Chapter 302.<h4><b><strong>Chapter 302. My Birthday: </strong>Training Course. (1/8)</b></h4>


    <span style="font-weight:400">After the three of us all received our learner’s permits we exited the building and walked through the parking lot on our way back to the car.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Mr. Birthday Boy, why don’t you drive?” Irene asked in a yful tone.


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Does it look like there’s anyone else around with a birthday today?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you sure you want me to drive?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What’s wrong? Are you unconfident and afraid you’ll get in an ident?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? If you’re so confident, why don’t you woo us girls with your driving skills then?” She smiled as she poked me in the gut.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You just want to be driven around by someone else for a change, don’t you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What~e on~ don’t go exposing me like that~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Is there really a point in me driving though? I’d just be driving for only a block since the ce we’re going is so close.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“There is a point.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I get a goodugh out of watching you nervously drive us around in a clumsy fashion. I want to see you miss the turnoff and get all panicky about it. I’m sure it’ll be cute.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Me? Miss the turn? That would never happen.” I raised one brow at her doubt in my ability to drive. I’ve got over two decades of experience driving, like hell I’d mess this up. It’s like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to ride it after you’ve learned it once.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh~? Then how about… we have a little wager?” Her eyes closed halfway as she spoke thosest three words low enough so only the two of us could hear. Rosa and Alicia weren’t beside us, they were walking at a slower pace together andgging about two meters behind us.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sure. I don’t mind. What do I get if I win?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Irene smiled impishly, leaned in close to my ear, and whispered, “If you win, tonight will feel <i><span style="font-weight:400">really~</i><span style="font-weight:400"> good for you. If I win, I get to do <i><span style="font-weight:400">anything~</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I want to you tonight.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I came to a sudden stop… not because of her words, but because we’d arrived at the car.


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What’s wrong? Are you afraid of what I’ll do to you tonight if you lose? Not confident enough in your abilities?” Her words sounded more like a double innuendo to me. The implication was that I’d feel good if I won, but if I lost, she would go beyond just me feeling good.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“A cheap provocation, but I’ll win regardless.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So you ept?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, sure, I’ll ept your little wager.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Great, we should really rify the bet you’ve just agreed to though so you don’tinter when you lose. I win if you make it there just fine without missing the turnoff. You win if you miss the turnoff.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Wait, you’re mixing up the winning conditions.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No. When did I ever say that I was betting you’d miss the turnoff? I just said it’d be cute if you did then offered for us to have a wager over it. Not once did I ever say I bet you’d miss the turnoff~” She sounded pretty smug about it too.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“This is a scam.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“me yourself for already epting the wager before rifying the win conditions. It’s your own fault for getting scammed. But it’s not like you can’t win, it’d just mean you have to intentionally miss the turnoff. If that happens though, I get to see your cute embarrassed face anyway~ It’s really a win-win situation for me. You’ll be in a position where you’re struggling to decide between winning the wager and your pride.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What are you two whispering about in secret?” Rosa asked when she reached the car with Alicia. Alicia also looked rather curious.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh. It’s nothing much, I was just convincing the birthday boy to drive, that’s all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ran’s driving?” For some reason, Alicia’s eyes lit up when she heard that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Was her reaction because of something stupid like being happy about the first time she’s being driven around somewhere in a car by her boyfriend?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… yeah… I am.” I received the keys from Irene as I confirmed it was true.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Suddenly I felt strangely ufortable. I’d never actually driven girls around anywhere before. I always drove around everywhere alone in my car. Never were there ever any passengers with me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Irene took the passenger seat while Rosa and Alicia took the back seat. Normally when Irene drove, Alicia would be in the passenger seat while Rosa and I sat in the back. The sudden change in seating got to me a lot more than I expected when I sat down in the driver’s seat.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I could see Rosa and Alicia in the rear-view mirror which was another thing I was unustomed to. It was a major distraction I hadn’t expected to pop up.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Before Irene could say anything, I slightly adjusted the rear and side-view mirrors so I could see the surroundings behind me better.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm, I was nning to give you pointers, but you got the first step right.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I adjusted the seat to a position I wasfortable with while I simultaneously pressed my foot down on the brake and turned the key in the ignition. Without waiting for Irene to say another word, I lowered the hand brake, shifted the car into reverse, shoulder checked both ways to ensure it was safe to back out, moved my foot to the gas pedal, then reversed out all in one fluid motion without hesitation.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Irene, who noticed the anomaly unconsciously eximed, “What the… hey, you’re supposed to look a bit more lost and inexperienced~ why are you acting like you have years of driving experience? You’re not going to tell me you’ve been driving since you were in your mother’s womb, are you?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">When I pictured a fetus on a miniature car driving around in a womb I couldn’t help butugh, “Hahaha, what if I said that I was?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’d believe it. Nobody driving for the first time does all that so quickly. There’s always second-guessing and fiddling about in uncertainty. Have you actually been driving someone’s car in secret to practice? That’s not good, you know.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I haven’t, this is really my first time driving a car.” In this lifetime.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t believe it’s your first time at all.” Irene was pouting, dissatisfied in the passenger seat, sulking over how she wasn’t able to tease me about my inexperienced driving skills. She might have been looking forward to teaching the inexperienced me how to drive.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hehehe, hey, maybe I’ll be too nervous to merge onto the road out of the parking lot properly.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh yeah. There’s that.” She perked up a bit when she heard me say that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">While at the exit of the parking lot, I checked to my left. When there was a gap in traffic, I made the right turn and merged onto the road seamlessly.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, sorry, it looks like I’m pretty good at merging into traffic as well.” I couldn’t help but want to tease her.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Stop teasing meeee~” sheined cutely.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Though I was more conscious about driving with them in the car with me, it seemed it wasn’t enough to impede my decades of umted driving experience.


