Burn Very Brightly

“Aww, but Satomi-sensei, it’s doing numbers!!”

“I don’t care, I am confiscating your phone.”

“How am I supposed to make pocket money now…?”

The conversation fell on deaf ears for Naomi. All she could do was stare into space.

So this was what dread felt like.

After years of manifesting her courage to be true, believing herself to be fearless…

It’d all come crumbling down because of her… curiosity. Because of him.

Naomi didn’t really have many friends in elementary school. Yes, people adored her. But they never knew her like Riku did, or challenged her like he did.

Truthfully… Naomi felt… lonely, after she left.

Well, not exactly; the rest of the COMEDOWN girls always had her back. She could feel Bukit’s furious glare on the back of her neck right now.

But there were dimensions to one’s social needs, and Riku filled a very specific one. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what; she never had.

The price of Naomi trying to find that out was becoming apparent now. Because of her actions today, COMEDOWN’s empire could come crumbling down.

"Sato-san." Satomi-sensei, having dealt with the phone, was now staring at her. "Sit. Down. Now. No more stupid games will get in the way of class or learning."

Naomi Sato had a good read on people, over her many years of studying human expression. 

Even Satomi-sensei knew that it was a fangless threat.

The school principal would never penalize the wonderchild of COMEDOWN. The fact that he decided that for one year—it’d be worth hosting COMEDOWN’s girls—signalled that his allegiances were elsewhere.

Sunburst Entertainment’s pockets.

Naomi looked at Riku, but he was already facing forward, his shoulders set, offering her nothing. 

All he gave her was his cool expression on his stupidly perfect face.

Naomi unzipped her bag and pulled out her textbook. 

The rest of the morning passed in an agonizing blur.

\\

Despite being in the middle of autumn, the air in the Sunburst Entertainment conference room felt unbearably stuffy.

“M-Mother, before you start... I... I know I screwed up.”

Akari Sato didn't look up from her tablet.

She was the woman who had effectively moulded Naomi into Miss Kagayaki. She was the woman who could, and would, melt Naomi back down.

After all, Akari wasn't just her mother; she was AKARISAN, the '90s J-Pop idol who had burned out with a career-ending ACL injury—and even that was debatable.

Ever since Naomi committed to this career path, Akari’s praises, aplenty in Naomi's youth, had been almost entirely replaced with criticisms.

So when her mother replied with: “I should have known better than to trust an empire in the hands of my irrationally petulant daughter,” Naomi didn’t feel shocked in the slightest.

“I can’t make one mistake?” 

“No.” Akari finally looked up, her eyes like black ice. “You cannot. Perfection is the Ice Princess’s persona. It is the brand… and before you forget, forms a major part of The Script.”

Ah. Mother’s precious script.

Contained within that script is the formula that would turn Miss Kagayaki into a K-Pop star.

It chronologized how she would release her singles and albums, where she’d make public appearances…

And when she would strategically tease a romantic relationship. Tease being the keyword here. For reasons unknown to her, the relationship had yet to be revealed. In fact, this meeting was initially created for the express purpose of divulging this information.

When Mother agreed that Naomi could go finish her high school diploma at where Riku studied, it was on the condition Naomi would follow this part of The Script.

Naomi agreed with the vain thought that the sight of Riku would resolve her lingering feelings—that he was just a ghost from her past, nothing more.

With how Naomi acted earlier, that clearly hadn't been the case.

Mother Akari snapped her fingers. “Damian, display the metrics, if you will.”

Damian, the foreigner Akari kept on staff to make Sunburst look more legitimate, didn't make eye contact. 

“Yes, boss.”

Sunburst's bespoke social media metrics app lit to life on the 80-inch monitor.

The most immediate detail was a line graph that spiked violently upward.

…How was this a bad thing?

“I can tell by your expression that you think this is a good thing. It is not. There’s a reason I am your mother. You think short-term, Naomi.”

Damian, on cue, clicked a new tab. A 'Graveyard' of other stars' metrics. All plummeted into red.

