Hello loyal readers,
Recently, I've started watching Wotakoi (a slice of life romance about adult otaku in the working world). I loooove the two main characters (who kind of remind me of Kyoko and Ren), and all the shoujo tropes it subverts. Highly recommend it! (It's on Amazon Prime Video, do it nowwww)
Today, we have the moment we have all been waiting for… The reappearance of Bo! (Just kidding, I know that's not what you guys have been waiting for hehehe)
Hope you all enjoy!
Again, if you're looking for more Skip Beat goodness, I've started a SB one-shot series on my other story All the World's a Stage. Go check it out!
-x-
CH41
– The night before the Prime Minister's Birthday Gala –
"So Tsuruga-kun has never been in love before?"
The look on Agent T's face said that he was not amused at his predicament. However, the giant chicken certainly was. Even through Bo's sturdy foam headpiece, Kyoko could scarcely hide her disbelief and growing, overwhelming urge to guffaw loudly.
The legendary Agent T – the man whose very face had its own interdepartmental fan club – had never been in love before?
But he was such a playboy! Before Kyoko had been assigned as his kouhai – she'd heard the stories – he'd had so many different female partners that Kyoko had assumed he had more leading ladies and love interests than a famous movie star.
Sitting on a large wardrobe trunk amidst the organized chaos of the Muse's costume department, Ren shot the chicken a withering glare. "I can hear your silent judgment from over here."
Kyoko had to stifle an automatic, "Eep!" and settled for a sheepish, "Ah, Tsuruga-kun caught me~!"
"You could've at least denied it, you know." Ren frowned slightly and plopped his head in one hand dejectedly. He grumbled off to the side, "It's not like never being in love has caused me any trou– much trouble on the job."
If Kyoko didn't know any better, she would've thought that Tsuruga Ren, the legendary Agent T, was pouting like a moody teenager.
As Bo, Kyoko uttered a deep chuckle. "Now, now, Tsuruga-kun. While love is–" A disease? A three-act tragedy? A calamity of catastrophic proportions? "–difficult, it sounds like having experience could have saved you some grief on one of your missions," Kyoko managed to finish, still trying to maintain the character of Bo. She had no idea what mission that could've been – certainly not the one at that shady accountant's house with her and Momose-san? It had worked out well in the end, hadn't it?
Ren sighed, his head flopping to hang between his drooping shoulders. After a moment, he twitched his head up, his expression now annoyed. Apparently, he wasn't taking well to getting love advice from a chicken. "Well, Mr. Chicken who also happens to be a love-guru – what does it feel like to be in love?"
"I suppose… A prelude to love would feel like…" Taking a second to think, one wing pressed thoughtfully to the mask's chin, Bo answered, "Just by gazing upon her face… No matter how weary you are, you will feel happy. Deep inside your heart, you will feel a warmth… Normally, we call this "love."
Trying to choke back the bile at the base of her throat, Kyoko took a while to notice the wide-eyed expression on her senpai's face as he stared off into space. Kyoko blinked, realizing. "So you have someone in mind!"
"What?" Instantly, Ren blinked himself out of his thoughts, blushed, and then recoiled. "Wh-what makes you say that?"
"Your reaction just now told me." Kyoko hoped that her extremely smug look wouldn't translate across the thick styrofoam head, but from the withering glower on his face, she could tell that she wasn't being very successful in hiding it. "So who is it?"
Tipping the back of his head back to stare at the ceiling, Ren sighed heavily. He said haltingly, "Actually it's my childhood friend–"
'Wow, it's like a J-drama,' Kyoko thought in shock. Of course, dramatic romance things like this would happen to beautiful people like Ren.
"–We met again recently, and she didn't recognize me–"
'Must not be a very perceptive girl,' Kyoko mused, nodding internally to herself. 'Must be either blind or immeasurably dense.'
"–I'm lying to her about who I am, and now…" Ren paused and sighed again. "I don't know what I feel toward her… But maybe it's better to just let these feelings die out."
He uttered a small, bitter laugh, his head dropping to examine his hands in his lap. "After everything I've done… It's not like I deserve love anyway."
The look on her partner's face was agonizingly pained. Kyoko felt a prick at her heart just looking at him. While she knew love was a poison more insidious than carbon monoxide, she couldn't bring herself to try and convince him that a loveless life was a fortune. Then again, for people like her, love was bound to end in tragedy, but people like Tsuruga Ren at least had a fighting chance for a happy ending.
