... I'm not completely sure about what I have in this chapter, but we'll see how it goes. We'll see.
Hoshino Aquamarine couldn't believe the scene on screen in front of him.
His mother's acting was, as he remembers discussing with the director, average.
It made no sense to Aqua back then- all those months ago, at the recording- but after watching her through all those recording sessions, watching while she practiced singing and dancing at home, watching as she performed in her capacity as the center idol of B Komachi, and now, watching the version of the movie for the public, after post production, Aqua thought that he might understand what that director meant now.
His mother worked day and night to perfect her abilities as an idol. But what was an idol?
It was a pretty lie.
In other words, Hoshino Ai herself was the prettiest lie to ever exist, in Aqua's humble opinion.
There were two parts to the phrase 'prettiest lie'.
The first was 'prettiest'. And that, perhaps more than anything, was what relagated her acting to merely average.
Hoshino Ai couldn't help but be the prettiest in the room. She couldn't help but leverage her looks with her charisma.
Because, as Aqua realized from being around his mother, from watching her as her fan both on camera and off camera, being pretty was much, much more than being born with a pretty face.
Which, yes, true, was an absolute requirement. But it was only the mere prerequisite to being pretty.
Being pretty was a lifestyle. A state of being.
His mother spent long hours practicing, improving, maximizing every aspect of herself that she could. From the microexpressions she made at any and every point of any performance, to the sway of her shoulders, her neck, and her hips as she moved, even casually.
Every action was theatrical, exaggerated, controlled. It was exceedingly calculated.
She lived and breathed beauty.
Which is why her lifestyle, her state of being as the prettiest lie impacted her acting so much.
Hoshino Ai literally couldn't help but be the prettiest person because she consciously and subconsciously gave everything she had into being the prettiest lie.
As for the lie portion of the 'prettiest lie' phrase?
Aqua was perhaps both the greatest witness to this as well as the greatest evidence itself of her ability to lie. Her ability to lie was, after all, most exemplified by her ability to cover up the existence of children.
He saw her determination to accomplish this in his past life as the Doctor Goro. He did, after all, spend a good 3 months by her side as both her doctor, her fan, and, dare he say it, her friend.
He saw her efforts, struggles, and difficulties to give Ruby and himself a good life. He was in perhaps the best position to say this as her son for nearing 5 years now.
With a cool, objective head, based on what he has seen so far of Hoshino Ai's relationships all around, Aqua would hazard that he himself probably knew Hoshino Ai best at present.
Indeed, perhaps just as much as she worked to be pretty, she did her best to be the best liar. This was Aqua's understanding of his mother.
And so this reflected in her acting. Hoshino Ai habitually shifted her body to become the prettiest lie in the room.
But the movie screen did not necessarily demand the prettiest lie.
An ugly character could be chosen to go on screen over a pretty one for many reasons. Perhaps the former has an ability to evoke certain emotions that a pretty one wouldn't. Perhaps one goes from being ugly to being pretty, a form of character development.
Most people are ugly, after all. At least publicly. And so sometimes ugly characters are chosen simply because they are relatable.
And Hoshino Ai, otherworldly in beauty and in charisma would not necessarily match what would become popular on screen.
'Which is what made her 'casting' in this particular movie so genius.' Aqua thought. 'Nothing suits otherworldly beauty and charisma than a character who was cursed to be beautiful.'
'I better find a way to subtly treat the director after this. He did really good on the movie.' Aqua thought, noting it for later.
And Hoshino Ai was exceedingly beautiful. Post-editing only seemed to magnify her beauty. She was glowing, even more than she usually did.
She took the audience's attention in the span of a breath. Aqua could feel everyone in the room hyper focus on the screen when she appeared.
Aqua smiled. 'As expected of mama.'
And it really was all in his expectations. He knew that Hoshino Ai surpass all expectations and prove herself wonderful on screen too. She was too talented not to.
All of it matched his expectations until they reached that scene.
For some reason unknown to him, as he continued watching, he felt an invisible pressure build up. He looked at the screen, confused. Nothing particularly interesting was happening at the moment.
The female main character of the movie finally bumped into Mana's character, who ran away from home to search for his missing older sister. The two were slowly walking through the village that Aqua's character led them to with Kana's character.
Scenewise and plotwise, there was nothing on the screen to warrant the rising pressure he was feeling. It was a lull in the storytelling of the movie, perhaps a minor portion of the build up toward an inevitable climax.
And yet the pressure kept building.
And so Aqua reluctantly, subtly, took his eyes off the screen.
