Chapter 25: After the explanation

The afternoon sunlight was cut into diagonal slashes by the blinds, feebly casting shadows over the stacks of documents on the desk.

Su Yuqing was slumped deep into her office chair, her gaze vacant as she stared at the dense schedule on the computer screen.

Her fingertips unconsciously twirled a pen that had long since run out of ink.

Her soul seemed to have drifted far away, toward that weekend promise that had become so out of reach, and toward the lingering vibrations of Minazuki Ruri’s phone call—a mixture of heart-pounding excitement and deep-seated unease.

“Hey, Senior? Senior — !”

A voice filled with concern and a hint of frustration, like a thin needle, tried to pierce the layer of groggy mist wrapping around her.

Sakura Onodera, the young makeup artist and junior with a neat bob cut whose tips were boldly dyed pink, had been standing by her desk for quite some time.

Seeing no reaction from Su Yuqing, she simply leaned over, pinched the end of one of her pink braids, and carefully waved it in front of Su Yuqing’s unfocused eyes.

“Sen — ior — !”

She raised her volume, practically shouting into the other woman’s ear.

“Eh…!?”

Su Yuqing Blue jerked violently, as if being forcibly dragged out of a deep nightmare.

She met Sakura’s clear, worried eyes and stammered, “Wh-what is it? Sakura? When did you get here?”

Sakura straightened up and sighed with a touch of helplessness, gently placing a stack of printed documents onto the messy pile in front of Su Yuqing.

“This is the temporary list of personnel adjustments for those… uh, ‘sudden’ weekend shows. The logistics department just finished organizing it, and I’ve brought it over for you.”

There was a faint, undetectable hint of complaint in her tone.

Clearly, she also had some reservations about this last-minute overtime arrangement.

Su Yuqing rubbed her throbbing temples, forcing herself to pull her attention back to her work.

She picked up the stack of lists, and after just a cursory glance, her brow furrowed tightly.

“Huh? Why… why are there so many people taking leave? The makeup group, the props group, and even the on-site coordination… there are too many vacancies.”

Hearing this, Sakura seemed to have finally found an outlet to vent.

She couldn’t help but lower her voice to complain, “Sigh, Senior, do you even need to ask? For the past whole month, Zhi Ai’s mountain of dense performances has already made everyone in the logistics department as tired as dogs.”

“And now, who knows what wire in Manager Huang’s brain short-circuited. Out of nowhere, he just had to add two more performances! And they’re back-to-back on the weekend!”

She curled her lip and continued to pour out her grievances.

“On top of that, the labor contract we signed specifies a fixed monthly salary. For this kind of sudden extra work, it’s hard to even apply for decent overtime pay… Everyone is resentful. It’s only natural for them to find a reason to take leave and hide until the storm passes…”

Listening to Sakura’s complaints, Su Yuqing could only squeeze out an extremely strained, even slightly guilty, dry laugh.

“Ahahaha… I-I see how it is…”

She knew better than anyone that the root of this “short-circuit” was likely lounging on her sofa at home, taking a nap, or perhaps planning a new “surprise” for her.

Sakura looked at her smile, which looked worse than crying, and tilted her head in confusion.

“What about you, Senior? You’re Zhi Ai’s exclusive manager. Logically, the more performances an idol has, the more your commissions and performance bonuses should increase, right? Why do you look just like us? You’ve been moping and out of it the entire morning. It’s almost as if… well, almost as if some very important personal plan for the weekend was forcibly ruined.”

“Uh…”

Sakura’s mindless words hit Su Yuqing’s sore spot with surgical precision.

Her eyes flickered, and she hurriedly picked up the cold coffee on her desk to take a large gulp, trying to hide her loss of composure.

“Well, although that’s true, and a manager’s income is indeed linked to an idol’s activity… however, Sakura, I feel that—”

She tried to make her tone sound like heartfelt concern.

“No matter what work we do, the personal rest time we should have should be indispensable and sacrosanct! This is a basic human right! Right? We can’t let work completely consume our lives!”

“So, Sakura, about… the thing I asked you to do last time—”

Su Yuqing looked at Sakura with a hint of cautious anticipation.

“Oh, you mean that matter, Senior.”

Sakura’s expression became a bit subtle.

She didn’t answer immediately, but instead slowly took a pink Hello Kitty glasses case out of her matching small leather bag.

Then, she skillfully took off the slightly dull black-framed glasses she was wearing, picked up a piece of fine velvet cloth, and began to carefully wipe away the faint fog on the lenses.

Su Yuqing’s heart rose bit by bit with her slow, deliberate movements.

“Right, so did you… explain things to your colleagues for me? Just a little…?”

There was an urgency and plea in her voice that she didn’t even notice.

