DEMON BREAKING OUT.
"Just because you've landed a few big roles, you think you're special?" The Director thundered at Kyoko, who flinched down. "Thats what happens to rookies! They think minor roles aren't worth their time when they get a little famous. All that fame gets to their heads!"
"I'm sorry," Kyoko bowed. "It won't happen again. I won't be late."
"You better don't or I wouldn't hesitate to fire you!"
Even after the Director had marched off in anger, Kyoko remained standing there with her head hung low. She still got late even after going through the trouble of getting a ride with Sho, and at the expanse of having to deal with Ren's anger whenever she would see him, all because Sho stopped her to ask that stupid question!
Yet, instead of anger, all she felt was sadness. She couldn't help it, her mood had been awful since Ren saw them.
"Kyoko, don't feel bad. You know how the Director is. He'll be fine!" She didn't need to look up to see that it was Hikaru, one of the hosts in Kimagure Rock, and also her costar. "He shouldn't have yelled at you like that. Don't take his words to heart."
She still couldn't look up. All of a sudden, she felt a hand caressing the top of her head.
"Come on now, cheer up already!" Hikaru smiled, patting her head up. "Everything gets so dull whenever you're in a bad mood."
The moment he had touched her head, another memory popped in her mind. It was of the time when she was Setsuka and Cain patted her head all of a sudden in a similar way before they both entered the studio together.
Somehow, remembering it made her smile as she slowly raised her head. It was a sad smile. She couldn't help but wonder why with Hikaru's touch, there were no chills crawling down her back like the last time when it was Ren.
She was afraid she already knew the answer. It we part of the reason of her sadness. It had something to do with her past experience, when falling in love made her so obsessed that she had been totally clingy with Sho. That was why she could never allow herself to fall for Ren. Even if the small pain in her chest because of all the suppressing was now turning into pure torment.
As soon as the meeting was over, Yashiro followed his client outside the restaurant. During the whole time since they accidentally caught Kyoko with Sho Fuwa, Ren had been so angry that his murderous glare never left him. What surprised the manager was that it seemed to him Ren wasn't even trying to hide it, unlike usual.
More to it, there was something definitely different about Ren that day. There was no sign of that fake plastic smile of his, and the fact that he didn't bother to hide his true feelings behind a shell was proof enough. Even his glare seemed different. Colder. Deadlier.
It reminded the manager of the time when he met Ren for the first time. Yashiro didn't need to be told that Ren Tsuruga wasn't the real name of his client. Infact, he had always suspected that this was just another part his client was playing, like any other character. Yashiro had a feeling that whoever Ren used to be was someone much more unapproachable. More dangerous.
Back when they first met three years ago, when Ren wasn't such a big shot celebrity Yashiro had sensed an air of mysteriousness around him. Somedays, even now, the manager felt that his past self would seep out of him. Today was one of those days, as he could sense his unusually cold eyes to belong to someone else.
All of a sudden Yashiro's cell phone rang, making him snap out of his thoughts. He halted. "Ren, I gotta take this call. It's important. Why don't you wait in the car?"
Wordlessly, the actor did as he was told, leaving the manager behind. When Ren arrived at the same garage, his nostrils flared at the sight in front of him and he tasted something foul. A familiar blond guy was perched up on the front trunk of his car, with such an easy expression as if he owned the damned thing.
Ren tried to keep himself calm, and he succeeded in not openly attacking Sho Fuwa, however, he failed to hide the naked hatred in his eyes which he had for him.
Sensing his footsteps, Sho looked up and his face relaxed into a smirk. In an agonizingly slow pace, he raised himself from his seat to make his way towards him. His every action resonated with arrogance.
"I'm here just to give you a friendly piece of advice," Sho commenced. "Don't waste your time on Kyoko. Yes, I know how you feel about her. She'll never fall for you. She said so herself, that she's not stupid enough to fall in love with a guy like you."
Despite having his own demons to fight, the thing that scared Ren the most was what Sho just said. That he would never be able to win Kyoko. The words sent a jolt of fear through out him, but he managed not to show how much it affected him.
Instead, he let his eyes turn glacial, which could've drilled holes into Sho's skull.
"That's all you had to say? You went to that trouble of waiting for me out here just for this? You've got nothing better to do?" Sho, being an impulsive person, failed to hide how much the words stung him, so Ren went on. "I don't know if this is your idea of a joke or something, but I'm not playing along."
"As if!" Sho thundered. He was about to shout something else to get back for the insult, when the murderous look on Ren's face made him hesitate. It was obvious, even to someone as dense as Sho, how pissed Ren was. Before the singer could dare and speak, Ren spoke one final thing, and his words combined with the arctic force of his glare had enough impact on Sho to make him reconsider before running his mouth.
"Get lost!"
