I Thought This Was a Slice of Life

Yuzuki Sasaki skipped back to her home, leaving Uesugi Yuichi standing there foolishly, holding Alien Baby Hikari-chan while pondering her statement.

Part B.

Yuzuki Sasaki was once again studying at Uesugi Yuichi's art class.

After the lesson ended, she stayed behind to work on her painting for the competition.

Uesugi Yuichi finally understood what the expression on Yuzuki Sasaki's face had meant when they parted ways earlier.

The subject Yuzuki Sasaki chose to paint was an oil portrait.

And the model was...

Uesugi Yuichi.

Her reason was that Teacher Uesugi was handsome enough.

This was also a fairly objective fact, and Uesugi Yuichi couldn't refute it at all.

Moreover, he had patted his chest yesterday and promised to help, so he was completely unable to refuse Yuzuki Sasaki's request now.

Just like that, the relationship between Uesugi Yuichi and Yuzuki Sasaki made new progress.

Whenever the art class ended, the two would be left alone, conducting their painting session one-on-one.

Yuzuki Sasaki painted with great focus.

At this moment, the ending theme began to play in sync.

Uesugi Yuichi sat upright in front of Yuzuki Sasaki.

The medium-sized studio carried the unique scent of art supplies.

In the slightly cluttered room, only the two of them existed.

Beams of sunlight shone in through the windows, and specks of dust danced in the light, shimmering and sparkling like tiny sprites.

With a warm smile and filled with secret affection, Yuzuki Sasaki poured all her feelings into the portrait.

Simultaneously, Yuzuki Sasaki's inner confession rang out:

"Teacher Uesugi, I know that even if I told you I liked you, you wouldn't agree to it, right?"

"That's why I won't confess right now."

"But I will pour all of these feelings into this painting."

"Will he notice?"

"I hope he does."

"Teacher Uesugi..."

"I—like you."

"I like you so much."

Time seemed to stop at this moment...

Additionally, I suddenly discovered an interesting thing; one of the messages sent by the website said: "During the contract negotiation period, please try your best to maintain stable updates."

Highlighting the word, "try."

In other words.

I... can slack off by imperial decree?

I get it now.

As expected of a famous pigeon nest.

I like it.

Well, as the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

How about tomorrow...?

Section 50 44 Stunned

Shuya knew that the episodes following Alien Baby Hikari-chan would not cause as much of a stir as episode eleven.

It wasn't that the plot was getting worse, but rather that it lacked explosive highlights.

The subsequent episodes mainly focused on Yuzuki Sasaki working hard at her painting and drawing closer to Uesugi Yuichi.

Then, Yuzuki Sasaki finally won first place in the national competition.

After gaining her parents' approval, she began preparing for university entrance exams.

The plot returned to a heartwarming, slice-of-life style; it would still be funny and good to watch, but Shuya believed it wouldn't reach the grand scale of popularity it had before.

He shifted his attention to other matters.

For example, the weekly Oricon Chart.

The Oricon Chart, I believe anyone with even a slight understanding of Japanese pop culture has heard of it; simply put, it is the most authoritative sales ranking list.

The Oricon Chart calculates weekly sales, with the cutoff on Sunday and the release on Tuesday.

In other words, it would be announced the day after Alien Baby Hikari-chan aired.

Shuya, Inoue Hikoo, and the rest of the group were filled with anticipation, waiting at the company early for the results.

Hanazawa Sakura was also pacing back and forth, feeling a bit nervous.

Logically speaking, no major hit singles had been released last week, so she had a very high chance of taking first place.

But until the speculation became reality, she remained on edge.

In this era, it was rare for voice actors to rank high on the Oricon Chart.

Even when anime songs did make the list, the singers were usually popular mainstream artists rather than voice actors.

Very few voice actors ever made the list, let alone reached the number one spot.

As far as Shuya knew, there was only one voice actor who had ever claimed the top spot on the Oricon Chart.

