Tales of a Girl Named Tsukiko

Late summer bleeds into early fall as Tsuki waits in Jiyu Records’ lounge area. She makes a weekly habit out of camping outside of the board room, listening in on company meetings. This week, she decides to change things up a little. She is waiting for someone very special today.

“Good day President Hawthorne, how nice it is to see you!” Tsuki shook the CEO’s hand as soon as she entered the building. Normally, it isn’t nice to see her, and Tsuki does not trust the president, but she has special reasons for wanting to meet with her.

“Hello Matsudo.” the chief executive greets her. “It’s a pleasure to see you too! Is that a notebook in your hand?”

“Why yes, I’m glad you noticed!” Tsuki thrusts her notebook forward. “I’m working on a homework assignment.”

“That’s nice. I hate to cut this short, but I need to be in a meeting soon.”

“Actually!” Tsuki interrupts, “That’s what I was meaning to talk to you about. My homework assignment involves shadowing someone here and doing a report on it! I was hoping you’d be so kind as to let me follow you around, at least for just this one day.”

Tsuki twists some words here and there, but the part about her tutor assigning her an essay is true, at least.

“Sure, I’d be happy to discuss that later.” Hawthorne begins walking again. “But we can do that after the meeting. Swing by at around noon or so, during lunch.”

“But!” Tsuki runs ahead of Hawthorne. “A meeting seems like it would be the perfect thing to report on!”

“I dunno, it’d probably be very boring for someone your age. You might get antsy!” The CEO laughs.

“I promise I won’t interrupt unless it’s important!” Tsuki pleads. “I’ll be taking notes for the most part.”

“Hmmm, in that case, it couldn’t hurt, I guess.” The president waves a hand toward herself. “Follow me.”

Tsuki follows her up to the board room, and the two are greeted by a table full of executives and other high-ranking people in the company, all dressed in sharp suits. The 14-year-old sticks out like a sore thumb.

“You can take Fredrickson’s old seat.” Hawthorne motions toward the former talent scout’s empty chair. Tsuki happily takes a seat.

The meeting begins fairly uneventful. A couple people glance at Tsuki, wondering why she’s there, but don’t say anything. As for her, she takes down notes of anything she thinks might be important later. She follows her mothers’ advice, taking down notes relating to anything dealing with money. Some of it goes way over her head, but she jots down terms she doesn’t quite understand in order to look up in the dictionary later. If that won’t help, her next options are her tutor and her mothers. She focuses exclusively on any information regarding her, Madoka, and the twins’ popularity and sales. Though she doesn’t write down anything on it, she notices the older musicians who’ve been there longer are able to succeed less and still be relatively safe. Tsuki makes a mental note of that. 

Before long, she hears what she really came here for.

“The Ueda Sisters’ sales have been satisfactory, but they’re beginning to stagnate.” reports one of the businessmen.

“I don’t know what the problem is. The way we market them worked out for Matsudo just fine, why not them?” Hawthorne has seemingly forgotten that Tsuki is in the room. Normally, the idol would’ve been annoyed at this, but she rathers the board members be as honest as if she weren’t there. “Just push their marketing a little more and see what happens. Then we’ll discuss what to do about them.”

“You’re marketing them the same way you do me?” Tsuki asks.

“Y-Yes.” Hawthorn looks somewhat surprised, then switches over to a more gentle expression. “We’re just following in the footsteps of your success.” 

“That doesn’t make sense. They’re not me.” Tsuki surveys the scene. A few people look confused, but otherwise, everyone seems neutral. Since no one speaks up, she continues. “Julie and Rudy are two different people. They look cute in matching outfits and sound amazing together, but...I feel like showing them as different people would make them stand out. Make them unique! I can’t imagine why you haven’t taken advantage of that yet.”

“But you’re what sells!” Someone speaks up.

Tsuki blinks. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want two of me, let alone three. I have the feeling it might water down our overall spark.”

“Tsukiko.” the president interrupts, “Did you remember our little agreement from this morning?”

