AN: Hope you guys enjoy this chapter 😊 Once again I'm super sleepy so I hope it makes sense
Act 13 – Nothing Will Develop
Ren had wanted to make up for his behavior so he had decided to treat Kyoko. He had seen something that reminded him of the girl from his childhood and he had also managed to get some hamburger steaks with egg on top. That was her favorite, right? Or maybe it used to be, maybe he was only remembering a child and she had changed. He put the wrapped box on the table and then waited for her to get in.
As she entered, she froze and blinked at him. She had a bag under her arm that looked as if it had something large in it. Was this the Love Me uniform that the president had been referring to? He was curious to see what it looked like. The president had wild fashion sense and he wanted to see if he had been rational, usually he wasn't.
"You're home," she grinned happily. Her eyes locked onto his and he gestured to the table.
"I uh…they're still warm," he told her and Kyoko tilted her head to the side. What was he talking about? She looked at the to-go box and sat down eagerly. She opened the box and grinned as she saw a hamburger steak in there with an egg on top of it. It was still warm meaning that he must have gotten it just before she got back.
She looked at the box and put her fingers on it, "Is this for me?" she asked and he nodded. She shook her head, "Corn, you've already given me so much," she told him and Kuon grinned.
"I want to give you that," he told her and Kyoko smiled nervously. She unwrapped the box before her eyes widened. It was a swan shaped perfume bottle. "They say that it's called Royal Snow," he told her as he tried to see her expression. Kyoko had tears in her eyes as she held it to her chest. She blinked back the tears and Kuon walked over to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"How can you be so thoughtful?" she asked him and Kuon laughed.
"Hey," he winked, "I'm an extremely thoughtful guy," he said and Kyoko wrapped her arms around him. She pushed her head into his chest. "I want you to stay here, Kyoko. I know that I may have my faults but I like you being here. It's making me not feel alone anymore and that's a really important thing to me."
Kyoko looked at him before smiling through her tears. "Thank you, Corn," she told him and he sighed. He opened his mouth to argue with her, tell her that he wasn't a fairy but he didn't want to ruin this moment. He didn't know what her reaction would be if she found out how deceitful he had been.
"Let's eat, okay?" he asked and Kyoko nodded excitedly.
She was trying hard not to experience any loving emotions, she had tried to swear that off but Corn was amazing. He was sweet and kind and generous and despite all the pain that he must have inside of him, he had taken the time to make her feel special. Maybe that was in a fairy's nature but somehow she had the feeling that Corn was more special than that. Sadly a relationship between a fairy and a human wouldn't work out and she should stop trying to see Corn as a human. If he ever got his wings back then they would have to be separated.
"Can I ask a question?" Ren asked as he sat down at the table and took his own hamburger steak. He took a knife and fork and had a bite of it. It was actually delicious despite it being warm and not hot anymore.
"Of course," Kyoko grinned and Ren looked at the bag.
"Is that the uniform?" he asked as Kyoko looked at him in horror. She twitched, not really knowing how to respond to that. Yes, it was the uniform but it was also an embarrassment. She was scared of him seeing it and telling her how ugly and unattractive she would appear in it. She had tried to think that that didn't matter but Corn's opinion really did matter to her.
"Uh, yeah, yeah, that's the uniform," she told him and Ren looked at the bag intrigued.
"May I see it?" he asked her and Kyoko's eyes widened. She hadn't wanted to show him but since they would both be at LME, he would see her in it anyway. She nodded before finishing her hamburger steak. Once she was done and the boxes had been cleared, she lifted the bag that held her uniform and put it on the table.
"You promise not to laugh, right?" she asked and Ren smiled at the tint of red on her face.
"I swear that I won't laugh," he told her and Kyoko nervously took it out of the bag. Ren's eyes widened, it really was a shocking pink and the emblems were something that only the president could think of. He opened his mouth to say something but then quickly closed it. "It's not…as bad as I imagined," he said slowly.
"You imagined worse than this?" Kyoko asked before shaking her head. She wondered what he had thought of that could be more humiliating to wear than this.
"Try to think of the job as something beneficial to you and the uniform as just…training," he shrugged and Kyoko nodded. At least he wasn't making insults about how she would look in it. With Corn's support, Kyoko felt that she could do anything.
…
…
Okay. Maybe she could do anything but doing anything was starting to make her feel that she was just being treated like a maid again. She had taken on a Love Me job because she had wanted to get more points so that she could make her debut and get her revenge on Shotaro but she hadn't expected to be stuck in the corridor trying to scrape gum off of the floor. Who could be so rude? It wasn't as if Corn went around the apartment sticking gum everywhere.
She growled as she attempted to get the dried up substance off of the floor. These artists must really be as immature as Shotaro to do something so "rebellious". Didn't they care about the work that other people had to go through trying to clean up after them? She sighed as she got a piece of it off and looked at the tiled floor.
Because of how long the gum had been there, the floor tiles looked different and she was worried about them being splotchy all over the floor. That wouldn't be attractive to look at and this was a high class, very elegant and highly regarded agency. How could such an unattractive floor really convey the type of place where Ren had chosen to work.
As she got the last piece of gum off of the floor she stared at the two-toned floor. What if some important visitor were to stop by and see this? What if they were to judge the whole agency based on her work? Kyoko gulped as she looked around.
Just cleaning it wouldn't be enough, wax would be perfect though. That would make it glisten and then if someone important did come when she was finished with her work, they would see what an amazing job she had done. She closed her eyes as she imagined Ren's smiling face and then shook her head. She was trying to stay away from love. Picturing Corn wasn't going to help with that.
Making her way to the supply closet she managed to find the floor wax and a cloth. She would be able to make this floor shine and then she would be able to really get some points and make her debut. She felt great about this.
She would do a flawless job and then nobody would argue against her getting a 100 point stamp.
…
…
Yashiro looked at Ren as he handed him a glass of water at the modeling shoot they had gone to. He frowned as he saw Ren flicking through a magazine and he knew it wasn't to get inspiration on how to do a good job. He kept stopping on pictures of Fuwa Sho and reading the articles with a frown across his face. Yashiro had never seen him take this much interest in any celebrity before and sadly enough it didn't seem for a good reason this time as well.
"Ren," Yashiro said as he sat down next to his client, "You'd inform me, right?" he asked and Ren blinked before looking at him surprised. "If you were to start a relationship with somebody."
"You think that I want to start a relationship with him?" Ren asked surprised as he looked at the picture of Sho more closely. What had Kyoko seen in this guy? Why was he the prince that had tried to take away something precious in his life. He shook his head, the thought sickening him. "Don't worry, he's not my type," he tried to joke and Yashiro rolled his eyes.
"You should know that I'm not referring to him," Yashiro commented. "I mean with Kyoko. You seem to be getting more interested in her every day and it's not that it's wrong but I want to be able to represent you in the best light."
"Kyoko and I are just friends," Ren said with a small smile on his face and Yashiro raised an eyebrow.
"I bet that if you asked her out on a date then she would immediately say yes," he said and Ren hummed. "I can imagine it now, her wide eyes sparkling with joy, her hands clutched together and pressed against her chest, her voice a soft and gentle sound as she tells you how excited she is that you chose her. I mean, I would bet that that would happen."
"Too bad that we won't find out," Ren said as he finished the article. "As I stated before, I have no desire to ask Mogami-san out on a date. Besides, I think it's best for her to not put her life around a guy and I definitely don't want that guy to be me. She deserves a precious and beautiful life to treasure. I won't give that to her."
"Any woman would be lucky to date you, Ren" Yashiro said and Ren shrugged.
"I don't know how true that is," he said and stood as the director for the shoot called him over and he removed his shirt. Yashiro sighed. He could see that this man was headed into trouble. Ren must have been completely inexperienced with love in the past because anyone could see these feelings for Kyoko were developing and it was never good to fall in love with your roommate with the chance that she might not have the same emotions.
Yashiro picked up the magazine and looked to the article that Ren was reading. This was the man who had challenged Ren before and it appeared that it didn't end there. Would this turn out to be a rivalry? Well, the public might get interested in it but the last thing Yashiro wanted was for anybody to ruin Ren's well-crafted reputation.
Although, who was Ren anyway?
End of Act 13
Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated
Thank you to the reviewers of Act 12
Guest (x2), H-Nala, Kaname671, KrisXD, misherukuro, MWEH, PaulaGaTo, The Real Jackie-O
Author Response:
Thank you for all of the support. I also think that Kyoko will mature a little bit faster than she does in the manga but then she is in a completely different situation. Well, I want to follow the manga the whole way through so it'll take years 😉 Ren is definitely going to be in trouble when he confesses that he's not actually a fairy.