Apologise

A rather glaring oversight, Kyoko discovered, was that she had somewhat over-estimated how much anyone would care.

As they mingled with the other actors, drank champagne, and made polite small talk, hardly any mention of Ren and Kyoko's being together was made at all. The youngest, and most principle actors joked lightly about the unlikely duo, co-stars their age gave congratulations, and the eldest, the veterans, flittered watery eyes over the pair to pass silent judgement in the gleam of an eye or a knowing smile.

These seasoned icons of the big screen, their crumpled faces marked by the canyons and crevasses of old age, had seen enough scandal in their own heyday to be quite sick of it by now. They could not begrudge the young their blindness, their folly and their passion, for they too had been young once, and known the thrill of being talked about and cared about and beautiful in somebody else's eyes.

Kyoko was utterly enthralled by the entire affair. The cool grace of the old hands as they introduced a prominent director or ordered cocktails at the bar, the twinkle of jewellery on every lady's ears, necks, wrists, the pearly white smiles that flashed from quiet laughter… all of it was magical. By the time that they were ushered into the theatre to actually watch the movie, she had decided that she needn't have seen it at all to have already have had a fantastic night.

When she came out of the hall, weeping profusely, an hour and a half later, she had drastically overturned her previous mindset. The film, simply put, was exceptional. She could not remember the last time that she had cried as cathartically as she did before this movie. It was not a happy film, and it did not have a happy ending, but somehow the overall effect of it was not soul-crushing but tragically nostalgic. Ren's character, a brilliant, mephistophelian antagonist, was frighteningly believable. She looked on, struck dumb, at the final image of his face, half-darkened and half-red in the flickering light of a field of wheat aflame. As the blaze rose into the night sky and the protagonist wept at what was lost, she realised that there were tears streaming down her own cheeks that she could not possibly stem, and even as the mournful music of the credits began to roll, she could barely speak.

Light poured to fill the hall once the last of the film had tailed off, and Kyoko realised that she and Ren were the only people left in their seats.

"What did you think?" he asked. He handed her a handkerchief with which she wiped her eyes, and a hand running through his hair let slip that he was more nervous about the answer than he seemed.

"It was amazing" she said "you were amazing. And really, quite scary."

As they began to make their way out, Kyoko found herself gushing almost non-stop. The music, the cinematography, the acting… she had so many questions to ask him about the filming now. She couldn't be entirely sure, but the soft smile on Ren's face suggested that he was perfectly content to spend the next eternity answering them all, and this delighted her to no end. He accepted her praise without the gentleman's smile and false modesty that he had displayed to the press and the crew, letting his pride slip to her and her only as he reminded her that she had been a part of it too.

As they reached the doorway to the entrance hall where the rest of the stars had gathered, Ren placed a hand lightly on her shoulder as if to hold her back for a second. She looked up at him, inquisitive.

"Before we go and talk to the others, you might want to-" he gestured vaguely to his eyes "Your uh, what's it called? Mascara? Your makeup's running from the crying. You might want to fix it."

"Ah! Why didn't you tell me?"

She feigned annoyance for a moment, but her pout melted away when she saw that he seemed worried about it.

"Sorry!" she reached up to peck him lightly on the cheek "I was just playing around. Thanks for letting me know"

She scurried off to find a mirror and Ren, finding himself idle, went to talk to one of his co-stars.

XXX

Even the toilets in a place like this were classy.

She knew at this point that she should have expected it, but when she was actually faced with ornate gilt mirrors and veined grey marble sinks, she was still almost overwhelmed by the sheer grandeur that exuded from the very walls of the place. Still, a bathroom was a bathroom, and she did think herself silly, watching her reflection as she used a damp hand towel to wipe away the black smudges under her eyes.

Having satisfactorily cleaned herself up, Kyoko stood in front of the mirror and beamed. She was, after all, feeling pretty pleased with herself. She picked at one of the jewels on her necklace, marvelling at its coldness to the touch.

And in the half-second that the gemstone's twinkle caught her eye, darkness fell with a subdued click.

Immediately, she felt her stomach begin to twist like eels in a basket. Looming terror battled with rapidly diminishing confidence in her mind. She had fought it off once before. She had beaten it. She could do this.

Although… last time she hadn't been in quite so lofty heels, or in unknown territory. She was at an unfair disadvantage here. Before she could fight anything, she needed to get a grip on herself, and also, perhaps, a light-switch.

