Chapter 212.

I really had no idea what to get. There was still quite some time before the mall opened because of how early it was so I entered a fast food restaurant and bought a single drink. They had free refills so I sat around inside passing the time. I ate the chocolate I’d received from Rosa and Wisteria while I searched around online for things that might be appropriate to give as a gift back to them.

Chocolates in return would probably be fine, but… it felt pretty standard. It’s not that I hadn’t thought of something for Rosa, it’s just that it was a bit expensive. For just Valentine’s Day, with her only giving me chocolate, it felt like it’d be too much to give back in return and make her feel a bit awkward. 

What you give each other should be on a similar level, that was what I believed. What I had in mind was something I should save for an event like Christmas or her next birthday. It wasn’t stupidly expensive like a ring or anything, it was a pair of nice quality headphones I’d seen online that I thought would look good on her. She enjoyed listening to music so I thought she might like it.

Though Alicia enjoyed music as well, she seemed more interested in dancing to music than the music itself. My ideas for her included a body motion tracking video game that would let her dance to her heart's content. I didn’t have any of such games among the collection I brought with me. It also meant I most likely had to buy a new gaming console as well. 

Essentially, these ideas were by no means cheap. Another idea I had for her was to buy her a quality pair of wireless portable loudspeakers that she could easily transport around and dance to music in her room or anywhere in general really. But again, this idea also required a somewhat sizable sum of money, at least a lot more than getting some simple chocolate.

In both these cases, I’d rather save them for birthday presents. Yes, I wouldn’t be caught off guard in the future for these events. I’d learned my lesson from this last Christmas and Rosa’s birthday. Never again would I allow myself to carelessly hand out those dreadful coupons.

As for Irene… well… I’d also thought of future presents for her as well. She was actually the easiest since she was a mother. Household appliances, pots and pans, items that could provide therapeutic effects to relieve muscle fatigue, things that allowed her to sleep and rest better. There were all sorts of things I could think of for her. But again, these sorts of items were considerably more expensive than simple chocolate. They were also best reserved for Christmas and her birthday.

Ugh. There were also things like anniversaries I’d have to be mindful of. No, forget those, I can’t be bothered to worry about every single little date. There were too many women who’d been entangled with me that I had to keep tabs on now.

This was the worst. This was why I hated relationships, they were such a pain in the ass with all the extra days you suddenly had to remember. Women were the type to remember these pointless little things too. If you forgot one of such pointless little dates, they might secretly hold it against you. They might sit on it for months or years and bring it up when you least expected it.

Screw those dates, if they expect me to remember them all I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll figure it out if it ever comes to it. Yeah, the future me can deal with all that nonsense. Good luck future me, it sounds like it will be a pain in the ass.

I’m sure the future me will have a flashback to this moment in life one day in the future and curse me out. As such, I typed out a message on my phone to my future self and engraved it into my memories.

‘Go fuck yourself future me, don’t blame me for being ruthless. It’s your problem, not mine.”

That was the message I wrote in big bold letters to myself. If my memories were hazy and I felt like I’d written down some important message for my future self, I’m sure I’d search for this file. I saved it to my drive in a new folder named ‘Anniversaries.’ The file name was ‘Anniversary Dates.’

I couldn’t help but let out a low sinister chuckle when I imagined the look on my future self’s face when he opened it. I’m sure he’d curse me out and throw his phone on the ground in rage.

As such, I added one last line to the file before I closed it out. You would have to scroll down a little bit.

‘P.S. Throw your phone on the ground. You won’t, pussy.’

There was a chance my future self saw through my intent to piss him off to make him throw his phone on the ground, thus I set this secondary trap. He’d notice that there was more room to scroll down. He’d then think he was just playing a little joke on his future self and be convinced that the dates would truly be recorded when he scrolled down.

When the future me saw this message, he would no doubt lose his mind.

“Hahahaha!” I inadvertently burst out into loud diabolical laughter creepily in the corner of the fast food restaurant. It only took a few seconds for me to recall where I was. I shut my mouth, scanned my surroundings, and realized the place was packed for breakfast.

I felt awkward when I noticed a lot of people had focused their attention toward me and the surroundings had turned silent. I calmly lowered my eyes back to my phone and kept my mouth shut from then on.

I wanted to immediately leave, but there was still a good amount of time until the mall opened. It didn’t take too long before people started chatting again. Some of them joked for a short time about the weirdo in the corner who’d laughed maniacally to himself just now.

I didn’t let it phase me, I thickened my skin and bore with it. It was my fault for plotting against my future self. Damn you, future self, you may have won this round, but when you remember this moment you will surely feel your skin crawl rather than a sense of schadenfreude since I am the embarrassing past you wish to forget.

