Kazuya was on his way back home from his usual MMA class when he got a text.

‘Hm? It’s Chizuru.’

-Kazuya?-

-Missing me so soon?- They’d talked in university.

-You wish. I need to talk to you.-

-We’re already talking.-

-I’m not talking about texting, dumbass. Can you come to my place for a bit?-

-You sure you don’t just miss me?-

-You coming or not?-

-I’m out on a walk, I’ll be there in a few minutes.-

-I’m waiting.-

‘I’m waiting? What the hell? Did she turn into Mami all of a sudden? …Forget it, I’ll know when I reach her place.’

He turns back and starts walking back. It takes him a few minutes to get back since he hadn’t walked too far.

*knock**knock*

Almost instantly, Chizuru opens the door and abruptly hugs the breath out of him.

He is surprised but still hugs her back as he brings her back into her apartment, closing the door behind him.

“What’s going on? You seem pretty happy.”

“Yep.” She says in his chest.

“Wanna tell me?”

“In a bit.” Chizuru wants to enjoy the feeling of his arms for a little bit. She rubbed her face in his chest, making him feel a little ticklish.

After a few minutes, Chizuru finally pulled back with a beautiful smile on her face.

“I got a gig. Kazuya! I got a gig! I got a gig!” She kept repeating and jumping with her hands on his arms.

“That’s amazing!” Kazuya was happy at seeing this childish excitement on Chizuru’s face.

After a few more minutes Chizuru finally settles down a bit.

“We have to celebrate. You can tell me all about what you want from it then. What do you want to do? It’s all going to be my treat. Super expensive dinner so that you can wring me dry. Party at a club. Or just drink and enjoy the night sky. Your choice.”

“You know, I’ve never been to a club. Never really considered them to be safe.”

“Well, if you want, you could go with me today. I promise to keep you safe.” He looked into her eyes and pushed her hair behind her ears.

“You never get over that cheezy stuff, did you?”

“You like my cheezy shit and you know it.” He smirked at her.

“Whatever. You know a good drinking spot that’s peaceful?” She looked to the side.

“I know just the place. Do you want to change up before we leave? The weather isn’t the most gentle right now.”

“It’s fine. My red hoodie is very warm.”

“Your call. I was already out on a walk. Should we go then?”

“Yeah, just let me wear my shoes.”

Two minutes later they both leave Chizuru’s apartment.

“So, where are we going?”

“There’s this apartment complex nearby. It’s pretty high and the roof has the best view of the moon at night.” He was talking about his apartment. There was a reason that it cost him a shit ton of money upfront, after all.

“Can we go in?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’ve got the place all ready.”

Kazuya didn’t want to pick up the topic of her future for now. At least not before she had a few drinks. She wouldn’t easily talk about much of the stuff sober.

They both walked in silence in the night sky. Somewhere along the way, Chizuru held onto Kazuya’s hand.

It was cold so Kazuya rubbed her hand with both his hands and helped her warm it up before doing the same with her other hand.

They didn’t speak much since Chizuru seemed deep in thought and Kazuya didn’t plan to disturb her.

A while later they finally reach the complex and Kazuya uses his key to enter the building.

“Do you live here?”

“Kinda.” Kazuya still gives her cryptic answers about the reason that he can enter such a luxury apartment complex.

He brings her to the top floor in the lift, which is his penthouse.

“Are you sure you aren’t intruding into someone’s home right now?”

“Bullshit. Even if I was intruding into someone’s home, I wouldn’t be so open about it. And I have the keys and everything. This is pure slander.”

Chizuru narrowed her eyes at him and said, “I swear to god, if you’re bringing me to some sort of auction where you will sell me as a slave, I will haunt your ass as a ghost for eternity.”

“Vivid imagination you have there, babe. But no. This is my other home, I got it a few months ago.”

“If you’re that rich then why are you still living in that dump?” Chizuru couldn’t understand his motivations.

“If I did that then who’d be there to disturb my favorite girl at all times.”

“Yeah, right. And the real reason?” Chizuru didn’t believe him.

“That is the real reason. It’s you.” Kazuya’s words were sincere but his tone makes Chizuru think that he was still kidding.

*Ding* The elevator is finally on the penthouse floor.

“Welcome to my not-so-humble abode, Chizuru.” He dramatically spreads his hands and shows her the lobby after he opened the main door to the apartment.

“I’ll show you the terrace, it’s amazing.” Kazuya led her to the terrace.

It was a wooden floored, open terrace with a bar at the side for house parties and some couches in a sitting area.

“What do you think?”

