After the drama she had been filming since last year ended, Arima Kana continued her quiet life, half by her own choice and half by force, but she was getting impatient.
The ratings were only so-so, the buzz was weak, and the semi-lead role she had finally gotten after a long time had earned praise for her acting, but it lost all its shine when she got dragged down by the terrible acting of the other cast members.
President Rentarou had smiled and told Kana not to worry, saying that when you were young, you just had to experience things one by one and grow little by little, and that helped a bit—but—
Kana knew.
"Ughhh…"
< Kurokawa Akane establishes herself as the next golden actress who will lead the theater world! >
< "I worked really hard. To throw off my old self." An interview with Kurokawa Akane, the elite of the Rararai Theater Troupe! >
As she was ego-searching on her smartphone, the topic naturally shifted to Akane, and all she could find were headlines that stabbed straight into her heart.
The buzz was one thing, but more than that… her growth was incredible.
Her face twisted into a pout in an instant.
It was the complete opposite of how she had reacted last year, when Aqua won an award at the Tokyo Senior Art Critics Association just like his father and she had been genuinely happy as if it were her own achievement.
Kana kept hovering over the interview video attached to the news article, about to click it, then not, then about to click it, then not.
More than her bruised pride as an actress…
Why was she more curious about what this girl had said in the interview…?
She wanted to know even more what Akane had been murmuring about.
Whether the interview had ended without any issues, whether she had kept her expression under control.
For some reason, Kana was swept up in a strange feeling—she neither liked nor hated Akane’s brightly smiling face on the screen.
"……."
…Yeah, I still don’t like it.
Just as she was forcing herself to hold back the urge to click the video and return to SNS—
"Ah, damn it!"
In the end, Kana couldn’t resist her curiosity and opened Pandora’s box.
She moved the playback bar to somewhere around the middle of the interview rather than the beginning, and kept her best sulky expression in place as she watched.
《 Q. If there’s an actor who gives you a lot of inspiration or reference points as an actress, who would that be?
A. If I said the name carelessly, I think that person might feel burdened, so I don’t think I can say their real name. But… there are about two people… 》
At Akane’s interview, where she blushed shyly, Kana deliberately clicked her tongue and muttered in a grumbling voice.
"What is this. What do you mean? Not just one person, but two? Are you confessing to them or something? Your face is all red and shy—so un-‘pro’…"
Beep—
"Huh?"
Before Kana’s grumbling could even finish, a call came in from President Rentarou.
Without even having time to think, Kana hurriedly answered, startled.
"Yes! President, hello? Yes. Yes, yes. Huh…? Yes? Right now?"
- Right! It’s a little late, but I thought we should meet face-to-face and talk. It’s huge news, so brace yourself!
Rentarou, speaking in an excited voice, said he’d send a car right away and told her to meet him at the agency before hanging up.
Kana couldn’t even begin to guess why Rentarou was talking like this.
"If he called me out for a reason… maybe it’s a casting offer?"
Even muttering to herself didn’t settle the question, so Kana tilted her head in confusion and eventually gave up on thinking about it, deciding to leave it to time.
She got into the van that arrived in front of her house and headed to the agency, and the moment she opened the president’s office door, she was thrown off by President Rentarou greeting her with a meaningful smile.
And then, the next day.
< [Exclusive] Arima Kana confirmed for 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】… to star alongside Hoshino Ai >
An exclusive article reported that Arima Kana had finally joined 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】.
-
"Uuu… this is so sad…"
While practicing lines with Aqua, Ai muttered in a gloomy voice, her starry eyes brimming with tears.
Looking at his mother clutching the script tightly to her chest, Aqua smiled softly.
"When Director Gotanda wrote Honoka’s story, I think he put a lot of effort into it. Honoka and Mom are around the same age, too."
"Mhm. Yeah…"
Ai pressed her lips together to calm the emotions she had gotten caught up in, then nodded at her son’s warm voice.
