Chapter 46: 46: REJECT

Thoughts of everything that had happened the last time he saw Nyx rushed through June’s mind as he stared at him.

His eyes slowly drifted to the cupcake in Nyx’s hand before returning to his face.

"What’s this?" June asked.

"I noticed you liked this particular flavor that night," Nyx replied quietly. "So... I bought one for you. I can get you more if you want."

June hesitated. "And why would you buy me a cupcake?"

Nyx looked away for a brief moment before answering. "You didn’t come back to the academy for a week, so..." He hesitated again. "It’s a welcome-back gift."

June narrowed his eyes suspiciously. A welcome-back gift? He looked from the cupcake back to Nyx. Since when did golden puppies start falling from the sky carrying free desserts?

Nyx quietly added, "The Pairing Program is next week... so I was hoping we could become partners."

There it was. June instantly figured out the real reason behind the cupcake. It was bait. This villain was trying to lure him into becoming his official partner with the power of baked goods.

The devil worked hard, but apparently this villain worked even harder. Unfortunately for Nyx, June wasn’t falling for it.

"Never." He folded his arms across his chest and instinctively took a step backward.

By now, several students were passing through the hallway. Some slowed down while others stopped completely, curiously watching the two famous F-Rank students standing together.

"What are those two doing?"

"Weren’t they the ones from the anomaly dungeon?"

The whispers quietly spread through the corridor.

"No." June shook his head before forcing a friendly smile. "Look, I don’t hate you. Really. In fact, if I could, I’d probably adopt you."

He sighed before continuing more firmly. "But this? No. We absolutely cannot become partners."

Nyx’s expression visibly fell. "Why not?" He lowered the cupcake slightly. "But... I bought you a cupcake."

"Thanks for the cupcake," June said sincerely as he reached over and accepted it anyway. "But I still can’t pair up with you. So go find someone else, okay?"

Without waiting for another response, he turned around and hurried away.

Nyx remained standing where he was, watching June disappear down the hallway.

A tiny pout appeared on his face as he adjusted his glasses. "But... you still took the cupcake..." His voice became quieter. "I thought that meant you’d consider it."

A few moments later, the petite student from June’s class walked out carrying a stack of books in his arms. He stopped directly in front of Nyx. The two stared at each other for a moment before Nyx tilted his head in confusion.

The bespectacled boy adjusted his thick glasses and spoke with the seriousness of a wise philosopher. "If you want to win someone’s heart, you can’t give up that easily."

He clenched one fist dramatically. "Persistence is the key." Then he nodded several times. "Fighting."

Keeping the same perfectly expressionless face, he adjusted his glasses once more before calmly walking away.

Nyx watched him leave, completely bewildered. He silently repeated the words in his head. Then, after thinking it over, he slowly nodded. "...Oh."

He adjusted his own glasses with complete sincerity. "That actually makes sense. Thank you, teacher...?"

The boy was already long gone.

By the time June finally returned to his dorm that evening, it was already late. He had gotten lost no fewer than ten times while trying to find his room.

Over the past three hours, he had somehow wandered into professors’ offices, classrooms, bathrooms, training halls, meeting rooms, and even one unfortunate room occupied by a couple who had been enthusiastically making out.

"Oh... carry on." June had politely waved at them before quietly closing the door again.

Staring at the map in his hand, he continued wandering through the endless hallways. "Where the hell is this dormitory? At this rate I’d have an easier time clearing another dungeon."

Just as he dramatically tugged at his own hair, he bumped straight into Mr. Yen again.

"Lost again?" the dean asked, scratching his back with a ruler while casually holding his coffee mug in the other hand.

June sighed. "Mr. Dean, I think there’s something wrong with the map you gave me. Are you sure this thing actually works?"

Mr. Yen clicked his tongue before glancing down at the map. "First, it’s Mr. Yen." He paused. "Second..." He looked back at June. "You’re holding the map upside down."

Silence followed. June blinked. Then he slowly looked down at the map. "...Ah." He quietly turned it around.

Three hours. Three whole hours successfully wasted because he had been reading the map upside down.

****

Eventually, June pushed open the dorm room door with a long, exhausted sigh. "And this, dear readers" he muttered dramatically, "is why maps are important."

The first person he saw after entering the room was Finn. Finn Hart. The main protagonist of this cursed novel.

June nearly burst into tears. He wasn’t even sure where the tears were coming from anymore. His eyes? In-between his legs?

His knees suddenly felt weak as he stared at Finn. Their eyes met briefly before Finn calmly looked away and continued reading the book on his desk.

June panicked internally. As if being forced back into the academy wasn’t bad enough. As if being relentlessly pursued by the future villain wasn’t already stressful enough. As if wandering around campus for three hours because he held a map upside down wasn’t humiliating enough.

Now he had to share a room with the main character too?!

June slowly looked up at the ceiling. "Dear Author... did I offend you in my past life by correcting all the truckloads of mistakes in your novel?"

He looked back at Finn. In the original story, June’s character had bribed his way into getting a private room instead of sharing a dormitory.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t happening now. His mother had frozen his bank card as punishment. Money was no longer an option.

"It really feels like this plot wants me dead..."

Turning to the third bed, June spotted his final roommate.

The young man was dressed in green pajamas with fluffy black hair and oversized glasses. It was the same quiet student from class—the one who had explained the Pairing Program earlier.

June gasped. Then he slowly shook his head. "I’m doomed."

He finally remembered who this character was in the original novel. He was practically invisible. A quiet background character who barely existed in the story at all.

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