Chapter Twelve: Let's Trade!

Although he wasn’t sure if he’d lost his mind, how else could he explain Origami Tobiichi agreeing without hesitation to be his girlfriend? Su Mo was self-aware enough to know he wasn’t unattractive, but neither could “handsome” be used to describe him. How could the goddess of the eternal permafrost, the ice queen herself, fall for someone like him at first sight?

The atmosphere grew strangely delicate.

Leaning against the wall, Su Mo kept his mouth shut, his gaze evasive, unable to meet Origami’s eyes.

Origami, however, showed no impatience at his prolonged silence. Instead, she boldly raised her head and stared at him. “So, I’m already your girlfriend, right? Can we start dating now?”

Su Mo remained silent.

He couldn’t respond; anything he said felt wrong.

Seeing his silence, Origami’s cold eyes flickered with a hint of contemplation. After a few seconds of hesitation, she bent down. To Su Mo’s horror, she lifted her skirt in front of him and boldly removed the white, indescribable garment underneath.

“Here,” she said, extending it toward him.

“Huh?” Su Mo was stunned, his gaze fixed on the white, indescribable thing in her hand. He felt as if he might explode—was he dreaming?

Surely, this must be a dream.

But Origami shattered that illusion, pulling him back to reality as she repeated, “Here.”

Noticing the confusion in his eyes, she added, “Didn’t you say you like smelling my clothes? Actually, I feel the same. So I’m giving you this. In exchange, you just need to take yours off and give it to me.”

People exchanged candies and chocolates, but he’d never seen anyone swap underwear before.

The scene before him was both beautiful and terrifying. Would he be seen as a pervert for this? He wanted to accept, but his conscience tormented him. The problem was, Su Mo wasn’t a scoundrel—or perhaps he hadn’t yet realized he was one. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be agonizing over this; he’d have bulldozed through the situation without hesitation.

In any case, at this moment, Su Mo couldn’t accept it.

With Origami pressing closer, Su Mo shut his eyes and pushed her away, fleeing as if escaping a disaster.

Origami watched him leave, expressionless as she calmly dressed herself again.

She walked toward the classroom as though nothing had happened.

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For the rest of the day, Su Mo finally understood what hell was like.

Whenever class was in session, he not only endured the baptism of Japanese-style education—which he couldn’t understand at all—but also suffered the silent scrutiny of Zhu Hui Gangfeng and Origami Tobiichi.

“I’m so foolish, truly.” Su Mo lifted his lifeless eyes, mimicking the lamenting tone of Xiang Lin Sao. “I shouldn’t have confessed to them. I should have known better than to provoke if I didn’t intend to marry. Yet I listened to Kotori’s nonsense, completely bewitched by those girls.”

After struggling through the entire day, he hurried out of the school gate after class, not even stopping to greet Shiori.

Looking behind him, he saw no one—neither Origami nor Zhu Hui Gangfeng pursued him. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. Two days in a row, something unpleasant had happened at school. Maybe he was cursed; should he consider dropping out?

As he pondered this, Kotori’s voice came through his earpiece.

“Su Mo, Su Mo, there’s a spirit fluctuation straight ahead. According to surveillance, the spirit you saw yesterday—the one codenamed Princess—is likely right in front of you. Be careful. And don’t forget your mission: start your Date A Live operation!”

Kotori’s voice boomed like a battlefield commander, sending Su Mo off as cannon fodder to lead the charge.

Hearing that Tohka had appeared, Su Mo paused.

This wasn’t quite like the story. In the anime, Tohka’s second appearance was at school, where she triggered a spatial quake and blew up the place. But now, everything was peaceful; there was no spatial quake alarm. Was this the butterfly effect?

His presence must have shifted the plot.

Though his mind raced with thoughts, Su Mo continued forward. Thanks to their earlier encounter, he’d managed to raise Tohka’s favorability to passing level—at least she wouldn’t kill him for no reason. Seizing this opportunity, he aimed to advance his conquest of the spirit.

Before long, he spotted a purple-haired girl in a princess dress at the mouth of an alley—it was Tohka Yatogami.

At that moment, Tohka had not summoned her weapon. She stood quietly, like a girl next door, as if she’d been waiting for him. Seeing Su Mo, her eyes lit up and she hurried over.

“Su Mo, we meet again!” she said with a smile, her long hair fluttering in the breeze.

With her back to the setting sun, a holy radiance seemed to surround her.

She walked up to him and stopped.

Su Mo was stunned, his gaze lingering on her as he asked, “Why are you here?”

He’d been prepared for a long wait, not knowing when Tohka would reappear. Yet she’d come to find him so quickly—it had only been a day since their separation.

“Of course I came to find you. Did you forget our agreement yesterday?” Tohka raised a finger. “I said I would come find you, and now we’ve finally met again.”

“Yes, we meet again.”

Su Mo nodded instinctively, unable to resist his curiosity. “But this time you didn’t trigger a spatial quake like yesterday. What happened?”

Normally, a spirit’s appearance was accompanied by a spatial quake. Yesterday, Su Mo had nearly been killed by the one Tohka triggered.

“Because I didn’t want it to happen. Yesterday, you told me a lot about humanity. I think the human world is so beautiful—it would be a shame to destroy it,” Tohka replied matter-of-factly. At least Su Mo’s effort yesterday hadn’t been wasted; it’d had some effect.

“So you can control the spatial quake?”

He asked, though it was a pointless question. Hearing Tohka’s affirmative answer, he relaxed slightly.

At least he wouldn’t be obliterated by a spatial quake while hanging out with her.

Remembering his mission, Su Mo looked up at Tohka. “So, Tohka, is there something you wanted?”

“I don’t really know. I just wanted to talk to you and learn more about this world,” Tohka shook her head, her adorable confusion making her even more irresistible.

Su Mo felt helpless, but gathered his courage to ask, “In that case, Tohka, will you go on a date with me?”

“A date? What’s that?” Tohka tilted her head, her eyes puzzled.

“A date is… well, two people spending time together—eating, shopping, watching movies, going to amusement parks… and, um, renting a room… doing all kinds of things they like.”

Su Mo stumbled over his explanation. He’d never actually been on a date, but even if he hadn’t eaten pork, he’d seen pigs run—the steps were familiar enough.

“Really? Then, Su Mo, let’s start dating!”

“But what should we do first? Should we just go rent a room?”