APOLOGY.
At the end of another exhausting day in LME, spent in doing her duties as a Love Me member, Kyoko fell face down on her small, fluffy bed. Just as she threw her purse at the wall and kicked off her shoes, her phone started ringing. Groaning, she raised herself with tremendous effort to pick up her purse, and fished out her cellphone. "Hello?"
As she listened to the voice on the other end, her knees buckled with surprise and her face froze in utter shock. "Huh?"
The person on the other end repeated the news.
"What?" She shouted.
The person repeated his words again and shook his head with a smile.
"Are you really serious, Mr Swara?" Kyoko whispered softly. "You're not joking, are you?" Still clutching her phone to the ear, she listened to him speak as she flew down the stairs. Midway, her foot slipped and she came rolling down the rest of the stairs.
"Oh my goodness!" Mrs Taisho exclaimed as she came from the other room after hearing the thudding sound. "Are you alright?"
"I'll survive!" Kyoko mumbled in pain as she picked herself up and pressed the phone back to her ear. "Thank you so much, Mr Swara! I'll call him tomorrow. I don't even know how to thank you!" She paused to listen. "Okay, goodbye." She hung up and the corners of her mouth twitched up.
"Did something happen?" Mrs Taisho smiled.
"Ma'am, sir!" She manuvered her employer/landlady out in the shop where Mr Taisho was chopping off vegetables so she could break the news to both of them together. "I'm gonna be in a TV series! It's a drama and I'll have a major role!"
"A drama? That's wonderful!" Mrs Taisho exclaimed.
"I know! It's a remake of a show that was super popular twenty years ago, so this is going to be the show this year! It's like a dream. Coming from being an unknown to being in an awesome series!"
"Congratulations." Mrs Taisho gave her a warm smile and long hug. "I'm so happy for you dear. Here that, Honey?" She cocked her head in the direction of Mr Taisho.
Mr Taisho put down his chopping knife, a ghost of a smile flickering on his face. "Don't you ever give up, girl."
"I won't!" Kyoko grinned. When she went back to her room after a while, the grin stayed glued to her lips, like a child who just got a carton full of candy. "I'll go tell Moko right now!" She squealed and held out her phone in her hand. "Oh, and Ren too!"
Suddenly, a cool, death glare from a certain someone popped into her head and her grin faltered. "I guess...that's a bad idea." She wanted to tell Ren all about it so badly and make him proud but she just didn't have the guts to talk to him so normally after lying to him on his face. She didn't have the guts to apologize either so she had been trying her best to avoid him and not run into him in the agency. It had been more than two weeks and she had been lucky so far. But at that moment, her heart ached with guilt for not apologizing to him sooner and for lying to him in the first place.
The next morning Kyoko flew straight to Swara's office and he gave her a few more details of Dark Moon, the TV series in which she booked a role.
Kyoko kept smiling the whole time as she listened to him talk, but the moment he mentioned who recommended her for this role, her smile faltered. "Haruki Asami? She did?"
"Yep," Swara said, "she showed the Director your work in the Sho Fuwa music video. She kept telling him how impressive you were."
"Ms Asami? You mean Sho's producer helped me get this role?" She spat bitterly. She couldn't help but feel irritated about Sho showing up on every corner of her life. To some extent, she was even tempted to refuse the part, but fortunately, she wasn't that upset, or stupid.
Why does this girl become completely insane whenever Sho Fuwa is involved? Swara wondered as he sensed the anger rising in Kyoko. "Ahem. Ms Asami and Director Ogata have known each other for a long time. He couldn't find an actress he liked so he asked Ms Asami if she knew anybody who could handle the part, and she showed him your clip from the promo video. The Director was impressed with your work and he was convinced right away that you have the presence for the role."
"Yeah?" her smile came back. She did not like owing Sho's producer for the role but she guessed it was okay since the director picked her because of her merits and performance.
"He was very specific that he only wanted you for the part. This is a huge opportunity!"
"I'm in!" Kyoko beamed.
"Oh and I almost forgot," Swara looked up from a paper on his desk. "It's important for you to know, Ren is playing the lead in this one."
After some serious contemplating on the matter for the whole day, Kyoko arrived to one conclusion. She realised she had only one choice and that was to apologize to Ren for lying about revenge. And she had to do it before Dark Moon because it could make a lot of problems if she started a new project with weirdness lingering between the two of them.
As she waited inside the elevator to go down, she puffed out her chest trying to look brave and determined to face Ren the first thing in the morning. For now, she decided to head on home since it was pretty late.
The elevator halted with a click and the doors slid open.
On the other side, two men whose faces were probably the last thing Kyoko wanted see right now, were waiting for a chance to get in the elevator.
