A week had passed since Kaoru finished that happy ear-cleaning session with Ai, and he was back on set for another day of filming.
At first things had been a little chaotic, but under Director Matsushige Sojiro’s seasoned leadership, the shooting schedule had somehow started running smoothly and in an organized fashion.
Thanks to that, Kaoru had even been able to make time before arriving on set to stop by the Saito family home and see the twins before heading out.
"What are they doing right now…"
In order to prevent any accident that might expose the twins’ existence—whether by losing his phone or someone deliberately snooping through it—Kaoru had switched from the Blackberry flip phone he used to carry to the newly released iPhone.
Since it was for work, and for security reasons, he hadn’t even saved Ai’s number separately. He only sent and received messages, and even then, he deleted the remaining records afterward.
But… cloud services still weren’t widespread yet, so the twins’ photos were stored only on the old flip phone. Even if he wanted to look at them, he could only do so in his memories.
Thinking of his wife and children, Father Kaoru’s eyes grew moist.
"Um…"
"?"
Someone approached Kaoru, who had been standing there in a gloomy frog-like daze, lost in thoughts of the twins and his wife.
When he turned his head, he saw one of the lead actors, Nakayama Junichi. He was the same actor who had made a mistake the first time he came to set and dropped the case holding the filming equipment while talking with Director Sojiro.
Even though he belonged to a top agency specializing in models that led the industry, he didn’t act out like some of the other lead actors. He knew how to read the room, and his humble, calm personality kept him from showing off.
Kaoru turned to look at Nakayama Junichi.
Just as it happened, the next scene was Kaoru’s first face-to-face shoot with him.
More precisely, it was the scene where Murakami Koki, the character played by Nakayama Junichi, was the class representative of the protagonists’ homeroom and attended the student council president’s "all-school coordination meeting" for a brief conversation.
Communication with the fellow actor he had to match timing with was essential, so Kaoru softened the coldness in his usual detached gaze and answered Junichi’s words.
"Yes. What is it, Nakayama?"
"Um…"
Kaoru tilted his head at the sight of Junichi scratching his head, his face red. He looked embarrassed to say whatever was on his mind. After hesitating for a moment, Junichi fumbled in his coat and pulled out a familiar pamphlet along with a small marker pen, then offered them to Kaoru with both hands, respectfully.
"If it’s not too much trouble, could I ask for your autograph…?"
"Ah."
Kaoru stared at Junichi for a moment, surprised by the unexpected request. Junichi’s ears turned bright red as he calmly added an explanation.
"My parents really like theater, so they went to see the opening performance of The Bird That Flies Through the Sky, and your acting there left a huge impression on me."
"I see. Thank you for thinking so well of me, even though I still have a lot to improve."
Kaoru signed the pamphlet himself and even wrote a message on it. Junichi, now a successful fan, accepted it and smiled softly.
"Thank you."
That shy look on a man’s face… why did Director Gotanda’s face, with his beard never properly shaved, suddenly come to mind?
Kaoru gave an awkward smile, clasped his hands behind his back, and did his best to ignore Nakayama’s gaze, which kept sparkling at him in a way that felt strangely burdensome.
Fortunately, unlike Sasaki Ryunosuke, he wasn’t someone whose mindset and character were twisted, so Kaoru decided to be flexible and accommodating toward his fan(?).
Soon, the two of them began filming.
"…So, what do you think of the transfer student in Class A, Class Rep Murakami?"
"He’s adapting well. That said, we’re also keeping a close eye on him as a rather suspicious individual…"
"Keep monitoring his movements. And also…"
"Cut! Okay~!"
With Kaoru’s seasoned acting and skill, he led the exchange and matched Junichi’s timing perfectly. Satisfied, Director Sojiro called cut in a pleased voice.
After that, Kaoru moved locations and arrived at the set being used as the vocal club room.
First, they were filming the scene where the student council president discovers the heroine, Arimura Suzu, the former ace of her school’s vocal club before transferring, trying to save the club from being shut down, while Hirano Taisuke comes in and, though acting tsundere, subtly helps her out.
Because of that, even though they weren’t directly facing each other, he still had to film the scene with Sasaki Ryunosuke.
On set, he could see Sasaki Ryunosuke working alongside Mina Sakurada, a rookie actress from another agency who had started making a name for herself through advertisements and magazine modeling thanks to her agency’s influence, and who was playing Arimura Suzu.
Ryunosuke stopped reading the script, looked at Junichi standing beside Kaoru, and waved with a smile.
"You’re done filming already?"
