"Cut!"
"Good work, everyone."
Kaoru had been cast as the child version of a fairly important supporting character in a new weekday evening drama that NHK had started airing as a summer special.
Among the dramas he had been cast in so far, this was the highest-profile one, so Kaoru adjusted his theater schedule and schoolwork and focused as much as possible on the filming schedule.
He was playing the childhood version of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office prosecutor who helped the protagonist punish the villain, from the first episode through the beginning of episode three out of the ten-episode run, as the protagonist’s friend who was framed by his father and driven out along with revenge from the owner’s family.
Kaoru had no intention of wasting such a valuable experience. He prepared thoroughly, memorizing the script and studying the character in detail.
But as expected of Japan’s notoriously brutal summer, the outdoor set at 1 p.m. after filming had wrapped was basically an oven.
All the staff were cooling off by drinking ice water from the makeshift cooler set up in one corner or wiping sweat from their faces with towels.
Kaoru was human too, so he was not immune to the heat.
As always, he finished filming in a flash without a single NG, then walked over to the tented area and took a half-frozen plastic bottle from the cooler to drink.
"Gulp-"
His face was slightly flushed. His blond hair was soaked with sweat.
He would have preferred to change in the dressing room before drinking, but thanks to the solid, stew-like delay on set, he had been forced to wait in the blazing sun for more than ten minutes before filming. If he didn’t drink water now, he felt like he might dig a hole in the ground and start sucking up groundwater.
"Haa. Gulp- Haa. Hoo-"
Frowning, Kaoru tilted the half-empty 500ml bottle and poured a little over the back of his right hand, then spread it over his face and neck.
The ice-cold water sent a shiver down his spine when it touched his skin, but everything except that spot was still hot, so it was only a temporary fix.
With no choice, he finished the rest of the water, crushed the empty bottle in one motion, and tossed it into the trash.
Kaoru brushed his sweat-damp bangs back and raised both hands to undo the buttons of his dress shirt.
"……."
The buttons were stiff and wouldn’t come loose easily.
When they still wouldn’t open the way he wanted, Kaoru frowned slightly, then adjusted his force more carefully and popped them open one by one.
Completely unaware that the women around him were stealing glances at him with strange looks, he was about to hurry off toward the dressing room when—
"Oh my, Kaoru-kun. You’re already done filming?"
A fragrant female voice called him from behind.
Kaoru stopped and turned to look at the woman who had called out to him, his eyes widening slightly.
Then he bowed immediately and said in a polite voice, "Ms. Matsushima."
"Honestly, just call me Yuki."
The mature, beautiful middle-aged woman Kaoru had called "Ms. Matsushima" was none other than Matsushima Yuki, who played the villain’s wife and the wife of a major conglomerate family head.
On the drama, she was the enemy of the supporting character Kaoru played alongside the protagonist, but off-camera she was, of course, a senior in the entertainment industry, where hierarchy on set was firmly established.
What’s more, Matsushima Yuki was one of those actresses who had enjoyed a dazzling heyday, taking on a wide range of roles from her twenties and moving between lead and supporting parts across a long filmography.
For Kaoru, she was someone he had no reason to sour relations with.
He took a bottle from the cooler and approached her, where her manager was holding a parasol over her, then handed it over politely and said, "It’s hot, isn’t it?"
"Mm-hm. It’s so hot it’s driving me crazy. Thanks, Kaoru-kun?"
"Not at all."
Swish—
Reaching out with her right hand, Matsushima Yuki took the bottle Kaoru offered.
But then—
She deliberately reached a little farther and brushed Kaoru’s hand in an obvious way before taking the bottle.
Kaoru frowned at once and looked down at his own right hand, but Matsushima Yuki only smiled as if she had noticed nothing and brought the bottle to her mouth.
"Haa. That’s refreshing. Maybe because you brought it to me, Kaoru-kun, it feels even cooler."
"Thank you."
"You’re hot too, Kaoru-kun. Look at all that sweat."
She stepped right up to his face and examined him closely with an overbearing air, and Kaoru, unable to stand her excessive kindness(?), immediately took a gentle step back and said, "I’m all sweat right now, so I’m sorry if I smell a little."
"Ah… hehe, I see. That’s because you’re still growing. You’re not dizzy or anything, are you?"
Kaoru naturally smiled at the middle-aged actress who kept trying to continue the conversation and pointed toward the dressing room.
"No. The director was considerate, so I’m fine. But the costume is a little hot, so I should probably go."
"Right, right. Hurry along now. Good work, Kaoru-kun~"
"Yes, thank you, ma’am. I’ll see you at the next shoot."
"Mm-hm. Take care on your way back."
After exchanging greetings, Kaoru turned and headed straight for the dressing room.
Apparently not feeling sorry for the manager standing under the blazing sun, she waved to Kaoru from beneath the parasol the manager was holding over her.
Kaoru let out a dry laugh at the absurdity of that selective kindness(?) and walked into the dressing room.
-
♪♬
Kaoru, who had been listening to songs by [B Komachi] on a Sony MP3 player, took out his earphones when Toshiro opened the door and came in.
"Have you eaten?"
Kaoru stood and greeted him, and Toshiro shook the cup of iced Americano he had brought from a café near the troupe and said, "Brunch."
"Donburi again?"
"Don’t go judging someone else’s taste however you please. The older I get, the more stubborn my tongue gets too."
"……."
There was a famous eatery near the train station close to the troupe. Everyone in the troupe, Kaoru included, had gone there at least once to buy donburi.
Not only donburi, but tendon, katsudon, oyakodon, and other dishes were popular because they were all delicious.
What was more, unusually, when ordering, you could choose multigrain rice instead of white rice.
So after finishing acting lessons with Ai, he had gone there together with her two or three times.
"Ai said she doesn’t like white rice."
Kaoru had been quite surprised when he learned that Ai couldn’t eat white rice. Fortunately, he remembered feeling relieved when he saw her happily eating donburi with multigrain rice.
Thanks to the owner’s sincere and thoughtful consideration in making multigrain rice available too, Kaoru mentally designated it a lifelong favorite spot and promised to come often.
Come to think of it—
"I haven’t been able to contact her much lately."
Just as Kaburagi Masaya had said when he visited the troupe, [B Komachi], the group Ai belonged to, was rapidly rising out of the [idol] underground and into the light.
As the saying goes, when the tide comes in, you row. Now, if you walked down the street, you could often see [B Komachi] posters pasted up in shopping arcades, not everywhere, but often enough.
Their songs also played frequently through speakers, so he could feel their popularity growing day by day. On the other hand, Ai had been missing acting lessons since last month because her schedule had gotten busier.
Kaoru had also become busy with his existing troupe schedule plus drama filming, so naturally their contact had grown sparse, and now he could barely remember the last time they had exchanged messages.
Kaoru wasn’t the type to reach out to someone first in a friendly way, so he absentmindedly fiddled with the phone in his pocket when—
"If you came here just to space out, get out."
Toshiro’s stubborn voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Ah. Sorry. I was just—"
"...Daydreaming is a pretty good habit. Probably because this is the closest thing to a worry-free time in your life."
"Yes. It’s nothing serious, but final exams are right around the corner, so I don’t think I’ll be able to come to the troupe for about two weeks."
"Is that so? I see."
Toshiro lifted his cup and took a sip of iced Americano, then smacked his lips once before saying to Kaoru, "You came all the way to my office just to tell me that?"
"Yes."
"There was a guy who came here once asking to borrow money... but he didn’t know my number. You know mine, don’t you?"
"I do."
"Then send a text. Or tell one of the others."
"I prefer this method."
"……."
After letting out a short sigh, Toshiro took another sip of iced Americano.
He had been a troupe head longer than Kaoru had been alive, and someone this strange was truly a first in his life.
Was this the same kid who had shown up on the first day and stabbed through a wooden shelf with a pair of scissors?
Toshiro glanced at the shelf with the hole crudely patched over with cardboard, then stood from his chair and walked over to Kaoru again.
"How’s filming going? It must have hit 33 degrees already today."
"It’s an interesting experience. The weather is not interesting at all, though."
"Is that so?"
"Director."
"What."
"There’s an actress named Matsushima Yuki in the drama with me. Do you know her?"
"Yeah. So?"
"That actress has been making advances on me. What should I do?"
"……."
A quiet silence fell.
Toshiro raised a hand and rubbed around his mouth for a moment, then after finishing his thoughts, he spoke.
"How far? How far has it gone? How much?"
"She just keeps coming over and acting overly familiar, or touching my shoulder, and her manager came to ask for my phone number. She said she’d buy me a meal. Today she gave me a water bottle, but she touched the back of my hand and took it away."
"……."
Toshiro’s expression turned serious.
Meanwhile, Kaoru simply stood there with his arms folded, waiting quietly for Toshiro’s answer.
"Does anyone else know about this?"
"You’re the first, Director. That’s why I came here in person. I’ve heard things before, but this is the first time I’ve experienced it myself. I came to ask for advice on what I should do."
"...Advice? Not help?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. Not to ask me to report it to the police, or to ask how to hire a lawyer, or whether you should quit the drama?"
"Yes. That’s right?"
"Are you— maybe on your second life? Some kind of ‘rejuvenated old man’ from legend or something?"
Apparently dying of curiosity, Toshiro asked a ridiculous question he normally never would have said. Kaoru closed his mouth for a moment and scratched the bridge of his nose.
He couldn’t answer honestly, so he let silence stand in for it.
Whether that worked or not, Toshiro let out a long sigh, downed the iced Americano in one go, tossed the cup with the ice still inside into the trash, and said in a grave voice, "You really are okay? I’m a troupe head with a mountain of work, but I’m not so heartless that I’d ignore a kid being put through something like this."
"I’m really fine. Anyway, if I’m working in this [world], I’m always prepared for things like this. This case is also awkward to pursue legally. There isn’t much evidence either."
"...I see? So you’re going to wrap it up by just [reporting] it to me and no one else? At your level?"
"I’m sorry if that upset you. I’m not notifying you. I just thought you should know. You’re one of the few people I trust, Director."
"Haa... damn it."
At Toshiro’s bitter expression, one Kaoru rarely ever saw, Kaoru remained silent for a moment.
"This world was already crazy. It was crazy when I was your age too. Already crazy. Completely crazy."
"……."
"In the end, if I’m going to give advice as another adult, all I can say is to gather evidence in case something happens later. Or, if you can use a connection you know, bury it under [rumors]. But that’s obviously not going to happen. In the end, it’s a matter of scale. Even if you’re just a supporting actor stuck in the past glory, that experience isn’t limited to your personal ability alone. In this business, [connections] are also a kind of experience and ability. I’m saying this because you know that already."
"Yes. Thank you for the advice."
"If you’re going to let it go, then I don’t have any reason to step in further. I just want to tell you to keep gathering material just in case. As a troupe head, I absolutely hate it when an actor under me ends up in the media for something ugly. Even if it’s one of [my people]."
"...Understood."
Kaoru nodded with his usual indifferent face.
Even while talking about something this shocking, he showed no trembling, no fear, no excitement, no sadness, no emotion at all—just the same unchanging indifference.
Toshiro found himself wondering what Kaoru’s true identity really was.
Putting aside the scissors-throwing technique, what kind of training did you have to go through to develop that kind of composure in everyday life?
"You’ve worked hard. You can head out now."
"Yes. Thank you for the advice. Don’t take it too hard, Director. I’m fine. I’m handsome enough for that."
"...Don’t steal my line so thoughtlessly."
Kaoru gave a small smile and left the office.
Toshiro clicked his tongue, the bitterness lingering in his mouth from either the coffee or Kaoru’s words, and muttered, "Ha... I want a vacation."
