Minami sat on her bed and hugged her pillow close to her chest. It was still very early in the morning and only the light from her phone screen illuminated her room as she texted. Her brown hair was a braided mess and she still remained in her favorite blue kitty nightgown.
[Minami] Thank you for taking me home last night!
Minami was hoping that Akina would call or text her, but nothing.
She stared at the injury on her hand which was still throbbing quite a bit and narrowed her eyes, 'What did I do that was so wrong? Why does she hate me all of a sudden?'
'BZZ! BZZ!'
[Boss Makoto] You're welcome. Be more careful in the future and don't go out so late.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
[Minami] Okay, I'll be more careful next time! Don't worry! ^^
'BZZ! BZZ! BZZ! BZZ!'
This time, there was no message from Makoto, nor was there one from Akina, but instead a flood of social media comments took over her notifications.
"I can't believe-"
"Did she seriously-"
"What? So you thought-"
The comments cut off in the banner.
'Huh?' she thought to herself as she opened up her account to check the messages in full.
"Isn't this Smile Days' song…."
"I can't believe she stole the song!"
"Did she seriously plagiarize it…lol"
"Shouldn't you just say it's a cover?"
"What? So you thought that just because they're a smaller group, and they performed it at a busking that people wouldn't know you completely ripped it off?"
There were so many spamming her comments section. Other fans of hers were also confused and interacting with the accounts, before returning with additional comments like, "Wow I can't believe she really did that…" and "I thought it was a lie at first…"
Minami's eyes widened as she read through them all. There were so many negative comments…they were like a plague that was consuming the positive ones at lightning speed as the false narrative spread.
A pit formed in her stomach as she quickly typed in 'Smile Days – Smile Days' into the search bar.
Up came a video uploaded by a fan that was posted a day before she uploaded her teaser.
She gulped and tapped on the link with shaking hands.
"We have SMILE DAAAAYS!" It was the song in it's original form…as it was meant for Smile Days.
They were performing it in costumes similar to Minami's music video costume, although theirs were pink and white with happy face accents replacing the star motifs of Minami's.
She gasped as she clutched her chest.
Smile Days was still a smaller group, and they were performing in an alley way of some shopping area. Of course, this video wouldn't have reached that many people, but all it needed was to reach the RIGHT people.
Why wouldn't someone think she stole it? Their video was uploaded first.
Minami scrolled through the comments of their video. Her body felt like led and her mind felt fuzzy.
"There's a popular cover artist that stole this song…."
"Guys! Don't support Minami, she stole this from Smile Days!"
"Minami didn't credit them at all, nor did she correct people in her comments assuming it was a debut. She even changed the lyrics….probably to avoid copyright suits…."
"Everyone, we have to spread this to make sure that fans of Minami's know this is Smile Days' song! She blatantly ripped it off!!!"
She lifted her chin and sharply inhaled as she quickly grabbed for the dust bin by her bed. Holding it up to her face, she got on all fours, throwing up into it.
'What's happening?! What do they mean? Why was Smile Days performing it?!' She quickly thought back to her conversations with Makoto and the other staff members.
No one had mentioned Smile Days having any activities coming up and to her knowledge, Smile Days had nothing planned for the next few months.
She took a deep, shaky breath and picked up her phone. It felt like there was a huge rock in her throat making it's way up and trying to escape.
She cleared her throat, trying to make the rock disappear but to no avail.
'BZZ! BZZ! BZZ! BZZ!' More comments were flooding in.
"Hey…Minami covers songs all the time. Maybe she just forgot to mention that it was a cover….I don't think it's safe to assume that she STOLE it…."
"Minami is a thief!"
"Of course stealing other people's songs is all she's good for!"
Her body was shaking uncontrollably and the more she tried to take control, the more control she lost and the harder it shook.
She threw up into the dustbin again and cried out, sharp pains shoving their way through her ribs and towards her diaphragm. Her throat was burning and the bridge of her nose felt like it was going to explode.
