Unrequited Love Switcheroo



"You came in with the breeze on Sunday Morning Things sure have changed since yesterday, without any warning And you want me badly, but you cannot have me"

- No Doubt, "Sunday Morning"

Bob has had a crush on Alice for a long time, but she either ignores him, coldly turns him down, or considers the two of them Just Friends. At some point, Bob gets the message and moves on with his love life, and starts seeing Carol. Suddenly the relationship is reversed, with Alice pining after Bob, leaving him forced to choose. This kind of Love Triangle may involve a Green-Eyed Epiphany if Alice didn't know her own feelings. If Bob is deliberately trying to invoke this feeling in Alice, it's a case of Operation: Jealousy.

See also All Love Is Unrequited, Will They or Won't They?, Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace (for the former crush who waits until the last minute), and Romantic False Lead. This is not to be confused with You Are Too Late.

Anime and Manga

 * In Ranma ½, the one time Ranma is interested in Shampoo is during the "Reversal Jewel" Arc, when Shampoo showed disgust at the mere sight of him, however, it passed.
 * Naruto Chapter 469 has Naruto's long-time crush Sakura tell him that she's no longer interested in Sasuke and wants to be with him instead. After she spends the entire second half of the chapter trying to convince Naruto that she really means it, he rejects her because he thinks that she still loves Sasuke. Which she does.
 * Kimi no Iru Machi: Haruto has been infatuated with Nanami all through middle school, and continues despite misconceptions that he's dating Yuzuki, a family friend who moved into his family's home to go to the same high school. He confesses, and
 * And then
 * Toradora! has a weird one: Ryuuji and Taiga have unrequited crushes on Minori and Yuusaku, respectively, and team up to help each other. Yuusaku actually started the previous year by confessing to Taiga, but she rejected him without a second glance - now he seems Oblivious to Love. Minori seems the same way (or to simply be The Ditz), but occasionally shows flashes of being anything but.
 * In Ah! My Goddess, Keiichi gets turned down by Sayoko, the most popular girl at the college they attend. Once Belldandy shows up in his life, Sayoko starts to get jealous of him and tries to break them up in various ways, with no such luck. In Season 2 she starts to realize her own feelings for him.
 * In Magician's Academy, happens to George and Metallis. George at first is turned off by Metallis' attempts at confessing his love, then the latter falls in love with a girl, Suzuka, and begins aggressively pursuing her. George immediately starts to get jealous and tries to win Metallis' affections, or at least his attention, but ultimately fails at the end.

Comic Books

 * Early on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander had a crush on Buffy. In the comic book continuation of the series, however, she realizes she may have fallen for him, only to find out he's now dating her sister Dawn (who, ironically, had a Precocious Crush on him as a teenager). In this case, though, years passed between the end of Xander's crush and the beginning of Buffy's, during which time they both dated (and in Xander's case, almost married) other people.

Fan Works

 * One Futurama fanfic had Leela realizing her feelings for Fry just in time for him to finally give up on her and date someone else.
 * Kyon: Big Damn Hero has this in a kind of strange way between Kyon and Sasaki; Kyon had a fairly obvious crush on Sasaki during middle school, but once they go to high school they drift apart and Kyon starts getting involved in, well, stuff. And then she starts being significant to the plot again (and having her own crush on Kyon) once he's gotten himself over his crush he didn't realize he had and was set up in an Arranged Marriage with Tsuruya..
 * In the Homestuck fanfiction Herding Cats, Karkat wrongly thinks this is what has happened between him and Nepeta.