    <span style="font-weight:400">I picked up speed and locked the cruise control at sixty kilometers per hour. It was a habit of mine to drive using cruise control with my foot positioned over the brake rather than the gas. I’d typically make minor adjustments to the speed of the car with the buttons for adjusting the cruise control.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It was just easier for me that way. I was honestly just toozy to keep my foot pressed down in one position on the gas constantly. If it was winter with icy roads I wouldn’t do that, but the snow had mostly melted away and the road wasn’t very wet. There were only small patches of dirty snow on the grass beside the sidewalks remaining now.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“This isn’t fun at alllll~ I wanted to teach you when you revealed how inexperienced you are at driving, but how am I supposed to do that when you’re already good at it?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Mother, shouldn’t we be relieved he’s good at it? If he wasn’t then wouldn’t we end up worried every day with him driving a motorcycle?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hmmm, that’s true I guess… but still… I wanted to feel a sense of superiority even if it was just for a little bit. My disappointment is immense and my day is ruined.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">When she said that I nearly lost it and burst out intoughter. That could have been bad.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Irene, can you please not make meugh, it’s dangerous to distract the driver.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ahhh~ Alicia, I got scolded~”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Strangely enough, I found this unexpected side of Irene cute.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh no, Ipletely forgot to put the novice driver sign in the back window because I got distracted by your driving.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh yeah… there was that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Irene pulled out the novice driver sign from her purse and handed it back to Alicia who tucked it into the corner of the window.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It’s not that I’d really forgotten about it. It’s just that driving with that thing announcing you were a novice to the world was embarrassing. Sometimes when there was someone behind you who saw that sign, they’d intentionally changenes and floor it above the speed limit to overtake you like you were some sort of gue.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Like screw you, I’m driving the speed limit, what more do you want from me you asshole! Stop breaking thew, you’re not cool for going five to ten kilometers per hour faster than me! You look dumb, okay?


    <span style="font-weight:400">Where’s a cop or radar light when you really need one?