= Sarah POV =

  “Yeah, but it’s fine; I have enough to pay it off! No worries” I said as I unfolded the paper.

  “No, you don’t. I think you forgot that your boyfriend got this pn for you, which means that his wife, got the pn sent to her house. How is it that you broke up with the guy 3 years ago, but the pn started 6 months ago?” Chris asked, looking like she was barely able to control her anger, stepping from one foot to the other.

  “Wait…why does this say…￥38 000?” I asked, reading the big angry red letters on the paper that said “OVERDUE” next to the figure.

  “Because, my dear, just because you take out a pn for ￥10 000, the te fees have a compound interest. You owe them an additional ￥38 000 plus this month’s ￥10 000. Do you have ￥48 000 in your bank account right now?” Chris asked.

  Wet spots started to appear on the angry red paper. I tried to focus but there were so many wet spots. I realized they were coming from me, and I tried to wipe my face with the back of my hand, but the tears kept coming.

  “Oh! Oh…oh umm..” I heard Chris say but I was so lost. What was I supposed to do? I barely had enough to cover the te fees, let alone this month’s bill.

  “I-I’m sorry, I guess I miscalcuted. I-I” I stuttered, trying to speak as I began to hiccup.

  “Stupid” Chris said and walked away, leaving me there outside my room, trying to stop the tears.

  I walked back into the room and sat on my bed. I guess this was it. This was the day, that I started an OF. I mean, I had tried before, but I just ended up getting a boyfriend for a month, and then he left for Dubai and apparently found a better, hotter girl, and I just stopped OF because it reminded me of him.

  I pulled my legs up to my chest and rocked myself back and forth. This was literally the worst day of my life.

  A hand rested on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Chris holding out a cup of something to me.

  I smiled weakly and took it from her “I’m sorry I’m so stupid. I should have read the fine print; I didn’t know I would have the interest to pay on top of everything”

  Chris shook her head “No, I’m stupid. I’m sorry I said that out loud; I was talking about myself.” She said and sat further back on the bed “I know you are jobless and homeless, which means that I should have accounted for all your bills. In fact, after dinner, let’s go over your car payments and any other bills that you have so that we can get on top of any debt you have to pay, ok?” she asked gently.

  I nodded meekly. Gosh, I hadn’t even thought about the bill on my car.

  “I…I think I should sell the car” I said “I don’t think I can afford it”

  “Haha, yeah, I know,” Chris said and pulled out a roll of paper she had sticking out of her back pocket.

  “So I managed to convince Ms. Winston that all the payments that had been made for you via her husband were supposed to be part of the bogus apartment agreement, which meant the car, the phone, the Luinski Bag, and the gaming headset, which all turned up unaccounted for on their credit card. After she deducted all these extra expenses, sadly, you didn’t have any money to cim from the apartment” Chris excimed.

  I buried my head in my knees as I cradled the drink both my hands “Not a single cent came back from that whole ordeal? And in the end, I paid for my own gifts that that douchebag bought me? You must think I’m such an idiot right now”

  “Well, you did get something back…debt. I paid off your phone bill because it was under their family pn and…the pn is terminated, so you have the pn until the end of its cycle, which ends in two days,” Chris expined.

  “What?” I gasped, looking up at her in horror. “I don’t have a phone? How am I going to call you? Call anyone? How am I going to take interview calls…or go to work? How-“ I started saying frantically.

  “Drink. Calm down and drink up, and then we’ll talk about the contingency pn I’ve arranged for you” Chris said and got up and walked out of the room again.

  I sighed, sat up, and crossed my legs. I brought the mug to my lips and drank deeply. It was my favourite, white chocote caramel tte. The sweet and bitter taste of coffee and white chocote flowed down my throat and soothed my soul. In this awful situation, at least I had this mug of tte to be grateful for.

  Chris returned with a small bag with a folded paper sticking out of it. She sat down and crossed her legs too. The bag had a local telecom logo on the side.

  “Feeling a bit better?” She asked and I nodded, turning to face her.

  “Alright” She said and reached into the bag. She pulled out a box that was brand new, covered in pstic wrap, looking like it came straight from the store. It was the test YoYappy, a line of phones which were all the rage right now. The YoYappy had built in YoYap features and apps, providing an optimized user experience.

