!" he cried out. "The reason why it's called a kiss scene is because the kiss is the main focus of the scene. If you can't get yourself to focus on it, what's the point of the scene? This is why I don't like working with anyone other than first-rate actresses!"
That, Kyoko thought as she sat on the chair while her make-up was being retouched, was the kind of disaster she would invite if she actually said such a thing now.
If she learned anything from today, it'd have to be priority-setting. She's going to be 18 in a few months. She really needs to know where her priorities should be: kissing.
Well, for today anyway.
But after receiving the news from Sawara-san, her imagination flew away again. She wished she could have told otou-san about it when they met. He would have been so proud of her - factoring in the oya-baka filter. Well, if he could he happy about that thing Tsuruga-san told him about which generally came off a gossip column, he would have been much prouder of this kind of accomplishment.
As soon as they got to the location, a popular shopping district that was decked out with a lot of life and extras to make the location look like a lively Saturday night, they'd been shooting scene after scene non-stop, switching from inside a restaurant to the street, alternating while each set was being prepped. And since all the scenes required her, she couldn't catch a break. Now, she had completely lost her chance and would have no choice but to suck it up. It's just a stupid kiss. All she has to do is to get fully into character and let things happen the way the character thinks it should go. That's basically the only option she has left.
"All done, Kyoko-chan!" the make-up artist cheerfully announced.
Kyoko thanked her and stood up. As she made her way to her position, she snuck a glance at Tsuruga-san who was having the wrinkles of his shirtsleeves smoothened because of the folds on the cuffs. He seemed relaxed and calm. But that's only because Tsuruga-san has probably already done kiss scenes a million times over before. It would be strange after all, if he hadn't. She doubted that the kiss scene between Katsuki and Mizuki would be the first. This is a guy who has built an image with perfect romantic hero-type guys before he started going for darker roles like Katsuki.
The truth was, Tsuruga-san wasn't perfect. Apart from being very complicated, a terrible perfectionist, and weirdly moody, he's pretty much just like her: a romantic failure. If he wasn't, he would be with that girl he was in love with already. Kyoko let out an inelegant snort. He can't even figure out simple idioms like tentekomai. She swore she could never look at that word the same way again.
"Mogami-san?" Tsuruga-san looked at her in wonder.
Crap. She didn't realize that he had already moved into position. But that still didn't negate the fact that he can probably do a kiss scene with his eyes closed.
"Ah!" she exclaimed and concentrated hard to get into character.
"Are we ready?" Director Shingai asked.
"Yes," she and Tsuruga-san answered in unison. This was the most prepared she could be.
Chiaki stumbled forward as Satoshi finally let her arm free from the tight grip he'd taken on her after he hauled her out of the restaurant.
"What are you doing here, Satoshi-kun?" she stammered out.
"Yumemi called me," Satoshi icily answered and Chiaki's face paled. "I thought you were supposed to be on a business trip. Now I'm finding out you're actually considering that guy's proposition on combining your businesses together through marriage."
"That's right!" Chiaki exclaimed. "It's quite an unexpected development, but I am considering it. Did you come all this way just to ask me that?"
"Yes!" Satoshi answered back. "Because I want to how marrying that guy would be any different from marrying me?"
"It's different!" Chiaki declared proudly.
"How is it different?" Satoshi asked sarcastically. "If you marry him, you're marrying him because of his money. If you marry me, you're marrying me because of my money. Don't tell me that you met him and fell in love with him at first sight because I won't believe y-"
"It's just different!" She cut him off with the haughtiness of a proud young heiress, but inside, she felt like she wanted to cry.
The tense, angry atmosphere between the two slowly dissolved to sadness.
Without warning, Chiaki stepped forward, raised her hands and placed his face between them to pull him down as she reached on tiptoe to meet him halfway for a kiss. This was the first time the two of them had ever kissed and Chiaki felt the overwhelming urge to show him how she really felt. She brushed her lips against his and started to coax him to make known all the longing she felt.
And suddenly, Satoshi wrapped his arms around her waist and started kissing her back.
"C-CUT!"
Kyoko almost immediately let go of Tsuruga-san's face and tried to step back, but found that Tsuruga-san's arms were tightly around her waist. She wiggled enough to make him realize that his arms were still around her and let go. Afterwhich, she took a polite step back and looked expectantly at the director.
"Again," Director Shingai ordered.
"Again???" Kyoko exclaimed, unable to believe what she just heard: a call for a cut before the scene was completed.
