About three minutes later, the bathroom door opened. Lin Yuan came out, a faint bitterness and confusion hidden on his face.
"Hm, you're out?" Exusiai turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow as she spoke—also quietly testing whether what she'd done earlier had worked.
Please… let it have some effect, just like Texas said…
But Lin Yuan's response was unusually light.
He only nodded at Exusiai, then sat down at the other end of the couch.
For some reason, Exusiai instinctively felt a hint of… distance.
It was strange.
Wait—this wasn't how it was supposed to go, was it?
After everything she'd done, shouldn't his doubts be completely gone? Shouldn't that slight stiffness between them disappear too?
They should've returned to their usual easy, relaxed way of getting along!
…But that wasn't what was happening.
So why did it suddenly feel like he'd pulled away?
Exusiai lowered her eyes, then spoke again in a softer voice.
"Lin Yuan?"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Did something happen in the bathroom just now?"
"Ah… about that…"
Lin Yuan thought for a moment. Then, after a brief pause, he closed his eyes slightly and said, "Nothing."
"I just… suddenly remembered some things that made me feel uneasy."
Sorry, Exu.
I really… still don't know how to face you.
How was he supposed to lay out his suspicions? Or hint at what he'd discovered, probe around the edges, and figure out whether it was true?
He hadn't figured it out yet.
He needed more time.
After all, Lin Yuan might have gynophobia, but he really didn't want to open his eyes one day and find something pressing against his rear.
Doesn't matter whether it's a "gun" or a "gun"—neither is acceptable!
But to Exusiai, his words carried an entirely different meaning.
Uneasy?
So his doubts still weren't gone?
But that didn't make sense. Texas's plan was embarrassing, sure, but Exusiai had felt it was at least somewhat workable.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have forced herself to go through with something that humiliating.
Yet judging from Lin Yuan's reaction… he still seemed doubtful.
If anything, he felt even heavier than before.
Questions swarmed through Exusiai's mind until her familiar helpless frustration returned, making her head ache.
"Lin Yuan… have you had something on your mind lately? Is there anything I can help with?"
After a moment of silence, Exusiai finally asked.
Lin Yuan stayed quiet briefly, then sighed.
"It's not exactly that. It's just… sometimes I suddenly feel like—maybe there are things I don't know."
He carefully weighed his words. Then, in as gentle a tone as he could manage, he said:
"Sometimes I feel like there are people I'm familiar with, but I don't really understand them… and I don't understand how they see me. Like a pen pal of mine."
It sounded like he was hinting at the existence of MSR—that mysterious pen-pal relationship where both sides kept a certain distance.
In reality, what he wanted to say was: he didn't truly understand Exusiai—and he didn't even know whether "he" was actually gay.
And he wanted to fish a little, see how Exusiai would respond.
But to Exusiai, it landed completely differently.
So he really is still suspecting I'm a woman!
Exusiai lowered her gaze, thinking.
That second half—about not understanding each other—was he implying that if she really was a woman, he might choose to go their separate ways?
Because if two people don't understand each other… they can't stay together, can they?
Exusiai's thoughts tangled into a mess.
At that moment, the two of them formed a subtle misalignment—each reading the other entirely wrong.
Lin Yuan saw Exusiai not answering and took it as confirmation, panicking more and more.
Exusiai saw Lin Yuan's "hints" and became even more convinced of her own theory—yet couldn't figure out where, exactly, her plan had gone wrong.
And so, with both of them hardening their own assumptions and amplifying them in silence, the night gradually deepened.
Unable to find an answer, Exusiai decided to do less for now—less action meant fewer mistakes. She planned to ask Texas for advice tomorrow.
So she went to bed first.
Lin Yuan sat on the couch, struggling for a while longer, and eventually drifted off as well.
And just like that, a new day arrived without a sound.
…
The next day, inside Penguin Logistics.
The moment Texas walked in, she saw Exusiai—like a ghost—suddenly appear right in front of her face.
…Honestly, the Sankta really did look a bit like a ghost now.
Staring at the dark circles under Exusiai's eyes—which somehow looked worse than yesterday—Texas thought as much to herself.
Then she asked aloud:
"You didn't sleep well again? Your dark circles look even worse."
"Is it because of Lin Yuan?"
She asked with quiet curiosity. Exusiai nodded helplessly.
"What part of it?" Texas tilted her head. "If you did what I said yesterday, it shouldn't have gone wrong."
Exusiai sighed and answered, exhausted:
"He still seems to be suspecting something. Actually… even though nothing went wrong yesterday, it feels like he's even more suspicious than before."
"Right now, I feel like he's really uneasy. Really… tense."
After describing the situation and everything she'd done, Exusiai looked at Texas with anxious uncertainty.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?"
Texas thought for a moment and felt that familiar headache coming back.
Not this again…
She even felt like she could walk straight along Lin Yuan's thought process—despite having only met him once.
Texas let out a self-mocking laugh, but quickly sobered as she noticed a new problem.
"Last time you asked me, I didn't think too deeply. You said things, I accepted them."
She lifted a hand slightly.
"But this time, I've heard the details. Exu, I've realized something."
"How are you so sure that what he's doubting is whether you're a woman?"
Texas asked, genuinely puzzled. Exusiai froze for a second.
"Isn't that obvious? Because he's scared of women…"
"Precisely because he's scared of women, that's why it's not likely," Texas sighed. "Because he's scared of women, he'll instinctively avoid the thing he fears most. So he'd rather come up with some other explanation than face the possibility that the person right in front of him is female."
That kind of avoidance was something Texas knew all too well.
And because she knew it… she found it even more irritating.
"I can't say for sure what he's suspecting," Texas continued, "but it's definitely not what you think. Otherwise, your plan would've ended this cleanly."
Exusiai fell silent.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" she asked quietly.
Texas—pocky between her teeth—spoke in a casual, unbothered tone:
"There are a lot of ways. Even though we still don't know exactly what he's suspecting, if we already know it's not the one you assumed, then it's unrelated to his fear of women."
"In that case, the simplest solution is to just say it outright and clear it up. That's one option. And there are many others—lots of them."
"But which method you choose depends on what you want."
Texas raised her head and looked straight at Exusiai, speaking slowly and clearly.
"So, Exu, I need to ask you something."
"I have to know what you actually want."
She stared at Exusiai, enunciating every word.
"Are you satisfied with being his good bro for life…"
"Or—no matter what—do you want to break through that 'good bro' line and become something more?"
In an instant, Exusiai went silent.
-------
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