“I have to call Yuki today,” Tooru thought as she sat in the makeup chair as the makeup woman worked hard at concealing the bruise around her eye. “It was too late last night, but I promised.”
“Tooru-chan did you hear a word I said?” Hiromi asked impatiently.
“What?” Tooru barely stopped herself from turning her head to face Hiromi.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Hiromi huffed. “And I think I have my answer.”
“Answer?” Tooru repeated. She wasn’t feeling her best today. She’d barely slept for another hour before Hiromi was bustling into the room with a new outfit for the day and chattering a mile a minute. Tooru had found herself in the car, a store-bought riceball in her hand and sandwiched between Harada and Shido before the morning fog had fully cleared.
Once she’d woken up all the way, her head had started throbbing. The headache wasn’t as bad as it had been the night before, but it was bad enough to be a constant distraction. She was too afraid of a repeat of the night before to ask for anything for it. She suspected Harada knew something was wrong from the way he kept glancing at her.
“I asked if you wanted to go out shopping straight after the shoot or go home and rest first,” Hiromi frowned. “I think you need to go home and rest a bit more. You’d think with all the sleep you got yesterday you’d have a bit more stamina.”
“But, Miz Honda didn’t sleep all night,” Shido interrupted. “She woke up late last night, pretty sick.”
“Sick?” Hiromi’s attention flipped between Harada, Shido and Tooru, a deep frown marring her usually sunny expression. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Well, she seemed okay this morning…” Shido started.
“It was just a reaction to your.. her… medicine.” Harada said making the correction deliberate. “She ain’t used to taking stuff like that. “She was fine once she had a little water and some crackers.”
“That’s not for you to decide!” Hiromi flushed at the implication that Tooru’s illness was her fault. She had no idea that a simple tranquilizer would effect the girl so strongly. Hiromi had been taking them for so long herself she forgot how potent they could be to someone unused to medication.
“Um-” Tooru decided to interrupt the show down brewing between her bodyguard and her assistant. “I was fine… really.” Both of them turned to stare at her angrily and she shrank back into the chair. The makeup girl decided to make a run for it while no one was looking at her.
“But, um…” Tooru stuttered, “I spoke to Shigure-san last night…”
“You did? When?” Hiromi interrupted.
“After I woke up. I, um, checked my phone and there were a lot of messages… so I sent a quick message just to let everyone know I was okay, and Kyou-kun called my back to yell at me for not sleeping since it was so late.” Tooru played a bit with the edge of the skirt Hiromi had brought for her. It was a white layered affair that poofed out from her hips. It felt really awkward to sit in and she couldn’t help fuss with it. “And…um, Shigure-san too was up and we spoke for a little bit…” She bit her lip, thinking that Hiromi wasn’t going to like her next request.
“And Shigure-san said that I should see Hatori-san today.” She straightened up a bit in her chair and tried to look confident. “He said I had to.”
“See who?” Hiromi folded her arms. “I thought we agreed that if you wanted to see your friends you’d schedule it with me instead of them just springing up.” She wagged her finger at Tooru. “Didn’t we? This Hatori-san will just have to wait. You obviously need to rest and then we really have to go shopping. Shigure may be your custodian but he can’t dictate your schedule without going through me.”
“I’m sorry,” Tooru said, the pounding between her ears increasing as she felt her tension rise. “But Shigure-san said that it was in the contract that he could have a doctor come at any time to see me. And he said that Hatori-san would be coming to check on me today.” She looked up at Hiromi with pleading eyes. “Hatori-san is so busy! And I think I’m fine, but Shigure-san said he would worry and worry until he heard from Hatori-san that I’m okay. If I’m not at home when Hatori-san comes…it will be such an inconvenience for him-”
“This “Hatori” is a doctor?” Hiromi’s mouth drooped into a frown.
“Yes.” Tooru confirmed. She avoided nodding, her headache was starting to get worse and the nausea was returning. She didn’t know how she’d manage to cook on the show without being ill. She’d decided on cut out sandwiches and decorative veggies, so it shouldn’t be too taxing. But she was regetting that she’d decided on a chicken salad for the sandwiches. The smell under the hot lights was going to be horrendous.
“I’ll call Shigure to see when he’s coming.” Hiromi said, dripping with discontent. She flipped open her phone and stalked away, her pointy heels clacking against the cement floor of the studio.
“Don’t worry Miz Honda.” Shido said soothingly. “Miz Hiromi is just mad because she got yelled at by Mister Sawatari.”
“She did?” Tooru said looking up a the large guard. “But why?”
“Because she gave you that pill.” Shido said. “And we had to carry you up. He was really mad that you missed getting your picture taken coming out of the studio and coming home.”
“Do you have a headache again?” Harada said kneeling down in front of her to look in her eyes.
“Yes.” Tooru said, and placed a had over her stomach. “And.. um..”
“We gotta take care of that before you get under the lights,” Harada said standing up and looking around. “We can’t have you being sick on live TV.” He snagged a thin, harried man with a head set who was trying to rush by. “Send someone out to the pharmacy for some pain relievers. Miz Honda’s injury is troubling her this morning.”
“I have some-” the man started to pat a pocket.
“We want a fresh bottle,” Harada said looming over him and invading the smaller man’s space threateningly. “Now.”
“Right away, Miss Honda,” the man said nodding to her. He pressed his earpiece to his ear and rattled off a series of commands as he scurried away.
Tooru felt terrible watching as the simple request seemed like knocking over an ant’s nest in the studio. More then one person took off at a run out of the studio and other people scrambled to fill their positions as the show continued to run. The two hosts, a man and a woman didn’t seem to notice as they reported on various news stories and had a parade of guests on for a few minutes at a time.
“This ain’t anything.” Shido said following her attention. “I was with one lady who had to have a ton of stuff before she’d even step into the studio. And if one little thing was wrong she’d throw a fit. Thing’s would go real crazy then.” Shido looked down at her. “So don’t you worry Miz Honda. It ain’t like you’re fer anything weird or anything.”
“Mmm.” Tooru could only nod. She glanced up at Harada but he continued to scan the crowd, always on duty.