Second lead syndrome

Demon-faced tsundere (12)

"Bamboosla." Chen chased after the man dressed in a Bambuzler costume with his cheeks reddening in excitement.

"Oh, and who's this?" The man turned around with an overly- cheery voice. And I held back a gasp upon seeing his face.

Wow, this guy's attractive. I fangirled to the system.

Look away from the attractive guy, your only target is the SML. The system warned, sounding a little salty.

Can't I at least look at him? He's super attractive, like celeb level attractive. I raved while watching Chen grab onto his arm.

No. The system's words signalled that this matter was non-negotiable.

Okay, I'm still gonna look though. I rolled my eyes, ignoring him.

"What's your name, little guy?" He asked Chen, crouching down to his level.

"Chen." Chen replied immediately with eyes sparkling enthusiastically.

"A cute name for a cute kid." He rubbed Chen's head gently with a smile.

System, system this guys better than the SML. I gushed to the system, this man had the right idea.

"Would you like to take a picture with me?" He offered Chen while tilting his head, his mouse brown hair covering his eyes cutely.

System, this guy's so much better. I tried to still my beating heart.

... Yeah. No wait, that's not the mission! The system snapped himself out of his daze and quickly stepped back onto the right path.

"Mama too." Chen tugged on my sleeve pulling me into the frame with the Bambuzler.

Chen, I love you. I telepathically communicated with Chen, thanking him for pulling me closer to the attractive guy.

"Oh, your mum?" He glanced at me with a shocked expression. "I thought she was your sister." He mumbled and I placed my palm on my chest trying to stop my heart from jumping out from within my rib cage.

System~ I cried out, it was so unfair that I have to chase after the SML when there's such a nice guy right here.

I get it. The system responded, unenthused. I crouched down beside Chen and almost had a heart-attack when he placed his arm around our shoulders.

"Cheese." We all smiled at the photographer and then regretfully, had to part as more kids ran up to have their pictures taken with The Bambuzler.

"Mama, let's go!" Chen tugged me away from the crowd and towards the entrance of the amusement park. And I dragged my feet as I followed, really, really not wanting to go there.

I focused my attention on Chen's awed face as he looked around the park at all the rides. I squinted my eyes slightly, trying to narrow my field of vision and watching as Chen struggled to choose the thing he was most interested in.

"This, this dinosaur?" Chen floundered for words as he dragged me towards a dinosaur sculpture at the entrance of a ride.

"Yeah, does Chen like dinosa-ah!" I screamed, jumping back in surprise after the dinosaur moved and started roaring.

"Don't be scared." Chen patted my hand gently, trying to soothe me.

I tried to ignore the embarrassment I felt when I heard a few kids giggle in response to my fearful reaction.

"I'm not scared." I forced a smile to Chen and after he checked that I was alright he began dragging me to one of the queues.

I had hardened my face so as not to leak out a single expression, my heart raced as the queue shrunk. Chen's voice filled with excitement sounded from besides me and I could only give non-committal responses. I could hear a similarly excited child sounding from behind me and I almost cried as I heard her describing the rollercoaster we were about to go on.

I felt light-headed as we were called forward. I stared at the staff member hoping she would announce that the ride was undergoing technical difficulties and we didn't have to ride anything.

But instead, I was met with her joyful cheer as she opened the gates and allowed us through with a 'I hope you enjoy the ride!'.

I won't enjoy it! I screamed in distress as I got dragged into the seat with Chen. It was a four-seater ride where each pair of seats faced the other. As I looked up I saw two familiar faces sitting across from us.

"B-boss?" I stared at the ashen-faced SML sitting with his hands clenched around the seatbelt. Besides him was the ML's kid from season two, episode one.

He continued staring past me, not seeming to hear or see me. His knuckles had whitened due to the strength of his grip on the seatbelt.

And with that I felt slightly better about my own fear of rollercoasters, however, this relief lasted only until the ride began.

"Ah!" I screamed as loudly and for as long as possible as the background blurred with the spinning of the cab. The spinning paused for only a moment before we reached the peak and then it accelerated with the drop.

My choked screams sounded out as we came hurtling down. The constant spinning felt as though I was being thrown up and down in the air, bringing along with it nausea.

Then, the machine finally stopped and I dizzily wobbled off at a speed, towards the exit. I was dry-heaving side-by-side with another victim from the ride. However,  the sounds of liquid splattering against the concrete made it clear that they were no longer dry-heaving.

My eyes darted towards my company and I smiled happily to find that it was the SML. After seeing this grown man being reduced to a sobbing mess I felt that my experience had not been that bad.

"Mama, let's go again." Chen shook my arm as he pulled me away from the puddle of sick.

"N-no, we can't just keep wasting time on the same ride. There's so many more exciting ones." I made an excuse hoping he would relent and move onto the next attraction.

I would not willingly torture myself by returning to that death-trap, no matter how cute Chen looked while asking.

"H-hey." The SML called out weakly while loosely shaking his hand.

"What?" I asked, happy that I could ignore Chen's request for a moment longer.

"Why, why don't we let the kids go on the rides together? We'll just wait on the side." He offered weakly, looking as if he couldn't handle a whole day of being tossed around.

"That's a really good plan!" I nodded fervently as I finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I almost had the urge to high-five the guy for stopping my suffering.

A/N: i literally need to get my shit together man I've got 2 things due in 2 weeks but the research process is so dead😭😭😭😭 and idek what the time frame is supposed to be with the proposal Idk and I got my dissertation supervisor but I'm blanking him cause he asked me to send an updated proposal <WE WERE SUPPOSED TO UPDATE?>