A Lover for Rent, Never for Sale

Mamie didn’t attend the year-one lectures up until the election, which reminded me that she had only been going to them voluntarily. She hadn’t been texting me too, and of course, I did the mature thing and avoided bothering her. Instead, I spent hours staring at our chat history. In other words, completely sane and normal behavior.

Unwittingly, the day of the election approached. Before the voting began, the candidates were allowed a final speech to the student body. The whole event was optional, but given how important building relationships was in the escort industry, most students would do their bare minimum to attend and socialize.

According to the pre-election polling, Mamie was ahead of Hanawa-senpai by over ten percent. Her helpful streak and placement in the Dating Show Competition had improved her image, while my declaration during the Union visit… I’d rather not think about it.

In the same exhibition hall where the Q-and-A took place, with the final speech minutes from starting, I couldn’t keep still on the plastic folding chair, fidgeting like bugs were crawling on my skin, and at times, I felt like I was seconds away from potential death—because the chair was just squeaking and wobbling so much that it might collapse in the most spectacular fashion. I wasn’t exaggerating the part about dying, as so many deaths came from the most mundane of places.

Where did the Union funding go if not to buy new chairs? Did they use it all on the disposable sheets in the sex rooms?

At least one thing had ameliorated my discomfort as I looked around—shifting on the row of similarly defective seats were my fellow students. Yep, I wasn’t suffering alone. A sense of kinship overrode my frustration, and just as I was acclimating to the awful screeching that the torture device made…

Someone tapped my shoulder. Not knowing what to expect, I turned with a smile to two girls staring back at me with expressions of… curiosity? As if they had discovered an unidentified species. “Excuse me, are you the year-one who denounced the sigma male ideology during the Q-and-A?”

Never mind. No one here is suffering with me at all.

I had had a few encounters with this type of nosy people already, people who should have taken the right to privacy more seriously. So, I knew just the response to leave them speechless. Step one, I leaned towards them with a cupped hand around my mouth—the standard pose one would use to divulge secrets. Step two, I whispered into their ears, “Don’t tell anyone, but I was actually practicing my stand-up comedy act. It’s my dream to perform on Tokyo’s Got Talent.”

They took a second to process the information, and then both girls offered solemn nods. Little did they know, Tokyo’s Got Talent had been canceled for years now, and they were notorious for hating comedians to a comical degree that the judges once got into a brawl with a contestant over a bad joke.

After dealing with the snoopy neighbors, I shifted my focus to the main event on stage. Ayu-senpai introduced the first candidate to give their speech. Same as always, Hanawa-senpai spoke with a soft, embracing voice and a gentle smile that I finally found to be somewhat authentic. Her fiery red dress helped attract the hall’s attention too.

The marks of insomnia on her face had vanished completely, which could be thanks to the wonders of makeup, or maybe my chat with her that night had calmed her nerves. Even though it wouldn’t have made a difference, I sincerely hoped that it was the latter.

The content of the speech couldn’t be any more standard. A recap of her relevant strengths and experiences, her promises to improve the campus environment, and a declaration that she would maintain good relations with the Union. Maybe if she had disclosed more of her real self, the students would feel a deeper connection to her, and that might have been the only way left for her to overtake Mamie. That was all to say that she should have talked about her search for a sugar daddy.

Though I don’t blame her. The college students here are too broke to be her sugar parent anyway.

Suffering through the chair’s annoying wobbling, I wondered, did the students here even want reality? How many people knew about Hanawa-senpai’s ambition? In the first place, why did she even tell me, someone who could be considered her victim or enemy?

Maybe I was overthinking this. All that mattered was that she revealed part of herself to me. A part that not everyone would want to know about. Meanwhile, her public, polished persona bowed to conclude her speech, and the applause resounded.

I didn’t join the crowd, though not because I wanted to spite Hanawa-senpai. It was a good speech, and I wanted to affirm her efforts. But my hands just wouldn’t move. The students around me suddenly seemed terribly distant, and their sound of clapping felt off, making me ponder whether I was submerged underwater.

As I was fidgeting among enthusiastic strangers, my meandering eyes found Mamie standing next to the stage. She wore a dark blue blazer over a clear white T-shirt, paired with light gray trousers. Serious face on. Even from where I sat, I could feel the heavy air around her, which I wouldn’t need Practical Psychology training to decode—her solemn attitude had to mean that she was invested in the speech and the election.

She might have already made her choice.

I suppressed the impulse to spring myself onto her and beg her to quit her dream of being an escort, because I knew what would have happened had I done that. It was the same reason I hadn’t pleaded my case with her in the past few days. I had already voiced my desires; anything more would be pressure for her to contort her own passions so she wouldn’t hurt me. Yes, I would still be hurt if she chose to continue her current path to become a representative, but nothing scared me more than to once again stare into those guarded jade eyes that pretended to gleam with life.

Before she stepped onto the stage, she actually gave me one last glance. Believe me, I tried. I tried to read the thoughts behind the melancholic glint in her eyes, but nothing came up. And I wondered, truly wondered, if even the Ace Maiden could perfectly understand every human she met. Or are we forever cursed to hide part of ourselves from one another?

Regardless, I still sensed the finality in her look, as if she had just condemned a loved one to a death sentence.

I wanted to cry. Despite not having anything concrete to cry about. Yet.

Her heels clicked from carpet to plywood, echoing in the vast hall and counting down towards the reveal of a truth that I could never be ready for. She halted in front of the podium, and Ayu-senpai handed her the microphone.

The projector flashed on to cast the presentation slides onto the screen behind her, displaying a minimalist design that was as clean and ordered as her room was. And the title lounging in the center had my eyes narrowing and my mind unsure how to react:

A Lover for Rent, Never for Sale

With a smile, one that looked too soft to be fake, Mamie started her speech. “Hello, teachers and fellow students. Thank you for coming and thank you everyone for your support throughout this election. I’ve thought about everything recently. About this college, about the industry, about the Union, about the brothels, and about the clients. And what I realized was…”

She advanced to the next slide. It was a page filled with statistics. Bars, pies, tables—things that one would also find in a pub. “We, as students, aren’t informed enough. We haven’t been told the reality of this world. And the charts I have here, this is what the college doesn’t focus on: the cost. How many escorts are exploited with inhumane contracts? How many clients become so addicted to the service that they ruin themselves and their families? The mental health issues. Human trafficking. Blackmail. Poor working conditions. Unlicensed brothels that don’t even test for STDs and confirm the age of either party. And this is just an overview.”

I expected the professors or staff to rush onto the stage to silence her, and so I could jump in courageously to delay them. But that didn’t happen. Quite the opposite, I could see Professor Tsuyuki at the front row nodding along and muttering, probably something about how the porn industry was worse. So, no playing the hero for me. Regardless, I knew full well that my indoor-dwelling body couldn’t stand against any buff security guards. I could already imagine their sinewy muscles pressing against my body, hot and firm.

Maybe I imagined a bit too much, because when I came to, Mamie had already moved on to another slide, which had a photo of the college in all its glamor. “When it comes to everyone here, I hope you can think about the industry and your place in it. Search beyond the lectures and find whatever will help you in the future. Don’t let the escort industry break you and shape you. Don’t let them turn you into someone cold and cynical and withdrawn and selfish. Instead, blaze ahead to carve your own place in this world. As for me, I think I have found my own path, and I hope everyone can find theirs too. Thank you.”

The hall blew up with clapping, and for a moment, I wondered whether I was hallucinating all the deafening sound. I hadn’t expected this positive of a response from everyone. The dysfunctional chairs ceased to matter as the collective gaze seemed to have settled upon Mamie, the shining star on stage.