Hearing this startling invitation, Kyosuke appeared to be quite taken aback. His face was painted in a mixture of happiness and incredulity.
“Eh?! Is that really alright? Aren’t you here with your friends, Asakura-san?”
“Yes, but unfortunately I’ve been abandoned by them.” Asakura replied with an affected sigh, brushing a hand through his hair. “You see, one is a completely useless and unreliable person, who is probably flirting somewhere with a bunch of women, and the other two… Well let’s just say they might be busy doing something else at this time of night.” He finished with a grimace.
It’s not difficult to imagine who those people Asakura spoke of were. The useless flirt was indeed Kota Subaru, who was now too busy entertaining a group of ladies in the resting area. Meanwhile, Keita and Rintarou were holed up in their room doing heaven knows what.
Young Kyosuke, who had no idea what Asakura meant by those words, gaped at him in confusion. Nevertheless, he was a sociable person who liked parties and talking to people. He also didn’t like letting his friends drink by themselves if he could help it. Consequently, he accepted Asakura’s invitation without any further hesitation.
“Sure! Let’s go and drink ourselves silly!” He said excitedly.
“Let’s not go that far… Kyosuke-kun.” Asakura mumbled in an undertone. For a second, he actually doubted his decision in launching that invitation.
Thus, not even five minutes later, the two men stood at the bar, each holding a glass.
“Why are you here in this place, Asakura-san? You don’t really look like the type to enjoy this kind of remote inn.”
“Hmm, then what kind of person do you see me as?” Asakura asked, suddenly curious.
“Well…” Kyosuke hummed, pondering for a moment before opening his mouth to reply. “You seem more like a classy person. One who could easily fit with those highborn people, you know? Living in large mansions and staying at five star hotels… that kind of person.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Oh? Is that so?” Asakura drawled, hiding a smile behind the glass. He was actually very impressed with the correct assessment Kyosuke had given him. But he wasn’t going to admit that to the young man.
“Ztw.” Bsbrexf cbvvfv, offilcu nfgs qgbev bo tlwrfio. “Vb, kts jgf sbe lc atlr qjga bo atf mbecags?”
“Vlutarfflcu.” Crjxegj gfqilfv njuefis, aklgilcu atf uijrr ribkis, jcv kjamtlcu atf ubivfc ildelv jr la milwyfv jcv rkjsfv ilxf atf rfj kjnfr veglcu atf alvf.
“Vlutarfflcu?” Bsbrexf gfqfjafv lcmgfveiberis.
“Tfr. P’w tfgf klat rbwf oglfcvr ab fcpbs atf yfjealoei wbecajlcrlvf jcv gfijz lc atf bcrfc.” Crjxegj qjerfv, atfc mbcalcefv ab rqfjx lc ktja tf wfjca ab yf j mjreji abcf. “Qtja jybea sbe? Cgfc’a sbe tfgf klat j ijguf ugbeq?”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve seen you and Sato-san in front of the inn. You were surrounded by several other young men.”
“Ah, yes.” Kyosuke smiled and scratched the back of his head. “We’re here with a few other actors.”
“So, you’re an actor? Sato-san is one too?”
“Yes. We’re actually here to celebrate one of our friends for winning the main role in a drama.”
“Oh, congratulations! Then this should be a happy occasion, right?” Asakura asked as if by chance.
“Yes, of course it is! That guy has tried so hard to get a role in that drama. He was so happy when he finally landed it that he downed a beer in one go.” Kyosuke laughed heartily.
“I see.” Asakura smiled. “Then why is Sato-san so dispirited? Even when his friends are so hyped up about all this he appears to be unhappy? Could it be…” He paused for a second, appearing to pick his words carefully. “Could it be that he wanted the role for himself and now he’s feeling upset because he lost to his friend?”
“What?!” Kyosuke exploded, almost jumping from his seat. “No! No, not at all! What do you take Sato for?!” He then frowned, his expression slowly twisting from shock to indignation. “No, he has another… Reason for being like that.”
Kyosuke eventually stopped talking, clenching his fists and staring straight ahead with a look of resentment in his eyes.
“Oh?”
Asakura was now really curious to find out what happened to that person. For Sato to look so sad and depressed, it must have been something serious. He had a hunch it might be a breakup or something of that sort, but he was never fond of guessing. Thus, he employed every roundabout way he could think of in order to get here. He only hoped Kyosuke would talk openly.
To his relief, after several moments of hesitation, he heard the young man’s voice again. His words came out slowly, as though even the sheer recollection was painful.
