They all pushed me!

“But I don’t want to lie to myself anymore.”

"I'm still in love with you."

Or maybe it's "Still" which has a catchy melody and is easy to sing on a large scale as an idol's debut song.

Kitagawa Rumi's performance was impeccable.

Although they are not biological siblings, Kaburagi Katsuya even sees the shadow of Kitagawa Ryo in her.

It's exactly the same as Beichuan Liang for a while...

Those pupils seemed to be telling something strongly, like black stars.

Chapter 4: There and There (5k)

Among the many Japanese urban legends that Kitagawa Ryo had heard in his previous life, there was a tradition that the boss of the Seibu Group would kneel down and clean the shoes of the new employees, and then let the new employees clean the shoes of the boss. He still remembered the tabloids at the time praising it, "Therefore, in Seibu Company, no employee has changed jobs, the relationship between superiors and subordinates is harmonious, the new and old employees are united and diligent, the company's business is prosperous, and many young people flock to it, claiming that in addition to the salary, they have found their dignity here."

If Kitagawa Ryo had not really traveled through time and known that the management philosophy pursued by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the top leader of the Seibu Group, was actually "preferring slaves to talents", and that the group itself had been losing money every year since the bursting of the bubble economy, and that it was only in the past two years that it was sentenced to prison on multiple charges including suspected release of false financial information, falsification of financial statements, and illegal internal stock trading, he would probably have really believed it.

However, thinking about the Japanese summer camp German sewer that was popular at that time, Kitagawa Ryo felt relieved a little.

Moreover, although this story was made up, it somehow provided him with some pretty good psychological comfort for the situation he was facing.

Beichuan Liang had a tense face and calmly raised the large horse-hair brush in his right hand.

Then he gently grasped the smooth, tight little leather shoe in front of him.

Half an hour ago, he would never have thought that things would turn out like this.

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

Tokyo, LALALAI Theater Company.

"--In summary."

"To sum it up in one sentence, Ruby and I are in a cold war."

Beichuan Liang rubbed his brows with a headache, looking quite tired, with a hint of worry and haggardness in his eyes. However, despite his first-class appearance, he gave off a pitiful melancholy temperament. If he were to be in a bar late at night, he would probably receive dozens of business cards and contact information in ten seconds.

"It's really rare... No, it should be said that it's the first time I've seen it."

"Regarding that Senior Liang would actually have a cold war with Ruby, I have never thought about this before."

Akane Kurokawa wrinkled her nose and spoke in an incredulous tone.

"Besides, isn't Ruby currently planning on the details of her debut?"

"Well, it feels like she's escaping back home. She's been throwing herself into the training and work there for a while now... Although she unexpectedly received high praise from Kaburagi, this is definitely not a healthy mental state."

"Xia, see if you can ask Ruby out under your name. It would be best if she can be comforted."

Kitagawa Ryo also sighed helplessly. Although he had thought that his sister and Ai had some conflicts, he had not expected that Rumi's reaction would be so big after that day.

First, she threw away the Orange Bear doll that had been with her for nearly ten years in a fit of anger, and then she sneaked into his room without saying a word that night. When she woke up in the morning and was discovered, she subconsciously refuted him and said tearfully, "If you only like and love doing that kind of thing, you might as well go directly to her room and her bed next time. Anyway, she, as your sister, is redundant, so just move out of the house."

Then Kitagawa Rumi really moved out, and I heard that she is currently temporarily living with Saito Kyoko.

However, it is not easy to explain these things in detail to a child like Kurokawa Akane.

Kitagawa Ryoya had no choice but to give an ambiguous answer and then told the real purpose of his visit.

Since neither he nor Hoshino Ai can resolve Rumi's mental illness, her friends can only take over and serve as the doctors who "cure her mental illness."

After informing the other two members of ACE, Kitagawa Ryoya thought of Kurokawa Akane again.

After all, the speed at which her sister's social circle has expanded over the years is really touching. Apart from Samejima Abiko, only Kurokawa Akane, whom she has known for several years, can be considered a good friend of Rumi. And she also heard that Kitagawa Ryo has a good relationship between the two. Rumi even went to the children's drama "Antigone" starring Kurokawa Akane to show her support.

"Okay, I understand. Leave it to me. I will make sure Ruby and Ryo-senpai reconcile."

"I'll send a message to Ruby first. If she replies, it means we can communicate our feelings now. If I don't want to irritate her, I'll find another interesting topic to see her reaction."

