We kept walking, and walking, and walking.

          The two of us walked along in silence.

          I wasn’t good at dealing with silence.

          If I was going to be around someone else, I at least wanted us to have something to talk about. Being shrouded in silence made me anxious about whether I did something to offend the other person or not. Well, not that I cared if Miyagi was angry or anything, but I still wanted to know what I did to upset her. That’s why, I wanted her to say something, anything, but she kept her mouth shut the entire time.

          Come on, have some awareness and talk already.

          I tried sending her my thoughts telepathically, but as you’d expect, Miyagi continued to stay silent as we walked away from the bookstore together without exchanging any words.

          Honestly, I should’ve just gone home.

          I shouldn’t have even considered going to Miyagi’s place at all.

          As we walked underneath the gloomy sky, the quietness gave me enough time to regret my hasty decision from earlier. Then, we arrived at what appeared to be an expensive-looking apartment building.

          No wonder she was so willing to chuck five-thousand yen away.

          The apartment building was so luxurious I couldn’t help but think that way. It was also a lot closer to where I lived than I expected. It was probably only a fifteen, maybe twenty, minute walk away? For some reason, it never really crossed my mind that one of my classmates could live so close to me.

          But when I thought about it, that should’ve been obvious.

          We bumped into each other at the bookstore, and her home was within walking distance from it, so it was no wonder she lived not too far from me.

          「I live on the sixth floor.」

          Miyagi said as we got in the elevator.

          「Is that so?」

          I wasn’t going to tell Miyagi that I lived close by.

          I mean, there was no reason to go out of my way to mention it. Plus, Miyagi and I hardly even knew each other, so there was no point talking about it either.

          The display on the elevator went through the numbers four, five, and then six as we approached our stop. I followed Miyagi out, and she led me toward the door at the far end of the hallway. She opened it and welcomed me into the front entrance.

          「Feel free to take a seat anywhere you want. I’ll bring you something to drink.」

          「Oh, you don’t have to.」

          Her room was about the same size as mine, perhaps even a little bigger. That being said, it was quite spacious for a high school student. Her room was neat and tidy, her bed was on the larger size, and her shelf was lined with a ridiculous amount of books.

          As I approached the bookshelf, wondering what kinds of books it had to offer, the door swung open. When I turned around, I saw Miyagi setting down cups filled with clear liquid on the small table.

            「Do you like to read manga?」

          I asked while staring at the spines of her books. Miyagi replied with a curt, “I do,” before suddenly following up with an exclamation:

          「Oh, I know. Maybe I’ll have you read me a manga. Sendai-san, come sit over here.」

          Saying that, Miyagi rose from her spot. When she saw that I was still standing in front of the bookshelf, she came over to tap me on the shoulder and said, “Go over there.”

          As I wondered when we’d get back around to the topic of me “working” for her, I sat down by the table and picked up the glass of liquid she brought for us earlier. Upon taking a sip, I could feel bubbles fizzing in my mouth. I put down the glass, now aware that the cup was actually filled with sugary soda.

          I wasn’t a big fan of carbonated drinks.

          I couldn’t imagine anyone in my friend group serving soda like this. As I was thinking that, Miyagi took a seat across from me.

          「Here, read this.」

          She handed me a manga that had a picture of a handsome looking boy and a meek looking girl on the cover. When I skimmed through the pages of the book, I could immediately tell that this was a story about romance.

          Was she giving me five-thousand yen just to read this?

          I had no idea what went on in Miyagi’s head.

          In any case, since I was given the instruction to read it, that’s what I did. As I flipped through the pages of the book, Miyagi, sounding unamused, said,

          「No, not like that. Read it with your voice.」

          「So you want me to read it out loud to you?」

          「Yeah. This is the job I want you to do for five-thousand yen. Or rather, I guess it’s an order from me.」

          「So I’m not just “working” anymore, I’m obeying orders?」

          「Yep.」

          I had no idea when it changed from “working” to “obeying orders”, but I’m pretty sure there’d be no point in asking. Miyagi probably wasn’t thinking too deeply about it anyway. If anything, if I had to guess, it was something she just came up with on a whim.

          「Well, I don’t care if you want to call it “work” or an “order” or whatever, but you’re telling me that you’re paying me five-thousand yen just to read you a book?」

          At this point, I wanted to go home as soon as possible, so I quickly moved the conversation along.

