Chapter 9

"Why are you doing this?" I felt negative emotions bubbling in my stomach, seeing the video of the poor woman.

Really, how nauseating. I can't stand to be in the same room as them.

"Ha? You decided to be a whore first and acted all flirty with my boyfriend, you fucking bitch."

Uh? I flirted with her boyfriend? Unless she thinks Ivan is her boyfriend, I highly doubt that.

Even then, I can't believe she has a boyfriend.

There's no way he wasn't in it for the money, considering her trashy personality.

Seeing my confused face she whispered angrily, "Don't act innocent. My boyfriend kept asking about you after the party. You did something with him, didn't you?!"

"What party?" I don't attend parties at all, stupid.

"Grandpa's birthday party!"

Uh? I just… had to greet everyone at Grandfather's birthday party?

In the past— er, I mean, future, I rejected going to his parties often. This means I never met them and therefore didn't have to go through this bullshit.

Last year's party when I came back in time, I decided to go, and as his granddaughter, I welcomed the people that attended his celebration.

This includes seeing faces I do not know and smiling at them warmly.

So saying 'Welcome' counts as flirting?

Andrew frowned, "Martha, quit it. I was there as well and she clearly had not done anything. You're acting extremely rude to our host."

"So that's why you also kept asking about her after the party and looked so happy when we were on the plane here." Martha practically screeched. Huh, that's a new one.

Martha's face darkened with disdain at Andrew. "How pathetic. She also seduced you, huh?"

I barely held my laugh inside as I looked at Andrew's blushing face.

This is hilarious.

George began laughing. "Andrew, there's no way, is there, mate?"

"Alice," my mother called out to me, "it's time to bring the guests into the dining room."

She smiled at the guests, having heard nothing of what was happening, and also assumed like the other adults that we were getting along well.

"Very well, mother." I got up and motioned at them to follow the adults who were heading into the dining room.

"Alice, what will you be doing?" Andrew saw that I wasn't following them into the room.

I'll be in the kitchen putting rat poison in your food, you disgusting piece of garbage.

"I'll be with my mother."

"I see… we'll be waiting for you."

Please don't wait for me. And don't speak with that wretched tone of voice. It makes me want to puke.

I went to the bathroom and locked the door.

Yeah, if I had said I was going to the bathroom instead of 'I'll be with my mother', he'd have probably taken it as a flirtation and would have tried following me into the bathroom.

What a piece of garbage.

I came with the attitude that I wouldn't get bothered no matter what, but I'm losing my patience by the second.

My hands snooped around on my dress for the hidden camera. Getting a hold of it, I turned it around and saw a green light indicating that it was on.

After making sure it was still on, I checked the microphone next.

My anger dissipated somewhat, knowing retribution would come to them.

Too bad for you, Martha.

I camouflaged it again onto my dress, washed my hands, and walked back out into the dining room.

…

…

…

Greeting the guards at one of the gates of the school, I smiled at them and handed them a piece of gum. "Mint good?"

They smiled, "Thanks, Ivan."

I walked across the halls, the open area with all the courts, fields, and pool, and walked to the library.

To be honest, I was never too much of an avid reader but I'm starting to enjoy it a little bit. Textbooks aren't even supposed to be entertaining but I'm finding that I enjoy reading them.

If textbooks aren't bad, then fiction stories must be better, then.

Pushing open the library door, I waved at the librarians and walked around the shelves checking out books.

I found the young adult section, pulled out books, and checked their covers.

Suddenly, my eyes were covered from behind and a nice fragrance wafted into my nose.

Soft hands tenderly held my head.

"Guess who~?"

I would recognize this anywhere. The Manager.

With a wide smile, I said: "Hmm… is it Brenda?"

She added force to her hands and squeezed my head. "Wrong answer," I felt a threatening glare locking onto me.

"Haha…" You don't scare me. "Emma?"

Her grip became even more intense and I felt a terrifying aura accumulate behind me. "Guess again."

"Alicia."

"...You're serious?"

"Alicius."

"Shut up already."

I took her hands away from my eyes and turned around to face her, still gripping her hands.

"Ah… it's the little lazy pig."

"I'll kill you."

"The pig snorts so cutely," I put my hand to her cheek and stroked it with a condescending smile.

She huffed and slapped my hand away. "You wanna die?"

"No. You wanna die?"

"I'll kill you."

"Try it."

"Hmph… What are you doing in the library?"

"Lately I've been interested in books… Do you recommend any?"

Her eyes widened, "You— You, you're reading books? Ivan, you?"

Alright alright. It's not as if I don't read books. I just got impatient often.

