Chapter Nine

Toji smiled upon seeing the situation, a slight curve on his lips. His eyes were unexpectedly clear, good-looking, and even exhibited a glimpse of joy. He was kind of proud after Y/n displayed her tiles he helped though organise and win the match until she managed to do it by herself and win after she understood the rules, she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes and unconsciously held her breath. Gojo and Mahito, on the other hand, seemed used to this behaviour.

The latter even unhappily grumbled, "Does winning once make you this happy? Your winning streak won't last long. We'll slowly whittle you guys down until you lose your pants."

"Speak for yourself when you win," Toji replied, indifferent as always, merely looking at Mahito.

Gojo looked at her tiles. "If you were going for eight pairs, then why did you throw out so many pairs earlier?"

"I didn't know what I was going for back then."

Mahito slammed his hand on the table as he heard their conversation. "Just beginner's luck after all"

Y/n smiled as each of the two gave her a small stack of chips from the piles in front of them. She had already received plenty of chips from winning this round.

She returned the chips that Toji had given her initially. Mahito snickered as he saw this. "Hey, you don't think that everything's going to go well just because you won this round, do you?"

Y/n shook her head."I just don't want you guys to label me as someone who squanders money."

"Good Job Y/n, you should be ambitious! Mahito why don't you shut that mouth and work your ass officer Gojo praised her as he laughed. Even as the game continued, Y/n's technique remained poor. One tour after Gojo had won, he leaned over to look at her tiles and couldn't help but laugh. "You even used the wrong tiles?"

She was still at a loss for how to play. But regardless of how poor her technique was, it couldn't mitigate her good luck. She didn't seem to win with low-scoring tiles at all, but when she did win, it was always with a high-scoring hand. Her combinations like the previous eight pairs easily trounced everyone else at the table. It was because of this Gojo was somehow interested, somewhat humorously, "Are the tiles themselves favouring the pretty lady"

Toji also won a few small hands, but Mahito remained the only one who hadn't won since the start of the game. He had to call another attendant over to get some more chips, grinning at Y/n as he did so. "Keep winning while you still can."

And Y/n did keep winning. At the start, Toji and Gojo had won a few rounds intermittently, but after midnight, Y/n had finally solidly grasped the rules of the game. At that point, even they couldn't win anymore. The three of them looked on balefully as Y/n made move after move for another two hours. No matter how little they cared, even they were growing exasperated; who doesn't want to win?

Mahito knocked his tiles over as his frustration overflowed. He directly pouted at the girl crossing his arm over his chest."Did you not know how to play, or were you just acting dumb?"

"I've never gambled before in my life," Y/n said dispassionately as she threw out a few more tiles and picked new ones up, before pushing her whole set down once again."Set of four pair, same suit."

The other three people in the room couldn't even find words to respond. Mahito couldn't help it, and he also threw his tiles down crushing over the others tiles.

"Forget it, I'm not playing that stupid game anymore!"The other two shared his sentiment. Throughout the entire game, everyone else's tokens had migrated in front of Y/n. The club underlings came over to help her convert her tokens into earnings, and she tallied it up silently: a few million dollars. Given the current housing prices in the city, just these few hours of gambling was enough for her to buy a house near the hospital she worked at. As she walked out of the room, she found that Toji and the others had already left. Luckily, the club had the contact information of all their club members, and Y/n managed to get ahold of Toji's number and call him. "You forgot to return the car keys to me."

"Oh."

"Then what am I going to do?"

"Find a solution yourself." Given his cold tone, was he throwing a fit after losing money to her? It couldn't be-Toji had always been calm and indifferent from the beginning. Luckily, one of the attendants at the club saved her. "If you register for a membership, we can send you out for free."

Y/n was relieved."How do I get a membership?"

The attendant helped her set one up and then asked her."Would you prefer to keep your earnings here or have them transferred to your bank account?"

It was only then that Y/n remembered that she had earned a large sum of money. "Is Mr Fushiguro a member here?"

"Yes."

"Then put it all into his account."

"All of it Miss L/n?"

"Yes." She loved money but was even more conscientious about her money's provenance. The money she had received today was nothing more than easy-going gains, to avoid any future problems, it was better to return it all.The attendant was sure that there was some gossip hidden in there somewhere, but he didn't pry and efficiently handled all the requested transaction. "Do you want to leave a message to go with the transaction?"

Y/n smiled lightly. "Prostitution fees."

Given how considerate he was to send her condoms, then shouldn't it be normal for her to be polite and settle the score? Still holding a grudge from being abandoned by him, Y/n had done a very irrational thing. She regretted her words almost as soon as she said them, but it was already too late. Knowing that the message had already been sent out, Y/n bashed her head against the table.

