During the next day's meeting, the old man said he had some news for everyone.

“Takaji has proven he has what it takes to work as a host for the most part. He will be promoted from being a probationary host and join the ranks of regular hosts. We have two new probationary hosts, Motoki and Rinji, I hope everyone will get along. Yuuto, you will help them if they have any questions about the duties of a probationary host. That's it for the special news. You are dismissed.”

Yuuto had not noticed his former roommates were in the room until it was mentioned. The four roommates met in the hallway.

Motoki had slimmed down a bit and Rinji had put some muscles on his former slim stick figure.

“Look at you guys, Dr. Doi must have run you ragged to get you in shape,” said Yuuto.

“You don't know the half of it plus I had to go on a strict diet. I'm still supposed to watch what I eat and work out but at least it's not as hellish as morning training was,” said Motoki.

“Well, I had it slightly easier, no diet needed. Just getting fit,” said Rinji.

“Oh yeah before we start work and forget, congrats Takaji on being promoted,” said Yuuto while he slapped him on the back a few times.

“Thanks, but I have a feeling the hard part starts now. Guess we all need to get to work on clean up. Well I will leave the bathroom cleaning to you rookies.” said Pretty boy.

Yuuto groaned and said, “Stop rubbing it in our faces.”

Pretty boy split from them to join the other hosts in the club room.

Yuuto led Motoki and Rinji and got the tools and protective gear to start cleaning the bathrooms.

When entering, their reactions were just like Yuuto's when he had first started.

After finishing cleaning the bathrooms, they helped clean up in the club room and then ate a quick dinner.

Yuuto gave them a few tips on how to get customers to go to the host club. Of course, they were just tips he had learned from Pretty boy.

After walking onto the streets and spitting up, Yuuto walked down the busy streets he normally did, inviting females to join.

An hour later, while walking he heard his name called out from the direction of the crowded sidewalk in front of him.

Looking to where the voice was, he noticed a female waving at him.

She looked to be in her late teens or early 20's. Compared to the people around her, she really stood out from the crowd with her medium length hair dyed blue, a slender body and medium height.

Yuuto was shocked to see someone he knew calling out to him, Yuuto waved back casually.

The person's name was Kana Sakata, she was the older sister of one of his friends from school. Kana was just two years older than him and Shogo her younger brother.

Yuuto had spent a large amount of time with Kana when hanging out with her younger brother at the manga cafe their family ran.

When he was at their house, they would often get into heated discussions of anime, manga, and eroge.

Kana was like the nice older sister he didn't have at his own house. She was always a very athletic person and you could say she was a tomboy while growing up.

She ran up to him. “Yuuto what are you doing out here on the streets of Shinjuku dressed up like that?”

“Work,” said Yuuto before he could think up of anything else to say.

“Oh really? What do you do?”

Yuuto mumbled, “I work as a host at club Winter Night.”

“What! A host club? I didn't think that was your sort of job you were interested in.”

“Some crazy things happened after I was kicked out from my parents’ home. I moved here for a different job and it ended up causing me to owe a large debt to many people. Now I'm working to pay it off.”

“Wow, that sounds really bad. My little brother told me that you had moved but didn't tell me you got kicked out.”

“I didn't tell him about it. I was trying to get everything sorted out. You're the only one who knows I work as a host.”

“Don't worry I won't tell anyone about it if you want to keep it a secret. So what is it like being a host?” asked Kana.

“I'm still a probationary host. So far it's not all that great of an experience. It's a lot harder then people would think. Enough about me what about you and Shogo?” asked Yuuto

“My life is fine and Shogo is doing okay, also we both are still working at the manga cafe. So all this talk about your new job has gotten me interested in club Winter Night. Will you take me there?”

“Now who's the one acting strange. Are you sure you want to go?”

“Yes. It will help you get paid right?”

“Well okay, I'll take you,” said Yuuto. He then held out his arm offering it to her. Her small hand clasped his lightly.

“Let's go!” she exclaimed cheerfully.

“I forgot to tell you my name is Yasuo while working.”

Kana only gave a hearty laugh at the name as she linked her arms with his.

Yuuto escorted her all the way to the building and up to club Winter Night’s main room on the 3rd floor.

He left her with a few words, wishing her well and hoping she had a happy stay.

Yuuto received his payment from the front desk supervisor and went back out onto the streets.

He was able to escort one other customer to the host club during the night.

Overall it was his best night making 10,000 yen. Bringing his total to 15,000 yen going towards paying off his debt. Motoki and Rinji both had a 0 written next to their names on the board.

After the meeting was over, Yuuto and co. went to get something to eat. While Yuuto was eating, he saw Motoki and Rinji looking down so he decided to try to cheer them up.

“Hey don't be down guys. It takes time to for you to learn and be as good as me.”

“If that's your way of trying to cheer us up, you suck at it,” said Motoki.

“I just want to sleep,” said Rinji.

They finished eating and walked to their rooms.

Yuuto found out that everyone was living across from each other, with Motoki and Rinji in room 24 across the hallway from Pretty boy and Yuuto. After bidding each other good night, they went to sleep.

