Hoshi clapped his hands, pleased with himself, “Wonderful! I figured you’d be more into the simpler happenstance kind of thing. I did consider a club meet, but I know what I look like and I don’t want them to think I was a one-night-stand-turned-accidental-boyfriend kind of thing.”

“I mean, I don’t think you look…” Suzu wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, “I um, I think it’s fine. You’re the professional after all.”

“Very true! Now, one more thing; are you comfortable with me calling you Suzu-kun?”

Obviously, if they were supposed to be dating, of course, they’d be on a first-name basis, but hearing Hoshi say his name so casually, so affectionately, affected him more than he realized. Even Jiro hadn’t been so inclined to use such terms.

“Of course. And I call you um, Hoshi-kun?”

It felt weird to say that, almost unnatural, but he knew he’d have to get used to it.

But then, there was an odd look on Hoshi’s face. Was it that weird? Had he overstepped somehow? Had he just screwed this up? Not even ten minutes had passed by!

His thoughts kept racing towards the worst possible outcomes until Hoshi spoke up.

“So, it’s pretty obvious Hoshi is not my real name. That may blow the whole thing. Usually, when I go on these types of jobs, it’s more that I’m there to just look like the perfect date and act very little. You know, with limited personal interaction with the other guests. But I can tell with this I’ll need more personality than relying just on my appearance.”

Suzu frowned, “Is that… a bad thing?”

Hoshi shook his head, “No, no, not at all. It just means I’m deciding on if I break one of my rules or not.”

“Rules?”

“Mmhmm, as an escort I need to have some rules to protect myself of course. One of them is not using my real name. But, in this situation, Hoshi is so obviously a fake name—like I’m either a stripper or an anime character, right?” he chuckled lightly, “So that could complicate things for you which is counterproductive to the reason why you’re hiring me. And sure, I could come up with different names but honestly, that’s so much to keep up with. And well,” he looked at Suzu, “I don’t think you’re going to be the type to stalk me after this so…”

“So?”

“Call me Tsurugi Sakuya. Or Saku for short.”

Sakuya.

Somehow knowing his real name made Suzu… happy? Like really happy. He couldn’t help the smile on his face. Sakuya. Saku. It just sounded so much nicer than Hoshi.

“You know, you could have just told me to call you Saku without revealing it was your real name.”

The redhead blinked and then hit his forehead.

“Goddamnit. My sister always calls me an idiot, now I feel inclined to believe her,” Saku muttered.

Suzu laughed, “Don’t worry, I swear to you I’m not a stalker so I won’t misuse this privileged information.”

“Hmph, well good. Now then—”

Before Saku could finish speaking the train arrived, the doors opening as the passengers exited and new riders readied to board. Suzu took one of Saku’s suitcases and both of his bags.

“Well, ready to do this?”

Saku smiled and grabbed his other suitcase, “You mean start a relationship, Suzu-kun?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.”

This was definitely going to take some getting used to.