AN: I just got another review about the lack of originality of this piece which I have admitted to several times in author notes but I thought maybe they didn't know I've written more original Skip Beat fanfics.

Let me list them to you:

Completed:

Acceptance, Alive, Awake, Bad Yashiro, If Love Was a Memory, Life by Gang Rules, More Like a Phoenix, Q and A, Saving Mr. Hizuri, The Lady and Kuon, Those Good Old Days,

Cancelled:

Happy Family, Just Like a Fairytale, My Dear Kuon, My Sweetest Corn and My Dearest Kuon, My teacher and his student, No Loose Ends, Secrets, The Big Bad Wolf, The Cold Body of the Law, The Voice

In Progress:

A Daddy's Boy, A Malignant Carcinoma of the Right Hemisphere, After the Assassination, Against Proper Form, Always With You, An American Love Story, Baby Fever, Cheating Death, Don't forget I love you, End of a Very Long Road Home, Family History, Father-In-Law, Food and Life TV, For a Living, Four Months Later, In Your Eyes, It's Just Like Magic, It's Sho Time for Kuon, Just A Family Get Together, Kuon, Life is Like a Fairytale, Little Girl Lost, Loyalty, Made to Fit, My Sensei, Parenting Firsts, Repeat Previous Song, Sacrifices, So Lucky to Have You, Somebody Else's, Study of Life, Taken Over, The Beauty in the Beautiful, The Forgotten Princess, The Heart of My Enemy, The Hizuri's Black Sheep, The Lake in the Park, The Little Prince, The Lost Ones, They Will Be Our Secrets, Time of Darkness, Vocal Chords, Way You See Me, You'll Always Be My Prince, You Live You Love You Survive,

I mean, if you still want to say I'm uncreative and unoriginal then go ahead but I still think I am creative and original and this is a fic I get to slack off like so many other people have done on this site before me.

Act 81 – Truth and Disguised

Kyoko froze as she watched Kanae be led into a car by an older man, still in the strange disguise that she was wearing before. The middle aged man smiled at her softly, "Waited long?" he asked and Kanae shook her head with a laugh before getting into the car. Kyoko watched in complete bewilderment as the car drove off. She couldn't understand this. They had left so suddenly and the interactions with the other guy, Kanae's special someone, that was a brief moment too.

Even if Kyoko got all the answers, could she still understand something so strange and would that lead her to knowing more about Kanae, that had bee the goal of this mission. "It should be her dad, right?" Kyoko mused as she looked in the direction the car had driven off. "Maybe…"

Maria laughed loudly and rubbed the back of her neck with her face turning bright red. Kyoko looked at her suspiciously, not sure why she was laughing like that. "Yeah, there is that possibility," she said and Kyoko stared at her. What other possibility would a girl of Maria's age be thinking of? Could she have lost all of her innocence? "I thought it was soliciting," Maria explained, "I thought she was a mistress."

Kyoko continued to stare at her. Maria was seven-years-old, how could she be jumping to those types of conclusions? It didn't seem natural. "How can that be…Maria…you're really…" she trailed off as Maria continued to laugh out of her embarrassment.

…

…..

Yashiro stared at Ren as he put on a rubber glove like the kind that surgeons use when preparing for an operation. They were on the set of the drama that Ren was working on that day and Ren was getting slightly concerned about Yashiro's actions.

"Yashiro-san," he laughed weakly "Your phone broke again? Take mine," he offered as he held it out to him. "It seems like you have bad luck with electronics," he noted and Yashiro nodded. It was strange, anyone would think that with Yashiro's well kept appearance and skills in his job as a manager, that he would be very skilled with electronics but that, and driving, were two areas in which he stumbled. Ren had never seen him have problems with technology though even though he had been his manager for about three years.

"Yeah," Yashiro sighed sadly with his head bowed. He reached out with his gloved hand to take Ren's phone, was wearing gloves a new form of respect or something. "Because I picked up the phone in a hurry without wearing gloves. I'm sorry but can you lend me yours for a while?" he asked. Ren nodded, handing it to him. Yashiro needed his phone more than he did because he needed to be able to coordinate schedules and receive job assignments that Ren would later consider.

"Are you really human and not an alien?" Ren joked and Yashiro sighed and shook his head.

"This…even I had no evidence. If I handle a phone for ten seconds with my bare hands, it'll definitely break. It's truly a headache," he said and Ren paused before seeing Yashiro turn to him with a smile, "Just ten seconds, Ren."

Ren paused, a little taken aback that Yashiro was trying to make sure he knew that fact. Yes, it wasn't human but he had already acknowledged those words once. "Ah, that's incredible," he laughed weakly, "but why do you have to repeat it?"

