Discord link: [discord . gg / 4y5QVPj]

Disclaimer: I don't own Rent a Girlfriend, or any of its characters...

Kazuya Kinoshita let out a loud groan of frustration before he slowly walked back towards Chizuru with a furious look on his face. He also clenched his fists tightly, which was a clear sign of how he was feeling at the moment.

Those two idiots he called 'friends'… oh, they are so dead the next time he sees them!

"Kazuya-kun, what's going on?" she asked in concern, wondering if something was bothering him because it looked like he was angry for some reason.

Upon hearing Chizuru's voice, Kazuya felt calmer and his thoughts were directed away from thinking of different ways to beat up Kuri and Kibe for now.

He turned his attention towards the girl and let out a massive sigh of defeat, now feeling ashamed for not seeing through this obvious prank a lot sooner.

"I'm sorry about this, Chizuru-san, but it seems the guy that you're supposed to meet has bailed out on you. The reason I'm here is because he wanted me and another friend to hang out this afternoon, which happens to be the same time as when he rented you. But look, neither of those idiots are around."

"Which means…" she muttered, narrowing her eyes slowly. She had a good idea of where this was going and she could already feel a vein popping in her head due to her anger building up.

He nodded. "That's right. We both got screwed over."

"Why am I not surprised?" she sighed, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

Despite not happening all the time, she had experience with clients playing a prank on rental girlfriends about pretending to rent them, only to bail out at the last second. It was one of the more annoying occurrences that happens on the job, next to those clients who break the rules.

"It seems that I wasted my time going all this way, so I will just go on ahead. Thank you for informing me about your friend right away, Kazuya-kun. I would have wasted more time here if it wasn't for you."

Chizuru stuck her nose high in a haughty manner and turned around to leave, but Kazuya's voice stopped her in her tracks before she could get away.

"Hold it right there. You didn't waste your time at all."

The girl turned around, raising an eyebrow at her neighbor as he walked towards her.

"You said it, didn't you? He's not going to show up."

"No, that's not it," he shook his head and stopped when he was just a meter away from her. He then rolled his eyes and shifted his gaze to the side, annoyed that he had to be the one to do this. "Ugh, it's more like he gave me his payment so I can give it to you myself…"

Chizuru blinked a few times out of confusion.

"W-What…?"

"Here's your money," Kazuya handed over the wad of bills that he was supposed to use for the game that his friend wanted to get. "Kuri gave it to me earlier. He said that he wanted me to buy the newest game here for him, but I didn't notice that it wasn't even enough to cover the total amount."

The girl only stared at him the whole time he was explaining the situation, before looking down at the money being handed towards her. She looked hesitant about accepting the money because she felt like she didn't do anything to earn it.

In the end though, she took the small pile of bills from his hand, although she seemed to be in deep thought about something.

"I see…"

Now that he had done all that he needed to, Kazuya felt like he can finally breathe normally after getting set up by his friends to meet up with a rental girlfriend this afternoon.

Of course, this doesn't stop him from beating those two idiots to a pulp when he sees them again, but now he can focus his mind on other things, like clearing his head of the shame he felt right now…

"I'm just gonna go on ahead, Chizuru-san. Since I can tell that my friends aren't going to show up, like you, I have no reason to be here anymore. I'll see you later."

Doing his best not to give away his true thoughts at the moment, Kazuya gave a simple goodbye and walked towards his bike. He was about to put on his helmet when he heard Chizuru's voice once again.

"Wait!" she called out, causing Kazuya to stop and turn towards her. "Would you like to go with me instead of Shun-kun, then? Since my services have already been paid for, it would be a waste to not do anything, right? The only thing is that my supposed client isn't here, but you are and you're a friend of him!"

She offered with a bright smile, while the young man only stared at her the whole time, completely confused and thrown out of the loop.

"Huh?" was all that he could say in response.

Expecting that reaction from him, Chizuru moved closer towards him and giggled, which was the complete opposite of how she looked earlier. For some reason, her current expression somehow caused Kazuya to feel uncomfortable too, but he didn't show it.

"Let me explain further, then. Shun-kun isn't here, right? By default, it should already mean that his reservation is cancelled because he's not present at our meeting place. However, since you are acquainted with my original client and you were the one who paid for him, my services pass on to you instead!"

His eyes grew wide as soon as she was done talking, realizing what Chizuru was trying to imply all along.

She was basically offering to let him take over Kuri's reservation, which will effectively make her his rental girlfriend for the day.

"Wait, what? Is that even allowed?" he asked, more confused than anything else.

The girl shifted in her position slightly, momentarily unsure of what to say next.

