Chapter 287: Chapter 286.

Chapter 286. An Insidious Trap. (3/8)

“What~ I don’t have terrible taste. My taste is pretty good. What do you think Alicia? Is there anything wrong with my taste?”

“No. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. Ran’s a catch. You shouldn’t ever let go of him.”

“See, Zale? My boyfriend even has Alicia’s stamp of approval.”

“Alicia has even worse taste, so she can’t be used as a reference.”

“Hey man, don’t go around belittling my boy Ran. He has my stamp of approval as well.”

“It looks like it’s three to two then,” Rosa declared confidently with a bemused expression.

Zale frowned and looked over to Ria and asked, “What about you, Ria? What’s your opinion of him? If you had to choose between me and him, who’d you choose?”

“Hey, hold up. Don’t leave me out of this. If you ignore the fact that Zale is your boyfriend, out of the three guys here, who would you say is more of your preferred type?” Jass didn’t miss the chance to insert himself into her list of potential choices.

Izora’s eyes immediately shot over to me. When our eyes met, I glared intensely at her.

‘Don’t you dare say it’s me even if it’s to try and make the student council president jealous. I don’t want anything to do with this.’

Unable to choose me, her gaze moved back and forth between Zale and Jass a few times as she weighed her options.

“Well, I suppose it’d be you.” She nonchalantly pointed at Jass as she feigned a disinterested look that suggested she hadn’t taken it very seriously when the truth was quite the opposite.

Jass didn’t take it as being nothing though and shot a rather smug smile Zale’s way.

“It looks like it’s 3-2-1 then. Though, I guess I lose, but at least my vote is a girl’s, unlike yours which consists of only guys, your own and Ran’s.”

“Ria, surely you’re joking, right? You’d really pick him over me?”

“Yeah. You’re really not my type. Also, I’d like to correct your misunderstanding. This guy is not my boyfriend.”

“What? Seriously?” Jass’s eyes shot open delightedly at the sudden revelation.

“Yeah, I’m serious.”

“I see. Haha. In that case, since I’m your type, would you be my girlfriend?” Jass casually dropped that bombshell line out of nowhere.

Izora froze in place at Jass’s sudden proposal. Her eyes shot to me as she tried to glean whether this was part of a plan I’d set up to help her.

I looked away and ignored her.

I had no hand in this one.

“You... want to be my boyfriend?” Uncertain, Izora confirmed what she’d been asked with a troubled expression.

“Yeah. How about it? Are you interested? I’ll definitely make you happy.”

“Uh… that is…” Izora hesitated. It seemed she wasn’t used to this sort of thing. Turning guys down when they were being sincere.

“She’s already got someone better like me, why would she go and downgrade?” Zale intervened and didn't give Jass a chance to receive a response. He wrapped his arm around Izora’s waist and pulled her over to the couch. 

Jass had a slightly sour, even helpless look when his advances on Izora were mercilessly blocked by Zale. Knowing his place, he dejectedly took a seat on the edge of the U-shaped couch opposite Rosa, next to Izora. Izora ended up seated directly opposite to me.

“Excuse me, your food is here.” It was at that moment an employee of the restaurant showed up with a large round tray containing plates of food in hand.

“Ah, perfect timing.” Alicia looked at the employee as if they were her savior and seemed extremely relieved when they arrived with the food. She hadn’t been able to get a word in to stop the little standoff between Zale and Jass just now and it had put her in an awkward position.

The employee entered the room and placed the dishes on the center of the table surrounded by the couch. They also placed empty plates and silverware around the dishes along the outskirts of the table in front of where each of us were seated.

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Alicia squeezed by our side on the couch and took a seat between me and Zale around the bend. 

The arrangement may have seemed random, but it was obviously a calculated move on Zale’s part. As Jass was formerly chasing after Alicia, Zale’s intent was to use Izora to keep Jass’s attention off Alicia. Occupying a dominant position on the couch, he could use the opportunity to play both sides simultaneously.

“So, who wants to sing first?” Rosa asked as she unabashedly filled her plate with food.

“...” Nobody immediately volunteered themself.

“Jass, why don’t you show us your singing skills?”

“What? Me?” Jass was immediately caught off guard by Rosa’s proposal.

“Yeah. Why don’t we see who’s really the better pick between you and Zale in terms of singing superiority?”

“Uh… I don’t think I’d-” Rosa cut him off before he could refuse.

“Actually, how about the two of you sing a duet together with Ria and let her decide the winner?”

Rosa was relentless. What’s with her suggestion? Isn’t it pretty obvious based on Jass’s reaction that he’s not confident in singing? I mean dancing was one thing as it played on his strength, basketball, but none of his skills really transferred over to singing aside from being loud and having a good lung capacity.

The same could be said for Zale though. However, in terms of singing, I didn’t know whether it was something he was good at. Maybe Rosa knew. If Zale was terrible at it, worse than Jass, it might make sense why she suggested it.

“A duet together? But I don’t think she’d want to-”

“A duet? Sure, I don’t mind. It sounds like fun.” Unexpectedly, Izora didn’t reject the suggestion. When I thought about it, she probably saw it as an opportunity to sing a duet with Zale without making it obvious to him that she wanted to.

Everyone was blatantly using each other for their own objectives. This was one reason why I didn’t care to make friends. On the surface, you might look like you’re getting along well as friends, but at the end of the day, everyone you call a friend is simply someone convenient to make use of.

As such, I won’t call anyone a friend. That way I won’t feel bad if I make use of someone for their convenience. There are no hard feelings if you aren’t friends. I don’t know when the notion that friends shouldn’t use or manipulate each other for their convenience was implanted in my mind, but it was. And since it was, I wouldn’t make any friends.

A devil has no need for friends, people they can’t use for their convenience. The world is a devil’s enemy.

Izora stood up and grabbed the two microphones on the table. She selected a song from the terminal and pulled an unusually flustered Jass off his seat closer to the television.

Rosa and Alicia had remained seated earlier when singing beside me to keep me from escaping so I didn’t know whether this was the norm for karaoke. Somehow, I felt nervous. Why the hell am I nervous? It’s not like I’m singing in front of everyone.

Yet…

Shit, wouldn’t I be forced to have a go?

What the hell?

“You guys do not notice that we are gifted just by being humans.” While I internally mulled over my fate Jass started singing. The original vocalist’s lines sounded high-pitched and electronic as if they’d been passed through a bunch of filters.

Jass on the other hand sounded… pretty bad in comparison. He was completely out of tune, but he still sang the next two lines to the best of his abilities.

“We are absolute predators.”

“We do not even have any enemies.”

“Pffthahaha! What the heck! What the heck! Jass, you’re so out of tune! You’re killing me! Hahahaha!” Rosa, who couldn’t hold it in anymore, was the first to burst out into a fit of laughter as she took a lighthearted jab.

Though everyone else had tried to be polite by not laughing at the singingly challenged Jass, they cracked after Rosa. Alicia didn’t but her lips were quivering and she was covering her mouth desperate to not laugh at him. I didn’t find any of it funny as I’d probably soon suffer a similar fate.

Seriously, I’m a fish out of water here. There’s no way in hell I could do something embarrassing like this in front of everyone. I lowered my gaze to the ground and covered my forehead and eyes with my left hand.

I'm in hell. I just want to go home, crawl in a hole, and die.

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