-
-----------------------
PM 8:30
How are you doing?
-----------------------
Buzz—
-----------------------
● Ai アイ●
PM 8:45
- Kaoru !
- Sorry I couldn’t contact you !
- I’ve been so busy lately !
- (╥﹏╥) (╥﹏╥)(╥﹏╥)
- I just finished my schedule !
- I’m on my way to the dorms ! I’m exhausted !!!
- (｡╯︵╰｡)
-------------------------
-----------------------
PM 8:46
- You’ve been working hard
-----------------------
Buzz!
-----------------------
● Ai アイ●
PM 8:47
- Because I like it .
- So I can put up with anything !
- But I also really want to go practice acting !
- It feels like I’ve forgotten everything Kaoru taught me ...
- What have you been doing lately, Kaoru ?
- Are you still doing theater ? Did you take your exams ?
- (｀∀´)Ψ
-------------------------
"......"
-----------------------
PM 8:48
- I’m filming a drama. An NHK evening drama. As a child version of a supporting character.
- You have to keep practicing acting. A moment’s emotion doesn’t last forever.
- I’m not going to the troupe for a while. Final exams are coming up soon.
- Have you eaten ?
-----------------------
Buzz
-----------------------
● Ai アイ●
PM 8:49
- Teacher mode Kaoru (｀▽´) !!
- Wow, amazing !
- I’ll definitely watch the drama Kaoru’s in ! You’re seriously amazing ! So cool !
- Ah! And I ate dinner too ! It was just a convenience store bento though ...
- I want donburi again ! It was so good I keep thinking about it .
- Let’s go together when you have time !
- ☆:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:☆
-------------------------
-----------------------
PM 8:50
- Sure.
-----------------------
"Kaoru-kun. Let’s get ready to stand by soon!"
"Yes."
-----------------------
PM 8:51
- I have to go film.
- Make sure you eat properly.
- I’ll take you to donburi later when you come for acting lessons.
- That’s all for now.
-----------------------
Kaoru closed his phone and stepped onto the set.
Even though filming would continue late into the night, all the staff worked as hard as they had in broad daylight.
Kaoru did the same, giving his all to his work.
"Cut! Good! Very good! Kaoru-kun, your scenes are basically a sure thing, so I’m very satisfied!"
"Thank you."
Kaoru bowed his head in gratitude at the director’s praise.
Once the scheduled filming had all wrapped, he changed clothes as the night grew late and was about to head home when—
"Oh my, Kaoru-kun~ Good work?"
"Ah. Ma’am."
At the appearance of Matsushima Yuki, who had come alone to the costume booth set up in one corner without her manager, Kaoru gave a slightly awkward smile and greeted her.
Late at night, perhaps because of the heat, she had put on perfume, and a faintly seductive fragrance reached Kaoru’s nose.
Matsushima Yuki smiled at him as if looking at a cute puppy and slowly approached.
"Mm-hm, you’re all done filming? Kaoru-kun hardly ever NGs, so you finish early."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"Mm-hm. I think your hardworking side is the most wonderful thing about you, Kaoru-kun."
Kaoru took a step back from the perfume drifting past the tip of his nose and said to Matsushima Yuki, "Thank you. Ma’am, I need to change costumes now, so if you’ll excuse me—"
"Mm-hm. Just a moment...."
The costume booth was a lonely place.
With only the fluorescent light overhead illuminating the space, Matsushima Yuki’s eyes glittered with desire and seduction as she moved closer to the beautiful boy whose height matched her own and said, "Kaoru-kun is awfully cold for someone so young. Even though I kept sending signals, you ignored them. I’m not that easy, you know."
"...Is that so?"
"Of course. My ex-husband couldn’t do a thing to me either."
Kaoru looked at the actress pressing herself against him with sharp eyes and said, "Were there quite a few people you liked besides me?"
"Mm.... Let’s see? How should I answer that? Is my past that important to you?"
