Chapter 25: 2.4

Ronghui and Yunyu's eyes met. It was Ronghui who reacted first, his heart stopped for a moment and he shifted his gaze to one of his fangirls and smiled perfunctorily to avoid eye contact with Yunyu.

Yunyu frowned and lowered his head again, he continued eating his steamed bun.

[If that asshole is surrounded by his fangirls and fanboys, why would he stare at me? What's the reason for his Fatemeter and Breakmeter to increase?]

[Pupa: Maybe he pities you and wants to protect you from harm? You look like someone who is easy to get bullied.]

[Don't make up stuff, he is an arrogant prick. I don't want to have anything to do with him, I'll just focus on increasing the Breakmeter through Junze.]

Yunyu was already apathetic with Ronghui. In this world, they lived in a different world. Ronghui was surrounded by his admirers, and he was only surrounded by a floating orange pupa that was mostly useless.

Class started and everything was normal, Yunyu finished the class and returned back to the dorm in the evening. He had a lot of assignments to do. Ronghui hadn't returned yet, but Yunyu didn't care about that prick.

"Now, system, please tell me how Junze and Ronghui's relationship destroy this world," Yunyu asked.

"Junze is the heir of the most powerful mafia organization in this city. When he dates Ronghui, their relationship has many ups and downs, in fact, they fight a lot. Ronghui is not a simple guy, he also has back up from an unknown mafia organization, in the end, Junze and Ronghui become bitter enemies and they use their power to fight each other. They will cause a long, dangerous mafia war inside this city and the war breaks out in other cities as well."

"So, their love turns into a bitter mafia war in the end?"

"Yes, they are not a good match," Pupa explained.

"I can see that," Yunyu sighed, "I don't like both of them, but at least Junze didn't insult me like he has a long term grudge against me."

"You are going to ignore Ronghui for good?" Pupa asked, "This world is not like the previous world, where you can just ignore the Saintess. Ronghui is also the master of the world, it matters a lot to contribute to the Breakmeter."

"Doesn't matter! As long as I can convince Junze to move on from Ronghui, then the Breakmeter will be filled easily!" Yunyu said optimistically.

Pupa turned invisible when it sensed Ronghui returning to the dorm. Yunyu was eating his dinner, a bowl of instant noodles.

Ronghui returned from his club activity with a bag full of homemade food, made by his fans as always. He tried to refuse it, but the fans would say that they made it by themselves, so Ronghui could eat healthy.

When he returned to his room, Yunyu was eating his instant noodle. They exchanged looks and Yunyu continued eating his noodles nonchalantly. Although Ronghui felt that Yunyu ignored him, he also felt guilty, because he returned to their room with a bag full of fresh homemade food, while Yunyu could only eat noodles to survive.

Out of guilt, Ronghui took out the food container from his bag and handed it to Yunyu, "This is food from my fans. I don't eat these, but you can have it."

Yunyu stopped eating his noodles, the vagrant smell emitting from the food container made him drool, but it was definitely a humiliation in Yunyu's eyes. Ronghui was given homemade food by his fan, but he gave it to another person instead.

Yunyu was a new, unknown actor in his real life. He had one online fan, and he was really grateful for that single fan. Ronghui was already quite popular, and he called his fans a nuisance and ditched their homemade foods.

Yunyu wanted to confront Ronghui on the spot, but the system warned him not to go OOC or they would need to restart again. Yunyu composed himself before speaking, "That is your fan's cooking, she must've wanted you to eat it."

"I can't eat everything," Ronghui said.

"Then please donate it to the one in need."

"You only eat instant noodles for dinner. You are also poor, so you deserve this food," Ronghui tried to soften his voice a bit to persuade Yunyu to accept the food. But his viper mouth unknowingly sparked Yunyu's anger even more.

"I may be struggling financially, but I'm not poor enough to beg and eat your fan's food," Yunyu put down his food, stood from the chair, and passed Ronghui to leave the room. Yunyu was trying hard not to slap this arrogant prick's face, "Ronghui, since you said that I'm an eyesore, I will ask the head of the dorm tomorrow to move me to another room."

Yunyu left the room. Ronghui was stunned silly inside the room, because he just realized that he insulted Yunyu again. He called him poor and gave him food as if it was a charity.

Ronghui didn't mean to insult Yunyu like that. He really was just trying to be nice. When he heard that Yunyu wanted to move out and change rooms, Ronghui was inexplicably restless. First, he was already comfortable with Yunyu as his roommate, and second, he worried that Yunyu would get bullied by his new roommate.

Ronghui felt that it was ridiculous. There were many girls and boys flocking around him, trying to please him. He only needed one smile and they would swoon and faint of excitement. However, when he wanted to please one guy, it only angered that guy even more.

Ronghui knew that Yunyu was angry, although he didn't say it. Who wouldn't be angry to be insulted and then being called as poor? It was definitely a humiliation for Yunyu.

'Ah, Yang Ronghui, you are really bad at this,' for the first time, Ronghui realized that he was bad at something. He was bad at uttering his feelings.

[Pupa: Ding! Yang Ronghui's Fatemeter increases to 15%.]

[Don't care!]

Yunyu stomped the ground while he was strolling around to get some fresh air. He almost snapped and slapped Ronghui in that room. Because that guy constantly humiliated him.

[I will change rooms tomorrow! I hate that guy so much!]

[Pupa: … Do you realize that the task will be a lot harder if you do that? The reason why Junze keeps bugging you is because you are Ronghui's roommate.]

[…]

Okay, Yunyu hadn't thought that far. He was just too pissed off with Ronghui that he couldn't make a clear judgement. But he didn't want to take his words back, he had pride.

[I—I don't care! I will find another way! I will not change my mind, unless that prick begs me to stay!]

[Pupa: You are talking about the impossible.]

Yunyu ignored the system's advice, he returned back to his room still with prideful anger in his heart. He saw that Ronghui was busy studying, but Yunyu was in no mood for study. He just laid on his bed and fell asleep soon after.

Ronghui stared at Yunyu who was curling up in his sleep. As Yunyu's roommate for one year, Ronghui knew that Yunyu was never in good financial condition, but it got worse after they were sophomore, because the school foundation already cut the amount of his scholarship money.

He never cared about Yunyu before, because he felt that it was Yunyu's fault for being incompetent. But when he had second thoughts about it, Yunyu also studied hard every day. Yunyu was probably not a prodigy, unlike Ronghui who was naturally gifted, Yunyu had to study hard to maintain his grade. Yunyu already tried his best, but Ronghui insulted him like he was trash.

The more Ronghui thought about it, the guiltier he felt. He moved from his chair, he approached Yunyu's bed and crouched, he stared at Yunyu's thin face. He observed Yunyu's features up close, There was a faint trace of exhaustion on Yunyu's face, probably caused by too much study and malnutrition.

However, the exhaustion didn't cloud Yunyu's features. Yunyu had a small head and small face, he had long eyelashes, and cute lips that puckered when he was asleep. Ronghui gulped.

To be honest, Ronghui didn't have any idea about his ideal type, whether it would be a man or woman. He dedicated his life to be number one. But when he saw a simple youth like Yunyu, combined with Yunyu's hard working attitude and perseverance, Ronghui's heart sk ipped a bit.

Then, Ronghui saw the same bruise on Yunyu's nape. His nape was probably hit by something. Imagining Yunyu getting bullied by someone angered Ronghui again. That feeling slowly grew in his heart.

He wanted to protect Yunyu.

***

Yunyu woke up at six as usual, he checked Ronghui's bed. He expected Ronghui to leave the room and did his daily workout. But he saw Ronghui sitting on his bed, he looked at Yunyu attentively.

Once he saw Yunyu opened his eyes, Ronghui said the line of dialogue that he had prepared for the whole night in an awkward, almost robotic tone:

"Yunyu, I'm sorry for what I did yesterday. Please, don't change rooms."