Episode 12: I May Be Rude, But I'm the Truth
Title based on the song of the same name by Cobra Starship.
Now that we have Selphie out of the way, we can continue elsewhere as this chapter will finally lead in to the conclusion of Sora and Namine's childhood; the one she doesn't remember for some reason. And thank you to all the reviewers and readers out there who favorited/alerted this story!
Genre: Romance/Humor
It had been about a week ever since Namine and her co-stars took down Selphie. After the night had ended and the next day came, the entertainment world was buzzing about the She-Devil, but that wasn't the only news making headlines. Since Roxas and Kairi were keeping their end of the deal with Namine, they announced the two had broken up due to both falling out love with each other, which was slightly similar to Sora and Kairi characters on the show itself. While some fans were heartbroken, it didn't really affect the show in any way. It was probably due to Selphie's scandal when the others had tipped many news sources of her whole facade and evil plan, which they took the credit for. Now, things had finally got on track again as everyone was filming the twentieth episode, Inconvenient Truth, of the season. Many were relived that they were close to finishing the season and were craving a well deserved summer break.
Namine was sluggishly sitting in her chair with her head on her hand as she tried hard not to sleep. It was late in the night because she and Sora had to film one scene. To explain the overall scene in a nutshell, Sora's character forgot to pick up Namine's character after he promised to pick her up from an art gallery event. "Namine," Roxas called out, poking her arm. "Wake up." She brushed him off and wrapped herself with her arms. "You have work to do." To her surprise, Roxas came on set, but she was out of it because she was sleep deprived.
"Go away…" she softly let out, pushing his away. "Girls need their beauty sleep."
"Not much of a beauty when you're drooling," he spotted, seeing a water trail go down from her mouth.
"I'm not a princess, so I don't care. I don't understand why you're even here." Roxas raised his eyebrow and he thought of a small trick to wake her up from her slumber. He slowly got both of his hands around her sides, closed his fits, but with his index fingers out. Then he quickly closed in the two together to poke Namine's sides harshly, which caused her to jolt up and scream in surprise at the sudden attack.
"Roxas!" she shouted, slapping him right in the face.
"Hey! That hurts!" He tried to ease the pain by rubbing his face.
"If you wanna wake up a girl, you should just kiss her."
"Oh, so you prefer me to kiss you then?" he smirked. "Sleeping Beauty?"
"Don't get carried away now Prince Phillip." Namine fixed herself and let out a big yawn.
"Do you want me to get you some coffee?" Roxas offered.
"No. I'm not much of a coffee person. I stay up late naturally."
"I find that hard to believe when you're making that chair your own personally bed at this hour."
"Hey! We barely get any sleep. Back at home, I had the usual eight hour requirements."
"I wonder what your life was really like before all of this."
"Wouldn't you like to know? But that's for another time. I'm still the same person when I got this job. You just get to see me as a hard-working gal," she happily answered.
"Here's that hot chocolate you wanted," Sora announced, holding his hand out to Namine and she accepted it, taking a sip from it.
Roxas looked at her and she knew what it was for. "What? He asked me first and I can't say no to that face," she explained as Sora showed a puppy dog face. "Besides, you asked if I wanted coffee, and I was honest with my answer."
"Sweet," Roxas bluntly put it.
"Shouldn't you be with Kairi?" Namine asked. "Or better yet, at home getting some rest?"
"Nah, we are done for the day. Besides, most of our scenes are getting rather boring to me because it's all the same. It's us trying to be a couple while I tell stories of being with your character on that project. I guess you can say we take a bit of backseat in the second half of the season."
"Hey, I read that Namine and Kairi get to film their first ever scene," Sora pointed out. "I definitely want to be on set to see that."
"Excited?" Roxas asked and gave Namine a smile. The boys looked at her as they waited for a response.
"It's not a pleasant one. We have a fight, but it's something I'm kind of looking forward to because it will finally address those issues bubbling between you three. Fans deserve what they tune in to watch and they've been waiting for this! I can't wait to see it come to life!"
"Whoa. 'Kind of' just became more of a 'can't wait' moment," Roxas said. After that sentence, a man came upon the three to announce that Sora and Namine needed to get ready to film their scene. "Well, it looks like I should go soon. It is past midnight and I can't believe I drove all the way here at your house. I could be sleeping right now."
"Don't blame me when my so called friend forgets to pick me up after promising he would," Namine replied, referring to Sora, except it was in the show.
"You're the one who just wanted to visit because you were getting bored at home," Sora added.
"Hey, I was bored when it's only been a day since we started filming this episode. I didn't know you guys had such a small scene to film." Roxas replied to Sora's words and then looked at Namine. "And don't mix up your personal life with work too much," Roxas advised. "It can cause some trouble."
"Go back to your cell my slave," Namine fired back, laughing a bit after saying it.
"Ouch. You hurt my heart with those words Namine," Roxas faked out his pain by clenching his heart. "I don't feel welcome here anymore."
"You'll get past it," she replied, not feeling any remorse, but he knew she was joking around. "Now go, so we can hurry up with our scene and get some sleep. I miss my bed already."
"You like that bed more than me," he playfully pouted.
"Yes I do. My mattress is magical. Now go!"
"Haha ok. Fine. I'll do as you wish m'lady." Roxas waved his arm and bow down before finally heading off.
