Chapter 1
Stella Gomez was sure something was wrong with her.
Even after being turned down over and over again, she still couldn't stop herself from drifting back to the boy she liked.
Right now, rain was pouring down in sheets. She waited beneath the café awning by the high school gates, staring blankly across the street at the entrance of the university.
Her phone screen glowed, displaying a chat from three days ago.
Stella: [Zachary, I got my exam results. I improved a lot compared to last time.]
Zachary: [Okay.]
A cold, clipped reply. Not a single extra word.
Still, Stella had taken a screenshot of that word and set it as her phone wallpaper.
Every time her best friend, Cora Stone, saw her acting this helpless, she'd get mad. "Stella, wake up. He doesn't want to talk to you. Why are you acting like this means a lot?"
Stella always shot back without a shred of doubt, "You don't get it. This is what devotion looks like. In novels, that's exactly how the heroine wins over the hero."
Cora rolled her eyes. "Are you reading actual novels, or some kind of toxic garbage?"
Stella blinked. "Is there a difference?"
At least, she didn't think so. All she knew was that she had to win Zachary over.
*****
The rain was getting heavier. Stella clutched her backpack as she scooted farther under the awning. Today was another day she'd snuck over here to wait for Zachary Jensen, the boy she liked.
She'd heard he usually showed up at the café nearby every Wednesday afternoon.
She'd been waiting here for two months now, and still hadn't seen him once, but she never gave up.
That was the thing about lovesick fools. They thrived on persistence and their own dramatic sense of devotion.
Just then, a sudden beep sounded in her head. Stella jumped, looking around. "Who's making that noise?"
No one answered.
The voice chimed in her head again. [Host detected. System booting... boot successful. Welcome to the 'Romantic Dependency Correction System'.]
Stella muttered, "What the hell is this?"
System: [You have been detected as the mean girl in the novel 'How to Get the Campus Heartthrob'. In three months, you will be publicly embarrassed by the heroine and eventually lose everyone around you, ending up alone.]
Stella paused for three seconds, then couldn't help but crack up, laughing out loud. "Oh man, this dream feels way too real. A system? Seriously? I've definitely been reading way too many novels lately."
System: [Host, this is not a dream.]
Stella stood up, bounced twice where she was, then pinched her cheek.
Yep, it felt real.
She crouched back down, her face going blank. "Are you saying I'm a side character in a novel?"
System: [Yes.]
"And I'm the meal girl?"
[Yes.]
"I'm going to get humiliated in public, lose everyone around me, and end up alone, huh?"
[Yes.]
Stella went quiet for a few seconds, then asked the one question that really mattered. "Is Zachary, the boy I've been waiting for, the male lead?"
[Yes.]
Stella fell silent again. Then she slowly looked up, her face full of mixed emotions. "So, the guy I've had a crush on for seven years is meant to end up with someone else."
[According to the storyline, yes.]
"Then what was the point of all these years?"
[That's not something I can answer. Maybe you should figure it out yourself.]
Stella crouched there, not bothering to wipe the rain off her face. Her mind began replaying every ridiculous thing she'd done over the years.
Back in sixth grade, the first time she saw Zachary, she thought he was so handsome, and he had been stuck in her mind ever since.
For three years in middle school, she took the long way to school every day to catch a glimpse of him outside his school.
In high school, she studied like crazy to get into the same school as him, thinking it had to mean something.
She turned down three guys who liked her, just for him. She spent all her money buying his favorite drinks and dropping them off at his classroom.
She even learned how to write love letters and knit scarves, though her scarves always ended up as a tangled rag instead.
However, in the end, the longest message he'd ever sent her was "Okay, thanks."
Stella stayed crouched there while the rain kept getting heavier, and her mood kept sinking.
Finally, she got to her feet, took a deep breath, and asked, "System, be real with me. Is the female lead kinder, prettier, and more understanding than I am?"
System: [Yeah, that's what the story says.]
"So, whenever I go near the male lead, do I look like a total clown, right?"
[Yes.]
"And at the end of the day, will everyone think I deserved everything that happened to me?"
[Yeah.]
Stella crouched back down, feeling really down.
However, a second later, she jumped up again. "No way. I need to see what the female lead looks like. What if this system is messing with me?"
"System never lies."
"Oh yeah? What if you're actually some troll system? I've read tons of novels with systems like that."
[Host, you're seriously being an idiot right now.]
Stella ignored it, wiped the rain off her face, grabbed her backpack, and bolted out into the downpour.
She needed to find out what kind of perfect girl this "female lead" actually was, someone who could make her seven-year crush feel completely pointless.
Then she ran into someone. "Ouch."
She stumbled back a couple of steps and fell right on her butt in a puddle.
Her backpack went flying, and everything inside scattered all over the ground. There was an umbrella, notebooks, a travel mug, and a crumpled envelope that read "For Zachary Jensen."
Stella looked up and saw a guy standing in front of her.
He was in a black rain jacket, holding an umbrella as he looked down at her.
She couldn't really see his face through the rain, but his eyes looked sharp and shiny.
"Are you stupid or something?" he said, his voice husky. "Why are you rushing out in this crazy rain?"
Stella stared at him blankly as the system chimed again in her mind.
System: [Important character detected. Ian Levy is the devoted supporting male lead in the novel. He's the guy who always watches over the heroine when she's hurt, but ends up heartbroken and alone.]
Stella blinked. "Are you the second male lead?"