A Character Flaw

Make it stop! Ah, my head is aching. What happened last night? Ren tried to think back and what he got was disturbing. He had gone out for a drink with Yashiro and then they were going to meet up with Kanae Kotonami and Kyoko at some restaurant. Yashiro seemed really nervous and kept checking his phone and ordering shots. Then I began ordering shots too so it would look like two buddies having fun, instead of a whack ball wearing rubber gloves and getting hammered. Okay then what. We showed up at the restaurant completely blitzed…I sat next to Kyoko with Yashiro next to Kotonami…and Kotonami told Kyoko we were drunk…and…then…Kotonami started yelling at Yashiro and Kyoko started crying…and my headache started. Why did she start yelling? Then it came back crystal clear. Kotonami was telling Yashiro that she couldn't afford to be in a relationship with a person who would show up drunk on the night they were announcing their engagement…Wait, engagement?...and that maybe they should take a break. The screaming and wailing became too much, he had to put an end to it, so he grabbed the source of the crying and clamped his mouth onto the blubbering lips. Oh my God, did I kiss…Kyoko? Ren was now sitting on the edge of his bed eyes still closed, with his head in his hands. He thought about it, he wracked his sore brain and came up with the answer. No…not Kyoko.

He opened his eyes to see Yashiro kneeling in front of him with a plate of dry toast and a mug of black coffee. "Hiya, lover boy, are you feeling better this morning?"

There was tittering from somewhere else in the room, and Ren realized he had shot up from the bed and Dukes of Hazarded over it to the other side of the room, clutching his blanket to his chest like a modest teenage girl. "Did you…did you stay the night?"

Yashiro bat his eyes and said in a sugar sweet voice, "Why, yes Ren." He placed the hangover cure on the bedside table and began advancing toward his charge.

Ren flailed his hands in front of himself, hoping to keep the manager at bay. "I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it! Stay away from me! Stay away from me! I LIKE GIRLS!"

At that, the tittering became all out, uproarious laughter. Kyoko and Kotonami entered the room. Kotonami put the back of her hand against her lips to stop the laughter but couldn't. "Mr. Tsuruga, we stayed the night too. After you kissed Yashiro to shut him up," She looked at Yashiro with a look that could shut him up for good. "You ended up passing out. It took all three of us and a waiter to get you to the car, so Kyoko and I stayed with you two, in order to get you up here."

Kyoko shyly waved at Ren. "I thought we might be able to get you to walk up here on your own by getting you in character, like when you had a cold, but that didn't work."

Ren noticed, for the first time, that he was still wearing his jeans and sweater from last night.

"So," Ren said in a regular tone of voice, "everything is as it was before I went to the bar."

"Well," Yashiro said, walking up to Kotonami and putting his arm around her, "not quite."

Kyoko pouted as she looked from the couple to Ren. "Moko has graduated from the LoveMe section and is going to get married."

Ren hugged the couple and Kyoko, briefly, and then looked at the three of them with a serious expression. "That is all…we are going to talk about when it comes to that night, right?"

Kyoko smiled, "Yes, Mr. Tsuruga, I think the story of your first kiss being with a man, will be the only evidence of a character flaw in the Japanese heart throb image of Ren Tsuruga."

Kotonami looked at her best friend and soon to be Maid of Honor with surprise and curiosity, "Wait you mean…last night wasn't the first time?"

Yashiro smiled gleefully as he started the story. "Okay, so little Ren was in about first grade and he was late for class…"

Ren just sat back down on his bed and for the simple reason of giving him a distraction, he ate breakfast willingly. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop…