Chapter Seven

"Moko-san..." Kyoko raised her head weakly and blinked endearingly at her best friend, who would've scowled at her if she'd had the energy to.

"Mo! What?"

Kanae managed to force herself to exert the energy to turn her head so that she could look at her friend. They'd both stumbled into Kyoko's room after the shoot, and had collapsed onto the low sofa. Now, Kyoko lay in a lazy slump along its length, while Kanae sat on the ground with her back leaned against the sofa.

"Is Director Fujishima always going to make us film an entire episode in a day?" she asked, clearly wishing her best friend would deny it. Rolling over onto her stomach, she mourned the fact that they were both simply too tired to do lots of girly-normal-teenage-best-friend things that night.

"I don't know."

"At least we got lots of work done and didn't waste any time," she said, pumping a fist half-heartedly into the air, although her optimism was dampened significantly by the exhaustion in her voice.

"Yes. But one episode a day? That's too much. Although, at this rate, we'll finish the season in a couple of weeks." Kanae stood, and stretched. She could sense that Kyoko was only talking for the sake of talking at this stage, and decided to admit defeat first. "I'm going back to my room, Kyoko. Goodnight," she said, and left. Kyoko only murmured sleepily in response.

/

"Tsuruga-san?" Kyoko knocked on the door of Ren and Mitsu's apartment early the following morning, with the intention of inviting them to breakfast before they went to the recording studio. After that, she had her shoot for Box-R, where she was only needed for an hour, before going to school. When she got no response, she tried the door. Locked. Strange. Tsuruga-san is always so punctual too. Maybe he wasn't planning to have breakfast, and wanted to use the extra time to sleep in. Fine. I'll go ask Yashiro-san and Asano-san first, but he's not getting away with not eating!

Knocking first on the door of Ren's manager, and then Mitsu's, she repeated her invitation, and was quickly reassured that neither of them at least would be skipping breakfast. Satisfied, she left them to get ready, and went back to knock again on the locked apartment door.

"Tsuruga-san?"

Still no reply. Kyoko bit her lip, worried, then made her way back to Yashiro's door.

/

Tsuruga Ren was not having a good morning. This overall pervading lack of 'good' days in his life lately was really becoming an annoyance. Currently, his housemate was sitting in his lap, and his head was wrapped in said housemate's scarf. His housemate was also refusing to allow him to open the door and greet the girl he was in love with, even though she had approached him first for once.

"Now, Ren-chan, you can't answer her as Tsuruga Ren, you have to be Ryou, remember?" Mitsu snuggled against him, not letting him stand. Ren winced as an overenthusiastic squeeze reminded him of his sore back. After more or less a lifetime of sleeping on a relatively soft mattress, he had not adjusted well to the firm mattress of his single bed. At least the President hadn't gone all the way and arranged Japanese style rooms for them – he would have moved to sleep on the couch if he'd had to sleep on a futon.

Ren attempted to speak, but couldn't. Pulling an arm out from Mitsu's grasp, he yanked the scarf away from his mouth. "Look, Mitsunari-san, please get off me. Furthermore, you are addressing me as Tsuruga Ren, therefore you are not in character either. I don't see why you should demand that I be in character if you're not going to do that yourself," he reasoned.

"But I want to be close to Ren-chan! Ryou doesn't even confide in Hachiro until he asks if Hachiro is dating Nana-chan!"

Ren gave up trying to understand his contradictory words. Usually, if at all, those who sat in his lap were female. Females tended to be soft, even the slender ones. Kyoko, for example, had felt soft, on the few and rare occasions he had managed to get within touching distance of her. Mitsu, on the other hand, was male, and for all his slenderness, was not very soft. Not only was it uncomfortable in that his very male housemate was sitting in his lap, but it was also becoming physically uncomfortable. Ren liked to think that he was comfortable with his sexuality, but Mitsu was making it difficult.

"Look, do you want me to be in character, or not? Mogami-san is going to think that we're ignoring her. Make up your mind and get off me at once," Ren said, attempting to remain patient.

/

"What's wrong, Kyoko-chan?" Yashiro came out, adjusting his tie. As usual, the bespectacled manager was attired in a full suit.

"Tsuruga-san and Mitsunari-san won't answer when I knock on their door," she said worriedly. "What if something's wrong?"

"I'm sure that everything's fine, Kyoko-chan," Yashiro said kindly, and pulled out the keys to Ren's apartment. "Here, we'll just open it up and check on them."

"...Ren-chan, stop moving! Do you want me to tie you down again? You're so naughty, Ren-chan! I'm going to have to punish you!"

"..." Yashiro closed the door again, and smiled weakly at Kyoko. "How about you go back to your apartment and wait. I'll...sort this out. But see, they're fine!"

Kyoko raised an eyebrow sceptically, but didn't seem to pick up on any of the undertones or connotations of what they'd just overheard. Nodding, she skipped back to her apartment, where Mitsu's manager was already waiting.

/

"So, Kyoko-san, where are the others?" Asano Eiko took a sip of coffee from the large mug she held in one hand, and leafed through her thick, leather planner with the other. Her sleek black hair was in a low knot at the nape of her neck, and she wore a navy pantsuit. The two girls had liked her immediately when she arrived at the apartment and in two minutes, separated Mitsu from the rest of the group and thoroughly cowed him into submission. She exuded sensibility and professionalism, and seemed to exist to terrify Mitsu.

