𝑜𝓋𝐥xt.𝗇𝓔t

Chapter 27: Social Butterfly

After molesting the captain of the Judo Club in a grappling match, Alex changed back into his day’s clothes and attended the rest of his classes. That is, until around noon, when he decided to have lunch. He quickly walked to the cafeteria of the university, where he ordered a nice meal before sitting down alone at a table.

Alex was somewhat of a lone wolf. He did not easily make friends, but those friends he did make were for life, and they were men who he would literally die for if need be. Of course, so far, Alex had not met any man in Korea who had earned such respect and loyalty from him. Thus, he would rather be alone than be surrounded by fair weather “friends” who would not be there for him when he really needed them.

But somebody took notice of this and quickly approached him. While he sat alone, eating his lunch while listening to music young beauty appeared in his vision. Alex thought perhaps he was imagining things because this girl was one of the heroines he was supposed to steal and yet she decided to approach him of her own accord.

The girl had a lovely smile and the aura of a social butterfly. The many men and women who followed her over to Alex’s table proved this assumption correct. She had shoulder length fiery red hair and yellow eyes. She was currently dressed in a leather jacket, a white t-shirt, and a pair of black denim shorts. Along with knee-high boots.

Alex had no idea why the girl had approached him, but she was quick to introduce herself.

“You’re Alex right? I have heard so much about you. You seem to be pretty popular lately. Why are you sitting here all alone?”

Alex genuinely had no idea how to answer this question. It wasn’t as if he were particularly anti-social, but he was also not the extroverted type who thrived on social situations. And explaining things like that to a girl who was clearly a social butterfly was a bit difficult for him. Thus, he did not immediately answer, instead he silently drank his energy drink while formulating a response.

This, in turn, caused one of the men who was following this girl to scoff. He had a look of complete disdain on his face. Though this man was handsome, he was handsome in the way that male Kpop stars were. In other words, incredibly effeminate and soft. Which was the exact opposite of Alex.

He had short silver hair and purple eyes. His skin was also exceptionally pale, and the man seemed to like dressing in designer brands which showed off his family’s wealth. He seemed rather impatient over the fact that the woman was wasting her time with a man he assumed to be an impoverished asshole.

“Dal, why are you even bothering to talk with this guy? Do you even know him?”

There was clearly a look of envy on the young man’s face. As if the fact that Dal was showing even a modicum of interest in another man was simply intolerable to him. However, Dal frowned at the man before properly introducing herself to Alex.

“Don’t mind Dae-Hyun here. My name is Baek Dal. It is nice to meet you, Alex!”

Alex had a hard time understanding why a heroine of all people had chosen to randomly approach him. Ever since his one-night stand with Chae-Rin, all kinds of girls had been approaching Alex with the intent of sleeping with him. By now, all kinds of rumors about Alex’s size and skill in bed were spread throughout the university. And all the major sluts were coming out of the woodwork to confirm if they were true.

But as far as Alex understood, all the Heroines were either young virgins or mature beauties who had only ever been with their husbands. Surely, as a heroine, Dal was not the type of girl to approach a stranger with the intent of casual sex? After thinking about this for some time, Alex decided to answer honestly.

“You asked why I’m sitting alone? In all honesty, my time isn’t cheap, and I have no intentions of surrounding myself with people who I can’t trust….”

There was only one reason why Alex had decided to be blunt with the girl, and that was because she was a heroine. Because of this, she could see what she liked in a man, and what she disliked. And there was a very specific type of person that she seemed to despise.

[Dislikes: Charlatans, Frauds, and other Fake people]

The fact that Alex’s words seemed to be deliberately targeting Dal’s friends surprisingly did not bother her. In fact, it only made the woman more intrigued by Alex. She quickly followed up with a question of her own, followed by a suggestion.

“Wait, so you don’t have any friends? That’s awful! Well, a group of us are getting together for Karaoke tonight, it’s going to be really fun! If you don’t have anything better to do, why don’t you join us?”

