Backstage

Ah, what’s the time now?

Leaning over my bed, I picked my phone up off of the ground.

—7:13am, Saturday 19th.

Well this is a little bit of a problem. Considering the fact that Yoshikawa-sensei was picking me up in exactly seventeen minutes, I’d need to get a move on.

Getting up, I put on the only set of casual clothes I had. It wasn’t terrible in terms of fashion sense, the only thing was that they were all bought second-hand from the local thrift store. Taking a quick look in the mirror, I splashed some water onto my face and fixed up my hair a little. There wasn’t a great deal I could do since I didn’t have many supplies, so I would be relying on lying to try to impress some girls—oh well, it’s nothing I haven’t done before.

There was a loud knock at the door.

“I hope you’re ready, Mizutaka-kun.”

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

“Well, you better not let this chance go to waste. Stuff like this doesn’t happen every day, you know? The host is your cupid, so go swoon the ladies.”

“Aah…”

• ───────────────── •

Riding in the back of the taxi, I watched as Yoshikawa-sensei seemed to be frantically texting other people. The harsh ding sound permeated through the vehicle every once in a while. He looked pretty busy. I, on the other hand, did nothing but stare out the window at the backdrop of skyscrapers as we sped down the highway. Well, I did make some small preparations.

We arrived at the front of the television station building. It was a large, overpowering skyscraper that stood out even amongst the other architectural giants nearby. Entering through the automatic glass doors, I was instantly brushed by a wave of warm air.

Yoshikawa-sensei spoke to the receptionist.

“We’re on the 9:45 show.”

“Ah, Tachibana-san’s new program. I’ll ask for one of the staff to come down and take you guys up. Sweeping Love, is it? It sounds like an interesting show.”

“Aha, thank you.”

Eventually, we were led up to the main studio. As I made my backstage, following the staff member who was sent over to greet us. Yoshikawa-sensei wasn’t coming any further so it looked like it was up to me now. Gesturing for me to take a seat, I sat down on one of the couches in the large room. The space was littered with different props, filming equipment and cosmetics. On almost every side were mirrors, reflecting the various pieces of furniture that were positioned around the place.

“I’m Suzuki Ikeda, the assistant director, nice to meet you, Mizutaka-san.”

“Likewise.”

“The director will be coming soon. For the time being, do you want anything to drink?”

“I’m all good, thank you.”

“Ah…”

The assistant director looked around the room awkwardly. I guess he was also pretty new to this entire thing. It was just the two of us so there wasn’t exactly much to talk about. I assumed that most of the staff were probably attending to the girls, so they didn’t leave us with many people.

A few moments later, following some loud footsteps, a man dressed in a heavily-worn-down suit entered the room.

“So you’re Mizutaka Riku, is that right?”

“Yeah.”

He stared at me very intently.

“You’ve got a pretty decent face. I think we need to have some work done on your hair but appearance-wise I don’t have any problems. The only thing… can you fix up your expression?”

He grabbed my cheeks and pulled them.

“…ah…”

"Change that frown into a smile. You have an attractive face, don’t let it go to waste.”

“Uh… I’m not sure if I can do that…”

He let go of me.

“This show is scripted less than you might think. I told Yoshikawa-san to get me someone he thought would be able to get attention. Even with your looks, I feel like I’m going to get disappointed. This is the first episode, it’ll be bad if it ends too quickly. Usually, I’d get someone more famous but the short notice has been a big issue.”

The director sighed.

“There’s nothing I can do now. Mizutaka-kun, you better not disappoint me.”

“I’ll try my best then.”

He turned around and shouted out the door.

“Can I get someone from the makeup crew in here?!” He looked back down at the assistant director, “you, give him a rundown of how the show works.”

“Y-yes.”

With that, the director took his leave just as fast as he came. One of the ladies in the makeup crew made her way into our room. She gestured for me to go over to her and I took a seat in front of one of the mirrors. As she moulded various products into my hair, the assistant director began explaining the program.

“How much have you been told about this show?”

“Not much.”

“Ah, that’s fine. I’ll explain everything then.”

I could feel the sensation of the lady curling the side of my hair. It was weird to have someone else fix your appearance but it definitely did look better than what I’d be able to do myself.

“Basically, there are thirty girls on the stage, all behind their own lecterns. In front of them is a red button. They can press it at any time, and when they do, they’re basically saying that they’re not interested in you. The show has three stages: the first stage is introductions—you do a short introduction of yourself and a clip of you will be played on the big monitor, prepared by the other assistant director.”

“They prepared a clip of me?”

“It was with the help of Yoshikawa-san.”

“Alright then.”

"The next stage is questioning—the girls are allowed to ask you questions until the time is up or until they have no more questions. After that, it’s finally your turn, you get to choose from a selection of questions to which all the girls have prepared answers to. Then, if there are more than five girls who remain interested in you, you’re permitted to go and press their buttons until there are only five left.”

“I see, and if there aren’t any left?”

“Well, if there aren’t any left at any stage, then you ‘lose’ and will have to exit the show. I can’t tell you much more about the third stage since it’s meant to be a surprise.”

“Ah.”

“Anyways, I wish you good luck,” the assistant director looked down at his phone, “you’ll be on in a few minutes, have a drink of water and think about your introduction.”

“One last question, do you have any idea of how many girls should be left at each stage?”

“Um, well, we’re not sure, but I think around five remaining by the final stage is definitely a good number. Most of the writers predict that an average person would only have two or three remaining by then. At least, that’s what we found out in the drafting phase. These girls are especially harsh.”

“Alright then.”

Well, let’s see how this goes.