Ren's POV (En-chi)

As I stepped forward and announced my name I let my imagination turn the judges into trees so that I would stop being nervous. This technique was something Nae taught me. We had heard before that to stop being nervous you should imagine your audience naked, but me and Nae didn't want to. Just thinking about adults being naked made us throw up in our mouths, so Kanae made up the technique and taught it to me, to imagine people as trees as nature made both of us relaxed and at peace. I was doing perfectly fine until I heard the noise of a table being slammed, it broke my concentration and let my mind actually see the people in the room. I saw that the director was right in front of me, on his left there was the producer and on his right there was the assistant director and after the assistant director, I couldn't believe my eyes, there in all his glory was THE Tsuruga Re! Nae will be so jealous when I was going to tell her about how the audition went. As I was looking at him, he was looking at me with so much intensity that was actually freaking me out. When the director asked him what's wrong he showed the "the lady's smile." It was the same smile that Kanae shows when she is mad, upset or angry but she doesn't want to show it, so she smiles this bright smile. Usually the smile is followed by a sugar coated insult or a blunt insult that goes over your head since the person IS smiling at you. I wanted to run. I knew what was behind that mask and I could tell everyone, it was NOT a pretty sight. The actor looked at me strangely as I took a step back involuntarily.

"Boy!" I snapped my head towards…the director, for the main purpose to avoid that smile. "Can you do this?"

I nodded.

"Do you have any acting experience?" the assistant director asked.

I wondered about what to tell them. I never actually acted professionally, but throughout my life I had to act to survive and then switching between being Kanae and being myself you could say in a way I had experience in acting. I and Nae felt naturally doing it, like it was in our nature, like it was in our blood something we were born with. Plus, whenever we even thought about entering a school theater program, we couldn't because we knew we wouldn't stay long to get a chance to be involved in anything even though we both really wanted to.

"Not professionally, sir." I answered because I knew they weren't looking for "street acting."

They all sighed like the world just ended. I could see it in their eyes that they gave up on me. That got up my fighting spirit and my nervous melted in front of these ignorant people. 'I'm going to show them not to ever underestimate me' I thought.

"Tsuruga-san will you do us the honor of acting with this boy." The director asked looking at the famous actor pitifully. I was ready for whatever they would throw at me and let them eat their words and wipe that expression off their faces. At this point I didn't care who I acted with, before I might have felt nervous but right now, they, even THE Tsuruga Ren, ignited my fighting spirit.

"Yes, sir."

The actor got up and stood in front of me, he looked…bored. I really thought that was inappropriate of him, I was starting to really dislike this people, no matter of how important they were. If I didn't have a lot of experience hiding my emotions I would have "sneered".

"Let's take the scene where Raii meets his father at the playground and ask for forgiveness and Raii gets mad at him and tells him to never come back again."

I looked at the four people in the room and I could see by the smile on their faces that they knew I'll fail, because this was the hardest, most emotional scene in the drama. I internally smiled, this was going to be so easy.

For me this scene was the one that spoke to me the most. I just had to be myself. Instead of our father dying, I had to imagine him abandoning my beautiful mother and my sister. I can relate to Raii hating his father but also wanting him in his life, to make his mother happy, to be happy himself.

"Yes, sir." Ren answered and his whole stance changed, it was incredible, it seemed like Kanae's way of getting into a character.

I was getting excited. With Nae being the exception, I didn't have many people to try my acting on. The people we had the slightest chance to try our acting on were never on a level that would challenge me and Nae.

"Ready?" the assistant asked. I nodded and I turned myself towards the door.

"Start." The director said.

I walked towards the door and then acted like I was sitting on a bench, just like in the script.

'He was in deep thought about his father coming back and his mother crying that even though she hated his father for abandoning her with a four year old, she was also happy he wasn't dead. Raii barely knew his father but he did remember that they were a happy family and the fact that his father loved his mother and him.

"Raii?" His father called out to the silent boy hesitantly. Raii didn't hear, still deep in thought.

"Son?" His father tried again with more confidence.

Raii raised his head and looked at his father, not really seeing him there. The minute Raii registered in his brain who he was looking through, he sneered and started walking away furious.

"Son, wait. Raii, please!" His father pleaded.

He stopped and his father looked anxiously at his son's back.

Raii turned around and it looked like demons were swirling around him'.

I slipped a little off from my character when I saw the four people in the room looking a little scared by my aura. I did have little demons swirling around me, in glee at my dark thoughts. They have been with me since I started hating the life me, my mom and Nae were living. It was fun traveling but we always had to change cities, schools and whenever we got caught, which happened only once, my mom got hurt and that's when I found my hidden aura and that's also the incident when Nae discovered her "lady's smile." I shuddered at the memory.

They were waiting for me and I got myself back in character.

"Excuse me, SIR. I was told not to talk to strangers." Raii turned back again and started walking away.

"Wait, please, Raii let me explain."

"Explain? Explain?!" Raii turned towards his father in anger.

"What's there to EXPLAIN?" Raii spat the word in venom. "You abandon me and my mom. You ran by yourself and we suffered from everyone around us, but more importantly you hurt my mother, the person you swore to love and cherish forever. Why is it that adults always break their promises at a drop off a hat?" He spoke in menace.

"I..I.."

"Yes, exactly. You." He wanted to run, he wished his father stayed dead. Their life was finally going on track and now this man shows up and screws everything.

"I couldn't…stay, son. You said you suffered from me not being here but I would have made you suffer even more if I was close to you. The debts I had, the crimes I committed, they caught up with me. When I met your mom I changed, I went straight, I thought my sins were forgiven, I thought I would be alright if I had your mom and forgot about my other life, but even if I forgot about it, the people in that life did not forget about me. I assured your safety and your mom's by disappearing." His father looked like his life left him and was about to break down crying. "I didn't want to leave you and especially your mom, she was my rain of sunshine. She was EVERYTHING to me, but if she could be safe without me by her side then I will ensure it even if it breaks my soul."

"You really think I believe you?" He laughed maniacally. "You really think she hasn't suffered? You really think that you leaving HELPED US? Why didn't you talk to her? Why didn't you let her make her choice? You only thought about yourself." He started crying silent tears falling one by one slowly on his cheeks "There are so many ways we could have been safe together. If only you made sure that we were safe, not only physically but emotionally. If we forgive you now, how can we be sure that you won't disappear again? How can we trust that next time you'll take us with you? I won't forgive someone that breaks his promises." He yelled the last sentence and ran away.'

I broke character and looked around the room at four stunned faces.

'Yes, me'. I cheered in my head. That's what they get for underestimating a kid.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat a little bashful, because they were staying too long in that position.

"You really had no experience in acting?" the producer asked awed, while everyone got their bearings.

"No professional experience." I answered a little embarrassed.

"You may go, now. We'll call you with the results." the director said in a clipped voice.

My spirits got low. I must have been really bad, I did go off script for the last dialog but I just nodded and left a little disappointed to not find out more of how I did, as I walked out of the audition room and realized the time I actually felt relieved that they let me go because it was almost time to get home from school. There might be other kids that had more experience than I do, no, I knew there had to be more kids with a whole lot more experience than me but it felt so great to act with a professional actor, I still felt the goose bumps after I gave the speech as Raii. He was actually not supposed to cry, but I was so much in character it came so naturally.

"I can't wait to tell Nae." I said to myself as I hurried through the crowd.

Thank you to everyone who still has this story as a favorite or even remembers it. No I have not forgotten about it but I had the worst writer's block in history. I hope you enjoy the new chapter. If you want to contribute to the story let me know because I do not mind. I love reading anything, especially good story and mine I think lack some finesses so I appreciate all the help I could get.

Thank you Ki-chan for looking over the chapter and helping me. I greatly appreciate it. SO now on with the story, hope it's good enough. THank you again to everyone.

Disclaimer: No way do I own Skip Beat, if I did the story would not have been as amazing as it is right now.

AWESOME JOB NAKAMURA-SENSEI.