Skip Beat [Chapter 240]

The chapter starts with Kyouko reading about a girl going out on a candlelight dinner with Ren. With a picture attached of Ren escorting her, the girl mentions about finding Ren having that mature guy’s charm since he is used to looking after women. But in reality, it is actually a party for Purple Down 2 with all the cast and crew.

Kyouko realizes that this girl worked with Ren in that autumn drama two years ago. She looks at a picture of a cute looking girl holding a puppy. Her name is Morizumi Kimiko. Yashiro saw her looking at Kimiko’s blog that he asked if Kyouko is an ardent reader of that blog. Kyouko explains that she is looking for information on the internet regarding Kimiko to help her understand that person’s character. In the end, she found this blog.

Since she read that she was in a movie with Ren before, Kyouko asks Yashiro what he knows about Kimiko. Kyouko wants to know if she is really a person who’ll use vile methods to steal a role to the point of endangering someone’s life. From her blog, she doesn’t seem to be that kind of person. Yashiro tells her that Kimiko is from a showbiz family. The producer of Purple Down is her father.

At that time, he heard that as producer, the father solely decided to cast Kimiko into that role. But then, whenever a Morizumi relative is part of the directing, auditions-type of jobs, she will appear in that drama. Those kinds of situation aren’t few so there is a high possibility that it is true.

Kyouko thinks out loud if Kimiko can really cope with getting jobs through her connections especially in the acting world. If her acting skill is far off from the other actors, it will be very hard for her to blend in with the cast and crew. Yashiro refuted her by saying that everyone ought to have considered her acting as not bad at all.

This made Kyouko think that something is wrong because obviously Kimiko has advantageous circumstances and own talent for her to stand out yet how come her exposure isn’t that quite high. Is she active in some other areas other than the television industry? Since Kyouko is now more aware about the acting world compared before, she ought to have heard of Kimiko’s name on the television yet when Erika’s bodyguards mention her name, it didn’t ring a bell. She even had to search about this Kimiko person.

Recalling that one of the bodyguards told her that she is related to the producer, Kyouko quickly searched on the internet who is the producer of the drama, Lotus in the Mud. It is a certain Morizumi Jouji. Scowling Kyouko asks if this is the producer of Purple Down. Yashiro corrects her that it is the producer’s older brother.

Yashiro asks if Kimiko is also auditioning for ‘Momiji’. Kyouko stutters that she should...most probably. Holding her head, Kyouko groans for the audition has already been decided. Yashiro tries to calm her down but Kyouko protests that in the industry, the one who have the say and has the right to decide is the ‘producer’ especially in movies.

Even if the director wanted to cast Kimiko, if the producer opposes it, then it isn’t considered. For example, the winner would need more of the producer’s approval rather than the director’s. Kyouko backtracks on that because Erika already got the role but it was decided that they hold another audition.

Even if IT IS Erika’s father’s request, at least, that ‘producer’ has a sense of fairness on wanting to choose someone other than ‘Morizmi family member’ and he even showed flexibility in accepting a supporting role’s substitute. Kyouko thinks that if she has an opportunity to show it to someone, how she will interpret the role of Momiji. That is her hope. Kyurara audition is also like this since they already wanted Erika from the start.

Kyouko happily recalls their gorgeous skit which reversed the situation. Even if she done it while working with Kanae as one but she has grown since then. Even if she has no partner, but Kanae will definitely stand at her side. All pumped up, Kyouko believes that it is okay, she can do it.

Yashiro interrupts her by saying that since she had recovered, he wants to give her something. It is the reason why he is there. Kyouko is confused upon seeing a gift from Yashiro. He explains that a month had almost passed, and this is a return gift for Vday. Kyouko screams in shock. The gift is a horse carriage aromatherapy candle holder. She is very happy over how cute it is.

