What does a painter need?
Steady, rock-solid hands?
Sharp, lightning-fast eyes?
Or the ability to burn their life for painting even when they can’t afford a meal?
There are a thousand answers to this question from a thousand people.
But Haruno-ya Tōru believes that only by discovering the essence of the world can one paint the most realistic pictures.
As the saying goes, it’s not that the world lacks beauty, it just lacks LSP… It just lacks eyes that can discover beauty.
So under his brush, the bustling Tokyo turns into a forest of steel, the people passing by become puppets on strings.
Oh, you mean the two girls yesterday?
In Haruno-ya Tōru’s eyes, they are nothing but walking yen.
For money, it’s okay to break one’s principles once in a while.
Or rather, when painting for those people, Haruno-ya Tōru is just painting, it’s not a hobby, not a faith, it’s just work.
Would you consider a job that barely keeps you fed as a lifelong faith?
But when painting a portrait for Eriri, Haruno-ya Tōru involuntarily immersed himself in a strange state.
Okay, we’re all LSPs, what are we pretending to be innocent for?
Actually, he just saw a rare beauty, and this beauty was willing to be his model, so he couldn’t help but get a little handsy.
Although he said he didn’t plan on getting married, that didn’t stop Haruno-ya Tōru from appreciating beautiful women.
After a long while, Eriri finally snapped out of her strange state.
“This classmate, you…” The blonde girl had no idea what to say.
Say Haruno-ya Tōru’s painting is bad?
But it was definitely her, a version of her that none of the students of Funozaki Academy had ever seen before.
But say Haruno-ya Tōru’s painting is good?
Are you kidding? If her true appearance was known to others, she would die a social death, okay?
“Shocking! The school beauty of Funozaki Private Academy is actually…”
“The blonde beauty is actually… Is it a twist of human nature or a moral decay?”
“Doesn’t it look like you?” Haruno-ya Tōru smiled, doing this to a beautiful girl who was speaking to him formally for the first time was quite outrageous.
“It’s okay, Sawamura-san, you can return this painting to me, I’ll redraw a portrait for you as an apology. Also, because I’ve taken up Sawamura-san’s time and will need to trouble Sawamura-san to be a model again, I won’t take the agreed upon payment… um, I’ll only take half.” Haruno-ya Tōru, who originally wanted to be generous, was defeated by reality.
Forget it, five thousand is five thousand, the two girls yesterday also received five thousand yen, just treat it the same as yesterday.
Anyway, he made five thousand yen from two paintings, which was enough to make the sour lemons around him jealous.
“No, you misunderstood me.” Seeing Haruno-ya Tōru about to take back the painting, Eriri panicked and quickly explained, “This… um, may I ask this classmate’s name?”
Good heavens, Eriri felt like she had never been this awkward before. If she had enough time, she probably could’ve gotten another three-bedroom apartment with no problems.
“Haruno-ya, I’m Haruno-ya Tōru, Sawamura-san.” Haruno-ya Tōru generously told her his name.
After all, according to his understanding, if a blonde girl was determined to find out someone’s identity, unless he left Japan, she would eventually find out.
Besides, he wasn’t trying to hide his identity, he wasn’t some criminal who couldn’t stand the light.
Not wanting to be entangled with a big family didn’t mean he couldn’t live an open and honest life.
Moreover, he knew that he wouldn’t have many opportunities to interact with the girl in front of him.
In Japan, a country with severe class solidification, her friends would inevitably be the children of other big families.
And his friends?
Oh, he doesn’t need friends, he just needs his sister.
“Um, Haruno-ya-san, you misunderstood me. What I meant to say is, could I buy this painting together with you, I’ll pay twenty thousand yen.” Eriri stretched out her white, tender finger, making a gesture of two.
Haruno-ya Tōru furrowed his brows.
Seeing the boy’s expression, Eriri was afraid that he would take back the painting, so she quickly continued to raise the price, “How about thirty thousand? Or fifty thousand? I’m in a hurry today and only brought this much cash. If Haruno-ya-san still doesn’t want it, I can have my family send the money over.” The fifty thousand yen was originally intended for Eriri to buy manga and games.
But now she couldn’t care less, she could just have her butler buy the manga and games, but if she missed out on this painting, she might regret it for the rest of her life.
“Sawamura-san…” Haruno-ya Tōru swallowed hard, then said with more difficulty, “Actually, when you said twenty thousand, I wanted to agree. The reason I’m frowning is simply because I didn’t expect you to give so much…”
Haruno-ya Tōru was truly shocked. Since he was a child, in order to ensure that he and his sister could live a stable life, he was always trying to make every penny count.
Do people really think he doesn’t like eating fresh vegetables and fruits?
Who wouldn’t like good food if they had a few extra bucks in their pockets?
But he didn’t expect that his hard-earned savings, his and his sister’s ten-day living expenses, would just casually pop out of the mouth of the girl in front of him.
And it was just cash she happened to have on her…
“Damn capitalists!” After mentally cursing, Haruno-ya Tōru put on a more crass expression.
“Since Sawamura-san likes this painting so much, then sell it to you. To express my gratitude, I will try my best to paint a portrait for Sawamura-san, free of charge!”
The surrounding lemons were even more envious.
Originally, ten thousand yen was enough to make them drool, how many people couldn’t even make that much in a day.
It’s no wonder art students have a tough time, you know, although they can make one thousand to one thousand five hundred yen from a painting, besides the time spent, the cost of materials like paper and drawing boards is not insignificant.
You can’t learn art without money.
So for these people, it was a big question whether they could make ten thousand yen in a day.
As a result, Haruno-ya Tōru easily earned five thousand yen and even managed to show off in front of a beautiful girl.
Eriri didn’t care about the reactions of the people around her.
All she cared about was that painting that pierced deep into her heart. After getting Haruno-ya Tōru’s promise, the girl finally felt relieved.
Afraid that he might change his mind, the girl directly stuffed the bills into Haruno-ya Tōru’s backpack, then quickly put the painting away.
She didn’t even pay attention to Haruno-ya Tōru’s promise to paint another portrait for her, and left directly.
“What am I doing?!” The girl muttered to herself in shame and annoyance as she walked quickly, almost running.
“Didn’t I say I was going to ask for painting advice today, how did it turn into this?”