My second chance in a strange reverse world!

"I-I get it, I really do. N-no, not really, I don't get it." The girl in front of me was still speaking "B-but seriously, your secret is safe with me, I'm like a safe."

Fucking misunderstandings.

They've always haunted me; it's as if I have a big target on my back for the universe to line up and shoot a metaphorically accurate arrow at someone who is constantly misinterpreting me. Moms mistaking me for a pedophile or stalker, underwear thief, and now father-to-be. But not everything is bad; if something has left me with all those horrible experiences, if I quickly explain things everything is fine, and if that does not work, I run away in terror and never appear in that place again, which does not work in this case because we go to the same school.

I raised my hands in a reassuring manner, "This is all a misunderstanding!" I tried to explain, religiously following the anti-arrest protocol I had invented."I'm not going to be a dad, so forget that thing you saw, will you?"

"Huh... but, your searches," She pursed her lips slightly, thinking a bit. I thought that the protocol had worked, but after a while she seemed to understand something. "Oooh, yeah, that's right, you won't be a dad." She was winking at me, or at least she was trying to, since as she winked she closed both eyes, which made her look like she was simply blinking hard.

I felt my right eye twitch a little. "No, seriously, it's not any code or anything. It's just a misunderstanding, got it?"

"Sure, misunderstanding" She kept blinking.

I gave her a blank stare. Even though she was blinking as if to assure me that my secret was safe, she became concerned by my stare. After a while, I decided that we needed to have a serious conversation if I didn't want rumors spreading that I was going to be a father or something. I mean, I haven't even had sex yet! And Zeus hasn't visited me that I'm aware of, so I wanted to clear this up as soon as possible.

I held out a hand to the girl still in the locker. "Come on, get out of there first so we can talk."

She paused for a moment before grabbing my hand with both hands and squeezing it tightly. "Alex's hand, hehe."

Huh… okay?

As she stepped out of the locker, I got a good look at her for the first time. She had a striking beauty that caught my attention. Her hair was the color of fire and it fell in soft waves over her shoulders. She wore a tie-dye sweatshirt that had a mix of blue and purple hues that complemented her hair. Her eyes were a bright green that sparkled. They were the most captivating feature on her face. She didn’t have much of a chest, but she had a slender and elegant figure.

Still she wouldn't let go of my hand, and she even forgot to wipe off the dust that had accumulated on her clothes as she held my hand in an unsettling manner.

This level of popularity... and any other level of popularity was unfamiliar to me. It's not that it was unpleasant, but it's still a little surreal. This girl is shaking my hand and acting like I'm a movie star. Her hand was a little sweaty, which was unsettling, but the satisfaction was undeniable. My life was sleazy enough once, maybe my golden age was coming now.

But that aside, I was a little curious. "Where did you learn my name?"

She stopped waving my hand. "Huh... well." She thought a bit before answering. " It's been six years since I first came to this school. I used to live in a house in the city, but before that, my dad left us and it was just me and my mom. But it's all good because she got me a computer and that's how I learned to program, but I think I'm going off the deep end, six years ago-."

"Wait." I let out another sigh. "Just give me a general rundown." I also noticed that she hadn't let go of my hand, and it was starting to get hot.

"Ah... Well, I basically came here and learned your name because of your popularity."

"That's better." I said, and gave her a not-so-subtle glance at my hand that was still trapped between hers.

"Why did you want to know that?"

She didn't seem to get the hint, so I yanked on my hand a little harder and was finally able to let go of her strangely sweaty hands. Not that I didn't enjoy some physical contact, but this girl was strange in my opinion, and while she's cute by my standards, having my hand trapped in what amounted to a hand sauna was not to my liking.

Though I had some regrets about it. If she lets her hands cold down a little, we can shake hands again. I mean, is she some kind of robot or what? Is she always overheating? What causes someone's hands to become so hot?

“huh…”

"I'm sorry." I realized I had been quiet for a while and said so. " It doesn't matter. I have a more pertinent question. What were you hiding in there?" I indicated the locker.

She stood awkwardly swayed a little, as if embarrassed to respond. "Um, I'm not really good at talking to people face to face, as you might have noticed.” She let out a somewhat uncomfortable laugh. “So, when I saw you outside the club —you know, the cutest guy in the world — I just acted on instinct." She scratched the back of her neck slightly awkwardly.

A half-embarrassed smile appeared on my face and I almost spat out the words, “Do you really think I'm cute?” but I quickly came to my senses again, remembering the inverse of this world. However, I cursed my lack of affection again, this simple compliment turned her from my mind from weird but pretty girl to girlfriend material in an instant.

Damn, I really must learn to take compliments, now I'm the one who chooses damn it, I can do better than this.

The girl again realized I was unresponsive. She swung her foot slightly and kicked something invisible in the air while her hands were behind her back and started talking again. "So, parenting huh, hard time, weakness and all that, but you can."

I resisted the urge to let out a groan, and tried to explain again. "Forget that, it's a misunderstanding."

"Oh yeah, right, misunderstanding." She started blinking heavily again.

“...”

“...”

"Are you always like this?"

"Like?"