Endtroducing

The night before…

Naomi broke out in a cold sweat, it seemed, judging by the fact her forehead was clammy.

She looked around her environment. Yumi was gone. Honestly, she was glad. If Yumi had observed her facial expressions throughout that phone call, she would have booked a therapist for her by now.

“So how did the call go?”

She turned around.

The other three members of COMEDOWN were in the doorway, in various states of sleepiness.

“God… Did I wake you guys up?”

“Nah, we stayed up late playing Slamdunkin’! Except Mi-Cha, of course,” Izumi cheerfully replied. Ah, that fighting game everyone was raving about. “Tomorrow’s Saturday, anyway… izz’fine.”

“O-Of course…”

“Rather than beat around the bush, let’s cut straight to the heart of the issue,” Bukit helpfully intervened. “If Riku is coming here… regardless of any notion of ‘fairness’… the game would still be seen as rigged from the start.”

Brrrr. Bukit’s voice, being a low contralto, really accentuated her sentences in a way that made Naomi uncomfortable.

Bukit, in one word, was pragmatic. She understood the cost of most things better than even Naomi could. After all, it wasn’t every day someone from Southeast Asia got to join an all-star K-Pop roster.

But Naomi was sure Bukit couldn’t read minds. “How did you…?”

“I heard your side of the call, obviously,” Bukit said. “You’re offering him our studio time?”

“I have to,” Naomi said, wiping her palms. “If we don't help, we'll be seen as bullies.”

“You are aware Sunburst doesn’t have the best cybersecurity out there, right?” Bukit ventured.

“Yeah…” Naomi sighed. “Those poor fans’ emails got leaked...”

“Then you know malicious actors will weaponize this if they dig into the details and your role in all this. If it gets out that you went to his house to offer help... what about the rest of us who’ve been hung out to dry? It wouldn’t just be you in the can, even though it was your decision.” Bukit yawned like she didn’t even notice the sheer intensity she projected.

“Awwwww, is Bukit giving you a hard time again?”

Bukit groaned. “Izumi…”

Naomi smiled. Izumi to the rescue, as always.

“I, for one, would like to think our fans would understand even if it did get leaked.” Izumi was such a ball of energy, you wouldn’t think it was fifteen minutes past midnight. As expected for the main creative force behind COMEDOWN’s choreography. “It’d prove love isn’t dead! That it can penetrate even through the iciest of hearts!”

Naomi’s eyes rolled. “Is that what you really think of me?”

“You have been reading way too many romantasies, girl,” Bukit grumbled.

“Does it hurt now and again to think life could be as idyllic as a romance novel?” Izumi swooned. “I mean, this is so exciting! We have the mysterious, brooding childhood friend... and we have their charming rival! Yuuji, the delinquent charmer…”

Izumi suddenly leaned in.

“Yuuji smells even better when he’s awake.”

“What??” Bukit cried out.

“W-Well,” a new voice stammered, “I-I think you should go... b-but maybe we should... film it?”

All three girls, plus Yumi (who had reappeared), slowly turned toward the last piece of the COMEDOWN puzzle.

At first, Naomi didn’t know what to make of the nervous fuzzball known as Mi-Cha. To put it into little words, she was a nepo baby. As in, the daughter of a Sunburst board member nepo baby. Multiple times, when Naomi thought Mi-Cha had finally quit after the first three panic attacks, she’d keep coming back to rehearse. What drove Mi-Cha? Argh, a very loaded question for another time.

Bukit raised her eyebrow. “I thought you were too sleepy to play Slamdunkin’—”

“I-I am a very light sleeper. And you guys were causing s-such a ruckus.”

“She needs complete silence in order to sleep since she was pampered as a child," Naomi deadpanned.

“W-Well, as if you were wanting for life’s finer things too!”

“Hey, you said so yourself, not me.”

“You know what?” Izumi clapped her hands together once, the sound sharp. “I think Mica makes perfect sense.”

Mi-Cha bristled. “S-Stop calling me M-Mica!!—wait, I do?”

“Of course! It can’t be leaked if we film it all in the first place. It’d be content and can act as evidence to everyone, especially your mom, that you are just there to even the scales; that’s all! We don't wait for some fan to post a blurry photo and drive false speculation. We have Yumi go with you and film it professionally.”

