What a shame he was so handsome

That morning, Ririko was woken by the sound of the iron door sliding open.

Herman stood in the doorway, holding a white plastic tray.

She set the tray on the small table by the door, then took a step back and waited for Ririko to collect it.

Apparently acting on orders, she would neither enter the room nor approach Ririko of her own accord.

Ririko sat up in bed, walked over to the little table, and glanced down at the tray.

A bowl of oatmeal and a cup of tea.

She looked it over again carefully. No fried eggs, no bacon, and certainly no toast browned lightly at the edges.

"Was there a mix-up with my breakfast?"

"No," Herman said coldly.

Ririko folded her arms across her chest. "This isn't what I used to get. Doctor Quinn changed my meal plan. Scrambled eggs and ham, with coffee. You can ask her."

Her tone remained restrained, unwilling to cause trouble, but she spoke a little faster than usual.

Herman didn't move. "I wasn't notified."

Ririko stared at Herman. It wasn't that she hadn't been notified. She simply had no intention of asking.

"Then I won't eat."

It was hard to go back to austerity after a taste of luxury. She really couldn't stomach such meager fare now.

A trace of inexplicable satisfaction crossed Herman's face.

"Then you can skip lunch too."

She picked up the tray and turned to leave.

Before the door closed, she peered into the room through the gap.

Ririko distinctly saw her eyeing her, but it wasn't Harley's appreciative gaze or Hugo's obsessive one.

She wanted to know what kind of look it was.

She opened the system and looked at a line of small text.

[Non-target characters: the system does not actively track the Infatuation Value of "ordinary individuals"

. This value may be any number (it may instantly surge to 100 or even be negative)]

Ririko narrowed her eyes and read those lines twice.

"Negative? Someone can have a negative Infatuation Value toward me?"

The system displayed a line of explanation.

[A negative Infatuation Value represents extreme jealousy]

"Extreme jealousy?"

Of course, not everyone had liked Ririko during her time as an NPC in Gotham.

But at most, people had rolled their eyes at her, and she would snap back with a few remarks. She had never encountered this so-called "extreme jealousy."

Just then, footsteps sounded in the corridor.

Ririko sprang off the bed, recognizing Harley Quinn's footsteps.

She hurried to the door and looked through its palm-sized window.

Harley was heading her way, walking a little faster than usual.

The corners of Ririko's mouth lifted involuntarily.

Once Harley saw her, she could complain about that morning's breakfast and Herman's infuriating attitude.

Harley's Infatuation Value had already reached 20. She would take her side.

But before her smile could fully form, she heard Herman's voice.

"You can't go in."

Harley stood fewer than three steps from the door, blocked by Herman's raised gun.

"I'm authorized to examine Ririko," Harley said.

Herman's hulking frame stood before Harley like a wall.

"Professor Strange hasn't given his authorization."

Harley frowned.

"Even so, I outrank you. You should obey me."

Herman looked at her, then placed both hands on her gun.

Ririko sucked in a cold breath. That bitch actually dared to threaten Harley?

"Go back," Herman said.

Harley's gaze passed beyond Herman, through the palm-sized observation window, and landed on Ririko's face as she secretly peeked out.

Then Harley turned and left.

Ririko stepped away from the door.

That bitch... she really was "extremely jealous" of her.

She had watched helplessly as that jealous bitch chased away her conditioner, ham and scrambled eggs, and freshly ground coffee.

Two in the afternoon. Recreation time.

True to her word, Herman hadn't brought her lunch. After missing two meals, Ririko was a little unsteady on her feet as she walked toward the recreation room.

But she couldn't show weakness. She knew that the more negative emotion she showed, the happier that bitch would be.

A long table stood in a corner of the recreation room, with several water pitchers and a stainless steel tray on top.

A row of small cookies sat on the tray, their edges baked a light golden brown and a few sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

Normally, she would have turned her nose up at those cookies. Too many sweets were bad for her skin, but right now her skin was perfectly fine, while her stomach couldn't hold out any longer.

She swallowed, walked over to the table, picked up a cookie with her fingertips, and took a small bite.

It was a little hard, but tasted surprisingly decent.

She was just about to take a second one-

A hand reached out beside her, gripped the edge of the tray, and carried off every last cookie.

Ririko's hand froze in midair.

"Which bastard did that?!"

She whipped around and froze in shock.

The person was taller than her, dressed in patient clothes, with pale, bloodless skin and a head of red hair as eye-catching as fire.

Jerome was staring at Ririko with a strange expression.

He picked up a cookie, brought it to his mouth, and took a bite.

Crack.

"Nothing special, but edible."

He spoke quickly, chewing like a hamster as he delivered his verdict.

Ririko's body reacted before her brain did. She slowly backed away one step, then another...

Why was he here? Why was he in the low-risk recreation room?

Wasn't he supposed to be locked in the most heavily guarded ward, strapped to a bed and watched by at least ten fully armed burly men?

Jerome stuffed the remaining half of the cookie into his mouth and smacked his lips.

"Next time, you'll have to be quicker."

He cradled the whole tray in his arms and raised his eyebrows at her in challenge.

"You're not eating that, right?" Jerome held the tray out in front of her, gesturing for her to give him the cookie she'd already bitten into as well.

Ririko instinctively raised her hand.

This was Jerome, after all. She still remembered how, in a previous reset, he had destroyed a building and thrown the people inside off the roof one by one...

But just as she was about to put the cookie on the tray, she stopped.

This wasn't how it should go.

[Core character: Jerome Valeska]

[Current Infatuation Value: 10/100]

Now that she had lost Hugo and Harley, she still had this pawn.

Not only did she keep her cookie, she took another one from the tray.

Jerome stared at her hand, his gaze following the cookie.

"You-" he said.

Ririko took a bite of the cookie, chewed twice, and swallowed it right in front of him.

"It's wrong to hog everything. People won't share their cookies with you in the future."

"Share?"

Jerome tilted his head, seemingly puzzling over a word that didn't exist in his mind.

"Would you share cookies with me?" he asked.

"If I had two cookies, I could give you one," Ririko said.

Jerome looked down at the cookies on the tray. He had taken all of them, which meant she had no cookies to share with him.

"That sounds like it makes some sense," he said.

Seeing that he didn't seem to intend to attack her, Ririko continued:

"Why are you here?"

"I'm better now," Jerome said calmly. "I'm a good person now."

Ririko saw a round, pale pink electrical burn scar on his temple, along with restraint marks on his neck and wrists. He must have suffered quite a bit in Hugo's laboratory.

But aside from those scars, Jerome didn't look frightening up close.

If she had met him in some café in Gotham, she would have thought he was a rather handsome young man with a broken air about him, someone she couldn't help stealing another glance at.

Unfortunately, he was Jerome Valeska. An ordinary chance encounter in a café was never in the cards for them.

"All right, then," Ririko coaxed. "From now on, we'll share things during recreation time."

Jerome considered it, apparently pondering how to put this into practice. "I had two burgers for lunch."

Ririko's right eye flew wide open.

"How did you get burgers?"

Her own lunch was supposed to be spaghetti with meat sauce, with so few bits of meat she could count them on her fingers.

Jerome's mouth stretched into a grin.

"I can have whatever I want, as long as I don't cause trouble."

Ririko hadn't expected him to be so "wealthy."

She folded her arms and spoke like a gang leader. "Tomorrow, bring me a burger."

Jerome tilted his head the other way. "So we're accomplices, then."

"Partners, not accomplices."

Ririko hadn't expected him to be so easy to coax.

He really had gone stupid.

What a shame he was so handsome.