Redo of a Romanceless Author’s Life Devoid of Love; Another Chance at Youth Chapter 20

Chapter 20. Midterms (5/7)

I changed into my usual get-up and arrived at work right on ti.

When I took a seat on the stool beside my coworker, she surprisingly closed her book right away. I started to wonder whether she’d fallen ill.

“Are you feeling sick?” I asked.

“Not at all. Why do you ask?”

“Not once have you ever closed your book when I arrive. You usually don’t even notice when I get here and smile to yourself while reading without a care in the world.”

“Well, there seems to be sothing different today that caught my interest.”

“What’s different exactly?”

She looked over to calmly and said, “You.”

“I’m different? How so?” I didn’t forget to fix my hair or put in my colored contacts so I ruled those things out imdiately.

“Well… it’s hard to put my finger on it actually. I’m not quite sure myself. On the surface... you look exactly the sa… but… there’s just sothing different. Softer. I think that would be the best way to describe it. Though you still have the exact sa look on your face as ever, sothing about it feels like it’s softened up a bit. Did sothing good happen?”

“I wouldn’t say anything particularly good happened. Maybe it’s because I got so proper sleep.”

“No. My woman's intuition is telling otherwise. Did sothing good happen between you and your girlfriend?”

“Did I ever say I even have a girlfriend?”

“No… then… did you get a girlfriend or sothing?”

Woman’s intuition was a much more fearso thing than I’d ever imagined.

“Please stop making fun of , it’s not very nice of you to poke at a man’s wounds like that. Do I really look like soone a girl would want to willingly date?”

“Is that so? Then maybe I am mistaken.”

Having lost interest she reopened her book and returned to reading.

I didn’t want to sohow end up inadvertently getting my girlfriend in high school entangled with the stupid lie I’d spun. The more people who got involved the harder a lie was to keep.

At the very least I had to wait until I turned 16 and I could untangle all the lies then. By then, I’d be legally employed and I wouldn’t need to give a damn about what my coworkers thought about blatantly lying to their faces.

After our little exchange at the beginning of our shift, we didn’t talk much more. It was all business. We were pretty busy as well today so there wasn’t much room to talk anyway.

When the clock struck nine I departed without delay. While I fixed my hair and removed my colored contacts in a public restroom, I notified her I was on my way via text. I got live directions on my phone to her place and arrived at her apartnt ten minutes later.

She was waiting for downstairs outside the complex leaning against the wall in casual clothes that were quite enticing. She wore short navy blue mini jeans which fully revealed her legs and a black tank top with a red heart on it. Her delicate arms, similar to her long slender legs, were completely exposed.

When our eyes t, she smiled and ran over in her brown open-toe high heel sandals. She held by the hand and dragged inside.

We stood inside the elevator, just the two of us reflected in the mirrors and elevator door.

“Uh… by the way… it’ll probably be pretty late by the ti we’re done… do you… want to… you know. That thing…”

I naturally knew what she wanted to say. I had a sudden idea though.

“Hmm… how about we play a little ga. After our study session, I’ll quiz you on everything we’ve gone through. If you get everything correct, how about I spend the night? If you don’t get everything correct, I’ll return ho in the dark all alone by myself. My safety is in your hands. If I’m forced to go ho at this hour because you don’t do well, who knows what will happen to ? Maybe I’ll get stabbed in the middle of the night by so crackhead. Whether I live or die will be determined entirely by your performance.”

I figured this sort of ga might serve as a form of motivation to try her best. A little pressure never hurts anyone. Honestly, I didn’t believe she’d really get everything right though.

“That’s quite a bit of pressure you're putting on your girlfriend, you know. You’re entrusting your life to so easily? What if I betray your trust and let you die?”

“Then I suppose I was blind and my girlfriend didn’t love after all.”

“... you’re really not playing fair.” She got a bit ek all of a sudden.

“When have I ever played fair?”

“My boyfriend really is the worst type of guy.” She pouted her lips cutely when she said that.

“My girlfriend really is the cutest type of girl,” I responded blandly.

While putting all her weight on her right leg she let her left leg swing back, crossing behind and lightly tapping the heel of her right foot with her toes. She positioned her right hand behind her back while she kept her hold on my hand with her left.

