They all pushed me!

"What's in here? Can you open it now?"

Beichuan Liang weighed the backpack with interest. The backpack did not match its appearance and was actually not particularly heavy. He raised his head and asked curiously.

"Of course it's a cheering item for Ruby. This is a set prepared for you. The size and style should be suitable. Remember to charge the light board and glow sticks inside when you get back."

Kindaichi Toshiro slowly sat back in his office chair, waved his hand casually, smacked his lips, and suddenly widened his eyes as if he was a little angry and asked back:

"Why? Or is Ryo planning to go to Ruby's Tokyo Dome performance empty-handed?"

Before Kitagawa Ryo could ask, Kindaichi Toshiro supported his chin and added:

"Don't worry, I've also prepared things for MEM啾. Her family will also come to visit this time. I've asked Kazuki to bring them to her family. Her two younger brothers are grown men now, so don't let them outshine you when they stand together."

"That's okay."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded upon hearing this. Although he was indeed Rumi's solo supporter, this Tokyo Dome performance was, after all, the graduation performance of both MEM啾 and Rumi. He and MEM啾 also had a good relationship. If he only cheered for Rumi in the front row of the audience, it would indeed feel a bit excessive. After all, it was he who took the initiative to bring MEM啾 into the group.

He was clear about MEM啾's family situation. It was also a single-parent family with only her mother. But unlike Arimakana, she had two younger brothers who were four or five years younger than her. So her early years were a bit difficult. After her mother fell ill due to overwork, she even considered dropping out of school and hastily accepted the agency that took advantage of the opportunity and invited her to sign a child labor contract.

But that is a thing of the past. With the popularity of ACE and MEM啾's own rising popularity, her family's economic situation has also been greatly improved. Her mother was able to quit her heavy job and focus on recuperating. She also moved to a bigger and more comfortable house. Her two younger brothers also grew up and were admitted to university together last year. The situation is now completely different from before.

"By the way, I originally prepared two servings for you, but Ai didn't plan to go, so you can deal with the extra portion yourself."

"Okay, I'll give it to Kana then."

After Kindaichi Toshiro said this, Kitagawa Ryo also thought about it for a moment.

Logically speaking, for Rumi's significant performance this time, all of her relatives and friends should be present to show their support, but Ai can't go because of her pregnancy. Kurokawa Akane has already told her that she will support the two of them. After all, she, Rumi and MEM-啾 are good friends, so they should cheer together. Saito Kyoko is probably willing to put on such an embarrassing cheering suit, but she is ACE's agent, and will have to do the whole scheduling work behind the stage.

After thinking about it, Kitagawa Ryo just remembered what Rumi had told him a few days ago, that her relationship with Kana Arima had become closer recently, so he directly said her name.

"Are there Maganai?"

Hearing the name Kitagawa Ryo said, Kindaichi Toshiro was also stunned. Compared to Kurokawa Akane, who was from his own troupe and knew everything about him, he didn't know much about Kitagawa Ryo's junior, and the two had not had much contact. He recalled the image of the other person he had seen in TV dramas or movies, and frowned hesitantly:

"If that's the case, then I feel like the size of the clothes might not be right."

"It's just a cheering outfit, a haori or a headband. It doesn't matter. Just wrap it around a few more times. As for the clothes, I can let Kana trim and cut them herself later. It should be fine."

As Beichuan Ryo said this, he unzipped his backpack, took out the cheering uniform inside, shook it in the air, and spread out the entire piece of clothing completely.

Because the performance was in mid-June, the cheering uniform that Kindaichi Toshiro prepared was also a short-sleeved shirt, with a cute headshot of Rumi and the words "I Love Ruby" in the center. Fortunately, there was a headshot next to it, otherwise it would have looked like some kind of exclusive clothing for programmers at first glance. (Ruby means ruby, and is also a pure object-oriented programming language)

The pattern on the back is a replica of Kitagawa Rumi's signature, which is quite cute and comes with a stick figure. Kitagawa Ryo remembers that in order to design such a signature that "has an idol feel" (her own words), she spent a long time thinking hard at home.