Sakura finally finished wiping her glasses but didn’t put them on right away.

She looked up, and because she was temporarily without her lenses, her gaze seemed softer than usual, yet more direct.

“Yes. You can rest easy when I handle things, Senior.”

She nodded and continued, “I did as you asked and gave a general explanation to the colleagues I’m on good terms with about the… uh, ‘real’ relationship between you and Zhi Ai.”

Su Yuqing was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.

But Sakura’s tone shifted slightly, carrying a helpless sense of being unable to help.

“However—as for whether they actually believed my explanations or not—”

She shrugged slightly, a wry expression appearing on her face.

“I think, Senior… you should go and see their faces for yourself. They were trying so hard to hold back their laughter while simultaneously putting in a great effort to show me a face that said, ‘Ah, so that’s how it is, we understand, we completely believe what you’re saying, Sakura’… It was quite a twisted and hilarious sight.”

As she spoke, she even imitated that strange expression of someone wanting to laugh but not daring to.

“This…”

Su Yuqing felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head, and she instantly wilted.

All her hopes vanished into thin air.

A massive sense of powerlessness swept over her.

After all, once a rumor formed, it was like spilled water—reclaiming it was harder than climbing to heaven.

She slumped back into her chair and sighed in resignation.

“Sigh… forget it, forget it… let it be. They can think whatever they want. I… I can’t control it anymore.”

Seeing her look so defeated, Sakura seemed to feel a bit bad.

She put her cleaned glasses back on, and the image of slight sharpness and detachment instantly returned.

“Well then, Senior, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back to work.”

She spoke softly and prepared to turn away.

“Wait, Sakura!”

Su Yuqing seemed to have suddenly remembered something and called out to her.

Sakura stopped and turned back in confusion.

“Hmm? What is it, Senior? Do you have more work to assign?”

Su Yuqing’s gaze fell on the glasses Sakura had just taken off and put back on.

She carefully scrutinized the large, bright eyes behind the lenses and the delicate features slightly obscured by the heavy frames.

A thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

Perhaps it was out of the awkwardness brought by the previous topic, or perhaps she truly felt it was a pity, but she blurted out:

“Actually… Sakura, you look quite good when you take off your glasses.”

Su Yuqing’s tone carried a hint of sincere admiration, trying to use this topic to wash away the previous gloom.

“Look at you, at such a young age, do you usually not take care of your eyes? Your posture when reading or playing on your phone must be wrong, right? In the end, such a beautiful face is entirely hidden by those tacky, heavy glasses! It’s truly a waste of a God-given gift!”

She had meant it with a touch of a senior’s concern and as a joke.

However, Sakura’s reaction was beyond her expectations.

Sakura’s cheeks turned a vivid crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye, the flush spreading all the way to her ears.

As if she had been burned by something, she jerked her head down.

Her hands unconsciously gripped the hem of her shirt, and her voice became as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, filled with obvious panic and embarrassment.

“Sen… ior! P-please don’t poke fun at me like that, okay…? Th-this isn’t funny at all!”

Su Yuqing was stunned by the intense reaction.

Before she could react, Sakura seemed to summon her courage and spoke even faster, her tone bordering on shamed annoyance.

“And! And my vision is perfect! Th-these are just non-prescription lenses! It’s for styling! It’s part of the styling!”

After saying that, she practically fled, turning and walking quickly toward the office door.

Even her back radiated a sense of panic.

“Eh? Wait, Sakura! I-I didn’t mean it like that… I was being serious! Hey! I was serious!”

Su Yuqing hurriedly stood up, trying to explain.

“I really think your natural looks are great, you have a lot of potential! How about it? Are you interested in participating in the Agency’s Idol Newcomer Audition next month? I can recommend you…”

Thud.

But the only thing that responded to her was the dull sound of the office door closing.

Sakura’s figure had already disappeared outside.

Su Yuqing’s outstretched hand was still frozen in mid-air, her face full of shock and confusion.

She blinked blankly, completely failing to understand what had just happened.

“Huh? Why… did she just leave…? And she ran so fast…”

She muttered to herself, sitting back down in her chair, her mind full of question marks.

‘Did I… say something wrong just now?’

She carefully recalled every word she had just said, trying to find where she might have offended the girl.

‘I didn’t!’

She finally reached a conclusion and curled her lip, feeling a bit wronged.

‘I was clearly praising her… Don’t girls like it when people tell them they’re pretty? Really… I don’t understand what young girls are thinking these days.’

She shook her head, putting this little interlude aside for the moment.

Her gaze fell once again on the headache-inducing list of leaves and the dense schedule of weekend performances.

The immense pressure of reality quickly pulled Su Yuqing’s attention back into the unavoidable whirlpool of work…