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Chapter Text

When Ryu Gunwoo awoke from drinking himself into a stupor, he expected to be greeted by his cheap apartment ceiling. 

That, however, was not the case. 

The first clue that something was strange should’ve been the fact that when he opened his eyes, the light didn’t immediately beam into the back of his head and cause a sudden fit of nausea. He actually felt.. fine? Strange, but he’ll take it. A win is a win. What wasn’t a win, was the fact that his apartment ceiling was somehow baby pink.

…

Three options here.

1. He drank so hard he’s still drunk and the ceiling only looked pink. 
2. He painted the roof while drunk
3. He broke into someone else’s house

All were terrible options really. 

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and decided that he was a fully grown man and he could deal with the consequences of his own actions. So he slowly sat up, just in case a sudden hangover headache decided to jump him. 

When he was fully up he was happy to report that he did not have a hangover. He was less happy to report that he most likely broke into someone else’s house. 

The room he was in was entirely unfamiliar to him. 

The ceiling and walls were all a baby pink color and all the furniture was white. Even the bed he was lying on had a white frame and baby-pink sheets. Apart from the bed, there was a full-length white framed mirror, a white double wardrobe, a white writing desk paired with a white seat and pink cushion, and lastly a white door. The room was actually quite empty and didn’t look lived in. It did look a bit feminine though.

Which brought Ryu Gunwoo to his fourth option.

4. Did I go home with someone only to be so bad they left their own house first?

He shook his head. That probably wasn’t the case. He was still fully clothed after all. 

But his predicament didn’t change and the main problem was that regardless, this wasn’t his apartment and whoever the owner was, they weren’t here.

There was also another problem he discovered when he did a quick glance down at his clothes. Did he look… smaller than usual? His whole body looked a bit scrawny. He remembered vaguely that he didn’t eat before he passed out but surely that wouldn't mean he would suddenly look like an extra from Oliver Twist. 

Perplexed, he ran a hand through his hair only to freeze. Did his hair grow overnight? Why did it feel longer than usual? 

Feeling strange about the whole situation now he slowly got up to approach the full-length mirror.

As he got closer to the mirror he could see that the white frame had an elegant design carved into it. He would have appreciated the design choice more if it wasn’t for the fact that his eyes had to widen in shock 

Two incidents caused this reaction. The first is that the person looking back at him in the mirror wasn’t himself. In his stunned state, he moved his hand to brush his hair away from his eyes to get a good look at himself, but the man in the mirror moved at exactly the same time. Which meant logically the man in the mirror was him. Although really there was nothing logical about it. 

Turns out there was a super secret fifth option he never considered.

5. His soul had swapped into another body

As if that wasn’t surreal enough, there were also the floating translucent blue words that read ‘character customization’ floating above the mirror.

Ryu Gunwoo took a deep breath and came to the only logical conclusion he could think of.

He was hallucinating. 

Before he could think on that any longer, he turned his head towards the writing desk. There was a piece of paper on it.

Slowly he approached it and picked it up, somehow hoping that the paper would explain everything and make this whole thing make sense. 

To his absolute shock and surprise (not), it did not in fact make things make sense.

Name: Park Moondae.

Age: 20

Status: Single

Role: Heroine

Background: Park Moondae is an orphan having lost his parents in a recent accident. He was bullied at his previous school and as a result dropped out. However, the year after he dropped out he received a letter from a prestigious private academy which he accepted. Will he be able to find love before the time is up? 

He blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.

Why did this seem like a character sheet from a dating sim? 

Sweat trickled down his back as he looked at the photo pasted onto the corner of the profile. It was the same face he saw staring back at him in the mirror.

So he was Park Moondae? The.. heroine? 

If he could spit up blood right now, he would. 

So he was in a game world then? Surely he must be dreaming. But to his horror when he looked down and counted all his fingers, they were all there and looked completely clear. He even tried holding his nose and blowing but he was so panicked that he blew too hard and popped his ears in the process. Which meant that this was real.

Feeling defeated and slightly delirious from holding his breath he decided to try something crazy.

“Menu?” He questioned out loud.

After a second nothing appeared and he was about to sigh a breath of relief and pin this whole situation as a cruel joke when a translucent blue window appeared before him.

Page selection

Status 

Character profile

Affection meter 

He inhaled a sharp breath before picking status.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F

Music: F

Dance: F

Literature: F

Physical Education: F

Extra Curricular: F

Fatigue: Low

Money: 0

What the fuck, why was he so bad? 

He stared at the window gobsmacked. Forget waking up in someone else’s body and possibly in a dating sim, why the fuck were his stats absolute dogshit???

He can’t say he had much experience with dating sims. In fact, the only thing he knew about them was bits and pieces he could glean from his few female friends. Which was not a lot in all honesty. So he had no clue if this was a normal starting point or if this was just incredibly bad luck.

As he was contemplating his utter lack of talent in this new body a notification popped up on his screen.

New mission: 

Meet the 6 capture targets

Accept

Decline 

So this was a dating sim. Of course it fucking was. 

Thinking fast he remembered there was a character profile window. That should probably refer to the capture targets profiles, right?

Exiting out of his shitty stats he attempted to open the character screen, only to be met with a red pop-up. 

Characters not met yet. 

So he’d need to meet them first? Which means he has absolutely no lead and is going into this blind. 

What the fuck. 

He knew nothing about dating sims, nothing about the capture targets, and nothing about how he even ended up in this situation in the first place. I mean why should he even play along if he had no idea why he was even doing it?

As if to answer his thoughts, another pop-up appeared.

Rules of the Game

Welcome to Doki Doki School Idol Paradise <3! 

Where you can live your best academy life, find love, and find the truths of the universe!

Complete the missions within a year to reveal the truths of this world and at the very end get sent home!

Fail to complete the missions within the time period and you will die here sad and alone </3

For the 100th time in the past half an hour: what the fuck.

Chapter Text

A couple of hours later Ryu Gunwoo, now known as Park Moondae, had come to terms with a couple of harsh truths.

The first was that he wasn’t dreaming and he really was in a dating sim world. That was the hardest to wrap his head around. But he found the longer he prolonged acknowledging the inevitable the longer it would take him to get home. Besides, with a time limit of a year, he doesn’t have much time to kill, lest the time kills him back. 

He was a bit bummed out about being in a completely different world. Mostly because he had no idea how any of this worked. He wasn’t that bummed about losing what he had in his original world as he had very little left to lose in the first place. Like Park Moondae, Ryu Gunwoo was an orphan with no family. He was also still attending school as he was aiming to take the civil servant exam, although he had yet to pass it. 

Thinking of the similarities he realized that maybe why this was happening to him personally. 

Not that it made him feel any better about it though.

The second truth he came to accept was that this was Park Moondae’s dorm room. He had a bit of a wander while trying to figure out if he really was going insane and happened to leave the room and explore the rest of the building. It was pretty standard. It was a large accommodation with multiple dorm rooms and a large shared kitchen that served free meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

He did think that the free meal part was a bit too convenient, but he supposed that dating sims focused more on personal relationships rather than how logical the world around them is. 

So in conclusion, the pink room was Park Moondae’s dorm room and it seemed he had… unique tastes.

The third and final truth he realized was that he was the heroine, not the hero. Now he might be thinking too much into this but being labeled the heroine probably meant that his capture targets were all men right? 

As Ryu Gunwoo he was too busy to date, so he never had time to really think about his sexual preferences. Although the thought of being gay never did cross his mind he can’t say that he wasn’t considering his zero experience in the romance field. Regardless if the capture targets really were men or not, he still had a problem.

He had no clue how to flirt with anyone. Guys or otherwise.

Luckily his first mission, which he eventually accepted to escape the looming threat of death, was only to meet the 6 capture targets.

And although he had no clue who they were as the character profile screen was locked, he had a theory.

Considering he had a stat screen he was probably in a type of dating sim most commonly referred to as a stat raiser. This meant building his stats up was more important to the story than his dialogue choices most of the time. This was lucky for him as it meant whatever he chose to say to his capture targets it wouldn’t matter much in the long run.

He also heard from his female friends once, that usually the stats correspond to a love interest, and it just so happens he also had 6 stats minus fatigue and money. So if he tried to advance his stats then he would probably naturally meet the capture targets.

He sighed and rubbed his temple. The next part was a bit complicated.

He also knew that you could raise character affection in these types of games by buying gifts, which meant that the money stat was probably for that. Usually, the money stat in school-based games was raised by a part-time job. Which was similar enough to real life. However, the fatigue bar was a problem. 

Stat games required you to balance your growth to obtain the character and ending you wanted, it was a very delicate process made harder only by the addition of the fatigue bar. 

These types of games would be too easy if you could just raise your stats all willy-nilly with no consequences, so they usually tried to balance it out with a fatigue bar. Each activity you do causes your fatigue to grow and if high enough your character will pass out and you’ll obtain a penalty. 

He’s heard his friends complain about this mechanic on particularly hard routes in his original life. 

Now that he was living it he had to be wary of this mechanic especially. He wasn’t sure what type of penalty he would get but not having to find out was the preferable option. 

There was also the calendar system he had to watch out for.

He discovered that this world also had this feature when he was exploring his dorm and found a calendar stashed away in the writing desk drawer. 

The calendar system meant that on certain days you could only do certain things. From Monday to Friday were class days, so you could probably attend school and raise one of your stats. Saturday was either a part-time job or free time. Free time was another way to raise a stat and a part-time job was the only way to raise money for gifts. Sunday was either free time or rest. Rest lowered your fatigue bar. The weekend, Saturday and Sunday, were also days that could be used to go on dates according to the calendar

Park Moondae thought about it long and hard and in the end decided on a system. The best thing to do was use Monday to Friday to raise stats, use Saturday to work since work was only available that day, and use Sunday to rest or go on dates. 

According to the calendar, today was Sunday. This meant that today should be a rest day since he had no dates planned, but since this was his first day here he decided to raise one of his stats instead. The higher the stat, the more likely he is to meet that corresponding capture target, so there’s no harm in a head start. He could rest next week.

Mentally gearing himself up, he went over to the character customization mirror and changed into gym gear. 

The mirror was a weird mechanic. It turns out the only clothes he had in his big white wardrobe were a set of gym clothes, a school uniform, and the casual clothes he was wearing right now. If he wanted more clothes he would have to ask the mirror and buy them with his money from there. 

It was strange but more convenient than having to go into a real shop and try on sizes. 

As he walked toward the door, he put the mysterious ways of the magic mirror in the back of his mind. He had to focus after all. 

The white door to his apartment had the blue translucent word ‘map’ floating above it. He put his hand on the doorknob and a new menu appeared.

Map

Where to?

School

Shopping mall

Gym

Date locations

Park Moondae scanned the map and chose ‘gym’.

He decided while he was thinking of a game plan, that the easiest stat to figure out was physical education, and when he opened his wardrobe and found a set of gym clothes he immediately thought that must mean he had access to a gym at all times. He was glad he was right. 

He was hoping that if he could up a level in the gym today, then when Monday arrived and he got to the academy, he’d be more likely to bump into the target linked with the physical education stat.

Exiting his pink dorm room, he walked out of the building and into a world with a bright blue sky.

He had to walk through the neighborhood to get to the gym and although he personally had no idea where he was going, his legs kept moving. He just accepted that his legs would automatically take him where he needed to be. This was a game after all. So he decided to switch his brain off and observe his surroundings. 

It was slightly uncanny how peaceful and serene everything looked. The people passing by all looked quite plain but happy, the sky was nice and there were plenty of fluffy clouds, even the temperature was just right. It was pretty scenery but slightly unsettling at the same time.

There was no ruckus or sudden strong breezes, it was so perfect that it felt unreal.

Well, he was in a video game now Park Moondae thought grimly. He wasn’t too enthused about his circumstances even though he now had a plan. I mean it’s only been a day and although he was forced to accept it and keep moving, it doesn’t mean that he was okay with it.

Before he could lament his woes any longer, he looked up to find himself in front of a large building with the floating blue words ‘gym’ on top of the entrance.

Chapter Text

To Moondae's surprise, the gym looked entirely normal. Maybe he was just traumatized from the pink monstrosity that was his apartment but part of him had expected the gym to be some other flowery color and for the sweat coming off people to sparkle.

Luckily for him, that wasn't the case. 

Like any gym it was spacious. It had water fountains in the corners to refill your bottle and the hall leading to the gym had some vending machines. There was a row of treadmills to one side, an area in the middle for warmups and cool-down stretches, a corner dedicated to weight machines, and various arm and leg machines scattered about. 

