My cousin Tyler loves gaming, but he’s terrible at it. Every time he plays, his teammates absolutely roast him. After seven straight days of intense voice-chat arguments, his skills hadn’t improved, but his vocal cords went on strike. I got nervous and accidentally called the guy "hubby" instead of "buddy." The toxic gamer on the other end fell silent. Suddenly, his voice turned incredibly smooth and teasing: "There’s no romance in esports. Being trash at the game is the original sin. Don't try this on me." "Marriage requires careful consideration. I'm not that easy." "But... seeing how insistent you are, I guess it's not impossible..." "Wifey, do we have time to go house-hunting for our starter home this afternoon?" I was speechless and immediately quit the game. Shortly after, at my lab's welcome dinner, everyone was gossiping about our aloof, genius senior PhD student buying a house for his future bride. 01 After another incredibly stupid play where Tyler fed the enemy team a free kill, his teammate turned his mic on: [Bro, do you work for DoorDash? Because you're feeding them non-stop.] [Are you playing with your monitor turned off?] [I've seen smooth brains, but yours must be polished.] [Minecraft couldn't dig up a blockhead as dense as you.] Tyler was furious. He used every ounce of strength his throat had left to let out a hoarse "Croak!" which caught my attention. I held back a laugh. "Do you need water?" Tyler shook his head and typed furiously on his phone: "Sis, this guy is flaming me. Trash-talk him for me." I refused. "You know I'm an angry crier. I can't argue with people." Tyler started thrashing around, making weird noises. Sometimes it was a "Croak!", sometimes a "Quack!". The nurses peeked into his hospital room several times. Embarrassed, I pinched his mouth shut. Tyler held up his phone, blinking pitifully: "Sis, this is about my honor as a man. If you help me, I'll give you my entire allowance for a month." I capitalized on the moment and held up two fingers. Tyler nodded mournfully and typed through gritted teeth: "Fine. Two months." I put on the headset. The toxic rager on the other end was still going off. A few seconds later, I realized I had overestimated my mental fortitude and underestimated his aggressiveness. Even though I knew he wasn't yelling at me, I couldn't control my physiological reaction. My nose started to sting. As expected, things went completely off the rails. I steeled myself and opened my mouth, intending to say "Listen here, buddy!" But my voice trembled, and I accidentally said "Listen here, hubby!" Because I was trying so hard to hold back tears, my tone sounded incredibly aggrieved, like a girlfriend whining for attention. The atmosphere, which had been hostile and explosive just a second ago, instantly turned weirdly intimate. Tyler, me, and the toxic rager all fell into a bizarre silence. After a long time, the guy finally turned his mic back on, his voice suddenly dripping with playful teasing: [Oh, it's a girl.] [There’s no romance in esports. Being trash at the game is the original sin. Don't try this on me.] [Marriage requires careful consideration. I'm not that easy.] I opened my mouth to explain, but he immediately added: [But... if you're really going to be this insistent, I guess it's not impossible...] [Honestly, the fact that you can tell your teammates from your enemies is already amazing. Even though you just stood there taking damage and missed all your ultimate moves, taking a step back, aren't the people attacking you the ones really at fault here?] [I'm 23 this year. The perfect age to settle down.] [Wifey, do we have time to go house-hunting for our starter home this afternoon?] I was stun-locked for a solid thirty seconds by this rapid-fire monologue. I couldn't tell if he was genuinely messing with me or just being extremely sarcastic. But either way, from the moment that slip of the tongue happened, I had already lost the high ground. Tyler and I exchanged a look, and I awkwardly quit the game. Looking at my shattered cousin, I carefully tried to smooth things over: "Um, hey, how about you just give me half a month's allowance? I'd feel bad taking two months' worth for that." Tyler buried his face in his pillow and spitefully Venmo'd me fifty bucks. 