The next afternoon Kyoko was helping Kanae Kotonami practice her English in the agency section at LME when the door opened.
The Acting Director of LME, Matsushima, came in with Murasame Taira following behind.
Seeing Kanae and Kyoko he greeted them, "Kanae-san, Kyoko-san, I'm glad you are here today." Gesturing to Murasame, he continued, "I'd like to introduce you to Murasame Taira-san. He's just joined us here at LME and the president has assigned him to be the newest member of the Love Me section."
Kyoko and Kanae stood frozen in surprise as he continued.
"Please make him feel welcome and, of course, he will be getting Love Me assignments as well, so please do what you can to make sure he has a smooth transition to LME," he concluded before turning to Murasame. "Murasame-san, we are so excited you decided to join us at LME. The Love Me section may seem . . . difficult at first but it's truly helped our actors grow." As he escaped out the door, he shouted out, "Good luck!"
After the door closed behind Matsushima, Kyoko managed to pull herself from the shock. Speaking quietly else she'd shout in shock she asked, "Murasame-san, how did you end up in the Love Me section here at LME?"
Appearing befuddled himself, he replied, "I'm not sure. I was speaking to the President and he asked about my experience filming Tragic Marker. When he asked what it was like working with Cain Heel on the production I tried to just say that he was a passionate actor but then the president complimented the guy's professionalism. I couldn't help it, I got so mad I told him how the guy was always late, uncooperative, and how he even came in with a hickey on his neck one day. Can you believe that?!"
After a pause to collect himself, Murasame continued, "Before I knew it, the President promised he'd work to get me to the top, alongside Tsuruga Ren, and said the Love Me section would be a great way to improve as an actor." Looking at Kanae and Kyoko he asked helplessly, "What is the Love Me section?"
Kanae and Kyoko shared a glance of understanding before Kanae explained to him President Lory's belief that all actors should be appreciated for their better points as professionals even if the individual is detestable.
While she explained, Kyoko felt the crushing blow that the President now knew about the hickey on Tsuruga-san's neck from their time as the Heel siblings. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd know she did it. She wondered how she was going to face him next time.
"What did Matsushima-senpai mean about "assignments"," he asked.
Kyoko joined in to explain how they were given assignments from LME staff when they needed extra help. "The goal is to love, or at least accept others, and be loved, or accepted, in return, so the jobs can be pretty random. For good deeds we are only allowed to accept a stamp acknowledging our good works which go into a stamp tracker," she explained showing him her pink heart shaped notepad collection of stamps.
Murasame looked thru the first few pages of the heart notepad frowning. "Why do you have some minus stamps," he asked.
Kanae looked at Kyoko with raised eyebrows.
Kyoko explained shyly, "Well, I may have not done a great job on my first job or two, or they thought the work wasn't equal to 100 points."
Continuing to look thru the notebook Murasame suddenly stopped and looked up at Kyoko. "You have a 100 point stamp from Kuu Hizuri, how did you get that," he asked in amazement.
With both sets of eyes on her Kyoko stammered out a reply, "The President asked me to manage Hizuri-san while he was in Tokyo last year promoting his new movie."
Wanting further details, Kanae asked, "And as his "manager", what did you do?"
A bit embarrassed, Kyoko looked at the ground before replying, "I cooked most of his meals and escorted him around, mostly I followed him and his security guards but it was good, I learned a lot from him."
Kanae sighed, "We do get pretty random jobs but that one really surprises me. One would think his entourage would do that."
Kyoko nodded in agreement, "I thought so too but he didn't have an entourage."
Murasame handed Kyoko her heart notepad back. "It would be worth it to meet Kuu Hizari," he replied wistfully.
They turned after hearing a knock on the door and Tsuruga Ren's manager Yashiro stepped into the room staring down at his phone. "Kyoko, it's about time to head out for the reading and your fitting for The Sacred Lotus in the Mire." Looking up he noticed Kanae and Murasame, "Oh, my apologies, I did not mean to interrupt."
Kyoko provided introductions. "Murasame-san this is Yashiro-san, my part-time manager. Yashiro-san, this is Murasame Taira-san, he just joined LME today."
Hiding his surprise, Yashiro acknowledged Murasame, "Welcome to LME Murasame-san. I hope you like it here."
Murasame thanked him for his welcome.
Kyoko said goodbye to Kanae and Murasame, welcoming Murasame officially to LME, before heading out for her appointment. Yashiro had offered to drive her to the distant studio and she was secretly relieved Tsuruga wasn't riding with them.
Still enmeshed in the Kusunoki Kana scandal, Tsuruga Ren was giving the media no comments to their incessant questions about his love life. The media hounding was even testing Yashiro's steel-eyed "Stand Back" stare and he was glad to be taking a break from it after escorting Tsuruga to his morning appointments.
On the drive there, Yashiro asked Kyoko, "Murasame-san, did he play the main protagonist role in Tragic Marker?"
"Yes. He was pretty diligent about his work and found Cain Heel to be very difficult. Fortunately he doesn't seem to recognize me as Setsu," Kyoko replied not mentioning that he'd recognized her as Mio from Dark Moon. She was still anxious that he'd made such a major connection to her acting roles.
Yashiro silently drove the rest of the way.
He could sense trouble brewing for Tsuruga Ren and even though he knew it would be bad for Murasame to recognize Tsuruga Ren as Cain Heel he found himself hoping that was the worst that could happen.
