[Make Priya seek you out first after the rooftop incident]

[Time Limit: 5 Days]

[Reward: 900 Credits]

[The credits have been deposited into your System account!]

The tab appeared and disappeared in the same breath.

Wren barely registered it at first. He was too busy looking at Priya standing outside a house he didn’t recognize with a backpack on, waving at him with a small smile that was doing its best to look casual.

He slowed his pace and walked over to her carefully.

"Priya, what’s going on?" He asked, pulling out one earbud. "Are you not running today?"

Priya blushed and adjusted the backpack on her back.

"I have classes today." She pointed at the tall fence beside them. "This is Derek’s house. Since he’s my boyfriend, we usually walk to college together in the mornings."

"You two are so in loveee~" Wren teased and Priya’s expression twitched as a blush covered her face.

He looked over the fence... barely seeing over the top of it and the front door on the other side was closed.

"You said you walk together? Is he not coming out?"

Priya pulled out her phone and checked her messages. "He woke up a bit late today so he’ll be out soon."

"Okay." Wren said and stayed exactly where he was.

Priya looked at his face and gritted her teeth.

’You’ve practiced this over and over again.’ She thought while clenching both fists at her sides. ’The whole walk from Dani’s house to here, you went through it... Tell him it was a mistake and that you two can stay friends... That’s all... Just say the words.’

"Wren, I have something to say." Priya said.

Wren raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Priya looked at his face and her words caught somewhere between her chest and her throat.

He had a genuinely concerned expression on his handsome face and it made her stutter immediately, for some reason, Priya couldn’t bring herself to say it.

"T-the kiss..." She started.

"What about the kiss?" Wren asked then he grinned. "Did you like it?"

Priya looked at the ground and touched her lips without thinking about the fact that she was doing it.

Yes.

She loved it... Every single second of it... It was her first kiss and the feeling had stayed with her through the entire sleepless night, imprinted on her mouth like something she couldn’t wash off no matter how many times she pressed her lips together trying to make it go away.

She had spent hours on her bed staring at the ceiling thinking about nothing else but she couldn’t say that. She was supposed to tell him she had Derek and that it couldn’t happen again.

Priya opened her mouth, took a slow breath and said the words that came into her mouth instantly.

"I didn’t like it." She said. "It was all rough and gooey and you don’t know how to kiss at all."

It hurt to say, more than she expected but maybe Wren would take the hint and back off and everything could go back to being simple however...

He did not take the hint.

Wren slammed both hands against the fence with her sandwiched between them, looking directly into her eyes.

"Excuse me." He said. "I’m a bad kisser? It was rough and gooey?"

He wasn’t that offended... it was his first time kissing someone too but still. If he was a bad kisser then what was the point of buying the skill from Nyx in the first place with those credits?

[Host, can you not tell she’s lying?]

’She is?’ Wren raised an eyebrow and looked at Priya’s face.

A small bead of sweat was running down the side of it despite the morning being cool and her body was clearly hot underneath that thick hoodie.

[Naturally. Did you not see the way she leaned into the kiss yesterday? She was completely invested. She pulled you closer with both arms, Host. How could she call a skill purchased from a Legendary System such as myself rough and gooey? How dare this bitc—]

’Nyx... Calm down.’ Wren thought, keeping his arms planted on either side of her so she had no clean escape. ’I need to salvage this.’

He genuinely had no idea why but having Priya pinned against her boyfriend’s fence was making him feel hot...

Maybe it was the fact that he got cock-blocked both times by Rita and he started acting like a horny teenager or maybe it was because she looked really cute but whatever the reason, the feeling was there and he wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

’I never said I was innocent after all.’ He thought and swallowed then Wren looked at her properly.

"If I’m such a bad kisser..." Wren said. "How about I give you a good one right now?"

Priya looked around nervously, they were still standing right outside Derek’s house.

"Like last time, I won’t force you." Wren dropped his arms and smiled. "You can leave if you want though I doubt you’ll get a chance like this again."

Priya swallowed.

She wanted to move... Every sensible part of her brain was telling her to move... Step sideways, duck under his arm, say goodbye and walk up Derek’s front path and ring the doorbell like a normal girlfriend.

That was the logical sequence of events but the feeling of his lips from the rooftop was still sitting on her mouth.

Her body knew what it wanted and it was not listening to the sensible part anymore and Wren placed his arms back like a wall.

"Time’s up." He said.

"Wren~ I don’t think we should be doing... mmph."

He pushed her against the fence and kissed her with her head pressed gently into the wood.

’All of this is her fault.’ Wren thought as he kissed her. ’Why did she have to act so cute?’

Her legs wrapped around his waist almost immediately. His hands gripped her thighs firmly, holding her up effortlessly against the fence with his fingers pressing into the soft flesh there.

