Chapter Text
This was an absolutely horrible idea.
Kazuha bit his bottom lip as he scrolled down the page on his laptop like a madman. He only stopped when he noticed that he was biting his lip quite hard and had to consciously stop himself from doing that. He didn’t remember ever biting his lip as a nervous habit. But really, what was wrong with him? What ancestor had he pissed off for him to act possessed like this?
In theory, he didn’t hold many opinions regarding this. But in practice, he thought it was completely weird for him to do this. Personally.
But maybe he should think about this differently. He never believed that he knew everything about himself. Maybe this was a hidden part of himself that had finally been brought out of the deepest parts of himself and into the light with the excuse of desperation. Maybe, in a way, he had been relieved to finally allow himself to break free from his inhibitions.
After all, the only thing that truly bothered him up to this point was simply the label. Why on earth was this whole thing associated with “sugar”? He couldn’t take “sugar baby” seriously. Words have meaning, and those words sounded ridiculous. If he was being this judgmental, maybe he was not the type of person meant for this.
Kazuha sighed harshly, completely exasperated, and updated the page one last time, and found a new post. It read: “I will pay someone to temporarily act as my lover for appearances.”
How innocuous it sounded. It was worth a shot. Thankfully, Kazuha had already created a profile because it had not asked for him to input any private information, so he replied as quickly as possible. His heart jumped in his chest at the almost immediate response. It simply asked him if they could meet at a certain cafe tomorrow at noon just to discuss further. Kazuha knew which cafe it was, so he said yes.
Cool, I’ll see you then!
“That was it?” Kazuha said out loud to himself.
Was this how things usually worked here?
***
Kazuha had to refrain from sighing as he entered the cafe. Kazuha did think this was quite a nice cafe. Before his family went broke, he tried a cup of coffee and thought it was the best coffee he had ever had. Not that he was an avid coffee drinker, but it had been enjoyable. The cafe was also much busier than he would have liked, but this was a very popular cafe after all.
Now the question was who was he about to meet? He scanned the cafe out of curiosity and saw a few people who were alone. A couple of them looked like college students who were studying, so he ruled those out. At this point, Kazuha decided to take out his phone and message the… “benefactor” on the website, saying that he got there early.
Oh, I got here early too. I’m sitting here in the corner.
Kazuha looked up from his phone. There was only one corner that had a single person. A young man with ginger hair. Kazuha wondered if it was him. He texted back if he was the one with ginger hair.
That’s me.
After looking up from the phone again, the ginger-haired man was waving at him. Kazuha nodded and sat down on the opposite seat of the small table.
“You’re a lot younger than I thought you would be,” Kazuha said bluntly.
The young man laughed cheerfully. He seemed easy-going enough, at least for now. And Kazuha thought his smile was nice. “I know, I know. I was a bit worried about that, but I felt like I couldn’t just say my age range.”
“So how old are you?”
“I’m 29. Turning 30 in a couple of months though. What about- Oh, that’s right! Where are my manners?” He offered his hand across the small table. “Hi, I’m Ajax.” He repeated it with his last name.
They shook hands. Ajax’s grip was firm, but nothing out of the ordinary.
“I’m Kazuha. 23 years old.”
“Huh.” Ajax set an elbow on the table and rested his chin on his hand. “We’re basically the same age then. Kind of.”
“I feel much more relieved,” Kazuha admitted. “This is my first time doing this.”
Ajax laughed. “Me too.”
“But I’m curious. Why would someone like you post something like that?”
“Hmm, I guess out of desperation?” When Kazuha gave him a confused look, Ajax laughed again. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve dated before. But I’ve never managed to get into a relationship within a few days, and besides, I definitely do not want to get into a relationship because of something like this since that would be using them. So I thought for this situation that it would have to be someone who is willing to do this for money. Maybe there is another solution to this, but it turns out that I’m not creative enough to find it.”
“Creative enough to post on that website,” Kazuha said, smiling.
Ajax blushed slightly. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“But yes, what you said makes sense so far.”
“It does?” Ajax frowned slightly. “That’s good I guess. I’ll explain further. Oh but,” he looked around the cafe. “Are you comfortable talking about it here?”
“I don’t know. Our conversation was already slightly suspicious anyways.”
“Ah, sorry about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But really, do you want to talk somewhere else? Unless you’re already not interested in this. That’s fine too.”
“I’m still interested, don’t worry about that.”
“Aaand, I forgot something else. I’m sorry, today is not my day. Do you want to get something to drink first?”
