A Million-Dollar Idea

It’s evening and here I am, sitting on my bed as I continue drying my hair with a bath towel in a post-bath afterglow. Hunger caught up to me but I’d rather spend as little as possible since my part-time job won’t start until February. That means my first salary would be on the 15th so I’m not expecting any monetary influx for about 3 weeks.

I wasn’t a picky eater in my previous life anyway. I grew up saving for hobbies since we didn’t have a lot in the past. I remember keeping a portion of my allowance aside for 2 months back in high school to afford the Crystal Version cartridge. And you bet I’d played the hell out of it for the following years, even when I’ve started getting into an MMORPG. It was a time when the internet was in its infancy in this country. We used to call it “surfing the web” and dial-up was expensive so internet cafes started popping up everywhere like arcade centers.

I stood up and went out of my room after getting done with this long hair and donning it in a high ponytail yet again with a plain white scrunchie, wearing pink dolphin shorts and a plain white T-shirt. I went downstairs and out of the building, heading to a small nearby bakery I saw earlier today while roaming around.

I’m not sure if it’s the post-bath scent of shampoo and lotion or if it’s my looks but I certainly am turning heads here and there, mostly men of all ages. I wanted to slow my pace down since these two babies are doing a bit of bouncing but then decided that walking faster and getting done with my business would be a better call.

I finally reached the bakery and there weren’t any customers. Lucky me, I can buy some bread and scram right away. I lean towards the countertop where trays of several types of bread are displayed. There are only a few of them left so there isn’t much to pick from so I put both my elbows on it to quickly catch the attention of the guy right behind it, busily watching on his phone. Pointing to the oblique brown bread that is bright red in the middle…

“Hello, give me five pieces of these.”

It took him a few seconds before he put down his phone and looked, only to be stunned by the sight of a girl he never saw before. I stared at him staring at my face, then he lowered his gaze and a few more awkward seconds went by. Only then do I realize that my breasts are commanding attention snugly resting on the countertop. I hastily stepped back and stood up straight to correct my unintentional blunder.

“Excuse me, can you give me five of these?”

That’s when the guy snaps out of his daze and looks back to my face. Are these breasts some sort of a hypnosis gizmo for him to be like this? I mean, I do get it but how brave one must be to blatantly ogle at a woman’s body while she’s talking at him?

“Err, which one would you like?”

“The ones with a red filling. Give me five of those.”

“Pan de Regla, right? Give me a moment…”

Pfft! I almost burst out laughing. Pan de Regla? What a weird name. Moreover, I’ve lived my past life not even aware that these things are called like that. I’m sure we used to call it something else that starts with “K” but I don’t remember what it was anymore. I flashed a faint exasperated smile upon the realization that I’d been eating a bread named like a woman’s monthly cycle.

Hmm… Uh, hold on… Something crucial just dawned on me. Now that I’m a girl, I’m gonna start having a monthly cycle too, right? The faint smile on my face was replaced by a horrified look just as the guy was done putting five pieces of bread in a thin translucent plastic bag. He was startled to see my face and acted sheepishly like he knew he was guilty of something he had done earlier.

“H-Here you go, it’s on the house.”

“Huh?”

“It’s evening already and they’ve been sitting there for a few hours so you can have them if you don’t mind.”

“But…”

“And you’re new here, right? I haven’t seen you before. Consider it as a welcome gift.”

“Th-Thank you.”

“We’ll be seeing each other often from now on, Miss…”

He made this face expecting a reply from me. This guy is smooth, trying to get my name in a roundabout way after giving me a favor. I gave him a big smile and answered with a coquettish voice as I took the bag of bread and raised it near my face.

“Mayumi, just call me Mayumi. Thanks for the treat, hee-hee…”

That smile didn’t last as I quickly walked back to my apartment, locked the door, and jumped straight to my bed still holding the bag of bread. What should I do!? I’m not sure how I should deal with that monthly cycle. Heck, I don’t even know my cycle! The thought of not knowing when it might come horrifies me. What if I started bleeding in the middle of the street, or maybe while on the clock at the convenience store? I rummaged through my drawers and luckily, there’s a small box with a few sanitary napkins in one of them.

Anyway, I’m safe for the time being. Buying these would feel awkward. Maybe I can just buy more at my part-time job before I run out. I’d ask the manager to teach me how to run the cashier so I’ll just pay for them while manning it. I’d rather not announce my monthly cycle to Johnny and other fellow staff. I have an old tiny shoulder bag here so I can just put a couple of sanitary napkins in there for emergency.

