BXBX NOVEL Chapter 43 - Unexpected Offer
"So...you\'re telling me you were the one controlling the drone...?" Said Jay, feeling a little uncomfortable while looking at the girl sitting on the couch in front of him.
"Y-yes, that\'s right, I-I\'m very sorry..." She replied, looking down at the floor, embarrassed.
However, while it was true that the girl seemed embarrassed and sorry, that wasn\'t the reason of why Jay was feeling uncomfortable.
Her head was down, yes, but she occasionally looked up to take a look at Jay, who hadn\'t changed and was still just wearing his shorts.
Maybe she thought she was being sneaky when she did, but the reality was far from that as Jay realized right away, and not only that, he also noticed that this girl had a little smile on her face too.
\'...you don\'t look to be sorry at all!\' Jay thought.
After he had discovered her in the backyard, Jay quickly approached her to ask who she was, at which time he also took the opportunity to see what she was doing with her smart watch...and she was taking pictures of him while stretching!
Seeing that, Jay immediately guessed who this person was.
A few seconds later, confirming her suspicions and pretending the fact that Jay had caught her taking pictures of him never happened, the girl introduced herself as Jenny, someone who worked in the Jujusen branch of Nightown City, and also the person in chargue of the drone that Jay had caught.
Jenny in question was wearing a long, simple blue skirt that went down to her knees along with a white blouse that showed off her shoulders and arms while accentuating her slim figure, no doubt it was an outfit that suited her.
She had come to Jay\'s house in order to solve the problem about the drone he currently had, or more specifically, about the content that was inside the drone.
As for the fact that she had sneaked into his backyard...
According to her, she had been ringing the doorbell for quite a while, however, even after waiting for several minutes, no one answered, so, not wanting to go home so easily, she wanted to see if anyone was in the backyard of the house, and that\'s when she saw Jay.
Of course, she didn\'t mention the fact that she had taken pictures of him.
Then, not wanting to make this problem any bigger than it needed to be, Jay invited her in.
And that\'s how they got to the current situation.
"Well, Jenny, right...?" Said Jay, smiling and trying to look as nice as he could in a situation like this, "I can give you back the drone, no problem, but I\'m the victim here, so...I\'d like some kind of compensation."
Hearing his words, Jenny shook and slowly looked up to meet Jay.
"W-what kind of compensation...?" she asked, intrigued.
However, before her more wildest ideas could form in her head, she heard Jay\'s voice again.
"Money, obviously~"
"Ah...yes, of course..."
Although she was a little disappointed, in fact that was the most viable and easy option for her.
"How...how much do you want?"
Because Jay didn\'t know exactly how much to ask in a situation like this, he decided to go for an affordable but slightly high price, two thousand credits.
He could probably ask for a lot more money, but he didn\'t want to leave her bankrupt or that she would have to take out a loan to pay him, even though the girl had an unhealthy hobby, it wasn\'t a reason to go that far either, he only wanted to teach her a lesson while making some money after all.
"Hmm, well, how about two thousand credits-"
*Pam*
At that moment, without waiting for Jay to finish, the girl put twenty 100-credit bills on the small table in front of the two of them, the process was smooth and without any sign of the shyness the girl had shown until now, making a slightly loud sound.
\'...I should have asked for more...\'
Although he felt a little regretful when seeing the ease with which the girl had taken out two thousand credits, he still stretched out his hand to grab the bills on the table.
\'Well, at least he didn\'t ask for an outrageous amount...\' thought Jenny, relieved that the cash she brought was enough to pay for this man\'s silence. \'With this, I have some extra money to convince him...\'
The reason she could get that much money out so easily was not because she came from a wealthy family or anything like that, but because she, being an introverted person with a stable job and good pay who was not really interested in spending her money on luxuries or things like that, had saved a good deal of money over time.
So while two thousand credits was a somewhat high amount of money, taking into account that this man could ask for even ten thousand and she only would be able to give in, this was a rather cheap price...although, there was another reason why she had given in so easily to this request.
"Alright, then I guess that\'s it, oh, and I\'m asking you to please stop spying on me-"
"E-excuse me!"
Gripping her skirt tightly and gathering up all her courage, Jenny interrupted Jay again, this time in a more direct way than the last.
"...Yes?"
"Please let me take a picture of you!"
\'...Didn\'t...didn\'t I just told you to stop...?\'
***
"So that\'s what you meant..." Jay said, with an expression of having understood what the girl was talking about.
It turns out that Jenny, according to what she had told Jay, had a hobby that focused on photography, and part of the reason she watched certain people without their consent was because she wanted to find the right person to work with.
She had been looking for someone like that for a long time, but even with the great advantage she had, she hadn\'t found anyone who really caught her eye.
That is, of course, until she found Jay.
At first she wasn\'t so sure about this and just labeled him as just another fit guy...but as time went on, her desire to have even one image of him just grew.
Which led to her working tirelessly to get a chance to deliver a package to Jay\'s house, even if the odds of that were pretty low, her perseverance, or rather, luck, got her what she wanted.
As for the rest of the story, Jay knew it even better than she did.
"But if that was the case, you could have approached me directly without using the drone or spying on me...oh, and I won\'t give you your money back anyway, take it as a lesson~" Jay said, putting the bills in one of his pockets.
"Oh, no, no, please keep the money as an apology for what I did..." Added the girl again, bending her head a little, "But, um... what do you think of my offer...?"
"Hm..."
Jay began to think, considering the pros and cons of Jenny\'s offer.
Of course, she taking pictures of him meant he would be exposed and so on, but Jay really didn\'t care much about that, otherwise he wouldn\'t have gotten naked so easily with Noah around, nor would he be wearing so little clothing in front of Jenny.
What he worried about the most was that this type of activity would definitely cost him time, time that he could spend on other things such as training, improving his skills, etc.
\'...I think it would be better to refuse this...\'
"O-oh, and I\'m also willing to pay for each photo session!" Added Jenny, establishing a strong and irresistible argument for Jay!
\'But, a little more money would never hurt!\' He thought, quickly changing his mind.
Jay knew that sooner or later he would have to get a job in order to pay for his ever-increasing food expenses. After all, from the moment that the Parasyte System changed his body, he had started eating more food than usual, but since he had savings and plenty of groceries, he wasn\'t worried.
However, everything had changed in just a few days, his savings and all the food in his house were gone now!
While yesterday\'s situation was not common, he was not sure if something like this was going to happen again, but it would be better to be safe than sorry.
Before, he had managed to stay well until now thanks to a certain person very special to him who sent him money every month, who was also the owner of this house, his grandmother.
Although they did not live together, the main reason Jay had been able to live so comfortably until now was because of her, as she sent him money for all his basic expenses every month.
In fact, because Jay felt very indebted to his grandmother, he had tried to look for work several times before, so that he could be independent and not cause his grandmother so much trouble, but for some reason, he was always fired before he even received his full salary, sending him home with only a small amount.
Therefore, since he could not work, he had decided to focus on his studies and save a certain amount of money each month, thus managing to gather his savings...which had already been used.
In addition, there was also the fact that he was going to rent the guest room to Noah, so his debt to his grandmother would only increase...
With all those points in mind, Jay realized that he would really need the money, so he asked one last question to make sure of his decision.
"...It won\'t take long, will it?
"U-um, no, just an hour or so a day..."
"Then...I think we have a deal~" said Jay, stretching out his hand to Jenny, who hurriedly took it and showed an expression of emotion.
"Thank you very much!"