First of all, I am very sorry for the rather long hiatus. School has been very hectic, and my health was failing me. Now that the semester's over, I am back in full force!

During my hiatus, I've received reviews on some of my works, and some guest reviews are... How should I say this? Discomforting. I know that I am not the best fanfiction writer, I have a lot of flaws, but if you don't like my story, you don't have to read it. Imagine yourself waking up in early morning, opening your email and reading someone swearing over your hard work. I appreciate all reviews, even when I don't have time to reply almost all of them, and always use them as means to improve my writing. Please, you don't have to swear at me just because you don't like my story.

Sorry for my ranting.

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!

Chapter 23: Epilogue ~The Next Stage Is...~

Contrary to the traditional custom of classical compositions — those written by Mendelssohn, Wagner, or even Pachelbel — as a wedding march, when the bride appeared on the entrance of the chapel, Kuroishi Hitomi's 'Continued Story' started to fill the serene silence before God's presence.

The guests already wanted to comment on this little thing some devoted followers of tradition might call an atrocity, but in the end, seeing how the song perfectly fit the pace of the bride and her escort as they walked along the red carpet adorned with rose petals, and the happiness shown in the eyes of the bride and groom, they chose to suffer in silence.

Marina, being a very creative and imaginative person, was already picturing a scene in her to-be-written story where a scorned witch was given atonement and finally married to a king who loved her for who she was. The ghostwriter smiled to herself. Leave it to her to go beyond Romeo and Juliet when the topic of 'star-crossed lovers' was mentioned.

She could care less about the fact that a song composed for an anime was played as wedding march.

Looking at the bride — who was smiling lovingly at her groom — Marina could not help but remember her conversation with Saena a few years back.

Both of them were caught in an awkward silence after Marina got into Saena's room in the hospital a few days after she had woken up from her coma.

Not able to stand the awkward atmosphere, the Akatoki decided to break it first. "I am glad to finally see thou awake. How are thou faring?"

"... Fine," Saena finally said after another awkward moment of silence. "How about you?"

Marina laughed good-naturedly as a reply. "I thrive as fine as I am possibly able, but let us not change the focus of our dialogue here. Alas, the one bedridden is still thou, after all."

The other woman gave out a slight frown. "I've wanted to ask you ever since our meeting months ago," Saena said. "What's with that speech pattern?"

"What speech pattern, if I may know?"

"That speech pattern!" the recuperating woman bellowed. "Like you're a part of English royalty! That's really infuriating, you know that?"

Marina put a hand over her agape mouth in mild surprise. "I beg thou pardon. I was having a correspondence with a dear acquaintance from London, and we both took the class of Victorian literature long ago. I might still be under the influence."

Saena snorted, rolling her eyes. "Yeah right; so what exactly are you here for, Milady?" she asked with a sarcastic sneer and a glare that now was not so deadly.

The ghostwriter was suddenly very quiet; her arms limp on both sides of her. The silence hanged awkwardly in the room for a while, and it made Saena fidget on her bed uncomfortably.

"I came here to apologize," Marina finally broke the silence, choking with dry sobs. "Saena, I—"

"Now just wait a minute," her estranged friend cut her off. "What is this about?"

"I always took pride of myself being very perceptive of others, and I did not know thou was hurting," the usually dignified Akatoki was reduced to tears. "And with the incident after Naoya's death, I always thought that I was the most pitiful among others, disregarding that my happiness before all of that hurt someone else."

Saena gaped in shock, brought back to the memories of her pushing Marina unconsciously out of sheer jealousy. She had always envied the other woman right from the moment they had first met each other through Kento — with the Mogami so ambitious and competitive she had gotten jealous easily when other people were happier than her.

She had known deep in her mind that she was sick — one side or another — but she could not get enough of the euphoria that had seemed to come to her whenever she had succeeded in tackling others in their way towards happiness.

And right then and there Saena realized that Kento had been right after all — she indeed needed help; an urgent one at that.

But first, she needed to do something, and it could not wait.

