The usual disclaimers apply, etc.

Chapter Six

The director stood at the back of the room and reviewed the cast. They all looked as if they'd survived their first night together. Kanae and Kyoko's small apartment had been rearranged to fit the crew; they were more accustomed to shooting on specially built sets, so the layout had thrown them all a little. Still, after half an hour of work, they had managed it. They'd spent the morning at the train station, where they'd filmed Nanami and Hachiro's arrival in Tokyo, and now they were back at the apartment to film the first meeting between the four leads after a few quick shots of them getting out of a taxi outside the building.

/ Nanami and Hachiro haul their luggage out of the elevator and pause in the hallway. Nanami has a bright smile on her face, happy to finally have arrived. Hachiro just gestures at her indulgently as he helps her to take her suitcase over to the nearest door. Together, they look at the keys they each hold in their hands, and at the sign on the door.

"Well, 4-A. This is me," Nanami says, dropping her suitcase to hug Hachiro.

"And that means that this door is mine," Hachiro says, pulling his suitcase over to the door a couple of steps down from where Nanami is standing. "Come on Nana, we're living just next door to each other, you'll be fine."

"I know," Nanami says, laughing. "I'll come over and meet your housemate as soon as I've settled in. I hope mine is expecting me...she sounded nice enough over the phone." Nanami knocks once, and unlocks the door with the keys she has in her hand. Sticking her head in, she peers around once, then turns to nod at Hachiro. "Well, I'll see you later." /

"Cut! Okay, now to Rina and Nanami's first meeting. Tsuruga-san, Mitsunari-san, please prepare for your next scene too, since we'll be filming yours right after this," the director said, pleased with how things had gone so far. Everyone went to their new positions, and Kyoko quickly reread the script to make sure she wouldn't have to be scrabbling to remember words when she really wanted to concentrate on how she would actually behave as Nanami.

/ "Hello?" Nanami steps inside, dragging her suitcase behind her. After having examined the layout of the apartment, she dumps it inside the empty bedroom that isn't locked, assuming that the locked bedroom will be Rina's. Now, she knocks on the locked bedroom, which opens.

Rina steps out and bows curtly to Nanami. "Nice to meet you. I'm Katsura Rina. Sorry I couldn't come out to meet you today. I had a lot of studying that I wanted to get through." Her face is blank and polite, but it's clear that she wants to be back inside her room. Her gaze keeps slipping past Nanami's face, refusing to hold her eyes.

"That's fine, Rina-san," Nanami says, and reaches up to brush her hair back. "I guess I'll just unpack all my things. We can sort everything out later. I was actually going to go over and meet with the people next door afterwards, would you like to join us? I'll even cook! Do you have any groceries? We'll have to figure out how we're going to do the shopping too, aren't we?"

"Yes. We will. And I'd be happy to join you for a meal, however I really must get back to work for now," Rina says awkwardly, and bows again before closing the door on Nanami.

"Huh," Nanami says quietly, then brightens again. "Oh well." /

"Tsuruga-san, Mitsunari-san, are you ready? We're going to do the dinner scene as soon as Kyoko-san has finished changing," the director said, from his chair. He was flicking through the script, ticking off all the scenes that they'd completed that day. This would be their last, and he was glad that they'd made it through with a minimum number of NG's.

/

Kanae sat on top of a cupboard as she waited for Kyoko to finish changing into what she'd wear for dinner. The director had said that they were allowed to match clothes as they liked, as long as they used whatever had been provided by the wardrobe department, and so Kyoko had asked Kanae for her help.

"Do you think Nanami would wear this?"

Kanae raised her eyebrows. "Kyoko-san, Nanami would wear anything on that rack, remember? It's all for Nanami. So it's not a matter of what she would or wouldn't wear, because she'd wear all of it! That's the point. Here, let me," she said, giving in as she hopped off her perch to help Kyoko with her costume. "The costume managers should've left outfits instead of just giving you a load of stuff. But then this seems like the kind of thing the director would do."

Kanae directed her to stand very still in a corner, and then went to work, picking out a soft ruffled blouse and jeans for her. "Does that look like something Nanami would wear to a casual dinner after a long day of travelling and moving in?" she asked rhetorically. "Okay, put that on."

Kyoko did as she was told, pushing up the sleeves and fixing her wig in the mirror. It was black and cut asymmetrically, so that it was longer at the front, framing her face, and short at the back, with a sweeping fringe. It looked trendy and mature at the same time, which she thought suited Nanami. At first, she had been doubtful that she'd be able to play a character who was supposed to be of a similar age to Ren's character, Ryou, but her first trip to make-up had reassured her. Furthermore, maybe it was just Ren's amazing acting ability, but in her opinion, he looked younger as soon as he got into character. More vulnerable...more emotional, almost.

It had reminded her of how she had felt around him right after his accident at the Dark Moon set. For the first time in their relationship, she hadn't felt like she was beneath him. It had almost been as if he'd needed her. Even though he had still been in control, and was as unfathomable as usual, he had had a certain vulnerability that she had never seen since, and it made her feel protective of this tiny wisp of his true self that he had deigned to reveal to her in a moment of weakness. In this context, however, it was simply cute. No! She shook her head furiously. I can't think of my senpai as cute! It's most definitely just Nanami who thinks that. And even she isn't supposed to think that he's cute yet!

