Work Text:
“I heard he couldn’t accept the role because of a conflict of schedule--with some mysterious secret holiday everybody keeps talking about.”
A not-so-secret conversation about one of the actors who passed on the Ronin role started up in the Lotus in the Mire changing rooms. Stunt training had gone underway and the girls were, for the most part, tentatively friends with each other. Which meant it was safe to gossip about important things. Important things like gossip tabloids about a certain supposed bachelor.
Another girl pouts, adjusting her shirt. “You think the mysterious trip could’ve included the equally mysterious girlfriend?”
Someone else gasps, slamming her locker shut. “No! Really?” Deciding to ignore the last of her post-training rituals, she sits down and leans into her friend with excited babbles falling from her mouth. “When they had to delay for the Momiji re-casting--they should have offered him the role again! I would have loved working with him!”
“You want to know how awkward it would be to tell Koga-san: ‘Sorry! We decided to give the job to the person we actually want your rival?’” She shudders. “I wouldn’t want to be in that room. Koga hates when people pass him over.”
Kyoko flinches, turning to her castmates with an uneasy smile. “You...You guys were talking about....” She swallows hard, trying to appear neutral. “Tsuruga Ren?”
Her castmates look at each other and blink slowly. “Yeah, he was up for the Ronin a while back.”
A dozen different voices called out their theories about how they might have ‘made their break’ if they were actually in a movie with the one-and-only Tsuruga Ren. Or how they would love to meet him. But many were still confident that maybe this movie would lead them to potentially see him in the flesh--at an awards show or something.
Kyoko waves their gossip away. “I know all that. But... what’s this about a mysterious girlfriend?”
“H--How did you know he was in the running? We barely found out after the fact and they swore us to secrecy.” Realization settles in on the stunt double’s face as the facts clicked together. “It was Kotonami-san.”
The door swings open, practically on cue. “What was me?”
“You told Kyoko about Ren-san being optioned for the Ronin.”
Kyoko sputters at the same time: “Moko-chan, did you know that Tsuruga-san has a secret girlfriend?”
Kanae cringes at the questions asked in unison. She turns to her stunt double first. “No, I didn’t even know he was being optioned.” Then, she turns to Kyoko. She studies her friend’s distress before choosing her words very carefully. “If Tsuruga-san had a girlfriend, you would know, wouldn’t you?”
Kyoko instantly relaxes. “Right.”
Their castmates object to Kanae’s affirmation, insisting that Kyoko can’t know:
“But just because he hasn’t said explicitly in an interview--it doesn’t mean it’s not true!”
“There’s proof!”
Both girls’ brows furrow. They never heard that. “Proof?”
The first girl holds a finger up. “In that one interview when Dark Moon had started shooting, he hesitated for one second too long when asked if he was interested in anybody.”
Kyoko bit her lip. He is interested in someone, so, that part’s right. And she (as Bo) had learned the same thing during the Dark Moon shoot. But this is the first time she’s heard about this interview. It must have aired while she was on set.
The second girl chimes in, holding up two fingers. “And His holiday! Seriously, he’s spent too much time away. No returns to Japan and coming back with a delicious tan? Totally suspicious!”
Kyoko adds to her mental checklist that the tan in question comes from filming in Guam. Of course he got a tan, even when he was mostly shrouded in black clothing. But their claim that it was a vacation only means that they bought into LME’s spin on the story. Nobody knew yet that he was Actor X in Tragic Marker .
Moko adds to her own list that Tsuruga did return from this “vacation” at some point because she knows he visited Kyoko after that interview with Saena. Kyoko didn’t shut up about his reappearance for a week.
And finally, one last girl interjects with three fingers raised in the air. “Third: that sheep pillow from his interview! Obviously a man of his stature could not have picked it out himself. Totally a gift from a girlfriend!”
Kyoko’s cheeks turn red, a detail unnoticed by everyone except Kanae. Kanae sighs, realizing immediately that the sheep had to have been from Kyoko. Because of course it was.
