The moment I was about to confess to my online crush in person, comments started appearing out of thin air. 【Girl, don't even bother. The main character is avoiding you like the plague. He's kicking himself for realizing he was talking to the wrong person this whole time.】 【It’s all her fault for using an avatar so similar to the female lead’s. Otherwise, Alex would have never gotten them mixed up.】 【It’s so cringe thinking that she was the one who comforted the main character after his big game loss. All those sweet, romantic messages were sent to her. Ugh.】 【You think you’re cringing? The main character is totally grossed out, too. And poor Jia, our female lead, only just added him as a friend yesterday. So frustrating.】 【This side character is the absolute worst.】 Stunned, I looked up just in time to see Alex walking off the court after a game. When he saw me, his eyes darted away, trying his best to avoid me. I sidestepped him and shoved the confession letter I was holding into his roommate’s hands. Online crush? Please. He wasn’t my only one. Those good-night audio messages I sent? I sent those to a whole group chat. 1 Seeing those floating comments, my mind went blank. Standing outside the basketball court, I watched the text continue to scroll by as I slowly pieced things together. According to these comments, I was nothing more than a disposable side character in a sweet, campus romance novel. And Alex, my online chat buddy, was the male lead. I glanced down at the love letter in my hand. It all made sense now. No wonder his replies had been so slow and perfunctory lately, his words tinged with an obvious annoyance. He had mistaken me for someone else from the very beginning. He thought I was the female lead, Jia, which is why he’d added me, why he’d chatted with me, why he’d developed feelings through an endless stream of "good mornings" and "good nights." Now that he knew the truth, he couldn't stand the sight of me. He saw me as the main obstacle standing between him and Jia. A burst of noise from nearby drew my attention. I looked up to see Alex heading my way. He was in a blue jersey, a white sweatband across his forehead. He casually took a water bottle from a teammate and took a long drink. He was magnetic, the object of countless girls' secret crushes. He practically shimmered. A few steps later, he saw me. Alex stopped dead in his tracks. Then, he stiffly averted his gaze and started talking to the guy next to him. Seeing his reaction, I sighed. So, the comments were true. 【If I were her, I'd stay far away from him. Why embarrass yourself?】 【Exactly. The main characters are a match made in heaven. She's just trying to butt in. It’s so pathetic.】 【He literally can't even look at her.】 Alex really wasn’t looking at me. He was staring down at his phone, probably texting someone. A small smile played on his lips. It had to be Jia, his newly added friend. Just as he was about to walk past me, I gently grabbed his wrist. He looked at me, startled. I smiled. "Are you Alex?" The comments started scrolling furiously, all of them cursing me out. I ignored them, my eyes fixed on Alex. "Excuse me, is Jack Wolf your roommate? Do you know where he is right now?" Alex froze. "Why are you looking for him?" I waved the letter. "I have something I want to give him." 2 Alex was silent, but his teammate, who had been watching with interest, chimed in. "Jack? You're looking for Jack? He's over at the tennis courts." "Oh, great." I released Alex's wrist. "Thanks." With that, I turned and headed for the tennis courts, letter in hand. I could hear whispers behind me. They weren't exactly quiet whispers, either; I could hear every word. "Damn, that girl's got guts. She's into Jack Wolf?" "Yeah, that guy is so creepy and intense. Who would actually be into him?" "He's good-looking, though. Not handsome like Alex, but like, pretty. It's not that weird for someone who's all about looks to like him." "Hey, Alex, why are you so quiet?" "Alex, where are you going?! Aren't you coming to dinner?" The sound of hurried footsteps followed me. A moment later, a figure blocked my path. I blinked. "Alex? Can I help you with something?" Alex frowned, his gaze flickering between me and the letter in my hand. He seemed to realize what he was doing and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "It's nothing. I just remembered… my roommate has a weird temper. You don't know him, so showing up out of the blue might piss him off. Maybe I should give the letter to him for you?" The comments lit up. 【What's this? Is she playing hard to get?】 【You scared me for a second. I thought the main character actually had a thing for this totally average side character. Looks like he's just a nice guy.】 【Honestly though, when he lost that big game, her comfort was actually really important. He wouldn't have bounced back so fast without it. If I were him, I might have actually fallen for her.】 