Nina Donovan was expressionless. ['This is acceptable, I guess. All I got for a day-old meal. And another thing... who are you calling useless? Compared to me, *you're* the real waste.']
Misty: [???]
Nina Donovan: ['How many hosts have you gone through without even completing this book's plotline?']
Misty fumed, [I have my reasons! All my previous hosts foolishly fell for the male lead. They went from bullying him to helping him, and that's why they were erased.]
Nina Donovan: "..."
She thought of Jasper Sherwood's outrageously handsome face.
'A true male siren,' she scoffed internally.
She had to stay away.
She wanted both the ten billion and her own life.
Nina Donovan had just arrived at the infirmary when she ran into Jasper Sherwood, who was also just coming out.
He had gauze taped to his forehead and a bandage on his cheek.
Dressed in his school uniform, he looked clean and aloof.
Just standing there, he was a sight to behold.
He saw Nina Donovan, too. His dark eyes shifted to her injured foot, then flickered away, his face expressionless.
But Nina Donovan felt a wave of heat rush through her.
In no time, her lovely face was flushed bright red.
It wasn't from anger, but from embarrassment.
It made her want to curl her toes.
'This is so humiliating.'
She could even feel a strange sense of silent mockery coming from Jasper Sherwood.
She tightened her grip on Ian Donovan's arm and glared viciously at him. "What are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out, you hear me?"
A gentle breeze stirred Jasper Sherwood's black hair, and the warm sun cast a beautiful halo around him. His peach-blossom eyes were cold and sullen, but the vivid beauty mark under his right eye softened his indifferent expression. A glance from him could seem passionate, enough to make anyone drown in his gaze.
'He really is a menace!'
Nina Donovan grew even more wary, swearing to herself that she would never get entangled with Jasper Sherwood.
'A man like that is best left for the female lead. A female supporting character like me could never handle him.'
His back was ramrod straight, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a minuscule, cold, and distant smile. "Gouge out my eyes? Go on, come and try."
Nina Donovan choked. 'As if I'd dare!'
'I was just running my mouth.'
Misty: [Host, you can start the mission now. Completing this will add five points to the plot progression.]
Nina Donovan took a deep breath. 'Okay, humiliate the male lead with money, is that it?'
She let out a cold scoff, her expression spoiled and domineering as she glared viciously at Jasper Sherwood. "It's all your fault! Because of you, Leon doesn't want me anymore! I'll make every last one of you miserable."
She got off Ian Donovan's back.
Ian Donovan's brow furrowed slightly as he saw Nina Donovan putting on that same hateful act again.
'A leopard really can't change its spots. She's just not aiming her nastiness at me for now.'
Ian Donovan watched coldly from the side.
She pulled a wad of cash from her bag—about two thousand by the looks of it—and threw it at Jasper Sherwood's face. The red bills scattered and fluttered to the ground.
She felt Jasper Sherwood's aura grow even colder.
Nina Donovan swallowed hard, but her tone was still arrogant. "Pauper, you must be desperate for money, right? Take this. It's a tip from me."
Jasper Sherwood looked at the money on the ground. 'Some people are born with everything.'
But Nina Donovan didn't know that he hadn't slept for days, working to earn money for his sister's medical bills.
The amount she had just thrown away was probably what he would earn after a long stretch of hard work.
The high and mighty young miss was just using money as one more way to humiliate him.
He stepped on the money and turned to leave.
Misty: [AHHH, Host! The plot points didn't increase! The male lead's hatred for you isn't deep enough. Quick, think of something!]
'Wasn't that humiliating enough?'
Nina Donovan was frustrated, but there was nothing for it. She had to call out again. "Stop!"
Jasper Sherwood didn't break his stride.
Nina Donovan gritted her teeth. "Take one more step, and that relative of yours in the hospital can just wait to die!"
Sure enough, Jasper Sherwood stopped in his tracks.
Besides his grandmother and his sister, he had no one else.
He turned around, his gaze fierce and icy. Nina Donovan couldn't describe the look in his eyes, but she felt as if she had been plunged into an ice cave.
Before her was a starving wolf, lying in wait, ready to snap her neck at any moment.
"Hic."
Nina Donovan was scared stiff and started hiccuping uncontrollably.
She was a bit dazed. This sudden hiccup really ruined the atmosphere.
Nina Donovan's mind drifted. ['Misty, that one glare from him... I think I saw my great-grandma...']
Misty: [...]
'Call her a coward, but she still manages to complete her missions just fine.'
'Call her brave, but she gets scared into hiccuping by a single glare from the male lead.'
It facepalmed.
[Don't be afraid. He can't make any waves in this early stage of the story.]
Tears streamed down her face internally. 'I don't get an "early stage"!' she thought. 'I'm constantly getting humiliated by the main couple and all the other male side characters, and I'm supposed to be killed off by the middle of the story.'
'Boo-hoo-hoo, this is terrifying.'
She pointed at the money on the ground, her voice dry. "Pick it up."
Jasper Sherwood stood there for a long time.
Finally, he silently bent down and began picking up the money.
Nina Donovan let out a sigh of relief.
'The male lead will surely remember this moment for the rest of his life.'
Misty also let out a sigh of relief, its voice cheerful. [Thank heavens! Plot progression is at 10%! Keep up the good work, Host!]
'Happy now? I almost died for this.'
Nina Donovan was not amused.
While Jasper Sherwood was picking up the money, her gaze shifted to Ian Donovan at her side, her eyes falling on his pocket. "Are you eating the candy I gave you?"
Ian Donovan turned and walked away. "Don't I have two months?"
Nina Donovan leaned against the wall, watching Ian Donovan's thin, frail-looking back as he left.
In the story, Ian Donovan was actually set to be written off in just two months.
In the end, he would die from hypothermia on a mountain while saving the female lead he loved.
The female lead would never know his good intentions, so his death would leave no mark on her heart.
In this book, he was a tragic character.
Nina Donovan couldn't stop herself from calling out to his retreating back, "Eat more of it! That candy is a special cure for lovesick fools."
Ian Donovan glanced back at her. "Is that why you love eating it so much?"
Nina Donovan choked. For once, she didn't have a comeback.
A wad of cash was suddenly held out in front of her.
But Nina Donovan's gaze fell on Jasper Sherwood's long, beautiful fingers.
Her doe-like eyes widened.
'Holy shit!'
'Such beautiful hands! They're on par with that top-tier hottie I have saved on my phone.'
"Is this enough?" His voice was deep and slightly hoarse.
'What a captivating voice.'
Nina Donovan forced herself to look away.
'Mentally file Jasper Sherwood under the category: Get Close = Death.'
Once she thought of that, his hands suddenly weren't so attractive anymore.
She took the money and deftly stuffed it into her bag.
Originally, she had planned to wait for Jasper Sherwood to leave and then secretly pick it up herself.
Now, she had saved herself a step.
Nina Donovan limped into the infirmary. "You can't leave yet. You have to carry me back to the classroom. My foot ended up like this, so you bear most of the responsibility."
Seeing that Jasper Sherwood didn't budge...
Nina Donovan cleared her throat. "Your family..."
His thick brows shot up and his peach-blossom eyes grew sharp, but having been scared once already, Nina Donovan was now immune to his icy glare.
In the end, he followed her inside.
So, when Leon Grant dragged Vivian Sterling into the infirmary, the sight that greeted them was Nina Donovan on Jasper Sherwood's back, hands on his shoulders, imperiously ordering him around.
Vivian Sterling's eyes instantly reddened.