“Izumi isn’t usually the best well of ideas… but for this particular instance, I agree,” Bukit said from the hall. That didn’t take much convincing…

“A-agreed!” Mi-Cha said, visibly relieved to have found consensus.

Yumi raised her hand. “This is probably the best outcome you can get out of this situation, so… agreed.”

Well, with a four-on-one with Yumi herself being on board…

All that was left… was Naomi’s approval. But that agreeableness had to come through gritted teeth… Her palm was slick.

…Was she… sweating?

Naomi looked down, surprised. Here she was, nervous and damp over a plan to go to a boy's house.

This was stupid. And reckless!

Which kept in theme with Riku’s entire existence to her….

Naomi pulled her hand away, wiping the moisture subtly on her uniform skirt. “Agreed.”

\\

Which all leads to their present situation…

~SLAM!!~

Kagayaki puffed at the sight of a door being shut. The irony was not lost on her.

“Rude.”

\\

RIKU

“Riku?” Hana cried. “Naomi’s here!!”

“Now your mee’s here?” Riku answered. “Didn’t know we ordered a new box of MeeMee Goreng packets…”

“No, dude! Sato Naomi is at our front door!”

Riku’s heart, very fairly, dropped. “Why? When? How?”

“Other than the fact the rich, no matter if they are an entertainment company or otherwise, can get what they want, including the personal information of people if they so wish…!”

“N-No, Hana. It’s because Naomi knows where I live,” Riku said. “This is still my childhood home.”

“Ah. Well, that only solves one of our problems. The biggest being she’s still out there with a camera crew behind her!!”

“WHAT?”

‘You guys know we can hear you right?’

“No, you can’t!” Hana cried.

Riku closed his eyes. The walls in his apartment were definitely not up to code.

‘Whatever it is, we’re not recording.’

Hana bristled. “That doesn’t change the fact you’re here with a camera! That alone signals your intentions!”

‘Aren’t you guys at least going to hear us out?’

“Then spit it out from out there!”

‘I would rather like it if I did not have to talk with a half-rotten wooden door.’’

Hana looked at Riku, a solemn expression on her face. “I mean… It’s your house. Your call. But the disrespect to come here expecting something of you without any communication beforehand…”

He could feel Hana glaring at him as Riku, wordlessly, opened the door.

Yep. That was Kagayaki alright. With what looks to be a professional camerawoman behind her.

Both of them were wearing masks and hoodies. Disguises… bad ones at that. Were they that divorced from reality they thought those get-ups could pass off as believable?

“Who’s that behind you?” Riku asked Naomi.

“My assistant.”

“And what is your assistant doing?”

“Helping us execute but one stage of my grand plan.”

Riku sighed. “Wouldn’t you be technically colluding with me by coming to my house at all?”

With a smile, Naomi went over the plan.

The motivations, the reasons, the potential benefits of doing her plan…

The risks of not.

It was hard to swallow why filming all of it was necessary. But now that Riku has been thrust into the internet limelight, he can see how it’d do his image awful if he stayed off it for the remainder of the year.

Not to mention the unintended consequences that would come to any potential future careers in any company ever…

COMEDOWN was popular enough that even HR departments would know. And if you were Kagayaki’s enemy, you were the world’s enemy.

It left Riku rubbing his temples. “So, Naomi—”

“It’s Kagayaki.”

“Okay, Kagayaki…”

What was Naomi’s issue? Was it just easier to separate Naomi from Kagayaki when she talked with him? He didn’t understand.

But irrespective of his feelings about Naomi and wanting to snap her out of this business-minded lull, she did put out really good points. His home studio was rubbish, and he’d rather not share the recording studio at school with other kids who were likely to film him.

“As you know, Riku, I’ve changed,” Kagayaki explained. “Either you accept the new me, or don’t. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that your situation is untenable and demands urgent course correction.”

This was it. Naomi’s arguments were sound. But it was not only logic… It was a matter of principles.

What does he do? Was Naomi too far gone?

Or perhaps… can he be the rogue element that course-corrects her plans?