Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters.

Unplanned Revelations

Chapter 9 – Awakening

Sitting in a chair by Ren's bedside, Yashiro tried to fight off sleep as he watched the actor's peaceful sleeping face. While he saw the wisdom in the president's words - that he should go home and get some proper rest rather than spend all his free time dozing off in hospital - he just couldn't bring himself to leave, especially not after all the excitement from the day before when Ren had briefly opened his eyes and had mumbled something incoherently before falling asleep again.

Empathizing with Yashiro's concern all too well, Lory had reluctantly let him be; "Just remember to look after yourself, Yashiro," he had reminded the manager with a frustrated sigh before heading off to pick up Maria.

Waiting for the two of them to return, and anticipating Kyouko to drop by soon, Yashiro searched for a distraction to keep him awake. Spotting the TV remote on the bedside table, he was about to reach for it when the blue stone beside it caught his eye. Pausing, he frowned as he once more pondered over its significance.

Earlier in the week the president, Sawara-san and himself had visited Ren together and they had walked in to discover the water sapphire sitting innocuously on the table. Furrowing his brow as if something about it bothered him, Lory had picked it up and turned it over in his hand before turning to them, "Yours?"

Shaking his head in response, Yashiro and the president had both been surprised by Sawara-san's answer, "Isn't that Mogami-kun's?"

"It's Kyouko-chan's/Mogami-kun's?"

"Well... I think it is anyway," the head of the Talent division had continued a bit uncertainly, "It looks like the same stone Ren found for her when I unintentionally caused her to drop it down the stairs. But for her to leave such an important thing here... it's rather unexpected..."

"Oh?"

Listening to Sawara recount the story of Kyouko's Corn stone and how Ren had somehow provoked her into very shockingly giving him the middle finger before storming off in a black rage, Yashiro had been rather stunned. He knew that Ren and Kyouko's relationship had been less than cordial at the beginning, but for Ren to have made the ever-proper-and-polite Kyouko retaliate with such a vulgar gesture, he wouldn't have believed it!

"Unexpected right?," Sawara-san had responded to his blank stare, while the president's perplexed frown seemed to have deepened, "she must be the only girl I've seen a usually nice Ren upset on purpose. Although... lately, he seems to be doing that even without trying."

With that observation, their conversation had lapsed into silence as they all looked at Ren, each silently hoping that he'd wake soon. After a while, the president had reluctantly returned the blue stone to the table and their visit that day had passed in uncharacteristic quiet, with the usually chatty president seeming somewhat preoccupied and disinclined to talk.

Picking up the blue stone now, Yashiro turned it over in his hand. Much as someone else had done a few days earlier, he found himself pondering over a boy named Corn. For Kyouko to have been reduced to tears when she thought she'd lost the stone he gave her, the boy must be someone very important. Who was he for her to still remember him and obviously still be fond of even ten years after they'd separated? Wasn't Sho Fuwa the only boy (and pretty much the only friend) Kyouko had grown up with and cared about? So who was this Corn? How did he fit into the picture? Was he (or had he once been) more important than Fuwa? And why put Corn's stone next to Ren's bedside? Was Kyouko perhaps hoping it would take away whatever it was that was trapping Ren in a coma just like it would eat away all her sadness when she was down? But surely that was just make believe that the Corn boy used to cheer her up, right? It didn't actually work?

With his head swimming with questions, Yashiro's exhaustion gradually caught up with him and he fell asleep still thinking about Corn and the blue stone.

Something wasn't right. He didn't quite know what, but just that something wasn't. He felt so tired as if he hadn't slept for days, and yet a part of him knew that that wasn't the case. He tried to turn in his sleep, but every time he did it hurt, and he met resistance as if something were tying him down. Opening his eyes briefly one time, he thought he saw faces, but before he could make out who they were everything became a sudden, disorientating blur and the cacophony and flurry of movement that ensued made him badly disconcerted. He didn't like the noise, the light and the painful poking and prodding, so he stubbornly went back to sleep again, wishing everything would go away. But in a place where people were determined to wake him, there was only so much sleep he could do before he did wake, and so he eventually did on a relatively quiet morning.

