My daily life is getting weird because I am caught between being in a band and being an idol.

“Ding ding ding ding~~”

Inside the internet cafe's private room, Chaoyang's phone alarm rang. He groggily opened his eyes, checked the time, and saw it was already 11 a.m.

"...Hmm? It's already 11 o'clock?"

He sighed softly and slowly sat up from the bed in the private room. To be precise, this bed was actually a makeshift "bed" made from the sofa in the internet cafe after the cushions had been removed.

He was still feeling a bit sore from working late last night.

Chaoyang got up and walked towards the internet cafe's shower room.

The cold water rinsed his skin, waking him up from the fatigue of the previous night.

Then, he took disposable toiletries from the internet cafe shelf and started brushing his teeth and washing his face. Finally, he picked up a razor and carefully shaved off the stubble on his face.

At the same time, he kept checking the various panels in his mind, which was also his habit, to see if any easy tasks had been refreshed. When he saw the character panel, he realized that Xiangzi's favorability had increased.

. .

Name: Toyokawa Shoko.

Charisma: 93.

Monthly revenue growth: 30.

Favorability: 30/100.

Assessment: A former heiress to a wealthy family, now fallen on hard times. She lives in a dilapidated apartment with her decadent father. To win her over, one must provide both material and emotional support. However, she possesses extremely high self-esteem and, even in her current state, refuses to accept favors from others.

. .

"As expected of someone with high charisma, she pays me a lot. I don't even get as much as she pays me now. Last night, I was right... But I feel like this changes the nature of the situation."

Seeing his profits increase, Chaoyang was naturally happy, but also felt somewhat awkward... It was as if he hadn't truly wanted to help Xiangzi last night, but was ultimately after his own profit.

After everything was tidied up, Chaoyang put on his coat and slowly walked out of the internet cafe.

The sunlight streamed onto the street, and he took a deep breath.

"Ah... my phone's dead... Oh well, I'll just charge it at the office."

The internet cafe is located near the company, less than a 10-minute walk away.

"Ah... President! Why are you only arriving now? We've been trying to contact you for ages. Did you release the PV on the company channel late last night?"

"Huh? Sorry, my phone died. What happened?"

"Your PV video has already received hundreds of thousands of views!!"

"Isn't this a bit exaggerated? It's only been half a day, where did so many people come from to watch?"

"It seems that the First Star Academy helped out. The famous student council president, Hoshino Touhou, retweeted Fujita Kotone's PV and even gave her a special introduction... As a result, Hanami's PV also reached around 10 views."

"Wow... that's really lucky... By the way, don't say anything about 'related things'... it wouldn't be good if someone overheard."

"Yes! I am very sorry for being rude. Since the two idols are not yet in the pre-debut stage, many people have already emailed to inquire about merchandise and solo concert plans for the two idols."

"...In a unified response, the concert schedule will be updated on the company's official website later. As for merchandise...it's hard to say exactly how many people are currently there. Small-scale, continuous production will be arranged by manufacturers...ah, not only for these two, but also for Pastel* and Ms. Szehiro. Let's not favor one over the other."

"I just don't know if we'll have enough time."

"Just get it arranged first. We can set up a sales page on the official website later. It would be strange if you hadn't done it yet. It doesn't need to be complicated; a simple sales page will do. There should be ready-made templates for quick setup and simple payment integration. It should normally take about half a month to complete. If our staff can't do it, we can hire an external company. The quote for this should be around 20 at most. Understand?"

"Yes! I understand, President!"

She quickly responded. The secretary, caught off guard by Chaoyang's series of instructions, nodded hastily, a hint of admiration appearing on her face.

"I will contact the relevant departments as soon as possible, and if there is any need for outsourcing, I will provide a quote immediately. Please rest assured, President!"

After the secretary finished speaking, she immediately turned and walked towards the office area.

Since Chaoyang himself is the producer, he is also responsible for coordinating all aspects of the performance.

However, Chaoyang felt a chill run down his spine when he saw the work content on the memo he had prepared for himself.

"Hmm... Stage design and setup, media promotion, contingency plans... It's a bit troublesome to leave all of this to me... I'm not very familiar with it. I'll ask my secretary later if they know anyone who can coordinate these things."

How about asking Chuxing Academy for help? They have regular performances, so they're definitely familiar with this kind of thing... I still need to open the shop around this time.

"Thank you all for your hard work, I'll be going now."

. .

"Good morning~"

The members of Pastel* greeted each other.

We gathered in the dance studio rented by Chaoyang Company.

Chisato Shirahiro, who arrived at the dance studio first, was staring intently at her phone and ignored her companions.

"...What's wrong, Sensato-chan? What happened?"

"...The company has released two new PVs."

"Hey hey hey~~ Look, look~~ Hmm? Ah, it's the PV of those two girls from last time."

It's already got hundreds of thousands of views? Wow, that's amazing!

At this moment, Qian Sheng was extremely unwilling.

They said such nice things... and sure enough, that's how it turned out.

However, Chaoyang was simply considering that Pastel*'s reputation was too bad right now, and planned to let the public who knew about it forget about it for a while, and then promote it closer to the performance.

Chaoyang was just too busy and hadn't explained it to them directly.

"Don't you understand? We're just there as background, or maybe they're just ignoring us! The agency is going to focus on developing those two! From what I understand, not only the company but even Chuxing Academy is helping with the publicity."

"But, if we work hard... we can definitely do it too..."

Maruyama Aya tried to encourage the team members, but Chisato immediately got angry and loudly interrupted her after hearing Maruyama Aya's words.

"You're really stubborn! Moving towards your dreams without a plan is just standing still. You can't solve the problem if you don't understand it; you're just deceiving yourself with so-called hard work! ...I have other work to do, excuse me for now..."

