Chapter 0008: The Ex-Girlfriend (1/2)

Kazuya woke up feeling refreshed the next day.

It was Sunday and he was planning to get the client’s project finished and hopefully get more clients.

He went to the gym for his daily workout and when he returned, wearing his gym apparel, sweaty and tired. He ran into Chizuru who seemed to be waiting for him.

“Hey, Mizuhara, What’s up?” It was a dig at her since she seemed to be ready to leave for a date.

“It’s nothing, I just wanted to tell you that I had an amazing time with you last night and wanted to return your blazer. I washed it last night so you don’t need to worry.”

“Haha, your words leave much to be interpreted Mizuhara. Thanks, although you didn’t need to. Date?”

“It’s a rental. My weekends are usually booked. I’d freed up yesterday because we had our date.”

“I’m flattered.” He smiled while thinking, ‘I’d be more flattered if you weren’t going out with another guy right now but whatever.’

“Are you coming back from the gym?”

“Yeah, I joined one recently.”

“I see… Good for you”

“All right spill it. The actual reason for you being here?”

“You know what, forget it. I’ll take care of it myself.” She abruptly turned around and left for the rental date.

Kazuya was left confused as hell, he opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind and closed it again.

“Forget it. She’ll be back.”

He goes back into his apartment to take a shower and get to work.

He spends the rest of the day working on his freelance project. It took him about 3 hours to complete the task that the client asked for, he sends it in for review and starts looking for other opportunities.

By the time it was 6 PM he found 2 more clients who were willing to work with him. He was almost done with one of their projects when he got a call from Kibe.

“Yo Kazuchi.”

“Sup Kibe?”

“Night out. Free booze. You free?”

“Do you even need to ask that? Of course, I’m free.”

“Great. It’s at our usual pub. Meet us there at 7.”

“Done.” With that Kibe hangs up the phone.

‘Guess I’ll finish up with this project and work on the next one tomorrow.’

While he was working on it he ponders, ‘It’s Sunday today. Who the hell plans a get-together on a Sunday? I’m gonna be hung over tomorrow. I gotta go to college.’

In the end, he does end up going because he’s confident in his alcohol capacity.

‘It won’t be the first time I’m going to college hungover.’

Finally done with his project he submits it for review.

‘Just one more project left. I’ll get it done tomorrow after college.’

He changes into some stylish clothes and leaves for the pub at 6:30.

…

“You’re here!” Kibe greets him enthusiastically at the elevator.

“Hey!”

“Did you buy some new clothes? You look badass.”

“Yeah, something like it.” He was amused at Kibe since the guy was pretty obviously drunk.

“Here drink this.” Kibe hands Kazuya a shot glass with some transparent liquid the moment he steps through the elevator.

“I hope this isn’t any drug.” Kazuya eyes it warily.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a shot of tequila. Everyone who came in had to drink one.”

“Oh cool!” He chugs the entire shot and hands the glass back to Kibe.

“Argh~ This is good stuff.” He can feel his throat burning.

‘Okay, this guy had horrible alcohol tolerance.’

They walk to the room where the entire group was seated.

He opens the door with a slam, “Hey guys, sorry for being late. Look whom I brought with me.”

‘Even when drunk this guy used the correct whom. Respect.’ Kazuya thinks and greets everyone.

“Hey! How is everyone doing?”

There is utter silence at Kazuya’s greeting.

“Okay I get it, I was being generic but seriously? No takers? What’s this depressing ass atmosphere.” Kazuya was acting drunker than he was.

Ha naturally went inside the room and realized that his generic hello wasn’t the reason for the silence.

He finally noticed a cute blue-eyed blonde with short hair who was sitting with a flask of what he presumed to be beer in her hands. She was wearing cute polka-dotted shorts with frills at the ends along with a plain white collarless t-shirt. She was wearing a loose dirty green sleeveless short jacket over that t-shirt that went only to her waist.

“Kazuya-kun” It was Mami Nanami. His ex-girlfriend.

Kazuya was stunned for a few seconds at the situation,

Kibe elbowed him and gave him a look that said, ‘There’s your chance dude. Get her back, grovel at her feet, lose all your male pride.’

Okay maybe not exactly that but the gist was similar.

