SEVENTY-ONE. GF-FORHIRE
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"so let me get this straight.."
utsui munched on her crispy fried potato slices which she stole from the other food the home economics club prepared for sign-ups today, as she sat on the stage right beside the basketball court.
their own club's sign-ups weren't until 4 o'clock. it was barely even 9 in the morning. and since there were no formal classes because of sign-ups, they opted to wander around the school like everyone else.
"you're planning on taking this to the next level?" she asked ymari.
the girl successfully made a three pointer basket with a perimeter shot and went to collect her ball back.
"yep." she nodded, agreeing with what the girl said.
utsui hummed. it would be beneficial money-wise. but was a twelve year old really ready for a commitment like this? she had basketball, academics, and home economics club to worry about. not just that, she already has a 'boyfriend' whose new arrangements she told utsui about earlier.
she voiced out her concerns and ymari pondered over it for a while, dribbling the ball.
after a while, the girl said. "i'll be able to handle it."
utsui nodded, "alright."
"well since we're really doing this.."
utsui hopped off the stage. she went over to drag ymari by the hand, keeping her potato slices in her right hand as they made their way outside the gym.
"we better do it right."
-
"and that should do it." sakurai smiled in relief.
he turned to look at the two other second years who were admiring his handiwork on the computer.
it was the late 2000s so this type of technology wasn't very prominent as much as it was just new, but sakurai really did an amazing job.
apparently, being on the basketball club and the information technology club on the side really pays off.
ymari looked at the website with wide eyes. "oi, sakurai."
the boy looked at her, "yes, shekinah-san?"
"this is amazing." ymari glanced at him and he swears he could see stars in her eyes after she looked at the website he designed. "how much do you want for this?"
www. gf-forhire.com is sakurai's masterpiece.
in a span of four hours, their good friend sakurai managed to build a website for ymari from scratch. utsui took her here in the computer room because she knew sakurai would be here in the it club as his other club's sign-ups started later in the afternoon, at 2 o'clock.
utsui sought out his help because she knows that he's the only one capable of bringing ymari's vision to life. he even launched ad campaigns already, which ymari funded through her bank account that they linked earlier.
"it's fine, you don't have to pay me—" sakurai immediately started, but was abruptly cut off by the shorter girl.
"i'll bring you the money tomorrow." ymari bowed at a 45 degree angle. "arigato."
utsui stifled a laugh, while sakurai just blushed and stuttered furiously as he went to tell ymari that it was unnecessary to do such.
after a while, the three were making their way to the cafeteria for late lunch. it was already half past one in the afternoon, and sakurai had to go to his basketball club in a bit but they all hadn't had any lunch yet.
"order whatever you want." ymari, elated and a bit excited from what miracle just occured in the computer room, commanded.
the two, knowing she wouldn't take no for an answer, went ahead to order their lunches.
the three sat down on an empty cafeteria table. there weren't many people in the cafeteria. most were just people who missed out on their meal for an hour like them.
"i'm curious though.." sakurai said after a while, as he ate his lasagna.
he looked at ymari, "you're really taking the girlfriend thing to the professional league?"
ymari looked up from her double bacon cheeseburger. she swallowed her food and nodded. "yeah."
"but what about child labor? don't you think your aunt would be sued for it if the government finds out and mistakes it for her forcing you to work?" sakurai started to ask trivial questions.
"i've got that part covered." utsui leaned against her seat. "mom's a lawyer and dad's tec's ceo. we'll get her out of any trouble she gets into— both ymari and her aunt are like family to us."
tec stands for tokyo energy corporation, which the futakuchi family owns, by the way.
"then there's nothing to worry about then." sakurai smiled at ymari. "i wish you luck."
ymari nodded at the sincerity of the boys wishes. "domo."
-
by the time it struck five in the afternoon, utsui had gone through most of the players who were vying for the team. and to their surprise, what they thought was only going to be about twenty players to screen, turned out to be more than fifty.
there were more than fifty basketball players in the gym, all wanting to be part of the legendary team of hakuou led by the daughter of the late divine shooter.
and all of them held promising talent, good teamwork, and decent attitudes.
utsui and the remaining third years on the roster were doing all the physical skill screening while ymari ticked them off the list one by one through the preliminaries she had them do beforehand.
and what was the preliminaries, you ask?
if you're going to guess their score track record in basketball or their body mass index..
you're wrong.
because what she has in her hands are..
"she goes by she.. but not her, because she will never be her..?" she cluelessly read off one application.
are the personal information and previous team captain ratings of each player.
she asked for their names, ages, birthdays, pronouns, gender, and lastly.. the impressions of their previous team captains on them.
she was enlightened by her previous senpai, tachibana who she liked to call bakago-chin, that teamwork matters a lot in this sport, as it is played by a team. so she wants to know how each of these players measure up in terms of teamwork.
because if there's one thing she learned from her senpai, it's that teamwork can make up for whatever talent a regular skilled player lacks.
take bakago-chin herself for example.
she wasn't exceptional in any way. she was just skilled.
this analogy has no relation whatsoever to ymari wanting to insult back bakago-chin for calling her a twat a long time ago. nope, not at all.
but the talent she lacked, that ymari had, she made up for with teamwork.
that's what made her and this team a powerhouse.
that's what this sport is built upon.
teamwork.
"you done rating them?" utsui jogged up to ymari, leaving their third year senpais in charge of screening for players.
ymari hummed, finally done rating the 58th player. "yeah."
"everyone's in. we're dividing them into three strings. twenty something on each string." ymari concluded, stacking the papers but leaving one, which had the summary on the table. "let's leave it here."
the brunette nodded as ymari gave her the summary paper. she looked over the names and agreed, with a hum. "alright."
"tell the seniors they can announce the strings now. afterwards, they can dismiss the players. the two of us will go on ahead." she told utsui.
she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, skirt swiftly lifting up with the wind as she turned. she started walking briskly to the doors of the gym when her phone vibrated in her skirt pocket.
she blinked, pulling it out.
sana-obaasan never emails, texts, or calls her at this time of the day.
heck, her aunt only calls at least once every two weeks to check on her. that's because ukai already was already given informal slash honorary custody of the kid by sana— the woman gave him the authority slash responsibility to sign the papers needed to be signed by guardians. so there wasn't a need for daily check-ins from the woman with ukai already as the supervisor of ymari.
she looked at the screen, eyes narrowing at a few characters she didn't seem to recognize at first glance.
however, when she read it again, her heart skipped a beat.
was it in excitement?
she read it again, her ears tinging red.
was it in elation?
she read the characters typed on the screen, making sure she wasn't going blind.
a small smile flitted upon her lips. she was officially going to be a professional full-time girlfriend for hire.
-
"sweet, you got your first client?" utsui asked as the two of them walked to ymari's house after being dropped off by the bus at the bus stop.
the two of them went home alone without kenji and terushima because they were both still at club sign-ups.
utsui intended to sleep over to help ymari with her first official girlfriend for hire date tonight. it was apparently a family dinner, and her client was a thirteen year old second year middle school student from a school she doesn't remember.
it was utsui and sakurai who suggested the pay rates for her new profession, as the former said that, "if you keep low-balling your prices, you're gonna end up broke."
the pay was a one thousand yen for a two-hour date.
one hundred yen for a thirty minute phone call.
two thousand yen for an entire day of a relationship— she managed to convince utsui to make it this way. originally, it was five thousand.
and much to her dismay..
fifty thousand yen for a month of dating.
the pay the two athletes— sakurai and utsui) created was definitely good, but having people spend too much for something as trivial as this was still new to her and it set her off.
"yeah, he found the ad sakurai ran, and he paid already." ymari told her. "what should i wear later?"
"depends.." utsui hummed thoughtfully as the two of them finally arrived at ymari's home.
"is it a formal dinner?" she asked as the two of them entered the seinaru estate.
"yeah." ymari nodded as they both went upstairs to her room. "they're eating at a high-end restaurant in uptown sendai."
utsui grinned, clicking her tongue. "alright then, i know what you should wear."
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a/n:
so this came in my email yesterday
who decided to pull one on me hah?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA y'all funny