Lee’s next day trapped under the influence of a cursed Dating Sim was… remarkably average?
He’d barely spoken to Thomas at all, and so far none of his short conversations with Arland triggered any dialogue choices. If not for the percentages still suspended over their heads, Lee might’ve been fooled into thinking everything had gone back to normal.
Lee realized that in order to have any chance of escaping his curse, he needed to be proactive about it. Therefore, at the end of the school day, he decided to try and talk with Thomas.
Lee was deliberately slow in packing up as he kept an eye on the Class President, who was busy speaking to Mr. Carthorne at the front of the room.
The teacher seemed to be giving Thomas a last minute task to do, handing the President a few different sheets of paper. After that, Thomas turned on his heel and briskly strode out of the classroom.
Lee moved to follow, when he felt a hand grasp onto his shoulder from behind. His body involuntarily flinched at the unexpected contact.
In an instant, the hand left his person and Lee turned to see Arland smiling at him apologetically.
“My bad,” his friend said. “I was just gonna ask if you wanted to hang out today?”
“Um,” Lee hesitated, his gaze flicking back to the door even though Thomas was already out of sight. “I-”
“Oh, Lee! Could you do me a favor?” Mr. Carthorne interrupted, walking over to them with a single sheet of paper in hand.
Arland’s friendly demeanor closed off the second their teacher reached them. It made Lee uncomfortable to see his usually laidback friend suddenly become void of all warmth.
“I forgot to give Thomas this worksheet to copy,” Mr. Carthorne continued, oblivious. “Would you deliver this to him? He should be in the teacher’s office down the hall.”
Lee couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to speak with his classmate. “Yeah, sure!” He agreed easily, taking the worksheet.
“Thank you,” Mr. Carthorne replied gratefully, going back to his desk.
Arland muttered under his breath, “Why didn’t he just do it himself?”
“I’ll come over to your dorm after I’m done,” Lee promised.
He felt crummy when Arland only shrugged with a strained smile before turning to go, and that feeling worsened when he noticed his friend’s ‘Affection Meter’ had gone down a tad.
(-1%) [Affection 34%]
******
While it wasn’t uncommon to see some boys going in or out of the teacher’s office, Lee had never been inside. Only the more trustworthy students were sent to retrieve things from there.
Thomas, whose role as the Class President basically made him a teacher’s assistant, probably entered the office on a daily basis.
Lee knocked on the door and peeked inside the window, but it didn’t seem like anyone was inside. When he tried the knob the door turned out to be unlocked, so he let himself in.
Lee quickly made his way across the room to the only other door in the space. It turned out to be a backroom that housed a copy machine, which is where he found Thomas doing the task assigned to him.
Thomas raised his disinterested gaze from the machine to look questioningly at Lee.
“Mr. Carthorne wants you to make copies of this too,” Lee explained hurriedly, thrusting the worksheet out toward Thomas.
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“Right,” Thomas sighed, straightening up and stepping closer to Lee to grab it. The tips of their fingers made contact, barely brushing against each other. Thomas hardly seemed to notice, just taking the worksheet and setting it on a nearby table beside the others he had yet to make copies of.
Lee, on the other hand, shivered at even that bare amount of contact.
He tried to ignore his body’s instinctive reaction. He didn’t understand it, so it was best to pay it no mind.
“Is that all?” Thomas asked, looking back at Lee blankly.
For the first time that day, new dialogue choices were prompted to appear.
[Yeah, see you later.]
[No, I wanted to ask you something.]
Well, Lee did want to talk to Thomas in general, so he supposed the second option was the way to go. He didn’t have a specific question or topic in mind though.
“No, I wanted to ask you something,” he replied.
“You need my help?” Thomas guessed; likely because that was the reason most people sought him out, be they teachers or classmates alike.
[What do you do in your free time?]
[Can you help me study?]
The second choice would sound better in relation to the question, but Lee didn't want to add on to Thomas' mounting responsibilities by asking for extra tutoring.
So, he quickly shook his head and inquired, "What do you do in your free time?"
Thomas narrowed his eyes at Lee skeptically, asking, "Why do you want to know?"
[I was hoping to learn more about you.]
[Nevermind.]
Lee despaired over the clunky and redundant dialogue options.
"I was hoping to learn more about you," he replied, his voice forced to come out chipper even though he was cringing internally.
"WHY?" Thomas emphasized, crossing his arms with impatience.
[I like you.]
[I want to be friends with you.]
With trepidation, Lee stared at those words and said nothing for a while.
‘What a landmine,’ he thought.
It would make everything easier if Lee pretended he was playing a regular Dating Sim.
Confessing romantic interest to a character this early could have extremely disastrous or very advantageous results. It all depended on the archetype of the character being dealt with.
Lee was more than aware Thomas was a real person, but for now he would need to compartmentalize that knowledge and focus on making choices that would hopefully aid him in escaping his curse as soon as possible.
The ‘Class President’ archetype was a popular staple in romance games, so Lee was used to dealing with their prideful and no-nonsense personalities. A straightforward approach often worked best as long as the character’s opinion of the player wasn’t negative. Blunt characters usually appreciated equally blunt honesty as opposed to lies or waffling.
Therefore, to the best of his ability, Lee would give the answer that corresponded with how he actually felt.
"I want to be friends with you," Lee said firmly.
Thomas' demeanor relaxed from outright suspicion back to something more neutral. Above his head, his affection increased as well.
(+12%) [Affection 15%]
It was the biggest jump Lee had seen so far, so hopefully that meant he’d chosen correctly.
That was when the copy machine suddenly interrupted them by making a loud beeping sound.
Thomas let out a weary exhale as he was forced to go back to his job, removing the freshly printed copies and setting up the next page.
Lee shuffled awkwardly off to the side, not sure how to carry on the conversation since no new dialogue options were popping up.
Thomas definitively put an end to it on his own; while pressing the button to start up the machine again he quietly said, "I'm not really in the mood for this kind of chat."
"Um… okay. I guess you are kinda busy…" Lee replied, nervously wringing his hands. He took a few steps backwards toward the door, but paused to ask, "Do you… need any help?"
Thomas stared at Lee with a confused frown. He glanced over at the copying machine currently doing all the work, then looked back at Lee with a raised eyebrow. "Not really," was his flat response.
Lee didn’t think he could possibly feel any dumber, so he turned around and hurried out the room.
He really didn’t know how to talk to Thomas at all.