After looking through the patterns on both sides, Beichuan Liang nodded and said:

"The pattern is basically in the middle of the dress. It shouldn't have any effect if the sleeves and hem are shortened. Just adjust the neckline a little bit, and there's still the haori to cover it."

"If Liang thinks it's okay, then fine. Just remember to wear this outfit when the time comes. Ruby cares a lot about this."

Kindaichi Toshiro didn't bother to care about the final owner of this cheering uniform. He tapped the desk twice with his right hand fingers bent, and glanced at Kitagawa Ryo in a casual manner:

"Ruby has already told me that after this performance, she will come to the LALALAI Troupe to learn acting."

"Huh? Why are you coming here?"

Upon hearing this, Kitagawa Ryo frowned immediately. However, he did not look down on the acting courses of the LALALAI Theater. The troupe was essentially a drama troupe. There was actually a big difference between the performance of a stage play and the filming of a film and television drama. Most actors who came from a drama background often need a period of adaptation before they can gradually grasp the essentials. Many young actors from the LALALAI Theater in his agency actually had to go through this level. After all, not everyone could make a seamless transition like Kurokawa Akane and Himekawa Daiki.

Even when he took Hoshino Ai, who had been studying in the troupe for a long time, to shoot the commercial together, he specifically asked Yasushi Gotanda to teach her again the techniques and precautions in front of the camera.

Of course he already knew that Kitagawa Rumi wanted to learn acting and become an actor, but she should have followed the path of Arima Kana and focused only on filming TV dramas. Besides, he was no longer teaching small classes at the LALALAI Theater Company, and he even rarely performed here. For a moment, he really couldn't understand his sister's thoughts.

"Look at what you said. You think it's unfair to study here, right?"

Although Kindaichi Toshiro knew that this was not what Kitagawa Ryo meant, he still hummed twice and said with a smile:

"Ruby used to come to our place frequently when she was little, so why can't she come now? I welcome you with open arms and feet, and I can even teach you in person when the time comes."

"Come on, it's clear from the looks of it that you must know something, Uncle Min, just tell me, or I'll go back and ask Ruby, she'll definitely tell me anyway."

Looking at the other party's deliberate funny look, Beichuan Liang rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"As for me? I can indeed guess a little bit of Ruby's thoughts."

Kindaichi Toshiro spoke slowly and grinned at Kitagawa Ryo:

"Maybe Ruby originally went there for the stage play."

"Although Liang has indeed performed less shows with the LALALAI troupe in the past two years, and there is no regular pattern in what plays he performs, it all depends on whether he is busy with other work during that period, but between next year and the year after, there is definitely a play that will be confirmed."

Because the other party's hint was too obvious, Beichuan Liang thought for a moment and came up with the answer:

"Tokyo Blade?"

"The answer is correct, but unfortunately there is no prize."

Kindaichi Toshiro snapped his fingers in a cool manner, and then turned around and gave a piece of information:

"I'll tell you one more thing, Ryo. It's different from the previous scripts. The scriptwriter for this 2.5-dimensional stage play Tokyo BLADE is still the original author, Samejima Abiko. It seems that this kid was also an ACE. Is she close to Ruby?"

Beichuan Liang sighed and pressed his eyebrows with a slight headache.

"That's not ordinary good."

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

"Hmm? Did my brother give Kana a set of my cheering suit?"

Kitagawa Ryo gave the remaining set of cheering equipment, including headscarf, haori, cheering uniform, light board, glow sticks, banners, etc., to Arima Kana, and Kitagawa Rumi immediately got the information from her.

"Yes, it seems that because Sister Ai can't go to the scene, there is an extra set. I am now thinking about making this dress smaller."

While wearing a thimble and biting the thread, Arima Kana was chatting with Kitagawa Rumi on the other end of the phone. Thanks to the shopping trip before going to Miyazaki, and the fact that Kitagawa Rumi had been actively contacting Arima Kana under the pretext of wanting to learn sewing skills, the relationship between the two has become much closer than before.

"Kana, can you take a picture of me? I want to see what you look like."

Although her fans had already prepared uniform cheering outfits to wear on that day, Kitagawa Rumi still wanted to see her brother's outfit, so she took the initiative to ask Arima Kana for help.

"no problem."

