Loveless (Book 1) [Completed]

Chapter 40.

TEMPTATIONS.

The moment Kyoko rang the bell outside of Ren's apartment, his door swung open revealing him in casual sweatpants, a shirt and a friendly smile stuck to his face. "Ah. You're finally here." He motioned her inside.

Kyoko was still wearing her blue-white school uniform with a backpack slung on her shoulders. She did not return his smile, neither followed him. Instead, she shot him a cold glare from her squinted eyes and spat through clenched teeth, "would you please not use that weird kind of phrasing again?"

"Huh?" Ren blinked innocently. "What do you mean?"

"I said," she sighed to stop the fits of anger rising within her. "If you wanted me to rehearse with you, would it bother you so much to spell it out clearly from the start?"

"Ah." A flirty, seductive smirk slowly crept up to Ren's lips. "Why? Were you expecting something else?"

"Certainly not!" Kyoko shot back. She shuddered at the memory when he had called her to his apartment in that unusually nasty way. Poor Yashiro nearly fainted from shock when Ren very unspecifically asked her for 'time' and 'body'.

Ren chuckled at her reaction, but inside he sighed remorsefully. She didn't even hesitate to say no, he thought gloomily. Seriously? What was I thinking pulling that stunt? He only said that to see how she would react. Part of him already knew she wouldn't flirt back like the other girls, and if she had, that would've only been awkward for him. What he didn't know was how much it would hurt to see her not even considering the idea.

Kyoko followed him inside and they settled on the sofa in the huge living room.

"All I have to do is act out Mizuki, right?" She inquired as she fiddled in her bag and fished out the script of Dark Moon.

"That's right," he nodded.

She opened the script. "So where should we start?" Flipping through the pages, she wondered aloud but Ren slipped the book away from her hands.

Snapping it shut, he placed it on the glass table. "No, we won't be using the script."

"What? Then?" The confusion on her face was obvious.

"We'll use ad lib," he explained. "Like improvise. We'll spend the evening like any other day, except it won't be really us. I will be Katsuki and you will be Mizuki. We'll act them out in the exact way they're supposed to behave."

Kyoko didn't reply while she pondered on his words.

"What's wrong?" Ren snapped his fingers to get her attention. "Have you not fully grasped the character of Mizuki yet?"

"Of course I have!" She snapped in a rather pride-filled tone. "It's much more simpler than Mio. I can totally play Mizuki. What I was worried about is you. How is that supposed to help you?"

For a moment, a deep, faraway look shown in Ren's eyes before he regained his composure and it disappeared. "Trust me," his voice was almost a whisper. "For my Katsuki, this will be enough."

That was all Kyoko needed to hear from him. That aura of hopelessness and dejection had completely left him. Instead, she sensed the fiery flame of passion and excitement burning in his eyes. Trust me, he had said. What he didn't know was she already did. She never stopped believing in him. She knew for sure that he would pull through this. And now she was ready to bet anything that his Katsuki would surpass the original. This was the Ren she looked up to. Her ideal. A proud smile made it's way to her lips.

"We'll start from when you visited Katsuki's room," Ren offered up his hand to her, which she took without hesitation. "Mizuki."

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