Sayuri Saeko was at a serious crossroads in her life. She was faced with a problem she never would have imagined she would have to confront. Sayuri was reluctant to use the word destitute, but if her conditions didn't change soon, she might find herself without anything to her name. All Sayuri wanted was a good life for her and her son, to ensure he had the best opportunities available to him. Yet despite her best efforts, life kept throwing obstacles in her path.
She made decent money as a teacher, yet due to budget cuts, her hours were dramatically lowered. It didn't take long for the smaller paychecks to eventually catch up to her. Sayuri found herself stressing over the monthly budget in order to keep both her and her son afloat. She even worked part time at a convenience store to make extra money on the side. It was a decent way to supplement her income. She then foolishly left that job to work at a different store closer to where she lived. However after only a few months she was laid off from that job as well. Sayuri attempted to apply back to the previous store, only to be told he had been promptly replaced.
It seemed luck was not on her side, and Sayuri was at her wits end. She applied to countless positions, went to job fairs, and even begged her last job that she left for her job back.
To put it simply, times have been tough. Ever since her divorce it hadn't been easy for Sayuri. Her ex-husband Takeo was no longer interested in financially supporting her, which was more than fair in her opinion. But he also refused to offer any kind of support to his own son, Makoto, which is what truly offended her. Tuition for Makoto's private school wasn't cheap, and she was struggling to pay off the debts. She remembered how Takeo was just as passionate about his son's academic success as she was. Yet as time went on and their marriage stagnated, Takeo grew resentful of both his wife and son. Sayuri just wished her husband didn't take his frustrations with her out on their son. He was innocent in all of this after all.
Sayuri hated feeling like a failure, like she had failed at being both a mother and wife. Like she had thrown away valuable time and effort all to end up in a helpless situation like this. It wasn't like she could come crawling back to her husband anyway- the bastard barely even wanted to do anything with his own son let alone her. The last Sayuri had heard of him, Takeo had left Japan and moved overseas to be with a foreigner. A woman who was also recently divorced and had children of her own.
How Takeo could just up and abandon his son like that, Sayuri could never wrap her head around it. She would always be loyal to her son Makoto and have his best interest in mind- yet Makoto as well resented Sayuri for her lack of warmth and for ultimately being the driving factor in his parent's divorce. Makoto had more disdain for his mother than the father who left him without so much as saying goodbye. Acknowledging this hurt Sayuri in ways she never imagined. Sayuri preferred to not let emotions dictate her actions, but coming to this recent realisation made her feel more desperate than usual.
Sayuri was reserved to a fault, her inaction leading to disastrous consequences to both her love and family life. She was often described as having a frigid personality, cold and distant both in regards to emotion. If you asked any of her students, none of them would say she was their favourite teacher. Her personality, or lack thereof, didn't lead her to having many friends at her place of work either. She also had never been a particularly wild lover- quite the opposite really. She found sexual acts other than for the purpose of recreation to be quite frankly, disgusting and unnecessary. She loved her son enough to never feel the need to have sex with her husband again. Any advance Takeo made on her was rejected with cold indifference. This of course led to many heated arguments, passive aggressive comments, and the eventual divorce.
It had been seven years since Takeo left her. Loneliness was never an issue for Sayuri, but there were times when she regretted how he treated her husband. Maybe she wasn't fulfilling her wifely duties. Maybe she cared more about her teaching job than her marriage. Maybe she cared more about her son's future than to focus on being there for him in the present. She would lie awake at night, contemplating endlessly all the missed opportunities and chances to truly form a connection with the men in her life.
She only wanted the best for Makoto. She had spent her free time between jobs tutoring him, preparing him for university exams years in advance. He had just turned 16 and was entering high school soon. Sayuri had secured him a place in a well respected private school, well known all over Japan. Tuition was not cheap but Sayuri had no regrets. With a diploma from this school, he was guaranteed to increase his chances of getting into any university he wanted. And in turn, give him the chance to have any job he wanted.
A job where he wouldn't have to worry about paying rent and having food on the table. A trouble that Sayuri was unfortunately familiar with, that she would never want Makoto to come to know at all.
Despite countless nights of arguing and lost sleep, Sayuri knew her son would thank her eventually. One day when he would come to be her age, Makoto would realise just how much his mother had truly helped him.
But how could Sayuri help her son when she could barely help herself?
Bills were piling up, and with absolutely no help from her estranged ex husband who had no interest in paying any form of child support, Sayuri was on her own. The cruel reality of the situation finally made itself apparent when one day her card was declined at the grocery store. Humiliated, Sayuri claimed that she left her other credit card at home and rushed out of the store, only to never return.
That was the last straw for Sayuri. When she came home she ordered cheap takeout for Makoto, a rarity in their household that he didn't object to. With no dishes to clean, Sayuri retired to her room early. She sat at her desk, opening up her laptop to resume yesterday's job search.
It was a dark and stormy night, the winds assaulting the window pane sent loud clattering noises throughout the room, lightning flashed and danced across the walls. Yet Sayuri remained unphased, intently reading every line of text on her computer screen to ensure a thorough scanning. She couldn't risk missing a single job opening.
It wasn't until Sayuri saw it- 500k yen up front for a job requiring no experience.
'Looking for mature women in their 40s to 50s, MILFs most wanted.' An ad read in bright red font, capturing Sayuri's eye immediately.
Sayuri felt her heart skip a beat. Five hundred thousand yen? That was a significant amount of money, nothing to be scoffed at. An amount of money that large could change the direction of Sayuri's current hopeless trajectory. Money like that would finally pay off her credit card debts- and lift a huge amount of weight off her shoulders.
She didn't know what a 'milf' was, however.
Sayuri continued reading the ad.
'New and inexperienced actresses welcomed. Money will be provided on site after production.'
"Actresses?" Sayuri said out loud, squinting as she examined the ad. It didn't take her long to realise just what the ad was for- an adult film. She knew it would be trouble when she saw such a high amount of money- of course it was too good to be true.
Staring at the screen for a few moments, she soon grabbed her cell phone and opened up the calculator app. She did the math, and the money offered up front would indeed cover her expenses for the next two months, not to mention pay off the debt she owed for Makoto's tuition.
Sayuri shook her head at the thought. Was she actually considering this? The last time she had any kind of sexual contact was 16 years ago when her son was conceived. How on Earth would she be able to pull something like this off when she wasn't even comfortable lying down with the man she used to be married to? Even after the divorce Sayuri never felt the desire to go back into the world of dating or seek out any other form of intimacy.
Sayuri recoiled at the thought of having sex with an absolute stranger. She couldn't imagine letting someone she didn't even know putting their hands on her- and while being filmed of all things. She scrolled past the link, choosing to ignore it. The large amount of money however, still remained in the back of her head.
An hour or so passed, and Sayuri noticed the time on her clock. It was getting late, and even if she didn't have work the next morning, she still preferred to wake up early every day to maintain a schedule. She sighed, tempted to just close all of her computer tabs and start fresh in the morning.
