Greedy Chapter 14

# Chapter Fourteen - "Pom-Bi"

    "Because she's a poor defenseless puppy and she loves us."

    "Except now she has plenty of defenses from back there."

    Tae-Eun and I were both on the floor of her dorm room, faces pressed to the carpet as we watched our new little friend get settled into the corner under her bed. She had been washed and shampooed in the sink, revealing what she looks like when she's free of dirt and grime, brushed thoroughly, dried in a big towel that Tae-Tae says I can just keep for her now, and given the piece de resistance - a violet bow right on top of her cute little head, straight out of my own hair.

    "She just needs to get used to it! I think she really likes the bow though. I can't believe she's so white! Maybe we should name her after you? How about it, huh? Do you want to be named after your auntie Tae-Tae?”

    "Bibi, if you name that mutt after me I'm never coming to game night again, and you'll have to explain that to Kanon. Hey, I still have some of the rinse left. We could dye it pink and freak Ai out some more." She sounded slightly devilish, which wasn't far off from her usual attitude. Tae is usually especially keen on an idea when it involves flustering her group mate Ai, mostly because she has a bit of a… You know what, that's not important right now. What is is that-

    "You can't dye my dog pink! She's perfect just like this. And she's not a mutt! She's very classy. Isn't it obvious? She's a… uh… what are they called? The little bouncy puppies."

    "She looks kind of like a Spitz. The lady downstairs from my parents has one. It's super friendly too."

    "No, not those. The ones all over social media. A… poma… pomegranate! I think she's a little pomegranate puppy!"

    "You mean a Pomeranian. A pomegranate is a fruit."

    "Whatever! Either way she's a very classy puppy, not a mutt. Don't talk about your niece like that." Even though I was happy to lay on the rug and watch my new puppy curl up in the corner, Tae-Tae had reached her limit, sitting up on her knees more normally.

    "Bibi, you understand that you can't keep her, right? We could get in trouble just having her in here and your dorm is just as strict. You're already on thin ice."

    "Well yeah, but Chiyo has special permission to keep a pet hamster in the dorm. I just need to present my case that it's absolutely a necessity for Pom-Bi to live with me." My bestie has good intentions, but does she really expect me to just abandon my poor defenseless baby back to the streets? Never!

    "Don't name her! That'll just make it harder when you can't keep her. It's a cute name though…" Tae-Tae's pessimistic outlook was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Make sure she stays under there."

    Thankfully the person in the hallway was one of the girls in the dorm I was familiar with.

    "Mariya, what do you want? I have a guest over."

    "I saw you were back and wanted to ask how the session went. Did your disguise work? Ai wouldn't stop talking about it. It's earlier than we expected to see you in the dorm."

    "Not even a little bit. He still let us record, but he knew immediately I wasn't Junko. We won't get to use the vocals unless Dam-Bi's producer agrees to it, and she kind of hates us right now."

    "That's pretty much what I figured would happen. At least you got to-"

    "Wan-wan!"

    I panicked as Pom-Bi ran out from the other end of the bed and made a direct path for the door. Tae-Tae, just as before, was frozen in the face of Pom-Bi's ferocious charge, unable to close the door with Mariya in the way. I thought for sure that she was going to try to make an escape, but instead she stopped right in front of our friend and bounced on her hind legs, pumping her front paws in the air.

    "Oh, hello. Tae, how long have you had a dog?" Mariya looked down confusedly at Pom-Bi.

    "She isn't Tae-Eun's, she's mine. Right Tae-Tae?" I ran over and scooped up Pom-Bi who continued to try and sniff at the new person. I'm pretty sure that's how dogs say hello.

    "We found her after we recorded and Dam-Bi's crazy and thinks she can keep her. She's kind of having a crisis."

    "I see. Does your dorm allow pets?"

    "Not usually, but sometimes they make exceptions. They'll have to, right? Look at how sweet she is!" I held Pom-Bi up right to Mariya's face and she licked her affectionately. Pom-Bi licked Mariya, not… the other way around… Mariya laughed - it tickles quite a bit - and Tae-Tae pulled her fully into the room, suddenly paranoid that more people would discover our secret. We ended up sitting in the middle of the room, playing with Pom-Bi as she bounced from one of us to another. I'm going to need to get her a bunch of toys to play with when I'm not there, and I hope she likes my room as much as Tae-Tae's!

    She'll need a bed too!

    Oh, and those little bowls for food and water!

    And lots of treats for when she's a good girl!

