Chapter 1
A year after I successfully won over the school’s resident bad boy, the system finally came back online.
The second it did, I proudly pulled up the number floating over Xander Hale’s head.
For an entire year, that number had been climbing higher and higher.
I had thought it meant one thing.
That he was hopelessly, tragically, embarrassingly in love with me.
The system stared at the bright red number above Xander’s head for a long time.
Then it said through gritted teeth, “That is not affection. That is irritation.”
I froze.
“What?”
“The pink one is affection,” it said weakly. “The red one is irritation.”
I still refused to believe it.
“That’s impossible. Xander obviously loves me.”
The system sounded like it was trying not to laugh and cry at the same time. “No. He is, in fact, extremely irritated with you. This is partly my fault. I came online in a rush back then and accidentally left you with the irritation meter instead of the affection meter.”
I went silent.
Then I asked the only thing that mattered.
“So can you check his real affection level now?”
“Not yet,” the system said apologetically. “The main system is bugging out. I can’t access the rest of the stats for now. But judging from how high his irritation is, he probably isn’t all that moved by you.”
Then, after a beat, it added, “What exactly did you do to him?”
I didn’t answer.
Because the answer was… a lot.
When I was chasing Xander, I had acted sweet, soft, obedient, adorable. I blinked up at him, smiled at him, clung to his sleeve, and played the part of the perfect girl until he finally agreed to date me.
And the moment he did?
I dropped the act.
Completely.
I hated his silver hair, so I made him dye it black.
I hated that he skipped class to spend all night at internet cafés with his friends, so I banned him from going and dragged him to the library instead.
I made him show up whenever I called.
I made him do what I wanted.
And if he hesitated even a little, I cried, threw a fit, and made the whole thing impossible until he gave in.
Over the course of one year, I had somehow transformed the campus menace into a twenty-four-hour model boyfriend.
And all that time, the number above his head had kept going up.
I had thought that meant love.
Now I knew the truth.
It meant his irritation with me had already exploded past the limit.
The system sighed. “You need to calm down, host. For someone like him, you can’t keep pushing. You need to go along with him for now. Lower the irritation first. Then maybe, slowly, he’ll start falling for you.”
Before I could respond, a voice came from behind me.
“What are you spacing out for?”
I turned around.
Xander was standing there with my backpack in his hands, his face cool and unreadable as he zipped it up for me.
Then he looked at me and said, “Weren’t you the one who said we were going to the library?”
Right then, his phone rang.
He answered, and one of his friends shouted through the speaker, “Xander, the guys are all at the café already. Don’t tell me you’re really not coming tonight?”
He stood there with his newly obedient black hair and an expression so foul it could have curdled milk.
“Not coming,” he said flatly. “I’m taking my girlfriend to the library.”
The boys on the other end howled in despair.
“Bro, you’ve changed.”
“What’s so great about the library?”
“You’re the king of this school. If people hear you’re spending Friday nights in the library, they’ll laugh themselves sick.”
Xander let out a low, humorless laugh and glanced at me.
“If I don’t go,” he said lazily, “she’ll get mad. And then who’s going to help me calm her down?”
He was already moving to hang up.
That was when I snapped out of it.
“Wait.”
He paused with the phone in his hand and looked at me with tired patience. “What is it now, princess? What are you unhappy about this time?”
I took my backpack from him, drew in a breath, and forced myself to sound gentle.
“You don’t have to go to the library with me.”
He stared.
I kept going. “You should go have fun with your friends.”
For the first time all day, Xander actually looked surprised.