Apart from the announcement of Hey!Say!JUMP‘s upcoming Asia tour and their first public performance of Super Delicate something else happened at Yokohama Arena on Monday, something rather remarkable. We finally got an official announcement about Ryutaro‘s future, and it was made by nobody else than Mr Johnny-san himself, as Nikkansports reports:
Referring to him as Boy A (to protect his identity, LOL) Mr Johnny-san said that right now Ryutaro himself has the ambition to concentrate on school rather than returning to the entertainment business, and when asked about a possible return by the end of this year Johnny’s blatantly short and simple answer was: “No“. Let’s be honest, it can’t come as much of a surprise. Not after Ryutaro had been removed from the Hey!Say!JUMP profile on Johnny’s Net a couple of weeks ago. The only surprise here is that the boss himself bothered to comment on the issue. That usually doesn’t happen. In previous cases all we got was a statement from aJ&A spokesperson telling us that “The member will concentrate on his studies for the time being“, and then we’d never ever hear about it again. But now Johnny himself made a statement, and that statement is very clear: No.
No means no. Write it down, folks. Ryutaro is not coming back. Not this year, and you’d have to be one hell of an optimist to read the possibility of a later return into that statement. I’m not that kind of optimist. And as I’m being told by a very special person who I love and adore and who’s always a great help when it comes to decoding the intricacies of Japanese grammar for me, “not this year” is the Japanese way of saying “not ever”. Also, it has to be noted that the way it has been reported it was Ryutaro‘s own decision and that the way it was conveyed by Mr Johnny-sanwas somewhat… benevolent, for lack of a better word. Johnny loves that boy, like I do. And he was disappointed by what Ryutaro did, like I was. The only difference between me and Mr Johnny-san in this case is that I might have tried harder to bring Ryutaro back. But then again I don’t know everything that Johnny knows, I don’t know Ryutaro the way Johnny knows him, and in the end I have to accept whatever agreement the two of them have come to.
So, for me, as of today, Ryutaro is gone for good. And I’m grateful. Not because he’s gone. He was one of my two favourite Hey!Say!JUMP members. He’d been inJohnny’s almost exactly as long as I’ve been into Johnny’s. I’ve always adored him (and I still do), and it broke my heart when we found out about that incredibly stupid thing he did. For a long time I was clinging on to that last straw, that glimmer of hope that many of us had that this time it might be all different. That times or attitudes may have changed. That there might be a chance of him coming back one day.
That hope was a delusion.
Today I’m grateful that I no longer have to hold on to a hope that was unfounded from day one. I’m grateful that someone has finally had the courage and the decency to be honest with us, and I’m grateful that this someone was Mr Johnny-san himself. I’m grateful that I’m no longer being treated as a stupid child that needs to be given false hope in order to protect it from the dreadful facts of life and the realities of the real world.
This, my dear friends, is closure for me. Closure is what I needed, it’s what I wanted, and it’s what I, as a true and devoted fan, believe I deserved. So thank you for that,Mr Johnny-san. And good luck, Ryutaro, wherever you are and whatever your future plans may be. I miss you and I will always love you. ♥
source : kamichan
