Chapter 83: Dinner with my girlfriend [Part-2]

After the dinner was ready, Alden stepped out of the kitchen, carefully balancing the plates to serve the dishes on the table. Once the dinner was perfectly set on the dining table, he wiped his hands on a towel.

He looked toward the living room, ready to call his girlfriend over for dinner. But he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her sitting on the couch, closely inspecting his old device from his past world.

Without waiting another second, he quickly walked toward her, ready to snatch the phone right out of her hand. But the moment he moved, she immediately sensed his presence and dodged away, holding the device out of his reach.

“Alicia, give me that! Are you trying to inspect my privacy?”

Alicia put a little more distance between them, pulling back onto the edge of the couch. She did not want to give back the phone that seemed to hold so much of his dark past.

“No way. I like your phone. From now on, I am going to keep it securely with me.”

Alden frowned at her sudden stubbornness.

“Do not be stubborn. Give it back, it is important to me!”

“No! I saw your crush’s photos on this phone. I will not give it back unless you want me to delete everything!”

Alden felt a rush of pure surprise. Realizing she had seen everything in the gallery, a massive flood of nervousness hit his chest. He was terrified of her finding out that he was actually a transmigrator from another world!

“Wait, Alicia, listen. It is not what you think. I…”

Alicia tightened her grip on the old phone and looked at him with a surprisingly sad expression.

“I do not care if she was your past. I do not care that the girl had someone else as her lover. I do not even care if you killed her lover to be with her, but she ran away in fear… Now, you are mine and mine alone!”

Alden frowned deeply at her nonsensical words. He had no clue what kind of stupid, dramatic misunderstanding she was brewing in her brain to say such a crazy thing.

“Wait, you are misunderstanding the situation completely!”

Alicia shook her head, her eyes turning intense. Stepping closer to him, she raised her free hand and cupped his cheek tenderly, completely contrasting the sharp intensity in her gaze.

“I know how it feels to love someone, knowing that the other person loves someone else. So just forget her. I will take care of you. You are mine.”

She immediately closed the remaining distance and embraced him tightly. She leaned her head softly against his shoulder, holding him with a fierce possessiveness.

Alden couldn’t help but be stunned by the sudden intimacy. His face warmed up as he felt two soft mountains pressing firmly against his chest.

“Alicia… You little dummy… Listen to me… I did not kill anyone! You are misinterpreting the whole situation.”

Alicia paused. She looked up at his face, still pressing herself comfortably against him.

“Huh?”

Alden looked down at her and lightly flicked her forehead.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

She rubbed her forehead softly while glaring daggers at him.

“Hehe… That is the first time I have seen you act so silly. Okay, let’s sit down first. I will tell you something.”

He pulled her down to sit on the couch. He sat right beside her, and she immediately leaned completely against his side, not wanting to separate from him for even a second.

“Sigh… First, tell me what exactly your crazy misunderstanding is.”

Alicia narrowed her eyes at the thought and lightly muttered her dramatic theory.

“That girl Lia was your crush, and she had a lover, the same boy who was in the photo beside her. You killed that guy so that you could be with her, and you also stole his phone, the same one right here in my hand. But after seeing you kill him, she ran away in fear, not wanting to be with a murderer. Later, you realized your mistake and lived with regret. That is why you always act so aloof, and that is why you told me last time that she lives in a distant place you can never reach!”

Alden couldn’t help but stare in pure daze at her absurd, dramatic thinking. He now learned that even the smartest girls have their own wild fantasies where they think so deeply and come up with nonsense that no one else could even imagine.

Shaking away her wild misunderstanding, he looked at her fully, debating what he should actually say. Would it be right to reveal the shocking fact that he is a transmigrator? An unknown soul from an unknown world who stepped into this fantasy world and took over this body? Would she feel shock, or disgust? He didn’t know.

“Well… Alicia. Yeah, that girl was my crush. But I did not kill her boyfriend. Actually, the boy in the photo wasn’t her boyfriend either. And how do I have his phone? Well, he was a friend of mine who died in the past. So I keep it as a memory of him.”

