Chapter 27. Stepping Stone.

A few days after Kyoko finished subbing in as a manager for Ren, she was on her way to her highschool for the first time, since she had successfully passed her entrance exam with flying colours. Bubbling with nervous excitement, she ran down the stairs and greeted the Taishos with her usual, cheerful smile before stepping out. Upon seeing her in her brand new school uniform, Mrs Taisho showered her with compliments and blessings and Mr Taisho went so far as to not frown and give her a short, approving nod.

Humming a playful tune, Kyoko flew down her bike as she imagined different scenarios in which her classmates would be so very excited to meet the new, mysterious girl. Her hopes were soon dashed to the ground when she saw only half a dozen student present there. It was then, she learned that all her classmates were struggling actors just like her, since she was in the performing arts program, because of which the attendance was quite irregular. Also, none of them were interested in making friends.

But she didn't let herself be bummed out much by that fact because she had Moko now. When she was finally dismissed in the evening, she stepped out and the first thing she noticed was a huge roadside screen on one of those tall skyscrapers. A particular ad was being played on it in where two girls in highschool uniforms were holding a bottle of Kyurara.

It's me and Moko! Kyoko realized and a grin broke out on her face.

Even after the commercial ended and another one started playing, Kyoko's eyes remained glued to the screen in hopes that she might get to see it again. But after a few minutes she realised that if she didn't hurry, she would be late for her Bo shoot. Flumping down on her bike, she started pedaling.

The sun had almost set when she finally arrived at the studio building where the talk show, Kimigure Rock was recorded every week, and parked her bike in the garage before entering. As she made her way to the dressing room through the heavily packed crowd in the hallway, she was interrupted by a loud, screeching bell ringing from her cellphone.

Fishing it out from her purse, she picked it up and answered, "hello?" without even bothering to check the caller ID since she assumed it to be Swara.

"Slow to pick up the phone as usual," a warm and smooth voice replied on the other end and her heart did a backflip filling her with vehement rapture.

"You know," the voice continued. "Since you're a big TV star now, you shouldn't walk around with the dazed look on your face."

Upon realizing that she was being watched, Kyoko snapped her head around looking in all four directions as she searched for the owner of that voice without much help.

"Come to think of it, maybe you were just lost in thought or something. Come back to us, Mogami." She could hear him smiling.

When Kyoko didn't find him anywhere, at last she looked up at the first floor railing and there he stood - with his jet black hair glistening and his warm, affectionate smile tugging on the lips of his handsome, chiseled face. He was already looking at her with his phone clutched up to his ear.

Their eyes met and his smile widened. "Tsuruga!" She exclaimed in surprise.

She hung up the phone and sprinted upstairs. She kept running until she finally spotted Ren with Yashiro. With a silly grin and panting breaths, she exclaimed, "you called me!"

"I've been meaning to give you a call for a little while now but I've been completely swamped with work, you know how it is." Ren replied. "This is really the first opportunity I've had. Luckily Mr Swara told me that I might be able to bump into you here today."

Her smile faltered and she tensed. What? Mr Swara, please tell me you didn't tell him that I am Bo, the chicken!

Without knowing, Ren answered this question for her. "He told me that you will be here for a Love Me job, which reminds me, why aren't you wearing your pink jumpsuit?"

She sighed with relief when he didn't mention Bo and plastered another smile. "Oh, right. See, I am not in my uniform because I came here straight from school."

"It all worked out," Ren shrugged. "I was actually hoping to see you dressed like this anyway. I think it suits you a lot." His lips curled into a flirty smirk. "Very studious!"

A shiver down Kyoko's back and she ended up blushing, her face tinged into the brightest shade of red. Even Yashiro blinked in surprise, then rolled his eyes at Ren.

"Thank you so much!" Her voice came out in a croak.

Ren continued casually. "I heard that you scored a perfect hundred in your entrance exam."

"Wow, a hundred!" Yashiro exclaimed. "That's really impressive, Kyoko!"

"Thanks. You know, I really have you to thank for that," she looked at Ren again.

"Me?" His eyebrows shot up.

