Liars must swallow a thousand needles.

After this long night, Hoshino Ruka finally understood why a liar would have to swallow a thousand needles.

Normally, a fine needle is 0.25 millimeters thick.

If a thousand such needles were laid flat side by side, they would cover twenty-five centimeters.

However, that figure applied only when the thousands of needles were spread out flat. Once they were gathered up and clenched tightly in the palm of a hand, the reality became much easier to comprehend.

At the very least, she understood that much now.

"Today... are we still going on a date?"

Hoshino Ruka bit her swollen lips, her hair scattered in disarray across the pillow, revealing a vast expanse of delicate, resilient, snow-white skin. Her gaze flickered with complex emotions.

"Forget it. You worked hard last night, too. Just stay home and get some proper rest today," Tsukasa Harano said considerately.

Naturally, he had stayed over here last night.

Since Hoshino Ruka had already agreed to this transaction, even though the final project delivery had not yet been completed, Harano had no reason to leave. After all, staying here allowed him to review and verify the progress of the previous contract.

Last night had indeed exhausted Hoshino Ruka completely.

As everyone knew.

Those with no prior experience, or very little of it, found it difficult to succeed on the very first try; even two, three, or four attempts might not guarantee success.

Yet Harano disliked leaving things half-finished.

So he simply had to trouble her.

Moreover, since they were sharing a bed, to be honest neither of them had many secrets left between them. Therefore, when the player dribbled the ball and approached the goal once again, just a slight probing revealed that the goalkeeper in the goalmouth was actually just a dummy.

However, Harano did not expose her.

He would pay a fake price for a fake game.

If she failed to pay the cost of conceding a goal, the corresponding reward would be reduced accordingly. That was purely a personal choice, and there was no need for coercion. After all, the process itself was meant to be a form of enjoyment, and isn't this precisely what Harano had gone through such great lengths to achieve in satisfying a woman's malicious desires? Furthermore, Harano believed that day actually wasn't far off, because greed only ever grew stronger with time.

"Harano-kun..."

Hoshino Ruka's voice sounded once more.

Harano turned his head to look at her.

Compared to her usual polished and glamorous appearance as a made-up office worker at the ward office, she was currently completely bare-faced. The glaze on her lips had mostly worn off from friction, yet she possessed a sort of disheveled beauty of one who had been thoroughly bullied.

Yet, as Hoshino Ruka softly called Harano's name from across the pillow, it was not like lovers whispering affectionately beside each other upon waking in the morning, but rather a demand for her compensation.

Beneath her gaze, where a desperate longing tried and failed to remain hidden, Harano offered his response:

"If you don't want to keep working at the ward office, just say so in advance and I'll arrange it—we can transfer you to another department or agency. If you don't plan on working at all, and want to open a shop instead, that's fine too, or if you simply prefer to stay idle, that's no problem either."

This was the basic remuneration provided by Harano.

It could also be called a base salary.

Before yesterday, saying such things would undoubtedly have been just painting big pies in the sky, but now, relying on his status as a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member, cashing in a few favors and connections, and leveraging an intimidating aura others couldn't see through, it was relatively easy for him to pull strings for a low-ranking civil servant—at the very least, without causing her too much trouble.

Clearly, however, Hoshino Ruka was not quite satisfied with this.

After all, a local civil servant was hardly a glamorous job to begin with; what difference would a mere internal transfer make?

At most, her work would become a bit more leisurely.

However, her goal was money.

Unwilling to settle for this condition as full payment for her night of hard work, Hoshino Ruka shook her head and refused: "I don't have any plans to resign for the time being."

She directly ignored the suggestion about opening a shop.

Owning a shop of her own had once been Hoshino Ruka's dream, but that "once" was a very long time ago.

After learning that a friend who opened a clothing store in Minato ward was worked half to death every day, having to personally select products and pick up stock just to save on costs, only to rack her brains trying to promote the store back home, and ultimately failing to turn a profit while losing every single cent of her savings, Hoshino Ruka instantly stamped out that notion in her heart.

The current economic climate was simply too poor, and no honest business was easy to run. Why stand when you could lie down and make money?

Of course.

How one lay down was also a crucial question.

Finding the right person was the most important thing of all.

Therefore, even though her veiled hints asking for money had been brushed aside and replaced with offers of a job transfer and a storefront, Hoshino Ruka did not feel particularly angry.

The reason lay in Harano's yet-to-be-fathomed but certainly not empty wallet, the casual power with which he claimed he could arrange her transfer, and her own trump card—still unplayed, unique, and utterly irreplaceable.

"Then I'll leave it to your arrangements. I respect your personal wishes," Harano replied with his eyes half-closed.

"Mhm..."

"Are there any other troubles?"

"Can I mention things about daily life?"

"If it involves money, we'll talk about it another day."

"Then there's nothing."

"What would you like for breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry yet..."

Ever since her school days, Hoshino Ruka had never had the habit of eating breakfast. Coupled with the fact that she had brushed her teeth several times after last night's ordeal, her mouth still tasted of minty toothpaste, leaving her completely devoid of any appetite for food.

Sharing a bed with a man for the very first time—to say she was unaccustomed to it was an understatement. Moreover, transitioning from neatly dressed colleagues to pillow-companions who were practically stripped bare, the brevity of that time and the shift in identities left her with a profoundly surreal feeling.

Even more so than the luxury items she had bought yesterday.

Besides, aside from feeling as though she had swallowed a thousand needles from lying last night, her chest still ached faintly.

Hoshino Ruka turned her head to look at Harano.

Perhaps due to the excessive physical intimacy, Harano, who had previously appeared completely unremarkable in her eyes, now looked remarkably pleasing to her, even possessing a slight hint of handsome charm.

This wasn't the kind of handsomeness born from swiping credit cards and spending money.

It was a matter of facial features and temperament.

"If I had just observed him a bit more closely before, we probably could have had a normal relationship and I wouldn't have ended up in such a passive position..."

This thought suddenly popped into Hoshino Ruka's mind.

Yet she quickly dismissed it in her heart.

If Harano hadn't suddenly taken the initiative to contact her, while maintaining a low profile yet displaying such formidable financial resources, she probably wouldn't have been interested either.

Still, although their involvement started a little late, it wasn't as if there was no chance to change things...

Just as Hoshino Ruka was staring dazedly at Harano's face, secretly plotting how to shake off her current awkward status while assuming he was asleep, Harano suddenly spoke up again:

"By the way, when was the ward office's most recent physical examination?"

"...It seems to have been half a year ago, I think."

Startled, Hoshino Ruka quickly reined in her thoughts, rummaged through her memory, and answered with some uncertainty.

"Why did you suddenly ask..."

She was about to ask why he brought this up out of the blue when she noticed he had opened his eyes at some point and was staring directly at her.

Hoshino Ruka's heart skipped a beat.

She could roughly guess what was on his mind.

"I really was a virgin..."

"No wonder."

Harano murmured softly, then paused to think before saying: "Still, to be safe, you should go to the hospital and get a specialized gynecological checkup. Some conditions have nothing to do with whether it's your first time or not."

"...I understand."

The Malice Checklist could only detect malice.

It couldn't scan a person's physical health status.

Unless the other person had active thoughts about it, Harano had no way of completely preempting such issues.

As for Hoshino Ruka's claim about her first time...

He would tentatively assume she wasn't lying.

Even though it was the twenty-first century and reconstructing membranes or cosmetic touch-ups were easy enough, the heartfelt trembling of someone experiencing it for the very first time was difficult to fake. Even with stellar acting skills, flaws would inevitably show in front of a man who truly knew what he was doing.

Realizing that he still didn't entirely trust her, Hoshino Ruka finally couldn't help casting a resentful glance his way. However, that look didn't last long before it was abruptly interrupted by a searing body pressing closely against her.

What gradually set her mind at ease, however, was that although Harano's face was mere inches away, radiating a intense masculine aura, he didn't seem intent on probing her again. Instead, looking right at her, he said:

"Hoshino-san, it's almost time, I should be leaving. But before I go, you might need to trouble yourself one last time."

"St-still again?"

"Sorry about that. As you know, men always face this particular annoyance in the mornings. However, considering you're already quite tired, I don't want to take up too much of your rest time, so let's just do it like last night."

"Harano-kun..."

"What is it?"

"What... what are we to each other now?"

"Don't ask. Just eat."

Nearly twenty minutes later, Hoshino Ruka, her face flushed red and a hand pressed over her mouth, hurried into the bathroom.