Sis, I wouldn't have done that. Only proves you're a better person than I am. Even so Ryu didn't understand why Noriko let Kuri in on the gift. And he didn't understand why his father had chosen anything that grossly expensive. Hundred, hundred and fifty thousand yen? More? He shook his head.

It was time to drop the bomb to Urufu as well. The club would return back home tomorrow, but the six of them would remain until school started. Principal Nakagawa even brought the last make-up exams Urufu and Kuri needed to pass.

Kuri already knew, and her shoots would continue for another two days. After that she needed to study.

Ryu waited for Urufu to serve another batch and prepare the grills again. Two grills weren't enough for this many people; the charcoal burned down and had to be replaced.

“Urufu,” he said when the grills were lit anew. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah?”

He looked over the beach. Club members mingling with models. Some played with fireworks and others changed clothes handed out to them by some Uniclo representative. Even if they're not that expensive, that's still well over a million yen in clothes thrown all over the beach. Guess it's not that much money for them, but still.

“When the rest of the gang return to Tokyo we'll stay,” he said to Urufu who had wiped his hands clean on the ridiculous towel he wore instead of a shirt.

“Huh? Why?”

“The Nakagawa gig. It's only the first of five.”

“What!”

Ryu looked at his friend. Is he still a friend? Yes he is, but I'm going to be a lot more careful around him from now on. “Yes, you'll have another eighty people arriving the coming two weeks.”

“What the hell? I need to study and I have work to do.” Urufu didn't look at all pleased with the change of plans.

“Calm down,” Ryu said. “You'll get paid. A crapton of money if I got it right.”

Urufu sighed. “Ryu, I respect you, but you're a kid. Crapton of money means different things for you and me. I don't think you understand exactly what kind of income I have.” He looked like he was about to continue, but Ryu had to interrupt that.

“I'm aware of what a lot of money is. I'm what you'd call a rich kid. This gig will make you more money that you've seen the last year.”

There was another sigh. “Ryu, I charge premium consultancy fees for a single person company.”

“Shoot!” Urufu was way too arrogant. Time for him to be brought down a peg or two.

“Returning customers pay me fifty per hour. I can't afford doing this for free.”

That is a crapton of money. Who the hell had the audacity to charge that kind of fees? Shit! “OK, how much have you made this far?”

A glimmer of uncertainty showed in Urufu's eyes. As if he was uncomfortable with the truth. “Almost seven million.”

Bloody hell! But the gig was still worth more. Ryu forced himself to calm down. “Not too shabby,” he said and tried to sound like he was used to seeing that kind of money lying around in his drawers.

“Not too shabby? It's more money than I'm supposed make working full time after university!” Urufu stared back. “What's this stunt worth? A million, two? It's still crap pay for running a hundred people.”

Ryu gathered up his last reserves of pretending to be unperturbed. “Yeah I know. Especially as you're paying salaries and the cost for the hotel as well.”

“Salaries? The cost for the hotel? For one hundred guests? Are you insane?”

“I know, and the course is at a discount as well.” Urufu looked like a man beaten into the ground. It was almost humorous to watch him. “Still, the contract is a hundred per participant, so you should still come out in the black.”

Urufu stood absolutely still. Then he suddenly had the looks of a much older man in his face. “Ten fucking million yen?”

Ryu nodded.

“Expenses paid, you said. So I end up with, lemme see, two or three million net gain. Fine, that's fair enough. Even if one hundred is a steal.”

“After our salaries?” Ryu teased and looked over the beach again.

Urufu returned to his grills, but his eyes never left Ryu. “Salaries. What the hell did you cook up while I was out?” He moved around some coals with an iron he had picked up. “Ryu?”

“We had a few contracts made. Kuri backed it up as well.”

“Spit it out!”

Ryu couldn't stop chucking. “You've got yourself four employees, and you're a partner with dad now.”

“Fucking hell!” Urufu turned to face him. “Christina backed it up?”

“Yeah.” It wasn't anything Ryu felt proud of. They had signed away a lot of control to his father, and Urufu hadn't even been asked. “Principal Nakagawa required that an adult stand behind your company or the school wouldn't agree to your part time job.”

“Nakagawa huh. Cunning bastard. Fine, I'll do it his way. How much am I paying you, because I assume I got saddled with everyone but Christina?”

“You're the CEO. Our salaries are your call.”

“And what did I employ?”

Ryu laughed. “Junior consultants. Dad said we're junior consultants or the deal is off.”

Urufu suddenly grinned. “I'll work you so hard you'll hate the guts out of me. And I'll make sure you earn every yen you make.” He gave Ryu a hard glare. “This is work, real work. If you think you can handle it you'll get paid accordingly.”

For the first time Ryu felt interested. “Accordingly?”

“Yeah. You tell the others their salaries. I'll handle back-pay if I ever see the money for this.”

By now Ryu wanted to know what Urufu had in mind. He hadn't needed any part time jobs this far, but he had a pretty good idea about what high school students made. “OK, will do,” he said.

“I'm not paying a yen more than you deserve. Yukio and Kyoko start at two hourly. I have to train them before they can get a decent pay.”

That was a lot more than he had suspected. “Noriko and I?” Ryu said.

“You're more useful, for different reasons. Three thousand per hour. Make me proud and it'll show in your wallets.”

What the hell? That's over triple what's normal! “That's more than I expected for high schoolers.”

