Unrequited gay romance meets men's loneliness anti gaming incel hermit syndrome anime idea
Hal has no friends in the real world. He's awkward and shy and spends pretty much all his time gaming. First half of the episode is just him in his room while life goes along around him. Mom knocks on the door that dinners ready. Sister walks by on a call to her boyfriend, cat knocks mom's mug off the coffee table and Hal is oblivious to the chaos.
Next day there's a new kid at school, Caleb. Caleb finds Hal fascinating from the get-go and attaches himself at the hip immediately. Hal, as a self declared shut in is...a little perplexed. And a lot annoyed. You see, Caleb is of the Very Much Not A Shut-In variety. An extrovert. A "people-person." Ugh.
And so, it starts by Caleb inviting himself to Hal's house and absolutely bouncing off the walls until Hal let's up and decides to go show him around town. Except Hal's a shut-in (always has been,) so he has no idea what his own town even looks like. Caleb proceeds to dart off in a million different directions dragging Hal along with him and he ends up showing Hal around, running into townsfolk- an old nanny who tells funny stories about baby Hal, a hardware clerk who remembers his dad who'd passed. And some new places Hal hadn't even known existed- a creek where they find snails and toads and salamanders, an old dingy metal staircase behind the highschool that swayed and creaked with their weight and made their adrenaline pump and made Hal feel alive.
And then, as the story progresses we see Hal learn to love life again, Caleb dragging him along on his adventures until they become their adventures, pulling in new friends and dynamics all the while.
We see Hal open up to Caleb about his fears and hopes and dreams, his family, his past. And we see Caleb fall in love with him for it, even thought Hal is straight.
Eventually Hal meets a girl, a mean-hearted but well meaning high achiever named Margo. Margo and Caleb are fast friends but she's weary of Hal due to his inability to be normal around her. Hal confides in Caleb about his feelings for Margo and Caleb gently but appropriately let's him know that Margo isn't interested, and then teaches him how to be normal friends with her afterwards.
We meet several female friends over the course of the story who Hal falls fast in love with, but who aren't interested in Hal in the slightest. And we see Caleb coach Hal through each while still keeping them as friends and in eachothers good graces due to Caleb's good-natured, extroverted personality.
During all of this Caleb expresses his sadness to their other friends over Hal's straightness and his unrequited feelings. Some friends suggest telling Hal but Caleb refuses, thinking Hal wouldn't want to be friends with him if he knew he was gay.
Eventually Hal and Caleb get into a fight because Hal thinks his "normal around girls" advice sucks, and Caleb tells him in a fit of anger that his advice couldn't have possibly been bad because he's been in love with Hal this entire time and he'd hid it just fine. Drama ensues. Hal and Caleb take a break from eachother, Hal does a single day in hermit mode and then decides to do his own exploring and finding the true meaning of platonic friendship on the way, and Caleb meets someone new. Someone his type, who asks him out on a date.
Hal calls Caleb first, apologizes, they reunite and Hal discovers he likes Caleb's new boyfriend quite a lot.
The next outing Caleb (not so reluctantly anymore) drags Hal to a family BBQ Caleb's boyfriend had invited them all to during which Hal meets...a girl. Bubbly and sweet and who made Hal's hands sweat when she slipped her phone number into his shirt pocket before they left for the night.
And thus, an unconventional love story is born.
2087
gummygunk
ellievsbear
germansingergirl
blakekathryn
izzy806
romaincrisis
dailybridgerton