Shining Stars

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Pressure

Snoring filled a cramped van. Yuki, Kengo, and Nobuyuki slept in the back of the vehicle while Aqua and Mem-Cho were still awake. Mem-Cho was scrolling through her phone on twitter, looking at tweets about Love Now. Putting on a teasing smirk her eyes traveled over to Aqua.

"You sure you don't want to join in on the battle for Yuki?" If you want to become popular you'd be better off going for her than hanging out with me."

"I'm fine like this. I'll just play things safe until the show ends."

"You're not very ambitious, are you?"

Aqua rolled his eyes as he closed his eyes, he wouldn't be able to sleep, not if Mem-Cho wanted to keep blabing off like she had been for the past half hour or so.

"What about you? You're not gonna enter the mix?"

"If I can keep my role as the show's airhead and comforting personality, that's fine by me. Besides, my main goal is to grow my channel."

Turning her head, she reached over and playfully ran a finger down Aqua's left arm… the only thing she could really touch from across the row.

"But if you showed some romantic interest in me, it'd be a totally different story~"

"Don't get your hopes up."

She giggled as she shut off her phone, setting the device on her chest before she frowned and looked towards the curtain, which covered the window.

"Though it's not us I'm really worried about…"

She muttered as she slid the curtain aside to reveal Akane, who was talking with one of the producers yet again. Even from inside the van, she seemed exhausted, but she continued to write what the man told her on her notepad.

 After a moment the producer walked away. Akane bowed as thanks but after she did, she got right back to writing notes.

- - - - - -

Akane was in her agency's studio, dispute being apart of Love Now, she still had other jobs lined up, she needed to practice for that while managing school and filming, otherwise all the hard work she had put in might just crumble around her.

"Among these, within Rashomon Gate of Toji, resides Ibrahim Doji, clothing his arm and five cups of boiled chestnuts. That Famous Riako-"

Akane was silent as she read her script book, holding a rapier in her other hand. She read how she should move. Turning her attention towards her rapier, she rushed forward, as if trying to sink the rapper's blade into someone's chest, before quickly turning around as she prepared for another strike.

Stretching out her leg, to the side, as she bent forward and pressed her arms down onto the mat below her, as if she was doing a plank with them, she felt sweat run down from her hairline. She ignored her muscles flaring up in protest, she had to be as flexible as possible for her next role. She couldn't mess up on stage.

Soon she felt as if she did enough and sat up  before she moved her leg back to a more comfortable position, wiping the sweat from her forehead. 

Standing up, she started to gather up all of her equipment, it was late, and as much as she wanted to do more practice, she knew overworking her body wouldn't help her in the slightest.

Finally she went towards the door, picking up her towel from the coat rack by the door, she shut off the lights and left the room, closing the door on her way out. Akane began to make her way through her Agency's building. 

Soon, she neared her Manager's office, to tell him she was leaving for the day, the hallway was dark, there must not have been many people still working this late, but the doorway to his office was illuminated, which leaked out into the hallway.