"Did you? Kill your own child?" Shin asks.

Startled Kyoko tries to quickly wipe her tears and compose herself. "Why are you up at this time? Young people like you need their sleep. You should be in bed." Kyoko manages to say.

"There was a loud 'TING' that woke me up." Shin replies.

'The timer', thinks Kyoko. 'I forgot that it is quite loud.'

"But seriously, Kyoko-ne san. I take back everything I said about you being a bad actress or wanting to be." Shin walks over to Kyoko. Kyoko can see the amazement in his eyes. "That was a masterful performance. For a moment there, I seriously believed you had murdered a child."

"Why do you think it was acting?" Kyoko asks.

"Because someone as kind as you can never kill anyone, let alone a child."

Kyoko is both touched and annoyed. 'This kid has known me less than a month and he makes a statement like that. How does he know how kind I am? He has no idea of what I am capable of.'

She channels the face of a murderer. There is an irrational hate in her eyes as her facial muscles go rigid. Her whole body transforms and it seems as though the entire room has become darker and colder by a few degrees. The grudges in her heart that had, with time and love quieted down start stirring again. Old wounds that had not completely healed - her mother's rejection, Fuwa Sho's rejection mingle with fresher wounds - Ren's rejection and become bigger than either could have been alone.

Shin visibly shivers. Kyoko sees him and like a fairy godmother's spell, suddenly everything is transformed. Kyoko's face relaxes and she no longer feels out of control of her dark emotions.

"Don't be so sure" she says turning away.

"There you go again," Shin says.

"What do you mean?" Kyoko whips her head back.

"You are so good at acting that you create a murderous face in an instant that terrifies the life out of me. Then in an instant, you wipe it all away. You became scared of yourself didn't you?"

Kyoko pauses. "Yes," says Kyoko. "You are right. I am capable of a lot of darkness and I guess all this while I have been scared of it coming through in my acting."

"Oh! I get it. The last time you were this amazing at acting, you scared your child to death. And now you are scared every time you become that lost in your character again? Cause I can believe that" says Shin.

"Stop being flippant Shin. Go back to bed. It's late." Kyoko becomes angry.

"Did you perhaps laugh uncontrollably doing a role while pregnant and lose your baby? So now you are scared to lose control while acting? I can believe that too."

Kyoko's face has become many shades darker. Her lips become a thin line.

"No.," she says in a dangerous voice. "I said stop it."

Shin flinches at her tone but does not give up. "So did it die during childbirth?"

Finally, Kyoko loses it. She starts walking towards Shin menacingly. Her grudges are back in a flash as though they had always been there just below the surface waiting for an opportunity. A small voice in her mind is saying something. She mentally brushes it aside. She is unable to stop now.

"You. Who do you think you are? Coming into my house, telling me I am a bad actress and trying to guess my emotions and motivations. You are good for nothing. You don't go to school, you don't have a job, you have no family. Everyone probably left you."

The small voice is getting louder in Kyoko's head but she cannot stop. She sees the hurt and pain in Shin's eyes as he backs away from her. But the "cold and unfeeling mother" role that she was playing earlier, her own hurt and anger at Ren, her suddenly liberated again grudges world all spill into each other and she focuses it all on Shin simply because he is the only one there.

"You are worthless." she finishes literally spitting the words out.

Shin stops backing away. He then starts clapping his hands. "Well done," he says to Kyoko who has not stopped her glaring. "You didn't break character."

At that Kyoko blinks. He is right. She slumps down drained of all energy as the hate and anger leave her. She puts her head in her hands and says, "I am sorry Shin. I said some terrible things."

Shin waves his hand. "That is quite ok Kyoko-san. Most of what you said was true anyway."

"How can you say that?" Kyoko looks up surprised and aghast.

"The truth is I am an orphan and my mother abandoned me twice."

Kyoko simply looks at Shin at this revelation. She doesn't say anything. So Shin just continues

"I was left in front of a church as a baby. I was brought up in an orphanage. I was a good boy in the beginning but no one wanted to adopt me. So I grew up being unwanted. So I hung around in the orphanage and kept doing a lot of naughty things and bullying the younger kids too. The priest at the orphanage called me in one day and gave me an ultimatum - correct my ways or be thrown out of the orphanage to go fend for myself. I was almost 13 then so I left by myself with as much food and stuff I could steal. That ran out pretty soon and I started working. I had always had a way of judging people and their motivations accurately. It got me fired from a lot of jobs. But I found ways to use it too. Then one day, I was working at a bar and a woman walked in with a man. She was a call-girl - that much was obvious to me. She laughed too hard at the man's jokes. But something else drew me to look at her closely. I was shocked when I realized that I was the spitting image of her. The couple soon left the bar and I followed them to the man's place and waited for her to come out.

She came out and glanced at me but walked away. I followed her.

"What do you want? Money?" she asked and then tossed me a tenner. I just picked up and continued to follow her.

"Ok fine," she said eventually. "What do you want? All of the money? Fine take it and leave me alone."

She threw a bunch of notes at me. I picked up all the money but still didn't say anything.

"What do you want?" she stopped finally and asked.

"Are you my mother?" I asked.

She paused as though in some confusion as to how to respond. and then replied, "Fine. Yes. I once had a child I gave away. Come with me."

And so I went with her and started living with her. Cooked and cleaned and kept house for her. She went out almost every night and the nights she was home she drunk herself into a stupor. And still, I loved her. I loved the fact that I had a mother.

It was my birthday one day and I told her. She said she will try to be back soon to celebrate. I was so happy, I went and got a cake and candles and balloons like a little kid. She did not come home early. She was late, very late. By the time she came home, I had already fallen asleep with the uneaten cake next to me.

"Wake up" her voice was a foul whisper of alcohol in my ear.

She had a lighter out and she lit the candles.

" I don't think you deserve a cake and a party for your birthday. I am the one who deserves it. Since I was the one doing all the hard work pushing you out that day you know." she was way drunker than I had ever seen her.

"And so on your birthday, I get a wish. What I want more than anything in this world is this - I wish you had never been born. You have been the source of all my misfortunes in life. Because of you, I left high school. Because of you, I ended up with a string of bad guys. Because of you, I thought I didn't deserve better. And all for what? Look at you, you're an excuse of a son. You should be taking care of me by now. But you don't have a single skill to your name. You quit the orphanage. You quit school. You quit every good thing in your life. Since you are so good at quitting, why don't you quit this life and just go die? I sincerely wish you would disappear."

So saying she blew out the candles and left me in darkness."