They all pushed me!

Kurokawa Akane dragged the progress bar of the video back here again as if reminiscing about the past, pushed the in-ear headphones a little further inward, and stared intently at the last episode of "Tomorrow, Mom and Dad Are Not Away" playing on his mobile phone.

When she left the actor's perspective and simply watched this post-edited and processed segment as a viewer following the director Hirokazu Koreeda's camera, Kurokawa Akane suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Looking at the devil and mailbox in the screen who were untying all their knots and truly becoming family members, she always had a wonderful feeling of looking at another person who had the same face as herself, but whose personality, experience, and current feelings were completely different from her own.

Kurokawa Akane turned over in bed, and casually rewound the video a bit, quickly changing from a prone position to a supine position, with her arms crossed in front of her eyes, and her phone was put aside. However, the video was still playing, and those familiar lines were still ringing in her headphones.

Perhaps it was because the second half of the last episode was almost entirely about her and Kitagawa Ryo's rivalry, or perhaps other voices were naturally filtered out, and in the end, it seemed as if only the two of them were left with their conversations.

In a sense, the broadcast of the drama is everything during the three months when her popularity soared. For Kurokawa Akane, the experience was not even as good as the six months of filming. Compared to the so-called traffic and popularity, she actually yearns for the process of performing more.

Whether it's the script reading session that starts with the new morning of every day, or the working hours when trying to understand the character's psychology and strive to perform perfectly during the filming, or even the anticipation and trepidation of making your own handmade lunch boxes at noon, putting sticky notes on them and then secretly putting them away, all of these have become beautiful memories at this time.

She had clearly half-ridiculed Arima Kana's nostalgia during the audition more than half a year ago, but when everything about the drama was almost settled and the only follow-up activities were expected to be the award ceremony for each award, amid the dense barrage of comments and messages that congratulated the show on its completion could be seen every second, Kurokawa Akane herself inevitably developed a feeling of reluctance to let it go, and she had no doubt that no matter how many years passed, she might subconsciously mention this TV series from time to time.

During these three months, Kurokawa Akane actually only participated in some promotional activities related to "Tomorrow" and some collaborations with Arima Kana.

Although a considerable number of advertising agencies and audition invitations came to her like snowflakes, she did not agree to any of them immediately. Her parents did not have any objections and allowed their daughter to continue to devote most of her energy to the daily training and study life of the LALALAI Troupe as usual, as if the hottest new drama starring her had never appeared.

The sound in the headphones fell silent again after the word "Dad". Before she knew it, she had listened to the last episode in its entirety.

Kurokawa Akane took off his headphones and sat up from the bed. His feet, which were wearing white cotton socks, nimbly slipped into fluffy slippers. He stood up and walked to the desk in the room. He pulled out a chair and sat down, then turned on the desk lamp. In the warm yellow light, he took a psychology book from the bookshelf and continued to turn the pages as usual, following the bookmark he left when he read last time.

After becoming an actor, Kurokawa Akane gradually realized that studying psychology was not only of great help to her experiential acting style, but also subtly changed the way she looked at the world.

Although the reason she studied psychology was because she received the advice from Kitagawa Ryo to "try to understand the character's psychology first" while crying after her first defeat to Arima Kana, over the years, Kurokawa Akane sometimes used some knowledge of psychology to help people close to her.

Moreover, compared to non-realistic characters who only exist in the script and have such thin personalities that she has to infer the characters' actions and psychological changes by herself, Kurokawa Akane herself prefers to paint portraits of living people she comes into contact with in real life.

In addition to the notebooks displayed in the lockers in the play "Tomorrow" that record the children's personalities, habits, taboos and favorite things, all of which were hand-drawn by her according to the scattered character descriptions in the script, Kurokawa Akane also made an analysis for her family and friends to facilitate better communication and interaction with them.

MEM啾 has a very strong sense of responsibility and is a good child who is willing to put the happiness of her family above her personal wishes when necessary. She has amazing mobility, which is completely opposite to her seemingly carefree appearance. She is very thoughtful and can often pay attention to the feelings of others around her at the first time; Samejima Abiko is a perfectionist on some level. She has a slight and improved tendency towards social disorders, pays attention to efficiency, and loves her own works, but has a hidden and slightly hesitant contradictory personality that may be influenced by the opinions of others.

Then, under the name of her best friend Kitagawa Rumi, Kurokawa Akane left the latest comment half a month ago.

If she had used the old format with special nouns, she would probably have written something like "There is a subtle sense of imbalance that is unique to girls who had their first sexual intercourse and sexual experience during puberty."

But what Kurokawa Akane finally wrote down was only a short line of words:

They did.

-------------------------------------

If one were to use the most fashionable phrase to describe the current state of the entertainment industry's spectators at the end of this year, it would be "there was not a moment of mourning for the end of "Tomorrow", and the next thing that immediately rushed to the battlefield was the scandal of Johnny's Office."

At the end of December, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) officially broadcast a documentary about Johnny Kitagawa, the founder of the Japanese artist agency Johnny's, who had sexually assaulted male artists under his company for more than 30 years. The film caused an uproar in Japan as soon as it was released.

Although Kitagawa's "ambiguous" and "intrusive" behavior towards his artists has been rumored in Japan for a long time, and has never stopped in recent decades, from the gossip tabloids and weekly magazines in the 1980s and 1990s to anonymous revelations in the Internet age, discussions about his illegal and criminal behavior in this regard have never subsided, but have basically been left alone by most silent media.

After all, even a newspaper of the level of Weekly Bunshun could not be brought down 20 years ago. The reporter Nakamura who reported on the incident lost his job and was suppressed by the entire industry. Subsequent domestic media naturally would not want to touch this bad luck. However, the BBC, as a foreign media, obviously has no such concerns.

But in fact, when they first released the trailer, the reaction of the Japanese public was not that strong. Thoughts like "although I feel surprised, it's also normal" were quite common. After all, this was not some shocking secret that had never been known before. However, unlike any previous exposure, the BBC documentary allowed the victim to sit in front of the camera for the first time, accusing Kitagawa of the crime almost with real names and evidence.

Just knowing that Kitagawa may have molested trainees is of course two completely different experiences from seeing and hearing the victims reveal one horrifying detail after another. What is even more shocking to public opinion is that Kitagawa Ryo's name appeared in the mouths of many unknown victims (even famous people would not reveal themselves).

A number of victims, including Okamoto Koan, who have been sexually assaulted by Kitagawa in the past decade or so, almost all pointed out one fact in unison, that is, Kitagawa, the president of Johnny & Associates, began to harbor dirty desires for Kitagawa Ryo, who was only in his early teens at the time, more than a decade ago and has continued to this day.

There is even a victim who directly stated that when the movie "Shoplifters" starring Kitagawa Ryo was a hit, he was taken into a room by Kitagawa and asked to play the role of the gigolo played by Kitagawa Ryo in the movie, engaging in a role-playing act that was similar to his fantasy.

It just so happens that the hottest drama of the season, "Tomorrow", starring Kitagawa Ryo, has just ended a few days ago. Compared with the victims whose names most people have never heard of, Kitagawa Ryo, who has a very high national reputation, a solid fan base, good popularity and public reputation, can undoubtedly arouse more people's empathy. At least most of his fans think so, and they immediately demanded that Johnny's Office and Kitagawa himself give an official statement and response to the matter.

Johnny's Office is no longer the Johnny's Office that was in its heyday 20 years ago and could directly book the top 20 male artist popularity lists. Although it still maintains its leading position in the idol industry, many male artists have chosen to leave Johnny's Office after their contracts ended in the past few years. Hirano Sho, who became famous for starring in the famous manga-adapted movie "Kaguya-sama: Love is War", is one example. The company's overseas business has gradually been snatched away by the increasingly mature entertainment industry in neighboring South Korea, and the overall financial statements have also shown a downward trend.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo said, as long as he doesn't care about the potential damage this incident may cause to his future acting career and personal image, he is the most suitable victim and the best accelerant.

