Ruka Sarashina — Rent-A-Girlfriend

Ruka’s childhood backstory centers on an unusually slow heartbeat. As described in a contemporaneous account of the manga, strenuous activity could leave her dizzy or short of breath, restricting exercise and even some exciting games. She grew accustomed to watching others enjoy the rush of experiences she had to approach cautiously. After hearing classmates discuss romance, she hoped that falling in love might give her the excitement she had been missing. That wish helped lead her to work as a rental girlfriend.

Ruka’s rental-date experience does not immediately deliver the feeling she wants. In a backstory incident, a client abandons her when strangers confront them, leaving her disillusioned about the sincerity of paid dates. Later, she sees Kazuya plead for Chizuru’s secret to be kept and defend Chizuru despite knowing that their apparent romance began as a rental arrangement. His concern causes Ruka’s pulse to rise in a way she has long wanted to experience. That physical reaction helps explain her sudden conviction that Kazuya is the person she should pursue; it does not make the relationship mutual.

Ruka secures the status of Kazuya’s provisional girlfriend, but the arrangement never begins on equal romantic terms. He remains preoccupied with Chizuru, while Ruka seeks occasions to make the trial relationship feel genuine. Her awareness of the secret between Kazuya and Chizuru also gives her leverage she is willing to use. The resulting conflict is not just a conventional love triangle: it is shaped by the difference between agreed appearances, actual affection, and consent to a relationship.

Ruka’s rivalry with Chizuru sharpens during the Hawaiians resort trip. She uses a condom-related deception to suggest a degree of intimacy with Kazuya that Chizuru has reason to misunderstand. Kodansha’s Volume 24 synopsis explicitly identifies Ruka’s scheme as one of the trip’s sources of turmoil. The incident marks a particularly consequential example of Ruka putting her wish to win Kazuya ahead of honest treatment of her rival.

Chapter 440 returns to the heartbeat motif. A contemporaneous account describes Ruka visiting an amusement park with friends, checking her pulse after riding a roller coaster, and growing tearful as she remembers meeting Kazuya. The scene recalls the physical excitement that first convinced her she was in love. It is a moment of reflection, not sufficient evidence by itself that she has chosen another partner or definitively ended the provisional relationship.

The manga continues beyond those developments. Kodansha’s Volume 47 synopsis mentions an unspecified incident involving Ruka, but does not explain its circumstances or consequences. The official English chapter listing reaches Chapter 447 on November 3, 2026, without itself documenting Ruka’s eventual romantic outcome. Her final relationship status therefore cannot be established from the material independently examined for this record.