Chapter 230. Confrontation Before the Valentine’s Day School Dance. (2/4)
From the very beginning, she was the burning flame that didn’t know the meaning of the words burn out. She had an unlimited supply of fuel, she was an outright cheat. I was trapped and ensnared from the very beginning, unable to escape from her watchful eye. The radius of her fire was seemingly infinite. She burned me alive with little effort.
I still don’t even know at what point I became interested in this strange girl who turned out to be a real assassin. It was honestly my curiosity about her identity that got the best of me. I wanted to confirm it, but I was concerned about whether she’d have to kill me if I found out.
If I became her boyfriend, would she still kill me if I knew? That was a question I had at the time. I concluded the odds of her killing me would be lower, at least much lower than if I weren’t in a relationship and asked her about it. There were also other things I weighed in my head when I made that rather uncharacteristic spontaneous decision back then.
Romance, youth, and love. They were foreign concepts to me. As an author, I always felt that since I didn’t truly understand them, if I wrote stories that contained such things, they would always be hollow, empty, and devoid of a soul.
I’d always been too busy with work and school in the past to ever think about such things, and by the time I realized it, the chance to ever experience such things was long gone.
I even considered the possibility I might be rejected back then as well. If I had been rejected by Rosa, I figured the experience of rejection in and of itself would still serve as a useful experience in terms of writing. The reasoning was all rather cold and calculating. Though in the end, I was the one that got ensnared and trapped for getting too close to that fire.
“Alright, I got it. I’ll limit how many times I approach her.” Jass said that as he nodded to himself with a serious look on his face.
Why the hell am I handing out free advice to someone who’s after one of my girlfriends? Haaaaah. My problems are truly never-ending it seems. Well, at least this result makes things easier on Alicia. She won’t be pestered as much.
After that our first three periods went by without a hitch and lunch eventually arrived. Jass impatiently stood up as soon as the bell rang and headed out the door.
My nosy neighbor shot me a look, grabbed my hand, and dragged me along in tow. I was forced to follow behind Jass in secret right behind her.
I don’t care to watch this, please just let me relax. I’m sure my skin is going to crawl if I witness something as awkward as this.
On the second floor where second years had their classes, Jass, as he rounded the corner up the stairs bumped into Alicia who’d just escaped from her own classroom. Jass didn’t bother to pull her aside or anything, he didn’t even greet her first. Nor did he say there was something he wanted to talk about.
Instead, this idiot drew every eye he could in the hallway as he blurted out loudly with confidence, “Alicia, I’m in love with you. Would you please slow dance with me at the school dance today?”
“Huh? What? All of a sudden? Slow dance?” Alicia, as expected, was caught off guard, flustered by this unexpected ambush with no lead-up. She was long accustomed to guys approaching her for the Valentine’s Day school dance, but they’d at least bring her somewhere they’d be alone before asking.
Well, at least he didn’t ask her to go out with or marry him. Yes, that was the only saving grace in this situation-
“No, actually, please marry me, Alicia.” He suddenly spat that line out as a correction and cut off my wishful thinking. His request had gone from zero, a single slow dance, to one hundred, marriage, faster than you could blink.
Damn it, why do I even think these days! Anytime I think, this sort of thing happens. Even when I don’t say it out loud. I’m cursed. Definitely cursed. I squeezed my forehead as I tried to stop the crawling feeling rolling over my skin in waves.
“Marry you? I’m very sorry, I cannot marry you. I hardly even know you. You’re… in Rosa’s class though, aren’t you?”
“Ah. Uh, yeah, I am. Sorry, I get that marriage is far off but I wanted to make my intentions clear from the get-go. If you won’t marry me, would you go out with me?”
Oh, is that what he was trying to do here? Ask for something absolutely impossible, then take a step back as a concession. It was negotiating 101… but, this step back obviously wasn’t large enough, and I was sure Jass was aware of that already since he knew she had a boyfriend. It seemed the angle of attack he settled on was to stack and pile different levels of guilt.