Literature

 * Harry Potter has a crush on Cho but is fully aware that Ginny has a crush on him. After things don't work out with Cho, and Ginny has already moved on, Harry develops a crush on Ginny after dealing with a bout of jealousy—a Green-Eyed Epiphany—over Ginny's love new interest.
 * And to add to that it's implied that Cho has new found feelings for Harry, but it's pretty much too late by that point.
 * Onegin/Tatiana in the Russian novel/opera/film Eugene Onegin
 * Central to the plot of Wendelin Van Draanen's novel Flipped, which starts with with a young girl's crush on a new neighbor boy her age (who finds her to be a really annoying know-it-all), shows her feelings changing from said crush to disillusionment as they grow up, and ends with the boy's own growing feelings for said girl going as far as said boy ruining his own social rep among his peers to show how much said feelings have grown.
 * Gone with the Wind. Rhett doesn't fall for someone else, but he loses interest in Scarlett just before she finally realizes she's into him.
 * Not really 'shortly'. Rhett had been gradually losing his love for Scarlett over a period of some years, as her indifference, mistreatment, and obsessive pursuit of Wilkes wore away at his feelings for her. (Rhett was not entirely without fault in the fiasco either, of course.) By the time their daughter Bonnie died, it was mostly over before Scarlett even fully grasped that it had started.
 * The 39 Clues: Ian didn't seem to care much about Amy as he was faking feelings for her so he could run off with her clue, but as soon as she started getting over him- or, as soon as she had convinced herself that she had- he seemed to realize his genuine feelings for her. Too bad about life getting in the way....
 * This is Anne's concern when she realizes she actually is in love with her childhood friend Gilbert Blythe, as she is convinced he is engaged to another woman. Luckily, the engagement was just a rumor, and a false one.
 * Bridge to Terabithia has this, in a sense. Leslie loves Jess, but he has a crush on Ms. Edmunds (his teacher), and only realises his feelings for Leslie (and her feelings for him),.
 * The Russian adaptation of The Shadow by E. Schwartz features this. First, the writer and the princess fall in love, but then the shallow princess abandons him for his shadow. In this variant, the writer survives and defeats his shadow, the princess is once again in love with him,.
 * Another Russian Book called Militia Sergeant features this in a classic variant. Nikolaj Zacharow, a young militia officer, and Natasha, a daughter of a factorry director, meet, but Natasha wants him to make a carrer, and not be stuck in militia, so she abandons him. Years later they meet, he is already a captain, her love for him comes back, only for him to reveal that he is already happily married and only agreed to meet her to say goodbye.

