A/N:- Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I wrote FanFiction lol. To be honest I'm not interested enough in Skip Beat to think of new ideas but I Am interested enough in it to read the new chapters and go through my old fics which makes me cringe now lmao!XD This isn't a new chapter but the next 4 chapters are the rewritten versions of this story. I'm keeping the old ones on here and had this published on AO3 and wattpad. Hope you enjoy this one. Not so many plot changes as much as grammar and dialogue edits! Cheers!
"Your idea sounds very interesting Takarada san.", Kanae leaned back with a contemplative frown. "In fact,", she continued, her face darkening slightly, "for a Love Me assignment, this is considerably less..um.."
"Outrageous? Attention grabbing?", the president leaned forward with a knowing smile, "Considerably more harmless than your previous missions?"
Love Me sections two prominent members gave him identical tight nods that belied the wealth of relief behind their inscrutable expressions. A charity fair set up and run by them as well as LME's celebrities- both upcoming and famous, sounded, as the President described it- harmless.
"We'll be having a few rides, but the stalls are to be the main attraction of course.", he added.
"Ah..and you want us to set up these stalls!", Kyoko realized.
"On the contrary, Mogami san,", the President said turning to her. " The two of you will be heading your own stalls."
They stared at him in surprise. As Love Me members, they were expecting to do the dirty work in the fair. Not doing so would be a nice change.
Kyoko beamed at him and then at her beloved moko san before realizing what he had actually said.
"Our own stalls you say?", she asked curiously and a tad suspiciously. "You mean Kotonami san won't be with me?"
The President shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Mogami san.", he said kindly. "Believe me, I am happy that you have gradually begun to catch sight of a glimmer of that elusive emotion you once renounced. Though I am proud of the love that you have for your friend." At this Kanae blushed slightly, though she tried to cover up her embarrassment and obvious pleasure with her usual stoicism.
"However,", the old man continued, " this will be a good opportunity for the two of you to network with other LME employees and talentos. I'm sure you'll enjoy being with your own team mates. There will be around two to three members for each stall. The rest of the formalities are being taken care off by Sawara san, so I need you to visit him next. All the LME entertainers and employees will be receiving an email today evening regarding the details of the location, date and timings. And you will be receiving the uniforms soon. All you have to do is show up!" Lory beamed at them.
"President san?", Kyoko hesitated."When you say all of LME's celebrities, do you mean to say that Tsuruga san will be part of the..entertainments?"
The President raised his eyebrows. "But of course,", he said, sounding surprised by her question. "Didn't I mention that the stalls were to be the main attraction? In fact, LME's best known celebrities will be heading the stalls."
They smiled, at the indirect compliment and headed out.
Much later, Ren Tsuruga and his manager entered the office. "Good afternoon Takarada san", Ren bowed while greeting the President. Lory Takarada smiled secretively before launching into the same explanation he had given Kyoko and Kanae.
"Just visit Sawara san and he'll take care of the rest."He finished in a seemingly innocent voice that never failed to arouse even the faintest of Ren's suspicions.
Ren looked at the man shrewdly, not buying for even a moment that the fair would be as mundane, as harmless as he made it out to be.
"Will I have to strip?"
"Of course not Ren! What kind of a man do you take me to be? An exhibitionist?"
"That," he drawled,"would be the understatement of the year. But," he continued seeing that Lory Takarada was about to argue, "as long as it is totally appropriate I will have no objection to the fair."
"That's the spirit Ren! The whole point of this fair is to help the LME family gel together and enjoy themselves for a day, and at the same time, to make the lives of the less fortunate a little easier."
An affectionate smile for the old man curved up Ren's lips. Lory was a little looney, but he was a nice albeit sometimes terrifying looney and he was the closest thing Ren had to a father since he'd left home. This fair sounded sweet and harmless, but still, it would be silly to walk blindly into what could just as easily be a trap...
That evening , every employee received an email, giving them the venue and time as well as their stall numbers. Kyoko received stall number 1, but the email carried no details regarding the nature of the stall. Assuming that it was something left to the stall runners, Kyoko's highly creative mind began cooking up recipes for what she was supremely confident would be a snack stall. The email forbade the participants to bring their own material for the stall as all the necessary arrangements had already been made. This little missive made Kyoko slightly wary. It could mean that perhaps she didn't have the freedom to run her stall as she wished. Moreover, considering that this was Lory Takarada they were dealing with it was virtually impossible not to mention pure silliness to hope for the president to come up with an idea that was tame and safe...