As she immersed herself in the role she would play in 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】—Aizawa Honoka, a divorced mother in her thirties—and practiced the script step by step while building up her emotions, she once again realized just how heart-wrenching a parent’s love for their children could be.
So after script practice began, Ai, who had already been like that to begin with, stopped hiding her affection for the Hoshino four siblings even more than before.
She said "I love you" more often and hugged them more. It was because she had once again realized deep in her heart the happiness and joy of the precious everyday life she was living.
Especially since Honoka had a daughter, even more so for Ruby…
"Come on. Didn’t they say the joint script reading is the day after tomorrow? Let’s practice more, Mom."
"Uuu… but I still don’t want to. My heart keeps getting all restless."
At her mother’s teary-eyed, adorably complaining voice, Ai wiped away the moisture at the corners of her eyes and said with a smile as warm as her father’s.
"Even if you’re restless, you still have to act cool in front of Dad. Dad’s been practicing just as hard as you, you know."
At Aqua’s words, Ai’s starry eyes twitched for a moment.
Ever since Director Gotanda handed over the finished script, she had been practicing with Kaoru every evening after dinner!
The desire to be praised by her husband for doing well, to feel a sense of kinship as fellow actors, and to give a wonderful performance gradually began to consume her sensitivity.
"Eeeh… okay! If you practice acting hard, it all pays off in the end! Thanks for cheering me on, Mom!"
To be able to see her favorite person right in front of her, clenching her fist and shouting with sparkling starry eyes.
Aqua—
‘I feel grateful to be alive once again.’
With a refreshed face like he might ascend straight to heaven, he nodded in satisfaction.
Meanwhile—
While her beloved mama and older brother resumed their cozy script practice, Ruby was in the room helping Ame with her school assignment: “Create a 30-second freestyle dance.”
Among the family, Ruby was the one who could match Mama in dance skill, so choreographing something was child’s play.
"Unnie—! Is this okay?"
"…Huh? Ah, yeah! Just swoosh your hand around like this and then spread your palm wide above your head!"
"Okay— like this?"
"……Cute?!"
At her little sister’s clumsy movements, so cute it was like she had been made by copying Mama and Papa exactly, Ruby clutched her chest and collapsed into her chair.
Her little sister was smart like Papa and her brother, and yet she was this adorable and hopelessly uncoordinated!
God was fair in a way. If you gave one thing, did you take another away? Was that the law of the world?
Even though she had no interest in studying, Ruby had inherited Mama’s dance talent and her knack for effort, and she cupped her little sister’s soft, mochi-like cheeks in both hands, kneading them gently.
Amé burst into giggles at her sister’s affectionate touch and pointed at the tablet PC mounted on a stand as a dance mirror.
"Unnie~! Watch Ame do it from the side, okay? Got it?"
"Yeah. Yeah. I’ll keep my eyes wide open, so give it your all, okay?"
"Mhm~!"
Wiggling her hips, Ame put on a song and danced seriously while looking back at the tablet PC.
Even after more than an hour of teaching, she was still clumsy and awkward, but Ruby, watching Ame dance with all her effort and sincerity, smiled with love.
< [Exclusive] Arima Kana confirmed for 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】… to star alongside Hoshino Ai >
‘Eek!?'
But at some point, it surfaced again!
The aftershock of seeing that article she should never have seen was serious.
Just thinking about it made her good mood plummet to the floor.
Why…? Why on earth….
Ruby’s starry eyes stared blankly into space.
‘Is that annoying bell pepper exercise girl trying to go after my favorite now, after my brother?’
Deep down, she had expected that since Mama and Papa were appearing in the same drama, she might get cast as Mama’s daughter—
Deep down!
It was true that she had selfishly built up expectations for Director Gotanda, but Ruby had been spinning her own happy little pipe dream.
The embarrassing pipe dream she had never even told her beloved brother had been brutally smashed to pieces.
‘If it had been Akane unnie… I would’ve sincerely cheered her on. Ah, maybe?’
Honestly, it would have been better if the casting had gone to Akane, but apparently Director Gotanda’s bizarre artistic vision had decided that that annoying bell pepper exercise girl was the right fit for her favorite’s daughter.