When Sasaki Ryunosuke spoke to Junichi, who was one year younger than him, as if they were close, Junichi nodded and answered.
"Ah, yes. I just finished and came over. I’m done with all my scenes."
"Then why are you here?"
"Ah, I wanted to watch Kamiki’s scene. I learn a lot from it."
Watching Junichi speak shyly, Mina and Ryunosuke’s expressions split in opposite directions.
"Oh! Come to think of it, Junichi-kun, didn’t you say you were a fan of Kamiki?"
"Yeah…"
"Whaaat—so you’re a successful fan, huh? I’m jealous. You were so embarrassed too~"
"I-I wasn’t embarrassed."
With her cute, coquettish looks, Mina turned away from Junichi and looked at Kaoru, who had stepped back a pace behind Junichi and was observing them from the side.
"Wow—"
She had only heard that he was Director Sojiro’s favorite actor, but seeing him in person like this, he was unbelievably handsome. With a princely face and a tall frame, Mina felt her brain stall for a moment.
She hadn’t seen Black Rose of the Mastermind, and she wasn’t particularly interested in minor supporting actors, so she hadn’t even bothered to find out who Kaoru was.
Now, seeing Kaoru’s face for the first time on set, Mina blinked blankly, staring at those detached blue eyes. Then she covered her mouth with the script in her hand and laughed like a fool.
While waiting around and gossiping with friends over her phone about the staff and actors on set, she could only regret pounding the ground in frustration for not having gone out to watch Kaoru’s filming before.
"……"
Sasaki Ryunosuke saw the look in Mina’s eyes and expression, so different from when she was with him, and muttered a curse under his breath, as if his pride had been cracked.
Regardless, Mina slowly approached Kaoru, lowered her head a little, covered her mouth with a smile, and said,
"H-hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Mina Sakurada, Kamiki-kun."
Kaoru, apparently not expecting her to greet him first, nodded back with a detached expression.
"Ah, yes. Hello. I’m Kaoru Kamiki."
"I heard a lot about you from Junichi-kun. He said he’s a huge fan, so he talks about you all the time during breaks…"
"I-I didn’t talk about it that much, did I?"
Trying to find some common ground or any excuse to talk to Kaoru, Mina casually sold Junichi out.
She tucked her hair behind her ear shyly and stared at Kaoru with those eyes full of her usual charm.
But then.
"Thank you."
Kaoru gave her a single polite smile, showing no interest at all, and then turned his head back to stare at the set without saying anything else.
Realizing that her looks and charm had no effect on Kaoru whatsoever, Mina’s pride cracked a little, and she bit her lip softly.
But regardless of that…
'That’s Ai’s poster? Is there a fan of Ai among the staff?'
Kaoru couldn’t take his eyes off the poster of Ai, which stood out among the many posters plastered on the walls of the classroom set that would be used as the vocal club room.
It seemed they had brought in a bunch of posters of various singers and stuck them up because making each prop individually would have been difficult, but by some unexpected stroke of luck, a B Komachi poster had been mixed in.
Kaoru thought he absolutely had to remember this and tell Ai about it when he met her, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"…?"
Following that pure, warm smile that he had not shown her, Mina immediately turned her head toward the set, her instincts as a perceptive woman kicking in as she narrowed her eyes and searched for the cause.
Ryunosuke, who had likewise been glaring at Kaoru with eyes full of jealousy and inferiority, quickly caught the reason for that smile and let out a sneering grin.
Mina didn’t know much about Kaoru’s background, but Ryunosuke knew a great deal about him.
"Aren’t all the posters stuck over there real singers?"
As Ryunosuke pretended not to know, rolled up the script, and tapped Junichi on the shoulder, Junichi nodded and said,
"Yes, they’re all real singers. I guess there’s an amazing person on the prop team. Um… ah."
Junichi stopped speaking and glanced at Kaoru standing nearby.
He had belatedly noticed the B Komachi poster of Ai on the wall and remembered the noisy dating rumor scandal that had once been reported.
Could there really be such an absurd coincidence?
Even though it had been exposed as a false report, hadn’t Kaoru abruptly retired because of that dating rumor article?
And because of that incident, it was obvious that the actual relationship between that B Komachi’s Ai and Kaoru had probably been seriously damaged or turned awkward.
Junichi, trying to steer attention away from an unpleasant topic as a fan, cleared his throat and was about to bring up a different conversation topic, but—
Ryunosuke beat him to it.
"Ha, that girl in the poster looks like an idol, doesn’t she?"
