-Chapter 29 –

-Chapter one of second part-

I do not own skip beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.

You might think my style has changed but it's just I was too frustrated recently with my limits in my active English. My passive one is good but my active one is more limited. Which means sometimes I don't have the words to express myself and in this case to express my story the way I would like to. So I exceptionally wrote this chapter in French then put it in google translator and fixed all the mistakes the engine made or didn't understand. It went a lot faster. I won't necessarily do it every time but I'm a writer in French and I'm so so turning crazy with my limited vocabulary. You could say to fix it but I don't have the time as I'm writing a novel on the side and in French. So I hope that it will still look good to all of you.

Bloomed Butterfly

Five years minus three months later.

On the horizon, the sun rises and casts in a soft light on a window, a wall, a wardrobe and finally the entire bedroom revealing at the same time a large bed in which a young woman sleeps. As the light advances as the day takes its place on the night, it lights up the face of the young woman who moans, gently slides her hands towards the pillow to pull it above of her head. She creases her eyelids, sighs, turns around, clinging desperately to a dream that is probably too good, then finally opens her eyes. She leans on her arms and slowly raises her upper body, the sheet which covered her gently slides from her back, descending ever lower until it ran aground at the curvature of her hips, wrapping sensually around her waist. She stretches, raises her arms upward and offers her face and bust to the warm caress of this late morning sun.

"hmm…"

Her long hair cascaded down to the bottom of her back, tangled around her waist, too straight to stay wisely behind her back like wavy hair would have done. The rays of the sun play in her hair, bouncing from one strand to the other dancing from one reflection to another of her locks and suddenly making her long chestnut hair shine sometimes a little auburn sometimes a little golden clear. In the light that illuminates this feminine silhouette, you can see that she is not wearing much except the panties hidden under the sheet.

She leans over the bed, probably looking for the slightly too large T-shirt that covered her when she went to bed and that she surely took off during the night, suffering from the heat of this mid-summer. She finally unearthed it rolled into a ball at the foot of the bed, hidden by a section of the sheet. Suddenly, she turns around, blinks sometimes and sets her alarm clock which goes off just then.

"8:00 am I have to get ready"

"A shower I need a shower"

She gets up, slowly slides her long legs out of the sheet, grabs the neglected t-shirt and walks softly towards a door leading to the bathroom; little white paws accompanying him and twirling around his legs all along. The jet of water was soon heard by the door that was ajar. In the shower, water flows on the young woman, it falls on her face, on her skin, on her hair, drenching it little by little, drop by drop, weighing down her hair, sliding on her curves, on her legs, between his toes until the heat of the water eventually fogs up the cabin windows.

"Pffff" she sighs.

This dream so real so tangible ... and so false ... so impossible no it's not a dream ... A fantasy ... a persistent ghost ... a wish ... something that never will be...

But these painful memories are nothing more than vague reminiscences of a bittersweet era, troubled by a past which she had not chosen but which brought her to where she is.

As she prepares to leave the shower, the dream comes back in force That of an embrace, big and tender hands, so warm, so passionate, with burning, burning lips, everywhere, full of ardour. The memory of an odour, a sweetness, a warmth; with a passion so strong that it overwhelms the senses. The memory so strong that it is imbued with it on her skin and in her mind. But it is only the memory of a dream, not a real memory. She suddenly hit the wall with the back of her hand and furiously turned the knob of water towards cold trying in vain to clear up the ideas and to evaporate the overly persistent images of a dream from another time, from another world; where it would have been possible. Then she quickly left the cabin muttering in her beard.

"I'm going to go crazy ..." she sighs.

Then realizing that she was talking to herself:

"Correction, I probably already have a grain of natural so with that ... It will not work out better, she continued aloud while wrapping herself in a towel.

"Miaow… Said the white fur ball while trotting behind long legs dripping with water

"Yes-Yes… I know you're hungry-she said while drying herself. She put on a very light blue shirt, a little wide, which went down to the top of her thighs and aesthetically folded the sleeves of the said shirt at the elbows so as not to be too hot. She then puts on light jeans and light summer shoes with laces on the front. She still had a little trouble adjusting her clothes to her body, her curves having surprisingly grown in last recent years. Nothing unbearable, fortunately. Her breast had grown up a size and her hips had took a few curves but her body had kept a slender and thin appearance although more muscular than in the past.

Not to mention that she had made a frightening growth spurt given the fact that she was now one meter and seventy-seven centimetres. It was still uncomfortable for her to get used to it after spending most of her life in a petite body. So she would often end up in wider clothes for her size. After some disgraceful experiences she had renounced ever tempting to get something where she had a doubt it could be too tight or short. Result in her getting comfy with slightly wider clothes.

