"Thank you so much for meeting with me miss Kessaku!" The woman said sitting me down in a chair beside her, I was currently in the Tokyo Headquarters of the Yoshimoto Creative Industry, which happened to be one of the biggest talent agencies in Japan.
"No problem." I said bluntly. It had been a day since the news of my family's situation came to light.
"Though I do have to ask, what made you change your mind?"
"My family's bakery is about to be closed because of bankruptcy. I need money."
"I see."
"If I'm going to do this then there's going to have to be some ground rules."
"Of course of course!" She said nodding her head.
"First, I'm going to need a down payment immediately so we don't have to close, I'll pay it back through my music or whatever, and second I'll have the rights to my music, not the agency."
"That's quite the demand." She said smiling.
I smiled back confidently, "I know my worth. If you reject me then I have thirteen other business cards awaiting my call. I'm sure I can find what I'm looking for."
She closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright I'll talk to the head honcho and see what I can do, give me a moment."
After about five minutes she came back into the room.
"So, your requests have been accepted! And also the head of the company wants you to train at the headquarters where he's located, unfortunately he's in Osaka so you'll have to fly out there today."
I looked down at my hands deep in thought, I ran out of the training camp and never told anyone where I was going. I turned off my phone so they couldn't get a hold of me either, I huffed angrily then nodded my head. Maybe it was a good thing to get out of Tokyo for a while..
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"Sōdai please don't do this! The bakery isn't nearly as important as you are!" My mother said trying to stop me from packing.
"It is to me! We both know this is the best option, I'll come visit sometime, but just leave this to me Mom.."
"Why Sōdai.." she asked desperately.
I stopped packing and sighed. "It's not just about the bakery, I need a break from school.. from relationships... from this city! And if getting the money to save the bakery happens to be apart of that plan, then I welcome it."
She looked down and started to cry. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you and your brother."
I knelt down and hugged her tightly. "You did more than enough. Now it's time for me to help you."
After saying our goodbyes I went out the front door to find a black car parked, I quickly ran inside and began to cry, what has become of my life...
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Time Skip~ Location- Osaka Japan
"Ah Kessaku Sōdai its great to finally meet you, I have to say I was surprised to hear my best talent agent speak so highly of you. I hope you won't disappoint." A rather large (strong) middle aged man with facial hair said to me, he was the current owner of the talent agency, Akihiko Okamoto
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Sir."
His office was stories above the ground and it was huge! Light shown through the giant skyscraper windows and bodyguards at every corner.
He began to assess me from head to toe. "I have to say you certainly have potential, but it seems you have one monolid and one double eyelid... we can get that fixed." He said smiling, I furrowed my brows angrily.
"No." I said.
He looked confused. "Sorry?"
"I said no. I will not be changing my features, they are not something that need to be 'fixed, you either deal with it or I'll find someone else." After all these eyes are the last thing I have of my father...
He blinked at me surprised, and then he laughed, "Well you certainly are something else! Alright have it your way, no surgery."
I bowed and then left the room, I stood beside the door for a moment to collect my thoughts when I heard him speaking with one of his bodyguards.
"Wow, she has a left double eyelid and a right monolid..." The bodyguard said amazed.
"So?"
"Well.. there's an old Chinese legend that says those born with that specific kind of eye are fated to be Empress, obtaining massive amounts of wealth and fame... oh! But of course it's only a folktale."
"Hmm I see." The Boss said.
I smiled at the commentary and walked back to my guide.
After showing me where everything was, we headed to where I would be sleeping.
"Um, how long will it take for me to debut?" I asked my guide.
"Well that all depends on you, as uncommon as it is there have been cases where people debuted in less than two weeks, but more often than not it takes amateurs about two to three years of training."
"I see." Well I wasn't an amateur at singing, and I had the physique from martial arts... but what about my dancing? I've never even really tried to dance before, I bowed to her and then shut the door.
With everything that's been going on for the past few hours I never got to let the fact that I left home sink in... I was able to keep my phone luckily, I had texted my brother of my plans but no one else. After that I volunteerly handed it in saying that I didn't need it and to give it back when I debuted, 1 because it would give me a reason to want to debut faster and two because I didn't want to be reminded of Aomine...
I looked in the mirror and realized how long my hair had grown since I first cut it, it was below my shoulder blades now.
"Shame.. I kind of liked it short, we'll see what they do with it tomorrow I guess."
With that I took a shower and went to sleep not feeling hungry enough to eat.
——
The next day I got up early to get my hair and makeup done, they trimmed me up and layered my hair getting rid of the overgrown hime cut. I didn't mind though, after all even my own hair reminded me of him.
I was then taken to test out my vocals, thankfully they seemed to impress everyone.
After a quick physical checkup they told me to improvise dancing to a random song, but once the music started I froze. I don't even know how to dance! Frustrated I decided just to tweak a bunch of Wushu moves to the beat of the music, of course it's still a form of martial arts, but I was hoping the "arts" part could save me a bit. After the music stopped the dance instructor looked at me dumbfounded.
"Well, I've certainly never seen anything like it before."
I sighed loudly.
"Oh! But that's not necessarily a bad thing! It was quite graceful and beautiful! But maybeee a little bit too harsh for this genre of music."
I giggled a bit. "I don't know how to dance, I'm afraid we'll have to start from the basics."
I said making her blush. "W-well no problem! I'll teach you everything I know!"
After six hours of hard work we finally stopped.
"This is almost as hard as martial arts training." I said through harsh breaths.
She laughed and congratulated me on how well I did.
By the time we were done I was starving, trainees were only allowed 600 yen a day(abt $5 US) which I thought was just ridiculous. I had a long argument with the manager which went something like this-
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"You're running one of the most successful talent agencies in Japan and you can't spare 2000 yen a day so trainees can get a decent meal!?!"
——
After a while he budged and changed it from 600 yen to 1,200 yen,(abt $11) luckily the food at the company was really cheap and that was enough to have two decent meals a day with money to spare for days someone might want to splurge. I didn't just get it changed for me though, I got it changed for all the trainees so my reputation within the company skyrocketed.
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This routine went on for a long time, it's now been three months since I've been here or had contact with the outside world, my dancing has increased tremendously and we all knew I was close to debuting, it was now December and it was quite a cold one, I knew it was probably snowing in Tokyo right now..
memories of my conversation with Aomine about the snow came flooding back into my brain, I sighed and walked out onto the balcony in my room. I looked up at the sky but there wasn't a star in sight, only a faint glimmer from the moon reminded me that even though we're far apart, we still slept under the same sky.. and I wondered for a moment if he was staring up at it too...
"Sorry I missed your birthday." I whispered to the moon, hoping she would bring the message to Aomine.
A month from now the Winter tournament for highschool basketball will begin... what am I going to do...