They all pushed me!

Akane Kurokawa carefully put forward his idea, and the theme song of the first season of "Homeless Kids", "Between the Sky and You", was finally sung by the national queen-level singer Miyuki Nakajima. Combined with the popular TV series at the time, it won the fifth place in the annual list that year.

However, what moved Kurokawa Akane even more was the strong connection between this song and the plot of the drama. The lyrics and music were written from the perspective of the big yellow dog. In the words of singer Miyuki Nakajima, 'For it, all it can see when it looks up is the sky and you.' The song and the plot complement each other, and was another major factor in the popularity of "Homeless Child" that year.

That's why director Gotanda felt dizzy when he saw the screenwriter of the second season who came out of nowhere to pick up IP peaches and wrote the death of the yellow dog in the first episode. From that time on, he completely entered a desperate state of playing badly, and it was not surprising at all that it died suddenly later.

The audience can really tell whether the production team has put a lot of effort into making this TV series.

Therefore, in response to Kurokawa Akane's request, Gotanda Yasushi nodded and gave her a positive answer:

"Don't worry, Chiyin. Our production level this time is fully comparable to that of Homeless Kids. We will definitely put our heart into every aspect. You don't have to worry about the lyrics and music. We have invited famous domestic musicians and have let them read the script in advance."

After hearing Gotanda Yasushi's sincere promise, Kurokawa Akane gave up his last bit of hesitation and took the initiative to agree:

"Okay, then I'd also like to sing the theme song with Kana."

"Okay, it's settled. Once the lyrics and music are ready, I'll show them to you two. The shoot will start in about five minutes. I'll go over and make the arrangements first."

Looking at Gotanda Yasushi who left in a hurry, Kurokawa Akane couldn't help but sigh:

"Director, I'm so busy."

"After all, Director Gotanda is also holding his breath and trying to prove himself."

Arima Kana said this while slyly curling her lips towards Kurokawa Akane beside her:

"So, do you want to sing with Ryo-senpai?"

"Isn't it the same for Kana? Director Gotanda just said that you didn't want to do it before."

Kurokawa Akane, who was already skilled in automatic counterattacks, seemed to have thought of something because of a word in Arima Kana's words. He took out his personal mobile phone from his pocket, clicked on one of the recently saved audio files, and found a pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones in his bag:

"Speaking of lyrics, I heard Ruby sing ACE's upcoming new song at her house yesterday. Now that I think about it, I feel that some of the lines could be used directly in "Pests", but after all, it's a girl idol song, and the style is too light and bright, which doesn't quite fit the style here."

Kurokawa Akane handed Kana Arima a headset while speaking:

"Well, do you want to come and listen?"

"I'm a little interested in what you said. What's the name?"

Arimakane casually took the headphones and asked curiously.

"'Seniors' are just the seniors and juniors in school."

"In fact, the latter explanation is completely unnecessary."

"Too."

Kurokawa Akane pressed the play button at the bottom of the screen. Because it was a cappella song, Kitagawa Rumi's voice soon rang in the ears of both of them.

After quietly listening to the entire version, Arima Kana took off her headphones and commented:

"Some feelings are indeed very similar. It's better to say that feelings are actually common. Students can find a hundred reasons for themselves, such as the difference between physical age and mental age, but in fact, they still can't help but fantasize. If the age difference between the two does not exist, it will be better if the sixteen-year-old girl meets the sixteen-year-old him."

As she spoke, she began to hum softly under the somewhat shocked gaze of Kurokawa Akane.

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but Kurokawa Akane even had the feeling that Kana Arima, who had only heard the a cappella version once, was singing better than Rumi yesterday.

But she came back to her senses immediately. In fact, it was just like the time when Ai sang "The Sun and Sunflowers" in the "B Komachi×B Komachi" couple special, with a style completely opposite to that of ACE. This was purely a change in mentality. Kitagawa Rumi, who was in a good mood these two days, had the same winner's mentality when singing this song, and it naturally sounded quite cheerful.

Compared with Kitagawa Rumi, it is Magana's singing style that makes her empathize more.

Perhaps this is another reason why she suddenly mentioned this song to the other party.

It requires both skill and emotion.

"It's okay if you don't deny it so thoroughly, idiot, just because you're laughing while gossiping about us."

"It's okay to let people misunderstand me like this. It's okay to let them like me like this."

Kurokawa Akane unconsciously clenched her phone, and recalled the incident not long ago when she described Kitagawa Ryo as her ideal dating partner.