Arima Kana put down the scissors in her hand, took a few pictures with her mobile phone, and sent them to Kitagawa Rumi in a private message, saying at the same time:

"Did Ruby design this signature herself? It looks so cute."

"Yeah, it was designed to be cute."

Kitagawa Rumi looked at the picture sent by Arima Kana and nodded with a smile. Although she was still brooding over what the Kitagawa couple had done to Liang, she had to admit that she still liked the name they gave her.

For her, this name, written as Rumi and pronounced as Ruby, which means ruby, has completely replaced Sarina and become the most important symbol throughout her life.

"There are so many things. I feel like I'll get so hot if I put them all on—"

Although she said this, looking at these things with cheering words that even she found a bit corny, Kitagawa Rumi couldn't help but imagine in her mind what her brother would look like that day wearing these and standing in the front row of the audience to cheer for her. For a moment, her eyebrows and eyes curved like crescent moons, full of smiles.

"Who told Ryo-senpai to promote Ruby? It's only natural for a person who promotes Ruby to prepare these things. After all, it's the idol's graduation performance."

Arima Kana naturally followed Kitagawa Rumi's words and suddenly felt that the other party seemed to be easier to deal with (fool) than Kurokawa Akane. If it weren't for the right time, place and people, she would probably have to wander around the finish line for the rest of her life.

Arima Kana carefully tailored the clothes to a more suitable size according to her body shape. She looked at the straightforward, almost love-showing cheering messages printed on the clothes, and she suddenly felt dazed. For a moment, she even thought that if she also became an idol, would Kitagawa Ryo also be able to wear the 'I Love Kana' cheering clothes, look at her from the audience, and hold up a glow stick of her exclusive color in his hand.

However, Arima Kana immediately threw this unrealistic fantasy behind her. After all, the entire entertainment industry is almost full of idols who rely on their youth to develop in multiple fields such as actors. As for actors switching to idols... what kind of situation would they have to fall to, the kind where they can't even get a single role?

"Then I won't disturb Kana from working. Kana should also be careful not to hurt her hands."

After a brief chat, Kitagawa Rumi took the initiative to end the call. She thought for a while, took something from the drawer of her desk, and took a taxi directly to the gate of the community where Kitagawa lived.

After successfully passing the security guard's identity verification, she walked briskly with the key to open the gate of the courtyard, but ran into Kitagawa Ryo, who had just delivered something to Arima Kana and returned home to park his car in the underground parking lot, holding his own bag of cheering.

"Huh? Why is Ruby here?"

Just as Beichuan Liang asked in surprise, Rumi walked up to him with a smile and reached out to pat the backpack in his arms:

"I know everything from Kana. It contains my cheering uniform."

"Yeah, I got it from Uncle Min. I was just about to go back and try it on to see if it fits."

Seeing that Rumi already knew about this, Beichuan Liang was too lazy to hide it anymore. He put down his backpack and casually took out a cheering uniform to show her:

"How do you think of Uncle Min's design?"

"Well - but I want to see how it looks when I put it on - how about trying it on here, brother?"

Rumi's eyes sparkled, and she immediately hugged Kitagawa Ryo's arm and began to act coquettishly in a skillful manner.

"I'm all sweaty now."

"It's okay. At worst, I can just take a shower tonight. The performance is in two days anyway."

"Alright, alright."

Seeing that Rumi was so expectant, Kitagawa Ryo didn't want to spoil her sister's temper, so he quickly put on a short-sleeved shirt and let Rumi look around at him.

"Why is there a copied signature on the back? Uncle Min might as well tell me directly and I can just sign one on the spot."

"He probably is..."

Before Beichuan Liang could finish his words, he felt something pressing against his back, and heard his sister's voice:

"Brother, don't move. I brought a pen with me. I'll sign one for you now."

A rough touch was crawling on his back, making him feel tingling. Beichuan Ryo let his sister lie on his back and write something with a bit of amusement.

"Okay!"

After hearing Rumi's voice that she had finished the job, Kitagawa Ryo immediately took off his clothes and turned to the other side, and saw the handwriting left by his sister.

Sure enough, it was not a simple signature as she said.

As if to echo the words 'I Love Ruby' printed on the front, she also left the same words on the back:

R&R.

