Chapter 159: The Current Minami Yuji (8.2k words! Goal achieved!) (Patreon)

Transferring an entertainer's agency contract was always something of a hassle.

After all, it involved plenty of intangible assets — as mentioned before, things like portrait rights, stage name rights, and resume usage rights all had to be hashed out with the previous agency.

But Kana Arima was a seasoned entertainer through and through. Long before she'd decided to switch agencies, she'd already settled all those messy intangible-asset questions with her old one.

So her agency-transfer contract turned out to be remarkably simple — really just a matter of signing her name and stamping her seal.

That let Minami Yuji breathe a small sigh of relief.

Thankfully, however clueless Miss Arima could be about certain things, she'd handled every point that needed sorting out in the legal paperwork.

He printed out the contract Kana Arima had signed and sealed, then locked the original away in the filing cabinet.

Next came the matter of her manager.

Since it was Kana Arima they were talking about — a genuinely famous entertainer — Minami Yuji wasn't about to leave her in the hands of someone unreliable.

After weighing his options, he decided to make Minami Reiko her manager. She was family, after all, and on top of that she was a graduate of Ochanomizu University — which, in Japan, counted as thoroughly top-tier academic pedigree. Reliable through and through.

Once the manager assignment and the rest of the odds and ends were squared away, and Kana Arima had been safely delivered home, Minami Yuji finally allowed himself to sit down and catch his breath.

Only...

"Why the looks?"

Minami Yuji turned to glance back at Shiraki Ryō and the others.

He'd felt it since a moment ago — Shiraki Ryō and the rest, and Minami Reiko off to the side too, all watching him with eyes sharp enough to sting.

It made him arch an eyebrow, and he decided to just ask outright.

The moment he did—

Shiraki Ryō and the others erupted like a pot boiling over.

"President Minami! How in the world did you pull that off?!"

Their eyes shot up, startled.

Every one of them wore the same look of pure disbelief.

"Pull what off?"

Against their expressions of utter astonishment, Minami Yuji's own face stayed as calm as ever. He took a gulp of water and asked right back.

But the calmer he stayed, the more worked up Shiraki Ryō and the others got.

"That! Kana Arima! How did you actually get her to join our agency?!"

As mentioned before, over those seven years, Kana Arima — never losing her confidence, never dragged down by her mother — had grown into a genuinely representative young actress in the industry.

And yet an actress like that had been "poached" by their own president.

How had he even managed it?

"..." Given everything about Miss Arima's string of miraculous antics beforehand, Minami Yuji really hadn't wanted to explain.

After all, he could hardly tell his staff that he hadn't poached her at all — that Kana Arima had simply terminated her own contract on her own initiative and was, for the moment, a free agent, leaving him no real choice but to take her on.

But faced with the bright curiosity gleaming in his subordinates' eyes—

Minami Yuji let out a low hum of thought.

"Hmm... I guess it's because I've known Arima for a long time. There's kind of a fated entanglement between us... and also because I've helped her out before."

Minami Yuji went with the relatively short version.

Known Kana Arima for a long time... helped her before...?

Hearing that, everyone froze for a beat.

Then their expressions turned subtly complicated.

The reason for that was actually quite simple.

As core south staff and Minami Yuji's own trusted inner circle, they'd known him for five or six years now, and they knew perfectly well what kind of man their president actually was.

First, and this much was beyond dispute—

Minami Yuji was, without question, a good leader and a good man. That much was fact.

Whenever an employee ran into financial trouble, he'd help however he could.

Even after making it big in Tokyo, he'd never forgotten the Masayama Orphanage he'd come from.

Add to that the indefinable, unplaceable personal charisma he simply had, and it gave south's overall office atmosphere a completely different feel from a typical Japanese company.

Nearly every employee held some quiet resolve to repay this President Minami, who so rarely showed his face around the office.

But by that same token—

Precisely because Minami Yuji really was that outstanding...

Even just from what they knew, plenty of female collaborators had feelings for him.

Back when Minami Yuji first entered Giō Academy's middle school and had already filled out into his current looks, no shortage of female business partners had thrown out all sorts of suggestive remarks.

This man's talent, one had to suspect, had gone at least half into pure charm.

Putting that together—

They found themselves recalling the wine-red-haired girl who'd been trailing behind Minami Yuji just now, supposedly signing her contract, but sneaking glances at him the whole time.

