Chapter 2

Footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door. The next second, the bedroom door was shoved open.

Logan rushed up to me, looking anxious.

“I’m so sorry, Mark! I had no idea you and Chloe agreed to go back home together. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t have taken up her time to come help me!”

Chloe’s brows were knitted in a tight frown.

“Logan, it’s got nothing to do with you. I came of my own accord…” She paused, seeming mindful of my parents’ presence.

I didn’t even look up, my expression indifferent. “Let’s talk outside.”

However, Logan ignored me and kept talking. “It’s all my fault. Otherwise, your mom wouldn’t have fallen either. Mark, please don’t be mad. I’ll get out of your hair right now!”

With that, he turned around and ran off.

Chloe, looking as if she had reached her limit, grabbed my hand and dragged me along to run after him. The moment we got downstairs, she threw off my hand with force.

“Mark, Logan and I grew up together, and our families have always been close. You know our history! He came over to spend the holidays with you. Do you have to get so jealous and say such hurtful things to him?

“You’re taking this way too far! If something happened to him, could you live with yourself?”

Her furious accusations rained down on me. I kept my head lowered the whole time, staring down at the pristine white snow beneath my feet.

What could possibly happen to a grown man like him?

Yet, no matter what he did, Chloe was always worried about him. When it came to me, on the other hand—when my acute gastroenteritis had me doubled over in excruciating pain, I called her, only to be met with her saying, “There’s medicine in the drawer. Haven’t you always taken it on your own before?”

My eyes watered, and I said flatly, “Let’s look for him first.”

Chloe and I split up to search. We agreed that whoever found him first would call to inform the other.

I walked aimlessly across two streets, my legs numb from the cold. The soles of my shoes were thin, and stepping onto the frozen pavement felt like walking barefoot on ice.

After three hours, I gave Chloe a call.

“Did you find him?”

“No.” After a slight pause, she added, “He isn’t wearing a scarf. He must be freezing.”

I looked down at myself. When we ran out, she hadn’t even remembered to let me put on a coat.

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“Yeah.”

The moment I hung up and turned around, my footsteps halted.

Inside a diner across the street, sitting right by the window, were a man and a woman. The man was Logan, and the woman was none other than Chloe, who had just told me a moment ago that she couldn’t find him!

I walked closer. I watched Chloe smile as she picked up a piece of pancake, while Logan naturally reached out his hand to wipe her mouth clean.

As if something had just crossed his mind, Logan suddenly spoke up. “Tsk, I forgot to call Mark. Is he going to be worried about me?”

Chloe didn’t even raise her head, her tone cold and stiff. “If he hadn’t made you feel bad, you wouldn’t have run off. Let him worry for a little while. It’ll teach him a lesson.”

I stood rooted to the spot as the wind howled. My hands and feet had gone numb from the cold. Standing like an ice sculpture in front of the diner, I watched the two of them keeping warm inside.

She was afraid he would be cold, so she went out to look for him. She was afraid he would be hungry, so she ordered a whole table of food. She was afraid he would feel hurt, so she blamed me for three whole hours.

Yet, she never once asked me if I was cold. She never asked how long I had been searching for him. She never asked if I was even wearing a coat.

I stared at my own reflection in the glass window for a long time before walking away. About a hundred meters later, my phone chimed. It was a voice message from Chloe.

“I found him. You can head back first.”

I tapped to play it twice.

I heard Logan’s laughter echo in the background and a whisper that said, “He’s probably going to be mad again.”

“Ignore him.”

My finger lingered over the screen for a long while before I sent a reply.

[Okay.]

I had stopped getting angry about it a long time ago. Getting angry meant there were still expectations. However, with Chloe, I no longer expected anything of her.