Chapter 237 - Questionable Jealousy

What Trisha did was straightforward. The next moment she got permission, Trisha plainly walked up to the nervous Chihua and pulled down her face mask.

"Dude, how the hell are you not able to recognize me?"

"... e-eh?"

Seeing how Chihua just froze up, Trisha then took her sunglasses off, showing her golden pupils. At this point, there's no way that Chihua wouldn't recognize her, right? Afterward, she immediately put the mask and sunglasses back.

"B-b-b-boss?"

"Haha... stop stuttering already. It's getting annoying."

Trisha's voice became cold. Seeing how domineering this girl immediately became, Chihua became one hundred percent sure that it was her, the Boss!

"It's you!"

Chihua's spirits were lifted the moment he processed that Trisha's in front of him. However, he was unable to show his happiness. Should he hug her? She will literally kick his ass though. That's why he awkwardly stood still.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm covering my face for a reason so don't make unnecessary noise."

Trisha looked around but although Chihua's voice became louder because there were lesser people, these people didn't really care about them.

'Now that I think about it, I haven't seen my face plastered on any post or wall... is Mom really trying to search for me?'

She got a bit sad but Trisha thought that there are times she unintentionally didn't go home. So she didn't have the face to be that sad.

"Okay, okay."

Chihua nodded with a smile but at the next moment, his smile disappeared.

'Wait... if she's Boss then why...?'

He then looked at Teren and it was confusion that was in his mind at first.

"Boss, what's happening? Is he threatening you?"

"Hm, let's not talk here. Ah, wait."

Trisha then turned and walked to Teren, asking.

"Can we go somewhere else? It's hard to talk here." 

This scene struck Chihua hard. He didn't know why but he felt weird seeing this little interaction, also, a little jealousy. He doesn't understand it since Trisha's attitude towards Teren seemed to be a little cold too so what is there to be jealous of?

After that thought, Trisha was already back and told him-

"Follow us. We figured that we should just eat outside."

Chihua nodded and followed them. It was a good thing that they met up before Teren could pick up any grocery or his efforts will be wasted. Since the mart was located in a commercial area, there were a lot of chains of establishments there, including various types of restaurants. Therefore, they just walked their way to their chosen restaurant for lunch.

'This is weird, this is definitely weird. Why is Boss walking side by side with him? She's even a little behind. What's happening?'

Chihua became super observant as Teren and Trisha were in front of him, chatting along the way. He couldn't understand what they were talking about so he stopped listening. He didn't know that his jealousy was rising.

After a while, they stopped in front of a fancy restaurant. Chihua thought that they were just stopping for some reason but he didn't expect them to enter.

"W-wait..."

He called out which Teren and Trisha looked back at him. 

"What?"

Trisha walked closer to him and asked. Meanwhile, Teren entered the restaurant already.

"Um, Boss, we may have money for this but isn't this a waste? Why this restaurant? We can just grab a meal at a fast-food one."

"I thought it was important. Don't worry, Teren got us covered."

Trisha smiled as if she got lucky.

"R-really?"

"Yeah, stop hesitating, it's a free meal. I just learned that guy's quite rich. If he's exaggerating then it would quite an embarrassing moment for him after getting the check. So it's a win-win for me."

Trisha grinned behind her facemask.

"Eh? You want him to embarrass himself?"

Was his Boss ever been this mischievous? She would play with others as if they are toys but something here feels different than that...

"Of course, I haven't seen him in a sorry state... except last night... so it's like a recreational thing."

Trisha explained as if it was normal as she enters the restaurant.

"L-last night? Wait, Boss, what happened last night?"

Chihua then followed her inside. Upon entering, he saw that she was just standing there. Looking in the direction of her gaze, Chihua saw that Teren was talking to a man who seemed to be a gangster.

"Who's that?"

She muttered before she continued her way to the table, sitting beside Teren and leaning at him to whisper-

"Who's that guy? We just entered, right? Don't tell me... you're getting harassed?"

Meanwhile, the gangster-looking guy, Eron was surprised to see a girl wearing an obvious disguise suddenly sit beside Teren and whisper to him, signifying their closeness.

'Another new girl?'

But Eron felt that this girl was familiar even with the sunglasses and facemask. Just her blonde ponytail was making him remember things. However, he couldn't discern where he had met her and how.

"He's Eron, you remember the Five Houses I told you about? He belongs to one of them."

Teren whispered back while Chihua stood there, not knowing if he should sit or not. He didn't particularly feel like he belong there.

Only when Trisha looked at him and signaled that he should sit down did he comply immediately. It just feel so natural that Trisha was ordering him, it was kind of liberating if that's the right word, he thought.

Learning that Eron was somewhat an important person, Trisha suddenly changed her attitude. She extended her hand to offer a handshake.

"Hello, my name's Trisha Jane, nice to meet you."

Even without seeing her expression, Eron could feel the charisma flowing from her. The confidence behind the voice straightened Eron a little bit as he took that handshake and introduced himself. Her name rang a few bells but Eron was distracted by her unnatural charisma. However, he didn't seem to waver outside though.

"You can just call me Eron since you seemed to be a friend of Sir Teren."

Hearing this made Trisha glance at Teren. Teren noticed this and knew what's inside her mind.

'Did she feel a sense of defeat when Eron called me Sir? She must've been trying to make him respect her.'

Just as Teren expected, Trisha said after the handshake.

"We're not exactly friends but you can call me Ma'am or Madam, whichever you want."

"..."

"Ignore her, let's speak about why you went out your way to set up this 'coincidence'."

Teren then said.