Chapter 38: You Might Be a Masochist
“No progress! Absolutely no progress at all!”
“I stayed up playing games with Su Peng until after ten last night, but why didn’t his affection level go up even a little?”
“And now he’s acting all cautious! Every time I get close, he runs away! What’s wrong with him?”
Standing in front of the next dorm room, An Han kept complaining non-stop about how uncooperative Su Peng was.
That didn’t make sense. Last time they just played a few small games together and Su Peng’s affection went up by five points right away.
As soon as he knocked on the door, his grumpy face instantly turned into a gentle smile.
“Su Peng! Time to get up and eat!”
He suddenly remembered their talk in the cafeteria yesterday.
Maybe Su Peng thought he liked men? That must be why he started avoiding him!
Yeah, that had to be it!
But he did already explain himself yesterday...
Now An Han was stuck again. If he stayed friendly like before, Su Peng might keep thinking he liked men. But if he acted cold, the affection level probably wouldn’t go up.
After a short while, the door opened. Su Peng stood there, clean and tidy as always. He never seemed to look messy no matter when.
“Su—”
An Han just started to speak, but Su Peng cut him off.
“I’m going out on a date today.”
“With that An Kexin girl?”
“Yeah.”
He froze for a moment, then realized, this was a great chance!
As a good brother, helping out as a wingman should also increase affection points, right?
So he eagerly asked, “Can I come too?”
Su Peng blinked. “Huh?”
“Don’t you need a wingman or something?” An Han asked enthusiastically.
But Su Peng didn’t even hesitate. “A wingman? No way.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Remember when Dongming tried to get a girlfriend? You’re the reason it failed.”
An Han put on a thoughtful face, pretending to recall, then snapped his fingers like he just remembered.
“Oh, that! That was his own problem, not mine.”
Su Peng didn’t even want to argue. He just turned and walked straight toward the stairs.
An Han hurried after him, still trying to explain.
“Really, it wasn’t my fault. If you like that girl, I swear I’ll be a great wingman for you!”
But Su Peng didn’t believe him at all, he had too much history causing trouble.
“It’s just a bit of interest, that’s all. I don’t mind hanging out with her, but it’s not like I like her.”
An Han could clearly tell Su Peng’s steps were getting faster, almost like he was trying to escape, until it turned into a speed walk.
He had to jog to keep up, quickly saying, “I don’t have anything else to do anyway, just let me tag along!”
“No.”
Left with no choice, An Han stopped at the end of the hallway, watching Su Peng walk away down the road.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “What do I do now?”
If there had been no progress at all, he wouldn’t care much about the mission. But now he was so close to completing it!
He should’ve picked the third mission from the start! Wearing a swimsuit for a whole day might have sounded hard, but now that he thought about it, he could’ve just worn it as underwear under his normal clothes. That would’ve been easy!
Instead, he’d gone around acting all clingy and now everyone thought he was gay.
Big mistake.
An Han watched Su Peng walk farther and farther away, and he completely lost any hope for the mission.
Forget it, let it all burn! If this stupid system wants to level up, fine. If it doesn’t, whatever.
I quit!
Damn it! A perfectly normal man, and now the system has turned him into this! Bossing him around all day, and for what? No rewards at all!
Cursing in his head, An Han turned to head back to the dorm to play games. But then, he suddenly noticed that Su Peng, who was almost out of sight, had turned around and was walking back toward the dorm building.
“Did he forget something?”
A bit of excitement rose in his chest, though he quickly forced himself to calm down and muttered, “I’m done! Whatever happens, happens!”
What a waste of effort!
Even though he said that, he still stood there obediently waiting. A moment later, Su Peng walked slowly up the stairs.
“Yo!”
“Yo my ass!” An Han glared at him. “Why aren’t you out with that girl? Forgot to bring something?”
“No. I just saw you standing here staring at me like some lovesick statue, so I decided to come back.”
“You’re the lovesick statue!”
[Su Peng’s affection +2]
An Han couldn’t help thinking Su Peng was either crazy or a total masochist.
Seriously? Just scolding him increased his affection level?
He noticed Su Peng’s expression looked a bit strange but still asked, “Weren’t you scared I was gay and would try to turn you?”
“After thinking about it, that’s probably not the case,” Su Peng said, standing beside him and looking at the scenery downstairs. “If you were gay, you wouldn’t act so girly.”
“Pfft—what the hell did you just say!?”
An Han sucked in a sharp breath and nearly kicked Su Peng right there.
Ever since realizing the system was gradually turning him more feminine, the word “girly” had become his biggest trigger!
“Get lost!”
If Su Peng had a system of his own, he’d definitely have just gotten a “An Han’s affection -100” notification.
Fuming, An Han stormed back toward the dorm, muttering under his breath, “You’re the girly one! Your whole family’s girly! Go back to your date already! Why’d you even come back!?”
Su Peng followed behind, watching An Han’s face turn red with anger. His cheeks puffed out like an angry pufferfish.
Even though the way he got mad looked a little feminine, it didn’t feel out of place on him. In fact… it looked kind of cute.
Su Peng caught himself thinking that and immediately told himself to snap out of it. But then he saw how downcast An Han had looked when he walked away earlier, and he couldn’t bring himself to leave again.
Besides, he didn’t want to lose a friend over some misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, An Han was totally unaware of what was going through Su Peng’s mind. His heart was still racing in anger, and when Su Peng leaned closer, he quickly turned his head away.
“Wanna play games?”
“I’m going to eat breakfast!”
“Then we can play after breakfast,” Su Peng said with a smile, moving even closer.
“What’s wrong with you!? Now I’m starting to think you’re the gay one! You ditched a date with a girl just to hang around me like some annoying fly!”
Su Peng chuckled. “I didn’t really want to go out with An Kexin anyway.”
He had originally planned to use the date as an excuse to avoid An Han, but halfway there, he realized that hanging out with a girl wasn’t nearly as fun as playing games with him.
Besides, An Han had said over and over again that he had no interest in guys. Maybe he was just overthinking it… reacting too much because it had been way too long since he’d, well, let off steam.
An Han walked ahead with a grumpy face, still complaining non-stop.
“I’m starting to think you’re a masochist!”
“No way.”
[Su Peng’s affection +1]
What the heck? The worse he treated this guy, the more his affection went up!?
An Han turned around and gave Su Peng a long, serious look.
Yeah… he definitely had to be a masochist.