As it turned out, Lynelle knew a bit about Stelle, but not all that much.
After the little gray-haired girl escaped from Himeko and scurried back, she didn't put on the classic "bat or my stick" scene Lynelle had imagined.
Instead, she just gazed at Lynelle with those pitiful, puppy-dog eyes.
What's more, when old man Yang asked if Stelle would be willing to room with Lynelle, the girl actually agreed happily right away—without holding a grudge for Lynelle's earlier teasing.
That hit Lynelle right in the guilt, hitting her so hard she felt like getting up in the middle of the night to slap herself twice.
"I cleared out the clutter upstairs for you this morning. Dan Heng also gave the whole room a thorough cleaning with his cloud-weaving technique, so it should be perfectly fine now."
After leading the two upstairs, Welt pointed to the room as he explained.
"As for these unopened furniture pieces, some I brought from the storage room for you, and some were sent directly by Madam Herta for Lynelle… Since it's your own room, I didn't take the liberty of unpacking them."
"They should include a full set of basic furniture. If you want to add anything new, you can purchase items from Pom-Pom by taking turns on train duty."
"So, you can arrange things according to your own taste from here. The train will perform a leap in about half a day. Before that, you're free to set up the room. If you really don't feel like moving around, you can make do and rest for now, then finish decorating after this trip."
"Well then… happy moving-in?"
"Happy!"
Stelle played along cheerfully.
"Um, Stelle…"
As soon as Welt left, Lynelle looked sheepishly at the dorky-faced Stelle.
"About earlier… I'm sorry for making you drink two cups of Himeko's coffee…"
"Huh?" Stelle blinked. "It's really fine. Everything just went black for a second, and then it was over…"
But then, she suddenly trailed off.
As everyone knows, a person's way of handling things largely depends on their life experience—take the reliable version of old man Yang from the Express era, or the famously reserved Dan Heng.
And Stelle? Unfortunately, her life experience so far spanned exactly one week.
Luckily, during that week on the space station, she'd encountered quite a few situations involving emotions.
And right then, she recalled a conversation with Asta after that incident recorded as "From an Unknown Source."
"You're saying… you feel comfortable around Lynelle? And you want to get closer to her?"
Asta smiled, looking at the clueless Stelle.
"Silly, that's called having a crush!"
"A crush?"
"Mhm, if Lynelle is your type, then your rivals are all serious heavyweights—even Teacher Herta included! If you don't make a move, you'll never have a chance!"
Asta spoke very seriously. "So, you have to learn to take the initiative! Here, take this. Make sure to read it when you have time."
Thrilled, Asta handed Stelle a book. On the cover, it read:
[Don't Lose Because You Can't Express Yourself]
Snapping back from the memory, after having diligently studied that seemingly "toxic positivity" book all week, Stelle realized now was the time to test what she'd learned.
"Lynelle."
Stelle suddenly looked seriously at Lynelle.
"The coffee… really was awful."
"I'm sorry…"
Lynelle apologized, full of guilt.
"Even now, my mouth still tastes bitter."
"Oh! Do you want me to get you—"
Lynelle made to get up and ask Shush to mix a milk tea.
"So… can we kiss?"
"...Huh?"
Lynelle stared blankly, completely baffled.
"Waaah, my little Stelle, I've failed you! How did drinking coffee mess up your brain like this QwQ…"
Seeing Lynelle look even more guilty, Stelle suddenly learned a lesson:
Not everything you read in books is right.
--+--
"So that's it… you read some toxic advice, huh…"
Lynelle let out a sigh of relief after hearing the whole story from Stelle. "And here I thought Himeko's coffee was really that powerful…"
"But…"
Seeing Stelle blinking those big golden eyes, staring pitifully at her, Lynelle leaned in a little and gently kissed her on the cheek.
"There. Consider that an apology for earlier?"
"..."
Stelle dumbly touched her own cheek, then—poof—it was like steam burst out of her head.
This wasn't the same Stelle who'd almost accidentally given Lynelle CPR back when she was "newborn."
The Stelle who'd learned a thing or two about romance on the space station now felt blood rushing to her head, painting her cheeks in shades of pink.
Of course, incidentally, Stelle would later deeply regret not just going for it and kissing Lynelle properly back then.
"Hey, Stelle, why's your face so red?"
Seeing Stelle's innocent reaction, the "mischievous seductress" spirit inside Lynelle ignited fiercely.
As everyone knew, she, Lynelle, considered herself quite the top.
As for that time she got pinned down on the bed by Kiana and, well, stuff happened—that was purely an accident.
After all, losing to Kiana-chan was just Kiana-chan's special advantage over her; losing to Elysia was an attribute mismatch; losing to Sirin was just her humoring a kid; and losing to The Herta? Well, that was only natural…
But this adorably clueless little-Stelle? Surely she could tease her all she wanted!
"I-It's nothing…" Stelle quickly turned her face away. "We should hurry and unpack this furniture. O-Otherwise, we'll have to put it off till after the trip…"
"Heh heh…"
Lynelle gently pinched Stelle's cheek. "Sure~"
Although Stelle's excuse to change the subject was reasonable, Lynelle could easily tell the girl's heart was racing.
After all, as clearly shown in that Cosmic Home Decor event, the only reason Stelle hadn't tidied her room before was pure procrastination. If that was her normal state, then right now…
Even if she looked calm on the surface, Stelle's brain had probably short-circuited.
Then, Lynelle watched, amused, as a flustered Stelle started assembling things wrong—installing the bathtub outside the toilet, pushing two beds into one…
"Wait… This isn't right, is it?"
Lynelle suddenly realized Stelle might not have made a mistake after all.
There was only one super large bed in the furniture set!
"Yes, yes." Stelle nodded repeatedly. "Only one bed. That makes it easier to sleep with Lynelle and take care of you."
"The bed is huge. Even if we put one of Herta's puppets on it and called March over, there'd be enough space."
"?"
Lynelle slowly formed a question mark in her mind.
"Just what kind of weird thoughts are you having now?!"
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.