I’d heard it on the phone while on hold.
“I’ve kept you waiting long enough. Come! Sit, sit.”
Pulling his hands back from the keys, he motioned toward the corner of the room where a small round table with two matching chairs stood. I took my place in one of them.
“So, what’s this about?” I asked.
He nodded with a smile and got to business—or so I thought.
“How about we have some tea first?”
“How about no.”
“Not a fan of black tea? Would you prefer coffee? If you’re worried about the caffeine, we’ve also got rooibos.”
“I’m not thirsty. I just want to go home and sleep.”
“You’re not going to school?” he asked innocently, his face puzzled.
My spite surged forth, plain and clear. “I don’t go to high school.”
“But you haven’t officially dropped out.”
So, he had looked into me. A chill shot down my spine. Then again, for all his apparent innocence, I’d known from our first conversation that he knew more than he was letting on. He wouldn’t have made that offer if I were a mere stranger.
“Does it matter?” I grumbled. “If I don’t pass my classes, they’ll hold me back a year. Expulsion is just a matter of time.”
“Still—”
“State your business.”
Accepting his defeat, he moved from the piano stool to the chair accompanying mine, where he opened a drawer in the nearby sideboard. From the envelope he found within, he produced stacks of bills.
“Here’s one million.”
He placed the bills on the table with unbelievable ease. They felt like a prop.
Unbothered, he continued, “This should cover your living expenses for the foreseeable future as well as your mother’s funeral. What’s next? I can pay you daily, if you’d like. I’m also happy to cover the expenses of looking for your father.”
If he said anything else, I registered none of it.
The million yen sitting on the table formed a much thinner stack than I’d imagined. Paired with his frivolous words, it felt all wrong. I’d worked my ass off trying to make a fraction of that. He’d never worked a day in his life, and yet he offered me this incredible sum as casually as if it were a can of coffee. There was poise and grace in his movements, but the action itself was arrogant and vulgar. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and plucked my next words from the depths of my exasperation.
“I haven’t accepted your offer yet.” I felt dizzy.
“You haven’t?”
“Tell me why. I feel like I’m being kept in the dark.”
“I thought I told you?”
“Then tell me again—in excruciating detail.”
Several hours ago, he’d said that he wanted my time. It left me confused and overwhelmingly frustrated for the rest of my shift. What was it exactly that he wanted me to do?
He spoke as if he were making a casual suggestion.
“I have three conditions: One, you must go back to school and focus on your education. Two, you must get accepted into the same university as me and attend it with me. Three, you must act like my friend. We’ll renew our contract every three months for a full duration of five years. I’ll give you a million yen now and then two hundred thousand every month.”
The conditions were as bizarre as the deal itself. Noticing the unhidden suspicion in my eyes, he wasted no time in explaining.
“From now on, you will go to school every day and actually study. You will continue on to your senior year, take your college entrance exams, graduate, and attend the same school as me for the full four years. It all ends once you’ve gotten your degree. Then you’ll be done, free as a bird. That’s why it has to be five years. Five years and one month, to be precise. But that’s not a nice round number, so let’s start with a one-month contract first. Look, I’ve even got it printed.”
From the same sideboard, he pulled out a sheet of paper. Indeed, it had the word “contract” printed at the top and a space for my signature at the bottom.
“And why would you pay money for all that?”
“Thing is, I don’t really have any friends.”
“Huh?”
And why should I care? was the first thing that popped into my mind, but since I couldn’t pass up on this deal, I resisted the urge to say it. I was certain the sentiment was clear from my expression, but even sitting opposite of me, he didn’t seem to notice. His smile remained unchanged.
“That’s why I want us to go to college together and why I want you to act like my friend. Therefore, I need you to study, I need you to graduate, and I need you to pass the entrance exams.”
“Okay, but why me?”
If all he wanted was someone to play his friend, it didn’t have to be me. He could have chosen someone from his high school or even approached someone once he was in university. My question should have been an understandable one, but he didn’t respond. He wasn’t hesitating either. He sat there in silence with a smile, meaning he was watching for my reaction to make fun of me.
I knew I didn’t like him.
Once I let the silence stretch on, waiting for his resistance to crumble, he finally spoke after a while.
“Because I know you can’t refuse.” He handed me a sleek, expensive-looking pen.
He really did piss me off. After all, he was right.
I returned home with a creak of my front door.
The building must have been over sixty years old by now. The door opened to a narrow five-square-meter room with the kitchen, leading into the only other room, which was double its size. I called this place home. Now that I’d returned from the Nishikawa estate, it felt smaller than ever. It was likely smaller than his entrance hall alone. In the larger room, my futon and tea table stared each other down. If I put a piano in there, I’d have no space to sleep.
My father wasn’t around, my mother had passed away, and since I couldn’t live on my own at sixteen, I was nominally taken in by some relatives. They didn’t send me any money. They were there on paper, but I had to make a living on my own. And just like my father, they quickly disappeared from the picture.
I hadn’t been to school in a while. I had initially wanted to balance school with my part-time job, but that didn’t last long—I hadn’t lasted long. I needed stamina to make enough money to get by. At this rate, forget about college—I’d struggle to graduate from high school.
Which would be fine. It happens all the time.
Whenever I got home, I took a bath and went to sleep. I skipped dinner; I had to save money.
My musty futon felt so cozy, I could just about convince myself it was all a dream.
That morning couldn’t have been real. A servant inviting me inside a three-story mansion, impossibly huge and pristine on the inside... I felt like I’d traveled to an entirely different world and had only just returned to my own.