Chapter 129 Fresh-Faced and Irresistible
Even through the screen, Amelia could feel Dorian's confusion.
Dorian: [Uh… what do you mean it's already solved?]
Amelia sat at her desk, Shadow sprawled lazily across her lap, half-asleep. Her head was bent, one pale, elegant hand stroking the cat's fur while her right hand typed on her phone.
[It's about the issue with our team's idea for the school anniversary event.]
[I saw Rachel's latest post on Instagram. This isn't the first time she's copied someone's work.]
[But I'm pretty sure she's targeting me this time—otherwise she wouldn't have directly stolen our concept.]
[So I thought of a new plan. I think it can get us out of this mess.]
Leroy: [What plan?]
Leroy had joined the conversation.
Amelia typed in the group chat:
[Since Rachel's team already posted the Doraemon-themed café idea, there's no point in us sticking with it.]
[Remember what Dorian said—our biggest selling point is the handsome servers. What the shop sells or what theme it has isn't the most important thing.]
[Meaning we could run a themed café… or something else entirely. The theme could be Doraemon, or it could be something different.]
[I was thinking—cookies, tarts, little pastries. Easy to make, quick to produce in large batches. With me, Dorian, and Belle, we can handle it.]
[So, on the day of the school anniversary, we could open a dessert house. A place filled with the warm, sweet scent of freshly baked treats—something girls would love.]
[As for the theme… Hello Kitty. Pink goes perfectly with desserts and with girls. And handsome guys dressed in soft pink? Even more tempting.]
On the other side of the screen, four guys reacted in four very different ways.
Asher's eyes flicked sideways. Pink? For them? That was going to be… interesting.
Leroy stared at the message, his gaze shifting slightly. Tempting? Amelia's tone was perfectly serious, but the words were bold enough to make his pulse stir. If she wanted him in pink, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to agree.
Tobias, on the other hand, mentally deleted the words "handsome guys" and focused entirely on "soft pink". His heart leapt. Hello Kitty-themed dessert shop… soft pink… that meant Amelia would be wearing a pink dress that day, right? In his mind, he could already see it—her in a pastel dress, the cutest thing in the entire event. His excitement spiked so high it was almost ridiculous.
He didn't even notice that the ones who'd be wearing pink were the male servers.
Meanwhile, on the second floor of the Martinez family home, Zander heard Tobias's muffled shouts from the next room and rolled his eyes.
What was he so excited about? The ones in pink would be them.
Zander had barely spent time outdoors in his life, so his skin carried the pale, almost unhealthy tone of someone who rarely saw sunlight. His body was fragile, his immune system worse. And now, with the seasonal change, the familiar cycle had returned—he'd caught another cold. Two days ago it was just a dry throat and a stuffy nose, but after school today, his head felt heavy enough to make him skip dinner. He'd gone straight to his room, showered, and collapsed into bed.
While Amelia and Tobias were still in short sleeves and shorts in the twenty-degree evening, Zander was already bundled up in thick pajamas.
He read Amelia's messages, brows knitting slightly. Pink? That was about as far from his usual black wardrobe as it could get. He had zero interest in wearing it.
He was about to type his refusal… but then saw that the other three had already agreed.
[Tobias: Sure! Pink clothes will look super cute!]
[Asher: I'm in. I've never worn pink before, but I look good in anything.]
[Leroy: I'm fine with it.]
Zander's fingers paused. The words he'd typed were quietly erased. This was probably the first time in his life he'd been part of something that felt like a real team, in the ordinary, social sense. He didn't want to be the one to derail it.
Since coming back to the country, his life had shifted in ways he hadn't expected. The old Zander wouldn't have gone near something as loud and pointless as a school anniversary event. He wouldn't have stayed up reading hundreds of messages from Dorian, Asher, and Tobias bickering in the group chat.
And yet… he didn't feel the rejection he'd always assumed he would. Instead, there was a strange, quiet sense of peace.
He'd always hated peace. He'd chased adrenaline, danger—anything to remind him he was alive. With two life-threatening conditions shadowing him, he'd only ever felt the pulse of existence when running missions in the dark or flirting with death.
But now, something was changing.
The change had a name—Amelia. She had pulled them together, bound them in ways he hadn't seen coming.
Zander wasn't the type to call her by anything affectionate. He wasn't Tobias. Trust didn't come easily to him. Letting someone into his world was harder still.
He stayed silent in the chat. The others assumed he hadn't seen the messages—or that he was fine with the plan.
Dorian posted another thought.
[But there aren't any ready-made Hello Kitty-themed uniforms for servers, right? We'd have to custom-make them like last time.]
[If we start now, time's going to be tight. Maybe we could just get four Hello Kitty-themed aprons?]
[It's not as impressive as Rachel's custom uniforms… but at least we'd have them in time.]
Amelia: [It doesn't have to be server uniforms. Casual suits could work too. Look at these four outfits.]
She dropped four images into the chat.
Dorian's eyes widened when he saw them.