Kanae Kotonami paces in the small bunker she calls her home. In her hand, she holds her cell phone. As she walks the circuit of her locked room, she argues with herself. She opens the phone and scrolls down the contacts and hits call only to slap the phone shut before it can connect. Kanae grumbles and takes another circuit before repeating the action. She finally throws her hands in the air in exasperation.
Dropping the phone on the table, she moves to the cupboard and digs some chocolate out of her secret stash. She pockets her card key as she slips out her door with candy in hand. She slinks across the small yard between her home and the house the rest of her family shares. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a small movement. She tosses a peace offering at the shadow only to have four more shadows suddenly emerge. Randomly scattering the chocolate in her wake, Kanae scurries the remaining steps to the back door.
Slamming the door shut behind her, she leans against it as four pairs of eyes focus on her heavy breathing form. She slips the lock shut as she scans the room for any remaining small demon children.
"Yo, Kanae, what brings you to the old homestead?" inquires her oldest brother.
The actress steels her nerves and looks to her oldest sister. "I need some advice," she quietly admits.
A pin dropping would have echoed heavily in the ensuing silence. Her brothers stare at her like fish out of water and her sister-in-law chokes on the cup of tea she was sipping. Kanae's oldest sister, Tori, catches her breath before rushing to the teens side.
"What do you need help with?" she coos.
Startled by the strange display of her siblings at her request, Kanae mumbles about not being sure if she should tell something.
"Would it be dangerous if you don't tell?" asks Tori.
Kanae shakes her head no.
"Will anyone be upset?"
Now she nods.
"So let them know," states Tori in an authoritative manner.
"The problem is that someone else could be hurt if I do share the information. And to make matters worse, I think Kyoko's gonna get hurt no matter what happens."
Her sister now looks uncertain.
"Is it a secret?" asks her brother's wife.
"Well, not really. I mean no one told me not to tell but at the same time, it does involve people's feelings and I bet they don't want everyone knowing about it. Although any idiot could probably tell by looking at him anyway."
The oldest brother adds his own question of what would make the situation the most fair. His actress sister considers it for a moment.
"I guess, if I tell the other person about the second guy's feelings that it would only be fair if I let the second guy know about the first guy's feeling too."
Tori asks "doesn't this whole situation seem like poking your nose into other people's private business?"
"Well, yeah, but it's Kyoko's business so I need to do what will be best for her."
"So which guy is best for her? Who do you like better?"
Kanae rubs her head. "MO! I don't like either of them. I have no connection to either of them. They just want to take my best friend away from me."
Now LoveMe girl number two looks completely distraught. Kanae's sister puts her arm around her shoulder and pulls her towards the table and pushes her gently into a chair. Her sister-in-law hands the agitated actress a chipped cup of tea. Kanae sips it without complaint about the cheap leaf taste. Again, her brothers stare at her in amazement.
Leaning against the counter, Tori asks if she knows which one would share better. Kanae considers this. She thinks about how fast Oshiro seems to be moving and about how he seems to be pushing Kyoko to move at his pace. She then thinks about Tsuruga who has known Kyoko much longer but is progressing at a much slower speed. If she supports him, she might actually have a number of years before the actor ever gets to the point of totally monopolizing Kyoko. She suddenly has another thought. Since Tsuruga has already observed her enough to know that with Kyoko a slow pace causes less trauma, he would most likely already know how much their friendship means to Kyoko.
She smiles as a memory appears in her mind. In fact, he did not seem to begrudge her interruption of his birthday gift moment with Kyoko last year. Reaching her decision, Kanae rises from the table. As if channeling her best friend, she bows politely to her older family and thanks them for their help. None of them have a chance to reply though because a thundering of little feet is suddenly heard approaching from the front of the house.
With a look of pure terror, Kanae streaks to the back door. She flips the lock and rushes from the room as cries of "big sister" chase her all the way to the safety of her own little oasis of solitude.
After catching her breath, the actress picks up her phone and dials. The call goes directly to voicemail. She leaves a short message requesting a call back.
Fifteen minutes later, her phone rings. Picking up on the first ring, Kanae interrupts Tsuruga Ren's gentlemanly greeting.
"Listen up and listen good. You have a problem bigger than Kyoko calling Oshiro-san by his first name."
She then goes onto describe the entire situation. She carefully skips over the facts about Kyoko's kisses with Kijima and Ishibashi but she leaves nothing out of the one that involves Oshiro. She even includes the bit about the underwear although she adds the information that at least Kyoko has seen him in a swim suit which uncovers about the same amount of skin as boxer shorts. As she finishes her destructive tale, she is met with silence on the other end. She prompts him a number of times with his name until he finally mumbles a nonsensical thank you and starts to say good-bye.
"Wait," commands Kanae as she takes a steadying breath and commits to her chosen path. "I actually didn't just call to share the bad news. In the spirit of the chicken, I actually have a suggestion to help your case Well, actually a couple suggetions."
"Really? What do you have in mind?" Ren pleads with just a hint of hope returning to his voice.
"You need to find as many chances to hug Kyoko as you can."
"Huh? How is that going to help if Oshiro-san is already making out with her in his dressing room?"
"Mo! Just listen to me!" she shouts. "You make Kyoko feel safe when you embrace her. She said that it is like you have magic in you and you know how much she loves magic. Oshiro will never win against the magical hero in Kyoko's fairy tale. She already respects you. You need to give her more exposure to the warmth your caring gives her. It's your best defense because she can't think about someone else if she is too busy thinking about you. And for god's sake, ask her to call you by your given name. You've known her long enough. If she fusses, tell her that it's only fair since she calls Yuudai by his first name and she's only known him a month or so. I mean, she'll probably still insist on Ren-san but it's at least a step in the right direction."
"And what ever you do, don't scare her. No glaring. None of the overly polite smiles either. You know, the one that always stresses Kyoko and your manager so much. Smile at her like you did when you were swimming together. Maybe if she sees it enough it will register in her pea brain. Now I gotta go. Good luck."
Kanae snaps shut her phone and hopes that she did the right thing.
Across the city in the dressing room for his movie shoot, Ren stares at his phone as the disconnection beep sounds softly. He runs over the suggestions to make sure he does not forget any of them. As he thinks about the last one, he suddenly wonders how Kotonami knows how he was smiling at Kyoko at the Takarada house when she wasn't there. Unable to think of a reasonable explanation, he tucks the thought away for another day as he focuses on the more impending doom which is his crumbling love life.
At the Takarada Mansion, a phone jingles and Sebastian takes a message for the president. Opening the door to the heavily air conditioned play room where the president is currently wresting with the newest additions to his menagerie, Lory's assistant apologizes for interrupting. The president rubs the head of the closest sled dog as he asks what is wrong.
Cryptically, the aid answers, "you just received a call from a little bird to say that pinky two asked for advice about a personal matter. She was reporting this event just as you requested."
Lory jumps and shouts in glee as his sled dogs prance happily and bark for joy.