Chapter 286.

Chapter 286.

Chapter 286. An Insidious Trap. (3/8)

“What~ I don’t have terrible taste. My taste is pretty good. What do you think Alicia? Is there anything wrong with my taste?”

“No. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. Ran’s a catch. You shouldn’t ever let go of him.”

“See, Zale? My boyfriend even has Alicia’s stamp of approval.”

“Alicia has even worse taste, so she can’t be used as a reference.”

“Hey man, don’t go around belittling my boy Ran. He has my stamp of approval as well.”

“It looks like it’s three to two then,” Rosa declared confidently with a bemused expression.

Zale frowned and looked over to Ria and asked, “What about you, Ria? What’s your opinion of him? If you had to choose between me and him, who’d you choose?”

“Hey, hold up. Don’t leave me out of this. If you ignore the fact that Zale is your boyfriend, out of the three guys here, who would you say is more of your preferred type?” Jass didn’t miss the chance to insert himself into her list of potential choices.

Izora’s eyes immediately shot over to me. When our eyes met, I glared intensely at her.

‘Don’t you dare say it’s me even if it’s to try and make the student council president jealous. I don’t want anything to do with this.’

Unable to choose me, her gaze moved back and forth between Zale and Jass a few times as she weighed her options.

“Well, I suppose it’d be you.” She nonchalantly pointed at Jass as she feigned a disinterested look that suggested she hadn’t taken it very seriously when the truth was quite the opposite.

Jass didn’t take it as being nothing though and shot a rather smug smile Zale’s way.

“It looks like it’s 3-2-1 then. Though, I guess I lose, but at least my vote is a girl’s, unlike yours which consists of only guys, your own and Ran’s.”

“Ria, surely you’re joking, right? You’d really pick him over me?”

“Yeah. You’re really not my type. Also, I’d like to correct your misunderstanding. This guy is not my boyfriend.”

“What? Seriously?” Jass’s eyes shot open delightedly at the sudden revelation.

“Yeah, I’m serious.”

“I see. Haha. In that case, since I’m your type, would you be my girlfriend?” Jass casually dropped that bombshell line out of nowhere.

Rosa was relentless. What’s with her suggestion? Isn’t it pretty obvious based on Jass’s reaction that he’s not confident in singing? I mean dancing was one thing as it played on his strength, basketball, but none of his skills really transferred over to singing aside from being loud and having a good lung capacity.

The same could be said for Zale though. However, in terms of singing, I didn’t know whether it was something he was good at. Maybe Rosa knew. If Zale was terrible at it, worse than Jass, it might make sense why she suggested it.

“A duet together? But I don’t think she’d want to-”

“A duet? Sure, I don’t mind. It sounds like fun.” Unexpectedly, Izora didn’t reject the suggestion. When I thought about it, she probably saw it as an opportunity to sing a duet with Zale without making it obvious to him that she wanted to.

Everyone was blatantly using each other for their own objectives. This was one reason why I didn’t care to make friends. On the surface, you might look like you’re getting along well as friends, but at the end of the day, everyone you call a friend is simply someone convenient to make use of.

As such, I won’t call anyone a friend. That way I won’t feel bad if I make use of someone for their convenience. There are no hard feelings if you aren’t friends. I don’t know when the notion that friends shouldn’t use or manipulate each other for their convenience was implanted in my mind, but it was. And since it was, I wouldn’t make any friends.

A devil has no need for friends, people they can’t use for their convenience. The world is a devil’s enemy.

Izora stood up and grabbed the two microphones on the table. She selected a song from the terminal and pulled an unusually flustered Jass off his seat closer to the television.

Rosa and Alicia had remained seated earlier when singing beside me to keep me from escaping so I didn’t know whether this was the norm for karaoke. Somehow, I felt nervous. Why the hell am I nervous? It’s not like I’m singing in front of everyone.

Yet...

Shit, wouldn’t I be forced to have a go?

What the hell?

“You guys do not notice that we are gifted just by being humans.” While I internally mulled over my fate Jass started singing. The original vocalist’s lines sounded high-pitched and electronic as if they’d been passed through a bunch of filters.

Jass on the other hand sounded... pretty bad in comparison. He was completely out of tune, but he still sang the next two lines to the best of his abilities.

“We are absolute predators.”

“We do not even have any enemies.”

“Pffthahaha! What the heck! What the heck! Jass, you’re so out of tune! You’re killing me! Hahahaha!” Rosa, who couldn’t hold it in anymore, was the first to burst out into a fit of laughter as she took a lighthearted jab.

Though everyone else had tried to be polite by not laughing at the singingly challenged Jass, they cracked after Rosa. Alicia didn’t but her lips were quivering and she was covering her mouth desperate to not laugh at him. I didn’t find any of it funny as I’d probably soon suffer a similar fate.

Seriously, I’m a fish out of water here. There’s no way in hell I could do something embarrassing like this in front of everyone. I lowered my gaze to the ground and covered my forehead and eyes with my left hand.

I'm in hell. I just want to go home, crawl in a hole, and die.