Not how Shuichi hoped.

“Oh… oh! Oh, Shuichi That’s very sweet of you!” Kae said with a smile, giving Shuichi hope for a moment. “But… I’m sorry, I don’t think I’m ready to start dating you yet… or at least, not like that yet.”

“W-what!?” Shuichi gasped, his facade vanishing almost instantly. “But… why not? Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No, of course not, Shuichi! I had a great time with you today, and I like talking and hanging out with you, but...” Kae placed a reassuring hand on Shuichi’s shoulder. “... are you sure you really like me that way yet? And not just the idea of going out with me?”

“I… I think I do,” Shuichi replied nervously. “Isn’t that all that matters?”

“I wish it did, but things aren’t always that simple,” Kae replied sympathetically. “I know I took your virginity, and that I’ll probably have a special place in your heart because of that, but that doesn’t mean we’d actually make a good couple. I’ve found that out the hard way more than once.”

“M-more than once?” Shuichi stammered.

“Yeah; I’ve taken the virginities of quite a few men over the years, and more than a few of them have asked me out shortly afterward,” Kae explained. “But while they think they’re in love with me, it’s usually just infatuation; puppy love that quickly fades away, and just leaves us both with hurt feelings. Those weren’t healthy relationships. So if we did start ‘dating’ dating, we need to have something that really lasts and doesn’t ruin our friendship. After all, you have been a pretty great bud so far!”

“You’re… you’re right, Kae.” Shuichi straightened his back and looked Kae in the eye once more. “We only really became friends a week ago. We really shouldn’t rush things like this.”

“Thanks so much for understanding, Shuichi! These kinds of things do take time.” Kae wrapped her arms around Shuichi to give him a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Maybe someday we’ll be together, but for now I’m more than happy that you’re still my friend.”

“Y-yeah, you too, Kae.” Shuichi smiled and gave Kae a wave goodbye. “I’ll see you around.”

“So long, Shuichi! Have a great rest of your weekend!” Kae waved back and turned around, disappearing into the crowds of people that regularly walked the street of the red light district. Shuichi kept his smile on as long as he could, but it didn’t take long for the corners of his lips to start feeling heavy.

“Augh… I knew I never should have asked her out,” Shuichi silently chastised himself as he looked at the ground. “I should have realized that things weren’t just going to magically work out between us… and yet…” Shuichi’s eyes lifted upwards in the hope that he might see Kae’s golden locks peak through the crowd.

“Friendzoned, huh? That sucks,” a playful yet familiar voice suddenly said beside Shuichi. “Well, what can you do? Life’s a bitch, and so is she, apparently.”

“Gah!?” Shuichi was so surprised that he nearly jumped out of his shoes as he turned to find the source of the voice. There, he found Pandora, the blonde escort who nearly broke his will, leaning against a guardrail that led up to the Bunny Hop wearing a bunny suit herself. Unlike the ones of the girls inside, however, Pandora’s was two colors instead of just one; one-half black, and one-half white. “Pandora!? What are you doing here!? Wait, that outfit… you work at the Bunny Hop!?”

“What? Hah! Yeah, right! I just like dressing up like the uniforms of the stores and restaurants I go to so I can fuck with the staff and other customers!” Pandora explained with a chuckle. “I was just about to leave after pretending to take a man’s order when I saw you and blondie talking out here by the entrance. I know it’s rude to eavesdrop, but it’s hard not to hear with ears this long~” Pandora teasingly pulled on her black rabbit ear. “And I have to say, I haven’t heard a rejection that brutal in a long time. ‘Things aren’t that simple’, ‘You didn’t do anything wrong’, ‘I don’t want to ruin our friendship’... girl pulled out all the best cliches! It was really something to behold!”

“Hey! Kae wasn’t being brutal! She was telling the truth!” Shuichi countered aggressively.

“And yet… that didn’t make it hurt any less, did it?” Pandora poked Shuichi in his heart, causing him to flinch. “I know that look you had in your eyes… you had so much hope going into this, didn’t you? And she just dashed it all in one fell-swoop… all while having the gall to say that it might work out ‘someday’! Ha! I couldn’t have come up with a better way to cause someone despair if I tried!”

“I… I…” Shuichi stammered for a few moments, but he couldn’t deny what Pandora had said. “Yes… I did have high hopes for Kae, as foolish as they were… and she did hurt me by turning me down… but I can’t blame her for that! She’s not a ‘bitch’ for turning me down, she’s just not into me in that way! She’s not obligated to go out with me by any means!”

“Oh? Acting all tough now are we?” Pandora took a crown out of nowhere and placed it on her head. “Like a brave knight, you pretend to protect Kae’s honor, but in reality, you’re just trying to hide how scared and alone you truly feel. Am I wrong?”

“...” Shuichi looked away, unsure how to respond.

