They all pushed me!

Kitagawa Rumi tilted her head, vaguely sensing something was wrong, but MEM-chu and Samejima Abiko, who were completely oblivious to the situation, were quite touched that Hoshino Ai had included so many expectations for them in this simple dish.

Is this the demeanor of a senior in the circle?

“Thank you for the treat, it was delicious.”

Even Samejima Abiko, who hadn't finished the first two dishes, ate Hoshino Ai's dish in small bites and gave a sincere facial expression Ψ(￣?￣)Ψ meaning 'very delicious'.

In this atmosphere, Kitagawa Rumi also read the air and swallowed the "I feel - it's better" that she was about to say, and nodded in agreement:

"Very tasty."

"Well, after tasting all the dishes, it's time for the guests to vote! Which of the three dishes tonight suits your taste the most?"

Gao Feng hosted the show with great passion, signaling the three guests to write down their favorite dish of the evening on cardboard. The one with the highest score will be crowned the king of cuisine of the evening and will receive privileges in subsequent sessions.

"First up is --MEM啾, she chose the vegetable meatballs she loves!"

"The second one, Abizi, oh, she drew the shape of a meatball directly on the board!"

"Although we can already announce Ai's victory in this round, Ruby's choice has not yet been revealed. Let's see - her final choice is the Son's cheering stick rice ball!"

This is not really Kitagawa Rumi's deliberate targeting of Hoshino Ai, but compared to ordinary vegetable meatballs, she really prefers Watanabe Seiko's cheering stick rice balls.

The yellow color dotted with pumpkin juice is exactly the one chosen by Kitagawa Rumi as her own exclusive support color. It is the color of orange and also her hair color.

Moreover, when seeing it, Kitagawa Rumi inevitably recalled the scene when she was still in kindergarten. She participated in the dance competition in the kindergarten, and Toshiro Kindaichi and Ryo Kitagawa were waving cheering sticks and flags in the audience to cheer for her.

But in fact, she had imagined this scene countless times in her dreams even before that.

Kitagawa Rumi likes to watch the opening of idol concerts. The lights in the venue are turned off, leaving only the idols under the spotlight and the light curtain like a galaxy or a rainbow formed by the cheering sticks under the stage.

She expressed what she had in mind as the reasons for her choice.

“This kind of scene is really touching.”

“I feel supported by many people.”

“I also really like the scene when fans wave their cheering sticks to the beat.”

The members of B Komachi also nodded in agreement.

"Well then - following this topic, let's move on to the second part of tonight's event."

"B Komachi's Tea Party!"

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"Come to think of it, are idol groups today still the same as they were back then? They have to fill out a self-introduction form, write down their favorite food, books, and places they most want to travel to, it's almost like a yearbook."

At the beginning of the second tea party, Seiko Watanabe brought up the relevant topic.

“This part is indeed retained, but now it is made into a self-introduction video and released by the official account, which is more convenient for passers-by to quickly understand and familiarize themselves with it.”

MEM, who is quite familiar with this aspect, answered this question with a smile:

"Our team's personal introduction PVs have been sent out now. If you are interested, you can search our group name on Twitter and lock in the official verified account to watch and follow."

Didn't even forget to put up an ad.

"Actually, a three-person group is pretty good. If there are too many people, the names will be super hard to remember."

On the other side, Gao Fenghe also complained:

"The girl idol group that we belong to, Mei Pro, just debuted last month. It has nearly 20 members. During the self-introduction stage, they have already developed a segment called 'let the audience remember your name and face in 15 seconds'. Everyone is doing all kinds of weird tricks, some are making faces, some are boxing, and some are even performing a cardboard box breaking with one foot."

"I really understand why names and faces are hard to remember."

Hoshino Ai took a sip of the black tea in front of her and spoke with a smile.

"That's true. After all, Ai couldn't remember who was who in our B-town. I remember complaining that from Ai's perspective, the whole world, including us, was a game, and we were just talking to NPCs with Villager A and Villager B above our heads."

"That's not directed at everyone in B Komachi. We had this problem at the time. Not only you, but even President Saito, I can't remember it. But didn't it get better later?"

Hoshino playfully bumped Gao Fenghe's arm beside him:

"Hey, Villager A, I see an exclamation mark above your head. Do you have any quest?"

"Dear Brave Man, please take the center position and lead us to the stage of Tokyo Dome!"

Having been on variety shows for several years, B Komachi and the others had no psychological burden at all and happily played role-playing games.

"Hey, I've already completed this mission. Hurry up and change the exclamation mark above my head to a question mark so I can claim my reward!"