In this storm of public opinion that suddenly arose and spread because of his joining, as the aftermath of the BBC documentary gradually expanded, Weekly Bunshun, which had been following Kitagawa's sexual assault scandal, immediately announced its revival. After reporter Nakamura returned to the editorial department, he published more than a dozen reports and exposed the testimonies of at least eight new victims.

In this context of almost breaking drums and everyone beating the trees, which led to monkeys scattering, a former Johnny's artist soon held a press conference and released a new piece of evidence and related videos in court. Based on the principle that colleagues are enemies and it is better to watch a funeral than to be afraid of its size, and with some ulterior motives, the sexual assault scandal of Johnny's office immediately triggered the government's investigation into Johnny's unfair competition in the industry over the years.

Under this sudden yet seemingly long-planned series of blows, Kitagawa, who was already nearly 70 years old, did not care much at first. He just immediately announced that he was not feeling well and chose to avoid all direct interviews on the grounds of illness. However, as the incident gradually intensified, he finally could not withstand the pressure and took the initiative to admit it in front of the camera and bowed to apologize seven days after the incident was exposed.

But Red Bean Paste Smi Masai (I'm so sorry) is not a panacea. Everything that happened next made Kitagawa even more anxious. The United Nations Human Rights Council intervened and said that it had sent a team to Japan to investigate human rights issues in corporate activities. After listening to the statements of relevant people, the chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Council group pointed out at a press conference that hundreds of artists from Johnny & Associates were involved in sexual exploitation and abuse. The situation was deeply worrying and involved human rights violations.

Feeling that the court summons was getting closer, Kitagawa quickly held another press conference, apologized for the incident again, and announced his resignation. He promised that the agency would compensate the victims, and that he would resign as chairman after the compensation work was completed, and his niece Fujishima Julie Keiko would take over.

After taking over, Julie Keiko Fujishima immediately spoke out and said that she had been aware of rumors of sexual assault when she was working in the company, but she still chose to believe Kitagawa and did not take the initiative to understand the situation in depth. She felt ashamed of this and has reflected deeply on it. As the new president of Johnny's Office, she will prevent such a situation from happening again.

Perhaps they realized that such a result was obviously unsatisfactory, or perhaps they wanted to keep Johnny & Associates in the hands of their family as much as possible. On the second day after the Japanese police announced a criminal investigation into Kitagawa, Johnny & Associates officially announced that the former president Kitagawa had died at home last night due to a sudden heart attack, and public opinion quickly returned to the trend of giving priority to the dead.

At Kitagawa's funeral a few days later, most of the artists from Johnny's Office attended. The last sentence on the official news obituary read:

"Kitagawa passed away surrounded by the love of his children."

-------------------------------------

“That’s probably all we can do.”

Beichuan Liang rubbed his eyebrows. Today, he came to the bar again, which he often came to before his marriage, but rarely visited after his marriage. After the incident with Rumi, it was as if something indestructible had disappeared silently.

"really."

Yasushi Gotanda, who was sitting next to him, answered drunkenly that after the incredible failure of the second season of "Homeless Kids", he came here more often, and he didn't expect to run into Kitagawa Ryo who was drinking alone today.

"How's the new project going? Have you finished writing the script?"

Kitagawa Ryo shook the 'Blue Moon' in his glass and asked Gotanda Yasushi to change his mood.

"Almost, almost—"

As soon as the new project was mentioned, Gotanda Yasushi seemed to sober up immediately. He tried hard to prop up his head with his arms, glanced at Kitagawa Ryo and said:

"If you hadn't hit me so hard on Tomorrow, Homeless Season 2 and I probably wouldn't have been so embarrassing."

"Okay, stop beating around the bush. This is my fault, okay? I'll make time for this new project just for you, okay?"

Gotanda Yasushi smacked his lips in satisfaction when he heard this, but immediately pretended to be indifferent:

"Rare - my movie has two serious female leads, Liang is just a supporting role."

