The Outsider
<Please Like Me!>
The affection stat has been unlocked! Aren’t you curious about how that person feels toward you?
Let’s find out how much affection people have for you!
Try to make three or more people with affection of 55♥ or higher! (Excluding family)
3 people with affection 55♥ or higher [0/3]
Tip! The higher the affection, the more the other person will listen to what you say!
“Hmm……”
Affection…… What exactly is affection?
It’s the degree of affection the other person has for you expressed in numbers! 🙂
“……If you’re going to say something so obvious, don’t say anything at all.”
🙁
Who can’t say that? But I was confused about what exactly that affection meant.
Mom, Dad, and hyung’s affection toward me was 99, 99, and 98 respectively. They love me very much. I could tell just by looking at their actions. But that meant it wasn’t ‘affection’ or ‘love’ limited to romantic feelings.
Surprisingly, among others, the person with the highest affection toward me was Joel, at 43. But Joel wasn’t kind or affectionate to me. His affection couldn’t be in the same direction as my family’s, and it couldn’t be romantic either…….
Is it just literally ‘favorable feelings’? Then that bastard Joel thinks favorably of me to the extent of 43, yet his temper is still like that? What would he do to someone with 0 affection……! Ah, looking at how he treats Dave, he was pretty rough. I might need to be grateful that he has over 40 affection for me. Otherwise, I might have gotten hit once, no, several times.
I don’t know exactly what ‘affection’ is, so I don’t know how to raise it either. Still, if I just vaguely think of it as gaining ‘favor,’ it’s not something I can’t do.
“First…… let’s go to school.”
I put my foot on the bike pedal. Since I had one more bike, I chose one to ride every day depending on my mood. The bike Joel repaired squeaked a bit but felt like it went faster, while hyung’s bike was stable but seemed a bit slower. Today I rode the one Joel repaired. Joel moved both of them to the school parking lot so I could bring them home.
“That bastard Joel.”
He makes it so I can’t completely hate him. Especially when I’m already quite sentimental. Come to think of it, I haven’t repaid the debt hyung told me to repay. What should I do for him? Should I treat him to a meal? He does seem like a pretty affectionate bastard though…….
Honnnnnnnk!
“Ugh!”
Startled by the sudden horn, I turned the handlebars sideways and stopped while staggering. Thinking what crazy bastard would do such bad manners, I glared and—
“Hey, idiot!”
“……”
It was Joel Gomez. Joel stuck his face out the driver’s side window and giggled. I take back what I said earlier.
“Childish.”
“Wanna bet again, huh?”
“No!”
Not wanting to be extorted again, I ignored Joel and got on my bike. I pedaled hard, but Joel’s car moving forward slowly to match my speed was quite annoying.
“Why don’t you focus on driving?”
“I can drive with my feet without looking.”
“I’m scared I’ll get run over, so watch the road and drive properly!”
I finally stopped my bike and glared hard. Joel, who had stopped the car as well, tilted his head crookedly.
“Hey.”
“What!”
“Why do you…… always look so stupid every time I see you?”
Pfft, Joel openly sneered. That son of a bitch…… That bastard, I should just……!
‘Still, you survived thanks to him treating it quickly, so repay the debt.’
Hyung, do I really have to repay a debt to a guy like that?
‘Still, you survived thanks to him treating it quickly, so repay the debt.’
‘Still, you survived thanks to him treating it quickly, so repay the debt.’
‘Still, you survived thanks to him treating it quickly, so repay the debt.’
“……”
As if scolding me, hyung’s words came to mind one after another. Hyung, I got it. I got it! I just need to repay the debt, right! I really hate to admit it, but he’s my life savior.
“Is ‘our baby’ sleepy because he’s young? Your face looks even more dazed, huh?”
“……Don’t call me that.”
I’d just barely resolved to treat him to a meal, but he makes it all crumble. Joel’s appearance, giggling while bringing up that embarrassing term of endearment my hyung and parents used for me, was truly childish and annoying.
“Why, you’re a ‘baby.'”
“Why am I your ‘baby’?”
“Then do you want me to call you something else, like, ‘baby’ (darling)? ……I’m not really into that though.”
Who asked you to do that! I wanted to hit Joel’s head hard once, no, twice, as he looked me up and down, then clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Hold it in, hold it. I’m a rational modern person, and he’s a primitive who hasn’t escaped barbarism. Still, I saved my life thanks to that primitive, so let’s repay the debt. Why? Because I’m a rational modern person! Hold it in, hold it! After repeating it to myself several times, I smiled at Joel.
“Do you have time this evening?”
“……What for.”
I just smiled as nicely as possible, but Joel furrowed his eyebrows with a suspicious look. Seriously, there’s no such thing as trust between people. Must be because he’s a primitive.
“For treating me when I had that allergic reaction before, and for taking me to the hospital. I want to repay the debt. My parents said so. Gratitude should be expressed through actions, not just words.”
I spoke clearly in a deliberately stern voice. Even though there was nothing strange about what I said, Joel strangely twisted his lips and smirked.
“……Through actions too? Yeah, how are you going to express that? Huh?”
Why is he acting like that? His teasing tone was quite suspicious. When I frowned and looked down, Joel pulled up one corner of his mouth.
“Ahhh, so that’s why you did this and that with that bastard David too, expressing ‘gratitude’ through actions? You said you express it through actions too.”
“……Ah. That’s not it……!”
Ah, ah……! Only then did I realize my slip of the tongue. It can be interpreted that way too! I never thought of it. That devious bastard! Seeing my face turn bright red from embarrassment, he even tilted his head back and started laughing. “Hahaha!”
“So, what are you planning to do through actions? Huh?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“How far did you go with that bastard, hmm? Tell me? I need to hear how far you’re willing to go so I know what to ask for.”
Joel was like a scoundrel harassing an innocent country maiden. He was just as shameless as that scoundrel. Though I’m not a country maiden.
“Forget it! I won’t repay the debt! I won’t be grateful, so don’t act like you did me a favor!”
I turned away from that shameless bastard and pedaled again. But damn it, a bike can’t be faster than a car. Joel annoyingly drove with one hand on the wheel, matching my speed.
“Why, tell me? Huh? Don’t you know about that stuff because you’re a ‘baby’?”
“Stop!”
“Stop, what?”
“Ah, I was just going to buy you a meal!”
“A meal? Just a meeeeal? Is your life worth just a meal? Huh?”
“……”
Joel shouted, letting out a breath “Paha!” as if unimpressed. Was just buying a meal too little? As I’ve said repeatedly, I valued my life. I knew how heavy and precious that value was. Yeah, he saved me from almost dying, so just treating him to one meal seems like I’m just trying to make it easy on myself…….
“……Then what do you want.”
I glanced at him with an expression that strongly conveyed the nuance of ‘I’ll at least listen since you’re my life savior, but your devious intentions are very suspicious!’ Joel, who had stopped the car, grabbed his chin and even furrowed his eyebrows while deliberating. Making me unnecessarily anxious.
“Hmm, I can make a meal well enough myself, you know? But it’s not like stupid so-and-so has anything great, and well, you’re not sexy enough to want to roll around in bed with……”
Joel looked me up and down. Rolling around in bed when you’re only eighteen! Go roll around hugging a pillow! And I’ve rarely been unpopular for my looks anywhere! Of course, I wouldn’t be ‘sexy’ to that bastard who’s a heterosexual! I’m tired of and angry at being treated like an ugly idiot all the time.
“Do you enjoy putting people down like that?”
I glared with my eyebrows firmly furrowed. Frustratingly, Joel wasn’t intimidated. He just jerked his chin as if telling me to speak up.
“I’m not stupid, and even if I’m not ‘sexy’ to you, I’m quite charming and handsome.”
“So what are you trying to say?”
“I’ll let the not calling my name properly slide, but really stop calling me stupid. ……I’ve already heard it to death even without you. We see each other’s faces at school every day, so being called that way all the time is really unpleasant and…… yeah, it upsets me. ……Well, my being upset probably has nothing to do with you though.”
The coldly hardened faces of my family came to mind and I lowered my head. Mom, Dad, and hyung called me stupid. They also said I was dumb. Even though I had a pretty good memory, they said they were disappointed in me for not reaching their own genius level.
The family here may be embarrassingly doting fools, but those I’d been with for 18 years were different. As my original family came to mind again, my mood sank and became gloomy.
A shadow was looming in front of me, so I raised my eyes. I don’t know when he got out, but Joel was standing in front of me with one leg cocked. Why did he get out? The moment I thought that, Joel grabbed my face.
“……Fuck, which bastard said that.”
With those large, destructive hands, Joel gripped my chin tightly and pulled me right up to his nose and said. That whispering voice was rough and fierce, with none of the uncharacteristically soft air it had before.
