"So this was your last acting class with the school, right Kyoko?" confirms Kanae as the two LoveMe girls exit the LME acting school together on Monday evening.

Kyoko wistfully looks back at the building as she nods. "I just had to decide on something to cut from my life. It was getting too crazy for words. I mean, I was paying for classes and only getting there once or twice a month anyway. I spoke with the teachers and they all thought that the best thing for me now would be to make myself available for jobs as they presented themselves. They said real acting opportunities would be the best teachers."

"Have you gotten any new offers?" Kanae inquires.

"Well, just one. It's for a series of TV commercials and print advertisements for a new line of jewelry. I've been asked to be their female model for the entire set of commercials and the photo-shoot for the stills is on Saturday. I'm excited, I've never really done this kind of thing."

"Well, any job is a good job, I guess. So, where are we going for supper?"

The girls end up eating at a ramen shop and are chattering about their upcoming schedules when Kanae reminds her friend that she leaves tomorrow for another week long location shoot.

"Oh, no... that's so LONG. I will miss you so much, Moko-san!" her best friend laments.

Although she acts indifferent, Kanae feels a warmth in her stomach from the knowledge that her friend will miss her when she is away. She decides to reward her silly friend for making her feel good.

"Well, if you are going to miss me that much, maybe you should spend the night at my place."

Ecstatic, Kyoko dances about the small shop. She then pulls her phone from her bag and dials the restaurant to let the okamisan and taisho know that she will not be home until morning. When she had stopped after her shoot today, she had promised to be home so she does not want them to worry about her. Kyoko replaces the phone in her bag as they finish their dinner.

When the girls are leaving the ramon shop, they reach the sidewalk just as a bicyclist careens onto the sidewalk scattering pedestrians in every directions as they dive to avoid being run over. A rather large man roughly bumps into Kyoko and sends her spinning. Her bag flies off her arm as she flails them to keep her balance. The bag lands in a nearby fountain while Kyoko lands roughly on her side against the stone wall of the pretty water display. Rubbing her hip, Kyoko stands and retrieves her soaked bag.

"Ah, everything is going to be ruined," she screeches as she dumps all the articles onto the cement sidewalk. Although most of her items in her bag will dry fine, her cell phone is now dead. She places her hands on her head and keens in a high pitched whine.

"Mo! Would you just stop it," Kanae gripes as she shoves the wet stuff back in the soaked bag.

"MYYYYY PHOOOOOONNNNNNE!"

Kanae decides a small lie is prudent to get her distraught friend off the street. "Mo, just stop panicking. We'll open it up and let it dry and I am sure it will be fine in a day or two. Now come on, if you want to spend the night at my house, we need to get going."

Later as the girls, now dressed in comfy pajamas, settle around Kanae's table to drink some tea, LoveMe number two decides to get some last minute damage control completed before she leaves.

"So, did you ever talk to Oshiro about a date?"

Kyoko nods as she sips her tea but she does not elaborate.

"Mo! What happened?"

Kyoko puts down her tea and smiles as her eyes take on a dewy quality. Kanae cusses silently at the expression. "This can not be good," she thinks as she interprets the look as being associated with Kyoko's co-star. In reality though, the look is for the memory of the letter she received and not the date.

It takes a few minutes but Kanae is finally able to wake her friend from her trance but only after she threatens to never speak to her again if she does not return. Kyoko then spends almost ten minutes apologizing and Kanae finally throws her hands up in defeat.

"Mo, I just wanted to know if you planned a date with Oshiro and if you talked to him about dating Tsuruga also!"

Kyoko stops her long-winded apology and suddenly returns to normal.

"Oh, well, I invited him to a concert on Thursday evening. He said yes so then I told him that I needed him to understand something before our date. I explained about how I enjoy spending time with him and that he makes me laugh. I also told him that I had a problem though. That I am not really sure if what I am feeling is the kind of feelings you have for a boyfriend. I explained that I have all these feelings swirling around about both him and Ren and that I just don't know enough about love to be able to tell what I am really feeling."

Kyoko takes another small sip of her tea. "Yuudai then asked me if Ren loves me. I told him that I don't know. He hasn't told me that he likes me but I am guessing that he has to at least like me. He wouldn't kiss me like he did if he didn't right? He promised me before that he was not a playboy."

