DECLARATION OF LOVE.
"Yesterday was really messed up, so I forgot to tell you one thing," Kyoko admitted to Sho, who was standing a few paces away from her casually leaning on the brick railing. Her brows knitted together into a serious frown.
"Is that why you called me here all the way from the dining hall?" Sho let his uninterested eyes wander upto her face as he slowly looked up. "Why couldn't you just say it there? This better be important."
"I called you here because I don't wanna be seen with you again!" Kyoko scowled. "About yesterday, when you saved me..." She hesitated, before going on with a pained expression as if each word was burning her tongue. "It's not like I'm grateful or anything but as a person with a common sense of courtesy, it would be reasonable for me to offer atleast a single word of thanks."
Sho gave her a dirty look and took a step closer, "is that your idea of a thanks?"
"Yeah. So what?" Kyoko shot back. "It's not like I asked you to help me!"
"Still, would it be so hard for you to say a simple 'thank you'? And what's with the 'it's not like I am grateful or anything' crap? That is so not cute!"
"Gross!" Kyoko gagged. "If you thought of me as cute I'd get goosebumps.
"Say what?"
Ren kept inching closer and closer, taking down one step at a time. But no matter how much close he got, he still couldn't make out what they were saying.
"Anyway," Kyoko went on. "There's one more thing. You said you had talked things over with that Beagle. How on earth are you so sure that he won't come after me again? What exactly did you say to that psychopath?"
"Oh. That," Sho's lips curled into a lopsided smirk. "Just think of it like this, when two guys discuss something, they can understand each other without having to use words."
"Tell me you didn't!" Kyoko hissed sharply.
"Yup," Sho nodded. "Except his face, I beat up everything below it.
"You idiot!" Kyoko cried out, anger and dread mingled in her voice. She tried to shower a barrage of punches at Sho's chest but he easily pushed her back and blocked all of them with his fist alone. "Director Ogata specifically told you the consequences if you hit him! But did you stop to think? No! And now he has proof. There is nothing stopping him from going public anymore!"
"I told you, you don't have to worry about him anymore!" Sho snapped.
"Why the hell should I take your word for it?" She tried to hit him harder, but he still easily dodged her punches.
"Because, even if he has no pride as a musician, he still has pride as a man!"
Kyoko finally stopped trying to hit him to look up at his face.
"If I were in his place, I wouldn't tell a soul," Sho explained. "Do you think he'll have the guts to tell the whole world that he was beaten to a pulp by his rival."
"Why?" It was only a whisper. Kyoko rubbed her moist eyes from the cuff of her sleeve and asked, "why did you take such a risk? If he does go to the cops or even to the media, your career is as good as over! You could have just left me! What reason did you have to shut him up?"
When Sho spoke next, his tone was straight-forward, without even a pinch of humour in it, "the thought of how it might affect my career or my image did not even cross my mind. The only thing that was on my mind was your safety."
After hearing those words, Ren had to intervene. He couldn't just keep standing there and eavesdropping from the side lines. With silent footsteps, he sprinted down the stairs, a single question constantly plaguing his mind: why? Was it simply a coincidence or was it destiny that those two kept bumping into each other. When he first met Kyoko, she already had a special someone in her life. When he met her again, her special someone was still special but in a totally different way. She was so obsessed with Sho Fuwa that in order to get back to him, she was ready to dive into the ruthless show biz world, even though she used to have no interest in it. Now, Sho being a top singer and Kyoko being a newbie actress, they had completely different segments. Yet, their paths kept crossing. Almost as if they had some special connection, like their fates were intertwined or something.
"Why?" After Sho's words finally sank into her mind, Kyoko demanded, "why do you care what happens to me?"
Even if it was fate, Ren refused to have it. He was ready to fight even destiny if he had to, instead of giving up on Kyoko. Because only the thought of someone else being with her was enough to make his heart bleed.
"It's because," Sho stepped closer to her, his sharp brown eyes were unusually serious when they board into her hazel ones as he spoke, "you're my-"
"Kyoko, what are you still doing here?" Ren interrupted them, casually strolling down the last of the stairs as if he hadn't been standing there the whole time.
Kyoko abruptly jerked away from Sho at the sound of his voice. Her features twitching in shock and foreboding, "I...um...I..."
"Shouldn't you be getting ready to leave?" Ren asked in a friendly tone, which seemed to calm her down a bit. "The shoot will start in less than half an hour."
"It's so late already?" Cupping her cheeks, she gasped aloud. "But I haven't even had breakfast yet!"
"Then we better hurry. I was on my way to have breakfast as well," Ren lied smoothly.
Sho squinted his eyes suspiciously at Ren. He could feel that something was wrong in the picture here, like how Ren popped up all of a sudden and they didn't even hear him walking down the stairs. And the timing was way too good to be a coincidence. It was like Ren deliberately interrupted them when he did to cut Sho off.
