After Winter left, I asked cautiously.
“Do Winter noona and David have different mothers?”
No matter how I looked at it, they didn’t seem like they inherited 100% the same blood. Hyung rolled his eyes for a moment, then nodded.
“Winter is Vietnamese. Her mother was an immigrant from Vietnam. After Winter’s mother passed away, her father remarried, and that was David’s mother. And then they got divorced. Still, Winter and David get along much better than siblings from other families. There’s quite an age gap between them too. Our Winter has such a warm personality.”
“Ah.”
David once said that his dad was quite the womanizer. I don’t know how he knew, but Joel also said that was true.
I didn’t know the details of the Evans couple’s circumstances, but I understood that Winter and David’s father, whose wives kept changing, had a personality that wasn’t well-behaved when it came to romance.
“So right now, David’s father is alone?”
“Mm, I heard there was a woman he was seeing, but I’m not sure…… The only ones living in that house are the father, Winter, and David. But the father travels on business often, so it’s mostly just Winter and David.”
Hyung shrugged his shoulders. If Winter gets married, that house will be left with almost only David. I didn’t care about David like before, but still, I was a bit concerned. I felt like I could understand a little why he became so twisted (though I still think using Natalia and me was wrong).
That face came to mind, the one that revealed a bit of truth mixed into a story full of lies. That face that said he couldn’t completely hate his father who cheated on his mother, that he was afraid he might become like his father…… It was truly impressive. It was an indescribable expression. I couldn’t tell if it was painful, resigned, or sad.
* * *
<Status Window>
【Quest】
- Secure broadcasting rights for ‘Pizza Saver’ Season 2!
- Get 3 people with favorability 55♥ or higher [0/3]
- Raise Joel Gomez’s favorability by 3♥ during the date [0/3]
【Rotten Pineapple】
Current [58]%
◈ High-teen: 100%
◈ Romance: 28%
◈ Queer: 23%
“Mmm.”
I opened the status window to check the current situation. Last time, with the date request, the Rotten Pineapple score went up quite a bit. But even so, it wasn’t even 60%. This wasn’t the time to be happy. Moreover, the quest ‘Get 3 people with favorability 55♥ or higher’ that had been up for quite a while hadn’t succeeded with even a single person. Even though there was no time limit, for me, someone who wasn’t the type to put off homework, this was quite agonizing.
“How do I raise favorability?”
Favorability was even harder because there were no clear standards. Like in Bryan Roberts’ case, it would be convenient if there were quests that told you what to give to raise it by this much. Just looking at the fact that Joel Gomez, with 43, had the highest favorability toward me, showed how difficult a number to understand ‘favorability’ was.
When did Joel’s favorability go up? Going back from the most recent……
① When I thanked him. When I thanked him for fixing my bike and for hitting David, it went up by 1.
② When I promised Joel, who was shouting that he couldn’t escape this neighborhood, that I would definitely help him escape, it also went up by 1.
③ When I said he probably wasn’t a drug dealer, that he didn’t seem like that kind of person, it also went up by 1. And when it went up the most was……
“……”
④ When we kissed. That time it went up by 5.
“When he’s the pervert himself……”
Where is there a pervert whose favorability goes up by 5 after forcibly kissing someone? Kiss. If I did that, the Romance Index and Queer Index would also go up, so numerically speaking, it was quite a beneficial act. So then, should I kiss him to raise Joel’s favorability?
When I imagined kissing Joel, my face heated up for some reason and I stamped my feet before throwing myself onto the bed. And while lying face down, I recalled one fact.
“Ah.”
Even without me seeing it, even without the system telling me, favorability sometimes went up without me knowing. That was the case with David. Is Joel’s favorability really 43 right now? Hasn’t it gone lower or higher? The character status window was all good, but it was annoying that I could only check it when directly facing someone. Tomorrow when I go to school, I should open everyone’s character status window and check their favorability. To do that……
“I’ll have to run into Joel……”
As the date approached day by day, facing Joel became difficult for some reason. I kept avoiding his eyes and felt embarrassed. It’s because I used the grandiose word ‘date,’ but in reality, it’s just a method to raise the Romance Index.
“Ugh.”
Since today was already Tuesday, there were only three days left until the date—Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Come to think of it, did I have clothes to wear on the date? I threw away all those weird EMO clothes and bought everyday wear, so they’re just quiet and neat, but aren’t they inappropriate for a date outfit? What would be a decent outfit?
