The Rental Girlfriend's Secret
The next day, I decided to look into Kim Eunha. First, I contacted her friend and the vice president of the student council, Choi Seungah, and met her at a nearby cafe.
“Huh? You want me to tell you about Eunha?” Choi Seungah frowned at my request. “Weren’t you getting along well with senior Yoojin?”
“No, it’s not for me. One of my friends is curious about her.”
“Which friend?”
“Do you know Choi Soo-hyun?”
I casually dropped the name of the friend who had passed out drunk yesterday.
“Ahhh, that senior who kept buying Eunha coffee? But he’d probably know more than I do. We’re friends, but she barely shows up to student council and goes straight home after class.”
“I heard her family is rich. Is that true?”
“I don’t know exactly how well-off they are, but I doubt they’re actually rich.”
Since Choi Seungah owed me quite a bit, she answered everything I asked as honestly as she could within her knowledge.
“What does she like?”
“Cafe hopping? She loves coffee and desserts, so I’ve heard she’s been to all the famous cafes. Lately she’s been going to that place you told her about—Cerer, was it? She goes there often. It really is delicious, so I tag along sometimes too. Though it’s too expensive for me to go regularly.”
“If it’s expensive, couldn’t you just swipe the student council operating card? No one would know anyway.”
“Are you crazy? If they catch you using it for personal expenses, you get a red mark. Especially since the president hates that kind of thing. He wouldn’t let it slide.”
“Really?”
Finally, I got the answer I wanted.
I had wondered if the student council executives were all treating the operating budget like public property, but that wasn’t the case. I’d tested the waters, and sure enough, Choi Seungah had no idea that Kim Eunha was embezzling from the student council funds.
I chatted with her a bit longer after that, but there wasn’t much else of value.
“Embezzlement is confirmed. Next up—water trade.”
Checking whether Kim Eunha was involved in prostitution wasn’t difficult. To do that kind of work, she’d have to exchange messages. If I brought my phone close to hers, Seria, the spirit living in my smartphone, would find it for me.
When I entered the lecture hall, Kim Eunha was already seated. The seat next to her was empty, but since she didn’t even know my face, I couldn’t sit there. I took a seat behind her instead.
I pressed my smartphone as close to her as possible and asked Seria.
‘How is it?’
Seria checked her messages and chats before replying.
> Nothing unusual.
> No messages or chats that appear to be related to prostitution.
> Most are advertisements or one-sided messages.
‘What?’
‘No signs of water trade?’
Embezzlement alone wouldn’t be enough to pressure her. I was about to give up on digging into Kim Eunha when she suddenly frowned and started tapping furiously on her phone.
‘Who is she messaging right now?’
> It’s not a chat. It’s an Outstar DM.
‘Show it on my phone.’
Immediately, the contents of the DM she had received appeared on my smartphone.
— Sorry, Hayoun. The client booked for tonight suddenly canceled because something urgent came up.
She was using a fake name instead of her real one, and the word “client reservation” was right there.
‘This is… jackpot!’
I continued reading the conversation that kept scrolling up. Kim Eunha was throwing a tantrum over the sudden cancellation, typing angrily as if giving orders to find another booking immediately. The other person was desperately trying to calm her down, saying it was hard to find a client on such short notice during the week.
To anyone watching, the power dynamic was crystal clear. At the very least, it didn’t look like she was being forced into it.
‘The conversation seems a bit strange for water trade. Check the other person’s profile.’
> Understood. One moment.
Seria immediately accessed the other person’s Outstar profile. A sleazy-looking man’s photo and profile appeared.
‘Let’s see… Love Mate rental girlfriend service, Manager Ryu Hojin? What the hell is this?’
There was even a convenient link to the website at the bottom.
The lecture ended right on time, so I rushed straight home and accessed the site.
“‘We will be your rental girlfriend for the day.’ Is this really what I think it is?”
I carefully examined the website. It was a girlfriend rental service—pay a woman to act like your girlfriend and enjoy a date. It was exactly the rental girlfriend service I knew about.