"Yes, Kyoko-chan," Director Shingai announced matter-of-factly. "Again. And you and Tsuruga-kun will do it again and again until I say it's done correctly."
"What exactly was wrong with it that it has to be redone?" Kyoko cried out in panic. It was too embarrassing to admit that she really doesn't know what she's doing because this is the first time she's ever kissed anyone. Not just as an actor, but as a girl of seventeen. Vehemently, she turned to her co-star. "Tsuruga-san," she nearly shouted in her panic. "Is there anything wrong with the way I kissed you? Am I that bad a kisser???"
"Eh...?" Tsuruga-san's eyes widened in surprise. "Erm..." he stammered. "Ummm..." Well, it was actually quite a weird question, but this was work. These kinds of things have to be done properly, right? But she already knew she'd done something wrong because Tsuruga-san never stammered. He raised his hand to his mouth and struggled with a "N-n-no."
"Director!" Kyoko was nearly shaking when she turned to him in protest.
"It's not that there was anything wrong with it, Kyoko-chan," Director Shingai said. His mouth quivered.
"Then what?" Kyoko asked. "If you say there isn't anything wrong with it..."
"What I mean to say is..." the director said as he stood up and walked towards her. "We are filming an R-12 rated movie."
"That's right," Kyoko nodded. "What does that have to do with this?"
"Kyoko-chan," Director Shingai looked amused and explained gently, "If you kiss Tsuruga-san like that and we go with it, we'll end up getting an R-15 rating and we'll never get the target audience for the movie. If we go with that, we might as well have made the script and the entire thing a bit more mature. Basically, since we couldn't go so far with the actual kiss, we just wanted to make the atmosphere more than suited for the mood of the scene."
"Oh," Kyoko answered. That made a lot of sense. She smiled. "Then why didn't you just say so?" she answered cheerfully.
Out of nowhere, the timer and the assistant director, both let out a sputter of laughter, but quickly caught themselves doing it, exchanging glances. Then suddenly, they let out a burst of laughter, unable to hold it in. Then scattered giggles and guffaws filled the surrounding area. Kyoko looked around and saw the several people who were not laughing were avoiding her eyes, their faces red. Oohara-san looked like she was melting, her eyes twinkling and her cheeks pink. And even Yashiro-san was fidgeting with his glasses as he tried to look elsewhere.
Kyoko suddenly felt like everyone was making fun of her.
"And actually..." Director Shingai said with a strangled laugh as he bent down whispering, "The NG was for Tsuruga-kun."
"Huh?" She looked up at him wonderingly. Why? Tsuruga-san undeniably had far more experience in kissing than she did. It didn't make sense. So with a totally odd tone she asked, "Why?"
Director Shingai just stared at her oddly, his eyes wide. Then he patted her shoulder and patronizingly said, "Just one more time from the top, OK?"
Mogami-san was seated on a chair in the corner of the outdoor set with a sneer on her face.
The second take they had, they had another NG because of a disruption down the road from where they were shooting just as Mogami-san pulled away from the kiss right before delivering the line to tell Satoshi good-bye when she couldn't get him to kiss her back and learn his feelings.
The third take was finally perfect. And after that, she just drifted to her chair with an unpleasant look on her face while the crew set up the next scene. She hadn't moved from that spot ever since.
Oddly enough, Ren was amused with her reaction to her on-screen kiss.
"Kyoko-chan's really weird, isn't she?" Yashiro-san commented as he handed Ren his water. "Most girls you have a kiss scene with usually fall over you as though you just officially became a couple just because you had a screen kiss." He continued to tease him as he said, "Wouldn't you wish for that?"
He gave his manager a dry look and asked, "The whole time you've known her, what reaction would have surprised you more? What you just colorfully described or what you're seeing now?" To be honest, he would just be disappointed if she reacted that way. The last thing he wanted to happen was to have Mogami-san get carried away with the character and think herself in love with him just because of that.
Yashiro-san let out an uneasy laugh. "You have a point there." Then he grinned. "Isn't it amazing that she looks like she's picking a fight when she's nervous and agitated?"
Director Shingai was walking by then when his head turned to where Kyoko-chan was seated, stopped, pointed at Mogami-san and asked. "Will she be-?"
"Yes," Ren and Yashiro-san answered, cutting him off before he could complete the question of if Mogami-san would be OK.
"Is she always like-?"
