Yin Yue stood in front of the espresso machine, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, soul in pieces.
"What. The hell. Was that."
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
🫧 Hello Host! You appear emotionally compromised!
💋 Kiss Attempt Status: Intercepted
📊 ML Lean Angle: 82% toward romantic contact
💬 Host Facial Readability: 94% (You were blushing so hard the milk curdled.)
"That's not what I asked."
> 💌 SYSTEM 520:
"He leaned in like an apology never spoken,
breath warm with the ghosts of intentions—"
"Stop quoting poetry and just say it. Was that a kiss attempt?!"
> 💘 SYSTEM 520:
Cross-referencing eye contact duration, breath shift, and upper-body proximity…
✅ YES
🧠 ML attempted kiss. Was also scared off.
📈 Affection holding at 57/100
🎯 Current Host Status: Pathetically hopeful
Yin Yue slapped the counter. "Then why didn't he just kiss me?!"
> 💬 SYSTEM 520:
Would you kiss you? You flinched like a Victorian widow about to faint.
Yin Yue threw a rag over the system display and stormed toward the break counter, fists clenched. He found Liang Yu calmly filling the syrup tray like nothing had happened, like he hadn't just gotten close enough to ruin someone's life with a tilt of his head.
Yin Yue dropped a cup next to him. "Coffee?"
Liang Yu looked up. "What kind?"
"Interrogation blend."
Pause.
"…What?"
"Answer my question blend."
Another pause.
"Still not a real coffee."
Yin Yue made a random drink. Handed it to him. Folded his arms. "What happened earlier."
Liang Yu took a sip. "I stopped a box from falling."
"That is not the thing I meant and you know it."
Liang Yu set the cup down. "What do you think happened?"
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
🎯 ML attempting emotional deflection
🧠 Strategy: Reverse Uno Emotional Trap
"I think," Yin Yue said slowly, "you almost kissed me."
Silence.
Liang Yu didn't blink and didn't flinch.
Instead, he asked, "Would you have let me?"
Yin Yue's brain exploded.
"I...what...why are you answering a question with a question?"
"Because you haven't answered either."
Yin Yue inhaled sharply. "This is emotional blackmail."
Liang Yu picked up the cup again. "You didn't move."
"You didn't either."
They stared at each other.
Tension thick and electric.
Then—
"Let me know next time," Yin Yue muttered. "So I can prepare emotionally. And maybe wear better lip balm."
Liang Yu's mouth twitched.
"Okay."
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
💖 AFFECTION +6
📈 TOTAL: 63/100
💬 Host: Dazed
💬 ML: Quietly winning
Yin Yue turned around too fast, tripped over the mop bucket, and nearly knocked over a chair.
Behind him, Liang Yu sipped his drink.
Still watching.
Still saying nothing.
"Team morale activity!" Jiang Mei announced, kicking her feet up on the counter like a dictator in an apron. "Truth or Dare, game and it's happening."
"No," Yin Yue said flatly.
"Yes," she chirped. "This café is full of tension and unresolved romance, and I'm sick of wiping it off the syrup bottles. So we're playing it."
Liang Yu didn't object.
Which meant Yin Yue had lost before the game even started.
Five minutes later, they were in a circle on the floor near the pastry case: Jiang Mei, Yin Yue, Liang Yu, and the poor new hire (Kevin), who looked like he regretted joining the café and possibly life.
"Okay," Jiang Mei said, spinning an empty syrup bottle. It landed on Yin Yue.
"Truth," he said immediately.
"No hesitation. Look suspicious." She tapped her clipboard. "Alright: compliment the person you're most attracted to in this room."
Yin Yue choked.
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
⚠️ EMOTIONAL LANDMINE DETECTED
🫠 Host Core Temp: Rising
💬 Recommended Response: Subtle. Flirty. Non-lethal.
Yin Yue's eyes flicked to Liang Yu. Just once.
Then quickly away.
He cleared his throat. "You… have very clean hands."
The silence was so loud it could be bottled.
Jiang Mei looked ready to explode.
Liang Yu tilted his head. "That's your compliment?"
"They're really clean!" Yin Yue said defensively. "Like, surgeon-clean. But also… barista-sexy?"
Kevin nodded awkwardly. "That's… specific."
"Moving on!" Yin Yue declared, spinning the bottle like it owed him money.
It landed on Liang Yu.
"Truth," he said simply.
Jiang Mei leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "What's the first thing you notice in someone you like?"
Liang Yu looked straight at Yin Yue.
Yin Yue stopped breathing.
Then Liang Yu said:
"They talk too much."
Yin Yue blinked. "Excuse me?!"
"They panic out loud," Liang Yu continued, tone even. "They fill space with nonsense and try to pretend they don't care. But they do."
Kevin slowly scooted his chair away from the nuclear zone.
Liang Yu didn't stop. "They deflect with humor. They make coffee taste like a conversation and they watch you when they think you're not looking."
