Chapter 88 - THIS or THAT for the new drama (Reincarnated as a Beautiful Girl and Aim to Become a Top Actress!)

 Chapter 88: The THIS and THAT for the New Drama

　Putting Yoko's congratulations aside for a moment, let's talk about the new drama that has been in the news for a while.

　I ended up accepting the offer, but the original plan was to shoot at a fairly rapid pace in June and July, and the schedule was held up in order to meet the broadcast schedule starting in late July.

　However, even after mid-term exams were over and it was almost June, I still hadn't heard anything concrete, so I decided to ask Yoko about it.

She said, “Oh, that. It seems that they are in the middle of a huge dispute, so I don’t know what's going to happen next.”

I asked Yoko, “Was there any element of a big dispute that would cause so much trouble?”

　The first thing to do is to make sure that the drama targeted at students from elementary to high school runs during summer vacation, so it would definitely get better ratings if it was scheduled for the first broadcast.

“The worst case scenario is that we might have to break the deal, so be prepared for that.”

Well, that's unfortunate. That's a possibility, isn't it?

　It is a common practice to have a child actor or actress you really want to cast, and because he or she is likely to reject your offer, you make an offer to the second or lesser candidate and hold the schedule for the time being. If for some reason that schedule is lost, it is called a “bara-barashi” in the industry. If possible, you don't want this to happen because you will lose the entire job. It is a matter of life and death, especially for someone like me who has to raise money for school and living expenses on my own.

　But when I complained about the fact that I was told about it, there was almost no chance that they would say, 'Please let it be Sumire’. Rather than being thought of as a difficult actor to deal with, I would rather just swallow it and look forward to the next step.

It would be more positive and beneficial to me if I just swallow it and move on to the next thing. I try to accept them with an open mind, except in the worst case, when I get a call the day before or the day of the event.

“Is it some kind of mishandling of the arrangements?” I asked Yoko.

“I haven't had a proper explanation from the other side yet. It's just a rumor, but the daughter of an executive at the TV station that will be broadcasting the movie wants you to play the leading role.” Yoko said.

“Does that mean that I’m going to play the lead?”

“It's hard to say directly, Sumire. But that's what I heard. But the production side immediately refused, saying, 'Don't be silly,' but the TV station is trying to exert its authority, saying, 'We're going to dry you out of the industry,' or 'We're going to eliminate your slot on the airwaves’.”

　Wow, they are really mixing up their public and private lives. The executive seems to be in a very senior position, but I wonder if he is a parental idiot. Even if they forced her daughter into the role and she got it, no production team would normally try to use her again after that. Even if they were asked to give up the role due to adult circumstances, I would not want to give up the role unconditionally. At the very least, they should have a direct confrontation, or at least an audition to compare the two actors' abilities, and if they were asked to drop the role, they would have to agree to drop it even though they are dissatisfied because of their own lack of ability.

　If it were true, there would be no need for me to care like that, since I have already been cast. If I were to accept an unreasonable request once in this industry, I might be taken advantage of to give in the same way the next time, so to tell the truth, I don't want to do it as much as possible.

　As I was thinking about this, the name of a certain girl suddenly came to my mind. I was a little nervous and asked Yoko if she was sure it wasn't that girl.

I asked Yoko, a bit scared that it might be that girl, “By any chance, her name isn't Suzu Ikeda, is it?”

“No, that's not the name I've heard. Sumire, do you have any idea?”

　Yoko-san asked with a puzzled expression on her face. I said that I did, “Oh, yes, I do. Normally, I wouldn't remember the name of a child actor with whom I had worked only once many years ago.

　Suzu Ikeda-chan was a girl I worked with on my first commercial shoot, and I don't remember if it was for a TV station or a production company, but I believe she was the daughter of someone I was involved with. I remember that the make-up artist and other staff on the set looked at her from afar as a selfish girl. I actually felt that she was a bit moody, but she took her job seriously during filming.”

　When I told Yoko about Suzu-chan, she looked surprised and said, “How could you remember her, Sumire?”

     “In my previous life, I was not good at remembering other people's names or matching faces and names, but since becoming Sumire, I can do both without difficulty. I think it's probably because of my brain performance, and I think it's probably the reason I can study so well.

I think she is the daughter of the president of a production company.”

　Yoko's mumbled words, which I could only vaguely recall. It made me feel relieved that it was someone else. I was relieved to hear that it was a different girl. I wonder how you are doing, Suzu-chan.

　Yoko-san told me that when you are the daughter of a president or an executive, you are often interfered with in the casting process in this way in order to add a foil. If you want to be a foil, why don't you take the time to prepare and do it in a way that doesn't cause any trouble? 

　Maybe this is why I was a little nervous when I got a call about this a few days later. I was relieved to hear that it was a face-to-face meeting, which meant that the conversation had gone well, so I attended the meeting in my uniform after school.

　I was shown into a fairly large room that could have been used as three meeting rooms if it were separated by partitions. I guess this room is used for various purposes, such as temporary storage of props and reading for dramas.

　I entered the room with a “good morning” greeting and found a long desk and many pipe chairs lined up. On one side of the whiteboard sat the director, director, and female scriptwriter, and on the other side sat several men in suits. Maybe they were from the main sponsoring company. Yoko gave me a signal and I greeted the directors first, followed by the men in suits. The men gave me their business cards. They were from long-established companies that have supported the broadcast slot where the drama will be shown for many years.

If you call it an ulterior motive, you are right, but you have to be polite to people from companies that go in and out of TV stations. Maybe they will give me another job.