"You probably didn't think twice about what you said to me that day - but I did." She smiled at the memory when he made her realise (though unintentionally) that she wasn't studying for her mother's approval anymore. If it hadn't been for him she would have studied all night and ended up sleepy during the exam. "It helped take the pressure off. Thanks a lot," she bowed.

Yashiro looked at Ren and his eyes almost fell out of their sockets from surprise when he saw the way Ren was gazing at Kyoko. His lips was streched into an angelic smile, unlike his cold, signature smile, which he usually had on and his dark eyes had a glint of fire in them as if they were burning with desire.

"You know, funny enough," Ren replied to Kyoko. "I wanted to say thank you as well. And in person, that's why I was waiting for you. I was going to say it before you finished subbing and as my manager but you left right after you were done taking care of - well, everything. I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you." He took her Love Me score diary from her. "Sorry about that."

"Yeah? No worries. You're giving me a stamp? I never thought that would happen," Kyoko chuckled, feeling thrilled inside. "That's really sweet of you."

He opened the small heart-shaped diary and pressed a small hundred-point stamp on an empty page.

"I wasn't trying to do all that stuff for you so you would thank me afterwards. I just did it," Kyoko mentioned matter-of-factly.

"You're being too modest, Kyoko." Yashiro said. "Making meals and being his nurse, most managers wouldn't do all that for a client."

"Really?" She frowned. "But that's such an important part of the job!"

The job? The two words hit Ren like a slap, when he realised that everything Kyoko did for him, she considered it to be just a part of her job. Nothing more, nothing less. But why hearing this hurt him so much, he had no idea. This was what it was supposed to be after all. Her job. Then why did he feel like his heart was being squeezed, he wondered.

Without any reason, he was filled with a frivolous anger and he suddenly regretted giving her a hundred. He resisted his urge to stick a negative ten stamp beside the hundred points logo.

"That's right!" Kyoko proudly told Yashiro. "I told him that I would do everything in my power to help him get well so he wouldn't have to miss a single shoot! If he were asked to take a sick day, it would have been a failure for me. I wasn't about to let something like that happen on my watch!"

The more she talked, the harder it became to resist his urge. He already had the negative ten stamp opened and hanging above the smooth white paper of the diary. But he still didn't press it - until he heard her next words. If only she had stopped talking!

"...so that's why I was adding the personal touch, and maybe becoming more somewhat emotionally available for the sake of my client," Kyoko ranted on, totally oblivious to the newly found tension in the air.

Yashiro's eyes flew back and forth from Ren's face to Kyoko, concernedly.

"Kyoko," Ren said.

"Yeah?" She turned to him and replied casually, successfully hiding the fact that her heart just skipped a beat. Did he just call me by my first name? She did a victory dance inside her head thinking that he was finally warming up to her, thanks to her relentlessly professional and diligent attitude as a substitute manager.

"Here!" He handed the diary back to her.

"Thank you very much!" She flipped it open excitedly to check her score and grinned at the hundred point stamp proudly - until her eyes spotted the tiny negative ten logo accompanying the hundred. "Hey... W-what's up with the... math?"

"Nothing." Ren said casually in a somewhat satisfied tone and switched back to his perfect signature smile. "It's just the score I gave you, ninety."

"But you changed it!" She shouted angrily. "You finally gave me a hundred but then you decided to take it back?"

"It's not that. I just accidentally used the wrong stamp. Sorry, my bad." His perfect signature, arctic smile, which could have frozen lava, widened, giving Kyoko frostbite.

"You're lying!" Knowingly, she spat before storming off. "You're just doing this to mess with me!"

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The next morning when Kyoko made it to the agency, Swara immediately called her to his office.

"Mr Swara!" She lightly knocked on his office door and peeked inside. He was slumped on his desk chair surrounded by a bundle of files stacked on the table. "May I come in?"

"Ms Mogami!" His face lit up when he spotted her. "I have a fantastic news for you!"

"What is it?" She led herself inside.

"You got a new gig! And not only that, its a role in a music video! You ever heard the name Haruki Asami?"

"Yes, I have!" Haruki Asami was one of the top directors and executive producers of Japan.

