"What's your type?"

Red spat out the juice from his mouth, and then choked to the point of coughing.

"W-why did you ask that all of a sudden?" Red protested while wiping his face, while Ace continued to look nonchalant, leaning against the back of the seat. They were sitting on a bench at a forest trail near the school. Bright sunlight was streaming through the canopy of the trees over them, so that there are several patches of sunlight on the ground around them.

"Hey, if you have any trouble hooking up with any one of them, I have lots of information on them," Ace explained with a hint of pride in his voice, "Best presents, what they think is the most attractive features on a man, even blackmail material if you... want to get together faster. But of course I'd judge you if you have to resort to that."

Red made a strangled sound in his throat, before saying, "It sounds like YOU'RE trying to date them with how much you like to talk about them, actually." Red shuffled his feet nervously.

Ah, the conversation took such an awkward turn.

"If you have a crush on any of them," Red said slowly, "I will promise you that I won't touch them. Hell I won't talk to them anymore. You're still a person even if your role is of the 'best friend', stand up for yourself. You did your role well enough, you deserve love as much as I do." Red then looked down towards his feet and crossed his arms.

Now he thinks I have a crush on one of the three girls? Red totally misunderstood him.

"You know the fan site, right? I went there yesterday, and the comments made sense. You have great chemistry with June. You're like an elder brother to Kiwi. Melissa treats you differently than with me. I can see it in her eyes. She truly lets down her guard around you, and I-" He paused for a while before saying, "I'm pretty much inferior in all ways."

"Of course not!"

Ace lashed out with bulging eyes, scaring Red who drew back all the way to the other end of the bench.

"You're the main character here! With your personality, I'm sure at least one of the girls feel that way with you, have more faith in yourself," Ace said with an upturned eyebrow.

"It's fine! You can ask out the girl you like, you've helped me so much until now. I don't need to go out with any of them."

What is this now? Hearing that made Ace feel indignant.

Just then, the system announcement rang in their ears.

"Wait, rival?" Red said in disbelief.

Suddenly, the sky grew overcast, and the light on the ground dimmed down. Since the gig was up, Ace stood up and decided to come clean. The emotions in his heart for so long felt like bursting out of his chest.

Loud, obnoxious laughter burst out of his mouth, firstly in giggles, then all out booming chuckling that reminded Ace of the old times of acting like a pretentious dick. Red, who never saw this side of Ace before, was completely stunned.

"How stupid can you be?" Ace said with bloodshot eyes, staring into Red's eyes as he squirmed. "I was never your friend to begin with, I was actually trying to steal all three girls from the start. Yes, I'm your rival."

Argh why do I have to seem like a drama queen? Ace thought, as he blurted out those lines. Then again, this could be a good opportunity to start a proper rivalry. Maybe this will spur Red to pick the girl he likes and not feel guilty for accepting my help.

"But our friendship, your support, and how you doted on the girls, those are all real feelings, aren't they?" Red said in shock.

"Huh," Ace said, and then shrugged, "Not really. I didn't give a single damn. Melissa's problem is too easy for me to solve through parents' company, and throwing money at Kiwi's business is enough for her to beg at my heel, and I simply made use of June's insecurities to my advantage. She's just an emotionally weak girl, all she needs is a little validation and she's in love with me. As for you-"

Ace slowly crawled towards Red, and placed a finger on his chest. In this angle, Ace was hovering over Red who looked very stressed by this change of events.

"I know exactly how you feel about me," A wide, sinister grin crossed his face, as his eyes bored into Red, "and yes, I wasn't your friend from the start. It's cute how innocent you were." Ace then jumped off the bench, wiping his hands off his pants and then leaving Red behind who was still trying to register what happened.

"Later, then," Ace said while leaving, to no one in particular.

Even for Ace's standards, leaving Red just like that was too much, as obnoxious he was, he was never straight up heartless before. Feeling a pang of guilt him him suddenly, he decided to run back to the bench, only to find it empty. Then someone strong grabbed him and slammed him back first into a tree.

