Chapter 1

At the Prom, my girlfriend Leah asked me in front of everyone, "Can I have the first dance with Leo Miller?"

I agreed without hesitation.

Leah immediately took Leo's hand.

The music started, and the two danced gracefully.

I turned and walked away.

Not long after leaving the school grounds, Leah called:

"Leo is shy and too nervous to dance with other girls, that's why I danced with him."

"If you get jealous again, we're breaking up!"

I just smiled.

She didn't know that just one day earlier, I had applied to a different university than her.

I was already planning to break up with her anyway.

Leah wore a long white dress, its skirt embroidered with delicate silver threads.

Under the lights, she looked like a fairy stepping out of a fairytale.

When she walked in, arm in arm with me, all eyes were on us, filled with envy.

A few guys even gave me a thumbs-up, muttering things like, "Ethan, you lucky bastard."

But I couldn't feel happy at all.

From the moment we stepped into the hall, Leah's attention wasn't on me.

She kept her head down, staring at her phone, tapping it open and closing it repeatedly.

I offered her a glass of juice, which she took but didn't drink.

She casually placed it on a nearby table, her eyes still glued to the screen.

I knew she was waiting for someone.

Leo Miller, the guy who transferred to our class a year ago.

He came from a tough background; his mother was constantly ill, and his father worked odd jobs to make ends meet.

Leah, for some reason, had voluntarily signed up for the school's mentorship program and became Leo's contact person.

At first, it was just helping him apply for scholarships and sending him study materials.

Later, it turned into eating meals together, studying together, and walking around the track together.

Some friends had warned me, saying Leah was being too nice to Leo.

I remember saying it was fine, that she was just kind-hearted.

But the line between kindness and genuine feelings can be incredibly thin sometimes.

Ten minutes before the dance began, Leo finally arrived.

He wore a dark blue suit, nothing fancy, but it was clean and neat. His hair was carefully styled, making him look quite different from his usual self.

The moment Leah saw him, a smile instantly bloomed on her face.

I knew that smile all too well. It wasn't polite, it wasn't courteous—it was the kind where her eyes truly lit up.

"I thought you weren't coming," she said, walking toward him, a hint of a playful whine in her voice.

"Sorry, I got held up on the way," Leo chuckled, pulling a small box from his pocket and handing it to her. "For you."

Leah opened it; inside was a bracelet.

A simple knot woven from a light pink string, with a few white beads threaded through the middle.

The material and craftsmanship looked like something you'd find at a flea market for ten bucks.

But she loved it. "It's so pretty!"

She lowered her head and began to unfasten the Givenchy bracelet from her own wrist.

That bracelet was a gift from me: a platinum chain with a small, dark green enamel pendant.

I had arranged for someone to bring it back from Paris for her sixteenth birthday and personally clasped it around her wrist.

That day, she said something I remember to this day.

"Ethan, I'll wear this forever, and never take it off."

Now she was taking it off, so naturally, so casually.

She raised her hand, admiring the cheap, handmade beaded bracelet in the light, a gentle curve on her lips.