Another Choice

Another Choice
Published	February 12, 2024 (2024-02-12)
Page count	11
Major characters	Mike, Lucy
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Another Choice is a non-canon Bittersweet Club International-exclusive comic, released to members as a Valentine’s surprise in February 2024. It rewinds to Lucy’s confession from A Distance Apart and asks what would have happened if Mike had said yes the first time around.

Partial synopsis

Lucy stands with her folder in hand, having just told Mike that she loves him. He responds with a bewildered “Well.. okay.” When she glares at him, he starts rambling about Sandy being his girlfriend, how long he and Lucy have known each other, and how complicated the situation has become.

As Mike continues to ramble, Lucy drops her folder, reaches up, and grabs the sides of his face mid-sentence. She tells him that she wants his real feelings, not more evasions. If he is going to reject her, she says, “Please at least look me in the eyes before you say it.”

In canon, this was the moment Mike said no. He isn’t going to say it this time. What he says instead, and everything the two of them have to sort out once it’s finally been said, makes for a much longer and messier afternoon...

Character dynamics

Lucy’s method for getting a straight answer out of Mike.

• Mike and Lucy: Mike and Lucy are childhood best friends. During the snow-day flashback in Pillow Talk, Mike confesses his feelings and kisses Lucy before she pushes him away. By the time Lucy confesses here, Mike is Sandy’s long-distance boyfriend, a relationship established in A New Leaf. He brings up Sandy while trying to answer Lucy. In the main comic, Mike points to his relationship with Sandy when he rejects Lucy. Lucy instead presses him for a direct answer in this version.

Trivia & observations

• Mike and Lucy’s opening exchange matches A Distance Apart nearly word for word, down to Mike’s flustered “Well.. okay.” In the canon scene, he then answers “No.” Here, he responds differently.
• Lucy carries the same folder in both versions of the confession.
• Veronica has said that if Mike and Lucy had gotten together at this point, their friends “would have genuinely been like ‘FINALLY!’”, since “everyone was waiting for them to get together at that point in time.”

Related chapters

• A Distance Apart: The chapter from which this comic branches. Lucy makes the same confession on the same afternoon, but Mike rejects her and cites his relationship with Sandy.
• Pillow Talk: Its snow-day flashback shows Mike confessing his feelings to Lucy and kissing her. She pushes him away and asks him to leave.
• Another Shoulder: In canon, Lucy turns to Paulo after Mike rejects her. Before she does, she remembers Mike asking “What am I supposed to do?!” Mike gives a different answer in this comic, so that immediate aftermath no longer follows.