Chapter 360.


    <strong>Chapter 360. Operation: Fatman (2/10)</strong>


    <span style="font-weight:400">When we got to the museum, Ang inserted the key and unlocked the door.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Wow, it’s real.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Of course it’s real. What would I gain by lying?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“A feeling of superiority?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I already have that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Certainly, I can’t deny that.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Make up your mind.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her slightly soured mood improved a bit as she pulled me to our usual seat facing the window.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It really is fun talking to you. A lot more than people in show business and other celebrities.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Is it that bad?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. It is. Everything feels so fake and artificial. If we say even one thing that is politically incorrect, it blows up into some sort of big scandal. People in the music and entertainment industry are constantly on their toes and watching every word they say. Not being forced to do that and being able to say whatever I want to when I’m with you is great. Lately, I’ve even been thinking that I want topletely retire and forget about going back under that blinding spotlight where I can’t see anything in front of me.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“What you do is up to you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. I know. Honestly, I’m enjoying this peacefulid back lifestyle a little too much.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“University is anything but that.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It ispared to the stress thates with being a celebrity and having your every word and action scrutinized. This level of stress is much more tolerable and easy to cope with. It’s unexpectedly pretty fun. My first semester wasn’t bad at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, we’ll see if you still think the same way in your final year and you’re deprived of sleep.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You want to talk to me about being sleep-deprived? Try going weeks at a time without any proper sleep, traveling around the globe on a schedule where you don’t even have a single minute to yourself.”


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


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well… you’d probably be fine in that case.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, you remember thearium ticket you gave me a while back?” She suddenly brought up a rather unexpected topic.


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I actually made an interesting friend because of it.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. They don’t make a big deal about me being a celebrity, kind of like you.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? Lucky you. What’s she like?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Did I say it was a girl?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You mean it’s a guy?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“If I said it’s a guy, would you get jealous?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’d be super jealous.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re not cute at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“So, you want to break up now and get together with that guy? Alright, it can’t be helped. Since you insist that you want to break up to be with them, I can only ede to your reques-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s not a guy, it’s a girl.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, so you’ve opened your eyes and are ying for the other team now?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No. Don’t think you’ll escape from me. You’re mine, I won’t let you go.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You’re also theirs. It’s called collective ownership. You’re a sharedmodity.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s your own fault. If you’ve got problems with it, try to avoid bing a womanizing devil in your next life.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Why do I keep getting branded as a womanizer these days? I’m not even good at dealing with women.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“The others are also calling you that now?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. I don’t want to think about it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hehehehe.” Ang giggled to herself in a good mood.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, by the way, what made you bring up thearium and your friend out of the blue?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, she popped into my head when you brought up the topic of actors and movies earlier.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I see. Hey, want to help me practice some lines I’m helping that person with?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Help you practice, what for?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s not something I’m any good at. I won’t be much help in terms of feedback. I wouldn’t even be able to tell whether she’s doing well or not. If I had some reference to go by it’d be a great help.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you trying to use me to help you pick up another girl?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No. Nothing of the sort. You have a nice-sounding voice and are good at controlling it, so I figured you’d be a good reference in terms of really bringing out the emotion in the lines. Is it wrong that I wanted to rely on my girlfriend for something?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Rely… on your girlfriend?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, unless you don’t want me to rely on you for anything that is.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No… I’m… alright with it. What do you want me to do exactly?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Just act out some of the lines for me. That’s all.”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">For the next half hour, until I received an email from Izora asking where I was, I had Ang recite several lines for me.


    <span style="font-weight:400">By the time I split up with Ang and we went our separate ways, it was already 9:00 PM. When I returned to the university center, a shoulder-length blue-haired girl awaited me. She wasn’t in her usual goth clothes. I’d asked her toe in a ck hoodie. One that could hide her hair so she’d be unrecognizable.


    <span style="font-weight:400">There was also a bag on the table with something I’d asked her for. When I stopped in front of her table, I stuffed the bag with its contents into one of my pockets as she voiced aint.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s about time you got here. Really now, asking me out of the blue to meet up with you on such short notice.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry about that. Were you on a date or something?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. You did get whisked away by Jass on graduation, right? Did you get together with Jass after that, or did you manage to work things out with Zale?”


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


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh? What do you mean?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well… at first I was super furious with that guy. I beat the crap out of him after that. I felt like he’d ruined everything. All the hard work I’d put into getting Zale to like me. But… at the same time… it was kind of fun bailing on that snooze fest. It was refreshing, even somewhat liberating. I eventually came to terms with it. That things really were impossible. That it would never work out. Zale probably hated me for deceiving him the entire time. Him finding out like that was the worst way possible.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“At least… I thought that was the case up until two days ago on Friday. Zale… called me up out of nowhere Friday morning and asked if we could talk in person.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh. How interesting. So, how’d your talk with Zale go? You two an item now?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“He… asked me to be his date for the graduation dinner and dance on Thursday.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Congrattions, it looks like things are going well then.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I… didn’t… give him an answer yet. I asked him to think about it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Why? You got cold feet when things finally got real?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I… don’t know exactly. I thought I’d be extremely happy. That I’d be overjoyed and on cloud nine if there was such a development. But… when it happened, I didn’t particrly feel anything special about it.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Did you fall for Jass or something then?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t know. Like Zale… he… did ask if he could be my date to the graduation dinner and dance though.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Stop being so wishy-washy and pick one already. You’re in a position where two guys are fighting over you. So many girls would be cursing you right now if they knew how indecisive you were being.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been in a position like this.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Where you’re able to make a choice of who you want to be with?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. I don’t get it at all.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. Seriously, I put in so much effort to get you and Zale together, yet now you’re second-guessing yourself? How pitiful. Just go pick Zale, he’s got a good future ahead of him. Picking Jass, from a financial perspective, would only put yourself in jeopardy in the future. You’d have to wait two years for him to graduate from high school too.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Shouldn’t you be supporting Jass since he’s your ssmate? He even seems to treat you like a friend.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“He’s just one-sidedly trying to be my friend. I have no need for friends. The contract you signed is for me to help you get with the person you like, not choose who you like for you. The person you told me you like is Zale, as such, I’m fulfilling my side of the deal.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Then if I say I like Jass now, who would you tell me to pick?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’d tell you to pick Jass in that case.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“And if I said the person I like now was neither of them?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’d tell you to pick neither. I won’t force you to pick either of them if you don’t like them. A devil abides by the contract. When you find someone else you like, I’ll just have to help you get with them at that point.”