A house was burning in front of me, and fire trucks were scrambling to put out the flames by spraying water. Police officers stopped onlookers as they tried to get closer, desperately trying to suppress the buzz at the scene.
Seeing such a scene from the shadows, I turned to the figure behind me.
“Then, big brother, will you pour that bucket of water on me?"
“...... ah, wait a moment, wait a moment."
“I can't wait, I have to be quick, or else Sayaka inside will..”
Sayaka is a first grade elementary school girl who lives in this house. We do not know where the fire started, but it suddenly spread and became a big fire. Sayaka's mother, who had been out, rushes back to the house and half-heartedly announces that Sayaka is still inside. The fire brigade tried to go inside to search for her, but the fire was spreading so fast that they had to sit on their hands and watch.
“There is no need for you to go! Where in the world would a brother like to help his precious sister rush into a fire!”
My brother pulled my arms with great strength and hugged me tightly, trapping me in his chest with both arms. The warmth of my brother's arms made the fear inside of me come to the surface.
I'd be scared, too. If it were true, I wouldn't want to be in a house burning like that if I could. But it might not be too late, it might not be too late to save Sayaka from dying. I'm the only one who can do that, because I'm the only one who has the ability to disappear.
When I muttered, "Maybe I awakened to this ability in order to use it in this way," my brother spat at me, "That's like a curse, isn't it?”, knowing that my intentions were firm, he gently pulled my body away from him and picked up a bucket and splashed water over the top of my head.
After making sure I had wet myself evenly, I said to my brother, “I'm off,” and turned around and made myself disappear, running toward the house that was still burning.
'Yes, cut! Firefighting, please, hurry!"
The firefighters, who had been holding back as they discharged the water, seemed to have entered firefighting mode as they began to move briskly.
A one-shot shoot that could not go wrong. The overly aggressive and forceful technique of setting real houses on fire makes me think that even though the bubble economy has burst, the financial sense of TV stations is still far removed from that of the average person. However, it was impossible to build a new house and burn it down, so they used a house they had built when they shot a drama more than ten years ago, which had been left unattended. Since the house was built inside the company's own spacious outdoor studio, the fire would not spread and the general public would not be harmed.
I heard that the local fire department had stopped the filming at one point, but apparently they were able to talk them out of it, and before I knew it, the real firefighters were going to participate in the filming by helping to put out the fire.
Needless to say, I gave up on the idea of cooperating with the firefighters, even though I had no idea how it would happen.
“Sumire-chan, are you okay?"
The wardrobe mistress asked me while I was wrapped up in a large bath towel that was thrown over me, and I replied crisply, “I'm fine.” The cut was made a long way from the burning house, so I wasn't particularly injured. I felt soaked down to my underwear, but it was mid-summer, so I didn't think I would catch a cold, so I didn't worry.
“Tatsuya, are you wet?"
“I'm fine. I sprayed the water on top of Sumire’s head like a shower, so the water didn't fly toward me.”
Tatsuya -san spread his arms wide to show that there was nothing wrong with his clothes, and he looked younger than his age, which made me chuckle. I was about to move with the costume lady to quickly get changed, when Tatsuya-san called out to me from behind.
“Um, can I go with you?"
"...Tatsuya, are you serious? You want to go with an elementary school girl to a room where she's about to get changed?"
Tatsuya-san, who was making excuses in a fluster, looked at me as if asking for help. The lady doesn't really think that Tatsuya-san is a loli-con, she is just teasing him. Tatsuya-san is very popular with the older sisters as a plaything because he always makes excuses for them.
Aside from that, there is one thing I absolutely must correct. I pulled the lady’s hand with a quirk and when I saw her gaze towards me, I said, “I’m in middle school”. “Gosh, I'm sorry. I knew it, it just came out of my mouth unintentionally, I must’ve gotten it all wrong.”
Perhaps she understood the protest behind my smile, the lady apologized to me as if she was a bit flustered. If you can honestly admit that you misspoke, well… It's often said that the words that come out unconsciously are the more honest words, right? If the staff members I work with still perceive me as an elementary school student, even though it's already summer vacation since I entered junior high school, it may be a serious situation.
“I’m going to ask you to stay outside the room until Sumire is done getting dressed and ready, but are you going to stand idly by the door?"
"Wow, that makes you look like a peeping tom or a prowler."
Knocked out by the continuous attacks from the ladies, Tatsuya-san said, '”Please call me when you are done,” and walked to the waiting area in a toddling manner. The older sister, who had informed the other staff members that I was going to change my clothes, opened the sliding door of the van. Before I got in, I locked eyes with Yoko-san, who was talking to someone from the bureau about something.
She asked me with gestures and mouthing, "Are you sure you're okay by yourself?" I made a circle with my right thumb and forefinger to indicate that I would be fine, since I would not be going far. Yoko nodded her head and waved her hand in the air to let me know she understood my intention. I got into the car and waved back, and after confirming that all the ladies had gotten in, the staff outside closed the sliding door with a lot of force.
“I'm glad it all turned out okay, though. The station is reckless with their one-shot shoots, where you can't fail."
“I was really nervous even though we were watching from the side," she said. “But the performers were under even more pressure, weren't they, Sumire-chan?”
After the ladies gave their verbal impressions of the earlier shooting, they turned to me. Apparently, the original plan was to burn a model of this fire scene and film it as if it were an actual house. However, the upper management of the TV station, who wanted to somehow smoke out the mess during the casting, said that they were allowed to burn a house that had been built and used for filming in the past and then abandoned for the filming this time.
I heard that if a house is left unoccupied, it gets damaged very quickly. In addition to that, the inside of the house was even more tattered than it looked because of the heavy equipment and the many crew members moving from place to place during TV filming.
