Kyoko rose from the makeup chair and made her way down the lengthy hallway. It felt oddly familiar, reminiscent of the previous day. The sound of her heels echoed on the tiles as she wore a flowing, feminine dress akin to the one from yesterday. Thankfully, the meeting room was located on the same floor, negating the need to take the elevator, and she pondered if this was a deliberate choice; she felt thankful if it was.

Arriving early, she opted to review the script while she waited. When she opened the door and peeked inside, she spotted Director Muto at the head of the table, accompanied by Yasuo Obi and a young man she had yet to meet. She stepped in and bowed to the three men as they stood.

"Miss Mogami!" Director Muto exclaimed, returning her bow. "I'm glad to see you're doing well after what happened yesterday." He gestured for her to join them at the table, saying, "Allow me to introduce you. You already know producer Yasuo Obi, and this is Jacob Lester."

Kyoko bowed once more and introduced herself, "I am Kyoko Mogami. This is my first leading role, and I am eager to work on this drama with all of you. I appreciate your guidance."

"I understand your curiosity, Ms. Mogami, but we'll wait for everyone to arrive before starting," Mr. Obi informed her.

She took the seat that Muto had pulled out for her and glanced over at Mr. Lester. He seemed to be around her age, American, with light curly brown hair, hazel-green eyes, and dimples when he smiled. His name also had an American ring to it. She reviewed the cast list but couldn't recall seeing his name before. The only unnamed role was Kazuki Miya's, which she had learned yesterday would be portrayed by Sho. Perhaps luck was favoring her this time; maybe Sho had taken a step back for this man. Her excitement about the upcoming project intensified.

Her attention was drawn back to the door when it opened, revealing Sho entering the room. Kyoko winced, and Sho looked at her with a smirk.

"Mr. Fuwa! Welcome!" Muto said, all three men stood up welcoming him. Kyoko also stood up just to be respectful to the other men in the room, not that Sho would ever show her the same courtesy.

"I'm so glad to be working with you all." Sho said smiling brightly.

"Yes, yes, please sit" Muto said motioning to the seat next to Kyoko. She didn't even look at him when he sat down. "Shall we begin. First, I would like to say I'm excited about working with you all and I would also like to introduce you to Mr. Jacob Lester who will be playing Ryuu Uno."

Kyoko was shocked, she thought she would be working with Taira Murasame, "Is Mr. Murasame okay?"

"Yes, Taira decided to take another job, but that's okay, this actually works better. We have rewritten a bit of the script so that Ryuu is half Japanese and half American, which isn't far from the truth. He's worked on many Hollywood films so we are hoping that since his name is in the production we may have more viewers from the USA."

Kyoko smiled at Jacob. "I look forward to working with you."

"Tch" Sho spouted. "Do you even speak Japanese?" Kyoko jabbed Sho in the ribs for his rudeness. "Hey!" he said grabbing his ribs and glaring at her. Jacob didn't answer and just smiled more brightly than before, making his dimples even more pronounced. Kyoko recognized the fake smile that Mr. Lester had, it was the same one that Ren would force when he was annoyed.

Both the director and producer started at them not knowing what to think of the exchange they saw between Kyoko and Sho. Kyoko noticed the confusion "We've worked together before on Sho's PV Prisoner." She said trying to put them at ease.

"You were her!" Jacob said in pristine Japanese. "The angel I mean. I had seen the PV and seen some of the other works you are in and it's still fascinating how great of an actress you are"

Kyoko turned her attention to her costar, "Yes, I was the angel that got to slay the horrible, evil, vile, disgusting demon."

Jacob laughed, Sho scowled even more.

"Yes, then shall we proceed with the meeting and how I want to see your characters portrayed on screen." Director Muto continued.

The meeting continued and Kyoko did her best to ignore Sho, luckily she was able to keep her back to him. She listened as the Director and Producer throwing their thoughts back and forth. She would occasionally notice Jacob look her way and catch her eye, every time their eyes met he would smile just a little more.

They had been in the meeting for close to an hour when Director Muto called a break for them all. He wanted them to meet back up in 30 minutes so they could each have a quick cold reading so they see how well the actors would mesh with each other.