"Oh, it's Kyoko!" One of them, who turned out to be Yashiro, exclaimed. "What a coincidence!" Leaning sideways to Ren, who happened to be standing beside him, he whispered in an almost inaudible, melodious and giddy tone, "some might call it destiny."
Kyoko gasped with a terrified look. Without permission, her fist stretched out and punched a button on the switchboard shutting the elevators doors with a snap, before anyone got a chance to enter.
That's totally not fair! My brain got fried! Sure I said I had made up my mind to speak to him but I thought I had time to psych myself up for it! I didn't expect it to happen right this second. While Kyoko made excuses to herself, the reality of the situation finally dawned on her. "Oh no! Holy crap!" She muttered in horror. "He was trying to get in here and I totally shut the door on his face! What have I done?"
Meanwhile, outside the elevator door, Yashiro sighed. "That was weird. Her face, it kinda exploded." Squinting his eyes at Ren, he taunted him. "It's because a certain someone freaked her out with his awkward anger. What would you do if that's the way she treats you from now on?"
"Why should it matter to me?" Ren replied coolly and moved inside the other elevator before Yashiro could come up with an answer.
Yashiro followed him inside but decided it was not best to discuss his client's love life with so many prying ears surrounding them. So he kept his mouth tight shut as the elevator hauled down. When it stopped with a click and the doors slid open, they spotted a certain ginger headed girl grovelling on the ground right outside. She looked straight up at Ren and almost shouted hysterically, "I'm so sorry, Ren! I totally lied to you!"
It took a moment for Yashiro to convince Kyoko that Ren was not mad at her and had no intention of killing her. And he also suggested that whatever she had to talk about with Ren, they better not do it in open with a hundred pairs of curious eyes gazing at them, because that could probably start some awkward rumours. It was late and Ren was on his way home too so he offered a ride to Kyoko and also a chance to apologize, unknowingly.
Once Ren started driving with Yashiro sitting beside him, Kyoko opened her mouth from the back seat but was cut off by Yashiro, who inquired about her Sho-Fuwa-Revenge thing. He knew he was not getting anything out of Ren so he decided to try and ask Kyoko directly.
Considering how she was about to apologize to Ren on this matter in front of Yashiro, she figured he might as well know the whole story, since he was always around anyway and it was rude to ignore him while talking, and excluding him from the conversation. So she gave him a small gist of her tragic-ending one-sided love story.
"Wow, I would never have guessed that Sho Fuwa was your childhood friend." Yashiro responded. He continued in a more angry tone, "I also had no idea that he was such a complete jerk! No wonder you hate him so much!"
Kyoko looked down. With a guilt-wrapped look she muttered softly, "I wanted to use his music video as a stepping stone for my career just like he used me as one." She closed her eyes which were flashing with pain, like every word was extremely difficult to speak. "And then, I used my acting as a weapon to try and stand out as much as he did. And I didn't want you to know that, Ren. So I lied to you, saying it wasn't for revenge. I'm so sorry."
Ren took his sweet time pondering on her words as he tried to formulate a reply mentally. During that time he never once bothered to look back leaving Kyoko devastated.
He's so mad at me that he can't even react! She shuddered. Or is he giving me the silent treatment? Maybe I was stupid to think that he would forgive me if I apologized sincerely. Or maybe it means that he just can't stand me and I should jump out of the car!
She chuckled a silent, dry and humorless laugh. Silly me! I knew all that already, so why did I expect anything different?
Glancing out of the window at the dark moonless sky, she thought gloomily, oh wonderful! You can't see a single star in the sky tonight. Total blackness - just like my soul!
"Hey," Ren's voice broke her out of her gloom-ridden reverie. "Why didn't you want me to know about it? I already knew your secret. Why lie to me?"
"Well that's... I don't... I just..." A dozen excuses intruded Kyoko's mind but she decided to go with the absolute truth. "You had faith in my reasons for studying acting and I didn't want to lose your trust."
"I see."
Yashiro cocked his head at Ren and threw him a dirty look. A look that said, 'what? That's it? All you have to say to her is, I see? I will spell it out for you since you're so blind. She is saying she doesn't want you to hate her, you idiot!'
"Just so you know, I wasn't on that shoot with revenge as the only thing in my heart," Kyoko offered hopefully.
Yashiro's eyes widened to the size of sources as he glanced at Kyoko through the rear view mirror. What? He thought. She's gonna keep talking like everything's fine after getting such a half-assed reply from him? Yep, they are meant for each other.
"You probably won't believe when I say this but I got so much in character that I wasn't even thinking about Sho when I was acting."
