A week had passed since Niko’s crazy ex-was arrested. Yuuto sat at the table in the staff meeting room while watching and listening to the Old man tally up everyone’s monthly score and rank.
Pretty boy was moved from unranked to #15, and Yuuto was also moved from unranked to #18.
‘Woo moving up in life’ thought Yuuto. They were dismissed but before Yuuto could leave the old man called out to him.
“Yuuto could you stay here for a moment? I have something to discuss with you.”
Yuuto walked back to his seat and sat down. The Old man waited until everyone had left before he talked.
“I have an old friend that has offered me a large amount of money to borrow a host to cover for one of theirs that has gotten sick. Seeing as you have the largest debt out of everyone here this money would go towards paying off some of your debt if you agree to go and work for them. It should only be for a few days, starting on Monday. Are you interested?” asked the Old man.
“Yes, of course, this would help me out a lot,” replied Yuuto immediately.
“Good, then I’ll arrange everything to be ready by Monday. You may leave.”
It was now Saturday, a day off for Yuuto. He wasn’t going outside for any fun because Niko had asked him to help watch her siblings while she worked.
Agreeing to take care of them was an easy decision; they were nice kids. Yuuto had gotten to know them over the last week as he had helped walk them to school. Both Tabito and Eri had started to call him Oniisan. He was currently waiting in the front lobby for Niko and the two kids.
When they arrived Yuuto walked over to them. Eri was wearing her twin pigtails like always and had a blue bunny hair clip pinning back her bangs, wearing a blue shirt and matching skirt.
While her brother Tabito had his hair cut short and wore a Dragon Ball Z t-shirt and jeans. He was carrying some of his Gundam toy models.
“Hey Eri, Tabito, how’s it going,” said Yuuto while giving them each a high five.
“They have already eaten breakfast so they are good to go,” said Niko.
“Ah Niko, I won’t be able to help out with the kids during the week, I have to help work at another host club for a few days this week. Don’t worry it’s not permanent, I’ll be able to help out again after I get back.”
“That’s fine. Well, I have to get going thanks again for watching them,” replied Niko.
“Not a problem,” said Yuuto as he waved goodbye until she left. “Well guys, let’s go so we can start having fun.”
Yuuto led the siblings to his and Pretty boy’s room. The room was nice and clean as Yuuto had spent two hours making sure it was all clean.
Pretty boy had already gone out to meet up with someone on a date leaving the room empty.
He turned on the TV and switched the channel to one of the stations that had Saturday morning anime running.
All three of them sat down on cushions around a small table in front of the TV.
Yuuto took out some cards and asked, “Do either of you want to play some cards?”
“No”, “Not yet”, they both replied, too busy watching what was on the TV.
Yuuto shrugged and watched the Saturday morning anime with them the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. After eating lunch, they played card games and made origami until they got bored and started to watch anime again until Niko came back and picked them up.
“Did they misbehave?” asked Niko.
“No, they were great. No problem at all,” replied Yuuto.
“Well thanks again you really helped me out.”
“If you need anyone to watch them again and I’m free just ask.”
Giving their last goodbyes. She left with Tabito and Eri.
***
Monday.
Yuuto entered the back seat of the black car that club Hardwood, the club he was going to work at for a few days, had sent to pick him up.
The driver seemed to be angry and very serious. They drove in silence for over ten minutes until the car stopped in front of a tall sturdy brick building with a sign that read Club Hardwood.
‘What an odd name for a host club’ thought Yuuto.
Before he could open the door, someone he hadn’t noticed before standing outside opened it for him and waited for him to exit the car with an impatient face.
Yuuto unbuckled his seat-belt and exited the car. The door nearly hit him as it was slammed shut. With screeching tires the car sped off like it was escaping a crime scene.
“Welcome…Yuuto is it?” asked the man who had opened the door for him.
“Yes, I go by Yasuo during work,” replied Yuuto.
“Yes well, that doesn’t matter. I am here to escort you to speak with the owner of the club. Although I don’t know why the boss wanted me to personally escort you. Oh right. I am the manager of club Hardwood. I will be your boss for the few days you are here. Let’s head inside and continue our talks.”
Yuuto followed the manager into the building. They walked to some doors that were locked and were quickly opened with a swipe of an electric key. They continued to walk down a dimly lit hallway to an office room and enter. The manager walked behind the large desk and sat down behind it.
“You may sit,” said the manager gesturing to an armchair in front of the desk.
Yuuto sat down and sank deep into the cushion. It was almost like sitting on a waterbed.
Before the manager could start talking again, the door opened and a familiar voice that had caused Yuuto great suffering before spoke.
“I heard that the person the old geezer sent has already arrived, is he in here?”
That’s right it was her!
Yuuto secretly peeked around the side of the chair that was now hiding in. He let out a quiet groan. Yep, it was her alright.
Hearing the groan coming from the chair she walked over to him and looked to see who it was the old man had sent.
“Aha! I wasn’t expecting much from that old geezer who is such a penny pincher. I’m amazed and more than slightly happy. Hah… for him to send me such a gem. I guess I have to admit I’m very happy I asked him to loan me a host. Didn’t I tell you not to worry about when you would see me next? Fate has a way of bringing people together,” said the owner of Hardwood.
That’s right it was that she-demon or maybe she was more like a boss class succubus. She was indeed the one who had tortured him during his first night alone as a host.
“Ahaha… um…Hi. Nice seeing you again Risa,” replied Yuuto with a stiff awkward smile on his face.
“Have you explained things to him yet?” Risa asked the manager.
“I was just about to before you entered if you want you can do it,” the manager answered meekly.
“Yasuo, this club is different from Winter Night. So you shouldn’t be surprised when you see odd things happening. I can trust you to take care of your job hosting and not worry about the other things that happen, Right?” she asked while caressing the side of his face with her fingernails that, if she wanted to, could cause him to bleed from how sharp they were.
Yuuto was only able to mumble out, “Yes.”
“Good boy. Well then, I won’t be seeing you for a while as I do have a business to run. But it was nice meeting you again. I hope you do a good job and earn your keep,” she said as she patted his head like he was a dog before leaving the room.
The rest of the afternoon was spent learning the new rules. The manager showed him the locker room and several floors of the club. After the tour of the building, he was shown the room he would be staying at while he worked here.
Night came and Yuuto was as nervous as he was on his first night at Winter Night. He was waiting for the clients of the host that he was covering to arrive.
He waited for a half-hour before his client arrived.
A muscular male in a black suit, wearing black sunglasses, and surrounded by 4 different girls entered the room.
Yuuto recognized the man from a picture shown to him by the manager earlier in the day. Although the picture was far different from the man in the suit since it showed the man without a shirt with a body full of tattoos.
Yuuto walked up to the man and bowed deeply.
“Hello, I am filling in for your regular host tonight. My name is Yasuo,” said Yuuto.
“Hmm, you’re a new face I haven’t seen before. Are you sure you can handle my girls?” asked the muscular man.
“I assure you there will be no problems with that,” reassured Yuuto.
“Then, by all means, lead the way and we will follow.”
Yuuto led them to a large booth in the far corner of the room. The booth was almost a full O shape with only a small section opened to let people enter and exit. It was one of the larger booths used for when there were a large number of clients.
Yuuto had learned earlier in the day that it was normal for hotshot rich men and yakuza to bring a lot of girls to the host clubs and pay for the host to entertain the girls. While the male customer sat along with them.
This was very awkward for Yuuto and he was unsure how to go about entertaining them while not angering the male client since he had a suspicion of what type of work the man did.
Yuuto started by getting everyone drinks. When everyone had a few drinks in them, they were loosening up and getting rowdier.
The girls kept pouring Yuuto drinks and ordering him to give toasts and chug it down while they cheered him on.
It ended up as a contest to see who could drink more between Yuuto and the male customer. Empty bottles were piling up on the table and some even rolled off and fell on the floor.
During a lull in the contest. The muscular man, who was now very drunk, spoke up talking to Yuuto in a prideful voice, “You know I have killed seven people so far. It’s not like I wanted to but what can I do, it’s part of my job, I can’t complain.”
‘Whoa, that’s a little too much information dude. You’re getting into some dangerous territory. I had a feeling that he was a member of the Yakuza but damn dude, keep it to yourself,’ thought Yuuto.
The girls looked at each other then gave off a few drunken laughs to hide any discomfort they had with the topic.
Yuuto hurriedly poured two glasses and pushed one over to the man “Speaking of hard jobs. Here is a toast to you sir and the hard work you do for your boss,” said Yuuto as he tried to change the topic away from murder.
“Yes yes, I do work hard. There was this one time…” and so he continued explaining about all seven of his killings and didn’t leave out any detail.
