Unexpected Apology

Miya awoke that morning feeling more at peace than she had in a long while. She got up with a slight smile. When she washed her face and brushed her teeth, she had a small feeling of satisfaction deep inside herself. When she put on her dress and greeted Mukashi as he stood outside of her bedroom door, her small smile had blossomed into a full grin. Even when he took her to the people who performed her skincare routine in the morning, she was still pleasant. Even when she accidentally got some skin cream in her mouth, she spat it out and laughed about it immediately afterward.
     Mukashi heard her laughing and found the sound intriguing.
     Once she was done with her facial, Mukashi started helping her set up her social media poses. The two of them went to the fourth floor and went to one of the staging rooms. There were already several employees there helping adjust props and set the stage for some of the photographs they were going to have Miya take that day. 
     Mukashi moved to start helping with the props and told Miya to sit down and wait until they were finished. However, after he'd finished setting up the set of her 'cafe table,' he saw her doing something strange. She was talking to one of the other employees, and both of them were smiling. He didn't know what to make of it for a moment.
     "Miya, it is time for your photographs." He stated calmly.
     She turned to Mukashi and nodded, then bowed towards the other employee and sat down at the 'cafe table' that had been constructed. 
     There were photographs of her sipping coffee, and boba tea, and eating small powdery treats, and generally being adorably eye-catching. 
     Mukashi watched with a discerning eye as each photograph was taken with the utmost care and precision. Her smile in each photograph was genuine; he could tell because he was close enough to discern the truth. The fact that her smile was genuine should have pleased him; it meant that he was doing an acceptable job maintaining his charge.
     However, what it made him do instead was wonder what was happening with her. 
     Miya was pleased.
     She had written a letter last night explaining how she'd felt during the last two weeks, and she was already thinking about what she wanted to write that night. She posed for all the photographs she was being forced to take for her social media with a smile on her face, and when she was forced to pout or look a little huffy for one of the photographs she chuckled a little bit about the whole affair. 
     Just as they finished taking photographs of her sitting at the cafe table, she had a fun idea for a photograph where she would lay down on the cafe table and look up at the camera while her hair flowed down; of course, her bangs would be held in place by a few wires, but that wouldn't make the photograph any less cute.
     "E-excuse me Mukashi, but could we take another photograph?" She asked politely.
     Mukashi raised an eyebrow at her and looked at the photographer, then spoke.
     "We have an extra hour; however, we cannot simply dawdle. We will proceed with the photoshoot as planned." He looked at his phone; it was eight thirty in the morning. They still had an hour before she needed to take her mandatory break, and after that there was another five hours for photo shoots. "Perhaps we will have time for it after the schedule photographs have been taken."
     "Thank you for the consideration Mukashi." She said politely. 
     Her smile didn't falter.
     Mukashi was confused.
     The two of them had a quick lunch; her smile was still there. She even tapped her foot in time with the beat of her song 'Message to Mortals;' he recognized the beat instantly. Her gentle humming helped with his identification process as well.
     There were more photographs taken after lunch, and they ended up not having enough time to perform Miya's idea; despite that fact, she simply responded with a polite bow and an acknowledgment of his hard work for her, and kept pleasantly grinning. 
     After the photographs were all taken, he and Miya hopped into her tour bus and drove away towards yet another fan meet-up. She was gently kicking her feet back and forth as the bus made its way towards the venue. Mukashi kept an eye on her and did his best to observe her behavior objectively; the last time she'd been this exhilarated had been a few weeks ago, and he was beginning to notice a strange pattern.
     Once Miya stepped off the bus and into the venue, he began consulting his notes.
     It seemed that once every two or three weeks, Miya would gain some kind of emotional high that made her happy and pleasant for a day or two, then she would slowly lose her high and revert back to her normal demeanor.
     He thought about her 'normal' demeanor for several minutes.
     Normally, she would smile slightly, and occasionally she would thank him. She did not normally talk to Zygeist Media employees without being prompted to, and she hardly ever hummed her own songs. She would frown sometimes, though her expression was usually neutral. In effect, her normal demeanor was slightly pleasant, but overall very cool. 
     These 'high spots' were odd. 
     Miracle Miya smiled at the fans that came up to her. She posed for photographs. She signed shirts and photographs and manga despite the fact that some of the stuff she was signing wasn't even official merchandise. She answered quick little questions about her company provided backstory and sung little pieces of her songs for the fans who were stuck in line to hear. She told little girls that they could be anything they wanted to be when they grew up, she told adolescent girls that they were already more beautiful than she could ever hope to be, and she told young women that they were doing very well for themselves in such a harsh world.
     She didn't know exactly what to say to the various boys in the line, and so she would just encourage them with small compliments about how nice or strong they looked, and that surprisingly did the trick for most of them. One of the adolescent boys in particular seemed to be awestruck that she would say he looked good, and she could have sworn he teared up slightly before he nodded at her and left the venue. 
     Before she knew it, the day was over and she was walking back towards her room with Mukashi. As they approached her door, she looked up at her manager and bit her lip. She still felt a little bad about yelling at him, and so when she opened her door, she stopped.
     "M-Mukashi, I just wanted to say something before I forget." She turned towards him slowly, her hand on the doorknob.
     He merely looked at her with his piercing gray eyes and nodded silently for her to speak.
     Miya inhaled deeply.
     "I-I apologize for yelling at you two weeks ago." 
     She bowed towards him deeply. While her head was still down, she spoke again.
     "I-it was... very unprofessional of me. I shouldn't have let my emotions g-get the better of me." What had started as a simple confession suddenly began to make Miya feel very sad about what she'd done. "I... I know you do a lot for me that I don't understand. S-so I want to-"
     "Stop."
     Miya blinked rapidly, and the tears that had been forming fell to the carpeted floor. She slowly stood up from her bow and looked up at Mukashi, confused.
     He wasn't looking at her. He'd turned around, his back towards her.
     "Do not apologize to me." He said curtly. "It is a waste of time."
     Miya didn't understand.
     "B-but... I must've hurt your feelings a little bit." She said softly. "I-I want to apologize for that."
     Mukashi remembered something against his will.
     "I'm sorry for teasing you yesterday, Sun-Kun. I promise I won't do it again."
     Nishiyama had apologized to him.
     He hadn't asked her to; he hadn't even told her that she'd hurt his feelings.
     She had been the only one to ever apologize to him.
     Mukashi, in all his life, had never been one to receive apologies.
     He was quiet. Reserved. Unmoving. Professional. If something happened, he would bear the brunt of it silently.
     He never complained.
     So when he heard Miya apologize to him, something very strange happened.
     Saltwater fell from his face.
     His expression didn't change; his mouth was still a solid line; his eyes were still narrowed; his posture was still rigid.
     "Sleep well." He said firmly.
     Miya watched as her manager strode away.
     She pressed her lips together. She'd apologized, and felt slightly better for it.
     Without another word, she went into her bedroom, smiling.