Chapter 12

"Sorry, but could you leave?"

After school, I met up with Shinozaki-san and headed straight to the idol-specialized Gorokuya Iroha Talent Agency. And right off the bat, I was hit with an expulsion order from a beautiful woman.

Shinozaki-san had gone off to a separate room to talk with the other side’s manager, leaving me alone in the reception room. While sipping the juice I’d been given through a straw, the ill-tempered beauty made her entrance. Tall and slender, with glossy black hair flowing straight down her back, her sharp, slightly upturned eyes gave off a severe impression.

If I recall correctly, she was Reizei Isumi-san, a fellow unit member of Shirazawa Kotori-san—the one I was supposed to teach today.

"Are you even listening? I said I want you to leave."

"Yes, once Shinozaki returns, I’ll let him know."

Isumi-san glared down at me imperiously, but I managed to respond with a polite smile. Back in my corporate-slave days, I’d dealt with enough overbearing clients that this sort of thing didn’t faze me.

"Leave right no—mmph!?"

"Okay, sto-oop. Isumin, that’s rude to our guest."

The reception room door flew open and another beautiful girl dashed in. She clamped a hand over Isumi-san’s mouth from behind, smoothly transitioned into a headlock, and while holding her restrained, beamed a smile at me.

"Sorry about that. Things are a little tense right now, and Isumin’s on edge."

"No, I’m fine, really…"

The one bowing repeatedly while still keeping Isumi-san in a headlock was Tachiki Momiji-san, another member of the same unit. She was only about half a head taller than me, but at a glance, she looked like a middle schooler despite being an adult. Her twin-tail hairstyle made her look even younger.

Her official profile had been stuck at “17 years old” for years, which had become a running joke.

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Tachiki Momiji, leader of the unit 'Bre☆Pri' with Kotori Shirazawa. Nice to meet you."

"I’m Hanasaki Nana. I was asked by Producer Tanuki to provide acting lessons today… did something happen?"

I said this while pulling a business card from my pouch and handing it over.

"Kotoring watched the rough cut of Part Two of Ore no Na wa and just broke down crying, saying ‘I don’t want to be in movies anymore, I want to quit being an idol too.’"

Momiji-san gave a troubled laugh, "tahaha~."

Pinned under her arm, Isumi-san growled muffled protests, "Nnnnnghh!" Then she wrenched herself free from Momiji-san’s hold and shouted:

"This is your fault! It’s your fault Kotori… Kotori… Kotoring…"

Her voice cracked, and she suddenly burst into tears. As Isumi-san struggled to hold back her sobs, Momiji-san tried to comfort her, leaving the whole room wrapped in an awkward, indescribable atmosphere.

What do I do? I wanna go home.

I’d come here thinking casually, ‘I’ll give a one-on-one acting lesson to an idol, hand-holding if I have to. But if she doesn’t listen, that might be a problem.’ And yet, before even starting the lesson, I was already dragged into a total mess. I really wanna go home.

Still, I didn’t understand why watching Part Two had depressed her. There weren’t even any scenes between me and Kotori-san in that part, and her heroine role didn’t have much screentime either.

And as for it being my fault… I don’t remember doing anything?

"Um, did I do something wrong?"

"……Maybe it’s because your acting was too good…?"

"Ehhh…"

I’d never been scolded for acting too well before. Even Isumi-san, after saying it herself, looked puzzled.

"Don’t mind it. It’s just Isumin lashing out. Don’t take her words seriously, okay?"

"Uh… right."

Forcing Isumi-san’s head down with her palm, Momiji-san gave me an apologetic smile.

"But if things stay like this, Kotori will…"

"Saying that to Nana-chan won’t solve anything. Sorry, Nana-chan. You came all this way for nothing."

So, Kotori-san got depressed after watching Part Two, and now she wants to quit, supposedly because my acting was too good. Yeah… I still don’t really see the connection. And Shinozaki-san still hasn’t come back. For now, maybe I should at least hear the full story.

"Sorry, could you explain it in more detail?"

After hearing Momiji-san’s explanation, I finally understood the situation.

Back during the release of Part One, the advance buzz had been good. But once the film actually came out, it bombed—largely blamed on Kotori-san’s performance as the main heroine. The reviews and criticism had been scathing, leaving her badly shaken.

Even after that, she worked hard at taking acting lessons, but without much improvement. Then Tanuki P handed her the rough cut of Part Two. Seeing my performance in it, she lost all confidence, terrified that her acting would ruin Part Three the same way.

Of course, it wasn’t like she could suddenly step down from playing the heroine. So now she was talking about quitting everything—idol work, movies—and retreating back to her countryside home. That was the whole story.

…She’s more cornered than I thought.

"Think about it the other way," Momiji-san began, turning her lecture on Isumi-san. "Let’s say some random pretty girl with no proper singing or dance training just shows up, gets put on stage with us, bombs hard in front of everyone, and then turns around and says, ‘It’s your fault for being so good at singing and dancing!’ How would you feel?"

"That’s… well…"

"Doesn’t make sense, right? Wouldn’t you wanna punch her?"

Having finished explaining things to me, Momiji-san now scolded Isumi-san with firm, steady words. When the lecture ended, Isumi-san slumped her shoulders, chastened. That gave me the opening to ask something that had been on my mind.

"Um… Kotori-san has been taking acting lessons, right?"

"Yeah, but the problem is the teacher. They only ever say stuff like ‘act more natural’ or ‘put more emotion into it’ during improv. It hasn’t been helpful at all."

Hmm. Yeah, if you could improve just by being told that, acting wouldn’t be so hard in the first place.

"In any case, could I meet Kotori-san directly? Maybe I can actually be of some help."

"Sure, I’ll ask too. Let’s go. I’ll take you to her."

We left the reception room and entered a room labeled "Bre☆Pri." It was about eight tatami in size, with a low table, sofa, and some lockers. Most likely the private room for the unit members.

On the sofa, curled up with her knees pulled to her chest, was a girl radiating gloom. Kotori-san.

Her eyes were bloodshot, swollen from crying. She sniffled through her nose as she stared blankly at the TV in front of her. On the screen played the rough cut of Ore no Na wa Part Two.

"Kotoring, I brought Nana-chan," Momiji-san said gently.

Kotori-san slowly turned toward us. The moment her eyes met mine, she scrambled to her feet.

"I’m sorry, for making you come all the way… But, um, I’m quitting the movie. And I’m quitting being an idol too…"

"Kotori! You promised we’d aim to become top idols together!"

"I can’t anymore… I’ve had to redo take after take after take, getting scolded by the director every time. I’ve caused so much trouble for everyone…"

Isumi-san rushed over to encourage her, but Kotori-san lowered her head, hugging her arms tightly and trembling. Momiji-san approached, took her hand softly, and spoke.

"Kotoring, if you run away now, you’ll just cause even more trouble."

"That’s…"

"You’ve got Nana-chan here now. Let her teach you, okay?"

"B-but… I don’t have any confidence I can act like that…"

As she said this, the TV reached the climactic scene: Himari’s disappearance.

『See you again, Papa』
『…Again?』
『If Papa and Mama get married, then we can meet again』
『…That’s… no, you’re right. Until then』

『Himari… Himariiiii!!』

Himari vanished, and the protagonist’s anguished cry echoed into the twilight. The scene then cut to a small apartment room where he typed at a keyboard. No staff roll, no ending theme yet. Normally, a flashback with Himari and the hero’s monologue would slot in here, but the rough cut hadn’t reached that stage.

"I… I can’t do something like this…"

Kotori-san muttered, lowering her eyes, clearly distraught. She must have meant the disappearing act. That was a technique I’d learned from Shindou-sensei. I didn’t think anyone could pull it off without training—and honestly, it wasn’t some mandatory skill for acting anyway.

"Um… you don’t actually need to know how to disappear to be an actor, you know?"

"Huh?"

"Normally they handle that kind of thing with CG, so there’s no need to force yourself to learn it."

"Huh? That wasn’t CG?"

Since it was only a rough cut, it shouldn’t have had any CG work added yet… Curious, I grabbed the remote and rewound to the disappearing scene, then stepped through frame by frame. As expected, no processing had been done yet. It just showed me slipping into the twilight and vanishing off-screen.

"Looks like they haven’t added any CG yet."

"There’s no way—absolutely no way—I could ever do something like that!!"

For some reason, Kotori-san suddenly panicked and burst into tears, wailing in a strange dialect: "Ah’m quittin’ bein’ an idol, fer real!!" Isumi-san and Momiji-san desperately tried to calm her down.

As I stood by watching Kotori-san cry in her weird dialect while the two of them tried to soothe her, Shinozaki-san entered the room accompanied by the other side’s manager.

"Nana, I’ve been looking for you."

"Why are you off on your own in a place like this?"

"Ah, well… a lot happened."

"I kept calling you, and you never answered…"

I glanced at my pouch. The light on my phone was blinking. When I checked, it was flooded with missed calls and messages from Shinozaki-san. Since I’d put it on silent while out, I hadn’t noticed.

"How many times have I told you to notify me when you move locations?"

"Sorry, but this time I really didn’t have the chance."

"Haah… anyway, let’s just go home for today. It doesn’t look like this is a situation where you can take lessons."

She shifted her gaze toward Kotori-san and the others. Kotori-san’s strange dialect had faded, but she was still crying about quitting being an idol.

"Shinozaki-san, if we pull out now, you won’t be coming back, will you?"

"This isn’t charity work. Just showing up today is enough to settle my debt with Producer Tanuki. From here on, their own agency will have to deal with it."

"I see… and what about the appearance fee?"

"Of course I’ll be collecting it. It’s clearly their side’s fault."

As I whispered with Shinozaki-san, the manager standing behind her looked pale, on the verge of collapsing with shame.

"This is what happens when you throw an inexperienced girl into a heroine role out of nowhere."

Yeah… without much training or on-set experience, playing a lead role would be rough.

At our agency, jobs only go to kids who take their lessons seriously and can perform well enough to handle a set. Even for me, I started out doing extra work after lessons. The only reason I could work steadily from age three was because, inside, I was already an adult. No director was going to demand actual acting chops from a toddler. I built experience step by step, without pressure, and before long, I was climbing up.

After seven years, anyone would become at least reasonably skilled. I really ought to thank my past self for choosing to pursue child acting back then.

"Well, we still have time. There’s no need to rush back yet."

It’d feel wrong to just take the fee without actually doing anything. And leaving Kotori-san like this would sit heavy on my conscience.

I didn’t know how much I could really help her, but… I should at least try.