Her style had changed, gradually transforming her wardrobe. It had to. Between slowly getting more adult and her horrendous growth. Her tastes going step by step towards something more mature and distinguished. Which did honour to her actress status without bundling her up and allowed her to be at ease most of the time. A fairly simple style but not devoid of elegance.

Snow squirmed hastily around her feet, pushing loud meows to beg for food.

Snow ... Wait, I'm going to feed you, but let me at least reach the kibbles she said vaguely trying to drag her legs from beneath the white fur balls that had decided to sit on her feet. Then abandoning the idea, she took the young cat and placed it on the work plan.

"Meowww ... meow-meow replied Snow.

I know, keep running, I'm hungry. Minute, minute, it's coming. And she went in search of the bag of kibble.

The apartment she lived in, traversed by the rays of the sun coming from the glass doors of the garden and the many windows, was bright and very airy; the kitchen and the living room facing each other without any doors giving an overall view and a feeling of enlarged space. But if the loft in itself seemed magnificent, it exuded a sort of solitude, a lack of something.

Which was nothing unusual because over time, the young woman had become quite independent but also somewhat lonely. She did not complain about it, however, and had even come to appreciate the moments when she could be alone with herself - her job being little conducive to calm and tranquillity.

She fed the cat, took an orange juice for her and some rusk with cheese and tomato and was ready to leave her keys in hands when her phone rang.

She answered and a sparkling voice of mischief spoke in her ear.

"Hello dear,

It's time.

Kyoko sighed. He could be so stubborn. She hadn't talk to him in years but he was still the same. She had sincerely hoped to be able to renew her contract for a moment. To have more time. She really feared what would happen.

"I know," she replied anyway. "I will speak to the agency today to modify the contract and find an arrangement"

"At least one third-time"

"You will not accept anything less anyway, whatever I say, whatever I think ..." she grumbled.

"I see you understand me well. I really can't wait to see you again"

Kyoko pushed her long hair back with her fingers, falling before her eyes as usual.

"Just to be able to laugh at my dependents again, Boss ..." she guessed.

"An old man must know how to entertain ... he conceded. But that's not the only reason. I am excited to see the young woman and actress you became"

She perceived all the cunning joy that he conceived of it and decided on the spot to tell her as little as possible about the details and the date of this future trip. Just the way he could welcome her arrival gave her hives.

Hanging up after other growls, she took her scripts, kissed her cat on the corner of the ear accompanied by a "see you tonight" and she went out towards the little car she had rented for several years. The poor thing sputtered when starting but Kyoko didn't care. She preferred to put the money she earned in a vehicle she really liked to drive rather than in a stupid car.

It was going to be a long day. She had to go to the agency for the contract and reorganize her schedule to finish what she could for the past few months and see how to continue those that would last longer. She was also expected on set to shoot several scenes from the A special detective series in which she was playing at the moment and she had lunch with Kayla to whom she was to announce the news.

…

Thousands of kilometres away, fifteen hours earlier, in a room of a luxury apartment, located in an imposing building, the day also dawns in this place.

Light pierces through the embrasure of the curtains to light the top of a gigantic bed lost itself in an infinitely large room. The glare of the sun falls on a face, warms it, dazzles it and ends up disturbing the deep sleep of the person sleeping there.

He tightens his eyelids, strong, his brown hair falls on his eyes when he moves; he turns around, sticks his nose in the pillow with a growl of protest, his large muscles are outlined under the sheet. Feet attached to long, endless legs stick out from under the duvet. Feet that move, wiggle and turn when the man places himself on his stomach. The long toes stirring a little to the caress of the breeze escaping from the window which remained open. His big hands with long muscular but finely sculpted fingers grab the pillow, the sheet, the mattress. His body tightens, twists, clinging desperately to something that keeps on escaping him and ends up running away from him definitively when the mists of sleep finally leave him.

"No ... he whispers. He reaches out, runs his fingers through the air trying to catch the dream that goes away one last time. His hand falls heavily on the mattress, the noise muffled by the thickness of it.

He gets up with a groan, sitting half cross-legged on the edge of the bed. He runs his long fingers through his hair, worthy of the most beautiful nest of birds after the eventful night he has just spent.

"I'm losing it" he thought, realizing at the same time that his efforts to forget her were from the beginning very fruitless and that it was time to see reality in the face if he wanted to be able to endure it.