"Seems like you have him on a leash," Sora told Namine as the two start walking to the front porch where their scene was going to take place. "Olette told me you're doing this because he always has people helping him out."
"Well yeah."
"But it's not like you see it all the time. He just says he has helpers at home. Plus, the only time you been to his house is when you guys have to work together. Other than that, you barely go to his house when you think about it."
"Are you implying I sleep over his house one day?"
"Why not? Didn't he get to sleep here too before you threw him a bunch of your bathroom supplies?" Sora laughed, remembering how she panicked, thinking Roxas was some burglar in the house. "Just make sure you guys keep everything PG-13, or better yet, PG is better for those younger viewers out there."
"Shut up Sora."
"I'm sorry. There are rumors circulating around you two after the breakup," Sora blurted out. "Some even speculate that you're the reason why the two broke up."
"Let the media think what they want to think. We are not together, and if they think they can paint whatever picture based on lies, then they're just looking for another couple to sell magazines. There were rumors before about you and Kairi being together too."
"That was when we first started and we quickly shot those rumors down."
"Let me just bring it up again," Namine laughed off, taking out her phone, "To stir the pot even more." But Sora had her put it away.
"Slow down blondie. We have work to do."
"You know, my birthday is coming up next month," Namine pointed out. "I wonder what we can do on such a special day of mines." Namine gasped as she immediately thought of an idea. "I got it! We can all have a party at my house! We must bring everyone and have cake! Hmm… I should try to invite my other friends too. I can fly them out here with the money I make now for every episode. School should be done by the time it happens. It's such a shame I can't make it to Riku's graduation due to work."
"Calm down Namine," Sora laughed. "We still have many weeks to go through before anything else."
"But the only who can plan this is me!"
"Okay, I'll take care of it, that way it can be a surprise."
"I'll assign Roxas with you then since he is my slave."
"You love to throw that word around with him don't ya?"
"Yep! I never had anybody follow my every word. It's kind of… fun. I could never do this with my other friends."
"Heh, you should see Kairi…" Sora whispered, recalling last week.
The Night of the Carnival
Sora and Kairi were off together walking around the carnival. Kairi had cotton candy in her left hand while Sora was by her side with his hands in his jacket. She took a piece from her sweet treat and popped it into her mouth. She felt happy now that she didn't have to worry about Selphie for a long time. While she did expect the She-Devil to plot a revenge in the future, she can relax now until that day comes. Now, there was one thing on her mind and she was not ready to face the news tomorrow. "You think it is too late for me to make a different deal with Namine?" she asked her best friend.
"The news has gotten out already and it will be all over the news by tomorrow," Sora replied. "It is too late to do anything."
"We can easily do a retraction!"
"Please stop. I believe this so-called break up will help your relationship with Roxas. You try too hard to be his boyfriend rather than actually being a friend to him."
"That's not true."
"I feel like your personality has changed since Namine came. But not as much as two years ago."
"Hey! You're not backing out on the plan are you?"
"There is not much of a plan when we haven't done much and when we did, it didn't do anything."
"I'll spill your secret to Namine!" she threatened.
"No you won't. I know you too much to know you won't do it. Plus, she wouldn't believe you since she doesn't remember," Sora smirked.
"Okay. You're right about that last part, but the whole point of this was for us to get closer to those two."
"I'm doing fine with Namine. It's you and Roxas I question. Just think of this as for you two to become better friends. You only put up the charade for a couple years anyways, but you've known each other longer than that."
"Fine. I will try. Can you get me another cotton candy?" she asked nicely.
"That's your fourth one tonight!"
"But it's so sweet! I need more sugar! Now be a sweet guy and please get me another one?"
Sora sighed. "Alright then. I'll be back since it's right there," he continued, pointing to the machine with the man giving out the blue and pink fluffily clouds to children. After he leaves, Kairi's mood immediately changed as if she was on the hunt for something.
"You watch Sora. I will get those two and you're going to help me."
~ Our Life is Not a TV Show or Maybe ~
The weekend had started and Sora got a text from Kairi, saying to come to her house; no questions asked. He didn't know if he should be worried or scared. He opened the door since he was always welcomed in the house as he was close to her parents as did his, and headed on up. He found her room and knocked on it, but it seemed to be open already when it moved to reveal the inside of the room. "Kairi, I got your text, so what is it…" He stopped when he saw his best friend turn around in a comfy, leather black chair with what appeared to be a cat on her lap, which she was continuously petting. "Is that real?" he asked, referring to what seemed to be a stuffed animal.
"Sora, I've been waiting for you," she calmly said.
"Yeah, I know. You can cut the Godfather act and tell me straight up without having to perform some get up." Sora wanted to discuss further on why she brought him over, but he was too distracted on the scene in front of him. "And when did you get that chair?"
"Silence. My spending is my business and your words sort of hurt me, but I will not let them bother me," she sophistically said. "I think I came up with the best plan to separate those two idiots." Kairi pressed a button on a small remote she held in her hand and a light revealed a white board. It had Roxas and Namine's pictures with numerous lines of sentences. It rather shocked Sora.
"I don't remember this being here."
"It'll be flawless and you're going to help me. We're partners in crime after all. Now—."
"Kairi, you really need to stop this," he interrupted. "Think about this ridiculous quest of yours on tearing the two apart. It is not going to work. I thought you two would be closer after plotting against Selphie."
"Yeah and now I can have Roxas fall in love with me for real. Sure it was all for show, but I have good intentions."
