Chapter 284.


    <strong>Chapter 284. An Insidious Trap. (1/8)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa, Alicia, and I spent our free time over the weekend studying the driver’s handbook in the living room together. But when Sunday came around, Rosa made a sudden suggestionte afternoon, “Hey, we’ve been studying all week already, why don’t we take a break and treat ourselves a bit?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Treat... ourselves?” I couldn’t help but cautiously question her when I heard that term.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. Yeah. Alicia, remember the restaurant we went to before with Ran? It’s been quite a while since west ate there. Why don’t we go grab some food from there together, just the three of us? We can study while eating and bring some food back for Chris and Irene.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That sounds great. Let’s go. Let’s go! The food was so good too.” Alicia was dead set on going.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, it’s decided then, let’s catch the next bus.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hold on. I never agreed to go. You two can go alone. I’m not that hungry.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not hungry? We got so caught up in studying that I forgot to make anything for you. I haven’t seen you eat for the day either. Oh, I know what it is. You’re afraid of what happenedst time happening again, aren’t you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ugh. No. That’s… definitely not the reason.” If I was alone I personally wouldn’t mind getting food from there, but with these two I was terrified of what the bill woulde out to.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If it’s money you’re worried about, I’ll pay for everyone this time. Your birthday is only two days away, consider it an early birthday meal from your girlfriend.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll pay my share too. It’s only fair for me to make up for thest time I leached off that free meal when you two were on your date together.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“There’s no need to worry about it Alicia, I’ll pay..”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No, I insist. I’m also working now, I don’t have any excuse not to pay.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">What the hell is with this? Why are they fighting over who pays?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alicia, did you forget?” Rosa suddenly asked something weird.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Forget… ah. Right, I did… sorry. The pres-” she stopped herself partway through and nced at me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Pres? Present? Did she get something for my birthday?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you looking at me for?” Since she was trying to keep it a secret, I pretended I hadn’t caught on.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s nothing. Anyway, let’s go, Ran. You definitely won’t need to pay anything this time.” Alicia made a simr promise.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Rosa… you’re really paying for everything?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alicia, is Rosa really paying for everything?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why are you suddenly posing that question to Alicia when you just asked me? Of course I’m paying.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I want Alicia to answer the question.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you doubting me? Do you think I’m plotting to dump the bill on you? You’re terrible! Why would I lie about paying?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Uh…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You can’t even trust me when all I want to do is to simply treat you for once?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wait. That’s not-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa covered her eyes with the back of her wrist and turned away from me. A trail of transparent fluid flowed down the side of her cheeks.


    <span style="font-weight:400">What the hell!


    <span style="font-weight:400">Screw that! I don’t buy it. Those have to be eye drops!


    <span style="font-weight:400">How’d it suddenly turn into a shitty drama? I’m being scammed and made out to be the bad guy to guilt-trip me into epting her proposal, no questions asked. There’s no chance in hell she’s crying for real right now.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I’ve been framed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ran. You made Rosa cry… She just wanted to treat you to an early birthday meal...” Alicia’s worried look made everything look far too convincing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Alicia, was she actually not in on this farce? They were definitely the crocodile tears of a trained assassin. I didn’t believe Rosa was so soft she’d cry so easily.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Maybe Alicia was in on this, but she hadn’t been told Rosa would fake tears. She might now be convinced that Rosa had really gotten emotional here though. I’d also made use of Alicia’s overly honest nature in such a manner in the past to make my lies more convincing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Ahhhh! This is bull!


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I get it! I get it! I just need to go to the restaurant with you two, right?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’ll… really go?” Rosa asked in a pitiful manner while pursing her lips together.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. I’ll go.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You promise?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You won’t go back on your word?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. Yeah, yeah. I won’t go back on my word. Really though, pretending to cry is just ying dirty.” I couldn’t help butin about how unfair the tactic was.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Pretending? There’s no way Rosa’s pre… tending… huh? Uh… Rosa?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You seem to be… smiling right now.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Heheh. Sorry.” Rosa stuck out her tongue teasingly and lowered her arm down to neck level. The remnant of the fluid on her cheeks originated not from the corner of her eyes as the source, rather, a bit below her eyes. She rotated the back of her wrist to face us and two spots appeared a bit moist. It was pretty obvious what she’d done to fake those tears.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha… I was really convinced you were crying...” Alicia, who’dpletely fallen for her act, scratched her cheek embarrassedly when she connected the dots.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“As they say, all’s fair in love and war. A girl’s tears are quite effective against most guys. But our boyfriend seems to be a jerk who immediately assumes a girl’s tears are fake.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“That’s not true. Don’t nder me, I don’t immediately assume that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What? Then how’d you see through me?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You turned your head away with your arm obstructing my view at the perfect angle for me to not see your tearsing directly out of your eyes. Would someone who’s genuinely crying be so meticulous that there wouldn’t be a single gap or opening for me to see them from the side?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Jeez, stop analyzing everything all the time. It’s no fun, can’t you just turn off your brain for once? What would you do if I was really crying?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmmmm… that’s a good question… what would I do?” I tilted my head to one side as I pondered over it seriously.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Whatever, let’s hurry up and get going, the next bus will be here soon. You can’t go back on your word after you already promised.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">The three of us got dressed and caught the next bus headed to the university. When we arrived at the restaurant, I stopped at one of the tables to take a seat but Rosa grabbed my arm and stopped me, “Hey, this ce has some karaoke rooms upstairs. Why don’t we eat in one of them?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? We’re here to eat, not sing.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Come on, don’t you think the extra privacy would be nice?” She winked at me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not at all. Rather, it sounds like a bad time in the making.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alicia, what do you think?” Rosa sought Alicia’s input.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I think it sounds great!” Alicia sounded way too enthusiastic about it.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, that settles it. We’re getting a room.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What about my input?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Majority rules. You’re outnumbered~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rosa grabbed my right arm and Alicia followed suit with my left. They spoke to the restaurant worker and we were led up the stairs into one of the avable rooms. My best efforts to resist were all in vain and I was dragged inside the room with two scary high school girls against my will.


    <span style="font-weight:400">What’s with this? I came to eat, not sing karaoke. People don’t seriously do this sort of thing in real life, do they? Why have I never heard of it being a thing outside of fiction before? Oh, right, I had no friends. Of course I’ve never heard of it before.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I was pinned down between the two of them on a U-shaped couch with a table at the center of the room. The room was pretty small and we were stuck pretty close together. It was pretty obvious they wouldn’t permit me to escape.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The two of them wasted no time and keyed in an order for food through the terminal embedded in the table at the center. Their order for food was sent directly to the kitchen.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Once settled on food, the two of them selected a few songs to sing to while we waited. About ten minutes after we arrived, there was a knock on the door.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Was the food already ready? That was my initial thought… before something strange happened. Alicia who’d been in the middle of a song locked eyes with Rosa for a moment before she gave a serious nod. Rosa scooted closer to me and hugged my arm as Alicia rose to her feet and opened the door.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As the door cracked open, my eyes shrank. What the hell...