His little sister's types are cold CEOs, delinquents, yanderes, psycho villains, or just plain jerks who bully her.
For the most part, Mo Aini doesn't get it.
He can see the appeal of cold CEOs, at least they're rich. You just need a good health insurance if ever they're into BDSM. Delinquents can maybe protect you and beat up any guy who tries to harass you. But yanderes, villains, and bullies? Total no-go!
Where's your self-respect, you're going directly to an abusive prick!
But it's not just his sister. He sees many girls like this all time. They praise the evil characters and claim that eventually, they get better, or that they are better than the other characters. He sees forums and groups dedicated to bad boy characters and fandoms for it.
And in otome* games, the bad boy is always the most famous character.
How does he know?
He plays otome games too, of course.
It became a slight interest after seeing his sister squeal and giggle for the dark-haired and brooding character on her screen. He learned that the reason why she was squealing was because that dark-haired character kidnapped and tied her MC up, and then force her to dance for him while splashing champagne on her face.
It was highly disturbing, and his sister was in love with it.
"You just haven't seen the context yet!" His little sister, Mo Jiagei, protested. "Hayaki-kun is actually good at heart, but my character looked like his mother who humiliated him and disowned him when he was eight years old. Besides, this is the bad ending, I heard he'll have a change of heart in the good ending!"
"If it's a bad ending, why do you enjoy it? Why don't you play again to get a good ending?" Mo Aini crossed his arms.
"Because it's so hot and exciting!" His sister replied. "Hayaki-kun's punishing me to stay with him forever~ I'd rather have this ending than have him change. He wants me to dance for him until my feet don't work anymore and I can't leave his side."
What's the point of her defense that he was kind at heart earlier??? Unlike the other girls who defend the bad boy's morality, she's just sick in the head!
"I really don't get why you'd spend hours playing a game just to get a bad ending."
"Aish, gege*, you know nothing of otome!" Mo Jiagei said, fanning herself with an anime merch fan.
Mo Aini was incredulous. "Aren't they just the same as galge*, but for girls?"
"That's not all, silly! Galge are all fanservice and big boobs." She rolled her eyes. "With otomes, you look for depth and angst!"
Mo Aini was about to open his mouth to argue that that isn't what ALL male-oriented dating sims are like, but his sister isn't done with preaching.
"With otome games, you don't aim for a sweet, romantic story. You could have just read a cheesy shoujo novel if that's what you like! No, you're after the endless possibilities of the alternate endings. The torture and despair are doubled compared to normal tragic novels too, because you put yourself as the character and receive the consequences of your own actions! It's so cool and thrilling that it lasts in your mind forever!"
"That's such a masochistic mindset." Mo Aini snorted.
"If you try it, you would like it!" His sister said.
"Ha, we'll see about that!"
And so, that was the beginning of his otome mastery as a self-proclaimed 'straight' guy.
Actually, he had already been bi-curious since the age of 10. But living in such a conservative country, he could only lie to himself and pretend these feelings are just intrusive thoughts that come and go. So, in his head, he is still straight until proven guilty.
Despite his true feelings towards men, he can't get attracted to any of these otome bad boy characters. After playing otome, instead of seeing his sister's point of view, he eventually played all the love interests' routes except her favorite ones. Which is always the most problematic character. Also, he always gets their good endings without cheating using playthrough sites.
After playing for a couple of times, he found that otome is not so bad after all. It's just his sister's playing style that makes it look bad.
He came to like otome because it's not as easy to court the guys compared to male-oriented dating sims. You can't just be nice all the time, and you should sometimes abandon common sense in order to get the right answer. It's like solving riddles that involve real people. For example:
You stepped into a guy's foot. Will you:
> Apologize and ask if he was ok
> Step on him harder
If you apologize, he will say that you should stand up more for yourself and not be such a push-over.
If you step on him harder, he will like you for being feisty and say you're not like the other girls he met.
Those were the kind of things that only make sense in these stereotypical otomes. Guessing what a certain guy likes or prefers is like guessing the weather even when you haven't gotten out of your house. It's really tricky and sometimes near-impossible.
Are the endings worth it? Not really. The love interest confesses his feelings to you and there's a CG* of you kissing, the end.
What makes it worth it was the opportunity to boast to his sister how many good endings he collected with these smoking hot guys.
Mo Jiagei had just finished another bad boy playthrough, and would delete the game afterwards. "I like this Slave Ending, but what are those weird mysterious figures for? Why are they chasing me?"
His sister scratched her head, a CG on her computer screen. It was of an eyeless girl with brown hair, the most generic MC design ever, and a collar on her neck. Of course, the love interest is pulling at her collar and choking her.
