A/N: A big "Thank You!" to all reviewers! Here's Chapter 2! D
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CCS AND ITS CHARACTERS. CLAMP DOES. But I do own the plot.
CHAPTER TWO
At the Studio (Female Dressing Room)…
A man and a woman in their 30s were sitting on a dark-colored leather couch, apparently on a heated discussion on who to say what during the shooting. The man had jet-black hair and a few streaks of red on his fringe, whereas the woman had brown hair tied up into a neat bun. Both of them were dressed in matching suits – for the shoot of course.
"This should be my part! It's my turn to do the opening this time!" The woman exclaimed.
"Stop it, Keiko! I'm always the one doing the opening！What's wrong with you!" The man asked, getting pretty annoyed at Keiko.
"But you promised me last week that I can do the opening for the next episode! You can't- Oh hello, are you guys the participants for the show?" Keiko inverted her gaze towards two pretty girls who just walked into the dressing room.
"Y-Yes. Did we interrupt or something?" The girl with auburn hair asked.
"No! Not at all! We're just having a nice little talk, weren't we, Ben?" Keiko asked, faking a smile. This caused Ben to give a snort of disagreement. "Don't mind him. My name is Keiko Yuichi, and that guy over there is Ben Yuichi, my husband. Nice to meet you." She gave a slight bow after the little introduction.
"Nice to meet you too. My name is Tomoyo Daidouji and this girl over here is my cousin, Sakura Kinomoto." Tomoyo introduced.
"N-Nice to meet you…" Sakura stammered. She was getting more and more nervous each second!
"What lovely names! Daidouji-san, Kinomoto-san, I believe you already know the rules to this program?" After receiving nods from the both of them, Ben continued, "Good. You may want to take a seat while waiting for the others to arrive. You guys are pretty early. I'll just go to the male dressing room to wait for the guys. Later!" He winked.
"Wait! I'll do the opening!" Keiko shouted, "PLEASE!?"
"Argh, whatever!" Ben replied, closing the door behind him. After a while, he opened the door again, "I love you, Keiko-honey. MUACK!" and shut the door.
"Kawaii!!!" Tomoyo shouted once Ben's footsteps cannot be heard anymore. "You guys are so cute together, Yuichi-san!" She commented, causing Keiko to blush.
"I guess… Oh, please, call me Keiko. You must be the daughter of Sonomi Daidouji-san of the Daidouji Enterprise?" Tomoyo nodded with a smile. "I see! It's an honour to have you on our show! And a few other individuals as well… But I shan't reveal too much. You'll know later!" Keiko announced. "Kinomoto-san?"
Sakura shot out from her reverie, "Oh! Call me Sakura!" she said almost immediately.
"Yes, Sakura-san, your dress is really pretty! I believe it's Tomoyo-san's design?" Kei asked, receiving a nod from the shy girl.
"You're a very pretty girl, and I must say, you carry out the dress pretty well. Tomoyo-san must be proud to have you as her cousin, and vice versa, ne?"
"Definitely!" Tomoyo said proudly. "And that dress is meant for her and only her." Tomoyo smiled.
"T-thank you for the compliment. I'm proud to have Tomoyo-chan as my cousin too." Sakura said.
Laughing, Keiko said, "Relax girl, you look really tensed up. It's gonna be fine. Just be yourself!"
"Ok, I'll try. Thanks, Keiko-san." Sakura replied, flashing a smile.
"Alright! I'll just go check on the male participants. You might want to wait for the others while you're here. And there're some refreshments over there at the table. I'll be back here before the show starts!" With that, she bade goodbye to them and hummed a tune as she left.
"She's really friendly ne, Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo asked. "And she's right, you should really relax. It's only a show! Just treat it as if you're looking for new friends."
Sakura nodded. Sighing, she took a seat on the sofa and waited for the other participants to show up, at the same time, calming herself down.
Male Dressing Room…
A few of the participants, around 5 of them (there should be 8) were already waiting in the dressing room as Ben repeated the rules to them.
"So, I got myself clear, yea?" Ben asked.
"Yea, man. Chill." One of the participants answered. "What time does the recording start?"
"In about an hour's time. You might want to do some gussy up or whatever while you're waiting. 3 of our mates are still not here yet-" Ben was cut short when a man came rushing into the room.
"A-am I late? I-I'm sorry. C-caught in the j-jam." He explained, trying to catch his breadth at the same time.
"Whoa, you need this." Another participant tossed a bottle of water towards him, which he caught perfectly.
Gulping down the whole of the bottle, he bowed a whole 90 degrees and introduced himself, "I'm Tsuyoshi Sato. Nice to meet you. And I'm really sorry for being late."
Before anyone could welcome him, two males, one with midnight-blue hair and another one with chest-nut brown hair burst into the room, "We are too. Caught in the jam."
During the recording…
"3, 2, 1. Roll!"
"Hi everybody! Welcome to Cupid's Arrow once again! I'm Keiko Yuichi-"
"And I'm Ben Yuichi!" Ben cut in.
"Right. So, this is the 50th episode of Cupid's Arrow ne, Ben?" Keiko announced and asked at the same time, smiling at Ben.
"Yes, time flies eh? For this special occasion, instead of the usual 10, we have 16 individuals with us today!" Ben replied, full of enthusiasm.
"So without any further ado, let's welcome them!" Keiko called out. With the cue, all 16 participants walked out form the backstage and got into their seats. "For our first male participant, we have Shiro Kobayashi-san, aged 25, and he works as a chef in a 6-star hotel!"
Shiro nodded, and said, "Nice to meet everybody here. I hope to find a girl who enjoys delicacies from different countries." Everybody clapped.
