Chapter 19
"Clubbing, and a Creepy Master Plan"
"Now do you get my point?" Willson asked, leaning forward with that I-know-something-you-don't face.
Richard rubbed his temples. He'd been running on two hours of sleep and three cold coffees.
"No, I don't. No, I really don't get your point. In fact, I don't even want to understand your point, so please, spare me, will you?"
Richard pressed both palms together in front of his face, mock-begging.
Willson just shook his head and switched topics like he was changing TV channels.
"Anyway, I came here for another reason. Do you remember Susan, my fiancée?" Willson asked.
"You mean your supposed fiancée? Unfortunately, she isn't your fiancée any longer," Richard said, feeling smug. He even threw in a little smirk for free.
Willson rolled his eyes. "I'm not even gonna take you seriously right now."
He paused, then got back on track.
"Anyway, I did an investigation on her"
Before he could finish, Richard cut in. "I know. You told me that already."
"Let me finish my sentence, will you?" Willson said, clicking his tongue. Tsk.
Richard raised his hands and mimed zipping his mouth shut. "My bad. Continue, Mr. Detective."
"Good," Willson said.
"So, as I was saying before you interrupted me… I did an investigation on her after she got kicked out of the house by her family. I needed to know how she was living. I needed to know if she'd go crawling back home to beg for forgiveness from her family, and in return, her family and her would come to me and my family to beg." He sighed, dramatic as always.
"But unfortunately, that didn't happen. So I dug deeper. That's when I found out she's staying at a friend's place. I investigated her friend too, and guess what? She works at VEE Corporation. Can you imagine that? No wonder she didn't go back home." His face twisted with irritation.
"So I dug more into their lives like, what they do on a normal basis and i found out that every Friday, they go clubbing." His eyes were literally shining when he said that.
Richard nodded, but his face was pure confusion. Big "huh?" vibes.
Willson could tell he wasn't getting it, so he broke it down like Richard was five.
"Don't you get it? Clubbing." He dragged out the word. "Club-bing."
"So what? What's the big deal about going clubbing? I go to the club every day. Heck, you own a club. So what's the big deal and why the emphasis?" Richard asked, still lost.
Willson shook his head slowly.
"Now I know a smart person can also be dumb too," he said, nodding like he'd just discovered some ancient secret. "Periodt."
Richard clicked his tongue. "Will you stop beating around the bush and just say what you want to say? Seriously, man, I'm in no mood for this. As you can see, I'm lacking sleep. I'm using the rest of my brain juice to listen to you, so please, just go straight to the point, okay?
Willson rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Guess which club they're going to?"
Richard looked at him and yawned out loud not bothering to even cover his mouth. "Gosh, man…"
"It's my club. The SON's Club. Now do you get it?" Willson said with his face filled with excitement.
"Okay, I get that part, but… so what?" Richard still asked.
"Aigoo," Willson groaned.
"Next time I won't talk to you in this state. It's very annoying. You're acting so NPC(Non player character) right now."
"Are you just realizing that now? What a pity," Richard said, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
"Man, don't you get it? Susan does not know how I look, right?" Willson said, and Richard nodded.
"That means if I try to get close to her, she will never know who I am to her. She will not know I'm her fiancé… or was her fiancé." He looked at Richard with this creepy smile that made Richard rub his arms.
"Please don't smile like that. Look at my arms,look at the goosebumps. Daebak, I'm actually creeped out," Richard said, pointing at his arm.
"Oh, please don't overreact, okay?" Willson waved him off.
"If I'm not wrong about your plan… what you plan on doing is that you'll try to get close to Susan without letting her know who you really are. You'll make her fall in love with you, and then you'll dump her. Is that right?" Richard asked, his voice low.
Willson clapped his hands, excited like a kid who just got a new PS5.
"Bingo! Looks like your brain is finally working for you."
"Oh gosh, can I talk you out of this?" Richard asked.
"Nope, you can't, because you'll be helping me out," Willson said, grinning.
"Hell no, I won't. I won't be a part of this mess. Willson, I'm not like you, okay? I respect women. It's unfortunate i won't be able to talk you out of this, but I won't participate in it either," Richard said seriously.
"Come on, be a sport, will you? I'm not asking you to play with Susan or do anything bad. All I want you to do is distract her friend every time I'm with Susan. That's all."
"Come on, please help me out on this. Jebal," Willson begged, putting on his best puppy-dog eyes.
"No means no. You can't change my mind, so don't bother," Richard said, his face set. Delulu is not the solulu.
Willson sighed. He knew he couldn't change Richard's mind yet, so he stopped pushing. But that didn't mean he gave up.
"Fine then. Np," he muttered and looked down, suddenly playing the abandoned child card. Oscar-worthy performance.
When Richard saw him like that, he knew exactly what Willson was doing trying to guilt-trip him. So he immediately lay down on the couch and closed his eyes, chanting in his mind:
"Out of sight, out of mind. Out of sight, out of mind…"
Willson looked at him, opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen.
Home.
He picked up and listened. The only thing Richard heard was Willson humming:
"Mhm."
"Mhm."
"Mhm."
"Mhm."
Then he hung up and got up from the sofa. "I need to go home. Something came up."
Richard nodded, but his eyes stayed closed.
So Willson left. The second Richard heard the sound of the door closing, he cracked one eye open to check, then closed it again and drifted back to sleep.
Finally, peace.