Dear Senpai

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 28 – A search for answers

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Fuwa,

I hope that you are willing to read this letter until the end.

First of all, I most deeply and sincerely regret leaving you with your in the way that I did three years ago. You showed great kindness to me by taking me in when my mother abandoned me, and I owe you better than the way that I treated you. You both took care of me and trained me to step into your shoes in the Ryokan, and I am aware of what you were hoping for. Unfortunately, that was never a possibility. Your son has never looked at me in the way that you intended and it would never have been appropriate for me to take over the operation of your establishment without that… understanding… being met.

Second, I need to emphasize that neither your son nor I shamed ourselves in the manner that our running away together might have implied [this writing is shaky, but still legible]. Shotaro left to pursue his dream of becoming a musician. I left to support him. At no point did our relationship take on an illicit nature. In fact, within months of arriving in Tokyo, your son was gone more than he was ever nearby. Despite his odd statement to the contrary, he never showed any interest in me as anything more than a friend. After less than a full year in Tokyo we had an argument that led to our near-complete estrangement. He pursued his career and I began mine.

[This next part is written in a bold hand, showing determination and perhaps a little anger] And third, I am sorry that Shotaro's disclosure of our "relationship" has led to your respectable Ryokan being invaded by the Press. I was surprised, even shocked when he made that public statement. Up until this point he had always emphasized the need to keep our past a secret so that his public reputation would not be tarnished. We do not now, nor have we ever had the sort of relationship that his press statement implies. In fact, we have barely spoken together in three years, and when we have spoken it has usually been less than pleasant. I do not point blame for this; I am merely stating the facts.

[The writing in the last paragraph grew more bold and choppy as it progressed, suggesting that Kyoko may have been letting her irritation run away with her. The next paragraph returns to Kyoko's elegant hand, implying that she stepped away from the letter to get control of her temper]

In fact, I have met and am dating a wonderful man here in Tokyo. He is a kind, patient and caring man who seems to be able to see past all of my faults. He tells me that he loves me, and he has proven it in many ways. He and others have helped me to see that I need to let go of my past in order to move on. For this reason I wrote your son a letter to express my intention to forget all past hurts and wrongs and to focus on the future with those who care about me. Please understand, by writing this I don't mean to imply that you are a part of my past that I wish to forget. In truth I will always cherish the care that you gave to me. Much of who I am today is due to the care and training that you both gave to me and I can never thank you enough.

Nevertheless, I needed you to know the truth about your son and I. Perhaps my letter to him irritated him, though I don't understand why. Or perhaps he is angry because I am dating a man who is Shotaro's professional rival. Whatever the case, the truth is that your son and I were never more than friends… and that now we are much less than that.

I sincerely apologize, once again, for any inconvenience that you might currently be experiencing due to Shotaro's odd interview. I am sending this letter Express so that you will receive it before noon on the following day. I wanted you to have this letter before my own press conference, which will be in the afternoon. I will do my best not to shame you, but I will also be completely honest about the true nature of the relationship between your son and I.

For all that you have done for me, I most humbly thank you,

Sincerely,

Mogami Kyoko

oOoOOoOo

Dear Maria,

I am jotting this down quickly to give to Sebastian-san so that he can pass it to you. Thank you so much for spending the morning with me, even though we had to run around incognito in order to avoid the Press. I cannot express how grateful and relieved I am that you were willing to forgive me and that you still consider me your friend.

Thank you again for being so understanding,

Kyoko

oOoOOoOo

Dear Ren,

You will find this note sitting on your counter in place of me. I felt that it would be more prudent if we didn't take the risk of being photographed together on less than a day after that that jerk caused such a public scandal between him and me. For this reason I used the apartment key that you gave me to sneak in with a note, but chose not to wait there myself. If the press got wind of my location then your reputation might be besmirched as well. I do realize that we have already been photographed together extensively while in Paris, but felt that it would be better to fight one fire at a time here in Tokyo. As much as I am tempted to apologize profusely for any possible damage to your reputation, I will abstain… knowing perfectly well how you would treat such an apology.

I will, however, say this: You were right, though not in the way that either of us suspected. I truly saw the letter to Fuwa-san as an act of closure. I certainly never expected to be greeted at the airport by a storm of reporters. Nor did I expect that he would ever publically claim that he and I had a relationship. It makes no sense. And as much as I would like to strangle the idiot, Takarada-shacho has wisely counseled me that a mature and reasoned explanation of the facts would be better.

So you see, it is a good thing that you didn't fly home with me after all, though I am almost painfully curious about your "special detour" to California. What in the world could possibly lead you to almost circumnavigate the globe just to "pick up something special"? I wish that I could have gone with you. It would have been good to see Otou-san and Okaa-san.

By the time you read this we will have already spoken on the phone again, yet I still can't resist writing about how great a relief it is that Maria has forgiven me. I know that you told me that she would, yet there was still this lingering fear that my precious little sister would never speak to me again. We had a great time running around all morning, made more interesting because we were running around in disguises. I think that she has more of her grandfather in her than she realizes.

Anyway, I will be conducting the press conference two hours after you arrive home. I hope that you will watch it?

Sincerely [crossed out]

Love,

Kyoko