The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 3

I studied Caleb’s face as he stared at the TV in front of us. He looked so genuinely confused that I couldn’t help but smile.

I’d decided to show him my favorite episode of This Love of Ours, which also happened to be the one I felt was most relevant to his current situation. I couldn’t tell if he was relating to it at all, though. I wasn’t even entirely sure he was bothering to read the subtitles.

“Okay,” he said about halfway through the episode. He grabbed the remote and paused the show. “So, this woman, Mi Ky...um—”

“Mi Kyong,” I finished for him as he struggled to pronounce her name.

“Right. Her. So, she’s the Paige of this show?”

“Correct. And Jae Sung is Tyler, and Kang Dae would be you.”

Caleb nodded slowly. “Well, obviously, Kang Dae is madly in love with Mi Kyong. But she doesn’t see it?”

“Nope.”

“Does Kang Dae ever confess to her?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t finished the series yet. But even if he does, he’ll get politely rejected and spend the rest of the show watching the love of his life fall in love with another man.”

“Tyler,” Caleb grumbled, scrunching his face into a sour expression. He turned to me. “You’ve watched a lot of these shows?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And they’re all like this?”

“Every one of them, yes.”

“How do you do it? How do you keep watching them? That storyline is so depressing.”

“I know, right?” I exclaimed, adjusting my position to face him. “That’s why I want so desperately to help you! Every time I start watching a new drama, I root for the second lead. He is always the better choice for the female lead, and it drives me nuts that they never end up together. It makes no sense.”

Caleb sighed and glanced back at the TV. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something but was interrupted when Braden entered the living room.

“Hey, Bria. Caleb.” He gave us both a nod as he passed in front of us. He was about to head into the kitchen when he abruptly stopped and began walking backward until he was in front of the couch. “Wait a sec... Caleb?”

“What’s up?” Caleb greeted him with a small wave.

Braden’s confused eyes darted from Caleb to me, and then back to Caleb. “Um, what are you doing here? Were we supposed to hang out today or something?”

“No, I’m here to hang out with Bria,” Caleb replied.

Braden glanced over his shoulder at the TV and his look of confusion intensified. “What are you doing?”

I shrugged. “We’re watching TV.”

“Um, okay. Caleb, did you lose a bet or something?”

As Caleb snorted next to me, I glared up at Braden. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

Braden chuckled. “Yeah. The kitchen. I feel like a sandwich.” He pointed to Caleb. “You want one?”

“No thanks,” Caleb replied.

“Braden, go away,” I said. “We’re in the middle of something very important.”

Braden’s gaze flickered back to the TV. “What? Learning Korean?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Ignore him and he’ll go away,” I instructed Caleb.

“Don’t worry, I’ll leave you two alone so you can continue doing your very important something.” He took a few steps toward the kitchen, stopped, and turned back around. Looking directly at Caleb, he added, “I just want to make sure. Caleb, if you’re being held against your will, blink twice.”

Caleb gave him two hard blinks, and they both erupted into a fit of laughter.

I glanced between them, unamused. “Are you done now?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Braden said. “Have fun, guys.” Finally, he turned and disappeared into the kitchen.

Caleb turned to me and smiled. “You two have a fun relationship.”

“I love him more than anyone else in this world,” I said. “But I also despise him more than anyone else in the world. It’s complicated.” I stood from the couch. “Why don’t we go somewhere more private to finish our discussion?”

Caleb nodded as he pushed off the couch. “Aren’t you supposed to be presenting me with your big plan?”

“Yep. I’ll show you upstairs.”

I led him up the stairs to my bedroom, where I had spent all morning brainstorming on a whiteboard I’d stolen from my dad’s office. I was excited to show Caleb. I was quite pleased with what I had come up with.

I just hoped he would be, too.

I ushered him into my room and closed the door behind us. Yes, my parents had a no-closed-door policy when it came to having boys in my room, but neither of my parents were currently home, so nobody was there to enforce it.

Besides, I didn’t want Braden walking by and seeing what was going on. I was pretty sure Caleb wouldn’t want that, either.

“Let’s get down to business.” I grabbed the whiteboard and set it on top of my dresser, leaning it against the wall. It was a mess. I had so many ideas coming to me at once, I had just scrawled them wherever I could, in handwriting even I almost couldn’t read. And half the ideas I’d jotted down were bordering on ridiculous, but I’d left them there in case Caleb was interested in trying them out anyway.

Caleb’s eyes widened as they scanned the board. I tried to decipher his expression, but it was unreadable. When he said nothing for an uncomfortable amount of time, I spoke up.

“Okay, here’s the deal.” I stood next to my dresser and showcased the whiteboard with my hands like I was one of the models on The Price is Right. “I have taken the vast knowledge I’ve gained from watching K-dramas, and I have compiled a list of events that often take place between the female and male leads while they are slowly falling in love with each other. We’re going to make these things happen between you and Paige.”

Taking a step forward, Caleb leaned in closer and squinted at the list. After a minute or so, he said, “You’re gonna have to explain these to me.”

“Of course.” I grabbed the dry-erase marker I’d used to make the list and pointed to the item at the top. “First, we have the famous ‘piggyback ride’.”

“Piggyback ride?” Caleb echoed.

“Yes. Piggyback ride. It may sound silly, but this moment happens in almost every single K-drama I’ve ever watched. And it is crucial.”

“How so?”

