Diabolical Plan

A month ago, during the night of the award show. After coming leaving from the restroom, Director Tsukasa returned to his seat and has met an unexpected guess.

A woman with shades, wearing a suit, looking like she has business to attend to, called him on a formal yet serious tone, "Mr. Tsukasa."

His eyes widened, as he questioned the sudden appearance of this woman, "Eh- Ms. Yukina?! What are you doing on this award show?"

Ms. Yukina, a high-profile person in the media industry. She owns the biggest streaming media service in the world, Chillflix and her net-worth is more than a billion dollars at this point. 

Ms. Yukina replied, "I came here to offer an idea, Mr. Tsukasa."

The eyes of Director Tsukasa went from widened to a look of interest. The face that he is making is questioning on what does she want. Intrigued but he looked around the room filled with people, he suggested, "I think we should talk outside."

Ms. Yukina nodded at him as they went outside of the venue to talk. Director Tsukasa looks at her intensely, like they are in a romantic scene of some asian drama.

He asked, "An offer you say? How about an offer to date me?"

Ms. Yukina lowered her eyebrows, looks at him with disgust,
"Dumbass. I'm talking about a show that you would direct in Chillflix."

The shoulders of Director Tsukasa somewhat gotten heavy, like an anvil dropped on his back and somewhat catched it, his eyes looked exhausted. Nonetheless, he answered truthfully.
"But... I kind of want to take a break."

Ms. Yukina gotten serious, eyes became intimidating, the tone became like a order instead of asking him, and gave a ridiculous offer.

 "Unlimited budget and a million dollar salary for you if you do this show, Mr. Tsukasa."


. . . . .


He immediately shook her hand as if was it's a done deal with greed on his eyes.

"You got yourself a deal." and he asked, "Do you have something in mind?"

Ms. Yukina replied to him with a relaxing tone that felt like she completely trust this goofball of a director, "Just give me a show that will get people talking about. Just give me ideas and proposals."

Director Tsukasa just nodded and asked another question, "Deadline of the proposal?"

Ms. Yukina gave her another intimidating look. "Next Friday. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to attend some business."

Ms. Yukina leaves the scene, as Director Tsukasa just stands there and pulls up his phone. He browsed through his contacts and found the name he is looking for. And calls her.

"Hi Producer Saho."

-

Two days later. Just around after lunch time, in a quiet diner. Only a handful customer. Director Tsukasa sitting in the middle of the diner, sipping cream soda. And all of a sudden, a voice of a girl called for Director Tsukasa.

"Ah. Director Tsukasa."

Director Tsukasa looks at her with a  smile on his eyes "Glad to see you again, Producer Saho!"

Producer Saho sits down in front of Director Tsukasa. "What do you need me for? I thought you're going to take a break?"

Director Tsukasa looks at her like he just accomplished something great, "I got an offer."

Her eyes started to get curious as, she asked "From who? What is this offer that change your mi-"

Director Tsukasa cuts her off, as he answered immediately, "Ms. Yukina and Chillflix. Unlimited budget and a high-salary to do a show."

Her eyes widened in an instant, as her mouth just opened, didn't expect about what he just said, "Yeah, that's outrageous to say no. Any ideas?"

He shook his head, "Not yet." And then added, "That's why you're here with me, Producer Saho." as he points at her.

She puts her right hand in her own head, as she is vividly disappointed. "I can't believe you, Director. An spectacular visionary like you always can't come up with ideas, yet still a world-renown director in the industry."

Director Tsukasa chuckles as he agrees with her, "Welp. I wouldn't be here without you, Producer. We're a multi-time awarding tag-team after all."

Producer Saho just corrected her nonsense, "You mean duo, not a tag-team. No wonder you called me."

Then, she pulls her phone from her pocket and suggested to Director Tsukasa, "How about we check the competition from other streaming services?"

Producer Saho opens the "ThisNey+" app, Chillflix biggest competitor by far. She scrolls down through the app and starting analyzing it.
"A lot of animation series. Sports series. The mouse is still drawing viewers and money. Not surprised about that."

His eyes narrowed as he heard the word 'sport series' from Producer Saho , "Sports series is a no go." But added, "How about an animation series?"

Producer Saho looks blinks at him rapidly, stunned about what he said, like Director Tsukasa said something stupid, "The moment we went against that mouse, we already lost."

Director Tsukasa just sat right there, nodded after understanding what he said was something stupid, "You are..right."

Producer Saho writes down notes and analytics from the ThisNey+ app. She looked intensely on what she analyzed.
"They have a lot of Asian dramas but nothing that really stands out. Only star names and faces but nothing substantial when it comes to their drama series."

