Advent '09 [20/25]
Advent 09
December 20th - 5 days to go
Kyoko was sitting with Kanae in the hotel's dining room for lunch.
Kanae had stayed the night in Kyoko's room again because Kyoko was still feeling upset by what had happened yesterday. It had taken a long while for the girl to fall asleep and Kanae made sure that Kyoko was settled before she followed.
As such both girls woke late into the morning and found that they had missed the breakfast rush.
They both decided to wait the couple of hours until lunch instead of trying to go out the hotel and finding something.
Not that they would have been able to get out the front doors anyway as the reporters seemed to have doubled overnight. They had found out that Ren was staying with them as well.
The situation was turning into a nightmare. Security had been doubled and still the press were finding ways to sneak into the hotel.
Apparently Sho had had some trouble with a photographer ambushing him outside his room.
There had also been whispers that Reino had booked himself in the hotel as well...though that had yet to be confirmed.
Kyoko shivered when she thought of it. Wasn't it bad enough that the two people she hated most in the world at this moment had followed her on her holiday?
...Okay, true - it wasn't exactly a holiday to start off with...and also true was the fact that she had technically followed Sho...
But that wasn't the point!
Kyoko took a bite of her lunch and decided not to think on it anymore, it was just upsetting her. Kanae was sitting next to her, enjoying her own lunch and the atmosphere in the room was relaxed.
She was completely unprepared to walk out of the room with Kanae and find herself on the televisions in the saloon.
"What. The. Hell." Kanae said, coming to a complete standstill.
Kyoko walked into the back of her. Blinking away the stars from her eyes she peered around her friend and stared with slack-jawed horror at the confrontation between herself, Reino and Sho that had been caught at the very beginning of the holidays.
"What? Why are they showing that now?"
Kanae could only shrug as the programme was being presented in Italian like all others they had seen. Despite the fact that they had been talking in Japanese and that the original audience hadn't understood a word of what had been said, the channel that was playing the footage had, oh-so-helpfully, put subtitles up.
Kyoko winced as she saw TV-Sho grab TV-Kyoko and yell "She's mine!" at TV-Reino. TV-Kanae just looked dumbfounded.
Great, Kyoko thought, Now, not only everyone in Japan can understand that but now everyone in Italy can as well.
"It is a bit weird that they would show the footage now. It's a few weeks old, and they have better footage of you as well - what with your little mountain escapade."
It was like Kanae had flicked a switch. Suddenly it all made sense. Why they were showing it now, why Sho had said those things to Ren yesterday.
This was all Sho's doing!
It was obvious publicity no matter how he span it - either him protecting her or him being so infatuated that he would publicly declare it.
He was going to have such an increase of female fans, for who wouldn't want someone like Sho to be possessive?
Kyoko clenched her jaw. Of course, she would have to deal with the fallout. When a popular idol declares himself taken in such a way...or at all really...there were going to be jealous fans. And thanks to her role on dark moon she was easily recognised to those who watched it - which judging by the ratings was over three quarters of the country.
She was going to get so much hate mail for this it wouldn't be funny. And it was all Sho's fault. Did he ever think of anyone but himself?
"That's it." Kyoko murmured, ignoring the look Kanae gave her.
"What's it?" Kanae asked when it became apparent that Kyoko wasn't going to expand.
"I'm going to stay as far away from Sho as possible."
"What? Why? To stop even more rumours?"
"No. Well, yes. But also because this is his entire fault. He did this for publicity - manipulated everything."
Kanae stared at her. "You...honestly believe that?" She asked after a moment.
"It's the only thing that makes sense." Kyoko huffed. "From now on I'm staying as far away as possible from him."
-/-
She managed to avoid any and all sightings and mentions of Sho until dinner, where he cornered her in the dining hall, sitting at the seat opposite her that she had reserved for Kanae.
"That seat's taken." Kyoko said stiffly.
Sho frowned at her. "I'm sure Kanae-san won't mind me sitting here for a moment whilst I talk to you."
"She might not, but I certainly do."
"What is it now?" Sho asked, frustration peeking through. "Have you been avoiding me?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kyoko sneered, folding her arms.
Sho carded his fingers through his hair, agitatedly. "There must be something." He said, "You've avoided me since we were trapped."
"I haven't been avoiding you."
"Oh really?" Sho asked unimpressed. "Because I seem to remember walking through the front doors and you running off as fast as you could."
"That was explainable."
"Yeah," he said sarcastically, "because 'zombie' is normally the first thing you think of."
Kyoko clenched her jaw. "Shut up. I don't have to explain anything to you."
"Oh!" Sho interrupted her, "And let's not forget the days where you spent holed up in your room!"
"I was tired!"
"Of course you were. Then there was the fact that you told Ren to tell me that you never wanted to see you again! You can't explain that away - he made it pretty clear to me what you were trying to say."
"Liar!" Kyoko shot to her feet, slamming her hands onto the table top.
There was a hushed silence as Kyoko's voice screeched out in the room, every eye drawn to the couple who were making the disturbance.
"Excuse me?" Sho asked in disbelief, "What do you mean liar? What possible reason would I get out of lying?"
Kyoko leaned forward, invading Sho's personal space. "You're doing this for yourself, aren't you?" she hissed. "You manipulated everything from the start to try and make yourself more popular."
"You're delusional if you actually believe that."
"Oh really?" Kyoko chuckled darkly, "Then why were you acting all friendly and weird to me at the beginning of the month before we even left Japan if not to set this up."
Sho ground his teeth, his face twisting into a scowl. "I was just trying to be nice to you, as strange and as weird as that sounds.
"I realised that I may have acted a bit pompous with you and that it was no way to treat you. But with the way you're acting right now I don't know why I ever thought that."
"You brought that camera crew at the beginning!"
"Not purposefully! I'm about to start a world tour! Do you think that there would be no channel that would be interested in that? I didn't plan that argument! Reino just showed up because he's a stalker. I thought that you would remember that.
"The only reason that I said those things to him was because I was trying to protect you. Though I can clearly see now that it was a waste of energy seeing as how you're trying to blame everything on me no matter that I'm innocent of everything that you're accusing me of."
"And being trapped in the cave?"
"Yes." Sho deadpanned, "Because I'm able to magically control the weather."
"Fine, but that still doesn't explain what you said to Ren yesterday."
"I was just trying to find you! I didn't even insult the bastard and he's threatening me like it's no tomorrow. If anything he should be apologising to me."
"Don't," Kyoko spat at him, "Don't you dare insult Ren like that! He's a great man! A better man than you'll ever be!
I never want to see your face again Fuwa."
With that parting shot she turned and stormed out the room, ignoring the other diners who were looking at them both as avidly as they would watch T.V. soap, and completely forgetting that she had come to eat with Kanae.
Sho stood up from his seat and slammed his hands against the table. "Fine then!" he yelled after her, "You both deserve each other!"
He looked at the diners who were all staring at him now. "What are you looking at?" he snarled before striding through the doors.