Relieved that it is within his expected reaction from her, Yashiro apologizes for the delay. He prepared it before White Day but he always didn’t have an opportunity to give it to her and it isn’t something he can conveniently carry around. The real 99% reason for it is because he doesn’t feel that he can give the ‘return gift’ to Kyouko alone without Ren’s but in the end, his intention was futile.

He learned two days ago from Ren [about going to Guam or something?] so even if it is late, he can give it to her. Yashiro explains that he was away from Tokyo for around 5 days or else, he would have given it to her on the 14th. But then, even if it was late for a month, she ought to have that kind of reaction, too. Kyouko apologizes and says that she thought the ‘return gift’ is only limited on White Day and she basically didn’t think that she’ll get a ‘return gift’.

Yashiro explains that in this industry, there is a high possibility of being unable to return the gift on White day especially Ren so there is a rule of ‘return gift’ within the month which are sent out. Ren didn’t personally mention it but that is how is how he sees it before. Since the actor and manager are one body by fate, he also unconsciously copied this action of Ren’s.

Yashiro thinks that everyone is happy getting a ‘return gift’ and it helps in having good relations. Even if everyone is aware of that situation of balancing that importance and work, no one would mention it out loud. Yashiro says that even if a month has passed and the ‘return gift’ wasn’t forgotten to be given to her then that is because Kyouko is very ‘special’.

Pause. Kyouko blushes and thanks him. She says that it is the first time a guy said that she is special. She reacted only now because it took some time for her neurons’ synapse to transmit. While Yashiro wonders if he properly conveyed it to her, Kyouko starts saying that actually, they have a connection that others cannot dare imagine after all.

She completed the missions of being Ren’s manager and Ren’s younger sister. She managed to experience it thanks to being in Love Me section. Their unique connection is a Love Me member’s special privilege. Yashiro thinks that she had forcefully twisted the meaning of ‘special’ but forget it, there’s no way for her to understand his meaning since she is Love Me member number one. Just then, Sawara calls out Kyouko to meet with someone. Yashiro quietly looks at the picture of Kimiko on the computer.

Later on, Yashiro thanks Sawara for telling him where Kyouko is. Sawara asks if he is managed well the Tokyo stuff. Yashiro says yes, thanks to him, since it will be some time before Ren comes back from THAT SIDE. He [Yashiro] was also able to finish the work before so he can breathe a sigh of relief. Sawara asks if he hasn’t told Ren yet.

Yashiro says yes because he wants to give him a pleasant surprise. Sawara says that it is worth seeing. They talk about Kyouko’s new job commercial offering. There are more offers coming in and it is probably thanks to Box’R even if the second episode’s rating isn’t that high. Still, Kyouko’s charisma in the TV drama is there.

Sawara thinks that Mio and Natsuki are totally different but then, the same goes with Kyouko herself. He says that even if Kyouko wants to concentrate on acting but then, she cannot decline other offers besides acting. She had been more or less distress about it for a long time so he wants to get someone who can give her suggestions. Yashiro looks thoughtful.

At the Love Me room, Kyouko opens her locker to put in her new gift. She is going for fighting practice so it will have to wait when she has time and the mood to bring it home. Recalling what Yashiro said about not being able to give back ‘return gifts’, she remembers that Lory called them out on White Day. She becomes disappointed that she has to shake her head to not think of it.

She actually didn’t think of ‘return gift’, and she didn’t except it so why is she troubled by ‘why’ she didn’t receive a return gift. It is also thick-faced of her to think about that. She already got a candle holder from Yashiro, tea cup set from Ogata and mirror set from the Bridge Rock guys when she only gave them two truffles.

It is like she is some malicious loan shark who got more than what she gave. She is glad that Ren forgot about it. She cannot imagine Ren giving something that will conform with her gift that probably cost 400-600 yen and how come guys’ return gift is so costly that it is already multiple times more than the cost of just two truffles.

