Title: Replacements
Prompt: #6 - jealousy
Characters: Yoshizumi, Asano, Katou
Rating: PG
Summary: Acting is not for the faint of heart. Two 100-word drabbles.



1.

Yoshizumi had arrived early for his lunch with Iwaki. As he waited in the agency's lobby, the actor who had replaced him in Fuyu no semi walked up to him.

After an exchange of greetings, Asano said, "I hear you've been cast as Katou's partner in his next movie."

"Your sources are good," Yoshizumi confirmed.

"The part was not one for which they held auditions." Asano's smile was sour. "Your connections must be very good."

Masking his surprise, Yoshizumi murmured, "We all experience luck we do not deserve." Nailing Asano with a stare, he couldn't resist adding, "Good and bad."

2.

When Yoshizumi stopped by Katou's trailer, he was unsurprised to find his co-star snarling at a televised press conference: the media was obscenely eager to cast Yoshizumi as Iwaki's replacement -- both as an actor and as a man. To a superficial observer, Iwaki appeared remarkably serene for someone who was being asked whether he planned to win Katou back or to transfer his affections elsewhere.

Yoshizumi turned to Katou. "He looks so distressed. He's not really jealous, is he?"

"Of course not," Katou snapped.

Yoshizumi narrowed his eyes. "What are you jealous of?"

"Of what you can see," Katou admitted.