Chapter 3. Heartbreak.

The next day when Kyoko left for work, she kept thinking about Sho. She knew that she had to apologize to him or things would only get worse. She went to a phone booth and called him.

Unsurprisingly, the call straight went to voicemail. So she left a message.

"Sho, I'm sorry about yesterday, for making you mad. I don't know what those other girls think, but to me, you're way cooler than Ren Tsuruga could ever hope to be. You'll always be my number one." She put down the receiver and then left for work.

I wonder if that cheered him up, she thought. She wanted to see him so badly that she wished she could visit him.

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When she was done at the cafe she remembered that Darumaya was closed that day, which meant that she could go to see him. She had never visited him at his agency before but luckily, she remembered him once mentioning his floor number in the agency building. She just had to get inside the building somehow. And she had a solution for that too. She was already wearing a cafe apron. She just bought some burgers and was ready to go.

When Kyoko arrived at the agency, she was surprised to see a mob of fangirls waiting outside. They were all chatting about Sho. She knew that he was getting popular but she clearly underestimated how popular.

There were two guards at the door. When she approached them, they saw her apron and the burgers that she was carrying and they let her in. She was relieved that it worked out so smoothly.

When Kyoko got in, she went straight to the elevator and then on to the eighth floor. There she saw a room which had a name plate on it's slightly ajar door. The words SHO FUWA were written on it. She smiled. She certainly didn't expect it to be so easy.

As she was about to knock, she heard her name in Sho's voice, from inside. So she instinctively stopped to listen.

"-Kyoko again. She is such a pain." Sho mimicked her voice, "You will always be my number one." then he continued in his normal voice. "Like it means anything coming from a nobody like her."

"Don't you think that you are being a little harsh, Sho." Another voice replied. It was a woman's voice. "That nobody works three part time jobs to pay your rent. And aren't you the one who brought her here in the first place?"

"Hey," Sho said, "we are talking about me here. I grew up in the Fuwa family which means that I had servants to do my cooking and cleaning for me. If I had come here alone, I surely would have starved to death, before making it to the agency. I needed someone to do those things for me. Kyoko always seemed eager to do my work. Even back at home, she gladly did my homework for me."

"So it seems, you brought her here only for taking care of you and doing your household chores and stuff, right?" The female voice asked.

"Obviously. Since we were young, she did everything I asked. She never became upset about whatever I said to her. If not for that, there's no way I would have chosen a country girl like her to come with me." He replied.

Shock was an understatement to describe what Kyoko experienced in that moment. She felt like something twisted inside her. She was overwhelmed with emotions.

Shock, disbelief, anger, devastation, rage, anguish. All those feelings rushed into her so strong that something was buried deep beneath them, until it choked and died. It was love. She felt the love in her, disintegrate and die.

"Anyway, I did not force her to come with me. It's not like I pointed a gun at her head,-"

She was crushed beneath the weight of those emotions.

"-I gave her a choice.-"

Her soul shattered. She died inside.

"-its natural that she works hard for me. I'm a huge star now."

When the love in her died, she died as well. Love was her base. Kyoko had only learned to love, her whole life. She she had never hated anyone, even if that person deserved to be hated.

She loved the Fuwas, who treated her like their own daughter. She loved Sho, who she thought was her prince. She loved Corn, her only friend. She also loved her mother, even though she was abandoned by her. So when the love in her died, Kyoko died as well.

Until she was reborn, on an emotion which was stronger than all the love she had for Sho and everyone else, combined. Hate.

The hate she felt at that moment, was real hate. Compared to that, what she felt for Ren Tsuruga the other day couldn't be even considered hate.

"Since you can survive on your own earnings now, why don't you send her back? She isn't even going to high school, is she? You are being sent to school by the agency, after all." That woman spoke again.

Kyoko peeked in and saw her. She was in her thirties, with brown curly hair and a model's physique. She was sitting on the couch beside Sho, who leaned on her and cupped her face with his hands.

"As long as you, Shouko Saan, take care of me in her place." He said and winked at her.

"But I am already doing that." She replied as she shifted away from him. "You come to my apartment and stay over and hardly ever go back. Even though I am your manager, not your babysitter."

"Alright! I will send her back to Kyoto, on the next train. You know, if I had stayed back, my parents would have made me marry her. Like, not letting me choose my career wasn't enough for them. They had already made up their minds to force me to marry her."

"Kyoko, my parents have chosen a plain and boring girl for me to marry, which means that they will eventually force me to marry her. I can't live in that house anymore. I have decided to run away to Tokyo. Will you come with me?"

It was her all along! The country girl that Sho resented to marry so much.

