Chapter 65.

When I heard the name of the man, it felt familiar somehow. I couldn’t quite put my tongue on it, but I felt like I had some sort of connection to the man named Dio. However, anytime I tried to draw on my memories as to what sort of relationship the man named Dio had to me, I experienced a striking pain in my head.

The story between the two who’d randomly crossed paths didn’t end there. The girl who saw Dio, the butt of their jokes, calmly strode out from around the corner and walked towards the group’s direction.

When the guys around Dio noticed her approach, they immediately forced straight faces and stifled their laughter, but the girl easily saw through their little act. They poked Dio in an attempt to warn him of the ticking time bomb that approached him from behind. It was clear they all expected it to blow up in his face as flat out rejection, but Dio simply responded with, “can you guys just let me lament over the biggest failure of my life in peace and quiet? It was embarrassing enough that I just want to kick the bucket and die right now.”

One of the guys whispered to him “Dio it’s about to become a lot more embarrassing if you don’t clear up the misunderstanding right now.”

“How can it possibly become any more embarrassing than randomly confessing your love to a complete stranger who doesn’t even know who you are before you flee at full speed without saying another word?”

The girl directly behind the unaware Dio responded and said, “My Darling, if you love me, then isn’t it natural you should take me on a date first rather than running away without saying another word?”

Dio, when he heard her voice completely froze up when he finally realized what his friend meant. When her words registered in his head he shot a confused look towards his group of friends. It was clear he doubted what he’d heard with respect to the rather favourable words of the belle like voice directly behind him.

The group neither confirmed nor denied his inquisitory gaze, they too also looked dumbfounded and exasperated. They naturally also doubted what they’d heard like they’d been told the world had suddenly ended.

“Darling, did you not hear me?”

“Eh? Ah. That is... sorry, I don’t think I did.”

“I want my Darling to take me on a date if you really love me.”

“Sorry if I’m mistaken, did you just call me a creepy no life loser with no redeeming qualities and tell me to get lost before you call the police to have me arrested?”

The girl smiled and chuckled a bit when she heard his response. She tilted her head to the side before she leaned towards him suggestively and asked in return, “is that what I would say to my Darling who so passionately pronounced his undying love for me?”

“Uh, are you sure you didn’t confuse me with some suave godly gentleman who serenaded you for hours on end a few seconds after my pitiful failure of a confession?”

The girl grabbed the side of his collar with her left hand and pulled him closer to her face. She placed her right hand on the table to support herself while she leaned on it at an angle with her body. With her head tilted to the side, their lips firmly locked together for a few seconds before they parted. When she pulled away from the dumbfounded Dio, she plastered a sticky note on his cheek with her phone number and left him there with a barely visible content smile on her face.

Dio and his group sat there in shock for a solid ten minutes unsure of how to react until one friend pointed out, “there’s no way that just happened. Did the prankers become the prankees? Dio, you didn’t secretly pay off that chick so you could flip the tables on us in our game of truth or dare, did you?”

“Like hell I would! Do you think I have any chance to get a girl like that to give me her number? She was definitely just messing around and having a bit of fun. There’s no way the phone number she wrote on this sticky note is the real deal. You’d be a fool to think it was.”

“...”

The group was silent, it was clear they were all dying of curiosity as to the legitimacy of the phone number that the mysterious girl left behind in the heat of the moment.

“Dio… why don’t you just try calling it right now to verify it?”

“What?! Are you kidding me?”

“Dio, just do it man. Maybe your spring has come? University chicks are said to be open minded and wild creatures that live in the moment. Us dorky beings in electrical engineering, where it’s predominantly a male populace who constantly have our heads buried in books and circuits probably just don’t get to see that side of the story. Who knows, maybe that beauty was the creature known as the elusive beautiful arts student with a wild side? You’re already a fourth year, shouldn’t you jump at the grand opportunity presented to you?”

“But-”

“No, buts! If you don’t call her, I’ll be damned if I don’t call her for you! We may pick fun at each other, but we’re bros. Bros must look after their fellow bros! That is the creed we have abided by since we started this sacred degree!”

“I smell bullshit. You’re just hoping if I get lucky and hook up with a beauty, you could potentially be introduced to that beauty’s hot friends, right?”

“Dio, a man must do what a man must do. For science. For humanity. For evolution. To pass on your genes is a mission that belongs to every living being. There is a saying that every great man will come to learn of Dio. Have you heard that saying?”

Dio looked skeptical, but he shook his head and chose to let his friend continue.

“Taketh one for thou team, honorable Dio. Please allow thy fellow wielders of rods to bathe in the windfall thou has been bequeathed by the heavenly order of thots.”

“-Some Unsung Hero, Friend Of Dio, Friend Of Mankind, A Thirsty Bro”

“Don’t make up some shitty quote and act like it’s deep!”

I don’t know what it was, but I felt even more annoyed than the man named Dio did. Perhaps it was something engraved deep into my soul, yet I still didn’t know what it was that had me so irked by his friend’s line. All I knew was something in me wanted to punch the thoughtless bastard in the face.