Her body suddenly started tingling and growing cold. It felt almost like she was about to float away.
She grabbed her blanket and pulled it around herself tightly as she quickly dialed Makoto's number on her phone.
"Hello?" He answered.
"T-T-T-Takada-s-s-san! W-W-What do I d-d-d-d-do?!" She cried out. Her teeth were chattering and she flung herself backwards onto her pillow as dizziness started setting in.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?" His voice was filled with concern, "Where are you?!"
"H-H-Hom-m-m-me!"
"I'm on my way!" He hastily hung up the phone and darted to her home.
Minami answered the door in an oversized t-shirt and shorts and stumbled into the wall as he entered her apartment.
He grabbed onto her and gasped, "Your skin is like ice!! What's wrong? Are you sick? What happened?"
She clutched his arm for support and steadied herself, shaking her head. "Smile Days….performed the song…"
Her body felt so weak, it was hard to stand, but she didn't want to have Makoto carry her around again like last time she had a panic attack. Instead, she motioned to him to follow her as she stumbled her way to the couch.
"They did what?" Makoto followed and sat down beside her.
She quickly pulled the video up on her phone and showed it to him.
Makoto watched the video with a scowl on his face.
"Those idiots." He muttered under his breath.
"It gets worse…" Minami took the phone from him and showed him all of the comments on her teaser.
He read through them and clenched his jaw, "Damnit. Those stupid idiots have ruined everything!"
"What do I do?" Minami started to cry, "They're all saying such horrible things about me. What do I do?!"
Makoto paused for moment, weighing the options of the situation and thinking hard about each outcome.
"Right now? Don't worry about it and just lay low." He sighed and rubbed his chin.
"How can I do that? Just lay low?! They're completely lying about me!" Minami covered her eyes as a mixture of tears and snot flowed out like a waterfall.
'Oh my gosh Minami…you're being such a loser right now. Right in front of your boss?!'
Great, now in addition to feeling complete and utter horror, she was not feeling extremely embarrassed and guilty for crying like a baby in front of her boss.
He pulled a tissue out of the tissue box that sat on her coffee table and held it out for her. He sighed and nudged her so she would take notice once he realized she was covering her eyes.
"Oh…fangyu…." She slurred out as she took the tissue.
"PFFFFFFF!" she blew her nose as hard as she could, praying that no snot strands would be left behind.
She grabbed at her nose tightly and pulled the tissue away, peeking to see if any snot bridge had remained.
Nope!
Success!
Well, at least she had that going for her…how pathetic.
"Just don't say anything. Don't respond to any comments, don't post anything, don't like anything. I want you to stay off the internet for now. Just stay here, relax and rest, while I handle this at the office. Understand?"
She nodded as she wiped the tears from her face.
They sat in silence for a moment before he continued.
"I have some other news that I was going to share with you once you came in, but I might as well share it now since I'm here."
Part of him didn't want to tell her since she was already dealing with a lot, but maybe it was better for her to deal with the negatives all at once rather than put her on a roller coaster of emotional stress.
He hesitated before finally taking a deep breath, "We're cancelling the rest of your music video shoot beca-"
"WHAT?! Why?! Because they're accusing me?!" She cut him off. She looked absolutely devastated.
'Shit. Maybe now wasn't the time…' he thought.
Makoto shook his head, "No, not because of this. I'd already decided on it beforehand. Your costumes are unaccounted for, and it would be too expensive to re-rent, and re-build the set. So, we'll just make due with what we already filmed."
Minami's shoulder slumped. "But what about the DVD version?"
Originally, they'd planned that Minami's DVD version release would contain the music video, music video filming, dance shot version, up close version, night version, and day version. Now there was way less content.
"We'll just release the music video, filming and dance shot. That's typically what gets released, although not every DVD releases the dance shot."
Minami nodded slowly. 'Today really sucks….'
Makoto stood up and headed towards the door, "I'm going to go handle this fiasco at the office. You just stay and rest."