“......” He cast a glance at Isuzu. She looked rather pitiful, drenched and exhausted. He was hesitant about making her split the fee in her current state, but her logic was sound. “We’ll go Dutch, then,” he decided. “How’s that?”
“Fine,” she agreed. “B-But... do we even have to pay in advance?”
“...? Now that you mention it... there’s no place to put money in...” There was nowhere to insert bills or coins, just a slot to spit out the key card. “We must pay after, right?”
“...Surely it’s a mistake to have people pay after, when you haven’t even met them,” Isuzu protested. “Couldn’t one simply stay as long as they wanted, then run off?”
“You expect me to know?” Seiya demanded. It was a bizarre thing to fixate on at a time like this. “Anyway... w-we need to pick our room. Japanese- or Western-style?”
“You... You pick,” she told him.
“Okay. In that case... hmm...”
“Hurry.”
“I’m trying...”
Just then, the hall echoed with the sound of the automatic door opening. Someone had come in from the parking lot entrance. It was an unfamiliar man and woman—more customers.
Seiya and Isuzu were so shocked that they nearly jumped out of their skin, then reflexively began looking for a place to hide. But there was no place large enough to hold both of them, and before they could work something out, the couple arrived at the vending machine.
“Ah... you can... go on ahead,” Seiya said in a tiny voice. Isuzu hid behind him, trembling.
He was a “man of means” type over 40; she was flashily-dressed woman of about 30. “You’re sure? All right,” the older man said, picked his room, took his key card, then walked swiftly with the woman to the elevator. As the door began closing, the woman whispered to him, “isn’t that cute?” and the man guffawed.
Why do I feel patronized?! Seiya wondered. That laughter—it was the laughter of a man who’d just seen a naive teenage couple taking their first try at a love hotel, and panicking because they didn’t know what to do. Because that’s exactly what this was!
“Sento?” he said.
“......” Isuzu remained hidden behind Seiya. He glanced back at her, and she quickly came to her senses and jumped away. She’d looked like someone in a daze, after escaping the closest call of her life.
“Are you okay?” he tried again.
“S-Sorry, I...” She was probably embarrassed about hiding behind him at such a crucial moment. There were even tears in her eyes. “Just... just pick a room. Anywhere is acceptable.”
“Ah... right.” Seiya wanted to rest as soon as possible. Spurred on by that thought, he pressed the button for a random 18,000 yen room from among the vacancies.
They stood in silence for the entire trip up the elevator, then all the way through the corridor, until they reached their room and turned the knob. It was only after they entered the room that the mystery of the payment system was solved. The moment they used their key card and entered, the door automatically locked. The entryway space had a touchscreen and an automatic payment mechanism. In other words, you would make your final payment just before you left.
I guess you couldn’t just run away... but what if you made a mistake and couldn’t pay? he wondered. Would you be stuck in the room forever? There’s a terrifying thought... Just as he was thinking that, he noticed a telephone handset next to the payment screen.
Ah-ha. Yeah, that would do it... There was probably an on-call employee you could talk to... though, personally, he would never ever ever want to have to talk to that person.
Seiya flipped the light switch. Now that they were inside, he could see that the room was quite large; a little over 20 square meters. It was a Western-style room with atmospheric lighting and a king-sized bed. But what surprised him even more was how pristine the room was; he had imagined something older and seedier, with yellowed sheets and dripping faucets, but that couldn’t be further from the case. The wallpaper was neat and trim; the sheets were flattened and tucked with military precision. The bathroom was similarly spotless, and offered soap, shampoo, and the full array of amenities.
“...It’s beautiful,” Isuzu said, sounding stunned.
“Yeah. It’s kind of...” Like a typical luxury hotel. Seiya had stayed in a number of luxury hotels in his child actor days. While doing location shoots, he typically stayed in rooms that ran for 50,000 yen a night. That’s how he could tell that this was a very nice room, even though it was only (sorry) an old love hotel from a mediocre chain. In terms of overall cleanliness, it was the equal to any luxury hotel he’d ever been in.
“It’s wonderful. I really can’t believe it.” Isuzu reached for the bed and touched the pristine sheets.
The bed was large; very large. It could hold the both of them with room to spare. Actually, it could probably hold three people if needed... that’s how big the bed was.
“Seiya-kun...” Isuzu trailed off.
“...?” He waited for her to go on.
“I... I think I...” Her voice was cracked. Her eyes were wet. Her cheeks were flushed.
“What?”
“I... I can’t take it anymore.”
“Huh?”
“I need a bath...” she breathed.
“R-Right...” Seiya slumped, both in relief and disappointment. “Go on, then. Take as long as you want.”
“Thank you.” Isuzu immediately made a beeline for the bathroom.
For better or worse (no, definitely for better) the bathroom was completely partitioned off from the bedroom; despite what he’d heard about love hotels, there was no one-way glass or window giving him a view of what happened within. He could hear the sounds of the shower, but he had no idea what was going on there. This helped Seiya to forget the hotel’s nature, and to make himself at home. He opened a cabinet that looked like it might contain drinks, but instead of a refrigerator, he found a vending machine. A vending machine...
The first thing he saw was changes of underwear; boxers and T-shirts for men. Useful. For women... there were a few startling options. Pleather bondage stuff, stuff with convenient openings... and some normal offerings as well, of course.
There were “toys” there, too, in what looked like a versatile selection. Seiya didn’t know what they were all for, but they seemed cheaper than he would have imagined. The cheapest among them was about 500 yen.
“...Hmm.” The fridge was on another shelf. The drinks sat in slots like a vending machine, so removing one of the bottles would log it as a purchase and count towards your room fee. Seiya was thirsty, so he took a bottle of mineral water and gulped it down.
There was a place to charge smartphones, too, with adapters for iPhones, Androids, and old-fashioned feature phones. Amazing! Even a luxury hotel in the city wouldn’t have that many adapters... and if they did, they’d probably charge 2,000 yen a day for the privilege of using them.
Love hotels were truly incredible. The market forces involved seemed to have pushed them to provide services even greater than those of most luxury hotels, in fact.