Chapter 272.


    <strong>Chapter 272. Thearium, Operation Hook Up: Prelude to the Show. (6/6)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">Alicia’s body jolted and she immediately asked anxiously, “You’ll break up with me?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her reaction was authentic. I’d never told her about this part of my n, specifically so she’d show this sort of reaction.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? You’ll break up with Alicia if I can steal the girl behind you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. But if you’re not able to make her seriously fall in love with you to the point she’d nevere back to me and you’re unable to at the bare minimum keep her with ya until ya finish high school, then it’s your loss and you’ll have to forget about Alicia.” The n was to force them into a rtionship, have him seriously fall for Izora in that time, and make him forget about the stupid girl known as Alicia who was fine with being cheated on.


    <span style="font-weight:400">This was the time limit for Izora. If she couldn’t make it authentic within this deadline, then it was useless. Her feelings were destined to be forever unrequited if things didn’t work out between them before they graduated. I’d gifted her the position of power in the rtionship.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She would be chased by the guy she secretly loved. The more she resisted him, the better her odds of sess. It was a psychological battle. The harder she was to acquire, the more attached he’d be to her once he got her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Fine. I’ll ept your conditions. But how do I know you’ll really uphold your end of the agreement and break up with her?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Heh. Well, I guess we can rely on Alicia for this, can’t we? Alicia, if he seeds, you’re to break up with me.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No buts. If you’re the one making the promise, he’ll believe you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Hahaha, even if she broke up with me, I wouldn’t break up with her. It would just be this version of me she’d break up with. There’s also nothing that stops us from getting back together after we break up anyway.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It seemed the student council missed that point.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Tears welled up at the corner of Alicia’s eyes as she bit her lip and struggled to promise she’d break up with me should the student council win this little game.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I rolled my eyes at her. To everyone else around us, it looked like the heartless action of someone who cared little for Alicia. However, it was actually a discrete message to her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">‘Are you stupid, girl? Did you really think you’d be breaking up with the real me? It’s just this fictional version of myself you’d break up with.’


    <span style="font-weight:400">That was the true message rolling my eyes conveyed to her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As for why nobody in the surroundings tried to start anything with me, it was because, simr to Zale, they were scared off by our appearances and the threatening words I said to him.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When Aliciaprehended my unspoken message, she finally said, “Fine. I… agree. If Zale can steal the heart of the girl behind you, to the point she will nevere back to you, and their rtionshipsts until graduation, I’ll... break up with you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The tears that had welled up at the corner of her eyes had been extremely convincing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">There were people ring at me like I was the enemy of mankind, but they didn’t dare say anything about me. Though they were willing to cheer on the student council president who appeared to be the hero willing to sacrifice himself to save Alicia from the viin who’d deceived and brainwashed her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">So far, everything had gone perfectly. It was only the beginning, but I’d sessfully made use of this chance encounter to make everything look natural. With the way things yed out, the student council president wouldn’t be suspicious of a thing. After all, he was the one who encountered us here, not the other way around.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It wouldn’t look like we were here specifically to find and make trouble for him.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Our act was wless. Izora had done well ying her part. It was a wonderful performance up to this point. But from here on out, she’d take the stage as the lead performer, the main heroine in this love story. It was exactly what I told her. If she couldn’t y the role properly, she’d crash and burn. If she did it well, she’d spread her wings, fly high, and soar through the sky free, unhindered.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, if it’s Alicia promising to uphold this agreement, I’m not too concerned about her reneging on her words. However… I’d still like to get something in writing.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I raised one brow and asked, “Writing? You mean a contract?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">Writing a contract up would give him time to think about uses to include in it. I naturally wouldn’t give him the opportunity to think.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hah! You sure think highly of yourself. A contract should be made out between equal parties where there is an exchange of value for both sides in the agreement. I get nothing of value whether I win or lose. You have no leverage in this.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’d be leaving Alicia alone from now on if I lose.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s hardly worth anything. If I lose, ya get both the girls. Where is the equivalent value there? You either take it or leave it. I’m being kind just by giving you this opportunity.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How about I give you money as well? Name your price.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Money? No thanks, I don’t need a snotty brat’s allowance from his rich parents. Maybe if it was money ya worked for yourself I’d take ya up on your offer, but I don’t want to bully a kid who still gets his money from his parents.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">He looked furious with the way I addressed and talked to him. I was provoking him so he’d take things more seriously. His hatred for me would serve as fuel to make him try even harder to get Izora.


    <span style="font-weight:400">What he didn’t know was that all of this was an borate trap. Everything. This little game would make him feel like he was sinking in quicksand. The harder he struggled, the quicker he’d sink. With the way things were going, I felt unexpectedly confident he’d fall in love with Izora.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The fact that I’d been stumped at one point on how to achieve this end result was what I found the most shocking.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As he shot me a re so intense it could kill, he opened his mouth and said, “Fine. We won’t bother with a written contract. An oral agreement will be enough.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alright then, here ya go. Ya can do what ya want with this girl of mine. I’ll enjoy my time fooling around with Alicia today.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I grabbed Izora’s arm, pried it off of me, and forcefully threw her at the student council president.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wha-” Izora let out a startled noise when I tossed her away. Her thick-heeled boot tripped on the metal protrusion on the ground and she collided face-first into Zale’s chest. Zale caught her in his arms.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you okay?” Zale asked concernedly.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Izora pushed him away and said coldly, “Nobody asked for your help.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Perfect. She didn’t let any sign of her internal happiness show for even a second.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry about that.” Zale scratched the side of his head awkwardly, obviously unustomed to this sort of reaction. He definitely wasn’t used to this sort of treatment from a girl.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha! It looks like things aren’t looking too good for you right from the start man. Well, keep my girl warm for me while I’m ying around with this one.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I left Izora behind with Zale and dragged Alicia away with me out of the crowd into the main hall through the second entrance.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The two of us sat down side by side on two of the three chairs near the science gallery entrance.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ran, don’t you think you went too far? I was pretty shocked to see her looking like that, but that was Izora, right? You treated her like she meant nothing at all,” Alicia whispered beside me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That was just a necessary part of the act. We’re simply following the script.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re awful, you never told me about the ‘us breaking up part.’ I was so caught up in the act that I really almost cried thinking you were serious there.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, everything was much more convincing thanks to not filling you in on every detail of the n.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You owe me for almost making me cry,” Alicia protested with a pout.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. Yeah, yeah. What do you want?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Mmmmm… I’ve thought of something.” Her eyes lit up when she came up with some sort of idea.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What is it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll tell youter~” She had a small mysterious smile when she said that. I felt troubled when I saw it. Smiles like the one she had right now never tranted into something good for me.