When I tried them all together, I almost couldn’t believe my own reflection. The crimson dress set off my pale skin perfectly, and my dark, curly hair looked like it belonged on a magazine cover.
It looked perfect, so perfect that I wanted to scream and jump like a little kid. For the first ti today, I felt genuinely happy with how I looked.
All the awful things I’d seen and gone through earlier just lted away the mont I saw my reflection.
Unfortunately, when it ca ti to pay, I couldn’t help but wince a little.
[Penny deducted $750 from Host’s balance: Luxury Hair & Makeup Package Boutique Purchase.]
[Remaining Balance: $58,315]
I almost cried when I realized I had spent more than two thousand dollars in a single day. My poor balance! But fine, totally fine. I was going to get ten grand back for this, so it was worth it. Right?
[Host, Penny advises you not to take this quest lightly.]
[There’s a chance you might fail.]
I raised one eyebrow, feeling a little confused. "Fail? What are you talking about? How could any man look at and not say I’m beautiful?" I swept my hand dramatically from my face down to my waist. "... Look at this!"
[Penny reminder: there are many words similar to ’beautiful’ and ’pretty,’ Host.]
I brushed off Penny’s warning, thinking she was being ridiculous. Honestly, what kind of man wouldn’t call beautiful? Even random strangers on the street couldn’t help but complint !
But the mont I t Lando at the restaurant, I finally understood what Penny ant. We had agreed to co separately because going back ho first would have been a waste of ti, so I walked straight to the rooftop.
He was already there, sitting at our table. The soft glow of the evening lights frad him perfectly, but the instant his gaze landed on , everything else seed to fade.
"Helcia, you look ..." His eyes traveled slowly from my head to my heels, lingering on every detail as if morizing . "... stunning."
The smile on my face instantly froze the mont I heard his words.
S-stunning?! Seriously? Of all the words in the world, that was the first thing he thought of when he saw ?!
Now that I thought about it, I suddenly realized he had never, not even once, called beautiful or pretty. When I got my hair done at the salon, all he said was that it "suited .", and when I proudly showed him my photoshoot pictures, he looked at them like a professional critique, not like a man complinting a woman.
Okay, fine. None of that was technically wrong. A man wasn’t obligated to shower a woman with complints. Normally, I wouldn’t even care.
But this wasn’t a normal situation! Penny had thrown into this ridiculous quest, and if I didn’t get that one magic word out of him, I could kiss my ten grand goodbye!
No way. I wasn’t going down without a fight! I still had six hours left, and I was going to make sure he called beautiful!
[Reminder: If Host directly asks Lando to use that specific word, the quest will fail automatically and you’ll have to say bye-bye to your ten grand.]
My jaw dropped. Say bye-bye to my money?! I wouldn’t allow it!
"Helcia?" Lando’s voice instantly pulled out of my internal scream. "Are you alright?"
I blinked a few tis before forcing a bright smile. "I’m fine. Really, I’m fine." I walked over to our table, and just as I reached it, a waiter quickly stepped forward to pull the chair out for . I sat down across from Lando, smoothing my dress as I did.
"I’m sorry." His sudden apology made lift my head toward him. "I couldn’t be the one to pull the chair out for you myself."
Why was he apologizing for that? Of course, I would never see a man in a wheelchair as less of a gentleman just because he couldn’t stand and do sothing the waiter already did for !
"Don’t say that." I reached out and patted his hand a few tis. "I’m already happy just seeing you here. Besides, I should be the one apologizing because ..." I paused, glancing at the clock on the wall. "... I made you wait for more than fifteen minutes. Traffic was just unforgivable today."
Of course, that wasn’t the whole truth. The real reason was because I lost track of ti while shopping for skincare and makeup. One quick stop turned into almost an hour, and I ended up dropping another three hundred bucks.
They weren’t even high-end products! Oh, my poor, poor wallet.
Lando held his breath for a mont, his gaze sweeping over once more. "It’s alright." He looked away, almost shyly. "You were worth the wait."
[Lando’s favorability has increased to 5%]
I froze. Wait ... was that also his version of calling beautiful?!
Sure, his choice of words still didn’t count for the quest. But honestly, wasn’t that even better than a simple beautiful or pretty? Earlier, he had called stunning, and now he was saying I was worth every minute of his ti.
This was Lando we were talking about, a man who valued ti like it was gold. For soone that strict about every second, letting waste fifteen whole minutes of his life was a huge privilege.
My husband was way too adorable that I almost wanted to cry right there at the table!
For a second, I thought maybe losing ten grand would be fine if he kept saying things like that—No! What was I thinking?! Hell no, I still wanted that ten grand!
While I was stressing over my quest, Lando asked the waiter to pour wine into our glasses. His movents were calm, his voice sounding gentle as he gave instructions, and for a mont I forgot all about the stupid word I was chasing.
I swallowed hard because I finally realized that he looked so breathtakingly handso tonight!
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