A month before the SAT exams, I was finally brought back to the Bowen family.

In fear that I would take back all the love and attention, Archer Bowen, the adopted heir, pouted to his childhood sweetheart.

"Keira, Zane pissed me off. Teach him a lesson. Go after him and make him fall for you. Then get photos of him naked and ruin him completely."

The next day, the school queen, Keira Johnston, showed up in front of me with a huge bouquet of roses while smiling like a dream.

"Zane, I like you. Be my boyfriend."

At the same time, a cold mechanical voice rang out in my mind: [Target has appeared. Host, begin conquering Keira Johnston immediately.]

I looked at Keira, who had once bullied me, and curled my lips into a faint smile.

"Sure."

Keira Johnston froze for a split second, then her smile turned even softer as she shoved the bouquet of roses into my arms. "Then come back with me tonight—"

"I don’t like roses. Bring me sunflowers next time." Before she could finish, I tossed the bouquet straight into the trash.

Her expression tightened, irritation flashing across her face like she was about to snap.

[Keira Johnston’s affection level: negative. Increase immediately.]

I beat her to it, my own face turning cold. "You said you like me. Don’t tell me you’re just fooling around?"

She instinctively opened her mouth to argue.

I looked her up and down, eyes narrowing slightly. "You were the one who confessed, which means you’re the one chasing me. Naturally, you should be giving me what I actually like. If it’s not sunflowers next time, we’re breaking up."

With that, I turned and walked off.

[Affection falling. Recalibrate.]

At the program’s urging, I let out a quiet, mocking laugh.

'Women are predictable. The better you treat them, the less they value you. Just watch. Within a week, Keira's affection level will turn positive.'

From that day on, Keira started bringing me breakfast in different variations.

Every morning, the surrounding students would stare at me in envy. After all, I was just a bookish nobody with thick black-framed glasses and an oversized uniform. There was nothing remarkable about me except for ranking first in the grade.

And yet somehow, I had the attention of the school queen.

For two days straight, I ate the breakfasts she brought without a word of thanks.

On the third day, I walked up to her holding a carton of milk. "I’m allergic to milk. As my girlfriend, you should remember that."

Keira responded gently, saying okay, without the slightest hint of anger.

Of course, she wouldn’t be angry.

Last night, Archer Bowen tried to provoke me, and I shoved him straight down the stairs.

When he ran to our parents to complain, I bit my lip, panicked, and denied everything. "I didn’t—"

Then something seemed to occur to me. I looked at him in disbelief. "Archer, did you fall on purpose to frame me?"

Just like that, Archer lost a month’s allowance, and he now hated me to the bone.

Last night, he’d spent hours calling Keira, pushing her to take me down as soon as possible.

[Host, affection level has dropped again.]

I reassured the program calmly. "Right now, Keira is more anxious than we are."

On the fourth day, she swapped out the milk in my breakfast for soy milk. I took off my black-framed glasses, tidied up, and tossed a hunk of bread onto her desk.

"Good job today, girlfriend. That’s your reward."

Keira looked up at the sound of my voice, and the moment she saw my face, her eyes widened sharply.

The program exploded in my head.

[Affection +1, +1, +1…]

[Affection level: positive.]

[Affection: 10%.]

Compared to the program’s overreaction, I lowered my gaze slightly, pretending to be shy. "Keira, why are you looking at me like that?"

I knew exactly what my advantage was. My eyes were so clear and expressive that they seemed to speak.

Alas, for someone poor, beauty is a liability. I usually hid behind thick glasses and heavy bangs.

Keira quickly averted her gaze, her tone turning haughty. "It’s nothing. Put your glasses back on."

I hesitated, a little embarrassed. "I took them off just for you. Don’t you like it?"

The tips of her ears turned red.

Before she could answer, I jogged back to my seat.

[Affection increased by 5%. Cause unclear.]

I smiled faintly.

If you want a woman to fall for you, the simplest and most effective method is temptation. After all, who wouldn’t want a handsome guy to like them?

Keira kept bringing me breakfast for an entire week, yet she still hadn’t gotten her hands on any compromising photos of me.

Archer was starting to lose his patience.

Right before the SAT exams, the school gave everyone half a day off to relax.

By the time I finished a full practice paper and walked out, it was already completely dark.

To get home faster, I decided to cut through an alley. I stood at the entrance for a moment, staring into the pitch-black stretch, hesitating, then forced myself to go in.

Just as I was about to exit, a group of sketchy girls blocked my path.

"Hey, lend us some cash."

"Ooh, look at that skin. Wonder if he’s got abs under there."

As they spoke, they reached out, trying to strip off my clothes. Panic shot through me and I stepped back.

Just as their greasy hands were about to grab me—

"Back off!"

Keira appeared out of nowhere.

My face stayed hidden in the shadows as I watched her fight them off.

This entire setup had been staged for me from the start. It didn’t take long before the girls scattered. She ended up with a wound, collapsing right into my arms.

I slipped into character instantly, looking at her with concern. "You actually got hurt for me? That’s a deep cut. It must really hurt. This is all my fault."

I called an ambulance and sent her to the hospital. To make it convincing, she had taken a real slash across her arm.

I took leave from school and stayed by her side all night.

The next day, when she saw my bloodshot eyes, a flicker of hesitation crossed her face.

"That’s great. The doctor said it won’t scar. You were really brave. I’ll head back to school first, and I’ll come see you after class."

On my way back, the program kept pinging nonstop. Her affection level was rising rapidly.

Curious, I asked what caused it.

Even the program couldn’t explain it. It only told me that right after I left, Archer rushed to the hospital.

The moment he walked in, he said, "Did it work? After that whole damsel-saving act, is he completely hooked on you now?"

