Chapter 129. Rosa’s Birthday (2/10)

I could only imagine she started working as a hostess in secret when she was 16 because her parents were opposed to her working. She made questionable decisions and took whatever job she could do or get. It was probably her rebellious phase in life. Then, when her parents found out she got pregnant behind their back all of a sudden… I wonder what happened?

What of her parents now? I’ve never heard anything about them. Were they alive still? If they were, was she on bad terms with them? Now that I think about it, with her situation, if her parents are alive, why would her parents allow their daughter to suffer the way she has for the last two years.

Had they disowned her? Or did she cut ties from them on her own? Had her parents wanted her to get an abortion, but she’d been opposed, so she took extreme measures and ran off with Alexander?

I… only realized now just how little I knew about her beyond her children and husband.

After a minute in thought, I sent another text.

‘Thank you for looking out for Rosa.’

‘Wha- you’re suddenly getting all weird. It’s embarrassing if you thank me out of nowhere when I don’t even know where it came from.’

‘I just realized how little I know about you. You’re speaking from personal experience, right?’

‘... I booked the room.’ She ignored my question and changed the topic. Since it didn’t seem she wanted to get into the topic I didn’t dig any further. She was also still at work, it wasn’t the appropriate time or place to ask her about such matters.

‘Thanks.’

‘I’ll check-in at the hotel for you guys right after work and drop off the room keys at home before I head out for work again.’

‘You’re the best.’

‘Just don’t forget to pay me back. Also… you owe me one >;D.’

The devious laughing winky face she included at the end made me nervous. My back habitually straightened up as a shiver ran down it. Owing Irene one was scary. It felt like I’d been set up and plotted against once again by this duo.

I’d only noticed it after the fact.

But Rosa should have known I’d be left with no choice but to turn to Irene for assistance. Then for Irene to readily book the room with so little resistance, they must have conspired with one another in advance.

Women were hard enough to deal with individually, when they were working together it was far worse.

There wasn’t much I could do either way. Rosa had that coupon book, she could have forced me to take her to a hotel even if I saw through all of this. I’m not even given a chance to put up any form of resistance.

I really underestimated how overpowered the Christmas present I gave her was. Haaaah. Oh well, it’s my girlfriend's birthday. I should at least treat her well and let her do what she wants today.

With my worries over what to do for her birthday resolved, I sat back and relaxed. I called into work and said I was sick. It wasn’t something I’d ever done before, as I never had the leisure to from a financial standpoint.

When it was 3:00 PM, I took a bus back home. I arrived at 3:30 PM when Rosa had only just finished with classes. I entered my room and picked up a change of clothes. I took two pairs of indoor shorts to change into at the hotel and clothes for tomorrow. After I had my things I picked up the room key cards from the kitchen counter where Irene had left them then waited on the couch in the living room for Rosa to return.

After twenty minutes, the front door opened up and Rosa appeared with Irene.

The first one to open their mouth wasn’t Rosa, but Alicia instead. “Ran, you’re so fast. How’d you get back so much quicker than us?”

Alicia naturally wasn’t aware I was skipping school. I’d been the first to leave in the morning the last two days and she’d assumed I’d gone to school. With the excuse that it’d be troublesome if other students saw us going together, Alicia walked with Rosa to school while I went alone. In reality, I never went to school and just went directly to the museum.

“I rode my bike so I didn't have to wait for the bus.”

“It’s winter.” She countered.

“I worked hard.”

“Hard? You?” She looked at me as if she’d heard me speak a foreign language that was incomprehensible to her.

“You’re hurting my feelings, I work hard too sometimes. It’s Rosa’s birthday, of course I’d work hard on her birthday.” The biggest lie of my life.

“Oh, I see. Would you work hard if it was my birthday?”

“We’re enemies, of course not.”

“I’m your girlfriend too!”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s easy for you to say, but when have we ever done anything alone together as a real couple after that confession of yours?”

She froze up and groaned out, “Ah… that is… now that you mention it… Ugh, I have nothing to say. Since I confessed that day… zero. We’ve made no progress at all!”

“Exactly.”

“How is that my fault? After that, you were suddenly super busy. Then school started, and you wouldn’t even walk with us to school! I’ve had zero opportunities to be with you at all since then! Not only that, whenever I visited your class at lunch to see Rosa, you were already gone both times! Are you purposely avoiding me? Do you hate me that much?”

She looked genuinely upset.

Seeing her in that state, I averted my eyes to the side.

“What’s with you?”

“My bad. I’m not avoiding you, I’m avoiding someone else entirely. What I said before was a lie, I was actually just skipping school the last two days to avoid any potential assassin transfer students that might show up.” I decided to tell her the truth. Since she knew Rosa’s secret 

“Hah? You think I’d believe such a random reason? Rosa told me you’d left the classroom as soon as lunch started.”

“Alicia…” Rosa said her name with a troubled look on her face while scratching the side of her head.

“What is it, Rosa?”

“Sorry… I lied. He’s actually being serious. I’m an assassin, remember? I didn’t want to tell you the reason since you might end up worried that his life was in danger or something. Also, there were a lot of students around in class, I can’t exactly go blabbing about assassins. There’s always the chance someone might hear me. The stupid made-up on-the-spot-sounding reason he just gave really was the truth. ”

“Wait, is Ran really being targeted by an assassin transfer student?”

“No. I’m preemptively avoiding school in the event one really does show up. You see, remember this?” I raised my bandaged hand up.

“Yeah, your cut, what about it?”

“Well… I sort of landed a scratch on Rosa’s father. He ended up taking a picture and blabbing to others about his potential future son-in-law with that scratch on his face. Rosa’s father has never spilled a single drop of his own blood before so he’s quite famous among assassins. Do you get it now?”

“Oh! So you’re afraid there will be those who want to meet the one who accomplished such a feat and that they might challenge you to test your skills or something, right?”

“Exactly.”

“You should have just told me.”

“I didn’t want you to worry about it since there’s no guarantee such an event will really even happen. But in the end, you started worrying about something else because of it. Sorry about that.” I responded flatly.

“I’m your g-girlfriend now, so let me worry about you.” When she got past her frustration and uneasiness, she became more conscious of the term and stuttered it out while trying to keep her embarrassment under control.

“I’ll keep that in mind in the future. If it’s something I tell Rosa, I’ll tell you too. Vice versa.”

“Good.”

“I love you, Alicia.” Yeah, I had to keep true to my words and say it since it was something I’d say to Rosa, right?

“Wh-what? All of a sudden? I’m not ready yet- Uh. Ah. No. I mean. It’s not like I don’t want-”

“If it’s something I’ve told Rosa, I also have to tell you too, right?” When I clarified she covered her lips with her right hand.

She didn’t open her mouth but nodded once with her eyes glued to the wall opposite to me and let out a, “Mmm” in acknowledgment of my words, 

She somehow found it in herself to say, “Just give me a second, Rosa, I’m just going to get something really quick and we can all head out.” She immediately fled to the kitchen. I could only imagine when she entered the kitchen she immediately squatted down on the ground in a corner and buried her reddened face in both her hands.

‘Don’t go saying that out of nowhere, you idiot! It’s embarrassing!’ Those were very likely her thoughts. I’d only said such an embarrassing line to evoke that exact reaction out of her. It was too funny to see it after all. Such an innocent reaction.

But… she said something strange to Rosa just now.