Chapter 68. Executing Operation, Codename: Date, Afternoon. (4/4)

“Mr. Boyfriend, she’s not plotting anything bad.”

“Oh? Nothing bad? Then you’re not denying that she’s plotting something, I take it.”

“Ah.” Alicia covered her own mouth and averted her eyes to the side.

“I see. I see. I think I’ve got it then. Rosa has become the friend of my enemy and has chosen to play for the other team by helping her friend befriend her enemy.”

Rosa didn’t bat an eye to my words, but the weakest link, Alicia, was sweating. Well, she’d been sweating a little beforehand after playing DDR for so long with Rosa, but that didn't deceive me.

“Rosa, even if you can keep up a poker face, your partner in crime is the weakest link in that poker face…. assuming she knows everything that is. She’s just too easy to read… which I why I believe you definitely factored her into the equation and I’m sure you haven’t told her everything. You probably even factored in that I’d figure it out and you only told Alicia a half-truth, didn’t you? There was definitely something more to it.”

Her face didn’t waver, but her eyes didn’t hide her shock. She definitely hadn’t expected I’d see through her naive attempt at deception.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I wanted to do was to get my best friend to become friends with my boyfriend. It’s tough when your boyfriend considers your best friend an enemy.”

“Hmm… I see. I see. Truly flawless. I'd even want to give you full marks, 100 points, Rosa. However… it’s a rather convenient story to tell. Did you think that excuse up beforehand too?”

“Haaaah. Why are you so damn unreasonably sharp? Look, how would this be anything I could have been the one to orchestrate? Think about it, you’re the one who planned the entire date. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Wrong, I’d be a fool if I fell for such simple tricks.”

“Simple tricks? What do you mean?” Rosa asked cautiously.

“It’s elementary. I was simply led to believe I was in control of everything. In reality, I never had control over any of this from the very beginning.”

“After all, the one who would agree to my planned date was always you.”

“There are several methods you could utilize to make things happen the way they did up to this point. If I’d selected stuff that had nothing to do with the mall, you could have just shot them down until I picked one where the mall would be involved or you could have even just informed Alicia where we’d planned our date and she could just take her date participants there. If she was that involved, that is. Perhaps you were helping her out with a plan for that pair’s double date after she’d confided in you.”

“However now, if I did select something related to the mall, then all was fine and good, it would be the easiest most natural-looking place to bump into someone popular like Alicia. There was even the highest probability that I’d select something indoors rather than outdoors because of how cold it is outside. To begin with, you know I’m an indoor type and I’d hate to do some sort of energy-draining outdoor winter activity with a passion. You could’ve even deduced what I might pick for a date long in advance.”

“In the worst-case scenario, during the date, you could have also just spontaneously made up some reason to go to the mall on the fly anyway.”

“Even if you say that, I’ve been together with you the entire time. When would I have had the chance to inform Alicia of our plans for a date which you only just locked in today? I couldn’t tell Alicia a guaranteed plan beforehand unless I was certain what you’d do.”

“When? It was when I was in the washroom, of course. To avoid leaving any incriminating evidence behind on Alicia’s phone in case I found some excuse to check her phone, you definitely wouldn’t have texted her either.”

“Without any doubt, you would have called her while you were packing your bag so no trace of what you were plotting would be left behind. You could have deleted text messages on your own phone, but what reason could you give Alicia to do the same?”

“She’s such a good girl, after all. She values everything about her friends, everything down to the individual text conversations she has with them on a daily basis. They’re precious memories to her. She doesn’t like doing such sneaky things either. Thus, it’s safe to say she was actually left completely in the dark about many things. Though she knew we would be on a date today, she probably didn’t know the specifics.”

“Rosa, from the beginning, you were able to provide Alicia with date ideas for her group. For example, places at the mall, even while they were mid-date if you really wanted to. But when you were on a call with her, you might have casually mentioned in passing how you were about to head out on your own date at the mall. But you didn’t specifically tell her you’d create an event where we’d meet up like this.”