“I do. I said I wouldn’t interrupt unless it’s important!” Tsuki remembers having to choose her words carefully, just in case an opportunity like this happened. She’s pleased with herself. “This is important to me, and it seems to be important to the company too, by the looks of things.”

Tsuki looks around the room. Some of the executives are looking incredulously at one another, as if to say “Is the president really letting some kid take over her meeting?” and others nodding as if they’re saying ‘Maybe the kid has a point.’ Unrest is brewing.

“I also have a question, if I may?” she continues.

Hawthorne sighs. “You may.”

“Madoka’s marketed differently than I am and turned out just fine. What’s keeping you from trying with the Ueda Sisters?”

“Ms. Garcia is a little older than you are.” A business woman explains. “The late teenage demographic prefer something a little more edgy than what you have to offer.”

“Oh, that’s really interesting that you brought that up!” Tsuki smiles. “I’m sure you all know a lot about what teenagers want, but as I look around, I can’t help but notice I’m the only one present.”

The executives look at each other, unsure how to react to the situation unfolding. 

“It’s not everyday that you get to talk to your target demographic, I imagine.”

Hawthorne laughs. “You’re right. It isn’t. But rest assured, Ms. Matsudo, we have everything under control. We’ve gotten this far without your help, we can handle the rest.”

Tsuki barely manages to keep her composure in the face of the CEO’s condescending smile.

“I don’t mean to brag, but, without my help, your two biggest stars right now wouldn’t even be here. If Mr. Fredrickson hadn’t taken my offer to sign on all three contest winners, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Your… offer?” the president raises an eyebrow. She looks highly perturbed by this information.

“I guess if I hadn’t seen him bribe the announcer that day, I would’ve let him just sign me on, so maybe you have him to thank for that.” Tsuki tilts her head coyly.

Hawthorne pinches the bridge of her nose. “No wonder we fired that guy…” She flashes a tired smile at Tsuki. “Tsukiko, I think you’ve taken enough notes for your homework. Why don’t you run along now?”

“Oh!” Tsuki feigns innocence. “If you insist. President Hawthorne, thank you for allowing me to sit in on this meeting.”

“You are... welcome Ms. Matsudo.” The strain in Hawthorne’s voice did not slip by Tsuki. The young idol then bows toward everyone in the room, including the CEO, grabs her things, and scurries out with one final curtsy.

Snickering down the hallway, Tsuki believes her work is done. The thought of sneaking back over to the door tempts her, but the board members inside might decide to check to see if she’s really gone. She can’t risk her hiding spot getting found out. 

There’s always next week, she thinks to herself as she walks jauntily down the stairs.

A few weeks later, after coming back from one of her eavesdropping sessions, she passes by Rudy on the stairway.

“Hey, Tsuki, I gotta tell you something!” 

“What is it, darling?”

Rudy beams with joy. “Well, me and Julia did some photo shoots today, and--” She shakes her fists. “We got to wear different clothes!”

“Different clothes?” The glee spreads to Tsuki as well.

“Yeah.” The shorter girl calms down. “I... I never even told Julie this, but I always wondered if people only liked us because we were twins. And thinking about it... I kind of hated it.”

“Ohhh Rudy, it’s okay.” Tsuki puts a hand on her shoulder. “I can see why you might’ve thought that way, though.”

“I know wearing different clothes is a silly thing to be happy about--”

“No!! Be happy!”

“--but it’s a step in the right direction, a small step, but a step. Oh! And during the interview we did today, they waited for Julie to answer too, instead of just taking my answers for both of us!”

“That’s wonderful!!”

Rudy looks beside her. “I don’t know why they suddenly decided to change, but I hope they never stop!”

“That would be wonderful.” Tsuki clasps Rudy’s hands in hers. “By the way, I hadn’t hosted a sleepover in quite a while, would you and Julia like to have one over at my place?”

“Wow, really?”

“I’d love for you both to be there.”

“That would be great!” Rudy nods. “I’m sure Julie’d love to come too. I should go tell her!” Rudy starts heading back down the stairs.

“I might as well join you, since I’m heading that way too.”

The two girls rush downstairs, and Tsuki feels a sense of satisfaction knowing her words made some kind of difference.