Melodramatic Imagination Short Stories & Male POV Novels

When I found out about Kenneth Hale, I didn’t argue with Claire O’Neill. I simply handed her the divorce papers. Her eyes turned red as she sat there. After struggling with the decision for a moment, she tore them up. "Give me ten days. I’ll send Kenneth far away, and he’ll never appear in our lives again." So over the next ten days, Claire went whitewater rafting with him, climbed snow-covered mountains, bungee jumped, and went skydiving. They did every thrilling thing they could think of. They watched the sunrise together by the ocean and went to Silver Pines Retreat to meditate, filling those days with every romantic experience imaginable. Then, on the ninth night, after I had packed all my belongings, I accidentally answered a video call from myself ten years in the past. "You really are me ten years from now! Then Claire and I must already be married with kids, right?" Pain flickered in my eyes. I walked straight onto the balcony and pointed the camera down at Claire and Kenneth, who were holding each other tightly, unable to let go. "This is what happens." Finley Morton looked as if he’d been struck by lightning. "That’s impossible…" My voice was exhausted, as though every last bit of strength had been drained from me. "Finley, please. Don’t marry her."

I'm the primary surgeon of the nation's biggest medical malpractice case. Apparently, I've screwed up intentionally in a joint surgery that leads to the instant deaths of five patients. My wife, Wanda Johnson's mother is one of them. The medical world purges my name immediately. The Internet demands that I pay the price with my own life. The patients' families kneel before the court with a petition. With tears running down my cheeks, they plead to the court to sentence me to death. In order to ease the public outrage, the court decides to euthanize me. The head of the investigative team of the health department wants to activate Project Nightingale. With the power of AI, the truth of what happened in the surgery will be re-enacted. But Wanda, who also works as a police officer, shoots that idea down. "There's no need for that. Do you actually want the patients' families to witness how their loved ones die again? The youngest patient is just an eight-year-old, you know! Let's just euthanize him!"

After my fiancée, Morgan Sweeney, ran away from our wedding with her first love, Leonardo Bloom, I failed my mission, and the system erased every memory I had of her. Morgan, however, believed it was just another attempt to get her attention. Hence, she accepted Leonardo's proposal, posted their engagement photos on social media, and announced their honeymoon plans. She was certain I'd eventually kneel at her feet, admit I was wrong, and beg her to love me again. What she didn't know was that I would never be able to love her again. The day I announced my own marriage, Morgan finally panicked. She rushed to my wedding in tears and begged me not to leave her behind.

As I fought a stray dog for a loaf of moldy bread, distinguished guests arrived at the orphanage. They'd come to find the long-lost heir of a wealthy family. After confirming their choice, they donated $100 million to the orphanage and handed out chocolates to every child. My mouth watered as I reached for a box, but glowing messages flashed before my eyes. [Lawrence, show your locket! They're here to bring you home!] [Don't let that impostor steal your birthright. It's yours!] They revealed the truth: the elegant couple were my biological parents, and the poised girl beside them was my fiancée. Yet I clutched my chocolate and ran, aware of their true purpose: they'd come here just for the fake heir. Even if I revealed my locket, they'd not pay me any attention.

For three years, Hallie Larson has managed to keep her affair so carefully hidden that I can't find a single trace of the other man. Once, I find a pair of men's underwear in the back seat of her car, still warm, as if someone has only just taken them off. Other times, I notice fresh, suspicious marks behind her ear. Every time, I lose my temper. I tear through the house, demanding to know who the man is. Hallie only furrows her brow, looking more exhausted than guilty. "Sebastian, how long are you going to keep imagining things? If you're going to accuse me of cheating, then at least show me the man you claim exists." So, I start following her everywhere, 24 hours a day. I even call every relative and friend I can think of, asking them to stake out hotels with me so we can finally catch her in the act. But every time we force open a hotel room door, we find nothing. Mwanehilwe, Hallie is sitting calmly on the couch, a faint, mocking smile playing on her lips. "Go ahead," she says. "Search the room." On the way out of the room, my mother takes my hand and sighs. "Sebastian, trust is the most important thing in a marriage. You keep making a scene like this every day. What do you think you're doing to Hallie's reputation?" Even my best friend tries to talk some sense into me. "Maybe you're under too much stress. Maybe you're imagining all of this." But I can't forget what I see on Hallie's collarbone—a faint trace of moisture she hasn't completely wiped away. It's so out of place, so suspicious, that I can't bring myself to dismiss it.

