Chapter 88: What If The Other Side Has Money Power?
The red Porsche Panamera drove onto the main road outside.
Inside the car, the atmosphere was somewhat stagnant.
Natsume Mio sat in the front passenger seat, turning her head to look at Mikazuki Haruna who was driving.
Haruna also turned her head to look at her, but with the turning motion, the car suddenly swerved.
“Eh?!” Natsume Mio was slightly startled and quickly grabbed the door handle.
Mikazuki Haruna also reacted, laughing awkwardly with a hehe, then looked back at the road ahead and straightened the wheel.
Two or three minutes later, Natsume Mio spoke up: “Haruna Senior, you didn’t come to A Jian’s house today just to discuss manga creation, right.”
“Do I need to report to you when I go to see Sakamoto Ken Sensei?” Mikazuki Haruna said.
“This…” Natsume Mio pursed her lips, at a loss for words.
She huffed lightly and said: “In A Jian’s eyes, you’re just a fellow serializing at the same time as him.”
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Mikazuki Haruna’s mouth, and she replied lightly: “Of course we’re fellows. Sakamoto Ken Sensei’s work is very interesting, I like it a lot, and he likes me too.”
“A Jian was just being polite.” Natsume Mio said.
She turned the steering wheel, the car rounding a corner, and said to Natsume Mio in a slightly teasing tone: “Then, Mio-chan, what is your relationship with Sakamoto Ken Sensei?”
This guy was totally speaking in the tone of a senior lecturing a junior.
Natsume Mio really wanted to say that her relationship with A Jian was anything but ordinary, but the fact was, nothing was confirmed between her and A Jian.
“We’re… we’re of course very close, after all, we’ve known each other for many years.” Natsume Mio said vaguely.
“Oh, really?” Mikazuki Haruna said, “Sakamoto Ken Sensei is very talented, but life is a bit tough for him. I was just thinking whether to give him some money to let him move to a better place, buy the best equipment, and focus on drawing.”
“No way!” Natsume Mio almost blurted out.
She immediately realized her reaction was too intense and quickly added: “I mean, A Jian… he definitely wouldn’t accept money like that from someone out of the blue!”
“What’s unclear about it.” Mikazuki Haruna said, “Doesn’t he urgently need money? That debt is quite a lot.”
“How do you know?!” Natsume Mio’s guard went up.
“Don’t worry about how I know.” Mikazuki Haruna said, “Anyway, he owes a pretty big sum, and he’s still living in such a rundown apartment. And you? You can’t really help him, right.”
“A Jian’s royalty fees are very high!” Natsume Mio said, “He submitted so many manuscripts this month, and it’s almost time for the original manuscript fees to come in.”
“That still won’t cover what he owes, over twenty million.” Mikazuki Haruna said flatly, “Even without an assistant, ignoring his body, drawing at super high intensity, it’d probably take a year without eating or drinking. Then starting university, art major, expenses are just as big, and after school starts, he won’t be able to keep up that creation speed, and the royalty fees will drop.”
Natsume Mio also knew that A Jian’s debt was a huge sum of over twenty million, plus tuition fees, living expenses, and all sorts of other expenditures.
Unless the volumes blow up, relying only on original manuscript fees, it would still take quite a while to pay off.
But the key is, how does she even know the exact amount?!
A Jian hadn’t even told her the specific amount of the debt, just mentioned he had a large debt.
The reason she knew the exact amount was because of that memory from the dream.
But Mikazuki Haruna, a fellow he’s only known for a short time, how does she know it so clearly?
Natsume Mio stared at Mikazuki Haruna who was driving, and said firmly: “Don’t get any ideas like that. A Jian definitely isn’t the type to accept large sums of money from someone.”
“Is that so?” Mikazuki Haruna’s tone was full of skepticism, “That’s not necessarily true. Maybe he just won’t accept because it’s not enough.”
“I think you’re the one with ulterior motives toward A Jian!” Natsume Mio said.
Mikazuki Haruna didn’t get angry at all, instead letting out a light laugh.
She stepped on the brake, the car stopping at the intersection for the red light.
Haruna turned her head, eyes staring straight at Mio, with a hint of provocation: “Then why don’t you help him pay it off?”
“I…”
Natsume Mio opened her mouth, but couldn’t respond at all.
Yeah, what do I have to help him pay it back with?
Natsume Mio’s family wasn’t bad off, but it was just an ordinary family.
Her father worked at a major trading company, just an ordinary employee climbing the ranks by seniority, not management.
And her father’s single income had to support the whole family. Her studying vocal music next wouldn’t be any cheaper than art.
Her hourly wage from part-time jobs, even adding recent voice acting fees and advertisement appearance fees, probably couldn’t even cover the maintenance for this car of hers.
This guy wants to use money to forcibly take A Jian!
Actually, when she said earlier that A Jian wasn’t the type to accept large sums from others, she felt a bit guilty.
After all, in that memory, A Jian clearly got in this car.
That must have been for this guy’s money!
Otherwise? For her looks?
She’s not as pretty as me, not as tall, not as busty…
Stepping back, even if A Jian is a stockings-obsessed foot fetish pervert, she could wear them too.
And she has worn them, not just ones she bought herself, A Jian bought some for her too.
By now, the car had arrived at the roadside in front of Takezuka Station.
“How about I just take you home directly?” Mikazuki Haruna asked again.
“No need, I can take the train easily…” Natsume Mio refused immediately.
She didn’t want this woman to know her home address.
“Alright then, bye-bye~”
Mikazuki Haruna waved at her, without any reluctance to see her go.
Natsume Mio got out of the car decisively, standing by the roadside, watching the red Porsche let out a low roar and merge into the traffic flow.
“Phew…”
Natsume Mio let out a long breath, feeling slightly powerless.
She walked up the steps, beeped her card to enter the station.
Just then the train arrived, she got on the swaying train, took out her mobile phone, opened LINE, and tapped on Sakamoto Ken’s avatar.
The cursor flashed continuously in the input box, but she couldn’t type a single word.
Should she ask him?
Ask what his relationship with Mikazuki Haruna really is?
Ask what he really thinks of that guy?
But… on what grounds should she ask that?
Just like Mikazuki Haruna said, she and Sakamoto Ken were just classmates right now.
But she definitely has bad intentions, definitely has designs on A Jian, no doubt.
And if she doesn’t act…
If that awful thing really happens, she’d just have to watch A Jian get taken by that bad woman, just like in that dream memory…
She absolutely couldn’t let that happen!
To stop A Jian from being tricked by the bad woman, she first needed to establish a relationship beyond classmates with him.
Like, becoming lovers with A Jian?
This matter absolutely couldn’t be dragged out any longer.
But how should she do it?
Confess to him?
Actually, just over a month ago, on the day exams ended, she had already prepared to confess, but he slipped away at the time, so she put it on hold.
Her confession plan back then was actually very simple: just stop A Jian and say “I like you, please go out with me.”
Thinking about it now, that was way too insincere, not even as good as those girls stuffing little cards in A Jian’s shoe cabinet.
They at least searched online for confession articles and copied them onto the cards…
Natsume Mio exited the LINE chat interface, without sending Sakamoto Ken any message.
Then, she opened the memo app on her phone and created a new file.
In the title bar, she solemnly typed four words:
—Confession Lines.