Her hands fumbled to the countertop as she struggled to find her way in the blackness. Suddenly, the immenseness of the bathroom was considerably less appealing than it had been a minute ago, and the slippery marble floor particularly disagreeable. Each step in her heels was as precarious as it was blind, and it was with great difficulty that she avoided crashing to the floor.

Through the murk, the thunderous sound of roaring waves rose about her, and the air she breathed became thick and salty in her lungs.

And then the taps began to glow. Statistically, she decided, this was probably not good news.

She quickened her pace. Her footsteps splashed as the sinks began to gush saltwater, spilling endlessly over the whorled marble and onto the floor. The throb of the ocean ebbed and flowed through her senses, the faint resistance of running water at her feet seeming to pull her back. She grew more frantic. Something was trying to keep her there. Her hands scrambled blindly in front of her, the faint orange glow behind illuminating nothing but the occasional flash of her own painted nails. Where was the door? Where was the handle?

The pipes clanked and spluttered, bubbling and spewing as the liquid pouring out slowly thickened, finally oozing out in a viscous trickle.

Her nails scratched at something that had to be a wooden door just as a loud pop issued from the taps. She dared to glance back for only a split second, horrified as her eyes landed on endless slimy suckers and poised tendrils. For a moment all that she could do was freeze. She stared at the tentacles; a scream lodged in her throat. And then they lunged. And so did she.

Her fingers closed around the handle as she wrenched the door open. She pulled with such force that when the hinges did swing far enough to let her through, her own momentum sent her tripping on her heels.

The plush red carpet of the corridor rushed towards her as she fell. Her eyes flashed shut instinctively as she braced for the impact of the fall.

It never came. Someone, it appeared, had caught her.

Upon realising this, Kyoko scrambled to recompose herself.

"I'm terribly sorry…" she began, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked cautiously up "I really didn't- wait, what the fuck?"

Sho Fuwa looked down at her, his expression a perfect melange of indignance of confusion.

"Sorry, what did I do to merit that? Shouldn't you be thanking me, for a start?"

"Yes, look, I am grateful that you caught me but… Why are you here, Shotarou?"

"What do you mean, why am I here? I wrote the sound track for this film, for your information. What in the bloody hell do you think you're doing here?"

Kyoko stared at him for a moment. He had gotten taller since she'd last seen him. The last of his teenage growth-spurts had evidently sent him shooting up, and he carried the extra height with the awkwardness of one unaccustomed to being looked up at. His sleek black suit was a far cry from the visual kei aesthetic that she had last seen him inhabiting, and though his hair was manifestly beginning to spike in its usual unruly manner, it looked as if he had at least tried to slick it back into something resembling cultivation. He had grown, in more ways than one.

"It was great" she said, simply.

"What?"

"The soundtrack. It really moved me. To tears, even."

Sho wore the praise like an ill-fitting shoe. He seemed in some ways too small for it, still too selfish and brash to deserve it, and yet in others it was almost as if the compliment pinched; he looked uncomfortable, and his voice was strangely strangled when he finally replied.

"Uhm, thank you."

He paused a moment to readjust his shirt collar. Kyoko noticed that he was leaning away from her, and making a great effort to maintain a little distance between them.

"Look, I'm sorry that this interaction got off to a bit of an aggressive start, but I have actually been meaning to have a talk with you. I've been trying to call you since a few months ago now, but you never pick up and-"

"I think I blocked your number" shot Kyoko

"Thanks." Continued Sho "I gathered. Anyway, I think we should actually talk about, you know… why we're on such bad terms."

She narrowed her eyes. Reflecting in the many mirrors that lined the walls of the corridor, they formed a disembodied army of pale watchers, all staring at Sho with scorn.

"You took me out of my home town, forced me to pay rent for a ridiculous apartment which, for the record, you barely came home to in any case, and then slagged me off to your manager behind my back. How was that supposed to build a healthy relationship, exactly?"

"I know, and I'll fully admit, it wasn't fair of me to place the financial burden on you or even ask you to move here with me. You didn't deserve the stress I put on you, and I'm sorry for it. But…"

Kyoko arched an eyebrow. The apology had been going well, she thought. It had been highly uncharacteristic of him to admit any wrongdoing, and for once he wasn't diverting the blame. But.

"But what?"

