When the doors of Big Boy Burger open on the morning of Friday, a bright ray of sunshine shines through illuminating every nook and corner of the place. Rain glances idly around- he has cleaned everything till it shone. He is a perfectionist, of course. But he wonders what is the reason for the light feeling in his heart -was it because he knew that since Shin was still in town, Kyoko would eventually come back? Or was Shin's infectious personality affecting him? In some corner, no longer needing to act like he was interested in Katie was also probably helping.
He takes a deep breath and turns around to start up the equipment. The bell tinkles and he turns around catching sight of Kyoko.
Kyoko is no longer Kyoko in the sense that she has completely transformed from top to bottom into a bubbly bright creature. Her hair is in wispy curls tied at the back with a gay ribbon. She is wearing a floral cold shoulder white top with elastic around the waist with a long geometrically cut floral skirt. Since she is standing in the sunlight, combined with her floral ensemble, gives her a glow like a breath of spring on a cold winter day.
Rain stops and stares. He realizes that if he had not been as familiar with her as Ren had been before he left her, he would not have been able to even identify her. At that thought, his face turns red and he hastily turns away. 'Rain should not be able to recognize her.' he thinks.'I hope it gets interpreted as I like this woman whoever she is and blushed to realize I was staring too long.'
"Come on in.," he calls, "You guys are super early. It's the holiday season and no one gets up this early. I'll be with you as soon as I start up the fryers and grills. Any open seat is ok, by the way."
He walks away as casually as possible.
"Thank you," Kyoko replies in English.
Rain doesn't look back. 'Wow! She has changed even her voice. She sounds breezy and cheerful' he thinks. 'Is she still trying to get me to become Ren again? If she does, how should I respond?' Ren wonders if enough has been enough and if he should just give up and go home with her. It would be so easy. And yet... even as he wonders this, he knows that it is not possible. There is so much still unsaid, unexplained between them.
Rain straightens his face. 'No. I can't go back.'
When he turns around, his face is a study in impassiveness - more a butler than a waiter. But he freezes when he sees that Kyoko is not alone. With her is a man and she is smiling at him flirtatiously.
It was one thing to see a photo of Kyoko with Shin, back then he knew in some corner that Kyoko would never do something like cheat on him. But now seeing it rubbed in his face like that, it was as if she was saying to him, 'I can have any guy I want. As many as I like. You mean nothing to me.'
Ren feels a white-hot anger flow through him, all the more intense because he knew he had been the one to leave. He had no right to be angry. But watching her laugh, just a little too loudly at one of the guy's jokes just makes him see red. Fueling his anger is the realization that he had seen that same face from Kyoko so many many times when she had looked at him. Somewhere within him a voice, perhaps Ren's whispers, "She is doing this to trap you into breaking character. She doesn't really love that person." But a voice much louder, not Rain's or Ren's screams, "You cannot look at anyone else like that. No one but ME."
Back at the table, Kyoko is in the middle of an animated conversation with the man when a shadow falls over them both. The person who then proceeds to proprietarily sit next to her and put his hand around her shoulder is not Ren or Rain. It is a murderously angry Kuon.
"This one's mine. Why don't you leave?" Kuon says to the man sitting in front of Kyoko, the menace evident in his voice, The blonde-haired, blue-eyed bespectacled man starts. The last thing he expected was for the waiter at the burger shop to turn into a mob boss like Kuon.
"What the-?" he starts.
Kyoko meanwhile drops her smile. Calling on a mix of Setsu, Natsu, and Mio from deep within her - a kind of mean teenage girl capable of extreme sadistic cruelty turns lazily at Kuon. Inwardly she thinks, 'No. No. No. Not like this. Don't break character like this. I want Tsuruga Senpai. Not murderous Kuon. Please Tsuruga-Senpai, don't disappoint me.'
Her thoughts get manifested as grudges that come out from within her. Having been sleeping for a while, they come out in full force and as Kyoko flicks at Kuon's hand over her shoulder, they carry his hand and place it on the back of the chair behind her.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" she asks Kuon in English in a drawl.
He looks back at her silently, anger still emanating from him in hot waves. Then abruptly it is gone. He is Rain again.
He gets up and says, "Perhaps in another life. My apologies." and walks away.
Kyoko notices that his fists are still clenched. She says rather loudly, "I ought to complain to the manager here. The service is terrible."
Rain cannot wait for his break. Kyoko and that man are long gone. But all through the morning, he had wanted to fling his apron down and yell, "I quit" walking away from Danville, away from Kyoko, and everything to do with her. But that would be granting her the victory. For better or worse he was stuck now. He had to wait patiently while she tortured him hoping it would be over soon and he could go back to-. 'Go back to what?' he asked himself. It seems like he had successfully burnt his bridges in Danville- Lizzie one of the few people in Danville that Rain actually talked to had switched to a studied silence around him. Presumably, because Katie had told her what happened. Lizzie has stopped talking to him about anything other than work now. The only other person he actually knew by name was James, the bartender. Rain guesses that James would hardly care if he just disappeared one day.
Reluctantly he realizes that he would have to leave Danville, find another quiet town to bury himself and his sorrows in. For now, he counts the minutes as his break time nears. He cannot quit his job, a recommendation from Big Boy Burger would help him in finding another job wherever he went after this. So as soon as the clock struck 12, he flings his apron and dashes out the door.
