I hope you enjoy the next section.

Note: I do not own skip beat.

When Kyoko came down the next morning, Catherine was sitting in her normal place waiting for the young woman. The Okami had offered her breakfast as usual, but she had refused it saying she had already eaten. Kyoko quickly finished her food and followed the waiting manager to her normal car. Kyoko stopped for a moment to contemplate the meaning of it. They had left this car at LME last night. Catherine caught the pause and answered the unasked question.

"I went to get the car early this morning." What she was not telling Kyoko was that she could not sleep last night so she went to pick it up around 2 am. She had been out all night trying to cool down from the fight she had with Yashiro. She usually had a level head, but he just made her so angry and she could not come up with a good reason why. Kyoko took her at her word and got into the car. She had school this morning, so Catherine parked nearby and walked her to the gate. Bidding the manager goodbye, she went in to the building.

Her classroom was buzzing when she arrived, but the noise stopped when she stepped in. Every face in the room turned to look in her direction as she walked to her desk. She was not sure what was going on, but it could not be good. Nanokura Mimori came over and stopped in front of her desk. She slammed a newspaper down for Kyoko to see.

"What is the meaning of this!" She demanded. Kyoko looked at the article and the pictures in the paper. It was about the function last night. There were several pictures of her and Ren walking and dancing. There was even a picture of their managers walking up the steps, Yashiro whispering to her while Catherine blushed. It was a really good picture.

"What do you mean?" Kyoko asked. She was not sure how to explain what was shown there.

"AREN'T YOU ENGAGED TO FUWA-SAN?" Mimori screamed at her. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING CHEATING ON HIM!" Kyoko's grudges flew out of their hiding places at the rumor that had caused her all the problems and the accusations from the girl.

"I AM NOT ENGAGED TO THAT WORTHLESS MAN!" Kyoko yelled right back at her. Her response staggered Mimori back a little. Kyoko calmed herself a little remembering what Catherine has said about the rumors. Don't get angry, don't cause a scene, just denied the accusations and call me. Kyoko continued in a more level headed tone. "I am not engaged to Fuwa Sho."

"Oh, so you must be after this good-for-nothing," Mimori indicated Ren in the picture. This was more than Kyoko could stand. She would take her being insulted, but she would not stand Ren being insulted. Kyoko stood up from her desk, knocking her chair over.

"He is not a good-for-nothing! He is a wonderful man and always does a good job!" She yelled. "And for your information, we were representing LME for the benefit last night!" Kyoko was surrounded by a dark miasma as her grudges bounced off of the walls around her. The argument was interrupted when the teacher came in. After stern words to the arguing girls, everyone sat down to start class. Kyoko was riled up and could not concentrate on what was being said, so she turned her attention to the yard outside the school. When her eyes landed on a familiar form, she nearly broke out laughing. It was enough to clean the anger from her mind. She sighed deeply and went back to listing to what was being said.

At lunch time, Kyoko took the paper that Mimori had left on her desk and escaped before the idol could start harassing her again. She went down to the yard outside her classroom and stood under one of the trees. She could just make out the sleeping form of her manager hidden in the branches. There had been some storm damage to this tree and the top of the canopy was open and exposed the sleeping woman to the sky. This was how Kyoko had seen her from the building. She had reminded Kyoko of a cat.

"Hey." Kyoko called up to Catherine. The sleeping woman stirred and looked down at her charge.

"Umm… class over already?" Catherine yawned as she stretched the sleep from her body.

"No, just lunch time." Kyoko answered as Catherine shifted in the tree. "I do have something you may want to see." Kyoko rustled the newspaper. Catherine looked at it before swinging her legs loose and dropping to the ground. She took the article from Kyoko and scanned it. The paper told about the cause that was supported and a few of the faces that had come out to show support. She was pleased with the pictures of the two actors, but blushed when she saw the pictures of her and Yashiro on the steps. Her cooled anger warmed as she remembered his touch on her back. The article went on to describe the happening at the ball and showed more pictures of the dancers. Her blush deepened as she flipped through and found pictures of them dancing the tango. The photographer had been fast with the camera and gotten a really good shot of one of her kicks. The skirt had flared out behind her and it showed a lot of leg.

"Wow. They did a nice job with the article." Catherine closed the paper quickly so she did not have to look at that photo again. She was saved from having to say anymore when the lunch bell started to chime.

"I have to get back to class now." Kyoko turned and left without the paper. Catherine looked down at the thing and went to go find come coffee. She had finally calmed down enough to rest, but the pictures brought everything bubbling up. She now needed to go straighten out her thoughts again.

When Yashiro showed up at Ren's apartment that morning, he had calmed down. After he had taken a long bath, he had come to see that Ren's solution was actually the best one. It ensured the girl made it home safely while enabling her to retain her pride. He was not happy, but he had come to terms with it. Ren took note of his manager's mood and decided not to talk about it unless the older man brought it up.

Their morning was fairly normal until Yashiro stopped to pick up the tabloids. He usually did this whenever Ren had done something public. He wanted to keep an eye on what was being said about his charger. He flipped through the paper and found an article about the benefit.

"Hey Ren," Yashiro held the paper out a little. "They have an article on yesterday's event." Yashiro read highlights from it to Ren as he drove to their job site. "There is a mention about you and Kyoko here. And a really nice picture!" Yashiro admired it for a moment before looking over the next pictures. His eyes landed on the picture of him helping Catherine up the steps. Ren noticed that his manager had fallen silent as she pulled to a red light. He twisted over to see the picture that had stopped him.

"That's a nice one too." He teased his manager. Yashiro slammed the paper shut. His heart was racing as he remembered the feel of the girl's skin under his hands.

"Pay attention to the road." Yashiro chided him before opening the paper up to the next page. He scanned the pictures until he came across one of Ren and Kyoko dancing the mambo. He folded the page over so that Ren could see it at the next stop light. "This one is better." He teased back. What he had failed to see was the picture at the bottom of the page of him and Catherine doing a tango kick. When Ren looked over at his picture, he blushed. Then his eyes fell on the lower picture.

"But I like that one better." Ren pointed to the picture. "She has nice legs." Yashiro's eyes dropped to the mentioned picture. He was shocked to hear his charge say such things. He then turned a dark shade of red and sputtered when he made out what the picture was of. He quickly folded up the paper and shoved it in the bag. Ren could not help but snicker at his manager. Yashiro refused to talk to him for the rest of the trip to work. Yashiro was having a hard time sorting out his feeling about the girl.