They all pushed me!

But even so, MEM啾 still wants to return to Kitagawa Ryo's personal agency, just like she still uses intimate prefixes such as "our family" to refer to other artists under the original agency in her live broadcasts in the past two years. This is an idea that her fans can easily perceive.

Although she has been teased by familiar fans because of this incident, every time she sees them laughing in the barrage and comments saying things like "The anchor hasn't graduated, it's just that no one wants her", "If the anchor wants to go back, why not just make a comeback and be an idol again", "We haven't heard the anchor's story at Tokyo Dome for three minutes", "She's 25 years old and a former professional idol", etc., MEM啾 herself still can't help laughing.

After all, no matter how you look at it, being an idol at the age of 25 is really too outrageous. You have to know that she debuted as an idol at the age of 17, which is already considered to be one of the older ones in the industry. Five years of idol career is definitely not long in the entire idol industry. If she started being an idol at the age of 25... wouldn't she be 30 years old in five years?

By comparison, it seems that debuting at the age of seventeen is not considered too old. What's more, the various honors she has accumulated as a professional idol in the past five years are top-notch even in the entire industry. At least when she was a child and dreamed of becoming an idol, the limit of her imagination was at most the level of performing in the Budokan.

Perhaps this is another reason why she wants to return to the agency as an actor. All the past is just a prologue. All the dreams she had on the path of being an idol when she was young have been realized and completed, but MEM啾 is not a person who will stop moving forward.

"After that, MEM, do you want to continue to hone your skills in the LALALAI Theater's stage play industry for a while like Ruby, or try to act in some film and television works?"

When MEM啾 was negotiating with the president of Kitagawa Ryo in his office about the contract again, he heard the other party asking this question.

"What do you think, Ryo?"

Looking at the girl in front of him who had kicked the ball back, holding her face and smiling with eyes curved, Kitagawa Ryo was also slightly stunned.

It has to be said that MEM啾 does have a unique advantage and talent in acting young and cute. Just like he pretended to be a high school boy in "Be a Little Sweet Today" and was praised by the audience for "showing a refreshing boyish feeling", MEM啾 is no less inferior in pretending to be a high school girl.

"Let me tell you... Then I would still recommend you to try filming TV series. If I really have to give you a reason, it's that I really like the MEM in front of the camera."

After lowering his head and pondering for a while, Beichuan Liang still gave his advice sincerely, and also stated the reasons, and then began to carefully plan for the other party's future:

"The company is currently launching several new web drama projects. If you are interested, MEM, you can try acting in these first. Once you gain a certain level of fame, I will help you contact and introduce you to a few directors I am familiar with who have a good reputation in the industry."

"In fact, after the last Tokyo BLADE stage play, you have already left a little mark in their hearts. After all, it is not easy to play a character with a small role well. Producer Kaburagi is also very optimistic about you. I will also help you pay more attention to news in this regard."

"As for the agent...MEM, please take a look at this chart first. The candidates who are currently available and have good abilities in the company are all here. If anyone is interested, I will introduce you to them."

While MEM啾 was lowering his head to study the icon carefully, Beichuan Ryo took the teacup on the desk and took a sip to moisten his throat which was a little dry from speaking a lot of words just now.

Frankly speaking, he and MEM啾 had not been so alone together many times in the past, but this had also been the main theme of their relationship over the years. Both sides were careful and even deliberately trying to maintain a certain distance, but this did not mean that their relationship was bad. In short, it was a rather contradictory state.

As for Kitagawa Ryo, the reason for this somewhat strange way of getting along is, on the one hand, because Hoshino Ai was jealous of him in his early years.

Although it seems like a complete fabrication now, but when the relationship between the two was not officially confirmed, to be honest, the only person who made Hoshino Ai feel a little sense of crisis was MEM啾, who appeared next to Kitagawa Ryo at the time and was not much older than her. It was after Hoshino Ai explained the matter almost bluntly that Kitagawa Ryo still kept a distance from MEM啾 intentionally or unintentionally with the mentality of keeping a distance from her.