In the end, your past self will have the last laugh.

Muahahahahaha! Muahahahaha!

This time I made sure to only laugh in my head.

I was really just that bored from waiting around with nothing better to do that I’d actually concocted a plot against my future self.

Haaaaah.

Well, this was how loners without any friends spent their time on their days off after all. Talking to themselves in their head and thinking about stupid shit like this.

“Haaaaaah.” I unconsciously leaked out a short sigh.

“Excuse me. Do you mind if I sit here to eat?” Someone suddenly asked me that.

Without even looking at them, I blandly responded, “I do mind, I’m sure there are other places you can sit.”

“Every seat is taken. The only free seat is the one at your table.”

I looked up and scrutinized the entire restaurant and verified there truly weren’t any other seats available. Damn, just how popular is a fast food joint for breakfast?

Is it because it’s Sunday, Valentine’s Day, and also so close to the mall? Ugh, that had to be it. 

“Fine.” I gave such a minimalist response.

I kept my head down, glued to my phone. I didn’t know who was seated with me, the only thing I knew was that they were a girl who sounded to be around my age. I would make damn sure there would be no unforeseen accidents this time. As long as I play the role of an extremely unlikable creepy social misfit who wouldn’t even look someone in the eye I was sure nothing could possibly go wrong.

“You sure must be lonely to be here all by yourself on Valentine’s Day.”

“I’m not. I’ve already got a girlfriend.” If I made that clear from the start, there was no chance in hell some sort of bullshit fateful encounter flag would be triggered.

“What? You’re not going to try and use some lame pick-up line like ‘it’s you’ if I ask who or something, are you?”

“Are you brain dead or something? Why would I have the slightest interest in some narcissistic random chick that decides to sit at my table inside some shit fast food restaurant to eat her food?”

“Is that so? I see. Good.”

“Hmph! You called me lonely before, but for a girl to show up here all alone, were you just trying to impose the image of yourself onto someone else? Pathetic.”

“Hah! Are you trying to pick a fight loser!”

My body was pulled up from my chair when a hand grabbed and tugged on the collar of my shirt.

A bit startled by her actions I looked up and understood everything. The person’s appearance was enough to paint a clear picture of how they’d react to my words. I regretted not looking sooner. Their appearance was definitely the type who’d pick a fight if given the chance.

A rebellious goth girl with shoulder-length hair dyed a deep blue that tapered off into a light blue at the ends. There were two locks of purple highlighted hair, both of which she’d tied at the ends with a black stringed cloth accessory. They hung down and crossed between her eyes down the bridge of her nose. These two locks of hair were longer than her soft and grungy bangs which hung down over her forehead.

That was just her hair though. She was covered in piercings. Her lower lip was pierced near the two corners. The two piercings were horseshoe in shape, the curve pointed inside her mouth with two small balls at the ends exposed to the outside. She had a nose ring piercing hanging down below the center of her nose and another ring piercing at the center of her tongue. The rim of her left ear had three tight-fitting ring piercings curled around them.

Rosa had one such piercings in her ear near the same spot, but this girl really took her body mutilation to an extreme.

What a scary-looking girl. It would be best to leave while I’m still alive.

She even had tattoos. A black heart outline on the right side of her neck. Part of an intricate black butterfly on her upper left breast. She even had two black snakes forming an open heart coiled around a cross, centered over her belly button.

Black lipstick, black nails, dark blue eyeliner. Oddly enough, she had amber eyes with a golden hue to them. Honestly, her appearance could be described as nothing more than wild.

Beneath her tight skimpy short sleeve jacket which only covered her body down to her elbows, she had a tight tube top with lace strings holding the center together revealing her cleavage in between. Her midriff was exposed all the way around. 

Her arms were covered by long gothic gloves that were open from her palms with only a single piece of fabric between her thumb and index finger. Her fingers and the palm region above thumb level were fully exposed to the open. These gloves covered up to just past her elbow. They were ornamented with a few metallic rings.

She had a short black skirt with small cross-shaped ornaments that dangled off the bottom hem all the way around to the back. A wide thin black belt tilted at a thirty-degree angle over her left hip dipped down under her right. The buckle on her belt was shaped like a skull and crossbones. 

Black thigh-high fishnet stockings with a garter belt adorned her legs. Mid-thigh level, there were six sets of vertical three-prong spikes around the solid piece of fabric, part of her fishnet stockings.

My god. Just what sort of walking freak show did I anger today? I was filled with endless regret.