The first person he checked on was his twin sister by birth, Ruby, who sat to his right. He remembered that Ruby said that she didn't really like horror, so he was surprised when she seemed completely entranced by the movie. He stared at her for a moment more, suspicious, not completely believing that she was off and over her troubling reaction during Mana's minigame at the start of the day, but with only her focused expression available to him, he had no evidence that she was going through anything particularly rough.
'Well, it really is more interesting to watch a movie when you know the actors…' Aqua had to admit. 'Not to mention that it's our dear mother and beloved oshi's debut movie.'. Any hardcore idol fan, like himself, or even worse and more intense, Ruby, would be extremely excited to be watching their oshi's first step into the cinema. Aqua himself was only reluctantly tearing his gaze off the screen.
Well, for now, he could believe that Ruby was just focused on the movie.
If not his sister, however, then who? Aqua wondered. His gaze explored the attendees in the room.
His gaze passed quickly through the Shirogane family. There was nothing overtly worrying to him about them, they seemed to be enjoying the movie normally, at least to his eyes.
Not that Aqua was close enough to them to notice or even do something if he did notice anything, anyway.
'Then, if not the Shirogane family…' his gaze moved on to another family. The Arima family.
The Arima family of which he only saw the birthday celebrant and his sister. 'Where did Miura-oba go?' Aqua wondered. She seemed to have slipped out sometime early in the movie.
Now that Aqua thought about it, Mana and Kana always showed up to playdates with their mother. He's never really heard them mention their father.
Even now, on Mana's birthday, the father didn't show up. 'Lots of families are incomplete, huh.' His eyes darkened.
It was one thing for him and Ruby. And least he and Ruby were reincarnated kids. They might have issues, but they could work through it. Together. Both of them being reincarnated and therefore more mature than the average kid has surely made things much, much easier for their mother and their caretakers, after all.
'But normal kids? Never mind the fact that it's already difficult to raise children on your own, but on the child's side, being abandoned by your parents would probably cause lifelong trauma.' Aqua thought, reminded of a particular patient that he kept dear in his heart, even after his reincarnation.
He still couldn't believe that Sarina's parents never came to visit after the first month of her stay in the hospital. They never came, even on the last minute, rushed, one-day wake that he hastily arranged for her when it became clear that they would not be coming.
Aqua shook his head. 'May Sarina be happier in a better place.' he prayed.
Aqua couldn't find anything wrong with Kana or Mana, who were both watching the movie with interest, and so he moved on.
Seated behind him and a little to the left was Miyako, him and Ruby's caretaker. He peeked at her, as subtly as possible, but she didn't even notice his gaze. She seemed particularly serious rather than troubled. She was paying as much attention as she was during the self-defense lesson, which surprised him. 'She looks focused…' He eventually decided. 'Focused... but it doesn't seem like she's troubled.'
Finally, Aqua's eyes settled on his right, behind Ruby, where his second life's mother sat. Her eyes were firmly on the screen, and she idly nibbled on a slice of pizza.
Aqua found nothing. Nothing but Hoshino Ai seated peacefully with her eyes on the screen.
His eyes trailed her gaze, only to realize that her eyes were on the events on the screen, but her mind had flown elsewhere.
A normal thing. Some people just didn't pay attention for the entire movie.
Aqua, in fact, was doing something similar by looking around at the reactions of people instead of paying attention to the events on screen.
'Perhaps it was just my imagination.' Aqua relented, finally relaxing. His gaze turned backed to the screen.
It seems that the main character, together with Mana, had just found Ai's character.
Aqua rubbed his mother's hand, getting her attention for a moment, whispering to her. "Look, it's you, mama. "
His mother patted his hair in response, quickly, before lightly grasping his hand. Together, they turned their attention back to the screen.
Aqua seemed to have missed a lot while he was deep in thought because when his attention came back to the movie, the scene was emotional. Tears filled the Mana's eyes on the screen. 'I can't believe both Kana and Mana can cry for their acting.' He noted, impressed, even as he felt like he missed something.
The camera cuts to his mother, eyes teary as she matched the younger actor's energy.
His eyes widened. 'Was her acting always that good?'
Her acting, to Aqua at least, hit even deeper in this emotional scene. He has never seen Hoshino Ai be this emotional, this vulnerable, in either of his lives.
'Well, she is acting a tearjerker scene after all, she has to be emotional.' Aqua rationalized.
As Aqua absorbed the emotional face of his mother on the screen, he felt his mother's grasp on his hand tighten imperceptibly.
