"Satsuki!" I yell like an excited little kid. I jump on her and hug her tightly. She returns my hug, laughing a bit.
"Misaki! It's been a while, hasn't it?" she greets. I nod eagerly.
"It's been too long!" I pout. This was my side I only showed people I liked. "Why'd you have to leave for a while?" I ask. She wears a sad smile.
"I'll tell you some other time," she replies gravely. I decide not to push it, and instead focus on our reunion.
"Are you going to start working with me again?" I ask. She grins and nods.
"Definitely! That's why I came back!" she exclaims. Sakura giggles.
"Tell her the good news, Misaki!" Sakura reminds me. I nod my head, jumping up and down a few times in excitement, and wincing a bit when I feel a sharp pain go through my legs. Crap, I forgot about my injuries. I stop jumping, and instead just smile.
"Satsuki, you know Director Hirayama?" I ask. She scoffs.
"Who doesn't?" she jokes. I stick my tongue out at her.
"Anyway, I'M GOING TO BE ONE OF THE LEAD ROLES IN HIS NEWEST MOVIE!" I squeal, hoping Satsuki was proud of me. As expected, Satsuki stared at me in surprise.
"W-wha...?" she stutters. "You really got in?" she asks me suspiciously. I nod.
"Yep! Sakura helped me lots, so be sure to congratulate her too!" I add. Satsuki giggles.
"Good job, you two! Ahh, you really are amazing, Misaki. I knew you had it in you," Satsuki beamed. I give her a wide smile.
"I'm so glad you're back, Satsuki!" I exclaim, giving her an even tighter hug than the one before. "You should live with Sakura and I!" I suggest. "We have like two extra spare rooms. We bought a pretty big house," I assure her. Satsuki put her finger on her chin in thought.
"Well..." she says, pretending to think.
"Yay! Satsuki's moving in!" I cheer. Sakura joins in on my cheering as well. Satsuki laughed.
"You know me too well," she grinned. We were all pretty much smiling like idiots the rest of that evening.
In case you're confused about how Satsuki and I know each other, let me explain. Satsuki was very close friends with my mother, Minako Ayuzawa. I would often spend lots of time with her when I was a child, so I basically had two motherly figures in my life. Once I decided to become an actress, Satsuki offered to be my manager, to repay my mother back for everything she did for her, so that's how that happened.
"I have to go to that meet-the-crew thing tomorrow," I say. Sakura nods.
"Yep. Try not to kill Takumi, okay?" she giggles. Satsuki looks at the two of us.
"Takumi? As in Takumi Usui?" Satsuki gasps. I sigh and nod.
"Sadly. He has a shitty personality," I frown. Satsuki giggles.
"Oh, he's the one that saved Misaki from the woods, right?" Satsuki asked Sakura.
"Yup! He's really nice," Sakura answers, the two of them complete ignoring my earlier statement.
"No he's not!" I protest. Sakura snickers evilly.
"Oh yeah? That's not what you were thinking while he carried you on his back," Sakura retorts, crossing her arms. I blush. I could practically see sparkles in Satsuki's eyes.
"He carried her out of the woods on his back?!" Satsuki squeals. "You left out all the good details when you told me this story earlier!"
"And, even better," Sakura starts, "He's going to be the male lead in the same movie as Misaki!" she adds. Satsuki gasps.
"I'm coming with you two tomorrow! I need to meet this boy that captured Misa-chan's heart!" she gushes. I blush an even darker shade of red.
"I don't like him! In fact, I hate him!" I protest. Sadly, I knew Satsuki wasn't going to change her mind.
"I'm off to bed now~" Satsuki announces, finding a spare bedroom and claiming it. I sigh.
"Well, I'm beat. I'm going to my room now," I tell Sakura, standing up. She also proceeds to stand.
"Same. I'll probably have to wake up early tomorrow to wake you up," she giggles. I laugh as well.
"Good luck with that," I joke, going to my bedroom. I lay down on my bed, pulling out my iPhone that Sakura bought me for my birthday.
"What to search..." I mutter to myself. Suddenly, my fingers grow a mind of their own and start typing in something. I hit enter, and immediately blush. Why the hell would I search 'Takumi Usui'?!
"Stupid phone! Even you're betraying me!" I yell, throwing my phone at my soft mattress to make sure I don't break it. "I guess I do owe him a 'thank you', though..." I murmur, deep in thought. I pinch my cheeks.
