The Rental Girlfriend
I had arranged to rent a rental girlfriend for three hours starting at 5 PM. The meeting spot was a park near the restaurant I had reserved. I arrived ten minutes early and waited for her. She’s not here yet. I glanced around, but there was no sign of Kim Eunha. Instead, all I saw were countless couples enjoying their dates—apparently this park was a popular spot for that.
There were still ten minutes left until our appointment, so I waited with a slight flutter of nerves. One minute before five o’clock exactly, a familiar yet unfamiliar woman’s voice came from behind me. When I turned around, a beauty with long straight hair stood there.
“Excuse me, are you Kim Hyunjin by any chance?”
“Ah, yes. You must be Hayoun?”
“Yes. Please take good care of me today. Feel free to talk to me like I’m your actual girlfriend.”
As expected, it was Kim Eunha. I had worried she might remember my face and name, but she treated me like a complete stranger, not even acknowledging me as her senior. The atmosphere is completely different from how she acts at school.
Her skin was flawless, and her jet-black hair cascaded down to her waist. Just earlier in class, she had had short brown hair, so there was no way it had grown this long in between. She must have been wearing a wig to hide her identity. Aside from the hair, her appearance wasn’t drastically different, but the vibe she gave off was worlds apart. The haughty attitude I knew so well had vanished, replaced by a surprisingly friendly demeanor. I had assumed she was just coasting on her looks, but her professionalism was impressive.
After a brief exchange of names, Kim Eunha extended her hand.
“Shall we take a short walk?”
I had heard skinship was off-limits, but apparently holding hands was acceptable. I took her hand and we began our park stroll date. As expected of a beauty, simply walking hand-in-hand drew the eyes of men around us. Even guys on their own dates were sneaking glances our way when their girlfriends weren’t looking.
She wore dark skinny jeans and a white blouse. When I had been asked about the desired outfit during the reservation, I had requested something like an ordinary college student. Though her clothes covered everything and looked perfectly normal, the curves of her body were so clearly outlined that the effect was quite stimulating. I had seen similar styles at university, but this was the first time I had seen her properly dressed up like this. Without realizing it, my gaze drifted downward just like the other men. Her figure was like a cola bottle—narrow where it should be narrow and voluptuous where it should be voluptuous. Especially with the skinny jeans clinging so tightly they seemed fused to her lower body, the elegant lines of her legs and the seductive curve of her hips made it impossible to look away.
I caught myself staring and snapped out of it. Did I look too much? From her perspective, this was our first meeting, yet I had been openly appraising her body. But Kim Eunha, despite clearly noticing, said nothing and simply gave me a meaningful smile as if it were only natural. Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat.
“Ahem, ahem. Want to grab something to drink while we talk?”
“Sounds good.”
Deciding to enjoy the date a little longer, we left the park and headed toward a nearby café.
* * *
“What would you like?”
“An iced latte, please.”
“Then I’ll get the same. Two iced lattes, please.”
After paying at the counter and receiving the drinks, I handed one to Kim Eunha.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
She smiled softly as she thanked me for something as simple as a cup of coffee. If the guy from my department who had bought her countless coffees without ever getting a reaction saw this, he would probably burst into tears.
We sat facing each other on the quiet second floor, away from prying eyes. Her face still held that gentle smile. She really is pretty. If I had to compare, she was like an S-rank cool beauty from our province—usually aloof, but now smiling at me. Any guy as weak to women as I used to be might have offered her his liver and gallbladder on a silver platter.
I took a sip of my latte to calm myself. The drink filled my mouth and slid down my throat, leaving behind a strangely off taste. The coffee here is weirdly bad. After getting used to the coffee at my own café, most other places tasted mediocre. I should have ordered something else if I had known.
Kim Eunha also took a sip and frowned slightly, just like me.
“What? Is it bad?”
“No, it’s not bad… but compared to the café I usually go to, the flavor is a bit lacking.”
“Then should we meet there next time?”
“Thank you for the consideration, but it’s quite far…”
I asked while pretending not to know, and she answered while pretending not to know either. Even though it was trivial personal information, she was spinning an obvious lie with a smile to avoid revealing her identity. If she goes there often, how can it be far? Everything from her name onward was fake. If she was this thorough about hiding her identity, I was curious how she would react once she was found out.
