Potions Lovers | Yandere!Male x Reader

Chapter 18 - Stringing him Along

To Nao's surprise, a few more days truly was all you needed. Just as he'd advised, you'd given Ren less attention, which only made him chase after you harder than before—this being a fantastic development because Yumi ran straight to Nao to complain about it for the last week. She kept insisting that she had to confess soon or else she'd lose Ren to you, but Nao had been carefully influencing her thoughts and actions, convincing her that she should hold off until the time was right.

Nao also told her a small fib, saying he was hanging out with you more so you'd spend less time with Ren and making it sound like he'd been doing it all for Yumi's benefit. Yumi was so naive—so trusting of him, and Nao loved how effortless it was to make her believe that he was on her side. Thanks to your deal, Nao had Yumi right where he wanted her.

Likewise, you had Ren in the palm of your hand. He was still silently raging over how you were always studying for your advanced classes with Nao after school these days, but at least he wasn't taking his acts of vengeance so far anymore.

Ever since that day at Kenji's house, there had been a shift in your relationship with Ren; one so drastic that Ren himself could no longer ignore it, nor could say he minded it. The feelings were foreign, yes, but more than anything else, he was curious to see where things would go. Perhaps it was because he found himself thinking of you often these days, be it during waking hours or in his sleep. The vivid dreams of you were difficult to forget, and he felt guilty each morning because the majority of them weren't the types of dreams friends had about each other. In fact, he'd never had any dreams like that before.

But, then again, Ren was at the point where friendship was no longer the only thing he sought from you, and you felt the same.

He'd tested your boundaries as far as he could lately and the more he'd done so, the more he started to realize that they simply didn't exist, leading him to wonder if you were okay with him doing anything he wanted to you. Things like his sneak attack hugs from behind, always having his arm around you in public, holding your hand when entering the busy train stations—you accepted it all with no complaints. If anything, the sly smiles you'd send him whenever he'd get too touchy felt like you were challenging him to go further.

It drove Ren crazy. How did your friendship change so quickly? How was he supposed to stop himself from wanting more when you weren't trying to stop him at all?

Ren sighed, observing everyone at the lunch table as he thought about you for the nth time today. Nao was quietly conversing with Yumi, while you were arguing with Kenji about how raccoons definitely had a higher chance of giving rabies to people than cats did. Long story short, a raccoon had stalked Nao on his way home yesterday. When you'd asked Ren earlier if he had anything to do with that, he stated he was a mere cat commander and nothing more. That was false. He'd befriended the local raccoon fleet ages ago.

Ren sipped his lemonade with a satisfied noise, a concealed smirk resting on his face until he felt a vibration deep in his elbows. Before jumping to the conclusion that something was seriously wrong with his body—that he was being punished by the universe for bribing raccoons to commit crimes on his behalf—he looked around in alarm, spotting your phone vibrating on the table. The screen lit up, a text briefly flashing on the screen before it went dark again.

Kiko (11:20AM): Heeeey sis, let's go shopping tomorrow afternoon! Cancel your nonexistent plans and meet me at the mall~

Ren watched as you returned a quick "sure whatever" to her forced invite. Darn it. Ren had no plans on the weekend and wanted to ask you to hang out with him, but stupid Kiko beat him to it.

Maybe he could just, you know, go to the mall to see you anyway? He cringed when he realized how stalkerish that was. If he planned to go, he should have a solid excuse, like pretending to run into you while he was gift hunting for Nao's upcoming birthday. Surely that was legal, right? Now that his poorly thought out plan was viewed in a better light, Ren impulsively decided to go through with it tomorrow. He should've thought harder about his little plan, though.