When he first entered a man who worked there showed him around the place and informed him on how to work various machines as this was apparently Park Moondae's first time signing up for a gym. 

To be honest he couldn't say he was familiar with the place as Ryu Gunwoo either. He'd been so busy with his civil servant exam that going to the gym regularly was at the back of his mind. It didn't help that he didn't have enough money to waste on a gym membership. That being said he had been to a gym once or twice.

He wasn't sure he could say the same about Park Moondae. The scrawny little twig that he was.

After his introduction to the gym was over the staff member left and he was free to go around the gym as he pleased. 

He wasn't quite sure where he wanted to start yet so he decided to have a look around at the other people in the gym.

There weren't a lot of people here at this time so a lot of the machines were free. They also all looked pretty generic and plain, just like the people outside. Well, all except for one person.

This man stood out from the rest. 

No one he'd seen in this world had been ugly per se, but they hadn't been exciting to look at as they were most likely NPCs. This man, however, had a face sculpted by the Gods. Nice strong straight features, pretty blue eyes, and a head full of shiny black hair. His body was also sculpted like one of those Greek god statues and Moondae had the sudden impulsive thought that he wanted him to remove his shirt.  

Shaking his head slightly so no one would know his inner turmoil, he managed to rip his eyes away from the male. 

He was slightly surprised at how long he spent ogling some random man in the gym but he decided that if the fates of this universe had chosen him to be its heroine, and assigned him to be gay, he may as well play the role well. 

The man deserved the praise anyway as his build was something else. He must come here often although Moondae would never ask him that lest he sound like a creep trying to pick up a hot date.

Maybe he'd try that line on one of his capture targets though. 

Just kidding he would rather have to stare at his pink wall for 6 hours straight than publicly embarrass himself like that. 

Breaking out of his dramatic inner monologue, he decided to start with something familiar: the treadmill. 

He'd start slowly as Park Moondae with an F for physical education probably wouldn't be in shape. A slow walk into a slow jog and maybe a short sprint should be enough to get his blood warm. 

Gearing himself up he filled his pink water bottle that he found in his pink apartment and got to work. He chose not to think about the fact that of course Moondae also had a matching pink water bottle and got on with his life, but man, the cringe made it hard sometimes.

However, he was out in public and he would not let the cringe show. As his lord and savior Elsa from Frozen said 'Don't let them in, don't let them see' and Ryu Gunwoo took that to heart. 

Walking over to the treadmill and decided he would pick one of the easy pre-planned route journeys. It would start with a walk before going into a slow jog, and then going faster until there was a 5-minute sprint before going back to the jogging and finishing with another walk to cool down. 

The exercise would last 25 minutes which was perfect. It should be enough to be a good starting workout but also not too much so that Park Moondae could handle it.

Putting his pink bottle into the drink holder he tapped his options and the treadmill began to move. 

It started off well enough, he was walking at a normal pace and he felt fine, but the universe couldn't let it stay easy for him. That would be too, well, easy!

As soon as the light jogging portion started, the hot man he noticed earlier got onto the treadmill beside him. That was fine, although he was good looking Moondae wasn't here to impress or talk to anyone so he decided to ignore him. But as he kept jogging he felt more and more sweat start running down his body.

Was Park Moondae really this unfit? 

The answer was a resounding yes. The running part hadn't even started yet and he was already panting like a goddamn dog. 

He could feel the man beside him look at him worriedly but Ryu Gunwoo was not a quitter, and now neither was Park Moondae. 

When the running part finally started Moondae felt his soul leave his body, although he'd rather die right here and now than show that. 

So with a straight face and sweat pouring out of every orifice of his body, Moondae kept running. He could practically feel the concern of the man beside him, but he wasn't stopping now. 

He felt like he was about to pass out but he now safely (debatable) entered the jogging stage again. Which meant he was nearly done. 

He felt like he was dying so since the pace slowed down he felt safe enough to take a sip of water. Unsurprisingly the man's stare did not grow less concerned when Moondae pulled out his bright pink water bottle.

He probably thought Moondae had a few mental issues at this point.

Little did he know those mental issues were a fantasy system and not psychosis. 

Finally, the last walking section started. Moondae thanked every god above as he slowly came to a stop. He didn't even know he believed in god until that moment.

He took a deep breath and put his hands on his knees. 

Well, at least it was finally over. He was relieved as at some point he genuinely thought he was gonna pass ou-

…..

….

..

.

When Moondae came to, he was sitting on a shitty plastic seat in the corner of the gym with the hot concerned man from before fanning him like he was King Julian from Madagascar and the hot man was Mort.

Okay, maybe Moondae was still a bit delirious from passing out. 

When the concerned man realized that Moondae was awake he gently brushed Moondae's hair back and laid his forehead on Moondae's.

This kinda felt like a scene out of a dating sim Moondae thought humorously…. Wait.

The man pulled back, breaking Moondae out of his stupid inner dialogue.

"Your temperature seems normal now at least." The man uttered out with the smoothest voice Moondae had ever heard. 

"Sorry for concerning you." Moondae managed to say after racking his brains for something to say to a man who watched you pass out from a 25-minute treadmill workout. 

"As long as you're okay." The man smiled a polite smile. 

Well, Moondae wasn't sure how mentally okay he was after embarrassing himself like that but physically he guesses he's okay. 

There was an awkward silence next as if the man was expecting Moondae to say something. Maybe he wanted him to introduce himself? He'd rather not talk to someone who witnessed him pass out and then tenderly pressed his forehead to Moondae's own sweaty one though. In fact, he'd much prefer it if the man walked away now so Moondae could go home, wait until the year time limit was up, and die peacefully after that display. 

"I'm Ryu Chungwoo, what's your name?"

Fuck. Now he'd have to talk.

"Park Moondae." 

Ryu Chungwoo nodded, then repeated Moondae's name as if he was trying to remember it. Moondae really hoped that he did not.

"Is this your first time at the gym Moondae?" 

How could you tell he thought sarcastically.

"Ah yes." Moondae decided that the less he said, the higher the chance of Ryu Chungwoo getting bored of him and walking away.

"Next time you come, how about I help you with some easier workouts?" 

He wore that same polite smile, but Moondae was confused about why he would go out of his way for a stranger. However, Park Moondae was in no position to drag out this conversation as he just wanted to go home and let the ground swallow him up.

"Yes. That would be helpful, thank you."

The man smiled a little less stiff this time and tousled Moondae's hair before getting up to go back to his workout.

"I'll see you around then Moondae."

Moondae nodded but in his head, he was screaming yeah fucking right. In fact, Moondae would go out of his way never to see this man again all things considered. But Elsa's advice of conceal don't feel enter his mind and he decides to not let Ryu Chungwoo know what he is thinking.

Getting up stiffly and slowly, he began to walk calmly towards the gym doors. Once he was safely outside he checked to make sure no one was around and then sprinted all the way home.

Well, it was more like a pathetic jog, but it was faster than walking.

Park Moondae was thoroughly embarrassed and decided then and there that he would do his best to never show his face to Ryu Chungwoo again.

Then as if mocking him the system beeped.

Capture targets 1 out of 6 met

… 

You have got to be fucking kidding.

Chapter Text

The next day was Monday. Which meant that it was Park Moondae's first day at the academy.

Park Moondae has no idea why he was supposed to attend a high school academy at 20 years of age. He's not even sure if the game writers knew why themselves. If he had to guess he'd say it was because they wanted the school setting but also wanted them to be of age?

In that case, why not just make it a college or university setting?

Park Moondae eventually figured that whatever the game writers were trying to cook up with the setting was a bit of a nonissue in the grand scheme of things. So he decided to let it go for now. 

Back to his mission for today, apparently, he was just getting a short tour around the school today then he could go home afterward. He guessed this was like the tutorial part of the game.

The reason he knew he was only getting a tour today was because of the letter he found in his letter box after he got back from the gym the day before.

Park Moondae wasn't even aware he had a letter box right outside his dorm door until he bashed his funny bone off it trying to get into his room quickly to avoid further embarrassment. Which was ironic considering he ended up embarrassing himself more. Luckily for him, no one saw him collapse dramatically to the floor while gripping his elbow, so he could die in embarrassment in peace at least.

After taking some time on the floor to recover from his no-good, horrible, really bad day he decided to check the letterbox that gave him grief. To his surprise, he found a letter in it.

Welcome transfer student Park Moondae,

As tomorrow is your first day at Doki Doki Academy we shall be assigning someone from the student council to show you around the facilities you will be using. 

After the tour is over you can walk around and familiarize yourself with the building, or you can head home early.

Your first proper day of learning will be on Tuesday.

We hope you have a wonderful school life at our accomplished and prestigious academy.

Sincerely,

The principal Kim Bap.

Moondae stared at the signature at the bottom. Kim…Bap? Like Kimbap? Moondae decided to ignore the horrible naming sense of the game developers and focused on himself instead.

Self-love and all that jazz.

Since today was Monday it meant he'd have to have a tour around the school. He'd probably only meet a tutorial NPC today so he wasn't too worried about it and decided to take it easy.  

Walking to his white door he once again opened the map. 

Map

Where to?

School 

Shopping mall

Gym

Date locations

He selected 'school'.

As his legs took him to where he needed to go he once again just switched off his brain.

Well at least he tried to, but he kept getting horrible thoughts like what if he meets Ryu Chungwoo again. He's honestly not even sure how to act around him when they inevitably meet again. He just hopes that when they do it'll be for his next mission and enough time has passed that he'll forget about the pathetic display at the gym.

If only it wasn't for the system and it wasn't for the fact that Ryu Chungwoo was one of the capture targets, he would never speak to him again. He was a nice enough guy but in Park Moondae's opinion, anyone who knew of his embarrassing deeds must die a thousand deaths lest they spread the word. Park Moondae knows he isn't exactly cool or anything but he at least doesn't want his reputation to be WARNING: natural disaster on two legs.

After thinking about several 'what if' scenarios and several ways to possibly discreetly get rid of Ryu Chungwoo if it came down to it, he arrived in front of a massive structure. Just like with the gym, this building had the blue translucent words 'school' floating above it.

The building was a combination of pink and lilac and honestly, Park Moondae was expecting nothing less at this point. It was also as mentioned before, massive. Obviously, he expected it to be big. Structures in visual-only games tended to be huge regardless, but that was taking the cake. Funnily enough, if he squinted hard enough it did look a bit like a three-tiered cake.

As he took the time to admire (scrutinize) the building before him a student approached him from the school gates.

The student approaching him was quite tall with a sturdy build. The type that could probably pick Park Moondae up and throw him quite far if he so wished. Not that anyone would probably want to do that but still, you get the point.

He was also pretty handsome. Nice dark features and dark brown shiny hair to match. His eyes also had slight crinkles around them, as if he was the type to smile or laugh a lot. Not a bad quality to have Park Moondae thought.

All in all, he was pretty satisfactory. Well, that was until he opened his mouth.

"So you're the new transfer student huh? Guess we've got another flower in our garden," he chuckled joyously and patted a hand on Park Moondae's back.

Well to him it was a pat, to Park Moondae it was a grand slam, and he swore he saw his 7-minute before-death compilation for a second there.

After coming back down from the near-death experience Park Moondae wanted to scowl at the man's carefree attitude but managed to reel it in at the last minute and level him with his normal blank stare.

He takes it back. He wasn't satisfied at all. In fact, his personality seemed to be Park Moondae's natural opposite. His arch nemesis in the wild if you will.

Naturally, Park Moondae managed to keep his inner thoughts inner, and simply nodded back at the student, not wanting to engage in any small talk with his self-proclaimed enemy. 

"Quiet one huh?" The man wrapped an arm around his shoulders and it took all of Park Moondaes inner strength not to move away. "Don't worry, I'll help you find your place around here, my name is Lee Sejin!" 

Lee Sejin. He'll remember that. But not for any good reasons. 

"Park Moondae." He gritted out, not wanting to say much more to his dearly detested.

Lee Sejin nodded with a big grin on his face, for some reason Park Moondae had the brief thought that this guy knew he was pissed at him, but just didn't care.

"So Moondae, what age are you?" 

"20."

Lee Sejin's eyes twinkled with what Moondae could only assume was wicked intentions.

"That means we're the same age you and I, so we should become friends! What do you think about me calling you moondaemoondae?" 

Park Moondae officially wanted to end this man.

"Isn't that worse than just my name since it's so long?"

"But it's cute!" Lee Sejin announced shamelessly while winking 'cutely' at him.

If Moondae wasn't god's strongest soldier for not decking Lee Sejin right this minute, then he's not sure who is.