This guy is certainly more polite than I expected , Kazuha thought. “Yes, please.”
Ajax smiled, looking relieved. “What do you want? I’ll go order.”
And also more open than I expected, and it seems genuine. “Small brewed coffee with cream.”
“Anything else?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
***
In the end, once they got their drinks, they left the cafe and talked as they randomly walked on the streets in the shopping district.
Kazuha sipped at his drink. Usually he tried different items on the menu before repeating, but he wanted to taste something from a time before he had lost everything. It was as good as he remembered.
“How is it? I’ve never had that.”
“I really like it. What about yours?”
“Slight regrets. I guess I don’t like the iced coffee here.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I like most of their stuff, but one time I accidentally drank someone else’s order and didn’t like it either. I think it was a pumpkin spice latte without any sugar. It was during the autumn.”
“You accidently drank someone else’s order?”
“It was the barista who called out my name, so I thought that cup was mine.”
They continued small talk for a few minutes before Ajax said, “So about what I posted, it’s about my parents. They want me to get married to someone I don’t want to marry.”
“Arranged marriage?”
“Not yet, and no engagement yet, but our families want us to get married.”
What kind of family is he from? Kazuha wondered. I’ll have to look him up later.
“And they won’t listen to me. They think they can convince me, and I don’t understand why they think that. My older siblings couldn’t convince them either, so at least I know that it’s not solely my issue. I’m not getting married to her regardless of what happens, but it’s more so that my parents would stop bugging me constantly.” He sighed. “I know this sounds ridiculous already. Maybe what I really wanted was to have someone to talk with who isn’t a friend. I need someone to look at this objectively. Well, money is on the line so maybe not that objective, but do you think I’m just being petty?”
“I honestly do not believe that you are being petty. The marriage would change your life,” Kazuha said seriously.
“Oh god.” Ajax shook his head. “I feel less insane now. My parents did let my older sister free because she had already fallen in love with someone else, and they knew better than to interfere with that. So that’s where my plan came from.”
“Was she really the only one?”
“She is,” he said dejectedly. “The other older siblings couldn’t do anything, so they just accepted it, and now everyone except one is miserable.”
Kazuha wondered offhandedly just how many siblings he had. “That sounds horrible,” he said sincerely. It sounded like being trapped in a birdcage where it didn’t matter that the doors were open.
Ajax rubbed his temple. “I love my parents, which somehow makes this feel worse.”
“I understand,” Kazuha said softly.
Ajax chuckled. “So what are your thoughts?”
“I just wanted to clarify. If I accept, what exactly do you want me to do?”
Ajax shrugged. “Pretend to be my boyfriend? So I am thinking about pretending to go on dates. I don’t think it needs to go beyond that. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we need to kiss either. I knew someone who didn’t like doing that in public.”
“Do you think that will convince your parents?”
“Who knows? No matter how it ends up, I’d pay you the same.”
“Then I accept.”
Ajax looked surprised. “That was fast. We didn’t even go into specifics yet.”
“It’s because so far I like you,” Kazuha said.
Ajax blinked. “Oh.”
“And this sounds much more attractive than what I assume is the usual stuff from that website.”
“Ha!” He smiled. “I hope so, even with my parents. Oh right, if they don’t catch on, then it’s likely that you would have to meet them.”
“That’s fine.”
“Alright then.” Ajax stopped walking. “I’ll give you my phone number and email address, and once we sort details out, it’ll be official. Sounds good?”
“Yes.”
Kazuha let him input his contacts in his phone.
“Do you want my driver to drop you off at your place, or at any other place?”
Kazuha almost dropped his half-finished cup of coffee. “You have a driver?”
“I posted on that website for a reason, you know. I didn’t do it right away because I thought walking around would make you more comfortable.”
“It did, but…”
“I’m glad I guessed right. So do you want it?”
“I-i’m good.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”
“I am. And,” he looked around, “I can leave now. We can email or talk later on the phone later today, right?”
“Sure,” he said, slightly surprised.
“Then I’ll see you then.”
Kazuha resisted the urge to bow and simply waved his hand goodbye as he walked away.
“See you, Kazuha! It was nice meeting you!”
“Yes, it was nice meeting you too.”
Kazuha had not realized it earlier, but after walking away, he realized how overwhelmed he felt. All it had taken was less than a day for his life to change course. The last time that had happened was when-
No, he didn’t want to dwell on that. This was different. Perhaps this was the way he would find the light to escape from the darkness that threatened to overtake his life.