Ping∼ pong∼
The automatic door slides open. Walking out with a big plastic bags, Sayori walks straight home from the super market. She couldn’t help but smile as she looks at her groceries. Bacon was on sale, it was really cheap. As she thinks about the amount of money she save, her smile gets brighter. ‘It’s my lucky day,’ she thought.
As she gets home, she went to the kitchen. Wearing a turquoise frilly apron she arranged the ingredients on the table. A bag of potatoes, six packs of bacon, cilantro, chives, oregano, and parsley all in bundles. She washed the potatoes and herbs. Peel and cut the potatoes in blocks shape then boiled them.
A chopping sounds could be heard as she chop the herbs until they’re fine. She put the herbs in a small bowl, then search for the aluminum foil. She search and found an aluminum pan and an aluminum foil. Looking at the two, she’s quite confuse which one to use. The she decided to use the foil for the food and the pan as a mold so the outcome will be pleasant to the eyes.
Opening four packs, she made two weave out of the bacon. Spray some olive oil on the foil then put them in the pan, she carefully put one weave in. she makes sure the edge was covered in bacon.
Looking at the time she check the potatoes. The potatoes were already soft so she just put them to cool down. Searching for mayonnaise and mustard in the fridge. She mix them in a heated pot with some oil, then mix some cream to thicken them. The herbs was also put in.
She stack the potatoes in the weave, then pour some sauce, and another potatoes and sauce making layers. Then closed the top with aluminum foil. Then put the pan and weaved bacon to the fridge.
Looking at the calendar, tomorrow will be the day of the appointment. She opened a door to a bright humid room. In the middle of the room was a bucket of roses. What different about the roses was that from the tip of the petals was colored blue to white.
It took Sayori two weeks to make a bunch of white roses to blue roses. She filled the bucket with dark blue colored water and make sure the temperature and humidity of the room perfect to cultivate the roses. She always checked how the roses were everyday so nothing will make them wilt and the color spread to blue.
After making sure they were okay she went out. She then went to take a bath carrying a pink bottle with her. Then pouring the pink liquid from the bottle to the tub and filled it with hot water. Taking a shower, she thoroughly washed her hair. Making sure it was clean and silky black until an angle’s halo could be seen. She then soak herself in the tub.
After finishing her bath and cleaning up, she went to her room. Beside her bed was two bags. Inside was a white dress she just bought and a pair of wedge that match the dress. She hanged the dress and put the wedge under the dress.
Staring at her face in the mirror. Her face from a cold expression reveals a sweet smile. She took a small bottle next to the mirror. Spread some of the content to her face. Then using a facial treatment, she then went to sleep early expecting tomorrow will come sooner.
♢♢♢
In a studio that’s filled with music studio, the light recording was on. Three people was listening seriously to the man in the recording room. He has an androgynous looks, and with his hair style no one could guess his gender at a glance. Slender body with heights around 170 cm. wearing a loose beige sweater with black pants and shoes. Singing with voice belongs to neither man nor woman could be heard from the recording room.
After done recording, the man went out of the room. He sat at the chair next to the door with a serious expression, looks at the engineer to play the mixing and listen if there’s any mistakes. Only when it’s done playing did he smiled and stand. He then bowed to the people in the room and said.
“Thanks for the hard work everyone.”
Everyone smiled and said the same thing and waved the man good bye.
“Good work.”
“Good work, be careful on your way home.”
“Thanks producer, good bye everyone.”
The man bid good bye to everyone and went out followed by a man. The man following him took out a small binder. Looking at the schedule inside, he said.
“Aoi-kun, there are no more jobs scheduled for today, so we’ll take you home.”
This man is the popular singer with dual voice, Yamazaki Aoi. He’s always in the top thirty rank of the voice women loved to hear. The man following him was his manager, Aikawa Minoru. While wearing a black mask he asked.
“Thanks Minoru-san. What’s the schedule for tomorrow?”
“You need to arrive at the office at 9 morning tomorrow and an interview at 9 in the office while we’re at it. Last will be briefing for the radio show at 2 with the guest. A novelist and they’re also going to promote their books. That’s all for tomorrow. The mastering will be done two days from today, so we’re going back to the studio next week.”
When they went out from the building there’s a white van parked near the building outside. Aoi went in to the passenger seat while Minoru went to the driver seat, and the van drive away. They drive smoothly through the road. Even with the smooth traffic it was still a long way from Aoi’s apartment. Inside the van bored by the quietness, Aoi started a small pep talk. He asked about the novelist guest.
“Minoru-san, it’s about the novelist. What is it they specialist in? Do I know some of their works? Is there something I need to know about them? I don’t want to make a mistake and offend them tomorrow.”
Looking at the man next to him who asked in a carefree attitude while watching the road absent mindlessly, Minoru thought about something and a small smile appeared on his lips. He told the man in beige sitting next to him.
“The author’s a woman specialize in romance genre, sometimes she also writes BL. Really popular, of course with fujoshis and fudanshis. She once showed for a radio program and promote a BL she wrote. It became an instant news on the internet and her books sells like hot cakes. Especially the ones she promoted on the show.”
When Aoi hears that the showed a surprise expression. Minoru knows what Aoi thinking about so he let the guy knows.
“Relax. The book she’s promoting isn’t BL but romance this time.”
Hearing that Aoi relax. He really don’t know how to talk about boy-love. Even though he sometimes works with the genre, he doesn’t know much about it. All he knows was that it’s about romance between men and that’s it.
“Then anything else? Oh, do I know any of her works?”
“[Late Night Message] was one of hers. That’s a best seller. Popular with all ages. Try reading that if you have time.”
“Noted.”
“They don’t published her profile or age. Only the people that need to meet her for work know how she looks like. The only info about her was her pen name and genre.”
Aoi began thinking about what kind of person was the novelist guest. A person that writes for living must be dedicated to the literature world. Did not spread their profile, keeping them mysterious for publicity or they don’t have confidence in their looks. Sometimes there are cases where people read or buy the books because the writers have good looks not because of their story.
Having that good looks also help them earn some extra money. Most of the times as models or being a guest in a show. But that could also be an opportunity to promoting their books and get fans. If their looks could get them to increase their fans, it could also increase their books sell.
The van arrived at a white building. They stopped in front of the building. Reaching to the back seat and taking a canvas amethyst tote bag, Aoi get out of the car. Just as he want to say good bye Minoru said something.
“Well, se…”
“The novelist is also a fan of yours. Dress nicely for tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at 8 morning. See you tomorrow. Bye.”
After saying what he wanted, with a smiling face Minoru drive away leaving the speechless Aoi on the spot.
“Eh!? You could have told me sooner. Jeez… ”
Even though he was mumbling his dissatisfaction, a smile still surface on his face.
That piece of information alone makes Aoi happy and excited. Knowing that the other was a fan makes things easier. In his job fans are one of the people he needs to please. Without them he has no solid ground on the entertainment industries.
All he needs to do tomorrow is only being nice, polite, and cheerful. In other words himself minus the seriousness when working and keeping some distance. It will be terrible if because of his action the other party misunderstand.
He went inside the building. Placing a blue card at the scanner near the door. The only way to enter the building was with the card access. Since Minoru was Aoi’s manager he also has one and a key to his apartment.
Using the lift to the sixth floor. The third door on the floor was his apartment. He opened the door, went in then lock it. Putting his shoes to the shoe shelf and wearing his sleepers, he walk to the living room.
The apartment here could only be bought not rent. Once the deals been made and sealed, the owner could do whatever they with the room. Each apartment’s size could be considered normal from outsiders perspective, the difference is only the interior. It’s rare to went into every room in the buildings and found a similar one.
Aoi has been renovated his to be in a modern style. The walls was dominated in ivory and a little bit of leaves could be seen drawn at the bottom. Dark wooden smooth floor, which makes the room looks brighter.
Aoi put his bag to the light grey sofa. He went to the kitchen, took a bottle of cool water and a box chicken salad from the fridge. Sitting on the sofa and eating the salad, Aoi search on his phone about the novelist. He types ‘Late Night’s Message’, and less than one second the result that appears was news about how the selling of the book and the name ‘Arata Kai’.
Out of curiosity, he tried writing the author’s pen name. What appears was many reviews about the books from the well-known to the least known one. Some BL sites even appeared. Apparently the novels has some manga made from them and fan fiction doujinshi ones.
He tried one of the sites. Out of luck, it’s the author’s original website before debuting but he didn’t know. He tried to read a book from this site. This will cause a huge blow to Sayori in the future as she regret not shutting down the site.
He pick the first tittle he saw,『Blue Dress』. He began reading while moving his left hand which was holding the fork back and forth from his salad to his mouth. It takes forty five minutes for him to finish.
He thinks that the stories are interesting, unfortunately the ending was anticlimactic so he’s not sure how to rate it. But even with that anyone could see the potential of the writers. With a help from the editorial department they have a future in the literature world.
The date indicate that it was written six years ago. That mean the story was her most early work. Thinking about the person that makes a story this interesting before her debut, Aoi began wondering what kinds of person she is.
Aoi drank some water. He put his fork in his mouth. Get up from the sofa, bringing his empty box and bottle to the kitchen with a fork dangling in his mouth. He washed the box, bottle, and fork in the sink.
He took his phone and check on today’s entertainment top news while walking to his room. Throwing his phone to the violet queen bed, Aoi took a change of clothes with him. He went to take a quick shower. Getting out of the bathroom wearing a loose grey long sleeved blouse with black comfy pants, while with one hand using a towel drying his wet hair. Every vibe of him exude a sexy aura. Gone the androgynous, only a sexy man that could make every women that looks at him turn flushed red.
Aoi looks at the time a minute past midnight. Throwing the towel to the basket near the sink, brushing his teeth at the same time. Closing the door to the bathroom, he slide into his bed. Remembering the story that he just read a smile pop up. His curiosity about ‘Arata Kai’ shoots up. Imagining what kind of person ‘Arata Kai’ was, he close his eyes and went to sleep.
Amatuer Writer 
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