“Ahaha! Just as I thought!” Pandora laughed boisterously before switching her demeanor to that of a cute little girl. “It’s so ironically pathetic, it’s laughable! Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate John; he sleeps with a new girl every day, but still can’t ever escape his own loneliness!

“Ghh…” Shuichi could feel tears start to well up in his eyes as he clenched his fists.

“Oh? Did I hit a nerve with that one?” Pandora put on a pair of glasses and switched to a more teacherly demeanor. “Well, don’t feel too bad about striking out so hard, my boy. After all, if you need someone to ‘date date’, my offer to you is still open.”

“Gah!? Y-you can’t be serious!?” Shuichi gasped. “After everything you just said!?”

“Of course! My standards are much different than Kae’s, after all,” Pandora replied, switching back to her normal personality. “I’m not into ‘love’ or ‘friendship’, or any sappy bullcrap like that; the only thing I want in a boy is someone who can pique my interest, and you, Shuichi… you’re the most interesting man I’ve met in a long time.” Pandora stepped closer to Shuichi, her boots clacking loudly on the sidewalk as she made sure Shuichi got a good look at the tops of her breasts. “So, what do you say? I can’t promise that I’ll make you feel good… but I promise that by the time I’m done with you, you’ll forget all about Kae.”

She then reached forward and placed a shockingly gentle hand onto Shuichi’s cheek, and Shuichi was so distraught and **** for comfort that he almost kissed her right then and there. But, in the end, he pushed her hand off his face and turned his back to the chaotic blonde.

“I’m sorry, Pandora, but… I can tell that wouldn’t be a very good idea,” Shuichi said over his shoulder. “Thank you for the offer, though.”

Shuichi began walking down the street back to the bus stop, expecting this to be the end of the conversation. But, to his surprise, he heard Pandora shout something after him.

“I can tell you her real name, you know!”

“W-what!?” Shuichi stopped in his tracks and turned around so fast that he nearly tripped on his own feet. “What are you talking about!?”

“Well, Kae, of course! Who else would I be talking about, silly?” Pandora asked playfully. “I know about how she doesn’t tell her Johns her real name because she thinks we’re best buds! But, since I’m not one of her clients, we use our real names with each other all the time! And if you agree to go on one, itsy-bitsy date with me, then I promise that I’ll tell to let you in on that little secret~”

“B-but... Kae doesn’t want me to-” Shuichi began, only to be interrupted.

“So? It’s just a little name; there’s no real harm in finding out what it is, is there? She’ll never find out about this conversation, and besides; it’s not really fair that she knows your name, is it?” Pandora stepped closer to Shuichi again. “And I know that you’ve been dying to find out about it ever since you met her.”

“I… I shouldn’t…” Shuichi stuttered, stumbling over his own temptation.

“I’ll give you a hint; it really does start with the letter ‘K’~” Pandora whispered in his ear.

Shuichi’s eyes widened and he pushed Pandora away. “N-no! I’ll find out Kae’s real name… when she wants to tell me herself!” Shuichi said with as much conviction as his shaking voice could carry. “I’m not going to betray her trust like this!”

“Oh yeah? And what if she never wants to tell it to you? Have you thought of that?” Pandora asked angrily as Shuichi turned around. “Shuichi? Shuichi! Get back here!”

“Goodbye, Pandora,” Shuichi said as he walked away down the street. “Have a good weekend.”

“Grr… that man infuriates me so damn much!” Pandora stomped her foot in frustration. “Such a goddamn hopeful goody-two-shoes… it makes me sick just looking at him!” Pandora placed her white bunny ear in her mouth and bit it so hard that it nearly tore in two, but she couldn’t keep up her fury forever. “Oh well… I guess this was the reason why I got interested in him in the first place, huh?” Pandora sighed and let her bunny ear go. “It’s such a shame that Mooky managed to get her hooks in him but not me. But, I guess that if I can’t have him…”

Pandora stepped behind a nearby parked car and, in the space of only one second, she completely changed her look, taking on curly pink hair, a blue tube top, neon blue lipstick, a short black skirt with visible black thong strings, and tall blue high heels.

“... then everyone can~” Pandora finished her sentence as she remerged, setting her sight on the closest sex worker that was heading in Shuichi’s direction.

“Oh my gosh! It’s really him!” Pandora said with fake shock as she ran up to another scantily clad woman.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” the sex worker asked as she and her friends turned toward Pandora.

“You mean you don’t recognize him? That’s Shuichi Saihara over there, the Ultimate John!” Pandora pointed to Shuichi walking further down the street. “I hear he regularly spends millions of yen on the girls he hires, just because he can! I heard one time he paid off a girl’s family debts just to prove how rich he was! Man, I wish I didn’t have something to do, or else I’d be pinning him to the sidewalk right about now!”

“Really?” The sex worker and her friends all locked their eyes on Shuichi’s head. “Well then, I guess we’ll just have to step in for you then~”

“Heh, you girls go do that! Good luck!” Pandora subtly chuckled as the girls left before taking the chance to change into a new outfit - this one featuring lacey green lingerie and a matching wig - behind a nearby lampost to approach another group of girls. “Holy shit! Did you hear that Shuichi Saihara is over there, and he’s looking to hire an entire busload of women for a private orgy?”

“What? No way, that’s impossible!” the surprise sex worker she approached replied. “He’d drain himself dry before he got to his third girl!”

“Maybe, but with the way he usually pays, I know I’m not about to question him~,” Pandora said, leaving behind the seeds of interest as she hopped across the street to approach another group of women. “Hey, is that Shuichi Saihara over there? I’ve heard so much about him! I wonder if he’s really that generous…”

Shuichi meanwhile, continued walking down the street, completely unaware of what Pandora was going. It wasn’t until he almost reached the bus stop that he noticed that something was off; feeling that he was being watched, Shuichi glanced behind him and saw the first girl Pandora spoke to following behind him with a wide smile on her face. Shuichi felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead, but he ultimately decided to ignore her, convinced that she was looking at someone else.

“Hey there, big boy~” another, taller sex worker in a tight leather skirt and top said to Shuichi as he finally reached the bus stop. “You look cute~ Tell me, do you have any plans for this afternoon?”

“H-huh?” Shuichi gasped and looked up at her in surprise. “Uh, no… why do you ask?”

“Because baby… I can make your afternoon a lot more exciting if you hire me~” She replied, leaning forward seductively. “What do you say? Care to take me for a spin?”

“Uhh…” Shuichi blushed and took a step backward in surprise. “Actually, I was right about go-”

“With me, right?” Another woman asked, stepping in front of Shuichi with even fewer clothes on her body. “I mean, I am obviously such a better choice than she is.”

“Are you kidding? You’ve barely got any meat on your body!” Another, curvier woman with red hair said as she stepped forward. “I, on the other hand, can give you more than enough to handle~”

“I, uh, was really just trying to-” Shuichi tried to say, but he was interrupted yet again.

“No, you should hire me!” A girl with short cyan hair begged. “I just got a fresh wax and everything, so we can get started right away!”

“Please, like he would go for someone so old! He needs a girl in her prime~”

“Youth has nothing to do with experience!”

“Experience has nothing on my tits, you know~”

“Girls, I-I’m very flattered by your offer, but I-” Shuichi tried to say, but one of the women seemed to let him get a word in edgewise. All he could do was keep backing up to try and escape from them, and he soon found himself backing down an alleyway without even realizing it.

“No, pick me! I’ve got extra thin condoms!”

“I’ll let you do it without a condom!”

“Who needs protection when you’re a master at anal?”

“G-girls! P-please!” Shuichi’s voice was practically just a squeak as he felt his back hit the stone wall at the end of the alleyway, but none of the girls seemed to hear him. All they did was keep shouting reasons why Shuichi should hire them and not the others.

“I can go all night if you want to!”

“I’ll make you breakfast in the morning!”

“I can do threesomes!”

“Well, I can do fivesomes!”

“G-g-” Shuichi couldn’t even speak now as the world seemed to swirl around him. Over forty women were expecting so much from him, but he knew there was nothing he could do to make them all happy. That, combined with how loud and claustrophobic the alley was getting, meant that Shuichi could feel a full-on panic attack approaching on the horizon.

“Ha! Well, it looks like Shuichi won’t be heading home alone after all! Good for you, Shuichi; I’m sure Kae would love to know that you moved on from her so quickly!” Pandora cackled to herself in her regular outfit as she watched the chaos unfold from outside the alley. “Ahahaha-huh? Wait a minute…”

Pandora placed a hand over her chest in concern.

“What’s this feeling in my chest? It kind of gnaws and hurts and… it’s not going away? Could this be… guilt?” Pandora stared at her chest in horror for a few moments before being interrupted by a loud belch escaping from her throat. “No, wait, that was just gas! Silly me! Have fun in there, Shuichi~”

Pandora laughed one last time before heading back to her clothing store, leaving Shuichi to his despair as this new feeling continued to eat away inside her despite what she said.

Shuichi, meanwhile, was moments away from dropping to the ground and sobbing, desperately hoping that someone, anyone would save him… when he suddenly felt someone wrap her arms around his. He looked to his left and saw a shorter woman with strawberry blonde hair, thigh-high white socks, pink high heels with a matching miniskirt, strawberry red tank top, a large white purse, and a hair clip in the shape of a strawberry in her hair. She was standing right next to Shuichi but, to his surprise, she was facing the crowd instead of him.