He could feel the warmth of her even through the denim. His tongue pushed past her lips without hesitation, moving against hers steadily and she gasped into his mouth at the contact.

He could feel every part of her pressed against him... her chest against his, the warmth of her hips between his and the way her arms kept pulling him closer instead of pushing him away like she had clearly come here intending to do.

Her fingers threaded through his hair and gripped and her legs tightened around his waist until there was genuinely no space left between them.

Her mouth moved against his and he felt her kissing him back with the same intensity he was giving her which was the part that surprised him.

He had half expected her to push him off at some point but it seemed that she was far too gone to do so and so he obliged, twirling her tongue around his mouth while pushing her against the wall.

Maybe he was starting to enjoy taking what belonged to other people... There was this forbidden hot feeling that came with pinning a girl against the fence of her Boyfriend’s house and kissing her senseless or maybe Nyx’s propaganda was beginning to get to him.

’What a cute girl.’ Wren thought as he pulled back slowly, a strand of saliva connecting their mouths just like in the movies Leah was always making him watch against his will and he looked at her.

Priya’s eyes were slightly unfocused.

She blinked at him a few times like she was coming back to herself from somewhere far away and then used her wrist to wipe her lips slowly with her whole hand trembling slightly as she did it.

"So am I a good kisser now or what?"

"Y-you’re..." She started, swallowed and tried again.

"You’re r-really a good kisser." She admitted with her voice barely above a whisper. "I e-enjoyed... both of them."

"Good." Wren said, smiling. "That’s what I like to hear."

Then he brought his face to the side of her neck where the hoodie collar opened and licked it slowly, his palms squishing against her backside through her jeans at the same time.

Priya’s whole body went rigid.

"Wren!"

The front door of Derek’s house slammed open hard enough that Wren could hear it from where he was standing.

Heavy footsteps came fast down the path and the gate swung open with a bang. Derek stood there with wide eyes and slightly labored breathing, looking between the two of them rapidly.

"Wren, what did you do?!"

Priya answered before Wren had even fully processed that Derek was standing there.

She had already stepped back from the fence and was straightening her hoodie with both hands with her expression completely composed like the last several minutes had simply not occurred.

"Oh Morning Babe, I saw Wren on a morning run and we were talking while I was waiting for you... so he suddenly tickled me." She said simply. "And it made me scream, that’s all."

She looked at Derek and adjusted her backpack strap calmly.

"Are you ready to go?"

Derek blinked at her.

"Yeah." He said slowly, still processing, holding up his bag. "Professor Aldham better not spring a pop quiz on us today, I swear that man sits at home at night specifically thinking about how to ruin people’s mornings."

"He really does." Priya agreed, completely naturally, falling into step beside him. She glanced back at Wren once over her shoulder.

"Good luck on your jog." She said and Wren nodded.

"Thank you." Wren said.

And just like that she walked off down the road hand in hand with Derek, not looking back again.

’Yeah.’ Wren thought, watching the two of them disappear down the road. Priya hadn’t looked back once. ’I think I’ll remain single.’

It was genuinely terrifying.

He had just kissed her against her boyfriend’s fence, licked her neck and made her cry out loud enough that Derek came sprinting out of the house... and within thirty seconds of Derek appearing, Priya had produced a full cover story, straightened her clothes, asked if Derek was ready and walked off holding his hand like none of it had happened at all.

Some women were an entirely different category of creature.

He stood there for a moment longer and then shook his head slowly.

[Host~ Congratulations! Your Skill: Good Kisser Level 1 has leveled up!]

[Good Kisser ( Level 2)]

[Targets experience heightened sensitivity during kisses, their resistance lowers faster and the duration of kiss naturally extends.]

Wren looked at the tab for a moment.

’I feel proud of myself.’ He thought.

And genuinely, he did.

It was a strange feeling... He had arrived in Harlow as the guy who got shut down at an apartment hallway door and had his phone smashed against a wall on the same night.

The guy who graduated with a 3.0 in Business Administration and had no applications sent anywhere and no particular plan for what came next.

That same guy was now standing outside a fence where he had just kissed a 22 year old college student against her boyfriend’s front gate while said boyfriend was twenty feet away inside eating cereal probably.

He had gone from no game to half decent with actual things happening around him. It was worth a pat on the back to be honest, and he also had a lot of credits... not as much as those rich families but certainly if he kept doing missions like this then there was a chance.

’I wonder what you have in store for me next, Nyx.’ He thought as the road stretched out ahead of him.

[Ehehehehe~ So many things, Host. So many wonderful things.]

With that Wren ran as far as he could go until the daily mission tab pinged its completion and the morning opened up properly around him.