"Ruby Love Ryo (Cool)".

She said this while biting Beichuan Ryo's ear.

Chapter 64: I will always love Ruby

“No matter how many times I play it on repeat, I still think that ACE’s unreleased new song is too good. I really want to hear the full version soon—”

In a ramen restaurant in Tokyo, it was a leisure time outside of mealtime. The waiter who had just finished cleaning was looking at his phone with great interest and sighed from the bottom of his heart:

"Luckily, we also got tickets for ACE's performance at Tokyo Dome tomorrow. We can be the first to hear the full version live. In the past two days, many fans have posted their ticket stubs online. Those who didn't get tickets are so envious of us."

Next to him, the bespectacled man in charge of the cash register pushed his glasses up calmly:

"After all, this performance may be ACE's last offline performance, and we may not be able to see it in the future."

“Although it was not stated explicitly, the official propaganda and hype are exactly the same as last year’s Abhijit graduation.”

"Eh? How can an idol graduate right after performing on a stage as grand as Tokyo Dome? This is the highest stage that most idols aspire to perform their entire lives—"

Shaking his head at his friend who looked a little bit incredulous, the man with glasses continued to express his thoughts:

"That's true. After all, in the past fifteen years, the idol groups that have been able to perform at the Dome are basically promoted by large agencies such as Sony and Star Media. They also have to sell very well and have high commercial value. If it were an idol from a small agency, the best they could do would be to perform at a stage like the Budokan."

As he spoke, he raised his right index finger:

"In the past fifteen years, the only underground idol group that has been able to perform at the Tokyo Dome is B Komachi of Ichigo Pro."

As soon as the name B Komachi came out, there was a movement in the kitchen. As if the key words had been found, the middle-aged man who was the owner and chef of the ramen shop and wore a white headscarf came out immediately. While stroking the neat stubble on his chin, he said:

"Yes, and B Komachi is also the idol group that Shimura mentioned as 'impossible', which disbanded right after performing at Tokyo Dome. At that time, even we fans didn't expect it."

"Ruby-chan's performance is much better than the past two years, but her expression has become strange recently. She no longer has the feeling of simply enjoying the stage and the audience as before."

The middle-aged man continued thoughtfully:

"I have always been very sensitive to the expressions of the ones I promote. I have seen many kids who first showed such expressions and then hurriedly graduated and gave up on being idols. The love back then was actually an example of this."

Although he complained in his heart, "It's quite creepy for an old man to keep mentioning Ruby-chan Ruby-chan," as an employee, Shimura wisely suppressed the words and followed the manager's words and asked:

"Then what's the reason? It seems like the idol activities have been going smoothly recently and the popularity has been steadily increasing."

"Well... on the one hand, maybe they have been idols for a long time and have lost their initial enthusiasm, and they may want to make a transition. Ai was like that at that time, and became an actor almost seamlessly. As for the other hand, is there a problem within the group or the company? For example, the producer decided to add new people, the contract renewal talks did not go smoothly, or other agencies wanted to poach people, etc."

"Now that the store manager has mentioned this, I think it's more like the former. After all, ACE's Samejima Abiko decided to graduate from the idol industry because she wanted to become a full-time manga artist, and now she's succeeded in pursuing her dream. Tokyo BLADE is so popular, and the animation is about to be aired. The relationship between the three people in ACE has always been very good. If a friend is so successful - well, it's normal to want to change."

Xiaolin took off his glasses, blew on the lenses, wiped them clean with a tissue, and put them back on his nose:

"Ruby's brother is already one of the most famous and well-connected actors in the industry. Plus, the love who successfully transformed that the store manager just mentioned is Ruby's sister (sister-in-law). I wouldn't be surprised if Ruby wanted to be an actor."

"MEM啾 is the same. Although she has been in ACE for the past few years, she has also been running her own personal accounts on TikTok and Youtube, and she is very active... How should I put it? Even if ACE really disbands and all the members graduate, at least everyone is still in this circle, and the audience and fans can still see them. I think that's good."

At this point, Xiao Lin also smiled at the store manager:

"Isn't it the same for the store manager? He has been watching B Komachi x B Komachi all the time, without missing a single episode."