"Those intentions will end up getting you hurt," he advised.
"You can't stop me. This is my decision and I need help. You're my best friend, so you should be supporting me on this."
"I swear, if I can't make you see reality, then I don't know who will."
"Alright, so I made this list of scenarios to—."
"Hold up. You conjured up what now?" he interrupted again, looking at the board again to see she was serious. "Are these made up scenes to your plan? Whatever happen to being simple and socializing?"
"But we're on a roll! After that incredible night, I'm in the mood to keep on going with this whole plotting thing. I mean, we've doing this for a while now and for some reason stopped at some point. We will be doing these during the whole time " Sora himself couldn't indulge of what was going on. It was starting to become kind of sad to see Kairi in this state for him as she seems to have lost it. "Thanks for being on board," she later thanked.
"Not on board," he replied, locking at her strangely, but she ignored him.
"It means a lot. Now, the first one is called the Damsel in Distress!"
The Damsel in Distress
April 16, 2010
Kairi was in a panic inside her own house as Roxas came busting through her front door. "Alright! What's the problem?!" he shouted with a tall large steel ruler.
"Uh… what is that?" Kairi wondered, glaring at his weapon of choice.
"Oh this?" he answered, looking at the object in his hands. "It was the closest thing I could grab in such a hurry."
"What were you doing? Measuring your dick? You don't even live that far from me!" she replied. "Couldn't you pick some big blunt object? What if the guy had a more dangerous weapon than you?! We would be dead by now."
"Excuse me if I don't have a rocket launcher laying in my house! You're lucky I even responded to your call. Why didn't you call the cops? That'd be running if they heard a celebrity was in danger."
"And what a sad world we live in if that's the case," she quipped. "But seriously. A ruler? A ruler now?!"
"Hey, you just said you were in trouble. I didn't know what bad it was. Last time you called me over was because of some mouse. And it was such a cute one too."
"It was deadly," she exaggerated. "It almost touched me!"
Sora sighed on the floor as he listened to the two bickering with each other. "I knew this wouldn't work," he said to himself. He was actually supposed to act unconscious to make it seem like someone knocked him out, but at this rate, he knew Kairi had forgotten about him and Roxas never noticed him either. In the end, hesimply got up, dust himself off, and left the house through the back door while the two continued to argue.
Interruption
April 15, 2010
"I can already sense the dread of failure all over this," Sora reviewed. "You hate being a damsel in distress Kairi. Why would you start this off first?"
"Huh? How dare you accuse me of such a thing?! I can be a damsel if I want to be!"
"That sounds strange coming from you," Sora replied, raising his brow.
"Don't worry. I got more that I thought of! I call this the Shark Attack!"
"The what attack?"
The Shark Attack
April 17, 2010
Kairi thought the cast should take a small break by going to a nearby beach, which they happily agreed to go. It was a nice warm day and with spring anymore, the trade winds came in naturally to ease the heat coming from the sun. Once everyone settled in, she jumped in the water and started to swim a bit farther away from the shore. It was all part of her plan. "Shark! Help me! Roxas!" she shouted, trying to point to the shark fin. In actuality, it was Sora sadly swimming underwater with the fin strapped on to his back. "Shark!"
"I'll save you!" Hayner shouted, swimming toward her.
"No! I don't want you to save me!" she denied, splashing the water toward him and swam off while Sora revealed himself to be a fake.
"I can't believe I agreed to this," he groggily said and swam back to shore.
Interruption
April 15, 2010
"Oh my god, you're giving me a headache already. This isn't Jaws Kairi."
"Hey! You're my best friend! You're supposed to be supporting me! Now I got one I'm really good at because you know how much I love it!"
The Center of Attention
April 18, 2010
The whole cast was filming at the high school today. Kairi surrounded herself with a bunch of guys, mainly students, that kept on blubbering anything that came to their mind. She had bribed the boys to throw themselves at her because she hoped Roxas would come in and save her from a bunch of strangers. She was enjoying the attention regardless of paying them. Once she saw Roxas and Namine coming her way, she pretended to listen and forced out numerous laughs out loud. However, the two simply passed by without giving a single glance. "Damn it!" she shouted.
The Ask for Sora's Help
April 19, 2010
"Alright, this is getting sad to watch now," Sora exclaimed. He was getting tired of his best friend's antics and regretted for getting involved even though he was forced to participate. It was too much, but he figured Kairi may get a sense of reality once she realized her plans never worked. Namine didn't seem to be stupid enough to fall for such tricks, especially when she already had a good relationship with Roxas. However, he wanted to help her since she finally came to him. "You have been trying these idiotic scenarios for the past few days and I can't stand here and watch you make a fool out of yourself anymore."
"Do you have any bright ideas mister? Cuz I don't see you coming up with any of them."
"Alright, I am going to give you advice because it is simple. I do this with Namine."
"Because you want to be closer to her. That was the point of all this plan from the start anyway."
Sora rolled his eyes. "You two film a lot of scenes together, so why not just use that opportunity to get close to him? It's like me and Namine. All I do is ask her if she wants to do anything after work and wait for a response. Normally she'll say yes."
"That's ridiculous. There's no way I can just go up to him and ask."
The Natural Way
April 20, 2010
"Hey, you wanna go grab a bite to eat?" she asked Roxas nicely.
"Sure," he happily replied. "We can go out for lunch once we're done."
