"Well, yes, that's it. I don't want to see these peripherals in the market in the future. Please deal with them."
Even though Haru had said that he was going to the toilet, in truth, he was going to the smoking area, but because all those people were struggling to buy their goods in this event, no one came over to smoke and relax, so he was here alone, so he came to this place without hesitation.
After he hung up the phone, Haru shook his head, and when he was about to leave, Maki's voice suddenly came over from the door.
"Haru, why do you want to remove all the Muse's goods?"
Entering the smoking room, Maki looked at Haru with an incomprehensible gaze, wondering why he did that.
With her personality, even though she didn't care much about fame and money, this was her first time seeing the popularity of Muse was so popular that there were a lot of goods about them being sold in this event.
Maki was quite excited, but Haru wanted to remove all of them!
If Haru didn't have a good reason then Maki would smack him now!
"Well, you have heard it, so I won't keep it a secret." Haru had noticed Maki and didn't really think much, even if she eavesdropped on his conversation before. "It's because of copyright."
"Copyright?"
"When these peripherals were in production, did they get your authorization?"
When Maki shook her head, Haru continued with his explanation. "So all the existence of these commodities itself is illegal. Even if they're sold, you won't get a penny, so I let them take them off from the booth, isn't it normal?"
"But we don't care about the money, and this isn't a good way to increase our popularity, right?"
Maki's idea was simple. The reason why they created a school idol group was because of their own reason and everyone's recognition. They didn't care much about money or anything, so naturally, they didn't care about the copyrights and the like.
Regardless of whether it was pirated or genuine, as long as more people knew them and liked them, they didn't overthink about the pirated goods.
This was what Maki and everyone at Muse thought.
It was also the reason why there was a large number of pirated goods of the school idols in the market.
Because those school idol groups were all free groups and they didn't have an agency company, so if something like this happened, no one would stand up to defend their rights.
For them, they hoped to promote themselves and make their popularity bigger, but at the same time, even if they wanted to sue them through legal channels, they didn't have the money to afford the lawyer, and even if they succeeded, the compensation they received wouldn't be enough for the lawyer fee, so they could only close their eyes over this matter.
"Maki, I understand your thoughts, but..." Haru shook his head and said, "But what you see now are only badges and posters, but in case someone makes a sex doll with your image one day, what will you do?"
"S - Sex doll?!"
Maki was shocked by Haru's words, and she had never expected such a possibility. Her delicate and beautiful face was blushing, and she shook her head again and again. "No, no, sex doll? It's too much, and there's no way, right?"
"No, believe me."
Haru shook his head and said, "As your reputation grows bigger and bigger, those businessmen can do a lot of things as long as they're profitable, so we must show a tough attitude on this matter."
"....."
Maki was persuaded, and as long as she thought that she would be made into a sex doll and behind held in arms by those disgusting people... she shuddered and quickly asked, "But what about the goods outside of the event?" She knew that Haru might be able to take down the goods at the event, but what about the outside?
"Don't worry, I'll handle this. You don't need to worry. In the future, you'll also have your genuine peripherals, but this time is legal," Haru said while patting Maki's head.
"Yeah." Maki nodded slightly, and her eyes were full of trust. "Thank you, Haru."
"Is it only thank you?" Haru asked with a smile, caressing her hair gently, lovingly.
Maki blushed and quickly swept his hand away since she was shy. "Take your hand. I'm not a kid!"
"That's true. Maki-chan isn't a kid anymore." Haru smiled, which caused Maki to feel embarrassed, but there was some eagerness. He pulled her into his arms and whispered, "Maki-chan..." He breathed out gently on her ear, which caused her ear to become red too. "How about we go to see the stars tonight?"
Maki was shy, but she nodded.
---
When Haru and Maki returned to the booth again, the minutes had passed. In a short period of time, the originally empty hall had become a sea of crowds. Even behind Kotori and everyone, there were a lot of queues, a group of people who wanted to buy a school idol group.
"Haru, you have finally come back!"
Seeing two figures of Haru and Maki, Honoka also sighed in relief. At this moment, many people had urged them to move, which caused them to feel quite pressured.
"Sorry, I kept you waiting for a long time."
Haru nodded and walked over to the booth, staring at the merchandise on the booth, including posters, badges, pencils, etc. There were probably no less than ten items in total.
"Haru, do you want to buy some merchandise too?" Tsubasa asked.
"Well, I bought all the goods from Muse." Haru nodded.
"All? Buy all?!"
Not only Tsubasa, but even the girls in the Muse exclaimed.
"What's so strange? You know, I have been Muse's fan from when there were only Honoka, Umi, and Kotori. I'm also the first fan of Muse! Since I saw a lot of their goods here, of course, I can't let go of them."
Haru didn't directly ask Tsubasa to remove the merchandise from the shelves since he wasn't stupid since he knew that all the people around were fans and if he was being unreasonable by asking Tsubasa to take down the goods about Muse, then he would cause a lot of commotion and he also didn't want to cause trouble for Tsubasa. He didn't lack money, so he decided to buy all merchandise that was related to Muse directly.
Haru took his money and bought all the Muse's merchandise, then prepared to go back, but he didn't expect Nozomi and Eli to move closer at him and whispered.
"Let's go to the shrine tonight," Nozomi said in a whisper.
"I've told my parents that I'll stay at Nozomi's place," Eli said red-faced.
"........" Haru.
"If you have made a promise with Maki, then call her too." Nozomi didn't hesitate and said, "Let's also get Kotori too, let's see how can you handle the four of us?" She had this smug expression and thought that they had already won.
"......."
Haru looked at Nozomi and thought that this girl had challenged her, so his answer should be obvious, right?
"Challenge accepted!"