“Those who enter committed relationships, though they may receive an initial uptick in interest when their relationship is announced owing to its novelty, plummet in ratings within months,” Akari said. “Shipping and romance speculation, as much of a pseudo-metric as it sounds, is a statistic we’ve found to be distractingly significant. And what this demonstrates is inarguably clear. A confirmed relationship… is a liability. An unconfirmed one is an asset.

“You are young. You are unattainable. Speculation will keep people talking about you. ‘Will they?’ ‘Won’t they?’ Because you are the Ice Princess, the thought of you being moved by anyone is unthinkable. And you, impulsive daughter that you are, just tied yourself to an irrelevant and redundant part of this grand equation.”

“So I’ll just leave the school!” Naomi cried. “I’ll go to the other school, the one you wanted instead of me. We’ll say he was someone else and—”

“It’s too late for that. In the past eight or so hours, the rogue stream has amassed half a million views. 'Kagayaki' and 'Riku' are trending. You can't run from this like you usually do.”

“Then what? What’s going to happen to the script?”

Akari smiled. It was the coldest thing Naomi had ever seen.

“There is no new script, Naomi. You have to incorporate him into the old one.”

Naomi’s blood ran cold. “What?”

“You will go to that school, and you will engage with him.”

“You want me to… to date him?” For a moment, Naomi fantasized all the ways she could make Riku submit to her.

“God, no. That’s career suicide.” Akari turned back to her. “You will do something much harder.”

Naomi gulped.

“You will get close to him. You will be seen with him. You will simultaneously fuel the shipping, while letting him, and the world, know that you are hopelessly, tragically, above him.” Akari leaned in. “You will let him go, publicly, over and over, until he is nothing but a footnote in your story.”

…

What?

“I can’t… I can’t do that to him. Mom, that’s cruel.”

“It’s either you or him. And I’d rather it be one boy than to risk the many livelihoods that depend on your success.”

Naomi winced. 

That's right. If COMEDOWN falls, so will Sunburst Entertainment’s workers’ rights, which she worked so hard to advocate for. Sunburst was called an anomaly in the K-Pop industry for a reason.

The only reason why they kept their wages was due to the sheer profitability of COMEDOWN. If she decreased in profitability like what those graphs indicated, they would vanish into the ether.

But even still… “That would make me the betrayer…”

…Again.

Akari scoffed. “You should have thought of that before you grabbed Riku's face.”

Naomi was shaking. Her music… choreography… 

Riku…

“And if I don’t?” she whispered.

Three rapid knocks came from outside the conference doors.

Akari sighed. “Do I have to spell it out? You would have to drop from COMEDOWN.”

Naomi felt her heart stop.

“For seven years, I’ve given my all into Kagayaki…” Naomi said listlessly. “You’d throw it all away?”

“As opposed to the decades of damage you’d cause if you stuck to this path? There wouldn’t be a COMEDOWN to speak of.” Akari picked up her tablet and walked to the door. “It’s not so bad. You’ll get a golden parachute by getting to work in Sunburst’s administration. After you announce that you had to sit out due to burnout, of course. There is no shame in becoming part of the engine that keeps the K-Pop industry booming with talent.”

But Naomi needed the public’s eye. If they take it away, what was her worth to anyone?

…Let alone Riku?

Mother soon opened the door. In stepped a boy who seemed to have walked out of a shojo harem anime, judging by his choice of attire.

“You rang?” he said suavely.

“I loathe your pathetic attempts at asserting cordiality.”

“Yyyyyeesh, tough crowd,” he sighed. Then, just as quickly as he entered, he flashed a shit-eating grin. “Well, I always liked the challenge of getting you to actually view me as more than a yen sign.”

“Mom? W-What’s the lead member of STRIVEEE doing here?” Naomi squeaked.

“You haven’t caught on yet?” the boy questioned.

It was important to know that while his name was Watanabe Yuuji, he prefers to call himself The One. And one thing to know about Yuuji was that he can be a very loud and rambunctious guy with very loud and rambunctious schemes. He loathes peace and quiet and loves competition.

The dots started connecting in Naomi’s head. And when they did…