A/N: I just thought of a wicked idea in regards to Sho. It would help me a lot if you readers would choose one of the following options I thought up of.

1) Ren and Shion against Sho

2) Kyoko and Shion against Sho

3) Ren and Kyoko against Sho

4) Shion only against Sho

5) Ren only against Sho

6) All three against Sho

You can choose more than one.

Disclaimers:I do not own any of the Skip Beat! characters, but I do own my characters. Contains OOC elements!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 9: Plan A

The next morning was awkward for the girl. Kyoko knew she was in a horrible state, because she cried the night before. It was the second time she had cried for somebody, she thought she wouldn't do that after Shotaro had used and thrown her away like tissue paper.

Shaking her head, Kyoko slapped her cheeks twice to sober up. She's going to apologize to Shion, knowing that she had asked a rather private question, even if she was caught up in the moment.

Dressed up in her school uniform, she stepped out of her room and looked towards the closed door of her neighbor. Is he still asleep?

She wondered if she should go and wake him up. No, no! I can't disturb his precious sleep! I should be more careful with what I say! Hm… but, what if he had something on today and he oversleep?

While she was standing outside her room with a curled finger against her chin, she heard groans coming from the boy's room. Curious as she is, Kyoko moved closer to the door.

"Hnngh… You're annoying." She heard Shion grumble after a yawn.

Inside the room, Shion was sitting cross-legged on the futon, scratching his abdomen as he yawned once more.

His tail shifted under the messy cover, "Shut up. I never want to have anything to do with you."

At the snug reply, his lips pulled back into a snarl, "It's not the time yet!"

"Damn, if it's not for Azuma, I wouldn't have gone to find you." Shion stood up and slammed a fist into the wall beside, "I told you before; don't ever show up in front of her! What gives you the right to bitch about what she does now? You've got your money, isn't that enough?!"

Outside the room, Kyoko flinched when she heard the wall give way in the form of a loud crack. The raw fury present in the boy's voice made her shudder.

And then she heard an animalistic growl, followed by "I'll tell her myself, don't come out. Damn it. If you do, I'll kill you."

Kyoko cringed. Whoever is over the phone with Shion must be someone very hard to deal with. Timidly, she slid open the door and saw the boy fuming, his cellphone clutched tightly in his hand.

"S-Shion-kun?"

The boy turned around with wide eyes. Did he wake her up with his raised voice? All of a sudden he felt a wave of guilt and embarrassment wash over him.

"Good morning, Kyoko-chan. Were you eavesdropping?" Shion smiled teasingly.

Shaking her head viciously, Kyoko started babbling her apologies with her perfect dogeza, mentioning something about "I was actually eavesdropping! I'm so sorry!" in midst of her exaggerating actions.

"Kyoko-chan, it's okay now, just stand up." Shion was amused, "I don't mind if it's you."

"B-But I was invading your privacy again!" She argued back.

"Privacy, huh? I don't really mind, since you're just acting out of care and curiosity." Seeing that she was still at his feet, he frowned sadly, "I thought we were friends, Kyoko-chan. Friends don't prostrate before each other, do they? Or am I no longer your friend?"

Shooting up like a projectile, Kyoko shook her head so violently that Shion saw only a blur of orange moving, "That's not true! We are friends, Shion-kun! It's just—" She calmed down a little and prodded her index fingers together with a shy smile, "It's just a habit I picked up since young."

A spark of anger flashed through his eyes and went unnoticed. Such an innocent girl shouldn't go through a hell of rejection. If anything, he will be more than willing to replace her.

"Promise me, Kyoko-chan. Don't ever prostrate in front of anybody close to you. I'm sure they wouldn't like it."

"Huh? Why?" She looked clueless. When she's in the wrong, shouldn't she do that to show sincerity? Does that mean not to apologize even if she's wrong?

"Friends, or family, don't do that. Even if it's a complex, I think it's better if you show some self-respect. It might be true that they wouldn't have mind because they know it is part of your personality, but you're an actress, right? Do you see any actresses apologize the way you do every time?"

Now that I think of it… "No… They don't."

Shion smiled, "Right? So, keep your head high when you think it's the right thing to do. Apologize only when it's necessary. And never prostrate. Promise?"

Smiling, Kyoko nodded happily. It feels like having a brother she never had.

"Now then, I think you might want to be more aware of men around you."

"Eh?" It was only when he said that when Kyoko realize the boy was topless, and his black tight-fitting boxers outlined his hip lines, her eyes never went southwards from there.

