Kyoko's stomach churned as she peeked out at the hundreds of pairs of expectant eyes as she bee-lined to her inevitable doom.

'I'll be fine... I'll be fine..'

Rubbing the precious gem on her hand, Kyoko willed herself for courage. She'll be fine. Successful actresses must eventually go through this rite of passage. Snow White must take her poisonous apple and Cinderella must suffer her evil stepsisters. Except that Snow White and Cinderella was not being gossiped about unjustly by paparazzi, after all they were especially prone to twisting unsuspecting truth to some blown-out-of-proportion romance of the century.

It must be because Cinderella's step sisters did not have cellphone with cameras or internet reception. Cellphones could do just about anything these days, unlike her phone, which does nothing other than text or make calls. Speaking of texts, she hadn't replied to Sawara-san's text this morning. It sounded really important, but she was still really awkward with typing on the small keypad. She always typed things really slowly and ended up getting distracted before she finished typing her message. Maybe she should double check her draft folder and ask Moko-san for help….

"…And here's the star we've been waiting for…"

'….'

'NO! NO! NO! I still need to prepare… !'

Like treacherous headlights flashing on unsuspecting deer, the spotlight beamed on her gloriously like the halo of a thousand cherubs. She could almost hear the hallelujah chorus on the background.

"She was the bloodcurdling Mio from the popular Dark Moon. She was Box R's Natsu. A rising actress on the most-awaited upcoming drama "Skip Beat!" and the center of a very hot gossip, please welcome, Kyoko-san!"

'NuooooooOOOOO!'