Dear Sempai
Disclaimer: I do not own SkipBeat! or any of the characters from the Manga.
Summary: Lory has conceived yet another devious scheme, wrapped in the guise of a LoveMe assignment. All the girls have to do is to write at least one letter a week to the person they respect the most. Simple… right?
Letter 2
Dear Tsuruga-Sempai,
This is just a short note to inform you how very surprised and honored I was to receive your return letter in the mail this morning. I did not realize that it was you, at first, because your address began with "Mister C" in English. I was confused when I extracted the letter and found that it was from you. Why did you choose the letter "C" instead of "T" or even "R," [the next line was hastily scribbled] not that it would be appropriate for me to use your given name or anything like that… gomen.
I was very worried that you would be annoyed about becoming the involuntary recipient of my letters, so I am relieved that you think that it will be "great fun." Honestly, as much as I appreciate your return letter, it is not necessary. But if you do choose to write back, then I will work doubly-hard to make sure that what I write will have something worth reading and replying to.
Takarada-shacho will give us our first theme on Monday. I am looking forward to it because writing was always my favorite core-subject in school. When I was little my teachers used to encourage me to write stories. I got a perfect score one time, but when I [the next three lines were aggressively scratched out, but the word "Mother" was still visible]
Please forgive my messiness. One of the rules that we were given is that we must hand-write our letters and that we were allowed to line-out, but were not allowed to re-write our letters. I don't understand this, but I must abide by the President's rules. I started to write about something that happened in my childhood before I realized how foolish it was to burden you with my past. Please forgive me.
I am glad that I took this survey seriously, even though it became an inconvenience to you. Moko-san assumed that the survey was for some magazine article. She decided to write down Usegi Hio in most of the lines because he was on her mind at the time. When she worked with him on the previous day he was depressed and irritable. It turned out that some of the other child-actors had given him a difficult time, saying that he only got so much work because of his family name. It isn't true. I have seen several of his dramas and movies and he is a very fine actor. Moko-san (please don't tell her that I call her that. She doesn't like me to call her that in front of people, but you are a friend, so this is different) tells me that Hio is one of the hardest-working and most talented actors she has ever met. Anyway, because she wrote his name down for most of the categories, she has to write to him. This is embarrassing to her because Hio already has a crush on her – which isn't surprising since she is the most beautiful and talented up-and-coming actress around.
Though I feel sorry for Moko-san, I feel worse for Amamiya Chiori. She didn't take the survey seriously at all and (this is very embarrassing) she wrote my name down. She is actually from SoftHat, not LME, so she probably doesn't know many people here yet; so now poor Chiori-san has to write to me. I tried to argue for her with Takarada-shacho, but he only smiled and told me that I was being too humble… whatever that means. The result is that I will now be corresponding with two people. I only think it is fair to answer her letters, since you have chosen to reply to mine. I wish, for her sake, that the President would allow her to write to somebody significant in the company, instead of a talento beginner like me.
Thank you, once again, for being such a good mentor to me. Even though I am unworthy, you always take time to help, or advise, or scold me when it is necessary.
Your humble kohai,
Mogami Kyoko
P.S. I hope that you were not offended when I wrote that you are a friend. You wrote something about that in your letter to me, and I was still thinking about it when I was writing this letter. When I realized what I had written I almost scratched it out. It was presumptuous for me to write such a thing. But then I was afraid that you would see that I had scratched it out and you would be offended, so I left it in. I know that I am unworthy of such an honor, but I must admit that it made me happy when you wrote it. MK
Dear Chiori-san,
Please don't feel embarrassed about having to write letters to me. It must be mortifying for someone with your years of acting experience to have to write letters to someone like me. I suppose that the lesson to be learned from this is to always take LME questionnaires seriously. I tried to persuade Takarada-shacho to let you re-take the survey, but he refused. He said that you were sincere in your answers and must therefore adhere to the rules (I think he just finds it amusing that you wrote my name in). I am sorry.
Therefore, since you are stuck with writing to me instead of somebody important, I suggest that we simply correspond as friends. We have both been so busy lately that we have never had the chance to truly get to know one-another. Please feel free to write whatever you wish and I will reply in-kind.
Your friend and fellow Pink-Sufferer,
Mogami Kyoko
Notes: Several reviewers have asked if I intend to include letters from Ren, Chiori, etc.
In reply: I'm modelling this after the book Daddy Long-Legs. In that book the entire story was told from the perspective of the girl writing to her anonymous benefactor. It was beautifully written and ingenious. This story may not compare, but I want to follow in that same pattern.
This story will be highly free-form. I have not set number of chapters nor a defined plot-line as of this point. I know where it is going, but have not yet outlined all of the steps for getting there. I also make no promises on updates. As one reviewer noted, this story also exists to help to spur my creativity when I feel overwhelmed by my more cumbersome chapter stories.