Hello
This is the first real chapter of this fanfic.
This time I didn't write it alone.
The main Idea of this ff belongs to me.
Helloworld816 did a lot of the writing style and added some things.
Please enjoy and leave comments )
Chapter one:
Rrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiing!
It was eight o'clock in the morning and Kyoko's daruma clock was ringing loud, even though it wasn't necessary that morning.
Kyoko was very excited. That day would be the meeting for a new TV-drama for which Kyoko was the lead actress! Even if it was a very dark role again, it seemed to be a very interesting person with a depressing side of course, but with a very complex and somehow tragic background. Also, the girl had a character with a lot of different facets. The name of her role was Kana.
The story and the girl she had to play were interesting themselves of course, but secretly Kyoko had to admit to herself that the interesting parts of the role weren't the only reasons why she desperately wanted to take part in the drama. No, the other reason that had made her want that role even before she read the storyline, was the cast of another role.
The fact that this actor had come back to Japan to take part in this new drama had immediately become a sensation.
It was the currently most popular theme in the media.
Kuu Hizuri was taking part in it as well!
Because she had learned so much from Sensei during his last stay, she was intensely delighted that he would be acting alongside her. Acting together with him would be so amazing; she felt a rush of excitement every time she thought of it.
Even though Sensei had been back for a few days already, Kyoko still hadn't contacted him yet. She felt bad about not calling him, but she didn't want to appear nosy. After all, he did have his wife with him this time, so she thought that maybe he'd want some alone time with Julie. Why did he return so soon? she wondered over and over. As curious as she was about the reasons behind his decision to be in Black Story, she put her mental questions far back in her mind and chose only to think about her happiness in the overall decision.
After staring at her mirror for a few moments, daydreaming about her reunion with her father figure, she snapped out of her delirium and started concentrating on getting ready for her meeting. It started at 9:30 that morning; and even though she still had plenty of time left to get her things together, she still rushed herself. As if she wasn't nervous enough, she didn't know which other actors would take part in that drama. She chose not to focus on that one little detail.
Kyoko paced back in forth inside the meeting room for what seemed like hours, glancing at the clock every few seconds. Not wanting to wear a tread in the carpet, she sat down, only for her legs to start twitching. She could not stay still no matter how hard she tried. Nobody else had arrived yet, but that wasn't surprising because she had come in far too early. Her rushing had all been in vain. Normally, everyone would start arriving at 9:15, at the latest 9:20, but at the moment it was about 9:06, a full 24 minutes before the meeting was supposed to begin.
At least she used the first 15 minutes to cool down a little bit. Trying to relax her nerves, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Inhale, exhale. Just relax, Kyoko she told herself. Everything is going to be fine. It's no big deal that this will be the first time you've seen Sensei in three months. I'm sure it will be fine that you don't know who else is in this drama, even though that can either make or break the chances of you creating your character correctly…This was definitely not helping things. Giving up any hopes of relaxing completely, she quickly opened her eyes and reached for her bag that she had placed on the table, beginning to fiddle with the useless stuff inside. She vaguely heard the door open and swing shut, but she didn't look up immediately.
"Hey, did you become blind? It's not very polite to ignore the No.1 musician in Japan when he enters a room…" Sho stood just a few feet in front of her chair, grinning that demonically mischievous smile of his.
Kyoko jerked her head up, completely caught by surprise. While trying to restart her heart, she replied,
"Was it really necessary to appear so suddenly? Is trying to start fights in the morning your new hobby?"
"I can't help it if you're completely oblivious to your surroundings," retorted Sho in a clear, fluid voice. He strutted to the chair directly across from hers. She glared at him as he sat down. He grinned that same smile again. Kyoko couldn't get over how quickly her good mood soured as soon as he started talking. Was he trying to piss her off? If he was, he was doing a good job of it.
She decided that she would try her hardest to keep things civil, even though her demons were begging to be released. Even though it took a lot of energy and self-control to not submit to the demons' wishes, she knew that she was at work right now, so she needed to be professional. Still, she was curious as to why he was here. Did he come simply to annoy her? Kyoko didn't put that below his level…
"What are you doing here of all places? This is the LME building."
"Well, it's not my fault the meeting of 'Black Story' has to be here of all places."
"How do you know about that?" Maybe he was doing a cameo or something…no, that would be horrible…
"Well, I'm acting in it too," he said casually.
Whaaatt?! Kyoko felt her jaw drop, making a popping sound. No, he has to be joking…Ogata wouldn't do that to me…would he? As her mind went into a frenzy, she watched him grab his own script, from behind him. As he unrolled it, Kyoko refused to believe that it had been rolled up in his back pocket this whole time. Wouldn't she have noticed it? Well, no! Why would I be looking at his butt anyway??