The comments made my mind wander. They were talking about a basketball game last fall, one that had been really important to Alex. He had choked during a critical play, and they lost. His teammates tried to console him, but he could feel their thinly veiled disappointment, and he was consumed by shame and self-blame. He had gone off to hide by himself. At the time, he hadn't responded to any of my texts. Finally, I recorded a deliberately off-key song for him. That got a response. "Please stop singing," he’d texted back. "You're going to kill me." His tone was exasperated, but I could sense the faint hint of a smile. I stayed up all night talking to him, and by morning, he was finally feeling better. 【That was supposed to be the female lead's scene! She stole it! Alex could never fall for her. He has only ever loved Jia.】 【Exactly! It was love at first sight with Jia. He only added the side character because he thought she was Jia. Otherwise, she wouldn't even be on his friends list.】 I suppose that was true. I shook my head at Alex. "No thanks. Jack and I are actually pretty good friends." Alex looked stunned. "How?" I leaned in, lowering my voice conspiratorially. "Actually, we've known each other for three years. We've only ever talked online, though. We've never met in person." I feigned a blush. "With graduation coming up, I figured I should just go for it and confess. You know, give myself a shot." 【What does she mean? Did she get the wrong person too?】 【This is great. If she goes for the gloomy villain, she'll leave our main character alone.】 【But look at the main character's face. He doesn't look too happy about this.】 Alex just stood there, frowning, a comically conflicted look on his face. I glanced over his shoulder and my eyes lit up. "Oh, I see him! Alex, talk to you later!" "Are you sure you have the right person?" he blurted out. I paused. "The right person for what?" Alex gritted his teeth. "You said you've never met. How can you be sure that's Jack?" His question made me laugh. "Who else would it be? You?" "Not me," he denied, almost too quickly. I stared at him for a long moment. He couldn't meet my gaze. "Right," I said, nodding. "So, Alex, you don't need to worry about my business." With that, I darted around him, heading towards the group of people leaving the tennis courts. Alex instinctively raised a hand to stop me, then let it drop. 3 Jack's 6'2" frame made him easy to spot. He was walking at the back of the group, his slightly-too-long hair tied back. His bangs were damp with sweat, and he casually brushed them aside, revealing sharp, handsome features. But his eyes were cold, broadcasting a clear "stay away" message. Besides tennis practice, no one ever seemed to hang out with him. I weaved through the crowd of tall athletes and came to a stop directly in front of him. He almost bumped into me. When he saw my face, he seemed to pause for a fraction of a second. "Can I help you?" I shoved the letter into his hand. "Yeah. I'm here to confess my feelings for you." Jack looked down at the crumpled pink envelope in his palm, then back up at me. … Everything I had told Alex was true. I really did know Jack pretty well. Or at least, I felt like I did. I have this thing where I'm overly empathetic. I love providing emotional support; I want to be a safe haven for every sad boy and girl in the world. So, Alex wasn't my only online friend. He just happened to be the one who responded the most, the one who needed the most validation. He’d vent to me after a bad game and beg me to sing him to sleep at night. Jack was the complete opposite. He was so aloof I could send him ten messages and not get a single reply. But I didn't care. I just really, really liked his face. Meeting his gaze now, I wasn't flustered at all. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Lana, from the statistics department next door. It's okay if you don't accept my confession, but how about we at least get to know each other in person?" Jack didn't say much. He just slung his tennis racket over his shoulder and walked away. I wasn't bothered. I cheerfully headed to the cafeteria. On the way, my phone buzzed. It was a message from another one of my online friends, "Jia-licious." 【Lana, you said your therapist suggested getting a boyfriend might help with your… emotional over-investment. How's that going?】 I typed back: 【I had a target, but I've decided to switch. What about you? Didn't you say you added your crush? How's that going?】 Jia-licious seemed troubled: 【It's okay. But after adding him, I kind of lost interest. Honestly, talking to you is more fun.】 Just then, the floating comments went wild, as if they’d just seen a ghost. 【Can someone please tell me why the side character is also friends with the female lead?】 【So, our main character is just one of many fish in her pond?】 【Jia, what are you doing?! Alex is waiting for your reply! Why are you chatting with this girl?!】 