How Did Kissing My Love Rival Happen While We Were Fighting?

Please check out my upcoming novel, Evil Kitty's Human Keeper, meow~

Here is the blurb for this novel:

[Tsundere, easily riled, and exceptionally oblivious bottom X Scheming, manipulative, great-at-soothing-his-wife, hopelessly-in-love top]

Jiang Zhiyu is a rich young heir who has had everything he wanted since childhood. His CEO sister dotes on him, and everyone around him treats him like a star.

Lately, he has a problem: his love rival, Bai Qingxiao, keeps sticking to him!

A childish game of truth or dare bound him and Bai Qingxiao together as rivals, to see which of them could win the heart of the medical school's campus heartthrob.

Please, how could he possibly lose?

Jiang Zhiyu dresses up carefully and heads out. Whenever he turns around, he is sure to find Bai Qingxiao wearing that faintly amused smile. The man always manages to show up right on time whenever Jiang Zhiyu is alone with He Zhichun.

Jiang Zhiyu fumes. "Stalker!"

Bai Qingxiao calmly straightens his collar, his eyes glued to Jiang Zhiyu. "What, do you own the road? I show up and that automatically makes me a stalker? How about a little fair competition, Young Master Jiang?"

For every jab Jiang Zhiyu makes, Bai Qingxiao has a way of replying with ten sarcastic barbs, each one hitting exactly the right nerve.

Jiang Zhiyu bristles. "Bai Qingxiao, you're so petty!"

Bai Qingxiao raises an eyebrow and presses closer, nearly touching the tip of Jiang Zhiyu's nose. "I'm petty? Who was the one who bet that whoever failed to win someone over would admit defeat? I'm just taking the bet seriously and doing my best to court him. You can take shots at me, but I can't take shots at you?"

Even when Jiang Zhiyu sees a child drowning and risks his life to jump into the river and save them, leaving himself soaked and bedraggled, Bai Qingxiao just happens to be there again. As usual, he has nothing nice to say. "Tsk, minding other people's business. If you can't swim, don't play the hero. Who's responsible if you drown?"

Yet beneath that disdainful look is a trace of tension, so subtle it's hard to notice, as his gaze passes over Jiang Zhiyu's dripping hair.

Furious, Jiang Zhiyu trembles all over and points at Bai Qingxiao's nose. "Bai Qingxiao, you just can't stand to see me doing well! You're going out of your way to make things difficult for me!"

He doesn't understand why Bai Qingxiao is like a dog-skin plaster that he can't shake off, worming his way into every part of his life, imitating him, provoking him, and opposing him at every turn.

What Jiang Zhiyu doesn't know is that this childish bet, apparently proposed by him, about "whoever wins the other over first wins," was carefully orchestrated by Bai Qingxiao from start to finish, from the rules to the perfect opportunity.

Because Bai Qingxiao, the "love rival" who follows him around all day, imitates him, annoys him, and seems to take pleasure in making him lose his temper, has secretly been coveting his "prey" for a long, long time.

His talk of "fair competition" lets him present himself as a noble paragon of fairness, while keeping Jiang Zhiyu firmly by his side. Every activity has to include Jiang Zhiyu.

Jiang Zhiyu: What a schemer. He must be afraid the campus heartthrob will fall for me the moment we're alone together!

But... something seems to have gone wrong.

Why did Bai Qingxiao's birthday present end up in my hands? Why do I know so much more about him than I should? Why is he so considerate toward me at every turn? Why does he remember what I like and dislike? Why have we lived together for two months, and why has he met my parents and sister? We even spent New Year's together!

And another thing! Why did Bai Qingxiao end up in my bed, looking all pitiful and asking me to let him cuddle me, and why did I actually agree?!

Well, being in his arms is pretty comfortable.

Wait, Jiang Zhiyu finally realizes: No! Is he crazy? Who keeps clinging to their love rival like this?

*

Bai Qingxiao: What do you do when you can't be your beloved's lover?

Become your beloved's love rival first!

The wrist my beloved touched? Smell it.

The milk my beloved drank? Drink it.

The bed my beloved slept in? Inhale his scent like it's the greatest thing ever.

My beloved says I'm a liar and wants to break up with me? Nooo!!

Bonus scene:

Jiang Zhiyu, thoroughly played and utterly smitten, puffs out his chest and declares war on Bai Qingxiao. "Forget that bet we made. Starting now, I'm going to court you properly! Just you wait. You'll be eating out of my hand before you know it!"

Bai Qingxiao keeps an unreadable expression. "You? Forget it."

Inside, he's over the moon and wants to shout it from the rooftops: Hahaha, my wife says he's going to court me! Did anyone hear that? My wife is going to court me, hahahaha! You guys don't have a wife chasing you, do you? I do!

*

One day, after they've been shamelessly together for a very long time, Jiang Zhiyu suddenly realizes:

How on earth did I end up kissing my love rival?

[Reading Guide]

1. Both leads are each other's first and only, emotionally and physically.

2. The bottom has never liked the campus heartthrob. He's just fiercely competitive and can't stand anyone saying he's not as good as someone else. The top hasn't liked him either. The heartthrob is simply the top's childhood friend, a poor guy who's been roped into helping him.

3. They're rivals in the early and middle parts, then there's a little chasing-his-wife arc later on.

Here's a recommendation for my upcoming novel! The blurb for Evil Kitty's Human Keeper is below.

Adorably innocent evil cat bottom X Pretentious, manipulative human top

Shanju is a little orange cat among countless spirits.

One day, while working at a shop, he hears his coworkers and customers talking about their human pets, saying how adorable they are and how much everyone loves them.

Shanju clenches his fists and looks at his empty wallet, then makes up his mind:

He wants to raise a human too!

On a coworker's recommendation, he signs up for an app called "Streetfolk." He hears it has lots of pretty little humans waiting to be adopted.

Soon, his eyes light up.

Name: Qiaoqiao

Gender: Male

Height: 165 cm

Family: No parents, struggling financially

There's also a photo showing only a pair of pitch-black eyes.

Shanju: A petite, pretty little human! With black eyes!

His friend told him that stray little humans are very wary. It takes plenty of patience and love to earn their trust and affection, and get them to show their bellies so he can pet them.

So online, he calls him "baby" every other sentence. Offline, even though he's broke, he keeps sending food. How could he let the little human go hungry?

Shanju is sure the little human will trust him soon.

_

Lu Qiao is a squad leader at the Anomaly Control Bureau, and one of the few humans working there.

To capture anomalies, he's been assigned to sign up for the app and lure out anomalies with a penchant for keeping humans as pets.

Coworker: This time, our target is the Tangerine Monster. His avatar is a ball of orange fluff.

Sure enough, the perverted anomaly soon comes looking for him.

Only... why does that ball of orange fluff look so furry?

_

As things progress, Lu Qiao finds it harder and harder to bring himself to capture this anomaly.

He sweetly calls him "baby," cares about how he's doing, and even sends him a whole pile of food.

How could he possibly bring himself to do it?

So he cruelly deletes his account and runs, handing it over to a coworker to finish the capture.

But when the coworker opens the account, he lets out a scream:

"Holy crap, ahhhhh! Boss, you've got the wrong person!!"

Lu Qiao: "Huh?"

_

The little human Shanju was raising ran away.

He is miserable. He doesn't know what he did wrong or why the little human stopped liking him.

Now that he's earning money, he doesn't know who to spend it on. He goes back to his old, dull life, working like a beast of burden. Then one day, as usual, he asks a customer what they'd like to buy, and a familiar, gentle voice comes from above him:

"Hello. I'd like an order of wasabi-flavored fried chicken."

The little human doesn't seem to recognize him.

Shanju makes it through his shift feeling miserable. While walking through the alley he has to take to get home, in the pouring rain, he spots the little human he's been longing for, lying unconscious and covered in injuries.

Shanju thinks it over, then takes the stray little human home.

Since nobody wants him, it's okay if I take him, right?

Sure, the little human deceived him, but a pretty little human like this can't be left outside. First come, first served!

Pets can be naughty. He just needs to take him home and train him properly!

When Lu Qiao opens his eyes again, he sees a round-faced, round-eyed cat person lying on top of him, smiling as he says:

"You're awake! Don't worry, I'll take care of you!"

[Reading Guide]

* 1v1. The leads are each other's one and only in every way.

* The top's information is fake. He's not 165 cm tall!

* The bottom is a slightly devious evil kitty with an unusual way of thinking.

Theme: Only by being honest with each other can people fall in love.