Kyoko woke up that morning feeling conflicted. On one hand, she was sure she was moving on with her life and feeling accomplished. On the other, she felt strange that things seemed to be moving on normally, even though she felt stuck in a twilight. Then again, she was also not drowning anymore, and she had to thank two people she barely knew and yet had somehow become inexplicably close to and dependent on.

She didn't expect Kuresaki Yuki and Kijima Hidehito, but she was very glad for them in her life.

At this point in her life, she was sure that if she hadn't had them, if she hadn't met them she would probably be unsure of what to do, and even more worrying, she'd have broken down into little pieces and not be able to pull herself together as well as she had with them around.

Sighing to herself, she was sure that both men would probably be coming over soon and she wanted to make breakfast and have it ready for them. Taking a quick shower and getting ready, she then got ready to cook, after a glance to the notes she'd taken the night before. After she and Kuresaki had gotten back to the apartment complex and split ways, she had immediately taken notes of what he'd said. It was not only good advice, but that he'd given her any at all was important and she shouldn't take it for granted.

By the time she was finished cooking, she heard a knock on her door and she could tell by the knock that it was Kuresaki. Opening it, she saw him there, but there was also Kijima by him. Kijima smiled cheerfully and waved, while Kuresaki nodded respectfully.

"G-good morning," she greeted as she let them in.

"Good morning," "Morning!" both men greeted her back.

She then noticed the semi-huge plastic bag Kijima was carrying, as well as a black soft case and his laptop under his arm. She opened her mouth to ask about them, but Kijima beat her to it.

"They're hand me down clothes from my sister," Kijima said hurriedly. "I didn't pay anything for them and she was getting rid of them."

She blinked and Kijima just stared back steadfastly. She was also sure she saw a brief smirk pass on Kuresaki's face, and while she could think it was her imagination, she also wouldn't put it pass him.

Kyoko narrowed her eyes at Kijima. "You're sneaky," she huffed, inwardly rolling her eyes.

He unrepentantly smirked. "I know," he replied. "Here," he handed over the bag, while holding the black bag and laptop still.

She sighed and held it up. "I'm going to put these away. Breakfast is on the table."

Both men gave her varied degrees of looks of surprise.

"You didn't have to do that," Kuresaki told her and Kijima nodded fervently.

In the hallway entrance that led to the rooms, she gave them a slight smile.

"It's the least I could do. You two are helping me out with so much." Before they could protest anymore, she left them behind and Hidehito and Yuki glanced at each other.

"Are they really hand me downs?" the producer asked him.

Hidehito shrugged a little, smiling lightly. "Most of them. One or two might've been bought...Not that she could prove it..."

Yuki actually chuckled. "She's quite stubborn. It's probably best this way." He then was back to frowning and looking at Hidehito sternly. "About her roommate..."

"And is someone you know," Hidehito didn't blink. "He's a good friend of mine –Koga Hiromune? I'm not taking too much pains to tell Kyoko who he is."

Yuki raised an eyebrow. "He's quite famous."

Hidehito snickered. "You know Kyoko doesn't really watch TV?" At Yuki's surprised look, Hidehito tried not to burst out laughing. "Yeah, at most, she watches game shows every once and a while, since Fuwa actually likes those. She doesn't know the top actresses and actors or anything, so she probably wouldn't recognize Hiromune. I doubt she'd even recognize his name. The only reason she knows Tsuruga Ren is because Fuwa hated the poor guy."

That made sense to Yuki, especially since she didn't seem too concerned being around Hidehito.

"I don't see why it should matter to let her know who he is," he said.

Hidehito nodded. "She actually doesn't really know about me either, except that I'm an actor," which made Yuki raise both eyebrows. "It's kind of nice though," he admitted. "She doesn't place importance on my money or fame, and care who I am. She kind of just...got to know me normally and become friends as is. I think Hiromune would like that."

Yuki could understand that. He wasn't a household name or anything, and probably wouldn't be recognized off the street, but in the industry, he was quite well known and it wasn't unlikely to find people that tried to rub elbows with him. And he wasn't unused to people coming to him with ulterior motives and trying to gain him as a connection and use him for his own connections.

It's probably why he hadn't minded letting Kyoko have the rare and nearly unheard of distinction of using him as a reference and as one of her connections in the show business industry. As Hidehito had said, she didn't place importance or care on that kind of thing, and sincerely and kindly approached him as someone who wanted to get to know him as himself.