As for the other reason, it is about the past and present of the ACE group.

Now that all members of ACE have graduated several years ago, Kitagawa Ryoya is willing to admit that when this group was first planned and established, it was specifically created for his younger sister Kitagawa Rumi. At that time, he was almost in the most serious period of sister control, so from the beginning to the end, he was forming this idol group with an almost paranoid and excessive desire to protect her.

From this perspective alone, the reason why he approached and introduced MEM啾 to ACE was essentially for this reason. He felt that this child would definitely become his sister's best friend and teammate.

The final facts also proved that there was nothing wrong with Kitagawa Ryo's idea. As the oldest member of the group, MEM啾 has always played an irreplaceable and key role during ACE's activities. Especially after Samejima Abiko graduated as a solo artist, she still chose to support the group for another year with Kitagawa Rumi. Even the final graduation of ACE was due to Kitagawa Rumi's own desire to graduate.

Simply put, for Kitagawa Ryo, this is a debate about whether to talk about heart or deeds. Although MEM啾 did realize his dream through the group ACE, in fact his original intention was not like this.

"...MEM, what do you think of your time as an idol?"

Perhaps it was because they were the only two people in this relatively quiet office. By the time Beichuan Liang reacted, he had already subconsciously spoken out his thoughts in the direction of MEM啾.

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, MEM first hummed a surprised character from his throat, and then showed an exaggerated expression of shock:

"Is the company planning to launch a new idol project?"

"Is the firm so short of new people that they have to recruit me, a 25-year-old, to take over?"

"…I was asking about the time when I was at ACE."

"…Sorry, I've been reading the comments for the past two days and it's been a bit overwhelming."

MEM啾 smiled a little embarrassedly, casually put the chart in her hand aside, crossed her arms on the table, and lazily put her chin on it. Compared to choosing her future agent, she was obviously more interested in having such a leisurely and relaxed chat with Kitagawa Ryo.

"ACE? This should be the happiest time in my life so far... I can do what I like and see my dreams come true step by step. If I think about it now, such experiences are very precious and hard to replicate."

As she spoke, as if she had sensed what Beichuan Liang was thinking, MEM啾 also tilted her head, resting her head on her arm and smiled at him tenderly:

"Didn't Liang say that himself? You should do what's best for you at the most appropriate time, just like 26 is more suitable to be a mother than 16, regardless of physical condition, social opinion, financial situation, psychological expectations, and other aspects."

"In fact, everything in this world has its most suitable age. Whether it is advanced or postponed, there will be no unimaginable difficulties. The golden age for idols to debut is between the ages of twelve and twenty, and after that it is the inevitable downhill stage, so many idol production projects will impose the strictest restrictions on age during the audition stage."

"To be honest, if I hadn't debuted then, it would be fine for me to be an idol now, but some things are missed once they're gone. At least when I was 17, I didn't pay as much attention to my skin condition and body functions as I do now. And that's just the visible part."

"so--"

Having said this, MEM啾 also closed his eyes slightly, and his tone became much softer.

"ACE, for me... is the dream I wanted to achieve at the right age."

Precisely because there is no second chance in life, such a situation seems particularly lucky and precious.

"If that's what MEM-chu thinks... well, that's good."

After listening to the other party's entire speech, Beichuan Liang also breathed a sigh of relief, as if he was saying final farewell to some knot in his heart from the past.

Most stories would come to an end at this point, at least that's what Kitagawa Ryo thought, until he saw MEM啾 in front of him again. He was now twenty-seven years old and she was twenty-five. A full ten years had passed since they met again after shooting a commercial as children.

But Kitagawa Ryo still read these words from MEM啾's pupils, and read out a certain emotion that he had vaguely felt during the rehearsal of the stage play "Tokyo BLADE".

After everything was almost settled, she was finally able to give herself back to herself and finally start pursuing love.

At 25, she may have indeed passed the most suitable age to become an idol, but she should not have missed the age to fall in love with someone.

"I like coolness."