She would've admired his abdominal muscles if not for the blaring alarm ringing in her mind, screaming for her to look away.

Her face flushed red and was going to scream, but she managed to suppress the incoming horrifying shriek by covering her mouth with her hands. She couldn't disturb the neighbors!

She turned around and fled from the room instead, but not before hearing a teasing chuckle from the room.

It was mid-afternoon when the CM 'Lasting Shade' was scheduled to be filmed at Fuji TV. Ren glanced at the wall clock for the fourth time in five minutes.

"Kyoko-chan is not here yet." Yashiro informed with his sly smile.

Turning to his manager, the actor flashed his blinding smile, "I don't know what you mean."

Yashiro huffed, placing the bottle of Alps mineral water on the table, "It's pretty obvious that when the Tsuruga Ren starts burning holes in the clock, it's always about Mogami Kyoko."

Ren looked neutral, "Really? I didn't know that." Of course he knew! Kyoko would never be late for filming and was always early. There's only fifteen minutes before the scheduled time, but the aforementioned actress still isn't here.

As if on cue, the said actress bursts through the door, panting hard. Ren stood up from the pipe chair he was sitting on and was about to make his way there when he saw a particular ochre haired boy behind Kyoko, smiling gleefully in his black suit.

He saw Kyoko apologizing to the director, but what surprised him was that she never did her usual thing: the dogeza. It seems to surprise director Kurosaki as well since he was stupefied for a few seconds before regaining his composure and assuring the actress.

And he saw Shion patting on the girl's shoulder with a smile that he can only categorize as prideful. The actress smiled back and immediately made her way to her senpai and his manager.

"Good afternoon, Tsuruga-san, Yashiro-san!" Kyoko chirped with her cutie-honey smile.

"Hello, Kyoko-chan." Yashiro waved.

Ren smiled back, "Good afternoon, Mogami-san. Why is Shion-kun with you?"

Shion adjusted his cap, "Well, I'm supposed to be Kyoko-chan's temporary manager." He then smiled, "Good afternoon to you, Tsuruga-san, Yashiro-san."

Yashiro gave a strained smile as he sensed a little electricity between the two, "Good afternoon to you too, Shion-kun."

Ren noticed that Kyoko's eyes are a little red. "Did something happen, Mogami-san?"

Kyoko stiffened at the inevitable question. "Eh?"

"Your eyes are red… did you cry?" The actor felt his blood boil at the thought of somebody making Kyoko cry, and he wasn't there to protect her.

"I—"

"I made her cry." Shion answered smoothly, earning a baffled stare from Kyoko.

Ren's mood just did a 360 degrees turn into the worst. "What?"

"Well, she walked in on me this morning when I just woke up, and it took a whole of a conversation for her to realize that I was like what, half naked? But I guess, I teased her a little too far afterwards."

That earned him a smack to his forearm from the girl, whose face could've made all the tomatoes envious. But she wasn't embarrassed with the event that morning, it was more of incident last night; she's actually relieved that the boy didn't reveal the fact.

Shion chuckled, not at her red face, but at the actor's obvious anger. He could literally see the green eyed monster peering out from his Tsuruga Ren persona.

He had come up with a plan that morning: to make Tsuruga Ren jealous, so that he would realize that any man in Kyoko's life can be a threat.

Ren, who lost his composure, took the bait and flashed his godlike smile, "I didn't know you were that close with Shion-kun, Mogami-san. Isn't that wonderful?"

Kyoko's grudges flew out from her body and latched themselves to the Demon Lord, basking in his obvious anger, while their master froze effectively. Why?! Why is he angry?! What did I do wrong this time?

Yashiro cringed at the brilliance that burned his retina, and looked away, only to catch the smug look on Shion's face. He caught on almost instantly as his own little Yasshi snickered evilly.

So that's the plan?

"By the way, Kyoko-chan, I've been trying to get Ren to eat properly, but he just wouldn't listen, saying 'Work is more important. I can always eat later'." The manager sighed dramatically as he shook his head with a palm on his forehead, all while imitating Ren's voice and tone.

Ren looked at his manager incredulously. Since when did he say that?

Kyoko, being the worshipper of three-meals-a-day ideology, sprang for the bait and promised to make dinner for her very unreliable-when-it-comes-to-food senpai before proceeding to chide the taller man about his ever-childlike appetite.

Ren didn't fail to see the knowing smiles their managers exchanged, and he cursed himself for not realizing their obvious schemes and eating to their baits.

But… having Kyoko to cook for him isn't that bad of a plan.

Please R&R and let me know about the '_ against Sho' thing.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.