"Maybe," Kyoko heard her voice piping up in Bo's false-baritone, "Maybe one day, if you tell her, she will understand."
Ren barked a dry, ironic laugh. "Isn't that awfully naïve? Hoping that she'll just look beyond my flaws and love me exactly the way I am?"
"No…" Kyoko trailed off, thinking hard to try and pin down the thoughts and feelings whirling around in her mind. "It's not like that… Love can't be just blindly accepting somebody – flaws and all – refusing to see the other person for the real selfish, rude, inconsiderate, back-stabbing, conniving–"
"Uh…"
"I mean–!" Kyoko huffed a small sigh, attempting to cover from her slip out of character. "To be honest, I haven't figured it out yet either. But I feel that love is more than just a fluffy feeling and jumping straight in, mindlessly ignoring shortcomings…"
"Well, if even my Love Guru hasn't totally figured it out," Ren replied, his joking tone trying to downplay his earlier melancholy. "Then there must be no hope for me after all!"
Bo sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with one wing. "Love is certainly a mystery!"
Kyoko paused then looked intently at her partner. After witnessing his earlier pain, his sparkling smile looked like a cardboard mask taped to his face. For some reason, it hurt her. She tried to convey all the sincerity she could in her tone as she said in Bo's voice, "I truly hope that one day you can solve that mystery and find happiness, Tsuruga-kun."
Before he rose and bid the chicken farewell, Ren's only reply was a small, bittersweet smile.
-x-
– 1:01 until revote –
"Agent M…"
"T-san…"
Kyoko wasn't prepared for this. The junior agent just stood there, staring at her senpai – who honestly seemed equally shell-shocked – both their gun barrels now drooping listlessly toward the floor. She had told Kimiko that Ren would come for her, but amidst everything that had happened… It was still quite the shock to meet him like this.
Thinking back to her revelation in the prison cell, her racing mind scrutinized his face. Was he really Corn? Was this really the face of a man who cared for her? A thrill of fear mingled with excitement raced down her spine.
But, wait a moment… More importantly…
"T-san!" Kyoko finally blurted out, "Have you been eating? You look as though you haven't had a meal in days!"
Holstering his weapon, Ren grimaced and hazarded, "I did eat something…"
"When?" Kyoko demanded.
Agent T muttered something under his breath.
"Two days ago!" Horrified, Kyoko launched onto her soapbox, that his eating habits – or lack thereof – were frightening for someone who was supposedly a consummate professional. Now far beyond awareness of the time and place, she began animatedly lecturing Ren, concerned that he had picked up Cain's bad habits of drinking booze for meals and that vitamin deficiencies were a real life problem, you know? Anemia, pellagra, and Wernicke's encephalopathy were all extremely dangerous–!
While she was ranting, from some far corner of her mind, Kyoko watched Ren's lips twitch multiple times as if he were trying to hold back a smirk or laugh, until eventually all pretense was abandoned and he burst out in a smile as bright as the sun. He stepped forward, arms outstretched as if to embrace her, and in instinctive shock at this sudden turn of events, Kyoko broke off and froze as stiff as a board.
As if in response to her expression, Ren's hands changed trajectory to settle hesitantly on her shoulders. Her lecture dying on her lips, she looked up at him shyly, trying not to look as disappointed as she felt that he clearly did not want to hug her. Still, a curl of happiness twisted in her stomach, feeling the comforting weight of his palms on her shoulders.
His smile, however, didn't fade. It radiated down on her, and she felt a flush work its way from the tip of her head down to her toes.
Ren's eyes crinkled in amusement. "That's so like you."
"What?"
"You were the one being held captive, and the first thing you ask me is if I've been eating well."
Kyoko pouted. "From the sound of it, I've been fed far better than you have this past week."
At this, Ren looked her quickly up and down, turning her head this way and that with a gentle hand on her chin. Though Kyoko was sure he didn't find any signs of trauma, his expression became worried. "You look well, but… did they…?"
Kyoko felt her heart warm. He had been worried about her. She shook her head vigorously and gave a small laugh. "Surprisingly, I was treated with great dignity and kindness."
"Remind me to give Delta my thanks," Ren said with a wry smile, only a trace of bitterness in his voice.
Agent M scoffed. "You'll have to get in line. I have my thanks to give him as well–" and curled her hand into a slender fist.
His eyes crinkled in amusement again. Then the mirth faded, and Ren looked down. His hands slipped from her shoulders. Kyoko instantly missed their warmth.