A faint smile tugged at my lips. Spending the whole night at her bedside hadn’t been a waste. Before, she only had him around with no comparison to make.

Now, "Does it hurt?" and "Did it work?" were two very different things. Of course, she would start weighing them.

'I think I’ll complete this mission soon.'

As a top student, once I locked onto my target, I did my research thoroughly. She was the only daughter of the Johnston Group. They were a powerful family, but still slightly below the Bowens.

So rather than calling her his childhood friend, it would be more accurate to say she had been chasing after him all these years. She had always been the one trying to please him, which made me curious.

Did she value him more than the family behind him?

I went back to the hospital and stayed with her for a few more days.

During that time, our relationship warmed quickly.

As the program reported higher and higher numbers, I acted more and more like I was falling for her. I behaved like some lovestruck guy who’d gotten swept up into high society and couldn’t escape.

Until the night before the exams, she grabbed my hand, her gaze locked onto mine.

"Zane, let’s do something exciting tonight. Something adults do. Okay?" Her voice was hoarse, desire surging in her eyes like it might swallow me whole.

When I didn’t answer, she stepped closer, aggressive, wrapping her arms around me. Her body heat seeped through the thin fabric between us, almost burning.

Instinctively, I tried to pull back, but she tightened her grip, locking me in place.

For a moment, everything went silent. Only the sound of summer cicadas filled the air.

I glanced down unintentionally and saw that her ears were flushed red. I wrapped my arms around her, my hand resting on her slender waist, and answered softly, "Sure."

"I want to go back and change, though. Can you wait for me? Half an hour, tops."

She stared at me for a long moment before finally saying, "Hurry."

[Affection at 30%. Intimacy projected to increase by 20%.]

I let out a soft laugh. "Who said I was going to sleep with her?"

[Action already approved.]

I smiled faintly. Who said something “exciting” had to mean sex?

She had approached me with an agenda from the start. If I actually slept with her, her affection wouldn’t rise; it would drop.

By the next day, my nudes would probably be circulating all over the city.

Besides, someone like her disgusted me. Just being around her was already pushing it, let alone anything more intimate.

Half an hour later, the roar of an engine approached from a distance. I pulled off a clean stop, the motorcycle coming to a halt just a step away from her. I took off my helmet, tilting my head slightly, revealing my face.

She stared, eyes wide, completely stunned. Even without looking at her expression, I could tell from the system’s rapid notifications that she loved this version of me.

Still, I lowered my gaze and said softly, "Do I look a little strange? I’m a bit nearsighted, so I usually wear glasses. But with the helmet, I took them off. Don’t worry. I’m wearing contacts. Riding won’t be a problem."

The contrast between my slightly flustered explanation and the sleek black motorcycle was striking.

[Affection level: 40%.]

She looked at me with clear excitement. "You know how to ride?"

I nodded. "Money’s tight at home. Sometimes I do deliveries." In truth, it was because I knew she liked motorcycles.

"You said you wanted something exciting, right? To me, this is as exciting as it gets."

The bike wasn’t anything special, but the thrill was, especially for someone like her, who had always been in control.

Now she was sitting behind me, arms wrapped around my waist. I sped down the road, twisting the throttle, barely touching the brakes.

"Slow down! Slow down!" she shouted, but I ignored her.

The "suspension bridge effect" occurs when individuals in a state of high anxiety experience an adrenaline rush that the brain misinterprets as romantic attraction rather than fear. That was exactly what I wanted.

I stopped at the mountaintop. She got off, ready to complain about how fast I’d been driving.

I pressed a finger gently against her lips. "Shh. Look."

The moon hadn’t fully set yet, and the first light of dawn was already bleeding into the sky. Clouds lit up in soft gold, spreading like woven silk.

She stood there, mesmerized.

[Affection—]

I cut the system off. A moment like this didn’t need commentary. Besides, I didn’t need numbers to know how she felt.

After watching the sunrise, I took her home, then headed straight to the exam center.

Days after the exams, I ignored her completely.

When I finally spoke to her, I sighed, "That night watching the sunrise with you… I was too tired. I didn’t even finish the first exam.

"The next few days, you were all I could think about. Forget being top of the class. I might not even get into college now."

A flicker of hesitation crossed her eyes, but it was quickly buried under something colder. "You still have me."

I pulled her into an embrace, holding back just enough. "Keira, you’re all I have."

She gave me $200,000, which I accepted.

"You’re my boyfriend. I’ll take care of you from now on. I want to exercise my rights as your girlfriend. Is that okay?"

I looked at her, confused. "What rights?"

She dropped the act and handed me a room key card. "Tonight, I become yours. Okay?"

The moment the card touched my hand, I jerked back like I’d been burned. It fell to the ground.

Her expression darkened slightly. Before she could get upset, I quickly said, "Can we wait a month?"

I lowered my head shyly. "On my 18th birthday… I want it to be something I’ll remember forever."

I knew she would agree. The task Archer gave her was to get compromising photos of me, and now that she had some feelings of her own, she’d naturally want to delay it.

What she didn’t know was that the date I chose was the night the Bowens would officially introduce me to high society and the day the exam results would be released.

Soon enough, the night of the gala arrived. She called me, saying she had something to handle and that she would find me later.

"That’s fine. I’ve got a surprise for you too."

Dressed to perfection, I removed my glasses, put in contacts, and styled my hair to reveal the sharp lines of my face.

[Visual appeal sufficient. Outcome favorable.]

I smiled faintly. I would win her over tonight, and not just because of my looks.

Surrounded by my parents, I walked slowly down the staircase. The spotlight fell on me, making me look untouchable.

My father lifted the microphone and cleared his throat. "Tonight, I’d like to formally introduce my biological son, Zane Bowen."

In the crowd, Keira suddenly looked up. The wine glass slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.