"Yes," they answered again. Then Yashiro-san turned to the director and asked something Ren wouldn't even dream of asking, "Director Shingai, I'm just curious... Why didn't you call for a cut on the first take as soon as you knew that Kyoko-chan was making the kiss scene a little more... um, intense?"
Director Shingai shrugged at him and answered, "I was just the same as everyone else. I was too flustered to react. I didn't know she was going to go that far." Then he sighed. "But she did, and I just thought we could edit it out later since Kyoko-chan looked so disturbed doing the kiss scene itself and I didn't want to have her go through another take." Then he grinned, turned to Ren and slapped him on the back. "Then you actually kissed her back just as intensely and we can't work with that without making it look choppy so I called the NG. The script said that it's just her kissing and you ruined the shot."
"Tsuruga Ren lost himself and ended up kissing his seventeen-year old co-star for real," Yashiro mused. "Instant hit."
Director Shingai declared with half-seriousness. "I'll make sure it'll be in as bonus on the DVD."
Kyoko felt so unsatisfied.
Of course, she overthought things again. Wondering about how to do the kiss when Tsuruga-san already showed her how things are supposed to be done. A warm, sweet, chaste kiss was obviously the way to go for an R-12 movie. Of course THAT kind of kiss wouldn't be able to pass for an R-12 rating. Even if what she did was correct to suit the mood and the situation, the objective would have been defeated. She sighed as she realized that she had just been too carried away by her character. Well, at least the Chiaki she thought up in her head knew how to kiss someone. She sure as hell didn't.
How frustrating. She didn't need to deal with such lousy trade-offs with Dark Moon and Box 'R'. But then again, their themes were dark and targeted older teen audiences and higher, not pre-teens like Kismet was. But she will never accomplish her goals if she can't even establish a wholesome image with mass appeal if she remains limited to dark and insidious images for a limited audience.
Still, it annoyed her that there was Tsuruga-san giving her subtle instructions to spare her the embarrassment of having to ask him and she still missed the hint. She promised herself never to misinterpret or misunderstand his actions ever again.
She sighed. If she had read it correctly, they could have been done in one take and her demons wouldn't have been so affected by the three Tsuruga Ren bombs filled with nuclear capability - UV rays. Well, getting into and immersing herself into her character has been a good defense mechanism. But repeating scene after scene wears out the effect she wanted so by the third take, shards of the evil divine light seeped through the Chiaki shield.
"Mogami-san?"
"Wut?" she looked up, knowing that there was a sneer on her face and her tone was curt. She didn't really expect Tusruga-san to be one standing in front of her.
"What?" Tsuruga-san asked drolly and looked at her dryly. "You look like you swallowed some of the 'special lunch' Maria-chan prepares to share with my co-stars whenever she visits me on-set."
"Tch..." she answered just as drolly. "I'm actually not that scared of spiders and bugs. I won't eat them though."
"What?" he asked as he sat down on the vacant chair beside her. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"No," she said as she sighed heavily and waved her hand to brush it off. "It's fine. I'll be over it in a while." She had to get over her disappointment before the next scene started. Otherwise, Tsuruga-san will think that she's being a pain again. "I was just thinking..."
"About what?"
"If you knew that the scene didn't require a kiss like that..." She whipped her head as she turned to him. "...why did you end up kissing me back during the first take?"
"Eh?"
"Even though you already knew I was doing it wrong because of the genre, but right for the mood, you still continued with the scene," she pouted. It was to torture her, wasn't it? Because she didn't pick up on the hint that he casually handed to her earlier. This guy really won't stop until she learned her lesson!
Tsuruga-san just stared at her and looked like he was thinking about what to answer. Well, if it was to get back at her for being so slow to pick up on the clue, he should just say that to her. She appreciated it more. She was actually grateful to have someone like him who will never stop and grow tired of teaching her things. After all, this is the guy she considered as a mentor and senpai. "Mogami-san," he started out uneasily. "Has it ever occurred to you that an actor can get carried away with how you act?"
Carried away? Tsuruga-san?
"Huh?" she looked up at him.
He nodded.
Tsuruga-san got carried away because of her acting? While she's not playing one of her scary roles that so many people have complimented her for as her bread and butter? A wave of joy overcame her. She hoped it and thought it, but now he even went as far as acknowledging her. When they were shooting most of the scenes between Satoshi and Chiaki, the scenes were dependent and initiated by their mutual interaction. That was the reason why their scenes were good. But to have Tsuruga-san react and even get carried away on an action that was dependent and initiated by her... She reddened with joy that he would even go so far as to tell her so.
