Next One Is a Babe

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Peter looked a lot more mature than before. He noticed Cindy as she was walking toward him, and he hurried over to meet her. Despite a change in his looks, Cindy’s attitude toward him remained the same as usual. “What is it? Why are you in such a rush to meet me? Did something happen?”

The man’s expression had changed from his usual laid back look to a more serious and solemn look. “Yeah. There’s a question that I’d like to ask you.”

Cindy immediately had a bad feeling about the situation. She could already tell that Peter treated her more than just friends when they were interacting with each other the day before, so she had some idea of what Peter wanted to talk about when she saw the look on his face.

Indeed, Peter took a deep breath before he looked at her with a sincere gaze. “I’d like to check if you really have a boyfriend. If you don’t, could you consider dating me? We might not have spent that much time together in the past two days, but I realized that I really like you. I’ve never felt this way for any other girl, not even those whom I’ve known for years. I’m sure that I have romantic feelings for you that go beyond the normal fondness a friend has for another. I’m telling you this because I’d like to fight for a chance to be with you.” Peter was extremely straightforward with his words, and Cindy heaved a sigh of relief after hearing it.

What Cindy despised the most was the sort of blurry, uncertain relationship that she had with Ian, and she was glad that Peter wasn’t that sort of person. “Well, I have a boyfriend,” she replied with a sigh. “It’s the guy you met yesterday. You’re a great guy, but if I were being honest, I wouldn’t date you even if I didn’t have a boyfriend. You’re not my type of guy. After spending time with you in the past two days, I feel like you can be a really good friend, but I know that there’s no chance for us to be anything more than that.”

Meanwhile, Ian had headed downstairs to look around for Cindy. It took him a while to find Cindy, but he soon found her with a man standing opposite her. Ian felt his insides burning with rage whenever he saw Peter, and he lost control of his actions before he realized what was going on. He came here to see her again, huh?! he thought as he stormed toward them.

Cindy was standing with her back turned against Ian, so she had no idea that he was there. She was still talking to Peter. “I have a pretty good relationship with my boyfriend. I’m really thankful for all of the care you showed me in the past two days. If you feel troubled by my response, I’ll stop going to the same park from now on. Anyway, I’m not supposed to be here for long—I’ll be returning to work really soon,” she explained.

By the time she finished, Ian had already sneaked up behind her. He reached an arm out and grabbed Cindy’s forearm before tugging her close to him. She had no idea that Ian was behind her, so she let out a scream when she felt herself being tugged by someone else. On the other hand, Peter had already caught sight of Ian earlier, so he was only shocked for a brief moment before he returned to his neutral expression.

With his arm around Cindy’s waist, Ian pressed her body tightly against his as he looked up to meet Peter’s eyes. “Is there an issue here?”

Peter pressed his lips into a thin line. You’re the issue here, but I can’t tell you that, he thought.