Chapter 137. Rosa’s Birthday (10/10)

The two of them stood up and got out of the hot tub. Alicia picked up her phone and put it back with her belongings on the chair before she jumped into the pool. Right before Rosa followed Alicia into the pool, she suddenly said, “Actually, just give me a second. I need to use the washroom really quickly. I’ll be right back.” 

“Okay.”

Alicia looked pretty tired already. After Rosa took the stairs to enter the ladies’ room, Alicia climbed out of the pool and grabbed something from their belongings. It was an inflatable inner tube. She used a small hand pump to blow it up while Rosa was in the washroom.

Before Rosa even returned, she’d blown it up all the way. With it fully inflated, she tossed it into the pool and climbed on top of it before she let her exhausted body float on top of the water with her eyes closed.

It took fifteen minutes for Rosa to get back. She’d used the washroom break as a chance to clean up a certain foreign substance. That much was pretty obvious.

When she saw Alicia in the pool pretty much asleep she didn’t call out to her. She instead retrieved her phone, dipped her legs in the pool, and took a few pictures of Alicia.

She eventually turned her phone to me, but I slumped down into the hot tub when I saw that. I hate being in pictures with a burning passion. I’ll pass. I don’t look good in pictures like you girls do.

She didn’t seem to get the hint though and approached closer to the hot tub. I turned away from her and looked out the window at the city view.

“Can you refrain from taking pictures of me?”

“What? Why not? You let Alicia take a picture of us together just now, didn’t you? Is it only fine when she takes the picture?”

“I was mostly hidden behind you in that picture. I’m not good with having my picture taken. Whenever school pictures were taken as a class, I’d always slouch to make myself shorter so I’d be hidden behind the people in front of me. As for individual pictures for school albums, I avoided those like the plague. I either somehow escaped them, or I was cornered by the homeroom teacher who dragged me off to go and take them.”

“Hahaha! Really? That sounds like something you’d do.”

“It’s not funny. It was awful. I developed PTSD from having awful pictures taken of me. I’d blink in some of them. I wouldn’t be looking at the camera. I'd have dark black bags under my eyes from a lack of sleep. I’d have a weird stiff forced fake smile on my face. The way I stood in photos always looked awkward. My posture was atrocious. My clothes would be messy. My hair, disorderly. My complexion was a joke. Anything bad you could think of, you name it, and I’ve probably done it.”

“Pffft hahahahaha! I’d love to see those pictures of you sometime.”

“Any copies my mother had, I burnt them. You won’t find them anywhere among my things, so give up.”

“I’m sure the school you attended or former classmates would have some of them.”

“I’ll break up with you for real if you dig those up.”

“Haha, now I’ve really got to find them.”

Even the empty threat of a breakup wasn’t enough to dissuade her.

“If you dig mine up… I’ll ask your mother to send me all of your most embarrassing pictures. Not just school photos, but baby photos too.”

Her body reflected in the window stiffened up as she responded, “You… you wouldn’t dare. How would you even contact my mother anyway?”

“She left her number with me in case your father ever tried anything funny.”

“No… my school pictures I don’t care much about… but… my baby photos… I’d seriously need to end your life if you saw those.” It seemed she also had some photos she was extremely embarrassed by and didn’t want others to ever see. 

“As long as you don’t cross my bottom line, I won’t cross yours.”

“Fine… I get it. I won’t go snooping into your school photos. But what about your own baby photos?”

“They’re no longer in this world. Unlike school photos, those are truly gone for good and will never return.”

“You burnt those too?”

“Yeah.” I’d removed any trace that I ever existed from this world. That was how I lived my life in the past. The fact that I allowed any pictures of me to exist at all this time around proved just how much I’d softened up. The picture that Alicia took back on the rooftop didn’t contain my face, it only captured my figure from behind so I let it slide back then. The old me wouldn’t have even permitted that picture’s existence though.

Then the one Alicia took just now which did contain at least the upper half of my face. The old me would have immediately told them to delete the picture on the spot. No, it would never have reached that stage if it was the old me. The second I heard the word picture, I’d have jumped out of the hot tub and gone to the washroom. Maybe I’d have even returned to the room and gone straight to bed.

