Chapter 3

Sophie looked down at her ankle and tried to pull her pants down to cover it, but it was too late.

Her words came tumbling out faster.

"I, it's just that, no, Ethan just felt bad that I didn't have good ankle support, so he lent me his to protect my feet. It's not what you think."

Lily beside me stretched lazily and spoke in a conversational tone.

"Well, I don't have good ankle support either. How come nobody feels bad for me?"

Jessica, who'd been watching from the sidelines, chimed in.

"The ankle support I'm wearing is two-year-old hand-me-down, and I haven't seen anyone giving me the good stuff with names engraved on it."

Ethan's face couldn't take it anymore. He glared at me angrily.

"That's enough, Emma. Are you deliberately targeting her just because I've been taking care of Sophie a bit more? I only care about her as a classmate. Don't let your jealousy hurt innocent people."

Even now he's still blaming me. It was the same in my past life—everything was always my fault.

"Which eye saw me targeting Sophie? If anything, you're the one who can lend out ankle support with my name on it but can't spare a pair of shoes. They're both things I gave you—how come you're playing favorites?"

My words left him opening and closing his mouth, his fists clenched, unsure whether to keep them raised or drop them. Ethan tugged at his collar and forced out a smile.

"Stop making a scene. You're not yourself today. Go back and get some rest."

Just then, I heard a voice.

It was like it came from far away, with a metallic mechanical quality.

"Host, we just completed binding today. If you accept items from Ethan, from this day forward you can only borrow his fate."

Sophie's expression changed drastically. She pushed away Ethan's hand.

"I don't want to borrow your things. I just remembered I have a spare pair of shoes in my bag."

She turned and ran toward the dressing room.

That voice—was it the system Sophie had bound with in my past life?

I could actually hear it speaking.

I lowered my head and pretended to organize my shoe bag while my mind raced. So there was such a rule. No wonder in my past life Sophie only targeted me. Later when other classmates voluntarily offered her things, she wasn't happy about it. Turns out she could only bind to one target.

I remember in my past life she said more than once how she envied me—said I had a good family, good talent, a handsome boyfriend, and teachers who liked me. She even said how nice it would be if she could be me.

Turns out she really meant to become me.

Lily came over and whispered.

"Did you take the wrong medicine today? How come you're suddenly so tough?"

I didn't answer because that metallic voice spoke again.

"Host, the binding window is only forty-eight hours. If she won't lend to you, you can choose to bind someone else. But I must inform you—only by binding someone whose fate is better than yours can you borrow their good fortune. If you bind someone whose fate is worse than yours, their bad fortune will transfer to you."

"I don't want anyone else's fate. I only want Emma's."

Sophie said this quietly in the dressing room. Through the thin wall, I heard it crystal clear.

Not heard her voice—heard the system repeating her choice.

So she only had forty-eight hours.

Tomorrow, she would definitely come looking to borrow from me again.

What should I do? I couldn't keep avoiding her forever.

I grabbed my shoe bag and walked out of the practice room, my mind turning over one thought again and again. The system said if she bound to someone whose fate was worse than hers, the bad fortune would transfer to Sophie.

In other words, as long as what I lent her didn't belong to me but to someone whose fate was worse than hers, what Sophie would borrow wouldn't be good fortune but someone else's misfortune.

The problem was, where would I find this "person with worse fate"?