Prologue
You can’t beat an ikemen (handsome guy).
I — Kanbara Yūma — realized that truth for the second time in my life when my second love fell apart. After losing to an ikemen twice now (first love, then round two), it finally hit me.
My first love was my childhood friend.
Our parents were close, so our families had been tight since we were little. Back then I treated her like a sister, but by the time we finished elementary school those feelings shifted into something else.
I genuinely thought, “If I confess, maybe we could start dating.”
Reality wasn’t so kind.
About a year into middle school a rumor spread that she had a boyfriend. The supposed guy was a famously handsome upperclassman — an ikemen — and I confirmed it when I actually saw them happily shopping together.
Seeing her so happy put an end to my first love.
At that point I still hadn’t grasped the whole truth. I told myself I simply wasn’t trying hard enough.
So I tried. I trained my body, forced myself to study the things I was bad at, and scoured magazines and the internet for fashion tips. I worked on myself until I thought I was ready.
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Not long after I started improving, I fell in love for the second time.
This time it was a classmate.
Having learned bitterly from my first failure, I knew passivity wouldn’t cut it. I acted. I talked to her even when there was no reason to, invited her out on days off, and staged “accidental” opportunities to walk home together after school — all because I wanted to be with her.
Things were going well.
I let myself hope that maybe, just maybe, we’d end up together.
Then fate — or stupidity — struck again.
Word spread that a new ikemen had transferred into the neighboring middle school. The girl I liked met him, and in no time she was smitten.
And just like that, my second love ended.
Those back-to-back losses forced the idiot in me to finally notice something obvious.
[Ikemen are supreme.]
[In this world, looks are everything.]
[But only if you’re an ikemen.]
No matter how much you study or how athletic you become, you stand no chance against an ikemen. Sure, people say you can outmatch looks with money once you’re an adult — but that makes the ideal champ a rich ikemen. Given two wealthy people, the handsome one will always win over the ugly one.
At the end of the day, people are born into winners and losers. Just like the phrase “parent gacha” caught on, your outcome is largely decided the moment you’re born.
If you can’t win no matter how hard you try, the smart move is to avoid the fight from the start. Honestly, it’s a blessing to hit the wall of reality early.
So I got wise, accepted my defeat, and gave up on real-world romance.
After that I dove into my own worlds: games, anime — whatever let me escape.
Time flies when you do what you love. Before I knew it I’d graduated middle school and finished the second summer break of high school.
Nothing changed in high school either.
At school I was an unremarkable boy who never stood out and who the girls didn’t even glance at. I lived like a forgettable background character.
Real life stayed the same, but my private world kept shifting.
I got hooked on an online game and found my in-game wife. I got into VTubers and even got noticed by my oshi.
Life felt satisfying. I figured I’d coast through high school peacefully — no drama in reality, enjoying myself online.
Then, on the first night of the new term—
“Hey, Aniki, I need you to do me a favor.”
It was early evening; I was watching my oshi’s stream.
“Listen, this is mandatory. If you say no, your life is over, so don’t even try it.”
Those threatening words from my sister kicked off the tale of a loser underdog.—
TLNOTE : I’m sorry for being MIA for a while, I was sick and still haven’t fully recovered. Because of that, the novel translation will still be posted irregularly
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