After the rehearsal ended.
Gotanda Taishi could clearly sense one particular thing.
Namely, that nearly everyone was discussing something in hushed voices.
Yes.
The camera crew, the script supervisor, the production assistants…
even the makeup team, which had nothing whatsoever to do with it, was discussing it too.
And almost without exception, they were all discussing the same one person — Minami Yuji.
“That…
wasn’t that just way too well-acted?”
“At the end of the day, was that really acting?
Those eyes of his…
I really did almost jump out of my skin.”
“Seriously, what agency is that kid even from?”
“…”
The fine, fragmented sounds of discussion were nearly impossible to suppress.
Normally, a director was supposed to maintain discipline on a filming set.
But at this moment, even this veteran director didn’t know, for the time being, how to settle down the commotion on set.
The reason was nothing else.
Minami Yuji really had acted that well!
That kind of acting…
there wasn’t any need to bother with arcane technical jargon to explain it.
Plain and simple — it was just good.
No further rhetorical flourishes required.
Even an ordinary layperson who didn’t understand a thing about drama would probably reach the same conclusion.
After all, when it came to acting, the most important thing was its ability to move people’s hearts.
So then — having been just as moved by the other party’s acting himself — how was he supposed to stop the production crew’s hushed discussions?
With no real way around it, Gotanda Taishi could only turn his head.
Saito Miyako, posture all perfectly upright, was standing right behind him.
“This really is quite a surprise, Miss Miyako.”
He spoke, letting out a sigh, his face full of feeling.
“To be honest, when I heard you say earlier that you were going to push Aqua aside and give the role to this kid, I still found it a bit unbelievable — I thought you might have just gotten your blood up and let it go to your head.
After all, in my eyes, Aqua’s actually already a remarkably outstanding actor.”
But…
He turned his head, looking toward Minami Yuji on the set — Minami Yuji, who was openly and easily exchanging smiling greetings with the other actors and crew members, behaving not in the least like a child.
“But ‘that one’ is different…
he’s a prodigy in the truest sense of the word…”
Gotanda Taishi murmured to himself, his gaze fixed firmly on Minami Yuji and refusing to budge.
He could feel it.
That certain ‘quality’ the other party carried — one that went beyond what ordinary people possessed.
Completely unlike Ai Hoshino’s impression — glittering and radiant, displaying her charm to everyone in perfect form.
This koyaku was like a black hole — yanking your gaze toward him without rhyme or reason, then using that beyond-ordinary, almost demonic charm of his to keep you from being able to peel your eyes off him.
Once his thoughts reached that point, he stopped holding back his pride and offered up an open, generous apology.
“It seems I really did completely misunderstand you, Miss Miyako.
You must have anticipated this situation entirely, right?
I’m truly sorry for saying things like ‘kick Minami Yuji out’ to you earlier.
Please forgive me.”
And with that, he even went so far as to bow to Saito Miyako.
Over on his side, Gotanda Taishi kept up his scattered, broken-up exclamations.
Meanwhile, on her side, Saito Miyako was only just now coming back to her senses from the shock.
Listening to Gotanda Taishi’s sighs of admiration.
The corners of her mouth couldn’t help but start twitching uncontrollably.
Anticipated this — like hell she had!
True, beforehand she had already worked up a mental estimate of Minami Yuji’s performance, figuring that the other party’s acting would absolutely have no major issues.
But how was Minami Yuji’s acting just ‘without any major issues’?! Visit g.com for the full chapter.
It was downright perfect, hello?!
That expressive power was getting a bit ridiculous, wasn’t it…?
And she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but—
She just kept feeling like Minami Yuji’s acting, compared to what she had seen at the audition a few days ago, was somehow even more outstanding now…
A genius…?
A freak…?
Just where in the world did Minami Yuji rack up his experience points?
Shaking her head, she tossed all this miscellaneous information cluttering her brain aside for now.
Because at a moment like this, what she ought to be doing as Ichigo Production’s manager was…
“In that case…
regarding Minami Yuji’s scenes…”
“Obviously we’re keeping him!”
Gotanda Taishi nodded without a moment’s hesitation.
When you’ve got an actor who performs well, you use them!
No hesitation!
That was his aesthetic as a director.
It was just…
Gotanda Taishi sucked in a sharp ‘hsss’ of a breath.
Because he had just thought of a certain precocious child with the Hoshino surname.
How on earth was he supposed to explain this to the kid…
The mood in his head, which had felt a touch easier just a moment ago…
at this instant, started aching all over again.
Just at that moment, by sheer coincidence, Saito Miyako put forward a suggestion that temporarily diluted his headache.
“Since the opportunity’s rare — how about I have that boy Minami Yuji come over to meet you first?”
“Oh?
That’d be great.”
Gotanda Taishi’s eyes lit up.
After all, having just witnessed acting that brilliant — what director could possibly stand not to meet the actor in person?
About a minute later.
Minami Yuji, decked out from head to toe in special-effects makeup, appeared in front of him.