I’d changed. Even if it was a small minor one, it was nevertheless a change. The person responsible for that change was definitely Rosa. Alicia and Irene too contributed to these changes in their own way.

Over time they’d slowly chipped away at my hardened shell. They were breaking it down, one tiny piece at a time. There was a long way to go, and I definitely wouldn’t make it an easy process. I was stubborn in my ways as an eternal loner after all. I’d definitely resist them with everything I had.

“How sad, I would have liked to see what you looked like back then.”

“Too bad, that will never happen.”

“Well, if we have a few kids in the future I’m sure one will look just like you so I can see it that way.”

“A few kids? Just how many do you think I’m going to have? Also, please don’t curse my unborn children to the horrible fate of looking like me. It’d be better if they looked nothing like me and more like their pretty mother.”

“Hmmm~ pretty mother? Who, me?” She sounded like she was in a good mood when she heard that.

“Whoever the mother is,” I responded in a manner to ruin her mood.

“Jeez, you could just say it’s me.”

I rolled my eyes and asked, “Why don’t you go buy Alicia now?”

“But she looks so peaceful floating on the water that I can’t bring myself to disturb her.”

“Alicia! Rosa’s back, she’s telling me about some strange things that happened in the hot tub! Is it true?” I said that loud enough for Alicia to hear.

Flustered, with her lips in the shape of a squiggly line, her body shot up and she fell off her inner tube. In a panic, she swam to the edge of the pool, jumped out, and sprinted toward Rosa. 

“Please excuse us, Ran.”She wrapped her arms tightly around her and threw Rosa into the pool!”

“Wuaaaaa!” Rosa let out a yelp when her body hit the water.

Alicia dove in after her and the two engaged in mortal combat while whispering back and forth.

It took a solid ten minutes before the two settled down and Rosa convinced her that I’d just said something random to get Alicia to drag her away so I could be alone.

When I felt I’d been in the hot tub for long enough I took another dip in the pool to cool off. I was dragged into a game of Marco Polo with the two of them. We played that for about an hour before we did a few rounds of octopus which lasted another forty-five minutes. With about half an hour left we entered the sauna room together and had a contest to see who could stay inside the longest.

Alicia dropped out first, ten minutes in. I dropped out second, ten minutes before the pool would close, and let Rosa win. I wanted to end our pool time off in the pool itself rather than in the sauna. After the last ten minutes in the pool, we finally packed up and returned to our room together with all our stuff.

While I took a short shower the two of them ordered some room service. We were all pretty hungry after all the time we spent in the pool. When I got out of the shower the two of them entered together. They took much longer in comparison. I’d only taken five minutes while they’d taken twenty minutes altogether.

By the time they got out of the shower, the food they ordered had arrived. I took the portion they ordered for me and ate it while seated on the bed. The food was honestly pretty good and I had no complaints. It definitely wasn’t the bland stuff I was used to eating back when I lived alone.

We had the TV playing in the background while we ate together on the bed. The two of them were chatting about the food and random things that popped up on the TV. I simply watched the two girls enjoying themselves without butting in. I was exhausted from the games they forced me to play with them back at the pool.

I was seriously tired and ready to pass out. As soon as I finished my food, I threw the container into the small garbage bin at the side of the bed. The side of my cheek touched down on the side of the fluffy soft pillow in the process and became glued to it.

It wouldn’t budge an inch. I was truly convinced someone had put super glue on it. My head would not leave it.

Why were hotel pillows so damn nice? I wanted to resist, but my brain and body would not listen to me. Somehow, with both my hands hung down over the edge of the bed lifelessly like I was dead, I was the first of our little trio to fall asleep in such a strange position. 

A few minutes in though my eyes were shut, I felt the girls poking my face. I wanted to swat them away, but my body and brain had given in and called it a day. ‘We don’t get paid enough for this shit.’ I felt like my body and brain wanted to tell me that.

I get that I’m a lazy piece of shit, but body and brain, please cooperate!

It was no use, neither answered my calls. I was sent to voicemail. ‘Please leave your name and number after the tone and your body and brain will get back to you in the morning.’

Don't screw with me!

Haaaaah. Whatever. There’s no point arguing with myself. I give up. Poke my face or whatever, do whatever you want, I don’t care right now.