Live-Action TV
"Hillary: I'm in love with him! (Everyone gasps) Hillary: ...Oh, my gosh, what am I saying? I'm gonna go lie down."
 * The main theme of Season 6 of Bones. Lampshaded in The Doctor In The Photo where.
 * In Glee when Emma is in love with Will Schuster. Later, Will finds out that he loves her too. But Emma's already dating this dentist who drives a sweet ride. Then Will tries to woo her by being cool like the dentist. Too bad the dentist is played by John Stamos...
 * Also works with the whole Finn/Rachel/Jesse situation; Rachel pines over Finn for half of season one. Finn seems to return her feelings, but is dating Quinn. Then when he finds out, he breaks up with her, and Rachel assumes that she can automatically jump into the place of his girlfriend. He rejects her so he can go out with Brittany and Santana. Rachel quickly moves onto Jesse, just in time for Finn to decide that he has feelings for Rachel. Rachel then rejects him, and he spends the rest of the season trying to get back together with her. They get together in season two, but he breaks up with Rachel when he finds out  . She spends most of the rest of season two trying to get back together with Finn, but he's moved onto Quinn, who is dating Sam. Sam breaks up with Quinn when he finds out  . Quinn and Finn start going back out, but Quinn can tell that Finn still has leftover feelings for Rachel. Finn breaks up with Quinn when he realizes that he's really in love with Rachel, who in the mean time has had an episode-long crush on Blaine, who also has an episode-long interest in her (Kurt, of course,  ), and expressed an interest in Sam. She winds up sort of getting back together with Jesse, only for.
 * Taking the meaning of the word Switcheroo to a whole new level.
 * Dwayne/Whitley/Kinu on A Different World.
 * Ross/Rachel/Julie in Friends.
 * Later in the series it happens again; Joey falls for Rachel, falls out of it, and guess what: she proceeds to fall in love with him. Phoebe even lampshades it at some point.
 * Niles/Daphne/Mel on Frasier.
 * Jake/Dylan/Penny on Good Morning, Miami.
 * Ephram and Amy on Everwood count as he's with Madison when Amy finally decides to be with him.
 * Hannah Montana : Miley's at first annoyed by Jake's attempts to woo her, but then she falls for him and he's already moved on.
 * Done interestingly on Dollhouse - Paul Ballard is in love with Echo while Melly is in love with him. Then Echo falls in love with Paul, though they don't consummate the relationship., though she still loves him anyway. Then   he falls for her yet again and they're implied to have a relationship, but she won't say she loves him.  . Joss Whedon, you make puppies cry.
 * Britta rejects Jeff in Community from the very first episode. But when she develops feelings for him (at last), he's with Michelle. Troy also starts to like Annie when she's finally into someone else (Vaughn in this case). The season finale brings a surprise (or not so much) resolution to both cases by finding a common link.
 * Gilmore Girls has a variant on this: Rory dumps Dean for Jess; Dean longs for her for a while, until he moves on, which visibly upsets Rory. When R&J's relationship is going through a hard time because Jeff treats her like dirt, she finds out Dean's engaged. As with many Unrequited Love Switcheroos, they eventually get together ... but not for long.
 * Scrubs can also be mentioned, in the first season that is: at first JD likes Elliot but it's not reciprocated; after they sleep together, she still likes him but he's moved on; on the third season it's done again: first he likes her again but she's with another guy, then she dumps such guy but JD's not interested any longer. Then, on fourth, she's with his brother and that annoys him and so on...
 * Big Bang Theory, though it may not count in full as Leonard was arguably never really into Leslie or Dr. Stephanie as much as he was with them just for the rebound.
 * But it's played straight in that when Penny  and he , she immediately re-develops feelings for him. In the last episode, Penny  , which may set up some Unresolved Sexual Tension with Leonard in the upcoming season.
 * There's also the on-and-off romance with Bernadette and Howard, which shouldn't being going anywhere considering that.
 * Maybe ER a bit, half-way in the series: John's got a major crush on Abby, but she's with Luka; when they break up, she makes it understood that she wants to be with John, but he's already with Susan. Arguably, there's also a bit of that with Ray and Neela later on.
 * Steve and Laura on Family Matters.
 * Jim/Pam/Karen in the US version of The Office.
 * Andy/Erin as of the end of season 7.
 * Also, Tim/Dawn/Rachel in the UK original.
 * The UK version doesn't fit as well considering that by the time Jim was dating Karen, Pam had called off her wedding and broken up with Roy because of Jim; when Tim was seeing Rachel in the UK Version, Dawn was still with Lee and did not seem to return his feelings yet.
 * Ah, but in the very last UK office program, the second part of the Christmas Special,
 * Randy and Catalina on My Name Is Earl. After their Citizenship Marriage, Catalina feels obliged to sleep with Randy, but is determined to do it as badly as possible to put him off. Only... afterward, she can't believe how sensitive he was to her, and her behavior in the bedroom has put him off.
 * Many times with Ed/Carol on Ed. "Carols" go from Nick Stanton to Bonnie Hane to Dennis Martino to Frankie Hector.
 * Bright/Hannah/Topher and Ephram/Amy/Madison on Everwood.
 * Subverted on Chef when Savannah made up an imaginary boyfriend in the hopes of making this happen. Unfortunately for her, it didn't work, partially because her imaginary romance was too Sickeningly Sweet.
 * iCarly A Christmas wonderful life episode where Carly wishes her brother was normal. As part of the changes caused by her wish, Freddie, who has at the very least a strong crush on Carly in the series, has given up on Carly romantically, dating a whiny brat. He also gives her an extreme cold shoulder which indicates their friendship is now non-existent. Carly finds out she is now dating Nevel. Carly pretty much breaks down at the idea that Freddie doesn't love her and that he isn't her friend.
 * Becca and Tucker in Flash Forward.
 * Toyed with in the Torchwood episode "Adam", in which Toshiko stops hopelessly pining after Owen and gets a boyfriend, while Owen suddenly starts pining after her. But in reality,  Interestingly, despite , their relationship did seem to change after this episode, with Tosh going so far as to ask for a date and Owen accepting it.
 * Ted and Robin in How I Met Your Mother did this during the first season.
 * Barney and Robin have been doing this just about every third of season 7.
 * Shawn/Belle/Mimi in Days of Our Lives.
 * Bobby and Pam in Dallas. After they separate, Bobby longs for Pam. He tries several times to win her back, but she is too disillusioned by both  they eventually get a divorce. Pam begins dating Mark Grasion and they become engaged. After Mark dies, Pam realizes she still loves Bobby, but by then he seems to have moved on and has gotten engaged to his former sweatheart Jenna Wade.
 * Also Cliff and Afton. Afton lampshades it herself when she says
 * This is done a few times with Gary and Valene in Knots Landing during the 8 seasons they were seperated.
 * Dylan and Brenda in Beverly Hills, 90210, Brenda breaks up with Dylan after a pregnancy test scare, he spends the next several episodes trying to win her back. Brenda begins to have second thoughts about the break-up right when Dylan begins to become interested in someone else.
 * For the first two seasons, Andrea has an enourmous crush on Brandon, who (for the most part) only sees her as a good friend. In season 3, Brandon begins to realize his own feelings for Andrea, but by then she has given up on him and began dating someone else.
 * Charmed: At the beginning of season one, Andy is in love with Prue, but she is reluctant to be in a relationship because of her duties as a charmed one. By the time Prue is ready to stop holding back, Andy breaks up with her because she's absent from their dates. Eventually, Andy finds out Prue's a witch, and just when it looks like they might get back together
 * Also, Cole realizes his genuine feelings for Pheobe at the same time that she finds out who he really is and dosen't want to be with him anymore.
 * Early on in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cordelia has a crush on Angel, who is in love with Buffy. In season 3 of the Spin-Off series Angel, Angel develops a crush on Cordelia, but by then she seems to have moved on from him and has fallen for the Groosalugg. Like Xander and Buffy, several years passed between the end of Cordelia's crush and the beginning of Angel's.
 * Also, Wesley seems to finally get over his feelings for Fred just in time for her to realize her feelings for him.
 * Hyde and Jackie in That '70s Show. After Hyde and Jackie break up, he wants her back, but she clings to Kelso for support, who also still has feelings for her. Eventually she realizes she has to choose between them. By the time Jackie chooses Hyde, he has moved on to somebody else.
 * Theresa/Ethan/Jared in Passions.
 * And Kay/Miguel/Fox.
 * On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Hillary begins to get jealous when her Abhorrent Admirer, Jazz, is about to marry somebody else. Leads to a hilarious Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace moment:


 * The main character in Psych, Shawn Spencer, spends most of the early seasons trying to go out with Detective Juliet O'Hara, who keeps rejecting him. She finally comes around and admits she like him too, when he's on a date with his high school sweetheart.
 * Josh and Donna from The West Wing were constantly on this trope. Josh gets jealous of Donna's random dates in season 2. Then Josh moves on enough to get a crush on Joey Lucas, and Donna gets jealous. Then Donna moves on enough to get involved with Cliff Caley, and Josh gets jealous. Then Josh starts dating Amy Gardner, and Donna gets jealous. Then Donna starts dating Jack Reese, and Josh gets jealous. Then Josh starts dating Amy Gardner again, and Donna gets jealous. And this is all before either of them ever said anything to make their romantic tension anything other than an ambiguous Ship Tease.
 * BBC's Primeval, in classic scifi fashion, turns this trope on its head with the relationship between Nick Cutter and Claudia/Jenny. Nick and Claudia fall in love by the end of season one. Then Nick goes back in time and  Nick and Jenny start to show feeling for each other, but.
 * Conner and Abbey's story also has a more traditional switcheroo. Abby rejects all of Conners awkward advances. But when Conner starts going out with Caroline she tries to sabotage their relationship.
 * This nearly happened in Pushing Daisies. When Olive Snook finally gets over Ned and moves on he begins to doubt that his feeling for her were truly those you would feel for "just a friend".
 * Castle has feelings for Beckett, but she has on-and-off romances with other characters. He attempts to get together with her at the end of season one, only for her current boyfriend to walk up behind them, and for Castle to chicken out.
 * Season two finale: Beckett attempts to ask Castle out, only for his ex-wife to show up. The two then head for the islands.
 * Season three ends with them relatively evening the score, as Castle calls Beckett out on not talking about.
 * At the start of season four, she tells Castle she doesn't remember anything about the events of the Season 3 finale.
 * Lizzie McGuire -- It was revealed in one episode that Lizzie once had a crush on Gordo in the 4th grade, years later when the series takes place, he develops a crush on her.
 * Sam/Andi/Cady in Reaper.
 * A key element of the romantic subplot of the Korean series Strong Girl Bong-soon: Bong-soon has longed for Guk-doo literally half her life, while he has ignored her and basically treated her like an annoying little sister.  However, just as soon as Bong-soon gives up on him and enters into a relationship with Min-hyeok, Guk-doo realizes he does have feelings for her.  Made ever so slightly worse as he had a chance to still get the girl, but he stood her up without explanation when his police duties called, giving Min-hyeok the chance to get his own declaration of love in first.

Music
"You're trying my shoes on for a change. They look so good but fit so strange."
 * Conway Twitty's "Don't Cry Joni" fits this trope very well.
 * Anberlin's song "A Day Late" is a song where the singer is giving a Just Friends speech after a Love Confession that came after he had moved on to somebody else.
 * The Miyuki Nakajima song "Milk 32." "Milk," a guy who works at the bar of the same name that, well, serves milk, is in love with the narrator; however, the narrator only goes to see him when she's just been dumped. One day after being dumped, she comes to visit "Milk," who avoids talking to her and gives her glass after glass of milk to distract her, until finally he leaves. The singer is then left calling for Milk and for her receipt, when she realizes that she actually kind of liked him.
 * "Sunday Morning" by No Doubt is all about a Bob gloating over how an Alice gets a taste of their own medicine.