Feeling the cool sharp glare of Sho's brown eyes on himself, Ren turned to face him. "Good morning," he flashed his perfect, signature smile.
Sho was completely thrown off by getting such a friendly and radiant smile from Ren. For some reason though, Kyoko stiffened.
"It's good that I bumped into you here," Ren went on. "Since I was tired from my flight, I forgot to mention something important to you last night. I'm sorry about that." His smile seemed to be getting even more bright every passing second.
"What?" Sho hissed.
"I've heard the details from Kyoko and when I think about what might have happened if you hadn't been there, I get the shivers." Ren's eyes were flooding with genuine relief. He snaked one of his arms around Kyoko's waist and pressed her to his side. "I'm truly grateful to you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for saving her. I really owe you one."
Sho's eyes widened with disbelief. Even through the facade of that friendly attitude, the warning in Ren's deep, dark eyes was as clear as the full moon on the night sky: keep your paws away from her, she's mine!
Before Sho could come up with a good comeback, Kyoko broke free from Ren's grip and exclaimed to him, "you don't need to do that! I know you're grateful to him for saving Mio's image, so you might think that you owe something but considering how is the reason I got involved in the whole mess, you're not obligated to thank him," she ranted on cluelessly. "Please don't even think about wasting your time thanking this guy. He might be a celebrity but trust me, he doesn't deserve it."
"Well, I guess so... Now that you mention it." Ren scratched the back of his head.
Ignoring the sharp yet expected retort from Kyoko, Sho tried to understand what was going on. But nothing made sense to him. At first, it looked like those two had a thing going on between them, considering how Ren silently told him to back off. But the way Kyoko totally shot him down and mistook his concern for her character's image, it was clear that she had no clue of Ren's true intentions towards her. She even failed to notice his little attempts to capture her attention. In a sense, it was hilarious to see the sexiest male bachelor in Japan struggle like that.
A wave of odd calm washed over Sho when he compared his own importance in Kyoko's mind from Ren's. Even if she hated his existence Kyoko was obsessed with him. In comparison to that, she didn't even let Ren thank him on her behalf.
Sho, trying to fight off the victorious smirk on his lips, flashed a look to Ren which was filled with conciet. For the first time, things turned out the way they were supposed to be. He had something which Ren Tsuruga desperately desired.
In response to Sho's cocky look, Ren's perfect, cold smile turned even brighter as anger flared up inside him. He only said what he did because he knew Kyoko was too naive to get him, but for her to shoot him down like that and especially in front of Sho Fuwa, it made the wound from last night open up again, and it throbbed wildly in his chest. But he ignored it. Instead, he let Sho Fuwa have this one. It was not like he even cared a fig about what Sho thought of him..
Aloud he said, "we should really get going now if we wanna make it to the shoot in time."
"Right," Kyoko nodded before turning to Sho one last time. "I just wanted to make sure that even if you helped me, I don't owe you anything."
"Sure," Sho shrugged nonchalantly. "I already knew that. Thanking me was just an excuse to get me here. Actually, you couldn't just stand that idea that I could be thinking that you owed me, right? Fine. I never once thought of it that way. We're even." What he didn't say out loud was by saving Kyoko, he was paying back the debt he owed to her for hitting her that day.
The two costars started making their way towards the dining hall when Sho called after her one last time, "Kyoko!"
Both of them stopped and turned to look at him.
"I'm not gonna feel hopeless or lose to anyone else again." His tone aside from being resolved had a pinch of gratitude mingled in it. "You wanted to defeat me, right? So it's on. From now on, you're the only one I'll give a chance to stand against me. Come at to me with all you've got. I'll wait for you at the top."
In response, a determined smile twisted on Kyoko's lips, which seemed to be saying "I will!"
"Ren, what's wrong?" Yashiro inquired when he found the aura of gloom surrounding his client as they waited in the back seat of the bus which was about to set off on it's way to the set location. "You were so cheerful this morning, what happened?"
Without bothering to reply, Ren tightly hugged his stomach and bent down in his seat.
"Was it breakfast? I thought it was a little heavy from what you usually take?" Yashiro pondered as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Please stop talking about food..." Ren covered his mouth and retched.
Yashiro frowned questioningly, wondering what was the problem. He got his answer soon enough when Kyoko walked up to them from her own seat in the front with an upset look on her face.
"I'm so sorry! It's my fault," she apologized to the manager.
"What do you mean?"
"Actually, the reason why Ren is so sick is because..."
Ren abruptly straightened throwing a desperate look to Kyoko, while silently praying she would get the message and not tell Yashiro what she was about to say.
"... I forced him to eat breakfast!" Since Kyoko was lowering her head to hide the guilt in her eyes, she failed to note the pleading look on Ren's face, and explained further obliviously. "He told me he had an upset stomach and didn't feel like eating but I did not believe him thinking that he's only making it up to skip the meal."
"Breakfast? But..." Yashiro blinked before the truth of the matter finally dawned on him. He bit his tongue to stop himself from spilling how Ren had already eaten with him this morning before he even left the suite. He fought off the mischievous grin from his face at how Kyoko forced him to eat a second time. "Oh, is that so?" The manager passed a secretive wink to his client, who groaned inwards.
"Yeah. I'm so sorry again." Kyoko apologized politely to both of them. "Anyway, the bus is about to start so I should get back to my seat." With that, she turned and left to join Itsumi in the front.
"Now then." At last, Yashiro allowed the sarcastic grin he had been holding back to crack his face, once kyoko had left. "I had no idea that you were still hungry after we had eaten this morning."
Ren groaned in protest, aloud this time. He could see just how much the manager was enjoying this, which was why he wanted to keep it a secret from him.
"Here!" Yashiro reached into a small first aid kit into his bag and took out a couple of pills before handing them to Ren. "Take these. They're digestives."
"Aren't you gonna ask?" Ren wondered aloud as he graciously accepted the pills. "About why I ate a second time?"
"No," he answered." If you wanted me to know, you would have told me already. Besides, if someone like you who would do anything to skip eating went so far as to eat a meal twice, the reason must have been pretty important." He let his eyes roll dramatically before they lingered on Kyoko, who was having a lively conversation with Itsumi. "To be honest, it made you look really silly!" He couldn't help but chuckle.
"Please stop..." Ren almost begged as he burried his face to hide it in his lap.
"Could you pass these up?" Inside one of the booked studios in Karuizawa, Sho handed about a dozen sealed envelope to his manager, Shouko, nodding towards the rest of his team.
"What is this?" Shouko pretty much had the right idea of what it was, but she asked anyway because she refused to believe that Sho could be naive enough to hand out the arrangement of his song to the team while they still hadn't caught the mole.
"It's the arrangement of my new song."
"What?" The manager tore out a sheet from one of the envelopes and glanced at it for confirmation, her bulging with disbelief. "And you intend to just hand it out? While the mole is still here?"
"Yup," his lips twitched into a tiny, infinitesimal, almost non-existent smirk. "Just trust me on this."
"But-"
"Pass 'em up, will you?" He aloud a full smile to spread confidently across his face.
Since the manager had no other option, she did what she was told.
"Okay, that's a wrap!" The Director announced. "We'll continue with the next scene after lunch."
The crew relaxed and the people clustered into little groups as they prepared to leave the set in order to go and get something to eat.
Since Ren did not have the stomach for lunch, he used this opportunity to quietly slip out of there and get a quick nap in the prop trailer.
Once he got there, he crashed on his back on a soft couch inside the spacious trailer and closed his eyes. Even though he felt tired as hell, sleep wouldn't come. His thoughts would always end up to the events of this morning and the unwelcome feeling of defeat would wash over him again.
Sho Fuwa's words rang in his mind again and again. How he had challenged Kyoko to come after him. Kyoko had been too naive to understand the true meaning behind his words, but to Ren it almost sounded like a confession. The cocky smile on Sho's face, Ren remembered it. It was too recognisable for him because he have seen it before. It brought back the unwanted memories from his traumatic past.
Dammit! Ren punched his fist. He couldn't figure out why he felt like he had already lost when he hadn't even started to fight Sho Fuwa for Kyoko's heart yet. He tried to ignore the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach and the foul taste in his mouth.
Sitting up, he slowly massaged his throbbing head before he heard someone scurrying inside.
"Ren, are you ok?" Kyoko exclaimed between gasps, as if she just ran here. Her eyes dripping with guilt. "I heard from Mr Yashiro that you were still sick since I forced you to eat. I'm so sorry!"
"Kyoko," Ren's eyes widened with surprise. "I'm fine. You don't have to keep apologizing every time."
"But..."
"Besides, I'm not sick anymore. I didn't get much sleep last night and was feeling a little dizzy, so I just came in to get a quick nap, that's all."
"Oh, okay." Kyoko stood hesitantly for a while, not being quite sure what to do next. "I, um... Well, don't stop on my account then." She put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him down until he was lying on his back. "I won't disturb you." After dimming the lights to a minimum, she turned back quietly in order to leave.
"Wait!" Ren raised himself a little by his elbows. "Could you...stay?"
"Yeah, of course." Kyoko stopped without any hesitation. "Is there anything I can do for you?" She asked as she put her hands on his shoulders and pressed him down again.
As he lay there on his back, he stared up at her eyes in awe. In the dim lights, they had a completely different shade. They almost looked brown, like the colour of hot chocolate, so warm and sweet. And then his eyes leisurely traveled down her face, slowly breathing in the sight. Down from her gorgeous eyes to her slightly chubby cheeks, her adorable little nose and at last, to her plush, pink lips. He gulped.
When he realised that she was still waiting for him to answer, he raised his head up a little, his dark eyes intently fixated on her lips. "Actually there is one thing you can do for me."