Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat! or anything that would get me in trouble if I said that I did own it.

Please review! This is my first fanfiction, and so constructive criticism is gladly accepted! (Normal criticism will also be accepted, though not so gladly.)


Chapter 2: Approaching Storm

As mentioned before, the President of LME Productions was not the most normal of people. This was put into perspective rather nicely when one looked at his office.

To be short, it was a room fit for the richest kings and queens of old. To avoid wasting the rest of the chapter describing it, I'll allow you, the readers, to imagine as you would (or simply read the manga).

The aforementioned eccentric President was trying on a new costume when he heard a knock on his door. He quickly put on the cloak of his Knights Templar outfit and promptly answered it.

"Welcome, my fellow knights of entertainment!" He exclaimed as he saw the three people on the other side of his overly-decorated entryway. "What bringith thou to my humble abode?"

'Humble abode' my ass, all three of them thought in unison.

"You did call us, didn't you? Mogomi-san and I." Ren managed to say, trying to recover from the overly-excited knight's entrance. At this, the President calmed down a bit, though he instead took on a rather bored face.

"Tch. Always the boring one, aren't you?"

Yashiro silently agreed, while Kyoko wondered what exactly the President had meant by 'boring.' Ren himself stayed silent.

"Well, whatever. Come in, I've got a job offer for you."

Once they had entered and seated themselves across from the President's large desk, he pulled out several folders.

"Kogomi-kun, Ren, what I have here is an offer from Hikari Productions asking you two to co-star one of their newest movies." Handing both of them a folder, they could see the title Harikeen no Chuuoo printed.

"...Eye of the Storm, correct?" Kyoko asked for confirmation after a quick lookover.

"Yes. It will be a survival story between a man and a woman after their plane crashes into an uncharted island. Though they initially dislike each other and do not want to interact with one another, they soon find out that they must combine their efforts for them to survive. It will blossom into a beautiful romance as they fall in love with each other while they try to get rescued," the President had a rather scary twinkle in his eye as he said this, "and they have a beautiful wedding after they get rescued."

"And this man and woman would be played by Kyoko-chan and Ren." Yashiro confirmed.

"Correct. The director of the movie, Osonagi Akio, was very enthusiastic about working with Ren."

Yashiro turned to Kyoko at this. However, it seemed that she wasn't hurt at the lack of recognition. Quite the contrary, in fact.

"Well of course! It is my sempai, the Tsuruga Ren, after all!"

The President chuckled at this. Ren, on the other hand, had a weird expression on his face. It was a mix between his usual glittery smile and disappointment. Yashiro had a similar expression (minus the glittery-ness). Both of them couldn't help but mentally shake their heads at this girl's humility. Even after almost a year of acting, Kyoko still believed herself as a bothersome kouhai with little talent of her own when compared with her sempai.

Actually, prior to the start of our story, Kyoko had participated in two successful dramas, a commercial, a PV, and was participating in a variety show as a mascot chicken weekly. Her roles as Mio in Dark Moon and Natsu in Box "R" were both highly praised.

And despite all this, she still believed that she would be helpless without her sempai Tsuruga Ren, whom she believed had acting abilities equivalent to a god's. While it was true that Ren was the most popular actor in Japan, she was quickly catching up to him with her determination and ability to "become" her character when she acted.

"What about Kyoko-chan?" Yashiro inquired.

"I recommended Mogomi-kun as the female lead myself," the President replied, "since I feel that it should be about time to allow her to make her debut."

"B-but!" Kyoko interjected, blushing lightly. "I'm nowhere good enough yet. I still feel like I have so much more to learn!"

"Mogomi-san…" Ren patted her on the shoulder lightly. She turned and looked at him with another one of those incredibly cute expressions, just begging for him to help her.

*Snap!* went a sound in Ren's head. Mental picture taken.

"You'll do fine." Ren gave her a warm smile. Kyoko, blushing just a bit more, gave a small nod in response. Insert bubbles here.

*Snap!* went a sound in Yashiro's head. Mental picture taken. Tease creation program loading…

Ren, as if he had heard the snap go off, turned over at Yashiro and gave him one of his trademark glittery smiles.

Of death.

System shutdown.

"Anyway," the President cut in, enjoying the mini-episode of romantic comedy folding out in his office, but wanting to continue, "Mogomi-kun, I specifically requested that you take this role because of your many skills outside of acting. During the movie, both you and Ren will have to do many of the things that a real person would need to due to survive. Because of this, a strong, skilled, and determined person was needed, and I believed you would be able to fit the role perfectly."

At the mention of her skills outside of acting, Kyoko gave an embarrassed laugh. It appeared that her act of transforming a daikon into a cabbage using a knife had stayed in the President's head much longer than she had expected.

After one last appraising glance of the two actors, the President stood up, his armor clinking (If you had forgotten what he was wearing, I won't blame you), signaling that the business that he had called them for had been taken care of. The other three stood up in turn.

"Good luck you two."

Kyoko, Ren, and Yashiro bowed respectfully in response.

As they turned to leave, the President put a hand on Ren's shoulder. "Yashiro-san, I have something I wish to discuss with your charge. Will you give me a minute?"

Yashiro, though puzzled, nodded and continued out. Kyoko followed soon after.


I apologize if you feel like this is boring fluff. You do need some back-story before you get to the juicy parts, I believe. It's like a hamburger.

…Shoot, I'm hungry now.

- For reference, the story takes place not long after Ren finishes his role as Actor X. Therefore, Setsuka's ready to go and I've made Kyoko finished with Box 'R' as well.

- The bubbles mentioned referred to the general atmosphere that is made in anime and manga when two characters have a touching moment. If you don't understand, then watch some anime.

- I tried making the President speak in Midieval English. I don't think it turned out well.

- I promised I'd make it longer. And it was, though only a little. I'm sorry for those who feel they were cheated. *dogeza*

The next chapter will start getting on track with the plotline. Hooray plot!