Unfortunately, one of the worst parts of this story was that my character was also the childhood sweetheart of Jake, the cold prince stereotype in the harem. They had grown up together, frequently promising to get married when they "grew up." Despite his cold personality, he had always been relatively friendly to her, treating her with a special care that the poor side character had thought to be a demonstration of his loving feelings.

That illusion was broken when he actually fell in love with the heroine.

Initially she tried to deny it, tried to follow him around, win his affection back. This backfired, causing him to treat her with disdain and anger rather than his usual calm acceptance from their childhood. As the days passed, she couldn't ignore the difference in how he treated Rose from how he spoke to her. Forced to realize that the boy she loved was in love with her best friend instead, the character shifted into a villain type, trying to break them apart.

Of course, since this was a high school drama, and she was not the heroine, her plans failed miserably. After hitting rock bottom, she was stopped by Jake while attacking the heroine with a knife at the Spring Formal, falling on her own weapon and being taken to the hospital in critical condition. Her life and death was unknown by the time the story was dropped.

The only light in all this was that I had apparently been dropped in the story fairly early on, when my character had just learned about Jake's feelings.

Watching the young man approach, I could feel my character's desperate love and devotion well up inside me, the sadness she felt at his indifferent gaze. Forcing the foreign emotions down, I kept my expression calm and unconcerned, greeting him with a wave.

"Can I help you?"

Jake paused, obviously taken aback by my casual response. His posture was relaxed, showing off his brand name clothes. I took the opportunity to study him. In the story, he was the son of a famous musician, a genius painter himself. He was adored by all the girls in the school, but despite his popularity was unable to gain the affection of the heroine.

Why are all the male leads in this story rich and handsome? I'd like to lodge a complaint.

"What were you doing in there?"

"..." I raised my eyebrows at his sudden question. "... I was in the bathroom. What do YOU think I was doing?"

"You were in there a long time... were you crying?" Despite the question sounding concerned, there was an almost... satisfied tone to it. I felt a stab of pain in my heart, a vanishing remnant of my character's despairing feelings.

Typical male lead, all the love goes to the heroine.

I smiled. "I was in there a while because I was taking a crap."

"..."

"Any other questions?"

"..."

Ignoring his dumbfounded expression, I waved goodbye and turned to leave, feeling satisfied.

"You need to give up on me." Jake called out towards my back.

I paused, turning back around. "I have."

"I don't believe you! You're just lying so that I won't push you away."

I felt my blood ignite at his smug expression. Even if they weren't my emotions, there had been a young girl who had her heart broken into pieces by this jerk, pushing her towards a bad ending in this terrible story. If she were still here, this would hurt her deeply. Perhaps she would cry, and beg him to care for her.

But unfortunately for him... there's just me left today.

"Okay, buddy," I stepped closer, cracking my knuckles. "Let me break this down for you: First, I don't want to date you. You have the emotional availability of a dead slug. What little emotions that have survived in that barren wasteland you call a heart are all obsessed with my best friend."

I shrugged, rolling my eyes as his face paled with rage and shock. "Second, your one good point... your face... is far overshadowed by the fact that you have many rabid female fans who want to bully me for the crime of being your childhood friend."

I gave him a thumbs up. "By the way, strong work on the save there, buddy. I really liked how you stood uselessly off to the side and watched them hit me without doing anything. I'm really glad you value our friendship as much as I do."

"You're crazy!" Jake snapped.

"I think this is the most sane I've ever been. Read. My. Lips: I don't like you anymore. Whatever love I had left for you died today as you watched me take that slap."

He stepped back with a shocked expression. "...Good. I'm glad you've given up. Because I... love... Rose."

"Try to add some confidence to that sentence. You've got a lot of competition, buddy. If you're going to beat out her boyfriend and my brother, you'll need to work hard!"

Giving him a grin and a wave, I turned around and walked away.

"BLAIRE!"

I ignored him and walked away, thinking over my mission.

I had to break up the reverse harem. Fortunately, I wasn't given any restrictions. As long as they gave up, whether by finding a new love or not, it would count.

I don't really feel like finding that butthole a girlfriend, so let's just make him give up in tears instead.

I laughed viciously at the thought of him crying before catching myself. Looking around the empty hallway, I relaxed slightly. Maniacal laughter was one of the many bad habits I had picked up after many lifetimes of playing minor villains in bad stories.

At least no one's around to witness my shame. If anyone had seen me, they would probably have thought I was insane.

Even as I comforted myself, however, I couldn't shake an uneasy feeling of someone watching me. But the hallway still looked empty...

Oh well. Even if someone did see, it's not like my reputation can get too much worse after desperate chasing around male lead #3 in an attempt to get his love.

Shrugging off my unsettled emotions, I returned to my classroom.

_____________________________

After several hours, I had finally finished out my classes for the day, hating every minute.

I need a break from these high school worlds. How many times do I have to take calculus?

As I packed up my books, my phone text alert sounded off. I unlocked it, glancing at a text from the number labeled "Adam."

A text from brother dearest?I chuckled grimly. This should be good. I opened it up.

"Sal's Coffee shop. 30 minutes. Bring Rose."

Adam. My character's beloved older brother. A handsome, athletic senior student, he had a friendly, easy-going personality, one that made him popular with every social group at the private school he had obtained a scholarship to. Many people admired him, but he was had never been involved in any romantic relationships despite multiple confessions.

Until he saw Rose.

It was love at first sight. He became obsessed, spending every free minute chasing her, trying to win her over. Even at this point in the story, where Rose had become the girlfriend of male lead #1, Michael, he still hadn't given up. In fact, if anything, he was trying harder now that she was in a relationship.

It was something that had greatly worried her character. She and her brother had been very close, but after he fell in love with Rose, he began using her as a means to see his love more often. Despite her sadness at her brother's callous treatment of her, she tried hard to support him in his love.

I smiled coldly as I slowly typed out a reply.

"I'll see you in 45 minutes."

I didn't hate Adam's character. Although he definitely treated his sister poorly, he was the only one to care towards the end when she had been injured, calling the ambulance and staying by her side as she was transported to the hospital.

He just needs some behavioral correction. If he can improve, I'll make sure he gets a new love and a happy ending. If not...

I felt a villainous laugh beginning again, and suppressed it firmly. I was still in class. The timing wasn't right. But even as I held myself firmly back and began packing my things, an even more evil laugh sounded out just beside me, startling me into jumping and dropping my things on the ground.

"Let me help." A young man leaned over to pick up my books and school supplies, packing them carefully back into my bag.

"...thanks." I answered warily, watching him. He was handsome, almost blindingly so, his black hair falling messily without obscuring his regular features, his dark blue eyes holding an amused light as he stared back at me, holding out my bag for me to take back.

Did I miss another reverse harem member? He doesn't fit Michael or Adam's description, and he's not in my character's memories. But he really seems too good-looking to be a simple background character...

"What are you thinking about?" The young man grinned as he leaned against my desk, causing several of the girls in the classroom

I shook my head slowly. "Trying to decide how much of a threat you are to my plans for world domination." Giving a nonsense answer, I took the bag from him with a shrug and stood up, ready to leave.

"I hope you'll find that I'm not a threat at all... in fact, I'd love to help you."

"Said the spider to the fly..."

He laughed at that. "No one ever said the spider and the fly couldn't work together."

"Thanks, but I prefer to work alone." Giving him a bland smile, I turned and left the classroom before he could say anything further.

What a weird guy, I'd better avoid him.

I left the school, my thoughts turning to how I could save my character's brother from the mire of reverse harem life.