Yongo

Time Between Lightning and Thunder

Chapter 2: The Plane

As promised a quick update and here it is!

Hope: To get this story out my head before going back to school

Cheers ^_^

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"Oh, I understand." Kyouko Mogami was seated in the back seat of the sought after actor Ren Tsuruga of LME's car. And seated in the passengers seat was his kind manager, Yukihito Yashiro flipping through a planner. "So you won't be accompanying us then Yashiro-san?"

"That's right Kyouko-chan." He mumbled, nose still in his planner. "Ren knows all the details so-"

"Am I to be her keeper Yashiro-san?" Ren interrupted nonchalantly.

"No, no!!" She replied, "Tsuruga-san will be busy with his photo-shoot too!! I can take care of myself Yashiro-san!" Her objection might as well have been a mere mumble because Yashiro scolded Ren.

"Ren, she is after all your kohai. Whether or not this is her first time out of the country, as your kohai, you are, in fact, her 'keeper' as you put it." At that, Ren's body posture changed, but he said nothing in reply. Yashiro turned to the slightly stunned girl in the back seat.

"Kyouko-chan, it's all been more or less arranged. But you must realize, we are going to a foreign country. Where you're going, perhaps only the director of the shoot might speak the same language as we do." He paused for a second and rubbed his temple, "actually, as a friend of Takarada-san, he may not even speak Japanese..." The manager slumped back into his seat with a groan. "Alright, you two; regardless, all the arrangements have been made. You will be boarding the same plane as well as living in the same hotel." He pushed himself from the seat and began searching in a bag between his feet. "Another assistant of the president will meet us at the airport with your boarding passes."

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On the plane.

'This is driving me mad.' Ren Tsuruga was seated in the third row of a seven rowed plane section. The seat next to him, the window seat, was empty aside from his carry on. 'Damn that Yashiro...!' His mind trailed back to 30 mintues before, a scene he had been replaying since boarding the plane.

"And Kyouko this is yours." Yashiro handed the pass over to the eager 16 year old and began to walk away.

"Wait. Yashiro-san..." Kyouko stopped him. "I have a single seat... I won't be sitting next to Tsuruga-san?" Ren furrowed his eyebrows and unfolded the boarding pass he had so casually stuffed into his pocket. He looked at it with renewed interest. 3B . 3B ? Then she must have 3A. '

"See, look." She walked over to where a perplexed Yashiro stood, "here, look. It says '7A-single.' That's a single seat right?" The man in the grey suit accepted her ticket and examined it. He then walked over to Ren and took a look at the seat number on the black-haired man's ticket.

"Wow." He shook his head and look apologetically from Kyouko to Ren, "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about that now. Your flight boards in a bit."

"No! It's OK!!" Kyouko threw him a smile. "This is fine, this way Tsuruga-san can rest without me yapping away by his side." Ren looked at her. "Also, I can take a look at the magazines the assistant just brought of last year's Japan line."

"Right, right. Alright, then." Yashiro looked at his client and gave him a secret apologetic smile, "sorry about the mix up..." he muttered and left.

'Mix up indeed!' Ren Tsuruga fidgeted in his seat. He heard laughter behind him, clenched his fists and closed his eyes.

"Excuse me, sir." A cute blushing air-hostess was what he saw when he opened his eyes. "Sir?" She repeated. He gave her his trademark smile. Her widened and she was aware of it, her blush deepened. "S-sir you've been a bit uncomfortable the entire flight. Do you need a pillow. We should be landing in a few minutes."

He gave her a confused look, "have I?" He looked to his stomach, "it may have been something I ate." He finished of with a chuckle which took the stewardess by surprise. She giggled and stumbled away. Any attention from Ren Tsuruga, number one sought after male in Japan, was enough to make even women with the steadiest legs stumble.

He sighed. Of all the women that had to penetrate his heart... why did it have to be one that had sworn to never love again? A teenager, no, a woman who did not fall for the same thing all other women around him did.

Ren had no problem lying to the stewardess. Well... it wasn't entirely a lie. He was sick to his stomach, but not due to food. This time giggling from the back of the plane filled his thoughts one more time. He looked back.

Kyouko was chatting away with the man sitting in the single seat across from her. "Damn that Yashiro," Ren muttered under his breath. 'Look at her. Isn't she supposed to be studying the magazine or something?' Glaring at the man the object of his affection was chatting with, he thought, 'doesn't she know how infectous she is? Look at his smug little face... He's falling for her already!' Pulling himself from the scene behind him, he looked out the window. Clouds. Uninteresting. How many times had he traveled abroad for work? It never changed. There was a comfort in knowing there'd always be stewardesses smiling at him, meeting a new director, wearing the latest clothes for a shoot and the room service. Modeling was a nice break from acting. He had to be an empty shell to express the clothes. It was like acting without the memorizing and direct interaction. There was a comfort in the never changing experience of oversea projects. But this time...

"HAHAHA! Oh Mogami-san!" This time, there was THAT. This was the first overseas shoot he had done since she sauntered into his life, uninvited. She forced herself in really. But... that wasn't the bad part. The alien feelings that were stirring inside, the emotions he was so good at portraying in romance movies, those of jealousy, he was now experiencing first hand. He sniggered. It's funny how his life had changed. This was a great example. The simple actions he took for granted, the ones he found 'comfort' in, were now... lacking in some way. Lacking, that is, until she was a part it. After all, even from his first oversea trip, he had never been happier accepting a shoot before.

Knowing she would be a part of it excited him. Once he found out, prior to the meeting, that she would be in a separate shoot, possibly with another male model, he did not want her taking part. Granted, this was a selfish point of view. As she was his kohai, seeing her succeed should be something he wanted... but, at this point, she was more to him than just a 'kohai.' Also...

The black-haired man sat up and ruffled through his carry on and produced a fashion magazine. Sighing, he began flipping through it. He paused after landing on a certain page. It had the name of the designer he would be working with. A smile crept on his face, but was soon replaced with a grimace. 'These pictures,' he thought, 'would've been perfect for us!' He chortled, 'for me.' The pictures he was looking at where the designers past line. High fashion clothes featuring female and male models in awkward close contact poses which show-cased the features of the clothing. He threw the magazine in the empty chair and slid his hand down his face. "That could've been us."

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Well, that s all for now. More later!

Thank you very much for your encouraging words and I can t wait until I get the entire story out to you.

Thanks for reading!