I'll Buy All Remaining Hours
"Heh heh heh."
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Why are you laughing like that?"
"Because the thought of doing whatever I want with you, senior, puts me in such a good mood."
"Get out."
"No. I'm a customer, aren't I?"
I sat on the sofa and glared at Yena standing in front of me. Just this morning, I'd thought she was a pretty decent kid. Tall, pretty, good at doing as she was told. Most of all, she was the precious—truly, genuinely precious—new student who'd enrolled at my academy for the first time in two years. So what the hell was I looking at now?
"Senior."
"What."
"Where's the price list? I want to buy you already."
"You do know I'm your senior and also younger than you, right?"
"I know that very well. So hurry up and give it to me."
I had definitely accepted the wrong student. I should have just let the school close.
I swallowed the urge to sigh. Without answering, I pointed at the counter. Yena's gaze followed naturally. Standing on the counter was a menu board no bigger than my palm.
No additional options.
Permitted contact may be restricted at the staff's discretion.
Yena spent a remarkably long time reading a menu that barely had a few lines on it. Then she turned, flashed me a bright smile, and walked over.
"That's cheap."
"..."
What?
My eyebrow twitched before I could stop it. She was saying the price was cheap, but it felt an awful lot like she was calling me a cheap woman. Of course, since that was my price, calling it cheap wasn't exactly wrong—but this was a rental, not a purchase.
"What did you just say?"
"I said it's cheap?"
"Should a student really be calling 500,000 won an hour cheap?"
"Is that so?"
Yena tilted her head, looking as though she genuinely didn't understand. And that was when I remembered something I'd forgotten. Yena was the daughter of an extremely wealthy family—the young lady of a corporation that ranked among the most prominent even in Academy City. A considerable number of companies you'd recognize by name alone belonged to their group. I suddenly no longer wanted to continue this conversation.
"Anyway, we're closed for today, so go home."
"It's not closing time yet. It says ten o'clock right over there."
"We're closing early today."
"In that case."
Yena pulled a card from inside her jacket with a snap. A single black card landed on the counter. It was the kind of card that made it viscerally obvious someone like me could never own one. Producing what might as well have been a card out of a dream, Yena declared with complete confidence:
"...What?"
"Until closing time today."
I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was around eight. That meant roughly two hours. Spend two hours on this new student I'd accepted by mistake, and I'd walk away with a million won. The other girls were too busy to come by right now, and if I wanted to cover my living expenses, I needed the money. I knew that, but...
"That's a million won."
"Yes."
"A million won."
"I heard you. A million won to buy two hours of you, senior? That's not even remotely a waste."
"Do you have any idea what money is worth?"
Yena heard me and chose her words carefully. She looked like she already knew what she wanted to say and was merely deliberating how to phrase it.
"It's money spent on you, senior. Why would that be a waste?"
"..."
I felt, with growing certainty, that something had gone terribly wrong. Boundless affection was pouring off a junior I had only met for the first time today. I stared at Yena with eyes full of wariness.
Yena, meanwhile, was endlessly at ease and utterly insolent—nothing like the polite, refined girl I'd seen at the academy. There, she'd been a new student who sat with her back perfectly straight and diligently hung on my every word. Now she was leaning casually against the side of the sofa, looking down at me. A junior, looking down at me!
Even as I thought she was being arrogant, I also thought it suited her remarkably well. If anything, the well-mannered version hadn't fit her at all. How to put it... she looked like an alpha wolf.
"Senior Yuna."
"What."
"Shall I pay?"
If she was going to do it anyway, why even ask? And it wasn't even may I pay—she'd just taken an I'm paying and softened it a hair.
"Fine..."
But I couldn't stop her. It was a million won, after all. A million won would cover my food expenses and even let me do a little repair work on the dormitory at the academy where we'd be staying.
"......Give me the card."
In the end, I lost. No—I had to lose. Pride doesn't pay the bills.
Ding.
The transaction has been approved.
"Ugh..."
Once the payment went through, a groan slipped from my mouth. I had really just sold myself to a first-year. I set down the card terminal and gave Yena one last warning.
"I'm telling you this in advance: nothing weird."
"I saw that. But what counts as weird? Please explain it with your own mouth, senior."
"Anything sexual...! Is banned...!"
"Ahaha. Of course. I have no intention of doing anything like that with you either, senior."
"Then why did you come here?"