Kyoko didn't leave like the others, she sat in the room reading her notes trying to get a feel on her Haru. Shy, and innocent (easily embarrassed) very polite, intelligent yet naive. Her father is very overprotective, her mother died when Haru was 8 from cancer. Poor Haru, Kyoko thought, it really was like Haru was a cursed princess waiting for a prince to come and save her. She started daydreaming thinking of poor Haru who lost her mother, lived with a workaholic father, and had no friends other than Sho Fuwa. It sounded too much like her own life. Suddenly a hand with a bottle of tea broke her thoughts.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you when you seemed to be deep in thought. I just thought maybe you were thirsty." Jacob said sitting across from her and nudging a bottle of green tea her way.

"Thank you." Kyoko said smiling.

"I hope I'm not rude but, you are amazing." He said leaning closer to her.

Kyoko was taken aback and she could feel herself blush under his gaze. "ummm, thank you?"

"I'm sorry," Jacob said leaning back in his chair. "but, I've seen your acting and I've got to say, I'm a big fan."

Kyoko blushed even harder and hid her face with her notebook. She couldn't believe that a star from Hollywood was so nice and being so nice to her. She had the conception that Hollywood stars would be more conceited and snobbier, almost like Sho.

She wanted to change the subject, she was flattered to hear the praise, but it was also embarrassing. "You are very good at speaking Japanese, how long have you spoken it?" She asked.

"My mother is Japanese so I've been bilingual since I could talk, which is great because it gave me this opportunity. I've been in Japan for about 3 months, then I met Mr. Obi and c'est la vie, here I am."

"Have you stayed in Tokyo or traveled?" She asked just for a bit of small talk until Director Muto and Producer Obi returned.

"No, I have traveled around. I met Mr. Obi when I was visiting Mount Haruna. Growing up I was a big fan of Initial D and had to see it for myself. He recognized me from some of the movies I was in."

Kyoko smiled and thought it was kind of cute. She could tell he was a nice guy and started to feel better that she would get to work with him and hopefully make a new friend while she was at it.

"Ahem!"

She turned to look who came back to the room, Sho stood there leaning against the door frame, "I'm glad to see you two get all chummy." Sho said rolling his eyes.

Kyoko closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calm down Kyoko, he's just trying to get under your skin. You can do this, you are an actor. He is just another coworker, you can't let him get you worked up or he will win. She thought to herself trying to get herself under control from his rudeness.

Kyoko opened her eyes and forced a smile, "welcome back Sho." she said as sweetly as she could. She didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with Jacob.

Sho had been standing outside the door listening to their conversation, he couldn't believe this guy thought she was a good actress, she was mediocre at best. He could hear her getting flustered by his over exaggerated words. He wondered if she would start falling for this subpar guy just for a few sweet words, at least he's better than Tsuruga. She is such an idiot. He really should go back in just so he didn't have to listen to this dribble any longer.

Jacob could feel the tension in the room and heard the coldness in his co-star's voice. She was so bubbly and upbeat while it was just him and her chatting. There was something going on between the two, could something have happened when they were filming Sho's PV? Did he possibly hurt her in some way? The look that Kyoko had in her eyes every time she looked at him was the complete opposite of the smile she would plaster on her face. He liked Kyoko, she seemed like a sweet girl so far, she had been polite and very welcoming to him even with him being an outsider. Sho on the other hand was cocky and snide, the kind of guy who would talk cheap and break a nice girl's heart in an instant. He was hoping that the tension between the two would lessen with time. When he took the job he was excited to work with Sho Fuwa, he knew of his music with spending time in Japan, his voice was always on the radio, and he was a talented musician. Then he learned about his costar Kyoko and watched the PV, her portrayal of the angel was moving, when he watched the video he almost started crying with her, then he watched Dark Moon and was in awe that the beautiful angel was none other than Mio, the scary dark beauty who bullied Mizuki Hongo. He had even seen a few episodes of Box where she played the bully role yet again but with a completely different spin, she was like Regina from Mean Girls but with a Yakuza feel. He was excited to see her spin on a completely 180 role from what she was used to, but after meeting her he could already see Haru's personality in her everyday life.