"R-really? That's all it took?" Kairi couldn't believe Sora's advice did work despite telling him that she was never going to do it.
"What are you talking about?" he asked as he felt he was missing something.
"N-nothing!" she quickly responded. "It's just we barely hang out."
"But we work together everyday. Doesn't that count for something?" he replied.
"I know, but as… friends…" She awkwardly punched him in the shoulder and nervously laughed it off, causing a strange atmosphere. "You're always off with Namine."
"Here we go again."
"I'm sorry. Can you blame me when you always go off to her on your free time?"
"It's her punishment for me because we crashed her prom."
"What a lame excuse to spend time with you. We all crashed that prom, so in hindsight, we should all be her slaves as punishment."
"Huh, you bring up a good point."
"Then again it was your idea to fly out there, so it really is on you," Kairi pointed out, remembering how she loathed the boy for chasing the blonde across the ocean. "I gotta give her props in making you do whatever she wants you to do. Anyways, I'm hungry! I wonder what food they will be serving today."
"I hear they have chicken katsu today," Roxas answered.
"With curry?! I haven't had that in forever! We must run for it!" she shouted, grabbing his arm and making a run for it to the food stands. Once they arrived, they saw what Roxas mentioned earlier and Kairi was thrilled. She happily grabbed her food with Roxas and the two sat across from each other on a table. "So, what's it like being at that girl's house?"
"Pretty normal actually, if you take out Namine's weird devious boss demeanor toward me, but normal," he causally replied.
"And the rumors? We can totally shut them down. I think it would be good for the both of you," Kairi explained, trying to be subtle in damaging the two's relationship. "She doesn't have to know because I'm sure she's thinking the same thing."
"You two are not close yet."
Kairi groaned. "Ugh. Why do you keep insisting we should be closer? It was one thing and we took care of it. I don't have to be friends with everyone you know."
"True, but you are working with her."
"I don't even have scenes with that girl… well, except for one in this episode. I guess that counts now."
"Since it is a fight scene with you girls yelling at each other, please promise me you won't let anything bad happen and turn it into something ugly?"
"Why would I turn it ugly?" she wondered.
"I known you for about half a decade Kairi. Need I remind you those fight scenes you had with Selphie always ended being real? I'm surprised they used the footage sometimes for the actual scene."
"We were acting," she casually replied.
"No. You girls were catfighting," Roxas corrected.
"I am a professional actress. I must not let my personal feelings conflict with my work."
"Promise me you won't get in a fight then."
"I promise."
"I'm serious."
"Promise," she repeated, keeping a straight face. "I'll be back. I am going to get more food." With that, she left the table. "I guess I have no choice. I have to use that picture to create a bigger gap between the two," she told herself, plotting another plan, but on her own without Sora.
~ Our Life is Not a TV Show or Maybe ~
Namine was in her house as she happy that she was done filming most of her scenes by the time Wednesday came. The one thing she liked about the current episode was that she didn't have much of them compared to previous episodes. It was meant to focus on Sora finding out that someone was trying to kill Pence and Hayner finding about Olette's pregnancy. In the midst of that, Kairi started getting sick of Roxas' stories with her character that she confronts the girl she kept hearing about from him. However, the two girls still had yet to film such a scene. It was the only one left that she had to film. While she awaited for that fateful day, she was reviewing two scripts on her bed of the last two episodes. That was until her cellphone started to ring and saw it was none other than Roxas calling her. She was about to answer it until she got a fun idea to mess with him. She let her phone ring until it went nearly to voicemail. Before it did, she picked up the call. "Hi, you've reached Namine. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now, so please leave a message after the beep. Beep," she said, trying hard not to giggle as she waited for a response.
"Namine, call me when you get this," Roxas replied. She couldn't believe that he was actually falling for this little trick. She silently snickered as he continued. "We need to talk about our plans on skinning the children we hunt —."
"What?!" she screamed.
"I knew you faked that voicemail. I'm not that stupid."
"I need better ideas for a prank. I will get you one day Roxas!"
"Are you challenging me to a prank war?"
"Yes I am."
"One day then. I'll see to it."
"Why are you calling me anyway? I'm done for today after going through a fitting and currently being a consultant to the writers. I'm looking over the scripts right now as we speak."
"Oh yeah, how is your new little job going?"
"Given the fact I had to overlook these damn things, I'm tired as always. But it's going the way I think it should be going to our hopeful viewers. I mean, how many times do you see actors actually get to be part of the writing process like this? I never imagined I would be doing it," she replied while jointing down some comments in the draft.
"I always knew would," he said to ease her mind.
"Roxas, I'm a girl from Twilight Town who audition impulsively because of her friends. Writing was not part of the job description."
"And acting wasn't supposed to be a thing for you, but here you are. You're not really writing anyway. Just looking over things."
"Still. I'm marking things and adding comments as if I was correcting some English paper."
"Fine. What do you say I take you out for some lunch?"
"It's past lunchtime."
"Them um… some linner?" he awkwardly put it, realizing how ridiculous the word he just made up.
"Linner?" she giggled.
"Lunch and dinner together?"
"Like brunch?"
"Sure… yeah…" he trailed off, making the situation even more awkward for him.
"As much as I would love some linner with you, I can't," she kindly denied. "I'm too busy with these damn scripts. I have to hurry up with episode twenty-one by Friday. We have to get it to you guys by that day and I don't want to be delaying production when we're on such a tight, fast schedule."