"Urp!" Ace choked, and felt a stabbing pain shoot up his back. The next instant, a punch flew into his face, causing him to jerk back from the impact.

"Bitch that hurt!" Ace yelled, opening his eyes when another punch struck his face on the right with a cracking sound.

"That one is for Kiwi," he could hear a low female voice, and Ace snapped his head up to look at the person.

"Ah, so YOU'VE overheard," Ace said weakly, even though he was still wearing that grin, "or did he tell you?"

"S-shut up! I should've known that you are a horrible excuse of a human being from the beginning, and here was I believing that you've changed. An emotionally weak girl, huh? That's what you've thought of me as this entire time?"

"No! Not at all! Trust me, that time I was lying! I-" Ace forced out while grabbing onto his face in pain.

The final punch struck hard and true, and the moment he hit the back of his head on the trunk for a final time, he passed out.

"This one's for me."

---

Ace woke up to a bright white room on a hospital bed. When he did, he could feel a weight next to him, and he rubbed his eyes absentmindedly, trying to see what the object was. His eyes focused, and he could see Kiwi's drooling face right next to his own. Apparently she was sitting on a chair and had fell asleep with her face-planting onto his bed.

Startled, Ace scrambled  began to head out of the door, while wincing in pain all through his body. He could tell that there were bandages wrapped around his torso and his head.

Two arms firmly grabbed hold of him from behind, causing him to stop in fear.

"'Mornin' Ace, why didn't you wake me up?" Kiwi asked sweetly, in a high-pitched voice.

Does she know anything about the conversation me and Red had? Did Red or June tell her anything? Questions filled Ace's mind but it worsened his headache.

"Don't push yourself! Here, have some cookies!" Kiwi started opening a small lunchbox filled with chocolate chip cookies. When Ace picked it up, he examined it carefully as if he were checking for poison, and then ate it. It tasted normal, fortunately. Ace then chomped it down because he was feeling very hungry.

"Of course, eat as much as you want! It's made with love, after all!" Kiwi said cheerfully.

"You can't really call this a breakfast though, it's already 1 pm," Kiwi said thoughtfully.

What? "How long have I been out?" Ace asked worriedly.

"Uhh well today is Saturday, if you're asking."

Saturday... Saturday... Wasn't the confession supposed to be on Friday? How long have I been out? Ace thought frantically with a pale expression. The game was supposed to end on that Friday, when the main character would get confessed to under the cherry blossom tree behind the school.

"You don't look happy for someone who won," Kiwi said, tilting her head to the side.

"Ah? So you-"

"June told us two what happened. Huh, who would have thought that you are the love rival?" Kiwi said with a thoughtful expression, "You did a great job of hiding it from what I can tell!"

"You aren't angry at me? And wait, I won? What happened to them?"

"Uhh huh. In fact, no one appeared under the cherry blossom tree. I was here, June gone hiking in the mountains and hasn't come back yet, Melissa doesn't want to talk to anyone or do anything and Red, I dunno. He stopped coming to school altogether."

Every line felt like a gut punch to Ace. It wasn't true that he did not have any connection with them, as he felt like he had really betrayed them.

"I don't get it, though. Why they disappeared like that, and June yelled at me to never say your name ever again."

"She didn't tell you anything at all?" Ace asked quietly.

Kiwi shook her head. Ace sighed.

"I-I said a few horrible things to Red and June overheard," Ace said honestly, "about how our friendship was all a lie and I did it all for betraying them and earning points as the love rival."

"But revealing your plan three days before the final confession day, would be disadvantageous to you. Isn't the point of a love rival to attract the attention of the love interests away from the MC? And you're pretty concerned where the other girls went for someone who thinks their friendship was 'all a lie'."

Ace rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. "Yeah, but I don't expect this at all! I know I went too far on my part, I kinda broke their trust. I didn't think that June and Red would disappear and Melissa to be cold. I was acting like a good friend before the reveal, but the worst I expected afterward them hating on me or ignoring me in school and going on with their happy school life."

