A beautiful woman was speaking on the phone as she walked down a hall. She wore a dark gray suit jacket, a matching pencil skirt, a white-collar button up shirt, with dark gray stockings, and a pair of black heels. The suit clung to the woman’s body near perfectly, her curves accentuated.

  “Yes, I understand completely and will inform Mr. Taraka accordingly.”

  Saki Katsumi, 16 years-old, known to those who have worked with her as ‘the cold-hearted beauty,’ has made a name for herself working as manager and personal bodyguard to the popular idol Kouki Takara for the last year. For the most part this young beauty does her job in relative silence, however when it comes to her client she was the definition of ‘No Nonsense’.

  “No, he will not be answering any questions outside of his work.”

  A few moments after her response, she stopped in her tracks. A loud stomp from her heels was heard throughout the hall as she bit her lips in frustration, catching the attention of a few bystanders. Her face contorted to that of anger, her emerald green eyes darkening as she looked to the phone as if the person on the other end of the line was able to see her. Most who saw this were thankful that it was not directed at them. Taking a deep breath in to calm herself, she spoke as sternly as possible.

  “You do realize that as his manager I can easily convince Mr. Takara to not attend this interview at all? He is quite busy and I can speak on his behalf that he would love to have one less thing on his list to do.”

  Moments after, a smirk began to form on her lips as she turned back around and continued to walk towards her destination. Soon, she arrived at a large set of doors. A plaque stating ‘Studio 9’ decorating it.

  “Very good. Then I will inform him of the changes and will contact you if anything. Have a good afternoon sir.”

  She hung up, sighing in relief that the conversation was over. Looking at her phone once more she saw the time read 3:45PM, causing her to sigh once again putting the phone in her suit pocket.

  “Honestly, it’s as if these conversations happen more and more often. After 8 years I would’ve thought these idiots would get the hint that Kouki prefers to keep his private life private.”

  Opening the door, she entered the room being sure to look around to see if anyone else was in the room. However, what she found instead was a heaving, wheezing, and sweating Kouki bent over a trash bin throwing up. The sight alone caused her to feel concern for Kouki, as she rushed to his side rubbing his back in concern.

  “I-I’m fi-” Kouki attempted to say but was interrupted by his own bile as he heaved one last time into the nearly full trash bin in front of him. “Ugh, I’m okay Katsumi just…give me a minute...” Kouki finished, his voice sounding hoarse, taking a moment to spit a few times more into the bin before shakily attempting to stand.

  The teen sensation, Kouki Takara, 15 years-old, was one of the greatest generations of idol singers. However, due to his abnormally low immune system he tended to get ill more often than others. While for Saki this was common knowledge, there were only a few companies and studios that were actively aware of this fact. So, to make up for it, Saki took it upon herself to learn basic first aid so that if Kouki’s condition were to worsen she would be able to help. However, if worse came to worse they would visit a special doctor who had more experience in helping Kouki’s condition. In most cases Kouki did his best to hide his illness, and to Saki’s disappointment he was very good at it.

  Saki took the initiative, helping Kouki to his feet as he stumbled to get his footing. Kouki heaved slightly, clearly having trouble breathing. Despite what he said Kouki was clearly unable to continue to work in this condition. With a sigh, Saki took her phone from her pocket and quickly dialed a number on her phone.

  “Yes, this is Kouki Takara’s manager. I’m afraid we must cancel today’s recording.”

  Kouki looked at Saki quickly, doing his best to try to stop her but due to his weaker stature all he succeeded in was getting himself more exhausted as Saki continued to speak in her usual professional manner.

  “I understand that, but at the moment he isn’t feeling well.”

  Kouki sighed in defeat, knowing that no matter how hard he pushed Saki always got her way in these situations. In a large way, he was grateful for all of her help but there was still a stubborn part of him that just screamed he could’ve done more.

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  “Thank you, I apologize for the late notice and we will call once Mr. Takara is feeling well again.” After hanging up the phone, Saki took it upon herself to help Kouki walk, but before she could, Kouki pushed her away, his face downturned so she couldn’t see his face. “Kouki, what’s wrong?”

  Kouki stood there, his body trembling in anger as he looked at his friend. “Why do you do that? You know I ca-”

  “Keep going? Kouki, I know you and if there’s anything I learned after all these years it’s that if I gave you the chance, you’d work yourself to death.” Saki pointed out, walking towards Kouki with a combination of seriousness and concern on her face as she continued.

  “While I understand that this job is important to you, what's more important to me is your health and well-being.”

  At that, Kouki's body language softened, looking up at her with frustrated tears in his eyes. “Sorry Saki…I don’t mean to worry you…” Kouki spoke softly, now allowing Saki to put her arm around Kouki’s frame to help him stand.

  “I just want to do more, not just for me but for both of us! I don’t want us to have to worry about being homeless again…”

  Saki looked down at Kouki, sighing as she flicked his nose, causing him to flinch and look at her in confusion.

  “Honestly, don’t be so dramatic.” Saki smiled softly, as she began to walk to exit the room helping Kouki as she spoke.

  “Nothing falls solely on you Kouki. We’re in this together, regardless of what happens I know that we can get through anything as long as we’re together.” Saki softly stroked Kouki’s hair, bringing him closer as she did so.

  “Thanks Saki…” Kouki stated bashfully, a small blush on his cheeks.

  Saki nodded in appreciation, grabbing a nearby hat and glasses for Kouki.

  “Here, put these back on.”

  Kouki groaned, having a bit of trouble with his stomach as he placed both items on his head.

  “Good, now let’s head home.” Saki stated, guiding the young idol towards the exit.

  Despite both teens earning more than enough money, they both agreed that having any sort of entourage would attract too much attention, and they both took great strides to keep the location of their home away from the public. So in order to avoid any of the public, they chose to take the bus to and from any location they needed to go to. The nearest one being on the corner of a 4-way intersection, surrounded by several different shops.

  “By the way, did we have anything else scheduled today?” Kouki asked, looking up at Saki as they got increasingly closer to the nearby bus stop.

  “No, though we do have one scheduled in a couple days. I almost just cancelled since they actually wanted to ask for more private information, but I took care of it.” Saki answered with a sigh, taking shelter from the burning sun underneath a bus stop bench where only a single older gentleman was holding a small bag of assorted groceries.

  “Honestly, how do you put up with it? I mean I can essentially put up with it for a bit, but you have to put up with that kind of thing almost on a daily basis now.” Kouki admired, taking a seat on the bench quickly to keep himself from getting dizzy.

  “Well, no it isn’t, but I can handle most of them.” Saki stated, choosing to instead stand just under the shade of the bus stop as she spoke.

  It was then, in the corner of Kouki’s eye was an elderly woman walking towards the crosswalk directly in front of them, dragging a rather large assortment of groceries behind her in a small run down utility cart almost to the point where it would break.

  However, as the bus began to pull up to the bus stop, Kouki saw a large moving truck come into his view. The driver was looking at their phone, and noticing that said driver was driving way too fast to stop in time. Kouki knew what he had to do.

  “Great, it seems the bus is here early. if you need help I can help you int-“

  Saki couldn’t finish. In fact, for the first time since she’s known Kouki, he ran faster than she could track. However, it wasn’t why he was running that concerned her but where he was running to. She immediately set off to catch him. “I need to get to him…please, let me get to him.”

  “Whoa, I’ve never run this fast before…”

  Kouki thought, as the feeling of his outstretched hands made contact with the elderly woman forcefully pushing her out of the way.

  “…I wonder, is this what it’s like to be healthy?”

  Kouki continued, seeing that the elderly woman was sent out of the way.

  “I’ve never been able to move like this before…” He chuckled to himself, his eyes beginning to close as tears escaped.

  “…it’s almost a bit unfair, that the only time I run like this is when I’m about to die...”

  Just then, he felt a pair of arms wrapping around him causing him to open his eyes widely.

  “S-Saki!”

  Kouki panicked, seeing her worried face as she desperately held him tightly.

  Unbeknownst to them, an unnatural light began to shine beneath them containing strange symbols underneath.

  “What are yo-? “ Kouki attempted to ask, but before he could, the light seemed to consume them and made it impossible to see.