She had heard enough. The old Kyoko would have left. But, the new Kyoko was gonna give him a piece of her mind before leaving.

She walked in. Both, Sho and Shouko, turned to see her. But before they had the chance to response, she threw the paper bag with the burgers at Sho, like a baseball. He immediately ducked to defend himself. It hit the wall behind him instead, where the ketchup left a red smear. And the burgers along with the fries spilled down on the floor.

"Kyoko," Sho said, surprised. The girl who stood in front of him was definitely Kyoko. But, there was something different about her. She still had those dishevelled hair tied in her usual ponytail, that same pale skin, hollow cheeks, dark eyebags. She still had that frail frame from before.

But what was unusual was her eyes and the fact that she did not have a smile. Until now, Sho had never realised that Kyoko was always smiling. And those eyes! They wore definitely not hers. They were filled with intense hate. It was almost frightening.

If someone had told him that this was Kyoko's evil doppelganger, he would have believed it. Because she looked possessed.

"What? That childhood friend?" Shouko asked him uneasily.

"You selfish, manipulative, snake, I gave you my life and you toyed with it, why?" Kyoko finally spoke. Even her voice sounded different, heavier. She didn't give a single glance to Shouko, because she was busy staring daggers at Sho. If looks could kill, Sho would be a dead man by now.

"Because it was convenient for me." Sho said, as he was finally done being shocked.

Kyoko covered her mouth with her hands and looked down, her whole body started to shake.

"Geez... Don't cry now," he said in a bored voice. "it's annoying."

She removed her hands and looked up. She was laughing! Now, Sho freaked out. What the hell happened to her? He thought.

She was laughing even harder now. She looked just like those evil villainesses from the fairy tales, that she used to read as a child. She walked up to Sho and then suddenly slapped him. That finally stopped her bizarre laughter.

"You were everything to me." She spoke in a freaky haunted voice as she looked at him through her brows.

Sho just stood there, too stunned to speak.

"I am going to get my revenge." She grabbed the collar of his shirt with her hands and whispered.

"And how exactly?" Sho finally gained back his voice. He wasn't too happy about the fact that he was slapped in front of Shouko, much less, by Kyoko of all people. So he didn't went easy on her, either.

Two guards walked in and caught Kyoko by the arms. Shouko had called the security, when Sho was getting slapped. Kyoko struggled to be free but the guards were too strong for her.

Sho put on an evil smirk and walked over to her. When his face was just inches away from her, he spoke in a low threatening voice "As it is, you can't even lay a finger on me. From here on, I am going to rise more and more in stardom. A place, a worthless person like you couldn't possibly hope to reach. Of course, I have no intention of returning to that mansion where you'll be waiting."

He walked back a little and continued, "If you wanna get close to me, then you'll have to become a somebody first. The only way you can do that is if you too break into the entertainment world, and we both know that's impossible. So, give up and go home."

He turned to the guards and said, "Throw her out." The guards obliged.

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After the humiliating experience of being thrown out by the guards, in front of all those fangirls, Kyoko somehow made it back to her apartment. She had a straight face, all the way home. She didn't shed a single tear.

But once she made it back to her apartment, she broke down.

She didn't even change, she just jumped down on her bed. And then, the tears came. They poured out of her, dark, expressionless eyes, like tiny jewels. Until she finally gave in. She, then, wailed like a baby.

All that frustration, that had built up inside her, came out in a puddle.

It had been a long time since she had cried like that. Her mind wandered back to the past, to a time when all she did was cry.

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When Kyoko was young, she used to cry a lot. She cried so much because she was lonely. She spent all day locked in her house, alone. Her mother only came back from work, at night. And when she did, she would give Kyoko her dinner and then go straight to bed.

The loneliness was too much for the young Kyoko to bear. So, she cried. She wailed loudly, hoping against hope, that her mother would listen to her and come out. But she never did, until one day, when she did come out, and slapped her.

"You're always crying, making my head ache. Giving you birth was the biggest mistake I've ever made."

That day Kyoko swore to never cry in front of her mother again. Her mother didn't love her. But that was her own fault, for crying so much! So she decided that even if it would hurt her cheeks, she'd keep smiling.

It wasn't long after that, when Saena Mogami left her four year old daughter in the care of Mrs Fuwa, who was a very close friend of hers. Kyoko was supposed to stay there, only till she returned from her work trip, which was a month long.

She didn't come back for another year. And even then, it was only to visit, not to take Kyoko back.

It went on like that for another five years. Kyoko stayed with the Fuwas. She even enrolled at a school. And her mother visited her, every six months or a year.

But eventually, that stopped too. The last time Kyoko saw her, was when she was ten. After that, she never came to visit again.

