Chapter 4
After months of this, the girls had become like NPCs in a game, treating the daily flower drop as nothing more than a routine quest.
Maya dumped the flowers straight into the trash, snapped a photo, and fired it off to Ryan: [Stop sending gifts. I'm never going to accept you. Please, just go find someone else!]
Funny how that line struck a chord.
Whatever. It was a trivial matter.
Maya seized this rare opportunity to pivot the conversation back to Chloe about Ethan.
Her roommate was a woman of few words, practically living in the lab or on her way there.
Chances to actually sit and talk were gold dust; the last time they'd exchanged more than ten sentences was two months ago.
"Chloe, did you run into Ethan at the lab today?" Maya asked.
Chloe never sugarcoated things. "I did."
"Did you talk?" Maya pressed, dropping her voice. "You know, did he let slip where he's going or what he's up to tomorrow?"
"We aren't close. It was strictly lab business."
Chloe lived for that rush of data clicking into place and treasured every second of study time.
Maya was clearly chasing rainbows, and Chloe knew she wasn't one for heart-to-hearts.
She decided to cut to the chase. "Honestly? I think you should set your sights elsewhere."
Then, recalling a certain agreement, she added impassively, "Ryan, for instance. If you accepted him, you'd be in a sweet relationship right now."
Maya's expression soured.
She shook her head violently. "No, no, no. That isn't a sweet romance; that's a romance with a mental case."
To be fair, Maya had been interested in Ryan initially.
Who wouldn't be? He was sunny, handsome, and loaded.
But after witnessing his wooing tactics firsthand, she thanked her lucky stars she hadn't let her hormones make the decision for her.
It wasn't complicated. It was just humiliating.
Maya asked, "Remember the orientation gala? The student council crowdfunded that strapless gown for me because I was hosting.
"I bared my shoulders, sure, but it wasn't exactly indecent. Do you know what he had the nerve to ask me? He asked for my three measurements. Right there in public!
"That pervert. The shamelessness of it. Saying something like that in a crowd. No sense of decency whatsoever."
Just the memory of those suggestive looks from the bystanders made her chest tight with rage.
Chloe had a vague recollection of that night. Maya was buzzing with excitement beforehand, only to come back muted and shove the dress into the deepest corner of her closet.
She poured Maya some water, offering a rational explanation. "Perhaps he intended to buy you a dress."
Maya downed the water and scoffed. "If he wanted to buy me clothes, he could just do it. Why ask for measurements?"
"Maybe he wanted to commission a custom haute couture piece. That requires precise data." Chloe took the empty glass, refilled it, and handed it back, standing up for Ryan once again.
But Maya was too far gone to listen. She let out a cold laugh. "Well, aren't I grateful. It was certainly a vivid lesson in harassment."
Right on cue, the man himself blew up Chloe's phone with a barrage of messages.
[Chloe, why did she dump the flowers again?]
He sent a screenshot of his chat with Maya.
[She rejected me again! Is Ethan really that much better than me?]
[What are you doing? Why aren't you replying to me?]
[Reply! NOW!]
Chloe stared at her screen, lost for words.
The notifications kept pinging, but she couldn't be bothered to engage. She simply powered off the device and went to sleep.
She was a student, not a love guru. Her life was meant for early mornings and analyzing results.
On the other end of the line, Ryan stared at his silence. Fuming, he puffed out his cheeks in sheer indignation.
For the hundredth time, he suspected he was being scammed.
Hadn't Chloe been the one to approach him first? How did the tables turn so completely that he was the one begging for scraps of attention?
Ryan scrolled through their chat history. In the beginning, she actually replied. Now? She couldn't even be bothered to fake polite interest.
Wait, could it be she was already tired of sleeping with him?
Damn, she was such a player.
He was definitely going to confront her tomorrow.
Chloe, blissfully unaware of the soap opera playing out in Ryan's head, slept soundly. She even dreamed.
She was back in the cafe near campus, tucked in the corner. The air was thick with the scent of roasted beans.
As the aroma pulled her deeper into slumber, she drifted back to the distant past.
Chloe had suffered from crippling insomnia.
She had tried everything, including running, mountain climbing, yoga, and gaming, but it only treated the symptoms. Eventually, it got worse.
Back then, Maya had casually said, "Sweet love cures all. Go find a boyfriend."
Typical advice from a romance-obsessed girl, but it sparked an idea in Chloe's mind.
Romance triggered oxytocin and endorphins, which alleviated stress and relaxed the body, indirectly regulating melatonin.
Chloe didn't have time for romance, but when she deconstructed the biological process, one specific activity stood out: the acute physical release could provide exactly what she needed.
She knew plenty of people in her circle used casual flings to manage anxiety. If it worked, why not cut to the chase?
Find a candidate and run the experiment. She soon found her subject: a gaming buddy.
In a world of 0s and 1s, data was king.
Chloe could dismantle the core logic of any match, while her teammate possessed lethal intuition and speed. One brought the theory, the other brought the mechanics. Over time, they built a strange sort of synergy.
But when they finally met face-to-face, she hesitated.
It was Ryan.
He had the face of a sun, yet he lived like a pariah, the kind of person the whole campus avoided.
Was he really the right variable for this experiment?
Chloe was a lone wolf by nature, with zero tolerance for gossip. But being Maya's roommate made silence a luxury; it was impossible to remain deaf to the legendary saga of Ryan's pursuit.
If she had to sum it up in a nutshell? He chased Maya for a solid year, only to return a total scrub.