After preparing lunch for Shizuka Marikawa, the two of them left home for Fujimi Academy.
Because the second-year and third-year classrooms were not in the same building...
Su Yan quickly parted ways with Saeko Busujima after arriving at Fujimi Academy.
He then headed straight to his own classroom.
At first glance, he noticed Rei Miyamoto, who had arrived at school even earlier than he had.
Rei seemed to sense something; as Su Yan watched her, she lifted her head and shifted her gaze to his face.
However, their eyes only met for a brief moment before the girl hurried to lower her head, pretending she hadn't seen him, though her eyes remained fixed on him from her peripheral vision.
Su Yan smiled and walked toward Rei.
Rei's heart skipped a beat.
'He's coming!'
At this moment, the girl's mind was completely filled with the image of her impulsively kissing Su Yan's face yesterday afternoon.
Seeing Su Yan walking toward her, she felt flustered and lost for a moment.
She hurriedly grabbed a textbook from under the desk and held it in front of her face, pretending to read while blocking his view.
"The book is upside down, Miyamoto."
Su Yan sat in the seat in front of Rei and tapped twice on the textbook she was holding to remind her.
"Huh?"
Startled by the reminder, Rei clumsily flipped the textbook over and briefly looked down at it.
Only then did she realize that wasn't the case at all.
She hadn't actually held it upside down.
The girl glared at Su Yan, her eyes showing a trace of dissatisfaction.
"Miyamoto, you ran away pretty fast yesterday afternoon."
Seeing Rei put down the book to look at him, Su Yan spoke playfully with a smirk.
"That..."
Rei's eyes flickered, and she nervously fidgeted with her fingers.
She admitted that she was indeed a bit impulsive when she did that to Su Yan yesterday.
Although kissing him and running away was certainly thrilling...
She had forgotten that he was actually the person sitting right in front of her.
Run?
Where else could she run to?
Recalling this point made it feel even more intense.
So after arriving early today, she had been sitting there absentmindedly, focusing all her attention on Su Yan's seat and the classroom door.
Faced with Su Yan's questioning, Rei puffed out her cheeks and muttered unclearly, "Who told you to act so cool in front of me yesterday? Stepping out to block someone when a girl is at her most helpless and in need of help..."
"That's just unfair, isn't it? In that situation, no normal girl could remain indifferent."
"Oh?"
Su Yan raised an eyebrow and said teasingly, "So, are you saying this ordinary, normal girl has fallen for me?"
"I... I have not!"
Rei's face turned red. She quickly hid the lower half of her face behind the book and argued, "It was just gratitude! Just gratitude!"
"Is that so? That's fine then."
Su Yan spoke bluntly, "Although my impression of you has indeed improved for certain reasons, it's still a long way before I'll actually like you."
"Of course, what I told you on the rooftop yesterday at noon still counts. You can come find me anytime."
"After all, Miyamoto, you are a beautiful girl."
Rei's body trembled as she looked at Su Yan with a hint of resentment.
Sure enough, there was that familiar tone.
If only Su Yan were a mute.
What did he mean by his 'impression had improved'?
Was she really such a bad girl?
Although she might be a bit lower than a 'flower on a high peak' like Saeko Busujima, she wasn't bad either, was she?
After all, she was a beautiful girl who was very popular with the opposite sex; she had just never accepted anyone else's confession.
Why didn't he like her?
But wait, what he said on the rooftop yesterday at noon?
What did he say?
The girl stared at Su Yan with dissatisfaction while trying to recall what happened yesterday at noon.
Soon, Rei remembered something.
A rosy blush climbed up from her neck, spreading to her cheeks, then her forehead, and finally even occupying her pearly white earlobes.
Rei couldn't help but let out a high-pitched cry at Su Yan: "Pervert!"
She finally remembered his 'friends with benefits' comment on the school rooftop, where he said she could find him to satisfy physical needs.
If yesterday afternoon's events hadn't happened, her answer would definitely have been the same as yesterday noon—cursing him for dreaming or thinking too highly of himself.
However, due to the shift in her emotions, her thoughts regarding the same question had changed today.
For instance, right now, the girl was thinking: 'Su Yan wants to sleep with me...'
'Does he like me?'
When she snapped back to reality, she realized that her scream of "Pervert!" had attracted the attention of every other student in the classroom.
Even though it was early and there weren't many students yet, it was enough to make the girl feel social death.
She could already imagine the kind of gossip that would be spreading about her.
At that thought, Rei's sense of shame exploded. Like an ostrich, she buried her head in her arms on the desk.
Su Yan didn't mind at all; he was never the type to care about the opinions of others.
Instead, he found Rei's instantaneous blushing quite interesting.
Rei's hairstyle was a high ponytail full of energy.
Moreover, as an anime heroine, she possessed a trait common to most of them.
An ahoge!
Rei not only had one, she had two tufts.
Su Yan had seen plenty of ahoges in anime, but this was the first time he had observed them so closely in reality.
Su Yan immediately developed a strong interest in the two tufts of hair on Rei's head.
Su Yan reached out and pressed down the ahoge on the girl's head.
Boing!
The ahoge quickly popped back up.
At the same time, Rei lifted her head.
How could she not react when she felt someone touching her head?
But seeing that it was Su Yan, she could only look at him with a confused gaze.
"It's nothing, go back to sleep. Didn't you say you were grateful for what I did yesterday? Let me play with your ahoge for a bit, and we'll call it even," Su Yan said nonchalantly.
Hearing this, Rei clenched her fists, wanting to snap at him right then and there.
'If you do this to me, won't I face even more social death?'
But seeing the expression of genuine interest on Su Yan's face, she couldn't bring herself to stop him.
She could only go back to burying her head on the desk, pretending nothing was happening.
Seeing the girl's tacit permission, Su Yan became even more enthusiastic.
He grabbed the two tufts of hair and tried to tie them in a knot to see what would happen.
Then, a magical scene occurred.
The knot on the two tufts of hair shifted from the roots toward the tips until the strands slipped out, untying it.
It stood tall again, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Whoa..."
Su Yan couldn't help but marvel.
At the same time, he wondered: if he were to form a contract with Rei, would the ahoge count as an ability?
Would two tufts of hair grow out of his head as well?
The back row by the window, the homeland of kings.
Combined with the ahoge on her head.
'Girl, you must be the legendary King of Ahoges, right?'
...
Just like that.
Su Yan spent over half a month in a pleasant daily routine of teasing Rei, teaching Saeko, and bullying Shizuka.
Half a month had passed.
Su Yan's relaxed and enjoyable school life finally came to an end.
Because today was the day the zombie crisis began in this world.
On a beautiful, sunny afternoon...
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]