Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Bizarre Logic
She looked up in surprise. When she saw who was standing in front of her, she instinctively took a step back.
It was the guy who had given her the black goji berries and hot milk tea.
He was still wearing the same stained khaki shorts, but he’d changed into a black T-shirt. His shoulders were covered in a dusting of white, flaky dandruff.
He had a smile on his face, but for some reason, the sight of it made Cecilia Sterling’s skin crawl.
Before Cecilia could speak, a bouquet of flowers appeared in front of her.
They were vibrant red roses.
Cecilia’s expression soured slightly as she shook her head and quickly refused, "Sorry, but this isn’t appropriate."
Flynn Hudson seemed not to expect Cecilia’s rejection. The smile on his face froze, and he blinked. "You... you don’t like roses, is that it?"
"It’s not about the flowers. I can’t just accept gifts from you for no reason. I’ll let the goji berries and milk tea slide, but please, don’t do this again."
Cecilia tried her best to use a gentle tone, because the person in front of her gave off an inexplicable sense of madness. In short, he didn’t feel safe.
But after hearing her words, Flynn Hudson wore an expression of disbelief. "What do you mean, ’for no reason’? Don’t you like me? You were the one who gave me the signal first!"
"Huh?"
Cecilia was completely dumbfounded. With a baffled look, she said, "I think you must have misunderstood something. I don’t even know you. I’ve never even seen you before. When did I ever give you a signal?"
Hearing this, Flynn Hudson looked completely self-righteous. "It was the scholarship! The professor said you gave it up for me. If you don’t like me, why would you give up the scholarship for me?"
Cecilia: ...
’So that’s why his grades are so good? He uses all his brainpower on studying and has none left for anything else?’
She never would have imagined that the root cause of this whole bizarre incident was the very scholarship she had voluntarily given up.
"You’ve really misunderstood. I gave up the scholarship for personal reasons. It had nothing to do with you. The fact that a spot opened up and the professor gave it to you is not something I had any control over."
"Isn’t it possible that the professor gave you the spot simply because your grades are good and you met the requirements?"
"Impossible!" Flynn Hudson shook his head, his tone firm. "I applied all last year and never got a scholarship spot. I only got this one because you gave it to me!"
"The spot only became available because I gave it up, not because I was giving it *to you*. Who the professor gives it to has nothing to do with me!"
"But if you hadn’t given it up, there wouldn’t have been a spot, and I wouldn’t have gotten it!"
Cecilia: ...
’Fine. The math department must have some unique wiring in their brains. Is this what they call ’brutally illogical’ reasoning?’
Cecilia decided to stop arguing about cause and effect with him. Mustering her courage, she laid it out plainly, "In short, I don’t know you. Who gets the scholarship is decided by the school, and I have no right to interfere. Therefore, there’s no way I was signaling you or that I like you."
"Your recent behavior has been causing me a great deal of distress. So I’m asking you to please stop. Can you do that?"
She had been extremely direct. Cecilia believed that anyone who could understand plain language would get her meaning.
But instead, Flynn Hudson’s eyes widened. "Then why don’t you like me?"
Cecilia almost laughed out of sheer anger. She looked at the person before her and wanted to scream, ’Do I need a reason not to like you? Is it because you don’t wash your hair? Because you don’t change your pants? Because you have a damp, rotten smell about you?’
Her patience ran out. She instantly lost all desire to communicate with him and sighed helplessly. "I’ve made myself perfectly clear. If you still don’t understand, then there’s nothing more I can do."
With that, she turned to leave, but he relentlessly blocked her path.
Cecilia was forced to take another step back to keep her distance. But just then, a basketball flew in from the side and—THWACK!—it hit Flynn Hudson squarely on the head.
Flynn Hudson staggered, nearly falling over.
Cecilia whipped her head around in surprise to see Yannick jogging over. He glared at Flynn Hudson and demanded, "What do you think you’re doing?"
Faced with Yannick’s sudden appearance, Flynn Hudson’s fear was palpable. His eyes darted left and right, avoiding the question.
Seeing his cowardly demeanor, Yannick couldn’t be bothered to waste words on him. He turned his head to Cecilia and asked, "Are you okay?"
Cecilia shook her head, her face full of gratitude. If Yannick hadn’t shown up, she had been about to use her phone to call Director Lawson for help.
"Get lost, and stay away from her from now on!" Yannick snapped at Flynn Hudson.
Flynn Hudson kept his head down, not daring to make a sound. He turned and ran. Seeing this, Cecilia finally let out a breath of relief.
She had been terrified that he might get agitated and try to touch her. The very thought made her skin crawl with disgust.
"Thanks. I still have to go to the principal’s office. I’ll thank you properly later," Cecilia said, her expression returning to normal as she waved goodbye to Yannick.
"Let me walk you there," Yannick blurted out, mustering his courage. When Cecilia looked at him, he added hastily, "I’m not sure if that guy has gone far."
"They’re waiting for you to play ball."
Cecilia glanced toward the dozen or so guys gathered on the nearby basketball court, who were clearly all waiting for Yannick.
When they saw Cecilia looking over, the guys got excited, starting to hoot and whistle, obviously teasing her and Yannick.
"It’s fine. I’ll come back after I walk you there."
Without waiting for Cecilia to object, he picked up the basketball that had rolled onto the ground, tossed it back toward the court, and started walking ahead of her.
Seeing this, Cecilia had no choice but to follow.
The sound of the guys’ boisterous laughter followed them.
Along the way, Yannick was silent, as if he’d been struck mute. Though he had long legs and a wide stride, he deliberately slowed his pace to walk just a little ahead of Cecilia.
Cecilia watched his back. The short stubble on the nape of his neck glistened faintly with sweat. After about ten minutes of walking, he stopped and turned around.
"We’re here. You can go on up."
"Sorry for the trouble. Thank you," Cecilia said.
Yannick didn’t say anything more, just followed Cecilia with his eyes until she entered the administration building.
She made her way to the top floor. Before she even reached the principal’s office, Cecilia could faintly hear a frantic, shrill voice. Director Lawson had already secretly messaged her about the situation, so when she got to the door, she knocked directly on it.
The voice inside stopped abruptly. A moment later, the door opened. It was John Lawson who opened it.
Seeing it was Cecilia, John Lawson shot her a look that said, ’This is a huge pain.’ As she stepped inside, he whispered to her, "Don’t say much. Don’t worry, the faculty is here."
Cecilia gave him a grateful smile, then walked into the principal’s office with a calm and composed demeanor. She ignored Mrs. Lane, whose furious expression made it look like she wanted to grind Cecilia’s bones to dust with her glare alone, and greeted the principal and the director of the academic affairs office, "Principal, Director Sanders, I’m here."
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