"I believe you," Ren almost instantly replied with three words which Kyoko probably never expected to hear from him, especially after she lied. Something tugged deep within her heart and all the guilt, the hurt dissolved and poured out from her system leaving only that warm, fuzzy feeling in her heart.
"If you did your best on the shoot then that's the only thing that matters," Ren went on. He turned his head to reward her a warm, lopsided smile, which made her heart swell.
She couldn't help but smile back. The rest of the ride passed in silence, but not the awkward kind. Instead, for some reason, it was blissfully calming.
The next morning, Kyoko borrowed from Swara a copy of the script of the show Tsukigomori, the older version of Dark Moon, which was released twenty years ago. Since she couldn't wait for her the real script to come out, she decided to read the older version to delve right into the story.
With a bright smile stuck to her face, Kyoko ambled along the corridor as she glanced inside the script.
On the very first page, there was a summarized character-sketch of the male lead, Katsuki Tachibana, who was being portrayed by Ren. Without thinking, Kyoko started reading.
Since childhood, Katsuki has nursed a deep, emotional wound he chose to keep hidden from the world. His father worked all his life as the chauffeur of the younger brother of Daichi Hongo, a rich, ruthless businessman. A terrible car accident befell the younger Hongos, leaving only their youngest daughter Mizuki alive. Plagued by nightmares, Katsuki's father finally resolved to confess to the police about the mysterious 'accident'.
One bright moonlit night, the young Katsuki ventured outside in the silver rays. That night his father was brutally murdered before his very eyes.
Katsuki knows the killer, knows who plagued his poor father with nightmares. But he tells no one and bares the awful truth in silence. Waiting for the day he'll exact revenge on the man in the pale moonlight, Misao's father, Daichi Hongo.
Kyoko found out that her character, Mio Hongo, was the younger sister of Misao and also Mizuki's cousin. She beamed. It had been her dream to play a daughter of an eminent, rich family. Her mind was instantly filled with fantasies as she imagined how Mio will turn out to be.
Kyoko decided to guess Mio's character before actually finding out. I'm thinking she'll be sweet, elegant, graceful and as pretty as a princess! Please let her have a cool backstory! Kyoko's head reached the clouds and wandered into her fantasy world.
When Kyoko was passing through the corridor, she were interrupted by a familiar voice. Instinctively, she snuck a peak in the room outside the President's office from where she heard it and found it's owner, Yashiro, offering up a glass of water to a man sitting beside him.
Kyoko was pretty sure she had never seen that man before, because if she had, there was no way she would have forgotten him. Dressed up in a snow-white tuxedo from top to bottom, which was pressed against his pale skin and tender frame, he looked as delicate as a flower. His forehead was covered by a mop of soft and straight blonde bangs which were almost shiny enough for one to see their own reflection. The delicate, angelic features on his triangular face would have reminded her of a baby cherub if they were not completely drowned in gloom and despair. It was then Kyoko noticed that he looked like he was about to cry.
Yashiro patted his back as he accepted the glass of water from him. He gave him a gracious look before taking a small sip from his thin, tender lips.
Wow, thought Kyoko as she gazed at his beautiful face. He looks like a princess! Or maybe a unicorn!
"Thank you," the man forced a smile.
"Don't worry, Mr Ogata. It'll be fine," Yashiro said to him with such gentleness as if he was shushing a child who accidentally dropped his icecream.
Mr Ogata? Kyoko froze on the spot when she remembered where she had heard that name before. If Swara was correct, this man was supposed to be the Director of New Moon.
"Ren's on board a hundred percent," Yashiro promised. "He had told me himself."
"I know but... of course, he is interested. That's not the problem." Director Ogata replied in shy, timid voice." It's President Takarada. The man has put his foot down."
"So I hear, which is a bit surprising. Why? What reason does he have to shut this down? It makes no sense."
"To be fair, he doesn't want to shut us down per se," Ogata answered. "He just won't let Ren be a part of it. If Ren's forbidden to be in this project, there would be no point. It's useless. We're standing in the shadow of a masterpiece. It has to be perfect, otherwise..." His voice trailed off.
Kyoko decided that she shouldn't be eavesdropping. So she invited herself in the room with bold footsteps. "Excuse me?"
Both men looked in her direction. "Kyoko, what're you doing here?" Yashiro asked.
"I apologize for interrupting," she bowed politely. "You were having a serious conversations so I was gonna mind my own beeswax, at least that was the plan. But then I figured I'm in too deep now. So I might as well do the decent thing and put myself out there so you can give me the whole story."
Yashiro turned a chuckle into a cough. He pressed his lips together in order to stifle the fits of laughter rising in his throat. At least she is honest, I'll give her that. Sometimes, I swear, she just cracks me up!
