At the trampoline park.

“I’ve never been to a trampoline park before.”

“Wait really?”

“Yeah…”

“Even with the rentals? Someone was bound to take you to one of these. No?”

“Well. I usually refused them because I knew the reason that they’d planned this.”

“Well damn, I’m flattered. I got to take you to someplace that you’ve never been. And just to be on the same page. I do have the same intentions as those who planned to get you here.”

“I know…”

‘Something tells me that asking her why she accepted my invite would be a good idea.’

“I guess I’m special then, huh?” He hugs her shoulder as they keep walking to the main area.

“Come on, I’ll show you how much fun it is.” Kazuya pulls her hand to the area with nothing but huge trampolines instead of the floor.

She lost her balance the moment she stepped on the trampoline and would’ve fallen if not for Kazuya’s hand for support.

She grabbed his hand as if her life depended on it and tried to balance herself.

“Don’t you like athletic stuff, why is your balance so poor?”

“I was just caught unexpectedly that’s all.” She snorts and proceeds to show him that she was indeed caught unexpectedly.

Kazuya gets an evil smile as he quickly jumps right beside her with a lot of force.

She instantly loses any footing and is left to flail in the air for an instant before she falls on the trampoline.

‘I so love that she accepted my invitation to this place.’ He thinks to himself as he sees her jiggling tits as if they had a mind of their own.

She sits on the bouncy floor with a pout since he wasn’t playing fair and Kazuya takes a seat beside her.

“What’s up? You tired already.” Kazuya smiles at her infuriatingly.

She turns her head away in mock anger.

“Well if you’re going to play it like that.” Kazuya picked her up in his arms in a princess carry and got up.

“Hey! Let me down!”

…

They spent around half an hour jumping around on the trampoline before both of them were pretty tired and decided to call it a day.

“So you had fun?” He’s holding her hand and walking back to their house.

“I did. Thank you.” She was smiling as she answered him.

“You don’t need to thank me for taking you out.” He chuckles, knowing what she was referring to.

“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the Ruka thing. If you weren’t there I would probably freak out and do something dumb.”

“You probably would.”

“You have any dinner plans?” Chizuru asked him in a tiny voice

‘Does she want to extend our date?’

“Not really. I was just gonna cook something up and eat it in my apartment.”

“Wanna do it at my place?” Her words shocked Kazuya for a few seconds before he realized she was talking about the food.

“Sure. I don’t mind. Hell, I’m sure I’d enjoy your company. It’s far better than eating alone.”

“Yeah…” She trailed off as she looked up at the moon.

…

They both bought the ingredients on the way and Kazuya went to his place to change up into different clothes since the trampoline park had gotten him sweaty.

*knock**knock*

There’s a click and Chizuru opens the door in her comfy home clothes. She was wearing leggings and a hoodie with her glasses. Her hair was open and flowed down to her waist.

“Come on in.” She walked back from her door to let Kazuya in.

“So, what are you cooking for me?” She asks him as he walks in.

“I thought you were cooking.” He says naturally and takes a seat.

She narrows her eyes at him as he stares back at her.

Intangible sparks are flying around as they go on with their stare contest.

“Together?” Chizuru finally gives in.

“Together.” He nods.

Chizuru helps out with the preparation of the ingredients like chopping and Kazuya cooks them. They both work efficiently together and are done with dinner for both of them within half an hour.

“So, what did you think about today?”

“Which part?”

“How about the good part first?” Saying this, Kazuya takes a bite.

“Well, the trampoline park was a whole lot of fun. I’d never been there before so it was a unique experience. I wish we had more time to play there.”

“Now for the bad part.”

“Well, it wasn’t bad per se… I just didn’t like how we all left. Ruka kinda bombed everything. The rest of it was pretty fun. Remember when you sneaked up right after me on the wall? I was so terrified.”

…

They both have a harmonious meal before Kazuya leaves Chizuru with a goodnight kiss and a whole lot of complicated feelings.

‘Aren’t we supposed to be broken up? Aren’t you disgusted by my profession? Why are you still acting like I’m your girlfriend? Why are you… like this?’ 

She’s left with a whole lot of questions that left her confused.

Meanwhile, Kazuya didn’t go back to his apartment and decided to take a walk for a while, enjoying the cold breeze.