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“I don't give a shit about high school. You're junior consultants. I can't make an arse out of the company.” Urufu started loading meat and vegetables onto the grills. “By the way, what's the name of my glorious company?”

Ryu thought for a while. The English words were strange in his mouth. “Twin Arc Productions, or something like...”

“Fucking yeah! TAP, the bloody bastards had me restart TAP. You wonderful bastards!” Urufu shouted and grinned. More than a few faces turned in their direction at his outburst.

Ryu saw two perfect rows of teeth when Kuri grinned and threw Urufu a thumbs up sign.

***

She owed them big-time. No, that wasn't true. She owed Noriko big-time. You're my rival and yet you saved my sorry arse. And you've got one hell of a good looking admirer there.

But good looking wasn't the same as good. He was the youngest of the modelling crew by a far margin, and the most inexperienced. Christina didn't know much about him more than that she had had to help him a few times during the shoots.

Christina helped her club members taking their pick of the seemingly endless supply of clothes. The Uniclo crew were as professional as any representatives of a large scale retailer chain could hope to be, but they weren't Chag. Hardly surprising after all. This was a company big in one country rather than the multinational monster she had once shaped, and the difference in size was staggering. Chag had been five times the size of Uniclo, and even the Swedish replacement in this world was four or five times larger.

She thought about that for a while. H&M hadn't been able to match her aggressive stance in that other world, but here they were just as efficient as Chag had been.

“Hiroyuki, not blue. You should wear red. Better with your complexion.” Moving from student to student she quickly assessed their ability to pick clothes that would make the photographers happy. Too many of them chose things they personally liked rather than what would make them look good in a night shoot.

By the fireworks models mingled with awestruck students and made the shoots both a welcome laugh and a nightmare for the crew.

It was time for a good old northern style illusion. Christina gathered a few students and called the professional models to her side.

“I want the sea in the background. Can you rig the lights to make it look like moonshine from over the mountains?”

“I'll handle it,” the journalist turned fashion photographer shouted back at her.

He was an absolute marvel to work with, and as the evening proceeded she took command over more and more of the event. A shoot with amateurs needed feeling and she used every ounce of her knowledge to make it happen.

She was working in tandem with her number one photographer now, but as she glanced up at the walkway she saw the producers looking down at the beach and taking notes. Am I overdoing this? Screw that, just make it a good shoot!

“Kuri, are these OK?”

She looked at Sango-chan who still sat bundled together with Jirou-kun. “Perfect!” They're so cute together! Wish I could sit like that with Ulf, but he's busy with the barbecue.

A team intruded on their privacy, and even if Sango-chan looked happy Jirou-kun showed signs of discomfort. Something is missing. “Shoji-kun, get over here!” She disliked the conceited model, but he was the best for this part. “We'll be the background couple.”

“Shoji-kun,” her photographer said. He hugged his stomach tightly and guffawed. “Ageruman-san, he's at least five years older than you, and you call him 'kun'.”

Oops, forgot that. Well, can't be helped. “He behaves like a spoiled brat, so why not?”

“I'll couple with you anywhere,” Shoji-kun grinned.

“Perv!”

“Not much in the way of boobs, but down there I guess...”

“I'd advise against sexually harassing a minor,” the photographer said.

“Kinoshita-sensei?” Shoji-kun quickly turned to Christina. “Ageruman-san, I apologise. I was out of line.”

She looked at her photographer. So that's your name. “Kinoshita-sensei,” she said as if tasting the name. “Should we get some lights rigged further down the wall? I think it's possible to make it look like it's lit up by a fire.”

“I'm not entirely certain I understand what you're after,” he answered. He gave her a look that was as much question as a test.

She was up to that challenge. “It's a typical scene from Sweden. Late evening, camp fire by the beach and the gang having a great time together. Our fantasy dream of how we spend our summers.”

Kinoshita-sensei scratched his chin. “And you want to see if we can build that kind of appeal here as well?”

Christina nodded in reply. “If it doesn't pan out it's just one scene anyway.”

It was rigged, and they got the shots, and Sango-chan was adorably cute sitting in Jirou-kun's lap. At least after they finally got him to stop blushing. And Shoji-kun groped her exactly as the shots were taken and she couldn't move away.

Christina slapped him, but it was still she who had to drag Ulf away from meeting out retribution. After that Kinoshita-sensei sent Shoji-kun back to the hotel.

The evening flew by. Ulf kept grilling and she worked herself silly with the shots, and when all was done and over she realised she hadn't spent as much as a minute alone with Ulf. There was a pang of regret in her chest, but mostly sadness. With less than two weeks left of summer break there wouldn't be many more opportunities, and with the changed schedule she wouldn't even have the luxury of spending time together with him during summer school.

She watched his back as he picked up his shirt, jacket and tie. What's the point in being young again if you can't spend time with the one you love? “Ulf, wait a moment please.”

He looked over his shoulder and met her eyes. “For you Ina, I'll wait forever,” he said and gave her one of those wolfish grins that always made her heart jump a little extra. “I'm the cheesiest.”

“Moron. Yeah, moron-sama. Noriko was right from the start, you know that?” But it didn't stop her from walking up to his back and hug him.

Still looking over his shoulder he kissed her, and then he turned in her arms and met her embrace.

The last of the crew dragged a few boxes away from the beach. She could hear the sound of the ocean breathing behind her, but most of all she felt Ulf's skin close to her, held him under her hands and shared a kiss that lasted an eternity.