With that in mind, I pushed the worry for the future me to deal with while munching on bread and watching more short videos on my phone. When the clock struck 11, I changed into pajamas and brushed my teeth before finally hitting the hay.

---

I got up the next day at 7:30 AM. After washing my face and having a quick breakfast while browsing on my phone with one of the remaining pieces of bread from last night, I’m staring with half-dead eyes through the mirror while brushing my teeth. I caught another glimpse of the lotion bottle on the sink but fought the urge to reach for it. I’ve learned my lesson. I still have a few hours till I home tutor Mrs. Villanueva’s son at 2 PM. Not sure what Math lesson it would be but I was generally quite decent at it in my past life.

“Gargle, gargle… Pwooh! Alright, let’s prepare the desk for that computer later!”

I went out of the bathroom afterwards. I fixed my bed, moved the stuff on the desk to make space for the computer, wiped off the dust here and there, and finished it all up with a quick broom on the floor to gather everything into a dustpan and then the dustbin. That should to for today. I went for a quick trip to the bathroom for a quick morning shower and I caught yet another glimpse of that damn lotion bottle.

No, no, not happening. My body is my temple. Demon, begone! After reciting a few more random mantra, I threw the clothes I had taken off earlier into the laundry basket and dashed out to escape any further temptation. I had nothing else to do till 2 PM so I’m just gonna browse the web to kill time.

---

Sunday, 1:30 PM

In a room on the 1st floor, Matthew just had lunch and is about to be done with washing the plates when he hears a knock on his door. It was a room given to him earlier this month by his mother, the manager/owner of the building, so he can start being more independent as he reaches adulthood.

“Mom?”

“Mat, clean your desk. Your tutor will be here at two.”

“Huh? He said he won’t be coming this week, though,”

“I found you a one-time tutor.”

“Uh, sure…”

“Be nice to them.”

His mother immediately closed the door and left. Matthew begrudgingly lets out a sigh as he finishes the dishes. He starts cleaning around, putting a textbook, notebook, and pencil case on his desk. He puts a second chair right next to the one he uses. He just sits there and fiddles with his phone to pass the time before the substitute tutor arrives.

He hears another knock on his door. It’s most likely the substitute tutor. He opened the door and what showed up was nothing like he expected. It’s a girl who seems close to his age, barely his height with a striking beauty that will give celebrities a run for their money, with a figure not fitting for a teenager.

Her long hair is tied up in a ponytail and she’s wearing a cheap T-shirt with a childish print of a cartoonish brown bear with a “Papi Bear” text beneath, which contrasts with her tantalizing tight-hugging black dolphin shorts and how her shirt’s print is awfully stretched out of proportion.

And what’s with this scent wafting through the door? It tickles the nose and makes one’s heart race. Matthew just froze as they stared at each other for a moment when the girl opened her lips and spoke with an alluring voice in a lower yet undeniably feminine pitch.

“Hello, are you Mrs. Villanueva’s son? I’m Mayumi, your Math tutor for the day.”

“Yes, I’m Matthew. Just call me Mat. Please come in.”

The girl nonchalantly walked into his room and towards the study desk she saw. This only spread her enticing scent into Matthew’s room, much to his uneasiness.

As they both sat in front of the desk, Mayumi noticed the guy next to him being fidgety with his eyes fixed on his textbook. She flashes a subtle smile but her mischievously arching eyes say otherwise. It is the gentlest, sweetest grin that could drive a man insane, only if he turned his head to witness it. Tough luck...

“This kid just fell for me, huh? Oh, woe is me! This beauty is a curse! My very existence is a sin in itself! Tee-hee,” Mayumi thought to herself, enjoying the guy’s reaction to her mere presence. She feels for him, being a man herself in her past life. Although watching this is quite fun, she’s here for a different purpose. She needs that computer, and fast. That’s why she has to get this job done well.

“What grade are you now?”

“I’m in 10th grade. I’ll be in 11th grade in July.”

“Hmm, then you’ll have to call me ‘Big Sis’.”

“Y-Yes.”

“Thanks for the computer. How’s its condition? Is it still working well?”

“Y-Yeah, It’s still good to use. We only bought a newer one since I’ll be needing better specs for college.”

“So, which lesson are you at today? Math, right? I’m gonna teach Mat how to do Math, hee-hee!”

It was a crude attempt to lighten the mood but it was a punchline that fell flat. But luckily, Matthew brushed it off.

“Uhh, yeah… I’m on trigonometric functions right now.”

