Chapter 3

Sydney's expression froze. She probably didn't expect the guy who was calling her "baby" just yesterday to address her so formally today. It was as though we were nothing more than friends to begin with.

I, on the other hand, was pleased that I remained so polite and composed, even after a breakup. Now, no one would laugh at me!

Sydney, however, seemed even more annoyed as she rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Tyler, why did you tell everyone that you've never been in a relationship before?"

I was baffled by her question. "You agreed this morning that you wouldn't tell anyone we were ever together. So what's wrong with me saying that?"

Sydney stared at me for a good while. The lighting in the stairwell was dim, yet her eyes were terrifyingly dark.

After a long pause, she suddenly sneered. "There's nothing wrong with it. I'm just worried you won't be able to handle the fallout later."

I found her even weirder.

Why would I be handling a fallout? As long as I insisted I had never dated, who could possibly pry my mouth open?

I immediately rolled my eyes at her. "Don't worry, Davies. I know how to handle myself."

With that, I walked away and didn't catch Sydney whispering through her gritted teeth behind me.

"Dressing up so sharply just for a party and intentionally claiming you've never dated before? I see you're playing hard to get, huh? Tyler, you've actually gotten smarter."

Over the next few days, I didn't reach out to Sydney again. We might be in the same school, but we studied different majors.

Our class schedules didn't overlap, so we rarely ran into each other anyway. However, the student representative, Clara Snider, started showing up around me all the time for some reason.

She'd save me a seat in class. She'd ask if I wanted to head to the dining hall together after class. She even proactively assigned me the easiest parts of our group projects.

After watching this for two days, Grayson couldn't help but gossip. "Tyler, it looks like Clara's into you. What about you? How do you feel about her?"

Naturally, I could tell what she was up to. However, having recently ended a relationship, I didn't want to rush into the next one so quickly.

Not to mention that last time, I carelessly ended up dating someone like Sydney, who almost made me a laughingstock. So this time, I had to be cautious.

I answered honestly, "I don't really have any thoughts about her right now."

Somehow, those words made their way to Clara's ears, but she didn't mind at all. The next day, she sat next to me as usual and pushed a plate of breakfast toward me.

"It's totally fine if you don't have any thoughts about me right now," she said with a candid smile. "I'll just wait in line for now."

I paused for a moment, recalling the days when I was dating Sydney.

Before university started, we were both still back in our hometown. It was a small place where you couldn't walk two steps without running into someone you knew. So, whenever Sydney asked me out, she always picked a time between noon and two in the afternoon—when the sun was most brutal and when the streets were emptiest.

Every time we met for less than ten minutes, I'd be sweating buckets. The hair on my forehead would clump into wet strands, and the back of my shirt would be completely soaked.

Yet, Sydney would always laugh at me, "Tyler, why is your hair plastered all over your face? You look so ugly."

Later, when we started university, I thought we could finally date like normal people. Yet, Sydney still refused to make it public, and dates meant going to a shopping mall about 12 miles away.

On the rare occasions we met on campus, it had to be at night. I would wear a baseball cap, she would wear a face mask, and we looked like secret agents exchanging intel.

Back then, I would occasionally wonder if dating me was really so embarrassing for her. However, I was too afraid to ask, lest the answer be terrible and I'd be even more embarrassed.

At that thought, I looked at Clara with a softer gaze. At least she was candid and wasn't afraid of anyone knowing.

So afterward, when Clara brought me breakfast again, kept me company at the library, or handed me an umbrella on a rainy day, I didn't turn her down.

With my silent approval, Clara's pursuit became increasingly public. Our friends quickly caught on and would tease us whenever they saw us together.

"Clara, keep it up!"

"Tyler, that's enough playing coy. She's been pursuing you for so long now."

Hearing that made me feel fantastic. This was what pursuing someone should be—candid, open, and proud. It was far less embarrassing than sneaking around while dating.

However, Sydney was a total buzzkill, constantly sending me nonsensical text messages at night.

[Tyler Richards, that's enough. Don't push it too far. Using someone else to make me jealous won't work.]

I thought she was completely out of her mind. After receiving her messages for the eighth time, I lost my patience and removed her from my contacts.