-Can we meet? Balcony.- Kazuya got this message on a random day in February from Chizuru.

-Use the walkie-talkie.- Kazuya had remembered that he’d gotten her a walkie-talkie for Christmas.

-I don’t want to use your random thoughtless gift.-

-It wasn’t thoughtless. I gave it to you since I wanted you to be able to talk to me whenever.-

There was no reply from Chizuru for a few seconds.

“Can you meet me on the balcony?” Her voice came from the walkie-talkie.

“That’s not how it goes. Over.”

“Stop fucking with me. Are you coming or not?”

“Fine. Geez. You’re like a cat that got stepped on its tail. Over and out.”

Kazuya opened the balcony door and walked out.

“What’s up?” Kazuya saw that Chizuru was leaning on the railing of the balcony.

“I need a favor.” Her hair was waving in the wind freely.

“I don’t mind helping out. But what’s in it for me?”

“You didn’t even listen to what I had to say.”

“And lose the chance to get a favor from you? No chance.”

“Anyway, I have this friend.”

‘Please say threesome.’ Kazuya prayed inwardly.

Chizuru continued,  ”I need you to rent her. She’s new at the agency so I’m sort of her mentor. She’s extremely shy and we’ve been getting complaints from some customers since she’s far too shy to even talk to them.”

“Since you aren’t a stranger, I thought that I’d ask you to rent her. You know, for practice. You don’t have to pay, since you’re helping out the agency. What do you say?”

“I don’t have any issue with helping you out with this.”

“Why would you? You get to go out on a date with a cute shy girl.”

Kazuya rolled his eyes and didn’t say anything.

“How’re things with Mami going?”

“What?” Kazuya is confused at how Chizuru brought Mami into the conversation.

“You know… It didn’t work out between us, right? So I thought that you’d try to find someone else. We haven’t talked much in the past three months other than our usual weekly dinners.”

“I’ve been busy as fuck in that time, Chizuru. Let alone go out, I didn’t even have the time to ask a girl out. I’ve been busy with this thing that I’ve been doing.”

“Sounds important.”

“It is. And I’m sure as hell not going to go after Mami when I would much rather try to woo you.”

“Stop it, you know it’s not possible with us…”

“It is actually. You just don’t want to admit it. The rental thing is no more than an excuse and you know it. You know damn well that it’s not as big of a deal as you make it out to be. It’s annoying, sure but I-“

“Let’s not talk about this for now.” She interrupts him.

“Yeah. Anyway. I should get back to work. Text me her details for tomorrow and I’ll take her out. Maybe help her get out of her shy shell.” Kazuya doesn’t plan to grovel unnecessarily.

Once he’s done with his project, he’ll give her one last chance before he decides to move on and hell her to fuck off.

In place of this bullshit, he might as well take Mami. At least she’s getting plenty of sexual stuff with her. And the manipulating thing, he can deal with that pretty easily.

“Sure.”

…

The next day, Kazuya is at the meeting place.

’Sumi Sakurasawa…She’s a shy one, huh?’

‘It’s already past the meeting time. Is she hiding from me?’ Kazuya looked around and indeed he noticed a pink-haired head peeking at him from behind the wall.

He waved at her with a gentle smile.

Realizing that she had been noticed by Kazuya, Sumi slowly walked to him.

She quietly comes up to him and stands in front of him shyly while looking down.

She was wearing a pink dress and a beige overcoat. Her pink hair was left mostly free with a cute side braid.

“Hi, Sumi-chan…” Kazuya felt like he was doing a crime right now. She looked like she was still in school.

Her shy expression didn’t do much to change his thoughts.

She didn’t say anything and nodded politely to him in acknowledgment.

“So, you’re Chizuru’s friend, huh?”

“…” She nodded again while murmuring in a tiny voice.

‘Okay, this is beyond just shyness. She has problems even talking to strangers. Though that voice, she could be a singer.’

“Let’s go slowly Sumi. My name is Kazuya Kinoshita. What is yours?” He smiled at her gently and asked her.

“Sum… Sakura…” She murmured half of her name and only half of it was intelligible.

‘Good enough for a start.’

