As February went on, the Creed romance special continued to ferment and eventually showcased its influence in society.
Among the notable ones to be affected is Alexander and Milla's Elementary School where almost everyone has become an avid comic book reader.
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"Isn't he just so dreamy?" A girl said while stroking a page from 'A Mysterious Feeling Called Love'. Of course, the page was the full-look on the dreamy, talented, and enchanting Shinri.
His uniformed, aesthetic character design and overall look just scream a handsome protagonist that girls can't look away from while boys just want to be him.
"Yes. Those black eyes, black hair, and his even super smarter than other boys." Another girl chimed in with her hopes. "I wish I was Hotaru and be the one being taught about love."
The girl counterpart of Shinri just happens to have the protagonist honor of being cute, pretty, and likable. Girls just want to be her while boys want to get together with her.
"Forget Hotaru." Of course, not everyone could be universally liked as another girl in the group vowed. "My future boyfriend should be like Shinri. He doesn't know love then I'll be the one to teach him. That Hotaru girl or anyone like her should just stand aside."
"Do you even know what love is?" A friend of hers asked in suspicion.
"Of course, I know." The Hotaru hater deflected the doubt with her 'love knowledge'. "It's the best disease in the world. Isn't it?"
"Isn't that just the final line in this story?" The girl holding the romance graphic novel flipped to the evidence page and scorned at Hotaru hater. "Sheesh... I thought you were an expert but you only know as much as we do."
"So what?!", "Hmmph!", "Shinri is mine."
The group of girls then argued and giggled some more and it had inadvertently attracted the attention of other class eavesdroppers.
A boy that was mischievously listening finally found his chance and said to them. "Girls! I'm smart and handsome and always dating girls and they always break my heart."
"So...?" Hotaru hater girl asked.
"Then, I'll probably be your boyfriend in the future." The boy evoked the coolest and calm look he could act out. "Let us teach each other how to love.
"""Ew!""" Hotaru hater and her gang of girls collectively turned to him in disgust.
It was too bad for the boy but that wasn't the worst as there was still more to come.
"You wish." A girl scorned.
"You aren't even handsome." Graphic novel holder girl bluntly stated facts
"He isn't even smart." Another indisputable fact was added.
"His date is probably just his mom and sisters." Hotaru hater speculated and it may as well be likely to be true.
The poor boy, who just wanted to impress a bunch of lovestruck and giggling girls, felt multiple arrows piercing his poor heart. It was all supposed to be a joke but why did it hurt like so?
The rest of the eavesdropping class had a great laugh amongst themselves and they roused each other to discuss the Creed story whilst their teacher still hasn't arrived.
With every boy and girl in her class gossiping and talking about 'A Mysterious Thing Called Love', little Milica had been inadvertently swept up by it.
The only love she knew was something she saw from her parents and family. She was still 9 after all and was just thinking of becoming a star in glamorous Hollywood.
Her running buddy Alex was way too focused on his business that Milla inadvertently wanted to focus on her road to stardom as well. There was no doubt that her vow to be able to ignore Alex by being too busy was still one of her petty motivations.
In any case, prospects of love and whatnot are still quite vague to her but she was quite intrigued by how her classmates were laughing and talking about it.
One classmate talked about how her parents met. Someone talked about how it was his mom who proposed to his dad.
A certain adjacent deskmate talked about how her big sister was annoyingly hogging the telephone to sweet talk to her boyfriend. One talked about how their grandparents were supporting each other through old age and sickness.
A certain person even talked about the time he saw her mommy and daddy being naked in their room. The grade-schoolers paid not much mind to that naked room story though as they were still relatively clueless to most things.
In any case, Milla was also joining on as she explored what was what along with her close classmates.
Unwittingly, the curious Milla that didn't put much attention to love was slowly getting receptive to it.
People develop and grow from innocence. As such, being able to talk about affection and crushes was a process that everyone would go through.
Toddlers of opposite sex hate each other, kids develop crushes and admirees, teens go through dates and budding relationships, eventually, adults go into shaky or true commitments, while the elderly think about stability.
There are some that don't fit that norm like the assiduous nerds, psychopaths, career men and women, and maybe even people who become 40-year-old Virgins.
There are always exceptions to everything but most people do follow that development trend on relationships and dealing with feelings.
Milla and her classmates just went through that phase in their lives now or have already gone through that already. Whatever the case, Creed Comics' Hotaru and Shinri story just happen to call that out of them as they discussed comics like they usually do.
Without doubt, by the time these grade-schoolers become nostalgic mature people, they would inadvertently think about that little romance comic book that they grew up reading and debating about.
The influence on children and society could be seen in this scenario. Alexander was putting importance on the Creed brand's influence and perhaps his little romance graphic novel endeavor may have just taken that brand value to a notch higher.
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The rest of the influenced society aside, little Milica had been inadvertently influenced as well.
Unlike her clueless classmates and schoolmates, she had quite some exclusive knowledge on some bits of things.
Inadvertently, she read up on 'A Mysterious Feeling Called Love' once again. This time, she wasn't just some avid reader supporting her friend and running buddy but finally immersed herself in the message that the story was conveying.
She just happens to correlate some things with the cute story with what she noticed in her life.
Wasn't Hotaru her? Clueless about love for quite a while and eventually wanted to explore it.
She didn't have to go through Hotaru's date experimentation with Shinri though, as she just gained what she could get from the story's events.
Eventually, Milla likened the clueless and love-blossoming Hotaru to herself and likened the cool, smart, dark-haired, and "love-less" Shinri to a certain somebody she knows.
Little Milica's immersion just got much more immersed as she connected some interconnectable dots here and there.
Wasn't Shinri so much like Alex? Alex just so happened to be a smart, awesomely cool kid... albeit a bit more extreme on the "love-less" part as he is somewhat "emotion-less".
If she was Hotaru and Alex was Shinri, then wouldn't that mean... Ah! She didn't want to think much on it further.
Milla was blushing pink at this point and she can't help but bury her face under the graphic but novel romance book. Perhaps she shouldn't have reviewed the story with her classmate's knowledge on love.
Maybe it was a simple crush.... or perhaps it was a child-version of puppy love. Either way, something was forming.