Chapter 161 My Tenderness Is Never Reserved for Losers

Daiko Nagato was well-known for his strict policy of only promoting handsome men and beautiful women. As the latest rising stars fiercely backed by the agency, field_view boasted members of exceptionally high visual standards, with Tetsuro Oda composing their debut music and Izumi Sakai carefully guiding their lyrics. Putting aside what Yuya Asaoka might look like as he grew older, for now, he remained an absolutely fresh and handsome young man.

As the founder of the "Beer Club" internal gathering and a lifetime honorary member of the looks-first association, Kawashima Mikasa had immediately pulled Nao into the fold the very first time she met him, and naturally, she had no intention of letting Yuya Asaoka escape her radar either.

……

Ever since Nao, the sole underage member of the Beer Club, stepped into his twenties back in March of this year, the locations for their small gatherings had gradually expanded to bars, clubs, and other places inconvenient for minors.

"Nao-kun, you were in quite a dangerous spot this time," Kawashima Mikasa teased him. "You almost lost to a single that’s already been on sale for a whole month by Yuya-kun."

*Suddenly* had sold just over 130,000 copies this week, leaving a 30,000-copy gap between it and *A Singer's Love Song*. A difference of 30,000 copies was no small margin, but considering that *Suddenly* had been on the market for an entire month, those figures were fiercely impressive.

Despite being mentioned by name, Yuya Asaoka quietly sipped his iced beer, wearing a detached, indifferent smile on his face as if they were talking about a complete stranger.

Nao intentionally sighed. "Mikasa-nee, isn't this the part where you say something gentle to encourage me?"

"Don't you think I've already been very gentle, Nao-kun? If you had actually lost, I would have started by mercilessly mocking you the moment we met," Kawashima Mikasa said quite savagely. "My gentleness is never wasted on losers."

"Mikasa-nee really is... always stabbing people's hearts with barbed sticks and dancing on open wounds in thick-soled platform sandals," Nao's mouth twitched.

Kawashima Mikasa added with a beaming smile, "Not just that. If you get angry about it, I'll use your fury to fuel a barbecue party, and if you shed tears over it, I'll extract the salt from your despairing tears to use as seasoning."

"Hey, hey..." Wands interrupted, unable to help himself. "Where on earth did you crawl out from, some kind of witch or goblin?"

Maki Ohguro also furrowed her brow repeatedly. "Just hearing you say that gives me goosebumps."

"I was just joking!" Kawashima Mikasa gulped down half a beer in one go, let out a sigh of relief reminiscent of a tired middle-aged office worker, and explained with a laugh, "I just wanted to give Nao-kun a little scare as punishment for always skipping our gatherings lately."

"It's not like I did it on purpose," Nao offered a weak protest.

Though he wished he could sound more confident, he had turned down Kawashima Mikasa three times in the span of three months leading up to this. Given the big sister's temper, it would have been truly strange if she hadn't done anything.

"Because Nao-kun has really been busy lately," Maki Ohguro defended him. "We all knew he was preparing for a movie and a radio drama, but who would have expected him to be producing a newcomer for Sony as well."

Once the debut date was finalized, Sony Music held a debut presentation for Kazuyo Kawamoto, announcing during the event that Nao was her producer. They used the catchy hook of "the first-ever produced newcomer by the currently trending singer-songwriter" to generate a massive wave of hype for her.

Marking this press conference as the starting point, the newcomer project that Nao and Sony had been "plotting in secret" for months was finally made public to the world.

Mentioning this, Masao Akashi joined the conversation. "Nao-kun sure kept it under wraps, quietly running off to 'marry into' another company like that."

"I really didn't mean to keep it a secret on purpose." This time around, Nao's defense was much more solid. It wasn't that he harbored any mistrust toward his friends at Being; rather, he was bound by a prior agreement with Sony and had a strict obligation to keep the collaboration confidential until Kazuyo Kawamoto's official debut presentation. The only person who had known about it beforehand was Tetsuro Oda, who had been aware of the prospective newcomer even before she signed.

"Don't worry, everyone understands that much," Masao Akashi gave him a reassuring look. "Still, I'm quite curious why you chose to sign the newcomer to Sony. Wouldn't it have been infinitely easier to sign her over here?"

Before Nao could answer, Wands offered a cold sneer with the corner of his mouth lifted. "If the newcomer had been signed here, would there have been any room left for Nao-kun to have a say?"

"Now, now, Wands-kun," Kawashima Mikasa's smile faltered for a second. "Actually, there's no need to be quite so blunt..." Though even she knew that what Wands had spoken was the absolute, unvarnished truth.

It was then that Nao realized everyone attending tonight's gathering—Maki Ohguro, Kawashima Mikasa, Masao Akashi, Wands, and Yuya Asaoka—with the sole exception of Kawashima Mikasa, would all end up parting ways with Being in the near future. To a certain extent, this Beer Club was practically a rebel alliance... even though its founder was a hardcore Being loyalist.

However, when it came to companies and bosses, even the most rebellious artists would not openly voice things too harshly. Even with Wands currently going through his most defiant rebellious phase, he merely stopped at hinting and did not press the matter further.

"Speaking of which," Maki Ohguro said, "has Nao-kun ever considered writing songs for singers on this side again? That song you gave to ANDS last time had a pretty fantastic response."

"Such as?"

"Hmm... MANISH, for example. What do you think?" Maki Ohguro looked at him. Mirei Takahashi had once studied vocals under her, and in Maki Ohguro's heart, those two juniors in MANISH were bound to be a little different from the rest.

"MANISH, huh," Kawashima Mikasa mused thoughtfully. "For some reason, despite having such stellar vocals and both of them being rare beauties, they always seem to hover right below truly breaking out."

When the parties in question were not present, the conversations naturally became much more direct.

"Although it feels a bit like talking behind people's backs, I honestly can't wrap my head around why these two were put together as a unit," Nao stated bluntly. "Ms. Takahashi and Ms. Nishimoto are just far too mismatched."

"As for that, it was actually President Nagato's idea," Kawashima Mikasa explained. "A female duo band was still a blank slate in the market back then, and he expected them to make a real splash."

"That may be, but their auras don't mesh very well. Moreover, while the band's production value is quite high, it hasn't reached that undeniable, convincing level of B'z. If you're looking for explosive, powerhouse vocalists, you already have Maki-san; if you're aiming for a refreshing pop-rock style, you have Sakai-nee's Zard. It ends up feeling a bit awkward."

"According to you," Kawashima Mikasa asked half-jokingly, "what on earth should these two do next?"

Nao shook his head. "No idea."