Rᵁᴮᵞ Hᴼˢᴴᴵᴺᴼ → Aᵟᵁᴬ ' ˢ Aᵁᴰᴵᵀᴵᴼᴺˢ

𝒩ᴼᵂ 𝒫ᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : ❝ 𝒜ˢ ℐᵀ 𝒲ᴬˢ ❞ 𝒷ᵞ ℋᴬᴿᴿᵞ 𝒮ᵀᵞᴸᴱˢ

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪᴛ's ɴᴏᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴍᴇ ᴀs ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs

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ʀᴜʙʏ ʜᴏsʜɪɴᴏ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ imagine the disappointment on Aquamarine Hoshino's face before she dialed his number, but she was protecting her brother the best she could.

It wasn't her phone she was calling from. It was a spare one, the same one she used to call the auditioning company to tell them Aqua had something important come up and couldn't do it—a lie, but they didn't need to know that. She had already changed the caller ID on Aqua's phone to "Auditions" and blocked the real one, so he wouldn't know. Hopefully.

After a few rings, Aqua picked up. "Hello?"

Believe it or not, but Ruby could make great impressions of people, sounding nothing like herself. In a deeper and more woman-like voice, she said, "Hello, yes. Is this Aquamarine—"

"That's me." The hope in his voice was clear no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

She hated being the one to get rid of it, but it was for the best.

"Hi, we're sorry to say this, but we're afraid that you haven't made it into a single role."

A beat of silence. Then, a small, "Oh."

"We're sorry," she said, genuinely meaning it. "Maybe you can try again next time."

"Thank you for telling me..."

"Again, we're sorry. Goodbye." Ruby barely finished saying that before Aqua hung up.

She sighed as she put the phone away. Her older brother used to be more mature, but after the death of their mother, Ai Hoshino, Aqua became more carefree. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it meant Ruby had to be the one to protect him.

In the entertainment industry, anyone could be a victim of stalking, just like Ai was. It wasn't bad that Aqua wanted to become a famous actor, just like Ai hoped, but it meant he could get his own stalker. After losing her mother because of one, Ruby wasn't taking any chances.

"You sure have a colder heart than we think."

Ruby smiled innocently at the old president of Strawberry Productions, Ichigo Saitou. He quit after Ai's death, and she had to work her ass off to even have him stay in contact with her when he cut contacts with everyone else.

"I'm making sure my brother is safe," she said. "No one wants what happened to Ai to happen to him."

Ichigo sighed as he stared off into the ocean, fishing being what he had been doing since the death. "Actors have more freedom, you know. They can date and not get themselves killed off."

"An actor a month ago got a letter from a crazy fan with a death threat that said they would kill his lover if he doesn't break up with her." Aqua could never fall into that trap.

Ichigo shook his head. "You should go home, Ruby. It's getting late."

Ruby looked around the empty dock. "Nothing to tell me?"

"You know as well as I do about my rules."

Yes, she did. He would help her if she became popular. But if she became popular, she had a high chance of falling victim to what happened to Ai...

Ruby knew she wasn't getting anything out of Ichigo. She bid him farewell and waited for the right moment to skip away from the dock, walking down the street with a smile on her face. Aqua was the actor in the family, but she knew that it was better for others to underestimate her than to have them know her true self. It was better if people didn't know about the part of her that could call her brother on a different phone and lie to him about failing his auditions.

She took her time getting home. When she opened the door, she found Miyako Saitou, her adoptive mother, on the couch with her shoulders slumped.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked as she sat beside her.

Miyako shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with me, Ruby. It's...Aqua."

Ruby tensed slightly, which Miyako didn't notice. "What about him?"

"He got a call earlier saying he didn't get a role in that new show he auditioned for... He says he's fine, but I'm worried about him..."

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"You can try. He might not open up to you...but it's better than nothing."

Ruby approached his bedroom door. She knocked several times before Aqua said, "Come in."

She opened the door to see him studying for something. "Hey, Aqua. I heard about the auditions."

Aqua shook his head. "Ruby, it's fine. It's just one audition. I can find another one."

"Are you sure? There's nothing you want to talk about?"

"I'm sure. This was an opportunity and I tried to take it. It's okay that I didn't get it, but there will be plenty of more opportunities to come. We just have to be patient."

Ruby scrunched her nose. "Sometimes, you remind me of an old man..."

Aqua smiled at her. "Anyway, you should get ready for when school starts. High school is different from middle school."

Ruby and Aqua were going to Yoto High School, but both of them applied for a different program.

"I'll be fine!" Ruby said with a laid-back smile. "I'm taking the General Education program! You're the one that's gonna have to worry!"

"I'm surprised you're not taking the Performing Arts program... Didn't you always want to become an idol?"

When she was younger and didn't realize how cruel the entertainment world was...

"Not anymore," she said instead. "Now, I wanna be a doctor!"

Aqua blinked, his aquamarine eyes focused on her more than before. "A doctor? Why?"

"Just some cool guy I saw on TV," she lied.

Ruby had a previous life. In that previous life, she had been born as a girl named Sarina. She was a sick girl who died in the hospital at 12, but she adored two people: her favourite idol, Ai Hoshino, and her doctor, Gorou Amamiya. Since she didn't want to potentially face a crazy fan killing her like Ai, she would become a doctor like Gorou.

But it wasn't like Aqua needed to know that.

Aqua slowly nodded. "You should get to studying then. It's not easy to become a doctor."

She knew that. But that didn't mean she had to overwork herself.

"Maybe later," she told him. "Get to studying!"

Ruby closed the door. Aqua was safe from crazed fans—so far—and wasn't fazed from not getting his role, so all she had to do was keep at it until she knew he would forever be safe. Good.