But peace is not on the cards for him this Friday. He walks a few steps when he catches sight of them again. It is obvious to Rain, if not before, that the whole thing is staged. Of course, she knew when and how he took his break and if they stationed themselves closer to the door of the burger shop like they are now, they could be sure of running into him. But it was what he saw them doing that made his blood boil again.
They are standing at the corner of an alleyway, her back to the wall of the adjacent building. Her head is tilted back and she is laughing, while the man has his head buried in her neck, his hands around her waist. He straightens and smiles at her, "God, you're wonderful." he says. She looks back at him and laughs some more.
Ren feels physically sick. He hates that his instinctive reaction gives him away. With great effort, he pushes it back down to not give her the satisfaction of seeing she had got to him. He lets the ice-cold enter his eyes and when he walks by them, he doesn't even glance their way. Every movement, every expression on his face seems to say, 'They have nothing to do with me.'
When he is no longer in their sight, he relaxes and thinks to himself, 'That was a mistake on your part Kyoko. You went too far. If it was simply obvious in the morning, this last was so in my face that you can be sure I am no longer going to respond. Honestly, I thought you were a better actress than that. Not so obvious and thus having completely the opposite effect than what you had intended."
He continues on his walk as though nothing at all had happened since morning. Feeling more and more like Rain, when he is back at the burger shop he once again sinks back into the familiar persona he had created for himself in Danville.
"Lizzie," he calls.
Lizzie looks up from her work and he continues.
"I am sorry about Katie. I don't know what came over me. I hope that you and I can go back to being normal with each other again."
Lizzie sighs, "Just as well, Rain. I am not entirely blameless either. I know I pushed you quite a bit as well. I'm fine if you're fine. Katie is a strong and independent woman. I know she will get over it. Hell, she has gotten over worse, I can tell you."
"That is a big relief for me, as well."
Evening falls over the city of Danville. In the way that these things usually work out, the night is as cold as the morning was warm and bright. As Rain makes his way to the bar, he feels a familiar numbness of feeling that has nothing to do with the cold. It surprises him to realize that this was how he had felt all the time he had been in Danville. Kyoko's arrival and the events of the past few weeks had thrown him for a loop. But now he knows he is at the home stretch. A few more days and she would surely give up and go home. He pushes the doors of the bar and doesn't even flinch when he sees them sitting in a corner - the two of them. He doesn't even glance in their direction or feel a desire to as he walks to his regular stool. His voice is the same as so many times he had ordered saying, "One beer please, James."
"Coming right up," James replies.
When Kyoko had left Ren's place that morning more than a week ago, she had not cried. Had not even felt like it. She had not expected him to call after her either. The idea after all had to be to become the worst version of herself she could be. She called herself actress Kyoko - someone she deeply despised, since actress Kyoko had no scruples against using her formidable acting skills for something as petty as a sexual conquest of an American man. She had specifically channeled Kimiko Morizumi, the actress who had used her god-given talent of manipulation simply to impress a guy. Kyoko had considered it unforgivable then but Ren had given her no choice. He was using his acting skills to try and run away from her, so she had to respond in kind. It was ironic that the real Kyoko had to become actress Kyoko to bring Ren back to her.
So she became "actress Kyoko" and stayed "actress Kyoko" even when confronted with the devastation evident in Ren's face when she revealed her "true" motives. Actress Kyoko even felt satisfaction and pride at achieving exactly what she had set out to. So Kyoko cheerfully sauntered from his apartment, crossed the road, and walked back to the hotel. She crossed the man at the receptionist, even smiling at his curious glance, walked up the stairs to the room she shared with Shin, walked straight into the toilet, and puked all of "actress-Kyoko" into the bowl.
She walked unsteadily back into the room, woke Shin up from his deep sleep, and together they strategized, coming up with a plan for the next few days. Shin convinced Kyoko of the need for him to stay back and keep an eye on Ren, while Kyoko would take care of arrangements at Kansas City.
First things first, she called Juliena.
"Kyoko, awfully late in Japan to be calling?" Julie asked.
"Mom, good morning. I am actually in the US now."
"Why? Is it Kuon? Do you have some news of him?" The hope is evident in Julie's voice.
"Not yet," Kyoko replied hating herself for hiding things from Julie. "I had a lead from somewhere- that Ren-san may be living somewhere around Kansas City." Technically true.
"Ok. I am coming there. I will book tickets right now to Kansas City." Julie replied.
"No. Mom. Wait" Kyoko replied keeping the panic out of her voice. It wasn't like she had not expected this reaction from Julie. "It's only a vague lead and I am not sure yet. Once I have confirmation it is Ren, you will be the first person I will call. Till then would you please wait?"
Julie sighed but agreed. "Fine. It's a promise ok? But, how can I help?"
"I was thinking, he may be working as a small-time actor or doing something that uses his skills as an actor. Do you know of any acting or theatre agencies or host clubs in and around Kansas City?"
"Of course, I have some friends from my modeling days who are in Kansas City. I will put you in touch with them."
It took a few days in Kansas City to find what Kyoko was looking for. She found it in the third and fourth place she visited. Meanwhile, Shin made his side of the preparations in Danville as well. By Thursday evening, everyone involved excepting Ren knew exactly what was expected of them. A couple of rehearsals had also been managed to Kyoko's satisfaction.
"And now, action," Kyoko muttered as she pushed open the doors of Big Boy Burger on Friday morning.