Here in The Makuhari Exhibition Hall, there were no dreams, starlight or magic. The hall just smelled like cheap floor cleaning chemicals and cleaning wax. The air was also thick and hot, filled with the smell and suffocating heat of five thousand unwashed sweaty bodies packed into a room that had no fresh air and didn't have proper ventilated space.
Reina Shiratori stood behind a small counter covered in cheap white velvet, her face wearing a perfect flawless but empty smile.
Today was the "High-Touch" event. A promotional event where fans who had bought at least ten copies of LUMINA!'s latest single got exactly seven seconds of physical contact with their favorite idol.
Fans had seven seconds to hold her hands, look into her eyes and act like it was actually a profound spiritual bond. Rather than paying for her time.
"Hands," Sayuri commanded. Her voice was cold and flat, cutting through the roar of the crowd.
Reina obediently held out her palms. A young, nervous staff member stepped forward with a large bottle of hand sanitizer. He squirted a large amount of sanitizer into Reina's palms. In the last 3 hours, it was the 15th time she had been sanitized today.
Reina rubbed the stinging cold gel into her raw hands. It burned. The skin on her knuckles were already cracked and micro-tearing from being cleaned too many times. Her hands looked like they belonged to an older woman twenty years older, red and worn out but she knew the fans wouldn't notice. In fact they wouldn't care. They wouldn't even look at her hands. They only looked at their own reflection, what they wanted to see in her eyes.
"Two minutes left on the break," Sayuri didn't look up from her tablet, her eyes glued to the tablet that showed real time engagement metrics, live data and crowd flow algorithms. "You are falling behind. You are slower than Ami by 14 fans per hour, Reina. Move faster. Speed it up. Smile more but keep your jaw relaxed. Don't show your bottom teeth. You need to look perfect, not tired."
"Understood," Reina whispered, using the soft, obedient voice the agency had trained her to use.
It was the voice of someone who always followed orders. Even though she was surrounded by thousands of people, she had never felt more alone. She was speaking but the words weren't her own. Her true voice had been taken away.
"Open the line," Sayuri signaled to the security guards.
The heavy black curtains moved aside and the assembly line began to move.
The first fan was a teenage boy in a cheap LUMINA! windbreaker, shaking so violently that it made a rustling sound. He stepped up to the counter, too nervous to look directly into her eyes.
Persona A: The Sweet Older Sister.
Reina's mind automatically picked the right mask. She reached out and grabbed his sweaty, shaking hands. She was feeling disgusted inside. Shaking hands with sweaty hands made her feel grossed out. But Reina's smile remained bright and warm.
"Thank you so much for coming today!" she chirped with the sweetest voice she could make. She leaned in so he could smell her fake lotus perfume.
"Did you wait a long time in the heat?"
"N-no! I mean, yes! but Reina-chan, you are my angel!" he fumbled while talking,"But it was worth it!"
"Time's up. Move. Move," the nearby security guard shouted, placing a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder and pushing him toward the exit.
Seven seconds.
Next.
The second fan was an older man, perhaps in his late forties. He carried a huge bag covered in dozens of Reina's figure printed keychains. He wasn't nervous nor was he shy. He looked like he owned her.
Persona B: The Submissive Girlfriend.
Reina instantly made her pitch drop and lowered her head down, looking up at him through her wide, innocent eyes. It was a calculated move to look weak. She was now playing the role of a fragile girl. And her acting was designed to make the man feel big and powerful.
It was a tactical disposition of fragility, designed to make the man feel like he was the one in control.
"Reina," He squeezed her hands way too hard, his nails digging into her cracked skin.
"I paid a lot of money for that blue ribbon, Reina. Why didn't you wear it in yesterday's live broadcast?"
The pain in her hands was sharp but she didn't show the pain. Instead, she put on a look of fake regret, letting her eyes wide open, acting like she was desperately sorry.
"I'm so sorry! The staff forced me to take it off. I was so sad about it. But I keep it next to my pillow when I sleep. Please don't be mad."
The lie was perfect. The man's angry face changed into a smug grin. He felt like he owned her now and that was exactly what she wanted him to feel.
"Time's up," the guard shouted again. The man released her hands and moved along the line.
Seven seconds.
Next.
Next.
Next.
For the next hour, Reina's mind went blank. It felt like she was floating above her own body, watching a girl named Reina Shiratori sell fake smiles to stranger after stranger. Her mind was a hall of mirrors where she changed who she was for every new person. She had to break her personality into a thousand pieces, becoming whatever the customer demanded.
The Crier.
The Critic.
The Whisperer.
The Demander.
She was exactly what they paid for.
And then, the rhythm broke.
The line moved forward and a new person stepped up to the counter.
Suddenly, the temperature seemed to drop. Reina's mind crashed back into reality.