"Then you must promise me to take you out for some linner someday," he mentioned. "I will not take 'no' for an answer."
Namine laughed at his persistence. "Alrighty then, but let me make this clear. It is not date."
"It is not a date then."
"Good. Now I must go."
"Before you go, can you spoil me something about our special one hundredth episode?"
"Bye Roxas," Namine replied, not wanting to answer his question.
"Fine…" he pouted. "Bye Nami."
"I told you to stop giving me nicknames."
"See ya!" he ignored and hanged up.
"A boy and girl going out to eat sounds like a date to me," Namine's mom noted, which made Namine gasp and jump because she didn't know her mom was standing close to the entrance of her room. "It seems like he likes you Namine."
"I told you mom. It's not like that. We are just co-workers and friends. Why does everyone want to paint us as a couple. I'm only a teenager! I don't even know what love is!"
"You'll know what love feels like when you just feel it," she replied. "But I want you to know it is a very complicated thing. I don't even get it sometimes. Now, I'm gonna ask you again. Do you like Roxas or does the thought of being with him scare you because of what others will think of you?"
"Okay, yes. It does scare me because he's grown up to be this heartthrob actor that every girl falls for and they're frickin' delusional. So delusional that they could send death threats to the person he's dating. Trust me. I've been to the official show forums and some will just make wonder what is wrong with the world. That and pure entertainment of all the fighting online."
"Kairi and him were dating and she seemed to do just fine."
"That's because she's Kairi. That girl has an equal amount of fanboys and fangirls altogether while staying on the same social level with him. Of course she wouldn't get any flake for dating him. Me on the other hand, I could."
"But the public loves you."
"Yeah, for now. How long will it take for some overlooked picture or words be taken out of context to get me into trouble? The entertainment industry can be brutal both inside and out."
"Dear, now you're overthinking. You're too busy of thinking of 'what will be' rather than the 'now' and that can cause many problems for you. Do what feels right to you. You get criticized anyway regardless what you do. Plus, this whole slave thing is your unintentional excuse to be close to him."
"He crashed my prom."
"So did the others."
"Yeah, but it was his idea."
"Fine. I won't hold it against you when I couldn't cover for you for that time."
"You did your best."
"The guy is very persistent. Kind of like your father. I played hard to get after because I knew he was coming from his crazy ex-girlfriend brake up. I didn't want to be some rebound girl."
"Alright, I don't need anymore old people stories. I need to get back to work."
"Later sweetie."
"Bye mom," Namine flashed a smile at her as she left the room. It was always comforting whenever her mom gave her advice when she never does ask for it. It's like she always knew when the time was to right to discuss such things and offer words of wisdom from her experience and pass it on to her children. It was one of the reasons why Namine loved her mom.
Elsewhere, Sora was with Pence as the two recently filmed a chase scene. One that they had to film many times to get it right because of Sora or Pence kept on tripping or forgetting their lines. They even laughed a few times because they both thought it was funny that they weren't really running from an assassin, but the camera itself. From a bystander's point of view, it looked ridicules. The two were happily sitting in their chairs, jugging down bottles of water down their throats. "Oh my god," Sora wheezed out. "I think we ran a marathon."
"I don't think I can handle on running anymore," Pence let out.
"Man, you guys need to go to the gym more," Roxas advised, walking in on the two with Hayner by his side as the two blondes held fruit smoothies in their hands. "You can come with me and Hayner whenever we have time. That's why we have such nice bods," he smirked, flexing his biceps. "You have a decent one Sora."
"Nah. I'm good," Sora replied, still tired. "I'm fine with my slim figure that never seems to fade away no matter what I do or eat."
"And me…" Pence paused, referring to his body "I'm not fit to be at a gym."
"You guys are such wimps," Hayner spat. "Build some muscle!"
"Our legs went through a work out for filming. That counts for something," Sora answered. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I thought I could hang with Namine, but she's busy. I already filmed all my scenes."
"Dude, you hang out with her a lot. It hasn't been that long since you last saw her," Hayner pointed out.
"I know, but I like being with her. She's a joy to have around."
"But there's also Olette and Kairi."
"Yeah, but Sora is closer with Kairi and you have Olette."
"The feeling is mutual," Hayner replied, referring to his relationship with Olette. "Just because we act as a couple on TV doesn't meant we have to in real life."
"Wow, maybe for once two co-stars will actually date," Pence thought of. "Of course, if you two were to break up, it can cause some awkwardness. Might even split us apart if we take sides. I'm sure most of us would side with Namine."
"Hey! You've known me longer!" Roxas exclaimed.
"You're right. I don't see Namine as the person to be the main problem in a relationship," Hayner added. "She's so sweet. It'll most likely be Roxas' fault."
"Hey!"
"Not to mention that Roxas hasn't really been out with someone," Sora mentioned. "He would take a scene from television or the movies… kind of like Kairi," he whispered to himself those last words to himself.
"I'm right here guys," Roxas announced, knowing the three guys were ignoring him on purpose.
"Oh! Did you get details on our one hundredth episode?!" Pence asked. "I heard we're throwing a big party with literally everyone who has been with the show since the beginning. And some of them will actually appear in the finale!"
"Huh, my brother never mentioned coming down here for a visit," Sora said.
