Lohan stared at the photo in disbelief.
’Wait, did the radiant Lisa send me a photo of herself?’ He didn’t even know how to react.
The black wolf ears he had been struggling to keep on his head dissolved into a liquid that flowed back into his body, and he simply stared at the photo.
’She’s beautiful...’ he thought admiringly.
Since they hadn’t spoken in person, even though he knew Lisa’s real identity was Isabella Vance, Lohan still had trouble picturing his friend with the red-haired heiress’s appearance.
When they chatted via text, somehow the only image that came to his mind was that of the white fox.
But seeing this blend, the beautiful pale face, the long red hair, yet with the familiar white fox ears, the image of the two finally clicked into place in his mind.
Staring at his phone screen, Lohan didn’t know how to respond.
Lisa had clearly told him not to bring it up, likely being extremely embarrassed by it, but he knew she was definitely expecting a reaction from him.
It would be very rude of him to receive a photo like that and not respond at all; at the very least, he had to show some form of appreciation.
’If I don’t say anything, she won’t have a reason to send me anything else later, right?’ he thought, his eyes still fixed on the beautiful photo of her with the fox ears.
’I know! What if I send her a similar photo in return? Maybe if she sees she’s not the only one with something like that, she’ll get used to it more and not feel so ashamed of her own ears!’
This would not only help with her insecurity about the transformation but also desensitize her to wearing those ears, which would give Lohan more opportunities to see her with them.
Having made up his mind, Lohan quickly got up and went to change clothes, wanting to get ready to send a nice photo.
Even though the idea was to get Lisa used to it, whether she liked it or not, this would be the first photo he’d send her, and considering how beautiful she looked even just in her pajamas, Lohan felt he needed to put some effort into it.
He knew feelings were developing between them, that what was winning them over to each other was mainly their personalities, but appearances were still very important.
Even if the photo wasn’t used to "win over" Lisa right away, Lohan still wanted to show her his best side.
-xXx-
Isabella had her head buried in the pillow, utterly embarrassed.
She had just sent the photo to Halon and was completely regretting it.
In the last three minutes, she had clicked to delete the photo more than ten times, only to give up on it because she knew that would be even more embarrassing.
"Damn it, Bella, why did you decide to do something like this?! What if he thinks you’re weird? What if he thinks you’re hitting on him?! Aaaarrrghhhhhh!!!!!"
As she screamed into her pillow, her white legs kicked the bed in an attempt to vent the feelings she was experiencing.
Even though she’d been trained in social media etiquette since childhood, knowing she shouldn’t send photos to anyone under any circumstances, for some reason she’d felt an impulsive urge to send that photo to Halon.
And even though she was embarrassed and a little regretful, she wasn’t sorry for sending it to him, but rather because she didn’t know how he would react.
And to make matters worse, even though five minutes had already passed, Halon hadn’t replied at all!
"Damn it, kid, I told you not to bring that up ever again, but that doesn’t mean you should just ignore me and pretend I didn’t send anything!" She started to get angry, with tiny sparks of white flames appearing at her mouth in the real world, just as they would in Elysium out of habit.
Noticing the glow beneath her nose, Bella quickly regained control and dispelled that ball of spiritual flames.
But that didn’t stop her anger toward him from growing even more.
Then, suddenly, her communicator vibrated.
Bella’s anger vanished instantly, replaced by anxiety and worry that Halon might not have liked the photo, or shown no interest in it.
Even though she’d told him to do exactly that, girls’ hearts are contradictory like that.
But as she read his message on the golden screen projected in front of her, her face turned completely red.
[Hayes: Lisa, you look so beautiful! I already knew you were beautiful from seeing you in person at college, but with those cute ears you’ve reached a whole new level... I don’t even know how to describe what I’m feeling...]
’He’s calling me beautiful!!!!!!’
Even though she’d received compliments like this so many times in the past, this was the first time her heart had raced this much!
’Stupid Halon! Why did it take you so long to reply?!!?!? I was so anxious, damn it!’ She thought, stomping her feet on the bed again, but this time not with as much anger, especially with the huge smile she had on her face. ’Was he speechless?’
Then, suddenly, her communicator vibrated again.
Looking at the screen anxiously, what she saw left her shocked!
[Hayes: I thought you were so beautiful I didn’t know how to thank you, so to keep you from feeling embarrassed all by yourself, I’m going to return the favor, okay? Just don’t laugh at me... (I’ve already saved your photo, there’s no point in deleting it now! Hehe.)]
[Hayes: Photo.png]
[NunuNote: As always, photos are available at Discord.gg/NunuXD]
Bella looked at the photo projected in front of her and was shocked.
In front of her was a photo of Lohan, the human who controlled Halon, her friend, the boy she had been discreetly watching over the last few days at college, the boy who, despite wearing baggy clothes and acting in a low-key way, managed to catch her attention.
But looking at the photo of him wearing some metal accessories, a plain black shirt that made his defined muscles much more visible, and glancing to the side with a slight blush on his cheek while sporting black ears on his head just like hers, Bella’s heart began to race.
And it kept racing.
Bella stared at the frozen photo as her heart raced even faster, her breathing becoming labored.
Just like Lohan, she couldn’t think of how to respond to that and simply savored the beautiful image.
"You were right... I think now I can understand why you thought those ears were cute..." she said in a low voice, unable to take her eyes off that photo.