Roused by the sound of a soft, yet persistent beeping, Kuon reluctantly opened his eyes. He felt weak and exhausted and his head hurt as if he were experiencing a hangover from hell. Turning his head tentatively to one side, he tried to locate the source of the constant beeping and fuzzily took in the sanitised white walls around him, absently noting the sparse furniture and the vaguely familiar equipment in the unfamiliar room he was in...

Where? This ... isn't my room ... Hospital? he thought in weary confusion before memories of the vicious street fight he had been in last night assaulted his mind. Recalling the nightmare, a half-desperate, half self-mocking laugh threatened to escape him as he drew an arm over his face, ignoring the slight pain that the small movement caused him. Did I lose? Is that why I'm here? ... Or did I finally lose it and try the unthinkable?

In any case, he didn't really care. He just wished his head would stop pounding and that it wasn't morning or midday so that the room he was in wouldn't be so damn bright. Hoping that if he turned the other way, away from the offending window with its open curtains, he would be able to avoid the light, he gingerly tried to roll to his other side and froze. What he saw there startled him from his fuzzy half-asleep state and he immediately became wide awake.

Slouched in a chair close to his bed, and snoring almost imperceptibly, was a man in his mid twenties whom he did not recognise. Dressed in a khaki suit and wearing a dark green tie, he had light brown hair and wore a pair of round glasses which looked like they were about to slip off the bridge his nose. If not for the fact that he was in a hospital with a complete stranger for reasons he was yet to ascertain, he would have found the sight comical. As it was however, there was only one logical conclusion he could draw from having a complete stranger in a suit keeping watch over him while he was asleep in hospital: he had run in with the law.

Finally.

And the guy in the chair was probably some plain-clothes officer patiently waiting for him to waken so he could interrogate him. The fact that neither of his parents were there meant that they were both probably at work and had yet to learn of the situation - there was no way either of them would be absent if they knew. Or were they both filming interstate again? He couldn't remember. Whichever it was, he'd better get himself out of hospital fast.

Frowning darkly, Kuon sat up and gasped involuntarily as a sudden sharp pain lanced through the side of his partly bandaged head. Doubled over, with his head clutched in his hands, his original intention to sneak out the room surreptitiously was derailed as he squeezed his eyes shut in pain and struggled to fight back a nauseating spinning sensation.

"Ren?" Yashiro's sleep-fogged voice croaked as he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The actor's involuntary gasp of pain had woken him from his light catnap, and realising that he was finally awake and sitting up in bed, Yashiro was on his feet and next to him in no time. "Ren, you're awake! You're finally awake!" he exclaimed excitedly in relief and surprise. Much to Kuon's dismay, Yashiro then immediately began to rattle on rapidly and incessantly about things that did not make sense, "Thank goodness, Ren! We were all so worried! Kyouko-chan and the president will be so relieved! Ah, let me call the president - he went to pick up Kyoko-chan just then and should be back any minute. They'll be so thrilled! Oh, are you okay Ren? How are you feeling? Does your head hurt? Ah, I should probably call the doc-

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

Kuon's sudden, angry outburst cut through the manager's animated rambling like a knife, and an uncomfortable silence filled the air as Yashiro froze at the hostile glare that was being directed at him. Belatedly, as they stared at each other, they both registered that something was not quite right.

Did... did Ren just ... yell at him? In English? ... What did he just say?

This guy ... he speaks Japanese? ... Does that mean I'm in Japan? No, that can't be right… the man's probably just a Japanese-American like dad. But then, why ...

"... R-Ren? Are you okay?" Yashiro's worried enquiry interrupted Kuon's confused thoughts and more than annoyed his glare turned icy, causing Yashiro to quickly drop the hand that he had extended in a gesture of concern, "Ren? ..."