"We were both sixteen, Kyoko! Sixteen! I hadn't even finished high school and I had thousands of adoring fans. I had a schedule, a manager, an image to uphold. I was constantly being objectified, even sexualised and I was… I was still so young. Suddenly everyone was looking at me and talking about me like I was a piece of meat, and I- I hated it. And I thought having you there would make things better, Kyoko, I really did. We had been friends for so long, and I thought I could be myself around you. But at some point the way that you looked at me changed. You know? You-"

"Looking back, I wasn't very subtle about it, no." said Kyoko, filling a gap in which he struggled to get the words out.

"And it became just as suffocating being with you as being at work, and I know that doesn't make up for what I put you through in the end, and I know I was being a shitty stupid teenager talking about you behind your back, but that's why, okay? That's why I did it; I was sixteen years old and I didn't know how to handle those emotions and I really, genuinely, didn't intend to hurt you like I did."

Sighing heavily, she pinched the bridge of her nose and frowned.

"Right," she said "okay, I get that. I didn't know you felt that way, and I sympathise. But I was sixteen too, Shotarou. I idolised you precisely because you had separated me from any one else I could have been friends with, I had no on else to rely on. Do you have any-" tears of frustration pooled in her eyes, even after all this time. She had thought she was over it, but the memories of her first nights alone were surging back, stinging. "any idea how hard it was going back to life after that? Even as I tried to grow away from you, you kept coming back, interfering, reminding me. Why, Sho? Why?"

"I'm sorry,"

Sho's voice was quiet and grave.

"I'm really sorry and I wanted to say it whilst I had the chance. I totally understand if you don't want to go back to being friends after this. I just… wanted to get it off my chest, you know?"

"And I'm glad you did." Replied Kyoko, straightening up again. "This isn't going to fix everything but it's definitely a start."

"So, are you finally going to unblock my number?"

She gave a sly grin.

"Maybe"

A soft smile rippled on his face.

"Well, that's that then. Oh, but what are you doing here today? Without being rude this time."

"I'm here as a plus-one. Tsuruga-san's."

Sho didn't even really seem all that surprised.

"Congratulations." his smile was still warm and genuine as he stated it "Which reminds me, my own plus-one is probably wondering where I am. I'm glad I ran into you, but I think I'll be off."

He gave a cursory nod and began to walk away. Kyoko called after him.

"Hey, congratulations to you too. Who is she?"

"You'll find out in tomorrow's magazines!" Sho was already at the end of the corridor, signing goodbye as his figure became a waving silhouette in the overhead lights "Goodbye, Kyoko!"

"Goodbye, Sho!"

XXX

By the time that Kyoko found Ren again, talking to the costume designer by the bar, she had been gone for almost twenty minutes, and the relief of seeing her again was visible on his face.

She greeted the costume designer politely and took her place by Ren's side. The designer, having clearly abused her privileges for free champagne, was halfway through drunkenly reciting a rambling story about her trials and tribulations as Ren's costume assistant. After a significant number of stops and starts, hiccups, and words that slurred into an incomprehensible babble, she swung forward to triumphantly deliver the punch line:

"So, the intern comes up to me, all terrified-like. All a-quiver, 'n I asks her, what ever's a'matter? 'N she says, Tsuruga-san's got blood on his collar again, so I says, nothing to worry on, love, he can pretend it's someone else's in the next scene an'way!"

She finished her monologue by roaring so hard with laughter at her own joke that she was escorted from the bar. Kyoko stared, mortified, and subsequently turned as red as a stop-light, whilst Ren slipped back into his defensive ultra-smile.

Once she had had a few moments to radiate off the heat of her burning cheeks, Kyoko finally turned to him. His picture-perfect press smile was still in place, but the faintest of wrinkles around the outer corners of his lips deceived to her that he was maintaining it under strain. His social batteries were running out for the night.

"Do you want to get out of here?" she whispered to him, outwardly nodding respectfully as more production crew passed by. "We can go if you'd like"

"Perfect" said Ren, "I'll call a cab."

XXX

Taxis, Kyoko decided, were far too spacious.

Of course, as a relatively newbie actress, she hardly had the means to take them on a regular basis, and she was willing to admit that perhaps her exclusion from the taxi-taking class might have given it a luxurious image that it didn't deserve. She had looked upon the taxi as the ultimate getaway from an event such as that night's premier, the pinnacle of celebrity comfort. And yet the kind of comfort that she found herself craving could only be found in Ren's hands, separated from hers by a whole seat's expanse. There was no excuse to play with his hair, lean her head on his broad shoulder, or even share a longing gaze when the hawk eyes of the cab driver were locked on them in the rear-view mirror.

