How to Survive as a Supporting Male Lead

That night, Kallian had a dream for the first time in ages. In the dream was his younger self—scruffy black hair, red-rimmed eyes from holding back tears and rage, rough skin, a pathetic, pitiful figure. The boy couldn’t even lift his eyes from the ground, completely consumed by his own misery.

Then a young voice called out to him.

“Hey, Kallian.”

The young Kallian, burdened by discarded memories, couldn’t easily lift his head. But the voice that called him paid no mind to his cold response and simply tugged at his sleeve. Drawn by that gentle pull, young Kallian took a hesitant step forward. As he did, the boy began to grow. His height stretching, his frame broadening. His ragged clothes turned into expensive yet garish garments, which then transformed again into a perfectly fitted uniform. The bloodstains that had once clung to him, flowing endlessly, finally faded and vanished.

And alongside the growing Kallian, the boy leading him forward grew too. The soft, rounded features of a child’s face sharpened, and the plump little hand pulling him along grew long and slender. Yet the bright blue eyes within that crescent smile never changed.

“Kallian.”

With a flash, Kallian’s eyes snapped open. The morning birdsong was ringing out beyond his window. His whole body was drenched in a cold sweat. He ran a hand through his sweat-damp black hair, cursing under his breath.

There was nowhere left to run.

Kallian decided he would admit it out right. That he liked Iann, even if only a little. But realizing he liked someone turned out to be a more terrifying feeling than he thought.

Once he acknowledged it, he couldn’t control it.

He wanted to see Iann.

It was as if, just seeing him once would make everything okay. The baseless certainty that gnawed at him. At the same time, he was gripped by the fear that seeing Iann would be the end of everything.

So Kallian buried himself in work. He stopped going to the parties where he’d always run into Iann, stopped playing the childish games they used to share every other day.

If he saw him, something was bound to happen.

But Iann wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Iann’s here?”

Kallian’s head snapped up from his work that was near invisible to him, as he hadn’t been able to focus at all. The butler bowed his head.

“Yes, Your Grace. He’s already in the mansion. Should I ask him to come in?”

“No. Wait—”

“Kallian!”

“I’m sorry. He’s already here.”

Before the butler could even finish speaking, Iann had barged in on his own. The butler could only bow again in apology, but Kallian didn’t care. No,he couldn’t even begin to care.

Iann was right there. Ah, it was really him. Kallian went blank for a moment. The man he had tried so hard to avoid, yet who never left his thoughts, was standing there in the flesh, just outside his office.

“Have you been well?”

The morning light caught in Iann’s silver hair, making it sparkle. The unkempt strands danced in the breeze. His bright blue eyes were just as they had always been, alight with a playful glint, the corners of his eyes lifting in a teasing grin that was simply too cute. His flushed cheeks were vivid with warmth.

And those lips… those lips that had tormented Kallian, plump and red and curling up in that fresh, bright smile.

Kallian forgot how to breathe.

He suddenly understood why people always said Iann looked like a fairy.

He looked inward. How had he not known? How could he not have realized just how bright, how dazzling Iann was?

No, no. Come to think of it, he’d always known. Sometimes, it had been the glint of Iann’s hair or his eyes, sometimes the flush in his cheeks or the curve of his lips. Things Kallian couldn’t help staring at.

He just hadn’t let himself see it.

Now that he had, it all came flooding in.

“You owe me a wish, you idiot.”