Chapter 1
I was walking past an alley when I saw several guys roughing up a young man.
Then, out of nowhere, glowing captions flashed in my vision.
[OMG our poor second lead is getting beaten up... Someone save him!]
[Yesss the heroine's coming! She's totally gonna rescue him!]
The heroine? Me?
Without another thought, I turned and walked right into the alley.
Instantly, the captions blew up.
[Wait, who IS this girl?? She's not in the script!]
[What is she doing? Someone stop her!]
What was I doing?
Didn't they just call me the heroine and tell me to save the second lead?
Was I not the heroine after all?
I glanced back and saw a pretty girl walking this way.
More captions flashed before my eyes.
[Hurry up, heroine! Someone's about to steal your obsessive second lead.]
I was seriously annoyed now.
So if I was not the female lead, what the hell was I?
I looked at the boy, his face bruised and swollen from the beating.
Well, since I was already here, I might as well take the obsessive second lead with me. Maybe then I would figure out what my role really was.
"Stop it!" I yelled at the thugs.
[Who is this girl?? How does she have the nerve to confront them? Shouldn't she just call the police?]
[Probably just a random extra. She'll get scared off, and then our real heroine will show up.]
[But the heroine didn't even see what happened... She already walked away.]
The thugs turned toward me, their faces twisting into ugly smirks.
"Hey, little girl, what are you trying to do? Playing hero?" one of them sneered.
"Tsk, you're kinda cute. Why don't you come have some fun with us?" another said, his eyes crawling over me.
They started closing in as they spoke.
[I'm speechless... She's brave, but why isn't she running?]
[Ugh, my dumb-people allergy is acting up again. I can't watch this.]
As one of them reached for me, I grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and flipped him over my shoulder.
My foot landed firmly on his face. I glanced at the others and gestured them forward.
I asked, "So, coming one by one, or all together?"
[DAMN, that was cool!]
[Okay, respect. I take back everything I said.]
The thugs still looked ready to fight, but the moment they saw a squad of bodyguards marching into the alley, they panicked and started blurting, "We're sorry!"
I clicked my tongue, lifted my foot off the guy's face, and watched as they dragged their friend away like scared rats.
[Just how strong is this girl??]
[Wait, are all those bodyguards here for her?]
The bodyguards stopped beside me. I pointed at the pretty boy lying on the ground, bloody, bruised, with those big, wet eyes.
"Put him in my car," I ordered.
"Yes, Miss," one of the bodyguards replied.
[Damn, did they just call her Miss?]
[Who IS she? She wasn't in the original story at all!]
Who was I?
My name's Melody Rivers, and honestly, I was a total sucker for obsessive tropes.
And just today, I found out my whole world was actually a book... and I was nothing but a background character.
No way was I letting that slide. So I went ahead and snatched the obsessive second lead for myself.
If you wanted a taste of the main character's luck, you had to stick close to the main cast.
Besides... as a lover of obsessive types, I've always wondered what it was like to be loved by someone obsessive.
And wasn't he the second lead?
Second leads were basically fair game for everyone, and I was just one of the crowd, right?
The comments were still buzzing nonstop.
[What's this background character gonna do to our Evan?!]
[I ship the heroine and second lead so hard... I'm literally falling apart right now. Their first meeting was supposed to be perfect!]
[But the heroine and male lead are endgame. If it weren't for the second lead stirring up drama later, the main couple would've gotten together way sooner.]
The male lead belonged to the heroine. But the second lead? He was mine now.
Staring at the boy's pale, delicate face, I couldn't help but smirk.
An obsessive type... the kind I only read about in novels.
How should I make him fall for me and really bring out that obsessive side?
Evan looked uneasy under my gaze, his ears tinged pink.
I'd just taken him to a clinic to get patched up. He glanced at me with those puppy eyes, clearly unsure what to do, and mumbled a quiet "Thank you... I'll pay you back for the medical fees."
Yeah, he was good-looking, and his voice was nice. But he was not giving off obsessive vibes yet.
No worries. I would take it step by step.
"Don't worry about it. So... why were they beating you up?" I asked.
Evan frowned. After a few seconds of silence, he replied hoarsely, "Honestly... I don't know."
[Poor Evan. Those bullies always shake him down for money. They just took his scholarship cash.]
[He's completely broke right now. His family has nothing, and his foster mom is really sick.]
[Then why doesn't he tell her the truth?]
[Maybe he's scared she'll think he's pathetic.]
Pathetic? Please.
Obsessive boys were legends. They shouldn't get pathetic. They should act untouchable.
"I saw them take your money," I said casually.
Evan looked away, biting his lip, his ears turning redder.
"But I didn't stop them. You know why?" I took his cracked phone from his hand. "Because I can give you so much more than that."