After class ended, Rhys smiled at Ariana one last time before making his way out of class, smiling away his classmates as best he could, before getting to his car.
As he was second to arrive, he made small talk with Erin about how their classes went, until everyone else came back, including Kane.
"I'm going to trust this system for once and hope you did what I ask?" Rhys said in his head as he started the car up.
Kane roared a yes out of anger and irritation, he knew as a system he had to help Rhys, but being an errand boy? How annoying!
As Rhys pulled up to a convenience store about seven minutes away, he explained to the guys what he was doing and that they had to be back 10 minutes before lunch ended, to which Seth had no problem with.
"Ehh are you serious Reece's? I told you that you were too nice! You don't need to buy them anything because you rejected them." Xavier huffed, probably saddened by a shorter lunch break.
Erin nodded along, slightly pissed as well. "I promise, I'll make it up to you guys when we get back." Rhys smiled, making small talk the rest of the drive.
It was a relatively quick in and out, the boys spending exactly 19 minutes to get back, while saving even more time by eating the sandwiches they picked up in the car.
As they got back, Rhys saw exactly what he had hoped for, Serenity, Ariana, and the other girls, staring off.
"What's happening out there?" Seth asked out of concern, as the girls were now arguing. Although Erin looked really agitated, Xavier was trying to hold back a grin, probably anticipating a cat fight.
"I don't know, I'll go and ask." Rhys said and ran up to the girls before any of them could protest. Of course he knew, though. He instigated it.
"Skill use victim card." Rhys said in his head as soon as Serenity opened her mouth and looked up, unfortunately for Rhys, the chance just wasn't in his favour this time and it failed. Luckily for him, he figured to leave at least another five minutes for a second chance, or at least weasel his way out of this.
"You wrote me this letter saying to come here, right?!" Serenity yelled at Rhys, no longer caring if her friends saw her in an aggressive state anymore.
"What letter? Are you one of Ariana's friends?" Rhys asked innocently, tilting his head to the side. Serenity proceeded to shove the paper in his face, and berated him.
"I've seen Erin's handwriting! It can't be the other two so it must be you setting me up! You're jealous!" She hissed out at him, although she was right for the first part, Rhys could only internally smile.
Erin scoffed in disgust as he heard her say his name, they were far from close. "You can ask Xavier or Ariana, since I wrote her a letter and no one else, we were in the same third class. My handwriting doesn't look like that." Rhys said with a sad look on his face, carefully 'examining' the note.
As Ariana came over to look at the note, along with Xavier, they both nodded in agreement that Rhys' writing is extremely beautiful. "Reece's probably took calligraphy when he was younger, no way this ugly writing is his!" Xavier said.
Although he was right that Rhys had nice handwriting normally, the abcs skill was a wonderful thing for a completely different reason than intended purpose. Since the skill started off so messy and he leveled it up a little, it was comprehensible but very hard to follow unless you read through a few times.
Just as Ariana was about to berate her again, Rhys spoke up. "Ah, how'd you even know this was the location? The writing seems pretty messy around this part." Pointing out a deliberate error he made.
He knew how desperate and clingy she was to the targets that she'd automatically assume it to be them, due to her narcissistic nature. Since she already followed them to the car yesterday and Rhys parked in the same place, it was a safe bet she would come.
"Because it was you who sent this!" She screamed out again, causing embarrassment to her friend group.
"I already told you, there's no way you would know like that! Rhys came up to me during third period and asked me if I wanted anything as an apology and he'd pick up stuff for you guys! No one saw you during third period or when lunch started, there's no way you could of known the location!" Ariana said doing the easy work for Rhys.
As the two women began to fight, four minutes had already passed, and Xavier finally commented, understanding what Rhys meant earlier when he said "I'll make it up to you guys when we get back."
"Ah, does she perhaps know the location because she stalked us here after our last class?" Xavier provoked, acting like he just realised something.
Seth looked confused as Erin explained the situation, which made Serenity sound like a major stalker, in this case, she was.
"Nice going, host! I never knew you could stir drama." Kane said as he watched the women argue some more. Before it got good, Rhys had to bring it to a close as class was going to start.
