Chapter 315.<h4><b><strong>Chapter 315. An Unexpected Encounter.</strong></b><b> (2/6)</b></h4>


    <span style="font-weight:400">Just when I was about to curse out loud I flinched as someone tapped on my shoulder.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What the hell? Cold? Are you kidding me? How am I cold if you’re...” Iined as I turned around fully expecting to see Ang but I froze up when I saw someone I never expected to see. Why is he here?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You look like you’re surprised to see me here. If I’m not mistaken… you’re Rosa’s boyfriend, right?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’ve got the wrong person.” I averted my eyes to the side and tried to leave but he stopped me by grabbing my shoulder from behind.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t try that, there’s no way I’m mistaken. It’s pretty surprising to see you here. You only just finished your first year in high school, right? Are you checking out post-secondary institutions this early on?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Haaaah. As for who ‘he’ was. It was... Zale. I never imagined I’d see him so soon after he graduated. What kind of dog shit luck did I have exactly? Am I cursed?


    <span style="font-weight:400">Today was Thursday and it’d already been a few days since convocation.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Why’d he approach me?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What do you want?” I didn’t hold back and got straight to the point.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? I didn’t really want anything. I just saw a familiar face and decided to approach you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then if you don’t want anything, I’ll be going. I’m busy right now.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You sure don’t look like you’re busy. You were just standing around staring off into space before you randomly checked your phone. It looked more like you were waiting to meet someone than in a rush. Were you waiting for Rosa to go on a date here or something?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">If I said no I’d probably have toe up with another excuse. It was easier to just go with the reason he came up for me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m waiting for Rosa. Since you two don’t seem to get along very well, don’t you think you should leave before she shows up?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Not at all. I’d love to cause problems for her and ruin her date. If it ticks her off it’s a win in my book.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh?” Seriously? He was that petty and spiteful?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hahaha. Anyway, you’reing with me. I’m actually here for a tour of the campus arranged by the school.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Ah. Shit. Those were a thing, weren’t they? I’d skipped out on those pointless tours they offered.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Because this guy was aiming to be a doctor like his father I’d automatically associated him with the faculty of medicine in my mind which was on a different campus. It was located closer to downtown, a good distance away from the main campus.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It was also the same location where the city’s major hospital was located. The same hospital I did volunteer work my first time through life.


    <span style="font-weight:400">However, one needed to first acquire a bachelor’s degree in science as a prerequisite to apply to med school. Which meant… if he nned to go to med school in this city, it wasn’t inconceivable that he would attend this campus first.


    <span style="font-weight:400">What a pain in the ass.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Wait, if Ang is watching me in secret right now, isn’t this a bit bad? If she finds out I’m rted to this guy in some way she can pry information out of him on me and find out everything about me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It could be bad to stick around here. If I’m dragged away by him from this location it would be bad, she’d realize he knew me and we weren’t strangers. It was best to get out of here as soon as possible before she reveals herself so I can prevent them from making contact. The best method to do so was to willingly lead the way to the location where the tour would start.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Afterward, I’d exin it off as I was just giving directions to some random kid who got lost.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Getting caught in this sort of situation was truly the worst.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, I guess I can go with you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s no use trying to run away, I’ll drag you along with me if I… have… to… wait, did you just say you’ll go?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.” Only because it’s my only option to minimize the chance of Ang realizing we know each other. If she wasn’t around do you think I’d so willinglyply?


    <span style="font-weight:400">Slightly taken aback, Zale asked, “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden? From my first impression of you when we sang karaoke that one time, you don’t seem like the cooperative type at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I started to walk at a leisurely pace in front of him then exined, “I just don’t like wasting energy. I determined I’d waste more energy by trying to escape is all. I don’t feel like trying to outrun someone athletic like you who’s involved in all sorts of different sports. Escaping would only prove to be futile. As that’s the case, I might as well give up early on and save my energy for a better opportunity to escape where my odds of sess are higher.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Let’s just say I was faster than him, even if that was the case, I was sure he had way more stamina than me with all the sports he was involved with.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh. Not bad. That’s certainly a much better n than trying to escape here. You’re definitely more cunning than most of the kids from our high school if that’s the conclusion you came to in such a short period of time.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s nothing cunning, I just know my own limits and I’m a veryzy person. If there’s a way to do something which consumes less of my energy, I’ll do it that way ten times out of ten.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then let’s head over to the faculty of engineering building, the tour meet-up spot is there.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaah. Sure, whatever.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Of course I do. Do I look like an idiot? Do you think I started walking this way by coincidence?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Zale let out an awkwardugh, “Haha… right...”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wait… could it be that you actually don’t know where it is?” I raised one brow and verified.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… I sort of just got here after all. I was going to ask someone where it was.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why not just pull up the campus map on your phone?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I figured it was a good chance to start a conversation with a student here and make a connection to expand mywork. I could get them to lead the way there if they weren’t busy while also finding out more stuff about the campus from them along the way. Such as the tougher grading instructors to avoid for lectures for the general university 1 courses everyone takes. But then I came across you and my curiosity as to why you were here got the best of me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“When you put it that way, it’s not a bad idea.” Since he has the looks and social skills to make it work. If I tried the same thing I’d just get a bunch of annoyed looks.


    <span style="font-weight:400">It only took a minute to go from the university center to the engineering building. They were right next to each other after all.


    <span style="font-weight:400">When we ascended the stairs to the main level, I took a seat on a couch along one of the walls and said, “We’re here.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Already? You’re sure this is the right building? Could you actually just be pretending to know the way when you don’t and you’re too embarrassed to admit you really don’t know how to get there?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh?” I looked up at him dumbfoundedly from the couch. Is he finding it hard to believe because of how little time it took to get here?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s okay to admit the truth you know. No one’s going to judge you for it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m being serious. This is really it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaah. It can’t be helped. I’ll ask someone if you’re too embarrassed to ask for directions.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sure… go right ahead.” I watched him with a strange look on my face. Is he looking down on me? Does he have some sort of superiorityplex? Maybe it’s rted to him disliking Rosa? He wants to feel superior to me in his mind, that was probably what this was about.


    <span style="font-weight:400">He entered the lineup for the Tim Hortons across from where I sat down and struck up a conversation with a cute girl in line, “Excuse me. Do you know where the engineering building is?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The girl gave him a strange look as if trying to gauge his intentions. Maybe she was waiting to see what the rest of his pickup line was. Well, it was natural she’d think that considering we were literally in the engineering building already.