02 Because I had more important things to do today, I didn't dwell on the little gaming incident. After leaving Tyler's hospital room, I hurried to catch an Uber to Harvard for my graduate program orientation. After getting accepted into the Master's program, I had asked around about my specific lab. Our advising professor was extremely busy, so the person assigned to guide me was a PhD student known as the "Boy Genius," Asher Davies. Rumor had it that at 23, he had already achieved things most people couldn't reach by 53. I had looked up his profile, originally intending to worship the academic titan's research papers, but I ended up staring at his ID photo the entire time. Unlike the stereotypical image of a plain, rigid engineering PhD student, Asher had a face that was almost dangerously attractive, with surprisingly thick hair. From certain angles, he looked like a young Timothée Chalamet... Motivated by the prospect of working with a gorgeous guy, my chronic laziness vanished, and I actually chose to check in early. The lab door was wide open. The second I stepped inside, I pinpointed Asher in the crowd. He looked to be over 6'1", with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His hair was dyed a smoky blue, matching the stud in his ear, which made his skin look even paler and cooler. He had deep-set eyes and a small mole on the bridge of his straight nose, adding an inexplicable touch of sex appeal to his aloof aura. Seeing him in person was ten times more impactful than the photo. Even though I had mentally prepared myself the whole ride there, my heart still raced, and I couldn't look away. "I heard you like watching Bridgerton in the lab. Since you love drama so much, let's call this paper the Duke of Disappointment." A low, cold voice drifted clearly into my ears, instantly snapping me out of my trance. Oh no. The genius PhD senior was a beautiful, venomous-tongued tyrant! The senior girl who was being criticized scurried back to her desk, giving me a quick nod as she passed. I quickly waved back. Asher finally noticed me and lazily lifted his eyes. His tone was noticeably softer than a moment ago, but still cold and distant: "Hello, you're Sophie, right? I'm Asher Davies. I wasn't at your interview, but I reviewed your resume later. You ranked first in your undergrad class. Not bad." I smiled politely. "Thank you, Senior..." "But your extracurricular research experience is severely lacking, and you have zero published papers. I'm very curious what you do in your free time." My smile froze. I dropped my head and muttered, "I play video games, hang out at the mall..." I secretly rejoiced that Asher hadn't been at my interview. Otherwise, I might not have even made it into the program. Asher gave me a brief tour of the lab, handed me some introductory reading materials, and went back to his desk. As I quietly unpacked my things at my new desk, I sneaked glances at him. Asher seemed to be waiting for a message. He checked his phone every five seconds. Was he waiting for his girlfriend to text him? Someone that handsome and brilliant definitely had a girlfriend. While I was wondering, Tyler sent me a bunch of screenshots. It was DMs from that teammate: [Wifey, why won't you add me on Snapchat?] [I picked out three floor plans for the house. Take a look and see which one you like best.] [Wifey, why are you ignoring me? Do you not like the in-game skins I bought you, or are you just upset because we lost the last match?] [Get online. I wasn't playing seriously last time, but I promise we'll win this one. If anyone dares to trash-talk you, I'll flame them to death.] Tyler complained: [Sis, I think this bro is actually serious.] [Getting called 'Wifey' by a dude non-stop is making me sick.] [I don't even dare to log in anymore. You know what, Sis? I'm just going to block him.] Not long after Tyler sent those texts. Asher suddenly stood up from his desk. His eyes looked slightly red, and he hurried out the door. Did he just get into a fight with his girlfriend? I guessed silently. 03 A little while later, Tyler texted again: [This guy has too much money to burn. Does he think he's in a romance novel? He actually put a server-wide bounty out looking for me.] [My crush saw the wanted poster and asked me if I bat for the other team.] [Sis, if this keeps up, my reputation is ruined. You started this romantic debt, you have to take responsibility.] I sighed: [...How am I supposed to do that?] [Sis, let's trade game accounts. You deal with this guy.] Looking at my stressed-out cousin. I felt bad and agreed to his proposal. I unblocked the guy, furiously typed out a massive paragraph of explanation, but before I could hit send... He excitedly messaged me: [Wifey! I knew you just accidentally hit the settings menu and misclicked the block button hidden in the corner! You definitely weren't avoiding me on purpose like they said.] I muttered in my head: Actually, what they said was 100% accurate... [I just asked my mom. She