Loved By The Villain And The Male Lead

"Ahem, so what did you and the girls talk about earlier?"

Su Ning coughed lightly and scratched her nose after she asked the question. 'Am I being too nosy?' she wondered. 'But his treatment of me and those girls are too different! Somehow, I feel that this is too unfair!'

"Hmm?" Gu YuChen hummed in inquiry..

"You know. Back when I was paying for the clothes, you were chatting with a group of girls," Su Ning explained, trying to appear  nonchalant.

"Ah," an expression of realization crossed the man's face in front of Su Ning. Then curiously, a soft pink color graced Gu YuChen's cheeks, causing Ning's eyes to widen and her mouth to drop open. 'Yah! Is Gu YuChen really blushing right now!? Because of the girls from earlier?' she thought flabbergasted.

"Gu—  Gu— Gu YuChen… You're blushing," Su Ning pointed out directly.

"Ah that… no.. don't you feel it's hot here?" he asked, attempting to change the subject.

"Is it? I don't think so," the girl responded. The restaurant was in fact cooler than outside.

"Ah...Well, I have a higher body temperature than normal people. So I'm feeling flushed. That Is quite likely the case," Gu YuChen lied through his teeth without batting an eye.

"This restaurant is nice. Have you eaten here before?" he inquired, dabbing the nonexistent sweat off his neck.

"Is...that...soo?" Su Ning said, looking unconvinced. 'I'm fairly certain he blushed because of those girls earlier. Also, his eagerness to change the topic makes him more suspicious.'

"Mhmm," the man nodded with an impassive look on his face. 

"I haven't eaten here. I looked the place up in Tavelog," she answered finally.

Author's Note: Tavelog is a website that publishes crowd sourced reviews about restaurants in Japan. It's similar to Yellp. (⌐▨_▨)

"Good choice," he commented with a smile.

"So? What were you guys talking about?" Su Ning prodded. She hadn't forgotten about her initial question.

"Just…" Gu YuChen began before stopping once more.

'Again.. he's stalling,' Su Ning thought with narrowed eyes.

"Just?" she pressed on while tapping her forefinger on the table.

"Just.. they said they found me attractive and asked for my number," he answered evasively. Gu YuChen didn't mention that he inferred to the young women that Su Ning was his girlfriend.

"And then?" she prompted. 'Why were you smiling at them?' she wondered but didn't say this question out loud.

"And they said adding them on LINE is also alright," Gu YuChen quietly responded.

"And so what did you say?" Su Ning asked with visible anticipation.

"I said they were all attractive but I already have someone I like," Gu YuChen responded honestly. He had a soft smile on his face that took Su Ning aback. She realized that this man must really really like that unrequited love interest of his. 

'So he was smiling because of his crush still.. But wait...what?! He still called the girls pretty?! Why was he being so kind?! This is so unlike him,' Su Ning frowned thinking through Gu YuChen words. 

So instead she asked, "That's it? But they were smiling even after they got rejected?"

"They're nice girls," Gu YuChen answered with a nod. Then he placed a chicken karaage on Su Ning's plate and poured her another cup of hot tea.

Author's Note: Karaage is deep fried chicken usually eaten with Japanese mayo dip. (ฅ'ω'ฅ)

"Ho! I never knew YuChen-ge was this nice, oh?! What if your unrequited love hears of this?" Su Ning sarcastically quipped.

Not expecting this type of response from the girl, Gu YuChen furrowed his brows and confusedly muttered, "Huh?" 

"That you just called other girls attractive and even said they were nice!" she explained before continuing with a slightly disgusted tone. "Ugh, nevermind."

"NingNing are you angry?" Gu YuChen asked tentatively, a tinge of anxiety in his voice. 'Did she hear...the part about her being my girlfriend?' he worriedly thought.

"I'm not angry!" Su Ning snapped immediately.

"But the volume and tone of your voice…" Gu YuChen explained rather cluelessly, earning himself a glare from Su Ning. Gu YuChen swallowed audibly.

".. They have not changed at all. It must be my imagination," the man said decisively. Gu YuChen had a strong sense of self preservation and today's sharp tongued NingNing was especially scary.

A few minutes later the server came over with their order of premium nigiri sushi platter and miso shiru. After taking a couple of bites of the sumptuous meal, Su Ning gave a sigh and decided to address her previous outburst.

Author's Note: Miso shiru is miso soup. (^▽^)/ ʸᵉᔆᵎ

'I should explain why I got mad before. Ugh but then I'd have to admit the reason why I got mad.' Su Ning looked conflicted. 

To be honest, Su Ning didn't even know herself why she was acting this way. What she knew for sure was that the sight of Gu YuChen being kind to other girls that obviously liked him irked her somehow and she couldn't understand why. Is it because as a mother figure she didn't see them as a good match for her 'son'? They all wore skirts that were too short and had way too much makeup on! Why, she could barely see their faces beneath all that paint! That's not good at all! So her displeasure must be due to that! That's probably it! No, for sure that's the reason! What else could it be?

After she rationalized through the issue in her mind, Su Ning felt much better.

"YuChen-ge, sorry I snapped at you. I was just.. Mmm.. taken aback I guess. You weren't acting like your usual facial paralysis self around them. You even told me you had your unrequited love but you were being so gentlemanly towards them!!" Su Ning explained. 

"It's alright NingNing can get mad if she wants," he answered magnanimously.

"Oh. Ah..wait a minute you're making me sound like someone with mood swings!" Su Ning argued and the man merely chuckled in response.

"Haha!"

"I was protecting your chastity! Your future girlfriend would be grateful to me!" she declared before grabbing a fatty tuna nigiri off the platter.

"Mmm" Gu YuChen hummed in response. 'I hope you won't be too mad later on when you find out you are protecting my chastity for yourself.'

"Make sure you introduce us later on alright," the girl insisted.

"En," Gu YuChen agreed, nodding. 'But you have already met. You know her quite well.'

"If NingNing doesn't want me to be nice to other girls, I won't be nice to them," Gu YuChen said.

Su Ning was secretly pleased at Gu YuChen's response.

......…..

At around 9:00pm, the pair finally arrived at Su Ning's apartment. The girl went straight to doing her homework and let Gu YuChen take a shower first. The young man left Su Ning to her own devices while he set up a futon in the living room where he would be sleeping for the week. Looking around the apartment, Gu YuChen had to agree that Su Ning does indeed keep her place clean. Gu YuChen was glad he had Xiao Yi furnish the apartment to Su Ning's tastes. Judging by how often the young girl video chatted with him and took photos in the apartment, Su Ning seems to really like her apartment. He knew that that girl particularly liked the high tech bathroom cum laundry area. She had kept gushing about the wonders of Japanese toilets for weeks since she arrived in Osaka.

Gu YuChen went to the kitchen and took a peek inside the fridge. He chuckled to himself. The ingredients were all for Su Ning's favorite foods; as expected, the drawers were also filled with snacks. Gu YuChen made a mental note to cook breakfast tomorrow morning before he pulled out his laptop to begin designing some new skins for Star. During the flight to Kansai International Airport, he was struck with sudden inspiration. He can't wait to show them to Su Ning later on.

Meanwhile, Su Ning had finished her homework and texted Lin Miao about what had happened today. She didn't forget to tell her friend about how a group of girls were hitting on Gu YuChen and his subsequent gentle treatment towards them annoyed her. Afterwards, Su Ning took a hot shower and began to go through her usual bedtime routine. Knowing that Lin Miao was quite busy with school and her webtoon, Su Ning didn't anticipate receiving a response from her friend that night.

Su Ning was pleasantly surprised to find several message notifications in VeChat, that was until she read the contents of the messages.

[KittyMiao]: NingNing, I can't help but get this feeling while reading your texts.

[KittyMiao]: Perhaps, are you jealous?

ʕ◉ᴥ◉ʔ** The Author has something to say: oho! Lin Miao is so sharp! How will our little NingNing respond to this ah? 

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