The two headed to the practice room, still dazed. The mont they saw Ayumi inside the room practicing on her own, they both halted in their steps.
Sensing their gazes, Ayumi stopped then glanced back in their direction. The two stared at her. Ayumi stared back.
"Is there a problem?" she asked.
"Uh, nothing." Rayen laughed awkwardly and went ahead inside.
Adrian followed suit, closing the door. He was like a duckling that kept on following Rayen out of curiosity.
Sigh.
Rayen glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. Seeing it, Adrian stopped following and distanced himself.
Rayen turned his gaze back toward Ayumi. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure?"
With that, Rayen smiled as he made his way beside her. Ayumi just watched with her curious-filled round eyes. But the mont Rayen reached his destination, his mind was blank.
’How should I ask her, by the way? Should I offer her compensation first?’
Rayen racked his brain out. However, interpersonal communication skills was sothing he really lacked. Also, the two of them seed to have no topics they could share.
Better just be direct, then.
Rayen feigned a cough. "Um, are you the master producer?"
The confusion in her only grew. Like an owl, she tilted her head to the side as if she didn’t understand what he ant.
"?"
Rayen nodded.
"I’m not," Ayumi rejected.
Rayen stiffened. But then... if it’s not her, what’s with her production skill?
"I do have a weird rank on my production skills, though," she mumbled, pouting her lips in thought. "Does that an I’m the Master Producer?"
’How do I know?’
"Maybe..." Rayen answered contrary to what he was thinking.
"Then if I am the Master Producer, what do you want?" she tilted her head again as her dark eyes stared at him.
’She really does resemble an owl...’
Shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts, Rayen opened his mouth to answer.
"I just want to learn sothing about productions."
"Oh..."
She stopped speaking all of a sudden and only stared at Rayen with her large black eyes. The way she stared at him was so uncomfortable, he couldn’t help but back down.
’Really... Like an owl.’
As the seconds passed by, Rayen’s forehead was already drenched in sweat.
’Please say sothing!’
At last, Ayumi opened her mouth and said, "Okay."
When she blinked, the pressure weighing down on Rayen eased. He could finally breathe.
Phew.
"What do you want to know?" she asked, sitting down.
Rayen also sat down. "Actually, I have a bonus mission for my ranking skill right now."
"Hmm... Missions..." Ayumi nodded her head. "What kind? Why do you need my help?"
"Well, uh."
It would be faster to just show it to her than explaining it. So, Rayen took out his phone and opened his mission details.
Ayumi read it with her large round eyes and remained quiet.
"....."
"Can you help ?" Rayen asked.
"Yeah. I already said so."
Rayen didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just said, "Thanks..."
Ayumi nodded repeatedly. "Principles of productions, huh?"
"Yeah. Uh, so what are these principles?"
"I... actually don’t know."
"....."
Even Adrian who was listening from nearby almost tripped.
"Like, is there sothing you can share about how you produce sothing?" Rayen asked again.
Ayumi looked above as though thinking. "Hmm... I think about the materials on hand."
Rayen’s eyes sparkled as he opened his notepad app to write her words down.
"Then?" he asked expectantly.
"Then... I use that."
Hearing that, Rayen’s thumbs halted on typing on his onscreen keyboard. Adrian chuckled and continued on practicing the choreography on his own.
Rayen held back the corner of his lips from twitching and smiled awkwardly. "How exactly do you use that?"
"I..." Ayumi tilted her head again. "Just that. Like how exactly other people use it."
’Is this what they call the I’m genius syndro?’
I’m a Genius Syndro: A syndro that affects only people with high intelligence. People affected by this syndro experience difficulty in describing the process of how they do things. More often, they describe it using the words, "whoosh," "like this," "like that," etc.
Of course Rayen just made up that syndro. It wasn’t an actual impairnt — as far as he knew.
However, it was still too early to give up.
Once again, Rayen asked, albeit slightly in a different way than before. "What kind of ’like that’ was it supposed to be?"
"Hmm... Don’t you know? When I see a paper, I think of ways how it can be used. Then I use it like that. Isn’t that how other people do it too?"
This ti, Rayen finally understood it. He nodded his head as he jotted down her words.
"Then?"
"Hmm... What ’then’? Just like that."
’Nevermind. I don’t get it! If it was this simple, then everyone should have an L rank on their Production skills!’
Adrian sighed from the corner, finally unable to stop himself from joining. "You said you think of ways to use them just like how people do it. Surely, there isn’t just one way?"
Ayumi nodded, her face saying as if that was obvious.
"Then how do you choose which one of the ways is the best?"
"Ah..." Ayumi exclaid as if she finally understood what Rayen wanted to ask.
"First, you need to know what you need; Like its requirents and such. After that, consider the quality of the materials."
Glancing at Adrian with a thumbs up, Rayen continued to jot Ayumi’s words down with enthusiasm.
"Not every material is the sa. For example, papers could have different textures than others. So are of different sizes, colors and shapes. For example, I have to make a beautiful heart, but I only have one strip of a very thin paper and a scissor. How should I make it?"
"Cut the strip?" Rayen answered.
"That’s correct. But how do I make it beautiful?"
"Use the scissors to design the heart," Adrian answered.
Ayumi agreed, but Rayen felt there was sothing missing.
"But then, if you do it like that. You’ll end up with only a beautiful heart that’s the sa with everyone else," Ayumi continued. "You need to combine every information."
Right, Adrian didn’t make use of the characteristics of the paper. It was supposed to be thin.
Suddenly, an excited voice ca from the door. "If it were , I’ll make it a confetti! It’s floaty! Imagine floating hearts. People like surprises!"
’Xi Huan...’
Ayumi nodded. "If you have many papers, it’s viable. But you only have one."
"Then what about in performance?" Adrian asked, taking over the interview for Rayen.
"In performance?" Ayumi tilted her head again.
"Yeah."
"It’s just the sa. You consider everyone’s abilities and qualities to create sothing. Based on the information you get, tailor the performance perfectly to suit their abilities."
"So... Considering Rayen here... Since he’s good at singing, but he sucks at dancing, you should create a song that the likes of him can sing where his vocal abilities shine?" Adrian asked.
’Hey, that’s kinda offending!’
"That’s right. However, not quite right," Ayumi said, ignoring Rayen’s sharp gaze.
"Then what?" Adrian asked.
"If you only consider his singing abilities, the other skills will be neglected. Then his shitty dancing will look more shitty."
’Hey! Coming from you?!’
"So instead of just creating a song that highlights his voice, a song with a slow or with less hard beats would be more appropriate. It would be much easier to create a less intense choreography with those kinds of songs."
Their words were just so much for Rayen’s heart to bear, but it made sense. Still, he stood up and sulked in the corner.
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