"I would've been crushed if I figured out that you were lying to me all this time," Kiwi said, her tone turning serious, "if they feel as strongly as I do, then yeah, I could see why."

"You're saying, that the friendship they felt towards me was that strong?" Ace was appalled but a warm feeling spread his heart. He only actually interacted with them about two times a week, and most of his time was spent either stalking them online or stalking them in real life, but they still considered him a friend to get worried over.

Looking at his surprise, Kiwi looked like she was about to laugh or cry. "Sure you can think of it like that," she said, "either way, you messed up, big time! There are so many hate comments on the fan site written about you right now that I'm reeling," She emphasized that last word.

With a heavy heart, Ace opened up the game menu and this time, it said 'Ended' over the title screen. He pulled up the fan site and was instantly bombarded with notifications and news about Spring Love. He firstly opened up the first article he saw.

"Spring Love takes a twist to the unexpected! Fans are now outraged against the character Ace, who was initially thought to be the best friend of the game, but turned into a traitor. But the worst part was the anti climatic and otherwise depressing ending that no one expected from what was to be a simple, lighthearted romance."

Bracing himself, he stepped into the cesspool that was the fan forums. Most of the threads were unsurprisingly about the ending, but a huge chunk of it was primarily Ace hate. On the bright side, his previous account, Red_HaremKing, was unbanned soon after, and there were many users liking his posts and commenting on them with support, not knowing the irony of that. Every time he came across a negative comment on himself, he felt personally attacked, and it took a lot of self control to not give himself away.

Then there was the hard part, watching the last few episodes knowing what the train wreck the situation would turn into. As his mind wandered around the play button, Ace felt a wave of guilt and dread wrap knots in his stomach.

"Kiwi? I know this is hard to ask but... Can you watch episode 25, 26 and 27 with me? I really need to know what is going on, but-"

"I have been putting off with watching the last few episodes myself," Kiwi said as she stopped staring out of the window. Then she twiddled her thumbs nervously, "Are you sure? All I did was read some of the comments for the videos. But sure, I can watch it with you."

Ace smiled gratefully. They timed to start watching the video together.

---

On episode 25, it started off with Red and June chatting while walking to Red's class, as envious students stopped to glare at Red. Red laughed at June's joke, and then decided to meet up for ice-cream in the evening after school. During recess, Melissa would continue to tutor Red on school work, and they had a pleasant time talking about Melissa's new pet dog and how it managed to mess up half of the furniture in the whole house and chewed up the pillowcases in her bedroom.

"And there was fluff everywhere! All the way to the bathroom across the hallway! My parents weren't too happy about that, but their faces are- they are gloooorious!" Melissa said, gushing and then she burst out laughing with Red. Soon after that, she looked very embarrassed when other students began to stare, and then covered her mouth to go back to acting like a polite lady.

"You don't need to put up appearances in front of people, I find your real laugh to be really nice to listen to," Red complimented, which Melissa responded with a blush dusting across her features.

---

"I'm being swayed to the Red X Melissa camp, that's really adorable," Ace said with a peaceful smile while watching the show.

"Yeah I thought from the beginning that Red and Melissa would end up together," Kiwi said excitedly, "so you get it too, right? Red's pure heart and strong personality is good enough to melt the heart of the intelligent ice queen."

"Aren't you one of the love interests yourself? You're supporting the enemy."

"Same goes for you, love rival!"

---

Right after school, Red was cheerfully heading down through the forest trail. He lightened up when he saw Ace already sitting there on the bench. Ace waved at him.

After a while of talking, Ace asked the question, causing Red to spit out his drink. Everything unfolded the way Ace knew, only that this time, this point of view showed June jogging through the forest, before deciding to eavesdrop on their conversation behind a bush. She looked a bit frustrated when Ace revealed that he was feeding information to Red about the girls, and surprised that Red would give Ace the chance to confess to any of the three girls before him.