Lee Sejin finally began showing Park Moondae around the school after a couple more stupid quips. Park Moondae once again had the sneaking suspicion that Lee Sejin knew he hated them, but simply kept going anyway to cause Moondae misery.

Deciding to ignore Lee Sejin, he focused on the school. The school was basically like any other school. There was the office, teachers lounge, classrooms, club rooms, cafeteria, libraries, and gyms. Yes, plural. It was a big ass building indeed. A bit overkill really in his humble opinion.

Most of the time instead of focusing on the location being introduced Park Moondae spent time observing his new arch nemesis, Lee Sejin. He could figure out the school in his own time but he needed to figure out the NPC Lee Sejin right now, lest he never see him again.

There was something odd about him. Always a sly undercurrent in all of his jokes. It was like he was trying to feel Moondae out with his quips, see what made him tick and Park Moondae didn't appreciate it. In fact, he began answering back to do the same towards Lee Sejin.

In the end, he came to the conclusion that although Lee Sejin jokes around a lot and acts friendly enough, he's calculating about it and not stupid. 

Well as a tutorial NPC Moondae doesn't need to worry about him that much anyway. Hopefully.

The last place Lee Sejin led him to was the sports ground.

"Ohh it looks like the archery team has practice today!" Lee Sejin smirked and hooked an arm around Park Moondae's shoulders yet again.

He's been doing that a lot while showing him around much to Park Moondae's chagrin. At this point, Moondae has given up pointing it out in favor of not having to deal with him. He could deal with the extra weight more than he could deal with Lee Sejin talking his ear off about how physical contact increased the quality of the friendship.

What friendship bastard Moondae thought.

"Mm," Moondae gives a noncommittal hum while looking at how large the field is, once again ignoring his inner rage.

"We should go greet them!" 

Before Moondae could get a word in, Lee Sejin was already leading him over to the group of guys. 

Suddenly Park Moondae froze. 

No way.

No fucking way.

Lee Sejin, having felt a jolt, looked down with a brow raised at Park Moondae only to see the man… blush? Oh ho, this must be good Lee Sejin thought with a Cheshire cat grin.

Park Moondae was living in a nightmare. He knew it. As if dealing with Lee Sejin for hours wasn't enough he now had to see the guy he wanted to interact with the least.

"Oh, Moondae!" Ryu Chungwoo greeted while putting his arrow down and approaching them, "And Sejin too," he smiled at the other.

"Chungwoo Hyung!" Lee Sejin greeted excitedly, ready to get the gossip on whatever was going on between him and the new kid.

"You're… older sunbae?" Moondae managed to mumble out not wanting to give Lee Sejin a chance to butt in and ask whatever the fuck he was about to ask. Nothing good Moondae thinks.

"Hmm if you're the same age as Sejin then I would be, but you can just refer to me casually" he smiled politely and ruffled Moondae's hair.

This action causes Lee Sejin's eyes to practically sparkle.

"Soo," he looked between the two, "what's the deal with this? How do you know the transfer student Hyung?" 

Before Moondae could butt in and resolve the conversation, Ryu Chungwoo had already begun his explanation.

"Well, we met briefly at the gym the other day when I took care of him."

This was it. It was out of Moondae's hands now. 

"Took care of him?"

Park Moondae just closed his eyes accepting his fate.

Ryu Chungwoo frowned worriedly at the memory.

"Yes. It seems Moondae isn't used to moving much so he fainted after using the treadmill."

One beat of silence.

Two beats of silence.

Suddenly a rowdy laugh, loud enough to make the other archery team members look over, erupted from Lee Sejin. He laughed so hard and loud that he was bent over and gasping for breath.

Park Moondae's eyebrows furrowed as he opened his eyes to look at his newly dubbed arch-nemesis.

Even Ryu Chungwoo looked a little taken aback by his loudness.

"It wasn't that funny," Moondae mumbled quietly. Apparently, Lee Sejin still heard him though as he began to laugh louder. 

Ryu Chungwoo even began to pat Moondae softly on the back in sympathy. As if this man hasn't seen Moondae act a fool enough. He really would have to get rid of him at this point. With Lee Sejin too while he's at it. Possibly himself out of shame as well.

"Sorry sorry," Lee Sejin said as he sucked in a lung full of air and began to stand up straight while still chuckling.

"Don't say sorry while still laughing idiot," Moondae muttered darkly with his usual stone face.

"Yes Sejin, that was a bit much." Ryu Chungwoo sympathetically supplied while still rubbing Moondaes back.

"Sorry, it's just that it caught me off guard." Lee Sejin admits when he finally stopped laughing. 

"Well I'm going to go back to practice now but I'll see you later Moondae, and Sejin." He nodded to the two before heading off. Probably trying to remove himself from the situation as quickly as possible before Moondae started to beat the shit out of Lee Sejin.

Don't leave me, Moondae wanted to shout, not with Lee Sejin of all people, especially after that display. 

"Well this was our last stop on the tour as well," Lee Sejin once again wrapped his arm around Moondae, except this time around his waist. 

Without even thinking about it Moondae went to move away. Why would he let Lee Sejin be all touchy-feely after publicly embarrassing him like that?

But Lee Sejin simply smiled and pulled him back now wrapping the other arm around him too.

"Knew you'd try to escape," he smirked when they were face to face and god, Moondae has never wanted to head-butt someone more.

"Let go." 

Lee Sejin chuckled.

"Alright." And then he let go.

Park Moondae was confused. Just what was the point? Moondae looked at him with his eyebrow raised, as if asking him. However, Lee Sejin chose to ignore the look he was sent, even though Moondae was 100% sure Lee Sejin knew what he was silently asking.

Sly bastard. He was quite happy to talk any other time.

"Like I said this is the last stop so you can go home for today," he tapped Moondae's shoulder before giving him even more space.

"Okay. Thanks for the tour." He said. Still not wanting to be impolite even if he did want to end the man's career.

"No problem, I'll see you tomorrow." Lee Sejin grinned and started heading towards the school.

Was that a threat? Moondae wondered briefly. He certainly thought so, considering he really did not want to see him tomorrow.

Since he was free to go home he decided he'd do exactly that. He'd also probably try to forget Lee Sejin ever existed just to give himself some peace of mind. 

However just as he turned to leave a pop-up from the system appeared.

Capture targets 2 out of 6 met

Park Moondae promptly fell to his knees. 

Chapter Text

On Tuesday, the grind finally began, and by grind he meant game. Well since it was a stat raiser it was also kind of a grind… anyway you get the point.

The game had begun and Park Moondae was anything but excited about it. Now with the forbidden knowledge that Lee Sejin was one of the capture targets, he wondered briefly if he should just give up now and let the sweet release of death take him.

But as previously mentioned Ryu Gunwoo was not a quitter and neither was Park Moondae, despite how much he wished he was. 

With a sigh, Park Moondae got up and decided to face the day. 

He approached his wardrobe which still only had minimal outfits in it and put on his school uniform. He briefly wondered how he was going to survive with only one uniform but that was tomorrow Park Moondae's problem. It was also kind of strange to put on a school uniform at his big age but whatever the system wanted he supposed. 

To his surprise, he didn't look too bad in the uniform. Park Moondae's face definitely had more of a cute boyish charm than Ryu Gunwoo's did. His fluffy brown hair also gave him a youthful, neat kind of vibe. Getting used to looking so young was going to be a bit of a challenge as it still startled him every time he looked in the mirror, but he'd make do. 

Park Moondae spent some time fluffing up his hair and fixing his uniform and once he decided that he looked as good as he was going to get, he grabbed his school bag and pink water bottle and headed out. Even though he loathed the idea of Ryu Chungwoo and even worse, Lee Sejin catching him with his pink bottle, he loathed the idea of dehydration even more so he simply dealt with it. 

When he arrived at school this time, he was immediately greeted by the system.

Tutorial Page

Every day at the academy you attend your morning classes in your home room. 

Then for your afternoon classes, you get to choose an elective. The chosen elective will raise one of the stats: literature, physical education, music, extracurriculars, dance, and academics.

Raise the stats to gain more affection from your capture targets and progress the game! 

Well, Park Moondae already guessed it was a stat raiser but at least now it was confirmed. 

So the first mission on his agenda was to attend homeroom.

 He took a step forward only to freeze. Slight problem. He didn't know which class was his.

As soon as this thought appeared in his mind the school gates opened, and once again emerged Lee Sejin with an irritating grin on his face.

On second thought maybe getting lost was the better solution.

Before he could put his plan into action, the plan being run off into the distance and never returning, Lee Sejin had already made his way over and hooked an arm around his shoulder. 

"Moondaemoondae! Good morning!" 

Considering he had to deal with the annoyance that was Lee Sejin first thing, he doesn't really consider this morning to be that good actually. 

"Hm." That was his actual reply. To which Lee Sejin just laughed, not being put off by Park Moondae's attitude at all. 

"I'm here to show you to your homeroom but you probably already guessed that right?" Lee Sejin announced as he dragged Park Moondae through the school for the second time in the past two days.

"Yeah." He mumbled out with a blank face.

The rest of the way there just consisted of Lee Sejin spouting nonsense and Park Moondae nodding along as if he was actually listening. They both knew, however, that he was not.

Despite trying to tune out the loud person beside him to the best of his abilities, Park Moondae did notice something. Every NPC they passed seemed to know and greet Lee Sejin. 

Was he popular?

Somehow sensing Park Moondae's confusion Lee Sejin looked down at him.

"Wondering how I know so many people?" 

Moondae's head snapped up towards him which made Lee Sejin, the bastard, chuckle. 

Was he a fucking mind reader? He was sure his expression never changed.

"Yeah." Since he caught him being curious he may as well satisfy it. Curiosity fucked the cat or whatever the saying was. 

"I'm the school president."

Silence.

Moondae blinked. Once. Twice.

He wasn't going crazy, was he? Lee Sejin really just said he was the school president?

"What the fuck?"

Park Moondae didn't realize he said that out loud until Lee Sejin started to double over in obnoxious laughter. It was so startling that Park Moondae even accidentally broke character and scowled at him for a second, causing Lee Sejin to laugh more.

He was already fed up and school hadn't even started yet. 

"Is it that surprising?" Lee Sejin puffed out while trying to stand straight and wiping the tears from his eyes. 

It wasn't that funny bastard.

"No." Park Moondae lied.

"You just lied didn't you?"

He said nothing without his lawyers present. 

Lee Sejin just chuckled as they approached a door that said  'Class 7'.

"Well moondaemoondae, this is your homeroom, the teacher already knows you're starting today so the rest is up to you." He gave Moondae a pat on the shoulder, which Moondae shrugged off, much to Lee Sejin's amusement.

"Thanks." Park Moondae muttered out, yet again not wanting to appear impolite. 

"Just don't faint or fall to your knees this time and you should be good," Lee Sejin barked out while pushing him forward.

Fuck being polite, Moondae had just enough time to scowl at the bastard before he was pushed through the classroom doors. 

Dearly detested indeed. 

The homeroom introduction went fine. It was a bit embarrassing but nothing Park Moondae couldn't stone face his way through. He didn't give out much information minus his name and age either. Mostly because he didn't know much else about Park Moondae.

The people in his class were most likely NPCs. None of them really stood out and were all an acceptable level of politeness to him. 

If he had to choose a standout he'd probably pick the class representative.

He was roundabout the same height as Moondae but had the face of a kdrama male lead. He did look a bit skittish though and his tone was a bit more curt than the rest of the class, but Park Moondae didn't mind that much. He couldn't even really remember his name. He thinks it might have been Bae something.

Apart from that, the class was just like any regular class. The first half of his day was filled with math and literature with bits of science too. The work wasn't that hard and was similar to more advanced high school level work, maybe beginner college level. Which meant that Park Moondae didn't have to listen very closely. 

Before he knew it, it was lunch, which he spent in the classroom alone lest he run into Lee Sejin, and then it was elective time.

Now this was his first proper run-in with the stat raising system, so Park Moondae had to plan carefully and hopefully meet the other capture targets. Well at least that's what he should've done, but he had bigger fish to fry at the moment. 

Without even trying to logic it out in his head he mentally smashed the physical education button. He would never faint from a treadmill run ever again mark his words. 

Walking to the gym like a man on a mission, he ran into Ryu Chungwoo. Cause of course he fucking did.

"Oh, Moondae!" He raised his hand and jogged over to him, "You planning on working out?"

Park Moondae studied him. Well, at least Ryu Chungwoo wouldn't make fun of him openly so he hesitantly nodded.

