THE NEW TRIO.
Having three regular jobs while also having to attend acting school and her normal classes, Kyoko barely had time to visit the agency since last month. Although, now she had no choice but to take some time out of her busy schedule and go there because she got a call from Swara one night, who told her that she was summoned by the President at the Love Me Division the next morning.
Kyoko suspected that the reason Takarada had called her there had nothing to do with any actual Love Me job, but the President's curiosity about how she spent her Valentine's Day.
The next day, as soon as she cleared her schedule, she arrived at the agency without fail.
While treading across the familiar corridor leading up to the door of the Love Me room, she heard someone calling out to her from behind.
"The President called you too?" It was Kanae.
"Moko!" Kyoko crushed her in a bear hug, which her best friend tried to cut short, as her cheeks were burning up due to embarrassment.
"Cut that out, will you? Why do you always have to act so sappy?" Moko remarked, flustered.
"I'm just so happy to see you. It's been ages since we met."
"Ages? We just saw each other on Valentine's day when we made those chocolates together! Don't you remember?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Kyoko giggled impishly, biting her tongue. "Anyway how did it go? Did you give the chocolates to Hiou?"
"I did, but you remember that guy who had been harassing me? He saw us and got so jealous that he ended up causing a ruckus on the set. It was a nightmare! Even though Hiou is just a twelve-year-old kid, he ruined it!" Moko let out a resigned sigh "I'm so done with guys and their petty jealousy!" The last part of what she said somehow reminded her of Ren. "How about you? How was your Valentine's day?" She frowned curiously in anticipation.
"It was nice. Everyone enjoyed my chocolates and they were all very grateful."
"Everyone?" She narrowed her eyes. "Even Tsuruga?" Kanae had been suspecting Ren of having feelings for Kyoko for a long time, which was why she was concerned, since Kyoko had decided to give chocolates to everyone only excluding him.
Instead of replying, Kyoko froze up as Ren's kiss burned its way into her mind. Even if it was a small peck on the cheek which didn't mean anything to him, it was still a big deal to her as it enough to pick up the pace of her heart.
Realising that Moko was still waiting for her answer, she muttered, "yeah, he was grateful. Infact, too much grateful for me to like it. Just thinking about it reminds me how much of pain it was."
Moko gasped, her first guess being that Ren must've kissed Kyoko. However, if that were true, her melodramatic friend wouldn't be talking about it so casually. "What did he do?" She asked with bated breath.
Before Kyoko could respond, they were interrupted by the faint sounds of dialogues from a movie, and it was coming from Love Me room.
"Is someone in there?" Moko wondered aloud.
Her companion shrugged, and after a few long seconds of standing still, the girls decided to find out the answer for themselves by entering.
Pushing open the door, both the girls gasped aloud at the sight before them.
The room was occupied by a petite teenage girl with straight, brown hair, who looked not much older than themselves. She was sitting at the large square table in the middle of the room, watching a movie on her laptop.
The most unsettling thing about her which shocked the two newcomers the most was her outfit: a hot pink jumpsuit from head to toe with the familiar Love Me logo printed on its front and back.
Kyoko exchanged a flabbergasted glance with her best friend, who gasped, mirroring her surprise and mysticism.
"Who the hell are you?" Moko demanded.
The girl looked up to face them, revealing her familiar almond eyes and her small baby face for the first time.
"Amamiya!" Kyoko exclaimed, with even more surprise.
"Hi," she flashed a smile to Kyoko and then turned to Moko to introduce herself. "Hello. I'm Chiori Amamiya from the Softhat agency. I've joined the Love Me Division last month. Nice to meet you." She offered her hand.
Moko shook it. "Kanae Kotonami." Turning to Kyoko, she asked, "how do you know her already?"
"We're co-stars," Kyoko explained. "She is a regular cast member in Box R."
Moko regarded her newest associate with unmistakable curiosity. "Where are you from again?"
"Softhat. Its a really small company, so I'm not surprised if you haven't heard of it." Amamiya explained. "I was going to quit there to join LME, but my boss insisted on me staying. So he talked it out with President Takarada to let me join the Love Me Division while staying in Softhat."
"Let you join?" Kanae's eyes widened. "Are you saying you want to be in the Love Me Division? Willingly?"
"Yes, of course."
