Chapter 4

My mind went blank for a second.

I turned toward the door, and Kyle's face slowly came into view. He was smiling, casually pushing his messy hair back. Strangely, he seemed to know me yet didn't at the same time.

"Felix Moore?"

When I didn't respond, a mocking look slipped into his eyes. "Relax. Dakota won't hear us."

From what I could see in the live comments, that part seemed true. They said Dakota was lying on the couch and had apparently fallen asleep all of a sudden.

The corridor was empty now. Every other door was shut tight.

I forced myself to calm down. In any normal situation, I was the one catching them in the act. There was no reason for me to feel guilty.

Just as my expression steadied and I was about to speak, Kyle reached into the pocket of Dakota's coat, the one she had left with him, and pulled out her phone.

He tapped the screen a few times, muttering to himself, "Wow, Kota is seriously devoted. Even after all these years, her password is still my birthday."

Dakota had always refused to tell me her password, saying privacy kept a relationship fresh. I never expected there was another reason behind it.

Whatever Kyle had scrolled to made his grin widen. He turned the screen toward me. It was Dakota's archived Instagram stories, which she had me blocked from seeing for years.

She always said she didn't like posting on social media, that she kept it closed off from everyone. Only now did I understand what "everyone" meant. It was everyone except Kyle.

The stories went all the way back to the day she first met him in college, never missing a single moment. Each entry had a daily photo and a simple caption with painfully obsessive words.

"Loving you is something I do alone, Kyle. Even if you turn me down, I'll keep going."

"Kyle, you left today. I didn't try to stop you because I don't think I deserve you. But no matter what, I'll keep working hard."

"Kyle, my new company, Kytech Enterprise, has your name in it. It's a pity you can't see it yet…"

"Kyle, Kytech Enterprise made it into an international business paper. I checked. It's also published in your region. Will you see it this time?"

There were millions more like it.

If this had been before, I would've been furious. I would've demanded answers from Dakota, maybe even begged her to come back to me like a desperate man.

Now, I felt strangely calm. Love and indifference were really that easy to tell apart.

Kyle, however, seemed to think I was shaken. He retrieved the phone and looked at me sideways with a faint sneer. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not showing off. I'm just giving you a reality check."

He smiled mockingly. "Men and women—always the same predictable stuff."

Then, for no clear reason, he handed me a few sheets of A4 paper. It was a divorce agreement, which was already signed by Dakota. As he lifted his arm, the loose collar of his shirt shifted slightly.

My eyes widened. A long, vertical scar ran down from his collarbone, like a clean surgical cut. The comments, which had just quieted down, went crazy again.

"Holy shit. Hey, med student, take a look at that cut! What exactly is that?"

"Oh, it's nothing much. Just a Y-incision method used on cadavers! Nothing special! That's definitely not a zombie before you!"

"Hey, Felix, focus! You're about to get fooled! Only the top page is a divorce agreement. The ones underneath are organ donation papers!"

Goosebumps exploded across my skin. Almost on instinct, I lowered my head to look more closely.

Sure enough, beneath the top page, the scattered documents read, "Party A expressly declares that, upon his/her death, he/she voluntarily agrees to… In accordance with applicable laws, the donation and retrieval of organs shall be carried out as promptly as possible."

A chill shot through me. A cadaver in the medical school died during a heart transplant surgery, and it was now trying to trick me into signing organ donation paperwork.

Was he trying to take my heart?

However, the divorce agreement had Dakota's signature on it! Did that mean she already knew what Kyle really was? Did the two of them work together to set me up?

The more I pondered, the more scared I felt. My mind raced until Kyle's soft but eerie voice drifted over. "You figured it out."

He tilted his head slightly, looking confused, but his tone had clearly sharpened. A strange madness crept into his eyes. His jaw tightened with a faint grinding sound.

"You figured it out, didn't you?"