Neighborhood Orgy - Chapter 57

 "Coffee is fine, right? You weren't a fan of green tea."

"Yeah."

We sat across from each other at the kitchen table. I didn't know what to say, so I ended up asking, "Um, were you... were you hurt?"

Aoi-san looked at me as if she were appalled. "I'm fine. It happens all the time."

Then she added, "I'm transferring schools in the spring. Don't get the wrong idea—it's not because of what happened this time. It’s just because of my mom’s work schedule."

"To where?"

"Naha. She says she's changing jobs to a soapland down there."

"I see."

Aoi-san stared at me intently.

"Yuu-kun, you’ve always been a strange kid, haven't you? Like you already know everything there is to know about the adult world."

"That's not true."

"It is. I mean, you even take your coffee black, right? And the way you keep your distance from women... it's the same."

"Um, Aoi-san, even if you stayed here..."

"It’s impossible. Living alone as a middle schooler like you is the exception of all exceptions."

"Then—"

"Don't say anything more. It’s truly impossible, and I don't want to drag you into this, Yuu-kun."

"Is it that serious?"

Aoi-san didn't look away; she looked me straight in the eye and explained.

"Today, my mom has an AV shoot during the day and a call-girl gig at night. The call-girl job is 200,000 yen for two hours—amazing, right? But the requests are decreasing. She’s a consumable; you understand that, don't you? If you’re young like you, Yuu-kun, you have a long way to go, but Mom is getting up there in age. That’s why it’s a soapland in Naha. And for me, there are a few options. One—this is Mom’s recommendation—is to become an apprentice geisha in Gion. Apparently, there are places that will take you in even at my age."

"Isn't that hard?"

"Who knows. I heard they make you drink alcohol even though you're a minor, and you have to get in the bath with old men."

"That's not right."

"Hey... how is that any different from my life now?"

"What?"

"Read between the lines. Or should I tell you what they did to me yesterday after that? In every tiny detail?"

"No... it's okay."

"You don't want to hear it, do you?"

"Anyway, becoming a geisha is one. Another is to study hard and go abroad after graduating middle school—which is its own kind of struggle. And the last one... is to become like Mom."

Aoi-san, becoming an AV actress?

"The 'standard' course: do some minor entertainment activities starting in middle school even if I don't get famous, then make an AV debut as a 'former entertainer' once I'm an adult, and then move into the sex industry."

"Don't do that."

"That’s what the people Mom is indebted to want. Because everyone makes money that way."

"It’s not right."

"Yuu-kun, you’re different from me. You're doted on by all the older women around here, getting all kinds of 'good experience' and having fun. You’re smart, your parents are rich... we aren't like you, the 'child aristocrat' with a guaranteed future."

"That’s not true."

"Go home."

"Aoi-san."

"I want you to make me feel like it’s your fault."

"Do you hate me now?"

"I love you. Pretty seriously. But Yuu-kun... you’re the only one I can hate without being forgotten by."

That day, I was kicked out of Aoi-san’s house. After that day, she never came to school again. Spring arrived, but for me, it was still winter.

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