December 25th, early morning

“Yes, I understand. Then I’ll be waiting for the update, Sugi-san. Thank you.”

Ryosuke ended the phone call from Sugiyama-san, his manager. He had been talked with his management for the past hour. Alone in the living room of Yamada family house, he spoke in low voice for he didn’t want to disturb anyone’s sleep. His family had gone to bed after he convinced them that his agency would handle the issue just fine. Mirai, too, after much insistance from him for her to get rest, she eventually went to sleep in Mika’s room once her manager called and told her that her agency would hold a meeting in the morning. He himself had tried to sleep, but his mind could not be taken off of the rumor. Thus, he went down from his bedroom to the livingroom and started contacting his management for further information.

So far, his agency was still in the phase of assessing the probable damage cause by the issue. The upper management of the agency was tracing the source of the rumor, and he was told by Sugi-san that for the time being he should not respond to any party who probed into the matter until there was further instruction from his agency.

He plopped down the couch which face the inner yard of the residence. He had open the curtain of the glass sliding door, thus he could stare at the night sky while thinking.

Is Shida Mirai’s relationship with Yamada Ryosuke scripted, or is she cheating on him?

The title of the article agitated him. It was clearly made to attack Mirai’s reputation. She had been well-known to be free of scandal, thus perhaps someone wanted to destroy her innocent image.

“Ryosuke?”

He turned around when he heard Mirai’s voice. She was walking towards his spot, halting her steps an arm away in front of him.

“You haven’t slept?” he asked the obvious.

“You haven’t either,” she replied.

He subtly sighed, “I... couldn’t sleep.”

“Me neither.” She took a couple steps closer, “I heard you were talking in the phone. Was that Sugi-san? Did your agency has decided on something?”

He heard the panic in her tone, so, in purpose to shoothe her, he reached out and gently pulled her to sit down beside him on the couch.

“No, they haven’t decided on anything,” he told her, caressing her hand he was holding.

She leaned to him, resting her head on his shoulder, “Kanata sent me a message just now.”

This got his attention, “What did he say?”

“He just saw the article and asked how I’m doing... also how you reacted to the rumor, and...” she spoke while pulling away. She was holding his hands and looking up to him, softly telling him, “Kanata asked whether he needs to make a statement for media and explains that there’s nothing between him and me.”

The way she looked at him was as though asking him what to do with Kanata’s question.

“It’s not necessary for now,” he directly answered.

“I told him that we wouldn’t involve him directly to clear the rumor,” she said as she reclaimed his shoulder to rest her head.

“That’s right,” he commented. “Our agencies will find solution for this.”

“But, Ryosuke?”

Her questioning tone had him knotted brows. “What is it?”

“If this rumor requires me to retire from entertainment world, would your agency still allow me to be with you?”

“It doesn’t need to be that far, Mirai.”

She shook her head, “It’s a serious issue, Ryosuke. The article accuses me of using you to pave my way into the industry. Nagata-san also sounded angry. She’s never been angry with me.”

He placed a hand on her face, brushing his thumbs gently against her cheekbones, attempting to calm her down. “She might just get pressured with this issue. She is professional, she would handle this case with cool head.”

“But,” her eyes still showed hesitation as she pulled away to look at him. “What should I tell my agency? I don’t want to drag you in this mess.”

“Just be honest with them. Tell them what they want to know about us, just like what I let my agency know. That way, your agency will be able to plan a counter measure and minimize any contradiction against our statements.”

“Including... Akira?”

He nodded, “People might have digged into their old files and found out about the case already by the time we make a press release anyway. Also, we have nothing to hide about that case. It’s the truth that we were just friends that time, and Akira’s incident involved my fans.”

She kept looking at him with worried eyes before letting herself nestle back into his half embrace. Resting her head on his chest, she drapped an arm around his waist. He put his phone away onto the coffee table next to the couch before returning her gesture. For a moment, the still air in the room serenaded them.

He absentmindedly Mirai’s head, occasionally dropping a peck on the crown of her head while thinking about what would happen to the two of them after that. He let Mirai shifted even closer to make herself comfortable resting on him. No words were exchanged. As his brain kept simulating any possible outcome of their rumor, his eyelids got heavier. He didn’t realize when he fell asleep with Mirai in his arms, but at a point, he vaguely remembered seeing his mother pulling a blanket over them.

It was not comfortable to sleep in sitting position on the couch, but when he was awake in the morning and saw the serene face of Mirai leaning against his chest, he couldn’t be more thankful. At least, Mirai got some rest before facing the hard world awaiting for them outside there.

**********

“Just drop me here,” Mirai’s soft voice reached his ear.

They were secured inside his car, parking a few distance away from Ken-On, Mirai’s agency, headquarter. He wanted to drive her to the office, but media had crowded in front of the building.

“No, let’s just take another road. You could enter through the emergency door at the back,” he insisted. He would make sure she arrived at the agency safely.

“I’ll send message to Nagata-san then,” she said as he turned the steering wheel to get another road.

He nodded while focused on driving. While they were in silence, he couldn’t help noticing the snow that lightly pouring. The snowflakes flying in the air looked like thin cotton, glinted under the morning ray.

When they arrived at the back road behind the building, he was grateful that media didn’t resort guarding the emergency entrance. He asked Mirai to call Nagata-san, and not long after that, the older woman appeared. Mirai got off the car, and so did he.