"Who are you?" Kuon demanded coldly, switching languages with a bit of difficulty.

"Eh? What do you mean?" Yashiro was becoming more and more worried by the minute. He didn't like how angry Ren looked and how confused he seemed to be, and ... was he speaking Japanese with a slightly foreign accent? No.. that couldn't be right. He must just be imaging things ..."Ren, I'm Yukihito," he prompted gently, "Yukihito Yashiro ... your manager, remember? We work togeth-"

"Yukihito? My manager? Manager of what? My name's not Ren!"

"But … Ren, it's me. Don't you remember? I manage your schedule and all your appoint-"

Hearing the man constantly calling him 'Ren', Kuon felt his temper fraying as he struggled to deal with his pounding head and at the same time try to make sense of what was going on. While he was partly relieved that the stranger beside him wasn't some civil servant as he had previously thought, he wasn't happy at all to be stuck with an annoying idiot who thought he was someone else. Obviously it was a case of mistaken identity, though he utterly failed to see how that was even possible given that he didn't look remotely Japanese with his blonde hai–

Wait! Wh- What the hell?

The f***ing bastard who dyed his hair was going to pay!

"-ments for work. Ah, I'm sorry, you probably weren't expecting to see me first when you woke up, right? But the president, he thought it best not to call your parents despite all my protes–"

At the mention of his parents, something inside Kuon snapped and before Yashiro even had time to blink, he found himself knocked violently to the ground. Despite the persistent pain and dizziness in his head, Kuon somehow managed to pin Yashiro down by straddling his waist, and before the rush of adrenaline left his strained body, Kuon deftly looped the tube from his saline drip tightly around Yashiro's neck, "Ren! REN! What are doing? Stop! You're cho-kin eeee…. ELP!"

Ah, he got it. So this was just another tasteless, hate-prank those f***ing sh**heads thought would be fun to play on Kuu and Julie Hizuri's hapless son – he must have lost that fight in the alleyway last night and the victors had decided to leave him a memento before sending him to hospital. As for the unknown stranger beneath him, he must be the unfortunate gaffe hired to test his mettle after he woke. The same trick they used on him in 8th grade was getting old – paying some unsuspecting newbie co-actor to befriend him before betraying him later in some shape or form; leaving a false note to tell him that the shooting location for the day had changed, or saying that the filming schedule for work had been switched to another day. Anything to land him in trouble with the directors was fine, and this time it seemed that dying his hair for him was just the right thing. Well, he'd make sure that the bastards paid for the deed after he finished with this guy.

Tightening his makeshift noose even more, Kuon watched impassively as confusion, panic then fear played across Yashiro's features as he frantically tried to claw loose the thin tubing cutting into his throat. Waiting till the man had turned sufficiently blue, he relented and loosened his hold on the saline tube slightly, just enough to let the man gasp for breath. Giving the struggling man some time to recover, he waited a short while before leaning in close.

"Yukihito was it?" he asked in a threateningly soft whisper, enunciating each word clearly against the manager's ear as he smiled congenially, "Now tell me, which bored audacious soul thought it would be funny to dye my hair this delightful colour while I was sleeping? I'd be more than glad to extend my heartfelt thanks to them. Hmm? – Oh, and before you think of lying to me, let me give you this warning. Despite what everyone thinks, I don't resemble my father one tiny inkling. I'm far far from the kind, generous, likeable and gentle person that that man is. Well? Who was it that did this?"

Staring wide-eyed into Ren's icy grey eyes as his smile turned disturbingly cold, Yashiro could barely speak as he continued to gasp in lungfuls of air. "Wh…what … What are you …. talking about Ren?" he rasped out shakily, frightened by the malicious glint in the actor's eyes, "Your … your hair … has always… been that colour."

"Wrong answer, Yukihito. Shall we try again?"