"M-san," Ren murmured softly. "How can I ever apologize to you for the mess I've gotten you into?"
In protest, Kyoko opened her mouth, but closed it when he held up a hand, his eyes sad.
"The only one to blame here is myself," the dark-haired agent said gravely. "My selfishness and weakness drove me to make the decisions I did, and you suffered for it in the end."
Unwilling to interrupt him, Kyoko watched the pain and tumult cross his dark eyes.
"That's why, I swore to myself, if I ever saw you again, I would make it all right. There would be no more hiding…" Ren locked eyes with her, his gaze boring into hers. "Mogami-san, I have two confessions to make."
Kyoko's heart soared.
"First…" Ren took a deep, calming breath, and then said, "I have been lying to you this whole time. I'm not who I say I am or who you've known me to be."
Huh?
Kyoko's heart instantly sunk. Her mind went blank as she desperately tried to process his words. What was he talking about?
"I've been hiding the truth from you this whole time because I was afraid of hurting you…"
Cracked and repaired time and time again, the love-wary heart of Mogami Kyoko instantly leapt toward the conclusion she had feared the most.
He had just been acting, pretending to have feelings for her. For what reason, just to be cruel? For the job? She was just a plain boring girl after all. She didn't know why she had expected or hoped for anything else.
Pit in her stomach growing heavier by the moment, Kyoko thought despondently, 'He's talking about leading me on with false feelings. Just like Kimiko had warned me…'
Spinning, reeling, Kyoko's mind couldn't seem to get a logical beat down. So emotions took the reins.
"Well, there's a reason why you're such a great agent. You're amazing at pretending…" Kyoko finally managed, trying to keep her voice light but the bitter downturn at the end gave her away.
Ren sounded shocked. "You knew?"
"I had my suspicions, but I didn't know," Kyoko said miserably. The tears welled in her eyes. "But now I know that everything was a lie…"
She just wanted to run away – but to what and to whom? Her mom had abandoned her. Sho had betrayed her. And now…
-x-
How had everything gone so wrong?
Ren looked down at the girl in front of him who was clearly fighting bitter tears.
The senior agent glanced away, pained. He hadn't known that she had figured him out already and that she would take the truth this hard – the truth that he was Corn and that he wasn't really a fairy.
Her reaction… Was Yashiro wrong about her feelings? Ren had been so confidently happy back at HQ, but now, seeing her react to this news with such anger was extremely disconcerting. And if she took the first confession this way, the second thing he had promised himself he would tell her was probably going to go even worse. His heart sank.
Ren stumbled over his words. "I-I'm sorry. I thought you would've figured it out by now that everything had been an act."
Eyes rising to glare at him as her grief flashed into anger, Kyoko snapped back. "Sorry for being such a simple-minded idiot for trusting and believing you!"
"I thought…" Ren murmured, still reeling at her extreme emotional response. "I thought you would understand... I never meant for my deception to be hurtful. At the time, I thought it was rather harmless."
"Of course it was harmful! You got my hopes up! Everyone was right about you!" Kyoko muttered angrily. "I thought you were different, T-san!"
Becoming desperate to justify himself, Ren blurted out at the same time Kyoko retorted –
"How was I supposed to know you'd cling to my fairy story for so many years?"
"You're just a despicable playboy of unimaginable proportions!"
The two stopped short.
Mind trying to fit the puzzle pieces together and coming up short, Ren blinked repeatedly as he watched Kyoko open her mouth, then snap it shut. Open it again. Then close it. Finally the two managed –
"Playboy…?"
"Fairy story…?"
Kyoko tilted her head to the side. "I'm confused."
"Let's back track." Ren held his hands up. Taking a deep breath and trying not to hope against hope that this was all just a misunderstanding, Ren said slowly, "I'm not a fairy."
For what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time, Kyoko stared blankly at him, and then her mouth dropped open. "You are Corn?"
Ren nodded.
He watched as her eyes took on that bejeweled sparkle of imaginary-fairy-world-Kyoko – before his childhood friend abruptly wilted. "So it's true… you're not a fairy?"
Ren smiled apologetically. This was the response that he'd expected. "Sorry, I'm not."
"Did you at least overcome your father?" Kyoko asked excitedly as she brightened.
