Chapter 13. Partner In Pink.

Kyoko opened her eyes. She was in an empty room lying on a futon.

The door opened blinding her with the weaker rays of the setting sun, it was almost evening. How long was I out? She wondered.

The last thing she remembered was when she was being treated by a doctor and Yashiro came to visit her.

She asked him who got the part and he said that it was Ruriko. After that, she blacked out again.

A bittersweet feeling sank into her gut when she remember that. She wanted to get the part but she was also relieved at the same time that she didn't get it.

"Are you awake?" The person who had opened the door, said.

"Yes."

"Here." It was Ruriko. She handed Kyoko the pink heart-shaped diary, which she had left in the makeup room earlier.

Kyoko took it from her and opened it as she sat up. There was a mark left by a hundred points stamp with Ruriko's signature beneath it.

"But Ruriko...are you serious?" She asked with utter disbelief.

"Well, it took a lot of soul searching but I guess you tried pretty hard for a hyena girl or whatever," Ruriko replied in a board tone.

Kyoko looked at Ruriko like she was insane. It ended up provoking her.

"What's that weird look for?" Her tone was angry.

"Uh... I am sorry." Kyoko looked down. She was still trying to figure out what was wrong with Ruriko. I tried pretty hard? I tried pretty hard to steal her role out from under her, on her own set. Now she is complimenting me? And she is rewarding me? What happened here? Did she smack her head? Is she suffering from some kind of delusion.

"What the heck?" Ruriko shouted at the creepy expression Kyoko was making. "If you got something to say to me then say it to my face!"

Kyoko chuckled and shook her head.

"Look, I get it, alright? After you went unconscious, I swear I didn't run over to Mr Shinka and start begging him for the role. I bet that's what you think though."

"No, I don't."

"Wait, what?"

"I may not remember what happened after I dropped the tea but when it's all said and done, I am pretty sure this is a competition I deserved to lose. I could put together all kind of excuses but the fact of the matter is I pushed myself too far and," she raised her fist in frustration. "I didn't earn that role today."

"That's a pretty good point. I mean I guess so. Maybe...maybe you're not actually that bad," Ruriko said, averting her eyes.

Kyoko's jaw dropped from surprise and her mouth turned into an O. Ruriko being nice was creeping her out.

"Wipe that look off your face," Ruriko snapped. She might have changed for the better but Kyoko still irritated her. "And shut your mouth while you are at it. I can't believe you're so annoying. I am out of here, hyena girl." She marched out.

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"Wow!" Kyoko exclaimed loudly. She was with the Director in the lobby of the hotel where the crew was staying for the night. It was just below the mountain so it would be easier to resume the shoot the next morning.

She was sitting on a chair when the Director along with his assistant came to her. Another guy followed them with a big, beautifully carved, wooden photo frame.

The Director gave the photo frame to Kyoko. It had a picture of her from the set. The cameraman had taken it before the shoot after her makeover.



Kyoko was so happy to see it that she started giggling and babbling out of excitement, "oh my God! It's perfect..."

"I thought you might like a souvenir," the Director smiled.

"This is the greatest gift I could ask for." She cupped her blushing cheeks from her hands and closed her eyes, "with the costume and makeup and the lighting and everything, I felt like a real movie star. Now I know for sure that this wasn't all just a beautiful dream," she squeaked. "Mr Shinka, you're the most amazing person in the whole wide world."

Upon seeing her reaction, the assistant muttered to the guy with the photo, "I don't think the most amazing person would have used her as a pawn in a big, elaborate scheme."

"Agreed," he whispered back. "I'm pretty sure this picture is his way of apologizing for putting her through all that."

"There is one more thing, Kyoko," the Director finally said after she was done squeaking.

"Yes?" She smiled cheerfully.

"I am sure you must be very disappointed about not winning the role today. Regardless, you put up an incredible fight. Don't think for one second that your acting was inferior to Ruriko's. Truth be told, your performance was-"

"Not enough," she cut him off. Her smile gone. "It may be strange to hear but I'm glad I lost today. I gave you the reaction called for in the script but it wasn't actually a performance out of my part. Tsuruga's acting took me completely by surprise. The reaction wasn't my character's, it was mine," she said sincerely. "In the end, I was downright furious at myself for reacting exactly the way he wanted me to. If I am going to get a role, I want it to be on my own merit. I want to earn that success."

"You are not the only one. Ren's acting has always had a way of drawing pure emotions out of the other performers. He can make them quake in fear or make them fall head over heels in love. It's an incredible gift to be able to pull genuine performances out of his costars."

"But that's totally unfair. It was like he was cheating to get a good performance from me," she still shook remembering his eyes from this morning. It was creepy. "It's deception, I tell you, like mind control or something. I ended up like some scared puppet dangling from his strings and waiting for him to decide where to move me. It's not right that he can control me like that. That's why, there's no way I could be happy with this if I had won today. My talent isn't what made that performance good. I want to stand tall with my own acting skills, not someone else's"

Well, that was something, the director thought. I didn't expect her to be this thoughtful or mature. She keeps on surprising me.

He saw Ren and Yashiro passing through, they were going upstairs so he called out, "Ren."