"Ah, I changed into one of the outfits," Kyoko's voice sounded nervous as she was walking back. "Do I look okay?"

They glanced over and Hidehito nodded in approval, smirk firmly back on.

"It suits you," Yuki said quietly.

Kyoko blushed slightly.

"Let's have breakfast and then I'll show you how to fix your hair, okay?" Hidehito said, holding up the medium-sized case.

So that was what that case was.

~*~*~

Hidehito hummed under his breath as he carefully unfurled the curling iron. The rest of her long hair he'd braided back, while some longer strands he'd curled up front and used hairspray to keep it springy and in place.

"Ah, thank you so much for doing this, Kijima-san," Kyoko said gratefully, though she was paying extreme attention to what he was doing. "I am very thankful."

"No problem," Hidehito waved her off, eying his work and deciding that maybe one of her front bangs needed a little more curve to it. "What're friends for?"

He saw her smile a little to herself, looking happy and pleased at what he said. He had a feeling she didn't really have friends, which made him resolve to be there and be a hell of a good one for her.

"So since Kuresaki-san is off to work already, are we going to go too?"

Hidehito nodded distractedly. "Yeah. I'm going to be working on a drama in a supporting role. We'll go there first and you can watch from the side."

Kyoko made an interested noise. "Um, that would be nice. Yesterday, when I was with Kuresaki-san, I really liked watching all the actors and actresses do their scenes and watching them work. Do you like acting?"

Surprised but very pleased at her interest, Hidehito nodded eagerly. "I do. It's fun for me. I like to see what kind of character I can make out of the role I'm given, and see where I can go with it. It's pretty fun to think about the backstory if the role doesn't have one, and then imagining the character's life and how he would react to something or say something to someone. A lot of thought goes into it, though there are some actors who are just innately good and it's a lot of instinct for them."

"What's your role this time?" Kyoko asked curiously.

Hidehito grinned at her in amusement. "Ironically, I'm a womanizing detective, hired by the main lead into trying to solve a murder."

Kyoko giggled. "Well, looks like you've got experience to work off of!"

Hidehito rolled his eyes good-naturedly, playfully poking her forehead. "You're good to go," he announced. "Ready?"

She hesitantly nodded, but he didn't comment on her hesitation. Little by little, he was determined he'd get her to feel more at ease and more confident with doing things and trying out new stuff.

He led her to his car and then they were off, and it didn't take too long until they were in front of the studio he was supposed to work in. Inside, he ushered Kyoko in and introduced her to everyone, and she shyly followed while Hidehito got dressed in his character's clothes and then quietly stood to the side as he went to work on his scenes. In between scenes, he'd glance over to check on her, seeing her avidly watching and taking it all in, and he had a thought (an especially hopeful one) that maybe she would get into acting and she'd get to work with him. It was a nice thought and wasn't actually implausible...

When he was done and back in his own clothing, he and Kyoko were back in his car and heading to his modeling gig. However, just before he turned on his car, he held out his script to Kyoko.

"Kyoko-chan, could you help me practice my lines?" he asked, though it was mostly because he had an ulterior motive. Pushing her interest in acting would be awesome, though it would probably only work if she really, truly was interested in it. If she liked doing something like this, maybe she could see that there could be a future in acting for her. He'd already heard of what she did yesterday with Kuresaki from the man, so this could only just be a little more of a nudge.

Kyoko smiled at him. "O-of course! What page should I go to, Kijima-san?"

"116," he said quickly. "You'll be reciting Hiroki's lines."

He started driving once they started reciting lines, and he paid special attention to how Kyoko spoke. She did well without any practice or knowledge of the script, and more so since she'd not had any real experience acting. She also spoke the lines fluidly and was able to recite back to him without hesitation or stumbles, which he noted impressively. However, he had to stop the exercise when he noted that they'd reached his next job.

"You did really well, Kyoko-chan," Hidehito complimented, noting her immediately blushing. She didn't get compliments often it seemed, which was another goal of his –to compliment her often. She also tended to refute compliments and be too modest, which was sweet and cute of her, but he did still want to try to get her to do that less often and accept compliments and acknowledge her own worth.

"Come on," he got out of his car and went around to help her out. He led her in and squeezed her shoulder when he saw she was getting nervous as she looked around. "It's alright," he murmured. "Keep your head high and be confident. Don't look down on yourself."

She glanced at him and he gave her a reassuring smile. Kyoko took a deep breath and smiled back at him.

