Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

18. This is all Pretend

"I'm ugh..."

I glanced up from my phone screen and saw that Markus was eyeing me with a sort of anticipation...like in a negative way. He appeared quite nervous judging off of the beads of sweat on his forehead, and in addition to that, he appeared to be quite tense at the moment.

Immediately, I started thinking over my options. I first glanced over at Cheral and then Yerith. I don't know them that well to be able to predict their actions, so these two would are unknown variables in regard to what they would do. 

Then, I glanced over at Markus, who appeared to be...how do you say it...like he kinda holds me in a sort of negative light? Like he definitely does not like me base off of what's going on and what my response will be. If I respond that I'm Loriana's nephew, this animosity from him would surely disperse, but...there's this mission that god damned Ralus sent me. Seriously...What the hell is God doing playing video games?

Lastly, I quickly sneaked a peek at Loriana, who appeared to be quite intoxicated. Surprisingly, her doesn't have the greatest tolerance with alcohol, meaning that it doesn't take much to get her drunk. Judging by how "gone" she was, she probably won't recall what happened here...

Finally, come to think of it, that reward was 500 SP, which is way more than what I have right now. God did warn me to not let my SP balance become zero, so...I'm kinda forced into this...Like what the hell?

I cleared my throat, and decided that I have no other option.

"I'm her boyfriend," I forced out in the most serious voice I could muster.

Immediately, I glanced over to check Cheral and Yerith's reaction to my sudden statement. They both had a look of surprise on their face, but immediately, Yerith recovered from it.

"Yeah," she said with a smile, and from underneath the table, I could see her legs move to notify Cheral to play along.

"Right," Cheral's look of surprise immediately developed into a smile. "This is Loriana's boyfriend."

"Him?" the man from earlier said with surprise all over his face. "But he's still in high school?!"

"It's not illegal," Yerith refuted. "He's over the age of sixteen, so he's legally considered an adult."

"Yeah but..." the man placed his hand on his face. "Still...if someone is over eighteen, they usually don't go for those under eighteen."

"You yourself said most people," Cheral immediately added in to help support Yerith's argument. "And since it's not against the law, what's wrong with that?"

"I guess..." that man shrugged in defeat. "Hey Markus," the man glanced over at the young man and patted his back. "You alright?"

"Boyfriend...?—Huh?" Markus jumped when he realized that he was being talked to. "I'm-I'm fine."

"Come sit for a bit," Yerith scooted over and allowed extra space between her and Loriana for me to sit down in.

"No, I ugh—"

Just when I was about to decline, Cheral grab hold of me by my arm and pulled me closer to the seat that Yerith had opened up for me.

"Come on," she said, and from her voice, I could vaguely feel a threat directed at me.

"Yeah," Yerith added. "It'll be fun."

From their smiles, I could tell that the only reason they played along with my absurd statement from earlier was that they wanted to see some drama. They want something to entertain them. From how Markus was acting, I can tell that he likes Loriana. That is extremely obvious. Therefore, I deduced that what Cheral and Yerith wanted is to see how he would react when faced with this situation. Because of this, I know for sure that if I were to protect this—um...how would you say it?—lie of mine, I must play along with them and provide them with entertainment. All I had to say about this is that...damn grownups are scary, especially woman.