The wounded woman cleared her throat, catching Marina's attention. "I'm supposed to be the one who prostrate down at your feet, begging forgiveness," she started awkwardly, never being placed in such situation. "But I guess it's just understandable that you won't be able to forgive me anyway, with the stunt I pulled with you and your baby…"

Trailing down, Saena could not finish her sentence. Although she had abandoned it right away after seeing Kyoko's golden eyes for the first time had awakened her bitterness towards Kento, she had understood the joy of having a new life being born from love, and she could not forget the sense of joyful wanting of the baby. Now that she had experienced that, she could understand Marina's feelings of utter despair when she lost both her beloved and their child.

And it had been because of her.

Imagine how surprised Saena was when a pair of fair hands enveloped one of hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. She looked up only to see Marina smiling at her gently, eyes brimming with tears.

"I forgive you."

Looking back, Marina realized that actually there was nothing for her to be bitter over. Her hatred for Saena had been something born from her own insecurities, because everything had been well for her and she had never prepared herself to face the harshness of life.

She shifted her gaze towards the happily smiling face of the girl with flaming chestnut brown of a hair, the tips spiking out here and there in a very artistic way, courtesy of the wizard of beauty, Jelly Woods. Combined together with her dress, Kyoko looked like nothing but a very beautiful fairy princess fleeting about in the happiness brimming in the room.

Marina could not help but smile. After some time living together with the young actress, the two had grown a close relationship as a family. They had often spent moments together, just the two of them, when the ghostwriter had not been pressed by due dates for her stories and Kyoko finally had had a day off from shoots and could not spend time with Ren.

And by now, Kyoko was like the younger Akatoki's daughter.

Marina might have lost her baby thanks to Saena, but she had gained another child — courtesy of Saena as well.

She would never exchange it for the better.

"By the power bestowed upon me, I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Marina snapped her focus back to the altar, horrified to find that she had missed the whole moment of the vow for everlasting love.

At least she did not miss the view of the groom pressing his lips on his now wife's with all of his adoration, followed by the echoing cheers and hoots of the guests.

Only weeks after the joyous occasion, Japan was shaken by the news of Tsuruga Ren's death, leaving all devoted fans — which was a lot — crying for the loss of the most talented actor in the era — and of course, the most desired man at the moment — and the mass media going into frenzy.

Millions of people — press and fans alike — flooded the hall of Lory's mansion, paying respect to the late actor, voicing their disbelief over his sudden death, and its undisclosed reason. Many praised Ren for his unyielding professionalism at work, his great talent, and his kindness and humility towards others, both in and out of showbiz world.

One young female fan even spoke in her sobs about how Ren had often come to the convenience store she worked at, his face half-hidden beneath his baseball cap, to buy onigiris. The story managed to bring wry laughter of amusement from the people who listened to her, before they sobbed louder.

But most of all pitied Kyoko, Ren's fiancée, who they found sitting at the front row of the available seats. Instead of bawling her eyes out, the 21-year old actress's face was blank of emotion, the sparkle usually found in her amber eyes gone, as if she had lost her soul. She looked so lost in her grief that she did not even offer consolation to the bawling little Maria, who sat between her and the grief-stricken foreign woman they recognized as Juliella Hizuri.

"Poor Kyoko-san," a journalist whispered to his fellow.

"Yeah, she and the late Tsuruga-san were the best couple ever, and everyone already speculates them to tie the knot in the short future."

"To think that this happened only weeks after her parents' long-awaited marriage…"

All whispers fell into Kyoko's deaf ears, as her mind went to her most recent rendezvous with her beloved…

Much to her surprise, her fairy prince suddenly rose from his seat at the vacant dining table during their daily dinner together, walked around the table towards her, and kneeled on one knee at her feet.

"Kyoko," Kuon began, his voice low with nervousness. "Loving you has been the greatest grace I've ever received in my life. I know that I may not deserve more than this — hell, maybe I don't even deserve being with you all this time — but…"

Her face instantly paled with dread. He's going to break up with me.

Her mind was going into overdrive — her demons began to wake up from their resting place — that she did not listen to Kuon's next sentence.

"…rry me."

She felt Kuon taking her hands in both of his gently, gaining her complete attention. "I know that this might surprise you, but I know that we can make this work, Kyoko," Kuon continued. "So, will you marry me?"

