His Naughty Lessons

** Harper **

"I’m honestly a bit surprised that you are finally bringing it up," Harper said. "It’s been a while since you found out about the side gig I’m doing, right?"

Wallace had the sense to wince. "I ... Right. But believe it or not, it wasn’t until today that I realized I might have ... handled it a little wrong." He tousled his hair seemingly nervously. "In my defense, it’s not like it happens every day that I get to see my favorite author turning out to be someone I know in real life! I never had any prior experience dealing with situations like this."

Harper’s steps slowed. "What do you mean?" she asked in puzzlement. "Since when am I your favorite author?"

"... Since the beginning?" Wallace stared back at her, apparently with equal puzzlement. "Oh wait, you don’t know that part yet. I haven’t told you — I’m HappyRoastedBeans. Does the name ring a bell? I’ve been following your book since the very first Chapter!"

Harper blinked at his fast sputtering of nonsense. Then, all too slowly, the brain circuit between two completely isolated parts of her thought process finally connected. "HappyRoastedBeans is you?!" she gasped in disbelief.

Of course she recognized the name. She had few readers in the early days of her web novel adventure, and HappyRoastedBeans was one of the first who continuously showered her with gifts and praises. But her top fan during literally the first day of her story ... was Wallace?!

"Yeah, that’s me! I’ll show you if you don’t believe it." Wallace fished out his phone from his pocket, bringing up the web novel app and scrolling quickly to his profile. "Secret Crush really is my favorite book! I started reading it months ago, even before your sudden change in style, and I liked it already back then. I know you mentioned in your author notes that a lot of readers left midway because of ... ah, the disappointment in certain scenes ... but I’ve always believed in the book’s potential despite that. It’s such a sweet and relatable story, and the dating scenes always make me smile."

Harper had stopped walking by then, her jaw lost on the floor. It was ridiculous, almost comical, to try to connect a fictional reader to someone standing in front of her in real life. But even without Wallace showing her his profile and activity history, she knew he wasn’t making it up. Who else except this coffee addict would name themselves HappyRoastedBeans anyway?

"How is this even possible?" she muttered. How could the world be so unbelievably small?

"See, that’s exactly how I felt!" Wallace exclaimed. "When I saw the notifications on your phone the other day, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I almost ran out of the conference room immediately to — I don’t know, give you a bear hug or something and tell you how much I love your story."