Chapter 360. Operation: Fatman (2/10)
When we got to the museum, Angela inserted the key and unlocked the door.
“Wow, it’s real.”
“Of course it’s real. What would I gain by lying?”
“A feeling of superiority?”
“I already have that.”
“Certainly, I can’t deny that.”
“Deny it.”
“Make up your mind.”
Her slightly soured mood improved a bit as she pulled me to our usual seat facing the window.
“It really is fun talking to you. A lot more than people in show business and other celebrities.”
“Is it that bad?”
“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 to completely retire and forget about going back under that blinding spotlight where I can’t see anything in front of me.”
“What you do is up to you.”
“Yeah. I know. Honestly, I’m enjoying this peaceful laid back lifestyle a little too much.”
“University is anything but that.”
“It is compared to the stress that comes 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.”
“Well, we’ll see if you still think the same way in your final year and you’re deprived of sleep.”
“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.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Well… you’d probably be fine in that case.”
“Hey, you remember the planetarium ticket you gave me a while back?” She suddenly brought up a rather unexpected topic.
“Yeah. What about it?”
“I actually made an interesting friend because of it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. They don’t make a big deal about me being a celebrity, kind of like you.”
“Oh? Lucky you. What’s she like?”
“Did I say it was a girl?”
“You mean it’s a guy?”
“If I said it’s a guy, would you get jealous?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’d be super jealous.”
“You’re not cute at all.”
“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 accede to your reques-”
“It’s not a guy, it’s a girl.”
“Oh, so you’ve opened your eyes and are playing for the other team now?”
“No. Don’t think you’ll escape from me. You’re mine, I won’t let you go.”
“What about my other girlfriends?”
“You’re also theirs. It’s called collective ownership. You’re a shared commodity.”
“How unreasonable.”
“It’s your own fault. If you’ve got problems with it, try to avoid becoming a womanizing devil in your next life.”
“Why do I keep getting branded as a womanizer these days? I’m not even good at dealing with women.”
“The others are also calling you that now?”
“Haaaaah. I don’t want to think about it.”
“Hehehehe.” Angela giggled to herself in a good mood.
“Hey, by the way, what made you bring up the planetarium and your friend out of the blue?”
“Well, she popped into my head when you brought up the topic of actors and movies earlier.”
“I see. Hey, want to help me practice some lines I’m helping that person with?”
“Huh? Help you practice, what for?”
“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.”
“Are you trying to use me to help you pick up another girl?”
“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?”
“Rely… on your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, unless you don’t want me to rely on you for anything that is.”
“No… I’m… alright with it. What do you want me to do exactly?”
“Just act out some of the lines for me. That’s all.”
“Okay, sure.”
For the next half hour, until I received an email from Izora asking where I was, I had Angela recite several lines for me.
By the time I split up with Angela 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 to come in a black hoodie. One that could hide her hair so she’d be unrecognizable.
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 a complaint.
“It’s about time you got here. Really now, asking me out of the blue to meet up with you on such short notice.”
“Sorry about that. Were you on a date or something?”
“A… date?”
“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?”
“Uh… it’s a bit complicated.”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“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.”
“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.”
“Oh. How interesting. So, how’d your talk with Zale go? You two an item now?”
“He… asked me to be his date for the graduation dinner and dance on Thursday.”
“Congratulations, it looks like things are going well then.”
“I… didn’t… give him an answer yet. I asked him to think about it.”
“Huh? Why? You got cold feet when things finally got real?”
“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 particularly feel anything special about it.”
“Did you fall for Jass or something then?”
“I don’t know. Like Zale… he… did ask if he could be my date to the graduation dinner and dance though.”
“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.”
“I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been in a position like this.”
“Where you’re able to make a choice of who you want to be with?”
“Yeah. I don’t get it at all.”
“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.”
“Shouldn’t you be supporting Jass since he’s your classmate? He even seems to treat you like a friend.”
“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.”
“Then if I say I like Jass now, who would you tell me to pick?”
“I’d tell you to pick Jass in that case.”
“And if I said the person I like now was neither of them?”
“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.”