    "Look, Bibi, I'm only like half serious with this idea, so don't be mad, but since she's here, why don't you try to talk to Mariya's dad about your problem?"

    "What good would that do?"

    "It would give you leverage. Interlunium is huge right now. Buying out your contract to get you over at Starsphere would probably sound like a really great business opportunity. If Mr. Akiyama is willing to meet your demands, then you can go back to your producer with the offer and renegotiate. I've seen it happen a few times. It's part of the business. Your contract is only good until one party stops delivering. If they can fire you because you're not popular enough, you can look at other options if you're in high enough demand."

    "Do you really think he'd do that though? What if he got mad when I didn't go through with it? I really don't want to leave my friends…"

    "But you're not happy right now, and it's only been getting worse. I can tell. You have friends here too. Maybe not as many, but I know that all your friends want what's best for you no matter where we work."

    "I'd be happy to arrange a meeting for you, Dam-Bi. If you're honest up front, I don't think he'd take it badly at all. You don't *want* to leave your agency. You're loyal to your coworkers, but your hand is being forced by your producer, and you aren't a nobody anymore. You're probably in the top fifty of Tokyo idols now, and that comes with certain expectations. Some talent wouldn't even give their manager a chance to fix things before looking for other opportunities. When Erika's mom got mad at I MY ME, she signed with Daddy the very next day instead of letting them address it. I think Daddy would respect the way you'd be approaching it professionally. It shows maturity. Sometimes in this business you get outbid. That's why you never stake your company on just a single talent."

    When it comes to career advice, I'm always willing to listen to what Tae-Tae says, but I take it with a healthy dose of skepticism. It's true that she signed a couple of years before I did and has more experience than I do in certain respects, but when it comes down to it is there really much difference between someone with three years of experience as an idol and someone with one? We're both still, in the grand scheme of the industry, rather new. Mariya Akiyama's, however, is an opinion that shouldn't be ignored out of hand. Even though she's only been in the industry, officially, for a shorter time than both of us, her dad is the head of an entire talent agency, her mom is a critical part of the family business, and Mariya herself has been studying and planning to become a producer herself since she was in middle school. Despite her sometimes scatterbrained approach, she knows more about the idol industry than anyone I know except Mr. Ono and Lina, and if she thinks it's a good idea to talk to her dad, I can't ignore that advice. Not when my little Pom-Bi is on the line.

    "Ok. I'll talk to him. But what if Lina calls my bluff and isn't willing to do anything?"

    "If worst comes to worst." My best friend smiled in the way she does, exchanging a glance with her group mate. "I'm sure you'd be welcomed with open arms by the rest of our group. I've always thought you'd look good in pastels."

    "We didn't think we'd ever want another Pastel, but I think you may be the exception that proves the rule. You're actually one of the few people who would be too good to pass up." Mariya said, distracted by the puppy rolling around in front of her. "Just so long as you bring Pom-Bi with you."

    After a night at the Kinmokusei dormitory, returning to my own dorm felt a little bit like a walk of shame. I hadn't actually done anything *wrong*, per se. I'd even emailed the dorm manager to let her know that I'd be spending the night with a female friend, complete with room number and contact information to their dorm manager for confirmation, just to cover all my bases. All I'd done was have a sleepover with some of my friends at Starsphere. All five of them, as it turned out, since once they heard about Pom-Bi it was impossible getting them to stay away and they invaded Tae-Eun's room one by one. Which I think Pom-Bi actually appreciated immensely, having finally fallen asleep completely worn out curled up on a futon between Kohaku and Erika-chan on Tae-Eun's floor. Then I had a chat over a lovely five star breakfast with Mr. Koutarou Akiyama. Did you know that in all my time with I MY ME I've never even had a one on one talk with Mr. Shishito? Granted, I don't even know if he has a daughter, let alone one who I'm friends with, but it was amazing the speed at which things moved once Mariya sent a few messages on my behalf. The talks were very productive, and I don't feel like there's any pressure at all, which I guess makes sense. I didn't make him work hard to get me into a meeting, after all, but Mariya's instincts were right.

    I love Interlunium.

    I love my friends more than anything!

    But at Starsphere, if I accepted the offer, the following would happen:

    First I would join Tae-Eun's group, and debut alongside Pastel Project within the month. It's already been put to a vote, and I passed without even so much as a discussion. Those girls love me! Next, I would have complete freedom to hire whatever collaborators the budget allowed for my solo projects. I would be able to pursue whatever job caught my attention, so long as they were reasonably within the limitations of my image, and I'd have one of the best producers in the business. From how he made it sound - and, admittedly, producers are prone to exaggeration - I'd be the Eimi Inagawa of Starsphere Records. I'm not sure that that's exactly something I'd want, but I can admit that he made it sound pretty amazing.

