Relationship Sales

Saeki is cheating on me. A single photograph was proof of that fact. I displayed the photo on my mobile phone and stared at it.
It was a photo of Saeki and a woman I didn't know, riding a gondola at a theme park in Tokyo. The gondola was at the moment of a steep drop, and Saeki and the woman were staring at their fate with wide eyes. Their raised hands were tightly clasped together. Anger and sadness welled up in me at the same time.
Yesterday, this photo was sent to me by Kiyoko, a friend from my university circle. She said she found it when she went to buy her own photo from an attraction she rode with friends, which had a system that takes pictures of you on the course.
"I thought I should keep quiet, but I just couldn't forgive it," she wrote. After an angry-faced emoji, she described in detail how Saeki and the woman were dating affectionately inside the theme park. Even though I had never once been to that theme park with Saeki.
Now, I thought in the living room of Saeki's apartment about how to judge this infidelity. It was already September and the air had cooled down, but the air conditioner was running on low inside. Saeki had left for work early in the morning, and I had skipped my university lecture. I had some time before my part-time job in the evening.
I've heard there are countries in the world that severely punish infidelity. I once saw a video where villagers all together whipped a man who had been tied to a cross. The villagers were half-naked and swinging their whips like madmen.
I try to imagine replacing the man on the cross with Saeki. Saeki being beaten on his face and body, vomiting blood. Had he committed a crime worthy of such a punishment?
I am sad and angry that I was betrayed, but Saeki suffering wouldn't make me feel any better. So what do I want to do? I tilted my head. There are two issues now. One is that I want to end my relationship with Saeki, and the other is where to put my sadness.
Stuck in my thoughts, I started surfing the net on my phone. Among the results, an advertisement for an app that sells human relationships caught my eye. You can sell various human relationships, such as friendships, romantic relationships, and senior-junior relationships. It is an era where you can liquidate human relationships with a single app.
I immediately opened the app.

I uploaded a few photos of me and Saeki together to the app and filled in our profiles. Name, hometown, family structure, occupation, educational background, hobbies and preferences. The reason I can write Saeki's profile so fluently is because we have spent so much time together.
We have been together since I was a freshman and Saeki was a junior, so it has been three years now. During that time, Saeki became a working adult, and I became a senior. At some point, I started spending all my time at Saeki's place, and we were together almost every day. Did he cheat because he hated being with me all day?
A small hourglass flashed on the screen after I finished entering the information. It was a signal that it would take some time. I put my phone on the desk and looked around the room. My eyes landed on the corkboard I gave him for his birthday, covered in photos. In the photos from our trip to Izu, we were both smiling.
When I picked up my phone again, the screen had already changed. Relationship Score: 92, it said. Below that, in a pop font, it said "Wow!"
It was a numerical value of my relationship with Saeki, and apparently, anything over 90 points means we are very much in love. I want to retort that he wouldn't cheat if that were the case, but the app couldn't possibly understand the subtleties of human nature.
It seems the higher the relationship score, the higher the price it can be sold for.
When I pressed the "Next" button, a pop-up appeared saying, "This relationship is likely to sell for around 450,000 to 500,000 yen." It was surprisingly expensive. It said that romantic relationships, in particular, sell for high prices. If I set the price here and someone buys it, my relationship with Saeki will be over, and I will receive a lump sum of money.
After a moment of hesitation, I pressed the sell button.
Less than an hour later, a buyer appeared. Due to the app's specifications, I couldn't get the buyer's information, but there was only one woman who would want to buy a relationship with Saeki.
The word "Sold Out" glowed over Saeki's face on the sales page. With this, my relationship with Saeki is over.
When I opened my bank app, about six months' worth of part-time wages had been deposited. The sender was the relationship sales app. Everything was smooth. I emailed my manager to say I would be taking the day off and quitting my job, then threw my phone on the desk. It rang a few times, but I ignored all of them and lay down on Saeki's bed.
Saeki, who doesn't wear perfume, has a scent like a wild animal. It was a scent I loved. As I filled my lungs with that air, sleepiness came from afar, and I fell fast asleep.
Had I been asleep for about three hours? When I opened my eyes after being shaken, Saeki was there in a suit. He hadn't even taken off his tie yet.
"I've started seeing someone else, so I want you to move out."
It was sad that he said that before saying welcome home. I tried to complain but choked on my words. I was the one who sold this relationship. I couldn't meet Saeki's eyes well, and it was as if he had already become a different person.
"Understood."
I stood up with a crisp reply and packed my few personal belongings. I was grateful that the parting wasn't strangely dramatic.
"See ya," I said, leaving the entrance with the lightness of someone going to university. It was pitch black outside, and the September night was a bit cold for short sleeves. There was no one to chase after me with a thin cardigan, asking, "It's chilly, are you okay?"

With nowhere else to go, I headed to my parents' house for the first time in a while. Even though I returned without any notice, my mother hurriedly prepared a hot pot meal for two.
"Saeki-kun was such a good man, wasn't he?"
My mother listened to the breakup story while repeating how it was such a waste. A mother is reassuring on days like this. There are few people who are on your side without any hidden motives. We tilted our beer glasses while eating from the same pot. When I was with Saeki, I was always the one serving into small bowls, so it felt fresh when my mother took my small bowl. It was piled high with vegetables; a mother is always a mother.
"Well, you're going to be a university senior, so you should start getting serious about job hunting."
After my father passed away five years ago, my mother returned to her job as an editor for a literary magazine she worked at when she was young and is working hard. My mother originally loved her work, and I heard that when I was born, there was even a fight over which of them would take childcare leave. In the end, my father, who earned more, worked, and my mother focused on raising me.
"Job hunting, that's a pain."
I popped a well-cooked green onion into my mouth. I had believed somewhere that I would marry Saeki and raise children, so I had never imagined myself job hunting. I had thought I would just drift through life until I graduated from university and got married. I stuck my chopsticks directly into the pot and moved some meat to my small bowl.
"The hole left by a broken heart isn't filled by a new romance. At times like this, you should work."
My mother said, looking me in the eye. Her gaze was strong, and I nodded reflexively. I didn't have any immediate goals, and working might be a good idea.
Starting with the fact that I got drunk on two beers that day and fell asleep, I moved my sleeping quarters back to my parents' house.

