AN: There is a little of the Kuu-Kuon relationship in this chapter because I love it 😊

Act 48 – Shadows from the Past

Kyoko looked forwards with great confusion as the two sat in the restaurant. She must have misheard him because he had already told her that he wasn't Corn the fairy prince and now he was saying that he was Corn. Kyoko's eyes narrowed as she looked at him and he blinked back. Ren felt a little defeated by the way his name didn't seem to matter. He had meant to show her that he trusted her and she seemed even more suspicious of him.

"Your name," Kyoko said as she ignored the hamburger steak for a moment, "you told me that you're not Corn."

"You're right," Ren sighed and Kyoko looked at him with even more bewilderment. Ren pulled out a pen from his pocket before taking the napkin and writing on it 'Kuon'. He handed it to her and put a finger over his lips. Kyoko looked at it and then smiled as she laughed softly. "You think it's a stupid name."

"No," she said with a smile, "I'm really grateful that you told me and of course I'll keep it a secret," she said and he tilted his head to the side but he felt very relieved by her reaction. "I just know why it got mixed up. I must have been too excited by your appearance to be listening carefully but why did you pretend to be a fairy for me?" she asked and he laughed softly.

"Well, I wanted to make you happy. I didn't expect to come back to Kyoto and meet up with you again so I wanted to give you a story that you'd find comfort in," he explained and Kyoko closed her eyes and tucked the napkin into her pocket. She smiled at him feeling their friendship again. He really hadn't wanted to hurt her and giving her his real name helped her to understand that.

"You did make me happy," she told him, "sitting here with you does make me happy but I'm not going to move in with you. I'm happy where I am."

"I understand," Ren nodded before concentrating on his own food, "You should eat," he gestured and Kyoko nodded eagerly, happy that things were getting back to normal for the two of them and they were mending their important friendship.

"So, do you want to eat it?" Ren asked with a playful smile.

Kyoko took another look at the burger and then said very energetically, perhaps too energetically, "Yes! Especially the one with the big egg yolk on it," she said and Ren chuckled. Kyoko looked at him confused as he watched her. She blushed a little, had she said that too loudly?

"You were like this before too," he told her and Kyoko watched him.

She smiled as she reflected on an old memory where she had collected egg shaped rocks with him and that they had played together with the stones even if other people would call it a dumb game. Corn – now Kuon was always indulging her, always spoiling her with their time that they spent together. He had done whatever she needed to do to get over her sadness. She thought of a specific time when he had found her a large stone and she had called it a scrambled egg from the palace of scrambled eggs.

She blinked as she heard loud laughter and looked up confused before grinning as she found Ren laughing, finding it hard to control himself. She wanted to continue seeing him this happy. When he had been a kid there had been such pain for him but she hadn't known it. His stories told her that he had suffered but he didn't appear to be suffering now. She was happy for him.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she took a look around.

"Huh," he asked before shaking his head with a very relaxed and in Kyoko's mind adorable smile, "It was nothing. I was just thinking, how you can eat with such an expression on your face."

Kyoko watched him, "Because it tastes good," she told him and Ren sighed.

"That's true," he said before sighing and looking as if he was in a dreamlike state. The pain had temporarily left his expression. "I always like eating with you," he admitted and Kyoko smiled happily too.

"Me too," she said as she closed her eyes and felt her heart beat strengthen, no she had to keep a grip on herself. Ren was nice but she had promised not to fall in love and she didn't want to burden him with such an emotion. She wanted only happy things for her future. Her trying to be more than his friend might be pushing him too much.

As the two of them shared what they thought was a private moment, Kyoko could hear someone talking loudly.

"He really looks like him!" she squealed and Kyoko felt a need to protect Ren from the girls who were ogling him. He deserved better than that.

"Yeah, but this is a restaurant. He can't possibly be here but…" the second girl said and Kyoko tried hard to ignore them but inside she was scared that this was the way everyone treated him. It was hard to find a moment for yourself when you had so many people talking about you and acting like obsessed fangirls.

Kyoko took a look at Ren's meal. She had tried to tell him not to get the same thing as her but he had told her that he would because it was edible. That wasn't a reason to draw attention to himself.

"And look," the first girl said which confirmed the feelings that Kyoko had been having, "he's eating scrambled eggs. Ren wouldn't possibly do that!"

The second girl started talking even louder, "Look at that girl beside him wearing weird and odd clothes. They look so raggedy," she said and Ren sighed. He didn't mind them talking about him but he was feeling protective about Kyoko. He had always existed inside this world, a world that talked about him and commented on his every movement but she hadn't lived in the spotlight and it was getting to her. However, he knew that defending her and drawing attention to them would be dangerous for both of them.

