When Lu Mingfei and Zero walked out of the Equipment Department building, the sunset was burning on the horizon.
His stomach growled again. Zero glanced sideways at him and quickened her pace. Her arm was like a pair of vise grips, locked firmly around his.
"Zero, I'll walk. I can walk on my own." Lu Mingfei tried to struggle.
Zero's arm didn't budge.
Dinner was the liveliest time of day at Cassell College, and the dining hall was almost full. Whispers came at him from every direction, making his scalp prickle. He wished he could throw up Absolute Defense on the spot and deflect every staring gaze. But the girl beside him was perfectly composed. She hauled him over to an empty table and even pulled out his chair for him.
"Sit."
Lu Mingfei obediently sat down, his back ramrod straight, like an elementary school student facing his homeroom teacher. Zero sat opposite him, glanced at the menu, then rattled off a string of dishes to the waiter.
The food arrived quickly. Zero pushed his plate in front of him, set out his chopsticks, and even folded a napkin into a little triangle beside his hand. Lu Mingfei squirmed in his seat, the surrounding stares stabbing him like needles. He lowered his head and ate, wishing he could bury his entire face in his bowl.
A few girls tried to come over and strike up a conversation, hoping to dig into the romantic history of this rising S-Rank star. Zero shut them down just as efficiently.
"I don't interfere with his past, but his present and future are my responsibility." Zero set down her cup of black tea. "Do any of you have questions about your coursework? If not, please don't disturb our meal."
In just a few sentences, she had both staked her claim perfectly and put those gossiping girls in their place without losing an ounce of decorum.
Lu Mingfei put down his chopsticks and took a deep breath. "Zero, I think..."
"Finished?" Zero looked at the rice still filling nearly half his bowl.
"Finished," Lu Mingfei said firmly.
Zero stood up and came around to his side. Her arm hooked around his again.
"Let's go."
"Where?"
"For a walk," Zero said. "Walking after a meal aids digestion. The sun is about to set, so it's a good time for a walk in the sunset. Then you'll walk me back to my dorm."
Zero looked up at him. "Is that all right?"
Every word of that speech was perfectly normal on its own, but strung together, they sounded as though they had been copied straight out of some romance guidebook.
"Zero, you don't have to do this," Lu Mingfei said quietly. "Lu Mingze's assignment to look after me doesn't require you to go this far. Really, you don't have to force yourself."
Zero was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Are you dissatisfied with me in some way?"
"No!" Lu Mingfei hurriedly waved his free hand. "I can't find fault with anything you've done. But the better it feels, the more scared I get. Do you understand? It's like... like I'm a puppet being led around. The nicer you are to me, the less I feel like myself."
Zero considered this, then released his arm.
Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief, thinking this formidable young lady had finally understood him. Before he could finish exhaling, however, Zero reached over. Her fingers pushed between his without the slightest regard for his wishes, interlocking tightly with them. Her hand was cooler than he had imagined, her fingers slender but strong, like clematis vines, supple yet tough.
"This is walking side by side," Zero stressed. "Not leading you around."
Lu Mingfei looked down at their joined hands, his mind completely blank.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
He screamed inwardly. This wasn't how it was supposed to go! Campus romance dramas didn't work like this at all. First you were supposed to struggle to find common ground and tentatively feel each other out, then go through a few misunderstandings brought on by coincidences. After a long, agonizing back-and-forth, you'd have a sudden revelation while sheltering from the rain one day and realize how you felt about each other. Then you'd cautiously hold hands, blushing, hearts racing, palms sweating, before finally interlocking your fingers naturally. Wasn't that how every clichéd teen romance script went?
How could you skip every step and smash straight through someone else's boundaries without a shred of reason?
-But the pressure against my hand was so forceful. You were holding on so tightly, you weren't leaving me any room to retreat.
"Let's go," Zero said, pulling him out of the dining hall by the hand.
Lu Mingfei followed in a daze as Zero pulled him along. Ginkgo leaves drifted down around them, and one landed in Zero's hair. He saw it but didn't dare reach out to remove it, afraid that the moment he did, he would shatter this bizarre dream.
He wanted to say something to break the silence, but every word that reached his lips turned into, "Zero, don't you think we're moving too fast?"
Zero thought for a moment, then said, "No."
"This still isn't fast?!"
"Speed is relative," Zero said. "If you walk slowly and I walk quickly, then we're going fast. You should walk faster."
She pulled him along the central avenue, past the library, past the clock tower. Every student they encountered shot them a surprised look. Some whistled behind them; others took out their phones to snap pictures. Lu Mingfei felt like a prisoner being escorted to his execution, except this execution ground was called "romance."
But to the onlookers around them, whose gossip-tinted glasses were turned up to maximum, this demon king who had toppled two major student clubs in succession walked with one hand in his pocket and a languid stride. His slightly downturned eyes carried a world-weary look that suggested he thought nothing of human lives, and a terrifying aura warning strangers to keep their distance radiated from him.
Meanwhile, Zero Romanov, Cassell's famously icy girl from Russia, looked like a meek little wife who had lost every one of her sharp edges. She stayed obediently close to the demon king, her entire being firmly under the control of that large hand. Here was a bashful girl who had been completely melted by a violent demon king and could do nothing but meekly follow him!
"Oh my god, they're such a perfect match..." Behind an oak tree by the path, a girl bit her straw, her eyes blazing with fervor.
The two finally reached the girls' dormitory, bringing their impossibly sweet stroll to an end.
The prying gazes around them instantly doubled, and a chorus of gasps rose from the bushes.
Zero turned around and finally released Lu Mingfei's hand. Standing on the steps, she was just high enough to look him in the eye.
"Say goodbye to me, but you should now show reluctance to part."
"Huh?" Lu Mingfei froze.
"Then you need to close the distance with an assertive gesture," Zero added expressionlessly. "Pat my head, or hug me. Pair it with a line capable of increasing my heart rate."
Lu Mingfei finally cracked.
"Seriously, where did you learn all these lethal tactics?" He rubbed between his eyebrows in anguish. "More internal materials from the boss?"
"Hybrid Romance Psychology and fifteen highly rated romance films." Zero sounded entirely justified, even adopting something of a drill instructor's manner as she coached a new recruit. "Execute."
"I'm not executing anything," Lu Mingfei refused flatly. "This is way too stupid. We just went for a walk. There's no need to act like we're being separated by life and death. Procedure complete. See you tomorrow."
He turned to flee.
"Stop."
Zero gave him no chance to bluff his way out. She stepped forward, wrapped both arms around his waist, and pressed her cheek to his chest.
"See you tomorrow."
With that, she turned and walked through the dormitory entrance.
The evening breeze swept past, sending ginkgo leaves circling at Lu Mingfei's feet. He stood where he was, watching Zero's petite figure disappear behind the doors.
"Boss, you've got to settle this! What kind of dating is that supposed to be?"
In the café on the library's ground floor, Fingel was chewing on his straw as he delivered an impassioned report to Nono.
"So you went and staked them out like a stalker today?"
"It's called rigorous fieldwork by a journalism student..." Fingel shrank back into his chair guiltily. "Do you think what they've got going on is normal?"
Nono glanced at him. For all his bullshit, Fingel had actually read the situation very accurately.
Lu Mingfei's PTSD left him completely unable to handle a normal girl's coy protests and tentative advances.
But Zero's approach was different.
"Neither of those two is normal," Nono said. "But a direct approach lands a critical hit. Lu Mingfei won't be able to take it."