"Are we good to go?" Kanae asked, pausing at the door as she turned back to straighten the ruffles on Kyoko's shirt. Kyoko grinned at her, thrilled that her best friend was playing dress-ups with her. Nodding, she followed Kanae into Ren and Mitsu's apartment.

/

/ Nanami knocks on the door next to theirs, with Rina in tow. Rina has a textbook tucked under one arm, and she looks as if she's only there to establish a good relationship with her housemate, and to actually consume food before getting back to her studies.

Ryou opens the door, and stares at Nanami for a few seconds before opening the door wider. /

"Cut," the director snapped, standing. "Ryou is supposed to be looking at Nanami as if she's the most beautiful girl he's ever seen in his life." Yashiro, who was standing close by, snickered, and pulled out his gloves and phone to send a gleeful text message to the President.

Ren frowned. He had read the direction, and he had been looking at Kyoko as if she was the most beautiful girl in the world – something that wasn't hard for him. He just had to let himself indulge in all those forbidden thoughts, and let his face slip.

"However," the director continued, "This is still their first meeting. What I mean is, Tsuruga-san, you really need to tone it down. They've only just met, and although Ryou is attracted to Nanami, he doesn't realise that he's in love with her yet. He doesn't even know her. He's just attracted to her on a physical level, and is just surprised by her appearance. Hachiro is almost like a brother to her, so whatever he's briefly described of her to Ryou won't be in a light that will make Ryou think of her as a potential love interest until he actually meets her. Understood?"

Ren nodded, hoping Kyoko wouldn't think too much about his slip-up. The context of the scene clearly didn't call for anything as intense as that, and he didn't know how he'd explain it to her. 'Oh, I'm just completely in love with you so I thought that I'd let some of my true feelings out before they started to leak.' I'm sure she'd take that well, and wouldn't run away from me at all.

"Let's do that again, from when Ryou enters the scene."

/ Ryou opens the door, and stares at Nanami for a few seconds before opening the door wider.

"You must be Nanami," he blurts out. "I mean, sorry, Nanami-san, I hope you don't mind, it's just that Hachiro never referred to you with honorifics so I kind of forgot."

"Just Nanami is fine," Nanami says, smiling at his awkwardness. "This is Rina-san! We're living next door. It's really nice to meet you. Is Hachiro giving you any grief?"

"No, he's really nice," Ryou says, nodding at Rina, who returns the nod coolly. "Anyway, come on in! Hachiro said you'd cook for us...I hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience. I mean, as he says, we're just bachelors after all."

Nanami smiles, glad that her best friend and his roommate seem so close already, despite having only known one another for a few hours. Even so, they've been corresponding through email over the past few months to establish a rapport. Hachiro has the effect on people, and she hopes that he'll be able to help Rina open up. She's already noticed that Rina seems a little closed off to others so far, but hopes it's just because she's shy around new people. /

"That's better," the director said, standing so that the crew could move the cameras. "Now we just have the final scene, at the dinner table, and then we'll do a couple of shots from different angles for the voice-overs." The director had wanted to end each episode with a brief and hopeful voice-over by each character, which they'd record later on that week at a studio. "Can we set that up now?" The cameraman closest to him nodded, and held up a hand to signify five minutes. The director nodded in return, and told the four leads to take a quick break.

Yashiro immediately made his way over to Ren.

"Yashiro," Ren warned, "Whatever you're thinking right now – stop thinking it."

"Must be a challenge to have to act as Kyoko-chan's love interest," Yashiro said, smirking. "And isn't it cute how Nanami lets Ryou call her by her given name so easily?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ren responded calmly, taking a drink of water from the bottle he'd placed under his chair earlier on. "It's just acting, after all. Ryou is not Mogami-san's love interest; he's Nanami's love interest."

"Even so! You completely slipped before, don't deny it, Ren! I saw it, and the President would have too, except I didn't bring a camera with me. I broke it on the weekend when I was taking photos of my niece. I forgot to wear gloves," he grumbled.

"What do you mean, the President would have too?" Ren tightened the lid of his bottle, and smiled at Yashiro, who immediately cringed and backed away. The President had been very clear about what would happen to the manager if his charge found out that he'd been tasked with the responsibility of updating him about his miniscule progress. Not that Ren would've been surprised, at this stage.

"Nothing, nothing! Say, Ren, they're almost finished! Maybe you should get ready for the next scene," Yashiro said quickly. He quickly ran away to stand next to Kyoko, since it was unlikely that Ren would confront him about it with her right there.

As they started the next scene, Yashiro felt Ren's eyes boring a hole into his back, and he resolved to make a run for his new, temporary home in the same building as his volatile charge before said charge could dazzle him to unconsciousness. Kyoko would be no help – she seemed equally if not more susceptible to his gentlemanly smile.

/

So much for this being a light-hearted comedy series – everything I've written for the television show so far is hardcore dramatic and serious. Well, not really. Not a very interesting chapter – just wanted to get started on the blasted filming before it ran away from me some more.

Once again, thanks for all your reviews/alerts/favourites/PMs, they're much appreciated. And thanks for just reading. That alone makes me happy. *has lowered threshold of happiness even further than Ren* But you're always welcome to make me happier by reviewing and such. ^-^

- Interficere