Chapter 63

I do not own skip beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.

Quest of the living

part 2.

She pivoted on her heels after a second. The girl had spoken nicely and politely. A good sign. Her voice had been shy. Miserable trembles in the intonation. There was no faking that.

Well She thought, I could do it. But she was an actress. That girl wasn't.

"Hi", greeted Kyoko as softly and harmlessly as possible considering the girl the scared girl, "do you need something?"

The three girls looked at each other before slowly making their way to her.

The closer they came, the more intently they looked at Kyoko making wonder the subject of all those stares what she had done.

Still, they suggested pretty inoffensive intentions and she finished to loosen up. At the same time, that's when she noticed how fresh it was now that the sun had hidden and she rubbed her wrapped in light violet loose pullover dress sides as chills run down her spines. She loved that dress pull cut Ren offered her but it uncovered the shoulders, and a little wind was enough on that part to make you shiver.

Once there, the two other girls looked at each other with some kind of shame in the eyes, making her frown, and the last one that called her earlier appeared to gather her courage before speaking.

"Is it the set of Quest of the living?" She asked to Kyoko despite her own frown marring her face and hands shaking.

Kyoko nodded.

"Yes, it is. Did you three are here to meet someone?"

The two girls blushed and nodded sheepishly while the other presumingly shy sighed and walked around them before pushing to bring the girls closer.

"Who is it? I don't know if that person is here already but I can go look around for you if you'd-" Kyoko said but instead of answering, one of the two girls interrupted her with another question.

"Are you really Kyoko?"

Kyoko blinked and ignoring the rudeness of the interruption but she nodded nonetheless.

The girl took her time observing her and Kyoko had the oddest impression to be seize up before a reluctant look of appraisal appeared.

"I guess you are alright" She grumbled out.

"I beg you pardon?" Kyoko inquired, feeling like she had just been insulted, and switching to rub her arms and neck to incite some warm into those parts too.

The other girl at the front peered down while pinching the side of her friend with a glare, while the shy girl at the back from earlier looked downright appalled.

The pinching girl inspected her still but managed to look mortified while doing so, and it's abashedly she finally told Kyoko why they were here.

"We would have like autographs", the girl explained guiltily, "F-From Tsuruga-kun."

Of course thought Kyoko and she couldn't help but soften up again.

"And to see him" Added the other girl not so tamely.

"They are his fans" mumbled the polite girl at the back in a placating tone just loud enough for Kyoko to hear her, "they thought they wouldn't have a chance once you all would be further in the filming and thought it was less bothering it was early on."

"I know they are being a pain", added the girl, clearly trying to amend for the other girls behaviors, when Kyoko looked at her, "but they actually meant good by choosing to come so soon."

She smiled at them and addressed the polite girl.

"And you aren't?"

The girl shook her head.

"I'm not."

She nearly questioned her on the why it was like that but went against it eventually. Everyone had their reasons. She shouldn't peek in some stranger one. It was just harder because she wanted nothing than to defend Ren and make everyone see how amazing of an actor and of a person he was.

Cool down, girl. To each their own view.

She dropped the matter and took the few steps leading down to the yard to try to have some view on the set and see how far they were in the scene.

She climbed back the stairs and joined back the girls after two seconds.

They had finished shooting the previous scene but Ren was not free. He was talking with Shingai-san.

"They just finished the scene", she told the girls, "but Ren is not available right this moment but-

"You are lying!" Said the more and more rude girl from earlier.

"I'm not. He is busy talking with the director right this moment", she explained, "But if you can just wait a bit, I'm sure he will be willing to come out and talk a bit with you."

"When you say 'a bit', you meant hours, no?" Asked the other girl with a frown. "Just be honest."

Kyoko shook her head, making their frowns deepen.

"No. It was one of the first scenes but it was a loaded one", she said, "the director will at least give him 20' after such a scene. Plus there is the equipment to change and there is only one last scene outdoor for today before switching to inside ones so, I think it will take even more time. 40' minutes at the shortest."

"In those conditions, I don't think it would bother Ren too much to grant all of you a few minutes" She told them.

They asked again if she was sure and Kyoko nodded. Even if everything went according to schedule, the director had planned 40' before next scene. And it would most likely take more.

