Chapter 91
Hearing Sakurajima Mai admit that she didn't like her mother, Mineo didn't say much at first. He simply reached to the side, picked up a glass of juice, and handed it to her.
"Mai-senpai, you haven't had a single thing to drink since you finished your bath. You must be thirsty. Here, have some juice first. We have all the time in the world to talk today. As long as you're willing to tell me, I'm more than willing to listen."
Sakurajima Mai didn't take the glass. Instead, she tilted her head up and stared straight into Mineo's eyes.
"Aren't you curious why the relationship between my mother and I turned out like this?"
"Don't you want to ask me why I hate her!?"
Meeting her gaze, Mineo offered a thin, gentle smile.
"To be honest, the main reason I came here this time was to resolve the problems you're facing."
"As for your past... well, we've been talking for three years now. I've managed to pick up a few pieces of the story along the way."
"I like you, Mai-senpai! That's why I want to erase the worries in your heart, one by one."
"If you're willing to tell me everything, then of course, I'm ready to listen and share that burden with you."
"And what if I'm not willing to tell you everything? What will you do then, Mineo?"
"If you won't tell me, then I'll just investigate it myself! I possess a level of power that might be hard for you to wrap your head around, Senpai. Didn't I mention it earlier? In my eyes, you are the future wife of the Takamine family. How could I possibly let you go on being sad every single day?"
Looking into Mineo's eyes, Mai felt a sudden warmth flood her heart. The man standing before her was her only true friend and the person she trusted most in the world. Even if his words were incredibly annoying sometimes, she found herself wanting to believe that he genuinely cared for her.
Taking a deep breath, Mai reached out, took the juice, and downed the entire glass in one go.
"Do you know why I hate being a star, Mineo-kun?"
"Because you're fed up with the feeling of constantly being watched by everyone, at every single moment."
"That's only part of it. The other reason I hate being a star... it has to do with my manager. Which is to say, my own mother."
Mai turned her gaze toward the distant lights of the city, her eyes appearing slightly glazed and hollow.
"The truth is, I absolutely loathe the feeling of having no control over the rhythm of my own life."
"Being unable to do the things I want to do, while being forced to accept things I want nothing to do with... that feeling is excruciating. Mineo-kun, you should be able to understand how I feel..."
Under the dim glow of the lights, Mai's gaze flickered with a deep sense of hesitation. Mineo had forbidden her from drinking alcohol, so she wouldn't drink. This meddlesome man always loved poking his nose into her business. And yet, why didn't she hate it? Why didn't she mind him interfering with her life at all?
In that moment, Mai began to pour out the secrets she had kept hidden deep within her heart. It was then that Mineo finally learned the truth of what had happened to her.
To be precise, the life Mai had lived held several differences from the original story he knew. When she was a child, her parents divorced, and she went to live with her mother. Her mother was a professional manager—a "stage mom" who had turned Mai into a household name across Japan since she was a toddler.
As she grew older, Mai successfully transitioned from a child star to a film actress under her mother's meticulous arrangements. After starring in several movies, her popularity and influence skyrocketed, and her acting skills earned high praise from the industry. But with that immense fame came a heavy price. Everywhere she went, people approached her to talk, begged for autographs, or took photos of her in secret.
At the end of the day, Mai was just a young girl and a student. This suffocating level of attention from the outside world took a massive toll on her daily life. Even at school, everyone looked at her with a mix of awe and envy, whispering about her from a distance and speaking to her with an almost artificial politeness. Because of that, a powerful resentment began to fester in her heart.
If only... if only I wasn't noticed by everyone like this.
As for why she had been so quick to hang up on her mother earlier, that too was tied to her career. Mai's mother was a formidable woman. As a manager, she was one hundred percent competent. But as a mother? Some of her actions were simply impossible for Mai to accept.
In her mother's eyes, as long as it brought fame and profit, Mai had to follow the plan. Over two years ago, without even consulting her daughter, Mai's mother unilaterally signed a contract with an advertising company. She ordered Mai—who had just started high school at the time—to do a photoshoot for a provocative, "sexy" gravure book.
It wasn't until Mai arrived at the set that she realized just how revealing and suggestive the clothing was. Right then and there, she got into a massive screaming match with her mother. Facing her furious daughter, her mother only uttered one cold, clinical sentence:
"An 'innocent' image only stays popular for a moment. Transformation is a necessity! I'm not trying to hurt you; you just need to follow my lead, and you'll definitely become an even bigger, more influential star!"
One could only imagine the sheer anger and disappointment Mai felt after hearing those words. She chose to walk away from the shoot, leaving the set in a fit of rage. She went home alone, ignored the non-stop calls from her mother, and even when her mother showed up at her front door, Mai refused to open it.
From that day on, Mai and her mother entered a state of "cold war." Sakurajima Mai, the top star famous throughout Japan, went into an indefinite hiatus from the entertainment industry. Recently, however, her mother had started looking for her again. Her message was simple: Mai would be graduating soon, and the market wouldn't allow her to continue "wasting herself" like this. Whether Mai liked it or not, her mother demanded that she return to work as an idol under her direction.
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