"Nor did Axel," Roxas added. "Maybe they're keeping it a surprise. We don't start production till early May. Oh wait, that's less than a month away now. Man, Namine is going to go crazy in seeing the rest of everyone who has been a part of this. Selphie drove her mad crazy. I doubt that girl will be joining in on our milestone episode."
"You know, something has been bothering me ever since that night," Pence wondered.
"Beside her personality, I don't see what's there to keep lingering about me," Roxas told him.
"No. It's not that," Pence continued. "What she said to Kairi before she left. I felt like there was more to it. Do you know anything Roxas?"
He shook his head. "No. I don't know anything. All I remember was that we were called in about setting up this whole relationship to lure in viewers."
"Sora?" Pence asked since he was closer and he shook his head too.
"I don't know either," he lied. Only a select set of people knew the answer. "But I know she hasn't really been herself since Namine joined. But…" Sora trailed off and didn't think he should continue talking about this.
"But what?" Roxas asked, wanting him to continue.
Sora sighed as he tried to pretend not to know anything, but gave subtle details. "I always thought the change in her personality started when Roxas and Kairi started their relationship. She's never thrown herself at Roxas till two years ago. Then again, I always thought she was dedicated in playing the role of the girlfriend for the world to see."
"I thought too, which is why I never took her serious most of the time once the cameras were off," Roxas replied.
"Alright, before we try to solve whatever backstory this may be, I am going to go now because I need to go back to work with Olette," Hayner said.
"Yeah, Sora and I are done for the day," Pence replied. "Can't wait for tomorrow though."
"What's tomorrow?" Hayner asked.
"Kairi and Namine get to film their first ever scene together," Roxas answered. "And it's a fight scene. Not a physical one, but a verbal one. I made Kairi promise me she wouldn't let anything bad happen."
"That doesn't sound too good… but I'll make sure to be on set for that. Heck, I'm sure we all will be there," Hayner said.
"I just hope it doesn't go off track…" Sora told himself.
~ Our Life is Not a TV Show or Maybe ~
The girls were in their trailer where Namine and Kairi were getting prepped in hair and makeup for their scene. Kairi was happily staring at herself in the mirror while Namine was looking at the script for one last look before she had to leave to film the real scene. She actually felt nervous because she never did like confrontation. Whenever she did try, it became awkward, so doing this scene was nerve wrecking. However, she did want to pour the emotion she felt toward Kairi ever since she got to the islands. She always seemed to have a some sort of resentment toward her while everyone else were welcoming. But then Roxas' word from the other day echoed through her ears.
"You girls ready?" a production woman asked as she opened the door.
"Yes we are," Kairi answered, getting up from her seat. "Now let's go. We must not waste time," she continued, walking out the door already.
Namine didn't pay attention as she kept reading her script. Olette came to her side to remind her that she had to go too. "I'm not sure I can do this."
"You will do fine alright," Olette replied. "This is just one scene."
"Yeah, but this requires a lot of anger. I don't have much in me." Olette giggled at her last sentence.
"Trust me. You do. Let's not forget about the whole Selphie thing. You pretty much wanted to slaughter her. Think of those emotions and apply it to this scene. Pretend Kairi is Selphie. Okay, Kairi would kill me for saying that, but you're my friend too. I need to help you too since you have so much more to learn."
"I know. I want to take some acting classes after we finish this whole season. Roxas promised he would take me and attend."
"Aww… you guys should just date already," she teased.
"I'm going now," she ignored, leaving the trailer and Olette followed, where they go to the filming location. The scene was going to occur in a small open green field that had a tree in the middle. Namine knew the place in the high school since that was where Roxas caught her from falling on the ground.
"Need some water?" Roxas offered as he immediately walked by her side.
"Yes!" Namine quickly answered, snatching the water bottle from his hand and started chugging it down as the three continued to walk. "How am I supposed to do this? I can barely do some dramatic scene. What makes you guys think I can do one that seems to require a lot of anger."
"I believe in you," Roxas assured her. "You have anger inside that skinny body of yours. I saw it before."
"See Namine. Even Roxas knows it," Olette agreed.
"Your guys' words are slightly comforting me, but the feeling of my anxiety is not going away. I rather eat my feelings away."
"Then we should totally do that after you finish this scene," Olette offered. "I will happily go to get us food after I watch your scene."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Thanks. Now what about you slave?" Namine asked Roxas.
"Uhh… get that linner you promised me to go with?" he said.
"Um okay. Fine. We'll do your linner after we are done. It's already the afternoon, so why not?"
"Alright, now you must go on to film your scene," Roxas replied as the three stopped at the filming location. "Now go do your best!" he shouted, shoving her toward Kairi as the two joined the others. "She's nervous," he said to his other friends.
"I'm sure she is," Pence said. "I think it is more nerve wrecking that we are all here to watch it."
"The rest of us finished our scenes, so we get the pleasure to see this," Hayner added.
Sora felt uneasy about the whole thing. "I have a bad feeling about this," he whispered to himself, but Olette heard him.
"What did you say?"
"I said I am happy to see our Kairi and Namine work together," he quickly lied, trying to mask it.
Namine had arrived onto the scene to see Kairi already ready to film while the rest of the crew were talking with each other and a camera fixed in one position to capture the upcoming scene. A part of her wished her nerves would calm down since she's been slowly getting used to her new profession. Maybe it's because this was her first scene with Kairi and she didn't know what would come out of it. "Ugh, what took you so long," Kairi complained as she was fixing her hair. "You're wasting everyone's precious time. We have a tight deadline you know."
