My Rental Boyfriend Is My Boss?! - Chapter 33

Chapter 33. You Should’ve Just Pretended

She was a flamboyant woman who could stand alongside the slender and tall Kamijemori. Her long, glossy, chestnut-colored hair was fluttering, and her glistening, thin, white fingertips were entwined with Kamijemori’s muscular, thick arms as she walked along with him as naturally as she could.

‘What? What do you mean…?’

Chie tilted her head, unable to think, just watching them disappear between the buildings.

“Do you know them?”

“What? Oh, no.”

Michiru reflexively denied it. Unlike Michiru, who met with Kamijemori on a daily basis, Chie, who was in a different department, didn’t seem to recognize him.

“Hehe. I thought your hobby was to watch active couples in the daytime.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because the place they just went to is a hotel district.”

Chie’s words made her look again at the alleyway where they had disappeared. Of course, Michiru couldn’t see them anymore.

‘The hotel district… means…’

Was it a girlfriend or a customer of a rented boyfriend? As she thought about this, Michiru felt a part of her chest relax and become more airy.

‘… Huh?’

It was a strange feeling of loss, as if she had lost something inside her, but she didn’t know what it was.

Without thinking, Michiru checked her own body. On the outside, nothing had changed. But inside, she felt a clear change.

‘… What is this?’

Michiru was shivering and restless. She suddenly felt like screaming or crying, like she was emotionally unstable.

‘What is this?’

What happened after Michiru witnessed the two of them was vague. She was in a daze and couldn’t think of anything. Chie was talking about something, but Michiru found herself alone in her house, her face buried in her pillow.

The image of the two of them walking arm in arm was burned into her eyes and she couldn’t get rid of it.

In fact, she felt like screaming when she imagined the two of them disappearing into the alley.

The thought of Kamijemori smiling at her the way he smiled at that woman filled Michiru with disgust, like a black flame burning deep in her stomach.

He told her that he wanted to change and that he couldn’t wait to show her the results of that change.

‘Then you don’t have to change. Minoru is still the same as he always was…’

He’s blunt, taciturn, speaks the bare minimum, his facial muscles barely function, and so on.

‘I’m such a jerk.’

He’s a rental boyfriend. He also dates other women.

It was obvious, but Michiru hadn’t fully recognized the reality until she saw it with her own eyes.

He dates other women. He smiles at other people, holds hands with them, and plays the role of boyfriend.

All the words and comfort Michiru had been given by him were in exchange for what she paid. For the same amount of money, he could give it to any other woman as well.

‘I knew that.’

It was just that she thought she knew.

Michiru was inexperienced, immature, and naive. She had read the rules and thought she knew them.

The proof of this was that her mind, which had felt nothing at first, now remembered the pain like multiple needle pricks.

‘You could have just pretended.’

Pretending to be her boyfriend. It had become more than just pretend in her mind.

“Oikawa.”

“Ha, yes.”

Michiru realized. The next thing she knew, everyone in her line of vision was looking at Michiru.

‘Oh no, I’m in a meeting…!’

Directly across from Michiru, she saw the worried eyes of Kamijemori.

Michiru couldn’t take in his eyes right now, so she reflexively averted her gaze.

This was the place for the planning meeting at the end of the week. As she hurriedly looked down at the table, Morishita, a senior employee who had been talking to her, looked worried and pointed at the proposal in her hand.

Michiru managed to move her blank mind and opened her mouth.

“Oh, yes, for the summer issue, my proposal this time is…”

Michiru read out a proposal full of holes that she had planned to do over the weekend, and managed to finish the meeting while getting the usual blank stares.

“Hey, Oikawa.”

Morishita called out to Michiru as she sat at her desk with her shoulders slumped.

“Oh, I’m sorry about earlier.”

“No, it’s okay. You’re looking a little down today.”

“Do I…?”

“Yeah. You’re not usually so absent-minded, are you, Oikawa? I was wondering what’s wrong.”

As expected of an able woman, she was very perceptive. Michiru bit her lip inwardly.

“No…”

Morishita’s voice was quiet as Michiru stammered.

“You mean with Kamijemori?”

“What?”

Michiru was thrown off.

A moment later she looked up and her eyes meet Morishita’s. She looked at Michiru like she knew what she was doing, and Michiru let her gaze drift.

“… Why?”

“The other day, I saw him coming out of a pub… Kamijemori is not the kind of person who asks his subordinates for advice in private, is he? So I wondered if there was something.”

“No, there’s nothing.”

As Michiru said it, the word “nothing” pierced her heart. Because it’s true.

She hired him to be her boyfriend, and then she realized that she wanted more than just a role. That’s all.

“Is that so? I thought it was because Kamijemori had recently become more mellow and Oikawa was glowing… Oh, you’re worried about the ban on internal romance? That’s not true.”

“No, I’m not! That… meeting was just a coincidence, and it was nothing to do with the chief editor.”

Morishita nodded to Michiru, who looked down at her with concern.

“… I see. I’m sorry I asked you such a strange question. I’m glad to hear it, though, because Kamijemori had a  something going on.”

“A little…?”

“About Inoue.”

Michiru heard that name recently, too.

‘As I recall… isn’t Inoue the person who inspired Minoru to want to change by being a rental boyfriend?’

Michiru hardly remembered talking to her. She didn’t expect to hear that name twice in such a short time since Inoue quit.

When Michiru looked unsure, Morishita looked around as if troubled and then lowered her voice further.