As if noticing something strange about Kurokawa Akane who was sitting next to her, Arima Kana smiled at her, reached out and held her right hand, and directly skipped to the end of the lyrics, actively raising the tune a few beats:

"Nothing will change if you just daydream, so take a step forward and cross this age gap barrier—"

Arima Kana sang softly here and stopped abruptly.

In any case, both of them knew that what they were pursuing violated the social justice and order in the general sense. In this matter, they were the so-called accomplices. It was because they knew that there was another friend of the same age in the world who thought the same as themselves that they had the courage and comfort to continue.

"If one person can't do it, then two people can do it."

She seemed to be talking about the theme song of this time, but also seemed to be referring to something else.

"Then, three more people, together."

Chapter 46: Hat!

Although Magana's words were a little obscure, Kurokawa Akane immediately understood what the other party meant. After all, in Japan, where the completion of the first time is regarded as a proof of growth, Kurokawa Akane, who is already a second-year junior high school student, would naturally be exposed to this kind of knowledge intentionally or unintentionally. She even heard rumors at school that a third-year senior had won over a first-year junior who had just entered junior high school.

However, the sight of three people together was still beyond her comprehension to some extent. Just by imagining the scene in her mind, Kurokawa Akane's face immediately turned red and she shook her head from side to side. At this time, she began to regret her really rich and somewhat excessive imagination.

Looking at Kurokawa Akane, whose earlobes were flushed and who just lowered his head and moaned, unable to utter a word, Arima Kana held her cheek with her mouth corners raised. She inexplicably felt a strange sense of accomplishment in her heart. After all, in a sense, she had finally led the child in front of her astray, who had been the template of a well-behaved and sensible good child since birth.

All we can say is that from the time when the other party accidentally followed her and spied Rumi's kiss in Miyazaki Prefecture, perhaps there was only this one ending. After all, before that, Arima Kana really didn't have any more thoughts, it was just the admiration and closeness of a child.

In Arima Kana's eyes, Kurokawa Akane's intrusion was purely unexpected at first. She suddenly had a long talk with him at that time and asked him to give up competing with her in the audition and focus more on the troupe's main work. It was a kind of goodwill and test, because she didn't want Kurokawa Akane to disclose this matter to anyone other than the four of them.

Just as sudden events are needed in a play to create conflict so that various characters can have further connections, Kana Arima knew that Akane Kurokawa, who had never officially debuted and was only concerned with competing with her in an absolutely fruitless way, would only reduce the connection between her and Ryo Kitagawa, especially since Ryo Kitagawa had already decided to get married at that time.

So she chose to give Kurokawa Akane a push. The success of "Matilda" allowed Kurokawa Akane to officially take over the title of "the next Kitagawa Ryo" given to her by the drama industry. Then came the expected setbacks. After all, the other party's family background was completely different from hers. The flowers that had just stepped out of the greenhouse would definitely be defeated by so many fierce and vicious gazes like sunlight.

Just as Arimakana thought, Kitagawa Ryo would never let it go, just like he chose to pull himself out of that situation in the first place. With the added relationship of Kitagawa Rumi, it was no surprise that Kurokawa Akane received care from the other party during his most depressed period. This was what she hoped to see.

If we say that before that, Kurokawa Akane chose to keep it secret simply out of childish shame and the mentality of not wanting to cause trouble to his senior Kitagawa Ryo and his good friend Rumi, then with her being subjected to online bullying as the midline, Kurokawa Akane's motivation for keeping the matter deep in his heart after that was similar to hers.

That period happened to be the time when Kurokawa Akane was obsessed with learning cooking. Arima Kana was very clear about this because in her eyes, the other party's behavior was the same motivation as her birthday cake return gift which has continued until now.

Arimakana could happily wear a flower girl dress and lead the way for the bride at Kitagawa Ryo's wedding, because she was never aiming for this position from the beginning, so she would not be like Kitagawa Rumi, who was entangled in this matter countless times and even ran away from home once.

Kurokawa Akane's happy family environment made her first reaction when she saw Rumi kissing Kitagawa Ryo in Miyazaki was "only people who are dating and married can kiss". However, she had witnessed her biological father's infidelity and the breakdown of his family a long time ago, so she saw it from a different perspective from beginning to end.

Arima Kana really liked the pendant engraved with the prophecy of "know yourself" given to her by Kitagawa Ryo. From the moment she received it, she has been thinking and acting in accordance with this principle.

