Kyoko floated in a mass of sparkling blue ocean, arms looped around her inner tube. She basked in the gentle push and pull of the shallow water, her toes grazing the sand. After an epic slash war where she dominated against Suzuki and Hime, Kyoko had decided it was time for a well-earned break. It felt nice to let her mind and body drift after such a chaotic morning.
She kicked lazily, spinning in gentle circles. Others were enjoying the water as well, but none were terribly close to her. Someone had started an impromptu game of water volleyball which basically included smacking around one of the inflatable plastic rainbow balls and alternating between keeping it away from a single person, or the boys purposefully smacking it at each other's heads. She smiled as she watched Daichi leap out of the air with the grace of a dolphin, only to completely miss the ball and belly flop back into the water. Dork.
Sakura, one of the few girls braving the mess spotted Kyoko, waving her to join. Keeping the tube tucked under her armpits, Kyoko floated over, spinning lazily into the group of frantic laughter and cries.
The ball passed by her a second later, Kyoko reaching up to halfheartedly swat at it. Her hand missed by a good five feet.
Sakura, who had gotten the ball instead, smacked it out of the air with a laugh.
"Come on Kyoko-san, don't be so lazy."
Oh, so she wanted Kyoko to try?
Kyoko ducked under her inner tube, throwing it over Sakura's head with a challenging grin. "Hold that for me."
It was with child-like abandonment that Kyoko hurtled herself into the game. Though the group consisted of people she hadn't really interacted with, they included her easily and with delight. Soon it became the game to keep it away from Kyoko. Her ninja training was abused once again as she dashed and drove through the water. She slapped it several times away from Daichi, perhaps enjoying picking on him a little too much. Sakura floated happily in Kyoko's inner tube, clapping along with everyone else.
Just as she was starting to tire, the ball sailed toward one of the girls. The woman raised a hand like it was an overhanded volleyball serve and smacked it hard toward Kyoko's face.
Reflexes saved her nose from being hit. She batted it away with a gasp, more surprised than any potential pain the light ball could cause.
"Woah, careful there," said one of the guys.
"Sorry!"
Kyoko dipped aside at the next toss, opting to slide to the outer ring next to Sakura.
"I stand impressed," said Sakura. "Or float. Whatever you want. Are you sure you're not a gymnast?"
"Positive."
Taking back her floaty from Sakura, Kyoko eyed the girl who had hit the ball so fiercely at her head. She'd looked properly shocked and horrified when the ball had nearly collided with Kyoko, but that split second before hitting it, her face had been hardened with determination. Not anger, just… something.
The warning from Bow-san echoed in Kyoko's head.
The game disbanded soon after that, with people getting tired and wanting to flirt. Daichi seemed to be talking up a brunette while Sakura chatted easily with another man. Kyoko was happy to float again, surprised when Sakura broke her conversation to come over to Kyoko.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" said Sakura.
"I did." More than she had expected at least. "Don't you want to keep talking to Ito-san?"
"It's fine, we've been talking a lot this morning. I need a break "
That, Kyoko could understand.
This was also the first hint at Sakura's love interest she'd gotten since the show started. No exchange or person had stood out to Kyoko. In fact, she had no idea who Sakura wanted to date. That needed to change
"Are you interested in him?" said Kyoko.
"I guess." Her indifference both in word choice and tone was apparent. So maybe not the man for her.
"Well, he is the crazy cat lady-man," said Kyoko.
"I'll have you know that's one of his best features."
Her seriousness made Kyoko laugh.
"Okay, sure. You like cats better than dogs, but are they cute enough to win you over?"
"That's a tough choice," said Sakura. "The little angels are so adorable! He showed me pictures."
"Of course he did."
Kyoko grinned, pushing wet bangs from her face. "Well if not him, do you have anyone else in mind? You've helped me a lot. The least I could do is help you win a date with the guy you like."
Look at her, advocating love for the sake of her friend. The love-Me Monster would be so proud.
Sakura's brown eyes flickered to Kyoko, anxiety present. "I'm, uh, not so sure."
"About what?"
Sakura pulled up her legs, treading water and her thoughts as she spun. The end of her ponytail was a shiny point of waterlogged hair compared to her mostly dry crown.
"I'm not sure if the person I like is available," she eventually said. "I think they may be interested in someone already."
"So you do like someone," said Kyoko.
"Yeah. But, you know. I'm not sure what to do. Should I try going after them or just move on? What do you think?"
Only heaven knew why Sakura thought Kyoko was the person to ask. Her answer when it came to love usually included complete denial, and ninja-worthy evasion tactics. That, or electroshock therapy. Take your pick.