When he got to the seventh one. Yuuto was told it was his most recent one. Something about a guy who had annoyed his boss and was taken care of with the help of a garbage truck.
One of the girls who had been clinging onto Yuuto all night chimed up after the muscular man had finished his boasting, “Yasuo, can you escort me to the bathroom? I think I drank too much and need to use the ladies’ room.”
Yuuto was slightly relieved to be able to leave even if it was only for a few minutes.
“Please excuse me, I will be back after escorting her,” said Yuuto with a tipsy bow as he stood up on wobbly feet.
The muscular man waved it off and chugged down another drink he poured himself.
While Yuuto led the client to the bathroom he noticed a lot of the customers were doing all types of drugs along with the host. He saw many of the hosts and clients leaving the room and entering other smaller side-rooms for a long time doing who knows what inside.
When Yuuto and the female client reached the bathroom she grabbed his hand and started dragging him into the bathroom. He was halfway through the door when it registered in his tipsy head what was happening.
He stopped and tried to get her to let go of his hand. In the struggle, he tripped and fell inside of the bathroom.
The door was shut and she locked it then quickly hopped onto Yuuto’s stomach causing him to lose his breath and gasp for air. Sitting on top of Yuuto, she started undressing his pants.
‘Oh s***, what is she trying to do to me? Is she trying to get me killed! I can’t do anything to make that killer angry,’ thought Yuuto as his vision faded and he went unconscious.
“Hey…” Yuuto felt someone slapping his face, “Hey wake up.”
He sat up and found that he was sitting on the cold floor without his pants. “Huh? What happened, how long was I out for?” asked a worried Yuuto.
“Don’t worry not a lot of time has passed and I took care of both of us,” she said coyly.
“Took care of?” asked Yuuto questioningly.
“Hurry up and put on your pants we need to get back to the group before they send a search party.”
He quickly pulled up his underwear and his pants and stood up.
‘What the crap happened? I’m so screwed, gotta get back to the other clients,’ thought Yuuto. His head was still muddied from drinking too much.
They left the bathroom and walked through the den of immorality until they reached his table with the other clients.
“What took you so long? I was getting worried and almost wanted to go see what was taking you so long. It was almost as if you scurried off to another room to do adult things,” shouted the drunken muscular man with a laugh. The other three girls gave the one beside Yuuto a jealous look. To which she stuck her tongue out at them and smiled triumphantly.
“Sorry, there was a line at the bathroom so it took some time,” said the girl Yuuto had escorted.
To that, the muscular man gave a disinterested huff and continued drinking.
When their time was up Yuuto escorted them outside and before they left he received a kiss on the cheek from the clingy girl.
He didn’t have anyone else to host the rest of the night so he changed and went to sleep in his temporary room.
On the second night, the person he hosted to his surprise was the rude and brisk inspector lady. He didn’t know if she knew it was him as she acted as it was the first time meeting him.
The night was spent with her complaining and drinking up a fortune. Leaving Yuuto in dread of her not paying the bill. Luckily, she did pay.
There was also a major brawl that started in the middle of the club. It lasted until a group of muscular men in fancy blue suits beat up all the participants to a bloody pulp and threw them out the doors.
Thus his second and last night ended.
The next morning he was waiting in Club Hardwoods’ front lobby for the car that would take him back to Club Winter Night.
The succubus startled him by walking up behind him, and while leaning on Yuuto she whispered into his ear. “It seems like you had an exciting time while here. It’s a shame it couldn’t have been me that was with you. I’ll let the old geezer know that you did a good job and that you should be rewarded.”
He felt a sharp pain in his ear as she bit it and left him stunned until an angry voice called him from the front door. It was the angry driver who had driven him here a few days ago.
“Stop standing there like an invalid and get into the car,” he barked at Yuuto.
The ride was quick and quiet.
Yuuto exited the car and walked into the building. He walked to the front desk and asked them to call the old man and tell him he had arrived.
After a few minutes on the phone, the manager hung up and told Yuuto, “He says you don’t need to report to him, he got a call from the boss of the other club. You will be rewarded the amount that was promised to you.”
Yuuto gave a fist pump. Two nights of hell worked out all right; he had made a killing and paid off a good chunk of his debt.
Over the next few weeks, he was able to make it all the way to rank #11 with the help of the money he made from working at Club Hardwood.