Even Buddha himself wouldn’t have been able to do anything about this fantastic torment, and it poked at Ruby’s heart with a nasty one-two jab-straight.
"…Heee…"
"Unnie! Ame’s talking to you!"
"Eh!?"
At her little sister’s shout, Ruby’s starry eyes, muddled by countless torments, came back to life.
Once she came to her senses, Ame was puffing out her cheeks just like Mama and glaring at Ruby with a grumpy look as she stamped her feet.
"Unnie! You were thinking about something else! You weren’t even watching Ame dance!"
"H-hee!? S-sorry! I messed up! Your big sister is an idiot! I’m sorry!"
She should have at least lied and said she had been watching, since that would have been more in keeping with her pure-hearted nature, but Ruby couldn’t bring herself to do it and instead hurriedly threw herself face-down on the floor and bowed her head.
At that 100-percent sincere, adorably earnest apology, Ame’s lips curled up as if nothing had happened and she said,
"I’ll accept your apology~ Sooo— watch Ame dance again. This time, you have to watch properly, okay?"
"Understood!"
Ruby sprang back up and looked at Ame with sparkling eyes.
Ame thought her sister, who was six years older than her, was cute, and maybe she was shy at the thought of dancing again, because she wriggled a little before putting the song on once more.
Determined not to miss a single second this time, Ruby firmly vowed not to close her eyes for even 30 seconds and checked Ame’s dance.
In the end, Ruby closed her eyes after just 25 seconds because tears blurred her vision, and she got scolded by Ame once again.
-
< 【 The Bird That Flies Through the Sky 】- first joint script reading to be held this Wednesday >
< ‘They haven’t even started filming yet?’ Attention gathers around the first script reading of these national-treasure-level actors >
As the casting work for the main and supporting roles neared completion, the production moved into the script-reading phase in earnest.
Since filming was scheduled to begin just two weeks later, even Director Gotanda had to hurry the script reading along.
The media showed enormous interest in every move made by 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】, which was being touted as this year’s most anticipated project, and reported on it day after day.
However, he did not think there would be any problem with the script reading or the chemistry between the actors.
He had not spared Fuji TV’s blood-soaked production budget when investing in the cast, to the point that it was no exaggeration to say that the actors’ fees alone accounted for 30 to 40 percent of the total production cost.
Along with Kamiki Kaoru and Hoshino Ai, the lead-level actors cast in the drama were all outstanding performers who would have been more than worthy of being cast as solo leads in dramas or films.
That was why Director Gotanda had no concerns about the script reading—or about actor risk in the first place.
He had never even imagined immature, underdeveloped actors who would openly do stupid things on set.
Click— click—
To cover the script-reading event for 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】, held at Fuji TV’s annex building, dozens of reporters had been stationed outside the building’s lobby since morning, snapping photos of the star actors arriving one after another in bursts of camera flashes.
"It’s Mr. Kunimura!"
At one reporter’s shout, camera flashes burst in rapid succession.
The grand old man of the Japanese acting world, Yoshihiro Kunimura, who had worked with Director Gotanda and Kaoru on "My Sea" and won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Japan Academy Film Prize once again, got out of the passenger car driven by his wife and walked into the building with an easy smile.
"Yamazaki-kun is here. Over there. The white van."
"He’s a bit late, isn’t he~ Even a senior as lofty as the sky got here first."
"Heh heh."
The reporters chuckled as they traded jokes and kept pressing their shutters.
The black-haired, sharply handsome Takeru Yamazaki got out of the van, waved to the reporters, and went inside.
It looked almost like a film festival.
"Yoshikawa! Yoshikawa!"
"Where is she!?"
But compared to the people who had come before, the class of the actor who was about to appear was on a completely different level.
That was because the black van of Yoshikawa Yuriko—who had spent ten years building a solid career and outstanding acting skills as an actress—had finally come into view.
