"Doctor, how's my mom? She's going to be okay, right?!"
Li Zhu rushed into the hospital. His mother, Li Caizi, lay unconscious on the bed, heavily bandaged from head to abdomen. The sight alone made his heart clench.
"You're her family?" asked a doctor in thick black-framed glasses.
"Yes—I'm her son."
"Don't worry. Your mother isn't in any serious danger. She should wake up soon. Come sign these forms." The doctor's tone was calm and reassuring.
"Oh… okay." Li Zhu finally breathed out. When he got the call saying his mother had fallen from the upstairs landing and passed out on the spot, his heart nearly stopped. Luckily a neighbor had rushed her to the hospital in time.
He took the forms, glanced at them, and was about to sign when something felt off. He looked again—more carefully this time.
"Doctor, is there a mistake? The fees are all listed, but the total shows zero?"
"Oh, that. Someone already paid for everything," the doctor replied casually.
"Someone… paid? Who?"
"A girl in Room 401, fourth floor—the pretty one. Looks like she knows your mother. She told us to process everything immediately and put the bill under her account."
Li Zhu blinked. Strange. He didn't have many friends growing up, and his mother had always worked nonstop. Even if they had known people before… they had all moved away. Who would pay something like this—and so generously?
"…I see. Thank you."
He stayed by his mother's side for a while. Seeing the nurse take careful care of her, he decided to find this mysterious benefactor.
But once he reached the fourth floor, he realized something else: 401 was one of the private luxury wards—reserved for the wealthy and powerful.
"Someone like that paid our bill? Just who is she…?"
His curiosity only grew.
"Well, whatever her background is, she helped us. I need to thank her properly."
"Hey! What are you doing lurking outside my grandpa's room?"
A light tap on his shoulder came with a bright, crisp voice—like a songbird.
He turned and saw a tall girl with shoulder-length twin ponytails, smoky wild makeup, a lollipop between her lips. Her school uniform shirt was rolled up to show her midriff, the jacket tied loosely around her waist, paired with ripped denim shorts.
A full delinquent look—rebellious, confident, dangerously pretty. Li Zhu's words got stuck in his throat.
Wait… she looked familiar.
And then the name slipped out:
"Hinata Kotone?"
"Ehh? You know my name?" she blinked. "No—hold on. Even like this, you recognized me?"
Kotone pointed at her heavily made-up face, eyes widening in disbelief.
"No one has ever seen through my disguise before. Who are you?" She immediately stepped back, arms crossing defensively.
Kotone took her secret second life very seriously. Heavy makeup, twin ponytails, bold clothes, even her tone and mannerisms—nothing like the perfect, disciplined school idol she was known as. When she went out to have fun with her equally rebellious "good-girl-gone-bad" friends, she always chose low-traffic places, always cleaned up immediately afterward. No one had ever caught her.
Even her doting grandfather wouldn't recognize her like this.
If she hadn't noticed this guy lurking near her grandfather's room, curiosity wouldn't have dragged her over before removing her makeup.
But he recognized her instantly?
Kotone's mind raced.
Unless—
"…I get it. You've been following me, haven't you? You stalker freak!!"
Li Zhu stared as her expression shifted about five times in ten seconds before she glared at him with narrowed eyes—three parts confident, five parts disdain, and… two parts excitement?
Li Zhu: "???"
He was speechless. How did she manage to hallucinate all of that?
"You're overthinking. The doctor said someone in 401 paid my mother's bills. I came to thank her." He sighed.
Why did it have to be her? Sure, he was grateful, but this was a headache. He never should have said her name.
Hinata Kotone—one of the heroines of that damned game. Second-year Class A. Top grades. Stunning. The iron-handed Public Morals Committee officer—strict, disciplined, admired by all. Cold goddess of the school. Tons of admirers, zero confessions—because she crushed them publicly, dismantling the confessor's dignity in front of everyone.
Beautiful. Terrifying. Untouchable.
But secretly? She was a wild, rebellious party girl who raced cars, drank, gambled, and sang karaoke at deafening volume with a pack of equally repressed rich-girl rebels.
Your goddess plays harder than you ever could.
Not in that way. Don't be disgusting.
Just girls who'd been controlled so long they exploded.
In the original story, they eventually got into huge trouble. The protagonist swooped in, saved them, and—of course—won Kotone's heart.
Meeting her this early was just coincidence… right?
There was no way fate was lining up to trap him again.
He had to leave. Fast. No getting entangled with another heroine.
"So you're that auntie's son? Really? I don't believe you." Kotone's pride glimmered—though she still pretended not to care.
"Believe it or not, I still owe you money. Here—three thousand and four yuan fifty. Check it."
"No need. Your mom once helped me too. I fell off my skateboard, she rushed me to the clinic. I never got to thank her. So consider it returning a favor. And honestly? That amount is nothing to me. Keep it."
The casual rich-girl tone was strong enough to choke a man.
Li Zhu twitched but said nothing. He simply put the money away.
Must be nice to have money. Maybe someday someone will say that about me. Show-off.
"Ahem. Anyway—thank you again. If there's nothing else, I'll be going." He gave her a polite bow.
"Mm. It's nothing, really. Go on." Kotone awkwardly waved him off, suddenly flustered.
Then happily skipped off to remove her makeup.
…
Wait.
"Hold on! He never told me how he recognized me! And I forgot to ask his name!!" Kotone slapped her thigh in frustration.
Her personality was completely different in this form—lively, expressive, and maybe… slightly dumber.
"But he was wearing the Sakuran High uniform… Hmph."
Her eyes narrowed, a sly spark flickering there.
"Little brother… you'd better hope I don't catch you."