Before they can continue their speculation about Tsuruga’s invented girlfriend, Kyoko’s phone rings. She jumps and grabs it from the bench before anyone can read the name flashing across the screen: Tsuruga Ren. She’s careful enough to avoid picking up the call in front of her wildly nosy castmates and opts to take the call from the hall. Blush still dusted her cheeks as she made her escape.
They watch Kyoko with raised eyebrows. Turning to Kanae, their curiosities get the best of them. “Was that Box R?” She doesn’t even have a moment to reject the suggestion before a new idea is spurted out: “ Or does Kyoko have a secret boyfriend that we somehow don’t know about?
What is it with these girls and secret lovers? Kanae watches the door Kyoko disappeared through, chewing on her lip. “No boyfriend to speak of. But...”
Her words are trampled on and the girls continue their musings without Kanae’s input. Their ring leader nods sagely, crossing her arms. “Yeah, a secret boyfriend would be weird, huh? Kyoko-chan totally has a crush on Ren-san.” She laughed. “How can you date someone knowing they have a crush on Tsuruga Ren?”
“That’s it!” Kanae jumps up, pounding her fist into her hand. “I’ve got it!”
They turn to her, unimpressed. “I thought you were her best friend? You should have known already that she had a crush on--”
“Tsuruga Ren!”
Duh? Disbelief etches the group’s faces. Kanae isn’t very smart, huh? To just make that connection... perhaps Kyoko needs a new best friend.
“She is my friend,” Kanae says. “Oh, oh no. That . I knew that. It’s...just... Kyoko was supposed to stay with me tonight after work. And I finally figured it out... I figured out the only reason she would ever ditch me like that.”
Their apprehension melts away to curiosity. Kyoko has been rather tight-lipped about her personal life and this is a good chance to understand the inner workings of the teen. They motion for Kanae to continue, excitement filling the room. “Annnd?”
“ Moko-san, I’m so sorry ! I forgot about our plans when I got that call and I just totally floated out!” She rushed, her words slurring together with excitement. “But Tsuruga-san said we can take you home and we’ll do stuff next time we have a night free? Is that okay with--” She stops, realizing what she just did. Everybody stares at her... because she forgot that they were all inside. She shifts under the weight of everybody’s gaze and she feels the blood leave her face. Her smile fades. “Uhh, oops?”
Nobody replies. Instead, they rush to the door and crack it open to reveal the hallway. And there they see him: The Tsuruga Ren, leaning against the wall outside their dressing room.
Tsuruga Ren! In the flesh!
At the sound of hearing the door open, the man himself looks up with a smile obviously meant for Kyoko: glittery and shiny and all-around swoon-worthy. It took everything in their being to not melt to the ground at the exposure to Tsuruga’s godliness.
“Oh! Was Kokonami-san rea--” Ren’s smile dims, only slightly, at the sight of Kyoko’s castmates starting at him with slack jaws. “Hello, girls? Are Mogami-san and Kotonami-san busy?”
They slam the door shut without replying and his smile falters. Did I do something wrong ?
Behind the door, however, the girls turn to stare at Kyoko and Kanae. Kyoko, who was currently pale, hiding behind her hands. Kanae, who was rolling her eyes because she knew what they were thinking. But what they were thinking had to be right. There was no other explanation.
They knew that smile Tsuruga Ren wore. It was the Katsuki smile in Dark Moon--the one meant for Mizuki. It’s the smile that made each of them fall in love with Tsuruga Ren.
And he meant that smile to be directed at Kyoko.
Their Kyoko.
The Kyoko who somehow knew he was up for the Ronin without Kanae saying anything. Who knew that Ren didn’t have a girlfriend. Who, now that they think about it, was blushing at a lot of their accusations.
No. Freaking. Way.
Was Kyoko Tsuruga Ren’s secret girlfriend?