We headed to the restaurant together.
The moment we stepped inside, the smell of barbecue immediately hit me.
Normally, I wasn't exactly a fan of smoke. Most of the time it just smelled unpleasant, like something had gone horribly wrong somewhere nearby. But for some reason, when that smoky smell mixed with the aroma of grilling meat, sauce, and spices, it became something completely different.
Instead of being annoying, it just made me hungry.
"It's been a while since I've had proper meat," Lisa said as she looked around the restaurant. "I've been craving something like this lately. And honestly, some alcohol sounds pretty good too."
She stretched her arms slightly before smiling.
"It'll help me unwind after work."
"That sounds less like a recommendation and more like a warning."
Lisa laughed.
"Maybe both."
"Fair enough."
"And hopefully you'll like it too."
"Considering how good this place smells, I think I'll survive."
"I'd be impressed if you didn't."
We ended up choosing one of the private rooms available.
Although it was technically a barbecue restaurant, it wasn't the type where dozens of customers sat shoulder-to-shoulder while smoke filled the entire building. The place was surprisingly nice.
The private rooms made everything feel a lot more luxurious than I expected.
Honestly, if someone had blindfolded me before bringing me here, I'd probably assume it was some expensive high-end restaurant.
The room itself was clean, comfortable, and had a nice atmosphere.
At the same time, the menu wasn't outrageously expensive.
The barbecue was exactly what you'd expect from a barbecue place.
Good meat.
Good drinks.
Good atmosphere.
And surprisingly reasonable prices.
The room fee wasn't expensive either, so overall it felt like a pretty good deal.
After ordering, the staff brought over everything we requested and prepared the grill for us.
Before long, the meat was cooking.
The sizzling sound filled the room while smoke and steam slowly rose into the air.
The smell somehow became even better.
A few minutes later, our drinks arrived as well.
Lisa immediately picked up her glass.
"Cheers!"
"Cheers."
Our glasses lightly clinked together.
We took a drink.
The alcohol went down surprisingly smoothly.
There was still that familiar burning sensation in my throat, but it wasn't unpleasant. It actually felt pretty refreshing.
A moment later, I picked up a piece of meat and took a bite.
The combination was honestly great.
The meat was juicy, the sauce was rich, and the alcohol somehow made everything taste even better.
"Well?" Lisa asked while watching me. "What do you think?"
"It's good."
"That's all?"
I looked at her.
"What, do you want a full review?"
"Maybe."
I laughed.
"Fine. The meat is really good."
"There we go."
She looked weirdly satisfied hearing that.
"Well, that's good."
Then she tilted her head slightly.
"By the way, are you really sure you want to pay for all this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean..." she said. "I know you're working on that business venture and everything, but it's not like you're swimming in money, right?"
"Well, it's not like I'm struggling either."
That wasn't exactly a lie.
"And besides, I was the one who invited you out. Naturally, I'd be the one paying."
Lisa stared at me for a moment.
Then she narrowed her eyes slightly.
"That sounded way smoother than it should have."
"I'll pretend that was a compliment."
"It was."
Honestly, the cost wasn't bothering me at all.
I still had plenty of credits.
Even after paying for tonight, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
And if I ever needed more, I could always earn more through the system anyway.
The total bill came out to around 2,000c.
Compared to what I currently had, that was basically pocket change.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Total Credit: 87,563c
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"Well, if you say so."
[+5 Lisa's AFFECTION]
It looked like she appreciated that.
Honestly, I didn't feel like I'd done anything particularly special.
Still, if it made her happy, then that was fine.
We continued eating and drinking.
The barbecue was honestly amazing.
Usually, grilled meat could be a little tough depending on where you ate, but somehow everything here was incredibly tender.
Every bite practically melted apart after a few chews.
Combined with the alcohol, everything seemed to go down even easier.
Maybe it was because I was hungry.
Maybe it was because the food was genuinely that good.
Or maybe alcohol was secretly carrying the entire experience.
Honestly, it was probably all three.
"Fufufu, it's good, isn't it?" Lisa said.
Her cheeks were slightly red now.
She looked a little tipsy.
Not completely drunk.
Just enough that she seemed noticeably more relaxed than before.
"Yeah."
I took another bite.
"The sauce is really good."
"Right?"
"The meat is cooked perfectly too."
"Right?"
"And the alcohol somehow makes everything taste better."
"See? That's what I've been saying."
She pointed her chopsticks toward me.
"People always underestimate how much alcohol improves barbecue."
"I feel like that's not how food science works."
"It works tonight."
"I can't argue with that."
Lisa giggled before taking another sip.
"The smoky flavor gets so much better with it."
She looked genuinely happy.
She was simply enjoying herself.
"And honestly," she continued, "it's been a while since I've eaten here."
"You used to come here often?"
"A little."
"You stopped?"
"Life happened."
"That's unfortunately a valid explanation."
"It usually is."
She laughed again.
[+10 Lisa's MOOD]
Well, it looked like she was having fun.
Which was exactly what I wanted.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Lisa
Affection: 25♥︎
Mood: 80♥︎
Lust: 50♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Honestly, things were moving into pretty good territory.
Way better than I expected.
When I first asked her out, I wasn't even sure how tonight would go.
I figured there would be awkward silences somewhere.
A few moments where neither of us knew what to say.
Maybe even a conversation that completely died halfway through.
Instead, everything felt surprisingly natural.
The drinks helped.
The food helped.
The atmosphere helped.
But most importantly, Lisa looked comfortable.
While we continued eating, I noticed her staring at me.
Not just occasionally.
Actually looking at me.
Whenever I glanced up, I'd catch her eyes lingering for a second before she looked away.
There was something different about her gaze now.
It felt softer and warmer.
Maybe even a little seductive.
The strange part was that she didn't seem to be doing it intentionally.
It looked more like the alcohol was lowering her guard rather than her actively trying to tease me.
Then she suddenly spoke.
"Do you really like me, Leon?"
The question caught me slightly off guard.
Still, I answered honestly.
"I do."
Lisa looked at me quietly.
A few seconds passed.
Then she smiled.
A small smile.
Not the teasing one she usually wore.
It was something gentler.
"Well..." she said softly. "I don't think you've really shown me enough of that."
"What do you mean?"
"I know you're interested in me."
She lightly swirled the alcohol inside her glass.
"That's obvious."
She took another sip.
"But being interested in someone and loving someone aren't really the same thing."
Her eyes met mine again.
"You like me."
She paused.
"But do you like me because you actually love me?"
The room suddenly felt a little quieter than before.
"And if you do..."
She smiled faintly.
"How would I even know?"
How could she know?
That was actually a pretty good question.
Telling someone something directly with words was one thing. Letting them figure it out through your actions was something completely different.
While I was thinking about that, several interface panels suddenly appeared right in front of me.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Completed
Lisa might be inclined to get a little tipsy tonight.
Make her drunk
Reward: +5♥︎ Mood, +50♥︎ Lust
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
NEW QUEST
Have sex with Lisa
Reward: +10♥︎ Affection
Requirements: Lisa's LUST ♥︎ MAXED OUT, Lisa's MOOD ♥︎ MAXED OUT, 40♥︎ Affection
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Lisa
Affection: 25♥︎
Mood: 85♥︎
Lust: 100♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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It looked like I had made a lot of progress with her already.
Honestly, I still couldn't believe things had moved this quickly.
This was technically our first real date. Well, maybe our second if I counted the dinner last time, but I still felt like that one barely counted.
Normally, I would've thought the chances of ending up in bed with someone after a first date were incredibly low or practically nonexistent.
Yet somehow, things seemed to be lining up in my favor.
Maybe I was getting lucky.
Maybe I was finally starting to understand how this system worked.
Or maybe it was a combination of both.
Still, if I wanted to keep things moving forward, I felt like I needed to step up my game a little.
I could always spend some of my ♥︎ to raise her Affection directly. I had enough to push it much higher if I wanted.
But honestly, I didn't want to rely on that too much.
Right now, I had 25♥︎ available.
Using them wasn't a bad idea, but I only wanted to spend them if things started going against me.
Besides, talking to her naturally seemed to increase her stats anyway.
If I could do it without spending resources, then why wouldn't I?
With that in mind, I decided to push things forward a little.
"Well, I haven't really done anything that would prove that yet, have I?" I said. "But if you want, I could try."
Lisa tilted her head slightly.
"Try what exactly?" she asked.
Since we were sitting across from each other, we were facing one another with the table between us.
I stood up from my seat.
"What are you doing?" she asked, watching me.
"Just testing a theory."
"That doesn't sound reassuring."
"It wasn't supposed to."
She laughed quietly.
I walked around the table until I was standing beside her.
"When you ask me how," I said, "are you asking me to do what I think you want me to do?"
"I don't really know what you're implying," she replied.
She still had that small smile on her face.
The kind that made it impossible to tell whether she was teasing me or being serious.
"If I did something," I asked, "would you push me away?"
Lisa looked up at me.
"I don't know."
She paused.
"It depends on what you're doing."
"That's a very lawyer-like answer."
"And you're asking suspicious questions."
"Fair."
She laughed again.
The atmosphere felt surprisingly comfortable.
Hearing her answer, though, made me feel like my chances were pretty good.
Without overthinking it any further, I reached out and gently cupped her cheek.
Her eyes widened slightly.
"If I did this," I asked softly, "would you push me away?"
Lisa glanced to the side for a moment before looking back at me.
"No," she said quietly. "Not for that."
I looked at her.
There was a faint scent of alcohol on her breath from earlier.
Her breathing seemed a little different now.
A little less steady.
A little more nervous.
And honestly, I was probably just as nervous.
I could feel my own heartbeat picking up.
Considering everything that had happened tonight, I supposed that was only natural.
Neither of us spoke for a few seconds.
The silence wasn't awkward.
If anything, it felt like we were both waiting to see who would move first.
I leaned a little closer.
Lisa didn't move away.
Instead, she remained exactly where she was.
As I got closer, she lightly pursed her lips.
It wasn't much, but it was enough for me to understand.
So I took the opportunity.
And kissed her.
[+10 Lisa's MOOD]
The notification immediately appeared.
At least the system seemed to approve.
Though when I checked her status, her Affection still hadn't reached the requirement.
I glanced at the panel again.
Honestly...
Screw it.
I wanted to keep moving forward tonight, so I decided to use some of my ♥︎ to raise her AFFECTION and MOOD to the required levels.
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⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Lisa
Affection: 35♥︎
Mood: 100♥︎
Lust: 100♥︎
Status: Interested
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
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Unfortunately, I could only spend up to 10♥︎ on AFFECTION because of the limit.
Still...
This should be enough, right?
Even so, part of me wanted to raise it even higher just to guarantee success.
After pulling away from the kiss, we looked at each other.
For a moment, neither of us said anything.
Lisa was the first one to break eye contact.
Her cheeks had turned noticeably red.
"I-I guess..." she began.
She looked away again before continuing.
"I guess that's not really something that would make me push you away either."
I swallowed.
Right now, she looked ridiculously cute.
Cute enough that it was genuinely making it difficult to think straight.
My heart was beating way harder than it should've been.
"Can I kiss you again?" I asked.
Lisa hesitated for a second.
Then she nodded.
"S-Sure..."
This time, she sounded even more nervous than before.
Honestly, that only made me more nervous too.
With that, I leaned forward and kissed her again.