Old Habits

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Edited by RedPandaChick

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Tomokazu stood up from his desk and approached mine.

"Why the long face, dear friend?" he asked. "I hadn't seen you with such an expression despite the situation we're currently in."

A deep breath came out of my mouth as I leaned against the backrest of my chair.

"An offer just arrived," I answered. "It's a photoshoot for a magazine."

Haru snapped her head toward me.

"A photoshoot? That's wonderful!"

"It is," nodded Aya. "Then why are you sighing for?"

"Because it's summer-themed."

"Don't say any more," interrupted Tomokazu. "Bikinis?"

"Bikinis," I replied.

"Oh," uttered Haru. "I understand now."

Aya added, "Even if it isn't the most comfortable thing to do, haven't the girls been taking modeling lessons for these kinds of things?"

Haru nodded. "She's right. I might not be very knowledgeable regarding idols, but I've seen that these kinds of photoshoots were common back in the day while studying about them."

"Correct," replied Tomokazu. "However, we mustn't accept every deal we receive just because it resembles what we know about idols; that might've worked a thousand years ago, but we're still reviving the concept. How much are they offering?"

I answered, "One hundred thousand terras per girl."

"Five hundred thousand for a photoshoot? That's not bad at all," replied Haru, "but…"

"Exactly; but," I remarked. "It's a good offer, but I don't think it's worth that little."

"So you're going to reject it?" questioned Aya.

"I can't reject it in a situation like this."

"What are you going to do, then?"

Sighing again, I straightened back on the chair.

"I'll take a gamble. I'm going to ask for double the amount. At least I won't feel guilty if they back out after asking for an offer we're comfortable with. If they don't back out, then it's a win for us."

I glanced at the three of them, but they merely stared back at me showing no emotion.

"Don't you agree?" I asked.

Tomokazu answered, "You're the boss. You have the final say."

"I know, I'd just like to hear your opinion. And I'm not the only boss now."

"I agree with the decision," smiled Haru. "Let's do that."

"Alright. I'll write the qmail now."

It took several minutes and reviews from Aya and Haru before I felt ready to send the qmail, thinking it was going to take at least a day before they replied back. Surprisingly, they did so before the workday ended, so I asked the girls to meet me in the meeting room. They eventually arrived and knocked on the door before I asked them to come in.

"Why do I feel like I'm going to get scolded by the principal in their office?" joked Aki as the five of them sat down in front of me.

"Really? I've never been scolded by a teacher," added Astra.

"Wouldn't expect less from a cute, little angel."

Although they didn't take long to sit down, they remained distracted.

"Isn't this the first time the meeting room has been used?" wondered Sanae.

I answered, "No, we had a meeting with the administrative staff a couple of days ago."

"Oh," she uttered in disappointment.

"After having so many meetings in the dance studio, it's weird that now there's a proper meeting room," giggled Risa.

"It needs some windows, though," complained Umi.

Before I could say why that wasn't possible, Umi continued talking.

"I know it's because there's a building right beside ours, but you could install some of those fake windows."

"We'll think about that," I sighed. "Alright. I called you here because there's an important matter I need to discuss with you."

There were two important matters, actually. I wanted to ask if there was progress with the third album, but that would've made the other topic harder to discuss. They also would've already told me if there was any news about it.

Regarding the situation we were currently in with the venues, I hadn't told them about it. I felt guilty for doing so, but telling them about it would've just made them more stressed. They also didn't need to know about it.

"We received an offer from a magazine to do a photoshoot."

Even Umi's eyes opened wide when I said it, although they didn't sparkle like the rest of the girls'.

Aki jumped up from the chair and slapped the table.

"What magazine?!" she burst.

I hadn't seen her that excited in a while.

"It's a new magazine," I stammered. "They've only begun publishing at the start of the year. They haven't done any photoshoots yet, but they have great reviews."

The girls remained silent, anxiously waiting for my next words. However, Umi went straight for my throat.

"Why did you stutter?"

"Did I?"

She sighed. "Spill it out already."

I opened my mouth, planning to lengthen the conversation as much as possible, but I was just delaying the inevitable.

I looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. Then, I spit it out.

"The photoshoot they want to do is for their summer magazine later this year. It's—"

Umi interrupted me.

"That's enough."

She stood up and walked to the door. Instead of simply asking her to stop, I went for her throat, just like she did to me.

"Two hundred."

She stopped pushing the door.

"Two hundred what?"

"Thousand."

She scoffed, "Am I a joke to you?"

"Per each of you."

Sanae jumped up from the chair and slapped the table.

"A million terras for a photoshoot?!"

"Correct," I replied.

This time, Umi hesitated to speak.

"So what? The company is going to keep all of it."

I was quick to counterattack.

"GIMA will only take fifty thousand terras from each of you, and you'll get the remaining as a bonus."

She opened her mouth to talk again, but she had run out of reasons to refuse.

At the same time, Sanae let herself fall back but missed the chair. Luckily, Risa had quick enough reactions to hold her.

"Are you okay?!" worried Risa.

Aki said, "One hundred and fifty terras is a huge bonus. Are you doing it because you thought we were going to refuse? Because I wasn't planning on doing so."

"That's your answer, but what do the rest of you think?"

Astra laughed nervously.

"Well, I can't say I'll be very comfortable taking pictures in a swimsuit, but I know these things were normal back in the day."

"A bikini, to be specific—"

I shut myself up, but it was too late. Fortunately, no one reacted much, including Umi, but Astra's face grew red instantly.

"Oh, I see," she stuttered. "That's okay, too."

"I'm okay with that too," added Risa. "Both Sanae and I knew something like this was bound to happen. She would be okay with it as well if she wasn't daydreaming about the things she's going to do with the bonus."

"That's good to hear," I replied. "Umi?"

She stared down at the floor. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't even pushing the door with her hand anymore. Instead, her head rested on it. I would've thought she was dead if she wasn't standing.

"Umi—"

"Shut up!" she yelled. "Just… give me time to think. No, that's only going to make me suffer more. Just… Argh! Fine, I'll do it. With one condition."

"Shoot."

"I want to choose what I'm going to wear."

"I mean, they are the ones that are going to choose…"

"I know! Just… ask them to give me multiple options."

She didn't wait for my reply and stepped out of the room.

A sigh of relief came out of my mouth. The hardest part was done. Now, I just needed to close the deal with the magazine company. Luckily, they were already planning on having multiple options for all of the girls, and Umi chose one that she even seemed to like.

However, just before we signed the contract, I decided to add the icing on the cake.