This Was Supposed To Be A Slice Of Life For Me

Daisuke spent twenty-eight years working himself into an early grave as a high-stakes corporate strategist. His reward? Reincarnating into the body of Takeru Kuryu—a filthy rich, utterly minor background character in Springtime Memories, a popular webnovel famous for its agonizingly toxic bad ending. Equipped with a spacious two-story house, zero financial worries, and an endless supply of baggy hoodies, Takeru has only one goal for his second life: do absolutely nothing, sketch in peace, and sip canned coffee. There’s just one problem. The story’s original protagonist, Kenji Sato, is far too earnest for his own good. His high school trio is barreling straight toward freshman year, where Aoi Tachibana’s manipulative ex-boyfriend, Kaito, is waiting to pick their lives apart piece by piece. Takeru refuses to watch a group of good kids get destroyed, but he also refuses to take center stage, sacrifice his slacker lifestyle, or get dragged into high-stakes campus drama. His solution? The Background Shield strategy. Armed with a cynical corporate mindset, full knowledge of the novel's plot, and a habit of dropping deadpan reality checks, Takeru quietly dismantles Kaito’s mind games from the shadows—all while making it look like total coincidence. But as his quiet living room accidentally becomes the ultimate safe haven for a wild ensemble of star athletes, artistic twins, and a surprisingly soft, sharp-eyed student council officer with candy-pink hair who won't stop prying into his business, Takeru realizes keeping a low profile might be the hardest job he’s ever had.