Ai Yin immediately stepped forward to defend her.

"Wait a minute, Sensato-chan, you seem a bit... "

"Boom"

"Excessive"

However, before he could finish speaking, Qian Sheng had already closed the door and left.

However, she did not leave the place but walked towards the Asahi Izakaya not far away.

Chapter 64: Everyone's been overthinking it.

"crash"

Chaoyang, who was working in the kitchen, looked up after hearing the door open.

Upon discovering it was Shirahiro Chisato, she walked in with a smile.

"Hmm? Chisato? Here for barbecue again? Alone?"

Since it's not yet business hours and Rencai and Taoxiang aren't on duty today, Xiangzi and Qinyin won't arrive until after school.

After looking around and finding no one else, Qian Sheng walked straight into the kitchen.

"...I'm sorry to bother you while you're busy, producer...I've thought about it a lot...I really think it's better to disband Pastel* and let everyone become individual idols. The members are all very uneasy right now, but I completely understand the agency's decision to sideline us, after all, the lip-syncing incident was only recently..."

"Disband? I can respect your opinion... but only if it's truly the opinion of all Pastel* staff, not just yours, Chisato. I know you're a little anxious, and I apologize for that; as the producer, I didn't communicate with you fully."

Perhaps you've misunderstood something, but I want to reiterate: as long as you don't give up first, I will absolutely take full responsibility.

However, Shirahiro Chisato didn't believe such words, and the "pretty words" of those important figures came to mind. These important figures always spoke with a confident tone, laying out grand blueprints, and in front of others, they were mostly so humble, and all their words seemed to be for the other person's benefit.

One by one, artists believed these words, believing in their own talent, believing they were truly unpolished diamonds that would eventually shine. In the end, they simply faded into obscurity, leaving no trace behind.

"Hearing the producer say that is really a shot in the arm~, um... as a personal thank you..."

At this moment, Qian Sheng exhaled a breath of hot air and looked seriously at the rising sun.

He looked nervous, and his cheeks were flushed.

She spoke haltingly and shyly.

"Can we have dinner together tomorrow night?"

Chaoyang was caught off guard by Qiansheng's move. After all, he had been acting since he was a child, and this made Chaoyang imagine what would happen after he finished eating.

Reject her, reject her, reject her

Do you prefer Chinese or Western food?

However, Chaoyang's body gave an answer on its own.

Damn it, I can't resist a beautiful girl.

Chisato was a little surprised, as he usually asked whether the food was Japanese or Western.

She could only interpret it as Chaoyang wanting to eat Chinese food.

"Huh? Chinese food? Does the producer like Chinese food? I'm fine with anything~ There are a lot of Chinese-owned restaurants near Ikebukuro Station, how about we eat there?"

I'll make an appointment tomorrow night at 7 pm. Thank you so much!

Seeing that Chaoyang agreed without hesitation or even a second thought, Qian Sheng was overjoyed and satisfied.

Although Chisato knew in her heart that Asahi was probably more looking forward to what would happen after the meal than to eating, she didn't intend to go that far. Although her acting career was important to her, she wasn't going to sacrifice everything for it. She simply wanted to take advantage of Asahi's expectations and make him feel that if he fulfilled some of her requests, he could take things further.

Qian Sheng doesn't need Chao Yang to fulfill too many of her needs. She still has a lot of confidence in herself. As long as she has a platform, her performance won't be too bad. Once she clears her name and shows her face again, jobs will naturally come her way. Even if Chao Yang gets angry because Qian Sheng is hanging up on her, he wouldn't deliberately push money away when he's in debt.

That's her little scheme.

After bowing to the rising sun, Qian Sheng smiled and took his leave.

"No, I can't get too carried away... But if it's a sexual favor, should I agree or not? Actually, I'm quite interested in this kind of power-for-sex exchange..."

"It's embarrassing when you're lost in your fantasies, but the other person probably doesn't have those thoughts."

Just as Asahi was considering whether to check if there were any love hotels near Ikebukuro Station.

The extremely cold words interrupted Chaoyang's train of thought.

"Huh? Toyokawa!? When did you get here!"

Standing in the shop at that moment was Xiangzi, who had walked in at some unknown time.

"Just as you were chuckling to yourself."

"Uh, you, you heard everything?"

"Although it wasn't my intention, I did hear it. To be precise, we arrived here around the same time, but she didn't close the door properly, so I could hear some of it from outside."

"Actually, I was just joking! I didn't really mean anything by it!!!"

"In my opinion, the other party doesn't have such thoughts. Shirasagi Chisato... she's not so unscrupulous as to resort to any means necessary."

"You know her?"

"I wouldn't say I know her personally, I've just heard some information about her. But I have to admit one thing: you definitely won't have any romantic feelings for her. Even if she were to sacrifice everything, including her body, for her so-called acting career, you absolutely wouldn't do anything."

As he spoke, Xiangzi walked towards the wardrobe, opened the door, put his bag inside, and then went into the kitchen, his gaze fixed on the rising sun.

Chaoyang felt a little comfortable being stared at and started laughing.

"Hahaha, how could that be? If she's serious, I might..."

"...Alright, let's get back to the main topic, manager."

"Hmm? What's the main topic?"

"...I don't like owing favors to others...but it's undeniable that I've received a lot of help from you so far."

Last time I received my salary, I noticed that you transferred more money to me than I was entitled to. What explanation do you have for this?

"Huh? That was when I was sick and hospitalized, and you and Taoxiang shared my work allowance. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Do we need an extra 10 in subsidies?... Store manager, I hate you, you know that?"

"Thank you so much for telling me this. If you hadn't told me, I would have almost thought you liked me."

Xiangzi ignored Chaoyang's sarcastic remarks and continued speaking with a furrowed brow.