"Really?" She felt her lips stretch to a smile. "That's great!"
"What's great?"
Before she could open her mouth, the assistant director called out, "Kyoko-chan, we'll be rehearsing the scene with Chiaki and Yumemi! Are you ready?"
Cheerfully, she called back, "OK!" She stood up, dusted her dress and turned to him. "Tsuruga-san, thank you very much! You made me... really happy!" She bowed. "I'll be going now."
Kyoko turned around and started to walk toward the set where Oohara-san was waiting.
She felt just a little closer to Tsuruga-san now. If she knew that kissing him would put them on a more common ground, she would have done that months ago. Then she inwardly caught herself and giggled. No, no... she corrected herself. That's the wrong way to think about it. Tsuruga-san is a very hard person to please. Simply looking at the way she had to go through over a year and all this pain just to earn a little bit of respect from him as an actress...
Then she suddenly had a flash, going back to her conversation with otou-san just before he and Julie-san left the hotel.
"If I end up getting addicted to a role, what else can I do when it's gone other than mourn it?"
"I don't know," Otou-san shrugged. "Try to apply it to real life, I guess."
"What if it's impossible?" she urgently followed up.
"Why?" Otou-san tilted her head to study her. "Is the role an alien?"
She shook her head. "No."
"A super-powered mutant?"
"Kuu..." Julie-san frowned at her husband.
"It's a human!"
"Then it's not impossible," Julie-san smiled at her.
"But-"
"She's right," Otou-san pointed at Julie-san. "If you want to be a princess, marry a prince. If you want to be an ojou-sama, marry a bo-chan. If you want to be a boy..."
"I certainly hope not!" Julie-san exclaimed, interrupting. "You're not, right?" she asked hurriedly. "You know that we ALL love you just as you are."
"...Well, there's science for that," he finished without missing a beat, even with Julie-san's interjection. "I never said it was going to be easy. OK?" Then he ruffled her hair.
The rest of the shoot finished without incident and only a little over schedule. Most of the problems were attributed to the usual problems that comes along with shooting in an actual location, outside the controlled environment of a studio.
It was nearly six when everyone tiredly but happily boarded the bus for the short drive back to their hotel. And everyone was buzzing at the hotel lobby, mostly complaining about the irregular schedule that they had with the limited time they had in Hong Kong and the weird 1 PM assembly time they had later for their second day of shooting. So everyone was really anticipating the warmth of their hotel rooms and packed the elevators.
Tsuruga-san was the second to the last to board since, as his kouhai, there was no way Kyoko could allow herself to go ahead of him. But as soon as they stepped in, the overload buzzer sounded and Kyoko immediately stepped out. Even though he was a gentleman, she was still his kouhai and custom dictated that she let him go up ahead of her. Even if she was beyond tired.
But the buzzing persisted and being the last person to board, Tsuruga-san stepped out and just told everyone that they'll just take the next car.
Kyoko was starting to space out but quickly recovered when Tsuruga-san asked, "Tired? This is your first real overnight shoot, isn't it?'
"Yeah," she answered with a tired laugh. "Director Shingai told me that it's one of the hazards of shooting on location in such a heavily populated place - that we can only do it during odd hours. Anyway, it's not so bad. Moko-san's in Europe and is jetlagged and working regularly so it could have been a lot harder."
"That's how it goes, even at home," he smiled as they stepped inside the elevator car that opened.
"Yeah..." Then her eyes widened. "You actually brought that?"
Tsuruga-san glanced at the pillow that he held and answered sheepishly, "Well, I can't put it in my duffel bag since it'll take up so much space."
"Yeah, but..."
"But what?"
"Well, I guess it's not me to judge since I know that you need it to sleep, but won't it damage your image??? I mean, won't it make you look like a kid?" If Tsuruga-san was anything, he was definitely not like a kid. At least, his image would never condone it, even if Kyoko knew that he can be a kid sometimes. But having that as his public image was just as ridiculous as the time she thought that Tsuruga-san was quite cute because his hair was so soft and silky. In fact, it would be all her fault if that happened since she was the one who exploited the little secret that he's probably always kept hidden from other people: that he can't sleep without a pillow.
Before he could answer, the elevator opened and Kyoko glanced up and saw 19. "Crap!" She squeaked out. "I totally forgot to press my floor!" Referring to her own floor, 17.