There was an almost pleading look on the girl’s face, as if having Alex join her and her friends was something she truly believed would benefit Alex himself. And as much as Alex could not stand k-pop, something which he only tolerated for his stepmother’s sake. He knew that he was not going to easily get another chance to speak with this heroine again, especially if he rejected her offer. Thus, he sighed heavily before agreeing to Dal’s request.

“Alright, fine, give me your number, and text me the details when you can. I’ll join you guys if I have time…”

This caused Dal to squeal in excitement, while Dae-Hyun looked at Alex with complete and total disgust. It was bad enough that he had to compete with the rest of these assholes for Dal’s affection. But now some filthy foreigner was involved in this competition as well? He could not stand it and was quick to scold Dal for her actions.

“Dal, are we really bringing this guy along with us? We barely know him! Besides, I have heard some unflattering rumors about him.”

He didn’t outright say what these rumors were, specifically because Dal had a pure heart, and even he did not want to corrupt that. But Dal seemed adamant about bringing Alex along and was quick to defend him.

“Rumors are rumors! Besides, I don’t think Alex has any friends, and it would be good for him to socialize!”

After saying this, she pulled out her phone and got Alex’s contact information, while sharing her own. Where she flashed a smile before departing. All the while waving goodbye to Alex.

“I’ve got to get to my next class, but it was night meeting you Alex. I hope to hear from you later today!”

Once Dal and her posse were gone, Alex sighed in relief before expressing his thoughts about the woman aloud.

“Sooner or later, it will be a woman like that who is going to be the death of me…”

After saying this, he got back to his lunch.

—

Alex continued with his classes until they were finished, where he then went to the MMA gym before picking up Min-Ah from school. He spent a small amount of time before the proposed meet up time, treating his beloved little sister to some ice cream, before showering and getting dressed appropriately for the occasion.

After ensuring that his appearance was flawless, Alex hopped on his bike and drove to the karaoke place that Dal had texted him. Where he found a group of young adults gathering around Dal, as if she were the center of their attention.

When Alex arrived, she ignored her friends momentarily to greet him.

“Well, don’t you look impressive? You really know how to clean yourself up for a girl, don’t you?”

Alex could easily tell this was just friendly banter, rather than outright flirting, and so he simply swiped his hand through his thick golden hair before confirming that was the case.

“What can I say, when I like a girl, I go all out for her…”

Perhaps Dal believed he was serious, because she blushed slightly before Dae-Hyun interrupted their fun.

“Alright, he’s finally here. Now we can go have some fun, right?”

Dal quickly snapped out of her daze when she heard this and confirmed this was the case, before dragging Alex into a room with her friends, where they all began to drink alcohol and sing songs that were popular in South Korea.

Normally, Alex would wear a smile and pretend he was having a good time for the sake of the girl that he was out with. But Dal seemed to genuinely despise people who were fake. Even though she was surrounded by them. And thus he knew his best chance to cut to the front of the line of these posers, and to win her heart was by being his honest self. Which was a luxury he didn’t have around most women.

Evidently, the girl could easily tell when someone was faking around her, because she looked at Alex with a bit of peculiarity in her eyes. He did not even try to hide the fact that he wasn’t exactly having a good time. She did not know what the reason for this was, but Alex spent three separate fifteen minute breaks within two hours smoking outside the facility.

Nobody other than Dal noticed when the man disappeared. In fact, they seemed to have forgotten he was a part of their group. Until he finally re-entered the room for a third time. Where Dal suddenly thrust the mic in Alex’s face with a cheerful smile.

“Alex, how about you sing something?”

At first, Alex tried to deny this. He never considered himself a great singer, and besides, his favorite music wasn’t exactly something that a group of normal Korean college students would enjoy. After all, he despised all forms of pop music. To him it was computer generated garbage, and completely fake.

Every major pop artist had all their songs written by the same people, even if they might claim otherwise, and even their voices were synthesized with auto-tune to hide just how terrible they actually were at singing. Kpop was not much different from the American pop industry in this regard. And thus Alex never cared for it.

