This Time, I’m the Fool Chapter 06
Chapter 6 The Card That Gave Her Away
I smiled and still didn’t take it to heart. That was, until Maisie passed behind me and let out a deliberately dramatic gasp. “Oh my god, look at me–I accidentally grabbed Naomi’s student card and paid with it!”
I turned around and met Maisie’s gaze coldly for a few seconds. She didn’t back down either, hostility flickering in her eyes. The next moment, I calmly pulled open my drawer. “Is that so? But my card… is right here.”
Her eyes flew wide open as she dropped her gaze to the card in her hand–the one sitting in a card sleeve
identical to mine.
“Oh.” I looked as though I’d just remembered something. “The one you’re holding… I think it’s the dorm’s shared utilities card. I happened to buy an extra card sleeve at the time, so I just slipped it on.”
In that instant, Maisie turned grave, and so did our two other roommates.
“Maisie, so you used the dorm’s shared funds to treat us to dinner?!”
Maisie’s lips moved, but no sound came out.
“But…” I scratched my head, looking genuinely puzzled. “That sleeve is obviously different from your
card. How did you even grab the wrong one?”
That question completely cornered her. She froze, stammered for a bit, and still couldn’t come up with an
answer.
The other two roommates exchanged a glance, and it finally clicked for them. Chloe couldn’t hold back anymore and jumped in, pointing accusingly at Maisie. “Maisie, don’t tell me you planned to use Naomi’s card to play the generous friend, but accidentally took the dorm’s shared card instead?!
“You’ve got some nerve–treating us like idiots! If you don’t top it up right now, we’ll post this in the class group chat and let everyone know how pathetic you are. Naomi might be easy to bully, but we’re not!”
Maisie’s face turned ashen, rage practically pouring out of her. “Didn’t you all eat the dinner too? Why are you snapping at me now?! It’s just a little over a thousand–like I can’t pay it back!”
With that, she stormed out in humiliation and fury.
I spoke hesitantly, “Did I… do something wrong again?”
This time, the two of them answered in unison. “You did nothing wrong. She did.”
From that day on, Maisie’s reputation only got worse. People whispered behind her back about everything she’d done, slapping her with the label of a scheming woman. Meanwhile, the way they treated me was worlds apart from my previous life.
I figured it was time for me to make the first move. So in front of her, I deliberately took frequent phone calls with other people, deliberately ignoring the venomous, shadowy stare she shot at me from the
sidelines, and said in an intentionally flirtatious tone, “See you later.”
Finally, on Friday night, that venomous snake couldn’t hold back any longer and struck.
Our class group chat was buzzing at its liveliest when Maisie suddenly dropped two messages.
‘Yeah, Naomi really has a long–term hookup buddy. She even said she was going to meet up for it.‘
‘I heard it with my own ears. If there’s a single word of lie, may Death come for me!‘
Then, she immediately sent another message.
‘Sorry, wrong chat!‘
But it was too late to explain anything, because the moment those messages went out, the once–noisy group chat fell into dead silence.
I let out a cold laugh, anger surging up from the pit of my stomach.
In my last life, it had been words like these–casual, malicious slander–that left me utterly defenseless. I
denied it with everything I had, yet no one believed me. All because on the first day of school, everyone had seen those private photos “I” had posted in the group chat and had already decided that, deep down, I
was that kind of person.