Exchanging a bewildered glance with Kyoko, she exclaimed, "but why? Why would you want something like that? Are you out of your mind? You know you can be asked to do any number of odd jobs and no matter how degrading those jobs are, you can't say no, and you won't even get paid! Why would you choose this?" She couldn't help but think of Amamiya as a freak, because only a weirdo would want to be in Love Me. Willingly.
"I don't mind the work. I'm here because," she hesitated, "it's because I've lost my love for acting," Amamiya looked down. "If you had asked me to join Love Me before I met Kyoko, I would have probably laughed at the suggestion rather than agreed to put on this horrendous pink uniform. However, after I've witnessed her Natsu, I was so inspired that I had been desperate to act again but with the same intensity that I used to. When I heard about the Love Me Division, it sounded exactly like what I wanted. What I needed to land back on my feet." She turned to Kyoko. "And when I heard that you're also a member, I immediately signed up."
Kyoko flushed. She never would have imagined that her Natsu had such a big impact on someone. "I'm honoured," she muttered timidly.
"If you don't mind answering, then can I ask what made you two join the Love Me Division?" Amamiya stroked her chin thoughtfully.
Kyoko and Kanae exchanged another glance, silently agreeing not to burst Chiori's bubble and keep the fact from her that they were forced to be a part of Love Me.
Kanae went first, "President Takarada thinks that in order to act out love properly, I first need to learn the value of love," she crossed her arms with a somewhat angry frown. "I've never been much close to my family, or anyone else, and he thinks that no matter how good I act, if I stay reserved in real life, then I can never add depth to my characters. So here I am."
Amamiya nodded, relating to her. Since her role in the Scarlet Dice, she'd also been very reserved as well. Love was something which couldn't be faked, so she felt like this Division was exactly what she needed to win it back. "And what about you?" She turned to Kyoko. "I'm pretty sure you already love acting, then what could be holding you here?"
Kyoko looked down, "I-," she hesitated, "I'm here because I can't fall in love with anyone." She still had no intention of ever fixing this particular ability inside her even if she had to stay in the Love Me Division forever, because she did not have the courage and strength to risk her heart again. But, thanks to Takarada, she did not have a choice when it came to staying in Love Me.
Amamiya couldn't quite decipher what could've happen to Kyoko for her to have lost the ability of falling in love. The old her would've probed her further and then used this information to her own advantage, but now that she was truly trying to change herself, she decided to let this go. Not knowing how to react, she stayed quiet.
Awkward silence filled the place, which was soon broken by Kanae, who asked, "so, why were you watching a movie here alone?" She nodded towards her laptop.
"I'm supposed to be writing reviews for all of Michika Kawaga's movies." Amamiya managed through minced teeth, rolling her eyes and making it obvious she was not enjoying her first assignment.
"Let me guess. President Takarada put you up to this?" Moko snickered.
"Yeah. I was only here to introduce myself to him, and also pick up my uniform since I had the day off, but then he asked me a question and when I answered without thinking, he told me to write positive reviews for these awfully cringey and sappy romantic movies."
"What did he ask you?" Kyoko wondered aloud, "for you to end up like this?"
Before she could get an answer, the door opened and Takarada sauntered inside with a grin. He was wearing another of his wired outfits: consisting of a loose white shirt along with a caracet of original fresh marigolds; a yellow Indian skirt, called dhoti; and a yellow matching turban with a feather of a peacock attached to it.
"There you are! Love Me girls!" The President flashed his teeth. "So how was your Valentine's Day?"
Upon noticing his arrival, the girls turned to face him, and the sight before their eyes evoked a cacophony of immensely horrified shrill screams from all three of them. Their facial features twisting in fear and their lips quivering in trepidation.
The object of their sudden fright was a humongous snake, approximately twenty centimeters thick and fifteen inches long, coiled around Takarada's neck. It hissed out it's tongue and the room was filled with ear-piercing shrieks as the three young ladies screeched like banshees.
"There's no need to panic. She's not poisonous!" Takarada petted the snake with such tenderness as one might pet a cat. "Natsuko Chan is a friendly animal!"
Seeing how his words failed to have the soothing impact on the three young and extremely loud actresses, the President sighed in resignation, snapped his fingers to summon his trusted secretary who had been waiting outside, and uncoiled Natsuko Chan from around his neck before handing her over to him. "Take her to my office."
The screams didn't subside until the snake was long gone and out of sight.
"So, back to the topic," Takarada pressed his palms and grinned excitedly ones the girls were calm enough to talk again. "How was your Valentine's day? I do hope you made chocolates for at least one person?"
Kanae answered first, "yes, I gave them to a costar of mine." She neglected from mentioning that her co-star happened to be a twelve-year-old kid.
"Me too," Kyoko interposed. "I gave chocolates to almost all my co-stars"
"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are finally getting out of your shells."
It's not like we had a choice! Kyoko and Kanae thought at the same time, snorting silently. Takarada's making it compulsory to hand out chocolates, they didn't have the liberty to refuse.
"Most importantly, did you two have fun?" The President asked.
Oddly, the word 'fun' hit both the girls like a gut punch as Kanae was reminded of the scene her jealous costar had caused on the set after she gave her chocolates to Hiou, and Kyoko was once again becoming dizzy as the memory of Ren's kiss pushed it's way in her mind. She hated it when she wasn't in control of herself.
Fun was the last word either of the girls would've used to describe their Valentine's Day.
"It was horrible/awful!" They exclaimed together. The words had tumbled out of their mouths before they could stop themselves, and only after they had said it did they think about the consequences of bad-mouthing Valentine's day in front of the President.
"Man!" Kanae groaned. "Now we have to writes these stupid reviews too!"
The two girls were now sitting beside Amamiya as she watched the movies of Michika Kawaga.
"If only we hadn't angered the President like that," Kyoko sighed.
"I wouldn't mind reviewing something critically, but these are so boring, and he's making us write only positive reviews!"
Kyoko cocked her head. "Amamiya, what did the President ask you?"
"The same question, about Valentine's Day."
"What triggered him?"
"I answered without thinking. I told him that three years ago, I was in an audition of a romantic movie with Michika Kawaga, and how I would've won the part if it wasn't for her. Even though she had no acting skills or experience, the Director picked her just because of her looks. Ever since then, she became a top sensation, and here I am, still stuck where I was three years ago!"
"What does that have to do with Valentine's Day?"
"It had all happened on Valentine's day. Ever since then, I've hated this day, because I'm always reminded of her. Despite my hatred, now the President's making me watch her movies! He said that I'll never grow unless I learn to acknowledge other's talent."
"That's ridiculous!" Kanae nodded towards the screen. "What's there to acknowledge? She's awful!"
"I know, right!" Chiori agreed. "Her acting is so obvious that it's almost painful."
"Yeah, it's irritating to watch."
Kyoko remained quiet as she listened to them while writing her reviews. This was the first time she had seen Moko agree on something with someone. She would have never imagined that those two would hit it off so soon.
"Did you see her cry?" Kanae snickered. "She's definitely using teardrops. She's not just bad horrible!"
Amamiya laughed, but her cackles subsided the minute she noticed that someone was standing right behind them.
She swivelled her head back, and her companions followed, to find that the President had been there the whole time, and judging from the angry frown on his face, he had eavesdropped every word.
"You two show no growth as Love Me Members!" He pointed at Amamiya's predecessors, who looked down. "What do I do with you?" Takarada shook his head. "I'm not even sad anymore, just angry!"
Kanae looked up. "Sorry?" It sounded more like a question. "I didn't get any Love Me jobs since last month.
"You fools! Your job is to make people love you! If they don't ask you for help, then you go and offer!" Takarada thundered. "You two have forgotten the true meaning of the Love Me Division. You have to figure out what people need and then help them." He sighed. "Looking at you, I can tell you think that you don't even need Love Me anymore. Since you've acting jobs now."
Both girls exchanged a glance and then winced at the candour of his words.
"I knew it," the President reached into the pocket of his dhoti and fished out three sealed envelopes. "Which is why, I came prepared. I've brought these assignments for all three of you."
Each of the envelopes had there names written on it in a hasty handwriting along with a different tag.
Takarada shoved the envelopes into their hands one by one. First to Amamiya and Kanae, followed by Kyoko. Each of their envelope reading: Something Fun, Something Messy, and
Something Dangerous respectively.
"I'll do it," Chiori smiled, reading the tag on her envelope.
"I don't wanna do anything messy!" Kanae complained, reading from her own envelope.
But Kyoko knew it was no use complaining. They didn't have a choice as long as the President was involved.
After the President had left, the girls settled back, showing each other their envelopes and also complaining about their new jobs.
Amamiya was the most shaken up. After glancing at what was inside her envelope, she almost begged the President to give her something else, but Takarada showed her no mercy.
Turned out, she had to judge a stand-up comedy show, where the contestants will be roasting the judges on camera.
"I'm not surprised," Kanae snorted. "The President's definition of fun is definitely twisted."
Next, Moko opened her own envelope to find out that she got the side role in a movie. It was of a teenage girl who ran from home because she was madly in love with a samurai.
Kanae instantly hated her part, and the fact that she won't be getting paid for this stung even bitterly.
It was Kyoko's turn at last, whom they were most hyped about, judging from her tag, which said, something dangerous.
Reading thoroughly the contents of her envelope, Kyoko frowned. "It dosen't seem like anything dangerous."
Chiori asked restlessly. "What is it?"
"It looks like I'll have to pick up a guest of the President from the station. He'll be here in half an hour, so I have to leave right now to be there." She started packing up her stuff.
Kanae crossed her arms, an uncertain frown on her brows. "Are you sure it'll be okay? What if this guest is really dangerous?"
"I don't think so," Kyoko chuckled. "It's the President. I'm pretty sure he's just testing me or something."
Wearing her least favorite jumpsuit, despite the peevish remarks of the passerbys, Kyoko held her head high as she waited in Shibuya station, carrying up a handmade sign with the name of the President's guest written on it, in order to be recognised.
She was pretty sure that with her neon pink jumpsuit, she needed no sign to get the attention of her guest, but she still bothered to make one, just in case.
It said: Mr Cain Heel.
Takarada had given her only very limited information about this guest of his. One of the things he had told her was that this Mr Cain Heel was supposed to be a foreigner with dark hair and blue eyes.
Almost half an hour passed, and no one showed up. Kyoko was about to give up when the President called her to let her know that his guest was waiting for her by the Hachiko statue, which fortunately wasn't very far.
Kyoko arrived to her destination, where she spotted someone from afar dressed all in black. According to the President's description of Mr Heel, this man looked promising, so Kyoko approached him without any hesitation, even though she noticed how everyone was staying clear from his path, because of the way he was sittTHE NEW TRIO.
Having three regular jobs while also having to attend acting school and her normal classes, Kyoko barely had time to visit the agency since last month. Although, now she had no choice but to take some time out of her busy schedule and go there because she got a call from Swara one night, who told her that she was summoned by the President at the Love Me Division the next morning.
Kyoko suspected that the reason Takarada had called her there had nothing to do with any actual Love Me job, but the President's curiosity about how she spent her Valentine's Day.
The next day, as soon as she cleared her schedule, she arrived at the agency without fail.
While treading across the familiar corridor leading up to the door of the Love Me room, she heard someone calling out to her from behind.
"The President called you too?" It was Kanae.
"Moko!" Kyoko crushed her in a bear hug, which her best friend tried to cut short, as her cheeks were burning up due to embarrassment.
"Cut that out, will you? Why do you always have to act so sappy?" Moko remarked, flustered.
"I'm just so happy to see you. It's been ages since we met."
"Ages? We just saw each other on Valentine's day when we made those chocolates together! Don't you remember?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Kyoko giggled impishly, biting her tongue. "Anyway how did it go? Did you give the chocolates to Hiou?"
"I did, but you remember that guy who had been harassing me? He saw us and got so jealous that he ended up causing a ruckus on the set. It was a nightmare! Even though Hiou is just a twelve-year-old kid, he ruined it!" Moko let out a resigned sigh "I'm so done with guys and their petty jealousy!" The last part of what she said somehow reminded her of Ren. "How about you? How was your Valentine's day?" She frowned curiously in anticipation.
"It was nice. Everyone enjoyed my chocolates and they were all very grateful."
"Everyone?" She narrowed her eyes. "Even Tsuruga?" Kanae had been suspecting Ren of having feelings for Kyoko for a long time, which was why she was concerned, since Kyoko had decided to give chocolates to everyone only excluding him.
Instead of replying, Kyoko froze up as Ren's kiss burned its way into her mind. Even if it was a small peck on the cheek which didn't mean anything to him, it was still a big deal to her as it enough to pick up the pace of her heart.
Realising that Moko was still waiting for her answer, she muttered, "yeah, he was grateful. Infact, too much grateful for me to like it. Just thinking about it reminds me how much of pain it was."
Moko gasped, her first guess being that Ren must've kissed Kyoko. However, if that were true, her melodramatic friend wouldn't be talking about it so casually. "What did he do?" She asked with bated breath.