The so-called ‘special-effects makeup’ was actually a kind of makeup created to fit certain non-realistic appearances — vengeful spirits, zombies, that kind of thing.
And because the child vengeful spirit Minami Yuji was set to play had a sickly pale skin tone all over his body, the makeup work had to put in serious effort — and I mean really serious effort.
Not only did they have to coat him from head to toe with a layer of ‘powder’ that was practically the consistency of putty, but they also had to paint iron-blue eye makeup around the sockets of his eyes, similar to dark circles.
And since they’d still be shooting again soon, his makeup hadn’t been removed at all — he had come straight over to meet them just like that.
The look was a bit frightening.
And yet Gotanda Taishi’s eyes still lit up.
Because even this kind of deliberately ‘ugly-fying’ special-effects makeup couldn’t conceal Minami Yuji’s near-perfect underlying features.
He could tell at a single glance just how good-looking the koyaku in front of him was beneath this exaggerated makeup.
With looks like these to work with…
he probably wouldn’t lose even an inch when stacked up against Aqua Hoshino, would he?
While he was over here looking Minami Yuji over, he heard Saito Miyako’s barely-suppressed excited voice.
“Yuji-kun, I called you over mainly because I wanted to give you some good news!”
“Good news?”
Under Gotanda Taishi’s watching gaze, the koyaku in front of him tilted his head slightly.
“What kind of good news?”
“It’s this — the Director Gotanda right here in front of you is going to use you, you know!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Saito Miyako lifted her hand and made the introduction.
Gotanda Taishi cleared his throat lightly as well and put on a smile, wanting to come across as friendly and approachable so as to keep Minami Yuji from being too nervous.
After all, he himself was a properly recognized director of genuine ability, and most koyaku, when they met him, would lose their composure to one degree or another.
And yet—
“Hm?
Use me?
“Cough, cough, cough!!!”
That casual remark from the other party caught Gotanda Taishi — who had only just been adjusting his mental state — completely off guard, and he couldn’t help but start coughing.
“You — cough, cough — Minami Yuji-kun, aren’t you maybe a bit too confident?”
He couldn’t help but tease the boy a little.
There was no helping it — Minami Yuji really was just too confident.
This…
his opening line was ‘foregone conclusion’ — with a tone that suggested, if Gotanda Taishi didn’t cast him, then Gotanda Taishi must have aging eyesight and be going blind.
Could the child in front of him possibly be a second Arima Kana…?
Another one of those koyaku who, banking on the fact that their acting was good, thought they could order everyone around on set and do as they pleased?
If that really were the case, then Minami Yuji’s evaluation in his head was going to drop by quite a few points.
But what he hadn’t expected was—
“Isn’t this how an actor’s supposed to be?”
The Minami Yuji in front of him spoke up, lifting his eyes at the same time.
“I have confidence in my own acting; in the same way, I also have confidence in Director Gotanda’s eye as a director.”
“That…” That out-of-the-blue line left Gotanda Taishi falling into stunned silence.
“Is there something wrong with that?” Ignoring Saito Miyako’s frantic ‘be quiet!’ gesturing, the small koyaku merely looked at Gotanda Taishi in front of him without so much as a blink.
Silence…
A long, drawn-out silence.
Then—
“No…
you’re right.”
Gotanda Taishi suddenly broke into a smile and nodded.
Because, just as Minami Yuji had said—
The most important thing for an actor was confidence.
An actor who didn’t even have the confidence to play the role they had in hand well — such an actor’s performance was inevitably going to lack a soul.
It seemed…
he had completely been overthinking things.
Looking at Minami Yuji, who even when off-stage radiated an aura completely unlike that of an ordinary person.
Gotanda Taishi had now completely confirmed it.
This koyaku in front of him truly was the ‘real deal’ — the kind who could ‘sell.’
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Saito Miyako was, in fact, extremely happy that Gotanda Taishi was placing such high value on Minami Yuji.
But…
Her originally bright expression dimmed somewhat.
“That boy Aqua…
I wonder how he’s doing right now…”
She murmured quietly to herself without realizing it.
She knew it — her foster son Aqua Hoshino had, in the two years since Ai Hoshino’s death, always held on to the dream of becoming an actor.
And that dream — just today — had been broken by her own hands.
For that, she felt a touch of unease, even a wavering of resolve.
Gotanda Taishi was still looking Minami Yuji over, so he hadn’t noticed Saito Miyako’s situation on her side.
But Minami Yuji was different.
Even while he was fielding Gotanda Taishi’s various questions, he had also picked up on the change in Saito Miyako’s expression.
Sigh—
The reliable adult sighed inwardly.
At the moment, Saito Miyako counted as his number-one go-to person, and she had shown him the kindness of recognizing his talent.
If she couldn’t focus on her work, then he himself was going to be in a fairly miserable spot too.
Alright then.
The reliable adult shook his head.
It seemed it was time to go track down a certain blond-haired kid — one with a darkened psyche who had completely worked himself into a dead-end mental corner — and have a little chat.
____
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