After saying this with a smile, she began to quietly wait for Kitagawa Ryo's response, waiting for one of the endings, 'Thank you for your patronage' or 'Special Prize'.

Today, MEM啾 was not wearing her iconic devil horn-style headband that Kitagawa Ryo gave her. Instead, she had a childish bob hairstyle.

In fact, until this point, Beichuan Liang was not sure where their future would lead, but at this moment, he was still willing to respond to her persistence as much as possible.

Start with a kiss on the forehead and then slowly move down.

In response to her longest and most persistent secret love and first love, which started and ended when she was fifteen, and finally ended and started again when she was twenty-five.

Shueisha's editor Yokota has recently fallen into the most troublesome predicament since she became a manga editor. Another manga author she is responsible for has taken the initiative to convey to her the idea of ​​completing the work.

Normally, the completion of old comics and the start of new comics are common things in this industry, but the comic author who proposed this idea to her was named Abiko Samejima, and the work she wanted to complete was naturally "Tokyo BLADE", one of the most popular comics nowadays.

Although he was envied by his colleagues as the editor of the manga "Tokyo BLADE", it was precisely because of this that Editor Yokota was extremely nervous at this critical juncture and even suffered from severe insomnia and internal exhaustion.

As we all know, for comic editors, their job content ultimately comes down to only two things: to make the responsible authors draw works that can sell well, and to ensure that popular comics do not end.

It is no exaggeration to say that comics of the level of "Tokyo BLADE" are simply cash cows for the editorial department and the publishing house. Once it is completed, the overall value and sales of the magazine will be seriously affected. What's more, the first season of the animation, the theatrical version, the 2.5-dimensional stage play, and the live-action film project have all been a huge success, and the second season of the animation is already in full swing. Preparations, everyone hopes that this work will never be completed.

As a veteran editor of Shueisha, Yokota naturally has experience in dealing with similar situations before, but in the end, it is nothing more than persuading the authors not to finish the work, persuading them with reason and emotion, or to put it more bluntly, almost coaxing the authors to continue drawing. Faced with the authors' complaints of "Enough! I really can't draw anymore" and "I don't want to do it anymore!", he has to play the role of a nanny and take good care of the authors on the spiritual level.

But this solution obviously does not apply to Samejima Abiko. It's not that she is so arrogant and unwilling to communicate with the editor. In fact, compared to most of the best-selling cartoonists, Samejima Abiko, who has been an idol for several years, is the closest to a normal person that Yokota has ever seen in terms of personality.

However, this is also the reason why Yokota knew that he could not persuade the other party. Samejima Abiko has shown too high a subjective initiative from beginning to end. Not only does the plot of the work itself not require her as an editor to intervene and make suggestions, even IP-derived animations, stage plays and other plans have to be supervised throughout the process. In this case, rather than saying that she is an editor, it is better to say that she is a tool for receiving and reviewing manuscripts.

But even so, under the advice of many bigwigs in the editorial department and the publishing house, Yokota still had to try hard for her job and future. After thinking for a long time, she chose to call Kichijoji Raiko, who was the manga assistant of Samejima Abiko, intending to use an indirect tactic.

As if he had already guessed the purpose of her call, after a few brief greetings, Editor Yokota got another suggestion from Kichijoji Raiko:

"In this regard, I suggest you go to Kitagawa-kun."

Although Kichijoji Raiko did not say the full name, editor Yokota was very clear that the 'Kitagawa-kun' mentioned by the other party was Kitagawa Ryo. Even if we don't mention that the male lead of all live-action projects related to the "Tokyo BLADE" IP will always be Kitagawa Ryo, Samejima Abiko herself publicly admitted a few years ago that Kitagawa Ryo was the prototype of the male protagonist BLADE in the comics.

Then, Editor Yokota heard the next joke from Kichijoji Raiko on the other end of the phone:

"Coaxing the author like a nanny and taking care of the author's mental state is what Kitagawa-kun has been doing for a long time."

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

"Why are you suddenly planning to finish it? Didn't the live-action movie of Tokyo Blade do very well last year? It was a win-win in both box office and reputation, and it won many awards... I think this is the first time that Akane and I have won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards for the same work."

