Prologue: The End of Unrequited Love
If someone asked me what the most miserable role in the world was, I could answer without a second's hesitation: the Supporting Male Lead in a harem romantic comedy anime.
And not just any Supporting Male Lead — the gentle childhood friend who spent his entire life nursing unrequited love for a frail girl who might collapse at any moment, devotedly looking after her every need.
"You know... I think I like Senior Yujin."
The familiar line reached me — one I had never wanted to hear. A line I had already heard hundreds of times before.
How had the original me on the other side of the screen reacted in this moment?
That gentle childhood friend, who had never once raised his voice in his entire life, had shouted at her for the first and last time. He had torn into a guy like Yujin, insisting she must never meet him, pressuring her not to see him — until it all degenerated into a childish, pathetic quarrel.
That was the moment her long, long bond with the Supporting Male Lead snapped in the worst possible way.
But I was not some immature boy who couldn't control his emotions and only clawed deeper into his own wounds.
"...I see."
I slowly lifted the corners of my mouth into a smile. Then, calmly, I nodded.
A lukewarm breeze slipped through the gap in the window and passed between us.
And just like that, the unrequited love I had clutched so stubbornly came to a quiet end.