The Art of the Tsundere
I’d seen it plenty of times in romance-comedy stories. A character like me—rough, ill-tempered, a total delinquent—shows up as the male lead. The classic cliché is planting the thought in the heroines’ minds: ‘Huh… he’s not as bad as I thought.’
I’m not exactly the type to follow clichés, but there’s a reason they became clichés in the first place. They work. They hit hard and they work ridiculously well.
The current time was 9:30 a.m.—thirty minutes before our promised meeting time. I was already standing at Hapjeong Station.
‘I have to put up with this much if I don’t want to miss even a tiny bit of favorability.’
If it was Jeong Sua, she would definitely show up earlier than the appointed time. I had arrived even earlier than that on purpose, hoping to squeeze out even the smallest increase in her affection.
The problem was that this was the first time I was meeting Jeong Sua alone. I had no idea how many minutes before the meeting time she usually arrived, so I couldn’t shake the feeling that I might have come out way too early.
Well, I might as well look around and enjoy some eye candy while I wait.
‘She should be here any minute now.’
I used my height to scan the surroundings. Right on cue, I spotted Jeong Sua walking toward our meeting spot from afar.
Her casual outfit for meeting me… was a white t-shirt paired with denim overalls. There was almost no exposed skin. It wasn’t that she was deliberately hiding it from me—she simply didn’t own many revealing clothes. Once she became mine, she’d need some proper training.
I’d make her wear nothing but miniskirts and skin-tight leggings that showed off every curve. No exceptions.
I couldn’t let her catch me waiting around like a loser, so I quickly shoved my hands into my pockets and put on an indifferent expression.
“Oppa?”
It didn’t take long before Jeong Sua noticed me. Her surprised voice rang out exactly as I had hoped. She looked shocked that the person who had insisted he wouldn’t come had not only shown up, but had arrived before the meeting time. Then that expression melted into a playful smile full of mischief.
“Oppa, are you a tsundere by any chance?”
“What? Tsundere? You wanna die?”
“It’s true though. You said you weren’t coming, yet here you are—and you even showed up early.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
I turned my back on Jeong Sua, who was still spouting ridiculous things. Our little brat still hadn’t come to her senses. Time to crack the whip one more time.
“O-oppa! Where are you going!”
At her question, I turned back toward her and answered.
“Home. You should hurry up and go home too.”
When I started walking again, Jeong Sua grabbed my arm as if she had no intention of letting me leave.
“Ah, oppa, you’re doing it again.”
“Let go.”
“Ugh, seriously. Oppa, just be honest. The fact that you came out here means deep down you didn’t want to grow distant from me, right?”
“I only came because I figured my little brat would stupidly keep standing at the meeting spot like an idiot. I was going to tell you to stop doing useless things and go home already.”
“If you keep acting like this, I’m really going to cry right here.”
Oh? Now she’s trying to threaten me with tears. The station was already crowded with people, and quite a few eyes were already on us—a handsome guy and a beautiful girl. This was her final trump card: turning me into trash who made a girl cry in public.
“Go ahead if you can.”
“Hic… ugh… if you keep doing this, I’m going to feel so hurt…”
“Wait, are you actually crying?”
Jeong Sua really started shedding tears the moment I told her to. I acted like I hadn’t expected this at all. When she saw that her tears were working, she completely collapsed to the ground and began sobbing outright.
“What’s with that guy? Did he just make her cry?”
“Tsk tsk, what a man.”
“The guy’s clearly in the wrong.”
The sight of the pure-looking Jeong Sua crying had a tremendous effect. The surrounding stares? Honestly, I couldn’t care less. All I wanted was to become the guy who reluctantly gave in to her tears and agreed to the date.
“Stop crying and get up, brat.”
“I’m staying like this until you say you’ll go buy a present with me… hic.”
“You’re using casual speech again… wait, that’s not important right now. I’m sorry, so please just stand up.”
“You’ll go with me?”
“Sigh… fine, you win. I’ll go with you.”
Only then did Jeong Sua stand up with a satisfied expression. There were real tear streaks on her face, so it clearly wasn’t just an act.
“Haa… I really didn’t think you’d actually cry.”
“Then you should’ve just said you’d go with me from the start…”
“More importantly, you’ve been sneakily dropping the honorifics since last time. Keep that up and you’ll end up treating me like a friend.”
“Then let’s just be friends…”
“You really want to die, huh?”
When I raised my fist, Jeong Sua stuck her tongue out at me and instantly backed up to a safe distance where I couldn’t reach her. That childish prank was something she only used to pull on Kang Suho, yet now she was doing it to me too.
The sight of her being so adorably cheeky drained all the urge to hit her out of me. I simply started walking toward the downtown area.
