I look at the title and thought "Oh, a light novel adaptation? Nice, I just read Otherside Picnic, this looks like it will be fun" Then after I read first chapter and thinking that it was all a bit wonky but I mean, it is just a setup and the girl is actually gay, so we might have something interesting here, maybe she just does the whole payment thing to have a friend and she really just feels lonely and treats the girl fine, so slow burn romance.
After reading second chapter, yeah, the writer clearly never TALKED to a real girl before. This is just a no. At least reading as someone that never went to Japan, this just feels like the stereotype that all lesbians are sexual predators. Who THE FUCK thinks that watching porn with someone that has zero interest in you, that you met for a week, is a good idea? She is forcing hugs and personal space, just everything she is doing is making the other girl creeped out.
TL;DR Expected a cute slow burn "oh I realized that I'm gay" instead got creepy sexual harasser
There's a lot more to it than that. I suggest staying along for the ride just to see everything pan out because stuff gets explained a lot more thoroughly and everything wraps up, neatly
ok now that turn creepy real quick. i mean wotttttttttttttttt ?!!!! who does that ?!! there's a high chance you're gonna creep someone out from homosexsual relationship by doing that rather than make them accept it
You're thinking of this, realistically, which you shouldn't. Instead, consider the fact that you got a closeted homosexual tsundere who's trying to resist her own feelings and a lesbian who has a gaydar so finely tuned that she can read the other girl's mind and know exactly what she wants and feels.
"And all of that ignores that the whole set up with the “bet” is designed to make Marika more resistant to “falling” since she doesn’t get paid if she does. Ugh."
That's confusing, because in this chapter Marika seems to have been paid up front? Does she have to give it back if she loses?
Yeah, she doesn't. If Marika loses, Aya keeps the rest of the money because she'd no longer need to have Marika under Compensated Dating because Marika would actually be dating her (and there's another reason that's a bit spoilery, regarding Aya's own finances). There's also the fact that, each day, Marika is paid up front and it's mentioned, in the LN, that she could've left at any time, after she's paid (and come back the next day to get paid, of course), but she didn't; she decided to stay and entertain Aya with whatever her wishes were because deep down, she wanted all that stuff but, y'know, she's a tsundere who isn't true to her own feelings