The match ended on a high note after several minutes, despite there not being many goals. Sadly, as much as I wanted to spend more time playing, I had to return to HQ. It would've been better to have prepared Ceruty's contract sooner, so as not to make her wait any longer, but it was Sunday and I didn't want to be a hypocrite by working out of working hours after pestering everyone not to do so. There also was someone more important who I couldn't make wait any longer. I stepped into the building and headed upstairs. Just like Jun's and Tomokazu's rooms, Aki's and I's was open. I entered quietly not to disturb Aki, who was kneeling on the floor, still unpacking more boxes. There were already a couple of small tables assembled since they were needed to place more stuff on so we could unpack quicker. As soon as I c

"It sounds good enough, but are you sure this is the quality you want for an album?" Aeryx asked Miki. The girls, Ms. Yoshida, Aya, and I stared at Miki, whose jaw dropped but no words came out. Even though she didn't mean to, Aeryx's menacing glare was the most threatening gaze that had been laid upon me, so I understood Miki's fear. To my surprise, he was able to recover before I had to intervene. "What do you mean by that?" asked Miki. "Exactly that," answered Aeryx. "The sound is good, but I'm suggesting you should buy better equipment now that your popularity is growing exponentially. It's alright if you can't afford it, though." I looked at Aya, expecting some kind of magical solution, but she merely looked back at me. Obviously, it was something I had to decid

We arrived with only half an hour left before the girls would be performing with Aeryx, giving them barely enough time to get changed into their new costumes and get their makeup done. They hadn't taken part in the sound check, and the song wasn't even on the setlist. The only opportunity they had to practice with Aeryx was when she came to re-record the song at HQ, and they did so for less than two hours. The girls stared down at the ceramic floor of the tunnel in silence. Not even Aeryx's voice rumbling through the walls would wake them up. I placed my hand on Umi's shoulder since she was the closest, but I couldn't tell if she was shaking, if the bass made her shake, or if it was me. There were many reasons to be nervous. None of us had come to Saitama Super Arena before and we didn't get the chance to see its hall, since we had arrived through a door at t

"Any news?" I asked Aya just as I sat at my desk. "Yes, in fact," she answered. "A TV channel invited us to their show." My head snapped toward her. "Wait, really? Did it arrive while I was gone?" She nodded. "Five minutes ago, to be exact. I'm making sure I read it properly, so I don't have much to tell you yet." "That's alright. I'll check it now as well." It took less than ten seconds for me to open the QMail app and find the qmail at the top of our company's business account inbox. I hadn't even opened it and the happiness drained from my body. The invitation was from Fame Gain, the local TV program I hated the most. Their topics were always famous people's controversies

"I'm not exaggerating when I say that the Blostars' hacking has been one of the country's most important events in recent years,” stated the polite presenter. "Not only did the hacker reveal personal information about the group, but she also revealed the most impactful secret of a president in decades. Would it be fair to say that this event boosted Blostars' fame?" "Absolutely," I answered. "The timing was also perfect as we were just releasing our first album. I'm not saying it was good that it happened. It was difficult for all of us to deal with it, especially the girls, but it would be dumb to say it didn't help in some ways." The rude presenter said, "We can imagine it was. Obviously, the biggest revelation was that Risa and Sanae are the twin daughters of an affair the ex-president had. Many things have been clarified, but there's something that the pu