Yin Yue's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
💘 ML AFFECTION +9
🎯 New Tag Unlocked: Verbal Confession (Disguised Edition)
🫠 Host Status: Emotionally crashed
"Anyway," Liang Yu said casually, reaching for a leftover cookie. "That's what I notice."
Jiang Mei wheezed. "Did we just witness a marriage proposal?"
"I think I blacked out," Kevin whispered.
Yin Yue buried his face in his hands. "I need to go scream into the freezer."
Liang Yu took a bite of cookie. "Take water with you."
The others had gone.
The lights were off.
Yin Yue stood in the alley behind the café, the cool night brushing against his skin like an unwelcome truth. The trash bins loomed and a single moth did laps around the motion sensor light.
And Liang Yu was there, leaning against the wall like he'd been waiting.
Yin Yue stopped a few feet away, hands in his pockets, mouth dry.
"I'm not letting that game thing slide," he said.
Liang Yu glanced over. "Didn't think you would."
"What the hell was that?"
Liang Yu's expression didn't change. "A game."
"No," Yin Yue said, stepping closer. "Don't do that. Don't say something like that and then go back to drinking lukewarm coffee like you didn't just imply I'm your type, your problem, and your latest case study."
Liang Yu tilted his head. "Is it wrong?"
Yin Yue opened his mouth and closed it. "That's not the point."
Liang Yu pushed off the wall.
Walked over.
Stopped too close.
Not touching but not far enough for safety.
"You didn't deny it either," he said quietly.
Yin Yue stared at him. "Because I'm confused."
"No, you're not."
"I—"
"You're scared."
Silence.
Then:
"I'm allowed to be," Yin Yue said, voice quieter. "You keep leaning in like you're going to kiss me and then pulling back like I imagined it."
Liang Yu was quiet and stay still.
Then, calmly: "Do you want me to?"
Yin Yue's heart stopped.
His lips parted, barely.
Then—barely above a whisper: "Yes."
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
💘 ML Affection: +10
❤️ TOTAL: 73/100
🎯 Honest Desire Confirmed
🫣 Panic-Level Vulnerability: Max
Liang Yu's eyes flickered downward. Just once.
He stepped closer.
Yin Yue didn't move.
Didn't blink.
Didn't breathe.
But then—
Liang Yu's fingers brushed his wrist. Just briefly.
And he said, so quietly it almost wasn't words:
"Not like this."
Yin Yue blinked. "What?"
Liang Yu stepped back.
"I'm not kissing you behind a garbage bin while you're trembling."
"I'm not trembling."
"You are."
Silence.
Then:
"I hate you," Yin Yue whispered.
"No, you don't."
Yin Yue's mouth trembled. "You don't get to be noble about this."
"I'm not being noble," Liang Yu said. "I'm being sure."
And then he turned and walked away.
Leaving Yin Yue standing in the dark.
Alone.
And maybe, just maybe—
In love.
Yin Yue walked into the café fifteen minutes early, emotionally armed with caffeine, concealer, and denial.
He was fine.
Completely fine.
Liang Yu was behind the counter already—of course—filling the bean hoppers like a man who hadn't just emotionally torpedoed him in an alley the night before.
"Morning," Yin Yue said casually.
Liang Yu nodded. "Morning."
And that was it.
No comment and no smirk. No "sorry for emotionally dry-humping your soul and leaving." Just morning.
Yin Yue set down his bag and exhaled hard enough to clean the glass display case.
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
😐 Emotional suppression detected.
💘 ML affection holding at 73/100
🎯 Suggestion: Either confess or trip and fall into his mouth
🫠 Host Status: Internally screaming
"Is everything okay?" Jiang Mei appeared behind him like a demon summoned by unresolved tension.
"I'm fine," Yin Yue said. Too fast. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"
"You look like you haven't slept."
"I was emotionally exfoliated last night, thanks."
She raised an eyebrow. "Did something happen?"
"No."
"Did you kiss?"
"No."
"Did you almost kiss?"
Yin Yue looked at her. "Do I look like someone who survived being romantically edged in an alleyway?"
"Yes."
He groaned.
"Yin-ge," she said, eyes narrowing, "you two are one coffee spill away from third base."
"Don't say that!"
"Third base is emotional intimacy," she added.
Yin Yue blinked. "It is?"
"It is now."
Across the room, Liang Yu looked over.
Their eyes met.
Held.
Yin Yue turned away so fast he nearly knocked over the sugar dispenser.
Jiang Mei snorted.
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
📈 Current Status:
• Eye Contact: Extended
• Lip Contact: Pending
• Host IQ: Dipping
"Okay," Yin Yue muttered, grabbing a mop and heading to the supply closet. "I'm being mature. And I'm confronting this."
"You're just going to scream into a bucket, aren't you?" Jiang Mei called.
"No," Yin Yue lied.
He screamed into a bucket.
Then came back out and muttered, "He's too hot to be this dumb."
> 💻 SYSTEM 520:
🧠 Noted. Logged under 'unfair advantages.'