Question #2 for any curious newcomers: Does your OC have a crush? Is it a secret? Is that secret well kept?
In answer to and elaborating on question three, obviously, when you write a story generally, you don't have to worry how strongly it sticks to any genre, but when writing for a romance novel/story competitions that intend to judge your work partially based on the strength of the romantic element, how do you judge it being romance-y enough.
My siblings were all joking with me like "make there be an accidental kiss in the first scene, you know, just to get it out of the way that this is a romance story."