said girls hate men who are all talk and no action.] [So I paid cash and bought the house outright. We live in the same city anyway, so you can come over anytime to see if you like it.] Reading that, I nearly choked on my water. I comforted myself, thinking he was definitely lying. Please. What 23-year-old could pay cash for a house? I'd be impressed if he could pay cash for a Starbucks coffee. But immediately after, he sent detailed interior photos and a street address. Downtown. Luxury penthouse. Floor-to-ceiling windows. It didn't look photoshopped at all... My brain practically short-circuited as I stared blankly at the screen. He was still typing out long paragraphs about our future together. I suddenly remembered a news article Tyler had shown me. A couple met online and promised to get married. The guy spent all his money on his "girlfriend," and when she backed out at the last minute, he jumped into a river. Thinking about that, a wave of unspeakable guilt washed over me. I'm so sorry, Toxic Bro. I really didn't mean to. If I had known you were this pure-hearted and intense, I would have cleared up the misunderstanding the second I misspoke. But now he bought a house. He spent the money. Apologizing on my knees wouldn't fix this. Terrified of triggering him, I deleted the massive explanation I had typed out and delicately replied: [Don't you think we're moving a bit too fast?] [You're right, the courthouse is probably closed by now. Let's meet in front of City Hall at 8 AM tomorrow. I'll come pick you up.] Me: [No, no, no, what I mean is, can we go back to the very beginning and just start as normal online friends?] This time, his reply was slow. He was clearly going through a massive internal struggle: [Wifey, but... when you called me hubby earlier, that's not what you said...] I frantically shut it down: [Maybe the slang is different where you're from! Where I live, we don't call normal online friends 'hubby'.] I glanced at his username: [Ash]. A spark of inspiration hit me: [How about this? I'll call you Ash, and you can call me Soph.] Soph was my family nickname. He struggled to reply: [Okay.] I was satisfied. Even though this guy was a bizarre romantic, at least he listened. Since I couldn't reject him harshly, the only option was to slowly ice him out until he gave up on his own. It was a bit toxic of me, but at least it wouldn't end in a tragedy. 04 Over the next month, Ash continued to message me non-stop every single day. He was desperate to learn more about me. This included, but was not limited to, asking for my real name, what school I went to, and my home address. I blocked all of it using my ultimate catchphrase: "We're just online friends right now. You're crossing a boundary," delivered half-jokingly, half-seriously. Even through the screen, I could feel the suffocating frustration of a man who had a heart full of love and nowhere to put it. Especially when I subtly suggested he return the house or try paying attention to other girls around him. Under my relentless icing-out strategy, my interactions with Ash gradually dwindled to just gaming. I had no choice; he was just too good at the game. Plus, ever since our first misunderstanding, he seemed to realize I didn't like a hostile environment. So he rarely used his mic to flame people anymore. A perfect gaming buddy like him was incredibly hard to find. Today was like any other day. While the lab was empty, I opened the game on my phone and waited for Ash to invite me. Suddenly, a deep, pleasant voice sounded right behind me: "Sophie." Terrified, I immediately slammed my phone face down on the desk. I turned around—sure enough, it was Asher. I had no idea when he came in through the back door. Ever since I carefully pried it out of my senior lab mate, Chloe, that Asher had actually never been in a relationship before... I stayed up all night drafting a master plan to win him over. I was full of confidence that I would make him mine. But a month passed. Even the janitor who delivered our water jugs could tell I had a crush on Asher. Yet no matter how many pretty dresses I wore to catch his eye, or how many times I bought him breakfast and tried to impress him... Asher remained completely blind to it. I figured maybe geniuses were naturally attracted to intelligence. So, I decided to switch gears, work incredibly hard, and use my brilliant academic performance to catch his attention. I didn't expect that less than a day into this new phase of the plan, I would die on the battlefield. "S-Senior," I stammered guiltily, hiding my phone behind my back. Asher's perfectly shaped eyebrows raised slightly. His