Chapter 222: Confirming the Time — (8100 Word Goal Achieved!) (Patreon)

Kana Arima still wasn't quite used to baring her skin in front of Minami Yuji.

Even though he was her boyfriend now, it made no difference.

In her own words, it would probably go something like this: doing that was one thing, daily life was another, and she was not the kind of woman who felt no shame at all just because she'd let Minami Yuji see her chest.

All Yuji could do was smile and accept her reasoning.

After feeding the two of them breakfast, he had originally planned to take the day off and look after them.

They'd been up far too late last night. Sakurajima Mai and Kana Arima could both walk on their own, but they were bound to feel a bit off.

As their boyfriend, looking after his girlfriends was only natural.

But Kana and Mai both turned down his kindness, and in perfect unison.

Mai he could understand. But even Kana, who acted like nothing bothered her while secretly being the clingiest of the three, had said the same thing…

That surprised him a little.

Then he heard their reasons, and it struck him as a bit funny.

"All three of us took yesterday off, and Ruby and Mem-cho figured out our relationship. If we take today off too, won't that basically confirm what we did?"

Girls really were thin-skinned about these things.

And that was after they'd tried every kind of trick yesterday.

Still, they weren't keen on letting their friends know they'd already done it.

Yuji could only shake his head with a smile and respect their choice.

He sealed lunch into an insulated box, left the apartment, and rode his motorcycle toward Minami Pro.

He had already finished shooting the Tokyo Bay pier scenes for the Like a Dragon crew, so he was fairly free these few days and didn't have to report to the set.

That meant he could finally settle down and deal with the band's performance…

"As expected of a band show. This thing really does burn through money."

After going through the meeting sheets that Minami Reiko and the others had handed over, Minami Yuji couldn't help letting out a sigh.

Lately he hadn't only been running around telling the girls how he felt. He'd also been handling the preparations for the band's show.

First came the venue.

Since this would be SOUTH's debut, Yuji and Minami Pro had talked it over and agreed to make the Budokan their first stop.

The reasons for choosing the Budokan were the same as I mentioned before.

SOUTH's official online account had around 800,000 followers.

Even if less than 1% of them came to a live event, that was still a good five or six thousand people. Renting a venue that was too small would look stingy, and renting one too big… say, Tokyo Dome… would be a waste of money.

So Yuji went with a compromise: the Budokan, with its 14,000 seats.

That would definitely be big enough.

After all, it wouldn't only be SOUTH's fans coming on the day. As I said earlier, other famous bands would be invited to make guest appearances.

As for whether debuting at the Budokan was too big a leap for a rookie band…?

Honestly, that hardly mattered.

Because SOUTH was fundamentally different from an ordinary rookie band.

The difference was their fan count.

That's right.

An ordinary commercial rookie band usually had between ten and fifty thousand fans, and a hundred thousand at the very most.

That was why they needed small-venue tours to build their popularity and grow their following.

But SOUTH was different.

Long before they went commercial, Toyokawa Sakiko and the others had been active online, and they'd left behind plenty of songs and fans.

Those 800,000 followers alone showed how popular they were.

He could play it safe, but there was no need to play it that safe.

Would the Budokan agree to the booking…?

That mattered even less.

As long as you were willing to pay, the venue would be delighted. Who cared what you were renting the place for?

Only, just as Yuji kept muttering to himself…

A band really does burn through money!

The Budokan rental alone, three days covering stage setup, rehearsals and the actual show, came to 15 million yen.

On top of that came staffing, band promotion, stage sets, equipment, costumes, tickets…

Add all of that up and the costs reached 50 million yen.

In other words, for this show alone, Minami Pro's investment had already hit 65 million yen.

And that didn't count Minami Reiko coordinating with other agencies to bring in their bands, or the guest appearance fees and so on…

Everything together put the cost of the whole show at 79 million yen.

At a standard price, a ticket would be 9,800 yen including tax. Call it 10,000 yen.