Mo Aini had just finished showering and has a towel over his new shirt. "You played Jackson? You should have played Reiner's route instead, there's a reveal there that the mysterious figure is actually part of the secret society that wants to eradicate the—"
"Stop spoiling me! Never mind, I don't need to know the story's lore as long as I have my sweet, sweet Jackson! I only need to know about him, I don't care about anyone else!" His sister covered her ears.
Mo Aini smirked, with no intention to stop. "Well, if you get Wilbur's Queen Ending, you will learn that Jackson is actually the illegitimate child of the first evil—"
"Alright, fine! So you got all the good endings and learned all the secrets and easter eggs of Pirate Kingdom's Lost Princess, big deal!" Mo Jiagei stuck out her tongue. "I didn't know my brother enjoys getting a harem of anime boys so much~ Are you going to cut your sleeves* now?"
His little sister had been using this 'you're gay' tactic to annoy him back, but unluckily for her, it never got on his nerves as much as he got into hers.
"What are you saying? I never liked any of these guys, I'm only in it for the plot." Mo Aini waved his sister off. "And it feels great to have all this knowledge that you can never have because you don't play anything besides the bad boys' route. You're missing out on sooooo much info. Who has no idea about otomes now?"
"Cocky bastard, go ahead and keep on strutting like a peacock!"
"Bow down to this ancestor, meimei*! I am the great otome master and you are just a normie one-time player!" He gave a maniacal laugh.
"Whatever!" His sister threw a stuffed bunny at him. "Don't you have other business to do besides irritate me all day with your collection of fictional husbands? Why don't you get a real-life boyfriend, huh?"
"Who said I want one? I like big melons, not small cherries. I don't like sucking on cucumbers too." Mo Aini combed his hair on the mirror, dripping a little from the shower.
"Ewww, how vulgar! I get it, you're straight!" Mo Jiagei clicked her tongue. "Saying things like that in front of a child, you really are a no-good brother!"
Mo Aini snorted, flicking water on his sister's face. "What 'child'? You'll be sixteen next year. Besides, you've already been playing R18 visual novels since you were fourteen—"
"Shhhh!!!!" She covered his mouth. "If mom hears you, she's gonna kill me!"
Mo Aini chuckled and threw her hand aside. "Good, that's one less mouth to feed."
Mo Jiagei sneered. "That's rich coming from you. You don't feed any mouths in this house anyway even when you've already graduated for two years."
Mo Aini narrowed his eyes, no longer in a playful mood. He turned around to go back to his room.
Mo Jiagei realized she had gone too far.
"Gege, wait! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.... It just came out without me thinking—"
"Why are you apologizing?" Mo Aini stopped in his tracks, still not turning. When he turned around, he was wearing a smile. "It's ok, I'm not offended. You're just saying the truth."
Even though he was smiling, his fists were clenched.
"It's just that.... I'm trying, ok? I didn't want to be an unemployed lout that's just an extra burden on Mom and Dad." He was looking down, voice soft. "I'm honestly trying my best, but no one would accept my applications and it's hard to find openings. If I hadn't finished such a useless degree and chose a professional one instead...."
"Don't say that, gege! You are a good graphic designer*!" Mo Jiagei, who had been arguing with him earlier, was now comforting him. She patted his back. "People are just stupid! They don't see your talent the way I do!"
"If I'm really talented, why am I still jobless?"
"Because...." Mo Jiagei didn't know what to say. "Maybe.... It's not your time yet?"
He gave a bitter laugh. "Maybe. Maybe I just suck. Anyway, I'm not too bothered by it."
So he says, yet he ended up getting drunk in a park that night.
----------------
"Graphic designing! What good will you get from graphic designing! That's what grandpa always says." He took a sip of his can of beer, realized it was empty, and threw it to the side. "I should have listened to him. I should have listened to all of them!"
He grabbed another can from his plastic bag, the side of his bench littered with his crushed, empty ones. He was all alone in that park anyway, so he couldn't give a shit.
"Money can't buy happiness, I said. This is what makes me happy, I said." He acted out the scenes to himself, like a one-man show.
He laughed and hit himself in the head. "Bullshit! You're so full of bullshit, Mo Aini! Money can buy you good food and a decent life so that you wouldn't have to lodge at your parent's house at the age of 24!"
A voice suddenly came from behind him.
"My, that does sound pathetic."
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Read The Mafia Boys' Contract Marriage which is joining WPC right now XD
I know it's shameless of me to advertise like this but I'm desperate :)))) Plus it'll be a pretty fun book, I guarantee you.
If you're a fan of mafia, criminal investigations and detective stories, please check it out and support it.
PS: It will also be a whole lot more spicier than any of my books so far cough cough How much spice? You'll see.