I like articles more than books, even though they are both texts.

She looked touched as if the reason why I was reading books was because of her.

Stop misunderstanding you narcissist. Taking up a new hobby is for me.

"Yes. Do you have any recommendations?"

She suddenly smiled teasingly, as if she had learned of my schemes to impress her and get her attention, and said, "Sure. I read a lot so just tell me what sort of genres interest you."

"To be honest, I'll read anything." Seeing her face, annoyance became a tick on my temple. "And stop misunderstanding," I flicked her forehead.

She covered her forehead and looked at me with tears in her eyes, "What's your friggin' problem?"

Yeah, you're not fooling me. I stared at her emotionlessly.

Suddenly her eyes got a little too wet to be fake crying.

Haha… you're not actually crying, are you?

"A-Alice?"

A stream fell out of her right eye.

"W-What. A-Alice? Are you okay?"

She started sniffing and crouched down on the floor, covering her face.

My mouth remained wide open as her sobs became louder by the second.

This was not a talent she had informed me about.

Why didn't she pursue an acting career?

Get up, you little wench. I know you're faking it but others will think I'm bullying you…

I felt one of the librarian's criticizing gazes. She's probably an avid reader and has already imagined an out-of-context novel-like situation.

No!! I am not the evil trash boyfriend that dumps her after cheating on her with 5 women, who will then lose his entire family's fortune after the Male Lead takes revenge!!

I grabbed her hand and forcefully pulled her up.

It worsened the situation as she let herself be pulled up and her arm dangled as I held it while she wiped her tears desperately with her other hand.

What the fuck are these crazy acting skills?!

"Stop crying, stop, stop. Alice what. Stop. I'll do anything, please stop crying."

She sniffed, "Really?"

"Hell no, I won't. Stop crying."

She began weeping even louder.

I shook her shoulder but it just made it even worse as she purposefully tried to trip herself.

"Okay, okay… Shhh, shhh, shhh… Settle down."

She hugged me and pasted her face onto my chest. My shirt was getting wet with her tears.

Ah, you little idiot. It's a new shirt too… and she knows it. Aghhhhh!

She sniffed even harder and hugged my waist as she began wailing even harder.

"Alice," I whisper-yelled, "What's wrong? Stop stop. Just stop," her wails got louder and she was attracting many gazes now.

I tried pulling her away but she urgently stood rooted to the spot.

"What can I do?"

"Say it."

"What? Say what?"

"What you just said."

I gnashed my teeth. "I'll… do anything if you stop crying."

She immediately stopped her tears and smiled against my chest. And then she wiped her tears with my shirt.

I sighed in relief as the situation began settling down.

Little rascal, you'll see…

She pulled away and didn't hide her vibrant smile.

"So, you're not breaking up with me?" She said loudly so that everyone could hear.

Jesus. I just want to get out of here.

With a twitching eye, I nodded. "So what books do you recommend?"

As if nothing had happened, she hopped around shelves while holding my hand and pulled out huge chunky books.

"These are pretty good, I think you'll like them," she looked at me with expectancy in her eyes.

The books were thick mamas, filling up a huge amount of bookshelf.

As Alice brought up a book, I could not help but admire the strength of her forearms as her little arms brought the weight up like nothing.

Taking the book from her, I opened it down the middle and scanned the pages.

I could not believe the thickness and size of the book in comparison to the ants of the words. If the words were any smaller, I might have thought the book was just squiggles and lines…

I closed it with a snap and looked up at her.

"Haha… don't you, uh. Have something a little simpler?" I again tried scanning through the pages, sensing that the reading level was a little too high for the little me who only read articles and documentary subtitles.

"Ah," she looked weirdly at me.

Okay, look. Textbooks that tell you something literally, concretely, and conceptually are a whole different ball game to fiction books where the author is trying to explain a world with their own words, flow, and style.

Textbooks have literal text, fiction is riddled with brain-numbing metaphors and imagery...

My excuses were summed up into a single sentence. "I'm not a nerd like you."

She stiffened and marched up into my face with a frown.

Hmm.. she'd look pretty cute with glasses…

"Then become a nerd."

Not intimidated.

"Okay, but I still need steps to become a nerd."

"Hmmm," she put the books back and began hopping around like a rabbit. "This one," she pulled out, "and this one… They're pretty easy to read and very interesting."

I looked at their covers and size and decided to give them a chance.

"What genre are they?"

"Boy's love."

"Uh…"

"Just kidding, I don't want to scare you away just yet. It's just romance…"

"...Huh."

I looked at their synopsis on their backs.

Seeing that their premises were interesting enough, I held her hand and walked to the check-out.