Here is the next chapter/bite. I hope you enjoy it.
Note: I don't own Skip Beat!.
Ren slipped into his darkness of his empty apartment and dropped his shoes at the door without turning on the light. He has just spent the last two hours trying to focuses on looking good for the photographer, and failing. Jereth was usually an easy man to work for, but Ren could just not get into the job today. Unlike acting, modeling took less active thought and his mind kept slipping back to the accident and the girl he almost lost today. Jereth reprimanded him for the fifteenth time before deciding to alter the mood of his photographs to better match the darker mood of his model. Once this was done, the shoot went better, but it was the words that the photographer said to him after he was done that stuck with him. Ren found his way to the cabinet containing his alcohol collection and poured himself a highball glass of scotch and downed it in one go. He refilled his glass and took the bottle to sit in the living room in the dark. He rolled the conversation around in his mind.
"Go on home and get some rest. It is obvious that you are still shaken up by the accident this afternoon." Jereth pulled his camera from around his neck and started packing it away. "I am glad to hear that your girlfriend is ok. I don't think I would be able to work right after something like that." Ren stopped and looked that the photographer.
"Mogami-san is not my girlfriend." Jereth paused in his work to look at him model in disbelief.
"Whatever you say." The man shrugged and went back to packing his kit. "But I can tell you that if her wellbeing bothers you this much when you're not together, maybe you should change that. It would be devastating if someone else asked her out instead." Jereth was too busy trying to cram the stubborn lenses into their padded holes to notice that Ren had gone very still at his words. It was only when Yashiro cleared his throat that Ren remembered how to breathe again. The two friends said their farewells to the photographer and left. Ren expected Yashiro to tease him about what the man had said, but to his surprise the bespectacled man did not even poke fun at him. He only left him with one line as Ren dropped him off.
"Maybe you should think about it, I know I will." Ren knew what Yashiro meant as he watched in stunned silence as his manager he enter his building shaking his wrist.
Ren looked back into his glass of scotch and swirled the golden liquid around studying it for a moment before downing the second glass. He thought about a third glass, but stopped with his hand on the bottle when the image of Kyoko reprimanding him for drowned his mind in drink brought a smile to his face. This was too much for his battered heart to take and he broke down and cried out all of the emotions he had bottled up from the long day.
The next morning, Ren awoke to the sound of knocking as Yashiro announced his presence before letting himself into Ren's apartment. Yashiro stopped at the opening to the living room and stared at the tall actor lying on the floor in front of the couch where he had fallen asleep last night. Having been caught, Ren just laid there staring up at his manager as Yashiro walked over and picked up the glass forgotten on the floor. He returned it and the scotch back to the cabinet before heading into the kitchen without saying a thing to the actor. Ren sighed before he rolled over and pushed himself up so he could go get ready for his day. The long night of crying had eased the weight on his heart, but it had left him with a massive headache like no alcohol could. He had finally levered himself into a sitting position when Yashiro came back out of the kitchen with a glass of water. He held his hands out for the actor to take what was concealed inside. When Ren opened his hands, Yashiro placed the water and four tablets in his palm, two round white ones and two oval pink ones. Ren looked at the odd pills and back at his friend.
"Aspirin and B12." Yashiro explained. "If you feel half as bad as you look, you're going to need them." Ren chuckled lightly and chased the pills down with water before handing the glass back to his waiting manager. Yashiro returned to the kitchen while Ren went to revive himself with a quick shower and clean clothing. Dressed for the day, he came out to find his manager drying his hands on the towel in his kitchen. The bespectacled man handed Ren a paper napkin with something warm inside and a travel cup of coffee.
"What's this?" Ren asked as he peeked into the package to find a fried egg sandwich.
"We have a long day today, and Kyoko would kill me if I let you start it without food." Yashiro explained as he gathered his things to leave. "Anyway, you probably need the protein." Ren blushed as he took a bite of the sandwich. The warm egg and gooey cheese melted across his tongue and he stopped to look at the man that had managed to make something edible out of the stuff in his kitchen. A twinge of jealousy slid across him as he realized that he was the only one from their group that could not cook. He let that thought go as he quickly finished his sandwich and followed Yashiro out to the car. To Ren's surprise, his manager did something that he never witnessed before. The man pulled off his normal glasses and slid into a pair of dark per-scripting sunglasses with deep metallic green frames. Ren stopped and stared at the unusual occurrence. He had seen these glasses when they went to the beach for photo shoots, but it was nowhere near as bright here. Waiting to be let into the car, Yashiro turned back to the frozen man.
"What?" A note of irritation could be heard in his voice as he addressed the actor. "Don't think you're the only one that has ever had an encounter with a bottle after a tough day." An epiphany struck Ren as he unlocked the car and the two friends settled into the car for the trip to work. He now knew why Yashiro had not teases or ever said anything about the stated he was in this morning. It also explained why the man had aspirin and B12 on him. He had to suppress a snicker when he tried to envision his manager drinking himself into a stupor.