Bold

Gu Xue snapped out of her state of overthinking, covered her nose, and said with a wry smile, "Mihara-san, even if I don't eat it, you don't have to be like this, right?"

Mihara Chisa set down her spoon, placed her hands on her knees, and gripped them tightly, all the color draining from her face. "What do you mean by that?"

"Huh?" Gu Xue wiped the cream off her nose with her hand, looking a bit confused. "Just chatting, what do you mean, what do I mean?"

"Did you look at the photos I sent?" This time, Mihara Chisa didn't fidget; she looked directly at Gu Xue and asked.

"I did, they were really pretty... Mihara-san, what's wrong?" Gu Xue stopped mid-sentence, noticing the strange look on Mihara Chisa's face, and her delicate brows furrowed.

Mihara Chisa didn't speak, biting her lip hard.

Under the table.

Because she was gripping so tightly, her fingernails had already dug into her palms.

Mihara Chisa wanted to scream.

But something called reason stopped her.

She didn't dare.

She was afraid that Gu Xue would think she was a pervert.

And then keep her at a distance.

She was terrified.

Because she only had this one friend.

"Mihara-san? What is actually wrong? Are you not feeling well?" Gu Xue couldn't even worry about the cream on her nose anymore; seeing Mihara Chisa sitting there blankly, she hurried over to shake her shoulder and call out to her.

"..." Mihara Chisa mechanically tilted her head to look at Gu Xue, then suddenly reached out and cupped her face.

"Mihara-san?" Gu Xue, still with cream on her nose, didn't overthink it and shook her again, looking very worried.

Seeing that Gu Xue didn't resist her touch, Mihara Chisa's eyes slowly brightened, and the color returned to her face. Her palms moved slightly, and she gently pinched Gu Xue's cheeks.

"Mihara-san, may I ask what you are doing?" Gu Xue saw that she didn't seem to be in any real trouble and felt relieved, finally noticing her actions.

Mihara Chisa took a deep breath, and the color fully returned to her face.

"You had cream on your nose." Mihara Chisa wiped the cream off Gu Xue's nose, let go of her face, and said softly, "Sorry, I was thinking about something from the past. I'm fine now."

"What were you thinking about? Do you have gamophobia?" Gu Xue, who had been quite startled, was left between laughter and tears. She pushed Mihara Chisa's shoulder to make her scoot in, then sat down beside her.

"...No, I'm sorry." Having calmed down, Mihara-san returned to her usual self. Thinking of what she had just done, she turned her head away, not daring to look at Gu Xue.

"Then..." Gu Xue wanted to ask if it was about her old company, but after a moment's thought, she didn't ask, afraid of reopening old wounds.

Being too considerate of others isn't always a good thing.

Mihara Chisa looked out the window, silent.

Mihara Chisa didn't actually hate the great director Narita Kei, nor did she hate him for slapping her, because she bore some responsibility for those events, and she felt that a large part of it was her own fault.

She didn't mind if others didn't like her, because she had never tried to make anyone like her.

She certainly didn't feel that there was anything wrong with people looking on coldly when she hit rock bottom.

Because she herself was quite cold.

What she hated was.

Others dismissing her, especially men.

Just because of her gender, her appearance, and the fact that she had managed to stay at her original company and get promoted to production manager even after causing a mess.

They would... completely dismiss her hard work and everything she had sacrificed. They could cast suggestive glances at will and say those baseless things, as if fitting their own imaginations made them true.

She hated that.

Mihara Chisa held no goodwill toward this world; she didn't believe in the inherent goodness of human nature, she didn't believe in magic, and because of her experiences at her previous company, she didn't believe in men.

She now only believed in Gu Xue, who had boldly expressed and shown all her kindness.

But having a difficult personality didn't mean she lacked common sense.

Precisely because she trusted and cared about Gu Xue, she was very cautious. She didn't dare to express herself directly because she didn't know the other person's stance.

Although sending the photos was a clumsy and nonsensical method.

She had truly held expectations for it.

Gu Xue's words just now had shattered those expectations.

She had once wanted to just stand up and run away, but as if possessed, she had reached out her hand, determined to bear the risk of being called a pervert, and tried touching Gu Xue.

Gu Xue hadn't resisted; she hadn't shown disgust.

Mihara Chisa felt as if the whole world had suddenly regained its color.

As long as she didn't resist her touch, there was still a chance.

Even if...

"Mihara-san?" Gu Xue looked at Mihara Chisa, who had been staring blankly out the window, and felt a bit worried.

"..."

