My Dearest Friend, Who Seems Like an Illusion

Teraoin Hane sat on the sofa in the waiting room, her gaze staring blankly at the black door of the lounge.

I blew it. It was an opportunity my manager fought so hard to secure, yet I, with my lack of ability, let it slip away…

Thinking of this, she withdrew her gaze and looked down at the script in her hands, which was densely covered with notes.

She was so familiar with it that she had nearly memorized it, so why did she still feel terror after entering that door that isolated her from the outside world during the official audition?

She took a deep breath and cupped her face in her hands.

Is my hard work really useful? Can hard work really lead to a result that satisfies everyone?

Do I really… have the talent for this profession?

Burying her head in her arms like an ostrich, having just debuted as a rookie, she began to doubt her own abilities.

It was in this moment that she seemed to cross time and space, embodying the character she was voicing in the work.

Timorous, self-abasing, wanting to escape everything, and unwilling to face reality.

Teraoin Hane raised her head, the rims of her eyes slightly red.

Even if I failed, it doesn’t matter. I just want to know the result.

The girl stood up from the sofa and took a step toward the door that seemed to lead to the netherworld.

But in the next second, the door was opened from the outside.

The figure that appeared before her paused slightly, then greeted her with practiced ease.

“Nice to meet you. You must be Teraoin-san, the voice of Akira, right? I am GS’s rookie voice actor, Kazakami Ritsu.”

Back on the sofa, Teraoin Hane accepted the hot drink from Kazakami Ritsu with a look of bewilderment.

The girl with striking, almost aggressive beauty smiled faintly, but her natural voice sounded gentle, contrasting with her appearance.

“We’ll be working together for quite a long time coming up, so I look forward to co-starring with you.”

Ritsu took a sip of the coffee she had mooched for free, frowning slightly at the bitter taste.

‘Ugh, I was chatting so happily with Sound Director Arashima just now that I focused only on mooching the drink and forgot to add sugar.’

Preferring sweet flavors, she placed the paper cup back on the table and carefully looked at the girl sitting opposite her.

Just a moment ago, as soon as she entered the room, she saw this voice actor named Teraoin Hane looking like she was about to cry.

In order to soothe this partner, whom Sound Director Arashima had praised as the “Flower of the Wilderness,” she feigned ignorance and, contrary to her usual behavior, took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

Teraoin Hane still seemed immersed in the good news she brought, taking a good while to respond.

“I… I am also very happy to be able to work with you this time, Miss Kazakami.”

Feeling the warmth of the paper cup with her slightly pale knuckles, Teraoin Hane felt as if all her previous discomfort had been swept away.

Seeing that Teraoin Hane seemed to have recovered somewhat, Ritsu breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.

‘Oi, oi, Sound Director Arashima.’

‘I never heard that this audition required providing psychological counseling to my partner! You gotta pay extra for this work!’

Kazakami Ritsu pursed her lips, flipped through the script in her hand, and asked casually.

“Teraoin-san, where is your manager?”

The sudden question stunned Teraoin Hane for a moment; after pondering for a bit, she shook her head.

“Seems to have been called away by the producer to chat… Miss Kazakami, don’t you feel nervous?”

‘Nervous? What is there to be nervous about?’

Kazakami Ritsu shook her head without any hesitation; she wasn’t the least bit afraid of auditioning for a lead role.

If she got it, she got it. If she didn’t, she’d give up. This wasn’t the only opportunity.

“I don’t think there is any need to be nervous. Since we were able to emerge from the crowd of trainees and enter an agency, it naturally represents that we have the corresponding potential.”

Listening to this firm tone, Teraoin Hane felt increasingly reassured in her heart.

‘That’s right. I advanced from a trainee to a rookie voice actor through my own hard work.’

Teraoin Hane, having broken free from her spiral of overthinking, secretly glanced at the girl across from her who was reading the script with a serious face.

Kazakami Ritsu scanned the general plot of the work, feeling a pleasant surprise in her heart.

She originally thought the work that cast her as a lead wouldn’t be much, but surprisingly, it had the potential to be a masterpiece.

This work, titled My Friend from Another World, told the story of a girl named Akira who fell into a coma due to a car accident and suddenly found herself in a so-called World of Consciousness.

After entering the World of Consciousness, she was saved by another girl named “Shu,” who claimed to be her ideal self, and the two embarked on a marvelous adventure together.

At the end of the journey, the girl, who had grown constantly through Shu’s encouragement and guidance, finally succeeded in waking up from her coma by her own will.

But she discovered that her best friend, who had been by her side the whole time, had vanished without a trace…

‘Looking at it this way, this work should actually be called The Price of Growth or My Imaginary Friend.’

Such a high-quality plot didn’t move Kazakami Ritsu in the slightest. As a tragedy-monger and expert “Sister-Slayer,” her heart was already as cold as a fishmonger’s knife in a supermarket.

However, the corners of her mouth, which hooked up slightly due to her amusement, painted a different picture in Teraoin Hane’s eyes.

The quiet smile appearing on the girl’s exquisite face as she read the script seemed plated with a faint halo under the illumination of the energy-saving lamp overhead.

Her smooth, long black hair lay peacefully behind her back, making her snow-white neck look exceptionally alluring.

‘Kazakami-san… is she perhaps an entertainer who turned to voice acting out of interest?’

Teraoin Hane muttered in her heart, and then saw the girl put down the script in her hand.

“I see. I didn’t expect this work to tell such a story.”

Ritsu’s tone betrayed no emotion; she had written plenty of these kinds of works that wrapped tragedy inside a healing exterior.

On the contrary, Teraoin Hane believed she heard a sense of melancholy in Kazakami Ritsu’s words.

“Is Miss Kazakami sad because of ‘Shu’s’ ending? But it is precisely because of such an ending that the entire work achieves an overall sublimation, right?”

Kazakami Ritsu nodded, expressing agreement with the second half of Teraoin Hane’s sentence.

Easily sculpting something beautiful and presenting it to the audience, then destroying it rationally without hesitation.

‘Yes, the screenwriter for this work is unexpectedly formidable.’

Just as this thought popped into her mind, the door to the waiting room was pulled open again.

Sound Director Arashima, with whom she had chatted happily earlier, walked into the waiting room behind a tall, dignified woman in a business suit.

The woman scanned the two of them, her stern expression slowly fading, eventually turning into a genial smile.

“I am the producer of this work, Kurau Koaki. I look forward to collaborating with both of you.”