I Fell for the Male Lead's Best Friend

Chapter 1

I was a painfully ordinary straight man with an inexplicable talent for attracting gay men.

Then I transmigrated into a novel and became the sweet, promiscuous bottom who had cheated on the male lead and tried to keep two men at once.

When I first arrived, the male lead was lavishly praising me to his best friend, going on about how obedient and sweet I was.

His friend was dressed impeccably, carrying himself with effortless elegance. His beautiful, phoenix-shaped eyes flicked lazily toward me.

“Keep telling me how wonderful your boyfriend is,” he drawled. “And don’t blame me if I fall for him and steal him from you.”

The male lead took it as a joke.

I, however, realized I was no longer straight.

Because I fell in love with his best friend at first sight.

And I stopped being honest, too.

The male lead said his friend liked wild, uninhibited types—someone who knew how to have fun and wasn’t afraid to let loose.

So after breaking up with him, I decided to pursue his friend by giving him exactly what he wanted.

I bought a membership to a gay dating site and studied tutorials on every possible technique.

I threw caution to the wind and used everything I had to seduce him.

The day I finally succeeded in winning over the male lead’s best friend, the male lead caught us kissing.

Furious, he punched his friend in the face.

“I thought you were joking! I never imagined you’d actually steal my wife!”

“I’ll beat you to death, you home-wrecking bastard!”

I stood in front of the mirror.

My entire body was practically turning to stone.

Ethan Bennett.

In the original novel, he was the male lead’s first love—the shameless cheater who had tried to keep two men at once.

He had the same name as me.

He also had a face identical to mine.

The difference was that he knew how to dress much better.

His clothes had a youthful charm that made him look instantly likable. Soft, fluffy pink hair drew the eye wherever he went. His skin was almost unnaturally pale, and his clear, slightly downturned eyes gave him an innocent appearance.

His lips were thin, but a small, prominent curve in the center made them look full and naturally red.

He wore a buttercream top, and a few stubborn strands of hair stuck up from the crown of his head.

He looked young, sweet, pure, and adorably well-behaved.

The original Ethan was gay.

With his sweet face and gentle personality, he was extremely popular. Plenty of people pursued him, praising him as the sweetest bottom in the gay community.

And me?

I was an honest straight man.

I was even a little homophobic.

There were a lot of people in the private suite outside.

Every single one of them was gay. There wasn’t a straight man among them.

It was honestly hopeless.

If I had committed some kind of crime, the law should have punished me.

Chapter 2

It shouldn’t have let me get relentlessly pursued by obsessive gay men, only to dump me into a gay romance novel afterward.

This talent of mine for attracting gay men was truly unbelievable.

Gay men constantly sent me private messages online. Gay men pursued me passionately in real life. And when I transmigrated into a novel, I landed in a gay romance.

I was helpless.

And terrified.

So I hid in the restroom, too afraid to go back out.

My head was spinning.

I could barely keep myself upright, and the smell of alcohol clung to me. The original owner must have had quite a bit to drink before I transmigrated into his body.

At this point in the story, he hadn’t cheated on Sebastian yet.

I opened the restroom door a crack and cautiously poked my head out, watching the situation in the private suite through the narrow gap.

The male lead was Sebastian Ashford.

He was strikingly handsome, dressed in a white dress shirt and black trousers. When he smiled, he had an almost boyish charm.

It was obvious he was very fond of the original owner.

Right now, he was outside, enthusiastically telling his friends all about how wonderful the original owner was.

“My boyfriend’s adorable, right?”

“I think he’s adorable too. I absolutely adore him.”

“He’s so pretty. Sweet and soft and completely my dream crush!”

“Listen, none of you are allowed to get any ideas about him. Otherwise, we’re not friends anymore.”

The people around him couldn’t help groaning and teasing him.

“Seriously? You’ve only been dating for a few days, and you’re already hyping him up like that?”

“Exactly.”

“Sebastian, give it a rest. We’ve been friends for years, and the moment you get into a relationship, you start rubbing it in our faces.”

“I’m telling you, when it comes to guarding against love rivals, Sebastian is the ultimate one-man army.”

Even after being teased like that, Sebastian didn’t seem embarrassed in the slightest.

He lifted his chin slightly and replied without missing a beat, “So what?”

“It took me forever to win my boyfriend over. Of course I’m going to keep a close eye on him.”

“Forget you guys. If some random man walking by looks at him twice, I’ll be watching him like a potential homewrecker.”

Everyone burst out laughing again.

The teasing only grew louder.

That was when I noticed someone else sitting in the corner.

The lighting was dim, and I couldn’t make out his face. He was turned slightly to the side, one elbow resting against the arm of the booth, his posture effortlessly elegant.

A white dress shirt. A black suit waistcoat. Black suit trousers.

Chapter 3

A strip of pale, impossibly alluring ankle showed between his long legs and shoes.

He held a wineglass in one hand, the sharp line of his wrist bone just visible beneath his cuff. His index finger tapped idly against the bowl of the glass.

Impeccably dressed, he sat there in silence.

It was as if he existed on an entirely different plane from the noisy crowd around him.

I didn’t know why.

My attention simply settled on him.

Every part of him seemed perfect—so damn striking, so… compelling.

Yes. Compelling was the word.

I found myself wondering what he looked like.

Wondering whether his face would be just as compelling…

At the same time—

Sebastian, who had been taking the brunt of the teasing, was beginning to struggle.

A flush crept over the tips of his ears.

He stood and crossed over to the man in the corner. As he sat down beside him, he said, “Adrian Sterling, you really are the best.”

“They’re all making fun of me, but you never do.”

I froze for half a second.

That was Adrian Sterling?

The male lead’s best friend in the original novel.

Adrian lifted his eyes and glanced at Sebastian. An unreadable chuckle slipped from his throat.

“I’m the best?”

He raised the wineglass to his lips.

As the wine slid down his throat, I watched his Adam’s apple move, pulling at the faint blue veins along the side of his neck. They wound across his cool, pale skin like an underground river over marble.

Without realizing it, I swallowed too.

Adrian tilted his head slightly and set the empty glass on the coffee table.

And in that instant, I finally saw his face.

He really was breathtaking.

His bone structure and features were flawless. There wasn’t a single imperfection to be found.

His eyes were the classic phoenix shape, beautiful and gleaming with a hint of laughter. His gaze seemed to ripple with light.

A tiny mole at the tip of his nose was the perfect finishing touch to that already beautiful face.

It softened his untouchable, almost otherworldly coolness while adding a dangerously captivating edge.

The kind of face that made you want to reach out and mark him, just to see what he would look like when desire took hold and he finally fell—

“!!!”

My eyes flew wide.

I was horrified by my own thoughts.

Wasn’t I straight?

Why was I having thoughts like that about a gay man?

Damn it, what was wrong with my brain?

I had transmigrated into the body of a gay man. That didn’t mean I’d turned gay!

I cursed myself under my breath. But the moment I came back to my senses, Adrian’s phoenix-shaped eyes were slowly lifting.

Without warning, his gaze flicked toward me.

The instant our eyes met across the room, I felt my breath catch. My mind went completely blank, leaving me suspended in a strange, empty void.

Me: “!!!”

My body reacted faster than my brain.

I hurriedly broke eye contact and ducked behind the door.

Had he… had he noticed me?

A guilty conscience bloomed in my chest, exactly like the feeling of being caught spying on someone.