Bustling cacophony of voices and laughter joined by the clinks of porcelain and silverware are the background music of a French café located on a busy road near LME. The many settees are filled to full capacity for the lunch hours, and the front staffs are busy dishing out the orders, their brown uniforms clean and tidy.

"…. That's it?" Kyoko asks, dumbfounded as she stared at the end of the script she is holding.

The girls – Kyoko, Kanae, Chiori – and you have been enjoying lunch in a much needed get-together. Busy as she is, the first LoveMe member has been forced to review her scripts even during her breaks, and is now reviewing her script for the dystopia crime drama "Trade of Innocence" as they enjoy their after-lunch tea.

"What is it?" Kanae asked, her fingers toying with the straw in her low-calorie, completely guilt-free vegetable juice (although she suspects the café staff adds some sugar into it). "Something wrong with your script?"

"I don't think it's finished," Kyoko explained, showing all of you the ending of her script. "The story so far ends at Marina questioning Kitagawa-san, but so far this is the only available script they have. The main plot hasn't been solved, I haven't known what really happened to my character, and there's no further explanation on who the main culprit is. And who is Kitagawa-san anyway?"

Chiori hums as she steals a look at the script, her brows furrowing in interest. "Maybe the scriptwriter runs out of creative juice?"

Kyoko's eyes widened in surprise. "That stuff actually happens for real?"

"A lot of time," Kanae nodded in agreement. "They have this idea, but over time their muse leaves and they find it difficult to continue, and those ideas will be just gathering dust bunnies."

"But that's not good!" Kyoko exclaimed in disappointment. "I like this drama so far! And what will Tsuruga-san say if they cancel the drama? He'll think that I'm not professional enough!"

"While Tsuruga-san will definitely not question your professionalism as this is not your fault," the long-haired actress sitting opposite you commented, "if the drama is cancelled it'll certainly be a problem. There's the cancellation fee, the press conference–"

Kyoko almost slammed the table in desperation. "So what should we do?" she asked, teary-eyed from the possibility of Tsuruga Ren chiding her about the cancelled drama.

All of you go silent for a bit in thought, and then Chiori say, "How about giving the scriptwriter some inspiration? If we give her some prompts to get her creativity jumpstarted, she will eventually have enough to continue with the script."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Kanae smiles. She then looks at you and continues, "So if you have any random scenario or plot that you want us to play out, make sure to let the scriptwriter know."

Kyoko chimes in as well. "That sounds fun," she says with dreamy eyes. "It's like playing make-believe. And now I can do it with friends!" And with that last squeal she jumps to give Kanae her crushing hug.

Unexpecting it, the older girl does not manage to avoid it this time. And for sure, she is not getting out of it very soon.

Author's Note:

Hi, Reggie here.

I humbly and sincerely apologise that instead of updating Trade of Innocence or Omiai, I decided to go with this not-really-fanfic.

As mentioned by Kyoko and the LoveMe girls above, I am indeed currently suffering from severe writer's block, and this time it's not going away regardless of whatever I do to get my inspiration back. Rewatching the film that started it all doesn't help either.

But not writing for a long time does take a toll on my writing skills, and it's worse when English is actually not your mother tongue and you don't speak it regularly. I feel all the English I've studied and practiced since childhood up to last year is leaving me now.

And so I am reaching out to you readers. I am accepting random prompts of any random situation you want Skip-Beat characters to act out, and will then spin it into short chapters under this title just for me to get my writing skill and style back. And hopefully by then I will be ready to continue Trade of Innocence.

COVID-19 has unfortunately reached Indonesia, the country I live in now, and people have been advised to stay away from crowds, so that means mostly staying at home for now. We all need something to do at home to avoid getting insane from boredom.

All in all, stay safe, wash your hands and sanitize.

Until next time,

-Reggie