I already knew everything about him anyway, and I had no particular desire to see Choi Woosu’s profile, so I kept hammering [No]. But the system window opened it anyway.
[ System ]
[Choi Woosu <Main Lead>
Age: 18
Appearance: A classic pretty boy. Rather than diminishing his looks, glasses only make him look more decadent and sexy. Characterized by dark blue hair that’s only noticeable in sunlight and eyes of a similar shade of blue.
Personality: Warm, kind, and well-mannered. He’s good to just about everyone except the people he dislikes, which is why his reputation among those around him is exceptionally good. Though it’s not entirely untrue that part of it is because he’s conscious of how others see him.
Physique: 183cm, solid build.
Notable: Second in the school academically. Serves as class president, first-year vice student council president, and captain of the soccer team. On top of that, there are rumors that he comes from a wealthy family, though no one has confirmed whether it’s true.
Likes: Dogs. Classical music. Lee Yura.]
“I said I wasn’t looking.”
[ System ]
[Just look — ]
“Well, I’ll be.”
[ System ]
[Congratulations. The profile of the protagonist ‘Lee Yura’ has been unlocked! Would you like to view it now?
Yes / No]
“You’re going to show me even if I say no, aren’t you.”
[ System ]
[Correct ^^]
[ System ]
[Lee Yura <Main Lead>
Age: 18
Appearance: A face that has both a gentle innocence and a natural cuteness. Pretty enough that every boy who ever attended the same school as her has had a crush on her at least once. Characterized by long brown hair with thick waves and green eyes.
Personality: Warm and easy to get along with. Genuinely kind by nature, so being considerate comes naturally to her. She does tend to be noticeably different depending on whether she’s with strangers versus people she’s close to.
Physique: 163cm, pleasantly slender build.
Notable: Class vice president and first-year vice student council president. Serves as manager for the soccer team.
Likes: Dogs. Desserts.]
Only after showing me Yura’s profile as well did the system window finally disappear. I’d never noticed while playing on my phone, but inside the game, it seemed that every time a choice appeared, time froze for everyone except the protagonist. Made sense — extras only existed for the protagonist’s sake, after all.
With the first tutorial wrapped up, there was someone who should’ve been showing up soon, but Yura and Woosu were still lingering in their own little bubble, which was getting on my nerves. I really wished they’d hurry it up.
“Bohyeon, you’re here?”
As if reading my thoughts, Han Bohyeon appeared — the one I’d been waiting for. The second capture target and my favorite. The corners of my mouth naturally lifted at his entrance. He didn’t even respond to being called, and in his hand was a bread that was currently selling out fast at the school store — the moment Yura spotted it, her face visibly lit up.
“No way! How did you get that? When I went earlier they said it was sold out, so I missed it again.”
“It was there. Here.”
“Thank you! You’re seriously the only one.”
Despite his words, Han Bohyeon wouldn’t let go of the bread, and Yura had to loosen her grip before the bag tore. After shooting him a sharp glare, she jutted out her lower lip and grumbled — at which point he wordlessly tore the bag open and held it out to her.
Normally you’d take it with your hands, but Yura went in with her mouth before her hands could get there. It was a cream-filled bread, so every bite left cream at the corners of her mouth.
While Woosu was still searching for a tissue to wipe it off, Han Bohyeon reached out his hand and got there first. He then proceeded to lick the cream off his own fingers in plain view, which made Choi Woosu’s expression sour considerably. Yura, who had just happened to miss that moment, only cocked her head in puzzlement.
Childhood friends or not, it wasn’t easy for feeding someone and being fed to feel that natural. The degree to which he looked out for her — even someone who didn’t know better should’ve been able to tell by now that his feelings went beyond friendship. And yet it was genuinely baffling that Yura hadn’t even entertained the thought that Han Bohyeon might like her. Did you have to be unrealistically pretty and completely oblivious to qualify as a female lead?
The three of them, lost in their own world, were so perfectly matched that they looked like a painting. I wasn’t the only one who thought so — everyone around them was watching with eyes full of admiration.