My wife, Janice Frost, was an interworld traveler. People like her weren't supposed to form attachments with anyone in another world. But she fell for me the moment she saw me. Every time her feelings stirred, it tore through her, like her soul was being ripped apart. She had endured that pain 99 times. Later, I was abducted and taken to North Kaman. They beat me every day, over and over. Right when I was about to break, I remembered the method Janice once taught me, a way to reach her across worlds. Somehow, I managed to use it. But instead of her voice alone, I heard her speaking with her mentor from the other side. "Janice, how could you contact a resistance group yourself and have them take Samuel? I thought you loved him." Janice's voice was cold and hard. "This ordeal was meant for Tim. I had to do this to save him. Samuel is the main protagonist of this world. He's protected by fate. Nothing will happen to him. Once this mission is done, I can stay in this timeline for good. When that happens, I'll make it up to him." My chest tightened until it felt like it might split open. When those people closed in on me again, I stopped resisting completely.

I was teleported to a parallel world by the system. After a decade of waiting, I finally received the news that I could leave. The system gave me seven days to say goodbye to this world. In my final seven days, I became exactly the person Rose Lewis wanted me to be. She and her dream man, Eden Carter, stayed up all night together, but I remained unperturbed. She used all her savings to open a store for Eden, and I happily agreed. She wanted to have a baby with Eden, and I nodded with a smile. Before leaving, I packed my luggage, wanting to bring some things from this world. Suddenly, she pushed the door open, her eyes showing an unprecedented panic. "This is your home. Where are you going?"

I had always been a little dizzy by nature. My head was often muddled. Three years ago, in that same haze, I picked up a drunk woman and brought her home. She woke up and stared at me for a while before suddenly saying, “Let’s get married.” I did not think much about it. I just nodded and thus became the rich husband of a powerful family. They gave me a credit card that I could use however I liked, and I could live in a luxury house without any limits. We had a son, but alas, he was kidnapped. It took me two years, but I managed to find him again. I was about to tell my wife when she handed me a divorce agreement. “I’m bankrupt. This is my last sum of money. Take it and leave.” At that moment, a few chat messages suddenly appeared in front of me. [Wow! The female lead’s crush, the male lead, has returned to the country!] [She is probably pretending to be bankrupt. She wants to get rid of the male supporting character to go back to the male lead!] [She got drunk back then because the male lead left. The male supporting character was just a stand-in!] What? So I was a replacement? I nodded slowly. “Oh. Then let’s get a divorce.” The light in her eyes went out at once. I looked at her and felt that I had forgotten to say something. Whatever. I would say it when I remembered.

I was a player. At the same time, I was juggling three gorgeous girlfriends. Then, after an accident, I got pulled into a horror game. That was when I discovered something terrifying. All three of my girlfriends were major bosses in the game. The good news was, none of them knew about the others. The bad news was, if they ever found out, I was dead. To stay alive, I spent every waking hour managing my messy dating life, doing everything I could to keep my three girlfriends from tearing each other apart. Until one day, several lines of floating comments appeared in front of me. [Run, kid. She is coming for you.] [Careful, baby. She wants to wring you dry.] Just as I was drowning in fear and despair, one of the women leaned close to my ear and asked in the softest voice, “Kid, do you know the female boss from the amusement park?”

The System told me that, as a mission taker, I stood a chance of resurrecting my beloved if I cleared the game. As such, I dedicated my heart and spirit to charm the villainess, even if it meant dying ninety-nine times. When I played the game for the hundredth time, she sent me into a room with a deviant, just to satisfy her crush's whims. "You're not going to die anyway. I don't mind letting you be my boyfriend if you just make Henry laugh." She didn't know that there was a hidden rule—once I played the game a hundred times, my wish of resurrecting my beloved would be granted, success notwithstanding. I shall hence disappear from her world without a trace.

