Chapter 3

My heart stabbed with pain, but I forced myself not to look away and continued watching.

Because I needed to learn not to care.

After putting on the watch, Rachel happily pulled Ulysses to sing.

The two interacted frequently. When singing love songs, they made eye contact, their gazes filled with affection.

They sat closer and closer. Ulysses' hand brazenly wrapped around Rachel's waist, and he turned to give me a provocative and triumphant look.

I remained expressionless and downed a large glass of beer.

The party continued until eleven o'clock. Rachel had drunk too much and was squinting, leaning against Ulysses, her arms around his neck, asking him to take her home.

Ulysses looked at me with a smile on his lips. "Emmanuel, why don't you take Rachel home instead?"

Before I could speak, Rachel waved her right hand drunkenly. "No, I hate him today. I don't want him to take me home."

"I want to go to your place. I promised to stay with you all night."

"This..." Ulysses feigned panic and quickly said to me, "Emmanuel, Rachel's drunk. She's talking nonsense. Please don't take it to heart."

I said indifferently, "Since she hates me and insists on staying with you, I'll leave her to you. Whether you take her home or bring her to your place—whatever you want."

With that, I left without looking back, my eyes already red.

On the way home, scenes with Rachel flashed through my mind like a slideshow.

We'd grown up together. My world was full of her.

From kindergarten to college, I'd always protected her, not letting her suffer any harm.

When she was bullied and made to cry by older students in elementary school, I went with red eyes to confront them and even got into a fight. In the end, she received an apology, and although I was bruised and battered, I smiled happily.

For her birthday every year, I'd ask my parents to buy all the fireworks in the city and the front page of all the newspapers that day to celebrate for her.

When I was sixteen, our families discussed our marriage and established the engagement. I was so happy I didn't sleep all night.

I thought I could walk through life with her like this, grow old together.

But everything changed after meeting Ulysses.

She stopped acting cute with me. Instead, there was more scolding and shouting.

I endured it again and again, for no other reason than because I loved her.

But did she love me? Before today, I was certain of the answer—she loved me too.

But I discovered I was wrong. She didn't love me that much.

Twenty years of feelings—could they really not compare to three years?

The facts proved they couldn't.

The next day, I saw Rachel at the classroom door.

Her face was somewhat pale, and she seemed unsteady on her feet. Ulysses beside her was carefully supporting her.

I paused, then walked past as if nothing had happened.

Rachel stopped me.

I said coolly, "What is it?"

Rachel didn't dare look at me, keeping her head down. "Um, last night Ulysses took me home. I was so drunk that I fell asleep as soon as I got there and forgot to call you to let you know I was safe."

"Oh!" I nodded. "Anything else?"

As if she hadn't expected such a calm reaction from me, Rachel frowned. "Don't you believe me?"

"No, I just didn't sleep well last night and I'm a bit tired."

"Take care of yourself. You can't drink that much like you did last night." Rachel reminded me, then hesitated before gently hugging me.

"Yesterday was my fault. I shouldn't have yelled at you or said those things to deliberately make you angry. I apologize."

"Oh, and I have a surprise for you at today's coming-of-age ceremony."

I smiled. "What a coincidence. I also have a surprise for you."

"Really?" Rachel's eyes lit up. "We really are in sync, thinking the same thing."