Back in the Minefield
A/N: I'm so sorry for the month off without an update. I got caught up in a bunch of stuff and will be attempting to get back into this! To those who haven't heard from tumblr or wherever else I've been talking about it-I'm going to grad school! I start my MFA with a residency on campus next month before officially starting this fall! I'm so excited and thank everybody for their support through the years. Y'all are the reason I keep writing.
I'd thought I'd throw in a little old-time fandom cliche into this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!
As always, this is still dedicated to SubtleCuddle.
. . .
The words cycled her head like a broken record long after the shoot wrapped. It repeated at the worst times and consequently ruined her train of thought well into the next week. Any moment she wasn't in character and she was forced to exist solely as Kyoko Mogami, it echoed its cruel refrain through her head. Every night, pounding into her sleepless thoughts:
I love you, Kyoko.
The haunting melody lingered in her head as she whisked herself between jobs, too distracted to really worry about the missing presence at her side.
Yashiro had called out sick the day before. So, she picked up the slack as if her career depended on it. And it did. She'd survived almost a full year without a manager. There was no reason she couldn't handle herself now. The only thing she needed to be wary of was any situations that could potentially end up like the stint back on Kuon's show. Without Yashiro, it was harder to predict who would be on the sets she visited as a guest for the episode. As it turned out-the producers were less willing to disclose such information to a talento acting as her own manager than if it was an actual manager asking.
Kyoko sighed. "I miss Yashiro-san," she muttered under her breath as she navigated her way through the LME offices in search of the acting department's Matsushima. She hoped he might have mercy on her and tell her who was on the commercial set she was supposed to be on that day. After all, it was an LME production.
"Perhaps I could be of assistance?"
She froze mid-step as the voice's owner sunk in. Because of course, it was him. Kuon. Kyoko pulled her shoulders back and forced an uneasy smile. "Oh, don't worry about me," she laughed breezily. "I'll survive on my own. I always do."
If he had a counter to her argument, he couldn't pull it out before a new voice interrupted. "I'm afraid that Kuon-san is still a little hesitant to put himself out there. This is a Love Me! Job." Sawara interrupted the would-be standstill with a sigh. "The President doesn't want you without a manager right now, Mogami-san, and the others are...booked."
Kyoko narrowed her eyes but didn't call him out on the obvious lie. She appreciated he even tried to cover up what was obviously one of the President's contrived plans. "I'm perfectly capable of working without one," she reminded him with a tight-lipped smile.
"Apparently Love Me! Section training now explicitly requires practice playing manager." Sawara eyed 'Kuon' uneasily. Something about him...didn't strike him as right. He pushed the thought away and focused back on Kyoko. "And Kuon-san's opportunity apparently should be with the 'best of the best.'"
"He's trying to stroke my ego," Kyoko said blandly.
"It would seem that way."
She sighed, pulling in a deep breath before turning back to Kuon. If she didn't already ingrain it into her brain-it would be hard to recognize him as #1 Bachelor Tsuruga Ren. What had become his trademark confidence and gentlemanly aura had been contorted into a refraction of what he used to be. He slouched, making his height practically unnoticeable. He obviously wore contacts and had dyed his hair. But most of all, it was his presence that was most different. In this form, as Kuon, he seemed more his age. Twenty-one years young.
Yes, she was sure of it. If she hadn't been such a Type A and insistent on knowing everything she could about this man, she would have never recognized him. After all, nobody else seemed to.
"I'm going to regret this, but Kuon-san, it looks like you'll be playing my manager until the President screws his head on straight." She coughed, closing her eyes. "Knowing my luck, that won't be for a while.
"I'll be happy to assist you for as long as you need."
Kyoko bit her lip and shook her head. "First rule of being my manager. Don't go saying sweet nothings like that to me. I'm Love Me Number 1, things like that don't work on me." She turned her heels. "I'll explain the other rules on the way to Matsushima-san's office." It'd give her enough time to actually make up rules. Yashiro-san didn't need rules; he knew her too well.
