Chapter 2:

"Have you lost your mind?!" Kyoko screamed in her mind. "All I've said to you lately is how much I hate him, how could you possibly gather that we're dating?"

However, Kyoko did a remarkable job of keeping this on the inside. The whole of her acting prowess went into swallowing her pride and responding by simply quirking an eyebrow and saying "What makes you say that? I told you, I'm indifferent to him now"

"Yeah," Koga said. "But I don't believe you."

"Why?" Kyoko was worried her short, curt answers would give her away, but panic gripped her chest, and she couldn't think of anything else to say. It wouldn't be a lie to say that she wasn't dating Ren, but outright denying it may solidify Koga's theory in his mind; she may seem vehement, avoidant, or defensive. "Reading too many enemies-to-lovers romances? Is it not enough to dislike someone?"

"You have conversations together sometimes–"

"We have the same manager," Kyoko interjected. "Do you expect me to never talk to him?" Okay, she was definitely getting defensive, she needed to reel it in before she dug herself into an ever deeper hole.

"It's not that you talk to each other, it's the way that you talk to each other," Koga explained. "You have this air about you, this unspoken thing that creates this barrier around you, like when you're together you only exist for each other"

Kyoko flushed at this description. The way he described their relationship was so raw and romantic that she almost forgot for a moment that she was supposed to be denying it. When he phrased it like that, she didn't want it to be untrue. But she had to stay focused. Koga hated Ren, and even if he didn't totally hate her, she couldn't be sure that he wouldn't happily throw her under the bus to damage Ren's reputation.

"Tsuruga-san and I are not dating," Kyoko responded flatly. It wasn't a lie, after all.

"Good." Koga replied.

Kyoko wasn't especially surprised by this response, since Koga harbored such resentment for Ren. But she was surprised by his heavy tone. She had expected him to say this playfully. To follow up with "because I didn't want you to be in over your head when the press eventually got their hands on your relationship," or something else of that nature. But there was a genuine relief in his voice, an underlying tone that simultaneously said "I don't believe you" while pleading that she was telling the truth.

"What do you mean?" She was almost afraid to ask, he sounded so grave.

"You two…" he took a long pause, as if he were struggling to find the words. They never came to him, so he sighed and simply finished, "aren't a good match."

"You don't know the first thing about us!" Kyoko snapped back. She instantly realized that she had made a mistake, but Koga didn't look surprised in the slightest. As Kyoko suspected, he had never believed her, he was never planning to believe her. No matter what she had said in this conversation, he would have kept on believing that She and Ren were dating. He had really only asked to gauge her reaction, or to get her to say something incriminating. Which, of course, she'd just done. She had practically admitted that they had at least some sort of relationship. Her face flushed when she realized.

"I mean– I just–" She desperately tried to stutter out an explanation, to think of the quickest way she could backpedal. She caught Koga's eye and he had an infuriatingly smug smile. An idea struck her like lightning, his condescension had given her everything she needed.

"I get it," She said, sagging her shoulders and shifting her gaze to the ground. "You don't think that someone like me could ever earn the attention of someone like him,"

Koga's eyes widened as he realized that she was accepting his claim as a personal insult. The gears in his mind were cranking overtime to find himself an out.

"I bet you're thinking 'this girl must be delusional to think that Japan's most eligible bachelor would like some boring, unattractive girl' huh?" The tears that welled in Kyoko's eyes were born of real anguish. There was still a part of her that believed what she was saying. "And you're completely right. Someone like me just isn't good enough for him; He's an incredible actor, and I'm just–"

"I don't think he's too good for you!" Koga interjected.

"Yeah, right" Kyoko averted his gaze. She suddenly understood why he said that he would be japan's top actor if Ren didn't exist. He seemed so earnest that Kyoko almost believed him, even if it seemed so ridiculous.

"I mean it!" He put a hand on her shoulder that all but forced her to meet his gaze, and she was surprised to see the glimmer of guilt in his eyes, his brows knit tightly together, and his lips taught in a stressed frown. "I think that he isn't enough for you"

Kyoko scoffed, even though she hadn't meant to. "How could you possibly think that? He's the most popular actor in the country. I don't know a woman in Japan who would throw someone off a bridge to have a chance to have a man like him treat her like a princess" Kyoko was so wrapped up in the absurdity of the conversation that she once again forgot that she was supposed to be denying her interest in Ren, not defending it. Perhaps this was his plan all along, to keep forcing her to defend her senpai, unwillingly revealing all of her fond feelings for him.

"Maybe you shouldn't be treated like a princess" It certainly sounded like an insult to Kyoko, but Koga smiled at her as if this was the most earnest compliment he could have given her.

"How do you figure" Kyoko's patience was wearing thin as she struggled more and more to navigate the conversation. She dropped all false pretenses to meet his gaze with equal honesty. After all, there was no point in hiding what he clearly already saw.

"You're not a princess,"

"No, I'm definitely a peasant,"

"That's not what I mean. I mean, you're so much more than that" Kyoko was taken aback by that statement. What more could one be than a princess? "You're a spitfire of outbursts, and energy, and attitude and personality. You're not a princess who needs someone to serve you, you're a firecracker, and you need someone to light you"

Kyoko flushed at this. It wasn't a compliment in any way, yet there was something about his tone, the strangeness of it, and the intensity with which he looked at her that made it incredibly intimate. She didn't know what made him think this of her, but felt stripped raw, exposed… violated. Who was he to tell her who she was, much less what she needed. He was just another self-righteous man inserting herself into her life and her feelings. He had the nerve to tell her that she was wrong about the man she loved, and that she should choose another suitor, to tell her that the man she loved wasn't good enough. The curiosity that was lit in her chest was burned through by white-hot rage.

"I don't think you know the first thing about me," she said, her voice a harsh whisper, before she turned on her heels and left.