Elio stares at this teenager who just asked for a girlfriend.

“And how will I do that?”

“I don’t know, that’s your job.”

Elio thinks about how this is his first job since the bird job, which was over a week ago, plus how much the website and flyers cost. He glances at Ena through the crack of the door, meeting her gaze as she shakes her head “No”.

He looks back at Tomoki with a painful smile. “What type of girl do you like?”

“Cute.”

“A bit more specific.”

“Shorter than me but not too short. Definitely not taller than me. I like short hair, but not too short.”

Elio, who is already regretting his choice, glances back at Ena who has closed her eyes in regret, trying to avoid happening.

“What about personality?” Elio asks, hoping for a good answer.

“Cute, quiet but not too quiet, fun, and uh” He pauses. “Big boobs.”

“Ah yes, big boobs, my favorite personality trait.” Elio says in a defeated tone.

Tomoki ignores Elio’s comment. “So you can get me a girlfriend like that, right?”

Elio thinks for a moment. “Have you tried finding a girl like that at your school?”

“All the girls at my school are stupid.”

“Is that so? Are you in a club?”

“I’m not in any dumb club! Are you going to help me or not? I can pay!”

Elio thinks about getting paid. “I’m just getting a good read on the situation. Do you have any hobbies?”

“I play games, mostly RPGs, and I like origami.”

“Oh, origami, that’s fun. I bet there are plenty of origami groups that have plenty of cute girls.”

“No!” Tomoki barks. “You'll find me a girlfriend! That’s what your website says! Quite trying to say I have to do it myself.”

Elio looks up at the ceiling and lets out a sigh of annoyance. “Why do you want a girlfriend?”

“So I can have one!”

“Just to have one? That's all?”

“No! I want one so I can do couple things.”

“Couple things?”

“You know, what couples do, like dates and hugging and… other things.”

Elio’s reluctance to work with this kid surpasses his need for a job and money. He gives Tomoki a polite smile. “Sorry, but I’m not going to be able to take this job.”

Tomoki looks baffled. “But your site! You even said you'd do anything as long as it’s not illegal!

“Yes, I did. But I also said within reason." Elio clarifies.  "Which this is not. You've gotta put yourself out there for a relationship and not just have someone else do it.”

Tomoki stands up in a huff. “You have a girlfriend, of course you wouldn’t understand!”

“Girlfriend?” Elio says, baffled. “You mean Ena? She just works here!”

Tomoki quickly walks towards the door. “Sure, I bet you two do all sorts of things.”

“Huh?” is all Elio could get out as Tomoki jerks open the door.

“I’m going to tell the other guys this place is a scam. And I will report you for false advertisement!” Tomoki shouts before storming out of the office.

 “She just works here!” Elio shouts as the door swings closed.

 After a moment of silence, Ena walks up to Elio. “Well, that wasn’t great.”

Elio’s eyes remain fixed on the door. “I was a little worried when I saw it was a kid, but thought maybe it could be good but then, well you saw.”

Ena nods. “Yeah, it was a bit odd. I was wondering why he was acting weird towards me. At first, I thought it was just normal teenage boy behavior when seeing a beautiful woman.”

Elio smirks. “If only it were that.”

“Hopefully, the type of girl he likes evolves into more than just a short girl with big boobs.” Ena glares at Elio. “Were you like that?”

Elio tilts his head. “I didn’t really care about height. Plus, I wouldn’t need to come here for help to get a girlfriend.”

“Really?” Ena asks skeptically.

After a long pause, Elio answers. “Yes, anyway, I think that boy’s bigger problem is that he doesn’t think men and women can do non-couple activities together.”

“It was a bit wild though. He thought we were dating just because we work together.”

“Right, I should get you a shirt that says I’m just a lesbian that works here, that would clear up our relationship.” Elio beams at what a good idea he just had.

Ena thinks for a moment. “The shirt sounds fun, but I doubt it would help.”

“Why?” Elio asks, disappointed.

“If we get another client like that, they might act even more odd towards me.”

“Really?”

“In high school, when boys found out I liked girls, a few got weird around me and some got pretty annoying. But to be fair, the girls were a bigger problem.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” Elio chuckles.

Ena smirks. “I think you and I had different girl problems.”

Elio shrugs. “Probably, I’m not the be-”

Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong

The two look at the door with concern as the doorbell repeatedly goes off.

Ding-dong ding-dong

“He’s back?” Ena worries.

“Let’s hope not, but hopefully it’s not his parents asking to set their son on the right path.” Elio tries to joke, but hints of worry leak out of his mouth. “How’s the tea?

Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong

Ena looks at the kettle. “It should be fine.”

“Good, let’s try this again.”

“Right,” Ena says as she spots Tomoki’s tea still on the coffee table. She quickly takes it to the sink as Elio opens the door with a smile that quickly fades away as he sees who’s on the other side.

Elio gives Ena a pained smile. “I don’t think we’ll need the tea. This shouldn’t take long.”

The door closes behind Elio as he walks into the hallway to greet a group of nervous teenage boys wearing the same uniform as Tomoki. Elio has a sneaking suspicion about why they are here. 

He takes a deep breath. “You guys looking for some girlfriends?”

The boys light up and gather around Elio.

“See, I told you.” Says a boy whose finger is on the doorbell.

“Yeah, but Tomoki said.” Rebuts another boy.

“He’s too loud and annoying when talking about girls.” A different boy cuts in.

“I told you it was real.” A boy says with a proud smile.

Elio raises his hand to calm the boys. “First things first, where did you hear about us?”

The boy who wears the proud smile answers. “I saw your flyer on a bulletin board on my way to our cram school. And Mito,” He points to a larger boy who’s standing in the back. “Said that you help with getting a girlfriend.”

Elio looks at Mito, who gives him a joyful smile. “Huh, I see. And why do you lot want girlfriends?”

The air becomes stiff as the group grows silent until one of them mutters out. “To go on dates.”

A boy softly speaks. “Yeah, dates.”

A cheerful boy pipes up. “Dates and stuff!”

“And stuff!” All the other boys chime in.

Elio lets out a slight chuckle with a slight smile. “Stuff, huh?”

“Yeah!” The boys answer.

Elio shakes his head as he thinks if he was like this as a teenager. “Well boys, unfortunately, I am no longer able to take such a request anymore.”

The boys look confused and dejected. “But.. but..” Mito mumbles.

Mito looks worried that the other boys might get mad at him. Elio, not wanting Mito to get in trouble with his friends, clarifies his statement. “Well, in the early years of Joaw, I could have aided you on the journey of getting a girlfriend, but recently new laws came about that prevent me from doing those types of jobs anymore.”

Elio believes this little white lie will help these boys along with their search for a girlfriend, but mostly to help make sure Elio’s business doesn’t get any negative reviews. The boys look disappointed and murmur to themselves about how they should have gotten here earlier and what they should do now.

Elio worries about these boys. “I can give you some advice that might help.”

The hopeful boys look at Elio like an older brother. They eagerly lean towards Elio to listen to his advice.

Elio is surprised by how eager these boys are. He clears his throat. “If you want someone, a girlfriend, to like you. You gotta like yourself.”

The boys look confused as Elio goes on. “You need to take care of yourself first.”

“What do you mean?” Ask one of them. “Like showering?”

“It can be as easy as showering every day, eating healthy food, and getting some fresh air.”

“How do we do that?” Ask one of the boys.

“Getting fresh air?” Elio asks, confused.

 “All that, we have school, then cram school, we can’t go to the gym, and eating healthy is hard.”

“You don’t need a gym.” Elio thinks for a moment. “You can go for a walk around your neighborhood or a park once a day. Eating healthily is easy; just eat eggs. Also, if you drink lots of sodas, you could substitute them with fruit drinks or sports drinks. There are some pretty good ones, better than sodas. Or you can limit how many you have a week because having one soda a week as a treat tastes a lot better than having some every day.”

“And that will help us get girlfriends?”

Elio nods. “Yeah, it’ll definitely help.”

The boys begin to talk amongst themselves with hopefulness in their voices. A moment later, they look at Elio and thank him for his help. They talk about where they can take walks, as they leave down the hallway. Elio, feeling slight accomplishment yet still disappointed, walks back inside the office, where Ena is drinking tea on the couch.

She looks up at Elios’ disappointed face. “I heard some of that. Was that more boys?”

Elio sighs as he sits next to Ena and tilts his head back on the couch. “Yes, a group of boys wanting girlfriends. Can you put it on a website that we don’t do relationship stuff?”

Ena lets out a chuckle. “That’s easy, I could do that now.”

Elio sits up. “Do you think it’s weird that they rang the doorbell?”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought that since we had the open sign now, people would just walk in like people do at other businesses. I don’t mind the doorbell through.”

Ena looks at the door. “I get what you mean. Maybe because there’s no glass.”

“No glass?”

“Yeah, at other businesses, there’s some glass on the entrance door so people can see inside. It’s more inviting that way. Our door looks more like an apartment door; there is even a peephole. It’s not really inviting people to walk on in.”

“I guess that’s true. I like it through.”

