"Thank you for treating us to lunch," Mary said, beaming. "Nadya and I had already had lunch, so we just got drinks."

"You're welcome," Haoran shrugged. "I just want to celebrate this special day and make a good impression on my new cla.s.smates."

"But ... what you achieved is amazing! You can upgrade yourself from cla.s.s F to cla.s.s A. What's the secret?" Mary asked curiously. "If I knew you and David were aiming for cla.s.s A, I would have studied harder to stay in cla.s.s A. I admit I slacked a little during the past semester."

Haoran glanced at Emma subtly before replying to Mary's question. "I have a great tutor to help me. I also found a big motivation to move to cla.s.s A because I really like Emma and want to be in the same cla.s.s with her."

Emma immediately coughed violently when she heard Haoran's blunt words. She glared at the young man and tried to understand why Haoran was being so honest.

"Haoran ..." hissed Emma. She turned to Mary and Nadya with an apologetic look.

But strangely, the two girls did not look surprised by Haoran's words. They actually just talked about this earlier. Mary only nodded in understanding.

"So, do you like Emma?" she asked in a low voice.

Haoran nodded. "Yes. I have liked Emma since she first came to school. I know that I don't stand a chance to approach her if I'm still in cla.s.s F, while she is the top student. That's why I became motivated to study hard so that I wouldn't be embarra.s.sing myself too much in front of her. "

"You're not embarra.s.sing," Emma said. "You deliberately failed your exams ... you have your own reasons for doing that."

"The point is just the same ... I really want to move to cla.s.s A so I can get closer to Emma," Haoran continued his words. He looked at Mary with a serious look, but he no longer said anything.

Mary understood that Haoran wanted to tell Mary not to keep having feelings for him because Haoran liked another girl.

Mary's chest immediately felt heavy . She then looked down and sipped her drink, also didn't say anything.

[Why did you say that? You know Mary likes you.] Emma said to Haoran without moving her lips. She resorted to using telepathy because she didn't want Mary and Nadya to hear them talking.

[I did that because I want to be frank with Mary. I just want her to understand that I will never reciprocate her feelings. I want her to focus his energy and attention on something else or someone else ... WOwww ... I can hear you!! Can you hear me too???]

[Of course, I can. I am using my telemancy so they can't hear us.]

[Wowww.... This is soooooo cool!!!] Haoran's face looked soooo excited that Emma almost laughed.

"Then, Emma ... do you like Haoran?" Suddenly, Nadya asked Emma. She was curious to know what actually happened between Haoran and Emma. She understood what Haoran meant by admitting to Mary that he liked Emma. Nadya also agreed that Mary must indeed forget her feelings for the young man. But at the same time, Nadya also wanted to know what the current status of Emma and Haoran's relations.h.i.+p was.

"Me?" Emma pointed at herself. She then turned to Haoran. "Of course I like Haoran. What to dislike about him? He is funny and pleasant. Most students in our cla.s.s like him, too, right?"

Hearing Emma compliment him made Haoran puffed out his chest proudly. Ahh, he knew Emma liked him, but still, he loved hearing his girlfriend praise him in front of others.

Nadya just rolled her eyes at Emma's answer and Haoran's att.i.tude. But she didn't press further. She understood that Emma and Haoran might have already dated but did not want to reveal their relations.h.i.+p openly, and she could understand that.

After they had lunch together that day, Mary avoided Emma for several weeks. Her heart still hurt from knowing that the man she liked turned out to like another girl.

However, after one month had pa.s.sed, slowly, Mary could get over her pain and started to be act normal again and treated Emma better. Nadya, who was neutral, also went back to being Emma's friend.

Emma's life in her final year at St. Catherine High School became pleasant. Haoran and his friends still study together every Wednesday and Friday with her. Every Sat.u.r.day, Emma would still spend her time with Haoran, sometimes in his house, sometimes on his s.h.i.+p, and occasionally they would invite their four friends and sailed together.

In her spare time, Emma still improved her hacking skills, and occasionally she would break into some companies and government agencies' security system to hone her skills.

"When do you think you can start hacking into s.p.a.ceLab?" Haoran asked Emma one day.

"Hmm ... right now I don't dare to do it. If I tried once and failed ... they will find me right away. I don't want to risk it," Emma answered. "If my skills are already at Goose's level, then I'll try it."

"Hmm ... Goose once said that she was also a genius like you, and she taught herself how to do things since she was 12 years old. When she turned 18, she already made a name for herself as a respected hacker in Darknet."

"Which means she needed more or less for five years?" Emma pondered. "I just started two months ago... I don't know how long I will need to be that good."

"But you don't have to hack everything. You just have to get into their system and use Ren Hanenberg access code ... I don't think you will need years to do it," Haoran said soothingly. "Starting next week, I will start my interns.h.i.+p at my father's office. I can also help you get in faster."

"Thank you..."