“Hmm?”
“What does your father do? Like where does he work at? What’s his occupation?” Rudy asked the same question many times but phrased them differently so Alice could understand better.
“I am… not sure. He comes home at the same time every day, and he spends weekends off. Sometimes, he gets a call from his work, so he leaves at night and comes back the next morning. So I guess he is doing a regular salary job?” Alice responded with a question.
‘I can’t blame her for not knowing since everything changed after her mother’s death. But if George was really a salaryman before, there is no way the company would have given him a year-long break. So he must have changed jobs after that.’
Rudy expected to hear an answer from Alice, so his suspicion of George would get cleared. He didn’t want to think that George was related to something big. But now, the only way to find that out was the look into the closet.
‘I can’t break the closet for obvious reasons, but what if I make Alice open the closet? Surely, that’s not something strange and she should know where the keys are. Unless, of course, George takes the keys with him.’
“Say, Alice. Did you ever notice anything strange about George?” Rudy asked in a neutral voice to not show his feelings behind the question.
“Define strange. Because for me, everything is strange, you know?” Alice shrugged.
“Like in the car when we went on a date. I believe he was acting strange.”
“Was he?” Alice wondered with a confused look on her face.
Alice couldn’t tell that as she has been familiar with George’s actions, and most o the things he did was normal for Alice.
‘This topic is not going anywhere. I should talk about something else before it gets more awkward than it already is,’ Rudy uttered inwardly.
Rudy noticed an empty bench in the park and said, “Want to sit there for a bit and chat?”
Alice squinted her eyes at Rudy and said, “Are you trying to do something to me?”
“Not really. We will just kiss for a while and leave,” Rudy replied casually.
“Then my answer is no. I am not kissing you in public.”
Rudy got behind Alice and hugged her from the back.
“….!” Surprised, Alice tried to break free from Rudy’s grip, but Rudy was too strong for her.
“What are you doing?!” she asked.
“I am just recharging myself with your smell.” Rudy sniffed Alice and said, “Your scent is so nice.”
“Let me go, you pervert!” Alice yelled.
At the same time, the first girl— who had forgotten her purse in the classroom during the lunch break— was passing by the street and saw Rudy cuddling Alice from behind.
“….” She furrowed her brows and muttered, “Is he really hugging her, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?”
She squinted her eyes to look clearly, but her eyes soon widened when she saw Rudy not only hugging Alice from behind, but he was touching her breasts too.
“Is he cheating on Rias…?” the girl uttered in disbelief. After watching Rudy and Alice for a few seconds, the girl left.
“Hmph! And here I thought he was an innocent and kind boy,” she said while leaving.
Alice got angry at Rudy and crushed his feet with her feet. But of course, Rudy didn’t feel anything.
“If you don’t let me go on the count of three, I will hate you.”
Rudy immediately let go of Alice after hearing that as he didn’t want Alice to hate him, even in his wildest dream.
However, he turned around and hugged Alice from the front, causing her face to twitch in anger. But she wasn’t angry because she didn’t want Rudy to hug her, she was angry because Rudy was acting like that in a public park, where everyone who was passing by was looking at them in disbelief.
Luckily, none of them knew Rudy or Alice personally so it wasn’t as bad as Alice was making it out to be. Rudy was acting like that because he wanted Alice’s attention.
“You didn’t look at me when we were talking. Are you still angry about something?” Rudy asked Alice.
“Of course, not. Why would you think that?” Alice asked. “If I was truly angry at you, I wouldn’t be letting you touch me, you know?”
“Then why weren’t you looking at me when we were talking? You always make sure to look at me when we talk, so it felt really weird to see you talking to me like that,” Rudy stated and finally let go of Alice.
He placed his hand on Alice’s cheek and rubbed his thumb on her lips. Then, he smiled gently at her and used that chance to kiss her on the lips.
Usually, Alice would have pushed him back since he was kissing her in public, but she didn’t want Rudy to misunderstand her again, so she let him kiss her.
After the kiss, Rudy whispered, “I love you.”
Alice couldn’t take it anymore and hugged Rudy tightly.
Rudy hugged her back and asked, “What’s wrong? You are acting weird, and I know it. Is something bothering you?”
“I am worried,” Alice said in a muffled voice.
“Worried about what?” Rudy asked with a curious yet confused look on his face.
“Worried about you.”
“Me? Why would you worry about me? I mean, yeah, it’s normal for a girlfriend to worry about her boyfriend, but… well, I am not normal.”
“That’s not it…” Alice hugged Rudy even tighter and pressed her breasts against his chest before saying, “Sometimes, you act like a different person.”
“…” Rudy finally realized what Alice was talking about. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes before asking in a calm voice: “Is it about that I said on the rooftop?”
Alice quietly nodded without saying anything.
“I already told you that I am not the Rudy you once knew.