Director Tsukasa agrees with her and added to her berate, "Their romance dramas aren't really interesting. People are only interested how the kiss scene of those star actors, so they could fantasize that they are the ones that engage with those scenes."

Director Tsukasa leans forward onto the table and showed his phone to Producer Saho.
"I mean take a look at this review from critics. Most of the romance dramas they have, have the same reviews. Full of hopes, story fails after the first half. No structure when it comes to their storytelling."

Producer Saho closes the ThisNey+ app and opens another app, Axon Prime Video, which is owned by Axon, the number one online shopping service. "What's their last good show here?"

Director Tsukasa asks, "What? ThisNey?"

Producer Saho answers, "Nope. Axon."

Without opening his phone, he thinks about what Axon Prime Video has, as he answered
"67 Days? Sherlock Incident? Alarming Kiss? That's pretty much it."

One of the shows caught Producer Saho's attention., "Alarming Kiss? " 

Her tone became condescending, like she didn't like the show.
"That show became good for the final few episodes. It was carried by a plot twist and the acting of those rookie actors."

Director Tsukasa added, "But that's pretty much it. The other shows are more catered to specific audiences. Alarming Kiss is the only good romance drama show in there."

Producer Saho looks down on her notes, "Both of their dramas aren't great. We have a great chance to do a drama." And suggested, "Maybe a romance drama?"

Director Tsukasa repeats the words the Producer Saho just said, "Romance Drama huh?" As he puts his hand on his own cheek, stares outside the window, eyes wandering  through his thoughts.

"Hmmm....who writes though?"

Producer Saho suggest, "How about Ms. Yuzuki? She just won the award recently so might as well."

Director Tsukasa recommends, "I was thinking of Takeru. He is good with male perspective storylines."

Producer Saho leans forward in the table, "But same with Ms. Yuzuki, in term of female perspective storytelling."

Director Tsukasa just looks at her, cross arms and all, "But we don't even know what kind of story, nor who are the characters in the story yet. Let alone who's the leading character."

Director Tsukasa and Producer Saho are stuck in a predicament, they don't know who to pick as a scriptwriter but a lightbulb struck on Director Tsukasa's mind, "How about we ask Ms. Yukina?"

Producer Saho eyes widened, eyebrows frowned, dumbstruck by what he said, "Are you stupid to think about that?"

-

Friday, day of the deadline.

"How about we get them both?"

Eyes wide opened, as both Director Tsukasa and Producer Saho stunned by what Ms. Yukina just said on the other side of the table.

Director Tsukasa argues with her, "But getting them both would be a nightmare."

Producer Saho supports Director Tsukasa's claims, "Yeah. They are rivals and they don't even like each other at all."

Ms. Yukina insisted on the idea like she didn't hear what the other two said, "They are both great scriptwriters right? I don't see a problem on getting them both for this project."

Producer Saho counterargues with her, trying to convince her, "They will clash ideas Ms. Yukina. It's not going to work."

Ms Yukina stands up from her chair, and instead of asking, she is demanding against the two.
"Here's the plan and a new offer. I will double the amount of both of your salaries and you guys can go across the globe to film, as long as those two are on board. If not, the offer is off the table."

Director Tsukasa and Producer Saho couldn't believe what she said, looks at each other in disbelief. Ms. Yukina starts walking towards the door but adds an important detail, "I want them secured within the next month, okay? Thank you." and leaves the room.

Producer Saho looks at Director Tsukasa with an expression like she lost an argument with a five-year old, "What do we do now, Director?"

Director Tsukasa throws up his hand in utter shock and slam it in pure disbelief, "We just have to get them, aren't we?"

Producer Saho asking him with a tone that it's merely impossible, "But how?"

Director Tsukasa with a insistent answer, "I guess we just have to do it by force."

Producer Saho is a taken back to what he just said, "What do you mean by force?! We can't just do that!"

Director Tsukasa's face agrees with Producer Saho but his words says otherwise, "I know we can't. But we must. Ms. Yukina is wrong but there's potential on what she's talking about. Maybe having them both could lead us to more great opportunities in the future."

Producer Saho understood what he said, "You're right." Yet, asked "But how do we get them?"

Director Tsukasa with a smug look on his face, "By lying to them."

Producer Saho confused, "Lie? What do you mean?"

Director Tsukasa replied, "Lie to them. We're not going to tell them that they are going to work together. I'll negotiate with Tsukasa, you negotiate with Yuzuki. That should work out right?"

Producer Saho answered him unconfidently, "We'll see about that. I'll talk to her within the next few weeks."

Director Tsukasa nod at her, "Okay. I'll talk to Takeru in the upcoming weeks as well." Then emphasizes, "No matter what, we need to have those two on board."