Aoi's Ongoing Problems

“So, you didn’t talk about it, again,” said Hiroaki, sighing as he closed his eyes and shook his head, disappointed.

“She’s too excited about the opportunity, and is still pretty nervous about it. I don’t want to add more problems that she has to worry about, it might make it worse.” I explained the situation to my brother, though it felt like it didn’t make a difference.

“Right. Somehow, I’m the one reminding you that you should ask her what she thinks instead,” said Hiroaki, annoyed. “Oh right, you can’t, because you haven’t told her anything at all.”

“I just think it’s too much. I should wait for the right time. Do you think I don’t feel guilty hiding these things from her? Pretending I don’t know?” I was somewhat annoyed by Hiroaki’s lack of understanding of the topic.

“Fine, I still trust you on this, don’t let me down,” he said, finally closing the topic.

“Why are we in the main meeting room anyway?” I asked.

“What? You don’t like it? It has the nicest chairs and the smell of the wood from the table is just great isn’t it?”

I leaned on the table and tried to take in the aroma of the table’s wood, but it didn’t seem especially interesting. I looked at Hiroaki suspiciously, “If you say so.”

“Where is he?!” I heard a loud voice behind me, startling me and making me instantly turn to see what kind of storm had entered the room. It was Summer. When I looked back at my brother, he was already hiding under the table. I immediately understood why we were in that meeting room.

“You! This is your fault too,” said Summer while pointing at me.

“What is? I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about,” I answered, full of confusion.

“She ruined my stream!”

“Mi… Spring did?”

“She has the charisma of a rock, I can’t do anything with her!” Summer seemed exasperated.

I thought about it for a few seconds, and realized there must’ve been a broadcast that I hadn’t watched yet. I had assumed Mika would be doing fine, since she’s been working very well with Autumn and her solo content has been improving, too.

“So then we don’t have you two together for a bit, until you work on your chemistry.” I tried to come up with a quick solution to the problem.

“Our chemistry? Don’t blame that on me.” Summer seemed overly aggressive, and while Hiroaki can be patient and withstand that, I had little tolerance for it.

“If it’s two of you. Then it's at least half your fault,” I said, trying to draw the line.

“Is it?” Summer seemed upset, but I knew she understood. She took a bit to cool off before talking again. “Since when do you wear glasses anyway?” she asked with a different, curious tone.

“Just something I picked up recently.”

“Huh,” she answered confused, before going back to the original topic in a calmer fashion. “Look, Aoi.” She sat down next to me and pulled out her phone, on it she had some notes with video links. “This person has been uploading music videos everyday. She’s far more talented, and with her viewers alone, we could’ve probably doubled in views.” She had on her phone a popular music channel.

“This other creator is similar to Eiko, she can do any kind of variety show and talk with any number of people without slowing down. You have to stop her from talking.” She showed me another video on her screen. “By the way, what happened with Eiko?” She once again took the chance to ask me something in between videos.

“It’s over,” I answered decisively.

“Huh, I see.” Summer then returned to her phone. “Anyway, this last one is a variety streamer, that can both socialize and play different kinds of games, so she could match with any one of us nicely." She then turned off her phone's screen and looked at me. "I was talking with all three of them about joining when you and Autumn decided, without asking me, to bring this stray cat of a girl on board.” Once she was done, Summer couldn’t hide her disapproval at how we handled Mika’s recruitment. I could understand where Summer was coming from, even though I still found her phrasing rude.

“I think that’s going too far. But I admit it was not a completely rational decision, and for that I apologize. I’m responsible for this.” I tried to show Summer that it wasn’t just a whim, and that I was willing to see it through.

“I disagree, brother. I did think about this thoroughly,” said Hiroaki, rising from under the table.

“There you are! Why are you hiding, are you a child?” Summer scolded him for hiding from her once again.

“It’s easier when I give you time to cool off a bit.” Hiroaki tried to talk to her with a smile, but that only made her more upset. They both went off at each other while I tried to breathe deeply and recover from my own interaction with Summer.

“So we hire one of them, would that make you happy?” asked Hiroaki eventually, trying to appease her.

“And what, be the FIVE seasons?!” While Summer was understandably upset, thinking about the success of her channel, I couldn’t help but chuckle at her interactions. She was a bit mean, but I felt like she and my brother were a lot closer than they seemed.

“I really don’t think it was that bad,” Hiroaki explained. It was good that he intervened in the conversation, since I didn’t know what Summer was talking about.

“Are you kidding?” said Summer incredulously. Summer then kept ranting about Mika, saying how the fans would be able to tell that she wasn’t deserving of working with us.

“Well if the fans are what you're worried about, a lot of them found her moe as well.” Hiroaki had of course reviewed the opinions and statistics of their streams, and pulled them up for us to see.

“Moe?! What does that even mean,” said Summer as she kicked the table. Hiroaki seemed startled, but knew he had to keep responding.

“You know what it means, Summer, you know your audience the best, even if you also criticize them the most, too.” Hiroaki looked at Summer in a way that gave me the impression that he was no longer playing games.

“I can see why people would think that, it’s just… I want to be able to give my best show reliably, you know? Not rely on whether they find her cute or not,” she said.

“I understand, Summer. You can take a break from working with her. I think with time, the both of you will figure it out. Or her time with Autumn will help her learn. Honestly, she might be too intimidated by you right now, even if the two of you actually have a lot in common. Ever thought about that?” It finally felt like Hiroaki had made an accurate comment that she could agree with. Summer simply sat there, reflecting.

“And I didn’t pick her to join you because I thought your group had lower standards or expectations. I picked her because I honestly felt she would make the group better. I definitely thought that through. Don’t get that wrong, both of you,” he explained. Summer still seemed somewhat frustrated, probably because of the experiences of the stream she had just had. “Just trust me on this one, and give her some time.” Hiroaki could sound quite serious and trustworthy once he was in boss mode.

“Sure,” said Summer as she stood up suddenly. “But if things go badly, I’m telling your father. I know he doesn’t pay attention to us because he thinks we’re a joke, but I’ll make him understand our potential somehow.” Summer, with a threat, left the room and soon after peace was restored. I looked at my brother, who seemed a bit worried about the group's ongoing conflict.

“See what I’m saying? Mika already has a lot of problems she needs to solve,” I told my brother, “I don’t want to add more.”

“Fine,” he said. “I just hope they figure this out sooner rather than later.”