***

Yuuto gave a loud sigh, he had been chosen to help in the kitchen again under the strict head cook.

After cleaning with Motoki and Rinji was over, he headed to the kitchen.

It was getting busy inside preparing for when customers would start to come.

He picked up a tray of food and brought it over to the small table in the corner while looking at what the food was tonight.

It was a tasty bean soup with fried fish on the side along with steamed white rice.

As he set down his tray and sat down, he looked up and noticed someone else was sitting at the table across from him.

Yuuto had been too busy inspecting his food to notice that a female was sitting at the table.

He guessed she was a hostess helping in the kitchen like he was.

She wasn't paying him any attention.

He only looked at her face for a second before it had caused him to become agitated.

“YOU!” he pointed at her.

She looked up annoyed she was being bothered,“Wha...YOU?” she said shocked at seeing who it was that had sat across from her and started talking.

“You scammer! What are you doing here?” asked Yuuto with his finger still pointing at her.

“Just my luck to run into you of all places. Don't you know it's rude to point? It's also none of your business why I'm here. If you must know something, I'll just say I started to work as a hostess on the 5th floor.” she said.

“You had me fooled, I thought you were a nice and beautiful person after talking with you over dinner. But you went and did something like taking me to that ripoff restaurant. I thought you were the ideal Yamato Nadeshiko with your nice silky long black hair and your light smooth skin. Miss scammer.”

“It's not like I'm happy that you praised me for being beautiful, but thanks. It wasn't my fault that you got scammed. I didn't target you out of everyone in the world to scam. You just happened to be the one who showed up. You naively accepted my offer to go together. I was doing an odd job to help lessen my parent's debt.”

“How rude of you to say I'm naive. And you're welcome on the compliment.”

“Hey, you two. Stop flapping your jaws and finish eating so you can help with preparations,” shouted the head cook.

Now that Yuuto's food wasn't able to burn his mouth and that it had cooled off while talking, he was able to scarf down the food with gusto.

Scammer girl looked at him with distaste as there was soup and other bits of food getting flung onto the table from his speed eating.

He placed the tray with the bowls and silverware into the dirty dishwater bin. Then went and washed his hands and put on a hairnet, gloves and an apron. He was ready to work.

Scammer girl also finished eating, geared up and waited with Yuuto for the head cook to give them instructions. They were both ordered to help start preparing food for the main appetizers that were ordered often.

While walking through the kitchen getting items and delivering them, they kept bumping into each other and stepping on each other's feet.

Yuuto gave a yelp of pain as Scammer girl stepped on his foot with the back of her heel, making him nearly fall to one knee. So the next time she walked by, he had his foot stuck out making her nearly trip.

“Will you kids knock it off! Am I going to have to hit your heads together to make you stop squabbling? Stop messing around while in the kitchen and get to work. It's not only childish but dangerous also.” the head cook roared at the two troublemakers.

There was no other mishaps for the rest of the business hours. Just plenty of cold stares and glares back at each other.

“I'm leaving the cleaning and the rest of the dishes to both of you. Don't screw around, do the job right.” said the head cook.

Yuuto started to wash the dishes that had piled up. He rinsed the plates, glasses, and silverware with the spray hose, then placed them into the tray and slid it into an industrial dishwasher. He looked over at Scammer girl who was just standing around doing nothing.

“Hey YOU, can you please dry the dishes and put them away?” asked Yuuto.

She looked over at Yuuto and gave an exasperated sigh. Then picked up a towel and started to dry the dishes and put them away.

“I have a name you know. It's Niko Ogiwara.”

“Well, it would have been better if you had told me it when we first met. On the other hand, Niko, you have a nice name.”

“You don't need to praise my name. It's not like I'm that easy to please.”

“So I'm here because I was scammed by a lot of people on my second day moving here causing me to rack up a large amount of debt. How ‘bout you?”

Niko was quiet for some time then blurted out, “Look, it's like I said before, I was trying to help get my parent's debt lowered by helping those guys out when we first met. My parents died in an accident where a piano fell on top of them when they were out on a daily jog. Leaving me and my two younger siblings, a brother and sister both in elementary school. Now that debt has been passed onto me and I can't take care of it. We don't have any other relatives, so in order to keep the creditors off me and keep my younger siblings safe, I'm working and living here with my siblings. Happy? Or do you need the rest of my life story?”

“Oh, I'm sorry that your parents died. I know this is not comparable but I don't have any contact with my parents or any other family members myself.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Niko quietly replied.

They finished washing the dishes and cleaning in silence. The head cook came in and after checking told them they could leave.

Before they parted ways in the hallway Yuuto called out.

“It was a wild ride working with you. It was interesting to know more about you, Niko.” Yuuto said in his best gentleman host voice while giving a slight bow.

Niko looked away and said, “Thanks,” and then walked towards the stairs that led to the woman's side of the building.

As Yuuto watched her walk away, he wondered if what she had said was true or if she was just trying to trick him again.

'Why does it even matter if it's true or not.' thought Yuuto.