"When did you start thinking about boys?! You hate him. He's just like everyone else. All men are the same," I lecture myself. It works temporarily- luckily long enough for me to fall asleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
6:12 A.M.
Wow... I woke up early...? That's rare. I had to be at the studio by 7:30 A.M., so I had a bit of time to waste. I got up out of my bed and went to my closet. I grab some clothes that match and go to the bathroom. Stripping out of my pajamas, I turned on the shower and waited for the water to get warm. After it was to my liking, I took a step in and quickly bathed.
After about 5 minutes, I turned off the water and dried myself. I threw on a long-sleeved shirt dark red shirt that had a yellow happy face on the front. I put on some black leggings and over that I slid on athletic shorts. I wore the same white converse shoes I had on yesterday at the amusement park. I twisted my chest-length raven hair into a bun, and fixed a few bobby-pins into it to keep it in place.
"Sakura! Satsuki! Wake up!" I yell. I hear a groan come from the pink headed girl's room and smile in satisfaction.
"You're Misaki Ayuzawa, correct?" Director Hirayama asks me. I nod.
"Yep," I respond.
We were currently at the same huge hall we were at during the auditions. Sakura and Satsuki came with me, and we were the first ones here. We basically sat and waited for a good five or so minutes, before I heard a door open. I turn around to see who it is, and I immediately regret it. You guessed it, Takumi Usui was here. I was actually kinda wishing it was a joke when he said he got in yesterday, but this confirmed my suspicions. I was going to have to pretend to be in love with an alien. And not just any alien, a perverted one.
Soon after, more people came flooding in. I immediately recognized one of the girls that walked in. Shizuko! I haven't seen her since our high school days! She noticed me staring at her, and gave me a small smile and a wave. She walked over to me and stood beside me.
"Misaki, nice to see you again," she greets. I nod.
"Yeah," I agree. "I didn't know you got into acting," I say, honestly surprised. She smiles.
"It just happened that way, it was pretty unexpected on my end as well," she replies, remaining calm and put-together as always. I giggle a bit at how similar she was to how she used to be.
"Okay, everyone, we're going to make a circle!" I hear someone announce. A circle? What the hell were we, kindergartners? Nonetheless, I joined their circle of sitting people. "Everyone say your name and what character you're playing in the movie," he instructs. "We'll start with you," he decides, pointing at me.
"I'm Misaki Ayuzawa, and I'm playing Melanie Summers," I introduce. I learn that Shizuko was going to be Ruby Willows, my best friend, so I was pretty excited about that. Takumi, of course, was going to be Aaron Park, the male lead in which I had to 'be in love' with. I didn't really pay attention to anyone else.
"Okay, now we're going to practice our lines. Can I get everyone who acts in Scene 26 to please step to the middle of the circle?" he instructs. I stepped to the middle, and so did Takumi. Just us two, nobody else. Crap, I forgot this scene was between just Aaron and Melanie!
"Melanie, you have to do it for the people of Seika," he says gently, grabbing a lock of my hair. He's pretty close, so I can smell his intoxicating cologne which makes me a bit dizzy.
"B-but I don't have enough confid-ence," I stutter weakly, flustered by the man in front of me. God damn it, I messed up.
"Are you okay Misaki?" the director asks me. I nod.
"Yes, I'm sorry. Can I retry that?" I apologize. He gestures for us to restart. Like last time, Takumi grabs a few strands of my hair and says his line. I try to speak clearly this time.
"B-but I don't have enough confidence," I say louder, hoping nobody noticed my slight mess up at the beginning. Crap, I knew working with him wasn't going to be easy.
"It's okay, Melanie. I believe in you," he says, and I have to admit, he's a pretty good actor.
"But I don't believe in myse-ACHOO!" I say, turning away from Takumi and tucking my face into my elbow to sneeze. Wow, I'm such a great actress. How the hell did I even get chosen for this movie? I hear the director sigh.
"Okay, next scene, that's enough for today. Can I get everyone that's in Scene 34 to step up?" he says, and I see Shizuko, Rachel, and Natalie step up.
In the scene, Ruby (Shizuko) is consulting Lucille (Rachel) for help about how to cope with Melanie (me) being upset. Alice (Natalie) interrupts their conversation and assures them that Aaron (Takumi) can take care of her. They all agree, and I couldn't help but have a feeling of déjà vu back to yesterday night when Sakura and Satsuki were insisting Takumi and I were perfect for each other.
