Who doesn't love a bad boy?

What is it about bad boys that seems to draw girls in? We've all seen it. In movies, in books, even in our own schools. There's lines of sweet, romantic guys willing to treat his lady like a queen yet he can't seem to get the chance to because all the girls are swooning over the school bad boy. Natsuo Kirino's novel "Real World" follows the story of four girls whose lives are forever changed by the ultimate bad boy, Worm. Although each girl knows that Worm murdered his own mother with a baseball bat they can't seem to help theirselves from falling in love with him and helping him evade the police.

In today's society, the bad boy image is something that a lot of guys strive to achieve. Everywhere you look you can see pictures of muscular guys covered in tattoos with a "I couldn't care less about anything" epression their face. This look seems to make most girls melt almost instantly. The thought of dating someone with a reputation seems to make girls want them more. It's like Eve with the forbidden fruit in The Garden of Eden. She's told repeatedly how bad the fruit is and how she's not allowed to have it, yet she still takes the bite that changes her entire life. Wanting something that you can't have or are not allowed to have seems to be something that's incoded in female DNA. 

Other than just the pure thrill of dating someone that has a reputation, the excitement of having a bad boy comes from the idea that you might be able to change him. All girls want the feeling of being able to change a guy for the better. They want to be able to say that they took the player out of the game and evolved him into a better guy.

However, in Kirinos book, the four girls don't seem to change Worm as much as he changes them. The girls seem to thrive off of the sense of danger that comes with helping a murder who's the same age as them evade arrest from the police. With all the stress of having to perform well in school and keep their parents happy, the girls find relief in having a new distraction. One girl, Toshi, even finds a new identity for herself and decides to never go back to the old person that she use to be.

Dating a bad boy can be thrilling to say the least. For teenage girls, this could be a major act of rebelling against their parents. The reckless feeling of dating someone who could be dangerous mixed with the excitement of having the opportunity to rebel against your parents is something that girls today thrive on and will most likely continue to thrive on for a long time to come.