“How’ve you been, Mami-chan?” He naturally takes a seat beside her whilst pushing the guy who was sitting with her.

‘When stuck in an awkward situation, pretend as if nothing’s wrong. Because you’re the only one making things awkward.’

Sitting beside her he takes a hold of her beer mug and starts drinking out of it, rudely.

“I hope you don’t mind. I kind of need something to drink right now. Kibe! Could you order two more beers, my man? Thanks.” Without waiting for Kibe’s reply he turned back.

“Hey, heartbreaker. What’s going on in your life?”

There was a reason Kazuya was acting like such an asshole. He wanted to gauge what Mami wanted from him.

She’d told him that there was someone else she was with but he hadn’t seen anyone around her yet so he wanted to know if there was some kind of special meaning behind her actions or if it was no more than him trying to find meaning in simple, meaningless things.

‘Blondes are usually pretty troublesome but with that kind of cuteness, she’s gotta be way too crazy to not go after if I go by the hot-crazy scale.’

“I’m doing fine. I thought you’d be taking the breakup a little hard but you seem to be doing fine. I’m glad.”

‘If that’s how you want to play it.’

“To be honest, it was pretty hard on me when it happened. It was like you broke up with me out of the blue. But I understand, you had your reasons. I was a pretty sucky boyfriend in all honesty.”

Mami’s face goes through a myriad of complex emotions which is completely analyzed by Kazuya.

‘She’s happy that I haven’t moved on yet…? Why would that be? Unless…’

“Mami-chan.” With a serious expression, Kazuya looks at Mami.

“What is it Kazu-kun?” She cutely tilts her head to the side as she looks at him.

“Do… Do you think that we could get back together?”

“Kazu-kun…” She speaks in a small voice as if she’s embarrassed at his sudden drunk question.

“I’m sorry but I can’t. I’m already with someone else.”

‘Yep. This chick is a sadist yandere who’s amused by my misery and wants me to utterly be obsessed with her and her alone. The moment I turn away, she’ll start trying to get back together with me and sabotage my other relationship.’

“Phew… That’s good. Since you’ve already moved on, there’s no reason for me to stay stuck on you anymore.”

“W-What?” She’s flabbergasted at Kazuya’s sudden tone change.

He went from an abused puppy to an uncaring sigma in one sentence.

“Yeah. I wanted to know if you had any feelings for me. Since you don’t, I don’t have to feel weird moving on. There’s this girl that I met recently, she’s hot as all hell. Doesn’t lose out to you at all. I was planning to ask her out. So since you don’t have any lingering feelings for me I can move on with a clear conscience.”

He notices Mami’s expression morph and sees her eyes going lifeless and dead for a second before she turns to normal.

‘Yep. Sadist yandere indeed. See how I play you like a fiddle.’ He chuckled evilly in his mind.

“I-Is that so, Kazu-kun? Are you sure you’re ready for a relationship? After all, you have many problems.”

“I think I’m ready.”

“Like you have so many issues. From time to time you get this scary-looking face that’s such a put-off. Once when I wore a mini-skirt, I felt like I was in danger of being assaulted by my own boyfriend. You were so clingy that you never let me leave on time-”

Mami started listing the issues she had with Kazuya in front of all their friends. Wanting to break down the pride that he seemed to have just developed within a month of their separation.

She was expecting him to break down and get embarrassed to the point of wanting to die but his reaction was completely out of expectations.

“Mami.” He only spoke one word to her and that sent chills down her spine. If she thought that the previous Kazuya was scary she hadn’t seen what this one could do.

“There’s a time and a place to air our dirty laundry. It’s not during a party. And it’s especially not in front of our friends. If you have a problem with me going out with someone then tell me to my face. Don’t use these underhanded tactics. That kind of behavior is disgusting.”

After Kazuya ripped Mami a new one, he turned to his friends with a fun expression as if that terrifying expression on his face never even existed.

Mami was completely stunned at Kazuya’s expression and words and was just left sitting there with a dumb expression on her face.

“Guys let’s play some drinking games. Enough bullshit about my boring dumb breakup. I’m a sucky boyfriend. Big whoop. Let’s get wasted.”

He rose his mug of beer with a hoot and started chugging.

“Whoooo.” Everyone started cheering for him with hoots and started chugging their drinks.

“Let’s play beer pong.”