Chapter 360. Operation: Fatman (2/10)
When we got to the museum, Angela inserted the key and unlocked the door.
“Wow, it’s real.”
“Of course it’s real. What would I gain by lying?”
“A feeling of superiority?”
“I already have that.”
“Certainly, I can’t deny that.”
“Deny it.”
“Make up your mind.”
Her slightly soured mood improved a bit as she pulled me to our usual seat facing the window.
“It really is fun talking to you. A lot more than people in show business and other celebrities.”
“Is it that bad?”
“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 to completely retire and forget about going back under that blinding spotlight where I can’t see anything in front of me.”
“What you do is up to you.”
“Yeah. I know. Honestly, I’m enjoying this peaceful laid back lifestyle a little too much.”
“University is anything but that.”
“It is compared to the stress that comes 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.”
“Well, we’ll see if you still think the same way in your final year and you’re deprived of sleep.”
“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.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Well… you’d probably be fine in that case.”
“Hey, you remember the planetarium ticket you gave me a while back?” She suddenly brought up a rather unexpected topic.
“Yeah. What about it?”
“I actually made an interesting friend because of it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. They don’t make a big deal about me being a celebrity, kind of like you.”
“Oh? Lucky you. What’s she like?”
“Did I say it was a girl?”
“You mean it’s a guy?”
“If I said it’s a guy, would you get jealous?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’d be super jealous.”
“You’re not cute at all.”
“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 accede to your reques-”
“It’s not a guy, it’s a girl.”
“Oh, so you’ve opened your eyes and are playing for the other team now?”
“No. Don’t think you’ll escape from me. You’re mine, I won’t let you go.”
“What about my other girlfriends?”
“You’re also theirs. It’s called collective ownership. You’re a shared commodity.”
“How unreasonable.”
“It’s your own fault. If you’ve got problems with it, try to avoid becoming a womanizing devil in your next life.”
“Why do I keep getting branded as a womanizer these days? I’m not even good at dealing with women.”
“The others are also calling you that now?”
“Haaaaah. I don’t want to think about it.”
“Hehehehe.” Angela giggled to herself in a good mood.
“Hey, by the way, what made you bring up the planetarium and your friend out of the blue?”
“Well, she popped into my head when you brought up the topic of actors and movies earlier.”
“I see. Hey, want to help me practice some lines I’m helping that person with?”
“Huh? Help you practice, what for?”
“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.”
“Are you trying to use me to help you pick up another girl?”
“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?”
“Rely… on your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, unless you don’t want me to rely on you for anything that is.”
“No… I’m… alright with it. What do you want me to do exactly?”
“Just act out some of the lines for me. That’s all.”
“Okay, sure.”
For the next half hour, until I received an email from Izora asking where I was, I had Angela recite several lines for me.
By the time I split up with Angela 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 to come in a black hoodie. One that could hide her hair so she’d be unrecognizable.
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 a complaint.
“It’s about time you got here. Really now, asking me out of the blue to meet up with you on such short notice.”
“Sorry about that. Were you on a date or something?”
“A… date?”
“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?”
“Uh… it’s a bit complicated.”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“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.”
“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.”
“Oh. How interesting. So, how’d your talk with Zale go? You two an item now?”
“He… asked me to be his date for the graduation dinner and dance on Thursday.”
“Congratulations, it looks like things are going well then.”
“I… didn’t… give him an answer yet. I asked him to think about it.”
“Huh? Why? You got cold feet when things finally got real?”
“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 particularly feel anything special about it.”
“Did you fall for Jass or something then?”
“I don’t know. Like Zale… he… did ask if he could be my date to the graduation dinner and dance though.”
“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.”
“I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been in a position like this.”
“Where you’re able to make a choice of who you want to be with?”
“Yeah. I don’t get it at all.”
“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.”
“Shouldn’t you be supporting Jass since he’s your classmate? He even seems to treat you like a friend.”
“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.”
“Then if I say I like Jass now, who would you tell me to pick?”
“I’d tell you to pick Jass in that case.”
“And if I said the person I like now was neither of them?”
“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.”