“It works on so many levels. It not only shows that the male lead is sweet and caring, being willing to carry the female lead on his back for miles—”

“For miles?” Caleb sounded horrified.

“Usually, yes. But it also shows how physically strong he is. I’m sure you’re aware that most girls like strong guys, right?” My eyes lowered to his biceps. “You look like you work out, so you should have no problem with this one.”

He looked unsure. “Yeah, but for miles?”

“Don’t worry,” I said with a dismissive wave. “You won’t have to carry Paige for miles. In the dramas, the female lead is typically incapacitated from an injury, drinking too much, or being too tired, and the male lead has to carry her all the way home or to the hospital. But I don’t plan on getting Paige drunk or injuring her, so I’ll come up with another excuse for you to give her a piggyback ride. And I’ll make sure the trip is short.”

“Good,” Caleb said, looking relieved. “What’s next?”

I looked at the whiteboard and grinned. “Oh, a classic and a personal favorite of mine. I call it the ‘Bump and Catch’. In K-dramas, there is always a moment where someone either bumps into the female lead or she trips and falls into the male lead’s arms. The benefits of this one are obvious: full body contact and your arms around her. Bonus points if you make eye contact with her while this happens. Trust me, it will create a moment between you.”

I could see the skepticism starting to form on Caleb’s face, so I quickly went on to the next item on the list before he could ask. “Next up, we have the ‘Near-Accident’. This one is similar to the last one but goes a step further and will make you a hero. However, it’s a little bit risky, and I’ll let you decide if you’re comfortable with doing it.”

“What does it entail?”

“Usually, the female lead almost gets hit by a car, a motorcycle, or someone on a bicycle. At the last second, the male lead reaches out to grab her and pulls her out of harm’s way. Much like the ‘Bump and Catch’, it involves physical contact and will show off your quick reflexes.”

Caleb gaped at me. “Are you serious? That sounds kinda dangerous, don’t you think?”

I nodded. “Yes. But there are ways we could be safe about it.”

He looked doubtful and with good reason. That idea was on the list of ridiculous ones I knew would be a long shot. I hadn’t fully fleshed out the specifics of it yet, but I knew if we could somehow pull it off, it would yield some major results.

“Keep in mind, we don’t have to do all these things. They are just suggestions.” I glanced down the list to pick another one that he might be more open to. “Here, this is a nice, safe one: Karaoke.”

Despite being a much tamer option than having Paige almost run over by a moving vehicle, Caleb still didn’t look impressed. “Karaoke? No way.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for starters, I don’t sing. I’m bad at singing. There is no way that me singing would make Paige fall in love with me. In fact, it would probably have the opposite effect.”

I chuckled. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Oh, it is,” Caleb said, nodding forcefully. “Trust me. I can’t carry a tune. Paige has already witnessed that, so I’ve made it my lifelong goal to make sure she never has to hear my singing voice again.”

“Well, if you want Paige to fall for you, you’re going to have to scratch that goal. Karaoke is kind of a big deal.”

“How so?”

“Karaoke is where you can bare your soul,” I explained. “You pick a song with lyrics that perfectly describe your feelings, and as you’re up there singing it, you lock eyes with Paige. You make her feel like the song is about her. Like you’re singing it only to her. Trust me, this more than anything else will get her to fall for you if you do it right.”

“You must have missed the part where I said I can’t carry a tune.”

“It doesn’t matter if you can carry a tune or not. What matters is that you sing from the heart and sing like you mean it.”

“I don’t know...” Caleb rubbed his chin as though he were in deep thought. He stared silently at the whiteboard before finally shaking his head. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Which one?”

“Any of them.” He sat down on the edge of my bed. “Maybe I should just tell her how I feel. That could work, couldn’t it?”

I nodded slowly as I took a seat next to him. “I mean, yeah, it could. But it’s a little risky. If you tell her how you feel, and she doesn’t feel the same way—or doesn’t realize that she feels the same way—it could ruin your friendship with her. Is that a risk you’re willing to take right now?”

He didn’t even hesitate to answer. “No. It’s not.”

“Okay, then.” I stood back up and walked back to my dresser. “How about we do this? We pick one of the items on this list and we just do it. Consider it a trial run. If you feel like it was nothing more than a waste of time, then we can be done with this whole idea, and I will never bother you about it again. But if you’re happy with the results, then we can move forward with the rest of the list. How does that sound?”

Surprisingly, he seemed to be considering it. “Which one are you thinking of trying?”

I turned back to the whiteboard to look at the options. After careful consideration, I said, “How about the piggyback ride? That one will be easy and safe.”

“Yeah, but won’t she have to be drunk or injured for it to work?”

“Not at all. I’ll come up with a plan and call you later tonight to give you the details.” I paused. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“I’m going to the beach with a few of my friends.”

“Is Paige going to be there?”

“Yep. I’m her ride.”

“Perfect.” I grinned as all sorts of ideas started forming in my head.

Caleb stood and joined me at the whiteboard. “You really think this whole thing will work?”

I glanced up at him and widened my grin. “No, I don’t think it will work. I know it will work.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I just am.”

“Well, I’m convinced,” Caleb said sarcastically.

I shot him a playful glare. “You’ll see. By the end of tomorrow, you’ll be begging for more of my help.”

Caleb chuckled as he shook his head. He didn’t believe me. He didn’t think I could pull this off.

Well, then, I had no choice but to prove him wrong.