Chapter Text
“Congratulations on graduating, boys,” President Tamura told the two idols with a big smile on her face. “Words can’t express how proud of you I am. You got through high school, even when you didn’t want to at first. What did you think?”
“I think…” Aizou and Yujiro glanced at each other.
“It was fun.” They both replied, looking back at her.
Tamura smiled warmly at the two of them.
“You’re only young once, and I’m very relieved that you two were able to experience your high school life. It’s all I wanted from you two when you first came to my agency, four years ago. That being said, now that you have finished high school, I want you boys to tell me what your next plan of action is.”
The two sat upright.
“Will you continue doing what you’re doing? Are you ready to move on to being full time idols?” Tamura asked them.
“Of course,” Yujiro smirked lightly. “I’m not going to quit just because I’m done with school.”
“We’re here to stay. We don’t need college or any other casual everyday job- our job is to make our Julietta’s smile.” Aizou added.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Tamura smiled, standing up, “because, it just so happens, you two already have a job offer.” She walked over to her desk and opened one of the drawers.
“A job offer? We couldn’t have done it while we were still in school?” Yujiro asked curiously.
“No, because this…” Tamura took out a sheet of paper, holding it out in front of them. “Is a movie offer.”
“A movie?!” Aizou gasped, leaping up in excitement. He had occasionally wondered if the two would ever get an offer to be in a movie. They’d been on some TV shows as extras before, but never anything huge. Ever since he saw himself on TV in his first show, he’d been dying to have a chance at being in a movie.
He definitely couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“Yes, it’s about-” Tamura began.
“I’ll definitely do it!” Aizou said excitedly, interrupting her. “When do we go in?!”
“Well…you don’t have the job for certain. You have to go to the auditions. The creators just had you two in mind to play the two protagonists, and want to see if you two can pull it off.”
“When’s the audition?!” Aizou asked eagerly.
“...This upcoming Monday,” Tamura sighed, a small smile crossing her face. “Well, Yujiro-kun? What do you think?”
Aizou whirled around to face his partner, bouncing in place.
“Come on, Yujiro! Let’s do it! A movie, a movie! Please?” Aizou begged.
Yujiro’s brows furrowed. “I don’t know…I mean, doing a TV show is one thing, but movies take a long time to make, Aizou…and I’m more of a theater person myself…” His gaze grew slightly distant. Likely remembering his days doing kabuki.
“So you have acting experience! Isn’t it a good thing to get even more experience?!” Aizou insisted. “Come on, please?”
“Can’t you do it alone?” Yujiro frowned.
“Well, the director wants both of you, or none of you, so…” Tamura smiled a bit.
“Yujiro! Please! We gotta try! At least let us audition?!” Aizou clasped his hands together pleadingly.
Yujiro sighed. “Alright. We’ll try it out. I mean, I guess it would be a good experience and it could broaden our job offers as LIPxLIP. And by doing this, we could probably draw fans who aren’t into idols into at least our duo.”
It was true. There were several people out there who didn’t care for idols, but they loved movies. If LIPxLIP got the roles as the main characters, they had a chance of their career as idols skyrocketing.
“I’ll have Uchida print you two out the details. The audition will take place at 15:00, so don’t be late,” Tamura smiled at them. “I’ll look forward to seeing what you two can do.”
“We can do anything!” Aizou cheered, flexing his arm.
Tamura laughed. “I know you can.” Her gaze flickered with warmth before walking out of the office, leaving the two boys alone.
“A movie, Yujiro..! We’re going to be in a movie..!” Aizou started jumping up and down.
“We’re auditioning for a movie, we don’t have the parts for sure,” Yujiro frowned at him.
“Still..! The fact is we have this opportunity now..!” Aizou flopped back on the couch. “I’m so excited…I could just die!”
“Die? Without even auditioning?” Yujiro raised a delicate eyebrow.
“...Okay, I’ll die after the audition!”
“What about seeing the results?”
“I’ll die after the results are in, then!”
“What if you get the part?”
“Jeez! I’ll die after we’re done filming then, are you happy now?!” Aizou shouted, feeling a flicker of annoyance at his partner.
Yujiro smirked in amusement. “Go for it. I’ll even assist you. I’ll finally be able to solo debut.”
“Oi- you little minx!” Aizou leaped forward, tackling Yujiro and pinning him down onto the couch. “You won’t ever debut solo as long as I’m alive!”
“But you said you’re going to die, right?” Yujiro gave him a shit eating grin. “So make up your mind.”
“I won’t die then! Never! I’ll stay alive just to spite you!” Aizou declared, leaning in and pressing his forehead against Yujiro’s angrily. He had no idea what riled him up so much, to be honest. But Yujiro’s smug grin made him think that he had to be angry at him.
“Hey, you two? Uchida-san is having issues with the pri- ehh…you two are fighting again?!” Hiyori frowned at the two boys in disapproval. “Sheesh. You two really can't go more than an hour without fighting.”
If she saw anything suspicious with the way Aizou had Yujiro pinned down with their foreheads pressed against each other, she didn’t say anything.
Aizou pulled back with a huff.
“It was Yujiro’s fault.”
“It’s not my fault you get riled up so easily,” Yujiro snorted.
“Okay, you two!” Hiyori cut in before Aizou could respond. “You have a talk show to do in fifteen minutes and you still need to prepare yourselves for that! Don’t forget, you have a graduation speech to make for your fans! So…go, go, go!” She held a fist up.
“Yeah, yeah…” The two boys grumbled, getting up and walking out of the room.
They headed to the elevator and to the floor where the talk show was taking place, and got prepared, making sure their outfits were in order, despite the cameras not being on them.
Once the two were seated, they began.
“Hello! I’m Aizou!”
