Forced to Marry the Female Insect I Hate

[This is a fictional setting unrelated to reality. Please do not conflate it with real life.]

※ Main ongoing series: Trading for a Male Zerg, a collection of stories with a top gong.

[Blurb]

A super short practice story: childhood friends, mutual pining, a sweet little romance, and the bittersweet ache of youth. Happy ending.

Gan Zhe has always been a "textbook" male zerg.

He's pretty, spoiled, and a little capricious in a harmless way. Still, among male zergs, he's one of the more considerate ones.

Like most male zergs, he likes sub-females and is afraid of the military females' insect forms. He hopes his female spouse will be gentle and understanding, graceful and composed.

Unlike other male zergs, he only wants one female spouse. Gan Zhe likes peace and quiet, and being around more than one other person makes him uncomfortable. A messy love triangle full of intense feelings is his worst nightmare, and a loveless marriage of convenience is even harder for him to accept.

...Which is exactly why he is so unhappy with his marriage.

On the day he comes of age, he obsessively refreshes his messages, waiting for a notification from the central system.

[Please wait patiently for your match results]

[Please wait patiently for your match results]

[Please wait patiently...]

At noon, instead of the usual list of compatible matches, he receives a direct notice of a compulsory marriage.

"Due to a 100% pheromone compatibility rate, you are required to marry ***, deadline: one month."

When he finally makes out the name, his world collapses.

How could it be him?!?!?!

He tries to contact the other party to discuss things, but keeps getting the same notice: "The other party has entered combat mode and cannot receive messages."

Lucio Quint hasn't noticed that he has already turned down three pheromone matches.

He's devoted to the battlefield and doesn't want to be confined to one small corner of the world. Fighting alien beasts makes his blood race, and piloting mechs sets his heart pounding.

So after finishing a small-scale battle beyond the star system, he deactivates his terminal and enters combat mode for a month and a half. When he gets a notification from the central system, he thinks he must have misread it.

The notification's title is in bold red text, impossible to ignore.

If a female zerg rejects the central system's first three match lists, the fourth match is a compulsory marriage.

The contents of the notice scroll before his eyes.

[Compulsory Marriage Notice]

Marriage participants: Gan Zhe, Lucio Quint;

Deadline: 3 days remaining.

Penalty for refusal: suspension from duty.

He skims through it with a frown, then finally focuses on the other participant's name.

He freezes.

Theme: Love can help people overcome their prejudices.