Romantic Date (3)

Anyways. Now “Ai-stars” is going to feature idols from “Crazy:B” and “ALKALOID”. It’s going to be regarding a Valentine’s Day event they plan to add.

Fumu. Well, being the newbies to this that we all are, we’re just happy to be getting more work.

Well at least you all are actually liked by ES, unlike us.

Nono, we mustn’t lower our guard. It’s exactly when everything seems like it’s going well that we’ll be suddenly knocked off your feet.

You seem to know a lot about that.

Pardon?

Nothing.

If it were like that, then each “unit” would be photographed on their own⁠—but the higher-ups at “Ai-stars” distributed a bigger request of working in romantic pairs.

They wanted to add an interesting curve to the scenario, so instead of having us all work with our “units”, we’re going to work with our “unit” counterparts.

Firstly, “Amagi Rinne and Amagi Hiiro”.

Love between brothers…it’s taboo, unforgiven even by God himself.

Next, “Oukawa Kohaku and Shiratori Aira”.

That would be different from romance, since they’re both good friends, right?

Then, “Shiina Niki and Ayase Mayoi”.

Katakana names!¹

Shut up! You don’t have to comment after everything said! HiMERU is just trying to organize his thoughts!

Right. Fufu, pardon me…~

⁠—And lastly, the issue at hand, “HiMERU and Kazehaya Tatsumi”.

Fumu. I wonder if they paired us up because we’re both from Reimei.

Their intentions are vague. Judging by the behaviors of the higher-ups, evil desires are to be suspected.

Desires?

It appears as though a part of the audience gets really happy when seeing their favorite men getting along well with each other.

I, too, get happy when I see people I love getting along well.

That wasn’t what HiMERU was getting at.

Anyway, all of the others besides us have finished quickly and with no issue. It’s unfortunate for HiMERU that we seem to be the only ones unfit for this kind of work.

Yes. It seems that even though I like to act like as a proper senior, this isn’t something I can do easily.

That’s not really your fault, Tatsumi. Or actually, it’s your fault that you keep behaving erratically, but there’s a slightly bigger issue at hand⁠—and that is the filming won’t stop unless we produce something that will satisfy the requirements of the higher-ups, or something.

No matter how bad the acting is, if the producers like it, then it’s OK, and if they don’t, then it’s no good.

An example, our Shiina and your Ayase were terrible. A starving Shiina chased a sobbing Ayase around, and a scenario like that earned “That’s exactly the shot I was looking for!” and they got an OK from the first take.

Fufu. Aira-san and his friend just idly sat and had a friendly chat about sweets, and that immediately earned them the OK. So, why aren’t we getting it?

Maybe we should predict what the producer is looking for and change our approach accordingly, but we have no way of knowing what makes a take get an OK or an NG.

It’s certainly confusing. When it came to the Amagi brothers, our Amagi tried to act like he was seducing your Amagi at first⁠—they didn’t get the OK to that, since apparently it wasn’t what the producer would have liked.

Yes, they were also struggling. Since the other two pairs were able to leave early, all that was left was us and them for a while.

I tried to motivate Hiiro-san by saying something like “Let’s see who can leave here first”.

Their relationship is close. But, while they were chatting on a break, the younger of the two, who was getting really tired from work he was unfamiliar with, moved closer to the older and turned to look at him…and called out “Ni-saaan~“.

The second he looked like he wanted to be spoiled, they immediately received the OK. It seems like that kind of thing was what the producers were looking for.

Fufu. The older brother got surprised and then all flustered. I wonder if that kind of odd scenario is what the producers want.

I wish they’d just say something if that was the case. I still don’t know what the producer wants.

I guess that everything kind of is supposed to be spontaneous and surprising, but I still haven’t been able to get used to your aggressive tone from before, HiMERU-san.

…

We really still can’t seem to get the OK. I wonder what’s wrong? Perhaps, should I try to talk more like Koga-san²?

“Repent, lowly heathens!”

⁠—It seems as though just being spontaneous isn’t enough.

Fumu. I really wish there was a way to simply ask the producer what it is they’d like.

For whatever strange reason, every time we tried to get close to them, they’d run away while shouting “If I look at handsome men for too long my eyes will melt!”

Just what was that even about…just why is such an eccentric person even in a position of power? It just shows how good at game production they must be.

It’s unfortunate, but we’ll just need to keep shooting our shots in the dark⁠—if this keeps up, then we’ll never get this done.