NOVEL NEXT [14] Charizzma (1)
Chapter 14: Charizzma (1)
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Ruby wanted to be an Idol, and her mama had given her permission for it. However, she also proposed a challenge for her to overcome, it was a test. Ruby had to recruit two other girls for her idol team, and she couldn't reveal her real identity as the Ai's daughter for leverage.
Naturally, the first person she asked was none other than Tsubasa.
"Hey, Tsubasa~ become an Idol with me!"
However, her request was promptly shut down. "Don't be ridiculous, I am studying to take on the job of my father, the president of an agency. I will most likely be taking care of your career in the future, why are you asking me to become an Idol with you?"
"Um..." Ruby had nothing to add to that.
This conversation took place when they just left their home for school, so Ruby didn't feel too down. She decided to ask some others to join her.
Sadly, when she asked Minami about it, she was once again rejected. However, her friend was a lot gentler about it than Tsubasa. In the end, she didn't even go to meet Aqua during lunch break, because she was busy thinking about who else she could ask to become an idol with her.
With no choice left, she had the audacity to message Aqua mid-class to ask him for ideas. He wasn't going to help at first, but after her pleading and apologizing, he told her to try her luck on Kana Arima.
She was unsure at first but decided to go through it in the end. She caught up with Tsubasa after school ended, while Aqua bid them farewell to go to her shooting thing, something that still amazed Ruby, as she asked Tsubasa to help her approach Kana.
"Tsubasa nee-chan! Come on, help me with this!" After her sugar-coated words and cute calls, Tsubasa hesitantly agreed.
The two of them hunted down Kana and confronted her. But instead of proposing the idea to her directly, she did something odd.
"Hey, Loli-Senpai!"
Once Ruby spotted her walking, she called from afar, making Kana flinch as people looked. Tsubasa sighed and followed after.
"It's y-you again, what do you want?"
"Loli-Senpai, do you want to come to our house?" Well, she was going to take her to Tsubasa's house, but it counted. "We are gonna watch the first episode of Aqua's new drama, will you join us?"
The plan was to show her that Tsubasa was the daughter of the super-famous Strawberry Productions, and then Ruby would reveal the deal to her. Though it was true that they were going to watch the first episode of Aqua's drama first.
Kana Arima looked flabbergasted, as Ruby had expected, and agreed to come along with a long stutter.
"W-w-why's he acting all of a sudden? Didn't he say he stopped acting?! What is this situation?! F-f-fine, I'll come along, I am just c-c-curious what sort of masterpiece made him return to this path."
The face she made when Ruby told her about the Dating Reality Show was pure entertainment, it was so priceless that Ruby couldn't help but take a picture.
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The filming range was in a neighboring town; it took me half an hour by Uber to reach here. Two days per week, there is a shooting. It's right after school because the drama's plot is like that, where a bunch of high school students hang around together after their classes end.
Soon, I reached my destination, my Uber stopped outside Rinshi-no-mori Park. It was a park of greenery, tall trees, and soil pathways. It's a nature park, and it smelled nice.
I paid the driver and walked towards the gate. I was a bit surprised to find someone especially waiting for me at the gate, as he lit up in recognition when I walked forward.
I recognized him, I heard his name a lot of times from Ai and had done a bit of research on him before out of pure curiosity. It was the producer, Masaya Kaburagi.
"Ah, you're finally here." The man had a cigarette on his lips as he spoke, looking at me from up and down. "Ai sent me your photo, but in the day of Photoshop, we can never be sure of pictures. Though it looks like I got it reversed in your case, you look better in person than in the pictures."
I'd have questioned his sexual preferences but I decided he won't laugh, so I just gave a nod. "Thanks, I try to stay in shape."
"Mhm, follow me. Let's talk while we walk to the set." He said and began to walk into the park, and I followed. "It's rare to see Ai recommend someone, though. What's your relationship with her?"
"I don't think it'd be a good idea for me to say it if she didn't herself," I followed.
"Fair, fair." He turned to take another look at my face.
If I wasn't bigger and more muscular than the original timeline Aqua, he might have guessed my identity. However, now it'd be hard to connect Ai and me together.
He continued walking. "The Beginning of My Love With An Idol, that's the name of the show. I won't be surprised if you don't know that, though don't worry, you're already a good actor in my head, even if you didn't appear in any show. Since you were recommended by the best, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt until you prove to be a bad choice."
"Quite a harsh language to use on a fifteen-year-old," I told him, and my tone made sure that I didn't take it to heart. "What's the limit of 'entertainment' here, by the way? Is it all right if things were to develop in ways where two parties kiss in the first episode?"
I wanted to be sure because I can't be sure what I will do once the camera rolls. The producer took another look at me before letting out a chuckle.
"It's not recommended, but it's not banned either. It's just, we promote the tension that accumulates between the characters over the episodes. But if someone kisses someone in the first episode, they're passed as couples right away. So the tension is less between them. However, as this is a dating 'reality' show, which doesn't have any scripts, you are free to do anything you want. Ah, nudity isn't any good though." The producer kindly explained.
That's good to know. Usually, kiss scenes happened in the last episode, so if I were to boldly kiss a girl in the first episode, I'll basically be tied to her unless some crazy drama went off later.
