By Wednesday noon on October 15th, Ethan still hadn't finished decorating Class 11D's event backdrop.
With the help of Mr. Silvan, Autumn's brothers, plus Royce's enthusiasm and Felix's half-hearted, lazy, "just doing the bare minimum" attitude - Ethan's paper flowers had technically been completed at home beforehand. But attaching them onto the backdrop was a whole different ordeal. The process demanded precision, patience, and a good eye for aesthetics to make sure the final result matched Ethan's concept.
One thing Class President Lucas and Secretary Simon - and even Ethan himself - failed to anticipate was that the boys of Class 11D barely had any free time this week.
This was already Week 3 of the Take Care of the Girls - Vietnamese Women's Day Event. It was basically the last chance for all the single boys and girls. So every morning and lunchtime in the Harmony High cafeteria, the boys - especially those from Class 11D - dutifully lined up like hardworking bees, picking up meals on behalf of the "Princesses" assigned to them for the Event.
From the outside, the hope of escaping singledom looked very slim - but Harmony High boys were still determined to put in the effort.
"Hmph! Royce is such a lazy brat. I asked him for a tiny favor and he's already vanished."
Autumn muttered.
She was standing on a chair - which itself was stacked precariously on top of a student desk. It looked extremely unstable and dangerous. Yet she was pinning paper flowers on the top-right corner of the backdrop at a speed two or three times faster than Ethan.
Asking a girl to decorate the classroom for Vietnamese Women's Day was absolutely not in line with the event's spirit of appreciating women. But letting Autumn help Ethan like this was a last resort - since not a single boy from Class 11D had managed to spare time for him, not even Royce.
After days of coding and fixing bugs for Camellia's Vampire Hunter app The Staker, Royce was finally free to relax - and he was determined to spend his lunch breaks grinding every ending of Silent Hill F, the horror game he recently bought as a present for himself. At this rate, he'd probably end up with a new waifu, Hinako Shimizu.
Oh! Speaking of presents…
According to the plan, the boys of Class 11D would buy flowers and divide up the task of writing greeting cards for the girls in their class. Then they would secretly slip both the flowers and the cards into the girls' desks before Vietnamese Women's Day on October 20th, creating a surprise for them.
But that wasn't all - Ethan overheard that quite a number of Harmony High boys were planning to take this chance to prepare a personal gift for the girl they liked, as a subtle confession.
Besides that, boys who had close female friends could also give gifts to them - and those gifts didn't necessarily carry any special romantic meaning.
Heck, even the students who identified as girls would receive presents during this time from their supportive friends.
Huh.
Maybe Ethan should give Autumn something too?
Just as a thank-you gift - for protecting him and helping him all this time. As a friend. Purely as a friend. Obviously. Absolutely.
But… what did Autumn even like to receive?
BLOOD!!!
(No! I'll turn into a dried corpse!)
Ethan immediately dismissed the one gift that would be most fitting for a Vampire. He moved on to the next candidate: a giant fragrant jasmine-flavored 2High milk tea - the drink literally every Harmony High student was addicted to.
Nope.
That was way too ordinary. Even if he bought the massive 1.5-liter size with all the toppings, it still wouldn't feel special. He could buy that for her anytime.
Besides - Autumn was currently banned by Mrs. Marina from drinking milk tea for a whole month starting September 29th, after daring to talk back to her.
Ugh. This was hard!
What if…
What if he just asked Autumn directly?
Ethan felt his face starting to heat up.
Come to think of it…
He actually didn't get many chances to be alone with Autumn like this.
Even though they'd lived under the same roof for over a week, Ethan only saw her during family dinners or while doing homework.
And the murderous aura radiating from Mr. Silvan every time Ethan forgot to keep a safe distance from his precious daughter made him too terrified to casually talk to her at home.
And at Harmony High - sure, they sat next to each other in class. But Autumn slept straight through nearly every period, so they rarely had a real conversation.
Now, Ethan had about a billion questions swirling in his head about what Autumn might like, but he had no idea how to start the conversation.
He'd never been good at casually chatting with girls - let alone this girl.
"Hey! You know what, Ethan? I bet you - after the October 20th Event, any guy who's single will stay single! You know why? Because the Event Committee doesn't understand the psychology of girls at all!"
Autumn's clear, slightly annoyed voice rang right next to Ethan's ear.
"Huh? Stay single? What does 'girl psychology' have to do with anything? I don't get it."
Ethan stammered. He felt ridiculously stupid for asking such meaningless questions.
"Girls… they always want to be treated like they're the most special girl in the entire world."
"Mm-hm."
"So! When you arrange things so that one guy has to take care of three girls over three weeks, it just makes the guys look like they're trying to build a harem."
Autumn continued criticizing the male population of Harmony High - including Ethan.
"Ah, but Autumn… from what I know, the way boys think - especially the boys in our class - is really simple."
"How simple, Ethan?"
"Well… according to class rep Lucas, the Event Committee did take into account that some boys might get rejected by their 'Princess'. That's why they set the rule that each boy gets three girls across the three weeks - exactly according to the names drawn. The intention was that if someone gets rejected by Princess A, he'd still have a chance with Princess B or C."
Ethan explained slowly and carefully. He didn't want to upset Autumn, but he also felt obligated to defend the boys of Harmony High.
"Eww. That just proves the boys of this school have zero sincerity."
"But Autumn… from what I see, most of the girls are happily accepting the boys' care, right?"
"Hmph! I guess so…"
"And I think everyone kind of understands this whole Event is just for light flirting, you know? Like… if things don't work out, it's fine. If they do work out, that's great too."
"Ewwww! I don't find that fun at all! I hate treating feelings like a joke. Is it because humans have short lifespans that they have to hurry and squeeze every opportunity they can?"
Autumn's stomach growled loudly. Hunger made her slightly more irritable. Both she and Ethan still hadn't had lunch yet - they planned to wait until the canteen was less crowded before going together.
Ethan was extremely curious about the boys assigned to care for Autumn during Week 2 and Week 3. He hadn't seen a single guy show up at Class 11D in the morning or noon to invite her to lunch.
Did she… use some Vampire trick to chase them all away?
Because honestly, any guy who drew a cute girl like Autumn was insanely lucky. No way they would skip the chance to take care of someone this adorable.
Well… good.
Ethan's heart always grew weirdly heavy whenever he saw her chatting cheerfully with other boys anyway.
"Ethan… do you think my views on love are… old-fashioned?"
Autumn suddenly sounded thoughtful as she pressed him for an answer.
And of course, the topic was still the greatest mystery of humankind…
Loveeeee!