One Take Only (A Skip Beat! Fanfic)

Chapter 18: For Fear of the President

Kanae gripped a still-quivering Kyoko by the hand like a disobedient child as she stood at the city bus stop. If she saw the strange looks being sent her way, she didn't show it. Instead, she was focused on figuring out the best way to get from here to their favorite covert meeting place. The karaoke box was a good twenty minutes away even without traffic, and as the Korean president was spending the next three days in town, the bus was sure to take a more roundabout route.

"Koto...nami...-san," Someone huffed from just behind her. She whirled around to glare at the person who dared interrupt her brainstorming and saw a red-faced Chiori holding out an already misshapen ice cream sundae to her like an offering.

"Amamiya-san," she said stiffly. "Thank you for bringing that all this way, but I believe I already said I have no attention of eating it. Feel free to partake yourself, of course." And she went back to calculating the time it would take, allowing for at least twenty minutes' conversation, maybe thirty-five minutes' travel either direction...It would be a tight squeeze, but she should have time to get back, swing by LME, and head out in time for her job at 1 p.m.

"Kotonami-san," Chiori said again, this time more firmly. When no response was forthcoming, she grabbed the taller girl by her shoulder, forced her to turn around, and shoved the sweaty mess of ice cream into her face. "You're the one who ordered this calorie-bomb monstrosity, not me. There's no point in throwing money away."

Kanae cringed at the idea of wasting money, and finally relinquished her hold on Kyoko to receive the ice cream. "Fine. Thank you. Is that all?" She managed to say, coldly, in between rapid bites.

Grabbing Kyoko's arm, Chiori thrust the simpler green tea cone into the downcast girl's hands. "No, of course not," she said, making sure Kyoko had a proper grip on it before turning back to look Kanae in the eye. "I just got a text from the director. He's pushed up the schedule on us again."

Kyoko pulled herself out of her funk now, asking, "What? We have to go in now?"

"Hurry up and eat that!" Kanae scolded, her own sundae having been efficiently decimated in a matter of seconds. She tossed the cup in a nearby trashcan and pulled out a handkerchief to try and maintain some semblance of elegance—plus there was a liberal splotch of chocolate sauce on her lips.

Kyoko dutifully set to licking away at her ice cream as Chiori shook her head.

"No, not right away, we've still got about an hour. And when I say me, I mostly mean you. Apparently there's been another glitch in production or something." Kyoko's free hand started scrabbling away at the clasp of her messenger bag to get at her phone, but Chiori stopped her. "I already told him you're with me and you've got the message. You're okay. But," she said, with a glance at Kanae, "it's probably not a good idea to travel too far away right now. We should be heading that way in about a half-hour."

"Sorry, Moko-san," Kyoko said for about the tenth time that morning. "I guess we won't be able to talk after all." Her green-stained lips pulled into an apologetic pout.

"You were getting on a bus just to talk?" Chiori said incredulously.

"We like to take precautions to avoid being overheard," Kanae replied.

"By who?" Chiori asked. "It's not like there are paparazzi after any of us," she pointed out, gesturing at the three of them standing on a fairly public street corner, with no one paying the slightest attention to them now that they looked like any other high school girls waiting for the bus.

"No," Kanae admitted through gritted teeth, "but the first thing you need to know about the LoveMe section is that the president knows things—things he couldn't possibly know by normal means." She shrugged. "I'm not taking any chances."