It was a man in his early thirties. He wore an old, oversized black coat that smelled like cigarette smoke. His hair was greasy and messy. But she didn't care about his clothes. It wasn't the way he dressed up that made her alert.
It was his eyes.
His eyes were locked onto hers, but he wasn't looking at the "Idol" persona. He was staring right through her thick makeup, her fake smile and her acting. His eyes were so wide and dark as black holes that they could swallow everything. He stood there, frozen and didn't blink.
Reina stopped breathing for a second. She held out her hands by habit, even though she was terrified.
The man reached out. He didn't just hold her hands. He grabbed them. His skin was hard, rough and dry.
He leaned over, getting way too close to her face.
"Thank you for coming," Reina whispered. For the first time that day, her voice broke. The repeated script felt dead in her mouth.
He didn't respond to her greeting nor did he say a word. He just stared into her eyes. His grip squeezed her hands harder and harder. She could feel the bones in her fingers were about to crush under his strength.
"Time's up," the nearby guard shouted, stepping forward.
But the man ignored him. He leaned in until his face was only inches from Reina's ear. She could hear his heavy sound of breathing.
"October 14th," the man whispered.
His voice was like dry leaves dragging across concrete. "The Minato Women's Clinic. I saw you in your black hat. You looked so sad, Reina. But don't worry. I know you are still pure. I know the truth. It wasn't your fault."
Everything felt wrong.
The loud roar of the five thousand fans turned into a sharp, painful static ringing in her head. She went completely white. As if all the blood were drained out from her face, leaving her as pale as a doll. Her heart already pushed to the limit by the "Vitamin Cocktail" was now beating wildly in her chest.
October 14th.
Reina had tried to forget that night forever. Three months ago, she sneaked out to a private clinic. For this she had to disguise herself in an oversized coat, a surgical mask and a black bucket hat. She had gone to a private, highly discreet doctor in Minato to get strong sleeping pills for the insomnia that was driving her crazy. She had to pay in hefty cash and she also used an alias.
There was absolutely no way a random fan could ever have known she went there, let alone what she was feeling.
"Time's up. Let's go," the guard shouted, pulling the man away with his coat.
The man finally let go, his rough hands sliding off Reina's sore, sanitized skin. As the guard pulled him away, the man didn't look angry. He smiled. It was a terrifying smile. He had left his mark on her life. In an instant, he vanished into the sea of fans and was gone.
Reina stood frozen. Her hands stayed out in the air, trembling.
"Reina. Hands," Sayuri's cold voice snapped her back to reality.
A nearby staff member came with a sanitizer. He squirted a large amount of sanitizer into Reina's palms. And she just stared at it.
How did he know? she wondered. She had been so careful. She took three different subway lines to make sure no one was following her. The clinic was private. It was supposed to be safe.
Unless…
Reina slowly turned her head and looked back at Sayuri. The manager was still staring at her tablet, her face was glowing in the cold blue light of the screen as she checked the sales data. Sayuri was the only one with the keys to Reina's schedule. Sayuri was the one who managed her health records.
The realization made her out of breath.
He didn't follow her. He didn't have to.
They sold it.
The agency. Kaneshiro. Sayuri.
They weren't just selling her smile or her voice. They were harvesting her life. To them, her entire life, from her movement to her medical records all were just lines of data on a spreadsheet. And they sold those data to the highest bidders who might be a pervert or a stalker.
She wasn't just a bird in a cage. She was a commodity.
"Reina. Next fan," Sayuri snapped. Her voice was sharp and annoyed. "You are falling behind the metrics. Fix your face."
Reina slowly turned back to the front. The next fan was a young girl holding a glow stick.
She began to rub the sanitizer into her hands. She rubbed harder and harder until her nails dug into her skin. Her skin finally gave up. Soon a tiny drop of bright red blood leaked out and mixed with the sanitizer.
She felt no pain. The shock was so deep that it had made her body go numb. She saw the little girl waiting for her "idol," so she forced a smile. She stretched her face until it hurt. It was the most beautiful and terrifying smile she had ever made.
"Thank you so much for coming today," Reina whispered, holding out her bleeding hands to the child.
Reina realized she was no longer just trying to survive. But standing in the hot, crowded room, she finally understood the truth. The "wicked woman" inside her finally woke up.
She wasn't going to just stay alive anymore. She was going to find out how deep the rot went. And then, she was going to burn the entire aquarium to the ground.
> [SYSTEM LOG: LUMINA!_ENGAGEMENT_TRACKER]
> Event: Makuhari High-Touch Promo.
> Asset: Reina Shiratori.
> Current Heart Rate: 165 BPM (Critical Stress Detected)
> Micro-Expression Analysis: 88% Fear / 12% Hostility.
> Manager Override: Suppress medical alerts. Keep the line moving.
> [WARNING: DATA PACKET 'MINATO_CLINIC_OCT14' ACCESSED BY UNREGISTERED IP ADDRESS.]