"Yes,"

A brotherly smile overcame Ryu Chungwoo's face and Park Moondae wasn't sure if he should be offended by it. 

"Would you like me to help you?"

Park Moondae thought about it seriously for a second, then realized he had no dignity left to lose and nodded.

"That would be good, thank you."

Ryu Chungwoo just smiled and led Park Moondae into the gym with his hand on his lower back.

He really felt like the heroine at that moment. 

"We should start with some warm-up stretches," Ryu Chungwoo announced after leading him to a quiet corner of the gym.

Park Moondae nodded and started following exactly what Ryu Chungwoo was doing.

He took the time to once again admire the others' broad build. He had probably twice the amount of muscle Park Moondae had, and that tight-fit gym shirt was really doing him wonders. He knows he hasn't met half of the capture targets yet, but if he had to choose one based on body alone, he's sure he'd pick Ryu Chungwoo.

"Moondae are the stretches too much for you? You're drooling a little,"

Park Moondae has never felt so full of shame as he did in that moment, wiping drool off his chin. 

After stretching Ryu Chungwoo made him do a couple of light jogs, absolutely no running. He supposes Ryu Chungwoo is still as traumatized from the gym as he is. He even made sure Park Moondae took plenty of pink water bottle breaks. Moondae swore he saw Ryu Chungwoo flinch a little when he brought out the bottle though, probably filled with tragic memories of their first encounter. 

Then Ryu Chungwoo instructed him to do some push-ups and sit-ups.

The push-ups he had difficulty with but managed to do 10 eventually since his form wasn't too bad, but he was struggling with the sit-ups.

"Moondae, your feet have lifted up again," 

"Sorry hyung," Moondae rasped out since the airflow was squeezed out of his stomach while trying to do these goddamned sit-ups.

"If it's difficult keeping your feet on the floor should I help you?"

"Yeah." Without even thinking about it Park Moondae agreed.

The next thing he knew, Ryu Chungwoo knelt down in front of him and wrapped his arms around his bent legs, leaning his weight on them to hold his feet down. 

Park Moondae froze. 

Why was he doing it like that? Couldn't he just hold his feet down like a normal person? What's with this weird method? 

"Come on, try one like this," Ryu Chungwoo encouraged.

Still slightly confused, but not showing it, Park Moondae did as he was told.

It was harder with his feet not being able to leave the ground but at least he did it properly, which was a win. However, when Moondae finally sat up and came face to face with a very handsome Ryu Chungwoo just staring at him, he felt his face get hot. 

A concerned expression crossed the elder's face.

"I think that's enough for today, you're getting a bit red."

Park Moondae took it back. That wasn't a win, that was a loss. Park Moondae was a loser, and the winner was Ryu Chungwoo's face. 

"Thanks anyway hyung," Moondae murmured with a blush still on his face.

Before either Park Moondae or Ryu Chungwoo could move from their awkwardly intimate position, the doors to the gym slammed open.

"Moondaemoondae!" Called the obnoxiously loud voice of Lee Sejin as his eyes landed on the two other men. 

It was silent for a second then like usual, a loud laughter filled up the gym

Fuck this guy, Moondae thought bitterly.

"Man that was too funny," Lee Sejin announced after about 5 minutes of laughing. By this point, Ryu Chungwoo and Park Moondae were now standing by the entrance to the gym.

"Whatever," Moondae spits out, still trying to appear passive but with an undercurrent of venom no one in the room could miss.

"Anyway Sejin, you had something to say to Moondae?" Ryu Chungwoo quickly butted in, once again trying to stop a fight before it even started.

"Oh yeah," Lee Sejin said before straightening out and handing Moondae a piece of paper. "You need to visit the office after school but I won't be able to take you cause I'm busy so I drew a map for you."

Park Moondae raised his eyebrow but did not move to take the paper.

"What's the catch?"

Lee Sejin's grin widened.

"What catch?" He was trying to appear as innocent as possible and Moondae knew this. He was about to call him on his bullshit when Ryu Chungwoo butted in.

"He's probably telling the truth Moondae," he quickly glanced at Lee Sejin trying to act cute. "Probably."

With a sigh Park Moondae took the paper, not wanting to disrespect Ryu Chungwoo.

Lee Sejin just smiled with a shit-eating grin and dismissed himself. Not long after Ryu Chungwoo left too.

Soon it was only Park Moondae and the shittily drawn map Lee Sejin left him.

He sighed before checking his stats.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F

Music: F

Dance: F

Literature: F

Physical Education: F+

Extra Curricular: F

Fatigue: Low

Money: 0

Well, at least he's moved from an F to an F+. That's at least a start. Still shit, but a start regardless.

He then moved his attention once again to the map. He might as well head straight there and figure out what Lee Sejin was scheming this time. He can grab his bag and stuff from the classroom afterward.

So with a thousand curses on Lee Sejin running through his mind, Park Moondae started following the map to the office.

When Park Moondae arrives at the location marked on the map, he's not very surprised but he is confused.

First of all, he was in the middle of one of the sports fields. Which was his first indicator that something wasn't right. The second was that the 'office' was a shed in the middle of said field. Park Moondae was not surprised that Lee Sejin pranked him and sent him somewhere strange, but in the name of being stubborn, he decided to follow through.

He opened the door to the shed only to immediately slam it shut with such hatred in his eyes that only the devil himself could replicate.

The shed must have been for broken gym equipment which wasn't the problem. The problem was, the fact that the shed was filled with broken treadmills.

That bastard. Park Moondae could almost imagine him doubling over in that stupid laughter of his at this scene.

Not wanting to deal with this anymore, Park Moondae stormed back into the school. Luckily for him, since it was after school no one was around to witness his temper tantrum but oh boy, he was going to KILL Lee Sejin on sight the next time he saw him.

Turning down the hallway he slammed the door to his classroom open to grab his bag and go, but stopped at the doorway in shock. 

He was expecting the classroom to be empty but when he slammed the door open he saw two students just lounging about themselves.

Wasn't school over? Why were they here still?

The boys both looked slightly younger than Park Moondae. The first had bright red hair and cat-like yellow eyes. Moondae could even swear that he saw little fangs peeking out of his mouth. The second had dark hair with a purple tint. This one had sharp dark eyes with a teardrop mole underneath one of them.

They both looked very beautiful but also very... Intimidating?

Were they the school troublemakers? Suddenly Park Moondae began to sweat.

"Oh Look, Raebin! It's the new transfer student!" The red-haired one exclaimed to his friend, who he now knew was called Raebin.

Raebin turned to the redhead with a scowl and swatted his arm.

"Have some respect Cha Eugene!" Raebin muttered before turning to Park Moondae and bowing.

Caught off guard, and slightly flustered, Moondae simply bowed back.

"What is this? A limbo competition? Trying to see who can go lower haha!" The redhead, Cha Eugene, exclaimed happily. To which Raebin once again scowled at him.

It was kind of like watching a comedy skit.

"My name is Kim Raebin Sunbae," Kim Raebin greeted him.

"And I'm Cha Eugene!" The other added while waving.

"Park Moondae." He nodded to them both.

They seemed like good kids but they did have an intense aura about them. Park Moondae would be careful for now, just to feel them out in case they were troublemakers. His life was trouble enough without getting caught into any more antics.

"What are you still doing at school sunbae?" Kim Raebin asked. Park Moondae wanted to ask them the same question.

"He probably forgot something, right hyung? We can call you Hyung right?" Cha Eugene happily chirped, unaware of the bombastic side eye that Kim Raebin was sending him. Or maybe he just didn't care. Either way, they both slightly intimidated Park Moondae so of course he wasn't going to disagree.

"That's fine with me."

"Are you sure sunbae? You can just tell Cha Eugene to just shut up when he's spouting nonsense like that,"

"Raebiinnnn," Eugene whined at the coldness of his friend.

As if Park Moondae would tell someone who looks like he could bite his head off to shut up.

"It's fine." Park Moondae replied again while scanning the room for his bag.

"Are you looking for something hyung?" Cha Eugene asked while also looking around the room.

"Could you be looking for your bag Moondae Hyung?" Kim Raebin said while pointing to a bag next to them. 

He hesitated. How do you approach predators in the wild again? Oh yeah. You don't.

He nodded.

"Here you go!" Eugene exclaimed and before Raebin could stop him, he grabbed Park Moondae's bag and launched it at him.

Luckily he managed to catch it but Eugene threw it with such force that he made a slight 'oft' sound when he did. It took him a couple of seconds to get his bearings back but when he did he could hear Kim Raebin screeching something about manners at Cha Eugene.

Cha Eugene then started to argue back and Park Moondae felt the dread of getting dragged into something troublesome if he didn't stop this right now. He did not want to be caught in the middle of this fight and like, get stabbed or something.

That would be a bit of a bummer.

So reaching into his bag he pulled out two emergency chocolate bars he stole from the school cafeteria and approached the two arguing boys.

He then simply thrust out his hands to them and spoke plainly.

"Here, stop fighting."

Cha Eugene looked absolutely ecstatic with the turn of events and hastily grabbed his bar and started munching.

"Thanks, Moondae Hyung!"

Kim Raebin looked a bit embarrassed, probably because he was caught childishly arguing but he still took the bar.

"Thank you Moondae Hyung," He muttered as he started nibbling the bar. He kind of looked a bit like a rabbit.

After that crisis was over Park Moondae swung his bag on his back and nodded to them.

"I'll be leaving now."

"Okay, Hyung!"

"Take care Moondae Hyung."

Then with a silent sigh of relief, he left the classroom unharmed.

They were an interesting duo, kind of intimidating but still good kids probably. He probably won't see that much of them regardless if they were good kids or not either. So that most likely wasn't an issue he should be concerned about.

Capture targets 4 out of 6 met.

Am I a joke to you system, Park Moondae thought. 

Chapter Text

If there's one thing Park Moondae is now sure of, it's that this world is against him. He may have a system and in a way super superpowers, but they have not helped him in any way, shape, or form thus far. All it has brought him is misery and embarrassment.

Okay so maybe Park Moondae is being a tad dramatic but he was only three days into the week and he is already about to throw in the towel. How the hell is he meant to survive a whole year? The only thing keeping him going at this point is the fact that if he were to die here Lee Sejin would probably want to speak at his funeral. Park Moondae would not have that. He would rather die a second death than have that.

So he once again put on his big boy pants and headed off to school, like a loser.

Lucky Lee Sejin didn't come to find him today, probably hiding in case Moondae decided to kill him for his prank. He also didn't run into Ryu Chungwoo or the two from yesterday either. So without much stress, Park Moondae made it to his homeroom.

While the teacher was going on about some formula Park Moondae couldn't care less about, he began to strategize.

Yesterday his spite had won out and he chose to raise his physical education stat even though he'd already met Ryu Chungwoo the one who was attached to that stat. Today he would be smart and choose a stat to hopefully meet one of the remaining 2 targets.

He honestly had no clue what stats Lee Sejin, Cha Eugene, or Kim Raebin were attached to but removing physical education from the mix he had 5 stats left. That meant a 40% chance of meeting someone new by randomly picking a stat.

Well, he hadn't been that lucky recently but luck is fickle so who knows maybe this is his day! With a hopeful and clear mind, he happily chose 'extracurricular' when the elective time came around.

"Moondae hyung!" A cheerful redhead ran up to him when he entered the classroom he was told to head to.

Fuck. He picked wrong.

"Eugene." Park Moondae nodded, not letting his frustration show.

"I can't believe Hyung is here to help out too!"

I can't believe it either, Moondae thought bitterly.

"What exactly are we doing?" He looked around the empty classroom confused.

When he picked the extracurricular stat, the system told him to head to a specific classroom but gave no further instructions. Usually, extracurriculars would be something like music or dance right? But they were their own separate stats. So Park Moondae had no clue what he was in for.

"Oh! Well usually it's just me they ask to do this, something about having too much spare energy, but we're going around the school and picking up trash!"

It took a second for that to sink in but when it did Park Moondae blinked in disbelief.

"Eugene, did you get into trouble or something?"

Cha Eugene just cutely tilted his head at him and blinked back.

"No?"

That did not sound too convincing. Yet Park Moondae who had done nothing wrong was now also being made to do this so perhaps he did just have too much energy so the school decided to assign this to him.

He briefly wondered if Lee Sejin put this in place. He still wasn't sure how much he bought the school president thing but this does seem like a Lee Sejin stunt.

Also since when was picking up trash counted as an extracurricular?

Suddenly, the system popped up.

Extracurricular

Meaning: An extracurricular activity is an activity performed by students that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum.

