Chapter 272.

Chapter 272.

Chapter 272. The Planetarium, Operation Hook Up: Prelude to the Show. (6/6)

Alicia’s body jolted and she immediately asked anxiously, “You’ll break up with me?”

Her reaction was authentic. I’d never told her about this part of my plan, specifically so she’d show this sort of reaction.

“Oh? You’ll break up with Alicia if I can steal the girl behind you?”

“Yeah. But if you’re not able to make her seriously fall in love with you to the point she’d never come back to me and you’re unable to at the bare minimum keep her with ya until ya finish high school, then it’s your loss and you’ll have to forget about Alicia.” The plan was to force them into a relationship, have him seriously fall for Izora in that time, and make him forget about the stupid girl known as Alicia who was fine with being cheated on.

This was the time limit for Izora. If she couldn’t make it authentic within this deadline, then it was useless. Her feelings were destined to be forever unrequited if things didn’t work out between them before they graduated. I’d gifted her the position of power in the relationship.

She would be chased by the guy she secretly loved. The more she resisted him, the better her odds of success. It was a psychological battle. The harder she was to acquire, the more attached he’d be to her once he got her.

“Fine. I’ll accept your conditions. But how do I know you’ll really uphold your end of the agreement and break up with her?”

“Heh. Well, I guess we can rely on Alicia for this, can’t we? Alicia, if he succeeds, you’re to break up with me.”

“What! But!”

“No buts. If you’re the one making the promise, he’ll believe you.”

Hahaha, even if she broke up with me, I wouldn’t break up with her. It would just be this version of me she’d break up with. There’s also nothing that stops us from getting back together after we break up anyway.

It seemed the student council missed that point.

Tears welled up at the corner of Alicia’s eyes as she bit her lip and struggled to promise she’d break up with me should the student council win this little game.

I rolled my eyes at her. To everyone else around us, it looked like the heartless action of someone who cared little for Alicia. However, it was actually a discrete message to her.

‘Are you stupid, girl? Did you really think you’d be breaking up with the real me? It’s just this fictional version of myself you’d break up with.’

That was the true message rolling my eyes conveyed to her.

As for why nobody in the surroundings tried to start anything with me, it was because, similar to Zale, they were scared off by our appearances and the threatening words I said to him.

“Alright then, here ya go. Ya can do what ya want with this girl of mine. I’ll enjoy my time fooling around with Alicia today.”

I grabbed Izora’s arm, pried it off of me, and forcefully threw her at the student council president.

“Wha-” Izora let out a startled noise when I tossed her away. Her thick-heeled boot tripped on the metal protrusion on the ground and she collided face-first into Zale’s chest. Zale caught her in his arms.

“Are you okay?” Zale asked concernedly.

Izora pushed him away and said coldly, “Nobody asked for your help.”

Perfect. She didn’t let any sign of her internal happiness show for even a second.

“Sorry about that.” Zale scratched the side of his head awkwardly, obviously unaccustomed to this sort of reaction. He definitely wasn’t used to this sort of treatment from a girl.

“Hahaha! It looks like things aren’t looking too good for you right from the start man. Well, keep my girl warm for me while I’m playing around with this one.”

I left Izora behind with Zale and dragged Alicia away with me out of the crowd into the main hall through the second entrance.

The two of us sat down side by side on two of the three chairs near the science gallery entrance.

“Ran, don’t you think you went too far? I was pretty shocked to see her looking like that, but that was Izora, right? You treated her like she meant nothing at all,” Alicia whispered beside me.

“That was just a necessary part of the act. We’re simply following the script.”

“You’re awful, you never told me about the ‘us breaking up part.’ I was so caught up in the act that I really almost cried thinking you were serious there.”

“Well, everything was much more convincing thanks to not filling you in on every detail of the plan.”

“You owe me for almost making me cry,” Alicia protested with a pout.

“Haaaaah. Yeah, yeah. What do you want?”

“Mmmmm... I’ve thought of something.” Her eyes lit up when she came up with some sort of idea.

“What is it?”

“I’ll tell you later~” She had a small mysterious smile when she said that. I felt troubled when I saw it. Smiles like the one she had right now never translated into something good for me.