A famous female voice actor named Yusho Sakura.

Shuya didn't know her personally, but he had heard she wasn't very old, only in her twenties.

"It's here, it's here!"

Before long, a staff member hurried over and handed the data to Inoue Hikoo.

He took one look and laughed heartily, "I told you it was a lock—straight to number one!"

"Yay!"

"That's amazing!"

Everyone in the company was cheering.

Now that the news was confirmed, Hanazawa Sakura felt a bit dazed; she could only bow mechanically to those around her, thanking them repeatedly.

Shuya was also clapping to celebrate for his mother.

Following the momentum of Alien Baby Hikari-chan, entering the Million Club might truly not be a problem.

But regardless of whether that happened, today was destined to be a day worth celebrating.

Amidst the cheers, Inoue Hikoo laughed even more boisterously and said, "I'm treating everyone to dinner tonight! Let's have a proper celebration!"

The company was buzzing with excitement.

For the entire day, everyone remained intoxicated by the joy.

Shuya was no exception; after celebrating for a day, everyone still felt a bit lightheaded the next morning, though they were mostly focused on not letting this explosive momentum die out.

The group threw themselves back into intense work.

Shuya, meanwhile, continued to live his leisurely life.

The next day, Wednesday.

He didn't have any classes that morning, and Hanazawa Sakura had to start getting busy with promotional activities, leaving her no time to train him or take him to run bit parts.

With nothing to do, he spent the morning playing with the Quintuplets at home, and when the time was right, he headed off to the gym to work out with Mai.

It was now the last week of June, and the weather had undoubtedly plunged into summer; walking in this heat made Shuya feel quite uncomfortable.

He hadn't cut his hair, and it was now past his shoulders.

The weather was making him feel rather hot.

"Shuya?"

He got off the car and was just walking toward the gym when he happened to run into Mai.

"What a coincidence."

Shuya greeted her.

"Good afternoon."

Upon seeing Shuya, Mai suddenly sighed, "Shuya, Shuya."

"What is it, Mai-Mai?"

"Now that your hair has grown out, you're getting cuter and cuter, just like a girl."

Shuya didn't change his expression, "Oh."

He wasn't angry; he would cut his hair sooner or later, and then he wouldn't look like one anymore... right?

"Let's go in."

"Mm."

Shuya shrugged his shoulders and gestured for Mai to head into the gym together. After greeting the front desk, they skillfully changed into their workout clothes and chatted while they exercised.

After the workout, Shuya kept his promise to play a few guitar pieces for Mai, treating it as practice.

But today, he had only played two songs before he was interrupted by a phone call.

"Hm? Sorry."

Shuya stopped his hands, glanced at his phone, and said in confusion, "It's actually Uncle Aoki?"

"To think it was him. What could he possibly want with you?"

Mai-chan was also very curious.

Come to think of it, Shuya and Mai had only seen Aoki Shin last month.

That was at the press conference for the Morning Drama, where Aoki Shin attended alongside the main staff and actors.

Shuya wasn't the lead, just a main supporting character for the early episodes; his screen time didn't even add up to as much as Mai-chan's.

He had mainly attended the press conference just to make an appearance.

The reporters were clearly not very interested in the child actors, and even though Shuya had decent fame, he didn't receive much attention.

Their focus remained on the new lead actress.

The reporters only asked Shuya and Mai two or three questions before ignoring them entirely.

It was just a formality to show their faces.

Shuya was also puzzled by Aoki Shin's call.

He usually never called, and the only reason he had called recently was because he was moved by Alien Baby Hikari-chan.

But regardless, he answered the phone.

"Hello, Shu-chan."

"Hello, Uncle Aoki. Is something the matter?"

"There's something I'd like to discuss with you. The actor for the Dahua Special Forces has finally been settled. He'll be coming over in a couple of days to sign the contract and get familiar with the environment. Do you want to come by and take a look? After all, you have quite a few scenes with him."