She finished recounting the tale of her run-in with Sho just as they exited the main thoroughfare. Ren's eyes drifted away from an advertisement board that he had been watching through the window, and back to Kyoko at his side.

"I'm glad that Fuwa's matured a little." He said "Does the apology feel like a satisfactory conclusion?"

"Mostly." She responded "It's more the situation with the glowing creatures from the beyond that worries me."

Ren looked cautiously to the driver, decided that he was sufficiently distracted by the traffic ahead, and responded cautiously, his voice lowered.

"It's not… gone?"

"I thought it was."

"Crawling out of the tap is pretty conclusive evidence to the contrary." He sighed.

Kyoko stared at her hands in her lap. She pawed nervously at the soft velvet of her dress, a shiver running down her spine.

"Are you cold?"

Ren's keen gaze had missed nothing. Kyoko started to insist to against it, but his wide burgundy-silk scarf was already wrapped around her shoulders. She pulled the fine material closer, letting him fuss over the exact way that it draped for a bit as a smile crept over her. He sneakily turned to plant a quick kiss on her forehead before reclining back.

She looked at him both tenderly and sarcastically, and had just started to retort when the taxi came to a halt. The driver announced their arrival at Ren's condominium, as well as the eye-watering cost of their journey. Shocked and a feeling a little bit guilty, Kyoko eventually accepted to let Ren pay the bill, and they made their way to his apartment. They took the elevator up on account of Kyoko's wearing heels, and she ripped the shoes off her feet as soon as she passed over the threshold.

"Aaaaaaah, now that's so much better."

Ren stared in disbelief as he more methodically untied the laces of his black derby shoes.

"You've been walking around all evening with your feet like that?"

"I'm an excellent actress" preened Kyoko smugly.

"Well, never let me doubt it again." Held Ren, glancing down at her red and raw heels as he put his coat and suit jacket away. "At least your shoes will be broken in for the next time you wear them"

She pulled the scarf from her shoulders and handed it to him as he popped off both of his shoes, making her way to the kitchen.

"Hmmm, I wonder when I'll wear them next?" she wondered out loud. She reached for the kettle and looked to Ren, who was down to his shirt and suit trousers, and casually loosening his collar in a way that was ever so fetching. "Oh, sorry for not asking; can I make some tea?"

"Be my guest"

She took the kettle to the tap, clicking its sleek top open to pour water in. Her hands grasped firmly around the tap handles, but it still took a little force to turn them and get the water running. She had half-filled it when the stream of water began to thin. With a hollow choke, the tap gushed and then stopped entirely.

Kyoko took a step back as the tube began to shake and rattle and the first few splodges of goo began to drip from its mouth. Her hands inched towards the knife rack as she shot Ren a look. Stepping slowly towards her, he whispered:

"Is this… ?"

She nodded in affirmation, to which he responded by grabbing a frying pan from an overhead rack. They stood, bracing with their weapons out, and watched as salty sludge oozed out. From inside the pipework a muffled and metallic sound was growing nearer, bumping and shaking the tap more and more as each second passed. The hands holding their armaments twitched apprehensively as it gave a final deep rumble and then, before either of them could react, a tentacle burst out with a wet squelch.

Its suckers, ringed with sharp teeth, and patterned maroon skin blurred as it twisted through the air, shooting past Kyoko to latch onto Ren's legs. He was caught off guard, having been preparing to defend his torso, and was flipped instantly off his feet with a loud slam when he hit the tiles. The tentacle tightened around his limb, holding him down as he struggled and twisted, seemingly resistant to all attacks by frying pan. Kyoko, meanwhile, had grabbed the sharpest knife that she could find. She tried frantically to grab the writhing limb, raising her arm as she aimed a slash.

"Kyoko!" Ren shouted, shattering the silence of panting and slipping, "Behind you!"

She whipped around just as something slimy gripped her hand. It wove between her fingers and squeezed with a crushing force, bringing her to her knees. She could feel her knuckles crackle like lightning as pain and pressure began to spread from her hand through her arm, into her torso and the very heart inside her chest. Her lungs felt like fire and her breaths were becoming uneven. It was all that she could do to drop her knife and grab and claw at the tentacle with her other hand. Whole body heaving, pulling away with desperate force, she turned to Ren, the image of his horrified face fading as her vision began to fizzle and blur. Using the last of her strength, she tried to pull away.