"I mean, if they're taken, they're taken," said Kyoko, her mood souring as she thought of her own situation. "If they're not, and you don't mind looking like a loser chasing them, then go for it." She tried not to beam at her own train of logic.
Sakura took the advice like the gold that it definitely was, nodding with a small smile. "Yeah… Yeah, you're right Kyoko-san. Thank you." Then she tilted her head, voice a touch higher than usual. "So Ren-san. Are the two of you…?"
Kyoko waited for the end of the question. When it didn't come, she asked: "Are we what?"
"I don't know," said Sakura, searching for the words to her own question. "Dating? Seeing each other? Interested in him?"
"What!?" burst out of Kyoko. "No, oh my gosh. No."
"Sorry, I just thought—"
"—It's not your fault. He is being strange. He proposed to me yesterday but only because he's an idiot. We aren't anything like that."
At least, not anything she could feel comfortable disclosing on a reality TV show to a person she'd only met a few days ago. Goodness knew how long explaining the disaster that was their relationship to each other would take. Maybe the better course of a decade or two. Probably a couple dozen volumes worth of manga. One short season of an anime.
"So… wait, he proposed?" Sakura looked gobsmacked. "And you didn't say yes!?"
"It's complicated, alright?" What business did Sakura have looking that scandalized? "But don't worry, I smacked the sense back into him. Or most of it at least. He shouldn't do it again."
Speaking of the idiot, he was swimming their way. Sakura barely glanced at him, hurriedly whispering. "But are you sure? Why didn't you say yes? Do you hate him?"
As if her feelings toward her senpai were the problem here. It was his lack of feelings toward her. Well, that and Kyoko was an overstuffed carry-on worth of emotional baggage.
"I don't hate him," said Kyoko. "I respect him as my mentor, senpai, and friend, which is why I helped prevent him from making a disastrous mistake. He'll thank me later when he's let his heart has settled down." Maybe.
Sakura pinched her mouth shut, keeping her next words to herself as Ren came within earshot.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" said Ren, offering a reassuring smile.
"Oh, no, not really," lied Sakura. "Just a little girl talk."
Oh my gosh. Kyoko hadn't even thought about that. They had totally been having an awesome girl talk! They'd talked about boys they liked, and relationships, and wow, Kyoko was so happy right now she felt like she was floating.
Oh wait.
"Sakura-chan!" gushed Kyoko, tugging her friend into a one-armed hug over the floaty. "Can we braid our hair during the next girl time?"
"Of course," said Sakura, who - it was worth pointing out - did not pull away and scowl like a certain Moko-san did. "I've been watching some awesome u-tube videos lately but they're all with short hair."
As Kyoko gushed and planned out their next girl night, she nearly missed the strange look Sakura was giving Ren.
That's when Kyoko finally looked at Ren. Looked at the famous actor who was shirtless in the water, parading his perfectly firm chest granted to him by the gods. The heartthrob had discarded his glasses because swimming with them was just a hazard waiting to happen. The moron who only had his dry messy bangs to shield his well-known face from being recognized.
And now Sakura was squinting, trying to see past the light reflecting off the water and his damp abs.
Kyoko grabbed the top of Ren's head and dunked it underwater. And it was a great wonder to Kyoko why she was able to do it so easily but Ren offered no resistance as she kept him submerged.
"Could you just give us a minute?" said Kyoko, smiling sincerely at Sakura's dumbfounded expression.
"Uh, yeah. Is he—"
"He'll be fine, I promise. I just really need to talk to him alone."
Still eying the unresistant Ren, Sakura swam away, glancing over her shoulder every few feet to see if Kyoko had let go.
Once Sakura was a perfectly reasonable distance away, Kyoko released her hold.
Ren surfaced, water flying as he stood to his full height. While Kyoko could only brush her toes against the ocean floor, Ren had no such trouble. He now stuck out even more, shirtless against the water. The only saving grace was the palm he had slapped across his face.
When he didn't move his hand after a few seconds, Kyoko started to worry.
"Are you okay?" Maybe she had kept him under for too long.
"I'm fine," said Ren, voice muffled by his hand. "I just… opened my eyes underwater briefly. It was a bad idea."
Ouch, nasty sand water in the eyes was not fun. Kyoko hissed in sympathy, noting his reddened cheeks. Why wasn't he lowering his hand now? She tried to see around it, but Ren turned away from her.
Bad idea.
"Don't do that." Kyoko grabbed his arm and flung Ren to face her away from the beach. "If you look out toward the beach someone might recognize you."
"Oh. So that's why…"
He lowered his hand, both his wide expression and the red of his cheeks lessening with each blink. Eventually, he settled into an easy smile, the kind where it shone with gentle fondness.
"I'm not too worried about my identity getting out."
"And why not?" said Kyoko, frustrated that only she seemed to care anymore.
"Because everyone already knows I'm only interested in marrying you."
It was hard for Kyoko to identify the first emotion that hit her at his words. Confusion at her apparent incorrect assumption that he was not going to relinquish his request to marry her. Fear at the irrational thought that he had seen through her feelings and sought to take pity on her. But most damning of all was the burst of relief, selfish and honest in her desire to be his.
It was that last emotion that twisted at meeting her unholy desires, turning into an anger that burned hot. She was surprised the water wasn't boiling from the sudden strength of her emotions. Unlike before when she had been too surprised at his proposal, she was more prepared this time. And furious.
"Stop joking," she hissed with a venom that could rival a king cobra. "Do you think so little of our friendship Tsuruga-san?"
The warmth of Ren's smile vanished. His expression schooled to something more guarded because yeah, Kyoko was about to unleash the freaking dogs of hell on him. If he had any sense of self-preservation, he needed to start groveling now.
"I am not joking," he said. "And our friendship is very important to me."
"Then stop lying."
"I am not." His frown deepened, showing signs of his own frustration. "And honestly, it's discouraging that you still don't believe me. You can only deny things for so long Kyoko-chan."
It was the casual use of her name that ripped the next words from her. She laughed darkly, quickly losing control of the threads of her sanity.
"Fine, you wish to marry me. I don't accept. I will never accept."
The darker, more cruel side of Ren was starting to come out. She could see it in his worsening expression. Freaking finally. It was about time she wasn't the only one being thrown off at each of their conversations. Something she said was finally sticking.
"Why—" He stopped, gathering his voice to something more controlled. "Why are you so averse to the idea?"
"They're my reasons. I don't have to share them with you."
"But you'll share your life with a random man you don't truly know?"
As if he had any room to talk about life decisions.
"Are you really that arrogant, Tsuruga-san?" she said. "That you can't comprehend that a single woman in all of Japan is not interested in marrying you?"
"It's not arrogance," he said. "I'm confused. Because all you want in a marriage is mutual respect between two consenting adults." She wasn't even surprised he knew that at this point, despite never telling him. "We are friends, or at least I thought we were friends who already respected and supported one another. How is that not what you're looking for?"
"I don't know," said Kyoko, her voice laced with airy sarcasm. "Maybe because you're still lying to me."
"Kyoko-san, we both know that the person lying here is not me. Your reasoning, by your standards, makes no sense for you to reject my proposal."
And wasn't that one of the more arrogant things she'd heard come out of his mouth in a while? Like he was the perfect solution to her problems, and she was an idiot for not taking him.
"I'm not marrying you," she said. "Do you think I want to deal with the PR mess that would explode from that?"
"You don't care about the press, try again."
"Tsuruga-san!" She pressed her fingers against her forehead in exasperation.
"What?" said Ren. "What is it then?"
"I don't want to tell you."
"Why not? Is it something you can't tell me?" Irritation suddenly gave way to concern as he stared at her. "Or… you're okay, right?"
Well, no more than usual.
"Is it Sho?" said Ren, who just would. Not. Stop. Pressing. "Or is it someone else? Kimiko-san isn't threatening you again, is she?"
"Would you just stop for a second!" Kyoko flung her arms down, creating a huge dramatic splash. Water plunked around them, breaking the silence stretching between them.
"What's gotten into you?" said Kyoko after a while.
Rather than the apology she expected, Ren clenched his jaw, staring at her while droplets of water ran from his bangs down his face.
"Perhaps I'm being a little pushy," he relented. "But I am trying to communicate with you Kyoko-chan. I'm trying to—"
"—Fine!" If this is what it would take to get him off her back, then fine." She pushed forward with her toes, pressing a finger to his bare chest as she peered up at his stupid perfect apprehensive face.
"You want to know why I won't marry you?" she hissed. "It's because you don't want me to be your wife. You want me to be your rebound option to get over the girl you love."
Ren's mouth hung open and stayed there. The firm exterior of his countenance disappeared as he floundered.
"I—what?"
"Four years younger. Discovered you liked her when working on Katsuki. Decided to finally confess only a few weeks ago." She couldn't properly smile as with each word, the color drained from Ren's face. His guilt only served to cause pain as the vomit of words she couldn't stop spilled from her. "And seeing as you're here trying to marry me, it can only mean one thing. The girl you fell in love with—have been in love with for years, rejected you. So you came to me as your backup rebound option."
Somewhere inside Kyoko's head, she was screaming at herself to stop. That this would only worsen their already tender relationship. But her feelings were tired of being suppressed. With each breath, she released an accumulation of emotions that had been eating her since the moment she discovered them. She just hoped that whatever replaced them would hurt less.
Ren licked his lips, for the life of him looking lost. "How do you even…? That guy. He said something."
"Which is more than what I can say about you."
It was only at the open crushed expression of her senpai that the feelings of guilt finally hit. She quickly lowered her eyes, the fall of her strong emotions bringing with them the inevitable backlash. With eyes burning from something other than the salt air, she spoke.
"It's just—I can't do that again Tsuruga-san," she said. "I won't be second place, only to be thrown aside when I'm no longer useful."
She started to swim away, pausing only to toss her floaty into Ren's hands.
"Use it to cover your identity as you swim back," she said. "It won't work as well as a chicken suit, but at least it's something."
She couldn't look at her senpai as she hurriedly swam back to shore, deliberately splashing her face with water to blend with any tears that may be leaked through.
When she hit the beach, it was with a wandering soulless body that stiffly returned to her umbrella. Once dry and properly clothed, she curled up on her second towel and buried her face into her knees.
For ten blissful minutes, she let the world pass by. Her feelings, the wind, it all washed over her without restraint as she just let herself feel.
"I'm okay," she said, her mantra keeping her safe. "I'm okay. It's all going to be okay. Darn you, Corn. Why do I still rely on you even now?"
Even without the physical presence of the stone, she could feel her strength return just from the memory. She plopped her head off her knees, not wholly well but no longer frantic. How was she going to reconcile everything this time?
Oh hell, I hope he doesn't figure out I love him.
Time passed, and eventually, everyone was called to the main pavilion. Kyoko reluctantly walked over, pulling deep within her training to remove any traces of the ache left from their fight. Unconsciously, she kept her gaze from wandering over to the now properly disguised nerd, focusing instead on the new game.
Sakura appeared by her side, nudging her gently.
"You alright?" she said. "It looked like you guys had a bad argument."
"I'll be fine."
Which was true enough. Time was a merciful being. Given enough of it, she could look Ren in the face again.
Tables had been laid out in a row on concrete. Some of them were bare while a number of them held different bottles and pieces of fruit. She let herself be shepherded into her place among the women, the men beside them as the cameramen hovered nearby. If she had to guess… it looked like they were going to mix drinks.
Sure enough, with cameras rolling and Ryou explaining, it looked like this competition was aimed at the women. Divided into groups of three, they'd each take turns having three men test out their drinks and provide points. Kyoko was only partially listening until she heard what the winner of each group of three would earn.
"The women with the most points in each group will earn 50,000 yen worth of makeup."
If there was one thing that could take Kyoko out of her funk, it was a competition with stakes she cared about. Now pumped, Kyoko took her place behind one of the workbenches. With a smile, she turned to her two competitors.
…only to have one of them purposefully bump hard into Kyoko.
"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there," sneered Kimura. She flipped back her perfectly straightened hair, proudly sporting a white bikini. "You're usually such a spaz, I'm not used to seeing you quiet. Guess you'll need to make some more noise to be noticed."
Three guesses why this one was picking on Kyoko. Turns out one of the three men they got to serve drinks to were Yoshio, Kimura's heartthrob. The other two were, ugh, Sho-casual and Maeda. She literally could not have picked out worse men if she'd tried.
Uninterested in starting a fight, Kyoko ignored the comment, instead, reaching for the instruction card for different drinks. It was snatched away before she could grab it.
"Yours is over there," said Eri. This was the first time Kyoko had seen her all day. The redhead wore a string bikini paired with ripped denim shorts along with a cold expression.
"Thanks," said Kyoko, picking up her card. "How are you doing, Eri-san?"
"I'm doing fine."
"Oh. Well if you need to talk to someone…" If Kyoko and Ren were a mess, she at least wanted Eri and Daichi to make up.
It also appeared to be the wrong thing to say.
"Shut up. I'm going to crush you so don't talk to me."
That… was a crazy amount of aggression. And now Kyoko was suddenly surrounded by an overwhelming pressure of hostility. Eri's death glares on one side, Kimura's condescending pettiness on the other.
Yay beach day.
"Everyone ready?" said Ryou, happily unaware of the hostility radiating from her table. Or maybe he was aware and had set it up on purpose. She could see him doing that.
With a whistle they were off, Kyoko scanning her card quickly to determine her options. She needed to make three of the same drinks for the men to test out. Looked like it was a tropical theme.
"I'm still freaking underage," Kyoko muttered, pausing at one called painkiller. She could use something like that right now. This was going to be hard. She had no idea what these men's drink preferences were.
Picking a drink at random, she pulled together her ingredients and started mixing. Thank goodness for Okami training. While she didn't know exactly what she was doing, she knew the gist of what she needed to do based on the ingredients, instructions, and watching Sho's mother in the past. They'd gotten a few foreigners at the inn who wanted these fruity drinks. A good thing too because Ryou only gave them five minutes. Yikes!
She quickly turned her back to her completed drink, slicing an orange and grabbing a cherry. As she turned back around, she bumped into Kimura.
"Watch it," Kimura muttered, hurrying back to her side of the table, drinks in hand.
Shrugging off the woman's nasty attitude, Kyoko placed her garnish on her finished drinks with a flourish.
"Time!" shouted Ryou.
Kyoko beamed, happy to be one of those that managed to finish. A couple of drinks were noticeably undecorated or just flat-out incomplete. Kyoko lined up with Eri and Kimura in front of the three men. That's when she noticed Maeda's staring.
Kyoko sent him a silent, unimpressed look. He didn't seem to notice, his eyes roaming up and down her form. This wasn't the first time he'd done this. Weird creepy man. But there was something different about it. Less… condescending? More appraising.
She waited as Ryou walked down the line of tables, watching as drinks were judged and winners declared. Kyoko clapped along politely as she noticed Hime won for once. Good for her. Add that she'd managed it without slicing off a finger and it was quite the accomplishment.
Then Ryou got to their table.
Kimura was up first, cooing at Yoshio about how she'd chosen the drink for him and other nauseating garbage like that. The man ate it up, giving her a five out of five. With a two and a four from the other men, she received an eleven in total. A good score and one that would be hard to beat. Only a few had managed higher than a ten.
Eri went next, proudly showing her electric blue drink topped with an umbrella. She too tried to mosey up to the boys, which in turn got her a ten in total. Eri clicked her tongue, shooting Kimura a scalding look.
My turn.
Kyoko proudly placed her three drinks in front of the men.
"Zero," said Maeda.
Kyoko stared.
"You're supposed to take a drink first," said Ryou, laughing awkwardly at the man's rude attitude. "Then you give a score."
"No need to taste it," said Maeda. "My score will still be zero."
And now Kyoko was pissed. With a zero, the highest score she could get was a ten, not enough to beat Kimura and win the makeup.
"What is wrong with you?" said Kyoko. "Why can't you just play the game fairly and give a score?"
"Fair? You want fair?" He pointed to Yoshio and Sho-casual. "As if these two didn't base their scores on the amount of fan service they got along with their drinks."
The two men immediately sputtered to defend themselves. Maeda ignored them.
"What's fair is giving you a zero for not watching your workstation," he said. "Kimura-san placed something in your drink when your back was turned."
She had what?
Kyoko rounded on Kimura. In response to her silent indignation, Kimura gave a saccharine smile.
"All's fair," she said in a singsong voice. "They never said we couldn't sabotage our competition."
And wasn't that this whole show in a nutshell?
Kyoko should have seen this coming. Bow-san had warned her that Kimura was on the warpath. She'd seen the seeds of it with her own eyes. These women weren't here to make friends and play nice. They were here to win men. To secure a husband and take down anyone that stood in their way.
If there was ever evidence of that, it was in the silence coming from Eri. Previously, the woman had defended Kyoko against Kimura. Now, she said nothing, looking at Kyoko as if she were an enemy as well.
"You're right." Kyoko gave an apologetic bow, annoyed by her own lapse of judgment. "I should have watched my work station. I apologize."
Even when Ryou suggested they make an exception for her to retry, she refused. She took her zero and owned it for what it was. Just another slip-up in her growling list of mistakes.
The competition continued after that. In the end, the winners grouped together for a photo, exclaiming over their makeup trophies. Kyoko tried not to be too envious as she watched Kimura-san kiss her trophy like it was the medal she won at the bitch Olympics or something.
Kyoko caught sight of Ren with the other men, head bent away from her. For once, he didn't come to seek her out.
Thanks for reading!
I forgot. I did more pictures. Go check out Kyoko in her stinkin' cute butterfly shoes along with several others. (I wish we could link stuff. ) It's on my insta.
Also… did anyone else notice? If Ren had opened his eyes underwater, what did he get a face full of? Just saying.
-Blushweaver