just throwing the exam fees away. And sweep them?! You’re being way too reckless! You have to switch your sights to a private school right away.”
Geez, and with Fs? No wonder I’d thought it was weird. But she would have been able to get such decent marks in literature…
I was utterly appalled. Hunkered on the bed, Tohko pouted and leaned forward to glower at me.
“You’re AW-ful! You’re sooo not considerate enough to someone studying to get into college!”
“But, Tohko, you need to understand your own limits. Let’s just go home.”
“No. I changed clothes and everything.”
“All you did was take down your braids.”
“I made my skirt three inches shorter, too. That’s a big deal for a girl.”
“This kind of ploy is totally pointless. How are we going to ask about Mito by pretending to be an escort?”
“It’s fine. I’m a book girl who’s read Lady Chatterley’s Lover by Lawrence, and Hell in the Bottle by Kyusaku Yumeno, and the Sleeping Beauty trilogy by Rice, including The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty , Beauty’s Punishment , and Beauty’s Release cover to cover. Even if I don’t have any experience, I’ve got the knowledge covered.”
“You can’t learn from those! Or actually, just don’t learn from them!”
While we were arguing, we heard the sound of the door opening.
“Konoha, hide!”
Tohko pushed me away, and I hurried to conceal myself behind the curtain.
The very next second, a man in his midforties wearing a suit came into the room, toying with his mustache.
There was no mistaking him. I’d seen him in a photo. It was Kengo Tsutsumi, the assistant director of Shirafuji Music Academy.
Tsutsumi was a regular on the members-only underage escort site that Camellia was on, and he was one of Camellia’s “customers.” He was also the person who had leveraged Mito into the lead role of the recital.
He didn’t look like anything more than an ordinary, greasy, middle-aged man, but could he be Mito’s angel?
Tohko turned around on the bed and hung her head.
“I kept you waiting, didn’t I?”
Tsutsumi sat down on the edge of the bed, too, and peeked up at Tohko’s face indecently.
“Are you nervous? Don’t tell me this is this your first time?”
Tohko answered, her voice soft, “I heard…you can make a lot of money…”
“That’s true. If I like you, I’ll give you money, and I’ll buy you anything you want.”
Twitch… Tohko’s shoulders moved.
“Really? Anything?”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
The next instant, Tohko suddenly threw her whole body against Tsutsumi and began talking, her eyes glinting like stars.
“I’d love to eat the first editions of Ogai Mori’s collected works all at once! And then there’s Sōseki Natsume and Junichiro Tanizaki, and Saisei Muro, and ohhh, it’d be tough to leave out a first edition of Ichiyō Higuchi’s Growing Up ! Also the works of Chekhov that have gone out of print and, ooooh, it’s been a dream of mine to get together the whole back catalog of Harlequin Historicals, pile them up in my room, and then devour every one! I thought that if I won the lottery, I’d be able to make it come true for sure!
“It would feel exactly like a huge cream puff stuffed with custard that has a little rum in it, and the dense flavor of a Sacher torte, and drowning in an ocean of fragrant champagne jelly!”
Partway through, the force of her enthusiasm had pushed Tsutsumi over, but Tohko kept on talking despite that, and Tsutsumi looked up at her, his eyes panicked.
Though I could feel a headache coming, I jumped out, pointed my cell phone at Tsutsumi, and took a picture.
“Who are you?!”
I showed the picture I’d just taken to Tsutsumi as he hurriedly crawled out from under Tohko and coldly told him, “Mr. Kengo Tsutsumi, if you don’t want me to send this image to the director of Shirafuji Music Academy, who happens to be your father-in-law, or to your other coworkers, will you tell me about
Geez, and with Fs? No wonder I’d thought it was weird. But she would have been able to get such decent marks in literature…
I was utterly appalled. Hunkered on the bed, Tohko pouted and leaned forward to glower at me.
“You’re AW-ful! You’re sooo not considerate enough to someone studying to get into college!”
“But, Tohko, you need to understand your own limits. Let’s just go home.”
“No. I changed clothes and everything.”
“All you did was take down your braids.”
“I made my skirt three inches shorter, too. That’s a big deal for a girl.”
“This kind of ploy is totally pointless. How are we going to ask about Mito by pretending to be an escort?”
“It’s fine. I’m a book girl who’s read Lady Chatterley’s Lover by Lawrence, and Hell in the Bottle by Kyusaku Yumeno, and the Sleeping Beauty trilogy by Rice, including The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty , Beauty’s Punishment , and Beauty’s Release cover to cover. Even if I don’t have any experience, I’ve got the knowledge covered.”
“You can’t learn from those! Or actually, just don’t learn from them!”
While we were arguing, we heard the sound of the door opening.
“Konoha, hide!”
Tohko pushed me away, and I hurried to conceal myself behind the curtain.
The very next second, a man in his midforties wearing a suit came into the room, toying with his mustache.
There was no mistaking him. I’d seen him in a photo. It was Kengo Tsutsumi, the assistant director of Shirafuji Music Academy.
Tsutsumi was a regular on the members-only underage escort site that Camellia was on, and he was one of Camellia’s “customers.” He was also the person who had leveraged Mito into the lead role of the recital.
He didn’t look like anything more than an ordinary, greasy, middle-aged man, but could he be Mito’s angel?
Tohko turned around on the bed and hung her head.
“I kept you waiting, didn’t I?”
Tsutsumi sat down on the edge of the bed, too, and peeked up at Tohko’s face indecently.
“Are you nervous? Don’t tell me this is this your first time?”
Tohko answered, her voice soft, “I heard…you can make a lot of money…”
“That’s true. If I like you, I’ll give you money, and I’ll buy you anything you want.”
Twitch… Tohko’s shoulders moved.
“Really? Anything?”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
The next instant, Tohko suddenly threw her whole body against Tsutsumi and began talking, her eyes glinting like stars.
“I’d love to eat the first editions of Ogai Mori’s collected works all at once! And then there’s Sōseki Natsume and Junichiro Tanizaki, and Saisei Muro, and ohhh, it’d be tough to leave out a first edition of Ichiyō Higuchi’s Growing Up ! Also the works of Chekhov that have gone out of print and, ooooh, it’s been a dream of mine to get together the whole back catalog of Harlequin Historicals, pile them up in my room, and then devour every one! I thought that if I won the lottery, I’d be able to make it come true for sure!
“It would feel exactly like a huge cream puff stuffed with custard that has a little rum in it, and the dense flavor of a Sacher torte, and drowning in an ocean of fragrant champagne jelly!”
Partway through, the force of her enthusiasm had pushed Tsutsumi over, but Tohko kept on talking despite that, and Tsutsumi looked up at her, his eyes panicked.
Though I could feel a headache coming, I jumped out, pointed my cell phone at Tsutsumi, and took a picture.
“Who are you?!”
I showed the picture I’d just taken to Tsutsumi as he hurriedly crawled out from under Tohko and coldly told him, “Mr. Kengo Tsutsumi, if you don’t want me to send this image to the director of Shirafuji Music Academy, who happens to be your father-in-law, or to your other coworkers, will you tell me about
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