However you looked at it, something felt off.

Aside from Minami Reiko, everyone present suddenly felt an indescribable something, and the way they looked at Minami Yuji turned distinctly odd.

Could their president actually have made a move on Kana Arima?

She was only sixteen, after all!

Feeling their stares, Minami Yuji was honestly at a loss for words.

It was a good thing his staff had so much energy.

But wasn't this energy running a little too high?

Now they were even gossiping about their president's love life?

And besides, had none of them stopped to consider one simple fact?

"I'm also only sixteen this year."

"So where exactly is this 'philandering' supposed to be coming from?"

"...All right, that's enough."

Minami Yuji was equal parts exasperated and amused.

He reached out and rapped his knuckles on the desk, his expression cooling.

"Have I been too easy on you lot lately? Everyone, back to work. Now."

"Yes, sir—"

The reply came out drawn long.

With Minami Yuji already wearing that expression, no one present kept teasing him further — they turned back to focus on the work in front of them.

That steady flow of work continued on until around five in the afternoon, when Minami Reiko finally lifted her head.

"Yu— ahem, President Minami, my paperwork here is basically all sorted. Whatever needs your sign-off has already been sent to your computer. Next up is the matter of Miss Arima."

Since they were at the agency and everyone was watching, Minami Reiko — in her role as the elder sister — was careful to preserve her little brother's authority, quickly correcting herself before laying out the biggest issue at hand.

That issue was Kana Arima.

Now that she'd signed her talent contract with Minami Pro, there was no question she was an entertainer under Minami Yuji's banner.

Which brought up the next question.

A question no entertainer could ever escape.

Work.

If the agency wanted to turn a profit, its entertainers needed to actually take on jobs.

"Given Kana Arima's current fame, work isn't something we need to worry about for the time being. The problem is what comes after that."

Minami Reiko paused for a moment.

True enough — a famous entertainer could trade on her own name recognition to land work.

But relying on personal fame as the sole channel for getting work in this industry was inherently unstable.

Popularity, by its very nature, was a fickle thing.

And Minami Pro was still a brand-new agency. Even backed by the south short-video app and virtual-broadcast technology, and with capital to spare, its industry connections were still far too thin.

On top of that, as a fledgling agency, Minami Pro's name recognition, credibility, and reputation were all still quite low — nowhere near enough to win the trust of the industry's major networks, producers, and freelance directors.

If that problem went unsolved, there was no way to build a steady, ongoing supply of work.

"Mm... I understand that. But don't worry — I've actually already thought of a solution for this. I just can't put it into action yet. For the time being, I'll have to trouble you, Reiko-nee, to prop things up a bit using Arima's name recognition."

Minami Yuji hummed thoughtfully and spoke without hesitation.

It had to be said — now that he was truly running an agency, Minami Yuji was discovering just how tangled its day-to-day operations really were, with all sorts of headaches coming one after another.

And the crux of it wasn't only the agency's business...

He himself had plenty of things to worry about too.

Same as Kana Arima.

The problem he had to think through was also about work.

Some might say—

Given his current fame and the sheer number of awards under his belt, wouldn't finding work outside be effortless for him?

...

That's right!

Finding work really was effortless for him.

Nothing else needed to be said.

Just his track record of winning the Galaxy Awards and the Broadcasting Culture Foundation Prize, plus his current status as the top young actor of his generation in Japan, was more than enough to send plenty of producers and production companies scrambling after him.

But that was exactly the problem — this work was simply too chaotic, all kinds of jobs coming in every which way.

As big as lead roles in TV dramas, as small as bit parts.

Even radio announcing gigs and anime voice-acting work had come knocking.

And it wasn't so much that he couldn't take these jobs — it was that he couldn't afford to.

The reason was simple enough: as a rising young actor, Minami Yuji's standing in the industry now stood far too high.

He could no longer accept work the way he had back in his child actor days, saying yes to whatever job came along.

There were standards now for the work he took on.

Bluntly put, he had to play hard to get — a tactic both Saitou Kyoko and Ichigo Saitou at Ichigo Pro agreed on and had adopted as policy.

The thing was, this kind of "playing hard to get" really was necessary in the Japanese entertainment industry.

