I Started a Lover-for-Hire Service, And For Some Reason, Only Beautiful Girls Are Requesting Me - Chapter 10: The Celebrity, Loli-Rin

“Heh, if they asked you about your free days, then the date was a success. And three hours for 10,000 yen? That’s an incredible deal, isn’t it? Good for you!”

The next morning, Ryoma was talking to Yukiya about his part-time lover acting job. Or rather, he was being forced to talk about it.

“I introduced it to you, so a little info wouldn’t hurt, right?” 

In reality, Yukiya was right. Thanks to that, Ryoma had earned 10,000 yen, so he had no choice but to take the passive role in the conversation.

“So, how was she?” 

“She was a student, a year younger than me.” 

“No, no, I’m asking if she was cute or beautiful. As a guy, that’s what I care about.”

“Ah… she was more on the cute side. The clothes she wore were a style called ‘Gothic Lolita’, and they suited her.”

It was the first time Ryoma had seen such an outfit up close. The detail in the clothing was extraordinary. He wondered if it was custom-made because her fashion style was still fresh in his memory.

“Hoh?” 

“She had such a pretty face that it’s surprising she didn’t have a boyfriend. Honestly, I was nervous during the date.”

“Tch, you’re getting all the perks, huh? Getting paid and going on a date. So lucky.” 

“Your girlfriend would be mad if she heard you say that.”

“Well, it’s just a joke, alright? A joke. Hahaha… Anyway, keep it a secret, okay?” Yukiya said, slapping Ryoma on the shoulder. He was smiling awkwardly while trying to laugh it off, but then he switched to a serious tone.

Ryoma had heard firsthand just how scary Yukiya’s girlfriend could be. And despite his joking attitude, Yukiya was clearly being cautious.

To this day, Ryoma didn’t even know her real name. The only thing he knew was that it had something to do with “Wind”. That alone made it impossible to track her down.

“So, how was her personality? The cute client of yours?”

It was an obvious change of subject, but Ryoma knew that if he kept pushing about Yukiya’s girlfriend, the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere. He decided to go along with it.

“She was a bit quiet, but I think she was easy to talk to. The conversation went pretty well, I think.”

“Ah, so you can only tell what the client is like when you actually meet them at the meeting spot?” 

“Well… the agency only gave me some basic info about the client’s characteristics.” 

“Huh… But I guess there really are people who use a lover-for-hire service, huh? You registered with the company and got your first job about a week later, right?”

“Yeah… but I think I just got lucky with the timing. When you think about it from the client’s perspective, the agency fee is pretty expensive, so it’s not something you can just casually do.”

Even for a three-hour service, including the agency’s cut, it was 17,500 yen. And all the costs during the service were covered by the client. Depending on how the time was used, it could easily exceed 30,000 yen.

Without other sources of income, it wasn’t something you could afford on a whim.

“So, did you have fun? How was your first lover-for-hire job?” 

“It was fun, but it was tiring because it was a job I wasn’t used to… I really realized how tough it is to earn money.” 

“Yeah, I mean, it was a first-time date with a stranger, right? If there were an easy job where you could get money without effort, that’d be great.” 

“That’s true.” 

And so, they bonded over a topic that anyone who worked for a living could relate to. Getting easy money was something most people would have to leave to luck—like a lottery.

“Wait, listening to this, I just realized something—”

“Hmm?”

“That client… she kind of resembles ‘Lori-Rin’… One year younger, cute, quiet, wearing gothic lolita fashion. If her facial muscles were frozen, she’d be at the Doppelgänger level.”

“Huh? Lori…rin…?”

“Lori-Rin, yeah. You know her, she’s in our year.”

“I have no idea who that is…”

Even when it was stated so firmly, Ryoma still couldn’t understand. More than that, he thought it was a strange nickname—‘Lori-Rin.’ He even worried that maybe she had been bullied and given that nickname because of it.

“She’s a famous person at this university, by the way.”

“Is that… because of the ‘Lori’ part?”

The “Lori” part made it easy to assume it was from “gothic lolita”. And if she was famous, it meant she was probably popular and not being bullied, which cleared up Ryoma’s concerns.

“Exactly. You should go check it out sometime. If you get along with her, maybe it could give you some pointers for that client of yours. Honestly, the features are really similar.”

“That might be true, but I’ll pass. Even if I went, I don’t have the confidence to get along with someone like that.”

Looking at cute or beautiful women was fine for eye candy. Ryoma understood that, but he wasn’t interested enough to spend time spying or trying to interact with someone he had no connection to.

“You’re so cold about it. At your age, hearing that there’s a cute girl around, you’d think a guy would dash straight there without a second thought.”

“Objectively speaking, I think it’s the guy who dashes straight there who’s the weird one.”

“The right thing to do as a man is to dash straight there.”

“…Well, I guess.”

In middle school and high school, when puberty was in full swing, a high percentage of boys would have acted like that. What Yukiya was saying wasn’t entirely wrong.

“But, you know, just imagining if that ‘Lori-Rin’ person was yesterday’s client—it makes me break out in a cold sweat. Yesterday, I acted like a boyfriend, and next, I’d have to act like a stranger… It would be super awkward, and well… it’d be pretty bad.”

“Haha, there’s no way that ‘Lori-Rin’ person would be the same as yesterday’s client. What kind of odds are we talking about?”

“Yeah, you’re right…”

Ryoma couldn’t even bring himself to tell his sister, Kaya, that he was doing this “love substitution” part-time job. While it was fine telling someone like Yukiya, who had introduced him to the job, there was a risk of weird rumors spreading if people at the university found out.

Both Ryoma and the client, Himeno, attended the same university. If it ever became known that the client and the service provider were both at the same school, trouble would inevitably follow.

Moreover, it would be trouble of the worst kind—one that would rank high among the difficult things in life.

Ryoma had already been spotted by some of Himeno’s friends yesterday. Getting through that without arousing any suspicion was no simple task.

“Well, you can relax.”

“Huh? Relax?”

As Yukiya had said, Ryoma’s worries turned out to be unfounded.

“That ‘Lori-Rin’ person isn’t interested in things like boyfriends. There’s no way she’d ever ask for a fake lover.”

“Wha—what’s with that punchline?”

With his anxiety dispelled, Ryoma let his tensed shoulders relax.

He sighed in relief, but little did he know, he would soon run into that “Lori-Rin” at this university.