Therefore, this time, only the outside of the burning building will be used for the video, while the inside of the building will be filmed on a set, using a smoke screen and red and orange lights to create the appearance of a burning building.
“When I first heard about it, I thought I would be acting in a burning house, so it was easier than that. But there was a lot of pressure.”
No, really, I'm just glad it was just a conversation scene outside. Moving around near the smoke and flames, I was afraid of having an accident. I'm not a particularly athletic person, but I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick in the weirdest places. I wonder how I can improve such a situation. Should I go to a shrine or temple to have an exorcism? I'll ask Yoko about it next time I have time.
After taking off my wet clothes in the locker room, I change into the outfit for the next scene. I was wearing the same T-shirt and skirt I had been wearing earlier, just in a different color and pattern, but it was almost the same outfit. I had brought a change of underwear, but the costume lady gave me a brand-new sports bra and matching panties. The color was an unusual shade for this era, somewhere between light blue and blue. It was a pretty color that could be called sky blue.
I would have given her a prettier bra and underwear, but in this drama, Sumire plays an elementary school student. Ever since we started filming, she's been wearing a sports bra to keep her breasts in check."
They are small compared to what are called big breasts in the Heisei era, but they have grown so large for elementary school students of this era that I have been told to wear a sports bra for adjustment. If I wore a full-fledged lace bra at school, I would be very embarrassed when I had to change for PE or other activities. These days I'm basically a sports bra person, so I don't really suffer from it.
After changing my clothes and having my damp hair dried, I got back into the car and headed back to the shooting location. Although they had partitioned off the area to make a kind of changing room, there was a gap in the room, so it was difficult for women to change their clothes. So the room was used for men to change and adjust their clothes a little.
The costume I took off earlier will be used again in the scene where I go into the house to rescue the girl, so I am supposed to have it washed and stained to look like that before I put it on. However, according to the staff, the cleanup after the house burning is taking a long time, so it looks like the shooting will be finished today. Until that is decided, we will be on standby, so we decided to ask for Tatsuya-san, who seemed to have something to say earlier, even though we had gone to the trouble of changing into our costumes.
If it were true, I should have gone looking for him myself, but the staff said they would call him for me, so I decided to take their word for it. I don't know if it was because it was already evening time or because there was quite a fire burning, but the sky was tinted orange with a beautiful sunset. If I had a smart phone, I would have taken a picture of it, but such things don't exist in this day and age. I'll just relax and look up and let it burn in my eyes until Mr. Tatsuya comes.
“Good job, Sumire-chan."
I slightly bowed to Tatsuya-san, who approached me with a short run, and sat down on a chair set up in the waiting area. I sat down on a chair set up in the waiting area, and Tatsuya-san sat down on the opposite side of me and looked at me with a somewhat worried gaze.
“What is it?”
I wondered if he was worried that I might catch a cold since he had splashed me with water, even though it was a scripted move.
“...... Sumire, are you any thinner than you were the other day?"
Huh?
“How did he know?" I thought, and at the same time, I was so surprised by what I had been told that I let out a strange voice. I had increased the amount of food I eat since I made up my mind to do so, but due to the summer heat, I started throwing up more than the amount I had increased. I am now trying to reduce the amount of food I eat because I don't want to damage my esophagus and throat if I eat too often, and I hear that my throat in particular can cause my voice to become rattled.
It seems that when he hugged me during our earlier performance, he noticed that my body was even more slender than before. As someone who appears on TV, I am aware that being too skinny is difficult for viewers to accept, so I am trying to do something about it, but it is hard to do anything about it.
There was no point in hiding it, so I told Tatsuya the truth. Since we are together most of the time during filming, we share meals together every day. I am sure that Tatsuya, who has witnessed my efforts to consciously eat larger portions of food, would have a hard time understanding why I would gain weight or lose weight.
Hearing what I had to say, Tatsuya-san's expression showed even more concern. After pondering for a while to see if there was any way to help, he looked up vigorously as if he had just thought of something.
"If you increase the quantity, I'll throw up, so why not just keep the quantity and eat something high in calories?”
At Tatsuya's suggestion, I sighed, I knew it was the only way to go. In my previous life, many people wanted to lose weight but to feel full, they ate alternatives made of konjac instead of rice. If you change your mindset and eat something heavier in calories in the opposite direction, you should be able to gain weight. The only concern is that if you eat too much and gain more weight than you need, it will be a disaster, so you have to be careful and take it a little at a time.
In this era, most diets consisted of an apple diet or something specific to eat for a long period of time, but I admire Tatsuya-san a little for being able to think in such a Heisei style. When he had unintentionally expressed my respect, Tatsuya-san looked away from me and scratched his head, as if embarrassed.
According to Tatsuya, male idols also have a higher metabolism than girls, but they are very careful about what they eat. When they want to fill up, they fill their bellies with low-calorie foods. In high school, physical education is mandatory, so even if you eat a lot, you can consume it through exercise, but for college students like Tatsuya, it depends on the school whether they have physical education or not.
I was narrow-minded anyway, and I think he gave me some advice that helped me to step away from my narrow-mindedness. I said, “Thank you very much, I'll give it a try.”
Tatsuya-san said, 'Well then, let's get right to it”
I was a little reluctant to eat from a man's hand, but Tatsuya-san gave me some advice, so I'll put up with it.
I was sure to pick up the side with the wrapping paper still on it with my fingers, and when I opened my mouth to take advantage of Tatsuya's thoughtfulness, caramels rolled into it. The simple sweetness made my face smile unconsciously, and for some reason, Tatsuya-san in front of me held his mouth and took his gaze away from me. I tilted my head, not understanding what he meant.
Incidentally, for some reason, the ladies started feeding me chocolates and cookies from that day onward, and needless to say, by the end of the shoot, I had regained most of my weight that I had lost.
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