【Lana, turn around! The creepy guy is following you! Are you really going to go through with this?】 【This is a total mess. I can't even.】 I kept texting Jia while keeping an eye on the comments. It seemed they were good for something, after all. So Jia-licious was Jia, the female lead. And Jack was following me. I whipped my head around. Jack froze, about fifty feet away. He didn't seem embarrassed at all to be caught. He just walked towards me with a blank expression, passed right by me, and kept going. That level of composure was not normal. I was impressed. Shrugging, I headed into the cafeteria. I was exhausted. After getting back to my dorm and showering, I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I sent out my customary "good night" messages to my various online friends. When I got to Alex's chat window, I paused. Oh, right. He didn't need one. As I was about to close the app, I noticed the "Typing..." indicator flashing on and off in his chat. I waited a moment, but nothing came through. I was too tired to care. I shut off my phone and went to sleep. 4 I was serious about finding a boyfriend. The next day, after class, I went straight to the tennis courts to find Jack. I was too early; the courts were mostly empty. After wandering around for a bit, I returned to find an argument in progress. "Coach, the ball machine was already broken when I got here! And it looks like someone did it on purpose!" "Who was the last one to leave last night?" "It was Jack. He came back after dinner and stayed until closing." "Did you check the security cameras?" "The camera's broken. It hasn't been fixed yet." Just then, Jack arrived. Everyone went quiet and turned to look at him. The coach scowled. "Jack, did you break the machine?" Jack glanced at him. "No." His dismissive attitude infuriated the coach. "Don't deny it just because you did something wrong. It's not a big deal." The other players started whispering. "It was probably him." "He won't admit it. He's probably scared he'll have to pay for it." "What a jerk…" The comments were all pointing fingers at Jack, too. 【There's a reason he's not the main character. The guy has no integrity.】 【Look at the way he's glaring. Kinda scary.】 Jack's expression darkened. His gaze fell on someone in the crowd, paused for a moment, then he pulled out his phone. He found a video and played it for the coach. The video showed an empty tennis court. In the corner, a figure could be seen kicking the ball machine violently. The shot was brief. The camera then flipped around to a girl's face. "Hey Jack, aren't you at the courts yet? I've been waiting for ages…" A familiar voice, a familiar face. Everyone turned to look at me, standing at the back of the crowd. Even with my thick skin, I couldn't handle all the stares. I gave an awkward laugh. "Heh, just messing around, filming random stuff." But thanks to my random video, Jack was cleared. The coach walked over to me. "Miss, did you see who damaged the equipment?" I pointed to a guy in the crowd. "Him." The video had jogged my memory. "It was definitely him," I said with absolute certainty. The guy exploded, vehemently denying it. "It wasn't me!" "It was you! You were kicking it and swearing, saying Jack must have bribed the coach to get picked for the tournament in Beijing!" The coach's face darkened. He glared at the accused. "What did you just say?" "I didn't say that!" "Oh," I said, pretending to search through my phone. "I actually recorded more than one video that day. Let me just find the other one." The guy panicked. Under the weight of everyone's stares, he broke and ran. His reaction was a clear admission of guilt. "Alright, break it up! Back to practice!" the coach barked. "Coach," I said, stepping forward with a grin. "Aren't you forgetting something?" He frowned. "What?" I pointed to Jack, who was quietly organizing his rackets on the other side of the court. "You haven't apologized to him yet. You accused him in front of everyone. Don't you think you owe him an apology?" Across the court, Jack's hands stilled. He looked up at me. I was getting an earful from the coach. "Who is this brat? Get out of here! Don't disrupt our practice!" He was fuming. "All unauthorized personnel, out! Out!" He stormed off. I pursed my lips and wiped my face. Jack, however, had a barely perceptible smile on his face. I saw it. "Are you laughing at me?" His expression immediately went blank again. "No." I pouted. "I don't care. I helped you today. You have to buy me a drink." Jack looked at me, then nodded. "Okay." 【Wait, am I the only one who thinks they have chemistry?】 【This is so weird. What's with all the eye contact?】 【Something's off here. Let's see how this plays out.】 【My main characters haven't even had a proper conversation, and you two are already going on a date?】
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