Chapter 20. Love Me Duo.

Kurosaki checked the time on his wrist watch as he casually made his way towards the audition hall, where the QnA round was being held.

"I bet they are done by now," he mumbled to himself.

A group of girls exited the hall, all chatting excitedly. Kurosaki stopped to listen curiously, because he suspected them to be the auditioners.

"I've never stood up for myself in front of a casting director before," his suspicion was confirmed when he heard one of the girls squeak.

"Me too," her pal replied in an equally high pitched and excited tone, making his ears hurt. They sounded more like fangirls than actual actors.

"Yeah, me neither," he wondered why they needed to 'stand up' for themselves during a silly QnA.

Their chatter slowly died down as the small mob of juvenile teen ladies disappeared into the elevator. The audition was over, which meant that he was right on time. He was late on purpose because he didn't want to waste his time in the boring QnA round.

He started to walk inside the hall just as a curtsy to the producers and to make them believe that he did try to make it in time, but he stopped himself when he noticed a couple of girls sitting outside with grim expressions. Compared to the girls he just saw passing through, they looked pretty mature for their age.

They must be the auditioners as well, he concluded. But what's up with the grim faces? Judging from their faces, it seemed as though they were already disqualified. But how could anyone blow up the QnAs?

He knew he should get going but his curiosity got the best of him, so he brought a drink from the vending machine and settled on a chair behind those girls to observe them. One of them was very pretty and tall with dark raven hair, fair skin and a triangular face, while the other one was a bit on the short side with ginger hair and average looks.

"This blows," Moko muttered dejectedly like it was already over. "At this rate, I'm gonna be stuck in the stupid Love Me Division until the day I die."

"They were all just starved for attention," Kyoko replied in an equally gloomy tone. "Darn it, I'd be a sure thing if it was about actual talent, not that I did myself any favours during the QnA." She cringed awkwardly at the memory of how stupid she was. The concept was shining youth so they were asked to share a happy childhood memory, and she ended up replying, "Yeah, turns out all of my childhood memories were lies."

She said that because no matter how much she racked her brain, each of her happy childhood memory included Sho. And of course, I'm someone who is clueless enough to tell the truth, she scowled at herself because of her stupidity.

"I hate this," she whined. "Why couldn't I just make something cute and random to talk about." Then she looked at Moko and wondered, I know that my memories of my childhood suffocated under a pile of betrayal but what was her deal?

Moko did share a childhood memory but she made it sound like it was the worst day of her life. Both of them were so unlucky, they messed up in the QnA for crying out loud.

Kurosaki patiently sipped his drink as he waited for those girls to talk and spill the beans.

"Be honest with me," Kyoko finally broke the gloomy silence. "Halfway into the QnA, did you just kinda cave?"

Moko didn't bother to reply.

"Moko, look, if you keep this up, you're letting Erika beat you."

"Just forget about it," Moko finally said despondently. "I already know how this will turn out. I am not going to get a call back."

"Don't say that," Kyoko couldn't bear to watch her future best friend in such low spirits. "You never know what could happen next. Sure, the producers really like her but the director wasn't here today and he is the only one who really matters," she tried her best to sound encouraging. "To find out how your story ends, you have to fight like hell-"

Moko groaned, "you have no idea." She stood up and shouted, "she is ruthless. She would do whatever it takes to ruin my career and she won't stop until she gets her way. It all started way back in the third grade with a class play. They took a vote to see who should get the lead role and the students chose me. That was it. She was never going to let me have anything else again. In middle school, she got kicked out of the drama club. She followed me to this audition just to ruin my chances. Erika would rather die than let me succeed at anything again." Moko was panting by the end as tears flooded her eyes.

After a few long seconds of awkward silence hanging in the air, Kyoko finally said "that sucks. But you need to at least stick around for callbacks right now, because if you run away again you're just...you're just letting her kill your spirit. At least make her work for it."

"I can't do anything about it," an angry sneer tilted the corner of Moko's lips. "Money talks, and that girl has plenty of it. She'll use her family name to impress the director or just straight up buy him off. As long as she is around, I'll never be-"

Moko's outburst was interrupted by a tight slap on her cheek from Kyoko.

Moko looked up, shocked. Even Kurosaki was surprised since it was so unexpected.

"That's enough" Kyoko scolded her. "I'm sick of hearing you say there's nothing you can do. You can't possibly believe that your skill as an actor is inferior to her parent's cash. It doesn't matter how much money she has. There is no way all that money could buy her any real talent."

"It's true that you can't buy talent," Moko looked down. "But you can buy people's hearts."

"Not everyone is for sale," Kyoko tried to reason with her.