"Our first female participant is Kelly Yoshida, aged 19, she's a mixed American-Japanese, and she's studying Law in Tokyo University." Ben introduced.
"Hello everyone. I hope to know more friends through this program who is interested in political issues." Kelly said, and a certain midnight-blue haired guy nodded in approval.
(A/N: I'm to lazy with the dialogues, I'll just list out all the participants below in numerical order yea? Pardon me! But I'll do the SSET (and someone else'!) introductions for sure!)
Males
1. Shiro Kobayashi, 25, Chef in 6-star hotel
2. Hideyasu Abe, 20, studies Architecture in Taiyou University
3. Seiichi Tomiura, 23, full-time singer in Hits Pub.
4. Kai Martin, 19, French-Japanese, studies French in International University
5. Daisuke Fujiwara, 21, successor of world-known Glimmers Co.
6. Tsuyoshi Sato, 20, heir of Tsubasa 6-Star Hotel
Females
Kelly Yoshida, 19, American-Japanese, studies Law in Tokyo University
Akemi Tanaka, 20, works as a secretary
Reina Ito, 19, studies Tourism in Tourism School
Yuuri Yamaguchi, 19, studies Law in Tokyo University
Erika Ong, 20, full-time model
"Our next female participant is Meiling Li-san, from Hong Kong. Aged 19 this year, she studies Business Management in Tomoeda University."
"Yo!" And that's all our Meiling said!
"Short and sweet. Next, Eriol Hiiragizawa from England. Aged 19, he's already the Manager of the famous Li Corp!"
"Good day. I hope to find my dream-mate here on this wonderful show." Eriol stood, bowed, and took his seat again.
"Nice to meet you Hiiragizawa-san. Next on the list, Tomoyo Daidouji, aged 18, designer of the Daidouji Enterprise!"
"Glad to be here." Tomoyo said simply. Her motive was not any of the guys, but Sakura's happiness. "I hope Sakura finds the right guy…"
"I like her already." Eriol thought to himself and smirked. "Interesting…"
"Last male on the list, Syaoran Li, aged 20, the young boss of the famous Li Corp!"
Syaoran flinched when almost everybody gasped. "This is gonna be a long day…"
"And last but not least, our 19-year-old Sakura Kinomoto, the famous fist-fight champion – Touya Kinomoto's little sister!"
"N-nice to meet you…" Sakura muttered, blushing 5 shades of red. "I want to go home!" she thought inwardly.
"Right, so now, let's start off with the "Best First Impression" vote! Will all contestants please choose any one of the contestants opposite you which you feel attracts you most. Don't worry if you change your mind later on, it's just a First-Impression thing." Keiko explained, "In 20 seconds, GO!"
Meiling's POV
Choose? Hmm, That Seiishi dude looks pretty good. I'll choose him.
Tomoyo's POV
Hohohohoho! This is fun! Hiiragizawa-san seems pretty interested in me ne? I'll just choose him. He's not bad-looking. I wonder how Sakura-chan's doing… She looks troubled! Hohoho!
Sakura's POV
Whaaat!? I have to vote!? B-but, but, I don't know who to choose! Can I choose Tomoyo-chan? Oh, she's not a guy. Oh god. Who do I choose?
Kobayashi-san looks so fatherly, Tomiura-san looks scary! Sato-san is not bad-looking ne? And he looks decent… And Li-san too… Hiiragizawa-san looks as though he's planning something bad…
Sato-san or Li-san? On second thought, Li-san looks pretty cold…
I… I'll choose Sato-san then!
Eriol's POV
Tomoyo Daidouji.
Syaoran's POV
This is STUPID! What first-impression? I don't know who to choose! DAMN.
ARGH. I'll choose Meiling. Hope they don't know we're cousins. Damn.
NORMAL POV
"Alriiight! Time's up! Let's see… On the lady's side, 1 vote for Seiichi Tomiura-san, 2 for Tsuyoshi Sato-san, 1 for Eriol Hiiragizawa-san and… WOW! 4 votes for Syaoran Li-san! That's incredible, ne, Keiko?"
"It is! Half of the ladies chose Li-san! Let's see how the guys' side voted… 1 for Meiling Li-san, 1 for Tomoyo Daidouji-san, and… WHAT!? This is ridiculous! 6 votes for Sakura Kinomoto-san! It's 3-quarter of the males! Kinomoto-san, how are you feeling now?"
"Did Keiko just call me, or was it my imagination?" Sakura thought.
"Kinomoto-san?" Keiko called again.
"Wha-what? Sorry. Did you just… call out for me?" Sakura asked aloud, this made everybody laugh, and Sakura blushed.
"Hai, Kinomoto-san. If you haven't noticed, 6 of the 8 male participants voted for you. Do you have anything to say to them?" Keiko asked.
"6?! You mean, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, THAT 6?" She asked, counting with her fingers. This caused the whole stage of people to erupt with laugher. "I mean, erm…" She blushed furiously, again.
"She's so cute! Hahaha!" Seiichi commented, laughing hard.
"Yes, she is, indeed." Smiling, Tsuyoshi agreed. He was glad that Sakura chose him as well.
"So, Kinomoto-san, anything you want to say to these guys?" Keiko asked yet again. She was enjoying every minute of Sakura's nervousness.
"Tomoyo-chan, help! They're ganging on me!" Sakura thought as every pair of eyes fell onto her. "I… I er…." She started, but the words just can't seem to get out of her mouth.
"The girl seems pretty troubled. Why do they have to force her?" Syaoran thought. "I should do something, shouldn't I?"
A/N: Chapter TWO done! D Reviews? I know this chapter is longer than the previous one, and maybe even boring… I'm SORRY I'll work hard for the next chapters!
STAY TUNED for Chapter 3!
With LOVE,
Fantasies-Within