Truth be told, Chizuru had no idea if transferring a reservation from one client to another was even allowed in the rulebook and she doubted that such a thing would even be written down by the higher-ups. If it was allowed, then the number of clients who use the rental girlfriend service would increase due to the ability to transfer reservations from customer than another.

However, the girl didn't want to accept the money given to her without doing anything. Her conscience was telling her that what she would be doing won't be any different than stealing if she didn't do anything in return for the money she had.

Okay, her original client may not be here, but Kazuya was! Plus, he was well aware of what she is already, right?

It shouldn't be hard to spend a few hours with him as his rental girlfriend. She just had to act like how she usually is, preferably without the blushing and acting all nervous for no reason, by the way!

"That's right! So what do you say? You already know about who I really am anyway, so would you like me to be your girlfriend for a while?" she asked, leaning closer into his face while showing off a beautiful smile.

Kazuya took a moment to slowly take in all of her words, while also leaning away from Chizuru due to how close she was to him. His answer was already obvious, and he didn't waste time in telling her.

"No, thanks."

She winced at his answer.

While she was surprised at his immediate rejection, she quickly remembered how Kazuya mentioned that he didn't like rental girlfriends and her job in general a few dags ago.

Yes, she was listening the whole time during their little talk, and she clearly remembered him mentioning that he didn't like her profession but he wouldn't tell anyone about it for petty reasons.

"Oh, come on, what's the big deal? I know you don't like rental girlfriends, but you can always think of this as hanging out between friends!" she said, reassuring Kazuya that he didn't need to think of her job much if it bothered him.

"Not too sure about that when you're putting up an act as a rental girlfriend…" he thought while secretly sending her a suspicious look, before turning his attention back to Chizuru herself.

Kazuya shook his head in order to reaffirm his point.

There's no way he was going to agree with this. He wasn't even the one who rented Chizuru in the first place, so this wasn't his problem! Who cares about that rule she was saying?

He didn't want a girlfriend and he sure as hell didn't want to pretend to have one!

"I don't want to pretend that I have a girlfriend. I'm going home," he said firmly, making it clear that his answer won't change at all.

Chizuru's jaw dropped a bit after Kazuya rejected her again, to the point that she didn't notice him putting on his helmet already. It's like she couldn't believe she got turned down that quickly, twice even, by the same person who was also the same boy whom she had been fascinated with ever since they met.

In all her career as a rental girlfriend, she couldn't think of any boy who has turned her down before. In fact, it was normally the other way around with her respectfully turning down boys when they attempt to do more than what they're allowed to.

For some reason, Chizuru felt a pang in her chest after hearing those words from Kazuya.

Strange… she never felt like this before and it completely distracted her for a bit.

It was only when he took his seat on his bike that she finally snapped out of her thoughts and quickly approached him.

She needed to convince him to let her come with him!

"But my services have already been paid for! I can't just accept payment without doing something in return and you're the only one here!" she argued once again, trying her best to make Kazuya look at her problem from her point of view.

"Well, you should learn to. I have nothing to do with Kuribayashi renting you. I was just here to give you your money because that bastard wanted to play a prank on me."

Kazuya remained indifferent to Chizuru's pleas as the girl only pouted, puffing her cheeks as much as she could at the young man. Unfortunately for her, he didn't really care although he did feel bad that she was fooled by Kuri as well.

"I'll see you later, Chizuru-san. I'll punch that idiot in the face for you the next time I see him— hey, what the hell are you doing?!"

He cut himself from his words when he felt someone occupy the seat behind him, causing him to turn around. He felt his annoyance building upon seeing Chizuru sitting there, as if everything he said went into her ear and then out the other.

"I'm a professional! When I get paid, I do my job! Since my client isn't here and you're the only one with me right now, I'm offering you my services instead!" she said, continuing to pout at him.

Kazuya threw her a glare, and it was the first time that he did so.

"I told you, I don't want it! Get off!"

"What's wrong with you? You, out of all the people that I have met should know that I'm just a rental girlfriend. It wouldn't hurt anyone if we spend a few hours together, don't you know that?" she asked, completely stumped about why he seemed so angry right now.

From her point of view, he was looking at this as though it was the bane of his existence, and she didn't know why.

Kazuya was about to make another retort but he stopped himself at the last moment, realizing that if this goes on any further, it would result in him being left with no choice but to tell Chizuru the reason why he didn't like rental girlfriends.

At worst, it may even led to him being forced to admit about what happened to him and his past relationship, and he didn't want that.

Fine.

If this was how it's going to be, then he had no choice. He'll have to back down for now and play along, but it doesn't mean that he liked this one bit.

"How long did Kuri rent you?" he asked her in a deadpan voice.