"I got a little side-tracked…" Reminded of his mistakes, Ren sighed and looked down. "Mogami-san, how can I ever apologize for what I've done to you? I put my own stupid, reckless, selfish goals ahead of your wellbeing. If it weren't for you, I might be dead right now–"
The young woman shook her head vigorously. "When you care for someone, you don't just let them wallow in their mistakes. You try to help them fight."
Her words – 'care for' – echoed in his head, and he felt the beginnings of a blush begin to creep up his neck. Then it struck him. The love advice from the chicken. Yes, fuzzy feelings were the prelude to love, but deeper, more fully – this was love. Looking the person – warts and all – full in the face and wanting more for them. So that meant that Kyoko, toward him felt–!
"So you care for me? Enough to help me change?"
"Of course." Seemingly caught off-guard by his strange tone, Kyoko tilted her head to the side. "I mean, you helped me as well. You helped me see that there is more to this life than bitterness and revenge…"
"So… you could say that I care for you too, just as much as you care for me."
"I-I mean–" Finally catching his implication toward her feelings, Kyoko stumbled over her words as she looked down, her face aflame. "Of course you're my respected senpai, a-and you–"
She didn't deny it. Grinning, Ren took a step forward. In her near panic, Kyoko hardly seemed to notice.
"You're an irreplaceable part of my life – a-as my partner and friend, and–"
He took another step forward, completely closing the distance between them, and as he used one hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and leaned down, her words slowed.
"And you're my… my…"
Her breath felt warm and sweet on his cheek. Eyes fluttering closed, Ren whispered, bemused, "Mogami-san, this is the part where we stop talking…"
Their lips brushed just barely, and Ren leaned in farther, his other hand rising to rest on her lower back and pull her closer.
"Hey YOU TWO! STOP RIGHT THERE!"
-x—
At the harsh male voice, Kyoko's eyes flew open, and she heard Ren curse. Bullets whizzed through the air as a dozen green-uniformed guards stormed into the warehouse. Adrenaline already on high, Kyoko hardly had time to bemoan her bad luck before she had whipped T-san's spare pistol back out and was matching her partner in returning fire.
She saw one of her shots hit a guard in the shoulder, and he went down hard. Kyoko saw Agent T down another two guards. Still more henchmen spilled into the room, all yelling and ducking behind cover.
The two dove behind a pile of wooden crates, gunfire occasionally showering them in a spray of splinters. Kyoko winced back as a piece of debris flew too close to her eye. She glanced up at Ren, who after emptying his clip, ducked back behind the crates to reload.
He grinned down at her, his joy clearly irrepressible even by present circumstances. "Between the two of us, I'd say we have the most rotten luck when it comes to this kind of thing."
Laughing a little, she poked her head out, took aim, and fired two more shots. The first hit a wooden crate, and the second caught another guard in the leg as he attempted to run for closer cover toward the duo.
"I'd say!"
That was when overhead, the Klaxon siren began to sound. A voice over the loudspeakers shrilled repeatedly, "Lockdown initiated, Warehouse 2. Lockdown initiated, Warehouse 2–"
A loud rumble sounded behind the agents.
Alarmed, Kyoko whirled around. The only exit – the industrial shutter door that she had previously been attempting to reach – was slowly closing, the heavy metal slats rolling down from the ceiling. "T-san!"
Ren caught her meaning and began to sprint for the door. "Cover me!"
Kyoko laid down cover fire for her partner. After he reached the door, he returned the favor and Agent M sprinted forward, staying as low and fast as she could.
"You're bleeding," Ren yelled over the din of gunfire and alarms as she ran up. Kyoko glanced down at a shallow nick along her upper arm that was oozing blood.
"Just a graze!" She called back and started for the door, which by this time had lowered to about waist height.
Temporarily covered behind a haphazard stack of boxes and crates, Ren yelled, "I'll hold. You go first. I'll be right after you."
Straining, Ren gripped the bottom of the door, partially slowing its descent. Kyoko ducked double and quickly ran underneath the shutter.
Not a moment too soon. Ren gave a sudden cry and the shutter abruptly dropped an arm's length. Kyoko whirled back, alarmed. The metal door continued its slow inevitable descent, but behind it, Kyoko could see that Ren had dropped to one knee, clutching his side.
His hand came away crimson and wet.
"T-san!" Kyoko yelped and tried to grip the bottom of the heavy metal door and strained with all her might. The mechanism continued to push the door down and down and down. Abandoning her fruitless efforts, she attempted to crawl back under the shutter, but it was closing too fast. She would get trapped underneath.