"You said this isn't that kind of shop, didn't you?"
I felt like I was being led in circles, but she knew the rules well enough. Fine, then. Even if she tried to force something, I could stop her anyway.
I sat in the middle of the sofa and patted my knees.
"Alright. What do you want to do?"
"I want to hug you."
"..."
Not even a second of hesitation. So that was what she'd come here wanting to do all along.
"Go ahead."
This much was part of the job anyway. Plenty of regular customers just liked holding me. No—most of them would gather me into their arms, chat about this and that, and then leave. After a brief moment of thought, I spread my arms.
"Come on. Hug me."
"You're agreeing more readily than I expected."
"This is my job?"
I'd taken her money, hadn't I? I had to at least do this much. I leaned back against the sofa and let the tension drain from my body. Yena's arms wrapped around me.
"Oh."
The way she held me was far more careful than I'd expected. It felt like she was cradling her idol, treating me as something precious. That kind of reverence came through clearly. Her long arms circled my back, and one hand rested lightly near the back of my head. There was almost no strength in it. I could tell she was being careful not to squeeze even a little too hard, worried I might be uncomfortable. I felt a little embarrassed for having worried over nothing, and all sorts of thoughts started bubbling up—mostly about the personal details and peculiarities of the girl currently holding me.
"...I thought you said you couldn't control your strength."
"I can't."
"You're doing it just fine."
"That's because the person in front of me right now is you, senior."
"What's that supposed to mean."
"I couldn't possibly hurt such a pretty senior, could I?"
"Ha. Nothing you do could hurt me anyway."
No answer came. Yena simply stayed still, holding me in her arms. The height difference made the position rather awkward. Other girls had held me before, but with Yena it was even more pronounced. If the others had felt like they were sitting me on their laps, Yena felt like she'd tucked me completely into her embrace. I fidgeted, feeling unreasonably uncomfortable. I was supposed to be the senior here. My very first junior, no less.
"Junior."
"Yes."
"Don't hug me for too long."
"For two hours, you're mine, aren't you?"
"So you're just going to stay like this for two hours?"
"Yes."
"I don't like it."
Yena just smiled at my answer. I'd clearly been the one in control during the day, but now the initiative had been completely stolen from me.
"To think I can hold you in my arms like this, senior... it feels like a dream."
"Do you know me?"
"Of course I do. I'm a huge fan."
"So I have fans, huh. Do fans normally do this kind of thing?"
"I wanted to become a slightly special kind of fan."
Having said that, Yena squeezed me just tight enough not to hurt and buried her face in the nape of my neck. It didn't feel all that bad. Having a girl I'd only just met today being this physically forward was naturally overwhelming, but she was my fan, after all. I could provide this much service.
"May I stroke your hair?"
"Hair's fine."
"Thank you."
The moment permission left my mouth, Yena immediately began stroking my hair with abandon. Her touch was soft and delicate, but the sheer amount of it was on another level. I found myself saying this without thinking:
"Did you die in a past life without ever getting to stroke someone's hair?"
"I definitely would have died without ever stroking yours, senior, so in a way, yes."
"You've got a way with words."
And so, held in Yena's arms and subjected to all of this, I somehow found that it was already ten o'clock. The moment I checked the time, I shot to my feet.
"Done!"
"Already...?"
"We're finished, customer."
Being held like that had been a novel feeling in its own way, but even so—this suspicious junior's arms were a bit much. Call it the anxiety of not knowing when she might let her hands wander. I had absolutely zero intention of letting things develop in that direction, which was exactly why I was so on edge.
Once I slipped free, Yena looked down at her empty arms with a disappointed face.
"That was too fast."
"Two hours passed."
"I'll come again tomorrow."
"Don't."
"See you tomorrow!"
"I said don't come."
Yena gathered her bag and stood. Then, just before opening the door, she looked back.
"Ah."
"What."
"Today was really wonderful. Truly—getting to see a whole new side of you, senior."
"..."
"Senior Yuna."
And Yena smiled with deep, unmistakable satisfaction.
Yena beamed as brightly as the sun, opened the shop door, and vanished in a whirl. After the door closed, I sat frozen for a long moment.
Threw away two years...?
Had this girl seriously spent two years hunting me down, repeated two grades, and washed up here because of it...?
"...Wait. Can I expel her with my authority as chairman...?"
I was seriously considering it.