-Oxford - Tuesday: Part 9-
"Of course this day could get much worse." Kyoko banged her head several times on the table in the dressing room. Sighing heavily she slowly lifted her head up to look at her reflection in the mirror. She didn't look like herself, even if her hair was pulled back tightly with the flower tied into her hair. That wasn't what threw her. It was the make-up. Normally she would be super excited over having her makeup done she had no real talent in doing her own makeup and that's why she chose to go for the most part with little to none.
Muse-sama had taught her the very basic means of doing her hair and makeup so she had a 'fresh' and 'clean' look, that would be easy for her to do herself on a daily bases. Though she rarely used the makeup she had been given to her by Muse-sama, it was still too precious of a gift to her to be wasted. Now that she wasn't working all the time, not trying to make the people she lived with happy so they would not get rid of her. She was more rested and she even noticed that she no longer looked haggard. Even when she was stressed out over something it was not like it used to be. That alone really improved her looks and so she didn't see the need to waste the few products she had until she could figure out a way to talk Grandma Leiko or her father into letting her have a part-time job. So far they only repeated what she already knew, she didn't need to work because they would give her whatever she wanted or needed within reason. Alright, the within reason was Grandma Leiko only. Lory her father she had to be careful of if she said she liked something she ended up with it. If she said something was cute, she ended up with it too. No, she was very careful with her words with her father.
Still, the change in how she looked was rather huge if you asked her. Like a spell had been cast upon her to actually make her look like someone who was pretty. 'Makeup is amazing.' She couldn't help but sigh in wonderment until she remembered why she looked like this. She was a bride for this shoot, and that meant a wedding dress.
The dress was beautiful, and if she had been less than half a year ago, she would of dreamt of wearing this type of dress on her wedding day. Now it just made her sick to her stomach. Regardless she could still see the beauty in this dress and how it could make any more foolish girl happy to wear. The dress was a mermaid style wedding dress that hugged her body tightly before fanning out. The lace was all beaded with flowers and came up around her neck leaving her shoulders and arms bare. The dress looked like it would be itchy but it felt more like silk than lace and she wondered if that had something to do maybe all bead work, it wasn't exactly a light weight dress it had a fair amount of weight to it. Her back was covered with the same lacework. The dress itself was in her eyes the most beautiful of all the ones she had seen.
Now the dress and being a bride wasn't the only thing that was stressing her out. R'Mandy's designer Francis wanted to include Corn into her dress by turning it into something else. She had agreed in the end but not willingly. She had given him rules they could chip or damage him in anyway, no holes, no glue. He had to remain whole and safe through the whole process. The only reason she would allow this because she had no pockets and didn't trust that something wouldn't happen to him if he was left here in a shared dressing room.
Her mind once again return to the fact she was suppose to be Bride. All she could think of was that she rather face Shoutaro in one of his temper tantrums than deal with this. 'What does that say about me?' she said banging her her head one again. Wishing that today would just end as the unwanted thought of how she got herself into this nightmare entered her head for the fifth time since she been here.
A blond hair and blue eye man, ran over to us the moment we had entered the ballroom. It threw me, as he wrapped his arms around Ren's neck. "Ren-chan!" I had to keep myself from laughing first because I couldn't understand Japanese or so I told people. Yet even if that hadn't been the case a man throwing himself onto him was completely funny. Well, apparently not to Ren because he shot me one of those gentlemen smiles of his and I felt my children being drawn towards him which made that bubble of laughter die quickly. I looked back towards Yashiro while didn't seem to notice and once again questioned how no one noticed that those smiles were a clear warning sign.
"Hello, Francis-san. Is something the matter?" Francis nodded his head sadly. "What is it?" There was actual consider in his voice but I wasn't actually positive if he was acting or not. I didn't know much about acting but I've seen shows to know enough that actors could draw out emotions. Francis slowly moved to just locking an arm around Ren's arm as we began to moved.
"The model that I picked to match you so perfectly called in sick! Can you believe that!" he placed a hand on his cheek and shook his head back and forth. "I'm sure you would have of fawned over her too, she was so beautiful oh and here I thought I could attempt to find you a girlfriend seeing as you refuse to take my heart."
Ren smiled, I noticed it was actually a real smile this time. "Ah but Francis-san I don't think your husband Ryu-san would be happy if I did."