Tsuruga-san knew her, too. But she couldn't be too sure what Kuon would do.
Sawara watched the duo in pink with a sinking in his chest. Whatever the President had planned this time...
He kind of felt sorry for Kuon-san.
. . .
Everything that made Kyoko an awful manager when she worked for Tsurgua-san made Kuon a wonderful one. Annoyingly so. He carried her bag (to her chagrin because not even Yashiro does that! And she's fully capable of carrying her own bag!). The stagehands and managers and producers loved him-and never mistook him for a temp worker. He could drive.
She noticed quickly that he drove her in one of the nondescript company cars. A simple sedan model similar to the one Yashiro used. Though, on second thought, it made sense. His entire schtick would be up if he drove his own car.
The only thing she could really be disappointed with was his insistence that he wore the blinding Love Me! coveralls. His excuse was that Kyoko wore them when she assisted Tsuruga Ren and even Chiori in uniform. It was a low blow, she decided, because there was no way 'Kuon' would know that. But she had no real reason to argue with him. She would just have to deal with it...probably in the same way he had to deal with an annoying girl he hated following him in an offensively pink uniform.
Except she couldn't bring herself to hate him, regardless of what she said last week.
"Hey, Kyoko-chan, Tsuruga-san finally steal his manager back from you?" Koga called cheerfully as he spotted his co-star enter the soundstage with a tall blonde following close behind. "Using this one to make your boy-toy jealous?"
Kyoko smiled politely. "Yashiro-san has a cold and wasn't interested in contaminating the set."
Even though she didn't believe it herself, the lie was believed. Thankfully. If someone called her out on the lie, she didn't know how she would have wound herself around it. It wasn't like she could even say that her 'manager' was Tsuruga Ren. Not that they would believe her.
"You didn't answer the other question."
She kept her smile even and turned to her other surrounding cast members. "This is Kuon-san and is the newest addition to Love Me! Section at LME. He will be acting as my temporary manager while Yashiro-san is sick." Kyoko motioned to Kuon, ignoring the impressed looks of some of the women. They were supposed to be Tsuruga Ren fans and here they were...fooled by Tsuruga Ren into liking someone else. She barely kept in a sigh.
Ayami-san, the actress chosen for Chidori, approached the pink duo with too much hesitation for someone who supposedly had a boyfriend. "Uh, Kuon-kun...have I-have I met you before?"
Well, the reality was that Ayami had actually worked with Tsuruga as a minor character in a drama the year before. Tsuruga remembered that but kept an easy smile. "I've done some extra work recently but I don't believe the episodes have aired yet. So, I don't think so."
She smiled. "Where on earth has LME been hiding you?"
He shrugged carefully. Kyoko took the opportunity to turn away from her castmates to check the call board. She was up first. "I'm going to be going to the dressing room. I'd hate to cause any trouble today," she said, directing the comment at Tsuruga-as-Kuon. He was toeing dangerous territory and if he wasn't careful, his identity would be unveiled in careless small talk.
Kyoko hadn't intended on helping him stay as Kuon but she'd rather not let her cast know that the Tsuruga Ren was on set. They were unbearable enough when the gossip had come out. She didn't want to imagine what would happen if the man himself was on set.
Especially since Koga supposedly hated him.
"I'll go with you," Kuon replied, taking the hint. He appreciated her effort. There wasn't any good way to say that LME has been hiding him in plain sight. He turned back to the cast and bowed deeply. "It was nice meeting everyone. Work hard today."
Things settled down as soon as the workday got underway. Everybody was too busy to worry about where they could have possibly seen Kuon before and Kyoko was too tired to worry about literally anything else. Take after take, Kyoko had to keep up her stamina as if it was the first one. Kuon focused on keeping a towel and water on hand for each of her breaks as a team of makeup artists worked on bringing the rosy traces of exertion from her cheeks. He tried his best to operate as her support. She was too tired to try pushing him away, her rules about personal boundaries be damned. Take. Break. Take.
She practically held her breath as Morizumi called to review the latest take. There were almost ten takes in a row and the world was starting to get a little blurry.
