In the days following his encounter with Chizuru under the streetlights, his life returned to a trajectory of absolute silence and discipline. He spent most of his day analyzing social media data, preparing broadcast content, streaming, and planning the expansion of his influence. Everything operated smoothly, logically, and with no room for superfluous emotional troubles.
Until a late weekend afternoon, a message from Kuribayashi shattered that peace.
That best friend with thick glasses and a perpetually insecure personality insisted that he and Kibe come to a cafe in Shinjuku. The given reason: "I want to introduce my girlfriend to you guys! I finally got a girlfriend!"
He looked at the message and slightly frowned.
"A girlfriend? A guy who always stammers in front of women, has average looks, and possesses no financial highlights suddenly gets a girlfriend after just a few days?" he muttered, tossing his phone on the desk. His logical mindset immediately rang alarm bells of deceit.
Even so, he decided to go to the meeting point. Not out of curiosity, but because he wanted to see what pathetic play awaited him.
...
The tropical style cafe was loud with pop music. He walked in, swept his gaze around, and quickly located Kibe and Kuribayashi's table.
Sitting next to Kuribayashi was a young girl with short hair, wearing a striking blue ribbon on her head. She had a chubby, adorable face and exuded a lively, youthful energy.
"Kazuya! You finally come!" Kuribayashi waved excitedly, his face flushed with pride and happiness. "Let me introduce you, this is Ruka. We just started dating."
The girl named Ruka smiled, bowing to him very politely. "Hello, I'm Sarashina Ruka. It's nice to meet Kuri's friend."
He pulled out a chair and sat opposite them. On the surface, he merely gave a slight nod in return with a stone cold face. But inside, his sharp eyes had activated a comprehensive scanning mode, analyzing every gesture and the smallest expression of this girl named Ruka.
Her smile widened just enough to show teeth, but the corners of her eyes did not crinkle. It was a fake, industrial smile exactly like Ichinose Chizuru's, though less refined. The seating distance between her and Kuribayashi was maintained at exactly fifteen centimeters. It was close enough to create a sense of intimacy, but far enough to avoid unnecessary physical contact. Even the way she chimed in on Kuribayashi's bland stories felt heavily scripted, as if she were reciting pre programmed answers to please her client.
It took him exactly thirty seconds of observation to reach a final conclusion.
"A commodity rented with money." He smirked, scoffing inwardly. "This idiot used money to buy an actress girlfriend just to show off to his friends. What a pathetic bunch, deluding themselves with empty feelings."
Throughout the meeting, he barely said a word. He just sat with his legs crossed, hands clasped on the table, his eyes as still as a dead lake staring at Ruka whenever she played the "adorable girlfriend" act.
His gaze carried no jealousy or desire. It was the look of a scalpel slowly slicing open the fake skin of its prey. He was analyzing her to the bone, stripping bare the darkest and cheapest thoughts behind that innocent facade.
It was this penetrating, freezing, and highly dominant gaze that triggered an unexpected reaction in Ruka.
Unlike the clients and many other boys she easily led by the nose with a few smiles, the young man named Kazuya in front of her radiated a terrifying pressure. Every time his eyes swept past her, Ruka felt as if she were standing naked in the freezing snow. Her chest suddenly pounded. Her innately slow heart rate abruptly skyrocketed due to a blended sensation of primal fear and absolute domination.
Ruka bit her lip tightly. Her face flushed, her breathing turned heavy. She mistook it for the thrill of love, the destiny she had always sought to cure her slow heart rate condition.
He took in all those weak physiological reactions, but dismissed them as garbage unworthy of his attention. The date ended in Kuribayashi's gloating and a frantic obsession taking root in Ruka's mind.
...
Three days later.
Late afternoon, the sun gradually set behind the high rises, dyeing a corner of the Tokyo sky red. He was walking down the deserted road leading to his apartment, hands shoved deep in his pockets, his earphones playing dry economic news.
Suddenly, a blur of a blue ribbon darted out from a small alley, blocking his path.
Sarashina Ruka spread her arms wide, her chest heaving in broken gasps. She looked up at him with wide, round eyes. Her face burned with determination, but deep within her pupils lay a crazed agitation.
"Kazuya-san! Please stop!" Ruka called out loudly.
He frowned slightly, slowly removing one earbud. He showed no surprise or startlement, only casting down a look of pure contempt from above.
"You are in my way, rental actress." His voice was steady, razor sharp, and straight to the point. He completely stripped away the girlfriend facade she was trying to play.
Ruka faltered slightly upon having her true identity called out, but she immediately regained her stubbornness and took a step forward.
"Yes! I'm Kuri's rental girlfriend. But that doesn't matter anymore!" Ruka pressed a hand to her left breast, where her heart was racing wildly. "Since that day at the cafe, your eyes, your coldness... everything about you makes my heart beat uncontrollably! I have a condition that makes my heart beat slowly. I've been looking for someone who can make me feel alive. And that person is you!"
He stood still, his expression unchanging. He watched her spew a barrage of cheesy, sappy words straight out of the cheapest romance scripts.
"And then what?" He jerked his chin up, coldly dropping the question.
Ruka gulped, her eyes gleaming with a naive coercion. "I'll break up with Kuri right now! I don't need his money anymore! You have to date me, Kazuya! My heart only beats for you. You have to take responsibility for my feelings!"
If it were any other foolish male lead, they would start getting flustered, blushing, and fumbling over the bold confession of a beautiful girl, gradually getting dragged into a pathetic love triangle mess.
But the person standing in front of Ruka was an emotionless analytical machine, someone who hated female hypocrisy and manipulation to the bone.
He closed his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. When he opened them, the air around him suddenly solidified. The temperature seemed to drop below freezing. The indifferent coldness was gone, replaced by a dark, ruthless killing intent that crushed any illusory romance.
"Take responsibility?"
He spoke. The volume was not loud, but it hissed through his teeth like a drill piercing straight into Ruka's brain.
He slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets and stepped up to Ruka. Every step carried a massive physical pressure. Ruka instinctively backed away. Her chest tightened, not out of love, but from sheer terror spreading through her neurons.
"You have a heart disease. That is a medical record issue, not an excuse to pull out as a weapon to manipulate others." He leaned down to her eye level, his hollow eyes seemingly draining her oxygen.
"You take Kuribayashi's money, acting out fake romance to drain the wallet of a gullible and insecure man. And now, just because your heart beats a little faster than usual due to primal fear of a stronger predator, you want to toss that temporary relationship away and drag me into your sick love roleplay?"
"No! I... I really like you!" Ruka stammered, tears welling up in her eyes. Her confession suddenly became incredibly weak and pathetic.
He scoffed. A devilish smile.
"Like me? Or do you like the delusional feeling of being the female lead in a cheap romance movie?" He raised a finger and tapped lightly on Ruka's forehead. The tap was light but carried ultimate disdain. "Open your eyes and look at reality, brat. Love is not something you can use as a bargaining chip. Using your empty heart to force me is even more disgusting and lowly than that smile selling job you are doing."
Ruka trembled violently, her legs barely able to stand. She had hit a steel wall covered in poisoned spikes. There was no gentleness, no confusion, only insults aimed straight at her character.
Having said that, he prepared to step aside and continue walking as if nothing had happened.
"I know I have no right to demand anything. I know I'm hurting Kuri. But... do you know what it feels like to live with a heart that only beats 30 times a minute? For the first time in my life, I felt my heart pounding, and you told me it was just fear? You have the right to reject me, but you don't have the right to deny my feelings!!"
"Kazuya," he froze after hearing everything Ruka said.
Love? From a girl who hadn't even graduated from high school?
That was the biggest bullshit he'd received since arriving in this world. But it was also the most "realistic" thing he'd heard since then.
He looked at Ruka, remembering Chizuru – the one who also worked as a "rent-a-girlfriend," the one he despised. Chizuru hadn't cried, hadn't threatened, and had even… seen through him. And this girl, though she was sobbing, had made him begin to doubt what he was pursuing…
Is there any difference between those who "live by lies"?
He shook his head, dismissing the thought, even though his heart was starting to race.
No. Lies are lies. Even if they're covered in sugar and coated with a layer of truth, they're still disgusting.
"Stop that pathetic act. Or I'll personally tell Kuri everything that's happening right now."
Saying this, he pulled out his phone, paused the recording, and played back everything that Ruka and he had said.
"...You have the right to reject me, but you don't have the right to deny my feelings!!"
Ruka gasped. The blood drained completely from her face.
He pressed the record button the moment she stepped out to block his way. Not because he had prophetic abilities, but because the price he paid in a previous life had taught him never to enter into a private conversation with any woman without a means of self-defense. Even if it went against his conscience to betray Ruka's sincere feelings, or even shatter her heart.
He watched her cry miserably with a fleeting moment of self-reproach, but then overwhelmed by profound unease and contempt.
He leaned forward, getting close to Ruka's ear, his cold breath brushing against it. He delivered his final verdict, an absolute and undeniable command.
"I will not release this recording anywhere, on one condition. Get out of my sight. Resolve your mess with Kuribayashi using a decent excuse, and then disappear. Do not let me catch you entangled with anyone within my line of sight. If you dare hover around me or my friends ever again, I swear I will turn your life into ashes beyond salvation."
Having spoken, he stood up straight and adjusted the collar of his jacket. Without waiting for Ruka to react or beg any further, he turned and walked straight ahead.
His silhouette gradually sank into the night, decisive and heartless. Behind him, Ruka's sobs burst out in the empty alley, with a broken heart beating erratically from deep hurt.
Kazuya put his earbud back in as he walked. Another annoying obstacle had been swept clean, but this time he couldn't feel gloating...