Smack.
A slap landed squarely on Austin's face from Yuna's other free hand.
Yuna was fuming.
Right now, there were many things she was angry about.
About Austin suddenly taking the romance route when his original story wasn't that—well… it wasn't somewhat like that. If you ignored the Saintess from the Elysian Kingdom. There had been that subtle hint of romance readers liked to delulu themselves into seeing, but as far as Yuna had read, she didn't feel the romance they all raved about.
Putting that matter aside, Austin reeling off course was not the main problem.
The problem was: Austin is an adult.
An adult in soul.
Yes, she was an adult in soul too, but he didn't know that.
Right now, this bastard was a certified pedophile.
A pedo.
Arghhhh—
Just thinking about it made Yuna angrier. She wanted to hit him again, but she suspected he wouldn't give her the luxury twice. She had only managed to land that slap because he allowed it.
"Austin…" Yuna spat his name through gritted teeth.
She wanted to curse him as a pedophile, but he didn't know she knew he was an adult in soul, and Yuna was still very clear-headed. As angry as she was, she hadn't lost her reason—maybe because it happened directly to her and not to some other little girl. If it had been someone else, her reason would've flown out the window and Yuna would've long beaten the crap out of Austin.
In the end, Yuna could only mutter:
"…Don't disgust me."
That was all she could manage at the moment.
Austin pressed his lips together. He hadn't expected Yuna's resistance to be this strong.
He had long known that Yuna was strangely apathetic yet oddly empathetic as well.
He knew he would be rejected, but he didn't think the rejection would be this intense.
It made his mood darken.
"Am I really that disgusting?"
Austin asked calmly, lips pressed into a thin line. He tried to muster up a wounded, pitiable expression, but his emotions were far too dark to properly act.
Rejection was expected. He knew he would feel bad.
But he didn't expect it to feel like this.
Yuna wanted to nod and say she really was disgusted. But Austin's face—flickering between twisted expressions as he tried to form different reactions—unnerved her. For once, she didn't immediately express her true thoughts.
Firmly rejecting this lunatic was the best choice, but what came out of her mouth was completely different from what she wanted. It was what she thought, but heavily diluted.
"I'm young… so it's disgusting."
Austin's expression brightened a little. This time, he gave her a sad puppy look. He pursed his lips and furrowed his brows in a somewhat whiny way.
"I thought you were disgusted with me. I don't know what I'd do if that's the case," he said. A slight smile appeared on his face as he continued, "We can wait until we grow up—coming of age or something. I just like Yuna as is, whether young or old."
His voice was quite sweet.
But Yuna's attention was on something else entirely.
"…You like me not because I'm young?"
Belatedly, Yuna realized how stupid that question sounded.
"Huh?" Austin's eyes widened slightly, amused. "Of course not. I like Yuna as is."
"Oh…"
So… he wasn't a pedophile?
Or was it because he was now in a younger body and his soul was influenced by the teenage hormones?
After all, Yuna had experienced that before too—especially before ten, when she couldn't even remember her previous life. Even after she did, she couldn't control her thoughts well; childish whimsical thoughts sprang up even after her memories returned.
She wasn't an expert on transmigrated or reincarnated souls in young bodies, but that was her experience so far.
Maybe Austin wasn't fully to blame for liking a young girl?
…Hmm… Something feels off.
Wait—
Damn it.
DAMN IT.
She had been so focused on the pedophile issue that Yuna forgot—
Austin confessed to her.
He said he liked her!
Hello? What?
HUH??
How??
How did he fall for her?
She didn't have any charm at all, and she never actively got intimate with him!
She just treated him a bit specially because he was the protagonist, the male lead, a fellow transmigrator.
She had always been slightly biased toward main characters. Even the cruel ones in novels—she was shamefully biased once they hit some of her preference points.
And because of that, Yuna never noticed the way she looked at characters she liked—her eyes always carried a sparkle, a hue so attractive as if that person was her whole world. It was especially charming and captivating.
It looked as if she was caressing them with her gaze, giving the illusion of holding their hands and taking them away into her small world, admiring, cuddling, and caring for them.
It was a really special feeling.
Addictive—truly addictive.
Austin could never extricate himself whenever Yuna looked at him with that sparkle. He always wished those eyes would stay on him forever—forever enveloping him.
With the belated panic settling in after Austin's confession, Yuna lost her best chance to reject him.
She was still somewhat confused, because even though Austin was real and not a paper character—he was him, yes—but that didn't change the fact that he was a main character she once read in a novel.
This was 2D manifesting in 3D, fiction coming to life. And as long as his root was in that fiction, Yuna could never detach him from his identity as a paper character, even though he was the real thing now and she was aware of it.
It was strange that a character confessed to her.
Strange—truly strange.
Yuna looked at Austin more carefully than ever. Studying him.
Austin was undeniably good-looking—so good-looking that Yuna always felt it was unfair. Maybe because he was too good-looking, Yuna couldn't completely treat him as real. Helping him when he was younger felt like playing a simulation game with a pitiful character. Interacting with him later felt like deepening the bond between a player and a character.
He was human, yes. Real, yes.
But he was too good-looking.
He was a transmigrator.
He was very poor before.
His past life was extraordinary.
He was strong.
The moles on his face enhanced his already good-looking features. He had three moles, each placed almost artistically.
His appearance in this world was the same as in his previous one—except for the blond hair and blue eyes.
"You like me because we grew up together. You haven't seen much of the world," Yuna concluded coldly.
Characters tended to get attached easily to those who helped them when they were at the bottom of their lives.
Austin's feverish eyes cooled a bit, but he masked it well.
It stung, having his feelings described so shallowly—but this was the familiar Yuna. The one unlike her first outburst.
She tended to be cold in her deductions about people's emotions.
But it was okay.
He had time to prove his feelings.