"Huh? What girl?"
Annoyed by Kaoru’s cold reaction, Mina frowned and asked back. Ryunosuke pointed with his index finger.
"Over there. The purple poster."
"…Wow, disgusting. Why do people even bother listening to songs by girls like that? It’s gross."
Mina, who had only recently started her acting career but had already received plenty of disgusting fan letters from obsessive otaku fans, frowned and muttered in irritation.
Of course, she had no idea that the poster’s subject was the same person who had been involved in a dating rumor with Kaoru.
Ryunosuke seemed to grow even more smug at her reaction, and a slimy smile spread across his face. His slit eyes flicked toward Kaoru for a moment before he continued shamelessly as if he knew nothing.
"Isn’t it funny? Those people don’t even know the first thing about [acting], but after spending all their time picking the pockets of otaku, they suddenly start acting like they can perform and invade a field that isn’t theirs."
Ryunosuke, feeling Kaoru’s gaze sharpen into a cold blue glare, shoved his hands into his pockets and drove the point home.
"They probably can’t even shake off the habit of wagging their tails in front of smelly otaku who never wash, then roll right onto a film set and start fawning around. Disgusting, that kind of vibe~"
Junichi, unable to stay silent after such an outrageous remark, stepped forward and said, sternly,
"Sasaki-san. There are a lot of people listening, so you shouldn’t say things like that so carelessly…"
"Do you really think so?"
Junichi’s words were cut off by Kaoru’s voice from behind, cold as frost, and no more came out.
It wasn’t just that his words had been interrupted. The force of Kaoru passing by him was anything but ordinary.
Kaoru closed the distance to Ryunosuke and looked down at the wolf in front of him with his usual detached expression.
"Do you really think so, Sasaki-san?"
He could endure insults and mockery aimed at himself all he wanted.
But Ryunosuke’s words just now had crossed the line into outright contempt.
For Kaoru, who had taught Ai acting at the theater and had seen and felt her extraordinary potential firsthand,
Ryunosuke’s careless blathering, spoken without knowing anything at all, was
an insult he could never forgive as Ai’s acting teacher and husband.
"……"
His expression and voice remained calm, but the red starlight burning in those blue eyes blazed as if it would incinerate everything in sight.
Still, Ryunosuke, who had already made up his mind, looked up at Kaoru with a sneer and those sharply slanted eyes and taunted him.
"Isn’t this a country that guarantees [Freedom of Thought]? Do I need someone else’s permission just because I think that way? Relax your face. Filming’s about to start."
"……"
"All right, everyone, stand by!"
Kaoru glared at Ryunosuke with icy eyes, then silently turned and walked toward the set.
Mina widened her eyes at the ominous atmosphere between the two of them, while Junichi clicked his tongue at Ryunosuke’s vile personality and left the set.
Filming with Mina and Ryunosuke started first, and Director Sojiro sighed several times as he called for retakes again and again.
"Okay. Cut."
When Director Sojiro finally managed to get a usable take, he stared at the script and cue sheet for a moment, clearly troubled.
Then Kaoru approached him quietly and said in a serious voice,
"Director. I’d like to discuss the next scene with you."
"Hmm? Discuss?"
At Sojiro’s question, his eyes asking what was going on, Kaoru let a strange light appear in his blue eyes and smiled.
The way to win a fight is to win without fighting.
That formula would be the perfect answer for Sasaki Ryunosuke.
After secretly opening the script and talking with Director Sojiro, Kaoru thanked him for gladly accepting his suggestion, then walked into the set and waited for the cue.
Ryunosuke, who knew nothing, blinked his slit eyes and touched up his makeup while waiting his turn.
"Okay! Scene number 158! Ready, action!"
Once Director Sojiro gave the signal, Kaoru and Ryunosuke slowly walked toward each other in the empty clubroom lit by the glow of sunset.
The scene was one where the male lead argued with the student council president, who had rejected the heroine’s petition to keep the vocal club alive, saying that maybe they should at least give her a chance, and then, unable to accept the president’s stubborn attitude, he ended up grabbing him by the collar and causing a scene.
To make this obvious, stale scene genuinely entertaining, Kaoru had gone directly to Director Sojiro and taken the trouble to request an on-the-spot script revision.
"…At least once! I’m sorry."
"Cut. Let’s go again. Ready, action!"
As expected, Ryunosuke stumbled over his lines without fail. Unlike with Junichi, Kaoru showed Ryunosuke no special "consideration" at all, but neither the staff on set nor even Director Sojiro noticed that fact.
