• Side: Toru Nakamura

 

“Ok, let’s start.”

 

We were sitting in the lounge of the luxurious private plane. There were two sofas on both sides and a coffee table between the sofas.

 

Raden...now, the director set up the camera and gave an okay sign. Oi, you’re pretty skilled.

 

“Let’s introduce ourselves first.” (Director)

 

“We sure do have several VIPs here. We have the best singer in Japan, Ichiro Touma. The famous model, Linda Lancaster. The two famous idols of our age, Akio Shin and Mika Sakura. The ‘national goddess’ — Shizuka Tsukihara. The genius of the era, Chihiro Shin and the well known makeup master , Eiji Haru. One of our contestants had an unfortunate accident, we will have another new contestant, please welcome Jiro Hayashi!” (Random staff #1)

 

Audience (I’ll add audience to buff up the excitement)

 

(This is kind of a system where words would appear on the screen, the director and contestants could see it too)

 

“Is he a new actor?”

 

“I’ve never seen him, but he’s hot!”

 

“I think my Akio is hotter!” (Deadbrained fans)

 

Akio flashed a playboy smile.

 

“Aaaaaaaaah!!!!!!”

 

Screen breaks, not suitable for children.

 

Toru averted his eyes elsewhere.

 

• Side: Toru Nakamura (Jiro Hayashi)

 

“We will now split everyone into teams.”

 

The director clapped his hands and spoke.

 

“Oh oh, I want to be with Mika!” (Eiji)

 

“I want to pair with Eiji as well!” (Mika)

 

“Will you be on my team? Shizuka?” (Ichiro)

 

“Sorry, but we will decide it by drawing lots. Inside this box are folded papers, in the center of the paper would be a colour, two contestants with the same colour would be on the same team. Any questions?” (Director)

 

“No….” (everyone)

 

A big box was presented by a flight attendant, we each chose a folded piece of paper. On the director’s orders, we unfolded it.

 

“Blue.” (Toru)

 

I landed on the blue team, and my teammate will be…

 

“Let’s try hard together.” (Shizuka)

 

Shizuka gave me an angelic smile. Her eyes weren’t smiling, I guess she had to keep up her ‘goddess’ facade in front of the camera. I smile back with one that won’t lose to her.

 

“Pleasure to work with you.” (Toru)

 

I took the back of her hand to my lips and kissed the top of it, just a gentlemanly thing to do, but Shizuka’s face was beet red. I could feel Raden’s eyes burning on my head.

 

“Let’s announce the teams:

 

Blue team — Jiro (Toru), Shizuka

 

Red team — Mika, Chihiro 

 

Green team — Ichiro, Linda

 

White team — Eiji, Akio.”

 

After the announcement of the team, we sat on the plane in silence. Akio and Eiji were chatting together, while Chihiro held a book. Mika was texting on her phone, Shizuka slept...on my shoulder.

 

Ichiro scowled in my direction, and Chihiro's face was tense. The worst would be Shizuka’s father, he looked as if he was ready to dump me off the side of the plane.

 

Keeping yourself in the same position was difficult, and my neck was stiff, so I slowly drifted off to sleep as well. Luckily, the camera was off. I couldn’t imagine what the fans of Shizuka would do if they saw her like this.

 

We rode the plane for another 12 hours, and arrived at the destination — New Zealand.

 

“We will send the luggage to our hotel, and gather at the first destination.” (Director)

 

We got off the plane and were loaded into a car, after a while, we arrived at Queenstown. The temperature was colder than it was in Tokyo, of 3 degree Celsius. Fortunately, we had prepared scarves, gloves and jackets to keep us warm.

 

“Our destination is xxx peak, we have already prepared the site for the shoot.” (According to the internet, there are four mountains in New Zealand, and I’ve never been there, just pretend it is a random mountain covered in snow.)

 

We arrived at the base of a huge mountain, it was enormous, you cannot see the summit even if you look from afar, as it was hidden in the clouds. Obviously, we’re not using the whole mountain.

 

We changed into our clothing, and got ready in our positions as the camera clicked into place.

 

“Let me explain the rules. Each of you will start at a point on this mountain and will arrive at them by riding the ski lift. There will be a flag in approximately the same distance of each and every one of you, so it’s completely fair. You can choose to use the skis, the sled or a snowboard, there will be a drone watching over you, so we could know your situation when you are in trouble.”

 

Me and Shizuka strolled over towards the ski lifts, which were like benches and were bicable ropeways. 

 

We got on one of them and rode towards our destination, while the others rode on either the other way or on cars.

 

“Are you nervous?” (Shizuka)

 

Shizuka whispered loud enough to be only heard by me, so the drone was unable to record our voice.

 

“I’ve tried snowboarding before, what about you?”

 

“…”

 

We have never gone on trips together before, this was a first, especially just the two of us.

 

Me and Shizuka arrived at the middle part of the mountain after a while.

 

Shizuka rolled your her sleeves to her elbow and picked up a board prepared for us in the shed that was supposed to be a resting spot.

 

“Here’s the map.”

 

She handed me the piece of paper scroll. On the paper were places that were forbidden to go and a red cross in the middle of it. I pointed at it.

 

“So the cross is where the flag is?”

 

“Yes. Without accidents, we can get there first.”

 

Shizuka fixes her gloves and glances at the drone hovering above them.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

“Got it.”

 

I placed both my feet on the snowboard I chose from the shed, and began sledding away behind Shizuka.

 

“Shizuka, do you know how to turn?”

 

I asked, looking at her confused face. She stuttered.

 

“O-Of course I do!”

 

I sighed. This is going to be tough.

 

.

 

Both fondness display: 10%

 

-Barely passes as friends. Even though they considered themselves friends, their past relationship stops them from being close friends.

 

(I’ve decided to put a display here, to remind myself how much they’ve progressed, because I always tend to forget.)