Chapter 144.

She wasn’t wrong. It would be a pain in the ass to sue her over something as pointless as adding in a clause to keep your boss entertained without mutual consent.

“Yeah. Yeah. I get it. So how would you like to be entertained, my peerless majestic boss without a single rival beneath the heavens?”

“How about truth or dare?”

“With two people? Actually, I’d prefer to refrain from such activities. I have a lot of bad blood with that cursed game.”

“Well, it isn’t just two people, I have a friend who heard a bit about your situation and they wanted to meet you today.” She completely ignored my unwillingness to play.

“A friend?”

I was extremely skeptical as soon as the words left her mouth. A friend of hers couldn’t be a normal person.

“Is this friend a guy?”

“Are you getting jealous?”

“No, I would just much rather it be a guy.”

“It’s a girl.”

“By any chance, were they here before I woke up?”

“No, they weren’t.”

“Before I fully woke up, I could have sworn I’d seen somebody. Are you really telling the truth?”

Knock. Knock.

“Oh, speak of the devil. It looks like she’s already here.”

My guard was on high alert. The timing was too fishy. Everything about this so-called friend smelled like bad news to me.

“Mr. Genovese, can you please relax? It’s not like my friend is out for your life or anything.”

“You’re sure about that?”

Val looked up a bit like she had to think about it for a second before she said, “Probably. I should be right… I think. No, I’m pretty sure.”

I got off the bed and jumped behind the sofa chair in the corner of the room as I prepared myself for the worst.

“It was a joke. Just a joke. Can you please not embarrass me when she comes in?”

Paranoid to an extreme, I eyed her suspiciously over the edge of the sofa chair. “You’re full of it, I don’t buy it.”

“It’s really the truth, I swear! She’s honestly not that weird or anything if you ignore a few details about her. Honestly, I wouldn’t introduce you if I didn’t have to.”

“Didn’t have to? What do you mean by that?”

“Oh? Haha. Nothing. That was just a slip of the tongue. Forget I said anything.”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Coming.”

“Val, wait! I need to prepare myself mentally first.”

It was too late. She’d already opened up the door before I could stop her.

When the figure behind the door was revealed, I was... confused. Was my assumption incorrect? I thought for sure I’d successfully connected the dots this time. A brunette stood there as she examined the interior of the room curiously. I expected the appearance of a certain psychotic, crimson red-haired woman. Her friend’s facial features were completely different from what I expected as well.

“You’re not going to fool me this time, it’s a mask, right!”

Val looked back at me with a glare, “It’s not, look.”

She pinched her cheeks and stretched them out.

“Ow ow ow ow! What are you doing? Let go!”

The voice was also different?

Slightly less confident than before, I declared, “It’s got to be makeup and hair dye… no… a wig. Definitely, a wig.”

Val entered the bathroom then exited with a damp towel in hand.

“Eh? What are you doing? Hold on! What’s all this about?”

Val didn’t hesitate in the slightest and wiped her face down in front of me with the towel. No way... there wasn’t any makeup? The towel was as white as before, not a single blemish could be found on it.

“Ow ow ow! Let go of my hair! What is with you all of a sudden?”

Val didn’t stop there, she went so far as to dispel all of my suspicions. She yanked, like a cat in a catfight, on the yet to be named woman’s hair to prove it wasn’t a wig.

“Is that enough proof for you? This woman is a completely normal person, she’s just a normal friend of mine.”

“Friend? Friend! This is how you treat your friends!”

The woman looked like she was about to break down into tears at any moment.

She ran into the bathroom and locked it behind her.

Val leisurely returned to the bed, she paid not even the slightest attention to the woman who’d just locked herself in the bathroom.

“I’m not coming out until my safety is assured and my human rights are upheld. This is friend abuse, I demand compensation. No, make that divine retribution!”

The character was in no way similar to the woman in my memories. She... really wasn’t disguised? With Val shooting me an annoyed glare, I felt slightly guilty. I got out from behind the sofa chair and approached the bathroom door. I knocked on the door once and made up a convenient lie, “Sorry, that was all part of a dare we made earlier. We were playing truth or dare and I dared her to do all that to whoever it was that knocked on the door.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” Of course not.

When she opened up the door, my heart subtly leaped in place when I got a better look at her from close up. I didn’t think Val’s friend would be on the same level as her. The only thing I found peculiar about her was how her demeanor felt slightly different compared to when I initially saw her at the entrance before she locked herself in the bathroom.

She appeared more nervous than curious, that was probably all though. I looked behind her just to be certain, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else in the bathroom. It seemed like it was the same person, but I wanted to be fully sure I wasn’t about to be played. I stepped into the bathroom without a second thought to verify that nobody else had snuck in and hidden inside.

“W-what are you doing so suddenly?”

The woman in front of me flusteredly took one step back and tripped on her heels. As she fell backward, she reflexively extended her arm out to latch onto my shirt and regain her balance. It was a real shame for her that I wasn’t a macho man with endless testosterone pumping through my veins and a mission to show off my manly prowess. I had every intention to step back and avoid her, but against all expectations, her reaction speed was far superior to what I’d anticipated. The scene was best described as a baby lion cub about to fall off a ledge desperately clinging onto its last hope at life.