For now though, his main focus would be on Kyoko's confidence because she lacked too much of it and she was too precious and sweet to be some wallflower.

~*~*~

Kyoko watched eagerly as Kijima was dressed up in the clothes he had to do the photoshoot in, and was surprised to see that he had to wear a bit of makeup. But she remembered what he and Kuresaki said about lighting and being taken film and photographs of, and she could actually see what they'd meant in person.

"Ah, Honoka!" Kijima called out and waved to someone.

Kyoko turned to face who it was, gazing on in awe at the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. She was everything Kyoko could ever hope to be, and Kyoko floundered in place a bit. She didn't even feel envious of her; she just wanted to get to know her and gush over her like the elegant noblewoman she just had to be.

"Kyoko-chan, this is Ootomo Honoka," Kijima introduced the beautiful woman with strawberry blonde locks of hair and hazel eyes. "Honoka, this is Mogami Kyoko, a close friend of mine."

Dazedly, Kyoko was pleased and honored to already be considered a close friend of his.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Honoka smiled sweetly at her, elegantly holding out her hand and Kyoko clumsily held out hers to grab Honoka's. Honoka gently grabbed hers and squeezed it lightly. "A friend of Hidehito's is a friend of mine."

Honoka then turned to Kijima, smiling teasingly, and Kyoko watched the easy change in the woman in wonderment. "Hidehito, you didn't say anything about bringing such a cute sweetheart on set."

Kijima just smirked and looked to Kyoko with a wink. "I'm helping her out with life choices and all."

Honoka laughed. "You and life choices?"

He huffed. "Yes, me!" He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Kyoko-chan here is interested in show business, but not sure what to do. So a friend and myself have taken her to our jobs for today and yesterday so she can see if she likes anything."

"Oh, is that so?" she asked curiously. She looked to Kyoko. "Well, Hidehito's about to go on to his photoshoot, so why don't you watch with me?"

"R-really?" Kyoko asked, unable to help being shy.

Honoka's smile made Kyoko swoon in happiness that she meant it and because it was so beautiful.

It wasn't long until she and Honoka were seated to the side and were watching together, and Honoka actually surprised her by telling her of modeling poses, terms, explaining what the director of the photoshoot meant when he wanted something done this way or that, and even talked about her own runway experiences. Kyoko idly thought she might prefer being a runway model, because at least she can focus on moving and walking, and not stand still and getting her picture taken like this (and probably getting nervous or awkward and end up thinking too much).

"Is it hard?" Kyoko whispered to her. "It's not just standing around, getting your picture taken?"

"It would seem like it, wouldn't it?" Honoka nodded. "But in a runway, you have to be precise on timing. So you have to walk on stage and keep track of time, and when you're off it, you have to immediately change into the next outfit. You're given probably a minute at most, maybe? It depends on how fast they're switching models and outfits to be shown. You're almost always wearing heels too, so your feet will be dying by the end of it. After a while, you might get used to wearing heels in some way though. There's a lot of different types of models, but things like this is commercial print if it's for an ad or specifically what we've done today, a general fashion model. In this, directors and photographers can be very demanding and you'll probably have to stay still or pose for hours until they're satisfied. You're under the hot glare of lights and you can't sweat too much. You have to watch your facial muscles and your body, and try not to ruin things by getting tired or relaxing at the wrong moment."

Kyoko listened in fascination, especially as she had never thought of modeling as being something that would be hard.

"Kijima-san makes it look so easy," she commented as she watched. "I don't think you would look like you would have much trouble either."

Honoka hmmed. "Well, we've been doing this for a while, so that makes it easier on us. But it's also easier for us to not show if we're tired or uncomfortable because of our experience."

"It would be nice to put on makeup and just be transformed like this," Kyoko said aloud, thinking to herself.

Honoka looked over at her, starting to smile widely. "Would you like to do so now?"

Kyoko blinked. "...What?"

The model laughed delightedly and grabbed onto Kyoko.

~*~*~

When Kyoko looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn't believe it was her who was staring back. It was amazing! Honoka had only put just a little bit of makeup ("to accentuate your already pretty features!"), and it seemed to have transformed her entirely. She looked different –prettier somehow.

She thought she was plain before, though after Kijima had fixed her hair and she'd changed into one of her newer clothing, she felt she'd definitely looked better. But now...she felt and looked older, and much more prettier and mature.