The man gets up, goes to the adjacent room, throw his sleepwear in the laundry basket and run the freezing water from the shower directly on his head before getting out of the shower, grabbing a towel he casually casts on his shoulder letting a trail of water fall behind him as he heads for the closet.

It is 4.30 am ... I have an appointment at 6.30 am ... I am on time He thought when he started getting ready.

For the past few years, his days had gotten even busier, Ren drowning again and again more and more in the work without even being aware of it.

"What are you doing?" He thought as he ran the towel through his hair, over his broad shoulders, over the drops dripping down his chest, his finely chiselled muscles on his back; lower on the arch of her thighs and legs until finally dying at her feet and soaking the floor. But, chasing the thought as fast as it had come, shaking his head, he grabbed a light shirt, soft pants and not too warm, repeating like a mantra in his head not to venture on this kind of ground and think of something else.

As he finished dressing and gave up the tie, opting for a more casual style today and especially less warm, his thoughts were once again drawn to a single subject, to a single concern, to a single person; towards the one who was the object, the goddess of his dreams.

Turning around and leaning his upper back on the wardrobe, he let his head rest back and closed his eyes, tortured.

"Nearly 5 years"

He curses himself internally. He could say what he wanted, everything that could concern her clung to him like a second skin since his heart clung to her. His body, his dreams, his nights, his days, his mind and his heart yearned for one thing and only one: her.

He might hide them, deny them, bury them in the depths of his being, pretend they did not exist; they would persist, over and over and even stronger if that were possible. And if he was ever tempted to forget this truth, his passionate dreams and tumultuous nights would be there to remind him of it.

The frowning, the pursed mouth and the fingers clumsily passed through his still damp hair are all marks of his inner turmoil. His face displayed a painful expression that reflected a tiny part of what his heart kept screaming silently while he deliberately ignored him; for lack of being able to do anything there. For a few seconds, his control and his mask break, showing all the pain and lack he is experiencing right now, before the actor's face resurfaces, the emotions transmitted by his face a few seconds earlier already forgotten, erased; although only ingeniously concealed by humans. Deeply rooted in him but well hidden.

Tired of stirring up a truth he already knew and kept rehashing, hoping maybe it would be different, he headed for the kitchen, counting on a very dark coffee and his hours of play at two different studios and his two shoots to send away his gloomy ideas; at least during the day. He drank his instant coffee in fourth gear, grabbed his keys, a jacket just in case, his scripts and left the apartment in his powerful smooth model walk.

PS: So yeah…I'm using the fact that I made her father a foreigner to put make her grew a lot. A grow of that sort isn't a generality but it can happen. And did you know that sometimes a girl or boy growth can be retarded because of an unhealthy environment? Well, yes, it can. I knew and I used that too as an explanation as to why she could have a growth spurt as her child and teenage years were far from healthy.

Anyway, for those who will worry. No, I'm not changing it all. She's still Kyoko. Golden eyes, golden hairs but longer. Slim but muscular. Just a little curvier as told above.

And concerning her personality, don't worry it will still be Kyoko too. More mature yes. More experienced in acting and life yes. But still oblivious to her charm. Still fond of fairytales. In short the core of who she is will be still there. You will see it for yourself. But I wanted to experience what a mature version of Kyoko could be. It a recurrent idea to me so I couldn't help it anymore.

For several reasons that I won't describe to you in fear it would spoil you beside one. Did you ever felt like Kyoko didn't live enough, didn't experience life enough? I did.

How to say it, I'm one of the rare fan that don't especially want Ren and Kyoko together yet. Because as there are now even in love with the other, I can't picture them together as a couple sometimes. There is like a misalignment between the two. And don't make me say what I didn't. I think Kyoko is mature in a lot of points. But besides liking acting, does she know herself? Did she experience life really? No, not to me at least. It wasn't possible while she was dedicating her life to Sho or her mother. She's just beginning as an actress and that's a new world to understand.

So that's the reason of the time skip.

I mean, both characters have a very low self-esteem and it's something too rooted in them to be touch so a confession seemed often too unlikely as they are. Ren is afraid to hurt her, for her to not be ready. Afraid to loose her, afraid of her reject. More or less persuaded of is afraid of his reject, afraid to be hurt, persuaded it's not possible. Both are convinced they're not really lovable.

So in my twist mind I chose another way to make them closer by keeping them apart first, yes I know. XD.

I'm stopping here, I've already said too much.

Don't worry, I won't keep them apart too much. You might see a little resemblance to Let's make a wish in little details, like the cat. It's because I always planned to give a cat to Kyoko and I love cats so don't be surprised.

Kisses.

Author out.