As he separated the two women he used his victim card skill, and by a miracle it worked. Even if it didn't, he felt pretty safe.
Campus security came out to the car and asked what was happening, as there had been a lot of shouting and possible violence. With a crushing defeat to Serenity, everyone supported Rhys, she was soon taken away, as everyone else seemed to be the victim.
"I never knew how powerful this skill was." Rhys said to Kane as he watched the security man struggle to take her, as she thrashed about.
"I told you all skills given by the system are extremely useful!" Kane pridefully said, sticking his tongue out at the female lead, overjoyed she seemed to be miserable.
Putting on his act again, Rhys ran in front of everyone and apologised, using his skill crocodile tears. Although it wasn't really useful against the girls, they figured he must of been trying to hold it back.
"I'm sorry this all happened because of me, I didn't expect this!" Rhys said to the guys, before moving onto the girls.
"Thank you for believing me, I genuinely didn't write it! There's no way I could if even delivered it, I'm so sorry your friend turned out to be a crazy stalker." Rhys said to the girls, lying through his teeth while insulting Serenity.
Everyone said it was fine and that it's in no way Rhys fault, but the crazy woman's. The girls too, apologised for their former friend's behaviour and took their food before leaving.
The affection points soon raised, as the three boys were talking about staying away from her. Xavier's raised to 16, Seth's to 11, and Erin to 8, which nearly startled Rhys.
He wasn't used to large increases in awhile, but he guess separating the female leads from the targets does give a lot of affection points, especially since it seemed like he dealt with a psycho.
As the world froze, Rhys was ready to collect his reward, the system probably didn't bet that he'd be able to get it done so quickly, right?
"MISSION SUCCESS" the voice rang and showed him a screen of his available rewards, to which Kane cheered. It felt like just yesterday his host couldn't even touch another man's hand.
"Reward upon completing singling out the female lead mission, two attribute points, +250 bonus points upon world completion." The screen read, taking Rhys to the attribute screen.
"I'm spending these on handsomeness." Rhys said as Kane began internally cheering and having the party of his life.
"You know what this means, right host?" Kane asked as a light enveloped Rhys' body. Nothing major changed, except Rhys now grew another inch and his body became toned, a bit more than before.
"Listen to me! It means you've made up all the points you spent as money here automatically so long as you complete this world!" Kane exclaimed joyously, meaning Rhys could take this amount to the next world again.
Rhys ignored it, focusing more on his appearance. How long until he be the ultimate handsome man? Although he was definitely toned now to work as a model, he still wasn't god tier and he craved it.
"I don't know who's the real narcissist!" Kane cried out, realising his explanation attempts were futile against Rhys, who only listened when he wanted to.
When the ten minutes finally wore off, Rhys turned to the targets and told them they should probably head off to their next class, and went with Xavier.
"I guess we won't see her in class then, huh? But how did you know we'd get something good when we came back, Reece's." Xavier questioned as he wrapped his arms around Rhys' left one.
"I couldn't of predicted that mess up, I only thought it'd be nice to see her quiet for once with her friends, since she mentioned the grocery store too." Rhys said, a smile on his face.
Although it wasn't a good lie, it was the best he could think of in the moment with his brain slightly short circuiting from the closeness between the two of them.
He swore he wasn't gay, it was just something he wasn't used to, that's why he couldn't think straight, quite literally.
"Hmmm right, right." Xavier said, half believing and half not believing. He knew that handwriting wasn't Rhys', nor could he have given a note to Serenity himself if he was with Ariana, but just something didn't add up.
As they entered class from the back, the teacher noticed them and called them to sit down, causing slight humiliation. Though, that wasn't the part which humiliated Rhys.
It was the fact Xavier was still clinging to him, only releasing Rhys when they took their seats, next to each other.
Although it was hushed, Rhys could hear murmurs from his classmates who wanted to know about their relationship.
Of course, who wouldn't gossip about them after seeing that? Xavier was friendly, but he was extremely close to Rhys' in other's eyes, and they were both single good looking men, right?
The whispers got more extreme as they remember how they even did an assignment together yesterday and ignored a girl that seemed to follow them a bit after class, who perhaps got rejected after realising they were a couple? And now refused to come to class?
"How on earth did this happen!" Rhys cried in his head. There were a bunch of rumours about him when he was a musician, but none of them like this!
Rhys shook in fear during class of what was to come. He knew rumours spread fast, and it seemed like Xavier had no intention to stop them, as he happily drew a bunch of cats all over his notebook cover.
"I suggest you embrace it, host. The sooner you accept you are gay the sooner-" Kane started but got cut off by Rhys yelling a shut up at him.
"You can't keep denying your sexuality just because you're prideful, it'd be easier if you just accepted yourself, everyone else has accepted you." Kane teased, watching Rhys' face grow a light red out of anger.
This only caused the people whispering to take notice, and they confirmed it all on their own that Rhys at least like Xavier.
Though Xavier knew Rhys was just embarrassed, judging from his innocent reactions from before, which made him giggle a little.
"I told you there's nothing to accept! I like women!" Rhys hissed back out, giving Kane room to tease him again.
"For someone who likes women so much you sure do a good job ignoring them, as a musician and as a host." Kane snickered.
"Shut the hell up! I don't like people in general!" Rhys yelled back out, banter between the two of them continued throughout the class, ending only five minutes before they could leave.
When class ended, it was Xavier's turn to now tease Rhys as he grabbed his arm after they both packed their bags, and dragged him out to the car, making small talk.
Although Rhys answered each question and even made his own questions, his mind was blank. Was Xavier just oblivious or wanted to break Rhys.
What about the rumours in class already? This is a third rate college romance novel filled with gossiping students! It wouldn't be surprising if everyone knew by the next day.
"Cheer up, Reece's! I got one day shipping so our games should arrive soon! If you're still in a daze because of those girls, this will help ease your mind." Now Rhys knew Xavier was teasing him.
This boy was small and cute but he was filled with chaotic and demonic energy. "How could you tease me!" Rhys whined out.
Although Rhys was much more developed and manlier than Xavier, in the moment he seemed to be the child about to cry.
"Alright, I'm sorry Reece's." Xavier said as they made their way back to the car, only waiting for Seth.
"Are you two just openly gay or some shit?" Erin said, remembering what happened during the morning now that he's fully awake.
"No! Stop teasing me, I swear I'm straight! I swear!" Rhys cried, genuine tears, with red all over his face. Even Erin was teasing him! No one was letting him have a break after his great success of singling the female lead! Too cruel!
"Ew wipe your tears and snot." Erin said throwing a pack of tissues at Rhys, while Xavier burst out laughing.
As Seth came back, the four got ready to go, Rhys as usual, being the most tired out of the bunch and half the day barely even passed.
"By the way, you need to start cleaning the car, you're dirty." Erin commented, causing Rhys to slightly twitch his eye as he responded with a yes.
It wouldn't take that long with his skill, but it did irk him that Erin said it was dirty. "I should of never let any of you eat in the car." He muttered to Kane as they drove home.
It was a fun drive as they all talked about what happened during class, and Seth shared about his basketball practice, and what they were doing when they got home.
"I wonder how tall the boxes will be stacked when we get back! We ordered a lot. We should be finished setting up by the time Sethy is done with his shower, right?" Xavier questioned causing Erin to groan, and Rhys to do so inside.
He forgot he actually had to unpack the stuff, and not just automatically use it. This day just really wanted to exhaust him out, huh?
"You two can do that while I set up the pillows!" Xavier said happily as he pulled a bag of chips out of his bag and began to eat it.
Remember, Rhys dodged a bullet. "I've got to clean up the car, it might take awhile considering I really want to make sure all of it is clean, you know? You can start without me." Rhys said to Erin, who only groaned louder.
Although Rhys felt sorry for Erin, there was no way he was going to waste his time unboxing things he didn't even know how to set up. He'd much rather clean the house again.
With the chores now assigned to each boy, Rhys pulled up to the house and let them out, before stopping and unbuckling himself to clean it out. "I'm going to drag this out as long as I can." Rhys said to no one in particular as he slowly picked things up.
"But not too long! You've still got to win their affection during your gaming session!" Kane replied as he floated around just watching, happy he didn't have to help this time.