“Sato, he… He suffered a great injustice. The two of us, together with another guy, Touma, were very close friends. You could say we grew up together. We stuck close while in school, and when Sato decided to audition for his first role, we followed him. Even after we had our own debut as young actors, we still maintained a very close relationship. But things changed three years ago when Sato and Touma began going out together. To say I was surprised is an understatement. I was completely dumbfounded when Sato came and told me he was in love with Touma. I never saw anything more than friendship between them so finding out my two best friends were actually lovers shocked me to the core. Despite that, we continued to hang out together. They never pushed me aside when going out for drinks or when we were doing the stuff we usually did together. Furthermore, I never showed any disapproval towards their relationship. After all, they were grown men and we’re free to love whomever they wished.
Things went well for a while. I saw how happy Sato was, how much he loved and was loved in return. Even his workload increased. Due to his positive attitude and innocent look many directors wanted him to play roles in high school dramas or teen movies. Things were really looking up for him. But then, everything took a sudden turn for the worst when Sato and Touma auditioned for the same role in a historical movie. It was a big production that was expected to have a lot of success.”
Reaching up to here, Kyosuke took a break. He raised the glass to his lips, taking a considerable amount of whiskey. The fiery alcohol slid down, burning his throat. After quenching his thirst, Kyosuke put the glass down and remained quiet, staring blankly at the bar’s surface.
The event he just mentioned was still vivid in his mind.
That production had been so big that they took special measures when choosing the cast. Hence, the casting process was split in three phases, each aiming to showcase a certain talent. The first one was about general acting. Its focus was on the way the actors understood their characters and the plot, as well as their basic understanding of the background story. It was mainly a Q&A session.
Then, the ones who got the highest scores were able to participate in the second phase, which consisted in acting out a scene from the script and showing the judges the actor’s take on the character.
Those who moved on from this phase and we’re allowed to go to the third and last phase were less than a quarter compared to the initial number. That’s where the true war was being waged. Everyone who had advanced to the last phase was the best of the best among all the applicants and the competition was very tight. Especially for those like Sato and Touma, who auditioned for the same character, it was a nerve-wracking time.
Several minutes later, Kyosuke took a deep breath and was finally able to continue his rencounter.
“In the beginning, they both seemed calm and cool headed about it. They never quarreled and even went as far as to practice together. Sato always cheered Touma on wherever he had an audition and this time it wasn’t any different. Even though they were competitors, Sato never once showed any trace of jealousy or dislike.
However, Touma began to slowly change. The entire casting process took a whole month and by the time the last week came he was increasingly irritated. He got annoyed from the slightest thing and always snapped at Sato. I tried talking to him a few times but we almost ended up in a fistfight. Sato came to stop us at the right time, but from then on I maintained my distance from Touma. I was sure everything would go back to normal after the audition was over with. Boy, was I wrong about that! Little did I know that such an awful thing would happen in less than a few days.”
Kyosuke paused again. Looking down at his hands, he noticed the empty glass and sighed.
“Here.” Asakura almost magically produced another glass of whiskey, placing it in front of the troubled looking young man.
“Thanks.” Kyosuke nodded and took a sip before continuing. “The night before they had to take the last interview, Sato and Touma had a heated argument. All three of us lived together in a two-bedroom apartment so I could easily hear the shouts coming from their room. Just when I was considering knocking on their door, Touma burst out from the inside and rushed past me like a storm. Sato went after him, ignoring me entirely. His entire being was set on catching up to Touma. He couldn’t care about anything else.
I don’t know where they went or what happened between them. All I know is that when Sato returned his appearance was dreadful. His clothes were in disarray, his hair looked messy and wet. Heck, even his shoes were dirty. But those alone would have been fine, if not for his face looking the way it did. A purple eye and a cut lip were the clear proof that he had gotten into a fight. However, the worst came when he took his clothes off. At the sight of his body, I felt the air escaping from my lungs. His arms, legs and back were covered in bruises and he winced whenever he tried to breathe in deeply. I instantly saw red, almost fainting from anger. I forcefully took him to the hospital that night and found out he had two broken ribs on top of the other small injuries. When I asked him what happened he kept silent, simply staring blankly at his hands.”
As he reached this point in the story, Kyosuke’s countenance changed from red to white, then from white to black, before it reverted to its initial color. Retelling all this had obviously upset him very much. As he took the glass to his lips, his hand shook slightly.
Speechless 🥺😲
😥 Tough time for Sato-kun
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Thank you for the chapter!
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what a freaking jerk! UGH!
thanks for the chapter <3
Mhm Touma wasn’t a very nice guy. You’ll get a chance to cuss at him more later 🤭
<333
What a jerk! 😠
Thank you for the chapter 😊💕
nods Mmh
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