Akane Kurokawa, who finally had the opportunity to practice psychological cases, immediately agreed and began to plan the content of the conversation with Rumi Kitagawa in an orderly manner.

"There's no need to have so much pressure, holding on to the mentality that you must succeed or else something bad will happen..."

After watching Akane Kurokawa seriously calculating the direction of the topic and the optimal answer on her phone's memo, Kitagawa Ryo smiled:

"After all, making a false oath brings disaster."

Glancing at the pendant still hanging quietly on Kurokawa Akane's neck, Kitagawa Ryo felt a pang of pain in his teeth, as if he had cast a spell on the other person.

Ever since Akane Kurokawa decided to win an audition against Kana Arima a few years ago and got the pendant from him, Akane Kurokawa has continued her undefeated legend against Kana Arima until now (excluding dramas).

"By the way, has Akane been auditioning for the same role with Kana recently?"

After hearing Kitagawa Ryo's question, Kurokawa Akane suddenly stiffened. After all, she had been losing in acting for almost three years in a row, so it would be a lie for her to say that she was not afraid of Arima Kana herself.

So, after a brief pause, Kurokawa Akane honestly admitted:

"Well, it's Director Gotanda's new work, and it's scheduled to be a 13-episode evening TV series that will be aired next year. Although everyone says that the heroine is a role tailor-made for Kana, I still want to give it a try."

"A new work by Director Gotanda?"

Beichuan Liang recalled in his mind and suddenly had some impressions:

"Is it the movie 'Homeless Children'?"

"Yeah, the setting of the heroine in it is a bit like Yuri in Shoplifters, so I want to give it a try too."

Akane Kurokawa nodded and explained that even now she couldn't forget how she was defeated by Kana Arima in the audition for "Shoplifters".

She really couldn't perform the role of Yuri, the little girl hated by her parents back then, but after several years of acting training, Kurokawa Akane has been making rapid progress and has even gained some fame in the drama world as a child actor.

All I can say is, if she didn't have to compete with the currently popular Kana Arima for the same role every time, Akane Kurokawa wouldn't end up with nothing every time.

"But I can't say that she's like Yuri... The heroine of this time, Xiaoling, is a 'bad' child who does all kinds of frauds to save her seriously ill mother. But if she can earn money through legitimate means and labor, such as shoe shining, she is willing to do it. In a sense, she is a somewhat complicated character."

"I remember seeing one of her lines was..."

Kurokawa Akane raised her head slightly and tried to recall, then pouted her lips and reached out her hand to Kitagawa Ryo in front of her, and said softly:

"If you really sympathize with me, give me money."

"With Qian's expression and tone, it might be better to change the line to 'I'm cute, please give me money'. It might be more suitable."

Watching Akane Kurokawa's performance, Kitagawa Ryo shook his head with a smile on his face.

"As expected, it still doesn't work?"

Upon hearing this, Akane Kurokawa also showed a very lost expression. She lowered her head in frustration, hugged her knees and slowly squatted on the ground.

Then, as if she had discovered some new world, she stretched out the fingers of her right hand and gently poked Kitagawa Ryo's right foot in front of her, or to be exact, the leather shoe on his right foot.

"I see……"

Beichuan Liang only heard Kurokawa Akane mutter something. He subconsciously tried to withdraw his right foot, but was immediately grabbed by a hand:

"Do not move."

Even the usual way of addressing her was omitted. Kitagawa Ryo was stunned by the sudden burst of awe-inspiring aura from Kurokawa Akane, and he actually gave up on taking any further action.

"Shoe polishing... the naturally formed condescending perspective... the protagonist's psychological activities and mental state..."

Because the voice was so quiet, even Kitagawa Ryo couldn't hear what Kurokawa Akane was mumbling.

However, when Kurokawa Akane raised her head and stood up again, she looked dazed and thoughtful. She ran out of the room without saying a word, and when she came back, she had a few more things in her hands.

"Ryo-senpai—please don't move."

She spoke in a very serious tone:

“It’s part of the experience.”

Then, Kurokawa Akane squatted down again, quickly and thoroughly untied Kitagawa Ryo's shoelaces, pulled them out with a "swish", and placed them neatly aside.

Kitagawa Ryo had seen scenes in various literary and artistic works where the heroine squatted down to tie the hero's shoelaces, but this was the first time for someone to untie his shoelaces in this way.

It always feels like she has done homework in this area in advance. Kurokawa Akane's slightly immature movements reveal her meticulous seriousness. She uses a large horse bristle brush, soft cloth, shoe polish, rag and other tools in turn to gently and meticulously complete the shoe polishing work on her right foot.

