One Take Only (A Skip Beat! Fanfic)

Chapter 24: Kiss and Don't Tell

Kyoko shuffled to and fro nervously backstage. It was quiet shuffling, of course. It wouldn't do to shuffle loudly. A man in dark clothes stood near the entrance to the soundstage, listening attentively to something on his headset and flipping through the pages on his clipboard for the millionth time. She was supposed to look to him for her cue.

Until then, she shuffled. There was a monitor that showed what was being filmed, including a feed from the camera facing the audience. She found herself counting teenage girls, wondering how many were Fuwa Sho fans. They seemed so harmless, chatting amongst themselves, laughing and snapping selfies, but she knew how vicious they could be.

Finally, the house lights came up and the audience started clapping and screaming. The hostess, Ayame, an elegantly dressed woman in her early forties, glided out on very high heels that Kyoko sincerely hoped would never be a part of her own wardrobe. The announcer, an unseen man with a low, deep voice, introduced her as she strode in and sat down. As if a switch had been flipped, the audience went silent.

"Tonight, we have the pleasure of introducing someone many of you will not have heard of before, but whom I can say with confidence that you have seen at least once. A relative unknown in the industry-my favorite." She leaned forward and pitched her voice into a stage whisper, "With your help, we will surely be able to say that it was my little show that put her on the map when she becomes famous!" A wink, and the audience chuckled, happy to collude with her. "But first, let's see some samples of her work."

The monitor that had displayed the overlaid graphics of the opening credit sequence flickered to life again, and Kyoko saw a familiar face that made her feel fiercely happy. Beautiful long black hair streamed on a floral background advertising Curara soda. Her own face, happy and free, popped up next, and she deflated a bit. Before she could recover, the scene switched to a clip from her PV with Shotaro-the moment she dropped him over the cliff and her wings turned black-and again, almost as quickly, Mio standing tall and defiant in front of her mother. Finally, it settled on Natsu smiling blissfully as a fellow student begged her to stop before going blank again.

"Whew!" Ayame said cheerily. "That made me tired just watching. Can you believe it's all the same person behind those characters?" The surprised murmuring that came from the studio audience suggested that they, in fact, could not believe it. For the most part, Kyoko couldn't make individual words out, but a shouted, "No way!" did find its way to her ears. Naturally the hostess heard as well, and laughed. "I guess not!"

"But she is indeed the same actress. And now you'll all get to meet her. Please welcome Kyouko!" The man with the headset waved at Kyoko and music-the opening theme to Box "R"-swelled as she walked out.

She was almost disappointed when none of the mishaps that pervaded her nightmares of the night before took place. Walking onto the stage, she didn't trip, freeze up, or fall on her face. Instead, she bowed smoothly and sat down in the plush seat next to the host's desk.

"Thank you for having me," Kyoko said to the cheery woman. She was carefully positioned, per her director's instructions, in three-quarter profile, so as to seem attentive to the host while also allowing the audience to feel as if she were accessible to them.

Ayame smiled broadly. "Of course, it's my pleasure. So, Kyouko-san, you've been getting quite a lot of attention lately, haven't you?"

"Yes," said Kyoko with her own, polite smile. It was also well-rehearsed-less stiff than her usual professional expression but not over-the-top or too familiar. It made her mouth hurt. "It's been kind of a whirlwind since the season finale premiered. Not that I'm complaining," she said with a chuckle. Not to you, anyway, she thought.