After going through about five more scenes (luckily I had none with Takumi for the rest of the session), we called it a day. Everyone was dismissed. Well almost everyone. I was about to leave, but I heard a voice call my name.
"Ayuzawa, Usui," I hear Director Hirayama say. I turn around to face him.
"Yes?" I ask. He has a strange smirk on his face that I'm not quite liking, but decide to listen to him anyway.
"Please join me for a cup of coffee," he says. "Oh, and you two can come as well," he gestures towards Satsuki and Sakura. "Be at 'Aroma Mocha' in 15 minutes," he instructs, walking away. I stare at his retreating back, dumbfounded.
"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Sakura assures me. "Now, I suggest we get to that café," she says. I steal a glance at Takumi who was nonchalantly talking on his phone. He seemed to be smiling with whoever he was talking to. I feel a bit strange, but shrug off the feeling.
We climb into my (and Sakura's) car, and make our way to this café called 'Aroma Mocha'. It's about a 7 minute drive, so we arrive there a few minutes early, though it appears both Takumi and Director Hirayama did, as well. I walked inside the café and took a seat beside Takumi (it's only because it would be disrespectful to sit right beside your director, okay?).
"Okay you two," he starts. "The chemistry between you guys isn't how I want it to be," he says. I gulp. "So, we have three options," he decides.
"Which are?" I ask.
"One, I'll have to kick one of you guys off the set," he frowns. "But I'd really like to avoid that option. Two, I can have a decent movie, which I'd also not like very much," he says. "And three, you guys can go to live in one of my villas in a secluded area. You can make phone calls, though, of course. You guys will live there for two months, and it should strengthen your bond and improve your acting skills for my movie and your future ones," he explains. "So? Which will it be?" he asks us.
"W-wait, don't we not have enough time to waste two months in a villa?" I inquire. He shakes his head.
"My actors must be perfect. That's why I've only made three movies. I spend lots of time prepping everyone and everything. That's why every movie I've made has been an Oscar winning one," he explains. "I have plenty of time. There's no set date for this movie to be finished," he concludes. Damn it, he had a point.
"I'm okay with living there for two months," Takumi replies with a nonchalant shrug. I turn around to see Satsuki and Sakura's reactions. They were basically what I expected.
Satsuki had flowers blooming around her, and she was fangirling the entire time behind my back. Sakura, on the other hand, was snickering mischievously, her eyes beckoning me to accept.
"Um... I guess I have no other choice..." I sigh, earning a squeal out of Satsuki, and a cheer out of Sakura. "Want me out of the house that bad?" I ask Sakura in a joking tone. She giggles.
"If it means you finding your true love, it's worth it," she cheers. "Maybe we could go on double dates sometime!" she gushes, making plans that were never going to happen.
"Alright then," Director Hirayama says, catching our attention. "Don't worry about supplies, there will be enough for a month. At the beginning of the second month, I'll have extra supplies sent to you just in case," he informs us. Suddenly, I remember my family.
"Wait, my mother won't approve of this!" I announce. "She's not going to let me live with a perv- I meant, a man!" I exclaim, pointing an accusatory finger at Takumi. Director Hirayama chuckles.
"Really now? She seemed perfectly fine with it when I talked to her earlier this morning," he says. My jaw drops.
"You visited my mother earlier?!" I exclaim in surprise. I haven't even seen my mother in a couple weeks or so.
"Yep," he replies, obviously pleased with himself. "Get packed within' two days, I'll have someone drop you two off on Friday," he says, standing up. "Goodbye." I watch him walk out of the café casually, and drive off in his fancy, probably very expensive car. We were all silent for a while, until Sakura giggled.
"That was... an interesting conversation," she comments. I nod in agreement.
"I couldn't agree more," I add. I look at Takumi, and realize he's been staring at me. I glare at him. "What do you want?" I ask. He chuckles, which annoys me further.
"You're strange, Misaki Ayuzawa," he remarks, before standing up and walking away. I glare at him even harder.
"Who are you calling strange you alien?!" I fume, getting up and yanking my purse onto my shoulder with me. Everyone in the café stares at me due to my sudden outburst. I blush and apologize, leaving the place, Sakura and Satsuki right behind me. I sigh.
This was going to be the longest two months of my entire life.