In Arima Kana's opinion, the reason why Kurokawa Akane is called 'the next Kitagawa Ryo' is simply because of her talent in drama and the fact that she also debuted in the LALALAI troupe. The 'next Kitagawa Ryo' that she has been called since she was a child is the essence of the matter.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo saw his past self in Arima Kana, correspondingly, Arima Kana could also feel the similarities between herself and Kitagawa. Regarding this point, she really liked Kurokawa Akane's summary not long ago, which is the disparity between physical age and mental age.

As the most dazzling child stars who have appeared in the past 20 years, Kitagawa Ryo and Arima Kana have long understood the same truth:

What people have long pursued in child stars is actually that part of them that transcends their physical age.

Of course, no matter what, Arima Kana was willing to admit that she still had a childlike timidity, just like when she did something bad, she always hoped to have a friend to accompany her, even if it was just to give her courage or to have someone to share the failure with.

So the topic returned to the topic again, and the best candidate for this friend was naturally Kurokawa Akane, who inadvertently witnessed the scene with her at that time.

Arima Kana smiled faintly, and calmly took off the white sun hat on her head and put it aside. She tilted her head slightly and supported her chin to look at Kitagawa Ryo who seemed to be talking to Gotanda Yasushi not far away, and gently took in his entire outline bit by bit into her star-like sparkling eyes.

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

The filming officially started this afternoon, following the last plot timeline. Under Sachiko's tenderness, Ogata Satoshi suddenly took off all his identities and disguises, as if his mind was controlled by her. When he came to his senses, he had been pulled out of the house by her and got on a bus at the bus stop near his home, which he didn't even know where it would go.

There were not many people around at this time. It was neither the evening rush hour when students were getting out of school nor the midnight hour when office workers were finishing overtime. After sitting side by side with Sachiko in the somewhat empty car for a long time, Ogata Tomo was slightly sobered up by the cold wind coming in through the window.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard the vibration of Sachiko's phone in her pocket. Because they were quite close, when she took out her phone, he clearly saw the name of the caller displayed on the lit screen: 'Mom'.

Then, Ogata Satoshi saw the other party hang up the phone cleanly and neatly, and seemed to feel it was not safe enough, so he turned off the phone directly.

"…Is it really okay not to answer your mother's call?"

He clearly heard the sound of himself swallowing.

But Sachiko had no intention of answering. Instead, she came over and said:

"Mr. Ogata, why don't you turn off your phone too?... After all, you're not a teacher now, so you don't need to worry about this kind of thing. Just don't think about it."

Then, she immediately showed a gentle expression of understanding, and quietly stretched her left hand on the armrest of the chair to the left, and slowly placed it on the back of his right hand:

"It's really hard to control yourself from thinking about anything at first, so how about playing a game?"

As she said this, she leaned half of her body towards Ogata Satoshi who was sitting by the window, opened the window halfway, and took advantage of the moment when the bus was waiting for the traffic light and the scenery and people around it slowed down in her field of vision, pointing at a pedestrian outside and said with a smile:

"What do you think he is thinking about at this moment, Mr. Ogata?"

Ogata Tomo followed the direction Sachiko pointed and shifted his gaze towards the crowd of people hurrying along the road. Some of them were happy, talking on the phone with bright smiles, some were sad, walking with their heads down with bitter expressions, some were waving goodbye, and some had just hugged each other after reuniting.

The person that Sachiko was referring to was a middle-aged bald man with a happy look on his face.

"You look so happy. Did you receive news of a promotion or a pay rise? Or did your child get good grades or win an award?"

"Maybe you think the stars are beautiful today?"

“You can’t see any stars here, right?”

"It's just a made-up story. There's no right or wrong."

Although it was still meaningless nonsense, Ogata Tomo's heart was inexplicably at peace, and he even began to enjoy this game with no winner or loser.

He just said that the elementary school student with a sad face must have been scolded by the teacher because he did not finish his homework in the cram school. Sachiko immediately concluded that he must have been wandering outside in a depressed mood because he failed to confess his feelings to his desk mate after school today.

They kept talking like this all the way to the final stop. After being left on a completely unfamiliar platform for a long time, Ogata Tomo finally shook his head with amusement.

Thirty thousand pieces of gossip, only told to one person.

Ogata Satoshi admitted that he did have a strong desire to talk, but if he were to go on and on about what had happened to him over the past year or so, he would probably only feel more tired and tortured. Instead, he felt a long-lost sense of refreshment after talking about such small talk that had nothing to do with their lives.