"Three hours," she said, her pout turning into a smile, thoroughly pleased with herself that she managed to convince Kazuya in the end.

"Fine. But after this, you better leave me alone."

He spoke while giving her a serious look, not caring that he was talking this way to a rental girlfriend. In return, Chizuru only threw up a 'v' sign and grinned.

"Alright, alright, I got it."

"So where do we go now? I was planning to spend the rest of my time today at the gym where I used to go, but that's obviously out of the window now," he asked, the tone in his voice making it clear that he wasn't looking forward to this one bit.

"Do you think we can go there then? I'd love to see the place where you work out," she smiled, looking strangely eager about spending the next few hours as his girlfriend.

He let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Nope. I've lost the drive to go there now because of what just happened to me. Maybe some other time when I'm feeling a lot better."

"Well then, would you like to drop by a cafe first? We could get some coffee after we got bailed out on by the same person."

Kazuya thought about the suggestion for a few moments, before he nodded in agreement. An ice-cold drink sounded very tempting at the moment, especially now when he needed to cool his mind from what his friends did to him.

"Sounds good. I could use a cold drink right now."

With that, he kicked his bike to life and drove away, feeling Chizuru wrap her arms around his waist and lean against him gently.

Kazuya briefly glanced at her in alarm, wondering if she was trying to pull off something here that relates to 'girlfriend' stuff because if she was, he'll just forget about the deal they made and drop her off somewhere.

Again, he didn't want anything to do with this stuff in the first place and he only gave in to this to save himself from explaining the more complicated stuff.

However, it didn't seem like the girl was hugging him or anything, it's more like she was hanging on to him while he was driving, calming the young man down considerably.

"Hmm…" he muttered to himself as he stared at the girl behind him for a few more moments, before finally focusing back on the road.

This is going to be a bummer, he could already tell.

The pair stopped at the nearest cafe and like an excited child, Chizuru practically pulled Kazuya along with her inside the shop, where they sat at a table opposite to each other and waited for someone to attend to them.

"I'm aware we go to the same university now, Kazuya-kun, but what year are you in?" Chizuru asked, putting on a smile that was entirely different to the other ones that Kazuya had already seen from her.

He could already feel how she was putting up an act, and he was trying his best not to walk out and just leave her there. It was making him sick and if worse comes to worse, he'll have to remind himself that this Chizuru was different from the girl whom he saved from a drunk idiot.

"First year," the young man said in a bored tone, taking his gaze out the window so that he wouldn't have to look at her.

"Oh, me as well! But, I only got in just recently…"

"Then that makes the two of us."

"We must have been put in different classes, then. That's too bad, it would've been fun having you around, wouldn't it?"

"Who knows?" he remarked with a dry laugh, while he was rolling his eyes inwardly. "I don't know if it's the real you or the rental girlfriend speaking, so I can't really say…"

Even though he was someone with experience in relationships, it surely wouldn't take a genius to realize that things were awkward between them. He didn't like this at all, while the girl continued to act like nothing was wrong because it was her job…

If Kazuya had to be honest, he wouldn't feel the need to give a cold shoulder if Chizuru would just drop the damn act and be her normal self. After that, they can truly hang out like genuine friends!

A waiter then came to give them two menus, which they accepted gratefully and proceeded to search for what they wanted to order.

"Hmm, what to get…"

While Chizuru was pondering over what drink she wanted, Kazuya secretly sent a troubled look in her direction.

"So… this is what it's like to rent a girlfriend… even though I'm not the one who did the work," he sighed, feeling somehow bad that things had to end this way. "It's nothing different from having a real one… she even dressed up nice for the occasion but the thing is, she's not like the girl I've been talking to for the past few days."

"I want to order this, Kazuya-kun!"

Chizuru smiled brightly as she pointed to an iced latte on her menu, and her companion gave her a small nod in response.

"Alright, then. Guess I'll have myself a frappuccino to cool my mind…"

Kazuya stood up from the table and slowly walked towards the counter, before releasing a deep sigh to himself.

"To think that I have to go through this for three whole hours… oh, I'm gonna kill those two idiots and then bury them alive," he said to himself in anger, unknowingly scaring a few people around him as a result.

Those poor souls don't know what's coming for them and they are gonna get it, after he was done with this stupid date.

Welp, what Kazuya was trying to avoid this whole time has just happened and he's gonna have to deal with it! Chizuru is now his rental girlfriend for a few hours! She was being annoying so he willingly backed down so that he wouldn't have to explain anything, at the cost of him 'enjoying' the date between them. Will it end in a good way or in a disaster? Hopefully, Kazuya can keep his annoyance held in...

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance