Chapter 78. Irene. (3/7)

The two of us followed behind her after we put on our winter clothes.

When we arrived downstairs, Alicia’s mother was inside her car. When she noticed her daughter appear she beckoned her with a wave of her hand to get in the car with her. Rosa and I stood from afar and watched the exchange in the car at a distance. Alicia was cowering back in fear on the passenger side while her mother with her back to us was going all-in on scolding her daughter.

It was quite a pitiful sight to see, but I felt it wasn’t so bad. It was a mother’s love that allowed her to scold her child when they did something wrong and messed up. It was their responsibility to ensure their child took the lesson to heart so they wouldn’t let the same thing happen again. It was a heartwarming sight in my eyes. Evidence of how much this mother loved her precious daughter.

After a solid twenty minutes straight of Alicia nodding profusely in understanding and shaking her head to deny that it would not happen again, things finally settled down between the two inside the car. Eventually, the two of them hugged each other tightly. Alicia’s head ended up buried in her mother’s bosom.

“What a nice relationship between mother and daughter,” Rosa said while looking at the two.

“Yeah. It is.” I couldn’t help but voice my agreement.

When it looked like the dust had settled, Rosa and I approached the car.

The doors were unlocked so we got in the back seat where we were greeted by Irene. “Oh, you must be the Rosa I’ve heard about! You’re my daughter’s friend and Ran’s girlfriend, right?” She immediately led off with that question.

“Uh… yeah, I am.”

Irene started some small talk with us while she drove, “I see. I see. He’s quite lucky to get such a pretty girl to be his girlfriend. What made you fall for him?”

“Huh? What? Uh…” she seemed a bit hesitant to respond.

What did she fall for? Now that I thought about it, I didn’t even know the answer to that myself.

“Everything?” Rosa gave such a vague uncertain response.

“Huh? You can’t give such a cheap answer~ tell us, tell us~ What specifically was it?”

“I don’t know. By the time I knew it, I’d already fallen for him. I don’t know when it specifically happened. It just sort of did.”

“Hmmm, that’s a pretty weak reason though. With a halfhearted reason like that, it doesn’t seem likely that you’ll end up in the 1%.” What was she doing? Why was she bringing this topic up? I frowned and glared at her in the mirror. She noticed my gaze and matched it. She could tell I knew exactly what she meant.

“The 1%? What do you mean?” Rosa’s interest had naturally been piqued.

“Why don’t you ask your boyfriend, it seems he’s aware of it.”

Somehow she’d already seen through me. I don’t know what it was that had given me away, but she could tell I had reservations about my relationship with Rosa.

Was it that damned thing called woman’s intuition again? I am so sick of that thing! Whoever invented it really deserved the death penalty.

“What’s she talking about?”

“She’s referring to the percentage of marriages that are between high school sweethearts who don’t break up after high school, get married, and don’t divorce. It’s less than 1% of marriages. But Alicia’s mother-”

“Just call me Irene~”

“Then… Irene, it’s a bit too early to be talking about things like marriage, don’t you think? We’re only in our first year of high school right now.”

“It’s never too early to think about such matters. Could it be that you're actually not interested in ever getting married?” She once again saw through my every thought. How? When I had these sorts of thoughts she wasn’t even around to see me. Why does she know everything?

Why the hell was she suddenly going on the offensive against me out of nowhere like this? What did I do to piss her off? Was this payback for abducting her daughter? Was she relieving some built-up stress by picking a fight with me?

“Personally, I can’t ever see myself getting married. It’s just a piece of paper two people sign for legal purposes to gain some benefits. Marriage is simply a convenient tool for survival that people use to maintain financial stability by sharing a burden. Things like love and whatnot come secondary in marriage.”

“Wow~ What an awful response. But your girlfriend doesn’t seem particularly surprised. She must be pretty used to your personality and willing to put up with it.”

“Mom, can we stop with this conversation already? There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh? And what was that?”

“Well, the thing is Rosa actually lives alone as an independent without her parents…” Alicia went on to recount the things I’d told her about Rosa’s parents and her desire to have Rosa move in with them. She explained how she was good at cooking and how it would help relieve her mother’s burden on preparing meals. She explained the benefits for Rosa as well, describing it as a give and take relationship. 

When Irene heard her daughter’s full explanation, she hummed in a playful tone, “Hmmm~ Rosa, you’re quite the catch, aren’t you? Even my daughter wants you for herself~ what do you think about my daughter’s proposal of moving in with us?”

“What do I think? You mean you’re okay with such a thing?”

“It’s the first selfish request my daughter has ever made of me. She’s quite a good girl, always doing everything she can to not trouble me. Even now she’s doing this with the thought of alleviating some of my daily work. How can I refuse my daughter when she’s considering things so seriously? But at the end of the day, even if I’m fine with such an arrangement, it’s not like I can force you to agree to it. The decision would be left entirely to you.”

“If your parents have deemed that you have what it takes to live independently from them; if you choose to live with somebody else, that is a choice you’re free to make as an independent. If your plan is to save the money that you’d otherwise receive for rent from your parents for something like tuition or a car, I can’t see why your parents would be upset over it.”

“If I was your parent and saw such an opportunity, I’d completely support such a decision. Living all alone isn't what makes you independent, being able to make the choices that are most beneficial toward your future does. This opportunity to save up for your future, I wouldn’t ever let it slip away if I was in your position. I’d grab hold of it without hesitation.”

“What do you think, Mr. Boyfriend~ would you agree and support your girlfriend in such a move even if it meant you couldn’t be alone together as much anymore?”

“I’d support it without hesitation.” I’d given an immediate response.

“How cold~” Irene teased.

“Well, if you can’t immediately decide, you can think about it. Annnywaaaayyy~ we’ve arrived~ so we can talk about this some more when I get back from work later tonight if you’d like, Rosa~ But I really would be super happy to have such a pretty girl waiting for me at home with a warm home-cooked meal you know~”

As Irene said, we’d arrived at her place. When we got out of the car, Alicia had the same nervous expression the first time I came over. 

“Then, I’ll be heading to work now. You kids play nice together, okay~”

After Irene said that and drove off, Rosa, who’d noticed Alicia’s unusually nervous expression, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Uh, well... it slipped my mind because of how excited I was earlier about getting you to move in with us, but would you even be okay living here?”

Rosa didn’t seem to understand what she meant and responded, “Is there something wrong with the place? Are there any rats or cockroaches inside?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what’s wrong with it for you to be asking that?”

It seems, similarly to me, she didn’t find anything wrong with the outward appearance of Alicia’s home.

“I mean, our place is a bit old and run down, you might not want to stay here after you’ve seen it, right?”

“Are you dissatisfied with your home?”

“N-No! I love my home… it’s just... people often give me weird looks that bother me when I’m entering. I thought if I brought... friends over... they’d look at me the same way… and it’s always been on my mind... so I never have friends over... because of that.” She had a hard time saying what she wanted to say.