Now Kyoko felt like an idiot for instantly misunderstanding him and thinking to the negative extreme, and her heart swelled with her love for him. Her arms were immediately flung around his neck, and she was instantly in his loving embrace.

"Yes!" she exclaimed in pure happiness. "Yes, Kuon, yes!"

She could feel Kuon smiling against the crown of her head. "Thank you," he said, as happy as her if not more. "Thank you for allowing me to be yours for life, Kyoko. I promise I'll do everything to make you the happiest woman in this world."

And they shared their sweetest kiss. When they parted themselves from each other, Kuon looked at her lovingly with a small smile. "But I want you to wait for me, Kyoko," he told her, his nervousness coming back. "There's still something that I have to do before I can come and get you as my wife."

The next day after Kuon's proposal, Lory informed her that Tsuruga Ren had died in an accident, and his body had been too charred by the explosion that it had not been recognizable.

Silent tears fell from the corner of Kyoko's eyes as she stared at the picture of dark-haired Kuon — Ren — leaning against a polished black coffin. She noticed that the wooden compartment was too short for a man with Ren's height, but she paid no more mind for her heart was too numb with sadness.

Why, Kuon? She silently cried. You promised me that you'll make me the happiest woman in this world, and yet you left me alone… Is all of it just a lie?

The sound of the microphone being tapped roused the audience from their own mourning. Lory, for once in a very normal attire of black suit, stood on the stage, the microphone in his hand. His expression was unreadable, but that was understandable. Ren had been like his own son he loved dearly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to extend my gratitude towards all of you for coming to mourn the passing of one of the most talented person in LME — no, in this world," the mustached man began in somber tone. "Tsuruga Ren has been a very dear person for me, and I'm sure that's the same case for all of us. But I believe that I'm not the one who holds him dear the most. So I'll just—" he choked with a sob, "I'll just pass this stage to the one whom I know was the closest with Ren…"

Much to everyone's surprise, the microphone was not offered to Kyoko — instead, a strange blonde man stood up and walked to the stage, taking the device from Lory. His long bangs covered his face from sight, making everyone in the room curious over his identity.

Kyoko's eyes flickered towards the man standing on the stage, and life gradually returned to her golden orbs.

"I can never express how Tsuruga Ren means so much to me," the stranger spoke after clearing his throat in uneasiness. "He was the one who brought me out of my deepest slump, the one who became my solace when I tried to run away from my darkest past… I don't think that I could be here if he doesn't exist.

"But then I got to meet again with the love of my life. She has managed to successfully fill the void in my hearts, and encouraged me to not run away anymore. And because of her," he glanced at Kyoko, apology in his eyes, "I believe now I can put Tsuruga Ren to rest."

The stranger lifted his head to face the crowd, and murmurs of recognition and disbelief buzzed around among the audience. He noticed the shock on Maria's wet face, and the happy yet annoyed expression of his beloved. He smiled.

"Before Tsuruga Ren, I was — and still am — Hizuri Kuon, the son of Hizuri Kuu and Juliella. And I will continue my life as I am now — the one shaped by Tsuruga Ren, the persona I created — together with Kyoko, my fiancée. From now on, I will be in your care."

Additional Disclaimer:
-Try to guess where Kuroishi Hitomi's "Continued Story" was used in (in reality). And try to listen to it; I know that my taste in music is weird, but this song is really good.
-Marina's story idea is taken from 'Hyakunen Renbo' by Mashiba Nao-sensei.

And this is the end of 'The Next Episode'. I actually wanted to bring this to an end months before today, but with unexpected twists in my schedule and life, this story ends almost a year after it got started. And I will understand if you readers want to kill me for the twist in this chapter. I've had this pictured in my head long before I started this story, and struggled a lot on how I wanted to express it in words.

The next story I will focus on after this is 'Trade of Innocence', which already has a pilot chapter uploaded and is much darker in theme compared to this story and "Behind The Scene: Omiai". The latter is still ongoing, and I will surely update it, but maybe not as regular.

My greatest gratitude for all readers who read, follow, fave, and review this story, and I am really sorry that I cannot mention you by your names one by one (and that I now rarely reply the reviews). But please know that I always hold you all dear in my heart, and that I can never make it this far without you guys.

Please review :) Thank you!