          「Yep. But you have to read it until the very last page.」

          「Okaay. 」

          Well, reading manga out loud was a simple enough task.

          All I had to do was go through some back-and-forth dialogue and utter a handful of cheesy and shallow lines like, “I love you”, or, “You’re the only one for me.”

          To be honest, I would’ve died inside if she had asked me to read her a novel instead. Fortunately, manga didn’t have nearly as many words in them, and the story progressed a lot smoother. However, I’d soon regret how lightly I was taking this task.

          「…… Isn’t this book a little, you know, erotic?」

          I briefly stopped reading to flip through the pages ahead to double-check, but no matter how many pages went by, the characters were naked in pretty much most of them.

          If I had to say, the bedroom scenes probably took up over half the book.

          And on top of that, the dialogue was filled with suggestive lines and various moaning noises.

          The content was intense, to say the least. Not to mention, Miyagi was the one who told me to read it out loud too. What was going on in her head?

          It wasn’t like I disliked erotic things, but I didn’t want to read them out loud. Or rather, I’m pretty sure most people wouldn’t want to either. I will say though, I was surprised that a plain girl like Miyagi took interest in these sorts of things, but I was too busy wallowing in regret to really acknowledge it.

          「Yep, it’s erotic.」

          Miyagi replied casually.

          「And you still want me to continue reading it out loud?」

          「Read the whole thing aloud.」

          「Don’t tell me, are you into listening to erotica or something?」

          「I’m not. I just couldn’t think of any other order to give you.」

          「Is there even a need to give me an order? You could’ve just taken your change back, let me return the difference, and then we would’ve been done with it.」

          I had no idea why she wouldn’t take her money back. Miyagi was so troublesome. Stubborn and difficult to deal with, too.

          「I don’t really care about the five-thousand yen, and I don’t want you to give it back either. Now, hurry up and read it.」

          Miyagi – who really didn’t seem to care about money at all – said while rushing me.

          Not that I had an obligation to play along with this farce or anything, I really didn’t want to accept five-thousand yen from her. Plus, I’d already promised that I’d work to pay it off, so I was determined to see it through until the very end.

          Right, I was a pretty troublesome person myself.

          「―― Fine.」

          “Do it more.”

          “I’m coming.”

          “Ahhn~”

          Etcetera, etcetera.

          An endless stream of words that I never wanted to say flowed from my mouth, causing me to feel lightheaded.

          Honestly, what was I doing?

          Miyagi and I were just two people that belonged to the same class. We’d never even spoken to each other before. So, just what was I reading in front of her right now?

          Seriously, Miyagi’s such an idiot.

          There was no doubt about it. She was a perverted idiot, through and through.

          If I remembered correctly, her grades were――

          Actually, how were her grades?

          I didn’t know much about Miyagi.

          「Sendai-san, your voice is too quiet.」

          As my concentration wavered, Miyagi reprimanded me.

          「This isn’t something that should be read loudly, you know?」

          「Don’t worry about that. No one else is home today anyway.」

          Okay, maybe it’s alright for you, but definitely not for me.

          Today was the worst. I got so unlucky.

          I couldn’t find my wallet, and now I was being forced to read some erotic manga.

          While firing complaints one after the other in my mind, I continued to release moaning noises and recited all the lines. The only thing I could use to quench the thirst in my throat was the cup of soda that I didn’t even want to drink.

          「I’m surprised by how bad you are at this. Or rather, I guess you sound stiff. I thought for sure that you’d be better than this, considering how often you must get around.」

          「Okay, for the record, I’m pure in that regard, and I don’t “get around”.」

          I corrected Miyagi on her rather rude assumptions of me.

          「You say that, but you’re only passing yourself off as pure because it gets the guys, right?」

          「That’s not it.」

          I wasn’t acting pure at school for the sake of attracting men. I was doing it to impress our teachers.

          「But I’ve heard people say you only act that way so that you could hook up with guys.」

          「So that’s the kind of image I give off, huh.」

          I never knew that people like Miyagi and her group of friends thought of me that way. And wait, there were rumors like that about me floating around? I didn’t like the sound of that.

           「Well, anyway, are we done with the orders?」

          I asked Miyagi. For the time being, I put the matter regarding those horrible rumors about me aside.

          「Yep, we’re done.」

          「Okay, then what now?」

          「You can go home, or you can stay if you want. You can do whatever you’d like, Sendai-san.」

          「Alright, then I’ll just go home. Oh, and can I borrow the other volumes of this manga? It was pretty interesting.」

          The spine of the book labeled it as the first volume, so there was probably a second one out there. I wasn’t interested in reading it aloud again, but I was pretty curious about what was going to happen next. However, just when I thought I’d get a positive answer, Miyagi’s discourteous response betrayed my expectations.

          「No.」

          「Wow, how stingy. What’s wrong with lending me some manga?」

          「Five-thousand yen.」

          「What? Are you charging me five-thousand yen to rent one manga volume? At that price, it’d be much cheaper if I just bought it myself.」

          「No. I’ll be the one paying you, Sendai-san.」

          「Huuh?」

          Her words caught me completely off guard, causing me to involuntarily let a silly sound escape my mouth.

          「I’m saying I’ll pay you five-thousand yen to buy your time after school, Sendai-san. So if you want to read the continuation, then you can do it here.」

          The idea of buying a classmate for five-thousand yen sounded too surreal.

          Earlier, she had no reservations about giving me some ridiculous order to read erotic manga out loud to her. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if she told me she was after my body.

          「I’m not going to sell myself. And besides, what would you even do if you did rent me? Have sex with me? Isn’t five-thousand yen a little too cheap for that? Plus, I’m not really interested in another woman’s body either.」

          I wanted to shut that proposal down before she could even bring it up.

          「What are you even imagining, Sendai-san? I have no intention of doing anything like that with you either.」

          「Well then, what? What were you going to do with me for five-thousand yen?」

          「We’d only be meeting up once, maybe twice a week. I want you to come to my house after school and then listen to what I tell you to do, just like today.」

          Miyagi looked at me without so much as a smile on her face.

          「You mean like read you an erotic manga out loud?」

          「That, and if I feel like it, maybe I’ll have you do my homework too.」

          「What’s with that? So you want me to be like a handyman?」

          Well, I didn’t like the idea of selling my body for five-thousand yen, but getting paid that much to do someone else’s homework was kind of dubious as well.

          That being said, it seemed like a good price for that amount of labor.

          「No, it’s a bit different than that. I’ll be issuing you orders, and you have to listen to them.」

          「What kind of orders? I don’t want you to hit me, and sex is completely out of the question.」

          I seriously had no idea what went on in Miyagi’s head, so I couldn’t predict what she may say next. That’s why, just to be safe, I wanted to reiterate that I would not sell my body to her.

          「I don’t like violence either, and I’m not looking to get into a sexual relationship with you, Sendai-san.」

          「If I said no, would you go and ask someone else do to this?」

          「I wouldn’t. Anyone would think I’m a weirdo if I just randomly went up to them and asked them to do my bidding for the price of five-thousand yen, wouldn’t they?」

          Wait a sec, I’d say the current situation we’re in is plenty weird already.

          Plus, I’d already labeled Miyagi as “a dangerous person” in my head.

          But it wasn’t like it didn’t interest me at all. I was the kind of person who did things like read magazines I didn’t even like for the sake of fitting in and buttering up other people. I felt like, compared to that, the current situation would lead to something much more interesting.

          「So you’re saying you only want me?」

          「I wouldn’t go that far. Things just happened to work out this way.」

          「Well, good enough for me. In that case, just to help me pass time, I’ll listen to one order for five-thousand yen. I can’t come on weekends, but after school is fine.」

          If things “just worked out” for you, then I’m going to make them work out for me as well.

          I wanted to avoid reading erotic manga out loud again, but that seemed like that was as bad as the orders could get, so I guess I could go along with it every once in a while.

          And besides, I was also a little intrigued by Miyagi.

          I wanted to know what sort of orders a strange girl like her would give me. Plus, if I really didn’t want to obey an order, I could always give her the five-thousand yen back―― but I suppose she probably wouldn’t accept the money.

          「Alright, that’s that then. Oh, and I won’t interact with you at school, so is it okay if we just communicated through our phones?」

          「That’s fine.」

          Although I had a hunch that I would probably regret this later, I casually accepted Miyagi’s offer.

          And then, after exchanging contact information with her, I left her room.

          Once we were outside the apartment building, with Miyagi courteously seeing me out, I waved goodbye to her and headed back home.

          It wasn’t raining anymore.

          When I glanced up towards what used to be an overcast sky, I noticed that the clouds had already dissipated without me realizing it.

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Credits to himi for proofreading and editing this part!

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