Chapter 167. An Unexpected Visitor at the Museum. (1/3)

Though the world outside had been in chaos for the last seventeen days because of the scandal with Jae-Sun Yang, I’d spent my days in peace and quiet for once. Today was a Monday, it was now about a month into the second semester, the beginning of February. 

Alicia and Rosa were at school today. They had already settled into their work lives and Irene had opted to quit her hostess job and go full-time with her barista job from 9 AM to 3:00 PM starting today. Everything had gone so well I was worried something awful was bound to happen to me sooner or later.

The world seemed to hate when I had so much time to myself. I had so much leisure time lately that I went and published a volume of another story to Amazon. The sales hadn’t been all that impressive, but at least I made some money.

Despite my worry that the world would soon find a way to screw me over, I was still convinced today would turn out to just be another average day.

At least, that was what I’d hoped.

I was currently seated in the museum leisurely passing the day and skipping classes when I suddenly heard the sound of music approaching from the distance. I couldn’t make it out very well at first, but it gradually got louder. 

Some idiot wasn’t listening to it through headphones, rather, they had it playing out loud for everyone to hear.

What kind of weirdo does that? That was my initial thought, but suddenly I recognized the song.

Hysteria.

Perhaps it was a good term for what I felt when a certain woman I associated with it came to mind. I could even discern the acoustics in the song that was playing right now.

I sat up from the couch and discreetly peeked behind me. It seems it had been a mistake to do so. Someone already had their eyes locked on me.

That someone was none other than Ms. Angel of Death. I gulped nervously. Why was she here? Hadn’t she left as part of the agreement we made? She was supposed to never return to this city.

Had it turned into the worst-case scenario I envisioned?

Before she approached any closer, I immediately took out my phone and started recording a video. I tucked it into the side pocket of my bag on the couch beside me I’d used to sleep on. It blended in quite well with the phone being black and the pocket being similarly colored.

I actually got lucky with the side she approached me from. She’d approached from the same side as my bag, opposite the side my phone was on.

When she was close enough, I turned my head to the right and looked at her cluelessly.

“Do you know who I am?”

“No, don’t care. Please leave.” I acted like I was simply annoyed by the way she was playing music out loud inside my sanctuary.

“If you don’t know me, it must be you who was on the roof that night.” Was she shooting in the dark using this method with everyone she picked out as a potential candidate?

“Roof? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Everyone I’ve met in this city has known my name right away. I can only imagine the only person who says they don’t know is the person who was on the roof. Even after I said it to him, he had no reaction at all to it. Are you just pretending to not know me?” Are you kidding me? Everyone she asked knew her bloody name? Is it because of her pure white hair that stands out so much?

It was best to pretend that I’d lied then. I could play it off as being a fan of hers who was trying to put on a cold act to make her take an interest in me. “Haaaah. Yes, yes. I’m just pretending. You’re that famous singer Ange Delamort or something, right? Now can you please leave?”

As soon as I said her name, she grinned.

“What? Did I get it wrong or something?” I’d especially remembered it because she was an evil woman who owed me $12.59. Wait, actually, I left behind that mask too to prove to her she hadn’t been hallucinating and to ensure she’d wait for results and not do anything rash. I never even added that onto the bill. The spray paint as well. That made it $20.34. 

Yeah, I was petty enough to remember the combined cost of that mask. Got a problem with that? Bite me.

“Yes, you did get it wrong.” She had to be lying to get me to show a crack in my mask. Confusion or a look of doubt in my eyes was surely what she wanted.

“Are you lying to try and make me second guess myself or something?” I called her out on her bluff.

“Not at all. I’ve now confirmed with 100% certainty. You were the one I met on that fateful night.” How the bloody hell? Was she serious about the name? Did I actually get deceived? If I really had, it was my own fault for being careless. I never imagined a celebrity who should be full of pride would accept that someone didn’t even know their name. I should have verified her name really had been this.

She continued while I cursed my habit of not caring about people’s names. “You were the one who saved my life and stopped me from committing suicide. You were the one who saw through everything in my heart on that cold night when we were all alone.” It wasn’t even cold that night, you’re just a wimp. I was sweating in my hoodie that night.

“My real singer name isn’t Ange Delamort, the only person who would ever call me that was the one I met that night. He’s the only one who would know that name. The same person who called me Ms. Angel of Death. Ange de la mort; it means angel of death in French. Nobody would ever call me that since I’ve only ever introduced myself in such a fashion to my savior.”

Are you fucking kidding me? You know, I took French in middle school, but another one of my greatest weaknesses in life turned out to be my inability to learn another language. Well, honestly, it also didn’t help that I lost my French book from almost day one. Though I had a feeling that someone else had lost theirs and they just stole mine. That being the case, I didn’t want to pay the money for it, so I kept that fact hidden all the way till the end of middle school when everyone had to return them. I just never showed up that day.

I’ve been a penny pincher even as far back as that.

I never thought I’d rue the day of my cheapness in such a fashion. I must have looked like a careless idiot to not even figure something simple like this out. Well… in a way that may have worked in my favor. She’d lower her guard if she thought she was in a superior position.

“It took a long time to find you, Mr. All Black Crying Clown Mask. You really slipped up. Not only did you get careless, but you were stupid enough to not realize the name was French for the exact same name you gave me.”

“What an idiotically long name, is that what you’ve been calling me all this time?” Since I’d been seen through, I had to retort to the egregious name she’d give me.

“Is that what you’re most concerned about? Shouldn’t you care more about my name than the name I call you?”

“I’m not the smartest tool in the shed as you can see. To be caught so easily, it should be clear.”

“Easily? It wasn’t that easy at all. I was just shooting in the dark this whole time working off of the little information I took a brute force approach going around everywhere I thought someone like you might be while playing this song out loud. If anyone showed a reaction to it I asked them if they knew the name of the song. If they didn’t, I’d ask if they knew who I was. I’d individually assess their reactions on a person by person basis.”

“If they said they didn’t know who I was and asked if I was the one who sang that song, I crossed them off the list. There was no way the person I was looking for would ask me that question.”

Damn, so I could have asked something like that to get her off my back?