"Ren! Snap out of it! … We're … we're not filming BJ right now!" Trying in vain to push the heavy actor off him as he felt the saline tube begin to constrict his throat again, Yashiro tried to sit up as his gasping voice turned hysterical, "Ren! Stop it! You're scaring me! … If you end up acci … dentally … killing me … you're going to land … yourself in jail and … and your career will …. will be … over!"

"My career? What career?" Kuon suddenly laughed bitterly as he let the tube loosen again, "perhaps that was already over even before it began." The mention of his work brought back nothing but angry, painful memories of him being fired for reasons he couldn't understand. Staring into Yashiro's eyes, he let out another self-mocking laugh before, inexplicably, he smiled at him again. But instead of the cold, malicious smile that had graced his face just moments earlier, this one was so broken, sad and pained that it caught Yashiro completely off guard and he stopped struggling beneath the actor.

Still panting from the exertion of trying to get out under Ren, Yashiro nonetheless felt compelled to reach out. Even in his acting, he had never seen him look so vulnerable before. "R-Ren?... Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, but his concern seemed to have the opposite effect as Kuon's expression changed again, and his smile turned disdainful before it disappeared altogether under a completely unreadable mask.

"You don't get it do you?" he asked quietly, emotionlessly, "My name's not Ren. But then again, even if you did get it, you wouldn't be able to fix anything, would you? But perhaps I can remedy that myself… "

"Ren? What on earth are you talking about? If you're name's not Ren, then what is your name? Hey, someone! Doctor! Nurse! Ren's awake! Help!"

"What was that accident you just mentioned again? It wouldn't be an accident if my killing you was 200% intentional now, would it? If going to jail is what it'll take for more than just one person to acknowledge that I'm not him, that I'm different, and that I really exist, then perhaps it's worth it…."

"Ren! Stop! You're talking nonsense. Someone help! HELP! REN'S AWAKE! HEEELP!"

"Ha! … Can't even kill a chicken… But perhaps I might do better if it's an actual person? What do you say I give it a try Yukihito?"

Just as Yashiro's earnest yells caused the doctors and nurses to rush into the room, Kuon tightened the saline drip lethally around the manager's neck.

"Tsuruga-sama! Tsuruga-sama! Stop! You're going to strangle your manager!"

As the doctors and nurses panicked cries fell on Kuon's deaf ears, and their attempts to detach him from Yashiro was all in vain, a returning Lory, Kyoko and Maria also rushed into the room.

"Ren! Ren, let go of him, boy!"

"Tsuruga-san!"

"Ren-sama! REN-SAMA!"

Just as one of the doctors were scrambling to fill a syringe with sedative, Lory's strong voice cut through the panic, "BOY! Let go of Yashiro AT ONCE!"

Called back to sanity by an unexpected voice that spoke English with a familiar Japanese accent, Kuon finally turned to see those who had entered the room.

"Boss?" he called out uncertainly as he completely let go of the saline drip. Why was the boss here? Why him instead of his mum and dad? Were they okay? Who were the white-coats and the two crying girls standing behind the boss in the doorway looking worried and scared? And who was the man beneath him who he just tried to strangle? Why did he want to strangle him again? As the flood of questions overwhelmed him, Kuon felt the strength drain from his whole body as his overly stressed and disorientated mind struggled - and failed - to make sense of the everything. Where was he? Did he die? Was that really the boss dressed in a normal-looking outfit?

"Boss, what are you doing here?" he asked shakily as he tried to stand. He looked lost and dazed like a helpless child as he stood unsteadily, and Lory hurried over as the doctors and nurses attended to Yashiro. Just in time, Lory caught Kuon as a dizzying sense of vertigo assailed him, and he slipped once again into unconsciousness.

A/N: Gaaaah… I'm so sorry this is sooooo sooooooooooo late! But I've just moved across the ocean to live in the land of the rising sun, and between adapting to a new life and job, I've been a bit busy. But yes! I'm still here and I'm still writing this even without my beloved home internet. (Oh, where art thou? May you soon exist in the place where I live). Anyway, please R&R if you're still following this story! Thank you! ^3^