That aside, the conversation itself flowed comfortably, and I could feel her consideration for the other person. Even during simple small talk like what we had eaten for lunch, she responded with a smile. She naturally kept the atmosphere pleasant while steering the conversation. It felt like I was on a date with a real girlfriend—actually, in some ways, she was acting more like a girlfriend than a real one would.
We spent time at the café chatting about this and that. Seemingly satisfied with how things were going, Kim Eunha carefully asked me a question.
“What do you do for work, Oppa?”
“Me? I work at a café.”
“You must be a barista or something?”
Her expression grew slightly strange when she heard I worked at a café.
“Not a barista. I just run a decent café.”
“Ah! So that’s why you didn’t like the coffee here either, Oppa.”
“Well, yeah. I haven’t found anywhere with better coffee or desserts than my own place.”
“Wow, that sounds exciting. Then shall we meet there next time?”
Once she heard I was the owner rather than just an employee, her expression returned to normal. She even went ahead and suggested our next meeting spot, as if she was certain I would rent her again.
“Sure. You’ll probably be pretty surprised when you see my café.”
For various reasons.
* * *
Kim Eunha had started working as a rental girlfriend during winter break last year. She had wanted a particular bag but was short on money, so while looking for part-time work, she heard that she could earn a lot just by meeting men and talking with them. Thanks to her looks, which surpassed any other woman at the agency, most clients were satisfied as long as she smiled and chatted a little. In less than a month, she became the agency’s top earner, and even the manager in charge of client relations was fawning over her.
Of course, she knew this line of work wasn’t exactly respectable. If word got out that she was doing this, her university life would be ruined—she knew that better than anyone. That was why all contact was done exclusively through a fake SNS account instead of phone calls, and she only accepted cash payments so there would be no evidence of her involvement. In short, she worked comfortably while perfectly concealing her identity and earned money without any hassle. Occasionally there were weird clients that annoyed her, but she comforted herself by looking at her growing collection of bags.
She said I was her first client, so I was a little nervous.
Kim Eunha muttered to herself as she left the café and entered the restaurant. It was a famous place she had heard of before. A single meal cost hundreds of thousands of won, and reservations were so difficult that she had never even considered going. Yet the client she was meeting for the first time walked in like it was the most natural thing in the world and took a seat without hesitation. From the way he carried himself, it didn’t seem like he had scraped together every last penny just to come here.
He seems like a pretty high-quality client.
If she had run into him on the street, his ordinary face would have been forgettable by the next day. But the clothes he wore were high-end, and the fact that he frequented places like this suggested he earned quite a lot. As a boyfriend he was a failure, but as a client he was perfect.
While enjoying delicious food and conversation at the restaurant, the reservation time eventually passed. Normally she would have asked about extending right when the time was up and then left, but today, seeing a potential regular client, she spoke softly.
“I had a really great time today. The reservation time is over—would you like to extend?”
“Shall we?”
Kim Eunha smiled quietly. Men like this tended to throw money at her if she just treated them a little nicely. But when she heard his next words, she frowned and let out a sigh.
“At a motel, that is.”
“Haa… Look, sir. I’m sorry, but I’m only here to act like a girlfriend on a date. I don’t do anything weird. If that’s what you’re looking for, you should find someone else…”
“Kim Eunha, second-year business major at Gukhan University.”
Kim Eunha was shocked to hear her real name.
“You don’t recognize me? I’m your senior from the same department.”
“…If you do something like this, I won’t stay quiet. You seem to be mistaken—this rental girlfriend job is completely legal.”
She tried to stay calm and spoke defensively. But the man in front of her wasn’t finished.
“That’s what you think. Do you really believe other people would see it as legal? Especially when it involves someone who embezzled student council funds.”
“H-How did you—!”
“I told you. I’m the café owner.”
“No way?!”
His face had been so ordinary that her memory had been hazy, but now it all came rushing back. He was the part-timer she occasionally saw at the café in the afternoons. It was definitely him.
“So, what’ll it be? Shall we extend?”
“…You piece of trash.”
Kim Eunha ground her teeth, but she had no choice but to refuse. After making him promise not to touch her below the waist, she followed Kim Hyunjin into the motel.