All Chapters of Where's the Straight Guy?: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

On the second day of filming, the production team dropped the first mission. It was called "Blind Match".All 12 of us went into separate booths. Using voice changers, each person chatted with another contestant for five minutes, then wrote down who they felt the strongest spark with.When I sat down in my booth, a deep male voice came through my headphones."Hey.""Hey," I answered.He went quiet for a second. "Your voice is… pretty distinctive."I held the voice changer, listening to myself sound like a lifelong smoker with chronic bronchitis. I said, "Thanks. You sound like a tractor."He went silent.I'd planned to lay low and coast until I got eliminated, but my mouth clearly had its own career goals.He chuckled softly. It was like an ice cube dropping into a glass with a little clink. He asked, "Are you always this blunt?""Depends on the person. You're lucky.""Lucky how?""I haven't even started."He laughed again.In those five minutes, we covered the weather, b

At the end of the first week, Simon and Cole were eliminated. Right before they left, the two of them hugged, looking all stiff and tragic.Simon leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Dude, you've gotta win this for me."I asked, "Are you actually straight?"He froze. "How'd you know?"I clapped his shoulder. "Because when you hugged Cole just now, your hips were about a mile away from his."He nodded solemnly. "Don't tell anyone. I've got a reputation to protect."I gave him the side-eye. He was already eliminated. What reputation?…That night, I went out to the balcony for some air. Wyatt was already there. He was leaning against the railing with a can of beer in his hand.I walked over. "Production provides beer?""I brought it.""Isn't that against the rules?""Yeah.""Give me a sip."He glanced at me, then handed over the beer.I took a swig. It was so bitter my entire face nearly rearranged itself. As I spluttered, I asked, "What's so good about this stuff?"Wyat

I only had one thought in my head—I was screwed.The interview room went so quiet it was like someone had yanked the plug on reality. Phil stared at me, the cameraman stared at me, and it felt like even the plant in the corner was staring at me.I slowly turned to look at Wyatt, whose jaw was clenched tight. He'd realized what he'd done, too.I asked him with my eyes whether he was out of his mind. He answered with his eyes that he could explain. I said with my eyes that he'd better do it.Phil was the first to return to his senses. "This woman?"I shot to my feet and slapped the table. "That's right."Everyone turned to look at me. I didn't even flinch as I lied, "To gay guys, their partners are all adorable women."Phil gaped at me, and Wyatt stared at me like I was the crazy one. The cameraman's shoulders shook suspiciously.I kept bullshitting. "That's just how it is with us youngsters. We're all about respecting diverse expressions."Phil clearly didn't buy it, but he did

The shoot had been shut down for three days when the platform finally sent someone. A director with the surname Rook showed up in a perfectly pressed suit, his smile as cold as if it had just come out of the freezer.He called all the contestants—those who'd been eliminated were contacted via video call—into the living room and started with, "This whole thing is just a misunderstanding."I sat on the couch munching on some nuts, while Wyatt shelled them next to me. With every one that I ate, he shelled three.Mr. Rook glanced our way, then went on, "There was indeed some miscommunication about the show's premise, but there was no fraud. As for the prize money, we'll reassess that based on the final broadcast results."Mason raised his hand. "Translations—you just don't wanna pay us, right?"Mr. Rook's smile remained in place. "Mr. Barrett, please don't get me wrong."Ethan pushed up his glasses. "The contract clearly states that the ten million is a guaranteed prize, not a perfor

Later on, many people asked me what the biggest thing I got out of that show was. Some guessed it was the money; some guessed it was the fame. Some even guessed it was Wyatt.I told them it was none of those. My biggest takeaway was that I'd confirmed one thing—most of the "rules" in this world were just made up to scare people.They said regular nobodies like me were supposed to do as we were told, said contracts were too complicated for me to understand, said the show's ratings mattered more than my dignity, said a young woman shouldn't make a scene, and said I should just suck it up because everyone did.But I refused to do that. Since I was a kid, I'd never been good at just taking things as they came and suffering in silence.If a customer at the auto shop tried to skip out on the bill, I could chase them for three blocks. Alexander had tricked me into competing in his place, so I'd tacked on an extra set to his physical therapy. The production team had tried to steal the priz