She waited.
"Kyoko," Kuon whispered.
She jumped at his presence as he came up behind her. "Kuon-san," she greeted softly, wiping her brow. The take was greenlit minutes ago but she couldn't shake the warmth from the stunts. Really, what made today any different from yesterday's rehearsal? And yet...it seemed so much more strenuous.
He studied her carefully but decided she was still tired from the complicated stunts he watched her do. Kuon nudged her shoulder. "We should get going. You don't want to be late."
Kyoko hummed in agreement, turning to the hall with her dressing room without another word.
Kuon watched as Kyoko shuffled down the hall. It wasn't her usual gait. He knew that much. There was a lot he could say about her since he re-adopted his persona as Kuon. She's been less open with him, harder to predict. And he deserved it. But this was different. As far as he could tell, this wasn't some contrived act to throw him off. He may be going back to Kuon, but he still had all the acting knowledge of Tsuruga Ren. More than that, he knew Kyoko. His instincts told him he needed to be wary.
Something wasn't right.
. . .
It hit him when he watched Kyoko fall out of character after the last take was given the greenlight. This was only a short commercial shoot, making use of her identity as a talento to stick it to Kuresaki. She hadn't lingered after the director's OK and walked straight to her dressing room. More appropriately, she wobbled. The motion reminded him of the first few times she accompanied him as Setsu-with her too tall, too thin heels. She wore flats today.
It reminded him, also, of something else. Something he experienced once and vowed to never experience ever again. Once was enough and an awful stain on his prided reputation for never getting sick. But that was it. He was sure. Kyoko had to be coming down with a cold.
There were many reasons for getting sick, he'd learned after dealing with his own bout with a cold. Like him: there was malnutrition and working too hard. That couldn't be her circumstance; she'd eaten every meal very diligently. And far as he was aware, this was actually a considerable lesser schedule he was given to handle. Which left the other option: stress.
The thought made him immediately guilty. Kyoko was inevitably stressed about everything he was doing to her. Being Kuon. Telling her he loved her back on set. Playing manager. Kuon sighed. He was suddenly very unsure about this plan President Takarada helped him construct after his disastrous confrontation with Kyoko after Yappa Kimagure Rock. Then again, he should have realized this a lot sooner. The President hardly ever had good ideas about love.
It was worse when he realized that Kyoko wouldn't let herself rest; it was an early day and he was to return her to the Daruyama after she finished changing back into her street clothes. There, she would probably volunteer to help.
And she would only get sicker.
There was a solution to his problem, but he didn't trust himself to enact it without blowing his cover. He had to, though. For the sake of Kyoko. He needed to call Yashiro. Call Yashiro and pray that he wasn't recognized. He could have called the Daruyama himself but he didn't trust that the Taisho wouldn't see immediately through the fake personality. He already saw through his Ren persona. Kuon didn't stand a chance.
Kuon took a deep breath. Fooling those close to us is the greatest test, he reminded himself. He closed his eyes and dialled.
"Hello?"
"Yashiro-san? I apologize for the interruption." He spoke slowly, deliberately. Like he was talking to a stranger and needed to make a good impression. Because he kind of was. "My name is Kuon and I've been assigned as Kyoko-chan's manager for the day. I'm...I'm in the Love Me! Section."
Yashiro froze. Both because the call couldn't mean anything good-and because it was him. The actor that could possibly compete with Tsuruga Ren. He swallowed hard, trying to keep his voice even. "Is something wrong with Kyoko-chan?"
Kuon paused, wondering briefly if it would be better to tell the whole truth or a half lie. He decided on the truth. There didn't need to be any more lies between him and his manager. "Kyoko-chan is coming down with a cold. I'll be taking her to the President's estate where she'll be handled...at his discretion." He cringed. It sounded like a torture method when he spoke the words out loud. "It's mostly rest, though," he promised.
"I see."
"And I was wondering if you had the contact information for her guardians at the...the Daruyama? So I could let them know she won't be home today?"
