Redo of a Romanceless Author’s Life Devoid of Love; Another Chance at Youth

Chapter 6. Lunch with a Nosy Neighbor (2/3)

She gave me a strange look and opened her mouth but hesitated as if unsure what to say in response. After a short pause, she asked doubtfully, “If you can talk so easily with a stranger… why don’t you have any friends?”

“I said it before, didn’t I? I don’t need them, nor do I want any. I enjoy being alone without having to deal with troublesome relationships.” It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.

“I don’t believe you since you already admitted to being a liar.”

“Haaah. Suit yourself. Believe whatever you want to believe.”

I turned away from her then unlocked my phone with the intent to edit and proofread my work. But the first thing I saw when I unlocked my phone left me puzzled.

As for why I was puzzled, it was because my contacts list was open and it wasn’t empty. Reading the registered name saved in all caps with hearts surrounding it, I nearly tossed my phone on the ground with a twitching lip.

‘♡♡♡THE GIRL I WISH WAS MY GIRLFRIEND♡♡♡’

Bitch, there’s no chance in hell I want a fate worse than death. Do I look like I enjoy pain? I’m not a masochist, please spare me.

I stiffly turned my head toward her and asked with a twitching lip.

“What’s the meaning of this exactly?”

“Well, I pitied your poor girlfriendless soul and was kind enough to do some charity work by saving my number as a courtesy.”

“Please spare me, I’m deleting your number.”

“Jeez, if you dislike what I saved it as, just change it to my name or something. You don’t need to seriously delete it, do you?”

“Your name? I don’t even know your name.” She looked caught off guard when I said that.

“You’re kidding… right?”

“Does this face look like it’s kidding to you? I was asleep during the self-introductions and for a lot of lessons thereafter you know. Even when I’m not asleep during lessons, I’m just messing around on my phone and not paying any attention to what’s being said in the classroom.”

“Ah, now that you mention it… you’re right.”

“Exactly. And I can proudly say with confidence, I don’t know a single classmate's name even after three weeks into the semester.”

“That’s not something you should be proud about! Why does it look like you were expecting me to praise you?”

“Well, you know how people have that one thing they want to be best at? I was just thinking, I could probably become the best at not remembering people.”

“Shut up. Be the best my ass. Don’t disguise your laziness as you trying to be the best at something.”

“Haha.” I inadvertently let out a small laugh without thinking.

“Ah.” She looked at me like she’d seen something rare.

“What?”

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you let out a laugh and smile.”

“You’re mistaken. That was not a laugh, and I definitely didn’t smile.” Somehow I felt embarrassed that I’d allowed for a crack to appear in my mask. She also seemed overly pleased with herself like it was her win.

“Keep telling yourself. No matter how much you lie to yourself the truth of the matter will not change.”

Seeing her triumphant felt unpleasant. I didn’t even understand what she felt she’d bested me at.

“Anyway, since I feel bad for you I’ll tell you the name of the girl you want as your girlfriend. It’s Rosa Scarletyse. S-c-a-r-l-e-t-y-s-e.”

Red scarlet eyes? I looked her in the eyes and couldn’t help but think how fitting a name it was.

“Does your family all have the same eye color as you?”

“Yes, hence the last name.”

“You don’t secretly belong to a family of vampires or something, right?”

“Pfft. Vampires? That’s really the first thing you thought of?” She looked at me strangely like she was unable to get a good read on me.

“What else would I think of if not vampires?”

“Vampires don’t even exist. Try for something that does exist.”

I thought it over a bit but came up empty. I had no idea what answer she expected to get out of me.

“I really don’t know.”

It didn’t show on her face, but somehow it felt like she was a bit happy about something.

“Is it just me or do you seem happy I don’t know? Could it be one of those if you know I’ll have to kill you things?”

She blinked once then a smile formed on her face.

“What if I said it was?”

“I see, so you truly are from a family of vampires after all I take it.”

“Hahaha, what the heck? Why are you suddenly so stuck on the idea that I'm suddenly a vampire?”

“Elementary, it all adds up, my dear Watson. If we take a look at the evidence, everything lines up.”

