Chapter 1

From the other side of the wall, Jonathan Parker called out cheerfully, "Penelope, the 96th prank was a success!"

Penelope Hart's voice carried a trace of mockery that felt unfamiliar to me. "Jon, do you find this funny?"

Her friends started cheering and encouraging them.

"We're getting back at him for you, Jonathan. Edward shouldn't have taken your national scholarship and won the game design competition."

"Jonathan, once we've pulled a hundred pranks on Edward, Penelope can finally be with you!"

I felt my blood freeze in an instant.

"I've got to say, Penelope really knows how to mess with people. Back then, she came up with the idea to fake amnesia just to prank Edward.

"The first time, she had Edward searching for a bracelet in the pouring rain, then handed it to Jonathan. The look on his face—"

The bracelet they were talking about was something Mom had given me before she passed away. Penelope said she lost it while moving. That day, I searched through a torrential storm for seven hours and ended up with a high fever.

My nails dug into my palms as I clutched the ring I had brought to propose to her.

Her friends laughed. "The best one was the day of Edward's thesis defense! Penelope told him that she got drunk at a bar and was beaten up. He rushed over, only to find no one there. I even snuck a photo of him crying and begging his advisor for another chance."

That time, I walked out of the thesis defense I had spent six months preparing for to look for Penelope, delaying my graduation as a result.

Jonathan chuckled. "And that time, Penelope folded the game design drafts Edward had stayed up three nights to finish into paper airplanes. He spent the whole night picking them up with bloodshot eyes. He looked utterly defeated."

Penelope laughed along. "How should we mess with Edward this time?"

"Let's tell him that Penelope's in the hospital and make him rush over. Then we'll throw a party and leave him waiting there for nothing. What do you think?" someone asked.

My phone vibrated immediately. It was a message from Penelope. "I'm in the ER at City Hospital. Come quickly."

But two minutes later, she deleted it, as if she felt guilty about lying to me. I pretended I hadn't seen it and didn't text back.

Honestly, I had seen this coming.

While Penelope was in the shower, I happened to discover an encrypted folder on her phone titled "Game Progress". Inside were 96 videos, exactly matching the number of times she had pranked me.

The password was Jonathan's birthday, 1224. She had lied, claiming that it was the day she first met me.

Last year, on that day, I waited in the snow for three hours to spend Christmas Eve with her. Meanwhile, she was sharing a glass of red wine with Jonathan at the Hart residence and didn't show up until late at night.

When she finally arrived, she carefully wrapped a scarf around my neck. Her eyes flickered with affection, as if I meant everything to her.

A dull ache spread through my chest as I opened her WhatsApp. In her pinned chat, she had been reporting the progress of the pranks to Jonathan every single day. Line after line of messages stared back at me.

"Today I told Edward I had to work overtime, but I actually went to the theme park with you. He waited for me until 3:00 am."

"I purposely told Edward his competition was two hours later than it really was. Watching him run in his pajamas was hilarious."

The last message was from the day of the class reunion. That day, when Jonathan "accidentally" knocked over a cup of scalding coffee, Penelope had instinctively shielded me.

But in the chat history, her message read, "Touching him felt gross. I had to use sanitizer three times."