YNoMH? (BL)

28

Chapter 28: Where Home Is (4)

"—The next award is for Outstanding Doc.u.mentary Special. The recipients are Asahi TV's The Foster Care System Today directed by Azuma Shinji, Towa TV News Division's The Day Zoos Disappear directed by Kaneko Yumi, and JipanguTV's Strait Distance directed by Urasawa Taichi."

The directors sitting on stage stood up to make their way to the front and center to accept their certificates and plaques from the Chairman of the Commercial Broadcasters Committee. The process had repeated itself continuously over the course of the night. It was essentially an awards distribution ceremony: everyone was notified of their awards prior to the evening—only honorees were invited, and there was no tension or delight in the room. The ceremony progressed without much fuss (Kei wouldn't want any anyway), which was fine, but the spa.r.s.e claps around the room were a little sad to say the least. Silence would probably be better. The venue was filled with board members and high-level executives from each of the networks, their a.s.sociated production companies, and sponsors—general staff would likely have no interest in the event. It was an atmosphere where no one hid the fact they were basically here to exchange business cards, share the latest news and gossip, and catch up with people around the industry. It was like everyone on stage, including Kei, was a boring TV program playing in the background. All that people really noticed was that something of some sort was going on at the stage.

Ahhhh, this is why I didn't want to do this.

Most of the people had their backs to the stage. Sometimes the network president would smile at Kei and wave at him.

...Ugh, more importantly, I'm freaking starving.

Kei smoothly read the winners of the award for Outstanding News Commentary as he watched the dinner buffet spread from the corner of his eye.

G.o.d, that looks good. I wanna eat. I wish I could turn invisible and eat my way through the entire table.

Kei was of course doing his job seriously, but the obvious lack of interest from the room severely dampened his concentration. Everyone was from the industry, and so no one sent him heated looks either (though it would aggravate him if it did happen).

............Good G.o.d, people!! Quit your chattering and eat!

It angered Kei that people would rather swarm around each other than to pay attention to him, but it p.i.s.sed him off also that they took no notice of the scrumptious feast before their very eyes.

I mean, look at all that roast beef and nigiri sushi for the taking. At a normal party, it'd be demolished in 3 seconds. Instead, people have barely touched any of it, so the fish is going dry and the beef is wilting. What kind of blasphemy is this? Hmm, it could be a social inequality doc.u.mentary with just 15 minutes of footage of this abomination.

Kei unconsciously imagined an all-out attack on the sushi counter with mosaics censoring out people's faces.

Salmon roe, fatty tuna, seared salmon. Salmon roe, fatty tuna, seared salmon. I could probably eat 6 sets of those.

The next award is for Outstanding Seared Radio Commercial—c.r.a.p, no.

Kei chased the sushi lane out of his head and projected his voice further out.

"The next award is for Outstanding Radio Commercial—"

"Sorry, Kunieda, change in plans." The operations director suddenly came from the stage wing and pushed a notecard at him. Kei glanced through the instructions on the card, nodded his head slightly, and returned to face the audience.