Kitagawa Ryo lazily lay back on the sofa in the living room of Samejima Abiko's house, talking to Samejima Abiko who was still sitting in a chair with her knees hugged and writing on the digital tablet in her hand, while casually taking off the blue men's slippers on his feet. The slippers had been neatly placed in front of the entrance when he came over.

“Because all the stories I thought of and the things I wanted to draw have already been drawn.”

Facing Kitagawa Ryo's concerned inquiry, Samejima Abiko paused for a moment with the pen in her hand, and finally answered calmly.

"Besides, Tokyo BLADE has been serialized for more than five years."

After hearing Samejima Abiko say the concept of more than five years, Beichuan Ryo was also slightly stunned:

"Has it been that long?"

"Ah."

Samejima Abiko nodded gently, as if she suddenly lost the desire to paint anymore. After putting down the things in her hands, she walked to the sofa barefoot in three or two steps without even putting on slippers. Kitagawa Ryoya subconsciously retracted his legs to make room for her to sit down. Then he saw Samejima Abiko, who followed his posture and leaned her head on the soft armrest on the other side of the sofa, naturally put her legs on him.

"But for Liang and I, this time will be even longer."

Before Kitagawa Ryo could react, he heard Samejima Abiko add this sentence in a melancholy tone.

"…If you count from the initial draft stage, it has indeed been more than ten years."

"Does Ryo think Tokyo BLADE is good?"

"nice."

"Where's the beauty?"

“Can I say it’s because the protagonist is based on me? Watching this character grow up, fall in love, experience friendship, family, and love, and finally realize his ultimate dream, there shouldn’t be any readers in the world who can relate to the character more than I do.”

"Um...anything else?"

"Of course there is. I really like the ending where Blade and Shoji are together. By the way, this is probably one of the reasons why Ruby and Akane like Tokyo Blade."

As he said that, Kitagawa Ryo also closed his eyes slightly and moved his gaze away from Samejima Abiko's bare feet that were currently resting on his abdomen. Perhaps because she seldom went out in the past few years as a professional cartoonist, her ankles were undoubtedly thinner than when she was an idol, and her skin looked particularly pale, almost pathologically.

"But the reason why I like this plot is different from the other two. I just like the way Abiko was willing to follow her original outline and write this story between two people smoothly to the end."

Kitagawa Ryo has always been following "Tokyo BLADE". After all, to be honest, he sees the latest plot and pictures earlier than the editor every week. Therefore, he is naturally very aware of the sudden rise in popularity of Kengi in the middle and late stages of the series. In several popularity votes at that time, Kengi had firmly surpassed Sayahime.

It's actually quite common for creators to change the amount of focus on a character according to the popularity and trends among readers. Just like the light novel author Watari Watari increased the role of Isshiki Iroha in the second half of My Teen Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected because the character was unexpectedly popular. This is not a big deal, and it can even be said to be an initiative to adapt to the choices of readers and the market. Even editors will make suggestions like 'character xx or volume x has received good reviews in the market, so you can focus more on her.'

But being willing to believe in your own work from beginning to end is also not an easy and amazing thing. After all, Watari's example does not represent everyone. There are also many tragedies in the industry where the entire work collapsed due to this reason due to changing the character CP or even the background settings midway.

In Kitagawa Ryo's eyes, it is even more difficult for Samejima Abiko to achieve this, because the popularity of "Tokyo BLADE" is so high and the reader base is so large that their voices and popularity rankings cast by voting can easily give the author the illusion that the whole world thinks so.

"Sure enough, Liang thought just as I did."

As if she was very satisfied with Kitagawa Ryo's answer, Samejima Abiko moved her body a little restlessly and rubbed her feet up and down complacently.

"If I really have to say, this should be attributed to my idol career in those few years... Although I just thought that I should accompany Ruby as a friend at the beginning, I also gained a lot in ACE."

