When it came time to actually solve the equations they were supposed to be reviewing as a group, it was no surprise when Thomas wordlessly started completing them by himself.

Lee knew he would be no help, and it was obvious Arland had no intention of assisting either. His friend flagrantly pulled out a deck of cards and started playing a game of solitaire, paying the assignment no mind.

“I’m not going to just give you the answers,” Thomas stated without glancing up from his notebook. 

Lee had figured as much; the President had told him that very morning how much he disliked when people didn’t try to do their own work after all.

“I know,” Lee murmured. Although he had trouble with mathematics at the best of times, he was extra distracted because his eyes kept flickering toward Thomas' low affection meter and empty heart gauge. 

“I can feel you staring at me,” Thomas expressed, disgruntled.

Lee quickly darted his eyes away, embarrassed to be caught. 

“Sorry,” he uttered without an excuse. 

Thomas set down his pencil and focused his full attention on Lee. 

“Do you want me to teach you how to solve them?” He inquired.

New dialogue choices formed in front of Lee; he was thankfully taken less off guard by their appearance this time.

[Yes, I could really use your help.] 

[No thanks, I’m fine on my own.]

‘Well, the second one would just be a lie,’ Lee figured. His decision was obvious, so he didn't try to fight the words as they were automatically forced from his throat.

“Yes, I could really use your help.”

Thomas hummed in acknowledgement and scooted a bit closer to Lee so he could better see his notebook. 

He started to methodically walk Lee through solving the equations, showing an abundance of patience when Lee still struggled initially to grasp his explanations. 

By the time there was only fifteen minutes left of class, Lee had gotten a much better handle on it. 

He happened to glance over at Arland, who was still playing with his deck of cards. 

Without giving it much thought, Lee reached over to the notebook resting unopened on the edge of his friend's desk and dragged it closer to himself.

He flipped past the few pages with writing on them to a clean one and started copying down his answers there as well.

Arland watched him do so impassively; he gave no indication at all as to whether he cared if Lee completed the classwork for him or not.

Thankfully, Thomas didn’t seem inclined to tell the teacher on Lee for his decision to cheat for Arland. He simply asked, “Why not just let him fail? It’s obviously what he wants.” 

Lee wasn’t sure how to answer that.

He had no idea why Arland refused to do any work, yet still showed up to class every day. It was a mystery the blonde refused to shed light on no matter how many times Lee had asked. 

Even so, what Lee did know was that he didn’t want his only friend to flunk out and leave him here all alone. He couldn’t admit that to Thomas though, especially not with Arland sitting right across from him, so he stayed quiet.

Eventually, the final bell for the school day rang, and all of the students began to shuffle their desks back into place.

As it was his job to collect everyone’s papers, Thomas was the first to leave their group, taking Lee and Arland’s pages with him. 

Waiting until the President was out of earshot, Arland stated, “You really didn’t need to bother, Lee.”

As he stuffed his notebook back into his backpack, Lee replied, “I know.”

Arland sighed whilst sweeping his cards into their box, not bothering to argue the point further.

Lee shrugged on his bag and prepared to bid his friend goodbye, only to pause with surprise. 

Arland’s 'Affection Meter' had changed.

(+3%) [Affection: 35%] 

******

Lee jogged straight back to his dorm, more than ready to finish out the day and go to bed. 

He was still hoping to wake up in the morning to find that everything had actually been an elaborate dream, except-

His computer monitor was on. 

Had it been on before he left? 

Lee understandably hadn’t been paying any attention to it at the time, and he couldn’t remember clearly if he’d turned it off before going to bed last night.

The computer wasn’t just on; the title screen for a game was displayed as well.

It was extremely simplistic: the background was pure white, with a single pink heart flashing in and out of existence in the middle of the window while the title ‘PARAMETERS’ slowly scrolled across the bottom.

In all the absurdity of the day, Lee had totally forgotten he’d downloaded a new Dating Sim. He wasn’t exactly excited to play such a game due to his current circumstances, but he was at least curious enough to peek at the content.

Lee kicked his shoes off, tossed his backpack aside, and walked over to settle down in his desk chair. 

There was no option to actually start the game, so Lee tried clicking around the window randomly, which then opened to a barren menu screen.

There were only two large words in blocky red text: ROUTES and GALLERY.

Assuming there wouldn’t be anything to see yet in the gallery, Lee opted to click on ROUTES. He expected to be taken to a page where he could see artwork and a few characters from which he could choose to date.

In a way, he wasn’t too far off the mark.

He was shown a long column of pictures, most of which were silhouettes of people deliberately blacked out so as to be unrecognizable. 

The only exceptions were the top two. Unfiltered as they were, the images were unmistakably that of Thomas and Arland.

“Ha… haha,” Lee choked out a laugh with a slightly hysterical tinge to it. 

He’d seen, read, and played more than enough fantastical media to recognize the mammoth sized clues beating him over the head at that point. 

‘This game is cursed. I downloaded a cursed game. No doubt,’ was Lee’s immediate conclusion. 

Morbidly fascinated, Lee dragged the cursor over to Thomas' face.

What came up was some very basic profile information, most of which he was already aware of.

NAME: Thomas Kingsley
AGE: 16                                        
DOB: March 27                                
LIKES: ???
DISLIKES: Laziness
AFFECTION: 3% 
HEART GAUGE: 0/4
MOOD: (LOCKED)
ROUTES CLEARED: N/A

Just to see what would happen, Lee tried to access the profiles of the people whose faces were obscured, but no information was revealed for them. 

“Okay,” Lee exhaled, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling with dread. “What do I do here?”

Theoretically speaking, if he finished a ‘ROUTE’ then maybe he would be set free from the cursed game? 

That would mean getting someone to fall in love with him, right?

‘Or worse, maybe I’ll have to finish EVERY route, including these people I don’t know,’ he thought pessimistically.

If he were being made to win the heart of someone normally it would have been an impossible task; no question about it. However, with the game mechanic assistance being involuntarily given to him, he might actually have a chance.

Perhaps Lee could even try to see his situation as a boon. Hadn't he always wished he could live out the romantic fantasies of his favorite games?

Of course, those had been with pretty drawings of characters and not his real life classmates. 

Out of the two people Lee was currently being given the option to raise the ‘affection’ of, he knew for sure he didn’t want to pursue Arland romantically. The last thing he'd want is to risk the friendship they’d built up over the school year.

It was almost just as disconcerting to imagine himself in a relationship with Thomas, but at least Lee could admit he sort of found the Class President attractive.

He doubted the feeling was mutual though.