CHAPTER 61. EXECUTING OPERATION, CODENAME: DATE, MORNING (1/4)

On the bus headed to the arcade, the two of us sat side by side. I took the window seat on the right toward the middle of the bus while Rosa took an aisle seat.

She plugged her earbuds into her phone and put one earbud into her right ear. Without me asking she plugged the other into my left ear on her own.

Since there wasn’t anything else to do while we waited I didn’t make a fuss and listened along in silence. I’d been curious what sort of music she liked. I often saw her in class with her earbuds in listening to music.

Honestly, after I listened for a while I discovered her taste in music was quite large. When I saw her skimming through the songs on her phone there were songs from all sorts of genres ranging from death metal, rock, pop, hip hop, R&B, classical, electro, techno, country, etc. Surprised by this, I couldn’t help asking, “Is there any genre of music you don’t like?”

She actually looked like she had to seriously think about it hard before she opened her mouth, “If the song sucks, it sucks, but if it’s good, it’s good. The genre doesn’t matter to me much. If it’s something I like, I’ll listen to it.”

“I see.”

“Oh, what about you, is there any genre you hate? So I can skip the song if one comes up that you really don’t like.”

“No, I don’t particularly look at genres when deciding either. There are good and bad songs from every genre. If you cross one off the list, you might miss out on some really good songs.”

“Oh, are you secretly a fellow music connoisseur?”

“Not really, it’s rare for me to really like a song. But all the ones that you’ve played so far, I haven’t disliked them. Our taste in music might be a bit similar.”

“Hmm… it kind of makes me want to play an awful song to see if we can agree that they’re terrible.”

“Sure, why not?”

She immediately picked one that made me want to spit out the window with veins bulging out of my forehead.

“Hahaha! Judging by your face I’d say we both hate this one.”

“WAP, right?”

“Yeah. If I see someone I really want to kill, I just listen to this song to make me want to kill them even more. Who sang this shitty song anyway?”

“No idea, I don’t remember artists that sing garbage like that. If you said you liked this song I probably wouldn’t have been able to remain in a relationship with you.” I sincerely couldn’t be bothered to commit her name to memory. The second I heard this song, I’d permanently exiled her to the back of my mind where I swore never to listen to another song from her again.

“Wow, your hatred for it runs that deep?”

“Yes. As deep as the ocean.” I don't know how or why this ‘song’ came into existence faster than it should have, but I suppose I’d committed an egregious sin against humanity for being an indirect contributing factor that brought this god-awful shit stain into the world so soon.

While we started a competition of bashing garbage songs on the bus, there was an unexpected development. When the bus came to a stop a group of students got onto the bus. They weren’t wearing their uniform and were in casual clothes so I normally wouldn’t recognize them as being students. As for why I did recognize them, it was because they were from our school. They were not in their first year, but second year instead.

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Just because they were from my school didn’t mean I’d recognize them though. No, it was because there was one girl I did recognize all too well among them. A girl whose eyes immediately locked onto mine the instant she stepped foot into the bus.

She could easily tell it was me as my hair was fixed up in a similar fashion to how I had it at work. Along with the blue eyes she’d grown accustomed to, and the fact that Rosa, her friend, a fellow student from her school was seated beside me. It was all but too obvious.

I averted my eyes away from her and looked out the window. What was with my luck? It was the one girl I didn’t want to run into. Was this some sort of curse? Was there some sort of sick twisted god mercilessly laughing at me right now?

She didn’t call out to me, but her group of friends that got on the bus with her remained standing in the general area surrounding us. Alicia ended up in a position directly beside Rosa.

Rosa didn’t seem to be bothered at all though. She actually smiled and waved at her to come over to talk. The two of them conversed amicably, while I kept my mouth shut and sat like a stone statue in my seat. Alicia’s eyes had lit up a bit when she’d seen the two of us, she didn’t have a negative reaction at all seeing the two of us together and was instead extremely happy. The way her eyes lit up didn’t feel like it was from being surprised at coming across us.

It was hard to understand nice girls like her.

Perhaps Alicia had already figured out there was something between Rosa and I. Woman’s instinct was a terrifying thing. The two of them had scoured through all of the first years yet it turned out the one she was searching for had been right next to Rosa from the very beginning. That would certainly be more than enough to raise an eyebrow at.

But… something felt a bit off about the entire thing. If she’d unexpectedly seen us together like this, even if she knew about us, would she not have at least still shown a bit of surprise when she entered the bus and encountered us? Even I was surprised to suddenly see her here, yet she didn’t seem surprised at all. My suspicions were raised. Something wasn’t exactly adding up, but I wasn’t entirely sure what it was.

Rosa and Alicia were on very good terms. Their friendship bud outside of my sight during days I skipped. I had no way of knowing how deep it had truly gotten… but… Rosa said she’d go as far as playing for the wrong team for Alicia.

That being the case… did Rosa herself inform Alicia of this date? Did she spill the beans herself to this first girlfriend of hers? Why would she do that though? Was Rosa under the impression that there was something more between Alicia and I? Was this some sort of test? One of those fabled shit tests women like that I’ve heard of only in fabled legends?

I’d never been part of a shit test before. If this was one… what was I supposed to do to pass through this unexpected storm?

Nothing? Was I supposed to just sit here and do nothing as I’d done from the very beginning of this ill-fated encounter? Perhaps that was truly the answer. There may have never been a need to overthink any of this.

As such, I focused my gaze on outside the window with music playing in my left ear as I simultaneously listened in on the surrounding conversations going on.

In total, Alicia entered the bus with four other people. Two girls and two boys chatted amongst themselves while Alicia conversed with Rosa.

“So, are you on a date with your boyfriend today?” Alicia asked.

“Yeah. We are on a date.” Rosa responded without batting an eye.

If Alicia didn’t know before, she definitely knew now. I was keeping an eye on her reaction through her reflection of the window, but she didn’t seem surprised by Rosa’s boyfriend reveal.

So, it was as I’d guessed, she’d already known after all.

Well, as she owed me a debt of gratitude for her little brother, I wasn’t too concerned she’d go blabbing about it to everyone. Even if she did, she definitely wouldn’t reveal it was me.

It had already been a while since we’d got onto the bus so it wouldn’t be too long before we’d arrive at the mall.

I couldn’t help but take notice of how little Alicia took part in the conversation between the students she’d boarded the bus with though. It sort of felt like she was trying to stay out of it as much as possible. Kind of like an outsider or third wheel.

It bothered me a bit. I wanted to ask, but I opted to remain silent. Had this good girl gone and gotten herself involved with something troublesome again?

After a few more minutes the bus finally arrived at our destination where Rosa and I stood up.

Alicia suddenly asked, “Oh? You’re getting off here too?”

“Yeah, we are. We’re starting our date off at the mall.”

“I see, that’s quite a coincidence. Maybe we’ll see each other around.”

Those words sounded like an ominous premonition if I’d ever heard one, but I chose to ignore it. I heard nothing. I know nothing.