"I am aware of the deadlines Kairi. Now, would you stop belittling and let's do this."
"Whatever you say. You read the script, so you know I come in the scene while you blissfully sit under the stupid tree and I call you out. Then we have our intense conversation from there."
"Great…" Namine rolled her eyes as she was getting into position while Kairi walked off a bit from the camera's field of vision. Namine tried to comfortable settle herself in place as she sat down and brought out a book from the bag she was carrying and opened it. She looked at her surroundings and saw a many of the production crew surrounding the area and the camera close to her, including the director behind it. Not only that, all of her co-workers were looking at her. The thought that they were all there didn't help her. This was the first time they ever gathered together to watch her work. She was used to when only a few of them came to watch.
"You ready Namine?" the director asked. She wished she could say no, but she knew couldn't.
"Yes…" she took a small breath to slightly relieve herself some stress. She had to pretend that this was for real and that it was just her and Kairi. She had to mentally picture everyone else wasn't there to begin with. "I am ready."
"Okay then. Kairi?" he asked again and she nodded. "Alright guys. Let's do this! Everyone be quiet and… action!"
Namine was looking at her book in the grass as some trade winds blew past her. It actually felt peaceful, but that was because it was rather quiet despite the amount of people in the area. A couple seconds later, that peace was interrupted as Kairi walked in the scene.
"Are you Namine?" she fiercely asked in anger as Namine stared at her, trying to figure out who she was.
"Um yes and you are?" she asked skeptically.
"Kairi! You know, the girl whose boyfriend you had a fight with the other night."
"So I finally get to meet the one and only Kairi," Namine said, closing her book. "I guess it was bound to happen. It's amazing—."
"Just shut up!" Her reaction certainly surprised the blond as talking like civilized people was going to be throw out the window. "Who do you think you are? Judging him and me. You don't get to judge us when you barely even know us!"
"You shouldn't make such accusations when you barely know me too."
"I already don't like you, you pale scrawny girl," Kairi insulted.
"And you're nothing, but a backstabbing bitch," Namine lashed out, getting up from her spot. "It's pathetic you don't know how damaging you are to the two boys who care about you. And then you took advantage of one and cheated on him with his best friend!"
"Hey! What happened between me, Roxas, and Sora has nothing to do with you! You don't know anything about it!"
Namine scoffed and crossed her arms. "Actually I do. Sora practically told me the story."
"Oh what, now you're suddenly friends with Sora? How special," Kairi mocked.
"I'm sure it was to spare your feelings. Kind of like what you guys did to Sora, but a lot worse." Namine glared at the girl as if she wanted melt her down with laser eyes like Superman. "I can't believe you two went behind his back when he needed you guys the most. You're the most selfish people I've ever met and it's worse when it seems you've dragged Roxas down with you. He actually seems like a decent guy you know."
"You're right about one thing. Roxas is a great guy and I know it kills him for what he's done."
"And Sora? Don't you resent yourself for what you did to him? How could you treat him like that, given the state he's in?"
"I was there for him!" Kairi cried out. "You didn't know what it was like Namine! I felt like I was drowning because no matter what I did, he never responded. The Sora I knew was long gone and I wasn't sure if he was coming back. I had known him since we were young. He was always this loving, optimistic person. A goofball who always waited for me at the door to go to school. I didn't know what to do anymore!"
"Don't try and justify your actions with that poor excuse. How can someone like you deny a guy like him? He made you believe in love again when you almost lost hope of it after your parents split."
"He shouldn't be spilling such personal stories to someone like you."
"Maybe, but… it's such a sad story to see what this toxic love triangle has brought. You never seem think what your actions would do to others unless it benefits your needs."
"That's not true…" Kairi barely let out as more tears were starting to come down. Namine didn't care as she kept on hitting her with the harsh truth. "I… I love them both."
"Ugh, god. Do you even hear yourself? You can't have both! You made your decision, so live with it and deal with it! Accept your reality. The worse Sora can do now is go back to you and I won't let that happen!"
"He can take care of himself."
"But he needs people who can be there for him as much as he is there for them and you're not one of them." As it was written in the script, Kairi was meant to say nothing, but to breakdown with Namine having the last word before the scene ended. "We're done here," she said and started to walk off. However, after that, things started to go amiss once Kairi said something.
"I love him…" Everyone on set was puzzled, including Namine, because the scene was supposed to end there. She thought it was Kairi doing some improv, including the director as he had the cameras still rolling. He looked at her co-stars and they had no clue. She slowly turned around to face Kairi and tried to play it out.
"A-and who would that be? Sora or Roxas?"
"Roxas. I love him more than you because you're nothing. You just got lucky." It was now clear that this wasn't a scene anymore. It was getting personal as Namine easily connected the dots.
"I'm sorry. What did you just say?"
"You heard me. You will never have Roxas because in the end, he will come to me. We have known each other longer than you guys will ever have and we are on the same social level. Nobody will accept you." She was definitely calling Namine out and it was irritating her because she couldn't believe Kairi would stoke this low.
"Just because you have more years than me doesn't mean anything. You haven't been a real friend to him or a real girlfriend either. Your whole relationship was nothing, but a sham."
"I don't even see what he sees in you. You're nothing special. Just a delusional fan."