He bowed to Nagata-san and received the same gesture. He felt bad looking at how tired Nagata-san looked like at the moment. When a rumor popped out, it was the management who got pressured most.

“Shida-chan, come in. Boss hasn’t arrived yet from the meeting with Johnny’s management,” Nagata-san gestured Mirai to follow her, and Mirai tentatively obeyed after releasing her hand from his hold.

“Nagata-san,” he called out before they completely left.

When both Nagata-san and Mirai halted and turned at him, he asked, “Please, take care of Mirai.”

Immediately, a small smile formed on Nagata-san’s face when she answered, “I will. Good luck for you, too, Yamada-kun.”

That was the last exchange before they disappeared into the building.

He drove away, heading towards his agency right after that.

**********

So sad that such article which far from truth has troubled everyone. If you’re a fan, you should know which side to trust. They never fake their feelings.

Ryosuke looked at the new trending topic as he browsed through his phone. The statement had become trend in several social network since the first time posted a few hours ago, and it came out from none other than his older sister. It seemed that the rumor had upset her much that she posted such opinion in her blog because usually Chihiro would avoid touching any topic relates to him. Though Chihiro did not directly point the statement to him, it’s still obvious that fans recognized to which issue it pointed at.

He sighed. Now that he thought about it, perhaps it was the worst Christmast in his life. He could’t enjoy the celebration at all.

This morning when he met with JUMP members, he was relieved that they didn’t dig into the rumor. His band mates had known his story with Mirai since the beginning, and they gave him encouragement to support him in this issue.

They had two hours left before leaving to the tv studio for performing when suddenly he was called alone to meeting room. The one Anji-san brought him to was not the usual room Jump uses, but it was the higher up meeting room; the exclusive room where Johnny-san had a meeting with the top management of Johnny and Associates.

When he entered the room, he couldn’t hide his awe. The room was vast. A long shiny table placed in the middle of the room, while a huge white screen occupied one side of the walls. Anji-san told him to sit on the chair facing the huge screen before the older man made a call.

“Yamada-kun is already here,” Anji-san said in the phone.

A moment after Anji-san put down the phone, the screen flickered on and suddenly Johnny Kitagawa’s office room appeared on the screen.

“Good day, Yamada.”

Out of the blue, Johnny-san’s voice was heard from the speaker.

“Ah, good evening, Johnny-san,” he was rather lost when answering.

“Anji, leave us alone,” Johnny-san voice instructed.

Anji-san did as told, and soon he was alone in the room, only accmpanied by the screen which showed the still picture of Johnny-san’s office.

“Wait for awhile, Yamada,” the voice gave another instruction.

“Al-alright,” he stuttered.

He didn’t know what was going on, but he had feeling that it related to the current rumor about him and Mirai.

As he heard static noise from the speaker, suddenly the office picture on the screen got half smaller, and the rest half space of the screen showed black blurry image. However, he was caught off guard when suddenly that black blank space replaced by Mirai’s face...

“Ryosuke,” Mirai’s picture suddenly moved and spoke.

..... and turned out it was not just a still picture, but a video conference!

“Don’t be that surprise,” an amused laughter came from Johnny-san.

“Eh? You can see me?”

Another short laughter was heard before Johnny-san explained, “I can see you clearly, boy. So, let’s not waste any more of our precious time.”

He nodded, and saw Mirai do the same.

“I’m in holiday and was enjoying Christmast here, but suddenly they called just to tell me there is this rumor of you both, Yamada, Shida.”

The tone of Johnny-san didn’t sound like angry tone, instead it sounded like a bored tone.

“Johnny-san, it’s—“

“I haven’t finished yet!” Johnny-san cut him off. “Don’t speak until I ask you to. Both of you.”

“Sorry,” he said.

“I understand,” Mirai said.

“Both your managements disturbed me just for this. Truthfully, this rumor would not cause much damage to Yamada, but since we have a deal to solve any issue related to you both together, I’ll do something.”

“What will you do, Johnny-san?” He wasn’t sure how Johnny-san took this case since he couldn’t see his gestures nor expression, yet by listening to the tone Johnny-san’s using, it seemed there was already a solution for this.

“First,” Johnny-san’s firm voice answered him. “I have acquired the original pictures which are rumored. The man is Hongo Kanata, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but I have nothing with him but friendship,” Mirai’s response was immediate, and it’s obvious she was anxious over the conversation and how would this turn out to be.

“I know. That’s not the problem,” lightly Johnny-san replied. “The magazine that published those picture doesn’t have prove to justify their testimony that he is your secret lover, and also, yours and Yamada’s fans have already get to know him when we’re doing charity project with Akira Foundation last year. The secret lover issue could be solved just by simply explaining who actually the man in the pictures. However, the point in which stated that you used Yamada to get into the industry is my concern. Though it’s not much, I want Yamada to stay being my ideal talent.”

“Ideal talent?”

“Yes. Now I tell you, that since beginning, I’ve envisioned you to be a figure with perfect story. Not in the sense that you’re perfect in everything, but in the sense that you have the story from which fans could relate to. You’re gonna be projected as an idol who is ordinary yet works hard to achieve your dreams. You’re the idol who is perfect in your imperfection. You’ll be having image of a loving family man. That’s why I need you to have a pure love story. You’ll be the symbol that Johnny and Associates’ talents still able to live as normally as common people out there. Meeting your dream girl, loving and being loved, having a family, but still dedicate to work as an idol; the life which could only be found in shoujo manga that loved by many;  that’s exact