Then, Kyouko remembers that she didn’t give Ren truffles, she gave him a special queen rose red wine jelly. She assumes that because it isn’t chocolate, so it isn’t a target of Ren’s ‘return gift’. She thinks that it is possible that she doesn’t know about this ‘Vday rule of Japan’ so if it isn’t a chocolate, there’s no return gift. She decides to give cookies-type next time in case she receives costly return gifts.

After getting her things from the locker, Kyouko rushes out to the street. She had a suffocating feeling for a while but it is okay now. She checks her cellphone for the bus schedule and looks aghast. While catching her breath at the bus stop, she thinks that if she couldn’t catch the next one, she’ll totally be late. She checks how much time she had left. 4 minutes.

She decides to make a run for it as if her life depended on it. She is stopped by a car that honked at her. The driver is waving for her to come over. She checks it out and it is Yashiro who offers her a ride on his car. Kyouko is surprised that he already has a license when she recalls that before, he told her that his only shortcoming is not having a license for him to become a perfect measure to Ren.

Yashiro says to become the perfect manager, he went to a training camp for two weeks. He tells her that this super manager can be hired right now for a limited time. So if she wants to hire him, then get into the backseat right now.

Comment: On the first page, is that Kyouko looking jealous or shocked over this ‘date’? I had a similar reaction as I wonder who this girl is before realizing that Kyouko might be researching about the competitor. From the looks of it, Kimiko is indeed a nice girl. With that kind of post and picture, who would think that she is capable of doing THAT to Erika.

Still, I’m curious, is that her latest post? It was about two years ago. If she no longer updates the blog means she was busy with something else or something’s up. Things do not jive just like what Kyouko is thinking. If the producer is ‘boss’, why would they even bother with auditions and didn’t just cast Kimiko for the role. But that role doesn’t seem destined for her since Kanae mentioned of a certain someone, most likely Kimiko, wanted her role, too.

Since she isn’t as popular as she should be given her family background and probably average/above average talent, could it be that she isn’t really interested in acting? I’m imagining that she was forced to act or at least, this time to audition as some ultimatum that she has to get the role by hook or by crook for whatever reason. Anyway, Kyouko’s task is to impress everyone enough during the audition with her interpretation of Momiji for her to get the role.

Also, when it was mentioned Momiji having a family who are into showbiz, I immediately thought of Ren again. So, is Ren’s past going to be connected to that? Is it possible that Momiji also wanted to get out of her family’s shadow so she tried to audition instead of the role being given to her on a silver platter? Or, is she like that bully who tormented Ren before, assuming that he just has to get a certain role? Maybe both?

On a side note, it seems that Kyouko isn’t used to typing on a keyboard that she is using the two-finger technique. =P It is also amusing that everyone already knows what to give Kyouko. She is someone whom one can easily give a gift to and you’ll know she’ll be very happy with it. ^^ Yashiro is trying to hint about Kyouko being special to Ren but it failed. Don’t give up, gambatte!

That is actually one reason why I’m excited about Yashiro being her temporary manager. He can act as a cupid for the two. Or perhaps, he might find out Kyouko’s feelings for Ren. I’m thinking of Kamo’s role, the bodyguard in TCP, who also played cupid. ^^ Hopefully, that will help in the stalemate situation of the two.

Iirc, Ren doesn’t plan on giving a return gift to Kyouko. Yashiro seems to be hinting that he will. Well, if he does, I wonder what it will be. Will he give it again in a not so obvious manner like before? What will top that gem he gave before? And since White day has passed, it makes me wonder if it is a guarantee that there won’t be any other return gift from the other guys like Shou or Reino.

Anyway, Kyouko got her temporary manager. Maybe he can also help her with the Momiji issue aside from whether or not to take certain other jobs. As I mentioned, maybe love life, too ^^ How long is Ren going to be in Guam? I assume that 2 weeks had passed since it took Yashiro around that time to get his license, or he passed some work to Sawara for him to get that license? So here’s hoping for some development while Yashiro is her manager. ^^ Scans by 红莲汉化组

A positive attitude will always lead to positive outcomes. ~ Author Unknown