The attendant carefully asked, "Are you alright, Miss?"

"Yes," she replied haltingly. Hoping against all hope, she asked, "Is there any way Mr Fushiguro would be unable to receive the message?"

"That's impossible." The attendant stuck out his chest, his posture is proud. "Our fund transfer system is fully modernized and secure. We've never had a problem before."

Indeed, the fund transfer was surprisingly rapid, and Toji received a notification almost immediately after it was sent through. At that point, the three men were discussing whether or not Y/n had swindled them, and the other two had only mildly criticized Toji for leaving her stranded in the club.

The fund transfer message was voice-recorded, so all three men heard the notification as he tapped on it. "Mr Fushiguro, at 1:48 AM, you were paid prostitution fees. Please check your account balance."

The interior of the car fell silent. Gojo was driving in the front seat, but as soon as he heard the notification, he quickly dialled down the volume. Mahito was dumbstruck. "What, what, did I hear wrong just now? What kind of fees did you receive, Boss?"

Toji also didn't hear the message clearly-more precisely, he didn't dare to believe what he had heard, so he tapped the notification again. This time, the interior of the car was silent enough to be alarming; they all heard the phrase 'prostitution fee' loud and clear.

Toji at first didn't react, but the other two started laughing their lungs out. Mahito in particular, grabbed his phone and started asking, "Damn who's this, how much money?"

When he saw the amount, he gasped.

"Damn, this is a large amount. You're doing pretty well for yourself, aren't you, Fushiguro, isn't this just for one night?"

Gojo started laughing even harder, so much so that he had to pull over and stop by the side of the road. He turned to the backseat and asked, "Who's the brave soul that treated our Fushiguro as a prostitute? Let's see who it is and pay our respects to them!"

Mahito risked batting Toji's hands away so that he could see his screen and finally succeeding after a few failed attempts. "Miss L/n, which Miss L/n?"

Even after playing a whole night of Dominoes with Y/n, he still didn't know her surname. Gojo, on the other hand, praised her, he clapped his hands in delight, his blue eyes shine brightly as he gave Toji a grin "Fuck, she's quite out of character!"

"Do you like her?" Toji raised his head, his expression and tone are seemingly indifferent, but his tone notably sinister."Shall I introduce her to you then?"

All night long, Gojo had seen him protect Y/n and support resolve her issues every time she looked puzzled. Gojo's smile froze on his face. If Toji was going for somebody, then how could he possibly win against him? since he was interested in Y/n, the white-haired male couldn't find himself agree as he holds his hand up.

"Thanks for the offer," he said seriously. "But I'm going to turn it down maybe for another fanfiction but for now I'm going to leave it to you!"

Y/n let one of the club chauffeurs send her home. Because it was the weekend, she was supposed to be visiting her parents. However, it was so late and they lived so far away that, by the time she got there, it would probably be early morning, and her parents would be preparing to open their diner. They would surely bother her if they saw her arrive so late. So instead, she went back to her house. The apartment that she was staying in was very close to the hospital. Her parents had bought it for her while she was still in college. And by the time she graduated with her PhD, her twin brother had earned enough money to help her renovate it. So it was a very comfortable place to live in. She was so tired from the day's events that she immediately fell asleep right after showering. The next day, when she woke up, she saw Toji's text. "I've received the prostitution payment."

For some reason, Y/n felt like she had been playing a dangerous game. She decided to bluntly call him back. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pulled such a bad joke. If it made you uncomfortable, then I apologize."

Honestly, she didn't know why those words had sprouted from her mouth last night; it was simply too uncouth for her. Toji was silent for a moment, and then he asked."How did you win so much last night?"

Y/n was very open about the truth. "I dunno honestly I think I've picked rather quickly some tricks or it's just luck on my side."

Toji laughed without much emotion. After a while, he suddenly said, "Why don't you become my girlfriend?"

"—What?" Y/n stared blankly at the wall in front of her.

"That's it if you feel sorry for me."

She understood the logic in his words right away. "If you feel sorry for me, then you can be my girlfriend."

Was he asking her to give herself up for a joke? she was debating whether to laugh or to cry, "Well I think we can be friends. That is if you're willing."

Regarding her response, Toji didn't reply. Instead, he hung up.

Y/n looked at her phone blinking, she fell into a daze, clutching at her phone. Her guts told her that Toji wouldn't be an easy patient to treat. She'd very likely end up with nothing to show, no result of Progressing, and even possible could create problems.