EP 0. The Prank Confession
It all began with sunlight beating down warm on my skin, and cicadas shrieking loud enough to make my ears ring—
"Hey, Lee Hyunwoo. Now that I think about it, how come you never date or anything?"
And, for reasons I still can't explain, with Han Chaea—my childhood friend, the girl who has stayed glued to my side all the way through this summer.
It was an ordinary summer day, no different from any other.
"Has it ever crossed your mind that it's not that I don't date, but that I can't?"
"Why, though? You've had girls confess to you before, haven't you?"
"Girls have confessed... to me?"
My name is Lee Hyunwoo, eighteen years young. My greatest achievement in life so far: at an age when everyone else has had at least one relationship, I remain a motae solo—single since the day I was born.
It's not that I never tried to date. Things just never worked out the way I hoped. Have you ever heard the expression zero confessions, one rejection? That's me, to the letter. Before I could even work up the nerve to confess, the other person would draw a firm, uncrossable line between us, and I'd give up before a single word left my mouth. How many times had that happened now? I'd honestly lost count.
And needless to say, not one girl has ever confessed to me. If one had, I wouldn't still be single since birth, now would I?
"Am I wrong? I could swear I've seen girls who were into you more than once."
"Funny, because I've never seen a single one. If they exist, the least you could do is introduce me."
"Fine, forget it, then! Hey, I'm single too, you know. How cowardly can you be, trying to escape solo life all by yourself?"
"Hold on—isn't it you who's just not dating? Girls who are into you are all over the place around me, you know..."
Chaea, who had been listening to all this with suspicious calm, shot to her feet and hurled the pillow she'd been hugging straight at me, shouting.
"Hey! How can you say that when there wasn't a single normal one in the bunch! They were all weirdos. And for the record, I'm not exactly popular either."
"Well, even those weirdos of yours don't fall for me, thank you very much."
"It's not like I'm asking to date an idol or something. All I want is a boyfriend who's kind to me and loves me and only me. Is that really so much to ask?"
I've literally had girls I'd never met before come up and beg me to help them hit it off with Chaea. Her claiming she's unpopular? Please.
"Hyunwoo, if you knew the truth, you'd see you're way more popular than I am."
"And there she goes again."
"I mean it! Why won't you believe me?"
"Hey, that's gaslighting. I don't believe you, so give it a rest already. It's too hot for this."
"Just watch—there won't be a single girl who turns you down if you confess. I'm telling you, not one."
What had gotten into her, hyping me up like this? At this point, I figured, maybe I owed it to her to at least play along and pretend to believe it.
And then—ah. A fun little prank popped into my head. The perfect gag to fluster Chaea, who was still jutting out her lips in a sulk.
"Oh yeah? So it's really true? I can actually believe you?"
"I'm telling you it's true! How many times have I said the exact same thing by now..."