Chapter 291.


    <strong>Chapter 291. An Insidious Trap. (8/8)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you suddenly talking up for? Go keep trying to act cool and mysterious by staring down a drain all day. I’ve got no interest in having some awkward heart-to-heart talk and getting all buddy-buddy with you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha, man… it really sucks after all. Losing.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Nobody asked.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m some. Getting all depressed over this when I only got acquainted with her today.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I raised my hand up, curled my fingers to form a circle, and asked, “Jass, do you see this?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Do you know what it represents?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… no.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s the number of fucks I give.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Come on man, give me something! I’m a dying man out here!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I rolled my eyes and let out a resigned sigh, “Haaaah... Look, guys are simple creatures. We get the wrong idea over the smallest little things and interpret their meaning in whatever way is most convenient to us.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah... You’re right. She was using me to try and make Zale jealous and I was too blind to realize that… those small little things she did, Ipletely got the wrong idea. I got way ahead of myself.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, it’s only been about half an hour since you became acquainted with her. If you can’t ept that you may be burnt, just give up now, run away, and forever miss out on that slim chance of sess. Your only other alternative is to ept you’ll be used and take advantage of it to find an opening to steal her heart. Anyway, good luck with that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Did youe to check on me because you were worried?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Worried? Of course not. I don’t worry about anyone.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not even your girlfriend?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“There’s no need to worry about her.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What if someone kidnapped her? You wouldn’t worry?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“She can take care of herself. Besides, I’d be more inclined to worry about her kidnappers'' safety before I worry about hers.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You sure are heartless.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Kindness isn’t rewarded. The most you’ll receive for kindness are shitty constion prizes nobody wants. If you really want something, you have to be heartless and willing to trample over everyone else’s feelings to acquire it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Remember this well, those with ambition take everything while the overly kind ambitionless fools are left impoverished with nothing for themselves in the end. That is how this cruel world operates. For every winner, there exist ny-nine losers. The top 1% control everything. Everyone else is as good as trash to them.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If you don’t like it, then don’t be an overly kind, ambitionless fool who thinks it’s fine to hand someone over to someone else because you believe you’re happy so long as that person ends up happy. Their happiness is not your happiness. That is the mindset of someone who has long epted their defeat and inferiority. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re incapable of ever making that person happy.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If you don’t want to see someone showing a certain expression toward another person, then be the person that’s important to them so they never have to show that expression again.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">With that, I exited the washroom and left Jass behind.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Any sign of those two?” Rosa asked.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No. I take it there was no sign in the women’s washroom either.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“None.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Do you think they went outside?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“We could ask one of the restaurant staff.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, good idea.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">We went down the stairs and asked the employee by the front desk behind the counter, but they said they hadn’t seen anyonee down before us so we returned upstairs.


    <span style="font-weight:400">If they hadn’t gone downstairs then they had to still be on the second floor. If not in the washroom on the second floor, then… they must have gotten into one of the other karaoke rooms.


    <span style="font-weight:400">We walked down the hall and pressed our ears up against each door one by one to try and hear what was going on inside each room. Some of them we couldn’t hear anything at all while others we heard people singing. It didn’t seem like there was anyone up to any funny business inside any of the rooms.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Without any further leads, we returned to our room. Only, when we opened the door to our room we came across the two we’d been looking for.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It seemed they’d returned when we went downstairs.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Jeez, it sure took you two long to get back. We went looking because we thought the two of you bailed.” We entered the room and sat down while Rosained.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha, if it was just you here I’d have definitely bailed,” Zale countered. “But where’d Jass go? He’s not with the three of you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The door opened up again, “I’m here. I was in the washroom. Funny how I didn’t see you in there though.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You must have just missed me, I went outside for a bit to get some fresh air right after I used it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">That was definitely a lie. The three of us who knew that didn’t bother to say anything though.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Fresh air? You certainly do look quite refreshed~ are you sure all you got is some fresh air? Was the wind blowing strong outside?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haha, yes, the wind was certainly blowing vigorously outside.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">I nced at Izora’s slightly parted lips and couldn’t stop my imagination from running wild. Rosa’s out-of-ce word choice was quite suggestive after all.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Had they really gone that far?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What about you Ria? Did you go outside for some fresh air too?” Rosa posed the same question to Izora.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… yeah. I did.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I see.” Rosa had a sharp dissatisfied glint in her eyes. Well, there was no way to say for certain whether these two had really done anything. It seemed the winner of the pointless bet we had was undecided. Not that it really mattered since they returned to the room.


    <span style="font-weight:400">After that, we spent the next two and a half hours eating and singing karaoke. Unfortunately for me, another opportunity to slip out never presented itself, and I was trapped until it was over.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I was tormented by Rosa and Alicia who asionally forced me to sing a song for their amusement. Jass, on the other hand, seemed quite motivated to sing despite not being very good at it. I guess he saw it as an opportunity to practice. Well, maybe he was just singing his sorrows away to cope. Out of our mismatched group of six, he definitely sang the most songs by the time we called it a day and went our separate ways.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Though the start of this little meetup had been rather bumpy, everything that came after went much smoother. Zale was still constantly at odds with Rosa, but even he had mellowed out. Those two really couldn’t stand each other. They had a cat and dog rtionship.


    <span style="font-weight:400">As for who footed the bill in the end… it all fell on Zale. It had been Rosa’s nefarious plot from the very beginning to dump it all on him. Since he wanted to unt his money, she decided to take full advantage of the situation and take a strong jab at his wallet to hit him where it hurt.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I saw the number on the bill, I broke out into sweat. I was horrified. If I had to foot that bill, almost two months of my savings would have gone down the drain.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Never get on Rosa’s bad side or that would definitely be me in the future. How did she rack up such a bill? Well, she secretly ordered a bunch of food for takeout.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It seems Zale didn’t want to question the bill because of some weird rich people''s pride. I didn’t fail to notice the sweat on his forehead when he swiped his card.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I guess the moral of the story here was to not unt your wealth if you didn’t want Rosa to assassinate your wallet.