“If you are nervous talking to a person, imagine that you’re talking to a brick wall instead. It’ll become easier. For now, let’s go. We should start our date.”

Kazuya walked slowly with Sumi.

He didn’t realize that there was someone else who noticed him with Sumi.

“What…?”

…

“Sumi, would you like some coffee?” Kazuya gently asked her as they were sitting in a cafe.

She nodded.

“Sugar?”

She nodded again.

“Milk?”

She nodded again.

“Cream?”

She nodded again.

“Blood?”

She nodded again before stiffening for a moment and shaking her head in denial.

“Haha, you’re such a cutie, Sumi. You worry too much. You’re Chizuru’s friend, right?”

She nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, I’m also her friend. So you don’t need to think of me as a stranger. Think of it as if you’re going out with a friend. Would that be fine Sumi?”

She nods again.

“I want you to say it Sumi, you’ll only overcome your shyness if you push yourself to say things. We’ll start small, okay? With simple yes and no answers. So will you try, Sumi?”

“…Yeah.” She says in an extremely tiny voice.

“Good.” They both drink their coffee with Kazuya asking her simple questions and trying to get her comfortable with speaking simple words like yes and no.

…

After the coffee, they go to a bowling alley.

The date routine was pre-set-up by the agency and Sumi so Kazuya didn’t have much input on where to take her. But he didn’t mind since bowling was a fun endeavor.

“Have you eveer been bowling Sumi?”

“N-No.” She’s still stuttering a bit but at least she’s able to give him yes and no answers.

“I see, do you need me to teach you?”

She got back into her habit and nodded to Kazuya.

“Not like that Sumi. You need to say it.”

“Y-Yes.” Her face is a little red since she’s trying hard to overcome her shyness.

“Okay, you don’t have to force yourself so much that you burn out. Trying hard is good but in moderation. For now, let’s bowl.”

Kazuya first showed Sumi how to hold the ball and then he hit the pins.

He didn’t strike but there were only two pins left so Kazuya reset the pit.

“It’s your turn now Sumi, try to hit the pin in the center, that way it will reduce the chances of the ball going in the gutter.”

Sumi looked at him questioningly.

“Oh, the gutter is that area at the side of the lane. If the ball falls there then you won’t be able to hit any pins.”

She nods with conviction and pumps herself up.

Then she picks up the ball and fixes her fingers tightly in the grooves.

“I’m going stay with you Sumi so that I can guide you.” ‘I have a feeling that she’s going to slip and fall, shouldn’t let that happen.’

She was looking at someone in the next lane who was also throwing their ball. 

She took a little run and tried to let the bowling ball go.

Her grip was too tight on the ball and her run wasn’t as controlled as it should be.

Her hand was still stuck to the ball and made an arch while she slipped and was about to fall.

“I guess that’s my cue.” Kazuya swooped in and caught her by her waist and pushed away the ball that was about to fall on her chest if she fell.

‘She doesn’t even have much cushioning there to keep herself safe from that attack.’ Kazuya thinks something rude about Sumi.

As if knowing his thoughts she looks at him with a reproachful look. For the first time on the date, her expression was different from her usual meek and shy one and it was this one.

‘Fuck, do all girls have this intuition or something…’

“It’s all right, Sumi. I got you. Let’s try again.” He brings her back to her feet, ignoring her reproachful look that was there for a few seconds.

Then he hands her the ball and decides to help her out a bit more personally.

“I’ll help you out this time. Here, hold on to the ball.” Kazuya held up the bowling ball in front of her as she fixed her fingers in the groove.

“All right, we don’t need to take a running start for now.” Kazuya stands behind her and holds her hand that was fixed to the ball.

He helped her follow the arch and told her to let go at the right time, “Now!”

Just as Sumi let go, the pin rolled right in the center but made a tiny swerve and hit a few of the pins at the side.

“Good work Sumi. Now try it yourself.” He praised her and stepped back.

‘This should be a good source of confidence for her.’

They spend some time bowling and then move to the food court to get some food.

“By the way, Sumi. Why are you working as a rental? I’m curious.”

“…” Sumi didn’t reply.