"But this girl looks our age. She should be a high school student," the other girl commented rudely, "maybe she likes to dress up after class," Ren saw the pain flash across Kyoko's face. He wanted her to have that school life that she dreamed of. She deserved to be able to work towards a future that she cared about and he wanted to do whatever was in his power to help her.

Ren could see Kyoko getting even angrier as the girls talked to one another and he wanted to stop it but he knew that if he did anything that it'd not only risk his reputation but Kyoko's as well. He had always learned to ignore these words. The only times when he had heard someone stand up for him was when people were criticizing him as a child. There was one time when he was hearing people talk about how spoiled he was and that he wasn't even that cute and that they knew children who deserved a better life than he had.

He closed his eyes as he thought of how cruel their words had been at the time. He hadn't even known words like that said about him before then. He had been a three-year-old and his dad had had enough and told these strangers to not talk about his son like that in a way that he could overhear and that he was only a child so how could they make such judgments. Ren sighed. Before the incident, before his parents stopped loving him, they would always protect him. That's why his father had been his hero. He had tried to be the best parent that he could and Ren had let him down and that's why he could no longer love him.

Ren sighed before starting to leave, it was time for the next job anyway and he didn't want to think of the home that he had left. If his parents hadn't given up on him then they would have contacted him. They didn't love him anymore and that was a truly painful experience, he had brought it on himself anyway.

When Kyoko had calmed down from her anger, she noticed that Ren was gone and that the bill had been paid. She rushed out to find him waiting by the car for her. She had fallen into a trap of letting the girl's words get to her and focusing on Shotaro and she hadn't been aware of what was happening. She hoped that she hadn't embarrassed Ren or troubled him.

…..

…..

During the car ride, Ren was very distant with her and Kyoko looked down. That little bit of progress had been there for a moment but had she ruined it with her obsession on revenge. She didn't want to take away the gift that he had given her that night, the gift of knowing his real name. She didn't even know his full name or most of his backstory. Maybe he would tell her piece by piece of what had happened. She would definitely listen to him when he did.

"High school," Ren said with his eyes focused on the road ahead, "I haven't asked you the question this week, but…you haven't enrolled in high school after leaving that guy, have you?" he asked and Kyoko paused. She didn't want to think of that. She didn't want him to ask about that and get disappointed in her.

"Is it because of Sho Fuwa?" he asked and Kyoko looked at him before bowing her head. The pain was coming back and she didn't want to cause him to see her in a different light. That would hurt far too badly.

"To him, I'm only a convenient stepping stone, a stepping stone who was always beside him," she admitted and Ren watched her with great concern. She had had her life turned upside down by him but hopefully he could do something that would make it easier for her in the future. "Once he succeeds, my existence is no longer needed. I'm only a stepping stone."

Ren eyed her carefully. When she was younger she had talked about this Sho character as if he was a real prince charming out of a fairytale book. She had said that she would be his princess and that she wanted to live a life that would please him. Ren felt a little bad about remembering her smile. She had deserved to be loved, she deserved all the happiness that she could find and he had done something so terrible to her.

He turned to her before looking back at the road, "You will never be considered a stepping stone to me," he assured her and Kyoko smiled.

Kyoko looked angry and determined as she stared ahead, "I will definitely become a bigger star than he is! I'll get my revenge! I'll make the person who said I was an idiot say that his biggest regret was abandoning me!" she announced and Ren sighed. He already knew about her plot of revenge but he had hoped that she had dealt with it over him and her outlook on the world had changed. It didn't appear to have done so.

Ren slowed down to a traffic light before an image popped into his head that made him freeze for a second.

It was as if he was seeing his father before him and imagining the words, "My biggest regret in life is having you as a son. My best decision was to abandon you."

He felt sick and Kyoko turned to him, putting a hand on his upper arm and prompting to take the wheel. She had no idea what had just gone through her mind or what he was thinking about but he had turned pale and she was worried about him feeling sick.

"It seems like," Ren said as he attempted to change the subject to protect himself. "Even you have your past memories that you don't want to share with others but if you act with this kind of goal in mind then someone like me, who's also an actor, will feel very unhappy. It's good that I already know the real you but if you talk like that to others, they will misunderstand you and you won't make the connections you need to make to survive in this industry," he told her and Kyoko looked at him in shock.

He was right. He knew so much about the acting world that she trusted what he was saying but that wasn't the look on his face a moment ago.

"It isn't like that," she whispered, "my reason for studying acting is…" she stood and hit her head, scaring him a bit. Ren reached out for her nervously, she had hurt herself by acting recklessly again but they were in the middle of traffic, he couldn't just pull the car over to the side of the road at this moment.

Kyoko paused before hearing the noise of her phone. Somebody was calling her?

End of Act 48

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated

Thank you to the reviewers of Act 47

Kaname671, KrisXD, luv2readgirl, Paulagato, The Real Jackie-O