Chapter 77. Irene. (2/7)

“Hahah… you don’t need to dig up my wounds like that. The pain in my wallet is no joke you know.” If I run out of money in my account it wouldn’t be a laughing matter, I’d seriously die.

“It must be quite serious then. But sorry, I don’t give money out so easily. Unless you were my daughter’s boyfriend or… well, anyway, I wouldn’t.” Her ‘or’ had been quite suggestive. Hinting that there was another condition she’d be willing to lend money out like that.

Was she about to say her own boyfriend or husband? No, no, no. She’s just being a tease as usual. That’s just part of her playful personality.

“Mom! He’s Rosa’s boyfriend, can you please not say stuff like that!”

“Oh? My daughter got mad at me because of you~ I’m going to cry. I’m the one here to be mad at my daughter, so why am I the one being yelled at?”

“Ah.” It seems Alicia recalled her precarious situation where she was about to face her mother chewing her out. She shrunk back away, kept her distance from the phone, and covered her ears, refusing to listen to our conversation any further. 

“It seems your daughter has suddenly chewed on a rather bitter red pill.”

“Hahah? Has she now? She’ll be eating a few more in a while.”

Alicia rocked back and forth where she was seated with listless eyes. It seemed covering her ears had little effect on blocking out her mother’s words.

“We’ll be down in a minute. Your daughter looks like she’s prepared herself.”

“Great. I look forward to seeing you all.”

She ended the call.

I took a deep breath in, stood up, and pat Alicia on the shoulder. I told her while doing my best to not laugh at her misfortune, “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. Now, let’s hurry up and go so you can get chewed out like a good girl.”

“Ran, you’re the worst! Why do I have to get chewed out! You should be getting chewed out by your parents too! I haven’t seen you contact them, why haven’t they contacted you yet to yell at you? There’s no way they’re really fine when you were out that late as well.”

“Huh? Uh… I told them from the very beginning I’d be spending the night at my girlfriend’s place after our date.”

“What? No way… wait, actually, Rosa, what about your parents? I didn’t realize it, but I never saw them yesterday when we arrived so late and they aren’t here right now either.”

“Rosa lives alone. Her parents live overseas for business and wire her funds for her living expenses on a monthly basis. They’re very busy and are constantly moving about from country to country for work. Rosa proved to them she had the skills to live independently so she could remain at one high school for three years. This was so she wouldn’t need to keep transferring schools.” I gave a quick explanation in Rosa’s place.

“What? Rosa, you live alone? Is what he said true?”

“Huh? Uh… yeah… for the most part.”

“Wait… so… if I didn’t bump into you two yesterday and join your date… then… the two of you would have spent the entire night alone together here without any supervision?”

“Well… that would most likely have been the end result,” I confirmed.

“Rosa, was another reason you invited me to make sure nothing… weird happened?” Somehow she’d arrived at such a conclusion.

“Yeah… that was one of the reasons. He gets a bit forceful when we’re alone. I was worried that might happen, so I wanted a friend around to keep him restrained.”

Bullshit! I wanted so badly to spit that out at her. The one who needs to be restrained here is none other than you! Don’t paint me out to be some sort of perverse closet lecher!

“So that was why… it all makes sense now.”

And you! Don’t go and believe all of her outlandish lies! I know I forced a kiss on you and you see me as the forceful type because of that, but I am not some sort of deviant without any control over myself!

Haaaaah. I was getting tired just from screaming out retorts in my head.

“Rosa! I just had a really great idea!” Alicia’s eyes suddenly lit up the brightest I’d ever seen them before. She looked like she’d forgotten all about her impending doom. What are you, a goldfish? I really wanted to spit out yet another retort to her, but I once again kept it to myself. She looked like she really had thought of a brilliant idea and I didn’t want to interfere.

I wanted to see just what it was she was thinking and the logic behind it.

“What is it?” Rosa, curious by her friend’s sudden outburst asked.

“Why don’t you move in with me? We have a free bedroom that nobody is using and it’s just going to waste.”

“What? There’s no way I could impose on your family like that.”

“Sure you can, just think about it carefully. If you move in with me, you can save a lot more money for your future that way. The money your parents wire to your account from overseas, you can save all of the money spent on rent from this place and live rent-free, can’t you?”

My eyes lit up when I heard her explanation. She had me sold the moment rent left her mouth. Her very first reason was all it took for me. I was such a simple man. If someone said no rent, I’d jump at the offer like a starving wolf.

“I’d feel too guilty to live with you free of charge like that. I’d be no better than a leach.”

“You wouldn’t be a leach at all. There is something you can offer in exchange. We wouldn’t take your money, what I want is something entirely different. You’re good at cooking, right?”

“Uh… yeah, what about it?”

“Well, my mother is often not home, and when she does get home, she’s tired but still needs to cook for us. I’ve always been busy focusing on studying so I never had a real chance to learn how to cook food. My mother would always tell me to just focus on my studies and leave the cooking to her. In all honesty, the only thing I’m good at making is sweets. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I’m actually pretty bad at cooking food that doesn’t turn out sweet. No matter what I try cooking, normal food always turns out overly sweet for some reason. My little brother even locks himself up in his room when he hears I’m trying to cook something for him.”

Stop adding so much sugar to your food then! Damn it, isn’t that the obvious reason? Don’t try that, ‘it always turns out overly sweet for some reason,’ nonsense.

One day I’m going to kill myself from holding in all these retorts. It’s not good for my health.

“But…” Rosa was about to try and say something when Alicia cut in and said, “It’s also not safe for a high school girl to live all alone like this. What will you do if someone stalks you home one night and breaks into your place? They could force themselves on you and there would be no one around to save you.”

“Ran, what do you think? Aren’t you worried about your girlfriend’s safety? It’s not like you can always be around her either, right? There could come a day where her life becomes endangered. She’s very pretty so that’s even more so the case.”

“I completely agree. An arrangement like this would be perfect. There really is nothing to lose. She can save up money for university or something else that would be useful. For example, she could get a car on a lease and work towards paying it off when the contract is up just using the money she saves from not paying rent. When she turns 16 in January, she can get her license as well.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea!” Alicia jumped on the suggestion I’d made with a big thumbs up.

“But Ran, winter break, you promised to-” 

I cut her off, “Then just move after winter break if you’re concerned about that.” It seemed my cohabitation at her place over winter break had turned into a large con that prevented her from immediately accepting Alicia’s offer. 

“Concerned about what?” Alicia asked cluelessly.

“We’re keeping your mother waiting, we should hurry up and go down. You seem to have forgotten because of your little idea, but you’re about to get a good scolding.”

“Ah! That’s right, I completely forgot!” Alicia jumped and quickly tidied her appearance up and ran to the door.

“You guys, hurry up. This isn’t funny, the longer I keep her waiting the worse it’s going to be for me.”