Still, she was not totally sure Ren would consider fans very mindful of him being in the middle of a job, but it was true they hadn't disturb filming in any way so up to this point, you couldn't say they had done anything wrong even if they weren't supposed to know the location of the set. She thought Ren would be fine either way but would ask.

"I can ask him when he will be done talking to the director if you'd like?" Kyoko proposed before thinking back that she would really discover how they had found out about the location before an horde of fan-girls debarked here.

"By the way, how-

"Would you really do that?" asked the less-than-polite girl and Kyoko wondered what could she possibly be insinuating but she didn't nib at the comment.

"Yes, of course. As long as you are not disturbing the set, I don't see why it would be an issue" She replied instead. And she meant it. Plus, she was sincerely glad Ren had fans. And yes, she could understand why some fans were still angry with her. She was sure she had been recognized as the one spending too much time to their taste with him. And even after the interview, and now knowing they weren't a couple, it didn't mean all fans would feel good about the situation. She really couldn't blame them for not liking her in those conditions.

The two girls nodded eagerly, now that they were sure Kyoko wasn't making things up and she went down again to peek but he was still talking with Shingai-san.

She shook her head at the girls when she came back and an awkward silence filled around but that was quickly changed when the girls started to ask questions about her and Ren; making feel incredibly uncomfortable. And sad.

After some time, they finally asked the one question that was burning their lips.

"Is it true you are not together? That you are only friends?" Demanded the the most bashful girl, despair in her eyes.

Ah~…

So, that what it was.

I'm sorry.

Kyoko smiled sadly at her. She could empathize with that pain. She understood it well.

Of course, the day that man would choose someone fitting for him, she would feel much more despair and jealousy but in the meanwhile, she could only identify with the people, the fans, anyone, that came to be blinded, overwhelmed by how much brightness emanated from Ren. Kuon. His name wasn't important honestly. He shined through his acts, his passion for the act, his kindness, his humbleness.

And though she had come to overcome the direct jealousy she would feel for each time she would see someone close to him, be it a man or a woman -even through newspapers or gossips- she would have turned mad otherwise, the anxious little voice was never gone.

Kyoko had just learned to toned it down and shut it when she knew those were baseless speculations and what-ifs playing tricks on her mind. She wouldn't be able to change the future so she couldn't indulge herself into thinking scenarios she wouldn't have control of, if or when they would happen. She knew her seventeen self would never have been able to let it go. She didn't have enough experience to understand that concept. But now, she could. The ache was bad enough in the present, she didn't need to make herself more miserable as it was.

That's why she understood his fans. She had been a mere acquaintance, a fan of his acting, then a junior before knowing him better, before being real friends. Again. Before accepting what she felt. Before guessing he was Corn. Before knowing his secrets.

Before being close.

She hadn't even dreamed of the present situation.

Despair. Envy.

Oh yes, she understood.

To see an unknown woman spending so much time with your idol, your crush sometimes…Even if you had proof they weren't an item; it could only rise the agony of what-ifs in your mind.

And truth to be told, after her past experience with love and what she currently felt, she would not make the same mistake to confound real love and an idolized crush. You had to face that person's identity, really know someone to be able to say you love him/her. She hadn't with Sho, she had fooled herself and idolized him as a prince, and it had caused her misery.

But even if it was another kind of affection, it didn't mean those fans didn't care about Ren deeply, and wouldn't be hurt. More, it didn't mean they did not truly believe to be in love with him, and wouldn't feel some kind of heartbreak if their illusions were to be crushed.

She didn't want to cause them pain.

Because, yes, in a way, she was privileged. She might not be his lover, but she was still closer than most. Spending more time with him than most.

Facts she would jealously keep that way as long as it suited the main character involved and as long as it didn't hurt him.

She replied to the girl, putting a lid on how much stating it again wrecked her from the inside.

"No, we are not together", She gently told them. "But, you have to accept that one day he will be with someone, it won't be me but he has a right to happiness, as each of us does", She insisted.

The girls nodded. Sullenly, but they nodded.

While the girl behind them seemed oddly pleased by the situation.

Then, came a question she should have foresee coming.

"You know him well…Do you think you could tell us some things you know about him?" Asked the other fan shyly.

Kyoko still blinked at her stupidly, wondering what she could say. There were ton of things she thought she knew about Ren, but knowing which ones he wouldn't mind her telling was another matter.

Well, there are some things I could share safely I guess…

But she needed to be sure.

"You mean, like some anecdotes?" Kyoko inquired. "Because I'm sure you understand I wouldn't tell you personal things that are his to tell and part of privacy and-"

The girl that asked, nodded quickly, blushing in shame and shaking her hands.

"Yes, of course. I didn't mean to imply we were asking you to betray his secrets, we would never!", She quickly said though the other fan grimaced, displeased. "I just meant, some little things as a friend you might know. Things he never said or shared but wouldn't care if people knew and-"

She kept babbling, sweating profusely even if Kyoko had already softened again.

"I got it" Kyoko told her and the girl stopped and sighed in relief making both Kyoko and the two fans' friend accompanying them laughed.

She thought for a second more about it and was on the verge of answering when a falsely scandalized gasp came out at her back, making her both stopped and smiled at once.

"You would sell me out just like that?!" he rasped out, still faking outrage as Kyoko turned around with a grin, just to see him drop his vest on her shoulders, whispered she had looked cold in instant shut out of any protest she could have emitted and a greeting smile to the guests still there.

Two said-guests were also very much on reach on passing-out when their very idols appeared in front of the two girls.

"He-hello" they replied to Ren's before bowing deeply.

"So", he told them, "trying to extort information from the inside, aren't you?"

The two poor girls blushed to their roots, reduced to a mushed silence in front of Ren's clueless teasing and their friend snorted.

Kyoko sighed. He didn't know but he hadn't shown any mercy to those poor girls.

"They'd also like autographs, if you don't mind", She added when she noticed the girls were still unable to talk.

He briefly smiled.

"Sure, can do. Do you have papers or should I go grab some?" he asked them and they vehemently shook their head before pulling out some notebooks.

He signed them in silence as the girls just looked at him in stunned awe until a staff man came looking for Ren saying they needed him for the second scene.

He apologized to the girls and started to retreat so Kyoko raised her voice in a rare tease.

"Are you not afraid of what I could say?"

He grinned at her, and waved at the girls a last time when he answered.

"Nope. I trust you."

"Even if I pick some elements from the Heels time?" she insisted. Her question had been half-serious. There was one anecdote she thought was harmless but could only be explained through the situation so she needed to be sure it wouldn't be a problem or she wouldn't touch it.

He shook his head.

"All was revealed years ago so I don't see the director having any reserves on whatever you could say, and I have nothing to hide from that period", He finished with a knowing smile at her intention, making her smiled but turned her gaze away.

Damn…

What did he have to tease her so much? And why did she have to like it that much?

She felt cursed.

She sighed again.

Anyway, she had her answers.

The girls stared in her direction, full of bouncing energy and eyes gleaming.

"Did you know Ren liked bubble baths?" She inquired with mirth, cutting short to any detours to perked their attention instantly.

The two fans gaped at her like goldfishes, failing to process her words for a moment. Then, it happened. They blushed brilliantly and started sprouting bits of sentences here and there that she couldn't make sense of. Kyoko smiled with indulgence, knowing very well where their mind had brought them with her sentence and keeping whatever ire she could feel from knowing they were thinking of him that way at bay. She was the one choosing to share that with them. She had to assume the consequences.

When one of them was finally coherent enough, she all-but- wailed her astonishment at her.

"You're lying! No. You can only be kidding!?" The less-than-shy fan said while the other one kept nodding vigorously and and their friend peeked from her corner with some interest at the juicy story about to be told.

Kyoko grinned.

"Once upon a time, I was working with him under cover for a role of his…" She related. "I'm sure you heard of it. BJ's role,"-they nodded eagerly at that- "and as an aid for him to remain unaccessible and under cover, I tagged along with him under another role too-"

"Wait! Are you saying the rumors about him not being alone while playing Cain Heel to play BJ without being recognized were true?!" Asked one the girls.

"Oh yes, I heard about that", said the other one, "A woman would apparently had been there under the pretense of Cain Heel's sister to keep him even further apart from the cast on the set, but her identity was never revealed. Even years later. And the former cast members are even being mutes about all this affair."

Kyoko nodded at the quickest of the mind but didn't comment further.

"The director's instructions I'm sure", she said, "it's not the important part though."

They all looked at her again, even more eager.

"Let's say I was staying with Ren during that time and-

"In the same room?!"

"And you still pretend nothing happened between the two of you?!" grumbled out the same not-so-polite girl.

She shook her head, still. She needed to get rid of the notions she entertained on those matters once-for-all.

"We were keeping pretense and the act, even outside of the set. No matter the place and time, we were always acting and in our role of the heels brotherhood."

The girl opened her mouth to argument more but Kyoko cut her again.

"Whatever intimacy you are imagining we had, you are wrong" she pushed, "We were playing a brother and a sister, and even without that very important point, I was only seventeen at the time- mostly a kid-, even more to him who was already twenty one. Can you really imagine him being interested by a small rookie teenager like I was?" She asked her in blatant honest questioning.

"I wouldn't have been able to fathom that, at least" She added. Sure, he had been on about one teenage girl. But she could only bet that girl had been really mature and beautiful for her age. Not someone like her.

Hell, even now…

"And if you are still not convinced about any of this", she said to the two fans, "Don't forget how much of a professional Ren truly is. He would never let things get in the way of a job. Or think about fun first."

That man was far too serious for his own good sake if she was being honest. But it wasn't completely true he couldn't get distracted. He had faults. He couldn't always control his anger. And he could slip out of a role if he was bothered enough. But they didn't need to know that.

"Can I pursue my recite without both of you jumping for my throat now?" She inquired, only half-joking.

They both nodded though only the more demure one looked truly repented and started to apologize.

"I'm sorry, when it's about-

Kyoko raised her hand.

"I know why you both reacted in the way you did" she said, "I'm not really mad, I understand why."

"Right", they both said, "please continue."

She went with it without another word.

"In any case, we spent some time under the same roof when we were playing this brotherhood roles and one day", she recounted, "one day, the director came knocking to the door to talk to Ren. I was still under cover-as it had been arranged- and I opened and talked to the director as my character would have done it. But Ren wasn't in the room with me. He was washing himself. In the bathroom."

The girls were now suspended to her lips as she talked.

"At that time, I found myself in some sort of struggle", she related, "We weren't really friends at the time, more like kouhai and sempai and I was far more shy than right now. As me, Kyoko Mogami, I couldn't even dare to think about bothering Tsuruga Ren from his washing session. But he had already been in there for more than forty minutes and the director wanted to talk to him, like now."

The girls nodded with trepidation, pressing her to continue.

So she did.

"But while I would have feel far embarrassed by the mere idea of disrupting Ren", she told them, "my character didn't have those qualms. She would have barged in through the bathroom without a care in the world."

"Was that character the shameless kind?" questioned the two fans' friend with curiosity.

"Kind of, yes." She replied and could still remember how much idiotic things Setsuka had made her do years ago.

"So I had only one solution", she told them with emphasis, "I entered the bathroom."

The three girls gasped, hands pressed against their lips.

Then Kyoko grinned in remembrance.

"And what wasn't my surprise when I found myself starring at some Ren Tsuruga soaking in an overflowing bathtub and his body adorned with so much bubbles soap we could barely make out his face", She retold with an huge conspiring smile.

The girls bent in a fit of giggles.

"No way…"

"The idea is just…"

"Clashing."

Kyoko concurred with the thought. Indeed, his classy elegant image did not go well with this self-pampering funny habit.

"But it isn't even funniest part…"She warned with her own smile tearing at her lips to the memory.

They all looked at her with tears at the eyes' corners and shaking already in the expectation.

"Everywhere around him and in the bathtub, he had made this sort cute funny soap dolls", she said while mimicking the moves you would have to make to form them and presenting the palms turned upward like she was cupping and cuddling them, " it was made of bubbles foam and there must have been thirty of them. Plus the one he had in the hands, in the middle of birth when I entered."

The girls gasped for oxygen as they all tumbled to the ground in maniacal laughs.

"He had also foam on the top of his head, on the sides and looked so peaceful in this activity of foam dolls making", She continued, lost in her memories and laugh coming to her too.

"Can't breath…Have mer-mercy!", They begged.

She sat on the ground with them.

