Act Forty One – A-ko and B-ko

Kyoko paled as she sat alone in the room where she was isolated from the other contestants. She was still stunned by how things had turned out. She was going to be entering an audition without practicing when everyone else did get to practice. This felt like she was writing a suicide note. She looked blankly ahead, knowing how scared she felt.

"What to do now," she muttered to herself. No matter how good Kanae was in her acting, Kyoko would have to coordinate her actions to be able to respond to her. If Kanae went left, Kyoko would have to follow her and the result was unpredictable. She didn't know whether she knew enough about acting to pick up any small cues that Kanae might give her. She had to be ready.

She sighed, more that her not passing this stage of the competition though, the most important thing was that Moko-san be able to bring out her best. It was for Kanae's dream that Kyoko wanted to work so hard. She didn't want to be responsible for actually causing for Kanae to lose to Erika for real, those scars would take a while to heal.

She felt the dark cloud above her feel more weighted. She needed to stop thinking in this manner and start figuring out how she could help, Thinking negatively might lead to negative results and Kyoko just wanted to be happy. She didn't notice that Ushiro was at the doorway observing her. This definitely felt like the short straw that she had pulled.

…..

…..

Erika and her partner fell down after their performance, both of them had been arguing about the imaginary relationship and it felt like a real fight, the type that you would see in a scripted drama. If Kyoko wasn't careful then Erika would snatch away Kanae's chances at a proper dream.

"Alright, sixty seconds," one of the judges commented.

"Quite impressive," another one perked up.

Kyoko felt her stomach start to swallow her gut. She hadn't expected for Erika to have any skill, she had thought that she would just buy her way into things but the fact that she could actually perform something like this was more of a worry to Kyoko. Kanae needed to be chosen for this audition, now Kyoko had to really step up her game and she didn't know where to start doing that.

"Amazing," one of the other contestants said, "they could get into a heated quarrel within only sixty seconds. They are really matching."

"Especially Erika," the girl's scene partner replied, "You can't tell she's a rookie."

That was the problem that Kyoko was having. Erika was acting as if she already knew at least a little about acting and in that manner, Erika was performing much stronger than she was. She felt the color drain from her body as it became a pale cold shell. This wasn't good. Not to mention that she had only seen parts of the performance because she was only partially watching it. Maybe if she had studied it and reviewed it, she could overcome it but now she might have put the final nail into Moko's coffin.

When it came to their turn, Kyoko walked forwards to face Kanae and they stood opposite one another. The tension could be felt around the room for them to react to but Kyoko needed to calm herself before she could sink or swim. It just had to be a quarrel, that was what Kyoko thought about as she went over the story in her head. A went to confess to a boy she liked and B was upset.

However, as the story progressed in Kyoko's head she started to feel a little dizzy. It was a quarrel but not a real quarrel because they were the best of friends. Kyoko would never want to hurt her friend but she had no real life example to base her acting on. That had been her failing in life. Nobody wanted to be friends with her and her mother didn't even want to be her mother.

"Stop," Kanae said and Kyoko paused before looking at her, "Do not think at all," Kanae commented and Kyoko paused, she was a little scared of what Kanae might mean by that. "Just coordinate with me." Kyoko looked at her blankly.

"Begin now," Ushiro told them as he set the timer and handed it to the assistant producer.

Kanae and Kyoko bowed together, "Do guide us," they both said before standing up and Kyoko tried to get herself into a battle mindset. She would fight for them to be able to pass through this round of the audition. Kanae deserved to be able to continue her dreams as an actress. Kyoko didn't want someone else to take her precious friends's dreams from her again.

"Begin" the assistant producer called out.

Kanae took a step back, giving Kyoko a stern and hurt look that showed power and authority, Kyoko took a step back trying to react to that facial expression. There was silence between them and Kyoko could feel the tension, it was suffocating her. She tried to steady herself but the intense look that Kanae was giving her made Kyoko feel that she was truly hated.

Kanae reached out to strike Kyoko and Kyoko felt a cold hand against her cheek. She froze as she realized that Kanae had slapped her. So, was this her intention all along to slap her and have her react to that acting, the acting of hurting her. That was cruel. Kyoko wasn't someone who should just be pushed around, she had experienced too much of that with Shotaro.

No. Kanae had told her to coordinate with her which meant that Kyoko would have to strike back too. She lifted her hand but then stopped and paused. Kanae had gasped and was staring in horror at her hand which was shaking. Tears came to her eyes as the message was obvious that her character was suffering from the pain she had caused her best friend. She had acted physically and violently in this situation where the two were close and Kyoko felt the anger leave her as the desire for Kanae to be okay entered her mind.

Kanae collapsed to the ground sobbing and Kyoko watched her, wanting for her to be okay. Kyoko stopped with the tears shimmering in her eyes again. Kyoko took a step back, her hands at her sides.

"Sorry," Kyoko whispered as Kanae hung to herself and Kyoko really hoped that this was only in character. No. Kanae was such an amazing actress that this just had to be a false fight. Kyoko couldn't forgive herself if this was real pain.

There was silence as the judge's stared at them shocked and everyone just watched them.

As if a pop-up toy, Kanae got to her feet and bowed, "Thank you," she said to the judges and Kyoko bowed quickly afterwards, wanting to follow Kanae's lead as much as possible, she still felt slightly clueless about what was going on at that time.

"Thank you very much," Kyoko told them and they walked off despite there still being time on the clock.

Ushiro took off his glasses in amazement as he looked at the pink pair. Who were they? Why hadn't they been discovered yet? He was about to step in on a treasure, wasn't he? No. There was more that they could prove to him but he had to admit that he was excited for more.

…

…

Kyoko paced the room where she was separated wanting to come up with the best follow up scene. She was happy that she was working with Kanae and it hadn't surprised her that Moko-san had come up with a plot that was easy to follow or maybe Kanae was just reacting to whatever she was doing. Maybe she was giving herself too much credit. That could always be possible.

Now it was her time to think of what they should do in the scene. The scene itself was based around the idea of reconciliation. They had to do something that would show that the two friends were making up and that was difficult for Kyoko.

"How would we do a reconciliation scene?" she asked aloud as she paced. If she was in this scene, she would want to stop the argument as soon as possible and encourage her friend because in Kyoko's mind, between friendship and romance it was a pretty easy decision. She had personally decided not to fall in love again so she definitely wouldn't to risk a friend's happiness. She had already decided not to fall in love again and that did include with Ren. She couldn't trust people especially men who played with people's hearts.

Kyoko looked around the room, she had to think of the perfect scene which would convey the emotions between them. She smiled as she hugged the back of a chair.

"Who am I?" she asked using one voice before switching the voice that she was using.

"Hm? Seriously don't joke around! You're B."

"Nope Too bad!" Kyoko said as she span around to face the chair as if someone were already sitting down on it. She laughed happily to herself as she truly imagined the other party beside her. "I'm not B-ko! I am B-ko who's always going to be A-ko's friend"

Kyoko laughed happily as she pulled the chair behind her. She danced around the room in her fantasyland game. This was strange to most people and she believed that she had only ever played in this style around Corn as Sho would make fun of her. Corn didn't make fun of her though, not until he became Ren Tsuruga.

Kyoko started to pretend that she was shopping with the imaginary A-ko, both complimenting one another on clothes that they had picked out and acting as two girls would in a shojo manga. She grinned as she looked into the distance, her hands clasped together as she fantasized.

"I really want to have this kind of friendship with Kotonami," she said as she blushed and her eyes sparkled as she remained in her dreamland, her fantasyland.

Kyoko sighed as she sat down. Moko-san had pulled the lines that she needed out of her in the same way that Ren had done during the acting test. In Kyoko's mind they were both skilled actors who she hadn't minded following but she wondered how else Ren had influenced her behavior. Kyoko didn't want to be some toy doll just doing what other people wanted from her.

Kanae had made her feel heartbroken so maybe she did understand how much their friendship meant to Kyoko. She had unknowingly apologized but that was one thing that Moko-san had wanted. Kyoko couldn't keep herself from thinking about what an amazing person Kanae was. She froze. Now it was her turn to lead Moko-san and she had no idea how to do that. She wasn't a skilled and self-trained actress in the way that Kanae was.

"Ri…right," Kyoko said as she attempted to focus on the task that was set out before her, "Firstly, I have to tell Moko-san what lines I want to say. This time I must say something," she said before closing her eyes. Kanae had only used her actions and expressions for the scene. That was easier because that didn't have lines but she had to consider what to do.

If Kyoko was B-ko however, she would be happy with the friendship and so an apology wasn't necessary. A good friendship wasn't something that Kyoko had neither the luxury or the desire to end and so she would prefer to sacrifice something else. As Kyoko looked across at the soda she thought about how she had seen friends share a drink before. That meant trust and closeness.

Maybe she could use that as at least part of the reconciliation scene. It would use the product and allow the viewer to feel the friendship associated with it. Yes. This might work. This might be a really really good plan.

The only problem was that she didn't like to drink soda.

End of Act Forty One

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated

Thank you to the reviewers of Act 40

Brennakai, H-Nala, Kaname671, Kris XD, The Real Jackie-O