… Was the system picking a fight with him? He knew what extracurriculars meant but why pick up trash of all things? Had he fallen so low that even the system had to poke fun at his misery?

When he finally broke out of his trance and his one-sided fight with the system, he found Cha Eugene's face right in front of his own.

"Wa-" He yelped as he jumped back. To which Cha Eugene just chuckled at him

"Hyung's so cute! You were zoning out so I thought I'd surprise you!" Cha Eugene said with an innocent tone, however, there was the slightest glint of mischief in his eyes which Park Moondae did not miss.

Next time he'd bring along Kim Raebin, so he wouldn't have to deal with the redhead alone.

So pretending he wasn't embarrassed about the pathetic yelp he just let out he followed Cha Eugene around the school… to pick up trash.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F

Music: F

Dance: F

Literature: F

Physical Education: F+

Extra Curricular: F+

Fatigue: Low

Money: 0

When he got home that day he stared blankly at his stats. Was that really worth it?

The next day was Thursday, and his chances of meeting a new target increased to 50% since he now knew Cha Eugene's stat. So when the elective time came around he confidently smashed 'music'.

"Oh, Moondae hyung,"

Oh for fucks sake.

"Raebin," he nodded at the other.

Kim Raebin was already in the music studio before he arrived. He doesn't know why the school had a whole-ass music studio but he wasn't that surprised considering the size of the building. Damn rich kids.

"Do you have any music experience Moondae hyung?" Kim Raebin asked while Park Moondae had a look around the room.

It was very much a recording booth. With instruments and microphones littering the area behind the glass.

"Not really." Unless making his friends' ears bleed at karaoke counted as an experience then Park Moondae had none.

"That's fine then hyung. Would you mind going into the recording booth so I can listen to your voice for a bit? Singing is probably easier than teaching you how to produce or play an instrument." Kim Raebin listed off without waiting for Park Moondae's opinion. Well, Raebin seemed like he knew what he was doing so Moondae would follow him this time.

Walking behind the screen he picked up the headphones, slotted them on, and went to stand behind the microphone in the middle.

"Like this?"

"Yes hyung, just like that. Could you try singing something for me? Anything that comes to mind will do."

Raebin was too busy pressing buttons and fiddling with settings to see the fear in Park Moondae's eyes.

As Ryu Gunwoo the only times he ever sang was when he was younger at karaoke, plus he'd never been any good. He also knew that there was no point in hoping Park Moondae was a good singer if the massive F next to his music stat was anything to go by.

Park Moondae took a deep breath and accepted his fate. He was going to embarrass himself no matter what so he may as well do it right.

"EEEEVERY NIGHT IN MY DREAMS-"

After he finished singing there was a tense two minutes of silence as Kim Raebin looked at him with his jaw on the floor. Park Moondae's face was beet red and had absolutely no plans to start the conversation first.

Finally, Raebin broke out of whatever trance he was just in.

"Choosing to sing Celine Dion was certainly… a choice hyung."

"You don't have to be polite about it," Moondae muttered while avoiding eye contact with his junior.

"Ah, well, in that case. Moondae hyung to be frank, right now you're quite bad, but it's okay! It's nothing that practice and technique won't fix since the tone of your voice is quite good and you don't appear to be completely tone-deaf, even if it might sound like it. From now on I'll help you Moondae Hyung! So don't give up even if it seems hopeless for now, you're not a total lost cause!" Kim Raebin said passionately with fire in his eyes.

….Was this kid trying to make him feel better or worse?

At home, he once again opened his stat screen.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F

Music: F+

Dance: F

Literature: F

Physical Education: F+

Extra Curricular: F+

Fatigue: Medium

Money: 0

He stared hard at the F+. If he had a dignity stat it would probably be an F with at least 6 minuses next to it.

The next day was Friday, and it was Park Moondae's last chance to meet a new capture target before the week ended. The only stats left were Academic, Literature, and Dance. He now had a 66% chance of meeting someone new. Although he had no hope left in his heart, he prayed to a god he wasn't sure existed and mentally picked 'academic'.

"Moondaemoondae!"

God has abandoned him.

"Lee Sejin," he gritted out with the same venom as someone who just saw their arch-enemy would.

Lee Sejin practically dragged him into the room from the doorway he was standing in.

Park Moondae should've known when it told him to head to the student council room that he would be meeting with Lee Sejin, but he held on to some slight hope that he would be wrong. Unfortunately, he was gifted with the being right all the time gene.

"So you'll be helping me out today moondaemoondae," Lee Sejin announced as he pushed Park Moondae into a chair and patted his shoulders.

"With what?" He looked up at him, then in front of him. On the desk was a pile of paperwork which gave Park Moondae an ominous feeling.

"With some paperwork obviously!"

He grimaced slightly, which he's almost 100% sure Lee Sejin saw, but he must've been feeling generous today as he didn't comment on it.

"I've not done paperwork before." Park Moondae lied like it was his job.

Of course, he'd done paperwork before. He was an adult in his previous life after all. That didn't mean he enjoyed it and wanted to do more of it. Especially with a certain menace looming over his shoulder.

"It's relatively simple. It's just some basic budgeting."

"I can't do math." Park Moondae once again lied.

This time Lee Sejin laughed. He didn't believe one word that came out of Park Monndae's mouth regarding this issue.

"It's easy, you'll be fine," Lee Sejin chuckled and patted his shoulder once more before focusing on his own pile of work.

With a sigh, Moondae decided that he might as well do his half if only to raise some stats. Besides, it was basic math.

He assumes that since his academic stat is quite low the game is giving him the relevant work to do for his level. Luckily for him, he had the knowledge of Ryu Gunwoo on his side so like the class work, this should be easy for him.

At least that's what he thought.

However to his horror when he tried to fill in the sheets the numbers kept changing around, and disappearing so he kept getting wrong answers.

Frustrated, he began to think of the possibility of the system being broken. That's when another pop-up greeted him.

The Isekai Handicap

We have taken liberties to reduce your academic abilities as Ryu Gunwoo, so the stat system is raised fairly and without cheats. This will not affect your regular classwork as they have nothing to do with your stats.

Moondae furrowed his eyebrows. Isekai handicap? It took a minute for it to sink in but he could sum up that since he was smart to a certain extent as Ryu Gunwoo his academic stat would probably shoot up if they didn't give him the handicap. So to make the progress more fair and steady like his other stats they handicapped him to make his level match the stat.

He sighed. At least this didn't affect his other schoolwork.

He also probably wouldn't have to be handicapped with anything else since he didn't have any experience with the other stats even as Ryu Gunwoo. So at least that was a relief.

After about an hour of trying to resolve the shifting number riddles that were before him, Park Moondae was finally done.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F+

Music: F+

Dance: F

Literature: F

Physical Education: F+

Extra Curricular: F+

Fatigue: Medium

Money: 0

Still not worth it.

On Saturday Moondae decided to give up and wait until Monday to meet the other two since he now knew what stats belonged to them. So instead he decided to try the part-time job option.

The job was to work the till at a cafe which was a typical part-time job for school-based otome he guessed. It was pretty boring but since the world was based on fiction it meant the pay was good. He worked for roughly 5 hours and came back with 100-game currency.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F+

Music: F+

Dance: F

Literature: F

Physical Education: F+

Extra Curricular: F+

Fatigue: High

Money: 100

Maybe this world wasn't as bad as he first thought…

On Sunday, he decided to rest since after Saturday his fatigue was sitting at high. He didn't want to risk passing out again and a possible penalty so instead he spent the day rolling around in bed and walking around the dorm halls aimlessly.

He didn't see much but he did catch sight of a pretty Blonde haired guy who kinda looked like a deer. Unfortunately, Moondae hates talking to people so he simply nodded his head in admiration and turned the opposite way.

That was the only exciting part of his walk, and he then spent the rest of the day on his pink phone (obviously) watching cute cat videos.

By the time Monday came Park Moondae's fatigue bar was at low and he was raring to go. Not. 

Chapter Text

On Monday morning Park Moondae was once again in class, not focusing on the learning material, but instead making a game plan up in his head.

The only two stats he had yet to choose were dance and literature, so he now was sure to meet someone new if he picked one of those stats. The thought of meeting new people already left Moondae feeling drained when he thought about the people he'd encountered so far.

First was Ryu Chungwoo. He wasn't so bad as a whole, but the fact he'd seen Park Moondae embarrass himself a multitude of times at this point didn't exactly make Moondae want to spend more time around him. He was helpful and nice, but he also seemed a little surface-level. Like there was a bit more to him that he wasn't showing.

Well, Park Moondae was too focused on surviving never mind trying to dig deeper into his character lore.

Then was Lee Sejin. His dearly detested. Probably his most annoying capture target so far and he'll be surprised if anyone were to surpass him in that regard. There are a lot of things he doesn't understand about Sejin, like why he referred to himself as the school president and why he goes out of his way to embarrass Moondae and make him react. Worse was that Moondae hadn't found a solid way to deal with him yet so most of the time he unconsciously gives him the exact reaction he wants.

Park Moondae rates his experience with Lee Sejin a solid -12/10 all things considered.

Next was Kim Raebin and Cha Eugene. He hasn't spent enough time around them to know much yet. He thought they were troublemakers at first and they do seem to have a reputation around the school but he doesn't know what kind yet. They've been mostly polite to him, especially Kim Raebin, and they don't seem like bad kids. However, getting involved with people who already have a reputation is a bit tiring since it also brings you into the spotlight.

He wasn't sure how to feel about them in general, but his surface-level opinion was that they were okay.

He briefly wondered what the other last remaining love interests would be like when his eyes caught the class president acting strange.

The class president was a good-looking guy objectively, and Moondae had caught himself staring at him on a few occasions. He's never talked to him though. He always seemed so on guard and Park Moondae had bigger fish to fry than to get involved with a possible side character.

Then an idea goes off in his head, there's a possibility that he's a capture target right? The class president is a classic character archetype in high school romance so it wouldn't be strange for him to be a lead right? Plus as mentioned before, he's extremely handsome, he looks a bit worn down, especially today, but even that can't hide his gorgeous features.

Studying him closely he tries to work out why he looks so frustrated and shifty today. That's when he spots a phone under the desk and the class president furiously typing something. Maybe he got into an argument with someone?

Shaking his head before he can invest any more interest in the class president, he decides to focus on the lesson.

He can easily find out if he's a capture target by talking to him at the end of class, so he'll do just that.

At least that's what he planned, but as soon as the bell rang for the extracurriculars, the class president ran out of the room. This surprised Moondae a bit as he'd never seen the president act so rashly but once again it was none of his business. He'd find out if he was a capture target either today or tomorrow anyway.

So with a shrug, Moondae chose his poison for today. Dance.

When he first entered the dance hall he was immediately greeted by a man that looked sort of like a fish.

"Ah, you must be the new guy joining us!" The fish man said.

Now Moondae doesn't think he's a mean guy, but perhaps his all-pink room and all-pink accessories are bringing out his inner Regina George because he prayed to every god imaginable that this… thing was not his fifth capture target.

"Yes," Moondae stated bluntly trying not to let any of his thoughts show on his face.

He guesses he's slightly disappointed considering the quality of the capture targets have all been so high so far. But maybe this guy has a good personality.

"That's great! Everyone say hello to our new member, I'm the leader by the way!"

The fish man spoke and Moondae once again felt a piece of his soul float away while looking at his proud face.

His attention was soon drawn away by the multiple people behind the fish man yelling out various forms of 'hello welcome to our team'. Moondae let his eyes scan the group blankly until his eyes caught a twinkle of gold hidden at the back.

When Moondae looked closer he saw the most beautiful man he's possibly ever seen in his life. Soft flowing golden hair, big soft doe-like sparkling eyes, and the pinkest plushest lips he's ever had the pleasure of staring at. Then he remembered, this was the guy he briefly saw at the dorm on Sunday. He felt his face go slightly warm at the thought that the guy he checked out on Sunday was somehow even more handsome up close.

Luckily for Moondae most of his stats might be an F but his resting bitch face has been an SSS+ since the day he popped out of the womb as Ryu Gunwoo.

From the corner of his eye, Fish Man saw Moondae's attention directed towards the pretty member and sneered secretly.

"Since Moondae is a beginner why don't we assign him a teacher?" Fish man referred to his group with an easy smile.

The group mumbled in agreement and Fishman innerly smirked.

"How about Seon Ahyeon?"

Moondae, who was still zoning out staring at the pretty man, flinched slightly when the blonde raised his head with a startled look in his eye at the fish man's decision.

"M-m-me?" He stuttered while pointing to himself.

