Summary: Having being fired from her job at LME. Carline turned into a NEET and suffered repeat Job failure. Hope comes in the form of a suspicious looking man who offers her a chance in an experiment that would guarantee her a job at the end of it.
I do not own Skip Beat.
Enjoy!
"Sorry, but you're not the kind of person we're looking for"
The damming words crushed her soul.
24-year-old Carline Chan, swallowed hard and said. "It's alright. Thank you for telling me"
Then the call ended.
"DAMN It!" She yelled, throwing her phone to the floor.
Luckily a plush carpet was spread onto the cold hard floor, absorbing most of the damage that would have been unleashed onto the poor phone.
How many times, had she been rejected now!?
Sometimes she wondered why she even bothered!
She took out a cigarette and want back to playing Batman.
Something that would be completely shocking since she was so pretty.
Her main occupation was being a NEET.
The bottom of society.
But it wasn't like she didn't want to get out of her situation, she sent out her CV like crazy to anybody who was offering a job.
Unfortunately, she failed every one of them making her dispair even more.
But it wasn't always like this.
Once upon a time, she had gotten a magical job at Lory's Majestic Entertainment, the number one showbiz company in the whole of Japan.
The company had produced so many amazing talents like Kuu Hizuri, Kuon Hizuri and now Kyoko Mogami.
Back then she was so young, fresh from school and had signed up for as an artist.
She dreamt of fame and fortune, wanting to write inspiration songs that would help people all over.
The industry was a harsh place.
She went in completely naïve to such a world.
There were literally hundreds of artist's fighting for top spot, just so that people could send the most money their way.
Willing to do anything just to stand out.
She had trusted the wrong person.
Her own Senpai.
Carline had kept a small book with all her lyrics inside, wanting to get some advice from somebody who was experienced in the industry on if she had any talent.
Who would have thought her Senpai would lie straight to her face, and then a month later on the radio, she heard her own lyrics in a new song that apparently was so good that it managed to boot Sho Fuwa off his throne and place him at number two.
The song was a hit and her Senpai group was claiming full ownership of it.
She could not believe it and confronted her about it.
Only for the women to completely deny it until Carline told her, she would sue the group for stealing her lyrics.
Only to be laughed at.
The women told her that nobody would believe her and the copyright for the song was already in the group's name.
Could she, a fresh artist who only had one song out to her name, be able to sue a really popular girl group?
Apart from her book, where was her proof?
She had no video evidence, she did not record herself while she wrote down the lyrics to truly show the date and time that it was produced.
And Carline realised, she was right.
Even if she did get somebody to listen to her, she did not even have the money to sue them in court.
Lawyers were incredibly expensive and the court case could take years.
She was only 19 year's old, how the hell was she going to get the money to sue!
She wasn't a big-time celebrity who could afford that stuff!
And her Senpai know it too.
The Song was officially under the group's name and she could do nothing to take that away.
But that didn't stop her from telling everybody that she wrote the song.
She was even going to show her book to someone only to find out she had been scarred, distrustful of anybody taking a look.
Nobody believed her without any evidence.
She was called delusional and the song want onto to win two awards.
She closed off herself from the word and her profession suffered for it because she was not willing to shear her lyrics with the world.
And when an artist isn't popular enough after some time, they are given the axe.
She was given that Axe.
She was given her monthly salary and asked politely to leave, the media were told it was due to 'Health' problem's.
But she didn't fall into despair.
It was like a breath of fresh air, having stepped away from the crushing environment.
There were plenty of job's out there that did not involve producing music, she just had to find the right one.
It was too bad, that when your fired from a company that big and connected, people ask why you were fired.
The first time she was asked, her mouth did not make a sound and she ended up flunking the interview.
Interview after interview, by the time she could finally speak on the matter, it was too late.
Flunking so many interviews and having 'mental health problems' come up whenever she tried, had Employers skipping her.
She became a NEET who was in the loop of failing interviews and only getting part time work.
The kind of part time, teenagers would do just to earn some extra cash.
It was really shameful.
Suddenly her phone that was on the floor beeped.
She sighed and get up and picked the phone off the floor, only to freeze when she saw an unknown number.
Could it be somebody offering her a chance for another interview?
She really hoped.
She answered the phone and said.
"Hello"
But who she heard next had her seething with rage, even after 5 years, she would recognise the voice anyway.
"Hello? Carline. I don't think you remember me but this Tan Minso from 5 years ago. I was your Senpai"
IT WAS HER!
HOW THE HELL DID SHE GET MY PHONE NUMBER!? Carline thought, before she forced a smile through her throat while her face looked like a lion and said.
"Minso-sampai! Of course, I'll remember you. How have you been?"
There was a pause on the other end, no doubt surprised by her 'cheerful' response before saying.
"Pretty good. Me and some girl's are out and we just happen to remember you. We would love for you to join us"
'Happen', indeed.
What is this bitch up to? Carline thought, the last time she checked, this women was glad that she was fired and now she was calling her up out of the blue to hang out?
She was no longer that naïve little girl no more.
"Sure. Where do you want to meet?" She said.
Let's, see how this play's out.
She was given the address of a famous hang out where lots of big time celebs hung out.