Alicia looked up at him, narrowing her eyes. She wasn’t going to buy his cheap excuses so casually. After looking directly into his crimson eyes, she could easily tell when he was speaking the truth or lying.

“You are hiding something.”

Alden met her unblinking gaze and couldn’t help but spill a bit of the truth.

“Yeah… I am. Sorry.”

Alicia pursed her lips and didn’t say anything for a moment. She desperately wanted to know the truth, but she wasn’t going to force it out of him. She knew that if she pushed too hard right now, he would just drift away from her, and that was the absolute last thing she wanted.

After a long, thoughtful silence, she finally opened her mouth and pulled slightly away from him.

“Okay. Let’s go eat dinner. I am starving!”

Alden looked at her, feeling thankful for her consideration in switching the topic. He stood up, held her hand, and gently led her over to the dining table.

“Do not think I am forgetting about this, though. You definitely have to tell me the truth when you feel ready. And I want to hear only the truth, understand?”

Alden smiled, pulled a chair out for her to sit, and watched her sit gracefully before taking his own seat opposite her.

“Of course, my lady. Any other orders?”

“Hmph. Serve me the food. I want to taste it.”

Alden immediately opened the lids of the bowls to reveal the dishes he had proudly cooked.

Alicia stared down at her plate as the food was served. In an instant, all the color drained from her face.

“I-is… Is this edible?”

She couldn’t help but frown at the severely overburned dishes. The spices were charred black, yet the actual main ingredients somehow looked completely uncooked. She looked at the soup, which looked less like a soup and more like muddy water. The other side dishes were in the exact same condition, if not worse.

“Alden, have you ever cooked in your entire life?”

“Hmph… No. Well, I have never cooked myself, but I watched my mother cook several times. Why do you ask? Is something missing?”

She couldn’t even answer his confident words. She hesitated to even pick up the cutlery, genuinely afraid she would get poisoned and have to drink a potion, and she didn’t currently have any potions stored in her ring.

‘Is he trying to kill me with this food? Was this his master plan all along after learning that I found out about his secrets? Was my murder guess actually right?!’

She shook her head internally, trying to calm her racing thoughts. She looked up at his bright, hopeful face and pursed her lips.

Alden tilted his head. “Sorry, it burned a little bit, but the smell is the same as the real thing. You can try it. I am sure you are going to like it.”

Alicia raised one of her eyebrow, feeling like his words sounded more like a exaggeration. Bracing herself, she picked up her fork and decided to dig into the food.

Alden watched her chew, hoping to get a positive answer. He felt incredibly nervous about her reaction.

“So, how does it taste?”

Alicia looked up while slowly chewing the tough food.

“Well… It is better than I expected.”

Her face remained perfectly calm, as if she actually felt a little relieved.

Alden’s smile widened at her reaction. Encouraged, he decided to eat his own portion. He served himself some food and took a big first bite, wanting to know for himself how amazing it tasted.

The moment he chewed, all the color drained from his face. He stared at her with wide, horrified eyes. He immediately grabbed a large pitcher of water and drank directly from it, desperately swallowing whatever vile bite he was just eating!

“What the f*ck?! How did you like it?! What were you actually expecting to taste?!”

Alicia looked up at him with a perfectly calm face and answered smoothly.

“Dog shit.”

Alden’s face flushed hot at her honest words. She really expected his food to taste that terrible. So what she just ate was technically better than her expectations. But that gave him no assurance; he just felt embarrassed to feed her such a toxic meal.

“Sorry, you shouldn’t eat this stuff. I will make something else.”

Alicia stood up from her chair and looked at him with a soft smile.

“No, I should make something else for us. Thank you for trying so hard for me, but cooking is clearly not your type of thing. Just sit back and focus on eating.”

She turned around and walked gracefully into the kitchen, deciding to cook something good for him to eat, something much more edible than the disaster she just dug into.