"This memory is part of the hardest times I had to stay in my role", she finally said with a new chuckle, "I wanted to laugh so much!"

"So he likes bubble baths", said one of the fans between coughs.

"And take his damn time in here", Kyoko added.

"And making foam dolls", trumped their friend.

And they were back to laughing.

"I wished I had taken a picture" mumbled out Kyoko without thinking and the girls gasped, making her realized she had thought aloud.

"We couldn't and wouldn't have seen anything", she said in an apologetic tone. "There was only foam and two eyes."

The girls -Kyoko included- smiled wickedly as they barely contained new mirth from popping to the surface.

Letting her elbow to rest on her knee and dropping her chin into the hand attached to it, she tempted them with her question:

"So, good anecdote or bad anecdote?"

"The best!" The two fans said with warm grin toward her.

They were chatting idly when eventually Kyoko looked at the time and figured next scene must have ended. At that moment, Ren came out of the yard-set and saw them all sitting on the grass surrounding one side of the lows walls.

He arched an amused brow at Kyoko while their three guests stared and blinked at him for one insignificant instant before coughing their life out in gurgling laughers, blushing cheeks and streaming tears.

They had-without a doubt- just pictured him clad in bubbles foam and surrounded by soap dolls.

A little after that- once the girls weren't sprawled on the ground anymore to be precise- Ren announced to the girls that, since he had a break of a hour before they started shooting the first inside scenes, he had some time now, and he could dedicate some of this time to them if they'd still like it before both him and Kyoko will have to go.

The nodded eagerly and Kyoko watched as the two fans asked him a few more questions about him. So, she stepped aside and decided to try to let them have his full attention. They didn't mean harm and she knew how she was perceived by them, it was better it she stayed away.

She fished out her phone and scroll through her agenda, her copied script, and eventually picked some music to listen with earphones but she didn't even plug the second one that she was stopped.

Ren-looking embarrassed- and the three girls, were in front of her, and closely with that.

"Wh-What did you actually share with them?" He asked sheepishly. "Aika-san and Eiko-san told me it was about my bathing habits but-"

Kyoko snorted.

She spared a glance to the girls and shared a mischievous smirk with them.

How misleading.

"I just told them you like bubble baths and making foam dolls", She all-too-naturally told him.

"Bubble ba-…But how did you even…" he mumbled with a shocked face.

"Heel time", She said.

He blinked. Twice.

Then he turned his face to the side and a delicate hue made its adorable way on top of his cheekbones.

The fans squealed in delight.

At his still rather dumbfounded expression, Kyoko justified.

"It's pretty innocent. And it's cute."

The red deepened, and he compulsively messed his hair.

"Your makeup assistant isn't going to be happy with what you just did", She said, eying his hair. Though, she personally would like it. He looked devastating like that.

He ignored her comment and just stared pointedly at her, and she couldn't help a giggle to escape at his defeat attire.

It- unconsciously to her- prompted a soft smile to alight Ren's face briefly, and she looked back at him when she heard the new gushing sounds coming from his fans.

She grinned at the girls.

"See", She pushed, "I told you he is cute."

They snorted and merrily concurred, while the light scarlet color seemed rooted on Ren's face.

"I think you need a teaching on what is acceptable to share", he grumbled.

She laughed at his vaguely sour expression, though she could tell he wasn't truly mad.

"What? You are really upset?" She asked, worrying for a second.

He glanced at his fans then back at her, and sighed in defeat as he crossed his arms in defense.

"…I'm just a little embarrassed."

She inched closer, tilted her head and perked up with as she poked him some more.

"Because you have cute bathing habits?" She inquired with fake innocence.

He groaned.

"Enough with the teasing!" He growled at her before a smirk appeared. "Or I ask Aika-san and Eiko-san to help me."

He turned pleasing eyes toward them.

"You would, right?"

It was not true puppy eyes, but it wasn't far.

"Oh dear lord…" Kyoko said as the two fans were reduced to a puddle of woe.

Their friend led them back to go home soon after that, as they were in no coherent capacity while the two actors went back on set to start their following scenes and the first in common.

PS: Hello everyone. Hope you are all well. As promised last time, here is next chapter. Enjoy. Lot of kisses.

Mimagfan.

AUTHOR OUT.