"Yes, they are. They're all liars. I can't..." Moko was drowning in hopelessness.

"You don't get to decide that," Kyoko's tone softened. "Moko, when I failed at the very first LME audition, I wanted to give it all up right then and there. I thought it would be impossible to go on. That I wasn't cut out for this, but I realised it was too early to call it quits. I hadn't exhausted myself trying everything I could think of to make it big in the business.

                   How about you? Tell me, whenever you go up against her, do you fight with every ounce of strength inside you? Do you even want this? Do you want to be an actor?"

"More than anything."

"Then you have to fight. You always run away when she stands her ground. Of course she'll win."

The truth of the matter was finally revealed to Moko. She understood at last, why she couldn't beat Erika. It was like a curtain lifted from her eyes. She always lost because she never stuck around for the outcome. Her instinct had always been to run away. It all started making sense.

She's right, Moko thought. She never considered facing Erika head on, not even once. "I'll fight. So what now?"

"Yeah...well, now..." Kyoko cursed herself silently. She gave that big speech in the heat of the moment but now she had no idea what to say.

"If I fight, will I be able to start acting again without her stopping me?" Moko waited for the answer she already knew. She needed to hear it from someone. She needed someone to help her end this torment. She just never thought that person would be Kyoko, who'd help her.

This is bad, Kyoko panicked. Bad, bad, bad. What do I say? I am so dumb. Stupid, stupid, stupid. For some reason, the word stupid reminded her of Ren and his voice intruded her thoughts, offering her the answer she needed.

In this business, you have to stand out any way you can, using every possible advantage at your disposal.

"Moko, I know what we need to do," she said excitedly. "We already have a foolproof way to stand out from everyone."

"What are you talking about?"

"Tada," she sang. "A super pink privilege given only to us. It will be like a cursed burn in their eyes that they can't forget."

"You're totally insane. No way-" Moko shouted as she realized what Kyoko was talking about.

"Come on, move it." Kyoko cut her off as she dragged her to the elevator, without giving her a chance to speak.

A foolproof way to stand out, huh? Kurosaki thought after they left. I wonder what they are going to bring. Can't wait to find out.

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After the twelfth take, Ren sat down on a folding chair for a five minute break. The scene was exhausting but he kept at it and gave it is all in every single take. He was perfect but his co-star kept messing it up, because of which the scene was delayed for another day.

He took a sip of the warm, black coffee which Yashiro had poured for him.

"Err...excuse me," a woman said. She was strikingly beautiful in her early twenties, who also happened to be Ren's costar.

"Hmm?"

"I am so sorry. It's my fault we had to do so many takes." For an actress, she was pretty shy or maybe it was just the effect of Ren's powerful gaze holding her eyes captive. "I know I can do better tomorrow and I promise I'll hit my marks," she said apologetically, her tone gave away the guilt she felt.

"Hey, don't sweat it," Ren replied considerately in a warm, affectionate voice. "It takes a lot to make a scene work. You just have to keep at it until all the elements work together perfectly."

A tear rolled down from her eye and Ren gently wiped it off with his thumb. "If you keep letting your soul out through these tears, you'll have nothing to give to me on screen."

Geez, talk about corny, Yashiro, who witnessed the whole exchange, rolled his eyes as he wondered how Ren manages to say those cheesy things with a straight face.

The girl blushed and her eyes glimmered as she stared into Ren's eyes. Aww, Yashiro thought sympathetically. And another girl falls under Ren's magic spell.

"I'll give it my all," she promised.

He is always so kind to people who take their work seriously, Yashiro wondered. Except her.

After the girl left, he came to Ren to ask the question which had been weighing on his mind since last night.

"You were uncharacteristically nice to Kyoko yesterday, giving her that solid, professional advice. I had to ask, what brought the sudden change in heart?"

"No reason. Just because," Ren replied with an unreadable expression.

"Well, it's quite a turn. And here I thought that you didn't like her that much. You don't have to tell me why, I get it."

Ren frowned and scratched his chin as he played the events of last night in his mind.

"Wow, would you look at that face?" Yashiro said jokingly. "Don't tell me that you were being nice to her without even knowing it."

Ren's face revealed the sudden realisation that hit him.

Yashiro chuckled "Captain Smooth makes his moves without even trying. I just think it's a little curious how Kyoko is the only person you go out of your way to be kind of a jerk to. Especially because she works so hard all the time."

"That's just it," Ren said as he came to a conclusion. "She isn't working this way because she really wants to make it in this business."

"What does that mean?"

Everything she does is motivated by revenge. Aloud he said, "it was careless of me. From now on, I'll make sure not to be so nice to her."

"Um, no...you don't have to do that. What's wrong with being nice? Nice is good."

But Ren wasn't listening anymore.

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The girls gathered around in the hall as they waited for the audition to start. Nervousness thickened the air, so they clustered into little groups to chat while waiting to keep up each other's spirits. One of those groups was from LME, the Love Me duo.

"Are you ready, Moko?" Kyoko asked with unwavering determination. She was adamant to help Moko beat Erika once and for all. After all, that's what best friends were for, to help each other in the time of need. "From this day forward, you are no longer the timid herbivore that eats grass and runs away from fear and danger. You are that fear and danger. You are a carnivore, a shark, but we're on land so change that to a tiger with fangs. We are in this together. There are only two members of the Love Me Division, so your enemy is now my enemy." She went on without breathing, hell bent on keeping Moko's spirit up. She raised her fist in the air and smiled resolutely. "We will destroy Erika together."

"Yeah, so what's with the 'we'?" Moko asked, once Kyoko's inspirational ranting was over.

"What are you talking about?" Kyoko raised her eyebrows obliviously.

"Even if we were to work together to take her down a peg, only one of us can get the part, right?"

The colour drained from Kyoko's face as the realisation hit her.

"You didn't think about that, did you?" Moko rolled her eyes at her hopelessly.

"It's fine," Kyoko replied finally, after digesting the facts. "Provided we squash that show-off like a bug, I won't have any regrets losing to you. Even if I don't get this one, there will be plenty of auditions for me. But don't think for one second that I'll go easy on you, I am still gonna give it my all."

When Moko witnessed the fire of determination in Kyoko, it reminded her of herself. All those times, when Erika beat her, her eyes burned with the same determination, she never gave up either. It was like looking into a mirror. "You know you and I are kinda the same."

"How so?"

"You sure you're okay with this?" Moko dodged her question with another question. "I'm seriously going after this job."

"This gig is mine," Kyoko smiled with an absolute reslove, her valor evident on her face. "But before we go after each other, we are going to remove her completely, got it?"

The door opened and Erika walked in. The moment she laid eyes on the Love Me duo, a disgusted gasp escaped from her lips. "Why are you freaks dressed like that?" She shrieked feeling sickened when she saw their Love Me uniform. "Aww, this just reeks of desperation fuelled by the fact that you can't beat me. You should have known from the beginning that survival was not an option as long as I am in the game. Sneaking off to be an actress when you know I'll always find you, what a ridiculous notion. You still have time to back down before you humiliate yourself."

Both the girls turned to face Erika with hatred seething through their eyes.

"Its pretty cute that you think I'll run away without a fight," Moko hissed in a cool and dangerous voice. "I will beat you so hard that you won't have enough courage left to face me again, let alone chase me."

Well, that's new, Erika thought irritatedly. She never had the guts to make eye contact before, now she is giving me a death stare. Nobody gets in my face like that. You two just crossed a line.

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He strolled inside the room lazily. His brown spiky hair were disheveled. Sunglasses covered his eyes and almost half of his tanned face. Tiny little holes were pierced in multiple places on his ears with little gold earrings hanging from them. With a copper, leather jacket on his broad shoulders and strapped bronze jeans, anybody would have mistaken him for a gangster. Wisps of white smoke seeped through his thin lips and nostrils as he took in a puff from the half burnt cigarette clamped between his fingers.

"Director Kurosaki, what exactly have you been up to?" One of the producers asked.

"Just prepping for callbacks," he replied nonchalantly as he pressed the cigarette between his lips and inhaled deeply. "There is a slight change in plans."

"Change in plans? But the script of the commercial hasn't even come in yet."

"I have a plot in mind. The number of people we'll be needing for it will be..." He raised two of his fingers to finish his sentence, as he claimed an empty spot on the sofa.

A knock on the door interrupted their exchange. Two of Erika's bodyguards marched inside in black tuxedos. One of them put a briefcase on the table in front of Kurosaki before opening it to reveal it's contents which turned out to be a large number of bills stacked together neatly. "You know why we are here," the man signalled to him to take the money through his eyes.

The awkward silence that followed was nerve wracking and the air went thick with tension. The producers looked at each other skeptically and then at Kurosaki, whose sunglasses did not fail to conceal the annoyed glint in his eyes.

"Listen, suits," Kurosaki said at last. He raised his leg and slammed it on the table where the briefcase was, and some of the bills jumped out from the impact. "Mind getting this pile of crap the hell away from me?" He stroked his goatee. "I also got a message for the spoiled brat who got you all on a leash. You can tell her that I'm not as cheap as she thinks I am."

With that, the bodyguards ran back to report to Erika, with their tails hanging between their legs.