"She can ignore you as much as she likes, she doesn't like you anymore. She's fucking gorgeous you can't help but blush. Why didn't you notice her before?"
 * The Backstreet Boys song "Bye Bye Love" is arguably this trope.
 * German pop group Die Prinzen's song "Gabi und Klaus" is all about this. Gabi loves Klaus but he doesn't want her anymore. Klaus realizes he makes a mistake, Gabi tells him to get lost.
 * "Perfect Timing" by Pretty Balanced


 * The Doc Walker song "She Hasn't Always Been This Way," couples this trope with She's All Grown Up, with the guy in the song realising that his friend's little sister—who had crushed on him when she was much younger—is now very attractive and, in the words of the song, "outta my life, outta my reach..."
 * The point of Stevie Wonder's song "Don't wonder why".

Theatre

 * Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The young Tatyana writes a love letter to Eugene, who does not return her affections. It is only after she marries Prince Gremin that he realizes his true feelings for her. She admits that she still loves him, but decides to stay with her husband and live the rest of her life in sorrow.

Video Games

 * This trope appears with a Stalker with a Crush twist between two NPCs in Persona 3.

Web Comics

 * Dave/Margaret/Blue from CRFH.
 * Briefly in The Order of the Stick: after Roy's spent time as a woman, he apologizes to Miko for having treated her as a sex object; she expresses interest in him now that he's learned his lesson, but he shuts her down, having realized that she's an arrogant, destructive fanatic and he was only interested in her because he was thinking with the Trouser Titan.
 * You call it the...
 * That's not the point!
 * At first, Annie seemed indifferent to Jack's attempt to flirt with her in chapter 31 of Gunnerkrigg Court. Then, by the end of chapter 34, this happens.
 * In El Goonish Shive, this is briefly shown as one of the effects of a "swish" of a magic wand. No one in universe is aware of any of the effects of the wand because that is how it works.

Web Original

 * Happens in The Guild after Codex breaks off her "fake relationship with a fictional version of ," who normally only does one-night stands. However, to the latter's surprise, Codex proves "interesting," so he makes an attempt to pursue her further, only to be told off.
 * Although nothing's certain until Season 5, this also seems to happen with
 * It's confirmed now.

Western Animation

 * Danny Phantom started off with Sam giving off most of the romantic vibe towards Danny who remained clueless for the most part. When Sam started dating someone else, Danny starts to realize by end that he likes her. They eventually get a Relationship Upgrade.
 * Largely the plot of the "Arnold Loves Lila" episode of Hey Arnold!. When Lila believes Arnold has a crush on her (thanks to Helga's hastily re-written "Arnold loves Helga Lila" graffiti), she starts to like him too, but he "likes her, but doesn't LIKE-like her". Once she gets the message, he really does start to "LIKE-like her," but too late; now she'd rather be friends.
 * There's also the "Arnold Visits Arnie" episode where Arnold meets bizarro equivalents to characters in his own neighborhood, including "Hilda," a seemingly well-adjusted Helga he is immediately attracted to... who has a thing for Arnie. Meanwhile Arnie's girlfriend "Lulu" seems more interested in Arnold than her real boyfriend...
 * Fridge Logic: Wouldn't a bizzaro world mean that Arnie would be interested in Hilda and not the other way around?
 * The thing is, in the bizarro universe, the one-sided love square is reversed. In the normal world, Helga --> Arnold --> Lila --> Arnie --> Helga, whereas in the bizarro world it's Hilda(Helga) --> Arnie --> Lulu(Lila) --> Arnold --> Hilda(Helga).
 * Family Guy: 8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter: Meg becomes interested in Neil (who had been obsessed with Meg) only after she realizes he has a girlfriend.
 * Undergrads, Nitz develops feelings for Jessie after seeing her naked... for exactly one episode. Prior to this episode and in every episode following, she loves him but he has no interest in her. Which makes her blowup at Nitz in the finale about not noticing her feelings rather silly since he openly said he had feelings for her...
 * The one episode where he showed interest in her she rejected him because his approach to her was completely wrong, mostly by just acting like they're already a couple.
 * Played for Laughs on Pepper Ann: Milo and Gwen Mezzrow do this a lot. One episode had a Running Gag where every time a day passed, it switched which one was the Abhorrent Admirer and which was the prey.
 * Played for Laughs in the Fanboy and Chum Chum episode "Fanboyfriend". Lupe, a Huge Schoolgirl falls for Fanboy after he... er... saves her from a spider. For most of the episode, Fanboy tries to make Lupe understand that he is not interested - but at the end of the episode, after Lupe gets radioactive superpowers, the feelings are flipped.
 * Kaeloo and Mr. Cat have this happen rather frequently. Who's crushing on whom depends on the episode.

Real Life

 * Truth in Television, anyone can relate to this trope at some point or other. The French even have an expression for this common situation : "Je t'aime, moi non plus" (literally : "I love you, neither do I")