Confessed to by the Golden Boy
I stared at the girl standing in front of me, completely dumbfounded.
Golden Sun. Blonde hair, tanned skin, the classic delinquent archetype. A walking social evil who specialized in stealing other people’s love interests—NTR incarnate. The kind of character who made readers and players alike break out in cold sweats the moment he appeared, terrified he’d snatch away the heroine.
“...Wait. Did I hear that wrong?”
The idea that someone like Geum Taeyang would single out one specific person and confess to them felt impossible. And if that same Geum Taeyang was the villainess who stole the male lead from the romance-fantasy protagonist? Even more absurd.
“You like me? Me?”
But the girl currently standing before me—Geum Taeyang herself—was saying it with absolute clarity.
“Yeah. Let’s date.”
She’d apparently liked me for a long time and wanted to start a relationship. The confession carried a sweet, almost innocent flavor, like something straight out of a pure-hearted romance. As if she were the type of girl who could only ever love one person.
Of course, there was only one possible response I could give to a shy, maiden-like confession like that.
“Get lost, you crazy bitch.”
After all, you should never associate with an NTR addict.
Geum Taeyang archetype confirmed.
Primary threat level: EXTREME.
Recommended action: Immediate rejection and avoidance.
I turned on my heel without waiting for a reply. The hallway of the academy was quiet at this hour, the afternoon sunlight slanting through the tall windows and painting long golden stripes across the marble floor. Perfect weather for a confession, I suppose. Too bad the confessor was the last person on earth I’d ever want to hear those words from.
My name is Jack. Just Jack. In this world, I’m nothing more than a nameless extra, a background character who was never supposed to matter. But I remember everything.
This place is the setting of a reverse-harem romance-fantasy web novel called The Saintess’s Harem of Light. A story where the pure and radiant heroine gathers a collection of beautiful, devoted men while overcoming trials and tribulations. A classic otome game world transplanted into novel form.
And Geum Taeyang—or more accurately, the girl currently using that archetype as a skin—was the villainess named Lucia Klein.
Blonde hair bleached to a near-platinum shade, skin kissed by the sun until it glowed like caramel, and a personality as sharp and dangerous as a switchblade. In the original story, she was the one who relentlessly targeted the male lead, the Crown Prince of the Holy Empire, trying to steal him away from the heroine through every underhanded method imaginable. The ultimate NTR specialist. The character readers loved to hate.
So why the hell was she confessing to me?
I wasn’t even a capture target. I wasn’t a noble. I wasn’t rich, I wasn’t powerful, and I definitely wasn’t handsome enough to warrant a villainess’s obsessive attention. I was just… me. A transfer student who’d woken up inside this world with memories of the novel intact.
That alone should have been enough to keep me far away from any death flags. Yet here we were.
“Jack.”
Her voice floated after me, soft and strangely sweet. Not the sneering, mocking tone I remembered from the original plot. This was different. Gentle. Almost… vulnerable?
I didn’t stop walking.
“Jack, wait.”
A hand caught my sleeve. The grip was light, but the sheer unexpectedness of it made me freeze. When I turned around, Lucia was looking up at me with wide golden eyes that seemed to shimmer with unshed tears.
“You really hate me that much?” she whispered.
For a moment, the hallway felt too quiet. Too intimate. The kind of atmosphere that belonged in a romance scene, not between an extra and the story’s designated homewrecker.
I pulled my arm free, trying to ignore the way my heart had suddenly decided to do gymnastics in my chest.
“Look,” I said flatly. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but I’m not interested. Go find some other guy to ruin. Preferably one who’s actually important to the plot.”
Her lips parted in surprise. Then, slowly, a small smile curved them. It wasn’t the cruel smirk I’d seen in the novel’s illustrations. This smile was soft. Almost shy. And that terrified me more than anything else.
“You’re interesting,” she murmured. “That’s why I like you.”
“I said get lost.”
“I heard you the first time.” She tilted her head, blonde hair catching the light like threads of real gold. “But I’m not going to. Not until you give me a proper chance.”
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. In the original story, Lucia Klein was obsessed with the Crown Prince. She tormented the heroine, spread vicious rumors, and eventually met a miserable end after her schemes backfired spectacularly. She was never supposed to look at anyone else—least of all me.
So what changed?
Was this a death flag I’d somehow triggered just by existing?
Lucia took a small step closer. The faint scent of citrus and warm vanilla drifted from her, completely at odds with the delinquent image her appearance suggested.
“I’ve been watching you for a long time, Jack. The way you always sit in the back of the classroom. The way you look at everyone like you already know how their stories end. It’s… lonely, isn’t it?”
My blood ran cold.
She couldn’t possibly know. There was no way she could have figured out that I was a transmigrator. That I remembered the novel. That I was desperately trying to avoid every single death flag in this twisted story.
“You’re crazy,” I said, but my voice came out weaker than I wanted.
Her smile widened, just a little. Those golden eyes—eyes that should have been filled with arrogance and malice—were instead sparkling with something that looked dangerously like genuine affection.
“Maybe I am. But I’m crazy about you.”
I took a step back. Then another. My back hit the wall, and suddenly there was nowhere left to run. Lucia didn’t crowd me, but she didn’t back away either. She simply stood there, watching me with that soft, terrifyingly sincere expression.
“One date,” she said quietly. “Just one. If you still hate me afterward, I’ll leave you alone. I promise.”
The words were reasonable. The tone was gentle. But every instinct I had was screaming that this was how it started. This was how the villainess sank her claws in. This was how the NTR route began.
I opened my mouth to refuse again—
—and the world froze.
"The gears of fate have begun to turn."
"The villainess has chosen a new target."
⟨ Hidden Route Unlocked ⟩
A translucent window only I could see materialized in the air before me. My stomach dropped.
New Quest Received: The Golden Boy's Obsession
Objective: Survive Lucia Klein's romantic pursuit for 30 days without triggering a bad ending.
Reward: 5000 Fate Points + Hidden Title
Failure: Death Flag Activated — "NTR'd by the Villainess"
I wanted to scream.
This wasn’t a romance novel anymore. This was a horror story. And the final boss had just decided I was her new favorite toy.
Lucia was still waiting for my answer, head slightly tilted, that gentle smile never leaving her lips. She looked like a girl in love.
She looked like my impending doom.
I swallowed hard.
“...Fine. One date. But if you try anything weird, I’m done. Got it?”
Her entire face lit up with a smile so bright it nearly blinded me. For the first time, I noticed the faint dusting of freckles across her nose and the way her golden eyes crinkled at the corners when she was truly happy.
“Thank you, Jack,” she whispered, voice trembling with what sounded like genuine joy. “I won’t make you regret it. I promise.”
As she turned and walked away, practically skipping down the hallway, I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the cool marble floor.
What the hell had I just agreed to?
And more importantly…
Why did a small, treacherous part of me feel excited about it?