The Second Act

The power of love made the rational irrational, the impossible possible, and the Brute the star of the show.

The fallout of Riku’s performance was damning. Despite his less than stellar technique, some liked it more than Yuuji’s output. For the otherwise harsh crowd, this was unprecedented.

TeamRiku handed TeamYuuji a near 50/50 vote split. If things were going at the rate it was going, the narrative might genuinely overturn.

In the back of a limousine, Yuuji watched the replay of the school event on his tablet.

He watched Riku fall, scream, and then rise like a dark phoenix.

“Yes… yes…” Yuuji murmured. “Good…”

The narrative arc is shifting, Yuuji thought. Right now, the momentum is firmly on his ascension—not mine. The underdog. Some dark horse who corrupts the princess. And thus… a worthy rival! Mmm, they don’t do them like this anymore!

Yuuji looked at the freeze-frame of Kagayaki’s face right before she passed out, the camera whose footage Sunburst kept under lock and key.

How brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

Normally, he’d leave it there. But these were extraordinary circumstances.

But if I let them be, they’ll settle. She’ll accept him as he is—a rough diamond. People will assume they will have a cute little romance in the background while I rule the stage.

“I can’t let her settle like that,” Yuuji whispered to the empty car. “That’d be sooo boring.”

He swiped to the next page of his tablet. A contact list. He needed to raise the stakes. He needed to force Riku to evolve from the monster into the alpha. From the looks of things, he was already half way.

But progress needed to proceed faster.

And the only way to do that was to threaten the one thing Riku had finally decided to protect.

The monster is after the woman’s heart, Yuuji mused, a cruel, cinematic smile playing on his lips. But the Prince… the Prince owns the castle.

“Driver,” Yuuji said. “Take me to Sunburst HQ. I have a proposal for the Board.”

\\

High above the city, in the glass-walled office of Sunburst Entertainment, a phone smashed against a wall.

Akari stood by the window. Riku’s clips were trending #1 on Grapevine Social. The Heart Finger meme was everywhere. And the comments... less said about them, the better.

“Unacceptable,” she hissed.

She had authorized Riku as a tool—a disposable battery to recharge her daughter’s motivation. But a battery wasn't supposed to start a fire.

She pressed the intercom button on her desk. “Get me the legal department. And find out everything you can about a student named Riku. His family, his debts, his housing situation…”

“On it, ma’am,” the employee from the other side said diligently before closing the call.

She stared out at the city lights. “We will play along and make Riku the villain on the surface, daughter.” She grimaced darkly. “And while you may have not broken your promises, daughter… we cannot allow this to slip away from our grasp any further. I’m truly sorry.”

\\

Naomi sat on the edge of the white cot, a wad of tissue unceremoniously stuffed up her left nostril. She watched Riku, who was sitting on a swivel chair opposite her. 

He was a hot mess.

“How did you come up with all of that in less than a week?” she said weakly.

“Isn’t it obvious? I metamorphosed into a cockroach,” Riku retorted. “Kafka would be proud.”

“And you smacked your own ass to do it,” she accused. “That’s been the Top 2 clip online to come out of this, by the way.”

“What’s Top 1?”

“...Your finger heart.”

Riku fist-pumped the air. “Yesss.”

“Seriously, though... How did you do it?”

“I did what made sense to me, and what seemed good to me. People seemed to like it.”

Kagayaki opened her mouth to argue, to scold him for the sheer impropriety of it all. But the words died in her throat.

“I didn’t like it,” she whispered.

He froze.

“I loved it,” she admitted softly. "You really knew your K-pop history, pulling those old-school dance techniques."

His swivel chair creaked. Riku stood up.

He took a step toward her. Then another. He stood between her knees, looking down at her.

“And even after all that... the vote count was 55 to 45, Yuuji’s way,” Riku said quietly. “I lost.”

“A 5% margin looks bad for a man of Yuuji’s caliber. You practically won the people’s hearts.”

“I only wanted one heart,” Riku murmured.

He reached out, his cold, damp fingers brushing against her warm cheek. He traced the line of her jaw.

“Naomi,” he whispered.

“What?” she breathed.

“I’m the villain in your story. And surely Sunburst will do something about me now, right?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe…”

He leaned in closer, his forehead resting against hers. Their breath mingled.

Kagayaki’s eyes fluttered shut. All of a sudden, the fight in her evaporated. The world outside no longer existed.

She tilted her head up. He tilted his head down. The distance between them closed to a millimeter. She could feel the heat radiating off him.

Her lips parted. His hand cupped the back of her neck. They were going to do it. They were actually going to—

Squelch.

The wad of tissue in Naomi’s nose, saturated beyond its limit, had made a squelching noise.

Ugh, mood ruined.

Riku pulled back an inch. Kagayaki’s eyes snapped open.

“What were we thinking?” she murmured.

“I don’t know, I… I mean, wow, that was… that would’ve felt…”

“Amazing,” she finished. “You should go. Before my mom or god forbid, Yuuji, catches wind that you were here.”

“Right.” Riku quickly grabbed his belongings and walked out. But he hung along the doorway a little while longer. “See you at school soon?”

Kagayaki smiled. “Obviously.”

The door clicked shut.

She swung her legs off the cot and walked over to the small mirror above the sink to inspect the damage to her nose.

She froze.

On her left cheek, right where his face had pressed against hers, was a smudge. A dark, jagged streak of black eyeliner.

Naomi raised her thumb to wipe it away. She hovered there for a second.

Then, slowly, her hand dropped.

“You really are a bad influence, Riku.”