"Now, we are here." The producer stopped on his steps, and I did too.
We were behind a camera crew, while a bunch of kids were in the front, talking and taking test shots. The kids stopped when we approached and turned to me, I could see their expressions shift as they saw me. There were seven people in total, with four girls and three guys. An uneven number; as today was the first day of the shooting, my joining now meant I have replaced someone who was already chosen previously.
"Everybody, this is our last guy. Name's Aquamarine Hoshino, Age-15, First-Year at High School."
The producer said, making the majority of the actors and actresses blink at my name. What are these kids looking at?
"And Aqua, these are..."
After that, the producer gave me a brief of my fellow actors and actresses. I was unsure how this would go, since they seemed to have a bad impression of me from the start, taking me for someone with nepotism.
Let's talk about the guys first. Starting from the youngest, it's a guy called Sen Kaibara, Singer, High School 1st Year. Next was Nobuyuki Kunand, a Dancer, High School 2nd Year. After that, it was Morimoto Kengo, Band Member, High School 3rd Year.
They gave me mixed looks that I didn't take to heart, I could understand why some might have a bad impression of me given the context.
Next were the girls. First was Yuki Sumi, Fashion Model, High School 1st Year. She was weird. There was an odd aura around her, similar to my school's principal. She... had made a deal with a devil.
Next, it was the main girl of the series, Akane Kurokawa, Actress, High School 2nd Year. She was fine as I remembered, though nervous and flustered. Our eyes met, and she did a little how. She's adorable.
The next one was... also interesting. If Yuki had made a deal with a devil, this girl was a devil. Mem-Cho, YouTuber, self-proclaimed 3rd Year High School. She dressed like a devil in the anime, but in this world, she really was the real deal. Half-Devil, to be precise, from what I read on her aura.
The last one was another interesting one. I was a bit surprised, why were three out of the four girls magical? The 4th in particular surprised me the most because I recognized her, she's the main girl from another anime.
With glossy black hair that danced with the wind, I recalled she was an actress in her anime. She was in her third year of high school, too. Mai Sakurajima, Actress, High School 3rd Year. Based on how my Copper Sight noted the translucent rabbit ears on her head, it really was the Bunny Girl Senpai.
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[Third Person Point of View – Yuki Sumi]
Coming to this show was an unavoidable accident for her, thanks to her agency. They had to send someone, and luck just had it that it was her. She didn't mind it too much, but she'd have still preferred something else other than a Dating Reality Show.
She honestly didn't believe she would find someone suitable to her taste. Not that her taste was particularly rare, but it just didn't go with the theme these shows had. They cast cute young girls and pretty little boys. She was more into strong dominant guys, so she naturally hadn't come here expecting to meet anyone like that.
Of course, she was still going to play her part and garner all the attention towards her, and she was more sure of that when she came to the filming set and met others. The girls might pose a challenge, especially that third-year Mai girl, but it should be easy enough to sway the guys toward her.
She had seen their pictures, and one of the guys was missing. Apparently, he had been replaced at the last moment. She didn't mind or care, since he wasn't her target, to begin with, she planned to go after Noboyuki, so it didn't matter if someone else were to get replaced.
Noboyuki didn't really fill her preferences, but he was better than the others. He was tall and handsome too, even if he was too lean and still on the pretty boy side.
All of her plans were splashed with water when the replacement actor finally arrived. It was as if the Satans were amused by her desire to find a suitable man, that they sent a guy right out of her dream. Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, muscular, handsome, manly, and such a deep vibe around him. She didn't know she had a thing for long hair, but now she did.
For generations, Yuki Sumi's family's been making deals with the devils. At the age of fifteen, every member is allowed to make their first deal with the devils too. Yuki turned fifteen a while ago, and the deal she chose was Luck in Popularity. It might feel cheap to some people as the price was her literal soul, but she didn't mind.
"All right. Now that everyone is here," the producer spoke after he finished introducing all of them. "Let us begin today's shoot. As it is the first episode and we want to keep the feeling a bit 'raw' for the viewers, it will be a near-live-broadcast. The situation in front of the camera will be delayed for only a minute before it's broadcasted, our editors will fix anything they can within that bit."
A few minutes later, the filming began for real.
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Yuki didn't want to appear too desperate, so she didn't go talk with Aquamarine first. She decided to give each of the guys a few minutes, one after the other, and only then move to her target.
First, she went to Sen Kaibara, but he was the same age as her, and that was too young for her, so he didn't have a chance from the get-go. Next, she went to Morimoto Kengo; he was the oldest guy here, but as she had expected, he wasn't her type. Then she went to talk to Nobuyuki Kunand, who was one year older than her; he was her initial target, and he was somewhat interesting.
She spent a few extra minutes than others with Nobuyuki. However, she ended it soon as well and moved to her target.
She wasn't surprised when she turned to look for him and found him sitting on a bench, with the Mem-Cho girl sitting beside him. They were having a light-hearted conversation, based on their giggles. Yuki, of course, had expected him to be engaged in a conversation already. It was natural, the first episode was where everyone would talk to everyone.
So she decided to wander around a bit before she would go meet him. She wished that Mem-Cho girl would be gone by then, she was a bit threatening since she was the oldest girl here besides Mai Sakurajima.
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