"There’s a saying that a woman’s past is a forbidden secret. Men consider uncovering that secret their destiny."
"My, my♥ That line— Kaoru-kun, do you have a girlfriend? Who could leave such a sexy boy alone?"
At Matsushima Yuki’s sudden move to wrap her arms around his neck, Kaoru turned his head away and said, "Stop this. You shouldn’t be doing this here."
"Kaoru-kun. Don’t avoid me. You know it too, don’t you? That you can’t leave here."
"Stop it."
"Give me just one night. Then I’ll take care of everything and lay out a red carpet for your future, Kaoru-kun. Mm? I have plenty of PDs and directors I drink with. If you heard their names, you’d be shocked too, Kaoru-kun. Mm? Don’t run away."
"I’m a minor, ma’am. You shouldn’t be doing this."
"Mm~ It’s fine. I’ll handle everything. Don’t worry. Now, close your eyes. Have you ever kissed anyone?"
The moment Matsushima Yuki tried to press her lips, full of desire, against Kaoru’s—
Beep—
- Give me just one night. Then I’ll take care of everything and lay out a red carpet for your future, Kaoru-kun. Mm? I have plenty of PDs and directors I drink with. If you heard their names, you’d be shocked too, Kaoru-kun. Mm? Don’t run away.
- I’m a minor, ma’am. You shouldn’t be doing this.
- Mm~ It’s fine. I’ll handle everything. Don’t worry. Now, close your eyes. Have you ever kissed anyone?
When the recorded voice came out of the Sony MP3, Matsushima Yuki froze like stone.
She turned only her bloodshot eyes toward the Sony MP3 Kaoru was holding.
Then— with a vicious expression twisted by rage and humiliation at being deceived, she grabbed Kaoru by the collar.
"You little bastard— are you messing with me right now?! You think you can bare your teeth at me and talk back?!"
"Someone I know gave me some advice. It was actually a method I already knew, but hearing it from them made me certain."
"What!?"
Even as her nails dug into the skin of his neck and drew blood, because she had grabbed him by the collar so hard.
Kaoru stared at her with a face so calm it looked like not a single drop of blood would come out even if you stabbed him, and said, "I thought about how [my people] would feel if they went through the same thing I did. I realized I absolutely couldn’t stand it."
"...What?"
Thwack!
Crack—!
"Kya— mmph!?"
In an instant, Kaoru released the hand gripping his collar, twisted her wrist, and clamped his right hand over her mouth.
At the motion, so swift and without wasted movement, Matsushima Yuki’s body froze solid for a moment.
This was not simple self-defense.
She had once learned a few tricks herself under the guise of self-defense, so she could immediately tell what level Kaoru was at.
If the right hand that covered her mouth moved just a little farther downward than the left hand twisting her wrist, then she would be—
"Hh— hhk"
Kaoru brought his mouth close to her ear and whispered quietly, all traces of the malicious look she had shown him gone, leaving only fear and panic as she trembled.
"Second year, Class B, Shirane Girls’ Middle School. Ookami Yume."
"...!?"
"It won’t be a reporter who hears about this first. It’ll be your daughter. This is your warning."
"Hhk— hhhk—"
At Kaoru’s warning, she shuddered as if struck by lightning and shook her head with tears in her eyes.
Slowly releasing both hands, Kaoru straightened her disheveled clothes and hair and said, "Your wrist should be fine, ma’am. If it hurts, please ice it."
"...You devil..."
Matsushima Yuki spat out the insult through her tears, but Kaoru simply smiled and passed her by.
He already knew.
There was no devil in the world worse than that.
Because that had been his past self.
Rumble— Crash—
As he stepped out of the booth with thunder rolling overhead as if a shower were about to fall from the sky, heavy raindrops began to fall.
"……."
Kaoru looked up at the sky for a moment, then slowly started walking, heading out into the rain.
Compared to a 500ml bottle of ice water, this was on a completely different level of cool.
Kaoru smiled quietly and kept walking.
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