Loveless (Book 1) [Completed]

Chapter 25.

DREAM COME TRUE.

"In the end, I was nothing more than a stepping stone for him," Kyoko said softly, her voice containing a mixture of resentment and hurt. "Someone easy to climb over on his rise to being a star."

Ren's expression didn't falter. With his eyes fixated on the road, the musculature on his poker face remained stubbornly still, not betraying any hint of reaction, like it had been for the past few minutes since Kyoko started her tale.

"So one day I wanna be a star far greater than him. I'll make him regret every lie he ever told me. I want to become something better than he could ever be." She poured out her heart by giving Ren every single detail. How she used to be before Sho? How she wasted and sacrificed her life for him? She found herself telling him about things she never dared to admit even to her self, like how she always suspected deep down that Sho was way beyond her league but she kept living in denial. Ignoring the signs, she kept burning herself stoically working for him.

She also told him what hurt her the most. Not only that Sho didn't love her but also the fact that he didn't care tuppence about her. When she confronted him, he didn't even try to pretend to lie to her for her sake. He told her to her face how she was nothing more than just a maid to him. Even after she left the apartment, he never came looking for her. Not even to make sure if she was dead or alive.

She never told these things to anyone. Not to her best friend, Moko or the Taishos, who treated her like a daughter and sheltered her when she had nowhere else to go.

She wanted to get this off her chest for so long, but whenever she tried to share it with anyone, the lump in her throat would bulge out robbing her of her voice and her power to speak. But for some reason, once she opened her mouth now, all the truth came spilling out of it, the lump was gone like it never existed.

She couldn't stop herself from telling him all of it. All the hurt she had been carrying around for the past six months poured out of her leaving her heart relieved from a deep burden.

"Revenge," he finally spoke after she was done. "That's why you started studying acting."

"I..." Her voice trailed off.

"He hurt you and that's unforgivable. But you have to move on. If he's all there is behind your motivation to perform, then you're still wasting away your life for him. Besides, I will say as an actor, I find it kinda distasteful."

This explains everything! Kyoko realized. The silence, the tension! For the first time, it all made sense. His hostility when they first met in front of Swara's office, his talking down to her with contempt and picking on her all the time, all the pieces slowly fell into place revealing the bigger picture.

He knew my motives were impure. When all this began, my intentions weren't pure. He knew that from the beginning, thanks to my big mouth. It may have started because of Sho, but that's not why I'm still traveling down this path.

Now acting meant so much more to her than Sho's revenge. And she was going to make him see that. "No, that's not it!" She objected. "The reason I started studying acting-"

She was interrupted by a sudden bell from her handbag. At first she looked at it strangely but then she remembered about the cellphone Swara had given her.

She fished it out and read that it was from an unknown number. "Hello?" She said once she answered it and held it up to her ear.

"Ms Mogami, why?" A familiar frantic voice shouted from the other side.

"Mr President?"

"I've been calling and calling all day! Why haven't you picked up? Are you ignoring me?"