Accept some cheap job without thinking twice, and people would decide the top young star of his generation was cheap goods — that he could be looked down on. Or they'd start in with "this job doesn't meet the standard," or "could you let our Yuji play the lead in this drama? If so, he's welcome to do it"...

In short, all sorts of tedious back-and-forth worth haggling over.

And on top of that, Minami Yuji was now sixteen.

For him, that made this a genuinely critical juncture in time.

Ichigo Pro naturally wanted to find him the most perfect possible job — one that would thoroughly establish his name in the adult acting world. After all, this would be his very first job stepping into the adult entertainment scene! They had to find him a good script and make it a truly polished debut!

So even though Minami Yuji was already famous, he actually hadn't taken on much work at all from the start of the year up to now.

Both Saitou Kyoko and Ichigo Saitou were actively hunting for him a chance at a lead role in a film or a major TV production.

And Minami Yuji, for his part, had no intention of just sitting back and watching either.

He'd taken action of his own.

Which was—

"Finally, the call's come."

Eyebrow arched, Minami Yuji's gaze dropped to the phone in his hand.

There, on the screen, a name was flashing as the call came through.

He went down from Minami Pro, hopped on his motorcycle, and rode to the meeting spot. From a distance, Minami Yuji could already spot the black-haired young man in glasses standing under a tree.

The other man had clearly spotted him too, and even raised a hand to wave.

Minami Yuji rode his motorcycle over, an eyebrow arching. "Just you, Himekawa?"

Sure enough, standing before Minami Yuji — after a long absence — was none other than Himekawa Taiki, the famous actor currently starring in a hit Getsuku drama.

His career had turned out more or less the same as in the original storyline.

Now eighteen, he'd carved out a solid place for himself among adult actors — thriving, by any measure.

The one difference, perhaps, was that his acting had grown noticeably stronger than it had in the original story.

And the root cause of all that was—

Himekawa Taiki shot the Minami Yuji before him a sidelong glance.

It was all because of Minami Yuji.

Odd as that might sound put that way, it was nonetheless the plain truth.

After finishing the Kuro no Kuni stage play, Himekawa Taiki had walked away with a single conviction burning in his mind.

Utterly surpass Minami Yuji.

No matter what, he had to beat Minami Yuji.

To that end, he'd honed his craft relentlessly, even going frame by frame through nearly every film and drama Minami Yuji had ever appeared in, trying to absorb every scrap of the man's technique.

But the more he came to understand Minami Yuji—

The more he realized just how terrifying the rival he was chasing truly was.

The Blue Ribbon Award.

The Galaxy Awards.

The Broadcasting Prize.

Seven straight Drama Academy Best Actor wins!

On top of a whole host of other awards besides.

Himekawa Taiki could say this much for certain—

The black-haired young man before him was, without a doubt, the finest actor he had ever seen.

Even now, in the brutal world of adult actors, the man had already carved out a place of his own.

And yet, at the same time—

"Never thought the day would come when a guy like you would be stressing over not having decent work."

Himekawa Taiki, ever lazy, ever wearing that air of not caring about anything, rubbed his chin as he looked at Minami Yuji, letting out a laugh that fairly reeked of schadenfreude.

It really was funny, when you got down to it.

Winning far too many awards, becoming completely and utterly famous — and as a direct result, being so weighed down by his own reputation that he couldn't find work suited to it. That was hilarious in its own way.

"..." Minami Yuji looked at the gloating Himekawa Taiki before him and could only sigh.

Over the past seven years, the two of them had gone head-to-head plenty of times.

And in the end, victory had almost always fallen to him.

That was part of why, despite how close he and Himekawa Taiki actually were, their relationship leaned more toward that of squabbling rivals — the kind who traded a jab or two whenever they ran into each other, which was perfectly normal.

"Let's go. Producer Kaburagi's waiting for you. Just so we're clear, you two are paying today — as the guy who set this up, I'm only here to eat and drink."

The lazy look on his face gave way to genuine interest as he stepped forward, clapping Minami Yuji on the shoulder as he said it.

The moment those words left his mouth, they put new energy into Minami Yuji.

That's right.

This was exactly why he'd come here today.

He'd already done his homework.

Kaburagi Katsuya, a fairly well-known freelance producer in the original storyline too, had an extremely wide circle of connections.

One of his friends, as it happened, had recently been planning something big-budget...

And landing that big-budget job... that was precisely why Minami Yuji had come here today.