Chapter 280.


    <strong>Chapter 280. Thearium, Operation Hook Up: <b>The Post Show</b><b>. </b>(3/4)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">His n was to send her to a location he knew so he could run into herter today or possibly in the future. It wasn’t a bad idea.


    <span style="font-weight:400">But it wouldn’t work.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Why?


    <span style="font-weight:400">That was because Ang was lying. She wasn’t stupid. She could see through Zale’s attempt totch onto her. How many people have tried the same thing? She’s seen it time and time again.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She could tell when someone was genuine. That was a skill she picked up in her line of business. Even if I considered her stupid because of her ignorance of technology before we first met, she was still an adult who had a plethora of experience in other areas.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ria, was it? Would you be interested ining with me to get something to eat?” Ang suddenly asked Ria that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Something to eat with you? No thanks, I wouldn’t want to be a bother.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ria, what are you saying? If you’re being asked-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Who do you think you are to talk down to me? And can you not act all buddy-buddy like we’re on good terms? It’s disgusting.” Izora didn’t mince her words or pull any punches. The attitude she always hid from Zale was on full disy today.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She’d remembered her objective and Ang’s appearance was a nuisance to that objective, that was why she had such ackluster response to her identity. The way Zale forgot all about her as soon as Ang’s identity came to light dumped a bucket of cold water over her head.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She didn’t have any particrly positive feelings toward Ang. If Ang saw through those negative emotions, then… the reason she asked Izora to apany her just now was likely because she sensed that displeasure toward her and it piqued her curiosity.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How strange,” Ang muttered to herself.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What strange?” Izora snapped back.


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t hear what Ang said.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“How do you-” As only Izora responded, Ang had likely whispered it quietly in her ear. Izora’s startled response led me to believe that Ang had seen through her act, but had chosen not to expose it. She could tell Izora had gotten jealous and that she actually liked Zale, but for some unknown reason, was acting like she wanted nothing to do with him.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well? Would you be interested in apanying me now?” Those words sounded friendly on the surface, but I detected the threat hidden between the lines.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Ang didn’t fully trust Izora to not cause trouble for her by bbing to others about her identity here. If she didn’t cooperate, she may go and expose her secret in front of Zale. That was the sort of impression I had. Well, I was the only one who’d think this way since only I knew of the venomous personality she kept hidden.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll… apany you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? You will? That’s great~ let’s get going then.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, Ria, we forgot to exchange numbers.” Zale suddenly pointed that out when it sounded like the two were headed out together.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You want my number? No way. You can’t have it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha… then… here, at least take mine if you don’t want to give me yours. If you need help with anything, don’t hesitate to give me a call.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not interested.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Come on, don’t be so cold, Ria.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Zale truly had the patience of a Buddhist monk.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If you can do a hundred push-ups in under a minute I’ll take your number.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Pfft hahahaha! Izora was definitely being petty now.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“A hundred push-ups?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s it?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, sure. That’s nothing hard.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">This cocky bastard. Did he think he could score some points with Ang by showing off his physical abilities? Was that why he so readily agreed?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“One, two, three… ten… twenty… thirty… fifty… seventy… ny… one hundred.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I’d timed it and he really managed one hundred push-ups in under a minute.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Alicia, where’d they go?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… they… kind of left the building already,” Alicia gave that awkward exnation.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What!” I heard the sound of Zale running off through the phone. Immediately after that, there was a bunch of static on the line.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Alicia had followed after him out the back exit.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, Ria, wait up. I did it. Hah… hah… hah… My number, please... take it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alicia, did he really do a hundred push-ups in a minute?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaaah. Well, I guess I’ll take it then. Don’t expect that I’ll ever contact you though. You’re not my type at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">To be able to turn the tables on Zale like this after two to three long years, I could only imagine how ecstatic Izora was over this overwhelming victory. Zale begging her to take his number, I’m sure she never imagined a scenario like this.


    <span style="font-weight:400">If Zale knew that he was effectively begging Izora who already had his number to take his number, how would he feel right now?


    <span style="font-weight:400">Ahhhh! It’s so hard being an author. I want to see this scene rather than simply imagining it in my head.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha… well, I’ll be waiting to hear from you. Ria, I’d like to ask you out on a dateter today if you’re free.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? A date?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not interested.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’ll be my treat. I’ll pay for everything.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well… I’ll consider it. Just don’t get your hopes up.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Right…” Zale sounded utterly defeated.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Zale, we should really get back to our ss,” Alicia pointed out.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah… you’re right.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">After that, the two groups parted ways. The phone went quiet. It seemed things had gotten a bit weird between Alicia and Zale. Just listening to the silence on the other end made me feel awkward.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I suppose interacting while other people were around was still possible, but when they were alone together it became like this. I felt bad eavesdropping in secret so I figured I’d end the call.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Just as I was about to press the button to hang up Alicia suddenly said something that caught me off guard, “Did you get all that, Ran?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I know you’ve been listening in on my phone. I’m not with Zale right now.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha, sorry about that. Since when did you notice?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Since you slipped my phone back in my pocket. I don’t mind though. I figured it was part of the n you didn’t fill me in on.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha, sorry.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey… the reason you slipped away before… is it because you know Ang?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? What makes you say that?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s suspicious. As soon as I found out her identity, it got me thinking. You were the one that nted the suggestion that caused me to make contact with her at random. Then you suddenly slipped away right before her identity was revealed. And what are the odds a celebrity would appear here of all ces in disguise on the day we just happened to go to thearium on a field trip? Then, for that celebrity to miraculously ask Izora to apany her, resulting in Zale’s evaluation of this version of Izora increasing…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She paused for a moment before continuing her line of reasoning, “It’s too much for it all to be a coincidence. Someone had to orchestrate all of this from behind the scenes. But who could it be? Well, isn’t it obviously my boyfriend who’s been pulling Izora’s strings from the very beginning?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m still finding it hard to believe that you know Ang though. What exactly is your rtionship with her?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">It’s not that I wanted to keep hiding it from her. I didn’t expect she’d catch on though.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. You’ve gotten a lot sharper. It was so much easier to pull the wool over your eyes when we first met.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmhmhm, right?” She hummed to herself happy to beplimented.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“But phew. I was worried my detective instincts were faulty.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha, you mean after thinking Ang was a criminal in disguise?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. That was awful of you to goad me on~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry, your conclusion was just too cute.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You didn’t answer my question before though. What exactly is your rtionship with Ang?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well… it’s a bitplicated.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Complicated? As in?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You probably wouldn’t believe me if I said it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not suggesting she’s another…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Please don’t ask. I don’t know how it turned out that way, but it did. I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you… mad at me?” I asked hesitantly.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaaaah. Aren’t you too much of a womanizer?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not. I swear! I did everything I could to avoid this situation but the world loves to y sick jokes on me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Does Rosa and my mother know about your rtionship with Ang?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No… you’re the first to find out about this. To be honest, I don’t know how to bring this up with them. I nned to one day.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Does Ang know you’re already taken?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“And she still-”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Does she know I’m your girlfriend?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No. She doesn’t know anything about me. I’ve kept everything a secret from her. I can’t fully trust her and I’m still on guard around her. Our rtionship wasn’t founded on something like love, but rather to keep each other in check.”