YNoMH? (BL)

10

Chapter 10: Both For You (2)

Ugh, how was that "whatever"? We did it twice before I could go to sleep.

Kei fought to suppress the yawns that repeatedly threaten to break out of his throat as he rode in the news van on the way to conduct street interviews.

"Whoa, I'm so nervous! This is the first time I'm conducting a real street interview!"

Kei also fought to suppress his tongue from clicking at the noisy junior colleague sitting next to him.

"Kuniedsan, do you have any advice you can share?"

I want to shove a mic down his throat, Kei thought to himself, but he answered, "I'm not sure, let me think," as he made a face like he was pondering the question.

"I suggest that you pay attention to the people who you are interviewing, so that you have a good mix of men and women of all ages. It's a good idea to bypass the people who are obviously in a hurry. And if the interviewee is being too vague and it's difficult to follow-up properly, still try to avoid asking questions that will steer them to a particular direction or answer. Most importantly would be to carry yourself in the interview so that you never bias someone by letting your own feelings show. But I think you should be able to handle it in no time, Minagawkun."

"Oh, you think so?"

I'm being polite, dumbass. Why are you taking my words at face value? Be more suspicious, dammit.

Kei balled up his name-calling into a smile. "Good luck," he encouraged kindly.

However, street interviews were certainly challenging. The topic this time was the management of the government's public pension funds. They each had to ask 50 people whether they supported it, and they needed to obtain useful footage of the comments. It wasn't a rare occurrence for people to turn around and walk the other way when they spotted the camera from afar. Even after approaching someone, often they would avert their gaze and rush off without saying anything. Sometimes rookie announcers would return to the news van dejected, unable to get anyone to stop for them. But that only applied to people who didn't have the skills.

Kei completed his quota of 50 people in about 2 hours with breaks in between.

"You're amazing, Kunieda! You got a lot of good footage as usual! I wish street interviews were always this easy."

Kei suppressed the urge to tell the field director, I know, right? Instead, he said humbly, "I was lucky that there were many kind people in the area."

"I'm pretty sure you could be a foreign import auto dealer1 or an apartment salesperson and make all the sales that you want— Oh, hold on, sorry, I've got a phone call."

After a brief exchange consisting of "Really?" "Ok," and such, the location direction turned to Kei and said, "Tatsuki and his team just finished up too."

"Oh?"

"He's not bad either! He picks things up quickly, but in this case, I think it's his charm that naturally draws people to him."

"You're right, that's amazing."

That damn brat really pisses me off.

Kei was clearly surprised, and he was unable to relieve the bubbling froth that was roiling violently inside of his stomach.

That night Kei cursed over Tatsuki again, and Ushio's response was decidedly unsatisfactory.

"I'm trying to support you, but you don't like it when I'm wishy-washy with you. Anyway, isn't it much better than having him hold the team back?"