Chapter 1

Julian's POV

It was then that someone who was enjoying the spectacle joked, "Isn't this Bryan's ring size?"

"Oh, cut it out!" Bryan immediately shoved his hand into his pants pocket. His reaction only added fuel to the tension.

Then, someone immediately chimed in, "What are you hiding for? Is that really your size, Bryan?"

I stood there while everyone laughed, feeling cold all over.

Bryan walked over to me and patted me on the shoulder. "You shouldn't take it to heart, Julian. Naomi definitely didn't do it on purpose."

He sounded totally sincere, but there was a brief flash of triumph in his eyes. "She's always the one picking out my rings and watches for me, so she must have gotten them mixed up."

It turned out that they had already become this close. Naomi helped him with his rings, chose his watches, and even knew his finger size better than she knew mine.

Bryan glanced down at my hands again. "Your hands are so slender, Julian, so anything you put on looks as if it belongs to someone else."

He finished speaking and looked over my shirt. He sounded like he was just joking as he said, "It was the same when we bought underwear back then. You couldn't even fill out the smallest size, Julian."

I stood in place as laughter broke out across the room. My face burned with embarrassment.

Naomi just looked at Bryan helplessly. "You shouldn't pick on Julian anymore, Bryan."

She sounded like she was reprimanding him, but her eyes were brimming with indulgence.

It was then that someone rushed Naomi to cut the cake. "That's enough now! You've already proposed to him, so it's time for you to cut the cake, Naomi!"

I grabbed the cake knife and passed it to Naomi.

Bryan's phone suddenly chimed. He glanced down at it and instantly broke into a smile. "It's a video of Marshmallow, Naomi."

Naomi stopped what she was doing, then went to take a look. "Show it to me."

Bryan held the phone out to her, and in the video, a chubby kitten was pouncing on a toy ball.

They were standing shoulder-to-shoulder. They were standing so close to each other that it looked as though no one else could ever fit between them.

I stood in front of the cake, feeling like a complete third wheel.

Naomi finally got around to cutting the cake after some time. She took the knife from me, cut the first slice, and naturally handed the plate to Bryan. "You hardly ate anything tonight, so have this first, Bryan."

Bryan froze for a second before smiling at me. "Is this really alright? Julian made this cake himself, so he should eat first."

Naomi didn't give it much thought and said, "He won't mind."

I suddenly didn't even have the energy to smile when I heard that. In recent years, Naomi had said that phrase to me more than anything else.

Bryan was working late, so she went to pick him up. She said, "Bryan is your best friend. You don't mind, do you?"

Bryan's project ran into a problem, so she stayed up all night helping him fix the proposal. She said, "I'm only doing this because he's your best friend. You don't mind, do you?"

Bryan said his kitten was sick, so she stayed over at his place to look after it. She said, "It's just a cat, Julian. You don't mind, do you?"

Naomi had never actually cared about how I felt about it.

Bryan took the cake and whispered, "I hope you're not upset over this, Julian. I'm honestly feeling a bit lightheaded today."

He even steadied himself against the edge of the table after saying that, as though he were worried that I wouldn't believe him.

Naomi immediately reached out to support him. "Why didn't you say anything earlier? You should have a seat first, Bryan."

She helped Bryan over to the couch and handed him the cake. She did it so naturally, like she had done it countless times.

She never asked if I was exhausted after standing the whole time, and she didn't even notice that I had been running around all day for this birthday party without eating a single thing.

I looked down at the ring sitting on my finger. It was so loose that it would slide down whenever I bent my finger even a little. It was just like this relationship. I had tried so hard to hold on so many times, but nothing I did could make it stay.