Before either of them could've said anything else, Yashiro arrived with his phone still pressed to his ear, but when the manager ran into the two current rulers of the entertainment world facing off, he immediately put it back into his pocket. The tension in the air was thick enough to be touched and cut through with a knife.
"R-Ren?" Yashiro tried to get Ren away from here, knowing how he had not really been himself. Gently placing a hand on his arm, he tugged him motioning him towards the car before his client did something they would all regret and turned their staring contest into a physical brawl.
The next morning, while waiting on the Box R set, Kyoko checked her cell phone for the hundredth time, yet there were no messages. She groaned.
She had left Ren a voicemail explaining the whole thing with Sho. Since he had already seen her, there was no point lying about it. So she tried her best to make things okay between them before they had to resume the Heel act tonight. Yet, there was no reply.
It had been a day. There was no way he wouldn't have heard her message by now. It everything was okay, he would've definitely texted her. But all that awaited her on her cellphone was an empty inbox.
She groaned again, grabbing her hair. Why, Kyoko? Why did you have to get in his stupid car for the second time? Why couldn't you have just taken the damned cab? And most importantly, why did Ren had to be there particularly at that time?
Remembering the last time how Ren had reacted when she returned from her shoot in Sho's music video, she couldn't resist shuddering. Around that time in addition to his perfect signature smile, she had also gotten the coldest glare fron him, which could've easily turned lava into ice.
Kyoko had never wished more to have the ability to turn back time. If Ren had even yelled at her, it would've been much better than all this anticipated silence. Why couldn't he do so and just get it over with?
The reason of the foul taste in Ren's mouth was the meeting with Sho.
She'll never fall for you.
The words echoed in his mind, and he found himself fearing the worst. But that was not all. The thing bothering him the most was the nightmares he had last night. They were endless specially after his fight with Murasame.
Since the Tragic Marker shoot had started, he could feel Kuon within him, bursting to come out, pumping fear within him. What if he lost? What if he'd loose control again?
The thing had bothered him all three days since he returned from the set. He'd been so preoccupied with these that he was pretty sure even Yashiro was suspecting something had happened.
Now, as he was back at the room in the Tragic Marker studio provided to the Heels while he waited for Setsu, he sensed the pit in his stomach grow and his chest tighten. All because of Kuon.
If he were to let him out again, he would not only loose all that he has built over the years, he'd also lose Kyoko. Another jolt of painful fear pierced through his heart.
No! He instinctively reached for his wrist watch. The needles on it were stuck but that didn't seem to bother him as he almost tenderly traced his fingers along it's patterns, his eyes flinching. He could not let that happen. He'd have to show Kuon that he was in control. Like he had been.
Ren tried to distract himself from this sense of impending doom and focus on getting into his character before Setsu arrived.
The two actors went to the trouble to arrive here the night before just so no one would get suspicious of their true identities on the set.
I'm Cain Heel. He said to himself, playing his character's british accent. I don't care about anything. The only stuff that can move me is a good performance and my sister.
With that, he snapped open his wrist watch and pocketed it.
"Thanks for all your help!" Hurriedly putting on Setsuka's wig in the Hell's private dressing rooms, Kyoko passed a smile to her stylist, Ms Woods.
"My pleasure Darling," Jelly answerered in her high squeaky voice, winking at her. "Say hi to Ren for me. He wasn't in a particularly good mood when he got here. Or maybe he was already in character. I can't tell."
Kyoko's eyes brimmed with concern. "Did he seem... angry?"
"No dear, of course not! I've never seen Ren angry."
"Then?"
"Let me think." The stylist patted her index finger on her chin. "It just seemed like he was tired and kinda frustrated, like he had a lot on his plate, you know?"
Left even more confused and concerned, Kyoko took her leave.
Standing right outside the door to the room the Heels shared, she couldn't help but fret over the incident with Sho. Though she was dead sure Ren would never break character even if they were alone, just to bring up a personal matter, she wished he would so they could get past this stuff and continue without any hard feelings.
But Ren being Ren, it was impossible. Besides, she herself needed to reach a level as an actress where she wouldn't let her personal things get in the way of her part. Today was the time she started practicing that.
She took off her coat, beneath which she was wearing leather shorts and a dark, embroidered, off-shouldered tank top. With a heavy sigh, she opened the door.
It was the middle of the night, but since Sho couldn't sleep, he decided to have a drink and watch some TV. However, as he drank his beer, instead of watching TV as he had intended, his thoughts would always land back on Kyoko and a smirk made its way on his face.
Now he had one less thing to worry about with Ren out of the way. He could sense it in her voice that Kyoko was slowly falling prey to his charms, so Sho deliberately manipulated her into making a promise which would keep her away from Ren for good.
Sometimes, he wondered how was he was such a genius. Sho grinned. When it came to Kyoko's pride, it was bigger than a volcano. He had hit her right where it was most effective and Kyoko actually made that promise.
