I Pretend I Don't Have a Crush on You

A tsundere with a million thoughts in her head x a drama queen with unstoppable initiative

College campus

1. Ji Chu is a pampered darling who has been spoiled since childhood.

Easygoing and carefree, she's the most popular girl on campus.

No one knows she has a crush on Yan Xu, her childhood friend, whom she grew up with.

On the night she finally worked up the courage to confess, she heard that Yan Xu was dating the campus beauty.

Ji Chu confronted him, but he said he only thought of her as a little sister. Just like that, her girlish dreams were shattered.

Ji Chu knew Yan Xu had a longtime rival at school, someone who always outshone him.

If you're dating the campus beauty, then I'll date your rival.

2. Ji Chu set her sights on Cheng Yu, from the computer science department at Jing University.

A campus celebrity, he was voted the school's heartthrob as soon as he enrolled, and his grades in his major courses were far ahead of everyone else's.

But despite all that, he had no interest in women. Every day, he was either in the lab or on his way there.

Just as Ji Chu was at a loss, she discovered that she and Cheng Yu had been in the same high school class, though they had never interacted.

To make herself more memorable than anyone else, Ji Chu crafted the image of a well-behaved girl who had been secretly in love with Cheng Yu for years.

At last, one night, after they connected by playing a few rounds of a game together, she confessed to him.

At a later class reunion, they finally met in person. Seeing the guilt and evasiveness in Cheng Yu's eyes, Ji Chu knew she had succeeded.

3. Cheng Yu was afraid of hurting the girl's pride, so he turned her down gently more than once.

Eventually she became too persistent, and Cheng Yu said, "Stop wasting your time on me."

After rejecting her, Cheng Yu kept picturing Ji Chu running off in tears, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt he'd been too harsh.

The more Cheng Yu thought about it, the more he felt like a terrible person. Unable to sleep that night, he saw a video his friend had sent him.

In the video, Ji Chu was wearing a camisole and hot pants, dancing with male models on the dance floor.

Later, late one night, someone saw Cheng Yu looking dejected and miserable as he held a girl's hand. "Could you look at me just once?"

Cheng Yu, later on:

When he learns Ji Chu's good-girl image was something she created to get close to him: She carefully prepared it for me. She loves me so much.

When he learns Ji Chu only approached him to rile up his rival: I never knew she'd been paying attention to me for so long. She loves me so much.

When Ji Chu is so fed up with him that she gives up and tells him everything: She's so honest. She loves me so much.

#A tsundere's journey of convincing himself she's in love with him

July 21, 2024

Theme: Girls deserve to be loved