"Don't be silly," Honoka said as she pushed back some of Kyoko's hair behind her ear. "You've always been pretty. Just a little makeup is just to heighten those attributes and provide a little sparkle."

The model looked her over, biting her lip thoughtfully. "You should definitely stick to light makeup for everyday use, or a more natural route otherwise. Though you should definitely keep the makeup off more often, because you are definitely still pretty without it and maybe it's best you don't rely on it every day. Hm, that's something to think about...Ohh, you look like such a heartbreaker!"

"So this is where you two went off...to..." Kijima started off boisterously, before trailing off as he caught sight of Kyoko.

Kyoko blushed heavily, more so at the awed look on his face. He whistled lowly.

"You know, you were always pretty, Kyoko-chan, but damn..." he said, shaking his head as he continued to stare at her.

Kyoko could only just smile awkwardly at him, feeling pleased and flattered about his reaction. She really wished she could buy makeup and wear it like this...

"Ah, hold on a bit," Honoka said. "I've got something for you!"

For a moment, the strawberry-blonde left and then quickly came back with a bag of clothing that made Kyoko's eyes widened.

"A lot of clothes from the photoshoot we get to keep, so you can have these," Honoka told her. "I have plenty!"

Kyoko sputtered and wanted to refuse, but she didn't have much of a good reason to without being rude and maybe offending Honoka or something. She reluctantly accepted the bag.

"Come on," Honoka grabbed her hand. "Let me introduce you to some of the others and you can talk with them while Hidehito and I go onto the next part of the photoshoot. We'll probably have to take photos with each other and with the others, as well as probably some group photos."

As she was being dragged away, she looked back at Kijima in shock, but he just laughed at her and gave her a thumbs up.

But to Kyoko's surprise, she was getting along with the other models Honoka introduced to her. She didn't feel uncomfortable or inferior, and Kyoko didn't end up speaking foolishly or weirdly, and elatedly found she was able to keep up in the conversation on her own. Even when Honoka introduced her to the director and photographer, she wasn't put off by it and the two men didn't look down on her or snubbed her at all. The photographer even seemed to eye her considerately and even offered his card and to take photos for her if she wanted!

When Honoka and Kijima were busy, Kyoko was actually keeping company with some of the other models, who also provided advice and information to her about their jobs and how the modeling world worked. She even was around the director, who –when he wasn't providing direction to the models being photographed –would talk to her and also explain from the directorial and artistic side of things, and she didn't mind just listening to everyone and absorbing things.

"How was your day?" Kijima asked when they were leaving.

Kyoko nodded ardently. "Everyone was so nice and I learned a lot! I was so surprised."

"Mm," Kijima gave her a slight grin. "This was a good group. There are others out there that aren't so nice, but it's good you came with me today when the people I was working with are all on the nicer side of the showbiz industry. Models in particular can be pretty vicious and mean-spirited, more so if they're really narcissistic."

If it was like that, Kyoko was glad too.

Kijima drove calmly, turning on the radio. Of course, Fuwa Sho came on, but Kijima was quick to change it without a word or acknowledgement about the singer. Kyoko still sighed inwardly and tried not to be so upset at her lack of progress, since she understood that she had to take things slow and understand what she was getting into. She couldn't get impatient, no matter how much Sho irritated her or hearing or seeing him made her get impatient about things.

And then the song that came on was an American one, and it wasn't much better than hearing Sho when she heard the lyrics.

She flinched and tried to hold onto the good day she had.

"You should acknowledge who he was to you," Kijima murmured.

She looked to him in disbelief, but he kept his eyes on the road.

"He was your friend. Once upon a time he was. Even if he didn't act like it or tried to not make it seem so, he was."

Kijima smoothly parked over to the side and they sat there quietly. Kyoko's jaw clenched and unclenched as she glared at her lap. But then she slumped in her seat and looked back at Kijima again, this time with sad eyes.

"He was my friend," she remembered. "I had no one else but him, and he was there for me when he could. He couldn't see me cry and didn't know what to do when I did, so I know that he did try and care in some way. He was my friend. And the person he was before? That person will always mean the world to me."

She took a shuddering breath, more so as she felt Kijima reach over and grab her hand.

"Once upon a time I knew a boy named Shoutaro."

And he'd always been selfish and a jerk, but he had been there for her in the past and he'd been the only friend she had. And she had to acknowledge that and say goodbye to him now, and hopefully move passed this so that she didn't stay stuck on him.

Goodbye, friend, and hello heartache indeed.