"Kairi!" Sora shouted. "What are you doing?!" But the conversation kept going on.
"You're calling me delusional? You're calling me delusional?! Take a look at yourself. You're nothing, but delusional! Throwing yourself at him and forcing yourself to be all intimate. It's degrading for you. I don't even know why we're talking about this when that whole farce is over. You take your job too serious that you seem to lose yourself. You wanna know what I really think about your feelings for Roxas are?"
"Oh no," Roxas said. "I feel like I know what Namine is going to say."
"What?" Olette asked hastily.
"Your feelings are not real! They're an infatuation based on your characters that you made yourself to believe to be true in real life!" From that point, the entire room grew silent and Kairi didn't respond. "You will never ever love someone if you can't even learn the meaning of it!" With that, Kairi stormed off the set and Namine just realized what she had said. Since Kairi transformed their scene into a real personal issue, she had been in character while it was happening. "Kairi! Wait!"
"I wouldn't go after her if I were you," Roxas advised, blocking her way while Sora passed by him. "Let Sora handle it."
"B-but! I need to talk to her. I need to fix this! That wasn't me! It was, it was… my character!"
"I know, but those were your own words. Now please, I am telling you not to go after her."
"Roxas! Get out of my way!" Namine shouted, trying to push him out of the way.
"You can try and push me all you went, but you know I'm stronger than you." With that, Namine groaned because he was right.
Sora went to the trailer to find Kairi gathering her things. "What the hell was that Kairi?! You have gone too far with this now! You girls were doing fine until you pulled that shit! I can't believe you! This pointless fighting needs to end now!"
"You don't know what you're talking."
"I very well know what I am talking about because what Namine said is true."
"Oh, so you're siding with her now?"
"No. I'm siding with the truth."
"You know what, I need to get out of here. We got the scene we needed to film, so I'm going to go."
"Kairi…" She was about to storm off again, but Sora grabbed her wrist. "You can't just keep on masking your feelings after what happened two years ago." Kairi only stared at the ground in despair while Sora continued to look at her back. "Kairi… please to talk to me."
"I don't want to talk about it…" She paused to wipe away her tears. "Now leave me alone! I need time for myself." She got out of Sora's grasp and ran off with her things. Sora grew frustrated and screamed for a bit as he took a seat. He couldn't believe how far she has taken this drama. It seems to have been eating her up inside and what Namine shouted out pushed her further to the edge.
"But maybe… this is the push she needs…" Sora sadly told himself.
~ Our Life is Not a TV Show or Maybe ~
Namine sat alone in the trailer with her head down in frustration. She was hoping to see Kairi to work it out, but it appeared she had gathered her things and left. Sora too because she never saw him after he went to get her. While they managed to get the footage they needed in one take surprisingly, the fight had got too personal and conflicting that it was filmed as well. It bothered her for what she said to Kairi. Soon, there was a knock on the door. "Hey…" Roxas softly greeted, opening it. "You doing okay?"
"No. I still feel terrible for what I said," she responded, not looking back.
"But what you said is true," Roxas told her and she looked at him.
"You knew?"
"Speculation, but I brushed it off thinking it was some phase of hers," he replied, taking a seat on the couch. "That's why I always just let her be herself."
"Has she ever been in a relationship? A real one that is?" she asked, going over to him where she sat next to him.
"Not that I know of. I was technically her first boyfriend; fake or not. I never pictured her as the relationship type to be honest. She seems like the kind of person who always puts her career first."
"You're right about that, but what I said… that was horrible," she claimed as she casually started to rest her head on his shoulder. "God, that wasn't me at all. Sure there are parts that I don't like about her, but that doesn't give me a reason for how I reacted."
"Look, stop beating yourself up for this," Roxas said, putting him arm around her for comfort. "For a while, I—we wanted Kairi to realize that our relationship isn't real. We just didn't know how to do it anymore because she never budged."
"I get it. You guys care about her and when there is a friend in need, you should always be there to help."
"Yeah, but I know her better than she knows me. I don't even know how we are supposed to continue working like this."
"If it makes you feel better, I don't get another scene with her till the season finale. Maybe things will get better by then."
"I hope you're right, so for now, let's just give her space."
"I don't know how to fix this Roxas. You need to help me," Namine pleaded.
"I don't think there is a thing you can do. The only person I would leave this too is Sora." The room fell into silence as the two were getting comfortable with each other. It didn't even dawn that they were practically in each other's arms. "Everyone is calling it a day, so I'll take you home and we can all try to move on tomorrow. Get your things and we'll go." Namine got up and gathered her belongings from her chair as Roxas opened the door, waiting for her to come out with him. In the midst of it, she saw a small note she didn't see earlier on her mirror. It intrigued her as she picked it off to read the small message.
"My gift to you," she read off.
"What is that?" Roxas asked.
"It's signed by Kairi. What the heck is she talking about?" She had no clue because it seemed Kairi intentional placed it before she left. Then Namine turned it over to see if there was anything else and what she saw next completely puzzled her. "What is this?" It was the picture Sora had in his wallet of the two when they were younger. Roxas came over to her side and he was surprised too. "This is not possible. Why is there a picture of me and Sora as kids?" she asked as the two stared at the picture.
The next chapter will finally answer the burning question as to why Namine doesn't remember Sora. It may also ease your minds of where I'm truly going with that storyline as a whole. Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading and leave a review or any thoughts if you can!