Chapter 26 The Procrastination Plan
“What’s so great about the guys at my school?” Nathan asked, his fork pausing mid-air. “Most of them are going to be doctors. They’ll be too busy to see you.”
“Doctors are great! They look so handsome in scrubs!” Seeing Nathan’s instantly sour expression, Chloe quickly tried to flatter him. “I’m sure you’ll be super handsome in your scrubs, too!”
Fuming, Nathan reached across the table, took the burger off her plate, and put it on his own tray. “After all the meals we’ve eaten together, you still don’t know what my major is? I’m studying biomedical science. I won’t be doing clinical work. I’ll be doing drug development and research.”
“Huh? You’re not going to be a doctor?” Chloe had just naturally assumed everyone at a medical campus used a stethoscope. She glanced at his hands. “That’s a bit of a shame. You have such nice hands; they’d look good holding a scalpel.”
Flattered despite his irritation, Nathan’s mood lifted slightly. He pursed his lips to hide a smile. “I have absolutely no idea what goes through your head all day.”
Chloe immediately smiled sweetly, snatched her burger back, and took a massive bite while looking around the crowded dining hall. “There are so many guys here! My campus is mostly girls. We should organize a mixer so our dorms can get to know each other.”
“So you’re only coming to my campus to scout for dates, huh?” Nathan asked, his voice tightening again.
“Of course! If not in college, then when? I heard your social circle shrinks drastically after you start working. By then, I won’t be able to find a boyfriend on my own and I’ll have to rely on blind dates. I have to prepare now, right? What if I graduate and I’m still single? That’d be a disaster!”
Nathan pressed his lips into a hard, thin line and said nothing.
A minute later, Chloe leaned across the table, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Hey, Nathan. See that guy at the next table? The one in the blue sweater? Do you think he’s pre-med? Will he become a doctor?”
“How should I know!” Nathan snapped.
“Alright, I’ll just go ask him.”
Nathan reached out to grab her wrist, but he was too late.
Chloe had already grabbed her tray, marched over to the next table, and sat down directly across from the guy, flashing him a brilliant smile.
The poor student seemed completely flustered by her sudden appearance. She chatted with him for less than two minutes before smoothly writing his pager number on a napkin.
She trotted back to Nathan’s table, beaming triumphantly. “See? Being cute has its perks. I just asked and he gave it to me.”
“Chloe, did you seriously take the bus all the way here just to do this?” Nathan was so furious he could barely keep his voice steady.
“Hey, why are you getting so worked up? You can come to our campus next time! We have tons of pretty girls in the communications department.”
“I don’t need to! And you’d better not come back to my school again!” Nathan stood up abruptly. He grabbed his tray, slammed it onto the return rack, and walked out of the dining hall without looking back once.
Chloe sat alone, scratching her head in total frustration. Why is he angry again?
The guy had such a weird temper. She was an adult now—what was wrong with wanting a boyfriend? If he didn’t want to help her find one, fine, but why throw a tantrum?
It wasn't until several girls in her dorm started going on dates set up by their high school friends that Nathan finally realized the truth: Chloe wasn't visiting his campus every week because she missed him. She was coming because she wanted a top-tier medical student for a boyfriend.
Even with his freakishly high IQ, Nathan hadn’t guessed she was entirely focused on dating!
Furious, he started icing her out. He stopped replying to her texts on ICQ, answered her calls with one-word responses, and turned down every invitation she threw his way. He thought she would eventually realize her mistake, miss him, and apologize.
However, once Chloe started her own classes and no longer needed his meticulously organized study notes to pass her exams, she naturally didn’t need him anymore.
She simply forgot about him.
By then, Nathan was nearly seventeen. And sitting alone in his dorm room, glaring at his silent phone, he finally realized something terrifying: he had completely fallen for her.
And this silent treatment couldn’t go on.
Given how aggressively eager she was to find a boyfriend, and how undeniably attractive she was, it wouldn’t take her a full semester to show up at his door holding some idiot’s hand.
Nathan swallowed his pride, picked up the phone, and called her first, inviting her back to his campus for dinner.
Chloe still remembered how grim he had looked the last time, and her tone was sharp. “Didn’t you tell me not to come back to your school?”
“I was just stressed about midterms that day. Why did you take it so seriously?” Nathan coaxed her smoothly over the line.
“Well, what did I do to make you so angry?”
“You were just asking strangers for their numbers! You don’t know what kind of people they are. What if they’re dangerous?”
