Chapter 1: Woke Up as the Bad Boy

I woke up and—bam—I was a dude.

The shock hit me all at once—like someone dumped a bucket of ice water right over my head. I jerked upright, heart thudding in my chest. No way. No way. I checked again, just to be sure. Nope, not dreaming.

I tried to move—my legs shot out while my body lagged behind, like I was trying to drive a puppet with busted strings. Total mess, honestly.

This made zero sense, so it had to be a dream. And honestly? I kinda loved it. I mean, when else would I get to live out a full-on Freaky Friday moment?

One second, I was acting like a little girl, pigeon-toed and squeaky-voiced: “Nico Nico-chan~” (Yeah, I watched way too much anime growing up.) I even did the cutesy pose, hands under my chin, milking it for all it was worth.

The next, I was stomping around like some bow-legged cartoon villain: “Baka!” Arms flailing everywhere, channeling every bad anime dub I’d ever seen—again, my inner weeb showing.

Suddenly, this annoyed, totally embarrassed guy voice cut in, right inside my head.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Before I could process, I freaked out—bolted upright, running in circles, shrieking and crawling around like something straight out of a horror movie. I half-expected someone to call Ghostbusters on me.

“Aaaaah! There’s a ghost!”

The guy’s voice snapped again, but I realized it wasn’t echoing in the room—it was echoing in my skull. Seriously creepy.

“Stop spinning, damn it! You’re making me dizzy!”

Once I finally calmed down, I tried to talk to him mentally. What else could I do? “Uh, hi, I woke up like this. Is this your body?”

Somehow, I just knew—we were stuck together, like weird brain roommates.

He went quiet for a couple seconds, his voice way calmer now. “This is my body. Who are you?”

I froze. Blank. Nothing. Not even my name. I couldn’t remember a thing about myself. Not my name, not my face, nada. All I knew was that I was some kind of genius—music, chess, painting, academics, you name it. Like, prodigy-level at everything.

I sighed. “Maybe I’m some sort of chosen one.”

He sucked in a breath. “...You sound insane!”

Wow, so cranky. Honestly? Guy needed a Snickers.

After some awkward back-and-forth, it hit me out of nowhere—this world was a novel. Don’t ask me how I knew this with amnesia—I just did. Like it was hardwired into me.

Listen up: this guy, Nick Shepherd—real name Nicholas Shepherd—is the school’s infamous troublemaker and the hopelessly smitten second lead, the kind people call a lovesick fool. You know the type. The guy who gets talked about in the bathrooms and whispered about in the hallways.

He wastes his days running with the wrong crowd, never doing anything useful, the perfect foil to the top student and main guy, Carter Reed. Total opposites: Nick’s the chaos, Carter’s the calm.

But when the new transfer heroine, Autumn Monroe, shows up, these two—who never even crossed paths before—become rivals in love. All because she lent Nick an umbrella on a rainy day, and he fell hard. Like, head-over-heels, can’t-eat-can’t-sleep kind of crush.

But let’s be real—if you were the heroine, who would you pick? Any normal person would choose the ambitious, handsome class president! I mean, come on, it’s a no-brainer.

So after a whole book of drama, Nick dies saving the heroine from some thugs, getting brained with a brick. It’s tragic, cinematic, the kind of thing that gets you a slow-motion montage in the movie adaptation.

But from then on, he holds an irreplaceable spot in her heart, and every year on the anniversary of his death, she brings him flowers. It’s bittersweet, like something out of a Nicholas Sparks novel.

I told all this with flair, but Nick just frowned harder, like he could crush a fly between his eyebrows. If looks could kill? I’d be toast.

He insisted, “No way, that’s not me!”

I sympathized, “Yeah, sure, not you. I mean, who else would beat up the neighbor’s German shepherd in the middle of the night?” That was from the book—he did it in sixth grade. The dog was too noisy, so he smacked it a few times. After that, people and dogs both avoided him. The legend grew. (Don’t worry, the dog was fine, just scared.)

Nick’s face flushed bright red, and I could sense his overwhelming embarrassment. Like, if he could crawl under a rock, he would.

I tried to be considerate: “It’s okay, I’ll help you—look.” I even made a heart with my toes for him. Yeah, it was weird. But I was committed to the bit.

Nick: “......”

I declared solemnly, “Looks like my mission is to stop you from becoming a lovesick fool and help you become the chosen one!”

He paused, like he was actually thinking about it. “I get it, but why should I work so hard at studying?”

“To change your fate and reach the top, obviously!”

Nick shot back, “But my family’s got more money than we’ll ever spend.”

I fell silent. Man, must be nice.

“If you don’t study, I’ll embarrass you in front of everyone!”

He finally gave in, grinding his teeth. I could almost hear the molars cracking.