Social Outcast

The Premise

A guy who can’t stand his lab’s “sissy” ends up flirting with him on a dating app without knowing it. Song Yuanxun is the cold, rich, homophobic golden boy of his lab at T University, and his friend Zhao Han secretly installs a gay dating app on his phone as a “farewell gift.” Song Yuanxun meant to delete it, but then he sees a match called “Mu” and hears a voice message that sounds exactly like Fang Zhaomu, the Chinese exchange student everyone in the lab freezes out because of Song Yuanxun’s coldness. Fang Zhaomu has no idea who he’s really talking to, so Song Yuanxun keeps chatting under the fake name “Andrew” and claims he’s a 29-year-old mechanical engineer.

The Protagonist & Stakes

Fang Zhaomu is the lonely one here, an exchange student who dreads leaving his room every morning because Song Yuanxun’s dislike has turned the whole lab against him. Talking to “Andrew” is the only thing that makes him feel better, so he teases him, sends photos and finally gets a phone call, and even cries a little while telling “Andrew” what the lab is really like. Meanwhile, Song Yuanxun keeps lying to protect the secret. He invents a business trip to Seattle just to avoid meeting him, and then he sits in the same restaurant where Fang Zhaomu is eating alone. The bigger the lie gets, the worse it will hurt when Fang Zhaomu finds out.

Why Read This

• Hidden identity romance: You get to watch a proud, prejudiced guy slowly fall for the person he’s been bullying, while the reader knows what Fang Zhaomu doesn’t.
• Two lives, one app: The same two men are icy strangers in the lab and warm, teasing voices online, which makes every small moment, like the umbrella, the ear studs and the supermarket, land twice as hard.

“Andrew, you’re so stupid.”