I couldn't believe my face was everywhere. I took out my own phone and opened Uniqlo's Instagram profile. The photo really had over a million likes, and there were countless comments.
Almost none of the comments praised the clothes—most of them were just praising my appearance. And the most incredible part: my name was clearly shown in the image. Well, it's normal for a model's name to be credited.
"What's wrong?" the woman from the store asked.
"It's nothing, I'm just a bit surprised."
"Don't tell me you didn't expect this? Uniqlo is one of the most famous brands in Japan, and you have a very beautiful face. Of course people are going to go crazy over you."
"I know that. It's just that I didn't expect people to start approaching me on the street."
"Most of those people probably didn't even see your photo on Instagram. They likely approached you because of the images all over the department store."
"Yeah…"
"So, what are you going to do?" The woman smiled at me.
"I'll take advantage of being here and buy some clothes." I gave her a bitter smile, and she started accompanying me around the store as I chose my clothes. I picked several basic shirts.
I don't like clothes with big, flashy prints.
I also chose some jackets and even a few pairs of pants. The woman's hands were soon full of clothes. I didn't even worry about the price—I know I have more than enough money to buy all of this.
After gathering everything, I went to the fitting room and started trying them on.
It took quite a while.
Everything looks good on me. I smiled as I looked at myself in the full-body mirror. Any outfit I wore looked stylish and eye-catching. After changing back into my original clothes, I walked out holding everything I had picked.
"I'll take all of it," I said to the woman.
"All of it!?" She looked surprised.
There were more than five shirts, several jackets, and five pairs of pants. Each item was somewhat expensive, so the total would be huge.
"Yes, all of it," I replied while glancing behind her. There were many people inside the store.
I followed her to the cashier, and thankfully no one approached me.
I paid for everything with my debit card and left the store as quickly as I could.
I took out my phone and opened Instagram again. The likes on the photo were still increasing.
Then I noticed someone had tagged my @ in the comments, and that comment had over 10,000 likes.
So that's why I've been getting so many notifications.
My Instagram suddenly started gaining a lot of followers.
Well… I guess that's a good thing?
####
As soon as I got home, I went to my parents' room and saw my mom at the computer. She was typing quickly, writing an email to someone. I waited for her to finish before calling her.
"Mom?"
"Hm? You're back? What time is it?"
"Five in the afternoon."
"I see, I didn't even notice the time passing. Yawwnn~~" My mom stretched and yawned. "So, how was it? Did you have fun?" She gave me a gentle smile.
"I didn't have any fun at all. It was hell."
"What happened?"
"Some foreign women tried to get my number, and everyone kept staring at me like I was some kind of ghost."
"Well, you're very handsome now. You attract a lot of attention~~" My mom laughed.
"But that wasn't the worst part…"
I told her everything that happened at the department store. My face was everywhere, people recognized me, and some even asked for my autograph because they thought I was very famous.
"Hahahahaha!" My mom burst out laughing. "But isn't that great?"
"Great? I thought it was terrible."
"You can't handle that and you want to appear on TV? You'd better give up."
"It's just that I didn't expect this. Look at this." I took my phone out of my pocket and showed her the Uniqlo post on Instagram. "This post has over a million likes! It's almost at two million! Their other posts don't even reach 30,000 likes!"
"Wow, that's impressive. Look at all these beautiful women praising you."
"Don't say things like that."
"What are all these notifications?" My mom opened the notifications and saw that they were new followers. "Wow, I didn't even know you had posted photos on Instagram. 30,000 followers? But you only have four photos. Wow, they all have so many likes."
"Here, give that back." I took the phone from her.
"You could start doing promotions soon. I have a friend who makes money like that."
"I'm not going to do that." I sighed.
I left the room, and my mom followed me. She saw all the shopping bags on the table and asked, "Wow, what's all this?"
"I bought some clothes for myself."
"You finally decided to spend some money? Hahaha."
"Yes, yes. You should spend some too."
"I already told you, I have enough money. Here, let me see those clothes."
I showed all the clothes to my mom, then went back to my room.
I checked my email before taking a shower and saw that I had received two emails—one from Mr. Kuroda and one from the Shonen Jump editor named Kenji.
I sat down in front of my computer to read them.
Kenji's email was about Dragon Ball, of course. He scheduled a meeting at a café in downtown Tokyo for tomorrow, Monday. I replied saying I would be there, and then I read Mr. Kuroda's email.
He praised the final volume of Overlord—a lot.
He also felt that the ending was a bit rushed, but the writing was so good and engaging that people probably wouldn't mind much.
And regarding how the story ended? He felt it fit well with the rest of the narrative and didn't think anything needed to be changed.
He ended the email by thanking me for the good work and saying he wanted to continue working with me in the future.
My reply to the email was, "Don't worry, I'm already finishing the second volume of Oregairu and I plan to start a new work soon."
####
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Next Chapters: Chapter 35 - Shonen Jump Editor. / Chapter 36 - Contract signed. Focus. / Chapter 37 - New job. / Chapter 38 - A new audition? / Chapter 39 - Series. / Chapter 40 - I'm definitely going to get that role.