“I’m inclined to believe that Alicia didn’t even know we’d be at the arcade the entire time. You never mentioned that to her while we were together on the bus. Rather, you probably randomly said something during small talk along the lines of, ‘arcades seem nice’’ before we split up to reinforce this idea in her mind.”

“She might have interpreted it as a suggestion on somewhere to go and never thought anything strange of it. You led her to this place through the art of suggestion, the same way a magician plants the image of an outcome they desire into a susceptible person’s mind. Yes, you simply gave her a suggestion of the arcade, and that was more than enough for her to inevitably wind up here. The plan was simply to stall until Alicia ended up here with her group on their own.”

“In the end, the invisible strings being pulled in the background without anyone noticing, the invisible enemy’s presence I felt lurking in the shadows. It was none other than you all along, Rosa! You are the culprit!” I pointed at her with renewed vigor.

“What!” She played along and put up a shocked expression backing away while holding her hands up in front of her.

“Haaaaah. That felt great. What a relief, what a relief. I finally cracked the case.”

“But… when did you even grow suspicious of all this?”

“When? Well, it was the accident that happened. You never actually thought we’d bump into each other on the bus, did you? But it wasn’t that big a deal even if you did. You played it off well, Rosa. However, there was one thing that stood out that made me feel something was off.”

“What was it?”

“It was Alicia. She didn’t seem that surprised to see you out on a date. She only looked happy to see and talk to her friend, rather than surprised that she’d bump into us. Then when you called out to her inside the arcade, she did look a bit surprised to me. These two minor details were key in cracking the case. You did well, but at the end of the day, the strongest point in your plan to keep Alicia in the dark about certain matters was also a weakness. It was a double-edged sword, so to speak.”

“So it was that after all. Haaaah. I concede, it’s my defeat.”

Huh? She said that, but it didn’t feel like she meant it at all. Did I miss or overlook anything?” A frown formed on my face. I thought I’d seen through it all, but by her reaction… it seems there was something else.

“You don’t sound like you feel very defeated, Rosa.”

“I am. I am seriously defeated. You saw through everything. You’re just being paranoid at this point.”

“Uh… Rosa… is everything he said really true?”

“Yes. But, so what if it’s true? It doesn’t change anything. I’m still going to drag you along with me to my grave. You can’t abandon your friend when she’s been pushed into a corner like this by her boyfriend, right?”

“Hahahaha! What’s with the two of you? You guys should star in a detective movie in the future. Rosa could play the villain and Ran would be the detective. I’d totally pay to see it too!” Holding her side with her left arm, Alicia broke out into laughter after she witnessed our entire exchange from beginning to end. She didn’t look mad at all despite technically being the unaware victim dragged into Rosa’s scheme. She eventually wiped away a tear that had formed at the corner of her right eye from laughing too hard with her finger.

With at least part of the mystery solved, feeling a bit better, I let out a sigh and said, “Anyway, we should really head over to the bookstore now before they close.”

“Oh! You’re right!” Rosa checked the time on her phone and realized there was only an hour until they closed. “Let’s go, let’s go!” As if her scheme being exposed meant nothing, she grabbed our hands and pulled us along to the bookstore in the mall. Alicia had a troubled look on her face feeling she was in the way, but Rosa was practically glued to her to prevent her from escaping. 

The three of us perused the selection of books available. The two girls were chattering about what was the most interesting-looking series based on the cover. Eventually, it appeared Alicia completely forgot that Rosa and I were on a date. She wasn’t showing the troubled expression she had at the start anymore, her expression had softened up and she looked like she was enjoying herself.

When the three of us all agreed on a series that looked interesting, we bought the full set. There were three volumes, it was a trilogy. Rosa and I paid for them and the clerk put them in a nice plastic bag with the store's logo on it.

It had taken us up till the last minute to decide on what to select and the store was closing up by the time we left. All the stores were doing the same so there wasn’t much else to do at the mall anymore.