“We can’t...”
“We can.” Almost there...
Suddenly...
“I said no, dammit!” yelled Kaname, grabbing his ears and pulling on them as hard as she could.
“Eh?!” he exclaimed, followed by, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!”
She followed up the ear pulling with a sharp jab to his face. With one hand pressed to his nose to staunch the bleeding, he tried to argue, “Wh-What are you doing, Kaname?”
“It’s ‘Chidori,’” Kaname told him. “That’s what he calls me. And that dumbass would never be this forward with me, either. For better or worse...”
“Uh... huh?”
“Time to confess,” she demanded. “Who are you, really? And just so you know, high school girls aren’t bound by the Geneva Accords.”
“Um, er... P-Please don’t...”
Kaname, the aura of violence around her again, began cracking her knuckles as she bore down on the frightened Kousuke.
●
At the location for the action movie inside the abandoned factory, with sunset light streaming in...
“I’ve had enough,” the director of the talent agency told Kotomi as he lit the cigarette in his mouth. “If he causes one more problem today, we can’t cover for him. I hate to say it, but Kousuke is finished.”
“Y-You can’t mean...
“He’s always been a little lacking,” the talent agency director pointed out. “He can’t properly delineate between work and off-time. Performers like that can’t ever be huge. I know from experience.”
Kotomi turned pale and looked at “Kousuke,” who was off in a corner of the set, having a futile argument with the movie’s director about the realism of the depiction of firearms.
“This bright muzzle flash is unacceptable,” he was saying. “It’s telling the enemy right where you are.”
“It’s telling the audience where you are!” the other man argued back. “It’s about screen presence! This is why I hate you gun nerds...”
“I’m not a nerd,” Sousuke objected, “I’m a specialist.”
“So?! I’m the director! Now go to the greenroom and finish getting made up!”
“Very well.”
“And if you put in another crap performance like that, I’ll pull every professional string I have to have you fired, got it?!” The director continued cursing at the popular idol as he returned to the greenroom. If things were this bad even during rehearsal...
The director breathed out a stream of smoke, and said, sadly, “Nothing else to be done, eh?”
“Ah... ahh...” Kotomi stood lamenting in a corner of the factory, but she had to agree. In one day—just one day—he’d shattered all of the trust he’d built up over the last two years. He was about to destroy his own career.
What’s happened to Kira Kousuke? she wondered. Even if he was lashing out about his busy schedule, this was over the line. If he kept fighting with the crew, then no matter how they tried to cover for him, it would soon all be over.
“Sorry for the wait.” After some time, Kousuke returned from the greenroom to shoot the scene. He was in his bloodied, beat-up appearance from yesterday.
The crew all glared at him. It seemed impossible to shoot the scene well under these conditions.
But he slid through the gaps between pieces of shooting equipment and gently said, “Um... I’m really sorry for all the trouble.” Then he bowed to the staff. “My mother has been in critical condition in the hospital all day, and I’ve been completely beside myself. I really am sorry. But don’t worry, she’s past the critical stage. I can focus now. I’m really sorry!”
The whole group stared at him slack-jawed for a few seconds. “I-Is that what it was?” one of them said eventually.
“Yes.”
“Your mother was sick?”
“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
After staring for a moment, the director and the others let out a sigh. “Oh... I wish you’d just told us from the start. Don’t be such a stranger, Kira-kun.”
“I’m so very sorry,” he said again, “and I accept all fault in the matter. I’ll do my best from now on not to take things for granted. In other words...” Kousuke looked down and spoke, as if talking to himself, “I’ve been naive about how the world works. But I learned a lesson today, that there are far more harsh and terrifying worlds out there than I could have dreamed of. And I’ve learned—painfully—that there are people out there going through greater hardships than I could have imagined. I’m no longer enchanted by the idea of ordinary day-to-day life. This world is where I want to be! I can do what I like to do, express myself... and most importantly, I don’t have to be tortured to the verge of death!” Kousuke suddenly had tears in his eyes.
This sudden turn of events had everyone at the location feeling even more confused. They just stared at him silently.
Kira Kousuke wiped his eyes and returned to his usual shining expression. “The point is, I’ve had a change of heart. I’m going to devote myself to my work once again!” he proclaimed.
“K-Kira-san...” Though she didn’t know what was going on, his manager, Kotomi, felt tears filling her eyes as her spirits soared.
Meanwhile, in the brush just outside the factory shooting location...
“It looks like... he might just pull it off?” Kaname said to Sousuke as she watched the temperature of the location shoot cool down considerably.
Once Kaname had extracted the information from Kousuke in the nurse’s office, she’d immediately panicked. “You had Sousuke stand in for you?! That’s stupidly reckless! You’re gonna lose your job! Where is he now? Take me there, right now!”
Fortunately, they’d managed to swap Sousuke for Kousuke in the greenroom just in time.
“Regrettable. It would’ve been much more realistic had I been allowed to play the role,” Sousuke, who now had a large knot on his head, muttered unhappily. Kaname had hit him as hard as she could after climbing into the greenroom through the window with Kousuke.
“Don’t be stupid. You can’t be an entertainer,” Kaname muttered with a scowl.
“But I can,” he protested. “I didn’t make a single error all day.”
“R-Really? Even when you were on TV?”
“Of course. If I ever made my major debut, I could take down the entire entertainment industry in one day.”
“It’s pretty easy to imagine what your professional demeanor was like...” Kaname muttered listlessly, her eyes staring blankly into the darkness. “By the way, Kira-kun mentioned that you asked for some kind of compensation for doing the job?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did you ask for?”
“That’s a secret,” said Sousuke, radiating a curious aura of confidence as his eyes shone mysteriously.
●
The next day...
Kira Kousuke, guesting on a variety show that started at noon, felt a drop of sweat streak down his temple as he gave a strange promotion. “Yes! Um... the movie you introduced is also important, but... well, I made a promise to a friend, so... Yes, here it is: this picture. It looks like a cute mascot costume at a glance... but it’s actually merchandise being sold by Brilliant Safetech in Belgium. And, um...” Kousuke glanced down at the notepad in his hand, reading in monotone. “It’s high-spec enhanced armor that will change the face of modern combat. It’s guaranteed bulletproof up to 7.62mm rounds. It’s excellent for both national defense and low-stability war-torn regions...” He smiled genuinely beside the shocked host in sunglasses. “A-Anyway, anyone interested, please call the number on the screen!”
On a nationwide online livestream, Kira Kousuke put Sousuke’s (business) phone number up on the board.
[The End]