DISCLAIMER: SKIP BEAT! and its associated characters are the creations of Yoshiki Nakamura. This author claims no ownership of Skip Beat or any of its characters. All other rights reserved.

Reaction fic to Chapter 310.

Call Me By My Name

"How long will I call you 'Mogami-san', I wonder," he said to her.

Ah, she thought, so that's what it was.

But why was he so upset? And he was upset—enough to forego any gentlemanly pleasantries as they sat down at this late hour. Surely it wasn't because Koga had called her 'Kyouko-chan,' was it? She'd been surprised at the sadness—and the anger—in his eyes. He'd turned his head and refused to look at her as she answered the director's call. She'd been troubled enough to let him lure her to this late-night talk over tea. They'd found a table in the studio's kitchenette.

He hunched over the table, leaning his head onto his steepled hands as he looked away. She gulped. Again, he was throwing her off. Weeks ago, he'd told her, 'I don't want to change our relationship,' and she'd been very careful about treating him—and thinking of him—as her esteemed senpai. And yet his behavior had definitely changed. He called her more often, for one. He explained himself needlessly, for another. And he flirted. Nevermind the fact that he'd found her out that night in his supermarket—she'd never intended to be seen. It had been him who'd insisted on eating with her, him who'd trapped her in that stairwell, and now…this.

It was true that he was among the very few who still called her 'Mogami-san.' Koga-kun, Murasame-san, the Ishibashis—all of them called her 'Kyouko-chan.' To be fair, that was her stage name—how many people knew her as 'Kyoko Mogami'? But still, she shuddered at the thought of him calling her 'Kyoko-chan.' Because it wouldn't be the same if he said it. Hearing her name coming from his lips like that—she couldn't withstand it. She couldn't even bear to hear Corn say it in his voice, and he'd been her friend from childhood! She thought back to the first and only time he had—when he was sick, and fevered, and she was putting a compress on his fevered brow. She'd been so shocked her heart had pounded for an hour—and that was back when she thought he hated her.

And yet. Everyone else called her 'Kyouko.' Why should Tsuruga-san be any different? Wasn't it more odd that he called her Mogami-san formally when everyone else did not?

He was still looking away from her when she spoke. "Is it that you want to call me 'Kyouko-chan' the way everyone else does?" she asked. She remembered how he'd been right after they'd left his dressing room—how jealous he'd looked when Cedric Bennett had appeared on the TV. Was it that? Could he—could he possibly be jealous?! Of Koga-san, of all people!

He didn't want to say 'yes.' She was so friendly, so easy with everyone else and yet with him—

"You can, of course, if you want to, Tsuruga-san," she said. She was still looking at him with that expression—the slightly exasperated expression she used when he was doing something ridiculous. He could tell he was making her uneasy. "Call me 'Kyouko-chan,' that is. If you want to." A faint blush began to tinge her cheek. The strangeness of the situation wasn't lost on her. Tsuruga-san was her senpai before he was anything else to her, and he could have called her Kyouko-chan from the start if he'd wanted to.

"I don't want to call you by your stage name," he responded. What he craved had always been more than that. All this time spent with her, in her company—her time as his manager, their time as the Heels—she knew him better than nearly anyone else in Japan. Perhaps only the Shachou and Yashiro knew him better. He liked to think he knew her better than Koga did, too. But the bitterness won out. He'd wanted to call her 'Kyoko' for at least half his life. The thought flew out of his mouth before he could stop it. "But even when we were kids, you wouldn't allow me to call you 'Kyoko,' without honorifics—you said only Sho could—"

He stopped, aghast. What had he just done?

Kyoko, too, was looking at him with wide, wide eyes. Surprise…and confusion.

For a while she sat there, mouth open. He sat there too, the color slowly draining from his face.

"What—"

"Nothing, nothing," he said. Oh god, it was too late to fix this. There was no way he could play this off—he'd said what he'd said, and she'd heard what he'd said.

"How—how do you know that?" she asked. Her voice was low, nearly a whisper. Her eyes were as big as saucers, all of the earlier embarrassment giving way to shock. "Only…only Corn knows that…" she said. "When…when we were in Kyoto…he asked and I told him only Sho could call me Kyoko…and then in Guam…"

"Mogami-san, please," he said desperately, "let's forget I ever said anything. I'm fine with calling you Mogami-san." Better the prior status quo than whatever it was he'd stepped into.

