Chapter 19: PUA

“Ha! As if!”

Rina planted her hands on her hips.

“Give me the money! Or I’ll make a scene!”

Hisaki watched Shiro throw her little tantrum.

Adorable.

“Shiro.”

Hisaki’s voice was as gentle as ever, so gentle it sounded like she was coaxing a child.

“I’m not forcing you, you know.”

She tilted her head slightly, the wide brim of her sun hat casting a shadow across her face, leaving only that unfathomable smile visible.

“Just think about it…”

“Me.”

“Three meals a day.”

“Snacks.”

“Watermelon, cherries, mangoes, thousand-layer cake, tiramisu, fried chicken, french fries, hamburgers, pistol chicken legs, egg tarts…”

“Wait!”

“Where are the dish names?!” Rina cut her off.

Hisaki’s smile didn’t falter.

“Whatever Shiro…”

“Wants, that’s what I’ll give.”

“And if Shiro…”

Rina’s expression shifted.

“Shiro.”

“Moves a little, takes a little initiative…”

“Then there’s plenty of rewards to be had.”

She paused.

“Others don’t get this treatment.”

“Only Shiro, just you alone.”

Rina fell silent.

Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

Hisaki pressed the advantage.

“Shiro’s never worked a job, so you wouldn’t know…”

She pushed her sun hat up, revealing those dark red eyes, looking seriously at Rina.

“A hundred bucks is already a whole day’s wage for an ordinary person.”

Rina’s eyebrow twitched.

“Ordinary people, working, eight hours a day, clocking in, squeezing onto the subway, getting yelled at by the boss, getting hassled by clients, working overtime until nine at night…”

Hisaki’s voice carried a faint hint of sympathy, as if she genuinely felt sorry for those “ordinary people.”

“Slaving away all day, and you take home maybe a hundred or two.”

She leaned forward slightly.

“If anyone found out…”

She lowered her voice, like she was sharing a secret only the two of them could hear.

“One kiss gets you a day’s pay.”

“They’d be fighting tooth and nail for it.”

Rina’s expression started to soften.

She looked at Hisaki’s face, so serious it didn’t seem like a joke, then looked down at her own empty hands, and ran through her escape budget in her head.

Hotel.

Food.

Transport.

Miscellaneous stuff.

Four grand should be enough, right?

One hundred per kiss.

So that’s…

Forty kisses.

Rina glanced at the kidnapper’s cheek.

Her skin was really nice.

Wait.

What was she thinking?

Rina shook her head hard…

One minute of embarrassment for four grand in cash, for freedom, for mission completion, for one hundred million cash and a healthy body…

“It’s just a few kisses anyway.”

Rina took a deep breath.

Then she stood on her tiptoes.

With the fastest speed, the lightest pressure, her lips brushed against Hisaki’s right cheek.

It was probably…

Lips touching skin.

A pause of 0.1 seconds.

Then she bounced back.

The whole thing was like a dragonfly skimming the water.

Hisaki blinked.

“That doesn’t count.”

Rina’s eyes went wide.

“What do you mean it doesn’t count?! I kissed you!”

“Shiro.”

“It only counts as one if you kiss properly.”

“What you just did…”

“That’s at most a ‘graze.’ A graze doesn’t count.”

Rina stared at the kidnapper’s dead-serious face, feeling something throb at her temple.

“You didn’t explain that before!”

“I’m explaining it now, aren’t I?” Hisaki said with a grin.

Rina clenched her fists.

Fine.

She’d endure it.

Just forty of them.

She stood on her tiptoes again.

This time, her lips pressed firmly against Hisaki’s right cheek, lingering for a full second.

The sensation of the lips…

Soft.

When she finished, a tiny sound escaped her.

The tips of Rina’s ears turned red.

“…Good enough?!”

Hisaki reached up and touched her right cheek where she’d been kissed.

When her fingertips met that spot, the warmth Rina’s lips had left hadn’t fully faded.

“Mm.”

Hisaki nodded.

“That counts as one.”

She pulled a crisp one-hundred-yuan bill from her small bag and placed it in Rina’s palm.

Rina looked down at the red bill in her hand.

Her thoughts were a mess…

“You actually sold your dignity for money! You’ve fallen! You’re corrupt! You’re a useless little thing!”

“Come on. Thirty-nine more.”

Rina folded the bill and stuffed it into her shorts pocket.

“Keep going!”

She stared at Hisaki’s cheek, her expression fierce, her eyes gleaming, like she was looking at a fortress that needed to be conquered.

Hisaki cooperatively offered her cheek, looking delighted.

Rina stood on her tiptoes.

Kiss number two.

Hisaki handed over the second bill.

Rina’s rhythm started to smooth out.

By the fifth kiss, she realized standing on her tiptoes was exhausting, so she grabbed the fabric of Hisaki’s long dress at her shoulder, using it as a lever to pull herself up.

Hisaki looked down at the five tiny fingers gripping her shoulder, and the smile at the corner of her mouth was impossible to suppress.

By the eighth kiss, Rina’s brim bumped into Hisaki’s sun hat, the two hats colliding. Rina let out an annoyed “tch,” then yanked off her own baseball cap and plopped it onto the kidnapper’s head.

Now Hisaki was wearing two hats at once, looking like some kind of weirdo.

But she had no complaints.

By the twelfth kiss, Rina’s movements had become…

Grab the dress.

Tiptoe.

Heels down.

Palm out.

Take the money.

Stuff it in her pocket.

The whole sequence flowed like a well-oiled assembly line, fast and steady, like a tiny kiss machine alienated by capitalism.

By the twentieth kiss, Rina suddenly felt something was off.

But she couldn’t put her finger on what.

So she kept kissing.

Kiss twenty-five.

A faint mark was beginning to show on Hisaki’s right cheek…

Kiss thirty.

Rina’s lips were going numb.

When she reached kiss thirty-three…

She stopped.

She stood in front of the kidnapper…

But she didn’t stand on her tiptoes.

She looked up, her sky-blue eyes staring straight at her…

Something’s wrong.

Wait.

Hold on.

Rina’s hand abruptly released Hisaki’s shoulder, and she jumped back a full step, nearly tripping over the speed bump on the parking lot ground.

She pointed at Hisaki.

Her finger was trembling.

Even the 3,300 bucks in her shorts pocket was trembling.

“You!”

Hisaki tilted her head, the two hats wobbling precariously.

“Hm?”

“Everything you said earlier!”

“You… you!”

She took a deep breath.

“You feed me! You house me! You pay for my AC! You bought me a phone! You brought me to an amusement park! You said others don’t get this treatment! Only me! Only I get it! You said a hundred bucks is a day’s wage! You said they’d be fighting tooth and nail! You said…”

Hisaki watched her quietly, neither admitting nor denying.

Rina’s chest heaved violently.

“This…!”

“This is PUA, isn’t it!!!”