Ace naturally tuned out his ears when the system announcement flashed across, and his showy and brazen reveal of his grand plan to trick everyone. After that, Red was dazed on the bench for a few moments, got up, and walked away into the forest in unsteady steps. 

Ace could not meet his gaze, but he could tell that he was crying.

---

"Shouldn't he be pissed?" Ace said, incredulous. But then he thought for a while longer, "but he is very pure hearted, and naive. A betrayal would hurt him to this point."

Kiwi turned to him with a look that screamed, 'you f*cked up'.

"Hey, I made him think that he was tricked all this time, but friendships like this aren't worth crying over."

"Stop, you're annoying me right now," Kiwi's shrill voice shut him up.

---

After Ace left, June appeared, and her rage can be felt like a blazing inferno. She was shouting curses into the air while punching the side of a tree, and when she heard footsteps, dove back behind the bush.

Ace relived the moments that he was ambushed and punched, even putting his hand to his head in an attempt to block the blows. The video held back no detail on how he was being smashed into smithereens.

As June was about to walk away, she looked very conflicted, and always walked back to the site of Ace's crumpled body every time she tried to leave. She relented, sighing while pulling up a phone to make a call.

"You're damn lucky that I'll be letting you off," Ace could hear her whisper through her teeth dejectedly.

After that, there was a scene of June running into Melissa, and June recalled everything she heard. Melissa seemed like she wanted to interject at first, leaning forward and denying, but as June said further, she shrank into herself and it was as if the light faded from her eyes.

"Thanks for telling me that," Melissa said, but her voice was neutral. She walked gracefully away.

The episode ends.

---

Ace was completely dumbstruck into silence. It was such an abrupt ending, but where did Red run off to? Why did June feel a need to call the ambulance on him? What on earth happened to Melissa in such a short time? It was like she reverted back into the ice queen version of herself at the start of the game.

Most of his questions, he could know the obvious answer, his betrayal of their friendship.

Ah, friendships were such a hassle as always, ever since Ace was a kid. In their place, Ace would have flipped out at this so called 'friend', ignored him for the rest of his life and gotten over it the next day. There was no use taking revenge against these types of people, much less cry over a traitor leaving before damage could be done. Hell, Ace would say that in this instance, the trash took itself out by revealing his role so early. He does not care about you, why should you hold up your side of a broken relationship? Ace knew from experience that showing weakness in these types of situations will only benefit your enemies, they take pride in your suffering, so the best way to deal with it was to take it in stride and take revenge.

"How stupid, they should just get over this, and then it'll be fine," Ace said, feeling hopeful.

"JUST GET OVER IT? What happened to you?"

Kiwi was utterly shocked by this uncaring reaction, and then her face turned bright red in anger.

"Y-you really thought they could just sleep off what you just did? At least show some regret for what you said!" Her eyes were wide, scanning Ace's expression as if she was finding something.

The first time Ace got betrayed? It was so far off that he couldn't remember himself. It was gone after nights of tossing and turning and it became nothing. He just let his heart become numb because it was the easy and logical way out.

"Yes, yes they can," he said.

Kiwi stood up from her seat so quickly that it knocked the chair over with a thud. Her bangs swooped over her face messily.

"You're just heartless, why didn't we see that before?" She seemed to force out, as her body moved with her unsteady breathing, "You know what? A couple of nights back, Melissa had to get something off her chest, what with the game, and she still chose to tell me that."

There was something I didn't know? Ace thought.

"But I will keep that to myself, because you don't deserve it," Kiwi's voice was on the edge of sounding hysterical, "and taking YOUR advice, I'll get over mine." The last line was dripping in heavy sarcasm. She twirled around.

The door slammed behind her. Ace collapsed back onto his bed. He decided to watch the other two episodes for himself.