"What are you so shocked about? You knew before, didn't you? Who also takes part in the drama?"
Well, normally she surely would have known that before! There's no way she could tell anyone, especially SHO, that she just accepted the job offer because of Kuu.
"Don't you dare say HE was the reason you agreed to be in Black Story. Your oh-so-great actor senpai who plays opposite you."
"Eh?" Kyoko questioned, completely confused. Kuu wasn't the one acting opposite her…
"Ren Tsuruga, who else." WHAATT??
"Takes part in it, as well?" She tried to sound calm…but she was anything but.
"Yeah, you didn't even know that? And you wanna be a professional actress!" Although he would never admit it, behind Sho's mocking tone, he was relieved that that guy wasn't the reason
Now she really wished she had paid attention after she heard Kuu's name.
Her anger-demons were running round her in a kind of panic. What the hell did she agree to take part in? The thought of Tsuruga-san, Kuu, and that idiot all being in the same place gave her dark premonitions. How would she survive the filming?
Her gloomy thoughts were interrupted by Shoko-san. Kyoko hadn't noticed her, but she now realised that she had entered the room shortly after Sho had.
"Ah, good morning Kyoko-chan, you're also very early today."
"Good morning Shoko-san."
The aura around Kyoko made Sho's manager feel a shiver of unease run down her spine. This girl really seemed to be good in creating a strange atmosphere.
Right after Kyoko greeted Shoko-san Kyoko heard the door open once again. Not wanting to be surprised once again, she jerked her head to the front of the room. She was so nervous about who was sure to be behind this person that she could not even smile as the first one entered.
"Good morning! Isn't this a nice day for a new job start?" Yashiro practically sang, as optimistic as ever.
The atmosphere between the already present persons was strange, but that couldn't surprise Yashiro. He had expected it. Most likely he was the only person who was enthusiastic about the choice of persons playing in the drama, because one thing was sure; this would become a turbulent shooting. And how Yashiro loved to tease his client during turbulent shootings…
"Good morning." said Ren Tsuruga, who followed Yashiro shortly after. He seemed to be as calm and relaxed as usual on the outside. Inwardly, however, was a differently story…he wasn't able to decide whether to feel nervous or tired (he hadn't slept much the night before).
To be honest, he had disliked the job offer from the beginning. Not only was his role difficult to carry out (normally something he would take as a challenge), but the story itself was problematic. After he spent three days trying to decide whether to accept the BJ role or not, he really didn't intend to accept another role like that. He wasn't sure if he could handle both the same time. But then he found out Sho Fuwa had accepted a role in Black Story.
Well, to be exact, Yashiro found out how Sho got the role without officially auditioning for it. Ren learned from Yashiro that Fuwa had said that he'd like to try acting as well, to expand his horizons. After he declared his sudden interest in acting, he mentioned that he was interested in this drama, the same drama that Kyoko Mogami had already agreed to be in(just a coincidence, surely, Ren told himself when he found out this tidbit. He did not hide his sarcasm one bit.)Sho's manager then scheduled a meeting with the directors, Ogata and Shingai, and somehow he managed to convince them that he was the best choice for the job.
He had found this out a few days after he had gotten his job-offer.
At first it hadn't troubled him that much, because his role wasn't the one Kyoko's role would fall in love with, no, Sho would act the rival of the main male role (which was supposed to be Ren's role, of course), so they wouldn't have to play a love couple. But thinking about it a little more, he couldn't fight his jealousy and it still made him restless. Because even if they wouldn't play a love couple they would still spend time together, much time, without him being around.
Another troubling thought he had was if he didn't agree to play the love role, who would do it instead of him? As soon as he had thought this he felt…jealous. Who would play opposite of Kyoko and not try to take advantage of her innocence, but him? Even though he knew it was silly to be jealous of someone that wasn't even given that opportunity yet, he still felt that way. Of course to play the partner role himself also gave him uneasy feelings (he still didn't trust his self-control when he was close to her) but the troubling jealousy was stronger.
What him almost made to back down, though, was the message that Kuu would take part in this drama, too.
He had felt uneasy since Kuu returned to Japan so shortly after his previous stay, this time accompanied by his wife, although he thought they'd made everything clear. It just wasn't like him to act like this. And moreover: why did he accept the role? This surely meant he'd have to stay for a prolonged period of time? Why would he want that? Even if it was about him, why that long stay, after he broke off his first visit? Was it because of Julie?
The longer Ren thought about it the more confused he became, but he also didn't want to contact them himself and to show how worried he was. Theoretically it could be an ordinary visit after all.
If he had known about Kuu being in the drama before he agreed, he would have denied the role, no matter what, but since Kuu took the role after Ren had promised firmly to take place Black Story, there was hardly a way to get out of it. He had thought of possible excuses, but there wasn't really a way he could bring himself to leave Kyoko to defend herself against Sho by herself just so he could be spared some unwise moments with his father.
"Tsuruga-san?" Kyoko had noticed that he seemed tuned out from everything else as soon as he sat down in between her and and she was a little worried that maybe he didn't feel well.. Across the table, Sho silently glared at Kyoko and Ren, his eyes twitching back and forth between the two faces. He did not like them talking, especially when they looked so…happy to see each other. It disgusted him.
"Eh? Oh, Mogami-san…what's the matter?"
"Um…" He seems to be a little tired, she determined. "Momose-san and Moko-san have just arrived, did you notice?"
"No…I hadn't. Thank you." It's really typical for Mogami-san, giving her friend such a nickname.
He smiled. At least he was able to spend much more time with her now. If he hadn't agreed, who knows when he'd be able to meet her next time?
"Are you nervous because Kuu Hizuri is acting in front of us?" Kyoko's eyes were shining with enthusiasm. She was obviously nervous…but excited…about Kuu's appearance.
„Hm, maybe."
He knew she didn't believe him, but that was possibly because of his vague answer. The last time he, Kyoko, and Kuu had been in the same room, Kyoko was acting out „Kuon", perfectly capturing what the real Kuon's feelings had been for his father. How would she and Kuu act around each other? Would she call him „Father", like the last time she had seen him. No she wouldn't do that ,it would sound strange to everyone? How did Julie—
At that moment, Kuu Hizuri arrived, interupting Ren's thoughts and everyone became suddenly silent, not knowing what to do with an acting legend in the same room as them.
"Good morning. Could it be that everyone's already here?" Kuu looked around, his eyes lingering on Kyoko. How much he missed his protégé. She smiled adoringly back at him. He did not look at Ren, right beside her.
Before someone could have answered his question the two directors arrived, with the last missing actors following them, looking embarrassed. They had obviously not paid attention to the room change and had got themselves lost. Kuu took a seat next to Momose-san, who shook his hand and introduced herself quietly before the directors started talking. Next to Kuu and Momose-san was an unusually quiet Sho, who was quietly being watched by Shoko, who was gaging his reaction to Kuu and his apparent familiarity to Kyoko.
Ogata and Shingai introduced themselves, and the meeting began.
"Any questions left?" asked the quiet Director Ogata.
The meeting was about to finish. During the preliminary discussion, they had taken a closer look on the story, talked about the planned shooting-time and about a few organisational things.
But Kyoko was too absorbed in her own potential downfall to concentrate on a thing like organisation. If she'd only knew what she'd agreed to. The worst thing about it was it was entirely her fault she'd gotten into that. At least she could have listened properly. Well now it was too late.
This drama truly contained everything she would prefer to avoid. She was to play Tsuruga-sans's lover, something she had been afraid of doing since they had had the acting training at his apartment in order to find his Katsuki, simply because Tsuruga-san was able to make every co-actor fall to him. It seemed like manipulation in her eyes, and definitely too dangerous to risk it.
Not to mention the fact that that the useless jerk Shotaro was involved as well (but this wasn't nearly as troubling as the love-role-thing).
And Sensei would be present all this time, with that weird role of his.
One could almost smell the problems.
Some other actors weren't much happier with their situation.
Ren's worries became even bigger during the meeting, since it seemed that Mogami-san obviously wasn't aware of what she had to face (one could easily tell from that expression she had on her face) and that she was shocked after getting the missing information (even if it wasn't surprising itself, it wasn't surprising she didn't want to play a love couple with him). Besides, Kuu would be present nearly always since he had an important, but not main role (which wasn't very surprising; as if Kuu Hizuri would accept unimportant roles).
Kuu himself had accepted the role without thinking about it. He, like Kyoko, had been thinking about other things on his mind at the time, which was probably why he'd missed the information about how "Ren Tsuruga" was going to be in the drama as well. In the end he caused himself (and "Ren" as well) even more problems. He hadn't had talked to him since he came back, partly because he had other things to do first (planning their stay etc) partly (and that part was far bigger) because he really brought with him very bad news. He wanted to procrastinate that conversation as much as possible, but it wouldn't be able to avoid forever. He felt like he was facing a true mountain of problems which he now had to work off step by step.
Less serious but still present was the surrounding darkness around Sho Fuwa.
His role was that of the unsuccessful rival, and Sho did not like how his role would constantly remind him of past days with Kyoko. He knew this to be true, even though he tried not to realise. Well, on the other hand, the parallel elements of his role could be the reason why he was able to act properly without having the least bit of experience with it, except his music videos. Still he wasn't very happy with it.
Meanwhile, the other actors in the room were all confused., what was causing the strange, dark mood lying down over there this heavily. This shooting really caused uneasy premonitions without even having begun until then.
What would happen during the shooting?