Ch 10 Epilogue
"Kyoko, do you mind if I pick you up around nine tonight? I know that's a little late, but there's something I want to show you and I can't do it any earlier than that..."
"Of course! Can you tell me what it is?"
"Nope!" He gives her an impish smile. "I'll see you then."
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They get to Ren's door, and he unlocks it. Kyoko is dying of curiosity as to what it is Ren wants to show her.
They enter the dark house, and Ren flips on the light.
"It's in the dining room."
Ren tells Kyoko to close her eyes. She obeys. When he says, "open"...he flips on the light, to reveal a dozen faces seated around the table, a feast of food covering it. They all yell "surprise!" Kyoko is shocked—but confused.
"Wh-what...is all this?"
"This is your graduation party!" Ren beams at her. "I had to make it late in order to accommodate everyone's schedules."
Kyoko is moved. Seated around the table were all her friends from work...Moko-chan, Amamaya-san, President Takarada, Tenten –san, Director Ogata, Sawara-san, Yashiro-san, and some of the actors and actresses she had worked with.
"Are you surprised, Kyoko?" asks Ren.
"H-hai!" she replies with glee, her eyes glossy.
Ren seats her and takes his own seat next to her, and the party begins. After everyone gorges themselves on the food, Kyoko is given small gifts, with words of congratulations.
Kyoko's eyes fog up as she thanks everyone repeatedly.
Once the guests leave, Ren says, "And now for my gift." He hands her an envelope.
Kyoko excitedly opens it—she couldn't imagine what sort of gift would fit inside of an envelope other than cash, which she knew it wasn't, but anything from Ren is special.
There inside she finds two plane tickets—to America.
With astonished, wide eyes, she asks, "Y-you're taking me...to America?"
"Yes. For three days, plus the travel time. I've already cleared both our schedules for the trip with the President. It's next week. I hope you're excited...I don't know how much interest you really have in the States, but I thought you'd enjoy a little vacation overseas pretty much anywhere. Was I right?"
"Are you kidding me? You grew up in America! I'm going to love getting to see your place of origin with you! This is by far the best gift of the night! I-I don't know what to say...'thank you' falls too short..."
"Well," says Ren suggestively, "you could show me..." He's giving her his bedroom eyes and sly half-smile, looking irresistible.
Kyoko returns the look, and goes up to him to take him by the hand, wordlessly leading him to his bedroom.
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"Well, here we are, Kyoko!"
"But this isn't a hotel...it's a house! Is it one of those bed-and-breakfast things I've heard about?"
"Well, we will have a bed here and breakfasts here...now let's go in."
Kyoko can tell he's keeping something from her, but his smile tells her it's something good, so she quizzes him no further.
Ren knocks on the door, and a familiar face opens it. Kyoko nearly falls over when she sees Hizuri Kuu—Ren's father!
"Good to see you again, Mogami Kyoko!" Hizuri says with a Japanese bow. Kyoko returns it. "Won't you come in and meet my wife?"
He-he's taking me to meet his parents?? I can't believe it!
"G-good to see you again, too, Hizuri-san," Kyoko says, offering him her hand to shake, knowing it is the customary greeting in America. Kuu shakes her hand with a smile, and leads the two into the house, closing the door behind him.
When Juliena sees Ren—as her son Kuon—she runs up to him with tears in her eyes, hugging him flat.
"M-mother, it's good to see you again too. But uh...remember, I brought someone here with me I want you to meet."
"Oh, of course!" she says. "Forgive me, Mogami-san, it's very nice to meet you." She too bows as the Japanese do, and after returning it, Kyoko tells her how nice it is to meet her as well—once again holding her hand out for an American shake.
For the next three days, Kyoko gets to know Ren's parents as they get to know her, and they all get along splendidly. Kyoko asks them to call her by her first name without any honorifics, and they ask her to do the same with them.
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On the last night there, Ren has one last surprise for Kyoko. After dinner that night, Ren's parents turn in early, overly cheerfully in Kyoko's opinion. Then when Ren and Kyoko are alone, Ren gets down on one knee before Kyoko, seated on the couch. He pulls out a small velvet box.
Kyoko knows what this is, and her heart jumps into her throat. It's the traditional American way of doing it, but she doesn't mind that at all.
"Kyoko," Ren begins, "you are the woman I love and I want to wake up to your face every day for the rest of my life. Will you...marry me?" He opens the box, revealing a gold ring with a moderate-sized teardrop diamond on it—big enough to be obvious what it is, but not so large that it's gaudy or ostentatious.
Kyoko's jaw and eyes are open wide. She's so stunned, she can't find her voice, making Ren nervous.
After a moment, though, it comes back to her. "Hai!! Hai, hai, hai, hai! Of course, hai!" Tears begin to fall from her eyes as an elated Ren slips the ring onto her finger.
"I know most Japanese women don't wear their engagement rings to keep other women from getting jealous, so I understand if you want to take it off when we get back to Japan."
"You'd have to cut my finger off to get this ring off me!" replies Kyoko, deadly seriously. "My friends won't be jealous, they'll be happy for me! And I don't care about anyone else!"
Ren beams. He gets up from the floor to sit next to her on the couch.
"You'll have to decide now what kind of wedding you want to have, Western-style or traditional Japanese—and whether or not you want to take my last name."