“I’m sorry, I can’t go out with you.” Alicia bowed her head a bit forward apologetically.
“Haaaah. Is there a reason you can’t go out with me?”
“I recently started a part-time job and I’m busy with both work and school now. I just don’t have time to date anyone right now. I want to focus on getting into university and I’ll be in my third year soon. I plan to join the internship program the school offers and also take AP courses in my third year. There’s just no way I can manage work, all of that, and a relationship with someone.”
What? She’s planning to take part in the school’s internship program and AP courses? I never knew that, she’d never even mentioned it to me before. But… for criminology though? Hmmm… I suppose such experiences could prove useful.
Now that she has set her sights on criminology, I suppose it made a bit of sense that she had some direction in her life now. She wouldn’t be generalizing and would instead hone in on certain things that could be useful to her in the future. The school’s internship program could hook her up with something criminology-related as well. Maybe with a police officer or detective to learn about the job.
I had my own internship together with a professor at the university I ended up attending. He was retiring that year. At the time, I’d only decided I wanted to be an engineer of some kind, but I didn’t know what branch I was most interested in. He let me meet a bunch of different people in several fields of engineering. In the end, I settled on electrical engineering on a whim since it seemed the hardest and most interesting to me.
The biggest downside for Alicia was that she’d have to also do volunteer work as part of the requirement for the internship program along with the part-time job she was currently working. She also didn’t get paid anything for the internship, it was unpaid. Also, by the end of the program, she needed to rack up a certain number of volunteer hours which was a pain. Haaaaah, I guess I could help her out on that end in my final year since I would be a bum without anything much to do anyway. She could clock in and I’d substitute in for her while she used that time to study.
As for the AP courses she mentioned, AP Biology and AP Chemistry for forensics would probably be a plus, she could use them as electives for her degree if they weren’t already required courses. If she could get those credits for free and make use of them, that would definitely be an ideal situation to save on tuition.
But… biology… I had shivers when I remembered that hell.
Chapter 230. Confrontation Before the Valentine’s Day School Dance. (2/4)
From the very beginning, she was the burning flame that didn’t know the meaning of the words burn out. She had an unlimited supply of fuel, she was an outright cheat. I was trapped and ensnared from the very beginning, unable to escape from her watchful eye. The radius of her fire was seemingly infinite. She burned me alive with little effort.
I still don’t even know at what point I became interested in this strange girl who turned out to be a real assassin. It was honestly my curiosity about her identity that got the best of me. I wanted to confirm it, but I was concerned about whether she’d have to kill me if I found out.
If I became her boyfriend, would she still kill me if I knew? That was a question I had at the time. I concluded the odds of her killing me would be lower, at least much lower than if I weren’t in a relationship and asked her about it. There were also other things I weighed in my head when I made that rather uncharacteristic spontaneous decision back then.
Romance, youth, and love. They were foreign concepts to me. As an author, I always felt that since I didn’t truly understand them, if I wrote stories that contained such things, they would always be hollow, empty, and devoid of a soul.
I’d always been too busy with work and school in the past to ever think about such things, and by the time I realized it, the chance to ever experience such things was long gone.
I even considered the possibility I might be rejected back then as well. If I had been rejected by Rosa, I figured the experience of rejection in and of itself would still serve as a useful experience in terms of writing. The reasoning was all rather cold and calculating. Though in the end, I was the one that got ensnared and trapped for getting too close to that fire.
“Alright, I got it. I’ll limit how many times I approach her.” Jass said that as he nodded to himself with a serious look on his face.
Why the hell am I handing out free advice to someone who’s after one of my girlfriends? Haaaaah. My problems are truly never-ending it seems. Well, at least this result makes things easier on Alicia. She won’t be pestered as much.
After that our first three periods went by without a hitch and lunch eventually arrived. Jass impatiently stood up as soon as the bell rang and headed out the door.
My nosy neighbor shot me a look, grabbed my hand, and dragged me along in tow. I was forced to follow behind Jass in secret right behind her.
