Chapter 2 The Moment I Stopped Chasing

Mom pulled me inside, looking shocked. "What happened? Just a few days ago, you were still determined to follow Nicole to Northbridge."

I kept my head down, unwilling to let her see how miserable I looked. But I could not stop the sob that escaped my throat. "I'm too tired. I don't want to chase after her anymore."

Ever since I started high school, I had felt like a spinning top being whipped relentlessly forward.

I knew Nicole's dream was Northbridge University. It was a place she could reach out and grasp without even trying. I was not asking for much.

All I wanted was to be in the same city as her.

But for that tiny wish, I had to work a thousand times harder than everyone else. If something would not stay in my head, I copied it down. If ten repetitions were not enough, I would write it a hundred times.

During just one semester of my senior year, I lost ten pounds. Yet when I finally calculated my expected score, it still felt like the sky had come crashing down. I was so devastated I could barely pull myself together, grieving over the long-distance relationship that was about to begin.

Nicole, however, hooked an arm around my neck and laughed as though my sadness were ridiculous. "Why are you crying? You just didn't work hard enough. You really should learn more from Ivan. Mindlessly memorizing things isn't going to get you anywhere."

Even when she tried to comfort me, she still compared me to Ivan.

Once I had decided not to retake the exam, I started preparing my college applications. For the first time in a long while, I could finally sleep at night without feeling so anxious.

…

The next morning, I got up early as usual and went to the ice cream shop for my summer job.

Ivan arrived before me. During our lunch break, he leaned over with his phone in hand. "Caleb, hurry up and like my post. Nicole absolutely killed it."

I stared blankly as I opened my phone.

It was a carefully edited nine-photo grid. Every picture showed Nicole in a revealing swimsuit, pressed close against Ivan, who was showing off his abs. Their bare skin touched in every shot, and the intimacy between them was so obvious that even looking at the photographs made me uncomfortable.

I silently tapped Like. Then, I lowered my head and went back to picking at my lunch.

Ivan clicked his tongue. "You're not mad?"

I looked at him, genuinely confused. "Do you want me to be?"

His shoulders relaxed, and he grinned at his phone. "Nicole, you lost again!"

Nicole's voice came through the speaker amid a faint crackle of static. "Not bad, you're not nearly as jealous or stubborn as you used to be. Looks like there's hope for you this time when you retake the exam."

The two of them continued arguing over what my punishment should be for losing the bet.

I clenched my cutlery, a suffocating heaviness settling in my chest.

They used to turn studying into a game too, competing over practice tests and past exam papers to make things more fun. But the punishments had always been ridiculous dares, like standing under the open sky and shouting, "I'm a pig!" Now, somehow, I had become their greatest source of entertainment.

I stood up, threw the rest of my boxed lunch into the trash, then took out my phone and texted Nicole. 'We should break up.'

Less than two seconds later, she called me.

I did not answer. I switched my phone to silent, and she immediately called Ivan instead. This time, he did not put her on speaker.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ivan put on his Bluetooth earbuds. They talked for a long time, just like they always did whenever the three of us were together. They never seemed to run out of things to say.

…

It was not until the end of my shift that Ivan finally approached me cautiously. "The photos were just an AI prank. If you don't believe me, I can pull up all the records and show you."

I looked at the missed call still displayed on my phone. All afternoon, Ivan had kept his earbuds in while talking to Nicole without ever hanging up.

I looked at him. "Do you really think what matters is whether it was real?"

Even if it had been a prank, shouldn't I, as her boyfriend, have mattered enough for her to consider how I felt? Or had my feelings stopped mattering?

"Enough. Why are you explaining so much to him? It's not like this is the first time he's thrown a tantrum."

Nicole suddenly appeared in the doorway. She had clearly taken my breakup message as nothing more than a temper tantrum. Her expression turned cold as she grabbed Ivan and pulled him away.

I calmly finished handing everything over to my coworker, then asked the manager to switch me to the night shift.