    But *only* if Lina won't agree to my demands.

    The moment I got into my room, even before I could get settled and let Pom-Bi out, there was a knock on my door. Apparently I had been expected.

    "Juney! How are you? What great timing! I just got in. Please excuse the mess, I have some decorating to do." The decorating being, of course, the essentials I needed for my new best friend. On the way back I made sure to stop at a pet store and got everything I would need. Proper puppy food, one little purple bowl for food and another for water, some of those little chewy toys dogs love, bunches of treats, and plenty of other essentials to go with my baby's new designer collar and leash.

    "Dam-Bi, what are you thinking? Lina is furious! I thought you said you'd worked things out with her? I got an earful yesterday about it for my role. I've never seen her so mad…"

    "You're such a great friend!" I kissed Junko on one cheek then the other, chic and cheekily. I went to my couch and opened the gate on Pom-Bi's new deluxe puppy carrier, letting her access the entirety of her new room. "Watch Pom-Bi for me, will you? Thanks, Juney! Love you!"

    I could hear Junko stuttering in confusion even after I closed the door. I wasn't worried though. Juney is very responsible, and everyone loves cute little puppies. Besides, we have nine other group mates to call on if she can't handle it, so I'm sure they'll get along swimmingly.

    Lina's office door, for once, was wide open once I got to the fourth floor. Being polite I still knocked on my way in. Luckily she was alone - it would have been awkward to interrupt a meeting already in progress - and had been expecting me.

    "Good afternoon, Lina! It's a lovely day out, isn't it?" I went directly to the chair at the front of her oversized desk and had a seat. I'd been given some advice on how to approach my producer. Since that's Lina, most of it is likely useless, but being confident is never out of style.

    "Do you have any idea of the problems you've caused?" My producer sounded frustrated, but to be fair I've rarely heard her sound any other way.

    "What problems would that be? All I did was record a song in the best sounding way possible. Even Mr. Ono agreed."

    "Which wasn't the person we had agreed would be recording with you. A lot of variables went into that decision. You can't just ignore it because you don't like it."

    "*We* didn't *agree* on anyone. You ignored my input and decided giving some publicity to one of the other girls in the group was more important than making me sound the best possible. As if Juney needed the promotion! It's just like all the opportunities I keep bringing to you that end up going to the other girls. I'm happy that they're succeeding for the group, but it's coming at my own expense, and that's not fair! You used to actually promote me!"

    My producer glared at me for a minute. Obviously there's no way I'm the first idol to say these sorts of things to their producer, but I'm possibly the first who believed it enough to come to Lina prepared to back up their complaint. Finally she spoke.

    "Are you done? You're not a solo act anymore. When the group gets good press, it's the same as you getting good press. It's not easy handling such a large group, but we're making it work, and it's going great so far. I would be negligent in my job to let any of you record a song with someone outside the group. All you've done is waste an entire day of Mr. Ono's significant expertise and push back the release of your own single."

    "He said that Tae-Eun's vocals were perfect for the song! Why can't you accept that I know what I'm doing with this?"

    "Because my job is to know what I'm doing, and yours is to let me do my job. This is the last time we're going to have this discussion."

    "Lina, you're right. This is the last time we're going to talk about it."

    I'm not proud of it, but I slightly slammed the envelope I'd brought with me down on the desk right in front of Lina.

    Boom!

    "What's that?" She grumbled.

    "Go ahead. Open it."

    Lina locked eyes with me, probably to try and inspire me to retract my last move, but I stood firm. Eventually she grabbed the small decorative envelope opener she keeps on her desk - usually she'd just tear it open - and cut the envelope open at the end while maintaining eye contact. Quite the power move. She quietly read the contents, lifting her eyes occasionally to make contact with mine. I just smiled slightly throughout the entire process - a skill I've learned by watching Megumin in action - and stayed quiet. Once she'd read through the entire document she addressed me again.

    "You would actually do this to the group?"

    "Honestly, Lina, I would hate myself for doing it. I could probably never face any of them ever again if I went to another agency. I'd be letting down my friends, and I would hate myself forever! But I don't feel like you're treating me fairly just because I'm already somewhat popular, and Mr. Akiyama has guaranteed he will. Business is business, isn't it? That's why I wanted to make sure to give you the opportunity to beat his offer."