“How dangerous could a pre-med student at your school really be?” Chloe scoffed. “I just wanted his number. I was going to vet him later. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Okay, I get it,” Nathan said, executing his new strategy. “Listen, if you really want to meet future doctors, I can introduce you to some.”
“Really?” Chloe gasped, her voice instantly brimming with delight. “You’ll actually set me up?”
“Absolutely. I’ll make sure to introduce you to someone with a good character.” Nathan agreed easily, promising to personally screen all candidates.
Chloe was thrilled. “He better be good-looking, too! No ugly guys, and he has to be tall!”
“Got it,” Nathan said through gritted teeth.
Because Nathan had skipped multiple grades, he was two or three years younger than all the girls in his graduating class. He still had a youthful, boyish face and a slender build, so older girls rarely paid him any attention.
In high school, all the girls had obsessed over a senior named Eugene Baker, a guy who constantly received love letters. Chloe had written one too—a letter so childishly embarrassing that Nathan had wanted to rip it to shreds the moment she showed him. Luckily, Eugene had tossed it in the trash without reading it.
Nathan stood in his dorm bathroom, glaring at his reflection in the mirror. He still looked like a high schooler. And his height was still lacking.
He calculated that he would need at least two more years of physical growth before he could safely enter the pool of potential boyfriends for Chloe without her seeing him as a little brother.
He had to delay her for two years. He had to ensure she stayed entirely single until he was ready.
To that end, Nathan devised a meticulously detailed procrastination plan.
He went to the library and began studying dating psychology guides, analyzing exactly what girls found attractive in men and how to organically engineer heart-fluttering moments.
Armed with his new academic knowledge, Nathan seamlessly reinserted himself into her life.
He invited her to his campus for meals every week, often showing up with her favorite snacks. For every minor holiday and birthday, he gave her perfectly selected, thoughtful gifts.
At the same time, he ruthlessly sabotaged her love life. Whenever a guy showed interest in her, Nathan would casually dismiss him as worthless. He would point out that the guy’s major wasn’t prestigious enough, or that he wasn’t tall enough, or he would simply deploy his ultimate weapon:
“Hold on,” Nathan would say seriously. “I know a really great upperclassman in the surgical program. He’s incredibly busy right now, but I’ll set you up with him next month. Don’t settle for this guy.”
“Really? That’s amazing! Boys from your school must be the best. I’ll wait for your news!” Chloe’s eyes would sparkle with complete, absolute trust.
But she was kept waiting for a very long time by Nathan’s entirely fictional upperclassmen.
During this two-year sabotage campaign, Nathan never once confessed his feelings or showed any romantic interest in her. After all, there was a fifty percent chance of rejection, and if she rejected him, he would lose his access to her entirely.
Nathan Archer pursued absolute perfection. He was not in a hurry to confess.
Instead, he prepared. He drank massive amounts of milk daily. He ran five miles every night. He implemented a rigorous stretching and jump-rope routine to maximize his growth plates.
Finally, in his junior year, he decided the timing was right.
When the summer term hit, he told Chloe he had to stay on campus for a lab internship instead of taking the train back to their hometown with her.
They didn’t see each other for three entire months.
When the fall semester began and Chloe finally returned to campus to find him, she was completely stunned.
In just one summer, Nathan had transformed into an absolute heartthrob.
Perhaps from spending the entire summer burning calories in the lab and the gym, he had lost all the remaining softness in his face. His jawline had become razor-sharp, and his cheekbones and deep-set eyes had gained a striking, mature intensity.
He had shot up to 6'2". With broad shoulders, long legs, and effortless posture, he exuded a cool, magnetic confidence. He was exactly her ideal type!
Why on earth was she looking for another boyfriend? The perfect one was standing right in front of her!
They were from the same hometown, he had stunning looks, he was a certified genius, and he was practically guaranteed a high-paying career. Wasn’t he exactly what she had spent two years searching for?
Of course, Chloe had absolutely no idea how terrifyingly hard Nathan had worked for this exact reaction.
She didn't know he had spent the entire summer running at midnight and lifting weights until he was nauseous just to sculpt his physique into solid muscle. She didn’t know he had meticulously cut his hair to match the exact style of her favorite actor at the time.
Even the angle of his smile when he greeted her, and the casual, deliberate brush of his hand against her shoulder, had been calculated and practiced.
Everything had been meticulously engineered so that the moment Chloe looked at him, she would fall.
And it worked like an absolute charm.