"Blind Sided"

~Jasmine-Fields-1979~

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Chapter 3

Megumi put on a nice girl act every day. Every night. At the university. And now, at work. She put a lot of thought into her appearance and how her responses would come across to the public and in her peer group. While nobody was around, she thought of these things.

Because, as her producer put it, people like "nice".

And courtesy was currently trending abroad, with a tendency towards an appeal for social etiquette. Which varied by culture, she quickly learned, from Mei's guardian-like military associates.

For some reason, when they leveled with her and promised good fortune – if only she did what Mei asked of her – then her career may launch to new heights. That is how they worded the deliberation of her life, in contract, when she began her career as a local fashionista. They cautioned, however, to do only what was asked of her, nothing more, nothing less. At first, she had been enthused because Mei never asked anything of her. Only that she do her duties well at work.

On occasion, she justified, if only to herself, that even nice girls who are independently confident and popular developed feelings toward their equally popular confident co-workers. The fact of the matter was – she liked Yamato, but she liked crossing Mei with insecurity even more than she liked Yamato. Megumi would never own it, of course, because she was trying to hide behind Yamato to advance her own career.

She knew how to respond in ways that the cameras would want to highlight her and Yamato together. The cameras knew her exterior and anything she said would be in a blog or report the next day, complete with an interview presented as gospel truth. This is what she believed about herself. This is the company she represented. This is how Bollywood agencies liked things. The niceness was real enough – or so, she convinced herself with this indulgent lie.

Before Yamato came on set, Megumi had been threatened with the loss of her job – and reputation – for creative differences. Even disputes over contractual obligations between her publishers and her had given her pause to reconsider why Yamato felt the need to make introductions at her own workplace.

Her career, on a constant rollercoaster, and cameramen were beginning to film her moodiness and frame her for not representing her artistic side well.

She burst out, one day to the producer, and demanded more expressive opportunities. She wanted to explore her own art more outwardly. In truth, this was a strategy meant to expand her career to a more diverse audience. Megumi's small subset of an alleged fan-base never grew. It was dulling her dreams and expectations to have a client base besides local high school teenagers and university freshmen. She felt like the producers would never give her the chance she really yearned for and had discussed her disappointment numerous times during performance reviews at her job.

She doubted Mei's coherency and decision-making skills with Yamato's own job. When she realized that Mei double downed to help Yamato, Megumi had thought it would benefit her too. So, when Mei did not answer to gossip, Megumi decided to keep a low profile for awhile then act out her strategy. She would gauge the strength of Yamato by watching the flow of gossip later – after a few months – when she was certain that Mei and Yamato were not going to stay a couple after those days dominated by industry demands.

Megumi was honest with her relationships coveted by her peers. She told them about her envious nature and the top dollar models and actresses who had a wide base of fans. It meant dollars and future work.

She liked the popularity and the dollars. She had tasted success early on and wanted more of it. Mei confronted her, one day, about keeping up her nice girl image.

Did her façade fail? Had Mei figured out that Megumi's plans?

No.

That was certain, in her mind.

What she learned was that it was Mei that did not care – either way – about Yamato's new job. She wondered what provoked Mei's social recklessness in the situation. Then, practically frothing with joy at the discovery, Megumi noticed that Yamato was socially reckless too. He had agreed with Megumi about what bothered her most about the job she did. She shared this with him walking around university campus one day when Mei had been safely away at her low-wage job for several hours.

During the photoshoots, and even afterward, she tried to assert herself like many other women did to gain his attention. Wave him down between classes. Walk home with him after work.

After several attempts with aggravation growing as a result, she realized that perhaps he preferred a more complicit and docile woman? Which did not make sense since Mei was not compliant about anyone or anything, she assumed. Perhaps Yamato had a type of girl he liked to be friends with?

It did not seem to her that Yamato was listening to anything the producers and editors were saying. To her, it seemed that he was almost the boss when the cameras were not rolling.

Then it clicked in her mind one day without the cameras focused on her, but rather, on Mei. Mei was visiting and there had been a conversation Megumi missed between the rest of Yamato's friends. There had been a question asked and she had been too distracted to hear the exchange of friendly banter. An answer had been given and no camera was on her during that moment. Only Mei. She wondered why, but upon inquiry discovered that Mei was a rising star in her own career field too. At the bakery? That didn't make sense.

Megumi tried to intervene even more courteously after that, because it was more logical than boat loads of emotional turbulence rolling around the managers' offices. Sporadically, the editors had discussed with her a vague description of the negotiations for Yamato's arrival.

Megumi did not know all the intricacies of his own contract, but all the same, she was ecstatic to have a peer – whom she liked – alongside her in front of the cameras. Her approach to teach Yamato the work and what to do had been part of her job. The publishers and managers asked her to help and she happily obliged. It was mostly an expectation of the management team, but most certainly would take away their disapproval of her current work for the next couple of months.

Because, as her producer had said before, people like "nice".

o~~~oOo~~~o