“What evidence?”

“All your contacts are men, they must be the people use for your supply of blood when you get hungry. Secondly, I drink a lot of coke.”

“Huh? What’s with the second one?”

“My blood sugar must be unusually high. Thus, the reason you’re constantly staring at me must be because I look like a snack as a result of my blood being too sweet.”

“Hahahahaha, your logic is so absurdly stupid that even when you’re keeping a straight face while saying it, I can’t take you seriously at all. Just think about it, if I was a vampire, why would I want the window seat so badly where the sun blazes down. Also, how would I be able to run under the sun in P.E. beside you every time?”

“If you’re a pureblood vampire… maybe? Or maybe there’s some special sunscreen or something that can block it out.”

“Does it look like I have sunscreen on?”

“No. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” I raised my right arm up to her face and touched her soft right cheek with my fingertips. I pulled my arm back then rubbed my fingers together. There wasn’t anything that felt like sunscreen. She apparently wasn’t even wearing any makeup either.

“See? Nothing right?”

“Certainly.”

She tilted her head to the right and propped it up with her right-hand index finger making a small backward arch while she smirked at me with her lips forming into a small pout.

“You could have fangs that you’re hiding though.”

“Huh? Fangs? You would have long seen them if I had fangs, don’t you think?”

“They could be retractable and hidden behind your front row of teeth.”

“Don’t you think you’re grasping at straws now?”

“I see. So I must be onto something now.”

I again raised my hand this time placing it under her chin. I tilted her head up from below with my index finger and pulled down on her chin with my thumb to open her mouth a bit. She didn’t put up any resistance and let me examine the roof of her mouth freely. When I confirmed there was nothing there, I removed my hand from her chin, let out a small sigh, and shook my head disappointed by how boring reality was.

“You’ve got nothing else, right?”

“Well the only other thing I could say is… isn’t your natural face without any makeup a bit too pretty to not be a vampire? Isn’t this a bit unreasonable? How do you get specs so high? Don’t you think you should apologize to other women who have to try hard to look good?”

“Isn’t that quite the indirect way to compliment a girl?”

“It’s not a compliment, it’s a complaint.”

“Potato, tomato, it’s the same shit as far as I’m concerned. For some who previously said it was unpleasant being touched by me you’ve sure been taking advantage of the situation to feel me up you know.”

“That’s your imagination. I’m doing no such thing.”

“Sure there. Why don’t you just be a good boy and honestly admit you wanted to touch me.”

“I didn’t, it just came down to me touching you to confirm my suspicions of whether you were secretly a vampire.”

A bit tired, I slumped down over my desk and lazily rested my chin on top of my crossed arms.

While seated in this position, I heard my nosy neighbor’s chair slide back across the ground. She stood up and circled around the opposite side of my desk and positioned herself between it and the wall. She raised her leg and took a seat on the left edge of my desk while resting her left foot on a bar on the desk and her right leg on the wall.

“Why are you using my desk as your chair?”

“I wanted to look outside the window. Is there a problem if I’m sitting here?”

Her hair was brushing up against my arm and cheek, but she didn’t seem to care. She also didn’t seem to mind that my left arm was in contact with her left leg. Since it made me a bit uncomfortable I scooted away from her a bit, but as soon as I did she just took the opportunity to take up more space on the desk. It resulted in the same situation as before.

I moved away one more time but she followed again confirming it was intentional on her part.

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Doing what on purpose?”

Annoyed, I didn’t want to budge another inch and give up any more of my desk to her.

“You could easily use the person’s desk in front of me who isn’t here at the moment rather than mine, but you picked mine instead. In what way is this not on purpose?”

“I wanted to use this desk, so I used it. You’re the one who chose to take it from me in the first place. You only have yourself to blame for doing so. If you really hate it that much then just sit upright in your chair until lunch is over.”

“I’m not giving up my desk just so you can use it as your chair.”

“Have it your way.” She shrugged her shoulders as if it didn’t matter to her what I did and opened up the window to let some fresh air in.

On her lap, she had a small box that appeared to contain her lunch.

She opened it up and started eating in front of me while she enjoyed the view outside the window.