Love Under The Spotlight | Oshi no Ko [Hoshino Aqua x OC]

Chapter 30

Aqua was sitting on his designated chair, watching the artistic director frantically and nervously typing on his phone. He had heard of this kind of happenings, that anything could occur on a set but did not expect it to happen to him. The entire staff, from the stylists to the technical monitors, has been put on standby, and the shooting on hold and delayed for an undetermined amount of time.

Aqua's career has been thriving for the last few months. Being a host in Dig Deep helped establish him as a public figure and the many magazine covers he had done also strengthened his influence. Today, again, he had been called to cover for one of the famous youth fashion magazines. He was supposed to share it with a rising model in the industry but she still had not arrived. It's been twenty minutes already.

"You've got to be kidding me!" The artistic director exclaimed then anxiously ruffled his hair. "Alright, Aqua, I'm sorry for the delay. Haruka got food poisoning so she won't be able to attend today's shoot."

As soon as the words left his mouth, mutters arose across the set. All knew that it was nowhere near Haruka's fault, but canceling the photoshoot would be a huge loss of money. The issue could be turned into a solo cover but since it was a special issue aiming at normalizing male and female celebrities collaboration, it wouldn't make much sense. And since Aqua's schedule was already quite full, it would not be easy to reschedule this photoshoot and it was imperative to get Aqua now, in a moment where his career was on top.

"What do we do then?" An assistant asked. "We cannot make this issue without a female counterpart."

"I know..."

"Wait, I might have an idea," the photographer said as he took his phone out, dialed a number, and brought the device to his ear. "Hi, love. Sorry to call out of the blue, but I'm on a photoshoot and we're in a bit of a mess right now... yeah, it's a duo cover and our female model can't make it, I was wondering if- seriously? Love, you're the absolute best! Yeah, I text you the address! I'll repay you the kindness for sure! See you in a bit!" The photographer quickly typed on his phone with a blissful smile. "I got another model, she'll be there in thirty minutes."

It was a reassuring thought that a backup model was found and that the production was not shut down. The staff were visibly growing more relieved by the seconds. It had always been announced on social media that this would be a special edition and it garnered quite the excitement from people. The cover celebrities were still kept secret but a lot of attention was directed to this issue.

To kill time waiting for the backup model, Aqua took out his phone and opened Twitter. It was with no surprise that the first tweet he saw was about Opal. Diamond Entertainment's official account announced the formation of a new, exclusive group, and Aqua had to admit, he was indeed shocked seeing it would be a co-ed group, meaning a mixed group composed of Zodiacs' Leo, Super Nova's Luke, and Opal. Naturally, Twitter was all over the place. It had to be expected that Diamond Entertainment would eventually create a super band. It was something done for eons, to assemble a team made up of the most popular singers on the same label. However, usually, the members were the same sex. So this new supergroup, TrIII, was all the more unprecedented.

TrIII was expected to release a debut album soon and to immediately embark on a world tour. It was quite impressive and would be a first for each member of TrIII since neither left the country for a tour but since their assemble gathered three of the biggest fanbase in the J-Pop world, it was easily doable. However, it inevitably created a controversy. Most were thrilled that their favorite idols were joining forces and forming a supergroup together, but a hashtag was also trending asking for Opal to be removed from the group. Some were against the idea, fearing that TrIII would be prioritized over the existing groups and careers, or simply because it was a co-ed group. Though, Aqua was certain it would lead to nothing. If Mr. Yamamoto was bold enough to even go forth with this idea, he must be confident in it and would not back off.