Chapter 10: The Class Monitor’s Cookies
“But honestly, Lin Muqing is such a straight guy, like super straight. He might be the straightest guy in the whole class, no one even comes close.”
Her deskmate kept talking on her own. After finishing her sentence, she looked at the class monitor beside her, sighed helplessly, and kept covering her face.
“Huh? Why do you say that?” The class monitor suddenly lifted her head and asked, confused.
“Think about it. In our class, or even in our whole school, there are so many pretty girls. Have you ever seen him look at any of them twice?”
“...Not really.”
Zhang Xiaoling hesitated, trying to remember, and then shook her head. She couldn’t think of any such memory.
Thinking about it more, she realized that both Lin Muqing and Ye Ziming never seemed to show interest in girls.
Instead, they had a really close relationship, some might even say too close, which easily led people to think things, like… two guys super close, not into girls, you know…
Emmm… There were even rumors that someone in another class wrote a fanfiction story where the male and female leads were clearly based on those two.
“You… sigh. As your bestie, let me give you a tip. There’s a comic convention this weekend in the south part of the city. Lin Muqing is probably interested in that. You could try inviting him.”
Her deskmate originally wanted to keep analyzing the situation with her, but then thought to forget it. It’s faster to just offer a plan that might actually work.
“That might work!”
Hearing her friend’s advice, Zhang Xiaoling snapped out of her thoughts and quickly shook her head to get rid of those weird ideas.
Her defeated expression from before was gone, and her eyes were full of light again. She snuck another glance at Lin Muqing, who was chatting with Ye Ziming.
It was such a weird feeling. Ye Ziming didn’t seem like her classmate anymore… but more like a rival.
A very strong rival.
Meanwhile, at Muqing’s desk, she had just returned with the two boxes and couldn’t wait to share the gift.
“Boss, this one’s mine, and this one’s yours. We both got one.”
She didn’t say who it was from. First, because her good buddy was already watching when she accepted the gift from the class monitor. Second, she figured he wouldn’t accept it anyway, so she didn’t bother explaining. Instead, she just placed the box in front of him, not directly on his desk, but nearby.
“What’s this?”
Ye Ziming’s eyes flickered slightly when he saw Muqing’s bright, cheerful smile. Then he casually asked.
“They’re cookies! Handmade by the class monitor herself.”
As she said it, Muqing’s eyes sparkled. She even sneakily stuck out her tongue to lick her lips when no one was looking, then quickly pulled it back.
But it wasn’t totally unnoticed. Ye Ziming, who was looking straight at her, happened to see it. He frowned slightly but said nothing.
“I don’t like sweets. You can have mine.”
With a tiny movement of his eyebrows, Ye Ziming gave up on the idea of returning the gift. Instead, he gave his box to Muqing.
He knew her well enough to know she’d definitely accept it. If only because… it looked tasty.
“No problem, no problem. I’m really good at stuff like this.”
As she spoke, Muqing secretly glanced at the class monitor from a distance. Seeing that she wasn’t looking her way, Muqing quickly stuffed both small boxes into her backpack.
Then, acting like nothing had happened, she continued chatting with her best buddy.
While chatting, Muqing looked at her backpack and thought, ‘The class monitor didn’t even check what kind of sweets Boss likes.’
Just giving cookies like that, which are super sweet, it definitely won’t work. Muqing figured she needed to find a chance to tell the class monitor about this.
“Wait a sec—how come you got two boxes?”
Lin Wenbin, sitting nearby, had been watching Muqing the whole time. His eyes practically had two lemons in them from how sour he felt. When he saw her put both boxes in her backpack, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes and lean in.
He’d heard their conversation earlier too. His childhood friend had personally made cookies, and he didn’t even get one?! How could he stay calm?
“Well, that’s obviously because of Boss’s charm.”
Muqing turned around and saw his big wide eyes, as if two lemons were stuck inside them. She grinned proudly and pointed at Ye Ziming beside her, like she was the one being complimented.
To her, it didn’t really matter which girl gave the gift. What she cared about was what kind of tasty treat was inside.
As long as there’s good food, everything’s negotiable.
“…Can you give me one of the boxes?”
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Wenbin scooted closer with a hopeful look and whispered.
“You’re dreaming.” Muqing turned him down without a second thought!
“I’ll trade you for a ticket to the comic convention this weekend in the south part of the city.” After saying that, Lin Wenbin paused for a second, then added, “There’s even a special event by Eromanga sensei.”
“!?”
Muqing was shocked. The moment she heard the name Eromanga sensei, she got excited, that’s her favorite artist!
Unfortunately, she had already made plans with someone last night, so the ticket wasn’t all that tempting now.
But she didn’t plan to say that out loud. If her classmates found out she was a hardcore anime nerd, it’d be super embarrassing.
“Meh, not really interested.” She waved her hand, clearly trying to brush him off.
“You turned into a girl or something?”
Lin Wenbin was shocked. He knew full well how much Muqing liked that anime artist. She was the kind of person who only liked that one character, no exceptions. Well, aside from ahem… spicy fan art.
“You—you’re the one who turned into a girl! You turn into a girl every day!”
What Lin Wenbin said wasn’t even about gender, but Muqing misunderstood completely and panicked, as if her secret had been exposed.
She instinctively stepped back, her face turning unnatural and nervous. She could barely get her words out.
Her odd behavior made Ye Ziming glance sideways at her, eyes slightly widened.
He knew her well. That kind of reaction? Yeah, it meant she was hiding something.
Tense face, uncertain eyes, definitely guilty.
But what was she feeling guilty about? Now he was really curious. His heart itched like a cat was pawing at it.
“Why are you acting so weird?”
Lin Wenbin didn’t notice Muqing’s strange reaction. He just thought her response was way over the top and didn’t understand why. If he had noticed, Muqing might’ve been in big trouble.
“I happened to get my hands on a limited-edition Eromanga sensei figure a while ago. Official product, straight from Japan. If you want it, I’ll give it to you.”
After his brief surprise, Lin Wenbin quickly went back to the original topic. He really, really wanted those cookies his childhood friend made.
“Emmm.”
Snapping back to reality, Muqing tried to act normal. She coughed twice into her hand to cover up her awkwardness.
“So… that figure… is it pretty?”