“I do think you need more chairs.”

“More chairs? Elio looks around the office. “What do you mean?”

Ena points towards the desk chair on the opposite side of the coffee table. “Two real chairs should go here instead of pulling the desk chair around.”

Elio looks at the desk chair. “I guess so, this is the best set I have so far. I first tried to talk to clients at the desk, but the angle was weird with the couch. Then, I tried to move the coffee table and couch to face the desk but that divided the room weirdly. But you’re right, chairs would be good. I’ll get some after our next job.”

Ena grabs the desk chair and rolls it back to the desk. “Let’s hope we get one soon that doesn’t involve some horny boys.”

Elio laughs, “Let’s hope.” He lies down on the couch and looks at the ceiling.

Ena gets to work on editing the website while Elio thinks about the lack of jobs and income. It takes her no more than 30 minutes for her to finish the new edits. Ena calls over Elio to take a look. “Come take a look.”

Elio’s gaze turns away from the ceiling and toward Ena as he sluggishly gets up to come over to Ena. “Let’s see here.”

She shows the adjustments on the site. “This should clear things up.”

Elio slowly nods. “Looks good, I guess we’re done for the day. You can go home.”

Ena shuts down the computer. “I guess I will. I’m sure we’ll get some good jobs soon.” She says to comfort Elio.

Thinking about taking a nice hot bath, Elio makes his way to his loft. “That would be nice.”

Elio opens the loft door as Ena puts on her shoes to leave, when suddenly he hears.

Ding dong

The doorbell rings once again.

Elios stops in his tracks as his face drops. “Again?”

Ena gives a concerned smile. “Want me to handle this?”

Elio pauses and closes the loft door. “Sure, go for it.”

Ena takes off her shoes and readies herself to answer the door. After pausing for a brief moment, she opens the door and looks in shock at the image before her. Luckily, instead of a teenage boy, there was a meek little girl no older than 10 wearing a school uniform.

The child fiddles with the hem of her skirt as she looks up towards Ena. “Can…can you help me? With my curse?”

“Curse?” Ena asks as she leans down to the child.

“I have a curse. Please help me.” She says in a barely audible whisper.

Ena’s face grows concerned. “Let’s get inside and talk about this.”

The shy girl softly nods as Ena guides her inside towards the couch, where the two sit down. Elio looks surprised and relieved. Ena looks at Elio, who gestures for her to take the lead on this. Ena, in turn gestures for him to get tea, which he does.

“First, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Ena. What’s your?”

“Rin.” The girl whispers.

“That’s a pretty name.” Ena compliments. “Now, how can we help you?”

Rin looks at Ena with watery eyes. “I’m cursed, it is hurting my mom and dad.”

Ena nods her head. “I see, what kind of curse is that?”

Rin sniffles. “It’s a vampire curse.”

Hearing “vampire curse”, Elio can’t help but grin as he places the tea in front of Rin. Frightened by Elio, she quickly grabs the tea to look away from him. Elio rolls the desk chair back to the other side of the coffee table, where he sits opposite the two, closely listening to them.

“Vampire?” Ena asks.

Rin takes a sip of the tea and places it on the table. “Yes.. I need to feed off of blood.”

Elio’s eyes light up as he smiles at Ena. Ena looks back at him with concern for the child.

Ena looks back at Rin, “You do? Tell me about this curse?”

Rin looks down and fiddles with the buttons on her shirt. “Last year, my friend got hurt at the park and I only had a couple cute band aids left, so I gave her one of the ugly ones. Then, a few weeks after that, I hurt my arm, and it started bleeding; it smelled so good, and it tasted really good. That’s when the curse started.”

Rin pauses for a moment as Ena rubs her back. “It’s okay.” She comforts Rin.

Rin continues. “After that, I needed to feed on blood. I kept eating my own blood, and biting the inside of my cheek worked. And then my friend hurt her hand, and I had to feed on her blood. I couldn’t stop feeding. I pushed her down. Then my other friend started to hit me to get me off, but I had to feed. It really hurt. That’s when they told me about my vampire curse and how I’m a freak.”

Ena gives a worried smile. “That wasn’t nice of them.”

Rin sniffles. “It’s fine. I deserve it, I couldn’t stop anyway. They stopped playing with me after that. Since then, I started feeding off of blood from other things, like animals that died on the road. I did try feeding on bugs but they don’t really have blood. Those animals worked well, but then my mom caught me feeding off a cat that got hit by a car. She screamed and started to take me to doctors, but they don’t know how to fix curses, it was all pointless. I’m causing so much pain for them. I just want to be fixed. So my parents can be happy.”