I transmigrate into a melodramatic angst novel. My CEO wife, Victoria Gibson, hangs me up and beats me brutally to force me to agree to a divorce. But when I see the two-billion-dollar breakup fee, my eyes light up again and again. With both my hands injured, I quickly grab a pen with my foot and sign the divorce agreement. I say with a grin, "Thanks for the money. I wish you two a long and happy marriage. May you have many children."

On the day of their wedding, Caleb Graham unexpectedly finds himself on a call with Danielle Sutton—six years into the future. His eyes gleam with undisguised longing as he asks, "Danielle, do you remember? Today is our wedding day." Suddenly, a child's voice rings out from the other end of the line. "Mommy." Caleb is instantly overwhelmed with joy. He can hardly believe how much their child has grown. Tears well up in his eyes, and his voice trembles with anticipation. "Danielle, we have a happy future together, don't we?" All he can think about is the beautiful life they enjoy together as a family of three. It seems that all his hard work is finally paying off. After all, he is the one who has discovered Danielle in the slums all those years ago, secured projects for her, and invested substantial resources in cultivating her into one of the most influential rising stars among Kingsford City's elite. Yet, in the very next second, a man's voice cuts sharply into his ears. "Ellie, who are you talking to?" Ellie? Caleb's smile vanishes in an instant. Despite spending so many years together, he has never once called Danielle by that nickname. The familiar voice, paired with that uniquely intimate nickname, points to only one person—Yale Lawson, Danielle's longtime best friend!

At our first anniversary celebration, my wife publicly announced that she was divorcing me to marry her true love. My past mission targets coldly watched me, thinking I would cause a ruckus and trouble Ivan Lowe like I always had. However, I merely walked over to a nearby lake and jumped into it. Unbeknownst to them, Serena Gale was my very last mission target. If I failed, I was supposed to go home. So, why did they only begin to regret their choices after I finally died?

For a $5 million research stipend, I agreed to let the System install an empathic link inside my body. "Subject. Are you sure you want to proceed? Once installed, the procedure cannot be reversed. This is a prototype. Side effects are not fully characterized." I looked at the sidewalk-stall clothes my girlfriend Cara Lake had bought herself, and the drugstore-grade makeup on her vanity. I nodded. That night, while she was out at her bar job. A current came up out of nowhere inside me. My whole body lit up with a sickening pleasure that did not belong to me. Seven times. A few days later I waited near the club where she worked. I overheard her with her friends. "Cara. You're something else. Pouring La Prairie into a plastic bag and using it like that? Faking poor like a champion. Doesn't Adam ever notice?" "Notice? He's stupid. He'll believe anything I say. His father got hit by a car, lay in bed without the money for treatment, died alone. I told Adam I couldn't help. He stayed up all night comforting me. I almost died laughing." The laughter went into me like a knife. I got out of there. The tears came on the walk home. I picked up the phone. "Professor. I'll go to the classified institute. I'll go now."

After I fail in my mission, I am about to be erased by the system and will disappear from this world completely. In the final 24 hours before I am erased, I agree to donate a kidney to my younger brother, Zachary Durham. My wife, Judith Sanford, hugs me excitedly and says she will not divorce me anymore. When Zachary plagiarizes my design, I take the blame and admit that I am the one who copied it. My parents nod in satisfaction, saying I have finally become sensible. Finally, I become the good husband and son they always wanted. But when they see my lifeless body sometime later, they all lose their minds.

Stella Watson hurt Liam Sheridan ninety-nine times before he finally decided to leave. As the eldest heir of the Sheridan family, he was mocked by the city’s elite as Stella’s lapdog. Only Liam knew he stayed because she looked like Suzy York, the woman he loved and lost. Stella loved Liam’s half-brother, just as Liam loved Stella’s half-sister. Liam let Stella hurt him ninety-nine times in the hope that he could finally let go of Suzy. But when a chandelier fell, Stella, who had always treated him like a weed, threw herself over him to protect him. Liam froze. Then he remembered Stella’s friend saying the beauty mark by her eye had appeared only recently. He thought of the suspicious ruling after the car accident years ago and finally realized that the woman living as Stella was an impostor the Watson family had put in her place.