And fell. The thing had let go of her.

The fog in her mind cleared just as Ren's sturdy arm reached out to stop her fall. She fell neatly into his lap, and they sat on the floor, watching the tentacles recede back into the pipework and catching their breath in complete silence.

"Well," said Ren "that was unpleasant."

Kyoko flicked at some goo that had landed on his face and picked herself up.

"This makes the third time I've fallen into someone's arms this week, and frankly, I'm getting pretty tired of it."

Leaning down to offer him a hand, she noticed that the leg of his trousers was ripped where the tentacles had been.

"Are you alright?"

Ren took her hand and pulled himself to standing.

"More or less." He said "Your hands are sticky."

Kyoko looked down and found that her hand, wrapped firmly around his, was covered in thick, opalescent slime. When she tried to let go of his hands, mortified, she unhappily found that she couldn't. The mysterious substance had glued their hands together so effectively that, after much pulling and unsuccessful sliding around, they ended up having to pry them apart with a butter knife. With the sound of a bursting bubble, they eventually separated their digits, wiggling them experimentally to confirm that nothing was amiss.

"So we still don't really know why any of that just happened." Stated Kyoko, half confirming and half questioning as she cautiously turned the taps back on. She breathed a sigh of relief when water began to pour out as usual.

"Actually… Oh, hot water is the other one, yes, you've got it… Anyway, as I was saying, I think there was something in your hand. It was small and hard; I could feel it when your palm pressed against mine."

Kyoko, who had been just about to wash her hands, pulled them away from the water to study them.

"Oh my god, you're right." There was something small glistening under a layer of goo, orange and shaped like an apple seed "Wait, hang on… My hands are too sticky. Do you mind washing yours first and then picking it out for me?"

Having dutifully washed his hands, Ren once again picked up the butter knife and slowly set about excavating the hidden object. It was a little uncomfortable, but Kyoko secretly rather liked having her hand held for such an extended amount of time, and the care that he took to avoid poking her sent her heart fluttering. She was sure that he was pretending not to notice the outrageous blush that rolled across her face as a wave of pink. He focussed unerringly on his task and cut off, and subsequently binned, several layers of increasingly hardening slime. He laboured until the surface of the mysterious object touched the air, catching the light with a gleam that was at once beautiful and taunting, and then, using his fingers, pulled it slowly out.

"Got it"

Kyoko rushed to clean her hands as Ren stood in the centre of the kitchen, holding the excavated wonder up to the light.

"What do you think it is?" she said, shaking her hands dry.

"I've no idea." He put it on the flat of his palm to show it to her. "Although…"

"Although?"

"Do you mind turning around for a second?"

She obliged, and yelped suddenly when she felt his cold fingers on the nape of her neck.

"Hey! What was that for?" she laughed.

"I am trying to help here" replied Ren "even though you do have a lovely neck."

"Thank you."

"Here, let me show you. Can I take off your necklace?"

"Uhm, sure."

He handed her the object and unclasped her necklace, placing it on the countertop.

"See, this setting at the back is missing its stone."

"Shit, you're right. How could I have lost it?"

Panic erupted in her mind. She was only renting the necklace, and she couldn't afford to replace it if the rental company were upset. Was it too late to go back to the venue? Could she ask the cleaning staff if they had found anything? Why was a luxury necklace so easy to break anyway?

She felt Ren's broad palm rest calmly on the small of her back. He could sense that she was freaking out.

"Don't worry. Look at what the thing from the taps gave you."

She turned over the entity in her hands. It was a gemstone, honey-coloured and cut into a teardrop shape. Upon holding it up to the light, she recognised its characteristic twinkle as topaz. It was the missing stone from her necklace. She pressed the gem back into its setting and then fetched its bag to put it away in, wary of disturbing it further.

"So, the devil itself just handed me back a piece of my jewellery before I even knew it was broken?"

"From what I gather, at least."

"Weird."

"Weird." Confirmed Ren.

He went to actually fill the kettle and put some tea into a teapot, and directed Kyoko to make herself comfortable as he found some mugs for them to use. She sat, contentedly watching his back as he went about preparing tea, and massaged her aching ankles.

"Is it going to leave us alone now, do you think?"

"I don't know, really," replied Ren, placing two mugs of steaming tea on the table and sitting down next to her "this last interaction with it has almost been… positive."

