Chapter Five: Acting Audition-Hagakure Tooru

[Media for Reference:

Korean Drama | Boys Over Flowers Finale EP. 25 (Gu Jun Pyo Remembers)

*Spoilers ahead of you're seeing this show for the first time, which I highly recommend. The translations may differ, depending on the platform you use to watch the scene.]

After debating over the majority of the Acting performances with his co-director, Aizawa Shouta was thoroughly exhausted.

He didn't want to admit it, but another cup of black coffee provided by Nemuri's ridiculous army of assistants would come in handy right now with all the auditions they had left. Still, his staunch professionalism in an audition setting restricted him from calling another recess to grab more from the staff green room.

Honestly, the most exhausting thing was the back and forth between him and Vlad over the range and skill of the young talent in question. Aizawa held court in the filmography and directing side of the industry, knowing what kind of performances looked good behind the camera and what kind of casting would make or break them in the aftermath. Vlad was a master of the live performance and the art of acting on any stage. As irritating as he was, Aizawa would never discredit the award-winning actor as a master of his craft, especially not after shedding literal blood for his previous roles without hesitation. Nezu had put them both in charge of the Acting department in order to have the full range of their expertise, but it did come with a few intense differences of philosophy.

There were so many that just didn't get it.

So many overzealous kids thought Acting was the easy track into U.A. and everything it offered. Thought that a few cute headshots and memorizing a few lines in a try-hard tone would be all they'd need to shoot their shot to instant stardom.

They didn't understand the importance of acting as an art form, or the impact of film and television as a medium of creativity.

They didn't understand the importance of preparedness and professionalism. That sometimes subtly was more convincing than shouting. That sincerity was more important than style.

They just wanted to break into the biz, become celebrities like All Might.

They didn't want to work hard, immerse themselves in the world they were creating or truly thrive when they were on that stage.

They just wanted to be famous. Instantly famous. Just like everyone else nowadays.

It disgusted him, and he'd proven his point by eliminating ¾ of last year's freshman class in the first week because his program, his time and his alma mater wouldn't be trifled with.

There were some auditions, like Todoroki's kid, that had been passable and showed the spark he was looking for this year...but...just God...he was so tired…

Couldn't someone, anyone, give him-

"Um, excuse me? I'm sorry, was I supposed to say anything before I started? Or did you want me to just go? I'm happy to do either!"

A chirping, cheerful voice broke Aizawa out of his lamenting, and his eyes gazed up to the audition stage at what looked like a light blue curtain of hair.

Of course, it wasn't just ahead of wavy tresses floating there. That would be absurd. The hair was clearly attached to the form of a teenage girl in a frilly lace dress.

It was just impossible to distinguish any semblance of a face behind the distracting hair that reached to about the girl's hip, obstructing any detailed features.

Aizawa could hear restrained snickering coming from his right and left sides, realizing in horror he was so deep in thought he hadn't noticed when the next audition applicant had come in. Probably because he'd been a stickler about the rule that no other judges were allowed to speak outside their auditions, they all (including Vlad for some reason), let him suffer in silence till he realized his error.

"Petty bastards," Aizawa thought miserably.

He went to pick up the girl's application in front of him, trying to save face, like he'd just been paying extra attention to its contents.

What weird refraction of light was making this girl's headshot literally invisible on the table? Had she forgotten to provide one? No, that couldn't be right. She wouldn't have even made it past the open call auditions if she had forgotten to submit that tiny detail.

Aizawa got progressively more frustrated, trying to nonchalantly surf through the girl's paperwork to see her face, so he decided to buy himself some time.

""Please, briefly, state your name, the program you're auditioning for, and introduce your chosen monologue for the audition recording," Aizawa said, shuffling the papers in his hand with strategic rhythm so he could figure out where the headshot went.

"Oh, sure!" The blue-haired girl chirped back, a pair of lightly tanned hands clasped together in front of her as they emerged from her curtain of waves. "I'm Hagakure Tooru, I'm auditioning for the UA Acting program, which I'm so excited about! And I picked a monologue from one of my absolute favorite Korean dramas of all time, Boys Over Flowers! Well, the scene it's from is more like a dialogue between the female lead, Jan Di and her love interest, but the guy doesn't say too many lines, so I just edited his out so it would flow. I was told I could do that in the audition rules, but was that not okay?"

"That's acceptable, within reason," Vlad stated. Though he usually allowed Aizawa to take control of most of the interview banter unless he really had something to ask, it seemed like he was ready to get this audition over with as well.

For all their differences, they did have a mutual appreciation for un-wasted time.

"Ok, great!" Hagakure said, her tan arms moving wildly now as she gesticulated with growing passion."So I picked this scene because climactic finales in romance shows are really just something I love. It's the final moment to confess, the last chance the characters have to really get their heart out there, and make or break their future with this one person, who can truly see them the way they want to be seen! I just find the whole thing so romantic, so hopefully, I can get this kind of feeling out with mine!"

The sentiment was nice enough, and Aizawa could even resonate with it on some level. The girl seemed a little pigeon-holed into the romantic genre, but that wasn't always necessarily bad. It wasn't bad to know your strengths.

No, the problem was that the assistant must have forgotten the damn headshot, and the girl's face was obstructed by a stage curtain's worth of hair.

How was she supposed to even audition properly, let alone act properly, if the audience couldn't see her damn face? Honestly, this had gone on long enough.

"Wait, Miss Hagakure," Aizawa ordered sharply, about to tell the girl to leave the stage because it was at least two minutes in and she still hadn't done anything about that mop, and his time was about to be wasted when he couldn't see her damn face.

God, he was too tired for this. There were project deadlines he was missing to be at these auditions. So why couldn't a grown 15-year-old have the common sense to realize that when you're going to go on a stage and speak words, the people watching need to be able to see your damn mouth moving and-

"Oh, wait! I mean, thanks!" The girl suddenly chirped, her voice sounding a lot more confident than when she had first let him know her presence. "I just had to do something I almost forgot about before I started, so thank you!"

With a grateful wave and a bow at the same time, the girl pulled what looked to be a fluffy light blue hair tie from her wrist, and proceeded to pull the curtain of tresses into a ridiculously high ponytail.

Features began to emerge, and Aizawa had to blink under the glow of the spotlight to piece them all together.

A lightly tanned oval-shaped face. Heavy lidded, heavily lashed eyes marked as "grey-blue" on the girl's resume. Dark eyebrows that had been drawn on by attempt and looked odd against the lightness of her hair. Defined cheekbones and a thin-lipped smile.

The girl's face was fully exposed, and she tried to smile bravely as a moment of silence had her twitching her fingers uncomfortably.

Hm. Well, guess he couldn't have THAT grievance anymore. Fine, better get this over with.

"Begin your monologue at any time," Aizawa said tiredly with a slight shoo of his hand.

Hagakure Tooru nodded eagerly, and Aizawa saw something in the girl's eyes. An honest to god sparkle of excitement, and her smile beamed in a way as if she had just won the lottery. Hm, how surprisingly sincere and gracious.

She then turned her back to the audience for a beat of silence before she began. Her ponytail swung behind her like a pendulum, and continued swaying as her back relaxed with a sigh. Turning her head over her shoulder, her expression changing to wide-eyed and heartbroken, yet resolute.

She gave an invisible figure a hard stare, then planted her feet and balled up her fists. She was preparing for a convincing last stand.

Aizawa felt his pen begin to move with interested notes before he realized it.

"I have just one-just one more question for you," Hagakure said, her voice shaky, but strong. "Do you know how to swim?"

She paused and cocked her head as if hearing a negative response.

"You don't?" She questioned, "Or is it that you don't or you don't know how?" She shook her head, smiled softly, then took another strong step toward the invisible figure. "No. You know how. You're not afraid of anything in this world, but when you see a bug, you start quivering in fear."

Her tone wasn't derogatory or accusatory. It was simply fact. She knew this person, this invisible person, better than anyone.

"Rather than having a single finger broken on your girlfriend," Hagakure said, taking one more step toward the invisible person, looking them in the eyes. "You're an idiot that thinks it would be better if all your ribs were broken instead."

She smiled as she spoke, and it was endearing and bitter, and almost pitiful. Still, she kept her tone factual.

"You don't even know the difference between pride and privacy," she continued. "You're so stupid, you swear you're always right even though you completely mess up every saying in the book."

She gave a soft laugh, unclenched her fists, and looked deeply again.

"You hate kids, but you want to take your son to go see the stars. You want to become a good father."

Aizawa saw a look in the blue-haired girl's eyes that he didn't see often with younger talent.

True honest to god empathy. A desire to connect. A desire to understand and be loved.

Something that so many of those kids these days didn't understand was absolutely necessary when they were tasked with standing on that stage. A new surge of life kept Aizawa's pen moving while the girl finished her piece.

"You're a lonely but affectionate person," She said with finality. "That's exactly who you are. Say it… my name."

Aizawa waited for a moment to give his usual ending spiel after what appeared to be the end of her monologue, but instead of a dignified bow, the girl broke character by exhaling heavily in relief. Then she looked excitedly at the judge's table and asked, "How did I do!? Is that what you were looking for? Or do you want me to do it differently? I have a different scene from another how I can do where I start crying and-"

"That will be all, Miss Hagakure," Vlad said sharply, cutting off the girl with a rigid stare.

