01 Red Flyer

"You know," Takagi started cautiously. "My grandpa used to say that kicking pebbles kicks out the good luck." 

Charlie's half raised foot froze for a second before he proceeded to kick the next pebble harder. "I don't have any good luck to begin with," Charlie reminded him. "Nothing to lose anyway." 

The entire town of Nanporo basked in golden sunshine, lighting everything up like a scene from a dream but Charlie and his friend didn't pause to take in the beautiful view. 

Charlie had just returned from Tokyo to his tiny town in Hokkaido prefecture. His mood was in the gutter and Takagi pestering him for details made things worse. Honestly, Charlie should have been used to this by now. This wasn't his first rejection but no matter how many times, it always felt like the first time. 

"Well, there are always other companies..!" Takagi cheered weakly and Charlie couldn't help but snort. 

"Yeah," he snorted, "few more companies rejecting me without giving me a chance just because my mother is English." 

From his name to his life, everything looked like it was out of a comedy show. His mother was a modern-day hippie who ran away to Japan to escape from her mother's catholic clutches while his father was a white collar who fell in love at first sight with a blonde woman who had clear blue eyes, resulting in Charlie Kuno's effortless rejections in auditions. 

As a kid, he was once taken to a concert by his older cousin and since then, Charlie had wanted to become an idol. The lights, the crowd, the adrenaline, the special aura the singers had on-stage-- Charlie had never been so swept away by anything like that previously. But reality answered him that boys with black eyes and black hair which needed to be bleached to dye were preferred more than his pale eyes and foreign features which only leaned a little on the asian side. 

Takagi shook his head mildly. "You know, the lady who wrote Harry Potter—" 

Charlie interrupted him. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You have only told this like a few hundred times." Feeling that he was being a little hard on his friend because of his bad mood, Charlie continued, "Did you finish homework?" 

And just like that, Takagi's goofy smile lighted up his pudgy face. "Five takoyaki and I might even let you copy it." 

Charlie laughed before opening the gates to his house. "Nah, might as well let go of this pipe dream and start studying for real. See you at school." An indescribable numbness gnawed a corner of his heart but he tried to swallow it down and smiled brightly. This time, it really might be the end. 

Charlie was almost to his door when Takagi called him. 

"Char-chan!" 

Charlie looked back only to get hit on his face by something weightless. He bent to take the paper rocket Takagi had thrown at him. It was a red flyer and when he undid the rocket, the first words he saw was a cliché.

'Victory is just another name for hard-work!' 

Charlie resisted his urge to eye-roll and read the contents. It was a flyer advertising an open audition in Shibuya, Tokyo. The details were almost the same as other audition flyers so Charlie just skimmed over it until his eyes locked on the name of the agency at the end. 

I.B. Entertainment. 

He looked up to find Takagi grinning at him. "Yeah, Char-chan," his smile widened. "The I.B. Entertainment." 

It was the agency who created the group whose concert pushed him into the dream of becoming an idol himself. They created Clōver, Charlie's ultimate group.

Clōver was the first of its kind. In a world of set genres and styles, Clōver broke the norms and mainstream appeal by fusing j-rock with j-pop, playing their own instruments to record music while performing like any other idol on a concert. Everything was going well until suddenly the news were full of controversy between Clōver and their agency. Soon the other known names in the agency left one by one as their contracts ended or they themselves sued to end their contract. The last time Charlie heard about this agency was a good three years back when they debuted a new girl group. But times had changed and the group didn't do well in the charts. 

"But Clōver left," Charlie muttered, once again reading through the flyer to make sure he had read it right. "This company feels like trouble."

Takagi smiled. "Didn't you just say? Everyone is out there to reject you, so why not give it a chance? It did create legends like Clōver." 

"Well let's see." Charlie waved off carelessly. "The audition is a good two weeks later anyways." 

But later in the night, a sole light lit up the first floor of a normal Japanese house. Charlie had his comforter over his head, his fingers smoothing the creases in the flyer. His heart was beating erratically and though normally he was level headed, this was a fanboy's heart getting excited. It was hard to control. Clōver was the only male group in the agency. All others that debuted after them were girl groups or soloists. It wasn't an exaggeration to say this might very well be the first audition for boy trainees in years. 

This could very well be his chance!

But as soon as he thought that, doubt crept into Charlie's mind. He was known in the neighbourhood for his nice singing but blaming every single rejection of his on his western features didn't feel right. There should be something seriously wrong with him for not getting recruited even once though he had been auditioning since he was eleven years old. 

Worrying about his shortcomings, Charlie slowly drifted to sleep, a tattered red flyer gripped in his hands. 

And two weeks later, the boy with the pale eyes and high cheekbones found himself in Shibuya, Tokyo, standing in front of a seven storey building which created the legend who ignited his dream. 

Well, here goes nothing. 

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