I first checked her MOOD to see if it was high enough that even if it dropped by -30♥︎, it wouldn't actually become a serious problem.
If it ended up landing somewhere around 30♥︎, then yeah, I'd probably have to think about it more carefully.
But still…
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Samantha
Affection: 30♥︎
Mood: 70♥︎
Lust: 30♥︎
Status: Friends
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Looking at it again, yeah, her mood was definitely high enough.
Even if it dropped by 30♥︎, she'd still be sitting at 40♥︎. That wasn't exactly cheerful, but it wasn't bad either. It was stable enough that I wouldn't have to worry about things suddenly blowing up in my face. At least, not immediately.
So yeah, I figured this was a good chance to go for something a little bold. Not reckless, just a bit cheeky.
"Well, she's not, but… I'm actually looking for a girlfriend right now. So I might just go ahead and ask her out if the opportunity comes up," I said.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
COMPLETED!
Samantha is curious about your relationship status.
Tell her that you don't have a girlfriend, but you're interested in the person you just called.
Reward: +15♥︎ AFFECTION, -30♥︎ MOOD
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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The moment I said that, she puffed her cheeks slightly, like she was holding back something.
"Oh… I see… I mean, I guess that makes sense or somethin'…" she said, her tone dropping just a bit.
That expression came out of nowhere.
She suddenly looked like some annoyed little gremlin, and I had no idea how to react to that. It caught me off guard, but at the same time, it was kind of… cute. Not that I was about to say that out loud.
"Well, you're kinda handsome or anythin', so if you ask her out, she'll probably say yes or somethin'. Good for you, I guess…" she added, her voice carrying a slight pout.
That tone....
I didn't mind it, though. If anything, it made things feel more real. It also felt like things between us were moving way faster than I expected. Like, way faster than what I had originally planned for.
But honestly, I wasn't complaining. Not even a little.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Samantha
Affection: 45♥︎
Mood: 40♥︎
Lust: 30♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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I kept staring at her updated status, still trying to process how fast things had changed, when something suddenly clicked in my head.
"Wait… did you just call me handsome?" I asked her.
I had been so focused on the numbers and how quickly everything was progressing that I completely missed that part earlier. It just went straight over my head like it wasn't even important.
"Huh? You didn't notice that or anythin'? I mean, ain't it obvious? You got a pretty handsome face, Leon," she said, tilting her head slightly like she genuinely didn't understand why I was even asking.
No one had really told me that before.
At most, I'd get comments like "you look okay" or "you're above average," which always felt like polite ways of saying I wasn't bad, but not exactly impressive either. So hearing someone just say it straight like that felt… different.
Not bad. Just unexpected.
"Are you really, like… tryin' to get into a relationship with that person or somethin'?" she asked.
That question hit a little harder than I thought it would.
It wasn't just casual curiosity. There was something behind it. Something I couldn't fully read yet, but it was definitely there.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
NEW QUEST!
Samantha is a little uneasy hearing what you said.
Tell her YES.
Reward: +25♥︎, -30♥︎ MOOD, -5 COMMUNICATION
Tell her NO, and that you just want a girlfriend.
Reward: +15♥︎ AFFECTION, +10♥︎ MOOD
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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A new quest popped up right in front of me, and as usual, it wasn't a simple choice.
Saying YES would give me a huge reward. 25♥︎ wasn't small. That was basically 250,000c. Just thinking about it made it tempting. Really tempting.
But the downsides were just as obvious.
Dropping her MOOD again, especially after I had just lowered it once, didn't feel like a smart move. And losing COMMUNICATION on top of that? Yeah, that felt risky.
I still didn't fully understand what would happen if her MOOD dropped too low. The system never really explained things clearly. It just threw numbers at me and expected me to figure it out.
So yeah, I decided to play it safe.
"No," I said. "But honestly, I do want a girlfriend. I want someone I can spend time with, someone I actually care about. That part isn't a lie. And yeah, maybe Denise was just someone I had in mind at the time. But if I'm being real… I was interested in her, sure, but not to the point where I could say I love her or anything like that. If I stayed with her long enough, maybe I'd get there. But right now? Nah."