Having her train of thought interrupted, Mihara Chisa suddenly turned her head and stared straight at Gu Xue.

"What is it?" Gu Xue felt a little creeped out by her gaze.

Her face is bright red, yet she's staring right at me. What on earth is she thinking about...

"Nothing..." Mihara Chisa had been holding onto the resolve of a final stand, but the last bit of courage she had mustered was spent, and she immediately lowered her head like a quail.

Gu Xue: "..."

Afterward, Gu Xue worriedly asked again what was wrong with Mihara Chisa, whether she was feeling unwell or something similar, but Mihara Chisa just shook her head to everything.

She only said she was sorry.

In the end, Gu Xue had no other choice.

The two finished their cold drinks in a rush, paid the bill, and walked out of the shopping mall.

At the entrance of the shopping mall.

Following behind Gu Xue, Mihara Chisa looked at the other girl's back and suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Gu Xue turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"

Mihara Chisa shook her head. After Gu Xue turned back around, she took the hair tie off her wrist, gathered her shoulder-length hair, and tied it into a ponytail. Then, she trotted over to Gu Xue's side, her chest heaving as she took several deep breaths. Once she finally gathered her courage, she moved her right hand and quietly took hold of Gu Xue's hand.

Gu Xue glanced at her, a bit surprised, but didn't think much of it. She just felt happy, assuming that Mihara had finally opened up and started treating her as a friend.

Until they had walked for a while.

"Mihara-san, may I ask, why are you scratching my palm..."

"...I didn't."

"I'm not an idiot, how could I possibly mistake such an obvious sensation?" Gu Xue gave her a suspicious look. "Wait... Mihara-san, you aren't scolding me, are you? You didn't dare say it out loud, so you're secretly writing it on my palm?"

Mihara Chisa's face turned bright red. In truth, she had drawn a triangle with deep meaning, but since Gu Xue didn't understand, there was no need to rush to explain it. She just squeezed Gu Xue's hand hard, glared at her, and scolded her in a very small voice: "Idiot."

"Eh... didn't you just say it out loud..."

Mihara Chisa turned her head away, refusing to meet her eyes, but her hand moved quietly, changing their held hands into an interlocked grip.

Gu Xue didn't notice this at all and was still pestering Mihara Chisa about what exactly she had written...

In the end, Gu Xue never did get an answer as to what Mihara-san had written.

The two parted ways with reluctance... well, not exactly reluctance; it was mostly that Mihara Chisa had been dragging Gu Xue along. Gu Xue was so preoccupied with what had been written on her palm that she was led astray the entire way. If she hadn't come to her senses at the critical moment and realized something was wrong right before the train doors closed—that she wasn't even supposed to be on that train—she might have been dragged all the way to Mihara Chisa's house...

However, those were all things that happened yesterday.

Gu Xue returned home safe and sound, not taking those events to heart at all, nor thinking much of them. She even overslept the next day.

Because she had to go to the company today, Gu Xue had a premonition that she might have to pull an all-nighter again, so she deliberately stayed up very late to reset her biological clock, but she stayed up too late.

She didn't wake up until after four in the afternoon.

Seeing the time, Gu Xue didn't care anymore. She lay in bed, thinking, Since I can't arrive on time anyway, it definitely won't matter if I'm even later, and started scrolling through her phone.

How could going to work be more important than looking at beautiful photos of Mihara-san...

During the time Gu Xue was asleep, Mihara Chisa had sent a few more photos.

Every single one of them was gorgeous.

It's just that...

Mihara-san seemed to be becoming more and more daring.

Take the last photo, for example.

Although Mihara-san wasn't revealing anything, the top button of her shirt was undone, leaving her delicate collarbones and fair skin beneath her neck fully exposed. On her lower body, she was wearing a pair of shorts that Gu Xue had never seen her wear before, and her pair of snow-white legs were dazzlingly bright.

From a high-angle shot, she was kneeling on the bed, looking up slightly, and paired with her slightly flushed face, it was truly full of sex appeal.

Normally, even if they were the same gender, even if they were friends, people wouldn't usually send photos like this...

After finishing the last picture, Gu Xue put down her phone and rolled around in her bed while hugging her quilt. It wasn't as if she didn't have any thoughts.

For a fleeting moment, she even had an impulse to send a message to Mihara Chisa in a joking tone, saying, I actually like girls.

It would be both a warning and a probe.

But considering the clumsy way the other girl expressed her goodwill, as well as her past experiences, Gu Xue felt it was better not to do that.

