Chapter 22: What’s Wrong With A Writer Being A Little Flirtatious?
“A Jian, let’s organize the bookshelf together.”
After the dinner rush hour ended, Sakamoto Ken officially started the night shift.
Natsume Mio was gathering the magazines on the bookshelf that needed to be returned to the publishing house tomorrow.
Now that electronic reading is gradually rising, far fewer people buy physical magazines, so the store has more and more unsold stock piling up.
Especially Mondays, when weekly magazines have the most releases, every Sunday they have to clear out quite a few books waiting to be returned.
Natsume Mio already had a big stack in her arms; it’s really inconvenient for a girl to hold books, especially for someone like her with large breasts—she could only hold them up to below her chest, otherwise they’d push up and easily make her tip forward.
Sakamoto Ken skillfully gathered the magazines together one by one; after Natsume Mio moved a stack of books aside, she opened a JUMP.
“A Jian, when will your manga be published in this?” Natsume Mio asked.
“Soon, probably within these two months,” Sakamoto Ken said.
“Eh? Has the editor already confirmed it?” Natsume Mio said.
Sakamoto Ken shook his head and said, “It’s only been serialized for two chapters. I’m not a famous veteran writer; the editor won’t decide so early.”
“So A Jian is especially confident in his own work?”
“Of course,” Sakamoto Ken said. “A writer should have 500% belief in the works he writes.”
“But I also saw that manga released on the same day as A Jian’s. It seems like… the editorial department gave it way more resources… even though the quality doesn’t compare to A Jian’s at all.” Natsume Mio spoke with a bit of angry emotion.
“…Eh?” Natsume Mio noticed Sakamoto Ken staring straight at her, and for some reason she felt a chill on her back. “A Jian, you, why are you looking at me like that…”
“Which one are you talking about?” Sakamoto Ken asked.
“The one with… young lady, sniper rifle, pantyhose and stuff…” As she spoke, Natsume Mio flipped open the JUMP magazine to the page promoting JUMP+.
“See, it hasn’t even started serialization yet, but JUMP+’s ad is already using her cover.”
“Yeah, I saw it too.” Sakamoto Ken glanced at the open JUMP and said, “No need to pay attention to others’ works. Since you’re confident, it doesn’t matter who the rival is.”
Regarding Haruna plagiarizing his manga and still being valued so much by Shueisha, Sakamoto Ken could guess some reasons.
Her family had a large trading company, and her mother had been a writer when she was young, publishing works—maybe she had some connections to Shueisha’s higher-ups.
In his previous life, she hadn’t drawn any manga herself and didn’t care about this bit of royalty fees, so she hadn’t used those connections.
Now Haruna had copied his manga, and if she wanted to publish it, her family should be able to provide some help.
He just didn’t know to what extent that help would go…
At least for now, it seemed like it was just letting her appear on a live broadcast show, and not many people watched that program.
What worried Sakamoto Ken wasn’t his serialization scheduling being pushed back—that was just a matter of delaying by a month or so.
What he worried about was that this time, Mio had already formed some kind of connection with Haruna ahead of schedule…
Sakamoto Ken’s gaze swept over Natsume Mio again, lingering slightly at her chest before naturally shifting away as he continued organizing the bookshelf.
Although they hadn’t met offline yet, the fact that Natsume Mio had noticed Mikazuki Haruna’s manga meant some online association had already formed…
Way ahead of schedule.
In his previous life, it wasn’t until after school started that Mikazuki Haruna found his homepage by searching the book title and pen name on Twitter.
Then after some time chatting online, there was a reader gathering event for an offline meeting.
After meeting a few times, their relationship gradually developed into something more intimate.
This time, his relationship with her had changed greatly.
In his previous life, it was an author-fan relationship—plainly put, Sakamoto Ken sleeping with a fan.
Now, he and Haruna had become competing peers.
Originally, Sakamoto Ken thought, sleeping with a fan is just sleeping with a fan; he’s not an entertainment celebrity anyway.
This kind of thing might count as a scandal for entertainment stars, but it’s different for writers.
Isn’t it normal for Japanese writers to be a bit promiscuous?
No need to mention old man Watanabe Jun’ichi.
And Nosaka Akiyuki, who wrote 《Grave of the Fireflies》.
Everyone knows this animated film adapted by Ghibli, and knows the director Takahata Isao.
But few people know that the original author, Mr. Nosaka, had his debut work 《The Pornographers》, written from personal experience.
Mr. Nosaka was also a rakugo storyteller under the stage name Tachikawa Tenno, the only combo in history bold enough to use that name.
Although the crime of lèse-majesté was abolished by the US, he still got targeted a lot by right-wing groups.
Besides writing and rakugo, he also created songs like 《Virgin Blues》, 《Marilyn Monroe No Return》…
Every year he would gather his female friends for a hot spring inn stay.
Of course, he publicly claimed they were just drinking and bathing.
As for light novel writers, there are even more.
After all, harem stories are one of the most popular genres in light novels.
Could it be that those writers who open massive harems in their books are actually just pure theorists who make it all up?
No way?
Anyway, Sakamoto Ken isn’t.
Sakamoto Ken finished organizing the entire magazine bookshelf, piling the books to be recycled into the designated box.
The specific recycling and carry work would be left to Miyamoto Shota on the late night shift.
Soon it was 8 p.m., Natsume Mio’s off-duty time.
Right on time, she hurried to the changing room inside.
Fully twenty minutes later, she came out.
Earlier she had been wearing the dark blue FamilyMart convenience store uniform, looking quite ordinary.
Now she had changed into a pure white shirt paired with black trousers, even tying on a tie.
Natsume Mio walked to the cash register, standing prettily and slightly tilting her head up at Sakamoto Ken, deliberately taking a deep breath to make her chest even more prominent.
Those few buttons had barely held back the pressure inside before, but under her intentional chest-thrusting motion, they now looked precarious.
“How’s this?”
Natsume Mio clasped her hands behind her back, smiling brightly at Sakamoto Ken.
Sakamoto Ken was a bit entranced; she’d clearly done her makeup in the changing room for so long.
Her already fair and delicate cheeks had a bit more blush, her watery eyes sparkled like stars, and her moist lips glistened alluringly.
“Looks good? I’m your heroine oh~” Natsume Mio leaned forward slightly, smiling as she said.
Though compared to the real Makima, Natsume Mio lacked that haughty air, this figure was actually better than the Makima in the setting.
“Very good-looking, exactly like I imagined,” Sakamoto Ken said honestly.
“Hehe, good then~” Natsume Mio flicked her braids behind her head, grabbed her bag, and walked toward the convenience store main entrance. “Then I’m heading back, A Jian, bye~”
Natsume Mio had planned this long ago: today she wore this outfit and did her makeup just to show off for one minute in front of Sakamoto Ken.
Only such a fleeting glimpse would leave a hazy impression in A Jian’s mind.
If she stayed too long and the impression was too clear, it would reduce the intensity of his later fantasizing.
When people fantasize, they always turn those vague images into their ideal perfect version.
That way, any flaws get ignored.
And then, they fall deeper.
That’s the principle behind “love at first sight.”
Natsume Mio, waiting for the bus at the stop sign, looked through the convenience store glass door from afar and saw Sakamoto Ken looking her way.
The girl’s corner of the mouth curved up as she thought to herself.
I’m such a genius!
