ConnectTanaka Reina was annoyed.
The folder she had brought into the meeting lay where she had tossed it upon entering the room, halfway across the low coffee table in front of her. It had only been brought to a stop after hitting the basket of flowers in the middle, sending the floral arrangement into disarray.
Reina was not quite sulking as she stared balefully through her sunglasses. She was fuming, which was a step down from utterly furious. Her temper had not improved with age; it had only become more focused, more
intense. She might be less likely to throw a tantrum now, but she definitely knew how to hold a grudge.
If strangling her long-time partner were an option now, Reina might have taken it. While she got along just fine with Sayu most days, there were times when she would have gleefully stabbed the woman using the shards of her own mirror.
The meeting earlier had truly tested her patience. Reina knew Sayu meant well when she suggested that she took a break, but Reina could not help but feel incredibly offended nonetheless. Yes, PLAY was on hiatus, but they still had their own activities.
Well, Sayu was the more busy of the two, given that she was a regular on many shows. Reina had fewer appearances compared to the evil bunny, but she had never begrudged Sayu that attention. After all, everyone knew who the
real talent behind PLAY was. Reina knew she was the vocal backbone of their group, and Eri had been right there beside her. Sayu was pretty much the third wheel talent-wise, but she
did bring a vivacious personality with her into the mix.
Other than that though, Reina didn't get it. Why was Sayu doing better than she was now that PLAY was on a break? It kinda pissed her off. PLAY was her baby, in a sense. She had asked Sayu to tag along out of family feeling, but she was regretting that right now.
Not many people knew Tanaka Reina and Michishige Sayumi were actually related, and Reina preferred to keep it that way. They were only second cousins, and would never have reconnected had Reina not transferred to a different junior high school back then.
While revealing the connection might be good PR now, it certainly wouldn't really have been beneficial back then. Not that Reina was interested in acknowledging her narcissistic cousin in public any time soon, at least not until she got over the whole being angry thing.
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and the cat-like (former) idol jerked sharply. Did the handle of the door move? But the door was not being opened. Reina prided herself on having keen senses. She knew she had seen something.
Then again, she was in the higher floors of the building, and unless a stalker miraculously made their way past security at the bottom, she doubted anyone with ulterior motives would be lurking out there. Unless she was getting punk'd, which would be a refreshing change. Either way, it would not be life-threatening, so she relaxed.
A moment later, the door
did creak open. Hesitantly. Reina raised an eyebrow. Sayu would not do that. Neither would her manager. Maybe one of the juniors, but they didn't necessarily know that she was in here, so there was no reason for the excessive caution.
A tiny head, followed by an equally tiny figure, slipped in with a hushed "
shitsureshimasu". Reina did not move, confident that her studying gaze was being hidden behind her huge shades. The stranger was...small. Smaller than her. That was rare.
Then again, the girl
was a kid. Just another brat. Reina mentally dismissed the entry. Probably just another newbie. She could barely keep track of all the brats running around the building like they owned the place. If she recognized the irony of that thought, she chose not to acknowledge it.
The kid was not going away. Reina noticed this a few minutes later after glancing up from her phone. She had pulled it out to distract herself earlier. Granted, this was not exactly a private lounge. Anyone from staff to artistes could use this area. Still, having the kid primly take a seat directly across from her and then
do nothing in eerie silence was somehow unsettling.
That and the kid was watching her. Reina could feel it. It wasn't obvious, she had to give the brat some credit. With her hands folded neatly on her lap, the kid looked like the perfect little girl. She did not look lost either, so Reina couldn't just send her away on the pretext of 'helping' her to find her way.
"Was there something?" Reina asked testily, finally breaking the enforced silence after another few awkward minutes. The kid, to her credit, did not visibly flinch. Most newbies were a lot jumpier around her. Reina wondered why. She didn't bite...much.
The girl did not quite leap to her feet, but she got up pretty fast. Bowing at the precisely correct angle, the girl looked straight at her (but not in the eye, that would be rude -- assuming she could have seen her eyes through the shades) and spoke.
"It's an honour to finally meet you, Tanaka-san." She did not fawn. She did not sound like she was going to faint. Every word came out precisely, almost rehearsed, but not quite. There
was a ring of sincerity to them, so they did not sound false. It was deferent and it was respectful.
In short, it did not ruffle Reina's feathers. She leaned back into her seat, barely raising her head to acknowledge the greeting.
"I am new to the business and I hope to be able to learn from you in the future, Tanaka-san." Another small bow. Reina barely nodded. At least the brat knew her manners. Even if she sounded kind of like a robot. Reina turned her attention back to her phone. The kid wasn't worth her time.
Pause. A tiny hiccup of silence as the runt obviously wondered what else to say. Reina couldn't help the small smirk that curved her lips, but the downward angle of her head kept it from being too obvious. She had to give the kid credit for maintaining her cool and not showing any nervousness. That was promising at least.
"I'll leave you to your work then. Pardon me if I've disturbed you." Another bow. Reina liked how polite she was, but the constant bowing was a little, well, she didn't know what to think. On one hand, she was flattered. On the other, she had the feeling that the kid was prodding her with a figurative ten-foot pole of formality. It left her wondering if she should be annoyed.
Before the kid could vanish entirely though, the door opened again. An all-too-familiar balding head poked into the room, the wire-rimmed glasses slipping down the too-big nose that Reina always had to suppress the urge to press. Repeatedly. Or poke something, preferably sharp and pointy, into.
Don't ask her why. Impulses are hard to explain.
"Ah there you are Tanaka." The slightly pudgy man slipped into the room, his suit immaculate as always. "Moriya-san told me you were still around the area."
"What the hell do you want, old man?" Reina affected a lazy drawl, but she was smiling. Annoying as the man could be at times, she was still quite fond of him. He was her first manager when she started out in the industry, and without his fussy correctness she would have made many missteps early on. Granted, she still made some of them, but he always minimized the damage.
Sasaki Hiro might be a little absent-minded and fussier than a nanny, but he was reliable in a pinch, and one of the few people Reina knew in this line of business who always played fair. She respected him, despite her irreverent manner.
"There was something...ah." He seemed to finally take note of the third person in the room. He glanced back down at his file, then back up, before beaming.
"You must be Takahashi Riho-chan, yes?" He stepped closer to her. "I'm Sasaki Hiro, your soon-to-be manager, of sorts. Well, I just take care of all the new kids, until you're ready to debut."
Riho blinked at him, but managed to reply. "Nice to meet you..."
Sasaki chuckled. "Sorry if I'm a little abrupt, we're supposed to meet at a later date, officially. Not that it really matters either way, but protocol must be observed, as I keep trying to teach a certain person..."
"Sasaki, I'm still here." Reina growled. Riho managed to not giggle, but she had to move her hand to hide her smile. Reina caught the motion and scowled, and the kid quickly put on a blank expression. Despite herself, Reina felt slightly impressed, though she kept the scowl on for good measure.
"Yes Tanaka, as if I could forget." Sasaki was the picture of calm, even when dealing with a bratty Reina back in the day. It is now 10 years since then, but some things never change.
"But it's good that you're both here right now, so it just saves me the trouble of arranging a meeting." Sasaki breezed on as if nothing had stopped him to begin with. He had a remarkable singlemindedness at times.
"Oh?" Reina moved her shades down, peering suspiciously over the rims. She could not imagine why she would need to meet some new kid, unless they had to work together or something. But this brat had not even made her debut yet, so why...
"I was talking it over with Moriya-san earlier, and she agrees with me." He pinned Reina with a firm look. "You need a new challenge Tanaka. You're getting too comfortable."
"What?" To her credit, Reina managed to not sound shrill. The nails of her left hand were digging into the fabric of the sofa. Riho looked on with slight amusement, though she knew better than to let it show.
"You seem a little jaded lately. Moriya-san thinks you need something fresh to work with, and I had the perfect solution." The man looked entirely too pleased. Reina looked like she was going to shred the sofa with her bare hands.
"So I would like to formally introduce you to your new kouhai, Takahashi Riho, who will be shadowing you for a time before she is ready to debut." The normally harmless-seeming man could not have looked more shark-like if he had tried.
"What."
The normally eloquent Reina had no words. Riho, for her part, looked even more boggled than when she had first received her acceptance letter in the mail. There was just the merest hint of terror as she sneaked a peek at the flabbergasted Reina. Both were speechless.
What, indeed.
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So I deliberately left the AiSayu talk for another time.
Can you imagine Sayu's reaction if she found out that Reina got Riho and not her?
I look forward to that moment.
Hurhur. My head hurts. Bedtime!
Topic: 私のアホ家族(My Stupid Family)[24/6 - Chapter 25: A Series of Unfortunate Events] (Read 93678 times)