Before Kyoko could respond, they were interrupted by the faint sounds of dialogues from a movie, and it was coming from Love Me room.
"Is someone in there?" Moko wondered aloud.
Her companion shrugged, and after a few long seconds of standing still, the girls decided to find out the answer for themselves by entering.
Pushing open the door, both the girls gasped aloud at the sight before them.
The room was occupied by a petite teenage girl with straight, brown hair, who looked not much older than themselves. She was sitting at the large square table in the middle of the room, watching a movie on her laptop.
The most unsettling thing about her which shocked the two newcomers the most was her outfit: a hot pink jumpsuit from head to toe with the familiar Love Me logo printed on its front and back.
Kyoko exchanged a flabbergasted glance with her best friend, who gasped, mirroring her surprise and mysticism.
"Who the hell are you?" Moko demanded.
The girl looked up to face them, revealing her familiar almond eyes and her small baby face for the first time.
"Amamiya!" Kyoko exclaimed, with even more surprise.
"Hi," she flashed a smile to Kyoko and then turned to Moko to introduce herself. "Hello. I'm Chiori Amamiya from the Softhat agency. I've joined the Love Me Division last month. Nice to meet you." She offered her hand.
Moko shook it. "Kanae Kotonami." Turning to Kyoko, she asked, "how do you know her already?"
"We're co-stars," Kyoko explained. "She is a regular cast member in Box R."
Moko regarded her newest associate with unmistakable curiosity. "Where are you from again?"
"Softhat. Its a really small company, so I'm not surprised if you haven't heard of it." Amamiya explained. "I was going to quit there to join LME, but my boss insisted on me staying. So he talked it out with President Takarada to let me join the Love Me Division while staying in Softhat."
"Let you join?" Kanae's eyes widened. "Are you saying you want to be in the Love Me Division? Willingly?"
"Yes, of course."
Exchanging a bewildered glance with Kyoko, she exclaimed, "but why? Why would you want something like that? Are you out of your mind? You know you can be asked to do any number of odd jobs and no matter how degrading those jobs are, you can't say no, and you won't even get paid! Why would you choose this?" She couldn't help but think of Amamiya as a freak, because only a weirdo would want to be in Love Me. Willingly.
"I don't mind the work. I'm here because," she hesitated, "it's because I've lost my love for acting," Amamiya looked down. "If you had asked me to join Love Me before I met Kyoko, I would have probably laughed at the suggestion rather than agreed to put on this horrendous pink uniform. However, after I've witnessed her Natsu, I was so inspired that I had been desperate to act again but with the same intensity that I used to. When I heard about the Love Me Division, it sounded exactly like what I wanted. What I needed to land back on my feet." She turned to Kyoko. "And when I heard that you're also a member, I immediately signed up."
Kyoko flushed. She never would have imagined that her Natsu had such a big impact on someone. "I'm honoured," she muttered timidly.
"If you don't mind answering, then can I ask what made you two join the Love Me Division?" Amamiya stroked her chin thoughtfully.
Kyoko and Kanae exchanged another glance, silently agreeing not to burst Chiori's bubble and keep the fact from her that they were forced to be a part of Love Me.
Kanae went first, "President Takarada thinks that in order to act out love properly, I first need to learn the value of love," she crossed her arms with a somewhat angry frown. "I've never been much close to my family, or anyone else, and he thinks that no matter how good I act, if I stay reserved in real life, then I can never add depth to my characters. So here I am."
Amamiya nodded, relating to her. Since her role in the Scarlet Dice, she'd also been very reserved as well. Love was something which couldn't be faked, so she felt like this Division was exactly what she needed to win it back. "And what about you?" She turned to Kyoko. "I'm pretty sure you already love acting, then what could be holding you here?"
Kyoko looked down, "I-," she hesitated, "I'm here because I can't fall in love with anyone." She still had no intention of ever fixing this particular ability inside her even if she had to stay in the Love Me Division forever, because she did not have the courage and strength to risk her heart again. But, thanks to Takarada, she did not have a choice when it came to staying in Love Me.
Amamiya couldn't quite decipher what could've happen to Kyoko for her to have lost the ability of falling in love. The old her would've probed her further and then used this information to her own advantage, but now that she was truly trying to change herself, she decided to let this go. Not knowing how to react, she stayed quiet.