“And I’m Yujiro!”
“We’re…LIPxLIP!” They both chorused.
“So graduation is here, our Julietta’s. We want to first thank each and every one of you for all of your support throughout our high school life,” Aizou said.
“We couldn’t have gotten through it without you,” Yujiro added, “we both had lots of fun, and we’re really sad to see the school year has ended for us. So we’re here today to give you a piece of advice.”
“Right. We want you all to know that, even when things get hard, you can’t give up. You’re going through the prime of your lives right now,” Aizou said softly.
“Whether you join a club or you go eat crepes or something after school, cherish the days when you’re young. Someone once told us that you’re only young once, and to enjoy our high school lives. We didn’t take that seriously at first, but now that our time for that is over, I regret not taking it seriously from the get-go. And if you feel hopeless, always remember…” Yujiro leaned into the mic. “You’re never alone. You have us. We’ll support you from the sidelines, just as you support us.”
Aizou watched Yujiro, a small smile crossing his face. It seemed Yujiro always knew just what to say to his fans.
“To celebrate, here’s our latest song, from us to you, our dear viewer!” Aizou cheered. “Please enjoy…”
“Julietta!” Both he and Yujiro said.
The button was pressed.
“Good work, boys,” the staff member on the other side of the glass said. “For your next segment, you’ll be reading fan letters and other inquiries about your jobs.”
“Right.” Both boys echoed.
After the song ended, they were back on air.
_____
On Monday, the two boys went to the place where the auditions for the movie were being held. There, they were given small scripts with different lines. Evidently, they had the parts in mind for who played as who.
Aizou read through his audition lines, his leg bouncing with excitement.
“Yujiro, look at this! The guy I’m playing as is this cool biker badass!” Aizou trilled.
“Who you’re auditioning for. We don’t know if we’re getting the part,” Yujiro corrected.
“Shibasaki Aizou, we’re ready for you,” a staff member called.
Aizou leaped up and ran inside of the room, where three people sat. Two men, and one woman.
“Hello! I’m Shibasaki Aizou! Thanks for having me!”
“Yes, yes…will you please start at the top of page seven? The theme is dangerous.”
“Right!” Aizou flipped the pages and skimmed the lines. He stood upright.
Okay…just relax…
He took a deep breath and scowled.
“What business do you have with me? Do you know who I am, pipsqueak?” Aizou chuckled darkly, shaking his head. “Of course you don’t. People like you…you’re not fit to be on this side of town. I recommend you turning your cute little ass around and walkin’ home.”
The first man nodded in approval. “Page eleven. At the bottom.”
Aizou turned the pages.
“That pipsqueak’s working there? Heh. He won’t last a day in this area. But I guess I’ll stick around and see how he fares. After all, it’ll be interesting to see that spirit fall after only a few hours, huh?” Aizou did his best to sound smug, figuring that was the tone he was supposed to go for.
“Alright…and the final page.”
Aizou flipped the pages.
“You’re…coming back tomorrow? Why?” Aizou paused, letting the second man read the next line.
“Well…it’s my job, after all. I need it to live.”
“To live, huh…but is your job worth your life?” Aizou frowned. “This is a dangerous area, kid.”
“My name isn’t kid. It’s Mafuyu. And I’m an adult.”
“Really? With how small you are, I’d have assumed ya were still in grade school or something,” Aizou laughed harshly. “Well, I’ll see you around, then. We’ll see if your mind is as strong as your will, won’t we?”
“Thank you, Shibasaki. You may go now,” the woman smiled at him.
“Th-thanks for having me..!” Aizou bowed clumsily, before leaving the room, script tightly in hand.
Yujiro glanced up at him.
“Well? How’d it go?” Yujiro asked.
“It went well! I think…I guess I pulled off the dangerous biker vibe pretty well!”
“Right…” Yujiro raised an eyebrow.
“What about you? What’s the part you have?” Aizou asked.
“I have the part of an ice cream parlor boy,” Yujiro shrugged. “His name is Shinya Mafuyu.”
“Ohh, so that’s who the other protagonist is,” Aizou mused. “The name on mine says his name is Kosaka Juzo.”
“Sounds like a typical bad boy name,” Yujiro mused.
“Someya Yujiro, we’re ready for you,” the staff member called.
Yujiro got up and nodded to Aizou, before walking in. Aizou sat there, reading through his small sample script he’d been given.
After several minutes, the door opened and Yujiro came out with a sigh.
“Well?”
“Didn’t go so well. They kept telling me to act cuter, and that they chose me for this role specifically because I’m cute.”
“Huh…you were corrected? And I wasn’t?” Aizou’s eyes widened.
“They were just fixing my tone, that’s all. After all, the script doesn’t say anything about my character,” Yujiro frowned at him.
Aizou blinked. “But didn’t they say to act a certain way?”
“No. They said it’s my first day at my ice cream parlor job and I have to act like it.”
“Huh…” Aizou muttered. “Well, I guess we’ll see our results in a few days. I wonder what the movie is about…”
“No idea. Don’t really care either.”
Aizou sighed.
Well…even if we don’t get the parts…this was really fun!
_____
On Friday that same week, Aizou and Yujiro were called to Tamura’s office. Manager Uchida stood in front of the two, holding out two large booklets with a huge smile on her face.
“Congratulations, you two! You managed to get the roles in the upcoming romance movie!”
“Romance?” Aizou blinked.
Great…I’ll have to kiss a girl, or fight this guy for a girl, won’t I?
He and Yujiro took their scripts from Manager Uchida.
As Aizou flipped through the script, his eyes slowly started to widen in realization. The movie they auditioned as the protagonists for wasn’t going to involve him and Yujiro fighting over a girl or going on double dates.
The movie was a BL.