"Here you go, reward."

Gao Fenghe picked up a cookie from the coffee table, handed it to Hoshino Ai's mouth with a smile, and she gobbled it up in one gulp.

After finishing this impromptu skit, Hoshino Ai swallowed the cookie in her mouth and brought the topic back to the guests:

"Compared to us back then, ACE's debut momentum is much faster."

This statement is not flattery. After all, the number of audience members for B Komachi's debut live performance seemed to be less than 100 people. She was actually an underground idol for a long time, and then slowly accumulated popularity step by step and gradually rose to prominence.

But ACE is completely different. As an idol group that has received attention from the industry in all aspects, coupled with the advance promotion of Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai, many passers-by also clicked to follow them out of interest. Anyway, if they become popular, they will be regarded as old fans if they support them now. If they don’t become popular, they can just pretend that they have never supported them.

As a result, ACE's official account currently only has three personal introduction PVs, and their debut live and debut songs have not yet been determined, but their number of followers has already exceeded 100,000.

It can be said that the starting point is much higher than that of B Komachi back then.

However, the only thing that puzzles people in the industry is that there has been no news of ACE signing a contract with any agency so far, including Burning Production where Kitagawa Ryo is. Otherwise, with the promotion of the agency, the popularity should be even higher.

Now, for the new idol group ACE, the dilemma they face is completely different from that of B-Komachi. All they need to consider is how to absorb this wave of traffic and convert these passers-by into group promoters. This can be regarded as a happy trouble.

It's not just the initial number of fans. As MEM啾 mentioned, the operations behind ACE are undoubtedly much more professional than those of B Komachi. At least there won't be the situation where four little girls in a fast food restaurant took over the business and created a so-called official account without knowing anything.

Other people might have also thought of this aspect. Watanabe Seiko also happily told this matter, and even made a special joke about the fact that Hoshino Ai knew nothing about electronic products and social platforms back then.

The program crew was also quite considerate and found screenshots of that account, which was completely at the level of primary and secondary school students, with messy graffiti and non-mainstream texts decorated everywhere, which makes people feel a little embarrassed even now.

“This is indeed too dark a history.”

Hoshino Ai couldn't help but cover her face:

"I just filled it out without knowing anything at the time."

"In the column for favorite artist, I filled in my brother."

Although the picture was a little blurry, Kitagawa Rumi still saw the familiar name at a glance and spoke something subconsciously.

"Because Kitagawa-kun was already very popular at that time. He was probably the most famous child star at the time. We liked him very much at that time."

Gao Fenghe nodded and explained, as if he was afraid that the audience who had not experienced that era would not be able to fully understand it, and added:

"She's even more popular than the most popular Kana Arima right now."

"Although it may be that Kana-chan doesn't take many advertisements, but back then, Kitagawa-kun's advertisements were everywhere, on bus platforms, subway corridors, and on the external screens of buildings..."

Kitagawa Rumi nodded upon hearing this, not realizing that the other party was just explaining it to her, a 'child who had not experienced that era'.

Then, the group brought the topic back to the beginning and talked about self-introduction, hobbies, favorite and disliked foods, etc.

The three members of ACE do not have any special dietary taboos. However, Kitagawa Rumi has some common dietary taboos among children, such as not liking condiments such as ginger and garlic. The program crew had learned about this in advance, and it was also to ensure the smooth progress of the cooking session.

"As for foods I hate, I used to hate white rice a little bit."

After talking about ACE's dietary taboos, Hoshino Ai spoke naturally.

"Because my mother was in a bad mental state before, she would sometimes drop glass fragments into the food. This kind of daily danger was really scary, so I didn't like it for a while."

"Dear mother, I remember you are still receiving treatment in a mental hospital."

Because it was reported and caused quite a stir at the time, other people also had an impression of it.

"Yeah, I hope she can recover soon."

Hoshino Ai smiled with concern.

After the somewhat heavy topic of hated food came to an end, everyone started chatting about their favorite foods in a relaxed manner.

"Everything my brother cooks is my favorite."

Kitagawa Rumi replied, then turned her gaze to Hoshino Ai.

Long time ago, she felt that she and he had similar feelings for the same person, Beichuan Liang.

Hoshino Ai didn't show any sign of dislike at all when she was having dinner at her house.

Because it was my brother who cooked the meal.

Because they are cold dishes, Hoshino Ai must have believed that they do not contain any danger or malice, and was able to eat them without any psychological barriers.

Kitagawa Rumi watched the conversation between MEM啾 and Hoshino Ai silently, then she reached out to take a cookie in front of her, put it in her mouth and chewed it quietly.