"That won't be necessary," Yashiro managed finally. "I'll be sure to call her guardians on the behalf of LME and yourself."
"Thank you." Kuon hung up before Yashiro could think any longer about the exchange. "Sorry, Yashiro-san," he said into the silence. It was a rude way to end the call, but he would have panicked if the call went on any longer. He could hear it in his voice. He was onto him.
Yashiro, on the other end of the line, looked blankly at his phone as the other end hung up. So, this was Kuon. The surprising fourth addition to the Love Me! Section...and obviously part, if not the entire, reason President Takarada asked him to lie to Kyoko and feign sickness. There was something oddly familiar about his voice, but...
He shook it off. No. It couldn't be. He would have known about any contrived plans like that-heck, he would have been involved! His favorite past time was trying to bring Kyoko and Ren together. But there was no way. He would have known.
There was no way this 'Kuon' could possibly be Tsuruga Ren in disguise.
. . .
"This isn't the Daruyama."
"No."
Kyoko yawned, barely managing to cover her mouth as she looked over the magnificent building off to the side. He took advantage of her half-asleep state and directed them off their route. "This is President Takarada's mansion."
Kuon hesitated. "That is." He took a breath and motioned through the windshield at a small cottage off to the corner of the estate. Compared to the molding and gilded details of the President's own house, this seemed almost comically normal. Innocuous. "But this is where I'm taking you."
She looked at the building suspiciously. "A place to dump my body?"
"Ex-Excuse me?"
Kyoko waved off the joke. She was too tired to continue with it. It was a bad joke, anyway. "I'm guessing you have an explanation for this, too?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he turned the car off and pulled himself out of the driver's seat. He crossed the front of the car before opening Kyoko's door. She took off her seatbelt but refused to move from her seat. Not until he answered her. Relenting, he held a hand out to her. "It's my home."
The answer stunned her long enough for Kuon to pull her out of the car and close the door behind her. It was truth enough, though before returning to Kuon-he wouldn't have been able to tell anyone the last time he actually considered the condo 'home.' More appropriately, it was the house he used in the midst of creating Tsuruga Ren. Only two people besides himself had ever been inside. President Takarada and his assistant. Now, Kyoko would join the ranks-though she wouldn't understand the significance of the invitation until the final shoe came off. When he was forced to tell the whole truth about Kuon Hizuri.
She followed closely as he led her to the entryway, holding in a gasp as he held the door open. It wasn't just the outside that was plain. The inside matched, looking nothing like the posh, sophisticated apartment Tsurgua Ren lived in. In fact, it practically resembled the home she'd lived in with her mother before she was abandoned with the Fuwas. Mostly sparse and impeccably clean.
"Why am I here?" Kyoko asked, toeing off her shoes in the entry. "The taisho and okami are expecting back home soon."
Kuon had the decency to hesitate before countering her point. "No, they aren't. I asked Yashiro to tell your parents that you were staying under the care of the company for the night. An emergency."
Red flashed before her eyes. "I knew it! He's involved with your big game, huh?" Kyoko huffed, turning on her heels and positioning herself back to the door. She'd bang on the President's door and demand he took her home. She couldn't deal with this nonsense anymore. "I knew he couldn't be that dense."
"You're mistaken. He didn't recognize my voice when I called." Kuon reached out, gently catching her arm. "The only thing he knows is that Tsuruga Ren is on a badly timed vacation."
"Oh."
She paused and turned back to him as he dropped her arm. Nothing made sense, still, but at least Yashiro hadn't fallen to the pits of lying to her. Yet. "You didn't answer my first question," she said finally.
"I think...I think you're catching a cold. Probably from the...stress...I've put on you. And I knew you wouldn't slow down at home, so here you are. The President had his assistant deliver medication and food."
"I'm not-" She froze. Paid attention. Her whole body hurt and pain pulsated from the back of her skull to her eyebrows. Her throat hurt, but she'd assumed it was from all the talking she'd done. Except that wasn't right. Most of today's shoots were silent. Stunts on Lotus and cheerful posing on her commercial shoot. She knew better than this; she lectured Tsuruga-san about it all the time. Look at her now. "How did you know?" she whispered.
"I paid attention. Just like you did for me."
Kyoko nodded, swallowing hard. Here she was giving the guy a hard time because he didn't want her to be sick. What was this world turning her into? Correction. What was her fear turning her into? She couldn't help but fear Kuon's motives and it was turning her into a heartless person. Just like those girls had said when she was on his set the week prior.
With nothing left to argue about, Kyoko let Kuon lead her to the small table in the center of his living room. An assortment of medicinal drinks and classic 'sick foods' cluttered the small space. Pocari Sweat. Honeyed Daikon. Udon. Rice Porridge. All in containers emblazoned with logos from restaurants across Tokyo. Kyoko barely kept in a laugh as she sat in front of the bounty.
Kuon pressed his lips together, sitting down across from her. "I...I didn't know what you preferred and I inherited my cooking skills from my mother. So I had Takarada-san's assistant pick up anything that might...anything that might help."
"Don't apologize. It's...it's sweet," she conceded, pulling the daikon close. There wasn't any possible way she'd be able to eat all of this. It was the thought that mattered.
They sat in silence like that for the duration of the evening. And to Kuon's satisfaction, the brightness returned to her eyes and she smiled more easily. Tiredness still edged around her eyes but that wasn't something that couldn't be fixed with a good night's rest. Which exactly why he led her to the bedroom, making her promise that she would remain in bed until he woke her up for the next morning, where he would escort her to her first set.
From there, Yashiro would resume his managerial responsibilities. To avoid more stressors in her environment.
There were a few things that bothered her about his statement-however, Kyoko only found it in herself to vocalize her complaint about the bed she now occupied. She tried arguing but he silenced her, telling her that she only occupied the guest room. Kyoko didn't know enough about the layout of the cottage to dispute his claim. She sat grumpily on the mattress and watched as Kuon made to leave, presumably to sleep on the couch. And she was going to let him. It was his own fault if he ended up with a crick in his neck, she decided quickly.
However, decision, aside, Kyoko couldn't help her curiosity. And who was to blame her, given the circumstances? "When are you going to give this up?"
Kuon turned, a hesitant smile plastered on his face. "What are you talking about, Kyoko-senpai?"
If Kuon-or-Tsuruga-or-whoever-he-was was anything-it was a good actor. Kyoko knew that. But it didn't stop her from being frustrated at the non answer. "All of this," she nearly shouted. "Tsuruga-san, you can't keep pretending to be someone you're not to prove a point!"
"And what would that point be?" He blinked innocently.
All this time? It's been me?
Yes.
If you have to return to Kyoto, I will follow you. Mogami-san, I'll even learn to be a waiter if you'll be with me.
I thought it was obvious. I love you, Kyoko.
Her brain unhelpfully supplemented her with his apparent motive for playing Kuon. She couldn't, wouldn't, say the words out loud. She looked away, gnawing on her lip.
As her eyes left him, Kuon changed his act. He stood up tall, pulling his shoulders back, and plastered on one of his gentleman's smiles. "My name isn't Tsuruga-san, Mogami-san. I told you that."
"But-" Kyoko's objection died on her tongue as she turned back to him. Right before her eyes, he transformed out of Tsuruga Ren and back to Kuon. Or, almost Kuon. This time he was different than the cheerful man who's supposedly tailed her into LME via the Love Me! Section. He was rougher around the edges. Still familiar, though. This new-Kuon was someone she's met before. It was the man she couldn't identify back when they were playing the Heel Siblings. Not quite Tsuruga-san. Not quite Cain Heel. But also not BJ or any of his other characters.
Kyoko licked her lips, wanting to say something. Except she couldn't find the words to say what she wanted to say-if she even had anything specific to say in the first place. Kuon smiled, dissipating her efforts. "Sweet Dreams, Kyoko."
As she closed her eyes and buried herself into the sheets, she saw Kuon's smile on the back of her eyelids.
~End Chapter Four~
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Leave a Review!