They both stopped.

"Hold on, could you please show Ms Mogami to her room." He said and excused himself saying that he had some business to attend to.

Kyoko followed Ren and Yashiro with the crutch under her arm to support herself. They slowed their pace as well so she could keep up with them. The silence was awkward. Kyoko still felt a bit terrified around Ren since the shoot, that's how powerful his acting was.

"Thank you so much." She smiled at Yashiro. "How incredibly kind of you to walk me all the way back to my room. It's such a sweet gesture Mr Yashiro. You're such a gentleman."

"Okay, I was just really walking with Ren but sure."

He sensed the tension in the air. "So anyway, why don't you tell us about how long been practicing tea ceremony Kyoko?" He tried to make small talk to break the ice.

Too long, I must have been 12 years old or maybe even younger when Sho's mom came to ask me, she thought. But wait, the only person allowed to make tea in our inn was the hostess.

She halted to a stop. Her mind a mess as a realisation hit her. She was grooming me to take over to be Sho's wife!

It all made sense now. Her legs suddenly felt like noodles and she fell down on her knees. Her arm crutch dropped making a loud noise.

"Kyoko, are you okay?" Yashiro asked her, concernedly.

But she didn't reply. Her thoughts were all jumbled.

I learned it for Him. The only reason I got so close to winning today was because I learned that stupid tea ceremony for Him. She felt an ache deep within her heart, which was a lot worse than the pain of her ankle. There was no way to fix it. She used to love him so much, every thing in her life was about him. She wanted to forget about him, to give her heart a break, but every corner she turned, he was there.

"Are you gonna be alright?" Ren asked kindly as he squatted down and faced her.

No, she thought and kept looking down, her heart in turmoil. It keeps on happening. Is there any of me inside or am I just empty without what he made of me? Her eyes turned watery.

"Can you stand?" Ren said in a patient voice. He streched out his hand to her.

She looked up at him. Today, I got a glimpse of another world. A world I want to live in. I want to be proud of what I do, to stand beside this man and perform as his equal. She gazed into his eyes as he helped her up. And I'll give my all to see it done. This can be the first day of a brand new me. Next time we act together, there will be no question, I can show him my true talent.

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The next day, Kyoko was back in the lobby in her pink jumpsuit. Her crutch beneath her arm.

Last night, when she got to her room, the makeup artist and her assistant made her wash off the makeup from her face. She begged them not to, but they reasoned with her and she had no choice but to agree. In the end, she cried like a baby as they wiped away the gorgeous makeup from her face and took the beautiful wig off her head. They even took back those sparkly brown contacts from her eyes.

Thus, the magic spell cast on her faded away. Cinderella was herself again.

She was now on her way back to the agency with Mr Shinka's assistant. The others were about to leave for the set. Since she was hurt, they asked her to go back home and rest.

She found Ren and Yashiro having tea in the restaurant. So she decided to go ahead and thank them for walking her to her room last night.

"Thank you so much, both of you for all your help last night." She bowed a little.

"Of course. Honestly, I am just glad to see you up and walking again," Yashiro replied while Ren was enjoying his tea.

She give him a confused look.

"Well I was a little concerned after you collapsed in the hallway last night," he explained.

"Oh, that. Don't worry yourself about it." She chuckled and waved her hand away. "You were talking about the tea ceremony and I was reminded of this guy who was kinda cruel to me so-"

"And that's what made you fall ?" Ren frowned at her. "Is that still about him?"

"Um... Maybe." She realised that she had said too much but there was no way to back out now.

Yashiro looked back and forth at Ren and Kyoko with a what-am-I-missing-here? look.

"So everything you worked for, everything you've accomplished so far, it's all about him?" He got up and crossed his arms. "Not to mention, all the courage you showed on set."

"For revenge!" She said with her fist raised. He already knew about it so there was no point in hiding.

"Okay," he said with his perfect signature smile.

He took her score diary from her and pressed a stamp on it. Before she could check it, Mr Shinka's assistant showed up to drive her back.

When she was seated in the van later, she opened it and checked her score. She was absolutely stunned to find a small minus ten logo with Ren's signature. Her hands shook from disbelief and anger. "Why? What could I have possibly done to earn a negative ten? What kind of a giant, selfish jerk are you?" She screamed in frustration.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel lobby, "negative ten?" Yashiro asked Ren. "And here I was thinking that you were actually starting to grow fond of Kyoko."

Ren raised his eyebrows with a look that said 'when did I suggest that?'

"After all, you were giving her a real performance, I mean, I know you."

"You're right," he replied as he set down the empty tea cup. "I think she showed some impressive courage but as long as she is obsessed with that boy, she'll never be able to grow." He got up and left before Yashiro got the chance to ask him 'which boy?'

Somewhere far away, inside a van being driven on a road, an angry Kyoko screamed, "curse you, Tsuruga!"

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A few days later, Kyoko was ready to head out to LME. She had been told to take a few days off to rest up and give her ankle a chance to heal. Now, since it was almost completely healed, she was on her way.

But before, she went to her small, closet room and stared at the two men whose posters were pasted on her wall.

"Stop freaking staring at me, you jerks!" She shouted at them.