Two weeks later, on the night before the fair, all of LME's entertainers and employees received a parcel containing their uniform. Some were normal, some were flamboyant, some were stylish, and many were positively shocking.
THE DAY OF THE FAIR.
Ruriko headed towards the stalls as Sawara san had directed her. It took her a while but she soon found what she was looking for. And when she did find it, she wondered how could she possibly have missed it.
The 'stall' was miniature castle with a counter and stools behind it for the stall runners. The entire structure was a bright hue of fluorescent pink. The exact shade of pink as the infamous Love Me uniform. And the exact hue of Ruriko's uniform for the day. Judging by the incredulous stares both she and the stall were receiving, Ruriko had little difficulty with Lory Takarada's choice of uniform colour for the Love Me section. It did attract a lot of attention...
Her eyebrows knit into a scowl when she saw the signboard- a giant size heart sign, flamboyantly decorated with bling lips and in bold letters were written the words- " SIZZLING LIPS READY TO SET YOU ON FIRE! WELCOME TO OUR KISSING BOOTH"
"A kissing booth?", Ruriko was stunned. Her initial dismay gradually gave way to rising fury. An honest to god, mother fucking kissing booth?! Did this shit even happen in Japan?!
"A kissing booth?"
Ruriko jumped at the sound of an all to familiar male voice behind her. No! No! Please don't let it be him! she chanted over and over while turning over to face him.
Right on cue, Ren came walking towards her. Ruriko's heart fluttered a tiny bit as she imagined the handsome actor coming over to compliment her outfit.
But Ren was not looking at her , but at the stall. His jaw dropped, as if he was unable to believe his eyes.
Ren was receiving the same sort of funny glances, not surprisingly considering that his outfit was absolutely hideous. Dressed in a bright pink shirt and bright pink jeans, coupled with the morose look on Ren's handsome face, one would get a rather good idea how he would look as a Love Me member. There was a picture of a pair of smooching lips printed on his shirt with the words 'SERIAL KISSER' emblazoned below it.
Ruriko walked casually over to him . "Good morning Ren san. I'm assuming you have been assigned to the kissing booth as well?", she asked in bright voice that only served to irritate him further after being forced to wear his 'uniform'.
Ren looked at her feeling a stab of annoyance.
' Why Ruriko?', he cursed his misfortune at having been once again forced to bear the company of the spoilt singer who had once made filming for a movie hell.
"Good morning, Ruriko san.", He said politely. "Yes, and I think we should hurry over to the stall now."
She was dressed in a bright pink spaghetti strap top, with a plunging neckline, showing a generous portion of her cleavage. Like Ren, there was a picture of lips on her top, and the words, 'DIVINE KISSER' written below it. She wore a mico mini pink skirt and high heels , showing off her slender legs. Ruriko looked absolutely divine and she knew it but her confidence took a beating at Ren's indifference. Her outfit had obviously been designed to attract customers, but on the face of Ren's lack of reaction and his terrible outfit, Ruriko wondered if the booth would attract any attention at all!
"Excuse me.", a belligerent sounding voice called out from behind them. "Judging by the outfits, am I to assume that the two of you will be joining me in the stall? Which incidentally happens to be a kissing booth?!
Ren froze at the all too familar voice and an explosion of curses nearly spilled from his lips. He knew this would happen! He knew, he knew, he knew! Damn that interfering, match making- he froze again as his angry gaze finally fell on Kyoko. And stared.. and stared...and stared.
Her chestnut hair was swept sexily to one side. She wore very little make up a hint of rouge and some lip gloss, but that didn't stop her from looking any less sexier. It was her outfit that was the most distracting.
She wore a bright pink bikini top and bikini top was decorated with pictures of lips, and on each cup were the words-'HOT LIPS'.
"Good morning Tsuruga san.", Kyoko said reverting to her old self and smiling sweetly at him. "I'm the last member of this stall. I'm so sorry I'm late. I went to the agency today to ask them to give me the rest of the outfit, but apparently, this is the whole thing!", her voice sounded indignant. "Can you believe it?", she wailed, in full Kyoko mode now.
Ren gulped as his eyes guiltily raked over her entire body, undressing her, memorizing every detail of her revealed skin...
He felt a burst of fury as he realized he would have to watch Kyoko kiss every single guy who visited the booth in that skimpy outfit all day long!
Damn Takarada san!
