Leo, instead of responding to the greeting, suddenly turned and started running.
Sandara, however, seemed as if she had been expecting this.
Only her fingers stuck out from the sleeves of her pink hoodie, gripping her phone with the bunny-eared case.
Confident in her physical abilities, Sandara let Leo run for a moment, tossed her phone into the fluffy bag she carried on her left arm, and stretched briefly.
The next moment, she exploded forward with a force capable of competing with a professional marathon runner.
Leo saw just how quickly she was chasing him.
Leo, living an ordinary middle-aged life where he occasionally walked to track his calories, obviously couldn't match his physical prowess against a girl who ran and jumped in her regular life.
But what he saw was even beyond that.
Perhaps Sandara had joined the school's running club, or maybe she was simply born with exceptional physicality.
Closing the distance between herself and Leo took Sandara only half a minute.
Leo's breathing had already begun to get irregular.
The thought of using his cheat even crossed his mind, but he ultimately decided it wasn't worth it.
And unsurprisingly…
The moment Leo slowed down, Sandara quickly leapt from behind and wrapped her arms around him, sending both of them flying onto the grass by the roadside.
Leo gasped as if he were near death, while Sandara smiled, regaining her balance, and sat on top of his stomach.
"Leo-oppa! Why aren't you answering my calls? Aren't I your girlfriend? Why are you ignoring me?"
As Leo tried to push Sandara off, she playfully blamed him, and he accidentally responded.
"We're not dating. Stop teasing me and get off me."
A hint of anger mixed into Leo's voice, but Sandara noticed it and didn't seem to care.
"Oh! I see… Huff, so after touching my chest and stealing my first kiss, you want to toss me aside, huh?"
"That's not what happened. Please stop twisting the truth."
"I wonder what my dad would say if he heard a man used me and then threw me to the side?"
At these words, Leo stopped struggling further.
This had been the real reason he had started running the moment he saw Sandara.
Sandara's father was an overprotective special forces commander. Leo had never met him, but he knew the neighborhood was extremely safe because her father once single-handedly took down a street gang.
Rumors about her father's identity had even reached someone like Leo, who had very few friends.
Sandara, on the other hand, was a master at using her father's reputation.
Even though Leo hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he had heard that during his first year of high school, Sandara was the queen of the entire school. Her classmates often gossiped about it.
Because of her father's status, the principal treated her with extreme favoritism, fueling school bullying problems nationwide.
Sandara would psychologically and physically torment those she disliked in class, or even across the whole school.
Some students were sent to do her cafeteria errands, while others were subjected to bullying in the school bathroom that could lead to being photographed undressed.
Leo, daring enough to call himself smart, behaved as if he had never heard these rumors and was only allowing her to bully him because of what he had done to her.
It was like defending himself against street dogs.
If you show fear or try to run, street dogs dare to chase you to the end. But if you act extremely boldly and try to attack, they might attempt to defend themselves by attacking you.
Similarly, Leo imagined a gauge hovering above Sandara's head.
If the gauge dropped to the bottom, he would be Sandara's toy forever; if it reached the top, her father would pay a visit.
Leo called this gauge above her head "Sandara's madness meter."
And there was a safe zone in the middle.
When Leo last responded to Sandara, the gauge suddenly shot to the top of the safe zone.
Leo imagined an invisible system notification floating in the air.
{Sandara's madness +2}
Leo immediately replied.
This time, his face showed exhaustion and helplessness.
"I already apologized to you many times last time. Are you just teasing me? Or are you trying to blackmail me?"
{Sandara's madness -2}
The gauge above Sandara's head sank to the bottom of the safe zone.
Leo sighed, realizing just how dangerous a game he was playing. Luckily, as an adult, he was still rational. If things went too far, he could calmly sell his house and move away. And since he would soon start university, he would leave this place eventually anyway.
Sandara suddenly smiled, lay on top of Leo, pressed her chest against his, and flirtatiously leaned in.
As Leo's rising heat began to merge with the gauge above Sandara, the door to the house where they were lying suddenly opened, and a child stepped outside.
Hearing the child exclaim in surprise and call for their mother inside, both Sandara and Leo instantly jumped up.
At that moment, Leo managed to conceal his weapon with a speed that would make Wild West cowboys envious.