“Oppa, I know you always pretend like you don’t care but you actually listen to everything, right?”
Jeong Sua was greatly mistaken. I don’t listen to everything. I only listen because it’s her. I answered that it was just her misunderstanding, then when a bicycle suddenly came toward us from the opposite side, I pulled her body close so she wouldn’t get hit.
That should have raised her favorability a little more. My goal for today was to collect every single tiny scrap of favorability I could get.
“I know I’m handsome and you can’t stop staring, but watch where you’re going.”
“I wasn’t staring at you, oppa! That’s just massive main character syndrome!”
The grumbling Jeong Sua’s gaze suddenly drifted toward a restaurant. She must be hungry.
“Want to grab some food first? I didn’t eat breakfast before I left.”
“Oh… I was actually thinking the exact same thing.”
“Perfect. Let’s go eat. My treat.”
“Really?”
“Of course it’s real. Why would I lie about something like this?”
We headed to a rice bowl place, ordered bowls topped with ingredients suited to our tastes, and after I paid for both of us, we made our way to the department store.
“What are you planning to buy at the department store?”
“I was thinking of buying him some clothes. What do you think, oppa?”
“You already know. That guy likes game stuff or comic books way more than clothes.”
“That’s true, but…”
Jeong Sua’s expression darkened slightly. There was no way she didn’t know. Even if Kang Suho accepted clothes with gratitude, it wouldn’t be his favorite kind of gift. Kang Suho still had a childish side to him. From a young age he had monopolized the parental love and attention that should have been mine. He grew up with everyone naturally fawning over him even if he did nothing. Because of that, he never learned how to present himself well or take care of his appearance. A guy who only ever wore plain t-shirts whenever he went out—what could he possibly know? He was wasting that handsome face of his.
The reason Jeong Sua wanted to buy him clothes was probably because she hoped he would dress up a little more. But then she seemed to change her mind and switched directions.
“Let’s just go to the toy section.”
Having finished her internal debate, Jeong Sua started walking again. It looked like she had decided to give him a gift he would actually enjoy rather than one she wanted to give.
“It would be so nice if Suho dressed like you, oppa.”
“Give it up. I saw his closet once—it’s full of dozens of plain-colored t-shirts.”
“No way… Then can’t you teach Suho how to dress properly, oppa?”
I really didn’t want to. The worse he looked, the better it was for me.
“I’ll give it a try. But if he has zero sense, I’m giving up.”
“Hehe. Thank you. Since you’re his older brother, you pay attention to him even without me saying anything. You’re his real brother, after all.”
Seeing her smile, it looked like her favorability had gone up again. Sorry, but even if Kang Suho receives my help, it won’t make you like him. On the contrary, it might be fun to make him even more pathetic and shove the result right in front of your eyes.
“Ah, oppa. Can I stop by over there for a moment?”
The place she pointed to was a small accessory shop.
“I need to buy a new hair pin.”
“Since I promised to spend the day with you, I’ll go wherever you want.”
The moment she received my permission, Jeong Sua ran into the accessory shop. She was a girl, after all—she clearly cared a lot about decorating herself. She browsed the display stands in front of the store and picked out a pin she liked.
“Oppa, what do you think of this one?”
A small yellow star-shaped pin. It suited Jeong Sua perfectly.
“It looks good on you.”
“Then how about this one?”
This time it was a neat, understated design that wasn’t too flashy. It also suited her very well.
“It suits you.”
“Oppa… you’re not just answering randomly because you’re annoyed, right?”
“I’m not. Honestly, in my eyes, anything you wear looks pretty and suits you.”
Jeong Sua immediately let out a small squeak and turned bright red. She must have been caught off guard by my sudden direct compliment.
“Ah, that’s right… this person likes me…”
Her quiet little mumble was adorable. I let out a soft chuckle and gazed at her gently.
“I believe you now understand that I wasn’t answering carelessly.”
“Y-yes…”
“Just know that I still haven’t sorted out all my feelings for you yet.”
“…I understand. Ijin oppa…”
My words were practically a confession. However, Jeong Sua’s reaction was far more passive than any I had seen from girls I had confessed to before. It didn’t seem like she was simply embarrassed by my confession. Then was she shy because there were so many people around? It was possible, since I had only ever confessed when we were alone. But one thing was certain…
‘She’s started seeing me as a man.’
Ever since I saved her, she had begun viewing me not just as her childhood friend’s older brother, but as a man. Otherwise, that reaction couldn’t be explained. It was a good sign.
But I absolutely would not let my guard down here. Since this was a date with Jeong Sua that I had spent a full seven years preparing for, I was going to collect every last drop of favorability I could get.