Squeezing back, he put his eyes back on screen.
Even though Aqua could feel the emotions hit him, he had already read the script multiple times, and he had seen a lot of the recording. All of this meant that the scene on the screen wasn't so raw to him.
But that wasn't the case for many of the people in the room.
A sniffle.
Their watching room wasn't too big, and so the first sniffle was instantly heard.
The one who first succumbed to the tear-jerking scene was the father and son duo of the Shirogane family.
In the next moment, it was Miyako-san and Shirogane Kei.
In the ensuing wave of emotion, Aqua found himself holding on to his caretaker with his left hand, lightly rubbing her back as she sobbed at the scene on the screen, and to his mother with his right hand as she kept her eyes on the screen.
His hands now occupied by two of the most important ladies in his new life, Aqua's gaze wandered the room once more.
The Shirogane father and daughter duo were sobbing at the scene together.
Arima Kana and Shirogane Miyuki crawled toward each other and stiffened their faces as if to fight the urge to cry.
'Actually, what was Ruby's reaction?' Aqua was about to turn his gaze in her direction, when Miyako, emotional and sobbing, wrapped his small body in an embrace.
Aqua's right eye, the only one that escaped his caretaker's clutches, caught Mana's leap forward as he wrapped his arms around Ruby, a full on embrace from the front.
"Oi, Mana, Ruby can't see if you hug her like that." he tried to say, but the only sound that came out from underneath his caretaker's body and clothes were muffled noises.
'Seriously, how emotional was this scene? I should've paid more attention.' Aqua grumbled to himself.
Rolling his eyes at the situation, Aqua resigned himself to waiting out the emotional scene.
'I'll watch it again sometime.' Aqua promised to himself.
The movie was already over. Miyako, alongside her wards, the Hoshino family, were about to leave.
Abandoning her previous grudge and initial emotional feelings towards the young child, Saitou Miyako's eyes watered as she held Mana's hands in hers.
"Mana…" the woman whimpered in a flurry of emotions. Slipped into her bag was a notebook with a bunch of ripped pages hanging somewhat loosely.
They were autographs. She requested them from every actor in the movie. Kana proudly signed the page with the biggest smile on her face. Aqua flushed red, smiling shyly as he signed his page. Ai signed hers with a big smile as the one most experienced in signing autographs.
Mana, catching Miyako's meaning and request, shook his head. "I'd love to sign it, but I'm not sure I want to be an actor…"
Mana stepped away and scratched the side of his face awkwardly.
'Not become an actor?' Miyako reacted with complete shock, as did everyone else in the room.
In the playdates, Miyako heard all about how Mana had suddenly wanted to audition for a role in Director Gotanda's movie from his mother. Mana's penchant to run off and do all sorts of things exasperated her to no end.
Supposedly, he ran off during one of Kana's shoots, attaching himself to Director Gotanda who was invited by the producer to discuss another project during their lunch break. The Arima mother found herself doing her best to keep an eye on both siblings throughout the event.
The director, who was about to leave, was suddenly beset by Mana.
Supposedly, he got tired of refusing Mana's advances and sat down to continue his revisions of the 'That was the Start' movie while Mana talked to him. While he was doing that, Mana looked over his shoulder and suggested changes to the plot of the script in the flurry of his conversation.
The director didn't seem to take the suggestion seriously, probably not even fully paying attention to the rambling child beside him, until something clicked in his mind, and he started typing and typing.
As thanks for Mana's inadvertent aid, the director approached his mother with Mana in tow and offered the role of the monster's younger sibling to Arima Kana.
Miyako wasn't surprised to hear that. Arima Kana was known as the child actor prodigy. Her tears were legendary and had uplifted series with their power. It was only made stronger by the fact that she was a child actor.
In fact, Arima Kana would have been perfect for the role as the monster's younger sibling. The role had an extremely emotional scene. On paper, it made the most sense. She was the renown genius child actor. She was literally known for her ability to tear up and cry.
Why was Mana chosen over Kana to perform the bigger role when both were in the same movie?
Miyako wondered this all along until Arima Miura explained it to her while they watched the kids on the playdate.
"Director!" he interrupted the man, who looked confused and slightly tired of Mana's antics. Arima Miura moved to apologize for Mana's behavior once more, pushing his head down, but Mana fought against his mother's hand and looked up again, eyes teary.
"You don't need to be more beautiful." Mana started, his teary eyes glistening. His right hand was raised to his chest as he took a step forward. "You're beautiful the way you are, the way you've always been."