"I just received a call from the Queen Rec. Studios. They told me that Director Asami has personally requested you for this role after watching your commercial!"

The words rang inside Kyoko's mind like a distant echo, because she already started imagining how it could turn out to be her big break! Being in a music video meant that unlike in a commercial, people would specifically watch her on screen with their undivided attention. This really could very well turn out to be her big break!

"That's not all, there's more." Swara grinned. "But I think you should sit down for this one or you might fall."

Kyoko happily obliged, because her knees were as weak and wobbly as noodles.

Once she was seated, he continued, "guess whose music video it's going to be? Sho Fuwa! That's right, you'll get to meet him in person!"

All the colour drained from Kyoko's face. What she thought might turn out to be her big break suddenly turned into a nightmare. All the past painful memories which she had been burying inside, flooded back into her mind with the force of a tsunami and the deep vibe of hate and lothing radiated off her. "I am sorry," Kyoko finally spoke in a dangerously low voice. "I didn't quite catch that. Would you mind repeating it for me?"

"Sure. Okay." Swara's grin faltered instinctively when he saw the glint of ominous anger and hate in her eyes. "Don't panic, but it's Sho Fuwa's music video."

"Call them back!" She spat. "Tell them I can't accept the offer." There was no way she would stoop so low as to work with Sho. She would rather die. Besides, she wasn't ready to face him. Not yet. Not until she was more successful than him.

"But, why not? I promise you, getting featured in a popstar's music video will help your career immensely!"

"I don't care! No way in hell, I can't do this!" She screamed before storming out.

After a lot of careful pondering over the subject for a whole day, Kyoko came back to Swara's office in the evening. She first apologized to him for her earlier outburst and then politely asked him to accept the offer on her behalf. She realised she was lucky enough to receive an opportunity like this despite being so inexperienced but she was throwing it away over Sho, no way she was doing something so stupid.

She decided to do it not because she was asked, but this time, she planned on using Sho as a stepping stone for once, like he had used her countless times before. She planned to outshine him in his own video and upstage him by giving it her all in the performance.

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As they made their way through the airport, Yashiro spotted a familiar ginger-headed girl on the huge commercial screen and he pointed it out to Ren. "Lock, there's Kyoko."

Both men stopped and watched the Kyurara commercial play out till the end.

"Have you gotten a chance to speak with her lately?" Yashiro asked nonchalantly as they resumed walking. "She said she is going out of town on a shoot for a week."

"Huh?" Ren replied casually with no interest whatsoever. "First time hearing of it," he lied smoothly.

Is that so? Yashiro raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "The way you two have been acting, I thought you were starting to get pretty friendly with each other."

"You really think so? Doesn't really feel anything has change between us."

Yashiro sighed hopelessly. "You just won't see it! It's painfully obvious that you are looking at her totally different than before."

Ren turned to look at him with surprise, the words am-I-really? were written on his face.

"You are being so nice to her that it makes the girls nearby who see it melt into little puddles of goo."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Their conversation halted when a man called out to Ren, "Mr Tsuruga! This way!"

"Looks like it's time to board."

"Wait, Ren." Yashiro decided to directly confront him about that thing which had been weighing on his mind since days. "There is one more important thing I need to ask you."

"Ask me anything you like but it'll have to wait till later." With that, Ren disappeared into the crowd as he went ahead to board the plane.

I don't think I'm looking at her differently, Ren thought once he was comfortably settled on his seat and the plane had taken off. I guess I am a bit relieved. More than I thought I'd be, to be honest. I am glad she's not studying acting for Fuwa's sake anymore. I'd hate for her to squander all her talent for petty revenge. It will be such a waste.

I do wish though, she wasn't going to work with Sho right now. Truth be told, I think she needs to be as far away from him as possible.

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With heavy steps, an arctic demeanor which was cold enough to make people who dare to stand in her way, quake in fear, and a glint of anger and hate flashing in her eyes, she marched up to the receptionist. "Good morning!" She spat in a tone that suggested their was nothing particularly 'good' about this morning. Though she was just a harmless teenager in a pink jumpsuit, her icy voice was enough to make the poor receptionist flinch and step back instinctively. "My name is Kyoko Mogami and I got a booking here today. LME is my agency. It's for Sho Fuwa's music video."