At this point, Samejima Abiko smiled a little embarrassedly:

"At least it has significantly improved my ability to handle the pressure of online comments, and I have gained a lot of 'cloud fans' who are willing to speak for me without thinking."

Hearing Samejima Abiko mention this, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help laughing out loud. As the only representative who has crossed countless professions and transformed from an idol to a professional cartoonist, compared to other cartoonists, Samejima Abiko has the characteristic of being famous before her work becomes popular.

Facts have proved that the title of 'the best drawer among idols' is obviously not as big a gimmick as 'the most suitable cartoonist to debut as an idol'. As a member of the once well-known idol group ACE, Samejima Abiko's appearance and popularity are naturally needless to say, which has also led to a part of her fan base who do not read or pay attention to comics at all, but simply still push Samejima Abiko as an idol.

The most prominent feature of these "cloud fans" is their mindless praise and mindless protection, which in a sense helps relieve Abiko Samejima's mental pressure a little.

“But as far as the whole work is concerned, the biggest credit for me being able to materialize Tokyo BLADE from the fantasy in my mind onto the drawing paper so concretely, and for being able to reach the end so smoothly all the way, should be to Ryo.”

“…Is it that exaggerated?”

Beichuan Liang just shook his head when he heard it. Just when he was about to continue to say something like 'the people who should be most thankful for the creation of a work are always the author himself and the readers', he felt the weight on his abdomen and lower body lighten.

The next second, Samejima Abiko, who had withdrawn her feet from the other end of the sofa and stood up, squeezed her calves in between his legs, and supported her upper body with her hands, one on the left and one on the right. She leaned forward and stared closely at Kitagawa Ryo's pupils, and said seriously:

"It's not an exaggeration, it's just like that."

For Samejima Abiko, even without mentioning that when she was a child, Kitagawa Ryo was the first 'great' adult who was willing to seriously support her somewhat ridiculous dream, just in the more than five years since she officially started her serialization career, Kitagawa Ryo was the most irreplaceable person.

Just as Kichijoji Raiko said to editor Yokota, the one who truly coaxed her and was able to coax her, and who took care of her physically and mentally from beginning to end was actually the only one, Kitagawa Ryo. The proof for the first half was the long chat records that she had backed up several times, and the proof for the second half was the ticket stubs of countless stage plays that Kitagawa Ryo had accompanied her to during the two years when she served as the screenwriter and wrote the script for the stage play "Tokyo BLADE".

Samejima Abiko still gets excited because Kitagawa Ryo can perfectly reproduce all her fantasies from the comics, but she doesn't know when it started, but getting along with Kitagawa Ryo, who is not playing BLADE, has also become her most anticipated and enjoyable experience.

She just stared straight at the pitch-black pupils of Kitagawa Ryo, who was so close to her, until she saw the reflection of her own face in them. Her and his pupils had the same black and white color, which made Samejima Abiko vaguely remember the time a long time ago when she wanted to follow her new friend Kitagawa Rumi and call her "brother", but was forbidden by Rumi with a pout.

As a result, even Kitagawa Rumi herself no longer has a simple brother-sister relationship with him.

"Didn't Ryo just say that he really likes to put himself in the shoes of the male protagonist BLADE?"

"This is a character I created, so it's reasonable for me, the author, to decide every move and every line he says."

Samejima Abiko's voice became softer and softer, and she seemed to feel ashamed of what she said. Her hands seemed to have lost their strength and drooped down, and her upper body, which had been propped up, naturally fell down.

"Come and kiss——"

Before she finished her next sentence, she subconsciously let out a small cry of surprise, because Beichuan Ryo, who was originally pressed under her, suddenly reached out and put his arms around her waist, and with a slight force on his wrist and waist, he turned the two of them 180 degrees.

"Okay."

Beichuan Liang leaned over, smiled and kissed the other person's lips, which were slightly pursed due to the nervousness at the moment. It was a warm and soft touch.

It seems that Abiko Samejima has not thought one thing through clearly, that is, at the end of the story, whether it is Kitagawa Ryo or BLADE, the male protagonist is actually the most proactive one.