A moment of shock and trepidation passed. He had only glanced at the new script. He suggested a few lines, and they were incorporated into the script. He took glimpses of lines and adlibbed them into the emotional scene.
The silence was loud. Deafening. It was only broken micromoments later when the director put his hands together.
The director started clapping. "Woah!" the director said in a surprised and impressed tone. Smiling wryly, he continued. "Woah, alright kid, sure. We can have you for the role."
Miyako thought of the Mana she heard of in that story, the Mana she saw on the screen, just moments ago, and compared them to the Mana in front of her, who was saying he wasn't that much into acting.
It did not compute.
In her shock, Miyako inadvertently ended up locking eyes with Ruby, who looked equally as shocked, before agreeing resolutely, nonverbally, with their gazes.
"Mana, you did really well in the movie. In that scene with you and Ai, it made me cry, you know." She leaned down and softly encouraged him, silently signaling Ruby to follow her lead.
Shirogane Kei was pushed forward by her father, and she agreed. "Yeah! Daddy and I were crying too!"
Miyuki joined in with his father and sister. "Your acting was really good." he encouraged.
Ai put her hand on his shoulder, smiling softly. "Your acting was great, Mana. You should be proud of it."
Aqua followed suit, nodding. "Yeah, you definitely have some talent in acting." he smiled as softly as his mother did. Miyako smiled at Aqua's warm words.
Kana, his sister, slapped him lightly on the arm. "Aqua's not my only rival! You're my rival too, Mana!" she declared, one hand lightly on Aqua, and another hand gripping onto Mana's shoulder.
"Watch out for me! I won't lose next time!" She declared haughtily before stepping back, smiling.
Miyako couldn't help the fond smile on her face as she watched their interaction.
As Kana stepped back, Ruby took the opportunity to put her hands on Mana's shoulders and lock eyes with him. "I'm a big fan of the actor Arima Mana!" her eyes sparkled in the same way she usually raved about idols in the privacy of home, Miyako recognized.
Miyako saw Ruby and Mana's embrace during the movie's emotional scene.
She knew Mana was really physically affectionate, but even she was surprised by that hug. Something about it felt different, outside of the stormy emotional waves caused by tearjerker movie scenes.
A thought popped into her head, causing her to giggle, but she pushed the idea aside for now. 'It's still too early for that.'
"I'll earn my teasing auntie certificate next time." She whispered, getting a strange look from Aqua.
Mana, who had been silent, through it all as he signed autographs as requested, smiled. "Thank you for all the kind words." he rubbed the back of his head. Miyako frowned, unsure if everyone's words and feelings reached him.
It seemed as if Mana's energy suddenly came back to him, and he hopped to it. "And thanks for coming to my birthday celebration! I'm really happy to see everyone today." Mana rubbed his hands together, smiling sweetly. "Let's meet again soon!"
And so the birthday celebration was finally ending. Everyone started giving their farewells. All the families were about to go their separate directions.
Separation at this relatively early time wasn't the original plan, actually. The original plan was that Miyako and Ai would leave for Ai's activity, and then would come back later after it was done. This would allow Ruby and Aqua to have more time to play with the Arima and Shirogane families.
Unfortunately, those plans had to be cancelled.
Right as the movie ended, Arima Miura approached the adults and addressed a sudden need to cancel the post-movie playdate planned, apologizing for the inconvenience.
Miyako wondered what caused the sudden change in plans, and would have asked, but something in her friend's expression told her that it was not the right time.
As Miyako got her wards into the car, waved one last farewell to the Shirogane family who headed in the direction of the station, and prepared to exit the parking for their next trip to Ai's work appointment, her eyes barely caught a somewhat familiar looking man exit his car. He started heading in the direction they came from.
'Oh.' Her throat suddenly felt dry, and she swallowed with trepidation. She realized why the Arima mother cancelled the aftermovie playdates so suddenly.
"Good luck…" she offered a prayer up to the Gods for good measure, patting Ruby, Aqua, and even Ai on the head for bonus points.
First of all, thanks to everyone who checked on me, worried for me last chapter. I'm fine, I'm fine, just incredibly disappointed. As I said in a reply, drama and trauma just means additional sources for content.
Second, and more importantly, I really pushed to finish this chapter, ugh. The plot thickens... with more family drama and trauma. As expected of an Oshi no Ko fanfic LMAO.
Third of all, Oshi no Ko writers are writing tons of fanfics and I love it! But we need more! I need more! This is also my first real fanfic so let's brave the storm together :))