NABC Chapter 30, 3rd Single
Chapter 30, 3rd Single
After seeing off the president who was going home, Rito returned to his normal work. He hadn't received a reply from Mai Shiraishi, whom he had met last time, but he wasn't in a hurry, since the auditions wouldn't be starting anytime soon anyway.
After the second single, the third single naturally followed. Everything in Nogizaka46 runs so fast. As before, the songs were already prepared by the management. This time, they chose the original fifth single, "Your Name is Hope," which is a highly regarded song in history.
"Great, I have no objections."
After listening to the demo that Rito had recorded, the old thief nodded in approval. Actually, he was quite curious about how the other party could consistently produce so many idol songs with a consistent style. If Rito wrote them himself, he would deny it when asked, but if he had someone else write them, the credits were always his own.
Could it be that he hired a ghostwriter? But he didn't market himself as a genius musician, so what's the point?
The old thief secretly glanced at his superior and couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Unaware of his ulterior motives, after symbolically playing the song, Rito took out a blank selection lineup and the accompanying member headshots, and began arranging the positions for the third single.
Without any hesitation, Rito's first decision was to choose the number 3 position, which symbolizes the center position. Seeing this familiar scene, the old thief hesitated for a moment and asked somewhat hesitantly, "Still Nagahama as the center?"
"Hmm." Rihito glanced at him, knowing what he really wanted to ask. "We need to make an impression in the first few singles, so it's best not to change the center position. Let's wait until the second generation arrives before considering changing the center."
Although the old thief didn't understand idols very well, he could still understand such a simple principle. His only concern was that if Nagahama continued to be the center, it would easily turn the group into a one-man group. However, considering the overall quality of the first generation members, he was somewhat relieved. Although Nagahama was beautiful, her personal style was not very strong, so she wouldn't really overshadow the other members.
The overall selection process for the three singles followed the same approach as the first two singles, without any major changes. In particular, the order of the top five members remained unchanged, completely copied from the previous selection.
"The others are fine, but as for Tsutsui, her personality doesn't seem well-suited to the front row, and she doesn't seem to want to change. Perhaps we could consider changing her position?"
Looking at the filled selection form, the old thief studied it for a while and then spoke.
"Tsutsui, who do you want to replace?" Rito thought for a moment. From Kubo Rito's perspective, he quite liked Meme's mature personality for her age. However, Meme's performance in the two singles was indeed not good. Although she had the selling points of being the youngest and having the best looks, her coping skills were always her weakness, whether she was a fourth-generation member or a first-generation member.
"How about Mei Kakizaki or Yumi Wakatsuki? I've been observing them, and they've both improved very quickly and are very ambitious. They must have worked very hard behind the scenes."
Konno suggested two names, indicating that he had considered this issue beforehand and it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. After a moment's thought, Rito made his decision:
"Then let's switch Kakizaki and Tsutsui's positions."
"Okay." Konno nodded, took the list, and prepared to leave.
"Wait a minute." Rito suddenly frowned and called out to him, "Do you know where Tsutsui is right now?"
Konno stopped and thought for a moment before saying uncertainly, "He probably went to shoot a magazine with Watanabe and Hoshino."
Send me the address, and then tell her not to leave yet.
Rito tidied up the documents on the table, stood up, straightened his clothes, and walked towards the door, giving Konno some instructions as he went.
"Hi." Konno responded, then paused for two seconds, deliberately lowering his voice: "Kubo-san, some things don't really need to be explained so clearly to celebrities."
Rito looked at him, and after a few seconds suddenly burst out laughing: "I know, but I just couldn't help it."
Having said that, he quickened his pace and left quickly.
"Really..." Konno shook her head, watching his hurried departure. "He's still a minor."
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In a certain part of the city, the air conditioning in the photography studio was blasting, the cool white lights mixing with the golden-orange sunlight streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the afternoon, creating a play of light and shadow on the floor. The air was filled with the faint scent of hairspray and setting spray, along with the soft murmur of the staff talking amongst themselves, but the rest area in the corner was unusually quiet.
Tsutsui Ayame sat cross-legged on a folding chair, clutching a bottle of barley tea, her chin resting on her knees, watching Watanabe Miho and Hoshino Minami posing for a photoshoot for the magazine's inside pages. She had just finished shooting her solo section, and there was still a little sweat on her forehead. Makeup magazines always had strange makeup looks, but thankfully, Ayame's natural beauty carried it off perfectly, creating a unique and peculiar aesthetic.
"Click—Alright, next group."
As the photographer's voice faded, Meimei slowly straightened up. Just as she was about to throw the empty drink bottle into the trash can, she heard soft footsteps behind her. Thinking it was her manager, she asked without turning around, "Mr. Mane, can we go back now?"
"Not yet." The voice that answered was somewhat familiar, but completely different from the manager's. Meimei paused for a moment, turned her head, and met a pair of smiling eyes.
"President?" She blinked in surprise, her voice still soft and flat. "What brings you here?"
"I need to talk to you about something." Rito took the empty drink bottle from her hand, threw it into the trash can, and sat down on the folding chair next to her, which made a slight creak. He wasn't wearing a suit this time, just a simple white T-shirt and khaki trousers, with the sleeves casually rolled up to his forearms. He didn't look like a company president at all; people might even believe he was a college student doing an internship here.
However, most of the staff recognized him and, seeing him from afar, wisely avoided the area, not daring to disturb him. Qiuqiu and Xiaonan, who had just finished filming, also left first, led by their manager, to prepare for the final group photo.
Seeing this, Meimei sat back down in her chair, placed her hands on her knees, and looked at him obediently, like a primary school student waiting for a scolding from her teacher.
Seeing her like this, Rito couldn't help but laugh and reached out to ruffle her hair—it was only because Meimei was so young that it didn't seem too out of place for him to do this. If it were Neru, he would never dare to do such a thing in public.
"The positions for the third single are set." Sensing the disdain in Meimei's eyes, he smiled and withdrew his hand, beginning to explain his purpose, "You've been moved from the first row to the second row."