  “Thankfully this month, there was a promotion to get a sub-line, and with the sub-line came a free phone. I topped up a little to get you this one, because I remember you like the YoYappy phone models. Now,” Chris said with a big sigh, “ You don’t have to worry about your phone bill for a while. But don’t get too excited; the sub-line only has about 300 talk minutes, so don’t go talking to your mom in the countryside for days, ok? I’ll drive you down to see her myself if you want to talk to her for a long time. The data is only 10G, so make sure to turn off your mobile data when you are in the house, or else I’ll put the phone on child lock, and you won’t get any data outside of this house. Always connect to Wi-Fi in shops and indoors, and try not to download any *orn, our service provider may penalize us. Ok?” Chris expined, putting the phone down on the bed and pushing it towards me.

  I stared at the phone and gulped. Topped up? By how much? The YoYappy phone was on the market at ￥234 000 for new releases.

  “But I have a phone” I said, feeling my heartbeat racing.

  “Yes, but we all know that old phones tend to depreciate quickly, and you’ve had that crummy phone for five years now; I don’t even know how you see anything through the cracks in your screen,” Chris insisted.

  I reached past the phone and into the bag that had the phone and picked out the piece of paper that was sticking out of it.

  “Hey!” Chris said, but I quickly opened it up and saw, to my arm, the cost of the pn and, below it, the amount topped up for the phone.

  Chris snatched the pn out of my hand and shoved it back into the bag.

  “Everything I pay for I hold on to. Do not touch things like this; I need to make sure I keep track of all of our expenses,” She said angrily.

  “￥94,500. You paid a top-up of ￥94,500 for my phone?” I said, shocked. “This is way more than what I owed the previous phone company,” I gasped.

  “Yeah, and I paid that off too. Look, I’m gd you say you want to sell the car. With whatever money you make from that, we’ll use that to offset the phone debt and maybe even some of the storage unit rent, ok? But…the phone is a gift from me to you. I’ve been kind of harsh on you, and I want you to at least have a nice phone to use, even though things have been really shitty for you tely” Chris said, running her hands through her hair shily.

  I felt my face scrunch up as tears started to flow again.

  “Chris, you are the best friend a girl could ever have,” I said and reached out for her, but she grabbed my wrist and stopped me.

  “Not friend. Remember what I said? We are not friends. I’m doing this for you because, yeah, you need to go get a job and pay back your debts to me. I can’t have you telling me that the phone I got you doesn’t work. No excuses” Chris said and then took the mug of tte from me and stood up. She let go of my hand and walked over to my computer desk, pced the mug down, and then walked back over to me.

  “I’d like to make a request now,” She said with her hands behind her back.

  I nodded and stood up, wiping the tears from my eyes. It was all business now with Chris.

  “Yes, of course, what would you like?” I asked nervously.

  “I’d like to hug you,” She said.

  I blinked; what a strange request. “ Of course!” I said and opened my arms, walking over to her.

  Chris walked into my embrace and put her head on my shoulder while wrapping her arms around my waist. I wrapped my arms around her back like I used to, only this time it felt different. It felt more intense. Being given all these gifts, but told that we were not friends, what were we? I know that ndlords and tenants did not do these sorts of things.

  “I’m going to redeem one strike now” Chris mumbled into my neck.

  “Umm, ok” I said and suddenly felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. Was Chris…biting me?

  “Ow!!! Chris, what the f*** was that?” I gasped and tried to get away.

  “One strike equals one punishment for one minute, and today, I want to bite you for one minute,” Chris said as she released me.

  I stood there, so confused. I touched my shoulder. It felt familiar…a love bite?

  “So was that it?” I asked nervously, backing up to the bed. Chris walked forward, forcing me to sit down as she towered over me.

  “Not quite. Oh silly me, I hadn’t started the timer,” She said and took out her phone. She set her timer to 1 minute, and then she started it.

  Chris then pushed me back on the bed and climbed on top of me. Her hands pinned mine to the bed as she suckled and nuzzled my neck. Her teeth grazed my skin as she sucked and licked the spot she had bitten.

  A loud beeping sounded out and she pushed herself off me, standing up and licking her lips hungrily. I sat up, a hand going to my neck immediately, my body trembling from the adrenaline rush of being pinned down and manhandled.

  “Was that… will that…” I tried to ask but my mind was at a loss. Also, I hated to admit it, but I was really turned on.

  “Yes, that was it, though not every punishment will be the same, and I don’t have to tell you what the punishment will be, you’ll just have to take it. Keep that in mind while looking for a new job. I noticed you only sent me one screenshot; try harder tomorrow,” Chris said and walked towards the door. She paused, and then looked back and said, “Dinner in fifteen minutes, don’t be te, the food will get cold,” and then walked out.