In the end, Aoki Haruhi still went to the sauna with them.
To be honest, the saunas in Japan are really strange.
Several grown men sitting in the sauna room, not saying a word, silently enduring the heat, covered in sweat, and from time to time, someone would get up to add a ladle of water to the charcoal stove.
That feeling is really—
It's more unbearable than being in hell.
Might as well just kill me.
Aoki Haruhi thought to himself.
"But afterwards, after steaming in the sauna and having a nice, comfortable bath, lying in the tub, the feeling of my entire brain and body completely relaxing is just wonderful."
Aoki Haruhi lay on Tsuda Nao's lap, letting out a sigh of contentment.
Inside Tsuda's home, the lighting was dim, but a warm tone was spread across the floor.
It was as if dusk had enveloped the room, creating a dreamlike, illusory feeling.
With his head resting on her lap, Aoki could experience that soft, comfortable sense of tranquility.
Time stood still, waiting only for his beloved.
"Heh, is it better than a lap pillow?" Tsuda Nao let out a cold laugh.
"Of course, nothing beats a lap pillow."
"Mmhmm~ I should say, nothing can compare to your lap pillow, Nao."
Ah!~ This is simply heaven.
In his past life, Aoki Haruhi had fantasized about a lap pillow countless times, but unfortunately, he never really had a proper relationship.
In this life, he was finally truly experiencing its beauty.
When he opened his eyes, from his angle, the light softly outlined the part of Tsuda Nao's cheek that wasn't in shadow, giving it a stunningly beautiful hue despite being partially cast in darkness.
A pert little nose, long eyelashes, big eyes...
Tsuda Nao looked truly enchanting.
"Hmm... what are you thinking about?" Tsuda gently stroked Aoki Haruhi's hair.
"Nothing, just thinking about how cute you are," Aoki Haruhi said with a smile.
"Hmph." Tsuda Nao tilted her chin up, turned her head away, and said coyly, "I don't believe you."
The next second, Aoki Haruhi reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"What are you doing?"
"I want to give you a proper kiss."
"No way," said Tsuda Nao.
"Ah~" Aoki Haruhi frowned in disappointment; a downward kiss while on a lap pillow would have been so perfect.
"But still, the fact that you were able to say you already had a girlfriend at the mixer and firmly reject the other party... it really was quite touching."
Tsuda Nao smiled, then leaned down.
About a minute later, Tsuda rubbed her knees and stood up.
"I'm going to sleep. My legs are so sore from all this."
Her legs had gone a bit numb from kneeling for a lap pillow for so long.
Aoki Haruhi propped himself up, glanced over, and saw Tsuda Nao walking with small steps toward the refrigerator, pulling the door open, and taking out a bottle of beer.
The two of them sat back down on the sofa.
Tsuda Nao turned on the TV and poured them each a full glass of ice-cold beer.
Aoki watched her crinkle her little nose after taking a sip of the cold beer, finding it quite amusing.
Drinking ice-cold beer in the middle of winter—Tsuda really was an unpredictable woman.
"By the way, that Ohno Kaori."
Tsuda Nao took a sip of beer and licked the foam from her lips.
"Hmm?"
Aoki felt a tightness in his gut and shivered all over.
"It's nothing, I actually don't mind you staying in touch with her," Tsuda said with a smile, seeing Aoki's reaction.
"Huh?" Aoki expressed his lack of understanding.
Doesn't she ever get jealous?
"I mean, she's a section manager in the loan department at the bank, right?" Tsuda said with a smile, "Who knows, she might become a great asset to Pokeni in the future?"
"Eh?" Aoki Haruhi thought for two seconds, frowned, and said, "Actually, I haven't considered taking out a loan. To be honest, living with a loan hanging over my head just doesn't sit well with me."
"It's not a loan," Tsuda smiled, his eyes sparkling, "It's an IPO."
"Huh? An IPO?" Aoki Haruhi sat up straight on the sofa, "Are you serious?"
"Definitely not right now," Tsuda Nao said. "Once Pokeni grows larger and our annual revenue reaches a few billion, we can ask TCCB to help us with an IPO plan."
Honestly, hearing the words "going public" made Aoki Haruhi feel uneasy.
Going public would mean that the company would have to disclose its financial reports in the future, and at the same time, it would very likely be at the mercy of capital, meaning he might not be able to do what he wanted to do anymore.
After all, once listed, you have to start serving the shareholders.
"For any company, going public is the fastest and most efficient way to raise capital," Tsuda Nao said. "If Pokeni wants to expand rapidly, money is crucial."
"As long as we go public, Pokeni can raise tens or even hundreds of times more money, allowing you to save a lot of time and make a qualitative leap."
Put that way...
It did seem to make sense.
Take the console wars, for example. Whether it's Sega, Nintendo, or Sony, in the end, it's essentially a war of money.
It's about who has more capital, and who can hold out until the end.
The R&D cost for a single console is around 10 billion yen, and this threshold is only getting higher. In the future, burning hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new console will be perfectly normal.
Given Pokeni's current scale and growth speed, they don't even have the qualifications to enter this war.
And even if they don't participate in the console wars, if Pokeni wants to expand rapidly—for example, by developing multiple games simultaneously, which would require setting up multiple project teams—that means hiring a lot of employees...
All of this requires money.
Without going public to raise capital, growing step-by-step would certainly be much slower.
No wonder that guy Tsuda Nao said to get in touch with Ohno Kaori more often. It turns out he had his eyes on her position as a section manager in the bank's corporate finance department.
However, in his previous life, Aoki Haruhi had never run a company; he was just a programmer. Now, he doesn't know enough about things outside of game development.
He might be a master at making games—in this era, Aoki could be called a god of game development—but when it comes to finance, he's a layman.
However, it was precisely because he didn't understand it that Aoki Haruhi felt a bit uneasy.
In his past life, there were many instances where founders were kicked out of their companies by the board of directors after going public, Steve Jobs being one such example.
Aoki felt a sense of panic regarding going public.
"Well, there's no need to be in such a rush," Tsuda Nao said with a smile. "It's still too early for Pokeni to talk about going public. Let's just focus on making the company profitable for now."
"Yeah, you're right."
Aoki nodded.
The two of them went off separately to wash up and get ready for bed.
A while later, Aoki walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair.
"By the way, the first episode of Onmyoji from Kyoto Animation seems to have been completed. Shall we watch it together?"
Aoki suggested.
"Sure!" Tsuda Nao smiled brightly.
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