"Don't have to think about it. I want to wear one of those gorgeous American wedding dresses and have the ceremony in a church, and I want Hizuri!"
Ren smiles. "I was hoping you would say that."
"Oh, but what about my acting career? I can't use Hizuri without exposing you..."
"You can choose a stage name, ya know. You can keep Mogami for that."
"What if I...chose Tsugura?" She looks at him nervously.
He smiles at her. "I hadn't thought of that. Yes, I would like that very much!"
"Oh, wait...there's one more problem...you were born and raised in America! That means you're not a Japanese citizen, officially, and can't get—"
"I became one already. When I turned twenty, I went through the whole long process, and I'm now officially a Japanese citizen. We can legally get married there."
"Oh, I'm glad. Just one more thing...usually people are officially married just by signing documents at the courthouse and then they have the ceremony like six months later. Do you think we could plan this so that we can sign the papers and then immediately have the ceremony? I mean I know we'd be in line all day, so it would have to be a night wedding ceremony, but..."
"Sure. I don't mind at all. Let's set a date as soon as we get back and start the planning!"
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Sho glares at the tv screen. Tsugura Ren was being interviewed about his recent engagement to actress Mogami Kyoko. He grits his teeth as his anger burns.
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Ren and Kyoko are walking down the hall together at LME when suddenly Kyoko's arm is grabbed and she is whipped around.
It's Sho, huffing with rage. "You're just doing this to spite me, aren't you?!" he spits.
Ren, having now turned around himself, says darkly, "Take your hand off my fiancee's arm!"
Sho ignores Ren. Never turning his attention from Kyoko, he yells, "You still belong to me!" He yanks her arm, making her stumble forward, closer to him.
"I said get your hand off my fiancee's arm!" Ren yells back, elbowing Sho's forearm, causing him to release Kyoko.
The two men glare at each other.
"Fine!" Sho shouts. "Ya know what? You can have her! She's nothing but a plain, stupid girl with no sex appeal!" He turns around and starts tromping away.
Ren stares after, thinking to himself, How many times did this beautiful woman hear that until she believed it?
Something in him snaps. He swiftly catches up to Sho, turns him around by the shoulder, and punches him right in the eye.
Shocked at himself, he turns to Kyoko, who had run after him, and explains, "I'm sorry, Kyoko. That wasn't *him*, I swear!"
Kyoko puts her hand on his shoulder. "I know, Ren," she says, "Because I can see *your* eyes." She walks over to Sho, butt on the ground, recovering from the blow, and crouches in front of him. She puts her hand on his arm.
"I'm not doing this to hurt you, Sho. I'm not mad at you anymore. I forgive you for everything. But I don't belong to you. I love Ren. He's a good man. He makes me happy. So if you care about me at all...be happy for me."
Sho stares at her sincere eyes for a moment, then gets up and walks away wordlessly.
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Everyone who had been at Kyoko's graduation party is sitting in the pews of the church, along with the people Kyoko had lived with while in Tokyo, and Sho's parents, who had raised her in her mother's stead—and even Ren's parents, who didn't really stand out, because many other famous faces were also in attendance. But one person is a total surprise—Sho.
Kyoko comes down the aisle in a beautiful white wedding dress, netting over her face, carrying her bouquet—looking stunning. Ren looks dashing in his tux. The ceremony is beautiful, and every bit the American wedding—except that the preacher uses Tsugura Ren instead Hizuri Kuon, of course. They were officially wed under the law at the courthouse earlier that day with Ren's real name.
When it comes time to throw the bouquet...none other than Moko-chan catches it! She doesn't look too happy about it, but Kyoko is thrilled.
The just-wed couple get into Ren's car after the ceremony—with an enormous crowd of fans and the press being held at bay by security—and drive to an expensive upscale hotel to make love as husband and wife for the first time. Then they take a short honeymoon—in Kyoto, camping in the woods where they first met. Neither could be happier.
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Sho watches the newly-married couple leaving the church on tv with dismay. It's big news, Tsugura Ren getting married. He can't escape it. He had shown his support for Kyoko by having been there, but he isn't happy about it. He's sitting alone, depressed. And angry—at himself. What have I let go of? What have I lost forever? If only I had been a better person...Kyoko, I'm sorry. I really did love you. Despite how I treated you...you were always someone special to me.
Then there is a knock at his door. It's his manager. She knew the repeat showings of the bride and groom on tv would upset Sho and had come to see him.
He's actually very glad to see her—more so than he would have thought he'd be. He turns off the tv, and begins a conversation with her. She's always there for me...no matter what, or how I act. This woman, too, really is special. He smiles.
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Kyoko looks around her room. She's there to pack up her things to move in with Ren. The Sho poster and voodoo dolls of him were long discarded, but Ren's picture is still on her wall, and she still has the dolls of him. She wonders if she should keep them. They mean something to her now, though she once used them for evil, but if Ren ever found out about them... She picks them up, one in each hand.
"Kyoko," she hears from the doorway in a familiar voice and turns to face it.
"Kyoko...are those...voodoo dolls...of me?" he asks darkly.
Kyoko is shocked and embarrassed. She doesn't know what to say. She opens and closes her mouth in attempted speech, but nothing coherent comes out.
Ren bursts into laughter. "Only you, Kyoko. Only you."
Seeing Ren is not upset about the dolls, Kyoko smiles back at him. She's glad he loves her oddities. And now she knows she can keep the dolls!