"Eh... sorry," he apologized. "I also forgot to press your floor."
"No, it's OK." It was a long night. He was probably just as tired as she was. "An elevator is just a push of the button anyway. I'll just take the stairs two flights down. I still need to run around later at The Peak anyway so it'll be like practice."
"OK," Tsuruga-san nodded as he held the door for her.
Kyoko stepped out and turned to him, waiting for him to get off.
"Well, I'll see you in a few hours," she bid him farewell as he stepped out, his duffel bag bumping against the elevator's panel.
"I'll see you later," Tsuruga-san smiled at her and turned. Kyoko stared at his retreating back as he walked away with wide strides. When there was considerable distance between them, she smiled and turned in the direction of the stairwell.
Then at the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something falling out of his bag and she called, "Tsuruga-san!" as she ran up to the thing he dropped. As she got closer to it, it looked a lot like his passport in a leather case, lying open and facedown. "You should really keep this in the safe in your room! You'll have a hard time if you lose your passport."
"Shoot!" he exclaimed as he quickly turned around and walked towards her as she picked it up and waited for him to come up to her.
How refreshing. A once in a lifetime chance to witness. Tsuruga-san can actually be careless sometimes. Well, he's probably tired too. He's only human. Idly, she glanced down just as Tsuruga-san's hand reached for his passport and her eyes widened as she read the works, Family Name: Hizuri, Given Name: Kuon. In brackets, the name Tsuruga Ren were written. The big surprise wasn't the fact that Tsuruga Ren was an alias - he already told her that it was his stage name. But Hizuri Kuon???
And another thing that shocked her was the picture. His hand was covering that part of the passport as he pulled it out of her grasp, but it was enough for her to make out an image and recognize a very blonde, somewhat older version of her fairy prince, Corn.
Chapter Notes:
- Passport Details Notes: Everyone should already know that you should always use your real name in passports. If you're a lot like Ren who has a stage name or, technically, an alias, it should be placed in brackets to indicate it - that's how it works in Japan and most countries. I can't catch anyone in the States who knows. This part was not supposed to be part of the original outline, but the temptation of Kyoko being so close to something that can give her all the information she needs about Ren's true identity is too sweet to resist. OK... I didn't put in what kind of passport it is (Japanese or American) since America is a 'jus solis' and Japan is a 'jus sanguinis' type of country. Technically, because of his parentage (Kuu), he is recognized as Japanese by Japan, but everyone knows that he was raised in America (unless it's translation omission that he was also actually born there). Although, I'm also not dismissing the idea that Ren was also born in Japan since Tsukigomori was filmed/aired right on the year Ren was born so it could mean that Kuu was in Japan since Tsukigomori's Katsuki was credited under the name Hozu Shuuei, which Kuu only abandoned when he left for America. Also, since Julie is the one who had him in her tummy, she could have been in America at the time - and considering how head-over-heels Kuu is for Julie, I don't think he'd be leaving his near-term wife alone without him. Bah! It's an immigration and citizenship thing. Anyway, as a dual citizen, he can have two passports according to one of my technical sources, Ecki. Either way, Ren's legally an adult on both countries so he should have chosen one. I don't want to think about that anymore. The point is that Ren's passport would have his real name.
- EDIT: As for mouster's concern about none of the airport officials would have leaked Ren's real identity out, it's a wonderful little place in the airport called an executive lounge, which are usually reserved for government officials, business tycoons, celebrities and other people who are considered VIPs. The level of securiity is higher and I'm sure non-disclosure agreements are strictly followed because of the importance of the people who pass through there. As for the people who made the travel arrangements for Ren, there is a reason why Ren met with the President regarding the location shoot in Chapter 15. Also, in the manga, it's never been mentioned that Ren has ever left Japan since he arrived - even for shoots - so we can't know.
- Hooray! I'm done writing the kiss scene... Now I can actually go back to the story! ^^ Sorry, Kyoko is a serious actress. She is also a blockhead. And I feel like I'm kicking the Ren puppy again. But he'll make a come back soon enough. I hope. Well, depends on my mood when I write.
- Anyway... next chapter - What ever happened to Lory's quest to find true love for Seiichi and the aftereffects of carrying around a pillow in public. Oh yeah, Ren and Kyoko will be there too.
- Reviews are appreciated, but not expected. I hope for a review though since I generally killed the romance on what would have been a very epiphanic moment for Kyoko.