Chapter 367.
<strong>Chapter 367. Operation: Fatman (9/10)</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">“How was it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It was a lot of fun. Sorry for messing up and worrying you though.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What exactly happened?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, I stuffed the two fat suits into the duffle bag and tried zipping it up, but the zipper got stuck. Rosa handed me the radio to hold so she could try to zip it up all the way. But when she passed it to me I identally dropped it. I was a bit flustered and when I moved to pick it up and identally tapped it with my foot and it slid under a desk in the room. It was hard to reach so it took a while to get it out from under the desk. Fortunately, we were still able to hear everything you were saying during that time.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see, so that’s what happened. Well, as we said, anything could happen during a n. Nothing’s perfect. The timing of that second cruiser was pretty awful.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Rosa was so cool. I’d totally fall for her if she was a guy.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’re saying you wouldn’t fall for her just because she’s a girl?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“If I said I would, would you be afraid I’d try to steal her from you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Not at all.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then I would still fall for her.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You swing that way?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’re telling me you’d pick Rosa over the two guys chasing after you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you think Rosa would agree to go with me to the graduation dinner and dance?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, you’re not seriously nning to tantly make a move on my girlfriend, are you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Will you get mad if I do? Didn’t you say you’d help me get with the person I like?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. I guess I did. Are you saying you want to get with Rosa then?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmmm… for now, I think I’ll leave my options open and I won’t say for sure. I’d be a pretty awful person if I made you help me hook up with your own girlfriend when you’re helping me.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why thank you for your consideration.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Her arms tightened around my waist.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Something wrong?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. Nothing’s wrong. I just feel pretty happy right now. Life’s never been this way for me before. Graduating from high school, it feels pretty strange.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Enjoy that feeling while itsts. Being an adult is pretty crappy. Just wait till you have to pay taxes. You won’t need to right away since you’re nning to attend university, but after university, it’s really going to suck.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Stop being such a downer. You’re totally killing my mood.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haha. Sorry about that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">We chatted as I drove for the next twenty minutes on the way back to the university. Thankfully, we didn’t run into any unexpected trouble. We were home-free.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Where’s your ce? Since it’ste, I’ll drop you off.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure. Keep going straight down this road. At the end of the block, make a right. It’s the fifth house down after the turn.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Okay.”
<span style="font-weight:400">A few minutester I came to a stop in front of a rather nice house.
<span style="font-weight:400">“This is it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“As expected of a house near the university.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“My father is a professor after all. He gets paid pretty well by the university.” Izora got off the back as she exined.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Right, of course he does.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well then, I should get going. I’d rather stick around and get chewed out by a father who gets angry at me for bringing his daughter home sote.” It was 10:45 PM already.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Running away without even introducing yourself. Come inside, I dare you, coward. ”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You expect me toe inside and get an earful along with you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m... already 18, I’m old enough to be out thiste on my own.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You still live with your parents and have to y by their rules.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t y by the rules.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haha, sure, sure you don’t. If you’re a true punk, you’d flick them off and tell them you don’t submit to the man.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“T-That’s a bit…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Scary?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m not scared.” She removed her helmet with her eyes shut and an uneasy expression on her face.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then do it and record it. I dare you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">She opened her eyes and conceded, “Okay, I admit it, it’s scary. My mother would kill me if I seriously went and said that to my father.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You''re more scared of your mother than your father?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. My mom’s definitely scarier. Even father disappears and goes into hiding inside the house when she explodes over something.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That sounds like it’d be an interesting sight to see. Does your sister live with you as well?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“She does, but she’s been looking to move out and get an apartment recently.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">We suddenly fell into a rather unexpected awkward silence where neither of us immediately said anything.
<span style="font-weight:400">Izora was the first to break the silence, “Why’d you suddenly ask me about my sister?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why? There wasn’t any real reason.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you have a teacher crush despite having Rosa already or something?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Definitely not.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What? You have someints about her? Are you trying to say my older sister doesn’t meet your standards?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, I do have some pretty high standards.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“If my super-smart older sister doesn’t meet your standards, what about me? Do I meet them?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why would you want to know that?”
<span style="font-weight:400">She held her hand behind her back and fidgeted a bit with her left foot as she responded, “It’s just curiosity. Purely, out of curiosity.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, to answer your previous question, I think you misunderstood something.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What did I misunderstand?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Before I answer that, you should take your phone before we forget. Here.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, thanks. I honestlypletely forgot you had it. Now, what did I misunderstand?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well… I may have said I have high standards, but I didn’t actually answer your question. As for your second question, if your sister meets those standards, you would too. Anyway, I’ve got to go. See you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I cranked the handle down and sped off without directly answering either of her questions.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What’s with that nonanswer! Does she or does she not meet them!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Who knows? Hahaha!”
<span style="font-weight:400">The dumbfounded look on her face when I drove off was honestly too funny to hold it in and I burst out into a bout ofughter as I left her behind.
<span style="font-weight:400">I raised one hand and nced back over my shoulder. She noticed it and waved me goodbye before she headed inside her ce.
<span style="font-weight:400">This probably wouldn’t be thest time we met considering she was going to this university. We’d probably bump into each other at university sometime next semester since I often visited it.
<span style="font-weight:400">As for the graduation dinner and dance on Thursday, since she got along so well with Rosa, I figured I’d give Rosa the ticket and she could go. I could find out who Izora chose in the end through Rosa.
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa normally had Thursdays off, but she now had to take up an extra shift on Thursdays with me to cover for Alicia who’d be working with Yuna at the second store until this Swastika problem was resolved. I couldn’t talk to customers myself since I nned to stay hidden inside the mascot costume for the time being, so Rosa had to be there. For making her sacrifice her day off, meeting up with Izora at the graduation dinner and dance could serve as a bit ofpensation. It was a chance to unwind a little after work.
<span style="font-weight:400">I came to a stop along the curb by a traffic light and pulled out my phone. I turned it back on. There was a text from Rosa. I’d forgotten. I was confident in her to the point I hadn’t worried at all.
<span style="font-weight:400">But the first message I read was… ‘Sorry, I got busted.’
<span style="font-weight:400">I almost dropped my phone, but thankfully I noticed the message right after that said, ‘Just kidding~ did your heart skip a beat?’
<span style="font-weight:400">I immediately texted her back, ‘Yeah, it stopped for a good few seconds actually. Don’t mess around, what if I read that while I was driving? I could have gotten in an ident.’
<span style="font-weight:400">I got an immediate burst of responses back, ‘Jeez, about time you respond. Took you long enough.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘You’d get in trouble if you text and drive you know~’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘But anyway~’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘How’d Izora’s breasts feel on your back? I’m sure they were pleasant~’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Noment.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Did you bang in the bush?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘How the hell would we have enough time to do that?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Boring~ you should have~ I like her now, she’s got my stamp of approval.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘No thank you. I don’t want any more women to deal with. I have enough on my te as is.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘I think she’s into you though~’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘You’re imagining things.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Am I though?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘You are.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Well, we’ll have to see about that, won’t we? You took her first kiss after all and even did <i><span style="font-weight:400">that~</i><span style="font-weight:400"> in a washroom.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Don’t make it sound more suggestive than it is.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Would you like me to rephrase that? You poked her with your finger. Is that better?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Stop reminding me. What’re you even bringing this up for now?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘... you did it with Yuna before you did it with me.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘... sorry… I was going to tell you when I got back tonight. Are you angry?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Yeah, I’m very annoyed right now. I could ept losing when it was Irene. She’s just that skillful as an experienced older woman, but… to lose to Yuna when she’s a total virgin! I can’t ept this humiliating defeat at all! How could I let her get one up on me? How do you expect me to put up with her teasing me the next time we have a shift together? Ran, I can tell you’ve been trying to hold off on going all the way with me and Alicia until we graduate from high school because you don’t want to identally get us knocked up, and I appreciate the concern, but I’m not willing to wait anymore. Not when Yuna’s gotten one up on me. Prepare yourself, we’re going to fuck whether you’re ready or not.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Uh… Rosa… we can talk about this?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘I’ll drag you up to the school roof and fuck you there if I have to. You can’t run away, I’ll use all the ‘anything goes’ coupons I’ve stockpiled up till now on this.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘You… wouldn’t.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘I will.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Ugh… really?’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Yeah.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Honestly… I lost count of how many I owe you by now.’
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Well, if we fuck, all of them are gone.’
<span style="font-weight:400">Honestly, it was probably best that I agreed. I really didn’t know how many of those coupons I’d handed over to her by now. They were like my own admissions of guilt I felt toward her for getting involved with other girls even if it didn’t bother her that much. It’d reached the point where anytime I handed one over with my head down dejectedly, it was implied I’d done something that went beyond what I considered the gray area with another girl. For example, the time involving Ang bing my girlfriend, I didn’t exactly reveal it to her, but I gave her a coupon for it nheless so she at least knew I’d gotten involved with another girl.
<span style="font-weight:400">Though, Alicia had probably already revealed my weird rtionship with her in secret by now after she found out. Haaaaah.
<span style="font-weight:400">There was also the time Ms. Gene kissed me. I gave her a coupon for that too. I did tell her about that one though. I’d naturally informed her of the time with Izora at university as well.
<span style="font-weight:400">There were other times too, but keeping track of them all was annoying.
<span style="font-weight:400">‘Well? Are you going to do this the easy way, or the hard way where I push you down and have my way with you?’