Ren froze as Yashiro took off his glove and looked as if he were about to break Ren's phone in the way he told him that he could. This deeply shocked the younger man. There was all kinds of information that he had saved onto his phone and especially things he had looked up in the past for when he had experienced difficulties with his job performances. "Yashiro-san, what do you think you're doing?" he asked with widened eyes. "Don't do that, the phone has my…" Ren's eyes widened as he thought about the secret folder in which he had stored pictures of him and Kyoko. It was password encrypted for her protection but those were still memories he had of the two of them together.

Yashiro grinned in a slightly evil manner, "If you want your phone to be safe then you had better comply with my wishes," he told him and Ren paused. "What are your emotions towards Kyoko. I know when you're lyin—"

Ren bowed his head and closed his eyes. It hurt to have to say it and he wanted the information to remain private, it wasn't as if he could do anything with it but the risk of losing his phone and his memories with Kyoko was too precious for him. "Not even the president sh-"

"I wasn't talking about the president but as your manager, I should be able to learn these things, so should I put the phone in my other hand?" he asked and Ren stopped. His eyes widened.

"I love her," he said and Yashiro tossed him back his phone which he made a quick grab for before it landed on the ground. "That doesn't mean anything though," Ren said as he made another inspection of his phone. "In fact, it would be better for her if I didn't love her. I want to be friends with her but it would be unfair to wish for more."

Yashiro frowned before humming, "I won't ask for your reasons on that right now but are you convinced that it would be better if the two of you were not together?" he asked and Ren shrugged. He shook his head with a sigh.

"Yes," he finally said, "I am convinced that right now it would be a very bad thing."

"So, I think it's important to keep this confidential," Yashiro told him. "You never know what will happen when you tell a girl that you love them." Ren paled at that. He didn't want to continue lying to her, she didn't like that, but at the same time he really couldn't afford to have precious things in this lifetime.

…

…..

Kyoko sighed as she looked at the rice that she was working on at Daruma-ya. She thought to herself, that even if she had tailed Kanae and learned new things about her, none of the things which she had seen really told her what was troubling her friend. Kanae had been seen with multiple men but there didn't seem to be anything to do with her acting. The intel that Kyoko had collected was that she had a very handsome boyfriend who wasn't mistreating her as well as a father who looked like a foreigner and drove a Rolls Royce car. Kyoko paused as she realized something about the car. That car was extremely expensive, no regular person could afford that meaning that Kanae was from an ultra-rich family.

Kyoko paused as she focused on her memories of Kanae. She always wore and used designer clothes and other items whilst appearing extremely elegant. She had class and wasn't afraid to buy things that would make her stand out. She always grabbed other people's eyes with the flattering choices. She also managed to conquer things she went after with talent and beauty. If it wasn't for her bad temper, she would be the ideal rich girl.

However, because she didn't act rich then she must be trying to suppress it and act humble unless she had been doing it for Kyoko's own good. There was a possibility that Kanae only acted as a commoner in front of Kyoko because she wanted to be respectful towards her. She had the life of a fantasy princess and now Kyoko could eagerly watch her and understand the type of life of which she had always dreamed.

She didn't know why Kanae wouldn't share this secret with her but Kyoko felt as if she had figured it out and now she could really try to pick out the perfect gift. She was learning more about her precious friend and closing the gap that Kanae had seemed to put up between them.

As Kyoko worked on cleaning some of the dirty dishes, she fantasized about what kind of a life she could have with a friend from such a high social standing.

"Kyoko," Okami-san said as she turned to look at Kyoko and the young girl stopped, focusing more on her duties. "Please go see what Booth 3 wants," she said and Kyoko nodded. She was still in a dreamlike mode as she walked through the restaurant. As she approached the table, she could hear a man talking to his daughter and hoped that this would be a pleasant encounter.

"Hey! Katsumi, minors can't drink alcohol," he told her before pushing a bowl forwards, "You'd better eat the fish instead."

Katsumi huffed, twisting the bowl in her hand and put it down. She pouted. "No! I said before that I don't like fish," she said and the man laughed at her reaction. However, Kyoko stood incredibly still as she saw the 'father-daughter' dinner. She could swear that this was another one of Kanae's disguises but she didn't look at all like she had in her first disguise.

"The fish cuisine here is really good," the man argued and Kyoko could hear the voice. Although she was trying to change the type of speech she used, Kyoko knew that this was definitely Kanae by the voice but it was extremely strange to her.

"The fish tastes the same anywhere," Katsumi huffed.

"Be good. Just give it a try," the father encouraged and Katsumi looked a little angry before putting her chopsticks to the piece of fish.

"If it tastes awful, I won't let you off. Old bastard…" Kanae said before pausing as she made direct eye contact with an extremely suspicious Kyoko. Neither of them knew how to act. What even was the best thing to do at this point?

End of Act 81

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated