Chapter 53

Pick-up is the fifty-third chapter of the Oshi no Ko manga series. It is written by Aka Akasaka and illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari. It was released in September 2, 2021.

Summary
Melt Narushima laments over his poor performance in the adaptation of "Sweet Today". While walking outside to clear his mind, he encountered Ruby Hoshino, who were coming to the rehearsal for the stage play to visit Aqua, along with her friend Minami Kotobuki. Ruby recognizes him and introduces herself. Melt told her that her brother already left with his "girlfriend" Akane Kurokawa since the rehearsals are over. Ruby are puzzled since Aqua has been coming home at different times. Minami shyly told Ruby that there's a chance that he comes home late since he's doing lewd things with Akane. Ruby didn't believe her friend's assumption, and declared that she'll lose all respect for him if he actually did. Her face afterwards, however, looked conflicted.

Minami then was approached by one of the 2.5D stage actors, Kamoshida Sakuya, trying to pick her up and asks for her contact information, but he was abruptly interrupted by Melt who told him that there's an emergency meeting with the director. After moving away from Minami, Melt then reveals that he was lying, apparently cause Sakuya was picking up a friend of Aqua's sister, and it felt unprofessional. Sakuya then admonishes Melt, attacking his lacking performance and how he's dragging the whole play down, before leaving him. Melt took a second, and recognizes that his acting talent is lacking, and he know it ever since he acted with Aqua.

At the end, Ruby came back to the Strawberry Productions headquarters, happily proclaim that he got a contact of his brother's friends, most possibly Sakuya. Her teammate then both warn her about how the 2.5D Stage Actors usually play around, and tell her not to meet up with them if possible.

Characters

 * Melt Narushima
 * Ruby Hoshino
 * Minami Kotobuki
 * Kamoshida Sakuya
 * Kana Arima
 * Mem-Cho