"Yashiro-san went to get them," Kyoko replied uneasily as she toyed with the tamagoyaki on her plate. "They seemed busy. Actually, I don't really know what they were doing."

Kanae and Eiko exchanged glances. That doesn't sound questionable at all.

Just then, Yashiro came in, blushing furiously as he stammered, "Ah, they'll be along soon. They're just getting their things together."

Kanae wasn't sure if her eyebrows could go any higher.

/

They all arrived at the recording studio together. Mitsu walked, sandwiched between Kanae and Eiko, with Kyoko trailing behind, reading through her script as she absently bumped into walls. Following at a distance, Ren walked next to Yashiro. The others had turned the corner already at the end of the corridor, and by the time they caught up, they noted a markedly familiar decrease in temperature. Peering around the corner, Yashiro ascertained the cause of the chilliness. Kyoko stood with her arms crossed, script clutched tightly in one hand, while whorls of dark energy cascaded down the corridor. The atmosphere trembled with the kind of rage that could only be provoked by one person.

"Kyoko-chan?" Yashiro asked uncertainly. "Are you alright?"

Raising her head, Kyoko's eyes widened as she met the gaze of the tall man behind the manager. His gentleman's smile was turned on, full-blast. Fuwa Sho smirked as Kyoko baulked at the sight of her senpai. He, however, ignored his kouhai as he casually strolled up to stand in front of Sho.

"Is there a problem here, Fuwa-san?"

"Not at all, Tsuruga," Sho said smugly, "I was just greeting a close friend."

"As if we're close friends! You're my worst enemy!" Kyoko snapped, her eyes livid. "You renounced any claim you had to my friendship when you started treating me like a maid!"

"Kyoko," Sho said, relishing the familiarity of her first name, "We grew up together, and even lived together alone, just the two of us. If that doesn't make two people close, then I don't know what does." He intentionally tried to imply that they'd had some kind of intimate relationship, which Kyoko didn't pick up on. Ren, however, did.

Calm down. He's trying to rub it in. "Fuwa-san," Ren said again, "Mogami-san and I have work together, and I'm sure you have work to do as well. If you'll be so kind as to excuse us, we'll get going. We need to meet the others."

"Well, sure, it's not like I have a lot of time to hang around talking to people like you," Sho said, turning to leave. "Oh, and Kyoko?" He turned around to sneer at her. "I may have renounced any claim to your friendship, but you and I both know that I'm still number one in your heart."

Before Kyoko could come up with a suitable reply, he sauntered off down the hall. Kyoko's grudges arose and were about to descend upon his retreating back, but were distracted by the deliciously appetising rays that they sensed elsewhere. Their pleasure at this dark emission was not shared by their master. The Demon Lord. Kyoko gulped, audibly, and wondered if it was too much to wish for, that the wall would open up conveniently if she dived into it. Worst case scenario, it didn't open up for her, and she got a concussion from smashing her head against the plaster. She was seriously considering making an attempt.

"Mogami-san," he said, "As a professional actor, you should put your personal grievances aside, and concentrate on your role. Have you already forgotten what I've told you?" He sighed, as if incredibly disappointed. "I must say, as your senpai, I am saddened to think that you haven't been taken my words seriously."

Kyoko threw herself into a dogeza as soon as she heard the word 'senpai' – the thought that her most respected senpai was saddened by her unprofessional reaction to Fuwa Sho was just too much to bear. "Ts-Tsu-Tsuruga-san!" she stammered. "Please don't think that I ignored what you said! I remember it all and I always consider your advice very carefully. I'm sorry that I'm such an untalented and undeserving kouhai!"

Yashiro just stared at his charge, dumbstruck. Did he really think that this was the best way to handle the situation? He's just further emphasised their senpai-kouhai relationship! Is he some kind of masochist? Maybe it's better that he doesn't confess to Kyoko-chan too soon...who knows what kind of sick, perverted, kinky play that man likes? Maybe he enjoys the senpai-kouhai relationship! Maybe he sees it all as roleplay! Oh, our poor, innocent Kyoko-chan. She's too sweet to whip anyone!

"Good. Now, we've only got this studio booked for another two hours, and you have another shoot after this, do you not? We should make our way there now." Ren bent slightly, and offered his hand to his apologetic kouhai, who ignored it, and stood up on her own. Ren knew that she probably didn't want to inconvenience him by, oh, heaven forbid, touching him, but he was still slightly offended. Disguising his displeasure with his gentlemanly smile, he led the way to the recording studio.

Kyoko followed, still fretful, and slightly nervous at the appearance of his gentlemanly smile. He was mad at her. He had to be. He was angry that she was behaving so unprofessionally. She had clearly let him down as his kouhai. She should've known better than to let Sho get to her. Tsuruga-san always seems to angry at me whenever I talk to Shotaro. But I can't help getting angry whenever I see him with that stupid smug face and that fake persona, always trying to be so cool and unaffected when secretly he likes to watch variety shows and eat pudding.

She sighed, and looked up at Ren, who had been holding the door of the recording studio open for her for the last three minutes while she'd been floundering in her thoughts. He had dropped the gentleman's smile, and had replaced it with a look of consternation. Blushing again, she bowed her thanks to him, and quickly stepped inside the dimly lit room, where the others were already waiting.

/

Well. I didn't fail my SACs, but I do fail with my characterisation of Sho. Oh well. Enjoy, read and review, and all that jazz. Have an excellent week, and I shall see you next time I update. ^-^

- Interficere