"'Cause after all," Kyoko went on. "I mean I hope I'm not being too pushy but what you are talking about does involve me."
"Wait a minute," Ogata's eyes widened with recognition. "You're that Kyoko?"
Ren exited President Takarada's office to the sound of a weeping girl. It was then he noticed her, a ginger-haired girl sobbing while his manager, Yashiro and Director Ogata stood there and watched with dumbfounded looks on their faces. They didn't notice Ren, since they were too preoccupied by the sight in front of them.
"Waaaaaah! It's not fair! How could this happen?" Kyoko wailed as she clutched the script of Tsukigomori to her chest.
"Kyoko," Yashiro furrowed his brows. "What's the matter? Why did you start crying all of a sudden?"
"It's the...character I'm playing," she sniffed. "I was told she was nice!" With a flood of tears pouring out from her big, hazel eyes, she snapped open the script and read aloud the character-sketch of Mio Hongo, "a dark tortured soul living in the shadow of her older sister, Misao. A creature for whom sweetness and light are abhorrent. After an accident, a sudden fall, her face was hideously scarred, compelling her even further into the gloom. Never again those bloodless lips met a smile. Now, at the tender age of sixteen, Mio is a young woman haunted by self-loathing. Twisted with hate, she's a blade thirsty for the blood of her cousin, Mizuki..."
The rest of the words were muffled by her choked sobs. "This isn't what I want! What was I thinking? Why would I agree to do a part like this?" Kyoko wailed like it was the end of the world. "I wanted to play a girl from a good family. Not the black-sheep of a good family."
"Please Kyoko," Director Ogata objected. "You mustn't say that. Mio is absolutely crucial to the drama, believe me. We need someone who can do the role justice."
"Excuse me. What are you talking about?" Ren finally decided it was time to make his presence known. He turned his wide, surprise-filled eyes at Kyoko, "you mean, Ms Mogami, you've been given a part in the new Tsukigomori? "
"When I first saw her as the angel in Sho Fuwa's music video, there was no question in my mind that this was our girl," Director Ogata offered cheerfully. "This Mio will surpass her predecessor, I can feel it."
Kyoko wiped her face hopefully. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.
"From the moment I laid eyes on her," Ogata, with a cheery smile and dreamy, faraway look in his eyes, clasped his hands together and said, "I couldn't help but think, there's a creature wrapped in an aura blacker than the devil himself."
"But I thought she played an angel?" Ren frowned at his manager for an explanation.
Yashiro himself looked like he had no idea. "I'm just as confused as you."
"That," a fresh supply of tears made its way out from Kyoko's eyes, pouring like a fountain, "is the worst thing anyone has ever said about me!" she glared at Ogata. "Look I'm sorry but I need some time to think it over." She turned to leave.
"No! Wait! What did I say?" Ogata called out to her desperately. "Please don't go! One of my actors is already on the fence, I can't afford to lose two. Don't do this to me."
"Hey," Ren interrupted them and turned to Ogata, " I'm in. If you think I'm the man for Katsuki, I accept."
"Wow, you sure?" Ogata's face lit up.
"Yes."
"And President Takarada, will he give us the green light?"
The President's response rang in Ren's mind when he had told him he was going to accept the Katsuki role despite his strong wishes against it.
You are an even bigger fool than I thought! Do what you gotta do, Ren. Just don't expect any help from me!
"Sure," Ren smiled. "In his own way."
"What a relief!" Ogata sighed. "You were born to play this part, Ren. Thank you. Together we are going to make the Tsukigomori for the ages!"
"Yes, we are." The Director took his hand and shook it energetically. Ren nodded at him and then his eyes swept over to Kyoko.
It was then it finally dawned on her. At first, she almost didn't notice it because her mind was too preoccupied with different subjects. But at that very moment when her eyes met Ren's, she forgot about everything else. Only one thought remained, he's going to be my...
"Costar," Ren completed her thought and reached out his hand to her with his pure, angelic smile and her heart rate picked up. Without thinking, she held out her own small hand and he wrapped it within his warm, moist fingers. He didn't shake it, instead, he just held it as the two gazed deep into each other's eyes. Kyoko felt waves of electricity passing through her body the moments their skins made contact. She sensed the sparks flying through the air and for a moment, there was just the two of them. The rest of the world didn't matter. Until another pair of fists cupped around their locked hands.
"Yes, yes." Ogata beamed while clutching their hands. "That's what I like to see! True-to-life chemistry between my actors. Go team!"
What the...? True-to-life chemistry? Kyoko immediately withdrew her hand.