A few months earlier…

Madam K, the head of a dating agency called Boyfriend Material 101 was a woman of great vision. Many wondered what made her start this particular business using a rather peculiar and atypical approach compared to other competitors in the industry. She of course, never answered those who had the courage to speak out their thoughts, but it never meant that she didn’t have any answers to those curiosities.

To compensate, was the answer that she kept telling herself everyday when she stepped into her office as a form of motivation.

The meaning lies deeper than a simple monetary value. Regardless of whether Madam K would admit or deny it, her conscience knew better. The agency was established in order to make up for the frustrations she experienced in her younger days of learning about love. She selfishly claimed that out of all the ladies out there looking for love, she should be the one who understood the situation better after experiencing many heartbreaks, suffering, losses.

Madam K identified with those experiences better than anyone and after many attempts in love, she found the main cause of her failures –none of those men that she dated were a perfect match for her. Needless to say, finding your perfect match is no walk in the park. She was very well aware that one couldn’t find one’s perfect love in the first attempt. So, her imagination went wild after that single thought.

Imagine if you could experience that kind of love, even just for a day. Imagine if you could provide that kind of service, even just for a day. Imagine if people would be willing to spend money to experience that even just for a day. To Madam K, that’s how she came up with the bizarre idea of creating your own perfect boyfriend material.

Just as one of her best agents stepped into her office in pure confusion and frustration, she knew his current assignment was giving him the most difficult time yet since he started working with the agency a year ago. She expected that he would come charging into her office to complain about his current client or ‘girlfriend’, but he lasted longer by appearing two days later than her prediction.

Daniel stormed into her office, making dents on her newly carpeted floor from his heavy frustration-filled stomps. He invited himself to sit on one of the chairs as he spoke, “This new girl better pay good money for this service. Or else, I’m pulling out of this assignment. Screw the fact that I’m a perfect match for her, she’s the toughest one yet!”

Madam K lifted an eyebrow, speculating whether the younger male was being serious. Seemed like the boy’s good looks and perfect match to the current client’s requests were not enough to persuade her into a romantic relationship.

She replied calmly, “On the contrary, we are not charging her anything.”

Eyes wide, he straightened himself on the chair, wondering if he was hearing things. She nodded, confirming her words earlier. “What? So you mean I’m doing this for free? That’s it, I give up.” He scoffed, sinking himself back into the leather seat.

Madam K smiled, amused at his reaction, “Relax Daniel, the agency will still pay you. Don’t quit before you even try,”

“I can’t possibly just force her to do this! She clearly told me that it was an accident and didn’t mean to submit a request. She specifically said that she’s not interested to be in a romantic relationship right now. The only reason I survived this long was because she didn’t want her grandmother to find out. Heck, she even locked me out of her house!” He spoke with almost no punctuation in his sentence, making him out of breath when he finished spilling out his misery.

Daniel couldn’t understand how Madam K was able to stay composed throughout his story, come to think of it, he has never even seen her flinch. He usually wondered if she lacked emotions or just simply couldn’t be fazed due to handling other possibly more bizarre cases than his. He was starting to regret the decision he made in that same room about forty-eight hours ago as he waited for the elder lady to respond. His eyebrows furrowed as he counted the seconds before she decided to reply, still in that calm and collected tone.

“Then, you prove to her that she needs this. I’ll give you a probation of… a month? That should be enough right? Technically, you’re not forcing her but romantically pursuing her. Make it look as realistic enough that you don’t feel like a boyfriend for hire. But take note to stay within the rules and regulations.”

Daniel sighed heavily, still unconvinced as Madam K continued, “As I have mentioned previously, this is the first time the agency received a long-term relationship request. After one month, if you’re still not successful, I won’t stop you from withdrawing from this assignment. However if you succeed, do proceed accordingly. I want to see where this could go. If the end result is satisfactory, we might be able to offer long-term relationship service in the future.”

Daniel sensed a hint of excitement and thrill in her voice at the possible –yet incredibly outrageous, business venture, probably the first time she ever showed a positive emotional reaction to anything. Still skeptical, he couldn’t help but to list his worries, “Won’t that mean we’re lying to this girl? What if she falls for me in the process?”

“That means this experiment is a success.”

An experiment. Madam K finally used the exact word that revealed her true intentions after beating around the bush with synonyms of that ten-letter word. It’s no wonder the agency did not demand any fees from this particular client, because if this fails, they would not suffer any loss and she could not ask for a refund. Daniel scoffed in disbelief, realizing that his current assignment was nothing more than a huge jumble of independent, controlled and dependent variables to Madam K. If his knowledge of elementary science was still correct, Daniel would be the controlled variable, his strategy to romance her would be the independent variable and Hani’s response would be the dependent variable.

“So I’m your lab rat?”

Madam K chuckled, “Not if we are paying you good money for it…”

For now, this was the only thing that convinced Daniel to step out of her office and make another attempt to woo Hani. For now.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter