Chapter 153. Convincing Irene. (5/6)

“I hope you don’t expect me to start crying all of a sudden in your arms or something. Because something cheesy like that is definitely not going to happen.”

“I know you’re not going to cry. I just want to hug you. Am I not allowed to do that?”

“No… you’re allowed to.”

“I won’t tell you something typical like how you should let it all out and cry once in a while. I think you’re fine even if you don’t cry. You’re not some sort of monster for not crying either. You just have your own way of looking at things and I like that about you.”

“People these days blabber on about how it’s okay for guys to cry, but do you ever hear people say it’s okay for guys not to cry anymore? It used to be something like it’s expected of guys not to cry, but then the world got soft and started spouting it’s okay for guys to cry too. Then the guys who still didn’t cry were just seen as some sort of insensitive brick walls. But guys who don’t cry just have their own way of coping with things. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Hearing her voice directly beside my ear my body slumped and leaned up against her. She supported half of my weight in that fashion. I didn’t go and start crying. I simply stuck closer to her than before. Being near her like this, I felt strangely calm. Her existence was a soothing one to my weary soul that was all but too tired of this world.

After we stayed in that position for a while, she tilted her head to the side in front of me and our lips locked. Her tongue slowly slipped between my lips and entangled itself with my own.

My tongue wrapped back around hers and I reciprocated her kiss. It wasn’t an overly passionate kiss. It was more of a kiss that provided reassurance that she’d stay by my side in this cold dreary world. She wouldn’t leave me behind. She’d be there when I needed her. She’d love me even if I was perceived by the world as a heartless monster without feelings.

It was but only one, a single tear inadvertently leaked out from the corner of my right eye and dripped onto the back of her hand.

Her eyes were closed and she didn’t see it. She likely just thought it was a drop of saliva.

Was this what it felt like to be accepted by someone else? To have their undying trust and faith? It somehow felt like she’d willingly do anything I asked of her. Like there was some sort of deeper connection binding us together than before. Something was different. Something had changed. I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t comprehend it.

It was very strange to me. But… I didn’t feel it was so bad.

When Irene pulled away and removed her arms from around my head a string of saliva connected between our lips snapped in two.

“We need to get back home,” she said.

“Yeah. Let’s go for real this time. It’d be bad to delay any more than this.”

Irene reversed out of where we were parked and drove out of the convenience store’s parking lot.

We chatted a bit and joked around during the drive home. The mood between us was very amicable. When she parked up in front of her place I had her go inside first. I waited outside and didn’t enter. I could still see inside, but I hadn’t been noticed when Irene walked in.

She’d been immediately ambushed and caught off guard the second she stepped through the door.

Alicia was in a bowing position.

When her mother asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve been waiting this entire time for you to get back. Please allow me to work!”

“This entire time? How long?”

“Yes, this entire time. I even recorded it all to show I’m not lying. It’s been over five hours.”

“Five hours? Are you crazy? You’ve been standing around here for that long? Your feet and back must be killing you. Please sit down.”

“I can’t sit down and I won’t move from here until you give me consent to work. I’ll stand here for as long as I have to. I’m resolved to die standing here. Mother, please let me work. I want to help out.”

Irene’s shoulders started trembling and she started crying again. She opened her arms wide and started bawling while hugging her daughter.

“You stupid girl! I’ll sign, okay? Just sit down, your mother’s heart can’t take it!”

“Please sign it first. Before I see it signed, I won’t budge from this spot.”

Irene let go of her daughter in a panic and fumbled around while pulling out a pen from her pocket. She put the paper against the wall and signed it.

“Mother, can you also take out your driver’s license please?”

“Sure. But what for?”

“I’m sorry for going behind your back. I went for an interview and as long as you give me written consent I’ll be hired for the position. The person hiring me set a condition that they wanted to verify you are in fact my mother so I’m not pulling any funny business.”

“Ah. Right, I understand.”

Irene once again flustered, fumbled about clumsily in her pocket, and pulled out her wallet. She accidentally dropped it on the ground and hurriedly picked it up. 

The reliable mother image I had of her was crumbling to pieces in a flash. It was the first time I’d ever seen her behave in such a clumsy fashion. It was not that she’d truly turned useless all of a sudden. She’d just been that caught off guard by her daughter’s ambush. Well, a large contributory factor was the result of my own actions behind the scenes. I’d completely broken down her sturdy defenses and turned her soft for the effectiveness of Alicia’s ambush to look all the more convincing.

This way there would be no question whether Irene was informed of the wager. Though Alicia herself might have some doubts about how easily her mother caved, the Owner didn’t know Irene’s normal character. She could grill Alicia, but Alicia herself didn’t know for certain whether her mother had been informed of the wager by me either. 

I waited an hour outside in the cold before I entered. Time was ticking down to the deadline and I had to get the video to the Owner.

“Ran! Finally! Where have you been all this time? Why are you so late? No, now's not the time for that. I was able to convince my mother to let me work. You’ve got to hurry and send the consent form and video to the Owner!” As soon as I entered I was ambushed in a similar fashion as Irene at the front door.

Irene had already turned in for the night since she still had to work in the morning. She couldn’t quite just yet, but in the coming weeks, she’d be free with only a single job to worry about. Rosa who’d recorded the whole ordeal with Alicia’s phone had similarly gone to bed for school in the morning. Alicia was the only one who was still up because she’d been waiting for me to return the entire time.

“Oh? You actually convinced her? That’s great. You even got the video by yourself, perfect.” I pretended I was clueless.

“Don’t act like your being late had nothing to do with this. I’m sure you had a hand to play in all of this somehow. You didn’t reveal the wager to my mother though, did you?” It seemed my waiting an hour outside before entering didn’t have much effect on reducing her suspicions. Well, it was only natural. The only thing I needed was for her to believe that I didn’t reveal the wager to her mother.

“No. You can relax, she knows nothing of it. I promise.”

For the second time, the instant she heard the words ‘I promise,’ the trace of worry she had about me breaking the condition the owner set for us disappeared. She really trusted me way too much. Just like her mother. What was the saying? Like mother like daughter?

“If that’s the case… how did you do it then?”

“Just give me a second. I can explain after we get this done.

I received her phone then quickly trimmed the video and only took the portion where Irene had been ambushed. It would take too long to upload the full-length video with the remaining time after all. I’d provide the Owner with the link to the full video afterward just to prove Alicia’s claim in the video of waiting for over five hours for her mother to return.

I uploaded the shortened video to one of my drives online then sent the link for the video to my boss along with the image of the signed written consent form. After that I let her know the full five-hour-plus-long video was being uploaded and I’d send it over to her later if she really wanted to verify Alicia’s claim in the video when she confronted her mother.

I received an immediate frustrated reply back.

‘Looks like you got lucky this time, punk.’

‘When your interview comes around, I wonder if you’ll be so lucky. I’m really looking forward to making you suffer in your own interview~’

‘You mad bro?’ I couldn’t help but fan the flames. It was an extremely rare situation to get one over the Owner.

‘I will… kill you if you ever ask me that again, you know~’

I shivered when I read her response and put away my phone. I saw nothing. As for how she bolded those two words through text messages. It was because she’d sent it as an image, a screenshot from the notepad app on her phone. She really wanted to get her emphasis on how much she wanted to kill me across.

I made a note to myself to never again ask the Owner, ‘You mad bro?’