Tokyo Institute of Technology.
"It's finally the weekend..." Mio breathed a sigh of relief and sat directly on the computer chair in front of her.
"It's the weekend... Sakura, what plans do you have?" Another roommate, Yuki, looked at Sakura.
"Are you going to Ren-san's place to see Pochita again?" another roommate, Riko, asked suspiciously.
Sakura's pretty face suddenly flushed, but she still nodded: "Yes, I plan to go to Ren-san's place to see Pochita tomorrow. You know, he takes very good care of her, but..."
"Poor thing..." Mio said with a flash of disdain in her gaze.
"It's just temporary..." Sakura had also grown familiar with Ren during this time and had spoken to him a few words.
And not just to speak on his behalf. After all, Ren is a mangaka, and Sakura has seen that "Edgerunners" has started to be published in Manga World magazine.
'I guess Ren-san will be rich soon.'
But she doesn't care whether Ren has money or not.
"I really don't know what kind of magic potion he gave you... You not only bought him dog food, deworming medicine, and vaccines, but you also asked him to treat you to a meal! What kind of man would be like that!" Mio said discontentedly. "If the guys at the university knew that you, the beautiful Sakura, invited a man to eat, they'd probably die of envy."
Sakura didn't care at all. She smiled and said, "What's the big deal? There's no rule that women can't treat men to meals, right?"
'This is better than Ren eating Pochita's dog food.'
She still remembers that when she first went to find Ren, she found that Ren was actually eating Pochita's dog food.
That scared her.
Although it's fine to eat dog food once or twice, it's easy to have problems if you eat too much.
After all, the hygiene standards for dog food are not as high as for human food. Ren might get diarrhea if he eats too much, and the nutritional value of dog food does not meet the needs of daily human life.
After learning that Ren had no money to eat, Sakura also helped him out from time to time.
She bought him a lot of bread and instant noodles.
Ren was moved at that time and promised to repay Sakura many times over in the future.
At the same time, Sakura had a strange feeling. 'Why did Ren-san's performance make her feel...?'
'Did she have two dogs?'
But she didn't care about that little money.
Yuki also hurriedly said, "Yes, and after all, he saved Sakura-san once, right?"
"I said that if Sakura-san hadn't wanted to save him at that time, he wouldn't have fallen into the water and wouldn't have had to be rescued by him," Mio continued to speak with some sadness.
She thought about it again, looked at Sakura with concern, and said, "Speaking of Sakura-san... You won't fall in love with... this kind of man because of this, right?"
Sakura blushed and saw Ren's beautiful jaw when he saved her at first, and Ren's focused look while drawing a while ago.
But she still hurriedly said, "No! Why are you suddenly talking about this?"
"It's not the best..." Mio felt relieved for some reason.
"By the way, isn't that the basketball team captain from the Management School next door whom I saw earlier? He's quite handsome. Isn't he pursuing Sakura-san?" she suddenly said.
"So what? Sakura-san, what do you think of him?"
Sakura thought for a moment and then remembered something: "You mean Kaito, right? He's okay, he's okay, but..."
"He's okay, I think he's quite handsome, and they say his family is quite wealthy, so he's the perfect match for you, Sakura-san!" Mio said with a smile.
"Rich? That's right... Generally, six out of ten students from the Management School have wealthy families."
Riko immediately echoed.
"Forget it, I don't want to think about this right now." Sakura smiled and said lightly.
She had nothing against Kaito. Kaito might be quite good, but she didn't feel anything for him.
"Alright, I'll go to Ren-san's place to see Pochita first and come back tonight."
She picked up her bag, put a magazine in it, and left the dormitory.
"Hey, hey, hey?" Mio and the other two watched Sakura rush out, very confused.
"Indeed, it's fine to go tomorrow, right? Is Sakura-san that eager?"
"Moshi Moshi..." Ayumi carefully knocked on the door of the simple rental house in front of her and called out.
It was her first time visiting Ren's home, and she didn't expect him to live in such a small room, less than 20 square meters.
Although the environment didn't seem dilapidated, the cramped space made Ayumi feel sorry for Ren.
Ren heard the knocking at the door and suddenly awoke from his reverie.
"Pochita, open up!" he shouted.
Pochita barked twice in response, jumped off the desk, bit the string that latched the door, and the lock opened.
She pulled the string and opened the door.
Ayumi, who was outside, suddenly appeared in front of Ren. She was surprised to see that Ren seemed to be drawing.
"Excuse me! Amamiya-san, I disturbed you! I'm so sorry!" After saying that, she bowed deeply.
Ren waved his hand: "Ah, it's nothing..." He looked around and said, "Come in first."
Upon entering Ren's rental house, Ayumi couldn't help but feel a little awkward.
Because the house was too small, the bed and desk occupied almost all the space, and the corner that was there before was also occupied by Pochita's doghouse and rice bowl.
So Ren could only sit on the bed and let Ayumi sit on the desk chair, where he was drawing.
"I'm sorry, I don't have any tea here." Ren scratched his head and said awkwardly.
"It's fine... Excuse the trouble, Sensei." Ayumi said somewhat uncomfortably.
"Ahem... By the way, Ayumi-san, why did you come over?" Ren coughed twice to alleviate the awkwardness and then asked.
"Ah! By the way! I almost forgot!" Ayumi immediately pulled out an envelope from her briefcase.
This envelope is different from ordinary envelopes. It looks thick and very heavy.
After pulling it out, she handed it to Ren with both hands.
"This is your manuscript fee for your first serialization. The first chapter had a total of 18 pages. The contract stipulated 4,000 yen per drawing page, plus tax deduction. In the end, the total is 68,000 yen!"
Ren heard this, his eyes lit up, he took the envelope, and pulled out a thick wad of bills.
Electronic transfers were not popular at that time, so cash payment was very common.
"Sensei, please check if anything is missing," Ayumi said.
Ren immediately began counting, very carefully, and then smiled and said, "Nothing less, just right!"
"Then I'm relieved." Ayumi breathed a sigh of relief.