A strand of morning sunlight slipped through the curtains and spilled into the girl's study. It fell upon the windowsill, upon the vase by the window, where flowers Kevin had given her were arranged. Under the warm light, they released a rich fragrance, filling the entire room with a faint aura of happiness.
The tip of a pen brushed softly against paper, producing a crisp sound.
On the bright desk lay Mei's favorite books and notebooks. Sitting by the desk, she held a blue fountain pen and wrote in her journal.
Tap, tap. Light footsteps came from behind. Mei turned around, but saw no one.
"Mei, writing in your diary?"
"What serious person keeps a diary? Let me see—"
With a mischievous grin, Kevin snatched the notebook from Mei's desk.
"Eh?! Kevin? You came in through the back window again!"
Mei, who spent her days buried in research, was physically frail and naturally no match for the agile Kevin. He teased her in circles until, after a few laps, she was left bent over, hands on her knees, catching her breath.
"G-give it back, Kevin. Stop messing around!"
"What is this? I can't understand any of it."
Kevin flipped open the notebook. It was filled with dense technical terminology he couldn't make sense of.
Mei snatched the journal back and lightly tapped his head with it to vent her frustration.
"Of course you can't. This is my research journal. Even if you stacked a hundred Kevins together, you still wouldn't understand it."
"I-I'm not some paramecium... If there were a hundred of me, I'm sure I could figure it out..."
Kevin argued weakly.
After their playful scuffle, Mei returned to writing seriously. Kevin sat beside her, resting his face in his hands, quietly gazing at her. He knew that when Mei was thinking, she disliked being disturbed. And Mei, aware of his gaze, didn't shy away or stop him.
The two shared a silent understanding, unwilling to break the sweetness of the moment.
When Mei finally set down her pen and lazily stretched, she noticed Kevin had already warmed a cup of milk and was holding it out to her.
"Thank you."
Taking the cup, she murmured, "Though I would prefer coffee at a time like this."
"I'll go make some!"
Kevin turned to leave, but Mei caught his arm.
"No need. Milk at forty-five degrees is perfectly fine. I like it too."
The moment Kevin heard the word "like," flowers seemed to bloom in his heart. Even though the word wasn't directed at him.
But that was close enough. Being by Mei's side and hearing her say such things was already more than enough for him.
After chatting idly for a while, Kevin pulled out two tickets.
"Mei, Eden's concert the day after tomorrow. Let's skip class and go together."
"Kevin, you— Fine, fine, I know. I can't win against you. But just this once. No more skipping classes after this!"
Mei said sternly.
"Hehehe."
Kevin grinned foolishly.
"Eden's tickets aren't easy to get. Su must've paid for them again. Please thank him for me."
"Too bad he thinks he'd be a huge third wheel and refuses to come," Kevin muttered. "Wouldn't three people be great? I don't mind him. You don't mind him. No idea why he won't come."
At Kevin's obliviousness, Mei sighed and tapped his head lightly.
"Sigh... Su really has it hard, having a foolish childhood friend like you."
Kevin chuckled.
"It's fine. I think he's taken an interest in a girl at our school lately. Maybe before long, the four of us can go to a concert together."
"Oh? That's not just you projecting your own mindset onto him, is it?"
"Of course not! Su himself said it."
Kevin imitated Su's serious expression and tone.
"'That girl seems to have some kind of secret. She's very special.'"
"Uh... Kevin, that sounds more like a statement of observation than a confession."
"But Mei, this is the first time in my life I've heard Su say something like that."
As Su's childhood friend since elementary school, Kevin picked up a magnifying glass from the desk for dramatic emphasis.
"You know how sharp Su's judgment of people is. There's almost no one he can't see through. And yet he said that about her. Don't you think that's suspicious?"
"That's true..."
Mei recalled the many times Su had pierced straight to the heart of someone's character. For someone like him to say a girl had secrets—what kind of girl could she be?
Curiosity piqued, Mei asked, "So what's this classmate's name?"
"Vill-V. Supposedly the King of Skipping Class."
"The King of Skipping Class?"
Mei had never paid attention to school gossip and had no idea what that referred to.
So Kevin vividly recounted how Su had encountered Vill-V.
"'Pretty Girl Flavor' instant noodles? Hehe... This Vill-V classmate really does enjoy teasing people."
Mei picked up a ruler from nearby and tapped it lightly against her palm.
"So, Kevin, did you eat that cup of Pretty Girl Flavor instant noodles? How was it?"
Under Mei's suddenly imposing aura, Kevin felt a chill and realized something was off.
"Uh... well, Mei, I was just purely interested in the noodles themselves."
Mei withdrew her aura and stopped tapping the ruler.
"That's true. You've never had much resistance to instant noodles."
At the same time, she wondered whether she should make a cup of noodles for Kevin herself. Using a laboratory beaker and an alcohol lamp to prepare it shouldn't be too difficult.
"So? Your evaluation?"
"How should I put it... It was extremely delicious. Of course, not as delicious as what you make!"
"Oh? Such a high evaluation?"
Kevin often downplayed other people's cooking in front of Mei while praising hers—she was well aware of that. For him to say "extremely delicious" even in front of her meant the flavor had far surpassed his usual scale.
What Kevin didn't say was that the noodles truly matched their name.
While slurping them, he had hallucinated Mei wearing nothing but an apron, lying inside a gigantic ramen bowl, blowing on noodles and feeding him bite after bite. Then, perhaps because his inner guilt had grown too heavy, a bolt of heavenly lightning struck him awake.
Even someone as thick-skinned as Kevin felt that such an embarrassing scene was better left untold to his girlfriend.
Mei, unaware of his bizarre experience, said thoughtfully, "Oh? It seems I'll have to find an opportunity to learn some cooking techniques from a professional."
Though in a certain sense, Mei's cooking already had the ability to make Kevin see hallucinations.
...
I hope Kevin doesn't get into trouble.
Conductor Vill-V thought about that cup of Pretty Girl Flavor noodles and worried about Kevin's safety.
Most of Vill-V's personalities were culinary disasters, including her core personality, who could barely manage tomato scrambled eggs. To turn an ordinary cup of instant noodles into something outrageously delicious—that was naturally the handiwork of Occultist.
But Occultist wasn't Flavorful. What she produced wasn't cuisine—it was alchemical reagents.
Of course, she could cook normal food.
Would she?
No.
The title of "Scholar" was not for show. And her experimental subject had been Kevin of all people.
When it came to Kevin's ramen, Expert could create [Kevin Killer · Specialized Type for Use]. Scholar held the same interest.
Thus, that cup of noodles had been infused with Honkai energy neutralizers, gene enhancement agents, neural sensitivity amplifiers, and various other indescribable substances. One slurp sent Kevin straight into overdrive.
According to subsequent observation, Kevin had successfully acquired a slight resistance to lightning and improved Honkai adaptability.
Yes. That had been Occultist's experiment—directly strengthening the human body through pharmaceutical effects.
Of course, whether there would be side effects required continued observation. Some side effects might only Kevin himself be able to detect. That was why Conductor silently prayed that nothing strange had been etched into Kevin's DNA.
...
Kevin's Ramen Side Story:
Kevin: Ah... what's this? Amnesia noodles? Slurp.