Kanae looks horrified. "Did you tell Oshiro about Tsuruga kissing you?"

"Oh, no. I just told him that I went out with him on a date to see how it felt and that I was hoping he would be willing to go out with me too so that I would be able to make a better educated decision regarding my feelings. I told him it was kind of like listening to both sides of a debate."

Kyoko looks proud of herself to have come up with another analogy since the president seemed to find the whole outfit thing confusing.

"How did he take your explanation?" Kanae asks as she sets aside her tea because her stomach suddenly feels uncomfortable. In her opinion, you normally have one side of the debate that you prefer and no amount of persuasion will really effect it. You can't really prefer both sides of the argument but LoveMe number two is not sure how to explain it to her friend in a manner that will make sense.

"Well, he looked at me for a while as if he was thinking really hard. Then he asked me if I had ever been in love before. I told him that I really thought I was when I was younger but that it turned out to be the wrong kind of love to have for a boyfriend. He then asked me if Fuwa Sho was the guy I thought that I loved before."

Kanae is shocked. "How did he make that leap of logic," she wonders.

Kyoko shrugs. "I am guessing because he saw us together at the charity shoot and said that we looked like siblings or junior high lovers."

Kyoko admits that she told Yuudai about her failed relationship and that he then asked what she feels for Fuwa now. Kyoko explained to Yuudai that she has begun to see him as the childhood friend that he was but that she knows that she does not love him even in the way she used to feel. Those feelings died a long time ago. The actress then explains that her co-star asked if she had any rules for this date on Thursday.

"I wasn't sure what he meant so I said that he just couldn't show up in just his red boxer shorts."

Kanae wishes that Kyoko would have put a few more guidelines in place because she is really worried about how badly she might be swept along with Oshiro's pace. She says a little prayer and hopes that her friend will still be okay by the time she returns from her shoot.

Unaware of her audiences concerns, Kyoko finishes her recollection by saying that Yuudai agreed to her terms for the date as long as she understood that once she knows her feelings that she promises to tell the loser right away because he already is in love with her and would rather have his heart broken now then have it dragged out.

"I couldn't believe he told me he loved me right there in the middle of the studio with everyone around us. I mean, other than you, no one else has ever said that they loved me."

As she looks at the disbelief on her friends face, Kanae is once again floored by the emptiness that was Kyoko's life and that how sad it must be to see yourself as so inferior that you do not believe yourself worth love. Since she can not fathom anyone loving her, she can not see all the love that people have offered her.

Kanae reaches out to her friend and wraps her arms around her.

"Mogami Kyoko, some day you are going to learn that you are truly like the princess in your silly fairy tales. Some day, the evil spell that is cast over you will come crashing down and you will be able to see that there are so many people who do love you. Not everyone shows love by saying it but the love is still there. Remember, I loved you long before I told you and other people are the same way."

Kyoko hugs Kanae, happy with the thought that her best friend loves her even if she is not sure if she really believes that there are others who really feel that way too. For the first time though, she is open to the possibility. As she settles into bed beside her best friend, Kyoko sighs contentedly. In one day, she has been told that she was loved twice and been called both a princess and a goddess. It definitely has been a good day.


Cunning rests with her hands pillowing her head and her back against a very neutral memory about a paper Kyoko wrote for history a few weeks ago. Her mind races as she contemplates the bloated angels and grudges that are still sluggishly clustering around the stupid egg.

"It doesn't make any sense," she mutters. She can not figure out why both sides seem so attracted to the thing. Her deep thought is interrupted as the glowing memory of Kyoko's first date suddenly shifts and rolls off the chasm. Two sickly figures emerge and slither towards Cunning.

The thought entity shakes her head before greeting them.

"Welcome back, Forgiveness. Nice to see you, Affection."

"I'm so sorry that we let you down," apologizes the former revenge grudge.

"Don't worry about it," Cunning replies before suggesting they slither towards the glowing egg for a recharge.

"If you can't beat them, you might as well join them," she adds with the slightest bit of venom.

"Are you coming, too?" asks Affection sweetly.

"Nah, I got other plans," Cunning replies as she adds to herself "I just don't know what they are yet."