"R-right!" The receptionist somehow managed to give her the directions to the waiting room where she was supposed to stay, despite her stuttering.

The waiting room turned out to be a white, immaculate, spacious and brightly lit room with a huge conference table in the middle, surrounded by silver metallic chairs.

Kyoko sat down on the closest chair to the door and took a deep breath. She was acting so coldly earlier because she wanted to let out as much anger as she could before she had to meet him. After all, she didn't want to lose her temper in front of him and then reveal her identity. She didn't make all those preparations just to blow up her cover in the end.

As you might have guessed, Kyoko was nowhere near the level right now which she wanted to reach before she was ready to face Sho, even if she did manage to become an actress. It wasn't enough! She wanted to climb so high before seeing him that looking into her eyes would be enough to shatter his spirit into a thousand pieces. But that wasn't possible if he recognised her today.

So she made a plan in order to keep her identity a secret.

Kyoko already knew that Sho couldn't recognise her by her face because of her new, shortly-cropped pixie, ginger hair, thanks to their little meeting at the gas station. Not to mention, that it had been more than six months since they saw each other and her complexion was remarkably less pale than before, as well as her emaciated form which had gotten a little curvier (in the right places) since she started working out.

The only obstacle was her name. There was no way to hide her name. Sho was expecting a Kyoko Mogami to show up. It would be a surprised if he hadn't already suspected it to be her all along. Unfortunately, he wasn't that stupid.

It was a good thing she came prepared. Now it was time for Kyoko to put her newly learned acting skills to the test. Ren Tsuruga could transform into a completely different person even after having the same face then why couldn't she do that?

She didn't have to worry about her appearance either, just her name. All she had to do was prove that her similar name was just a coincidence, by acting completely opposite to how the real Kyoko Mogami would react. She would have to make Sho believe that she was someone else who happened to have the same name, nothing more. She went so far as to wear brown contacts in order to hide her hazel eyes, the only thing which might have given her away. After all this, it had to work!

The time kept passing by while she waited and waited but nobody showed up. She glanced at the door for the umpteenth time and strained her ears for any approaching footsteps in the vicinity - but no one came.

Unbidden, her thoughts drifted back to the past, to a time when all she did was cry. As she relived those painful memories in her mind, she realised that Sho was a jerk to her long before he dragged her to Tokyo. Although they spent their whole childhood together, he never truly treated her as a friend or an equal, but a servant to pass time with.

All those times when she used to cry over her mother, Sho never once wiped away her tears or tried to console her. Instead, he just froze up whenever he found her choking up. Tears made him uncomfortable, especially her tears, so he never bothered to react. He just stood and watched like a statue. This was one of the reasons why she stopped crying, and for when she absolutely had to, she found herself a spot in the jungle where she met Corn.

She screeched her thoughts to a halt before she became even more disgusted with Sho or with herself for not realising his true nature before.

She glanced up at the doorway and then at the wall clock, and noticed that an hour had passed.

Slamming an angry fist on the table, she thought, why did this stick me in the stupid room to wait? I bet it's all that pompous, idiot's fault. If I know him at all, he overslept and is taking his sweet time getting here!

"This was a mistake!" She muttered and marched up to the door in order to leave.

Just as she reached out her hand to grab the knob, the door flung open with him on the other side. In a black sleeveless shirt, black ripped jeans and spiky blonde hair, there he stood. The man she used to love. Also, the man she now hated with every ounce of her being. Sho Fuwa.

Both of them froze the instant their eyes met, as if time itself had frozen. They stared and breathed each other in, their eyes locked in a deadly battle of wills, as if they were determined to expose every secret the other possessed by gazing deep into the other's soul through their eyes.

Kyoko forgot all about her plan, about her preparations, about the shoot and everything else. All she could think about was, how much he had hurt her, how much she craved revenge and how badly she wanted to curl her fingers around his neck and squeeze. And apparently, so did he, he also forgot whatever he was about to say, and kept breathing her in through his eyes.