Compared to the earlier actors, the level of attention on her was enormous, since she was regarded as one of the actresses proudly leading Japan’s female acting world, alongside people like Hoshino Ai, Aragaki Satomi, Ishihara Yui, Ayase Kanna, and Hashimoto Erika.
"Yoshikawa-san! How do you feel!?"
"This is your first script reading today—please give us a few words!"
"Why did you choose Director Gotanda’s work—"
Not only did camera flashes pour down, but unlike before, countless questions also came flying at her.
"……"
Gone was the clumsy image she had had ten years ago. Wearing sunglasses and walking with haughty poise, Yoshikawa Yuriko only offered a quiet smile and slipped through the barrage of questions with a consistently composed attitude until she disappeared into the building.
The reporters clicked their tongues in disappointment.
After that, other prominent actors appeared one after another, including veteran male actor icon Nobuyuki Nakamura and legendary veteran actress Asami Takanashi, who had once made a name for herself as a teen star thanks to her beautiful looks and remarkable charm.
But the reporters still could not let their guard down.
"They’ve passed through the main gate!"
The rookie reporter hung up the phone and shouted loudly to the senior reporters who were holding their positions.
There was even tension in the hands gripping the cameras tightly.
Compared to the actors who had appeared so far, the one about to appear was, without question, the true 『main character』.
In fact, they were practically there for the sole purpose of capturing this arrival on camera—for even a single spoken word.
"They’re coming!"
When a gray luxury van appeared, the reporters all rushed right up to the edge of the photo line.
There were even reporters who photographed the van before the star.
The tension sliced through the air, and as the van came to a stop and the door opened—
"Waaah—!"
Ai, casually dressed in jeans and a fresh light-pink blouse, looked at the cluster of reporters with a startled voice.
The moment her shoes touched the ground outside the van, a dazzling barrage of camera flashes rained down.
Click-click-click—
Click—
The level of media frenzy was incomparable to when Yoshikawa Yuriko had appeared.
As expected of the 「invincible idol」, she quickly adapted to the spotlight aimed at her, and her starry eyes radiated their unique aura as she smiled toward the cameras.
And right behind her—
"……"
Just like Ai, Kaoru, dressed casually in black pants and a light beige shirt, stepped out of the van, his own distinctive indifferent blue eyes gleaming.
As always, Ai immediately noticed that her husband did not particularly welcome the hot media attention, and her eyes curved like crescent moons as she smiled.
Click-click-click—
When the day’s main attraction, the Kaoru-Ai couple, finally appeared, the reporters went wild and hammered the camera shutters like madmen.
As soon as Kaoru got out of the van, he naturally took his wife’s hand tightly and walked into the building.
The reporters fired off questions even more passionately than they had for Yoshikawa Yuriko.
"How do you feel about appearing together as a married couple!?"
"Please tell us what led you to appear in 【The Bird That Flies Through the Sky】!!!"
"According to reports, you’ll be playing an affair relationship this time—what mindset are you bringing to the role as an actor!?"
"Is it true Director Gotanda personally begged you to appear, three times over!?"
"What do you think about reuniting with Yoshikawa-san after ten years!?"
Even in the face of the reporters’ heated questions, Kaoru only responded with a casual smile and the usual polite manner.
Like Kaoru, Ai had no intention of answering the reporters’ questions, and just before entering the building—
"Heheh—★"
She sent the reporters a wink along with her signature V sign, pouring her charismatic aura into it.
"Gasp!"
The reporter who had been lucky enough to become Ai’s target gaped with his mouth open, staring blankly at the backs of the Kaoru-Ai couple.
Steadying his pounding heart, he immediately checked the camera display and saw Ai’s signature pose, filled with brilliant starry aura, and—
"…Ha…"
How had it been captured at that exact moment?
In that brief instant, the camera had also caught Kaoru’s sharply gleaming blue eyes staring toward the lens, creating a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece of contrast, like light and darkness.
"Waaah! I got the perfect shot!?"
The reporter who had beautifully captured a moment of Japan’s most famous married couple clenched his fist and let out a roar of ecstatic triumph toward the sky.
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