"Now why the hell did I just tell her all that?"
As Eric was currently sat down on a bench somewhere at a nearby park that wasn't too far away from the cafe he was just at, he couldn't help but sigh deeply in disbelief.
Seriously, there was absolutely no reason why he needed to tell Aria that she had skin cancer whatsoever, as there was absolutely no benefits in doing so.
As a matter of fact, he probably had just unintentionally screwed himself over big time by telling her so.
After all, he knew that Aria was portrayed in the novel as stubborn yet a little scary and sensitive, and if she were to take anything the wrong way, which she typically did in the novel for some dumb reason, then it wouldn't end up pretty for anyone involved.
Besides, it wasn't like she wasn't going to find out about the cancer from the protagonist eventually anyways, especially since Aria was someone who Aurora cared deeply for actually.
"Seriously, what a dumb thing to do." Eric sighed once again and facepalmed.
On the bright side of things however, the first step of his plan didn't go horribly wrong at the very least, and he'd honestly even take it a step further and say that the first step was actually a complete success.
After all, it wasn't his goal to befriend Aria or anything like that.
Oh no, in fact, it was the complete opposite of that, which was to take advantage of Aria's short tempered and hotheaded personality and use it to leave a somewhat deep impression on her by pissing her off.
This was because he knew that every deep impression left on Aria, especially if it was a negative impression, would ultimately lead to Aria telling Aurora about it and everyone involved one way or another.
Aria and Aurora were that close together after all, and honestly, if the novel hadn't outright stated that they weren't actually in love with each other or anything like that, Eric would've genuinely assumed that they were secretly dating without the reader's knowledge.
But regardless, now that the first step was done and over with, and the bait had been laid out, Eric needed to move onto the next step and set up some traps for the bait before it bit down.
With that in mind, Eric took out his phone and started making a few phone calls as he sipped on the iced americano he ordered earlier.
Unfortunately, there was no sugar added to his coffee, and so Eric couldn't help but look at the coffee in disgust.
"Wow."
"..."
"I'm never drinking from here again."
***
Back at the 'The Gray Cup' cafe shop a few minutes after Eric had just left, things quickly began to settle down, and after everyone offered their words of encouragement to Aria and saw that she didn't seem bothered by the incident anymore, they all went back to whatever they had been doing beforehand.
Meanwhile, Aria, who was given an extra hour break by the manager for the trouble, was now sitting down in the staff room alone, with her mind still somewhat occupied by the event that had just occurred not too long ago.
Although she didn't have any favorable impression of the man who had made her burst out in anger whatsoever, and honestly probably even hated his guts more than anyone else she had met so far, she couldn't help shake off the extremely weird vibe that she felt coming from him.
While the way he talked, sounded, and even behaved didn't really seem anything out of the ordinary when she had been secretly observing him the moment he entered the cafe, there was just something about him for some reason that gave her extreme chills.
It felt as though he appeared to be lacking something that should be there.
That was why when the man suddenly called out her name randomly and tried talking to her for the second time, she couldn't help but get extremely irritated, and yelled at him right then and there.
And admittedly, she felt a bit of regret immediately afterwards for yelling at him, as she has never treated anyone that ever attempted to hit on her that harshly before, at least not that early on.
So she had planned on apologizing to the man soon thereafter, but when she noticed the reaction of the man, or rather his lack of one, the words that she wanted to say got immediately stuck inside her throat.
In fact, it almost seemed as if the man was expecting her to act that way, as he simply just nodded at her in a carefree manner afterwards and then left the store as though nothing happened.
Honestly, it didn't feel like she was talking to a human being at all.
"And what did he mean about this burn mark being a skin cancer disease anyways..." Aria turned her left arm slightly and looked at the black scar mark that was located on the forearm.
As far as she knew, the scar was a burn mark that was caused by a fire back when she was an extremely young child, and she had been told and assured numerous times by many doctors and specialists that the burn mark would in no way affect her overall health in the future.
It was basically just a scar and a permanent reminder of the fire she had experienced as a child, and it shouldn't be anything more than that.
And yet, for some odd reason, the man's words and tone of voice sounded so damn... real despite it sounding utter nonsense that it left her unable to fully ignore them.
'Maybe I'll go check it out when I have a chance just in case.'
There was no harm in double checking and putting her worries to rest at the very least after all.
But first, she wanted to tell a very special friend of hers about the creepy man she had encountered earlier to get her thoughts on the matter and then get back to work.
As such, after sending a quick text message to her friend on her phone, Aria walked out of the staff room with a professional smile on her face, ready to resume her job again for the rest of her shift.