---

The next episode was nothing better. In school, Melissa was seen walking to her seat with a blank look on her face, staring at the wall. A teacher called for her to reply for a few times, seeing that she was very out of it, continued the lesson with worry on her face. When the bell rung, she walked stiltedly out of the doorway, bumping into Kiwi who was very excited about the system announcement that revealed that Ace was the rival all along.

Seeing no reaction, Kiwi tried to cheer her up, telling her a few jokes and awkwardly becomes the only one laughing, before pulling on her arm to snap her out of whatever demon that possessed her.

Kiwi got very frightened by her friend's lack of response and glassy eyes, and ran into the class looking for Red for answers. A classmate piped up that he wasn't in class at all.

As June was trying to get on with the activities in her club, she looked very tired with dark circles around her eyes. Whenever she practiced hitting the ball with her junior, her hits would always cause the ball to fly out of court, leaving the coach and other members stunned.

"F*ck this, I'm out! I quit tennis!” She yelled, and threw her racket away with such force that it slammed against the side of the wire fence and the entire team watched as she stormed off.

The coach sighed. "What's with our best player heavily injured and one of our star players throwing a fit, this year's competition isn't looking really bright," he thought, as he quietly told one of June's friends to go and try to hear her out.

The girl came running back, worried.

"I was following her, but then she's gone!"

The episode ends on that cliffhanger.

---

"Kiwi wasn't lying to me on how distant Melissa became," Ace thought to himself. Well that was the total opposite to what he guessed to happen. At the very least, June would not have to give up her favorite sport, or Melissa could have remained happier, or Red could have come to school as usual. Ace expected their disappointment, yes, regret, much so, and maybe hurt, but not straight up acting ... depressed. He expected getting beaten up (and he was), probably berated at when he walked past them in the hallways, or maybe they would actively walk away from his direction with a disgusted face.

I mean that is usually what happens, right? His friends in the past hardly cared to let something like this affect their lives. In his neighborhood, when all the children gathered to play, there was an unspoken rule laid down that friendships were always tied to gaining connections for their families.

"Billy, why don't you talk to Ace over there? His family is the awesome large mansion we pass by every day. Isn't he cool? Why don't you play with him?"

"Alice, wouldn't you want to ask him to share his toy car with you? Go make him your friend."

Ace would overhear other parents encouraging their children while pushing them forward to join the other kids in the park. In their world, there was literally no good trying to hold any sort of emotional connection to others in friendships, but being selfish did work, and knowing that everyone else also held on to their friendships for their self-interests, there was no need to feel like you owe anyone for your actions.

Here, the greater Ace saw Red and the three girls suffer, the greater responsibility and guilt he felt weighing on him that he never felt before, that he couldn't even think of watching the final episode.

He went to check his point balance: 100, 000 points

It was an impressive number of points, and it was the only upside to this messed up situation.

Ace decided to check out the shop to see what he could spend it on.

A cup of premium instant noodles- 1,000 points

Seems pretty useless to buy a cup of instant noodles with currency that can literally purchase the ability to be immortal, but at the very least, in an apocalyptic situation where food was running scarce he could buy instant noodles wherever he wanted. 

A leather chair crafted by a renowned furniture maker - 148, 000 points

Ace browsed through the catalogue, feeling too drained to be excited. His line of sight dragged to find a hidden page behind the store, and he sat up when it suddenly popped into view.

Hidden Stats page:

Charisma: 10

Stamina: 9

Luck: 4

 

Stats to make you compatible with girls:

Intelligence: 6

Strength: 9

Charm: 9

Caring: 5

 

Abilities:

Rewind to previous episode (use only once a day): cost 50,000 points

Rewind to specific episode (use once): cost 100,000 points

Restart entire game (use once): cost 120,000 points

Save point: unlock one save point costs 100,000 points

Gift shop: unlock special gift shop costs 200,000 points

 

Wow I never knew this page existed! But that isn't the point, isn't there the ability to rewind to a different episode? Isn't that like rewinding time? Without thinking, he bought the "Rewind to specific episode"... the time before he made his mistake.