It should be obvious by now that she was an avid reader of BL as well.

And it should be obvious that he'd got a stance at his choice of entertainments.

"This one's good if you ignore that weird-ass timeslips thing at the end."

"Hmhm... potato chips?" She handed the bag and he scooped a handful.

"And the author ruins the budding romance arc with a forced makeout scene."

They had started hanging out more often, and she had started dropping by more often.

She twirled the next two chips in the air. He grabbed them both before they fell. She pouted and he made a winning pose.

He turned his screen sideways so she could make out what he was reading.

"Huh. You like that one?"

"Oh, yeah. One of my favorites, in fact. The premise's good and the scanlator routinely updating doesn't hurt either."

The scanlator's logo, written in looping font spelling 'WhiteWings96' glittered at the favicon. He scrolled down to the end and returned to the homepage.

She finished chewing, pointing at the top of the list "This one's too fetishized."

"How?"

She tossed her phone his way. "Check it out."

Now that he wasn't too mortified to talk to her properly, they actually started to get to know each other. It eased him a lot, the fact that now he had someone to share his interest with without worrying about the potential shame. It was different, speaking to her as a person instead of some kind of a faraway deity. He had to make mental adjustments every now and then, but it was a welcome change.

"Have you read this one? I like it. Starts out slow but it has its moments."

"A bit too slow for my taste. Does it ever pick up the pace?"

"Yeah, starting from the middle of book three, though..."

That incident did wonders in breaking the ice between them, although he wouldn't want a repeat. Their group assignment was progressing real well too, and once the workload for that particular subject lessened, they'd become accustomed to work on their assignments in their hang-outs. Sometime they would ask the other for help in certain tasks.

Like now.

She waited until they'd done swapping comic recs and threw the empty bags of potato chips to the trashcan before confronting him with a sudden wide-eyed excitement. He knew what was coming. Another permission to use his name in a short story? He hoped he wouldn't be a sickly vagabond again this time. His friend had a field day with that one (hey, news traveled quickly!).

"So," she cleared her throat. "I'm doing an essay onGender Appropriation in Fan Culture."

"That's a mouthful."

She waved her hand in dismissal. "Long story short, I want to do an essay of slash fiction and its readers. Preferably if I could gather data from all genders."

"And you want me to..."

"...Be one of my interview subject. It would be anonymous, I promise. No identifying information would make it into the final product."

Gulp.

"Why me?"

"You're fiercely opinionated. Now that would help me more than people mumbling yes-no like someone waiting for the guillotine."

He was about to give her an,"Okay, sure, why not," before a devious idea came to him.

"Make me," he challenged.

She raised her eyebrows.

"Oh. So that's how you wanna play."

Then her smirk gradually became more suspicious that at the end of it she seemed to be at the brink of cackling with laughter.

She bade him a very cheerful goodbye.

The next day, he rushed to her side before she could even step outside of the Literature building, whispering incredulously. "You're WhiteWings96?"

There was an unmistakable glints of joy rolling in her eyes.

"I see someone's quick on the update."

He let out a strangled noise.

"Really?"

"So, how's it? Do I get my interview?"

The night after she left him, he was getting ready for a bedtime story when he had seen that scanlator's announcement at the end of the chapter.

"Hi, it's me, your trusty translator! I am sorry to say that I've been swamped with assignments, and one of my interview subject seems to be uncooperative for now :( Since I have to prioritize school, the next chapter will be delayed indefinitely >.< p.s I know you're reading this, so give me a call if you decide to help! ^^"

Following beneath had been a crude drawings of her signature, stylized into a smiling cat. The same smiling cat he had seen her doodling on his textbooks when he wasn't looking. He took another glance at the glittery, loopy 'WhiteWings96'. He hadn't been smiling at all.

He was very definitely not gotten emotionally blackmailed into helping one girl by her withholding him translations of smutty boy-on-boy graphic novels.

Boy, it was far worse when he put it that way.

Screw it.

It was a nasty cliffhanger where she left off and he was about to agree on this anyway... right?

"Fine, princess," he muttered under his breath.