"I hope it's going to stay that way." Kyoko sipped at her tea, forgetting to blow on it first and immediately burning her tongue. "Sorry, can I go get some milk?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot that you take your tea with milk."

"It's fine! Don't worry about it." She said as she got out of her chair. She ruffled his ahri as she passed, and he smiled as he went back to drinking his tea.

She walked over to the fridge, easily finding the milk in its usual place. Ren never had milk with his tea or coffee. He kept it there for her.

Sitting down again, she stirred the milk smoothly into her mug and kicked his foot playfully under the table. For a moment he didn't react, and Kyoko thought that she'd missed him, but then a devious attack from behind caught her off guard. He smirked at her behind his cup.

"Gotcha."

She reared her foot to serve a retaliating blow, but stopped dead before she swung.

Ow. A dull pain thumped in her ankle and she felt something warm run down her heel.

She looked down. The worn skin on her lower achilles was bleeding. Immediately she pushed away from the table, stumbling back as her eyes flickered over Ren, staring at the bleeding foot.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kicked you there when I knew your ankles hurt. I'll get a plaster."

Kyoko remained rooted to the spot, her arms up and defensive. Her heart raced as his dark eyes shifted to hers.

"It's okay, Kyoko, I'm not going to do anything."

She cautiously lowered her arms.

"I don't feel anything." He said "When I look at blood, I don't feel anything at all anymore."

XXX

Life at the LME resumed as usual the next day. Yashiro greeted them at the lobby, and Ren gave her hand a quick squeeze before he walked off for work in another studio.

"Fun night out?" Kanae said, seemingly materialising behind her out of nowhere.

"Uh, yes actually." Replied Kyoko, her tone progressively shifting from snarky to affectionate "Did you miss me?"

"A little. C'mon, I have something to show you before work starts."

They quickly paced their usual route to the makeshift LoveMe headquarters, and Kyoko opened her locker to begin changing into her pink jumpsuit.

"What have you got to show me?"

Kanae sat on the cramped wooden changing benches, her long and elegant limbs fitting rather less comfortably than Kyoko's, and scrolled through her phone.

"Wait, let me just find it… Aha! Take a look at this."

She handed over her phone to her half-changed friend. The screen was on the website for the News Alert, now familiar to Kyoko as one of Kanae's favourite guilty pleasures.

JAPAN'S LATEST CELEBRITY COUPLE: TSURUGA REN AND MOGAMI KYOKO.

"Imagine how surprised I was to see you on my feed at midnight last night."

"Wow, I'd forgotten about the reporters. I had such a crazy night."

"It's a good job we're on cleaning duty again then, you can tell me all about it."

She took the phone back and let Kyoko finish changing.

"And hey, you did look great. We're good at picking dresses."

Kyoko grinned as she opened the door. And walked straight into Sawara.

"I've been looking for you."

Kyoko straightened her posture and looked nervously back at Kanae.

"President Takarada would like to see you in his office."

"Of course, sir."

She hugged Kanae goodbye, agreeing to find her so that they could finish cleaning together, and followed Sawara away.

XXX

"Mogami-kun, do you know why you're here?"

Lory Takarada stared at her from a crowd of painted eyes on the tail feathers of three peacocks that were perched on his lap. The ornaments on his wide-brimmed hat bobbed dramatically as he raised his head, questioning.

"Uhm, no, sir." She replied haltingly, trying not to be distracted by the glittering curtains and various chirping birds behind him.

Lory fumbled for a bit, carefully lifting each peacock from his lap before rummaging in his seemingly bottomless suit pockets for something. Having found it, he put it on the table with a flamboyant flick of the wrist. It was a tabloid magazine, and her own face next to Ren's was staring back at her from the front page. She noticed with amusement that Sho and his girlfriend also had a three-page special dedicated to them further in the publication.

"My dear, I'm heartbroken that you didn't tell me yourself."

"I'm sorry sir, it's all been rather complicated and-"

"Don't worry yourself so" he interrupted "I was only joking. But the reason that I called you here today is certainly not a joke. I think the implications of this article on your work are fairly obvious, Mogami-kun."

"I'm not sure I'm quite following here."

"Don't you think" he said, regaining his fatherly warmth as he stroked a peacock "That it's time you graduated from LoveMe?"

A/N: thank you for your comments, they really were the only thing motivating me to get this done in this hectic time. I hope that you are staying safe and healthy.

Please do let me know what you thought of this chapter, and if you're bored waiting for the next chapter, why not check out my last fic?