"Yes." The leader man fish crossed his arms and looked at Ahyeon… mockingly. "Why, can't do it?"

Moondae narrowed his eyes. Was this guy bullying him?

Then before Moondae could think any further, the rest of the team joined in sneering.

"Yeah, you've got such a pretty face better make use of those skills too!"

"Yeah prove there's more than just your face pretty boy!"

"Yeah, you've got this… maybe!"

A few of them jeered and snickered, causing Seon Ahyeon to lower his head with a faint embarrassed blush from being called out like that.

Moondae saw red. He doesn't know why these people are bullying him but it looks like Seon Ahyeon wasn't even going to protest. He knows it's not his space to step in so he isn't going to, but there's something about bullies that just makes him want to turn into the Hulk and smash them all to dust.

"Well then Ahyeon what do you say?" Fish man looked smug after tearing down Ahyeon in front of the new member.

"O-o-o-okay" Ahyeon mumbled while still not looking up.

"Great we'll leave you two to it." Fish man clapped and led the rest of the team away with a smirk, they followed after pointing mocking looks in Ahyeon's direction.

Soon, it was just the two of them in silence. Park Moondae managed to keep silent and keep his face straight that entire time to not embarrass Seon Ahyeon further.

He wanted to comfort the other who was still staring at the floor, but he had nothing to say. He didn't even know the situation fully. So instead, he just did the next best thing.

Move on.

"So what do I do first?" Park Moondae asked while walking towards Seon Ahyeon.

Seon Ahyeon looked up in shock when he heard a voice directed at him.

"A-a-are you talking to me?"

"Yes." Moondae nodded plainly. Seon Ahyeons big doe eyes widened even further somehow.

"Y-y-you're okay with me?"

Moondae tilted his head at the other.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

At his blunt statement, the others' eyes lit up.

Without further ado the other started showing him some basic moves, Moondae tried to follow but his body was stiffer than expected.

"J-just a little further when you do this move," Ahyeon said while inspecting his form and pulling his arm over further gently.

After a couple of minutes of Seon Ahyeon teaching him the basics Park Moondae had more of a grasp on the earlier situation.

Seon Ahyeon was a good dancer and a great teacher. So the earlier venom directed towards him was because of one thing. Jealousy. Seon Ahyeon was blessed with good looks and talent, causing other people with less talent and less luck in the look department to resent him. It didn't help that Seon Ahyeon was so timid. Which Moondae figures was probably something to do with the fact that Seon Ahyeon had a stammer.

At first, Moondae reckoned that he was just nervous, but now fully into teacher mode, Moondae could see that wasn't the case. He just had a stutter. Which wasn't a problem, but it wouldn't have helped his confidence especially if he got bullied for it. Which was unfortunately very likely.

"M-Moondae are you listening?"

Park Moondae snapped to attention, causing Ahyeon to flinch a little at how quickly he looked at him.

"Sorry, I got distracted." Moondae apologized calmly, before realizing that when he was zoning out Seon Ahyeon was still fixing his posture. This means right now Ahyeon was super close to him and even worse (better), his hands were just sitting on Moondae's waist.

….

….

Error error Park Moondae.exe has stopped functioning.

"A-about what?" Seon Ahyeon asked before looking concerned. "I-I-it's not too complicated for you is it!?"

As Seon Ahyeon was panicking all Moondae could think about was his soft warm hands still gripped onto his waist. Is this what it feels like to be a simp? Park Moondae had never been one to simp but he was slowly losing his mind while staring into Seon Ahyeons sparkly gaze. If this is his fate then so be it!

"P-p-please answer me, am I being too difficult!?" His fingers subconsciously dig into Moondae harder causing him to finally break out of his trance.

"Sorry your eyes are so big I just got lost in them" Moondae stated, completely oblivious to Ahyeon's mini panic.

At his word Seon Ahyeons jaw dropped open and his cheeks turned rosey.

Moondae froze. Did he just accidentally hit on Ahyeon? They both stood there for a second staring at each other in shock, before they both jumped away from each other and hid their faces in their hands.

Ten minutes later, they both managed to recover and both silently agreed to pretend that the whole thing never happened.

Soon it was the end of the period.

"Thank you Ahyeon. You're a very good teacher." Moondae bowed slightly in thanks, while Ahyeon just blushed faintly and waved him off.

"N-n-not at all Moondae! You're such a… uhh…g-good dancer?" He said more like a question than a compliment. Moondae's eyebrow twitches while secretly looking at his stats.

Park Moondae Status

Academic: F+

Music: F+

Dance: F+

Literature: F

Physical Education: F+

Extra Curricular: F+

Fatigue: Low

Money: 100

"You don't have to lie, I'm aware I'm not that good," Park Moondae said as gently as he could, which wasn't that gentle at all in the end. Luckily Seon Ahyeon didn't seem bothered by his monotone.

"I-it's nothing practice and improvement can't fix!" Ahyeon encouraged him while raising his fists slightly in a 'fighting' gesture.

Moondae cracked a small smile.

"Yeah."

He liked Seon Ahyeon. Not only were his looks amazing but he had an easy personality. He even found himself slightly missing his company as they parted ways for the day.

A notification popped up.

Capture targets 5 out of 6 met.

For once Moondae was quite happy for this development. He could see himself becoming good friends with Ahyeon.

If the other capture target was as easy to get along with as Ahyeon then maybe this dating sim thing wasn't going to be that bad after all.

At least, that's what Moondae thought at the time…

Chapter Text

It was Tuesday morning and Park Moondae was in his bright pink room getting ready to finally meet his final capture target. Now, Moondae had a very big suspicion on who this last target was, but he decided to observe him more when he got to class anyway. Regardless, he’d find out after class, but there was something satisfying about hopefully guessing something correctly after fucking up his RNG three times last week. 

Shaking his head and breaking out of his thoughts he looked in the mirror. His hair was pretty shaggy and a kind of dull brown color. He twirled a piece between his fingers. He could always get a haircut right? There was usually a hair change function in these types of games if there was an outfit selection. 

Furrowing his brows he decided to check the mirror. To activate the mirror shop he had to look into it without blinking for 10 seconds. Which made him feel kind of like the evil queen from Snow White and made him look very much like an insane person, but alas it had to be done. Once the menu opened he was pleasantly surprised.

Mirror Menu

Shop 

Hair

Makeup

Outfits

Makeup? Park Moondae blinked. Did the previous Moondae wear makeup? That wasn’t actually important he decided as he clicked into the hair menu.

The hair menu had a multitude of different styles, including long and bald cuts, along with a color selector. There were around 20 buyable options and the default hair color seemed to be blonde. Although luckily there was an option for his natural hair color too. He just had to pick a cut, change the color and buy it. He only wanted a haircut after all, not ammunition for Lee Sejin to make fun of him by suddenly dying his hair blonde. He doubted he’d look good with blonde hair anyway.

Before he could even start looking through the options there was a soft knock on his door, causing him to jump slightly and immediately close the menu. He knew no one else could see the menu but he still would look like a crazy person if anyone saw him stare into his mirror like that. Although he did have to wonder, who the fuck was knocking on his door at 8:40am.

He had about 10 minutes until he had to leave for class since the school was only a 10 minute walk away, but that didn’t mean he had time for whoever this was. Before he could even think about it properly, he was already at the door and opening it.

“M-M-Moondae!” A cheerful voice greeted him. It was Seon Ahyeon, looking entirely too happy at this time in the morning. Well that was until his face slowly morphed into confusion as he looked down at Moondae’s attire. 

Park Moondae raised a brow. He was just wearing his school uniform wasn’t he? But as he looked down, he felt the blood drain from his face as he realized his mistake. The morning air was slightly chilly so without really thinking about it Moondae had slipped on his massive, fluffy, pink housecoat, paired with his pink fluffy slipper lest his feet get cold. He looked like a very bad Sharpay from High School Musical impersonator. He was one pair of shades away from hitting out with the opening notes of Fabulous. 

There was silence.

“… what… brings you here” Moondae finally managed to mechanically spit out. Seon Ahyeon just looked grateful that the awkward silence was gone.

“U-uhm, y-you said I could walk with you to school since we lived in the same dorm building.” Seon Ahyeon murmured softly while avoiding his eyes, or the pink monstrosity he was wearing more likely.

Moondae thought back to the day before. They did get to talking about dorm buildings and realized they were in the same one. He did in fact vaguely remember agreeing to walking together. After a second he nodded.

“Right, let me just… get changed” Moondae said, somehow managing to keep his signature straight face even though he felt the line he was hanging on by was quite thin.

“O-okay! I’ll wait out here for you.” Seon Ahyeon smiled at him and suddenly all was right with the world.

The walk to the school was fairly uneventful. Which was a good thing in Park Moondae’s eyes. He had a wonderfully normal and calm conversation with Seon Ahyeon about their classes and about the dance club in particular. Seon Ahyeon did end up mentioning that the other members didn’t particularly care for him, although he never said why. Moondae just assumed he didn’t want to bring up his stutter and as a compassionate person, he wasn’t going to pry. So they naturally let the conversation move on. 

Before they realized it, Seon Ahyeon had led Moondae straight to his classroom door and bid him goodbye.

As Park Moondae sat down on his seat he felt refreshed. He really did like Seon Ahyeon, he was sweet and very nice to look at. The best combination in Park Moondae’s view.

Out of all the targets so far, he appreciated Ahyeon the most. 

Just as he was thinking about the capture targets, the class president walked into the class.

As usual, he looked worn out, jumpy and very good looking. Park Moondae was convinced he was the sixth capture target. 

He’d been at the school for nearly two weeks now and the only person good looking enough to be a capture target was him. There’s no way it wasn’t him.

Then all of a sudden Moondae got hit with a flash of dread. 

Unless…

Unless he was the undateable side character!

Park Moondae’s eyes widened as he snapped his head towards the class president to observe him again.

He’d heard about this phenomenon before. The dreaded undateable hot side character! He’d heard his female friends complain about this troupe quite a bit. Apparently it was like second male lead syndrome but worse, as in a game created so you can date whoever you want, he’s still untouchable. 

He narrowed his eyes at the class president. Could it be? It’s true that he hasn’t seen anyone else who could be a likely candidate but he hadn’t really seen Seon Ahyeon until he chose his stat yesterday so it was possible he just hadn’t met him yet. Besides if the class president was the next capture target, wouldn’t he have already interacted with him somehow. 

As Park Moondae’s doubts grew the class president must’ve felt his eyes on the back of his head and he whipped around only to make eye contact with Park Moondae. The class president just narrowed his eyes in what seemed like a mix between annoyance and confusion as Moondae awkwardly moved his eyes away after being caught.

Well, he’d find out if the class president was really the next capture target this afternoon anyway. There’s no point in letting his conspiracy theory run wild just yet. 

Eventually when class was over he gathered all his remaining courage and picked the ‘Literature’ stat.

Choosing that stat led Park Moondae to the entrance of the school library. Which made sense since that’s where most of the school’s literature would be stored.

As Moondae walked in he noticed that the library was huge. It had at least two floors from what he could see and was about four times the size of the classrooms. He would expect this type of structure from a normal library but not a school one. He then remembered that the school was in fact massive and that this added up with what he’s seen of the school so far. He also remembers briefly seeing the library on his school tour but he was too busy trying to figure out his dearly detested Lee Sejin to pay proper attention to the scale. So although Moondae was temporarily shocked he quickly realized that he should’ve expected this.

Looking around he noticed that for a library this size, it was fairly empty. There were also a lot of free seats. He looked around for a second but saw no sign of the class president or anyone of notable good looks so he just chose a random study desk and sat down. Deciding that he would probably look a bit strange sitting there and doing nothing he carefully took out his class notes and started going over them. Well, he was pretending to anyway, the reality was he was just zoning out.

A while passed without Park Moondae realizing it when all of a sudden there was the sound of shuffling beside him, before Park Moondae could compute and an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

“Park Moondae, is it alright if I sit here, there are no other seats available.” Startled by the light but gloomy sounding voice he whipped his head around to find the class president, narrowing his eyes at Moondae and standing behind an empty chair beside him.

Park Moondae blinked as his words registered. No room? But hadn’t the library been empty when he first walked in? Slowly he looked around, and to his surprise he found that during the short period of time he was pretending to read his notes, the library had actually filled up to capacity. 

The sound of the class president clearing his throat forced Moondae’s attention back onto him. He looked a bit pissed off, probably because Moondae hadn’t said anything yet. Slowly he nodded.

“Of course class president.”

Without any other words exchanged he sat down and pulled out his own materials. 

Park Moondae simply observed him. He was really good looking, even better up close. He looked like he could probably be an actor or something. Except he looked way too disgruntled at all times and appeared to have small eye bags under his eyes. Maybe this had something to do with the time he caught him furiously typing on his phone. The class president always seemed a bit distant and jumpy when he thought about it. He doesn’t recall ever seeing him smile or playing around with their other classmates. Does he even have friends?

Before Park Moondae could delve into that thought any further a disgruntled voice sounded.

“What is it? You were looking at me in class too.” 

Turns out Park Moondae had once again been staring at the class president and had once again been caught. Except since they were so close this time,  Moondae couldn’t look away awkwardly and pretend it didn’t happen.

“Sorry class president, I got lost in thought.”

The class president simply raised an eyebrow at him, looking unconvinced. 

“Twice? While looking at me?”

This was going to be tricky to get out of. He couldn’t just say that he thought he was good-looking, he didn’t need another Seon Ahyeon incident. He also couldn’t say that he was wondering about his disposition because he’s a possible capture target, as that would make him sound crazy. Then, he had an idea. One that wasn’t actually a lie.

“Sorry class president it’s just, I can’t seem to recall your name. So I’ve been trying to remember and must have zoned out.” Score Park Moondae internally cheered. That didn’t sound too far-fetched. 

The president slowly nodded as if agreeing and Moondae nearly smirked at his achievement. 

“Bae Sejin.” Was all he said before returning back to his books.

After that they sat in silence for a while. It wasn’t uncomfortable silence, but it wasn’t comfortable silence either. After a while Moondae soon found his thoughts wandering back to wanting to know more about Bae Sejin. 

Park Moondae was fairly sure he’d get the capture target notification as soon as he left the room so being curious about him was natural. Since he didn’t want to risk getting caught staring at his face again he let his eyes slowly drift to the book he was holding.

At first glance it seemed like some sort of math book and Moondae thought that made sense. He was the class president so he probably spent a lot of his time studying. He might even be studying things they hadn’t been taught yet like hard calculus or something. Deciding he was curious if Bae Sejin was studying things he knew in his previous life, he peeked over.

However, Park Moondae was not met with difficult calculus equations and math theory, but instead was met by a secret second book hidden behind the first!

Park Moondae’s eyes widened and then leaned forward more to inspect this secret second book.

WHich he immediately regretted as he was met with two pages in black and white with illustrations of two men doing… each other. 

Bae Sejin, the class president, was reading yaoi. Park Moondae’s brain had an error as this fact registered and all he could do was stare at the book in amazement. Before it quickly got snapped shut and he drew his eyes up to look at a very flustered Bae Sejin.

“I can explain!” Bae Sejin sputtered out before Park Moondae even had the chance to say anything.

“Bae Sejin it’s-”

“Before you say anything Park Moondae this is for research! Research I’m telling you!”

“Bae Sejin it’s-”

“I know it looks strange but it’s because I was watching a BL drama and this is the source material!”

“Bae Sejin it’s-”

“And before you say anything about that, I’m the president of the drama club so I watch a lot of things, not just BL!”

“Bae Sejin it’s-”

“It just so happens that this time I decided to expand my horizons and decided to study BL acting!”

Park Moondae had enough.

“Class president!” Moondae yelled loud enough to get shushed by several students nearby.

The president just looked at him with a slightly flush still on his face and with the expression of a cornered cat.

Park Moondae sighed.

“Bae Sejin, I was trying to say it’s fine. Even if you enjoyed those normally without it being for research.”

Bae Sejin blinked slowly then with a guarded expression he spoke hesitantly.

“You don’t think I’m weird?”

Park Moondae shook his head. 

“Not at all, I used to be friends with some girls who’d read smut in public with a straight face and their brightness all the way up, at least you try to save the eyes of those around you.”

At that, Bae Sejin seemed to relax a little.

“Oh,” was the last thing he said before they went back into silence. Although this time Moondae felt that it was a bit more relaxed than before.

“By the way, you said you were the president of the drama club? Only a third year can be president of a club right?”

Bae Seji nodded.

“Yes I’m a third year student, our classes aren’t separated by age if you haven’t already noticed.”

Park Moondae thought about it. That made sense as he did share electives with Ryu Chungwoo, Kim Raebin and Cha Eugene. 

“I see, so should I call you hyung?”

Bae Sejin shrugged while looking away with a slight blush on his face.

“If you’d prefer.”

“Sejin hyung.” Moondae said to test it out and then nodded. Sounded good.

They once again fell into silence after that, and by the time school was over Park Moondae felt quite comfortable in Bae Sejin’s presence. He was a bit guarded still and hard to talk to, but at least he wasn’t like another Sejin he knew. 

So when he walked out of the room and a notification sounded he wasn’t shocked at all.

Congratulations! 6 out of 6 capture targets met. Head back to your dorm to receive your rewards!

Park Moondae sighed in relief. Finally it was over. He hadn’t even embarrassed himself this time, Bae Sejin kindly embarrassed himself instead. 

Maybe things were looking up. As he walked back to his dorm in a daze, he wondered what the rewards would be like.

Chapter Text

As soon as Park Moondae entered the pink utopia that was his dorm room, the system immediately started blaring loudly. Usually a sound this loud would annoy the shit out of him, but since this was the sound of sweet sweet success he supposed he could let it slide this time.

Mission Accomplished!

Well done player! You have successfully met all 6 capture targets!

-> collect reward

-> reveal truth

Park Moondae blinks. Collect reward or reveal truth? 

He does vaguely remember when he first entered this world that the system mentioned something about revealing the truths of this world, but as he had been so busy meeting the capture target he quickly forgot about it. He also wasn’t sure how much truths he could uncover about a dating sim world with seemingly no plot but he figured he’d eventually find that out. 

Although that wasn’t important to him right now. He wanted his prize. Park Moondae had gone through multiple moments of embarrassment that would follow him in lifetimes to come so he strongly feels that he deserves a little treat for his efforts. Mostly he would like cold hard cash to buy a little treat but he knows that unfortunately, the prize isn’t going to be anything like that. He still wants it though. 

So steeling himself in case the system decided to try him yet again, he clicked ‘collect reward’. 

Suddenly a clear glass bottle that was entirely too fancy looking appeared in mid air in front of him. It was bottom heavy with a fancy cork top and filled halfway with this light blue liquid.

Confused, Park Moondae reached out to take it. When he did the system once again piped up.

Reward received!

Affection potion 

Item Description: A mysterious potion that can increase your affection level by 10% for one of the targets once consumed. Can only be used once. 

To be fair, the game has not properly started yet. Park Moondae has just cleared the tutorial stages and he knows it, so he can’t really judge how useful the item will be. He doesn’t know how fast the affection goes up naturally so he has no clue if 10% is a huge amount or not to achieve at the one time. Although from his knowledge, dating games don’t usually give out items that don’t come in handy at some point as there’s not very many game play mechanics to begin with. So Moondae decides to not just use it straight away, but to keep it until he knows it’s true value, and decide what to do with it then. Hopefully it will come in handy.

As soon as Moondae accepted the item the system pop up appeared again.

Mission Accomplished!

Well done player! You have successfully met all 6 capture targets!

-> reveal truth

Except there’s only one option now. 

Well, he might as well!

Taking a deep breath, Park Moondae pressed ‘reveal truth’.

——

It was like a dream sequence, like looking through someone else’s eyes. Like being yourself but it’s not yourself. Except, you knew deep down that this was ‘you’. 

The environment surrounding ‘you’ was entirely pink. The lines blurred together, but there was some white amongst it too. 

Standing on shaky legs ‘you’ approached an object. Once in front of it, it revealed itself to be a mirror. Except the ‘you’ looking back was not the ‘you’ you expected it to be. 

The dream confuses you. You’re already not yourself but now you’ve been reborn again. Or perhaps this was the original?

The mirror reflection showed that the ‘you’ this time was a girl. The features were blurred like most things in this vision, you couldn’t tell what she looked like. Pretty or ugly? Long hair or short hair? Slim or plump? Although these details might’ve mattered to ‘you’ they did not matter to you. 

‘You’ take time in the mirror. Inspecting what, you do not know. You could feel ‘yourself’ twirling a piece of  hair around. Like trying to come to terms with something. 

All of a sudden from the silent dream ‘you’ open your mouth.

“At the beginning again,” ‘you’ sigh.

‘You’ turn to the left, a white object that reveals itself to be a desk comes into view, with a white sheet of paper on top.

‘You’ pick the paper up. 

Love Interest Character Profile

Cha Eugene

Seon Ahyeon

Kim Raebin

Ryu Chungwoo

Lee Sejin

Bae Sejin

Park Moondae

The dream ends as suddenly as it started.

————

Blinking Park Moondae finds himself at a bit of a loss. That was… confusing to say the least. Who was that? Was it him? Was it someone else? It was hard to say. 

If that was the truth he was left with more questions than answers. If this was Park Moondae’s room who was that girl? And the piece of paper she picked up had Park Moondae’s name on it. 

Was it some sort of alternative timeline where Moondae was also a love interest? If it was, what did it have to do with the current Park Moondae? Did it even matter? Would he ever even find out!?

Before Moondae could think about what he just witnessed any longer, another notification popped up.

Part one of Truth revealed

Part one? So that means there will be multiple truths.

Park Moondae sighed. He figured that’s why he didn’t understand much from just that. The truth would be revealed to him in segments. 

Straight after that first pop up another pop up followed immediately after.

New feature unlocked: Chat Log

“Chat log?” Park Moondae questioned aloud.

Suddenly a huge wall of text appeared in front of him.

Player 3122: wow so this is the dlc?

Player 2322: yeah I’m excited but the person playing the game seems like a noob lol

Player 9281: totally I mean they haven’t even started stat grinding yet like what’s the plan here haha

Player 9291: maybe we should link them a guide?

Player 2813: man I hope they go for the harem route I wanna see what that ending looks like

Park Moondae somehow reached a new height of confusion. The wall of text was going fast and he could only read a few messages off them but even what he could catch made no sense to him.

“What is this?” 

At his question the ‘chat log’ closed and in its pace a system pop up.

Chat log

To help the new player get used to this world we have introduced a new help feature called chat log. This system functions like the player is a ‘streamer’ and the chat log is ‘chat’. This function is in place to help the new players when they are stuck on what to do and need others input. To open chat log just say “chat log” to close it press the ‘x’ in the top right hand corner.

Right. He almost forgot that this world made absolutely no sense at all. Sighing, he gently massaged his temples. 

So this ‘chat log’ was the game trying to help him? A strange way to go about it but Park Moondae won’t complain about a free feature that cost him nothing. He’ll have to try it out next time he talks to one of the capture targets to see if it’s useful.

Out of pure curiosity, he decided to take one more look at this chat log.

“Chat log”

Player 6327: I wonder if they’ll attempt the hidden route?

Player 8372: Eugene is my fav! I love his romance arc!

Player 4728: I found Lee Sejin rivals to lovers more interesting… more interesting than the original route anyway 

Player 1937: yeah I prefer the dlc too tbh

Player 1111: anyone else notice that whoever it is hasn’t even attempted to change styles yet? They’re not gonna be able to pass the next mission successfully if they don’t 

At the last message Park Moondae jolted. He would fail the next mission? So that means the chat knows the next mission.

But after reading the chat for another couple of minutes he only found them arguing over their favorite characters and nothing to do what the next mission would entail. Although the change styles hint was good enough for him. He was planning to change to a neater hairstyle anyway so maybe that would be enough. If not he could always work more to save up for some new outfits. 

Closing the chat log he went straight over to the mirror. This time there would be no Seon Ahyeon to interrupt his browsing.

So browse he did. 

He spent a good 10 minutes looking through the hairstyle options. Some of them were straight up ridiculous like going bald, or a Mohawk, but there was quite a few nice styles he’d always wanted to try as Ryu Gunwoo, but didn’t think he’d be able to pull it off with his face. Since he was now Park Moondae, that wouldn’t be a problem.

For now though, he just wanted to neaten up the shaggy hair. He felt that changing style completely should be used later if he needed a drastic change or to catch someone’s attention. 

So he simply chose the cut he found earlier before Ahyeon interrupted him and hoovered over the buy button before his eyes snapped open. The default colour was blonde and he hadn’t changed it yet! Letting out a sigh of relief that he remembered he went to change the colour to the one he already had. No drastic changes for Lee Sejin to make fun of him for this time he thought smugly.

Then suddenly the system dinged so loud Park Moondae felt he was suddenly flung into an ancient bell ringer's shoes who was one more chime away from going deaf. 

