Chapter 258.


    <strong>Chapter 258. Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect. (1/5)


    </strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">When Sunday came around, I briefly met with Ang in the morning. I gave her the ticket I’d printed out the night before.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We talked for a while, but she said she had to leave as she was busy with what we’d discussed the day before. She’d acted fast and her people had arranged a meeting for tomorrow with thepany she’d set her sights on. Today, she had to meet up with some of her people to prepare for the meeting with the CEO tomorrow.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I suppose this was the power of a celebrity as big as her. She could get a CEO off their ass to meet with her on such short notice. Well, it also had to do with the fact that both parties were involved with music. It was a big deal for a big singer in the music industry to suddenly want to talk business. If they upset her and she chose to go after them in a copyright infringementwsuit for her music being used in their app without permission, that would be a big problem.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Though their country didn’t care much for upholding international copyrights and intellectual propertyws, if they could avoid potential trouble, they naturally would. Their app had to maintain a good rtionship with the music industry to survive. Though their country wouldn’t uphold suchws, that didn’t mean they were invincible.


    <span style="font-weight:400">If the tforms used to distribute their app which illegally made use of copyrighted material without permission of the copyright holder were contacted and threatened with legal action, they would definitely take down the app should the app not rectify the problem. If it was just one artist, it might not be too big a deal, but if the artist was arge one who could convince other artists to take simr measures, the very foundation of the app would crumble.


    <span style="font-weight:400">That was why thatpany was so on edge and wanted to minimize any potential displeasure that could arise if they dragged their feet.


    <span style="font-weight:400">But anyway, none of that had anything to do with me. This was Ang’s affair now, not mine. A small nobody like me couldn’t possibly y on the same field as these wealthy behemoths who could throw around money like it was nothing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Once my meeting with Ang was over, my day still wasn’t finished. I’d made arrangements to meet up with the goth girl in the afternoon to discuss the strategy I had in mind. Today’s meet up location was decided upon by Izora.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As for why she got to decide, it was because sheined about it being right before midterms. Midterms hadpletely slipped my mind.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We met up inside the university center which was pretty close to her ce.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So? What’s the strategy you have in mind that requires us to talk in person?” Izora, who’d shown up in her goth attire, sat down directly across from me and asked.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I didn’t bother to beat around the bush and got straight to the point.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“For the field trip for your Physics ss, I want you to call out sick that day.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Why would I do that? I’ll miss out on my chance to get closer to the guy I like if I do something stupid like that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You won’t be missing out on anything.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How would I not miss out?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I pulled out one of the two remaining tickets I purchased and slid it over the table to her. I had some left over after the bus pass expense so I figured I’d secretly reimburse her a bit like this. “I want you to attend separately from your ss while dressed up in your goth attire.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you crazy! There’s no way I can do that!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You will do it if you want any chance of being together with the guy you like.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How the hell would doing something ridiculous like this get me any closer to him? The entire reason I dress up like Alicia at school is specifically so he doesn’t see me like this.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“And that’s exactly the problem. How do you know he wouldn’t be attracted to you when you’re dressed like this? You just assume so because he likes Alicia, right?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Of course. We’re two extreme opposites. She’s super smart, pretty, gentle, and popr. I’m dumb, I look scary when I dress the way I like, and I’m not super popr the way Alicia is. What could he possibly like about me when I’m this way?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaaah. You’re running out of time. After midterms, you’ve only got about two months left before graduation. You’ve been keeping this act up and disguising your appearance for how long now? Around two years, right? But you’ve made zero progress hiding your real appearance. Unless you take a gamble, you’ll never be able to attain what you want.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“A gamble...”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. The best way to increase your chances of sess would also be to ally yourself with the enemy while you’re in your goth appearance. Alicia will need to be informed of this side of you for the odds of sess to increase.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why would she need to know?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Because… you’re going to go on a date with me to thearium as my fictional second girlfriend. I will be... a low-life cheater.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The instant those bombshell words left my mouth, Izora’s eyes opened wide and her jaw hung open in disbelief. In her dumbfounded state, I exined the entire n I’d concocted from beginning to end. Of course, I kept out details of Ang. Even if I could tell her about Ang, I still didn’t have an idea on how to best make use of her in the grand scheme of things.


    <span style="font-weight:400">After I got through a rather lengthy exnation of my n, she opened her mouth and asked, “Are you crazy? I can hardly see things working out the way you say they will by going through with this ridiculous n. There’s no way he’d ever fall for something like this. Plus, even if you’re not actually in a rtionship with Alicia, your real girlfriend is still Rosa. You’d be going behind her back by doing this. It’d make you look like a real cheater.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You don’t need to worry about that. Rosa wants to get the student council president away from Alicia at all costs. We’ll just be acting the entire time, the same way I pretended to be Alicia’s boyfriend at the school dance.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“But-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I interrupted and didn’t let her talk, “As a member of the theatre club, I’m sure you can act, right? All you need to do is move exactly as I’ve instructed and the student council president will be chasing after you in no time. It may be fake at first, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to turn something fake into something authentic. With this method, you will be in full control of everything.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re sure about that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. It will definitely work. Just believe in me. You’ve sold your soul to the devil, the devil will naturally deliver on his contractualmitments.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“The devil? Hmph! Phony devil.” She crossed her arms and scoffed to herself when she recalled the way she’d been conned.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha… anyway, I’ll be counting on you to disguise me. I’m sure you’re quite good with that sort of thing.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll be sure to make you look like a goth punk.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? A goth punk?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. I think it would suit your gloomy appearance pretty well.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I immediately regretted my decision to rely on her skills. She was in the theatre club and good with makeup so I was convinced she’d do a good job, but to y the role of not only her boyfriend, but her goth/punk boyfriend at that… I’d rather die.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Can we not go with me disguised as a goth punk?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It won’t be convincing at all if you’re not. Besides, I won’t be able to put on my most convincing performance if I can’t get into the act.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, is that so?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well… if it means your act will be more convincing, I suppose I’ll make the sacrifice.” The entire n was dependent on her ability to deceive the student council president in our little y.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Good…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Is something wrong?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Doing it like this-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Doesn’t feel right? Cut the moral bullshit. It’s exactly what you’ve been doing this entire time, isn’t it? Disguising like Alicia and acting like her. There’s no difference between that and this.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re… right. There really isn’t any difference.”