See? She really is the cutest type of girl. What the hell is with these pointless cute actions? They serve no purpose at all. None I tell you! Aside from being bloody cute as hell.

The elevator door opened once we arrived on the 15th floor. She led the way forward and pulled along in tow.

We stopped at unit 1520 at the very end of the hallway. She opened the door with the key then stepped inside. The first thing I noticed when I entered was the sll. It was a rather weak trace of the sweet girlish scent she emitted naturally which I’d grown quite accustod to. Her humble abode was filled with the pheromones she released. There would be no way to avoid it, not that I saw the need to.

Once I got past the pleasant scent inside I noticed the appearance inside. The rooms inside were all fully furnished much unlike my empty one. Her kitchen was well equipped with all sorts of different machines, likely the result of her hobby being cooking.

Inside the living room area, there was a table low to the ground with a couch against the wall. It looked like it would be quite comfortable. I couldn’t help but notice the fresh food laid out on the table. There was still steam rising from the plate.

When she realized I’d noticed the food she said, “Since you probably didn’t eat anything all day as usual I figured it would be best if you at least had sothing to eat before we started. You’d normally eat when you get back ho after work… right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then before we start studying please go ahead.”

She dragged over to the couch and sat down pulling down with her into sitting directly beside her.

“Did you eat already?” I asked since there was only one plate.

“No, I haven’t eaten yet. It’s a bit embarrassing but since I normally don’t have anyone over I only have enough dinnerware for myself.”

“Hmm… is that so? It sure didn’t seem like that’d be the case judging by the appearance of the kitchen.”

“Well it is, so just open your mouth okay?”

It wasn’t hard to see through what was going on, but I didn’t bother to bring it up as she’d already raised the fork with so food to my mouth. I opened my mouth obediently and we alternated the way we normally did during lunch.

It seems she enjoyed this sort of activity. It may have been because she was alone like and didn’t have soone else to eat with at ho that she especially preferred this arrangent when eating.

“Don’t you think the food tastes better when eating with soone else like this?” She asked that with a smile on her face after a gulp to swallow the food she was chewing.

“I wouldn’t really know since there’s no control group. For the control group, I’d also need to eat your food alone when you’re not around to establish the validity of your claims.”

“Well, I’ve eaten alone so I’m the control group and I can say with certainty it does.”

“How can you say that with certainty when you only have one control group and one group where you’re together with ? At the bare minimum, don’t you think you’d need another group to eliminate other possibilities such as being an outlier group? For example, if you ate with your most hated enemy, do you think the food would taste better?”

“Hmm… my most hated enemy?” Her expression soured when she thought about it. “I think I’d get an upset stomach. I guess that ans it’s just with you then.”

“You still can’t draw that conclusion, your most hated enemy may also be another outlier as it is an extre case, right? Thus, you would also need soone you have no particular feelings about.”

“I see. That would make sense. Hey… did you just do what I think you did?”

“Yes, precisely. Do you think you will rember it if sothing similar were to co up on a test?”

“I think so.”

“Haha. Well, it’s easy to say that, we’ll need to see about that. Anyway, do you mind handing the fork for a bit? I’ll feed you for a change.”

At first, she looked sowhat reluctant but when she heard the part about feeding her, she imdiately agreed.

“This is a first. Why’d you suddenly want to do this? ” She asked, trying to hide her happiness.

“Well, I had a little idea, that’s all.”

I started to explain so topics to her while we ate and asked her to repeat what I said back to . When she did so successfully I lifted the fork up and put it into her mouth to see a happy smile bloom on her face.

Before I took a bite and got back to her I continued talking slipping in information related to tests in casual conversation between the two of us. When I asked her questions related to what we were discussing and she got them all correct I fed her again to see that overly happy smile bloom.

Yes, I was making good use of her food to give her a rewarding feeling, I associated that happy feeling of being fed food by with her getting the things I asked her correct. It was a rather simple trick where one dangled a carrot before a horse on a fishing line.

I kept this up all the way until the plate was empty and we were both full. After we finished, she picked up the empty plate and washed it in the kitchen sink. When she returned she took out her textbooks from her bag beside the couch and laid them down gently on the table.

I figured I’d start with the simplest subject for to teach to get a baseline for the effectiveness of teaching her without the previous reward system we had with food.