voice was cool and a bit sharp: "Read the sign posted on the wall." Maybe his tone was too fierce. My chronic angry-crying flared up again. My nose started to sting, and my voice trembled. Just like the day I accidentally said "hubby," it sounded exactly like I was whining: "No... no food deliveries, and no gaming or anything unrelated to academics allowed in the lab." "Soph..." Asher's pupils contracted imperceptibly, and he muttered something almost too quietly to hear. I froze for a second, trying hard to control my emotions and returning to my normal tone: "Senior, what did you say? I didn't catch that." "Nothing," Asher lowered his eyes slightly. "What game were you just playing?" Hehe. It seemed my reflexes were fast enough. Asher hadn't actually seen my screen. Thinking about the massive server-wide gossip surrounding me and Ash, I purposely named a completely different, unrelated game. Asher gave a low hum of acknowledgment. A flash of disappointment seemed to pass through his eyes. "Write an apology essay. Give it to me later. Don't let it happen again." Taking advantage of the moment, I pulled out the simulation report I had poured my blood, sweat, and tears into recently, offering it to him like a treasure. His long, slender fingers flipped through the pages methodically, his knuckles tinted a faint pink. The breeze stirred the hair on his forehead, and the soft scratching sound of his pen circling things on the paper filled the air. It made my heart melt. Honestly, Asher just looked unapproachable on the outside. Deep down, he was probably very gentle. "I looked at the draft. The logic is a mess. Where's the main text?" Okay, I take back what I just said. "Senior, that is the main text." I stared blankly at his opening and closing pale pink lips, swallowing hard. "Sophie, am I good-looking?" "Ah." My heart dropped. I suddenly felt the intense embarrassment of having my secret crush exposed. My cheeks burned, but I nodded honestly: "Yes... your lips look soft..." I just don't know what it would feel like to kiss them... I didn't dare say the second half out loud. Asher's usually lazy, cold voice grew a bit stricter: "You have good talent. Spend your time reading more literature, and stop wasting your energy on things that are destined to have no result. Understand?" I assumed he was still talking about me sneaking around playing video games. With red eyes, I nodded, looking like an obedient child admitting a mistake. Seeing my pitiful expression, Asher didn't press the issue. He pulled out his phone and hurriedly replied to a message. No matter what Asher did, he prioritized efficiency. He was a typical overachiever who equally looked down on anyone who was bad at what they did. I wondered who was honored enough to warrant this much patience from him. It made me a little jealous... After Asher walked away, I unlocked my phone. I had dozens of new DMs. [I'm so sorry, Soph. I got delayed by something. Don't worry, I promise I'll carry you today and we'll destroy them.] Even though I had been icing him out for a month, Ash's words still showed he wasn't satisfied with just being friends. Dragging this out any longer was just wasting both of our time. Getting caught playing games today was probably a sign. I hardened my heart and replied: [I'm sorry. My real-life crush doesn't like me playing games. I probably won't be logging on anymore. Goodbye.] 05 Over the next few days, Asher's mood visibly plummeted. He often just stared blankly at his phone. One day, I ran the wrong experimental data, completely wasting an entire afternoon. Chloe patted my shoulder. "An hour. Minimum." "What?" Chloe sighed. "Last time I made the exact same mistake, Senior Asher yelled at me for half an hour. He's in a terrible mood right now, so I'm guessing an hour, minimum." Hearing that, I was terrified and trembling all afternoon. But Asher didn't say a single word. He just silently adjusted the parameters back to normal for me. His usually arrogant, cool face looked utterly deflated. He had less energy than the white mice in the lab next door. This continued until Professor Miller returned from a business trip and treated the entire lab to dinner. While we waited for the food, everyone was chatting. Except Asher, who kept his head down staring at his phone, radiating a terrifyingly dark aura. Mason, who was sitting closest to him, teased: "Asher, bro, online dating is a scam to begin with. You should've been more careful. Otherwise, you end up like this—house is bought, but the bride ran away." I sharply caught the keyword, my smile freezing on my face. "What bride?" Chloe had clearly told me that Asher's focus was rock solid, he didn't care about women, and had never dated anyone. I turned around. Chloe looked just as confused as I did. Mason observed Asher's expression and sighed: "It's nothing. Simply put, our boy Asher finally fell for someone, and before they even went on a single date, he got played by a toxic e-girl." "Really? That's way too far!" I felt a genuine surge of anger. How could someone as proud as Asher, someone who never bowed his head to anyone, get his feelings played with? If that girl didn't know how to appreciate him, she should step aside and let me handle it. Mason was indignant. He nudged Asher: "See? Even the freshman can't stand it. Asher, bro, loyalty is a good thing, but being this obsessed is just delusional." The other seniors at the table who were enjoying the gossip all wore matching expressions of shock. They muttered among themselves: "That's crazy. Usually, Asher is the one rejecting people. I can't believe there's a woman out there who rejected him." "No way, Asher, really? If even you can't find a wife these days, how are the rest of us background NPCs supposed to survive..." "Asher, with your face, your achievements, and your earning potential, you're one in a million. That girl doesn't know how lucky she is." Asher frowned impatiently and shot Mason a death glare: "Don't talk about her like that." 06 Chloe's eyes darted around, and she shot me a look: "Asher, you know what they say. The best way to get over a breakup is to start a new romance." "Since online dating is a scam, why don't you look at the single girls right in front of you?" Chloe's gaze pretended to casually land on me: "Like Sophie! She's pretty, she has a sweet voice, she's ambitious and humble..." Chloe's hand poked my ribs under the table. I was ticklish and accidentally snorted a laugh. To ease the awkwardness, I nervously tried to keep the conversation going: "Um, yeah, what she said. I'm pretty great." Chloe gave me a look of pure exasperation: "..." The other seniors around the table covered their mouths and snickered. Seeing what was going on but not calling it out, they all started hyping me up: "Honestly, I've been wanting to say this. Senior Asher definitely plays favorites with Sophie. No matter what reading material it is, he goes through it first, highlights all the key points, and then gives it to her. We definitely didn't get that treatment when we joined." Asher's eyes naturally curved upward, and the way the light caught his gaze made him look incredibly captivating. "You guys are smarter. I was worried she wouldn't understand it." "..." The smile that had just bloomed on my face vanished. Professor Miller joined in the fun: "You guys aren't wrong. Asher, I've noticed you truly never speak harshly to Sophie. You aren't even that gentle when you're grading papers for my classes." Everyone laughed together. I also let the corners of my mouth curl up, staring at Asher with bright, hopeful eyes, looking deeply affectionate and shy. Looking at it this way, I really was somewhat special in Asher's heart, wasn't I? His dark eyelashes fluttered slightly. The blue stud in his ear reflected the light, making his aristocratic vibe feel a bit unapproachable. "Sophie, what was your SAT Reading score?" I froze, not understanding why he was asking that. "780. Why, Senior?" Asher frowned slightly. "With a score like that, logically, you should be able to understand what I mean." I blinked in confusion. Asher leaned back in his chair, casually scanned the crowd, and unlocked his phone. I was usually slow to catch on, but this time I was very sharp. I picked up my phone too. Sure enough, my pinned contact sent me a message: [Do I really have to spell it out so bluntly?] [I already have someone I like. I'm going to keep pursuing her, even if she rejects me.] [I will have a girlfriend, but it will never be you.] My mood plummeted from the clouds straight into the abyss. My eyes widened, but I didn't dare look up and meet Asher's gaze. So, when he told me not to waste energy on things destined to have no result... he meant this. Asher had rejected me a long time ago. And I was still charging forward like an idiot, thinking he was enjoying the flirtatious atmosphere just now. Not rejecting me publicly in front of everyone was the last shred of dignity Asher was leaving me. I fought back the sour feeling in my throat and forced a casual tone as I typed: [Senior, you misunderstood. I actually don't like you like that.] Asher: [That's for the best.] I silently picked up my drink and downed it in one gulp.
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