"Huh… so you're sayin' you just want a girlfriend or somethin', but you ain't got anyone specific in mind yet?" she asked.
"Yeah," I nodded.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
COMPLETED
Samantha is a little uneasy hearing what you said.
Reward: +15♥︎ AFFECTION, +10♥︎ MOOD
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Samantha
Affection: 60♥︎
Mood: 50♥︎
Lust: 30♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Her AFFECTION jumped up again, which was great. But her STATUS still didn't change. Still stuck at Interested.
Honestly, I didn't fully get how the system calculated that part. It felt like there was some hidden condition or requirement that I wasn't seeing yet. Like it was keeping something from me on purpose.
All I could really do was go along with it and hope things made sense eventually.
But just as I was thinking that, another quest appeared.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
NEW QUEST!
Samantha is interested in you.
Ask her if it's okay if you become interested in her.
Reward: STATUS increase
Requirement: 100 COMMUNICATION or more
Note: STATUS increase means your relationship with her will move beyond INTERESTED. The result depends on your LUCK and how well you COMMUNICATE with her.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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I stared at it for a second.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Just from the note alone, it was obvious that this would push things past the current STATUS. So that explained why it didn't change earlier, even after all those increases in AFFECTION.
Still…
100 COMMUNICATION?
That requirement felt ridiculous.
It sounded like I needed to seriously raise that stat before even thinking about attempting this. And knowing how things had been going so far, that wasn't going to be easy.
For some reason, the quests were getting more complicated the further I went.
And I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
For now, I figured it was better not to rush into anything stupid until I actually understood what I was dealing with.
So yeah, I just swiped the QUEST away from my face like it was some annoying pop-up ad that refused to close.
The moment I did that, Samantha blinked and looked around, clearly confused. Her eyes scanned the area like she was trying to figure out what I just did. From her point of view, I probably just made some weird hand gesture out of nowhere. Not exactly my best look, but whatever.
"By the way, I heard that you've been cast in a big drama lately," I said.
"Y-Yeah, I mean, it's kinda true," she said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I actually wanted that role a lot, like nothin' else really mattered for a while. I kept pushing the director, like nothin' was gonna stop me, you know?" she continued. "It took a lot of convincing, like nothin' came easy at all. She's the type who hates half-assed acting."
That sounded about right. People like that didn't play around when it came to casting.
Honestly, good for her. I didn't know every detail about her role, but I did hear it was part of a romance drama. She was playing a side character from a novel, which meant the whole thing was an adaptation. And not just some random story either. That book had a massive fanbase. The kind where fans would lose their minds if even a small detail was off.
Apparently, the casting process was strict too. They wanted people who actually matched the characters, both in looks and acting.
"Are you going to watch it, Leon?" she asked.
"Yeah, I will. It's you, after all. It's only natural I'd watch it," I replied.
The moment I said that, her face lit up instantly. Not even trying to hide it. It was the kind of smile that made you think, yeah, she really wanted to hear that.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
By the time night came around, I was already getting ready for my shift at the convenience store.
Even though I was starting to make money in other ways, I didn't really feel like quitting this job yet.
Mostly because Manager Vera and Clara were still there. And even though I had only been working there for a few months, it started to feel familiar. Not exactly home, but close enough that leaving would feel weird.
When I got there, Clara was inside.
"Oh, Leon," she said.
The atmosphere between us immediately turned awkward. Not the light kind either. The heavy kind that just sits there and refuses to leave.
Which made sense.
We almost had sex last time.
And because of that, we hadn't really talked properly since then.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Clara
Affection: 60♥︎
Mood: 40♥︎
Lust: 20♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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At least her affection hadn't dropped, and her status was still Interested. So yeah, I wasn't completely out of the picture.
"It's still not your shift, right? You're pretty early," she said.
"Yeah… honestly, I came early because I wanted to catch you," I said.
"H-Huh?" she looked confused, clearly thrown off. "C-Catch me? What do you mean by that?"
"Well… you've been avoiding me lately."
