Page 82 of Summer Haze & Tokyo Craze

"No.” He tilts his head and taps his lip, his indicator that he’s thinking about how to phraseit so I won’t know. “I have this thing I need to go through. Or do you need me for the meeting? Then I guess it could wait."

He raises an eyebrow, and I sigh, then shake my head.

“I’m just catching them up on the conference, but after that, I’ll need to word-vomit a bit about my own conclusions. If you’ve got some time to spare, of course.”

He nods eagerly, and I watch him from the corner of my eye as I continue to my office.

Something’s up with him, and I’m dying to know what. He’s never acted that secretive with me and it makes me want to know all the more. Well, if it’s important, I’m sure he’ll let me know.

"Again, we’re really sorry we couldn’t lend you the jet for your flight there," Kayla says immediately when I enter the meeting room.

"No worries," I quickly assure her. "You’re the owners of the company and the top talent. I’m not going to expect you to drop your jet at a moment's notice just because I’m inconvenienced."

"You should though," Millie points out. "We might be the Sirens, but the three of us know that you’re the one actually running this place and we’re just the faces. You’re just as important as we are, if not even more. So next time, we’ll find a way."

"Was the flight back okay at least?" Millie asks worriedly, sitting down and propping her feet on one of the other chairs, stretching her arms over her head.

"Yes, the flight back was alright," I say, trying not to show too much enthusiasm. "Please tell Adam thank you again. It was very nice of him to let me tag along."

"Very nice indeed," Kayla says, and I see the corner of her mouth twitching.

They don’t know, they don’t know.

I need to remind myself, because at this point I’m heading to a panic attack. So I take a deep breath and continue.

"Anyways," I say, placing my notepad full of incoherent notes on the table. "So, to make it short, the conference was interesting. Now, the good news is, expanding to Japan would be a smart move. The bad news is, our company is just not there yet, but we can add it as a point to our long-term strategy."

I see their demeanor shift from friendly catch-up to business. "Sorry to disappoint."

"No, not disappointment," Millie says quickly. "I appreciate you being real about this. If you say we’re not ready, we’re not ready. It’s better than pumping our money into expanding and failing spectacularly."

"I do have some thoughts and ideas to start laying the groundwork. But for now, let me give you the gist of the conference so you can also draw your own conclusions," I say, and spend the next two hours going over all the various topics that I’ve learned about over the past two weeks.

The two of them listen intently, asking questions, but after two hours, I can see that they’re at their limit of how much information they can take.

"Okay, let’s stop here for now," I say, also exhausted after having talked for two hours straight. "That’s basically the most important stuff. I’ll get together with Felix and we’ll make you a proper presentation of what that could look like in our long-term strategy."

“Sounds perfect.” Kayla also hides a yawn behind her hand and Millie, I guess, yawns along in solidarity.

"Now, tell me about what’s going on with you. You mentioned that small venue tour." I turn the pages of my notebook and grab my pen, getting ready to take some notes.

"Right," Kayla starts, and Millie perks up now as well. "We thought about what you said and we agree that it makes more sense to put it on the back burner for now. As cool as it would be to do something awesome for our long-term fans, just like with expanding to Japan, we’ve got to be patient."

"Okay," I nod and scribble it down. "Do you still want me to do the research for a live stream or some other form of a digital event?"

"Right.” Kayla rubs her hand over her forehead. “I completely forgot about that.”

“Same,” Millie admits and puts her arms on the table.

“Of course, a live stream is not as cool as meeting them in real life, but for now, it could be a way to strengthen the parasocial relationships. And there are a lot more possibilities."

"That makes it sound so calculating," Millie says, and Kayla shakes her head.

"It does, but it’s the reality."

“What do you mean with more possibilities?”

“I mean you could have one on one calls with fans,” I share an idea. The two of them shoot each other a glance I can’t read. “That’s not really possible with VIP events. You can talk to smaller groups, really take some time to show your appreciation.”

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