Chapter 51: The Accidental Confession
Uriel slid down the wall and nearly threw out his back.
"I'm sleepy"? He had witnessed Seraphina hand out countless rejections. Every single one was an airtight masterpiece. Thank you so much for your feelings, but I'm sorry. It was the standard template. But he had never heard her use "I'm sleepy" as an excuse. What kind of new meta was this?
Tian was perfectly behaved. She bowed, murmured a polite "Sorry to bother you," and turned to walk back toward Uriel. Her expression was completely calm. There was zero frustration from being rejected. She looked like she had just finished a mundane daily quest.
Uriel didn't even have time to exchange glances with Tian before Seraphina noticed him. Apparently he'd finally become impossible to ignore. She turned to look at him and reassembled that polite smile on her face. A faint trace of tension still lingered at the corners of her eyes.
"Is something the matter? Do you need help?"
Her voice was back to standard customer service mode. Rock solid.
Uriel's brain was running at maximum overclock. What exactly did his mom do to her last time? Three words like Beware the Headmaster had terrified a count's daughter who had survived high society's worst?
Now it was his turn. The original plan was simple. Copy his mom's standard build, get friend-zoned, and clock out. But he had just witnessed the standard build yield "I'm sleepy." That was a failed run. He needed a new strategy. If the normal approach failed, he would go full cringe. The more exaggerated and eye-roll-inducing, the higher the chance of a guaranteed rejection.
He stood up straight and took a few steps forward, stopping right in front of Seraphina. He adjusted his collar and cleared his throat. Then he looked up at her with the most exaggerated expression he could muster. He dialed up every cringe bad-boy trope he'd ever read online, dropping his pitch into a forced, gravelly baritone.
"You're gorgeous. I like you. The second I laid eyes on you, I already picked out names for our kids."
Seraphina didn't answer immediately.
Her gaze shifted. She didn't look at Uriel. Instead, she glanced over his shoulder, stealing a microscopic look at Tian standing a few paces behind him. The look was as fast as a bird's wingbeat. If Uriel hadn't been staring directly into her eyes, he would have missed it entirely. She pulled her gaze back, folded her hands in front of her, and lowered her head slightly. The polite smile returned, but the angle felt different this time.
"I'm very happy to hear that."
Her voice was back to its usual soft warmth, but something was deeply off.
"Then I hope you can make me like you too. When that time comes, you can tell me the names you picked for our children."
She raised her head and looked straight into Uriel's eyes. Her smile was absolutely flawless.
"I look forward to getting to know you."
Silence fell over the corridor.
Around the corner, three passing guys stopped dead in their tracks. One of them let his backpack strap slide off his shoulder and forgot to catch it.
Uriel's brain spun up to maximum RPM and immediately stalled. Where was the rejection slip? Thank you so much, but I'm sorry. The standard template never failed. How did it turn into "I look forward to getting to know you" for him? This was completely off script.
Before he could process a single response, a crisp, rhythmic sound echoed from behind him.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Tian stood a few steps away, applauding steadily. Her face radiated pure, unfiltered joy. Her expression screamed Mommy is so proud. She kept clapping and spoke in her gentle, doting tone.
"Congratulations! That's my boy!"
Down the hall, the three passing guys gasped in unison. One of them was already wiping his eyes with his sleeve, muttering about witnessing a legendary cinematic moment. Another pulled out a notebook and scribbled furiously, likely transcribing the dialogue for future study.
Uriel stood frozen. He looked at the flawlessly smiling Seraphina in front of him. Then he looked back at his mother clapping behind him. He felt like a missing puzzle piece crushed between two perfect halves. No matter which way he shifted, someone was applauding. His grand plan for a perfectly average student confession had completely derailed.
Uriel remained stuck at the corner of the corridor, trapped in a posture of wanting to speak but failing.
What the actual hell? Is this one of those 'The Romance Difficulty in Another World Was Nerfed by 100x, But Only I Reincarnated With Normal Stats' scenarios?
Seraphina had already turned and walked away. Her skirt hem swished twice in the crowd before she vanished around the corner of the teaching building. Tian was still clapping beside him at a leisurely pace. The sound bounced off the corridor walls. The bystanders had formed a small circle. One was frantically writing in his notebook while another excitedly slapped his friend's shoulder, chanting about the scene of the century.
"Mom, stop clapping." Uriel's voice was as dry as a potato left in the sun for three days.