Turns out being possessing this level of beauty has its perks. You get away with a lot of stuff, much more with trivial ones like lame jokes. Mayumi lets out a sigh of relief upon being spared from embarrassment.

“So, we’ll tackle the 6 trigonometric functions. Memorize the names first: sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, and cosecant. In shorthand, they are written as sin, cos, tan, cot, sec, csc, respectively. Write them all down.”

“Okay… Learning all six of them at the same time feels kinda overwhelming.”

“Don’t worry about it. They’re technically just three since the latter half are reciprocals of the former half. And even those three are just proportions of two sides of a right triangle so it’ll be easier to wrap around your head if we draw one. Hand me a pencil and I’ll show you.”

The lesson went smoothly and they were done within an hour.

“You’re all good now. These functions aren’t just exclusive to right triangles. We can use them on any triangles as well with the law of sines, but that’s a lesson for another day. You can ask your actual tutor about it the next time you meet.”

“Thank you, Big Sis.”

As Mayumi stands and stretches her arms up, she catches him looking at her chest. Their eyes met and it felt awkward. She has to be the one to break this uncomfortable situation as the older one, she thought.

“Oh? You like what you’re seeing, kid?”

“Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay, I get it. You’re at that age and it’s normal to be interested in girls.”

“Sorry...”

“Don’t worry. I don’t mind. But try not to be too obvious when you look at other girls. They’d get angry when you do that.”

“You mean you’re fine with it?”

“Yeah, looking at me doesn’t really cost me anything. We’ll be seeing each other a lot around here from now on and it’s not like I can control your eyes or thoughts so suit yourself. But it’d be awkward if someone else is around so try to be more discreet.”

“Y-Yes, I won’t dare do anything like that. And it’s not like you’d do anything else that would be considered a threat, right?”

She grinned and bent down close enough for her face to reach his ears and softly spoke with a voice that could’ve been considered divine, if not for the words she uttered.

“But if you have any other intentions, I suggest giving up, kiddo. Don’t make this big sis break your heart. There’d be a better girl for you out there in the future. In return, I’ll give you special permission... Look as much as you want and appreciate this Big Sis’ beauty.”

Mayumi then steps back and stands straight with both hands on her waist and puffs her chest out. She then flashed that seductive killer smile, as if she caught a culprit red-handed and was telling him that she knew what he was up to. The corners Matthew froze on his seat, his head turned left towards her with a face that seemed to have turned pale and cold sweat dripping down the back of his neck. He isn’t sure if time has stopped or if his heartbeat did.

About ten seconds later, she returns to her usual cutesy face, raises both hands, and makes a double V-sign.

“All right, you’ve looked enough. I’ll be going now.”

“W-Wait, I wasn’t looking!”

“Hmm? That’s your fault, though.”

“Ughhh….”

“How about this, then. If you want to see me again, you can bring the computer. Make sure to take a good look by then, Hee-hee! See you around 7 PM, kiddo!”

Mayumi turned around and walked towards the door, raising her left hand as she bid farewell like some cool guy from a movie despite dropping a line that would never pass the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board’s censorship. Matthew turned his head back to the desk and just stared at nothing like a deer in headlights, unsure if what just happened was real or if what he learned today would stick in his head.

He got dumped despite not confessing and he felt an odd sense of relief, as if he found a closure to something that never started. It didn’t really feel bad. He then turned around and looked at a box on the floor where he neatly put his old desktop PC. “What’s up with me,” he muttered. A strange sensation is bubbling up from deep within him.

It’s currently 3:05 PM with the sun is still bright outside. Mayumi is happily walking towards her room on the fourth floor. She’s smiling like an idiot, thinking how she managed to get somebody else to carry the computer for her all the way to her room.

“This is one of the perks of being pretty, hee-hee! I bet that kid will use me as his fap fuel tonight.”

She enjoyed messing around with a guy’s feelings, especially since she knows exactly how their mind works. To be precise, she enjoyed the attention itself. Even so, she won’t be doing the same thing again. It was a one-time thing with the manager’s son since she never felt threatened by him, being younger and him knowing that she was acquainted with his mother. As she ponders about it, she realizes something.

“It’s gonna be okay if it’s online since. I can use my lovely voice and stream with the concept of being a relatable ‘one of the bros’ and fool around with simps in chat. I’d have to tone it down since there are ToS to consider, but yeah! This is a million-dollar idea! Mwahahahahahahah!”

She’s laying the groundwork for the advent of the internet goddess. She can already picture herself streaming inside her room, only to realize something and pause her steps.

“Wait, what about the internet connection?”