Awkward silence filled the place, which was soon broken by Kanae, who asked, "so, why were you watching a movie here alone?" She nodded towards her laptop.
"I'm supposed to be writing reviews for all of Michika Kawaga's movies." Amamiya managed through minced teeth, rolling her eyes and making it obvious she was not enjoying her first assignment.
"Let me guess. President Takarada put you up to this?" Moko snickered.
"Yeah. I was only here to introduce myself to him, and also pick up my uniform since I had the day off, but then he asked me a question and when I answered without thinking, he told me to write positive reviews for these awfully cringey and sappy romantic movies."
"What did he ask you?" Kyoko wondered aloud, "for you to end up like this?"
Before she could get an answer, the door opened and Takarada sauntered inside with a grin. He was wearing another of his wired outfits: consisting of a loose white shirt along with a caracet of original fresh marigolds; a yellow Indian skirt, called dhoti; and a yellow matching turban with a feather of a peacock attached to it.
"There you are! Love Me girls!" The President flashed his teeth. "So how was your Valentine's Day?"
Upon noticing his arrival, the girls turned to face him, and the sight before their eyes evoked a cacophony of immensely horrified shrill screams from all three of them. Their facial features twisting in fear and their lips quivering in trepidation.
The object of their sudden fright was a humongous snake, approximately twenty centimeters thick and fifteen inches long, coiled around Takarada's neck. It hissed out it's tongue and the room was filled with ear-piercing shrieks as the three young ladies screeched like banshees.
"There's no need to panic. She's not poisonous!" Takarada petted the snake with such tenderness as one might pet a cat. "Natsuko Chan is a friendly animal!"
Seeing how his words failed to have the soothing impact on the three young and extremely loud actresses, the President sighed in resignation, snapped his fingers to summon his trusted secretary who had been waiting outside, and uncoiled Natsuko Chan from around his neck before handing her over to him. "Take her to my office."
The screams didn't subside until the snake was long gone and out of sight.
"So, back to the topic," Takarada pressed his palms and grinned excitedly ones the girls were calm enough to talk again. "How was your Valentine's day? I do hope you made chocolates for at least one person?"
Kanae answered first, "yes, I gave them to a costar of mine." She neglected from mentioning that her co-star happened to be a twelve-year-old kid.
"Me too," Kyoko interposed. "I gave chocolates to almost all my co-stars"
"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are finally getting out of your shells."
It's not like we had a choice! Kyoko and Kanae thought at the same time, snorting silently. Takarada's making it compulsory to hand out chocolates, they didn't have the liberty to refuse.
"Most importantly, did you two have fun?" The President asked.
Oddly, the word 'fun' hit both the girls like a gut punch as Kanae was reminded of the scene her jealous costar had caused on the set after she gave her chocolates to Hiou, and Kyoko was once again becoming dizzy as the memory of Ren's kiss pushed it's way in her mind. She hated it when she wasn't in control of herself.
Fun was the last word either of the girls would've used to describe their Valentine's Day.
"It was horrible/awful!" They exclaimed together. The words had tumbled out of their mouths before they could stop themselves, and only after they had said it did they think about the consequences of bad-mouthing Valentine's day in front of the President.
"Man!" Kanae groaned. "Now we have to writes these stupid reviews too!"
The two girls were now sitting beside Amamiya as she watched the movies of Michika Kawaga.
"If only we hadn't angered the President like that," Kyoko sighed.
"I wouldn't mind reviewing something critically, but these are so boring, and he's making us write only positive reviews!"
Kyoko cocked her head. "Amamiya, what did the President ask you?"
"The same question, about Valentine's Day."
"What triggered him?"
"I answered without thinking. I told him that three years ago, I was in an audition of a romantic movie with Michika Kawaga, and how I would've won the part if it wasn't for her. Even though she had no acting skills or experience, the Director picked her just because of her looks. Ever since then, she became a top sensation, and here I am, still stuck where I was three years ago!"
"What does that have to do with Valentine's Day?"
"It had all happened on Valentine's day. Ever since then, I've hated this day, because I'm always reminded of her. Despite my hatred, now the President's making me watch her movies! He said that I'll never grow unless I learn to acknowledge other's talent."
"That's ridiculous!" Kanae nodded towards the screen. "What's there to acknowledge? She's awful!"
"I know, right!" Chiori agreed. "Her acting is so obvious that it's almost painful."
"Yeah, it's irritating to watch."
