In a Reddit post, a 29-year-old man explains that he has been best friends with Chad since birth, and they have also been roommates for the past ten years. He says that for the last three years, every woman he dates for more than a few dates ends up meeting her soulmate immediately after they break up. His friends treat the pattern like a joke and call him a good luck charm.

Five months earlier, the narrator briefly dated Hope, but they mutually ended things because there was no chemistry. Soon afterward, Hope and Chad started dating, and the narrator sees this as another example of his strange pattern. Chad quickly becomes serious about Hope, meets her parents, starts ring shopping, and wants to move in with her right away.

Because Chad still has six months left on the lease he shares with the narrator, Chad's decision creates a financial problem. Chad cannot afford two places, so the narrator is left to deal with the apartment situation alone. The landlord refuses to end the lease entirely but allows the narrator to transfer into a cheaper studio apartment.

The narrator accepts the studio without seeing it first and then discovers why it is so cheap: its window faces a giant, illuminated Toilet King plumbing billboard so closely that it dominates the entire view. Since he works from home, the billboard makes the apartment feel unbearable. Chad only makes the situation worse by constantly sending him more Toilet King ads and treating the whole thing as a joke.

Trying to find a reason to be out more, the narrator finally adopts a dog, something Chad never allowed when they lived together. He intentionally chooses the ugliest rescue dog he can find and names the dog Chad as a petty jab at his friend, then tags human Chad in the dog's social media posts. Chad laughs, but Hope and Chad's mother are offended and pressure the narrator to rename the dog, prompting him to ask Reddit whether his pettiness makes him the villain.