Lee was sluggish in waking up. His brain always felt like it was full of cotton first thing in the morning.

He tried to raise his arms above his head to stretch out the kinks in his muscles, but found that one of them was trapped.

Thomas, in his sleep, had curled up against Lee while clutching onto his fingers tightly.

Lee's slow-chugging mind quickly started working overtime as it struggled to catch up to the events of yesterday.

He’d had his first ever date! 

With THOMAS!  

‘It was quite nice actually...?’ Lee thought, baffled. He used his free hand to rub some of the tiredness from his eye as he observed his bedmate. 

There was no furrow in Thomas’ brow and his ever-present frown was gone. Instead, the redhead’s lips were slightly parted and his expression was soft and unbothered. Lee had never seen him look so at ease. 

‘He has pretty eyelashes,’ Lee couldn’t help but notice, fascinated by the way they rested above the other boy’s cheeks. He felt the inexplicable urge to touch the President’s face. 

After a second of deliberation, Lee carefully reached out to do just that. He brushed the back of his hand right under Thomas' eye with feather light pressure. 

In response to the faint tickling sensation, Thomas shot a hand out to grab Lee’s wrist. The redhead wrinkled his nose and squinted blearily over at his sheepish looking classmate. 

“Morning!” Lee chirped, leaning quite close into Thomas's space.

“...Good morning,” Thomas replied gruffly, dropping Lee’s hands as he sat up. He swept his mussed strawberry hair out of his face and glanced around his blurry surroundings for his glasses, momentarily forgetting he’d left them in the desk chair.

“Did you sleep well?” Lee asked, sitting up too and watching the way Thomas' half-lidded eyes wandered around the room. He was used to seeing Thomas look perfectly put together, but right now the redhead just looked adorably disheveled.

Stifling a yawn, Thomas replied half-heartedly, “Yeah, I guess.” Then, finally noticing Lee’s intense focus on him, asked, “Why are you staring at me like that?”

Without a second for consideration, Lee blurted out his previous thought, “You look really cute right now.”

Thomas’ striking clover eyes, usually hidden behind his spectacles, widened with incredulity. He hunched his shoulders self-consciously as his cheeks took on a flushed glow. 

(+7%) [Affection 65%] 

The President’s cuteness factor only shot up even higher in Lee's heart.

“Y-You keep-!” Thomas started, stuttering uncharacteristically. He stopped himself, took a deep breath, then continued more subdued, “You keep doing and saying things I don’t understand.” 

Even though the statement was vague, Lee could relate to the sentiment. He himself didn’t fully understand his own feelings.

“I don’t mean to be confusing,” Lee conveyed, lowering his eyes contritely. 

After a moment, however, he peeked back up at Thomas with a tiny grin and asked mischievously, “What’s not to understand about me thinking you look cute though?”

(+5%) [Affection 70%] 

Lee struggled not to smile wider at how promptly Thomas’ Affection Meter rose again. Even if he tried to pretend otherwise, some part of the President must really like it when Lee called him cute.

Thomas shut his eyes and tilted his head up toward the ceiling, inhaling deeply as if gathering mental strength. His face was still noticeably pinkish, much to Lee’s silent satisfaction. Breaking Thomas out of his stoicism was swiftly becoming a new favorite pastime. 

With a heavy sigh, Thomas regained his composure and regarded Lee with a determined frown. He inched closer, leaning so much forward that Lee’s eyes crossed trying to keep him in sight. 

“Thomas?” Lee uttered, raising his arm reflexively. Whether he meant to push the redhead back or drag him closer was yet to be decided. 

Thomas' eyelashes lowered as he further closed the distance between them. Lee let his eyes flutter shut instinctively, and a moment later he felt the barest of pressure against his lips.

He chose to press forward, reciprocating the impromptu kiss. 

(+5%) [Affection 75%] 

Seemingly emboldened by Lee's silent acquiescence, Thomas rose to his knees and gently pushed Lee down into the mattress. He then swung his leg over Lee’s waist and straddled him without once breaking their lip contact. 

It all felt like it was happening in slow motion to Lee, who was just pliantly letting his mouth glide in time with Thomas' motions. His hands hovered awkwardly off the bed, wanting to touch the redhead but too hesitant to go further. He’d never kissed anyone before and was afraid of messing up and embarrassing himself. 

Eventually, the need for oxygen would force the two apart. They drew back with their noses still touching, staring into each other’s eyes as they caught their breath. 

Lee felt like he was floating. He couldn’t believe he was really lying on his bed kissing Thomas in his dorm room.

(+1) [❤️❤️❤️❤️] (4/4) 

The final heart for the gauge above Thomas finally appeared, but Lee barely paid attention to that. Who cared about the cursed game when he was still reeling from having such an amazing first kiss!? 

Unfortunately, the mechanics of the Dating Sim would not be ignored for long.

[MAX HEART GAUGE ACHIEVED!]

[THOMAS (NORMAL) ROUTE CLEARED!]

To accompany the announcement hanging overhead, Thomas' Heart Gauge exploded into an obnoxiously sparkly firework show. Lee couldn’t help the way his eyes widened as he stared up at it, startled by the fanfare.

More achievements soon took the place of the previous ones.

[NEW CG UNLOCKED!]

(DISPLAYED IN SYSTEM GALLERY.)

[THOMAS (MOOD INDICATOR) UNLOCKED!]

(DISPLAYED IN SYSTEM ROUTES.)

Lee wondered what would happen next. A large part of him hoped he would now be set free from the curse; he’d finished the ‘route’ after all.

However, it was not to be. What budding hope he had was abruptly dashed when he heard, “What the hell was all that?”

Lee immediately refocused on Thomas, whose head was tilted back to look up toward the ceiling. His eyes were narrowed in an effort to read without his glasses on. There was no doubt as to what he was looking at.

“Um,” Lee started, but had no idea how he planned to finish the sentence. He was too busy feeling a mix of stupefaction and fear.

Thomas warily lowered his gaze away from the otherworldly sentences to glare in confusion at Lee. “No, seriously,” he stated with obvious agitation. “What is ‘Thomas Normal Route’ supposed to mean? Where are the words above us coming from?”

Thomas could now see the game mechanics.