Chapter 65: The Eve of the Date

Receiving the message she sent, Ryuichi Sugawara felt somewhat surprised.

Though he had long felt that Tsukimi Yamabuki would eventually rent him for a second time, he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

After all, given how well he had performed, if her friends still wanted to see him, she surely couldn't claim they had broken up already.

Moon: "You have an appointment on Saturday? May I ask who it is?"

Constellations: "Someone you don't know. A client who reached out through Twitter."

Moon: "Little Universe?"

Constellations: "Yes."

Although Ryuichi Sugawara didn't wish to disclose client details, since she had already guessed it, there was no need to deny it.

After all, Chika Morishita's comment in his review section was visible to everyone.

Moon: "May I ask what you two will be doing?"

"We are going to an anime convention to do cosplay."

Faced with this inquiry, Ryuichi Sugawara thought for a moment before answering truthfully.

While the job of a rental boyfriend did not strictly require taking on cosplay gigs, it could still be considered a way to expand his business scope.

"So you're only free on Sunday?"

"I have time tomorrow after school as well."

"Let's just book Sunday... Can I rent you for the whole day? From morning until night."

"Yes. Could you please specify the details of this rental?"

Having confirmed the time, Ryuichi Sugawara paused to consider and asked in advance.

Taking into account the system's rating standards for dates, he wanted to make preparations as early as possible.

To orchestrate a wonderful date, meticulously planned surprises were indispensable.

Moon: "The situation is this: my friends suddenly want to see photos of you and me together—couple photos, basically. But we don't have any couple photos or travel photos, so I want to rent you to visit various photogenic spots and take some pictures."

Constellations: "Understood."

Upon learning the nature of this rental date, Ryuichi Sugawara's eyes lit up.

[Second date invitation from Tsukimi Yamabuki has been accepted.]

Right at that moment, the date notification popped up, with the system judging that they had reached a consensus on the appointment.

Taking pictures—it sounded quite interesting.

Moon: "To create the illusion that we've been dating for a long time, we'll need to go to many places to take photos, and it might get pretty tiring. You'd better mentally prepare yourself... Also, you should bring a few extra changes of clothes."

Constellations: "Message received. Also, let's add each other on Line."

Moon: "Alright."

With their conversation reaching this point, Ryuichi Sugawara decisively switched apps to copy his Line ID.

However, the moment he opened Line, he saw a notification badge with the number 5 over Little Universe's profile picture.

In his chat list, her messages caught his eye instantly:

"Where'd you go? Why did you disappear again?"

"Oh no..."

Noticing her messages, Ryuichi Sugawara snapped back to reality and felt a sudden sense of foreboding.

Because he usually needed to concentrate on his studies, he had customized the notification settings for various apps to use "Do Not Disturb" whenever he was using other programs.

While studying mostly involved reading books, there were times when he used his phone for learning as well.

Realizing he had made a mistake, Ryuichi Sugawara didn't immediately tap into the chat. Instead, he first copied his ID, switched back to Twitter, and sent it to Tsukimi Yamabuki.

With that matter settled, he finally opened the chat interface with Little Universe.

"You're actually a high school student?"

"Third year of high school, which means you're 18 years old this year?"

"How did it turn into an unread message? Didn't you say you were on standby at all times?"

"Are my questions that strange?"

"Where'd you go? Why did you disappear again?"

Those were the messages Chika Morishita had sent while he was busy fooling around on Twitter.

"Apologize for that. I had a rental order from a client on Twitter just now, so I went to take care of it."

After reading through all her messages, Ryuichi Sugawara finally replied.

"I can understand that you were busy, but you should at least give a heads-up! Suddenly stopping your replies made me think I said something wrong!" (Panda angry emoji)

Little Universe replied within a second, as usual. Her typing speed was quite fast; she probably spent a lot of time on her phone.

"There won't be a next time."

Having learned his lesson this time, Ryuichi Sugawara decided to modify his notification settings as soon as he finished chatting with them.

At this point, he conveniently accepted the friend request sent by Tsukimi Yamabuki.

Although Line allowed users to add others directly, it could be configured to block messages from strangers.

Little Universe: "It's fine anyway. Today is only Wednesday, and there's still a long time before the scheduled time. Since you have other clients to deal with, go ahead and take care of your business. We can chat the night after tomorrow."

Seeing her message, Ryuichi Sugawara felt a bit surprised.

He had to admit, Chika Morishita's attitude was rather peculiar. At times she seemed somewhat childish—like spamming exclamation points—while at other times she appeared quite mature and considerate.

Judging from her very surprised reaction upon learning he was a third-year high school student, she was likely older than him... possibly older by four or five years, and already working.

"Let's chat the night after tomorrow, then."

After pondering it, since she had put it that way, Ryuichi Sugawara—though feeling slightly guilty—naturalized his acceptance.

Wrapping up his conversation with her, he chatted with Tsukimi Yamabuki for a little longer.

The conversational content was somewhat trivial, but chatting with girls basically tended to be like that.

Later in the evening, Yuki Takanashi also replied, though not at great length.

Their relationship was rather peculiar—both familiar and distant. Without a rental arrangement in place, an invisible wall seemed to exist between them.

Perhaps it was because during lunch break, when he rejected Yoshino Sakai's invitation, it made Yuki realize that their relationship wasn't genuinely friendly, leaving her rather reserved.

Ryuichi Sugawara didn't pay too much attention to this state of affairs.

After all, nothing had happened between him and Yuki Takanashi; they hadn't even held hands. Furthermore, he had treated her to a lavish meal, so he could rest easy even if they drifted apart completely from then on.

Besides, she was a high school student, not some wealthy heiress, so renting him frequently would be quite difficult anyway.

---

The next two days passed peacefully.

Perhaps because he had rejected the invitation, or perhaps because the incident during lunch with Shota Sato had made things a bit awkward, the gyaru quartet no longer sought him out to share lunch.

In short, he had returned to his usual rhythm of life.

Attending classes diligently, reading books during breaks, and eating lunch with Shota during the lunch hour.

The only difference from before was that high heels and black stockings had become standard parts of Tsukimi Yamabuki's daily wardrobe.

Class 3-1 had English classes three times a week, specifically on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Since there were no bookings for weekdays, Ryuichi Sugawara headed to Akihabara after school to buy a DSLR camera and take a look at people cosplaying.

Although Tsukimi Yamabuki hadn't explicitly requested it, he decided to purchase a camera in preparation for future needs.

After all, since he possessed professional-grade portrait photography skills, not using them would be like sitting on a mountain of gold without realizing it—far too wasteful.

As for Friday evening, he returned home early to stand by and discuss tomorrow's date arrangements with Chika Morishita.

Little Universe: "Let's meet at Tokyo Big Sight Station. See you tomorrow."

Constellations: "See you tomorrow."

"Done..."

With their conversation concluded, Ryuichi Sugawara nodded with satisfaction.

Although earlier, due to his infrequent use of his phone, he had often failed to reply to Chika Morishita's messages in a timely manner, his performance on the night before the date had been flawless, making up for past lapses.

The chat concluded, and since it was still quite early—only 8:00 PM—he began using his phone to briefly review clips of Sesshomaru from the anime *InuYasha* to get back into character and prevent any out-of-character behavior.

Tomorrow was the date, and the necessary preparations simply had to be made.