    "What more could we possibly offer you? You already have an offer for complete control over your projects, and I didn't even think Koutarou was still handling accounts himself. Professionally, if you can accept I *actually* know what I'm talking about, it would be insane to turn him down. What exactly do you expect me to counter with? Why did you even bother to come here?"

    "I know. It's an almost perfect offer, isn't it? But I'm really sad at the thought of leaving my friends, so that gives you some leverage, doesn't it?"

    "Such as…?" Lina isn't one to beat around the bush, and she wanted to know the bottom line. At a time like this, I respect that.

    "Such as, I really love my friends in Interlunium, so I think we can come to a deal that I'll like even more than Mr. Akiyama's. It won't even be all that hard to negotiate. I'm such a novice, I couldn't possibly know how to do it well. You could make me happy with all sorts of little, totally inexpensive concessions, don't you think?"

    "Let me guess, you want your friend to be on the track with you?"

    "Yes, but not just that. I want to be able to pick my collaborators on all of my solo projects. Interlunium projects are Interlunium projects, but when Dam-Bi is working solo I'm given the same respect as other solo artists. Just because I'm part of a group doesn't mean I only ever want to work with them. There are lots of talented idols in the city, and I want to use the best for each project. Is that really so unfair? It's the same benefit I was given just a few months ago. It doesn't cost the agency anything.” I gave Lina a cheeky grin. I have her over a barrel hard, and I know it.

    "I'm not exactly thrilled at not being able to coordinate your marketing blitz, but that sounds fair enough. Given the circumstances."

    "See? It's basically nothing! That's not all though. When I bring you a gig I want to audition for, you need to let me audition, even if I'm going up against another girl in the group. I like to stay busy. It only seems fair that you let me do all the work I can handle, especially since it all makes you look better. Exactly like you said, it's a win for the group no matter which of us gets promoted."

    Lina furrowed her brow. She wasn't enjoying this. Neither was I… much.

    Maybe just a teensy bit.

    "Only if you'll accept that I do actually know what I'm doing. I won't block you from open auditions, but I want you to seriously take my advice and instincts under account. Sometimes a bad gig can be a bad career move, and that can reflect on your group mates. You're a valuable commodity. One of I MY ME's premium products. Diluting your brand too much can hurt it. If you can agree to listen to me and take my advice seriously, I promise I'll do the same to your requests. I refuse to let you take jobs that aren't worth your time, though. Is that a fair compromise?"

    "Am I really that important to the company?" I was shocked by Lina showing, for the first time ever, a measure of actual concern and willingness to do her job.

    "What do you think?" Lina practically smirked as she threw the bundle of papers I'd brought back at me. "Do we have a deal? Is there anything else you demand before I call the executives?"

    "As a matter of fact, there's just one more thing. You know how Chiyo has special permission to keep Momo in the dorm? I'm going to need one more concession. You'll find it on page five of the contract. Section 4-B, under Special Permissions."

    "How's my baby?!"

    I walked into my room to find that Junko had done a phenomenal job watching Pom-Bi and a terrible job keeping her a secret.

    "I love her!!!" Hanarin had shown up to aid Junko in puppy sitting and was currently laying across my sofa while Pom-Bi stood on her chest, licking at her face. She was laughing up a storm, her hands struggling to keep hold of the active puppy who was intent on being her new best friend.

    "Did Lina let you have it?" Junko was sitting near Rinko, next to the couch, trying semi-successfully to avoid being kicked by her roommate in her excitement.

    "She tried, but I had a bargaining chip, so I let her have it instead. I think that me and Pom-Bi are going to be happy here for a really long time."

    "How did you deal with Lina? She was furious last I saw her." Junko asked, curious how I'd avoided the lecture she had gotten, before Rinko half fell off the couch onto the carpet in a giggling heap.

    "That's a secret, Juney. I made a pinkie promise and everything." Maybe someday I would tell them, but for now everyone who knew had been sworn to secrecy with one of Erika-chan's patented pastel pinky promises. Well, everyone except Lina, but I doubt she's in a hurry for anyone else to try the same tactic I had. It would just make a ton more paperwork for her, since Mr. Akiyama would probably be keen to get any of us working under his label.

    "Dam-Bi, can I spend the night tonight?" Rinko was sitting up now, back pressed against the sofa as she hugged Pom-Bi tightly, who didn't seem to mind at all. "I wanna get to know the puppy better! I'll sleep on the couch, I don't mind! Just so long as we get to play a whole lot!"

    "If you'd like to, Hanarin, I think that'd be a great idea. You're welcome to come visit your niece anytime. I can tell she really loves you a lot already!"

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