Even then, the Budokan needed to be at least half full before Minami Pro had any chance of breaking even. And then there were taxes, employee salaries…

Even Yuji couldn't help sighing.

Band shows did make money.

But the amount they burned was no joke either.

"President, why don't we start with a tour instead?" asked Omiya Nana, who handled promotion for the event, raising her hand.

"No." Yuji waved the suggestion away. "We'll go by this sheet. The Budokan is settled. SOUTH is our company's first band, and as long as the promotion is done right, I don't mind sinking a bit of money into their first show. Omiya-san, please coordinate with the promotion department. Shiraki-kun, your online department will handle the ticket page and all the merchandise…"

He issued his instructions one after another, calm and orderly.

With his Level 8 Business skill built up over the years, running this meeting hardly cost him any effort.

As for the final date…

"Two months from now."

He tapped a finger on the table as he said it.

Two months wasn't that long.

In fact, as preparation time it was a little short.

Some matters needed plenty of time to handle.

But Yuji didn't want to drag the schedule out. He meant to ride the heat from the SOUTH short-video announcement from a while back and push the whole band up while it lasted.

…

When the meeting wrapped up, Yuji stretched, a rare luxury, and let out a small breath.

Even with the boost from his Business skill, a whole meeting full of decisions and judgment calls was tiring. Add to that the fact that last night he'd stayed up until 3 a.m. with both Kana Arima and Sakurajima Mai…

His stamina and energy far exceeded a normal person's.

Even so, he still felt some fatigue.

He'd been planning to grab a quick nap.

But before he could even move, someone knocked on the president's office door.

With a helpless shake of his head, he set his grand napping plan aside. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Yuji."

"Hm?"

Of course he knew that voice well.

It was his elder sister, Minami Reiko, the general manager of this show's project.

But why had she come back to him instead of getting on with her work…?

He didn't hesitate and raised his head. "Come in, Reiko-nee. It's not locked."

With a murmured "Excuse me," Minami Reiko pushed the door open.

Before he could ask anything, she started talking.

"Here's the thing, Yuji. During the meeting, besides the specifics of the show preparations, there's something else I didn't tell you."

"…What is it?"

Yuji grew more curious. What couldn't be said in the meeting that she was bringing up on her own now?

"Well… it's, um… there are only two months until the show, and I've been wondering whether Miss Toyokawa might be stretched thin on the composition side…"

Minami Reiko picked her words carefully, hesitating as she spoke.

She was right. From now until the actual show, there were only two months.

And the second half of the Budokan show would run a full hour.

At the usual three to four minutes per song, or even two to three…

Toyokawa Sakiko would need to write at least fifteen brand-new songs.

Two months looked long, but fifteen new pieces in that time seemed far too hard, however you thought about it.

It wasn't that they couldn't use the old SOUTH songs.

But with an entirely new lineup, and this being Minami Pro's latest project, relying on old SOUTH songs that had already circulated online in who knew how many versions didn't seem appropriate.

And since Toyokawa Sakiko was also Yuji's childhood friend, Reiko wanted to sound him out in private.

"What did Sakiko say?"

Yuji furrowed his brow and looked up.

"Miss Toyokawa agreed a few days ago. She even said she'd 'do her best' for this concert, and for you, Yuji. But personally, I still think the time is too tight."

Minami Reiko shook her head.

She admired Toyokawa Sakiko's determination.

But sometimes, determination alone isn't enough to get a job done.

"I see… Hmm… Got it. Leave this to me, Reiko-nee. You don't need to worry about it."

Yuji said thoughtfully.

"Okay."

Minami Reiko nodded and went out, pulling the door shut behind her.

After watching her leave, Yuji finally got to his feet.

As I've said before.

Songs are the capital a band lives on.

Without good work, no amount of dazzling promotion can change the fact that the band itself is weak.

Because the quality of the music speaks for itself.

So…

Yuji thought it over, then stood up and headed for SOUTH's practice room. First, he'd see how the girls were doing, then figure out a plan.