At this point, Gotanda Yasushi also moved forward and said with a flattering smile:

"I was dying of greed when I watched Tomorrow this season. What Kana and Akane said... I guarantee that this is a movie that is no less good than Spider."

"That depends on whether they are willing to accept it. I will be your intermediary."

Beichuan Liang answered casually, and then asked curiously:

"By the way, what is the subject of your article this time?"

"Oh, of course it's still a social theme, but it's a forbidden love, a forbidden love."

After hearing what Gotanda Yasushi said, Kitagawa Ryo's heart suddenly skipped a beat and he subconsciously clenched the goblet in his hand.

But he immediately said the second half of the sentence in a drunken state:

"How should I put it? It's probably a story about a teacher-student relationship that has a natural age difference... and is not recognized or accepted by the public."

Chapter 32: The most troublesome or the most favorite?

Every time he finished with Rumi, Kitagawa Ryo would feel a near-exhaustionary feeling of exhaustion that came from the depths of his soul, affecting both the physical and psychological aspects.

When Kitagawa Rumi was still living in the Kitagawa family, she had often seen the amount of a certain item in the trash bag in the bedroom. It seemed as if she was taking revenge for all the lust that she had been forced to endure and suppress in the past, so she naturally set this number as the lower limit.

If it weren't for the fact that there was not nearly a month's interval between each session between the two of them, and if it weren't for the fact that Kitagawa Ryo was only 25 years old after his faith, he was in the prime of his life, and his physical fitness was beyond that of an ordinary person due to years of never slacking off in exercise, even Kitagawa Ryo himself would not think he could withstand this frequency, and might even be forced to hide in the bathroom.

But honestly speaking, that place wasn't that safe. At least in the bathtub in the bathroom that could accommodate two people, he was ambushed by Kitagawa Rumi, who had dug out a school swimsuit from somewhere. And the worst thing was that the swimsuit Rumi dug out was from junior high school and was two sizes too small. In the end, it was turned into a disposable prop.

Until now, Kitagawa Ryo is not quite sure how many styles of clothes are hidden in Rumi's closet.

Thinking of this, Beichuan Ryo also opened one eye, tilted his head slightly, and stared with mixed feelings at Rumi, who was lying beside him at this moment, hugging his right arm tightly and sleeping very sweetly and peacefully, just like when he first brought her home to adopt her more than ten years ago.

Half of a torn piece of pure black clothing was still hanging around the other person's waist. Judging from the remaining delicate folds and floral patterns of the original fabric, it should have been an expensive and well-made classic Lolita costume before it became such a "miserable state".

And almost half an hour ago, when Rumi leaned close to his ear and whispered "お兄様" in a soft but correct voice, Kitagawa Ryo officially surrendered in the most ferocious manner.

お兄様, pronounced as Onisama, translates to "brother-sama".

Kitagawa Rumi is still adept at playing the role of family with him in daily life.

But she would also enjoy playing family role-playing games on this bed.

...From various perspectives, they are all sisters who give him the most headaches.

-------------------------------------

"Speaking of which, I heard that ACE's Tokyo Dome performance is on the cards?"

"I can't help it, my brother really likes me too much!"

It was another offline girls' tea party for the ACE trio. Samejima Abiko, who was drawing with her head down, just asked casually. Unexpectedly, she saw Kitagawa Rumi standing up triumphantly, holding her hands in front of her chest, and proclaiming with her chin raised:

"I'll just consider this as my brother's birthday present to me two months in advance!"

"Well... essentially it's because of the predicament Johnny's Office is in. Besides, Ryo is now on the moral high ground. If we go to negotiate again, even if we want to take this opportunity to sell ourselves in the hope of settling the matter quickly, Johnny's will probably choose to do so."

MEM啾 was much calmer. While smiling and comforting Kitagawa Rumi, she turned her head and said to Samejima Abiko with some apology and regret:

"It would be better if Abiko graduated later. It was only a few months away."

"I couldn't help it. When I officially started serializing Tokyo BLADE, there was no turning back. It was inevitable that I quit last year. Besides, I'm not like Ruby and MEM-choo, who are particularly interested in idols and this so-called Tokyo Dome performance."