"A-Avoiding? T-That's not…"
She looked away again. Avoiding eye contact. Which, honestly, proved my point better than anything she could say.
Right then, another notification popped up in front of me.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
NEW QUEST!
Clara is interested in you.
Try and define your relationship with her
Reward: STATUS increase
Requirement: 70 COMMUNICATION or more
Note: STATUS increase means your relationship with her will move beyond INTERESTED. The result depends on your LUCK and how well you COMMUNICATE with her.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Another one.
Well, considering her status was still Interested, I guess this was the next step.
The requirement was lower than Samantha's, which was already a good sign.
Right now, I had exactly 70 Communication. It was the bare minimum.
Though that "or more" part felt a bit suspicious. Like it was quietly telling me that meeting the requirement didn't mean I'd automatically succeed.
So yeah, I had a decent chance, but it still depended on how I handled things. And of course, luck had to be involved too. Because why not.
Still, I wanted to move forward with her.
So I decided to go for it.
"You're ignoring me because of that time, right? That time at the love hotel."
"I-I wasn't… I mean, I was the one who started it," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "If anyone should be avoided, it should be me. What I did back then was something that… I…"
She trailed off, struggling to finish.
I didn't let her.
"Clara," I said.
She looked at me.
"What do you think of me?"
"Eh?"
"What do you think of me?"
I repeated the question, more clearly this time, making sure she couldn't just brush it aside.
"Why are you asking that?" she asked.
"I'm just wondering," I said. "After what happened, you told me to forget it. But there's no way I can forget that. And you can't either. You say act like nothing happened, but you're the one avoiding me. If you really wanted that, you wouldn't be acting like this."
She bit her lip slightly and looked away again. She was silent for a bit, but after a bit, she started talking again in a quiet voice.
"It's… not fair," she said softly. "You're saying that so directly… and looking at me like that… That's exactly why I've been avoiding you. I can't even look at you properly without remembering everything. And when I remember… it doesn't stop there. I keep thinking about it… about what we did… And then… I start wanting it again…"
"Huh?"
Although, I heard her very clearly, I couldn't help but let that out.
Also, as she spoke, her LUST suddenly spiked.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Clara
Affection: 60♥︎
Mood: 40♥︎
Lust: 80♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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"I didn't want you to notice that," she continued, her voice almost embarrassed. "I didn't want you to think I'm… that kind of woman. I'm really not like this normally. I wasn't. But after that night… something changed. I don't know how to explain it properly. It's like… I became aware of things I didn't think about before. And now I can't stop thinking about them… about you… I sound like a complete pervert saying this, don't I…?"
. . . . .
Yeah, that was not something I expected to hear today.
My brain legit paused for a second.
"That's why I've been avoiding you," she added. "Because if I don't… I keep remembering everything… and it just… gets worse."
She pressed her thighs together slightly.
"Clara… right now… are you…?" I asked, swallowing.
I checked her interface again.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Clara
Affection: 60♥︎
Mood: 40♥︎
Lust: 100♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Her LUST hit 100 just like that.
I looked at her, and she gave a small nod, confirming what I was about to ask.
So yeah, no misunderstanding here.
She was incredibly horny right now.
"I know it sounds bad and disgusting," she said quietly. "But after that night… it really feels like something inside me just… woke up."
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
COMPLETED
Clara is interested in you.
Try and define your relationship with her
Reward: STATUS increase
Choose a QUEST that will determine Clara's NEW STATUS.
Ask her if she wants to have sex right now
STATUS: Sex friends
Tell her it's okay to feel that way, and there's nothing wrong with being a pervert
STATUS: Lovers
NOTE:
Each STATUS gives different rewards. Increasing her affection can further upgrade her STATUS.
Your choice will have consequences. Choose carefully
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Two choices. Right in front of me.
Sex friends… or lovers.
Going for sex friends felt tempting, not gonna lie. Easy, straightforward, with no strings. But yeah, also kind of scummy.
On the other hand, lovers sounded better… but also heavier.
And both definitely came with consequences.
Yeah… this wasn't something I could just decide on a whim.
I had to think this through carefully.