"What do you think of Love Metronome, Eriri? If you're willing to illustrate Love Metronome, I can put you in touch with the author herself..." Just as Eriri was regretting that Kashiwagi Eri's reputation was too great, Tomoya Aki suddenly said. He had done plenty of this sort of favor-trading.
"Love Metronome? Hah, that novel that suddenly blew up? I don't think much of it..." This was a lie. In truth, Eriri was a fan of Love Metronome. She had bought and collected it before it had even started becoming popular...
The reason she said that was simple: she truly did not want anything more to do with Tomoya Aki. Besides, this guy was apologizing and offering to help her find work—Eriri was certain there had to be some scheme behind it. As the saying went, unsolicited kindness was either treachery or theft. She had learned that lesson the hard way from someone...
Still, Eriri really could not lie. The moment she spoke, her gaze began to dart around, and Tomoya Aki immediately saw through her. He deliberately said:
"Eh, you don't like this novel, Eriri? I thought it was pretty good. The illustrations are just too crude—they simply don't measure up to Love Metronome as it is now. If it were Kashiwagi Eri, she'd definitely be able to draw illustrations worthy of the novel..."
Those words pleased Eriri greatly. Even though she had resolved not to have anything more to do with Tomoya Aki, people basically had zero resistance to compliments...
Besides, one thing Tomoya Aki said truly struck a chord with Eriri: whenever she looked at Love Metronome's illustrations, she got angry. She could draw better than that illustrator with her eyes closed...
Eriri had once believed that eighty percent of the reason Love Metronome had failed to