“Are you into some illegal shady shit?” Chizuru’s face has a concerned expression.

“What?” Kazuya is utterly confused about how she reached that conclusion.

“I have a rough estimate about your family wealth from my grandma who can’t stop droning about you every once in a while. And that wealth, while good, is nowhere enough to let you splurge like this. The only outcome left is that you’re doing some sort of shady illegal shit.”

Kazuya blanks out for a few moments as his mind resets itself after that bullshit.

“Your grandma likes me?” He smiled at her.

“Be serious. I’m not in the mood to joke.” She has a concerned frown on her face.

“Hah… You can’t just enjoy whatever is going on without overthinking everything, can you? It’s a lease. I don’t have even close to the required cash to buy this place. And as for where I got the money, I do freelance projects. I’ve been a big fan of computer science and would’ve gone for that if I hadn’t gone to business school. So, I ended up studying it for myself and did some projects for practice. They paid a good buck.”

“You’re not lying to me are you?”

Looking at the genuine concern on her face, Kazuya’s heart melted and he couldn’t help but pull her in for a hug.

“Trust me, I don’t need to do meaningless shady shit for money. It’s never been a concern for me. The stuff that I have in here...”

Kazuya pointed to his head.

“…it’s enough to make people all around the world fall into a mad scramble.”

Although Kazuya’s words sounded arrogant, Chizuru felt only boundless confidence when she looked into his eyes.

“Awfully arrogant, aren’t you?” She hugged him back and leaned her head into his chest.

“Only the best for my favorite girl… Come on take a seat. What do you want to drink?”

“Whiskey, same as last time.”

“Coming right up.”

…

The both of them are sitting on the same couch while taking light sips of their drinks.

Kazuya looked at Chizuru’s face which was illuminated by just the moonlight and thought, ‘She’s amazing…’

“I guess I’ll be leaving my rental gig after this play.”

“I don’t want to put a damper on your dreams but…” Kazuya hesitated.

“Tell me.”

“Are you sure that you’ll take off after just one gig? The film industry is pretty cutthroat. As amazing as I think you are… are you sure that this single thing would be enough.”

She smiles gently at Kazuya’s concern, “This gig isn’t just a simple gig. I’m playing the second lead in a play. The reason that I’m placing so much importance on this is that there’s a famous director who’s doing to be attending. He wants to cast a newbie as the female lead in his movie. This play isn’t just a gig, it’s the path to me becoming an actress.”

Looking at Chizuru’s smiling face that looked as if another moon was shining in the night sky.

“I don’t want to sound cynical but… What if the director doesn’t choose you? What would you do then?”

“Well… If that happens, then… I’ll keep trying. I’ll keep being a rental to support my dream of becoming an actress.”

‘I feel like it might not be that simple… But you have my full support.’

“Well… to your dreams… And mine.” Kazuya raised his glass.

“To our dreams.” She clicked her glass with his.

Chizuru decided to bring up something that she had been curious about.

“I-If you don’t mind me asking-“

“What’s with the formal shit? Just ask away. It’s not like we’ve just met.”

“I wanted to ask about your plans. What do you want to do in the future? You’ve been working on something pretty big for the past three months. Do you mind telling me what it is?”

“Well, it’s pretty much done and only needs to go through some of the authorities and everything will be finalized by the end of this month. It’s an AI assistant, but one that’s leagues ahead of Siri and Google Assistant. I’ll be releasing it as an app through my company. It’s called Nexus Assistant after the name of the company.”

“Woah… Sounds big.”

“You have no idea. I plan to revolutionize the entire technology sector with my company. But all that’s boring talk. It’s going to take years before I’m even fully established as a competitor for these behemoths.”

“I didn’t get half the shit that you just said but, I hope you the very best in your endeavor.” She holds his hand and tightens it as a gesture of encouragement.

After a while of comfortable silence, Chizuru asked, “You know…” She bit her lip a bit which gave Kazuya tingles when he looked at her.

‘Honestly an S-tier beauty, I doubt that I’ve seen anyone that compares to her…’

Her face had a healthy blush since she’d already drunk a few glasses and was at least mildly drunk.

Looking at her vulnerable expression, Kazuya’s body moved instinctively and his arms wrapped around her while she leaned her face into his chest.

They were now snuggling on the couch.

Chizuru didn’t say anything, it was as if she’d changed her mind about what she was about to say.

Kazuya spent the next few minutes hugging Chizuru, enjoying the feel of her soft body.

“It’s late. I should leave.” As if deciding against whatever she was about to do, she decides to run away.

Sadly for her, Kazuya wasn’t planning on letting her go anywhere for now.