Thanks for all the nice reviews! Sirena-Lune's right, though, Ren-chan is a little too OoC, and I'll go and edit chapter one soon. I hope this one is a little more on target, as I went and reread the entire series to prepare. Anyway, sorry for the long wait. I got a little busy with college.

Disclaimer: I do not own SkipBeat!, nor am I associated with any of it's affiliates, such as Hana to Yume magazine, or ShojoBeat publishers. All characters within are created and presumably owned by Nakamura Yoshiki-sensei. I humbly beg pardon for any mistakes that may be made by me.

Garden of Tears

Reunion

Kyouko skipped a little when she got to the set. Her brain had already hit maximum lala land, and she was daydreaming about the character that she was slated to play. Just like she had hoped, the girl was a sweet, rich young lady, troubled only by the problems of romance. The ending of the script was a little sad, but she already knew all her lines. Which was a good thing, what with the first day of shooting being today. She had also met the director, but she hadn't really had a chance to meet her coworkers, and she was interested in seeing who her love interests were. 'I hope it's not someone rude and arrogant, like a certain singer I know…' she thought, as a slight dark mood descended upon her happy, fluffy thoughts.

"Eh, whatever," she said out loud. The young assistant who had been leading her to the set started.

"What?" the young woman asked.

"Oh, nothing," Kyouko replied, with a practice sales' person smile. The girl seemed to accept that. Although she obviously wondered about Kyouko's sanity.

"I'm going to go and get the director…" she said to Kyouko. Bowing a little, she turned and strode away.

Kyouko stood there a few moments, temporarily abandoned. Bemused she wondered what to do. 'I wonder if it would be okay to work on my curse dolls here…Moko is always a little freaked out when I do it around her, now that she knows how much I hate Sho…' As she thought about it, her inner demons started to swirl, attracted to the aura of hate that she gave off.

"You're thinking about him, aren't you."

Kyouko jumped at the sound of the smooth, slightly irritated voice behind her. Spinning around, she saw Tsuruga Ren standing behind her. Although he wasn't doing anything in particular to be scary, she could tell that he was a little ticked off. "Gomen nasaiiiiiii!" she wailed out of reflex.

To her surprise and happiness, Tsuruga cracked a small smile. Not a lying gentlemanly smile either, but a small genuine one of amusement. Kyouko relaxed at little at seeing it, though she couldn't say, if asked, why she had apologized in the first place or what had made Tsuruga-san mad.

"What are you doing here, Tsuruga-san?" She asked, as it occurred to her that it was unusual that he was on the set of Garden of Tears with her.

"I got the part of Shiroyume Akira in this movie," he replied, gazing steadily into her eyes.

Kyouko found herself blushing a little. Shiroyume Akira was the man in the drama that stole her character away from her intended fiancé, Otome Yuki. "It's wonderful to work with you again, sempai." She said. "We haven't worked together since Dark Moon, and it will be wonderful to see you in action again. Let's do a good job, okay?"

Ren smiled at her, thinking to himself, 'Yes, we're going to work together, and I'm going to steal your heart away from that man, just like in the movie…'

Kyouko felt a smile shiver go down her spine at the small, secretive smile on Tsuruga's face. 'I hope he doesn't plan to bully me…' she thought to herself. Then her composure was shattered as she caught sight of the one person that she hated most in the entire world. A horrified look appeared on her face.

"Yo, what's up?" Fuwa Sho said, as he looked at the girl he had dragged to Tokyo with him on a whim.

"You-you-I-what-?" Kyouko tried to get out the words, in at least a dignified manner. Ren supplied helpfully, "Fuwa is playing Otome Yuki in this. Same old story about a singer trying to break into acting."

"This jerk is the one I'm supposed to marry?!"

Sho bristled. "Like that's so thrilling for me either."

What's that supposed to mean," Kyouko screeched.

"If I wanted to marry a plain, boring girl, I would have stayed home!"

"Teme!" Kyouko yelled.

Ren leaned over to Kyouko, wrapping his arms around her intimately from behind. "What do you mean, plain? I think that she is totally sexy."

"What?" Kyouko choked out, completely shocked. Just then, though, they were interrupted by the director. Ren untangled himself from her and the director, an older, white haired man started to speak in delightfully feminine tones.

"Okay, darlings, come and get into costume. We start shooting in an hour. I take it you are all ready, and know your lines?" Without waiting for an answer he continued. "Now scurry and get ready!"

Sho stalked off, fuming that Kyouko hadn't told that Tsuruga bastard off. Kyouko stayed behind, staring at Ren. "Wha…?"

"You see, you hate that guy, right?"

Kyouko agreed readily.

"So," Ren suggested, "Just pretend that you are going out with me, during the shoot. You can think of it as an acting job if you like."

Kyouko eyed him dubiously. "I thought you didn't use acting for revenge, and didn't like stuff like that."

"It would help me out if you did it." Ren pleaded, pumping up the puppy dog eyes times two.

"Well…I guess," Kyouko agreed. "I do want to get revenge on him, and if you think it would help…though Sho probably wouldn't get jealous over me…" She wondered in her mind what acting like his girlfriend would do to help him. 'Maybe he has a crazy stalker girl after him, and doesn't want me to worry.' she thought. 'Yeah, that must be it.'

"It's agreed then!" Ren walked off before Kyouko could disagree. Even if she thought it was acting, he would win her over to his side.

'She won't be able to think of me as a friend anymore.'