She shook her head. She knew what the implications were of what he'd said, but it wasn't the truth she wanted to believe. He watched as her mind contorted around the facts. "You're Corn!" she said. Typical, irrepressible Kyoko. She was sparkling. "But where is Tsuruga-san?" She stood up and looked up at him, leaning over the table and looking closely at his eyes. "And why can't I see your eyes and hair?" she asked.

He groaned inwardly. "Mogami-san, wait—" He remained seated as she inspected him. He saw the moment she saw the telltale rim of a contact lens in his eye and watched as the pieces she'd deliberately kept aloft fell into place.

This wasn't how he'd wanted to tell her.

A little voice whispered inside him. You never wanted to tell her at all, it said.

She was blushing now, and looking away—looking shell-shocked, even, just as she'd looked on the elevator as he was confessing. This was yet another confession, and he could see the gears turning in her head.

Stunned into stillness, Kyoko sat back down on her chair, her mind in turmoil. And yet—in Guam—hadn't she met a fairy? A fairy who flew?

No, she knew who she met in Guam. Hadn't she always known? Deep down inside, she'd always known. Even that trick with jumping off the balcony—it was a stunt that Tsuruga-san was well and truly capable of.

"You…are Corn," she said. "It was you in Guam." She sat with her hands primly in her lap as she looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Has it always been you? The Corn I met in Guam knew things about me that only the real Corn would know," she said. Who else knew about the Hamburger Kingdom? Who else knew about the stories they'd made up while playing in the forest?

He looked at her helplessly, neither denying nor confirming what she'd said.

"How?" she asked.

There was no hope for it now. He could lie, of course, and maybe buy some time before he'd have to tell her. But if he lied he'd lose her. She'd seen. "Otou-san brought me to Japan when I was ten," he said. "And I got bored. So I found this place in the woods…and I met this little girl who was crying…"

"How long have you known?" she asked.

"When you dropped Corn down the stairwell," he said. "I recognized the stone right away."

"Everything you said—about your father, and the wings—"

"All true."

She looked at him suspiciously.

"I…didn't grow up here, Mogami-sa—"

"You may call me 'Kyoko,' Corn," she said. "You might as well."

He would have been overjoyed but she looked so angry he couldn't be. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm truly sorry."

"So…Tsuruga-san is the son of a fairy king?" she prompted.

He shook his head. "My father is a famous actor," he told her. "And when I was younger, I couldn't get out from underneath his shadow. Everyone thought I was only getting jobs because of him."

"Tsuruga-san—"

"My name is Kuon," he said. "My real one. It's only fair that you know."

Recognition on her face. Those golden eyes stared into his face again, and again, he watched as more pieces fell into place. "Hizuri," she said. "Hizuri Kuon. Otou-san's son."

He nodded, once.

"And everything else?" she asked. She had gotten up, her little purse in her hands. He could see that she was slowly stepping away from the table.

"Everything else?" he asked. He stood to follow her.

"Your necklace," she said. She refused to look at him. "And what you told me. When you gave it to me. Was that—true?"

He blushed and held out his palms in open surrender. "More true than anything else in this world, Mogami-san. My heart has always been yours."

She listened to his voice, husky and deep, and a shiver went through her. They'd agreed not to change anything, and as far as she knew, that compact remained. But she'd been unprepared for all these revelations. Despite all her best efforts, she'd found herself climbing Mount Everest anyway, and in a summer dress and sandals. She had to get away, find somewhere to think.

"Kyoko," she said softly. "You can call me by my name. If you want."

He watched, stunned, as she bowed to him and then turned to leave. "Goodnight, Tsuruga-san," she said.

"Wait—Kyoko—" he said. But she was already several paces ahead.

He spoke sadly to empty air. "You can call me by my name too."

=.=.=.=

Author's Note: I know they aren't quite in character in this one. This is kinda what I wish would happen in the next arc, but I don't think we're getting a Corn confession this soon, *and* I know that whatever Sensei does will be far cuter than this one-shot is. I don't even know how many Corn confession scenes I've done at this point. Anyway! DoK Chapter 30 is about halfway done, so please don't think I'm neglecting it. I just couldn't sleep tonight so I thought I'd bang this one-shot out. Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think!

-Parkerbear 11/19/2022