It wasn't the kind of place, she could just walk into with a casual pair of jeans and T-shirt.
Luckily, she still had the clothes her parents gave her for her birthday.
It was painful opening up her make-up kit, because her expensive make-up had been replaced with the really cheap stuff because she didn't have the money to buy an expensive brand.
She missed the day's when she didn't have to worry about it and some professional did her face.
Luckily, there was video's on YouTube that made people look amazing even with the cheapest of make-up's.
If done right, nobody would know she was wearing several yen worth of make-up from the discount store.
She took off her clothes and wrapped herself in a towel, because she know the make-up with cheap brushes were very likely to go all over the place due to their low quality.
30 minutes later, she arrived at the hang out, looking like she had just exited out of a photoshoot, she wore a nice yellow flowering dress and yellow high heels, hooped earrings and an expensive handbag, that she took out in case she needed to impress.
She felt shame pretending to be something she was not, but at least she didn't have the word 'jobless' on her back anymore.
Several guy's turned towards her, wondering who the celebrity was that just walked through the door.
"Carline, is that you?" Said, a woman, making her turn her head.
She saw a woman who was about 26 years old, with brown wavy hair combed to one side in a pony tail, wearing a designer blouse and jeans, the woman no looked as young.
Next to her where her group mates that no longer looked as young either.
"Minso-sampai?" Carline said, forcing a smile on her face and walking over.
She found herself in a private wing made just for those who just wanted to talk without being bothered.
She sat down on the table.
"Carline. You look good." Minso said, before putting her acting skills to the test. "We were all worried about you, when we heard you got fired"
"It was hard at first but I managed to pick myself up" Carline said, still smiling while the inner her had the face of murder.
"Good. Let's buy you something to eat" Minso said, thinking to ease her into it first.
Well Carline wasn't going to complain about free food, even if it was from a person she would rather not take anything from.
"You don't have to" Carline said.
"We insist" Said with the band member's.
They then brought over the kind of food Carline could only have on a good day.
She mentally patting herself on the back for not losing all self-control and devouring everything insight instead she restrained herself to eat elegantly.
They all waited for her to finish her food, before telling her the real reason she was even here.
"Carline, you still write song's right" Minso began.
Carline froze for a split second before saying. "Even if I don't sing anymore. I still write, sometimes."
What is it too you? She wanted to asked.
But what she heard next had her in disbelief.
"Carline. We would to offer you a job to write for our group, 9ine." Minso said.
"What?" Carline said.
"What you wrote last time, was really good" One of the team mates said, "It even us two award's"
"We would love to have you on board" Another team member said.
It was in that moment, Carline understood what was happening.
9ine, hadn't had a hit song in years.
Any song they produced on their own did not even crack the top twenty in the charts and their fans base was dwindling so fast, that people were starting to forget who they were.
The only reason why they still had a fan base was because they were good looking.
But the reality was, they were getting old.
There was only so much time left where they could shake their ass and still make money.
They had already lost their place to younger and more fresher talent.
Unfortunately, they did not have the ability to write hit song after hit song to keep them relevant like Sho Fuwa who at the age of 24 had been crowd the Japanese Music God.
That guy was going nowhere and would still have fans in his late 50's.
To stay in the business, they had no choice but to turn to the writer of the song that made them shoot to stardom.
Her.
And because she had been fired, they couldn't find ways to steal another song from her.
There only choice was to employ her for her work.
But the real question was, would she even get credited for any song produced? How much will they been willing to pay for her to look their way?
Did they think, she had no self-respect for herself?
"I'll be leaving now" She said, shocking them all.
"What?" Minso said.
"Do you really think I'm so shallow that I will even entertain the thought of working with people who stole my song and profited from it?" Carline said, "If I write a song, how much of what it makes, will exactly go to me? Will I be credited? Will I get half of it or will you pay me minimum wage, thinking that I will be happy? If that's the case...we have nothing to talk about. I don't need you as much as you need me. So goodbye."
Then she walked away, she ignored any shouts for her to come back.
Their only hope of staying in the limelight, was practically walking out of the door.
And boy did she feel good, walking out.
She walked passed a Kuon and Kyoko Mogami-san poster and almost collapsed.
Damn it!
That was a job!
Why did she not throw away her self-respect?
What was she going to do now?
"Excuse me" Said, a deep man's voice.
She turned around to find a surprisingly tall male with shabby blond hair covering half of his face wearing a business suit.
Must be nice.
"My name is Kugo Takao and I work for a company called ReLife Laboratory" The man said, with a business smile on his face while handing her a professional looking business card. "We were wondering if you would like to partake in an experiment"
An Experiment?
"No thank you" Carline said, if they were going to sell her stuff in the end, she did not need it and turned away. "Unless, you give me free stuff. I'm not buying it."
"What if I told you, for a whole year, all your expenses will be paid by the company and by the end of it, you will be guaranteed a job at the company?" The man said.
She froze.
"Come again?" She said, turning her head.
He had hooked her in.
And scene!
Next chapter, Carline wakes up to find her body had turned back to when she 17 and some weirdo tells her that he would observe for one year. Review/fav and follow!