Loveless (Book 1) [Completed]

Chapter 29.

PRISONER.

"I am not buying this story of yours, Ren," Yashiro jumped back to the topic they were discussing right after Ren returned from the set for a break after the scene was taken. "I've never met anyone as level-headed and cautious as you are. It was no mistake."

"Are you still on about that?" Ren rolled his eyes and informed him very patiently. "I already told you, I didn't intend to use the hundred point stamp. Will you just drop it now?"

Wiping fake tears from his eyes, Yashiro mumbled sympathetically, "poor Kyoko worked so hard. Even if it was an accident, you could have let it slide without the negative ten! She gave you the absolutely best she could-"

"She didn't do it for me, she did it for herself!" Ren replied in a curt, quiet voice, the quiet of the calm before a deadly storm. "I am sure she wanted to help but she also wanted a spotless record. I won't give her a hundred just for that."

"I understand. At first, you were proud to give her a hundred but when she suggested she may have been working for herself, you took ten away."

Ren's eyes widened as if he just realised it for the first time.

"And that's what I suspected was going on. That settles it," Yashiro sighed in satisfaction as he straightened his tie. It took him all week, but he finally managed to get his point across to Ren making him admit that the hundred-point-stamp-thing wasn't an 'accident' like he claimed.

"Was that an awful thing for me to do?" Ren inquired with a guilty look when he realised that denial won't work anymore. "It could come off as a bit immature."

"It was a bit childish, but I do understand," Yashiro smiled knowingly. It was time to talk about the other thing. "Anyone in your condition would be shocked to hear that out of the blue."

"My condition?" Ren's eyebrows shot up quizzically.

"I mean, it would be tough to hear for anyone that she was only working so hard as a sense of duty. For you, it must be even worse - having feelings for her, I mean." There, I dare you to deny me now. Yashiro blinked innocently and waited for Ren to finally crack.

"F-feelings?" Ren's sockets went so wide that his eyes might have popped out of his skull any second.

"You're... kidding, right?"

"Come on," Ren replied nonchalantly, any hint of the earlier surprised suddenly vanished from his eyes. "I definitely don't dislike her, but that's it. She has proven how dedicated she is. Honestly the reason I subtracted the points is because she still doesn't understand all of her responsibilities as a member of the Love Me Division."

It was Yashiro's turn to be shocked. It was almost frightening how he assumed that Ren would have no choice but to accept his feelings when he'll be cornered and instead he ended up turning the whole conversation upside down just by uttering some fancily and succinctly phrased crap about her responsibilities as a member of the Love Me Division. It was unbelievable! Actors were scary!

"It has nothing to do with my personal feelings," Ren continued.

How on earth could you say that was such a straight face? Have you seen the way you look at her? Yashiro's eyebrows shot up and his jaw dropped to the floor from surprise when his plan of cornering Ren failed miserably. Are you seriously this dumb, you freaking idiot?... Maybe he's not kidding! He may look like a Casanova, but maybe he is the oblivious type when it comes to girls!

As Ren went back to the set to shoot the next scene, Yashiro started planning about how to get Mr Clueless to see and accept the obvious truth – that he was in love with Kyoko.