Tale of Two Lives

Seeing me turn to leave without the slightest hint of reluctance, Horace paused in the middle of getting dressed.

Probably thinking that I was playing hard to get, he stared at me mockingly. "Are you throwing a tantrum now?"

Under the dim lights, I replied grimly, "Weren't you the one who asked me to leave?"

Shouldn't he be happy that I was listening to him and not being clingy for once?

Horace stared at me for a few seconds, not saying a word, his eyes squinting slightly with an emotion that I couldn't quite read. "Well, I hope you've got it through your head this time. I better not see you clinging to me again tomorrow.

"No matter who my future wife will be, it will never be you."

"Yea."

As I spoke, a burden was lifted from my heart. It took an entire lifetime and two lives to understand his words, but this time, I still had a chance.

When we were younger, Horace, who was eight years older than me, lived next door to me. As a kid, I had loved chasing after him and playing with him.

After that, my family went bankrupt, and my father ran away with what little money we had left and abandoned the five-year-old me in the streets to die.

Horace was the one who carried me back to his home, and insisted on letting me stay no matter how much his parents were against it.

I remembered the warmth of his arms for a lifetime.

Back then, because I was suddenly abandoned, I developed a fear of being abandoned. Thus, I always never ate enough during meals, and developed a habit of curling up in a closet with my blanket at night, scared of being thrown out in the dark of night.

After he found out about this, he kept me company every night.

One time, when I rolled over, my bosom bumped into his arm. The two of us, who never really saw each other as the opposite gender before, blushed.

He started to take some distance from me, while I fell utterly and completely.

I clung onto him, checking if there were any girls around him, and even played pranks to drive away any girls who had a crush on him.

He knew about this happening, but he never stopped it.

So honestly, I had no idea since when he started to hate me so much, to the point of wanting me to die.

The sound of Horace heading to the restroom brought me back to the present.

I tidied up my things and returned to my room. When I sat at my desk, my computer screen lit up automatically, showing the pending submission for my application to study abroad.

Without hesitation, I clicked 'send'.

In my past life, Horace found out that I was going to go overseas to study and tore my acceptance letter in a fit of rage, even forcing me to stay in the country.

This time, he wouldn't have the chance to stop me anymore.

After seeing the notification to register in a week's time, the weight in my heart suddenly lifted.

But before I could close the email, my door was pushed open from behind me without warning.

With a frown, Horace walked in. "Who are you sending an email to?"

My heart clenched, but I forced myself to stay calm. "I was just on social media, and I saw that you…"

As I expected, his frown grew deeper. "Shut up."

I lowered my head, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to well up in my eyes.

Vivian walked out from behind him, her hand still gripping tightly onto Horace's sleeve. When our eyes met, her pupils flickered away in fear, as if she was afraid that I'd bully her.

"Rose, I want to apply for an art academy in Paris. Horace said that you had some exam materials, so could you lend them to me?"

Seeing her eyes sparkle at the very mention of studying art in Paris, I was reminded of my past self.

In my past life, when I was preparing to apply myself, my eyes were filled with the same hopes and aspirations.

She really was similar to me.

"Are you mute?" Horace stared at me in dissatisfaction. "I gave you those materials, so do you think hiding them is going to be…"

Without any hesitation, I turned around and took all the materials I had from my drawer, handing them over.

Probably since he expected me to resist and for there to be a confrontation, Horace froze for a moment when he saw me give away the materials without any word of complaint.

After all, I had treated everything he gave me like priceless treasures in the past, not allowing anyone to touch them.

In my past life, I ended up quarreling bitterly with Horace to protect those materials, and he snatched them straight from me and tried to give them to Vivian.

In my rage, I burned the materials to a crisp right then and there, and my act of defiance made Horace explode in rage. On top of that, when he saw that Vivian got burned by a stray ember, he completely lost his cool.

Because of what happened, he locked me in a room all by myself, cutting off all the electricity.

Ever since I was abandoned, I had been terrified of the dark.

In the past, I had him to keep me company.

Even after he grew distant, I still had a dim, yellow night light as my only solace through the endless nights.

But in that enclosed, windowless room, I spent an entire night in absolute darkness. Finally, I fainted.

The next day, when I was allowed to leave the room, I crawled out pathetically.

I wasn't foolish enough to let history repeat itself again.