Ren cursed. Kyoko crouched to her forearms and belly. "T-san, hurry up! I can't stop the door."
In response, Ren grimaced and fished around in his pocket, tossing her two objects that skittered across the floor. Her hands caught them, brain briefly registering them as a smart watch and a comm link.
"Rendezvous point with Agents A and K is on the watch. Go!"
"No…" Her heart sinking as she caught his intent, Kyoko just stared at him. The shots began to ring closer and closer.
"I can't come. I'm just going to slow you down," Agent T replied, wincing. He turned and shot twice with his pistol. One of the oncoming guards dropped to the floor. "There's no other option."
"Don't do this! Please!" Kyoko wailed, now straining to see him from under the crack in the door. As if ignoring her, Ren continued on.
"I almost forgot the second thing I wanted to tell you." Ren called out, a small laugh in his voice before he disappeared entirely behind the shutter. "Mogami Kyoko, I love you."
The metal scrolling door closed with a heavy, ominous CLANG. As she heard the sounds of a fierce gunfight from behind the shutter, Kyoko ran back and forth frantically, kicking the hinges, trying to pull at the heavy chain mechanism, straining to wedge her fingers underneath to try and lift it again. Repeated ping-pping-ping sounded as bullets ricocheted off the other side of the thick door.
Then abruptly, the sounds of gunfire stopped.
"T…san…?" Freezing, Kyoko's heart dropped.
"T-san? Ren?" Protocol abandoned, Kyoko screamed and banged on the door again and again, her cries turning into desperate sobs. "REN!"
"There she is!" A stern female voice barked far to her left.
Kyoko whipped around. Beyond the blurriness of her tears, she could make out two or three guards running down the hall toward her, their steel-toed boots tramping on the tiled floor.
Taking one last long look at the heavy industrial shutter that stood between her and Ren, Kyoko swiped an arm over her eyes and ran.
- 0:49 until revote -
-x-
Notes: Quick poll: Are you guys more pissed that I cock-blocked Kyoko and Ren or got Ren shot? Dundundu~n!
-x-
MAILBAG:
CrystallineX – Thanks for taking the time to review! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts as you were going through the chapters. As for the problem with Korean in Chapter 31, you're right! I don't watch too many K-dramas or have much interest in Korean culture (despite being Korean myself), so that was all literally put through Google translate haha. And you totally called Kaiso being a plot twist… He's a double plot twist! Haha Thanks again and hope to see you in the review section in the future! (And thanks for being my 100th fave! :D
Guest – Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
MWEH – Hmm, LME is a closed group so I guess it doesn't show up on public searches? But honestly the message boards on the LME page are kind of dead except around the 20th of each month, so not sure if I'll stick around or not. And I'm so so so glad you liked the last chapter! It was a bear to write, TBH. So much writer's block TT_TT But I'm glad it turned out well in the end! In other news, what did you think of the most recent manga chapter? I was honestly a little sad at how anti-climactic it was, but also… That reaction was just so… Kyoko-ish! Haha I can't hate Nakamura-sensei too much because she definitely keeps us guessing and laughing. And that's what I love about Skip Beat to begin with – Kyoko's not a typical wimpy, love-crazy shoujo protag. Sooo I guess, be careful what we wish for TT_TT
Kittiesama – Haha, I absolutely agree with you! In my fic's head canon, the Vie Ghoul does join the LME unit. Honestly, I feel like Maria and Reino would have such a fun dynamic if they ever met in the manga. Thanks for reviewing from the beginning! Welcome to the fam!
Ezra Tsuruga – Did you recently change your username? Love the Skip Beat theme! Haha And I'm SO GLAD that someone understood my keyboard joke *cries of happiness* As for the August manga chapter, I DIED! Loved it so much! But then September's chapter hit, and I was like…. That's so Kyoko, I can't even. -_- Haha I don't have a discord, but I keep on hearing things about it, so if I ever have the time to get one, I'll let you know! Hope your life gets better! You're awesome too :) Don't forget that!
Guineapigs1 – Oh man, that would be so tragic if Kyoko had shot Ren on accident! Glad you enjoyed the chapter last month! Thanks for reading both fics and for reviewing!
Don't forget! If this story made you laugh or cry or squeeeee~ or anything else, don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert! Your feedback really drives my motivation. Thanks loyal readers! We made it to 100 faves and over 300 reviews! I feel so blessed. Thank you all!