Loved By The Villain And The Male Lead

By the time Su Ning made her way outside of the library, Allen was already waiting for her with an iced taro milk tea drink in hand.  He knew it was Su Ning's favorite. As he had anticipated, Allen saw Su Ning's eyes lit up as she caught sight of the beverage.

"Hey, Allen! Did you wait long?" Su Ning asked as she drew closer.

"No, I just got here myself," the young Irish guy answered, shaking his head.

"Is that for me?" Su Ning pointed at the drink, her lips were already arked upwards.

"Yeah. Regular ice, zero percent sweet," Allen proudly declared, handing her the drink. 

"You know me so well! Thank you!" Su Ning's long ponytail bobbed up and down in excitement before she took a huge sip of the drink. An expression of happiness crossed her face as she heaved a sigh of satisfaction. 

"Pfft," Allen attempted to stifle a laugh but failed miserably. 'She's such a tiny thing but she's such a glutton,' he thought affectionately. Allen appreciated that Su Ning was the type that loves to eat. Sure there are some foods that she favors over others, but the Su Ning he knows would try anything at least once. They really bonded over their love of food. It can definitely be said that Allen prefers Su Ning's type over girls that pick at their food and eat like a bird. In Allen's mind, it's best to eat what you can as much as you can while you're young since your metabolism is faster. Wouldn't it be such a waste to be watching everything you ate in your youth?

Author's Note: Eat like a bird means to eat very little.

"What's so funny?" Su Ning asked suspiciously, her cheeks bulging with taro she was chewing. The girl had the appearance of a wary little squirrel. 

'Karina is just too cute. At first, I liked her because she was Star but now I definitely like her as Karina with all her quirks,' Allen thought, still grinning like a fool.

"What? Why are you laughing?" Su Ning inquired once more as the two walked towards the subway station. 'Did Allen go crazy or what?' she wondered.

But the man didn't respond and just kept smiling and sometimes laughing. 

Su Ning witnessed this sight and gave her friend a disgusted look while muttering, "Feng kuang."

Author's Note: Feng kuang means crazy. 

Allen couldn't help it, being around Su Ning just brought out his dorky self. All the while, he kept sneaking glances at Su Ning as they walked. 'Karina gets prettier everyday,' was the silly thought that flitted through Allen's mind.

Today Su Ning wore a baby pink turtleneck sweater tucked into a short grey plaid skirt paired with knee high boots. Su Ning was quite satisfied with her outfit as it made her legs appear longer than her 159 cm height. 

During the short subway ride to the restaurant, Allen was still cheesin that Su Ning could no longer control her ire. She even thought there was something on her face so she surreptitiously checked on her phone camera only to find that her face was fine. Yet, the man wouldn't stop giggling to himself. It was like he was enjoying his own inside joke. She poked the man beside her roughly in the ribs causing him to yelp.

"Why do you keep smiling?" Su Ning whispered, her face showing obvious displeasure.

Allen shook his head in an effort to tamp down his elation but it wasn't much help. He might as well admit it, Su Ning was driving him crazy. The knowledge that he was about to confess to the girl he's been crushing on for the past year only added to the fire. He planned to tell Su Ning his feelings after dinner. Allen felt that when Su Ning's stomach is satiated with good food, she would be more receptive to his love confession. In fact, he had been prepared to ask Su Ning out for dinner tonight but the girl just beat him to it, texting him an invite first. This small act already evoked such euphoria that he couldn't imagine how he would feel should the girl accept his heart. 

If others had been privy to Allen's daydreams, they surely would've cringed in second hand embarrassment. The young man had already thought of baking homemade chocolates and preserving roses in a glass jar as a gift for their first date. He's even thought of naming their baby girl Haruka since they had first met during that season. Such were the actions of a man who was completely smitten with Su Ning. It surely was young love for Allen. 

To Su Ning's surprise, the pair ended up having dinner at a Chinese hotpot place called HaiDiLao. It was relatively more expensive at 5000 to 6000 yen per person compared to their usual haunts. Of course being a gentleman, her friend offered to pay for her share as he chose that dinner place. But as someone who'd rather not owe her friends, Su Ning counter offered to spot Allen the next time they went out for dinner, which he happily accepted. It's a win-win for the lovestruck young man who had just secured himself another 'date.' 

Allen spent the entire time psyching himself up so that he wouldn't chicken out of confessing to Su Ning. Honestly, Allen also worried that Su Ning may find it awkward to remain friends if she ended up rejecting him. No matter what, he wanted to keep his friendship with Su Ning. However, he also didn't want to miss his chance. He knew full well that Su Ning had a lot of admirers on campus. Luckily, the girl was oblivious to her charms and didn't respond to other guys' cheesy pickup lines. What Allen didn't know was that the girl simply didn't fully understand the nuances of the English language. 

In fact, whenever Su Ning didn't understand the cultural reference in a conversation, she would merely give a half smile or keep an impassive expression. Then Su Ning would just ask Minshi, Gu YuChen or Lin JinYan to help explain afterwards if she could still remember the conversation by that time. This was a so-called foolproof technique taught by Lin JinYan. "Trust me, NingNing. It helps keep unwanted attention at bay and also helps cultivate a mysterious aura for you," Lin JinYan insisted. The sneaky man had been purposely teaching Su Ning how to be unconsciously standoffish to the opposite sex under the pretext of providing English language communication lessons. 

By the end of supper, the anticipation had nearly eaten through Allen and he knew he couldn't wait much longer. He had to get his feelings off his chest. And so with bellies full of delicious hotpot, Allen convinced Su Ning to take a short walk together to help digest the meal before they hopped on a train back home.

It was during this walk where the young man seized the moment. With an unnaturally solemn demeanor, his confession began. It was a clumsily award albeit a sweet and heartfelt confession.

"Hey Karina," the man called out tentatively.

"Yep?" She asked, taking a sideways glance at him.

"Can I tell you something?" Allen inquired.

"Sure, what's up?" She said before noticing his expression. "Woah. Why so serious?!"

'Here I go,' Allen thought as he recalled his speech in his mind. But alas, at this crucial moment, his mind and his mouth couldn't get their act together. So instead, he immediately blurted aloud, "I…I like you!"

Su Ning's eyes grew wide as saucers at the sudden confession. Her legs halted as she stood stiff staring at the young Irish man with reddened cheeks in front of her.

"I mean… all this time since we first met at the club recruiting, I've always liked you. First as Star, a character in a game but now as Karina Belle, my friend and classmate. Well no, I mean I like you more than a regular classmate. Obviously, ugh! What I am trying to say is I like you. Romantically. I want to date you," Allen said hastily, attempting to salvage his love declaration.

'Ahhh this is so embarrassing, I've gone through this speech in my head so many times but I've still gone and bungled it up,' thought the man but he had to continue.

"Everyday, my feelings for you are getting stronger. And if you don't feel negatively of me… at least I think you don't… I hope you don't. No, I'm sure you don't, otherwise you won't be having dinner together with me like this," he said, rambling before finally getting to the crux of the matter.

"Well… what I mean to say is, won't you consider going out with me?"

** The author has something to say: gasp! Allen done gone did it! He confessed! And also, another cliffhanger?! Aigooo! What do you say ningning?

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