Samejima Abiko had a very good attitude, and didn't feel sorry at all. She even raised her head and pouted at MEM啾, saying comfortingly:

"MEM, if you feel regretful, just take my dream with you and go on stage shouting about friendship and bond or something like that."

"OK--"

MEM-chu smiled upon hearing this, agreed cheerfully, and then moved closer with interest, looking at Samejima Abiko's painting while asking:

"But Tokyo Blade is indeed very popular. Last time I read the news, it seemed that the sales of the first volume exceeded one million copies in the first month?"

"Yeah, it's a weekly series after all, and I revised the first part's drawings and plot countless times, so it's reasonable to be so popular."

Samejima Abiko nodded confidently, but immediately became depressed:

"But what is more important right now is to ensure that after the manuscripts are used up, the subsequent chapters can maintain this quality at the weekly frequency."

"Well, Abiko, have you ever thought about getting an assistant? I've seen many cartoonists have assistants, and some even have several. That should save some trouble?"

Seeing this, Kitagawa Rumi also came over and suggested excitedly.

After all, in a sense, if the original author Samejima Abiko is the person in the world who cares most about the work "Tokyo BLADE", then she is undoubtedly the second most concerned one.

On the one hand, of course, it's because I support my friend and hope that he can fulfill the dream he has held since childhood. As for the other hand...

All I can say is that Kitagawa Rumi is very anxious about the question of when the second part of "Tokyo BLADE", "Shibuya Protest", will be officially serialized.

"An assistant? Maybe I really need one. After becoming a professional cartoonist, I do feel a little overwhelmed."

Upon hearing this, Samejima Abiko also stretched and twirled her electronic pen thoughtfully:

"Pay attention to this aspect later."

After a few people chatted about the topic of "Tokyo BLADE" for a while, MEM suddenly seemed to remember something and asked in confusion:

"Speaking of which, I seem to have not seen Xiao Qian recently. I remember that she didn't seem to take any dramas after she became popular. What is she busy with recently?"

Kitagawa Rumi, who had the closest relationship with Kurokawa Akane among the three, waved her hand casually and answered MEM啾's question:

"I really didn't have much to do recently. I went to school when I should, and rehearsed with the LALALAI Theater when I should. But recently, it seems that Director Gotanda has prepared a new project, so I have been following my brother there for the past two days."

"Director Gotanda? It seems that he was also very angry about the recent online public opinion. Is he ready to fight a good turnaround to prove himself?"

MEM Chui propped up her chin and said with a smile:

"But his skills are really high, and with Liang in charge, it feels like Xiao Qian's second job will be booked before it even starts."

"Hopefully."

Kitagawa Rumi had a noncommittal attitude:

"I just found out a few days ago that although Director Gotanda's new work is not the kind of progress that has just created a new folder, the general direction of whether to make a movie or a TV series has not yet been determined, and I don't know how long it will take."

Perhaps because of Gotanda Yasushi's statement at Kitagawa Ryo's wedding that he wanted to make a documentary about their marriage, Kitagawa Rumi sniffed her little nose again:

"I heard that Kana will also be participating in this show. A few months ago, my brother, Kana, and Akane marketed the role of acting master and apprentice, but Director Gotanda directly chose a new theme that is said to be a teacher-student romance... I always feel like they are just trying to ride on the popularity."

"Teacher-student love..."

MEM repeated it slowly, and said with some emotion:

"Compared to the master-disciple relationship, I still think that the father-daughter relationship between Liang, Xiaoqian and Kana is stronger. Look at the last scene of "Tomorrow, Dad and Mom Are Away", the part between Xiaoqian and Liang was played very well."

As if recalling the scene in her mind, MEMchu shook her head half-jokingly and spoke after a long while:

"But I definitely can't act it out, not even as an act. If I ever sincerely called Liang 'Dad', I probably wouldn't know how to face him again."

"MEM啾 is not a professional actor after all."

Samejima Abiko nodded, then turned her attention to Kitagawa Rumi and added seriously: