Chapter 2

No matter how I thought about it, it was awkward.

Though, that's not to say it wasn't possible.

The next day, I watched the note stuck to the ornamental flowers next to the door of my building. It read, "Suppress Your Desires."

I smiled.

The decorators my mother had hired turned up later that day. Luckily, I just so happened to be going away on business.

I begged them to work through the night. I told them it was urgent and paid them extra to do it.

After all the trouble Mr. Satyriasis had caused me, it was the least I could do in return.

...

I stared in shock.

Why was Mr. Satyriasis sitting at the head of the meeting room table?

It turned out that he was the voice actor my animation studio was hoping to work with.

This all seemed like way too much of a coincidence.

Fortunately, having hidden the second I heard him come to the door the night before, he had no way to recognize me. Otherwise, we would probably have had to find someone else.

"Hello, I'm Brook Sierra."

It was clear he was a voice actor; even when saying hello, the quality of his voice shone through.

Brook Sierra was one of the most famous voice actors in the country. Yet he was well-known for never making public appearances.

There were those who speculated that this was because he was hideously ugly.

If such people could have sat beside me in that meeting room, they'd have certainly had to change their minds.

If he had been prone to making public appearances, such was his presence that he would certainly have risen to even greater prominence, and there would be no chance for a company such as ours to work with him.

I could see now why his girlfriend never demanded he sleep. If it were me, I don't think I'd ever get bored of his attention either.

He wasn't just easy on the eyes and ears either, his attitude and demeanor seemed easy-going and amiable.

After all, there weren't many professionals who were willing to put up with my company's unusual list of demands.

I felt like my manager had sent me here as a joke, just to watch me fail, but Brook signed the agreement I offered him after barely even reading it.

A 30-70 split, the final payment to be paid only once viewership hits a certain target, no fixed production schedule.

He agreed to it all without so much as a word.

Negotiations like these were the stuff of dreams.

I could hardly believe my luck as I returned to my offices with the signed contract in hand.

How was such an esteemed voice actor happy to accept such ridiculous conditions?

I felt like I should do something to thank him.

After all, it was rare that I got the chance to see my manager so annoyed and so disbelieving.

He looked very unhappy to be handing responsibility for the follow-up work to me.

The studio had put out word that whoever managed to seal the deal on this cooperation would be put up for promotion.

Trevor, my manager, had his own protégé who he wanted to succeed. That's why the conditions in the agreement he'd given me were so unfavorable.

Who could have known that despite being set up to fail, I'd end up coming back with a signed contract?

And his own little lapdog wouldn't even have the chance to run back to Brook with a sweetened deal.

Trevor wasn't happy, but I was. I was looking forward to a raise.

All thanks to Brook Sierra.

From this day forth, I thought, I don't care how long you go. In fact, I'll happily resupply you if you run out of anything you need.

I'll give your girlfriend sports massages and keep her stocked with vitamin C. Anything to stop illness or injury from putting her out of action.

But when I returned home, there was a six-foot lump huddled up on the floor outside my building.

Its eyes were red from crying.

Among the ornamental flowers by the door, the note saying "Suppress Your Desires" now seemed especially prominent.

Had his girlfriend left him?

Seeing me return—the lump—Brook, stood up and fled upstairs to the communal rooftop area of our building.

He wouldn't jump off, would he? It couldn't be that serious.

She's only a girl. I could go find her for you and help smooth things over, I thought.

...

It was quite windy on the rooftop and he was tall and slender. He couldn't have weighed much.

I wondered how strong of a gust it would take to blow him over the edge.

I shuddered to think, imagining my beautiful promotion being blown away like that.

"Excuse me, Mr. Sierra. Could we have a chat?"

He was looking around him, furtively, as though trying to find the best place to jump from.

When he heard my voice, he immediately turned to look in my direction, staring as though he had seen a ghost.