May You Be Safe... And Out of My Life

"You're completely out of your mind! How could you threaten to jump from the building to force me into marrying you? Why don't you just scale a skyscraper and jump down from there instead?"

I heard a cold, heartless voice, and suddenly opened my eyes in response.

The first thing I saw was Carol Lockhart's beautiful face. She was someone who had hated me for ten whole years, yet gave up her life for me when I was in a life-threatening situation.

I never thought that I would be given a second chance at life, reborn ten years into the past.

I looked at Carol with an expectant look in my reddened eyes. My throat was dry and parched.

"Carol… You're still alive… Thank god."

"You've finally stopped pretending to play dead?" Carol asked, getting up on her feet. It was obvious that she hadn't slept the entire night. "Stop trying to kill yourself. I'm leaving now. Goodbye."

"Stay with me for a while longer," I asked, instinctively trying to reach out to her. However, she avoided me completely. Then, she turned and left.

I got out of bed barefoot and hugged her from behind.

Carol froze at once. "Let go."

I shut my eyes tightly and greedily tried to memorize her warmth.

"I just need a minute. Just one minute," I said, allowing myself the luxury of just another 60 seconds. Then, I would step away from her.

Carol immediately pried my fingers apart forcefully, and it hurt a lot.

"Marcus Shaffer. You can't force someone to have feelings for you."

"I know that."

"You know that?" Carol echoed with a scoff. "You said the same thing when you were on the precipice of that building. But you still jumped to force me into marrying you. You probably still don't understand the principle anyway, do you?"

I was shoved back onto the bed. Then, she slammed the door shut after leaving the room.

I could still feel the ghost of her warmth on my fingertips, but it was slowly beginning to fade away, too.

The corner of my lips twitched upward, and I smiled bitterly. "It's really not the same anymore."

I had been childhood friends with Carol since we were very young. I had liked her for a while, but she only treated me as the older brother she never had. She treated me like family, and that was all.

In my past life, I fought hard for her hand and even tried stealing her away from my younger brother, Thomas Shaffer. Carol and I did get married in the end, but she only had eyes for Thomas.

She and I were married for ten bitter years, and we became enemies. In the end, neither of us was happy at all.

This time, I decided to let her go. I would fulfill her wish and the wishes of all the other people around me.

My phone buzzed with an incoming notification just then. The screen lit up.

The text read, "Mr. Marcus Shaffer, you have passed the selection assessment for the International Peacekeeping Forces' body disposal team. Kindly report for duty on the 15th of the month at the headquarters. Reply 'OK' to confirm."

I stared at the words "body disposal team" for a very long time. My finger was trembling as it rested against the screen.

The International Peacekeeping Forces, or IPF, were currently helping out at an active warzone about half a globe away from where I was.

If I really went there, I would no longer have Mom, Dad, Carol, or Thomas to keep me company. The only things keeping me company there would be corpses and medical tents smelling of disinfectant.

I had also passed the selection assessment in my past life, but I had decided to give it up because I simply couldn't bear to leave Carol, my only source of warmth, behind.

This time, I typed out "OK" determinedly and sent back my reply.

After packing up for a bit, I finished the hospital paperwork for discharge and left.

When I arrived back home and opened the door, the warm light shining from the inside, accompanied by my family members' conversations, somehow felt like an invisible barrier to me.

"Marc knew all along that I'd been dreaming of studying abroad for the longest time! And yet, he still contacted the lecturer and stole the only spot away from me!" Thomas exclaimed, sounding so upset that he was about to break into tears.

"Mom! Marc's trying to drive me into a corner!"