Seeing that the other party was persistently looking at his left foot, Beichuan Ryo helplessly stretched out his left foot as well.

Although he knew that Kurokawa Akane was trying to experience the psychological journey of the heroine in "Homeless Child", seeing such a child who was less than ten years old squatting in front of him and busying himself with his leather shoes, Kitagawa Ryo himself felt a little weird and a deep sense of unnoticed satisfaction.

"I understand!"

After polishing both of Kitagawa Ryo's leather shoes until they were smooth and shiny, Kurokawa Akane, who accidentally got some black shoe polish on her face and hands, stood up proudly, holding up the brush in her hand and made a confident speech.

"I want the audience to sympathize with me from the bottom of their hearts, so I just need to act out that pity."

"Before you express your opinion, please wash your hands and face first."

Kitagawa Ryo also felt Kurokawa Akane's obsession, reached out and gently tapped her forehead, and used the mirror app on his mobile phone to show her his current appearance.

Kurokawa Akane came back to her senses as if awakened from a dream. She stuck out her tongue embarrassedly and immediately trotted out of the room again. After a long while, she came back after washing herself again.

"Oh, Ruby messaged me back."

Noticing the vibration of the phone in her pocket, Kurokawa Akane reported to Kitagawa Ryogo with a look of surprise.

"What did you say?"

As soon as he heard that there was a reply from Kitagawa Rumi, Kitagawa Ryo immediately asked.

"Ryo-senpai, don't talk. I'm going to make a phone call. If you're discovered, Ruby might hang up again."

Akane Kurokawa quickly made a gesture to keep quiet and then dialed Kitagawa Rumi's number.

"Hey, Ruby, um, it's me."

As soon as the phone was connected, Kurokawa Akane immediately broke into a brilliant smile and her tone of voice rose.

"I thought the super popular idol girl who was about to release her debut single and hold a debut live was too busy to reply to my message."

"Yeah, of course I know Ruby is having a hard time right now, but don't overwork yourself. You still need to relax when it's time to relax."

"Didn't you come to see my play last time? So I thought it would be nice if I could see Ruby's performance up close, too."

"Uncle Kindaichi also told me today that he really wanted to know what Ruby is doing now. After all, Ruby hasn't been to the LALALAI Troupe for a while."

"Are you planning to go to Miyazaki for the filming location of the MV? This weekend, um, I'm free, then it's settled, let's go together."

"Ryo-senpai? He's not here with me. Ruby knows that Ryo-senpai is a very busy man now and he rarely comes to the troupe."

"Okay, see you this weekend. I'll just talk to my family."

"Bye-Bye."

After saying goodbye, Kurokawa Akane hung up the phone with a smile and made a gesture to Kitagawa Ryo:

"Solved! Ruby will be going to Miyazaki Prefecture to shoot the MV for the single this weekend. I'll ask her out then, and Ryo-senpai will just explain everything to her."

"Um……"

Upon hearing this, Beichuan Liang also breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Rumi was still willing to communicate, it meant that the incident could still be resolved satisfactorily.

"Thank you, Xiao Qian."

Feeling a little more relaxed, he smiled and pointed out some of the mistakes in Akane Kurokawa's performance:

"I've also read Director Gotanda's script before. Akane's shoe-shining technique was too complicated and detailed. In the script, Xiaoling was setting up a makeshift shoe-shining stall on the street, and was even later noticed by the traffic police. In any way, her movements should have been more concise and neat, and she should have made good use of her smile. She should have looked up from time to time and smiled an almost flattering smile at the customers."

Kitagawa Ryo originally thought that this was just the same explanation of acting as countless times in the past.

But Akane Kurokawa, who has always been gifted, showed a rare look of confusion at this time:

"Although what Senior Liang said is very good, it would be better if I could see a demonstration with my own eyes."

Akane Kurokawa, who was sitting on the sofa, was swinging her calves shyly, but her face clearly showed anticipation.

The little pointed leather shoes on her feet swayed with her movements.

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

"What? It must be Brother, Liang who ordered it."

After hanging up the phone, Kitagawa Rumi hugged the quilt and muttered softly.

Even though so many days have passed, I still can't help but think of what happened back then.

"And asked Xiao Qian to call me... humph."

"Do you think I don't know? Stupid, stupid, stupid, do you still think I'm such a gullible child?"

Kitagawa Rumi turned over in bed and covered her eyes with her arms.

She is not a child, and she doesn't want to be a child in Beichuan Liang's eyes anymore.

and--