My Bothersome Life 17 The Mall 2

"Well it does seem more ancient than ordering things with a tablet," I replied.

The food that came from the tablet probably tasted more fancy than this restaurant. Plus the food from the tablet would appear instantly after the order, meaning that there were no people involved in serving or making the food.

While Luke was looking around the humble-looking restaurant, the food came about ten minutes later. The food didn't look bad, but I could tell it was inferior to the food that came from the tablet. However, at this point, both Luke and I were starving so we quickly ate all the food and left the restaurant ten minutes later.

Hmm. I wondered what we should do next. Well this was a mall, so there would be things like manga and light novels right?

I walked towards the map looking for a bookstore. It seemed like the bookstore was all the way across the other side of the mall. I spotted the time on the bottom of the map. Four hours before the mall closed. Maybe that was enough time to look through all the books.

When I got to the bookstore in my past life, I wouldn't leave until the store closed as I got too engrossed in the books. So I quickly ran towards the bookstore as soon as possible while Luke was no where to be seen when I occasionally looked back. He was probably struggling with the bags.

I entered the bookstore to see that the manga section was in the second floor near the back. I picked up the 'book' and I couldn't stop reading. It's been six years since I picked up a decent 'book' like this. Sob.

Maybe that was why I didn't notice the marble that kept on vibrating in my pocket. When the bookstore announced that it was about to close, I ended up buying a interesting new 'book' and walked out of the mall back to the 3rd exit.

This was when I saw a young boy with panicked eyes with tons of bags in his hands asking other people if they have seen a young girl with red hair and unique orange eyes. Oops. I forgot to contact Luke after I was engrossed in reading some manga in the bookstore. I did feel some faint vibration in my pocket, but I ended up ignoring it while telling myself that I would answer the call later.

"Hey Luke!" I said nervously.

Luke dropped the bags he was holding while he ran towards me. He pinched my cheeks while I winced in pain. "I'll hold the bags from now on?" I asked cautiously.

I went to go pick up the bags, as Luke let go of my cheeks. When I picked up the bags, Luke was just standing there frozen while looking astonished. "Well, I'm going to go catch my bus now, so bye! See you next we - eekk?"

Luke grabbed my wrist and all of the sudden, I was standing in front of a large mansion. This was probably Luke's house wasn't it? "Can you grab Rika's bags and deliver it to her house?" Luke asked to the maid coming towards us.

I guessed rich people did live a different life. When the maid took my bags away, Luke grabbed my hand to drag me into a room that resembled a fancy living room with fancy leather couches and crystal gla.s.s tables. He signalled me to sit down and I sat down on the couch. "Do you know why you're here?" Luke asked angrily.

At this rate, it looked like Luke was going to start another lecture again. I knew that when his eyes started to narrow with a certain smile plastered over his face, I was in for another scolding. I made myself to swell up a bit a tears and started to knell down on the couch to make me look more pitiful, "I know it was irresponsible of me to behave this way, but when I picked up a book in the bookstore, I lost track of time."

"Next time, I'll make sure I'll get your calls when we go out like today and I'll go shopping on my own to not get you involved," I added when Luke was still smiling eerily.

"I'm not mad because you called me out to go shopping together but because you ran off on your own and I had no way to contract you as you weren't getting my calls." Luke replied madly.

"I told you that we should stick together as I read that the third district was dangerous because it's still underdeveloped compared to the second and first district." (Luke)

"Well nothing happened today," I muttered silently.

"Well then. The maid already left a message for your parents that you'll be sleeping over tonight. So I hope you figure out what you've done wrong in this room tonight." Luke scowled.

As soon as Luke left the room, I took out the new 'book' that I bought out of my s.h.i.+rt and starting reading. In my second year of elementary school, I started to order uniforms a little bigger than my size when I realized it was practical for hiding stuff like my secret stash of junk food I bought from the tablet. Ever since then, I kept on putting small things inside my s.h.i.+rt that I wanted to hide from Luke.

Half-way through the book, I heard footsteps coming towards the room. I hid the book back into my s.h.i.+rt before Luke entered the room. Luke entered the room with a tray of food he was holding in his hands that was probably my dinner. He put the tray onto the table and when he about to leave the room, I said, "I'm not so hungry, so you can take the food back."

The best thing you can do while reading a piece of manga was to eat some junk food. So I ate half of my stash of junk food to commemorate reading some manga for the first time in six years.

Luke's eyes started to narrow again with his eery smile instantly plastered on his face. "What are you hiding Rika?"