Mihara-san sending photos so frequently might just be her way of expressing goodwill and friendship, just like the strawberry milk and holding hands yesterday.

It was better not to let the other party get the terrible idea that "I treat you as a friend, but you want to sleep with me."

After all, once a message like that is sent, the consequences are irreversible.

Either she would drag Mihara-san down with her to face doubt and misunderstanding, or she would be alienated by her; neither was a good outcome.

Suppressing and extinguishing those strange feelings, Gu Xue sighed, replied "So beautiful" to Mihara-san, and hopped out of bed.

At 4:50, Gu Xue finished everything, sat on the entryway floor to put on her shoes, stood up, tapped her toes on the ground, opened the door, and left home.

She took the train to the office, arriving a little late, but not too late.

However, Gu Xue didn't see Mihara Chisa, so she planned to go to her seat and sit for a while.

By the way, Gu Xue could now completely ignore the gazes of others; the days of getting shy when being stared at were almost entirely gone. For instance, as she walked to her seat now, meeting everyone's eyes, she remained expressionless the entire time, looking exactly like a... haughty high school girl.

No matter how wildly her chest grew, her face and temperament weren't things that would change so easily...

Arriving at her desk, just as Gu Xue was about to sit down, she noticed a note Mihara Chisa had left for her. She took a glance, pushed the chair she had pulled out back in, and went to the door of the small conference room in the corner of the office, knocking on it.

"Please come in."

Misawa Hiroshi's voice came from inside.

Gu Xue pushed the door open and walked in.

Inside the small conference room, there were only two people.

Misawa Hiroshi and Mihara Chisa.

The Anime Mirai project was still in the planning stage, and many things hadn't been decided yet, including what genre the animation would be.

The only things confirmed were the personnel: Misawa Hiroshi would be the director of the work, while Mihara Chisa, who had taken on the project, would serve as the producer and production manager.

The Anime Mirai project wasn't just about training new key animators; there were also special funds for animators, directors, and animation directors, who were also within the scope of training. Therefore, it wasn't strange for Misawa Hiroshi to become the director, and the Snakehead animation production company was also very happy to use public funds to train newcomers.

"..." Mihara Chisa saw Gu Xue enter and silently pulled out a chair for her.

Gu Xue said thanks, sat down, looked at Misawa Hiroshi, and said, "Congratulations."

Being able to become a director was indeed something worth celebrating, especially for someone like Misawa Hiroshi who had so many ideas.

Misawa Hiroshi gave a wry smile, glanced at Mihara Chisa, and said, "Thanks."

Gu Xue looked at the stiff-faced Mihara Chisa and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

Mihara Chisa paused for a moment. "I don't think the genre Mr. Misawa proposed fits the market, so I rejected it."

The Anime Mirai project wasn't about making a TV anime or a theatrical film; it was just an OVA-level animation with a runtime of only 24 minutes, roughly equivalent to one episode of a standard TV anime.

The scale was very small.

Therefore, as the person who took on this project, Mihara Chisa was both the producer and the production manager for this project.

The work required of a producer within an animation company, while sharing some commonalities with positions like production manager, setting production, and production supervisor, was hard to define clearly, and it varied from company to company.

If one really had to say, for an adapted work, the most important job of a producer was probably coordinating the ideas between the investors and the animation production team, and negotiating with the producers on the production committee side.

If it were an original work, the most important job of a producer would be to consider and decide questions like, "Does this animation have a market? Who is it for? What should it look like?" Then, they would find a director, screenwriter, and other key creators they trusted to discuss, create a proposal, raise money, find a company to form a production committee, and negotiate with various companies.

This was what a producer at an animation company needed to do for a standard TV anime project.

Although the Anime Mirai project wasn't a standard animation project and didn't require raising money or finding people everywhere, the finished product wouldn't just be graded by judges; these works would be screened in theaters for a period of time and also broadcast on television.

Therefore, Mihara Chisa rejecting Misawa Hiroshi's proposal was likely because she felt the latter's genre had no audience.

"What kind of genre do you want to make?" Gu Xue looked at Misawa Hiroshi, feeling a bit curious.

Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a moment, then said, "Space mecha, a man's romance."

"That's your romance." Before Gu Xue could even speak, Mihara Chisa had already retorted.

"I don't think this genre is suitable for training newcomers, nor do I think this genre will have much of a market."

"...Because you're a woman." Misawa Hiroshi was a bit dissatisfied and muttered under his breath.

Mihara Chisa took a deep breath, seemingly angry and on the verge of exploding.