I kept the dumb stare going as I blankly watched the direction Sera left.
I stayed like that until her slim figure was far away, and only then did Monkey and Baron snap out of their statue mode.
"H-holy shit! bro!" Baron's fat face twisted from being way too excited.
"Ser-Seraphina … she… she actually talked to us first!"
"And she even said we can chat again next time! Oh my god! Did she finally notice the good stuff hidden under our skin?"
"Cut it out. She was probably here for Luke." Monkey actually had a brain for once.
"If he hadn't shut Leo down during break, a saintess like her wouldn't even bother saying two words to us before graduation."
He said that, but it didn't stop him from taking a bunch of deep breaths.
He sniffed hard like he was trying to suck up the scent Seraphina left in the air.
"Damn… she smells good…"
He looked drunk on it, and then he got annoyed at how hard I was trying to keep up the wife-watching statue act, so he jabbed my ribs with his elbow.
"Alright, quit staring. She's gone. Why didn't you grab the chance just now? Maybe you could've gotten a shot with her later and even kiss her."
I cleared my throat.
I kept the shy still freaked out tone.
"N-no, it's not like that… I just… talked a little… I'm going back to the classroom…"
I tossed that out and hurried off, and my steps looked rushed and messy.
Baron and Monkey watched my running away back, and they looked at each other.
Without even planning it, they both put on that gross little grin every guy recognizes.
-----
Once my figure got swallowed by the shadow of the teaching building and disappeared from everyone's sight, I turned the corner of the hallway and made sure nobody was looking.
Then my fast steps slowed down, and I went back to my normal pace.
With my back straightening, I relaxed a little more with every step.
The heat in my cheeks cooled down fast.
I raised a hand, took off my black-framed glasses, and pulled out a lens cloth to wipe them.
That was close.
I almost got targeted for real.
Acting is fucking exhausting…
To make it look real, I did micro-control on the body that Unyielding had already rebuilt.
I forced my capillaries to open up and my heart to speed up, so my body would fake the right reactions.
It was good enough to fool a top-end lie detector.
And the cost was…
The energy drain from that whole sequence felt like a weaker version of Reward Boost.
That familiar hollowed-out feeling rose up from deep in my soul.
But it was worth it.
A timid, shy, awkward guy who can't talk straight and gets so nervous around a goddess that he starts stuttering.
That label was safe, harmless, and boring as hell.
It would keep me away from trouble.
Perfect.
Good thing I was one step ahead.
After dealing with that pick-me campus belle crisis, I put my clean glasses back on.
The top priority now was getting back to the bunker built out of books and test papers.
I needed my brain buried in formulas and the cold logic of proofs so I could recharge this overused battery a little.
The back door of the classroom was right there.
I could already picture myself getting back to my seat, spreading out that math paper I'd only finished halfway, and going back to war with solid geometry.
Before my hand even touched the cold doorknob, a strange sound leaked through the crack in the door.
It was…
Two different kinds of rough, heavy breathing.
My hand froze in midair.
What the hell?
The nurse's office, the woods, the equipment room… and now even the classroom, where everyone was about to come back, was part of somebody's hookup spot?
People in this local novel world really have zero manners.
"Mmm… don't… don't do that…"
The sound kept coming through the door, and it wasn't soundproof at all.
The voice was pushed down hard, but that "don't" didn't sound like refusal. It sounded like teasing.
"...Someone will… someone will find out… ah~…"
Why was that even happening here?
My face stayed blank.
My energy-saving instincts and my danger sense both triggered at the same time, and for once they agreed completely.
Curiosity? None.
That got squeezed out along with my stamina during all those cursed nights.
Anger? Not that either.
This world was so ridiculous that I didn't even have the energy to be mad anymore.
There was only one clear, cold thought in my head.
Leave.
No hesitation, and no dragging my feet.
I turned around and walked back the way I came, heading toward the bright sunlight at the end of the hallway.
The library was too far, and the study room had to be packed right now.
So there was only one choice.
The rooftop.
It was cool, open, and most importantly, quiet.
Hopefully the last clean spot didn't have some hard-working horny couple in it too.
The metal door to the rooftop wasn't locked, and it was just pulled almost shut.
I pushed it open, and the autumn wind hit my face, mixed with city noise and that fresh high-air smell you only get up here.
The rooftop was coated with a gray-green waterproof layer, and it looked patchy from years of sun and rain.
A few stubborn clumps of moss poked out from cracks, and half-body-high concrete rails ran around the edges.
In the corner, abandoned desks and chairs were stacked up, and a thick layer of dust sat on them.
No noise, and no couples who liked outdoor naked wrestling.
Nice.
I took out my book and walked to a shaded corner, and I was about to sit down against the wall and enjoy a little peace.
But as I casually swept my eyes across the big water tank on the other side of the roof, my look tightened.
There was a girl in the shadow over there.
She was turned slightly to the side, and she leaned quietly against the cold tank wall while she held a book that looked like a language book.
She wore the same school uniform shirt, but the fabric and tailoring were clearly more refined than my basic version.
The shirt fit her slim waist, and it was worn neatly, while the collar buttons were fastened all the way up.
Her long black hair was smooth and untouched by dye or perms, like good silk.
I couldn't see her full face, and I only caught the soft outline of her profile and her milk-pale skin that looked almost transparent in the sunlight.
She was fully sunk into the book, and her posture was clean and elegant.
It felt like she wasn't sitting on a dusty rooftop at all, and it felt like she belonged in some old library on a redwood chair.
She looked kind of familiar, so she was probably another rich girl.
To avoid trouble, I planned to quietly back off to the stairwell and leave the whole space to her.
But she seemed to sense something, and her fingers paused on the book.
She looked up in this direction.
Our eyes met.
This time, I saw her face clearly.
Seraphina had that sharp, aggressive kind of beauty, but this girl didn't.
Her face looked like a calm, classic ink painting, and every part of it sat exactly right.
Her brows were dark even without makeup, and her lips were red without any lipstick.
Her almond-shaped eyes were clear, and they didn't have that teasing or probing look. They were just warm and quiet.
Runa Selol.
The Class 1 class monitor, and the other top school beauty who was just as famous as Seraphina.
She came from a powerful family, and she was gentle, smart, and top of the class.
She was also my middle school classmate for over two years after I transferred to this city.
The second I recognized her, a tiny ripple of surprise spread across her calm expression.
She closed the book and left her fingers between the pages, and then she turned her body slightly toward me.
"Um… are you Luke?" Her voice was polite and soft, and she sounded unsure.
"We were classmates in Class 4 in middle school. Do you remember?"
She didn't smile, but her calm manners felt natural, like she wasn't even trying.
I held the vocab booklet in one hand, and I wasn't on high alert like I was with Seraphina, but…
One familiar word quietly surfaced in the deepest part of my mind.
Trouble.
I almost never even said a full sentence to these rich girls, so why were they all triggering NPC dialogue options today?
What's going on?
What day is it, Campus Belle Day?
One after another, they're all showing up to bait us goblins?