……I’d have to have been on a date to know! My head was hot and dizzy, so I just turned off the lights, lay in bed, and squeezed my eyes shut.
* * *
“Aaah!”
Huu, huu, huu…… After waking up screaming, I realized it was still early before the sun had even risen and swallowed my saliva. I had a terrible nightmare. I was desperately trying to raise Joel’s favorability, and finally, as a last resort, I kissed him, but—
‘Ugh, you pervert gay bastard.’
Joel looked down at me with cold eyes, and the system window rang—ding!
NEW!
‘Joel Gomez’s favorability decreased by 100!
“Favorability…… dropped by 100…… Ugh.”
As if that terrible dream had actually happened, I hugged my body while shivering, then wobbled as I got out of bed. I must have been too stressed. I should have used my brain moderately before sleeping.
Only after standing under the pouring water for a long time could I finally pull myself together. While drying my hair, I checked my cell phone wondering if I’d gotten any messages during the night. Messages, tons of them had come. From a very annoying person.
July, July! That novel I mentioned last time! I posted it online!
http://novel.com/sddsjkflsda=2490 Here it is!
Could you maybe read it???
“……Sigh.”
It was Bryan. I really didn’t want to, but I forced myself to follow the link Bryan sent, signed up for the site, and left a comment. Clichéd things like [Wow, this is so interesting! I’m looking forward to the next chapter! :)]. What else could I do? I have to protect this world. So I have to prevent him from doing something like a shooting terror. They say heroes are always tired……
“He uploaded a ton too……”
There were over 10 chapters and I left comments on all of them. Then I threw my cell phone on the bed and sat astride the chair. Creeeak, creeeak…… I spun around and around, pretending not to hear the chair’s screams.
“I’m tired……”
I had a nightmare, did annoying things because of Bryan from the morning…… And today is Wednesday.
Even though I didn’t hate going to school, liked attending classes, and had lived a life where the distinction between weekdays and weekends was ambiguous for over 10 years, I didn’t like weekdays. Even if I was studying the same thing, I preferred weekends. Moreover, aren’t I now spending days with a clear boundary between weekends and weekdays? It’s still Wednesday, so that means there are two whole days left until the weekend……
“Ah, I can’t rest this weekend……”
There’s a date on Saturday…… Da. Te. Date. I tried pronouncing that unfamiliar word, breaking it up syllable by syllable. It was so strange. The word ‘date’ itself sounded so unfamiliar. What should I do on the date? What clothes should I wear? Should I really kiss him? What on earth should I……!
“July, you’re up, right?”
“Aack!”
Knock, knock! Startled excessively by the knocking sound, I clutched my heart and—crash!—fell off the chair. Having heard that commotion, hyung flung open the door and came in, looking down at me with worried eyes.
“July! Are you okay? What’s all this first thing in the morning!”
“I’m, fine……”
Even though I knew hyung didn’t have mind-reading abilities, I tried hard to erase the three syllables ‘date’ from my mind. When I forced the corners of my mouth up, hyung let out a sigh of relief.
“You’re still a kid, after all……”
“Hyung, but why?”
“Since last night I’ve been craving kimchi stew so much that I’m going to make some, so I came to see if you’d eat some too. I heard the shower running so I knew you were up. You woke up early today?”
“Yeah.”
Hyung reliably set the overturned chair upright, helped me up, and brushed off my knees.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
“How did you know?”
“Your expression isn’t good. What kind of dream was it?”
“Just…… you know, the obvious. A dream about falling off a cliff.”
I naturally swallowed down ‘I agreed to go on a date with Joel Gomez, and when I tried to raise his favorability by kissing him, his favorability dropped by 100 instead.’ When I laughed awkwardly while lying, hyung stroked my still-wet hair.
“A dream about falling off a cliff? You must be going to grow taller. There’s that saying in Korea.”
“I’m already taller than you, hyung. If I grow more from here, you’ll become a real midget.”
“What? You have no words you can’t say to your hyung!”
“Ugh, hyung!”
I screamed while playing along with hyung’s prank of grabbing me in a headlock. Of course, it didn’t hurt at all. And we went to the kitchen together, and I helped hyung make kimchi stew.
By the time the stew was bubbling and the rice was done, Mom and Dad, who had woken up, also joined in, and for the first time in quite a while, we were able to eat a grand and hearty breakfast.