But this also made Ogata Satoshi realize how incongruous their current relationship was with their previous behavior. He immediately stopped smiling and spoke again with a somewhat confused word order:

"I'd better take you home. If you go home now, you can still arrive before eleven o'clock. If you keep going like this, your mother will worry... Originally, you came to my house just because of Xia Zi's matter. It's great that you can communicate with her normally. Xia Zi hasn't talked to anyone for such a long time. You are Xia Zi's friend. I really have a brain short circuit for talking to you about so many other things."

"Is that so?"

He saw the girl in front of him suddenly tilt her head slightly in understanding, then naturally raised the corners of her mouth, stood on tiptoe, put her hands under his armpits, and hugged him like this:

"Then shouldn't you listen to me more carefully, Mr. Ogata?"

Looking at Kurokawa Akane who was speaking to him like a bad boy, Kitagawa Ryo was a little dazed.

Because this is not Kurokawa Akane deliberately imitating the kind of copy-style performance of the bad boy presented by Kana Arima in "Homeless Children" in the first few episodes of "Tomorrow", but another kind of acting skills that truly belongs to him, the most vivid sense of contrast that no one can ignore.

It seemed as if she was standing on the borderline between good and bad, flipping them casually in her hands like two sides of a coin, and saying words with the most well-behaved and innocent expression that made his back shudder.

Yasushi Gotanda announced with satisfaction that this shot had been approved, and then seamlessly shifted the camera position to Kana Arima who was already prepared.

Instead of hearing the voice of her father who told her good night and to sleep well and rest at the fixed time, at eleven o'clock in the evening, Xia Zi carefully opened the bedroom door, her eyes passed through the empty living room and fell directly on the empty entrance hall.

The clock on the wall ticked, the slippers on the feet tapped, and Yasushi Gotanda asked people to record the background sounds while folding his arms to enjoy Kana Arima's performance.

He looked at her without turning on the light, and just walked to Xia Zi, who was squatting at the entrance, using the little light coming through the room. That was the place where she had broken a light bulb a few days ago.

Although she clearly didn't see the shoes, she still patiently searched the kitchen, bathroom and her father's bedroom. She took out her mobile phone in the dark night. The fluorescent light of the screen illuminated her face alternately in light and dark, but it was still obvious that she was pursing her lips very hard.

I hesitated for a while on the address book page, but finally chose to send a text message. After clicking on the private chat interface with the other party, I directly sent him a message saying "Where are you?"

She stood there in silence for three minutes.

The message status remains unread.

And right above her brief message was a series of messages from the other party, like an endless tower.

"……dad?"

As soon as Arima Kana said this with a trembling voice, Gotanda Yasushi stood up and raised his arms. Kitagawa Ryo who was standing on the side also twitched his mouth. It felt like if it wasn't during the filming, he would have shouted "It's done!" at least.

Frankly speaking, when he first saw the script of "Pest", he really wanted to complain about how much inspiration Gotanda Yasushi had received from "Tomorrow" and Hirokazu Kore-eda. He had just gradually found the feeling of playing the role of a father there, and now he was assigned another father role here, and it was not the adoptive father in "Tomorrow", but his real biological father.

...But in a sense, even though he hadn't become a father yet, he had already achieved the feat of being called "Dad" by his two younger generations in turn.

I don't know who took advantage of whom.

Chapter 47: Crazy Hint

While Kitagawa Ryo was filming the new drama, on the streets of Tokyo, Ai and Kitagawa Rumi just walked out of a clothing store with bags and handed all the purchased goods through the open car window to Saito Kyoko who was waiting on the roadside.

"Excuse me, Kyoko. You finally have a day off today. Don't you want to go shopping with us?"

Kitagawa Ai smiled and moved closer to the car, resting her arms lightly on the window, and once again extended an invitation to Saito Kyoko.

"If I accompany you guys any longer, there won't be anyone to see all these things. You and Ruby should go shopping first. I'll go make a reservation for dinner later."

Kyoko Saito rested her elbows on the steering wheel with her chin supported, and spoke a little helplessly while raising her chin towards the back seat which was already piled with various packaging bags.

"Hey, I accidentally bought a little too much. Oh, and this too."

As if she suddenly remembered something, Ai nodded and handed over a small, exquisite-looking packaging bag hanging on her right arm:

"This is the necklace I bought for Kyoko. Consider it your reward for troubling you today."

Although Saito Kyoko herself had no shortage of money for the jewelry, she was quite comfortable accepting the kindness of love, and she didn't even make any polite remarks. While carefully placing the package on the passenger seat, she casually asked: