"Cheers!" ×2
Akira and Rin gently clinked their glasses, smiling at each other before taking a drink.
Half a month had passed since the release of 'Snow Flower,' and sales had successfully surpassed one million, making it another hit single.
With this, 『Tsukirin』 officially stepped into the status of an A-list artist group.
Naturally, Being Company held another celebration for them, but this time Daiko didn't come, so the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed.
However, after that, he and Rin held another private celebration just for the two of them.
Their private celebration was not only to celebrate the million-seller success of 'Snow Flower,' but also to celebrate Rin's time off.
On the night this week's shōsei results were announced, the third variety show Rin participated in was also officially broadcast.
And after this, besides recording albums, she likely wouldn't have any other work for the rest of the year.
In other words, Rin had basically entered vacation mode for the year.
"Must be nice."
Akira said with some envy, "I wish I could take a vacation too."
"What are you talking about?"
Hearing this, Rin gave him a look between laughter and tears. "It's not like you're usually that busy."
"That's different."
He defended himself plausibly, "Even though my weekly working hours aren't many right now, there's still a big difference between that and being completely on vacation, right?"
"—"
Rin pondered for a moment and felt that it did seem to make some sense.
"That's true."
"But, I remember Shonen Jump has two consecutive double issues during the New Year. You'll have a real vacation then, won't you?"
"Well, yeah."
However, at the mention of this topic, Akira didn't seem very happy. Instead, he sighed with a complex tone, "It's almost New Year's—"
While having a New Year's break was comfortable, the situation was a bit complicated for him.
The main issue was that for this New Year's break, he would have to go back to his hometown and meet the Original's parents.
He had previously spoken to the Original's mother over the phone, and after that conversation, he had somewhat come to terms with it, planning to take things as they come.
But at the thought of meeting them in reality soon, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.
This feeling wasn't like meeting biological parents he'd never seen before, but rather like the feeling of meeting one's parents-in-law for the first time.
Of course, he had never met parents-in-law in his previous life, so it was hard to say if the feeling was the same.
As for meeting biological parents he'd never seen before, he hadn't experienced that either.
Hmm—
Wait, why does this feel a bit weird?
On the other side, noticing Akira's strange reaction, Rin asked with concern, "What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
"—It's nothing, I just suddenly thought of something else."
Akira smiled and brushed it off, naturally changing the subject. "Speaking of which, something interesting happened two days ago—"
He was talking about the conversation he had with Mr. Sasaki regarding manga sales on the day this week's shōsei results were announced.
That conversation was essentially just a misunderstanding, and since they had already cleared it up at the time, he could now use it as an interesting topic of conversation.
After listening, Rin's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "So that actually happened?"
However, putting herself in his shoes for a moment, she could understand the pressure Mr. Sasaki was facing. She sighed, "Mr. Sasaki really has it hard."
She felt that the cause of Mr. Sasaki's pressure lay not only in the excellent results Akira achieved in the music field, but also in Akira's own abnormality.
Besides his drawing skills, which were already abnormally strong, his creative talent was even more inhuman.
Manga, light novels, music—
In three completely different fields, Akira was actually able to create very excellent works. Such creative talent could only be described as terrifying.
It was conceivable that when facing such a genius who far exceeded ordinary people, even an experienced editor like Mr. Sasaki probably had no prior case studies for dealing with such a person.
When managing Akira, much of the experience he had accumulated in the past was actually useless.
So he had to start learning again like a newcomer, needing to explore a new model for getting along well with Akira and being able to solve problems for him.
And this time, he couldn't even get useful advice from his seniors like he did when he was actually a rookie editor.
Because the seniors likely wouldn't have any experience either.
"Hiss—"
After listening to Rin's analysis, Akira suddenly realized it was true.
It seemed that he had indeed caused Mr. Sasaki a lot of trouble without realizing it.
Seeing this, Rin worried he might blame himself too much, so she added with a light smile, "However, I think for Mr. Sasaki, this is probably a happy kind of trouble, right?"
Although these words were for his comfort, they were also what she believed to be the truth.
After all, being able to discover a genius who far exceeds ordinary people like Akira and work with him was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the vast majority of people.
In comparison, a little trouble encountered in the process was actually nothing.
"Perhaps."
Akira was noncommittal about Rin's statement, only smiling as he said, "But for me, if I held that kind of thought, it would feel a bit strange."
If one only looked at interests, then even though Mr. Sasaki had helped him a lot, the returns he could bring to the other party now and in the future would be far greater.
In that case, there was actually no need for him to thank the other party; he could just take all the services provided for granted.
But such a thought was far too cold and arrogant, and too lacking in human touch.
Perhaps there were indeed people in the world who believed in such thinking and acted upon it, and perhaps such people found it easier to succeed.
But even so, he still didn't like it and wasn't willing to become that kind of person.
At the same time, although Akira didn't give much of an explanation, Rin felt she understood his thoughts.
So she couldn't help but curl the corner of her mouth slightly, apologizing with a smile, "I'm sorry, that was a slip of the tongue on my part."
Mochizuki-kun really is a very gentle person.
And this gentleness was also one of the reasons she was able to fall for him.
And every time her understanding of Akira deepened a bit more, Rin became even more certain that she had indeed fallen for the right person.
"It's fine."
On the other side, Akira smiled and waved his hand dismissively.
He also understood that Rin's previous statement was only meant to comfort him.
And this gentle and delicate consideration of hers was also something he liked very much.
Oh no, I'm really starting to fall for her, what should I do?