I had been an angel who fell from heaven. When I first arrived in the human world, I had no memories and could not tell a red light from a green one. Evelyn Sheridan took me home. She taught me how to dress and how to eat, and she taught me to call her my wife. In our first year of marriage, I handed a guest a glass of dish soap to drink, and she laughed and smoothed it over for me. In the second year, I spent half the night chatting with a goldfish a guest had given us, and her expression stayed dark all evening. By the third year, she no longer smiled at me. She began bringing home a man named Hudson Lowry more often. She said he had a terminal illness and needed my blessing. I agreed. Each time I blessed him, my hair fell out in clumps and my limbs went weak. That continued until Adeline Wray, the woman next door, broke down our door and got me out of the basement while I was unconscious. She told me that the winter she was eight years old, she had nearly frozen to death under a bridge, and a warm light had saved her. "That light smelled exactly like you." She had me treated, bought me tailored suits unlike anything I had ever worn, and settled me into the best apartment she owned. However, she never let me have contact with anyone else. She gripped my wrist and spoke as gently as if she were coaxing a child. "Your kindness belongs to me and no one else. Be good for me." The night I nodded, I heard Evelyn's voice coming from Adeline's study. "The bone marrow results came back in time for next week. He's a perfect match for Hudson. Adeline, keep him happy. Do not let him get away." Adeline stayed quiet for a long time. When she finally spoke, she said only a few words. "I know. After the surgery, he's mine." Moonlight spilled in through the window, and I saw the needle bruises scattered along my arms. From beginning to end, I had never been anyone's husband. I had only ever been the cure.

In the seventh year of marrying into the Dawson family, Amanda Dawson's childhood friend, Leroy Blanchard, has returned from overseas. Leroy is very outgoing and handsome, not to mention he's extremely capable, too. Soon, he becomes the apple of everyone's eye. Even my father-in-law, who has never liked me, to begin with, has nothing but praises for Leroy. On Leroy's birthday, Amanda spends a huge amount of money in organizing his birthday party before declaring her love for him in a high-profile manner. The entire city is waiting to watch me, the legally-wedded husband, embarrass myself just so I can kick up a huge fuss over the whole thing. But I merely smile faintly before packing my things and getting ready to leave. I've been in this world for seven years. Finally, I'm about to finish acting out all of my scenes as the lovesick male supporting lead.

After Helena Ashbourne cheated on me with her male assistant again, my mind came apart. At the lowest point of it, I picked up the fruit knife on the table and meant to end things myself. "Why are you hurting yourself again? Doesn't she like you anymore?" I looked up, and sixteen-year-old Helena was walking toward me with pain all over her face. She spoke gently. "Tell me who she is. I'll make her pay for you." I looked into the bright eyes of the girl in front of me. I didn't say anything. Quietly, I pointed at her face. Later, Helena put me in a psychiatric hospital herself. In the gaps between doses of sedative, the girl sat down beside my bed again. She stared out at the woman with a face so much like her own, and the light in her eyes went out inch by inch. Then she forced the words out, and every one of them came with blood. "I don't care who she is. I'm going to kill her." Sixteen-year-old Helena never lied to me. She meant every word.

My CEO wife, Bianca Bennett, who used to love me to the point of obsession, blew out the candles on her birthday cake, opened her eyes, and looked at me like I was a stranger. "Who the hell are you?" she asked. "Where’s Connor? Even if I have to get married, he’s the only one I’ll ever marry." She screamed and bolted out the door. As I stood there, utterly paralyzed, a stream of floating text suddenly flashed across my vision. [Looks like the side character is totally clueless. The female lead swapped souls with her eighteen-year-old self! She’s heading out to find her true love now.] [Honestly, he should just be grateful. If his face didn't look so much like the male lead's, he never would've married into a rich family in the first place.] [Too bad the soul swap only lasts for thirty days. Go get him, teen female lead! Win back your first love, so when your older self comes back, you’ll get a nice little surprise!] My blood ran cold. Two weeks later, Bianca walked back through the front door, dragging a guy who was a dead ringer for me right behind her. She slammed a set of divorce papers onto the table in front of me. "The house is mine, and the money is mine," she sneered, "You’ve been living off Connor's likeness for years. Sign the papers and get out."