But her words—

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Kitagawa Ryo’s cooking skills were not achieved overnight. During his extensive initial practice, he inevitably produced various failures.

At the beginning, Kitagawa Ryo would try the food with Rumi who was watching.

But later on, he gradually gave up this step and instead studied, tasted, and corrected the recipe by himself until the dessert was truly edible and only then would he serve it to his sister.

Because Kitagawa Ryo discovered it.

No matter what kind of failure it was, his sister would only give it the "best review", even if she was chewing raw dough and had a bitter face, she would still say this stubbornly.

The moment Hoshino Ai brought up this topic, Kitagawa Rumi suddenly thought of a possibility:

...If one day Liang really made the worst dessert containing glass fragments, she might also look up and smile and say sweet as always.

Chapter 14: You are the one who saved me

After the hilarious tea party session ended, tonight's "B Komachi×B Komachi" also welcomed the short play performance session that is fixed in each episode.

After the script of "The Daughter of the Sea" was announced by the program team, the guests and hosts also conducted a so-called random draw. It is called "so-called" because the program team will manipulate the results of the draw to a certain extent, trying to make everyone get the most suitable and most effective role for the show.

Hoshino Ai, who received the most praise in the opening cooking session, also had the power to freely choose her role. Just when everyone, including Kitagawa Rumi, was wondering which of the two female roles with the most scenes, the little mermaid or the princess, her choice was beyond everyone's expectations.

Because it was an impromptu skit, the stage and makeup were naturally not particularly exquisite. Kitagawa Rumi, who drew the role of the little mermaid, simply put on a shell-shaped hair accessory. In front of her, Hoshino Ai, who volunteered to play the role of the witch, simply put on a cloak, hiding most of her face under the hood.

Kitagawa Rumi had never thought that Hoshino Ai would designate this role. They all knew that Kitagawa Ryo would appear as a mysterious guest in this segment and play the role of "Prince".

Whether it is the little mermaid who interacted the most with the prince throughout the whole process, or the princess who finally married the prince and lived happily together, they should be better characters.

The witch in the sea had no intersection with the prince on the shore from beginning to end.

Just when Kitagawa Rumi was still wondering about Hoshino Ai's choice, she heard a hoarse, mocking voice:

"I know what you're asking for, because you're just a fool!"

"You want to get rid of your fish tail and grow two pillars so that you can walk like a human. You want the prince to fall in love with you so that you can get him and thus get an immortal soul."

"But, my beautiful princess, I will let you achieve your goal, because this matter will bring you a tragic end."

Hoshino Ai, whose acting is impeccable, plays with the ends of her hair, and her eyes under the hood are fixed on Kitagawa Rumi's pupils, as if she hopes to find something from them.

"I can make you a potion to drink. Take it with you and swim to the land before the sun comes out. Sit on the beach and drink it. Then your tail will split into two parts and shrink into what humans call beautiful legs. Anyone who sees you will say that you are the cutest and most beautiful child they have ever seen!"

"But it is very painful - it is like having a sharp knife cut into your body. Then, every step you take will make you feel as if you are walking on sharp knives, as if your blood is flowing out. If you can bear this pain, I am willing to give you this medicine."

The subtext of these words is quite obvious.

Are you willing to change yourself for the sake of this love, even at the cost of abandoning your own uniqueness and naturalness?

"I can."

Kitagawa Rumi's tone was just like that of a woman at a wedding ceremony in a church, answering a series of "Do you want to..." from the priest with "I do".

Clearly in the script, the little mermaid’s voice should now be trembling.

However, the others were also a little nervous as it was their first time on stage and performing in front of the public.

Hoshino Ai lowered her eyes and continued:

"Once you have taken on human form, you can never become a mermaid again, you can never go down into the water and return to your sister's or your father's palace. And if you do not win the prince's love, if you do not make him love you with all his heart and ask the priest to join your hands together as man and wife, then on the morning after he marries someone else, your heart will break and you will turn into foam on the water."

Are you willing to cut off all past social connections for this love, and even erase your own sociality and devote yourself completely?

"I'm mentally prepared."

Kitagawa Rumi still gave a clear and straightforward answer.

"But you must pay me. And it is not a trifle that I want. Your voice is the most beautiful of all the men who live in the depths of the sea. You will no doubt want to charm him with it, but you must give it to me. I must have the best of you in exchange for my precious medicine."

The witch played by Hoshino Ai made the request with a strange smile.

Are you willing to unilaterally invest endless sunk costs for this love, for this illusory love with an unknown future, even before it comes?