One poster was of Sho Fuwa. She had put it back on after being accepted in LME. The other one belonged to Ren Tsuruga. She bought that one on her way back from the set where he gave her a minus ten for no damn reason.

"I'll show both of you that I am the best actor there's ever been."

It was her daily morning routine. She did it to remind herself her true priority.

She opened her purse and took out two small voodoo dolls of each guy. She had personally sewn those herself in the time she spent on resting her ankle. She used those to relieve her frustration by cursing the real deals.

"Everyone's gonna be like, 'oh, Kyoko, you're so super great. You are the best actor there's ever been!' And when that day comes, my talent will make you," she squeezed the Ren doll, "cry like a little baby. And you," she squeezed the Sho doll, "you will question your metaphysical purpose and wet your pants. Together you will be nothing more than a fangirl's forgotten footnotes. Mwahahahahaha!" She laughed like the evil queen



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Kyoko was on her way to the Love Me room. She stepped out of the elevator with a small booklet in her hand. Her mind engrossed in it as she read aloud, "'the LME agency has its own academy acting classes? Where true talent is trained. Our experts will prepare you for any facets of the entertainment industry.'"

That got her attention, "I must train," she said to herself. Only one day at a real set made her realise just how far behind she was. She didn't even know the basics. "And you, the creepy ghost of Ren Tsuruga floating smugly inside my mind, you're going down, man."

She flipped a few pages as she looked for the enrollment procedure, "they expected us to pay that much upfront?! It's like corporate extortion."

She closed the booklet and kept walking to the destination with a grim look on her face. There was no way she could afford it.

As she was walking down the hallway, she saw a girl pacing the floor while reading the same booklet as her. Her face was familiar. When Kyoko got a closer look, she remembered where she had seen her before. It was Kanae Kotoname from the auditions. The same girl who shouted at her and tried to distract her.

She looked up from the booklet. Upon seeing Kyoko, she gave out a startled shriek, "no! It's you. What do you think you doing back at LME?"

"Me? I am just..." I can't tell her about the Love Me Division or she'll darken my soul from unbearable shame.

"Wait, that booklet?" She asked to dodge the question and also because she was genuinely curious. "I thought you already survived the Acting Division auditions. Why would you need to look into taking classes here?"

"I'm...not. I mean... I am looking of course...because it's my agency and you can't not know stuff about your agency if you are a professional and I am a total pro," she replied skeptically.

"Ms Kotoname!" A big man with a burly built, called out as he approached.

Kyoko recognised him. He was the head of the acting division, Matsushima. He was also one of the judges in the auditions.

"I am glad you're here," he said to Kanae, whose face was becoming more and more freaked out as she listened to him. It was obvious that she didn't want Kyoko to find out whatever he was saying.

"You left in such a rush yesterday after my intro of our new division, I was afraid you were never coming back, but here you are." He smiled cheerfully, genuinely happy to see her. "You are a very talented girl and if you put your mind to it, I know you will succeed."

He patted her shoulder and almost sang with a grin, "congratulations, you are a Love Me girl now!"

Kanae finally stopped freaking out as she couldn't stop Kyokp from finding out anymore. "Can't we atleast change the name?" She asked with the most gloomy expression she could manage.

"Nope, the President named it himself."

"Wait, I don't get it," said Kyoko. "I thought you already passed auditions."

"Not completely." Matsushima explained. "You see, Ms Kotoname did pass the phone improv, but after that, the judges asked each actor their reasoning for saying what they did. Everyone else talked about the importance of forgiveness and, well, love. But her answer was completely different. She felt exactly opposite of what she acted. She might have been able to pull off the small phone improv but in the long run it would have been a hindrance if she can't relate to the character's feelings because of her lack of understanding of real love."

She doesn't know how to love, Kyoko thought. She is just like me.

"But she does have a natural talent for performances so we decided to move her into the Love Me Division and help her unlock her emotions."

We're not alone, we have each other, Kyoko thought. "Hey, comeon now. Yes, Love Me Division may have the worst name in the industry, but once you get used to all the pointing and laughing, it's not so bad." Kyoko patted her shoulder sympathetically. She knew exactly how Kanae felt.

"Don't waste your time trying to cheer me up." Kanae snapped at her. "You have no idea how I feel!"

"But the Love Me Division is absolutely the best," Kyoko grinned, not succeeding at hiding her enthusiasm for not being alone to suffer the humiliation anymore.

"Wait, why do you know so much about the Love Me Division?" She asked. And then it hit her, "no! I'll start over from the beginning. It's bad enough that it's called Love Me, I mean, it's so degrading. But to share the shame with you alone is totally unacceptable."

She tried to run free but Kyoko grabbed her shoulders and wouldn't let go.

She dragged Kanae to the Love Me room with an evil smirk as Matsushima stood there speechless, unsure what to do.

"She's all yours, Ms Mogami." He said at last and turned to leave.

On his way back, he could still hear the screams and shouts of a scared Kanae, "oh, no! Get away from me, you freak...what the?...no way in hell...aaaaaahh...NO, I WILL NOT WEAR A BRIGHT PINK JUMPSUIT!"