She spends the whole morning in this dazed state. At lunchtime, once Amy finishes buying her food, I quite naturally take the cold noodles sitting next to her rice. There's no helping it. Seeing how much food she's bought, what else am I supposed to do? I have no choice but to reluctantly help her finish it off.
Suddenly, something crosses my mind. I glance at Amy and say, "Tomorrow's Saturday. How do you usually spend your weekends?"
Amy has no idea what I'm scheming, so she just blinks and says, "Not sure. Sometimes I go home. Why do you ask?"
I take a sip of lemon water and continue. "Where's your home? Is it here in the city?"
Amy replies, "Yeah, my home's here in the city, over by Jinshu Garden."
Nina catches on to what I'm getting at. She thinks for a moment, then asks, "Amy, isn't your place pretty close to the downtown library?"
Amy shakes her head, then nods. "I can't really tell what you mean by that reaction."
"What does shaking your head and nodding at the same time even mean?"
"I've never been to the downtown library, but from what I remember, there is definitely a library on Wudong Road downtown."
I nod in understanding. Nina lets out a small laugh. "That settles it, then. Come with us this Saturday and Sunday. Let's all go study at the downtown library together. How does that sound? Amy, are you free?"
I look at Amy. Amy says weakly, "Do I really have to go? I'm kind of tired. I just want to sleep in all day at home."
I shake my head, shutting down her idea. "No good. Without us keeping an eye on you Saturday and Sunday, I'm worried you'll get too carefree, worried you'll eat without any restraint. If you come out with us, we can study together, eat lunch together, and it'll be easier to keep things in check."
Amy says, sounding wronged, "Wow, so you're going to supervise me even on the weekend. You two are way too dedicated to this."
I curl my lips into a smile and take another sip of lemon water, saying modestly, "Thanks for the compliment. It's all thanks to the power of money."
Watching me act like such a money lover, Nina finds it hard to disagree. She lets out a small laugh, then says to Amy, "All right, it's settled then. Tomorrow at ten in the morning, we'll meet up at the downtown library."
Hearing this, Amy exclaims, startled, "What? It's already settled? I never actually agreed to anything."
The three of us eat and chat when suddenly two girls come over and sit down at our table. They act completely familiar, plopping right down with us, and greet Amy enthusiastically. "Oh wow, what a coincidence."
Amy turns to look and sees it's Mia and Lily from her class. Amy gives a reluctant hum in response, then lowers her head and goes quiet.
"Such a handsome guy is eating lunch with you. How come you haven't introduced him to us? Amy, aren't you being a bit stingy here?"
Hearing this, I look up at them, while Nina, sitting nearby, stays quiet. Amy wipes her mouth with a napkin, then finally introduces us. "This is Mia and Lily. They're my classmates."
Before Amy even gets the chance to introduce the two of us to Mia, Mia is already speaking, looking straight at me. "I know who you are. The new exchange student, Ethan. You've been quite the talk of the school lately. Hi, I'm Mia."
Hearing her name, my heart skips a beat. Mia. If I remember correctly, she's supposed to be the fifth female character in this novel. At the start, she's one of my admirers, and because of me, she keeps relentlessly causing trouble for Jonathan. Later on, once she sees through my true nature, she leaves Baichang and goes abroad.
God, these past few days have been so peaceful. If she hadn't said her name was Mia, I would have almost forgotten this character entirely, and I'd almost forgotten I'm supposed to be the villain second male lead in the first place. I haven't done anything at all, so why has Mia come looking for me again? This is kind of a hassle.
No matter what's going through my mind, on the surface I still greet her politely. "Hi there."
"Amy told me you're supervising her weight loss. I wanted to ask if I could join you guys too."
I look her over carefully, then ask, frowning, "You're already thin enough. You want to lose even more? Any thinner, and it wouldn't be healthy."
Hearing this, Mia feels a bit bashful, thinking to herself, he's really so handsome, even more so than I imagined. I've seen so many celebrities growing up, but none of them compare to Ethan. Coming here today was definitely worth it.
Thinking this, she's too embarrassed to look at me and speaks up bashfully. "I actually want to build some muscle, but I don't have much self-discipline either. Could I work out with you guys?"
At this point, Amy thinks to herself, I don't want to work out with Mia, and I don't want Ethan paying too much attention to anyone else either. This Mia is so annoying, so incredibly annoying.
I don't want to have anything to do with people from the story. So I say diplomatically, "If you want to build muscle, you should really consult a professional. You could go to the gym and find a personal trainer. I'm sorry, but I'm not really an expert in that area."
Hearing this, Mia looks a bit disappointed. After all, she's still not quite an adult yet and hasn't fully learned how to hide her expressions. "Um, Ethan, can I add your contact info?"
She secretly thinks to herself, this is so strange. There are plenty of guys around me from equally prestigious families who chase after me, treat me like royalty, and I've always handled that with ease. But Ethan is different from them. He's always so indifferent toward me, almost like he wants to keep his distance from me, which only makes me more curious about him.
Looking at her expectant gaze, I feel a bit hesitant to disappoint her, but I steel myself and shake my head anyway. Then I watch Mia lower her head, looking utterly disappointed, which just makes her look even more pitiful.
Lily is a bit taken aback. Mia's family is an extremely prestigious household back in Baichang. Even people who don't particularly like Mia still make an effort to stay on good terms with her. But this guy's actually bold enough to just outright turn her down. Where does he get the nerve?
Lily then asks, puzzled, "Ethan, why won't you add Mia's contact info?"
Amy is curious about the same thing. Comparatively speaking, Mia is prettier, so surely Ethan would prefer a tall, elegant beauty like Mia. So why would he turn her down? This is really hard to understand.
I don't even bother looking up. I just say directly, "Because I'm afraid she'll fall for me."
The air suddenly goes silent. Hearing this, Nina can't hold back a burst of laughter, spraying out her lemon water. "Sorry. Sorry. Our Ethan just tends to speak his mind bluntly. He doesn't mean it the way it sounds."
Lily looks quite surprised. She hasn't come across a guy this confident and unique in a long time. What he said actually makes some sense, leaving her, oddly enough, at a loss for words.
Meanwhile, I'm feeling quite uneasy, worried they'll bring up something else I won't be able to answer. So I quickly stand up and start gathering my dishes, telling Mia and the others, "We're already done eating. I'll head out now. You all take your time."
Then the three of us leave first.
On the way out, Nina teases with a grin. "Not bad, Ethan. Someone's already confessing to you, and you just got here. Though you turned her down way too bluntly."
I glance at her, annoyed, and say, "That counts as a confession? I just turned down adding her contact info. That's all. You're overthinking this."
Nina lets out a light sigh, grumbling silently to herself. You have no idea how much charm you actually have, do you? If you had no charm at all, then whose is this whole stack of love letters I keep having to pass along for you? If it's not yours, are they for some ghost?