“It’s already November…” It was the 31st of October, 11 at night.

“I should seriously stop acting like a bitch and take some real action… I keep going around in circles with the shit that I’m doing.”

“It’s been months and there’s been no real progress with anything here. I should get my shit together.”

Kazuya hypes himself up and decides to finally stop acting like a bitch after today.

“I’m going to sleep at the new place.”

He changes his mind about going back to his run-down place and goes to his penthouse.

He spent the rest of the night grinding the usual projects that he was left with only 10 of after this day.

He was planning on finishing everything up by the end of this week Since it was already November and he hadn’t even realized.

…

The next day he made a stop by his apartment and saw an unexpected person standing there.

“Ruka-chan?”

“Hello Kazuya-san.”

“Were you waiting for me?” Kazuya asks her since she was waiting right in front of his door.

“Yes, I was actually. I rang the bell, but no one answered so I figured that you were out.

“And, you were waiting for me, because…” He trails off waiting for her to answer.

She takes a deep breath and turns to directly face him.

“Because I need you to please hug me Kazuya-san.” She opened her arms, invitingly.

Kazuya’s brain resets at the bold request of the cute girl who just appeared at his doorstep.

“Are you that lonely? That you need to ask random strangers for hugs?” Kazuya was creeped out even though giving random strangers hugs was not that big of a deal, Ruka’s expression right now did not convey any normalcy.

“Also, I’m 20. I might get arrested,” Kazuya is referring to Ruka’s school outfit.

“This is cosplay.”

Kazuya narrows his eyes at her in doubt.

“79 points, just a bit more. Please.” Ruka said words that Kazuya didn’t understand but it sounded to him like some sort of kill streak so he backed away further.

“Are you going to stab me? I will run away if you try that.”

“What? No, why would I do that? I just want to see if my heart rate can increase.”

“Then go running of something. Don’t creep random people out. How’d you even know that I live here?”

“Kuri told me where you live… And about the running thing… I can’t do that.” She looks down biting her lip.

Looking at the not-schoolgirl that’s biting her lips and standing in front of him with her arms open makes him think that she might not be fucking with him.

“Fine. Come on, take a walk with me. Tell me your so-called story.” Kazuya decided to take pity on her.

…

“My heart beats slowly… You could say that I have a no heartbeat condition.” Ruka and Kazuya are walking together as she tells him her story.

“Like Bradycardia?”

“I don’t know what it’s called… but basically, my heart beats slower than the average adult’s. When doing strenuous exercise, I would occasionally get dizzy and short of breath.”

“So, Bradycardia. Must be a pain when having sex.” Kazuya mumbles the last sentence.

“What?”

“Nothing, continue.”

“…The doctors said that it shouldn’t be an obstacle in daily life but people that found out about it… They treated me differently when I was growing up.”

“Must’ve been difficult.”

“I got used to it. And as I got older, it stopped bothering me so. My parents also got pretty used to it so they left me to do my own thing after some time. Then I was able to decide for myself… I have a monthly checkup and some medicine that I have to take though.”

“What did you decide then?”

“Well… by the time high school rolled around it was as if it wasn’t even there if I didn’t think about it… One time, I was out at a theme park with my friends and they brought me to the rollercoaster. It was supposed to be a heart-pounding experience and all but by the end… There wasn’t anything. No excitement, to rush, nothing. I was left there pretending that I feel that stuff. While on the inside I felt like a damn robot.”

“…” Kazuya is silent as Ruka continues.

“One day, I heard one of my friends talking about her first kiss and how it was an amazing heart-pounding experience… So, I thought that I’d try to find someone too. And I’ve been a rental ever since… Wait I don’t think that I was about to tell you that.” Ruka suddenly panics and squats at the side while holding her head.

Kazuya kneeled in front of Ruka and said, “It’s fine. When you called Chizuru out yesterday, I knew that you were also a rental. It wasn’t that difficult to find out.”

“Weally?” She looks at him with tears in her eyes.

“Fuck, why would you cry like that after this? Come on up. I’ll give you your damn hug. You seem like you need one.” He pulled her up from the ground and tightly hugged her.

’She really is nothing but a lost child, huh?’ He thinks to himself as Ruka acts like a crybaby in his arms.

“There, there.” He lightly rubbed her back.