AN: It's a little shorter but I liked the end point 😊

Act 39 – The Cost of Being Nice

Ren sighed as he stared off into the sky. There were just some things that he had to live with and not having Kyoko as his friend was sadly one of those. He couldn't have important people anyway, not after what had happened in the past. Ren sighed as the stylist worked on his hair. He had made so many more sacrifices for his spotlight in showbusiness than just losing her friendship. He would get over this loss as well. He had to get over this loss.

"Tired?" Yashiro asked as he handed him the coffee and Ren smiled.

Everything unpleasant in his life, Ren had to bundle up and push to a back corner of his mind. That's the life in which he had to survive. So what if other people had difficulty with it, he couldn't afford to let the problem affect the life of a man who was sometimes a stranger even to himself.

"Thanks," he smiled to Yashiro but heard one of the new actresses coming over to him whilst shaking. She was bright red and shaking with her eyes filled with tears and Ren was reminded of her all over again.

"Tsu…Tsuruga-san. I…I'm really sorry that I made the scenes take longer than usual. Next time, there won't be as many retakes. I promise," she tried to apologize and Ren smiled naturally.

Was he that kind of a scary monster that people had to be worried about this? Where had people come up with this idea of him, this wasn't who he was. Ren smiled softly and rose to go over to her. This wasn't what he had wanted and his father would be ashamed if he learned that this was the way that some girls saw him.

"Don't worry," he told her as he dried her tears a little, "it's okay because great scenes usually take a lot of time." He softly let his finger go under her eyelash and she froze, falling in love with him without giving much thought to it at all. "Now, stop crying. If you cry, you'll lose your self-confidence."

The girl nodded although she couldn't stop herself from staring at him and Ren smiled. His father had always seemed pretty cool when he helped women out in the way that he just had. He didn't notice that Yashiro was in the background and that he was paying attention to the interaction between the two of them.

"Let's do our best" Ren smiled as the conversation ended.

As Ren sat down, Yashiro approached him again and smiled as he tried to figure things out. "Now that I think about it, what kind of things influence you to be in such a good mood?" he asked.

Ren looked to him. He was surprised about that question because he really didn't have a good enough answer for it. Was it enough to say that he had some ugly things in his past that he was trying to hide? Okay. That was definitely not good enough.

"Well," Yashiro continued, "I was just thinking you give nice and encouraging advice to other people but what influences you to be in such a good mood," he continued and Ren froze looking at him as if Yashiro had asked for basic arithmetic.

"You're asking me about that?" Ren said as he tried to figure out the deeper meaning to Yashiro's question, "Well, nothing in particular. Well, there's nothing strange about it, right?" he asked and Yashiro hummed again.

"No, nothing strange but it's just that…" Yashiro looked to the young actor. He probably shouldn't be venturing on this subject. There was a lot that he still didn't know about what had gone on between them and Ren didn't want to say more than that she had found another place to live. Still, that meant that there had been something tough between the two of them,

"I know you've told me that you admire Kyoko especially in her attitude towards her work, her determination, her perseverance but it's coming out like something happened, that maybe you dislike her," Yashiro told him and Ren grew very pale and tense. He hadn't meant for that to happen, he had just wanted to give her some space from him because it felt like she was asking for that. He had tried to withdraw and Yashiro watched him as he seemed to try to come up with an explanation on his behavior that wouldn't reveal too much about the truth.

"You should probably tone down your dislike towards Kyoko-san," Yashiro said and Ren guessed that he had thought that the dislike was the reason why Kyoko had moved out from his apartment and why the two of them were never talking any more. Wasn't it okay to just say that she was closer to her job in her new location.

"Well," Yashiro laughed, "It'll be best. Being nice to others is just like you. Actually, it's kind of weird how you're friendly with others but you keep your dislike to Kyoko-san. It doesn't suit you at all. Don't you think Kyoko-san has always been trying her best? That's why I don't understand why you dislike Kyoko-san so much."

"I don't dislike her," Ren said as he looked down at his feet. It wasn't only Kyoko who had been happy and excited about their reunion and he hadn't wanted to hurt her. However, he couldn't carry around the baggage from his past. The president had told him that much. He sighed as he thought about the young Kyoko, that six year old girl that he had always wanted to meet again and now that he had, she hated him because he wasn't actually a fairy.

He had been careless and he had to stop it before she really believed that he didn't care for her. He wanted to be there for her for whenever she wanted to try to trust him again. He sighed. It was a heavy weight and maybe she would never want him ever again but this was the game that he had to play, this was the game that he had played his entire life.

The choice wasn't obvious to him though.

He didn't want to let something from the past bind him again because ever since he had entered the entertainment industry he had promised himself to not drag his past around with him. However, the memories of Kyoko had made him let her into his life where she could easily dig up all the sand that he had dumped on his former life. Maybe he had to let her go to stay strong in this world. It wasn't what he wanted to do but maybe it was best. He needed to not look back, that's where the shadows came from.

…

…

Kyoko knelt down with Kanae outside where the second stage of the audition would take place. The two of them were wearing their Love Me outfits and had other people staring at them in horror. To be stared at in horror was the real problem with the Love Me uniforms. Kyoko focused her attention onto Kanae as she tried to motivate her to take on this challenge.

"Understand, Moko-san?" she asked not caring about the people who were staring at them. "From this moment, you're no longer letting yourself be preyed upon and you're not going to run away. Now you're going to be the one hunting. Yes! You're the swift, powerful, panther and you can take down any prey you want" she tried to motivate the other girl, her new best friend. "We will be the panthers in this so-called savannah of show business."

Kanae felt herself sweat a little bit but she continued to look at Kyoko. Only Kyoko would be talking about panthers going after their prey outside of an audition room. It seemed something that made so little sense it was characteristically Kyoko.

"Fine," Kanae sighed, "I don't mind that but what do you mean by 'we'?" she asked and Kyoko looked at her confused.

"Huh?" she asked and Kanae sighed.

"Yesterday," she tried to explain before Kyoko could launch into another long speech about what they should be doing and what kind of motivation that they should have, "I was pretty surprised when you asked me to wear the uniform, but I'm glad you're wearing it too."

Kyoko nodded, "Well, I suggested it, so of course I'll wear it too and besides, we're partners from the LME section! We share the same fate so your enemy is my enemy too." Kanae sighed. She felt a little guilty that Kyoko was giving her so much help and trying to help her fight for her dream when Kyoko should be fighting for her own dream. Although Kyoko wanted female friends, there were some places in life that you had to get to alone.

"We'll bring her down together," Kyoko said passionately and Kanae sighed and dropped her head.

"But," she said slowly, "even if we win against her, only one girl will pass and be accepted."

Kyoko sat back in shock. She had been so motivated to have Kanae win against Erika that she hadn't thought about the fact that if Kanae won then she wouldn't win. She still wanted this to help her launch a new career in showbusiness and now she had to choose between her friend and herself. Well, Moko-san was more talented than she was but it didn't mean that Kyoko was just going to quit.

"You just realized?" Kanae asked surprised and Kyoko nodded slowly with wide eyes.

Kyoko shook her head quickly before the look of motivation returned to her and she sat with a samurai spirit, her knees bent on the floor and hands resting atop them as if in practice. Kyoko looked at Kanae with the same headstrong manner, "It's okay. I won't feel bad if I lose to you because of the difference in our talents. There will always be another chance in the future."

Kanae froze. This girl had opened a world of doors for her, a world of doors where she could leave free from Erika's influence. She didn't have to succumb to Erika any longer and it seemed that this girl had doors open for her all the time even if she had to exert extra energy to do it. There were people who had all types of dreams and now Kanae realized how much Kyoko was believing in her own. It was acting, right? She wanted to be an actress.

Kyoko laughed, "I'm a really stubborn person, aren't I?" she asked with a cheerful smile and Kanae tried to keep her emotions from flooding out of her. This kind of a person hadn't been in her life before now. She definitely felt lucky having Kyoko here.

"You are definitely similar," Kanae smiled as she tried to hide her face so there was no chance of her emotions escaping.

Kyoko blinked, "Huh?" she asked in a sweet confusion, "Similar to what?"

"Never mind," Kanae shook her head and looked up at her with the same kind of energetic determination, "You really don't mind?" she asked, "I'm going to try my hardest to get this job."

Kyoko grinned and looked straight into Kanae's eyes and Kanae had to admit she was impressed by her strength. "Me too."

End of Act 39

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated

Thank you to the reviewers of Act 38

Kaname671, KrisXD, PaulaGaTo