It was Aizawa's turn to smirk, but he quietly wrote the final lines of critique on her sheet.

Professional poise and subtlety was definitely something she lacked. She was great at talking to invisible people, but rambling 100 miles a minute when she thought she had a real person's attention damaged her credibility. It would annoy most directors and would cost her a role in a heartbeat.

He'd have to work on that.

When no one else at the table had anything to say to her, Hagakure Tooru seemed to take the hint and thanked the judges for their time as she turned to leave from wherever she had appeared.

"Hagakure Tooru," Aizawa heard himself call to the blue-haired girl before she left the spotlight. "A little professional advice."

The girl turned on her heels so fast, her ponytail swung like a wrecking ball, and anticipation sparkled in her eyes.

"Yes, Director-san?!"

The judges either snickered or rolled their eyes.

"The next time you attend an audition and your face isn't visible when you enter the stage, you're not prepared. When you're not prepared, you waste my time and everyone's time at this table."

The girl's complexion completely blanched, all except for the redness coloring her oval face.

"Yes, sir!" she squeaked, floating out of the spotlight as one of the students that helped with the acting auditions beckoned her away.

"That was painful," Vlad grunted, barely adding any notes about Hagakure on his own sheet before pushing it to the side.

"Oh, come on!" Nemuri chided. "She was cute. Like a little shoujo maiden! I wonder if she dances better than she auditions…"

"Claws off, Nemuri," Aizawa stated as he handed his final verdict to the assistant nearby.

"Don't tell me you want her," Vlad scoffed. "She's ridiculously unpolished for this program. Her emotions are too transparent, not to mention she's attention-starved. That's a damning trait to have in the quality of our students."

"That's rich!" Hizashi said, as the loud-mouthed DJ choked on his laugh. "After you went to bat for that blonde, musical theatre kid that literally thought he was the Phantom of the Opera. Seriously? What was with the coattails and the tuxedo?"

Vlad bared very white and precise teeth as he sneered at "Present Mic", but didn't comment this time.

"I let you have Monoma Neito," Aizawa said simply. "I get one too. That was the deal."

"Don't expect me to excuse her brand of enthusiasm in my classes," Vlad said. "And she better be in your academic homeroom."

"I'll let Nezu know you're cherry-picking the talent already," Aizawa challenged. "I'm sure you know how much he loves when bias plays a part in our teaching."

"If you get to do whatever you want, then so do I!" Vlad snapped back, but then he folded his arms, signaling the end of the conversation.

Satisfied, Aizawa went to signal for the next audition to come in when he noticed a stack of headshots buried underneath his empty black coffee mug on the far corner of the table. He cursed at himself when he recognized the face of the girl on the page.

"I don't know how you managed to stay invisible, Hagakure Tooru," Aizawa thought, as he sneakily added one of the stray headshots to the pile of the girl's acceptance paperwork. "But maybe we can change that."

YA'LL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? THAT'S RIGHT! THE AUTHOR'S NOTE TIME:

Reporting safely from the bunker of my at-home studio, what is UP people!? Welcome back, FINALLY, to another episode of The Author's Note! It's me, your hostess with the mostest time ever inbetween broadcasts, DJ T-Time! No matter where you're tuning in right now, we all know what's going on out there, yeah? Yeah. So let's skip to a little escape and relief.

Applause to 28 FAVES! 44 FOLLOWS! 16 REVIEWS! Dang, so I know there are enough of you interested now, but I still gotta work for your feedback...OK! Let's get to work!

First of all, thoughts on the in flesh version of Miss Tooru Hagakure? Apologies if she was a titch out of character, but then again, I guess any AU that gives her flesh and a visible head of hair is pushing some boundaries. Honestly, I love this chapter, and I can't wait to see what I can do with Tooru, since our poor darling gets literal limited screen time. I debated for a while what her talent would be, but I felt Todoroki would get lonely in the Acting Major, and hopeless romantic Tooru pining to be the love interest lead in all her favorite movies just seems like something that would happen anyway, wouldn't it? I guess we'll see how far we take this.

COMING UP NEXT! Now, the moment we've allllllll been waiting for. The standard in every great performance story shoots their shot, the underdog is coming up to the plate! Will this heartfelt amateur against the odds show a panel of celebrities that they got what it takes to make a name among them? No matter rhyme or reason?

Tune into the next chapter for the conclusion of our audition arc and the beginning of the great journey for all six of our U.A. High hopefuls!

Till next time, this is DJ T-Time, signing off and wishing all of you well!

Literally! Stay well! Stay indoors! Write or read some fanfics! Pick up an instrument! Practice your Shakespeare soliloquy or K-Drama love confession! Just do it inside!