Sadly in his disorientation, he accidentally stumbled slightly and tripped into the mirror… and pressed buy… with the default setting of blonde still on.

Park Moondae could only stare in shock as he looked at his new, tidy but now bright blonde hair. 

At that moment the system window decided to pop up.

New mission

Capture the targets interest in you 

• Accept

• Decline 

Well… he was certainly going to gain some interest with his change. If that interest is in good or bad faith, it has yet to be seen.

Chapter Text

A deafening booming sound rumbled through Park Moondae’s ears and he had the sudden thought that if this was how he lost his hearing he would regret it for the rest of his miserable life. The sound was, of course, Lee Sejin’s laughter that was directly in his ear, as he was once again hanging from Moondae’s shoulders like they were actually friends. One day Moondae would correct Lee Sejin’s delusions that they could get along but until that day he will just blissfully plan his demise in his head. 

“I can’t believe you changed your whole look overnight Moondaemoondae!” He cackled, wiping a stray tear away.

“Well, I thought it was time for a change.” Park Moondae managed to mumble out with a straight face.

He knew this would happen. Lee Sejin was his number one enemy after all, he could practically smell Moondae’s weakness.

Lee Sejin looked up at him with a mischievous glint in his eyes that made the hair on the back of Moondae’s neck stand up. He felt like he was being looked through.

“Hmm but you don’t seem the type to make this sort of big change for no reason Moondaemoondae,” Lee Sejin teased, almost like he was hinting at something. 

Park Moondae always felt that Lee Sejin knew him a little too well. Or maybe he just had good instincts for everyone, but still, Moondae did not like it. He felt exposed. 

Before Moondae could argue, or before Lee Sejin could pry out the fact that he dyed his hair by accident, Seon Ahyeon appeared.

The absolute angel that he was.

He must have been drawn by Lee Sejins loud voice because he went over to join them.

“H-hello Sejin, hello M-M-Moondae,” he smiled at them both, but his brown sparkly eyes widened the moment they set on Moondae’s hair.

Moondae simply sighed while Lee Sejin burst into another obnoxious round of laughter.

“If it isn’t Ahyeonahyeon! I don’t see you much, come to admire Moondae’s new look?” 

Seon Aheyon looked confused and mumbled the nickname confused, but like Moondae he must’ve decided not to ask.

“I-I didn’t know you c-changed your hair Moondae?” Ahyeon tilted his head at him like a confused puppy. At the look Moondae softened a little and let his posture relax.

“Yeah. It was.. a spur of the moment decision.”

“Mm sure, I guess you could call it that.” Lee Sejin snorted out and Moondae’s head whipped around to him. How did he know?

“W-what do you mean by that?”

“Anyway Ahyeon I’ll see you at the dance hall after school right?” Moondae cut in before Lee Sejin could embarrass him further. To that Lee Sejin just started laughing again.

“O-oh yes!” Ahyeon smiled and suddenly Moondae didn’t care that he was standing here with the worst person on the planet, as he was also joined by an angel.

It wasn’t long after that Ahyeon left to go to his class, and luckily Lee Sejin began to move on too after having enough of brutally teasing Moondae. For now anyway.

“You know it may have been an accident but blonde does suit you moondaemoondae” Lee Sejin said as his parting words, and Park Moondae couldn’t quite read what the smile on his face meant. Was he mocking him more or being sincere? 

Lee Sejin was an annoying enigma that Park Moondae may never figure out fully, nor would he want to, Lee Sejin’s mind seemed like a scary place.

Finally entering class, Park Moondae walked to his seat and scanned the room. He still didn’t really know anyone from his class apart from Bae Sejin so as a default he made sure to glance at his seat. But to his surprise, he wasn’t there.

Moondae furrowed his brow. That was strange. Bae Sejin was the class representative and he was never late, in fact he should’ve been early like he usually was. So him not being there was even stranger. 

Briefly Moondae thought that it was possible he got caught reading explicit yaoi in public and he got pulled up by the principal, but that thought swiftly left his head as he tried to erase the images he saw in the library that fateful day. 

As if being summoned by the power of BL, Bae Sejin burst through the door. The loud way he entered the room was concerning enough but then his eyes locked on Moondae and Moondae felt his soul leave his body slightly. 

Then to Park Moondae’s absolute horror, Bae Sejin began marching towards him. Moondae felt the cold sweat drip down his back as he quickly goes over everything and anything that he could’ve done to possibly piss him off. He accepted his yaoi habits what more could Bae Sejin want! 

Luckily, before Sejin got the chance to approach, the teacher entered causing Bae Sejin to growl slightly before turning promptly and heading to his own seat. Park Moondae is not gonna talk about how he found that growl a little hot.

As class went on, Moondae found his mind wandering as per usual. However, this time the focus was on his unusual task. ‘Capture the target’s interest’. 

It was a pretty vague statement now that Moondae thought about it. Interest could mean multiple things. General interest, romantic interest, platonic interest? He feels he’s pretty much caught everyone’s general interest at least once considering how many times he’s made a fool of himself. 

Sighing and leaning his head in his hand, an idea occurred. 

‘Chat log’ Moondae thought.

Like last time, a wall of text appeared.

Player 1829: bae Sejin is so cute!

Player 2927: the first arc will be starting soon! We’ll be able to see who the streamers target is

Player 2938: I miss ahyeon….

Player 3819: the first arc has always been my favourite 

Player 8292: the streamer better pick a route soon or he’ll end up with no one…

Player 4829: what about the harem route though?

Player 1111: he’ll be able to complete the mission during the next couple of arcs, he’ll be fine

Moondae exited out. 

The first arc will be starting soon? 

Before Moondae got to think any further, the bell for their first break rang. Moondae jumped slightly startled, not having realised so much time had already passed.

Before Park Moondae even got to process this turn of event, two hands slammed onto his desk. Even more startled, Moondae slowly looked up. Only to meet with the fiery eyes of Bae Sejin. 

Consider Moondae horrified and aroused. Horroused if you will. 

“Park Moondae. I have a favour to ask you as you are the only one I can rely on in this class.” Bae Sejin announced seriously.

Panicking, Moondae accidentally said his thoughts out loud.

“Ah, so you really did have no friends.” 

….

“I’m going to choose to ignore that.” Bae Sejin said calmly, closing his eyes to conceal his rage.

Moondae nodded dumbly with his usual blank face.

“Thank you hyung….”

Bae Sejin once again opened his eyes after counting to 10.

“Park Moondae, join the school production of wicked.” 

Moondae blinked.

“Excuse me hyung?”

Moondae felt he missed a few chapters here. He knew Bae Sejin was the leader of the drama club from his most recent conversation with him, but what does that have to do with Moondae joining the play?

“Join the school play.” Bae Sejin states again. Clearly not going to take no for an answer.

“Can I ask why hyung?” 

“No.”

Moondae almost frowned. This hyung definitely has some personality issues. At least he was hot.

Bae Sejin sighed and leaned back to rub his temples.

“We’re a bit short of members this year, and too many of the underclassmen find me unapproachable” he admits reluctantly.

Moondae nods.

“I see… will I have to do anything?” Moondae hates himself for considering this, but he’s playing the long game. If he joins this play, this would totally force Bae Sejin to take an interest in him right? That would be 1 out of 6 down.

Bae Sejin thinks.

“There… will be an audition. That will reveal all.” He says somewhat ominously.

Moondae wants to frown but his blank face game is too strong.

“Okay hyung.”

At this Bae Sejin breaks into a relieved smile.

“Thank you Moondae.”

As he walked back to his seat (probably to read yaoi), Moondae couldn’t help but think of how pretty he was when smiling.

Later that day at lunch, he decided he should sign up officially at the sign up sheet in the hall.

He walked up to the sign up sheet and scanned it. It looked like it had been made by hand, with big pink and green bubble writing at the top. There were two sheets. One for backstage crew and one for actors. For the backstage sheet you had to write what you were going to help with (music, props, lighting etc), and for the actors you had to write what part you wanted to audition for. 

Moondae stared at the sheet like it was his personal enemy, Lee Sejin in this case. He only knew a little bit about wicked. He knew that it was a musical and based on the wizard of oz. He knew that the two main girls were Glinda and Elphaba but he knew nothing else. Assuming that he was right about it being a musical, that meant the only two characters he knew and could possibly write here… had to sing.

Park Moondae briefly wondered if he should just drop out now and let the time limit go off peacefully. I mean he certainly would catch some interest if he decided to take a main singing role in the vocal condition he was in right now! Except that interest would be less ‘oh my god you’re secretly amazing and cool’ and more ‘oh my god you broke my eardrums I’m going to obsessively research ways I can curse your whole bloodline’.

This was a predicament.

“You’re taking part in the production too hyung?” A calm voice sounded from behind him. He whirled around to be met by the dark intense eyes of Kim Raebin.

Moondae hesitated then nodded.

“Yes…”

Kim Raebin scanned the sheets.

“You haven’t written anything yet hyung, what are you planning to take part in?” He titled his head. 

Still unsure about how to communicate with Raebin, Moondae thought carefully.

“I… was planning to audition for a role…” he was going to further explain about how he was unsure what role to audition for, but before he could Raebin rather dramatically gasped, dropped his bag and covered his face in horror.

Park Moondae felt his eyebrow twitch.

“Moondae hyung! Don’t tell me you’re going to audition for one of the main roles!? With your…” Raebin gasped, looked around to make sure no one was approaching as if he was about to commit a crime, then scooted forward to whisper in Moondae’s ear. “With your… unfortunate condition.”

Moondae tilted his head back to look blankly at the ceiling, contemplating what exactly this underclassmen thought about him.

“You mean my lack of singing ability?” 

Raebin flinched as if he had been struck by lightning. He then shook a little, like a cat gearing up to pounce. He scrunched his face into a determined expression and met Moondae’s eyes.

“Don’t worry hyung! I will help you!”

Moondae wanted to tell him not to bother, and just give him the name for an extra character he can audition as but Raebin snatched his hands in his. 

“I’ll make sure your vocal skill is up to par in time for the production! You can count on me,” Raebin promised, squeezing Moondae’s hands gently. He can’t help but think that this would be a really touching moment… if Moondae actually wanted a main part.

But yet again, before Moondae could get a word out, Raebin was on the move.

He fished a pen out of his bag, walked over to the sheet, signed himself up for sound design, and signed Moondae up for… Glinda and Elphaba.

Then with a dramatic turn he nodded at Moondae solemnly and raised a fist in a ‘fighting’ gesture.

“I admire your courage Moondae hyung.”

Then, the enigma that was Kim Raebin left, leaving Park Moondae to stare at the signup sheet in horror.

——————

“Are you o-o-okay Moondae? You look t-tired?” Seon Ahyeon, the Angel that he was, asked Moondae concerned while helping him stretch.

Moondae had chosen to dance as his after school activity. For one, because he promised Ahyeon earlier, but mostly because after the day he just had he needed some healing by looking at Ahyeon’s face. 

“I’m fine.” Moondae responded just as Ahyeon helped him bend in a way that made his whole back crack.

It was silent for a second before they both promptly moved on.

“A-are you sure?” Ahyeon asked with a second layer of worry after hearing Moondae’s back basically snap.

Park Moondae sighed. Ahyeon would probably keep asking until he got an answer.

“I signed up to audition for the school musical.” Moondae muttered out.

“Oh! I d-didn’t know you liked musicals,” 

“Yeah…” Was all Moondae could mutter in response, not wanting to explain the whole how he got here story.

It was a comfortable silence as they continued practice but Moondae could tell Ahyeon was thinking hard about something. He figured he should maybe ask about it since Seon Ahyeon was actually likable and his answer probably wouldn’t piss him off, but Ahyeon started speaking before he could.

“I-I was considering j-joining too,” He whispered looking down, as if waiting for Moondae to admonish him for his decision. 

Moondae carefully looked at him and shrugged.

“Then audition with me.” He said simply.

Ahyeon’s head snapped up and he looked at Moondae in childlike awe.

“You r-really think I could do it? E-even like this?” Ahyeon said, unsure. Moondae wanted to scowl.

He knew exactly what Ahyeon meant, he was nervous about his stutter. He suddenly felt the urge to punch all of those bullies in the face for making Ahyeon feel like this. Instead, Moondae responded the best way he knew how. 

“You’re super talented and you have a good face, are you good at singing?” Moondae asked.

“I’m o-okay…”

“Then audition.” Moondae stated simply before going back to his stretching. 

If he turned around at that moment he would’ve seen the look of admiration Seon Ahyeon had directed at him.