Jun wasn’t sure what he expected when he ordered the girl to take off her clothes. It was still difficult for him to wrap his head around the fact that she would even bother to do anything he asked. He had seen prostitutes on the streets before, but he had always kept his distance from them. As a result, he never knew much about how they conducted their work. Just being in the same room as this girl was the most intimate he had ever been with one of them. The feeling remained to be surreal as the girl obeyed his command and slid the kimono off of her shoulders. Jun instinctively turned his gaze away, the nearly-muted, sober morals in the back of his mind telling him to avert his eyes from her bare figure. The whole situation still felt wrong, but… this was why he was here, wasn’t it? It would be difficult to finish what he started without looking at the girl. He lifted his gaze from the floor. She really was beautiful. Jun could see how she would flourish in a business like this. She probably attracted customers like bees to a flower. He offhandedly wondered how much money she made. From what he had heard from Koji, prostitutes weren’t cheap. They demanded high prices for their services. Koji must have been saving up money for a while to pay for everyone that night. Just how long had his friend been planning to do this? Jun realized he was still staring at the girl. She was probably waiting for his next move. He hesitated. The silence between them felt unnatural, but he wasn’t sure what to say. Giving the girl another command didn’t feel right, but idle chatter would probably be much worse. He took a breath. He might as well stop delaying the inevitable. And who knew? Maybe he would even enjoy himself. Even if he hadn’t planned on these conditions, he had always looked forward to spending the night with a woman, as all young men did. Now he had a chance to do so. Jun finished stripping off the rest of his clothes and moved to join the girl on her bed… -- He woke up in the morning to the pounding of a merciless headache. He groaned and rolled over, opening one eye, and was immediately struck with confusion. This wasn’t his dorm room. He bolted upright, an action that only sent another stab of pain through his head. He shut his eyes, waiting for the migraine to fade to a dull throb while he wracked his brain to remember where he was. The events of the previous day came back to him slowly. Koji had convinced him to come out to a bar with a group of his friends… He had had too much to drink… They left the bar and went to an empty street, and then into a strange building… There were red low-lights… Jun’s eyes shot open again. A brothel. He was in a brothel, and he had just spent the night with a prostitute. Part of him wanted to punch Koji for tricking him into doing this, but at the same time, no harm had really been done. Koji had spent his own money and Jun had even enjoyed himself with the American girl. In the end, it was just another one of his friend’s elaborate pranks. Perhaps Jun could at least justify giving Koji a decent sock in the shoulder for his hangover. The pain was relentless. He slid out of the bed and collected his clothes from the floor, which he put back on. He straightened himself up as much as he could —he didn’t want his peers to find out about his stay at the brothel—and turned to the American girl. He dipped his head in a slight bow. Now that he was sober-minded, he could speak to her in more fluent, moderately accented English: “Thank you for your time.” With that, he turned and exited the room.