บท 23: A Date With Ganyu

I was now walking side by side with Ganyu. We were headed to the diner where I always eat with the others. I looked at Ganyu and noticed her fiddling with her fingers.

"What is it?"

"Oh, I just never went out with a guy before…" she said shyly. She's completely different now.

"Why? You're beautiful, and just with your position alone, I can already tell that you're hard working. Why wouldn't anyone want to hang out with you?"

"Ehhh?" she looked at me with reddened cheeks.

I just smiled at her as we entered the diner. While trying to find a free seat, we passed by some students from our school. I heard something that wasn't pleasant to the ear. Especially Ganyu.

"Look at that, he's the new kid, right?" said male #1.

"Yeah, and by the looks of it, he has another girl." said male #2.

"Yeah, she's cute. Too bad she's not really human." said male #3.

When I looked at Ganyu, I saw that she was downhearted. I glared at them with the same kind of glare I give to the Hilichurls and Abyss mages. They started sweating bullets. I held Ganyu's hand and went to the very end of the diner where only a few go. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable. When we took a seat, she was still looking down.

"Hey, it's alright. I don't really care what other people think."

She seemed to brighten up at that. Good, it's working.

"Really?"

"Yep."

After that, we ordered some food and talked some more about other things. Then, she brought up the reason why she felt down earlier.

"I'm different from the other half humans. I have adepti blood running through me. A Qilin's blood to be exact."

"Adepti?" I said. I haven't heard that before.

"You don't know?" she asked, looking confused.

"Sorry, I'm kinda clueless of the culture of this world." I said.

"What?" she asked, looking more confused.

I explained to her the story about me arriving in this world. The story of how we ran into an Unknown God and how I lost my sister to the Unknown God. She looked surprised at first, but then she started to murmur. After a few minutes, our food arrived and she was still murmuring. I tried waving at her, but she didn't notice. So, I stood up and went behind her. When I was behind her, I pulled on her cheeks, being careful not to make it painful.

"Uweeh?"

"Pfft."

I couldn't help but laughed at the face she made when she looked at me while I was pulling her cheeks. When I removed my hand, she held her cheeks as if it was hurting. After that, she looked at me and pouted.

"Sorry, you just so deep in thought that you didn't even realize that our food already arrived." I said as I went back to my seat.

"Oh, sorry about that. I was just thinking that this explains things. About you having an Elemental power without a vision. Being able to face off with Stormterror without a problem and many more."

"Ehehe."

We began to eat. I noticed that Ganyu's food was vegetarian. Luckily, Paimon wasn't here. Because she might want to try to eat that since it's new to her. We continued on eating and Ganyu seemed to remember something.

"Oh, you don't know what the adepti are, right?"

"Yep."

She explained that the adepti were a group of magical beasts and gods alike. They were contracted by the Geo Archon, Rex Lapis, to protect Liyue from Demons and evil gods. So that means that there are others besides The Seven? If so, where are they? I should ask Paimon and Mona later.

When we finished eating, Ganyu paid off the tab and we left. It was still pretty early, so I invited her to the mall and to buy her some accessories and maybe even some clothing.

---

"You really don't have to do this…"

"I'm doing this because I want to."

We were now at a clothing store and she was picking out some clothing. She really thinks that this is unnecessary, but I think it is. After she finished picking out some clothes, she told me to come with her to try them out.

After a few minutes, she came out of the changing room with a blue one piece dress with a ribbon on the chest part. She did a little twirl and looked at me expectantly. I smiled at her and said:

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you." she said with flushed cheeks.

After that, she tried on and showed me more of the clothing she picked out and then we paid for it. As we left the clothing store, we saw a familiar group of shits. It was the three boys who made Ganyu feel down earlier. I looked at Ganyu and saw that she was down again. I held her hand and spoke.

"Don't worry, they won't say things like that anymore."

"Nn…"

We walked out of the mall and were about to say goodbye.

"Thank you for today." I said. It was genuinely fun for me, even though we ran into some problems.

"Thank you as well." she said with a smile.

She leaned in close and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She then turned, waved at me, and then left. I didn't even get to say anything about that kiss. I smiled as I looked at her silhouette and when I could no longer see her, I turned and left as well.

I took out my phone, told Mona that I was going to pick her up, and then warped to Barbara's dorm. I was now in front of Barbara's dorm. I was just standing there, waiting for Mona. A few minutes later, she finally came out. Paimon was with her as well.

"Sorry, I had to wait for Paimon to finish her food." she said apologetically.

"No, it's alright. It was only a few minutes."

I warped all three of us to our dorm and after that, I laid down on the couch. I may have had fun at my date with Ganyu, but I also got tired. I am still human after all. Mona sat beside me and I wrapped my arm around her. We took a nap just like that.