Kyoko loved her mother, even though she was never loved back. So, she was sad to lose her. But, she also loved the time that she had spent with the Fuwas. They were so kind to her. She wasn't lonely anymore. She felt very grateful towards them. And, she showed her gratitude by being a very obedient child.

She also had Sho with her who was her own age. They would play together everyday. She always let him win, in fear, that he might stop playing with her if he lost. She could bear anything but being alone again.

She always did what she was asked with a smile. Because she was just so grateful to have people who cared about her, to have a family.

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The last time Kyoko had cried, was when she was ten, it was at that time when her mother was there to visit her, for the last time. But she didn't know that.

Whenever, her mother came to visit, she always found some excuse to scold her. Around that time, she slapped Kyoko for not having a perfect score in one of her test, even though, she was on the top of her class.

In return, Kyoko avoided her. She cried, but still not in front of her.

She found a beautiful pond in the jungle near the mansion. It was surrounded by beautiful trees. There was also a huge field of daffodils. It had a perfect view. Since that place was usually deserted, Kyoko chose it to be her spot. She went there to cry, away from the prying eyes, whenever she was sad.

It was there, she met him. Corn, her only friend.

For the three days, Kyoko's mother was staying at the mansion, she went to her spot. She preferred that, than to face her. For the first two days, she cried, uninterrupted, and then went back home in the evening.

But, on the third day, when she went there, she wasn't alone. She found someone else. She saw a teenage boy with blond hair, glistening in the sunlight. He was the most beautiful person she had ever seen. He was doing something unusual. He ran by the pond, flew in the sky and then crashed back on the floor. He kept repeating it. It didn't make any sense to her.

He must be a fairy, Kyoko eventually figured, who's practicing how to fly.

When that boy saw her, he stopped doing whatever he was doing and approached her. She immediately hid behind a tree.

"No need to be shy." He spoke in english, in a rich foreign accent. He had a warm, smooth voice.

Kyoko peeked at him from behind the tree and saw that he had emerald eyes. Now, she was sure that he was a fairy. All the fairies in her picture book had blond hair and blue or green eyes.

"Are you a fairy?" She asked him in english, in her adorable, bubbly voice. Fortunately, Kyoko knew some basic english.

He just chuckled, but didn't say anything.

She came out of her hiding spot and asked another question. "Were you flying just now?" He chuckled again, a little harder than before.This time he did reply her.

"I was practicing broad jumping, I am an athlete."

But it was in vain, since Kyoko couldn't catch a single word due to his thick accent.

"What's your name?" She asked another question.

"Kyon." He replied.

"Corn? Why did your parents name you after a vegetable?" She wondered aloud, innocently.

At that, he burst out laughing.

Kyoko was confused so she said,

"It's okay, I love eating corn."

But that just made him chortle even more.

When she couldn't figure out why he was laughing, at last, she just gave up and joined him. It felt good to laugh naturally.

It was the start of a new friendship. Kyon was on a trip to Kyoto with his family for a week. So, for the next six days, they met each other at the pond. Even though, they didn't understand each other much, they still had a blast. Kyon was bored at his inn anyway since he didn't know Japanese and he also found little Kyoko, very adorable and fun.

While Kyoko was having the best time of her life. Not only, fairies actually existed, but her first friend was an actual fairy!

Those six days flew by like the wind. On the last day, Kyon tried his best to speak slowly and clearly. He somehow managed to tell Kyoko that he was leaving. When she finally understood him, she broke down. She couldn't bear to lose her only friend.

Kyon wiped away her tears and gave her a blue asymmetrical stone. It's sapphire shade changed into purple, whenever it was held up to the light.

Kyoko assumed that it must be magical! Because, when she held that stone, her tears stopped suddenly. She knew why Corn gave it to her. That stone could stop people's tears. Since he was leaving, he gave her that magical stone, to make sure that she wouldn't cry anymore.

It had been six years and Kyoko still believed that Corn was an actual fairy and she still had that magical stone, which she had also named Corn.

Whenever she felt like crying, she held it to her chest and the tears never made it out. Six years and it's magic still hadn't worn off.

After crying for so long that night, she took out 'Corn' and held it to her chest. Her tears stopped soon too.

Why was I crying? She wondered. After wasting away, her whole life, for Sho, she was now wasting her tears.

She was done. Done giving. Done putting others over herself.

She put Sho above her and he just used her as a stepping stone, then he threw her away like a used tissue. Then why the hell was she wasting even more time thinking about him? Crying over him!

She had a lot of other things to think about. Like planning her revenge. So she wiped her face and began to think.

To be continued.