Kyoko remained quiet as she listened to them while writing her reviews. This was the first time she had seen Moko agree on something with someone. She would have never imagined that those two would hit it off so soon.
"Did you see her cry?" Kanae snickered. "She's definitely using teardrops. She's not just bad horrible!"
Amamiya laughed, but her cackles subsided the minute she noticed that someone was standing right behind them.
She swivelled her head back, and her companions followed, to find that the President had been there the whole time, and judging from the angry frown on his face, he had eavesdropped every word.
"You two show no growth as Love Me Members!" He pointed at Amamiya's predecessors, who looked down. "What do I do with you?" Takarada shook his head. "I'm not even sad anymore, just angry!"
Kanae looked up. "Sorry?" It sounded more like a question. "I didn't get any Love Me jobs since last month.
"You fools! Your job is to make people love you! If they don't ask you for help, then you go and offer!" Takarada thundered. "You two have forgotten the true meaning of the Love Me Division. You have to figure out what people need and then help them." He sighed. "Looking at you, I can tell you think that you don't even need Love Me anymore. Since you've acting jobs now."
Both girls exchanged a glance and then winced at the candour of his words.
"I knew it," the President reached into the pocket of his dhoti and fished out three sealed envelopes. "Which is why, I came prepared. I've brought these assignments for all three of you."
Each of the envelopes had there names written on it in a hasty handwriting along with a different tag.
Takarada shoved the envelopes into their hands one by one. First to Amamiya and Kanae, followed by Kyoko. Each of their envelope reading: Something Fun, Something Messy, and
Something Dangerous respectively.
"I'll do it," Chiori smiled, reading the tag on her envelope.
"I don't wanna do anything messy!" Kanae complained, reading from her own envelope.
But Kyoko knew it was no use complaining. They didn't have a choice as long as the President was involved.
After the President had left, the girls settled back, showing each other their envelopes and also complaining about their new jobs.
Amamiya was the most shaken up. After glancing at what was inside her envelope, she almost begged the President to give her something else, but Takarada showed her no mercy.
Turned out, she had to judge a stand-up comedy show, where the contestants will be roasting the judges on camera.
"I'm not surprised," Kanae snorted. "The President's definition of fun is definitely twisted."
Next, Moko opened her own envelope to find out that she got the side role in a movie. It was of a teenage girl who ran from home because she was madly in love with a samurai.
Kanae instantly hated her part, and the fact that she won't be getting paid for this stung even bitterly.
It was Kyoko's turn at last, whom they were most hyped about, judging from her tag, which said, something dangerous.
Reading thoroughly the contents of her envelope, Kyoko frowned. "It dosen't seem like anything dangerous."
Chiori asked restlessly. "What is it?"
"It looks like I'll have to pick up a guest of the President from the station. He'll be here in half an hour, so I have to leave right now to be there." She started packing up her stuff.
Kanae crossed her arms, an uncertain frown on her brows. "Are you sure it'll be okay? What if this guest is really dangerous?"
"I don't think so," Kyoko chuckled. "It's the President. I'm pretty sure he's just testing me or something."
Wearing her least favorite jumpsuit, despite the peevish remarks of the passerbys, Kyoko held her head high as she waited in Shibuya station, carrying up a handmade sign with the name of the President's guest written on it, in order to be recognised.
She was pretty sure that with her neon pink jumpsuit, she needed no sign to get the attention of her guest, but she still bothered to make one, just in case.
It said: Mr Cain Heel.
Takarada had given her only very limited information about this guest of his. One of the things he had told her was that this Mr Cain Heel was supposed to be a foreigner with dark hair and blue eyes.
Almost half an hour passed, and no one showed up. Kyoko was about to give up when the President called her to let her know that his guest was waiting for her by the Hachiko statue, which fortunately wasn't very far.
Kyoko arrived to her destination, where she spotted someone from afar dressed all in black. According to the President's description of Mr Heel, this man looked promising, so Kyoko approached him without any hesitation, even though she noticed how everyone was staying clear from his path, because of the way he was sitting with his head hung low.
All of a sudden, something occured to Kyoko and recognition flashed across her face. Very hesitantly, she inched closer to the man in black and muttered, "R-Ren?"ing with his head hung low.
All of a sudden, something occured to Kyoko and recognition flashed across her face. Very hesitantly, she inched closer to the man in black and muttered, "R-Ren?"