　In front of the whiteboard were long desks arranged in the shape of a square, where the performers were sitting. I took a quick look and greeted the older ones and those near me first. It would be impolite to pass by people who had not yet greeted, and it would not make them feel good.

“Violet, this side is open.”

　The person who raised his hand and called me over was Tatsuya Ishigurugi, with whom I had previously acted in a movie. I had heard that the role of the older brother was decided after an audition, but it seemed that Tatsuya had worked hard to win the role. I was told before that the final audition for the role of Ryuuya's older brother was held, but apparently Tatsuya did his best to win the role.

He said, “Sumire-chan, it's been a long time. You used to talk to me as if I was your friend until the other day, but the distance between us has widened, hasn't it?”

　”I didn't talk to you as if you were my friend, did I? I'm basically supposed to use honorifics at work. But sometimes when we passed each other in the corridor of the TV station and talked, I might have mixed in some tame-mouthed words.”

　When I told him that it was difficult for me to successfully switch to only tame-speak because it was unconscious, Tatsuya said something like, “Well, let's talk a lot to get used to it”. Well, I was grateful for the offer because I too would miss having someone to talk to on the set, but I wondered if it was fun for a man in his early adulthood years to talk to a first-year junior high school girl. I am aware that I am far removed from the average junior high school girl.

　I suddenly looked toward the table opposite me and saw Mr. Nakamura raising his hand so lightly that I could almost hear him say, “Yo. As someone who had heard about the proposal, I felt a strange kind of ticklishness and embarrassment”. Perhaps it showed in his expression, but Mr. Nakamura's face turned miffed.

“What's with the ......, you grinning at me?”

“No, no, it's nothing. It's been a while, Mr. Nakamura. I look forward to working with you again in the future.”

Not wanting to spoil my senior's mood, I did my best to return to a serious expression and bowed my head. Perhaps feeling that it was not mature to be more grumpy with me, Mr. Nakamura replied, “......oh, nice to meet you. I didn't want to make the atmosphere of our meeting worse. Nakamura-san is very tense. I think he probably anticipated that I would have heard about the proposal from Yoko. I can't talk about this kind of thing in the presence of other people, and I don't even intend to in the first place.

　While I was thinking about that, suddenly there was a loud “bang!” I turned my head in that direction. I looked in that direction and saw a girl sitting alone at the long desk farthest from the whiteboard, standing up and slamming her palm down on the desk as if to glare at me. From the loudness of the sound, she must have hit the desk with all her might. I can imagine how painful it must have been, but I honestly don't like it when people take it out on me.

“I'm sure you're late, but don't just sit around chatting with people you know, come and say hello to me!　You're rude!”

　She yelled at me as if she was about to spit on me, but it was probably our first meeting, right? Well, there were other actors who were performing with me for the first time, but I had greeted them properly before coming to this seat, and they didn't yell at me like this. Are you actually a very famous actor or something? She's taller than me but looks not much older, and I probably haven't seen her face on TV or anything. No, of course, I don't know the faces and names of all the actors and child actors, so maybe I just don't remember her.

　The room was quiet, and when I looked around, I saw that the directors had bitter expressions on their faces, but they were silent without saying a word. I am sorry to say this, but I think they can't say anything because of her rudeness. From there, I connect my thoughts and come to the conclusion that perhaps this is the daughter of the executive that Yoko was talking about.

　I thought that if I did not greet her, this would not go away, so I tried to bow my head, but before I could do so, Mr. Nakamura let out a very loud and deep sigh.

He sighed deeply, “You, you don't understand what you just said at all, do you?”

“What? .......”

“In this industry, no matter how young you are, the one who has been in the business longer is in a higher position. Even if you begged your dad to give you this job, the hierarchy is determined by your own artistic career, regardless of your dad's power. Violet may look like this, but she has been doing this job since she was in the middle of elementary school. Don't you understand that it is right for you, who is making her debut in this work, to go to her place to greet her, and not to yell at her like a big shot? It's common sense.”

The girl senses Nakamura's polite, but therefore strongly mocking, correct argument, and her face turns red as if to say, “Gnuh-gnuh”. I don't know whether it was anger or embarrassment, but I had to do something before she exploded again.

“I'm Sumire Matsuda. It's nice to meet you.”

　I spoke a little too quickly, but I let myself introduce myself to her before she could say a word. But I was certainly miffed that she had suddenly yelled at me, so I only bowed my head to her. Even so, the air in the room relaxed a bit, and the stifling atmosphere became a little more comfortable.

　From what Nakamura-san said, it seems that this girl had already done something before we arrived. I waited for a while for the other person to say something back, even though I didn't care if he or she didn't want to say his or her name back to me anymore. She sat back down in her pipe chair with a thump and shut her mouth, as if she really did not want to say her name to me.  

　When the meeting starts, I'm sure she will at least introduce herself properly. Until then, she’ll just be the nameless Gombe-chan. When I thanked Ms. Nakamura for sheltering me, I was scolded by her with a smirk and a mouthful of “sweetness” as well. Yoko-san, who had come to my immediate side in concern, and I looked at each other and laughed.

　Yoko asked me if I was alright and I nodded my head. She went back to the reserved seats behind us, though she still looked a little worried. Well, I'm fine, but the hostile stares that are still being directed at me are a bit mentally draining.

　Thinking that it was going to be a mentally tough shoot, I was finally able to sit down in the pipe chair prepared next to Tatsuya-san.