Maya was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she arrived at the hotel where Hayami-san was staying. Maya was an easy sleeper, but she was clear awake at 4AM and had ran the distance from her staying to here.

Almost 5AM. She was going to see Hayami-san. She had asked for 15 minutes and he gave her 2 hours. Even though he's busy, she'd get to see him for 2 hours!
Maya stood still. She shouldn't... she shouldn't be feeling this giddy about it. There were too many things she had to keep in mind. Considering him. Considering her.

She wasn't here to just see him. It was for the sake of her beloved acting. She shouldn't lose that focus.

It had happened before and it had nearly ruined her...

It should be the same for him. He agreed to help her for the sake of her acting. He enjoyed seeing her act... That was all there was too it, right?

.

Doubtfully and still quite unused to these kinds of fancy places, she entered the building.

Before she could head for the frontdesk, one of the staff greeted her, saying they 'had been expecting her' and led her along to an elevator, going all the way up to the top floor.

The room she entered was more of an apartment then a hotel room. The carpet looked softer then any bed she had ever slept on. The white furniture was stylish and looked expensive. The windows reached from one wall to the other, giving view to half the city. It smelled clean and new. Though maybe it was her imagination, it also smelled like roses.

Hayami Masumi was sitting in a comfi chair, browsing through a file with deep focus.

A pang of guilt rushed through Maya upon realizing: what if he didn't actually have the time at all? He looked like it had been longer then just 4AM since he was awake. Did he pull an all-nighter?

Maya wanted to shy back and leave him to work, but he had noticed her.

And the expression on his face betrayed that it had all been worth it to him.

Of course, it was only a split second. His aloof demeanor was back before she could blink.

"Good morning." he spoke coolly.

Maya bit her lip. For some reason, it pissed her off. "A very good morning, Hayami-san." she replied, sugary polite like he had told her is the way you should greet important people like him. Blegh.

He shifted his gaze to the hotel staff who had escorted her and nudged his head to dismiss him.

Maya stood there, not quite knowing what to say or do.

Hayami got up, rolled his sleeves and was the first to speak:
"I have a fair idea what you were thinking. And I have some thoughts of it myself. Just reading the script over and over isn't going to help, no matter who it is in front of you."

Maya fumbled the script she was holding. "Then what should I do?"

The man showed a rare, mysterious and almost playful smile.

"I'm sure you remember 'Muenzakura'?"

It was the very first time she stood on the same stage as Ayumi, no way she would forget it. It was also what had forced her to take the do-or-die audition for Hellen Keller.

"The play you marvelously forced me in, yes I remember."

"Snide comments aside, little one... I assume you felt frustrated to have Himekawa Ayumi spell the scene out for you. Then how about it? Won't you take revenge on me dragging you on a stage where you didn't knew any of the lines? Though it's a safe and homey stage, you know the script while I don't."

.

That wasn't quite true. Of him not knowing the lines, yes. But Hayami had been aggressively against her going out on stage. Thinking back of it now, he acted like the play could crash and burn for all he cares, just to protect her. If she had let him, he would have taken full responsibility then and there, somehow.

Telling her to take 'revenge' was another kind of provocation to raise her up, at the cost of him sinking away.

It was almost pitiful.

But... now it was different. Because she now knows. She knows he's trying to do what's best for her.

Because maybe, just maybe... he cares for her?

.

"The goal of today is, afterall, getting the hang of the part. Which could be hard, as Belle is composed and elegant, which you are far from."
Yeah right, 'Hayami Masumi' and 'caring for someone' don't go together.

"Sorry to disappoint. Isn't that what acting is about?" she snapped back.

"Indeed." he wrapped his arms over each other. "And yet you couldn't live up to the part. Why?"

Maya bit her lip. He couldn't expect her to spell it out for him. So she answered, truthfully:

"This version of Belle is a bit different from that. Not as elegant..."

"Do tell. How is this version different? I still won't be reading the script but it would be nice to know what role I've been plunged into for the next 2 hours."
Maya huffed. If he was going to complain, he just shouldn't have agreed.

But as mr. Purple Rose, he'd want the play to succeed. That must be why he went out of his way.

"This Belle is a changeling. Her real mother, a fairy, was trialed for having fallen for a human man and having no parents to take care of Belle, her aunt replaced a dead child for her. As she grows up, she loves nature and stories and is very close to her father. Her sisters think she's kind of weird, though. She's treated like a servant." for a moment, Maya remembered how she didn't get along all too well with Keiko. And of how she loved her mother, of course...

"Belle's biological fairy aunt was the one who had cast a spell on the Beast, because he refused to fall for her and treated her coldly and unkind. She's also the one who guides Belle's father to the castle.

Uhm... the rest is pretty much the same as the classic story.

Ah! But when she's at the castle, Belle keeps having dreams of a prince who treats her very kindly. She falls in love with him, not knowing it's actually the beast's real form..." She peeked at Hayami. That part in particular is something that gets to her time and time again.

She has dreamed and daydreamed many times about mr. Purple Rose, on how kind and wonderful he must be, not knowing it was actually the black-hearted man she had loathed for so long and was standing in this same room now.

.

"nnn." He mused, hardly interested. "How did the director tell you to perform?"

Maya frowned a bit. "Like Aldis.." she muttered, causing an audible sigh from the man across the room.