Following my mother's words, I decided to start job hunting.
I went to my university seminar and declared the start of my job hunt to the professor. The professor laughed and said, "You're like a cicada on the eighth day." He laughed, calling me a slow-acting cicada that had only just emerged onto the ground at a stage where other students had already snatched up job offers from various companies and had already started to fly.
"But that's exactly why I can live longer than other cicadas," I said, and the professor laughed again.
"When you think about leaving descendants, it's overwhelmingly disadvantageous to have no others of your kind around."
My chest stung. Then I talked to the professor about work and the future. Since I didn't have any particular job I wanted to do, I tried hoping for the publishing industry, just like my mother.
The professor found companies that were still recruiting new university graduates. Then we wrote a resume together and I received interview guidance.
My first interview was set for a week later.
Dressed in the suit I hadn't worn since my university entrance ceremony, walking to a nearby publisher from the station early in the morning felt refreshing. It felt cool to be like a corporate warrior, just like the wave of people in suits around me. I also thought that maybe I had a passion for work, just like my mother. I was floating on air from my first job hunt.
The interview went reasonably well. The male interviewer was young and handsome, and he found it interesting that there were people who started job hunting so late. When I talked about my four years of university life, he also said, "That guy Saeki is unforgivable." Then we got excited talking about cheating, and in the end, he didn't ask about the company's philosophy or the work I wanted to do, which I had practiced. I was grateful for that, as I didn't sympathize with the company's philosophy nor did I have any work I wanted to do.

On my way home in a good mood, I saw Saeki walking in a suit. An unpleasant wind blew inside my chest. That was because there was a woman walking with her head leaning on Saeki's shoulder. I couldn't tell well from behind, but she was a woman in a suit with long hair. The distance between the two was close, and it was clear that they were in an intimate relationship. Was that the woman in the photo? I chased after them to confirm. The sound of my heels, which had picked up speed, echoed.
I caught up and checked the woman's face from the side. It was a shock, as if I had been hit in the head with something hard. The woman who was happily resting her head on Saeki's right shoulder was Kiyoko.
Kiyoko, who had accused Saeki of infidelity.
My feet stopped. A middle-aged salaryman walking behind me clicked his tongue and passed me. Was it Kiyoko who bought the relationship with Saeki? Information swirled around in my head. If so, was that photo capturing the cheating scene that Kiyoko sent real? Nowadays, you can easily create composite photos with apps. I was so shocked by the photo of the cheating scene that I didn't have the leeway to doubt whether it was real.
Kiyoko lied to date Saeki.
If it weren't for that photo, I wouldn't have doubted Saeki, nor would I have sold our relationship. With intense regret, a feeling of discomfort welled up from my stomach.
It was such a terrible way to do things. Saeki and Kiyoko were already lost in the hustle and bustle in front of the station and were nowhere to be seen. I didn't have the energy left to chase after them, cry, and condemn them. I pushed through the crowd and sat down on a bench by the side of the road.
The bench was cold, cooling down my body that had become hot with anger and sadness.
Perhaps I am also responsible for trusting Kiyoko. There was also a part of me that was too lazy to face Saeki and ask him directly about the cheating. If I had the conviction that we loved each other, I should have taken the step of talking directly about the photo. Wasn't the reason I was able to sell the relationship so easily because there was a part of me that had already given up on my relationship with Saeki?
I try to rethink it, but I don't really know what I wanted to do at that time.

A week later, a job offer arrived from the company I had interviewed with first.
Can you really get hired with an interview like that? I thought that interviewer who didn't ask about my motivation or the company's philosophy was just messing around.
"Mom, I got a job offer."
When I showed my mother the document from the envelope I had opened carelessly, she was as happy as if it were her own.
"That's amazing, getting an offer on your first try."
She snatched the document from me, and my mother gently traced the words "job offer." Seeing me with no sign of job hunting for four years of university, she might have been worried about me the whole time.
"When you get your first paycheck, let's go eat something delicious."
Since it's the first act of filial piety I can do, I want it to be something my mother likes.
"Thank you, I'm looking forward to it."
My mother pressed the back of her hand to her eyes.

If I immerse myself in work, will I be able to have a new romance someday?
Come to think of it, that interviewer was handsome. I heard he will be the instructor for new employees after I join the company. He had a gentle demeanor and a gentlemanly personality.
I launched the human relationship app and entered the interviewer's name. Friendships, senior-junior relationships, romantic relationships, etc., were for sale.
I didn't have money before, so I bought the intimate senior-junior relationship with Saeki from Kiyoko and progressed to being lovers, but this time I have a lump sum of money. Relationship Score: 95, a high-quality product. It's expensive at 550,000 yen, but he's better looking than Saeki and has a higher annual income. If I'm going to invest in the future, it should be this person.
I pressed the purchase button without hesitation.