I do not own Skip Beat!

Kyouko and Ren had been left alone in the room. After several very awkward exchanges of question and answer and injunctions to relax and just behave like they had during the previous practice, Chiaki gave up and said she was going on a coffee break.

"It's important that there's no awkwardness between the two of you during the actual interview," she'd said. "It's ok to be nervous. The audience will probably find it endearing even, but you can't act like you have a gulf between you. I'm going to go get a cup of coffee. Call me once you've worked it out."

Kyouko had blushed bright red. She prided herself on her acting abilities, but apparently, when it came to the idea of losing Ren, it was too scary to forget. Maybe if she'd been playing a part she could have pulled it off, but not as herself.

Chiaki had given them an indulgent smile and slipped out if the room.

When Kyouko turned back from apologizing an sending Chiaki off, Ren was close at hand.

"I guess we're talking about it now, aren't we?" he said, offering a reassuring smile.

"Um, I— I guess we are," she said.

They both resumed their seats, and Kyouko took some deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. When she was finally ready, or as close as she could get to ready, she looked up and found Ren gently smiling at her. It almost made it worse, as that smile was added to the list of things she was afraid of losing.

"Will you tell me why you were crying today?" he asked.

"I— I betrayed you," Kyouko said, fresh tears forming in her eyes.

Ren stiffened. He examined Kyouko's face. She wouldn't look at him. She was staring at her hands. He tried to calm himself, reminding himself that this was Kyouko, and therefore her use of the word 'betrayed,' was probably an exaggeration. Still, he had to take a deep breath to steady his voice before asking, "How so?"

"I lied to you," Kyouko said, a tear escaping from one eye. "I let you believe I was someone else, let you tell me your secrets, tell me about your feelings, I even sought you out so you would rely on me, without ever telling you who I was."

Ren almost choked. Was she bating him, trying to get him to admit his own crimes?

"I'm not sure I understand," he said.

Kyouko looked up at him with wide teary eyes and a quivering lip, and he had to remind himself that pulling her into his arms and kissing it all better would probably not help. He reigned in his desires and waited for her explanation.

"I— I'm Bo!" she cried, bursting into tears and throwing herself to the floor at his feet. "I never meant to take advantage of you, or make you tell me things that you didn't want me to know, but you hated me so much at first that you would never have talked to me if I'd offered to help as myself, and when I met you as Bo, you were actually nice to me and let me help you, and you seemed to be able to tell things to Bo that you couldn't tell other people, and I just wanted to soothe your feelings, especially when the mess with Dark Moon was going on, because you seemed so upset and there was nothing I could do. I mean who would want to talk to a little newbie upstart actress and a kohai about their problems? Well, I really don't know who would want to talk to a chicken either, but somehow it seemed to help so I just thought that if I—"

"Wait, stop," Ren said, brain finally catching up with at least a few of the key words of Kyouko's long speech. He pulled her back up into her seat and asked, "You— you're telling me that you were Bo?"

Kyouko nodded.

"Are you still Bo?" he asked.

She nodded again.

Ren began to laugh. It may have been a mortifying revelation before she'd accepted him. He had, after all, told Kyouko, the girl he loved, about the girl he loved, about never having been in love, about her being the first girl he really cared about, about him not being allowed to love. Given all the information he'd told her about herself, it was quite amazing that she hadn't figured it out before he'd confessed to her. But then again, she was LoveMe member number one. He laughed even harder as he realized that he had taken love advice from LoveMe number one.

He finally stopped laughing and smiled as he had another realization.

"You know, even when I don't know it's you, you destroy all my facades," he said, smiling at her. "I can't help but be myself when you're with me."

Kyouko looked at him with confusion in her eyes.

"Y—you're not angry?" she asked.

"No," he said with a smile. "Did I miss something?"

"Eh?" she asked.

"All I heard was that you wanted to help me," he said. "Why, is there something about you wanting to help me that should make me angry?"

"B—but I lied to you," she said. "I didn't tell you who I was and let you tell me such personal things about yourself."

Ren bit back his own guilt. He had done the same thing.

"Do you want me to tell them to you now?" he asked.

"Eh?" she asked.

"Kyouko, you are the first girl I've ever really loved. Even though I had no intention of falling in love, even though I'm scared that I might hurt you someday, I couldn't help loving you." He calmed the intensity of his gaze before smirking and adding, "I almost forgot to mention, you are four years younger than me and in high school."

"Y—you forgot about the 'tentekomai' thing," Kyouko said, blushing.

Ren laughed.

"Oh, and you're the one who taught me the meaning of 'tentekomai,'" he said, "moving around busily with no time to rest. See? I remember."

Kyouko laughed.

He reached out and wiped the remaining tears from her face.

"Don't do this again," he said softly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I won't lie to you anymore."

"Though I'd like to hope you won't feel the need to lie to me again, that's not what I meant," he said, smiling. "I meant, don't go off and cry without me. I will always do my best to stop your tears, so come to me."

Kyouko blushed.

"I thought you would hate me," she said, barely above a whisper.

"Kyouko, there are a lot of things you make me feel," he said. "You make me feel like the happiest man in the world. You turn me into a nervous wreck. You make me feel excited, terrified, at peace, insane, but there is one thing you I will never feel for you, and that is hatred."

Kyouko turned her bright red face toward her clasped hands.

He reached out and took them in his own.

"Do you believe me?" he asked.

"B—but what about when we first met?" she asked.

Ren's mind flew back to the six year old Kyouko in the little clearing in Kyoto, and he had to quickly pull it forward to the sixteen year old Kyouko trying to convince Sawara-san to let her join LME.

"I certainly didn't like your motives, but I didn't hate you," he said. "I will never hate you, so will you promise to come to me from now on?"

"B—but coming to you about every little thing is a little…"

"You won't let me comfort you?" he asked, giving her his puppy dog eyes.

"Won't it bother you?" she asked.

"What bothers me more is knowing that you're hurting and I'm not doing anything to make it better," he said.

"O—oh," she said, blushing yet again.

"So will you promise?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Good," he said, leaning close and reaching out to caress a now tear-free cheek.

They both jerked back when they heard the sound of exaggerated throat clearing. Chiaki stood in the doorway with a steaming cup of coffee.

"Did you forget to call me?" she asked. "It looks like you talked things out."

"Yes," Ren said, smiling radiantly. "Everything is fine now."

Kyouko blushed ever brighter, but gave a corroborating nod.

"Good," Chiaki said, with a smile that suggested she was trying to hold back a laugh. "Let's keep it that way between now and your interview tomorrow, shall we?"

The couple nodded.

"Alright, let's start from the beginning then," she said, taking a seat. "Was your relationship a case of romance on set as first speculated?"

AN: I didn't go into the details of the practice this time, since the interview will probably be next. And, as I get bored writing the same thing over and over, everyone else will probably get bore reading it. Updates will likely be later again, since my weekend is over as of tomorrow :( Thanks for reading, reviewing, subscribing etc. Feel free to leave me a review if you'd like to let me know what you think :D