The difference between me and the other extras was that I had no envy in me whatsoever. Rather than feeling jealous, looking at the gap between them — the protagonists of a youth drama — and my own sorry state, with what felt like an uncrossable wall between us, I simply let out a sigh at the thought of how exhausting the time ahead was going to be.
The bell rang to signal the start of the next class. Han Bohyeon and Yura headed back to their own classroom, and I followed the students scurrying to their seats and sat down.
Class started, and the slideshow had already moved through six pages — but none of it was registering in my head at all.
How on earth did I end up here?
Could I have died? The train of thought veered unexpectedly toward death. Webtoons and web novels were full of stories about people living hard lives, dying, and then possessing a character from some fictional work.
To think I might have died — from nothing more than falling asleep while playing a game. Should I be grateful that, unlike other protagonists, I didn’t get killed by a car? But it made absolutely no sense that someone in their twenties with no health problems would just die in their sleep.
Of course, there were also plenty of stories where possession or reincarnation happened without dying. The kind where you stayed up all night reading a novel you’d stumbled upon, fell asleep, and woke up in another world.
Wait. That’s literally me.
Come to think of it, that was exactly my situation. Even if I had deleted it without a second thought in the end, I’d been so invested in this game that I’d even spent real money on it. A few months of living like a complete wreck over a little romance sim of all things — it struck me as both pathetic and funny in retrospect.
But wait — why didn’t I ever play Choi Woosu’s route?
I’d put in enough effort to see three out of four capture targets’ endings, and yet I’d never seen Choi Woosu’s. No intention to, and no desire to either. I’d deliberately chosen options that lowered his affection meter every single time his quests came up — that said it all.
But maybe because I’d treated him as less than nonexistent, I couldn’t quite remember the exact reason. I glanced over at Woosu, wondering if seeing him might jog my memory — and my body flinched instinctively.
Choi Woosu was looking at me. That vicious face glaring at me from the corner of his eye brought it all back. The reason I’d never even tried to see Choi Woosu’s ending.
That bastard absolutely despised Yeon Juwoo.
<Find My Boyfriend!> — Just who will be the one to become your boyfriend?
Full title: Find My Boyfriend. Abbreviated: FMB. Currently the hottest romance simulation game on the market. Also the setting of the world I’m now stuck in.
Your standard romance simulation game, as we all know it — and yet this one had blown up, and the reasons for that could be narrowed down to two main things. First: the faces of the absurdly handsome capture targets. The characters brought to life by the most popular illustrator around had caused an enormous sensation. Even the same line hits differently depending on whether it’s coming from an average-looking character or a ridiculously good-looking one.
The second: settings that set it apart from other games. Things like the capture targets’ affection not starting at zero, or the fact that each character had specific days where the odds of reaching their ending went up. Small touches like those added layers of fun to the game. Combined with a story that was familiar but still made your heart flutter — the kind of romance everyone quietly dreams of — its success was inevitable.
Being a game aimed at women, its main users were naturally female, and the male-to-female ratio was said to be somewhere around 0.1 to 99.9 — its popularity among men was absolutely abysmal. And yet, astonishingly, I was part of that rare 0.1% of male players.
There he goes again. Doesn’t his eye ever get tired.
Choi Woosu was glaring at me with a persistence so relentless it bordered on vicious. Every time I turned my head — pretending to look at the TV, pretending to look at the teacher, pretending to look out the window — without fail, every single time, he was staring. It was because ‘dislikes Yeon Juwoo’ was part of his character settings.
[ System ]
[‘Choi Woosu’s’ profile has been updated.]
[+Dislikes: Yeon Juwoo.]
Since Juwoo never appeared in the game, neither I nor any other player knew the reason Choi Woosu disliked him. If Yura had known, she might have gotten ahead of it — either by apologizing or demanding one — but unfortunately nothing like that was ever in the game. The reason an extra and a capture target ended up as enemies was never going to take up enough screen time to warrant cutting into Yura and Woosu’s date scenes. Even if that capture target happened to be the most popular male lead in the game.
