Chapter 113: Favorability?
An Han was sure that after completing the mission where he had to wear a cheongsam, he hadn’t received any more items, tools, or attributes from the system.
It couldn’t be a side effect of the “painless period” ability, right? On the surface, those two things didn’t seem related at all.
Besides, he wasn’t even female now. He didn’t have a monthly cycle, so the ability wasn’t active. There was no hormonal change caused by menstruation that could affect his emotions or personality.
That meant, among all the recent changes, only one thing stood out. The favorability that had gone over 90 and was still slowly rising.
When favorability reached 80, the system upgraded. Maybe when it passed 90, the system secretly did something to me too?
“Favorability isn’t as simple as it looks…”
He murmured to himself in front of the bathroom mirror, watching the blush on his cheeks slowly fade away.
“But Brother Long’s favorability toward me is also above 90. So why don’t I react to him?”
“It would actually be weird if I did. Even though we live together, we don’t have much close contact.”
The most physical contact they had was probably just Long Xing patting his bed frame every morning to wake him up.
Before, Long Xing would casually hook his arm around An Han’s shoulder during small talks, but ever since An Han’s appearance became more feminine, Long Xing had been keeping some distance. Those brotherly gestures were almost gone now.
Su Peng, on the other hand, had been much closer to him recently because of the leg-tied running practice.
“System, explain the favorability level to me.”
[Favorability: Please keep it below 80. Values above 100 carry unknown risks.]
Of course! Another one of those vague explanations that never tell me the important part.
Just like before, this system always explains the function, but never the side effects.
“Damn it, this thing never does anything good!”
An Han cursed quietly, scratching his hair in frustration before finally making up his mind.
“Forget it, I just need to hold on until tomorrow’s match.”
“A little bit of psychological weirdness for one or two days won’t matter much. I’ll just be careful and react quickly like before…”
“The main thing is to make sure Su Peng’s favorability doesn’t go over 100.”
He washed his face again until his expression looked normal, then turned toward the noisy playground in the distance. Without hesitating, he jogged over and joined the cheering crowd.
Move around, blend in with people. Use the mix of sweat, smoke, and body odor in the air to fool his senses.
An Han stopped near the long jump pit, standing on tiptoe to watch as students jumped into the sand. Like the others cheering beside him, he clapped and shouted every now and then.
His attention, however, wasn’t on the jumpers. His eyes kept glancing toward the class’s resting area.
Sure enough, after about ten minutes, Su Peng appeared in sight. An Han didn’t hide. He waved both hands excitedly and jumped twice to catch his attention. “Here! Over here!”
Su Peng jogged over, stopping beside him with a helpless smile. “Why are you suddenly watching the match?”
“It’s the sports festival. I can’t just hide under a tree and play with my phone all day, right?”
“When you used to hide in the dorm and play computer games, you didn’t say that,” Su Peng teased.
An Han’s lips twitched. He pretended not to hear and quickly turned back to the sandpit, speaking with excitement.
“There was this one guy, so funny! He jumped really far, but when he landed, he put his hand back for balance, so the judge counted his handprint as the landing point!”
“And another guy almost missed the pit completely!”
“Look, look! That one’s amazing! He’s like he’s flying!”
Without realizing it, An Han moved a little closer to Su Peng. He stood on tiptoe, stretching his slender white neck like a swan to see further ahead. One of his hands had naturally grabbed Su Peng’s sleeve, as if trying to steady himself so he could see better. While watching the match, he kept talking excitedly to Su Peng.
“That guy looks like a sports student. I saw him training this morning.”
“A sports student, huh? They’ll probably take all the first-place prizes in this sports festival,” Su Peng said with a faint smile, glancing at An Han’s lively movements. He couldn’t help but feel like he suddenly had a cheerful girlfriend beside him.
“Good thing my goal isn’t to win first place in the leg-tied race,” An Han muttered under his breath. “I just want to join the match normally and not embarrass myself.”
When he mentioned something related to the task, his mind suddenly cleared up a little. He followed his gaze down his left arm, right to the hand that was holding onto Su Peng’s sleeve.
“……”
He hadn’t even noticed! And when did I get this close to Su Peng?!
He realized that his body was almost leaning against Su Peng’s chest, just like a shy girl snuggling into her boyfriend’s arms!
The next second, as if triggered by a spring, An Han’s body jerked back, quickly stepping several paces away.
Su Peng looked at him with a puzzled expression.
But An Han didn’t dare meet his eyes. “Let’s… let’s go see the other matches.”
At the same time, there were three different events happening. Besides the long jump in front of them, there was a jump rope contest over at the basketball court, and a 100-meter dash prelim on the track.
An Han wandered around the field aimlessly, pretending to be cheerful while glancing around. His face wore a smile that looked polite but tired, and Su Peng followed patiently beside him the whole time.
Can you please go away already?!
Stop sticking to me! Don’t you have anything else to do?!
Am I seriously your only friend?!
An Han screamed inwardly, but his face stayed calm and friendly. He didn’t dare show even a hint of annoyance. He was afraid that if Su Peng got upset, he might refuse to join the match with him.
“Are we still training tonight?” Su Peng asked.
“Let’s skip tonight,” An Han said, shaking his head and quickly making up an excuse. “We’ve been practicing too much these past two days. My feet kind of hurt.”
“Really? It didn’t seem like that much.”
“Maybe not for you,” An Han replied helplessly. “But I was training with Wang Sheng, and I got thrown down a few times.”
Su Peng’s eyes fell on An Han’s elbow. The wound there had stopped bleeding, but the scraped skin was still clearly visible.
An Han muttered unhappily, “It’s your fault for suddenly losing your temper.”
“Sorry,” Su Peng said softly.
“What’s there to apologize for?”
Just then, An Han spotted An Kexin in the distance. His eyes lit up, and he quickly stepped closer to Su Peng, whispering, “I think An Kexin likes you.”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t we agree? I’ll find you a girlfriend, and you’ll be my apprentice!” An Han said, patting Su Peng’s back with a “you’re hopeless” kind of expression. “Go on! Don’t chicken out!”
“Uh… but I don’t like her,” Su Peng said, looking a bit confused and hesitant.
“Even if you don’t like her, you should still respond to her feelings!” An Han said, giving him another strong push on the back.
Su Peng stumbled forward a few steps, and when he lifted his head, he saw An Kexin already waving and running toward him happily.
When he looked back, An Han was already sneaking away, mouthing the words: Good luck!
Su Peng could only laugh helplessly.
He already had someone he liked, but An Han was still busy trying to find him a girlfriend. And he couldn’t just bluntly reject him, either.
“This is too hard.”