Chapter 1

“Boo, I’ll call you once I’ve booked my plane ticket.”

Lily Lark was shocked. “Have you finally come around?”

Aqua Chronos was not done speaking, but the noise outside ruined her mood.

At that point, John Frank and Will Lane must be throwing a celebration for Samara Queen.

Aqua walked out of the washroom and wanted to head to the president’s office to hand in her resignation letter.

But Samara saw Aqua and beckoned her over. She spoke cutely and sweetly, “Aqua, are you leaving alone again? Come over and have some fun with us!”

Everyone in the room heard her.

“No need. Have fun.”

“Huh?” Samara saw an opportunity and put on a regretful expression. “Aqua, I know that you still blame me for stealing your project…”

Aqua sneered in her heart.

She had worked on that project for three years. Just as success was within reach, John and Will had forced her to give it to Samara!

She was the one being mistreated. Why was Samara pulling out the pitiful act instead?

But since there were so many people around, she did not want to argue with Samara.

But Samara still chased after her and gave her a hot cup of coffee.

“Thank you, but I don’t want it now.”

Samara popped open the lid and offered the cup to Aqua again, who did not notice and just raised her hands to push the cup away.

It led to the burning hot coffee splashing all over Samara.

“Hot!”

When John walked out of the CEO’s office, he saw this.

Behind him was Will, along with Aqua and Samara’s superior.

John and Will had been having a pleasant chat, but after hearing Samara’s cry of pain, they ran over at the same time.

The back of Samara’s hand had turned red, and the front of her shirt was also wet.

She bit her lip stubbornly and refused to cry. The two men exchanged a glance before turning to Aqua.

John frowned and asked, “Didn’t I give you another project? Why did you have to treat Samara like a punching bag?”

He removed his jacket and draped it across Samara’s shoulder, then took out a silk handkerchief to wipe away the coffee stains on her shirt.

John was a neat freak. He never allowed anyone to touch his shirt, aside from Aqua.

But at the moment, not only had he given his jacket to Samara, but he had even wiped away the tea stains for her.

When he spoke with Samara, John was always gentle, but when he looked at Aqua, he was cold to her.

Will also held Samara’s hand and blew gently on the red part. He would occasionally ask her whether it hurt.

The two men managed to make Samara smile, but out of a sense of courtesy, she shook her head. “It’s enough. Don’t kick up a fuss over nothing. Aqua just accidentally spilled coffee on me. She wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt me.

“Aqua is really nice to me. You misunderstood.”

At that, John huffed and gave Aqua the stink eye. “If she’s really treating you well, why are you the one hurt, not her?”

Aqua could feel some of the spilled coffee sliding into her shirt from where she had raised her hands just now.

But she bit down on her lip and tried her best to keep her cool.

She saw enough, and she had enough.

Such things just kept happening recently.

But Will noticed it. “Samara is the one hurt, and you’re angry?”

Aqua sucked in a deep breath and turned around.

She no longer wanted to defend herself.

So, she ran into the washroom, turned on the faucet, and let the water run down on the itching burn on her arm.

When she looked up, she found that her tears had already slid down her chin. She wiped away the fogged mirror.

Her haggard reflection in the mirror made her feel as if she was looking at an alternate reflection of herself.

When she was eight, her parents got divorced, and she was sent to live with the Franks.

Over there, she got to know John, who was her senior by ten years, and Will, who was her senior by three years.

Since her parents were good friends with John’s parents, John’s parents treated her well. They loved her as if she were their daughter.

They went through the entirety of their childhood together. They grew from ignorant children to young but still immature adults.

These two people were part of the many beautiful memories she had as a girl.

At that time, she had adored the older John. He was level-headed and regal. He was the dream of girls.

As for Will, he fell in love with her at first sight and always asked after her. He stuck by her side like a shadow.

When she was twenty-two years old, she had left to study abroad. But they came over to find her and begged her to go back after just one year.

Will’s presence was not a surprise, but John, to whom she had a crush on, also came.

Will had gone down on one knee to propose to her, and John became jealous, too. He put a rose on her bedside table.

They said that they had had enough of missing her. If she did not go back, they were going to move out of the country to live with her.

At that time, John had already inherited the family business, and Will became his assistant.

When these two men begged her to go back, she felt her resolve waver.

She had to admit that she loved them before.

All of the feelings she had when she was a young girl had been written into a diary with a lock whenever she was free at midnight. She had never said it to anyone, though.

They said that they needed her for the company’s development. Since it was hard to turn down such a sincere offer, she agreed to it.

After she returned, she rejected an executive’s position and started from the bottom level to get used to the business before finally becoming the ace salesperson.

She wanted to use her own abilities to help John and Will out of gratitude for their friendship.

But later, Samara arrived.

Samara was originally an intern working in production. One time, she was coerced into drinking during a social gathering. Aqua saw her then and thought that her watery eyes were so full of life that they could practically speak.

She stood up and drank for her.

From then on, whenever she went out for social gatherings, Samara followed her.

Out of the principle of loving everything about and around her, John ordered Will, who was in charge of Aqua, to bring her along too.

She was also invited to the family gatherings John threw.

Soon, she made it to the upper-class society like a fish in water.

But gradually, John became colder toward Aqua, and Will’s attention was no longer solely on Aqua.

But that was fine.

She was going to leave, anyway.

It would be best for her to forget about her unrequited love.