I don’t care to watch this, please just let me relax. I’m sure my skin is going to crawl if I witness something as awkward as this.
On the second floor where second years had their classes, Jass, as he rounded the corner up the stairs bumped into Alicia who’d just escaped from her own classroom. Jass didn’t bother to pull her aside or anything, he didn’t even greet her first. Nor did he say there was something he wanted to talk about.
Instead, this idiot drew every eye he could in the hallway as he blurted out loudly with confidence, “Alicia, I’m in love with you. Would you please slow dance with me at the school dance today?”
“Huh? What? All of a sudden? Slow dance?” Alicia, as expected, was caught off guard, flustered by this unexpected ambush with no lead-up. She was long accustomed to guys approaching her for the Valentine’s Day school dance, but they’d at least bring her somewhere they’d be alone before asking.
Well, at least he didn’t ask her to go out with or marry him. Yes, that was the only saving grace in this situation-
“No, actually, please marry me, Alicia.” He suddenly spat that line out as a correction and cut off my wishful thinking. His request had gone from zero, a single slow dance, to one hundred, marriage, faster than you could blink.
Damn it, why do I even think these days! Anytime I think, this sort of thing happens. Even when I don’t say it out loud. I’m cursed. Definitely cursed. I squeezed my forehead as I tried to stop the crawling feeling rolling over my skin in waves.
“Marry you? I’m very sorry, I cannot marry you. I hardly even know you. You’re… in Rosa’s class though, aren’t you?”
“Ah. Uh, yeah, I am. Sorry, I get that marriage is far off but I wanted to make my intentions clear from the get-go. If you won’t marry me, would you go out with me?”
Oh, is that what he was trying to do here? Ask for something absolutely impossible, then take a step back as a concession. It was negotiating 101… but, this step back obviously wasn’t large enough, and I was sure Jass was aware of that already since he knew she had a boyfriend. It seemed the angle of attack he settled on was to stack and pile different levels of guilt.
“I’m sorry, I can’t go out with you.” Alicia bowed her head a bit forward apologetically.
“Haaaah. Is there a reason you can’t go out with me?”
“I recently started a part-time job and I’m busy with both work and school now. I just don’t have time to date anyone right now. I want to focus on getting into university and I’ll be in my third year soon. I plan to join the internship program the school offers and also take AP courses in my third year. There’s just no way I can manage work, all of that, and a relationship with someone.”
What? She’s planning to take part in the school’s internship program and AP courses? I never knew that, she’d never even mentioned it to me before. But… for criminology though? Hmmm… I suppose such experiences could prove useful.
Now that she has set her sights on criminology, I suppose it made a bit of sense that she had some direction in her life now. She wouldn’t be generalizing and would instead hone in on certain things that could be useful to her in the future. The school’s internship program could hook her up with something criminology-related as well. Maybe with a police officer or detective to learn about the job.
I had my own internship together with a professor at the university I ended up attending. He was retiring that year. At the time, I’d only decided I wanted to be an engineer of some kind, but I didn’t know what branch I was most interested in. He let me meet a bunch of different people in several fields of engineering. In the end, I settled on electrical engineering on a whim since it seemed the hardest and most interesting to me.
The biggest downside for Alicia was that she’d have to also do volunteer work as part of the requirement for the internship program along with the part-time job she was currently working. She also didn’t get paid anything for the internship, it was unpaid. Also, by the end of the program, she needed to rack up a certain number of volunteer hours which was a pain. Haaaaah, I guess I could help her out on that end in my final year since I would be a bum without anything much to do anyway. She could clock in and I’d substitute in for her while she used that time to study.
As for the AP courses she mentioned, AP Biology and AP Chemistry for forensics would probably be a plus, she could use them as electives for her degree if they weren’t already required courses. If she could get those credits for free and make use of them, that would definitely be an ideal situation to save on tuition.
But… biology… I had shivers when I remembered that hell.