Francis rolled his eyes swatting him gently "Oh you! You know I would never replace Ry-ry with anyone. No matter how cute they are. And let's face it darling you are just adorable." As he pulled Ren further into the ballroom towards the temporary dressing rooms. "It's so hard to find a model that you just don't overwhelm cupcake and she would of been perfect, oh you two would of made such a cute couple!"
I was finding it hard not to be amused by this man and how he talked to Ren. Still, I wasn't supposed to understand much of anything when it came to Japanese so I found myself looking around the ballroom instead. It was clear this shooting was for brides and grooms they had the whole ballroom set up with easy to move and transfer props. They were already taking photos of two other models but I noticed the woman's eyes turn following Ren's movement. I began to wandered off and away from the dressing rooms, I rather watch the photographers taking the photos. Seeing as I figured that I wouldn't be in the dressing room with him while he was getting ready. I did when I was with Kyo after all when she worked on a male model. I was wrong.
"Kyoko." I jumped slightly at the sound of my name and turned towards him.
"That's Miss Takarada to you Mister Tsuruga" I huffed in annoyance, the smile he shot me showed his annoyance even if no one else could tell.
"I believe I've have the right to call you by your first name don't you think?"
I couldn't completely deny that and sighed heavily "Fine then you may refer to me as Lady Kyoko." I could only turn away "It's not proper for you to refer to me any other way. If you don't like it, marry into the family." The idea of him trying to win Laura or Amanda amused me to no end. Seeing one found him to be a child, and the other meant wooing David as well.
"That could be arranged..."
"I'll let them know then." I must of said something he didn't like because he sighed. Yet that didn't last long because the next think I knew Francis had both my hands.
"You are perfect!" I fought to keep a neutral look on my face. I couldn't believe what he had said but more so that he was walking around me, eyeing me like a piece of meat "oh yes you will do wonderfully! The way you banter with him, You won't get lost I'm sure! Say you'll do it!" I did what I thought was the correct response. I looked at Yashiro as if asking if he could explain which wasn't exactly a lie, I was a bit confused by this man.
Yashiro cleared his throat, "Ah Francis-san, Kyoko-san doesn't speak Japanese." he smiled warmly and then looked back at me "Francis wants you to be a model because of how you interact with Ren, Lady Kyoko"
"No." the word came out and I moved away from the man. "I'm not a model find someone else to do it." I tried to speak nicer and softer but it just wasn't happening. I noticed several of the other models in their dresses as brides and while I had paid little mind to them prior other than to think they were all foolish seeing how happy they all seemed over the idea. The fact that me being in one was not happening.
"Why not?" Yashiro asked, "Ren's very handsome it's a dream come true for many women." I tried not to snort.
"Not my dream. I'm not planning to ever get married, so why would I want to pretend to be a bride?" I turned to walk off before I felt a hand on my shoulder. There was anger all around and I knew exactly whose hand it was just from that vibe.
"Weren't you the one that said you wanted this fashion show to go off with a hit? That you didn't want people to lose their jobs? Were you saying that only because KYO is here and it would damage Kyo's label?" his words twisted inside of my gut.
"No… but that has nothing to do with this" I motioned around me. "This isn't my fault!" I whined.
"Oh?" Then his hands were in his pockets, "I see, I guess that my helping you with your problem only goes one way." He shook his head as if disappointed in me. I groaned and wanted to cry that this and that was different. Yet I knew he had a point. He had helped me twice.
"Fine…" I glared at him. "Just… urg!" I stomped over to Yashiro "Tell him I'll do it." The words felt heavy. Yashiro looked back towards his charged before sightly confused before shaking his head and looking back at Francis to tell him I had agreed after all.
Kyoko lifted her head at the knock on the door. Francis and the makeup artist appeared. The makeup artist was also acting as her translator at the moment which honestly made the whole thing funnier. As the makeup artist clearly didn't want to repeat exactly what he had said word for word. Still, she had to keep a neutral face about the whole thing.
"Here you go sweetcakes!" Francis held out a choker that made it look like Corn almost floated. Corn was held tightly by wire that had been shaped to look like lace if it had been without the little beads. There was no glue holding him in place that could see nor any damage to him in anywhere.
Kyoko held it Corn to the light and shifted it just slightly and watched as the light reflected the change in the stone. It was beautiful no matter how she looked at it. Even when she pressed Corn to see if he would move she was happy to see that he was indeed safely in place. Her eyes turned towards Francis "It's beautiful" She never would had thought of turning him into a necklace out of fear of the damage that and she didn't want the world to see him. "How did you ever manage to do this?"
"Oh sweetie my family runs one of the biggest jewelry stores in France! This was nothing!" He stepped forward while the makeup artist translated minus the words 'oh sweetie', taking the necklace from her. "Watch this!" he showed her that one of the lace flowery like the design was actually a clasp and upon opening it you could then remove Corn from his as it opened to the side allowing him to carefully land in the palm of her hand. "I thought this way sweetie-pie that if it doesn't go with the outfit you can still take him with." Yes, every little pet name was removed when she repeated the words. It was a real shame that the woman wasn't comfortable in repeating it for word for word. Anyone who really didn't know the language would had been missing out.
He picked up the little stone and placed it back in place. "Of course we won't be selling that little feature when we market this, which we will be doing of course because it's just perfect for this dress!" With Corn back in place Francis moved around her and placed the necklace around her, it fell just below her throat and he nodded his head "Perfect. I'm a genius and half" he placed his hands on her shoulders, she left out his 'genius and half' which was really disappointing thing to leave us because Kyoko felt like he really was. "Bit of touch up on the make up and we will be ready for you. Come out as soon as she's done sweetie."
"Oh darling this blue is just going look so smashing on you" he said holding up the bag with the suit inside. "All the girls and boys are going to just throw themselves at you... even the boys who don't know how much better it is with a nice hunk of man."
Yashiro turned away, clearly wanting to laugh but holding it in "Now I gotta fix a something something for that little lady. Oh can you believe my luck to have a real Royal." he clapped his hands "lucky! I'm going to be the princess of the ball with this shoot!" With that, he opened the door "Yashiro get ready to fall to fangirl with me!" With that, he left the room.
Ren handed the bag to Yashiro as he grabbed his phone looking at the time before shooting Lory a text for Ruto. 'Kyoko felt off about one of the police officers. Kyoko is safe, in fact, she's about to become a model for R'Mandy, under Francis.'
His eyes turned towards Yashiro who was looking at the outfit that had been chosen for him. He shook his head and went behind the changing screen as "Seems that he's pulling off a Prince feel for you."
Ren mentally sighed and held out his hand from behind the screen as he was handed the pants. Dark blue that almost seemed to shimmer just a bit when the light hit it to a lighter blue. It was tailored to fit his lines perfectly. The white dress shirt was hidden behind a grey marble vest with blue sapphires buttons. Three silver chains connected from his right and pinned to the left pocket. The suit jacket was the same color as the pants coming a little higher than his wrists so that his dress sure cuffs flared out a bit more than normal, it fell just above his knees it held silver buttons The tie like the coat was the same color and was held together by a rather large size diamond. The final touches being the blue sapphire cuff pins. He ran a hand through his hair as he put on the black belt before looking at Yashiro.
"Yep, definitely not something everyone could pull off... it does look good on you though."
Ren turned to look at the mirror but mentally shrugged. To him, dressing like this tended to only cause more problems. He found women tended to throw himself at him more because he now looked like he also came from money. Which Kuon did and even without his parents money which he could access if he wanted to he still had a rather large sum of money all on his own. It was easier to just dress down a bit, of course, he also knew that dressing to casual also held it's problem for him. 'And they say men are horny bastards...'
He picked up his phone to see if Lory had texted him back. He saw nothing, but could feel Yashiro's eyes on him as he did so. "Why are you checking your phone messages?"
"We were told to watch Kyoko-san, I'm keeping the President informed." He turned off his phone and handed it to Yashiro who quickly put it in his bag.
"Wouldn't he normally contact me?"
"Must not trust you with her." Actually, he would but that was not the point. He didn't want there to be a middle man when it came to Kyoko but he would never admit that out loud. He really needed to try and convince her to give up her number to him. If she was a talent in LME he could get it that way. Now the only way to get it would be from her or one of her family members and he was pretty sure none of them even little Maria would hand it over, maybe his mother would give it to him… he mentally sighed 'No that would be even worse'
"That's not very funny you know." Yashiro sighed as Ren removed his watch and handed it to him as well before putting a hand in pocket.
"Who says I was joking." Yashiro shook his head as he placed the watch on his own wrist and they both left the room.