> If it’s just a service to enjoy dates like a girlfriend, doesn’t that mean it’s not prostitution?
“That remains to be seen.”
At the bottom of the site, it clearly stated: [This establishment is not a prostitution or adult entertainment venue].
But the very concept of women receiving money to meet random men already looked like it was skirting the line of illegal adult entertainment. When money is already involved, if you offer a little more, who’s to say there won’t be additional services?
Even if it wasn’t outright prostitution, it definitely wasn’t a good look. If it became known that Kim Eunha worked as a rental girlfriend, she would be in serious trouble.
“The site itself looks pretty suspicious too.”
I continued browsing. The usage fee was 50,000 won per hour. Just talking and hanging out for 50,000 won an hour? And the higher the woman’s grade, the more you had to pay.
Scrolling further down, I saw photos of women with their faces mosaiced and simple profiles attached.
“There she is. Hayoun.”
Finding Kim Eunha’s alias, Hayoun, wasn’t hard. She was at the very top.
[Hayoun]
20 years old / Non-smoker / 166cm / 47kg / D-cup / Seoul / 70,000 won per hour
The name and age were both fake, but judging by the body in the mosaiced photo, it was definitely her. Most of all, there was a Cerer coffee cup in the picture.
> What do you plan to do now?
“What else? I’m going to meet her, of course.”
Without clear evidence, she could just play dumb. For Baek Jina’s sake, I needed solid proof to pressure her properly.
> Is this really for Baek Jina’s revenge?
“Ahem, ahem. Well… I can kill two birds with one stone, can’t I?”
> Sigh. And you call yourself a hero.
“What was that, you little—?”
I dialed the phone number listed on the site. After a few rings, a sleazy-sounding man answered.
“Yes, this is Love Mate.”
“Hello, I saw your site and wanted to make a reservation. Is Hayoun available?”
“First time with us, sir?”
“Ah, yes. Is there a problem?”
It was my first time calling a place like this, so I waited nervously for his response.
“Hayoun is our ace, so first-time customers usually can’t book her. But you’re in luck. A reservation just got canceled, so we were looking for someone on short notice.”
“That’s fortunate.”
I already knew the reservation had been canceled, but I didn’t let it show. The man asked for some basic personal information and details about when and where we would meet. I finished the reservation and hung up.
The agency sent me a message with precautions regarding her.
“There’s so many of them?”
No skinship without permission, no going to dark places, private cars, or enclosed spaces, no asking for contact information, and many more rules. Even though I was the customer, it felt like I had to treat her like a princess.
And because she was an ace, the price was different—70,000 won per hour. It was an absurd amount for an average college student. If I hadn’t opened the cafe, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
“With this many rules, the fact that she’s an ace must be thanks to her looks.”
After Yoo Soyeon entered the business department this year, the top beauty ranking had changed. But until last year, Kim Eunha had been the undisputed goddess among over a thousand students in the department.
Even I had been unable to take my eyes off her the first time I saw her. There had been a time when I thought I would do anything if it meant I could touch her breasts.
She might have a terrible personality, but no one could deny how beautiful she was.
“Sex is probably off the table, huh?”
If Kim Eunha had actually been selling her body, I could have easily slept with her. But with so many restrictions, it seemed she really was just doing rental girlfriend work.
Embezzlement and rental girlfriend. I had no idea how much pressure this would put on her.
“Guess I need to prepare.”
It would be far more effective to pressure her as someone wearing expensive clothes and reserving a high-end restaurant than as some broke-looking college student.
Yoo Soyeon had given me a tasting ticket to a fancy restaurant she often visited as thanks for her birthday gift. Thanks to that, even though it was already close to dinner time, I was able to book a table immediately.
I also put on the expensive clothes she had given me. I wasn’t turning a pumpkin into a watermelon, but after dressing up properly, I looked like a pretty decent pumpkin at least.
After all the preparations, it was finally time to rent her.
“Shall we go, then?”
I’m heading out to meet her now.