"What an amateur. No role is the same as another. Telling an actor to repeat a role from a different play would label them as a one-trick-show. Surely, you know that as well, little one. What's gotten in to you to sign up for such a B-rated play?"

"Excuse you! It's up to me what kind of plays I pick! It looks really amusing and original!"

"It's beneath you. To think the candidate for the Crimson Goddess would stoop so low." he paced the distance and stood tall and condescending in front of her.

Maya's initial reflex was to step back, but his words aggravated her endlessly. Just who does he think he is?

"s-Shut up! I worked hard for it and I got the part! So I'm going to try hard, no matter what you think! I'll show you it's not B-rated! Not the play or my acting! I'll shove it in y—" her breathing stocked, realizing she was yelling and saying too much. 2 thoughts ran through her mind:

.

'how could I address Hayami Masumi like that? a man who could drop or raise my career in an eyeblink.'

and

'How could I address mr. Purple Rose like that, after all he's done for me?'

.

Maya knew she had to watch her tongue around him. At the point where she's standing, she couldn't just say anything that crossed her mind, no matter how unpleasant he was.

But it came so natural when it was this vexing man.

It was scary, it was something she shouldn't do, but...

.

Maya had realized something. Hayami could read it clearly from her face. A slight frown, eyes staring blank at 45 degree, her hand in a fist by her mouth. When Maya looked like this, he'd almost think she had forgotten she should breathe from time to time.

It was simple and wouldn't be something others would take notice of. But to Hayami, this focused look was powerful and inspiring.

Her next words were even more remarkable to him: "Hayami-san, do you like arguing with me?"

He was lost for words for a short moment, followed by laughter.

"Of all the things! That's what bothers you?"

"Well, do you?" she didn't bat an eye.

Hayami had little to no clue what to answer. He couldn't very well say 'no, it pains me to the core, but your anger tends to drive you forward.'

But 'yes, talking to you this casually is something I couldn't share with anyone else for all my life' wasn't the best option either.

He shrugged coolly, feigning indifference. "It's amusing, in a way."

"I thought you'd say that," Maya replied with slight annoyance. But the answer seemed to have given her some kind of epiphany.

"And why would it matter? You don't actually like getting yelled at, do you?" he leaned in closer, trying to get a better look at her face as it would undoubtedly twitch in disgust of him at any second now.

But her eyes crossed his. She looked at him clearly. " 'Maybe I do...' "

It was Hayami's breathing that stocked this time. "Excuse me?"

"ah- ah, no no, that's not what I mean!" she quickly stepped away from the intimate proximity, raising her hands to shield herself.

"What I mean is- Belle was raised as a lady; modest and gentle. But she's also a half-fairy. She probably never really managed to let loose. Being trapped in a castle worsened that all the more.."

Hayami blinked and stepped back too, giving her space. He listened intently, not interrupting her when she was discovering new aspects of her role.

"...But she doesn't need to strain herself around the Beast. It's not like she has anything to lose! She hates him, so there's no real reason for her to behave. and getting to express that might release all that pent up energy she couldn't express before she was captured.."

Maya took 2 or 3 paces across the room, still in a daze. Then, she slammed the script on the desk and turned to him. Hayami was fairly sure that she had always disliked the very ground he stands on, but compared to the way she looks now, her dislike of him must have been lukewarm at best.

Anger. Rage. There was a threatening fire burning in her eyes. She glared straight at him with the malice coming closer to Origeld then Aldis.

But it wasn't the type of anger like Midori had shown. Not a wildfire that burns in every direction.

It was concentrated, making it all the more intense. And she stood like a lady.

Then and there, for the first and only time: the vice-president of Daito entertainment felt like she stood above him.

.

Slowly, coldly, Maya opened her mouth. And with bitterness and spite, she spoke:

"I despise you."

Three words. No more. But Hayami could feel an angry stab in his heart.

He knew well enough that Maya hated him, but even when she knew he had caused her mother's death, it hadn't wounded him to hear those words. Not like this.

He had to swallow.

It weren't Maya's words. Not of a cute and feisty mediocre 17-year-old.

No.

It were the words of a lady of class, dragged away from everything she knows and loves, locked up to whiter away. The hatred of a forest nymph that was dishonored.

Chained. Humiliated. There was despair, fore she knew there was no possible way to escape her doom.

She only had her cold words to stab the man who had doomed her.

The words of a beautiful woman, enraged and heartbroken.

Belle.

.

It took Hayami aback. Instinctively, he knew that this line was most definitely not in that script on the desk.

A proper, loving and gentle Belle couldn't speak those words. But wasn't it because she had been loving and gentle to her family that it broke her to be away from them?

In the back of his head, Hayami wondered what he had ever found appealing to any other Belle he had seen on stage up until now.

One line could cause this stress, this awe.

It was maddening. It was infatuating.

What more words would this Belle speak?

He had to know!

And equal to that, just what kind of Beast would befit her? Hayami pitied the poor foolish soul who was her co-star.

The Belle in front of him was more monstrous then anything he could imagine.

.

This Belle... is a beast herself.

.

.

(hahahah, oeps;; I had forgotten to upload the 2nd chapter here;; I have no idea how to continue from this point on, though. it just got all clustered and messy as I kept musing from this point on. I dunno if I feel up to getting shiori involved and I just want too much at once.. I might be starting theater lessons soon, so hopefully it can get my drive back to continue this one)