Chapter 290: Chapter 289.

Chapter 289. An Insidious Trap. (6/8)

“Jeez, what a buzzkill.”

I didn’t bother to read the suffocating mood in the room and dumped some food on the plate in front of me before I stuffed it in my mouth.

“Haha, man, you really have an iron stomach if you can eat without care in this sort of situation,” Jass joked.

“What do I give a shit about this kiddy drama? I’m just here to watch the train wreck as it unfolds.” I raised my eyes up from my plate and momentarily locked eyes with Izora seated directly across from me.

“K-Kiddy drama... haha… you really don’t hold back at all,” Jass stiffly responded.

Izora suddenly stood up and said as she rushed out of the room, “I’ve got to use the washroom.” 

It was pretty obvious she was going to chase after Zale who’d just left.

Jass was about to grab her hand to stop her, but his arm froze in the air when he noticed the anxious look on her face as she passed by him. Something probably clicked in his mind at that moment. That she probably liked Zale, but she hadn’t been honest about it this entire time.

He wasn’t able to stop her and sat there dumbly. Maybe he felt like he’d been played by her to a degree. I had no way to know for certain what was really on his mind at that moment where he blankly watched her back as the door closed behind her on the way out.

“Your luck with women is pretty abysmal, isn’t it?” I took a jab at him.

“Haaaah. What the hell man. Tell me about it. Do girls always go for the ones that treat them the shittiest?”

“I’d say that’s a misconception. Why didn’t you try to stop her in the end just now?”

“Haaaaah. I… don’t really know. I don’t get why I didn’t either. Seriously, why didn’t I? Maybe I just didn’t think I could win.”

“Maybe. Or maybe you just thought you didn’t want her to look anxious like that. If her going after Zale would get rid of that uneasiness of hers, you didn’t want to interfere.”

“Why do I always seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to love? This really sucks.” Jass slumped forward, folded his arms over the table, and tucked his chin in behind it.

“Sorry Jass, it seems I messed up,” Rosa apologized.

“It’s fine. I wouldn’t have even had the chance to interact with her if it wasn’t for you. I can only blame myself for not being able to win her over. And in the end… it seems… the opposite happened. I think… I seriously like her. Damn it, I just wanted a hot girlfriend. That’s all it was really supposed to be.”

“Aren’t you just too simpleminded? All it took was singing a song with her and you’re suddenly crazy for her? Ugh…” 

Rosa suddenly elbowed me and said, “Hey, now that you mention singing a song, aren’t you the only one who hasn’t sung anything since we got here? Don’t you think it’s your turn to sing something?”

“Huh? Uh, no. I can’t sing.”

“Neither can Jass, but that didn’t stop him. You can’t use that as an excuse.”

“Uh… that is… my chronic illness makes it so I can’t sing.”

“Bullshit, don’t try pulling that card man. I sang once, it’s only fair that you at least sing once as well.”

“Yeah, Ran, it’s only fair,” Alicia happily chimed in with a look of anticipation as she clapped her hands together in a cheerful manner.

The awkward mood in the room had been dispelled in an instant as the subject shifted toward something dreadful thanks to Rosa.

“I don’t know the lyrics to any songs. It’s impossible for me.”

“That’s hardly an excuse, the lyrics are on the screen,” Rosa mercilessly denied.

“If I had to suffer through that embarrassing situation, why should you be exempt from it, man?” Jass sat up, picked up the microphone, and shoved it into my hand. It seemed he was trying to get what happened just now off his mind by throwing me under the bus. He could make himself better by watching someone else suffer. What an awful person. Terrible, truly horrible. This condemnable bastard, I’ll remember this.

“I don’t even know what to sing.”

“Hmm, oh! I have an idea for a song. I only heard it recently, but I’m sure you know this one,” Rosa was more than happy to select a song on the terminal for me.

“Wait, hold up, what are you choosing exactly?”

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“I kind of want to hear him sing Bad Habits,” Alicia mumbled to herself as she stared at Rosa innocently with her index finger over her lips.

“Absolutely not! Over my dead body. I am not singing that.”

“What? Come on, I want to hear you sing it!” Alicia protested as she grabbed my arm and shook it back and forth.

“Oh? You don’t want to sing that song? I guess you must really want to sing this one instead. Heheheh…”

Rosa’s sinister laughter made me second guess myself.

I gulped nervously and backtracked on my words, “Uh… on second thought, maybe I will sing that after all actually.” Whatever Rosa wanted me to sing was undoubtedly more embarrassing than what Alicia wanted me to sing.

“Oh? Well, you can sing that after. I already selected a song for you so you might as well sing it after you sing this one,” Rosa said with a wide innocent smile like it wasn’t her problem.

‘I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately… like is any of this for real or not?’ As soon as I heard the soundtrack play, I instantly recognized the song and a certain boy's voice resounded in my head as it clicked together with it. The image of him sinking deep beneath the surface of the water was distinctly in my mind.

“No way. This song. Why’d you pick this of all things?”

“I saw how many hours you had in your memory card’s save file for the game this song is from when Chris was playing and I figured you’d definitely be very familiar with it.”

She wasn’t wrong. I’d played this game for hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours, when I was younger. I’d listened to this song so many times I’d lost count. Sometimes I fell asleep with it on the title screen as it continually played the intro cutscene on repeat. It was definitely a song engraved deep into my memories, one I’d never forget the lyrics to no matter how old I got. I actually really liked it. It was extremely nostalgic to hear it out of nowhere like this. But no matter how much I liked it, it was embarrassing as hell for me to seriously sing it.

The name of the song was Simple and Clean.

Somehow… the nostalgia got the best of me and I unconsciously opened my mouth and sang the first lyric.

“You’re giiiiiving meeeee.”

I wanted to find somewhere to bury my head when I quietly muttered out those words.

“Hahaha! So you do know it well enough to remember the lyrics,” Rosa burst out into laughter.

“Come on man, you’ve got to sing louder or we won’t hear you,” Jass was fully on board to watch me suffer.

Screw you! Fine, you want me to sing? Then I’ll sing, you salty bastard!

“Too maaaaany thiiings, lately.”

“You’re all I neeeEeEeEed.”

“You smiiiiled at meeee, and said.”

The three in the room with me all looked pretty surprised right now like they’d seen something truly bizarre and unusual.

The fact that I didn’t suck at singing was definitely what shocked them.

“Don’t get me wrong I love you, but does that mean I have to meet, your father? 

“Pfffthahahaha!”

The one to break out into laughter was naturally Rosa. As for why, she probably found it too relatable.

“When we are older you will uuuuunderstand, what I meant, when I said, no, I don’t think life is quite that simple.”

“It’s like, seriously, way too funny!” Rosa wiped the corner of her eye where tears were welling up from laughing too hard.

As for Alicia, she was bent forward over the table with her head down buried in her left arm. Her body trembled as she lightly tapped the table with the bottom of her right fist. As she was aware of the identity of Rosa’s father, her reaction was quite similar. Only, she had the courtesy to try and hold it in.

Jass was the only one out of the loop. He was glaring at me as if I’d betrayed him.

…

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