Instead, he liked bands that were nowadays rather obscure, but were fairly popular two decades prior. Bands that wrote their own lyrics, filled with soul and emotion, and played actual instruments. Whether these were the softest of alternative rock bands, or the heaviest of death metal, he did not care. In fact, he listened to it all. And because of this, he would rather not make an ass of himself.

“Nah, that’s fine, I’m not a particularly good singer, and none of you would even recognize the songs I like….”

Dal simply pouted, as she forced the mic into Alex’s hand, before reprimanding him for spoiling the mood.

“Come on! You’ve been so grumpy all night, the least you can do is show us what kind of music you enjoy!”

Alex hesitated for a few moments before finally sighing and accepting his fate. Dal seemed to be really into the idea of listening to him sing, and thus he approached the karaoke machine, where he typed in one of the many songs he liked. It was a song that had just randomly appeared in his head, and while the vocals were mostly clean, it was definitely something that would shock a group of normal Korean young adults.

Despite his unwillingness to sing, Alex took his role very seriously as the hard rock music appeared in the background followed by the first lyrics of the song, which he surprisingly sang almost perfectly.

“Cut my life into pieces

This is my last resort!”

Alex sang the lyrics to “Last Resort” with a display of passion that none of the other group could match. And while all of Dal’s friends looked at Alex as if he were absolutely mental, she seemed to actually enjoy the hard rock song that was all about self-harm.

She even went so far to do a little dance, and bob her head. Dal had never heard American rock music before, but she suddenly found herself enjoying it, especially the passion which Alex practically screamed into the mic, as if he were genuinely contemplating suicide in that exact moment.

Eventually the song ended, and she began to applaud Alex, while her friends simply stared at the man as if he needed some serious help. After all, they were decently proficient in English, and could tell the lyrics were fairly dark. They had no idea if Alex was suicidal, but if this was the music he listened to, they felt they should stay far away from him.

Alex genuinely did not seem to care what these people thought of him. After all, he didn’t expect a bunch of people who thought that pop music was actually good to understand his taste in music. Much to his surprise, Dal stepped forward and asked to hear another one of Alex’s songs. Which was, to the chagrin of her friends, so much so that the Dae-Hyun stepped forward and tried to stop her.

“Come on, Dal, enough pretending. You can’t possibly like that stuff, can you? It’s so violent and harsh! There is nothing enjoyable about it whatsoever. How are you even supposed to dance to it?”

Dal quickly glared at the man and confirmed that she actually did enjoy it. Which came as a surprise to all of her friends.

“Pretend? Who’s pretending? I genuinely found the song to be enjoyable. Why? is that a problem for you, Dae-Hyun?”

Dae-Hyun immediately backtracked and pretended like he had enjoyed the song all along. Which, though he didn’t realize it, Alex could tell caused Dal to sigh inside.

“No, of course not! I was just testing you. You see, I also really enjoyed it! Right, guys?”

Immediately after Dal said she enjoyed the song, all of her friends clapped like trained seals, pretending like it had not disturbed them in the slightest. Alex knew in that moment that Dal did not have any real friends. They were all simply saying whatever it took to please the girl, and though she pretended like she didn’t notice, she genuinely seemed to hate it.

It was perhaps because of this that Dal completely ignored Dae-Hyun and instead asked Alex to show her more of the music that he enjoyed listening to. Luckily for her, Alex was an expert on rock music and metal from the 2000s. After all, he had grown up during that decade in his previous life, and thus he knew more about that kind of music than anyone else in South Korea.

Thus, Alex pulled out his earbuds to show her a plethora of rock songs, all of which she enjoyed. All the while, Dae-Hyun and the rest of Dal’s posse went back to drinking and singing kpop songs. Although throughout the night, they did not stop shooting Alex dirty looks particularly because he was monopolizing Dal.

—

Thank you for reading my novel, if you wish to read a more serious story with an intricate plot, and complex world building, as well as a decent sized harem, and a few smut chapters. Please check out my two other novels: Tyranny of Steel, and Interstellar Age.