Ryunosuke, his face red with humiliation, instead rationalized that all of this was Kaoru’s fault and continued with the scene.
"…Can’t you at least do that once? Why are there so many things this school won’t allow?"
"Those are the school rules. School rules exist to be followed. You’re not a child student, are you?"
Under Kaoru’s merciless pressure, Ryunosuke lost the war of nerves and flinched, throwing off the rhythm of his lines by half a beat as he barely managed to keep going.
"I-I don’t care about that! Aren’t the students supposed to come first?! Do the students’ dreams not matter at all?!"
Even as Ryunosuke’s emotional line wavered and his timing fell out of sync, Kaoru didn’t panic in the slightest. Instead, he stepped closer and snapped back at him with a cold voice.
"Under school rules, all students are equal, and they must remain that way. That includes even you, who are related through your maternal family to the house that founded this academy, and even me, who holds the position of student council president responsible for this academy’s honor and history. Don’t you understand that breaking the rules and showing favor to one individual can become an unfair burden to another?"
Ryunosuke, unable to receive even the slightest leniency from Kaoru’s tyranny(?), suddenly forgot he was in the middle of filming and felt his temper flare up.
Even the tone of voice that snapped at him felt less like acting and more like Kaoru genuinely thought he was nothing but a worthless bug and was looking down on him.
According to the script, he was supposed to get angry next and grab the student council president by the collar, so Ryunosuke, filled with resentment and fury, grabbed Kaoru’s collar with all his strength.
"Don’t spout bullshit, you bastard!"
Ryunosuke clutched Kaoru’s collar with a harsher line than the script called for. In the script, the student council president was supposed to break free by pushing him away with a fan, but Ryunosuke had no intention of letting go so easily.
'Got you now, you bastard.'
Ryunosuke’s eyes burned as if he meant to tear the skin off Kaoru’s face, and just as he was about to continue the rest of his line—
the moment he saw the red starlight in Kaoru’s blue eyes flare brighter than the sun,
'……'
his mind went completely blank.
Overwhelmed by that crushing presence, his whole body stiffened for a moment and shrank back, and the instant his grip on Kaoru’s collar loosened slightly,
Kaoru’s right hand, which should have been pushing him away with the fan, shot out to the side instead of toward his chest.
Clack!
"Agh?!"
The fan cut through the air in a clean arc and slammed into his wrist, sending a searing bolt of pain through it.
Kaoru’s folded fan had struck the exact pressure point where the wrist nerves ran.
It hadn’t even been swung that hard, but Ryunosuke screamed in a voice torn apart by pain, as if his hand had been cut off and then exploded, and let go of Kaoru’s collar.
But!
"Okay!!! Cut! Nice!"
Unlike Ryunosuke, who was in agony—
Director Sojiro burst up from his chair with a face blooming into a huge smile at the unexpectedly satisfying result and shouted while giving Kaoru a thumbs-up.
"That was great! Really nice! As expected, you’ve got [gaze]!"
"Thank you."
What?
Ryunosuke, his eyes moist with unshed tears and his face full of grievance and confusion, looked at Director Sojiro. Sojiro responded as if it were nothing at all.
"Hahaha. Ah, Ryunosuke-kun. Sorry. I didn’t tell you I’d secretly revised the script to get a more realistic reaction. But it doesn’t hurt that much, right? I told them to hit as lightly as possible so it wouldn’t hurt too much. It’s fine, right?"
"……What?"
Ryunosuke trembled, clutching his wrist, feeling as if he had just been struck on the back of the head with a hammer. Kaoru smiled faintly and approached him.
"Are you okay? It doesn’t hurt too much, does it?"
"……What the hell are you?"
At the sight of Ryunosuke’s gaze, filled with rage, humiliation, confusion, and fear all mixed together after being completely played for a fool, Kaoru gave him a cold smile.
He tapped the white wrist that showed no sign of injury despite being hit with the folded fan, then erased the smile from his face. Standing with his back to the camera so the staff wouldn’t notice, he leaned close to Ryunosuke’s ear and whispered in a quiet voice.
"The reason the script was revised. I believe you understand that far better than people who don’t even know the first thing about [acting]."
Ryunosuke stared at Kaoru with a puzzled expression, still clutching his wrist after Kaoru suddenly said something incomprehensible.
But Kaoru never answered that question.
"Relax your face. Filming’s about to start."
With a cold smile, he turned away and prepared for the next shot.
In the end, Ryunosuke could only curl up like a frightened wolf and clutch his aching wrist, unable to do anything else.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register