Tian lowered her hands and tilted her head. Her golden eyes still held the fading remnants of joy. She clearly had no idea why little Uri looked like the sky was falling.
The school bell rang, scattering the crowd and dragging Uriel out of his petrified state. He dragged his stiff legs toward the classroom. His brain was stuck on a single looping track. Where was the rejection slip?
---
The news spread faster than he had ever anticipated.
How fast, exactly?
Before the afternoon classes even ended, people in the Fourth Academy's corridors were already whispering and pointing at his back. When he returned to the inn after school and pushed open the lobby doors, two familiar figures launched themselves from behind the lounge sofas like sprinters off the blocks.
"Uriel!"
Leo's voice shattered the lobby's peace. The receptionist glanced up, then immediately went back to balancing the ledger. Leo's face was flushed red, though whether from running or sheer excitement was impossible to tell. Kai followed at a steadier pace, but the shock and burning curiosity in his eyes were completely undeniable.
"You... you... you!" Leo pointed a trembling finger right at Uriel's nose. "Confessed to Seraphina? And succeeded?!"
"When we heard the news, we thought they had the wrong guy." Kai pushed up a pair of non-existent glasses on his nose, his tone unnervingly calm. "We verified it three times. Three. Times."
"When did you make your move? Why didn't you leak a single hint? You sneaked ahead!" Leo circled him, inspecting him like a newly discovered mythical beast. "Wait, you never even glance at girls normally. You've been holding out! You definitely have a secret technique. Spit it out. What's the ultimate cheat code?"
"Hold on, hold on." Uriel raised both hands to calm them down, but Leo's next sentence instantly froze his arms in mid-air.
"And wait. Did you specifically wait for the hundredth guy? Did you wait for Kai and me to fail so you could step up and round out the numbers for the achievement? Master Uriel, please teach us your ways!"
Uriel opened his mouth, but his vocal cords completely failed him.
He wanted to say he had no clue what happened. He wanted to explain he just wanted to run through the motion and get rejected. He wanted to clarify that the "picked out names for our kids" line was specifically designed to be cringe.
But his bros' eyes were shining way too bright. He knew that exact glow. It was the exact same look Lumina and the others got when they stared at witches.
The rumors snowballed. By the next day, it wasn't just the Fourth Academy. The First Academy students staying at the inn knew everything. During outdoor classes, in the cafeteria line, even in the restroom stalls, he could hear people discussing "that guy from the First Academy who successfully confessed to Seraphina."
No matter where Uriel walked on either campus, he could feel eyes burning into him from every direction. The guys' glares screamed, Him? Why him? The girls' looks said, That's the guy who landed Seraphina? He looks totally mid.
Public Enemy Number One. Across two entire academies.
It was a familiar setup, just amplified to the max.
---
The next day at noon, Uriel slammed his tray onto the table in the inn's dining hall. He collapsed into his chair. His face was locked in a thousand-yard stare, caught somewhere between giving up on life.
"This is completely off script."
He buried his face in his hands. His voice came out muffled.
Leo and Kai immediately dropped their chopsticks and leaned forward. Leo still had a grain of rice stuck to the corner of his mouth, but he didn't care. Kai had already flipped open his little notebook, holding his pen perfectly straight.
"What exactly happened yesterday? Tell us everything, word for word, without skipping a single detail." Leo's eyes were terrifyingly bright.
Uriel pulled his hands away from his face and sighed. There was no point in hiding it now.
He gave them the rundown. He explained how he adjusted his collar. He repeated the exact line about her being gorgeous and picking out names for their kids. Then he delivered Seraphina's response. His bros listened with intense focus. Leo's chopsticks hovered in mid-air, completely forgotten. Kai's pen scribbled furiously across the paper.
"Where did you even learn to say something like that?" Kai looked up, his expression incredibly complex.
"Self-taught." Uriel's face was completely deadpan.
Leo was about to press for more high-tier details when his gaze suddenly drifted. His mouth dropped open into a dumbstruck 'O'. Kai's pen stopped moving. Both of them stared at the space right behind Uriel. Their expressions shifted from eager students to reverent worshippers in exactly one second.
Uriel followed their line of sight and turned his head.
Seraphina stood two paces behind him, holding her own tray. Her light brown hair was tied back with a simple ribbon, the midday sun tracing the edges of her silhouette. It looked like a campus romance illustration.
That is, if you ignored her knuckles. They were gripping the edge of the tray so hard they had turned completely white.
"Excuse me. May I sit and eat with you?"