Despite all her changes, she was still the same old Kyoko at heart. Her values and beliefs were still the most important things to her and Sho would use that to his advantage. There was no doubt in his mind that Kyoko would genuinely hold on to that promise if she were to fall for Ren, so it was a win win for him.
Those days weren't a lot far off when he used to compare himself with Ren Tsuruga and berate him on every opportunity he got just to feel better. Now, however, just the thought of Ren and Kyoko ending up together in the tabloids was the most insulting and infuriating thing for him.
Even if the world didn't know about his past with Kyoko, the girl he left ending up with his biggest rival, no! He couldn't even let himself imagine it.
The thoughts of Ren reminded him of their recent meeting, and his cockiness vanished. Just the memory of those arctic eyes piercing him that cold glare, it was enough to make even Sho wary.
As far as he knew, the people in the showbiz were either sly dogs or sitting ducks, and while Kyoko was definitely from the latter, he couldn't place Ren Tsuruga in either category.
He had always assumed Ren to be one of those talentless pretty boys who had everything handed to them by connections, however, his insight on his rival changed after their last meeting.
Ren wasn't one of the sly dogs, and he definitely wasn't a duck. The man was a beast, who should never be ticked. His charming smiles and friendly attitude was just an act, as far as Sho could gather, but in reality he was someone not to be messed with.
The thought of Kyoko spending so much time with him being charmed by his fake persona bothered Sho, a lot more than he would've liked to admit. Specially because Sho knew since Karauizawa that Ren wanted Kyoko.
Even if Sho had knowingly used Kyoko in the past, his real intention had never been to hurt her. It was just collateral he had to pay for the sake of becoming a star. That was why, even when they lived together, he had never laid a hand on her. And Kyoko being old fashioned like she was, was happy to oblige him and wait until they were old enough.
When he could've easily done whatever he wanted to her by manipulating her. The reason being, in addition to the fact that he was never interested in her, was because he didn't wanna pile on more to the collateral he had to pay. She was still the best childhood friend he had, and he didn't wanna get himself too attached to not being able to let go of her and have her drag him down.
Though, from what he could gather, Ren wasn't as nice. For the first time, the prospect of Kyoko, naive as she was, spending so much time with him, being sweet talked by that man, it genuinely scared Sho for the safety of his childhood best friend.
If no one did anything, a time might come when Kyoko became too attached to Ren and he would just devour her.
Opening the door, Kyoko stepped inside. All of the her earlier distress had left and now all that was left was a confident girl who didn't need the approval of anyone. She was Setsuka.
"I'm back!" She sang. Finding the bed empty, her eyes searchingly travelled across the room before landing on the square sofa on which Cain was lying. "Bro-ther!"
He slowly raised his head, the same bored look etched into his eyes until they met hers, and a minute crease appreared on his face remotely detecting his delight to see his sister.
"Don't tell me you fall asleep on the sofa?" She scolded him, though her tone remained playful. "Seriously, what would you do without me?"
"You're right, I'd be so helpless." He smiled, stifling a yawn. "And I wasn't sleeping. You think I'd be able to without you here with me?"
Setsu giggled. "Of course not. My poor brother! It's all because you've got such a cute sister like me."
"Damn right! I might as well lock you in a room where no one could even see you but me."
"Why not then?" A flirty smirk crept up to Setsu's face. She bent her hips to stand in a more seductive pose while fluttering her eyelashes at him. "We could try it on your next day off. Why don't you buy a lock and–" Whatever she was about to say was cut off as a loud bell from her cell phone reverberated her handbag.
Shit! I forgot to put it on silent! Kyoko despaired. As she hurried to the bed where her purse awaited, she rummaged through her stuff fishing out her cellphone as fast as she could manage, wondering who in the world would be calling her in the middle of the night.
When she saw a familiar unsaved number blazing on her screen, rage boiled within her. Shoutaro! She would have to remember to add this number in the blacklist later.
For now, as she was about to hang up, the approaching footsteps of Ren neared her from behind, and all of a sudden, his hand enclosed around her cellphone snatching it away from her grip.
With a gasp, Kyoko turned to face Ren, the panic evident in her eyes. However, the sight in front of her left her even more confused and scared. Because all she saw in the dark pits of his eyes was cold, hard anger. To her confusion, it wasn't the regular kind of anger she had seen in Ren, but much much more threatening.
Maybe, he was still Cain, but the british actor was always supposed to be cool and aloof, so it couldn't be him. That only left the last option. And as much as Kyoko dreaded to accept it, she had no choice but to notice the familiar savage look in Ren's eyes which he had when he had attacked those thugs and Murasame. Almost as if he was a different person whom Kyoko had never even met.
Before she could even react, tugging the phone away from her grasp, Ren, or whoever he was, sent it flying across the room until it hit a wall and crashed on the floor.
Biting her lip, Kyoko took an uncertain step back.
To be continued.